Chapter 1
It was their 7th year at Hogwarts. Hermione and Draco were no longer as 'secret' as they were at the start of the war. His parents found out when Draco saved Hermione from his aunt Bellatrix and then apparated the trio out of Malfoy Manor with three words to his parents who, all the time, stood shocked and glued to the spot. His words shocked his father the most, as his mother had already guessed something was up between the two, call it 'mothers intuition' if you will, with Draco's hesitation to identify them and that he could not look at his aunt during the torture. His words were short, sharp and gave an excellent explanation for his actions. They were "I love her."
Harry and Ron were almost as shocked as lucius and Bellatrix. Hermione was a shocked as Narcissa, but when she looked over at Draco's mother, she didn't see the anger or disgust she expected. Instead she saw a genuine smile that went all the way to her eyes. This was made up for by the disgusted look on his father's face. At first, lucius thought his son was playing with the 'Mudblood', but once lucius looked into Draco's eyes, he saw what that 'filth' had done to his son. Made him weak. Vulnerable.
Harry's reaction was much like Ginny's. They had had to explain things to her when she had walked in on them in the heads dorm, kissing. At first, he shot a glare at Draco because he didn't believe his words and had to make sure it was true. Harry looked at Draco's eyes and his expression immediately softened when he saw the pure love in his eyes whenever he looked at Hermione.
Ron, however, was not as understanding as harry was about Hermione and Draco and, as soon as they had vacated the manor, sent a jinx at Draco to separate him from Hermione. It had become common knowledge at this point that Ron had a crush on Hermione. Even she knew. He had proclaimed his love for her one night when they were making dinner in the tent she had shared with him and Harry on their hunt for the 7 Horcruxes. Needless to say, she let him down gently, but dare mention Malfoy for the next few weeks Ron felt betrayed by Hermione and took longer to come to terms with the couple.
Malfoy then turned to the order, which didn't trust him, but trusted Harry and Hermione's judgement. He assisted in the downfall of Voldemort and earned the trust of the other order members. Draco said to himself, that if he could save just one order members life, it would be worth it. He managed to save 3. Draco saved 3 lives and 1 childhood in 1 day. George Weasley, along with the rest of the Weasley family, Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin treated Draco like family and never mentioned his father's death.
Draco had killed his father in the war in order to save Lupin and his mother had lost her mind because of her husband and was confined to St. Mungo's hospital. This left Draco with no family to go home to and he didn't fancy the idea of living at Malfoy Manor on his own, which is when the Weasleys took him in as one of their own.
Draco took to life with a loving family well, and gave ¾ of the Malfoy fortune to the Weasleys to help them re-build the burrow. Living with the Weasleys was hard at first, given what his father had done to them but he was soon spending afternoons with them playing
Quidditch, and it helped that Hermione and Harry spent so much time at the burrow. He felt like he finally had a family and a place to call home.
