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Hermione had finally finished her Apprenticeship with Septima, and now had her Master's in Arithmancy. It had been an arduous journey and at times Draco had wondered if she was ever going to be finished with it. Thankfully she'd had the help of their family and friends, who had supported her through it all and tonight they were having a small get together in celebration.

The past year had been tumultuous at times, but everything had seemed to calm down after a while. The fall-out from his parent's trial had found Lucius back in Azkaban for a two year sentence (attached to an additional ten years house arrest) and his Mum on confined house arrest for an additional five years beyond the initial sentence. Pansy had been sentenced to Azkaban for five years for the attempted murder of her spouse and willful violation of the Marriage Law. Her inheritance had been given over to Justin completely, and their marriage dissolved.

In fact, the Wizengamot had decided to review the Marriage Law after Draco's outburst in the courtroom that day. The Prophet, Quibbler and Witch Weekly had all reported on Draco's testimony, and the sympathy garnered for the new Lord Black and his War Heroine wife had been unexpected. Draco's probation had been commuted thanks to the information he'd given to Kingsley about the bribes and blackmail that Lucius had on a third of the Wizengamot. Over the past year, many of those who had been serving on the esteemed branch of government had seen their prestige fall as their perfidy and corruption had been exposed.

Of course, none of this had been traced back to Draco directly. Somehow, during an Auror raid on Malfoy Manor...secret ledgers with a detailed accounting of all of Lucius payouts and blackmail had been found by Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley.

The uproar generated when the news broke, had left the Wizarding World reeling for several months as Kingsley cleaned house and appointed new members to the Wizengamot that were a even mixture of Purebloods, Half-Bloods and Muggleborns.

Some of the old Pureblood Houses decried the changing of the old guard, and there had even been rumblings and whispers of another uprising of Death Eater Sympathizers—but in a move no one saw coming, Theodore Nott had gone to Draco with a list of names of Pureblood families that had approached him, and Draco had taken that information directly to the Minister.

It was a sad day for Draco when he got the Prophet article outing several of his old Slytherin housemates being taken into custody on sedition. Marcus Flint, Cassius Warrington, Gregory Goyle, Millicent Bulstrode...

...even Blaise had been caught up in their plans.

Their families had their wealth stripped, their lands and titles taken from them and all had been given the choice to have their magic bound for a period of three years and be remained to the Muggle World or serve their sentences in Azkaban.

Everyone except Blaise, had chosen Azkaban.

Kingsley had made it known he wouldn't tolerate willful violations of the law, nor would he allow another uprising to damage the fragile peace that had settled since Voldemort was slain.

For Draco, he was just glad to have his family safe and sound.

At that moment, his twins were crawling on the carpet, following after Mipsy who was playing with them in their spacious room.

Hermione had wanted to stay in her family's country home with the children and Draco had agreed wholeheartedly. He loved it here, and once the wards were placed, he could fly over the grounds and enjoy the countryside with a good notice me not charm in place.

"Dada!"

Draco gazed down and smiled at his little angel who was pulling herself up to a standing position using his knees as leverage. Cassiopeia was almost walking while her brother Castor, was sitting up and smiling widely at him.

Lifting his daughter up, Draco cuddled her and kissed her cheek in greeting.

"Hello Princess."

"Dada!"

"Yes sweetie, do you want Dada to come and play?"

Cassie just grinned much like her brother and Draco took that as a 'yes'—so he sat down on the carpet with his children and helped them stack the blocks that were scattered on the floor.

That was how Hermine found them twenty minutes later, when she came in the room looking for him.

"I knew I'd find you in here."

Draco glanced up, and quirked an eyebrow at his little wife's black dress that was showing off just the right amount of skin to get his attention.

"Minx," he smirked, "you wore that on purpose."

"Maybe." Her answering smile was wicked as she moved inside the room to the twin squeals of their children mumbling 'Mama'...

"You need to get dressed love. Everyone will be here shortly."

Draco sighed. "You know how I hate company."

"Liar," Hermione rolled her eyes, "you hate sharing me with company. It's not the same."

Draco stood and gripped her arm, pulling her into his embrace as she squealed in shock.

"It so is," he planted a kiss on her lips and allowed it to deepen for a moment before pulling back unhappily. "Why did I agree to this again? I thought we could celebrate in private?"

Hermione turned into his embrace fully, raising her hands over his shoulders and softly playing with the fine hairs at the base of his neck, pleased when he closed his eyes in pleasure at her simple touch.

"Well," she purred, "Mum and Dad are taking the twins with them for the weekend. So.."

Draco didn't wait for her to finish as he covered her mouth with his in a bruising kiss, a promise for later and groaned in anticipation.

As he pulled back, he growled lowly, "a whole weekend?"

"Yep," Her smile was positively sinful, "and wouldn't you know? I stopped by that store you love and picked up a few things for our alone time together."

Draco growled, grabbing her arse through her dress and giving it a punishing squeeze.

"Wicked witch! You expect me to play host all night knowing that?"

"Yep." Hermione winked as she disentangled herself and sashayed out of their children's room, putting an extra sway to her hips that had Draco licking his lips in anticipation of the weekend to come.

"I'm going to make you pay for that, witch!" His voice bellowed after her, but all he heard was her laughter as she replied back saucily...

"I can take on, whatever you can dish out—husband."

Draco grinned and chuckled deeply, shaking his head in amusement as he listened to their children babble happily. He picked them up one at a time and kissed them affectionately, and not for the first time—he felt his heart lighten at the joy these two little ones brought to his life.

He shivered for a second when he thought of what might've happened had he not had the courage to protect them, as he'd never been protected by his own parents. What their fate might've been had he made a different choice.

But the truth was, there had really been only one choice he could've made, and he didn't regret it for a second. He loved his family—and even the strange extended family he'd inherited when he'd married Hermione, wasn't entirely awful—even if he liked to tease Hermione over that fact. He was just immensely grateful to be given a chance to be a good husband, father and friend.

For all his faults and mistakes, he'd come out of his past a better...wiser person.

Maybe love—truly was the greatest Magic of all...