It has been a while since Draco was woken up by something other than the tiny chubby hands and shrill, excited voice of his son. By a while; he means exactly three years, eight months and twenty-two days. Which is when the little monster was around two and hadn't figured out how to walk yet. Every sunday, he takes his son for a father-son day out in muggle London and every sunday little Scorpius cannot contain his excitement in his own room and comes barging in his bedroom to wake him up. He works on weekdays and on saturdays, leaving only sunday for him to relax and prepare himself for the upcoming week, but since he cannot say no to his son ever-he obviously gets that from his own father-he gets up at seven thirty-ish to indulge Scorpius. While he is trying to gain consciousness and also recover from all the shouting, for such a small boy Scorpius can make so much noise, Scorpius jumps on the bed and goes under the covers snuggling up to him. These are the moments where Draco gets all sentimental and somewhat thankful that his marriage to Astoria Greengrass has happened-also thankful that it has ended. His bond with his son has never been this strong when she was in the same house, she always had the house elves look after Scorpius and not let him do anything slightly parental. Her intervention in his relationship with his son had been the tipping point, although they had their fair share of problems on their own before his birth. They have been divorced for a awhile now and she left Scorpius with him and ran off to a private island thanks to some of the Malfoy money she got from their divorce. At first, it has been hard to explain Scorpius why his mommy had to go on a-very extended-vacation. Soon, he altogether stopped asking about her. Although he knows he cannot replace her as a mother, and sometimes thinks Blaise just might with the way he and Scorpius act together, he tries his best to make Scorpius feel loved. From the way he hugs his arm and closes his eyes with a contended little smile on his face, Draco can safely say that making him feel loved has been taken care of. He kisses the top of Scorpius's head, closes his eyes wishing for half an hour of sleep. His hopes are crushed when he hears Scorpius' response: "No eye closing daddy. My stomach is hungry."
He manages not to grumble as he kicks the covers, gathers giggling Scorpius in his arms and heads for the kitchen downstairs. Scorpius is allowed to eat sweets only on the weekends and he is pretty sure that chocolate pancake is what he will request him to prepare. So, he goes directly to the fridge to get the ingredients. After the war, he had taught himself how to do the basics, to essentially survive on his own while he lived in the muggle London to try and understand the muggles he hated for so long and found out that they compensated their lack of magic with Nutella. Starting from the various different delicious cuisines, he learnt how to appreciate the muggle way of life. His mother almost fainted the first time she saw him preparing his food like a "common Weasley," for her servants, and by servants she means centuries-long slaves, belonged in the kitchen and not Malfoys. He doesn't mind it though, neither her jabs nor the housework. He genuinely likes cooking; it is almost like potions with the lower probability of killing yourself when something goes wrong and for the rest, he is doing well if he may say so himself. The house they are living in is probably smaller than the west wing of the Malfoy Manor, but after all that has happened there he has lost his connection to his ancestral home and wanted something new, fresh and the polar opposite. That is why their house is cozy, warm and close to the city centre. The voices coming from the living room, followed by the giggling of his son brought him back to the present—burnt state of the pancakes. He curses loudly before dumping the burnt pancake into the trashcan. Sometimes he does that, he gets lost in thought while cooking and burns stuff like an incompetent Hufflepuff first year. He really should—
"Put a galleon in the curse jar. I heard you daddy."
Nothing catastrophic happens at breakfast and Draco is relieved. Usually Scorpius refuses to eat anything healthy and they end up fighting. Once Scorpius even threw his omelet on the ground and got grounded for that for two weeks. Although he is usually well-behaved and well-mannered, he can be a little hot-headed sometimes and throws tantrums. Draco hates it when he does that, but he gets that from him so he does not complain much. This particular sunday morning, however, Scorpius is rather adamant on finishing his breakfast as fast as he can while talking excitedly about their upcoming trip to the book store. A trip Draco had forgotten about. There is a muggle writer, Jean Karen Ranger, that writes best-selling children's books and of course Scorpius is a huge fan of hers. On one of their trips into the muggle London, he had seen a flyer indicating her upcoming autograph session and Scorpius had gotten so excited that he simply couldn't say no to his sparkling, huge grey eyes. Because of his Lucius Malfoy streak, he finds himself in a predicament; he wanted to spend the day in a park all by themselves in comfortable peace, so that he could actually rest whilst Scorpius played, but his word is his Malfoy honour-he simply cannot break his promise to his son. And he knows if he does, Scorpius will be disappointed and even his cold heart cannot take his slumped shoulders and sad little face. He sends Scorpius upstairs, so he can clean up while his son gets dressed. All he ever seems to wear is his dinosaur t-shirt nowadays, although he has a closet full of finest clothes and no matter how much he tried, he simply couldn't make him even consider wearing something else. By the time is finished with the dishes, Scorpius comes hurrying down wearing the damned shirt again and plops himself down on the sofa to resume watching cartoons. He leaves him there transfixed, goes upstairs to change into something suitable for the muggle world. He actually likes muggle fashion, he never liked wearing robes. Somehow they always made him feel ancient as if he belonged in the middle ages. By the time he is finished doing his hair, Scorpius comes in his room with car keys dangling from his little fingers, impatience written all over his face. He never ceases to amuse him. His impatience, demanding attitude and temper are not very easy for him as a parent especially when he uses them to manipulate him, but at the same time they are the telltale signs of an upcoming Slytherin although he is aware that Scorpius is rarely those and usually is calm, shy and nice. He does not even want to dwell on the idea of his only son being a Hufflepuff-it gives him shivers.
He gathers his son in his arms and ruffles his hair while Scorpius hugs him and his toy dragon close. He settles him in the back seat, buckles his belt and takes the wheel. Another thing he immensely enjoys from the muggle world is driving. It feels like flying and is a useful means of transportation as Scorpius does not like apparating and is too young for traveling by the floo network. He drives into the city while Scorpius tells him about his favourite book of Ranger. He has brought his favourite with him for the author to sign. "Adventures With Dragons" is actually the cause and source of Scorpius' mania with dragons and it helped that his name means dragon. He never separates from his toy dragon Ringo, the dragon from the book, and even refuses to sleep when it is not in bed with him. If he is being honest, he is curious about this writer. How did she become this influential over his son? How is she in real life? Will his son like her or his over-interest in her books stop after meeting her?
The weather is nice and there are many people wandering around, enjoying it. He thinks that it is better suited for a day at park. Still, the shop is almost full when they arrive. They do actually live close to the city centre, but traffic and finding a parking spot take up more of their time than he estimated. He hopes that they are not too late and that he can still get Scorpius to have his book signed. He takes his little hand in his and Scorpius follows him obediently. He gets scared in crowds and by the way he is clutching Ringo, this crowd is a huge one for him. He squeezes his hand and continues pushing through the crowd, throwing a few apologies here and there, until they end up in front of the line. He can clearly see the woman now. She is talking to a little girl, smiling at her and nodding her head. She has awfully long and unruly brown curly hair and seems to be younger than he anticipated, perhaps he was expecting an old lady with grandchildren who knows her way around kids and thus could write such good children books. After the little girl, they approach her. She raises her head to greet them and their eyes meet for the first time. In seven years.
"Granger?" he asks bewildered. The answer comes not from the woman who seems as shocked as he is, but rather from his son with an eye roll.
"It is Ranger daddy, don't be silly."