Chapter 11

Draco made a quick breakfast that they all served themselves and shared around the large dining table instead of at the island in the kitchen, and Hermione was shocked by how easy it was to be around his friends.

She cleared her throat toward the end of the meal, feeling awkward but wanting to include his friends with their baby plans as much as possible before they had to go back to France.

"I was hoping that since you guys are here for a few days you might want to help us baby proof? I know it's early but it feels like there's so much to get done still, and -"

"Sure!" Pansy squealed, cutting off what was sure to be a rambling explanation.

Hermione grinned, summoning a large box of contraptions.

Blaise left his seat to get a better look, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "I don't know what any of these things are."

"I'll show you!" Hermione assured. "We could have done it all with magic but it would just be too overwhelming to ensure all those wards are holding at all times. I also don't feel like circumventing different charms every time I want to plug something in or open a cabinet."

"So these are all Muggle things?" Blaise asked again, picking up a package with small pieces of plastic and clips.

"They are," Hermione said slowly, meeting his eyes. She hoped it wasn't a mistake.

"Well, Granger," Theo said with a small smile, "let the teaching commence."

She showed them how to attach plastic strips to each cupboard and drawer, showing them how the latch would keep the baby out of everything until he was much older but was still super easy for adults to manipulate. Next she moved on to the electrical outlet covers that plugged into each and would ensure the baby didn't stick his fingers inside, causing electrocution. There were little silicone bubbles that went on the hard corners of the countertops and tables to ensure little heads didn't smash onto the edges.

"There's more, but some of it won't be needed for quite some time." She pointed to the plastic pieces Blaise was examining. "Those go over top of the door handles so he can't open them and get into areas he shouldn't, and these gates will keep him off the stairs. We also need to figure out what we're going to do with the billiards room, because he definitely cannot go in there alone until he's much older. I guess we could just put a lock near the top or something."

Hermione's pointer finger met her bottom lip as she stared off into the distance in the direction of the room, looking thoughtful.

Draco met Theo's eyes, and his friend lifted an eyebrow with a small smirk on his face while Pansy and Blaise fiddled with the packages to try and get them open.

"She seems good for you, mate," Theo whispered, and Hermione seemed to come back to herself.

"We also need to put a lock on the bathroom door in his nursery - he doesn't need access to that, either, and I'm not going to take any silly risks."

"The best I could have asked for," Draco grinned back as Hermione took pity on Pansy and sliced open the tops of the hard plastic packaging.

Despite the thorough instructions she had given to Draco and his group of friends, he was curious when he heard his girlfriend's loud laughter ringing through the living room and went to check it out.

Theo had somehow gotten a sticky silicone bubble stuck in his sideburn and Pansy was standing in the middle of the room, juggling a handful of plastic objects and looking overwhelmed.

Blaise laughed from beside him.

—-

On the second evening of Draco's friends' stay, Hermione was seated on the back terrace, needing some quiet time.

They were nothing like she had expected, only having known them in passing during school; they had never gotten on well, and she didn't think they'd ever become friends.

But she liked them, and she was so thankful they were supportive of Draco in the ways that they were. She smiled to herself. It was nice to see him with friends who cared about his well being and wanted him to be happy.

She sipped her tea and heard the balcony door open behind her. Assuming it was Draco coming to join her, she was surprised when Pansy's black hair came swinging into view.

"Hi," she said to Hermione as she pulled out a chair. "It's gorgeous out here. How many acres is it?"

"Seventy," she replied with a small smile. She had been speechless when Draco told her how large his property actually was. She couldn't even see the vegetable patch that Kit worked on during the summer, it was so far from the main house.

"Wow," Pansy responded. "It really is incredible."

"It is," Hermione agreed. "It'll be a great place for the baby to grow up."

They sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments before Pansy sat forward, looking like she had something to say. Hermione waited expectantly, resigned to what she thought was coming.

"Look," Pansy started after she let out a breath. "It seems like you do really care about Draco but I just need to make sure for my own peace of mind that you understand what you're getting into. He's got a baby coming and that isn't something to take lightly. He's also got a lot of trauma in his past and -"

"You don't have to do this," Hermione said, meeting Pansy's eyes.

"I do, though, because he is one of my best friends and I think that he will always be misunderstood if he stays in England. People here have no idea what he went through from the summer of fifth year on. He doesn't talk about it much…"

"We've talked about it," Hermione supplied, obviously surprising Pansy. "I understand why you're concerned, but we've talked about so many things already. Of course there are things I don't know about him, and he doesn't know about me, but we will get to those subjects in our own time." She brushed her hair behind her ears, leaning forward. "I care about him, and I also care about this baby. I know it might seem strange to you and I don't really expect you to understand, but I have absolutely no plans on going anywhere. When we reacquainted it was like something inside of me shifted - something reached out to him - and I have no intention of taking it back. He asked me to move in the other night and I agreed. I know what I'm getting into."

Pansy was looking at her in silence, taking in her words. Tilting her head, she gave Hermione a small smile.

"It was voted that I'd be the one to come talk to you about it all, since Blaise and Theo are obviously concerned as well, but apparently there was no need."

"There really wasn't. The last thing I want to do is hurt him, in any way, ever."

Pansy gave a firm nod. "Good."

—-

Gus had been offered overtime pay to help with meals while Pansy, Theo, and Blaise were visiting, as Draco wanted to spend as much time with the group as he could and didn't want to be locked up in the kitchen.

So it came as a complete surprise on the fourth afternoon of the visit when Theo asked Gus to teach them all how to make a meal.

Pansy and Theo looked intrigued, Blaise and Hermione less than excited, but Gus was so thrilled about the opportunity that she couldn't sit it out.

With some quick wand work they were all standing at the elongated island, a small cooking area set up in front of each of them. Draco made sure he was positioned between Hermione and Blaise, because he had a feeling that those two would be the worst. Hermione had informed him in the beginning of their relationship that on top of being a terrible cook, she didn't enjoy it either, and Blaise was apathetic about the entire situation at best.

Further down the counter, Pansy was wearing a determined expression, almost like she had something to prove, and Theo's face was open and curious.

Gus summoned everything they'd need and settled it all down beside them. He either didn't know or didn't care about the levels of their cooking skills, as he had swifty decided that they would each make their own beef wellington.

Draco snorted aloud at the thought but quickly schooled his features when Gus looked directly at him disapprovingly. He spelled the recipe so that it was large enough for everyone to see from where they were standing, even though he was going to walk them through everything. This was how he had always taught Draco how to cook, telling him it was important to be able to read the steps properly, even though he was being led through it all.

"The first thing you need to do is sear your beef in the oil until it's brown on the outside and rare in the middle," the elf started, looking at them all with squinted eyes.

Draco decided to take pity on them all and added oil to his skillet before turning it on, watching as they all copied his actions. Once he determined his pan to be hot enough he placed the beef inside and watched it closely, making sure everything had a nice sear.

Pansy copied along, adroitly manipulating the beef around the pan before pulling it out. Blaise, on the other hand, had added so much oil to his pan that he was basically deep frying the meat, but honestly it could have been worse… like Hermione's, whose meat was already smoking and looked a little too brown.

Draco wisely chose to say nothing.

Theo's was underdone, apparently from an overabundance of caution, but Draco just smiled as he pulled the cleaned mushrooms toward himself and began to finely dice them.

"Yes, now you must dice your mushrooms and cook them in the pan until they are dry. Don't forget to add your seasonings."

Draco didn't know if Gus was being vague on purpose or not, but he caught the elf's critical eye again and looked down to his cutting board, making sure his mushrooms were diced small enough.

Hermione was already huffing in aggravation beside him, her knife work slow because she wasn't used to cooking.

"No, no miss," Gus shouted, making him jump. "You's left them too big!"

Draco glanced to his left and saw that Hermione had definitely not diced her mushrooms, just cut them into quarters. She apparently had zero patience for cooking. She huffed again and dumped them back out onto her cutting board, making Gus cringe.

Pansy was opposite, dicing her mushrooms like she'd done it thousands of times before and Theo was sniggering to himself as he quickly waved his wand over his and they diced themselves perfectly.

Draco rolled his eyes to himself, not surprised in the least, but continued on and began to fry his mushrooms with seasonings and oil.

On his right, Blaise had clearly decided he wasn't even going to try and was instead eating his mushrooms one by one as he watched everyone else's attempts.

Hermione dumped her uneven, choppy mushrooms into the pan and stirred them around halfheartedly.

Gus kept on a never ending stream of chatter, ecstatic to have an entire group to teach until the mushrooms were done cooking and were set aside.

He made his way down the countertop, looking at everything Hermione had done with blatant disapproval, ignoring Blaise completely, raising a knowing eyebrow at Theo, and smiling in approval at Pansy.

"Now lay out your prosciutto and spread the mushroom mixture evenly on top," he advised."You'll want to make sure you do this over the cling film, so you are able to roll it together when the time is right."

Hermione let out a supremely annoyed sigh and Draco almost snickered aloud when he saw that she had tried to move ahead and already had both her prosciutto and mushrooms laid out directly on the butcher block counter. She glared at him.

"Now put your seasoned, cooked beef in the centre and roll it together tightly. Then we will cast a cooling charm so we can get onto the next step."

Everyone followed his steps, except Blaise who was using his wand to heat up squares of his puff pastry before popping it into his mouth. Hermione tried to roll hers without the use of cling film and had basically just a blob of pastry and mushroom on the counter. Theo used his wand to roll his expertly and Hermione glared at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Score the top of your pastry and we will egg wash it, then they can go in the oven."

Pansy was carefully scoring the top of hers and Draco was surprised and pleased to see that it looked fairly close to his own. Hermione put a few half hearted cuts on the top of hers and unceremoniously dumped the egg wash atop, clearly wanting this torture to be over with.

Gus was appalled by the state of her attempts and side eyed Draco quickly before making an executive decision and vanishing the entire thing from the counter, causing her to twitch her mouth into a moue of irritation.

Blaise laughed and Hermione scrunched her nose at him before reaching across the counter and stealing a piece of his pastry.

"These three we will bake," Gus decided, and Draco's went into the oven with Pansy's and Theo's more than passable attempts.

"Theo cheated though!" Hermione cried, clearly unable to take the injustice. He just smirked at her.

She finally burst out into uncontrollable giggles and Draco wasn't able to stop himself from chuckling.

"I told you I'm horrible at it," she supplied.

"I don't understand how you can be so terrible at cooking yet make and invent your own potions."

"You invent your own?" Blaise asked, seemingly impressed. "I am also an avid potion maker and clearly not much of a cook, so maybe it's one or the other," he added, trying to give her something to hold onto.

Draco couldn't help but grin, beyond happy that his girlfriend was getting along with his friends so well.

—-

Draco was seated with his friends at the dining table on the last day of their stay, already chatting and sharing tea before Hermione made an appearance.

He couldn't remember ever feeling so happy. She had agreed to move in with him and hadn't left since. She said she would have to cancel her lease and settle a few muggle bills (like her telephone and gas) before she could fully move in, but he didn't care if she stayed from then on.

In fact, he hoped she did.

She smiled happily at him as she took a seat to his left, Blaise on her other side with Pansy and Theo across the circular table.

"Good sleep?" Pansy asked her politely, causing Draco's heart to soar. He knew she would get along with his friends, and he could tell that she was putting in an effort to try and bond with each of them separately.

"Excellent, you?" she replied, but Draco was paying attention and heard a slight tone in her voice; an instantaneous shift to discomfort.

He completely tuned out of the discussion Theo and Blaise were having about living in France versus England and focused entirely on Hermione.

She was tense, her hands were clasped tightly in her lap, fidgeting, and her smile seemed rather fixed.

Had something happened last night that he wasn't aware of? If someone offended her he'd have their head, that was certain.

She let out a slow breath as she continued to chat with Pansy and began rigidly fixing herself a cup of tea, her movements stilted.

She placed her cup in front of herself and her hands immediately clasped together into her lap again.

He glanced up and met Pansy's eyes, seeing the confusion in them as Hermione stopped talking in general, just sitting there rigidly as her breathing became heavier.

Fuck.

Every meal they had shared with his friends had been cooked in the kitchen and everyone served their own plates, meaning Hermione would have had time to subtly cast her charms on the way to the table.

That was not the case today, as the spread had been set out before she'd risen. He tried to think of a subtle way to draw everyone away from the table, but he couldn't think of anything that wasn't absurd.

He couldn't help the small frown on his lips as she glanced up at him, looking like she was about to have a full on panic attack. Her eyes had widened a bit and he could tell she was struggling to regulate her breathing, and he didn't understand why she didn't just quickly check the tea.

She looked so anguished in the moment they made eye contact that he let out a breath and picked up his wand.

He cast the spells quickly over her cup, and she looked relieved, which loosened the knot in his chest, but she looked up at him miserably again and he thought she might burst into tears.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly.

Why in Merlin's name is she sorry?

"Don't be sorry, I completely understand." And he did. He knew her well enough now to know that she checked literally everything she was going to ingest, be it at his house or Harry's, and especially out at a restaurant.

She still looked on the verge of crying.

"I know that you wouldn't -" she started, but he didn't even let her finish the sentence.

"Hermione. It's okay."

He understood then. She was afraid she was hurting him by continuing to check the food and drink he'd prepared.

She looked miserable, and he could see her embarrassment catching up with her. The entire table had gone silent during the small, unintentional spectacle.

Pansy was watching them and Draco had a feeling that she had been paying closer attention to Hermione than he realised over the visit. He wouldn't be surprised if Pansy had seen her checking her other meals as well.

Hermione looked up at his friend suddenly, and Draco had to wonder about the look of total understanding in Pansy's eyes as she pulled out her own wand and cast diagnostic spells on the platters of food.

He let out another breath, curious.

Hermione was shocked, he could tell. He nudged her cup closer to her with a small smile, and she finally reached for the handle.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" A cold voice rang out in the silent room.

Hermione had just been lifting her cup from the table when Theo spoke, but she set it down as though it had burned her and tucked her hands back into her lap.

"Are you fucking serious, Granger?" He asked, his voice especially chilly on her surname. "I thought you were different, I actually started to like you until-"

Draco's brain caught up and he was furious.

"Shut up, Theo," he hissed, his entire body tensing in rage. His fists clenched on the tabletop as he glared at one of his best friends.

"You cannot be okay with that," his friend spat back. "She's all but living with you and then acts like you're going to fucking poison her if she turns her back!"

Hermione paled drastically beside him, the blood draining from her face and leaving her wan. She pushed her chair back from the table abruptly, rearing back to put even more space between her and Theo and causing her full teacup to slosh over onto the table.

"Shut up, Theo!" Pansy spat, pushing her own chair back and jumping to her feet.

"I will not!" Theo yelled, angrier than Draco could remember seeing him in a long time. "Draco does not deserve to be treated that way!"

"Stop!" Draco roared, doing everything in his power to stay seated so he didn't do something he'd regret, but Hermione had left the table and he could hear her feet pounding up the staircase.

"You stay here, I'll go talk to her," Pansy said as she glared at Theo and left the room.

Blaise sat quietly between the two angry men, looking shocked at the abrupt turn of events.

"You don't get to say things like that to her, Theo!" Draco barked after a moment of deep breaths. "You have no idea-"

"She doesn't get to treat you that way!" Theo yelled back fiercely.

Draco shut his mouth abruptly, understanding that Theo was trying to defend him. The anger drained out of him slowly; Theo was one of his absolute best friends, and he didn't know what Hermione had been through.

"Listen," Draco ran his fingers through his hair in frustration and let out a sigh. "Remember when you told us Longbottom mentioned something happened to Hermione and then she just stopped dating?"

Theo nodded, his anger abating with Draco's suddenly calm demeanour and curiosity over what he was about to learn.

"Not many people know what happened, and it's none of your business, but since you're acting like a complete and utter twat, I'm going to tell you and have your word not to repeat this to anyone."

Draco looked between Blaise and Theo, waiting for each to agree before he'd say more.

"After the war, someone drugged her with Amortentia. She was missing for almost a week and still won't talk about it."

Saying it aloud was like a punch to his stomach. He still couldn't believe it and even just thinking about what she'd gone through made his stomach roil with nausea.

Blaise paled and let out a heavy breath and Theo looked gobsmacked.

"Merlin," he breathed, his face reddening as he realised what he had said to her. "I had no idea."

"Of course you didn't," Draco snapped, sighing again. "Because it's none of your fucking business. It's not about me, or my past. She literally checks everything she eats. Even at Potter's house."

"Doesn't that hurt your feelings?" Theo asked, more calmly but still a bit offended on Draco's behalf.

"No," Draco replied easily. "It. Isn't. About. Me. At all. It's about making sure someone I care about feels safe. If she needs to check in order to avoid a full blown panic attack then that's completely fine."

"Merlin, I'm sorry," Theo groaned. "I lost my temper." He rubbed his forehead.

"It's not really me that you need to apologise to," Draco said fairly.

"No, but you deserve one too. It's obvious you're head over heels for her and I shouldn't have jumped down her throat like that. I should have trusted you, at the very least asked in private."

"Oh," Draco said, taken a bit aback. He didn't know it was so obvious to others how he felt about her, but he couldn't really bring himself to care. She was one of the best things that had ever happened to him.

Before he could formally accept Theo's apology, Pansy appeared again followed by a dejected Hermione. It was obvious she was trying to put on a brave face, but he could see how upset she really was.

She sat down and he leaned in to her almost automatically, placing a light kiss on her temple. She gave him a weak smile as she moved her chair a little closer to his.

"I'm so sorry, Hermione," Theo started immediately. "I had no right to say those things or speak to you that way."

She gave Theo a sad little smile and accepted his apology, leaning her side into Draco.

Pansy started talking aloud, clearly just trying to move past the moment, but no one was really paying attention to anything she was saying.

"We have about five minutes before our portkey activates," Blaise informed the room after some stilted conversation that Hermione did not participate in.

Draco's mood twisted downward still further; he didn't want his friends to leave. They spent way too much time apart, but he understood their choice to live in France.

Everyone got to their feet and shared hugs, Theo levitating bags into the room as goodbyes were announced.

Hermione still approached him with a hug and well wishes, and Draco was again reminded just how kind a person she was.

"I love her," Pansy whispered beside his ear and they hugged goodbye.

Draco couldn't help but the grin he gave his best friends.

"We'll be back for the baby's birth!" Blaise called as they each held onto a musty old boot before disappearing.