Disclaimer: If you recognize it from a J.K. Rowling book- it isn't mine. I've borrowed it.
"Ma! Look! My Hogwarts letter! It's here!" Max yelled. Hermione looked up from the book she was reading.
"Really? Let me see!" She smiled at the boy, who waved the piece of parchment in front of her face. Taking it from him, she read through it a couple of times.
"Isn't it COOL?" Max asked, jumping around excitedly.
"Did you show your father yet?" Hermione asked, giving him back the letter. Max nodded.
"Can we go to Diagon Alley today? Please?" He asked.
"I think so. What did your father say?"
"He can put off work for a little bit, but we have to go /now/." Max replied.
"Then let's go. Go tell Sammy, will you?" Hermione asked. Max nodded and dashed off. Hermione made her way up to Aden's room and dressed the little girl. A couple more weeks had passed, and Hermione was calming down. She'd seen a healer, who gave her some anti-stress potions and firm instructions to eat nothing with energy boosters in it. She was more relaxed about things now.
Draco came across the hall and looked in on them as Hermione was buckling up Aden's little shoes.
"Think he'll like Hogwarts?" He asked, looking vaguely worried.
"Of course he will! And if he doesn't, he can go somewhere else." Hermione replied confidently.
"Alright." And then Draco was quiet.
"Wow, it's crowded." Hermione said as they walked out of the Leaky Cauldron.
"Think we should split up? It'll work faster that way." Draco suggested.
"Good idea." Hermione said grimly as someone walked past and accidentally hit her foot with a shopping bag.
"I'll take Max to Gringotts to get money from his account, and then Madam Malkin's... do you want to go to Flourish and Blotts for the books? Then we can meet up and do the potions ingredients and everything else in about forty minutes." Draco said.
"I'll take Aden with me... Sammy, do you want to go with Dad and Max to the bank, or with me to the bookstore?" Hermione asked.
"I wanna go with Dad and Maxy and go in the goblin-carts that go really fast!" Sam said excitedly.
"That's settled then. We'll see you at the ingredients shop around 11?" Hermione asked, picking up Aden to keep her from being squished by a group of boys running by. Draco agreed, handing her Max's booklist, and headed off with Sammy and Max. Hermione went the other way and fought her way through crowds to get to Flourish and Blotts.
The crowds in the Alley were mostly families with children or Max's age, buying all the Hogwarts supplies. Hermione remembered her first trio to Diagon Alley- she's spent hours in Flourish and Blotts, picking out all the books her parents would allow her to get. On the train ride home, they'd gotten quite a few looks. Her father had ignored them all and her mother just laughed. Thinking about her parents made Hermione's heart ache a little bit, so she made herself think about something else.
After finding everything on Max's list he'd need, Hermione picked out a few things they didn't have in the library at home and some more parchment and ink. Paying for the purchases and detaching Aden from a large book she'd become fond of, she ambled down to the ingredients shop.
The others were already there with bags of school robes, and were busy looking at all the ingredients Max would need. Hermione sat herself down on the bench by the door and watched the bags, Aden on her lap. She was absent mindedly stroking Aden's hair when a slightly familiar voice snapped her out of her little daydream.
"Hermione?"
She looked up into the face of Dean Thomas.
"Dean... hi." She tried her best to keep calm. She hadn't seen Dean since Sam was born, and Dean had never met his daughter. She sent him a photo of Sam every once in a while. Dean knew that Draco had legally adopted Sam, and that they had three children altogether. But nothing more.
"It's... nice to see you again." Dean said, looking a little uncomfortable.
"Same to you... so what brings you here?" Hermione asked. Aden looked up at Dean with big eyes.
"Just poking around... and you?" Dean replied.
"We're getting Max's Hogwarts things. Well, the others are. Aden and I are just having a little rest." Hermione said. "Aden, say hello to Dean." Aden refused, turning around and burying her face in Hermione's neck. Dean smiled.
"Aden's your littlest girl, then?" He asked. Hermione nodded.
"She's just turned two."
"Is... is Samantha here?" Dean asked after a minute of silence.
"Yes. She's at the back, looking at frog guts or something equally slimy." Hermione must have had a Look on her face, because Dean suddenly looked apprehensive.
"I suppose I'll be going then. Nice seeing you, Hermione. Bye bye, Aden." Dean turned and was about to leave.
"Wait, Dean." Hermione said. He turned around again. Hermione paused. "...do you want to meet Sam?"
"Do you mean it?" Dean asked, surprised. "You don't hold a grudge on me for bailing on you?"
"I mean it. Wait one second, I'll go get her. That is, if you want to meet her." Hermione ignored the grudge comment.
"I would honestly like that." Dean said. Hermione nodded and left him to watch her bags while she carried Aden through the crowd to the other end of the shop. Draco was supervising as Sam poked her hand into a jar of dead beetles, and Max was waving a dead worm in front of his sister's face.
"What is it, love?" Draco asked, seeing her odd expression. Hermione pulled him aside.
"Dean's here.... I said he could meet Sam. You don't mind, do you?" She asked anxiously. Sam shrieked at Max and swatted him with a nearby cedar stick.
"Of course not." Draco said. Hermione kissed him for being so wonderful and handed over Aden before taking Sam by the arm.
"Momma, he threw a worm in my face, I wasn't going to hit him-"Sam started, thinking she was being told off.
"It's alright, darling, don't worry. I just want you to meet someone, will you come with me for a minute?"
"Okay." Sam looked curious. Hermione led her to the front of the shop where Dean was standing next to the bags.
"Sammy..." She said, voice cracking just a little bit. "This is Dean. He's your biological father."
Yes, another chappie. My reviewers, I love you all. Keep reviewing to make me feel loved, ok?
-pineappleeskimo