Henrietta Potter And The Slytherin Child - (A 'Henrietta Potter' sequel) || D.M

29 - Settling In

Draco stood in my hallway, looking around with an unimpressed expression on his face.

"It's not very Christmassy, Potter."

Ugh. We had only been inside for five minutes and already he was criticising.

"I've been busy at this place called work, Draco. It's what normal people who need to earn a living do."

"Keep your hair on, Potter," he drawled, throwing the boys' trunks at the bottom of the stairs amongst his own things. "I'm sure it's something we can rectify in due course."

"Right, whatever." I huffed, heading for the kitchen to flick the kettle on. I already had this sick dreaded feeling that I had made a huge mistake in inviting Draco to stay.

"About this work thing," Draco said, following right behind me, "are you going to be doing much of it over the next two weeks?"

"I've only got to go in for a couple of days, but I'm sure you'll cope," I sighed, pulling down a couple of mugs from the cupboard. "Tea?"

"Coffee. What do you mean, cope?" There was a hint of panic in his voice.

"Well, I know how strongly how you feel about leaving the boys without adult supervision, so I had originally planned for them to go to Molly's on my workdays. But now you're here, you can be babysitter again." I turned, smiling brightly at him.

Draco's face fell. "But I thought you were going to be here to help."

"I am helping, Draco. What do you think all this is? But I've got to work, too - I'm head Auror, I've got Dark Wizards to catch and drunken miseries in pubs to rescue. And - as you well know - they don't stop just because it's Christmas."

"Muuum, why haven't we got a Christmas tree?" Albus complained as he came bustling into the kitchen, followed by a rather forlorn looking Scorpius. "And what's for tea? I can't see anything in the oven."

"We have literally just got in!" I cried incredulously. My god - so this is what it was like living with a bunch of pathetic teenage boys!

Shit - and I had completely forgotten that they all needed feeding. I hadn't had time to stock the cupboards. And all that sat in my fridge was the rather dodgy looking leftovers from last night's Chinese takeaway for one.

"Don't worry," Scorpius piped up - the first I had heard him talk since he had gotten off the train, "Dad knows a great place to order pizza from, don't you?"

Smirking, Draco pulled a slim black phone out of his pocket. "On speed dial, too."

"Wait a minute-" I yelped, looking agape at the item in Draco's hand, "you have a phone?"

"Well, yes, it's how I contact people," Draco scoffed derisively, sharing mocking looks with Scorpius and Albus.

"So why the fuck have I been Owling you all this time?! Why didn't you just say you had a phone?"

Draco simply shrugged. "Well, you seemed to like using that bird a lot back in Hogwarts, I just assumed you preferred it that way."

"Everyone used a flipping owl back in Hogwarts." I cried, not quite believing Draco's train of thought. "It was the only way!"