It was the way she had narrowed her eyes at him, suspicious of his intentions, but eventually deciding to let bygones be bygones despite her uncertainty. It was the way her small hand felt in his large one, how trust had been built slowly but how they had both fallen so quickly.
It was the way her eyes flashed with emotion when she defended him, anger at those who dared to question her judgment, loyalty and determination when she reminded him to hold his head up like the changed man he was, until he believed her.
It was the way her laughter brought down his mask and pierced through his defences, until he had simply forgotten why he had ever needed them in the first place. How she stepped into his flat one afternoon and never left, but mostly how that never bothered him and made everything better instead.
It was the way she sat curled up on the sofa with a book, lost in a sea of cushions with an intense look of concentration on her face, though he was long past his early moments of frustration at the effort it took to get her attention. In those quiet moments spent watching her beautiful face, the word love first crept into his mind.
It was the way she smiled first thing in the morning, with the sunlight streaming in through the curtains and onto her face. With her eyes still closed she would stretch the sleep out of her limbs while she wrapped herself around him and how in one of those moments he knew he could never let her go.
It was the way she looked at him on their wedding day and every day after, as though he was the only person there, like the world could end around them and she would be happy to continue gazing into his eyes forever.
It was the way she loved their children, with hugs and kisses and soothing words. The way storybooks came to life when she read to them and their tears turned to laughter because of a mother's magic touch. How her eyes had filled with tears putting them on the train the first time but also the last one.
"Dad?"
Leo was looking up at him, slightly confused by his long silence.
"I'm sorry, son. I got distracted by a memory or two."
"But I really need your help! There must have been a way you knew mum was the girl for you. How do you know when you've found the right one?"
Draco looked lovingly at his youngest son, still unsure how to answer his question. At seventeen, he was so full of the optimism and energy of youth. Of his siblings, he had always been the one full of impossible questions with nearly impossible answers.
"It isn't really one thing, son. Maybe, by the time you know for sure, you're in so deep that you've forgotten there was life before you loved them."
"How did you and mum get so lucky then?" Leo asked with wonder.
Draco paused. He certainly had been lucky. He had always believed Hermione was beyond his reach until she was suddenly his. What had possessed him to ask her out for coffee on that first morning? Smiling, he realised he finally had an answer for his son.
"I took a chance."