"Don't forget that we're having Draco and Luna over tonight for dinner before my Governors' meeting," Lucius told Hermione as he kissed her goodbye at the door of the penthouse.
"I shouldn't be too long," Hermione told him as she transfigured her robes into a muggle maternity dress. "Mum will be picking me up at the muggle entrance to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch. We'll probably linger over our meal talking as I've not seen her in weeks.
"Why don't you ask your mother to come back with you to spend the night?" Lucius suggested. "She could have dinner with us and keep you company when Draco and I go to the meeting."
"That's a good idea," Hermione agreed. "Mum wanted to go shopping after we eat, but I'm really too tired for that. I'd really rather just come home after lunch."
"Don't overexert yourself," Lucius warned as he brushed away a stray curl from her face. "You know I worry about you."
"I won't," she promised looking up at him with love. The young witch smiled knowing that many people wouldn't believe her if she ever told them what a mother hen Lucius could be at times.
"I'm going to go have lunch with Narcissa," he told her. "But I should be home fairly early in the afternoon."
"All right," Hermione said. "I'd best be off, as I don't want to keep Mum waiting." Reaching up to give him one last kiss, she said, "Love you!" as she turned and made her way carefully down the stairs.
A few moments later, Hermione carefully slipped into her mother's car from the passenger side. "Hello, Mum," she said breathlessly, reaching over to give her a kiss on the cheek. "Were you waiting long?"
"I'd just pulled up before you appeared," she told her daughter. As she merged into traffic, she said, "Make sure to buckle up, dear."
"Yes, Mum," Hermione said, knowing that even though she was about to become a mum herself, her mum would never stop mothering her.
"So, what's new in your world?" Jane Granger asked Hermione a short time later, after the waiter had taken their orders. Jane had driven them to one of Hermione's favorite childhood restaurants on the outskirts of London. "Your owls have been rather few and far between lately."
"I'm sorry, Mum," Hermione apologized. "Things have been rather hectic lately, and I've been rather distracted."
"Tell me," Jane urged. "What's been going on?"
"Did I tell you that Luna and Draco got married already?" Hermione asked. "I can't remember if I wrote you about that or not."
"No, you didn't tell me," her mother replied. "I thought they were supposed to get married in September."
"Well, Luna got pregnant, so they decided to have a quiet wedding with just the family," Hermione told her. "It turns out that neither of them really wanted a big wedding anyway, so it turned out all for the best."
"I imagine Narcissa must have been disappointed," Jane pointed out. "You'd told me she'd been looking forward to planning a big society wedding for them."
"She was at first," Hermione admitted. Leaning closer to her mother, she confided, "But I can assure you that she's not thinking about that at all anymore. She's...pregnant! Can you believe that after she and Lucius tried so many years to have another child after Draco was born?"
"I thought you told me she couldn't have any more children," her mother said. "And I was under the impression that their marriage was no longer intimate, considering the marriage was an arranged one."
"It seems that it was the stress of Lucius being bound to Voldemort and the war that kept her from conceiving," Hermione said. "Now that the war is over and she no longer had to worry about Lucius and Draco, she was able to get pregnant."
"That concerns me," Jane said, frowning. "Now that he's going to have another pureblood child with his wife, I'm afraid he'll regret starting a relationship with you. You need to consider that he might end up leaving you."
"If this had happened when he and I had first gotten together, I might have worried," Hermione admitted. "But I'm not concerned about that now. He loves me, Mum, he truly does. We made vows to one another and that's not something he would have done if he had even the slightest doubts. Purebloods take their magical vows quite seriously and Lucius is no exception."
"I hope you're right," the older woman said dubiously.
"Don't worry, Mum," Hermione said, patting her hand. "Everything will be fine."
At that moment, the waiter returned with their meal. For the next half hour, the women talked about inconsequential matters as they ate the delicious food before then, then lingered over dessert and tea.
"What is it, Hermione?" Jane Granger asked, after having noticed her daughter staring pensively off into space. "You've hardly touched your tiramisu."
"I'm sorry," Hermione said. "My mind was wandering a bit."
"I could see that," her mother told her. "What's on your mind?"
"Over the last couple of weeks or so, I've been thinking that I don't want to name the baby Lucinda, after all," Hermione said. "I still want to name her after Lucius, but I thought Lucia would be nicer than Lucinda. I don't know why I didn't think of it first."
"You're right," the older woman said. "I like Lucia much better. Why is changing the baby's name bothering you? It's not as if she was already born and knew her own name already."
"Well, I've told everyone I'm naming her Lucinda and I feel rather silly changing it now," Hermione said.
"Don't worry about what other people think," her mother said firmly. "What does Lucius think about it?"
"I haven't told him yet," Hermione said. "I don't want him to think I'm indecisive."
"Nonsense," Jane said. "Tell him when you go home. I daresay that he'll like Lucia better, too, as it's a closer match for Lucius than Lucinda is."
"Oh, that reminds me," the young witch said. "Lucius invited you to dinner tonight and suggested that you spend the night, as he's got a Governor's meeting tonight and he was worried about me to spend the evening alone."
"I'd love to," Jane said, smiling. "I was also planning to offer to come stay with you for a week or two after the baby is born, so you can take some time to recover from giving birth." After a short pause, she added, "That is, if Lucius doesn't mind."
"Oh, Mum, that would be great," Hermione said. "And Lucius won't mind. I'm sure he'll understand that a woman needs her Mum at a time like that.
Reaching into her purse, Jane fished out her mobile phone. "Let me just call your father and let him know I'll be staying tonight, then."
A half hour later, the two women entered the penthouse. Hermione had instructed her mother to drive into a deserted alley near the Leaky Cauldron in order for her to reduce the car, so that her mother wouldn't have to leave it on the street overnight or pay to park it in a garage. After she'd reduced the car to the size of a toy, she'd placed it in a spell-proof container for safekeeping until she was ready to return the vehicle to its normal size.
As they entered the penthouse, Hermione realized that Lucius wasn't home yet from Malfoy Manor.
"Why don't we have a cup of tea in the library while we wait for Lucius," Hermione suggested. "Go have a seat, while I see what Breezy has in the kitchen."
After Hermione had left the room, Jane walked over to the bookshelves and began to glance idly at the various book titles. Her eye was caught by the title of one book, "Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles" by Wilhelm Wigworthy. Curious, she plucked the book off the shelf and took it back to the sofa to peruse while waiting for Hermione to return.
Jane Granger was both amused and appalled after reading only a few paragraphs of this utterly clueless book. She seriously wondered if the author of the book had ever stepped foot out of the cocoon of the wizarding world and seen how the majority of the world lived before penning this ridiculous text. It was no wonder that people like Lucius Malfoy grew up with skewed attitudes toward the non-magical world after having been exposed to rubbish like this.
She was still chuckling in disbelief when Hermione re-entered the room a few moments later. Looking up at her daughter, who had changed back into robes, she said, "I can't believe you have this rubbish book on your shelves." She held up the book so Hermione could see what she was talking about.
"Oh, that was one of my school books," Hermione admitted ruefully. "Harry and I used to always laugh at how silly it was."
"Why did Dumbledore allow such an inaccurate book to be used at Hogwarts?" Jane asked. "Surely, he wasn't that clueless."
"Actually, Mum, he could be rather clueless about a lot of things," the younger woman said. "He was kind of like the stereotype of the absent minded professor a lot of the time."
"Do they still use this book at Hogwarts?" Jane asked.
"As far as I know," Hermione said. "I think they've been too busy getting things back to normal after the war, that they've not had time to consider improving textbook choices."
"You could write a much better textbook than this drivel," her mother insisted. "And you should. It's the perfect job for you. You could write it at home, so you'd still be around for the baby when she needed you."
"Actually, Lucius and I have talked about that," Hermione said, smiling. "We both agree that both the way muggleborns are introduced to the wizarding world and the Muggle Studies curriculum are in urgent need of an overhaul."
"Did I hear my name mentioned?" Lucius was standing in the doorway smiling down on the two women.
"Oh, we were talking about that silly Muggle Studies textbook," Hermione explained. "Mum thinks I could write a better one."
"I've been telling Hermione that all along," Lucius told his mother-in-law, as he came into the room to take a seat by Hermione. Giving her a kiss on the cheek, he murmured, "Please forgive me for not being home sooner, but Narcissa wanted my opinion on her plans to redecorate Draco's old nursery."
"No need to apologize," Hermione said. "It's quite understandable that she's excited by the new baby."
"Congratulations, by the way," Jane added. "You're certainly going to be a very busy man with two new babies."
"That I am," Lucius agreed, smiling.
"Mum has offered to come stay for a week or two after the baby is born, so I can recover from the birth faster," Hermione told him. "It will be easier on Breezy, too, if she's around."
"That's quite gracious of you, Jane," Lucius said sincerely. "We appreciate your thoughtfulness."
"I'll be thrilled to do it," the muggle woman assured him. "I can't wait to hold my first grandchild in my arms."
"Draco is also about to be offered the Potions professorship at Hogwarts," Lucius informed her proudly, changing the subject. "That's what tonight's Governors' meeting is about."
"That's wonderful," the muggle woman responded in a tone of voice that made Hermione realize her mother was probably wondering why she wasn't offered the post."
Draco and Luna arrived fifteen minutes late for dinner, so the meal turned into a hurried affair with minimal conversation. Hermione knew that Lucius was irked by his son's tardiness, but also knew that he'd not comment on it in front of Hermione's mother. It wasn't necessary, as his tight-lipped demeanor clearly conveyed his feelings on the matter to his son. She didn't envy Draco once his father got him alone and would no doubt strongly express his opinion of his son's lapse in etiquette.
"I would love to stay and visit with you and your mother this evening," Luna said at the conclusion of the meal, as Lucius and Draco were getting up to leave for the meeting. "But I'm feeling rather queasy and I think I'd rather go home and take a nap. I certainly hope it isn't Wrackspurts making me sick."
"Oh, I'm sure it isn't," Hermione said, taking great effort to keep from rolling her eyes. "I felt nauseated all through my early pregnancy, so I'm sure that's all it is. It should go away in a month or so."
"I hope you're right," the younger witch said, with the barest hint of a frown. "I think I'll floo home, rather than apparate, as that doesn't upset my stomach quite so much."
Lucius and Draco also intended to use the floo to travel to the meeting, so they waited to allow the young blond witch to go first.
"Don't wait up for me," Draco said as he gave her a kiss on the cheek as they stood in front of the fireplace. "I'll be home as quickly as I can."
As his daughter-in-law disappeared into a cloud of green smoke, Lucius had taken Hermione into his arms for a tender kiss, "We'll probably be rather late at the meeting, so go to bed whenever you feel tired," he murmured. "I'll try not to disturb you if you're asleep when I come in."
"All right," she said, giving him a lingering kiss. "Good luck to Draco."
A moment later, the two men disappeared into a cloud of green smoke, one after the other, leaving Hermione and her mother to spend a quiet evening at home.
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A/N Thanks, everyone. Without your support, I'd never have written such a long story!
A/N Next chapter has yet to be given a title.