"If you think you're going to get another shag out of me, Granger, you should have worn the green one," Draco spat while he rested a palm on the useless refrigerator when she reentered the kitchen

"I'm good actually." Hermione shrugged and shuffled over to a corner cupboard. From where she stood, it looked empty, but she stuck her hand in and waved it about, her fingers colliding with some paper pouches. She showed Draco one. "Would you like some apple cider? All is needed is a bit of hot water."

"I'd prefer tea," he venomously told her

I can't afford tea, Hermione mused, but told Draco, "I've decided to not drink tea whilst breastfeeding. My Healer said it was possible the caffeine could contaminate my breast milk, causing disruption in Alex's sleep pattern and heart rhythm."

She heard a snort as she filled a tiny pot with some water, and then she placed it over the stove and turned on the flames.

"Where's the cheque I gave you?" Draco asked. "I put it right here on the refrigerator. It's not here now, and I know you didn't use it. Where is it?"

He came up beside her, his mouth very close to her ear. She glanced his away just a smidgen and looked up under his chin and then back at the pot of water. "I put it into an account."

"It was for you to spend. You don't need to save it."

"I'm not saving it for me. I'm saving it for Alex."

Despite Draco not actually touching her, she felt him go rigid. He gripped her chin and forced her to look at him. His vicious, unrelenting gaze hammered into her and she caved with an annoyed grunt. "I put it into an account for his schooling. There is a new school for pre-wand children opening up next year. It will be for children four to eleven years old, and I want him to attend when he is of age. The tuition will be outrageously expensive because it's going to be one of three pre-wand schools in the world; therefore, I placed the money into an account. I have no regrets, and if needs be, I will scrap every last dockel I can get my hands on and put it into the account."

Hermione turned away from him and back to her near boiling water like she was uninterested on what Draco would have to say to that. Not wanting the water too hot, she turned off the flames and then poured in the cider powder. She grabbed a whisk from the nearby drawer and began to thoroughly stir the hot cider, and she heard Draco ask, "Why are you being this way?"

"I haven't an idea what you are insinuating, Draco," she lied as her heart rammed into her chest, scared of him finding out how badly she wanted his financial help and terrified if he should offer again, she would accept.

To busy herself away from Draco's gaze, she fished out two cups from the cupboard and poured the steaming cider into both of them and handed one to Draco. He glared at her and then placed the cup on the counter as she blew some cool puffs of air on hers.

"You're hungry, Hermione," he told her.

At the moment, she was. Indeed, the cider was only going to mask the hunger pangs for an hour or so, but dammit, Draco just chucked her second to last box of macaroni and cheese. Yes, she was starving, but she ate. She had food. Not a lot, but she was able to eat three meals a day. They weren't delicious nor were they satisfying and were often repetitive, but she was alive and nourished.

"Not in the way you think," she said with honesty and Draco's frown deepened and then walked past her, purposefully not touching her. She turned to watch him leave out of the kitchen and stalk down the hallway. She followed after him and saw him pull up his trousers.

"You're leaving," she stated with a slight nod, her right side pressing into the doorframe. A sullen, discarded feeling washed over her as Draco zipped up his pants and went in search for his socks. There was a small part of herself she began to hate for making him angry enough to leave.

While searching for his sock's mate, Draco spared her a glance and stopped what he was doing and sighed heavily, his head dropping low to hang. "Don't look at me like that."

"I'm not looking at you in any particular way." She folded her arms protectively beneath her chest. He could leave. Why should she care? He was going to leave anyway.

A soft, sarcastic chuckle slipped out of his lips and he brought the back of his hand up to her cheek and brushed his knuckles over the skin before pressing a slightly cupped palm into the side of her face. His hand was mildly cool against her cheek and she could feel the pressure kind of squishing her face as thumb brushed over her lips.

"What are you doing?" she whispered. "I thought you were leaving."

Draco bent his head down and pressed his forehead against hers and rubbed them together. "I hate it when you look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like I hurt you. You'd do it at school, and…Merlin, you have no idea how badly it killed me."

Memories of Hogwarts and Draco's tendency to bully her refreshed in her mind and anger bubbled hotly within her. How dare he bring something like that up and claim it hurt him when it was he who hurt her? If it killed him so badly, why had he persisted to verbally assault her?

"I find that hard to believe. You were exceptional at hurting me. How could you have not enjoyed it?"

"No." He shook his head, the sensation feeling odd against Hermione's forehead. "You don't understand. It wasn't like that. I did it because-"

"If you say because you secretly wanted me, then I'll give you one minute to leave before I ensure Alex will be all that is left of you."

"Not at first," Draco said as if his posterity wasn't on the line, "but then your arse got really-"

"Unbelievable," Hermione scoffed and tried to pull away, but Draco grabbed her arms. She wrenched out of his grasp and hissed, "You go on about how sad you are about making me sad, but all you are concerned about is hurting a pretty girl's feelings!"

Draco grabbed her arms again to keep her from wandering away. She struggled against his strength and nearly got away once more, so he grabbed the back of her head and pulled her face towards his and smashed their lips together. His fingers wrapped around her curls and tugged harshly causing Hermione to whine in pain into his mouth. She pushed at his chest and disconnected their lips and slapped him crisp and loudly. His fingers flew to his cheek and he stepped back in shock, his eyes wide before narrowing and dilating. His mouth twisted into a feral grin, and out of apprehensiveness, Hermione took a step back towards the hallway. She did not get far, for Draco lunged at her, his body dipping low with his shoulder colliding into her stomach and his arms wrapping around the backs of her thighs. She was lifted and tossed over his shoulder and dangled awkwardly with her face colliding with his naked back.

"Draco!" He silenced her with a slap on the rear and marched towards the bed. She squirmed and whimpered when she figured out his destination. "Y-You're going to force me," she stuttered out. "With the baby right here?"

He threw her on the bed like a sack of flour with a grunt, and her body bounced with the section of the cushion, the impact knocking the wind out of her.

"Think I'm a monster, do you?" he growled as she scrambled away from him and closer to the pillows. The anger in his face dissolved and something sparked in his eyes. "You do, don't you? That's why you didn't stay with me or contact me after our weekend, wasn't it? It's why you won't accept the money for yourself. It's why you won't come home with me or marry me. You just see me as a Death Eater."

Floored by his words, Hermione could not think of anything to say. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out but a vague squeak originating from the back of her throat. Without being able to restrain herself, her eyes traveled to his left forearm where the somewhat faded Dark Mark dwelt. And yes, her stomach clenched at the thought that she had let someone who bore the mark of Tom Riddle hold her child. Regardless that the someone was her baby's father.

"I'll leave you alone," Draco whispered and summoned his scattered clothes to surround him. The missing sock hung suspended in the air, and he grabbed it. He sat on the edge of the bed, his back facing her. She saw the resignation in his hunched shoulders, and her womanly instinct roared at her to comfort the wounded man who was near. She crawled over to him and rested her cheek on the area of skin above and between his shoulder blades.

"I don't think you're a monster, Malfoy," she said and then smooched him where her cheek had been. His body stilled, and she crawled to his side and rose up on her knees kissed him again, this time on his cheek and then whispered in his ear, "I don't care for monsters," and fit the lobe between her top and bottom front teeth and tugged and brought her hand to the back of his neck and scraped the base of his skull with her fingernails. His breath turned ragged and the tenseness of his shoulders relaxed, and she knew she had him. Carefully, with little but pointed pressure, she pressed on his shoulders to indicate she wanted him to lay back. Unsurprisingly, he resisted at first, but she planted soft kisses over his face with breathy whispered secrets. She told him why she didn't contact him after he returned her to Harry eleven months prior. She told him why she didn't want to accept the money. She told him why she couldn't marry him and come home with him.

When he was flat on his back with his legs hanging off the edge of the bed, she whispered one last secret to him.

"I think I love you."

Not waiting for his reply, she kissed him fully on the mouth.

They had spent the rest of the morning in bed until both of their hunger overwhelmed them. Draco dragged her and Alex, swaddled and snuggled in his new pram, to the market where he bought her food. Not wanting to upset him again, she watched as he piled the cart high as they zigzagged their way through the aisles. However, she did try to sneak a couple of boxes of macaroni and cheese into the cart much to Draco's annoyance. He had wanted her to put them back, so she promised she would cook for him when they returned to the apartment, silencing him for the rest of the shopping trip.

Back at the flat, with the food put away and the refrigerator plugged in, Hermione readied some boiling water and fifteen minutes later she force-fed Draco boxed macaroni and cheese. He ate it with a frown and did have seconds but more out of hunger than likability. As for her, she only had one bowl because she wanted save a little room for the ice cream Draco bought her. It was strawberry with frozen fruit chunks. She preferred chocolate as did he, but her Healers had told her to steer away from it while breastfeeding

While Alex had his third nap for the day, Hermione and Draco ate straight out of the ice cream carton.

"This is good. Thank you," she told him through bites of the dessert. He said nothing in return. In fact, he said minimal to her since she told him she thought she loved him. And it was just so typical of him. Beg her, he would to come back to England. Beg her to marry him. Beg her to have him pay for everything, but when she turned around and said something as equally as committing, he turned into an awkward and frightened child. "When do you have to leave?" she asked.

"Tonight." Hermione nodded and took one last bite of her ice cream and set her spoon aside, hoping she did not seem dejected. "I'm not sure when I'll be able to visit again," Draco continued. "But I'll leave you some money. I'll send you some, as well."

"I don't-"

He cut her off with a glare. "You will accept the money, and you will spend it on the things you need. Scorpius I can provide for, and you need not worry about his schooling. If you want him to attend this new school when he is of age, I will pay for the tuition."

Hermione shook her head with a troubled frown. "It's not right for you to pay for everything. I can get a job. I can-"

"I'm sure you could and when I leave, I won't be able to stop you. I suspect you will eventually go in search for employment, but now I want you to focus on raising our son, Hermione. While doing that, you can take to your studies and ready yourself when you return to school. Unless of course, you'd prefer to become employed immediately, hire a caretaker for Scorpius, and have him miss his mother."

"There are a lot of mothers who have to work, Malfoy," Hermione replied hotly. "There are loads of mums who miss their children."

"And you choose to be one?" Draco's eyebrow's arched in inquiry. "You don't have to be. You do realize it was not only you in my apartment eleven months ago. I was there, too. It was I who fumbled the Contraceptive Charm as you so eloquently reminded me in the letter you sent me when you decided to tell me of your then delicate state."

"To which you so eloquently replied that I was a liar and to never contact you again. So I never asked, but what made you decide to just show up and be there at the perfect time when I was in the hospital? Hmm?"

Draco shrugged and pursed his lips. "Good instincts."

"Right," Hermione said lightly, not believing him. "So you didn't check up on me at all? A man like you probably has contacts in all the right places. You probably dropped a name and a favor."

"You know me well."

"Unfortunately."

About three in the afternoon, Draco left, vaguely saying he would visit again soon. He kissed Alex goodbye and walking out the door, he asked Hermione to reconsider returning to England with him.

"Ten minutes we can have everything packed up and in our pockets and be home in a half hour."

"I am home, Draco," she said.

Nodding without a reply, Draco left the flat with Hermione standing in the living room staring at the door wondering if she would really ever see him again. If he would really visit once more. He promised to send money, making her comply with his request to spend it on herself.

Biting her lips and wringing her hands, she looked towards the still unopened presents resting besides the small tree, a sad but wistful smile on her lips.

Present day

"Is it good?" Hermione asked with a bowl of untouched macaroni and cheese in front of her. Luna nodded slowly with her mouth full, Alex smiled toothily with torn yellow noodles sticking out of his mouth, Nathaniel gave her a thumbs up, and Nathaniel's father winked at her.

"It's a pleasure to be having you two over for dinner," Hermione politely said to the boy and his father. "If I had known I would be serving a full house, I would have made something a bit more..."

"Nonsense, Miss Granger. You make the best macaroni in Salem."

"Thank you, Mister Li." She smiled through painfully pressed lips at her son's best friend's dad.

"We should make this a tradition," he said and looked at everyone with a nod like he was willing them to agree with him. "Every Friday night is Macaroni Night at the Grangers. We could even swap off. Sushi Night at mine on Saturdays. What do you say?"

Hermione heard, 'Every Friday night is Macaroni Night at the Grangers. Come over to my place on Saturday nights where I can get you drunk, and we can have sex with our kids playing Exploding Snap just down the hallway like we did that one time. Remember? What do you say?'

"That would be fun!" exclaimed Alex and Nathaniel nodded eagerly.

"I'll think about it," she said and received a secret smile from Luna.

While Alex and Nathaniel chatted through the rest of the dinner while the adults ate in silence, Hermione dodging the prominent and pointed stares from Mister Li.

After dinner, Hermione sent the Mr. Li and the boys to entertain themselves while she and Luna chatted in the kitchen as they tidied up.

"You didn't eat," her friend commented.

"I'm not hungry."

"You didn't have lunch, either."

"I'm not hungry," Hermione repeated truthfully, knowing if she put anything in her stomach, it would come back up.

"Mister Li is nice."

"You've said that before," Hermione pointed her wand at the wet but clean dishes to dry them. "And he is."

"He's very handsome."

"He is."

"Loves his son. Good with yours. Good with kids."

With a wave of her wand, the dishes were back in the cupboard and Hermione sighed and gave Luna a 'my patience is deteriorating' look. "Yes."

Luna shrugged. "He's lonely. You are, too."

"I just got horrible news today, Luna," Hermione whispered out, her throat swelling thickly. "I'm not really in the mood for a shag."

Her friend gave her an expression of sorrow but her endeared expression remained beneath the frown lines. "But someday you will be."

"Someday is not today. Definitely not tomorrow. It won't be for like…ever." Hermione rubbed her forehead and sucked in a sharp breath. "Maybe you're the one that's lonely."

Hermione regretted the words once they fell from her mouth and went to apologize but Luna stared down at her shoes and said, "I think I'll leave. I'll see you tomorrow at the party."

Hermione watched her Disapparate without saying a word. She supposed she could have apologized, but her pride and anguish was clogging her brain. And bloody hell, sex with Mr. Li was not going to make her feel better. It would feed the Feindfyre of guilt she had inside her chest and make her internally combust. Because, yes, Draco Malfoy's death was tragic and would fill her soul with regrets and emotionally damage Alex for the rest of his life, most likely. But the memory of their last time together whirled around in her head. It had been Easter, and they had not parted on preferable terms.

Biting down on the tip of her thumb to draw away the stinging attention from her tear ducks, she shuffled into the living room and was greeted with Alex and Nathaniel roughhousing with Mr. Li instructing them on how to do it properly without either boy getting seriously injured. He caught her eye and smiled with a glitter of hope twinkling in his eye.

"Miss Granger, I'm sorry to hear Alex's father won't be coming tomorrow for his birthday. He's always such a…character."

Shocked, Hermione opened her mouth to say something. Not entirely sure as what, but say something, she would have, but Alex piped in dramatically as he lay pinned beneath Nathaniel, "I hate it! He always comes to my birthday! Always! What's so important, anyway?"

No one answered him, but Hermione didn't really think he was looking for one.

"Play nice, boys," Hermione commented as the two almost eight year olds wrestled a bit more before she resided in the kitchen, Mr. Li close behind her. When they were out of earshot, she twirled on her foot to face him and put a hand to his chest and gave him a strained smile. He looked down at her and then kept it there on his shirt with one of his own.

"I feel the same way," he chuckled out and she scoffed and stole her hand back.

"Mr. Li-"

"I think after almost two years of being your neighbor, you can call me Brandon."

"You call me Miss Granger," Hermione hastily pointed out and instantly bit her tongue from saying something stupid.

"You know why I call you that. Because it sounds naughty. Is that why you still call me-"

"No."

His shoulders slumped but his face made no indication he was ready to stop talking. "I want to take you out on a date. A real date."

"Now is really not a good time," Hermione answered spryly, having expected this from Mr. Li and was prepared for it.

"Well, I know now isn't but like…next Saturday. Dinner? Movie? I know you watch movies. You're not one of those witches who are all, 'what are movies?'"

"I know what you meant. Presently and futuristically, dates—real or not— are not going to happen."

"You like me, though," he stated, and Hermione refrained from letting out an exasperated chuckle. Indeed, he was likable and genuinely good man, a great father, a spectacular neighbor, handsome, and a decent shag from what she could recollect from that embarrassing quickie months and months before. But the sun was set. It was nearly eight o' clock. The worst day of her life was winding down quickly to the second worst day of her life, and Mr. Li wanted to get into her knickers again and probably stay there because a man like him was looking for Mummy material. Really he was. She would not be surprised if he told her there and then to make things easier on both of them and hunt for a bigger house where they and their two children could fit. He wanted a wife, and Hermione was just realizing maybe she would like to have been one, too.

Just not Mr. Li's.

Which was very sad for him because his ex-wife hadn't wanted to be his wife, either.

Face crumpling, she placed her hands on Mr. Li's shoulders and directed her blurred vision onto his concerned face. "I found out today that Alex's father has passed, and I would really appreciate it if you could pretend to have platonic feelings towards me for as long as you can."