On Saturday morning, Hermione and Draco went through their routine of getting dressed quickly so that they wouldn't prematurely go to bed, and went down to the kitchen for breakfast. Aria had already eaten, so they could enjoy a meal by themselves.

'Pancakes?' Hermione asked, walking over to the stove.

'Pancakes sounds nice,' Draco rumbled in her ear as she opened the cupboard.

'Dray-co!' Hermione squealed girlishly. 'Do you or do you not want any breakfast?' She turned so that she could see his face.

'Breakfast,' he admitted regretfully. 'I'll help you.'

'Why, thank you,' Hermione said. They managed to throw together the pancake batter, and cooked up a large stack before sitting down to eat.

Draco started wolfing down his food as he read the Daily Prophet. Hermione sniggered.

'What?' he asked, looking up.

'You look so thoroughly undignified when you eat like that,' she said teasingly.

'So?' he asked.

'You mean to say that you don't care?' Hermione inquired, a bit surprised.

'I want to eat quickly,' Draco replied, trying to look innocent.

'Why?' Hermione asked, trying equally hard to look innocent, and failing just as miserably.

'So I can spend time with you,' he said in a low voice.

'Well, you won't be able to if you choke on your food, so please slow down a bit,' she told him.

She drank her milk with a satisfied smile on her face, and watched Draco as his eyes zipped back and forth across the page of the newspaper. When she was finished, Hermione went over to the sink to wash up her dishes, with the aid of magic, of course.

'You are so gorgeous, Hermione,' Draco murmured, kissing her neck.

'Draco!' Hermione said, shrugging away.

'What?' he asked, doing it again. 'You are gorgeous.'

'Aria might come in here!' she said, scandalised.

'So what? She seems to be rather fixated on us kissing,' he murmured, his breath tickling her ear.

'Yes. Not you, kissing my neck. Us kissing,' Hermione repeated, turning around in his arms.

She wound her arms around his neck as she kissed him. Draco pulled her closer, and she arched against him as he deepened their kiss and his hands roamed over her body.

'Ah-hem,' somebody cleared their throat in the doorway. Draco and Hermione reluctantly broke apart, though his arm remained about her waist.

'Oh bother,' Draco muttered, still looking at Hermione. 'Ginny really must stop.'

Hermione stepped on his foot to silence him.

'Professor Dumbledore,' Hermione said somewhat awkwardly. "Can I offer you anything to eat or drink?' she asked.

'No, no. I'm not staying long. I just came by to see how you two are doing,' he answered, with a twinkle in his eye.

Hermione and Draco glanced at each other.

'Well,' said Draco. 'Extremely well. And yourself?' he added, trying to postpone whatever Dumbledore wanted to say. Draco put his other arm around Hermione as well.

'Good, good,' Dumbledore said, more to himself than to either of them. 'Well, I believe I'll see you two tomorrow, then. Sunday. Quidditch in the morning,' he commented, smiling to himself. 'Goodbye.' He Disapparated.

Hermione breathed out a sigh of relief, and hugged Draco. 'We probably should have said we weren't getting along so he'd leave us here longer,' she mused, her voice muffled against Draco's chest.

'Oh yes, Hermione. He'd have believed us,' Draco said sarcastically. 'People who don't get along often snog in the middle of kitchens.'

'I just don't want to go back. It'll be so complicated, and here, it's so simple,' Hermione said. She pulled back to see Draco's face.

'No matter is we're in this time, and married, or in Seventh year, I'll still love you,' Draco told her, looking deep into her eyes.

'You love me?' Hermione asked, smiling.

'Yes. I think I always have,' he replied.

Hermione smiled even more broadly. 'I love you, too,' she told him. 'I must've loved you for a long time, but I was in the middle before I knew I had begun.'

Draco kissed her again, but this seemingly perfect moment was interrupted by Aria tugging on Hermione's robes.

'Yes?' Hermione asked breathlessly, breaking away from Draco.

'Will you read me a book, Mummy?' the little girl inquired.

'Of course, poppet,' consented Hermione. She held Aria's hand, as she was lead down the hallway to her daughter's room.

Hermione spent the entire rest of the day until dinner reading Aria an enormous volume or wizarding fairy tales, which had many exquisite, moving illustrations.

Draco had come in and sat, listening, but had then gotten bored and left again. Finally, Hermione finished the book and closed it. Draco came in.

'Dinner time!' her announced.

'Good, cause I'm starving!' Aria said, bouncing up off her bed. "Come quickly, Daddy. Don't spend too long kissing Mummy. I want to eat,' she told him as she ran out.

Hermione stood up. 'I've never seen a book like that before. There were so many stories I didn't know existed,' she commented astonished, still absorbed in the book, Aria's comment was lost on her.

'That's the book my mother used to read to me when I was very young, before my father forbade it,' Draco told her as they walked out of the room. 'My mother thought I was going to be a girl, by the way. Bit of a shock for her and my father when I turned out to be a boy,' he said, grinning.

'Well, I must say, I am quite glad you turned out to be a boy,' laughed Hermione.

Later that night, Draco read to Aria from the Black heirloom book of fairy tales, which he had hunted down in their library.

Hermione held Aria in her lap and sat next to him as she listened too. Draco read off the true version of the Elves and the Shoemaker. The elves were House Elves, so when the Muggle shoemaker gave them clothes to thank them for their help, he unknowingly freed them, and they had departed in shame. Hermione became very indignant on this point, and had to leave the room so that she wouldn't use some rather bad words in front of Aria.

In a children's book? She fumed silently on her return into the room. They make the freeing of the elves seem bad!! Well, no wonder, with the 'most Noble and Ancient House of Black being what it is.

Aria was fast asleep when she reentered the bedroom.

'Sweet little girl,' Hermione said as she and Draco tucked her in and kissed her goodnight.

'She's a little angel,' he agreed. 'Just like her mum.'

'I'm no angel,' Hermione laughed, looking at him quite naughtily.

'Being with you is heaven on earth for me, Hermione,' Draco said softly, putting his arm around her as they walked softly down the corridor to their bedroom.

Hermione smiled, and put an arm around him as well.

'So, where do you want to sleep tonight?' Hermione whispered in Draco's ear, her arms around his neck as they stopped in front of their room.

'With my lovely wife,' Draco replied, kissing her softly on the lips as he opened the door.

'Sounds like an excellent idea,' she said throatily.

She kissed him back eagerly and started walking backwards into the room. Draco unzipped her robes, and they fell to the floor as they stumbled towards the bed. His eyes lingered over every part of her nearly naked body before she managed to get his robes off of him. Hermione pulled him downwards onto the bed on top of her.

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