Everything Has Changed
Hermione-Everything has changed
All I knew
This morning when I woke
Is I know something now
Know something now I didn't before
Hermione stared at Draco Malfoy as he stood in the room with two toddlers settled on his hips. He looked just as shocked as she did, but seemed to get it together quicker than she could have ever managed. Damn slytherin. He looked down at the two children who were squirming to be let down. With an exasperated huff he set them both down before turning back to her. He cleared his throat before addressing her.
“Gran- Hermione” he quickly corrected himself and she swore he was blushing, though he was already out of breath when he walked in here so she couldn’t be sure. “Do you know where Theo is?”
It took everything in her just to not stare. “Yes, he’s in his lab. Said something about a new shipment of moorseleaf”
There was a glint in his eyes that she wanted to study, but it was quickly smothered. He gathered the two children, who had taken to playing tug of war with a pillow, and was out the door in seconds. She stared after the three blonde heads before deciding to follow.
“I need you to watch them just for tonight. I couldn’t get a hold of mother or Pansy” Hermione heard Draco’s voice through the cracked door of the lab.
“It’s fine, mate. Harry should be home soon anyways” Theo placated his friend.
There was a squeal, a thud, and then a curse. “Scorpius put that back!” she heard Draco admonish. “Actually Potter’s going with me”
“He was supposed to be on desk duty for a month after that last curse!” it startled Hermione to hear anger in Theo’s voice. The past week that she’d been in his company he mainly held an upbeat, comedic attitude. It was nice to hear someone upset for her friend though.
“I know, but he agreed. We’ve been tracking them for months, Theo. It’s now or never” Draco’s voice sounded apologetic and it took Hermione a second to process what she was hearing. If Harry was going with him then had Draco become an auror too? And who had they been tracking?
There was a beat of silence and Hermione took that as her chance to appear in the doorway so she wouldn’t be caught eavesdropping. Draco’s back faced her but she could see Theo’s apprehensive face. “Just watch out extra for him. I know you did everything you could last time!” Theo rushed to say, “But maybe bring an extra guy with you?”
She could tell Draco’s shoulders were tense from where she stood. “I promise” she heard him almost whisper. It was so soft, so unlike him that it just furthered her ideas that she was hallucinating.
There was another laugh and then she felt little hands grabbing at her skirt. “Hi, I’m Scowpius!” Hermione looked down at the child to find light gray eyes and white curls staring back at her. Quickly the other child descended and was at her other leg.
“I’s Sterling” his eyes were a darker grey than Scorpius’, and he had a few freckles dotting his pale cheeks, but other than that, the two boys looked exactly alike.
Hermione couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up, “Gods Malfoy, did you clone yourself twice” she snorted. Besides the curly hair, the two boys looked just like him. Scorpius and Sterling started to laugh with her, though it was clear they weren’t sure what was so funny.
Draco and Theo stayed silent and Hermione bent down to be eye level with both boys. She held out a hand out to each side. “Hullo, I’m Hermione” Both of them took her hand in their little ones and she felt her heart melt slightly. How had she not known about them until now?
The boys looked at each other, seeming to silently communicate with each other. Looking back at her, both boys were wearing dazzling smiles as they exclaimed, “Mini!”. Well that was a new one. The Weasley children had called her Neenee, so she wasn’t sure if Mini was an upgrade or not.
She stood back up and caught both men’s eyes. Neither Draco nor Theo had a readable expression on their faces but she just shrugged as if to say, kids, what can you do? Theo elbowed Draco who blinked and then nodded.
“Ok I really have to get going” he turned to Theo and clapped him on the shoulder, “Thank you again. I’ll make sure Potter’s all good” Theo returned the sentiment about the kid’s safety. Draco then knelt on the ground and opened his arms. The boys left Hermione’s side and went running towards their father.
“Be good for Uncle Theo and Mini” Draco looked up at her and winked like nothing had ever happened between them. Like they had been friends for the past five years and he hadn’t just disappeared from wizarding England without a word to anyone. It was like nothing and everything had changed and she was left feeling like she knew nothing at all. “I’ll be back as soon as possible” he squeezed his boys and then stood.
“Theo, Granger” Draco dipped his head and then apparated right out of the lab, leaving her with two boys running to her side and a blush staining her cheeks.
Theo stood and clapped, “Well lady and gents, whatever shall we get up to this fine evening” and while Theo was talking to the boys, he looked at Hermione. It was a look she could read easily, he was letting her know she didn’t have to join but she would be more than welcome.
Hermione looked down at the two heads of curly blonde hair. Draco had children. Draco had twins. How had she not seen him get married in the papers? Sure she didn’t exactly keep a strict eye on the society papers, but she thought she would know about anything revolving around Draco Malfoy. Their eighth year, Malfoy had been almost as big of a topic in the papers as her, Harry, and Ron. The only marked death eater to walk away from the war without a lifetime sentence to Azkaban was a heavily remarked on topic.
There was a tug on her skirt again and she realized she had gone quiet and all three boys were awaiting her answer. “I’m ok for whatever. Dinner is already done” She pushed the weird feeling in her stomach away and bent down to Scorpius and Sterling. “How does lasagna sound?”
Both boys nodded in agreement, “Bien!” Scorpius squeaked with the perfect french accent. It took everything in her not to beam at the child. Who didn’t love a toddler with a french accent? Even if they came from Malfoy.
“Come along then”, Hermione stood and started to walk towards the door then felt small hands slip into each of her own. This time she allowed a small smile to grace her lips as they walked to the kitchen. Theo transfigured two of the chairs to smaller and a bit closer to the table, almost resembling muggle booster seats, and helped the boys in. Hermione quickly made work of serving her homemade meal onto plates. She wasn’t sure how much toddlers ate, but they had more than enough. Really she just hoped they’d eat it in the first place, it wouldn’t be the first time she’d whipped up something inedible.
Once they were settled and began to dig in, Hermione was very relieved that her food had tasted just fine and felt some pride fill her chest. Ron had always given her shit about not being a great cook like Molly. Turns out she was a perfectly fine cook when there wasn’t someone bitching in her ear constantly.
Theo had started talking to the boys and asking about their week. Apparently they had been out of the country and Draco had just gotten back Tuesday. She couldn’t help but wonder who their mother was. Was she still out of the country or just simply too busy to watch her children? Draco had mentioned Pansy. Did these boys belong to Pansy Parkinson? Her stomach turned again and she put her fork down. Maybe, hopefully, they belonged to some french witch.
“Do you boys like to read?” Hermione asked, because the only thing her brain could go to was books. They were a safe topic and what child wouldn’t benefit from reading? She heard Theo snort and narrowed her eyes at the man. Git.
“Balerion the Bad Dragon!” Sterling shouted with glee with Scorpius right behind him shouting “The Lonely Goblin!”
Hermione had to press her lips together to keep her laughter at bay. She adored the enthusiasm about such a thing as stories. She herself had felt very much similar about fairytale books as a child. Hermione was known for her studious nature at Hogwarts, but she wasn’t always reading some textbook.
Even though she herself had magic, fantasy books were always an escape for Hermione. Before she found out she was a witch, she had longed for a world where she belonged. When she had been told she didn’t belong in the wizarding world too, well she felt one with her favorite fantasy characters that had to fight to fit in their fictional worlds too. With the war looming during her teen years she found she had her own little world she could escape to. Worlds where the protagonist prevailed and they all lived happily ever after.
She was even a fan of ‘Bodice-rippers’ though she would NEVER refer to them as such. Who wouldn’t want to read a story about someone finding their true love after going through struggle and heartache?
Hermione also knew that as much as he liked to play up the Slytherin Prince, Sterling and Scorpius' father was almost as much of a swot as she was. She had caught the man plenty of times being completely enraptured by a book over their years at Hogwarts. His features always seemed to look softer when he was distracted and it was one of the only times he was never spewing vitriolic bullshit. Once again she had to mentally shake herself and forget about long ago stolen glances.
“Does Uncle Theo have any of those?” She turned to Theo, who looked rather sheepish.
“They don’t usually stay the night” was his only defense, even though he had already explained to her earlier that the children visited regularly. From what she gathered in the past week, Theo only read for scholarly purposes and Harry probably hadn’t picked up a book in years. So no children's books at the Nott Townhouse, that was a bummer and it was evident she wasn’t the only disappointed one.
The twins pulled a frown and a lightbulb went off in her head. “I have a story book, but we have to be really gentle with it” Maybe it was because she had put the idea into the boys' heads, but she wasn’t one hundred percent sure why she offered up the book in the first place.
“Otay Mini” Scorpius smacked his lips together and Sterling shared a similar sentiment. As long as they were cleaned up properly it would be fine she reminded herself.
They finished dinner quickly, Hermione and Theo both asking the small boys questions. Hermione had learned that despite Theo and Harry not having children’s books, they had a couple of clothes and toys the boys tended to keep over at the Nott-Pott house. She hoped that Harry and Draco knew that when they were back they would be answering a litany of questions.
Neither Hermione or Theo exactly knew the boy's bedtime routine, but bath time seemed in order. The two boys plopped down into the tub easily, squealing as Theo filled it with bubbles. Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly depending on how you thought about it, the Malfoy twins behaved quite well. Hermione thought briefly of how Molly would’ve probably killed to have had her twin boys act like this.
They didn’t argue when Hermione or Theo asked them to get out of the bath, each of them taking a twin to dry off and dress. Hermione was helping Scorpius step into his little silk pj set when she finally processed that this boy belonged to Draco. He and Sterling looked so much like Draco it was undeniable and she wondered if the rigid schoolboy she had once known had been this sweet.
They were so sweet and innocent and Draco… wasn’t. Not that she knew anything about the man now. His smooth demeanor earlier had surprised her. She was loath to admit that she had thought about seeing Malfoy again plenty of times. How would he react? How would she? But she had never thought about outside factors like children being involved.
But neither of them had acted how she had thought in her head. Then again, nothing in her life recently had been going how she thought they would. Scorpius looked up at her as she performed a drying charm on his little baby curls and he looked up at her. “Mini? Time to read yet?”
“Let’s go see if Theo is done with your brother” either Theo had a really good handle on things with Sterling or she would have to do damage control.
Luckily, it turned out Theo had handled his godson (Hermione had learned that tidbit of information over dinner) just fine. “Do they usually sleep in here?” she said, her hand on Scorpius shoulder, her other on her book.
Theo once again looked a bit sheepish as he rubbed the back of his neck, “yeah, go ahead and pile in” the last word of his sentence went up like it was more of a question and Hermione had to hold back an eye roll.
“You know, for a Slytherin you are an absolute trash liar” she deadpanned.
“If you’re referring to the house quality of cunningness, that is not synonymous with ‘good liar’” Theo shot back.
Hermione simply raised a brow and Theo cracked like a damn egg, “Fine, they usually sleep in your room since Draco’s an overprotective arse and it's the most warded. Apparently nap times need high security protection” she watched as Theo rolled his eyes but there was no malice to them.
Once again, without thinking, she called Sterling over and marched both boys to her room. She could take a guest room for tonight. “Come on, up you go” she said as the boys clambered up onto her periwinkle blue bed set.
Sterling patted the small space between the boys, “Mini come on” there was enough room for her but she really didn’t want to overstep any boundaries, especially if Draco’s wife was Pansy Parkinson or any other pureblood bitch who would yell about a mudblood reading a bedtime story to her precious pureblood sons. But as she watched both faces turn into frowns she couldn’t deny them. Merlin, how did Draco ever tell either of them no?
“Ok, scoot over” she made a shoo-ing motion and Sterling who was on the outer side of the bed crawled down a bit, allowing Hermione entry onto the bed. Once she was settled he crawled back up, locking her in the middle of the two Malfoys. Then, as if completing the ensemble, Theo and Crooks fixed themselves at the foot of the bed.
The large orange cat had made himself scarce since their arrival in Paris, but his little nosey butt didn’t shy away as he stared at both the children. Hermione didn’t think the boys had a pet because their eyes were wide as saucers as they took on the fluffy beast. “His name is Crookshanks, but you can call him Crooks” she said to Scorpius and Sterling, neither of whom were looking at her.
“He bites?” Scorpius asked and Hermione shook her head before calling out for the half-cat half-kneazle.
Crooks made a slow path to Hermione, his bushy tail swinging to and fro. However when he made it to Hermione and she held each boy's palm out for him to sniff, he lost his haughty attitude and began to purr. “Just be gentle and Crooks will be nice” she instructed, showing each child the correct amount of pressure to pet the feline.
“Crooksies” Sterling laughed as Crooks licked the boy's palm. He then stood and marched his way back to the foot of the bed. Crookshanks had never really been around children the size of the twins so she was more than happy with the way her tepid cat acted. He had only liked one man besides her father, and it hadn’t been Ron. In all honesty, she was surprised Crooks put up with Harry and Theo.
Hermione grabbed her old book and opened the cracked spine. Her fingers traced the two separate inscriptions written into the front end papers. The scrawling writing made her want to cry.
To Our Beloved Granddaughter,
May you enjoy this tale as much as your father did.
With love, Grand-mère & Grand-père
The book had been given to her on her third birthday. According to her parents, it had been one of the first books she had ever paid attention to. And to her grandparents' delight, she had been enraptured with the Velveteen Rabbit just as much as her father. Inches below the first, sat the second and she felt her fingers falter when they swept over the long dried ink.
Our dearest Hermione,
We know that you are a big girl now, but if you’re ever homesick, know that we are with you. I hope you don’t mind I slipped this in your trunk. You know I’m never a fan of breaking birthday traditions. We’ll see you at Christmas sweet girl. Your father says to knock ‘em dead! May you always feel as loved as the Velveteen Rabbit. I always knew you were magical.
With all the love from the moon and stars, love Mum and Dad
She had to push down the lump that had formed in her throat. Ever since her third birthday, her parents had made sure that every birthday after, they read her the book. Even when she had gotten old enough to read it herself, she’d settle under the covers and listen. All the way up until she went to Hogwarts.
The first night she had been going through her trunk, she found the book wrapped up in one of her jumpers. She had read it every night for the first few weeks until she became friends with Ron and Harry. And every year she would sneak away and read the Velveteen Rabbit, even on the run in seventh year. To anyone else it was a well worn book, but to her it was a symbol of the purest love.
Hermione had always assumed she’d one day share the tradition with her own children, but now she was tucked in between two Malfoys. She wanted to snort. She had no one to blame but herself. However as they both looked up at her with excited eyes, she couldn’t be upset that they were the first children she was sharing the book with. She cleared her throat and flipped to the first page.
“There was once a velveteen rabbit and in the beginning he was really splendid…”
xXx
Hermione had only been about a quarter of the way through the book when she heard a light snore from one side of the bed and a weight on her arm from the other. She hadn’t taken her eyes away from the book, but paused at the noise.
She looked up from the pages to find Theo staring at her with a soft smile. He jerked his chin towards the door and stood from the bed. She followed, trying her best not to jostle the children too much. Hermione had softly called for Crooks, but the orange furball only lifted his head and then nudged closer to the boys. She saw how it was then.
Once they were out of the room, they made their way back downstairs. It was still a bit early and she wasn’t sure how well she would sleep in another room. Theo was a bit wired at Harry still not home so that was his excuse.
“You know you’re really good with them” was the first thing that came out of Theo’s mouth as they settled in front of the fire.
She took a long sip of tea, avoiding eye contact. “They’re too sweet not to be”
Theo snorted, “Yeah nothing like they’re father”
“Well children are not their parents. Boys should not suffer the sins of their father” She said softly, thinking once again of how Draco did bear his own fathers sins. The mark on his arm flashed in her mind and she clutched her own marked arm a bit closer.
“Well Draco has plenty of his own sins to deal with, but he keeps them away from the boys. Thank you for not treating them like their evil spawns” Theo looked at her seriously and she felt like she was being studied, like she was on full display.
“They’re just children, Theo. You don’t need to thank me for common place decency” Hermione waved him off.
His eyes flashed for a second but she couldn’t tell what emotion they held. “Well not everyone would. Especially with Draco around. He’s not like he used to be” Theo supplied, but it felt like he wasn’t saying everything.
The question that had been swirling in her head since she laid eyes on the three Malfoys popped out before she could bite her tongue. “Who is the boys’ mother?” she felt her cheeks flush and prayed Theo would chalk it up to the fire making her extra warm.
Theo’s expression went grim and Hermione felt her stomach drop. It was Pansy Parkinson. She just knew it. “Astoria Greengrass. She was two years behind us in Hogwarts. Her sister Daphne was in our year, both Slytherins”
Hermione tried to wrack her brain for a face to match the name but couldn’t come up with much. She didn’t know much of Daphne, just that she hung around Parkinson and had never went out of her way to be a bigoted bully, at least around Hermione.
At Hermione’s silence Theo continued, “Tori was rather quiet, just like Daph, but she was really sweet once you got to know her. You remind me of her a bit. She didn’t take others shit, despite how nice she could be. I think that’s why she was able to whoop Drake into shape so quickly”
Hermione was stunned at Theo calling her nice. Hermione was called a very wide variety of things, but nice wasn’t one of them. She liked it though. Ron always said she was so aggressive with everything. She liked that Theo saw warmth in her. But the way he talked about Astoria niggled at her brain. All past tense.
“Theo… where is Astoria? Why couldn’t she watch the children tonight?” Hermione asked a bit hesitantly.
Theo swirled the dregs of his tea around, his shoulders collapsing. “She passed a few years back” Hermione opened her mouth but Theo held a hand up, “Before you go asking a million questions, know they are not mine to answer. You can ask Drake if you really want to know”
With his dismissal of her questions, Theo stood. “I’m turning in for the night. I’m sure Draco and Harry will be here by the morning. Goodnight Hermione” He did his fake little bow, but there wasn’t much humor in it.
She watched as he left her alone on the couch. What the hell happened to Astoria Greengrass? She had learned a long time ago that she knew much of nothing about Draco Malfoy, but now she felt like she knew nothing… at all.