A Second Look - A Dramione Story

Chapter 2

Warning: This is not my story. It is from RiverWriter on Ao3

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James looked absolutely delighted by whatever they'd been doing when Hermione arrived at WWW and she had to stop herself from interrogating George about the products with which he had undoubtedly filled his nephew's (probably now magically expanded) pockets. Instead, she just gathered up the boys, thanked George for giving her time to shop, sent her love to his family, and left. When they reached the entrance to the Leaky, Hermione let out a sigh of relief that they'd made it down the alley without anybody bothering them and smiled when she saw Malfoy and Scorpius waiting.

"Who's that?" James asked loudly as they approached the pair, tugging on her hand eagerly.

"Don't be rude James," she chided gently, "This is Mr. Malfoy and his son Scorpius, can you say hello?"

"Hello!" He said obediently, grinning brightly at the blond- James had never met a stranger, from the stories Hermione had heard he was very much like his namesake in that way.

"Malfoy, this is James, and this," she jiggled the baby in her arms slightly, "Well, this is Albus," she said, wishing not for the first time that Harry had named the poor child something, anything else.

"Hello," he responded awkwardly; which was just bizarre for her to witness from such a self-assured man.

"Alright, let's go inside and ask Mrs. Longbottom if we can use her floo."

"Can I ask her?" Asked James.

"Of course you can!" Answered Hermione.

"Granger," Malfoy said in a low voice, looking around uncomfortably, "are you sure about this?"

She turned to look at him.

"Don't worry, Hannah is one of my best friends, She'll be... confused at first, but, she trusts me. Plus, you have a secret weapon."

"What's that?" He frowned.

She pointed to Scorpius. "She'll be completely unable to resist that kind of adorable."

"So, she's exactly like you," he countered, "I could tell you were putty in his hands the second you saw him."

She snorted softly but just smiled at him. She couldn't deny that he had a point.

"You know, people say he looks just like me," he continued, The arrogance that she was accustomed to coming from him, but hadn't seen much of today, was back in his voice; it was strangely relieving.

"Are you seriously asking me to tell you that I find you adorable?" She scoffed.

"No, on me it's handsome." He puffed out his chest.

"Ha!" She rolled her eyes and shook her head as they approached the bar.

"Hello, Mrs. Longbottom!" James chirped, scrambling up onto a stool so that he could speak to her face to face.

"James! How are you?" She greeted him with a wide smile.

"I'm good."

"And how's your daddy?" She asked him, but her eyes drifted to Hermione in question.

Precocious James beat his godmother to the punch, unaware of the adults' underlying communication.

"He's good too, We're having an Aunt Hermione day so that he could sleep. He's probably bored by now," he surmised sagely.

Hannah visibly suppressed a laugh but she shot another questioning glance at Hermione.

"I just thought he could use some alone time, but he's as well as can be expected," she said lightly, disguising her meaning from little ears.