Chapter Seven: The Return

Hermione had decided, she did not want to go to her friends, well, she wanted to, desperately, but not like this, she did not want them to see how her stubbornness had affected her, how being alone all this time had broken her, she wanted them to see her healed, relatively so at least, normal.

She remembered Ron's screams of despair when she was being tortured, and their faces the first time she had nightmares. She did not want them to worry for her even more than she had caused them to, and they were already worried, like her, about Ron, every day she hoped she would hear news saying he had woken up. if he had woken up, she would not care about her state, she would go to him, immediately. Ron had not woken up tough, never, since that day when he had fallen from the tower because of that damn Death Eater. She had screamed "Arresto Momentum" but he had stopped falling at half of the distance and then had fallen again, her spell had saved him from dying, but not from falling into a damn coma he had not, after more than a year, yet woken up from.

Not going to her friends left her with only an option, one she did not like in the least, one that her pride was firmly against taking, but right now her pride had been greatly put aside by her terror and by her resignation to the fact that her plan had failed and she had to deal with the consequences, regardless of if she liked them or not. She was extremely tired, she had not slept and when she had, her nightmares had stopped her from resting and had tired her even more. She really wanted to sleep, and without going to her friends, her only hope to sleep was Draco Malfoy.

She decided that if she went back to the Malfoys, she would not leave this time until she had really healed, that meant she would have to stay at the Manor for weeks, perhaps even months, but she did not care. She was tired and scared, but most of all she was tired of being tired and scared, she wanted to heal, and if she had to pass a month or two at the Malfoys to do that, then she would. With a resigned face, she packed everything into her magical purse, looked at her clock, it was almost 6:00 am, the Malfoys would still likely be in bed. She hoped that awakening them would not make their taking her back even more unlikely. Hermione took her purse, but before disapparating she realized it was very risky for her to apparate and disapparate while being this tired and emotionally scared, so she had no choice than to walk.

Half an hour later, she stood, even more tired, in front of Malfoy Manor, she knocked hardly and after a little while Winky showed up, saying - "Mistress Hermione! Mistress is back! Mistress Narcissa and Master Draco have been so worried! They will be extremely relieved to see she is back. Hermione must wait here a moment, Winky goes to call them!" -

Draco Malfoy was sleeping peacefully, he had passed most of the days of the last two weeks working on a new locating potion, to find Hermione. He lacked the last ingredient, the blood of a Granger, but he hoped he would come up with a solution when he needed it. His mother had been really hard on him since when Hermione had ran away, she wanted him to find her at all costs, even if it meant going to find a time turner to take her blood in the past. Narcissa had also admitted her plan to Draco at some point, she wanted to see Draco marrying Hermione. Draco had suspected it before, it made sense that his mother had planned something like that. Narcissa always wanted him to have a famous and brilliant wife, an "elite" bride who would be good for him and who would help empower the family and its public image. Now that Narcissa had put aside her blood purity ideology, among the candidates/ possible brides were also the muggleborns and the half-bloods. Draco had agreed in the end, to a degree, to his mother's plan. He would try going along with it, and if after knowing Hermione better he had not found appealing the prospect of marrying her, he would tell his mother and she would accept his decision… hopefully. Draco's partial acceptance of his mother's plan had been due in part to his desire to placate Narcissa, but in part because he had started to like Hermione and wanted to see where this seed of attraction could lead him. Suddenly, loud knocks on his bedroom's door woke Draco up - "Master Draco, its Winky! Mistress Hermione is back! Master Draco must come with Winky to wake Mistress Narcissa and go to greet her!" - Draco immediately got up, in the end what he hoped, even if lately he was beginning to doubt it, had happened, Hermione had come back! He told Winky to make Hermione wait in the big living room near the entrance, while he would wake up his mother and then go with her to greet their returned guest.

Narcissa was awakened by her son shaking her almost shouting - "Mother! Mother! Wake up, hurry! Hermione is back!" - Narcissa looked at her son, could it be true? Could it be that her plans hadn't failed yet? She got up and with her son, hurried towards the large living room near the entrance, to greet their finally returned guest. Oh yes, Narcissa thought, this time she would make sure Hermione would not escape, she had underestimated Hermione's gryffindorish recklessness last time and had not modified the wards of the Manor to stop Hermione from getting out the Manor, but this time she would, it would be the first thing she was going to do after Hermione had gone to bed with Draco.

Hermione was waiting nervously, sitting on a large, luxurious couch in the living room, all she wanted, more than anything in that moment, was going to bed and sleep without nightmares, but she knew that until she had Draco's approval, she would not be able to do that. She was startled when she heard Narcissa's voice exclaim - "Hermione! Dear silly girl, you made us worry to death. Why did you run away like that? Didn't we show you how you could trust us? Where have you been all this time? You look extremely tired, have the nightmares come back again?" - Hermione looked at Narcissa and at Draco, standing in front of her, with a worried and somewhat angry expression on their face.

She would have to tell them the truth, if she wanted them to trust her that she would not leave this time, if she wanted them to help her, she would have to be honest with them. So she swallowed her pride, made a heavy sigh and told them. She told them how she had ran away because she did not feel comfortable in them being the ones to help her, how she believed she would have been able to finish the locating potion by herself, how she failed spectacularly, how her nightmares last night had returned much stronger than ever, making her painfully aware that her body had become immune to the dreamless sleep potion. She told them how she did not want her friends to see her like that, how in the end she decided to come back here, and implored Draco and Narcissa to take her back, swearing she would not run away this time - " I am sorry, I am really sorry, I apologize for how I have behaved towards you, you only tried to help me and I repaid you running away in the night without saying anything. I swear that I will not do any of that this time, I have come back here because…" - she hesitated, swallowed her pride a little more and continued - " because I want to ask you to help me, I want to really accept the arrangement you proposed to me three weeks ago, I will agree to any further conditions you may have, I know they will be reasonable, just take me back, help me, I-I am tired, I am tired of being tired and scared and more and more broken every day, I just want to be able to sleep at night without nightmares, to be able to think of sleeping without being terrified of going to bed, help me achieve this... please" -

Draco and Narcissa were taken aback by her honesty, she really was desperate, and wanted their help so badly that she was ready to swallow her pride and implore them to give it to her. Their anger quickly faded as she apologized and implored them to take her back. Only concern and respect remained in their minds towards Hermione, they were concerned for how bad her state could be for her to be so desperate to get their help, and they respected her for being strong enough to be able to swallow her pride and be honest with them about her need for help. They looked at each other, nodded and then Narcissa spoke again - "It is alright dear, don't worry, we are not angry with you, we will help you, you now need to go to bed with Draco and have a good nightmare-free rest, when you will wake up we will talk again, for now however, know that we accept your apology and we agree to help you. Now Draco" - Narcissa turned towards her son - " Would you be so kind as to take Hermione to bed and have her rest?"

Draco was feeling something quite unusual for him, he felt tenderness towards the girl he taunted so hard in the past wash over him, tenderness and respect, she was a strong and amazing witch. She was so broken and still prideful and confident, too confident for her own good, but she was also strong enough and mature enough to acknowledge her errors and seek for help. After having agreed to his mother request, he took Hermione's hand and led her upstairs to his bedroom, he could see that she was nervous - " don't worry, I understand why you ran away, it was foolish of you but understandable given our past interactions. I am not angry or irritated with you, I only want to help you, you don't have to say anything anymore if you don't want to. Our conversation can wait until you are rested and relaxed, shall we go to bed now?" Seeing that she nodded her agreement, he took her to bed, embraced her tightly, and whispered in her ear - "Don't worry, your nightmares won't come back, not today, not ever, you will heal, it's a promise, now sleep"

Hermione was relieved, it was over, swallowing her pride to apologize and implore for help had been harder than she feared, but once she had done it, it felt liberating, she felt lighter, relieved, the Malfoys had taken her back. She could finally rest, and start to get better. This time she would not let her pride or her past with the Malfoys get in the way, this time she would stay, and heal. So, after Draco's whispering of a promise of healing, she closed her eyes and fell into a sleep without nightmares.

Narcissa was relieved, finally Hermione was back and her plan could continue, she was impressed by the girl, and also felt sympathy towards her, together with the familiar guilt of knowing how her current state was in large part due to what she experienced in her first stay at the manor. Narcissa went in front of the manor's wards and modified them to stop Hermione from leaving, then went back to bed and fell into a brief - it was already almost 7:00 am after all - but relaxed and relieved, sleep.