Author's Note: Please excuse the typos and grammatical mistakes that I am sure abound this chapter. I've literally just written it and want to post it to make my Monday posting deadline for you all!

Thank you for all your reviews for the last chapter. They made me really smile and it was nice to receive so many. This story hasn't received nearly as many reviews as my two others so I really appreciate my little band of lovely reviewers so much.

Disclaimer: The wonderful world of Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.

Chapter 10

Ginny and Harry were settling down for a lovely late Sunday breakfast. The best thing about having the kids off at school was the weekend lie-ins that they could now enjoy without one of kids barging into their rooms to complain about this or that. Ginny set the coffee pot on the table just as two owls pecked furiously on the window.

"Hmmm I wonder what that's about?" She mumbled out loud, to no-one in particular, before opening the window to let the owls in.

She handed one of the letters to Harry before sitting down with the other. She recognised her daughter's handwriting and opened the letter.

Dear Mum and Dad,

I have something to tell you that you're not going to like but I want you to listen to me and try not to get too upset. Please, dad, this means you especially!

Ok, I'm just going to dive right in there and say it. I've fallen in love with Scorpius Malfoy. I know dad's having an aneurism right now but I can't deny my feelings any longer. He likes me too and we've decided to be together.

I'm not going to try and justify this decision but I do want you to know that I've got to know him since that day in Knockturn Alley and he's everything you would want for me. He's sweet, funny, intelligent and he cares for me. He even tried to stay away from me because he didn't want to cause me any problems with my family. If this doesn't convince you that he truly cares about me then nothing will.

Albus knows, well I didn't exactly tell him but he caught me with Scorpius. I know he is writing to you to as he has already tried to lay the law down to me but failed. I would love you to support me in this decision and, at least, get to know Scorpius. I know about your past with the Malfoy family but it really isn't fair to hold that against innocent children who weren't even alive at the time.

I love you both and I hope that you aren't too angry with me.

Love,

Lily

Ginny rubbed her hands over her face when she'd finished. She'd seen the way that her daughter was going and, whilst she had hoped that her feelings wouldn't develop any further, she had to respect the fact that she'd come right out and owned up to them. Not trying to hide them or her new relationship with the son of her father's enemy. But how Harry was going to react was a whole other story. She'd bet her house on the other letter being from Albus.

Ginny looked over to Harry who was purple and looked as if he was struggling to breathe. His hand was tightly scrunched around the parchment.

"Harry, breathe, please," Ginny said.

"Can't …. Need to kill Malfoy," Harry choked out.

Ginny rolled her eyes, so much for Lily's pleading for them to be understanding. Harry was already in 'Mission Kill All Malfoys' mode which didn't bode well for his only daughter or, indeed, their relationship.

"Will you just read Lily's letter? She's written to us about this er new development. I'd also like to see what Albus has written."

Harry managed to straighten his fingers enough for Ginny to take Albus' letter out and slip Lily's into his hand.

Dear Dad,

You have to do something. Lily has lost her mind. I caught her snogging Scorpius Malfoy and she's determined that they are dating. Rose says I have to deal with it but I can't.

Malfoy being the slimy git that he is threatened to curse me with dark magic when I told him to stay away from Lily. He and his sister have brainwashed her.

You have to stop it now!

Albus

Ginny sighed when she finished. That was Albus all over, melodramatic.

"Merlin's Beard!" Harry exclaimed. "Albus was right. The Malfoys really have brainwashed Lily."

Ginny frowned. "Is that all you got out of Lily's letter?"

"Well really, Ginny, how else could she have fallen in love with the Malfoy brat? Unless they slipped her a love potion."

"Harry, listen to yourself. You sound like a crazy person. Or like Ron at his most incoherent! You really think our daughter couldn't naturally fall in love with Scorpius Malfoy?"

"Of course she couldn't. She's a Potter and he's a Malfoy."

"And Hermione is a muggle-born and Draco is a pure-blood, yet they fell in love."

"Don't talk to me about that. I'm still so angry that Hermione chose that ferret over us, her friends who stood with her all through Malfoy's evil bullying."

"You need to get over this, Harry. Hermione didn't betray you by falling in love with Draco Malfoy and Lily isn't betraying you by doing the same with Scorpius," Ginny reasoned.

"But why Malfoy of all people?" Harry wailed.

There was a crack of apparition in the living room and Ginny got up to see who had come. Only family had permission to apparate directly into the Potter house.

"Teddy? What the hell. Why did you hold on to my robes?" The enraged tones of Ginny and Harry's oldest child, James sounded out around the house.

"You really thought I was going to let you just apparate after that rant. As far as I knew you were going to Hogswart to murder Scorpius Malfoy," Teddy Lupin responded.

"You can't apparate directly into Hogwarts, you know that, Teddy." James replied.

"Well, duh! But you can apparate to Hogsmeade and walk up to Hogwarts."

Ginny walked in to stop the bickering friends from adding to her stress today.

"James? What are you doing here?"

"Albus wrote to me. He told me about Lily and Scorpius Malfoy," he spat.

Ginny caught eyes with Teddy Lupin who looked frazzled at trying to control his volatile friend.

"Come through to the kitchen. You can join your father in having a mental breakdown. Hello, Teddy, darling, you look like you could do with a cup of coffee," Ginny said.

Teddy nodded gratefully, "I could. James burst into my room ranting on about my evil cousin debauching his sweet, innocent sister."

"I can't guarantee it'll be any quieter here but at least I have food already prepared."

"Thanks, Aunt Ginny. You're the best."

Ginny and Teddy followed James into the kitchen. James was already waving his letter in his dad's face and they were both ranting at each other at the same time. All Ginny had wanted was a quiet Sunday. Well, I guess I should be used to all the dramatics, growing up in my family, she thought to herself.

"Enough!" Ginny yelled, using sonorous to project her voice. "Really, this is too much. You are both completely over-reacting and if you confront Lily in such a manner then you will end up losing her completely."

This appeared to do the trick in calming Harry and James down. Teddy nodded his thanks at his Godfather's formidable wife.

"Now, we need to discuss this in a calm and rational manner. I know the pair of you object to this relationship but what exactly do you think you are going to be able to do about it?" Ginny continued.

"I need to speak to Lily," Harry said. "She needs to know that this is not acceptable. Anybody but a Malfoy. What is the girl thinking?"

"Look, I'm going to tell you something and I don't want you to get upset. Lily has been crushing on Scorpius Malfoy pretty much since she started Hogwarts. Obviously, she admired from afar until this summer, where his gallant behaviour seems to have encouraged her to get closer."

Harry and James both looked stunned. Teddy looked pretty disinterested. He loved his God-family to pieces but really, Lily's love life was not the most riveting thing, and he'd much rather be in bed sleeping.

"Mum, are you telling me that you knew she had a … a ….thing for Scorpius Malfoy and you said nothing," James said, shocked.

Ginny raised an eyebrow at her. "If you mean did I recognise the signs of a massive crush, then yes, of course, considering I also harboured such a crush on your father aged eleven. And why would I say anything? I didn't know it would get this far and, to be honest, I am not going to stand in my daughter's way if she would be happy with Scorpius."

Harry stared at his wife in disbelief, "But, love, it's Malfoy's son."

"Yes," Ginny replied. "But really what does that have to do with anything? Draco Malfoy has been a reformed member of society for a very long time now and I'm not going to hold his teenage mistakes against his son."

"Don't forget this innocent son has been in more fights with your own son, me, than any other kid at Hogwarts," James retorted.

Ginny gave James a level look. "First off, Jamie, don't get smart with me. I'm still your mother, no matter how old you are, and I will smack your bottom if you are rude."

James blushed and Teddy sniggered.

"Secondly, if you are trying to tell me that Scorpius instigated a single one of those fights, I'll eat my Firebolt, twig by twig, if that is true. I'm not stupid, I know you went looking for trouble with the Malfoy boy, and I have never approved of your father's encouragement of this behaviour."

Harry, at least, had the nerve to look slightly ashamed of himself in face of his wife's scolding. James sat there with nothing to say to his disapproving mother.

"Scorpius is a good lad. If I had a sister and she had to date anyone, then I'd rather him than a lot of other boys I know at Hogwarts," Teddy piped up.

Both James and Harry shot him glares showing him how much they thought he was betraying them.

"Have you forgotten how the Malfoys treated your Grandma Andromeda for all those years?" Harry reminded Teddy.

Teddy rolled his eyes, "Uncle Harry, you are crazy sometimes with this grudge of yours. If you bothered to listen to anything anyone ever said about the Malfoys, rather than just shouting about them when they are mentioned, then you would know that Grandma made up with Aunt Narcissa years ago."

Harry was shocked into silence.

"Really?" Ginny asked.

"Yes, Aunt Narcissa came to visit Grandma a few months after the war finished. She begged for forgiveness for how she'd treated her sister and she came to mourn the loss of a niece that she had never met. Then when Aunt Hermione married Uncle Draco, Grandma became a fixture in the house. We spend lots of time there," Teddy explained.

"How come you never said anything?" Harry asked.

"I love you lots, Uncle Harry, as does Grandma, but we knew you wouldn't understand this. And whilst you are like family to Grandma, Aunt Narcissa is her sister. They've become really close and have helped each other get over a lot of things that happened. Grandma was also instrumental in getting Hermione accepted by her sister," Teddy said.

An awkward silence filled the kitchen as everyone took what Teddy said on board. Ginny was pleased that the young man had spoken out. The whole incident this morning was making her feel guilty that she didn't stand up more to Harry over his behaviour towards Hermione when she married Draco.

The fireplace burnt green and out stumbled Ron closely followed by Luna.

"Harry, what the hell is Lily thinking. I got some garbled letter from Rose this morning about Lily dating Scorpius bloody Malfoy," Ron shouted.

Ginny rolled her eyes. Ron's timing was impeccable as usual.

"Sweetie, aren't you forgetting that Rose said she fully supported the couple and wouldn't have you ganging up against Lily with Harry," Luna pointed out.

"Yes, well, I'm hardly going to take advice on this from my seventeen-year-old daughter. She's clearly inherited the crazy genes from you," Ron said tactlessly.

Harry winced as Luna's usual dreamy look was replaced with a glacier glare. "Ronal Bilius Weasley, I'll have you know, that no-one in my family was been sectioned to the St. Mungo's mental health ward, unlike a certain uncle you were named after."

Ron flushed. "Luna, honey, you know I didn't mean it like that. You know me, I always speak before thinking," he said with a bashful smile.

Luckily for Ron, it was a well known fact that he often put his foot in it, no-one being more aware of this than his long suffering wife.

Luna patted his cheek. "I know, dear, it one of the things I love about you."

Ginny tried not to vomit her breakfast back up.

"When are we off to Hogwarts then?" Ron asked, in full battle mode.

Ginny cuffed him around the head. "Do you really think McGonagall is going to allow you in to Hogwarts to scream at your niece and potentially murder one of her students?"

Harry recognised that it was going to be impossible to speak to Lily about this face to face. "As much as I hate to admit it, Ginny's right. We can't interrupt the school year."

"Ok, so if we can't go to Hogwarts to bash mini-Malfoy's brains out then can we at least go to Malfoy Manor to beat daddy-Malfoy up?" Ron asked, hopefully.

Luna heaved a sigh at her dense spouse. "Firstly, they have wards to prevent something like happening and secondly, Hermione would hex you before you got a second punch to land on Draco."

"Can you and Ginny stop ruining all the fun," Ron complained. "If my ideas are so stupid then what do you suggest?" He pointedly asked his sister.

"Well, I'd be inclined to do nothing and let Lily date whomever she likes as long as he treats her with respect. But, I know Harry will do something stupid if I don't step in so I plan on going to see Hermione to gauge the Malfoy reaction to the news. Luna, fancy coming?"

"Oh, yes, I haven't seen Hermione for ages," Luna replied with a glare at her reddening husband.

"Are you just going to allow this?" Ron spluttered to Harry.

"She's your sister, you know how headstrong she gets," was Harry's only response.

"I'm glad you've come to some of your senses," Ginny said, giving Harry a kiss on the cheek. "Just give me a moment to find my shoes and bag, Luna, and we'll be off."

Meanwhile at Malfoy Manor, Hermione was just sitting down to breakfast with Draco and her in-laws, Narcissa and Lucius. She picked up the letter that had been left by her plate and recognised her daughter's handwriting.

Dear Mama,

Further to my letter to you early last week, I have some good news. Scorpius finally got the girl! Well, really Lily went out and snagged your stubborn son but, hey, that's semantics!

Unfortunately, our lovely couple were then interrupted by that bumbling idiot she calls a brother who proceeded to make a massive fuss and twist Lily's knee in the process. If he's anything like his dad, then, mum, what were you thinking, befriending such a buffoon?

Anyway, I thought that I should let you know that Lily has written to inform her parents of Scorpius. I'm sure Albus has got a rant in by owl too. I thought I'd give you a heads up because you probably should expect a delegation of angry Potters at some point.

Love you lots,

Alcyone.

Hermione smiled at the exuberance of her daughter's letter. She was the complete opposite to her stoic father and unreadable Malfoy grandparents. Alcyone had run through the Manor like a breath of fresh air ever since she was born. She hated anything too stuffy and was always leaving books on random tables, throwing cushions around and generally disturbing the formal nature of the Manor. Hermione loved her all the more for it.

"Draco darling, did we receive a letter from Scorpius today by any chance?"

"No, love, any reason why we should have done?" Draco asked

Hermione frowned, "That son of yours is getting more and more like you everyday," she grumbled.

Draco just raised a brow and smirked. He was used to Hermione's rants about his less than forthcoming nature.

"I just thought he might want to warn us that several traumatised Potters could show up today," Hermione said.

"What? Why?" Draco asked.

"Alcyone has written to tell me that Scorpius has started dated Lily Potter and that they were caught by her older brother, Albus," Hermione said, before biting into her toast.

Draco groaned. "I knew that was going to happen. The sparks between the two of them in Knockturn Alley was nauseating."

"Scorpius is dating a Potter," sneered Lucius.

"It seems that way, although not at all a shock. Alcyone wrote to tell me to expect it last week," Hermione informed her father-in-law, ignoring the revolted facial expression.

"He must get the bad taste from you. A Malfoy would never like a Potter. It must be a Granger thing," Lucius said, still trying to get his around it.

Hermione laughed, "Oh, Lucius, you do realise that you just insulted your own precious Malfoy line as I chose to marry your only son."

Lucius realised this and looked put out before Narcissa rapped his knuckles with her spoon. "Behave, Lucius. I'm sure Scorpius' young lady is adorable, Potter or not."

Draco and Hermione swapped glances at this. Narcissa thought the sun shone out of Scorpius. He could never make a bad decision but at least it would make it easy for Lily, as Narcissa would be incredibly welcoming to her, for her grandson's sake.

Hermione was rearranging the Potions section of the Malfoy library when she heard the doorbell chime. The wards for Malfoy Manor were as strong as ever. No-one could apparate or floo in without receiving specific permission. The doorbell meant one thing, it must be the Potters. Door-to-door broomstick selling had died out in the last century.

"Mistress, Mrs Ginerva Potter and Mrs Luna Weasley are here to see yous," squeaked Hermione's free elf, Lolly.

"Thank you, Lolly, could you please show them into the visiting parlour," Hermione asked with a smile.

She had struggled to get used to the elves at Malfoy Manor but had reconciled with it by freeing them and paying them a small wage with a measly about of holiday. Hermione had tried to get them to accept more but they had bartered her down quite ruthlessly.

Hermione tried not to be too surprised at her visitors but her heart was pounding in her chest and her palms felt a little a sweaty. It would be strange to talk to her previous best girlfriend, Ginny, after all this time. Luna and Hermione still communicated by owl and tried to meet up for a coffee every now and again, in secret, of course, from Ron who'd nag at Luna until she didn't see Hermione anymore.

Draco popped his head out of his study, "Is that the Potters?" he asked.

"No, just Ginny and Luna," Hermione replied.

"Do you want me to come with you? You must be nervous about seeing Ginny again."

Hermione smiled at her handsome husband. He really was adorably supportive when it came to her. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

Draco nodded, "Just shout if you need any help, ok?"

Hermione got halfway through the door to the parlour when she was jumped on by a red blur.

"Oh, Hermione, it's so good to see you. I've missed you so much," Ginny said sobbing.

Like that, Hermione's anxiety disappeared. It was as if the last few decades hadn't happened. Ginny still smelt of the apple shampoo that she'd used all the way through Hogwarts. It was nostalgic.

"Ginny, you might want to stop suffocating Hermione," Luna said, bringing the crying red-head back to her senses.

"Sorry, Hermione, I guess I just got carried away," Ginny said, untangling her arms from around Hermione's neck and wiping her tears away.

Hermione smiled at her friend, "I missed you too, Gin. It's been so long since we chatted."

Ginny's smile grew sad. "I know. I'm so sorry I let Harry dictate to me. I was surprised when Luna said that she still saw you and it made me ashamed that I let Harry tell me what to do when it comes to you."

"I get it. You forget I spent the best part of a decade with those two knuckleheads and they can nag at you until they are blue in the face and you want to commit suicide just to escape it. And, of course, I forgive you. I love you too much not to. It doesn't mean that it didn't hurt though," Hermione responded.

If anything, Ginny now felt even guiltier. Hermione deserved to have had better friends that she got. Her friends should have trusted her decision and not tried to make her choose between them and the man she loved. This was one thing Ginny was determined not to allow happen to her daughter.

AN: I know this chapter had no Lily or Scorpius but I thought it was important to get the old generations reactions. I also wanted to bring some initial contact between the Potters and Malfoys. I also hope you don't think Hermione forgave Ginny too easily but I kind of feel that Hermione would. I know I haven't gone into much conversation between them but I felt Ginny's reflections on Hermione and Lily's situation was a good place to end the chapter!

If you see any missing words/letters, grammatical or spelling errors please do let me know so I can go back and correct them.

And please do review!