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Minerva jumped up off the couch, "Scorpius is here. Are the rest of the Slytherins with him?" |
She made to go to the door but Draco stopped her. "Hang on for a minute. I think he wants a private conversation." |
Hermione set her teacup down on the table and murmured a polite "excuse me" and let Draco lead her out of the office. |
They found Scorpius pacing the floor of the outer office muttering to himself. Draco distinctly heard the word "mum" a few times and thought that he was trying to rehearse what he would say. Draco cleared his throat and bit back a grin as his son jumped and hastily hid his bouquet behind his back. |
Draco and Hermione moved to stand in front of Scorpius. "Your dad said you wanted to talk to me," Hermione said, looking at Scorpius with concern, "What's going on, dear?" |
Scorpius flicked his gaze between the two of them and shuffled from one foot to the other, "Umm.... Dad, could you...you know?" Scorpius said, glancing at the closed door. |
Draco chuckled to himself, "Okay, I guess I'm not needed here. Come say goodbye when you're done, son." |
Draco left Scorpius to his proposal in the outer office and let himself into the headmistress" inner sanctum. He settled down in Hermione's vacated seat on the couch beside Minerva. |
Minerva shot him a questioning glance, "What's going on?" |
The two professors sipped their tea, both trying to look nonchalant about eavesdropping on their conversation, but clearly curious about what was happening in the outer office. |
"Your brother is trying to get himself a mother," Draco said in a loud whisper. |
Minerva smiled, "Brother. That's so weird to hear." |
"You don't mind that he's asking?" Draco queried. |
Minerva waved the question off, "He's sharing you with Rose and I. The least I can do is share mum with him. It would be cruel not to since he's longed for a mum for so long." |
Draco heard a sniff coming from the other side of the sitting area. He glanced over just in time to see the headmistress dab her eyes with a handkerchief. She caught him looking at her and frowned at him, trying to resume her stern professorial look that used to scare the dickens out of him. |
"Have a biscuit," she said, gesturing to the plate in the center of the table. Draco didn't bother to hide his smile as he reached over and took two Ginger Newts from the plate, handing one to Minerva. |
He made small talk with the two professors and Minerva for what seemed like a long time. All four glanced at the door from time to time waiting for Hermione and Scorpius to come back in. |
Draco could swear he heard Professor McGonagall murmur, "Where's an Extendible Ear when you need it?" as the conversation dropped off into tense silence once again. He shared her sentiment. What was taking them so long? |
Finally, Hermione and Scorpius came back into the office. The smile on Scorpius" face told Draco everything he needed to know. His boy finally had the mother he longed for. |
Scorpius" look changed from incandescent joy to startled confusion as he got his first glimpse of Minerva. Minerva rose slowly from the sofa and went to meet him. Hermione let the two reacquaint themselves and moved to sit beside Draco. They watched the two fondly. |
The children kept their voices to a whisper so that Draco couldn't hear what they were saying to one another. He saw Scorpius reach up and touch Minerva's pale blond hair in wonder. Minerva showed Scorpius the Malfoy pendant on her necklace. |
They became aware of their audience and sheepishly turned to face the adults. Draco couldn't hold back his astonished gasp at the sight of the two blonde-haired, gray-eyed children standing side by side. Scorpius was like a clone of him at that age, minus the perpetual sneer. Minerva, on the other hand, was the perfect mixture of Hermione and himself. He hoped that once her hair grew out, her curls would come back. Seeing the two children standing side by side, there was no doubt Draco was their father. |
"They make quite a pair, don't they?" the headmistress finally said, "There's no doubt she's a Malfoy now, seeing her standing beside Scorpius." Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and turned her sharp gaze on Minerva, "As we discussed, Professor Carrow and I will inform the other teachers of your change of name and your appearance changes. It is up to you to decide what you will tell the rest of the student body. I think being in Slytherin with your brother and cousin will be helpful for a smoother transition for you, however, if you find the other students are giving you difficulty with this, please do not hesitate to talk with a teacher." |
"Thank you, Professor," Minerva said quietly, fiddling with the pendant of her necklace. |
Professor McGonagall looked sharply at her door before looking at Hermione, Draco, then the children, "Now, there are four students trying to batter their way into my office in their impatience to greet you, Minerva. Perhaps now would be a good time to say goodbye and relieve my poor gargoyle of Mr. Potter's persistence." |
Taking that as a dismissal, Draco rose from his seat and held a hand out to Hermione to help her stand. They both crossed the short distance to their children. They hugged and kissed the child in front of them thoroughly, then traded and showered that child with affection. |
"Oh, my babies. You're both so big now," Hermione gushed, "Take care of each other." |
"Mum," Minerva said in an exasperated whine, "we aren't babies." |
"Pish," Hermione said with a wave of her hand, "you'll always be my babies." |
"Mum," Minerva whined again. Scorpius sniggered beside her. Minerva rounded on him indignantly, "She's calling you a baby too." |
Scorpius just shrugged, "I don't mind." |
"You will," Minerva retorted but Scorpius just shrugged again. |
"Alright," Draco said, forestalling an argument, "We have to be going. We've imposed on the headmistress enough. |
They sent them on their way with a final hug goodbye. Then made their farewells to the two professors and stepped into the fireplace to Floo home. They were greeted by his mother, Rose, and surprisingly Harry and Theo. |
Tansy pushed through the door into the drawing room bearing a platter of sandwiches with another one with drinks floating behind her. Draco was thankful that lunch was served. He was suddenly starving. |
Draco kissed his mother's cheek in greeting and picked Rose up and tickled her before setting her back down with a kiss on her nose. He shook Harry's hand and gave Theo a one-armed hug. |
They settled down to eat the lunch Tansy had prepared. Theo and Harry resumed their seats in the set of armchairs to the left of the sofa. His mother took up her usual seat on the right. Rose sat on the floor in front of the couch with her plate and drink in front of her. |
Hermione reclined back on the sofa and allowed Draco to hand her a drink and a sandwich. Once he got his own drink and sandwich, she brought her legs up and draped them over his. Draco knew these little things she did, allowing him to take care of her, were her way of easing his anxiety about her pregnancy. |
Rose chattered away through lunch, asking questions about Minerva and Scorpius. She told a story that Nana Cissa told her about a witch that broke into a bank and freed a dragon. Theo was laughing at Rose's retelling of the story. |
Harry and Hermione shared a look before Harry rested his hands on his knees and looked at Rose seriously, "You want to know a secret, Rose." Rose, of course, nodded eagerly. Harry continued, "I know who that witch is," he whispered theatrically. |
"Who?" Rose asked. |
"Harry, don't," Hermione protested. |
Harry looked over at her with a mischievous grin, "Turnabout is fair play." He then turned back to Rose and stage-whispered, "It was your mum." |
Rose started giggling. "No it's not," she said in disbelief. "There's no way mum would rob a bank." |
Harry looked a little put out that Rose didn't believe him. Hermione laughed at his face and said, "There's no way she's going to believe you." |
After lunch was finished, Rose helped Tansy take the dishes away with the intention of helping her bake cookies. Draco faced Theo and Harry and noted the stiff looks that fell on both their faces after Rose left the room. He reached over and grasped Hermione's hand, expecting some sort of bad news. |
"Not that we're not happy to see both of you," Draco started cautiously, "but what's going on?" |
"Two things," Theo started, "that we need to make a decision on how we want to proceed." |
Hermione shifted into a more comfortable position beside him. Harry looked at both of them and spoke, "Ron's hearing is in three days. I've been told it won't go to trial, but that's all the MLE are telling me because of my connection to him." |
"They told me more," Theo spoke up, propping his ankle on his knee and resting his hand on it. "He was given Veritaserum and questioned a few days after his arrest once the scope of his arrest shifted from homicide to attempted murder." |
"And what were the findings?" Hermione asked tensely from beside him. |
Draco wanted to stop them from telling her. He didn't think it would be good for her or the babies, but he knew he'd probably get hexed for suggesting it. |
"Attempted murder," Theo said calmly. "I didn't get to read the transcripts but they said the evidence was conclusive." |
"What do we need to decide on then?" Draco asked, "He's going to rot in a prison cell for the rest of his life." |
"As the victim and intended targets, you both are within your rights to confront him before he goes to his hearing and may have Veritaserum used. You may also decide if you want to ask for leniency," Harry said, though he spat the word "leniency." |
"I want to confront him," Hermione said vehemently. |
"No!" both Draco and Harry protested. |
Hermione crossed her arms over her chest and glared at both of them. "He will be fully restrained and without a wand. I deserve to know why he wanted to kill me." |
If there weren't people around them, he would've gotten on his knees to beg her to rethink confronting Weasley. It was still a possibility. He wasn't above begging her even if he was ridiculed about it for years by Harry and Theo. |
"Please," Draco started, "I'm begging you to reconsider. I don't want you around him." |
Harry jumped in, "Hermione, I agree with Draco on this. You're expecting and you don't need the stress that a confrontation with him will bring. It will be nasty and you know that." |
His mother spoke up for the first time, "She's barely pregnant. Without the spell, we wouldn't even know." She held up her hand for silence when Draco opened his mouth to protest, "You both need closure. Once he's put away, we can all move on with our lives." |
Before Draco could comment on this, Hermione said, "I'm going. I need to know why he did this. I will agree to any security measures you think up, but I'm going." |
Draco nodded his acceptance. He looked over at Harry, who looked like he was contemplating every security measure he could think to protect Hermione. |
"I don't want an army of Aurors there when I talk to him," Hermione added sharply, "I don't need them gossiping to The Prophet about what they overhear." |
Harry accepted her condition reluctantly, giving away that he had planned on pulling several Aurors to protect her during the confrontation. |
"There is one more thing," Theo said, "Since the divorce bill is ready and we were only waiting for the new year to bring it before the Wizengamot before all this happened, we need to decide if we're going to try to push it through the council before or after Weasley's hearing." |
"Before," Draco answered immediately. |
"After," Hermione answered at the same time. |
"Why after?" Draco asked, turning to look at her a little hurt that she didn't want to get divorced immediately. |
"I love you," she said, reaching a hand out to cup his face, "I don't want to be married to him any longer than I have to." |
"Then why don't we take this before the Wizengamot tomorrow?" he asked. |
"There are a few reasons. It makes a more convincing case before the council if he's already been sentenced." |
"We already own the council. We know how everyone's going to vote," Draco protested. |
"The papers will run a story of Ron's hearing the day after, which will feature many of his comments that he made while he was being interrogated. After that, the people won't be able to take his side and will be behind new laws allowing divorce." |
"I don't care about any of that. I'll ruin anyone that tries to tell you that you don't deserve to divorce that bastard," Draco said, getting increasingly frustrated. |
"How about this one? There isn't a waiting period for divorce when a spouse has been convicted of a violent crime. We could get the law passed and I could walk out divorced before we even leave the building." |
"There also isn't a waiting period to get remarried," Theo chimed in, "if she waits." |
"Alright," Draco said with a mock sigh of resignation, "After it is." |
"You could've lead with that one," Theo said sardonically. |
Hermione shrugged, "Where's the fun in that?" |
Harry slapped his hands on his legs and pushed out of the chair. "Now that that's settled, I have some plans to make." He came over and shook Draco's hand and kissed Hermione on the cheek. "I'll see you both at the Ministry in two days." |
Theo got up as well, "I have my own wife to pamper at home." |
"Give Daphne our love," Hermione said, kissing Theo on the cheek. |
Theo and Harry were gone, leaving the two of them alone with his mother for company. Draco turned with Hermione's legs in his lap to face her fully. |
"Mother, I have a bone to pick with you." |
"By all means, pick away," his mother said airily. |
"You kept it a secret for almost twelve years that Hermione breastfed Scorpius during your little errands." |
His mother's gaze turned sharp and Draco was reminded of the woman that had lied to Lord Voldemort in order to get to him. "I kept her secret because that was the price to be paid in order to do what was best for my grandson." |
"Draco, don't be mad at your mother," Hermione pleaded, "It was my fault. Your mother did what she was necessary to help Scorpius." |
"I'm not mad," Draco said, "I just wish someone would've told me sooner. He's my son. I had a right to know." |
"Yes, you did, Draco," Hermione said soothingly, rubbing her hands down his chest, "and I was wrong to keep it from you." |
"Just no more secrets," Draco said, then looked at his mother, "and you have to stop telling the kids stories about Hermione. They're going to go out and rob a bank or get their teachers drug into the forest by centaurs." |
"Well, I'm going to say goodbye to Rose," his mother said breezily and swept from the room. |
Draco turned to Hermione then. All this debate about divorce and Weasley meant he hadn't been able to find out about Hermione's talk with Scorpius. "You have to tell me how it went in the outer office with Scorpius. You were both gone for a long time." |
Hermione smiled and her hand grazed across her lower abdomen where their children were nestled. "It was very sweet. He told me the story Narcissa first told him about me. The one where I used magic to channel Astoria's love into him. I'd never heard the story but you can't really tell a toddler about breastfeeding." |
She smiled up at him and traced patterns on his sleeve with her finger, "He asked if I would be his mum, even though you and I weren't married yet. He went on a tirade about how you had better marry me because I was pregnant even though you weren't supposed to ask a witch to marry you for that reason." |
Draco laughed at her recount of his son's nervous ramblings. |
"Then he got a little unsure of himself. He thrust the roses at me and told me he knew that I already had two kids and two more on the way, but he hoped that I wouldn't mind one more. He said he would do the same adoption ritual that Minerva did if I wanted. I told him no, probably a little forcefully. He thought I was rejecting him at first. I told him we didn't need to do the ritual. That I wouldn't disrespect his mother's memory by asking that of him. I told him that I already thought of him as one of my own, ever since he was a baby. And that when I gave him his mother's love, I gave him some of mine as well." |
A/N: I hoped you like this chapter and enjoyed Narcissa's stories of Hermione. I think it's interesting to contemplate how the wizarding world would tell their children stories of the Golden Trio. |
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