Age Difference - A Duology [Harry Potter]

Does Your Father Know? - Chapter 3

There's that look
In your eyes
I can read in your face
That your feelings are driving you wild

~ ~ ~

A week passed, and Hermione was back in the library. She stood there looking at the new exhibit, thinking about the opening night and Scorpius's startling confession on the walk home. She shook her head, as if erasing that memory. She heard footsteps come up to her in the empty library after closing time.

"Lost in thought?"

She sighed through her nose. "I guess so." She turned to face the older man. "Henry, I have a question."

"You have a lot of those. What is it?"

"I just wanted to know... did your son choose to follow in your footsteps, or did he want to do something else with his life?"

He blinked. "That's quite the random question. Well... in the beginning, David wanted to work as an auror, but he soon realized that there was nothing in it for him, so he started up at the library and loved it. Why do you ask?"

"Oh... just a friend of mine... he's in the situation where his father's making him work in a place he doesn't want to."

Henry stared at Hermione's hazel eyes, studying them. "Are you referring to young Mr. Malfoy?"

She folded her arms and hugged her torso that was covered in a red dress sweater. "Yes, I am."

"I can read you like a book, Hermione. You care a lot for this boy."

She nodded, not letting herself lie to the man who she saw as her father. "I do. He's... like a son to me."

He nodded. "What would you like me to do?"

That gave Hermione a start. "Oh, nothing, I was just..."

"Would you like me to talk to his father and see that he has his son work here?" Hermione eyed him, and his gray-blue eyes twinkled. "I'm not the only one who saw him fond over those old books in there last week."

Hermione eyed the ancient books, open under the glass, revealing their contents. "Yes, but... I don't know. I just want for him to be happy."

Hermione surprised herself by saying that. It was the truth, wasn't it?

"I'll see what I can do," he said.

"Thank you, Henry."

"Anytime, m'girl."

He was off, and Hermione stared at the books. Scorpius had a crazy boy-crush on her—she would be able to handle that if he started up at the library... right? She sighed and pursed her lips. Of course she could. She was forty-one years old for heaven's sake!

~ ~ ~

He was mad! To think, he followed after Rose and went fell for someone far older than him. The phrase that Rose repeated over and over again the year before swam around his head like an angry fish... "You can't control who you fall in love with."

How that phrase irked him, and it irked him that human emotion worked that way. Before, he saw Hermione as a mother when he didn't have one. The moment he met Hermione after he and Rose started dating, he knew he would have a mother figure for him to go to when he didn't feel like talking with his dad. And now look at what happened! It took one look of her in that slimming black dress, and he was hooked. Hermione wasn't a large woman, but was petite, curvy, and... attractive. Of course, he noticed that before, but now... it was all he thought about, especially after holding her curvy body to him as they danced. Was this some type of disease or strange spell that he, his dad and Rose were under? That had to be it. He never thought that he would fall for an older woman. Maybe it was just contagious.