Hermione hurried through Diagon Alley, one arm laden with shopping bags while the other held her godson Albus, the messy haired toddler sat against her hip, his head resting against her shoulder, as he slept, gentle snores emitted from the boy, his outward breathes blowing lightly against her loose chocolate curls. On her left Hermione's other godson five-year-old James held tight to her long white coat, his hazel eyes scanning the alley with excitement. Eleven-year-old Teddy was stood on the other side of James, clutching the younger boy's hand, his hair rapidly changing colour to match with his surroundings.

"Auntie Mione, can we go see Uncle George," James asked staring longingly to where his uncle's store sat at the other end of the Alley.

"As soon as we finish our shopping," she promised, the boy as she approached the Apothecary, James pouted but followed her towards the dark store.

"Look Teddy, eyeballs," he exclaimed staring at one of the jars in the store window, Teddy's hair turned a sickly shade of green at the sight of the floating ingredients. Hermione chuckled and pushed open the door, the sound of crying meeting her ears.

"Cousin Draco," Teddy called excitedly pointing at a blonde man whose back was towards them as he spoke to the shopkeeper quietly, his body bouncing on the spot. At the sound of his name the man turned towards them, Hermione gasped, she had never seen the man look so untogether. Instead of his usual black suit Draco was dressed in black jogging bottoms and a grey t-shirt and on his feet were a pair of slippers. Dark purple bags were under his silver eyes and the stubble on his cheeks suggested he hadn't shaved in several days. Draco's usually tidy hair was a mess, sticking up in every direction. In his arms he held his son, who he bounced in a steady rhythm, the blonde toddler was red in the face as his cry's filled the store.

"Hey Teddy," Draco smiled down at the child.

"Oh, my are you alright," Hermione asked rushing forward towards the two blondes.

"What's wrong with Scorp," Teddy asked worriedly.

"He's had a bug for a few days, croaky voice, snot, usual childhood ailments, then he developed a temperature and started been sick," he replied tiredly. Hermione set her bags down on the floor and carefully laid Albus across a small chaise lounge that was near the counter.

"Here let me look at him," she told him, reaching out to take the toddler, Holding the boy against her hip she used her wand to cast some diagnostic charms.

"He has the flu," she told Draco, casting a cooling charm on the child in her arms, holding him close she gently rocked him.

"Give him a teaspoon of Fever Reducing potion and one of Pepper Up every four hours. If he feels warm then you can use cooling charms on him. He should be better in a couple if days," she told the worried father reassuringly, smiling down at the little blonde she held. The little boy had stopped crying and was instead staring up at her with wide silver eyes, one chubby hand clenched tightly around a lock of her hair.

"Hello there," she smiled at the tot, running her hand through his fine blonde curls.

"Thank you, Healer Granger," Draco told her his voice full of gratitude.

"It's no problem at all, it's going around, I'm here to purchase the same potions for Ginny, her youngest Lily has the flu too," she told him as she walked through the shelves gathering the required potions, the young boy still sat on her hip.

"You're good with children," he observed as he gathered his own potions.

"All of my friends seem to have children of their own and I work on the children's ward at the hospital, I've always liked children," she told him with a smile.

"You don't have any of your own," he asked.

"No, I don't, I've always wanted them, but it hasn't happened yet, I thought Ron and I would have had them but then," she trailed off with a grimace, he nodded knowingly. Her break up the previous year with her ex-fiancé had been splashed all over the covers of every tabloid, their whole society knew that Ron had cheated on her and gotten Romilda Vane pregnant, breaking off their engagement two weeks before their wedding.

"He's an idiot," Draco told her quietly.

"I'm glad I found out before the wedding," she confessed.

"If we hadn't had Scorpius, I'd have liked to have found out about Tori prior to our nuptials too but that little boy is my whole world, if we hadn't of been married, he wouldn't be here. I can't imagine my life without him," the blonde wizard told her smiling at the tot who was now asleep in her arms. Like her own disastrous relationship, Draco's divorce had been all over the tabloids after Astoria Greengrass was photographed by Rita Skeeter in a compromising position with Blaise Zabini, one of Draco's closest friends.

"Dose she see Scorpius at all," she asked quietly as she settled her potions on the counter to pay.

"The last time Tori saw him, Scorp was six months old, that was two and a half years ago, I tried to keep contact with her for his sake, but she signed over full guardianship of him to me and told me she'd never wanted children," he told her as he set down his own purchases.

"He's better off without her then," she told him firmly, reaching out to squeeze Malfoy's hand with hers, his flesh was warm, soft, as a teenager she'd always imagined it to be the opposite; cold and hard like the personality he had so often displayed in his youth. Now in their late twenties, almost thirty in fact he was the complete opposite. Draco had once been an elitist prick and bully but after the war he had turned his life around, becoming a respected Auror., a kind companionate man. He'd been married, divorced and was now a single parent to a three-year-old child. Hermione didn't understand how a mother could not want her own child, especially one as adorable as little Scorpius, it astounded her but her admiration and respect for the fair-haired man had increased tenfold, after all not many men would take on their child full time. Draco had though, she knew he'd cut back his hours at the Ministry, Harry had told her he'd been doing mostly desk work and street patrols rather than large cases since his divorce, prioritising Scorpius above everything else. Hermione couldn't fault him, he was a good man, she new as much from Andromeda and Teddy who both spoke fondly of the Malfoy heir.

"Some people were born to be mothers and some simply weren't," he told her smiling at her, Hermione returned his smile as she carefully passed his sleeping son back to him before turning to gather the sleeping dark haired toddler back into her arms.

"Auntie Mione are we off to see Uncle George now," James asked.

"Of course, sweetie, hold onto Teddy's hand and we will leave in a minute she told him trying to gather up her bags with her free hand.

"Granger have you forgotten you are a witch," Draco chuckled, waving his wand he shrunk her purchases and levitated them into her open tote bag that she wore on her shoulder.

"Thank you, Malfoy," she smiled at him.

"Auntie Mione," James whined.

"I'd better get him to the joke shop," she told the blonde man.

"Granger, thank you again for the help," he told her seriously.

"Of course, if you need anything else or if he gets worse, feel free to contact me," she smiled at the pair reaching out to stroke the fine blonde hair of the tot a final time.

"I hope Scorp feels better soon," Teddy told the blonde man as James tried to drag him out into the street.

"I'm sure he will be back to his usual self when we see you at Andromeda's on Sunday," Draco reassured his young cousin, ruffling his hair that had changed to the same shade of blonde as the two Malfoys.

"Auntie Mione," James called tugging on her coat, Hermione chuckled and exited the shop, allowing James and Teddy to walk down the street before her towards the vibrant store front of WWW.