BACK HOME MALFOYS!

The Letter

Hermione smiled amusedly as she remembered that day. Her future husband's face had been shocked as he realized she was the owner of The Jade Gryffin at the party. And how shocked she herself had been when she had realized that Draco had not only started to manage Malfoy Industries, but had also started investing with muggles.

The War had truly changed everyone.

The day she had discovered she was pregnant, and the day Draco had found her parents after months of searching and encouragement. That had been the best day of her life for sure. The day which seemed to wipe out all of the blood, sweat and tears of the past. The War. That day had been almost what.. fourteen years ago. Merlin, her babies were growing up. She could hardly believe it.

"Mother?" Her son poked his head through the door, startling Hermione out of the reminiscing she always seemed to do whenever she was alone. The edge of his lips was curled up in the Malfoy smirk as he handed her a pristine parchment. "Dreaming again?"

Hermione laughed and ruffled his hair. "You know me, Scor. What's this?" She asked him curiously. His doe brown eyes, the same as hers, seemed to crinkle, like whenever he was thinking about something, which he was usually. He was an unusually precocious, mature and thoughtful child, quite unlike his twin, who was as rambunctious as one could get. 

Hermione loved observing her kids. They were so real, and precious, and over the years, their love was constant. She supposed, after the war, anything which was yours, which you know would never have to go through what you went through because you had fought for a better future for them, was loved more than anything else. She knew Draco felt the same, the glint in his eyes whenever he looked at their children was not the same any of their generation's parents had had. 

"It's a letter," He supplied without much deduction; that much was fairly obvious. "Who it's from, though, I can't say. But I guess it's a Hogwarts seal in the front..." He paused, when Hermione's hands seemed to have frozen in place. "Mother? Mere? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Scor," Hermione forced herself to keep her tone light. "Was this the only one?"

He shook his head, blonde-brown strands of hair falling in his eyes. "No, mother, there was one for father as well. Alex will give it to him when he comes. Is there anything wrong?"

Hermione supposed she shouldn't regret the fact that her observation skills had been passed down to her son, but in that moment, she regretted it very, very much. Why couldn't Scor not have noticed it? Why couldn't Alex have brought it instead? She wasn't nearly as observamt and shrewd. 

"It's nothing, darling," She said instead, coolly. "Why don't you go check on Lia? I'm sure she's up to some mischief."

He gave her an unamused look. "You know that Alex and I are more likely to cause mischief than Lia, mother, that excuse is not sending me away. What is it?"

At that moment, thankfully, the doorbell rang. 

"SCORP! GET THE DOOR!" Hermione heard her daughter, Alex, yell from the other room. Scorpius winced as he went out of the room. He would never have yelled like that. Then again, Alex and Scor were as different as could get, and as close too. 

Hermione's hands trembled as she flipped over the letter. As Scor had said, there was a Hogwarts seal there. She wasn't surprised that her son would have known that despite not having been to Hogwarts. As her fingers brushed over it, she was caught up in memories.

Memories of sprawling lawns and a wide, deep lake, and booming laughter, and days spent in the library, red-heads and a black head, a warm common room, mischievous smiles, and.. And Harry and Ron and Ginny and Luna and Parvati and Maritza and Fay and Eloise and Neville and Seamus and Dean and George and Percy and Terry and Mandy and Lavender  and Colin and Fred and Peter...

Merlin, it was too much. It was the same reason she had never returned to Britain for all these years, even though her heart longer for her childhood. It was overwhelming. 

She breathed in the familiar smell of parchment, and gently and slowly cracked open the seal, wondering why Hogwarts would have written to her. Even if they weren't in Australia, she would have expected letters for her children, rather than her.

Miss Hermione Jean Granger

Hermione smiled at the use of her maiden name and the swirly handwriting of every Hogwarts letter. It had been a long time since she had been addressed as that. Miss Granger... More memories, of Professor McGonagall, and Flitwick and Slughorn and Vector and Babbling and Madame Pomfrey and Sinistra and Binns and Sprout and Babbage and Dumbledore and Snape...

Hermione shook her head, her smile fading, and moved on.

Meadowview House, Kentson Street,

 Adelaide, Australia.

Dear Miss Granger,

We are pleased to announce that  this year, in honour of the 20th Anniversary of the Second Wizarding War, we will be having a Memorial Ball and Hogwarts Reunion. All the veterans of the war, including the students studying in the batches of  1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 will be invited.
This Ball shall take place on the very anniversary of the War, that is, on 2nd May 2018. 
Partners and children are welcome. This will be a chance for reconnecting with peers and meeting future Professors of your children.
Further details shall be given on confirmation by owl.
Please do come.

Signed,
Neville Longbottom, Deputy Headmaster
Minerva McGonagall, Headmistress

Hermione smiled in delight. Neville was Deputy Headmaster? Draco hadn't mentioned that. She was glad one of her very best friends had found a job which he loved and for which he was passionate. Neville had always seemed a wonderful teacher to her. He loved Herbology, he was kind and sincere, and knew how it was to be bullied as a student and not good at studies, and most of all, for a teacher at Hogwarts, he was brave. Merlin knew what the students there got to.

According to Draco, George's two children also went there. If they were anything like their father, Hogwarts would have havoc. The youngest, Roxanne Weasley, was actually the same age as the twins, and her cousins, Molly and Louis. 

Hogwarts was currently filled to the brim with Weasley-Potters, Hermione mused. It was probably having a great time. James Potter (Hermione had literally wept when she had heard that Harry and Ginny had had a son, and that he had been named that, and that she had been named godmother when she would be found), Fred Weasley (she had wept at this as well), Victoire Weasley, Dominique Weasley, Louis Weasley, Roxanne Weasley, Albus Potter and Molly Weasley.

In fact, the only ones left were Lucy Weasley and Lily Potter, unless Ron had had children who Draco had not told her about. 

She frowned, sighing. Should she go or not? She was content here, with her husband and three children (and one about to come, she reminded herself), but she still sometimes missed her friends. At times like this, when she was reminded about them.

I shall have to talk to Draco, she decided, and then winced when she heard Lia scream at her two older children. 

Now to go handle that.