21

A/N: Some of you may be confused right now. It seems that this chapter was accidentally left out, and so I've had to go back and adjust the chapters. The next two chapters after have already been previously posted and should be back up soon, as well as the final ones. Thank you for your patience!

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy, I'm also curious about that."

Draco snatched the hat from his head and covered up his private parts as fast as lightning. "Professor McGonagall! I... er... well, you see..." He gave up, snapped his mouth shut and just shrugged.

"Well? I'm waiting for an explanation." She glanced down as Mrs. Norris came towards her, meowing loudly. She looked up and noticed that Filch was sprawled out on the stairs, unmoving. "What happened to Argus?" she ran to him and checked his pulse. "This man has been Stunned!" She stood up, her mouth a thin line of disgust. Her eyes flashed with anger, and her wand shook furiously in her hand. "I want answers! Who did this?"

"That would be me, Professor," Harry answered, a little frightened. He had seen her angry plenty of times and still always expected her to box his ears. "I had to!"

"You had to?" she exclaimed, her voice raised. "I have never, in all of my years! Five students out after curfew, one of them naked, for Merlin's sake!" She waved her wand, and both Hermione and Draco were suddenly dressed in their school robes.

Ginny, ever courageous, spoke up. "Professor, let me explain." The Headmistress glared at her, waiting for her to continue. "Well, you see, Hermione had been acting strange all week, and we were worried about her." Ginny glanced over at Hermione, looking concerned, even though the girl was clearly not harmed in any way. In fact, she was glowing and seemed happy, holding Malfoy's hand. It was very weird to say the least. "We were in the Common Room, and Ron suggested we look at the map because he hadn't seen her come back from the library."

"What map?" Professor McGonagall asked. "Are you talking about that Marauder's Map?"

"You know about that?" Ron asked.

"Yes, I know about it, Mr. Weasley. Albus told me all about it. I thought, as well as Severus..." Her voice trailed off. "Well, never mind. What happened next? Did you locate her on the map?"

Harry frowned. "It was really strange. We saw her hanging out by the clock, and then Malfoy," he shot Draco a filthy look, "showed up. We thought he was going to hurt her or something!"

"We saw Filch coming, and then Hermione and Malfoy just disappeared from the map," Ginny added. "We ran down here as fast as we could, Stunned Filch when he started to wake up and then..."

"The clock was missing, and we couldn't understand where it had gone. Then there was this strange wind and weird-colored lightning bolts. The clock appeared out of thin air, and then Hermione and a bare-ass Malfoy came stumbling out of the clock!" Ron pitched in quickly, his face an ugly shade of scarlet.

Draco let go of Hermione, his eyebrows raised in confusion. He asked no one in particular, "Are you saying that we haven't been gone for days, or even a week?" He glanced at an equally stunned Hermione. They couldn't believe it!

"No. It's still the same day. Have you gone daft or something?" Ron said, grinning. "Always thought you were a dumb blond!"

"He hasn't gone daft, Ron," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "He's confused, as well as I am. We went into that clock, and I swear we were gone for at least six days."

Professor McGonagall went over to the clock and checked it out. "The glass is shattered." She looked around at the ground. "I see no broken glass on the floor..." Her face suddenly screwed up, and she looked as though she just swallowed a glass of urine. "The pendulum. It's moving!"

Harry, Ginny and Ron all looked at the front of the clock where the heavy gold pendulum was swinging behind its broken case. They thought nothing of it. None of them had noticed that it had been broken in the first place.

"You say that you and Mr. Malfoy went into the clock? Show me where you entered."

Draco took Hermione by the hand, making Ron frown, and then he opened the secret door on the side of the clock. Minerva started to go inside, and Draco held her back. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Unless you want to be buried alive in Egypt, chased by a T-rex or perhaps lead a parade of hypnotized suicidal rats to their watery grave."

"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" Harry asked. "Egypt? Rats?" he laughed. "Maybe Ron was right. You have lost your mind!"

"I have not, Potter, and I suggest you keep your damn mouth shut!"

"Why don't you shut it for me, Malfoy?" Harry said, pulling out his wand.

Draco went to get his and realized that he didn't have it. "I lost my fucking wand again!"

"Mr. Malfoy!" Professor McGonagall shouted, scandalized.

"Don't worry, I'm sure daddy will buy you another one. Oh, wait! That's right, he's in Azkaban!" Ron said with a snide grin. His grin suddenly turned to shock as Hermione's wand was thrust into his face.

"One more word, Ron and..."

"And you'll what?" he asked. "Why are you acting like this? Why are you holding his hand and taking his side? What did he do to you?"

Hermione lowered her wand and stepped back. "You want to know what he did to me? He took care of me, protected me, rescued me from danger! He told me I was beautiful and sexy. He made me feel special; he made me fall in love with him!"

Ginny smiled, Harry only raised his eyebrow, and Ron's mouth fell open in shock.

Professor McGonagall was silent. She had no idea as to what this clock was all about. All she knew was that this Muggle-born Gryffindor had just announced that she was in love with this arrogant son of a Death Eater and that all hell was about to break loose. What should she do?

"Not true!" Ron managed to say, lunging at Draco. "What did you do to her?" He knocked Hermione out of the way, which infuriated Draco. "I'm going to kill you! You did something to her! She could never love you, let alone stand the sight of you!" Ron's face was twisted in anger, and even though Harry and Ginny tried to hold him back, he went for Draco, ready to kill him.

Draco pulled back his fist and punched Ron dead in the face. "Before you go and accuse me of slipping her a love potion or messing with her mind, there are a few things you need to get straight, Weasley!" Draco cradled his injured hand. "Now, shut the fuck up and listen to me!"

Ron staggered and fell against Harry. Grabbing his robe to catch his balance, Ron almost dragged Harry along with him to the floor. His fingers went straight to his mouth, and seeing blood, he screamed in a furious rage.

Professor McGonagall had totally lost her patience and pulled out her wand, ready to Stun the lot of them. She rushed forward to help Ron and stepped on the bushy tail of Mrs. Norris in the process. The cat hissed loudly and took off like a bat out of hell.

Draco pulled Hermione close and asked her if Ron had hurt her when he pushed her. After seeing that she was fine, he turned to Ron once more. "It's a good thing she's okay. If you had hurt her or our baby, I would have ripped your bloody head off!"

The silence that followed this threat was so profound that Hermione thought she had gone momentarily deaf. Everyone was frozen in place. It would have been funny had it been a different situation.

Professor McGonagall finally found her voice. "All of you, my office, right now." She gave this command in a clear, calm voice, but inside she was shaken to the core. Of course, this had happened before. Almost every year there was a least one girl who found her way into her office, crying about being taken advantage of and in a total panic because she was now with child. This was different, this was...dare she say it? Sort of exciting in a bizarre way. She left Filch lying on the steps, knowing the spell would wear off soon, and led the way to her office.

Harry and Ginny each took one of Ron's arms and basically dragged him up the stairs behind the Professor. "Did Malfoy really just say that he and Hermione are having a baby, or did someone slip me some hallucinogenic potion during dinner?" Ginny asked.

Harry looked over the top of Ron's head. "You're not tripping, Gin. He really did say it."

"It's just so weird! Only yesterday she was saying what a stuck up piece of rat shit he was, and today we find out she's going to give birth to Draco Jr.!" Ginny glanced over her shoulder at her friend, who was whispering heatedly with Draco. "Maybe we shouldn't worry. It looks like there's trouble in paradise already."

Harry and Ron both turned their heads, beheld them fighting and then smiled hugely at one another. It was clear to them that this was all a passing fancy and that Hermione would dump the evil bastard and things would return to normal... As normal as it could with her having his baby, that is. They would soon find out just how wrong they were.

Draco saw them staring. "What the fuck are you looking at? Mind your own business!" he snapped angrily.

Harry and Ron smiled at him sweetly and then continued up the stairs, laughing.

"Is everything all right, Hermione?" Ginny asked.

"Nothing's wrong, Ginny. We're just worried that we're going to be expelled."

"Oh," Ginny replied slowly. "Well, if you need me, you know where to find me."

"Yeah, under Potter," Draco said, thinking he was witty.

Ginny and Hermione were not amused.

"Whoops! Sorry! I better watch what I'm saying. After all, in the future, we'll be in-laws."

"What? What are you talking about, Malfoy?"

Hermione elbowed Draco hard in the ribs. "I'll tell you later. We need to catch up with the professor."

"Please, have a seat," Professor McGonagall said, flicking her wand. Five chairs appeared around her desk, and they all sat down. "Now, I want you to start from the beginning," she said to Hermione. "Tell me everything."

Hermione knew she couldn't tell her EVERYTHING; that would be embarrassing. She also had no intention of telling her about her daughter and her grandson. Draco didn't even know about that. "After we went into the clock, we ended up first in Ancient Egypt where we were mistaken for Osiris and Isis..."

She got through the whole Egypt thing with minimal interruptions and managed to skip the part about Draco almost being forced to rape her. "We ended up buried alive under the Step-Pyramid, and that's where we saw the first message."

She told them what it said and then told how they escaped with the help of the Pharaoh's Steward, again skipping all the sexual stuff. She hadn't really realized how much of it there was.

"And where did you go next?" Minerva asked, knowing that Hermione was skipping things by the way she blushed and refused to look her in the eye. "Why don't you tell me, Mr. Malfoy?"

Draco seemed to come out of a trance. It was strange to hear her retell what they had gone through. Was it really that dangerous? Dumbledore was an idiot to put them through the horrific ordeals, and for what? They still didn't know!

"We ended up in the age of the dinosaurs, and let me tell you, I never want to ever go back, ever!" He told them about how Hermione was almost eaten by the pack of Deinonychus, and Hermione interrupted with the tale of Draco rescuing her and being seriously wounded.

"And you managed to heal him?" Minerva asked, clearly impressed. "Amazing."

Hermione motioned for Draco to continue. As he told about the message on the log, she watched the faces of her friends. Ginny was horrified, Harry was listening with rapt attention, and Ron was staring at the floor, trying to pretend he wasn't interested. What were they thinking about this whole situation? Were they going to accept this once the story was over? Would they tell her they just couldn't deal with Draco and she would lose their friendship forever? Panic set in, and she suddenly felt sick.

The walls felt like they were closing in. What would she do without her best friends? She suddenly froze, remembering something. Wait a minute! She knew that everything turned out okay! Amethyst told her that Ron, Draco and Harry were all good friends. She said Draco was devastated when Harry passed away! Hermione visibly relaxed. Everything was going to be fine, nothing to worry about.

"I managed to pull her up before she fell to her death," Draco said dramatically, and Ginny gasped. He was loving this. "We made it to the clock just in time."

"He gave the finger to the dinosaurs before closing the door," Hermione said with a smile.

Draco wanted to tell about Crete, so Hermione let him, even though he insisted on telling everyone about her going to dinner with her breasts hanging out. "There was this big mix-up, and, well, I ended up being part of the sacrifice to the Minotaur."

"Mix up? Is that what you call it?" Hermione said, glaring at him. "You set it up so that I would see you having sex with the King's daughter!"

Ron looked interested for the first time. "He did what?"

"Nothing, never mind, Weasley." Crete sure was a sore spot for them, and it always caused an argument. Draco decided that this was the last time he was ever going to mention it. "Anyway, Hermione saved me from the clutches of the feared Man-Bull, and then we ended up far into the future."

"Into the future?" Ginny asked, intrigued. "How far into the future?"

Hermione and Draco looked at each other uneasily. Neither one wanted to tell this tale. It was heartbreaking and full of secrets...a very dangerous territory to tread.

Minerva could sense the tension. "What's wrong? What did you see?"

It was Draco's turn to stare at the floor. "I saw myself die," he said softly.

"You say you saw yourself die?" Harry asked, mortified. "You're lying!"

"I wish to God I was, Potter! No one should EVER see themselves die; it was bloody awful!" Draco's hands were beginning to shake, and he was close to fleeing the room. The last thing he wanted was for Potter and Weasley to see him cry.

Hermione took his hand and squeezed it, hoping it would comfort him. She could tell there was no way he was going to be able to tell this part of the story, so she did. "We stepped out of the clock and into a graveyard. Up ahead there was a huge manor house. Draco took off running like a crazy person, only stopping when he got to the porch."

She told of meeting the mysterious Amethyst and her grandfather. "Later, I learned that Draco knew exactly who that old dying man in the bed was." Hermione took a giant breath and let it out slowly. "Draco and I had a huge row, and I ended up in the old man's room. He showed me pictures of his children...three little girls. They were our girls, Draco's and mine."

Ginny almost jumped out of her seat. "You actually saw photos of your future children? That's... that's... Were you excited?"

"I was so excited, Gin, that I passed out. Draco went to talk to his old self, and when I woke up, Amethyst, my granddaughter, was waiting to talk to me. She had a family tree and more pictures." Hermione said nothing about her strange dream or about Jasper; had she mentioned it, Draco might have been able to put a piece of the puzzle in place.

"What did you talk about with yourself, Malfoy?" Harry asked. "I can't imagine how strange it must have been."

Draco really didn't want to discuss it at all. "What can I say? We joked about how old he was. He cried because Hermione had died some fifteen years earlier and he was alone, and then he told me that something was going to happen."

Everyone leaned forward in their seats, including Ron, waiting to hear what was going to happen.

Draco swallowed the huge lump in his throat. "He told me that Hermione and I were going to make love that night and that she was going to get pregnant...and then he died." Had he told everyone what the old man had really said, Hermione might have realized how she died and who was behind it all, but he said nothing.

"You told me earlier that we end up being in-laws," Ginny said. "Tell me about that. I want to know what you meant." She looked Malfoy straight in the eyes.

"It seems that my oldest daughter has horrible taste in men." He frowned. "Why else would she marry a Potter-Weasley freak of nature?"

Harry and Ginny's faces lit up, and they became extremely excited, trying to talk over each other. They were shooting questions at him like bullets from a gun.

"Whoa! Wait a minute!" Draco said. "One at a time!" he laughed, "Potter, you first."

"I want to know when this happens. If Hermione is pregnant now, and you said your oldest daughter marries our... son," he said with a strange look on his face. "Then Ginny must have a baby soon as well."

Ginny's face turned as red as her hair. "Well, all I know is that I'm not having a baby right now. Maybe their daughter likes younger men or something! My Mum would kill me, and not to mention that Fred and George would disembowel Harry if I got pregnant before I graduated from school!" Harry tried to hug her, but she slapped him away. "Nah uh, no way! Don't you even think about touching me!"

Draco was almost falling out of his seat with laughter. Ron was too stunned to do anything, and Professor McGonagall watched with sudden interest in the fact that Dumbledore's portrait was listening intently to the conversation.

"It doesn't matter WHEN it happens," Hermione said. "What matters is that it DOES happen. Our children fall in love and get married, they have a child, and she is the most wonderful woman in the world! She is Draco's favorite grandchild, and she inherits everything...the money, the Manor...everything."

Ron made a grumbling noise. and all heads turned towards him.

"Something wrong, Weasley?" Draco inquired.

Ron looked kind of embarrassed and upset and managed to sputter out a question. "What about me? What happens to me in the future?"

Hermione gave him a bright smile that instantly made him feel better. "Our youngest daughter, Emerald, marries your son, Jack, and they have two little girls."

"My son? But who is Jack's mother? Who do I marry?"

Draco smirked. "Let's just say that you love to keep it in ZE family," he said in a horrible French accent, "and that you're a CRADLE ROBBER."

Ron was clueless, and no matter how hard he tried to think of whom it could be. He came up empty-handed. Harry and Ginny just rolled their eyes and shook their heads in wonderment at how thick he was. Minerva was still studying the picture of Dumbledore. He winked at her behind his half-moon glasses, and she smiled. She missed him so much!

"I give up. Who is she?" Ron said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Merlin, you're stupid, Weasley!" Draco said in disgust. "Fleur's little sister, that Gabrielle girl?"

Ron's jaw dropped. "But she's like ten years younger than me!"

"Ron, Amee told me that you and Gabby are very happy! In fact, when we visited the future, I was told that you still loved chasing her around in your wheelchair trying to pinch her bum."

"I WAS always the ladies man!" Ron said, slicking back his messy hair.

"Paleeeze!" Draco said, "You, the ladies man? You've had what, two girlfriends?"

Ron jumped out of his seat, his wand held aloft, ready to hex the shit out of Draco. "I hate you. You know that? You don't deserve Hermione; you don't deserve to even be alive!"

"MR. WEASLEY!" Professor McGonagall shouted. "That is enough! Now lower your wand!" She was now standing, her hands resting on the top of her desk, her eyes flashing with anger.

Ron, for a fleeting moment, almost decided to defy the Headmistress and just go ahead and kill Malfoy. He would be doing everyone a favor, wouldn't he? "You're lucky we're not alone."

"No, Weasley, YOU'RE lucky. We both know that I'm much better at magic than you."

Hermione had had enough. "Both of you just calm down! How you two ever end up being best friends is totally beyond me!"

Draco and Ron both snapped their heads in her direction.

"Sit down, Mr. Weasley!" Minerva said, more calmly this time.

Ron and Draco glared at each other as Ron took his seat.

"Now, please continue. Where did you go next?" She sat down slowly and rubbed her temples. She was getting a massive headache from all the arguing.

Draco leaned back in his chair, his legs spread out and his arms behind his head. "Well, nothing much happened in the next place we visited – unless you count the infestation of rats; a crazy, murderous wizard bent on revenge, who kidnapped Hermione and made me bring all the children of the town to a hill where he could kill them; the clock being hit by the Avada Curse; and Hermione burning a man alive." He smirked. "Other than that, nothing much happened at all."

Everyone was wide-eyed and frozen in amazement.

"Of course," Hermione said, "there was another message, and we had come to the conclusion that it was definitely Dumbledore that was behind it all."

"Albus?"

"Dumbledore?"

"Yes, our former Headmaster had decided that in order for Hermione and me to fall in love, we needed to work together in perilous life threatening situations." Draco was still angry about the whole thing. "And when we saw him, I asked him point blank what the fuck he meant by torturing us this way."

"Mr.Malfoy! Watch your language! I'm not telling you again!"

"You saw Dumbledore? You talked to him?" Harry asked enviously. He missed the old codger more than anyone knew.

"Yeah, we talked to him, and he was able to tell us NOTHING!" Draco spat. "Totally useless he was! I don't even know why we were sent there in the first place. We learned absolutely nothing – other than the fact that Dumbledore collects seashells and looks grotesque in a 1930's swimsuit. Total waste of time if you ask me."

Hermione turned her head towards him slowly, her eyebrows lifted, a look of utter disbelief on her face.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing happened in Hawaii? It was a waste of time?" She was thinking about taking the ring from her finger and shoving it up his ass.

"Well, other than the fact that I asked you to marry me." He smiled at her, lifted her ring hand to his lips and kissed it. "Oh, and almost getting eaten by a tiger shark after falling overboard."

"You asked her to marry you? I think I'm going to be sick!" Ron said, clutching his stomach. "Tell me this is all a bad dream and that right now I'm in my bed, struggling to wake up!"

"Sorry, Ron, but he did ask me, and I did accept. I love him, and he loves me, and we are going to have a baby. Get the hell over it or get the hell out!" Hermione snapped.

"It's her hormones," Draco said, seeing that everyone was looking at her like she had suddenly grown horns or something. "She's prone to mood swings, and believe me, it's not a pretty sight!"

"Yes, well, putting aside Miss Granger's hormonal problem, I would like you to finish telling me what happened. It's two o'clock in the morning, and I would like to get SOME sleep," Professor McGonagall said, taking off her glasses and rubbing her bloodshot eyes.

"We next ended up in the old West where I killed two bank robbers and was hailed a hero and then fixed the fucking clock so that we could get back."

"Mr. Malfoy! I warned you to watch your language!"

"Sorry, Professor. Bad habit that I learned from my father."

"Don't make me wash your mouth out with soap!"

"Okay, okay! I promise not to say 'fuck' anymore!"

A bar of bright blue soap suddenly appeared in Draco's mouth and moved around vigorously, scraping on his teeth and making foam drip from his lips. He screamed in disgust and pulled it from his drooling mouth, throwing it on the ground. He spat a few times while everyone had a good laugh.

"Ha. Ha. Very fuc... freaking funny!" Draco wiped the suds and nasty taste from his tongue. "Why are you laughing, Weasley? Shouldn't you pick up that soap and send it off to your mum? Merlin knows the last time she took a bath!"

"How dare you!" Ginny shouted.

"You've gone too far this time, Malfoy!" Harry said angrily.

"I'll kill you!" Ron jumped to his feet, intent on causing Draco bodily harm.

"Oh, yeah? I'd like to see you try! I could use a good laugh right about now!"

Everyone jumped up and started screaming and yelling, except for Hermione and Minerva, who just looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

"SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!"

They all froze realizing the voice came not from their Headmistress, but from the huge portrait of Dumbledore that hung on the wall next to the desk. He looked angrier than they had ever seen him. Slowly, they all sat back down, eyeing one another in shame and fear.

"I have been listening this whole time, and I have a few questions, if you don't mind? Tell me, who was it that figured out how to fix the clock?" Dumbledore asked.

"Hermione figured out that all the capital letters from the messages spelled the word pendulum. She had this idea that we had to find a way to keep the clock in one place long enough to fix it and get the pendulum swinging again." Draco said. "She wanted me to hit it with a bullet and disable it long enough so that we could try and fix it."

"You shot the clock?" Minerva asked. "What happened?"

"He shot it and the bullet hit the pendulum. The bullet ricocheted off it, and it started to swing." Hermione answered. "It was with a bit of luck that it happened that way."

"I'm curious; how is it that both of you ended up at the clock in the first place? Surly it wasn't a coincidence?" The corners of Dumbledore's mouth twitched as if holding back a smile.

All eyes were now on Draco and Hermione, who were looking very uncomfortable.

"We both had been having strange dreams about the clock, and we decided to meet and investigate," Draco said.

Harry wasn't convinced that Draco was telling the whole story. "You? And Hermione? Talking about your dreams? When was this? I find it hard to believe that you just happened to have a civil conversation all of a sudden when you've hated each other for seven years!"

Hermione decided to just come out with it and get it over with. "It wasn't like that," she said. "We... we had become friends."

"You were more than just 'friends', Hermione," Ginny said. "You told me on Friday that you and he had done 'things' in the library! The way you talked about him made me think that you were falling in love... and then you told me it was Malfoy!"

"You knew about them? You knew and didn't say anything?" Ron said, disgusted. "Then why did you seem so concerned when you saw them together on the map?"

"It's called ACTING, Ron," Ginny said sarcastically. "It was her secret, and it wasn't my place to tell you about them."

"Minerva, I think I'd like to speak to Miss Granger and Mr. Malfoy alone."

She nodded curtly. "Off to bed, the lot of you! You are excused from classes tomorrow, now get some sleep!"

Harry, Ron and Ginny didn't want to leave, but really had no choice as McGonagall literally pushed them out of her office.

"I wonder what he's going to say to them?" Harry asked as they walked slowly back to Gryffindor Tower.

"This is all so very SUDDEN, don't you think? They hated each other yesterday, and now they're getting married and having a baby the next day?" Ginny said. "What are their parents going to say about all of this?"

***

"I'm going to tell you what this is all about, and then we need to decide what to do about your futures." Dumbledore looked stern, his blue eyes hard and glinting.

Hermione and Draco were both curious and a little frightened by what he was going to say.

"Time is a strange thing, and no matter how much you study about it or even travel in it, you can never fully understand it. The concept that we are continuously living the same moments over and over again is just too difficult for most to grasp."

He took off his glasses, breathed on them and then wiped them clean with a purple handkerchief. "It's like a rollercoaster that you can never get off of."

"Professor, are you saying that we are doomed to repeat this over and over forever?" Draco asked, mortified.

"Something is wrong. Something either happens or doesn't happen. If this something is not fixed, then, yes, Mr. Malfoy, you will be doomed to live this over and over." He put his glasses back on and then looked over the top of them at Draco. "I'm guessing, Mr. Malfoy, that it's your soul that is restless. You're the reason this is happening. There is something that you want to be different, and unless you get it right this time, you will find yourself in this very situation again and again.

Draco of course knew exactly what it was. He had to stop Hermione from being murdered. He did not want his future self to go through what he just been through, and now he was even more determined to stop her from being killed. He could figure this out, put a stop to it. What was more important, if he could accomplish it, he wouldn't die without her. She would be alive, and he would be happy! Yes! That had to be why his soul was distressed.

Something was wrong, and Hermione was sure that it was about her daughter in the future running off with an evil dark wizard. It had to be! It will cause so much grief in their family! Jade abandoning her family, only to cause her husband to kill himself, and then dying after giving birth to her son. Maybe Draco was totally heartbroken and devastated by what happened, and that was the reason for their outcome. She decided that she would find a way to save her baby from its horrible destiny and thereby put a stop to all of this.

"Is there anything you would like to tell me?" Dumbledore asked. "Anything that might shed some light on what we're dealing with here?" He waited, and neither Draco nor Hermione said anything. "Secrets are destructive. They are a cancer that will eat away at your very soul, causing anguish and mistrust."

Draco and Hermione lowered their heads; neither one could look him in the eye.

"I just wanted you to know that," Dumbledore said sadly. "Now, about your future here at Hogwarts..."