The Malfoy Twins' Trap

43

OLD PHOTOGRAPH

Later that evening, Draco decided to give his daughter a little tour around his office. The moment Cassie's eyes landed at the pensieve, Draco's flickered towards her and smirked, "Don't even think about it." He said.

Cassie rolled her eyes and chuckled as she walked towards the shelf were she, Scorp, Lyra and Zach hid when they had their little escapade. She felt her smile creeping on her face just as Draco noticed and raised his brow, "I wonder if this is the first time you came here."

The brunette let out a sheepish chuckle and faced her father, "well—" she began, "We kinda, barged in." she admitted, "It's kind of a long story."

Draco nodded and sat down by the sofa, Cassie followed. "We have all evening." He said, signaling his daughter to speak.

Cassie sighed, "Alright." She said, "But promise you won't get mad?" she pleaded, anxiety shown in her beautiful grey eyes.

Draco smiled softly at her, "I promise."

"Well, it all started during Camp, I think a day after me and Scorpius suspected that we were twins. Apparently Aunt Astoria had sent them a letter about sending them a portkey for a little few hours of escape, it was supposed to be about modelling or something. Then Scorp offered me to take us along with him and Zach since maybe Aunt Astoria or Aunt Pansy might have any idea about us, about me and Scorp or just to confirm we really are twins."

Draco kept quiet as Cassie continued, not daring to interrupt but taking a mental note about talking to Astoria and Pansy about the issue whereas they sent their sons a portkey without their permission.

"So me and Lyra, my best friend, went with them. Anyway, one thing led to another after talking with Aunt Pansy, Aunt Tori and Ginny—"

"ah so Potter knows about this too." Draco thought, "—Scorp suggested to go here, to the Manor and look for something that might help us. We ended up barging in to your office and saw something." She continued, looking directly at her father's eyes, "What was it?" Draco asked curiously, as he watched Cassie taking something out of her pocket. She gave him a small sad smile as she unfolded the photo of Draco and Hermione and handed it to him.

"It's not the original copy, we duplicated it. I charmed the back so the message won't be in it unlike the original one because it's too personal for us to have plus we have to tear it in half. The other half's with Scorpius. We wanted to have our parents' picture together." She explained as Draco's eyes stared at their picture. His fingers caressing it as if he haven't seen it for a quite some time, because honestly, Draco Malfoy haven't dared to look at their picture for years, trying to forget Hermione's face from his memory, trying so hard to forget her, to forget the pain, but he just can't, he can never forget it and will never forget it. So upon staring at the photograph in his hand, a tear slipped from his grey eyes. His daughter saw his tear, making her tear up as well.

"I'm sorry Dad," Cassie's voice cracked making Draco glanced at her, seeing her tears roll down her cheeks, "We know it's wrong to barge in and look through your things but we were so desperate. We noticed you and Uncle Blaise came so we hid. I've wanted to run towards you so badly. I've wanted to just hug you right there and then, but I still can't. I don't want to scare you away."

Draco just stared and stared at his beautiful daughter crying in front of him, not knowing which was worse, seeing Hermione's face again or knowing that he was at the same room as his daughter was but didn't know, knowing that his daughter was right there that day watching him and he was just there, completely oblivious, or the fact that his very own daughter was the one who was scared to scare him off, it was supposed to be him who should be suffering, not her. So Draco did what he could only do, braced Cassie into a hug while letting his tears roll down.

"Your Mother gave me this picture before our Graduation in Hogwarts." He said, staring at the half teared photograph in his hands. Both Draco and Cassie were still sitting in the sofa, inside his office. Cassie's head leaned against her father's shoulder while Draco's arm was around Cassie's as both of their identical grey eyes stared at the picture of young Hermione and Draco.

"This was when she forced me to go into a bloody photo booth during our first date in muggle London. It was the holiday break, I promised your Mother to take her out on a muggle date and I had no idea what I was doing," he chuckled softly, "I had no idea where to take her and there was a moment when we got lost because I wasn't used to be in the London streets. But your Mother," he sighed with a sad smile plastered on his face, "She was just full of smiles during that date. Even when it rained, or when I ordered the wrong menu, or when I accidently stepped on her toes when we danced inside that muggle restaurant, she was smiling. She just laughed and smiled as if it was the perfect date for her, even if I know deep inside I was a total disaster. It wasn't really the date I planned out."

Cassie smiled with that as she closed her eyes and just listened to his father's story, "The moment we finished having our dinner, she took me to a photo booth and forced me to do these ridiculous poses. It was the first time I ever tried goofing off while being photographed. I remember that I kept muttering about how ridiculous and stupid I looked but your mother," he closed his eyes, as if reviving that memory in his brain, picturing Hermione's face, her smile, remembering the sound of her laugh, his favorite sound in the whole world and how he missed hearing it, "she laughed and said it was her favorite picture of us ever, so I let her keep it."

Cassie opened her eyes just as Draco opened his. She looked at her father and smiled, "That's beautiful." was all she can say as Draco smiled back at her and kissed her forehead, "I came home realizing that it was a perfect day after all, because at the end of the day, all I can think about was Hermione's smile and her laugh. She had the most infectious laugh, I swear to Merlin, even if it's something that isn't even that funny, she'll laugh at it. She can see good and worth laughing at or smiling at in everything."

Cassie stared at her father, his eyes were still staring at the photograph as if it was telling a thousand words, she may not able to tell what he was thinking that moment but his eyes can tell, it can clearly tell that he had loved her mother very much, "You must have loved her so much." She said, voicing out her thoughts.

Draco let out a sad smile, eyes still staring at the picture, "I will always love her."