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Monday May 28, 2007
"Pansy? What the bloody hell are you doing here?" Draco asked, completely in shock. No one had seen Pansy Parkinson for years. Rumor had it that she had married some old pureblooded German and that he had died shortly after, leaving her a vast fortune to add to what she already had from her family.
"Draco, is that any way to talk to one of your old friends?" Pansy grinned. "It must be going around because Blaise was just as shocked to see me as you."
Sure enough Blaise looked as dumbfounded as Draco and Hermione did at that moment. In fact, the only person that didn't look surprised to see Pansy was Harold.
"Harold called me here to help with your case." Pansy said. "You see my husband, Hans, was friends with Kostos Stavros. Unfortunately, Hans died a few months ago, but I think I may still have an in with Kostos to help you out."
"So, I take it your Knockturn Alley guy couldn't quite figure out everything, Blaise?"
Blaise shook his head, "There's only so much a hobo can figure out in Greece, Draco. But I had no idea Harold had Pansy up his sleeve!"
"Pansy has agreed to help us, and we definitely need her way in, so let's be courteous." Harold inserted. "In fact, Pansy may already have an idea of what is going on."
Pansy nodded her head in agreement, "A little before Hans died he talked of the new woman Stavros was interested in. You have to understand that Stavros had been married for years to some other pureblooded Greek, but they could never produce a child—a living one anyway. The poor witch finally died delivering a stillborn baby, releasing Stavros to find someone else to breed with. However, he wants to keep his blood pure. Unfortunately for him, all the other purebloods in Greece are either related to him, male, or related to his previous wife. So, he told Hans he had expanded his search and found a pureblood from another country that had already given birth to a pureblooded child and was single."
"Astoria." Draco filled in.
Pansy nodded, "That's my guess, but there's no way to know for sure. I figure that Astoria's sudden interest in Scorpius is to show her 'maternal' potential so she can score with Stavros. He is bloody loaded, more so than even you, Draco."
Blaise chuckled, "Probably why your ancestors didn't like each other."
"Anyway, tomorrow I head for Greece and intend to impose myself on Stavros as his friend's grieving widow. From that position I will try to find out all I can."
"I'm going with you." Blaise insisted.
"And pose as what? My butler?" Pansy laughed.
"I won't stay there, Parkinson. I would stay at a hotel, but still be around to keep an eye on you and what's happening at the house."
"Sounds like a good idea to me, Zabini." Harold agreed. "The two of you will travel to Greece in the morning."
Xxx
Saturday June 2, 2007
Somehow the Potters and Blaise were able to keep the party a secret from Hermione and also managed to keep Draco in the dark about the baby shower portion of the festivities.
The day before Hermione had finished with her class, and had officially earned her title of lawyer. The partners had yet to find a replacement for her current job so until her maternity leave began she would continue on as she was, while the partners found her replacement. Then, when she came back after her maternity leave she would take her place as a lawyer within the firm.
Blaise had shown up at the Malfoy house early that morning, urging Draco to take Hermione and the kids out for the day. So once the Malfoys had vacated the house, the Potters and Blaise efficiently took over the house and transformed it into a space worthy of hosting a baby shower slash celebration of Hermione's new status as a lawyer.
By the time they were done the living room was hardly recognizable. Half of the room was dedicated to the baby shower, with decorations in a pleasing light purple color. The other half of the room was decked out with streamers and 'congratulations' signs.
About a half hour before the Malfoys were due to arrive back at their house, guests trickled in. Draco's mother was last to arrive and quickly pulled a small package out of her pocket. With a quick wave of her wand the box leapt from her hands and grew almost larger than the couch.
"There are a lot of items in there." She defended at the shocked faces all around her.
All questions were cut off when they heard noise on the doorstep announcing the arrival of the Malfoys. Everyone seemed to hold their breaths as the family walked in and then collectively yelled 'Surprise!'
Rose and Scorpius immediately got swept up in the excitement and upon seeing the Potter kids, ran off to join them in the corner of the living room where the kids toys had been set out to entertain them. Meanwhile, Hermione was absolutely wide eyed; the whole thing had been a complete surprise to her. Her eyes watered as she took in the sight of both her congratulations signs and the baby decorations. Beside her Draco's gaze was full of wonder as he surveyed the baby shower portion of the party. He had been expecting the other half, but this was a complete shock to him.
"A baby shower and a party for my course completion?" Hermione smiled through her tears. "You guys are the best!"
Then she turned to Draco, "Did you know about this?"
"The baby shower part is just as much as a surprise to me as it is to you." He smiled.
"Well, don't just stand there talking about it you two!" Ginny beamed. "Come and enjoy the party!"
After snacking on some of the delicious treats Mrs. Weasley had made and eaten a good portion of the cake, Narcissa insisted they move on to the gift opening portion of the baby shower.
"Mine first, dears." Narcissa smiled as she pointed her gift out to her son.
"Bloody hell, Mother. What is in here?"
Narcissa just grinned and said nothing at all; leaving Hermione and Draco to tear open the pink paper. Inside was a crib; a beautiful one at that. It wasn't put together, but according to the box was a self assembling one. From the picture they could see that the crib was white and ornately carved with flowers. Along with the crib was a bedding set and a variety of stuffed animals; a few of which were dragons.
"This is wonderful Narcissa, thank you so much." Hermione gushed.
"Only the best for my Granddaughter, Madeline Narcissa." Narcissa replied with a proud smile.
After opening more and more clothes, toys, and other important baby accessories the party slowly dissipated, leaving only the Potters and Blaise left. The children were snuggled together on the couch watching one of the animated movies they had lying around, leaving the adults to clean up the party.
"This was great guys, thank you so much."
"You deserved it, Hermione." Ginny insisted. "And when Blaise told us Draco would love to be at a baby shower too, we knew that part had to be a surprise from him to."
"I loved it." Draco insisted, and slapped his best friend, Blaise, on the back to show his gratitude.
"So, we're having dinner on Tuesday for Draco's birthday, right?"
"Yup, I'm cooking dinner here for us." Hermione replied happily.
Draco scowled, "I'm helping you."
"No, you're not; it's for your birthday!"
Xxx
Tuesday June 5, 2007
Draco had gotten his way, obviously. Hermione found it hard to say no to the man when he walked into the kitchen in a pair of arse hugging trousers and a frilly apron covering up his white oxford shirt. The hormones were really getting to her in this period of her pregnancy. However, she didn't think the two of them were quite ready to jump into bed together.
"You know that a little bit of magic could speed this whole process up, Hermione." Draco smirked as he gently removed the knife from her grip.
Before she knew what he was about the whole kitchen was charmed and preparing dinner for their party without any help from either of them, which left the two of them to their own devices. Hermione was trapped in Draco's arms and carefully maneuvered herself so she was facing him.
"Now what are we supposed to do?"
"I have an idea." Draco smirked and pulled Hermione closer into him.
The next thing Hermione knew her belly was pressed against his and her arms were around his neck. Their eyes gazed into one another's searching each other for what the other desperately wanted to see. For Draco it was permission; he wanted to kiss this witch right here in the kitchen with their child pressed securely between them.
"Kiss me already." Hermione demanded with a sigh.
"Typical, bossy, Granger." Draco grinned, but didn't seem to mind her demand as he leaned down and captured her soft lips with his own.
The last few days had been building up to this moment. They had shared small kisses-pecks really- since their lunch date the other day, but nothing like this. It had all been a build up to this moment, the moment that their relationship reached the next level; a level closer to what they both so obviously desired.
The kiss seemed to go on for hours, but really only lasted a few minutes when their children raced into the kitchen each with a stuffed dragon Narcissa had gotten for them. The adults broke apart guiltily and looked down at their children who seemed to be in possession of each other's dragons. Rose was clutching Scorpius' green dragon, and Scorpius had her pink one and neither of them looked too happy about it.
"Daddy, Scorpius took my dragon and won't give it back." Rose stated defiantly.
Hermione and Draco turned to each other in surprise. Rose had never directly addressed Draco in such a way. Neither of them had really addressed the issue directly, besides saying that Draco was her step father. But up until that point Rose had never really had occasion to directly address Draco as such. He rather liked it, but both he and Hermione were agreed that Rose be raised knowing all about her real Father.
Smiling Draco answered Rose, "Well Rosie, it looks like you're in possession of Scorpius' dragon."
"He took mine first!"
"And why did he take your dragon?" Draco asked turning a look on his son who looked rather guilty.
Scorpius didn't say a thing though and Rose simply shrugged, "I was in the baby's room settling in her animals when Scorpius came in waving my dragon around teasing me."
Hermione shot Draco a knowing look, "It sounds like Scorpius wanted your attention, Rose. You have been spending a lot of time in the baby's room and not playing with him lately."
"I just want everything ready for her!"
Hermione laughed, "You have plenty of time until she comes. In the mean time you should include your brother in your activities because Madeline is going to be his sister too and I'm sure he wants to prepare things for her just as much as you do, right Scorpius?"
The blonde nodded his head in agreement, still clutching on to Rose's pink dragon as if it were a lifeline.
Rose turned to her brother, "I'm sorry Scorp."
With that said she threw her arms around Scorpius and hugged him tightly. After a few seconds the children pulled apart and then ran off towards their playroom with smiles on their faces.
"It seems that they have slipped into sibling roles instead of best friends now." Hermione mused. "That means that when the baby comes there are going to be a lot of these moments."
"Nothing we can't handle." Draco said confidently.
"Very true."
Xxx
Dinner went off without a hitch. The children were getting along and so were all of the adults. Draco hadn't wanted any presents, so after dinner the guests left leaving Hermione and Draco to their routine of putting the kids to bed after cleaning up.
When Draco finished tucking the kids in he found Hermione done with her shower and in bed waiting for him with a smile and a package resting on his side of the bed next to her.
"I thought I said I didn't want anything for my birthday besides a dinner?" Draco asked with a small smile.
"As your wife, that doesn't apply to me." Hermione replied confidently. "Now come here and open it."
Draco crossed the room with a smile on his face and sat down on the bed with his wife. The package wasn't that large and was wrapped in shiny balloon wrapping paper that he recognized from Rose's birthday party. A quick glance at Hermione told him that she was eager for him to hurry up and open the gift already so, reaching out he started to rip away the paper.
Once the paper was gone Draco looked down at a scrapbook with the title 'Daddy and Madeline'. Obviously the book was not filled, but Hermione had already started it. On the front cover was a picture of Draco stroking Hermione's belly. After opening up the book Draco found all of the pictures from their doctor's appointment and pictures of himself opening gifts with Hermione at the baby shower.
"Do you like it?" Hermione asked eagerly. "As the years go by I will continue to add to this for you. You missed so much with Scorpius that I don't want you to miss a thing with her."
Draco looked up at Hermione with a huge smile on his face, "I love it, Hermione. This is the best present I could have asked for, besides Madeline, herself, of course."
"Of course." Hermione grinned.
Setting the book carefully aside, Draco pulled Hermione close to him and whispered, "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
The next thing Hermione knew Draco's lips were glued to hers and she was on her back on the bed. That night marked the beginning of the next level of their relationship and the first time they had sex sober.