Tuesday October 17, 2006
The day of the Haversham trial had arrived. After the day of surveying the actual land back in September, Hermione had continued to finish up the last of the research. Hermione was sure that he would win the case today, or at least he had better given the size of the folder she had provided him with.
She had already succeeded in aiding in the Bulstrode divorce case, which Greengrass and Zabini won quite easily after the information about that certain ritual was presented to the court. Not only was the French guy leaving the marriage with all of his assets in place, but Millicent was now facing charges of illegal ritual activity and faced up to twenty years in Azkaban.
With those two cases pretty much out of the way, Hermione's days in the library had slowed down significantly. Most of her research revolved around small petty cases which hardly provided any challenge at all as the Haversham case and, disgustingly, the Bulstrode case had.
Draco had been at court all day, but just before it was time to clock out for the day he arrived back at the office to drop something off on his desk. As he made his way out to the floos he saw Hermione approaching a floo, presumably to go pick up Rose just as he was about to go get Scorpius.
"Hey Granger!" He called.
Hermione spun around immediately, somehow staying upright in her four inch heels, and looked at Draco expectantly. He caught up to her quickly and held out his hand which she just stared at in confusion.
"I won the case today and I wanted to thank you for your excellent work researching; without it I wouldn't have won today."
At his sincere words of thanks Hermione grasped his much larger hand in her own and returned his smile with a small one. She was happy that he had won the case; she felt a sense of pride that her research had contributed to that. But at the same time she was struck at the oddity of the scene the two of them presented at the moment. Here was Draco Malfoy, former death eater from a bigoted pureblood family, shaking hands, smiling, and thanking a mudblood.
She recognized the fact that Draco had changed; it was hard not to notice, especially when he was around his son. There had been a time when Draco had sneered at the pureblooded Weasleys for being blood traitors and now he was allowing his pureblooded son to be friends with a halfblooded Weasley. It was truly amazing, but apparently Draco was committed to not letting his son grow up with prejudices as he had been.
"Scorpius has been bugging me to take him to pizza, and I'm sure he'll want to take Rose along. What do you say you two tag along tonight to celebrate the case? And it'll give the kids some time to hang out outside of the burrow."
He did have a point; Rose had been bugging her to let Scorpius come over or for them to go somewhere together. While the two of them were able to play together at the burrow, Rose's time was also dominated by some of her cousins who were a bit jealous at the attention she had been giving Scorpius. And because Rose was like Hermione in her consciousness of other's feelings, she tried to include her cousins in with her play with Scorpius.
"Rose had been asking me too. I guess we could come along. Where do you usually go for pizza?"
Draco looked sheepish, "Well, I actually take him to a muggle place. They've got games there and the pizza is pretty delicious."
Hermione smiled, "Sounds good, let's go pick them up and tell them the good news."
Xxx
Looking at Rose and Scorpius playing one of the numerous video games scattered across the pizza place, Hermione was glad she had agreed. Even though she felt ridiculous sitting there in her work clothes and four inch heels, it was all worth it to see the huge smile on Rose's face.
Draco was thinking pretty much the same thing as he watched their children playing together. He was also thinking that the last piece of pizza looked pretty good. Just as he reached his hand out to take it, Hermione did the same and their hands collided. Both pulled their hands back quickly and shot each other nervous smiles.
"Go ahead, you can have it." Hermione insisted.
"No, no, you take it."
"You paid for it."
"Really, Granger, eat it."
"No, I couldn't."
Draco rolled his eyes and picked up his knife, realizing his chivalry was going nowhere fast. He quickly cut down the center of the slice and picked up half for himself and gestured that Hermione do the same.
"There, fifty fifty."
Hermione just grinned and picked up the other half.
"She's a brilliant little girl you know." Draco said suddenly.
"Huh?"
"Rose."
"Oh, thank you." Hermione blushed. "I can't take all the credit."
Draco nodded, "You should; she is so well adjusted considering what has happened to her at so young of an age. Scorpius' issues with women stem from his mother abandoning him; or at least that's what the therapist told me."
"One thing that helps is that she's so smart." Hermione stated. "Not to say Scorpius is dumb, but Rose just asked all the right questions about Ron and she seemed to understand easily what had happened and why things could never be the same as they were before. In fact, since her father's death she's become so caring and compassionate just as she was to Scorpius the first day they met."
"It's already started to rub off on Scorpius and I can't tell you how much I appreciate that." Draco said seriously.
Scorpius' behavior had changed since his friendship with Rose developed. There was no oatmeal slinging, instead he was polite and used please and thank you and didn't throw a fit when asked to pick up his toys. Draco was aware that Mrs. Weasley was also to blame for this behavior change, but Draco knew most of what Scorpius learned was from observing his best friend Rose.
Xxx
Saturday October 21, 2006
Today was a much needed girl for Hermione. It was a lovely Saturday morning and once Hermione got herself and Rose dressed and ready they were going to go by the Potter's to pick up Ginny and Lilly. This outing was long overdue, but each one of the Potter children had come down with something and passed it back and forth between each other since September. Therefore, Hermione really had not been able to talk to Ginny about her new job at all. Or Harry for that matter either, but she would have to catch him up when they returned to their house for dinner.
Excited for the day, it did not take Hermione long to get Rose dressed and before she knew it they were on their way to Grimmwauld place.
James and Albus were running around the living room when they stepped out of the fireplace, Harry chasing them with his arms in the air and growling while the boys ran away from him giggling. As soon as Harry spotted the two of them he came at Rose with his arms up and growled, sending the little red head running with her dark haired cousins.
Hermione shook her head at their antics and headed to the kitchen where she knew she was sure to find Ginny. Sure enough Ginny had Lilly on her hip and was wiping some last minute oatmeal off of her face, trying not to get any on herself or the cute little outfit she had Lilly in.
"Hey Gin."
Ginny looked up with a rueful smile, "The boys decided to feed Lilly a little extra while I went to get ready."
"I take it that's why Harry is running around out there? To distract them?"
"Exactly; so we can make a clean getaway." Ginny grinned as she put down the wash cloth and walked over to the counter to pick up Lilly's bag and her own purse.
"Do you have your stroller?"
"Already shrunk it down and put it in her bag. Where's Rose?"
"Running away from the four eyed beast out there." Hermione chuckled.
When they reached the living room again, Harry had James and Albus pinned down tickling them while Rose climbed on his back laughing.
"Come on Rose, we're ready to go." Hermione said.
With a sigh, Rose crawled off her Uncle's back and headed over to take her Mother's hand, smiling up at her Aunt Ginny and baby cousin at the same time. While Rose liked to spend the girly time with her Mom, she liked rough housing with James and Albus. And she especially liked it when her Uncle Harry participated too.
Hermione, sensing her daughter's melancholy at having to leave the boys said, "You can play with them when we come back for dinner."
That seemed to satisfy the little girl, and with a last goodbye the four girls began to take turns in the fireplace to floo to Diagon Alley.
Xxx
After an exhausting two hours of picking out clothes for both themselves and their children, the girls finally sat down to lunch in one of their favorite little restaurants in Diagon Alley. Rose and Lilly were happily coloring away on the parchment the restaurant had provided, leaving Hermione and Ginny free to talk.
"So, I hear that Rose has made an interesting new friend." Ginny stated.
Hermione nodded, "It's really sweet how much they've bonded. And Rose has been a good influence on him."
"How did he, of all children, end up at my Mother's day care? I tried to ask her, but she said it was your story to tell."
Hermione sighed, "Well, that's probably because I work with Malfoy."
"Seriously?" Ginny asked in surprise. "Why did no one tell me this?"
"You have been cooped up playing nurse maid to your children, Gin."
"True, but you would think my Mother would have opened her big mouth to tell me that important fact. All Harry and I knew was that you'd been able to get hired at the Greengrass, Larsen, and Wood firm."
"That is true. Greengrass is Malfoy's former father in law so he works there and I was put to researching for a big case of his right away."
"I see," Ginny nodded, looking thoughtful before dropping her voice to say: "I had heard Astoria abandoned them. How a woman could abandon her child is beyond me."
Hermione nodded her head vehemently in agreement.
"How has it been then? Working with him?"
Hermione shrugged, "Not that bad. He's very professionally polite. And as for how his son ended up at your Mother's—I happened to be there when his son was delivered to his office after being kicked out of his previous day care. Apparently, he was a bit of a handful. Malfoy seemed pretty desperate and directly asked me where I had Rose, so I told him and your Mother decided to take him on."
"And apparently he's benefitted, according to Mom."
"Yeah, he and Rose took to each other immediately and Malfoy had already told me how much of a difference Rose and your Mother have made on his son, and he was very thankful for it. He's changed a lot I think."
"He hasn't called you any bad names has he?"
"If he had, I wouldn't be saying he changed now would I? No, he calls me Granger, but I don't mind that."
"How is the actual work?"
"You know I'm good at research. So far everyone has been happy with my work. And I don't know if your Mom told you, but the partners want me to finish my studies so I can be a lawyer in the firm."
"Brilliant!"
"I know. They were willing to work around whatever I needed, but I think I found something that is only going to interrupt my life a bit. Which brings me to something I wanted to ask you and Harry."
"Go for it."
"From January to June there is a program that runs at night from eight until ten. It will disrupt my life the least, because I won't miss any work or Rose time. However, I need people to stay and be there while Rose sleeps until I get home. My Mom and Dad said they could do Tuesday and Wednesday, but that still leaves me with three nights of the week."
"We'll talk to Harry about it when we get back, but I'm pretty sure that is something we would be more than willing to help you with, Hermione."
Hermione smiled, "Thanks Gin."
"No problem."
Xxx
After relating all they had talked about at lunch to Harry after dinner while the children played on the floor of the living room in front of them, Harry was quick to agree with Ginny about helping Hermione out.
"Of course we can help. However, that still leaves you with one day." Harry pointed out. "Ginny can do Mondays and I'll take Thursdays."
Hermione smiled gratefully, "Don't worry about it; I'll figure something out. And whatever you guys want me to pay is fine."
"Absolutely not, Hermione." Harry protested. "You and Rose are family. However, I might eat some of your food while I'm there; that's enough payment for me."
Hermione shook her head with a small smile at her best friend. He and Ginny had been her rocks after Ron's death, and she honestly had no idea what she would have done without them. Someday she would pay them back in some way for all that they had done for her, but for now she would just have to be happy with them eating from her pantry.
"Now back to the Malfoy topic," Harry began seriously, "he's not being rude to you or giving you a hard time is he?"
"No, he's polite and we've even taken the kids out together."
Harry's eyebrows shot up at that.
"Our children are best friends now, Harry, our politeness has to extend outside of the office. But he seems to have no problem doing so."
Harry looked skeptical, but he trusted Hermione's judgment, so if she wasn't worried he wasn't that worried either. However, that did not mean that he wouldn't be keeping an eye on the situation. It was all well and nice that Rose and the Malfoy kid were getting along, but that didn't mean that he would always be nice to his niece. Harry remembered all too well, that muggle saying: The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.