A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reviews, I love and read every single one, they feed my muse so beautifully.
Thank you as always to AlaskanAppaloosa, you're a wonder.
Over the next few days, Hermione made it her goal to make Malfoy Manor her home, which meant a lot of moving things around. Her personal pictures made it onto shelves, and her favourite, most dog-eared books made it onto that little bookshelf by the reading nook. The TV got put up over the mantel, and below it, Hermione placed the snitch Harry had given her, one of Severus' first potions bottles, a picture of Draco for Lucius, a picture of her boys being goofs, some of the various knick knacks Lucius was so fond of, and a gold statuette of a dragon- and she made sure to leave some space for an item or two for her last mate. It instantly lent an air of home to the, until now, nearly clinical house.
One of the rooms off the grand room was, with Severus' help, set up as a laundry room. It turned out most of those spells he had patents for were for setting up various muggle appliances, including a washer and dryer to run in a magical household without the need of the interior plumbing that muggle houses had. His input was invaluable. He also had a flair for organization that Hermione loved, and between them, they created a laundry system that thrilled her far too much for what it was. Lucius was completely baffled by why this would be something they cared about, as the elves would be doing the laundry, but Bippy had told him to 'shush and let Missy and Master Severus bond'.
Over the next few days, Hermione and Bippy familiarized themselves with each others quirks and ways. Many times the men would come into a room to find one of two things. Bippy and Hermione vehemently arguing over whether or not the latter was allowed to do a particular thing, or those same two in buckets of laughter together. By the end of the week, Hermione couldn't imagine life without the formidable house elf.
Nights were spent learning one another, and slowly, the days reached a certain amount of normalcy. Charlie went back to work on the dragon reserve, flooing to Romania every morning, and coming home every night for dinner and snuggles before they all settled into bed together. Lucius worked from home as normal, and slowly Hermione started to get educated on his work and the running of Malfoy Industries. Severus brewed from home as well, which meant there was almost always someone hanging around the giant home.
The boys had made the Manor a regular in their work days, and at least three times that week they had stopped by and enjoyed dinner and family time. Tippy was particularly enamoured with Sirius, who treated her as a princess, and so there were always fresh cookies and pastries when he graced the house.
Neville had come over as well, and it was nice to get to know him as her brother. It was still strained, and if they were honest, sometimes outright difficult to be around each other. Augusta always sent her regards through Neville, and Hermione always hated receiving them, and Neville was always more than a little sad that his family was so fractured.
Unfortunately, with having a baby or five every other year or so, a normal job was not an option for Hermione. Augusta Longbottom lent the kind of rapport and reputation that Hermione needed to crack into the glass ceiling of the aristocratic sect that would allow her to succeed in the charity sphere, so soon she would have to mend that bridge and settle this once and for all. Her dracken honestly hated the idea, viewing Augusta as someone who had abandoned her, rightly or wrongly, and therefore untrustworthy. In this, though, Hermione refused to be ruled by her instincts. If this was what it would take to be a help to the people around her, then building a relationship with Augusta Longbottom would have to happen- there had been greater sacrifices made in the name of the greater good.
Life ebbed and flowed into a sense of normalcy so readily that it shocked Hermione when the sudden change to craving grains happened. One morning she woke and rather than the rare steak or hunted kill from her mates she had been craving before... it was oatmeal and toast with lots of berries and honey. Her mates, having been keeping track of her cycle, were unsurprised, but for Hermione it threw into sharp relief the reality that in only a few short weeks, she would be pregnant.
On one hand? The part of her that was still an orphan sitting alone in the orphanage praying to someone to please bring her a family rejoiced in knowing that her child would be so loved and wanted... but another part of her resented this shift in life plans. A baby meant sleepless nights and diapers and breast feeding and frankly, it meant a lot of rearranging her life. It was hard to consider that her own childhood had been so fragmented, and now her adult life was also changed by something she had no control over.
It was Severus who understood her mixed feelings the most. Charlie was completely baffled by them. He had always known he wanted a ridiculously huge house full of children, and was willing to do whatever was needed to make that happen... and Lucius. Oh dear Lucius. Just wrote off her concerns with a "If you want to work, then you will work, and we will do whatever we have to to make that happen. You do not need to worry about this." And while she appreciated the thought... It was Severus who understood that this particular feeling was more mourning than a complaint. More a feeling of missing what could have happened, of grieving a change that had broken her from her chosen path. In his life, Severus had had many such changes, and thus it was his stalwart form she turned to when the feelings threatened to overwhelm her. He never failed to wrap her in his wings, hold her close, and whisper to her of how it was ok. That this change wasn't bad, and yes, it would mean different things, but those things were still beautiful, and that it was ok to be sad that things couldn't be the way she had wanted them to be for so long. When she was calm he would kiss the top of her head and carry her to the reading nook, where they would sit and read together, separate books on the same topic so they could have detailed conversations later. It never failed to make them both feel completely at home and cared for, soothing ruffled feathers and settling the warring dracken.
Fortunately, between jobs Hermione had plenty of time to consider just how she was going to fill her time. Reforming the wizengamot was high on that list, but there was one other concern that filled her head, prompting her to ask one single question to Lucius.
"Where do magical orphans go?"
Lucius, sitting at his desk reading over a business document, paused briefly to collect his thoughts before speaking. "Well, as often as possible, magical orphans go to the nearest blood family, or an appointed god parent. Those who do not have family willing to take them in, or an assigned god parent willing to do so... Get placed in the custody of a Ministry. I... do not know what happens from there, if I am honest with you, Hermione."
The wheels in her brain turned so frightfully fast, Lucius could swear he saw smoke coming out of her ears. "We need to find out what happens to those children. What happened to the magical children at the orphanage I was at? What about the others? I assume the muggle children were placed into the muggle system... but muggle foster parents and other facilities... don't know how to deal with magical children. So where did they go? What happened to them?" Hermione started to pace, rapidly talking. "Were they shuffled into the muggle system as well? Are they being held in custody somewhere? Did the ministry somehow find foster parents for the children? Are they working on a magical orphanage? Is there the funding and manpower to make such a thing?"
With a happy gasp she whirled to face Lucius. "I know what I want to do with my life."
Lucius smiled entreatingly, having already considered that this was where Hermione's life would take her. "And what is that, love?"
"I want to help magical orphans. I'm sure the Malfoys have a property somewhere. Some place we could make into an orphanage. We have connections at the ministry, and Merlin knows we have enough money to get it started, though we would need charitable donations and volunteers and... Oh Lucius, we could give them a home. Not a clinical sterile orphanage... a home. A place where magical people can come and adopt magical children, but also a place where those children can grow and be loved."
Never before had Lucius loved somehow as much as he did watching his mate tear up at the idea of those children being loved and cared for by someone who understood their pain. He rose to wrap his arms around her, kissing the top of her head gently. "Yes we can, darling. I had.. considered that this was a route you may consider, and I've taken the liberty of going through the holdings and picking out a few properties that may work for you to review. Can I make a small suggestion? Don't do this through the Ministry. You'll never get anything done. Make this is a charitable organization with Ministerial oversight." Hermione was already nodding, her wand waving to summon her white boards from where they were stored in her office.
"Do you mind if I do this here while you do your paperwork?"
"Of course not. Just let me get those files for you."
The next few hours were spent with Hermione writing down everything she could think of for a magical orphanage, with Lucius giving his opinion whenever he deemed it necessary.
First came a breakdown of all the houses, but Lucius had flagged his favourite and Hermione tended to agree with him on it. It was a bit more run down than the others, but it was an older home that was built in a style that would work very well for this application. The main floor was split into multiple rooms that Hermione could see being used as classrooms or meeting rooms, the basement, which was rare enough in an older home, was split into a large room and servants quarters, which Hermione could easily see retrofitting into a cafeteria and elf headquarters. It also included some spaces that were obviously meant as storage spaces that could be used as smaller classrooms or safe rooms for children who were infected with lycanthropy, which Hermione had been keeping in the back of her mind as well. The rest of the living spaces, including the bedrooms, gave the house a full capacity of about sixty children and their caregivers, which Hermione was nearly certain would be plenty of space in the wizarding world.
There would be some issues getting up and running of course, but nothing that was worth doing was pain free, and this was worth doing. Harry and Sirius found her several hours later, pouring over a book that Lucius had acquired for her about the laws that governed children in the wizarding world, including those that were orphaned, completely engrossed in it.
It took a bit of looking around at her notes before they realized what she was researching, but once they did, they had some ideas of their own. Talks about how much each could donate towards the project were thrown around, as was Harry's ability to pull some strings at the ministry... but also to be an outward public representative. If such a program as Hermione was thinking had been around when Harry had been orphaned, he might have grown up in a home such as this one rather than with his muggle family. It was also baffling to him that no one had thought to check on him in that time to ensure that his magic was developing properly or that he was being cared for. This particular line of thought drew Hermione away from the law book.
"It's because there are no laws for it. It seems when the wizarding world wrote the laws regarding children... they just assumed that all magical children would be placed with magical families. There isn't even a magical equivalent of child protective services! It is just assumed that all children will be treated properly, and that their magic would protect them. What bollocks."
"Wait, then what happens if someone suspects a child of being abused?" Harry queried, confused more than anything.
It was Sirius who answered, "I've only ever heard of one case being reported, and it was reported to the aurors, who investigated it as a criminal manner. In the end the parents were found to have abused the child, who was placed with their nearest living relatives, and the parents were placed in Azkaban."
With this Hermione started pacing. "This problem is bigger than I thought it was. It's not just orphans falling through the cracks. It's all the children of the wizarding world. How do we do this? How do you tackle an issue so huge, so systematic?"
Lucius, having snuck back in the door during her little tirade, answered. "You don't."
At the stunned looks thrown at him, and near fury on Hermione's face, he continued. "You cannot change a huge systematic problem all at once. You change it in steps. Small piece by small piece. It may take years. In fact, in this particular case, I believe it will. But that does not make it not worthwhile."
Hermione sighed and nodded. "It's not ok, Lucius. Children should be protected."
"Yes." Lucius' arms slipped around her neck, and she snuggled into his chest. "But you cannot change this all at once. Start with the orphans. Once you have the ministry convinced that they have to intervene in those children's lives? It will be easier to convince them that they need to intervene for all children." He gestured to Harry, "Use Mr. Potter here. He will be your greatest tool. The ministry has a 'vested interest in keeping out of this. Old families will not want the ministry to have the power to curtail their practices raising their children. You will need the public outcry for these little ones to be so strong, the ministry doesn't have a choice but to accept the changes you propose."
Charlie and Severus were more than a bit baffled to find them all there, in Lucius' study, still talking about the logistics of this project many hours later, but once they caught onto the conversation, they were instantly drawn in. Severus especially was very vocal about the fact that if anyone from the ministry had looked in on his household anytime in the years leading up to his Hogwarts placement, or even afterwards, they would have found abuse and could have changed the course of his life, as well as his mother's.
Hermione plopped herself down on Severus' lap, running her fingers over the butts on his long robes. His arms wrapped around her, his long fingers deftly running through her hair, gently detangling as he went. It was frustrating to Hermione to consider that the man that had intimidated so many students had once been a student himself who came home from breaks thin and bruised, and no one had bothered to look in on him or his home life. It made Hermione irate that he had had to suffer like that, hated by a drunkard father. If anyone anywhere along the line had just... looked a little closer. The whole of wizarding history could have been changed, James and Lily might still be alive, Severus might have grown to look more like the man he was today than the surly and angry one she had known as a student.
Bippy, wonder that she was, had provided dinner in Lucius' study, allowing them to continue their planning well into the evening until finally they called an end, sending Harry and Sirius home and heading to bed themselves, content in knowing that they had laid out a concrete plan to change the lives of orphans all over the wizarding world.