A/N I'm not 100% convinced by this chapter. There is too much going on in my life to be able to fully concentrate on the story. Hopefully it'll get batter during the week.

So, PLEASE review. It's very much appreciated!


"A large bowl of soup and a butterbeer, please."

The Malfoy heir was standing at the bar in the Three Broomsticks and looked around. There were quite a few customers here, mostly having lunch like himself. The one or other Hogwarts student was already present as well. He remembered that it was Saturday, probably a Hogsmead day for the students.

His food and drink arrived, he paid and then looked for a quiet spot somewhere in the back.

He was halfway through his soup, when at least two people were sitting down at the table behind his back. He kept on eating. It wasn't before he actually noticed them talking, that he started to pay attention.

"I just can't handle it."

Draco stopped eating with his spoon in mid-air. He knew that voice!

"Ron, you are being really silly here. She has done nothing wrong. Hermione must be in utter shock. I know I would, if I suddenly found myself betrothed to some strange guy, I have probably never even met."

"I know it's not her fault, but it still hurts."

"What exactly hurts? That she had the misfortune to find out now, when she had been looking forward to the happiest day of her life? Or the fact, that you take it as some kind of personal insult?"

"Parvati, how can I just sit back and wait for her to get this Reversal done? I want her with me, in my life now."

"And why for Merlin's sake don't you?"

Draco let his spoon slowly drop back into his soup.

"How do I know, that the Ministry hasn't found him already and she hasn't told me?"

"Why would she do that?"

"Maybe she fancies him. Maybe he has put some kind of curse on her to leave me."

Draco wasn't quite sure, that he was hearing right.

"What if this other bloke has decided, that he wants to keep her for himself?"

'That would be the day!'

"Ron! Listen to yourself! This is totally insane. Hermione loves you and she will do her best to find this guy, get the Reversal done and then marry you."

"She has been back to work and everything appears totally normal around her. She doesn't seem to care about being bound."

"Maybe she tries to keep it together. In contrast to you! Ron, you are seriously loosing it."

There was a moments pause and then Parvati could be heard again.

"Harry told me, that she has contacted every single male pureblood in the whole of Britain that is about the right age. Sooner or later she'll find out who this mystery man is."

Next he heard chairs being pushed over the floor and Parvati hissing for Ron to take his hands of her.

For a moment Draco seriously considered turning round to see, what Weasley had been trying with the Patil twin, but then decided against it. He just returned to his soup. Wondering if Hermione had any idea about the antics of her fiancé.

When he had finally finished his lunch he went for another walk through the village. He needed to have a think about what he had heard.


Hermione stood at the window of Ginny's old room at the Burrow and sighed. She had 27 men on her list of possibles for being her Binding partner. So far 20 of them had got back to her and none of them were bound without knowing the respective female counterpart. She got the impression, that this binding business was the done thing amongst pureblood families. She wouldn't admit it, but she was glad not to belong to that particular club.

There was a small owl hooting softly at her all of a sudden. Where had she come from? Hermione took the note, gave her some treats and then she was gone without another hoot.

She broke the seal and slowly unfolded the piece of parchment.

One will see the other as only they can see each other. Radiance will be their signal as that their search has ended."

There will be the time, when the bond desires to be consummated and neither party will be able to resist the urge to do just that.

What was that suppose to mean? She turned the parchment over several times. There was no mention of who sent it or why. Was this somebody's twisted idea of a sick joke?

...Radiance will be their signal...

She suddenly felt her stomach knot. Radiance! She had seen Malfoy glow right in front of her. The logical conclusion of this was just too horrible to contemplate. This simply couldn't be! She refused to even waste another thought on this whole...

She found herself unable to stop thinking about what she just had realised. Somebody had sent her this information for a reason. Was it one of the outstanding seven pureblood males? Was that somebody telling her, how she would be able to find the missing partner herself? It seemed that way. Her problem had just shifted somewhat in any case. She now had a fair idea who was the man she had been looking for. She just didn't now, why he hadn't told her...

She frowned. If it had been her to be summoned by him, would she have admitted, that he was the man she was bound to? NO! Under no circumstances. And he had just said, that he knew, who his partner-to-be was. She groaned as she realised, what he had actually told her: He KNEW it was her, that he had been bound to!

Her world just ended in that moment and she started bawling like she had never done in her entire life.


"Draco?"

His mother had become rather concerned about her son over the last days. He had been lost in thoughts most of the time, had barely eaten and didn't seem to take an interest in anything any longer.

"Draco!"

He was sitting to her left at the breakfast table and had been staring into his porridge bowl for the past ten minutes. She extended her hand and gently stroked his pale cheek. His eyes met hers in an instant.

"What has happened, dear?"

He just looked at her. He wasn't sure, that he really wanted his mother of all people to know, what was going on in his mind right now. He sighed.

"Draco, I know, that you are still concerned about the Binding, but there is no need. You'll see, everything will be fine."

He scowled at her. He never had done that before. She looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Mother, I know, that you wanted to protect me from father's cruelty and scheming and you did. It is just not easy for me to get to grips with what has happened since I turned 21."

"What do you mean, dear?"

"I have been at the Ministry the other day as I got on owl requesting my assistance. The letter was from the Department for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts. I was rather curious, what they wanted my help with. So I went to see whoever had written to me. It turned out to be a girl I knew from school. She is a Griffindor and we have never really gotten on..."

He deliberately skipped the details about this particular relationship.

"She wants to get married to a guy she has been with for years. Ever since school I presume. She has been bound to somebody and didn't know who. She tried to find out, who it is. And as much as it pains me, mother, I am the one."

He looked at her. Shock clearly visible on her fine features.

"She is a witch?"

"Yes, she is a witch. She is a muggleborn. That is why you met her Muggle father and thought it safe to use her as my Binding partner. I presume, that under normal circumstances, everything would have worked out just fine. Neither of you knew at that point that she was a witch after all."

She cupped his face with her right hand.

"I'm so sorry, dear." She whispered.

"You did your best to protect me, mother, and I am grateful that you did bind me to her. I truly am. She is bad enough, but if I had to spend my life with Pansy or Millicent..."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. I'll let her figure out, that it is me and take it from there."

"You haven't told her when you saw her?"

"No. She... It's a bit complicated."

His mother's eyes never left his.

"Complicated? What have you done to her?"

Narcissa was aware of enough of her son's behaviour and misdemeanours at school as to know, that when he said it was complicated, he had probably done something close to unforgivable to the girl.

He squirmed under her gaze, but she never allowed his eyes stray from her own.

"Draco, what have you done to her?" She said in a quiet tone of voice.

He knew better than trying to lie to her. She would find out. She always did.

"I have not been very civil to her..."

"Civil, dear?"

He sighed. She would find out anyway. Might as well get it over with.

"I have called her a... a... mudblood... a lot."

There was no response.

"I have been taunting her all through school..."

Still only an ear shattering silence form his parent.

"In third year she punched me. I mean really punched me in the face. Called me a foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach..."

He let his head drop. He felt like a first year having been caught red handed by a prefect. It was humiliating to say the least.

"Draco Malfoy... That was despicable of you!"

Her voice was soft, but he knew, that she was seriously disappointed. He hated to disappoint her. Her good opinion of him had always been something he sought when he was younger. It was only as a teenager that his father had more and more taken over and he had warped into the creature he had turned out to be by the end of the war.

He didn't dare look at his mother. If he had, he would have seen a light smile around her lips. She had always known about the terrible influence her husband had had on him and had been unable to do anything about it. Now though she could at least try to get her son accepted by society again. He wasn't evil, cruel or any of the other things, that had so distinguished her husband. He was a good boy. She just hoped, he would be able to show the world his true self one day.

Maybe this muggleborn girl could help...

She gently raised his head to look at him.

"I have always know, that the noble traits of the Malfoys and Blacks are somewhere inside you. Maybe it is time for you to find them and start acting to make yourself proud."

She did forgive him that easily?

"Go and speak to her again. Apologise for what you have done. Act like a grown man and not a spoilt prat."

He knew it!

"Mother, she would never..."

"Shhh. You will go and apologise, you hear me?"

Her tone didn't allow for any further argument. He nodded. She kissed his forehead.

"I love you , son."

He sighed. This was the first time in over a decade, that his mother had told him that.