✖He's Not Mine [An Utterly Ridiculous Dramione Baby Story . . . Sort-of]

TWENTY-SEVEN

THE FIRST MEMORIAL BANQUET

"Granger, did you get the post this morning?" Draco asked as he walked into the kitchen.

Hermione entered from the front room. "There is a two year old child in this house, Malfoy. The post doesn't usually last long enough to be read. This survived, though."

She held up an envelope of heavy parchment. Draco turned to look at it. He paused with his hand on the coffee pot, which he had successfully learnt how to use. "That's from Hogwarts."

Hermione nodded. "I didn't open it. It's got both of our names on it and there's only one."

Draco poured a mug for himself. He held the coffee pot up briefly and Hermione shook her head. "I had earlier."

Draco nodded and Hermione broke the Hogwarts seal. She read through it and nodded to herself. "It's an invitation."

"To what? Hannah's birthday party? Or Longnottom's?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Dear Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy. You are hereby invited to attend the first annual memorial banquet to be held and hosted by Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The banquet will serve to commemorate and pay tribute not only to those who we have lost, but to those who have survived and mended what the war broke."

Hermione paused and glanced at Draco, who nodded for her to continue.

"Please do not hesitate to bring your son with, as we would love to see how much the little boy has grown. Regards, Professor Minerva McGonagall."

Draco almost inhaled his coffee. Hermione grinned. "Ha, now you know how I feel."

"Listen, you read a letter from Longbottom. You shouldn't have been surprised."

Hermione shrugged and folded the letter up. "Well, I will be going out this weekend with the girls to shop for a dress. You'll be fine with Tobias, right?"

Draco nodded. "Absolutely."

Hermione nodded and left the kitchen to get dressed.

"Malfoy, are you going in later today?" she called from her room a few minutes later as she haphazardly threw her hair into a ponytail.

"I'll probably show up at eleven. Why?"

"Well, some smart-ass thought it would be funny to transform into their animagi in front of ten Muggles, so now I have to go out and spin another bullshit story about the trick of the light or something. You'll drop Tobias off at Andy's before you go in? She asked if he'd spend today there, seeing as he and Teddy really hit it off last week."

Draco nodded as Hermione whizzed by, grabbing something from the fruit bowl in the kitchen.

"Did you eat breakfast, Granger?"

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away. I'll be fine, it's just a quick job. I'll see you at the Ministry, then."

She paused in the front room to give Tobias a kiss on his forehead. "See you tonight, baby. I love you."

Tobias dropped his crayon and hugged Hermione. "Love you too, mummy."

■■■■■

Harry stood with his back to the trophy cabinet. Opposite it, a large plaque had been put up, almost the size of the cabinet, that bore the names of those who had died fighting for what they believed in.

Harry liked that, because somewhere in the beginning of the list, he could see James Potter and Lily Evans, towards the end he saw Sirius Black, and there at the end, were the names of his classmates who had died in the war, and there was his godson's parents, Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin. And there, right at the bottom, the last name on the list.