The colourful lights gleamed in the dark night of winter on the New Year's Eve. Muggles of all kinds were rushing home to their families to spend with them on this day, or some were rushing to make sure they weren't late to their parties. But even the witches and wizards of England wanted to have fun, and in their part of the world, they were shooting off Weasley's Wild-Fire Whiz-Bangs, and kissing to ring in the New Year. But it wasn't quite midnight yet, in fact, the night was just getting started at nineteen hundred hours. But one can agree that the most fun was happening at the New Year's celebration held by the Zabini Estate. Blaise and his wife, Hestia, held a party every year, and to be invited to it was quite the honor.
After all, only the witches and wizards that were thought highly of were invited; along with any other friend or relative of the Zabini's of course. In fact, right now the party was really going with guests arriving like crazy. All the way from Pansy Parkinson, to Hermione Granger. After the war, a lot of things changed. Some stayed the same of course, because as you know, most humans hate change. In fact, it's only natural. But enough of this talk, and let's just tell the story of how two very unexpected people came together for a kiss to ring in the New Year.
~0O0~
"Ah, Hermione! Happy New Year!" Harry called, giving Hermione a small hug, and receiving her small kiss on the cheek with warmth.
Hermione smiled, looking rather radiant in her red gown, her buttery brown hair up sitting neatly in a bun on her head. She couldn't believe she was invited to this party. She had expected Harry to, considering he had killed the Dark Lord nearly ten years ago, but for her to be invited to such a party! Usually 'rubbing elbows' with the rich and arrogant wasn't her thing, but she had nothing else really planned for the New Year, so she thought she may as well go and enjoy herself. Better than being all alone in her flat.
"Happy New Year, Harry." Hermione said, beaming at him. He looked rather good, and she could tell why his wife, Ginny, was so proud to be with him. She had said hello to Ginny just as she walked in the door.
"Have you seen Ron? Or is he not invited?"
"Well…I only just got here. OH! There he is!"
Hermione spotted Ron amongst a few of his brothers. She sighed when she saw him, knowing that he was probably having a good time without her. Things got strange between them when he married Lavender. Sure, she knew that he was having a happy life, with his twins. A boy and a girl, named Lucinda and Kyle. But she still missed him, knowing she did have a bit of a crush on him. She spotted the twins amongst the crowd, both Fred and George along with Lucinda and Kyle. Obviously James, Albus, and possibly Lily were here too. She wished she had children to bring. Harry and Ron always playfully taunted her about being still single.
"Ron! Over here!" called Harry, waving the red-head over.
"Oi! Harry, Hermione! Happy New Year!" Ron called back, just noticing them.
Ron walked over to them and gave them both a big hug. He hadn't seen Hermione, especially, in a long time. He saw Harry every day at work, but Hermione had been so wrapped up in her own life that they rarely had time to spend together. Not to mention dealing with rambunctious twins was a workday all on its own. She also seemed to be avoiding him, which baffled his mind, since he figured they were still friends. Hermione knew it was stupid to still be upset over this, considering Ron and Lavender had been married for years now, the twins being almost ten years old.
"So how have you two been? I know Lav has been good, and so are Lucy and Kyle."
"I've been great; just got to say hello to Hermione, here." Harry said with a grin.
Hermione folded her arms and she said, "I've been fine, Ronald."
Ron looked at her with curiosity, since he only got the full name when he was in trouble. But he knew better than to question Hermione, because he was still a bit afraid of her, even after all these years. So he just smiled at her, and nodded, as if she didn't say anything wrong, and wiped the curious look off of his face.
"Want to sit with Lav and I? I'm sure that Lucy and Kyle would like to see their Godmother and Uncle Harry." Ron said enthusiastically.
"Sounds good, mate." Harry said, with a nod.
Hermione sighed to herself, and nodded, deciding that this was going to be a long night if she had to deal with Lavender's obnoxious behavior and pretend that she wasn't still jealous of her because she liked Ron. Lavender knew perfectly well that Hermione was a bit jealous of her, and as much as she wanted to keep Hermione as a friend, she couldn't help sometimes but rub the salt in where it burned.
"Hello Hermione. Still no date?" Lavender said, with a bitter-sweet smile on her face.
Hermione rolled her eyes and she just said, "Someone get me some champagne or something."
Hermione was not, I repeat NOT in the mood to deal with Lavender's behavior. But she wasn't the only one who was going to have to deal with love problems tonight. Not even close.
~0Oo~
"Father! Do we have to go to this lame party? I don't want to hang out with a bunch of stuffy old people." whined nine-and-a-half year old Scorpius Malfoy, as he walked with his father up to the front door to the Zabini Estate.
"Yes, now be quiet and behave like I told you." Draco snapped.
Draco Malfoy was not in the mood to go to his best friend's lame party. Sure, it wasn't lame at all, but he wasn't exactly in the mood to attend any kind of party at all. But as a fellow Slytherin, and friend, he was obligated to do so. Work at the Ministry was piling up fast and he barely could keep up, his wife had left him about four years ago, and just now had come back to cause hell for Draco, concerning his son, and the background checks at work were starting up again and thanks to his Dark Mark, Draco always got tense at that time of year. So it was obviously not the best time to think about having a great New Year's Eve and have a party.
Draco rapped on the door of the Estate, and he folded his arms and took a deep breath, watching his breath turn to fog against the window beside the door. Scorpius stood beside him, and he looked rather impatient, but wiped that look right off of his face when he saw the burning glare his father was giving him.
"Oh! Draco! So glad you could make it," Blaise said, swinging open the door with a wide grin at his best friend, "Oh, and lookie here. You've grown into quite the young man, Scorpius."
Draco rolled his eyes, and Scorpius gave Blaise the trademark Malfoy smirk. Blaise invited them in and the two stepped out of the cold into the warm, inviting estate. Draco could already here the music that was playing upstairs. The party was always held in the Ballroom and the dining room beside it because all the delicate things that Hestia insisted on keeping in the Estate were all downstairs. Hestia didn't want anyone to break anything when they got drunk or passed out, so she made sure that everyone knew to stay upstairs.
"Scorpius, my man, I need to talk to your father, so you go on ahead to the party. Just go upstairs and take a right. You should know where the ballroom is." Blaise said, bending over, just barely to look at the boy.
Scorpius folded his arms and muttered a, "Yay." as he walked up the stairs to the party. He ignored the fifth fiery glare from his father that night, and kept walking.
"Don't be so hard on him, Draco. He's like you when you were that age. Believe me…I'm your best friend, but you weren't so fun to be around either sometimes." Blaise said with a sigh.
"What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" Draco said, ignoring Blaise's comment on Scorpius.
"Well…I…uhm…kind of invited…her."
"You wouldn't."
"I did."
If it wasn't for the fact that Draco wanted to try to be civil and act like an adult, he would've punched his best friend in the face right at that moment. He was forced to come to some party that he couldn't care less about, and now he had to act like a gentleman and be civil around her. The girl that ripped his heart out and stomped on it a couple of times, leaves for a long time, finally shows up again to file a divorce and they do, leaves again for a long time, and then comes back and demands Scorpius along with a form of child support? How could Blaise have been so stupid? Draco took a few deep breaths, doing his very best to just calm down, and not cause a scene.
"Why? Why did you have to invite her?" Draco said with scary calmness to his voice.
"I'm sorry, mate, I didn't want to, but Hestia insisted that she'd be invited. She is, after all, Hestia's friend. I tried explaining to her that you wouldn't want to see her, but she wouldn't have it!" Blaise said, trying to reason.
"Whatever, Blaise. I don't care. But don't expect me to like this."
"I don't expect you to. Just promise me you won't cause a scene."
"Not bloody likely."
"Draco…"
"I'm joking, I'll try not to. But she says one thing out of line and it's over." Draco said sternly, looking at Blaise, letting him know that this was all he was going to get on the subject.
Blaise nodded, and led Draco upstairs, and began to introduce him to people that he knew that he didn't know, doing his best to keep him away from his ex-wife so that nothing would start up. Draco was doing his best to have a good time, but it was rather hard when he saw how all the couples looked. It was rather disgusting to him, and made him want to lose his dinner.
~0O0~
Scorpius wandered around some, trying to think of things to do. No one would let him try any of the champagne; despite the fact that pretty much everyone was drinking something. He just sat down on a chair in the corner of the room and pretended that everyone didn't exist. He just wished that he had something better to do.
"Hello! Watcha doin' all alone?"
Scorpius looked up when he heard a female voice, and he saw a girl about his age looking at him, along with a boy who seemed to look a bit like her. He figured that they must be siblings. And judging by the fact they looked about the same age, he figured they were probably also twins. He just stared at them for a moment, thinking he shouldn't have to answer to them, but he was bored, and feeling rather lucky that someone was there to talk to him.
"Just thinking. Bored, mostly." Scorpius responded with a lazy shrug.
"I'm bored too. Mum made us come," said the boy, "Say…what's your name? I'm Kyle, and this is my twin sister, Lucinda. But we call her Lucy."
Scorpius nodded, and smirked a bit to himself, because he was right about the siblings and twin thing. He swung his legs in his chair for a while and he then said, "I'm Scorpius. Pleasure to meet you, Kyle and Lucy."
He glared at them as they both tried to hold their snickers. He knew that his name was weird. He tried telling his father that he was a lousy name picker, but his father insisted it was only tradition that he has a name that was part of a constellation. But he would've rather have something like Orion or something more manly. The twins calmed down, and didn't hold their snickers anymore because they were gone and Lucy began to speak.
"Nice to meet you, Scorpius. So how come you have to be here?"
"I have to be here because my father made me be here…so…why isn't your mum showing you off to everyone else?"
The twins exchanged curious looks, because they weren't accustomed to someone showing them off like they were trophies, bragging about how many accomplisments they had, and so on. Scorpius hated that, but luckily his father didn't do that. It was his mother that treated him like the trophy son. That was kind of a reason why he didn't want to be here even more, because he had spotted her amongst the crowd, gossiping with Pansy, Daphne, and Hesita.
"Mum doesn't show us off…!" laughed Kyle.
"That's absurd!" giggled Lucy.
Scorpius shrugged and he then said, "Eh, I agree. Just a question, just so you know."
"Mum is too busy talking to Miss Hermione right now." Said Kyle.
Lucinda nodded and she said, "Mum says that it's weird that Miss Hermione is still single at this point in life and she is going to be some old cat lady."
Both twins burst out laughing, but the wheels started turning in Scorpius's head. Hermione? As in the woman who was part of the Golden Trio and saved the world from Voldemort? He only knew that because he had secretly gotten her Chocolate Frog Card before. It would only make sense that she was here at this party. A lot of famous witches and wizards were here. But the fact that she was single made Scorpius's devious mind come up with something good. He knew that his father hated to see all the couples. He never admitted it, but Scorpius could see it. Just something an innocent child can see, but most others can't. So he figured that Miss Hermione must feel the same. And he now decided that he had something to do this New Years. Something to do to keep his mind occupied while he was forced to be at this party.
"Single, you say?" Scorpius asked, with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, pathetic isn't it?" Kyle said, clutching his stomach from laughter.
"Do you think that you two could distract your mum from Miss Hermione for a couple of hours?" Scorpius asked.
"Why? So you can get her a date? Not going to happen. Mum says she's hopeless." Lucy said, rolling her eyes.
Scorpius made his look as stern as he could, but his cute nine-year old face would make any adult smile and laugh. He then said, "Just do it, okay?" He was determined to give both his father and this lady a nice New Years. If he couldn't, since he was stuck with a bunch of adults and two obnoxious twins, he wanted to make sure that someone would. Plus it would serve as sweet revenge to his mother and Lucy and Kyle's mother.
"Alright, if you think you can do it…"
"We're on it!"
The twins took off to go find their mother, and Scorpius stood up, getting off of his chair. He smoothed down his dress robes and headed for the bathroom. He had to make himself look as nice as possible if he wanted this plan to work. The plan continued to formulate in his head as he re-combed his silvery blond hair, and looked at himself in the mirror with a smirk.
~0O0~
"Really, Lavender. If I wanted a boyfriend I could get one myself. I really don't need to try using a love potion." Hermione said, reaching her last thread at this point with the woman.
Both Ron and Harry had walked off to go speak with Neville and a few other friends of theirs so the two women were left alone, much to Hermione's torture. Lavender was trying to come up with ways to get Hermione a boyfriend, but Hermione could easily tell that she thought she was hopeless and didn't want to help at all, but instead mock her.
"Hermione I'm only…" started Lavender, but she was quickly interrupted.
"Mum! Mum!"
Both Lavender and Hermione turned their heads around to see both Lucinda and Kyle running at them like there was a fire in the kitchen or something, both shouting for their mother. Hermione gave them a smile, since she at least liked them. Plus, she didn't want to lose her cool in front of the children. Lavender sighed when she saw them, but she smiled and she said, "Is there something you need, sweeties?"
"Well…uhm…Lucy…what was it that we were coming here for?" Kyle asked, looking at his sister, just realizing they didn't have a plan like the young Malfoy heir did.
Lucy thought for a moment and she then said, "Mum…well…we came over here because Dad wanted you to talk with Uncle Fred and George too. He says you're spending too much time with Miss Hermione and you should say hello to everyone else." She smiled, thinking that she came up with something good for now to keep her occupied for a while.
"Oh? You don't say? Alright, tell your father I'm going now," said Lavender, nodding. She turned to Hermione and she said, "I'm sorry, but I must say hello to everyone else. We shall talk later."
Hermione gave her a look that said 'oh don't worry about little old me.' but she wasn't thinking that in her head. Lucy, Kyle, and Lavender both left and she was left alone once again. She sighed, but was grateful that she was gone. She closed her eyes for a moment to relax, but was quickly awaken by someone speaking to her.
"Hello, you're Miss Hermione Granger, correct?" said the boy that was standing in front of her.
Hermione quickly opened her eyes and stood up quickly, though widening her brown eyes when she saw who stood in front of her. She had no clue who this boy was, but he reminded her of someone she hadn't seen in several years. But he looked rather young…probably Lucy and Kyle's age. She gave the boy a curious look, but answered him anyways.
"Yes…" she said, slowly, looking down at the boy.
The boy smiled at her and he took her hand and kissed it lightly and he then said, "Pleasure to meet you, Miss Granger. I suppose it would only be polite to introduce myself. My name is Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy. But you may call me either Scorp, or Scorpius."
Hermione widened her eyes when she felt the touch of Scorpius's lips on her hand, and when she heard what his surname was. That explained his looks. His icy eyes, his shiny white-blond hair, and his thin figure…this just had to be Draco Malfoy's son. But she hadn't seen him in years, and she hadn't seen him at the party at all either.
"I…uhm…" Hermione said, unsure of how to react to the little boy.
"No, don't feel so scared. I know you may wonder if you're good enough for a rich, Malfoy heir such as myself, but don't you worry. I won't judge." Scorpius said, with a grin, showing off his rows of baby teeth, with a few adult teeth.
He tried to use the biggest words he could think of, so he could impress her. He needed her to go with him, otherwise his plan wouldn't work. He didn't know too many big words…well…what he perceived to be big words, but he knew a few from listening to his father speak to various friends of his. He looked into Hermione's brown eyes, and he imagined, for a moment, having her as a mother; if he was going to see if he could get her and his father together, than it was only natural for him to think about it.
Hermione pulled her hand away, and did her best not to glare at the boy for his attitude. Just like Draco. Full of himself at such a young age made her feel lost for hope for the children of the future. She then said sternly, "I'm not intimidated by you, Scorpius. And it's not polite to suggest I am. Especially to someone much older and wiser than you."
Scorpius sighed, taking his hand away, and mentally slapping himself. He hated how she didn't just giggle and go with it, much like he saw at a lot of dinner parties his father dragged him to. She was different than the others, and this irritated him a bit. But he smirked in his mind, because he loved a challenge. But his mind went quickly to find a new approach at this, and he figured that the best was to be completely honest, just without including the fact he was doing this for his father.
"You're right…I'm sorry, Miss Granger. I just…I wanted something to do this New Years, but instead I was dragged to some party, and I have nothing better to do…so I wanted to find someone to dance with and all the other girls at this party won't talk to me…" Scorpius began to ramble, making some stuff up, such as the fact he asked some girls to dance.
Hermione looked at the boy, who suddenly looked solemn and she felt bad for him. If he truly was Draco's son, than it was only natural for him to approach someone and immediately assume that they were below him. But something told her that he just wanted attention, as most children do, and he was instead sentenced to be ignored at a party more for adults. She then folded her arms, and thought for a moment, thinking she was going to regret her next words.
"If you really want to…I'll dance with you. Just no calling yourself above me or anything, because that's rude." Hermione said, looking at the child.
Suddenly a huge smile formed on the boy's face and he took her hand and he said, "Brilliant. I promise I won't say anything bad. Come on." He dragged her out to the dance floor, and he felt proud of himself for succeeding at part one of his plan.
Hermione kept telling herself that she was seriously going to regret doing this. How did she drop this desperate…this low…to go and dance with a nine-year-old kid who was the spawn of the guy she have hated for years. At least it was better than doing nothing. So she bent over a little, trying to dance with the small boy, feeling rather pathetic, but she had to admit, at least Scorpius could dance.
~0Oo~
Draco was starting to relax and have fun now, though he still would've snapped if his ex-wife were to come near him and say something wrong. Good thing his best friend was one of the hosts and could make sure that order was kept and keep him calm. By this time he had a glass or two of champagne, and he glanced at the clock to see that it was already around seven forty-five at night. He had until midnight, and then he could either go home, or stay and get as drunk as he wanted and pass out on one of the many guest rooms in this place. It was a guarantee Scorpius was staying here overnight, since he always did at parties that went on this long, because of his bedtime. But once a year he was allowed to stay up late; and that was New Years.
"Having fun yet?" asked Blaise, walking back over to Draco, after he was done talking to a lot of his other guests.
Draco shrugged and he took a sip of his champagne and said, "Eh…I suppose so. A lot of people I haven't seen in years here, I can see."
Blaise nodded and he then said, "Hestia wanted a bigger guest list, what can I say? At least you seem to not be thinking about her."
"I was until you just said that."
"Sorry, mate."
"It's alright…just…don't bring her up too much…especially around Scorpius."
Blaise knew that Scorpius's mother leaving was very traumatic, and made Scorpius have a constant need to have a maternal figure in his life, making him do a lot of things that most people wouldn't do just to get a little taste of what it's like to have a mother. Blaise then had to do a double take when he took a glance out at the dance floor and saw that Hermione Granger was attempting to dance with Scorpius. Blaise started laughing, and Draco looked at him like he was insane.
"What are you laughing at?"
"Speaking of Scorpius, looks like he gets more action with girls than you do."
"What?" Draco asked, finding it hard to believe his nine year old would have any sort of action with a female; innocent or not.
"Look!" Blaise said, catching his breath, pointing right at Scorpius and Hermione.
Draco whipped his head around and looked where Blaise's finger was pointing at. He couldn't believe the sight he was seeing. There was Hermione Granger, who he hadn't seen since the day Harry killed Voldemort at the celebration feast, trying to waltz with his nine-year-old son. He wasn't sure if he should laugh or be repulsed. He glared their direction, but he knew that neither of them could see. They were way too busy for that.
"Draco, don't do anything rash. I'm sure Scorpius just wanted his fun." Blaise said, calming down.
Draco ignored Blaise once more and started walking in that direction. He wanted a word with his son, and he wanted it now. He walked over to them and he stayed back, just for a moment, to just see if Hermione was really okay with that. He had no clue what kind of joke his son was playing, but he didn't like it one bit.
"Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, what do you think you are doing?" Draco said in almost a booming, stern voice. He folded his arms and glared down at his son.
~0O0~
Scorpius was having fun dancing with Hermione. Though he could tell she didn't like it too much. He knew that he was short, but you couldn't really blame him, since he was so young. This dancing gave him more time to think about his plan, and to see if he really wanted to do this. He wasn't afraid of dancing in front of others; in fact, the next step in his plan was for Draco to see him.
When he heard his father's voice, he froze, and realized that maybe this wasn't such a great idea. Hermione quickly pulled away from him and looked pretty shocked and frozen too. Scorpius looked at his father, and put on the most innocent face that he could and he said, "What do you mean, father? I'm just dancing. Isn't that something people do at these parties?"
Draco grabbed his arm and yanked him over to a corner and he said, "You dare try to force some adult to dance with you? You're a child, and besides, aren't you supposed to be in bed or something?"
Scorpius yanked his arm away from Draco and he shook his head and he then said, "You said I could stay up late, and I asked her if she'd dance with me and she said yes! All we were doing was talking and dancing. You don't need to be so uptight."
Draco stiffened when his son called him uptight. He couldn't believe words from some little kid that he happened to share blood with bugged him this much. His son shouldn't talk to him like this! But he didn't want to be seen as the uptight father…that's something he escaped from when his father got his lifetime sentence to Azkaban after the war.
"Fine, do whatever you want, I don't care!" Draco said, hating the fact that he was giving in to the nine-year-old.
Scorpius wasn't going to let his father give in so easily. He wanted to believe that his precious father was stronger than that. Not to mention that wouldn't go with his plan. So he folded his arms and put a taunting expression, something he learned from his father. Not that he noticed him watching him while he told people off or talked to his friends.
"Ooh giving up so easily?" said Scorpius, "I bet you're just jealous that I can get a girlfriend and you can't. Or maybe it's because I'm a better dancer than you."
Draco looked astonished at his son. Oh how he'd kill to just throttle the little git for a while. The way his snarky attitude just waved in his face. But…perhaps he just had been taught well. But his words stung, even coming from a little kid.
"Hermione is not your girlfriend, child, and I'm a better dancer than you. I've had more experience." Draco spat.
"Prove it." Scorpius hissed at his father, smirking to himself.
Draco glared at Scorpius with extreme hate right now. If this was how he behaved when he was young, he didn't blame Blaise for wanting to torture him with dealing with his ex-wife. He found this extremely unacceptable and not tolerable, but he didn't want to be a coward like he had been all his life and not accept this challenge.
"Fine, I will."
"Good."
Draco then marched over to Hermione with the utmost pride, and Scorpius smirked behind his back as he watched his father walk over to her. If Hermione accepted the chance to dance with him, than phase three of his plan would be complete. Scorpius followed his father, just so he could see if it would work.
"Hermione! Seems Scorpius is being a smart mouth and challenged me to a dance competition, which I don't intend to lose. Would you like to dance?" Draco said, offering his hand out to Hermione.
He honestly couldn't believe he was doing this. He couldn't believe that his son was making him dance with the woman he had hated since the day they met. The woman that had punched him in the face when they were thirteen. The woman who beat him in any and every test imaginable and he loathed her deeply for it. Hermione tried her very best not to laugh at what the situation was. Here was Draco Malfoy, her sworn enemy, asking her to dance all because his son challenged him to a dance contest. This was the most bizarre New Years that she ever had so far. But she wanted it to last, because she was finally having a good time.
"Well, I suppose I can judge. So…sure." Hermione said with a bit of a giggle as she took Draco's hand, and she could tell he was getting sweaty. He was obviously way nervous about this.
Scorpius watched his father lead Miss Hermione out to the dance floor and he whispered, "Score!" he smiled to himself, glad that phase three was complete. His heart felt all fluttery, because he was one step closer to having a mother again. Well, really he was doing this to give his father and a war hero a nice night, but perhaps this would help him too if everyone played their cards right.
~0O0~
"You're lying!"
"No I'm not!"
"Yes you are!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
Scorpius found Lucy and Kyle, so that he had someone to talk to when his father and Hermione went off to dance. But he tried to tell him that his plan was working and Hermione was actually dancing with a living, breathing, man. But neither of them wanted to believe it, and they really thought that Scorpius was lying. Scorpius stood back in the corner, watching them waltz, and he smiled lightly, because he saw that his father actually looked happy. He seemed to be talking to her, and laughing even.
"Do you think…do you think it'll really work?" asked Lucy gently.
Scorpius shrugged and he then said, "I dunno. Perhaps it will."
"We can only hope, right?" Kyle said.
Scorpius nodded at the boy, and the three children stayed watching the dance, almost surprised that the rest of the adults didn't notice this. Perhaps that whoever was around didn't care about Hermione or Draco. So they just ignored the fact that they were dancing together like they had been friends for years.
~0O0~
"So?"
"So, what?"
"How's my dancing?" Draco asked, twirling Hermione around, loving how her dress flowed with each twirl.
Hermione just smiled and laughed at Draco. She then said, "It's good, I suppose. But I think that your son has more rhythm." She smirked a little at him, because she just loved the look on his face after she said that.
"Not true, Hermione. I've got way more rhythm than he does." Draco said, almost whining that he did. His pride was already down, and he didn't need Hermione Granger ruining it even more.
"Oh relax, Malfoy. You're doing fine." Hermione said with a laugh, because the whining voice of Draco and the look on his face was cute.
After a while, the two kept dancing, and they stayed silent. Mainly because it was pretty awkward be dancing with the person you hated all these years. But Hermione enjoyed the dance, because she had nothing better to do, and it was better than being all by herself watching the other couples toast and kiss. Eventually they stopped dancing and walked back over to Scorpius, and Hermione just grinned.
"So? Who won?" asked Scorpius, with a cute smile on his face.
Hermione looked at the two Malfoys and tried to think of the best answer. She loved making them both wait in anticipation. She hardly could believe that any of this was happening, and she wondered where Draco's wife was this whole time. But now was not the time to ask about that. Plus, she figured it was none of her business, and nothing was up. Draco was naturally competitive and she knew that it felt horrible to beaten and taunted by a little kid, so obviously he'd accept the challenge. Even if he was reluctant to do so, and he only pretended to have fun so that Scorpius didn't get upset by a fight that could've broke out between her and Draco.
"I'm going to have to say…Draco. Scorpius, you're a wonderful dancer, but your father has much more experience than you. I'm sorry." Hermione said, gingerly smiling at the little boy.
"Aww! I tried hard though!" cried Scorpius, trying to sound as upset as he could. But in reality he was glad that Hermione said that his father was the better dancer. Because that just made things easier.
"Well, you weren't good enough, Scorpius. Now run along and leave Hermione alone and go find some children your own age." Draco said, looking at his son, with a bit of a smirk.
Scorpius nodded, waved goodbye to Hermione, and took off to go find Lucinda and Kyle, because he had another job for them. Getting Draco to acknowledge Hermione's existence by dancing with her was only the beginning of the plan. He may have been a little boy, but he knew very well his father's views on muggleborns and he wouldn't open up so easily to her. So he needed to find a way to get them to talk to each other as much as possible to really get to know each other.
"He's sweet." Hermione stated, with a bit of a giggle, feeling lighter and happier, for the first time all night.
"Yeah…" Draco said, growing quiet. This was just really awkward to him, and he didn't want to be around Hermione that much longer. He had a tiny bit of fun, he'd admit, but she still was a mudblood, and not worth his time from what he remembered. "I'm going to go find Theo or something. I'll um…see you later." Draco said, before walking off to go find someone to distract him.
"Right…see you." Hermione said with a sigh. It was too good to be true anyways…to have someone to hang out with at the party; especially him of all people. She walked the other direction, hoping to find Harry or someone; anyone but Lavender.
~0O0~
"We believe you. We saw it ourselves."
The twins looked at Scorpius, who had found them, and decided that they should apologize to him for calling him a liar. They had seen Hermione dancing with Draco, and they were actually happy. They had nothing against their godmother, and they really disliked it when their mother said things about Hermione. But as children, sometimes they couldn't help but repeat what their mother said and believe it. But Scorpius's plan was looking like it was working, so they wanted to help, because she seemed so happy to have something to do.
"Good. Now do you think you can help me with a few more things? I need to think of a way to get father and Miss Hermione together more. So they can talk and get to know each other more." Scorpius said with a nod, glad that they believed him.
Both twins looked at each other, and looked like they were thinking hard. They both wanted to help Scorpius, and do this, but they knew they had to think fast or they'd lose their chance.
"Dinner! I mean…kind of like dinner. Usually there is a meal...and there are place cards at each table. Perhaps we can change the place cards so they are forced to sit together."
"Good thinking, Lucy."
"Thanks, Kyle."
Scorpius thought of the idea, and it would work, but dinner only lasted about an hour or two, depending on how many courses were in the meal. They had to have the dinner fairly late because they were staying up so long. Scorpius then sighed, trying to think of more ways to get them to be stuck together for longer than an hour or two so they could really talk.
"That's a good idea, but we need more. We can do that, but someone has to distract Mrs. Zabini from the dining room, and they need more time to talk."
"How about games? Sometimes Mrs. Zabini starts a game that everyone has to play if one of us asks. Sometimes she'll give out prizes. It's something she'd do to keep everyone entertained and occupied. Plus she finds it funny when us kids do better than the adults. We'll make them partner up!" Kyle suggested.
Scorpius had a mental facepalm, surprised that he hadn't remembered that. Last year they were all forced to play 'guess the person next to you's resolution,' because the kids got bored and the adults just wanted to get them tired enough to get sent to bed already so they all could party. But they needed a game that they had to partner up for, and they had to figure out how to do that.
"Good plan. We just need to figure out how that's going to work…"
"We'll think of something." Reassured Lucy.
The three children then sat together, and began plotting on how they were to get this done, and have Hermione and Draco spend all night together whether they liked it or not. Scorpius wished he had put more planning into this ahead of time, because he knew they only had midnight until his father chose whether he was staying or not. And he overheard Hermione telling Lavender that she was only staying until then. So he didn't have much time.
~0O0~
"Attention everyone! It's time for dinner! Please walk into the dining room in an orderly fashion and take a seat where your place card is at!" called Hestia over the large crowd of people, after hitting her champagne glass lightly with a silver spoon.
Everyone managed to hear her and they walked into the dining room, to take a seat. Lucy and Kyle managed to swap the place cards so that Draco and Hermione sat together, whilst everyone else still stayed sitting at a reasonable spot. Scorpius just bugged Hestia for a while, distracting her from keeping an eye on her dining room. They almost got caught, but luckily Lucy and Kyle remained quiet and calm under the table when they had to hide for a moment.
"Um…Hestia…do you have a reason for this…?" Draco asked, just now noticing that he had a table with just him and Hermione sitting at it.
Hestia looked at the table, confused. She had made that table for Kyle and Lucinda, so that the children didn't have to eat with the adults, but she took a look at the place cards and it obviously said 'Hermione Granger' and 'Draco Malfoy'. The third chair, Scorpius's chair, was missing and currently it was at the adult's table. She looked over to the other tables, to see that everyone was already sitting down, and even the children took seats at the actual table. It was too late to say anything now, because she had to keep her guests happy, so she sighed and looked back at Draco.
"I'm sorry, Draco. I have no idea…well…I don't think it'll be too much of a problem. It's only dinner…" Hestia said, unsure of what else to say.
Draco sighed, and glanced at the table to see that everyone seemed to be closely knit at the adult table so there wasn't any room for him to move his chair to over there. And the only spot that had a little space was next to his ex-wife, which in that case he'd take the chance of having to sit with Hermione.
"It's alright, Hestia. Don't worry yourself over it. I'll sit here."
Draco took a seat at the table and then saw Hermione walk in, and he grew nervous. Hermione had been using the loo so she didn't hear the announcement for dinner until she noticed everyone was in the dining area while passing that room. She walked in and began to look for her place card. She wasn't exactly accustomed to having assigned seats when she ate, but she wasn't about to question it. She finally found hers, at a small table, and she wondered if this was some sort of sick joke because she was always alone nowadays. But she looked up from the place card to see Draco staring back at her.
"Um…"
"Yeah…Hestia says she has no idea what's up with our cards…"
"Oh…okay."
Hermione took a seat in front of him, and looked at him awkwardly. She could tell that he rather be somewhere else, and their dance just made everything even more awkward, because she now knew that his own son could have influence over him if he pushed him the right way. She stayed quiet for about a minute or so, until the appetizer appeared in front of them, and they were told to go ahead and start eating. So Hermione began to eat, but still felt strange.
"So…anything new with you?" Hermione finally asked, trying to break the awkward silence between them.
Draco just stared at her, thinking it was strange that she'd just say something out of the blue. But, somehow he was grateful that he didn't have to eat his dinner in dead silence like he usually did. Scorpius always managed to get their house-elf to make him dinner before it was time, so Draco ate alone.
"Sorry…" Hermione mumbled, realizing that maybe Draco might not want to speak to her.
"Not really…same old, same old." Draco said, finally speaking up. He didn't think that it was fair for him to just ignore her. Sure, he had done it before, but now that he was an adult he realized how rude that was. He may as well say something, so they didn't look like the social outcasts of the evening.
"Oh…same with me. Nothing really new…except I bought a few more books to add to my collection." Hermione said.
"Like you really need more books," said Draco with a light chuckle, "you must have almost a billion by now."
"Close." Hermione said, smiling a little; when she saw Draco's raised eyebrow she said, "I'm kidding. I probably have close to a thousand."
"Still."
"What can I say? I love to read."
Something about these words broke the ice between the two, once more, and Draco felt a bit more comfortable around her. He thought that just maybe since he had heard that she wasn't married and didn't have a date, and same goes with him, that maybe they could just hang out for the evening. So they didn't have to be social rejects. Obviously, the last thing Draco wanted was to actually date her, or something like that, in fact, that didn't even cross his mind, but he could talk to her like a friend, if she allowed it. He didn't know about it, at first, but he figured he had nothing more to lose, really. His pride was close to going down the tubes anyways.
The two began small talk, at first, during the beginning courses, because they were just getting used to the fact that they could talk to each other and not have to worry about saying something wrong. But as the dinner progressed, they talked more and more. Then by dessert they were engaging in full conversations, laughing and talking. Some of the people from the adult's table glanced over to see what in the world was going on, and they all began to whisper about what could possibly be going on. Harry, who was speaking with Ron, nearly choked when he saw Hermione talking to Draco like they had been friends for years. Ron felt stupid because he didn't even know that Draco was even here, though it was obvious he would be, considering the host.
Both Hermione and Draco didn't notice, because they were too busy engaged in their conversations. Hermione began thinking the same thing as Draco, and thought that perhaps they could just enjoy each other's company, and then go back to their everyday lives. Use each other to survive this terror called being forced to go to some party they had no interest in.
"You know, Granger. You really aren't that bad." Draco said, getting up from the table when they were told they could leave, and get back to the ballroom.
Hermione couldn't help but give Draco a genuine, not fake, smile, and she said, "You aren't so bad yourself, Malfoy."
They walked out of the dining room with everyone else, but they were talking and walking towards the couches to sit and chat some more. Scorpius, who was observing from his seat, smiled brightly and gave a thumbs up at Kyle and Lucinda, who returned the thumbs up.
~0Oo~
As the night got farther in, and got closer and closer to midnight, a series of games were played, as suggested by the children and some were even games where the adults had to pick a partner to pair up with. Thanks to Scorpius's rigging of the drawing out of a hat system, Draco ended up picking Hermione, and of course they played. With Hermione's brains and Draco's planning, they won quite a few games. Not all, but many.
By the time it was almost eleven-thirty, Scorpius no longer had to rig things and make a plan to get them to talk to each other and pick each other for partners. Kyle fell asleep on the staircase, so Lavender took him to bed, but Scorpius and Lucinda were still awake, managing to do this by all the candy and wizarding sodas they could consume. Scorpius watched from afar, and made sure that everything was going well. He felt light and floaty, like he had did something right. But he also felt more ambitious and more daring, trying to dim the lights, and make slow music play so that Draco and Hermione would have to dance. But each time he tried something like that, he almost got caught, and therefore, never got the chance.
"So, fifteen minutes to midnight. Amazing…never thought I'd make it through tonight." Draco said, laughing a bit, as he walked towards the quieter part of the Estate, downstairs with Hermione. The crowd was getting a little too loud and rowdy for his tastes so he figured that maybe he and Hermione could speak downstairs.
Hermione nodded and said, "Me neither. But I'm still glad I came. You're excellent at scavenger hunts." She laughed, looking at the pretty silver bracelet on her wrist that they had won by winning that game.
Draco rolled his eyes and he laughed, and said, "Yeah, I suppose so. All thanks to having to look for everything that Scorpius loses on a daily basis."
Hermione looked down for a moment, but smiled to herself. She couldn't believe that this was happening, and she felt happy. Something that she had told herself she wouldn't feel when Harry told her that she had to accept the invite and come to the party. She then looked up, noticing how warm and welcoming Draco's eyes were nowadays. Not cold and icy like they used to be.
"He really looks up to you, you know that, right? I never thought I'd say this, but, you're an excellent father. And I know doing all this without some sort of help is hard, but you get through it, and that's what really matters. You care for each other." Hermione said, gently. She felt bad for what happened between him and his ex-wife, but she was happy to see what a great child Scorpius was becoming, and hearing about how successful Draco was becoming at work.
"Yeah…I suppose so. I don't really miss her. But…I really do miss having someone. But look at you…you're the head of your department, have your own chocolate frog card, have tons of books and friends, and you don't have someone like a husband. So you've kind of inspired me to look past it and really make something of myself…thank you." Draco said, admitting that she put him in a great mood, and perhaps inspired him to try to not be so irritable, and be nicer to his son.
"You're welcome, but you're pretty amazing yourself."
"I am, aren't I?"
Hermione rolled her eyes and laughed, glad some things never changed. She kind of missed Draco's attitude about himself; sure, his full of himself attitude annoyed her, but she always looked up to the fact he was always confident and sure of himself, whilst she was hesitant sometimes, and never thought herself to be worth very much at times.
"Uh huh…keep telling yourself that." Hermione said.
"Hey! I am!" Draco said, playfully.
"Eh, you're okay…I mean, sure I said you're amazing, but to an extent."
"Oh! So you want me to take back that bracelet I let you have!"
Hermione giggled and she shook her head and she then said, "No! It's my bracelet. We both won it!"
Soon enough, both her and Draco got into a playful fight where Draco was trying to take her bracelet off of her, and she was trying to get away from him. But they were both laughing and acting like children, in a way, messing around. Soon enough, Draco had Hermione's arm around her back, and he was facing her, with his hand on her bracelet. He smirked at her, knowing that he had won, but his heart began to race when he realized just how close they were.
~0Oo~
Scorpius and Lucinda were walking back over to the refreshment table to grab another soda when they noticed both Hermione and Draco walked out of the ballroom and down stairs. They both followed them down, not wanting to miss any of what was going on. They knelt behind a potted plant that was in the hallway when they heard everything that Hermione and Draco were talking about.
Scorpius rolled his eyes when he heard them joke about the games, and start to have a pretend fight. Grown-ups are so weird, thought Scorpius. Lucy wanted to start squealing over what was happening, but Scorpius kept having to put his hand over her mouth to keep her from making a sound. When Scorpius saw how close that Hermione and Draco were, he nearly started squealing himself, but he didn't, since he didn't think it was very manly. He couldn't believe that it was going to happen, and he was about to see their first kiss. The kiss that he perceived to guarantee that they were going to get married and he'd have a mother again.
He watched as Hermione and Draco just stared into each other's eyes for a moment, as if trying to decide in seconds, before the moment was up, if they should just go for it and kiss. They were so close, almost close enough to brush noses, but then Scorpius's arm got tired, so he took it off of Lucinda's mouth for a moment, to make his arm to relax, and she started to squeal a bit, causing both Draco and Hermione to awkwardly back up, and take their hands off of each other and look around to see what that sound was.
"No! You stupid girl, you just…" Scorpius hissed, trying to tell Lucy off for ruining the moment. Lucy had her hand covering her mouth, with wide eyes, sorry that she had made Scorpus angry by interrupting the moment.
But Scorpius was quickly stopped by a rustle of leaves and someone angrily clearing their throat. Scorpius froze, and stopped talking at once, and he was too afraid to look up. He knew that he had been caught and his little charade was over now. He carefully looked up, along with Lucy and saw Hermione just looking at them, but Draco had a stern, furious face at him.
"Lucy, go to bed. It's way passed your bedtime." Hermione said, looking right at the girl. She figured that she shouldn't get involved in this anyway; because she had a feeling whatever was going to happen was going to be bad.
Lucy quickly stood up and whispered a good night to Scorpius, then dashed upstairs, towards the bedroom that she and her brother were sleeping in. Draco grabbed Scorpius's arm and yanked him up and forward so he was standing out of behind the plant and facing them. He wanted to know what was going on, because his son knew better than to spy.
"What were you doing, young man?"
Scorpius gave a nervous gulp, unsure of what he should say. He knew that he was in big trouble now, and he didn't want to say anything wrong that would cause his father to lose his temper in front of Hermione.
"I just wanted to see how you and Miss Hermione were doing…"
"So you were spying on us behind a plant? Nice try. Now tell me what you were really doing."
Scorpius shook his head, and Hermione grew a bit uncomfortable. She didn't want to just leave, because then she and Draco might go all the way back to square one and feel awkward around each other again. But she didn't want to stay here, either, because it was none of her business what was going to happen between Draco and his son. But she chose to remain standing there, and did her best to ignore it.
"I just wanted to see if you and Miss Hermione would kiss…so you'd fall in love and stuff." Scorpius mumbled, not really wanting Draco to hear what he had to say, but he was beginning to break down, because he was tired, and he knew he was in trouble.
"What did you say? I didn't hear you!" snapped Draco, looking at his son with piercing eyes, wanting to know the truth.
Draco didn't know why he was so upset about Scorpius hiding behind a plant. It wasn't like he was going to see anything that he didn't want him to. Well…he almost…no, he didn't almost do anything. He wasn't going to kiss Hermione, and that was final. He didn't think he was, anyways. She was just a friend now, and he didn't want to cross the line and lose that. He was embarrassed that he almost was caught making the mistake of kissing her, if he could call it that. He didn't know what a mistake was, and what wasn't anymore. He looked at his son, just dying to get some sort of answer out of him.
"I said that I wanted to see if you guys kissed so you could fall in love!" Scorpius shouted at Draco, before running up to his room in tears. He was tired, and he just wanted this all to go well, and it hadn't fallen into his exact plan, so he was very upset.
Hermione held in her gasp, and Draco just stood frozen, watching his son run up the stairs. Did he just really hear what he thought he did? But if Scorpius was telling the truth, then things would make sense. The way Scorpius used his cunning skills to convince him to dance with Hermione, and no doubt did he have something to do with the games and the place card incident. He didn't know his exact plan for all of this, but he at least knew the basics. But now things were extremely awkward, both between Hermione and him, and Scorpius and him. He had no clue what to tell his son, or Hermione.
"Hermoine, I…" Draco started, turning towards Hermione, thinking it was best to apologize to her first. So that she didn't think that he had something to do with this. He didn't want to ruin their newfound friendship.
"Go talk to him. I'll wait here. Just go. He needs you right now." Hermione said, firmly, but simply. She wanted to think about things for a while, before she could fully understand what was going on. That and she knew Scorpius was his priority, not her.
Draco hesitated, as if he wasn't sure if he should take her word for it, and just stay instead, but the look in her eyes, and his feeling in his heart telling him to go to Scorpius, made him nod slightly and rush up the stairs to go see if his son was okay.
~0O0~
Scorpius was by himself, crying on one of the guest beds, saying hateful things about himself in his head. He couldn't believe he just blew it by admitting what was going on to his father. He'd never forgive him for this! He knew he would be grounded, or something. But he looked up, just barely when he heard a slight knock at the door and someone walk in.
"Scorpius, may I talk to you?"
"Leave me alone," Scorpius yelled.
"I'm not going to yell at you. I just wanted to know what made you think it was okay to manipulate everyone, and expect Hermione and I to get together."
Scorpius stayed silent for a good, long while. He was young, therefore he was pretty tired at this hour, and he just wanted that perfect fairy tale ending that he had all planned out. It wasn't too much to ask, he thought. He wasn't sure if he wanted to tell his father. He never talked to him about their mother. It was one of those topics that was never brought up, because Draco was afraid of hurting Scorpius, and Scorpius was afraid of hurting Draco. But Scorpius knew that if he didn't tell his father, then he'd never understand why he did the thing he did. So he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, opened them up again, and decided to speak.
"Because…you've been sad ever since mum left and you were lonely. You didn't say anything, but I could tell. And I was talking to two of the kids who were also here, and they said Miss Granger was lonely too. At first…I just wanted you both to have a nice night. You both deserve it. But…then when I saw you two getting along, I thought…that just maybe…I might have a mum again…" Scorpius said, closing his eyes, letting another tear fall.
He didn't want to tell his father, especially everything, but he didn't care anymore. Draco just stood there, and stared at his son for a while. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to take this all in. His son never seemed this upset about the loss of his mother. Draco knew that Hermione seemed lonely, at some points in the conversation, but not by much. And he knew it was wrong, what his son did, but he had good intentions, so he wasn't angry. He wasn't sure what to say to Scorpius right now, and he doubted he'd listen at the moment.
"Just…get some rest…" Draco said softly, thinking that everything else he could say wouldn't make sense to the young one, since it barely made sense to him.
Draco walked out the door, and down the hall. He started to head downstairs, really needing to think all this through. Maybe his son had a good point. He had been miserable ever since his wife had left, and for once since then he had been happy; surprisingly, when he was with Hermione. He didn't know why Hermione had made him happy, since he never cared for her before. But perhaps it was because it was someone who was willing to look past what happened in the past and instead just talk about the present and the future. He didn't think that he'd marry Hermione, at least not in this point in time, but he wasn't repulsed by the idea of dating her, if she'd be okay with it.
~0O0~
"Sure…I suppose," Draco said with a sigh, "Look, Hermione. I'm really sorry for what Scorpius was trying to do. He had no right to do that. I apologize."
Draco had saw Hermione, surprised she was still waiting for him, and he took a seat on one of the couches down there. He knew that this would be part two of the awkwardness he had to deal with tonight thanks to Scorpius. He buried his face in his hands, not wanting to look at Hermione out of embarrassment, because he was just realizing that he really did like her.
"Draco, don't worry about that. He was only trying to do a good thing." Hermione said, taking a seat beside Draco, putting a hand gently on his shoulder, in comfort.
She never thought any of this was going to happen, especially at some party she didn't want to be at. And neither did Draco, mainly because she was a he never really liked her before, but things were different now. Past was forgotten and they both were going to get a second chance at love. But they both just looked at each other for a long moment, after Draco took his face out of his hands, and he just sighed.
"I know, but I can't help but feel responsible. I've always acted bitter about the divorce, and I didn't pay much attention to how much it affected him. And as a little kid, it was only natural for him to seize the chance to bring me together with someone."
"He's also related to you, Draco. Which means that he thinks he's always right about the situation…but it isn't your fault. You both gave me a wonderful night to look back on. You both will get through this, I know you will." Hermione said, with a small smile, trying to comfort Draco the best she could.
Draco looked at Hermione and chuckled to himself, shaking his head. He then looked at her and he said, "You…are amazing, Hermione. I really wish I would've seen that before. And if any guy is too thick to see that, you're better off with someone else anyways."
Hermione blushed a bit, but she grinned. "Thank you…" she said, still going red.
Just then they both heard a ringing of the grandfather clock, striking midnight, and a bunch of screaming and cheering from upstairs. It was finally the New Year. Draco took a deep breath, and pressed his lips to Hermione's, letting him feel happy for once in years. She kissed him back, closing her eyes gently, letting herself melt into his kiss. It was one of the most memorable, and sweet moments of her life. After a while, they pulled away, and stared into each other's eyes for a mfew moments, just wanting to let the moment last for a bit.
"What was that, Draco?" Hermione asked, giggling a bit, feeling like a teenager again.
Draco took Hermione's soft hand and held it, feeling so much stronger than before. He felt like he could take down fifty hippogriffs right now. He was on top of the world. He looked to Hermione and he then said, "A promise."
"A promise?"
"A promise that one day…we'll both find someone. Whether it is each other, or not…we'll both find someone to spend the rest of our lives with." Draco said, saying each word with a slight pause, as if trying to be sure of himself. Hermione just smiled, and kissed his cheek, knowing there were no words to say how she felt about that.
"Happy New Year, Draco." Hermione whispered into his ear.
"Happy New Year, Hermione." Draco whispered back, holding her close for a moment.
And so with that, the two walked back up the stairs to join the party again, both feeling more confident than before. Everyone looked when Draco walked with Hermione, hand in hand. Both Draco's ex-wife and Lavender looked the most surprised of all. But they both didn't care; because for once in years, they were both happy. And with that kiss…it really rang in the New Year.