Chapter 16

Draco was moping. Well not exactly; Malfoy's didn't mope around like some sort of muggle; at least that was what his father would have told him if he were still around. Probably surrounded by a distasteful remark and depending on his mood, scolding and or a list of tasks to help "better" himself so he can be the perfect pureblood prodigy of a son. Not that Draco had ever lived up to that title, but it didn't stop his father from attempting his son to meet that criteria. Instead, Draco was simply laying on the sofa, without meaning, as he was surrounded by the sounds of the children around him.

"Are you seriously still sulking?" Harry asked in an amused voice as he walked over to the sofa and pushed Draco's feet down so he could join him by sitting down beside him

"I'm not," Draco insisted as he reluctantly sat up, crossing his arms. "I'm not sulking."

"Really," Harry said in a deadbeat of a tone. "So you're not still annoyed that Hermione's out on a date with Oliver Wood."

"I'm not mad that she's dating," Draco said, looking at his partner, "She was right when she said we decided against giving it a go between the two of us. I'm annoyed that she's going on a date now, while someone out there is plotting to take over the world."

"Someone is always going to be plotting something like that," Harry said with a roll of his eyes. "I learned that over the years. And if you stop living your life because of it, then you're not really living much of a life to begin with. If you find yourself waiting for the perfect moment, then you're going to end up an old man on your deathbed, life having passed you by because you were too afraid or unwilling to take all the chances you had when they were presented to you."

"Still," Draco protested. "Shouldn't she think it out? How do we know Oliver Wood isn't the one responsible for all of this? What if he's using her to find out about the earthquake? Clearly they wouldn't have found anything useful from the file they stole, so what if this is how they're choosing to proceed?"

"First off, never suggest that, ever, to Hermione, or I can assure you that you'll end up on the wrong side of one of her curses. Second of all, maybe he is, but right now we have no leads as to who we're suspecting. It could be the bloody Queen of England for all we know," Harry said.

"There's a Queen of England?" Draco asked with a raised eyebrow. And Wizards were supposed to be the ones living in old times, when muggles still used a monarchy?

"Not relevant," Harry said with a wave of his hand, trying to move on, "The point is, anyone could be our person, so are you going to tell Hermione she can never go on a date until all of this is over?"

He hesitated, "Maybe…?"

Harry shook his head, "That's a terrible answer."

"Well I can't bloody well say I'm happy with her seeing other people!" Draco snapped. "What if it endangers Scorpius or the other children somehow? I can't let her unknowingly put my son in harm's way."

"You know as well as I do that Hermione would never do anything to put Scorpius in harm's way. She set Snape on fire when she thought I was in danger. She's the most loyal friend and mother that I know."

Draco was silent for a few moments, causing Harry to glance sideways at him, "Are you sure that this is what you're frustrated about?" he asked Draco mildly.

"And what else would it be?" Draco raised an eyebrow at his partner.

"The fact that she's considering a future with a man that's not you," Harry said bluntly.

Draco sputtered, "And why would that even bother me? We both decided-"

Harry waved his hand, "Yes, yes, you both decided that you wanted nothing to do with each other, when you were virtually strangers. But in the past two weeks, you've grown accustomed to each other. You learned things about each other that you never would have known otherwise. You and Hermione played house with Scorpius, feeding him, playing games with him, reading him stories at night; all of that could easily have caused you to unconsciously create a longing for her. And now that she's out with some other guy, you're angry that she didn't feel the same way."

"That's utterly absurd!" Draco exclaimed, denying instantly what his friend had tried to psychoanalyse about him.

"Is it though?" Harry said.

Draco was about to retort, when the floo network sounded. Seeing as Ron and Ginny were in the back with the boys, and Hermione was still out, he was curious as to who could be entering the house.

That is, until he saw his mother.

"How did you get in here?" Harry immediately stood to his feet, ready to draw his wand, "There are wards on the network."

"I have Black blood flowing through my veins, and most of those wards were placed initially to only allow in Black family members. I'm sure that in your time living here, you've adapted them to a certain extent, but it seems like you forgot about what wards initially stood through blood magic," Narcissa said, raising her hands in the air. "I come in peace, Mr. Potter. I simply wish to have a word with my son."

Harry looked at him to see if he was okay with such a thing, and he simply nodded.

"I'll be outside if you need anything," Harry said, giving a pointed look to Narcissa, "Think about what I said earlier," and with that, he exited the room, leaving himself and his mother alone.

She looked reluctant as she sat down, "I haven't been in this house since my Aunt and Uncle passed. Nice to see that it's brightened up, significantly."

"Is there a reason why you came here?" Draco asked his mother coolly, cutting straight to the chase.

"What a way to greet your own mother," she scolded lightly. "Haven't I taught you to have more manners towards your family?"

"I'm sorry Mother; how have you been since you insisted that you couldn't accept my son and thus no longer could accept me as your family?" he asked sarcastically.

"It's not that simple!" his mother argued. "It's not as simple as accepting a half-blood heir."

"It is," Draco said firmly, "You simply do not wish to do so. Now, if you've come to re-express your unhappiness about the situation, I'll assist in cutting this meeting short, and showing you out."

"Draco, the way you were raised taught you that muggles were inferior and if you should ever have a thought about them, you'll be punished. But the way I was raised was different. It was in our history to accept it. There was no such person as a Dark Lord to ever exist. Gellert Grindelwald was the most recent person for such a thing, and even he did not go to anywhere near the sorts of lengths that the Dark Lord did. The way I was raised, blood purity flowed through our veins and household as simple as water through a tap."

"Where are you going with this?" Draco asked his mother.

"I need you to understand this to know why it's so hard for me to accept your son," she explained. "It's been a part of my life for as long as I've been alive, so simply just changing my views isn't something I could do overnight."

"I get it, Mother," he said, "But it still doesn't explain why you're here."

"Because the idea of blood purity has taken everything from me," his mother said vehemently. "It took your father, well before Azkaban, he stopped being the man I married. And now I'll never be with him again. And it took my sister when she married a muggle. I can't let it take you and my grandchild either."

"So what do you want?" Draco asked, curiously.

"I want to change, Draco," she said softly. "It's hard, and I'm not saying it will be easy for me. But I want to make an effort to make amends for everything that's happened. I want to be in Scorpius' life and I want to be in your life. And if that means accepting that the Malfoy line with never be pure again, then it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make."

Draco nodded, "Okay," he said, and he could see his mother visibly relax at that. "But that means no more snide remarks, no looking down on my son, or Hermione. No treating anyone in this house, or their families like they're worthless. You need to really change, Mother."

She nodded eagerly, "I promise I'll try my best. I'll do everything I can to change."

"Then would you like to meet your grandson?" Draco asked her softly, knowing that she would agree.

Proving him right, she responded, "Yes," she nodded, "Thank you, Draco, for giving me another chance."

"We all deserve a chance to change, Mother," he responded, as he walked out toward the yard where Scorpius and the rest of the children were playing.

As soon as they walked out into the yard, the adults looked up warily, while Scorpius looked up with piped interest at the new arrival of a guest.

He gave Harry a nod to say that he would explain the situation to him later on, when the two of them were alone once more.

Scorpius walked over to where they were standing and looked at Narcissa curiously, "Daddy, who's this?"

"This is your grandmother, Scorpius," he said as he bent down to be leveled with his son. "She's come to visit you, Scorpius."

The young blond looked up in amazement, "I have a grandmother?" he asked as his eyes widened.

Draco frowned at that. The boy clearly would have been exposed to the large Weasley family in his own timeline, but how was it that he had never met either his or Hermione's parents? Had his mother not decided to get to know her own grandchild in the old time line? If so, what was so different in this one, which caused her to change her mind about all of it enough to want to know Scorpius when she clearly couldn't have been bothered before? And he knew Hermione's parents and herself had a strained relationship from what little she had told him, but as similarly to himself, the birth of a grandchild not change all of that?

Narcissa looked a bit taken back by his question, but nonetheless smiled at the young child. "Hello, Scorpius," she said softly. "I've heard so much about you."

Scorpius grinned at that, "Do you want to play hide and seek with us?" he asked eagerly as he looked up at her still.

She looked a little hesitant, and Draco immediately knew why. While his mother had been the more present of his two parents growing up, she had rarely every played with him as a child since she was always busy or had better things to do. Growing up an only child, he often would turn to his toys or the other boys when they came over as a source of entertainment.

She nodded despite herself, "I cannot say that I've ever played that game before. Do you mind explaining the rules to me?"

And with that, his son began to enthusiastically telling her the rules.

While the children and Narcissa began to play, Ginny decided to go start dinner, and Harry walked over to where he was standing.

"I can't say I ever thought I would see the day where Narcissa Malfoy was running around my yard, chasing our children," he commented lightly. "I take it you and your mother sorted out your differences?"

He nodded at that, "She decided she would rather give up her notions of purity than lose everyone in her life to them."

Harry smiled at that, "Good. Maybe in time she'll even make amends with her sister."

Hermione leaned forward in her chair as Oliver was telling her about the time he went to Italy for a Quidditch match and got lost in the city a few hours before his game, not knowing any English at all, and trying to find his way to the stadium.

It was an interesting tale which had her attention captured with the way he so naturally told her the story, as if it were a second profession.

They had just finished their appetizers, and were waiting for their main courses to finish being prepared, and were both currently drinking a glass of wine after Oliver had surprised her by ordering her favourite bottle.

To say it was going well would be an understatement. He had greeted her promptly at her door at 6 p.m. after she had gone to her own flat for a few hours prior to catch up on the sleep she had desperately required, and to have her larger selection of a wardrobe in front of her. Granted, most of it had been bought slightly unwillingly as Ginny had forced her out on trips every now and then, but she couldn't say that she wasn't grateful to have it available to her. She had chosen to wear a formal red dress which had a boatneck top and an A-line bottom, paired with some black heels (which had a charm on it to ensure her feet would not start hurting from the pain), and had kept her hair simple.

Due to the closeness of her own flat to Diagon Alley, they had enjoyed a short walk to the magical area as he informed her that he was taking her to one of the classiest restaurants in the area, both so they could have some privacy and so they could enjoy some nice food.

"And then I bumped straight into this wonderful elderly couple, who insisted I try some of their bread," he said, earning a laugh from her, "Granted, it was delicious, but I was still panicking about not making it on time. Unfortunately for me, I was in an extremely crowed area of the muggle city so I couldn't just apparate out of there nor could I cast some sort of spell to help me find my way."

"What did you do?" she asked, intrigued, as she took a sip of the red wine in front of her.

"I got really lucky that I ran into a witch who happened to be a fan of mine," he admitted, "She let me into the back room of her establishment so I could apparate out, after signing an autograph for both her an her even bigger of a fan, boyfriend."

"Sounds to me like there was definitely a lot of luck on your side," she teased him slightly, smiling at him.

He grinned at her, "It was a wonderful experience to explore the city without direction, though of course it would have been nicer without the time constraint. Because of that time, whenever I travel to a new place, I always take a day to explore the city without a map, and just wander around and explore it. There is no better way to get to know a city than to learn it yourself."

She smiled at that, "Sounds wonderful, to just travel anywhere and not follow any sort of plan or direction, but to just get to learn it yourself."

"I could take you sometime," he offered her. She knew that he meant it, which scared her slightly, but also made her heart race. Clearly he was thinking about the future of their relationship to make such a statement. And she would be lying if she said that she didn't feel anything for the man in front of her. Sure, it wasn't anything all that strong yet, but she knew that with time it had the potential to be.

"I'd like that," she said softly.

He placed his hand over hers, "We could go anywhere, Milan, Paris, Madrid; just name it. The two of us could go enjoy a nice vacation away from all of this."

She was about to respond when she was interrupted by a commotion outside of the restaurant. She could hear yelling and panic as she saw Oliver quickly stand to his feet and draw his wand out. The last time she had seen a panic like this without knowing the exact cause, it was during her fourth year when the Death Eaters attacked the Quidditch World Cup.

She followed suit as she grabbed her wand and charged out of the restaurant, running in the direction that others were fleeing from. Those running away from the area were filled with panic, pushing down others to get away. She could see a mother desperately holding onto her child as she apparated away from the site. As she grew closer, she pushed past the hordes of people who had decided to swarm the site to see what was happening.

Somewhere along the way, she lost Oliver in the crowd. She probably could have tried calling out to him, but the surroundings were filled with screams and loud noises and she knew her own voice wouldn't carry out amongst the crowd of people.

Pushing through the last barrier of people, surrounding the area of where the panic had originated from, she looked down to the ground in horror as she saw a body lying there, in the middle of the street, so badly burned and tortured that she couldn't tell so much as a gender from first glance. Her heart raced as she knew that whoever was responsible for the future to play out the way it had, had decided to up the stakes a whole lot sooner this time around.