Saturday September 23, 2006
It had been a struggle to get Scorpius away from Rose at St. Mungo's, but after Draco had carefully set Rose down on a bed, he had done his best to get him out of there without causing a scene. There hadn't been time for thank you's, but Hermione had sent him a grateful smile as he and Scorpius were leaving.
Scorpius' care and concern for his new friend was touching, but his temper tantrum was ridiculous. Once home, he sent Scorpius to his room and waited a while before he went inside to talk to him. After explaining that Rose was going to be alright, Scorpius seemed okay to forget the incident and that was a relief to Draco who was just trying to have a relaxing day with his son.
Xxx
Upon seeing their Granddaughter with a wrapped ankle, both of Hermione's parents fell on Rose with hugs and kisses and many questions. Rose had sprained her ankle on the ball, but the healer had done a spell to reduce the swelling, cast a spell to fix most of the damage and given Rose a pain potion to get her through the night. The rest would have to heal naturally; the muggle way as the healer had said with a wink in Hermione's direction. Hermione had had many a sprained ankle in her childhood so she could sympathize with her daughter at the moment.
"She twisted her ankle on a ball from a ball pit."
Hermione's mother, Jean, stood up from fawning over Rose and nodded her head sympathetically. "Those places are bloody dangerous."
"Well, this one was supposed to better than the muggle one given there are charms in place everywhere for the protection of the children." Hermione replied.
"I hope you won't be taking her there again." Jean continued.
Hermione shrugged, "If Rose wants to we will; we can't judge the place on one freak incident. Other than that she had a great time with her new friend."
"New friend huh?" Hermione's father, Albert, grinned down at Rose. "Who's your friend, Rosie?"
"Scorpius."
Albert chuckled, "What a name."
"Scorpius is also a new addition to Molly's day care." Hermione added. "Rose and he took a shining to each other immediately."
"A little boyfriend 'eh?"
"He's a year younger than her, so little does apply. No, you know how Rose is, especially with her younger cousins. She took him under her wing on the first day and they have become attached to each other. Scorpius didn't want to leave her side after she hurt herself."
"How sweet." Jean smiled. "Maybe we'll have to meet little Scorpius if this friendship keeps up. Now, I have a delicious birthday dinner that's all ready to go, so let's move on in to the dining room."
After a delicious dinner and a homemade chocolate birthday cake, Rose and Albert retreated into the living room to play cards, leaving Hermione and Jean in the kitchen to clean up the dishes. Hermione's parents had always been strict that she not take the easy way out when it was discovered she could do magic. Therefore, Hermione didn't mind doing things the muggle way. She found it therapeutic even and continued to do things like cleaning the muggle way even after leaving her parent's house. Ron had always questioned her, but that had not stopped her. So tonight she had no problem drying the dishes her mother handed her and putting them away while the sounds of her Dad's and daughter's laughter drifted out of the living room and into the kitchen.
"How's the new job going?" Jean asked. "Your Father and I were so proud that you were able to get back in."
Hermione smiled, "It's going well. The partners are even encouraging me to finish my studies to become a lawyer at the firm."
"They're willing to work your schedule around it?"
"Yes, I've been looking for programs and there is one starting after New Year's at nights."
"How much of a time commitment is it?"
"Well, wizarding law is different than muggle obviously, so the training is different as well. I've already completed part of it, so I would only need to take the one term from January to June. They would be night classes five days a week."
"What about Rose?"
"The classes start at eight, and Rose's bed time is seven anyway. If I can just get someone to come to the house while she is sleeping from seven to ten I would be set and I wouldn't miss out on any time with her."
"Your Father and I might be able to help with some of that, but I'm afraid we couldn't do all five nights even between the two of us."
Hermione smiled, "Thanks Mom, whatever you two can do is perfect. I can always ask Molly and Arthur to help out too. Maybe find enough people so that each of you would only have to do it once a week."
"Well, just let us know. I will tell you now that your Father works late on Mondays so he wouldn't be able to do that. The best night for him would be Tuesday, and Wednesday for me."
"I'll keep that in mind."
After that discussion with her Mother, Hermione was feeling much better about the prospect of finishing her studies to become a lawyer. In fact, she was a little put off that she was going to have to wait until January before the classes even started.
After another hour spent at her parent's house playing a game of cards, Hermione and Rose finally made their way home for the night. All in all, it had been a good mother daughter day, even if it had resulted in injury for Rose. She was tough though, she would bounce back quickly.
Xxx
Monday September 25, 2006
As soon as Hermione and Rose stepped out of the fireplace of the burrow, Scorpius Malfoy ran to Rose and threw his arms around her. It was adorable. All of the women in the vicinity: Molly, Angelina, Fleur, and Hermione were cooing at the pair and watched as they separated and then ran off to the living room together where the other kids were playing.
"What was that about?" Angelina asked with a chuckle. "He acted as if he hadn't seen her for years."
Molly and Fleur nodded their heads in agreement and Hermione replied, "We ran into Scorpius and his Father at Mister Krazy Kane's place and Rose sprained her ankle. Scorpius didn't want to leave her and threw a fit when we did have to separate them. So please watch out for her ankle today; it's wrapped up."
"I thought I noticed a bit of a limp." Molly nodded. "What happened?"
"Came down out of the ball pit onto one of the balls."
"Ouch." Angelina groaned. "I've done that before."
"Me too." Hermione nodded.
When Hermione arrived at the office a few minutes later Blaise Zabini was waiting for her with a file in hand.
"Good morning Mrs. Weasley." He greeted pleasantly. "I'm stealing you from Draco's service today."
"Good morning, what can I help you with?"
Blaise extended the folder to her, "I've got the Bulstrode divorce case coming up. We need you to dig up whatever you can on the ancient marriage rituals of the Bulstrode family, especially the things that are illegal now."
"Is this Millicent Bulstrode?"
Blaise nodded, "Married some poor senseless pureblood from France who we're representing. The poor bastard even had to take her last name."
"Alright, I'll find what I can."
"Thank you."
With the Bulstrode file in her hand, Hermione headed down to the library with a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had a feeling that she was not going to like what she was about to find about this topic. At this point she would much rather be researching more of the Haversham case which dealt with land and nothing more—certainly not things whose illustrated drawings made her almost vomit.
Just as she was gagging after studying a crude illustration a bit too closely, Draco Malfoy walked up to her table where she had set all the books she found out, and had been taking notes until her stomach had started churning.
"You okay there Granger?"
"No, not really." She replied honestly, as Draco peered down at the parchment.
"Ugh! Nasty!"
"Yeah, you should read the description."
"Nope. I'm good." Draco replied, a hand over his mouth. "Is this for that Bulstrode case?"
"Yes."
Draco shook his head, "That's pre medieval Bulstrode tradition right there; they were savages. Who would have guessed that quite little Millicent would have been into that? I think Blaise and Harold could win the case on that picture alone, as long as they can prove it actually happened to this French guy."
"I don't want to know! I pray it didn't, but I've lived in this world long enough to know that anything is possible."
"So true." He agreed. "Anyway, I'm here to steal you away from this vile stuff. I need to head out to the actual land and I need you to cipher the old map you found for me so we can make sure the plotting is right."
"Gladly, just let me gather this up to put on Zabini's desk."
It didn't take long for Hermione to gather her notes together and make a copy of the picture out of the book for Blaise. Once they were all neatly tucked inside the folder and delivered to a grinning Zabini, Hermione and Draco headed out of the office and around the corner to the apparation point.
"I don't know where this land is exactly." Hermione stated.
Draco said nothing, but instead grabbed Hermione's hand and turned on the spot, jerking them both along to their destination. Hermione had never been a fan of apparation, but was even less so with side along. When she and Draco landed, she had to shut her eyes and take a breath to regain her senses before continuing on.
Draco waited for her patiently and once she looked like she wasn't going to throw up, he handed her the map.
"Let's get started, shall we?"
Xxx
It was really a lot harder than they had imagined checking the plots from the old map to what was in existence now. The map was absolutely ancient, and unfortunately a more modern one had been left back at the office. Therefore, hours had gone by without their notice.
However, they were drawn out of their concentration by the sound of thunder, and as they both looked up at the sky they realized the sky had darkened considerably with clouds without their notice. Before either one could say or do anything the sky opened up and rain started to pour. Pulling out her wand, Hermione transfigured her purse into a water proof bag and stuffed the old map inside as quickly as possible, then she turned to a drenched Malfoy.
"It's three in the afternoon, we haven't had lunch, and now we are soaked to the bone. We cannot return to the office like this." Draco stated.
"Well, what do you suppose we should do?"
Draco said nothing, but grabbed her hand and apparated them into his flat. Hermione once again was left regaining her senses as Draco immediately threw off his drenched robe, leaving him in his slacks and now see through white oxford shirt.
"What the bloody hell, Malfoy? A little warning!"
"Granger!" Draco gasped. "Did you just curse?"
"Yes! Where are we anyway?"
"My flat. I wanted some dry clothes and I have leftover spaghetti in the refrigerator."
"What about me?" Hermione asked.
"Well, you can have some too."
"No, I mean clothes."
"Dress clothes should really not have the drying spell used on them; ruins the integrity of the material. So while I throw our clothes in the dryer, I'll grab you some of my sweats."
As Draco walked away, Hermione was struck by a few things. One, Draco Malfoy had voluntarily let her into his home. Two, Draco Malfoy owned a muggle dryer. And three, he was going to let her, Hermione Granger, wear some of his clothes and eat his food.
He emerged a few minutes later dressed casually in a pair of muggle jeans and a t-shirt and handed Hermione a pair of gray sweats and a plain white t shirt. With a thank you she headed into the bathroom he had pointed out and started to peel off her soaked through skirt and sweater. After casting a drying charm on her undergarments, she quickly pulled on the sweat pants and cinched in the waist tight. Then she threw on the white t shirt and marveled at its softness and smell. It smelled divine; like cedar.
When she exited the bathroom with her wet clothes in hand, Draco had already prepared a plate of spaghetti for her. Once he saw her he moved to take her clothes from her and gestured that she go ahead and eat while he took care of the wet dress clothes. He returned a minute later and eagerly tucked into his own lunch.
"It's almost four now. We should just call it a day and go pick up our kids." Draco sighed after his plate was cleared.
Hermione was just finishing hers and looked at Draco in astonishment.
"Come on Granger, don't be such a bookworm. Everyone knew we were going to be out for the rest of the day working on that land. We got everything pretty much done, so we're done for the day."
"It still feels wrong."
Draco laughed, "You're not going to get in trouble. No one is even going to notice that we're gone."
"Fine, I'll leave when my clothes are dry and go get Rose."
"I'll do the same to get Scorpius; I can't be dressed different or someone might realize that we called off work early." Draco teased.
"Shut up."