Hermione finished drafting her new report, closed the lid of her laptop, and looked around the apartment. She kept it the muggle way, and apart from the fireplace connected to the floo network, and a few enchanted devices which helped her keep the place clean, there was no difference. She didn't want her parents to feel intimidated when they visited, and this allowed her to invite occasional friends and neighbours for a drink.

It had been over month since she saw her cousin, so she invited her over to apologise and decided to reveal herself. She realised that if she wanted Leah to be a part of her life, she deserved to know the truth.

As could be expected, Leah didn't believe her at first, but when she saw her own purse transfigured into a parrot, which flew two lapses around the apartment before being transfigured back into a purse, she opened her mouth wide and looked at Hermione for a long time, before saying anything. The she fired a hundred questions.

'So, you're a witch? And your friends, Harry and Ron, they are wizards? Is that why I never met them? Do your parents know? What else can you do? Can you read minds? Oh god, please tell me you can't read my mind… you know, I always thought you were a bit different, you know? No offence. But this? This is beyond my wildest expectations…'

Hermione answered her questions patiently, until they stumbled onto an uncomfortable topic.

'Does that mean, oh my, does that mean the guy we saw is also a wizard? Are they both? Is that place enchanted? Is it even real? Why didn't you want to talk to them then? Aren't all wizards like, friends?'

'I didn't sense any magic in the bookstore, at least nothing strong. But it's all a bit… complicated. I've been a part of this world for almost 20 years, not everyone was a good wizard, you know…'

'Do wizards have owls?' – Leah interrupted unexpectedly, and Hermione was relieved she didn't have to explain the wizarding war and prejudice to her

– 'yeah, why?'

– 'there is one outside your window' – she pointed over Hermione's shoulder

There was indeed a large, brown owl trying to get her attention. When Hermione approached and opened the window, it turned out that the owl was struggling with a heavy package. She reached out for it and rewarded the owl with some grains she kept on the windowsill for such occasions.

Leah stared at the owl, while Hermione opened the letter attached to the parcel

Granger,

Seems that you forgot to claim your complimentary book. I didn't want you to think our customer service was substandard.

Sincerely,

D. Malfoy

Hermione stared at the letter in disbelief. Was he trying to prove something after her recent criticism of his parenting? Was it so that she would not come back to his shop again, or was it a conciliatory sign that he was too harsh with her?

'What's in there?' – Leah's voice brought her back to reality

'Just… some work stuff' – she lied

'Wait… is your work also magical? Are you like, enchanting things for a living?' – Leah looked at her with awe, and Hermione was saved once again

'Well, not really, I work for the ministry of magic. I help make new laws to ensure that wizards and mugg… non-magical people can co-exist better. That's part of the reason I wanted to tell you – there is a lot unregulated communication, so I want to make sure that any time we bring a mugg… non-magical person into the community, there is no discrimination and so on.' – she explained

'Ok, the law sounds boring, but what does the ministry of magic do?' – Leah was still asking questions, and Hermione spent the rest of the evening explaining the small differences between life in the magical and muggle worlds. She avoided difficult topics, but performed a few more spells for Leah's amusement.

'If you want' – Hermione said when Leah was about to leave – 'I'd like you to meet my friends some time. I'm sure you'd get along with them.'

When she was alone in the apartment again, she tore the wrapping paper, which revealed a shiny cover of the Irish history book, "The wind stories". He must have used magic to find the book she was looking at in the store. It was surprisingly thoughtful. He could have just picked any book to make it clear that she should stay away from him.

Hermione opened the laptop again and retrieved the file where she saved Scorpius's art. Half of it was random lines and colours, evidence of his attempts to understand how it worked. The other half were two stick figures, both with a bunch of yellow lines for hair. The taller one was holding a walking stick, and the shorter one had a wide smile across its face.

Hermione smiled at the screen and sent the picture to the printer. She decided to take it to the bookstore on the weekend. If not for Malfoy, then for Scorpius, who deserved to get his own work back.