Chapter 10

Draco was awoke by someone shaking his shoulder. He tried to roll over but found that he still had Elizabeth curled up at his side. Slowly he shifted himself, determined not to wake her up. He eventually turned to face the person who had woken him up. Hermione.

"Malfoy, what are you doing?" She whispered.

"I was sleeping." He yawned.

"I mean in my bed." She replied.

"I don't know, Elizabeth was upset so I sat with her, then she fell asleep and then I guess I fell asleep too." He answered rubbing his eyes.

"Well, thank you for looking after her, but you need to leave now." Hermione answered while she gathered the clothes Liz had worn that day.

"Why can't I stay? Hermione I'm tired." He said.

"You think I'm not?" She said glaring at him. She waited a moment before continuing. "Fine. Stay, I'll be in soon."

She left the room with a bundle of clothes. Draco looked at his watch and saw that it was about one in the morning. It was still relatively late and after being up last night as well as tonight, he would need more sleep. But first he wanted to help Granger.

He didn't fully understand why he wanted to help her? He guessed it might have something to do with the fact that he hadn't seen a wand anywhere and he didn't know how she was going to clean the clothes without one. So he followed her.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible." She was muttering to herself while she filled the sink with water.

"Granger what are you doing?" He asked, startling her.

"Cleaning. Why? Do you want to help?" She asked cautiously.

"Yeah sure." He moved closer to her.

"Okay so, what you need to do is wet the clothes and then skirt a little bit of detergent on them. Then rub it together. Like this." She demonstrated for him.

"Isn't there an easier way?" He asked.

"Well normally there's a washing machine, but I can't afford one. So this the only option." She replied wetting a pair of her jeans.

"I meant with magic." He smirked.

"Draco no. Let me do it this way." She shook her head. But Draco hadn't missed the hint of fear that crossed her face when he had mentioned magic.

"Is it because you can't do it anymore? Is that why you don't like it?" He asked moving closer still.

"It's part of it. Magic and spells was such a big part of my life. And now it's been completely taken away from me. I was the smartest witch and now I can't even cast a simple 'lumos'." She wiped at the tear that escaped her eye.

"Granger, they haven't completely removed you from their history. You are still admired by so many young witches. Especially the muggle-borns." Draco wrapped an arm around her.

"But they don't know what happened to me. They only know what the minister said about me." She shook her head sadly.

"Then tell them your story. Let them know that you won't just sit there and let them control your life." He encouraged.

"I can't do that. What would happen to Elizabeth if I was placed in Azkaban?" She sighed heavily. "No, I just have to deal with my life now and forget all about wonderful world I used to know."

"If you're certain?" He muttered moving to take a hold of a shirt.

"So what did you and Liz do while I was away?" She asked casually.

"Um, nothing much." He mumbled. "We went shopping."

"Really? That's great I was starting to get hungry." She shook her hands to remove the excess water before turning to the fridge.

"Draco! How much did you spend?" She asked turning back to face him. Her mouth making a perfect 'O'.

"Nothing. It's all free." He walked past her and pulled out a carton of strawberries.

"This is magic, isn't it? What did I ask you specifically not to do?" She asked closing her eyes and raising her voice.

"Granger don't worry about it." He said eating one of the strawberries. "Want to know what else I did?"

"No," She said harshly. Draco gave her an 'oh-really' look and she changed her answer. "Yes."

"The oven now has its own supply of gas, so it won't cost you anything to use it. As you can see the fridge is full of food. The milk, bread and butter will refill itself, so you won't have to buy that." He explained a proud smile on his face.

"I, half of me wants to punch you for using magic in front of my child, but the other half of me is so overwhelmed and thankful for what you did." She confessed.

"Then just thank me." He smiled.

She moved towards him and Draco felt his heartbeat increase. Slowly she moved towards his face where she placed a soft kiss against his check.

"Thank you Draco." She whispered before moving away from him.

He stood there for a few minutes. His mind a muddle of thoughts and obligations, but only one thought was completely obvious. He liked Hermione. Despite everything his parents had brainwashed him into believing about muggle-born, Hermione had broken through all that. Despite his father's constant warnings about maintaining a level head and ignoring his emotions, there was no way to deny what he felt. And a part of him hoped that he felt the same way.

OoOoOo

Hermione wasn't really sure why she had kissed him. Maybe it was because of the memory she had experienced previously that day? Maybe she really was thankful for what he did? Maybe a part of her like him? She didn't know and that was why all the questions in her head made her head throb.

She placed all the 'washed' clothes on random pieces of furniture to dry. What she wouldn't do for a washing machine. While she didn't mind doing all the muscle work if it meant that they could wear clean clothes, it was a bother to do it at night. Whenever she got home she just wanted to lie in bed and never come out. She had done that a few nights ago and was now paying the price.

Once that was done she went into her bedroom where she got changed. She peered over at what Elizabeth was wearing and saw her own pyjama shirt. So she wasn't going to wear that tonight, she smiled at her daughter. Instead she found an old flannelette shirt that her dad had given to her, because it didn't fit her. She put it over the singlet top she had grabbed earlier.

Now to figure out how she was going to sleep. Elizabeth had positioned herself right in the middle. For this Hermione was both thankful for and annoyed at. Because she was in the middle it would mean that she wouldn't have to sleep directly next to Draco. However there was room there for them both to sleep in the bed. Oh, well.

She moved to the door and signalled to Draco to come into the room. He did so. Hermione moved away from him and climbed onto the bed before getting under the covers. Draco followed. They both wrapped an arm around Elizabeth, unintentionally wrapping an arm around each other. Hermione drew her's back at first, but after a few moments she returned it the where it had been. They slept in that position all night.

CRASH!

Hermione shot up in bed as did Draco. She looked over at him and saw that he had his wand raised. She quickly got out of bed and grabbed the cricket bat she had beneath the bed. She mouthed 'Stay Here' to Draco before opening the door.

"Petrificus Totalus"

Hermione felt herself freeze as a familiar voice fired the spell. The bat in her hand fell clumsily on the floor. She tried to look around to whoever had cast the spell but it was too strong. She closed her eyes and tried to cast the counter spell using wand less and non-verbal magic, but that didn't work. When she opened her eyes she saw Malfoy also frozen near her and a very upset Elizabeth crying at her side.

"Hermione Granger, you are accused of improper use of magic." Someone said from behind her.

They moved around her and Hermione felt her eyes water at who had cast the spell.

"I'm sorry Mione." Harry said to her shaking his head sadly.

A/N: Did anyone see that happening? Thank you for all the reviews and everything. My immature mind finds it hilarious that this has 69 reviews. Thank you to everyone who has favourite and followed Beautiful disaster. Not sure when the next update will be, so stay tuned.