"Harry!" Hermione screamed as she entered the Burrow. She clumsily tried to take off her many layers quickly, but failed miserably.
Harry came out from under the sink and asked, "What?"
"Harry!" Hermione jumped not expecting him to be there, "Harry, you have to see this!"
She shoved the newspaper into his hand.
"Malfoy... he's lying to one of the independent presses, the Prophet is going to print an article stating that he's bold faced lying, but these seem to be everywhere. I don't know what to do."
Harry read the headline:
Potter stole my baby!
The article said something to the effect that after Ginerva Weasley's death Draco Malfoy tried to see his daughter (Eve Potter) but Harry Potter wouldn't allow it and that independent sources said he was abusive to the little girl.
"I've never hit... I've never even thought about hitting Evie." Harry said.
Hermione just stood in front of him wide eyed, "Well of course! Didn't you see the OTHER lie he told, about Eve being his DAUGHTER!"
Harry paused, not knowing how to say it properly, then deciding to just say it would be best, "Hermione, if the Prophet wants to say Malfoy is lying, then the only part they can talk about is the insinuation that I would ever hit my daughter."
"Harry!" She said exasperated, "He..."
Hermione trailed off as the realization hit her.
"He's her father?"
"Only biologically. I've been her Dad since before she was born." Harry said.
Hermione rubbed her temples and sat down across from him, "I don't understand anything anymore. Why did you- why did she- what happened our seventh year."
"You turned me down." Harry said plainly.
Hermione's cheeks turned red, "I remember that part."
"After that I was going to the common room when I heard Ginny crying, I asked her what was wrong and she said she was pregnant with Malfoy's child and that he wanted nothing more to do with her. She needed to leave, she didn't want to have to face her parents and I- well my heart was broken. I didn't see any need to stay."
"Oh, Harry." Hermione said as she held on tightly to his hand.
"What happened that night gave me my kids, I'm alright with it. But this... I gave Malfoy every cent I had. I gave him my parents money, the Black Estate, every cent Ginny and I ever made, our house... I gave it all to him so he would leave us alone. The deal was he would take the money and he would never bother Evie again."
"I think we need to take Mr. Malfoy to court in that case."
Hermione and Harry both turned when they saw Dumbledore flanked by Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.
"Court?" Harry asked.
"Yes, court. You made an exchange, and he should honor it. Besides I heard word that his next step is to bring you to court, I think we should even out the playing field and YOU should take him to court."
Harry looked to everyone in the room, then shook his head, "I couldn't put Eve through that, we have to find another way to-"
"She will be in school. And as for the truth of who her father is, she deserves to know."
"But I'll never win." Harry said weakly.
"You will win," Dumbledore said matter of factly, "You have been her father for her entire life, that counts as something."
And with that the Prophet took a counter attack. Saying not only did Malfoy not want Eve when Ginny said she was pregnant with her, but was also given a lot of money to give up parental rights. Before that happened though, Harry, or rather everyone forced Harry, to sue Malfoy for 'breech of wizard's agreement' or something of that sort.
Once all that craziness started, Harry had to write to Eve.
Evie,
I don't know what to say. I don't know how to tell you something so important... and yet something so unimportant to me. It's rather complicated.
It's how you came into this world.
Your mother and I were great friends. She was with me on the front lines with Ron and Hermione. You see, this 'bad man' that wanted to hurt me was the most evil wizard for a century. I was prophesized to be the only one to get rid of him... and I did, with the help of your mother and my friends. When Hermione said she was brave she wasn't using the term lightly, your mother faced certain death, and did it with a smile on her face because she knew it was the right thing to do.
During this time she fell in love with a boy by the name of Draco Malfoy. He made her believe he was in love with her, that he was a good person, that he would be fighting on our side when the war came to an end. He ran away when things started to get heavy, and came back saying something along the lines of he had to protect his mother.
And your mum bought it. She wanted to believe there was good in him. So the night after the battle you were conceived.
And I was in an entirely different part of the castle, asleep.
Then graduation came up and the night of graduation she told Draco Malfoy the news, that she was pregnant.
He laughed at her and told her 'good luck with that.' When she asked him 'aren't you in love with me?' he gave her a disgusted look and said that he could never love someone who associated with (insert filthy word here).
She started to cry, and as he left, I heard her. You see, that night I poured my heart out to Hermione, I told her I loved her and I wondered if there were a chance she could grow to love me. She told me no in the best way possible, and I took it rather badly. When I happened in on your mother crying and she told me what was bothering her, and why she couldn't go to your grandparents for help, I decided that we should go and I would help her raise her baby. Soon enough we got married, thinking it the only proper thing to do, and a short time later you came into our lives. God I loved you when I first saw you... I just saw your eyes open up and look bewildered at me and I couldn't help but love you. I stayed with you that night as your mother slept, and every night after that until your mother told me to stop it, saying you'd get a complex.
I feel the need to tell you something more, when our first anniversary came, we made a promise to each other. That we would get over the people we had loved before and fall in love with each other. It would be best for us for two reasons. One, cheating wasn't really an option for either of us. And two, because we deserved it. We all deserved to be a real family.
And we are. I love you just as much as I love Lilly, you are in every sense of the word MY daughter. I know this is a lot, and you're young, but I need to tell you because it would kill me if you had to hear it from somewhere else.
Feel free to hate me, I will be here for you always,
Dad
The reply he got made him quite happy. It was:
Dad,
I'll be home for Christmas.
Eve
It was all he could have hoped for, and it got him ready for the trial that was soon to come.
* * *
Harry sipped his glass of water, and listened as Hermione talked.
"What Ron fails to see is though Luna is a reporter she reports on things that... don't exist. While I tell the absolute truth about everything I see. Even if it makes Dumbledore look bad."
She sipped her coffee. They were sitting in at the kitchen table in the Burrow at one o'clock in the morining. She had to get up early to cover the trial and Harry couldn't sleep. They both found their way down to the kitchen in search of something to eat, but instead made themselves something to drink.
"How did you make Dumbledore look bad?" Harry asked.
"Five years after you left someone wrote a book on their experiences of having to be in school with THE Harry Potter. They insinuated that while you had to go after the philosopher's stone and... Well just about everything we had to go through, Dumbledore stood by and did nothing. I had to report the truth, so I said while Dumbledore was not at all inactive in these matters, through inconvenient events, you did have to go through many things without his help."
"Who would write rubbish like that?"
"Zacharias Smith. I know, I know, but he does talk about you rather fondly. More fondly than I remember him being. I guess that's what he had to do to sell books."
Harry didn't care at all. He never cared much about the way the world looked at him, and that book would be no different.
"So, why didn't you write a book? That would have sold millions, 'How I lived through Harry Potter' by Hermione Granger, Forward by Ronald Weasley."
Hermione suppressed a laugh, "You don't know how many offers there were for me to write a book like that. I could never write something like that. It just wouldn't be right. Ron on the other hand had to be talked out of it by the entire Weasley clan."
Harry laughed, "That, I believe."
"Why haven't YOU written a book? It would be one way to make money, besides you could embellish it as much as you want. 'I Harry Potter took the wand out of Voldemort's hand at the age of one, and killed him. Then I moved England to the Bahamas and made the universe'... Everyone would buy it."
Harry shook his head at the grinning Hermione, "If I were to embellish anything it would be you... all of you. 'Hermione Granger killed Voldemort while Ron Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom may he rest in peace, and Luna Lovegood got rid of all of the Death Eaters and I sat in the fetal position on the floor.'"
"I hate that we had to do that... To go through all of that, we were too young." Hermione said sadly.
"As were my parents, as was anyone who had to defeat a dark wizard." Harry said a bit more cheerful than Hermione seemed to be.
She sipped her coffee and tapped on the table, "I don't think I've ever asked, how's fatherhood?"
"Great. I recommend it to everyone. Being a parent is the most frustrating, and happy, thing you could ever do. You should do it."
Hermione smiled but shook her head.
"Come on, I'll give you one of mine as a starter kit. You can have the one that wants to be nothing like her father and will soon be unable to deal with because soon enough... boys will come into the picture. I'll just have to kill myself. So, to save my life, take her and I'll keep the one that can never wear the shoes on the right feet."
Hermione couldn't help but laugh, "You're on your own Potter."
Harry snapped his fingers and looked at her in mock disappointment.
He realized then that Hermione wasn't the same girl he had left so many years ago. She was this different woman. One that was almost like his Hermione, and yet not. She didn't talk to herself when she had work to do, nor did she work so hard as he remembered. She was more confident, happier, and in many ways she had calmed down. He was glad for the change, it suited her. She was everything positive about Hermione Granger.
But he longed for the old Hermione. The one that would get so emotional she would cry in the wrong moments and somehow make a bad day worse. The one that would nearly break his arm in two every time she got frightened. The one that would study too much and start talking to herself, about past lessons.
He wanted the old vulnerable Hermione back.
"What are you thinking about?" Hermione asked.
"You." Harry said taking another drink.
Hermione's eyes widened a bit, "Me?"
"Yeah," Harry leaned over the table and whispered, "I miss you."
Hermione had leaned with him and as he said those words her cheeks turned pink.
"I'm right here Harry." She whispered back.
"I mean the old you. You used to be so... guarded with everyone else but me. Now you're guarded with me, and no one else. Why?"
"Because your wife just died." Hermione said.
She was about to lean back into her chair when Harry placed his hand on top of hers and stopped her.
"That's not it." Harry whispered.
"Don't push it Harry." Hermione said seriously.
"Why not?" Harry said just as serious.
Hermione sighed as if she were giving up the fight.
"Because I don't want you to hate me. Ever since you left I though that you would grow to hate me."
"I could never hate you," Harry then smiled, "You are after all my bestest buddy."
Hermione smiled at this lighter turn of events.
"Bestest buddy? Really?"
"Of course."