Chapter 1: That Night

It had been a day of great victory when the second wizarding war finally ended. Many lives were lost, many homes were destroyed and yet people still rejoiced as Harry Potter pointed his wand at Lord Voldemort. The dark lord yelled the killing curse and Harry watched as his sworn enemy fell in a crumpled heap at his feet and became nothing but dust, disappearing on the breeze of the wind. Marking the end of an era of fear.

That night Harry had been carried on the shoulders of many as the wizarding community of Britain gathered in Diagon Alley and drank the night away, celebrating the victory and mourning the great loss that had been cost of their triumph.

It had been almost a year since that faithful day, and graduation dawned upon them. Majority of the students that had been in their seventh year during the war had been invited back to Hogwarts to finish their education alongside students that had just entered their seventh year.

The year had been a strange, yet interesting, one. The end of the war had caused many inter-house relationships to take place. The Slytherins, namely, had finally dropped their unfriendly demeanours as they no longer felt the need to keep them up and many strange revelations had been revealed, but none were as strange as the fact that Blaise Zabini, once one of the biggest bullies of the school, enjoyed ballet dancing and practiced it every summer holidays. This fact had shocked many of the Slytherins, even so, they eventually accepted his "hobbies". Even though there were some changes, other people had nothing about themselves that had changed. Neville Longbottom was still as forgetful as ever, Parvati Patil, Sue Li, Pansy Parkinson and Daphne Greengrass were still the biggest flirts and gossips of the century, but now it was ten times worse as the four girls had joined forces and off course Draco Malfoy was still the Number One Prat Prince. Sure, he had switched sides during the war but that did nothing to stop his cocky attitude or his dislike towards muggleborns. It was done for his self-preservation and with his father serving a lifelong sentence in Azkaban prison, the full wealth and power of the Malfoy name fell into his mug slimy hand overnight.

On the night of their graduation, the seventh years and technically eighth years, wanted a party, a very BIG party at that, but the teachers, having learnt from previous years, had put up Wizarding Surveillance Cameras (as they were called) all over the school that prevented these celebrations from taking place, but as with every situation, this one too had a loop hole and that was all thanks to Professor Flitwick, who out of sheer laziness had skipped the Head's common rooms, leaving them surveillance free. So naturally after literally begging the Head Boy and Girl (who were Hermione Granger and Ernie McCalim) the graduating students had finally found the perfect party location.

At that particular moment, Hermione Granger stood on the foot of her staircase and surveyed the mess surrounding her. Empty firewhiskey bottles, junk food wrappers and many other things that she'd rather not think about littered the floor. Her fellow classmates sat in groups all around the common room; several of them were unconscious and most were beyond drunk. Parvati and Dean were making out on the couch, their tongues down each other's throats, their hands wandering to unthinkable places. Typical, Hermione thought rolling her eyes. She too had indulged herself in a good amount of firewhisky, however she was very much in control of herself and wouldn't dream doing such thing that she witnessed her fellow classsmates partaking in. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Crabbe and Goyle standing by one of the tables, silently laughing to themselves, something Goyle grunted out caught her attention.

"Guess what Crabbe." He said in that gruff animalistic voice of his. "I've spiked the punch."

"Spiked?" Asked Crabbe, a look of question on his face. "What do you mean? It doesn't taste funny to me." He sounded more confused than he usually did in his intoxicated state.

"Well, you see" Giggled Goyle in a very un-Goylish manner, that stunned Hermione for a moment "It's a kind of hex. It makes people see whatever they want to see. It gives people Illusions. Do you get it now?" He said as he tossed a crisp into his mouth, an empty cup twisted in his other hand, the smile on his face grew into a vile smirk.

This was bad, thought Hermione, this was really bad. She threw the half empty cup of punch she the misfortune to have drunk to the floor in disgust. If only she could stop the people from drinking the punch, all she had to do was find the bowl and-

In that moment her thoughts were interrupted as Seamus yelled from across the room. "LOOK EVERYONE, IT'S PAMELA ANDERSON!"

Hermione's fears were confirmed as Seamus ran towards the wall; arms outstretched as though he was about to hug someone. He collided with the wall with a loud smack, instantly knocking himself out cold. The worst part was that the other students hardly seemed to notice amongst the chaos. Everyone seemed odd, their eyes were glazed over, as if they were seeing right through the people they were talking too.

That is enough. Hermione thought to herself adamantly. This was not a good idea after all. She begun to walk towards the exit of the common room with the intentions of informing the teachers and putting a stop to this. Before she could reach the door a pair of large and rough hands snaked around her waist and gripped her tightly.

"Where do you think you're going, beautiful?" Draco Malfoy's husky voice whispered in her ear.

Oh no, this is not happening, thought Hermione. She tried to wriggle out of Malfoy's grip, but it was not use, he was a lot bigger and stronger than she was. She reached into her pocket to grab her wand and cursed when she found that it wasn't there. This wasn't him. That much she was certain, he was seeing her, without actually seeing her. The lights were on but Draco Malfoy, the biggest prat she knew, was not home.

During her struggle, Malfoy had started placing small kisses down her neck, barely even noticing her discomfort. She was becoming more and more aware that her vision was starting to become blurry, and world around seemed to just melt into nothingness. She felt odd. He was all she could see. The effects of whatever Goyle had done to the punch wasn't beginning to take effect, even with just the small amount she had consumed. In her confusion Malfoy then flipped her around to face him and planted his lips firmly against hers. Hermione struggled under his grasp, but he only pulled her closer. He pulled back and looked Hermione straight in the eye for the first time and in one smooth movement he picked her up and started to climb the stairs towards her bedroom. Upon reaching it, he threw Hermione onto her own bed and crawled on top of her. Hermione pushed him hard in the chest, but he just wouldn't move, she felt unsteady. Instead, he took this gesture as a seductive one and slammed his lips on Hermione's again. He began unbuttoning her blouse, slowly yet surely.

"Let's talk about sex baby. Let's talk about you and me. Let's talk about bubbles in the tub. Let's talk about making loooovee." Draco's drunken singing echoed throughout the room as he ran his hands up and down Hermione's thighs. She could smell the strong scent of fire whiskey he had been drinking on his breath, but with each forceful kiss she could taste nothing but the sweet taste of punch bowl, the same punch bowl that his so-called best friends had spiked. He was not the culprit here, the hex was. He had clearly drunk a lot more than she had. She found herself worried about how the other unsuspecting student's downstairs were dealing with these serious side effects.

"Malfoy-," Hermione began, pushing against him as tears welled up in her eyes. She was horrified by the thought of what she would have seen if she had drunk more of that punch. At this point in time Malfoy's form had seemed to shift and blur, his appearance was changing ever so slightly, it was almost as though she was looking at someone else through the bottom of a glass bottle, it was distorted, it was someone else she knew and cared for deeply, one of her best friends Ron Weasley, but this was not Ron, this was Draco Malfoy, that much she knew. Yet the punch laced with the hex seemed to be trying to convince her otherwise, she felt sick to her stomach. She kept trying to tell herself this was not his fault but that still didn't make what was happening to her right.

"Baby, please don't call me that, my name is Draco."

"We need to get the teachers, this isn't you, you've been spiked you've been hexed. Other students' downstairs are in trouble. Your seeing things, I'm seeing things! You don't want this. I don't want this! Stop. Draco-"

"Oh, I love the way you say my name, it's such a turn on. Let's quit the foreplay." He growled in a way she had never heard him speak before.

And without further ado, Draco once again brought his lips to Hermione's and wrapped her legs up around his waist. She felt the bile rising in her throat and she knew that after this night nothing would ever be the same ever again.

- Four Years Later -

"Mummy, wake up!" Called the voice of a small blonde child as he ran into his mother's bedroom and jumped into the bed next to her.

"Nick?" Said Hermione, slowly opening her eyes to look at her son. "What's the matter? It's late baby."

"Mummy, I want to ask you a question."

"Couldn't it wait till the morning honey?" Asked Hermione rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"No, it is very important." The boy pouted.

"Okay, what is it?"

"Mummy the other kids at day care are always asking me where my Daddy is, and I don't know what to tell them."

"Who asked you that dear?" Asked Hermione panicking sightly, for there was no way she could tell him who his father was or where he was.

"Everybody!" Replied Nick, raising his voice up high for emphasis.

"Well then what did you tell them?"

"I told them that I don't know, and that I would ask you."

"Well Nick, I'm sorry but I can't tell you that."

"Why not?" Asked the small child, his eyebrows raising in curiosity

"Because Mummy doesn't know. " Replied Hermione with a sad sigh, pulling Nick under her covers, it was better than the truth.

"But Mummy," Protested Nick, wriggling against her grasp "you know everything!"

Hermione laughed at this and told Nick to go to sleep as she realised that it was three o' clock in the morning. She watched silently as Nick finally gave in and closed his eyes, falling asleep almost instantly.

She grew worried as she thought about her son. All his life Hermione had tried to make sure he didn't feel like there was anything missing from his life and now questions like this were coming up. She did not want to see her child growing up in distress. Being a single mother had proved to be easy so far, but if people were giving Nick trouble about it at pre-school, then his future could be impacted with that thought in mind, Hermione too closed her eyes and she too fell asleep.