A/N: Thanks to my beta TheOnlyCeeCeeJ for going back to look over my old chapters she was not able to look over this chapter because I am so late with the update, so any mistakes are still my own. I am right in the middle of Finals so the updates may not be as often as last week but things will pick back up after this weekend. I Promise (hand over heart) :D

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I do not own Harry Potter I am just borrowing the characters from J.K. Rowling

Revised on 3-3-16


Chapter 9: Compromises

Harry and Hermione were sitting on a bench inside the Weasley garden. Hermione was impatiently shaking her leg waiting for Harry to start explaining himself. Harry finally swallowed his medicine and with an exasperated sigh said, "I can not BELIEVE they told you!"

"What exactly DID you say to them Harry?!"

Harry rubbed his neck, "well...um just the usual. That you are special and that they better treat you right."

When he did not continue Hermione glared at him and asked, "is that ALL you said?"

Harry shook his head as he inched away "I may have threatened them..."

At this Hermione exploded, she jumped out of her seat and began pacing in front of Harry "what do you mean you might have threatened them, either you did or you didn't!"

Hermione was getting more and more worked up so Harry took a deep breath and told her about the full conversation. By the end Hermione's anger had deflated and she was once again sitting beside Harry.

"Why would you do something like that, and threaten them in such a way? Do you think that I can not take care of myself?"

"Of course you can take care of yourself, your Hermione Granger for crying out loud. I did what I did because you have always been there for me. Even when I did not deserve it you ALWAYS had my back. You are like a sister to me and I will always be here for you. I will always want to protect you even though you can protect yourself because I can't stand for you to get hurt. And even though you are trying really hard to hide it I know the last couple of days have been hard for you. In fact the only time you truly seem genuinely happy and relaxed is when you are with Malfoy and Zabini. See just mentioning them brings a sparkle to your eyes. That is why this morning at the front gate of Hogwarts when things felt tense between you three I thought it would be best if I gave them some advice. It had everything to do with your happiness and nothing to do with what you may or may not be able to handle."

"Oh Harry" said Hermione with tears coming down her face "that is so sweet of you. And I never knew you were that perceptive!"

"Haha! I am VERY perceptive...so you might as well tell me what is going on with you and those two Slytherin."

At this Hermione chuckled. "I will tell you ONLY if you promise not to tell ANYONE, not even Ginny. I will tell her once I have some things figured out."

"You have my word" said Harry with his right hand over his heart.

So Hermione told him everything; what Draco and Blaise had told her so far, all about her fears and concerns, as well as her secret hopes and dreams.

"Well...to me it sounds like you have already made up your mind. I mean the way you talk about those two you obviously really care about them, maybe even love them. But no matter what you decide to do I will always be here for you. And I am pretty sure that no matter what we do we will both always be honorary Weasley members."

Both chuckled at this. After a pause Hermione lifted her head off of Harry's shoulder and looked him in the eyes, "I'm scared. There is just too much unknown."

"There is only one way to fix that. You need to do some research. It also wouldn't hurt to talk things out with those two and tea with Mrs. Malfoy should help provide some first hand experience."

Hermione took a deep breath and exhaled, "you are right."

"Of course I am! I am the savior I could never be wrong" interrupted Harry.

Hermione punched his shoulder and stood, "lets head back inside, dinner is bound to be ready."


When they re-entered the Burrow dinner was just about to begin so they both made their apologies and sat on either side of Ginny. Ron was still in a bad mood about the new developments so he remained quiet. He truly believed that if he continued to give Harry the silent treatment Harry would give in and not teach next year. Ron's quietness did not last though. When their dinner was interrupted midway by an owl from Victor thanking Hermione for her recommendation Ron exploded.

"Why would you recommend that buffoon to teach flying?!" yelled Ron as he jerked up out of his seat knocking it over. Breathing heavily he continued his rant, "I can teach flying just as good as him!"

"Only in your dreams Ronikkins" scoffed Fred.

Hermione had enough so she finished her dinner and got up to owl Headmistress McGonagall to let her know that both Victor Krum and Anastasia Slovak had accepted. As she left she heard Charlie trying to reason with Ron. "You know you would make a horrible Professor. I mean you hate kids, your too self absorbed, and you would never have given up your free time." Since Ron knew that it was all true he just sat back down and began to grumble in between stuffing his face. This is when Harry excused himself to join Hermione in packing their belongings.

They finished packing their things and Harry called on Dobby to take their things to Hogwarts. Then they went back downstairs said their goodbyes, promised to visit and owl, and made their way back to Hogwarts. Harry went into the student teachers dormitories to set up his room and Hermione continued on to the Head dorms to do the same. When she entered the common room both Draco and Blaise were still sitting on the sofa waiting for her. Blaise patted the spot on the sofa between them and Hermione went to sit down. She kept her head down not yet ready to speak even as she felt them staring at her waiting for her to speak. She just did not know where to begin or how to voice her concerns and soon the anxiety really beginning to get to her. When she started to bit her lip Blaise lifted her chin up and turned her head in his direction. He shook his head and gently pulled her lip away from her teeth, "there is no reason to be nervous Cara, just talk to us so we can work it out together." Draco nodded in agreement and put his arm around her giving her a one arm hug "we wont be able to discuss the issue until you tell us what the issue is."

"Its nothing" at their disbelieving looks she continued "okay its just that this is all happening so fast. I mean I went from having no boyfriend to having TWO mates for life! It is all too much and it is really hard for me to wrap my head around. How is this even going to work? How do you even know for sure that I am your mate? And if I am we don't even know each other that well so how will this relationship even work?"

Draco turned her head towards him looked her in the eye and said, "we know you are our mate because you have been in our dreams, in all our waking thoughts, you are IN our blood. We love you and we could not live without you; we would not want to. That is how we know you are our mate! As for not knowing us we can, no we will, take the time to get to know each other. As for how this is going to work, no one really knows the answer. You know every relationship is different our relationship will just be more unique and the only thing we can do is make sure that we communicate and listen to one another and take it one day at a time."

At this Hermione interrupted, "I still know next to nothing about what the future holds, most people in a relationship at least have some idea."

"That is were talking to other veela mates comes in and doing some research on your own. Since we are in such a unique situation I think that Draco is right when he says we will just have to take it one day at a time. All we can ask is for you to keep an open mind to all this and we will do our best to remember that this is all new to you."

"Thank you" whispered Hermione "and I will really try to keep an open mind because in the end I really want to see where all this can lead. As crazy as it sounds I already care about you both very much. We may have all gone to school together for the past six years but we never really talked, in fact the only real conversations we have ever had have happened the past few days."

"Why don't you ask us questions about our lives so you can get to know us better."

"Okay" said Hermione with an intrigued look "how about this. We each ask a question but everyone has to answer and we have to be completely truthful, no lying, no omissions, and we can not hold anything against each other."

So they began asking questions like favorite colors (Draco: green, Blaise: black, Hermione: blue), favorite classes (Draco: Charms, Blaise: Potions, Hermione: Transfiguration and Arithmancy), favorite food (Draco: steak, Blaise: pizza, Hermione: fish and chips), favorite holiday places (Draco: Paris, Blaise: Italy, Hermione: Australia), favorite pass times (Draco: flying and reading, Blaise: flying and reading, Hermione: reading and surfing the web). This caught the boy's attention as both wanted to know what 'surfing the web' was, Hermione did her best to describe it but ended up promising to show them a computer the next day. "Since you both enjoy flying so much would you be willing to teach me, before you answer you should know that I have a fear of heights?" At this both boys exchanged a look, then turned back to Hermione and agreed to start teaching her the next day. That is when the serious questions started; how many kids do you see yourself having? Draco and Blaise answered together "as many as you will give us" to which Hermione blushed and answered "I don't really know just that I want more than one because I hated being the only child. This caused Draco to have some concern 'I really hope father was right in thinking that Hermione will be the one to break the family curse because I would not be able to forgive myself if I was the reason she could only have one kid' though Draco to himself. There was also the hope that the curse would not affect Hermione and Blaise. Then Draco asked how many guys have you kissed and who was your first kiss? Hermione avoided eye contact and tried to buy some time to work up the courage to answer "Um well my first real kiss was...Blaise"

"What I was your first kiss...but what about Krum during the Yule Ball or Weasley?"

"Krum only asked me to the ball because I was not throwing myself at him the way the other girls were and he needed a dance partner. See his fiancé at the time she was his girlfriend was not able to come to the Ball so he needed to find a 'safe' date and we seemed to hit it off in the library so I agreed. I am glad I did because they both turned out to be wonderful friends...more like family really. As for Ronald the only kiss he ever gave me was over the summer when he kissed me in the Great Hall."

"That may have been my fault. You see I had just finished my transformation a few days before and I could not stop looking at you. I suspect he kissed you to make me jealous or something" said Blaise.

"Oh, well that makes sense. So what about you two?"

"You promise not to get angry?"

"No I wont get angry Draco. I know you both already have a past we went to school together remember? I have heard the rumors you know."

"Well in that case you already know that we have been with nearly every girl in our year."

"Are either of you or have either of you been engaged?"

"Are you referring to the rumor that Pug face spread about the two of us because for the record we have never been engaged and I was never interested in her that way!"

"Same with me and Greengrass, those girls are crazy. They thought that by spreading those rumors they could trap us into an engagement and eventually marriage and when that did not work they tried other things. We are just lucky that we can not have kids with anyone other than our mate."

"Okay back to the questions" interrupted Draco, "what are your plans in life."

"Well even though I want a family I also want to have a career. I have always wanted to become a Healer and that would come in handy with kids" said Hermione looking for understanding.

"We would never keep you from doing something you love Hermione. You both already know that I want to be a potion's master and a potion's professor. What about you Draco?"

"I will most likely be taking over the family business but before that happens I want to play professional Quidditch."

"I think that was a very good start at getting to know each other and I really think we should do this every night or at least once a week that way we will always keep the door open for communication and get more comfortable with asking questions."

"I agree, I for one thought you would have asked more questions about Veela's" said Draco with a curious look on his face waiting for an answer.

"I probably will once I know what to ask, truthfully I really don't know anything about veela's."

Just then there was a tapping on the window so Draco got up to open the window. In flew Mrs. Malfoy's owl carrying a letter and a package.

"I asked my mother to send you some books about veela from our home library, you know since you love to read so much" said Draco with his signature smirk "hopefully they will be able to answer some of your questions. And if you need to talk about any of it you can talk to us or to mother."

Hermione opened the package as Draco read the letter his mother sent. She laid out the books on the table looking over the titles, there was 'Veela's and Their Mates,' 'What Veela Mates Can Expect,' 'Veela Laws and Expectations,' and 'Veela an Amazing Creature.' Blaise looked over her shoulder "these are really good selections, they are all written by Veela's or the mates of Veela so the information will be accurate."

"My mother would like for you to join her tomorrow morning for tea at 10 o'clock. She said it would be a good time to talk and for her to share the viewpoint of a mate since we will be no help in that respect."

"Um I would love to have tea with her if it wont be any trouble."

"Of course it wont be any trouble, I will owl her back and let her know to be expecting us."

Draco went called his bird and wrote his mother back. As Draco was doing this Blaise began to plan out a study time sheet for his upcoming exam and Hermione started to read 'What Veela Mates Can Expect.' Once Draco was finished replying to his mother he went to the side desk and began working on his Charms essay.

As Hermione was reading she began to nod off and soon was asleep on the couch. Draco was the first to get up, he removed the book from her hands and brushed her hair out of her face. Then Blaise bent down picked Hermione up bridal style and they all made their way up to Draco's room. Once they entered the bedroom Blaise laid Hermione down on the bed causing her to stir. "Shsh its okay just go to sleep, we will talk more in the morning."

When Hermione settled back down Blaise went to the wardrobe and changed into his pajamas he turned back around to see Draco transfiguring Hermione's clothes into a green chemise. "You know she will give you hell tomorrow morning for that right?"

"That's half the fun, she is gorgeous when she gets angry!" said Draco with a smirk.

"Its your funeral, man" said Blaise as the both got on either side of Hermione. Both soon joined Hermione in blissful sleep, feeling better than they ever had especially after their change.

Please review! Understand that before Draco was just scared of rejection and death so he was keeping himself in check but know that he knows that Hermione is his he will become somewhat of his old self. Lets face it those two just love to fight ;p