A/N :: Thank you to Boo62 for my 2OOth review! Hope you all enjoy chapter 26! (:
Chapter Twenty Six || Letters.
Hermione's POV ::
Evening is my favorite time of the day. I curled up on the buttery leather couch, pulling my blanket tighter around me. The bump my belly made in under the soft cotton still amazed me. It was almost ten o'clock, and I was spending some time by the fire.
I heard the portrait open. Draco was grumbling angrily. He stormed over to the couch with three sheets of parchment and two quills.
"Guess who ambushed me in the hallway with a surprise assignment?" Draco asked rhetorically, thrusting a paper and a quill at me. He clutched another and dropped the third paper on the coffee table.
"Who?" I asked innocently, beginning to read the parchment when I realized it was blank. I inspected the quill in my hand.
"Lock-fuucking-heart. He came out of NOWHERE are basically threw three papers and two quills at me. Then he explained we have to write each other a letter, and it will be delivered on Christmas." Draco told me, leaning on the coffee table to write.
I tilted my head, adjusting myself on the couch. "So I write you a letter. That's not too hard."
"Who did you write to earlier?" Draco asked me curiously.
"I'm not telling," I grinned at him.
"Aw, why not!" He demanded, putting his quill down and looking at me.
I shrugged. "I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a surprise."
"Well then I'm not going to tell you." Draco said stubbornly.
I didn't answer. It was time to get to work. Speaking of time … "Draco, do you know if it's seven o'clock yet?"
He glanced at his watch. "It's six fifty nine." Draco walked over to me, sliding into the chair next to mine. I turned to face him. His eyes caught mine as I put my hands on my belly.
"This is pretty cool, you know?" I smiled down at our hands on my midsection.
"Yea, it's fuucking awesome. Our kid is a boss." Draco smirked and looked at his hand placed on me.
"Can I, um … apologize for something?" He looked at me.
"Yea. Yea, sure." I replied breathlessly.
"I want to apologize for everything I've said. All that crap over the years. I know we're in a truce, or whatever, but you said it yourself. We need to get along for the sake of the baby. So," Draco shrugged. "... sorry for all that."
"If this happened one month ago I wouldn't have accepted this, you know." I said, avoiding his eyes as I inhaled a shaky breath. "But we're different now. We're parents. And we're in this together. I accept."
Draco smiled. Not a Malfoy smirk, but an actual, genuine smile. I couldn't help grinning back. He leaned forward. I blinked. Draco's grey eyes stayed focused on mine. He was centimeters away. My gaze flicked from his lips back to his gaze. I closed my eyes.
Draco's POV ::
"Whoa," I breathed, feeling something connect with my hand. Hermione almost fell forward when my lips didn't meet hers. I guess I got distracted.
"He kicked me!" I grinned at her, my eyes wide. Hermione smiled.
"I felt it too. She's my predictable baby," she replied, looking down at her abdomen, her hands moving in circles over the child.
"So you wouldn't be game to naming the baby Seven?" I tilted my head. "C'mon, you know it made perfect sense."
Hermione rolled her eyes and practically growled. "No son or daughter of mine will be named a number! That's just cruel."
I chuckled and stood up, returning to my seat on the couch. The letter was still on the coffee table. I pulled Hermione's blanket over my lap as I looked over at her. She was facing the table, head bent towards the letter. The quill moved across the parchment.
I looked down at my own blank sheet, my mind racing. Was I about to kiss Hermione Granger back there? Was the stuck up, Slytherin hating, good-guy-loving Hermione about to kiss me? I closed my eyes, trying to play out the scene in my head. But there's really no way to find out what would have happened. Unless …
I stole another glance at her. Unless we did that again, I'd never know.
"Get to work, Draco." Hermione scolded me. She must've seen me looking.
I returned my attention to the letter. I pressed the quill to the parchment and Hermione's name appeared. 'Dear Hermione Granger.' Well, that was quite a start.
"I'm finished. Have you even started yet?" Hermione called from the kitchen.
"Yea, I'm done. C'mon over, there's one more thing to do." I replied, folding up the letter and sliding it into my robe pocket. Hermione took a seat on the couch across the table. I pushed the third piece of parchment towards her.
"Name Time!" Hermione read from the paper. "On the spaces below, please write the possible names for your child. Choose three for a girl and three for a boy. Name will be read aloud in class in groups of three. Don't forget a middle name!"
"It's a good thing we discussed this already, eh?" I said, trying to recall the names we agreed on. "Have you warmed up to Scorpius yet?"
"No, and I never will." Hermione looked at me over the top of the paper before she put the parchment on the table. "Okay, three names for a girl. We liked Natalie, Jocelyn, or Evelyn, correct?"
"Geez, how'd you remember?" I furrowed my brows as Hermione wrote the names on the sheet.
"It's a girl thing. We're good with baby stuff." She offered as an explanation.
"That's fine with me. What for a middle name? Our parent's names would be a good idea. What's your mother's name? That could be our daughter's middle name." I said, thinking quickly and speaking just as fast.
"Um, yea that's a good idea." Hermione blinked several times, comprehending all that I said. "Actually it's brilliant! Natalie Suzanne. Jocelyn Suzanne. Evelyn Suzanne." She tried out the names.
"Our girl's gonna be beautiful isn't she? Yea, she's gonna be gorgeous." I decided, folding my arms behind my head.
Hermione laughed. "For our son we decided on Bryon, Royce, or Nathaniel. Your father's name is Lucius?" I nodded. "Bryon Lucius. Royce Lucius. Nathaniel Lucius."
"Damn, our son's gonna be a ladies' man." I smirked. "Just like his daddy!"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "He will be a gentleman."
"Yea, we'll see."