AN: Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long, standardized tests and debate tournaments and piano exams, etc etc etc are just crazy right now. Here's an uber long chapter that hopefully appeases your desires for new chapters! Please review! What did you like, what didn't you like, what would you like to see, who do you think is recruiting death eaters and attacking in France, just let me know!
Staring at the ashes in the fireplace...
By the time Hermione and Draco came back from Hogwarts, everyone but Blaise, Alex, Harry, and Ginny had left Grimmauld Place and gone home. The two couples were quietly conversing when the witch and wizard stepped out of the fireplace, catching the attention of the seated couples.
"Well? How did it go?" asked Ginny miserably.
"Scorp took it well enough, as could be expected," Draco reported. "Rose, too, given the circumstances."
Hermione wiped a teary eye away and nodded. "It was as good as it could be. Rose is a Gryffindor," she added weakly, smiling softly.
"What about Albus, do you know?" asked Harry.
"He chose to be a Hufflepuff."
"Really? Why?" asked Ginny.
"Some nonsense about the House that needed him most," Draco snorted.
"Hey," warned Alex. "Hufflepuff has had amazing people in their house before, and there is nothing wrong with being welcoming and affectionate."
"I just hope he's happy, that's all that matters," Harry concluded.
"Of course, Potter," Draco conceded.
"Did Scorp get into Slytherin? What about Ara?" asked Blaise curiously.
Draco grinned. "Both of them. And by the looks of their hand holding, they were pretty happy about staying together."
Blaise snorted. "You know, if we had been the old-fashioned pureblooded parents who made arranged marriages from birth, they probably would have been happy together."
"No kidding," Draco smiled. "They've both befriended Granger's daughter, Rose, as well, apparently."
"I would expect no less from Ara," Alex grinned. "It's too bad they didn't grow up together. They could have been the next Golden Trio."
The six adults in the room paused for a moment, remembering that Ronald Weasley had been the barrier to their children's socialization.
Harry sighed, and looked at the clock. "It's very late, everyone, and I think we all need to rest. It's been a... an exhausting day."
"Hermione, did you want to stay with us?" offered Ginny. "Just because... well times like these, it's not a good idea to be alone."
"I've been enough of a burden on you already, Ginny. I'll be fine," Hermione tried to refuse.
"Nonsense, Hermione!" Harry piped up. "You're always a joy to have around. Please, stay the night at the very minimum. Otherwise I will be staying up late worrying about you, and I won't get any sleep," Harry tried to guilt Hermione into staying, even though he knew she would see his manipulations as if they were clear as day.
She gave him a look, showing him that she did indeed catch his very much intended guilt trip. "Fine, Harry. I'll stay. Whatever helps you sleep at night, no pun intended."
"Draco, come with us?" suggested Alex.
"Merlin knows I've got nothing better to do," Draco sighed.
"Let's get going, we were supposed to pick up Zayden from my mother a long time ago," Blaise said as he began to stand up. Alex and Draco followed suit, saying their goodbyes and giving awkward hugs.
When the Slytherins had left, the three Gryffindors huddled together, seeking comfort to fill the empty hole that Ronald Weasley had left.
"I can't imagine just how hard my mum and dad are going to take this. Or the rest of my family for that matter," Ginny murmured, burying her head into Harry's shoulder. Hermione froze at the comment, and Harry noticed, grabbing Hermione's hand tightly.
"You okay?" he asked, She shook her head in response. Eyes wide, she tried and miserably failed to keep her hands from shaking.
"I haven't informed my mum and dad yet, and they are not likely to react as one might expect," she shuddered.
"Actually, Mione, come to think of it, I don't think that I've actually really met your parents besides the brief wedding you had," Ginny said thoughtfully.
"They never liked Ron," Harry explained. "Well, her dad was much more, shall we say... vocal about his dislike. Her mum made it passively clear that she did not approve."
"Why?" Ginny asked curiously.
"They did not like how Ron had abandoned us during the hunt for horcruxes. Oh, and also how he had repeatedly broken Mione's heart," Harry continued.
"What I want to know, though, Mione, is why you failed to mention that you had such an extensive relationship with Malfoy and Zabini in Australia. I'm not sure why I didn't really question why the ferret showed up to your wedding, especially when Ron had stormed into my office one day after you two had gotten into a row about it."
"It's really complicated, Harry, so I'm not sure if you want to hear it or how you'll react. And Ron was just being unreasonable, he already knew the extent of my friendship with Malfoy and still tried to forbid me from inviting him, which of course didn't make the situation any better or easier. Are you sure you want to hear the whole story?" she asked hesitantly. Harry and Ginny both nodded in response.
"It's way over time you come completely clean," Ginny chastised.
"I know and I am so sorry for keeping this from you for so long," Hermione sighed.
"Anyways, I think I'd better start during the summer after the war. As you both know, I defended Malfoy at his trial, for some of the same reasons as you, Harry. He didn't want to have to kill Dumbledore, he didn't turn us in when we were captured and brought into Malfoy Manor, his mum actually saved you, Harry, and lastly, but perhaps most importantly, his eyes. When Bellatrix, that abomination of a human being, was... torturing me, I saw his eyes in the midst of my screaming. He never meant for any of this to happen, and though he might have bullied us once upon a time, this was never what he intended.
"After the trial, we had a sort of understanding. He would live his own life out and I mrecentine, so long as the other never interfered. All was over, and we just left it at that, perfectly content to never see each other again. So, we moved on. He and Blaise left and went wherever they went, which apparently ended up being California. We all went back to Hogwarts to finish the year that we missed, and there was all that drama with Ron and Anthony.
"But anyways, when we fast forward a couple of years, when Ron had proposed to me, I realized that I had completely forgotten about my parents, since we were so caught up with capturing stray death eaters, providing testimony for their trials, and doing my own work as a primary lawyer for the defense of magical creatures. But when Ron proposed, I realized that I needed my parents back, after all, they had already missed so much of my life and I couldn't let them miss my wedding.
"So I sent myself off to Australia to track them down, and I know all of you wanted to help me, but this was something I wanted to do privately and under the radar. When I got to Australia, though, it took me months to find them, and I couldn't figure out how to break the charm without torturing them. I was desperate, so I went on the internet to see if I could find any experts on memory charms. I did not want anyone who was working in England or Australia, since the Daily Prophet and the Australian Announcements had already gotten wind of my parents' situation. That left me the States. I checked out one of the most prestigious universities in the States for magic, which happened to be the University of California for Witchcraft and Wizardry.
"When I was looking for researchers or healers, I came across Alexandra Wong, a recently graduated student who was doing interesting research on the muggle and magical disease, Alzheimer's. In one of her trials, she was attempting to create a counter curse to the Obliviate charm. She had successfully been able to restore the memories of obliviated people, and was just moving into clinical trials with Alzheimer's patients. Obviously, she had a solution to my situation, so I contacted her to see if I could get the counter curse.
"She responded quickly, but it turned out that she needed to have weekly check ups with her obliviated patients for at least a full year to guarantee that all memories are restored and reinforced. So I asked if she could help with my parents in Australia, and she was willing so long as she met me before heading over to Australia. So I flew to California, and met with her. She was fantastic, and was really a lot like me in a lot of ways. I didn't even meet Zabini or Malfoy when I was in California, only when Alex and Blaise came to Australia and brought Malfoy with them did I realize that the two Slytherins were suddenly a part of my life.
"In the beginning, it certainly wasn't pretty. I completely freaked out, fearing that Alex was some sort of rogue death eater trap, and I'm not proud to say that I was actually the person to throw the spells first."
Hermione looked at Harry and Ginny sadly.
"You have no idea how powerful the three of them really are."
Harry shifted slightly, frowning. "Did Malfoy do anything to you? Last I checked, he was a complete and utter coward."
"No, Malfoy didn't hurt me in any way. And to clarify something: Malfoy was never a coward, believe it or not. It's not my story to tell, but trust me when I say that he's been through some very trying times. Very dark times. And he is more powerful than he lets on. Alex tried to reason with me once Malfoy had taken my wand, and it was only after those two Slytherins left that she was able to get any sense into my head. I felt absolutely mortified, after she was done talking to me. Needless to say, we eventually got along, and became amazing friends as time went on.
"However, Australia wasn't as safe as we had thought. You know how the Lestrange brothers were caught in Australia? That was because they were tracking me down for revenge. They actually attacked us one day, and if it weren't for Alex, Draco, and Blaise, I probably would have died, and my parents, too. We defeated them, but we were also shaken. But as with any life-threatening situation, we bonded over it. And so we became best friends, even more than best friends. We became family. It frightened me, and I wanted to return to the United Kingdom as soon as possible.
"As soon as we came back to Britain, I married Ron. And you all know the story from there."
"Blimey, Mione, you could have died you were attacked by Death Eaters, and you didn't see it fit to tell us anymore this?" Harry asked angrily. "Did you ever even tell Ron what sort of danger you went through?"
Hermione hung her head in reply.
"One thing I've always wondered about, Hermione, is why you married Ron so suddenly. I thought you told us that you wanted a long engagement," Harry spat out bitterly. "You fell in love with someone else, didn't you? Someone who wasn't Ron? You never told him this, I bet, and you just married him after basically going behind his back and cheating on him when you were off in Australia, huh? Brightest witch of our age my ass. You jumped into danger, lied about your feelings, and kept us in the dark for eleven years. I thought I knew you, Hermione. Did none of those years hunting horcruxes and defeating Voldemort together mean nothing to you?" Harry snarled.
Hermione burst into tears. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she wailed. "I'm such a horrible person, I lied to my friends and husband for so many years! I'm a terrible person."
Ginny shook her head, placing a hand on Hermione's knee. "Although I'm hurt that you didn't tell us before, I can sort of understand why. You're not a horrible person by any means, we just wish you were more open with us. It destroys our trust in you when you keep things from us. The question is always asked, what else are you keeping from us?"
"I'm so sorry, you both deserved better than this. It was just hard, you know? There was a lot of shock, and confusing feelings, and... ugh."
"We get it, Hermione. We just wish you told us beforehand, before everything went wrong," Harry replied, losing his anger. "Why did you even bother marrying Ron?"
"It was safe. It was the easy way to go. The man I fell in love with, you would never approve," Hermione said sadly.
"We trust your judgement," Harry began. "Well, I used to trust your judgement," Harry amended. "But seriously, where's the Gryffindor bravery? We would at least try to understand, and it's not like he could be that bad."
"You don't understand!" cried Hermione.
"Then make us!" Ginny huffed, exasperated.
"I fell in love with VOLDEMORT'S HEIR. HIS PERSONAL APPRENTICE! Do you know how WRONG it is to love the second most dark man on the Earth? Do you know how TERRIFYING it is to know that he could kill YOU without even saying a word, or waving his wand? Do you know how FRIGHTENING it is to fall in love with someone you know has every capacity to destroy your life, but doesn't for whatever his own reasons are? Do you know what it's like to love a MURDERER?" Hermione screeched, and then clapped a hand over her mouth. Harry and Ginny froze, but Ginny's eyes darted from Hermione to the fireplace, and back again, as if connecting the dots.
"You loved... Malfoy?" asked Ginny.
Hermione just stared back, her eyes watering.
"What do you mean Malfoy, Ginny? He was too much of a coward to ever be in the favor of Voldemort to that extent. He never killed Dumbledore, even when he had the chance. I doubt he could kill anyone." Harry squinted his eyes at Ginny, confused.
"Didn't she just tell you that Malfoy isn't the coward we all thought he was?" asked Ginny.
"Tell me it's not Malfoy, Hermione, seriously. His whole family, besides Bellatrix, was being used and discarded. His father took the entire family out of favor. There's just no way he could have been the heir to Voldemort," Harry scoffed.
"It doesn't matter who it is," Hermione whispered. "He was still bad, he was still filled with darkness. I loved a dark, dark man."
"How could you, Hermione?" Harry's voice shook, with stress and confusion intermingled. "How could you fall in love with a man so dark, so purely evil?"
"But that's just the thing, Harry. He wasn't evil. He had so much light inside of him, even though the darkness was threatening to overwhelm him. He needed a chance, and he deserved so much more than he received. He was good, inside Harry, and I dare say the man he's become is so much more good than bad."
"It's totally Malfoy-," Ginny began.
"Leave it," Hermione said sharply. "I'm done with this conversation, you know the story now, and you know my shame. Ron's dead, Astoria's in a coma, that's more than enough for one bloody day!" She shouted angrily, and stormed up the stairs into one of the guest bedrooms. Neither Harry nor Ginny tried to stop her.
"It's worse than I thought, Harry," Ginny sniffled.
"I still don't understand, even if it was Malfoy, how could she fall in love with him, of all people? Or with someone even more dangerous? Hermione is logical, and it worries keep that she seems to throw all caution to the wind whenever we aren't there with her."
"Harry, love isn't logical, you and I of all people should know this. Who knows? Merlin, we definitely didn't know Malfoy well in school, and we only ever saw the worst side of him when we did. It doesn't make much sense, but at the same time it sort of does..." Ginny pondered.
"What do you mean it makes sense? It doesn't make any sense at all," Harry exclaimed.
"But it does! Malfoy was the second in your class, no? Only second to Hermione? And he's a bad boy when she's the good girl. They have loads of sexual tension, are intellectually equal, both are apparently bloody powerful, and it just fits the bad boy good girl cliche. You know what they always say about boys who tease girls, it means they like them," Ginny reasoned.
"Malfoy like a muggleborn? Please, Gin, the teasing was to make her life miserable, not just to get her attention," Harry scoffed.
"Oh forget it, you just don't get it, you hopeless man," Ginny sighed.
"No, Gin, I don't think I'll understand for a long time."
"At least keep an open mind."
"I try, Ginny, but this story is really testing my tolerance."
"I'm pretty sure that that's all 'Mione is asking for, Harry."
"I will try my hardest. I will."
Blaise and Alex stepped out of the green flames, closely followed by Draco. "Blaise, do you want me to pick up Zayden or do you want to?" asked Alex.
"Could you? I'm not really wanting to put up with my mum right at this moment," Blaise sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Alex nodded. "Make sure to get Draco's room ready for him, and I'll be right back."
"I will, love," Blaise affirmed, kissing her cheek.
With that, Alex stepped into the fireplace, the green flames engulfing her. Blaise turned to Draco, and motioned him to sit down on one of the chairs, choosing an ivory colored chair for himself whereas Draco chose a light green seat in front of a large nine foot grand piano.
"So, mate, how are you holding up?" Blaise asked cautiously.
"I'm tired of bad things happening to me," Draco replied.
"Well, your life was fairly mediocre for a rather long stretch of time, so maybe the universe decided to throw you a curveball," Blaise joked. "Besides, your family is only the richest in the magical England."
"I know, I don't have a half bad life, as things have turned out."
"Look at it this way, you might grow closer with her because of this."
"Don't bother bringing her up! Last time I grew 'closer' to her, she went off and married the Weasel. Can't you and Alex just stop shipping us?" Draco snarled.
"Well it was either you and Hermione, you and Harry, or you and your bloody apples," Blaise muttered.
"I beg your pardon?" Draco snapped.
"Anyways," Blaise continued, ignoring Draco's sputtering outrage, "you should really just focus on something besides the women in your life who are driving you batty."
"A nice glass or two of Ogden's finest firewhiskey might just do the trick."
"I'll check to see if we have any, but if we do, which I kind of doubt, there will be no excessive drinking in this house, especially with Zayden coming home soon. You know how Alex is about alcohol."
"Yes, Blaise, I know. I'm not quite that pathetic, yet. And if I were, Alex would let me know exactly how irresponsible I am being," Draco drawled.
Blaise amazingly found a bottle somewhere in the depths of the Zabini wine cellar, and brought a couple of glasses back to the sitting room.
"I still don't understand why you don't get a house elf, Zabini. So long as you give them clothes, food, shelter, and pay, Granger's SPEW laws allow you to have some extra help around the home," Draco mentioned while taking a large swig from his glass.
"Alex refuses, and we don't really need one."
Draco just shrugged. "Speaking of which, where is she?"
"My mum tends to just keep talking, and talking, and talking. She's probably trying her hardest to get out of there politely."
"Your mother, she's doing well then? Has she found anyone to really settle down with, yet?"
"Yes, she's fine, and has been healing well since the war ended. I think she's reevaluated her life, making sure that Ara and Zayden have a respectable grandmother on the paternal side. I don't think she's planning to add anymore conquests to her already long list, so she'll look for a real person to spend the rest of her life with."
As Blaise was answering that last question, Alex and Zayden appeared in the fireplace. Zayden waddled over to Draco, grabbing the chair arm.
"Uncle Dwaco here, Mummy! Uncle Dwaco bring Scorpi? Zay-zay miss Scorpi. Daddy! Uncle Dwaco here!" Zayden babbled, holding carefully on the furniture so as not to fall over.
"Zayden, you're six years old, you don't need to babble like a two-year old,"Alex sighed. "You know the English language, so use it."
"Yes, Mommy. Tzara was forcing me to play baby with her, so I was acting like one," Zayden chirped.
"Hey buddy, how are you?" Draco, quite fond of his godchild, ruffled Zayden's hair.
"Okay, even though Tzara kind of forced me to play the baby."
"Tzara Pucey? Natasha and Adrian's daughter?" Draco asked.
"Yes, you know Tashy. The Professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts? That's her," replied Alex.
"Auntie Tashy has the most frightening sneezes," Zayden commented.
"The expert curse breaker, who met Adrian at a pub, am I right? She was then subsequently hired to deal with some of the curses on various dark objects in the Pucey Estate? The really frightening one, with crazy feminist extremism?" Draco asked, trying to recall Natasha's life story.
"That's the girl. Jeez, Draco, she went to UCWW with us and has been to several Slytherin reunions. You really ought to know her by now," Alex rolled her eyes.
"Daddy, Mommy rolled her eyes at Uncle Draco, isn't she in trouble now?" Zayden observed.
"Yes, son. She's in loads of trouble now!" Blaise smirked mischievously. "I think she needs to be tickled, what do you think Zayden?"
"Yes, yes, yes!" Zayden crowed triumphantly.
"Draco! Alex screamed, being chased around the room by a tumbling six-year old. "Help me, please!"
Draco cracked a small smile. "Alex, looks like you're on your own."
"Aaaaaaah!" she laughed. "Ugh! Draco!" Alex cried shrilly as Zayden nearly got a hold of her.
"Ugh! Alex!" he mimicked, grinning.
"Gotcha!" Zayden cried gleefully, launching himself against his mother and tackling her leg. Blaise joined him in tickling ALex, who was gasping for breath between her laughs. Draco gave a breathy chuckle, and pulled Zayden off of Alex.
"Now, Zayden, let's not kill your mother by not allowing her to breathe. It's late, and you need to go take a bath, yes?" Draco asked Zayden while carrying him off to the staircase that led to the bathrooms and bedrooms in the Zabini Manor.
Blaise pulled Alex up to her feet. "There's nothing like a good tickle attack to make everything better," Blaise laughed, looking towards the staircase where Draco and Zayden had disappeared.
"There's nothing quite as uplifting as playing with a child," Alex smiled. "Let's get Zayden to bed, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. I need to go to St. Mungo's tomorrow to check up on Astoria," Alex continued, becoming serious.
"Why? I mean, if you wanted to visit, then sure, but you've never really liked Astoria or taken any interest in her. So I'm assuming that you're going for medical reasons?" Blaise asked confusedly as they climbed the stairs to the residential side of the Manor.
""Draco was worried that she would lose her will to live since Ron has passed. He wanted me to check up on her to see if I can do anything, but I have a feeling we'll need Tashy to take a look at Astoria's condition, since she's a great curse breaker. Actually, Bill might be helpful, too."
"Not a bad idea. I can owl both of them tomorrow morning. We do have a conference call tomorrow with the Medrex diagnostics branch in Italy tomorrow. They wanted to go over some of the heart disease early screening tests again, and also talk about various marketing techniques that they've come up with since our last meeting."
"Yeah, that call isn't until three tomorrow, right? I can go to Astoria in the morning and then come back for lunch and the call."
"All right love, let me know how Tori's doing."
"I will, now let's get one of the guest rooms ready for Draco. DRACO!" Alex called through the bathroom door, where Zayden's cheerful voice could be hurted amongst some splashing and Draco's attempt to censor his language.
"Yeah?" Draco responded, pulling open the bathroom door to reveal a sopping wet blonde.
"Which guest room did you want? The usual green and black one, or the black and silver room?"
"I think the black and silver room, this time. I usually go Slytherin, but I'm just not in the mood for house colors at the moment. Thanks, Alex."
"No problem," she called over her shoulder, already walking down the hallway and pulling out her wand to clean the sheets and dust the room to make it presentable.
"Are you coming to the conference call tomorrow, mate? If you're not feeling up to it, that's fine, and Italy's my expertise," Blaise said after taking out his wand and casting a simple drying spell over Draco and the bathroom floor.
"I don't know, I really don't know," Draco groaned.
"Alex is going to be there with me, so feel free to take the day off if you're not really inclined to come," Blaise added.
"I'll let you know tomorrow morning. I think I need to spend some time with my mother, and maybe Daphne and Theo. I'm probably due for a visit to Astoria as well, since I'm not staying there at the hospital."
"Sure, just let us know at breakfast tomorrow. Is Zayden too much for you? I can take care of him. And he should know better than to splash the bathroom to that degree, he'll be giving all of the tiles and cabinets water stains that Alex just can't stand!"
"No, no," Draco reassured Blaise. "Zayden's being a good boy, right Zayden?"
"Yeah, Dad, I am!" Zayden called from the tub.
"He's not any trouble at all. He's a welcome distraction, you know, from everything that just happened," Draco explained.
"Gotcha. Just be sure to cast a couple of extra drying spells for good measure when he's done, we don't want Alex or her mother flipping out when they step into this particular bathroom," Blaise warned.
"I know how OCD Alex is, I'll take care of all of it."
"All right mate, then I'll see you tomorrow if you'll put Zayden to bed?"
"Sure, I'll do that. Goodnight Zabini."
"Night Draco. Night Zayden!" Blaise called to the back of the bathroom.
"Love you Dad, night night!" Zayden replied. "Tell Mom I love her, too!"
"Goodnight son, Draco," Blaise nodded, heading off to the master bedroom.
"Your room is ready," Alex informed Draco just as both Zayden and Draco were drying off. "You'll find everything just as you normally like it. I brought your other spare change of clothes from your other room into the dresser in this room."
"Thanks, Alex. I'll put Zayden to bed, go get some sleep."
"No problem. Thanks for taking care of Zayden," she kissed him and Zayden on the cheek. "Love you both, and get to bed soon, okay Zayden? Goodnight!"
"Night!" both called.
The next day, Draco awoke to a slightly unfamiliar bed, and half-panicked, sitting straight up to look at his surroundings and wordlessly accio'ing his wand. Just at that moment, Alex knocked on the door and opened it to check in on him.
"Expelli-" Draco began.
Without her wand or words, Alex waved her hand and his wand shot straight out of his hand onto the black dresser, landing perfectly in line with his Granger-approved toothbrush.
"Really Draco, I know you're not a morning person, but you can react quicker than that nonverbally and wandlessly. You've become very lax in the last decade or so," Alex teased.
"Well thankfully I haven't had to worry about anything for a while, so I would consider that a plus," Draco grumbled.
"You might want to sharpen up on your skills, because one of my friends from France has let me know that a former death eater has been recruiting and beginning attacks yesterday."
"Who told you this?" Draco asked as he reluctantly pulled himself out of bed.
"Megan Creevey, wife to Dennis Creevey. You remember Colin, the kid who took a lot of pictures?"
"Yeah, Potty's fan boy," Alex frowned at this, but Draco ignored her and continued. "So Dennis is his brother?"
"Yup, and Megan's the charm teacher at Beauxbatons. I'm not really sure why she insists that her son, Colin, has to attend Hogwarts when he's eleven, but I guess it doesn't really matter much."
"Did she say who this death eater recruiter is? Or any death eaters who escaped recently?"
"No, I think it's still unknown. I had heard that Rookwood had escaped a few months ago. But besides that? I haven't really been keeping track, ever since I destroyed my subscription to the Daily Prophet years ago."
"Rookwood," Draco paused in thought, "okay, not completely unmanageable. But I doubt he would actively recruit. He really wasn't that bad of a guy, he was more bored in Azkaban rather than intent on getting loose. That's one of the reasons that he didn't receive the kiss, as opposed to Barty Crouch Junior. There's gotta be something else. Yaxley? Dolohov? The Carrows? What happened to them? The Averys?"
"I don't know, Draco, we'll have to do some research on this. I just find it a little too coincidental that Flint attacked Hermione yesterday at the same time that other Death Eaters attacked France."
"I think we should dig down deeper into this, and I could help Potter if he needs any information. It is a little too coincidental; there might have been some dark magic that was involved with Flint's accident."
"I wouldn't be too quick to jump to accusations of foul play, because I don't think anyone really knows the full story. We should definitely keep track of this, but anyways, are you coming to work today? Or are you going to pass?"
"Let me owl my mum and Daphne, and then I'll let you know when I get their responses back. If they're busy, then I'll have nothing better to do than come to work and get my mind off of things."
"Sure, breakfast is underway, so just come down to the breakfast nook when you're ready."
"I'll be down in a mo," Draco confirmed as Alex left the room.
When Draco stepped into the room, Zayden's cheerful conversation was obviously lacking, and Draco entered confused, staring at the empty breakfast chair next to Blaise.
"Is Zayden just not up, yet?" Draco asked, pulling out a chair next to Alex and sitting down.
"Draco, Zayden already went to school. He is six, you know," Alex informed him, grabbing a plate from the counter and placing it in front of him.
"You guys put him in school? Why not a private tutor?" Draco asked as he shoveled some scrambled eggs onto his plate.
"I hated my private tutor as a child," Blaise answered. "Didn't you hate yours?"
"Well, yeah, but where did you put him in for school? I didn't realize that there were any magical primary schools. Had I known about any, I probably would have put Scorp in school rather than private tutoring. One year, Astoria insisted on this one horrendous tutor, and Scorp hated her. Scorp even ended up hating Astoria for hiring the poor girl. It was a complete disaster."
"I remember that. Everyday, after work, you would come home with Blaise and me in order to complain to us about Astoria's dismal education choices," Alex rolled her eyes. "We put Zayden into the same private muggle school that Ara attended. We kept telling you that Scorp should attend the school with Ara, but you insisted that because it was run by a squib, that no child of yours would ever attend that school. But honestly, Draco, it helped so much that someone who knew about magic was on our side. All of the accidental magic that happened was easily explained by the Head of School."
"Oh that's right. You put Zayden into that school, huh?"
"Yes, and he's having a wonderful time with Tzara Pucey and Isabelle Longbottom, both from magical parents and clearly showing signs of accidental magic every once in a while."
"Speaking of the Puceys, why was Tzara at your mother's, Blaise?" Draco asked curiously.
"Tashy and Adrian are good family friends. They needed to see Athena off to Hogwarts, and you know how the younger siblings always get so antsy whenever it's time to drop the older siblings off. They didn't want to bother Tashy's parents, who, like Alex's, live in the States, and Adrian's parents are currently in Dubai or something to celebrate their 42nd anniversary. My mother offered to watch Tzara and Paxton, as well as Zayden," Blaise answered between bites of his Belgian waffle.
"Where have you been all this time, Draco? Living under a rock?" sighed Alex. "I swear, you spend so much time complaining about your own life that you completely forget anything else that's happening in the world."
Just as Alex finished her breakfast and stood up to clean her plate, Draco's black owl, Tectus, barged through the window into the room and knocked Alex's plate from her hands.
"Tectus!" Alex chastised. "So much for being a hidden or undercover owl. Could you have been more conspicuous?" she sighed, reparo'ing her plate and placing it in the sink. "Freaking bird, they're all just flying rats! At least it's not a flipping pigeon."
"Your American terminology still astounds me to this day," snickered Draco, pulling the two envelopes from Tectus's beak and opening the creamy stationery.
"Well?" asked Blaise when Draco had finished reading both letters.
"Honestly, couldn't a phone call make communication so much easier?" mumbled Alex.
"My mother and sister-in-law are both unfamiliar with Muggle technology, so excuse me for going to a slightly slower, yet more common and easily understood, method of communication," Draco drawled. "My mother would like to meet with me for lunch, and Daphne's planning on visiting Tori at nine, so in about an hour and a half, or a little less than that. I think I'll visit Tori with Daphne, pop over to the Manor for lunch, and then I'll come back in time for the conference call with Italy, assuming all is well with my mother."
"I'll join you for the visit to Astoria, and Blaise, honey, could you owl Bill and Tashy? Tashy probably can't check up on Astoria today, but Bill might be able to," Alex suggested, levitating the rest of the plates and utensils to the sink, where they began cleaning themselves.
"I will, and I'm headed off to work, so I'll see you at lunch, love?" Blaise paused, as Alex nodded. "Okay, and Draco, see you hopefully at three. If either of you have extra time, you should probably check on Hermione to see how she's doing."
"Sure," Draco nodded.
"I'll see what I can do," Alex leaned in to kiss Blaise on the cheek. "And please make sure that Ariel doesn't stress, you know how she gets whenever we have a conference call."
"Yup. See ya!" Blaise nodded and apparated to the Medrex office.
"Let's just go now, since I want to have as much time with Astoria to see if I can figure anything out that the St. Mungo's healers haven't," Alex suggested, pulling on her black overcoat and tying her hair into a messy bun.
Draco shrugged. "Now's as good a time as any." He held out his arm for Alex to side-along apparate, and she took it, snapping into the white walls of St Mungo's hospital.