9: Birthday Wishes and Double D's

The Burrow gleamed in the morning sunlight, Arthur might be the minister for magic but no amount of money or station could drag him away from his home, his lovely hand-me-down, DIY, rickety home. The place his children had grown up and the place, he hoped, his grandchildren would raise their children. It may have still been the burrow but the perks of office had allowed expansion and redecoration so while the outside still looked like something from a Grimm's fairy tale, the inside was country house chic, they still had bits and bobs from the old days but they now owned sofa's that didn't sag in the middle, and beds that didn't creak all night long and Molly had been given the kitchen of her dreams... yes the Burrow was certainly a castle.

Hermione was now sitting in that castle next to her colleague and professed new bff Draco Malfoy, she had worried that things would be awkward given that she had woken up in bed next to him in hardly any clothes, but things seemed fine. He was jovial, flirting a little with Mrs Weasley as she bustled around laying out bowls of crisps and dips for Harry's birthday, Molly tittered and raised an eyebrow conspiratorially when she caught Malfoy tucking a piece of stray hair back behind Hermione's ear. They were the first two guests and had arrived at nearly the same time, Molly had complimented Hermione on her summer dress before looking sharply at Draco "Doesn't she look lovely Malfoy?" she had asked holding back a slight giggle "She always looks lovely Mrs Weasley." Malfoy had responded leading Hermione through to the sitting room.

They were deep in conversation about an article soon to be published on singularities and magic, close together on a small two person sofa, faces almost touching when the door to the sitting room swung open dramatically.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" Ron hollered eyeing the pair like he'd walked in on them fucking on his mother's new Laura Ashley rug.

"O.M.G are you Draco Malfoy?" the stick insect girl asked, her eyeballs seemed to tremble in their sockets, she grinned a yellow toothed smile at Draco who moved closer to Hermione.

"It fucking well is, what I want to know is what the ferret is doing in My fucking house!" Ron's tone had not lowered any as he made towards Draco menacingly.

"He was invited, and this is certainly not your house young man!" Mrs Weasley had re-entered carrying drinks for Hermione and Draco.

"You'll have to excuse Ronald, he seems to lack the emotional tools required for MOVING ON with his life." Molly spat looking at her youngest son. Draco stood and accepted the drink from Molly, "Weasley... Ron, look I know we haven't spoken much since school but I'm sorry for any pain I've caused you..." he was interrupted by Molly who was looking at him kindly "Draco love, you've already apologised to all of us enough times, we didn't raise him to make people grovel, now sit down and hand Hermione her drink." Molly directed handing him another glass.

"You've got to be kidding, you're siding with him too... first he beds my ex and now he's wooing my mother?" Ron's words managed to make an already tense situation feel like an awkward-palooza, what shocked Draco more was that Hermione didn't jump to correct him; instead she shook her head and took a sip of her drink eyeing Ron with disdain.

"You haven't introduced your new friend." Hermione said standing and walking towards the blonde, oblivious girl with the shaky eyes.

"There you have it! You didn't deny it... You've been bedding the enemy then?" He said shrilly, looking from Hermione to Draco with rage in his eyes.

"Ronald, you gave up your right to have any say on what I do in my bed when you left me for... how did you put it "pastures greener" was it? Now stop being a rude monster and introduce us to your friend." She smiled kindly at the blonde girl, who smiled back completely unaware that anything was wrong.

"Where's Harry?" Ron bellowed in response before trudging out of the room angrily.

Harry was not at his party, Harry was sitting in a muggle burger shop looking around nervously. The plastic seat beneath his bum squeaked when he moved and made a bunch of teenagers giggle at him. He took another tentative sip of the scorching coffee before him... He didn't really know what he was doing here, he'd received a weird owl that morning and at first had assumed it was a late birthday message from a "fan" or worse, another naked picture from a "fan" instead it had been a scrawled note in handwriting he half recognised, he pulled it from his inside pocket and read it again;

Dear Harry,

could we meet please, it's important,3pm at Mr Whimpette on Kings rd, I know it's been a while... thanks.

DD

He had only turned up to prove to himself that the letter wasn't from who he thought it was from, he had sent a quick note to Molly letting her know he might be late and jumped over to the nearby burger joint, curiosity gripping him.

The glass door swung open and he looked up expectantly, then looked down again, then looked up a second time... it was him and he wasn't alone. A large muscular man wearing a leather jacket smiled shyly at Harry, there was a small boy with chocolate coloured skin and a mop of curly brown hair holding his hand, a tall dark woman with long braids and a large bust was walking behind him, her face open and smiling.

"Dudley?" Harry asked, smiling at his cousin warmly.

"Harry." was all Dudley said as he embraced his little cousin almost breaking his bones. Harry pushed back all the questions racing through his head and returned the embrace, feeling warmly to the boy who'd tormented him for so long.

"This is my wife Clarissa." Dudley introduced the dark skinned lady beside him beaming with pride

"Hi Clarissa it's nice to meet you, I'm Harry Potter." He made to shake her hand but she grabbed him and embraced him tightly.

"I know who are, I've been told stories about you!" She looked teary eyed.

"You're a…" he didn't know how to put it, perhaps she just meant Dudley had told her about him, but there was that look in her eye, that mixture of gratitude and awe that wizards and witches got when they met him.

"I'm a squib, my mother was a witch and my father was not but she told me all about the magical boy who saved the world… I can't believe you're really here!" She made to hug him again but a small hand tugging her elbow caught her attention.

"This is Jacob Harry Dursley my son" Dudley indicated the little boy who grinned up at Harry "Hello buddy!" Harry leant down and shook the little boys hand "hello Uncle Harry" the little boy said proudly as he'd rehearsed in the car.

Clarissa took the boy to the soft play area to give Dudley and Harry time alone, Harry couldn't help but smile at the muscular man in front of him, his face no longer mean and brutish but warmed by family.

"You called your son Jacob Harry?" Harry smiled questioningly.

"This is the weird part, I didn't, she did… I suppose I should start at the beginning, I've wanted to tell you all this for so long but I was so scared that you'd be mad at me or hate me and I… well I deserve it" Dudley's head dropped sadly and Harry reached out a hand to pat his "you're the only family I've really got Dudley and you know… you were just the product of your mum and dad, I'm sure they did the best with the tools they had"

"Petunia and Vernon are poisonous mate, as soon as you went off to save the world or god knows what I started to see how very very closed minded they were and I moved away and started training, I box now professionally, Heavy weight obviously!" He grinned and Harry indicated for him to continue his tale of how Jacob got his name, Dudley looked lovingly over at his wife and son; "I met her 6 years ago, we were so young and we'd only been seeing each other for a few months and I already knew I loved her, she was working at the gym I trained in and she fell pregnant, I never told her anything about you, not that I'm ashamed mate… it's just… I was worried she'd think I was mental… so I proposed, and took her home to meet mum and dad and they freaked out, turns out old Vernon's a bit racist… I haven't spoken to him since, mum sometimes calls but she's still not happy." Dudley shook his head in sorrow and wonder, how could his parents not see how much he loved his wife and why did it matter what colour her skin was, he'd never understand them.

"So… a few weeks before she's about to give birth we're talking about baby names and I say I like Jacob, it's her dads name and I'm just happy he's taking my surname so then she says she'd like the middle name to reflect her heritage, and I start thinking It'll be something from Uganda but then she says I want his name to be Harry… and I started to get this feeling like I almost knew what she was going to say and I say "Why Harry, Baby?" and she gets all serious and deep and she says "I need to tell you something and I don't want you thinking I'm mad, I want you to know that this is going to sound weird but I can prove everything I'm going to say… My mother was a witch" and I don't know what to say back cause I don't know if she means your kind of witch or if she means you know… just in a cult so I just remain silent and nod and she goes on and she starts telling me about this world, your world, the world I never really knew about and about this baby who saved the world and how he grew up with no parents and went on to save the world again… and she tells me all the shit you went through all the stuff I never really knew, and I start crying… I felt horrible, and I couldn't stop, I couldn't stop crying and she thinks I'm mad at her and then I tell her I know that boy, that the boy who stared down the devil himself is my little cousin, my little cousin who I picked on and made fun of and then I tell her everything about mum and dad and how they made you sleep under the stairs and how I used to break your glasses and she gets mad at me… she's read about me in some biography some guy wrote about you." Harry stops him at this point and looks at him seriously " It's unauthorised, I didn't ask him to write it" Dudley waves his comment aside.

"On the home front it was pretty accurate, I mean I was hellish but she'd met my parents and she'd seen me change and she knew I wasn't that kid any more… so Jacob was born and she was so proud that you were his second cousin, we told him uncle just because it was easier to explain and well in the last couple of years he's started to you know do magic… he made my wallet disappear last week when I wouldn't buy him a transformer." Dudley chuckled " and we get this letter from the Ministry of magic 5 days ago about how they've started a new initiative to integrate muggle born wizards into the magical society and how Jacobs been invited to some magical primary school where he'll learn all the usual stuff like reading and writing but he'd also be mixing with his own kind… Clarissa is over the moon." Harry smiled to himself, that was his initiative, he'd put it forward at a meeting almost a year ago asking the ministry to seek out young witches and wizards and offer the opportunity to experience magical life before Hogwarts but also allowing parents to see what it was all about before their kids got whisked away to some far off school for nine months out of the year.

"I thought, you know, if he's going to live in your world he should at least meet you." Dudley smiled at his little cousin no longer little, Clarissa and Jacob returned to the table, a tray of burgers in hand "I really can't tell you how exciting it is to meet you!" Clarissa expressed as she cuddled up to her husband, Harry removed his wallet from his pocket and opened it, he removed several pictures and handed one to Dudley "That's my wife Ginny and my son James" he said proudly he showed the same picture to Jacob "this is your cousin, he's a little younger than you Jacob so you'll have to look out for him, you think you can do that?" Jacob nodded eagerly mesmerized by the moving image, Dudley found himself welling up, knowing how different his own son would be to him. Harry produced another picture; "this is Teddy he lives with us too, he's my adopted son, he's older and I'll make sure he'll look out for you!" Harry patted the little boys head as he gazed at the pictures.

"It's my birthday party tonight, you're all more than welcome to come, meet the family and have some cake?" Harry asked Dudley hopefully.

"Thanks but we'll have to rain check, maybe get the kids together with a little less pressure… I'm a bit of an emotional wreck and I think I'll probably just start blubbering again." Dudley laughed wiping the tears welling in his eyes hastily.

"No worries, you can owl me or…" Harry took a card from his pocket and handed it to Dudley "or call or email, seriously It's been great catching up and meeting you all… but I really need to be getting to my party or my wife will hex my face off!" he laughed and made to stand, after prolonged goodbyes and hugs all round Harry left the burger joint feeling like he'd received one of the best birthday gifts, more family… and that's all he ever really wanted.

Ron was still in a rage and Hermione was done, she looked at Draco and nodded her head at the fireplace, "I'm leaving, you can stay if you want but screw this… I'll take Harry out for dinner later or something I'm not hanging around here to be scorned like some scarlet woman." She sighed and headed to the kitchen preparing to say her goodbyes to Molly and the rest of the family who'd arrived in drips and drabs in the past hour.

"I'm heading home, tell Harry I'm sorry but that something came up." She said sadly as she hugged the old woman.

"By something I assume you mean my son." Molly responded returning the hug warmly.

"I'm right here." Ron proclaimed from his seat at the kitchen table, Molly ignored him, his girlfriend continued to smile at Draco.

"Shut up Ron." Ginny snapped giving Hermione a smile and a roll of her eyes as she fed James some mushy looking gunk.

"I shouldn't have come Mrs Weasley" Draco had appeared behind Hermione looking a little sad.

"Nonsense, you were invited, you're Hermione's friend, besides I've grown rather fond of you Draco, now sit down and have something to eat I've made stew… it's Harry's favourite." She indicated two empty seats; Ron quickly put his feet on one of the chairs.

"No we'll be leaving, Ginny floo me later and we'll chat about how your brother's an ass." Hermione smiled, the back door opened and George entered looking a little dopey

"Hey Bosses! Who's an ass? Am I an ass?" he said walking towards Draco and highfiving him.

"YOU TOO?" Ron yelled almost toppling back off his chair.

"Me too what?" George asked looking confused and eating scotch egg.

"have you all gone mad and forgotten who this man is?" Ron bellowed standing from his chair and knocking it over, James screamed at the sudden loud noise and Ginny shot her brother a death glare.

"This man is my co worker and my friend, he said he was sorry a thousand times, he repaid any debts he had to society now stop being such a prat and sit down you're scaring your nephew!" Hermione hissed a shaking finger pointed at her former lover. "come on we're leaving Draco, Molly, Ginny, George, James and Ron's friend, I'm sorry for the drama tell Harry I love him and I'll talk to him soon." Hermione grabbed Draco by the hand and dragged him to the floo before he had time to say a proper goodbye.

Ron followed hot on their heels and grabbed Draco's arm spinning him round "You should know before you get too settled, she's a prude, if your hoping for some explosive night of love making you'll be holding out forever, all you'll get is some awkward missionary followed by her kicking you to death in her sleep" He hissed glaring at Hermione, she felt her cheeks redden and tears well up in her wide eyes, how could a man who had been so close to her be such a dick now? She knew the war had more than just physical casualties and she knew that Ron's emotional scars ran deeper than the rest; he seemed to miss the war almost as if he didn't have a purpose if he wasn't helping Harry defeat Voldemort.

"You have no idea what this woman is capable of Weasley, don't blame her for your short comings…" and with that Draco grabbed Hermione round the waist and apparated them both away from a furious looking Ron and missing a jovial and soon to be pissed off Harry entering the front door.

When they landed in his living room she didn't move away from him, he could feel her tears soaking through his shirt and he held her tightly.

"He's an ass Hermione." He soothed, running a hand up and down her back.

"He used to love me… how can he hate me so much." She choked into his white shirt, transferring some mascara to his lapel.

"He doesn't hate you Hermione, he still loves you and he hates me, why didn't you put him straight? Tell him we're just friends?" he asked pushing her back and holding her at arms length.

"Why should I? I didn't leave him, he left me… said I was boring and he needed to experience life and sow his wild oats and blah blah blah. It makes him so angry that we work together and it makes him even angrier when I'm nice to his dates… I like to piss him off." She smiled a little and wiped her face with the back of her hand.

"Do you still love him?" Draco asked seriously, trying not to look like her answer could crush him.

"Hell no!" she exclaimed almost laughing "He's a pig, I don't even know if I ever properly did… not in that way… when we kissed I wouldn't feel anything and I thought there was something wrong with me, but it just wasn't right I mean when you and I kissed… that one time when I made lady Viagra, there was more chemistry in those seconds than there had been in me and Ron's whole relationship and Draco we're not even in love… how bad is that?" she laughed again and sniffed then pouted a little and sighed "I can't believe how nasty he's become."

Draco was trying not to read too much into what she'd just said but couldn't help the grin that was spreading across his face. "You want a drink?" he asked heading away from her and towards his kitchen.

"Make it a double please!" Hermione called after him "Hey, why didn't you correct Ron?" Hermione asked following him at a distance.

"because I like to see the wound up weasel, it always pissed me off how he treated you… even at school when I was hating you I'd see him snap at you and force you to let him copy your homework and I would think 'mate… you've got a girl there who's getting undeniably hotter every year and you continually over look her and underestimate her' it was mind boggling…" He shook his head and poured her a drink.

"you thought I was hot?" she said mockingly clutching her heart.

"Oh get over yourself bushy, you had boobs before all the other girls and I was 13 you could've had a horn, tusks and a tail and I still would of banged you!" she guffawed at his statement as he handed her the glass.

"Don't you think it's weird that everyone thinks we're a couple?" Hermione asked sipping the fire whiskey.

"Not really" Draco whispered so she couldn't hear and shrugged, she grinned and shrugged, turning back to the living room.

"Let's watch that YouTube video of the kid who freaks out when his world of warcraft account gets cancelled." She called back to him "that always cheers me up"

A/N: This chapter diverts a little to Harry and his story, I know some of you may find this annoying but It's something I really wanted to write I hope it wasn't too bad. I'm not feeling this chapter completely but I wanted to write it and I did my best… I've been working on scripts for so long that I feel I've lost my flare for description and I'm just focusing on dialogue… any way please do review, I love it when you do, and kicks loves you. x