Work Text:
Draco was called the sculpture at the DMLE. Nothing could phase him. He could be given a nightmare of a case filled with nothing but holes and dead ends. He’d insult whoever gave him such a nightmare but he never made it look like he was anything less than mildly irritated. The fact that there was a visible frown on his face as he was elbow deep in archive files showed how livid he really was. Harry Potter entered with a delicacy of finding a death eater hideout. Harry technically ranked above Draco but a physically upset Draco was not something you dealt with lightly.
“Hey, don’t kill me. But we found the missing file. It was mixed into Millicent’s tax evasion case.”
Draco paused slowly. The second, white snake on his arm slithered around the frozen death mark and hissed at Harry while Draco rolled down his sleeves. The boy-who-lived was frozen solid as Draco put on his jacket. The chosen one felt stuck to the floor as Draco slipped on his robes. It was only when Draco ran his fingers through his hair that Harry felt the power to move again.
“I’m going home, Potter. Clean this up.” It wasn’t till Draco had already left that Harry remembered that he was actually Draco’s boss.
**************
Hermione was shuffling through a parenting book about the expectations of a magical child’s growth. She had read endless amounts of parenting books and was infinitely more curious as to the difference in advice from wizarding books versus muggle ones. Scorpius was sleeping calmly on her chest and Hermione sighed as she looked at the time. It was past 9 o’clock. Draco was very late getting home again. He had been doing double time on cases since Scorpius was born. He was set to be promoted soon but it meant more late nights and more early mornings. Something that the little eight-month-old in her arms did not like.
If Draco wasn’t there for bedtime Scorpius would not be put down. It would turn into a long and drawn-out fight of him trying to stay up or at least sleep in their bed. Hermione had lost the battle tonight and was committed to being Scorpius’ pillow till Draco got home.
She heard the sound of the Floo being activated from down the hall and smiled at the sight of her husband nearly collapsing at the foot of their bed.
“I’m so sorry I’m late. There was this huge mess up in the archives and I had to stay and fix it. Have you eaten?” Draco asked as he grasped her hands and pulled them close to him.
“It’s okay Draco, and shouldn’t I be asking you that question?” She chuckled moving to caress his cheek and see his carefully constructed mask fall apart. Draco was the main chef of the house when their house-elf wasn’t on call for the night. It continually frustrated her that he was the better cook but she had been using her maternity leave to take classes from Whispy and her mother. It had been slow going but Hermione was always determined to be a good student.
He had climbed into the bed with her, burying his face into her neck as slow kisses trailed down her jaw. Scorpius grumbled at the movement but didn’t wake up.
“I’m sorry Hermione, work has been rough lately.”
Running her fingers through the tops of his head Hermione sighed, kissing his head and relishing in that uniquely Draco smell. He was freshly cut grass from Sunday quidditch games. He was fresh parchment from working on case after case after case, and he was green apples. If only Hermione knew then when she smelled that potion in Slughorn’s class who she was really smelling.
“I made your favorite today. Beef Wellington and roast potatoes.” She assured him, knowing that he deserved a bit of pampering and that she had finally produced a decent rendition of the dish after a very long lesson from Whispy today.
Draco curled up tighter in her arms. He was starting to feel no different than the infant on her other side. She felt his response more so than heard it as his lips trailed up her jaw to give her a proper kiss.
“You’re too good to me.”
The second time Draco kissed her she felt all of his emotions at once. His exhaustion from work, his hunger from being gone so long, his sorrow at this not being the first nor will be the last time he gets home well past dinner.
Pulling back slightly he smiled, and Hermione got to relish in seeing her husband without any filters. She was the only one privy to raw uncensored Draco Malfoy. Grabbing Scorpius in his arms he kissed her once more on the forehead. “I’ll put the sprog down and then we’ll have a proper dinner. Choose a bottle of wine and I’ll be right there beautiful.” He smiled and Hermione was left alone in the bedroom while Draco put Scorpius down for bed.
Hermione’s walk to the kitchen downstairs was slow. She was in no rush to fly past the pictures that filled the walls of the stairwell. Images of both of their childhoods. Of days at platform 9 and 3/4 and the only picture of them together at Hogwarts. They had to be documented as head boy and head girl when they came back for their 8th year and Hermione couldn’t help but smile at the strained smiles on their faces as they shook hands.
She had pictures of her with Pansy and Daphne. There were shots of dinner parties with Theo and Blaise. There were group images of holidays at the burrows. Draco now fondly looked forward to the Weasley versus not Quidditch games. It was also the only time Draco played keeper as winning was more important than his seeker rivalry with Harry.
There was a beautiful shot of Christmas at the Malfoy Manor with her, Draco, Narcissa, Scorpius, Andromeda, and Teddy. Narcissa had been slowly rebuilding her relationship with her sister after the war but it seemed that Scorpius’ birth fixed any lingering problems.
Hermione’s favorite photo was at the bottom of the staircase, it was a simple candid. Draco and her father chatting on the couch while Scorpius played with a teddy bear. It wasn’t a special occasion, no one was smiling or even looking at the camera but Draco was in jeans and it was a muggle photo. That alone told so much more than anything else could have.
She felt a pair of strong hands wrap around her at the base of the staircase and she smiled, resting into his hold.
“What’s got you staring into space beautiful?”
Shaking her head she smiled and turned towards him. “Nothing much, just taking a walk down memory lane. There’s a nice Merlot already chosen for dinner. I trust Whispy’s decision.”
Nodding at her statement Draco kissed her forehead slowly. His hands tangled into the curls of her hair as she felt him relax around her.
“Come, let’s eat dinner and we can talk about those memories. Maybe we can even plan some new ones?”
Nodding at her husband she looked down at her hand. Draco had grasped it in his as he led them into the kitchen and to the Beef Wellington that was under a status charm. Her wedding ring had caught a flash of moonlight from a nearby window and the emerald in it shinned beautifully. It was the Malfoy ring. It was 600 years old had never been touched by less than a pureblood. Yet, here it was on her hand as a reminder of how things could change. How something that everyone thought was constant could be different with just a little push. How even marble could crumble with just the right touch. That she could have something so beautiful from a man she once was the furthest things from friends with.
It was funny how memories changed.