AN: Well, I'm more or less back from the dead, with a whole new brand of fanfiction. It's been so long since I've actually sat down to write anything. D: Here's my first, and obligatory HP fanfiction. I suppose it qualifies as slightly AU. Also, don't expect outright romance or anything. This is just a fluffy, 'what could be' kind of story. Fair warning, I've got the rating down low, but the language may be a little harsh. I wasn't really sure which rating to put it under...
Draco Malfoy stood outside of Hermione Granger's apartment, his eight year old son in tow. He stared up and down the hallway of the apartment building, noticing the chipped and faded paint on the doors and banisters, faded blue wallpaper, and the barely there apartment door numbers. On hers, the number nine was obviously hanging upside down, and looked like a very low hanging six. The door after that, number ten, had become apartment number zero, as the one had obviously fallen off some time ago. Overall, he felt cramped and claustrophobic in the small hallway. He'd never been a particularly tall man at only five feet nine inches, but even he felt like a giant in the tiny space provided.
Another problem, he thought objectively, was that he really felt uncomfortable in her apartment building, and he knew he had a good reason to. Here Draco Malfoy - one of the richest men in all of the Wizarding world, wearing some of his finest clothing with the walking stick his father had given him - was standing in the most run down and shabby place in all of Muggle London he'd ever been. It probably didn't help that his carbon copy son Scorpius was wearing equally fine clothes, without a hair out of place or a smudge of dirt on him. Draco knew that most common boys Scorpius' age were a general mess until their mother's had enough and made them bathe, so Scorpius' fine clothes and overall tidy appearance would seem off.
Draco was stalling from knocking on the door. He knew Hermione was there, probably doing some last minute cleaning, getting her book shelf in order or something. He didn't particularly care what she was doing, it bothered him that she was there, behind that door, and he was asking her to do a favor for him. He couldn't help but remember what had dragged him into this predicament, after all it had only happened last week, on Wednesday.
He had been making his way to the Wizengamot, in the Ministry of Magic. Scorpius was with Narcissa and Lucius today, and next week would probably be with Daphne's parents. It annoyed him that the boy was not in any one particular place for long, always bouncing between houses as the divorce proceedings dragged out. It annoyed him, because he knew Daphne and her bloody parents were either spoiling the boy, or trying to paint Draco as the bad man, trying to split Scorpius' life apart. There had been more than one occasion over the year since the beginning of this monstrosity of a divorce where Scorpius had come home absolutely livid with him, rarely speaking at all and refusing to acknowledge him until Draco had dragged the offense out of the boy, and fights between father and son had exploded.
As he was walking towards the lift, barely noticing his surroundings and the witches and wizards openly ogling him along the way, he nearly barreled into a very bushy haired witch holding a gargantuan stack of parchments, books, quills, and everything else to do with book keeping. Before she fell and spilled her entire load onto the floor he reached out and snagged her elbow, steadying her easily. It took everything in him not to lash out, and say something nasty to the witch. He knew that he was just stressed from the whole idea and process of the divorce, and being summoned to the Wizengamot to work it out always gave him migraines. That didn't stop the sarcastic comment that dropped from his mouth before he could catch it.
"Do you have enough books and nicknacks, or do you need some more so you'll run into more people?" He wanted to kick himself, but didn't show discomfort or embarrassment in his face, only annoyance at being delayed on his path to dealing with his soon to be ex-wife. It was then he noticed the bushiness of her hair, and how positively familiar it was to him.
"Excuse me, Draco Malfoy, but I have a job, and that job means I need to be going, and can't deal with your annoying drivel any longer. I'm so sorry for breathing your air." Apparently Hermione Granger had recognized him before he'd recognized her. He was mildly impressed with her prepared come back, and didn't immediately say anything in return. It was when she'd moved by him and was making her way towards a different lift that his thoughts returned to him.
"Ms. Granger – I assume that's still your name -" It was right after he said this that he remembered the very public and violent break up between Hermione and the Weasel. Whoops. If he recollected rightly, the Weasel had been found in the bed of another woman, by the name of Foxglove or some other kind of plant. Draco didn't particularly care who the Weasel slept with, but he knew that Hermione had a hard time dealing with the betrayal. So hard, in fact, that she'd apparently hexed him pretty badly for it.
"For your information, Mr. Malfoy, it is still my name, and if you so much as make a squeak about Ron I will hex your balls off. Understood?" She finally turned to look at him, past the stacks in her arms that precariously balanced on her palms and pressed against her front. Her cheeks were flushed with anger, and her hair had obviously fought its way out of the hair tie she'd had it in, and was attempting to make it's way to her mouth and down her throat.
"Touch-y! Fine, Granger, I won't say anything about the Weasel. Where are you going to, anyway?" He glanced in the general direction of a passing hour glass. He had a little bit of time before he had to make his way to room number twelve, where Daphne and the Wizengamot would be waiting for him.
She sent him a look like she couldn't believe he was trying to make conversation with her. Out of the Golden Trio - next to the Weasel - he hadn't gotten along with Hermione the most, especially after the war. Potter and he had differences of course, but he would always be indebted to the Boy Who Would Not Die, and thus the two had mutually ignored the existence of the other. The Weasel, on the other hand, had been vocal in his beliefs that Draco and his family had not reformed and were still Death Eaters and would one day take over for The Dark Lord's work. Granger, though she hadn't been as ardent as Weasley, had been very suspicious and never left her back in Draco's general direction without being very tense.
Draco couldn't really blame her or Weasley, as his family didn't have the most stellar of records or reputations, now that the Dark Lord was dead. Regardless of this, he had found respect for the bushy haired bookkeeper, who was working hard for a good job, and wouldn't accept any job handed to her because she happened to be friends with Harry Potter. She was forging her own way, and that impressed him. The same could be said for Potter, he supposed. Potter was working hard to get into the Aurors, and wouldn't take a position even if he really was qualified for it from the war, because he didn't want to be treated as special. The boy wanted to be taken seriously, and went out of his way to learn what was necessary, for any requirement.
Draco himself had taken over for his father in their family business. Even though they had been doing well for years, under Draco's inexperienced but firm hands the company had flourished even extending into the Muggle realm to do business. For that, Draco had even gone out of his way to understand Muggles a little better, though no one knew of that. He had spent more hours than he could recall just sitting in Muggle coffee shops and book stores, watching them and how they interacted with one another, and how they did business. It wasn't as glamorous as the Aurors, or being a spare player on a fairly successful quiddich team like the Weasel, but he was content with what he did, which was better than some of the students that had been in their year had managed with their lives.
"I'm a record and bookkeeper here, and I transcribe the trials for the Wizengamot sometimes. I'm on my way to trail room number twelve after I drop these off." Hermione shifted her weight to better hold onto the stacks. Draco blinked once, the only indication of his surprise.
"What a coincidence, Granger. I'm headed there myself." he reached out to her and grabbed half of one of her stacks, startling her badly. She sent him a disbelieving look and with a huff after it was made apparent he wasn't giving the stack back, she set off in the direction of her office with a very quiet Draco Malfoy following closely behind.
Once the stacks had been more or less dumped onto the witch's desk, Hermione and Draco headed off in the same general vicinity and direction as each other with the intent to get to trial room number twelve. They did not speak, nor did they look at one another – at least for most of the way. It was once they were in the lift, headed down, that Hermione opened her mouth to speak.
"Malfoy why are you going to trial room twelve?" She turned her eyes to him for the first time since he'd nearly plowed over her in his quest to get the proceeds over with.
"I'm surprised you haven't heard; I'm divorcing Daphne."
With a ping, the doors slid wide open, and the two stepped out in unison, Draco's longer stride taking him further ahead than Hermione.
"Oh. So, that's what all the hubbub is about. You'll be the first wizard to request a divorce, you know." She skittered along after him, her long witch's robes billowing and nearly tripping her up. Her cheeks flamed in embarrassment, but when she looked at Draco, he hadn't even noticed her almost fall on her face. For once she was grateful he didn't pay her any attention.
"Yes Granger, I'm well aware. It's why this whole thing has been drug out for far too long. I find it very inconvenient to all parties involved that it's been taking this bloody long to get a damn annulment."
"It's a divorce, Malfoy. I'm assuming one of the parties involved doesn't want this divorce, right?" Her quick eyes caught the slight tensing of his jaw as his stride lengthened even longer, as if he wanted very much to be away from her and her questions.
"You wouldn't be the first to notice. Now," With that, he turned sharply towards her right before the door. The entire time that Hermione had been heckling him with questions that he really hadn't wanted to answer, he'd been concocting the notion that she could watch after his son, instead of his wife's parents. Even though Hermione would have all the motive in the world to turn his son against him, he knew she wouldn't because she was too fond of children. She wouldn't compromise what tenuous relationship the father and son had, he knew it in his bones. "Granger, I'm going to ask you to do something you probably won't like."
He settled his piercing slate gray eyes on her, causing her to freeze in her place. It wasn't due to Legilimency, as she would have noticed him mentally trying to wiggle his way into her mind that she froze in such a way. She had forgotten how cold his eyes were until that moment. Her mind raced with all kinds of implications. Would he ask her to forge a document, or spy on someone for him? Would he try to bribe her?
"I need you to babysit my son for me next week, during the divorce proceedings."
Draco tensed, as he shifted his walking stick to the hand that was holding Scorpius in place, keeping the boy from running off and causing some kind of mischief. With his now free hand, he raised it to the door, and after a moment longer of indecisiveness, he knocked, cringing at the sound of his knuckles scraping across the worn wood. He felt his heart hammer as he waited for her to come to the door, and the sound of the chain scrapping across the wood grated on his nerves. The door swung open, and Hermione Granger stood in the door way, looking expectantly at Draco and Scorpius Malfoy.
She raised her eyebrows as she took the two in, not at all surprised to see the nearly identical features on both faces. She didn't speak, just motioned them inside, and stepped out of the way. Draco visibly wavered, and tentatively stepped in after Scorpius shot him a strange look. She immediately noticed the tension between the two, and realized that the biggest event (at least, if you asked the Daily Prophet) since the war had put an emotional strain on the boy's family relationship. For the first time since the last battle, Hermione felt a slight bit of sympathy for the younger man. He obviously felt badly about how Scorpius was taking the divorce.
Witnessing this, Hermione was glad to have planned what she had. After speaking briefly to Draco about what the boy had and had not experienced in his child hood, she'd devised all kinds of things to hopefully raise the boy's spirits. She knew Draco would probably be aggravated with her later, but she didn't particularly care.
After Draco had left to once more deal with the circus that was his divorce, Hermione noticed Scorpius instantly wander off, as he took in her one bedroom, one bathroom, kitchenette/living room apartment. She knew it wasn't the best, and she knew she could afford more, but she liked how homely and personal it felt. The outside looked ratty, but upon entering her home, one could tell that Hermione had spent quite a bit of time making it home; she had taken down the old wallpaper and painted the walls a pale lavender. Her wooden furnature - even the counters - were of a reddish mahogany, while her two seater and living chair were of a warm, brown and very soft fabric. She had two bookshelves, crammed next to each other and full to bursting with her old Hogwarts school books, novels, and papers. She had a standard sized television, and the room was well lit.
Scorpius looked around a little longer, and then flopped down onto the couch, a distinctly bored expression on his face. Hermione bristled at the sight of it. She hated the permanent haughty expression of the Malfoys, an expression she had begun to wonder was trademarked, as it was only accomplish-able by those bearing the Malfoy name. She stood up roughly from her small table, and walked over to her TV and VCR. She dropped down onto her carpeted floor and began to sift through the pile of movies she had situated in front of the set, and having found the one she had been looking for, she slid it into the VCR, and hit the power button.
Not even half way through the opening sequence of the movie and Hermione could see that Scorpius was enthralled. She had sat down next to the boy on the love seat after the opening previews had begun, and now she was leaned backwards against the couch, her eyes slightly closed. Out of her peripheral vision she could see Scorpius on the edge of his seat, watching intently as the bright colors and songs filled the small space with sound. She smiled ever so slightly. Even though she hadn't planed on it, she was glad things had turned out this way. She knew that Scorpius would want to come back here, and watch more movies like this.
It was almost eight at night when Draco finally showed up again, to pick up Scorpius. He was obviously tired and worn out. His nerves were fried and he had an extremely sour expression on his handsome face. Hermione felt bad for him, truthfully sympathizing with him, as their situations weren't all that different. When he saw her, she could visibly tell he was holding back from what he wanted to say. He entered her apartment without saying much of anything, and when he saw the sleeping Scorpius, his expression softened ever so slightly. He turned to her, and finally managed to find his voice.
"How was he? Not too much trouble, I hope."
Hermione smiled, "No, he was just fine. I wouldn't mind looking after him again sometime." She moved over to Scorpius and gently woke him up. Draco was grateful. He wasn't sure how he'd get the boy home without waking him.
"Scorpius, your dad is here. He's going to take you home, ok?" Hermione was gently rubbing the boy's back, and making sure his eyes stayed open. Scorpius for his part seemed incapable of speech, and slid off the couch and to his feet, looking for his shoes. After locating them and pulling them on, he made his way to his father's side. After inquiring as to what the two had done the whole night, Scorpius replied with a tired, "We watched the Lion King, dad. It was really cool. Can I come back sometime?" Draco couldn't help but smile at that news. After he and Scorpius made their way to the front door with Hermione trailing behind them, making sure Scorpius hadn't forgotten any articles of clothing such as his jacket or a sock.
Once the two had finally found the door, Draco picked up the sleepy eight year old and turned to look at Hermione. "Thank you Granger, for looking after my son today." He gave a tired yawn half way through his statement, and Hermione found it very humanizing. She tilted her head slightly, and nodded.
"You're welcome Malfoy. Also, I've been promoted today. I'm going to be working in the Office for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, working on S.P.E.W." She knew she was babbling, and tried to make it to the point, "So, you should give me a call sometime, maybe we could have lunch or something." She'd nearly forgotten about the Muggle saying and opened her mouth to correct herself. Draco beat her to it.
"Perhaps I will, Granger. Good night." He gave her a lop sided and very tired smirk, and left.
AN: Well, there you have it. I was toying around with this story for about a month. Glad I finally got it written out and done. On that note, my life has been extremely hectic since I last posted anything on here. I'm not going to continue my previous stories, as they need so much work that I have no desire to go back. I hope to write new and better written stories that entertain and interest you guys, and maybe I'll actually write a well written multi chapter. That probably won't happen, though. Expect to see some very varied fanfics from me. I have at least one more Danny Phantom story up my sleeve, and several new fandoms I'm excited about writing in. Please be kind enough to write a review of what you think!