Custody Case
Hermione only reluctantly went to work. While it was important to her to continue to be productive and archive something so shortly after giving birth she would have preferred to cut her hours, do a little home office and spent the most of the day cuddling her family. But Zabini´s custody case crossed her plans.
The young witch never doubted her husband's ability to take care of both Rose and their newborn son, she still felt guilty for leaving them alone even though it was just for work. After Lucius reassure her for the hundredth time that he got it all covered and if he did indeed need her she was only a floo-call away.
Hermione finally managed to depart. Arriving at her office she found an enormous pile of paperwork that remained untouched during her short absence and chocolates and cards congratulating the war-heroine to the birth of her second one.
Sitting behind her desk she couldn´t help but feel free. This was the first time in nine long months that she was truly all by herself. It was liberating to be able to eat and to drink what she wanted and to have some privacy. Enjoying her newfound solitude reading through the reports and working through those documents went rather smoothly.
Her department´s secretary opened the door to her office. The young wizard was startled. He hadn´t expected her back so soon.
"Blaise," Hermione explained annoyed.
"Well then, you still have four days until the Mermaid-Rights-Act is due," he said dropping the file on her desk.
This was why she hated taking long holidays. Before and after you had to triple one's workload since no one else would take care of it. This was hardly relaxing. On the plus side, since nobody knew she was back behind her desk, she also wasn´t disturbed and the young witch managed to get done a lot.
Like always Lucius´timing was perfect. He brought the children and lunch over and visited his younger wife. While those days he still spent a lot of time at the Ministry, the purpose had changed rather drastically. Gone are the days of lobbying for economic reforms that mainly benefitted his own enterprises, he now entered the building only to visit either his wife or son. What had really taken him by surprise was how little he missed being a lobbyist, blackmailing officials and plotting. He still made sure to be up to date but now discussed new legislation with his wife in private.
The former death eater handed Hermione baby Richard and lifted Rose up. While the witch bottle-fed her son, her daughter enjoyed cuddling her father. Their little one still struggled with being a big sister.
Over a jar of soup, she told her husband that she had a meeting with Blaise and Ms. Miller in the afternoon. She didn´t have nearly enough time to prepare to feel comfortable but that was fine since custody was something best discussed between the parents with their child´s interest in mind.
Undressing her robes she put her notes into her bag. Hermione put on a blazer hoping she wouldn´t stand out too much in a muggle-environment.
"Wish me luck," she said kissing her children and her husband bye.
The war heroine was shocked to find that both Ms. Miller and Blaise have lawyered up. Theo, freshly returned from his honeymoon, congratulated her on the birth of Richard. This did little to ease her confusion. Neither Pansy and George nor Ginny and co needed legal-representation.
They stated their terms. Theo demanded full custody and the muggle-lawyer a hefty sum of child support. This was a slap in everybody's face. Hermione always thought that parents would do whatever is best for their children no matter how hard it is, Blaise had to learn that muggle almost always granted the mother full custody and the muggle had to deal with the fact that they wouldn´t be able to force a penny out of Zabini.
Hermione, unlike Theo, did not believe that Ms. Miller got pregnant on purpose for the cash after all the pill wasn´t that easy to just stop and start on again. Mediating this ordeal was a lot harder then she had thought.
"You are telling me that I´m not allowed to see my child but I have to pay, so basically I lose twice."
Since Ms. Miller, unlike Blaise, had a job and a stable income, there was no way her lawyer could make the two wizards understand that she had to stop working to stay at home and look after the child. Especially not when that was all Blaise ever wanted.
The young witch ordered a break. She found Ms. Miller outside crying, her lawyer tried to tell her that there was no way they could get away with it. Hermione knew it better. If they didn´t reach an agreement it was likely that someone would send an Unspeakable to Obliviate her right after giving birth.
While the young war-heroine had worked tirelessly on improving the standing of minorities, she also knew there was still a long way to go.
"If I hadn´t told him I was pregnant with his child..."
"Then you would have been a struggling single mom and we would have still found out eventually. Only by then, it would have been much harder to integrate your little one into our society."
"You think so?"
"I know it. Blaise is not a bad guy. He really does well with his other child. I won´t tell you that it´s easy, but you two can figure it out. It´s for your child´s sake."