Chapter 1

It was strange for Hermione to see an obviously hungover Draco Malfoy stumble into her shop, but she had decided when she testified for him in front of the Wizengamot that she wasn't going to hold the past against him.

He was a prick, yes, but could she honestly say that she was much better?

She didn't outright bully people, so there was that difference between them, but she had, in fact, bent plenty of rules.

She herself had quite the 'rap sheet' from her school days alone – lighting Snape's poor robes on fire was not the end of it. She would never forget that she had hexed poor Marietta Edgecombe so badly she still couldn't go out without layers of foundation covering her skin, or the fact that she had purposely set up Professor Umbridge to be attacked by centaurs and kept Rita Skeeter trapped in a jar.

So yeah. She wasn't exactly someone that could go about judging others for their bullying and bad behaviour during their teenage years. She was clearly no saint either.

So it was a little awkward when he had entered her shop, handsome as ever, but she got over it quickly and sold him his potion. She didn't fully understand why he was there, since she knew that he himself was a potioneer, but she assumed he had his reasons.

She took his compliment in stride and he left her shop fairly quickly, looking back at her once with a confused look on his face. Once she had closed at the end of the day she went directly to Harry's and Ginny's for New Years Day dinner.

"You'll never guess who showed up in my shop this morning," she said, leaning away from a sticky baby James, who somehow always seemed to be covered in some sort of tacky substance. Her chair at the table was beside the baby's high chair and she really hoped that James wouldn't start throwing food during this meal.

"Merlin?" Ginny asked, heaping food onto a plate and setting it in front of Harry.

"No, obviously Morgan Le Fay, Ginny," Harry responded, a lopsided grin on his lips.

Hermione sighed; her friends really did think they were hilarious.

"Draco Malfoy, actually."

"Really?" Ginny asked in interest, leaning back for a moment. "I haven't seen hide nor hair of him in years."

"Me either," Hermione replied. "He came in for a hangover potion and looked rough."

"Still handsome though?" Ginny asked, looking oddly attentive as she grinned.

"Handsome?" Harry spluttered, gazing at Ginny in wonder as a roasted carrot slipped off the prongs of his fork.

Ginny didn't reply, just wiggled her eyebrows at Hermione, who rolled her eyes in response.

/

Draco continued on with his sad existence of working and drinking alone at night, trying to ignore the fact that he might, actually, have some sort of problem when it came to booze. He hadn't spent any other nights with a woman, and the one woman he had slept with recently was doing her utter best to ignore him completely.

He did happen to see her at work on occasion, unfortunately, but she did an excellent job pretending that he wasn't there. He couldn't blame her, really. No one wanted to admit they had any intimate contact with a Malfoy.

She was no different.

So Draco was shocked when, after an entire month of pretending he didn't exist, Ava stepped into his office quickly and shut the door firmly behind her. He looked up in surprise but schooled it quickly. Hopefully she wasn't here for another go at it, because he was completely uninterested. He didn't want to spend any time with someone who pretended he was invisible - not when she saw him at least once a day.

"I'm pregnant," she grit out before he could offer her a snide remark.

And everything in Draco's life was changed with those two words.

/

Hermione was busy building a shelf for her recently brewed Valentine's day potions, since the "holiday" was fast approaching. Ladies were really into getting potions that would make their skin smooth and hairless, soft as a babies bottom, and conception potions. There was a surprising array of potions in demand for Valentine's Day, and Hermione made sure to provide everything. Except for Love Potions; that was where she drew the line.

She was keeping an eye on the time because she had a new batch of Pepper Up potion brewing in the back room as she struggled with a stupid heart shaped decoration when the bell above the shop door chimed.

She peeked over the half-built shelf and caught her breath when she saw Draco Malfoy standing there looking around.

He was wearing a light blue button down and black slacks with a black cloak fastened at his collarbone. He was tall, 6"4' she would guess, and she could tell he was muscular. Draco's hair had grown out, but it probably only reached the top of his collar.

He was a sight.

But when she lifted her eyes to his face she could tell he was angry.

His eyes were narrowed and dark and his lips were tensed into an almost straight line. His posture was stiff and he was glowering around her store, clearly waiting for her to show herself.

Hermione stood slowly and raised a hand in acknowledgement, "Over here," she said, her voice cheerful.

Draco raised an eyebrow and stepped forward, his cloak whipping about his legs. "I need a pregnancy revealing potion," he bit out, his jaw clenched.

It was Hermione's turn to raise an eyebrow. She knew, as well as everyone else, that Astoria Greengrass, who Draco had been betrothed to for a short while, pulled out of the contract when her father destroyed it. It was only after Lucius Malfoy had been sent to Azkaban for war related crimes that the Greengrass family wanted nothing to do with the falling Malfoy one.

Hermione had not heard that Draco was with someone else, not that she paid much attention to such things.

"Do you have them?" Draco asked, his patience running thin while waiting for Hermione to answer him.

"Of course," she answered, snapping herself out of her thoughts and approaching a different shelf. "Right here!"

"Great," Draco snarled, belying his words.

"Forgive me for saying so, but you don't seem too excited about the prospect of becoming a parent."

Draco's mercury eyes narrowed, honing in on her. Hermione almost took a step back but stood her ground, the vial of potion clenched in her hand as she waited for the other foot to drop.

In a split second his attitude changed and he lifted a long fingered hand and rubbed it down his face, closing his eyes and letting out a deep sigh. Hermione thought he looked incredibly sad in that moment.

"I can't say that I am. Merlin, I hope she's wrong."

Hermione bit her lip, longing flashing through her eyes for less than a second as she thought about parenthood. Harry and Ginny already had a child, as did Ron and Lavender, and she didn't even have a boyfriend.

She watched Draco closely as he pulled his fist from his pocket and dropped a handful of loose change on her countertop – without counting it – and let out another stressed sigh.

"Do you… want to talk about it?" Hermione asked carefully as Draco held his hand out for the potion.

Both his eyebrows rose in surprise, his eyes widening slightly.

"I… can't at the moment. I really need to get this potion to her."

He seemed regretful, but Hermione nodded in understanding and passed the vial of potion over, watching as he plucked it from her palm with his elegant fingers.

"Maybe soon then," she said, oddly interested in this Draco Malfoy.

"Keep your fingers crossed for me, Granger," He replied after nodding quickly. "There's no way I can be a father."

Draco walked from the shop quickly and Apparated away from just outside the door, disappearing into thin air. Hermione watched him go with a look of sorrow, knowing that he was very disturbed about possibly being a parent and understanding exactly why.

/

Hermione had not expected to see Draco enter her store only two days after he had bought the pregnancy revealing potion, but there he was. His hands were jammed into his pockets tightly and his dark blond eyebrows were furrowed. His shoulders were hunched up toward his ears and he looked absolutely despondent. Hermione watched him pick his way through the shop until he was standing in front of her, he was biting his lips and Hermione knew what he was going to say before he did.

"Well, she's pregnant," he moaned, and Hermione took a moment to wonder if he didn't have anyone else to talk to. Surely if he did he wouldn't have come back to tell her about major things happening in his life. That thought made her feel very sad for him, and she vowed to herself that if he was going to be friendly, she wouldn't turn him away. "This is the worst thing that could have happened, ever."

Hermione inwardly rolled her eyes at his dramatics but gestured him into her back room. She was working on a new batch of specialized hair potions and couldn't be away from the cauldron for too long - she was trying to invent a better one than Sleakeazy's, which was the only one on the market. Hermione wanted to invent one that was much better; it would take much less product and last much longer, and it would be decently priced and not absurdly expensive.

"What is she going to do?" Hermione asked conversationally as Draco settled onto a stool and dropped his head into his hands. Hermione once again felt that pang of sadness for Draco - she wasn't even his friend and here he was, clearly upset. She also thought that he seemed to be pretty lonely - and maybe she was too, what with her friends always being so busy with their families.

"She's going to keep it and stick around until she gives birth, then she's leaving."

Hermione blinked.

"Leaving?"

"She wants nothing to do with me, Granger, and can you really blame her? My family is nothing anymore, nothing but an embarrassment. She doesn't want to be associated with me."

"So she is going to have a child… and then leave?"

"That's what she said. She seemed to really mean it too. She already made it clear that she doesn't want it."

Hermione wasn't sure what to say to that. She herself didn't understand it, but she also wasn't about to openly judge a girl she knew nothing about.

"She wants to hide in my flat her entire pregnancy. She's already quit her job so no one will know that she's expecting."

"Wow. She's determined to keep it a secret."

"I can't blame her," Draco said again, this time watching as Hermione stirred her cauldron in alternating directions. "I really can't. I'm not even surprised, really. I was more shocked to wake up with her in my bed than anything else."

"It's been four years, Malfoy. Surely you still don't believe everyone is against you?"

Draco sat up and looked at Hermione closely for a second, wondering if she was being serious, before he lowered his eyes to his hands and shook his head.

"I don't need to believe it, Granger. It's shown to me every day. Hell, even on my walk here I had to avoid three different groups of people and ignore more than double the amount of insults."

Hermione looked like she didn't believe him for a moment, and Draco was suddenly annoyed.

"I'm sure you don't notice it, what with all the praise you receive on a daily basis, but you don't have a stain on your arm that constantly reminds you that you're dirt in the eyes of everyone else. That everyone hates you and always will."

Hermione's eyes narrowed as her heart rate picked up, suddenly furious that he would say something so stupid! How could he forget what she had gone through in her short life? Before she could even attempt to control her temper she jumped from her stool, dropping the stirring wand she was using into the cauldron.

"Are you joking me, Malfoy?" She asked incredulously, her voice going up in pitch. "I might not be marked for life in the way that you are, but I will always be a muggleborn! I went through 6 years of schooling hearing how beneath everybody else I am. I fought in a war against horrible, vile people who wanted to completely eradicate people with my blood. I was tortured into unconsciousness and almost handed over to the werewolf Greyback! All because of my bloodline and the fact that I wasn't born to wizarding parents. All because I was dirt in the eyes of everyone else. I think I get it."

Draco sat in silence as Hermione raged at him, feeling disgusted with himself for mere seconds before nodding his head. "You're right, and I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to compare our situations. I came from a high standing place in society and have fallen farther than I could have ever anticipated."

Hermione let out a breath and sat back down, feeling a little guilty about her outburst as her heart slowed back to its regular pace. They sat in silence for a while, Hermione continuing to work on her potion while Draco watched her absentmindedly.

"I just don't know what I'm going to do," Draco groaned suddenly after at least half an hour had passed, dropping his head into his hands again.

Hermione was under the distinct impression that he just wanted to pout.

She let him.

/

Malfoy continued to visit Hermione at her shop, finding comfort with her as he told her stories about Ava, the woman pregnant with his child, and how horrible she was. He came around at least 3 times a week and Hermione found herself, over time, looking forward to his visits. There was something easy about them, and even though she still had Sunday dinner with her friends every week, she didn't see them as much as she used to.

They knew that she was spending time with Draco, as she had kept them informed about what was going on in her life. Ginny seemed almost indecently interested in what she was doing with the wizard, making up ridiculous fantasies about Hermione and Draco being a couple.

Harry always gave them incredulous looks, clearly trying to figure out why Ginny was so fascinated with Hermione's love life, or lack thereof.

Draco was a constant for her, someone who seemed to enjoy spending time with her as she brewed her potions - especially if he needed space from the horrible witch in his flat.

Five months had passed, had flew by really, and Hermione was used to Draco being around. They'd given up calling each other by their surnames over a month ago, and she found herself waiting for him to show up. She loved laughing with him, sharing all sorts of stories with him as she brewed her potions in the back room of her shop.

Draco had quite the stories to tell too, ranging from his (terrible) childhood, to the treatment he received from Ava. The pregnant witch was absolutely horrible to Draco, as far as Hermione could tell, but he was trying his hardest to keep her happy while she was pregnant with his child.

"You should come for dinner one night," he said randomly one day. "You can see her behaviour first hand, just so you know I'm not making everything up or being dramatic. Plus, I want to work on the nursery for Scorpius and I could always use the eyes of a woman there."

"She isn't even going to help you with the nursery?" Hermione asked, annoyed. She couldn't understand why the woman was throwing something as amazing and rewarding as motherhood out the window.

"She doesn't care about the nursery, Hermione. She will never see him in it."

"I'm having dinner with Harry and Ginny tomorrow night, they have some sort of news, so how about Saturday? I can come and help with the nursery around noon and then stay for dinner? Unless that's too much of an imposition?"

"No, no. That would be great, actually."

They were quiet for a while as Hermione bustled around her shop fixing displays and helping customers and Draco sat in the back, taking over the potion Hermione was finishing that evening.

A/N - I know this chapter feels like it's missing something (especially with the large time jump) but after this that doesn't happen much, so bear with me haha