Parenting Class Chapter Two

Disclaimer: Let's look at it logically...if I owned Harry Potter I wouldn't be typing on a fan fiction website now, would I?

Parenting Class

It Has Begun

"Who are you?" were the first words out of the child's mouth, lips turned down in a small frown. "And where am I?" he asked, looking around the horribly decorated room with interest.

"Well, I'm Hermione," said the Gryffindor girl, a surprised smile on her face. "And this is Harry...we're going to be looking after you for a while. You're currently at a room in Hogwarts where you'll be for the next two weeks."

Bright pools of silver looked at Hermione curiously and she couldn't help but give a large grin. Draco Malfoy was one of the cutest things! His eyes seemed to glow from the inside, his blond hair cut short with bangs hanging over his forehead to come just above his eyes.

His black robes had shrunk down to fit his rather tiny frame and his wand had appeared in Hermione's hand since he was underage to be doing magic. "But where are Mother and Father?" he asked, warily looking at Harry before taking a tiny step back. "They won't like it that I left."

"Don't worry," said Hermione cheerfully, kneeling down to Draco's height so that he mightn't feel like she was so imposing. "Professor Dumbledore has taken care of everything."

"You're sure?" he questioned hesitantly, body slowly beginning to relax from the rigid form he'd held himself in. "I won't get in trouble?"

"Of course not. Now why don't you come with me and I'll show you to your room, okay?" Draco gave a small nod and still glancing almost fearfully at Harry he followed the girl towards a door on the far wall that was stationed between two other doors with a fourth one on the far right.

Hoping this was the child's room, Hermione pushed open the door and let out a low sigh of relief. A small twin bed, rather close to the floor, sat in the middle of the room with a shelf of books next to it, all of the wizarding fairy tales.

A brass trunk sat at the foot of the bed, which the Gryffindor assumed to contain Draco's clothes and belongings. A window across from the bed let sunlight stream in, lighting upon the miniature waterfall in the corner and creating small, dancing rainbows.

The Slytherin let out a squeal of delight and raced over to the waterfall, water coursing over his hands and falling in a basin at the bottom. "Isn't he adorable, Harry?" Hermione breathed, sensing her best friend come next to her, honey eyes watching the small boy play with the water.

"Hard to believe he's Malfoy," Harry chuckled softly, his own emeralds following Hermione's gaze. "Do you think Lucius hasn't taught him about Voldemort yet? He doesn't seem to harbor any ill feelings towards you or me...especially me. He's supposed to hate me."

"Draco's a little kid Harry," she giggled, trying to stifle her laughter behind her hand as Draco gave her an odd glance before turning back to the waterfall. "And I think it would be best if we both at least tried to call him Draco for the time being...I'm pretty sure his parents don't call him Malfoy and since we're sort of filling in for them we shouldn't either."

"He seems scared of me Mione," the jet black haired boy said softly, Draco now abandoning the falling water and looking at the book titles before pulling one off of the shelf and clambering up onto the bed with it, his pale hands flipping the pages while his eyes took in the beautifully illustrated pictures.

"Really? We'll keep an eye on him. It's probably just apprehension, nothing to worry about." After a pause Hermione said, "Do you think one of us should go read him a story? I loved it when my parents read to me."

"You love books in general, Mione. If it doesn't bother you I'm going to go check out my room. Maybe you could read him one?"

"Sure," the brown haired girl agreed, bobbing her bushy head happily. "We'll all head down for dinner in about half an hour, kay? I think that sounds reasonable." Harry nodded and left the room while Hermione cautiously approached Draco.

"What are you reading?" she inquired, settling herself on the edge of the bed.

"Aren't you supposed to be somewhere?" Hermione blinked in surprise and Draco continued, "Mother never stays...she's always out with her friends or at parties. So why are you here?"

"So whom do you normally play with during the day?" she asked, heart going out to the child. From the way he'd talked about his mother it was if she was never there to tuck him in or read him a story. She had never known that, always being lathered with attention.

"No one," he murmured, picking his head up from the book and looking at the Gryffindor. "Every once in a while Pansy will come over," he said brightening slightly, "but normally I just stay in my room. Oh! And the kitchens! Dobby likes to sneak me cookies! But don't tell Father and Mother," he said, voice dropping to a whisper as though he'd done something wrong. "They'll get angry."

"My lips are sealed," she said, dragging her index finger across her lips and then tossing her hand over her shoulder while inside she wondered. 'What is his family life like at home if he's scared of sneaking a cookie?'

"What does that mean?" he queried, imitating the movement Hermione had just done.

"It's a muggle sign," she said, playing the muggle a bit obvious to see if it caught his attention at all. "It means that you're zippering your lips and then throwing out the key so no one will ever hear of it."

"A muggle term? Father says all muggles are bad people...is that true? Pansy told me she used to be friends with a muggle once," he whispered, voice dropping once more, "but that when her father found out she wasn't allowed to play with her anymore."

"Muggles are good people, Draco," Hermione said, seeing an opportunity to try to change Draco's views on the whole 'purebloods are better then mudbloods' outlook. "Do you think I'm nice?" After a second's thought he gave a tiny nod of his head and Hermione smiled. "I'm a muggleborn," she said proudly, smile widening at his gasp. "We're just like you Draco, no differences except who are parents are."

"But Father said that muggles and muggleborns were below us...isn't that true?"

Hermione knew she was probably confusing the poor boy by showing him her views while he had grown up listening to his father. "No it isn't. What your father said is prejudiced against us."

"What's prejudiced mean?"

A wry smile crossed Hermione's face. 'Silly me. He's only five years old; of course he doesn't know such complicated terms! But I must admit...he's very smart for his age.' And it was true. Draco was able to read the book quite easily and seemed to be quite mature for someone of five years. "It means to have a belief or an idea about a person or something formed before that person ever really got to meet them," she stated, attempting to put the definition into simpler terms for the boy to understand.

"But you seem really nice," he mused, "and smart," he added as an afterthought. "I like you." A large smile broke out on the brunette's face and she pulled the blond into her arms, his small body instantly going stiff.

"What' wrong?" she asked as he slowly began to relax, completely miffed about the child's reaction.

"No one's ever hugged me before," he mumbled into her shirt, voice muffled from the fabric. "I was just surprised...that's all."

'No one? Poor Draco...I can't imagine ever not being hugged. Or kissed good night, tucked in bed, sung to, and all those little things my parents did to show they loved me.' A sudden thought invaded her mind and her arms tightened around the boy as a determined smile crossed her lips. 'While he's in my care I'm going to make sure he receives as much attention as he can. Who knows? Maybe he'll change for the better.'

"Hey, Mione? You and Mal-Draco ready to go?" Harry asked, leaning causally against the doorframe.

The girl started and glanced at the clock across the room, realizing she'd been hugging the Slytherin for almost the entire half hour. "Ready to go to dinner, Draco?" she asked kindly, dropping her arms from around him. He looked up, eyes shining a tad brighter then earlier with unshed tears and nodded. "What are those, Harry?" she questioned, glancing at the two black boxes in his hands.

"Cameras," he said with a smile. "I found this one in your room," he said, handing one of the cameras over to her. "There was a note with mine saying that we're to take pictures during our time with each other because in the last week we're going to put together a big project with the photos from all three group members. It said try to find interesting photos of something you might not see everyday."

"Sounds fun. I take it you have his camera?" Hermione nodded at the small boy standing silently next to her, his eyes turned towards the ground.

"Yeah, he'll get it later," he answered, emphasizing on the later knowing Hermione would understand. "Let's go, I'm starving!" Hermione took one of Draco's hands and the boy stuck the other in his pocket to prevent Harry from taking it. The ivy eyes boy raised an eyebrow at his friend and she shrugged.

"Have a nice dinner," called Leviculus from the portrait, waving merrily at the trio as Draco gave a tentative wave back with is free hand.

"You know, Harry," wondered Hermione as they walked down the stone corridor, "who's house table are we supposed to sit at?"

"Maybe Dumbledore will tell us...after all, he did arrange these pairings, right? I really can't see ours being random...both of us and Malfoy?"

"He's working on bringing the houses closer together," the girl smartly said. "Here we are," she announced as the trio stopped in front of the entrance to the Great Hall. Harry pushed open the heavy wooden doors and they entered, eyes taking in the spectacle.

Some children were sitting quietly at their 'parents'' sides while others were messily eating dinner the house elves had prepared. Draco's eyes scanned the head table before they lighted on a single figure, a wide smile filling his face.

"UNCLE SEVVY!" he cried, breaking out of Hermione's grasp and running down the middle of the tables. The Potions professor looked up from his meal, eyes narrowed in a glare. He could have sworn he'd heard his godson but that was impossible.

"What do we do?" Harry whispered urgently to Hermione, the small Slytherin now completely out of sight among the students.

"Sit down and hope Snape doesn't hex him...or us," she whispered, guiding Harry to the Gryffindor table where they took seats besides an adult Ron and Lavender with a tiny Terry Boot between them.

"Bloody hell," murmured the redhead. "Was that Malfoy?"

Harry gave a short nod while Hermione groaned. "I can't watch," she moaned, placing her head in her arms. "What's Snape going to do to him?"

"What about us?" whined Harry, now frantically looking over the sea of students for any sign of the silvery blond head. "We're going to die, I know it."

"There he is," gasped Ron, sighting the boy. "He's climbing up to the head table!"

Across the room, Draco crawled beneath the head table until he came to a familiar set of ever black robes. Giving a tiny jump he scrambled onto the man's lap, a wide smile on his face. "Hi Uncle Sev!" he chirped.

Snape looked down at the boy, the oddest expression on his face. His forehead was crinkled with lines while his eyes shone brightly in confusion. The scowl was gone from his mouth to be replaced with a look of sheer bewilderment.

"What's this stuff?" Draco asked, reaching forward to pick up a golden goblet in front of the man. Picking it up the boy sniffed the drink and smiled. "It smells like cherries," he said happily, rising the glass to take a sip.

"That's wine!" exclaimed the Potions master, attempting to pull the challis out of his godson's grip. What ended up happening was the goblet tipping over to splash Snape in the face with the champagne.

Dumbledore, who had been watching the entire scene, burst into laughter to see the shocked look on the normally composed professor. Unfortunately, the grape the headmaster had been eating got lodged in his throat as he swallowed it whole and his laughter quickly turned into coughs.

McGonagall saw Dumbledore beginning to choke and jumped up from her chair, positioning her arms to give him the Heimlich maneuver. Draco meanwhile was apologizing rapidly, eyes teary.

"There, there, it's all right," soothed Snape, patting the boy awkwardly on the head while at the same time dabbing at his face with a napkin. Draco set the goblet, now empty, back on the table, never noticing that it was sitting on the skinny part of a spoon.

Snape dropped the napkin onto the table, the wine gone from his face although a slightly red hue was still visible, the cloth landing in a heap on the round spoon. The force was enough (the napkin was made of heavy material and soaked in wine) to send the goblet flying in the air and land in a bowl of mashed potatoes, effectively splattering everyone in a two foot range.

But that wasn't the end of the horrors of the head table catastrophe. The bowl holding the potatoes tipped over to hit Professor Flitwick's glass of pumpkin juice, which fell over, an orange stain spreading over the white tablecloth.

The glass knocked into a three layer chocolate cake which tipped to slam into several more wine goblets and then a candle that had been sitting in front of a fruit platter. The flame fell onto the rapidly spreading wine, the table cloth sizzling as fire raced upon the trail, knocking platters and cups over in its wake.

The grand finale was when the mess reached the end of the table and a huge bowl of rice casserole was knocked off the end and fell directly on top of Mrs. Norris, who had been passing next to the table.

Before the flames could spread, Dumbledore, who was now free from the grape clogging his throat thanks to the Transfiguration professor, shot a spell at the dancing fire and it sputtered out, the whole hall now in dead silence.

Students watched fearfully as Snape looked down at the small boy on his lap. "Am I in trouble, Uncle Sev?" Draco whispered, lower lip trembling and tears spilling down his pale cheeks. "I didn't mean to put the cup there...honest."

Tenderly, quite odd for Snape, he said, "Of course not Draco. Who was supposed to be watching you?"

"Hermione and Harry," he sniffled, wiping the tears away from his eyes. His voice, though soft, could be heard by all and heads turned to the two Gryffindors. Hermione dug her face deeper into her arms and Harry looked guilty down at the table, suddenly finding a huge interest in his fork.

They both knew that Draco hadn't meant to get them in trouble. He had only been answering the question, which as far as he knew of had no hidden motive behind it.

"Would Mr. Potter and Miss Granger please come here?" asked Snape, voice eerily calm. The whole school watched with bated breath as Harry and Hermione slowly approached the head table. "Are you not supposed to be keeping an eye on your charge at all times?" hissed Snape, eyes glinting maliciously.

"We didn't mean to lose him, Sir," Hermione said softly, refusing to meet Snape's eyes. "But as soon as he saw you he took off."

"Fifty points from Gryffindor," the Potions teacher said, gesturing at the mess Draco had made, "and may you keep more of hand on Draco in the future." He would have loved to punish them more but with Dumbledore watching he couldn't do much. Besides, if he were to take points off of the childcare project his godson might lose points too. And it wasn't entirely their fault, although he'd never say that aloud.

"Yes, Sir," the duo muttered.

"Go and sit with Miss Granger and Mr. Potter, Draco," ordered Snape, giving his godson a push off of his lap. Draco turned and gave Snape a quick hug at the same time a flash blinded both.

"Sorry," Hermione laughed, holding up her camera. "Couldn't resist." Snape glowered silently as Draco took Hermione's outstretched hand and let her lead him to his new seating arrangements.

Everyone burst into chatter as soon as the trio had sat back down, whispers racing around the room as the teachers cleaned up the mess. "Bloody hell," murmured Ron, looking in awe at the tiny Malfoy. "Uncle Sev?"

"Watch your language around the children, Ron," scolded Lavender, smacking the redhead upside his face. "Who knows what kind of things they'll pick up?" As if on cue Terry reached up and smacked Ron.

"You're the one teaching them Lav," Ron grumbled, rubbing his rather pink cheek. Terry smacked Ron again and then pinched his arm rather hard, an innocent smile adorning his face the entire time. "I'm going to be black and blue by the time this is over," grumbled the Weasley, rubbing his arm and cheek.

"Lavender is right you know," smirked Hermione, giving her friend a pat on his head like a dog. "The kids will pick up if you keep up like that."

A tugging on her robe sleeve made the girl turn to her young charge, his eyes wide. "Are you mad at me Hermione? I didn't mean to get you in trouble."

"Of course not," she replied, giving Draco a one-armed hug. "You didn't mean too. So I take it Professor Snape is your uncle?"

"Not by blood...but Father made him my godfather and I just call him Uncle Sev since he's like family...sort of. How come he doesn't seem to like you? Uncle Sev likes everyone!"

Harry and Ron both snorted simultaneously while Lavender burst into laughter and Hermione grinned. "Not quite, Draco. He doesn't like Gryffindors very much...and we're all in that particular house."

"But I want to be in Gryffindor," Draco pouted. "Does that mean he won't like me if I get placed here?"

"You want to be in Gryffindor?" sputtered Ron.

"Uh huh. It has red as one of its house colors...that's my favorite color. And I like lions!"

"You don't want to be in Slytherin?" he asked in disbelief.

"Of course not! Snakes are yucky," he shuddered.

The group exchanged glances before bursting into laughter. "I can't believe I just heard Malfoy say that!" laughed Ron, pounding his fists on the table while his face blew up red.

"My name's Draco," the boy murmured, not liking to be laughed at nor understanding why everyone except Hermione was calling him by his surname.

"We're sorry," apologized Hermione, a grin still on her face. "We didn't mean to make fun of you...here, why don't you have some strawberries." The girl placed a small pile on Draco's plate followed by a helping of buttered noodles and a glass of milk.

In small bites, the bright red fruits began to disappear under the watchful gaze of Hermione, doing her best to fill the role of a parent. Before dessert arrived Dumbledore stood up while McGonagall clinked a spoon against a glass for attention.

"I have one quick announcement before we bring out dessert," revealed Dumbledore, eyes twinkling mischievously. "We found that for all of you in sixth year who had the potions found they were grape juice, am I correct?"

General murmurs of consent followed Dumbledore's odd message before the hall quieted once more and attention was turned back to the headmaster.

"It seems that some of the potion's attributes were diluted in the chosen drink. As many as you saw earlier this evening, all of the students still have their memory completely intact. We realized that with the display by Mr. Malfoy and Professor Sprout."

Draco ducked his head, not sure why his name had come up in conversation but knowing it wasn't meant to be good while other students gave curious glances towards the seat the Herbology professor normally occupied.

Instead of seeing the rather plump witch, a child occupied the chair, bright brown curls framing her round face. On her plate were all kinds of vegetables grown from the school gardens. "Peas!" she yelled, waving a fork with the green veggie speared on the ends.

"Professor Sprout kindly tried out a small sample of the potion," said Dumbledore, a twinkle in his eye, "by complete accident. She should hopefully be back to normal sometime tomorrow since her dosage was so small. If you are in Hufflepuff and have a problem please take it up with one of your teachers during the time our dear Professor Sprout is unavailable. I also request that you do not inform your charge of the real them, understand? It will only complicate matters in the future. With a few final words we'll begin dessert. Tweel da doop. Dig in!"

The plates filled cakes and cookies for the students, the teachers having the option to eat theirs with dinner. "Now I understand," Hermione murmured to Harry once she was certain Draco was busy with a cookie. "He was asking about his parents, remember? It's because he still knows everything!"

"Guess what I got?" whispered Harry, a devious smile on his face. "I got a video clip of the heat table with the food from the start with the wine to the end with Mrs. Norris when Draco knocked everything over. I found a video record button on the camera," he said in answer to Hermione's unasked question.

"Whatever did happen to poor Mrs. Norris?" the brunette asked, looking around for the cat.

"Who cares? Did you see the look on Filch's face though?" butted in Ron, mouth full of chocolate pudding. "He looked like he was going to have a heart attack. They both left the hall after Dumbledore's announcement though since you're wondering."

After a few minutes the food disappeared from the plates and Dumbledore rose once more in his chair. "Congratulations to all of you for surviving your first day of school of the year," he smiled. "And alas, I must now say it's time for all of you to head off to bed. Prefects, a meeting will be held in a few days to talk about hallway patrols. Good night to all of you."

With final goodbyes to friends, students dispersed out of the hall for their dormitories, each looking ready to finish up homework from earlier and to talk to classmates.

For Hermione, Harry and all of the other sixth years though it was a different story. They got to put their child to bed...oh lucky, lucky them.