"Granger?"

"Hmm?"

"I sort of lost you there. Where did you go?"

"Sorry, where was I?" Hermione inhaled deeply, trying to gather her scattered thoughts.

"You were talking about the nursery and then you stopped."

"Oh." She tucked a curl behind her ear and checked her wristwatch. "Look, Alex will be home any minute. I'm not really up to explaining who you are and why you're here just yet. This will be hard on him. I hope you understand."

"Perfectly, but don't hesitate too long. Narcissa is here, and she wants to meet him," Blaise explained with urgency in his tone.

Hermione's stomach flew up and hit the back of her throat, her eyes widening in horror. Feeling nauseous, she slowly stood up and shook her head. "What?! She's here?! No!"

"Herm-"

"No!" Hermione screamed and then let out a shaky breath to calm herself. "With all due respect, I get she wants to meet Alex, but it will happen when I think it's appropriate."

"Hermione, she has a right to meet her grandchild. And bloody hell, Hermione, it's appropriate now. She needs to meet him," Blaise said sternly.

She shook her head. "No, she doesn't. I'm his mother, and I will say when she can meet him."

"You can't just-"

"Yes, I can," Hermione calmly said, "and Draco accepted that."

"I find that hard to believe."

"He did. If he hadn't, he would have told you and his parents about Alex, but he respected my decision to keep all of this quiet. Blaise, you have to know Draco's parents, his friends, and even mine were never supposed to know about him. It wasn't a 'we'll wait until he's older and then we'll tell him about the Malfoy name' or 'we'll wait until he starts asking questions.'"

"Th-"

Blaise was interrupted by the front door opening and then shutting, and Hermione froze in panic.

"Mom, I home, and I want to call Mrs. Fitchall Mrs. Bi-" Alex stopped when he saw his mom and the man from school standing in the living room.

"Hey sweetheart, how was the rest of your day at school?"

Alex ignored her and frowned at the man standing beside his mother. "I saw you at school. What are you doing here?"

Hermione opened her mouth to answer for Blaise, but he cut her off with a quick answer. "That is a very good question. I am a friend of your mum's."

"What are you doing here," Alex repeated, his frown deepening into a full-flaming scowl and walked over to his mother's side and hugged her possessively.

"Alex, behave." Hermione said in a chastising tone.

Alex tightened his hold on his mother's leg and looked up at her. "No."

"Alex."

He buried his head into her hip and then glared at Blaise. "My dad will be here soon, and he doesn't like it when plonkers come sniffing around my mom!"

"Alex! We've talked about your language, and that is no way to speak to a guest." She grabbed his shoulders and bent down to eyelevel with her son who poked out his bottom lip in a scowling pout. "He's only a friend of Mummy's. He…" Hermione paused before continuing. "He is actually friends with Daddy, too. Best friends, actually. Like you and Nathaniel."

Her son's pouty lip sucked in and cast a dubious glance at Blaise. "You're a friend of my dad's?"

"Yes." Blaise nodded and chanced a step closer. He wanted to get a proper look at Draco's son and see if there was any Granger in there because all he saw was his mate twenty plus years ago. "You look a lot like him, your dad."

Alex's frown dissolved and he smiled shyly at him and buried his face into his mom's shoulder into a 'hide me, I'm shy' hug and then asked her, "Is Daddy here, too? Did he come early for my birthday?"

Birthday? Blaise mused with mild shock and watched as Hermione pressed her mouth into a thin, pained line of an almost smile. She shook her head no at her son. "No. I don't think he'll make it tomorrow. He's busy."

"He's never missed my birthday," whispered Alex, his bottom lip jutting out again to tremble and his eyes filled with tears.

"He's really sorry," Hermione said, trying to fight her own tears as she caressed her son's sullen face.

"Will he be here for Christmas?"

As Blaise listened and mentally jotted down notes of the conversation, he stood in awe and was impressed with Hermione and how well she was holding together, so she could be strong for her son. Yes, he could see the cracks in her face waiting to cave into an emotional crumble, but she wasn't going to fall apart.

"Alex, you know he never misses Christmas," she replied crisply and began straightening his clothes. "Now, why don't you go find Nathaniel and play some Exploding Snap at his house? Dinner will be ready at seven. I'll make macaroni and cheese. I have to talk to Blaise for a bit longer, okay?"

"Will he be here for my party?"

Hermione opened her mouth to say no but sighed instead. "Do you want him to be?"

"Is he really friends with Dad?"

"Yes."

Alex twisted his mouth and rolled his eyes to the ceiling like he was debating something of great importance and then walked over to Blaise and looked up at him and having a mask of a child who had something important to say. "If you tell me funny stories tomorrow about my dad, you can come to my party. Do you know funny stories about my dad? My mom has the best ones! When she brings them up, it makes my dad really, really mad, and he chases her around the house. When he catches her, because always does, he-"

"I'm sure Blaise has very funny stories," Hermione interrupted, her cheeks pinking up as she turned to other adult in the room. "Don't you?"

Blaise smirked at her and gave a firm nod. "I have the best. I'll have to tell you what happened at his eighth birthday."

"Oh! Tell me, tell me!" Alex bounced on his toes with a grin of wicked delight.

"Tomorrow," promised Blaise, "but I have to talk with your mum for a minute."

"Yes, so go and play with your friend. Be home at dinner," Hermione said and watched her son drop his school bag and run towards the fireplace and disappear with a burst of green flames. Bringing her thumb and middle finger to her temples, she messaged them and hid her eye anguished filled eyes from Blaise.

"When do you plan on telling him," he asked.

"Uh…" Hermione said and bit her tongue to keep her from shouting obscenities. Once she was able to form a proper and short sentence, she continued, "I think you should leave."

She missed Blaise's annoyed expression thrown at her back, but he nodded. "I'll be here tomorrow. Is it okay if I bring Narcissa?"

Hermione whirled around and shot him a flabbergasted look. "Have you lost your mind? No! Did I not say no earlier? I want you to leave, Blaise. I want you to take Draco's mother and go back to England."

"You think she's going to leave?" Blaise asked with cocked eyebrows. "I go back to the inn and tell her to pack up her things because you said-"

"Exactly," Hermione interjected. "Because I said. The moment you tell her it's me Draco had a baby with, she'll be dragging you back to England."

"She's prepared for the child to be…" Blaise stopped and Hermione arched an eyebrow.

"What, Blaise? A child born without prestigious pedigree? Perhaps. She, however, is not prepared for me. I mean…you were horrified when you saw me at Alex's school. How do you think Narcissa is going to react?"

"I guess we'll see. I'm going to tell her, Hermione, when I get back to the inn."

She waved her hand in dismissive surrender and rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I don't care either way. She's not seeing him, and that's final." She marched out of the kitchen and down the hallway, raising her voice so he could here, "You know your way out!"

Lucius cast a glance at the clock near the mantle in his office and placed the curled parchment off to the side that had been in his hands. It was quite late, and he had seen enough to make a decision. He Apparated to his bedroom and shirked his robes to change into some travelling wear. He then summoned his already packed luggage and shrunk it down to pocket-size before tending to his house-elves, firmly instructing them to take care of the estate while he was away to join the mistress in Salem.

Sprinkling a handful of Floo powder into the fireplace from his bedroom, he shouted his destination, hoping he was going to be able to get a Portkey to Salem at the time of night.

"You'll upset them," Luna said while taking two teacups out of the cupboard and filling them with fresh brew, a whimsical smile on her lips.

"I know," Hermione whispered and stabbed the end of her cigarette into the ashtray in front of her. She accepted the cup from Luna who sat down beside her at the kitchen table with some tea of her own. "But this is not about them. It's about Alex. I'm doing what's best for him. Everything I've done was to make things better for him. Narcissa and Lucius are not better. I don't want Alex to be tainted by their bigotry. I don't want Alex to be dragged through a scandal. I don't want-"

"I know, Hermione." Luna patted her friend's hand comfortingly. "I wasn't even supposed to know. Have I ever apologized for transferring schools and coincidently applying for a job at the bookstore? But don't be too angry. I was only following what the Thankles told me. I usually had never listened to them, but they were so insistent for me to leave and come here."

"I'm not angry with you, Luna. I just want Blaise, Narcissa, and Lucius to leave me and Alex alone." Hermione checked the clock and realized Alex would be home soon, and she had yet to start dinner. She abandoned Luna and her tea and rifled through the cabinets in search for a pot. Once she found one, she filled it with water and set it on the stove and ignited the flames beneath it.

"Macaroni and Cheese night?" Luna inquired.

"Yes," Hermione answered while retrieving the box of noodles out of the pantry. "Would you like to stay for dinner and keep me from turning into a blubbering mess in front of Alex?"

"Sure," chirped Luna with a shrug and her smile turned solemn. "But when are you going to tell him about his father?"

"I haven't decided yet. Soon. A few days after the party would be best. He's so sure Draco will be coming for Christmas." Hermione sniffled the last part out and wiped at her eyes with one hand and squeezed the cardboard of the macaroni and cheese box in the other, a memory clouding her senses.

Christmas 2002

Hermione lay sleeping on her side, curled up in the fetal position to preserve warmth on that chilly night. Outside the window, snow fell in golf-ball sized clumps promising a lazy Boxing Day full of book-reading, hot chocolate, and playing with the baby.

The bedroom door creaked open and a shadowy figure crept into the room, a knee pressing into the lush plumpness of the mattress and sheets. The figure loomed over the woman for a pensive moment and then at the bassinet beside her. He shirked his hat, cloak, shirt, trousers, shoes and socks and stood in his undershirt and boxers. Carefully, he lifted the corners of the sheets and comforter on the opposite side of the sleeping woman and slid underneath, scooting gently towards the feminine warmth and encircling her waist, his forearm flush against the soft, now smaller bulge of her stomach. He pressed his front against her back and buried his head in the crook of her shoulder, inhaling deeply. He felt her shift in his arms and heard even breaths come to a halt and draw into a startled hitch. Her body stiffened against him, and he quickly placed his lips close to her ear.

"Shhh, it's only me."

She turned in his arms and craned her neck to look at him, his mouth lowering to find hers.

"Malfoy," she hissed into his mouth.

"Well, yes. You better have not been expecting someone else," he replied and brushed his lips against hers.

"What are you doing here?" she asked tiredly as he latched onto her bottom lip with his teeth.

"I told you I would be here for Christmas," he reminded and detached from her mouth only to brush his cold nose against the warm skin of her cheek. He tightened his arms around her to bring her closer to him and then slid his hands up underneath the fabric of her shirt to play with the warm skin of her belly.