The Marriage Decree

Chapter 119: Our Country Is In Quite A State

Draco spends most of the morning at the dining table, furiously scribbling notes upon rolls of parchment. Hermione leaves him to it, although she does think about buying him a notebook for Christmas so he could keep his thoughts together in one place. She spends her morning having some mother-son time with Scorpius as she bathes and dresses him in a grey pair of trousers and a red Weasley jumper, with a golden snitch flying on the front. It had been a present from the staff of Hogwarts, although both Hermione and Draco assumed McGonagall had been the one to choose the gift.

After spending hours decorating their house with all the Christmas decoration that had bought at the beginning of the month, they had discovered Scorpius loved the colours and twinkling of the fairy lights. As such, for most of the day, their Christmas tree lights were switched on and to the side, that had placed their son's Moses basket. At ten o'clock, she applies more of the teething gel, placing him in the Moses basket, turning the lights on, and sits in the armchair to read to him from a book of nursery rhymes that her grandma Emily had gifted Scorpius. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep, at which point Hermione has a shower and uses her free time to style her hair and apply a little makeup before dressing in a knee-length silver dress.

Lounging on the couch, Hermione picked up her book from the coffee table, losing track of time until the clock struck one o'clock and she remembers Draco still needs to shower and dress. She has to force him to put his pen and parchment away, but eventually, he runs upstairs, and Hermione hears the shower start.

She wakes Scorpius up at half-past one, feeding him a bottle so he would be happy for his first time meeting the staff of Hogwarts. Draco joins her downstairs, freshly showered and dressed in a smart pair of jeans, a black shirt and a dark green zip-up jumper. She can tell he has spent time sculpturing his hair into perfect, soft waves away from his face. He smiles, arms open as he does a spin.

Hermione laughs, "Your daddy is silly," she whispers to Scorpius, supporting him to sit up on her lap. "And also, very handsome." She adds.

Draco rolls his eyes, taking Scorpius up into his arms, "So is my little Scorpius," he tells him sweetly. "But what has your mother done to your hair?" He asks, sending a teasing smirk over to his wife as he sits beside her, producing a small pot of hair gel from his back pocket.

Hermione shakes her head fondly as she packs Scorpius bag for the afternoon while Draco fixes their son's hair. Once he's done, his light brown curly hair has been combed back, his curl pattern still prominent.

"Look at my smart boy," she cuddles her son close to her chest. "You do realise you will be doing his hair every day from now on." She tells Draco, looking proudly at his piece of work.

"I have no problem with that," he admits, fixing one little piece of his son's hair at the back of his head.

"Okay, I think he's done," Hermione laughs. "Come on; we're probably going to be late." She walks over to the fireplace, ready to floo to their quarters at Hogwarts.

Hermione and Draco had received a letter from Minerva last Monday inviting them and Scorpius to join the staff and students for Hogwarts' annual Christmas feast. They had accepted straight away, not wanting to miss the Christmas season at Hogwarts, the most beautiful time of the year in the castle.

When they arrive, Draco a few seconds after Hermione and Scorpius, they find their rooms exactly how they had left it before they had gone on leave. One of Hermione's books was still open on their coffee table, a shoe Draco had kicked to the side three months ago was still propped up against the wall, and a cloak was still resting over the back of the couch. The only evidence that the house-elves had been visiting their rooms was the lack of dust coating the furniture.