Draco carefully studied the marked vials and selected the one he wanted to view next. It made little sense to view them out of order, but Leo had been on his mind since they returned from muggle London. After shoe shopping, they had stopped at a small cafe for lunch. All the while, Leo watched him intently without uttering a word. Hermione said that they had a wonderful relationship before, and he wanted to see her memories of that. He removed the vial labeled "Leo's 2nd Birthday" and emptied it into the pensieve. Leaning in, he was soon enveloped by her memory.
The living room was decorated with blue and green balloons and streamers. Ayla set out cups and napkins on the coffee table while Hermione lined up silver platters full of hors d'oeuvres. The little girl eyed a tray of pigs in a blanket and looked like she was coming up with a plan to steal one without her mother noticing.
"One," Hermione told her, smiling at her daughter's not so clever attempts at being sneaky. Triumphantly, Ayla selected one snack from the tray and ate slowly. "Now, go ask Gigi for the bowls of crisps. And yes, you may have one."
Ayla ran to the kitchen as Hermione continued her last minute party preparations. As she finished repinning the streamers attached to the window valance, Leo appeared. He rubbed his eye with the heel of his hand as he walked to her. "Hi, birthday boy," she greeted him. "Did you have a good nap?"
He wrapped his arms around her legs, nodded, and rested his head near her knee. His eyes closed briefly, but reopened as the sound of footsteps could be heard. A shy smile touched his lips for the briefest of seconds as his grandmother came into view. Joining them, Narcissa Malfoy ran her fingers through her grandson's hair. "What else can I do to help?" she asked. "Ayla mentioned something about a party dress?"
"Oh, that would be great," Hermione replied with a relieved sigh. "You don't mind helping her get dressed? I still have to get him dressed, and people are supposed to arrive soon. There aren't too many guests, but if I know Pansy, she'll be here fifteen minutes early. I thought it was fashionable to be late."
Narcissa chuckled. "She loves your children," she said. "It's good to see that she's matured."
"Yeah, if only she wouldn't bring Ayla a change of clothes and insist that she be redressed," the younger witch muttered. "She buys all of Ayla's dresses, by the way. So it's not like she's insulting the things I pick out."
"Just wait, she'll have children of her own one day, and you can do the same thing to them," Narcissa said with a devious smile. "Speaking of children, where did that little imp of a granddaughter run off to?"
Hermione bent down to pick up Leo. "Probably heard party dress and ran to her room to get into it," she replied. "I wouldn't be surprised if it's on backwards and she's attempting to button it up all by herself."
Moving toward the stairs, Narcissa's happy expression faded. "What time is...you know who coming?" she asked.
"I don't know that he is."
The memory ended, and Draco was back in the study. Dashing from the room, he found Hermione in the living room with a basket of laundry on the coffee table. She glanced up and noticed just how upset he looked. "What did you see?" she asked.
He told her the memory he had just finished viewing. "Did I ever show up?" he wondered, seeming to grow more agitated the longer she hesitated to answer him. "Please, Hermione. Just answer the question."
"I told you that you might not like some of the things you saw," she stated calmly, returning to the clothes that needed to be folded. "You did show up. Drunk and about two hours late. Your father spotted you as you came in, and he quickly escorted you back out. I didn't know about it until after everyone had left."
He looked sick as he took a seat in the chair across from her. Head in hands, he asked, "When?"
"About a week after we separated," she replied.
"God, Hermione, I'm so sorry," he murmured. "Um, did Leo...did he realize it?"
She nodded, and with the basket now empty, she gathered up her piles to put away. "Do you remember when I told you he would only speak to you?" she asked. "Well, with you not around, he didn't speak to anyone. He spent most of the party sitting on your mother's lap. No one could get him to say a word. He wanted you, and only you."
"And I wasn't there," he muttered.
Hermione ascended the stairs, stopping first in Leo's room to put away his clean clothing, then moving on to Ayla's room. The master bedroom was her final destination. He watched as she put away his clothes before tending to her own. "He didn't speak until you started coming around again," she informed him. "Everything about him changed when you came back. He's so much like you. So good at hiding his emotions and closing people out. He seemed happier, he was more talkative, he acted the way a two and a half year old should act. And then he decided you're not you, and that all came undone."
Draco took a seat at the foot of the bed. "A part of me is sorry I looked at that memory," he admitted. "I feel guilty and ashamed when you tell me these things. And then I feel even worse because I did them, but I don't remember doing them."
She moved past him, touching his cheek gently as she walked to the bedside table where she kept her socks and delicates. "I thought you said you weren't from our time," she said. "If that's true, then I guess you have nothing to feel guilty about."
"Yeah, but that doesn't stop me from feeling like this," he replied.
Hermione sighed and took a seat beside him. "It's understandable that you feel that way," she murmured. "Maybe you should stop looking at the memories. Just...be here. I'll answer whatever questions you have."
"What about Leo?" he wondered. "I mean, doesn't it break your heart that a two year old is so closed off? He doesn't speak. He stares at me all the time like he's scrutinizing me. It's unsettling."
"Since he learned how to talk, he's said only a handful of words to me," she pointed out. "Most of them have been no or him pleading for you instead. It wasn't just heartbreaking, Draco. I felt like a failure because somehow, something I must have done, made him hate me."
He reached for her hand and held it tightly. "I don't think he hates you," he assured her. "I think he just inherited one too many of the Malfoy traits."
Hermione chuckled. "Now that is something you should be apologizing for," she teased. He laughed right along with her, and removed his hand from hers to wrap his arm around her shoulders. "At least Ayla is like me."
"Merlin, those books," he said, wide-eyed. "This house ever catches fire, her room is going up first. Maybe we should move them into the study. Give her a space of her own in there. Think she might like that?"
"She'd love that," Hermione replied with a nod of her head. "Maybe we should set up something like that for Leo? He'll be learning to read too."
Draco shook his head. "You can pitch that one to him," he stated. "The last time I offered an opinion, he looked like he was ready to throw a shoe at my head. That kid hates me."
Placing her head on his shoulder, she stared down at his free hand and the wedding ring he wore once again. "Give it time," she murmured. "He'll see that you're still his dad and that you love him."
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Thanx everyone for reading...
