YES I'M BACK

FIRST: PLEASE LET ME SINCERELY APOLOGISE FOR MY LONG ABSENCE - LIFE GOT IN THE WAY AND I LOST MY MOJO AND MY MUSE FOR THIS STORY, ONLY NOW, 5 YRS LATER HAVE I RECENTLY FOUND IT AGAIN AND AM NOT HAVING TO FORCE MYSELF TO WRITE THIS STORY AND RUIN IT.

SECOND: THANK YOU TO ALL MY LOYAL AND WONDERFUL FOLLOWERS/READERS/FANS I HAVE APPRECIATED EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU WHO HAVE KEPT THIS STORY IN YOUR LISTS PATIENTLY/IMPATIENTLY WAITING/HOPING FOR AN UPDATE...THIS IS FOR YOU.

THIRD: SOME OF YOU WILL NOTICE THAT MY WRITING STYLE HAS CHANGED SOMEWHAT, SORRY BUT UNAVOIDABLE AFTER FIVE YEARS, I JUST HOPE THE STORY STILL FLOWS WELL.

AND LASTLY: THIS STORY IS DRAWING TO A CLOSE, THERE WILL NOT BE TOO MANY MORE CHAPTERS, NO SEQUEL IN THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE (I HAVE TOO MANY OTHER STORIES AND PROJECTS IN THE WORKS TO EVEN THINK ABOUT A SEQUEL, BUT NEVER SAY NEVER) BUT THERE WILL OF COURSE BE AN EPILOGUE.

THANK YOU ALL AGAIN... MUCH LOVE...ANGELRIDER93

DISCLAIMER:- I'M NOT JK ROWLING, MUCH TO MY EVERLASTING DISAPPOINTMENT I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER, NOR CAN I CLAIM DRACO AND HERMIONE AS MY OWN (OH HOW I WISH) ONLY THE PLOT BELONGS TO ME (SIGH)

Chapter Twenty Seven: First Quidditch Match

It took Draco two days and several intense snogging sessions to get Hermione to forgive him for his little stunt in the Great Hall and to agree to not skip any more meals. He had been frustrated with her stubbornness, but eventually she had caved and agreed that she didn't need to study as much as she had been. He was relieved, the weekend was here and quidditch was starting, Draco was hoping that after the match they may be able to go and play in the snow, it was one of his favorite past times with Hermione, he had hardly seen his girlfriend in the last three weeks and had missed her.

The first quidditch match of the season was being held that Saturday between Hufflepuff and Slytherin. The morning of the match found Hermione sitting at the Gryffindor table eating breakfast as a bleary eyed Ginny came in and plonked down beside her.

"Morning Ginny" Hermione smiled.

"Morning Mione" Ginny mumbled around a yawn as she placed some scrambled eggs on her plate with a piece of bacon.

"Why are you so tired this morning?" Hermione asked the red head.

"It was a full moon last night" Ginny stated as if that explained everything.

"And? You're not a werewolf Ginny, what's the full moon got to do with why you're so tired?" Hermione queried.

"Blaise picked me up from my dormitory window and we went for a midnight fly around the black lake, I didn't get to bed until nearly two" Ginny answered.

"Oh the black lake is beautiful in the light of a full moon, Theo has taken me out on his broom a couple of times" Lavender gushed, having heard Ginny as she came into the great hall.

"Ginny! You were out after curfew? That's breaking I don't know how many school rules!" Hermione scolded.

"It was a Friday night Hermione. Calm down, it's not like I was doing anything untoward" Ginny retorted.

"That's not the point Ginny" Hermione stated.

"Its romantic Hermione, I know that you don't like to fly but you should ask Draco to take you out there one night, it really is a sight to see" Lavender intoned.

"Speaking of Draco" Ginny started cutting off Hermione's retort "Has he managed to convince you to forgive him yet?" Hermione scowled.

"Not only has he managed that, but he also got me to promise not to skip any more meals and to only study for a maximum of two hours a night and not at all on weekends. Unless we have an exam and only for five hours on Sunday" Hermione grimaced. Ginny and Lavender stared at her with shocked looks on their faces.

"How did he manage to get you to promise that?" Lavender asked in awe.

"I don't really know" Hermione responded as she felt her face go red and she dropped her eyes to her breakfast, refusing to look at either of the two girls. A muffled laugh from beside her had her glancing up at her red haired friend. Ginny had a knowing grin on her face.

"Your sexy Slytherin boyfriend snogged it out of you didn't he" she smirked. Hermione flushed a deeper red as she nodded.

"It must be a Slytherin thing, Theo does it to me too" Lavender confided with a blush of her own.

"It could work both ways though, we could probably snog promises out of them" Ginny surmised causing Hermione and Lavender to laugh and nod in agreement.

"Give me another six months and I'll be shagging them out of Theo" Lavender stated bluntly with a wicked grin, causing Ginny and Hermione to stare at her in complete open mouthed shock. A spluttering cough had them all turning to see their three Slytherin boyfriends standing there in their quidditch uniforms. Blaise and Draco were staring with their mouths agape while Theo continued to splutter, his cheeks suspiciously pink.

"Lav…" he began but his girlfriend cut him off.

"Really Theo, we've talked about this, I meant it when I said that we would shag after being together for a year, those four have only been together for a few weeks whereas we have been together for months" Lavender said as she indicated to the other two couples. Theo just clamped his lips shut and remained silent. Hermione, desperate to change the subject narrowed her eyes as she noticed that the three Slytherins were all carrying their house scarves.

"Why are you holding your scarves? You won't need them while you play" She asked. Draco, being the first to recover smirked at his girlfriend and approached her, placing a quick kiss on her lips as he draped the scarf around her neck.

"You need something in Slytherin colours to wear today" He stated as Blaise and Theo also recovered and draped their scarves around their respective girlfriend's necks.

"Why do we need to wear Slytherin colours?" Ginny demanded as she grimaced at the green and silver scarf hanging from her shoulders.

"So everyone knows that you are supporting Slytherin today, or more to the point us" Blaise replied as he dropped a quick kiss to her lips.

"And why would we be doing that?" Ginny asked, not at all impressed considering she was on the Gryffindor quidditch team.

"The whole school has taken on the new unity vibe if you hadn't noticed" Draco stated as he indicated the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor tables. Sure enough the houses whose teams weren't playing today had taken on the new school spirit and all were decked out in either Slytherin or Hufflepuff colours, depending on which team they were supporting in the match.

"What makes you think that I'll be supporting Slytherin, I may have decided to barrack for Hufflepuff today" Hermione retorted with a smug smirk at her boyfriend. Draco returned the smirk.

"Do I have to snog it out of you Granger?" he asked playfully, using her last name on purpose. Hermione flushed beet red and shook her head mutely, realizing that the boys had heard more of her conversation with Lavender and Ginny than she had first thought and recalling just how effective Draco's snogging was at convincing her to comply.

"We know that you won't barrack for us when we play Gryffindor but supporting us when we play Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw is a different thing" Blaise stated.

"Fine, but I expect you to wear red and gold when I play" Ginny stated, narrowing her eyes at her boyfriend and daring him to refuse.

"I was planning to" Blaise counteracted easily with a grin.

"Are Lucius and Cissa coming to watch you play?" Hermione asked Draco as she fixed his scarf more comfortably around her neck.

"Yes they are" Draco replied before adding "They also said that they have a surprise for you" Hermione frowned in confusion.

"A surprise for me? Do you have any idea what it could be?"

"No, they just told me they had one" Draco responded before he bent down and thoroughly kissed her. "For luck" he smirked when she raised her eyebrow at him

"We have to go, do I get a kiss for good luck too then?" Blaise asked with cheeky grin at his own girlfriend. Ginny grinned and grabbing the front of his quidditch robes, pulled him down for an intense kiss.

"Good Luck" she whispered as she let go of her slightly breathless snake.

Theo who had already been bestowed his kiss from Lavender grabbed Blaise's arm and dragged him towards the doors. Draco grinned at Hermione before dropping one last kiss on her lips.

"See you after the match Mi" he said as he began to move towards the door.

"Mi? What happened to Mia?" Hermione questioned as Draco reached his friends that had stopped to wait for him.

"The elves all call you Mia, I wanted something that was just mine…hence Mi" Draco smirked then he turned and followed his teammates, shaking his head and laughing at the dumbstruck look still on his best friend's face.

"Gin, I think you broke Blaise" Hermione commented with a grin, remembering the dazed look on the Italian Slytherin's face.

"Serves him right" Ginny laughed, then grimaced at the green and silver scarf as she adjusted it around her neck.

An hour later found the three girls climbing the Gryffindor stands and ignoring the betrayed looks on some of their housemate's faces when they noticed the Slytherin scarves around their necks. Harry and Ron were already seated, obviously both boys had opted to barrack for Hufflepuff in the match as both wore ridiculous yellow and black hats that resembled a medieval court jester's, complete with bells. When the two boys noticed the scarves the girls were wearing they both grimaced in disgust.

"You three look like idiots wearing our rival house's colours" Ron grumbled.

"Oh like the two of you don't look any more ridiculous in those stupid hats" Ginny retorted heatedly.

"You're on our quidditch team Gin, how can you wear that scarf?" Ron demanded.

"Because my boyfriend is on the Slytherin team you ponce and will be wearing my colours when I play next week! Now hush up and get ready to watch the game" Ginny snapped, glaring at her older brother. Ron scowled but knew that his sister was about to blow and decided to ignore her instead. The teams entered then and the stands became quiet as Madam Hooch began her pre-game lecture. As the players were mounting their brooms Lavender suddenly put her hand on Hermione's arm.

"Hermione, I think I know what the surprise the Malfoy's have for you is" she stated as Hermione turned to face her.

"What do you mean Lav?" Hermione questioned. In answer Lavender pointed to the professor's stand where parents were also seated. Hermione followed Lavender's pointed finger and her eyes widened when she saw her parents seated next to Lucius and Narcissa. Her mother was wearing a beautiful turquoise cloak over her muggle clothes, whereas her father sported a slate grey cloak.

"Are they wearing wizarding cloaks?" Ginny asked in surprise.

"I think they are" Hermione responded absently, engrossed in watching her parents, both were sporting large smiles, their eyes wide and excited as they happily chatted to Lucius and Narcissa who were sitting on either side of the couple.

"I wasn't aware that muggles were allowed to visit Hogwarts to watch the quidditch games, I thought that they were only allowed on special occasions and the graduation celebrations due to the anti muggle charms" Lavender commented with a confused frown.

"I'll have to wait until after the game to find out what's going on, Hooch is about to blow the whistle" Hermione replied, just as the whistle was blown and the game began.

During the match Hermione felt an array of emotions from fear to pride as she watched her boyfriend play. Occasionally her attention turned to her parents to see their reactions to the game but only for a short time as she was worried that something would happen to Draco if she took her eyes off him for too long. When Draco had to do a barrel roll maneuver and fly upside down for several feet to avoid a bludger Hermione held her breath and only let it go once he was flying upright again. Hearing a snort she turned and glared at the culprit.

"Something amusing Ronald?" she asked calmly.

"You've seen Malfoy play heaps of times Mione, I don't see what you're getting yourself all worked up about, you never worried about him before, all of us do stuff like that in quidditch" Ron retorted, ignoring her narrowed eyes.

"I've never seen Draco play as my boyfriend, forgive me for worrying about him now" Hermione snapped then turned her back on her red-haired best friend, she didn't know what had gotten into him in the last couple of weeks but he had gone from accepting her relationship to being quite antagonistic towards her about it, then again, he had been behaving that way towards both Ginny and Harry as well whenever their significant others had been mentioned. That was when it clicked to Hermione, Ron was jealous, all his friends had partners and he was still single. Hermione huffed silently, it wasn't like it was their fault that they had all found someone, if Ron wanted to act like a jealous twat instead of doing something about his single status then she was going to take a leaf out of Ginny's book and ignore the sulking idiot.

Hermione was brought out of her thoughts when she heard the crowd roar, shifting her attention back to the game she watched as Draco did a nosedive towards the ground under the Hufflepuff goals, he had obviously seen the snitch, the Hufflepuff seeker was at the other end of the pitch and was speeding across but was too far away. Just before he would have hit the ground, Draco pulled level and raised his hand in triumph, the golden ball fluttering in his fingers. Slytherin had won, 260 against 80.

Rising to her feet with Ginny and Lavender, the three of them quickly made their way out of the Gryffindor stands and onto the pitch where the rest of the Slytherin team was congratulating Draco on his capture of the snitch. Rushing up to him Hermione jumped into his arms and kissed him soundly. Draco returned the kiss then pulled back and smirked.

"So this is what it's like to have a girlfriend to congratulate me after winning a game" he commented cheekily. Hermione huffed and smacked him lightly on the shoulder.

"This is what it's like when you frighten your girlfriend half to death when flying on a twig around balls specifically designed to knock you to the ground" she retorted. Draco laughed and quickly kissed her again before pulling away when he heard their names being called. Looking up, Hermione and Draco smiled as their parents approached, pulling away from Draco's arms Hermione moved to her parents and hugged them both while Lucius and Narcissa congratulated their son on a fine game of quidditch.

"Mum, Dad, it's a surprise to see you here" she commented as she pulled away.

"It was supposed to be, when Lucius and Narcissa asked us the other night at dinner if we would like to come to watch the match we couldn't possibly refuse" Jane responded to her daughter.

"You and the Malfoy's went out to dinner?" Hermione asked slightly shocked.

"Of course, we have gone several times, as well as to the theatre" Henry responded as if it wasn't that big a deal.

"They are taking us to the cinema tonight" Narcissa chimed in as the three blondes joined the conversation, Narcissa immediately hugged the brunette teenager in greeting.

"Draco congratulations" Jane smiled as she hugged her daughter's boyfriend. Draco easily returned the hug and shook Henry's hand.

"Thank you Jane, it's a pleasant surprise to see you both here" he responded.

"That was thrilling, I've never seen anything like it, how do you control that thing anyway?" Henry asked curiously, excitement shining in his eyes.

"Mi has likened it to… I believe they are called a muggle motorcycle?" Draco replied, raising a questioning eyebrow at his girlfriend who nodded in confirmation.

"Mi?" Lucius questioned.

"Draco's new nickname for me, apparently he wanted something that only he called me" Hermione responded, rolling her eyes at Draco's smirk.

"I see" Lucius grinned in amusement.

"Thank you for bringing my parents today, though I must confess to being extremely curious as to how you obtained permission for them to come to Hogwarts for a regular quidditch game" Hermione stated as she hugged Lucius. Lucius returned the hug comfortably.

"Ah see now that is our real surprise" he smirked at the young witch.

"Oh? Do tell" Hermione replied calmly, trying not to show that she was practically bursting with curiosity.

"It's quite a long story actually, Albus, Minerva and Severus have given us leave to take you to Hogsmeade for lunch, let's give Draco a chance to shower and change then head down and we will tell you everything" Lucius replied. Hermione let out an impatient huff but smiled and nodded, ignoring her boyfriend's and parent's knowing chuckles.

Once they were all seated in the private room that Lucius had requested and their orders had been taken, Hermione could no longer keep her curiosity in check.

"So, the suspense is killing me, what's the big surprise?" she burst out, ignoring the amusement of the four parents sitting at the table.

"I must admit that I'm extremely curious as well, why the privacy dad?" Draco added.

"You both remember how Narcissa and I stayed at Hogwarts with Henry and Jane during their visit over new years?" Lucius began.

"Yes of course" Hermione replied sharing a perplexed look with Draco, both teenagers wondering where the elder Malfoy was going with this.

"We noticed some things that were unexpected" Narcissa continued.

"Unexpected?" Hermione asked, her brows furrowed in confusion.

"They were able to see things that Muggles generally don't notice, they were also able to use things that normally Narcissa and I would have had to charm or activate first" Lucius expanded. Hermione's eyebrows rose in shock, but Lucius continued before she could speak.

"We were quite surprised so once we returned home we invited your parents to Malfoy Manor for dinner, one, to get to know them better and two, to see if it was just a fluke of Hogwarts or if there was something deeper going on. When the same sorts of thing happened we spoke to them about it and arranged to take them to the Ministry for testing"

"Testing? For what?" Hermione asked warily.

"Magical traces in their blood or the existence of a magical core" Narcissa supplied calmly with a smile. Hermione sat back in shock turning to her parents who were remaining silent and letting Lucius and Narcissa tell the story.

"What were the results?" Draco asked when it appeared that Hermione was to shocked to speak.

"No magical core, but a slight magical trace in their blood" Lucius replied.

"What does that mean?" Hermione asked finally regaining her voice.

"Basically it means that as far as the Ministry is concerned, their status in the wizarding world has been upgraded" Lucius explained.

"Upgraded? To what?" Draco queried.

"Upgraded from 'Muggle parents of a Muggleborn witch' to 'Squib'" Lucius answered.

"Squib? But…" Hermione began only to cut herself off when Lucius raised his hand.

"Your parents are Muggles, they are not magical like you, the trace in their blood could be from a magical ancestor, but if that is the case then it is way back before records were kept, we know because we looked. Now, normally the Ministry would not even consider changing the status of a Muggle to a Squib in a case like this. But, because they have a child who is magical, they upgraded your parents to Squib so that they now have the same rights and access in the wizarding world that other Squibs would" Lucius finished. Hermione looked at Draco in bafflement.

"Mi, it means that your parents can have floo access, the anti muggle charms won't affect them, they are allowed to come into the wizarding world and be a part of it, they just won't be able to perform magic itself" He explained gently, knowing that she was overwhelmed with the knowledge of what this meant for herself and her parents. Finally Hermione turned to her parents.

"How do you feel about this?" she asked.

"It's been quite overwhelming, but at the same time exciting as well" Jane responded.

"Nothing has really changed in the larger scheme of things except for of course now we can visit the wizarding world without any issues. Apart from the ability to see things that other muggle parents can't like your magical creatures, the only two major things that have changed are if we were to get sick or injured we would automatically be transferred to the wizarding hospital to be treated, and we have the right to a vault at Gringotts, which Lucius has already helped us set up an account" Henry explained. Hermione turned to Lucius who confirmed her father's statement with a nod.

"This is honestly the last thing I expected to hear today, at least it explains the wizarding cloaks" Hermione finally stated in awe.

"Surprise!" Lucius smirked. Hermione turned to him in shock before laughing.

"I thought that Cissa was supposed to be the cheeky one" she grinned.

"I have my moments" Lucius responded. The rest of the table chuckled at the easy banter before they went about finishing their lunch and discussing all the new information that had been revealed before the two teenagers had to return to school.

Well there you go, love it or hate it please be kind and no flames, this story very nearly became a statistic and a broken promise.

working on the next chapter now

love to all my readers in this trying time...Corona virus is striking us everywhere, even in lil old Tasmania, be safe all