When Hermione returned to the Head Common Room later that day, when the festivities in Gryffindor Tower had subsided, she found Draco pacing and muttering to himself, back to the door. She came up behind him, right at the moment when he would turn.

'Fine, go and rub it in,' he muttered, hugging her nonetheless.

'Rub what in?' Hermione asked innocently. 'Oh, you losing the snitch to Harry.'

She couldn't help rubbing it in just a little bit. 'Why are you pacing and talking to yourself, all alone?'

'Well, naturally, I can't go to the Slytherin Common Room. First of all, they'll all be angry I couldn't catch the snitch, even though someone's only beaten Harry when he's fallen off his broom for various reasons. And, Pansy will be there, offering "consolations." I've just been trying to figure out what could have been done differently, to get in more goals past-' Hermione cut him off by covering his mouth with hers.

'Hey, love. Glad to see you too,' she said. He tried to keep frowning, but that was rather impossible for him to manage while Hermione's arms were entwined around his neck.

'You're too covered in red and bloody gold,' Draco told her.

'And you are too covered in green and bloody silver,' she shot back at him. 'I think we need to do something about that.'

'Like what?' he whispered in her ear, snaking his arms around her waist.

Someone coughed behind them. They shot apart.

We really need to keep it in the bedroom, or change that password Hermione thought guiltily.

It was, of course, Ginny. 'Wow, Will wonders never cease. You said you might not behave once back at school and how true those words were,' she said, laughing. 'Harry now owes me.'

'How much?' Hermione asked. Draco decided to go into his room and leave them alone to chat.

'Not how much. What?' Ginny corrected.

'Right,' Hermione said, thinking that Ron better not find out about the terms of this bet. 'So, anyway, what brings you here? I saw you less than ten minutes ago.'

'Er- Well, Harry and Ron decided to start a chess game, and I'm sick of watching them play, because they are both such poor losers,' Ginny told her.

'So you decided to come and see me?' Hermione asked rhetorically. 'Gin, I just finished talking to you. I haven't talked to Draco since...well, since this morning, which wasn't very long ago, but still.'

Ginny smirked. 'Oh, poor, poor Hermione.'

Draco walked back into the room.

'Were you serious when you said you wouldn't mind having more than one kid?' Ginny asked bluntly.

Draco opened and closed his mouth but no sound came out. 'Well, see, I haven't really thought about that, considering I'm only seventeen years old...'

'So?' Ginny asked. 'I've thought about it, and I'm only sixteen.'

'Ginny, leave him alone,' Hermione told her, patting the couch next to her for Draco to sit down.

'So, oh great Ginevra, have you asked Harry this question?' Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow.

'No,' Ginny responded. 'Harry couldn't handle talking about that.'

'And how many children do you want?' Draco asked Ginny, trying to get her to leave so that he could be alone with Hermione.

'A fair few,' Ginny answered promptly, and without any embarrassment.

'Interesting,' Hermione said, feeling it wasn't really that much of a surprise.

Ginny sat there a few moments, and no one said anything. 'Oh, you two want me to leave,' she finally realised.

'Yeah, that's about it,' Hermione replied cheerfully.

'Well, fine, I'll go. Maybe I can get Harry to quit his game,' she said.

'OUT, Ginny!' Hermione told her. Ginny crossed over to the door, and left.

'How many children do you want?' Draco asked timidly when Ginny was gone.

'A fair few,' Hermione mimicked, looking up at his face. 'What about you? I know you have an opinion on the subject, even though you told Ginny otherwise.'

'It would be nice to have a bunch of kids running around Malfoy Manor,' Draco admitted, grinning jauntily at her.

'And think how interesting it will be to see what houses they get into at Hogwarts,' Hermione smiled, as he lay down with his head in her lap.

'Slytherin,' he said. 'Undoubtedly.'

'You never know,' Hermione teased. 'The Blacks all went into Slytherin, but not Sirius. He was in Gryffindor.'

'That bloke who betrayed Harry's parents to the Dark Lord?' Draco asked.

'Voldemort,' Hermione corrected, stroking his hair. 'And he didn't really.' She explained the true events of their third year to him.

'Oh,' he said. 'You know a great deal more than that, too, don't you?' he asked.

'Yes,' she said. 'But too much to explain now.'

'As long as none of our kids go into Hufflepuff, I'll be able to bear it tolerably well,' Draco said.

'I'm sure they'll all be smarter than to have to go there,' Hermione said. They passed a few minutes in companionable silence. 'You know, we probably shouldn't be like this out here, where people keep popping in. What if Pansy was to show up?'

'Are you suggesting we go into a bedroom?' Draco asked, doing his double eyebrow raise.

'Maybe,' Hermione said, smiling. 'But I was serious earlier. We aren't sleeping together again until after we graduate.'

'I know,' Draco said. 'I was serious too.'

'But it doesn't mean we can't have a good snog,' Hermione told him saucily. She slipped out from underneath him, and raced him to his room.