Hey guys! This is a special one shot written for the first reviewer of Hidden In Plain Sight. It's Dramione, again. Hope you don't mind it. It's kind of a next generation thing, but it focuses on Draco and Hermione, so you might consider it post-war. just enjoy it.
The time after the war seemed to go by so fast. Everyone was rebuilding, they were all so busy trying to get things back to normal. Not that there had ever been much of a normal atmosphere in the wizarding world anyway, at least not in Hermione's mind. But, soon, everything was the way it was supposed to be. Neville and Luna got married almost a year later, and they were happy as could be. So were Harry and Ginny, who had finally gotten together after constant prodding from everyone. They didn't get married right away, though. And Ron... well, Ron was still Ron. He had a girlfriend occasionally, but no one wanted to sit at home all day, have seven kids, and have the chaos of it all. He was rather touchy about his Weasley genes, though.
Then there was everyone finding out about her and Draco. They had been together, secretly, since fifth year. Five years after the war, they finally got married. They had a daughter, Nymphadora- Hermione had insisted on it- and a few years later, they had a son, Scorpius.
Now, on September 1st, it was time for Nymphadora to go to Hogwarts. And Scorp wouldn't stop complaining that it wasn't fair he didn't get to go yet. Draco practically had to hold the boy down while his big sister got on the train. The light brown haired girl stuck her tongue out at her brother through one of the windows. Scorpius was steaming mad, and he ran a hand through his hair like he had learned to do watching his father. "Oh, just wait and see. She'll be put into Slytherin, and then we'll see who's laughing!" He smirked. Both the boy's parents stared at him.
"What's wrong with Slytherin?" Draco asked his son before he apparated them all back home. "It's a fine house, Scorp." Hermione groaned. Maybe telling their children about the war and the house separation wasn't such a great idea. Now their son had the wrong idea about how the houses work...
"It's the evil house, isn't it? That's where all the dark wizards came from! That's where Voldemort came from, right?" Scorpius stopped when his father winced. Draco lifted up the sleeve of his shirt and saw the scar, now irritated by the sound of that name. The scar would vanish eventually- Draco fully planned on getting that dealt with. But family was more important at the moment.
Before the father could chide his son, Hermione dragged her son down a hallway, then up a flight of stairs. She pulled her wand out of her pocket and muttered a quick "Wingardium Leviosa" before opening the door and hitting the light switch inside it. She walked inside, letting go of Scorpius's arm. "Come here, Scorp," She said, putting her wand away, looking at the walls with the look of someone who was remembering the best time of her life. He walked in slowly, and he could hear his father's footsteps trying to figure out where they had gone.
The walls were covered in red and gold, silver and green. No... those were house items... scarfs, pins, ties... there were pictures of people among these items- some of which Scorpius recognized. Harry Potter was unmistakable, the scar and the glasses were a dead giveaway. Then there was the Weaselbees- he only called them that when he was alone or his mother was gone- in a family picture, and several more pictures of each one around. The only Weasleys Scorpius had ever liked were Ginny and George. They were family, just as much as his parents were.
There was a large section of pictures of his father's side of the family as well- Lucius and Narcissa, even Bellatrix, who was dead years before Scorpius was born but was still a part of the family at heart. There was a portrait painting of Severus Snape, a brave man who died in the war. The man in the picture looked at Hermione dryly. "Do you need something, Miss Granger?" He almost snarled. Even in death, this man didn't change.
"You mean Mrs. Malfoy," Draco said from the doorway, leaning against one side of it.
"Yes, I do believe so." The painting smirked. "Well, are you going to introduce me to the young man or not, Draco?" Snape scowled. "No manners what so ever,"
"I'm Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy." The young wizard introduced himself. "I'm nine years old, and I've heard all about you, Mister Snape, sir." Scorp bowed. "It's an honor to meet you." Scorpius hoped to give off a better first impression than his parents must've done.
The painting smirked. "You know, Mister Malfoy, you could learn a lot about manners from your son. Ob...viously." the greasy haired man drew out the word longer than humanly possible.
Hermione then pulled the curtains over the painting.
"I don't know why we bother with him, Draco. He still hasn't changed. He never will." She glanced at her husband in despair. Then laughed. "Scorp, this room is full of the things your father and I still have from out school days."
"Then why are there things from Slytherin house?" The blond boy asked in confusion. He heard his father sigh, and the man walked across the room and took a picture off the wall. He showed it to his son. Three boys, all in Slytherin robes. The one in the middle was obviously Draco.
"Because your father was the top of his Slytherin year." Draco puffed his chest out in pride. "And best of his entire year." A giggle came from Hermione, and Draco's chest deflated. "Okay, second best. But I would've been best if a certain frizzy haired Gryfindoor Princess hadn't been so drop dead distracting."
"I still would've beat you out!" Hermione punched his arm playfully. Scorpius was still trying to process that his dad was in Slytherin. He was completely dumbfounded. Now that he thought about it, it did make sense. His father was pretty clever, and cunning was a good fit for him too...
"Then, if you guys were in different houses, how did you even meet?" Scorpius asked, following them out of the room, hearing his mother lock the door behind them. Draco chuckled. "How did you become friends?!" Scorp asked incredulously. The two parents glanced at each other, then nearly fell over with laughter.
"Who ever said we were friends?" Hermione laughed hysterically. She had tears streaming down her face. Draco was in a similar state, but was trying to walk towards the stairs.
"Come on, then! Both of you. Hermione, we should go ahead and tell him about how we started. It's only fair, since I think we've already confused Scorp half to death." And they all went down stairs and sat in the living room, Hermione still recovering from her laughter. "Alright, well, I guess we better start with the beginning. Would that have been the train, dear?" He asked Hermione. She shook her head.
"No, we ran into each other at Flourish and Blotts the day before. Remember?" She smiled. "You were such a spoiled brat, you know."
"And you were a bratty know-it-all, but that's not the point." Draco cleared his throat. "August 31st, we didn't even know each other. Not until we both were in Flourish and Blotts, getting our school books. We both reached for the same book at the same time. As 16 or seventeen year-olds, that might have been kind of romantic. But as we were eleven years old, we didn't find that way in the slightest. Your mother, she took the book before I could grab it and said "I'm sorry, but I had it first. I'm sure there's another copy, though." And I ripped it right out of her hands and told her that she should go find another copy of it, then, because that one was mine. At that moment, we began a yelling fight at each other. Merlin, we were such foolish kids!"
"And both your Grandpas came up to us, and tried to calm us down. My dad," Hermione started. "Apologized and asked for my book back. Lucius, your other Grandpa, made Draco give it back to me! Oh, the look on his face was priceless. then, of course, my dad had to go and explain to him that who we were and that we were new to this whole witch thing- that I was a muggle born. At which point Lucius, without even saying another word, ushered his son out of the building. That was the first time we ever met." Hermione stopped catching her breath.
"And then?" Scorpius asked. The parents glanced at each other. "What happened on the train?"
Draco laughed. "Oh, yeah, I remember. Your mom was looking around, asking everyone if they had seen Neville's toad- you remember Neville, don't you, Scorp?- and she reached our compartment in the train. She started to ask if any of us had seen the toad, but she stopped when she saw me. 'I remember you!' She said. 'You were at Flourish and Blotts yesterday!'" Draco chuckled. "Oh, the last thing I wanted was to be seen as a friend to a mudblood- sorry, dear, but it was the main term at the time- so I told her to get lost. She gave me a funny look and asked why. At which point I yelled at her. 'I said get lost,, mudblood!' I didn;t think she had ever heard the term, not until I saw the tears on her face. She rushed out of our compartment, and I kind of felt bad for her. but not enough to apologize- I was a coward, back then."
"At that moment, I was convinced I hated Draco Malfoy," Hermione sighed. "I didn't really know anything. Well, I knew lots of things, but nothing that really mattered.
"I.. I still don't understand. How.. you guys were enemies... but.. you love each other..." Scorpius was pretty confused. No, he was completely lost. They were... what?
Draco sighed. "You'll understand soon enough. Now, go clean up your room. Harry and Ginny are coming over soon, and Rose is coming with them." Scorpius's eyes widened. "Yes, I expect you to play nice with her. You two may not get along very well, but you'll learn to at least tolerate her." Scorpius grumbled and stormed off to his room. Draco shook his head then glanced at his wife. "Do you think they'll-"
"Yes, dear. They're going to end up being best friends by the time they're in Hogwarts. And, who knows? Maybe they'll be more than that. We'll just have to see." The two snuggled up on the couch for a while after that. An hour later, the Potters showed up. Rose immediately looked around for the blond boy she tormented so much.
"Where's Scorp?" She asked Hermione, smiling her sweetest smile. Hermione smiled back. "He's in his room. hang on, I'll go get him."
"No, I can get him!" Rose ran off down the hallway. Harry chuckled.
"That poor boy. Putting up with Rose has to be difficult." Then he muttered, "Women in general usually are pretty difficult though..." Ginny immediately scowled at him. "What, dear?" He said, trying to hide his grin. She just shook her head.
"Come on, 'Mione. Let's leave the men to themselves, and lets go check on the kids. Before they break something important." Ginny rushed down a hallway, and Hermione kissed Draco on the cheek.
"I'll be right back." she whispered into his ear before leaving. Then, she too rushed to her son's bedroom. Ginny was staring, red faced at the wall. "Ginny? What's wrong?"
"They're playing tea party. And Rose kissed his cheek. And he didn't snap at her. He even kissed her cheek after!" Ginny shook her head. "Those two..."
Hermione smiled. Maybe Scorpius would understand a lot sooner than she had originally thought... She muttered the spell she had written for one-way walls- where she could see through the wall, but the people on the other side of it couldn't- and watched.
"See, you hold the teacup like this," Rose was holding up a small teacup, showing Scorpius how to hold it. "Mum says to hold the pinky up to be fancy." Scorpius went to pick up his cup, and he held it up for her to see. "Yeah, like that, Scorp." She smiled brightly at him.
"Oh, okay, Rose." He stammered.
"Miss Potter, you mean. You're the host, so it's polite to call your guest Miss, Misses, or Mister. Okay?"
"Okay, Ro- I mean, okay, Miss Potter." He smiled at her. "Say, can we stop playing tea party for a minute?"
"Sure, Scorp." Her smile dimmed a bit. "What's up?" Scorp moved from his sitting position and he spread out on the floor. She did the same
"I was wondering.. what houses do you think we'll be in when we get to Hogwarts?" He yawned. "I mean, I'm not quite sure anymore. I did want to be in Gryfindoor, but I don't think so anymore."
"Maybe Ravenclaw or Slytherin for me..." She smiled. "I wouldn't mind Slytherin. They're cunning and clever... and you know what Scorp?" She stood up, and he followed. Then she went over and hugged him. "They do whatever they can to get what they want." At which point, she kissed his cheek again. Then she smiled at him again, as he stood there, dumbfounded. "You... well, you're really loyal. I'd bet you're a Hufflepuff- they don't get nearly as much credit as they should, you know."
"Yeah... Yeah, you're right, Rose." Scorpius smiled. "You know what? whatever house I'm in, it doesn't matter to me. I'm going to have friends no matter what house we're all in." He frowned, thinking. "Come on, it should be almost dinner time. Let's go check in on our parents."
Hermione closed the one-way wall, grabbed Ginny, and ran for the living room.
Later that night, after dinner, and after the Potters had left, and even after Scorpius had went to bed, Hermione thought about her son and how peculiar it was that a nine year old already, to a degree, believed in house unity. She smiled in pride. Draco, after finding out about this, chuckled. The boy was more like his mother every day...