All in the Name.
There was an air of nervous tension in the room as Draco and Hermione Malfoy sat down to dinner with Draco's parents, Lucius and Narcissa. The tension wasn't anything to do with the two couples getting along. In fact since she'd started dating Draco, Hermione had been embraced into the Malfoy family. Hermione hadn't really expected Draco's parents to be so understanding of her, considering she was a muggleborn, but the war had truly changed them. Instead of turning their backs on her, as they might have done at one time, the older couple had embraced Hermione because she made their son happy. And in the years since then, relations had only grown stronger and these days Hermione was closer to Draco's parents than she was her own.
"I wonder if it's happened yet," Narcissa mused as she nibbled on a piece of roasted sweet potato.
"More than likely," Draco replied, glancing at the clock.
"Do you think we'll hear tonight?" Hermione asked.
The two couples were waiting to hear from Draco and Hermione's son, Scorpius, who had left for Hogwarts that morning. The entire family wanted to see if he would follow in the Malfoy tradition of being a Slytherin, or if Hermione's genes would affect things and land him in a different house altogether. Personally, Hermione wasn't sure what house she wanted her son to be in, all she really wanted was for him to be happy with whatever decision the sorting hat had made.
"I don't know, first nights at Hogwarts are usually pretty hectic," Draco answered with a shrug. "I didn't write home my first night at school."
"Really?" Hermione laughed, surprised by the revelation. Family was a big thing for her husband, and she knew that in school he was one of the students who received the most mail from home.
"Really. I wasn't a complete mummy's boy you know," Draco retorted.
"That must have come later then," Hermione replied cheekily.
Draco gave his wife a mock glare, but she merely responded by smiling at him and blowing him a kiss. A small smile graced his lips as he shook his head and turned back to his dinner. Bickering with Hermione was a big part of their relationships, and she was the only person he could stand teasing him about his past and the fact that quite honestly he was a bit of a mummy's boy.
"So when will we know where Scorp has been sorted?" Lyra, their seven year old daughter, asked.
"When he writes to us," Hermione answered. "It could be tonight, or it could be tomorrow."
"Or it could be longer," Draco said. "It took Blaise almost a whole term to write to his mother."
"He probably didn't know where she was to write to her," Lucius sniggered.
Blaise Zabini was Draco's best friend, and his mother had never been the maternal sort. Her focus in life seemed to be securing rich husbands, and Blaise had very much been an afterthought for her. As a result, Blaise didn't have the best views about relationships, and he'd spent his entire life avoiding getting tied down. Of course it now meant that while all his friends had settled down with families, he was still single, but he was still Draco's best friend, and while he would never likely be a father himself he was a great godfather to both Scorpius and Lyra.
"It will not take Scorpius a term to write to us," Hermione said with a scowl. "Or at least it better not, or I'll be sending him a howler."
"Poor sod," Draco chuckled. "Let's hope he writes before he becomes known as the kid who got a howler."
"Of course he'll write," Narcissa said with a stern tut. "Scorpius is a good boy."
"He may be, but he's still got those Malfoy genes," Lucius remarked. "I'm sure he'll find some sort of trouble to get himself into."
"Thank you for that insight Lucius," Hermione muttered, glaring at her father-in-law. "Now I'm going to spend the rest of the night worrying about what sort of trouble he can get into."
"Before you can do that, you need to find out what sort of friends he's made," Lucius said, not at all put out by his daughter-in-law's stern glare. "If he's made friends with someone boring, he'll likely not get into too much trouble. Whereas if he's like Draco, and befriends people like Blaise, you can guarantee trouble will follow."
"I think this is the point I should be grateful Blaise doesn't have a son," Hermione said, imagining how much trouble Scorpius and a son of Blaise's could cause.
Laughing about the trouble a son of Blaise's could get into, the Malfoy finished dinner before heading into the front room. After a couple of hours relaxing and talking, Lucius and Narcissa got up to leave just as Scorpius's owl knocked on the window. Deciding to stay and see what their grandson had to say, the couple sat back down as Hermione tore into her son's letter.
"Well?" Draco pressed as his wife read the letter.
"Slytherin," Hermione announced, causing Lucius and Draco to both let out proud exclamations of joy.
"Is he happy with that?" Narcissa checked.
"He seems thrilled," Hermione answered as she continued to read the letter. "Apparently he met a boy on the train, and he was also sorted into Slytherin."
"What's wrong?" Draco asked when Hermione's smile suddenly dropped to be replaced with a frown.
"The boy," Hermione said quietly. "His name is Albus."
"Someone named their child after Dumbledore?" Lucius asked with a splutter.
"Yes," Hermione said. "Harry."
"Scorpius had made friends with Potter's son?" Draco asked in surprise.
"It appears so," Hermione answered quietly.
Following her marriage to Draco, Harry and their other best friend, Ron Weasley, had cut her off and she hadn't heard from either of them in years. Now, it would seem her son had only gone and befriended Harry's son. Although, Hermione could only imagine the problems their friendship would cause with her old friends. She just hoped Scorpius didn't end up hurt.
"Are you okay?" Draco asked his wife.
"I'm fine," Hermione replied with a tight smile. "Scorpius can be friends with whomever he likes."
"Let's just hope the Potters and Weasleys are as understanding," Draco said. "I swear, if they do anything to upset Scorpius, I'll make the whole lot of them rodents pay for hurting my son."
"Let's not interfere, Draco," Hermione cautioned. "As long as Scorpius is happy, that's all that matters."
"I guess so," Draco conceded. "So just how did my son end up befriending a Potter?"
Hermione returned to the letter to find the answer, and frowned when she found the part where Scorpius mentioned how he'd befriended Albus.
"Well?" Draco pressed when his wife didn't answer straight away.
"They have a name in common," Hermione said quietly.
"A name in common?" Draco frowned. "Scorpius and Albus are not the same, nor are Malfoy and Potter."
"Their middle name," Hermione whispered. "It's the same."
"Severus?" Draco questioned. "Are you telling me Potter has named his son after my godfather?"
"I can't say for certain, but I can't think of any other Severus's," Hermione replied.
"That git," Draco hissed angrily. "He hated Severus with a passion."
"Not in the end he didn't," Hermione pointed out.
"Only because he discovered he'd been jumping to conclusions for seven years," Draco argued. "Severus was always a good man, Potter just didn't want to see it. Discovering that Severus wasn't dark, doesn't change the fact that Potter hated him for years. It's just hypocritical to name his son after him."
"Poor Severus will be turning in his grave," Lucius muttered, just as outraged at his son. Severus had been a good friend, a far better friend than Lucius had deserved at times, and he hated to think that Harry Potter had claimed him as some sort of hero to name his son after.
"I have to admit, I think it's slightly hypocritical myself," Hermione confessed.
She of all people knew how much Harry had hated Severus, and in her opinion even finding out that he hadn't been on the dark after all, shouldn't have led to him naming his son after him. It was different for her since Scorpius was named for Severus because of Draco. Severus had been Draco's godfather, and he'd done a hell of a lot for Draco over the years. Draco had wanted to honour his godfather, as he'd never had the chance to thank him for everything he'd done for him before he'd died in the war.
"Slightly, it's a damn outrage," Draco hissed. "It's like me naming a kid after Dumbledore. I couldn't stand the man, and even though he was ultimately a good person, I wouldn't name my kid after him."
"It's not like there's anything you can do about it," Hermione said as she passed Scorpius's letter over to Lyra as there was a note for her at the bottom of the page. "You can't go back in time and stop Harry from naming his son Albus Severus."
"I wish I'd known about it at the time," Draco muttered. "I would have made a right fuss."
"Let's be grateful you didn't," Hermione muttered, imagining the scene her husband would have caused eleven years ago if he'd known there was another child being named for his godfather. "And if we ever meet Albus, you're not to cause trouble."
"As if I would cause trouble," Draco replied with a smirk.
"I mean it Draco," Hermione warned sternly. "You may not like what Harry has done, but it's none of our business. Just keep quiet for Scorpius's sake."
"Fine," Draco reluctantly agreed. "I won't do anything to jeopardise Scorpius's friendship, but if I do see Potter, I can't promise I won't call him out on his hypocrisy."
"Just make sure you don't hurt your son," Hermione said.
Hermione was half hoping that Draco and Harry never ran into each other and the name thing wouldn't be an issue, but she knew that would depend on how Scorpius's friendship with Albus developed. If the pair remained friends, it was more than likely she would come back into contact with her former friends, and she doubted her husband would be able to keep his mouth shut for long. However, if their friendship never developed, it might never even be an issue. All she could do was wait, and see what happened with her son and his new friend.