Chapter Two

Diagon Alley

"Mom! Mom! Mom! Today's the day! Mom! Wake up!" A blonde girl with bushy hair of eleven years shook her sleeping mother. "Mom! Wake up! We're gonna get my stuff at Diagon Alley! Mom!"

Her mother grunted. "Joan, it's too early…"

"Mom! You promised! You promised to help me bake cookies this morning to bring to the Potters and Weasleys!"

The mother opened one eye and grinned. "So that's why you're excited – because of James, aren't you?"

The girl blushed. "Mom!"

Her mother got up and tickled her daughter. "Yes, I believe that's why you're brutally waking your mother at this hour – it's because of your precious James, who we're meeting at Diagon Alley!" She teased.

The girl squirmed at her mother's grasp as she laughed. "Ok-you-win-hahahah-you-haha-win-hahah-Mom-haha."

Hermione smiled at her daughter. "You know, it's ok to like boys. Just as long as you don't marry them at this age, is that understood Joanna Leticia Malfoy?"

"Mom!"

"I'm serious."

"Yes, Mom."

Then they burst out laughing again.

As mother and daughter caught their breaths, Hermione hugged Joan.

"Goodness, how you've grown." Hermione looked at Joan at arm's length. "You'll be attending Hogwarts soon. I hope you'll be in Gryffindor." She grinned at her child.

Joan smirked back. "Of course you do, but for all you know I could be in Slytherin. I have Slytherin blood in me as well as Gryffindor, don't I?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, knowing very well that her daughter does have what it takes to be a Slytherin. "Yes, you do, but I sincerely wish that you become Gryffindor so that you may be away from mischief as much as possible."

"But, mom, Gryffindor never stopped you, Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron from -."

"Alright, young lady, I get your point."

Laughter ensues as mother and child dashed to the kitchen to prepare breakfast and bake cookies for their family friends.

Devon got off his broom.

Leaky Cauldron - the sign said.

This must be the place, he thought as he entered the establishment.

"Excuse me, may I board here for a while?" Devon approached the proprietor.

"Sure, my lad. What would your name be?" The wizen wizard queried.

"Devon Black, sir."

"A Black, eh?" He scrutinized Devon. "I didn't know there were still Blacks around. Are you related to the late Sirius Black?"

Devon was taken aback, the name sounded familiar but… "No sir, I'm afraid I'm not."

"Hmm, very well, how long do you wish to stay?" The kind old wizard asked.

"Indefinitely, sir."

"I see…" The man grabbed some keys and led Devon to the second floor. "This way please."

"Hermione, don't you think it's high time for you to have a steady boyfriend?" Ginny Potter candidly asked as they were having snacks after shopping for school supplies. "I mean it's been awhile since you've dated someone and all of them were like flings to you."

"Yeah," Ron Weasley agreed, mouth filled with Joan's cookies. "We don't like – hey Joan, these are great – you to be alone and moreover, it's just a boyfriend and dating stuff. It's not like we are asking you to get married again."

Lavender Brown-Weasley, Ron's wife, elbowed him. "Manners, dear, you set a bad example." She chided him as she eyed Andrei, their son, who was like a carbon copy of his father.

"Look, we're not pressuring you or anything," Harry Potter injected. "We understand that there is always a part of you belonging to Malfoy, but we want you to have a normal social life."

Hermione wiped her lips with a napkin daintily. "I appreciate that you guys mean very well, but what about Jo-."

"Mom," Joan interrupted. "Actually, I like it besides, I want a father figure." She raised her eyebrows as she grinned mischievously at her mother.

Hermione closed her eyes and mumbled. "Traitor." She heard laughter from the others.

"Well," Ginny clapped her hands. "Now that THAT is in order, children, why don't you go to Fred and George's shop for awhile?"

Three faces lit up.

"Sure Mom." A raven-haired youth with blue eyes replied.

Andrei spoke up. "Really Aunt Ginny?" He turned to Lavender. "May I Mom?"

Lavender replied. "Sure."

Joan turned to Hermione expectantly.

Hermione merely nodded.

"Now Joan, take care of James for me and Andrei for Lav, will you?" Ginny asked of the girl.

"Ok." Joan responded as she dashed off with the Potter and Weasley boys.

Ginny sighed. "There go our bundles of joy."

Hermione nodded absentmindedly as she took a sip of her iced tea.

"How time flies so quickly." Harry remarked. "Before you know it, Sirius, Lily and Angel are in Hogwarts too."

Ron choked on his butterbeer and Lavender patted his back. "Merlin Harry! My Angel is only six years old! I don't want her to grow up that fast."

Harry chuckled. "So is my daughter, and Sirius is already eight. A few years, Ron, then they'll all go to Hogwarts and grow up whether we like it or not."

"Ignore Ron," Lavender kissed her husband on the cheek lightly. "He's just being an overprotective father. Besides," she tapped her slightly bulging stomach. "There's another one on the way."

"At least, HE cares." Ginny teased, rolling her eyes. "Unlike other fathers I know."

Harry reacted. "Hey!"

Hermione grinned at the scene before her. It also caused her to be nostalgic.

Harry and Ginny are now married with three children, namely James, Sirius and Lily. Ron and Lavender too were married and with two children, Andrei and Angel. Harry and Ron were both Aurors during the war but are now employed in the Ministry as Department heads of something related to Quidditch and Muggles Relations respectively. Needless to say, they were both very successful. Heck, even Neville was, being the assistant of the Minister, Percy Weasley. Even her husband was a head, the Department of International Relations to be exact. Hermione sighed. This job has caused him to vanish from the face of the earth.

"Hermione… Earth to Hermione…"

Hermione was jolted from her reverie and into the present when Ginny waved her hand inches from Hermione's face.

"Are you alright?" Ron asked, concerned.

"Yes, I'm fine. I was just thinking…"

"So, what's your decision?" Harry questioned.

Hermione was startled. "What decision?"

Ginny answered. "Harry was just asking you if you would like to move in with us while the kids are at school so you won't be living alone."

"Um," Hermione started. "Thanks but no thanks – I can manage. Besides, I have my work to keep me busy."

"Uh-huh." Ron wrinkled his nose. Obviously, being an editor-in-chief in the Daily Prophet did not suit him as 'busy work'.

"Mom! Mom!" James ran to them with Joan and Andrei at his heels. "Look what Andrei did to me!" He pointed to his hair, which was currently neon orange.

"Aunt Ginny, I did not do that! Look what HE did to my hands." Andrei held out his hands that both had carrots for fingers.

Hermione faced her daughter. "Don't tell me you too!"

Joan just smirked at her mother – and pulled out from her pockets two wands that were sold at the joke shop.

Harry and Ron burst out laughing at the look of horror at Hermione's face and the predicament of their sons.

"Truly Joan has that insolent Malfoy streak in her that causes her to torture and put in trouble unsuspecting Weasleys and Potters." Lavender commented good-naturedly while swirling the ice in her glass.

Hermione just groaned as she took the wands from Joan and countered that spells that had befallen the boys.

This promised to be a long afternoon.