DISCLAIMER: We enter the scene with me sitting in one of those extremely uncomfortable folding chairs; my arms folded and a scowl on my face. Above the door is a sign that reads HARRY POTTER ANONYOMOUS: 21 simple steps to accept that you will never own Harry Potter.
A/N: Congratulations! You all passed your test with flying colors. Well those of you who remembered to take it anyway… A special thank you goes out to thefunkybubble and CahootsToCollege for your suggestions for new characters. They will be in a later chapter.
Thanks for the reviews: jess-is-my-hottie15, razors n cuts, Jill-Bloom89, tinydancer69, M.ostly E.motional P.erson, katawana, thefunkybubble, CahootsToCollege, kaikuduo, Booksurfer1500, and silvertwighlight.
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Chapter 4: Reuniting Old Friends
"Blaise!" Hermione squealed. "I haven't seen you in ages!"
"I know," he replied, standing up and giving her a hug. "Two years certainly is a long time."
"Has it really been that long? Well, Mr. Zabini, it appears we have some catching up to do. What trouble have you been getting yourself into?" Hermione sat down in the nearest barstool and Blaise joined her.
"Oh, you know the usual. Being a great lawyer and snagging a position on the Wizengamot is all." He waved his hand in the air as he was saying this as if to say, 'It was no big deal.'
"Blaise, that's wonderful! And how is Kate?"
"She and I just moved into a flat together not far from here. She loves her new job at the Ministry. You remember how she always wanted to work in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement don't you?"
"Oh yes! She got a position there did she?" Hermione took a sip of the drink that had just been set in front of her.
"Yea and she hasn't stopped rambling on about it for weeks. It is getting kind of annoying… but anyway, enough about me, what has been happening in the life of Hermione Malfoy?"
"Well," Hermione started, "I finished my nurses training about a year ago, and now I am working part-time at St. Mungo's as a medi-witch. I would work full time, but I really want to spend time with Luke, he has been changing so much lately that I really hate to leave him even for a few hours because I'm afraid that when I get back that he will be all grown up!"
Blaise chuckled. "Speaking of Luke how is the little tyke?"
"Just fine! Growing like a weed, and he had his third birthday just last month." Hermione smiled, remembering the extravagant party that had been thrown by Harry, Ron, Ginny, and herself.
"Three already? Wow, time sure does fly."
"That it does," she replied, still lost in thought. "So what brings you back here?"
"Well, to be closer to the Ministry, obviously, and I was hoping that Luke could come and spend some quality time with his favorite godfather."
"I'm sure that he would like that a lot." Blaise grinned ear to ear.
Small talk pursued for the next hour. They reminisced about Hogwarts and talked very briefly about Draco, (a very touchy subject for the both of them) Ginny's never-ending man suggestions, and many other things. Their catching up only ended when the bartender rather angrily told them to buy another drink or get out.
"Do you want to come up to see Luke? He's probably up by now," Hermione said, glancing at her watch.
"No, I better get going, Kate is probably wondering where I am. I only meant to get a quick drink after leaving the office."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize-"
"Don't worry about it. Kate won't care once I tell her who I ran into. Well, I better get going." Blaise gave her a hug. "Take care of yourself."
"I will, you too." Hermione turned around and started to walk in the direction of her home. Suddenly she stopped, and yelled, "Blaise!"
He turned around to face her and yelled, "Yes?"
"Why don't you come over to dinner tonight, say seven? You can bring Kate too, I'm sure that everyone will be glad to see you two."
She saw him smile and he yelled, "Sounds good! See you then!"
"Bye!"
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Sure enough, as soon as the key was in the door to the apartment, the door was sort of violently opened and there stood a very sleep deprived looking Harry Potter. "Um, hi?" she expressed weakly.
"Don't you 'hi' me! Where were you? I was woken up by a devastated little boy wondering if his mother 'went to the same place Daddy went'! He probably woke up the whole building with his screams! Didn't you even leave a note?"
"Don't go biting my head off mister! I did leave a note, right here!" Hermione was quickly loosing her alcohol induced cool. (A/N: Yes, Hermione is what we call a lightweight.) She marched over to the kitchen table and took the note and shoved it in front of Harry's eyes. "Read it!"
Harry quickly scanned the note, his expression going from anger to embarrassment. He looked at her and muttered, "Sorry."
"What was that? I don't think I heard you right." She crossed her arms.
"I said sorry. Why couldn't you just have waited to go 'man-hunting' until another time when Ginny or I could come with?"
"Because, Harry, if you haven't noticed, men don't go after women who already have a man with them, and Ginny can't go anyplace fun because she is pregnant."
"I heard that!" came the voice of Ginny from another room.
"Besides," Hermione continued, ignoring her friend, "there are some things that I have to do on my own, Harry, and dating is one of them. I am a grown woman; I can take care of myself."
Harry was noticeably angry about the situation. Huffing, he crossed his arms too. "Well, did you have any success while on this little outing of yours?"
"No, but I did run into Blaise Zabini."
Harry's expression brightened. "And?"
"I invited him to supper tonight. He and Kate will be coming at seven."
"Great, we haven't seen them in a long time!"
"I know that's why I invited them. Plus, it is time that Luke met his godfather."
"Momma, what's a bob-father?" Luke walked into the room rubbing his eyes that were red and puffy.
Hermione suddenly had sympathy for Harry and Ginny. She had lots of experience in the art of Luke-calming, but Harry and Ginny had next to none. Picking up her son, Hermione corrected, "Godfather. It is a very special person that Mommy picked to watch over you when you were born. Would you like to meet him?"
The little boy eagerly nodded his head. Playing with Hermione's bushy brown hair, he asked, "Will he have candy like Uncle Ron?"
"I don't know," Hermione chuckled, "Maybe if you're good."
"Is he like Santa? Does he know if Luke has been bad or good?" He had the most serious look on his face.
Still laughing, Hermione said, "Not quite, honey, but maybe you should be good just incase."
Luke nodded his head again. "Can Luke have breakfast now?"
"Of course." Hermione scolded Harry with her eyes for not feeding him. He shot a look back that read, 'I TRIED!'
Luke struggled out of Hermione's arms and led her by her finger to the fridge. "Eggs!" he screeched in a very Malfoyish tone. He had certainly inherited his father's knack of giving commands.
"Alright, alright, I'm getting them," Hermione sighed. And thus began another long day in the life of Hermione Malfoy.
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By five o'clock that evening, Hermione felt like she had been run over by the Hogwarts Express. But, in reality, it was just another day of taking care of her overly energetic son who had used her body as a human jungle gym and practically ripped her fingers off during multiple trips to the kitchen for food, mostly cookies, which Hermione refused to give him over and over again which resulted in about ten ear-splitting tantrums throughout the day.
Thankfully, Ginny arrived home with James about five minutes before Hermione planned to commence ripping out her hair. Ginny was glowing (as always, lucky little prat) while Hermione was pasty looking and had bags the size of Jupiter under her eyes. Hermione quickly asked Ginny to watch Luke for her and ran to the bathroom and locked the door before Ginny could object.
She took a long shower, loving the way the hot water could wash away all the stress and relax her tense muscles. After getting out, Hermione changed into a dark pair of jeans and a pink button-up top with little flowers on it. She magically dried her hair with a drying charm and put on a little mascara.
Looking at her reflection, she decided that she may not look like much, but it was no reason she couldn't look nice. Smiling at herself, she took one last look in the mirror and went to the kitchen to make dinner.
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The doorbell rang at precisely seven. Hermione let Luke open the door; he had been practicing for the last twenty minutes, after realizing that he was tall enough to reach the knob. He jumped up and down and skipped to the door. She watched as he stood on his tiptoes and turned the handle, opening the door a crack and then running to Hermione, hiding behind her legs.
"Luke! What on earth are you doing? Is that any way to greet our guests? Come on in, Blaise, Kate!"
"Hermione!" Kate screamed, running to her. She gave Hermione an almost suffocating hug before rounding on Luke. "And this must be Luke! My, he does look exactly like his father, doesn't he?" She bent down and gave him a kiss on the forehead. Luke promptly hit her on the head.
"Luke! We don't hit!" Hermione chastised, "Kate, I am so sorry. He usually isn't like this."
"That's alright," she returned, rubbing her head.
"Luke does not like her! She kissed Luke! No one kisses Luke but Momma and Aunt Ginny!" Luke cried.
Hermione sighed. "I'm sorry."
Just then, she heard someone laughing. It was coming from behind a large box. "What is this?" she asked, looking at the box.
"Oh! This is Luke's birthday present. Sorry we missed his birthday," Kate replied as she looked at the box. It was big. Bigger than a refrigerator box big.
"Good lord! What did you get him, a car?"
"No, I thought that could wait until he is four," Blaise teased, coming out from the box.
"Oh, ha ha," Hermione said sarcastically.
Blaise ignored this and looked at the boy who was scowling behind Hermione. "And who is this?"
"Lucas Richard Malfoy. And who are you?"
He laughed again. "Blaise Michael Zabini, your godfather."
"He is my godfather?" Luke asked his mother, an expression of awe on his face. Hermione nodded. The little boy mouthed 'wow' and said, "I like him better than Uncle Ron! He has better presents!"
They all laughed. Luke was in a good mood again after seeing that his godfather was very generous. He ripped the paper off the present, opened the box and gasped. Inside were two little brooms and 6 goal posts. There was a separate box that was filled with all the balls associated with Quidditch, minus the Bludger.
"You guys, this is really too much!" Hermione breathed, looking at the present.
"Well you know it's never too early to start teaching Quidditch! He and James can play together."
"Thanks, Uncle Blaise!" Luke ran and gave him a hug.
"Your welcome."
Ginny walked into the room. She was carrying a very sleepy James with her. "What on earth?"
"Hey Ginny! Long time no see!" Blaise walked over and hugged her, Kate not far behind him.
It went on like this for the next twenty minutes, everyone getting reacquainted. Harry came home along with Ron and Luna.
They conversed lightly over dinner and everybody complimented Hermione on her cooking. For dessert, they had chocolate chip cookies (of course) and milk. Luke acted like he was attached to Blaise at the hip, mimicking everything that he did.
Hermione was glad that her son finally had someone to look up to.
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A/N: Well, it wasn't how I wanted to finish the chapter, but it is ok isn't it? Leave a review and tell me how you feel! And, as always, constructive criticism is welcome.
