A/N: Everyone's home with COVID. That means, my husband isn't working right now and stuck with me. Want to know how we've spent this month doing? Watching all eight HP movies, because he's never seen any of them or read the books. We're actually getting ready to start DH pt2 and honestly, I'm sitting here going 'you would love the books so much more.'
You want to know what else I got done today? Another chapter in my other story. If you haven't read that, GO LOOK FOR IT! There's going to be an update on that story tomorrow or Wednesday, and you need to be caught up over there too.
More notes at the end.
Chapter 23, Off to Paris with Aurora
You could have heard a pin drop in the moments following Borgin's death. Hermione's hands flew up to covering her mouth as she sucked in the air trying to keep a panic from taking over. Draco, being the person closest to Borgin, was the first to reach him to check for a pulse they all knew he wouldn't find. When he turned his head to look over his shoulder at the Wizengamot he shook his head to confirm that the man had indeed died, the sound of gasps echoed off the chamber walls.
Clearing his throat in the most obnoxious way possibly, Tiberius asked, "Mr. Wellington, it appears your client was under an unbreakable vow, were you aware?" Looking down at the speechless solicitor, Tiberius had the nerve to raise his eyebrow and looking slightly smug. As if a man hadn't just died in his courtroom.
Mr. Wellington, with a slack jaw, just shook his head in response before he realized that he needed to verbalize his answer to the Chief Warlock. "Oh, well, no sir. I would never have allowed him on the stands if I had known that he might have made one." He stuttered quickly, shoving his glasses up his nose.
"Did you ever ask him if he had taken a vow, Mr. Wellington?" Tiberius asked as Aurors began to pour into the room and tend to the body that was still on the witness stand.
"Yes, sir. That's a standard intake question for my practice, to avoid, well, this." Mr. Wellington answered, looking slightly grey with sweat beading on his jaw line.
Tiberius and Mr. Wellington continued their conversation, and Hermione's eyes were pulled away from the Aurors gathered around the witness stand when she felt a cool hand lay on her arm. "Can you wait for me?" Draco whispered to Hermione once she'd met his gaze and nodded her head.
"Mr. Malfoy, are we bothering your social hour or would you care to join us?" Tiberius called from his seat as Draco turned away from Hermione again. He really was one of the worst humans on the planet.
"Sir" Draco said as he turned back and waved his wand to collect all the documents that were spread across his table into a neat pile. "I would like to request the Auror department investigate into who might have made this unbreakable vow with Mr. Borgin."
"Request denied, I'm not going to waste Ministry funds to investigate a criminal knowingly breaking his own unbreakable vow." Tiberius announced glaring down at Draco. "Seeing as the person this entire case was against is now deceased, it seems this trial is concluded." Lifting his gavel and knocking it once, Tiberius didn't waste anymore time before he stood and walked out of the chamber without a second glance at Borgin's cooling body.
Running his fingers into his hair, Draco looked up at the ceiling while the remainder of the Wizengamot followed Tiberius's lead and filed out the side door to where their offices were located. Slamming his hands down on the table in front of him, the papers to fly up in his burst of wandless magic.
"Draco, hey" Hermione called to him climbing over the half wall that was separating them. Reaching him, she put her hand on his shoulder and gave a squeeze. "Come on, let's get back up to your office and we can talk more."
Draco turned to her and nodded his head in a silent agreement. Hermione waved her wand to collect the papers again and sent them to organize themselves in Draco's briefcase, another flick snapping it shut and they were ready to go.
Gently putting her hand on his arm, Hermione led him towards the large doors that were holding back the reporters that were about to have a field day. "Keep your head down" Hermione instructed him tossing up a shield charm to help them pushing their way through the overly crowded hall.
There was a slight pause when the reporters caught a glimpse past them and at the witness stand that clearly had a white sheet draped over a body.
"MR. MALFOY" "MS. GRANGER" "WHO IS THAT ON THE WITNESS STAND!" "WHERE IS MR. BORGIN?" "WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT COURTROOM, MR. MALFOY?" "IS MR. BORGIN DEAD?" "THE PUBLIC DESERVES TO KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING!"
The questions were raining down on them as Hermione kept up her shield charm as the mob followed them towards the lifts at the end of the hall. As soon as the gates closed and they were whisked away from the flashes, Hermione dropped her shield and leaned her head back against the wall.
Neither her nor Draco seemed to want to break the silence that had settled down around them. Hermione lazily waved her wand over the controls on the lift to ensure that they didn't stop at any other level before legal to pick up anymore passengers. Nifty little charm that the DMLE department was privy to, only to be used in cases such as these.
As soon as the lift rattled to a stop and the gates opened, Hermione followed behind Draco all the way through the department until they were passing Ingrid and settling into his office with the door closed. Draco ran both hands over his eyes before dropping them onto his desk and clasping them together. Hermione squirmed a little in her seat at the intensity of his gaze as her eyes met his, wondering what he was wanting to talk to her about.
"Come to Paris with me." He said, causing Hermione's eyebrows to shoot up into her hairline.
"I'm sorry?" She asked, convinced that she needed to get her hearing checked, because there was no way that Draco was really asking her to go on holiday with him.
"Come to Paris with me, you and Aurora. I already have a portkey set for Saturday, I can adjust it for tomorrow morning and add the two of you to it. We can stay through Sunday afternoon. I have a penthouse that we can stay in, or if you would rather, we get can get a hotel suit." He paused taking in a deep breath, "I just, I have to get out of England." Draco pleaded looking at her with his eyes begging her to understand.
"Aurora has never traveled by portkey before, I've avoided exposing her to the Ministry, for obvious reasons." Hermione argued knowing that it was a weak one at best.
Draco gave her a knowing smirk, "Hermione, I don't use a public portkey. We have our own private international portkey office. I wouldn't bring Aurora into the Ministry right now anyway, not with everything going on." Draco finished leaning back in his chair.
"Well, alright. I suppose we could go." She said and a small smirk crossed his lips, when another thought occurred to her. "You're meeting with Astoria tomorrow? How do you think that's going to go? Are you nervous?" She asked watching as the smirk disappear as quickly as it had shown up, making his jaw tense at the mention of his wife.
"I think I'm about to lose my vacation home in Greece, otherwise, she's not going to care. The hardest part is going to be to get her to signing the non-disclosure agreement and not run straight to Rita Skeeter with this story to get more cash." Draco said with a quick shrug, dismissing the topic without another word. Hermione allowed it, not wanting to push him and possibly close him more off from her than he already was.
Looking at Draco, Hermione could see that he was still struggling with what had just happened in the court room. Watching someone die, no matter who it is or under what circumstances, was hard to endure. Reaching out to his hands that were out in front of him on his desk, Hermione gave him a quick squeeze and a tight smile, trying to lend him some strength and show him that he wasn't alone. That she was in this with him.
"It's not your fault." Hermione whispered trying to meet his eye.
"You tried to warn us." He responded and all Hermione could do was shrug her shoulders as she watched the man before her struggling. "I'll be round in the morning to collect you and Aurora for the trip." He said as a clear dismissal, making Hermione nod her head and stand up, getting ready to leave.
A though occurred to her as she turned back to Draco. "What about security? I know we aren't going to be in the country, but still if we're going to be out in public, we will need someone."
Looking up from his desk, Draco just smirked and shook his head at her. "I employ private security; they'll be accompanying us. No need to think twice about it, Granger. Go on, I'll see you in the morning." Draco said.
"Alright, looks like we're off to Paris" Hermione said.
"Looks like we're off to Paris" Draco agreed.
ooo
"Aurora Jean, I need you to get your shoes on, please. Your father will be here anytime and we have to be ready to go!" Hermione called up the stairs where her daughter was dragging her feet finishing getting ready for the day.
Stepping away from the foot of the stairs, Hermione walked back into her kitchen where both her parents were standing at her island sipping on their own coffees. Hermione had already been up for a few hours at this point and had all the things that both her and Aurora would be needing for their upcoming trip, still, she was nervous and excited to go on a holiday with Draco.
This would be the first time that they spent so much time together at once, just the three of them, and she was excited to see how Draco and Aurora responded to each other. When Hermione had told Aurora that they were going to go stay at daddy's fancy French flat, the only thing Aurora asked was if there was a pool that she could go swimming in. Hermione had sent Draco a quick note using Knight and Draco had confirmed that there was indeed a pool in the building of his penthouse.
That was enough to convince Aurora that this trip was worth taking.
"Are you sure that it's safe for you to be leaving the country right now? Hermione, a man just died and Theodore brought me a copy of that paper and your faces were plastered all over the front of it with that story. Do you really think it's wise to go anywhere, especially with Aurora right now?" Helen asked gripping her mug so tight that her knuckles were turning white.
"We're going to be staying at his place, and it's just as heavily warded as our home, if not more so. Trust me, mum. Everything will be fine. He has to go talk with his wife and I can't fault him for not wanting to travel alone right now." Hermione said to her mother, being mindful to keep her voice down so that Aurora wouldn't hear her.
A loud crash made the three adults turn their heads towards the entry way as Aurora came twirling into the kitchen. Wearing a pastel pink tulle dress with a beaded bust, Aurora completed the outfit with a pair of rainboots that were a much darker pink and had bright yellows crowns on the toes of the boots. Her curls, as usual, were a wild mane flowing down her back.
"Are you alright?" Hermione asked Aurora looking past the child trying to inspect the damage that she'd heard happened in the dining room.
"Oh yes, Dragon might have knocked over a chair and spilled the flowers though." Aurora said jumping up onto the stool next to Helen and sat her dragon in front of her kicking her feet back and forth in front of her.
"Is my little precious girl hungry and wanting a bit of breakfast before her big trip? Let Gran get her sweet baby something to eat." Hermione's mother said cooing over the little girl speckling kisses on the crown of her head.
Walking away from her parents that were swooning over her daughter, Hermione walking back into the dining room to find what 'Dragon' had knocked over. The small table that held a vase of fresh wildflowers was indeed knocked over with a chair rest against it. A mess of water and flowers covering the floor, and piece of glass from the broken vase scattered all over. Shaking her head, Hermione waved her wand and easily vanished the mess and righted the furniture.
The sound of the floo coming to life in the sitting room drew Hermione's attention to the other room and walked over towards where she knew Draco would be waiting for her. Walking into her sitting room, Hermione found Draco standing in front of her fireplace clearing the soot from himself with a wave of his wand. Hermione couldn't help but admire how he looked in his white oxford with the sleeves rolled up, khaki slacks, and loafers. His hair was perfectly styled, brushed just out of his face looking perfectly put together.
Hemione glanced down at herself and noted that the tank top she was wearing was a faded grey, seeing it was a few years old, and the floral pattern on it was hiding the small stain from when Aurora had splashed tomato sauce on her the last time, she'd worn the top. The shorts she was wearing were faded denim and her gladiator had most certainly seen better days. She was the epidemy of 'mum' and slightly cursed Draco for not giving her more notice to be able to go out and get a few new outfits for this trip.
"About ready to go?" He asked looking her over, with a bit of hunger in his gaze making her have to snuff out a laugh.
"Just about, Aurora's having a spot of breakfast before we go. She has to eat with the anti-nausea potion I'm going to give her to help with the portkey travel." Hermione explained as they made their way through the dining room and into the kitchen.
They'd just walked into the room, where Aurora was seated in front of a plate of eggs and toast waving the spoon, she was eating her eggs with around while she was telling her grandfather a story from what she and Theo had done the day before. Draco and Hermione paused in the doorway so that they didn't interrupt her, but when Aurora flung her spoon again, the bite of egg that had been on it flung and hit Hermione squarely on her cleavage, making Draco snicker with amusement at her expense.
"Aurora Jean, use your spoon to eat and not story tell, please." Hermione said as she walked over towards the sink to clean the egg off herself.
"DADDY!" Aurora called as she jumped down from her stool, forgetting the rest of her breakfast.
With her egg covered face and hands, Aurora dove into Draco's arms while he held her up in the air keeping her from touching him with her messy hands. "Good morning beautiful girl, ready to take your potion and get cleaned up before we leave?" He asked as Aurora squealed in delight.
Wetting a wash rag, Hermione walked over to where Draco was wrestling with a squirming Aurora and grabbed her face and cleaned her face and hands before she could make either of her parents a mess as well. Helen and Roger were still at the island watching their daughter and granddaughter interacting with Draco and how easily he seemed to be integrating himself into their lives. While Hermione was holding Aurora's giggling face and wiping it clean, they didn't miss the intense look he gave Hermione before she looked up into his eyes with a wide smile.
"Ready to go?" He asked looking down at the two females.
"Yes, I think so. Aurora, go on and say goodbye to Gran and Papa." Hermione encouraged her daughter as she grabbed her beaded bag that held all the things she and Aurora would need.
Running over to her grandparents, Aurora jumped so that she flung herself into her grandfather's arms, and was scooped up and smothered in kisses by both grandparents. Hushed whispers of how much they would miss their sweet girl were exchanged before they setting her back down, and Aurora was throwing herself back into her father's arms.
After confirming with her parents how they would be able to get in touch with her through Theo or Harry if anything were to happen. Hermione, Draco, and Aurora said their goodbyes, and at one last look at her parents, they flooed away to the private portkey business.
Stepping out of the fireplace, Hermione took in the building that they'd found themselves in. It was a clean and fairly empty office space where a handful of employees were bustling around with other witches and wizards that were also getting ready for their own international portkeys.
With Aurora in one arm, Draco used placed his other hand on her lower back to lead her over towards one office that had a witch shuffling through paperwork when she looked up as the group walked into the room.
"Mr. Malfoy, so good to see you. Ms. Granger and young Miss. Malfoy I presume?" She asked walking over holding out a hand to greet each of them individually.
"Good morning, Leanne. I presume you were able to gather all the necessary paperwork?" Draco asked, setting Aurora down on her feet, who took off running to look at a tank filled with magical water creatures that took up most of the far wall of the office.
"Ms. Granger and Miss. Malfoy here seem to be very used to international travel, so there was very little I had to do." She said as she fished out a tin can and set it on her desk. "Your portkey will activate in about fifteen minutes and you'll be arriving at our French counterpart as usual. As always, we appreciate working with the Malfoy family." Leanne said giving the trio a brief smile before turning and walking out of the room.
"Just the three of us on this portkey?" Hermione asked looking over at Draco.
"I told you, we travel privately and not through the public ministry channels. Aurora, dear, I'm going to need you to not put your hand through that glass again." Draco called over to their daughter, who most certainly was attempting to climb into the tank herself.
Aurora stopped what she was doing and looked over at her father with a beaming smile and hiding her free hand behind her back. Hermione gave her a pointed look and held out a hand to which Aurora huffed and placed a small glowing puffer fish that was trying to float away into her mother's hand. Walking back over to the tank, Hermione released the poor creature back into its home before rejoining Draco and Aurora.
"Alright, going to take your potion now so you don't get an upset tummy." Hermione said to the young girl while holding out a vial to her. Aurora scrunched up her face and pinched her nose while she tipped her head back with her mouth opened wide.
Hermione dumped the contents of the vial into Aurora's mouth, who coughed as it hit her throat and she swallowed it down. "Yucky. That potion is not yummy, mummy." Aurora said as she coughed just a bit more, gladly accepting the water bottle that Hermione was handing her.
"Should only take a moment or two for it to kick in, but it's such a low dosage, the effects don't last long. That's why we had to wait until we were here for her to take it." Hermione whispered to Draco as their daughter began dancing around the room.
It wasn't long before the tin began to glow, and Hermione scooped Aurora up into her arms and took her little hand in her own so that they were holding the tin together. And just like that, the three of them were whisked away to Paris. The familiar pull behind her navel as she was pulled through time and space and dropped into a slate grey office and Aurora was in her arms wailing with the after effects of the portkey.
"WELCOME TO PARIS, MR. AND MRS. MALFOY!" The welcome witch yelled in English with a French accent over the sound of the screaming child.
Aurora's cries were muffled as she pressed her face into Hermione's chest and held on tightly to her mother's curls like she was holding on for dear life. As Hermione bounced and tried to calm her daughter in her arms, Draco walked over and was quietly whispering into the woman's ear, who nodded that she understood whatever he had said to her and quickly walked out of the room.
"It's okay darling, it's all over. We're here and we're going to go find daddy's fancy flat with the swimming pool. Would you like that?" Hermione cooed into Aurora's ear.
"NO!" The girl scolded as she tried to burry her face even deeper into Hermione's chest as she continued to scream and cry.
"There, there. Mummy has got you. It's okay to be upset, did that scare you?" Hermione murmured to her daughter as her cries began to subside and her little body began to shake just a bit. "What can mummy do to help you?" She asked once Aurora was calm enough to pull her face from Hermione's body and just rest her cheek against her sternum.
"I want a green milkshake." Aurora said looking up at Hermione with red swollen eyes.
Before Hermione could reply, the welcome witch walked back into the room carrying what looked like a mint chocolate chip milkshake with whipped cream on top. "Ooh, my milkshake!" Aurora exclaimed looking up at Hermione with a smile and holding her hands out silently requesting it from the woman.
"Aurora, what do you say?" Hermione prompted, wiggling the girl in her arms a bit.
"Thank you!" She yelled, and as soon as the glass was in her hands Aurora began to sip on her sweet treat.
Looking over at Draco who was standing and watching them with a smile, Hermione smirked at him. "How did you know she likes a milkshake after she's traveled?" Hermione asked, having a pretty good idea where he'd learned that bit of information from.
"Theo" Draco stated with a shrug. "Welcome to Paris, Aurora." He said walking over and kissing his daughter on the top of her head.
A/N: A little bit of plot, a bit of fluff and adorable Aurora.
The way Hermione's mother is interacting with Aurora is drawn from how my mother would treat my kids. Also, Aurora eating her eggs with a spoon is how my own 4yo eats his eggs because it's easier for him. I couldn't help but laugh at Aurora flinging egg on Hermione, because I can't count how many times I've been covered in food from my kids eating.
Next chapter, Aurora and Hermione hang out while Draco goes to talk with Astoria. How do you think Astoria is going to take the news that Draco has a child?
