CHAPTER 9

Tired. That was all she felt. Which considering the past week's events was not that uncommon. However Hermione Granger felt oddly… relieved and somewhat free. She knew deep down, that it had a lot to do with her break up with Ron. A part of her felt bad for feeling so. What did it say about their relationship if relieved was one of the first things she felt? But it also made her realise that she spent far too long realising she and Ron weren't happy. They spent too long a time ignoring the pain and pretending everything was okay.

So in order to ignore the slightly guilty feeling that had crept on her the morning after their break up, she threw herself back into her work. Her office of the past few days had become somewhat of a chaotic mess. Books on all oddities of different kinds of magical and non magical illnesses littered the office.

This sudden surge of energy that was put forward into finding a solution for Scorpius Malfoy did not solely come from Hermione needing to distract herself. It also stemmed from their most recent visit to the hospital, where Draco had dropped of Scorpius' medical history at the request of Hermione. While Draco explained to Hermione some of the finer details that had not been put into the file, Hermione noticed the younger Malfoy wonder around the room. He picked up a stethoscope and a confused expression crossed his faced. While St. Mungo's was a Wizarding hospital, healers from time to time used muggle equipment as it was easier and at times more efficient.

Hermione had smiled to herself as she stopped listening to Draco and watched as Scorpius place the cool diaphragm to the artificial heart that was placed on Hermione's desk and the headset into his ears. She watched as he waited patiently hoping to hear the steady sound of a heart beat. His face scrunched up in confuse and disappointment when he heard nothing.

Looking up to see he had already captured the attention of his father and healer, Scorpius frowned slightly and stated in a very low and sad voice that it didn't work. Hermione abandoned the papers she and Draco had been going over and walked around her desk to the front, knelt down next to Scorpius and slowly moved the diaphragm from the artificial heart over to his. He looked at her with scepticism written all over his Malfoy features, until he heard his own soft and steady heart beat. Hermione watched him eagerly as his face grew into an excited smile. It was obvious he had inherited most of his looks from his father, and as young as he was Hermione knew he was going to be a big heartbreaker.

"Wow" he breathed out, "that's my heart?" He asked with utter astonishment. Hermione nodded eagerly and watched as he scampered over to his father.

"Dad! Dad! Listen to this! It's my heart." He said excitedly as he pull the headset out from his own ears and waited for this father to kneel beside him before pushing them into his. Positioning the diaphragm of the stethoscope in the exact place that Hermione had moments ago, father and son were quiet as Draco listened intently and only the sound of Scorpius' heavy breathing was heard.

A calm and content look washed over Draco's face as he listened to the steady heart beat of his son. It was reassuring him that indeed his son was still alive and well enough… for now. It was encouraging him forward far beyond anything had so far. He looked up and realised that Hermione was standing in the corner watching this innocent father-son moment.

Hermione had not missed the look that Draco wore as he listened to his son ramble on about his heart beat. She smiled brightly as he ran back to her and gave her the headset, indicating that he wanted her to listen too. She knelt before him, placing the headset in and listened as he held the diaphragm in place. It gave her a sense of purpose. She had to keep that beautiful heart beat going, no matter what.

Draco and Hermione had finally managed to get back to their discussion and a short while later the Malfoy's were saying their good byes to their healer. Scorpius ran up to Hermione, arms out indicating he wanted to be picked up. Hermione happily obliged and laughed a little as the little Malfoy said his thanks and gave her a sweet kiss on her cheek. Draco walked over smiling, and as he bent down to take his son from Hermione, he leaned down further and placed a sweet chaste kiss on her other cheek. A deep blush set in as he winked at her before calling out that they would be in touch.

She had thought back to the Malfoy's all the time over the next few days. It was totally surreal to see this side of Draco Malfoy, but she was pleased nevertheless.

However it was Scorpius' behaviour that day, which stole her heart completely. His sweet innocence and his curious mind had her thinking about that tender moment in her office days after their appointment.

She had another check-up with the Malfoy's today. However she would have to make the trip to the Malfoy residence, as an owl had come in this morning stating that Scorpius was not feeling well enough to get out of bed today. It was in the early hours of this morning, after pouring over vast books, she finally felt like she had found something and wanted to discuss it in person with Draco. As the minutes ticked closer to their approaching appointment, Hermione packed up her necessary things and headed towards the fireplace.

The cell had been cold and foreboding, the man inside was weak but by no means any less cruel. Now 6 months later, as she watched the Auror assigned to Lucius Malfoy hand her the papers to sign, she saw deep suspicion in his eyes. In the 6 months that Lucius Malfoy had been removed from Azkaban and sentenced to an indefinite house arrest, where he would carry out the rest of his sentence, he had only one visitor, Astoria Greengrass.

She shifted closer to his chair and took in the very sick form of Lucius Malfoy. The reason he had been granted an indefinite house arrest was due to the fact that shortly after having been convicted of his war crimes, and being put in Azkaban, he grew very ill and the only solution the ministry deemed fit for him was to put him under house arrest, under the watchful eye of one of their most talented Auror's Neville Longbottom. Astoria had always been careful never to visit when Longbottom was around, she didn't want to risk causing unnecessary suspicion. However this time she had not been so lucky.

"Miss Greengrass, how lovely to finally meet you face to face," he said as he took the signed papers from her, she said nothing and avoided his questioning gaze.

"You have 15 minutes" he said and he pointed his wand to the clock on the wall, it glowed red and he turned and walked out the room.

Astoria quickly looked over the man seated in the chair before her. He truly looked sick. His once beautiful sleek platinum blonde hair now hung lifelessly, his eyes surrounded by dark circles and his skin was slowly turning a light yellow.

This however did nothing to deflate the terror Astoria felt inside as she sat down in the chair opposite him. After all the man that had once been one of thee most influential wizards in all of Great Britain. This wizard, reduced to nothing as he stood on the wrong side of the war, now had to bear the consequences for it. But he was no fool and he knew if he played his cards right, he would soon be granted his revenge. For no one crossed Lucius Malfoy and got away with it.

"So the rumours are true?' he voice raspy yet demanding, "He has returned to England?"

"Yes, it is true." Astoria answered with a shaky voice. Sick or not, Lucius Malfoy was still a scary man.

"Good. It's finally all coming together," He said in a triumphant voice, "You know the rest of the plan?" at this Astoria eagerly nodded her head in acknowledgement. "You can't mess this up! Understand?"

She nodded again and then shrank back in fright as Lucius Malfoy gave his next order.

"You must go to them and complete what is needed. And quickly! There is no time to waste!"

"There's a …Uhm a slight problem with that…" the visitor said quietly as Lucius' face contorted into anger, "I … I don't know where they are exactly."

"WHAT?" he roared. Her bones shook with fear, "How could you not know where they are?! How could you lose them again?"

"He was careful," she responded, "Extremely careful. I couldn't track or trace anything… but I know they are definitely in London. The Daily Prophet caught sight of them earlier." Astoria then proceeded to hand him a cutting from the infamous newspaper. The clipping from not so long ago blazed out at him as he took in the picture of his good-for-nothing son and that filthy mudblood. He had to look a bit harder until he found just a glimpse of his grandson's hair from behind his son's leg.

So the rumours were true. Lucius looked out at the figure seated in front of him before barking out his final order in a voice most deadly.

"Find them."

Draco paced his lounge, waiting Hermione to arrive. Upstairs, his son was being kept entertained by Blaise. Scorpius had walked into Draco's office that morning dragging his stuffed dragon along the floor after him. He climbed up onto the big plush chair that sat facing his father. His godfather who sat in the chair next to him ruffled his hair and gave him a concerned look.

"You okay little man?" his godfather had asked, but instead of answering him, Scorpius tucked the stuffed dragon under his arm, rolled himself into a ball and proceeded to sleep in the chair. At that point Blaise had reached out to the little boy in concern and when he made contact with him pushing his blonde hair back, his eyes widened in surprise.

"Draco! I think he might be sick! He's unbelievably hot!" Blaise said, and watched as his friend hurried out from his chair to his son.

Draco had reached out and pushed his hair back just like Blaise had done and realised that his son was indeed sick. He quickly asked Blaise to write an owl to Healer Granger informing her about this sudden incident while he carried his son back up to his bedroom and ordered for Ippy, their house-elf, to bring a few potions for the young master.

Scorpius had slept for most of the morning, refusing to eat anything, no matter how hard Ippy had tried to coax him into it. Draco, himself had hardly left his son's room. He sat on the bed with him, rubbing gentle and soothing circles on his back as his son fought desperately to sleep.

It had only been a few minutes when their owl had returned with a note from Hermione, stating perhaps it would best to keep Scorpius in bed until she got there, and that she would be there as soon as possible.

That was when Draco took to pacing in front of the fireplace, anxiously waiting for her arrival. He didn't have to wait more than five minutes, when he heard the roar of the fireplace and saw Hermione stepping out, still dressed in her healer robes, work bag in one hand and a small collection of files in the other. She smiled as she saw Draco halt in his pacing and watched as a calmer demeanour set in.

"Hi," he said, his face conveying all the relief he felt at that moment. He moved forward and gently took the files from her hand placing them on the table and then placed his hand on the lower of her back as he guided her towards Scorp's room.

Hermione felt the heat from his hands through her robes and she had to mentally scold herself to stay focused. She followed him quietly as they walked towards Scorp's closed bedroom door. Draco opened the door and stood back for Hermione to enter.

As she did, she saw that Scorp was in bed as she had requested, his blonde hair sticking up out of the blanket that covered him. His godfather, who had been sitting on the left, reading to him, quietly put the book down and stood to greet Hermione.

"Miss Granger," he said with a charming smile, "Still looking beautiful as ever" he added with a playful smirk.

Hermione blushed and then set her bag down at the edge of the bed, and walked towards Scorp.

"Hello sweetheart," she greeted softly and she pushed back his hair to press her hand against his forehead.

He was warm, but that was not what was worrying Hermione. It was the fact that he had turned a sickly pale complexion. More pale than usual.

"Miss Hermione" he answered softly. It tore at her heart to see the sick little boy Draco had talked about and not the lively boy that was in her office earlier.

As she turned to reach for her bag, she saw both Draco and Blaise standing at the end of Scorpius' bed. While Blaise looked confused and worried, albeit for Scorpius sake it was Draco's expression that startled her. While the worry was evident, she saw something else etched in his face, something far beyond concern. She watched quietly for a moment and he looked his son over and realised with a heavy heart what it was. Fear.

It was at this point that she realised she had yet to determine what was wrong. After some various routine checks, which merely concluded that indeed Scorpius had a fever and was sick but for the time being it was nothing too serious.

After that, she left instructions with Draco that Scorpius should continuously be given fluids and was not to leave his room let alone his bed for the next few days.

Blaise had yet to move from his spot at the end of the bed but Draco had come to the other side of his son's bed. Helping Hermione they both tucked the little Malfoy in before Draco bent down to ruffle his son's hair and gently kissed his forehead. He looked over to Hermione half expecting her to take her leave only to be surprise to see her still sitting on the other side of the bed.

"Sweet dreams sweetheart" she said softly before leaning down to place a soft kiss on Scorp's forehead.

If that didn't make his heart jump, the expression on his son's face definitely did. Scorpius simply looked back at Hermione with the sweetest smile he had and then reached his arms out to her. She chuckled softly before leaning down to hug him and took this opportunity to place another kiss on his cheek.

Draco was at a loss for words. He could clearly see the effect Hermione tucking Scorpius had on the little boy. There was no doubt that his son would sleep peacefully tonight. Her simple act of kissing Scorpius goodnight would have an everlasting impression on him, but she didn't know that. She wouldn't have known that Scorpius' mother never once tucked him let alone give him a goodnight kiss. The pure joy that came from this small act left Draco speechless.

He looked back over to Hermione to see her still smiling and then towards his son to see the medication Hermione administered starting to take effect as his eyes began to droop and he held his stuffed dragon closer to him and sleep finally overtook.

Hermione stood quietly and picked up her bag and turned to see the stormy grey eyes of Draco looking straight at her and the stunned expression of Blaise who was still firmly planted at the edge of his godson's bed.

"He should be okay for now," she said softly, "it's nothing too serious. He just needs to have plenty of rest."

"Thanks Hermione," Blaise said finally moving forward towards her, "I'm pretty sure Draco was about to have an aneurysm had you arrived a minute later." He laughed quietly as he held his hand out to her. She smiled and shook his hand before looking to Draco.

"You sure he's going to be okay?" Draco asked the fear now evident in his voice.

"Yes, it's nothing more serious than the flu." She said. Seeing the disbelief in his eyes she explained further, "Seeing as this is the most common age for children to first show signs of magic I think this small flu might have been flared up by this. The important thing is that he's going to be fine." She said.

"Well, I'll pop in some time tomorrow to check on him if that's okay with you?" she asked Draco who mutely nodded, his eyes never leaving her.

Blaise who had seen how completely bewitched Draco was with Hermione knew that if anything were to happen between the two, they would definitely need a push in that direction. As smart as Draco claimed he was, it amused Blaise to note that Draco didn't even know what was right in front of him, literally.

Blaise took this as his opportunity to do something, "Thank you once again Hermione, but I'm sure Draco wouldn't mind if you stayed for coffee?" he asked her with a slight smirk directed towards his best friend. Draco finally woke from his stupor to realise what Blaise had offered.

"oh ..no I can't but thank you." She started but Blaise was having none of that.

"no really we insist! Just one cup?"

"ooh no its' really not nece-"

"Stay Hermione," Draco said softly, "please …"

She looked at him with his stormy grey orbs that made those darn butterflies resurface. She knew there was no way she was going to say no, but she didn't trust her voice so she merely nodded and allowed Draco to lead her out the room. She was too distracted by Draco's hand on the small of her back that she didn't catch the glare Draco threw at Blaise as they made their way down to the kitchen. She watched quietly as Draco set to preparing two cups of coffee and it was only when he place the steaming mug in front of her that she realised they were alone.

"Where's Blaise?" she asked as she added sugar to the coffee and began to stir it slowly.

Draco smiled to himself, knowing full well the thinking behind his best friend's actions.
"Upstairs with Scorpius I assume." He said as he too added sugar to his coffee. He looked up to see amusement in Hermione's eyes. They had seated themselves opposite the island table in the middle of the expansive kitchen.

He raised his eyebrow questioningly, "what?"

"Oh nothing," she said with a smile, "just I would never have guessed that Draco Malfoy would be one to take sugar let alone three in his coffee!" she laughed.

He smirked at her before replying, "Well let's just say I have a sweet tooth. It's not something many know."

She smiled and silently sipped her coffee before something on the fridge caught her eye. The fact that they had a fridge in their apartment didn't surprise her but it was the picture plastered to the door that surprised her. She didn't think that of all the people to tape pictures to the fridge door it would be the Malfoy's. It was so utterly …muggle. She stood and walked over to the fridge to see the pictures more clearly. It surprised her further to realise that some of the pictures had been taken by a muggle camera as the figures didn't move like they usually did in the wizarding ones. She saw that majority of the pictures were of the two Malfoy's with a few of Blaise and his godson slotted in.

There were pictures of Scorpius on his first broom stick with Draco holding on to him tightly. There were pictures of Draco, Scorpius and Blaise playing football. There were even pictures of Ippy and Scorpius. She smiled broadly as she scanned the fridge door taking in all the happy moments between the two Malfoy's and the small family they had managed to keep. She noticed with a little sadness there were no pictures of Scorpius and his mother. Still completely in shock over the fact that Draco Malfoy had muggle pictures tapped to his fridge, she turned around to tell him that when she realised he was already standing behind her.

He had now managed to sandwich her between the fridge and himself. It was when her back hit the fridge that she realised just how close he was standing. She swallowed hard as she realised just how much she liked him being this close. She took this opportunity to study his features again. While earlier in the room, she saw fear in his eyes, it was now replaced with something more. Something that she felt had never been directed towards her. Desire. It amazed her to see that the once malicious boy was truly gone. His features were soft as his eyes drank her in. realising the sort of situation they were in she tried to move only to be held in place by Draco's firm hands on her waist.

"Draco…" she said weakly, "we can't…" but even she didn't believe it.

"Hermione…" he whispered as he brought his hand up to caress her cheek which turned a slight pink and he looked down at her. She leaned into his touch, enjoying the sweet tender feel of his hands on her. He brought his face closer to hers, so close she felt his breath on her cheek.

"Draco …"she tried again, "I'm your son's… healer…" she replied meekly. "This … isn't…" she stuttered out as she tried to move again.

"Hermione..." he said as he used his other hand to hold her in place, "Scorpius isn't the only one that needs you…" he whispered softly in her ear, before looking into her eyes. He saw her chocolate orbs widen in understanding of what he meant.

He didn't just want her. He needed her. It was far beyond any lustful feeling that had been directed towards her or that he could have felt. As much as Hermione tried to ignore it she realised how wonderful it felt to be here, trapped in his hold. It was something that she had never felt before.

There was no feeling of guilt or even apprehension as she saw Draco move his head closer to hers and finally gently press his lips to hers. She closed her eyes as she leaned into the kiss. She felt the butterflies in her stomach rise as Draco tested the waters with the kiss being gentle and timid but seeing as she soon responded with much enthusiasm, he pulled her closer if that was possible and deepened the kiss. He moved his hand from her cheek to the base of her neck and his other hand wound around her waist as she was pressed against his firm chest. She ran her one hand though his gorgeously soft hair and the other gripped his neck and pulled him further down to her.

It was a glorious feeling and when they both rose for air, both where breathing heavily, Draco looked down to see Hermione's pink tinged cheeks and her eyes glazed over with desire. He realised he must have had the same look in his eyes because this time she reached up, pulling him closer to her and kissed him with just as much fervour as he had, only this time there was something much more intimate about the kiss.

It was only for them and the occupant that had stood at the door silently, slowly turned and walked away. As it was he achieved what he wanted. Looking down at the still picture he had just captured, of the two just before the first kiss, he smiled. Yes he would definitely have to find a place for this one on the fridge. Blaise walked away quietly from the kitchen, and for the first time in a long time, he was not concerned about his best friend.

AN : So sorry for the very very late update. I unfortunately don't have a very good excuse other than I've been really busy trying to survive university! I hope you like this chapter and as always I look forward to hearing what you think.

I hope to update as soon as I can, but don't hold me to it! I do however have every intension of finishing this story so please don't give up on it just yet! after all ! we're only just getting started! To all those amazing readers who have followed, favourited and reviewed this...THANK YOU ! THANK YOU ! THANK YOU!

Please don't be shy to leave me your thoughts, the good ,bad and the crazy! I love hearing from you guys!

As always this chapter would not have been possibly without my dear and most loyal critic Katy! Thank you for putting up with my horrendous grammar!

This chapter is dedicated to my late Grandfather: as words cannot describe the pain I feel at your loss, it is your amazing spirit that I will forever cherish.