"Hermione! Where are you going?"
"We're supposed to be going this way!" Lavender and Parvati called after her as Hermione suddenly left them and made a bee-line towards the hospital wing. Harry and Ron exchanged 'Looks',
"She isn't going to-?"
"I have a feeling she might be."
"Hermione!" The brunette turned and waved cheerily to them,
"Wait for me! I'll be with you in a second!" Dean and Seamus turned to Harry and Ron questioningly,
"What is she doing?" Ron gave a small sigh and shook his head sadly,
"She's having one of her 'Turns' again and-." But he was silenced by Harry's elbow going hard into his ribs, "Ow! What was that for?"
"Hermione is not having one of her turns!"
"She is if she talks to invisible people." Ron reasoned,
"Izzy isn't invisible and I talk to her to-." Ron gave a loud cough, letting harry know precisely what he thought of that. But their 'debate was cut short by Parvati and Lavender's squeel of,
"Aww! Isn't he just so cute!" The boys turned to see what the girls were cooing over; Hermione had just come out of the hospital wing and was leading a very small, very nervous looking Draco by the hand. Draco's eyes widened at the sight of so many strangers all staring at him and instinctively drew himself closer to Hermione, who, sensing the child's discomfort, quickly picked him up and carried him over to where her friends were waiting.
Dean, being the first to recover himself, turned to Ron grinning and shook his hand enthusiastically,
"Congratulations mate! He looks just like you." The red-head scowled as everyone laughed and came up to 'congratulate' him and tell him that they,' never knew you had it in you.'
"Seriously though, Hermione, why have you got a kid? Who is he?" Lavender asked, reaching up to stroke the child's perfect hair. Hermione smirked, this was definitely going to be amusing…
"His name's Draco and I'm looking after him for a while." Lavender froze and quickly pulled her hand away,
"Are you serious?" She whispered, "This is Malfoy?" Hermione nodded, trying desperately hard to keep herself from giggling at her friend's shocked expressions.
There was a very awkward silence, then Draco whispered to Hermione,
"I don't think they like me, Mione." The brunette said nothing, but glared at the group that was shifting uncomfortably. Finally, Seamus bravely stepped forward,
"Hey Draco. My name's Seamus." Draco shyly took the hand that was offered to him,
"I'm very pleased to meet you." Encouraged by the Irish boy's success, each of the others came forwards to introduce themselves.
Eventually when Draco was happily chatting away to Parvati about the all importance of cats, Hermione began to herd them on,
"Come on! Else we'll never get there!"
"Can we go to the sweet shop, Mione?"
"Uh huh."
"And the Quidditch shop too?"
"I'm sure that Harry will be glad of the excuse."
"What about the joke shop?" Hermione hesitated,
"Maybe…but the first place we are going is definitely going to be Gladrags. You cannot go around wearing the same outfit forever." Draco pulled a face that made Lavender go,
"Aww!" Again.
"I don't like clothes shopping!" He protested, sticking out his bottom lip slightly, "Besides, I like these clothes. Why can't I just wear these?"
"Because you will smell." Hermione replied bluntly.
"Malfoys don't smell." Draco muttered darkly, chewing on the cuff of his shirt,
"Precisely." The little boy sighed in a tortured sort of way,
"Fine." He said valiantly, "I'll get some more clothes."
"Umm…Mione? Would you mind if we, you know, skipped out on that?" Harry asked nervously, clearly speaking for the entirety of the boys, "We were thinking of going off and…" He paused, searching for a realistic thing that they could be doing,
"Exploring the historical sites of the area." Dean supplied quickly.
"Don't worry." Hermione reassured them, "You'd probably just get in the way anyway. We'll meet you in The Three Broomsticks in an hour, okay?" Seamus and Harry high-fived,
"All right!"
"Cheers Hermione!"
"Bye Draco!" And with that, the boys ran off, leaving Draco alone with the three girls. Parvati and Lavender immediately began to examine him,
"Hmm…he most definitely needs some colours." Lavender wondered aloud,
"Yes," Parvati agreed, scanning every inch of the boy's small body carefully, "But nothing too bright. Maybe some dark reds and purples…what do you think Hermione?"
"I think light blue would be good. It would certainly bring out the blue in his eyes. What colours do you like Draco?"
"Green!" Draco replied instantly, "And orange." Both Lavender and Parvati winced,
"I'm sure we can do something with the green, but orange…?"
"A disaster waiting to happen." Lavender agreed, "Come on. Let's see what we can find."
Within half-an hour upon entering Gladrags Wizard Wear, the pile on jumpers, trousers and T-shirts that the girls had pick up for Draco had grown so immense, that it towered well over the little boy's head.
Parvati was just modelling a stripy magenta pullover with navy jeans, with Lavender watching expertly from the side, when Hermione walked proudly into the changing rooms, something clutched behind her back,
"I have found The perfect thing for him!" She stated happily, holding out an exquisite green and silver belt in her hands. The light from outside reflected off the shiny metallic surface of the buckle and caught Draco's eye.
Silver.
Leather.
Draco froze and sat down heavily on the floor, looking slightly green, and hid his face in his arms, visibly trembling.
Parvati and Lavender exchanged puzzled glances with each other, confused by the boy's surprising reaction,
"Mione, what's up with him?"
"I'm not sure but…" She went over and knelt quietly down by Draco. He looked up hesitantly, obviously trying his best to concentrate on Hermione's face but his eyes kept darting fearfully to the silver belt, still clutched in her hand,
"Draco? What's wrong?" But Draco seemed unable to answer.
The silver was sparkling at him threateningly, reminding him of the power it still held over him.
Draco shivered.
"Is this it?" Hermione continued, holding the belt towards him, "Is this what's scaring you?" The boy gave a small whimper and recoiled away from it. Hermione, realising almost instantly what the problem was, snarled and threw the silver belt as far as she could across the shop and scooped the trembling child into her arms,
"I think that's enough shopping for today." She said quietly, slowly standing up,
"Is he okay?" Lavender asked, concern evident in her eyes,
"It's nothing that a butter-beer can't fix."
"So, was your shopping trip successful?" Harry enquired as he carried a very large, very full tray of butter-beers over to their table.
"It was…eventful " Hermione replied evenly as everybody grabbed a mug, "We got some gorgeous stuff though."
"Mmm." Parvati agreed, "Purple is definitely his colour."
"Most certainly not orange." Lavender added, shuddering at the mere thought of it,
"Cheers!" Seamus suddenly yelled, causing everyone to jump and spill their drinks, "To life, weekends and…and fizzing-wizzbees!" He and Dean knocked their glasses together and drunk to Seamus' proposal, downing the entire contents of their mugs in one go.
"Has he been eating sherbet again?" Hermione asked, looking pointedly at Harry and Ron, both the picture of innocence,
"Might've been…why?"
"You know what he gets like-." Suddenly Draco started to tug frenziedly at Hermione's sleeve, panic clear in the boy's grey eyes, "Draco, wh-."
"Umm…Mione. You might want to look behind you." Ron whispered to her. She turned around and nearly had a heart attack,
Lucius Malfoy had just stepped into the pub.
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A/N: Helloo! I won't do chocolate right now, cos i'm in an internet cafe, so I'll do everyone on the next chappie! (Which is written!)
Lots of Love, Lilyxxx