A/N:forgot last time. I own nothing and am making no money
The magical thing about home is that it feels good to leave and it feels even better to come back because home is not a place, it's a feeling. Hermione took in the details all around her as she surveyed the entrance hall to Hogwarts. That path would take her to the Great Hall and up those stairs would lead her to the astronomy tower. Over there the dungeons where potions classes were held. She had seen on their way in Hagrid had rebuilt his hut. Millions of memories flooded her mind. This was her home even after being away for so long.
She felt the small hand intertwined with hers she looked down. Laykyn was literally jumping up and down in excitement. "Can we go and have a look at the library, especially the RESTRICTED SECTION! I know l'm not allowed to read them just yet but I just wanna look. Oh! The forbidden forest! Uncle Ron told me all about the creatures in there. I would be so cool to find a hippogriff, or unicorn, or one of those giant spiders, or even grandpa Weasley's car." Laykyn was brimming with curiosity. Hermione smiled to herself, her daughter reminded her of her childhood but she couldn't deny that the girl had a mischievous streak a mile wide and that would probably give her prematurely grey hair. "No the restricted section is restricted for a reason and the forbidden forest is off limits. I expect you to follow those two rules," exclaimed Hermione sternly.
"Mommy that's no fun. Rules are meant to be broken that's what uncle George says," she pouted. "He is always right...except? He did say there was an exception. I just can't remember it," she said with a poker face.
"Can't remember or don't want to remember?" Hermione glanced sideways at her daughter well familiar with her poker face by now. She flashed her mother a smile that always melted her heart. "Come on," She scooped Laykyn up on her shoulders, "let's go find our room." The toddler let out a squeal of delight. She followed the directions that Headmistress McGonagall had given her toward a set of suites. She whispered the password into Laykyn's ear.
"Password?" the suit of armor guarding the doorway asked waving it"s sword. "You could hurt somebody with that," the four year old said raising an eyebrow. The suit of armor lowered the point of the sword til it was level with the girl's nose, "Password?!" She pushed the tip of the sword down, "Hans Christian Andersen." The suit of armor re-sheathed its sword and stepped aside. They stepped inside the common room. The room was painted a soft tan color almost the color of parchment. All four Hogwarts houses were represented in banners on the wall. There was a massive fireplace with a sofa across from it and a recliner that looked perfect for reading. Against one was wall was a small table with an elaborate chess set on it and a comfortable looking chair on either side. There was a small kitchen and dining area encase they wanted to avoid the Great Hall. Around the walls she counted 6 other doors.
As she approached the door nearest the chess table she could see a plaque that read Professor Hermione Granger- Transfiguration. She opened the door, it lead into a beautifully furnished office, she smiled at the sight of the smaller desk to the right of her own that had Laykyn's name engraved on it. "This is where we are going to work?" she asked. Hermione looked down "Whenever I am not teaching, yes." There was a door on the other side of the room that led out into another part of the castle that was the entrance for the students.
Laykyn was enthralled by the little desk. She had her own quill and ink and parchment. Hermione noticed that the books that were on the lower shelves near the small desk were all child friendly, some simple spell books were there, mixed in with history books for beginners, and fairy tales both muggle and wizard. This was her own personal library. Hermione softly brushed her fingers along the spines of the books, reading each title as she touched it. Every book she could have imagined was there, including a brand new updated edition of Hogwarts: a History. She smiled looking at the table of contents. There were new chapters added to include all the things that had happened while she was in school but also a chapter dedicated to house elves, how they had been abused in the castle and the steps that had been taken in recent year to improve their lives.
"Mommy can we go find my room now?" She grabbed her mother's hand and began dragging her out of the office. "Let's try this one," she opened the next door. The walls were the same color as the common room and it had bits of poetry and lines from Shakespeare and such on the wall. All of Hermione's favorite quotes. A massive canopy bed was centered under the window on one wall and the other walls were covered in shelves of books except for where the dresser and vanity sat. "This isn't it," the little girl grumbled pulling out of her mother's hand and bolting back across to the door.
Hermione was two steps behind Laykyn when she opened the next door. Not surprisingly it to was painted the color of parchment, with a few quotes from Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Beauty and the Beast and dozens of other stories. The truly amazing part about the room was the paintings that went with each quote, a far off shot of Neverland you could see the lost boys being chased by the pirates, who were being chased by the redskins, The Beast and Belle danced around the ballroom, Tigger bounced all across Pooh's house. Her bed hung from the ceiling and over the bed was a quote from her favorite story "Wrong will be right when Aslan comes in sight…" and under the quote was Aslan, the lion himself, crowning the four Pevensie siblings. There sitting amongst the piles of pillows was a toy stuffed lion. "Aslan! She squealed running and jumping onto the bed. "Mommy look it's perfect! Aslan and Narnia in the middle of it all." Hermione watched her daughter spin around the room with the lion in her arms, giggling.
"Did I do it alright?" a voice sounded behind her. Hermione spun around. "I spent months on her room I wanted it to be perfect." Luna stood in the common room, looking shy and apprehensive.
Hermione crossed the room and wrapped her friend in a hug. "It's amazing. She loves it. You did all of this?" Luna smiled softly, "I only painted her room by hand I'm afraid. Your room and rest I did by magic. I was so excited when McGonagall agreed to let me do it. She usually just decorates the staff rooms to match their house."
"This is amazing Luna. Thank you so much."
"It was my pleasure I loved reading all of those muggle stories. Figuring out her favorites wasn't hard. She is your daughter after all, she knows how to make herself heard."
Hermione smiled and beckoned her daughter "Come, say "thank you" to Miss Luna, she painted and decorated your room." The toddler stopped spinning and ran full speed into Luna wrapping her arms around the woman's legs. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Miss Luna you are the bestest! My room is amazing and I get to stay here for a whole year and sleep with all my favorite stories around me."
"You are most welcome," she smiled stroking the girl's hair. "McGonagall said dinner will be served in five minutes and she is holding a staff meeting afterwards in the Great Hall." Luna hugged Hermione once more before leaving "see you both at dinner."
Hermione ushered Laykyn into her bedroom to change. She found fresh jeans and a Holyhead Harpies hoodie and handed them to the girl, before going to her own room to change.
When she stepped into the common room after changing she saw Laykyn sitting at the chess board with "Aslan" across from her. The pieces were scattered across the board as if they had been playing for a while when in reality it couldn't have been more than 2 minutes. Hermione notice the shoe laces hanging loose from her daughter shoes.
She knelt down and tied them. "You ready to go eat." In response Laykyn smiled and hopped down from her chair and grabbed the stuffed lion, taking her mother's outstretched hand before heading for the Great Hall.
Laykyn scrambled up onto a chair beside her Aunt Ginny. Ginny smiled at the girl as she began to describe her room to the witch and showed her the stuffed lion Luna had left her with. Hermione took the seat on the other side of Laykyn. McGonagall gave her as small smile which she returned.
She tuned into the conversation Laykyn was having with Ginny, "Chaser is an okay position if you like doing things the easy way but if anything I am gonna be a beater like uncle George, if I can't do that the I will settle for Seeker like uncle Harry."
Hermione stifled a laugh at the look on her friends face. "Sorry Chaser is a weak option," Laykyn exclaimed.
"What about Keeper?" Ginny asked. "Really?" Laykyn gave her an incredulous look and continued,"uncle Ron played Keeper, if he can do it anybody can." This time Ginny couldn't stifle her laughter.
The meal arrived and the talk subsided as everyone filled their plates. After dinner Laykyn climbed into her mother's lap and drifted off to sleep.
McGonagall called the attention of all the occupants present in the room. "Welcome back to you. Not all here not all of the professors have made it here yet some will be arriving tonight and others in the morning. Some are staying in Hogsmeade and the rest are staying here in the castle. Those staying here will be sharing a common room with another teacher. Special accommodations have been made this year as many of you have small children and spouses that work full time so Ms Gabrielle Delacour has volunteered to look after the primary education of those children. Now I think we will go over everyone's assignments. Mr. Longbottom of course is in charge of Herbology, Mrs. Potter will be refereeing all quidditch games and teaching the first years to fly, Ms. Brown Divination, Ms. Lovegood Care of Magical Creatures and head of Ravenclaw, Ms. Granger Transfiguration and Head of Gryffindor." McGonagall continued to name the people sitting around the table and and explaining what each professor's job would be for the year.
Hermione let the words slide past her without really hearing much. Her mind was to preoccupied in a few days the students would arrive and classes would begin, she needed to set up her classroom and finalize lesson plans, make sure Laykyn had everything she would need for her classes , finish unpacking and get them settled into their new home and make friends with whoever would be sharing a common room. She also needed to establish ground rules so that Laykyn wouldn't be a problem.
She tuned back in as she heard McGonagall announced the final name, "Finally Draco Malfoy will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts and heading up Slytherin house."
Hermione groaned inwardly. She was supposed to be done with Malfoy after his trial. She was not supposed to have deal with him again. At least she could probably avoid him fairly easily. He was head of Slytherin so his housing would be closer to the dungeons.
"I know that it has been a long day for many of you so as one of our number has already nodded off," here she smiled at the head of curly hair that was all you could see of Laykyn as she had snuggled closer to her mother, "I will wish you all a good evening and I will see you all in the morning."
The scraping of chair as they were pushed back from the table caused the toddler to stir but she didn't wake up. Hermione carefully slid out of her chair and grabbing the lion from its spot in Laykyn's discarded chair made her way back to the common room. She murmured the password and silently slide inside and over toward Laykyn's room. After changing her into pajamas she lay the little girl in the bed and tucked her in tight. She leaned against the bed and stroked the golden brown curls.
"This is the start of a whole new life for us, Laykyn. Your daddy would be so proud of how much you have helped me since he passed. He loved you. Even though you never met. But this is a new start for us. I will never forget your father. You remind me of him everyday.I know this move is going to be hard on you sometime but I need to let myself heal and I truly believe that coming back here and taking this job is part of that. Maybe one day I will even be able to take a chance on love again. No matter what I will never stop loving you. Mommy loves you, sweetheart. Sweet dreams." She pressed a kiss to her forehead and left to go to her own room blowing out the candle as she passed.
As she stepped into the common room she noticed there was a leather jacket hanging on one of the hooks by the door, alongside her crimson trimmed and Laykyn's blue traveling cloaks was a long black cloak with silver trim.
Apparently their roommate had arrived during dinner. She debated going and meeting now and getting that out of the way but she finally decided it could wait til the morning. She changed and climbed into her bed she pulled the covers up tight and quickly drifted off to sleep.
Draco had arrived at the castle late. He had to reassure Ms. Esther that he would take care of himself and in private he had explained to Matt how wizard post worked so that they could communicate. The ministry had thrown a fit of course but Draco had managed to convince them that Matt could be trusted as he had made a binding vow and that he needed him to stay on the right track. Matt and his grandmother were his only support system.
The ministry had reluctantly agreed. Upon arriving he headed straight to his room. Ms Esther had sent him dinner for the evening so he warmed that up with a simple heating charm and went to bed.
He had luckily picked the correct door on his first try. Green plaid pajama pants on and a grey t-shirt laid out on his nightstand and he crawled in bed. His head hit the pillow and he didn't move again until the sun began to peak in through his window. He crawled out of bed knowing he had a million things to do today to get ready for the start of term. The cloaks hanging by the front door last night clued him in that whoever his room mate was she was female and apparently had a child.
He didn't want an angry husband on his back so he had opted for the pants rather than boxers. He wiped the sleep out of his eyes as he crossed toward the kitchen area. As he prepared coffee he noticed what he hadn't before, someone was sitting at the bar a book propped in front of their face. Whoever it was was short, he couldn't see any of them except the tiny fingers wrapped around the edge of the book.
The page turned. Draco shifted his position. He stared at the girl he could barely make out, she looked familiar. Smaller of course but familiar. The deep brown of her eyes and the curve of her nose. Something was slightly off about the hair from the picture in his mind. Lighter for one thing and smoother maybe? But he couldn't place the features. One finger slide in between two pages and the book shut and lowered. "You do know its rude to stare." Her voice even had a familiar ring.
"I'm sorry," he said slightly taken aback, "you just seem familiar."
"You went to school here with my mom. According to my uncles you, Mr Malfoy, are … something i will get a whipping for if i repeat."
He stared dumbstruck. "How do you know who I am?"
A smile crossed her face, her answer was more animated this time and he noticed that she bounced slightly in her seat with excitement. "Mommy told me stories from when she and my uncles were in school. Mom changed all the names of course but I figured most of them out and you are in one of the pictures Ms. Luna painted on my wall!"
She gestured for him to follow her. He tried to piece things together: a girl in his year that had brothers that knew him too, the tone of voice when she scolded him, the facial expressions. He followed her to the door. She swung it open and pointed to a painting on one of the side walls. He saw a collage of scenes from his school years painted on the wall surrounded by a quote from one of the songs the sorting hat had sang. He was only in one of the pictures and he cringed when he recognized the scene, 3rd year, he watched as Granger pulled her wand from his throat and began to turn. He watched as his portrait began to laugh and Granger turned like a flash and decked him. He subconsciously rubbed the cheek she had hit all those years before.
It hit him then as he took in the rest of the pictures. The hair, the smile, the slight curve of the nose. He looked frantically around the room for something with a name tag. It couldn't be. Not her, anyone but her. The gold lettering over the window confirmed his fears, "Laykyn Athena Granger."
"Bloody Hell!" He said under his breath at that very moment he heard a voice from the doorway.
A/N: Thank you all for the support for my story I hope you continue to enjoy it. Thank you to Annora099 for proofreading for me. Please leave me a review. Let me know what you think or give me a suggestion for later in the story.
"What on earth do you think you are doing in my daughter room, Malfoy!?"