Yes, it has been quite awhile, but like I've said before, life is hectic. I know that this story isn't amazing quality and is not hard to write, but I don't have the time to write any of it. I know what is going to happen—exactly—but it takes something that I don't have to actually take things from memory to the computer screen. But I do hope that this chapter satisfies your hunger for awhile, that is… until I can get the time to complete chapter eleven. But I'm off for the rest of today and all of tomorrow, but I have a test at night tomorrow, so I'll see what I can get done.

Yet again, a big thanks goes out to all of those who have taken a few minutes out of their busy day to read my story and then even leave a comment about it. It really means a lot to me to know that a few certain people do enjoy this. So don't worry, this story will keep on going even if the count goes down to only one review. But please, don't let that be an excuse to not share your thoughts about this story with me.

Chapter Ten
Unexpected Surprise

A month had gone by since Draco and Hermione had officially become an item again. The brunette had continued to take care of Alyson every weekday and then would go to spend time with the two blondes during the weekend. Even though only a short time had gone by, Hermione felt like she had her own family, even though Alyson wasn't a child to call her own.

Draco and Hermione had only gone out into Wizarding Britain twice since their last date, but the news of the couple had spread like the Dragon Plague of 1602. For the most part, everyone congratulated them and accepted their relationship. But they still received some dirty looks because they thought that the owner of The Daily Prophet could have done better. And that was the reason why they resorted to staying around Draco's house or the park down the street within his neighbourhood. And this time, they were finally going out.

The Saturday morning sun was still shining brightly and burning as hot as it should have been in the summertime. It was a gorgeous day outside with the sky being clear of most white puffs of clouds and the grass a deep green colour.

It had been Hermione's idea to spend the day with Alyson outdoors, and Draco proposed to invite Blaise and Pansy along. Since it was only a bit after nine in the morning, the two lovebirds were still waiting for the other three members of the group to show up for breakfast. Alyson had stayed with her Auntie Pansy again the night before because they had attended a show for Flames the Magical Dragon—Alyson's favourite comic in her weekly children's magazine.

"You can't feed a child sugar for breakfast," Hermione lectured, taking away the candy from Draco's hand. "She'd be hyperactive all day and would go without her nap."

"But she loves donuts," he countered.

"Do you want your little girl going wild all day long?"

"No… but she'll be upset. She loves her dough with glaze weighing it down."

"She's only five years old, Draco. You can't give her everything she wants because she's not the one to decide what's right for her."

"Fine then, what do you suggest we serve for breakfast?" Draco thought it was an absolute outrage that for the first time ever he himself had to prepare their morning meal. He didn't have the slightest idea how to fix up food. That's why he had Hermione help him out.

"How about some fruit so she can still get some sugar, and I can teach you how make some amazing omelettes?" she responded with a huge smile.

Without waiting for an answer, Hermione got to work preparing the ingredients to make the omelettes before the rest of their party showed up.

After the meal was finished off with a glass of orange juice for Alyson and a round of coffee for everyone else, they prepared to head off to the zoo for the beginning of the day. Alyson had argued that she had already been to the Wizarding Zoo plenty of times, but never to the muggle one. So with Draco grinning like the mad child Hermione imagined him to be, he agreed.

Knowing that all five of them couldn't just apparate to the front gates, Hermione had arrived at Draco's place that morning with her car so she could drive them there. None of the other four had ever been in a muggle contraption of the sort before, so they were sort of sceptical about stepping foot into it. All except Alyson, she had hopped straight into the front seat without any hesitation.

"Come on, Daddy! We're gonna be late!" Aly begged her father to get in.

"Fine, but you can't sit in the front. How about letting Pansy sit there with Hermione?" He had no intention of letting go of his daughter for even a split second that day for the fear of losing one of the most important things in his life. Even if was to sit in the back of the car with her aunt and uncle.

"No!" she whined. "I want to sit with Hermione! You can sit with auntie and uncle." She crossed her arms over her chest and tucked her feet under her bottom as if trying to tell her father to defy her wishes.

Draco caught Hermione's cold stare, silently telling him to take control and not give in. He needed to be a father, not her best friend. He got down on his knees on the hard concrete so he could be eye level with Aly.

"I'm sorry honey, but we're going to have to sit in the back. You're not old enough to be up here. You can sit right in between your Uncle Blaise and me, how does that sound?" he asked, brushing his hand through the hair left hanging out of the ponytail Hermione had put her hair in, trying to sound sympathetic. No, wait, he actually was sympathizing with her.

Her eyes started glazing over, and she flashed her puppy eyes and pouting lips towards Draco. "Bu—Bu— But, I wanna sit where the big people sit!" She squeezed tighter onto Gumpfrey, whom she had brought along with her, and looking pleadingly into her father's eyes.

"Sweetie, us guys are big people too, and we're going to sit in the back." Was it possible that he was insulted by his own daughter's words that he wasn't as 'big' and his girlfriend and best-friend were? Of course, his face had become flushed.

"Fine, let me put it this way! I want to sit with Auntie and Hermione!"

"Don't you start getting sassy with me young lady," Draco fought back, his nerves about to explode right then and there. He had never gotten angry at Alyson before, but that was the moment that he realised that Hermione had been right. Aly had been running all over him and controlling him, and he needed to take that hold back or it would be too late. "If you don't shape up, then we'll not be going to the zoo, you got that," he replied sternly, seriously trying to get his point across.

With his final demand, Aly got up slowly by pushing herself off of the seat, and with her lip still quivering she got into the back seat, sitting next to her Uncle followed by her father. Pansy then hopped into the front seat without saying a word, but a slight smile was noticeable on her face. She was proud that her friend finally had the guts to set the order back around to the way it should have been.

After telling everyone to put their seatbelts on—and then explaining what they were and their purpose—Hermione started the car and drove off towards the direction of the London Zoo.

Twenty minutes later and no spoken words from Draco's mouth—probably from shock—they all arrived in one piece in the parking lot. Blaise was still thought it amazing that they were able to travel with a muggle contraption, and not end up being splinched, maybe losing a finger or even a leg. For that, they were all thankful. So to not ruin their excitement, Hermione decided to leave out information on car crashes…

Even though she felt a bit sceptical about having wizards with her in muggle territory, Hermione felt a little bit of pride and power running through her. She was the only one in the group who knew what was going on, and she liked the feeling of being on top of things. It was also a bit off having them following her every move as if they were scared that a muggle might attack them any second, but again she felt like the leader of the pack, something she had never felt before when she was just another minion.

After crossing through the parking lot—another concept she had to explain to the ex-Slytherin posse—and trailing up the sidewalk a little bit, Hermione had led them to the front gate where the ticket counter was.

Since it had been her idea to go on an outing that Saturday, Hermione offered to pay for everybody's tickets, but Draco just wouldn't accept it. She had already refused payment from him for a whole month, returned the galleons he had snuck into her dresser drawer, and had even bought him lunch a few days beforehand, so there was no way he would let her get away with it that time.

With his work, Draco had to deal with British muggle money every once in awhile when they had deals with muggle companies run by muggle-borns, so he knew the exchange rate pretty well and even had some money taken from his Gringotts account and exchanged into pounds. So when the lady behind the counter asked for £61.75, he quickly whipped his money out from the pocket on his slacks.

"Here are your five tickets, sir. Thank you, and have a splendid day," the young lady whose nametag said Margie, said with a smile, pointing out the way towards the real entrance to the zoo.

"Daddy… Can I hold my own ticket?" little Aly asked her father, lightly tugging on the hem of the t-shirt he had put on that morning.

Not knowing what to do, he snuck a quick side glance towards his mentor in the mission to gain control, Hermione, and he saw her silently mouth a word he recognised all too well.

"What's the magic word?" Draco asked Aly, still not letting go of his tight grip on the only child's ticket among the others.

"Please?" she asked, hiding her hand that had still been carrying Gumpfrey behind her back, swinging back and forth from the tips of her toes to her heels.

"Good, now remember that word for the future, okay?" She nodded joyously and took the ticket from her father's hand.

They had been at the zoo for about an hour when Aly started asking for something to eat. Her stomach had been grumbling and that was something that Draco couldn't deny. But since she was the only one hungry besides Pansy's complaining self, the older girl suggested that the two of them go and get something to eat by themselves while the others visit a gift shop.

Draco hadn't been too keen on letting his daughter wander without him in such a crowded place, and it wasn't because they were muggles. But then again, Pansy was someone he trusted and knew all too well, sometimes too much for his own well being.

But then Blaise had offered to accompany the two girls when he decided that besides it's odd name, a hot dog sounded like it would do his stomach some good.

The three of them wandered off to the right towards the closest concession stand while Draco kept his eyes on their diminishing backs. Hermione had managed to jerk his head away and look at her instead after awhile.

"Love, don't worry, she's in safe hands. I trust them, and I know you do, too."

"It's not that Hermione," Draco said, finally walking away towards the gift shop that resided behind them. "It's that I don't trust any other creep-o out there and I had promised that I would always keep her safe."

Hermione could see the worry in his eyes and completely understood. Alyson Malfoy wasn't one of those many people that could easily walk into her life and leave in the same manner. If something were to happen, she could never live the same way because the little girl's smile would always be echoing in her mind. Even if she were to just get hurt, it would tear a hole in Hermione's heart, which was something she did not want to happen again.

"Thank you," Draco suddenly said, walking up behind Hermione while she had been looking for a souvenir keychain to buy for Ginny, like she had promised.

"For what?" she replied, even though she really knew what he had been talking about.

"For helping me out with Alyson. She definitely needs you around." He smiled brightly, holding her by the waist, pulling her in for a kiss.

"Don't worry. I'll be here because I'm not going anywhere, Draco."

"Good, because she really loves you. You're not just a friend to her like Pansy is, but you know how to keep her under control, and she's been lacking that in her life."

"Well, I don't know if I could ever be a mother to her, but I'll always help you out." And it was the truth. Even though her biological mother was never around anyway, she didn't want to take the role of a mother in the girl's life. It just wasn't her place to try.

"How about that over there?" he asked.

"Huh?"

"That orange t-shirt." He pointed to a rack on the left where there were a few shirts on display with more of them stacked underneath. "Weren't you looking for something for little Weasley?"

"Hey! I have told you her name is Ginny," she retorted, not too excited that he couldn't just simply call her by her first name.

"But you do have to admit it's better than Weaslette…"

Before Hermione could even respond, Draco's head snapped to the right towards the window of the shop when he saw movement outside. Pansy was running faster than normal pace from the bathroom, and when she reached the picnic table they had been sitting at, Blaise quickly shot up from the bench. Something was definitely not right.

"Do you think she got a hold of a bad hot dog?" Hermione asked a twisted smile playing on her face.

"I don't think that's what's wrong…" the blonde replied softly, but tugging hard on Hermione's arm trying to bring her along to the outside of the store.

His pace picked up a considerable amount when he saw Pansy's stressful-looking face and her hands grabbing a hold of her face in a worried manner. She was pacing around the area, looking in every direction that her neck would allow for her head to turn in.

Suddenly, Hermione realised what was going on and became just as worried as Draco had been.

"Pansy!" Draco shouted, still approaching her.

"Draco! Oh my god, Draco!" she cried back.

"Where's Aly! Pansy, Where is Aly?" he asked hysterical, his face turning paler than the underside of a baby's bottom.

"I don't know! She said she wanted to use the restroom by herself. But when she never came back out, I went in there, and she wasn't there… Draco, she's gone!"

Yes, cliff-hanger… I'm evil like that. Have you read Unwritten Words lately?

By the way, £61.75 converted is a little less than $110 in America. And yes, that is how much it would cost for one child and four adults to get into the London Zoo, I looked it up on their website.