A/N: I know a few of you guys were wondering about the ages of the boys to help you picture them. I didn't tell you as of yet because the characters itself didn't know. All they knew was that these young boys suddenly appeared. Their ages were the least of their worries. But with that said, you will find out in this chapter, so hope it helps!

Chapter 4

Hermione sat at the table, a cup of tea in front of her, and her head between her hands. She could still feel the steam from the tea rising up and against her skin, as the smell wafted through her nose. She had put the kettle on as Harry and Ginny were putting the children to sleep in one of the guestrooms, and poured it into five cups.

Ron was pacing back and forth across the room, while Malfoy sat across from her, staring at the wall, uncomfortably. It had barely been half an hour since they left the Aurors' office and she couldn't bring herself to face the others in the room just yet.

She wasn't ready to be a mother. She hadn't mentally prepared for it. Hermione had one day wanted to have children of her own, to have a nice little family with two or three kids. But that desire was one for several years from now.

All of this was so draining, and part of her wished it had never happened. If the children had never come back, she would still be living her days out as a Healer, going on the odd date here and there, and maybe if she were lucky she would find love. Yet here she was now, with a new destiny thrust into her lap; something she never wanted.

She supposed it was how Harry had felt. He never asked to be the Boy Who Lived, yet this huge destiny was thrust upon him from a young age.

"They're asleep," Ginny announced as she and Harry entered the kitchen. The pair of them sat at the table beside her, and Ron rested his hands on the back of the free chair. "Now can someone tell me what happened? Who are those children?"

"Our kids," Hermione said, slightly pale. "They're our kids from the future."

Ginny blanched, "How is that even possible? She asked, touching her protruding stomach, "Do you mean to tell me that one of those kids is the child that is currently in my stomach right now?"

Hermione's eyes widened, she hadn't even considered that James was who Ginny was currently pregnant with.

"Maybe," Hermione said, "We don't know when they're from yet. They could be from twenty years from now and he could be your fourth child or something like that."

Harry shook his head, "We were going to go with James if it was a boy," he said softly. "How is that even going to work? With James being here in two different ways."

"Well usually it shouldn't make a difference," She informed the group, "Remember in third year when we used the time turner to save Buckbeak? We were in two places at once, but our presence alerted no one there. But this is different. The magical discharge released wasn't just from the children coming back. They altered the timeline in permanent ways, and the result was the timeline they're from combusting, being destroyed by their mere presence here. They destroyed one of the ways the future was going to occur forever."

"Like the Loom of Fate," Malfoy spoke up, without making eye contact with her. "There's this magical theory based on this ancient Greek myth that in life there are so many different choices surrounding us, and that every decision we make weaves the Loom of Fate, and seals our future."

"Precisely," she nodded, "The children coming back changed everything. And because of that, the child you're carry Ginny, might have been James, but because they came back, the fetus will develop differently and will become an entirely different person all together. "

Her ginger friend let out a sigh of relief, "Well that fixes some complications."

"But won't that be all Back to the Future where the children will cease to exist due to them interfering with time?" Harry questioned, receiving confused looks from the purebloods around them.

She shook her head, "There are tales, myths even, of time travellers, but there have been very rare instances where they've affected themselves in ways like that; something about the magical essence in their souls needing to continue to exist in one form or another."

There was silence around the table before Ron spoke up again, "They're so young," he mused, "Why would any of us send them back to the past without any notes or memories or any sort of clue as to why they're here."

"Maybe there wasn't enough time," Malfoy said grimly, "If one of us sent them back, maybe we didn't have time to prepare anything to send with them."

The room seemed tensed at that horrid thought. None of them wanted to say the unthinkable that something had happened to them, preventing them from sending more helpful knowledge back with the kids.

"But we did," Hermione reminded the group, "We have their memories; both what they can tell us, and the physical memory itself. If we didn't have time, we must have thought that there were facts in the children's memories that could help us stop whatever it was that happened, from happening.

"They're so young," Ginny commented silently. "How old are they?"

Hermione exchanged a look with Harry, "We didn't get to asking them that," she said, "We didn't get to asking them a lot of things. The poor things were exhausted. I would say no more than eight for James, and Hugo and Scorpius are within three years younger than that."

"So what do we do?" Ron asked the group.

"For now?" Harry asked, "Nothing. In the morning we can ask them more questions, and look at their memories in a pensive, but unless there's some other crisis between now and then, we might as well all get some sleep. Hermione, you and Ron can have your usual bedrooms, and I've already showed Draco the guest room he'll be staying in.

Ginny nodded as she stood up to leave, Harry following closely behind her. Ron looked hesitant to go, seeing how the room only would contain her and the apparent father of her future child, but she gave him a look to indicate she would be fine. She stood and cleared the cups with a flick of her wand, and turned when she heard Malfoy clear his throat.

"I suppose it's time for us to have the talk you wanted earlier," she commented lightly as she sat back down at the table with him.

He ran his fingers through his hair, "Except now we have much more to talk about than I had initially planned for us to discuss," he sighed.

"Yes, we do," she agreed. There were a few moments of silence between the two of them, so she said, "How about we start with what you originally wanted to talk about and go from there?"

He nodded at that, "I wanted to talk to you earlier because I never did get a chance to formally apologise for everything that happened while we were at school. I've already done so with Potter, and Weasley and I have a faint unspoken agreement that neither of us will try to kill each other, but I've never gotten to talk to you. I've been putting it off because I was so ashamed of how I treated you, but I want you to know that I'm not that person anymore."

"I know," she said softly as she looked at him, "Harry would never work beside you if he thought you hadn't changed.

"I really am sorry for everything," he said with a sincere voice, "For how I treated you, for the names I called you, for tormenting you and harassing you."

"I forgive you, Malfoy," Hermione said gently.

"I suppose we need to talk about the fact that apparently in the future we have a kid together," he said drily.

"Yes," she agreed, "It would be worth discussing."

"You said yourself that things are going to change because they came back," Malfoy reminded her, "Maybe now in this new future we aren't meant to be together. Maybe this is one of those things that get changed. Let's be honest, Granger. The two of us would never work together. One of us would end up killing the other."

"Probably," she nodded, "Just because we know one version of the future doesn't mean we know ours now. It's not like we need to suddenly change everything and pretend to be madly in love with each other. We can platonically raise Scorpius in this reality and feel free to be with whomever we desire."

"It's unrealistic to expect us to be forced together by a kid," he agreed.

"Exactly," she said. "I'm glad we sorted all of that out."

"As am I," he said, standing. "I'll see you tomorrow, Granger," he said as he walked out of the room.

She stayed in her chair for a few more moments, thinking over the conversation that just happened, as she ignored the tiny little part of her that was disappointed by the outcome of the conversation.

Hermione awoke early the next morning as the streaks of sunlight from the window hit her face. She was used to not getting more than a few hours of sleep per night from her time at Hogwarts and the year she spent on the run, so it didn't really surprise her how refreshed she felt, despite the events that happened the night before.

She walked over to the closet which she placed a few spare clothes over the years from nights of staying over at her friends' home and grabbed a robe to wear over her pyjamas, before putting her hair up in a messy little bun on the top of her head.

As she made her way down the stairs she could smell sausage and bacon wafting through the house. She half expected Ginny or Harry to be in the kitchen preparing breakfast, so when she reached the bottom landing and saw Malfoy standing over the stove with a spatula in one hand and the other holding the frying pan, she couldn't help but feel shocked.

On the table were scrambled eggs, toast, waffles, and juice.

"Good morning," the blonde man said as he turned to face her. He had a relaxed look on his face, and she wondered if such a feat was considered normal for him.

"Did you make all of this yourself?" she couldn't help but ask as she held one of her arms, slightly self-conscious about her appearance. The man in front of her had a way of making her feel highly underdressed, as he appeared to have showered and dressed first thing this morning. His hair wasn't styled as it had been back while they were a school, but there was still a definite neat appearance to it.

"With the help of magic," he nodded as he turned over a piece of bacon, "Multiplying charms can be quite helpful when it comes to cooking large meals."

She smiled at that, "That's rather clever of you. Definitely saves you time from cooking for everyone. I'm sure Ginny and Harry are going to be thankful to not have to produce breakfast this morning."

He moved to place the food he was cooking on a large plate, before placing it on the table.

"Well I definitely don't want to make the pregnant woman cook for everyone, and who knows if Potter can even cook a meal without burning it to a crisp," he said lightly, causing her to laugh.

"He's not all that bad," she mentioned. "He used to cook for his extended family when he was younger so he picked up a few things here and there. I wouldn't trust him with Christmas dinner or anything like that, but he's pretty good for things like this."

"That's not something I would have considered," Malfoy said, sounding slightly stunned.

"Oh?" she teased, "So you don't talk about cooking habits while on active duty with him?"

He grinned, "I can honestly say conversation of the sort has never come up."

She sat down at the table when Harry came into the room, Ron trailing behind him. Neither men looked well rested as they sat down beside her, though Ron perked up considerably at the sight of the meal in front of them.

"Did you check on the boys?" Hermione asked Harry as he ran his hands through his hair.

Harry nodded as he said, "Yeah. They were fast asleep still so I didn't want to wake them. We need to question them eventually, but I thought they deserved a few more hours of sleep."

"We have to be careful when we do," Hermione said cautiously, "We don't know what they've seen, or what happened to them in their timeline. They could be traumatized and we can't push them too much. I would ask them basic questions today, and get their memories for later, but we need to be gentle when we ask them deeper questions like why they came back."

"Of course," Ron agreed as Draco sat down beside them.

There was a sound of pecking at the window and Hermione turned to see an owl with letter between its claws. As Harry let the bird in, it dropped of the letter and newspapers it was holding onto the table.

Hermione grabbed the Daily Prophet from the table. The picture was a far-shot of London in the aftermath of the chaos and the paper was calling for answers that the rest of the world so desperately desired. She looked over at the muggle paper she had subscribed to a year earlier and saw similar confusion. The only difference was that they were trying to use scientific causes to explain what happened while Hermione knew better.

Harry tossed the letter he had been reading onto the table, "Kingsley wants to call a press conference to talk about what happened. He's not going to mention the boys or the exact cause, but he's going to give them just enough to satisfy the world without giving away too much of the truth."

"Sounds like the right thing to do. They deserve to know that the world isn't falling apart at the seams," Malfoy agreed as he sipped a cup of Earl Grey tea.

"Mommy?" she heard a tiny voice call out. She turned to see Scorpius standing in the doorway, a bit unsure, with James holding his hand and Hugo reassuringly holding the blonde's shoulder.

She stood from her chair to bring the boys to the table. As she did so, Scorpius clung tightly to her leg. She was a bit uncomfortable at the gesture, but she reached down to pick up the boy to carry him. He wrapped his arms around her neck as she walked back over to her chair. While the other two boys found their own seats, Scorpius was too clingy to let go. She didn't know much about children, but she supposed it was because he was worried something was going to happen to her, 'Again,' she couldn't help but wonder as she felt a pang in her chest.

So as Hermione sat down, she kept her future child on her lap, as her friends watched with wonder. There was an unreadable look on Malfoy's face, but she chose to ignore it, as she placed a few extra pieces of the assortment on food on her plate for Scorpius to eat. The two older ones wasted no time before digging into their food.

"So James, we were just curious, how old are you boys?" Harry asked his son casually.

"I'm 7," he said with a toothy grin, "Hugo is 6, and Scorpy just turned 5 a few months ago."

Harry nodded as Ron stared at Hugo in wonder. "How much of what happened do you remember? Do you know where you are now?"

"I'm at home," James said, a bit confused. "We do still live here right?"

"We do," Ginny's voice carried out as she entered the room. "I think your father meant to ask if you understood when in time you are."

"The past? Aunty Mione said the potion was meant to take us back to the past," he said, unsure of his answer.

"Good," Hermione said, giving him a supportive smile, "So what year is it where you are?" she asked as Scorpius squirmed in her lap to reach for a piece of sausage that she had finished cutting up for him.

"2008," Hugo answered proudly, causing Ron to give him a wide grin. Ginny shook her head in amusement as she sat on the other side of James to place some food on his plate. Hugo, like his father, was gladly helping himself. "Dad, where's Mom?"

Ron turned pink slightly. It seemed that the idea that he was apparently also married in the future had slipped his mind.

"What's your mother's name?" Ginny asked softly.

"Mom?" Hugo asked, slightly confused.

"Yes, but what do others call her?" Hermione tried, "Like what do Scorpius and James call your mother?"

"Aunty Luna," James answered for his cousin. "We call her Aunty Luna."

Ron's face crinkled at that, but his reaction was not as dramatic as it could have been. She made a mental note to ask him about it later. Malfoy merely smirked at that. When she caught his eye and gave him an amused look, he pretended to use his napkin to wipe his face to hide from it.

"We need to ask you boys something," Hermione said softly, "Can you tell us about what happened for us to send you back here?"

"It wasn't safe anymore," James said, getting quiet as he spoke. "You said it wasn't safe anymore and that you needed us to do something really important."

"A super-secret mission," Hugo supplied.

Hermione exchanged a look with the adults around her, "Can you tell us everything that happened to make it 'not safe anymore'?" she asked them.

James took a deep breath before starting to speak.