c h a p t e r f o r t y f o u r

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Draco looked around the area. It was a small suburban town by the looks of it. "What did you say this was place was called?" he asked, looking at Hermione. "Perth." she replied without looking up.

Hermione took his hand and they walked down the street which was full of dozens of detached houses, all of which had neatly trimmed lawns and flower beds.

Draco glanced down at Hermione who was walking with a highly energetic spring in her step. "Are you okay?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Hermione gripped tighter onto his hand and nodded, not bothering to give him a proper reply.

They walked for a total of about five minutes until they reached house number twenty seven. It looked almost identical to the other houses but Draco chose not to comment on it.

"This is it." she said, dropping his hand, "Now what?"

He looked up at the house and shrugged. "I don't know. I thought my mother might show up and tell m-""What are you doing here?"

The two turned around to be faced with what looked to be a middle aged woman. She had dark hair twisted into a bun but something undeniably reminded Hermione of Draco.

"Mother?" he whispered. The woman's features went from confusion to understanding, and then somewhat to disappointment. "I asked you what you were doing here, Draco." she said, crossing her arms.

Draco cleared his throat and ran one of his hands through his hair, "I came to see you. I need to talk to you about the curse."

The woman glared at him but then sighed, "Alright, yes sure. I'm sorry but you came earlier than i expected you to.  I didn't think Lucius would grow the balls to tell you for atleast another decade. My house is number twenty five. Please, follow me."

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"Tea?" she asked, gesturing towards the tea pot. Draco shook his head, "No thanks, I prefer cof-""Coffee? Yeah, you got that from me."

The woman poured Hermione a cup of tea and sat down opposite them when she put the coffee to boil.

"This was such a long shot. I can't believe i actually found you." Draco chuckled. Hermione smiled, holding his hand under the table.

"I know you didn't come here to bond. What is it that you need?" she asked. Draco's smile faded into a scowl.

"I need to know whether i was born with the curse or not." he said. His mother smirked and let out a small laugh. "You don't know yet?""No.""Well, have you killed anyone?""Not that i remember."

Hermione's body went stiff as she realised. "You have to kill somebody to trigger the curse?" she asked, turning to face Draco. He raised his eyebrow and nodded slowly, "Yeah... you knew that already, Hermione."

"Oh no," she muttered, "oh no no no." The woman furrowed her eyebrows and glanced at Draco. "What's wrong with her?" she questioned.

"I don't know?" Draco mouthed, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Hermione, what's wrong?"

She finally looked up and her eyes were full of panic and relief.

"You weren't born with the curse, Draco." Hermione said. The boy glanced over at his mother and then back at Hermione. "How do you know?" he asked, taking her hands into his own.

"You killed a man, Draco. Two years ago. You saved me, Harry and Ron from the snatchers but it cost one of the men their life." she muttered.

His eyes widened slightly as he took it all in but he quickly regained himself. "Why don't i remember this?" he asked.  He didn't sound mad but he didn't sound calm either.

"You saw us, Draco. Whilst we were on the run. You knew where we were and if Voldemort used legilimency on you then he would know too." said Hermione.

"I'll leave you two to it." said the woman, standing up and walking over to the kitchen. Draco's eyes followed her but as she as she was out of sight, he turned back to face Hermione.

"I'm really sorry, Draco." she sighed, looking up at his eyes. Draco looked at her for a few moments before averting his stare.

"I think we're done here." he said, standing up and taking hold of her hand. "You're not mad?" asked Hermione, staring at their hands.

Draco turned around and sighed. "It would be hypocritical of me if i was." he shook his head.

"Where are you doing?" asked the woman, bringing in two mugs of coffee. "Thank you for the tea. We better be off now." he said bluntly.

She frowned but it quickly turned into a smirk, "Tell Lucius Martha says hi."

Draco rolled his eyes and walked out of the house, Hermione following him promptly behind.

"Draco? My place is the other way." she said when he started heading towards number twenty seven. "We saw my mother, its only fair if we are your parents." he explained.

Hermione didn't say anything, she just quietly followed him up to the front door. He wrapped his hand around hers and gave her a reassuring smile.

She took in a deep breath and knocked three times on the door. It opened after a few moments to reveal a man. "May i help you?" he asked, smiling.

"No- well, yes. You see, i'm Hermione Granger and-" she began"Hermione Granger?" he repeated. The girl nodded slowly and glanced at Draco who was raising his eyebrow.

"That name sounds rather... familiar. I'm Wendell, please, come in." he said, opening the door wider. Hermione smiled gratefully at her father and nodded at Draco, who followed her in.

"Honey? Who are these people?" asked her mother, walking into the room. "The young girl says she's Hermione Granger and i didn't quite catch the name of the young chap." Wendell replied.

"I'm Draco, Draco Malfoy." he smiled, pulling Hermione into his body with one arm. "Oh, well i'm Monica." she smiled. Monica furrowed her eyebrows slightly and looked over at her husband.

"Our daughter used to talk about a boy all the time... what was his name?" she asked. Wendell thought about it for a few moments before glancing over at Draco, "I think it began with a D. Come to think of it, he was also blonde like Draco over here if i remember correctly."

Draco smirked and looked over at Hermione whose body had gone stiff. "If you don't mind me asking," he began, "what was the name of your daughter?"

"Hermione." her parents replied in unison, both freezing when they realised what that meant.

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woop another chapter up

i have school in 3 days and agH idk i like school but there are just certain lessons that make it shitty

not to mention the fact we're going to be doing a lot of gcse stuff this year i feel like it'll be stressy but then again, it needs to be done i suppose

i hope you have/had a great day