Author's Note: Sorry this chapter is a few days late. Those of you who follow my other story, Becoming Mrs Malfoy, know that I usually post new chapters for that one on Thursday but my computer's been out of action since Monday afternoon and I just got it fixed. So yay! to posting once again.

This chapter is dedicated to my awesome reviewer, Midnight Shadow of Darkness who reviewed every chapter as she went along before catching up at the last chapter. A massive thanks to everyone else for reviewing. I love reading what you have to say.

Chapter 11

Hermione finally got her emotional red-headed friend to sit down. Ginny was over-wrought and thought that Hermione should be shouting at her at least. Hermione smiled and shook her head. She'd missed her Weasley friends and their open ways

"I see you haven't lost your crazy ways, Ginny! Stop trying to get me to yell and you and just sit down," Hermione said, exasperated.

"Ok, I guess I'm just too used to living with Ron. My ears would be bleeding right now if he was in your position."

Hermione smiled as she thought of Ginny's impetuous brother. "Luna, how do you cope with all the shouting?" Hermione asked.

"Oh I found this ingenuous muggle invention called ear plugs. They are much more discrete than a muffling spell. I've had them for years and he hasn't noticed yet that I've put them in when he starts," Luna answered.

Both Hermione and Ginny cracked up laughing. "Oh please, you have to give me some. I can't believe you've kept them all yourself and not told the rest of us."

Luna gave a very un-ditzy smile. "I have a reputation to keep up. You wouldn't all think of me as so serene if you realised that I had to resort to such measures," she winked.

Ginny conceded this point. "You're right. But I'll keep your secret if you share your stock of ear plugs with me."

"Deal," Luna said, shaking Ginny's hand.

"Oh, I can't wait for the next Weasley get together now. I'm going to feel so smug sitting there with my ear plugs whilst everyone else winces at Ron's volume," Ginny squealed excitedly.

"You can test them out by telling Ron that you came to Malfoy Manor to see me," Hermione suggested.

"Ugh, don't remind me. I can't believe that I let them behave like that to you, Hermione. I really am sorry," Ginny said, hugging Hermione fiercely once more.

"Enough! No more tears, Ginny. We've wasted enough time over the years without spending all our time today rehashing events. Besides, don't we have to discuss how to support Lily and Scorpius?"

"You're right, Hermione, as always. I'm just going to say that you are the nicest, most forgiving friend ever," Ginny said exuberantly, squishing Hermione into another hug.

The three reunited friends settled down to decide on how to help the young lovers and to generally catch up. Draco popped his head around to remind them about lunch. He saw them sitting there, heads close together, nattering and organised a platter of sandwiches and fruit to be sent to them in the parlour.

"Where's Hermione?" Lucius asked as he, Draco and Narcissa sat down for lunch in the dining room.

"She's still talking to her friends. I sent Lolly up with some food for them."

"I can't believe we have a Weasley and a Lovegood sitting in our parlour," Lucius grumbled.

Draco rolled his eyes, "It's something that you're going to have to get used to by the looks of it. Just wait until Scorpius has Lily Potter over, which I'm sure will happen over the holidays."

"I never thought I'd see the day when we Malfoys would play host to such families," Lucius sneered.

Narcissa pursed her lips at her husband, "Because I'm sure you predicted that your son would marry a muggle-born. Now, stop complaining and eat. You got used to Hermione easily enough, so I'm sure you can deal with her friends just as well."

"I don't know how Hermione can forgive them so easily. She should at least make that annoying red-headed girl suffer a little for her desertion," Lucius continued.

Draco laughed, "Good job Hermione's forgiving or I might never have had a chance with her and would be stuck here with one of the insipid purebloods you were so desperately trying to set me up with."

Draco saw that Lucius was about to say something else. "And before you start moaning again about how ungrateful I am, just remember that you don't fool me for a moment. You adore Hermione more than you could have done with any of those girls you paraded around in the hope that I would ditch her."

Lucius was going to defend himself but realised that he didn't have a leg to stand on. Draco was right and they all knew it. Lucius worshipped Hermione, something he never imagined in a million years.

"Exactly," Draco said. "And I'm sure you'll love Lily too, Potter or not."

Lily sat the Gryffindor table ignoring the glares being thrown her way by Albus. He had gleefully informed her that he had written to their parents and their eldest brother James about the 'situation with Malfoy' as he called it. Lily hadn't risen to Albus' bait, knowing that her brother was looking for her to be scared so she would call it off with Scorpius. Lily wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. Lily knew Albus was stewing in frustration. It had been three days and neither of them had heard from their dad. However, Lily had received a letter from her mum. It had been given to her via Alcyone, which had confused Lily a lot.

"Why do you have a letter from my mum?" Lily asked bewildered.

"Your mum wrote it at Malfoy Manor and mum offered to send it with her letter to me," Alcyone replied.

"My mum was at your house?" Lily asked once more feeling even more puzzled.

"Yep, it seems your relationship with Scorpius has reunited our mums. Mine is really happy to be talking to yours again. I think my friendship with you had made her sad and miss your mum a lot."

Lily barely took that in, she was still struggling at the fact that her mum had gone to Malfoy Manor.

"Anyway, instead of looking at it like it's going to bite you, why don't you open it and see what your mum has to say," Alcyone teased.

Dear Lily,

We got your letter. I'm not going to lie and say that your dad is at all understanding of your feelings just yet but don't worry, all is not lost. James also got a letter from Albus and came storming in a huff. Luckily, he had Teddy with him who informed us all that he and Aunt Andromeda have been reunited with the Malfoys for years. This is a good thing as it is causing your father to think about a lot of things. Andromeda had a lot more to forgive but forgiven her sister she has.

I know you will be confused as to why I sent this with Hermione's letter to Alcyone but I didn't want you to open this at the Gryffindor table in front of Albus. I'm working on smoothing the situation out for you and Albus being aware of this will not help at the moment.

I wanted to let you know that I'm very proud of you. You looked beyond silly rivalries and you deserve to be happy for doing so. Your actions have made me slightly ashamed of how I abandoned Hermione because I wanted a quiet life. I should have challenged your dad and Uncle Ron over their attitude to Hermione's marriage to Draco. Hermione, being the forgiving soul that she is, doesn't hold this against me and I can't tell you how lovely it was to sit with her and Aunt Luna and catch up on everything.

Now Hermione, Luna and I are working on a plan to bring everything to a head and hopefully end this stupid feud. So please, stay strong, don't let Albus bully you and, if all goes well, then you and Scorpius will be fine.

Lots of love,

Mum.

Lily was crying by the time she got to the end of the letter which worried Alcyone.

"Hey, I didn't think it would be a bad letter, considering that she wrote and sent it from Malfoy Manor. Is she really angry with you?" Alcyone asked.

"No, the opposite, these are tears of relief. Mum said she's proud of me and that she's going to help Scorpius and I. I have geared myself up for such a big battle that her support comes as such a welcome surprise."

Strong arms came around her waist. "What are you doing to my girl, Alcyone? No girlfriend of mine should be crying," Scorpius said from behind them.

"Oh hush," Lily said turning around in his arms and leaning up to give him a kiss. "Alcyone just gave me a letter from my mum. Here read it."

Scorpius was a little apprehensive before opening the parchment. He didn't think he could take an attack on his Lily, especially from her family, with him being the cause.

"Don't worry, it's not bad," Lily said recognising the conflict on Scorpius' face.

Scorpius smiled as he finished the letter. He was pleased that Lily would at least have the support of one of her parents. Maybe there was hope for them after all.

"That's nicer than the letter I received from mum. She scolded me for keeping secrets about you and that she had to hear everything from Alcyone, the little traitor spy here," Scorpius said, playfully hitting his sister.

"Watch it, you oaf! I bruise easily," Alcyone grumbled.

Rose came flying around the corner. "Lily, there you are. I wanted to catch you. I know you haven't heard from your parents but I got a letter from mum and wanted to share its contents with you."

Lily waved her letter under Rose's nose. "Don't worry, mum sent me a letter. She just didn't want Albus to see it so she sent it with Mrs Malfoy's letter to Alcyone."

"Oh," Rose said, deflating a little. "Well that's good. Do you know what they're planning?"

"No," Alcyone said. "But with mum, Mrs Potter and Mrs Weasley, I'm sure Lily and Scorpius will be fine. I don't think anyone would stand a chance against those three from all the stories mum has told me over the years."

"I still have nightmares about Mrs Potter hexing me," Scorpius shuddered. "Dad used to tell us when we were little that if we didn't behave he'd send us away to the Potters house where all sorts of evil experiments would be carried out on us."

Rose and Lily creased up with laughter at this. Scorpius and Alcyone were unable to join in; the memories of the threats were still all too real.

"I still don't get how dad managed to get us to keep that quiet from mum," Alcyone said.

"I do," Scorpius replied. "He said Ginny Potter would hit us with a bat-bogey hex and then force us to wear some hideous knitted monstrosity of a jumper."

"Hey!" Lily and Rose objected. "The Weasley jumpers aren't hideous! They're a family institution and lovely and warm too."

"I'll take your word for it. Malfoys only wear cashmere," Scorpius said snootily.

Lily sighed at her snobby boyfriend. "Don't worry, I'll get grandma to knit you one for Christmas."

Albus sat moodily, staring into the fire, in the Gryffindor common room. Hugo wandered up and offered him one of his Bertie Botts' All Flavour Beans. Albus took a handful absent-mindedly.

"What's wrong with you?" Hugo asked.

"I still haven't heard back from dad. I was sure he would have done something to stop Lily dating that slimy Malfoy by now."

"Are you still on about this?"

Albus shot his cousin a glare. "Do you expect me to be able to think of something else? I still have nightmares about catching them snogging. It was disgusting! It's strange because I really would have thought that at least James would have shown up or something by now."

"Maybe your parents are going to be fine with it," Hugo suggested.

"Don't make me feel sick, please, Hugo. Besides, if that was the case then they would have made up with Mrs Malfoy by now."

"Maybe they feel stupid and don't know how to heal the rift."

"Yeah and the Hufflepuffs are going to win the Quidditch Cup this year," Albus replied sarcastically.

"You know, I never got why you and James hated Scorpius Malfoy so much. I mean, dad hates Draco Malfoy just as much as Uncle Harry but that doesn't mean that I feel the need to hate Scorpius," Hugo commented.

"What? You don't hate Malfoy?" Albus asked.

"Nope, don't get me wrong, I wish the git would fall of his broom and let us catch the snitch for once but otherwise I couldn't care what he gets up to," Hugo answered.

"What? As long as he lets Gryffindor win a game you'd be happy that he's dating your cousin?"

"Yep, can't say I care either way. At least Scorpius doesn't have too much of a reputation. I mean not like that creep Algernon Blake. I hear you wanted Lily patrolling with him rather than Alcyone Malfoy. Didn't you know there's a reason why no-one ever partners him with a girl?"

Albus looked taken aback. He couldn't honesty say he'd ever paid that much attention to the patrol rota and Hugo wasn't even a prefect so how did he know. Albus said as much to his cousin.

Hugo rolled his eyes. "He's got wandering, grope-y hands. I dated that Ravenclaw prefect last year and she told me all about him. At least you know with Scorpius that Lily won't be subject to anything like that."

Albus was a little taken aback. He'd never thought too much about Malfoy's reputation with girls. He hated how so many Hogwarts girls seemed to throw themselves at the handsome Slytherin but he hadn't really paid attention to how he treated his girlfriends.

"But he's a womaniser," Albus objected.

Hugo scoffed. "Really, Albus, with all the attention you pay to Malfoy you think you'd actually notice a bit more. Scorpius has dated only a couple of girls. You're mistaking him for Marco Zabini, and we all know that he only plays the field to hide the fact that he's completed crushed out on Alcyone Malfoy, but is too scared to face her brother to date her."

"How do you know so much about all of this?" Albus asked.

"Because I have two eyes and besides, I don't hate all Slytherins like you do. I get on really well with Charlie Harper, the Slytherin Keeper."

Before Albus could accuse Hugo of being a traitor, Rose burst through the portrait hole into the common room.

"There you are, Albus, Hugo. We've been summoned by Professor McGonagall. She wants to see us immediately in her office."

Albus and Hugo jumped up and followed Rose to McGonagall's office. When the moving staircase stopped, they knocked on the office door and stopped in shock when it opened. There sat around a conjured round table were the Potter, Weasley and Malfoy families. It appeared as if McGonagall had decided on intervention to end the feud.

AN2: I'm pretty sure there is only one more chapter to go. I'm half way through writing it. I doubt that I'll add an epilogue – you may all just have to persuade me if you want one after reading the next chapter I post.

Please review and let me know what you thought of this chapter and what you think/hope/want to happen next! (Unless you hate this fiction and want them all to die in a freak explosion. I'd rather not know that ;)).