Following Harry and Ginny's advice, Hermione checked out The Quibbler and found that Luna had indeed turned the once ridiculed magazine into something very well respected. Of course, she still included some more outrageous articles, but when it came to interviews, it was clear that it was a publication to be trusted. Over the years Luna had interviewed plenty of famous people, some of whom had never spoken to the press before or since.
Deciding that dealing with The Quibbler was the way to go, Hermione arranged a meeting with Luna, which settled any doubts she had. Luna was the same warm, non-judgemental person Hermione remembered from Hogwarts, and when she promised Hermione that every word published would be what had been said during the interview, Hermione believed her. She honestly believed that Luna would be truthful and wouldn't twist anything to create attention grabbing headlines.
The interview with Luna took place at Malfoy Manor, and over the course of the day, Luna even managed to persuade both Draco and Lucius to speak to her. She even managed to grab a small interview with Scorpius, although Hermione was pleased to note she never pushed Scorpius, and in fact it was her son who approached Luna to share a few of his opinions. As well as the interviews, the Malfoys allowed Luna to take a few pictures of the family, and Hermione allowed her access to a couple of pictures which had been taken on her and Draco's wedding day.
By the time Luna was finished, she had enough for several pages worth of interviews, so she'd decided to turn her day at the manor into a mini-feature. She did promise Hermione she wouldn't dedicate a whole magazine to the family, and would instead just be a special feature in the latest issue, but she did admit that she would likely use one of the pictures for the front cover in order to promote the feature. After all, what was the point in Hermione giving her one and only interview to the media, if no-one knew about it. The whole idea was to give an exclusive to Luna and get the rest of the press to stop hounding the family.
The day before The Quibbler was due to be published, Hermione received an advanced copy from Luna. Even though Luna had promised to be honest in her reporting, she'd been unable to give Hermione final approval on what she'd written, meaning Hermione had to trust her to keep her word. Praying that she hadn't made a huge mistake, Hermione settled down to read the mini-feature about her family.
Reading the interview with herself, Hermione was surprised by how forthcoming she had been. Maybe it was because Luna was an old friend, or maybe she just had a way of making people feel comfortable and safe, but either way she'd managed to get Hermione to talk about things she normally would have avoided. For the first time ever, Hermione had spoken about the war and the effects of going through something that traumatic as a teenager had had on her and her life. And of course, she'd also spoken in detail about her family, and Hermione felt as though Luna had perfectly managed to capture how much she loved her family, especially her husband and son.
The interviews with Lucius and Draco were similarly in-depth, and like her, they'd both spoken about the war. Hermione was impressed that Luna didn't sugar coat anything and try and make the family out to be whiter than white. She addressed the past openly, and never shied from the fact Draco, and especially Lucius, had a dark past. However, she did emphasise that was the past, and both Draco and Lucius spoke about the effort they had made, and were still making, to turn their life around. It was clear to anyone reading the interviews that both Draco and Lucius were different wizards than the ones they had been during the war, and while those past incantations were part of what made them the men they were today, they weren't who they were any longer.
Reading Lucius and Draco's words, and admiring how brutally honest about the past the pair had been, brought a lump to Hermione's throat. However, tears formed in her eyes when she read about Draco declaring that she was the best thing to ever happen to him, and that he was the luckiest wizard alive to have her in his life. Lucius was equally as gushing in his love for Hermione, and he described her as the perfect daughter-in-law, and the guiding light that kept the family from falling back into the darkness.
Already feeling emotional, Hermione continued to read, only to discover that Narcissa had also had a brief chat with Luna. As with the rest of the family, she spoke about the war and the effect it had taken on her and her family, but mainly she spoke about the family as they were now, and Hermione could almost hear the pride in her words as she spoke about the fresh starts Lucius and Draco had made, the new attitude Hermione had brought to the family, and most of all the joy Scorpius had brought to their lives simply by existing.
The final straw for Hermione came when she read the small interview with her son. As she'd done with everyone else, Luna had made Scorpius comfortable enough to discuss any subject, and they'd started with his kidnapping ordeal. Even though they'd spoken about what had happened, it was different seeing it in writing, and the tears began to fall as she read her son's words about the worst experience of his life. She could hardly believe it when Scorpius described the faith he'd had in his family coming to his rescue, as she'd had no idea he'd been so confident that they would come for him.
From there, Scorpius discussed his family, and Hermione's tears continued to fall as he mentioned how much he loved all of his family, and how proud he was of his parents. Scorpius was proud of Hermione for coming through the prejudices she faced upon entering the wizarding world and fighting a war to help save it, and he was proud of Draco for not letting the darkness drag him down and for being able to have the strength to start a new life and change the beliefs that had been so wrong. When Scorpius admitted that he would be proud to turn out to be like his father and grandfather, Hermione had to put the magazine down as she was so overcome with emotions.
"Is it that bad?" Draco asked with a grimace. He'd been watching Hermione read the feature, and seeing her reaction he was starting to fear the worst.
"No actually, it's really good," Hermione admitted as she wiped at her tears. "It's brutally honest. Luna doesn't shy away from the past and what happened, but she also makes it clear that those days are long gone. We come across as a strong, supportive, loving family who have no desire to rake over the past."
Checking his wife with finished with the article, Draco picked it up and began to read. Almost immediately he could see his wife was right. Luna hadn't tried to turn the Malfoys into saints, which they most certainly weren't, but nor had she painted them as unredeemable monsters. She'd portrayed a family who had once been entrenched in darkness, trying their best to leave that part of their lives behind and be better people. All in all, Draco was happy with the result, even though like Hermione, he was surprised to read just how open and honest he had been about the war. Aside from when he was with Hermione, he'd never spoken about a lot of what he'd told Luna, but he had to admit it felt good to have it off his chest. He knew he would never give another interview like it in his life, but at least his side of the story was out there, and people could make their own minds up about him. Not that he really cared what other people thought of him, as he knew his family loved him, and at the end of the day, that was all that truly mattered.
Knowing that the rest of the family were just as eager to see the end result of Luna's visit, Draco and Hermione delivered the advanced copy of The Quibbler to rest of the family. As everyone took it in turns to read the feature, they all agreed that they couldn't have asked for anything better. As promised Luna had been honest, and they all felt her portrayal of the family was an accurate one.
"Let's just hope this keeps the press from hounding us too much," Hermione remarked.
"It might stop them begging for interviews, but it won't stop them following you around and writing about you," Lucius predicted. "I strongly suspect that the Malfoys are hot property once again, and you and Draco are at the heart of it. The press are going to love nothing more than writing gossipy articles about you."
"My advice is just to rise about it and don't react," Narcissa advised her daughter-in-law. "The press were the same when Lucius and I first married. I lost count of the stupid stories I read about our marriage. I merely ignored the gossip and they eventually started to drift off and focus on other people who would react."
"We're not going to be around to react, we're going home tomorrow," Draco pointed out.
As it turned out, their return home had taken longer than expected as the healers had been wary of Alex travelling so far. However, he'd finally been given the go ahead to use a secure floo network, providing there was a healer on hand to check on him upon his arrival in France. But now everything was sorted and come the next morning the Malfoys and the Zabinis would be heading home.
"There are reporters in France," Lucius pointed out with a chuckle. "Believe me, leaving the country will not make a jot of difference. Wizarding Britain is caught up in the romance of you and Hermione, and they want more. I say follow your mother's advice and just let them get on with it. So what if your pictures appear in the papers on a regular basis, it doesn't really mean anything. Just get on with your lives and soon enough the press will get bored."
"I hope they don't get bored too soon, some publicity for our new venture wouldn't go amiss," Alex said with a grin, nudging his best friend.
"Have you decided on opening a club then?" Blaise asked.
"Actually we've gone off that idea," Scorpius admitted with a wince.
"I can't imagine why," Daphne remarked with a roll of her eyes.
"So do you have a new plan?" Draco asked. "Or will the pair of you be looking for employment?"
"No way, we're making it on our own," Scorpius declared.
"With backing from us," Blaise joked, sharing a smirk with Draco. Before the boys had even finished school, both he and Draco had promised to make a small investment so that the boys could start their own business.
"Actually, we've got a much bigger fish to land," Alex admitted. "Our plans have grown over the last few weeks. We no longer want to own a club, we're going to build a hotel."
"A hotel?" Hermione gasped. "That is a massive undertaking."
"Not to mention an expensive one," Draco remarked. "How are you going to afford that? It will take more than the money Blaise and I promised you."
"Two guesses who is supplying the funds," Narcissa said with an affectionate smile at her husband.
"You are going to bankroll them?" Hermione asked his father-in-law.
"Providing then can come up with detailed business plans," Lucius replied. "If the boys prove to me that the investment is a good one, and they can do what they are promising, I will provide them with all the money they need. Beside, think of the profit I can make if it does work out and my grandsons end up with a whole hotel empire."
"An empire?" Blaise laughed. "I thought we were talking one hotel."
"Only to start with," Alex said.
"Yeah, you've got to dream big," Scorpius added. "And one hotel is only the beginning."
No-one doubted Scorpius's words and everyone in the room was confident that big things were on their way for Scorpius and Alex. No doubt they would get their investment from Lucius to build their hotel, and no doubt that one hotel would turn into an empire. The boys were destined for great things, and their family couldn't be prouder.
{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}
Hermione hugged Harry tightly as she said goodbye to her old friend. Harry and Ginny had called at the manor to say their goodbyes, only this time Hermione knew it wouldn't be years before they saw each other again. This time they would exchange letters and visit each other all the time. This time their friendship would continue and they would be part of each other's lives once again.
"I hate the reason we reconnected, but I am glad we did," Harry said.
"So am I," Hermione admitted. "And this time we won't be losing touch again. I expect to see you soon, Harry."
"You can count on it," Harry promised, giving Hermione another hug before turning to Draco as Ginny and Hermione said their goodbyes. "Malfoy," he said, offering the blond his hand.
"I think if we're going to be seeing more of each other, we should learn to use our given names," Draco said, taking Harry's hand and shaking it. "Thank you for everything you've done, Harry."
"It was my pleasure, Draco," Harry replied solemnly, before a slight smirk graced his lips. "Wow, that was strange, this is going to take some getting used to."
"Tell me about it," Draco chuckled. "But I'm sure we can cope."
"I'm sure we can," Harry agreed.
"It's nice to see you two getting along," Hermione remarked with a smile.
"The things we'll do for you," Draco retorted with a chuckle.
Laughing lightly, Hermione turned her attention to making sure everyone was ready to go. Blaise had already gone on ahead, to ensure the connection was secure and to make sure there was a healer waiting to check on Alex. The plan was for everyone to travel to the Zabinis house, and then the Malfoys could head on home.
Saying their final goodbyes, those who lived in France began to travel home one by one. Draco was the final one to make the trip, and by the time he arrived at Blaise and Daphne's house, Alex was in the middle of his check-up. Happily the healer was content that no further damage had been done by Alex travelling home. As with the healer in Britain, he was happy with the progress Alex seemed to be making, although he recommended that Alex started wearing glasses sooner rather than later.
"I can do that," Alex agreed with a nod. "I'll get myself a nice sexy pair which will make me look super smart."
"I didn't realise glasses were miracle workers," Scorpius joked.
"Very funny," Alex retorted, smirking at Scorpius. "You'll soon be jealous when all the witches are flocking to me and my sexy specs."
"You can have them, I'm done with witches for the moment," Scorpius said. "Right now, my priority is starting our business. We've got a lot of work ahead of us."
"Work that can start tomorrow," Daphne said. "Right now, Alex needs to rest. And I could do with a lie down as well. This little one is well and truly starting to make their presence felt," she added, placing a hand on her small bump, which had only just started to show.
Agreeing that it was time they also went home, the Malfoys said their goodbyes and headed to their own home. It seemed like a lifetime ago that the trio had all been together at home, and there had been a few dark moments when Hermione doubted it would ever happen again. But luckily she'd been wrong, and Scorpius was once again back home where he belonged. Her son was safe, and thankfully the trauma of the last few weeks was well and truly over. It was time for the Malfoys to move on and get on with their lives.