A Second Look - A Dramione Story

Chapter 29

Warning: This is not my story. It is from RiverWriter on ao3.

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They were gathered for breakfast again. The meal was apparently becoming an auspicious occasion in her life.

Hermione looked around at the strange assortment of people Draco had invited. None of them on their own would have been odd, but the group together was puzzling: his parents as well as Harry and Pansy. Not that she minded, per se. She simply wondered what her fiance was up to, because she recognized the look on his face, and he was certainly up to something.

But that wasn't anything new. Draco seemed to have been working on some hidden agenda for the past couple of weeks. She'd waited- very patiently- for him to explain himself and she had a sneaking suspicion she was about to learn what it was.

Because if smugness was a physical ailment, Hermione was certain that Draco would be in danger of expiring at any moment.

No. Scratch that. He would have been gone days ago.

She wasn't certain what had him feeling most pleased with himself: the ring on her finger, the baby who called her 'Mama,' the copy of "Witch Weekly" sitting on the table with a picture of the two of them gracing the cover, or the puppy snuffling about at their feet. The last had garnered his father's clear disapproval; which she was fairly sure was actually intentional on her fiancé's part- a childish attempt to annoy his father- given that the dog was usually relegated to the garden while they ate.

Though, perhaps, it was the amount of sex they were having in order to try and get pregnant. The healer had warned them that even with the flushing draught she'd taken, it might take several months for her fertility levels to return to normal given the length of time she'd been been on a contraceptive potion, and not to expect a pregnancy right away. Draco seemed to have taken it as a personal challenge.

She suspected it was the combination of all of these things.

But she was mostly apprehensive about the fact that Draco wasn't the only Malfoy in the room who looked so pleased with himself; actually, all of them did. Except for Scorpius, who was too busy trying to shove an entire crepe into his mouth all at once to care about anything else.

After ten minutes of quiet eating she ran out of patience and set her set her fork down- careful not to allow it to clatter against her plate in his parents' presence. "Okay, what's going on?"

Draco set his own fork down and regarded her for a moment, and then he turned to his parents. "Mother, why don't you go first?"

Narcissa nodded and rose from the table, headed towards the floo room where they'd left their cloaks. She returned carry a box wrapped in silver paper with a royal blue ribbon- traditional Malfoy House colors. She handed it to Hermione, smiling warmly.

"What's this?" Hermione asked.

"An engagement present from Lucius and myself."

Hermione blinked at her in surprise. "Oh, well thank you, but that was unnecessary."

"Nonsense," the older woman waved her off.

Hermione glanced at Draco and he gestured for her to go ahead so she ripped into the paper and lifted the lid to find a stack of parchment. Not knowing how to react to such an unusual gift she began to look through them. There was a contract of some sort and then what appeared to be some financial statements.

"Look at the last one," Draco encouraged, confirming her suspicion that he'd already known about this...whatever this was.

She flipped to the bottom of the stack. The last piece was a letter. Hermione began to read it, and as she made her way down the page she felt her eyes widen. She could only stare, blink, and then read it again. "This looks like a letter from Rita Skeeter resigning from the Daily Prophet."