Chapter Twelve

A.N. Hello, I hope that you enjoy this new (and super long) chapter and that it will answer most of your questions about the plot. I also want to give a special thanks to Microsoft word's built-in thesaurus for making this chapter possible ;)

Victoria backed away slowly from the fierce pack of wolves that were surrounding her. Victoria didn't need to open her eyes to know what was happening. She ignored their howls of victorious delight and shut her eyes tightly. The pack was marching closer and closer towards her, building a tightly knit prison. The black alpha male had stopped walking suddenly and had gestured for the others to follow his lead. The wolves were looking at her as though she was a pest that they had been trying to catch for months, which she was. The alpha was now showing off his sharp teeth as he slowly walked towards her with a vicious look gleaming in his eye. Victoria could feel the dog's hot breath assaulting her body as he prepared to attack her. It wasn't the whole death thing that she was annoyed about, no, it was the whole dying at the hands of a pack of brutish canines that got to her the most. With an angry growl she opened her eyes, ready to try and fight her way out of the furry ring surrounding her.

"AAAAGH!" She screamed when she finally took in her surroundings. For the first time in her vampire life, Victoria was taken aback. She wasn't in the forest, being cornered by those beasts, she was in a luxurious hotel suite, standing in the middle of a trendy looking sitting room.

"If you're done meditating why don't you come over here and have a seat." A bemused voice spoke softly with a strong English accent that stuck out to Victoria like a sore thumb. Her head whipped around to see a petite looking figure concealed in a thick cloak.

"Who are you? Where did you take me? How did you even manage to get me away from those wolves? What do you want from me? Answer me!" Victoria roared before she tried to hurtle towards the figure. With an angered growl she realised that her legs had frozen in place and she was unable to move. The stranger, whom had been expecting this very reaction, looked up at the vampire with an evil smirk and lowered her hood revealing a head of blazing red hair.

"Now now, why don't you calm down, Victoria? Here, have a seat." The girl asked innocently as she raised her hand, causing the vampire to sail across the room and plummet onto the snug settee.

"What are you?" Victoria asked her bewilderedly.

"I have been sent by the Volturi to find you." The girl informed her, ignoring her previous question.

Victoria looked up at the girl with a horrified expression and tried to escape from her seat. She was in trouble. Victoria knew very well that she had broken several rules of the Volturi over the past few months, that's why she had been jumping from city to city, returning only to try and snatch that Bella bitch away from her lover.

"Who are you? I haven't seen you before."

"My name is Ginny Weasely. I guess you could say that I'm new around these parts."

Hermione stopped for the first time since she had her conversation with Neal. She looked contemplatively at the door that stood big and boldly before her. Should she? Did she even have the right to, after she left him like that? With a sad sigh Hermione knocked on the door. There wasn't much else that she could do.

"Look Blaise, I don't want to go out to some crowded club." Hermione heard a deep voice mutter as the door began to open.

"Hermione? What on earth are you doing here?" Draco cried gleefully when the door was fully opened.

"Hi Draco. It's a long story. How about you just come here and give me a big hug? I've missed you so much." She commanded before throwing herself at her friend and relishing in the feeling of having his arms around her.

After the war Hermione had been the victim of betrayal from the most unexpected of places. Her friends had decided that Hermione didn't belong in their group and that she was too stuck up. At some point even Harry had been roped in and she had been left all alone. It was during this time period that Hermione discovered that despite his arrogance Draco was actually alright and that he had merely been forced to behave like a prejudice prick because of his upbringing. It had been the same with her and her snobby parents aswell, so she could hardly blame Draco. From then on the two had become great friends, they had even lingered on the edge of romance just when Harry had decided that he was acting completely unfair and that Hermione had never done anything wrong.

"Are you okay? You look like a mess. What's happened to your apartment? It's a mess. Everything's a mess! Whats going on? Would a simple cleaning charm kill you?" Hermione ranted after flicking her wand.

"Nothing. Calm down. I'm fine." Draco assured quietly as he watched several empty bottles of FireWhiskey fly past his head.

"As if, Draco Malfoy. Tell me what happened and tell me now. I know you and I now that this is just another one of your depressed phases."

"If you know me so well, surely you should know what's upsetting me too." He contended defiantly with a cocky smirk playing on his lips.

"I… I don't know. Please tell me so that I can help you."

"You can't help me. You're the one who's disturbed me in the first place."

"Me?!" Hermione, who had been taken by surprise, cried.

"Yes you! You think that my best friend could suddenly leave me without me noticing? You, Hermione Granger, you made me trust you and… Anyway- you changed me and then you just got up and ran off to America with Potter." Draco said as he leaned against the wall.

"Don't act as if you weren't told about any of this! The minute Harry returned I turned to you for advice! The only thing you managed to say was that 'it was up to me' and then you bloody shut me out for two weeks."

"That's because I was thinking things through."

"Thinking what through, Draco? What could possibly take two weeks to think about? What was so important that you had to get rid of me for?"

"You're a distraction." Draco muttered with a hopeless look smeared across this face. Hermione, however, had been too annoyed to take notice of this little detail.

"Oh, I'm a distraction am I? Well, why don't I just leave then?" Hermione announced sharply.

"Merlin, Granger, when did you become such a drama queen?" Draco retorted bemusedly, grabbing his friends arm gently.

"Look Draco, I've got no time to waste." She said softly. "I need to ask for your help."

"Well then, ask for it- and stop being so dramatic." The Slytherin retorted as he rolled his eyes.

"Just shut up and let me be serious for a minute." Hermione cried, half exasperated half amused.

"Just speak Granger!" Draco said, trying to be calm, after Hermione had been trying to figure out what to say for a few silent moments.

"You have a cousin. His name is Teddy Lupin - he's Tonks and Lupins son. We, I mean, Harry and I, adopted him after the war, there was no one else left to care for him. That's one of the reasons why we left for America. Its safer for him, for us here." She explained unsurely. Draco nodded in understanding, after the war there had been a small handful of dark wizards breaking the law, thinking that if so many people could do it before, so could they. Of coarse, they weren't as powerful as The Dark Lord had been, but they were still out there, terrorising people.

The two stood in an awkward silence for a while. Hermione looked nervously up into Draco's miserable face and tried to figure out what he was thinking with a faraway look in his eye.

"Mother died two months ago." He said suddenly and stared intensely into Hermione's eyes.

"Merlin! Draco, I'm so sorry that you've had to go through that all alone. I- I just… I never really met her. But from Harry's explanations, she seemed to be one of the bravest women in the world." Was the rushed and heartfelt reply that he received. Draco snorted in disbelief when he heard Hermione refer to Harry.

"My dad is in Azkaban- he's been sentenced for life." He added quietly. This, Hermione knew, but she just let him continue, wanting to avoid any opportunities to upset him.

"This Teddy, as you call him, would be my only family left- excluding the insane part of my family tree of coarse." Draco said thoughtfully.

"What's he like?" Draco asked Hermione intensely after a moment of silence. "I mean… I know that he's just an infant, but there must be some hint of character… Right?" He mumbled after Hermione shot him a small smile.

"He's a Metamorphmagus, like his mother. Mostly he just mimics people that he's familiar with, for instance, at the moment he has Harry's hair and my eyes. He usually sticks to the same look but he sometimes changes them, just to confuse Harry and I, I think. He's such a delightful child, so much like his mother. He laughs at everything around him. But sometimes, I'll catch him just sitting quietly, looking into the distance, as though he's contemplating the meaning of life itself. He's a lot like his father in that sense. But he's a happy child, and nothing makes me happier than being able to say that with no doubt in my mind." Hermione described fondly with a proud smile on her face.

"Towards the end, my mother was talking about him a lot; always wondering where he was, how he was, if he was safe. I'm glad that you of all people are taking care of him." Draco said, struggling to hold back quiet tears.

"You can see him if you want. He loves meeting new people."

"Yeah, I'd like that… I mean, if Potter wouldn't mind."

"Of coarse not, he knows how important family is." They sat together in a comfortable, contemplative silence for a while until he broke the silence.

"You love him as your own." Draco stated simply after watching the loving gleam in her eye when she talked about Teddy.

"Of coarse. It's hard not to love him. Heck, my cousin only just met him yesterday but when I left she was insisting on making plans to babysit him next week. It's hard to remember that I'm still quite young when I have to run around the house, juggling a baby in one hand and writing formulas for new spells in the other. It's nice to have someone to rely on to take care of him once in a while."

"So much has changed. I mean, you're a mother now! How about those Weasels? Are you the bestest of friends again?" Draco asked her with an unkind emphasis on his last question.

"Ofcoarse not! I still don't understand why they randomly decided that I wasn't good enough for them." Hermione muttered under her breath, her quiet voice tinted with the lingering hurt and confusion that she had suffered through all those months ago.

"Really Granger? I would have thought that someone like you would've figured that out by now." He replied, astonished.

"Figured what out? Don't you laugh at me! Tell me, Draco, please."

"Okay, fine. Bonnie Weasely or whatever that Weasel chicks name is wanted Potter all for herself. She thought, along with everyone else, that you two were going to end up together and she was in denial. So she convinced her brother to help her. Then Potter himself unknowingly joined their plan because Weaselett drugged him or something. And of course you know the rest."

"Oh how dare she! That… that…"

"Go one, say it Granger."

"That complete and utter BITCH!" Hermione seethed, pacing the Slytherin's apartment whilst kicking all the empty firewhisky bottles in her path. "You can stop laughing at me now, Draco."

"Alright, alright. Only if you calm down. So why are you here? I have a feeling that you didn't just pop in for a little chat."

"Right, yes." Hermione spoke, flustered. "I was summoned here by the Department Of Mysteries."

"What, so you got fired or something?" Draco replied, frustrated with Hermione's vagueness.

"There's another prophecy." She said as she looked up into Draco's grey eyes, waiting for his reaction.

"Oh Merlin."