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A door slammed somewhere above her, breaking Hermione from her sleep. She kept her eyes shut, willing herself to fall back into the darkness.
Footsteps pounded outside, someone running past her door.
“James!”
Hermione rolled away from the door and buried her face into the pillow.
“James Potter, you get down here right now and stop making noise, you’ll wake up Hermione!”
Well, I’m already awake, Hermione groused internally, grabbing her cell phone from the nightstand, and groaning as she saw it was only 7. Hermione loved to sleep in on the weekends. God, she really needed to find a new apartment.
The yelling had stopped, Pansy had clearly managed to get the kids downstairs. But Hermione’s brain was already swimming with thoughts on everything she needed to do.
Her breakup with Anthony Goldstein could not have come at a worse time, she’d just gotten a promotion to head archivist at the Ministry, and the transition did not leave her with enough time to find a new apartment, so she’d crash-landed back at Grimmauld Place with Harry and Pansy, two rowdy boys and a baby Lily. Between the crying from Lily at night and the stomping and shouting of James and Albus in the early mornings, the lack of sleep was making Hermione crazy.
Hermione groaned, rolled to the edge of the bed, and stood up. She had a big day ahead, Pansy was taking the kids over to visit her mother so that Harry could go apartment hunting with Hermione, she could only hope today would be the day she’d finally find the perfect spot.
---
“Here’s to new beginnings” Harry cheered, clinking his butterbeer against Hermione’s.
The pair were tucked into a booth at the Leaky Cauldron for a late lunch to celebrate Hermione finally finding the perfect apartment. She couldn’t have asked for a more perfect spot, located right above Flourish and Blotts, she knew she’d be spending even more on books this year, but she couldn’t wait.
The one sore point was that she’d have to wait until after Easter weekend to move in, but as the holiday was next Sunday, she knew the short wait would be worth the chance to live above her favorite store in Diagon Alley.
“Hey Harry,” Hermione said, “Do you ever find it strange that the wizarding world doesn’t have easter egg hunts for the children, or do egg decorating? It’s odd that we still have chocolate eggs but none of the other parts that muggles do.”
Harry looked wistful for a second, “I remember watching Dudley have easter egg hunts as a kid, sometimes they’d let me eat his rejected candy afterward. I always used to wish I could have a hunt myself, but I forgot once we started at Hogwarts.”
“Oh Harry…” Hermione said sympathetically. She sometimes forgot how different his childhood in the muggle world was from hers.
“We could do one this year,” Harry said.
“What?”
“Well, you know Theo and Blaise are throwing an Easter party for the children next Sunday afternoon, what if we had an egg hunt there?”
“That would be perfect Harry!” Hermione exclaimed, “We can get some of those muggle plastic easter eggs and candy and hide them all over Theo’s garden.”
“We can tell Theo and Blaise about the idea tonight at the pub.”
---
“So, you’re telling me muggles believe a giant bunny sneaks into their homes and hides candy eggs on Easter?” Blaise laughed.
Hermione and Harry groaned. “How many times do we have to explain this to you, muggle adults don’t believe in the Easter Bunny, just the children do.”
Hermione and Harry were sitting at a booth in the Leaky Cauldron, with Blaise, Theo, Pansy, and Draco all looking at them bewildered.
“And the bunny is giant for what reason?” Theo asked, “Why not just a normal rabbit?”
“Because the Easter Bunny is usually just a parent or actor dressed up in a costume.” Hermione chimed in.
“Ooh,” Pansy exclaimed clapping her hands, “Then who is going to dress up as the Easter Bunny for our party?”
Harry and Hermione shared a look.
“I think we were just planning on an egg hunt, love,” Harry said. “Those costumes are so uncomfortable; I wouldn’t want to be stuck in one all day.”
“Draco can do it; he doesn’t have any kids anyway,” Theo said.
Draco scoffed, “Just because you and Blaise adopted a kid doesn’t automatically mean I have to do whatever you want.”
“Maybe if you’d just listen to Mommy and find a witch to marry then we wouldn’t expect you to do whatever we want,” Theo argued.
“Don’t tell me what to do you insufferable” Draco started.
“Oh, shut up both of you” Blaise yelled.
Everyone’s eyes shot to him, and he smiled.
“First off Theo, I’m perfectly capable of taking care of little Timmy on my own, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be the Easter Bunny either.”
Theo grumbled and started muttering under his breath.
“Therefore,” Blaise continued “I’m proposing a bet. Whichever of you two lovely gentlemen can drink the more fire whisky tonight won’t have to dress up as a stupid bunny.”
Blaise went to the bar and came back with a big bottle of fire whiskey and two glasses, and Theo and Draco quickly downed their first drink.
Five drinks later and things were quickly falling apart, most of the bar had emptied out thanks to Theo’s poor attempt to make muggle karaoke a thing. Which involved him standing on a chair in the middle of the bar playing music with his wand and yelling words loudly and very off-key.
Most of the group had taken to covering their ears and groaning every time he started up a new song, except Draco who was humming along and twirling his half-full glass in his fingers.
Having just finished a horrific rendition of Celestina Warbeck’s ‘A Cauldron Full of Love,’ Theo hopped off the chair and ran over for drink number six. Draco, not to be outdone in their competition, quickly downed his cup as well, and Hermione swore he looked up and made direct eye contact with her while he swallowed and licked his lips. She shuddered, and Pansy who had taken to using her shoulder as a pillow at that point in the night looked up.
“See something you like Draco?” She asked with a laugh.
“Absolutely” Draco replied with a wink.
Pansy snorted, and Hermione abruptly turned towards her, causing Pansy’s head to slide off her shoulder.
“What the hell Pans” she whispered. But Pansy just shook her head and gestured towards the door.
“I’m going to get some air; I don’t think I can handle another song by nightmare singer boy over there.”
Hermione watched as Pansy got up and stumbled her way over to the door, Harry quickly hopping up to steady her and help her out.
Theo called some gibberish after them over the music blaring from his wand, something about him being a fantastic singer, but Pansy just threw a rude hand gesture at him behind her back and kept going.
Theo quickly went back to singing, if you could even call it that at this point, and Hermione groaned and looked over to complain to Blaise. She paused when she saw the look of shock and amusement on his face, and she turned to see that Draco had left his seat.
Hermione opened her mouth to ask Blaise what was going on when she suddenly felt the booth dip next to her and looked to see Draco sliding over to where Pansy had been.
“Hello gorgeous” Draco slurred out.
Blaise snorted across the table.
“Um, hello?” Hermione said, peering up at him in confusion.
“Fancy meeting you here.”
“Um,” Hermione said again, glancing over at Blaise for some assistance, but he was just silently laughing. “Draco I’ve been here, sitting at the same table as you for” she checked her watch “almost 3 hours.”
Draco cocks his head at her in confusion, “But I was over there before” he says gesturing wildly towards where he had been sitting, “and now I’m here, meeting you, right here” he slurs patting the booth.
“What is wrong with you?” Hermione asks.
“Why are you so confused?” Draco asked, pouting. “Did you hit your head when you fell?”
“Fell?” Hermione said, “What in the world are you talking about?”
“When you fell from heaven,” Draco said, grinning. “You are an angel right.” He reached out and twirled one of her curls in his fingers while smirking at her.
A chorus of laughter broke out and Hermione looked up to see that Theo had finished a song and had come over for another drink. Hermione yanked her hair away from Draco.
“Theo please help me” Hermione begged as Blaise continued to roar with laughter.
“Draco” Theo began, but Draco immediately cut him off.
“Granger” Draco slurred, holding out a hand and attempting to stand up. “Come dance with me! Mr. Nott here can serenade us.” He flailed his other arm in the general direction of where Theo had been singing on the chair moments ago.
“I’m good here with Blaise” Hermione stated, pushing his hand away.
“Fine,” Draco said with a frown, “I’ll just dance for you.” He winked and attempted to walk backward towards the floor near Theo’s chair, pulling his friend with him.
Theo, who seemed to find the entire situation terribly amusing, quickly downed his drink and climbed back onto the chair, twirling his wand so music by the Weird Sisters came blaring out and beginning to sing ‘Can You Dance Like A Hippogriff.’
“Hermione” Blaise called from across the table, “I think Malfoy is trying to get your attention over there.”
Hermione groaned and looked up from the table to see Draco staring at her and attempting to dance, although it was more of a stumbling mess of him seemingly gyrating his hips against the air while twirling his arms around.
Hermione stifled a laugh at the sight as Draco noticed her finally looking at him and winked, his face lighting up into a bright smile.
“What in the world has gotten into him, Blaise?” Hermione questioned the man still laughing across the table.
“Hell if I know, but he’s never going to live this down. I can’t believe he genuinely thinks dancing like that is going to impress you.”
Two songs, and a lot of horrible dancing later, Theo hopped off the chair once again and claimed the chair Draco had recently vacated next to Hermione.
“He’s quite the impressive specimen isn’t he ‘Mione” Theo asked, gesturing over to Draco who was now swaying on the floor despite the music having stopped.
“He sure is drunk,” Hermione said with a laugh.
Theo poured himself another glass of fire whiskey and leaned back in the chair, swinging his arm around Hermione’s neck.
“I take it this little show isn’t making you fall in love with him then?” Theo chuckled. “Poor Draco will be so disappointed.”
Hermione snorted.
Draco appeared to have finally noticed that the music had stopped, and after a glance at Theo with his arm around Hermione he immediately began approaching.
“Theo, this witch is mine, go find another if you want someone to cuddle with,” Draco said, stopping in front of the table.
“WHAT” Hermione yelped.
“Draco, I’ve got my own husband for that,” Theo said, as Hermione yelled over him “What in the world makes you think you’re cuddling with me?”
“Theo” Draco said pouting “She won’t let me snuggle with her.”
Blaise snorted and Theo looked at Draco in mock sympathy.
“I’m sorry mate, why don’t you let me talk to her and maybe I can change her mind.”
“Really?” Draco asked, perking up immediately.
“Sure,” Theo said with a smirk, “Why don’t you hurry up and floo over to Pansy and Harry’s now, and I’ll send your little witch over here along once I convince her that a lot of cuddling is in order for this evening.”
Draco immediately popped out of his chair, rushing through the Leaky towards the floo. In his rush he slammed into Pansy who had just re-entered the pub with Harry, causing her to fall into Harry’s arms with a yelp. Both spun to look at Draco as he slammed a handful of floo powder into the fireplace and yelled 12 Grimmauld Place, vanishing in a burst of green flames.
“What the hell was that” Hermione, Pansy, and Harry asked simultaneously.
Blaise, who had finally stopped laughing enough to speak said “Draco here has decided his goal for the night is to cuddle with Hermione, and after some pretty rough flirting attempts, he decided to let Theo convince Hermione to snuggle him and has headed off to your place to wait for her.”
“Draco clearly forgot the actual goal of the evening, which was not dressing up like a giant rabbit.” Theo scoffed. “Tricked him out of that win so easily.”
“Oh brother” Pansy grumbled, “Draco is going to be so mad tomorrow.”
“Maybe we should all just go home,” Hermione said, ready for this strange evening to be over.
“Oh, so you’ve decided to take our boy up on his offer for cuddles then?” Theo questioned.
“NO” Hermione exclaimed, at the same time that Harry shouted, “Absolutely not happening under my roof!”
Slowly the group got up and headed to the floo, with Hermione promising Theo she’d go shopping with him for Draco’s bunny costume after work next Thursday.
Hermione tumbled out of the floo after Pansy and Harry to find Draco passed out on the couch in the sitting room snoring loudly.
“Let’s just leave the sad sod here for the night” Pansy giggled, “Hermione, might want to lock your door just in case.”
Hermione groaned but silently agreed with Pansy as she climbed the steps to her room, locking the door behind her.
---
Thursday at 5:00 on the dot a knock sounded on Hermione’s office door, and she looked up to see Theo.
“Ready to hit the shops?” Theo grinned at her.
“Yes!” Hermione cheered, arranging her desk before grabbing her bag to head out with him.
“So,” Hermione asked as they headed down to the ministry atrium to head to muggle London, “How exactly is the poor bunny doing after his interesting display last weekend?”
Theo laughed and winked at her. “Definitely a bit butt hurt by how badly his flirting attempt went over.”
Hermione groaned. “He can’t possibly actually want to flirt with me, what in the world was in that fire whisky.”
Theo stopped and turned to look at her with a confused look on his face.
“What Theo?”
“You really are clueless, aren’t you?”
“I’m so lost.”
“Oh, come on, you must know that Draco likes you. He’s so embarrassed he screwed up his chance now that you’re finally single.”
“Theo you must be joking,” Hermione said firmly, mind already running wild over what Theo was saying.
“Hermione” Theo said, giving her a stern look, “I’m genuinely not joking, which is rare for me, but Draco really is interested.”
“Oh.”
“And personally, I think you should give him a chance. I know he’s an annoying prick and that he was horrible to you as a kid, but you guys are friends now and you know he’s a good guy.”
Hermione just stared at him wide-eyed.
“Okay.” Theo clapped his hands together and turned back towards the exit, “I see I’ve stunned the famous Hermione Granger into silence, so I’ll let you ponder this new to you information while we head to muggle London.”
Hermione did just that, pondering over Theo’s declaration about Draco as she followed Theo from the floo at the Leaky Caldron out into muggle London. She still didn’t really believe that Draco liked her, he tended to keep his distance from her on group outings, and apart from last weekend he never really flirted with her at all. She guessed that did make some sense, seeing as how she’d been in a relationship, but still, this was Draco Malfoy. Sure, they were friendly now because Pansy had married Harry, but he had hated her as a kid, not just because of her blood status but also constantly made fun of her looks, so she couldn’t imagine he was really attracted to her now. Even with her fixed teeth and the way her hair had smoothed out now that she’d found the right products to deal with all the frizz.
The more she thought about it though, Draco was cute. Really cute, actually. If Theo was right, she could see herself going on a date or two with him, just to see if there was anything there.
“Hermione” Theo said, snapping her out of her thoughts, “want to check out this spot?”
She looked up and saw him pointing at a costume shop that had easter decorations in the window.
“Sure,” she said, heading for the door.
Once inside, a shopkeeper showed them over to the easter bunny costume rack and Theo started pulling the strangest ones he could find off the rack.
“What about this one?” Theo held up a completely black bunny costume questioningly to Hermione.
“Black is too much Draco’s color, that’s letting him off easy,” Hermione said.
“True,” Theo said, putting the costume back on the rack and continuing to flip through them.
“Okay, now what about this monstrosity?” Theo now held up a pastel pink costume, complete with splashes of pastel blue, purple, yellow, orange, and green all over it, almost like splatter paint. The matching bunny head had creepy, soulless black eyes.
Hermione bent over from laughter, imagining Draco being forced to wear that all day. “Per-ffect” she stuttered out between fits of giggles. “He’ll terrify the children with those eyes, plus he’s going to hate being dressed up looking like a cotton candy stick.”
“I’ll go get this one then” Theo announced excitedly.
“Wait” Hermione called after him, holding up a giant fluffy orange carrot, “I think this would complete the look perfectly!”
--
Hermione stepped out of the floo into Nott Manor early Sunday morning, eager to help Theo set up for the easter egg hunt before all the kids came through.
“Morning ‘Mione” Blaise called out from the kitchen table clutching a cup of coffee.
“Morning Blaise.” She called back, “Where is darling your husband?”
“Already out in the garden looking for places to hide all those eggs, did he tell you he bought hundreds of them?” Blaise said.
“Oh, merlin.” Hermione groaned and headed out of the kitchen to find Theo, leaving Blaise to enjoy his morning.
Two hours and three hundred eggs later, Hermione and Theo collapsed onto lawn chairs in the garden exhausted.
Blaise, tailed by his and Theo’s adorable, adopted son Timmy, stepped outside a few minutes later and handed Hermione and Theo both a peach bellini, which Hermione eagerly sipped.
“Draco is pissed,” Blaise remarked, “He does not like his costume.”
“Guess our mission was a success then, Hermione,” Theo said, chuckling. “Blaise tell him to get himself ready and downstairs, the rest of the kids should be here in just a minute.”
As if on cue the door to the garden slid open again and Harry and Pansy stepped out, followed quickly by a toddler yelling “Timmy” and toddling over to where Blaise and his son stood as fast as his little legs could carry him.
“Albus!” Timmy yelled back, opening his arms to give his friend a hug.
Hermione smiled at the sight, loving how quickly the three-year-old Albus and Timmy had taken to each other.
James was already off wandering the yard picking up eggs, while Teddy Lupin who had been kidnapped by his godfather for the day while home on easter break from Hogwarts seemed to be eyeing the bellini’s with suspicious interest.
Theo was attempting to explain the easter egg hunt to Timmy and Albus when suddenly Harry began roaring with laughter and pointing towards the manor door.
Albus, determined to see what had caught his father’s attention, spun towards the door and screamed in horror, promptly bursting into tears. Timmy soon followed him into tears, prompting baby Lily to begin screaming in Pansy’s arms.
“It’s a demon” Albus screamed, moving to hide behind Theo.
“Don’t let it eat me Dad” Timmy cried.
Hermione quickly drew her wand to defend against whatever had scared the boys so badly, but when she spun around all she saw was easter bunny Draco standing frozen a few steps out of the door.
“Guess the eyes were a bit too scary on that one” Theo chuckled.
The laughter bubbling in Hermione’s chest at the sight of Draco standing in the fluffy pink costume died in her throat when he suddenly spun on the spot and went running, or more like waddling given the giant feet attached to the bunny suit, back into the house.
“Well, that didn’t go well” Pansy said. “One of us should go talk to him before.”
Hermione looked around, realizing she was currently the only one not dealing with a sobbing child. “I’ll go” she offered, and headed after Draco into the house.
Draco was long gone from the sitting room connected to the garden door, but thankfully the bunny costume was shedding pink fluff all over the floor, and Hermione followed the trail through the house, up the stairs, and to one of the manor's guest rooms.
The door was cracked open, so Hermione knocked and slowly pushed it further open, finding Draco still in the full costume lying face down on the bed.
“Go away Theo” Draco mumbled, “Just let me stay here, no one really wants a death eater around children anyway.”
Hermione wasn’t sure what to say to that, but seeing as she wasn’t Theo, she decided to walk over towards the other side of the bed and sit down.
“I said go away,” Draco said into the mask.
It almost sounded like he was crying, but with the giant bunny head on Hermione couldn’t be sure.
“Strange, I would have thought you’d be excited to finally have the chance to share a bed with me” Hermione joked “You know, given how desperate you were to get me to cuddle you last weekend.”
There was a long pause before Draco asked “Hermione?”
“Wow, took you long enough to figure that out, should I be offended that you’ve asked so many people to cuddle with you last weekend that you needed to think about it,” Hermione said with a smirk.
Draco groaned and rolled over onto his back, the giant bunny's head staring blankly at the ceiling.
“So why exactly did you run up here?” Hermione asked.
“I’ve always been scared since the war that children will be afraid of me because I was a death eater,” Draco whispered. “I told Pansy when she got pregnant with James that I should stay away, and she told me I was being crazy, but it’s true. You saw how easily I frighten them.”
Hermione just sat there. How could he think that the children being scared of the giant bunny costume translated to them being scared of him as a person. She knew for a fact that all of Harry and Pansy’s kids loved him, and he was Timmy’s godfather, the boy adored him.
“I’ve always wanted kids” Draco continued in a whisper. “Always did when I was a boy, couldn’t wait to be a father.”
“Draco” Hermione said, reaching her hand over and resting it on his very pink and furry arm, “You can be a father. You’d be a great father. All of the kids out there adore you so much.”
Draco shook his head and sighed.
“Any kids I had would be judged for having me as a father.”
Hermione could tell he was crying now, even with the head on. Her heart broke for him, she had never realized how much public perception of what had happened to him during the war impacted him. Hermione knew from his trial and especially after getting to know him that he hadn’t willingly taken the dark mark, and that he was a good person, but there were certainly people out there who still judged him for his past.
“Draco” Hermione said again, rubbing his arm, “Even if some people out there would want to judge you, your kids would grow up having Harry Potter as practically their uncle, and there’s no way I’d ever let someone talk poorly about a child. We’re your friends Draco, we wouldn’t let that happen.”
“But I don’t want you to be my friend” Draco cried, “I want to have your babies.” He was blubbering now, “Or you have my babies, I want them to be our babies.”
Hermione was silent, Theo, it turned out, had been on to something that day at the ministry.
“See, even now that you’re single, I don’t exactly have a shot. No one as good as you would ever want to date a death eater like me. I’m destined to be alone forever, scaring children for the rest of my life.”
He was being so dramatic that Hermione really wanted to laugh, but she held back, knowing that it could only make this situation worse.
She could tell that he was still crying under the mask, so she reached up and worked to slide it off his head.
When it finally slid off his head Hermione’s heart ached at the sight. His eyes were bloodshot, and tears tracked down his face. Seeing her he shut his eyes tight in an attempt to stop the tears.
Making up her mind, Hermione leant over and gently kissed away the tears on both cheeks. “I’m not sure I’m ready to let you have my babies, but how about a date?” She asked, as she leant down and kissed him.
--
~ 9 months later (Christmas)
The Leaky Cauldron was decked out for the holidays, but the bar was oddly empty for a Saturday night, save for Theo standing on a chair in the middle of the room belting out a horrible rendition of ‘God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriffs’ while Draco and Blaise danced around him.
Hermione and Pansy were curled up in a booth watching them while Harry sat facing the girls, hands covering his ears and groaning.
Hermione stifled a yawn, hoping that someone would lose the bet soon so she could go home and sleep.
“Fancy seeing you here” A voice slurred, and Hermione looked up to see Draco standing over her smirking.
She smiled back at him.
“Want to get out of here and go cuddle?” He asked with a wink.
Hermione nodded and stood up, grabbing his hand. He tugged her towards the floo and called out for her apartment over Flourish and Blotts.
Left behind at the pub, Pansy began laughing. “Guess even after 8 months of dating, he’d still rather go cuddle with Granger than win his bet with Theo.”
“Wooo!” Theo cheered from his spot on the chair, “Now who wants to help me pick out the most terrifying Santa costume out there so Draco can make the children cry on Christmas.”