Chapter 60 – A letter from son to father

"Hello Hogwarts!" A voice boomed over the Quidditch field and made the whole stadium cheer.

"It's the first match of the new year. Ravenclaw against Slytherin!" More cheers erupted from the crowd. It was nearly deafening when the student's body made their excitement clear, applauding and stamping incessantly. It didn't matter that it was cold enough to freeze into the seats, or that the snow was more than one yard high.

The gates opened and flashes of green and blue entered the field, as the players shot out of the changing room on their brooms. No one wanted to walk in the high snow.

"Let's hear you cheer! Ravenclaws!" The blue eagles gathered in a loose half circle in front of their stands and held up their fists. Their housemates cheered and slammed their foot into the wooden floor of the stands.

"We got some women power here this year. Team Captain and Beater: Joanna Tate. Her fellow Beater sister: Lena Warren. Chasers: Lucia Lennox, Loretta Davies and Marco Goldstein, our first male member. The second and last male member Austin Egwan, filling the Keeper position, and last but not least, last years best eyes of the year, the Ravenclaw seeker Harriett Carmichael!"

After every member of Ravenclaw was announced, Gerald made a short break.

"And now the Slytherins!"

The green snakes flew by their house stands and circled around cheering with their own house mates, as the Gryffindor stand, next to theirs, booed.

"The lovely Sakura Takagi leads this team in her position as Keeper. She got two strong arms as her Beaters: Byron Peebles and Sebastian Burke. Chasers: Darius Pucey, Roy Warrington and Felix Flint. Andddddd their Seeker: Benjamin Rosier! They won the first game and lead the Quidditch Rank at the moment." Now the Slytherins cheered so loud the Gryffindors were drowned out.

"Teams, get into position. Madame Hooch will start the game."

The students fell silent when the Flying Class teacher took her spot in front of the wooden chest, housing the balls.

"I want a clean game. Make me proud!" She shouted into the silence and released the balls, which got the players moving and the crowd to start shouting. It was like a vacuum had sucked all of the sounds and exploded when the snitch was released by her.

"Here we goooo!" Gerald said in in a strange accent and nearly all muggleborns started to laugh, filling the stadium with their good mood.

"Have you seen her yet?" Albus asked when he could finally hear his own word again.

"No, but I wrote to my father." Scorpius answered whispering and promised: "It will work."

"Lennox has caught the Quaffle, and now races towards the Slytherin hoops. Byron tries to stop her with a Bludger, but she shows us her best twirl, dodging it. There come Pucey and Flint. Can they box her in? No she throws the Quaffle anddd... Takagi defends her hoops and passes the Quaffle to Flint."

The next three hours passed in much of the same. Neither team was able to gain a large number of goals and after the first two had passed most of the students just wished for the game to end to go back to the warm fire of their Common Room.

"I think our eagle eye saw something. Yes, she is gaining speed. Carmichael is after the Golden Snitch and now Rosier is hot on her tail. Tate tries to help her fellow member with a Bludger, but Rosier manages a sloth grip roll in mid dive. If he keeps going at this speed he will crash. Carmichael is zig-zagging on the ground and now she gains height again. Rosier was able to catch up to her and now they both reach out. Owwww, that must have hurt. Both Seeker crashed into the Hufflepuff stands."

There were some shouts and a general commotion broke out, while everyone waited to see if the Seekers were still on their brooms.

Madame Hooch whistled and held up her arm, showing everyone that the game was over and one of the two had caught the snitch. Her voice carried over the pitch loud and clear.

"Rosier caught the Golden Snitch. Slytherin wins the game!"

"Really..." Albus grumbled, but it was lost in his house mates cheering. Looking at his best friend he rolled his eyes and dragged him down the stairs of the stand. He wanted to get the best seats in the Common Room for the party tonight. It was Valentinsday, Albus birthday and he could think of nothing better, than watching the rest of his house getting drunk for blackmail material. They would need it, to keep them off their back.

XxX

Draco was mad. No, he wasn't mad, he was livid. If it went on like this he would have to fire some of his workers. The sales from the last quarter were disastrous.

He clenched his hand around the handkerchief on his table and ignored the embroidered dragon on it, that moved around to keep from getting squeezed. He pouched it and abandoned his office in a bad mood, to call it a day after more than 10 hours at work without a solution to his trouble.

He wouldn't admit to himself that he had trouble focusing on work since his son's owl had arrived midday. He had read it and promptly decided to ignore the implied appeal, the Daily Prophet's article about the woman in question still fresh in his mind.

Hermione Granger was already accused of cheating on her ex-husband and his son wanted him to set up a meeting with her again. He was not up for the social suicide it would entail meeting her at the moment, if they were seen. Still, there was the nagging feeling of disappointing his son by ignoring his wish. Draco was on the horns of the dilemma and it irritated him.

When he left the Floo at home he cleaned himself with a flick of his wand, before he went up to his bedroom and threw it on his night-stand, to loose his tie. Getting out of his robes he hung them up, unable to have them look dishevelled, even when they had to be washed. Calling his elf to have him do the laundry he nearly forgot the handkerchief until the old elf handed it to him.

"Sir, I is not sure tis is laundry."

"Of course Bonn, I will keep this." Draco said and sat down with the gift in his hand. Of course when he was done thinking of her, this cloth had to remind him again. Holding it up Draco studied it once again. The fabric was a light grey, filled with many stitches, most of them making up the silver and green dragon that was breathing fire from time to time. It moved like it had a mind of it's own around the many runes that were also added. When he had opened his gift he had spent days checking the runes to be sure non of them were spiteful. Some were so rare it had taken looking through several books to find their meaning. As they were all interacting, he was still unable to make out the full extent of what this kerchief did. It was the main reason he kept it on him so much, instead of leaving it somewhere. He liked a good riddle and this was a huge one.

He knew several runes were for safety, as well as sobriety and another one for fortunateness. With the cloth in hand he felt his mind clear and his thoughts could centre on a subject easier. It was so complex that Draco knew Granger had spent a lot of time on it. When the thought came up the first time he had felt oddly betrayed, because the thoughtful gift wasn't really for him, but his other version. Then he felt stupid because he caught himself falling for her thoughtfulness. He knew everyone thought he was heartless and cold, but he was just protecting himself. He hadn't wanted to get to close to anyone, because he had to protect himself. Opening up to others was not something he learned and he had seen what it did to others. Most of them ended up hurt and it was what feared the most, so he shied away from feelings.

Even with Scorpius he felt some kind of distance between them and his son was to only person he ever truly tried to be close to as a grown man. Had he loved his wife? He liked to think he had cherished her, but he knew somewhere in the back of his mind that he could have done better.

It was what made this whole situation nearly unbearable. Against his self-preservation he was drawn to Granger. He had been since school days, but for one reason or another she had been off limits. He wanted to know more about her. Why did she know old runes most books didn't even mention and why was she so fixed on him. She was intelligent and brave, but acting strange since her time travel. She knew how to rile him up, breaking through his defences with ease.

Looking at the kerchief Draco groaned, because he knew he would lose this fight against himself. He would do what his son asked of him and send an owl to her. He would need to risk something, but maybe it was worth imaging his son's smile. It was what he had in mind when he penned a short message to her with a place and date to meet. He would be a better father than his own, even if he had to act brave when he wasn't.

AN: I'm still looking for some other writers to join in on the challange for an Advent Calendar I opened up over at AO3. Send me a private message if you are interested. I will also post some happier stories to go along with it in December on AO3. Anyway I hope by then we finally get deeper into the true Dramione in this story. It's already written, so stay tuned ;)