As the group met at the park with all the necessary equipment Draco shared a quick greeting with Mr. Granger. As they set off to the pond, Richard explained to Draco exactly what they would be doing, and how important it was to be patient. Draco did not seem thrilled with the idea.

As Draco and Mr. Granger set up and Draco threw out his first line, Mrs. Granger took a few amusing pictures of Draco looking incredibly bored. Hermione had settled against a tree with a book. After 5 minutes, Draco looked at Mr. Granger suspiciously,

"Are you sure this is going to work?"
"Yes, Draco," he chuckled, "I do it all the time."

"If you say so, sir."

After half an hour, Draco was about ready to give up when he felt a tug on his line. He immediately yelled to Mr. Granger that he felt something. Immediately, the adults were ready for action, Mrs. Granger ready with the camera. Mr. Granger tried to calm Draco down, seeing the panicked look on his face. Richard walked Draco through how to reel in the fish, but by the time it was shallow enough to see, the hook was empty. Mr. Granger consoled Draco,

"It happens to the best of us, Draco."

Draco, however, was pouting. They decided that was enough fishing for one day. By the time they had returned to the park, Draco had finished pouting.

"Thanks, Mr. Granger, for taking me fishing. It was pretty cool. Would have been better if I caught something, though," Draco mumbled the last bit.

"Of course, Draco. We can do this every few days, if you'd like."
"I'd really like that, sir. I should probably be going home soon, though. You don't have to wait for me."

"Sure, son. See you in a few days."

"Bye, Draco. I'm sure you'll catch something someday soon." Hermione hugged Draco goodbye.

"Thanks, 'Mione, maybe I'll catch something for my birthday."

"What?" Hermione yelped, "When's your birthday?"

"In three days."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she accused.

"Sorry, I've never really done anything on my birthday."

"Well, I'm changing that." Hermione declared. "How old are you turning?"

"I'll be seven."

"Wow, I'm older than you? That explains why I'm smarter."

"Hey, you are not!"

"Yes, I am."
"Well…I'm taller. So there!"
"Nice save, Draco." Draco stuck his tongue out at her.

"Whatever," He pouted.

"Oh, it's alright, Dragon. You're almost as smart as me. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye 'Mione."

"Bye, Draco."

Every day after that until his birthday Draco met with Hermione, playing and talking. On the day of his birthday, Draco was pleasantly surprised when he was greeted by all the Grangers. Hermione told him that they would be going back to her house.

"Really? What are we doing?"

"You'll see" Hermione grinned mischievously.

Draco practically bounced on his way to Hermione's house. He had never done anything for his birthday before. Once inside, he saw there were 2 presents for him, as well as decorations and cake. He looked joyously at the Grangers gathered together, watching his reaction. Mrs. Granger had the camera out once again.

"Thank you. Thank you so much!"

"This was all Hermione," Mr. Granger said.

"Thanks, Mimi." Draco practically skipped over to Hermione and kissed her on the cheek. Both children looked away quickly, blushing. They missed the flash going off in the background.

"Do you want to open your present or have cake first?" Mrs. Granger asked kindly.

"Cake, please, Mrs. Granger."

"Right this way, Draco. I hope you like chocolate cake."
"I love it, thanks," Draco answered, eyes shining in anticipation.

As Draco practically drowned in cake, he looked up to see Hermione silently laughing at him.

"What?" He gulped down his cake with huge swallows.

"It's just," Hermione laughed, "you always seem all put together and you're never messy. And now you're eating like a regular boy! And a messy boy!"

Draco erupted into laughter as well. When the giggling had stopped enough that it was safe to eat once more, he began eating at much slower pace.

"I sincerely hope you did not insult my gentlemanly manners, 'Mione ," Draco responded with a false sense of superiority.

"Oh, I'd never," came the sarcastic response.

When the children were stuffed and had cleaned up the sticky mess all over their hands and faces, Hermione declared it to be present time. Draco noticed she seemed rather proud of herself and was curious as to what he would get.

The first box he opened was small and contained 2 string bracelets, obviously made by Hermione. The bracelets were matching and braided. Draco looked up curiously,

"Did you get me a girl's bracelet?"
Hermione huffed. "Actually," she responded snootily, "it's a friendship bracelet. And I made it blue so it's not for a girl or a boy." Hermione continued her explanation, "there's one for each of us. We can wear them all the time and its really long now so you can wear it forever. We just have to tighten it a lot now."
"Wow, 'Mione, thanks!" He started to put on the bracelet and asked Hermione to tie it for him. It was rather difficult to knot; Hermione was focusing so hard her tongue slightly stuck out the side of her mouth. Draco studied Hermione with a small smile on his face as he watched her.

Eventually, Hermione accomplished tying the bracelet into a knot and Draco returned the favor.

"There, now we have proof that we're friends forever."

Draco's face was flushed with pleasure as he thought of the promise Hermione had made real by giving him the bracelet. He thanked Hermione once again and turned towards the remaining present. He slowly tore the wrapping paper off what he could only assume was a book. He was right, of course Hermione would get him a book. But this was no ordinary book, it was a scrapbook made by the Granger women. Opening the first page, he saw a note written in silver glitter by Hermione.

Happy birthday Draco. I decided to make you a book because you're really hard to shop for. Its full of pictures of us. I hope you like it!

Your best friend always,

Hermione

It had her signature, HG, at the bottom in gold glitter.

"Wow, 'Mione, this is amazing!"

"You haven't even looked at the pictures yet, silly," Hermione reminded him.

"I'm getting there. No need to be impatient, geesh!" But his words were softened by his teasing smile.

He opened to the first page and saw it was full of pictures he had no idea Mrs. Granger had taken. Apparently, Linda Granger was always ready with her polaroid camera. The first picture must have been one of the first days they were friends, a picture from behind of them sitting on the swings together. There were a few pictures together on a page of them at their park which Hermione had labeled at the bottom, "Ro Park." There was also a picture of them sitting in the grass, holding hands as they shared a book.

The next page were pictures of Hermione opening Draco's present on her birthday. The pictures showed her first opening it and looking at the rose in awe. Next, there was one of her reading the note and beaming, and ended with a picture of Hermione clutching the rose to her chest and smiling at the camera.

This was the first time Draco had seen Hermione's reaction to her gift from him; at seeing her joy, his face filled with pride. He was glad Hermione's parents had thought to take pictures. He loved looking at the pictures of him and Hermione and knew he would never separate with it.

Then came a page on Christmas. There was a picture of the four of them that he remembered posing for; Mrs. Granger had taken a while to fiddle with the timer on the camera. After that was a picture of Hermione opening her present, Draco opening his fishing pole and looking at it in confusion, and gazing wonderingly at the scarf.

Turning the page again, he saw 2 pages filled with pictures of their fishing adventure. There was a picture of himself looking extremely bored and looking at the fishing pole, one of the excitement he felt as he thought he caught a fish, and him pouting over the false alarm with Mr. Granger consoling him. The last picture was of Draco holding his fishing pole and reading over Hermione's shoulder as they waited for the adults to collect the equipment.

The final completed page was just one picture of Hermione and Draco concentratedly staring at Linda Granger's obviously rounded stomach. This had taken place only a few days ago when the children were trying to come up with good baby names.

Draco was speechless. This was amazing for the chatty and rather arrogant seven year old. "I…wow. Thank you! This is amazing. I never even noticed you taking most of these pictures Mrs. Granger. And 'Mione, you made this?! I love your captions and titles."
All throughout the book Hermione had made teasing and witty comments about what had happened that day and given titles. Draco was so used to getting so many material presents that meant nothing, he wasn't even sure how to approach thanking them.

"I don't even know what to say."

"You're welcome, Draco. And happy birthday. It was really fun to make. And I made a copy too, so that we both have one."

"How about we add the pictures from today, kids?" Mrs. Granger added.

"Oh, were you taking pictures, Mum? Can I see?"

Mrs. Granger quickly assembled the pictures she had taken and made sure there were copies of each to add to both books. The next page in the scrapbook was already decorated with the title 'Draco's Birthday' in glitter, of course.

Mrs. Granger helped lay out the pictures in order and glue them down. First, there was a picture of Draco looking around the room in pleased shock. Then, a picture of Draco stuffing his face and Hermione laughing. Next to that picture, a photo of Hermione tying Draco's bracelet with her tongue out and Draco laughing. Finally, a picture of Draco kissing Hermione's cheek and both blushing a bit.

Draco spent the rest of the day with the Grangers. As they talked about baby names, Draco offered the name Leo. Draco's mother had a family tradition of giving constellation names. He wanted to give Hermione's brother a constellation name, but still not a name that was too odd that he would grow to hate. The Grangers loved the name, including Hermione. Draco loved that his family tradition was being included in the Granger family. Hermione thought Draco looked rather proud of himself when they all agreed that Leo was a great name. The Grangers decided to make his middle name Richard, after Mr. Granger of course.

"When is Leo going to be here, Mrs. Granger?" Draco asked.

"Not too long, Draco. No more than a month," Linda replied.

"I can't wait to meet Leo. I never liked being an only child," Draco said, shyly. "You're really lucky, Mimi. I've always wanted a brother."

"Yeah, I am pretty lucky. He'll be like your brother too though."

"I hope so. But I'll miss him during the year, when Mother and Father aren't too busy to not notice I'm gone every day."

The Grangers exchanged another sad look. They really wanted to meet the Malfoy parents and give them a stern talking to. They had such a sweet boy that they showed absolutely no affection to. They didn't know how the boy had turned out so sweet.

"Well, Draco, we love having you visit whenever you can."

As the afternoon quickly waned, Draco realized he needed to head back to the park.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Mr., Mrs. Granger. Bye, Mimi. Thanks for the best birthday ever!"

Draco looked forward to fishing again with Mr. Granger on the weekend, though it was only Friday. No matter, he would still be able to meet Hermione every day. Draco made sure to keep the scrapbook close to him as Dobby apparated him back to the manor. He quickly put the book under the floorboard in his closet that he knew his parents didn't know about, as this was where he hid his muggle books. Draco couldn't wait until he could get his wand and could lock it properly. He already knew quite a few spells but couldn't practice them because his father wouldn't let him anywhere near his wand and he couldn't have his own until he was eleven. He really couldn't wait to be eleven and be able to learn real magic. He had heard a lot about Hogwarts and Durmstang, and though his father always ranted and raved about Dumbledore, Draco thought he would really like the old wizard. He really hoped he would get to go to Hogwarts and meet other kids his age.

But for now, that was a long way off. And he fell asleep that night dreaming about baby brothers and Hogwarts.