Draco read the morning's newspaper, barely able to suppress his anger. Hermione's interview had been sensitively handled and it was impossible to read about her plight without sympathising with her. However, it wasn't sympathy Draco felt as he read the article, it was pure hatred. Every time he thought about what Hermione had gone through his blood boiled and he wished that he'd had more than Remus and Tonks to take his anger out on. He would give anything to get his hands on Dumbledore, Potter or Weasley as in his opinion they were the worst of the whole sorry bunch.

"Well?" Hermione asked as Draco finally put the paper down, which was now more than a bit crumpled due to the force he'd been holding it in his hands.

"I want to kill everyone who did this to you," Draco answered in a low, deadly voice.

"That wasn't the reaction I was looking for," Hermione replied with a slight grimace.

"Sorry, but I can't help it," Draco said with a shrug. "I hate every single person who put us through hell and I can't wait to have our revenge on them."

"Just as long as it didn't sound as though that was what I wanted in the interview," Hermione said.

"No, you controlled your anger perfectly," Draco replied. "You didn't sound like someone wanting vengeance, you sound like someone who'd had their heart broken by the people she trusted."

"That's because I did have my heart broken," Hermione pointed out. "Only now it's mending itself and there's no room in it for those who betrayed me."

"What about everyone else?" Draco asked. "They'll be reading this article as we speak. People will be reaching out to you."

"The same people who will hopefully help us defeat Voldemort," Hermione pointed out. "You're not having second thoughts about forming our own group of fighters, are you?"

"No, we agreed with Severus that we're going to need help," Draco replied. "I'm just not sure how keen your friends will be to align themselves with me. I am a known Death Eater, and not a nice one. People might refuse to get involved with the fight once they know I'm part of the deal."

"Then they don't have to be part of our group," Hermione said defiantly as she walked over to where Draco was sitting and tentatively sat on his lap. She only relaxed when his arms wrapped around her waist and he buried his head in her hair. "At the end of the day, this is about us, Draco. We are doing what we need to in order to have a real future together. I would love it if other people joined us in the fight, but if they won't, we'll face Voldemort together. And let's not forget, it's because of what happened to me that you're even a Death Eater. If my death hadn't been faked, we would both be with the Order right now."

"As much as I hate them for what they did to you, I can't help but be glad that I'm not part of their Order," Draco admitted. "They've shown themselves to be just as dark and dangerous as The Dark Lord himself, and I'm pleased I never aligned myself with them."

"I know what you mean," Hermione said quietly. "I hate it that I trusted them, and got so many of them wrong. I thought they were good people."

"Everyone did," Draco replied. "Even though I've never liked Dumbledore, Potter or Weasley, I never thought they were capable of such evil. They may like to pretend it was for the greater good, but they had no right to interfere in your life like that. They can't be trusted, and at least now everyone will know what they're really like."

"I wonder how people are taking it," Hermione mused.

She did wonder if she should have tried getting in touch with some of her old friends before doing the interview, but if she'd done that word might have gotten back to Dumbledore and the others and she wanted them to be taken unawares by the article. Hopefully when she got the chance she could explain herself in person and her friends would understand why she had to do things the way she did. The only thing she wouldn't be explaining was her need for vengeance as she was keeping that private.

"We'll find out soon enough," Draco said as his hand slid under Hermione's top and caressed her smooth skin.

"Are you trying to distract me?" Hermione asked with a teasing smile, happy that things were slowly getting back to some semblance of normality with Draco.

"Is it working?" Draco retorted, pushing down his anger and need for vengeance as he tried to have a normal morning with the witch he loved.

"It might if you keep going," Hermione returned as Draco's hand trailed higher up her torso towards her breasts.

Within five minutes vengeance was the last thing on either of their minds as they stumbled back towards the big bed in Draco's room. Since Hermione's return their sex life had been fairly regular, albeit a bit rougher than normal. However, they'd now been reunited for a couple of days and the overwhelming need to be together that had been present since their reunion was now fading. It meant that things weren't quite as rough and hurried as they had been, and for the first time in months, Draco reconnected with the person he used to be. Taking his time making love to Hermione brought him back to how things had been before her fake death, and it reminded him that there was more to him than the big, bad Death Eater he'd morphed into. For the first time he could see the light Hermione insisted still survived inside him.

Hermione could also sense the change in her boyfriend, although she didn't comment on it. She just let Draco take the lead and dictate the pace of their lovemaking, which was leisurely and a lot more like how they used to make love in the earlier part of their relationship. When they were finished, they collapsed together in a tangled heap and Hermione ran her fingers through Draco's hair while his head rested on her chest.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, finally looking up at his girlfriend.

"What for?" Hermione asked with a frown.

"For not being able to give you that earlier," Draco replied. "And for not being able to promise it will always be like that between us. Sometimes the darkness is going to overwhelm me and I won't have so much control."

"I have no problem with you having less control," Hermione assured her boyfriend. "Things are different now Draco, we're different. I don't expect things to always be like they used to be. We've been through things that have changed us forever, and it's changed our relationship. So what if our sex life is sometimes a bit rough? I haven't been complaining, have I?"

"No, but I don't want to hurt you," Draco confessed. There had a been a couple of times, their first time after their reunion included, when Draco had been worried that he was being too rough and that he was hurting Hermione.

"You would never hurt me," Hermione said confidently. "I actually like the roughness. We've both changed Draco, and we need to accept our needs have changed. It's not always going to be soft and romantic between us, and that's just fine with me. At the end of the day as long as we're together, I'm happy."

"Me too," Draco replied, pulling Hermione down into a searing kiss.

Unfortunately for the couple things didn't get a chance to develop further as the wards Draco had around his wing of the manor alerted him to someone approaching. Not at all happy with the interruption, he jumped off the bed promising Hermione he would be back as quickly as possible. Yanking on some trousers, he then stalked out of the bedroom to see who was in his wing of the manor, and more importantly why.

His parents had actually been pretty decent at giving him and Hermione space, so he would have been surprised to find either of them intruding on their privacy. Although it turned out not to be either Narcissa or Lucius, instead Draco found himself face to face with Blaise and Theo. Neither of his friends looked happy, and when he spotted Blaise holding a copy of The Daily Prophet he understood why.

"Shit," he swore quietly.

"You bastard," Blaise spat. "You knew how worried we were about you. Theo and I have been here for you while you tried to get yourself killed, and this is how you repay us. You never thought to give us a call and tell us what was going on, that your girlfriend was back from the dead and everything is okay?"

"Everything is not okay," Draco snapped. "I'm sorry I never told you about Hermione, but it doesn't change much."

"Are you kidding?" Theo snorted. "It changes everything. Or are you still running around trying to get yourself killed?"

"No, I want to survive," Draco admitted.

"And you didn't think to tell us that?" Blaise asked, his anger fading and his true feelings of hurt coming through for Draco to hear. "Did it not occur to you that we've still been worrying about you? We still wake up every day wondering if this will be the day we get the message to say you've succeeded in your mission and you're dead."

"I'm sorry," Draco apologised, wincing at the thought of everything he'd put his friends through. "But to be honest, no I didn't think about either of you. I haven't been able to think of much else apart from Hermione."

"Okay, I can get that," Theo conceded. "It's not every day your girlfriend comes back from the dead."

"How is she?" Blaise asked.

"Still coming to terms with what happened, we both are," Draco replied.

"I can't believe them bastards Potter and Weasley were part of this," Theo snarled. "I thought they were supposed to be her friends."

"With friends like those who needs enemies?" Blaise snorted.

"So what's going to happen now?" Theo asked. "Surely things can't go on the same. You can't carry on being a Death Eater."

"That's exactly what I am going to do," Draco replied. "Why don't you two go and take a seat in the library. Hermione and I can join you, and we can talk."

"Sounds good," Blaise said with a nod. "We've missed you Draco."

"Yeah, it's good to have you back," Theo added with a small smile.

"I'm not the wizard I used to be," Draco warned, not wanting his friends to get their hopes up. "I've changed, and not even Hermione can bring back the old me."

"As long as you're not suicidal, we'll cope with whatever you we've got," Blaise said. "Good or bad, you're our best friend Draco."

Amazed that Blaise and Theo could still be there for him after the cold shoulder he'd given them, Draco thanked them and sent them off to the library, before returning to Hermione. When he entered the bedroom he found Hermione had pulled on the shirt he'd been wearing and was standing beside the open window. Beside her he could see a couple of letters, and she was reading one with a frown on her face.

"I see the messages have started to arrive," Draco remarked.

"Yes, the twins and Ginny send their love and want to see me," Hermione replied. "There's also a letter from McGonagall and the other staff at Hogwarts expressing their delight that I'm alive and their disgust at what happened to me."

"So why the puzzled face?" Draco asked.

"There's a letter here from the Ministry," Hermione said, handing over the letter she was reading to her boyfriend. "They want me to go and talk to them about what happened."

"I guess it was to be expected," Draco said as he quickly read the letter, kicking himself for not thinking of the possibility of the Ministry getting involved once Hermione's story was out there. After all, she was accusing several people of a serious crime.

"What do I do?" Hermione asked. "It'll look bad if I don't go like they ask, but what will Voldemort think? We never discussed taking legal action against my kidnappers?"

"I'll go and talk to him," Draco answered. "But we've also got Blaise and Theo in the library. They came to give me a piece of their minds for not telling them you were back."

"Your mother said they refused to give up on you and your friendship," Hermione remarked.

"Even though I treated them like dirt," Draco said with a sigh. "Bloody hell Hermione, I've messed everything up. I feel apart after I lost you, and I pushed away everyone else who cared about me."

"Yet they're still here to support you," Hermione countered. "Doesn't that tell you something?"

"That I'm a lucky git," Draco snorted.

"You are," Hermione agreed. "You're lucky you've got people who truly love you, and we're both lucky to have a second chance together. So let's get dressed and before you go and see Voldemort, we can go and talk to Blaise and Theo. I take it we're going to tell them everything and get them aboard with our plan."

"Yeah, we'll tell them everything," Draco replied with a nod. "Knowing those two, they'll join us in the fight."

Of course Draco was completely right and once Blaise and Theo knew the score they vowed to help in any way they could. After everything their friend had been through, they weren't going to abandon him now. Draco may have insisted that he was changed wizard and the old Draco was gone, but like Hermione, Blaise and Theo still saw the light in their best friend. They refused to believe he was beyond salvation and they would do everything in their power to make sure he and Hermione got the happy ending that Dumbledore and his little group of cohorts almost ripped away from them.