Disclaimer: I lay no claim on Harry Potter...but within the Mirror of Erised, I do.

~ Begin Again ~


"He's shut down compassion — how else would you become a Death Eater? So he suppresses virtually all of the good side of himself..." - JKR


Draco Malfoy remembered the first time he saw her again after the war.

He winced as he met Granger's, err, Weasley's glare. The woman's hands were firmly crossed, her face mused up with her lips tight. He stood detachedly on her front door, the glass opening keeping them apart.

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?"

Before he could answer, Ron came to the rescue. The red head gave Draco a sheepish apologetic glance as he explained to a suddenly understanding and a bit apologetic Hermione. Ron had forgotten to tell Hermione about Draco coming over for dinner to discuss over a case.

They needed Hermione's input, but she was too busy in her department so Ron had suggested the day earlier to come over. Hermione apologized to Draco, but her eyes were still cautious and untrusting even as she welcomed him into her home.

When Ron told her to relax, Hermione turned concern eyes to her husband, her face faltering a bit to let out a smile at him. Draco's eyes watched the transformation and sighed inside. Hermione did not hate him, but she certainly would never smile at him like that.

That had been the first time he saw her after the defeat of the Dark Lo—Voldemort (it was just Voldemort now). It was also the last time Ron Weasley was on speaking terms with him. The case was closed with Hermione's help and Weasley never spoke to him again. The next time Ron even acknowledged his presence was at the platform.

Seeing them again at the place where it all started brought back painful, if not awful, memories. He did not blame the Potters or the Weasleys for acting so cold, as if years of working alongside Ron or Harry as aurors, never existed. Well, he had been more of a desk worker as no one would trust a Malfoy...so he stuck to his hobbies at collecting dark artifacts and studying alchemical manuscripts. While he didn't use the artifacts (he kept them in glass cases), it was something to do that kept him useful on the force that tracked and captured dark wizards and dark artifacts.

However, after that day, Draco set out to bury old demons. The only problem he had was Hermione, who found it hard to trust his sincerity.

Hermione Weasley was stubborn as she was beautiful. She grew into her looks, her figure curving into slender hips and her wavy uncontrollable hair being tamed to a mass of waves. It was insane how much one noticed if one just…looked. And Draco looked. He did not even notice that he looked, but he did. He never wanted for things to have gone as far as they had…he really didn't. He just wanted to make up for his past.

It started out as guilt. Seeing the Golden Trio five years ago on September 1, 2017 brought back remorse and memories. Waving goodbye to his son that day and watching him board the train to Hogwarts, Draco reflected upon his relationship with the three saviors of the Light. He knew his son was going to suffer for their family crimes.

That day as he walked away with his wife, he knew he needed to make corrections. He decided then to amend the relationships between the Malfoys and the Weasleys and Potters. It was easier than he had thought though. Almost. The irony was not loss on Draco that becoming friends with Potter and Weasley was easier than with the brains of the trio.

Astoria watched Draco, her eyes solemn. She knew that Draco was dreading this day for their son, his concern having been voice for the past year as they slept next to each other. She saw something else on his face then, though. She loved Draco for his ability to change and adapt to change. This was the man she came to love.

She laid a gentle hand on his shoulder, startling him to turn away from his thoughts. There was something else in his eyes though as he turned to her. A plan.

"What are you thinking," she asked him as Draco took her by the arm and turned them to leave the platform.

His eyes stared ahead. The concern and fear she had seen on his face as they waved goodbye to Scorpius was replaced with a sudden determination. His gray eyes were suddenly alive, a spark of a fire in it.

"I think it's time that the Malfoys make up with the Weasleys and Potters," Draco said monotonically.

Astoria stared at him in shock. You would think he was talking about the weather.

"How," Astoria questioned lightly.

She knew the plan was already forming and coming alive in his head. Draco's eyes glinted as he turned to her. His lips were unmoving, the face giving away no emotion except for his eyes.

"Don't worry about it, love," he murmured before sideways apparating with her.

Astoria could not help but worry for her husband though. She knew he was uncomfortable with facing the Trio. Draco felt Astoria's concern for him, but this was something he had to do. Not for his guilt or his crimes, but for his son and the next generations of Malfoys.

With Ron, they were not chums. In fact, they were only on speaking terms when they had been partnered up for certain cases. They hunted down followers of the Dark Lord when Ron was an auror, with Weasley being the brawn and Malfoy the brains behind a desk doing research. The few times he was trusted to be out on the field, he had saved Weasley's life and Weasley's saved his. Ron left his position as an auror to run the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes in 2012 with George. Draco continued.

With Potter, he had created a slow friendship over the past decade. Draco worked pretty close with Potter when the golden hero was promoted to Head Auror in 2007. In fact, because of Ron's absence from 2012 and onward, Draco had worked alongside Harry as his replacement. It didn't mean they were on speaking terms. No, Potter and he were polite.

However, that did not stop him from trying to reconcile after that day in September of 2017, meaning he had to make the extra effort in contacting Potter.

Through those contacts, meetings, getting together, talking about Quidditch, and about their children at Hogwarts (Albus and Scorpius were friendly rivals, their stories of getting in trouble together made both of their fathers laugh) and eventually led Draco and his family to being invited to family gatherings.

It was not easy.

In fact, Charlie and Bill were still very indifferent to him. Author and Molly Weasley were more welcoming, but Molly took longer, being more hostile towards Draco. However, after seeing him save Harry first hand and then sacrificing himself for Harry (he was in St. Mungo's for a month due to that curse he took for Potter that cold winter of 2019), she's turned into a doting mother.

When Lucius heard about his son's crazy plan and new "friends," he was angered, but in the end accepted it because it raised the Malfoy name to better standing. "Draco Malfoy saves the Golden Hero" or "Malfoy seen at Potter and Weasley Gathering!" headlines certainly made the Malfoy's look good.

Narcissa Malfoy was also very accepting, still feeling grateful to Potter for saving the Malfoys from trial when he pardoned them, explaining Narcissa's part in his defeat of Voldemort. Astoria supported him the whole time, her understanding and compassion keeping him hopeful for the future.

Astoria Malfoy, formerly Greengrass, was his best friend.

Draco loved her. She stood by him and called him out when he was being an irrational stubborn Malfoy. Draco could not have asked for a better wife for the Malfoy line. However, he was not in love with her.

Astoria knew this.

She knew this from his distant answers and vague replies at some of the topics such as his part in Dumbledore's death. She knew only of what Narcissa told her and of what she heard from others like Blaize Zabini and her brother-in-law, Theodore Nott. Draco at times felt guilty for these distant emotions, but he cannot change them.

His and Astoria's marriage was an arranged marriage, a desperate attempt by Lucius Malfoy to become part of the Greengrass inner circle. The Greengrass were smart enough to not choose sides during the First and Second War, leaving them rich and well respected in the community. The Greengrass only accepted the arrange marriage because Narcissa Malfoy was good friends with Astoria's mother and the betrothal had occurred before the Second War began.

Draco Malfoy was a changed man after the war though. He had to grow up. When he pointed his wand to Dumbledore, he finally understood what insanity was and the day he saw people he grew up with dying around him, he understood how wrong his whole life had become.

He learned what despair truly was when he realized there was no escape from the Dark Lord's clutches, that he could not leave his family behind, that he was coward, and that he had no way to out of the hole he and his family dug for themselves. Helplessness. Despair. Death. That was the war for him. A war he had chosen.

Astoria Greengrass, when they met for the first time after the war to finalize the engagement, was shocked at the changed Draco.

She used to hate him for his arrogance, thinking him too spoilt and mean. She always thought him cowardly, more bark than bite. The man before her was not that boy however and she eventually fell in love with who he became after the adversities of war. They became friends, lovers, and parents together. Draco considered her his best friend besides Theodore Nott and Blaize Zabini. The three of them helped him change and mature. They reminded him that he was no longer the boy he used to be.

It was their support that he was able to overcome the hatred of the Wizardry community and the hostile press and media. It was because the companionship and understanding he gained from them that he was able to grow up and befriend the Golden Trio…and it was because of them that he lived for three years in a sham of a marriage, staying faithful to a woman he felt indebted to while loving another.

Draco Malfoy fell in love with Hermione Weasley Granger.

He's been in love with her for the past three years. Like Potter, working alongside her didn't lead to a friendship. It was only with his extra effort with Potter that Hermione began to trust him and then…well, the story continues.

It's now 2023 and he still has no idea where he began to like her.

In 2019, after recovering from the curse, Draco transferred to Hermione's department, having been recommended there by Harry himself. Draco's plan had been to reconcile, to put away old demons, to pave a better path for Scorpius. It was not for Draco to fall in love with Hermione Weasley née Granger.

Somehow, along the four years of working with her, Draco found himself laughing at her wry sense of humor. After sending Scorpius off for his second and third times at the platform, Draco found himself searching her out each time, hoping to tease her about how Scorpius will beat Rose this year academically.

At work, he found himself teasing her over everything she did. Somehow, his dreams began to be filled with brown untameable wavy hair instead of the silk dark hair of the woman who slept next to him every night. Somehow, he fell in love with the girl he was taught to hate all those years ago.

Hermione though, has been in love with Draco Malfoy for only two of those four years, but she has considered him her best friend for three years (Alongside Harry, Ron, Ginny, Neville, and Luna. She didn't have many outside of them). She never hated him to begin with. She pitied him more than hate, but she certainly did not like him.

When they first began working together in 2019, she was skeptical and mistrusting of him. However, after seeing Harry invite him to a family gathering and spending a couple of non-biased moments with him, she began to see the man Draco had become instead of the boy he had been. She even found herself laughing at his wit.

However, one day, maybe it was after the revelation of their love for books, knowledge, and history…or after the time she had convinced him to take the muggle bus in the rain with her or when he had given her the surprising present of the rare bookRemaros: the Truth of Merlin…that she found herself falling for him.

"We're not allowed to portkey, apparate, floo powder, or even fly to this place," Draco exclaimed in horrified shock.

Hermione found herself laughing over his predicament. Draco Malfoy was so useless without magic. She shook her head at him as they walked side by side each other on the muggle street. The two of them, since she became head of the department, worked close together.

Draco was placed in the position directly beneath her, Harry nominating Draco to the spot (which basically won him the spot because Harry-Freaking-Savior-Potter had recommended him). Draco glared at her when he noticed her amusement over his sudden induce helplessness at the situation at hand.

"Malfoy, it's not the end of the world," she began, but he cut her off quickly, his eyes continuing to glare at her.

"If you have not noticed Granger, we have no way of getting these papers signed by the President of the Magical Creatures Sanctions, if we cannot even reach her!"

Hermione suppressed her laughter and laid an gentle arm on his shoulder when he only continued to rant about stupid vacation time. Draco felt her suddenly warm touch, her fingers clasping onto his shirt. They were both wearing jeans, their muggle attire blending them in perfectly to the people around them in the middle of muggle London.

However, at that moment, they were very noticeable. The two had suddenly stopped mid way, their bodies facing each other. Hermione felt the shock of warmth at her hand touching his shoulders.

Draco stared down at her hand, swallowing down the sudden lump in his throat before quickly moving away. He watched as her hand fall away from his body. He felt the tingle of shiver run down his back. He fought back the urge to touch her back in return.

Hermione's eyes furrowed together, lips pursed at his behavior and her own. She hated how she could not touch Malfoy anymore without feeling this dratted confused emotional response from her own body. She cleared her throat and looked away from him. As she turned her eyes away, they caught something red. A muggle bus! Turning back to Draco and forcing a smile, waving her hand in the air as if to wave away the suddenly awkward moment.

"I have an idea," she said with a sudden smile.

Draco snapped his head up, his eyes narrowed in suspicious. He knew that tone and he knew he was not going to like it…

Those were his exact thoughts as he sighed out loud. Hermione was standing next to him as they both squeezed into the bus with other muggles. The only reason why Draco kept his mouth shut was because Hermione was enjoying herself so much on the bus.

Draco cursed himself as he felt his body respond to her closeness and prayed for the bus ride to hurry up. Hermione was oblivious to his discomfort as she chatted with the muggles around her. However, she truly enjoyed the bus only because she got to see the dejected look on Draco's face.

After that day, things changed. She found herself searching for him whenever he was not around.

One day, she found herself staying at the Ministry longer than necessary, just working alongside or reading next to Draco. One day, she found herself just smiling back at his smiles and actually enjoying their daily banter on anything and everything. One day, she began to fall asleep with his names on her lips instead of the man sleeping next to her. One day, at the age of 41, she fell in love with the man who introduced the unsavory prejudiced world of magic to her.

She's 43 now and she was still in love with that man.

They've never acted upon those feelings. There were moments though, close contacts where their breaths met and where her eyes closed as he lowered his face or where his eyes watched her lips, neck, and fingers. Their hands would accidentally skim each other's shoulder, waist, or hand.

There had been looks and desire, but he never touched her in that way. Their hugs were reluctant and quick, their touches even faster. They felt the fire igniting within them from those small moments of contact, invisible moments of flesh to flesh, but they've never acted upon it.

The tension between them was high. Sometimes Draco was tempted to close that distance between their lips or the small gap between their fingers or just snatch her and hold her, but he remembered Astoria…and she remembered Ron. She remembered Rose and Hugo; he remembered Scorpius; their spouses and their children…their families.

Hermione returned home to Ron and Draco to Astoria. They were suddenly sleeping in separate beds from their spouses. Draco and Astoria no longer talked as frequently, Draco closing himself in his study or hanging out at the office with Hermione. Hermione slept in Rose's room, her nights at the ministry turning longer and longer. She and Ron fought constantly now over the smallest things. When Draco and Hermione sent off Rose and Scorpius for their fifth year, they realized they were living a lie.

It was their children that they lied to the most though. Scorpius was too busy over summer breaks, hanging out with the Zabinis and Notts. Rose and Hugo were the same. Whenever they were home though, their families ate dinner together and their parents acted the loving couple. They saw nothing wrong. Ron didn't want his children worrying and Astoria made sure Scorpius knew nothing about the new dynamic of his parent's relationship.

Hermione and Draco continued though. They knew in their hearts that they loved their spouses. They also knew they were in love with the wrong person, Hermione being driven with guilt at falling out of love with her own husband and then back in love with a married man. They were in their early forties, too old to find new love, too old to let everything they've ever known go.

Hermione loved Ron. In truth though, if Hermione admitted it to herself, she married Ron not because of love, but because of their great friendship and the idea that everyone put in her head. Ron was supposed to be her soul mate, her best mate.

They were meant for each other and they balanced each other. She was so used to the idea, having liked him since their third year, that she followed along with what everyone else believed. What she had once believed.

So falling in love with Draco Malfoy had been a shock. She had been in denial…and so had he.

They fought their feelings for each other, even if not each other. They stayed faithful to their vows and played the part. They avoided physical contact and intimacy, but emotionally, they became even more attached. The lie continued and the picture perfect families continued. The Malfoys were happy together, the Weasley and the golden couple were happy. That was how it was…until that night.

It all changed when Hermione came home to discover Ron with another woman in their bed. When she tried to leave, Ron followed her. They argued and accusations were thrown.

Ron Weasley quickly donned on a pair of boxers, his legs barely in the holes before he reached desperately for Hermione's hand. Tears fell from her eyes, the pain in her chest ripping her heart apart as she tried to yank her hand away from him.

She closed her eyes against the image of Ron grunting and moaning as the blonde beneath him yelled out his name. She could still smell the stench of sex in the room. It clung to him like a second layer.

"'Mione, wait," Ron said quickly, the words stumbling on his tongue, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean—"

"You didn't mean what Ronald?" Hermione finally yanked herself away, stumbling slightly in her anguish. Her whole body shook and her fingers trembled as she covered her mouth as if they could stop the broken sobs.

Ron looked at her with apologetic eyes. His hair was all over the place. It was messy from being pulled at by the other woman, her lipstick covering his neck. Hermione could see hickeys on his shoulder blades, the muscle flexing with each harsh breath he took. His toned torso was falling up and down with his frantic heart beats as he once again tried to reach for her.

"Hermione, this was only one time," he began, but she cut him off.

"One time? Once is enough! In fact, you cannot excuse this Ron," Hermione said between sobs.

Ron clenched and unclenched his fingers. "What do you want me to say? I thought you weren't going to be home today."

"It shouldn't matter if I am home or not, Ronald." Hermione's eyes flashed with anger.

Ron opened his mouth to apologize again when he caught sight of the bag by the couch. His eyes turned hard as he saw the insigma. An M with a silver snake wrapped around its base.

"You were with Malfoy again?"

Hermione stared at him in shock, her eyes growing wide. "Don't you dare bring Draco into this!"

"So it's Draco now," Ron snared as he went over to snatch the bag.

Hermione flew forward then, trying to take the bag back, but Ron was stronger. He snatched it away from her, causing her to stagger backwards as he pushed her hands away. Ron reached in and took out her blue sweater, a sweater she'd received at Christmas that year from Ginny at her latest attempt to knit. Ron's fingers clenched as he stared at the misshapen sweater.

"I thought you lost this sweater," he said between seethed teeth.

Anger seeped into him, blackening his eyes. He could not look at her. His mind became clouded with thoughts and images even as Hermione spoke out quickly, trying to explain. He heard through a muffled white noise, his thoughts drowned into images of his worse fear.

"I did lose it! I left it at the office one night and Draco had taken it home to return to me in the morning, but he forgot! I thought it was lost!"

In fact, when he had given it back to her, they had laughed over his forgetfulness. Draco had endured Hermione's teasing of his good looks but no brains and Draco had returned with a snarky response of her sweater smelling so bad that he thought it was only trash. Right then though, she was crying as Ron threw the bag away and grabbed her arms.

For once in her life, Hermione was scared of Ron. He towered over her then, his grasp tightening to the point of pain. He ignored her cries though as he suddenly backed her up.

"He just found it, huh!" He shook the sweater in her face. "Or did you leave it at his home! You accuse me of cheating when you've probably been shagging Malfoy behind my back for the past two years!"

He shook her then, her smaller body like a doll in his hands. Hermione tried to stop him, but his grip only tightened. The wand in her back pocket burned into her skin. Her fingers tempted to reach for them, but Ron's now taken hold of both of her arms, sweater lying forgotten by their feet.

"Is that why you don't share a bed with me anymore?! Why you don't even let me touch you!? Are you shagging that arse!? Blimey, Hermione, he tried to kill you and he stood by as Bellatrix tortured you! Bloody hell, he probably partook in it! Why would you lower yourself to whoring for someone like that!"

Hermione snapped then, her eyes focusing on him. She knew she deserved Ron's accusations at their empty marriage bed and the lie that they were living. She knew she hurt him whenever she turned him away or only responded lightly to his kisses. She knew he wanted her to come to bed at night, but she just couldn't. She couldn't lie to herself like that. She could not lie to Ron like that. Her body could not lie to Ron.

However, she did not deserve this.

She never cheated on Ron with Draco. They've never even kissed! She did not deserve to be yelled at and accused of having an affair and for being a whore! ESPECIALLY when Ron was still only in his boxers, bedroom door still ajar to see the hair of the blonde as she waited for Ron to return. She could take anything, but that AND the accusation Ron was throwing at Draco.

Draco hated his past, hated who he had been. He told her about their sixth year and his fear and misery. He told her about crying in the girls' bathroom to a ghost and how terrifying it was to try and protect his family and himself from a mad man. He had even cried as he described to her how Dumbledore died and how he felt when he realized how many people died from the war.

What broke her though, was that Ron could accuse Draco with such animosity at what his aunt did to her. Draco cried when he talked about the death of fellow peers and their headmaster, but Draco had broken down when he recalled what happened to her.

She knew that day by heart, remembered the pain and the humiliation that Bellatrix had been able to make her beg for her life. She used to have nightmares about it, waking up with Ron or waking up alone to that maniac's laughter.

That was, until Draco. Draco's confession to her killed those nightmares. Instead, her nightmares became of him; Draco Malfoy crying, his whole body shaken with his sobs as he apologized to her and begged for her forgiveness. Her nightmares became of him leaving her because he could not forgive himself.

Draco Malfoy hated his past. For Ron to stand there and attack Draco, bringing up a memory that she knew Draco loathed and still blamed himself for, snapped her. Anger coursed through her veins then. Ron felt the change in her, but he ignored it and instead backed her right into the wall.

"You don't even know Draco, Ron. Leave him alone! This is our quarrel, not his!"

Ron ignored her. "Blimey, Hermione, it'll kill you to realize that the man has a wife and a son! That you have a husband and two children! Do you know how crazy it drives me that you spend more time with that git than with your own husband! Even when you're home, it's 'Draco this' or 'Draco that'!"

"Jealously!? You slept with another woman because you were jealous?!" Hermione began kicking, trying to loosen his hold so she could reach for her wand, but Ron stopped her by closing in on her, his body pushing her up into the wall. "If you were jealous, why didn't you say anything! You said you were fine with me staying at the office! That you were happy I was doing what I loved! Why did you do this of all things! You never think Ronald!"

"I never think? Do you think I'm so dumb that I do not notice all of those looks Malfoy gives you!?" Ron shook her harder, her head snapping back and hitting the wall. Hermione felt as her vision blurred, but Ron continued yelling into her face. "You think I like knowing that Malfoy spends more time with my wife than I do!? Draco fucking Malfoy of all people!"

"Don't you dare take this out on him," Hermione yelled back, her anger finally coming out fully. "Draco's changed, Ron, unlike you! You still hurt everyone when you're hurt! Instead of talking to me like a rationale person, you try to get attention by hurting me! You went out with Lavender Brown, snogging her in front of me without a care, you got mad at any boy who noticed me and got my attention away from you! You made fun of me because I bested you in class our first year! You left Harry during our fourth year, and abandoned Harry and I when we needed you the most when we were hunting horcruxes!"

They've only spoke about it once, Ron apologizing for leaving and Hermione letting it go because he came back in the end…but Hermione still remembered the pain and the emotions of chasing him that night to only have him leave her anyways. She blinked back the memories and breathed out heavily.

"Now you sleep with another woman because I don't spend enough time with you! You're a father now! Grow up Ronald Weasley! If Draco Malfoy could, so can you!"

Ron's eyes turned red then.

"Grow up," Ron snared. "You want me to grow up!? Like Draco Malfoy?!"

His fists clenched then. He felt his body shake and his felt as his hands raised themselves. He wanted to punch something, hurt someone. He was better than Draco Malfoy. He chose the right path, followed the Light! He wasn't perfect, but he was better than Malfoy any day!

He felt as his hands flew forward then and that was when everything changed. He regretted it instantly. He regretted it when he felt her soft flesh against his hard knuckles. He wished more than anything then, that he could stop time and stop the laws of muggle gravity.

Stop that flesh from hitting flesh or the sudden crunch of her nose or the wetness of the suddenly red liquid on his hand. He felt as his punch landed on her, felt as her head flew backwards, and heard the loud crunch as the back of her skull crashed into the wall.

He meant to hit the wall by her head, hit the corner he's backed her into, the corner he felt he had been shoved into with her in their marriage. He just wanted to show how angry and upset he was, that all his fury was a result of his love.

He loved her so much and hated how their marriage had become so empty.

He was angry at himself for not talking to her beforehand and keeping quiet, saying nothing until finally he found himself burying his grieving body into that faceless woman. He was angry at himself for doing something as appalling as touch another woman when all he wanted was her.

He was angry at how alone he's been. He hated how angry he's been.

But right then, in that moment, Ron Weasley hated himself the most.

He tried to help her up, tried to apologize over and over again, but Hermione survived the Second War for a reason. Ron let her go, let her drop like a rag onto the cold floor. He reached for her, but even in her shock, she stunned him faster than he could recover from his shock. As he fell onto his back, he watched helplessly as she aparrated away. He stared in horror at her blood on the ground and the blood on his knuckles.

Ron Weasley was left to pick up his infidelity and lies. He kicked the other nameless unknown woman out. He panicked and contacted everyone using flow powder and apparition.

Ginny threatened and swore at him, up and down. Even his mother cursed him. Harry had been silent, his eyes saying everything that was needed to be said. His brothers had to be held back by their angry wives when they tried to throw themselves on their foolish youngest brother (except George's case when he had to restrain Angelina). The rain began then and the storm blew in.

Everyone became more afraid as Hermione showed up nowhere.

Ron faced Mr. Granger's wrath and took Mrs. Granger's slap across the face when he went to them, hoping beyond hope that Hermione was with them. When all hope was loss, when Neville and Hannah Longbottom glared at him in disapproval and when even Luna looked at him with condemnation, Ron knew he only had one last hope. Ron Weasley turned to Draco Malfoy.

Draco was awoken from the guest room he's slept in for the past few years to discover a decrepit Ron Weasley in the storming rain. Ron explained to him the situation in his rambling stumbling voice and Ron has never seen Draco's face split into such a rage as his words came pouring out.

That night, Draco Malfoy found out that he was not the only one sleeping in separate beds from their spouse. That night, Ron had cried and begged Draco to look for her because Ron knew—he just knew—that Draco would find her.

That night, Ron Weasley confessed to Draco his jealously and his insecurities that led him to sleeping with another woman tonight, how Hermione spent more time with Draco, and how she always talked about him. He confessed to whose the blood was on his knuckles and accepted it when Draco punched him.

That night was the night Astoria Malfoy knew that her husband's separation was not due to strain at work. No, it for his love of another woman whose husband was left crying at their front door. She watched Draco walk out without even glancing at her, watched as he disappeared into the pouring rain and apparated.

That night, was the night the picture perfect family began to crumble. That night, their children slept safely and ignorantly in their beds at Hogwarts. That night, Scorpius Malfoy had fallen asleep finally confessing his love for Rose Weasley and that same night, Rose Weasley confessed to her cousin Lilly in the Gryffindor commons room, that she was in love with Scorpius Malfoy. However, no one knew what happened next or what happened that night between Draco and Hermione.

No one, but them.

:::

He chanted her name to himself as he apparated to the only place he could think of her being. She always joked to him how she loved that place, how if she ever just needed a place to forget who she was, it was the best place to be. He thought it was odd, maybe kind of stupid. It's just a bus station. But she's told him that it was a reminder of how mundane her life was before as just a muggle, before the war. A bus station filled with people doing mundane things, going anywhere they wanted or needed to.

Maybe it was mundane things that she wished for me.

Fear and pain, anger and hatred, ran through him. He was hot and cold, his body trembling. He wanted to kill Weasley. He saw the rusted blood on the man's hand, saw the forming bruise on the knuckles. He wanted to kill Weasley. He wanted to beat the man and slowly, one by one, break his bones, but above all that, he wanted her. He wanted to find her, make sure she was safe.

As soon as he apparated, landing further than he intended, Draco Malfoy began running through the rain, his chest constricting. His mind was fogged up with worry for her. He ran through the storm, terror taking over him. Hermione was alone in this weather, bleeding and crying somewhere. Broken.

Ron Weasley was her husband. Her best friend.

His legs protested from the sudden pain as he forced them to continue moving against the strain. He had to find her. And when he did, he was never letting her go again. He was done with lying.

Draco found Hermione curled up at a muggle bus station, the very same one that she had dared him to ride when they had first become friends. They've ended taking the same bus many times over, Hermione taking him to a muggle library to show him muggle literature or just Hermione taking him out to explore the muggle world or the two traveling together for a case. The memories of the bus stop was filled with laughter and much exploration of their friendship.

Today though, as the wind tore around them and the rain fell, Draco felt nothing but sorrow. He stood in the rain watching her as sobs broke across her body. Without a word, he walked to her and laid his coat over her even though all he wore were pajama pants and a simple white t-shirt.

He had begun to cry when her trembling hands stopped his own as he tried healing her face with wandless magic. Her coldness had seeped into his skin as he cradled her face in his palms, her mouth crying into the skin of his palm.

He held her that night in the rain and then on the bus as they traveled to nowhere. She poured her soul out to him that night as they sat in the back of the bus, Draco putting a silencing spell around them. She clung onto him as she cried over her broken life. Sitting there in each other's arms, they finally came clean about everything. Draco told her he could not do it anymore, that he could not live with another woman while loving someone else and Hermione confessed to him that she could no longer lie to herself and to her family; she was in love Draco Malfoy.

Draco felt as her body relaxed against him, his arms curling around her protectively. Her shaking had stopped, her sobs having fallen silent long ago.

He ignored the muggles around him as he watched her sleep. His hands framed her face as he kissed her brow softly, his lips taking in her warmth. He kept them there, closing his eyes. Indeed, Draco Malfoy was never letting her go again.

:::

With the sun burning through the trees and clearing the storm away, Hermione returned back to the house she and Ron had shared. Reaching the door, Ron flinched at the bruises on her face.

Ron tried to greet her, but Draco prevented him from even touching her. Ron argued and even came to blows with Malfoy. When Ron smashed Draco's face, Hermione pulled her wand out, but Draco stopped her.

Draco wanted her to stay away from that bastard. Hell, he wanted to hex the git to oblivion and he wanted more than anything to return Weasley's favor for the pain knifing his face, but he fought the urge. He was here for her and he wanted her out. Now.

Draco turned to her, his hand rubbing his jaw. "Do you have everything?"

Hermione nodded hesitantly, her hands inching to touch his face, but from the look in his eyes, she knew he wanted her to listen to him. She could not look at Ron. She could still feel the throbbing bruise on her face. She felt, rather than saw, as Ron try to reach for her again. This time, she did flinch. Draco's eyes flashed and he stepped between them.

Ron clenched his jaw. "This is between me and my wife, Malfoy!"

Draco looked at the man before him. Ron was taller, his red hair straggly and unkempt, his eyes red and puffy from crying, almost matching his hair. They stared at one another, Draco's gray eyes like steel meeting with Ron's blue ones. Hermione kept her eyes on Draco.

Draco's clothes were still wet, seemingly left alone as if Draco forgot he was a wizard who could dry it in any moment. However, he was too tired now to even care. He was too relieved to have her next to him and safe. He just wanted to take her away, far, far away from the man before him.

Draco loved Hermione, but he had trusted Ron enough to let her be with him. He hadn't wanted to ruin Hermione's life. He wanted her with Ron, the champion friend of Harry Potter. She was better off with him than with Draco Malfoy, the former Deatheater.

All these years of pretending, of watching her return home to Ron, of returning home to his empty life and lie to his best friendhis wifelying to their children, was worth it. Worth it because Hermione Granger was better off with the golden hero, Ron Weasley. Worth it because they were too old now to be divorced, to be remarried, to be in love with another person besides their intended spouse of years and years of happiness and adversities.

Everything was worth it so long as Hermione stayed safe as Ron Weasley's wife.

Everything, the sacrifice of their love, was worth it so long as their children stayed happy in their happy families.

Until now.

Looking at Ron, Draco could have said many things. He could have punched the wizard again, cursed him, hexed, or even spit upon the very ground the man walked. However, Draco thought of the woman behind him and thought about all these years of being in love with her.

He wanted to do what was best for her. He was tired of sacrificing both of their happiness for others, even their children. He was tired of not being able to love Hermione the way she should have always been loved. He wanted to do what was right. Without another thought, he spoke.

"You don't deserve her."

And they left Ron Weasley weeping at his own door step.

The separations and tension of the golden couple flashed across the headlines. Rita Skeeter had a blast with the rumors of why they broke up. Ron, angered at Skeeter for accusing Hermione of cheating in one of her articles, came clean and told them the truth of that night. Hermione cried to Draco and Harry when she realized that Ron had sacrificed his own image to save hers.

This last act of heroism was the only reason why Ginny forgave her brother, but even then she still refused to talk to Ron. Author and Molly were upset with their son. His brothers were polite but there was definitely tension between them all. So far, George was the only one who would stay in the same room with him because they worked together still at the joke shop. However, the outside wizardry world was far less forgiving.

Ron Weasley, from then on, was snared up and down the streets for cheating on and abusing the great Hermione Granger. Yes, Granger. The divorced was finalized in less than one month, Draco and Harry pulling strings in the ministry for wizardry divorce at Hermione's request.

The ministry and Shacklebot were sympathetic to Hermione and allowed for the divorce to happen faster than usual. Hermione was given two weeks off from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, everyone insisting her to take a much needed break. In a span of one month, three things happened.

First, Scorpius Malfoy kissed Rose Weasley in the astronomy towers, secretly finally giving into their emotions, and moments later she would hear about her parent's separation in the Great Hall.

Second, Draco Malfoy left his wife, reasons for his leaving unknown; Scorpius finding out on the last day of Hogwarts that his father was missing.

Third, Ron relinquished custody of his children to Hermione, claiming visiting rights, and left for the United States, wanting to start over.


So We Begin Again


A/N - This has been on my mind for a while. This will probably be only a three piece, instead of a whole story. Hope you enjoy.