Chapter 9:

October went relatively quickly. Hermione and Draco spent as much time with their children as possible whilst still managing to complete all of their responsibilities. Draco had bought both children several gifts. He was enjoying being a father and he loved giving the children gifts. He treated Curtis and Aurora equally. He didn't understand why he did it but he couldn't help himself.

He sat with Curtis on his knee, reading him a story. Hermione was sat at the desk working on her potions essay. Aurora was sat in the play pen playing with one of the toys Draco had bought them. She suddenly started screaming. Draco frowned. He went to stand up and collect his daughter from the pen but Hermione beat him to her, "hey angel," she whispered as she cradled the little girl in her arms. Aurora stopped crying immediately and looked up at Hermione. She had really rosy cheeks. Hermione brushed her finger across the girl's cheek and she whimpered. "I think she might be teething," Hermione told Draco as she came to sit beside him on the sofa.

He frowned, "do you think?"

"Well she's been crying a lot recently," Hermione replied. She put her finger in the little girl's mouth and had the shock of her life when the small girl bit down on her finger. "Ow that hurts!"

"She's definitely teething," Hermione frowned.

The four of them sat together listening to Draco reading the children stories. Hermione rested her head on his shoulder and the little girl in her arms fell asleep. Curtis on the other hand giggled away as he took the book off of Draco and began hitting him on the head. The two students laughed gently at the sight. The small boy yawned before leaning against Draco's chest and closing his eyes. Hermione's eyes were drooping as she watched the children sleep. Soon Draco was the only one still awake. He lent his head against the back of the sofa and closed his eyes. He tightened his arms around Hermione and the children and fell asleep.

Over the next few days Hermione and Draco barely got any sleep. Aurora was definitely teething and had refused to sleep. They had taken it in turns to sit up with her all night. On one particularly bad night both Hermione and Draco sat up with her in the common room. The following day, Draco had fallen asleep in potions class and Hermione had had to poke him awake. He grabbed her hand, "what are you poking me for?"

"You were snoring," Hermione replied, blushing slightly.

Draco was still holding her hand "is that right?" he replied huskily.

He yawned, "Let's go get the kids and go home."

Hermione nodded. They left the potions classroom together and went to the day care centre to pick up the children. When they arrived the nursery teacher told them all about how Aurora had been pulling herself up on the furniture all day. Hermione and Draco cooed over the child, "no way! That's amazing!"

They rushed home so that the children could have a nap before dinner time. They hated sitting apart in the Great Hall. Draco fed Aurora at the Slytherin table but he was watching Hermione and Curtis at the Gryffindor table. Curtis was being slightly difficult for his mother. He was refusing his food. He wanted to play. Draco grinned. He put the last of the food into Aurora's mouth before picking her up and walking over to the Gryffindor table. He took a seat besides Granger and smiled, "Let's do a swap."

Hermione handed over Curtis and took Aurora. "Right little tyke. Why are you being difficult for your mummy?"

Several students were staring at Draco. The Slytherins were watching him from their own table with their mouths open. The Gryffindors weren't much better. Even some of the teachers were watching them. Professor McGonagall was watching the pair very closely. Hermione grinned as she saw her son allow Draco to feed him. "Should we go home, Granger?" Draco asked.

"Sounds good," Hermione nodded. "I need to get some work done."

Hermione said goodnight to her friends and walked out of the Great Hall with Draco and their children. Draco was carrying Curtis in his hands whilst Hermione carried Aurora.

When they walked into the common room Draco sat down on the sofa with Curtis on his lap. Hermione smiled, "I'll go and run them a bath." She handed Aurora over to Draco so that he now had both children in his arms.

Draco nodded, "what will we do with you two whilst mummy runs the bath."

Hermione started running the bath. She was very careful to not put too much water in and she was equally careful to make sure it wasn't too hot. She hummed to herself happily until she heard Draco shout up the stairs, "GRANGER!"

"GRANGER! Get down here now," Hermione rushed down the stairs and into the common room. She was terrified that something serious had happened. "Hermione look!"

She looked at where Draco was pointing and there was her son crawling across the floor. "Bloody hell," Hermione whispered.

"Oi Granger, mind your language," Draco teased her.

"He's crawling!" Hermione whispered. She flung herself into Draco's arms, "He's crawling."

Hermione quickly realised what she had done when she smelt Draco's hair. He smelt amazing, not that she'd ever tell him that. She pulled away feeling slightly awkward. She blushed, averting her eyes from his and rushed back up the stairs to check on the bath. When she returned, her cheeks had calmed. She picked up Aurora for her bath; she left Curtis to his crawling. She quickly bathed Aurora before wrapping her in a thick towel. She took her into the nursery where she dressed her in her pyjamas. She then returned her to her father. He was reading a story to Curtis. He closed the book and swapped children. He reopened the book and began to read it to Aurora. By the time Hermione returned, Aurora was being rocked to sleep in Draco's arms. There was an empty bottle in his hand as she had just had her milk. Draco pointed to a second bottle of milk that he had prepared for Curtis that was waiting on the side.

Hermione began feeding Curtis as Draco took Aurora up the stairs. When Draco returned he took a sleeping Curtis from Hermione and took him upstairs to the nursery. Hermione quickly washed the bottles out before sitting down on the sofa with her favourite book. Draco returned a few moments later and sat next to Hermione opening his own book. They sat comfortably for several minutes. After a while Hermione began to fidget. She pulled her legs up and put them between herself and Draco but she still couldn't get comfortable. Draco noticed, he chuckled as he picked up her legs and placed them across his lap. Hermione was surprised at Draco's behaviour but he just continued reading his book as if nothing had happened. An hour or so later, Draco got rather bored and so he began to gently tickle Hermione's foot. He didn't take his eyes off of his book and stopped tickling her every time she looked up. Hermione returned her gaze to her book, not that she could concentrate, but all too quickly the tickling recommenced and she decided to comment. She raised her eyebrow, "what do you think you are doing Malfoy?"

Draco smirked, "tickling you," he replied as he put his book down and began tickling her in earnest. He started tickling her belly and then she was laughing and screaming at the same time. Soon he was on top of her. He looked down into her eyes and frowned. He really wanted to kiss her, but that wasn't an option. There was no way that Hermione Granger would let an ex-deatheater kiss her. He sighed and stood up. "I'm going to go to bed. See you in the morning?"

"Yeah," Hermione sighed, "Night."

She followed him up the stairs. She closed her door and frowned, I think I might like him…

Bloody hell! I like Hermione Granger! Draco thought to himself.