Work Text:
Hermione Granger was in a panic, and it was all because of the Weasley twins. Of this she was certain. Only Fred and George would slip prank sweets into her candy draw at work. Nobody else would be so stupid, so idiotic. She was the head of the Department of Magical Creatures for Christ’s sake. Nobody should be transforming in her office, except for a werewolf if they happened to be in the department during the full moon. Thankfully that hadn’t ever happened, but she might have taken that over the situation she was currently in.
Draco Malfoy her boyfriend of six months had been called into the ministry on his day off. There had been a large disturbance in Hogsmeade during the monthly Hogwarts visit to the village. As the Deputy head Auror he was needed for the task and Harry who was the head of the department had called him in. The only problem was that Draco had been caring for his son Scorpius when he received the call. He’d had no time to arrange childcare for the young boy and had rushed into Hermione’s office desperate for help while on his way to the Auror Department. Hermione had never taken care of Scorpius alone before, not once, she’d met him many times but Draco had always been present. She’d agreed to watch the three-year-old, Draco kissing her quickly in thanks before hurrying out of the door.
It should have been simple looking after Scorpius, the three year old was well behaved usually and Hermione had lots of experience looking after the many Weasley-Potter children. For the first hour Scorpius sat colouring, his little tongue poking out as he concentrated on keeping his crayons within the lines of the dragon picture. Then Matilda her assistant had come in to say that there was an angry centaur who wanted to speak to her. Hermione had left Scorpius for no more than five minutes, expecting that he’d be in the same position when she returned to her office. Only this was not the case.
Upon entering the office she saw the colouring book laying open on the floor, the pack of crayons discarded around it.
“Scorpius,” she called her heart leaping with fear. Where had he gone, she hurried further into the room, her eyes searching desperately for the little boy who meant the world to her boyfriend, the boy who had been entrusted into her care for the day. A strange sound, almost like a squeal sounded from the other side of her desk, and Hermione hurried round to see what had caused it, her mouth falling open in horror.
“Oh Scorpius, is that you,” she asked dropping to her knees beside the small bunny rabbit that was sitting inside the open bottom desk draw, on top of her candy stash. The rabbit squeaked; its dark eyes fixed on hers. The rabbit’s fur was the same white blonde as the fair-haired toddler who should have been in the office and its eyes were the same shade of dark grey. Hermione gathered the rabbit into her arms, running her hand down it’s back soothingly as she looked through the draw for anything out of the ordinary, something that should not be there. It didn’t take long to spot the bag of miniature chocolate easter eggs, torn open with five purple tinfoil wrappers empty. The WWW logo was prominent on both the bag and wrappers as were the words; ‘prank your friends and give them a hopping easter’.
“Oh god,” she said grabbing the bag from the draw she began to read the small print on the back worriedly. Phrases jumped out at her which made her eyes water, as she clutched the rabbit to her chest worried for its welfare; ‘do not consume more than one chocolate egg in a day’, ‘not to be given to children under the age of twelve’, ‘if adverse effects occur contact the proprietors of WWW or go to your local hospital’.
“Don’t worry Scorp, I’m going to help you,” she told the rabbit, kissing it carefully between its ears she approached her door and stuck her head out to speak to Matilda. “Matilda there has been an accident, Scorpius has consumed a WWW product. I’m going to be out of the office for the rest of the day,” she told her assistant.
“What should I tell Mr Malfoy,” Matilda asked worriedly, Hermione grimaced, looking down at the rabbit in her arms.
“I’ll send him a patronus once I know more,” she told her assistant who nodded as Hermione stepped past her to the departments personal floo network. With a pinch of powder and the call of her destination Hermione found herself whisked away in a swirl of green flames to the flat above Weasley’s Wizards Wheezers.
“Hermione to what do we owe the pleasure,” a joyful voice spoke, Hermione followed the voice to the flats kitchen table where Fred sat, sandwich held halfway between his mouth and a white plate.
“You need to fix him,” she told him hurrying out of the fireplace she held out the rabbit that was now struggling in her grip while making a distressed noise. Scorpius had never liked the floo network, often crying when he was forced to go through it. Unfortunately apparition wasn’t safe for children as young as him and floo travel was the quickest and safest option available to transport the child even if he didn’t like it.
“Fix who,” he asked dropping his sandwich, the older of the Weasley twins approached her, Hermione felt her eyes welling as she looked down hopelessly at the still struggling rabbit.
“Scorpius, you need to fix him Fred,” she told him.
“Scorpius, you don’t mean that the rabbit is,” Fred broke off a worried expression now marring his usually happy face.
“That the most precious person in the world to my boyfriend ingested one of your products and is now a rabbit,” she nodded thrusting the rabbit into the redheaded man’s hands. “Draco trusted me to look after him and he turned into a rabbit the moment I took my eyes off of him,” she continued, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth.
“Right then, we best go to the lab downstairs,” he said, stroking the rabbit absentmindedly as he led her out of the flat and down a set of stairs to their potion laboratory, his lunch now forgotten.
“Finished your lunch already Freddie,” George called as they stepped into the lab.
“Not quite we have a problem Georgie,” Fred spoke, settling the rabbit onto one of the work benches in the lab.
“What kind of problem, hello Hermione, why do you have a rabbit,” George asked approaching the bench.
“It’s Scorpius,” Hermione told him unable to hold the tears back as she watched the rabbit sniffing at its surroundings.
“Scorpius,” George questioned.
“He ingested five of these,” she told him pulling the packet for the chocolate eggs out of her jacket pocket, both twins groaned.
“How old is the tyke,” Fred asked quietly, using his wand to cast a diagnostic spell on the animal.
“Three,” she told him worriedly.
“Right and he had five,” George confirmed, she nodded, stroking her hand across Scorpius’ fluffy back.
“He will be fine,” Fred told her reassuringly.
“Do you have a counter spell or potion, a sweet to turn him back into a toddler,” she asked worriedly.
“Unfortunately no we do not. The sweets are designed to last half an hour so five will last two and a half hours,” George told her.
“But he’s a rabbit, what am I meant to tell Draco, what am I meant to do with him for the next two hours,” she asked panicked, the twins grimaced at the idea of telling Scorpius’ father.
“Hopefully Draco will see the funny side of this,” George commented.
“As for Scorpius, he might be easier to watch as a rabbit, put him somewhere safe and feed him a carrot,” Fred suggested, Hermione glared at him.
“This is both your faults, sneaking prank sweets into my snack draw,” she told them as she gathered the rabbit into her arms.
“They were intended for you to consume not a toddler,” George said apologetically.
“I will get you both back for this,” she told them as she exited the room and returned back up the stairs to floo to her cottage. As soon as she arrived back in her book filled sanctuary, she raised her wand and sent off a patronus explaining to Draco through tears about Scorpius consuming the prank chocolate and how he was okay but stuck as a bunny rabbit for the time been.
A few minutes later Hermione found herself sat on her cream sofa, crying softly into the fluffy body of the squirming rabbit when the floo flared to life, Draco stepping out of it in his Auror uniform.
“Hermione, are you okay,” he asked her settling onto the sofa next to her.
“You must hate me, look what I’ve done to your child,” she wept gesturing to the ball of fluff that sat in her lap.
“I could never hate you,” he confessed.
“I’ve pulled you away from work, you should be in Hogsmeade,” she stuttered as the rabbit struggled out of her lap and hopped onto his father’s knee.
“I was already back at the office when you sent your patronus. The situation in Hogsmeade turned out to be kids with too many fireworks,” he said, stroking his sons fluffy head as he wrapped one of his arms around her.
“I’ll understand if you want to break up with me,” she told him, through watery eyes.
“Why would I do that, I love you Granger,” he told her using a finger to raise her chin so his eyes could lock on hers.
“You do, but what about Scorpius.” She hickuped.
“He will be fine, accidents happen with children, I’m sure it won’t be the first time he ingests a product from WWW,” Draco told her, leaning forward to press his lips to hers, Hermione returned the sweet kiss.
“Draco, she whispered as they pulled away from each other.
“Yes Granger,” he smiled at her crookedly.
“I love you too,” she confessed as a loud rumble sounded from the small rabbit that was now sat in the small gap between the two of them.
“We best find some carrots,” Draco suggested which made Hermione giggle as she hopped up to get some from the kitchen.