"You named my son?!" she bellowed and pulled the baby closer to her bosom where he continued to slurp loudly and cutely.
"So, now you want him?" Draco feigned surprise and then sighed. "You were asleep, Granger. Mister and Misses X were gone. I had every right to name him, and you probably would have named him Harold or Ronny or something equally nauseating."
"I wasn't going to name him at all. That was the Xs' responsibility."
"Thus, why I sent them away. I accidently ran into them in the lobby. They were talking about naming him Ashley."
"They were not. And you just accidently ran into them in the lobby? I don't believe you, and my son will not be called Scorpius and definitely not a Malfoy. We are not married, and…you came up with the name awfully quick."
Draco shrugged and reached out to brush the tip of his finger against the roundness of his son's pillowed cheek pressed snugly against Hermione's chest.
"Don't worry too much over the Mr. and Mrs. X. I indirectly directed them near a room housing a fifteen year old girl who was out of her mind from all the potions they gave her after her birthing session. As for the naming of my son. I thought the situation called for a Black. Scorpius was an obvious choice seeing as how he is a November child."
"Well…" Hermione gave him a conflicted smile. "It's a nice name, but it shouldn't belong to my son."
"It's a good name, Granger," argued Draco. "He's my son, too, like I said."
"That's the thing, Malfoy. He is…but he's not really."
"Come again? What rubbish are you spouting? Trying to tell me this little moppet with blond hair and a penchant for pretty girl's breasts is not mine? I know what you're doing. Now that you've seen him, you want him and don't want to share."
"You're partially right," said Hermione, "but I'm not talking about ridding you of the baby's presence. I'm talking about how he doesn't belong in your world."
"My world?" He furrowed his brow. "If you are thinking about raising him in the Muggle World, then-"
"No. I didn't mean that. I meant the aristocratic, Pureblood world. I mean your family, Malfoy. He doesn't belong there. He wouldn't be accepted into your society. He would be an outcast among his peers."
"The picture you're painting is a lot harsher than it would be."
Hermione shook her head and pressed her lips together firmly. "Really? How would your parents take the news about this? How would anyone back in England take the news? I don't want this to be a public scandal. I just…I just want to be left alone. I want him," Hermione gestured to the baby, "to not be surrounded by what we grew up with. What you grew up with. It's a fine name, Draco, but it should be another boy's name at another time. You'll get married to someone else and have other children. What will you name them? Ashley? Harold? Ronny?"
Draco frowned at her and made a hand-wave gesture for her to scoot over. Not really wanting to and unsure if she even could, she shook her head.
"Yes," he insisted and Hermione grumbled and awkwardly shifted to her right while clinging to the baby. He had fallen asleep but wasn't letting go of her boob for anybody.
He molded himself to her side and maneuvered them both, so she was resting her head on shoulder. His fingers played with the springy strands of her hairline and she asked, "What are you doing?"
"We could, you know."
"We could do what?"
"Get married," he whispered, tugging gently on her hair with a transfixed gaze on her exposed breast and what was attached to it.
"He offered to marry you?" Blaise blinked owlishly. "Let me guess. He changed his mind."
"No, I never accepted," Hermione informed with a pained expression, a hint of regret sparkling in her eyes.
"Why not? You would've been set for life."
Hermione cut him off with a vexed glare. "I said no because I didn't love him. At least not right then." Blaise cocked an eyebrow at her answer and she waved a dismissive hand. "When Alex was born, Draco wanted to be in his life, and he thought the only way to be a permanent figure was to marry me. He didn't love me. He loved our son, and I told him he could be a part of his life, but…"
"…Scorpius will not be a part of yours. I won't allow it." Hermione folded her arms as she stood in the middle of the empty living room of her newly rented apartment. She jutted out her hip and sent him a 'listen to me or die' glare.
"That doesn't make sense, Granger," Draco whined and stared at Scorpius sleeping in his arms. "You're mum makes no sense."
"It makes perfect sense. You can come here and visit," Hermione's voice drifted throughout the flat as she walked down the hallway.
"But you can visit, too, when you come to England on holiday. It would be a good icebreaker for my parents to find out. We won't tell them. We'll show them! Perfect plan."
"I told you I didn't want them to know. I will not be returning to the UK," she said from the master bedroom.
"Ever?" he asked while he shuffled into the room behind her. "It's your home."
"It's a place where I lived for a long time, and I will not go back," she affirmed and stared out of the curtain-less window. Her bedroom had a nice view of Magical Salem, and she frowned. "This isn't right, Draco."
"Oh, dear," he groaned and looked at his sleeping son once more. "She's using my first name which means she's serious."
"I am serious." She rubbed her forehead tiredly. "This isn't right. It's not right for you to be paying for this flat. And for the furniture that will be arriving any minute."
"Let's not forget the Post-Partum Aerobics class I enrolled you in."
"I'll never forgive you for that."
"Sweetheart, I love a girl with meat on her, but-"
"Your son did this to me! I looked perfectly fine before."
"Actually, you were a bit too thin then. I mean, I was glad to have managed to seduce you…"
"I will kill you slow and bloody if you ever open your mouth again," Hermione threatened and then glowered at him before rushing into the adjoining bathroom and studying her reflection in the mirror. Twisting her body from left to right and craning her neck to scope out her extra packing, she morosely sighed.
"The weight will come off, love. Just keep breastfeeding and attending your tri-weekly classes."
"It's just…embarrassing I guess. I gained over forty pounds and lost only nine since giving birth. Your son made me eat horribly fattening things. I swear I ate up to eight times a day by the end of it. For a while there, my day would not be complete without a full serving of chili-cheese fries smothered in butter-caramel."
Draco blanched and shot a skeptic glance at his son. "Indeed?"
"I'm never getting pregnant again. I should've had them fix me while I was in the hospital." She walked over to him and took Scorpius and smooched the baby on the cheek. "I've got my baby, and now I'm good for the rest of ever."
The furniture arrived and Draco had murmured in irritation when Hermione had sent the furnishers away.
"It's their job to set up everything" Draco whined and grimaced at the unorganized stacks of the large boxes filling up the living room.
"They'll do it wrong." Hermione began to levitate a few boxes down the hallway and towards the nursery.
"Only if they don't follow instructions."
"I've come to find doing projects myself means it only has to be done once," Hermione snootily informed and gently placed boxes down in the middle of the nursery, which did not look like one at all. She frowned at the plain white walls and tapped her wand on her chin pensively and then smiled slyly at Draco.
"What are you thinking about?" he asked carefully.
Hermione waved her wand around the room, the plain white walls darkening to a scarlet red with golden, lion-shaped imprints. Draco goggled in horror at his new surroundings and protectively snuggled Scorpius closer into his chest. "I don't think I'll leave you here. You're mum is barmy."
"Hush you. I think it's sweet," she said lightly and lifted her nose up in the air.
"It's dastardly, and you will scar your child forever."
"And what would you put on the walls, Malfoy? Hmm?"
He quirked his lips and handed her Scorpius and waved his wand about, and Hermione rolled her eyes at what he had done.
"Yes, you are right, Draco. Red walls and yellow lions are so much worse than dark green walls and silver imprints of snakes that are not only moving, but are hissing, as well. Scorpius will grow up to a right, fit boy with sociopathic tendencies. I can see it plainly." She waved her wand and removed the green and the snakes and replaced it with a soft blue hue with white imprints of Mickey Mouse heads.
"I don't get it." Draco shook his head at the color and patterns.
"This is what my nursery looked like when I was a baby, except my walls were pink. This is perfect for Scorpius."
"Almost." Draco twirled his wand and the Mickey Mouse heads formed into the shapes of scorpions and animated them to silently snap their pinchers and crawl around.
"It will do, I guess. Open that box over there. Yes that one. I think that's the changing table. Your son needs to be changed."
Once the nursery was set up, Hermione made Draco levitate more of the boxes from the living room and into the master bedroom. He quickly set up the bed, and she shifted the baby in her arms with a wrinkled forehead.
"That's a big bed. Is that a king size? I don't need a king size, Malfoy. A simple queen would have sufficed. It'll just be me and sometimes the baby."
"It better just be you and Scorpius," Draco stated hotly while magically dressing the bed with emerald rich sheets and a silver comforter with matching pillows.
"And I didn't pick those colors. I told you I wanted the beige and brown patterns."
"Those are mood killers, Granger. When I come and visit, I want to have you without being turned off by your bad taste."
Hermione snorted which turned into an incredulous cackle. "You're not having me again, so you just wasted money."
"Oh, I'll have you," he promised with a wicked gleam in his eyes. "I'll be showing my dashing arse come Christmas. I remember the healer saying you should be healed by then. I asked, you know?"
"You would." Hermione rolled her eyes and opened another box, the corner of her lips tugging upwards when revealing the contents. She levitated the bassinet parts and assembled with a swish of her wand.
"Shouldn't that be in with the nursery?" asked Draco.
"I want Scorpius in here with me during the night." She spared him a glance. "When he cries, he won't have to for long because I'll be right next to him."
Draco gave her a funny look. "That's odd. He has his own room. You should put him in it."
"It's not odd," defended Granger, a bit puzzled by his response. "A lot of mothers keep their newborn babies right next to them, even if the babies have their own room."
"My mother didn't do that. Pansy's mother didn't do that. I don't know of any mother who has done that."
"Well, my mother did, and it's perfectly normal in the Muggle World to do so. And what do you mean your mother and everyone else's put you in a nursery and leave you there for the night. What if you cried? How would they know unless they heard you?"
"The house-elf would…Oh…"
Hermione narrowed her eyes and marched over to him and snatched Scorpius. "I don't have one of those nor would I ever want one. I will take care of my child as I see fit. I don't want any of your weird, matronly Pureblooded traditions shoved down my throat."
"Believe me, I won't," Draco said with a horrified expression. "If you followed the tradition, you would have hired a wet nurse, and I wouldn't get to watch you do something incredibly sexy."
"You're a sarmy pig, Malfoy." Hermione cuddled her son closer to her chest and smiled down at him when he shifted a bit in her arms and pressed his mouth to the underside of her breast and slobbered and sucked on the material of her polo, tiny whimpering sounds coming softly out of his mouth.
"Speaking of." Draco waggled his eyebrows and grinned toothily at her.
She would have glared at him, but Scorpius's whimpers were turning into hunger cries, so she hurriedly placed herself on the bed and lifted and separated all that was needed.
"Ooooh, somebody was hungry, huh?" she cooed down at her baby and then felt the bed shift behind her and a weight resting on her shoulder. "I'm so sorry your daddy is a big pervert who can't keep his eyes and hands to himself. You won't grow up to be such an icky prat, will you?"
A laughing rumble vibrated through her shoulder, and she turned her head to look at him. He had his nose and mouth buried into her shoulder and was staring at their son and her breast like he said he would.
Feeling a crick in her neck and back, Hermione decided to lie down when switching breasts, resting her tired body against the soft mattress and pillows and Draco followed suit, nestling closely to her body.