Day 8- It's a Marshmallow World made for Sweethearts:
"What are you up to?" Asked Draco, coming up behind her and slowly threading his arms around her waist.
She rolled her eyes and whacked him lightly with the dish cloth. "What does it look like, idiot? I'm making a hundred gingerbread men for this Christmas bake sale at school!"
He glanced around under the cupboards and work tables. "I don't see Scorpius anywhere. Shouldn't he be the one making these?" Their son had been at school for nearly two terms, and they'd been taking turns to pick him up whenever they could, or if not then the job went to one of their parents, but so far he hadn't had to contribute anything more than his attendance. Every year at Little Oaks Primary School they had a Christmas Fair, where each class produced a stall. Reception were in charge of the baked goods, but Hermione wanted everything to be perfect. She wanted her son's cookies to be the best thing there and sell out first. There was no way she was going to give anyone the smallest of reasons to hurt him. But Draco cocked his head sideways. "I'm going to get him."
As predicted, Scorpius was more of a distraction than an aid; with the best of intentions, he still managed to spill an awful lot, and crack an egg on his foot- which had him scarred for life. The poor four year old burst out crying and ran off before she could magic it clean. Watching from the doorway, Draco accepted her triumphant look and admitted that perhaps Scorp wasn't quite ready for the trials of the kitchen. What she didn't expect was for him to produce his own apron and come over to join her.
"You've never cooked anything in your life!"
He put a mock hurt hand to his chest. "You're not exactly a pro chef yourself! Finky does all the cooking!" And she did it very well, but Hermione felt as though she'd missed out on the uni student period of learning to cook for herself. She'd baked a little with her father when she was younger- her mother never touched the oven- but it was now a rather rare occurrence. "Why don't we just use magic?" Asked Draco.
She picked up the wooden spoon and he stepped back as if she were about to hit him with it- hmm... no! "This isn't a magical school Draco, that's not fair!" Having stirred the mixture, she now grabbed the flour with one hand to pour it into the weighing thing, the recipe book balanced in the other.
"You shouldn't worry about following that precisely," he told her, and reached over. Several things happened at once. There was a toddler's scream from next door as Finky went running, the recipe book in her hand wobbled and then fell to the floor; the whole bag of flour tipped up onto the scales and flipped backwards into their faces. With a gasp, Hermione wiped her hand across her face to clear it. Draco turned to her with a quivering lip, then they both burst out laughing, throwing the white powder at each other and making the largest mess their kitchen had ever seen!
The gingerbread cooked- deformed enough from its original festive shapes of stars, trees and angels that it looked as though it had been made by a four year old- she had a feeling Finky had been at them after they left them in the oven to fix them up! She pulled Scorpius in for the more exciting part of decorating, having been out to buy a whole set of icing pipes and far too many decorations: little golden balls; red and green sprinkles; tiny snowmen; the whole shebang! The Primary Schooler was enthusiastic about this bit, getting straight into it whilst Hermione mixed lots of bowls of water, icing and food colouring to get the perfect shades. "Look Mummy!" He called out, so she came to stand behind him, putting her hands on his chair and peering down at his favourite masterpiece. "It's you!"
Automatically, she smiled at it, but then the expression started to slip from her face. "That's lovely Scorp, what about some more Christmas ones though?" She asked if she could eat it, and it was delicious, but she didn't want him to take that one to school. The wand, the cape- he was a child, but she didn't want anything to snowball and anyone to discover he was a wizard.
"This is the issue I had before," explained Draco as the two of them sat eating the Wizarding themed gingerbread biscuits.
She took a sip of Baileys and nodded. "He knows he can't reveal anything, but it must be hard living with one foot in each world at that age and not being able to merge them."
Draco took her hand. "He loves that school. Every day when he comes home he's so excited to tell us all about it."
"But can we have people over?" She bit her lip. "We need to, he's only been to other people's' so far."
"Come on, my lioness," Draco encouraged her. "We can send Finky to my parents', hide our wands and moving portraits in the cupboard, and I can act Muggle."
She giggled, stroking his face softly. "Want a trial shift?"
"Hello Draco's Mummy and Daddy," Mrs Brookchild greeted them as they walked into the school hall with their plate of gingerbread biscuits. "Thank you so much for volunteering to take the first shift!" They both smiled broadly as Scorpius ran straight ahead to his best friend Phoebe and started babbling about something to do with candy canes. They placed their plate down on the table with the others and moved behind it, as the reception teacher gave them a speedy rundown of how the finances worked and what each item cost. The two of them stood there for only a minute or so before they had their first customer.
Not a parent, but a school uniformed child chewing gum. This girl looked quite old, and clearly confident- probably a Year 6. "Five of those pretzel reindeer cupcakes things, lady," she ordered, as though this were a fast food queue she'd been in for six hours.
"Please," finished Hermione for her. The girl's head snapped to her and she raised an eyebrow. "If you want the cupcakes?"
The girl looked between her and the baked goods, then burst into tears and ran off. Draco turned to say something witty like "I didn't even say anything", but she put her finger to his lips and shushed him.
Thankfully things improved from there; there wasn't exactly a lower point to go to! They successfully engaged in some friendly muggle conversation with other parents, and sold a good deal of the produce, including all but four of their gingerbread biscuits! Near the end of their shift a grown woman in an elf costume with chocolate coloured skin and bouncier hair than Hermione's came over to them with a worn out expression to ask for a reindeer chocolate cupcake. "Do you guys happen to do coffee as well?" They did actually, so Hermione started on that, whilst the elf explained that a reluctant Reception child had been moved from Father Christmas's lap to hers to ease him off, and had proceeded to have an accident then and there. Shocked, Hermione dropped the mug on the floor, but thankfully it was only plastic!
She, Draco and their customer burst out laughing, and the woman took a bite of her cupcake, making sounds of delight as she exclaimed that this was definitely the best part of her day. "I hope that wasn't our Reception child," said Draco.
"You have one?" She scoffed down the last remnants of the cupcake before continuing. "Me too. What's yours' name? Let's just check he's not the one who peed on me, or else I'll be telling my daughter not to play dress up as his prince!"
The couple laughed again, both instantly getting along wonderfully with this woman. "His name's Scorpius," said Hermione as she poured out the coffee.
"Oh!" The elf exclaimed. "Scorpius is all my Phoebe talks about when she gets home! Scorpius this and Scorpius that- I've been so excited to have him over!"
"Draco Malfoy," her husband greeted the woman with a grinning handshake. "This is my wife Hermione."
"Claire DeMartino," She shook with each of them before happily taking the mug from Hermione. "Would you guys like to come back to my wife and I's?" At that moment Scorpius ran over with a dark haired little girl and grabbed both their hands, jerking between them.
"Please Mummy! Please Daddy!" He cried out, and the little girl jumped up to them as well, mimicking him "please Scorpy's Mummy! Please Scorpy's Daddy!"
The two of them exchanged a mischievous glance. Oh yes; they were ready for a muggle play date.