Draco pulled his silver and green scarf closer around his neck as he waited. The weather was finally turning cooler and the leaves turning colors. Quidditch weather, he thought with a wistful sigh. He looked back up the street towards the brick wall, still no sign of them.
He had gotten a letter from his aunt earlier in the week. She had an appointment at Gringotts bank and she was wondering if Draco would walk Teddy around Diagon Alley while she was there. Draco still wasn't sure why he had said yes, it was unlike him, he probably just needed an excuse to get out of the house, to take his mind off his study.
"Sorry!" A voice called from his left. His aunt and Teddy appeared through the brick wall. "Couldn't find his scarf!" Andromeda explained as they walked up. Teddy broke away from his aunt and launched himself at Draco. "Uncle Draco!"
Draco took the impact with practiced ease. "Cousin Draco." He corrected uselessly.
"Thanks again for watching him." His aunt brushed her hair out of her face. "Harry's at work and Ginny has her hands full with the baby."
"It's no problem, Aunt Andromeda." Draco replied, prying Teddy off his leg.
Andromeda looked at her watch. "I have to go!" She bent down and kissed Teddy's forehead. "No pets." She waved goodbye and hurried down the street.
Draco looked down at Teddy who looked up and grinned. What exactly were you supposed to do with a young child?
"What's your favorite shop?" Draco finally asked.
"Wheezy!" Came the enthusiastic reply.
"Of course it is." Draco muttered. "Come on then." He started in the direction and Teddy, probably by habit, reached up and took his hand.
Draco immediately snatched his hand away, panicked. Then a vision of losing Teddy and the impending wrath of his aunt flashed across his mind, she looked disturbingly like aunt Bella. "Look, um, why don't you hold my coat?" Draco muttered.
Teddy grabbed a handful of his pocket and nodded.
"Alright then." Draco sighed, let's go."
Their trip to the Weasley store wasn't as direct and Draco thought it would be, anything remotely colorful or shiny caught Teddy's attention and dragged him along like a magnet. They found themselves zig-zagging to just about every shop window in the alley, Teddy excitedly pointing out something in each one. Draco couldn't help looking a bit longing himself at the quidditch store, the new Firebolts looked so sleek.
"A real bwoom." Teddy said with reverence.
Draco glanced down at him. "I'm pretty sure your grandma would kill me if we bought one of those for you." He said with a dry chuckle. "She still a Black, after all."
They finally made it to the joke shop which was bustling with people.
Teddy looked at all the brightly colored items with wide eyes. Draco smiled slightly and gave a long-suffering sigh. "Alright, two things, that's it."
Teddy looked up at him like he was Father Christmas before running to the shelves with a squeak.
Draco poked at a purple fuzzball which looked back with small black eyes. "Who buys these things?" He wondered under his breath.
"Didn't think this was your type of shop." Someone said behind him.
He spun around to see a grinning Hermione and George Weasley.
"You're in luck, Malfoy! George said. "All new customers get a free balding hex today, guaranteed to last a lifetime!"
Hermione elbowed him in the ribs. "What are you doing here?" She asked Draco.
Draco was saved the answer as Teddy ran up, his arms full.
Draco gave him a hard look and raised an eyebrow. "Count with me, Teddy. Ooooone, Twoooo." He held up two fingers.
Teddy looked disappointed that his ruse had failed.
"Here, Teddy." George put a guiding hand on his back. "I'll help you pick out the perfect things to use on Unkie Dwaco."
Draco scowled after them and then turned his annoyance on Hermione. "Do you have a tracking charm on me or something?"
She rolled her eyes. "Hardly. I live here."
"In Diagon Alley?" He asked in surprise.
"In this shop actually, there's a small flat above it. George was kind enough to offer it to me when he moved out."
"Oh." Draco went back to poking the purple fuzzball for lack of anything else to do. He didn't want to bring up what had happened last time. At least her hair was back to normal, he could look at her without feeling unusually nervous.
"Taking a day with Teddy?" Hermione finally broke the tension.
"Aunt Andromeda had business at the bank and asked me to watch him."
On cue, Teddy ran up, holding two suspiciously large boxes. "Oooone, twooooo!" He grinned in triumph.
"Uh huh." Draco cast a suspicious look at George who was ringing up the boxes. "Well, can't argue with that logic, you'll be a Slytherin yet."
He paid and they left, George and Teddy furiously winking at each other. Hermione, to Draco's annoyance, left with them. She busied herself wrapping her Gryffindor scarf around herself.
"Going somewhere?" Draco asked lazily.
"The bookshop. I have a new interview this weekend and I need to read up on the department."
"I'm surprised you haven't gotten a job yet." Draco drawled. "Top of the class and everything."
"I've had a few offers." She admitted. "Just nothing that really interests me."
Draco opened his mouth to reply when a voice behind him distracted him.
"Well, well, Malfoy."
He turned to see his old Slytherin classmate, Blaise Zabini. "Zabini." He returned.
Zabini's eyes looked them over. "Well, looks like the Malfoy name doesn't mean much anymore." His tone cold as he looked from Draco to Hermione. "Taken up with the mudblood have you?" His eyes fell to the blonde-haired Teddy. "And got busy it seems. Must have been disgusting work, making that thing." He nodded to Teddy. Draco felt Teddy shift until he was hiding behind Draco's leg. Draco's jaw tightened.
"Would have made me ill." Zabini turned his eyes back to Hermione, he looked like he was inspecting a house-elf. "She's hardly worth muddling the bloodline for." His expression distasteful. Hermione had turned white and pink all at once, temper crackling in her eyes. Zabini turned to walk away ."How the mighty have fallen. And you call yourself a Slytherin pureblood." He gave the parting shot over his shoulder as he walked into a side alley.
Draco didn't even hear the last part, the blood pounding in his ears was too loud. He picked up Teddy and handed him to Hermione, not looking away from where Zabini had gone. "Watch him for me." He said lowly and he followed.
Draco didn't hear her reply, didn't bother checking, his tunnel vision ahead of him as he walked briskly for the alley. Zabini never had a chance, by the time he heard the footsteps and turned around, Draco already had his wand out. "Petrificus totalus!" Draco hissed. Zabini collapsed on the ground. "Muffliato." Draco growled, then he cracked his knuckles.
It wasn't a fair fight, Slytherins didn't fight fair, they fought to win. Draco causally and easily broke his nose, split his lip, blacked an eye, cracked a few ribs and dislocated a shoulder. One of the benefits of being a healer was knowing how to hurt people easily and quickly. Zabini could only stare at him, half in hate, half in pain.
"Now then." Draco wiped his bleeding knuckles on a handkerchief and crouched down so his face was close to Zabini's. "If I ever hear you insult me, my blood, my family including my cousin, or that witch again." Draco dropped the bloody cloth on him. "I won't leave you breathing next time." He hissed menacingly. Draco stood up and walked away, releasing the curse only when he was in the main street again. He walked back to Hermione who was holding Teddy's hand, looking anxiously down towards the alley. She slumped with relief as she caught sight of Draco walking back.
"What happened?" She asked breathlessly.
Draco took one of Teddy's hands in his own, picked up the bag with his other and put it on Hermione's back ushering her forward. "Just saying hello."
"Uncle Draco, you have an owie." Teddy touched one of Draco's bleeding knuckles with a finger.
Draco tried not to wince at the sting. "Hit the alley wall, clumsy of me."
Hermione was looking at his hands in alarm. "Draco, you-"
"Not now." He said softly.
She bit her lip and looked around. "At least let me fix it."
"You don't need to-"
"Teddy! Ice cream?" Hermione interrupted.
Draco suddenly found himself yanked to the right with the power of a child who was promised ice cream.
A few minutes, they were seated inside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. Teddy was happily making a mess with his cone and Hermione was digging through a small, beaded purse. Draco watched her search, for such a small bag it was taking a long time. She finally pulled out a bottle of dittany and a clean cloth.
She held out a hand for Draco's. He frowned at her for a moment, she frowned back stubbornly and made an insisting motion with her hand. He begrudgingly put his hand in hers. It stung a bit, but she was gentle as she dabbed the potion on the split skin.
"Honestly, men, the lot of you, can't settle things civilly." She was muttering under her breath.
"You would have done worse if you got to him first." Draco smiled slightly. "Who gave Marietta Edgecomb disfiguring ache for two years?"
Hermione's ears turned pink and she dabbed busily. "I thought healers took an oath of protection and healing." She switched tactics.
"I make exceptions." Draco said lightly.
She put down his hand and motioned for his other one. Draco inspected his healed hand, the skin was neatly closed and pink. He leaned over and ruffled Teddy's hair, "No one insults my cousin and gets away with it."
Teddy gave him a innocent, ice cream covered smile.
"You…" He looked back over at Hermione. She was looking at him curiously, still holding his hand in hers. "You continue to be…" She squinted slightly, trying to find the right word. "Interesting." She finally decided.
Draco stared back at her, aware how warm her hand felt. "I'd hate to be boring." He slid his hand away, flexing the new skin. "Thanks for the help."
She corked the potion and put it back in her bag. "Anytime."
"Aunt Hermione, what's a mudblood?" Teddy asked suddenly, curiosity on his young face.
"It's a bad word that will get your mouth hexed with soap if your grandma hears you say it." Draco said before Hermione could open her mouth. "The correct term to call Aunt Hermione is an insufferable know-it-all." A ghost of a smiled passed over his lips.
Teddy's face screwed up in concentration as he tried to remember the whole thing. "Know-all."
"Close enough."
Hermione caught his eyes and gave him an exasperated glare. He gave a half-smile in return.
"There you are!" The bell on the door jingled and Andromeda walked in. "Done at last! Did you have a good time, Teddy?" She looked his messy face over. "Looks like you did."
"It went well. We bought an owl and toad." Draco stretched his arms out over his head.
Aunt Andromeda smacked him teasingly on the shoulder. "Just like your mother." She chuckled.
Draco stopped mid-stretch. "My mother?"
Andromeda sat in the chair across from him and smiled. "She was always the serious one of us, usually. She had her moments though, hexed all the sheets in the boy's dormitory to short-sheet them in the middle of the night." She laughed at the memory. "They never figured it out."
Draco blinked in surprise, he had never heard of this side of his rather tight-laced mother. "She never told me."
Andromeda smiled at him. "Never told your father either, he would have been furious. He spent half the year trying to track the trickster down."
Draco felt the uncomfortable knot in his stomach. He looked down at the table, concentrating on the grain of the wood.
"Would you like tea, Draco?" His aunt broke into his concentration. "At our house of course."
Draco glanced up at his aunt who smiled softly. "I could tell you more."
Draco's fingernails pressed into his palm and his jaw tightened, willing himself to stay in control. "I.."
Someone nudged him from the side. Hermione leaned over close and whispered in his ear, "Go on, Garden snake."
He inhaled a slow breath before releasing his hands. "Sure, that would be nice."
Andromeda looked surprised but pleased. "Well then, Teddy." She held out a hand as she stood up. "Let's get going."
They all stood up, Teddy taking one of Draco's hands instead, who numbly let it be.
Hermione waved goodbye and walked into the bookshop next door. Draco watched her go, the pain in his chest flaring up unexpectedly. He massaged it with a grimace.
"Are you alright?" His aunt asked watching him.
"Yeah. Just….interesting."
