Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter franchise, nor anything affiliated with it.

17 years later

Draco's POV

I check my watch for the time and see that it is about 9:30. Plenty of time for Scorpius to get ready and pack his last minute items for Hogwarts. My scrambled eggs are a little saltier than usual but it's fine when you put it on toast.

While scanning the Daily Prophet for today's headline I see that Potter's made the front page once again for donating 1 million Galleons of his fortune to Hogwarts for replacement of old Quidditch equipment, potions ingredients, and the addition of more tech to enhance the Muggle Studies department. I'm sure that it'll be quite helpful since most of the school's equipment and resources weren't replaced or fixed after the war. He's also announced that he's starting a charity for less fortunate witches and wizards to help get school equipment and materials. I know some of the students, like the Weasley's, used to have lots of trouble shopping for the new school year and it meant that they couldn't get the best education.

I put down the Prophet and finish off my eggs, moving onto my fruits. The door creaks and I see Scorpius walk in. He's dressed in his more casual clothes, a plain grey polo shirt and black jeans, but he carries an air of confidence about him that makes him seem somewhat regal.

He's grown up quite well. Confidence and etiquette were never a problem, but he wasn't snooty or rude either; unlike me when I was his age. We also encourage him to play with kids his own age which also helps with his social skills. He and his friends love playing Quidditch in the backyard of the Manor; I've gotten much better at dealing with injuries on smaller children now.

Scorpius sits down across from me and gets a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice.

"So Scorp, any last minute nerves?" I ask. "Any words of wisdom that you want to hear from your dear father before you go off to Hogwarts?" Grinning at him as I say this, he laughs and smiles back.

"Dad, you aren't that old. You make it sound like you're as old as Grandpa Lucius! You're the same age as Harry Potter." He always has to compare me to Potter. It's funny, even now that we're 35 we still get compared and act like rivals. I can't even call him Harry, it doesn't feel right; everyone else I can call by their first name but he will always be Potter to me.

"I'm hurt! You don't think I look younger? All these charming looks?" Scorpius rolls his eyes at me as he continues spooning his cereal into his mouth.

"Still not as good looking as Mother." He comments with a completely straight face. He really knows how to hit where it hurts. "Did I wound your pride?" He asks sweetly. I just scowl at him. If he doesn't end up in Slytherin I'll have to personally talk to the Sorting Hat and demand what's wrong with it.

Hermione's POV

I roll over and hit my alarm clock, accidentally knocking it off of my side table. The smash of the glass face makes me bolt upright. Yanking the covers off of myself, I reach down to grab the clock and see that it's 9:30, plenty of time before I have to be up. I fix the clock and then place it back on the table, snuggling under the blankets again. Just as I close my eyes, I think about the time once more.

Wait. Oh no! It's 9:30! I'm late!

I shoot up out of bed and I finally register the light filtering in through the open, pale green curtains. Great. It's going to be Rose's first day of school and we're starting late. I already know she isn't up right now, she never gets up until you make her.

I hurriedly toss the light brown sheets onto the bed so they hanging off and then run out into the hallway. I then barge into Rose's room and flick the lights on.

"Rose! Wake up! It's time to get ready or you'll be late for the train!"

I fling her curtains open and when I've tied them back, I can see that she's stirring underneath her blankets.

"Rose you'd better be awake and getting changed by the time I come back here." I say sternly to the lump on the bed. I just get incoherent mumbling and groaning in response. There isn't enough time for me to bug her right now though.

I jog out of the room, stopping briefly to turn the lights back off since it's really sunny today, and then hurry back to my own room.

Draco's POV

Scorpius left to go pack some last minute items and play with his pet ferret after leaving his dirty dishes in the kitchen.

When George gave Hermione and I the Puff Pals back in our eighth year, he failed to mention that they don't age or die. At least I don't think that they do. My ferret is still alive and healthy, so I gave him to Scorpius when he was about 4 years old. He later named him Fefoy when he heard about a particular story from our fourth year while on a visit to the Weasel's house. I've never quite forgiven him for that one.

While Scorpius is allowed to bring Fefoy to Hogwarts under the new extended pets list, he doesn't think he'll get a lot of time to play him during school and he's worried that his dorm mates might not like Fefoy. I don't see why. I'm still a little bit sore about the name, but I do think that he's pretty cute. He was once mine after all.

The dishes are being very uncooperative today, a certain grease spot is refusing to rub off. I've been cleaning them the muggle way for the last fifteen years as I find that it helps me to concentrate a little better and relax more. I still have to get Scorpius to Kings Cross later and then catch the train for work. Speaking of which, I should probably pack for my bags once I'm done here.

I shake the water from the few last dishes and then roughly dry them with a hand towel. Once they're no longer soaking and they're back on their shelves, I head upstairs to the master bedroom.

The door opens with a light push and shuts behind me. My trunk is in the closet and I pull it out. It's the same one that I used in school and there are still a few miscellaneous objects in there; a quill nib, a half-full jar of red ink, three scraps of parchment, and a handful of owl treats. I reach in to gather them all and then I deposit them into the bin.

I open the oak closet and gather some shirts, slacks, jeans, robes, and dress robes into the trunk. I then add my work files and reference texts. They aren't exactly easy to carry on my person.

After completing a final packing check, I latch my trunk close and head downstairs again, leaving the door slightly ajar.

Hermione's POV

I quickly undress and hop into the shower, scrubbing extra hard and washing my hair ridiculously fast considering it's volume. I twist the tap hard to turn it off and then step out of the cubicle while reaching for my towel. Just as I grab it I slip and fall on my bottom. Rather hard. My towel is still grasped in my hand but it's also draped over me which is a good thing I guess.

I groan and carefully stand up while leaning on the counter. I then wrap my now-aching body in my towel and squeezing out my hair. My clothes are lying on the wicker chair in the bathroom, near the door; a simple red blouse, and cream three-quarter length dress pants.

I put them on quickly and turn off the bathroom light. There doesn't appear to be much room coming from Rose's room and I'm pretty sure that she's gone back to sleep.

When I get back to her room, I see that while she's now only half covered by her blankets, she's still very much asleep.

I give a heavy sigh and pull out my wand.

"Wingardium Leviosa." I carefully lift her out from her bed and over her carpet, till she's about a foot and a half from the ground. Then I cancel the spell.

The effect is instantaneous. She lands with a thud and bolts up right away.

"Ow! Mom! Why'd you drop me on the floor?! That hurt!" She grumbles. I smile at her in a sickly sweet way, and then toss her the clothes she picked out last night.

"You're late. If you don't hurry up, you're gonna miss the train."

"The train leaves at 11! I have plenty of time."

"No you don't. You still have to pack your last minute items, get dressed, go shower and brush your teeth, have breakfast, and then we have to get to the train station! It'll take about half an hour to get down to the station which leaves you with half an hour to do all that since it's now 10!"

"Ugh, fine." She rubs her eyes and starts changing into her clothes. I begin to help her pack her last minute items into her trunk, double checking all of her lists and adding a few items that I think she'll need.

"Are you done changing yet?" I ask her without turning around.

"Yesh iem." *spit* "Yes I am. I'm also done brushing my teeth."

"Good. Now hurry downstairs. I've left some breakfast out for you in the kitchen."

"Fine mom. Now stop packing my things, I know what I want and need. You don't need to do it for me."

"Sure honey. Now hurry up!." I almost yell at her. She jogs out of the room and I hear her thumping down the stairs. I don't know how she makes that much noise.

I shut the lid on her trunk and head back to my room to go pack my own.

Draco's POV

I help Scorpius with his trunk, carrying it onto a trolley. When I've balanced it, and the cage for Fefoy, I let him push it for a bit. After a bit more convincing, Scorpius finally decided to take him to Hogwarts. I'm very glad about that. Otherwise Bipsy would have had to take care of him.

I load my own trunk up onto a trolley and start to push it. We start towards the barrier and I can see Hermione helping Rose out of the corner of my eye. I stop for a moment and call Scorpius, asking him to wait a moment.

"Hermione!" I call out across the many other people milling about.

She looks up from Rose and smiles. "Yes dear?"

"You and Rose were making me worried!" I reply, closing the gap between us and giving her a peck on the cheek.

"Ew, Dad, if we came here just so you two could smooch could I have at least slept in a bit longer?" I turn to Rose and give her a bit of a pointed look.

"What have I said about using the tone with us young lady?"

"Sorry Daddy." She replies while blushing the colour of her name.

"Don't you mean professor?" I tease. She screws up her face in disgust.

"That's going to take some getting used to."

Hermione cuts in and begins to fix Rose's hair.. "I agree, though I must make sure to not accidentally call your father 'sir'."

"There's no need to call me 'sir' professor." I retort. She laughs at this and I hear someone call out across the platform.

"Malfoy, did you just say that?!" I can see Ron striding towards me, grinning wildly.

"Ron! Slow down, you could at least help with Sadie." Says Pansy as she follows close with their daughter who will be in the same year as Rose and Scorpius.

As soon as she spots them, Sadie runs over to Rose and Scorpius. The three of them begin to chat eagerly about finally going off to school. Pansy throws her hands up in the air and grumpily pushes the luggage cart over to us, mumbling something about it only being a few days till she can re design their house.

"Sadie, Scorp, Rose, how about we take our luggage onto the train and let you mother's talk for a bit." I suggest. Ron and I help the kids with their luggage and get onto the train. We set them up in their compartment and then train whistle blows, giving the last call.

"Goodbye Sadie, see you over the break!" Ron calls out, leaving the compartment to go find Pansy.

"Are all of you guys alright here?" I ask the three trouble makers seated in front of me once the train starts moving.

A chorus of 'yes's answer my question.

"Alright then, I'm going to go find your mother and help her with the Prefect and Head student orientations. Are you guys going to stay out of trouble?"

They all say yes but somehow I doubt they will. If they're anything like their parents, they'll be up against another group of kids in less than 10 minutes. Just enough time for me to find Hermione.

Hermione's POV

"So Hermione, how was Rose this morning?" Pansy asks me with a sly smile.

"She was a disaster like always. I'm just glad that Draco was able to take care of Scorpius. They had a sleepover and Scrop got homesick." I reply exasperatedly. "In the end Rose wanted to leave too, but it was so that she could see her grandma's house one last time before we sell it. But anyway, how's Sadie? Glad she won't be eating you guys out of house and home now?"

"Well, I'll still have to feed your voracious monster of a friend, but now I don't have to worry about cooking for two armies, just one. Not to mention I'll finally be able to redecorate the house with Sadie off at school and Ron at work most days. It's been 11 years of the same boring wallpaper and flooring so the house looks simply ancient!"

I laugh with complete ease, Pansy and I have gotten much closer now as adults and parents. We both helped each other with our pregnancies and we've bonded quite a bit. Sadie and Rose have been having lots of sleepovers and we both know what it's like to deal with each other's children. Pansy was so worried the first time. She floo called saying that Rose seemed to be in a coma and wouldn't wake up. I had to explain that Rose doesn't ever wake up early. I still don't know what she's going to do at Hogwarts. If she's late to any of my morning classes, she won't be receiving any sympathy.

"Well let me know if you want someone to help you pick a theme or colour scheme."

"Of course, did you think that you wouldn't be helping with that? Second opinions are crucial in the world of decorating and design."

"I wouldn't pass up that job even if I was behind on marking exams." I reply with a laugh.

"And we all know that Hermione Granger rarely puts off work." She says with a knowing smile. "I still can't believe that you and Draco actually taught Muggle Studies back in Eighth Year, shouldn't that have made you avoid teaching at all costs?"

"Well it was stressful but it was also very interesting and fun. It definitely changed my perspective to be a teacher as well as a student."

"I don't doubt it. Well I'm sure you'll be able to handle everything that gets thrown at you this year, if you could handle myself and the entire first semester population of Muggle Studies students, you can handle anything."

"You weren't an awful student Pansy, you just didn't apply yourself as well as you could have."

"I guess, I was still pretty mean to you guys."

"It's fine, we've talked about this, you're still definitely one of my best friends now so let's leave the past in the past."

Suddenly the train's whistle blows and I realize that they're calling the last few passengers on board now.

"Oh my, well it looks like I best be going Pansy, I'll see you around! You are coming to visit on the upcoming Hogsmeade day right?"

"Of course darling, I wouldn't miss it for the world." She replies with her perfect Parkinson flair.

"Alright, goodbye! And do make sure you say goodbye to your daughter before she leaves on the train. Actually, you'd better make sure she gets on the train, we wouldn't want her to take after her father and pull a stunt like he did in our second year."

"Goodness you're right, bye!" She then runs off, presumably to find Sadie. She should be okay, Draco and Ron were with all three of the kids last I checked. Having said that, none of them can really be trusted.

We agreed that I'm to secure our compartment and talk with this year's Head Students and Prefects while he wrangles the kids and makes his way over.

I take my luggage off of the cart and board the train, walking over to the teachers compartment, something they added more recently since many professors at Hogwarts now have families and can't travel as easily.

When I reach the compartment I take a deep breath, this year is going to be a good year.

Author's Note: And that's a wrap! I'm sorry it took so long and I'm so thankful for all of you for sticking with me. I hope that you guys enjoyed this story and that you guys don't hate me for making it seem like Hermione and Draco were over. This may be the end of this, but if you guys could give me a few parting words of advice or feedback, that'd be great. I love hearing your thoughts and maybe some of what you say can be used to improve my future writing.

Speaking of future writing, we may have another story coming soon... Yay! It depends on how my first drafts with that come along since I don't want to end up with the situation where I was falling behind with writing; I want to have at least half of it written before I start publishing.

Once again, thank you guys so much! Have a great week!