Warnings:

Infidelity. On both sides.

Sexual situations (not that graphic). I rated this M because the rating system is so iffy, but if you're old enough to be called a teenager, you can deal with this. I was reading stuff much hotter when I was thirteen... *clears throat* Never mind, read on...

Profanity (yeah, right. Even a twelve-year-old wouldn't need a warning for this one. But, yeah. This fic has a 100% chance of dropping a few F-bombs.).

Updates: Will be updated twice a week, at least. There are thirteen chapters, total, of varying lengths (they're all fairly short-ish). The end product will probably be slightly over 10k words. The first ten chapters are written.

Note: This was such a spur-of-the-moment thing. I wrote it in a couple of days (nights). I needed to get some Dramione out of my system.

Public Enemy Number One

They would probably never know how exactly it happened, that first time. They would never be able to explain it to anyone else – hell, they would never even try. But there they were, snogging the life out of each other in the Room of Requirement. And she was loving every second of it.

Later on, she would think back to that first time and wonder about it. She would put it down to the fact that she hadn't seen Ron in months, because he had started training to be an Auror and she had come back to Hogwarts to pass her N.E.W.T.s, and that their relationship had waxed and waned in the few, crazy, nightmarish hours of the Final Battle. A single kiss had begun it all, and then Fred had died and Ron had changed and she had become unable to coax him into a conversation, let alone a relationship. She would put it down to the fact that Malfoy had also changed, but in the opposite way, in the same way she had; a change that had hollowed him out and left him broody and guilt-racked, but also, somehow, stronger and more mature. She would put it down to the fact that Malfoy was there, that they had become study partners, then almost friends, and that only he knew how to break into the Room of Requirement when she was in there, looking for some time alone. She would put it down to the party she'd just left, celebrating their last night at Hogwarts before they left forever. She would put it down to Malfoy's grin and the taste of alcohol on his breath and the feel of his hair between her fingers – but by the time she had noticed all that, it was too late, and she'd been had.

Now, though, she focused on the moment. And the moment was crazy. It was insane. It was fiery and passionate and everything she'd always dreamt of. When his hands slid underneath her shirt, alarm bells did not ring off in her head. Instead, she closed her eyes and drew him closer still, until their bodies were touching in every imaginable way. She tugged his own shirt over his head, breaking the kiss for a few seconds before his lips came crashing back onto hers, hard, fierce, hot.

It lasted a few more minutes, until he raised his arms, which had been wrapped around her waist or touching her breasts, to lightly brush her cheek with his thumb. She opened her eyes, and saw a flash of black out of the corner of her eye.

She stopped abruptly and stepped back.

"Wha – " He followed her gaze. "Oh."

"Oh," she agreed.

She tried not to stare, but found she was unable to. The pale flesh of the inside of his left forearm was branded with a black skull and a snake. The Dark Mark grinned up at her, making her stomach churn. She suddenly felt ill.

"Malfoy –"

"It's all right," he cut in. "I understand."

"No, wait. Let me –"

"Have a nice summer, Granger."

"Malfoy," she said, exasperated, reaching out to catch his arm as he turned to leave. "Shut up."

And he did, and Hermione was so surprised she just stood there, staring at him. It took her a minute to collect her thoughts.

"I didn't believe Harry," she said, "when he kept insisting, in sixth year, that you were a Death Eater."

Draco snorted. "For once Potter had something right. Why didn't you believe him?"

"You just... didn't seem the type."

He arched an eyebrow at her. How he managed to look so calm, so completely in control of the situation, even though he'd just come out of a snog and was shirtless, was beyond Hermione.

"I never..." She looked for the right words. "I never thought you were cruel. Misguided, yes, and prejudiced, and unpleasant, and arrogant, but not cruel. I thought about what Death Eaters did and I didn't think you were capable of it. Even when Harry told us you'd tried to kill Dumbledore, I didn't think..." She looked at him. "I always knew you hated me and my blood, but I never thought you hated it that much. Not enough to take the Mark."

"Your blood isn't dirty."

The words fell from his lips quickly, naturally, and from the look on his face, he was as surprised as she was that he had let them slip.

"I know that," she said.

"Well, I didn't," he said; now that he had begun, he seemed unable to stop. "I used to believe... Well, you know what I used to believe. But I've seen your blood."

She flinched at the memory. Bellatrix, above her, slicing through her skin with her wand... The Cruciatus Curse, over and over again, until she thought she would rather die than take it one more time... Bellatrix's questions... The frightened look in Malfoy's eyes...

"I've seen your blood, and it wasn't dirty," Malfoy said, bringing her back to the present. "It was red like mine. And I..." He seemed lost for words for a second. "I never wanted her to torture you," he said finally. "I swear, all I was thinking at the time was stop, stop, stop." He met her gaze, and his eyes were wide. "Your blood isn't dirty. But mine is. I'm the one who's branded. Tainted. And my family..."

He shivered, then stopped. He was still looking at her, his grey eyes boring into her. On an impulse, she leaned in and kissed him lightly on the cheek. Somehow, her lips brushing against his cheek felt more personal, more intimate than what they had just done.

"We're good, Malfoy," she said. "That's all in the past. All right?"

The moment was broken, but she had to tell him – he had to know – that she forgave him.

He raised two fingers to his cheek, and the smallest of smiles tugged the corners of his lips upward. "All right, Granger."

Malfoy married Astoria Greengrass three months later. At around the same time, she got engaged to Ron.

And that should have been that, but it wasn't. It was just the beginning.

Next chapter will be up in a couple of hours.