Chapter 10

Disclaimer: We're borrowing some characters from JKR, but we promise to return them soon!

Thanks go to Soul Bound for giving this a beta!

Hermione tossed the soiled nappy into the dustbin and pulled down the baby's gown over the new one she'd just put on, smiling as the little legs kicked slightly. "You're so beautiful," she said softly. She'd never been around small babies before, aside from her cousin's two daughters, but she'd only seen them when they were older, as her cousin lived on the continent. However, she found her heart softening as each minute passed. She'd spent the first hour wondering what ways she could convince Snape to find someone else, but the more she thought about it, gazed at the tiny baby, and read in the book, she wasn't sure that she could trust anyone else to do it. And he'd had a point: How would the world treat his heir?

After reading most of the book and getting a better understanding of things, she felt more confident about what she had to do to care for the little one, but she still had a few doubts. How would she know if the baby was hungry or perhaps simply gassy? She didn't want to overfeed her if she simply needed comfort. There were so many things in the book, but one thing was for certain. She was going to keep a record of everything...how many soiled or wet diapers, what she ate and when, how much she slept, or anything else! If there would be some problem, she could easily show the Healer a list of everything so that he or she could make a valid decision.

A gurgle brought her attention back to the baby. "Hello, little sweetheart. You're so sweet. Yes, you are." Lifting the child up, she cradled her against her bosom and slowly rocked while whispering words of comfort and affection. Snape had been sleeping for nearly nine hours. With each passing hour, she wondered if he'd ever wake up or if he'd slipped out unnoticed. She was getting a bit tired, but she could understand what he meant by not wanting to fall asleep while caring for the baby. She'd nearly nodded off a couple of times, only to startle herself awake again.

"What can we call you, love? Daddy hasn't thought about naming you, has he? Been stressed out, I expect." The baby's eyes were closed, but her mouth was open slightly, and one of her fists was closed around Hermione's pinky. "We've got to give you a name. We can't just call you baby forever. No, no..."

Despite what she'd told Snape about her plans of school and a career, she, as with most other girls, had thought past that to a future of marriage and children. She'd always liked the name Elizabeth. To her, the name was regal and would always be popular and proper. Before she'd started Hogwarts and had gone to Muggle schools, some of the kids used to make fun of her name because it was so strange and quite rare. One of her teachers had overheard one day and came to her defense, saying that her name was in one of Shakespeare's plays and that none of the three teasing her could say the same. The teacher had gone one step further to say that something so unique was special and was much better than having a plain name that everyone else had.

Regardless of that, Hermione had been determined to not give any of her children odd names. Interestingly enough, the Wizarding world was filled with strange names, and nobody seemed to bat an eye. Smirking, she shook her head, and she had a sudden inspiration. Alena had been her maternal grandmother's name. It wasn't very unpopular, and many names were similar to it. People liked to vary names these days.

"You don't look like an Alena though," she said softly. And then it hit her. Snape's mother's name was Eileen. It was only right that the baby have her name or a name special to him, but would he want that? Why hadn't he thought of that on his own? Did he have a good relationship with his mother? Was she even still alive? Hermione frowned. "You don't look like an Eileen anyway, and you'll already have Snape's last name. I wouldn't change that to Granger... I don't think." She truly didn't know what she'd do. For now, she'd worry about first names only.

"Eilena? A mix of the two then?" She grinned at the irony. There was nobody that she'd ever met with the name Eilena, so she'd gone against her own rules. "Can you say that? Eye-lay-nuh?" she said to the baby, sounding it out. "The second 'e' sounds like a long 'a' when pronounced."

"What are you talking about?" Snape asked.

Her head snapped up. "Oh, I didn't realize you were up."

"I've made some coffee." He nodded at the baby. "How has she been?"

"She's been sleeping a great deal, eating; not too many nappies needed changing." The little one had fallen back to sleep again. "How about you? Did you get your rest then?"

"Yes." He remained quiet as she placed the baby back in crib, but when Hermione turned to face him again, he asked, "What were you discussing with her?"

At this Hermione burst out laughing, causing him to glare at her. "I... I don't mean to laugh!"

"Then why are you?" he asked sharply.

"It's just that I wasn't discussing anything with her. Not really. I was just talking to her and mostly to myself." Her smile faded. "It just sounded like you think of her as an adult who can understand everything and communicate back. She's just a baby."

His eyes narrowed even more. "Don't assume anything about what I think...on any subject. You know very well what I mean."

Suddenly nervous, Hermione blurted, "I was thinking about what name she should be given."

"Indeed?"

"Yes."

"Well?"

"My grandmother's name was Alena." She paused to see what reaction he had, but there was none. "And I know that your mum's name is Eileen, so I thought..."

"And just how do you know that?" he asked, stepping into the room, eyes again narrowing.

"Er... last year... I was researching in the library, and I found a clipping about her marriage." She lowered her eyes, hoping he didn't ask what she'd been researching at the time, not wanting to get into that conversation with him.

"I see."

At this, she looked up. "Well? What do you think?"

"You want to name her Alena and Eileen?" he asked, curling his lip upwards slightly.

"Eilena... something from each of them."

Snape strode forward and looked down into the crib, the line of his mouth curving up into a small smile. One long-fingered hand lowered and caressed the side of the baby's face. "Eilena," he said, testing the sound. Tilting his head to gaze at Hermione, he nodded and said, "I like it. It suits her."

"Thanks. Now... sir, not to annoy you..."

"Can that truly be avoided, you think?" he quipped, looking back down at his daughter.

Huffing, she said, "If I do annoy you, it's your fault! You're the one who brought me here!"

"Enough," he said softly. "None of this in front of her."

"Agreed."

"Shall we go into the next room? There is the matter of owling a letter to my friends that I'd like to discuss."

"Very well," he said, bringing the soft blanket up to cover Eilena's lower body.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harry nodded awake as he heard a tapping coming from the kitchen window. He nudged Ron and kicked under the table at Draco. "Oi. An owl! Maybe it's some news on Hermione."

Quickly going to the window, he ducked to let the large owl swoop past him and circle the room once. When it came back to land on the counter, he took the parchment from its leg, not offering it anything to eat, but allowing it to snatch one of Hedwig's owl treats from the counter, and quickly opened the letter.

"It's from Hermione!" he said excitedly. The other two jumped up and eagerly listened as he read the letter.

Harry, I just want you to know that all's well. Please don't think that I've run out on you. I haven't done that. What with all the arguing at the house, I think it would be best if I'm not around. Bickering will only distract you and the others from our plans. I've decided to stay with our "friend." Yes, it's the same person who's been sending us the help all this time. I was able to figure out who the person is, and I feel I can do more on this end than I could there. I hope you understand. As soon as I can, I will return. Don't worry about me. I am safe and agreeable to my situation. I'm not in danger.

Hermione

Without even questioning the others, he flicked his wand and muttered an incantation he'd recently learned. It would reveal if she'd been forced to write the letter or if she'd written it of her own will. When the page glowed yellow, he grinned. "She's telling the truth, mates. She's not in danger. Just went off to try to help us." He sighed in relief. "I don't like it, I admit, but I feel better now."

Ron didn't say anything at first. He was watching the expression on Draco's face. "What do you know, Malfoy? Do you know who her 'friend' is?"

Draco schooled his features. "No, I just don't like the fact that she is off like that. We know, um, nothing of this person."

"Well, we know that she wrote this of her own free will, and trust me, Hermione wouldn't willingly say that she's fine if she wasn't. There must be something very important for her to do where she is." Harry looked at Ron. "Ron, don't. It's not your fault."

Ron shrugged. "Maybe not all, but some of it is. She ran out of here in the first place because of me." He turned to leave. When he reached the door, Draco called out to him.

"Weasley, you know, now that Hermione is gone, I'll need some help researching. Potter is still reading up on hexes and the like. What do you say; are you up for it?"

Ron stopped and looked over his shoulder, trying to decide if Malfoy was being honest or if this was some sort of trick. "Yeah, I suppose I could help you. I need to warn you now, though; I'm not the greatest at that sort of thing."

Draco snorted. "No! You don't say?"

Ron narrowed his eyes. "Look, Malfoy," then he stopped. He'd promised himself he was going to think before he spoke and try to do better. "I can try."

Draco nodded. "Good enough."

Harry looked at the two speculatively. "Does this mean that it's safe for me to go upstairs and practice those new spells I've been learning?"

Shrugging, Ron said, "Sure." Turning to Draco, he said, "I'm going to go outside for a bit. I'll be in to help soon."

Draco nodded and Ron walked out. "It truly bothers him that Hermione is gone," he said, sounding surprised.

Harry turned to him. "Of course it does. He's in love with her."

"Mate, he has a funny way of showing it."

"The thing with Ron is that when he gets mad or hurt, he lashes out. Rather than discuss things, he gets even so to speak."

"Yet you and Hermione claim he's your best mate?"

"You have to remember that Ron is the youngest of six boys. Besides, I've never had any friends as loyal as those two, Draco. Even in the middle of an argument, if things got bad, I could still always count on either one of them to back me up. We love each other...we're family."

Draco looked at Harry, deep in thought. After a moment, he said, "I've never had a friendship like that. I've never trusted any of my mates that much." Turning to the window, watching Ron sit on a bench with his head in his hands, he said quietly, "But I was beginning to trust Hermione." He nodded towards the window. "Is he going to be all right?"

Harry walked over to stand beside Draco so that he could see Ron out of the window. "Yeah, he will. Oh, he's hurting, but he'll do what needs to be done. Would you do something for me?"

Draco turned to look Harry in the eyes. They stood there staring for a moment when he asked, "What would that be?"

"Just don't needle him too much, okay?"

"You take the fun out of everything," Draco joked. When Harry said nothing, he said, "Fine. I'll try to behave."

Harry blurted, "Do you really want Ginny?"

Cocking his head to the side, Draco asked, "Do you care?"

"I'll not see her hurt."

Raising an eyebrow, Draco asked, "You mean the way you hurt her? You and your mate out there confuse me. You act like it's okay for the two of you to hurt or lash out, but God forbid anyone else to do it. Do you know what the lot of you are? Hypocrites. Well, perhaps not Hermione, but you and Weasley certainly are."

"I do love her." Harry turned away. "I never meant to hurt her. She's great. But..."

"But you're not in love with her."

"I don't know. There's just so much going on. I just want some time to..."

"You don't have to be. Just don't let her think you are or that when this is over, you're going to go back to her...unless you're certain." He laid a hand on Harry's shoulder. "We both know that you're not though."

"So that the door can be left wide open for you?"

"Perhaps. She's a very beautiful young woman. But I've not got the time to be thinking of that just now...or of any other doors that might be open. I've debts to pay and things to see to. So, first things first."

"I see." Harry walked away. "I'm going upstairs to practice more."

When Harry left to go upstairs, Draco went into the library. He truly hoped that Snape had not hurt Hermione. Sure, she was not forced to write the letter when she wrote it, but he didn't have the heart to point out that anything could've happened to her since.

He thought of his mum. Now that Hermione was there, what had happened to his mum? Was Hermione right in trusting Snape? Where was Lucius? Did he find out about what Snape had forced her to do? Draco grinned evilly. He well and truly hoped that he had.

"I don't think I want to know what's running through your mind right now, Malfoy," Ron said from the doorway.

"Just thinking about some debts I'll be collecting soon. You okay to help?"

"Yeah. I need to do something. What is it you want me to start on?" Ron looked wearily at all of the books on the table.

"Hermione and I were going to start researching removing Horcruxes in living things and power transfers during hexes."

"Oh, you mean like that snake You-Know-Who has?"

"Right. We need to figure out how to destroy that one before he can be killed."

Ron narrowed his eyes in concentration, wondering how difficult this was going to be. "Fine. Where do I start?"

Pointing, Draco said, "We haven't started looking though that book there yet."

Saying nothing, Ron sat and opened the book. He absently reached for a quill and some parchment to take notes with. They stayed silent for about an hour when Ron's stomach suddenly growled.

Draco looked up. "Hungry?"

"What? Oh, no, you go ahead." He didn't want to admit it, but this book was very interesting. "You know, it says here that a person can be a Horcrux."

"Hmm. Does it?" Draco had a feeling where Weasley was going with this but decided to wait him out to be sure.

Ron looked up sharply. He wondered... "Yeah, it says that a person could be a Horcrux and that there could be a strong connection between the person with the Horcrux and the person the soul came from. And I got to thinking."

Draco started to say something sarcastic and held back. He hated Weasley in a temper and wanted to change the subject, so he asked instead, "Does it say anything about animals or reptiles?"

"I was thinking that Harry has a connection to You-Know-Who. Quite a coincidence, don't you think? Or had you and Hermione been thinking that all along and just keeping it to yourselves?"

"Look, I thought the same thing, but Hermione explained to me how that was simply not possible." Draco snapped, aggravated that Weasley had actually thought the same thing he had himself. He wasn't as dumb as he looked.

"Well, it sure seems possible when I read this."

"Yes, I know. But then Hermione pointed out that to create a Horcrux, one must commit murder."

Ron threw up his hands in frustration. "Um, Draco," he started, barely aware he was using his nemesis first name, "he did commit murder! Remember Harry's mum and dad?"

"Yes, that's true, but after hearing the prophecy, his intent was to murder Harry, not to create a Horcrux. Besides, Hermione told me that Dumbledore told Harry the Dark Lord was likely going to use Harry's murder to create a Horcrux, but then the Killing Curse backfired, and he lost control of his body and fled. After that, he didn't have the time or means to create a Horcrux."

Ron scratched his chin in deep thought. It all made perfect sense. He was glad that he didn't have to add worrying that Harry had a part of his soul inside of him. A thought suddenly occurred to him. "Hermione sure confided in you a lot."

Draco looked up at Ron and answered cautiously. "Yes, on certain things. Certainly things of this sort."

"The two of you seemed to be getting pretty close."

"Don't start that shite, Weasley. Just don't. I'm not going to defend myself anymore. I will say once more that she and I are only friends, and I'm not here to spy and take information back to Snape or anyone else."

Ron grinned and held up his hands. "All right! All right! Jeez!" Then just as suddenly as it appeared, his smile faded. "I can't believe she's really gone. I pushed her out."

Draco sighed. He wasn't the comforting sort. "Maybe today, but I think that if she hadn't gone today, it would've just been another day. We've each got things that we need to be getting on with, and this is hers."

Ron nodded. "I suppose you're right. I just... It doesn't matter. I'm going to fix meself a sandwich and finish this. You want one?"

"Yeah, that'd be good. Just don't make it as big as you do yours! I'll never be able to fit it into my mouth!" Draco teased.

Snorting, Ron said, "Wimp." Then he turned to walk to the kitchen and fuel himself. It looked as if he had a long night ahead of him.

Harry stood gazing out of the window of his room. He'd come up here to be alone and study, but found himself thinking of Ginny instead.

Am I in love with her? he wondered. Is this what all of these feelings are inside of me? He didn't really have a basis of comparison. He'd never truly loved anyone before Ron and Hermione.

Hermione. He knew that he loved Hermione, but his feelings between the two women were completely different. When he was around Ginny, his stomach knotted, his palms sweated, and he always wanted to touch her.

When he thought of her with another man, not just Draco...anyone, he hurt. No, he didn't want her to be with anyone else. He turned from the window and put his face in his hands. It's true. I do love her deeply. This has to be that lasting love like my parents had! The next thought didn't make him feel any better. Not only love her, but I need her as well.

Harry walked to his desk. Sitting, he took out his quill and parchment, deciding to write Ginny a letter. He had some things he wanted to tell her, and since it was impossible to do so in person and he couldn't keep his feelings for her inside any longer, he figured writing to her was the next best thing.

He only hoped that it wasn't too late.

Authors' Notes: So, the boys are now trying to work together finally. Pity it took Hermione's leaving to get them together. Hope you're enjoying! More up soon.