Life After the War

Disclaimer: Got the drill yet? If not, I don't own Harry Potter, sadly.

A/N: A new story! Anyway, enjoy, and as always, review!

x.o.x.o.x.

"Mummy!"

Hermione Jean Granger-Malfoy jerks awake at her youngest child's persistent bouncing on her bed. She sits up and pulls her four-year-old daughter Anne into the usual morning hug. "Good morning, angel."

Anne smiles, hugs her mother as tightly as her small limbs can handle, and then runs over to her father. She bounces on him.

Hermione laughs and climbs out of bed, watching her dear daughter waking her father.

"Daddy, Daddy, time to get up!" Anne cries.

Draco Lucius Malfoy also jerks awake. "Annie!" he exclaims, and hugs her. While he is holding their youngest daughter in an embrace, he looks over at his wife of eleven years. They had married at twenty. "Morning, love."

Hermione smiles back, using her wand to change quickly. "Morning, Draco. Annie, dear, are your sisters and brothers awake yet?"

Anne shakes her head, her thumb in her mouth.

"Take your thumb out, darling. You stopped when you turned four!" Hermione scolds before exiting the room.

"Mummy!" Anne cries, and jumps up, following.

Hermione first walks into her eldest child, her firstborn's room. "Abraxas wake up, please," she says loudly as her son bolts awake.

"Oh, hi, Mum," Abraxas greets. "Morning, Annie."

Anne jumps on her brother. "Morning Abe."

Shaking her head, Hermione smiles at the spectacle as she moves on to her second eldest child's room. "Faye, darling, time to get up!"

The eight-year-old beauty is already up. Her platinum blond waves are already controlled like no other eight-year-old child's, and her silver eyes so like her father's sparkle. Already she is a beauty. "I'm up already, Mum," she smiles.

Hermione walks in and hugs her daughter. "I can see that. Get dressed and go for breakfast, alright?" Hermione smoothes back the hair of Faye before exiting with a smile.

Next she tackles Catharine's room. She finds it empty and realizes that Faye's twin (who looked as much like her mother as her twin looked like their father) is an early riser, as always, and had most likely gone downstairs for breakfast already.

She comes to the same conclusion for David, her six-year-old. Smiling as she walks downstairs, Hermione reflects on her wonderful family and how lucky she is.

x.o.x.o.x.

"James! Get up, dear," Ginevra Potter says, standing in the doorway of her firstborn's room.

James, grumbling, gets up and starts shuffling around his room.

Ginny rolls her eyes. "If this is what you are like as a pre-teen, Dad and I have some pretty difficult teenage years ahead of us." She bolts before James can register this and become enraged.

"Al, dear, are you awake?" Ginny asks, coming to a halt before her second-born child's room. She finds her neat freak son folding his clothes with a smile. "Good for you, Al."

Albus glances up from his work and smiles. "Thanks Mum."

Ginny hugs him quickly before going to Lily's room. She finds Harry already there, soothing their daughter after a nightmare. Ginny leans against the doorframe and smiles.

"Mummy!" Lily cries, and gets up.

Harry stands, smiling, as he watches his only daughter hug the love of his life. He had seen pictures of his own mother, Lily's namesake, at Lily's precise age. They could be twins, except Lily had inherited her mother's brown eyes instead of her father's exceptional emerald ones.

"Let's go to breakfast," Harry suggests, and the three walk into the hallway together.

x.o.x.o.x.

Mione-

We need a girls' night! Dump your kids at their grandparents or something; we NEED ONE! You know, you, me, Lavender, Luna. So get your bags ready and bring the usual! Even if we do have more than one offspring each, can't we have fun?

-Gin

Hermione laughs and scribbles a response.

Gin-

I agree. Having five kids really makes you want to be a teenager again. They are exhausting! Plus, two days from now is Abraxas's eleventh birthday… HOGWARTS! Anyway, we could plan his birthday party during the night if that's alright. But I'm in. See you tonight!

-Mione

After sending off the owl with her response, Hermione scurries around, packing an overnight bag and a few extras. At noon, she goes down for lunch and is surprised to see Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy sitting at the table. They all lived in the gigantic Malfoy Manor (though everyone agreed that it was nowhere close to the place the Potters had left Harry), but the grandparents of her babies hardly ever joined them for meals.

"Good afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy," Hermione greets politely, taking her seat.

Lucius inclines his head, but Narcissa smiles warmly at her. "Good afternoon, Miss Granger."

Hermione startles, taken aback. Draco notices her reaction and says, "Sorry, Mum, she hasn't been addressed as that since she was twenty."

Abraxas interrupts eagerly. "Mum, your first last name was Granger?"

Hermione smiles softly at him. "Yes, Abe. Where did you think the Granger in Granger-Malfoy came from?"

Abraxas flushes and continues eating slowly.

Hermione sighs. "I'm sorry, Abraxas, I didn't mean to say that in a mean way."

Abraxas shakes his head. "Don't worry about it, Mum. You could never be mean."

Hermione smiles at him. "Thank you, Abraxas."

"Why aren't our names simply Malfoy?" Faye questions, setting down her fork.

"Because, being the independent woman she is, your mum nearly refused to take my name, until I reminded her that she had to, she was required by law. Any woman marrying a pureblood man must change her last name. But being the clever witch she is, she combined our names with a hyphen." Draco smiles.

Narcissa corrects herself now. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Granger-Malfoy."

Hermione smiles kindly at the still beautiful witch. "It is perfectly alright, Mrs. Malfoy. And please, call me Hermione. We've been in the same family for the past eleven years."

Narcissa nods. "Alright, Hermione, call me Narcissa."

Hermione nods as well. "Narcissa." She pauses and stops eating her fruit salad. "Narcissa, would it be alright if you watched the children tonight? Ginny asked if I would like to have a girls' night, and frankly, I need one."

Narcissa smiles and nods. "Of course, Hermione. I would love to spend time with Abraxas, Faye, Catharine, David, and little Annie. But what say you, Draco?"

Draco pauses. "I have work, Mum."

Hermione looks at him carefully. "Work? We work together, Draco, in our own company."

"I know, love," drawls Draco.

Hermione narrows her eyes. "And what, pray tell, has work to be done at night?"

"Love," warns Draco.

Hermione sighs, relaxing slightly. "Do as you wish, Draco. But I've taken up a place of work in the Magical Law Department as a lawyer. So I'll help you find another lead assistant."

Draco gapes at her. "Thanks for including me in this, Hermione."

Hermione sighs again, frustrated. "I tried, Draco, but you're always working." She draws air quotes around working.

Draco's eyes flash, threatening to lose his temper.

Hermione takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry for fighting like this at the table," she apologizes to her father-in-law and her mother-in-law. "And I'll see you later, okay, darlings?" She walks down the table, kissing each of her children on the top of their heads. "I love you. And thank you, Narcissa and Mr. Malfoy."

Narcissa waves a hand, motioning for her to go on.

Smiling, Hermione leaves.

x.o.x.o.x.

"MIONE!" Ginny cries, jumping up from the deep red velvet sofa.

Hermione laughs, throwing herself into her best friend's hug and dropping the shopping bags on her arms. She lets go of Ginny and looks past her to see Lavender and Luna. "Lavender! Luna! How are you? Your children?"

Lavender smiles. "Great, thanks, Mione. Rose and Hugo are keeping me moving! You?"

Luna smiles serenely. "Good, thank you, Hermione. Mariah is already acting up and Ryan is just a sweetheart."

Hermione turns to Ginny before responding for herself. "Gin?"

"Fantastic. James, Albus, and Lily are all brilliant as well." Ginny beams.

Hermione smiles back. "That's great, all of you. I'm good too, and my five hell-raising kids are fine as well."

Lavender arches an eyebrow as Ginny and Luna begin setting up. "Hell-raising? Girl, I'd hardly call that angel of yours, Catharine, hell-raising. Come to think of it, Faye isn't either. Abraxas is quite the posh young man, so not him. David is just shy, so no. Really, only little Annie."

"Yeah, don't insult my goddaughter here," scolds Ginny mockingly.

Hermione laughs. The godparents of Abraxas were Harry and Ginny, Faye's were also Harry and Ginny, Catharine's godparents were Lavender and Ron, David's were Blaise and Luna, and finally Anne's godparents were Harry and Ginny as well. Hermione herself was Lily and Rose's godmother. "Gin, you have two goddaughters."

Ginny grins. "Thanks for that, by the way."

Luna again smiles serenely in that way of hers. "I'm just fine with David. He's a cutie," she says dreamily.

"And Catharine is such an angel," Lavender adds. "How in Merlin did you get all the angelic, beautiful kids and we got the crazy, nonstop ones?"

Hermione giggles. "Two things. One, I guess Draco and I just make really good, beautiful babies. Two, all your kids are adorable. Especially little Lily!"

Ginny sighs. "I swear, it's almost as if Lily was Lily's daughter!"

Hermione understands immediately. "Not going to happen, Gin. That's just crazy." She pauses. "I do wish that Lily Evans was alive today, though. She's in so many books, and not just because she mothered Harry, either. Because of her amazing accomplishments. And Harry's father was an amazing Auror as well."

Lavender stays silent with the others for a moment, and then adds, "They seem like amazing people."

"They would have to be, to create Harry," Ginny says quietly.

Luna smiles at Ginny. "Young love."

Everyone stares at her for a moment, and then bursts out laughing. It wasn't like Luna to intentionally crack a joke.

And they settled in for some serious girl talk and laughter.

x.o.x.o.x.

"Where's Mummy?" whines Anne.

"Sh, baby girl," soothes Narcissa, rocking her youngest grandchild soothingly.

"And Daddy," Anne cries.

Narcissa holds her granddaughter close to her. "Quiet, dear, darling girl. Mummy and Daddy will be back to kiss you. But they love you."

"I WANT MY DADDY!" screams Anne.

"Anne! You are much too old for tantrums," scolds Narcissa, pulling her back to her.

Anne kicks and screams, while Narcissa places her on the floor. "When you are finished, come and see me in my room."

She leaves, but not before bumping into Draco and a lady.

"Draco! Anne wants you," Narcissa says as a greeting, completely disregarding the lady guest. After all, this was her precious granddaughter.

Draco shrugs. "Can't you handle her, Mother? I'm sort of busy."

Now Narcissa gets suspicious. "Is something going on, Draco? Like Hermione said, you run that company together. She should know when jobs need to be done."

Draco waves her off. "Just trust me, Mother. Please go back to Anne."

Narcissa complies, but walks backward, keeping a close eye on her son and that mysterious houseguest.

"Lucius!" she calls.

Her husband comes into the parlor to find his wife on the ground cradling his granddaughter. "Yes, Narcissa?"

"Draco brought home a mysterious lady guest and would not even go to his baby girl."

Lucius' eyes narrow. "Suspicious. But he never favored Anne."

Narcissa bites her lip. "True."

"Let it go, Narcissa. Perhaps you can speak to Hermione when she returns in the morning."

Narcissa nods and standings, leading Anne by the hand. "Come along, Annie. Bedtime."

x.o.x.o.x.

A/N: Enjoy? Review, review, review! I think it's too early in the series to set a certain number of reviews, but we'll see as we go further.