Aurelian (Dramione)

Chapter 28: Meet the Grangers

Hermione apparated beside the same hedge she had a week prior, with Aurelian in her arms and Draco's hand in hers. She put Aurelian down and looked around quickly to make sure that no muggles in the area had seen their sudden arrival. When she felt confident they had not been seen, she turned around to look at Draco. Rather than surveying the area, Draco was staring down at his attire.

"You're sure I look alright?" he asked.

"You're wearing the exact same outfit Harry gave you last week," Hermione smiled. "My answer is the same as it was then. You look good."

"Yes, but when you said it then, you were just trying not to insult me," he reminded her.

"Which I failed at, obviously. You look great, Draco," Hermione said earnestly. Draco looked down at his button down shirt and black trousers one last time.

"And you're sure it looks okay with the sleeves rolled up?" he asked.

"Yes, it's perfect. Really, you look wonderful. By muggle standards, you are quite nicely dressed, but still look casual," she told him. "It suits you well. You look great."

Hermione took Draco's hand and started pulling him onto the sidewalk. Her other hand already grasped Aurelian's.

"I look great, too," Aurelian stated happily. He wore muggle clothing again also and was quite thrilled about it. It felt like playing dress up to him.

"Yes, you look quite handsome," Draco told him.

"Daddy handsome, too," Aurelian returned. "Mummy handsome, too."

"Yes, she's quite pretty," Draco agreed, causing Hermione to blush. When Draco finally peeled his eyes off of the woman beside him, he started appraising the neighborhood they walked through. "The houses here are quite nice," he commented. "Is this where you grew up?"

"Yes," Hermione answered, gazing fondly around the street. She remembered taking walks there with her parents and even learning to ride her bicycle on that very sidewalk with her father running after her. "It feels like home and so foreign at the same time. Not much has changed, except perhaps the neighbors. That's likely a good thing though. A few too many of them had witnessed different pieces of my accidental magic."

"It was no surprise then to get your Hogwarts letter?" Draco smirked.

"Well, of course it was," she said, "but a lot of things made sense then. I didn't believe, even for a moment, that it was a joke."

Both of them fell into silence as they thought back to their beginnings at Hogwarts. Draco thought back to some of their first classes together. He had known immediately that she was a muggle-born, but he had still been quite impressed with her natural talent with magic. He had been rather bitter about it, along with her great enthusiasm, but looking back, he thought she was adorable.

"Um, Draco," Hermione said hesitantly. "I wanted to say… well… When you greet my mother today-"

"Don't kiss her hand?" Draco asked with a smirk. Hermione blushed in response. "Don't worry, Hermione. I know how to play social games. I was just uncertain when I met your mother. I wasn't sure of your family's social status and well… she kind of conducted herself as my mother would, so I treated her accordingly."

"First," Hermione responded. "Muggle society doesn't really have levels of status anymore. Just about everyone is treated with the same respect, except perhaps, for heads of government. They're treated quite properly to their faces and talked about horribly behind their backs."

"And second?" Draco asked after a pause.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"You said 'first' so I was assuming that you were going to add a 'second'."