Hermione told Trisha first.
"Oh my GOD!"
Which, by proxy, meant telling the entirety of the Maeve Ward. Hermione smiled awkwardly and stirred the boiling cauldron in front of her.
"Instead of promoting you in March, you'll be taking over the Maeve Ward in December," she said. "We decided I should take off the last couple months to avoid any, um, accidents. And I am so bloody tired all the time now."
"Yes, great about the promotion," Trisha said with a dismissive wave, "but what about the baby?! Oh my, I am so happy for you, this is amazing news! Malfoy really does look at you like you pull the sun into the sky every morning."
"I am never awake that early," Hermione teased.
"What are you going to do about a surname?" Trisha asked. Hermione blanched.
"We haven't gotten that far, yet."
"I mean, it's obviously a Malfoy, but also a Granger since you're not married yet. Which is totally okay! No judgement, but Malfoy-Granger or Granger-Malfoy? What the hell am I going to get you for a gift? Oh my goodness, as soon as the boy can stir a cauldron I will be tutoring him in potions."
"And inducting him into your underground butterbeer ring, I have no doubt," Hermione quipped. Trisha shrugged.
"If he has skill. But if your son has half your intellect I'd be a fool not to."
.oOo.
Draco staged an intervention in the middle of July. Hermione walked into the parlor to see Harry and Ron on the sofa. She rolled her eyes and asked,
"There's no rare bookstore trip, is there?"
"Afraid not, 'mione," Ron answered. Draco glared at him.
"She was asking me, you bloody Weasel."
"Yes, I was," Hermione insisted. "What are they doing here?"
"The three of you need to talk this out," Draco replied.
"Talk what out?" Hermione asked.
"This!" Draco shouted, waving his hand to vaguely indicate the space between the three of them. He lowered his voice to say, "I have my friends and they like you, but they are still more tied to my experiences than they are to yours. I know your friends do not understand what you see in me and, honestly, there are times when I don't either. However, you cannot keep them out of your life, Hermione. It is not fair to you for my friends to be the only part of our support system for Scorp and for as-yet-unnamed Malfoy-Granger. If you truly do not want to involve them in this because of their opinions about our relationship that is fine, but you need to give them another chance."
"I hate you so much right now," Hermione groaned. "I hate when you're right."
"Of course I am right!" Draco scoffed. "Do you think I would invite Weasley into my home if it was not important?"
Which is how Hermione wound up sitting across from Harry and Ron in the back of a Muggle bar. She glared at their beer, drank her water, and sulked.
"How is life with Malfoy?" Harry asked.
"Great," Hermione shrugged. "I hate being served by house-elves and I still don't know what to think of his mum, but he makes me feel really good. And he is such a great dad. Now that there's no one trying to kill us, life is quite nice."
"What good is life if you're not the target of homicidal loons once a decade?" Ron joked.
Harry took a deep breath and said, "I feel like we owe you an apology."
"Probably," Hermione said. "Go on."
"He's still Draco Malfoy, Hermione, and it's weird," Ron insisted. Harry groaned and started talking over him.
"I think we were—well, are, a bit confused because you two do everything backwards. First you had a kid, then you moved in together, then you started dating. Now you're having another kid. You are my best friend and I want to understand what's happening."
"We're having another kid, that is what's happening," Hermione quipped. Their waiter sat some chips on the table and Hermione dragged them toward her before Ron could reach the plate.
"I was gonna, just—" he said, but Hermione popped a chip into her mouth and pretended not to hear him.
"At first I was terrified because, like you said, it's Draco Malfoy and I haven't had my memory wiped. He was awful to me, and that is putting it lightly, and he was shit to both of you, too."
"What changed, then?" Ron asked. "Why the hell would you change your mind about him?"
"Because he changed," Hermione admitted. "The first day he was back, he apologized to me. Then he asked whether I thought he could be a good father to Scorpius. Draco wanted my opinion—he needed it. He never even entertained the notion of forcing me out of Scorp's life, never made me feel like anything less than family when he had every right to."
"Well, you could have adopted Scorpius before he got back," Ron insisted. "Then he wouldn't—"
"Mhmm-mmm," Hermione countered, shaking her head. "No, we knew Draco was still alive and we knew Scorp was Draco's son. I couldn't have legally adopted Scorp without notifying the father, and that would have ruined everything Draco was doing in New York. I had to wait until he got back to figure things out and he was fairly gracious about it."
"He said sorry then you decided, 'Great, let's shag now?'" Ron asked. Harry sniggered and Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Yes. That is exactly what happened, Ronald. Would you like the details? Do you want to know how much I like it when he—"
"Whoa! No, nope!" Harry waved his hands. "Stopping that conversation right there before my brain starts bleeding out my ears."
"No, I just …" Hermione trailed off. "I like that he supports me. I doubt myself sometimes because I don't know how to be a good mum. I want to make bad decisions and Draco is always there to say whatever is holding me back is nothing. He can take care of any obstacles in my path and all I have to do is be exactly who I am. And he is happy with that! I'm not taking advantage of him; I never feel bad about what he does for me. He feels like he owes me that, and I agree. But more than that, he changed because he saw what it means to be a good person and he didn't want to be like his father."
Harry and Ron didn't say anything for a minute. Hermione went back to her water and noticed she had eaten nearly half the chips. Eventually, Harry nodded to himself.
"I want you to be happy, Hermione. If Malfoy makes you happy then I am glad to hear it."
"What Harry isn't saying is we know he loves you more than hair gel and don't understand why you aren't engaged," Ron translated. Hermione nodded.
"I was wondering when you'd get there," she admitted.
"Is it the Pureblood thing?" Ron asked. "Because he may be a bastard but that doesn't seem like him. I think he'd love to fuck over his father by marrying you."
"That's true," Harry agreed.
"He doesn't want to ask me just because everyone else thinks he should," Hermione said. "Our focus is on my pregnancy and Scorpius, which I think is the right thing to do."
"You can't be engaged and pregnant at the same time?" Ron asked, confused.
"Being engaged to Draco Malfoy isn't just 'being engaged,' Ron," Hermione quipped. "Have you gone fucking mad?! It's photographs, magazine articles, our faces plastered on the front page of the Prophet for months on end, dress fittings, Narcissa Malfoy being Narcissa Malfoy …" Hermione sighed. "I can barely stay awake fourteen hours a day, let alone deal with an engagement."
Ron stole the plate.
"When do you think it'll happen, then?" Harry asked.
"That is none of your business," Hermione shot back.
"Means she doesn't know," Ron said through a mouthful of chips.
"It means if you don't choose your words more carefully you'll find your bollocks at the bottom of the Thames," she threatened. Ron held up his hands in a gesture of surrender and Harry laughed.
"Merlin, I have missed this," he said.
"Me too," Hermione admitted. "I miss all my friends. You most of all, but I hate everyone making judgements about my relationship with Draco. I worry enough about what Scorp will think of me when he gets older. Will he really think I'm his mother? Or will some part of him always wonder what would have been if Astoria had lived … What if he prefers that over me?"
"He won't," Harry insisted.
"Yeah, 'mione, he won't," Ron agreed.
"You can't know that!" Hermione insisted. "You can't know it for certain. I want everything to be right, so that when Scorp asks about his real mother—"
"Birth mother," Ron corrected. "Not to diminish Astoria's role in all this, but family is not about blood, Hermione. It's just not."
"Yeah," Harry agreed. "Look at how the Dursleys treated me. Blood doesn't mean anything unless you want it to."
"Exactly!" Ron said. "You and Harry are my family. Scorpius is going to grow up to be a very good kid because you're his mum. And I'm sure he will learn a lot about hair products from his dad."
Hermione kicked Ron underneath the table.
"Be nice," she demanded.
"Ron is trying to say that Scorpius will not think of you as anything less than his mum because you'll never give him reason to. Astoria would have loved him and you stepped up to fill that role when she couldn't," Harry said.
"I'm scared he will go to Draco when he's five and ask why he doesn't look like me," Hermione admitted. Ron leaned forward a bit and took a sip from his beer. He sat his glass down on the table and asked,
"Do you trust Malfoy to give the right answer?"
"I do."
He smiled and said, "Then I trust the ferret to do right by you."
.oOo.
They announced Hermione's pregnancy in October. The rumours had circulated for months, but once Hermione left the manor at six months pregnant there really wasn't another course of action to pursue. She threatened to hex anyone whose hands got too close to her stomach and Romilda was constantly in and out of the manor with new clothes.
The hardest part was explaining it to Scorpius. It was difficult because he almost seemed to understand before they told him. He would stare at Hermione's stomach and put his hands on it. One day while Hermione was lying on the sofa in her study, he felt the little Malfoy-Granger kick and his eyes went wide. He started crying,
"Monster?!"
Draco laughed and ruffled his son's hair.
"No, Scorp, not a monster, a sibling."
Scorpius's eyes somehow managed to get even wider. He put both hands on Hermione's stomach the way a Muggle psychic would touch a crystal ball.
"Bruh-zzer?"
"Yes, Scorp," Hermione smiled, "a little brother."
He continued to stare, mystified. It filled Hermione with joy that Scorp had no concept of half-brother or blood ties, he just wanted a younger sibling. Hermione started crying and quickly wiped away the tears.
"How are you feeling?" Draco asked, concerned.
"Like I'm ready to have this child already," Hermione admitted.
.oOo.
Hermione had their baby on the evening of January 14th. Hannah Longbottom dabbed her forehead with a damp cloth, and they agreed not to touch her hair since it was simply too much to handle. She wanted to sleep, but the look on Draco's face was something she wanted etched onto her brain. He held their son with reverence, as though their baby was the reason the world kept spinning.
She did nap for a bit and woke up to nurse before their parents sped into the room.
"Oh my God!" Mrs. Granger shouted from the doorway. "He is adorable!"
"He looks like a squished peach, Mum," Hermione wearily countered. Draco laughed.
"The sass never stops with you," he said.
"'s why you love me," she replied.
"One of many, many reasons," Draco said. He sat on the side of the bed next to Hermione and offered their son to Narcissa. She looked at him the way she looked at Scorpius the first time Hermione had brought him to the manor.
"How are you feeling, honey?" Hermione's father asked. She groaned.
"'m okay. Sweaty. Tired. My chest hurts, is that normal?" she asked no one in particular.
"Yes!" Hannah, Mrs. Granger, and Lady Malfoy answered simultaneously.
"What is his name?" asked Mrs. Granger. Draco patted Hermione's shoulder to wordlessly inform her she need not spend energy forming an answer.
"Hermione and I discussed this at length. I said Salazar as a joke but she did not seem to find it funny. She threw a book at me."
"You are stalling, Draco, which gives me cause to believe I will not like your decision on this matter," said Lady Malfoy.
Hermione felt Draco's fingers tighten around her shoulder. She had cautioned him not to get defensive, but it was a bit difficult to explain how they arrived at their decision. Draco squared his shoulders and said,
"It was different with Scorp. He was destined to be a Malfoy, named after me and given a name in tradition of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. His brother, conversely, is of many lines and traditions. The first thing we agreed on was hyphenating his surnames."
"And which came first," Hermione reminded him. She was shocked at how weak her voice sounded in her ears. Draco moved to wrap his arm around her shoulders.
"Yes, his surname will be Malfoy-Granger. I offered to split it and make Granger his only official surname, but we were concerned that would alienate him from Scorpius and from me, so we decided against that course."
"I agree," Narcissa replied. "His given names, then?"
"I took my cue from Harry Potter for his second name."
The entire room groaned.
"Draco Malfoy, if you named this child Albus or Severus I swear on Maeve's grave—"
"I would never let him," Hermione croaked. She rolled her head onto Draco's chest and murmured, "Water." Draco handed her the glass from the bedside table and she gulped it down without coming up for air. She sighed. "Nursing is hard work. I am so tired."
"Oh, no, you do not get to bail out right now," Draco teased. He pulled lightly on one of Hermione's curls that hadn't been tangled into the mess.
"His given names?" Narcissa pressed.
"His surnames represent both his parents, so we decided his second name would be of the Black family. I named him after the most courageous man I could think of in your family tree, Mother."
"Name him," she demanded.
"Regulus," Hermione revealed.
"Hmm..." Lady Malfoy did not feel the need to give voice to her thoughts for quite some time. Eventually she admitted, "That is a bold choice. It means 'prince,' a royal name for worthy blood. I approve."
"Thank God for that," Draco said with a wide smile. It was the name they had been most worried about after all. Hermione took one of his hands in her own as if to say, "I told you she'd see reason."
"And the name he shall be called by those who love him?" Mrs. Granger asked.
"That was where we struggled the most," Draco admitted.
"For Merlin's sake, Draco!" Narcissa said.
"Crixus."
Narcissa got a confused look on her face. She closed her eyes as if searching through memories.
"That is Gaulish," she finally said. Draco nodded.
"Hermione and I agreed his name should come from the land of both Malfoy and Black. We also believed it should be a name from times long before the segregation of blood and it must be a Muggle name. This child will be a fighter, just like his mother," Hermione grumbled her appreciation, "so we named him after a warrior."
"Crixus Regulus Malfoy-Granger," Hermione's mother said. "I pity him for every form he will sign throughout his life."
"Indeed," Draco said. "If Hermione and I have another child we agreed to name him after Hermione's father and be done with it."
Narcissa and Mr. Granger laughed.
He said, "While I appreciate the thought, it would be a tad strange introducing my extended family. Narcissa, Draco, Hermione, Scorpius, Crixus, and … John."
.oOo.
Blaise and Dean arrived with Scorpius the next morning. Hermione felt much better and Crixus was asleep when they walked in. Dean was smiling so hard Hermione thought his face might split in two. Blaise gave Hermione a hug and presented her with a fork and a small box of sliced mangoes.
"I love you," she said, devouring them.
"I actually made them for Scorp but he would not eat much. Too nervous, I think," Blaise admitted. He leaned over to see Crixus in the bassinette.
"I love him already," Dean admitted. "Is that weird?"
"A bit," Draco said from the doorway. Scorpius reached out toward Hermione so Hannah propped her up on some pillows as Draco put their oldest son down on her lap. Scorp reached for Hermione's stomach and felt that it was smaller. He looked up and said,
"Poof!"
Everyone laughed.
"Yeah, Scorp," Hermione made a disappearing motion with her hands and repeated, "poof!" She glanced over to Dean and asked, "Will you hand him to me, please?"
Dean delicately raised Crixus out of the bassinette, careful not to wake him. He placed Crixus in Hermione's arms and Scorp crawled up to get a better look. He delicately wrapped one tiny hand over the top of Crixus's head and placed the other on top of the blanket. He smiled and said,
"Bruzzer!"
"Yeah, Scorp, a little brother," Hermione said, her smile even wider than Dean's. She added, "Crixus."
Scorpius leaned forward and pressed a delicate kiss to his brother's forehead.
"Criss-ush."