A Forbidden Birthright

Chapter Fourteen

Caspian said softly, his breath hot on her neck, "Because as soon as I stepped in this house, I could feel the magic here. You're hiding something. I can sense the wards. And I think it's because you don't want to be judged by your friends, here. Dear Harry and Ron. Even Ginny. But, if I am correct in my assumption, you should know you can trust me, Hermione. There's something about you. This air of risks that I can't pull away from."

His hand was suddenly on her hip, too low for comfort. The tips of his fingers made lazy circles over the soft velvet of her dress. She flashed him a dark and provocative smile as she straightened and bent towards his ear, locking eyes with Draco once again. He did not look away as she said to Caspian, "I'm disinclined to reveal secrets when you've told me none."

He laughed softly, waggling a finger at her. "Mm, you're quick, Hermione. Said to be the brightest witch of your age. You're asking for an even exchange?"

She inhaled through her open mouth, knowing that's where he was looking, and watched over his shoulder as Draco rested his glass on the top of a short bookcase, swirling a slender finger in the dark liquor. The movement was distracting, deliberate, and called to memory those weeks ago where her own fingers had moved in a similar fashion with his face in her mind. Something like a smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. A smirk, perhaps.

"A risk for a risk," she said. "Tell me a secret." She looked up at him demurely from under her lashes. "And maybe I'll tell you mine."

Caspian's eyes sharpened with excitement, intrigued. He pulled back and studied her a moment, his gaze slipping down the length of her body again. When he looked back up at her, he said, "You assume I have a secret."

"All men have secrets," she whispered in his ear with a chuckle, and extricated herself from the space that had quickly thinned between them.

Catching Nikolai's eye, she made her way back into the kitchen. Feigning busywork in case anybody walked in, she waiting until Nikolai entered.

"Did you have the chance to find anything?" She asked him in a hushed tone.

He slid a rolled parchment from inside his pocket and handed it to her with a glance over his shoulder. "I thought you might find this interesting," he said.

She unrolled it and let out a small gasp. "This is his certificate of birth, Nikolai!" She wasn't sure whether to admonish him or be impressed.

"Calm your tits, Hermione, it's a copy, not the original." He tapped his finger to the paper. "Look here," he said.

She scanned the page, dropping down to where Nikolai had pointed. "I don't understand. Why is this important? A bit odd, I suppose, but not alarming."

"See here, his father's last name is McDermott, and his mother's maiden surname is Delvaux."

"So he kept his mother's last name. A falling out with his father?" She was getting frustrated. They didn't have time for her to sift through his leadup to a big reveal.

Nikolai shook his head. "I had a friend in the French Ministry look into the records of some of the Delvaux family. She only had the opportunity to look back as far as a handful of generations, but  every single one of them kept the last name Delvaux, no matter if they married or not. No woman has every taken their husband's name, and if it was a son, then the name continued to him."

At this, Hermione knitted her brows together. She wasn't sure what this meant, if it was relevant at all, but something in her gut halted at the mention of it. Clearly, there was a reason, and it only made sense to dig deeper into it. At worst, it would be a waste of time if nothing turned up. At best, they'd have some answers without her trying to flirt her way into a confession from him.