My Hero

The Boy at the Bench

Hermione's POV:

It was a beautiful day.
The snow was sparkling, it was the weekend and there were no jobs to do.

As Hermione Granger wandered around Hogsmeade, she smiled happily, feeling at peace with the world. Crowds of people rushed around, hurrying to complete their last-minute Christmas shopping and jostling each other about, trying to hunt out the last few remaining gifts in the shops.

Hermione, being Hermione, had already completed her shopping weeks ago and was perfectly content to just amble around, occasionally popping into a shop to greet the owners or to examine something from the window display that had caught her eye.

As Hermione settled down on a bench to rest, a young boy crying caught her attention.
"Hello. Are you alright?" she asked cautiously.
The boy sniffed, turning his face to stare at her through his watery, silver eyes.
"I lost my daddy," he whispered and started crying again, hiding his face in his hands.

Hermione felt a pang of sorrow for the boy and decided to try and help him find his dad.

"Shh, Shh, it's okay. I'll help you find your dad. What's your name?" she asked kindly, rubbing his back in soothing motions in an attempt to calm him down.

"Scorpius."

Well, Scorpius, do you like chocolate?"Scorpius looked up eagerly and nodded his head while scooching down the bench to watch Hermione search through her bag.

"I know I have one here somewhere...AHA!...here we go," Hermione said, smiling and producing a large bar of Honeydukes Chocolate. "This one's my favourite."

"Mine too," said Scorpius brightly, unwrapping the bar and biting a huge chunk out of it, "my daddy doesn't like caramel, he says it gets stuck in his teeth. He prefers apple-flavour which I find disgusting," he added, wrinkling his nose with distaste.

Hermione privately agreed with Scorpius, apple-flavoured chocolate sounded nasty.

"What about your mother? What flavour does she like?"Hermione asked in an attempt to find out who his parents were.

Scorpius stopped eating and rubbed his chocolate-covered mouth with the back of his gloves.

"My mommy isn't here anymore," he said sadly, "My daddy says she left when I was little but she still loves me lots and lots."

Hermione felt extremely guilty for asking the question. She had no idea that Scorpius had no mother around. Again, she found herself feeling sympathetic toward little Scorpius and vowed to help return him to his father. Merlin, he must be worried sick!

"How about we go find your Dad, hey?" Hermione asked, ruffling Scorpius' white-blonde hair and gently taking his hand, pulling him up with her.

"Ok, erm..." Scorpius replied, looking at Hermione with questioning eyes.

"Hermione. Hermione Granger."

"Let's go, Hermione," he said smiling and gently leading her back out into the busy, snow-covered village of Hogsmeade.

I smiled and allowed him to direct me.

"SCORPIUS!"

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Draco's POV:

One minute he was here and the next he was gone! Where the heck did he go?!

I ran my hands through my hair. Oh, Merlin...what am I going to do?

"GET OUT THE WAY!"I yelled to the swarms of people that loitered the streets as I desperately began my search for my son. "MOVE!"I shouted at a woman who was blocking my path.

"The audacity of some people-" she began to mutter as I pushed past her and ran around Hogsmeade, frantically searching for the tell-tale sign of white-blonde hair that belonged to the Malfoy's alone.

I whizzed past shops, swerved in, out and through happy shoppers and slowed to a stop near Dervish and Banges. I was breathing heavily, scanning fervently around.

"Scorpius! Scorpius!"

I jogged along the street, indenting the snow with my footprints.

Suddenly, I saw a flash of white and...brown?

Scorpius was there! And talking to a random woman. I sighed. What did I tell him about talking to strangers?

Quickly, I meandered through the crowd, approaching the two. I neared them and heard Scorpius chatting amicably to the stranger and munching on chocolate.

"SCORPIUS!"

He turned around and I saw his eyes widen in recognition as he ran toward me, arms outstretched, engulfing me into a hug and laughing happily.

"Daddy!"

"Scorpius..."I whispered, resting my face into his hair and closing my eyes. I let go and placed my hands on both his shoulders and looked into his eyes. "Don't you dare do that to me ever again, you hear me? I was worried sick!"

"Sorry Daddy," he said pouting, looking down at the floor and shuffling his feet. Suddenly his eyes flicked upwards and he beamed brightly, "It was okay though Dad, Hermione saved me! She's my hero!"

"What-?" It was only then that I realised who was standing behind Scorpius.

"Granger?"

She smiled warily. "Malfoy," she replied, whilst slightly inclining her head to the right in greeting. "Long time, no see."

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