At six o'clock sharp Hermione descended down the stairs to the dining room, where both Malfoys were already seated in their respective seats (Malfoy sat at the end of the table while Scorpius sat on the other side, just near him. Hermione assumed that the empty seat in front of him belonged to her).

Hermione walked over to the vacant seat, but just as she reached for the chair, Draco stood up, walked over to her chair and pulled it back for her.

"Uhmm... thanks." Although this wasn't the first time he had displayed such chivalry towards her, Hermione still felt stunned. Hopefully the civility between them could remain at this level. It would be a shame if little Scorpius had to witness the ugly animosity between the two.

"It's nothing Granger, but next time you better be ready to pull your own chair, because I'm afraid I can't keep doing such a tedious task." He said with a smirk.

Hermione bit the inside of her cheek, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes.Typical Draco.

"Ah and what aperfectexample to set for your young, impressionable son." She retorted, before turning to Scorpius. "Good evening Scorpius, how are you?" She said, her venomous expression dissipating, replaced by a bright beam as she addressed Scorpius.

"I'm good!" He said brightly, a smile plastered on his face. "I think your hair is pretty!" He said, a blush creeping over his pale cheeks.

"Oh how sweet Scorpius, Thank you!"

"But my Mom-"

"Atty!" Malfoy interjected. Hermione frowned. Was Malfoy avoiding any mention of Scorpius' mother? Questions began to dance across her mind, all desperate to be paired with a logical answer.

Who is Scorpius' mother? Where is she? Why have I not seen her yet? Perhaps she works overseas or in another country, that's why she's not here.

The questions quickly dissolved into thin air just as Atty made an appearance, her arrival announced by the familiar thunderous crack. Three covered plates of food appeared before them. "Please enjoy." Atty squeaked as she lifted the lids with a lazy flick of her wrist. "Thank you." Hermione and Scorpius said simultaneously while Malfoy simply grunted his thanks. "We said thank you at the same time!" Scorpius exclaimed, an infectious amount of exuberance dancing in his eyes. If it were any other muggle or muggleborn child, they would have exclaimed 'Jinx!'.

With a pointed stare from Draco, Scorpius yielded the last of his enthusiasm, and without waiting for Atty to do it, lifted the lid off his dish, which was a steamy, scrumptious smelling plate of spaghetti bolognese.

"Excuse my son, he gets like this around guests." Draco said, once the lids had been lifted off the rest of the dishes and Atty had disappeared without a word.

"Well do you get guests often?" Hermione inquired, as she picked up her fork.

"No, Granger. It's just me, Scorpius and Atty. And when I leave for work it's just him and Atty." Sadness danced across his silver irises, before it vanished completely.

"Draco," She said, concern evident in her voice. Her eyes flickered between father and son, before she allowed herself to continue. "Don't you wish you could spend more time with your son?"

He opened his mouth, but only silence left his lips as the words remained entangled in a ball lodged in his throat. He swallowed, and then threw his focus back at the meal in front of him, which was now becoming cold. "I don't expect you to understand Granger." He said coldly, as he twirled string of spaghetti around the silver teeth of his fork. "When has your job ever gotten between something you cherished dearly?" He shovelled a forkful of spaghetti into his mouth and chewed.

Hermione sighed, as she played with her food, her appetite suddenly gone. Oh trust me, I know all too well what that's like.

The rest of the night went by in silence, the low sounds of chewing and cutlery scraping against crockery carrying them through the awkward dinner.

The plates vanished as the dinner concluded, and still, the ice hadn't been broken.

"Enjoy dessert!" Atty squeaked, her words being met with silent words of gratitude. The lids were lifted, revealing plates of warm chocolate pudding.

Hermione cleared her throat. "So, are you still paying me the agreed upon amount of money?"

Draco raised a brow as he lifted a spoon of pudding into his mouth. "A hundred thousand galleons?"

Hermione nodded, printing Draco to give an amused chuckle. Scorpius stared at him quizzically. "You know I said that to trap you right?"

Hermione was disappointed but not surprised. A hundred thousand galleons is an excessive amount of money, and frankly no one would pay anyone that amount of money. Not even Harry, an Auror who was quickly climbing to the top of the magical law enforcement department, got paid that much.

However it would've been nice to have that kind of money in your hands, she thought wistfully.

"Well how much do you plan on paying me?"

He tapped his chin with his spoon, as his face morphed into a pensive expression. "Well... You are living in my luxurious manor rent free and eating my house elf's splendid cuisine so...should I even be paying you—relax Granger! I'm only joking!"

Just as quickly as the main course concluded, dessert finished and it was time for Hermione to retreat back into her room. Atty appeared, and took Scorpius for his bath time. "Will you please come and read me a bedtime story?" He called as he was led out of the room. Despite having just a single taste of Hermione's reading, the young Malfoy was hooked.

"I'll be sure to pop by Scorpius!" She yelled, with a face splitting grin, the first one she had cracked in years. The grin remained on her face even after the absence of Scorpius' presence.

"My Granger, if my son puts that big if a smile on your face then you ought to continue working here." Draco said, amused. Hermione brought her grin down to a timid smile, however the ghost of that grin still wafted in the chocolatey brown of her eyes. "Well I guess I'm just happy your son didn't turn out like you."

Draco raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"Well, he didn't seem to inherit the entitled, selfish, spoilt gene that makes up the Malfoy Bloodline. He's more down to earth and sweeter than you ever were as a child Draco. I guess we have his mother's genes to thank for that." Just as she said it, she noticed the iciness that took over his expression, the iciness causing goose bumps to beset her skin. She couldn't put a finger on whether it was due to her insulting the Malfoy Bloodline, or her mentioning Scorpius' mother.

And if it was the latter than this would be the second time he showed coldness towards the mention of the woman missing from Scorpius' life, which made her itch for information on where his mother was, why she wasn't there and why Draco acted so at the slight mention of her.

With a cough the ice melted into a warm puddle. "Well goodnight Granger. I'll see you tomorrow. Remember, six o'clock, breakfast. There will be no excuse for tardiness." For some hilarious reason he reminded her of Professor McGonagall. Ah, how she missed the Gryffindor matriarch.

"Malfoy it's seven o'clock. Don't tell me you go to bed so early?" Hermione said with a chuckle. At that, Draco smirked. "Well bedtime doesn't have to be now Granger. If you want you could join me for a drink and a walk around the manor's gardens. It is a sight for sore eyes at night."

Hermione smiled. "No thanks, I've got a lot of reading to do."

Draco frowned, genuinely looking vexed by her rejection. "Ah well, your loss. Perhaps next time you can join me. Or if you don't want to you could just stand on the balcony and look at the gardens."

"There's a balcony?"

"I guessed it just slipped my mind to show it to you."


Hermione cursed Draco, his rules and her stupid proclivity for following rules, as she walked down to the dining room for breakfast, sleep still sitting heavy on her eyelids and rendering her lethargic.

"Good morning." She mumbled to both Malfoy's as she took a seat on her respective seat. Scorpius was sitting at the table eating a bowl of cornflakes, already in his day robes, while Draco sat, hidden behind the Daily Prophet with a bowl of fruit salad sitting in front of him. She noticed that next to her plate was a copy of the profit. She took the black and white newspaper, and opened it, briefly rapt by the informing paper before she couldn't stand looking at it, for there, on the front page, was the smiling, waving picture of Harry James Potter, the headline reading: AUROR POTTER AND HIS TEAM BUST TRAFFICKING RING RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ILLEGAL SALE AND BREEDING OF DRAGONS.

And just like that, her appetite was gone, gone with the breeze that seeped through the windows, which were only opened a crack.

"So, Scorpius, were do we begin?" They were standing in a room that Hermione assumed that Scorpius' tutor usually took place. There was a chalk board and a desk for her, just like any classroom, except that there was just one table for she had only one student. A door led to a bathroom which unlike the one in her bedroom didn't have a shower and bath. There was a balcony which overlooked the scenic view of the Malfoy's large pool and the large stretch of woodland that surrounded the manor.

To be quite honest, Hermione was feeling quite nervous about tutoring Scorpius. She had zero experience teaching (maybe she had little if you count babying Harry and Ron for close to seven years), and was scared that she would mess up by feeding Scorpius the wrong information by accident.

She skimmed over the schedule Draco gave to her.

Monday

08:00-08:30 Penmanship

08:30-09:00 Etiquette

09:00-10:00 Lunch

10:00-11:00 Outing

11:00-11:45 Nap

12:00-12:30 French

12:30-13:00 Astronomy(Hermione raised an eyebrow at this. Was it necessary to teach a five year old astronomy?)

13:00-14:00 Arithmacy.

NB: It'll be up to you what time you'll host Scorpius' practical activities for astronomy. In that thirty minute span, please teach him the basics.

Hermione huffed. "So Scorpius, how well can you write your name?"

"My last tutor said that I'm not bad." Said Scorpius, looking elated. Then as a thought crossed his mind, he deflated, looking downcast. "But the tutor before that said my writing is rubbish. She was very mean, I think that's why daddy made her go." He said.

Hermione frowned. "Well that's not very nice." She would have to have a talk with Draco about who he hires to be Scorpius' tutor in future.

"Can you just write your name down for me so I can see?" She asked. Scorpius nodded before picking a quill from the tin that held an assortment of ostrich feather quills, and beginning to write. She watched, barely containing her amusement as he stuck his tongue out of his mouth, his hand moving at the pace of a snail and his eyes plastered on the roll of parchment as he was enthralled by the little task she had assigned him.

"Hmm... not bad. But it definitely does need some practice." Hermione said as she looked down at the sheet of parchment he had written his name on. Unlike many five year olds, Scorpius' name had been spelled correctly and most of the letters were written correctly. His s and q however were written in the wrong direction. She imagined that he would probably have the same problem with his d's and h's.

"Daddy says I'm supposed to be learning cursive writing." Scorpius informed Hermione.

"Hmm, I think it's a little too early for you to be learning cursive." Hermione replied. Wow, never had she been in charge of what a individual could and could not learn. The thought of her being in such a position of power both excited and exhilarated her. She could teach Scorpius at her desired pace without any inhibitions. "When do you turn six Scorpius?"

"On December the tenth."

"So that means," Hermione paused as she mentally tallied up the months. "We have four months. Tell you what? If you can improve your normal print writing by the time it's your birthday, I'll teach you cursive. Can you do that for me?" Hermione asked.

"Okay!"

The day continued onward with Hermione tutoring Scorpius in every subject on the roster until two when his lessons ended.

Atty prepared a lunch of chicken and mayo sandwiches and warm chicken soup for the both of them, and Hermione used that opportunity to her advantage. She interrogated Atty about her working conditions at the manor and was pleased to hear that the elf was getting decent treatment. Draco paid her with a decent salary every month, provided her with clothing and a proper living space. She got weekends off (she was only there the previous Saturday because he needed help with preparing dinner) and whenever she felt sick he took her to his personal Healer who had no problem performing check ups on the elf. The elf admitted that portions of her money and clothing went to her family who were sadly, not living the same opulent life as Atty.

"Oh Atty that's terrible!" Hermione said, expressing her sympathy. "Have you considered asking Draco to hire them?" Atty shook her head no. "Atty has not thought of asking Master Malfoy."

"Don't worry about it. I'll ask Draco to consider it."

Atty's tennis ball sized eyes filled with tears of gratitude. "Oh madam Granger is so sweet and noble! Thank you madam!" She squeaked, Her tiny body shaking with wails.

"Come on Atty, don't cry!"

For Scorpius' outing Hermione had taken him for a walk around the manor grounds, which were truly extravagant. Two very large albino peacocks packed at the freshly most lawn just in front of the manor, their big black eyes staring at Hermione curiously as she strolled by.

"Ah your father was right, your gardens are amazing." Hermione had finally set her eyes on the gardens the Malfoy heir had praised the previous night, and she had to admit...

It looked just like heaven!

Flowers of different colours and sorts bloomed picturesquely in their respective bushes and flower bed, filling the air with the sweet scent of spring even though summer was just making an exit. The hedges were neatly trimmed and in the middle of the beautiful expanse was a koi pond with two benches facing it. She thought quite wistfully that this place could make such a wonderful get away, and with a good book it could literally morph into heaven on earth.

So overall her first day of tutoring Scorpius wasn't at bad as she had thought it would be. Scorpius was an enthusiastic learner who looked forwards to every lesson and hardly showed any recalcitrant behaviour.

Hermione sighed as she soaked in a tub of lavender bubble bath and bath salts, her wet hair sticking onto her neck and shoulder, her once bushy lions mane reduced to wet strands of hair clumped together due to the water.

So far she was facing no trouble at the manor... hopefully it would remain just as serene for the rest of her stay, however long it was. It would be a shame if Scorpius saw how ugly the animosity between them got.

Towel wrapped around her nude body, Hermione walked back into her room. That's when she noticed that lying on her bed was a note, and next to it was a small owl, no bigger than a snitch, sitting on her bed. Hermione immediately recognized her beloved friend Ron's owl. Excitement bubbled in her.

"Pigwideon!" Hermione said loudly. The owl Pigwideon, or for short, pig, flew over to Hermione, a hoot leaving it's beak.

He landed on Hermione's shoulder and gave her an affectionate peck behind the ear. "How are you buddy?" She asked, tickling the owl with her index finger. "You've got a letter for me?" The owl hooted in response.

Hermione picked up the piece of parchment and began to read it, which she noticed, wasn't written in Ron's messy scrawl but in a different handwriting.

Hermione

Ron came home early! We've moved the party to tonight, which is a little weird considering that no one throws parties on Monday.I hope you can make it Mione. I'd really appreciate it if you did.

George x

P.s If you don't come I'll make it my pleasure to drag you here

Hermione chuckled, before her chest swelled with sadness. Could she really go to the Weasley house, even after what happened between her, Harry, and Ginny?

Come on Hermione, Ron's your friend, you need to be there.

But my heart...

Why was it so hard to make a choice!?