Almost one year later
14 February, Wednesday, 2349 GMT
Draco draped his left arm over her hip. He kissed Hermione's bare shoulder. He breathed in her hair. She could feel him smile into the back of her neck.
"I love you, Mrs. Malfoy," he said shutting his eyes. He pulled her in closer to his body.
"I love you, too, Draco," she said, turning to face her husband. She kissed him on the lips.
Draco smiled back at her and then kissed her again as he pulled the covers over them. He drew her in closer. She took in a sharp breath as he entered her. She kissed him again as she moved in time with him. It would be another 20 minutes before they fell asleep in each other's arms.
o-o-o
15 February, Thursday, 0630 GMT
Hermione wrapped her silk robe around her body. She picked up the young toddler rubbing the child's back before placing the brown haired, grey-eyed youngster onto the changing table. She quickly changed the toddler's diaper and put a fresh change of clothes onto the child.
Draco watched her affectionately from the doorway. He reveled at how lucky he was to have her. The former Ms. Granger and childhood adversary of his was now his best friend, confidant, and lover. He cherished these moments with his wife.
Draco appreciated the pseudo-holiday. He welcomed any excuse to come home to see his family. Any time away from Hermione and Drew always seemed a lifetime. It had only been a month since the Christmas holidays, during which he and Hermione threw a great 2nd birthday party for Drew.
His schedule at the Wizarding school was a complicated one. As often as he would have wished to change it for the betterment of their relationship, it was Hermione who would always remind him about why he enjoyed the post so much.
He actually did love teaching. In fact, he took all of the things Hermione was wary of to heart when he first suggested that he was going to pursue the Potions Instructor position over two years ago; he made doubly sure to not pick on any of the obvious "outsiders" and made sure each of his first year students respected each other. He was lucky to have a good bunch of students in his first two years of teaching. But even on those long hard days he would always take solace in the fact that he had Hermione and Drew to think about as his head hit the pillow for the Hogwarts evening.
o-o-o
There were only three married faculty members, Doctors Potter and Goyle and Professor Malfoy. Ginny was allowed to leave campus every other weekend. Gregory split his time between Hogwarts and Saint Mungo's, arriving usually on the Fridays to start his three day shift. All three staff members, as usual, were allowed their Valentine's evening off.
The Potters had invited the young families for a small get-together Valentine's Day dinner. Blaise had enchanted the backyard temperature to a respectable 21° Celcius; fairly comfortable considering the 1° Celcius winter weather. Harry and Gregory took care of all of the cooking while Draco and the young mothers watched the children; a task he probably would have never volunteered for in his younger days.
The four couples sat around the fire pit after enjoying their meal. They sat sipping their evening cocktails. Two-year old Drew sat dozing in Draco's lap trying to listen to the grown-ups converse. James and the Goyle children, Jacob and Greg, sat playing a Muggle card game, yawning every so often. Harry cradled Ronda in his arms as the four year old slept soundly. Blaise helped place the sleepy one-year old Blair into her bassinet after Pansy had finished breastfeeding her.
"Father spoke about the Department of Magical Law Enforcement working with the Muggle liaison," Draco said as he sipped his fire whiskey.
Both Pansy and Harry nodded their heads. "Strange happenings have been going on," the former Slytherin began. "Our Muggle counterparts signaled us of the unexplained disappearances of Muggle Interpol and military personnel here and on the continent."
"What's more strange are the reported incidents, both in the Muggle and Wizarding worlds, of stolen weapons," the scarred Gryffindor added, "small caches here and there of small arms, semi and fully automatic weapons and blade weaponry."
"Even our department is sensing it. There's just a weird vibe right now," Blaise nodded. "We've had to send Obliviator teams on five different incidents in the past two weeks already."
"Do you think something's brewing?" Hermione asked.
There was quite a pause. Joanna squeezed her hand reassuringly.
"We'll weather the storm, I think," Ginny chimed in. "We've proven our generation to be quite resilient."
With that, everyone laughed. Draco nodded at Hermione, as if to say, 'alright?' She returned his nod, reassuring him.
o-o-o
15 February, Thursday, 0645 GMT
He cherished these family moments over the past two years. He smiled to himself as he wrapped his arms around her waist, slightly surprising her. She turned with Drew in her arms. She kissed his cheek.
"You're up already," she smiled.
Draco took Drew in his arms. He kissed Hermione on her cheek and smiled. "I figured I don't have to be on campus for another hour and fifteen minutes. I should spend my waking moments with the two of you," Draco kissed Drew's forehead before looking up at her mother.
"You're incorrigible, you know that," Hermione smiled back at him.
"Yes, but you love me anyway," he said smirking good-naturedly.
"Breakfast?" she said as she nodded towards the door. He followed her, holding Drew on his hip, already counting the days in his head until the Spring holidays.
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