A Christmas Miracle

Chapter 3

As the trees slowly began to lose more and more leaves, Halloween in the Muggle world was fast approaching. Hermione quickly conjured up floating candles as ceiling lights, similar to the ones at Hogwarts' great hall, telling customers at her bookstore she spent forever setting up the decorations whenever they'd ask (when in reality it took not even a flick of her wrist before everything was in place on all floors, except the basement). Thinking it would be cute, Hermione included glow-in-the-dark cobwebs in the corners of the rooms/area, plastic spiders, and magically reformatted the floors to have stereotypical ghost faces on the floorboards to add more details to her decorations.

A chime alerted her that another customer has entered the store, returning back to the cash register area, she looked up to find Scorpius had entered the building. She smiled at the boy, "Hello again, sorry I hadn't thought to introduce myself earlier to you. My name's Hermione Granger, but you can call me Hermione."

Scorpius smiled, "Well, I never gave you my name either, it's Scorpius. Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, like the stars in the night sky."

Hermione nodded her head, "Yes I remember your father calling your name. Did you know that your father's side of the family tends to name their kids after different constellations in the night sky?"

The boy nodded and looked at her with curiosity, "How do you know my dad so well?"

The woman cleared her throat, "Well.." she began, trying to choose her words wisely as she's telling his son about his past, and not wanting to cause any family drama, "...your father and I used to go to school together in the same year. He did what he had to do to ensure your grandparents' safety during the war that took place sometime before you were born, I'm assuming...and it was his wand that helped end the war."

Scorpius trailed his hands along the bookshelves, seemingly uninterested in his father's past, and began walking closer to where Hermione was stationed, "Did you also know my mother?"

Hermione furrowed her brows, "Astoria Greengrass correct? I think she was in the year below your father and me. I knew her older sister, your Aunt Daphne better, but that's not saying much."

Scorpius looked the woman in the eyes, grey meeting brown. Cocking his head to the side he asked another question, "What was my father like at school?"

Hermione paused, wanting to word her answer carefully as to not paint Draco in a bad light as she was speaking to his son, "Well...we were in different houses at Hogwarts and there tends to be silly house rivalries. You know they used to call your dad the 'Slytherin Prince'. He was Slytherin's Seeker in Quidditch, and he did well in school, always #2 in ranking of best grades."

Scorpius sneered a little, "Always second best? How sad."

Hermione burst out laughing at the child's remark, she thought to herself, "Yup, this is his kid."

The boy looked up to the woman again, "Do you know who the 'Gryffindor Princess' is?"

This caused Hermione to stop chuckling, wondering what the ferret had told his child about her, "I do actually, what has your father told you about her?"

Scorpius shrugged, "He said that the Princess never liked him, but that she had good reason to because he was a bully. He wanted to apologize to the Princess but was scared she wouldn't believe his words."

Hermione was surprised, Draco Malfoy...has the ability to feel apologetic for his actions? "Well it has been many years since Hogwarts and people do eventually change over time, even if it's just subtly." She thought.

She squatted down to be at eye level with the child, patting his platinum blonde hair, "I'm sure the Princess is willing to forgive him. Nobody is perfect, but people do deserve second chances."

"Even if they hurt you so badly?" The boy asked in wonder.

She slowly nodded her head, "If they're genuinely remorseful and want to be better the second time around, yes."

He looked at the shoes on his feet, "If we give them a second chance but they never come back after hurting you, then what?"

She looked at him with concern before brushing stray hairs away from his face, meeting his eyes, "Then you forgive them anyway. It's not healthy to bottle up any resentment or anger towards people for too long."

Scorpius nodded his head, "Thank you Miss Hermione...I think I can forgive my mother now."

Before Hermione could ask any further questions, a chime rang at the front of the store once more. Malfoy came into the shop, scanning the area before his eyes landed on his son and his ex-nemesis, "Scorpius, what did I say about running off like that?"

The boy turned to look his father in the eyes, "I was visiting Miss Hermione. She understands me."

A look of hurt passed through Draco as he slowly approached the duo. Hermione stood up straight to meet his gaze, and placed a hand on the little boy's shoulder, "What he means to say is...He's been going through a lot of emotions recently, and I'm also going through some myself. Talking with each other about these things helps us cope I suppose."

Draco sighed, "I see...I'm sorry to bother you a second time at work already, Granger."

She shook her head and smiled, "It's no trouble, your son is a good kid...You've done well by him, Malfoy."

Draco didn't know how to respond, only being able to nod his head before looking at his son, "Scorpius, we should start heading home, it's going to be sun down soon."

The little boy looked up at his father with pleading eyes, "Can we please invite Miss Hermione for dinner?"

The two adults looked at each other with surprise for a brief moment, before quickly fussing, "No I don't think that'll be necessary." "She's probably already got dinner plans."

Scorpius' put on a cute puppy dog face he knew he would get away with. Both adults sighed, then looked at each other, "Alright, I suppose I can come." "I guess I can set up another plate on the table."

A classic Malfoy grin spread across the little boy's face, He took Hermione's hand in one hand, and his father's hand in the other, happily leading the two adults after Hermione quickly magicked the lights off and the store closed.

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Author's Note:

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please look forward to the next few chapters (^_^)