Chapter Six

"Welcome to third year potions, better known as third-level hell," Hermione began her second period with a serious tone and face to match. She strolled between the rows of empty desks. The students were looking at her, terrified of what their new teacher and beloved idol had in store for them. "Potions is 20 focus, 30 math, 45 common sense and 5 instinct!" Hermione turned to face her students and cracked a smile. "But that's just if you want to take out fun and curiosity."

A nervous laughter swept through the classroom as Hermione let a piece of chalk copy the notes she'd prepared on the board. This was her second class of the day, the first class being first years who she didn't give the speech to, and now she had third years, which included Elina and Miles.

"Someone make me a happy professor and tell me a fun way for me to learn your names and get you more interested in this class than Snape ever did," Hermione continued. She waited for someone to raise their hand. "Hufflepuff in the back."

"The Aura Potion," the girl said in a confident voice.

"Five to Hufflepuff," Hermione said excitedly. "Hell, make it twenty. I didn't even know about that potion until I was a fifth year. That's exactly what I had in mind, but for the seventh years. Someone else care to enlighten us? If you can think of something for an eighth year, I promise you at least forty points."

Elina rolled her eyes and raised her hand. She couldn't let this go on, well, she could, but then the class would go nowhere. "The Bubble-Aura potion."

"Ten points to Gryffindor because that it exactly what I wanted," Hermione exclaimed. She hopped onto her desk and crossed her legs. "If you can turn my two pages of notes into ten sentences or less, you get ten points and something new that I am starting. Basically, the first class to reach fifty points gets a pizza party. Here's your first chance for a point."

"The Bubble-Aura potion is the same as the Aura potion, only rather than showing-"

"What is an aura?" Hermione interrupted Elina. Miles raised his hand. "Slytherin."

"An aura is a distinctive quality or character of a person that only a single person has, which is individual from anyone else's. The Aura potion takes distinct pieces of who you are, after taking a piece of DNA, and, well, they float around a few feet above the cauldron. With the Bubble-Aura, basically the image of your head floats above the cauldron and, well, makes a personal ad," Miles ended with a grin.

Hermione tried to control her laughter and jumped down from the table. "Miles, not only do you get the ten points, but you also get another five for your creativity and one point towards that pizza party. That is a perfect explanation. How about everyone copies the notes on the board and when you're done, just put your quill down and we'll go deeper into discussion about this potion."

"So how did I do?" Hermione asked Elina after class.

"Better than the bake sale at least," Elina joked. The class was actually enjoyable. Everyone took notes and Hermione handed out nearly completed potions while she asked and answered questions for thirty minutes. Everyone did the last three steps before adding their DNA and listening to what their bubble-auras had to say. Elina had fun learning about her classmates, especially Miles, who, she found out, loved to read. The bubble-auras only said five pieces of information, including name, age and house.

"What do you think about my pizza party idea?"

Elina thought for a moment. "Do you think you can fix it so that this class wins?"

Hermione laughed and slapped Elina's arm. "What do you have next?"

Elina took her schedule out of her bag and looked at it. "Your favorite person, Professor Malfoy." Hermione rolled her eyes. "So what's the deal with him?"

Hermione sat in her desk and thought for a moment about what she was going to tell Elina. "When I knew him, back what I was a student here, he was, well, he was an arrogant prick who made my life miserable. He was a completely stereotype pureblood who lived off of 'Daddy's Rep' and was just not a pleasant person."

"Sounds like a character," Elina said. She'd never heard her mother talk about anyone but her ex-boyfriends that way. "Wait a minute. Did you two ever, you know?"

"No! Never! Get your mind out of my nightmares and off to class." Hermione slid off the desk and began walking Elina to the door.

"So you have dreamt about it?"

"Out!" Hermione opened the door, almost causing Miles to fall into the classroom. She smirked and looked from one teen to the other. "I'll see you later Elina. Now both of you get to class before I have to take points away. Ciao."

Elina and Miles walked to Charms together. They had the same schedule, as it was both of their first year, which they were secretly jumping for joy about. They spent the entire walk talking about their first potions class.

"Er, Elina," Miles said as they neared the classroom, "I was talking to Draco and he said that there was going to be quidditch tryouts this week, so I was wondering, you know, cause I was going to try to get on the team and-"

"Miles," Elina interrupted him with a smile, "I'd love to watch you try out."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but you have to come watch me." Elina smiled and opened the door. Miles, who was obviously a lady's man, was obviously getting tongue tied, especially when Elina was around. "After you."

Draco's class, rather than beginning by scaring the kids, then pulling a 180, started with an empty classroom.

"Where is he?" Elina asked Miles.

"I heard that the students used to call him the Pureblood Prince," a Ravenclaw girl said.

"I heard that he was called the Slytherin Prince," a Slytherin boy said.

"Sex God was what my cousin told me," a Hufflepuff girl added.

Elina and Miles looked at each other. Miles tried not to say or do anything, especially laugh.

"I heard that he-"

All of a sudden, the Ravenclaw girl burst into laughter. The Slytherin boy began to levitate a few feet above his seat. Two students sitting next to each other changed sizes, one getting bigger and the other one shrinking. The Hufflepuff girl jumped up and began to dance all around the classroom. A Gryffindor girl began to belt out the lyrics to the school song.

"Where am I?" a Hufflepuss boy asked, looking around the room in confusion.

Miles and Elina looked at each other and began to crack up. They looked just like each other, except in a purple and green tint.

All of a sudden, there was a loud bang and flash of smoke and lights and Draco emerged from the chalkboard. Everyone stopped what they were doing and returned to normal.

"I'm sorry students, but if you intend on throwing wild parties in my classroom, I would appreciate it if you would at least lay out some good snacks," he said with a smile. "Welcome to your first day of Third Year Charms. I'm gonna start by being a hardass and you're not going to tell anyone about that slip. I want everyone to spend the rest of the period figuring out what charm I placed on you and writing me a one-page essay then learn the spell. At the end of the period, I want you to place the spell on the person you're sitting next to."

Draco watched as the class began to research their spells, noticing the girl from the plane sitting next to Miles. She looked a lot like her sister, but there was something about her that seemed different. Was it the tame hair? Maybe it was the fact that she was obviously more outgoing. Oh well.

"Perfect," Draco said to Miles at the end of the period. "Five to Gryffindor. Wow, that's something I never thought I would say, haha. All right, class dismissed. I'll see you on Thursday."

Draco watched the class leave with Miles and Elina in the front. He put the collected essays in a folder and decided to walk around the campus until lunch, as he did not have another class until then.

Everything was just as he remembered. He walked onto the quidditch field. It was here, in this very spot, where he found out that he was going to be a father. He and Sadie had charmed a crystal that he kept in his bag that lit up and vibrated when she went into labor or needed him. Over by the Whomping Willow was where he found out that Miles had taken his first steps. Down by the lake was where he found out that Miles said his first word, "pudding." There were so many memories that he missed out on.

Draco sat back on the rock by the lake and let the sun shower his body in warmth.

"You look comfortable," an almost sour voice said from above him.

Draco opened his eyes and looked up. "Granger."

Hermione sat down beside Draco and looked out onto the lake. There were so many memories. This was the spot where she found out that she was pregnant and first began to go into labor. "So how's your first day back been?" she asked in a distant voice.

"Well, no student will call my class boring, I can tell you that much," Draco smirked. "How about you?"

Hermione sighed and leaned back. "Not bad, not bad, though I must warn you that we might be seeing quite a bit of our siblings hanging out together. They seem to have taken a liking for one another."

"So I've seen," Draco agreed with a chuckle. "The scary thing is that I think it's your blood that's coming off stronger, for once. Well, except for that one incident back in third year."

Hermione laughed at the memory. "Hormones."

Draco let out a loud 'ha.' "Sure, hormones. Next you'll be telling me that being a know-it-all was just a phase."

"Well it was," Hermione said, defending herself. "If you haven't noticed, I'm not quite a quiet know-it-all like you remember me being."

"Well, I do remember you being a bit flirtatious on the plane," he said with a grin and a wink.

Hermione rolled her eyes and playfully slapped his arm. "I wasn't alone there."

"So there was flirting? Thank goodness," he pretended to wipe his forehead. "I was beginning to thinking that it was all in my head."

"So you were thinking about it?"

"Maybe."

"Then why didn't you ever call?"

Draco sat up and looked at Hermione. "Now I thought we discussed that, Miss Mye."

Hermione looked at Draco. She never would have expected to be fooling around like this with him, well, she did, but when she thought he was Drake. "Must be my old memory Drake," she laughed.

"Oh, well if you're old, then so am I. Don't forget, we were in the same graduating class."

Hermione closed her eyes and took in the smell of Hogwarts. "Yep. I missed this place so much."

Draco looked around. "What were we like as kids?"

"Horrible," she replied almost instantly.

"Well thanks for taking the time to think about your answer to my rhetorical question."

Hermione opened her eyes and smiled at Draco. "Well did you expect anything else? You were a pureblood horndog and I was the smart girl who got dru-dragged out with Harry and Ron on all of their adventures, breaking all the rules and-"

"Dru…? Come on Hermione. Don't expect me to believe that you were actually going to say that you were dragged out with the Wonder Boys every time you saved the world."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I got drunk when I was Elina's age at a party, I can't believe I'm telling you this."

"Hermione, getting drunk at a party isn't exactly the most uncommon thing," Draco said sarcastically.

Hermione blushed. "Yeah, I guess it happens to a lot of teenagers."

"So do tell me," Draco said, sitting up straight, "what were Potty and Weasel like as teens?"

"Oh the goodies who were always either saving the world or getting chased by their co-eds," Hermione joked. "They're doing great now. Harry and Ginny divorced, but Ginny's planning his wedding, and I'm sure you've seen Harry in at least ten newspapers with Ron as his extremely famous lawyer. Everyone has made quite a life for themselves."

"I've noticed. I heard that Weasley married Loony."

"Her name is Luna."

"Sorry."

Hermione looked at Draco. He had grown so much during their eleven (?? Eep! I'm having trouble with my math!) years out of school. Maybe it was a good thing that they were getting a second chance to get to know each other.

"So I never knew you had a brother," Hermione said. "Then again, none of us really wanted another Draco Malfoy running around in the world, haha."

"Gee thanks," he replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "It's not like you exactly went around telling everyone that you have a sister."

Hermione tried not to look away. She'd lied to everyone about Elina, this should be just like all those other times. "My mum gave birth to her when we were in school. Only my friends really knew about her. I didn't want anything to happen to her while we were going from life-threatening adventure to another, haha."

"Hm, well I guess that makes sense," he laughed. "You always did have to be such little goodies, didn't you?"

"Well it sure beat being a pureblood prick," she said with a wink.

Hermione and Draco talked and caught up until the lunch bell rang.

"So where were you before this?" Draco asked as they headed towards the castle.

"Er," Hermione though for a minute, "Italy. We lived there for about a year."

"Wow. France, Manhattan, Greece, Israel and Italy. That must have been pretty hard on Elina."

"Actually she was pretty good," she said. "She had no problem making friends and still keeps in touch with almost all of them. We even use the floo network to set up play dates."

"So why again does she live with you?" Draco asked. Hermione skimmed over the reason before when they were exchanging war stories (raising a kid on their own).

Hermione grabbed an apple from a tree branch they were passing and took a bite. "My parents and I thought it would be easier to raise her in a magical environment, plus it was originally supposed to be a one-month thing while they were taking care of my great-gran. How about you? What's with you and Miles? I'm sure he wouldn't have minded being raised with the silver platter."

Draco chuckled at her comment and looked at the clouds. "With father in prison my mother was a wreck. I stayed with her until she was better which, surprisingly, only took about two or three weeks. She decided to disappear for a while at some spa resort thing, so Miles ended up coming with me to Ireland. When mum came home, she saw how great we were and decided that it would be a smart move for him to stay with me, especially with the random searches made by the ministry."

"How long was she gone?" Hermione asked.

"Just over three months."

They were silent for a few minutes before Draco began to chuckle randomly.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"Look at us. Teenage parents," he explained.

"Who are you calling a teenager? Someone here is celebrating the big 2-9 in a few weeks." Hermione was quiet for a moment, trying not to let the smile falter from her face. "Not quiet how anyone would have seen our future."

"I was just shy of fifteen years when I found out about Miles," Draco said absentmindedly.

Hermione looked out into the distance. "Same here. People sometimes even see me and Elina walking around and ask if I'm her mother."

"Most people just assume I'm Miles' father. I feel older and older each time it comes up," Draco said.

"He looks just like you," Hermione said as they reached the doors, "except he has someone else's nose."

"Don't forget the hair," Draco added as they stepped into the building. "At least he doesn't have the attitude."

"Thank goodness."

"Er, listen," Draco said, stopping Hermione in the middle of the corridor, "I-I know we had a horrible childhood together, but maybe we can have a truce?"

Hermione smiled. "How about dinner?"

"So how was your first day?" Elina asked Hermione as they snuck back to the Ravenclaw dorms. They'd lost track of time and spent almost three hours talking about Elina's first day, the friend's she'd made so far, the teachers and the uniforms.

"It was interesting." She looked down at Elina. "Did I scare you second period?"

"I was ready to accuse you of being Draco Malfoy," Elina joked. "Why would you try to scare us all like that?"

Hermione shrugged. "It felt like a fun way to startle everyone. You should have been there for my second year Slytherin and Gryffindors. I started the class with special effects. At two o'clock exactly every mini-cauldron I placed on the tables erupted with sparkles and fireworks."

"Sweet." Elina stopped in the corridor and looked up at Hermione. "Er, mum," she whispered, "I was talking with a few of my classmates and I was thinking about going out for the quidditch team."

"So that's what you called me 'mum' for?" Hermione laughed softly and put her arm around Eina. "You've seen Harry's scars, but if you want to take the chance and promise to be safe, I trust you. I mean, you've trained with a professional team."

"Thanks mum," Elina squealed.

"Any time Lini," Hermione said, hugging her kid. "So," she said, separating and continuing down the hall, "what position were you thinking about?"

"I don't know," Elina said with a shrug. "Probably seeker or chaser."

Hermione smirked. "Seeker, huh? I think Harry's told you what a babe-magnet it made him a few too many times."

Elina laughed. "Harry's getting married for the second time next month. Some girl sends him her dirty, er, undergarments. I'm not so sure how adult mating rituals go, but that's not quite something that would interest me all that much."

"So you already told Miles that you play and want to look good for him?"

"So not." Elina said the password and turned to Hermione before going into the common room. "I'll see you in the morning. Thank you for sneaking me back to the common room. Good night."

Hermione bid Elina good night and headed back to her quarters.

"Stop it dad," Hermione heard a whisper from around the corner.

CLIFFY!!! This is so not where I saw it going, but not bad if I say so myself. Sorry about the delay, but I hope you enjoyed this. Please R&R