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“Draco, Darling. I’m impressed that you lasted… thirty-six hours,” said Narcissa, gleely. His mother’s smug face was staring back at him through the floo. “Please tell me that I’m the first call and not… Augusta.” He could have sworn she shivered.
Draco smirked. Augusta Longbottom, although significantly older, had always been a competitor in philanthropy to his mother. Narcissa had to be the best at everything, including being a wealthy pureblood divorcee. They got along while in the same room together, but that was it.
“Mother, don’t be silly,” he said as calmly as possible. “Of course, you’re our first call.”
“So what seems to be the issue with my little Scorpius?” she asked sweetly.
A stilted laugh came from the hallway, barely heard over the wailing of his three month year old son. His husband was a saint for holding Scorp during all the screaming.
“He won’t stop crying,” replied Draco to his mother. “We’ve tried everything. Rocking, putting him down in the crib, new nappies, feeding, singing, dancing, toys. Everything mother.” And they were exhausted.
Scorpius had started in the earliest hours of the morning, right after Neville and he had finished their evening ‘activities.’ So suffice to say, neither he nor his husband had gotten any sleep.
“Have you had one of the house elves-”
“Mother, you know how Hermione feels about that,” he said nervously, eyes darting to the hallway and back to the floo.
Narcissa simply raised a perfectly plucked brow in question.
“But yes,” he said. He hated to admit it, but Tilly had tried all her tricks and nothing would get him to stop. “Tilly tried, Mother, nothing worked.”
She actually looked surprised at that. “Well, nothing I do will help with Tilly. Even though I’m obviously Scorpius’ favorite grandmother,” she said pausing for dramatic effect, “I probably won’t be able to make a difference if she didn’t. Tilly’s a miracle worker, she always knew how to get you to stop fussing.”
That was not what Draco was hoping to hear.
“Did you call a Healer?” his mother asked. That had been Neville’s first option. That or start giving Scorp herbal remedies that his husband would dig out of the garden.
“We thought about it, but he doesn’t have a fever and I’ve done basic diagnostic scans, nothing.” Draco had almost become a Healer. He had gone through the first year of training before deferring to law. He felt that although healing would help many witches and wizards, he would actually be able to make tangible change in magical law.
“And your sweet husband hasn’t given him any obscure plants has he?”
“No, Narcissa,” said Neville coming in. “I have not given him anything. Because as Draco just said, there’s nothing medically wrong with him. And I obviously wouldn’t use him like a guinea pig.”
Poor Neville must have put a silencing charm around Scorpius’ head to finish the conversation together without being interrupted. Scorp’s mouth was wide open, throat straining with lots of effort on the vocal cords, but no sound was coming out.
“Have you boys considered that he just needs his mother?”
The question hung heavy between Neville and Draco. This option was one that not only hurt a little, but was fairly difficult to do anything about.
While Draco worked at the Ministry for Magic, Neville and Hermione both taught the next generation and pursued knowledge at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Neville obviously taught Herbology, while Hermione, to the surprise of some, had taken over as Potions Mistress. The first non-Slytherin graduate in decades, and first Gryffindor to ever hold the post.
She was currently attending an international potions research conference. Hermione was presenting original work on fertility potion innovations. Those very breakthroughs had tangentially led to their current predicament. A screaming, yet adorable child.
That child almost caused her to defer her presentation and stay home. Hermione had created color coded sheets and planned out the school year, her and Neville’s conferences, and Draco’s big cases to make sure they had optimal timing for having their first baby. But her potion had worked too well, she had insisted on being part of the first test group, and Scorp had come into their lives much sooner than anticipated.
This presentation and conference was the first time she had left Scorpius for longer than a few hours. Sure he and Neville gave her alone time, and Narcissa and Augusta had taken him for a couple ‘throuple date nights’ as Longbottom had dubbed them. Hermione had been a nervous wreck leaving two days ago. A binder thicker than many of the books in the Malfoy library had been left in three different rooms with all the information they could ever need. She was even owling breast milk to them every couple hours.
The prospect of pulling Hermione away from her hard work was not a decision they wanted to make. They were Scorp’s fathers, they could figure this out.
“Yes, mother. But Hermione is busy presenting her research. Her presentation isn’t until tomorrow afternoon. We can’t contact her yet.”
Narcissa smiled. “Are you sure there’s no health concerns? You did the scans correctly?”
Draco scoffed, “Mother, of course I-”
“Open the grate, I’m coming through.”
Within seconds she was floating into the room, and snatching Scorpius into her arms. She waved her left hand to cancel the silencing spell. Although the volume of Scorp’s wailing had gone down, his lungs still had plenty of air in them.
She cooed at him, gracefully bending and straightening her knees to calm the child somewhat. Narcissa Malfoy did not bounce, but whatever you call it, it is always effective. The wailing was reduced to fussing. She pulled her wand from the wrist sheath and began casting light healing diagnostic spells.
“Oh my Dear,” she said, putting it away. “Draco, you must be sleep deprived. He has a slight fever and based on everything else, he’s got a cold.”
“A cold?” said Neville in disbelief. “That’s it? Why is he wailing like he’s being tortured?”
“He’s sick, and a three month old.” She looked at Neville moving to hand Draco the baby. “And he clearly wants his mum. Mothers have a different smell, a special touch. It’s not a slight on either of you. Scorpius needs something that Hermione is uniquely qualified to give him.”
Draco looked into Neville’s eyes, desperately trying to look past the bags that had doubled in the last twelve hours.
“We’ll just have to wait until after she presents, Mother. This is a big deal and we want her to actually be able to leave the house in the future.”
Narcissa nodded. “Well, I’ll just take him for an hour or so. He seems to be a little calmer. You boys go take a nap with a silencing charm on the room.”
Their one hour nap, graciously had turned into three. Tilly and his Mother had worked their magic and Scorp had calmed down to just fussing, but still wouldn’t go down for a nap. He and Neville managed to get through dinner and dessert without anything catastrophic happening. But as soon as his Mother went through the floo, Scorpius began crying again.
Neville snorted and began bouncing around with their son the best he could. It was going to be a long night before they could send an owl to Hermione’s hotel.
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Sometime around 6:00 PM the next evening the floo activates again, depositing a swirl of hair, concerned mother, and luggage into their living room.
The sound wakes Draco from his frazzled, extremely light dozing. Scorpius is whining, turning back and forth in my arms with a cold cloth on his head. Neville is passed out on the couch, getting what I can imagine is almost as good as dreamless sleep induced REM cycles.
“Oh you poor things,” Hermione says in her gentle tone. Most would assume the golden girl of the famed golden trio is no nonsense, and doesn’t have a mothering bone in her body. They would be completely wrong. Her heart flows over with kindness and she has taken to Scorpius so naturally. Miraculously, there is also extra love that she pours directly into her husband’s hearts.
“I knew I shouldn’t have left, as soon as I did I felt like something was going to happen, and-”
Draco shakes his head as she drops everything taking in the scene before her.
“It’s nothing to worry about,” he says yawning and waving her off. “You couldn’t have predicted this. How was the conference?”
She takes Scorpius into her arms, pulling his head into her shoulder and begins to bounce. “Amazing, it went swimmingly. I’ve gotten lots of offers for future publications, maybe even a book deal.”
As Hermione begins to speak, Scorpius’ fussing calms down. He begins to fall asleep, Draco even thinks he can begin to see the beginning of a glistening streak of drool at the corner of his mouth.
“Merlin, Mary, and Celistina, I’m so glad your home,” mumbles Neville from the couch. “You are literally magic, you’ve been here for two minutes.”
Hermione raises an eyebrow, turning back to Draco. “How bad is it actually?”
Draco sighs, looking at her feet. “Well, he hasn’t stopped crying for about a day and a half… Because he has a super mild cold. But nothing we did would get him to stop fussing. My mother visited and she and Tilly both got him to calm some, but no go. As soon as she left, he kept going.”
“Why in Salazar’s name did you not call me home?” she whisper-demanded. “You two look like you haven’t slept at all.”
Neville walked over to hug her from behind, “We got some sleep, but it was limited. But you and your work are more important than us going through the trials of new parenthood. Honestly, he’s been a good sleeper so far.”
“If you say so, I’m going to put him down,” she whispered. “Did you give him some medicine?”
“Yes, we watered down some pepper-up. That seemed to help. And we transfigured a fan in his room.” Draco summarized, moving to the couch where Neville was still lounging on.
“Excellent, be right back.”
An hour later the three of them were snuggled together on the couch sipping some perfect tea, one of the many benefits of an herbologist in the triad. Hermione had taken her favorite spot between them, leaning her head on Neville’s shoulder and her feet placed in Draco’s lap. Both work using calming strokes on her body.
“I should be the one comforting both of you,” she said quietly. Taking a sip of her tea, she sighed and melted even more into the supple leather.
Neville smiled, “Nonsense. You’ve been travelling and have had your professional face on for a few days.”
“Relax, Granger,” I saw in a drawl, making her laugh. “We’re fine. Scorpius is fine, especially now that you’re here. He just needed his mother’s touch and love.”
She looks worried, “I hope that you both know that this doesn’t say anything about your parenting skills… Or- or even how much Scorpius loves his fathers. I want you to know that I couldn’t do this without you.”
“We know love,” says Neville kissing the top of her head. “But thank you for reminding us.”
“Let’s hear about that book, Granger,” Draco prompts.