A/N: I know guys, I am the worst author on the planet for making you guys wait like this. I have no real excuse except the usual, school, exams, homework, and real life. Most of you have probably given up on this story, but for those that are reading it, thank you, I really appreciate you all for sticking with me for so long.
Chapter 12: Confrontations and Flying
Diagon Alley was bustling with people as per usual. Everyone went about doing their shopping, hunting for bargains, or merely just having a good time. Draco, Hermione and Nick came upon this familiar sight as they apparated into a scheduled corner in between the ice cream parlour and the pet store.
"Daddy, are you really getting me a broom? Are you? Are you?" asked Nick excitedly for what seemed like the hundredth time since he had found out.
"Yes, Nick" Draco sighed, "I promised you didn't I? And I always keep my promises."
Hermione begged to differ, but she kept her mouth shut. She knew Draco was trying to make an effort, even though she still could not understand his reasoning. Brooms and children did not mix in her opinion. Part of her knew it was her fear of heights and flying that had drawn her to this conclusion, but she wasn't about to tell anyone that, especially Malfoy.
The bell above the door tinkled as the three of them stepped into Quality Quidditch Supplies and upon hearing it a sales clerk quickly made his way over to them.
"How can I help you sir, madam?" he asked nodding to each Draco and Hermione.
"Well we're here to buy the TurboBlitz 4000 for this fellow" replied Draco, pointing to Nick, who smiled shyly up at the man.
"Ah! Then you'll want the miniature model then. Right this way!" and with that he turned on his heel as they followed him to the back of the store.
Nick squealed and ran up to the magnificent display of the mini broomstick and looked up at it longingly. Draco chuckled while Hermione scowled a little, but seeing Nick so incredibly happy made the scowl disappear right away.
" Oh Daddy can I have it? Can I have it? Please!!" asked Nick jumping up and down excitedly.
"Of course, son"
"But that will be after mummy has asked this kind man about the safety features of this broom" interjected Hermione. Draco simply rolled his eyes and Nick let out a long groan and slumped his shoulders, waiting for his mother to finish.
It took Hermione a whole hour to ask the sales clerk what she deemed were incredibly important questions. Draco and Nick waited on impatiently while the clerk answered all of Hermione's questions, obviously getting more and more annoyed. When Hermione was finally satisfied, the man hurriedly made his way to the storage room to fetch them the broom.
Nick was beside himself with excitement as the three of them waited by the counter, anticipating the return of the sales clerk with the broom. Draco was holding safety equipment that they had also decided to purchase. This included kneepads, elbow pads, wrist pads and a helmet.
"Honestly Granger, I think you annoyed the poor bloke so much he went and committed suicide" drawled Draco.
"Oh shut up Malfoy. The questions I asked him were completely reasonable and valid," Hermione snapped back.
"It wasn't a bloody interview," Draco mumbled, but luckily it was drowned by the high pitch squeal Nick emitted at the sales clerk walked towards them holding a thin package.
"Well here we are sir" he said and then packaged the safety equipment. "That will come to a total of three thousand galleons, forty sickles and five knuts".
Hermione's jaw dropped, but Draco seemed unfazed. He handed over a black money bag that contained exactly that amount of money, plus some extra, as a tip for the man for having to put up with Hermione for so long.
They walked out of the store and Nick immediately cried out "Can we go home now, I want to ride it."
Draco chuckled before replying, "Not right now son, but soon okay" he quickly added seeing Nick's face fall.
"But why?" whined Nick.
"Because I have some things to get for myself"
"We'll go for ice cream first, Nick," said Hermione.
This seemed to cheer Nick up and so the trio walked to the ice-cream parlour. Hermione ordered a simple pistachio while Draco and Nick went all out and ordered a scoop of chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and caramel each, topped with chocolate sauce, rainbow sprinkles, chocolate chips, biscuit bits, wafer sticks and jelly beans.
"You too are going to be so sick" grimaced Hermione when their orders arrived.
"Yeah, but we'll have fun getting sick, right Nick?" Draco said cheekily, winking at Nick, who laughed before digging in.
As they sat there silently eating their ice cream, none of them noticed six pairs of eyes staring at them in shock.
&
"What the hell is our Hermione doing with Malfoy ferret-face?" fumed Ronald Weasley. He was the first one to have recovered from the shock and now was staring at the trio, his ears turning red in fury.
"I really have no idea," replied Harry, blinking rapidly as though not really comprehending what he was seeing.
"Look guys, I'm pretty sure Hermione has a good reason for being with him, we should just let her explain first, before jumping to conclusions ourselves" said Ginny. Though her words held reason, her expression mirrored the disgust her brother and husband were feeling.
"But its Malfoy" whined Ron.
"Look here Ronald" exploded Ginny, her pregnancy hormones talking over her "we all feel the same way so stop acting like you're four years old"
"Speaking of four year old," interrupted Harry, lying a calming hand on Ginny's shoulders, "look at Nick"
"What about him?" queried Ron.
"Look at Malfoy and then look at Nick" Harry said simply.
"Oh no! No no no no no!" cried Ginny, her eyes growing wide, as her head frantically swung around from looking at Malfoy and then looking back at Nick, "this can NOT be happening!"
"Well there's only one way to find out isn't there"
&
"Hey Hermione"
Hermione nearly choked on her spoon. She swung around only to find her fears were confirmed. There stood Harry, Ron and Ginny, fake smiles plastered on their faces looking at her accusingly.
"Oh…hey guys" Hermione replied, her heart pounding loudly in her chest.
"Fancy seeing you here" said Harry "with…" he gave a pointed glare at Draco, who merely smirked back.
"Ah…well…yeah" stuttered Hermione "I'm guessing you guys…um…remember Draco?"
It was a stupid question to ask. Of course they remembered him. This was the bastard that had spent their years at Hogwarts teasing and tormenting them. It was not some thing one could easily forget.
"Since when do you call him Draco?" asked Ron, his face turning a bright shade of purple.
"Unca Harry! Unca Ron! Anny Ginny!" cried Nick, as though he had just noticed them for the first time, which he probably had, being preoccupied with his ice cream and all.
"Hello Nick" the three of them greeted, smiling at the child before turning back to glare at Hermione.
"Well?" asked Ginny
"Well what?" Hermione said, trying to appear nonchalant, she knew she would succeed.
"Well tell us what the bloody hell is going on!" Ron yelled.
"Manners Weasley, you wouldn't want me to hex you now would you?" Draco drawled slowly, pulling out his wand for emphasis.
They all stared at him in shock, including Hermione. He had just defended her. This seemed to be confirming the conclusion Harry and Ginny had come up with only a while ago and they did not like it one bit.
"Um…that won't be necessary," said Hermione.
Draco shrugged, but kept his wand out just in case.
"I think you all might want to sit down before I tell you," continued Hermione
"We're perfectly fine where we are" huffed Ginny.
"Yeah, like we'd want to be seen sharing a table with a Slytherin" spat Ron.
"Oh okay then," said Hermione. This was going to be hard. She knew there was a confrontation coming up, but she didn't expect it to be so soon. So out of the blue. For once in her life she was at a complete loss for words. "Um…well you see…look I really don't know how to say this…"
"Just tell them Granger," said Draco "they're going to find out some day or another. To tell you the truth, I'm surprised they don't already know." Hermione just glared at him. "I'll tell them if you want then"
"NO!" cried Hermione "I'm perfectly-"
"Mummy, what's going on?" asked Nick, thoroughly confused at the way the adults were acting. Why were Unca Ron and Unca Harry giving his mummy the evils, they never did that. And mummy and daddy were fighting…again. Nick never wanted to grow up, grown-ups fought too much.
Hermione looked sadly at her son. The poor little darling was caught up in the middle of all this mess. "It's nothing dear" she reassured before turning back to her friends. "Go you guys remember how I said wouldn't tell you who Nick's father was until I was ready? Well-"
"Don't you dare finish that sentence Hermione" Harry all but screamed, "I know exactly what you're going to say. I can't believe you would do this. How could you keep something so…so…so BIG from us? Honestly Hermione do you have no sense?"
"Don't you dare try and lecture me Harry Potter, you know perfectly well that I did not ask for it to happen" Hermione yelled back, tears welling up in her eyes.
"I am so confused right now," said Ron, looking around stupidly at every one.
"Oh Ronald," snapped Ginny, throwing a disgusted look at Hermione, "isn't it obvious? Malfoy is Nick's father."
"WHAT?!" screeched Ron "YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT HERMIONE HAD SEX WITH MALFOY?"
"Of course she did" Draco supplied, smirking a little.
Ron turned to Hermione and gave her one of the most disgusted looks she had ever received. "You WHORE!"
"Now that is going way too far Weasley," roared Draco, jumping out of his seat and pointing his wand at Ron as Hermione burst into tears.
"What's a whore?" asked Nick, confused beyond explanation. What was this thing that had made his mummy and daddy react so bad?
"Save your breath Malfoy, we're leaving" Harry said coldly, and then with one glare at Hermione, the three of them walked away into the crowd.
Hermione cried harder, knowing that the friendship she had shared with those people for over ten years had just ended. After all that they had been through, it was this that had torn them apart. She felt strong arms wrap around her, and she just sobbed into Draco's shoulder. Draco grabbed a hold of Nick's hand and apparated them back to the Manor, making sure to take the broomstick with him. What had turned out to be a relatively fun trip, had completely been ruined by the dunderheads Hermione called friends, it seemed that there could never be a moment of peace and happiness in this family, and Draco knew the one suffering the most would be Nick. He'd be damned if he let anything else come in the way of his son's happiness. He would have to find a way to cheer Hermione up once she had calmed down.
&
Food, that was Hermione's first thought when she woke up the next day. She couldn't figure out why it was that she was so hungry, she just was. Groggily she sat up and looked around her. Draco was sound a sleep, looking extremely peaceful as he always did in his sleep. Hermione then looked down at herself. She was still dressed in the clothes she wore yesterday to Diagon Alley.
Diagon AlleyShe suddenly remembered why it was that she was so hungry. She had stayed up all night crying about the argument she had with her friends yesterday and had refused every bit of food the house-elves, Narcissa or Draco tried to feed her. A sob escaped her as she remembered what Ron had called her, the cold looks Harry and Ginny had given her. Never had she expected them to act the way they did. She knew it would be bad, but not this bad.
"I see you're up" Draco's voice seemed to startle her out of her thoughts. She looked at him, as tears rolled down her face and then buried her head in her hands. "You know Granger, if they were your real friends, they would have taken the time to listen to what you had to say, not just jump to conclusions like they did."
"You don't understand" Hermione began.
"You know maybe I don't," sighed Draco, getting out of bed and walking towards the bathroom, "but you know I'm right".
Hermione only cried harder when she heard the bathroom door shut. She knew he was only trying to help, but it was the cold truth behind his words that made her reject them. She was frustrated with herself for acting so stupidly. It was their own faults if they didn't want to listen to her, accept her. It was their loss. She would not cry another tear for them, nor would she apologise to them. She had done nothing wrong, it was them who failed to see that.
Throwing the covers off her, Hermione quickly wiped her face and padded her way to her wardrobe, deciding what to wear while Draco finished up in the bathroom. She would move on, and if her friends wanted her back in their lives, it was them who would have to apologise. They would come crying back to her some day. They always did.
&
At breakfast, Draco had decided to take Nick flying for the first time and had asked Hermione to come. She had agreed, so that she could keep an eye on Nick. No matter how many safety features the broom had, she still did not trust it. They were to have a picnic lunch later, one that the house-elves were probably busy making at the moment.
Hermione sat herself under a tree with a thick novel in her hands as she watched Draco show Nick how to hold the broom. It was a beautiful sight, the father and the son. They looked absolutely adorable, Nick's eyes lighting up with excitement while Draco's smile kept getting wider and wider. A small smile crept upon Hermione's lips and she began reading.
&
"Okay Nick, hold the handle like this and swing your leg over it" Draco instructed, "and then you kick off with one foot…"
Nick did as Draco told him and a few moments later, he was hovering about six feet above the ground. The broom was cleverly designed so that the supervisor could control the height it reached by a simple incantation. Draco had decided six feet because he could easily reach him, in case of an accident.
"Look Daddy, I'm flying!" cried Nick happily.
"So you are" chuckled Draco "now you just have to lean forward a bit, yep just like that and-"
"Whoooo hoooooo!"
Nick's loud yell made Hermione look up from her book. She laughed as she watched Nick zoom around Draco, who was also laughing.
"Mummy! Mummy! I'm FLYING!" Nick screamed at her.
Maybe it was worth buying him the broom after all, Hermione thought quietly to herself, smiling all the while.
&
After two hours of flying, Draco and Nick finally made their way over to the shade where Hermione was sitting to have lunch. The house-elves had brought out a ridiculous amount of food for the three of them. This included three different types of sandwiches, chicken drumsticks, potato salad, coleslaw and a variety of fruit, along with a self-refill pitcher of pumpkin juice. Nick dug in right away, grabbing a sandwich, and gulped down some pumpkin juice. It seemed that flying had taken a lot out of him.
"So, how're you holding up?" Draco asked Hermione as he grabbed a chicken leg.
"Oh, I'm fine," replied Hermione, surprised he had asked "I'm over it actually"
"Is that right?" Draco asked sceptically, "why the sudden change?"
"Well, I decided that if they were going to be idiots to me then why should I sit around moping when I know the truth. It's their loss if they don't want to talk to me," Hermione said, shrugging before taking a bite from her salad.
"I'm glad then," said Draco.
"I don't see why you care Malfoy" smirked Hermione.
"I don't," replied Draco, looking away, his cheeks turning a little pink.
Hermione kept smirking to herself as they continued to eat in silence. Well this was interesting, she thought to herself.
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