Draco picked one of the items on the shelf, sneered, and put it back. He hated being a muggle, their cheap packages, and obnoxious stores, he’d bumped at least three people since entering and that seemed the least annoying thing that morning.

Just because he’d acclimated didn’t mean he particularly enjoyed spending time near them.

Harry reached out to a bright coloured toy but he just continued past it, ignoring the toddler.

The cart was another annoyance, the screeching was terribly grating on the ears.

Harry made his displeasure known but not quite crying yet, he wanted his toy but Draco wasn’t listening.

The music would be the third, clearly, the generic tune in the background was just irritating, he supposed his tastes were some ten years too early but still, they couldn’t find something better?

Harry was about to scream.

“We are not buying you toys.” He sighed and told the baby “And no, pouting and screaming won’t change the fact that we don’t have money”

Slightly pacified at being acknowledged, Harry frowned but continued to play with his toy star. Draco looked at the child sitting in the cart he was pushing, Harry was babbling incoherently and laughing whenever he squashed the star and it sang.

“Shouldn’t you be talking already?” he asked the toddler, taking some more of the baby mush and putting on the cart, “When do babies talk anyway?”

A girl, he wasn’t sure what age, stopped him as he was about to turn to the next lane, she smiled graciously at him, “Uhm, Hi, couldn’t help but hear you... So, are you his father?”

She was a blonde with brown doe eyes, he supposed she was pretty, but obviously a muggle, an irritating one that approached him and Harry for no reason, when she got closer she tried to pinch Harry’s cheeks but Harry deflected her hand so she gave up, turning back to Draco who just looked at her bored.

“No, I’m just the one taking care of him” he had hoped that she’d leave him alone but she just seemed more eager to talk.

“Adorable, I take care of my younger cousins from time to time,” did she have to get so close? He wondered, ready to turn her down “So I thought, if you need some help, maybe --”

“Hey, Malfoy,” maybe following Ginny to learn about muggle money, hadn’t been a terrible decision after all “I found these at a discount, I guess I could try making something with it”

She raised her eyes from the package and saw the blonde and how both Harry and Draco looked uncomfortable, Draco seemed even glad to see her arrive, in the same way he looked when Harry cried and she was there to take him back that is. She rolled her eyes and smiled at the girl.

“Hello,” she said friendly “My husband is bothering you?”

Draco groaned, of course she wouldn’t just save him.

The girl blushed, taking a few steps back “Oh! I’m sorry... I just-- Sorry!”

They watched her run away then Draco glared at her “Really?”

Ginny laughed “And lose the chance to see you lose the will to live? Nah.”

“Psycho.”

“Why? You interested, isn’t she a bit old for you?” she teased him as they continued their shopping.

“As if I’d go for a muggle” he sneered.

Ginny stopped in her tracks, her smile falling. Their cohabitation, while full of jabs from one another, had been pretty peaceful, in a way, that month had led her to almost forget who Draco Malfoy really was and the reminder wasn’t pretty, more like a punch to the stomach.

The memories were still there and she should have not let herself get comfortable in their new dynamic. It was what she needed, really.

“Weasley?” his expression calm, he asked her, noticing she was left behind, Harry smiling from the cart.

She shook her head and smiled.

“Time to teach you about muggle money” she ran in front of him toward the front to pay.

She didn’t want to admit just yet, that she wanted to get comfortable.

They were going up the stairs, Ginny carrying Harry and Draco carrying the bags when they saw her.

“Mrs. Rees!” Ginny exclaimed smiling.

The woman smiled back and hugged her when they arrived on the third floor.

“Sorry for intruding, you two left the address when you came back to pick your things,” she explained and even Draco had to admit that he didn’t mind that strange muggle “so I thought to drop by to visit.”

“No, it’s alright!” Ginny opened the door and invited her in “Please”

With a simple thank, the woman entered the flat and smiled at Harry’s few toys on the ground. While Draco went to the kitchen, Ginny put Harry on the ground, as she often did when they got back from the store but this time he crawled to Mrs. Rees, raising his arms, asking to be held.

The woman happily obliged and Ginny thought that it was the first time someone other than she or Draco held him.

She smiled and asked “And about your son? Is his daughter well?”

Mrs. Rees delighted in the chance to speak about her granddaughter “She was born a week after you left, they named her Daisy!” she exclaimed “Oh! She is perfect, absolutely adorable, a handful as any newborn but I will admit, watching my Benjamin navigate parenthood is more amusing than I thought” and continued to rumble on about all that the girl had done, from the first feeding to clothing to baby noises. Neither Draco nor Ginny felt like stopping her.

“He didn’t know how to change diapers!” Mrs. Rees shook her head “Well, anyway, I’m sure you two already know about it, was Harry difficult as a newborn?”

Draco and Ginny exchanged a look.

Not letting parents sleep was a thing newborns did right? As long as the woman didn’t question it.

“Terrible!” Draco tried “Couldn’t sleep.” Ginny just nodded solemnly in support.

Mrs. Rees agreed with a smile and they relaxed, glad once more that the woman lived in her own reality.

“And what about now, what are your plans?” the woman asked gently “I don’t think there is a way for both of you to go back to school.”

They felt the pain as they remembered Hogwarts, everything about it seemed so long ago, and the fact they knew they couldn’t go back hurt deeply. The school grounds in winter, snow and laughter as they played with their friends, the lake in the warm days before summer, talking and enjoying the air as they finished their homework. Draco missed the way the light hit the Slytherin dungeon in the morning and Ginny missed the Gryffindor common room and curling in one of the armchairs by the fire.

But they couldn’t go back and to think about it wouldn’t help them.

“I’ve been thinking to search for a job after the holidays are over” and to learn more about being a muggle until then, Draco explained.

The older woman nodded content with the explanation “Good, and what job do you want to apply to?”

Draco opened his mouth but closed it without saying anything, he didn’t know what he was going to do now, what his strengths were, or what jobs he wanted, much less muggle ones.

He felt lost.

“He is very good with numbers, much better than I with money”

Ginny wasn’t lying, since he began to learn about muggle money, he’d learned faster than she expected and had quickly made their spending more efficient. She truly believed in it.

Draco's cheeks turned pink-ish “I was supposed to take over the family business, I learned early” he didn’t know why he felt that he needed to explain himself but did it anyway.

It made sense but Ginny realized then that she didn’t know much about Draco at all, as the only heir he would obviously have to learn how to manage his inheritance and it wasn’t the sort of thing they learned at Hogwarts. It was strange to picture Malfoy, at night maybe, looking over business proposals and accounts of properties alongside his magical studies, all this time and she had no idea.

Who he was, what he liked, what he wanted, she didn’t know.

She supposed he didn’t know her either but she never hid who she was or what she wanted, spirited as any Weasley, and especially after what happened with Tom, she had refused to stand in shadows and hide away but Malfoy had slowly fallen into them.

Could she reach out to him?

The voice of Mrs. Rees bringing her back from her thoughts “So, finances then?”

Draco nodded, it was a sense of direction he hadn’t realized he needed before, he realized then that for years his future was pretty much set in stone, to think that it would take a trip to the past for that to change.

For the first time, he had control over who he would be.

All of this, Draco thought, a bitterness spreading over him, Away from you, father.

“Yes, I think It will be good” and he smiled to Ginny, surprised that it had begun from her.

Ginny smiled back.

“Mrs. Rees, do you want to stay for dinner?” she got up and turned to the woman.

“I don’t want to intrude”

“It’s the least we can do, no intrusion” Ginny explained.

Mrs. Rees smiled “Then I would love it”

Harry reached out to Ginny in the kitchen but Mrs. Rees stopped him.

“Your mum is busy now, won’t you prefer dad instead?” she asked the toddler but he continued to reach for Ginny.

Draco snorted “It’s no use, he doesn’t like me.”

Mrs. Rees frowned and exclaimed, “Oh, he doesn’t!”

“He just cries with me!” he tried to defend himself.

“Nonsense! Come here,” he hesitated so she went to him instead, handing him a squirming Harry.

He picked the baby and saw the tell-tale sign that Harry was about to cry. Draco started to panic, mild sobbing had been by far the best he’d managed so far, the toddler preferred Ginny, why put both of them in that situation then?

“See, he doesn’t like me” Mrs. Rees just shook her head, smiling at the uncomfortable teenager.

“Of course, he doesn’t like it” she laughed “You are scared, and he knows that, he needs comfort, try calming him, maybe speak quietly, smile more”

Now that he thought about it, that was how he calmed Harry at that time too, was that really all he needed? He looked to Harry, green eyes looking back at him, and tried to calm himself, hold the baby more steadily and rock him a little.

Draco had to admit he didn’t expect anything to change but Harry brightened, shining eyes disappearing and instead, he even smiled!

The unfortunate consequence being that Harry was a curious child and took his new opportunity to study Draco, tiny hands all over his face.

“I think I liked him better before”

Ginny and Mrs. Rees laughed.