Manacled by Senlinyu

Chapter 76: Epilogue 2

Hermione sat in bed counting her daughter's fingers, looking at the tiny pink fingernails and tracing her fingers along the squashed profile. The baby had been weighed, checked all over with diagnostic spells, and then Topsy had swaddled her expertly. The matted brown hair was beginning to dry and stand in little tufts about her head.

"I think she's going to end up with my hair, poor thing. Although maybe she'll go platinum at six months," Hermione said. She glanced up, smiling, and found that Draco was standing near the wall, looking as though he were on the verge of apparating out of the room.

Hermione stilled and stared at him in confusion. He'd been right beside her through the labour to the moment she'd been handed the baby. She wasn't sure when he'd backed away.

Ginny and Topsy both slipped unobtrusively out of the room.

Hermione vaguely registered the sound of the door sliding shut as she studied Draco. He'd turned white, and his expression was more devastated than anything else. His fingers kept twitching.

"Draco... come see her."

He swallowed. "Granger—"

"She's your daughter."

His hands twitched, and she could see the muscles in his jaw clench.

"I know." His teeth flashed as he spoke through them. "I remember it happening."

The smile on Hermione's face faded away, and she flinched, holding the baby closer. It was like being slapped or plunged into ice water.

The happiness evaporated as though it had been an illusion. A dream she'd hidden herself inside.

She swallowed and looked down at the baby in her arms. The silence in the room was so heavy, she felt as though she were being crushed under it.

There were certain wounds that never fully faded. That likely never would.

"I think I should go," Draco finally said.

"Come here," she said in a flat voice, looking up at him again.

He looked despairing as he stared at her and so pale it was as though his heart had been carved out of his chest and he was bleeding to death in front of her. He wasn't making any move to get closer.

"Draco, come here," she said again.

He hesitated a moment before he moved forward slowly. She slipped her left arm free and took his hand, pulling him closer until he sat down on the edge of the bed beside her.

Hermione drew a deep breath as she tried to determine what to do. She'd thought he'd gotten used to the idea of the baby, that they'd mostly managed to reconcile what had happened before her memories returned.

He hadn't wanted to rape her. He would never have done so if there'd been any other way to save her. He'd never expected her to forgive him for it.

Maybe he still didn't.

She squeezed his hand tighter. He seemed unwilling to have any kind of physical proximity to Hermione or his daughter.

Her mouth was dry. "You—you promised to care about her. If you—if you—" her jaw started trembling, "If you were going to leave after she was born—you should have told me. This was a new beginning. All three of us. Remember? We left it all behind—all of it—so we could be together. You haven't even looked at her."

She shifted the baby to show her face better, but Draco stiffened and looked away. It was like being cut through, the rejection was physically painful.