She had no intention of going back to Malfoy's shop ever again. She finished her 8th interview and was ready to draft the report. She decided to find a café to work in, since the coffee Mr Hayes served in his house was awful. She walked down the street, toward what seemed like a central part of the area, with shops and restaurants. She looked around while walking, and realized she was in a muggle area. Just as well, wizards always stared at her when she was typing on the laptop. She spotted a café just next to a Chinese takeaway shop, and was about to walk in, when she realized it was the same café where Leah took her on her birthday. She turned around and was not surprised to see the banner of "The Magic of Books".

She sighed, and walked into the bookshop, wondering where her sense of self-preservation had gone.

There were a few customers browsing the stock, but no sign of any of the staff members. She took her time to explore it. The shelves were stocked up to the ceiling, and she felt that they were probably kept upright by magic. She wondered around the aisles, picking up a few books that she was interested in, then putting them down. When she got to the end of the room, she was somewhat relieved to find Scorpius sitting behind the counter by himself.

'Hello Scorpius, how are you?'

'Oh, hello, Hermione Granger!' – he looked up to greet her enthusiastically – 'My dad is in the back and uncle Theo is off sick, so I'm representing them here' – he said proudly, but his smile quickly disappeared when he looked back at his book – 'I'm not doing so well, I can't do this homework'

'May I?' – she requested, curious to see what the 8-year-old could be struggling with. It was about plants and their development. She scanned the book and saw that some of the pages had comments in red, written by the teacher: "Bartholomeus is *not* a real constellation!", "Electricity comes from the power plant", "What are gillyweeds?!". Then, there was a whole unit with blank pages and question marks all over. She questioned Scorpius on those.

'We don't have a computer' – he shrugged. Hermione understood; Malfoy sent Scorpius to a muggle school, and neither of them were well equipped to navigate this new world. She hoped that he was at least able to make friends.

She went back to search the shelves, and returned with a stack of books a few minutes later.

'This encyclopaedia has all the information you need to know. Look, you can search for any word, like "electricity", and learn about it' – she opened the second volume with the letter E and read out a few definitions, the proceeded to explain the more complicated words. Scorpius listened attentively, but when Malfoy emerged from the storeroom, Hermione started feeling self conscious about cluttering his counter with all the books.

'You know what, Scorpius, I'm starving, I was going to go to the café across the street and grab a snack, do you want to join me? I can show you an online encyclopaedia which takes up a lot less space?'

Malfoy was sceptical, but he eventually agreed after giving Scorpius money, which Hermione did not intend to let him use.

Once inside, she ordered a vegan toastie and a large cappuccino, and got a sandwich and orange juice for Scorpius, who seemed too shy to pick anything by himself. After a moment of thought, she also ordered a large piece of chocolate and raspberry cake, which she split between them.

Once they were done eating sandwiches and naming trees that grew in North-Western Europe, Hermione looked at the missing exercises from the computing chapter, and opened her laptop in front of them, which caused Scorpius to exclaim in awe.

'You've never seen one before?' – she enquired, thinking of the muggle kids in her family constantly glued to their screens, and that, ironically, Scorpius was better off the way he was.

'I have, at school, but the other kids take turns and there is no time for me to use it…'.

Hermione felt her heart squeeze – 'do you have any friends at school?' – she asked casually, while opening a few basic programs to show him how they worked.

'I have one friend, his name is Bobby, we play football outside the school' – Scorpius reported. 'I'm not allowed to talk about magic though, so it's hard to talk to other kids, they say I'm too quiet, but they won't tell me what are monster trucks and why they play with cars instead of brooms, and they make fun of my name…' – he trailed off. Hermione didn't press on but showed him how to make drawings on the computer. She kept an eye on him playing with the programme, while going over some handwritten notes from her meeting.

'I've closed the shop now, it's time to go home, Scorpius' – she heard Malfoy's voice behind her suddenly.

'Oh, dad, please, 5 more minutes' – Scorpius pleaded, but Malfoy didn't budge.

'We're not quite finished, actually… but you're right, it's getting late' – she turned to Scorpius

'Please, Hermione Granger, can I meet you again? This is so cool, I want to know more!'

'Well…' – Hermione glanced at Malfoy

'Don't worry, Granger, he can handle it' – his voice was polite, but stern – 'there is no need to bother you'

'It's no problem, really' – Hermione started, but then realised Malfoy had no reason to trust her with his child. Why did she care about helping Scorpius, she wasn't sure – 'just let him finish the cake' – she moved the plate closer to Scorpius – 'and let's talk for a minute' – she motioned for him to follow her to the next empty table.

'Listen, Malfoy, I know we've had our differences…' – she stopped when he snorted at her words and watched him carefully. He still had his mean streak, but he was not as intimidating as he used to be, and did not have any bad intentions. He was just doing his best to protect his child.

'All I'm saying is, I understand if you don't trust me, but I… I like Scorpius, and he seems to want my help. I think we can both agree that he can use someone to help him navigate this world, no offence but it doesn't seem like you're doing a great job…'

She crossed a line. His eyes narrowed, his jaw clenched, and he reminded her even more of the old Draco that she used to despise at school.

'I don't need your pity, Granger' – he scowled – 'and you have no business judging my life, so you better get out and leave my son and me alone'

'I understand' – she nodded – 'didn't mean to impose' – she went back to her table and started packing her bag, while Malfoy grabbed Scorpius, who barely managed to take his books, and pulled him towards the exit. She watched them cross the street and disappear around the corner. Scorpius kept trying to glance back towards her, but Malfoy walked fast, despite his limping, and kept pulling Scorpius in another direction.