Sorry it's been a little while, here is another chapter!
First worries and doubts
"They were all just too small, too much energy and noise." Draco explained, days after the awkward dinner, sitting with Hermione in his apartment.
"But did you like the kids, don't they just remind you of their parents, so cute, Lucy especially, but I think she is more Luna than Ron. Poor guy, I bet he's hoping the next one is a boy."
"You and the weasel were pretty chummy over dinner the other night. Isn't it awkward for you guys, having been a couple once and all?"
It had been all in the newspapers how two of the golden trio got together after the war and that they broke up as well. Draco hadn't been completely off the grid for the last five years.
"He has a name you know! And we are friends, it wasn't a...bad breakup."
Hermione shifted uneasily on the couch next to Draco. He had been sort of quieter than usual since the dinner and Hermione had just been waiting for him to say something about it, tell her what he was thinking about, she had learnt already in the two months since they had been together that he tended to mull things over before he spoke nowadays, so different to all their school year together with his throwing around insults whenever he thought of them. But this was not what she expected.
"Why?"
"Why do the kids look like their parents? Really, Draco did you never hear about the birds and the bees?" Hermione shifted so that she could look up at him, with a smirk that she hoped would make him proud, but still trying to avoid an awkward topic of conversation.
"What, birds and the." He sighed, giving up on that expression muttering something about muggles and their weird sayings. "No, why didn't you two stay together, I mean, everyone thought you would."
Hermione only answered after a moment's hesitation and a defeated sigh. "It was the war." They were silent for a moment, both reliving a little of that dark and dreadful time. "It changed a lot of people, us included. Yes, we admitted that we both liked each other, we gave it a go, but in the end we both figured out that neither one of us could help the other. We were both haunted by the memories, Ron was the one that broke it off, he said he needed someone who didn't have nightmares the same as him, someone who he could rely on to keep him sane without further burdening themselves."
"And so he chose Luna Lovegood to keep him sane?" they both went silent for a minute contemplating, and then their laughter filled the quiet evening.
"Well, I suppose he fell in love. Good for him, it's more than I could say for myself."
Draco stared down at her as she went quiet. How he wished he could just hold her close and never let her go. It was the strangest thing when he was with her. But he had to show more restraint than that.
"But their children are so cute, I'm so glad I am James godmother, or I might have lost contact with them, I wouldn't have had a connection to them anymore. But weren't the children just so cute, I love them to pieces."
He couldn't just tell her that love had finally found her, that she could stop wishfully rambling about all that her friends had, that soon she could have her own household full of children, just like them.
"Do you like kids?" Hermione asked looking up at him, then her face turned bright red and she turned away from him. "Never mind, don't answer that."
Hermione sorely wished that she could share all of her dreams with this hulk of a man but she made it her policy that she would do everything the slightly old fashioned way, the man has to make the first move, it was also more romantic that way. But the way he had reacted to the kids she was really worried that he may never want some of his own, would never connect to them, or know how to from his own childhood experience.
Draco looked down at the woman in his arms and the first worries began to race around his head, maybe he couldn't be the one to give her these dreams, he was the bully that made her life a living hell throughout Hogwarts. Maybe one day they would fight and old memories would come up again, maybe he would slip into old habits and hurt her too much to mend the tentative bond they were beginning to form. Maybe he should just quit while he was ahead.
All of these thoughts crowded in and began to cloud his judgement. When she looked up at him he could barely control himself. He claimed her lips in a passionate kiss that somehow conveyed what neither one of them could say out loud.
When they pulled apart for air his head was clear of all reasonable thought, "time to make up for putting me through that awful dinner," he whispered
"Hmm, not tonight!" Hermione jumped up, pecked him on the cheek and apparated back to her own apartment before he could make a grab for her again.
"I'll get you for that witch!" Draco promised to thin air.
So I hope you liked it! Next chapter will be another present day one! yay!
