A/N – As promised, this is the second of my new stories. I haven't yet finished writing this story, but I'm very near the end and know exactly what is going to happen. As such, updates will only be weekly on this story. So a new chapter will be published every Wednesday. I hope you enjoy the story.
The early evening summer sun slowly faded in the sky above the French countryside as down below the Malfoys and Zabinis gathered to say goodbye to the two youngest members of their families, who were about to go off travelling. Scorpius Malfoy and his best friend, Alex Zabini, had just graduated from Beauxbatons and were about to embark on a few months of travelling before they returned home to start a business together and settle down.
High on both teenagers list of places to visit was wizarding Britain. Both boys had visited Britain several times growing up as their parents were all British and they each had grandparents living in the country. However, neither wizard had been born in Britain and neither had stayed in the country for longer than a couple of weeks holidays. Scorpius had been born and raised in France, while Alex had been born in Italy and had lived in a few different countries before his parents settled in France when he was five years old. But Britain was in their blood and both boys were eager to explore their heritage further.
While both boys were eager to travel and go exploring their parents were understandably more wary. Or at least their mothers were. Their fathers, Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini, had encouraged the plan from the start and they had every confidence their two sons would be just fine. Not that the boys mothers doubted their sons abilities to look after themselves, they were just protective of their only sons and didn't want anything to happen to them.
Alex's mother, Daphne Greengrass, was dealing with the prospect of her son leaving better than her best friend, but she had just made the unexpected discovery that she was expecting a second child. Not that it meant that she worried about her son any less, but being pregnant again did give her something else to focus her maternal instincts on. Now instead of solely worrying about her son, she could split her attention with her unborn baby and focus on preparing for motherhood a second time.
However, for Scorpius's mother and Daphne's best friend, Hermione Granger, there was no such chance of her focusing her maternal instincts on another child. Scorpius was the one and only child Hermione and her husband, Draco, had ever been able to have. For years they'd tried to give Scorpius a brother or a sister, but several devastating miscarriages had eventually led to Hermione being advised not to get pregnant again so as to not put her own life in danger. Of course their losses had only made the son they did have all the more precious to them, and Hermione especially was struggling with the idea of her son going out into the world and starting a life of his own.
"There's no need to look so glum," Draco said to his wife as he joined her on the bench she was occupying. Hermione had slightly drifted away from the party they were hosting to say goodbye to Scorpius and Alex, but the bench still offered a view of the festivities she was shying away from. "You don't want to ruin Scorpius's night."
"I don't think he's even missed me," Hermione replied quietly, her attention fixed firmly on her son, who who laughing merrily at something his grandfather, Lucius, had said.
Scorpius had all the physical attributes that revealed he was a true Malfoy – tall, pale skin, aristocratic features, platinum blond hair and glittering grey eyes. In fact a lot of the time when Hermione looked at him, she saw Draco as a teenager. The only real difference was that their son lived a carefree existence and he smiled a lot more readily than his father had ever done. There was an air of light-heartedness that Scorpius possessed that Draco had never had, and would likely never have.
The truth was, too much had happened to Draco in his teenage years to allow him to be as carefree and relaxed as his son was. Although Hermione understood why Draco could never be as easy going as their son, as like him she'd also suffered in her teenage years and like her husband she would always be haunted by the past. However, Hermione and Draco had each other, and even though their experiences in the war had been so very different, they'd been able to help each other deal with the past. On a whole these days the bad days were behind them, but even after twenty five years certain anniversaries and memories still got to them, but they dealt with it together.
"He will miss you if you sit down here all night," Draco said, jolting Hermione back to their conversation.
"It's hard," Hermione whispered as her husband wrapped his arm around her and she leaned closer to him, breathing in his comforting and familiar scent.
"I know," Draco replied, dropping a kiss to the top of his wife's head. "But Scorpius isn't our little boy any more. He's an adult and he wants to venture into the world."
"I don't want to stop him, but I also don't want to let him go," Hermione confessed.
"He'll be away for a few months," Draco assured his wife. "He's already said they'll be back for his birthday in November. And he's not going alone, Alex will be with him."
"And that's supposed to be reassuring?" Hermione laughed. "Alex is just like his father. A magnet for mischief. Scorpius and Alex are just like you and Blaise, and the pair of you could cause trouble in an empty house."
"It's a talent," Draco replied with a smirk. "But seriously, Scorpius will be just fine," he added seriously. "He's got both of our brains, your Gryffindor bravery and my Slytherin smarts. He'll be just fine."
"If you put it like that, I'm sure he'll be fine," Hermione conceded.
"He'll be more than fine," Draco said. "He's our son, Hermione. He'll be great. Now are you coming to join the rest of the party?"
"Yes," Hermione agreed with a firm nod of her head. Deep down she knew Draco was right and that Scorpius would be okay when he flew the nest, but it didn't really do much to help appease her nerves.
With Draco by her side, Hermione rejoined the party and despite wanting to pull Scorpius into her arms and beg him not to leave, she controlled herself and placed a smile on her face. Although her smile didn't fool anyone, and everyone could see she was still worrying about Scorpius not just leaving home, but leaving the country. Even Scorpius knew his mother was struggling with his imminent departure, so he pulled her aside just to reassure her that he would be okay.
"Your father said virtually the same thing," Hermione informed her son with a chuckle as he practically repeated the conversation she'd just had with Draco.
"He's a smart man, my father," Scorpius said. "Not as smart as you, but we don't need to tell him that," he added in a conspiratorial whisper.
"He's also right," Hermione said with a smile. "You're smarter than the pair of us put together. I've got nothing to worry about."
"You're my mother, it's your job to worry about me," Scorpius said with a shrug. "I'd be upset if you didn't worry about me, but this time, there's really no need. Alex and I will be just fine."
"I know," Hermione replied. "Just promise to write and keep us up to date with your travels."
"I'll send you a postcard from every country we visit," Scorpius promised. "And I'll send you the best birthday present you've ever had in September. Then I'll be back home by my birthday and it'll be as though I was never gone. By Christmas you'll be begging me to leave home again."
"Never," Hermione replied, hugging her son.
Hoping he'd done a bit to help ease his mother's worries, Scorpius linked his arm with hers and escorted her back to the party. Shortly afterwards both he and Alex gave a short speech thanking their families for their support and Scorpius made sure to single Hermione out to let her know how much he loved her and how he couldn't have asked for a better mother.
"To Scorpius and Alex," Lucius called, raising his glass in a toast to his grandson and his friend who was like a second grandchild to himself and Narcissa. "May your adventures be wild and worthy of the true Slytherins the pair of you are."
"To Scorpius and Alex," everyone chorused as they also raised their glasses.
With a lot of laugher and a lot of love, the celebrations continued for a couple more hours before everyone went their separate ways. Eventually it was just Hermione, Draco and Scorpius, left to spend one final night under the same roof before Scorpius set off on his travels the following day.
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"Come on, we're going out," Draco ordered as he strolled into the library, where Hermione had been sequestered since their son had left on his travels earlier that morning.
"I'm not in the mood to go out, Draco," Hermione answered with a sigh, not moving from the window seat she was settled in.
"I will not let you sit in here and brood," Draco insisted. "Scorpius has gone travelling, he's not left home for good. He'll be back."
"Not soon enough," Hermione muttered. "I miss him already, Draco."
"He's been gone three hours," Draco pointed out. "He's left the house for longer periods when he's gone to a quidditch match."
"I still miss him," Hermione pouted.
"And I'll miss him as well," Draco conceded. "But we will not sit around moping until he comes home. Scorpius wouldn't want you to be sad, Hermione. We should be proud of him, getting out there and living his life."
"I am proud of him," Hermione said with a soft smile. "It would have been easy for him to stay at home and allow the Malfoy fortune to support him. But he's getting out in the world and exploring. Sometimes I wonder if I should have done something similar when I was younger."
"You mean instead of fighting in a war?" Draco snorted.
"Afterwards," Hermione clarified. "Maybe I should have explored the world. Instead I stayed and went back to Hogwarts for an unnecessary year."
"After the war, I'm sure you just wanted some stability," Draco said. "Going back to Hogwarts provided that for you."
"I guess it did," Hermione conceded with a nod. "But I still don't think it was the best thing to do. I thought I needed my exams to move forward with my life, but what I really needed was to actually get out there and live it."
"But if you hadn't returned to Hogwarts you might never have ended up here," Draco said as he took hold of Hermione's hand and pulled her to her feet. "By returning to Hogwarts and getting into a relationship with Weasley, you realised that it wasn't what you wanted."
For a year following the war, Hermione had indeed been involved with her best friend, Ron Weasley. It was a relationship that had been a long time brewing, but it hadn't been the fit Hermione had hoped it would be. For Ron, he'd wanted a large family and a wife a bit like his mother, Molly, who was contended to focus on her family. However, Hermione didn't want just to be a wife and mother, but when she'd confided in Ron, he'd taken it to mean she thought she was better than him and he wasn't enough for her. Their different desires had caused no end of problems between them and after their relationship came to a shuddering halt, Hermione had fled the country, partly so that their friends and Ron's family weren't forced to choose sides in their break-up.
"So in other words, you're glad I was a coward and ran away," Hermione said with a smile.
"You didn't run away, you left to start a new life," Draco corrected.
"I ran," Hermione admitted.
"And do you regret it?" Draco asked.
"No," Hermione replied, smiling up at her husband. "I do sometimes wish I'd stayed around a bit longer and said a proper goodbye to certain people. But I don't regret leaving for a new life. Even if I have still ended up as a wife and mother."
"You're more than a wife and mother," Draco argued. "You're part owner of the biggest potions firm in Europe. Without you the firm wouldn't have taken off the way it did. I needed you to help me build it up to what it is today."
The Potions firm Hermione co-owned had actually once belonged wholly to Draco. In fact, Hermione had applied for a job with the firm in it's early days, not realising that Draco had just bought the company. When she'd found out that Draco owned the company and would be her boss she'd originally rethought her idea, but he'd persuaded her to give him a chance and take the job she'd applied for. Since the job had appealed, Hermione had taken it and she hadn't looked back. The company had only been small at the time, meaning she'd been working pretty closely with Draco. Despite their past they'd developed a firm friendship, which only grew as Hermione became more valuable to the company.
Hermione had bought into the company after a little over a year working for Draco, and it was when they were celebrating their partnership that romance had blossomed. Even though they'd both been wary about doing anything that would rock their business partnership the attraction they felt for one another had been too hard to ignore and they'd embarked on a passionate affair. Love soon entered the equation and after eighteen months of being a couple the pair married in a private ceremony in Paris. That was twenty years ago, and not once had Hermione regretted reconnecting and falling in love with Draco.
"So where are you going to take me?" Hermione asked, suddenly feeling more like spending time with her husband as thoughts of the past had entered her mind.
"It's a surprise," Draco replied as he wrapped his arms around Hermione and pulling out his wand, apparated them out of the library.
Draco's surprise was a lavish picnic on the banks of the nearby river. Everything was already set up when they arrived, and Hermione sank onto the picnic blanket alongside her husband. The couple then spent a lazy afternoon beside the river, lost in their own private world, where even thoughts of their one and only son failed to penetrate their romantic bubble. After all, Scorpius was a grown wizard and well capable of looking after himself until he returned home. And until then Hermione and Draco had a couple of months by themselves to fuel the romance that to be honest had never left their relationship.