Chapter Text
January 5th, 2013
Hermione Malfoy was awoken one morning to the smell of bacon wafting up the stairs, which was strange as her bedroom was on the fourth floor and her door was shut. She slowly got up and checked the time. It was eight am. She quickly dressed and went downstairs to see her lovely husband cooking breakfast, something he never would have fathomed doing 15 years ago because he had an army of house elves to do it for him. Somehow, being married to Hermione made him such a great person that even though they had a house elf, they relied on said house elf for absolutely nothing. And being married to Draco Malfoy made Hermione forget all her principles and was fine with owning a house elf.
“Good morning, darling,” Draco Malfoy, her husband, drawled lovingly, “I made breakfast. Pancakes, bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, toast, baked beans and waffles. You're favourite.”
Hermione giggled.
“Thank you, dear,” She replied, kissing him on the cheek.
For some reason, Draco could not be a normal person and cook his wife one thing for breakfast on a random Saturday in January to be nice and had to make her an entire fucking feast. But then again, they did have nine kids, so maybe it was best to go a bit over and feed the leftovers to them.
Just as she sat down in her usual place and Draco set the plate in front of her, two of her children came storming down the stairs.
“Mum!” Cassiopeia yelled, skidding to a halt in front of the table. For a girl named after a constellation, it was still a pretty basic name for some reason. “Scorpius threw a water balloon on me!”
“Now, now Scorpius, that wasn't very nice,” Hermione said to the boy who stopped beside his twin, “Apologise to your sister.”
Scorpius just laughed and ran away. Neither of his parents did anything about it, just shook their heads because apparently throwing water balloons at your siblings to wake them up is completely normal and doesn't warrant a grounding or no phone for a week. They were cool parents. Just not to their daughter.
While Hermione ate her meal, Draco Malfoy, her husband, went up to wake up their youngest children, Mars and Phoenix. As she sat in silence, eating her delicious feast her husband had probably gotten up at 4 am to prepare, she thought back on the last fifteen years of her life. Directly after the battle of Hogwarts, she had run away without saying goodbye to any of her friends. She met Draco Malfoy, sniffing and crying pathetically under a staircase, and he proposed to her instantly. She obviously accepted as she had actually been in love with him since she was 11, despite the bullying and discrimination he had put her through. As it turned out, he only bullied her because he liked her, and if that isn't romantic, she didn't know what was. They then went to his parent's house to announce their engagement and his parents had been so supportive, despite trying to kill everyone like her not even a week ago.
They were married at the end of May, and by June, Hermione was pregnant with twins. She hadn't thought of her cheating ex-boyfriend who somehow cheated on her despite never dating him and only kissing once on the day she ran away, in over a month at this point, considering it had only been a month since she ran away, and had never been happier. Her friends were all worthless anyway. Looking out for her well-being? Enjoying her company? Defending her against people who wanted her dead? Beta male behaviour.
When her beautiful twins were born nine months later, in March 1999, she was overjoyed. They were named Scorpius Lucius and Cassiopeia Narcissa, the most gorgeous children ever to be born, in her opinion, and the least inbred Malfoy children to be born in centuries, a fact.
Fast forward, fourteen years, and she is living her best life with nine children, a gorgeous and not evil husband, two parents who somehow made it back from Australia with no magical help and their memories intact, inlaws who previously, like their son wanted her dead but now love her like a daughter, and new friends who totally never hated and bullied her relentlessly. She couldn't have asked for a better life.
A sharp tap on the window snapped her out of her thoughts. She turned to see a white snowy owl sitting on the kitchen windowsill with a thick parchment envelope attached to its foot. She carefully opened the window and took the letter from the owl before giving it a few owl treats that appeared out of nowhere, and it was on its way. As she scanned the envelope, clearly from Hogwarts with the gleaming red wax seal and the emerald green cursive on the front, another tap sounded, this time from a brown barn owl. It held an identical parchment envelope in its claws, but on closer inspection, it had her husband's name scrawled across it, rather than hers. She noticed that hers read ‘Hermione Granger’ rather than ‘Hermione Malfoy’, which she thought was strange despite not having any contact with the wizarding world in 15 years, which was also weird that Draco Malfoy and his family, known muggle haters, would want to spend time in the muggle world.
She opened the letter and read its contents, placing the other letter on the counter for her husband to find later. It read:
Dear Ms Hermione Granger
You have been invited to the Victory Ball of 2013. This ball will be held in the great hall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on the 2nd of May to celebrate the defeat of Voldemort and his followers and to commemorate all the lives lost in the battle on the 2nd of May 1998. This ball is to remember all those who lost their lives fighting and to celebrate the peace we have had for the last fifteen years. We expect your response no later than March 31st.
We would be delighted if you could attend.
Sincerely,
Oswald A. Hall, Minister For Magic of Great Britain
Hermione assumed that Draco’s would be the same. She was excited for a moment before she realised what this meant. She would have to see her old friends. Harry, Ron, the Weasleys. Despite none of them actually doing anything, she dreaded seeing them again.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Two strong, muscled, large, beautiful arms hugged her from behind, and she wiped a tear from her eyes.
“Nothing, nothing.” She replied, leaning against her husband's strong, skinny, chiselled, god-like chest, “There’s a ball to celebrate 15 years of peace, and I just don’t think I’m ready to see everyone again.”
“We don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Draco said, kissing her cheek.
Hermione thought for a minute.
“No, I do want to go. I want to show them all how successful I am now.” She smirked a perfect ‘Malfoy Smirk’ she had picked up shortly after getting engaged.
“That’s my wife.” Draco Malfoy said lovingly.
---
January 6th, 2013
“Kids! Get down here!” Hermione Malfoy yelled from the bottom of the stairs, “We’re leaving in ten minutes! Make sure you have everything!”
Cassiopeia ran down the stairs, trunk thumping along after her, shortly followed by Scorpius.
“Put your trunks in the hall, and your dad will bring them out to the car in a minute okay? Grab an apple from the kitchen, you forgot to eat lunch.”
“Okay, Mum!” The twins chorused, running past her.
Draco came down a minute later holding Phoenix in his arms, Mars walking behind him, his little hand clutching the banister for dear life.
“I’ll go put them in the car,” Draco kissed her on the cheek, before walking out to the car.
“Ew!” 10-year-old Lyra screamed, running down the stairs followed by a giggling Aquila.
“Girls, no running on the stairs!” Hermione yelled after them, “Aquila, where is your trunk!”
“In my room, it’s too heavy.” She said, smiling up at Hermione innocently.
Hermione sighed dramatically before stomping up the stairs to Aquila’s room and levitating the trunk down to the car.
“Cetus! Thebe! Leo!” Hermione yelled, “Come on! We’re going to be late!”
After another ten minutes of rounding up children, everyone was packed into the magically extended car and they were off to King’s Cross station.
“Are you four coming home for Easter this year?” Draco asked.
“I think so,” Scorpius responded, eyes glued to his muggle phone which his father was somehow okay with him having, despite hating muggles, “Holidays are always lame at Hogwarts,”
“Yeah, there aren’t as many teachers so all the kids are really mean.” Aquila piped up, staring out the window at the green fields.
Hermione and Draco nodded knowingly. They knew their children were getting bullied at school for being Malfoys, the children of a death eater, but they couldn’t do anything about it without outing their relationship to the public, and they’d rather their children get bullied than that.
Platform Nine and Three Quarters was packed as always. Hermione wore a disguise so no one would know it was her as they said goodbye to their children.
“Be good.” Hermione said kissing Cassiopeia on the head, “Keep your brothers out of trouble, and take care of your sister.”
As the eldest girl, despite not being the eldest sibling, Cassiopeia had all the responsibility to take care of her younger siblings and was directly responsible if her twin brother got in trouble, even if she had no participation in his actions.
As Scorpius, Cassiopeia, Leo and Aquila got onto the train, Hermione spotted Ginny Weasley standing a little down the platform, hugging a blue-haired boy.
“Oh no!” She exclaimed, “It’s Ginny! What if she sees me?!”
“Hide behind me,” Draco said, pulling her behind him and out of Ginny’s line of vision.
“Thanks, Draco, you’re the best.” She smiled.
Hermione’s greatest fear was getting recognised in public by old friends and classmates, for some reason.
“So, are we going to tell them about the ball?” Draco Malfoy asked his wife, sitting down next to her that evening after all the kids had gone to bed.
“Yes, I think so,” Said replied, leaning her head on his shoulder. “I’ll write to Cassie tomorrow and she can tell her siblings, and we’ll tell the rest at breakfast tomorrow.”
“We’ll want to get planning on the outfits soon, you know how picky the girls can be about dresses.” Draco laughed.
“Yes,” Hermione giggled, “I was thinking of just giving them HJM dresses, from next season’s collection, but they might want to go shopping at Easter to see if they can find something they want more. We’ll also need accessories.”
“It’s settled then, you and the girls can go dress shopping on Easter break.”
---
January 7th, 2013
“Good morning, Mummy, Daddy.” Lyra yawned, coming into the kitchen and sitting down in her usual seat.
“Morning, honey.” Hermione said, placing a plate of toast and eggs in front of her, “Did you sleep well?”
“Yes, thank you.” She said, digging into her breakfast.
“We have some very important news for you guys!” Draco said while feeding Phoenix.
Thebe clapped her hands excitedly.
“We are all going to a big party in a couple of months to celebrate your mum saving the wizarding world!” Draco exclaimed, making Hermione blush a soft pink.
“Well, it wasn’t just me…”
“No, but you were the most important.”
“Oooh! Are we going to wear pretty dresses?” Lyra cried in excitement.
“Yes, you are. When Cassie and Aquila are back for the Easter Holidays, we’re all going to go into town and buy some nice dresses for you all.” Hermione smiled at her daughter.
Thebe and Lyra squealed in delight, as all little girls are obsessed with pink and sparkly new dresses.
“Can I wear a dress?” five-year-old Mars asked, putting his book down on the table.
“No, silly, you’re a boy!” Lyra giggled. “You can’t wear a dress!”
The family laughed uproariously at the little boy’s expense. He was only five, how was he to know that only girls could wear dresses? Boys wearing dresses was just gross.