Hermione was exhausted for the week after Ginny Potter came to his house. Part of that, Draco suspected, was because she was doing more again. She was downstairs more often than not now, playing games and doing puzzles with Scorpius. She wasn't standing up and moving much, but that was a good thing. The higher activity did mean that she was passed out around nine every night. Draco frequently stayed up until almost eleven, which meant he was reading books by a soft light in their bedroom and hoping that he wouldn't wake up Hermione, who usually cuddled up next to him in bed.

Though he spent his nights worrying about waking up Hermione, Draco was happy. Hermione was sleeping more, but they were talking more too. Scorpius had quiet time in his room every day, and Draco spent that time talking to the woman he loved. They talked about their future and their fears, current events in the wizarding world, and news about Hermione's parents in Australia. The conversations made them better, in Draco's opinion. The whole house just felt happier, and Draco didn't remember it feeling that way since Astoria had died.

Hermione was eight months along too, and as far as Draco could tell, the baby was doing alright. The last two months had been scary, but they'd managed to keep everyone safe. His girlfriend was incredibly happy, all things considered, because once again it seemed that she was in the clear. It seemed that she and the baby were going to be okay. The more she thought that, the more she went back to being herself. She asked for files from work so she could stay on top of things, and Harry Potter was over almost every day to talk to her about how things were going. Draco, while not in love with the idea that the other man was in his home all the time, was glad to see Hermione acting like herself again.

All of these thoughts came to him as he laid in bed one night. Hermione was sitting next to him with a book, actually awake at ten for once, and after a few minutes she set the book down and asked, "Are you awake?"

"Very much so," Draco replied. "Why do you ask?"

"I just...I think I've finally picked a name."

"Yeah?"

"I was hoping you'd tell me what you think of it?" Draco nodded and stayed quiet so she could speak. "Hugo." she said softly, sounding nervous.

"Hugo?" he asked, wanting to be sure he'd heard her properly. She just nodded. "Hugo…" he said slowly, testing out the name. "I like it. It's a good name. How'd you come up with it?"

"I'm reading Victor Hugo, and it just kept my attention. Do you think Ron will like it?"

"I don't know why he wouldn't," Draco said. "It's a good name."

Hermione smiled to herself and picked up her book again. She read for another fifteen minutes before she fell asleep. Draco carefully moved the book off her chest and set it on her nightstand. He used his wand to turn off the lights and felt Hermione move closer to him. He smiled as she did and quickly drifted off to sleep as well.

The next morning he woke with a bad feeling. Hermione was still asleep, and when he looked at the clock he knew why. It was barely past six; he had no desire to be awake, but something told him that he wasn't getting back to sleep any time soon. So he climbed out of bed as gently as he could to avoid waking Hermione and went downstairs to make coffee and read the newspaper. The front page had a massive picture of his father scowling.

Draco froze when he saw it, trying to process why his father was on the front of the Daily Prophet. It took him a moment to realize that he needed to read the headline to understand. 'Former Death Eater Arrested for Connection to Hogsmeade Attack'.

To say he was surprised would be wrong. He knew that the ministry was looking into his father, as he'd told the head of the Auror Department that his father was to blame, but he hadn't heard anything about it since. He definitely hadn't spoken to his father since the attack; he hadn't wanted anything to do with a murderer again. Despite this, Draco definitely didn't feel better knowing that his father was in prison again. His father would do anything to get out, and he'd piece together that Draco had informed someone of his involvement. His father would come after him and Hermione, and they would easily get hurt.

Draco took a few deep breaths to try and calm himself down. Everything was going to be okay; he had to convince himself that everything was going to be okay. His father couldn't get around whatever evidence it had taken Potter weeks to collect. And even if he did manage to convince the Wizenagamot that he wasn't guilty, there was no way that the aurors were going to let Hermione get hurt. Harry Potter was her best friend, the head of the auror department at the ministry, and the savior of the wizarding world. No one was going to let anything happen to the people he cared about as long as they could do something about it.

Once he got that thought wormed into his brain, Draco couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. His father had been taken care of, which meant that the people he was working with were most likely out of the picture. At least for now, his family was safe and he didn't have to worry as much about his mother being stuck with someone who could define evil.

"Serves you right," Draco muttered, looking at his father's scowl once more before turning over the newspaper. "Serves you right." He set about making the coffee then, pleased that he could move forward with his day and not think about his father at all. He was in prison, and that was all that really mattered.

It wasn't too much longer before Hermione came down the stairs and settled into a chair at the kitchen table. She'd taken to sitting downstairs and eating with him and Scorpius before returning to the bed or the sofa to try and take care of the baby-Hugo, he remembered. She'd finally given the baby a name, and it was Hugo.

"Did you sleep well?" she asked, summoning a glass of water with her wand.

"I did, and you?"

"Wonderfully. I got kicked in the ribs a couple of times, but I suppose that's normal."

"An unfortunate side effect," Draco said, smiling at her. "Shall I make us some breakfast? I'm starved."

"It's only half past six and you're already starved?"

"I'm used to a lot of food. What are you hungry for? Waffles? Toast and jam?"

"Eggs and toast," Hermione decided. "Are you sure you don't mind cooking for me?"

"I've been doing it for two months; why are you asking now?"

She chuckled softly and shrugged. "I wasn't exactly in the best mood for most of that time though, and I didn't care too much about what anyone else was doing."

Draco nodded and started cracking eggs into a bowl to whisk. "I'm just glad we're done with that time."

"I am too," Hermione said. "I wasn't reading or doing work at all, and it was awful."

Draco couldn't help but laugh; of course work and books were what she'd missed. He shouldn't have expected anything else. "Glad to know I rank below books and work. Remind me why I'm here?"

She rolled her eyes and pulled the Daily Prophet toward her. "Because I love you, that's why." There was silence for a moment and Draco heard paper crinkling before there was a small gasp. "Draco?" Hermione asked, her voice losing all of the playfulness it had held only a moment ago. "Have you seen the paper?"

He nodded stiffly. "When I woke up."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm relieved, actually. This means he won't come after you, which is what he threatened to do."

"You're relieved that your father's in prison?"

He sighed and turned to look at her. "I'm relieved that you're safe. I'm relieved that Scorpius is safe. I'm relieved that the bloody wizarding world is safe. And all of that's because he's been arrested. He'll stand trial and there's a chance he could manipulate the Wizenagamot into letting him out, but I don't see that happening any time soon. So yes, I'm relieved that my father's in prison."

Hermione nodded and didn't say anything else. She read the paper and Draco cooked and the room was nearly silent except for the occasional scrape and crinkling paper. Draco had just finished her eggs when he heard feet on the stairs. Scorpius appeared in the kitchen a moment later, yawning and rubbing his eyes.

"Good morning, Daddy," he said, coming to hug Draco's legs and then quickly moving to Hermione. "Good morning, Mummy."

"Good morning, Sweetie," Hermione said, kissing his cheek and pulling out a chair for him at the table. "You're up early this morning."

Scorpius yawned and nodded again. "I had a bad dream about Grandpa," he said. "My first mummy's daddy got hurt and I woke up and I couldn't fall back to sleep."

Hermione rubbed his back and said, "I'm sorry, Scorpius. That's not a fun dream to have."

He just shook his head and climbed into the chair Hermione had pulled out for him. Draco hurried to make him some eggs as well, because he didn't want Scorpius to have to sit and be hungry. His son was still a huge fan of eggs, and definitely wouldn't be upset with Draco for making them. In fact, when Draco set the eggs on the table in front of him, Scorpius grinned excitedly and immediately dug in. Draco just smiled and shook his head; his son may not have had the best night, but he was having a fine morning, at least so far. He finished making something for himself to eat and then sat down at the table with his family. Hermione smiled happily when he did, and Scorpius just quietly asked if he could have more eggs. Hermione gave him a spoonful of hers, and Draco shook his head again as he started to eat.

"Daddy, what are we going to do today?" Scorpius asked after he finished eating. "I wanna do something fun."

"What's fun, in your opinion?"

"Um...maybe we could go play with puppies!" Scorpius suggested excitedly. "I love playing with puppies. I really want a puppy, Daddy."

Draco started to shake his head. "I don't know if that's the best idea right now, Scorpius." he said, not willing to get his son's hopes up. Draco had never really taken care of a pet before; they'd had owls and eagles and such over the years, but Draco had never had to do anything for them.

"Mummy, can I have a puppy?" Scorpius asked, looking at Hermione innocently.

She raised an eyebrow and looked to Draco, who looked equally as stunned. He couldn't believe that his son would just go around him, especially with a woman he hadn't even known for a year. "I think that decision's up to your Daddy, Sweetie. But maybe if you go get dressed and brush your teeth, he and I can talk about it?"

Scorpius was out of his chair before she could say another word. "You think he needs a dog?" Draco asked.

"I don't know if he needs one, but...they are friendly, don't you think?"

"But they go to the bathroom in the house and they ruin everything," Draco protested softly. "And he won't be able to take care of it because he's four, which means that I'll have to do it-"

"I would help too," Hermione said. "Not as much for the next month, but I wouldn't mind helping. I had a cat at Hogwarts and I loved having him-what's wrong with starting Scorpius off a little earlier with a different animal?"

Draco sighed heavily. "He's not going to let this go now that we've talked about it."

"No, I don't suppose he will." Hermione said.

She smiled triumphantly and Draco rolled his eyes before telling Hermione she'd need to have a friend come and visit her and Scorpius at some point in time during the day. She just continued to smile and got ahold of Harry Potter, who was over with his sons and his wife before too long. Scorpius was overjoyed to see his friends at his house again, and immediately started playing with them. Draco left the three adults in the living room with the kids and apparated to Blaise's house. He didn't have his daughter with him at the moment, as she'd gone to her mother as she was supposed to once every few weeks. She'd come back out of the blue and requested to see her, and Blaise had given her one day.

He appeared in his friend's kitchen and saw Blaise reading the newspaper and sipping coffee. "What are you doing here?" he asked as Draco sat next to him at the table. "Come to talk about your father?"

"Would you like to come with me to an animal shelter and adopt a dog?" Draco asked.

"I'm sorry, you're getting a dog?"

"Hermione and Scorpius teamed up against me, I think," Draco admitted. "I'm not sure how to say no to both of them."

Blaise laughed. "I'll get my coat."

It was more difficult than he'd expected. The muggle woman who was taking him through the process kept wanting to see identification and call his resources, and Draco had no clue what he was talking about so he just used a small charm on her to make sure that he could just get a dog without a problem. He didn't want to disappoint his family, and they'd be disappointed if he came home without a dog.

Draco wasn't really sure what he was looking for, so he let Blaise pick one that he wouldn't complain about too much. It was a large dog and Draco didn't know the breed, but it reminded him of Hagrid's dog from his time at Hogwarts. Blaise seemed to think it was handsome, and he wanted Draco to have a handsome dog.

"It's twice the size of Scorpius," Draco muttered as the woman filled out the paperwork, thinking that he'd showed her identification and that she'd called his resources and seen him a few times before making a relationship with the dog. Draco hadn't done anything too bad, just a Confundus charm, and he hoped Hermione wouldn't mind. She seemed to want a dog as well, and she'd want him to come home with one.

The dog seemed nervous and vaguely afraid of Draco, but he just kept the dog on the leash and at a distance, not entirely sure what to think of it. Before long though he was at his own front door again, and he knocked on the door hoping that Scorpius would run up and answer it. He did, with Harry Potter following close behind him, and Scorpius just stared at the dog.

"Daddy? Why do you have a puppy with you?"

"Mummy convinced me that you should have one," Draco said, smiling slightly. "So I went and got one."

Scorpius's face lit up and he immediately hugged the dog. "You're my friend!" he said excitedly, and the dog seemed scared at first but slowly licked Scorpius's cheek. His son giggled, and Draco couldn't help but smile. "Do you have a name? Can I name him, Daddy?"

"Of course you can." Draco said.

Scorpius hesitated for a second before saying, "Can I call him Bear, Daddy? He looks like a bear!"

Draco nodded and smiled as Scorpius continued to hug the dog and the dog licked his son's face and started wagging its tail. "My kids are going to be so jealous," Harry Potter muttered, smiling at Draco. "They've been asked for a dog since they were born, basically."

Draco couldn't help but smirk at that. He'd made his son happy, and he'd gotten a fairly good companion, more than likely. The dog seemed friendly-he probably should have checked if it was friendly at the shelter-and it seemed to adore Scorpius. He was smiling until he felt something wet and warm on his hand, and he looked down to see the dog licking him too. In that moment, he wondered if he'd made the right choice after all.