A/N: This is just a little one-shot I needed to get out of my system while writing the next chapter for Kept. Hope you like it :)
"Penelope?! Penelope?!" Hermione shouted as she looked down each aisle, wondering where her daughter could've run off to. She had told the three year old to stay by her as they went through the store, but the little girl had had different ideas as her mother searched through a rack of baby clothes.
Hermione was beginning to panic, as she had already passed the beauty and hygiene sections, as well as the office and stationary sections, with no sign of her daughter. She had, however, found her abandoned pink stuffed dragon lying on the floor as she reached the foods section.
"Penelope?!" she called again after bending over to pick the toy off the tile, and continuing down the walk way.
"Lose something Granger?" A familiar voice said as she turned into the frozen foods aisle. There holding her daughter was none other than Draco Malfoy, his usual smirk on his face.
"Oh, thank Merlin," Hermione breathed, taking her daughter from his arms. "What did I tell you about staying with me?"
Penelope grinned in response as if she hadn't done anything wrong, and Hermione huffed.
Just like her father, she thought with a grumble.
"Granger, you look like you're about to pop," Draco said, pointing out the fact that Hermione was indeed around eight months pregnant, nearly in her ninth. "You really shouldn't be carrying something that heavy."
He swiftly retrieved the young girl from Hermione's arms and put her in the child seat of the cart he had with him.
"Kyrie!" Penelope whined, reaching for the stuffed toy currently in her mother's grasp, and Draco plucked it out and handed it over.
"I don't know why you insist on calling me Granger," Hermione said, choosing to ignore everything he had just done because she was exhausted from walking so quickly, "When you know perfectly well that's not my last name anymore,"
"You'll always be Granger to me, Granger," Draco teased. "Even if all your nameplates at the Ministry say otherwise,"
Hermione just rolled her eyes, and didn't argue further. They had this discussion almost every day; she didn't even know why she bothered anymore when he clearly wasn't going to stop, even if it had been almost four years since she'd changed it.
"So what brings you to the store?" he asked. "Shouldn't you be at home resting or something? We let you go on maternity leave for a reason you know,"
Hermione's cheeks reddened slightly as she remembered why she had come to the store in the first place. "I suddenly had a craving for mint chocolate-chip and cookie dough ice-cream," she admitted sheepishly. "And since I made my husband buy me some double-stuffed Oreos at two in the morning last night, I decided I'd give him a break,"
"How kind of you," Draco said with light sarcasm, and Hermione glared at him. "And look, we're already by the ice-cream,"
Hermione noticed for the first time since they'd ran into each other that they indeed were in the aisle with the ice-cream. She was about to claim the objects of her desire when Draco cut her off.
"It seems like my own pregnant wife and you have the same craving, Granger,"
She watched as Draco pulled out the small contents of his cart in each hand: one tub of mint-chocolate chip ice-cream and one tub of cookie dough ice-cream, just what she wanted.
Hermione hoped she wasn't drooling at the sight of them. "You're wife has excellent taste," she said as calmly as she could. "And who would've thought? Draco Malfoy, a thoughtful husband,"
"I figure it's best to keep myself on her good side," he said while putting the containers back in the cart. "After all I'm the one she so lovingly keeps reminding got her up the duff,"
"I'm sure she didn't mind it at the time,"
"Oh, I know she didn't," Draco said nonchalantly, but then he smirked in a way that sent a pleasant shiver up Hermione's spine. "She didn't mind last night either."
Hermione blushed at the telling statement and tried to look away, but she knew he had seen her face already judging by the way he was still smirking.
"Well this is all I'm getting here, so I'll be on my way now," he said with an exaggerated sigh, putting his hands on the cart. "My wife probably has dinner on the table and is waiting for me return home. I know how she misses me during the day…"
Hermione couldn't repress the snort that came out at his statement, but tried to cover it anyway.
"Yeah… I should too," she echoed. "My husband will be home soon, and I have this great feeling he'll be bringing me some goodies,"
Draco chuckled, and Hermione watched as he began to push the cart down the aisle way, her daughter still inside.
"It was nice seeing you Granger- don't shop too much,"
"Kidnapping my child, are you?"
"Why not?" He said without turning around, amusement in his tone. "I'm sure she doesn't mind, do you?" He poked Penelope on the nose, and she let out a giggle.
"Bye mummy!" Penelope shouted, and Hermione saw her daughter's hand happily wave at her from around the body of the blonde.
"See?"
Hermione sighed and just shook her head.
"Oh Draco?" she called after him before they could go fully round the bend, and he stopped and turned his head in her direction, waiting.
Hermione grinned slyly before speaking. "Throw some whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and strawberries in that cart, and I can guarantee you'll be greatly rewarded for you effort,"
She smirked as she saw his eyebrows lift, his mouth slightly open before widening into a full on grin.
"Looks like we have a little more shopping to do Princess," Draco told Penelope with a ruffle of her hair, and he sped off with her, leaving Hermione giggling in the now vacant aisle.
She took a breath of composure before making her way to the front of the store to apparate home. Apparently, someone expected her to have dinner on the table, and it was the least she could do for a husband who was catering to her every need without even asking.
Turns out, marrying Draco Malfoy had not been the biggest mistake of her life.
A/N: So what did you think?