Hermione's Little Secret

Thanks to Avanell who noticed the blooper with the names. Been fixed.


Hermione watched the older children enter the front hall, greeting each other and the teachers before filing into the Great Hall to await the Sorting of the First Years. She smiled at her students, but kept an eye out for Hagrid's arrival with her daughter and the other First Years. The last of the students sat down at their House tables, and Hermione closed the doors. She turned to greet the children entering behind Hagrid. Most were wet and dripping all over the stones. She smiled as she realized that at least two of them had fallen in the lake and were wrapped tightly in blankets, looking at Hagrid with a mixture of admiration and fear.

"Hello, and welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Some of you may have been raised in the magical community and know all about us, so please bear with me as I explain to the ones who don't what they can expect. In a few moments, we will enter the Great Hall where your schoolmates are waiting to watch you be sorted into the four different Houses. Those are Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Gryffindor. Each is strong in its own way, a separate quarter of the whole that is Hogwarts' Unity. Once you are sorted, that House is your immediate family. You gain and lose with your House. Now, if everyone is ready, let us enter." Hermione raised her wand and the great doors opened. She bit back her grin when she heard the children behind her gasp in unison. Behind her she heard a boy's voice describe the enchantment of the ceiling as explained from his reading of 'Hogwarts, A History.' She bit back a small smile again and stopped before the Staff Table. She caught Severus' eye, which had a decided Albus twinkle. She really needed to think about having an exorcist come in sometime soon, then she turned her head slightly to look at Draco. His eyes were dark, hooded and intense as he watched only her in the entire room. Hermione flushed and reached up to pull on the collar of her robe, her temperature raising by a few degrees in the crowded Hall.

Turning away from Draco's gaze, she picked up the Sorting Hat and the scroll of students' names. Severus had warned the Hat not to sing on pain of being turned into a jockstrap. When the new Headmaster had to explain to the Hat what that was, it had shut its seam and refused to talk for the entire summer. Now, it was waiting impatiently on the stool, the cloth quivering as he anticipated the first of many new students minds to view. Hermione called the first on the scroll, 'Aaronson, Miranda' and waited while the Hat ruminated before sending her off to the Hufflepuff table. After waiting at least two minutes for each child, Hermione grinned at Severus when they both realized that the Hat was procrastinating on purpose just to spite Snape!

"Turnbull, Henry." Hermione leaned over towards the hat as the small child clamored through his new classmates to meet her in front of the stool. "Hat, Headmaster Snape is looking decidedly angry at you. I will talk to him about letting you sing next year, I promise." She whispered down at the old Hat. It shivered and bent its tip a little in a slight nod. She smiled and patted it consolingly.

"Weasley, Adrianna." She held the hat as her daughter left the last few students and advanced on the stool. Hermione couldn't help it: she looked up at Draco and caught his eye as he stared at her daughter. From afar, she could be a mirror of Lilah Malfoy. He frowned in consternation and tilted his head to the side as he waited for the Sorting Hat to place her in her house.

Adrianna sat with Hat on her head, blissfully unaware of her mother's fears and the new Potions professor's musings. Severus watched everything, taking in both Hermione and Draco's reactions to seeing the eldest Weasley child.

~~A Weasley, but not a Weasley. Hmmm...Where to put you, Adrianna? A great intelligence, no, too brave for Ravenclaw, but not quite right for Gryffindor.~~ The Hat spoke inside Adrianna's head. She wondered what it meant by the 'Weasley but not one' turn of phrase, but she got side tracked by the Hat yelling out, "Slytherin!" to the entire school. Her new House-mates clapped and whooped when she joined them, grinning as her tie magically turned green and silver.

Hermione tried to swallow in a dry throat as she called the next student to be Sorted up. She kept her head lowered, but could feel the glare of the potions instructor on the back of her neck.

The last student was sorted into Gryffindor and Hermione picked up the stool and Hat, carrying them to the side of the staff table. She ascended the stairs and took her place next to Severus, turning to wait for his speech.

He stood and nodded to the student body, quietly awaiting his words.

"Welcome to another year here at Hogwarts. With the exception of the first years, all of you know me as your potions instructor. Since Minerva MacGonagall decided to retire at the end of last term, I have been promoted as your new Headmaster. New members of our staff this year are my replacement, Draco Malfoy, recently returned from the Americas, and The Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor, Professor Emmett Packwood. You all have been students of mine and know my policies. For those of you who have forgotten, many of you if I recall correctly," He sneered and Hermione gently cleared her throat. Severus took a deep breath and continued, "I will tell you all. I will not tolerate tomfoolery between the classes. No fighting or dueling in the corridors. The Dark Forest is strictly forbidden, even to those who might have been brought up around it and feel safe." He gazed down at Adrianna at his old House table. She smiled back and waved slightly. He smirked and returned to his speech. "After classes I have one hour per day when students may come to me with any concerns or questions. This is the Welcoming Feast and I believe we need to bring out the Feast!" With the last word spoken, the platters of food appeared on each table, to the suprise of most of the first years.

"Enjoy, students." Severus sat down and gestured for the children to start eating. He watched everyone fill their plates eagerly, chatting with neighbors, old friends they hadn't seen since the end of the previous year, greeting the new little first years.

Hermione ached to go down to her daughter, but knew that it would embarrass the girl too much. She sighed, realizing she would have to send out owls in the morning telling Harry and the Weasleys that Adrianna had not been sorted into Gryffindor as all had assumed but Slytherin, her natural father's old House.

"Weasley? Hermione!" Draco whispered three teachers away from her. She swallowed a glass of pumpkin juice and turned to him. She nodded acknowledgement. "We need to talk, witch!"

"Later. You and I have to greet our students in our Common Rooms. Remember, you're head of Slytherin, Professor Malfoy." She whispered back over Flitwick and Packwood's places.

He growled at her reminder. "I'll be seeing you, Weasley."

Hermione nodded again and returned to her meal.

Adrianna laughed and giggled, listening to the older students in her House. She had always assumed that she'd be Sorted into Gryffindor as her mother, father, all her aunts and uncles, and grandparents had been. Boy, are they going to be surprised! But it was kind of nice. She knew all about Gryffindors and their great bravery, but had always been told Slytherins were sneaky and conniving. Uncle Severus had been head of Slytherin for decades, and yes, he was sneaky, but he'd been a spy (which had to be sneaky) for Albus Dumbledore. How much braver can you get, than set yourself up in the enemy's camp time and time again knowing you could be found out and killed at any time? What was so bad about Slytherin, anyway, and if they were bad, why was there still a House for such bad witches and wizards?

"So, Weasley, you're 'Ol Weasley's daughter? Wow. Weasleys are purebloods, so finally the Hat sorted them correctly." A first year started up a conversation with her.

"My entire family was Gryffindor, Roberts, right?" The boy across from her nodded. He was a first year like her. "My mother is Madame Weasley, yes, and she's Muggleborn. The greatest witch to come out of this school in fifty years, actually. So, don't get holier than thou because you're a pureblood. My mum is brilliant." Adrianna pierced the boy with her dark blue eyes, her eyebrows cocked in what her mum called 'the Snape glare' which she had learned on his knee as a child.

"For a Muggleborn."

"For anyone. And if you'd like to learn if the leaf does or doesn't fall far from the tree, you might want to shut your gob. Because this isn't the Hogwarts your mum and dad attended. Professor Snape will not put up with extreme House rivalries and encourages punishment of those who defy his edict." Her words, far older than her years, spoken with such ice and venom caught the attention of numerous older students down the table. They watched the two first years glaring at each other, waiting to see if wands would be drawn.

"Hey, you dwarves! Knock it off before one of the teachers catches on to this. Wait til we're in the Common room!" A fifth year prefect hissed a few seats down from Adrianna. She sighed and nodded, turning away from her classmate to look up at the head table to see what her mum was up to. She cocked her head to one side as she noticed Uncle Severus watching her mother with a slight grin, and the new Professor glaring at her from the other side. Severus seemed to feel her eyes and he turned to the Slytherin table, raising his glass to her in a toast.

Draco changed places with Flitwick so he wouldn't have whisper over two other people's plates. Hermione sighed in resignation as he moved closer to her and cast a small spell so no one could hear what they were talking about.

"Is there something you need to mention to me, Madame Weasley?"

"Mmm....Adrianna is a bit of prankster. You might want to warn her dormmates." Hermione drank deeply, her stomach too much in knots to eat much of what was on her plate. She had hoped the resemblance wasn't as pronounced as she had thought, but in her school robes, she looked like a slightly darker haired Malfoy.

"Madame, you are very close to seeing a side of me that hasn't been seen in great while." He hissed near her left ear. She shivered as his breath caused a ripple of desire to run through her body. She should have said something this afternoon, but they'd had such a wonderful conversation that she'd pushed it to the back of her mind.

Draco fumed as she refused to meet his eyes. He wanted to rant and rave, yell at the witch who had driven him crazy for months in their seventh year and was doing it again now. He had remembered hearing Severus mention the girl's birthday party a few days before, and once he noticed her resemblance to her aunt Andromeda, he thought back to their one incident, counted forward and came close to the date of Adrianna Weasley's birth. He narrowed his eyes, watching the girl at his old table give a tongue lashing to another first year. She was certainly Hermione's daughter in that aspect. She had his aunt's face, right down to the dimple in her right cheek when she grinned up at her mother earlier. Her hair was a bit darker, and curlier than his own, but his had been almost brunette during his youth and lightened to its natural blonde/white. He could tell just before she sat on the stool, that her eyes were blue, again darker than his, but still blue. Hermione's were a cinnamon stick brown, with flecks of gold that sparkled.

"I've seen many sides of you, Professor Malfoy."

"Draco, Hermione. Don't start hiding behind titles and positions." He pressed one hand down on the table between them, his knuckles white. "Do we need to talk further of your daughter, Madame?"

Hermione turned then to look into his eyes. Her eyes held so much pain he gasped under his breath. They shimmered with unshed tears. "Yes, Draco, we do. But not right now. Please, give me a little while."

"You've had eleven years to tell me what I think I already know, Madame. Tonight. Meet me outside the Great Hall at midnight and we'll talk while we do rounds together." He snorted with laughter. "Rounds again. I guess what they say is true. History does repeat itself." He sneered at Hermione and turned to his plate, attacking his meal with a vengeance. What he wanted to do was let loose, and throw everything in his sight against the wall and show Hermione fucking Weasley how he really felt.

"Draco..."

"Don't speak to me unless you want to make a scene. I am not in the mood for listening to whatever you're going to tell me right now. We both know the truth, and we will talk but *not* *right* *now*!" He kept his voice low and deadly as he remembered Severus' to have been while teaching dunderheads.

"Alright, Draco." She sighed. "I'll be here at midnight. But please keep an open mind."

"Just be here."

Draco stared at his food, wondering if he should have come back to England after all.


A/N~~ok..the long awaited sorting. Man, Draco sounds pissed, huh? Well, hopefully they can work through it. I don't know. it's up to them, lol

Hope everyone's enjoying this and please review. I love hearing from everyone.

until next time,

marti