The Malfoys were enjoying a peaceful breakfast while Hermione ran through her final checklist for the garden party they were hosting that afternoon. The planned party wasn't going to be a big affair, in all honesty it was just their family and closest friends gathering to celebrate Scorpius's N.E.W.T scores, which were due to be delivered that day. Hermione had thrown a similar gathering for Daniel, when he'd left Hogwarts and no doubt she would do the same when Lyra graduated in a couple of years' time.
"You really don't need to go to all this fuss, Mum," Scorpius insisted for what felt like the hundredth time. "My results haven't even arrived yet. What if I've failed terribly, and all this planning is a complete waste of time?"
"That better not by your way of saying you've messed up your exams," Hermione warned, giving her son a stern glare.
Playing quidditch professionally wouldn't have been Hermione's choice of career for any of her children, but it was Scorpius's dream and she'd been fully supportive of his hopes for the future. However, she had been adamant that Scorpius hadn't neglected his schoolwork in favour of quidditch. He was too smart not to make the most of his academic potential, and Hermione was only too aware that professional careers in sports of any kind had a shelf life, and that for Scorpius even if he did make it as a quidditch player, he would need a second career for later in his life.
"No, I didn't mess up my exams," Scorpius admitted. "In fact, I'm confident I've passed everything."
"Then why suggest otherwise?" Hermione asked with a frown. "Or are you saying your results may not be as high as they should be?"
"I honestly did my very best in every exam," Scorpius vowed. "I'm just saying that you don't need to fuss over my results. If everything goes according to plan next month with the quidditch trials, I'll hardly be needing to fall back on my N.E.W.T scores."
"You will need a job once your quidditch career is over," Draco pointed out to his son.
"Maybe I'll just join the family company," Scorpius said, giving his younger sister a sly smile.
From a young age, Lyra had made no secret of her desire to join the family company, and one day run the whole thing single handedly, whereas Scorpius and Daniel had both set their professional sights elsewhere from an equally young age.
"I suppose by then, I might have room for a junior employee somewhere," Lyra retorted. "If you do play quidditch you should know how to handle a broom, so you could always be the office cleaner."
"Ouch," Scorpius laughed, well aware that his sister was just joking. At least he hoped she was. "I guess we can't all be super brains like you, Lyra."
"I'm not that much smarter than you and Daniel," Lyra replied with a roll of her eyes.
However, everyone at the table knew that she was the smartest of the Malfoy children. In fact, Hermione strongly believed that her daughter was smarter than she'd been at her age. Magic had always come exceptionally easy to Lyra, as it also had to Daniel and Scorpius, and while the boys were both bright and had easily excelled at their schoolwork, Lyra had always been something special. Straight from starting Hogwarts her grades had been top notch, and Hermione fully expected her daughter to graduate as one of the best students to ever grace the halls of Hogwarts.
"Well, I'm looking forward to the day Lyra takes over the family business," Draco announced, his gaze falling on his wife. "We can retire, and I have plans for our retirement."
"You do, do you?" Hermione laughed. "Are you going to tell me about these plans?"
"Let's just say it involves you, me, a lot of travelling and very little clothes," Draco returned with a smirk.
"And that is our cue to leave," Scorpius muttered, grabbing a piece of toast as he jumped to his feet alongside his sister. Their parents seemed oblivious to their imminent departure, and he shared an eye roll with his sister as the couple gazed at each like a couple of lovesick teenagers.
"Tell me more about this retirement plan," Hermione urged, sliding onto her husband's lap as their children departed the kitchen to give them some privacy. "I think I like the sound of it."
"It'll be good," Draco vowed. "I was thinking we could visit our overseas properties, and maybe even look into adding a few more to our portfolio. I figured that since we never got to travel much when we were younger, we could do it before we get too old."
"That does actually sound good," Hermione admitted with a smile. Given how young she'd been when she'd had Daniel, she'd never had a chance to travel, aside from the family holidays she and Draco had taken with the children, and it would be nice to see some of the world.
"Basically my aim is to make love to you in as many different countries as I can," Draco added, giving Hermione a salacious grin.
"What a way to ruin the romance of the moment," Hermione laughed, playfully hitting her husband on the shoulder. "I should have known it would come down to sex, it always does with you. You are insatiable."
"Only for you," Draco returned, pulling his wife down for a kiss. "And don't deny that you feel the same way about me. You can't get enough of me."
"You and your ego," Hermione chuckled fondly, reconnecting her lips with Draco's. However, she didn't disagree with Draco as he was right, and even after twenty years together, she was still madly in love with him and couldn't resist his considerable charms.
"We could always make a start on our mission early," Draco suggested in between kisses that were getting more and more heated. "We could tick England off our list."
"I think we've ticked it off hundreds of times," Hermione laughed.
"Ah, but we weren't counting before," Draco retorted.
"And we're not counting now," Hermione shot back. "You were talking about your plans for our retirement, and that is still several years away. It's not like we're going to retire the minute Lyra leaves Hogwarts anyway."
"Who says?" Draco snorted. "The second she can take over, I'm whisking you away to travel the world and make love in as many countries as we can manage."
"I'll believe that when it happens," Hermione laughed.
While she had no doubt that in years to come they would slowly hand over the reins of the family business to Lyra, she didn't believe her husband would ever fully retire. Like Lucius, who had eventually been persuaded by Narcissa to take a few steps back in recent years, Draco loved the business too much to walk away from it completely. Although she wasn't much better, and she wasn't sure when she would be ready to totally walk away from the business she had grown to love so much. However, they were problems for years into the future as she and Draco hardly at retirement age, they were still in their peak, and Hermione knew they had a hell of a lot more life to live before they considered their old age.
"So is that a yes for heading back upstairs?" Draco asked with a hopeful grin. "I can be quick."
"Just what every witch wants to hear," Hermione laughed, giving her husband one final kiss before hopping off his lap. "I'd rather wait until tonight and then you can take your time."
"Fine, but don't plan on doing much sleeping tonight then," Draco said, getting to his feet and checking what needed to be done for the party that afternoon.
Scorpius's results arrived late morning, and he'd passed all his exams with flying colours, making both Draco and Hermione proud and by mid-afternoon the guests were arriving for the Malfoys garden party. Lucius and Narcissa had been the first to arrive, and they'd been at the house for a couple of hours before anyone else arrived.
While Scorpius had invited some of his friends to the party, most of the guests consisted of close family friends. Draco's godfather, Severus Snape, was among one of the first guests to arrive, swiftly followed by Draco's best friend and Scorpius's, godfather, Blaise Zabini. Another early arrival was Alicia Spinnett, who for years had been the Malfoys nanny, and who now worked full time at the Ministry helping train other witches and wizards in childcare. Other friends included Gregory Goyle, who was now head of security at Malfoy Holdings, Neville and Luna Longbottom, George and Angelina Weasley, and Bill and Fleur Weasley.
Several of Draco and Hermione's friends had brought along their entire families, so there was also plenty of children running around. Some, like Greg's little girl, were only small, but others were teenagers like Lyra and Scorpius. Then there was Daniel, who had arrived with his girlfriend, Victoire, and had almost immediately grabbed his brother and was having a whispered conversation with him.
"What do you think those two are planning?" Hermione asked her husband when she spotted Daniel and Scorpius with their heads together.
"I'm sure they're not planning anything," Draco assured his wife. "They're probably just catching up."
"They look suspicious to me," Hermione mused. "Call me crazy, but I do not trust your sons when they have their heads together like that. In my experience, it always spells trouble."
"I love how they are my sons when they're misbehaving," Draco laughed. "You were no angel in school, sweetheart. You and Potter got into way more trouble than I did."
"It was always for the best of reasons though," Hermione pointed out. "And reminding me of Harry's penchant for trouble is not helping matters as it only reminds me that Daniel is even more prone to mischief with Harry's genes and your influence."
"It's not my influence that was the problem, that honour belongs to father and Severus," Draco argued. "They led Daniel astray way more than I did. And then there's George, he's Daniel's godfather and is more than capable of rustling up a bit of mischief. Not to mention Blaise."
"Why am I surrounded by such troublesome wizards?" Hermione muttered. "Thank Merlin for Neville is what I say. At least I have one calming male influence in my children's lives."
"Stop being so dramatic," Draco laughed. "See nothing happened, and now Daniel is talking to Severus and Scorpius is with father. And since everyone has arrived, do you want to say anything?"
"Scorpius will kill us," Hermione said, well aware that her middle child would not like a fuss being made.
"I know, but we're parents and our job is to embarrass him," Draco replied with a wicked grin.
Before Hermione could stop him, Draco had raised his voice and called for everyone to gather around. As everyone shuffled closer, Scorpius tried to get his father not to make a speech, but Draco wasn't having any of it. They were gathered to celebrate Scorpius's N.E.W.T results, and how could they do that if he didn't mention them?
"Since our son is such a shy boy who hates the attention being on him, I'll make this quick," Draco began, causing people to chuckle as everyone knew Scorpius was anything but shy and in most circumstances had no problem with the attention being on him. "Hermione and I just want to say how proud we are of Scorpius. His grades came in this morning, and he passed all his exams with O's and E's. Well done, Scorpius."
"Well done, Scorpius," everyone else echoed as Draco raised his glass in a toast to his second son.
"Do you want to say anything?" Draco asked Scorpius.
"Just thanks for coming," Scorpius said, smiling at the assembled guests. "And since we're making speeches, Dan has something he wants to share."
"Are you sure?" Daniel asked his brother as attention switched to him.
"Yeah, go on," Scorpius urged with a grin.
"Victoire and I have an announcement," Daniel said, reaching out to take hold of Victorie's hand. "I asked Vic to marry me, and she said yes."
"Oh my god," Hermione gasped as congratulations poured forth from the guests. "This is amazing, isn't it Draco?"
"It is," Draco agreed with a smile.
"This isn't surprising to you," Hermione said, taking in her husband's reaction. "Did you already know about this?"
"Daniel spoke to me last week," Draco confessed. "But we can talk about that later, right now we need to congratulate our son."
Nodding in agreement, Hermione gathered Daniel in her arms as she congratulated him and Victoire.
"Do we get the see the ring?" Angelina asked. "Or is it too soon for that?"
"I've got it here," Daniel said, pulling a ring box from his pocket.
"I didn't want to wear it and have someone ask about it and steal Scorpius's limelight," Victorie explained.
"Yeah, I wanted to check he was okay with us sharing our news today," Daniel said.
"Of course it was okay, I think it's great news," Scorpius said. "I always wanted a hot sister," he added, winking at Victoire.
"Gross," Lyra muttered, slapping her brother on the arm as Victoire just chuckled at Scorpius.
Flicking open the ring box, Daniel gently slid the engagement ring onto his fiancée's finger, where she proceeded to flash it to the assembled guests.
"That is a stunning ring," Fleur said, smiling at her clearly delighted daughter.
"It is," Lucius remarked, his voice catching slightly as his eyes lingered on the ring now sitting on Victoire's finger.
"Is it okay that I used the ring, grandpa?" Daniel asked quietly, suddenly wondering if he should have consulted Lucius before using his mother's ring to propose with.
"Oh, if the ring has sentimental value and you don't want to part with it, we can sort another one," Victoire offered.
"No, no, the ring is perfect for you," Lucius said, bestowing a genuine smile on his grandson's future bride. "It belonged to my mother, and to me it represents a great love. The sort of love, I'm sure you and Daniel share. And the ring isn't being taken from the family, it's welcoming another member into the fold."
"So you're sure you don't mind me picking a ring from the family vault?" Daniel checked.
"I'm honoured you chose to give the witch you love a Malfoy ring," Lucius said softly, placing his arm around his grandson. "And you made a good choice," he added. "Congratulations Daniel, I am so very happy for you."
It was a sentiment shared by everyone and the party quickly morphed into a semi-engagement party for the happy couple. However, while everyone celebrated the good news, they forgot that not everyone might be as pleased for the young couple, and certain members of Victoire's family could yet try and cause trouble.