No Girls Allowed

Draco made his way out into the gardens of Malfoy Manor. It was a beautiful day and he relished the warmth of the sun on his skin. Hermione had convinced him to build Scorpius a fort in the back—because after all, "What is a childhood without a tree fort?" she'd asked him. He levitated the necessary wood and tools he would need to assemble this fort and sighed as the tree came into view. His mother would turn over in her grave if she knew he'd trimmed back the foliage of her immaculately kept gardens.

Hermione was inside fixing their lunch, little Scorpius "assisting" her until Draco had the fort assembled. He levitated the tools to work magically, watching each nail get hammered into the wood with magical precision. As he stood back and surveyed everything working of its own accord, he realized how incredibly indolent it made him feel to create something for his son without lifting more than his wand.

Draco sighed and dragged his shirt up and over his head and transfigured it into a tea towel and tucked it into the back pocket of his denims. The sun bearing down was increasing in intensity and beads of sweat were beginning to form as he lifted the hammer and put two nails between his lips as he hammered a third into the boards.

And so he worked for what seemed like hours, climbing and descending the tree as he completed the fort in sections. Hermione ambled out after a while and placed a hand on his sweaty shoulder blades. "Have some lemonade, love," she told him, handing him a cold glass when he leaned back on his haunches.

As he gulped down nearly the entire glass, she raised an eyebrow at his handiwork. "Forget you're a wizard or something?" she teased, turning her head this way and that to survey the structure.

Draco looked up at the tree fort and frowned. "It is rather ugly, isn't it? I just thought I'd do something for our son by hand for once."

"I think it's perfect. We'll reinforce it with magic. Keep it waterproof since it rains more often than not here," she said, lifting the small planks that were to be the ladder and inspecting the wood grain.

"I hope he likes it…I've never done anything like this before in my life," Draco commented, noting the dirt that was under his nails as he brought the tea towel from his back pocket and wiped his face.

"He will love it, Draco. It will mean a lot more in the future that you made this by hand, when he's old enough to understand," Hermione told him, bending to brush her lips across his sun-kissed forehead. "You're going to be sore later."

"Well…I'm sure you could assist me in applying some salves," he told her, giving her bum a gentle smack.

A loud squeal sounded from behind them as Scorpius came flying out of the Manor, his grandfather chasing after him exasperatedly. Like a wild spider monkey, the blond little boy with a cherub face ran at full speed, ignoring Lucius' protests and smacked full on into Draco's back, wrapping his arms around his father's neck in a strangling manner. Lucius ambled up to them, clearly out of breath as he leaned forward on his knees to catch his breath in the most unaristocratic way. "This child," he huffed, "has way too much energy. I'd forgotten what you were like at his age."

Draco laughed and stood, holding his son's arms firmly as he spun him around on his back. Scorpius screamed in delight in Draco's ear, deafening him momentarily. "Ooh, can we go in, daddy?" he asked when Draco had spun enough to his liking.

"You like it?" he asked, eyeing Hermione as she smiled at him.

"I like it better than the Manor," Scorpius told him. "But there is one thing missing," he said, and Draco turned his head to see the little boy frown.

"What's that?" Draco asked, worried that he didn't live up to the four-year-old's expectations.

"I love it, but it needs a sign that says 'No Girls Allowed.'"

"Why would you want to keep mummy out?" Draco laughed, relief flooding him that the boy did indeed love the outcome of his hard work.

"Not for mummy, silly," Scorpius told him slyly. "For the baby in mummy's tum!"

Draco's eyes shot to where Hermione was smiling, a hand over her abdomen. He crossed to his wife and gave her an excited kiss on the lips. "Yuck, daddy!" Scorpius screeched, pulling his father's hair admonishingly.

"Oh, sweet Merlin," Lucius said, leaning against the tree. "Another one? Really? Are you trying to give an old man a heart attack? That's it, we're hiring an au pair."

o-o-o

Please review! This is similar to the 'Of Apple Crepes,' but I wanted one where Scorpius was first born.