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For Teddy's 6th birthday party, Andromeda decides to go all out in invitations and invites practically every person that she and Harry knows. Which means that Andromeda’s modest home and backyard is now littered with various guests, milling about to talk and catch up with each other.
Harry leans back in his chair, pushing himself away from the table to stop eating more of the cake Mrs. Weasley has baked for Teddy. He turns to his right and grins at his godson who’s currently enamored by the toy model figure of a dragon that breathes smoke every few minutes. To his left Ron busies himself with more cake, and Hermione is sitting across him talking with Luna. He doesn’t really know what they’re talking about, but he smiles remembering how far they’ve all come in their friendship with Luna. There’s some bustling and he suddenly hears a loud cry of “Cissy!” which makes Harry lean forward and turn his head towards the backdoor of the house. There stood Narcissa Malfoy, body oozing confidence as she strides towards Andromeda, with a hesitant Draco trailing right behind her. The boy is levitating a big box wrapped in birthday paper, and it causes the other guests to curiously stare. Harry briefly thinks that Draco looks so out of his element and he laughs a little under his breath. Just as he’s about to make a remark out loud, he observes Hermione’s face transition from relaxed to nervous.
Andromeda guides her sister and her nephew towards their table, of course, because Teddy still hasn’t noticed anything except the gift from Harry.
“Teddy, look who’s come to give you a birthday present and it looks like a big one at that.” Andromeda warmly smiles at the boy, taking his attention away from the dragon. Teddy perks up at the word “birthday present” and he looks up towards Narcissa and Draco. His eyes widen when he spots the wrapped box looking present, and then Narcissa steps forward to greet him a happy birthday while she unwraps it. Harry watches the exchange amusement filling him up and he feels Ron staring at him as if to ask “What do you think it is, mate?” and Harry just shrugs back in response. He’s known that Andromeda and Narcissa have been repairing their sister bond the past year or so now. Whatever any of them thought the gift would be, was certainly not what it actually was.
Teddy lets out a cry of excitement and pure happiness is shown all over his face in recognition of the clearly muggle toy gift, “A car! Is it really for me Aunt Cissy?”
Narcissa smiles and nods at the excitable child as he stands from his chair, dragon model captured within his hand, and goes to try his newest present. There it was, a white kid-sized electric powered toy car for Harry’s godson to ride and drive around in. Harry’s aware that his mouth is hanging open, so is everyone else’s to be honest, but he can’t help the astonishment at Narcissa’s present. Draco, who had looked uncomfortable mere moments before, now looks smug and helps Teddy open the doors and get inside the vehicle. Harry looks around to see what his friends think and Ron looks back at him with the most incredulous expression all over his face. They both turn to Hermione, expecting her to be as surprised as they were, but their best friend is calmly watching the scene unfolding in front of her. This makes Harry and Ron exchange another glance with each other.
“Hermione?”
“Yes, Harry?”
“What do you mean ‘Yes, Harry?’ Hermione! Aren’t you surprised Narcissa brought a muggle toy for Teddy?” Ron decides to ask the question for him, he tries to ask her as quietly as she could but it’s clear the Malfoys had heard him since Draco sends him a warning glare. Andromeda gives them a look too. So Harry decides to keep his own comments to himself.
“Well, not really, if you think about it. Teddy loves everything muggle related as much as he loves magical things, don’t you think his own family would recognize that?” Hermione replies back in a matter-of-fact tone.
Harry decides to intervene and stops any further discussion about the matter by kicking his foot at Ron’s leg under the table. Ron snaps his head towards Harry but lets it go and just grumbles about how he was just asking a valid question.
After several minutes of watching Teddy have the time of his life figuring out how to drive, and actually driving, the toy car with Draco assisting him, Andromeda pulls Narcissa towards the seat that was previously occupied by the birthday boy. Narcissa smooths out the side of her dress as she approaches the trio and sits down along with Andromeda, who has taken the seat that Luna had just left vacant.
“What do you think of my present, Miss Granger?” Narcissa suddenly asks which makes the other occupants in the table stop what they were doing. It’s certainly not the first time the trio has been around Narcissa and Draco. It’s been more and more of a common occurrence for all of them to spend time in the same room just so they could all spend time with Teddy. However, Narcissa has never made any effort in starting conversations with any of the three. Usually it was Andromeda that had to coax out the starting conversations in between all of them. Harry glances at Narcissa and notices the small smirk playing at her lips.
“I happen to think it’s a good present for Teddy, Miss Black, he clearly loves it” Hermione replied with a tone that sounds too casual as she went back to eating little pieces of her cake, clearly avoiding eye contact with Narcissa. Right, Narcissa was back to being a Black now. Even though it’s been a year since the publicized divorce, Harry forgets this sometimes.
Harry feels a small kick from his left, and he swivels his attention from Hermione to Ron. His best friend is trying to make subtle gestures towards the girl, and Harry nods in agreement. They both thought that Hermione was acting strange, and they would question the girl after the party.
*****
As an Auror, Harry has been occupied with too much work in the office rather than out in the field. It drives him crazy being cooped up inside for too long sometimes, so he’s taken to exploring the different sections of the Ministry whenever he feels too restless. That way, he can claim he was technically still working when he just wanted to leave the Auror department’s offices for a little while. Today, Harry happens to get Hermione alone in the elevator with him and the first thing he notices is that Hermione looks stressed out. It suddenly dawns on him that he and Ron never did question her after Teddy’s birthday party. Harry inwardly kicks himself for letting it go, because he’d sworn that he’d be a good friend to her and Ron no matter how busy his life got.
“Hermione, are you okay?”
This seems to snap her from whatever reverie she was in and looks at him like she just realized she wasn’t alone in the elevator. Hermione bites her lips and displays even more nerves than he’s seen from her in a long time, “Harry… I need to tell you something.”
Harry nods signaling her to go on.
“I don’t know how to say this but I made a mistake and I kissed someone that I most definitely should not be kissing. It’s been on and off for the past six months.” Hermione turns her head to the side to look directly at Harry’s reaction.
Harry pauses for a moment then takes it in stride and asks, “You mean you’ve been dating someone for the past six months?”
“No, I just told you. I keep making mistakes.”
“So… you snog someone once a month and call it a mistake then do it again the next month?” Harry wants to laugh, he really does, but it’d be rude when Hermione looks distressed now.
Hermione nods then hesitantly adds, “Well… sometimes it’s more than once a month, and it might just be more than snogging.”
“Hermione?” Now Harry is gawking at her.
The elevator door opens and two more occupants enter. Hermione lets out a small sigh of relief that Harry most definitely hears, and he stares at her as if she’ll keep talking when he knows she wouldn’t. Okay, there is no way he was going to let this go.
*****
Harry tries to catch Hermione and her mystery kiss buddy, he really does, except that Hermione never breaks her normal routine and nothing seems to be amiss. If anything, the girl’s stress levels seem to have dissipated slowly over the course of the next month. Still, he wants information and the curiosity lingers on his mind whenever he hangs out with Hermione. So one evening he drags Ron with him to buy some take-out then they both apparate to Hermione’s apartment. Ron knocks on the door as Harry stands behind him with food in hand, and Hermione seems surprised to see them both. Really surprised, almost like she’s a little disappointed to see them. So Harry asks, “Sorry, we wanted to surprise you with dinner. Did you already have plans, Mione?”
“No, no, it’s okay. Thank you for showing up with dinner” She gives them both a small smile and they quickly set the table up with plates and utensils.
They’re in the middle of eating when Hermione’s floo flares up and she stands to stride across the dining room and greet whoever’s head has poked out of the fireplace. Harry pauses his eating and curiously wonders if it’s the mystery person.
Hermione loudly says, “Good evening Miss Black, how may I help you?”
Oh, it’s just Narcissa. Harry returns to eating his Pad Thai as Ron scarves down the fried rice next to him, not even paying attention to anything around him. Wait, why is Narcissa Black talking to Hermione on the floo at this hour?
“Ahem, am I interrupting something Miss Granger?”
“I’m busy right now I’m afraid you’ll have to-”
Ron gulps down his food and interrupts, “Hold on, we’re eating dinner. Isn’t it a little too late to be calling anyway? Hermione is off the clock now.” Okay so he wasn’t too busy eating to pay attention to the conversation around him.
Harry nods in agreement even though he knows Narcissa can’t see him or Ron from where the floo is at.
“Well, it seems I have missed how late it is to be talking about Ministry business with you Miss Granger, I apologize for my interruption.” Narcissa sounds amused more than apologetic and Hermione says something too quiet to overhear before the floo dies out and she walks back to the table to continue eating.
They’re silent for a little while when Harry decides to bring up the topic he’s been thinking about, and Hermione wants to kick his shin but she’s sitting across the table and can’t quite reach it. So she ends up retelling exactly what she told Harry to Ron, who now has his mouth hanging open.
“Blimey ‘Mione, you’ve been keeping a mystery woman around us for six months now?!”
Hermione sniffles, “Well it’s not like I’m doing it on purpose am I? I’m still trying to figure it all out myself.”
“Well who is it then? If it’s someone you’re not supposed to be with… Oh Merlin, it’s Andromeda, isn’t it?!!” Ron gasps as if he’s figured her all out and Harry stops chewing entirely to give his full attention to Hermione. She gives both of them an incredulous look and shouts, “Of course not!” Then she flicks a piece of noodle at Ron. Harry squints his eyes at the girl when he notices that Hermione is looking a lot more nervous now, and he feels his stomach give out wondering if Ron’s got it right.
“Hermione, are you sure it isn’t Andromeda? You know you can tell us anything, right?” He asks gently, trying to let her know that no matter how wild of a situation that would be, they would have her back.
“Harry, I would have told you by now if it was her. I promise I can say that it’s not Andromeda.”
Harry lets out his breath that he didn’t even know he was holding and sags back into his seat. “Well whoever it is, you can tell us. We’ll support you and love you even if we won’t completely understand, right Ron?” He nudges his arm against Ron’s side and the ginger-haired boy nods quickly.
“Right then, does anyone want some firewhiskey?”
Well at the very least, Harry now knows for sure that he can list Andromeda Tonks off from the list of the possible mystery woman.
****
A month later, Harry heads towards Hermione’s office for their almost daily lunches together. Ron was finishing up some paperwork and insisted that they go ahead and already order food so it’d be ready by the time he could join them. Harry knocks and knocks on the door until he hears a confirmation for him to go inside. Harry opens the door to the office, and is greeted with the sight of a very annoyed looking Hermione leaning against her desk. Standing next to her is an amused-looking Narcissa with her hands crossed behind her back.
Harry now suddenly feels like he barged in on something, but can’t quite place what. Well, they were doing some Ministry work together weren’t they? Narcissa had firecalled Hermione about some business around a month ago. “Oh, sorry, did I interrupt your meeting?”
Narcissa answers, “Well, you did interrupt Mr. Potter but I shall take my leave now.”
Harry shifts awkwardly on his foot and then blurts out, “Wait, will you please have lunch with us Miss Black?” He feels Hermione shoot him a look but he ignores it.
“Oh please, call me Narcissa” Right, he was going to have to tell Draco that his mother had asked Harry to call her by her first name.
He briefly rubs a hand on the back of his head, “Well call me Harry then. Shall we, Hermione?”
Harry doesn’t really know what he was thinking when he offered an invitation to Narcissa, but he knows he was feeling very awkward about interrupting them earlier. That moment feels less awkward than the uncomfortable silence at their table now though. They’re waiting for their food and Hermione is busy keeping her eyes on the glass of water that she keeps taking sips from while Narcissa is busy taking glances at Hermione and Harry. Harry feels like he needs to say something so he blurts out the first thing he could think of saying, “So erm, Hermione, have that monthly snog with the mystery woman yet?”
Hermione chokes on her water and Narcissa arches her eyebrow while she brings a hand up to pat Hermione’s back as his best friend tries to stop her coughing.
“Perhaps I should take my leave?” Narcissa suggests after handing Hermione a piece of napkin which the girl graciously accepts to wipe around her chin and mouth.
“Oh no, please stay” Harry insists.
Narcissa sends him what looks like a thankful smile and then starts to smirk, turning to face Hermione to her left as she asks, “So what’s this about a monthly snog?”
“Nothing!” Hermione protests and shoots Harry a withering glare right as Ron barrels through the restaurant door and strides towards their table.
“Blimey I’m starved, are we talking about Mione’s mystery girl? Have we found out if it’s Andromeda yet?”
Hermione blushes and her skin darkens even more as Narcissa actually lets out a laugh then asks, “My sister?”
Ron, who was in the middle of sitting down next to Harry, finally notices Narcissa at their table. He gapes at her for a few seconds then catches himself and nods towards her.
Harry, taking pity on an obviously embarrassed Hermione, decides to drop the topic and start asking Narcissa about how Draco is and what he’s been doing. Narcissa gives Hermione a questioning look before indulging him with his questions about her son.
*****
Draco, because he was more than just Malfoy for a while now, had asked Harry to drop in at the manor later on in the day, so there was Harry standing in front of the big looming doors. He only has to knock a few times before Draco himself opens the door, eyes bright and smile wide as he greets Harry and lets him in. The two of them settle into comfortable casual talk while they pass through the main hallway of the manor. Harry is in the middle of explaining his latest Auror mission capture when he and Draco are walking past an open door. He trails off and abruptly slows his pace as he steps closer towards the study room, trying to silence his footsteps so as to not disturb the occupants. There in the middle of a dark blue loveseat sat Narcissa with one hand holding a book open and the other hand busying itself with softly touching long chestnut curls. The curls framed a head laying down on Narcissa’s lap, and the woman’s eyes are clearly closed. It was obvious that she was fast asleep, with the steady rise and fall of her chest, and the scene before Harry looked so peaceful that he felt like a voyeur to what was surely meant to be a private moment. He feels afraid of getting caught, even though Narcissa is concentrating on the book, but his mind starts running wild with the mystery of Hermione’s monthly tryst being unlocked right before his eyes. A hand touches his left shoulder and Harry nearly jumps from being startled, but he turns to his left and sees Draco with a finger on his lips. They both slowly pull away from the door, leaving Narcissa and Hermione to their own bubble, as Draco leads them to the kitchen. Harry himself was left speechless and is still trying to process everything, and this is apparently obvious to Draco who just pulls him to sit down on a chair. Draco hands him a glass of water which Harry gratefully takes and drinks a little sip of.
“So I take it that you had no idea?” Draco raises one of his eyebrows.
Harry mutely shakes his head then realizes that Draco must have known for a while, “Since when did you know? How did this even happen? Why is Narcissa the mystery woman?”
“Mystery woman? My, I wonder what tales Granger has told you. I also found out a similar way you just did, albeit… a little bit more. I honestly want to erase the memory from my mind. Just know you’re lucky you only caught an innocent moment, Potter.”
“Harry.” Harry insists and Draco good-naturedly rolls his eyes at this, but he knows that Harry never wants them to be Potter and Malfoy to each other ever again.
“Harry, they’re obviously not ready to tell anyone yet. I haven’t told you or anyone else, and I’ve only found out myself last month.”
“I- how are you so calm about this?”
“Maybe because I’ve had a month to process it, and I have to admit I find it a little… strange, but Mother has been happy lately, Harry. She’s been smiling more and making jokes more, it’s a little mind-blowing. I was worried for her and then I stumbled upon both of them, and if Granger is the one causing that happiness then who am I to get in the way of that?”
Well it made sense now, the nervous energy that Hermione showed every time she was around Narcissa. He and Ron had thought it had something to do with what happened years ago at the Malfoy Manor. It also made sense why Hermione was avoiding the mystery woman conversation, and why she couldn’t just easily tell them. The two had just probably figured it all out recently seeing as Hermione’s stress levels had only started to be less the past month or so. Oh, so that was why Narcissa had firecalled Hermione that evening and why he felt so uncomfortable interrupting that little moment they had in Hermione’s office. Hermione probably wasn’t even surprised by Teddy’s present, Harry comes to the realization, because she probably helped out Narcissa choose it! Oh Merlin, Harry couldn’t wait to see the look on Ron’s face when he….
“Oh fuck, we have to tell Ron that Hermione isn’t shagging Andromeda. She’s shagging her sister.”