A/n: Welp, here's my sequel to "His and Her Bruises"! If you haven't yet read that story, I recommend reading it first; you'll be confused otherwise :) This starts off a few weeks after the other story ended, and continues off some different ideas as well as incorporating bits of pieces from the other story that never got explained thoroughly.

The chapters are between 2-3,000 words. Thanks to my beta JDeppIsMyLovely!

In retrospect, the drama from the trial didn't really die down for several weeks. People were floored by the outcome, and once it got out that Hermione had been abused by Ron, the papers went wild. Anyone who knew the ex-couple was questioned, followed, and sought out for interviews. If it grated on anyone's nerves, the blonde wouldn't be surprised.

But that wasn't the only scandal to arise from the trail. It got out that Lavender and Ron were sleeping together for years during the marriage, and even weeks later, Hermione still puzzled over what kind of affects that had on the girl. Lavender was "the other woman" in things, and she was the person that "tore apart a marriage" as the newspapers liked to say. There were very few people in Britain at the moment that really liked her.

As for the Weasleys, Hermione hadn't spoken to a single one of them- save Ginny- since the trial. The woman wasn't sure what was going through their minds, much less what they had to be thinking, simply that they probably didn't like her too much for the time being. That being said, after her first letter to the Weasley household was returned burned and black, she gave up on communicating for a while.

Yet one thing about the invasive papers captivated her. During her initial joy, during the time when she was elated about everything, the woman apparently lost her sense of placement. The same day that the articles about the divorce printed, Witch Weekly printed a different article, one Ginny quickly brought to Hermione's attention. It was a picture that made her blush.

In the photo she ran and jumped on Draco, the man catching her with her legs around him. In the next photo down, she kissed him. The brunette didn't want to fathom about what kind of impression that left on Britain, and decided to go into hiding for a few days after the fact. Draco had far too much fun poking fun at her for it.

Despite everything, she still slept in the blonde's bed each night. As the days progressed, she could feel him getting more heated when they kissed, more ferocious, and hungrier for something. Although she knew what he lusted after, the woman had yet to give into him. Sex was never something she found a lot of pleasure in.

"You're thinking too hard about something," the blonde drawled one morning when he found her curled up on the bed still around noon. "What could possibly keep you in bed this long?"

She smiled lightly to him, twisting her head to glance up at him. "I'm tired; last night visiting Harry really wore me out."

The blonde scoffed, plopping down beside her on the bed. "Oh please Hermione, I'm sure whatever strange games you played were nothing compared to how you would feel if you spent a night with me."

Granger shivered. She very well knew his implication, and it sent chills down her back. Instead of showing her reaction however, she hit him playfully against the chest instead. "Not tonight Draco."

The man groaned. "Well, why not?"

"Because I said so," she replied hurriedly, getting out of the bed. Before he could find something to bother her with, she rushed to the bathroom and shut the door. He wouldn't follow her in there just then, and she took the bit of silence as a relief, basking in the quiet.

Sometimes, Draco got under her skin way too much, to places she didn't too often think about.

Hermione had yet to return to her job at the Ministry. She was fairly certain she had been fired some time ago when work stopped showing up, but no one would ever know since her boss sent her an owl just a few days ago offering her a promotion and a raise. The girl suspected that he felt bad once he learned about her situation. She wasn't so sure the man understood all the implications, much less why she really decided to stop going in, but nonetheless it was a job offering back into an industry she loved, and the girl was elated about the prospect. She just needed to decide what to do with it.

Draco on the other hand wasn't so excited. He didn't seem to like the idea about having her so far away for most of the day, and without a job of his own, the blonde would go back to having way too many hours by himself. Apparently, that wasn't something he exactly enjoyed.

"There's enough money in my family to share with you," he muttered, "You don't need to return to work."

The girl scoffed, reclining back on the couch. "No, but part of me wants to. I'm not the type of person that is going to be comfortable sitting around this place just wasting away the days. You've known me a long time Draco; you know I'm happiest when I have something to do."

He groaned, brushing pale fingers through his fine hair. He sat adjacent to her, the chair he sat in looking more lavish than anything Hermione cleared out of her old apartment. Though she didn't want to live there anymore, she wasn't entirely certain that she wanted to live there anymore either. She wasn't exactly together with Draco after all, and now that she didn't need to stay hidden it seemed a bit odd.

Then again, she did sleep in his bed every night.

"I'm happiest when I have you to keep me company," he argued.

The girl shook her head. "Draco, whether or not I chose to stay here, it doesn't change the fact that I have little to do here now that I'm not creating a salve. Getting out will be good for me, and I can't just hide from the public forever." She crossed the distance between them and pat his cheek, hiding her amusement when he cringed. "It's good to get away from your home sometimes."

"Yes and deal with society," he mocked. "Sounds awful."

"It's only awful because you hate everyone," she pointed out, kissing his cheek. The girl was on his lap now, perfectly happy with her position. Draco didn't seem to mind too much either. "Now, how about a tour?"

He frowned, looking up at her. Since arriving, he had neglected to give her a tour, much less to take her around really. She wandered, and on more than one occasion she had crossed paths with his father and come out just fine, yet the blonde worried. What he truly had to fear she didn't know, but he was hesitant to take her around the large structure.

She had yet to even see his mother, much less figure out where she was. The few occasions with his father were the only instances where she saw any form of human life there, outside of the rare visits Blaise made. Hermione wasn't fond of either the Malfoy elders, but she wouldn't say that in front of Draco. He seemed touchy enough about this family situation.

Things couldn't be very good if the family spent all their time in separated wings, never speaking.

"Hermione, you know-"

"I know you don't like to," she replied, cutting in, "But I've been here quite a while now and although my memory is fantastic I only know a few hallways here. You always seem to find me before I get any further." She gave him a pointed look.

Draco glanced away. "It's just a sense I get, alright? This isn't a safe place."

The woman shook her head at him, rolling her eyes. "There's a whole three of you Draco, and I've only ever seen two of you. None of you seem all that scary. Besides, there's an entire array of things in this place that I know exist but have never seen. You always bragged in school about this place."

He smirked. "You listened to that rubbish?"

"It was hard to miss when you would boast about your inhumanly lavish life whenever you could, as loud as you could," she replied, rolling her eyes. "You were always going on about an enormous library, your own person Quidditch pitch, a gala, ancient artifacts that you've always had, and all sorts of things. If you have them here, why don't you put them to some use?"

To that, the blonde's expression hardened and he looked away. "They aren't the same anymore."

"I'm sure they aren't, not when everyone spends all their time ignoring what's right here in the Manor. You have to use those sorts of things you know."

"No Hermione," he snapped, cutting right through her joy, his face still angled away. "They aren't the same anymore. Anything magnificent that this place used to offer is gone now. Have you so easily forgotten that this was where Voldemort used to take up residence? Anything he didn't see a purpose for was destroyed and put to other uses."

To that, she snapped her mouth shut. In all honesty, she hadn't been thinking about that. She just wanted to look around the place, to look around and see what the Manor was really like. Her impression during the war was a bad one, and that was the only place in the entire complex that she hoped she didn't end up finding. But she hadn't thought about the destruction that took place at the Manor, and what must've been lost during the time that a group of rouge Death Eater's lived in the dwelling.

"I suppose I wasn't thinking like that," she said, looking towards the floor. "I was just curious."

"I know," he replied, and a hand came up to brush her hair back from her face. "But there's nothing magical about this place anymore. It's warded and it's protected, but that's about all. Anything majestic is buried in the ruined parts of the structure that we don't visit anymore."

Her eyes flashed. "Well, that doesn't mean it's ruined Draco, it just needs to be restored. How do you know that everything amazing is gone from your home if you haven't even gone to look?"

"I just do okay?" He picked her up, turning to deposit her on the couch. "I'm taking a shower."

A shower; he always did that when he was irritated. Either that, or the blonde started breaking things, both physically and magically. Hermione didn't say a word as he made his way to the bathroom, shutting the door a bit too roughly.

With a sigh, she straightened herself out and brushed at her hair. Maybe she shouldn't push so much. He was never willing to do anything. And although it would be easy to disappear down the halls while he was in the bath, she didn't want to. He would be angry if she did, and then they would fight, and she would end up sleeping in one of those cold guest rooms so that they could both blow off steam. And Hermione didn't want to do that; she never slept good there, yet in Draco's bed she slept the night away.

Pressing her lips into a line, she stood and left a room. If nothing else, she was going to go and play in the lab for a bit.

When midnight came, Hermione decided it was time to return to bed. Draco checked earlier to see if she was there, and though they spoke, Hermione could still tell he was tense. Despite knowing so much about her, he got unsettled whenever she pried too much at his life after the war. She knew it was an uncomfortable thing for him, but that didn't mean she wouldn't persist. He knew so much about her; she deserved to know some things about him.

And she intended to find things out. But for the rest of the night, she decided to let things be. Tomorrow she intended to drag him out for a bite to eat, even if that meant facing the world. They wouldn't hide in the bloody Manor forever, and although she really hated being pestered by anything that could talk while she was eating, she knew that she might go mental if she spent another day cooped up in bed.

Sure, bed was nice, but it was the same repetitive happening over and over. Hermione wanted to do something new, even if Draco would be apprehensive about it. They couldn't just hide away forever.

She didn't really accomplish anything in the lab. It was a lot of fiddling with things and writing down observations, but she didn't really have a goal in mind and she just kept fiddling with whatever was in front of her. When she left though, the lab was clean and everything was put in order. The only container left holding anything was a single vile, containing the potion to remove scars and marks. Draco hadn't taken his second dose yet since Hermione kept forgetting to bring it down, and he would never remember. Besides, she was very undecided about what to do with her own mark.

On the way back to her shared room, she got distracted by thoughts of Ron. He had been in prison for several weeks now, and although she didn't feel bad about his placement after what he put her through, the git sometimes came to mind. He tried to plead insanity after the divorce was filed to keep him from having to stay in Azkaban for two years at most. It churned her stomach to think that he was using that alternative, and hoped that his plea wouldn't be allowed. Ron didn't need mental help, he just needed to straighten out.

At least Ron wasn't a smooth talker quite like Draco. He couldn't weasel his way out of this one- no pun intended. She just hoped the new judge would understand that and not let him get away with this bollocks.

Glancing around her, she realized she had actually continued on down the hall right past her destination. She was at a two way path now, and she could turn either right or left, or simply return the way she came. Shaking her head, she pondered how far down the hall she was from her actual destination. The girl didn't recall having ever actually passed the room; she usually wasn't this distracted.

Shrugging, she decided it was just too late to explore and turned around to go back to the room. Her foot was barely to the carpet when she stilled, the sounds of moaning catching her attention. Her wand was out and lit in a moment against the dim torches, ready to handle Lucius again in a moment if it was needed.

Looking all around her, she realized no one was in the hallway with her. Frowning, she shook her head, deciding it was just her exhaustion kicking in. She really needed to get back to the bedroom and under the covers before she started hallucinating.

The woman was about to turn around when it happened. Down at the very end of the hallway something briefly caught her attention in the shadows, and she glanced back to see what it was. For one fleeting moment, she was reminded of a horror movie she saw as a child, The Grudge, and actually mistook the figure for the commonly known dead woman.

After her single moment of panic, Hermione's rational mind kicked in and reminded her that horror movie characters were usually fictional, and things like the grudge didn't exist in real life. Looking closer, she realized this figure was a woman, dragging herself up the steps, and she noticed that there was a head of platinum blonde hair resting at the top of the body.

Her eyes widened as she realized what she was witnessing. Was Narcissa Malfoy really dragging herself up the steps?

A/n: Bam! There's the opening chapter my lovelies- I took a different approach with this chapter. Don't worry darlings, there will be plenty of Dramione romance here in this story since the relationship doesn't have to form now, and we can see some new concepts introduced :)

I promise there is a reason for this unorthodox opening. We'll be seeing that in the coming chapters, and here we will get to see more of Draco's life and his personal emotions displayed.

Thoughts? Let me know what you guys think!