Disclaimer: This one is old and everyone should know this by now... I don't even own me!
It was a night like many others. The moonlight lit the calm street, covering the many Victorian houses in a pale silver glow. As usual, at this time of the night, no lights could be seen in the horizon.
Albert Thompson, an old man that suffered of insomnia, could easily be the only who noticed the little girl, that every night rose from bed, climbed up a chair and through her bay window, stared at the moon.
Albert often wondered what such a young girl could be thinking about. From up in her rounded tower, Liv always seemed lost in thought. Her bright grey eyes, which resembled blue at the first glance, were usually her most enticing feature. Beautiful brown locks, just like her mother's, framed her graceful young face.
Albert noticed how Liv clung to her stuffed animal, as if trusting the grey bunny to protect her from all dangers. He saw in her the innocence that only a four years old child could muster. Only kids seemed to believe that the world could be a brighter place these days.
Liv and her small family lived in the number 23. The whole neighbourhood knew them as the Larcenet. Liv's parents had moved shortly after their marriage, earning the curiosity of the old inhabitants of the village. It's not everyday that a nineteen years old couple moves into a village in the middle of nowhere, right?
At the time, Nina and Derek Larcenet were the epitome of happiness. They were in love and everyone could see it. Every girl in the village wanted someone to look at them the way Derek looked at Nina. The couple used to sit together on their porch and share the same book or simply talk. They were always close to each other, didn't matter what they were doing.
Nina soon turned into the village's sweetheart. Her bright and outgoing nature quickly conquered the neighbours, both male and female. Small and slim, known for her deliciously smooth curves, Nina charmed with her ebony brown eyes, pearly white teeth and soft curls. Her hair was originally almost the same tone as her eyes, but had, over the years, obtained a honey shade to it. Her grace, class and strict morals were widely known and acknowledged.
Although more reserved and broody, Nina's husband, Derek, was handsome enough to rival Nina's beauty. His blond, almost white trends, that fell over his eyes in a messy manner, were, along with his rare light grey orbs, the apples of every woman's eyes. Tall and lean, he was a handsome young man with strong chest, shaped legs, silky jaw and broad shoulders. His skin, almost ghost-like, was one of his most attractive features: pale, but with a charming glow about it.
This flamboyant being was extremely intelligent, had a surprising quick wit and an undeniable curiosity.
Initially, Nina and Derek were involved in a certain aura of mystery. They didn't get out of the house, didn't bond with the new neighbours, but as the time passed, the couple seemed to loosen up and enjoy life. Nina and Derek brought a puff of fresh air into the small village, new blood. Which was kind of odd, seeing that they had come to the village exactly to run away from their blood.
Two blissful years after their arrival, Nina gave birth to their beautiful baby daughter, Liv. The newborn was incredibly close to her father. They shared a deep connection, one of those that make you wonder if they read each other's minds. Nina was an excellent mother and obviously proud of her husband and daughter's relationship.
The Larcenet family seemed perfect. Happy, polite, balanced and most of all, full of love. Liv was a happy toddler and a cheerful young girl. But that had been Albert's opinion. They seemed happy. As happy as anyone could be without spoiling it. Apparently, that was far from the truth. Around the time Liv completed three years old, Derek left.
No one could believe it. Derek Larcenet left his wife and daughter behind? Outrageous! Impossible! Derek loved Nina and Liv more than he loved life itself. He would die for those girls, everyone was sure of it.
But a full year had gone by and Derek hadn't returned. Nina tried to move on with her life, but it was evident that she was devastated. Then, five months after Derek's departure, a blond man in his fifties, tremendously similar to Derek, appeared on the door step, with a small package for Nina.
From that day on, Nina stopped crying. She faced life with head on, almost as if challenging it to try and crush her again; she was colder, stronger, emotionless. The only thing that brought a smile back to her face was Liv. Nina's grace and class were still there, present as ever, but now she lacked spark. The exact same spark that made her so unique, so loveable, so tender.
She was still a loving mother and no one could accuse her of mistreating her own daughter. She simply acted as if life had betrayed her, as if her smile had left her, just like Derek had.
Last weekend Albert had gone to the grocery shop to buy some butter and found Nina shopping too. While she paid for her groceries, an old lady approached her and asked: "How's life treating you dear?" Nina replied with a small sad smile, one of those that rip your heart, almost making you feel guilty for the good things you have. But the old lady didn't shudder. She smiled back, touched Nina's cheek and whispered: "Come on honey, you know Derek wouldn't like to see your face like this. He would say 'lighten up love' wouldn't he?"
Albert could see the effort Nina did to keep her tears in. The effort to keep her strong façade. More for her sake, to make herself believe it, than for the ones around her.
On that day, Albert was able to see the misery behind Nina's eyes. But if Nina was an adult and was suffering this much, only god knew what young Liv was going through right now, staring at the moon and clutching the stuffed rodent.
Liv was a light sleeper. She woke up at every sound, and sometimes she just couldn't sleep. This was one of those days or rather, nights. When she couldn't sleep, she would climb up the chair right near the window and watch the night sky. The stars, the moon, the deep dark blue that covered the horizon. The night made her think of her daddy: like her, he wasn't a heavy sleeper. Liv used to walk quietly to her parents' bedroom and shake her father lightly, to wake him up. He never got angry with her, like most people would. He usually picked her up, brought her to her room and sat with her on the very same chair she was sat now.
He would make up a story, or talk about life as if she was a grown up, just like him. He would speak calmly, with no worries, in a laid back voice so characteristic of him.
On those nights, he would talk about a beautiful dragon, the biggest dragon to ever walk the earth. He came from exotic places and belonged to an ancient family of serpents. The bright jewel on his forehead was said to cure all the diseases and maladies existent. It was a rare precious stone that could be all the colours of the rainbow, depending on the dragon's mood. But what fascinated Liv the most was that the dragon could fly. Liv would love to be able to fly. In the worlds her father talked about, everyone could fly, dragons were real and magic was much more than just a fidget of imagination. Magic was a reality: people had wands and could transport themselves from one place to the other, by focusing on the place they wanted to be in.
Daddy told her more than once that if she wanted the magic world to exist, she just had to believe in it. "It's just like fairies"- he told her once- "they just live while you believe in them. If you believe on something, that something exists, even if only in your heart." She remembered asking him: "Does god work like that too?" He smiled and tilting his head ever so slightly, shrugged: "I don't know bug. Believing in god is more your mom's thing. Personally, I prefer to believe in magic." With that, daddy had picked her up, laid her in her bed and told her to close her eyes. Sleep would come soon enough.
She missed him everyday, but mostly at night. He was a night owl, just like her. Mum was different, all rise and shine and that kind of happy feelings. Mum was an early bird.
Liv liked to sleep until late in the morning, roll in the bed, and enjoy the feeling of being half awake and half asleep. Those were the moments that made her mum secretly cry the most; the ones where Liv would resemble her father too much.
To be completely honest, she didn't remember much about him. His routine, his expressions or even his quirks, were things only her mother knew. Liv had only flashes of memory, moments they had spent together, that were carved into her soul.
For instance, she remembered the last time she spoke to him. Of that specific moment, she remembered everything: the way he smelled, the way he spoke, the sadness behind the eyes so much like her own.
He had come to tuck her in bed. He kissed her forehead, making her stir and wake up. Liv asked him if he could tell her a story. He sighed and replied: "No honey, not tonight." She knew something was wrong just from his answer: he never said no to a bed time story. Instead, he hugged her tightly and said: "Liv, no matter what happens, daddy loves you, ok?" Liv nodded. "I love you too daddy." She replied, hugging him back.
Smiling, he got up and kissing her forehead one more time, tucked her in and whispered: "Sleep tight bug."
She certainly hadn't come here for this. She hadn't run away from her life and all the things she knew and loved for this! Yes, she had her daughter with her and for that she would always be thankful to Derek… Gosh, Derek wasn't even his real name… Sometimes she just got caught up on the fantasy lives they had created as a cover.
She run away for an ideal, for the life she always dreamed of, for hope. They had run away from a world at war, where the dark was rising and their necks were at stake.
Sometime she wondered if she should have stayed and fought until the end. She wondered why she left… she was in love; maybe she saw no light at the end of the tunnel for the wizarding world , maybe she thought Harry and Ron were wasting too much time trying to protect her: she had become a liability for them.
She had found someone that could play that part, someone that would protect her against the rotten part of humankind. Someone she trusted her life with and offered her an opportunity to form a world of her own. Tempting in times like those, right?
Crazy as the idea seemed at first, they had moved to a muggle village in the middle of nothing, with new names and new pasts, and built a new life out of dust. They had made it work. She and Draco had succeeded in creating their own little world. A happy one, a perfect one up until he left.
Yes, it was a little rough at first. With the decision of abandoning the magic universe, also came abandoning magic. It had to be done; otherwise they would be located quite too quickly. Not that the ministry had a way of tracing their wands, but they were dealing with heavy dark magic that could locate magical beings anywhere in the world. For Draco the transition was harder: he had not lived a single day of his life without magic. Heck, if it was hard for her that had only known magic for about eight years, imagine for someone who has lived with it constantly for nineteen!
For her, the hard part was missing her friends, always wondering if they were alright or if they even missed her. Draco didn't have anyone to miss, not even a family. Like he constantly said, everything that mattered in the world to him was right by his side. She didn't have that luxury, but she managed, because for this crazy idea to work, she simply had to.
Six months after moving into their new home, things had fit naturally into their places. She got used to the distance, believing it was better for her friends to think she was gone, he got used to muggle life, step by step. In the end it didn't matter, they had each other.
The village they lived in warmed up to them, as they started to socialize with the neighbours and the local people. They were the village's bookshop best costumers; they went together to the grocery shop, to the small market and to the coffee shop. It was part of their routine to read together the book of the week sitting on the first step of their front porch; to set up the table while the other cooked dinner; to set the alarm to ring at seven a.m. for her to wake up, take a shower and make breakfast and then go back to their bedroom to wake up Mr. Sleepy Head; for him to set up a bath late at night for when she was really tired. It was them.
Money wasn't an issue: Draco had transferred almost half of his trust fund into a muggle bank account that would be enough for them to lead a comfortable life for many years to come. Everyone knew that everything the Malfoy family did had to be in a big size, especially a trust fund. She worked at the pharmacy for pleasure, to keep herself busy during the day. Draco did a few investments in the stocking market from his laptop, but that was about it. Only god knew where he had learned so much about muggle economy and she wasn't sure she wanted to know.
Two years after, Liv was born and they got everything: a good life, a great love and a family. Draco was beyond happy with the news of a newborn and quite frankly, so was she. They were up to the challenge, they would be great parents.
Draco surpassed greatly all her wildest expectations: he had a connection with Liv no one would be able to break. They seemed to think similarly, to have the same look of contemplation about them when staring at something. Father and daughter shared their own little world, but she wasn't jealous like she thought she would be… she was just happy for it. It wasn't as if Liv didn't love her mother, on the contraire: like all the newborns she wanted to share her mother's love and comfort and be as close to her as she could.
Her and Draco's relationship hadn't changed with Liv's arrival, it had just gotten stronger and closer. When things were so perfect, why did he have to play dumb and leave?
With no apparent reason, he packed up in the middle of the night and left without even saying goodbye. He woke her up at around 3 a.m. with a hungry look in his eyes, ready for a great shag. She complied enthusiastically like she always did, despite of the hour. He did this all the time when he had trouble sleeping; it was just another one of their quirky habits, which she loved and couldn't live without. What she never expected was to wake to an empty bed and no Draco at all.
Her first reaction when she realised he wasn't home was to check up on Liv and released a breath she didn't know she was holding when she saw her baby daughter sleeping quietly in her bed.
If it had been almost unbearable to deal with Dracos's disappearance, she didn't even want to think how she would survive without Liv.
Deal with it. She had tried to for a long year… but five years of waking up to the same person every day and mostly when that person is someone you love so much you would give the world to have them by your side, it's not so easy to just deal with it. You don't forget a marriage that easily.
What you can do, is hold the pain inside so your daughter won't see it; promise yourself you'll never let someone get close enough to hurt you this much ever again. You can vow to yourself that you won't forgive him even if he comes crawling back home begging for you to take him back.
Somehow Lucius had found her, and gave her a letter from Draco. Lucius told her he had made an unbreakable vow with Draco so he could never tell anyone about herself or Liv or even try to hurt them. She closed the door on his face and buried the letter under a stash of papers inside a box in her closet. She never opened it and promised herself not to. She didn't want to hear anything he had to say. She didn't want to hurt anymore.
But she had to be strong. Because legally she was Hermione Malfoy, but the Hermione Granger in her would never succumb to a man. Especially not Draco Malfoy.
"Are you coming to bed Hermione?" Draco asked loudly from the bedroom.
"I'm trying to, but I cannot untangle the knots in my hair for the life of me! Gosh, sometimes I miss my wand so much… It's so much easier to use a spell than a brush!" Hermione wined back, while trying to untangle a strand especially hard to reach. Draco walked into the bathroom clad only in his boxers and with an innocent smirk motioned for her to hand him the brush.
"Really?" Hermione asked hopefully, handing him the black object "If you solve this mess you'll so be my favourite guy in the world!"
"I think it's useless to say I'm already your favourite guy, doesn't matter what I do." Draco replied with a slight smile. Grabbing a handful of her soft curls, he diligently began to untangle the knots, doing his best not pull her hair too much.
"Let's put it this way… I might make it worth your while…" Hermione leaned her body against him, to prove the point about making him happy.
"No need for seduction you little minx. You know I'll do anything you ask me to."
Hermione smiled mischievously: "Anything?"
"Well," he sighed dramatically "as long as you don't cross my limits… I won't eat raw fish, not even for you."
Hermione snorted loudly with laughter: "I tried to make you eat sushi once Draco. I don't see why you keep bring it up as if it was the most painful experience of your life!"
Draco contorted his face in disgust just at the thought of the disgusting dish she seemed to enjoy so much. "Because it was! I can't even fanthom why someone would eat that for pleasure…"
"I'll have you know that it's quite popular among muggles!" She replied with a huff.
"Yeah" he complied "muggles have the tendency of liking yucky thinks. For instance, you parents like you. You're pretty yucky."
Grabbing her hair in a messy bun with one hand he swiftly dropped kisses along the back of her neck. Letting out a soft moan as a response to his caresses, Hermione slowly turned around to face him.
"You know, if I'm really that yucky, I might reconsider that thing about making it worth your while… I might even ask you to sleep out of my bed so you don't have to deal with my yuckyness!" She replied in a mock sweet tone. With a quick movement she pecked Draco's lips and skipped away from the bathroom, laughing loudly as he tried to grab her and missed.
He called after her, with mischief in his eyes: "Nina, you know I'm gonna catch you!"
Hermione smiled at her pet name and quietly replied: "Do your best honey…"
Cries of laughter could be heard in the corridors as Draco chased and finally caught Hermione, drawing her in for a deep kiss. With a happy sight she circled her hands around his neck and he lifted her up and threw Hermione in the bed, soon joining her and peppering her face with kisses. She kissed him back, hoping that things between them didn't ever change.
Draco woke up with a feeling of dreading: he wanted to sleep again, to have her back in his arms. To relive one of their millions of moments together, just like the one he had dreamed of. But he couldn't go back, now he was once again one of Voldemort's men. But this time, he was doing it for his family.
How he wished to see his girls again.
Author Note: So, this is my new story and the first one I publish in the Potterverse. I love Draco and Hermione so I wanted to write something different with them. The plot is going to get thicker in the next chapters and the rating is going up, but right now I want to know if you liked this and if you think it should go on.
Ask questions and give opinions: review!
Take care
Joana