The Request by redhead414

Chapter 36

In the next few days, after a thorough investigation of how Draco's father managed to escape Azkaban, it was realized that he managed the escape himself with a little help from Daphne Greengrass, who over the years managed to somehow start a physical relationship with one of the guards. Early on the day of Lucius' appearance, Daphne managed to get her lover's wand from him, stun him, sneak out of her cell and freed Lucius. She gave him the wand she snatched from the guard and watched as he evaporated, leaving a trail of black smoke as he flew away from the prison.

This of course, landed Daphne in solitary confinement, with guards that were hand picked by Harry Potter himself to keep watch over her. She didn't appear to be as unhinged as Lucius was, but confessed that over the years, Lucius' mind had begun to wander, often managing to "live" in two different periods of time at the same time. Had she had some remorse for her part in his escape, she might have managed to avoid solitary confinement, but it was quickly apparent that her only regret was getting caught.

On the sixth night of Katie's screams echoing throughout the mansion in the middle of the night, Draco realized his daughter might not be as resilient as he previously thought. Sure, he was quick to launch out of bed the moment he heard her, but Hermione was like a firebolt, off the bed and the door before his eyes could blink twice. By the fourth time, however, he waited for Hermione to return to the room with a terrified Katie in his arms, and soon his little girl was snuggled right up against his chest, only taking a few minutes before she fell back to sleep. Tonight seemed to be no different than the others.

Hermione lightly brushed her hand over her daughter's head, lying close to her and Draco as she sighed. "Maybe you're right," she said. "Maybe we should remove her memory."

This was Draco's suggestion the first night, as Katie's screams terrified the elves and caused Harby to go into a full out panic attack because he was guilty about being too frightened to stop Lucius before he came to get him from James and Anya's flat. He had to find Vexo to smack the panic attack out of him - literally.

"We can ask her in the morning," Draco whispered. Hermione's argument against removing her memory was at that moment; Draco wanted to do it without her consent. He of course, countered back with the fact that she was four, so how much consent could she really give if they were her parents and they agreed to do it. For him, that was all the consent he needed. But Hermione shook her head, not wanting to alter her daughter's memory without her understanding what they were doing. He almost asked her how much Hermione thought Katie would understand, but swallowed that remark, because he knew that she'd tell him Katie was obviously smarter than most children her age - which she was - and that she would understand more than he realized.

He was surprised, however, when Hermione shook her head and turned back towards her nightstand, pulling her wand out of the drawer along with a small phial.

"Why in the name of all that is holy would you have a phial in your nightstand?" he asked.

"Because sometimes I would remember something when I was writing those books, and I didn't want to forget them, so I'd duplicate the memory and store it so I could review them in the pensive later," Hermione said a bit defensively.

He shook his head as Hermione sat up in the bed. "You're sure you want to do this?"

"She's too little to have these sorts of terrors," Hermione said with a sad sigh. "And the sleeping draught is clearly not working. I'm not going to destroy the memory. I'll just preserve it, and when she's older, if she wants, we'll put it back. Unless you've changed your mind?"

Draco shook his head no. "You were just…adamantly against me doing it the other night - I just wanted to be sure."

He watched as she began to tear up, furiously blinking tears away as her breath caught in her throat. "She's my baby, Draco," she all but cried. "And I can't stand it. I just can't."