Disclaimer: obviously not mine. Why would it be on a fan fiction site?

Chapter seventeen

The summer sunshine was blazing beautifully across the burrow. Several plump hens were scratching around in the grass in front of the small house. The only thing disturbing the beauty and peace was an indignant voice, yelling from within. Hermione could hear it as she and Kellie walked slowly up the garden path and, as they reached the front door, she made it out to be Ron's. Hermione knocked on the door then glanced at Kellie who was looking up at the house with much distaste.

"Its only for a day or so" Hermione promised apologetically as someone approached the door from inside. "Then I'll see if we can go home to Orkney"

Ginny answered the door looking, worried, frustrated and relieved all at once.

"Oh Hermione" she said, opening the door wider so the two girls could come in. "he's been at it since Charlie arrived with Shia. You have to shut him up"

Hermione stood outside the kitchen door so she could hear what Ron was yelling about.

"-Nerve of him! I can't believe he showed up! I'll bet that Malfoy put him up to it… well next time I see him I will kill him! I don't care what Hermione says, he cant be that good a fighter if something like this can happen…"

Hermione slammed the door open and stormed into the kitchen. Only Harry and Charlie were present for Ron's tantrum. Before Ron even had time to acknowledge her presence, she punched him, hard as she could, in the jaw.

"Bloody hell, Hermione!" he shouted, falling back against the kitchen counter. "How the hell did you learn to do that?"

"Draco taught me" she said haughtily "and if I can learn that in twenty minutes then imagine what he knows after years of training! He went easy on you last time, Ron. Now he's pissed, do you really think he won't stop at killing you?"

Ron fell silent and Hermione took this as a sign that she had won.

"What happened?" Charlie asked, relieved that Ron had finally stopped.

"Dumbledore showed up and chased him off" Hermione turned to Harry who looked as if he had just woken up. "Harry, why did Dumbledore show up?"

"He put a charm on Shia" Harry mumbled, staring out the window with a vacant expression on his face. "I had a feeling something like this might happen so I got Dumbledore to put a protection spell on her which meant that every time she was in danger Dumbledore would sense it and go to her."

"How did you think to do that?" Hermione asked, glancing at Ron who was rubbing his jaw and mumbling darkly to himself.

"Because Dumbledore has one on me"

Hermione narrowed her eyes at Harry and studied his tired face.

"Harry, are you alright? You look like hell"

"Harry went out last night," Ginny said with a smirk. "Out wandering the countryside with Dumbledore. Didn't get in until about three this morning"

"Where did you go with Dumbledore?" Hermione asked interestedly. Harry gave her a strange look but stayed quite.

""He wont tell us," Ron said as Molly appeared at the door.

"Oh Hermione!" she said, running forward to give her a hug. "I was so worried, are you alright?"

"I'm fine Mrs Weasley, thank you"

"Now, I've just put Shia down in the twins room and I presumed you were staying a while so I set up the boys bed for you and –Kellie, is it? - So you two can share. Charlie can have Percy's room."

"Thank you" Hermione said weakly.

"I'm going back to bed," Harry said quite suddenly, pushing his chair back and running up the stairs.

"I might just go check on Shia" Hermione mumbled, giving Kellie's hand a sharp tug. The two of them made their way slowly up the stairs until they reached the twins bedroom.

Kellie looked around the room with a disgusted look on her face.

"You'll learn to love it" Hermione sighed as she went over to the old crib that Molly had set up. Shia was awake and simply staring at the ceiling.

"Hey beautiful" Hermione cooed. Shia's bright blue eyes darted over and settled on her mothers face.

Hermione fed her quickly before falling on top of her bed for a quick sleep. After all she had had a late night.

Hermione knew that neither Charlie nor Kellie liked staying at the Weasley's place. It was small, cramped and someone was always yelling so Hermione tried to get them out as much as possible by going for long walks in the dazzling morning sunshine. She would push Shia along in a stroller and Kellie and Charlie would walk either side of her.

Kellie and Molly didn't shine to each other, either. Molly was always telling Kellie how to do things like tuck sheets in so they wouldn't come out and how to sweep from the back of the room to the front. She always seemed to forget that Kellie was a trained maid for Royalty.

And on top of all that, Harry was going out every night. At about ten Dumbledore would come to the door and they'd apparate together before returning at around three or four in the morning. And Harry still refused to tell anyone where he had been.

It was on their third day there when Hermione, Kellie, Charlie and Shia were out on their walk, the sun shining brilliantly from above though weather forecast predicted storms for later.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a brown owl swooped on them and brandished a leg for Charlie to take a letter.

With a sideways glance at Hermione, he unfolded the letter and read it quickly. He smiled and handed it to Hermione.

Charlie,

We just heard about the disturbance at the Malfoy manor. Bring the girls home immediately.

Alfred.

"Looks like we're going home" Hermione said, passing the note onto Kellie.

About an hour later Hermione was in Fred and Georges room packing her belonging when Ginny appeared at the door looking wistful.

"Please stay. I'll be so bored without you"

"It's too crowded here. And anyway, you can come visit me at the castle any time you like"

"But it wont be the same" the redheaded girl whined.

"Stop it, Ginny" Hermione scolded, tossing a pile of nappies into her trunk. "You sound like a sick cat"

Ginny couldn't help but chuckle.

"You know Herm? You look fantastic. It's like you were never pregnant at all"

"Thank you"

"Especially when you showed up the other day in the gorgeous dress and punched Ron. Hilarious"

"Yeah" she wished Ginny would stop. She was being reminded of Draco and she didn't want to think about him right now.

"Where did you get the dress from, anyway?"

"Here, you can have it. It's not my type of dress, anyway." Hermione grabbed the red dress from the top of her bed and tossed it to an awed Ginny.

Ginny examined it for a moment before letting out a gasp.

"This is a Chanel dress! It must have costed thousands!"

"It did so treasure it, it's your birthday present for the next ten years"

"Oh my god, thank you!" she squealed and ran downstairs to show her mother.

Hermione sighed and dragged her trunk across the floor to take it downstairs. Outside her door she ran into Harry who was just getting out of bed.

"Here, let me help" he said, hoisting the trunk off the ground and down the stairs.

Hermione admired his strength for a moment before following.

"So where'd you go last night, Harry?" she asked conversationally, knowing he wouldn't tell her.

"Into London" he said. Hermione paused. Not knowing whether to press on or not. Harry seemed to guess this because he turned and gave her a sharp look.

"No more. Your not supposed to know…yet"

The Weasley's, Hermione, Harry, Charlie and Kellie were sitting in the small lounge room, letting everyone have a last cuddle of Shia before they left when the was a sharp knock on the door.

"I'll get it" Harry said, standing up and pulling out his wand. Dumbledore had taught him to never be too careful.

Half a minute later Harry's voice carried back to the lounge room.

"Hermione, it's for you"

Hermione stood up quickly and left the room followed closely by a nosy Ron and Ginny.

Standing at the door in front of Harry was Draco.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked, quite shocked to see him standing there.

"Yeah" Ron said loudly from behind her. "Piss off before one of us hex you!"

"Ron!" Hermione said, stepping over to stand beside Draco. "Don't forget who put that bruise on your face. C'mon. We can talk out here"

Draco paused and looked Ron over with loathsome eyes. His lips slowly curled into a smirk.

"You can't seriously tell me you were bashed by a girl, Weasel-Bee. God your…"

"Stop" Hermione cut him off and pulled him outside into the front yard.

"What are you doing here?" she asked again.

"I want you to come home" he said, suddenly serious. "I can't stand having you so far away, and I cant bare not seeing Shia everyday."

"We're going back to my parents place" Hermione said softly, as if this might offer him some comfort. "We're actually about to leave now. You can come and visit us there any time you like"

"So there's no chance of you coming back to my place," he asked dejectedly.

"We both knew that me living with you was only temporary. You said it yourself: until my parents come around. Well they've come around so we're going home"

He stared at her a moment then smiled lightly.

"You know I'd kiss you right now but…" he jerked his head towards the little house where Ron was watching them from the kitchen window.

"Oh he is unbelievable!" Hermione suddenly sighed then grabbed Malfoy by the front of the shirt and pulled him into a deep kiss.

Ron disappeared from the window as Malfoy pulled away grinning.

"See you tomorrow" he said before apparating. Ron appeared at the door.

"Hermione!" he called sharply and she turned and walked towards him. "Why didn't you tell me you were a couple?"

"Because we aren't, Ron" she answered shortly, walking swiftly back to the lounge room.

"Then what was that out there?"

"We had an audience, had to give them something to talk about" Ron blushed and Hermione turned away from him. "Are we ready to go?"

Hermione, Shia, Kellie and Charlie took a portkey back to the castle. The first thing Hermione noticed upon landing on the soft green grass was the buzzing atmosphere of the place. Maintenance was being done to the grounds to make them ship shape and, when they entered the building, they found maids and butlers scurrying around cleaning and neatening everything.

"Hermione!" Alfred came dashing out of the dining room, arms wide. He embraced both Hermione and Shia as one then he lifted his granddaughter into his own arms and admired her.

"What's going on here?" Hermione asked, preying to god that there wasn't going to be a party the night she was settling in.

"We're having guests," Clarisse said, appearing at the bottom of the stairs dressed in a pale blue summer dress.

"How many guests?" Hermione asked wearily, watching as Kellie levitated their trunks upstairs.

"Just one"

"Just one? Who is it?"

"Chaise Wood" Clarisse twirled a lock of her hair around her finger and stared at Shia, though she didn't ask to hold her. "His parents are going to Australia for a holiday so we decided to let him stay here"

"How old is he? Can he do magic?" Hermione guessed, by the way they were talking about him, Chaise must be about ten or eleven.

"He's seventeen and yes, he is a wizard." Alfred said as Shia began to whine. Seventeen? Hermione raised her eyebrow and took her daughter back. She turned around to face Charlie. What she saw shocked her: Charlie's face was set in a cold hard expression. His fists were clenched and he was glaring at Clarisse.

"Charlie?" Hermione asked hesitantly. Charlie gave his head a little shake and looked around at Hermione.

"I have to go," he said quickly. "Don't leave the castle until I get back. Got that?"

Hermione nodded numbly and Charlie turned sharply and strode out of the room.

"What's the matter with him?" Alfred asked, utterly perplexed.

"I'm not sure," Hermione said thoughtfully, giving Shia a little jig. "But I have to go and put Shia to bed. She hasn't slept all morning"

Hermione left her parents to their decorating and took Shia up to her room. Kellie was setting up a bassinet while chatting happily to an older maid who was perched on the edge of Hermione's bed. When Hermione entered the room the older maid stood up hastily.

"M'lady"

"Keep talking" Hermione said idly. "I'm just putting Shia down for her nap then I'm going to have a shower."

When Hermione got out of the shower twenty minutes later she found her bedroom empty except for the sleeping baby. Hermione quickly got dressed in a pair of old jeans and a Singlet. She could hear something going on outside so she went to her balcony to investigate. A black stretch limo had pulled up and three people were getting out. Hermione's parents were waiting at the door for them.

"Clarisse!" said a lady with extremely curly red hair. She went up to Hermione's mother and hugged her warmly. "It's wonderful to see you again! It's been so long!"

"Its lovely to see you again too, Kirsten" Clarisse replied pleasantly, returning the hug. "And you, Anton" she moved forward and hugged a scrawny man with dark features.

Hermione listened to their greetings but her eyes were trained on the boy that had just gotten out of the car.

Chaise had pale skin, a snub nose and tight, curly black hair. He was wearing cut-off jeans and a blue polo shirt and was carrying a skateboard under one arm and a guitar case under the other. Hermione could help but be intrigued by this new arrival so she left the balcony and went downstairs.

When she reached the door everyone turned to look at her.

"Ah, this is our daughter, Hermione" Alfred said proudly. Hermione dipped her head in welcome but didn't take her eyes off Chaise. Now that she had come snooping, she could see his features close up. He had a scatter of freckles across his nose and his eyes were a brilliant green. He seemed cute in a badass kind of way.

He noticed Hermione checking him out and he raised an eyebrow as if to say: 'yeah that's right, I'm hot'.

"Well we really must be off" Kirsten said, turning to her son. "Chaise, have you got everything?"

"Yes mother," he said sarcastically with a roll of his vivid eyes.

"Very good. Now you behave and do everything Clarisse and Alfred tell you to, alright?" Kirsten hissed her son then headed back to the limo. Anton said a more gracious goodbye before joining his wife.

"Hermione, will you show Chaise to his room?"

"Sure" Hermione said, not breaking eye contact with the boy. "Which room is it?"

"Right across the hall from yours"

"I've never seen you around before" Hermione said as she led him to his room. She tried to think back to all the parties she'd been to and she was sure she'd remember seeing Chaise there if he was present.

"That's because for the last year I've been taking a vow of silence. I presume you've only been around for a year. I've never seen you either"

"That's right" Hermione said, opening his bedroom door. A vow of silence? She was impressed.

"So where are you from?" Hermione asked, following him into the room. He was quite tall, about the same height as Malfoy though not as filled out around the chest. Chaise turned to look at her. She couldn't believe how green his eyes were.

"Who wants to know?"

You know you did it
I'm gone
To find someone to live for
In this world
There's no light at the end of the tunnel tonight
Just a bridge that I gotta burn
You're wrong
If you think you can walk right through my door
That is just so you
Coming back when I've finally moved on
I'm already gone

Did you like? Sorry I haven't updated for a while… I've actually written twenty chapters already so I don't have writers block… no… I got a job. I am now officially a checkout chick so I haven't been around to update.

So… who's this new Chaise bloke? What will Malfoy think of this new arrival, cutting his grass? And where has Charlie gone? You'll just have to wait until I update!

Ciao!