AN: I Don't own ANYTHING except the plot line, everything belongs to the wonderful JKR!
More AN: I'm really sorry for taking so long to update this story, and I know that many of you will think it was abandoned, but the truth is that I came to what seemed to be a brick wall creatively: I didn't know who to incorporate Draco and Severus into the story without making them too OOC. Then life took over, I moved, and it was no longer so prominent in my mind. I've fixed that, now, and I believe I've found the solution to the OOC issues I was struggling with. Any ideas and suggestions are always appreciated, even if I ignore them to follow my own creative path for this story.
At the end of the chapters, I will be trying to respond to reviews (if I get any) but a huge thank you to Petrichor-3 for reviewing already, it was your review that ultimately made me realize just how much I love this story line and wanted to write it again.
I'm going to follow the format: portion from last chapter, the current chapter, then review responses at the end.
So without further ado, here it is.
P.S. I apologize for any mistakes, there is no beta just little ol' me. :)
"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 contently 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, its always your fault." Hermione replied and Harry just picked Alexandra up and followed after the mother of his children.
Chapter Three
Draco's POV
The entryway was dark when I finally made it back to the London townhouse that I shared with my mother and Severus. While mother and I tried to live in the manor after the war, the memories were just too much. Just shy of a year after the Final Battle, we bought this townhouse. Two months after that we were moved in, mother and Severus happily running a small apothecary out of the ground floor rooms. Mother dealt with the clients while Severus the potions. On silent footsteps, I tried to make my way upstairs to the living quarters of the house, not surprised in the least to see my mother asleep in her favourite chair when I passed her drawing room, the book she'd obviously been reading lying on the floor below her. With a smile I stopped to pick it up before gently shaking her awake.
"You fell asleep again mother." I whispered gently when her eyes fluttered open. I noticed the censure in her face when she how late the hour was, having decided to write my reports before returning. Since I often did this, I ignored her pointed glance at the clock and reached out a hand for her.
"Draco, you know how I hate you working until the early hours of the morning." She spoke just as softly as me, placing her hand in mine. With no effort at all, I pulled her up frowning over how easy it was. Even after all this time, my mother still had issues trusting the food she was eating and often only ate enough to sustain herself. There was no point saying anything, she never listened, no it was best to just have Severus brew her a nutrition potion and administer it with her morning tea and toast.
"Let's get you to bed mother, I'm home now." Is all I said before leading the way to the next level where the bedrooms started. I loved this townhouse, with its five stories and victorian decor I had fallen in love with it instantly, it took another month to convince mother and Severus but in the end I got what I wanted.
We each had a floor practically to ourselves, with only two guest rooms between the three floors. The ground floor held the kitchen, store front, potions lab, and a sitting room for clients. Above that were the drawing room (used almost exclusively by mother when she had visitors), two guest rooms, and a bathroom. The next floor belonged to mother, totally renovated to perfectly suit her needs with a dressing room, luxurious bedchamber, private bath and the largest closet I'd ever seen. Next was Severus, who had only converted the existing rooms with only a few removed walls into a study, bedchamber and bath, and private potions lab. The top floor was mine, and I'd removed all the walls except for the bath on one side. It was the furniture itself that separated the different sections of the room, but my favourite part was the small stair case along one wall that lead to the rooftop balcony.
It didn't take long to shed my clothing, sending them sailing with a spell to the appropriate locations, before collapsing onto my bed in nothing but my pants falling asleep immediately. I'd been gone for two weeks, and was just happy to be back home. I'd think about everything I'd learned tomorrow. I had the day off after all.
Harry's POV
It was a regular occurrence for Harry to discuss a particularly troubling case he was working on with Hermione, she was always the common sense to his bravery and gryffindor tendencies. And while he'd gotten less likely to jump unprepared into dangerous situations, he was still a gryffindor. This time felt different, though, because what Harry wanted to talk about wasn't the case but who had helped with said case. He had been surprisingly pleased to discover that working with Draco Malfoy in close quarters for two weeks ad been surprisingly pleasant. They'd been tracking a criminal who was mixing curses and potions to disrupt popular historical locations, he'd set the traps to be triggered by muggles and wizards alike with various potions included. When the traps were triggered, nasty curses and unknown potions with amusing side effects were released on the unsuspecting victims. It was the use of never before seen potions that had them choosing Draco Malfoy from all the curse breakers, he was practically a Potions master thanks to his godfather.
"Okay, I've had quite enough of this solitary brooding you're doing. What's wrong?" Hermione declared, looking him straight in the eyes. The girls were down for the afternoon nap, despite Alexandra insisting that she was too old for one she still always took one curled with her sister on the corner of their playroom set aside for that exact purpose, so it was no surprise that Hermione chose now to confront him he just hadn't realized he'd zoned out on her again. For a split second I considered not telling her, but quickly decided against it, Hermione always found out.
"Sorry" I mumbled sheepishly, scratching the back of head before finding the words I needed. "I'm just thinking about this case, and more specifically, Malfoy." I said finally meeting her eyes.
"What is it that's bothering you about the case?" Hermione asked, obviously deciding to tackle that subject first as she put aside the knitting she was working on (a pair of stockings for Lily Anne, she'd gotten a lot better at knitting after a few sessions of knitting with Molly though she still preferred to knit the muggle way) and focusing entirely on me.
"I'm not sure what to make of this guy we're tracking, he's like a cross between a prankster and an actual criminal. If it hadn't been for one of his victims having a deadly allergy to an ingredient he'd used in one of the potions, he wouldn't even be an auror issue." I said, knowing perfectly well that Malfoy was a separate discussion.
"Is your issue with the case that you don't feel its important enough for you?" Hermione stated, just a hint of teasing in her voice.
"Oh Merlin no, this is the most interesting case I've had in years. I just don't know why he's doing it. It's getting damn hard to track him down, and the Department of Muggle Relations is having a hell of a time tracking down all the witnesses to obliviate them, they are even having to work with the Police to try and track them all down." I knew I was rambling, and I wasn't stupid enough to realize Hermione hadn't figured that out either.
"Want to tell me what really has you bothered?" She asked, looking me dead in the eyes. That woman knew all my tells before we started living together, now I wasn't just an open book, but an audiobook it was so easy for her to read me.
I sighed, knowing that I couldn't put it off any longer, really I'd been a fool to think that she wouldn't realize something was bothering me. "It was too easy to get along with Malfoy." It had taken me some time, but finally I'd realized that was the root of what was bothering me.
"School was a long time ago, Harry, and so was the war. You haven't seen him since his mother's trial, and even then you were already defending him to Ron and the other Weasleys saying that he had changed." Hermione pointed out gently.
"I know, I guess its just hard to let go of him being my rival. We've been insulting each other since we first met at Madam Malkin's before first year." I glanced at Hermione and saw neither disappointment or approval on her face, she wasn't judging but listening. "I mean, I'm glad that we've both apparently grown up and can be civil with each other, I just wasn't expecting how well we got along."
"I understand Harry, sometimes its hard to let go of the imprints left by past emotions, especially ones as strong as hate, but just give it some time. It'll get easier. Is he going to be assisting for the rest of this case? Or was he just a part of checking and clearing the historical locations?" Hermione had become a muggle psychologist and was incorporating the science with the magic when it came to the brain. She was at the forefront of her discipline, and was always thinking of new concepts and ways to help people.
"I don't know, we're taking a few days to recover before re-grouping and trying to track this guy down. While he doesn't seem to have a truly malicious intent, he can't be left to place more traps for people to stumble across while on vacation." I'd been about to continue when giggling could be heard from upstairs, followed by a thump indicating that the girls were up. With a smile I rose to start their snack, those girls were always hungry when they woke up. The conversation left me feeling better, and I pressed a kiss to the top of Hermione's head in thanks. When I reached the kitchen I started to prepare the vegetables and dip for the girls, it took them only moments to join me in the kitchen before the three of us carried the snack back to the living room and Hermione to enjoy an afternoon together as a family.
AN: Thank you for reading, and I promise it won't be so long before another update!