His Saving Grace

CHAPTER ONE: Memories









Hermione sat in an old wooden rocking chair and stared out the window at the moon rising slowly into the sky. Tears dampened her cheeks as she rocked the tiny bundle in her arms. She looked down at the infant cradled against her breast, her daughter Grace. She smiled through her tears when the baby opened her eyes and stared up at her, almost as though she were asking Why do you cry?





Hermione brushed her fingers over the wispy swirls of golden hair that covered her tiny head and wondered at how she could love something so much when she had only just met her three days before. Grace sighed softly and her lids lowered over silvery blue eyes. Hermione had been stunned by those eyes from the first moment she had looked into them. She had thought that most babies were born with eyes of an unremarkable shade that would eventually change, but that wasn’t the case with Grace. She had her father’s eyes, and every time Hermione looked into them she was overwhelmed with memories.





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The sun began to peek over the horizon when Hermione heard her name being called softly from behind her. She opened her eyes slowly, gradually becoming aware of her surroundings. She was still beneath the willows by the lake. Her head was cradled by her arm and she was spooned into a warm body, surrounded by a set of school robes lined with green satin.





“I need to escort you back to the school.” He said softly. He pulled his arm from around her waist and she rolled over to look at him. “Regrets?”







“No…just confused.” She said, looking up into his bright blue eyes. “I don’t know what brought us here, Draco. We weren’t even friends before last night.”





“We should have been, could have been had I not had my head so far up my arse.” He said, a sad smile on his face as he helped her to sit up. They straightened their clothes and stood, Hermione looking around on the ground at her feet.





“Did you see a barrette? It had little dragonflies on it.” She said, running her fingers over her hair to see if it were still tangled within her curls.





“No, I didn’t see anything.” He said, righting his tie. She shrugged; the barrette was set aside as just one more thing lost. “Are you alright?” He asked, wondering why she wouldn’t meet his eyes.





“I’m fine…you were very gentle.” She said, flushing slightly.







“I didn’t plan…I mean, it wasn’t my intention…” Draco gave and exasperated sigh and raked his fingers through his hair. “I don’t want you to think that I take what happened lightly, Hermione.”





“Why are you so sad, Draco? What has made you withdraw so completely?” She asked him, finally making eye contact. He frowned slightly and shoved his hands into his pockets.







“I don’t know. I wish I had a reason, but I don’t. I just know that no matter what I do, nothing makes me happy.” His lips quirked slightly. “Well, I shouldn’t say that, you made me pretty happy last night.”







“You aren’t going to go back to the Slytherin dorm and tell everyone are you?” She asked, biting her lip nervously.







“No. You are the only person who has cared enough ask me how I feel, the only person who sought to give me any kind of comfort, I wont forget that.” He said softly. “This will be one of the few good memories I have of my time here at school.”







“We should probably get back before my friends come looking for me.” She said, smiling at him.







“I’ll walk you; there are entrances that open into the dungeons where no one will see us.” He said, gesturing with a toss of his head that she should follow. When they reached the top of the dungeon stairs, Hermione stood on the landing with Draco a few steps below her. She leaned down and lightly kissed his cheek.





“Good luck, Draco, I hope you find something to make you happy again.” She said before making her way back to her own dorm.





She had seen him once more, just after the ceremonies were completed. He was following his parents from the great hall when he stopped at the door and looked back at her. He smiled and gave her a small wave before he left the hall.







It was nearly a month later when she sat on the bathroom floor in her parent’s house, tears streaming down her face. She knew that she would never forget her night with Draco, a woman always remembers her first time, but it seemed that everyday for the rest of her life she would be reminded of that night, she was carrying his child.





Her parent’s reactions were not what she expected.





“Surely you aren’t considering keeping it?” Her mother asked.





“You are going to ruin your life, Hermione! You will never make anything of yourself with a child to raise!” Her father bellowed.







“You are only eighteen, what in the world are you going to do with a baby? Just let me call and make you an appointment…” She couldn’t listen to the rest of her mothers offer, she fled to her room and jerked her wand from her pocket, shrinking all of her personal belongings and packing them into her school trunk. She shoved her way down the hall and her parents watched her in stunned amazement.







“I am having it, and I am going to keep it, there is no other option that I can live with.” She said, wiping away angry tears.





“We’re sorry, darling. But we can not condone your decision, if you keep this child you are on your own.” Her father said, shaking his head.





“Then I will find a way to manage, on my own.” She said just before she disapparated to the burrow.







Her friends had been more supportive, it didn’t seem odd to them as marriages and families tended to be started younger in the magical world. Though eighteen was still pretty young for motherhood, and Hermione was most certainly not married, nor did she have any prospects for marriage in the future.





“Hermione, who is the father?” Ginny asked, one arm draped over Hermione’s shoulders.





“He doesn’t know, and I would rather not say until he does.” She answered. “Suffice it to say that it was a moment of weakness that caught us both by surprise.”







“What will you do now?” Ron asked.







“I have a small inheritance from my grandmother that I can live on for some time, as soon as I have the baby I will find a job and try to take classes when I can. I’ll find a way to take care of us.” She said, sounding more confident than she felt.







“You can live with me.” Harry said. “Molly and Ginny have cleaned and fixed up number 12, you and the baby can live with me for as long as you need to, Hermione. You won’t have to do it alone, if this is what you want, then we will help you.”



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She reached for a tissue and wiped her eyes before she got up and walked over to her bedside to place Grace into the wicker bassinet and tuck a blanket around her and then she climbed into her bed. She settled beneath the blankets and stared up at the shadows dancing across her ceiling as the trees blew outside her window. She had sent owls to the Malfoy home in Wiltshire only to have them returned undeliverable. Draco and his family had left England once he had graduated and no one knew where they had gone or when they would return.





She reached beneath her pillow and withdrew a folded linen handkerchief. She traced the silver threads that made up the scrolled M in the corner. She recalled, as she had many times over the previous months, the surprising tenderness in his kiss, the reverent hesitance in his touch, the way he had rested his forehead against hers as he moved within her, telling her over and over again how wonderful it felt to be with her.







She wasn’t sure what made her think on that night so often, other than the fact that it was when they had made their daughter. She could tell herself that was the only reason, but it didn’t explain why she felt such longing when she thought of him. Was it just because of Grace? Or was there something more that had grown in her after that night by the lake?







A soft knock at the door pulled her from her thoughts as Harry peered at her from around the door. He walked across the room and sat on the edge of her bed.







“You all settled in?” He asked. He had been with her when Grace was born and had been the one to escort them home from the hospital that morning.







“We are fine.” She said, smiling up at her best friend.







“You’ve been crying again, Mione. Are you going to be alright?” He asked, reaching out to push her hair back from her face.







“Eventually, crying is a normal reaction after having a baby, Harry. Molly says it should pass soon enough.” She said.







“I saw that your owl returned, still no word from her father?” Harry peeked over the side of the baby bassinet and smiled. “She sure is a pretty little thing.”







“Thank you, Harry, for all that you have done for me, for Grace.”







“I don’t have anything to base it on, but I thought families helped each other?” He said.

“You are my sister and that makes Grace my niece, we are family.” Hermione felt the fresh tears gather and she sat up and threw her arms around Harry’s neck.





“How did I get here, Harry?” She sobbed into his shoulder. “I’m barely nineteen and I am someone’s mother.” Harry stroked her back gently; he knew that this wasn’t what she had planned for her life. She should be at the university furthering her education, not recovering from childbirth.







“Sometimes in a moment of weakness we make choices that will follow us for the rest of our lives.” He said. Hermione pulled back, a quizzical look on her face.







“When did you suddenly become so wise?” She asked. She saw his lips twitch, then a tight bark of laughter escaped and his green eyes lit with humor.







“When I started reading the quotes on those boxes of herbal tea in the kitchen.” He said. Hermione joined him in his laughter as they sat there on her bed. Grace stirred and began to whimper. Harry, eager as always to hold her, was quick to snatch her up and hold her against him. “I’m so sorry, Gracie girl, did Uncle Harry wake you up?” He cooed at the baby.





“You are going to spoil her rotten, Harry.” Hermione said with a smile.







“Yes I am!” He laughed kissing the top of her head before handing her off to Hermione. He leaned in and kissed Hermione on the cheek and stood up.







“It’s going to be alright, Mione, you have me and the Weasleys, we will help you through.” He said before walking out and closing the door softly behind him. Hermione looked down at the baby and into her bright blue eyes.





“You are going to be loved more than anyone ever has been, Grace.” She whispered as she adjusted her gown and settled in to feed her baby.







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