Hermione had nestled into a large couch in the den. Her knees were tucked under her and she made a point of hiding her toes in the space between the cushion and the arm. Naturally, she had a book in her lap but she had yet to open it. Ron was lounging lazily against her, his overly long limbs hanging off the other end of the couch his head resting on her shoulder. Every few minutes he'd flick his wand playing with a feather, letting it hit the ceiling and falling slowly back onto the ground.

It was a moment of tranquility. Usually, most of their time had been occupied with various members of the Weasley clan throughout the summer. Not that she had minded, after all, if the war had taught them anything it was that they needed to spend as much time with their loved ones as they could. She highly doubted another immortal craving hell-bent wizard would arise within their time, but no one could be for certain.

""It's leviOsa, not levioSA,"" Ron chuckled imitating his best eleven-year-old Hermione, turning his head to the side to look at her. "Who would have guessed that eight years later we'd be here? You were such an insufferable know it all back then."

She could admit that her attitude at eleven wasn't her brightest moment but she was still the brightest witch of her age. She stared up at him counting the freckles splayed across his nose, "Am I still not, Ronald?" she sniffed, knowing he meant nothing by it.

A sheepish smile played on his lips causing a dimple to form on his cheeks, "No," he quirked his brow trying to find the right words to describe her, "You're just you...just brilliant, my Hermione." he leaned over and kissed the top of her nose.

Her stomach buzzed as his lips brushed against her skin, "Mhmm, you're still a stubborn arse, Ronald Weasley, just a bit more charming." she breathed out craning her neck to connect their lips.

Ron pulled away and she let out a frustrated groan, he chuckled but straightened his body out to face her. Slowly he brought his hand up and cupped her cheek allowing his thumb to rub circles around her cheekbone. "You still love me." he pointed out before he kissed her once more.

His lips were soft and he tasted like pumpkin pasties. Hermione let out an audible sigh and she used his jumper to pull him closer. He took that as his cue to snake his hand behind her head letting his fingers tangle in her unruly curls. Pressing further into her he pulled away which caused her to growl in frustration.

Ron's brow rose before he reached down and placed her book on the table, "Did you just growl at me?" he teased.

Before she could reply he had once again placed his lips on hers. He was more forceful with this kiss and she felt her mouth open allowing him entrance. His tongue ran across her lower lip and she adjusted herself snaking her arms around his neck. The buzzing sensation was back but it slowly started to creep further down her body. She shuddered and met his tongue with hers.

Hermione had never quite understood the appeal of snogging unlike many of the girls at Hogwarts. With Victor it had been purely innocent, she was only fourteen after all so there had been nothing more than a few pecks here and there but for her first real kiss, she could hardly complain.

8 years of build up had lead to quite an exciting first kiss between them. It might not have been the ideal moment but the way he had thought of the house elves of Hogwarts just set her heart on fire. They had been teetering on the edge of something more since sixth year but he was just too, too Ron, to realize it.

She had always assumed that Lavender was merely more open at the time than she was. It wasn't that the girl had been ugly or easy, she was just more cavalier about her feelings than Hermione was. Ron was a boy after all and she summed it up to teenage hormones.

Things started to come into perspective while they were on the hunt for the Horcruxes. It was never quite the right time to act on it and speaking of such things had merely felt taboo with everything that was happening in their world. Now, however, held the possibilities of a forever.

Before she had realized it she had snaked into Ron's lap his hands had found their way to her waist and both of their breathing had come rather erratic. He nipped and pulled at her bottom lip and she merely fell into a rhythm. Every touch, every kiss sent shivers down her spine and she knew she wanted more.

A pleasured gasp left her lips the moment his hand connected with her breast. Her nipple instantly hardened and she arched into him. Breathless he pulled away his eyes searching hers begging for permission to continue.

Godric knew she wanted him to. It would be so easy for her to just kiss him, again and again, throwing caution to the wind but the sensible woman in her knew this wasn't the time nor the place after all her and Ron always had a thing about timing.

She shook her head and hesitantly rolled off of him back into her side of the couch. He looked at her a little crestfallen that she had moved from his lap interrupting one of their most intimate moments since the war had ended, so she chewed on her lip contemplating her words so she wouldn't hurt him.

"Don't do that." he was staring at her and began to move off the couch. Her eyes couldn't help but notice the bulge that had formed in his pants and she felt guilty. The red color that was now staining his face was evident.

She grabbed his hand before he could storm off either out of embarrassment or hurt, desperate to smooth the situation over, "I'm sorry Ron, I-I want to..." she didn't bother to try and tone down the blush that was forming over her features, "I really do, but," she looked around the den that most of his family sat in on a daily basis.

He followed her gaze the realization becoming apparent, his features softened and he handed her the book she had yet to read,"Later," he promised more than asked. He kissed her hand and left her to her thoughts.

Damn her and her sensible reasonings, there was no way she would be able to concentrate on her book now.


By now Draco was sure that it had become the mission of everyone in the wizarding world to annoy him before breakfast. Earlier in the week it had been his entire family who decided to accost him for receiving his Hogwarts letter. Yesterday it had been Theo waking him earlier than he had planned because of some nonsense about visitors. (He had ended up falling back asleep.) Today it was some Ministry Aurors performing a random inspection making sure that none of them were engaging in any illegal activity, prancing around a man in black cloaks and silver masks or just in general breathing in the wrong direction.

These visits had become rather normal throughout the summer, initially, they had shown up nearly every day after the war, just trying to catch them up to something. They would rifle through drawers, pick through books, generally staying late into the night. Over the course of the last two months the visits slowly dwindled down to once or twice a week usually only lasting a couple of hours. Unfortunate today just happened to be one of those days.

He didn't even get a chance to sample his eggs before a ministry official had told them to stand with their wands up. They all complied, this was simply routine. inspect the wand, inspect the person and then keep the wand until they were thoroughly satisfied with whatever they didn't find in the manor.

He was surprised that they hadn't confiscated all of their wands actually. It would have made sense but honestly, nothing about this made sense to him. In a normal world, they all would have been rotting in Azkaban awaiting trial. It would have been fair and most of the wizarding world wouldn't care in the least. Oh no, that's not how it went...it always stemmed back to Saint Potter.

A large part of him wanted to suffer the repercussions. He had never been forced to take the mark, his mother even dead set against, because why listen to a woman who had gone through two wars with the same evil? The idea of a pureblood society sounded great, having blood traitors, mudbloods, squibs, half-breeds...everything that he had grown up to detest cower before their superiors sounded rather appealing. Not to mention that he was promised greatness. He would have finally got the praise he deserved no longer shadowed by the golden trio, running neck to neck with Granger only to be ignored because his best friend wasn't Potter.

The only problem with his plan was that he had failed.

When he took the mark he had no idea that he would be tasked to kill Dumbledore. Did the old wizard piss him off? All of the damn time, but he had never thought to kill him, just throw him out of Hogwarts. The necklace, the poison, they had all been half-assed attempts that he ultimately knew would fail.

That night on the tower he hadn't lowered his wand out of fear or hope that the Order would take him in, it was because he didn't have it in him to kill the old bastard. If he had uttered the Avada he was pretty sure nothing but a few sparks would have come sputtering out of his wand, you had to mean it. He couldn't bear to be a laughing stock once more. Luckily enough for him, Snape took the wheel and delivered the final blow.

He was still humiliated. Like father like son neither were competent enough to do what they were tasked successfully. Death would have been easy and welcome. Instead, they were tortured, forced to torture, watch as people who didn't fit the Dark Lords agenda fell one by one.

The final straw was when Narcissa had become a target for his rage. He had thought watching Granger scream under Bellatrix had been torture but to see his mother undergo the same pain, begging for Voldemort to stop. That was what broke him. He had thought they would live as queens and kings under his reign but it was chaos, the only thing that mattered, in the end, was the death of Potter.

He eyed the group of people that were in the room, they'd all lost something rather they liked to admit or not. Draco had lost his dignity, his parents had lost their marriage, Theo had lost his father. Draco's eyes landed on Andromeda she wasn't subject to these inspections, she was on the winning side, and for a moment he envied her.

Just for a moment and then he felt his stomach churn. For the first time in over a year, he felt disgusted with himself. She had lost everything in the war, but yet here she was, supporting her sister that she hadn't talked to in over twenty years. She had been decent him, to his father and Salazar knew none of them deserved it. She was minus a husband, a daughter and a son-in-law and was now having to watch over her grandson and a dysfunctional family.

He would really have to keep a mental note to make more time for her before school started.