"Alexandra Potter! What do you think you're doing young lady?" Hermione's voice rang out across the room. She'd just walked into the kitchen to the sight of her five-year daughter covered in flour and standing on a stool at the counter, a mess surrounding her. There was a large yellow bowl in front of her that she was trying to stir the contents of with a wooden spoon. Or at least she'd been trying to stir it, upon hearing her mother's voice she'd stopped and turned to face her mother, the most adorable 'I've been caught with my hand in the cookie jar, but will deny I took any cookies' look on her face. Hermione sighed as she walked into the room, a hand at her lower back to ease some of the pain there, as she came over to investigate the full extent of the mess her daughter had made. Harry had been gone for two weeks on a case, and was due home in the next couple of hours.
"I wanted to make cookies for daddy's return. I miss him." This was said with an adorable pout and Hermione almost cooed at the face before she caught herself, she was supposed to be mad about the mess after all.
"Why didn't you come and ask me to help you make them?" Hermione asked instead, inspecting the contents of the bowl that looked nothing like cookie dough. She thought she could see some bits of green and orange in the lumpy, sticky batter surrounding the large wooden spoon, along with other unidentifiable bits.
"I didn't want to disturb you mommy, you were asleep on couch and you get little sleep now that your tummy is so big with baby brother." Was the adorable reply, and Hermione fought the urge to just pick her young daughter up and hold her close. "I wasn't gunna use the oven without you, I promise."
"That's good, sweetie, and I appreciate that, but what exactly did you put in this dough?" Hermione couldn't resist asking, just before she heard her youngest daughter giggling at the door. Alexandra flushed prettily at her sister's laugh, and shook her head refusing to answer, so her sister just answered for her.
"I saw a whole can of peas and carrots go in mommy, plus lots of other stuff." Was the prompt reply from the three-year old, who was also suspiciously covered in a white powder. Gee, wonder what that is.
"O-kay" Hermione answered, now a little more wary about the contents of the yellow bowl "Were you helping your sister?"
"A little, but I got bored and played with the orange box before going to my toys." Was another one of those direct and blunt responses, she got that from her father. The girls were gorgeous, and not just in Hermione's opinion, everyone was constantly telling them how adorable their daughters were with their beautiful curls in their red and brown hair. And they'd inherited their father's eyes, which Hermione was eternally grateful for. She loved those green eyes, even more now then she had all those years ago when they'd decided to have children. With another sigh, Hermione just rubbed her belly before waving her wand and vanishing the mess from the kitchen counters before finally vanishing the contents of the yellow bowl in order to start over with both of her daughters to make cookies for their father's homecoming. But first, lesson time.
"Okay girls, what have we told you about cooking alone in the kitchen?" This wasn't the first time the girls had tried to make something on their own, after all, they were resourceful girls if only 5 and 3. There was only silence that followed this question and Hermione just raised her eyebrow, waiting. Alexandra was the first to crack, unsurprisingly.
"That we're not allowed to." Was the quiet response.
"And why is that?" Hermione patiently asked, again waiting until the silence was broken by one of the girls.
"Because we could hurt ourselves." Was another quiet response, again from Alexandra.
"Exactly, girls. You're not supposed to be getting anything or doing anything alone in the kitchen except getting water or juice from the fridge, Alexandra, and you Lily Anne, are not quite old enough to be getting your own drinks just yet. Have I made myself clear?" Hermione's tone brooked no argument and both girls nodded meekly. "Great! Now we can all make cookies together for daddy." Hermione said with a smile on her face that both girls quickly mimicked with happiness.
"Honey, I'm home." A male voice rang throughout the house as a heavy door closed behind him, his voice was quickly followed by two young female voices squealing gleefully before cries of "Daddy!" rang out as Harry soon caught sight of his daughters rushing down the stairs, well his youngest was rushing was well as her littler three-year old legs could carry her. It wasn't long before his long strides had him reaching them and he was bending down to scoop them both up into his arms and holding them tight, his suitcase left forgotten on the floor. Their house was actually a manor, Harry having decided that since he was going to be having a family he could move into the Potter family manor, which he had always loved since first seeing it after gaining his inheritance but never felt comfortable living in alone. His family filled the manor with sounds that couldn't help but make him smile.
"Daddy, we missed you so much, and mommy's gotten so big with baby brother! We made you cookies! All three of us together, just for you!" and then his five-year old started telling him about the whole adventure with the cookies and he couldn't help but laugh as she took his hand and lead him into the drawing-room, his youngest on his hip. It was there that he found Hermione and after bending down to kiss her cheek, he settled beside her on the couch.
"So how was your trip?" Hermione asked, Alexandra climbing up on to the couch beside her dad, Lily having already settled in her daddy's lap.
"It was interesting, I can tell you that. You wont believe who I had helping me with this one." Harry said, trying to contain his own disbelief still.
"Who?" Hermione couldn't help but ask, resting her head on his shoulder while she gently rubbed her belly.
"Draco Malfoy." Harry said simply, and Hermione couldn't help but blink, her mind not quite processing this information, causing her hand to pause halfway on its journey to the cookies. The plate of cookies were sitting on the coffee table in front of them.
"How did that go?" Hermione couldn't help but ask before gently biting into the cookie to reduce the amount of crumbs the house elf would inevitably clean before she could. It was a constant race between the two of them of who would clean up a mess first, a race that Hermione took a break from when pregnant, to the insistence of the house elf, Plinky.
"Surprisingly well, actually, he's not nearly as much of a git as he used to be." Harry replied, having grabbed a cookie of his own. Surprisingly, his girls weren't showing any interest in having a cookie; but then they'd probably already had a couple. And batter while they were baking.
"Well, that's good, I suppose." Hermione asked, glad that it hadn't turned into one of their once famous fights.
"He seemed oddly disappointed when he found out that we were living together with the kids. I'm pretty sure he even assumed we were married because you took my last name." Harry continued, wanting to talk the whole thing out in his head with the cleverest witch he knew.
"Hmm… I wonder why he was disappointed?" Was Hermione's voiced opinion, her hand gently stroking the dark brown hair of her youngest daughter while the other rested on her belly. By now the girls were contentedly drifting off to sleep, having stayed up late to wait for Harry's return, and pretty soon the two parents would take them up to their beds.
"Well, I'm not really sure, maybe he has a crush on you." Harry teased, which resulted in a gentle slap from Hermione on his shoulder, causing a round of quiet laughs. They both froze when Lily shifted in her sleep before settling again.
"I think its time we put these two to bed, before you wake them up." Hermione accused teasingly before rising from the couch.
"Me? It was you who disturbed her sleep." Harry almost whined back playing along. Hermione just ignored him and took Lily from Harry's lap before heading up the giant staircase with her daughter still soundly asleep in her arms.
"Don't you know by now, it's always your fault." Hermione replied and Harry just picked Alexandra up and followed after the mother of his children.