Close To You

by Wingardium Leviosa 11

Hermione and Draco have been happily married for three years, when suddenly Draco wakes up with no memory of their relationship or the last eight years of his life. Can they find a way to restore his memories? Can they forge a new relationship? A story about love, persistence, memory, and second chances. And maybe also about gardening. EWE, mostly canon-compliant.

1. Prologue

Author's Note: After an impossibly long hiatus, I'm back! I'm excited to write this story and I hope you enjoy it. It's a story about memory and second chances, but through flashbacks it's also a story about falling (and hopefully staying) in love. All credit goes to JKR for her unbeatable universe and characters.

Prologue

"Are you serious?" asked a mildly annoyed Hermione Granger as her husband took a giant lick of her chocolate soft serve. "You have your own, you know."

"Yes, but mine is strawberry," Draco responded.

"You chose strawberry!"

"At the time I thought I wanted strawberry, but now I want chocolate."

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"How old are you, again?"

"28, which means I need a lot of ice cream to keep me looking youthful," Draco responded, taking a giant bite out of her perfectly maintained dome of ice cream.

"You're lucky that I like strawberry," Hermione responded with a smirk, swapping their cones.

Peace was restored for a moment and Hermione leaned back in bliss. This was her favorite bench at her favorite soft-serve spot in her favorite park. And she was holding a cone of what happened to be her favorite flavor (she suspected Draco knew this) of soft-serve with her favorite person in the world.

This was joy. This was perfection. This was heaven.

"Nope, I want strawberry again," Draco announced, breaking the blissful silence.

Hermione rolled her eyes again and laughed as they swapped cones yet again, having never even managed to take a bite of the strawberry ice cream.

After they had finished, Draco took her hand and they strolled through the park back to the apparition point to head home.

How many times have we walked along this path? Hermione wondered to herself.

She took his hand that was holding hers and roped it around her waist, bringing them closer together.

Draco looked down with a grin and kissed her on the forehead.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you too," he replied, "even if you do steal my ice cream."

Hermione shot him a glare, but it didn't last long. The night was just too perfect; their life was just too perfect.

Too perfect.