What to do with Hermione?

They shopped for several hours and Scorpius acquired many new things. When they were done, Lucius called one of his elves to carry the toys back to the manor.

"This has been lovely," Lucius said as the elf disappeared with a pop, "but I actually have some business to attend to and I really must be going. Why don't you three have a nice lunch at the Leaky Cauldron? This should cover it."

He reached into one of his coat pockets and removed a small bag filled with Galleons. He tossed it to Draco and then turned on his heel. He then pushed a couple children out of the way with his cane and vanished into the crowd.

Hermione just stared after him, her jaw slightly opened., "What was that all about?"

Draco shrugged, "I have no idea."

"You don't think it's something illegal do you?" Hermione asked worriedly.

Her husband rolled his eyes, "With my father who knows? I wouldn't worry about it though if I were you. He has meetings all the time, I'm sure it's nothing."

While his son's family had been getting ready to go shopping Lucius had sent out an owl. After his confrontation with his daughter-in-law he had to do something. His son could not stay married to her. The reply to his letter looked good. They had agreed to meet with him at two that afternoon at a café in Hogsmeade.

Currently Lucius was sitting at a table drumming his fingers impatiently on the top of his cane. It was now 2:10 and he was annoyed. No one made Lucius Malfoy wait. As he sat there his mind went over his options.

The ideal situation would be if Ms. Granger (he never thought of her as a Malfoy in his head) dropped dead of natural causes. Unfortunately she seemed to be in perfect health so that was out. This also made it difficult to use poison because people would suspect foul play immediately. Just outright killing her, while pleasurable, was also not an option for obvious reasons. This left him with 'tragic accident' as the best option. But even that had its problems.

If it was discovered that it wasn't an accident, then blame would undoubtedly fall on him. He was the only one with a motive to kill her. This in and of itself wasn't the worst thing really (he could bribe and intimidate most people into an acquittal) but he would still end up in Azkaban for a few days and his son would probably never speak to him again. That would ruin the whole point of killing her in the first place.

This is why he had decided (regrettably) that there might be a better way to achieve his goal than by killing her. It was for this reason that he needed the person that he was waiting most impatiently for.

Lucius looked toward the door for what seemed like the hundredth time when he finally saw what he was looking for. A head of red hair.

After returning to the mansion, Draco and his family returned to their room. The house was quiet and they relaxed. Scorpius got out his new toys and played with them while Draco rubbed Hermione's back.

Hermione sighed, "That feels wonderful. Have I told you lately how much I love you."

Draco smiled, "You might have mentioned it, but you'll love me even more after this. Come on, there's something I've been meaning to show you."

"We can't just leave Scorpius here alone though!"

"Relax. We can have one of the house elves look after him while we're gone."

"Alright then," Hermione agreed.

Draco summoned one of the house elves and gave it instructions to not let Scorpius out of his room and make sure he didn't do anything dangerous. Draco then grabbed his wife's arm and led her through the hallways. After about five minutes walking, Hermione couldn't take the suspense anymore.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see in a minute. You are so impatient."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Are we there yet."

Draco laughed, "Yes, not impatient, I see what you mean."

Hermione playfully hit him on the shoulder, "Remind me what I see in you?"

Draco smiled as he stopped in front of a set of double doors, "I think you see a highly intelligent, devilishly handsome man who also happens to know your likes and dislikes. For instance, I happen to know for a fact that you have a certain affinity for books of all shapes and sizes."

With that he threw open the doors to what was the largest library Hermione had ever seen. Shelves went from floor to ceiling on three sides of the three-story room. The fourth wall was one enormous window that allowed plenty of natural light for reading. Spread around the room were several tables with chairs as well as a sofa. Hermione was momentarily speechless.

Draco smiled, "I thought you would like this. The Malfoy family has a long history and most of it is recorded in here. The books are arranged in chronological order of publication staring on the right. If you want to find a book on a particular subject though, you only need to write the subject in that book over there and a list of where to look will appear."

Hermione eagerly explored the library as Draco watched, occasionally pointing out particularly interesting or dangerous books. They spent the next couple hours reading together on a couch.

Suddenly Hermione sat up straight and closed her book, "I think I've had enough reading for one day."

"Really?" Draco raised his eyebrows, "I didn't think that was possible!"

His wife's eyes narrowed slightly as she put her book on the floor, "It isn't possible, but there's something else I'd like to do."

Draco closed his book and looked into her eyes, "And what would that be?"

Hermione took his book from his hands and threw it haphazardly onto the floor. She then leaned in close to Draco's ear and whispered on word. "This." She then brought her lips to his. The next several minutes were full of heated kisses and touches. This was on of the few chances they had had to be alone since Scorpius had been born.

And then it ended.

"Ahem."

The two quickly pulled apart to find Severus Snape standing in the doorway with an amused expression on his face. Hermione blushed, but Draco didn't seem too bothered.

"I hate to disturb you two as you endeavor to procreate in spite of Lucius's wishes, however I am in need of a book and Narcissa would like to speak with both of you up in her room."

Next chapter we will see what Bellatrix has been up to. Reviews would be nice.