Hermione slid into bed feeling quite glad she and Draco had been able to talk. They had decided on a name, Claudia. Who would have thought that Draco had been the little boy that changed her life. Naturally she remembered that day like it had only just happened. He was the reason she had ever had enough confidence to ever apply herself in anything. 'And to think he's the one whose been trying to make me feel bad about myself for the past six years' she thought to herself with a shake of her head as she clicked off her light.
Draco remembered that kiss so well that it was hard to believe it had happened so long ago. Though the reason he thought he remembered it the most was because of his father. His father rarely beat him as a child because even Draco knew he'd been spoiled as a boy, but when his father had come back just in time to see his own pureblood son kissing on that muggle girl… Draco shuddered as he thought of that punishment; it had been one his worst. After all even though Lucius only wanted the best for his son he couldn't have him going against his word. Draco knew he hadn't had the best of dads, but his father had always been good to him, and yet… Draco couldn't explain the feeling he had, but he knew a strong part of him wanted to be an even better father, even better than his dad had been, to second best him, to show him up, but how?
"Draco!! You spend too much time with that, that, that THING as it is!!!!!" Pansy wailed.
"Pansy, you know this is only going to help me be a good father," he argued with a begrudged girlfriend.
"I know, but it seems like you spend all your time with her now." she whimpered sadly. Draco sighed and smiled warmly at her "I know and you've been more understanding that I could've hoped for." and with that her gave her a short sweet kiss on the lips.
Draco then made his way to Hermione and offered her his arm, which she took with a smile. "I still can't believe you signed us up for parenting classes in Hogsmede." she giggled quivering with excitement.
Finally the two of them reached some kind of town center. When they walked in they were in a large room with soft maroon carpeting, caramel colored walls and several deep red love seats set in a circle in the center of the room. Around the room were other objects used for other types of meetings.
"Hello," a young woman of her early twenties greeted them with a smile "your our sixth couple." Hermione and Draco looked around and sure enough five other couples were already present. One of them being Hanna and Ernie talking to a girl with frizzy brunette hair and freckles who was holding hands with a young man with very dark and very tame brown hair and spotless skin. A young Hispanic couple were arguing in the corner in rapid Spanish, and a sour faced looking girl with a horse face and sandy colored hair sat on a love seat ignoring the pale back haired boy who sat miserably beside her with his face in his hand. The last couple was easily the most visibly appealing, a tan brunette boy with a bleach frosting job on his hair and a muscular body sat casually with one hand in his lap and the other resting on the back of the loveseat. The olive skinned girl who sat beside him with golden wavy hair didn't look to be very far along in her pregnancy because she boldly wore and blue jean mini skirt and a tight pink t-shirt.
"Every one sit down!" the young woman announced so Draco and Hermione went and took the love seat between Hanna and Ernie and the one that occupied the attractive couple.
"Well today we are going to learn a little about each other and see how much we already know. To start lets ask a few questions. How many of you planned on having your baby?" the girl with freckles and the perfect skinned boy were the only couple to raise their hands. "Good now, how many of you feel you 'hate' the baby?" the Hispanic couple, the attractive couple, and the quiet depressed couple all raised their hands. "Well that's all right because it's typical for you to feel that way at first. Finally, lets all say a little about ourselves like first name, age, how far along your baby is, its gender, and whose idea it was for you to come here. Well start with you two," she said pointing to Ernie and Hanna " and move in a clockwise motion".
Hanna and Ernie stood up together smiling. "I'm Ernie and this is my girlfriend Hanna, we're both 17, our baby boy is due in about a month, and Hanna saw a post up for this last Saturday." they both sat down grinning sheepishly.
Draco and Hermione exchanged glances as they stood quietly "Err, I'm Hermione and this is my… baby's father Draco". He raised his eyebrow at her and she blushed. What had he wanted her to call him? He continued talking for them wrapping his arm over her shoulders "We're both 17 as well, we're having a little girl in about a month as well and I saw a flyer here in Hogsmede the other day and thought it would be good for us".
The tan boy next to them stood up with a sigh "I'm Ross and I'm 20 this is my ex girlfriend Angel whose 18 and we don't know what were having but its coming in seven months and she thought it'd be a good idea to do this." he finished simply and sat back down next to Angel who hadn't even bothered to get up.
Next was the Hispanic couple that stood stubbornly glaring at each other. "I'm Jose' and this is Somali' and were both 19. Somali' and I thought it would be better if we came here to prepare for our little boy coming in five months." they both sat back down Somali' glaring at Jose' as if he'd said terrible things about her.
Now it was the quiet couples turn. The girl stood up and the boy next to her remained in his seat with his face hidden. "I'm Maddie and I'm 16, this is Garret and he's 17, and the girl were having in two months is his entire fault!!!!" at this Maddie sat down and cried.
The last couple stood up next as if nothing had happened. "I'm Susan and I'm 19 and this is Charlie my fiancé, he's 18." Charlie then started talking "were getting married two months after the baby boy is born, which will be six months from now." then they sat back down holding hands and smiling at each other.
"Now for starters we'll be filling out two quizzes about ourselves and then what we think our will partners put. So girls to this side of the room and boys to that's side." she smiled. Draco and Hermione exchanged looks and Draco grinned at her. "Good luck" he muttered as she walked over with the others.
Hermione sat down next to Hanna at a table with six seats, each seat having two quizzes. Hermione looked at the titles at the top 'Personal', and 'Physical'. She bit her lip feeling glad physical was last and started general.
FULL NAME?
Jane,
'What was Draco's middle name?'Hermione thought. She nervously scanned the rest of the quiz.
Draco looked at the quiz in silence. How was he supposed to know any of this about Granger? Draco sat quietly thinking about each answer before trying to fill anything out.FULL NAME? 'Hermione something Granger'
AGE? '17, duh she just said it'
BIRTHDAY? 'I barely know her age'
FAVIORE COLOR? 'Gold and scarlet? Can't go wrong with house colors' right?'
FAVORITE FOOD? 'The edible kind? I don't know I've never eaten with her'
WORST FEAR? 'Me? Probably'
HOBBIE? 'Hmm, reading maybe?'
FIRST THING YOU DO IN THE MORNING? 'WTF?'
Draco shook his quiz at the paper. He decided that these were some of the stupidest questions he'd ever seen as he sat and read 'SHOE SIZE?' why should he care how big her feet were? "How is this going to help me be a good parent?" he muttered. Draco flipped over to the physical page and scanned some of the questions. A smirk formed on his face "Now this I can do." he sneered as he stared to fill it out.
Hermione finished the General page the best she could and moved on to the physical page to look it over. As she scanned it quickly her whole face lit up like the Christmas tree by the door. Hermione set her quill down and her mind went racing as she looked at the questions it asked.
AGE AND PARTNER OF FIRST TIME? 'Well him for me but I get the feeling I wasn't his first'
FAVORITE PLACE TO BE KISSED? 'I don't even know where mine is!'
NUMBER OF PAST PARTNERS? 'I'd rather not think about that'
WHAT TURNS YOU ON MOST? 'Murder and evil the sick fuck'
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS YOUR MOST ATTRACTIVE FEATURE? 'Well that could be anything, he's not really the modest type'
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS YOUR PARTNERS MOST ATTRACTIVE FEATURE? 'Do they mean Pansy or me?'
WHEN DO YOU FEEL MOST NEEDY? 'He doesn't'
WHAT DO YOU FIND MOST COMFORTING? 'His real girlfriend?'
'This is stupid!' she thought frantically 'I don't even remember that night! I'm not even his "Partner" so how am I supposed to know any of this! We don't even have any attraction that way!' This part wasn't entirely true, but Hermione wasn't about to admit that yet. 'I don't even know some of this stuff about ME!' Hermione shuddered at "POSITIONS?". 'That's sick' she thought forcibly and started to attempt fill it out.
Draco had just finished making things up on the general page when the coordinator of the classes told them to go back to the love seats and compare answers. Hermione bit her lip, sat by him, and knew she was over reacting when he scooted up close to her. First they pulled out the General page.
"My middle name's Jane."
"Well mine sure isn't Dale."
"Well what is it?"
"Try Soridan"
"Sorry" Hermione said as she giggled.
"Oh yeah cause Jane's so original."
"Shut up"
"My Birthday is November 17th by the way"
"Well my worst fear isn't a B- on an assignment"
"Mines being lonely" he grinned and gave a dramatic needy look before laughing at her.
"What's your hobby?" she asked not surprised he got hers right. At this Draco tried to change the subject, but Hermione snatched his paper. Her jaw dropped.
"You play piano?"
"Only a little." He said crossly taking the paper back. "Your not suppose to look" he said stubbornly.
"And your suppose to tell the truth."
"Whatever, what's on your physical page?"
Hermione handed him a blank quiz "I've got no idea on any of this crap".
Draco grinned, "No, you're just embarrassed".
"Well yes, but I swear it's also cause I don't even remember it".
His face fell obviously he hadn't expected that "None of it?"
"Nope" Hermione said simply "Why do you?"
"Most of it" he said with a frown as if disappointed. "No way you were THAT drunk," he said now giving her an expression that clearly stated he didn't believe her.
"I was!" she protested "That night was my first alcohol too! I guess it didn't settle well with me".
Draco raised his eyebrow "You'd never drank before that?"
"Well never enough to really get a buzz," she said with a frown.
He shook his head at her "You should know a little then"
"Like what?" she asked with precaution.
"Well your favorite place to be kissed is here" he said grinning as he touched a place on the low of her hip "trust me" he added with a smirk. "And your best feature is probably your legs" he said thoughtfully scanning her "little hard to tell when your preggers… yeah its your legs'.
"Well I think I know enough!"
Draco laughed "Fine, fine."
The rest of the class they spent all talking together. They found that Maddie and Garret didn't even know each other and Garrets parents wouldn't let him leave her and Maddie's made them go to the class. The Hispanic couple had a lot of mood swings and were attending couples counseling. Ross and angel flirted a lot, but teased each other and seemed to be a constant battle of wits which might be why they were no longer together. Susan and Charlie talked a lot and by the time they were ready to leave every one was jealous of them and found them annoying particularly, Draco and Ross who seemed to get along well.
The group had two more classes and Cally the instructor told them the next two would be more hands on. Hermione had to admit that as the night went on they ended up talking with Angel and Ross the most or rather, the other three talked while Hermione listened, rarely adding to the conversation. Angel wasn't exactly Hermione's type, after a while she found her tolerable. The thing Hermione enjoyed the most though was that she normal sat on the outside of Draco circle of friends, but while she sat comfortably beside him listening to him smile and laugh like a normal person she was pleasantly surprised at what nice company he was. He had a good sense of humor and his real smile, the one he gave at appropriate times instead of the smirk he always shot at people for image, was very handsome and attractive. He really was a good person, a good man, and Hermione was pretty sure he would make an excellent father.
Well there you go a nice LONG chapter. I finally gave Draco a friend worthy of his godlyness. Sorry no Jordan in this one LOL, but she will be in the next one! I also know that most people wouldn't be updating much over the holidays, but I just see it as lots of free time so I hope to be updating a lot in December. I've already figured out the next 11 chapters' general ideas so no more writers block for a while! Keep reading and keep reviewing. Remember you can always find my story again by typing my name at "search by authors pen name". Talk to you all later and wish me luck. :D
