November 18th, 2011

A/N: Hey guys, it's me again! (: Can you believe it's chapter ten already? I know I'm not always the most frequent updater, but I love all of you who have stuck with me from the very beginning. There's gonna be a sequel to this story, about Rose and Scorpius, and I'm just gonna tell you one thing: Rose is still Ron's daughter. She's just not Hermione's. Another thanks to the ah-MAZING Cat!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter Ten

Draco's knuckles were white due to the fact that he was clenching the arm rest on the couch so hard. Hermione watched him with the kind of concern she would have shown Harry, which was remarkable because only a few months ago, she hated Draco Malfoy with a burning passion.

Hermione knew that Draco was just a few mere words away from attacking Ron. Even Harry seemed agitated, he who tried his best to never get involved in his best mates' rows. Had Ginny been there, she would have already been at her brother.

"I shouldn't have asked you to come here, 'Mione. I'm sorry," Harry said, without once taking his eyes off of Ron, who was poised to take off the second he was threatened. In truth, he was more scared of Hermione than both Harry and Draco combined.

"Harry," Hermione's voice was much softer as she placed a hand on Harry's arm, "it's okay. Truly. I think this was good for all of us. Helped us see how different we've all become. Well, maybe not you, but definitely Ronald and me. I think…I think I'm going to go now. Draco?"

Draco figured that Hermione wanted clarification that he wasn't about to pummel her ex-boyfriend. He heaved an over-dramatic sigh and turned pleading eyes to the war heroine, as if he were asking her, Can't I punch him at least once? Hermione shook her head with a slight smile, and Harry watched all the while.

"Bye Harry. Thank you for trying," Hermione said, standing up and hugging the raven-haired boy – or rather, man.

"Not a problem. I just wish more good had come out of this."

"Oh Harry…it's not your fault. And I think some good did come out of all this. It made me realize that I will be alright without being involved with Ron," Hermione told Harry quietly. "I'll be back later, okay? I can't stay here for much longer. As much as I'm alright with everything, I don't want to face the others quite yet. Especially Gin."

"Understandable," Harry remarked mildly. "She can be a bit…frightening, sometimes."

"That's the understatement of the century," Hermione said, laughing as she mimicked what Draco had told her previously.

"You'll call or owl if you need anything?" Harry asked, growing more serious and not letting go of Hermione.

"Yes, Harry, I promise. But I've got to go, alright? There are far too many elephants in this room, and there have been the moment I walked in."

Hermione and her Muggle talk. She was lucky Harry understood it, else he would have thought she meant that as an insult to Ron and maybe even himself.

"Right then…we'd better go make sure Blaise and Gina aren't doing anything too inappropriate in front of the kids. It was definitely interesting to see you again, Potter," Draco said, holding his hand out to Harry once he had released Hermione from their incredibly long-lasting hug.

"I dunno if it'll ever be normal to me, seeing you at the Burrow. Take good care of Hermione for me, yeah?" Harry replied, shaking Draco's hand.

"I don't think she needs anyone taking care of her aside from herself, but I'll try my best."

"That's all I'm asking."

Harry's unspoken approval of Draco and the fact that he trusted the former Slytherin with Hermione meant more to her than most would have thought. The two men were both major parts of her life, and she hadn't been sure how she would have handled them not getting along. The fact that Ron was saying nothing was only a small problem for Hermione.

Draco held out his arm for Hermione with mock gallantry, causing her to laugh again as she slipped her arm through his. She looked at Ron one last time, then felt that twisting sensation she always got when she apparated.

"That went better than I actually expected," Hermione admitted once she could stand without feeling a bit dizzy.

"Honestly? I think that could have gone much better if Weaselbee cooperated," Draco said as Gina came to see who had appeared in the front room of the daycare.

"I didn't expect you to be back for a while. How did it go?" Gina asked, glancing over her shoulder to make sure none of the children were hanging from anywhere in the building.

"Oh, it…went…" Hermione replied vaguely. Gina rolled her eyes.

"You can tell me about it later, if you'd like. Now, do you want to take the rest of the day off? Because I don't want you around the kids if you're going to swear like a sailor any time you do something wrong."

It was Hermione's turn to roll her eyes. "Gina, I'm perfectly capable of being around the kids. If you haven't noticed, I'm not an example of an emotional wreck right now."

"That's very true," Draco interrupted, "but Potter gave me instructions to take care of you, and I assume that means you don't get to work. Not to mention that you look like you're dead on your feet right now."

"Thank you, Draco, because every girl loves to hear that."

"I'm just telling the truth! Besides, you can't deny that you're tired. Gina, doesn't she look tired?"

Gina chuckled. "Yes, Hermione looks like she is tired," she said in the tone she used to placate the five year olds in her care.

"See? Even Gina agrees. Come on, you need to go sleep or something."

"Draco, it may have escaped your notice, but we just left the Burrow for a reason, and that's the place where I'm staying right now."

"You can come to my flat, then. Hermione, please. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but Potter and I agree for once, and it's that you need to be taken care of for just a few days."

Hermione could recognize a battle she would not win easily. It was the logical part of her brain speaking then, though. The stubborn part refused to show any weakness, unless she was with Harry, who could understand her best.

But Draco was concerned about her, and it wasn't fair to him to keep on withdrawing into herself.

"Okay, I'll go with you," Hermione sighed. In truth, she didn't want to be taken care of, but Draco was set on treating her like a piece of fine china. So she didn't pull away when he grabbed her hand, and didn't protest when he apparated for the second time in a few minutes.

If Hermione had any thoughts about what Draco's flat would look like, they were dismissed the moment her eyes focused on the interior design. The walls were a pale blue color that Hermione personally loved, and the entire place was homey and not the least bit what one would have expected of a Malfoy.

"If your mouth opened any more, I dare say a football could fit in it," Draco remarked, smirking as he draped his coat over a chair in his kitchen.

"Did you decorate your flat yourself?" Hermione asked, sitting down at the counter when Draco motioned for her to do so.

"I may be exceptional, but I'm not that exceptional," Draco said, his smirk turning into a grin as he poured some tea for the two of them. "My mother hired someone to help me and I just told them they could do anything they liked as long as it wasn't too dreary."

Hermione glanced around again and smiled before she sipped at her tea. "I like it. It suits you."

Draco arched an eyebrow, leaning against the kitchen island on his palms. "Does it really?"

"Yes, it does. It wouldn't have suited you four years ago, but now it seems like the kind of place you would live in," Hermione replied with a small shrug of her shoulders. She stared into her cup for a moment, then looked up and asked, "Aren't you ever lonely here?"

"Why? Are you offering to move in?" Draco joked.

Hermione rolled her eyes, though she couldn't contain her laughter. "You're horrible. No, I mean, does it ever seem empty?"

Draco thought about it for a moment. "I suppose not. I'm not really here very much. I'm either with you or at the hospital."

Well, that day was full of surprises. Hermione hadn't realized that she spent the majority of her time with Draco, outside of work. In fact, she had spent more time with him than she had with Ronald BEFORE they broke up.

"Do you get called in a lot, for emergencies?"

"I'll put it this way. I'm their Harry in a crowd of Death Eaters," Draco said. "They'd be swamped without me, and I am not exaggerating. Are you hungry?"

"Draco, we just went to lunch."

"Oh, right. When you're ready to nap or whatever, you can use the guest room."

"Alright, thanks," Hermione said, smiling. She hopped off the bar stool she had been sitting on and made her way over to the sink, meaning to wash her cup. It was the least she could do, when Draco was going out of his way to make her comfortable.

Draco's hand reached out and closed around Hermione's wrist. "Oh no, you are not to do anything while you're in my care. Potter implied as much, and I happen to agree that you shouldn't be bothered at all. Now go sleep."

Hermione shook her head a bit in exasperation and hugged Draco tightly. "Thank you for being there for me," she said, her words muffled by the fabric of his shirt. It was the first time she had actually hugged Draco, and it threw their height difference into high definition. Hermione disliked being so short, especially since she was around very tall people quite often.

To say Draco was surprised would not be any stretch of what he was feeling. Before he knew it, Hermione was walking away, and to his bedroom no less.

That wasn't too big of a deal, so long as Draco hadn't left personal belongings lying about the way Ginny had when he and Hermione went to the Burrow to have their little meeting with Harry and Ron. Even so, Draco felt slightly uncomfortable with the thought of Hermione sleeping in his bed.

As long as she doesn't know it's mine, Draco thought, wandering over to the couch so he could watch the telly. Upon discovering it, he had found that it really was entertaining, almost to the point where it was addicting.

Meanwhile, Hermione was shedding the sweater she wore over her t-shirt and her shoes. The jeans she was wearing were loose enough that she could sleep in them, so she crawled into the bed and promptly fell asleep. She didn't even notice that the sheets were in a sort of disarray when she walked into the room, but if she had, she doubted that she would have cared. Blokes certainly did not make the bed in the guest room, if they had one.

Draco could hear Hermione snoring through a closed door. He didn't know she did that, but now that he did, he suspected she moved a lot in her sleep as well. At one point he rose and slowly opened the door to his room to check in on her, and found Hermione curled up with her brown curls spilled out on his pillow. Draco smiled and ducked out again, then spent two hours watching Muggle programs and sports.

He couldn't bring himself to relax. The entire situation seemed surreal. Hermione Granger was there in Draco's home, sleeping in his bed in a position that one could compare to a cat. And she wasn't involved with Ron, either. It all seemed too perfect to Draco, the way it had when Hermione had approached him when they both went back to Hogwarts to redo their seventh year.

"Ginny, what are you staring at?" Hermione asked and craned her neck to see what had captivated her friend so.

"The last person I expected to show his face here," Ginny replied, picking up her goblet of pumpkin juice. She looked at it thoughtfully, as if she was contemplating throwing it at the person she was speaking of.

Hermione turned around all the way and found that she was staring at one Draco Malfoy. She wasn't shocked like Ginny. It made sense that Draco would return, if he valued his education the way Hermione herself did.

For the rest of the year, Hermione did her best to be amiable when it came to Malfoy. She had been made Head Girl to Draco's Head Boy, which didn't bother her as much as it should have. The two developed a pattern, a routine, and it worked well until Ron visited Hermione at Hogwarts.

Draco was enjoying his seventh year more than he had enjoyed any other. He was mostly ignored at school, which suited him fine, and Hermione was a constant in his life. He even considered her to be a friend, in his mind, at least. Then Weasley showed up. Weasley proceeded to threaten Draco to "stay away from Hermione." Draco wouldn't have obeyed those instructions, if Hermione hadn't been so distraught over the whole ordeal.

So they started to avoid each other. Draco was the first to close himself off to Hermione, only talking to her to discuss their duties as Heads. It made him miserable, but Hermione seemed better, and that was all that mattered.

And now they were friends again. Draco didn't know if the past would repeat itself or not. Ron couldn't claim Hermione anymore, nor could he boss her around, so he could be subtracted from the equation. That didn't make it any less complicated.

Draco jumped to his feet when he heard a door open. He wasn't expecting company and feared the worst.

"And you say I'm too tense," Hermione said quietly, smiling. She had a blanket Draco recognized from his room wrapped around her shoulders, and her hair was tangled. She looked as out of place in Draco's flat as he did.

"Sleep well?" Draco asked when Hermione sat down next to him.

"Mmhm," she replied, leaning over so her head was resting in the crook of Draco's neck.

Is Hermione okay…? Or does she think I'm Harry? Draco wondered.

"Thanks again for everything, Draco."

Okay, so she knows I'm not Harry. Maybe she's just confused. I wouldn't be surprised if she finally got off her rocker.

"Where did you go?" Hermione asked, looking up at Draco with amusement plainly evident in her eyes.

"What? I didn't go anywhere," Draco said, his eyebrows furrowing together in confusion, the look only deepening when Hermione laughed.

"I didn't mean that physically. You just seemed deep in thought. I guess it was kind of my way to ask what you were thinking about," Hermione explained, playing with Draco's fingers since his arm was wrapped around her.

"Oh. I was just wondering if you were alright," Draco replied, though he didn't elaborate on why he thought Hermione wasn't okay.

"Is this about Ron? Because I've already told you that I'm not too bothered by it all. I think Molly is upset enough about it for the both of us," Hermione said, the corners of her mouth twitching up in a smile. "George is really angry at Ron too."

"You mean the twin with a missing ear?"

Hermione didn't know when Draco would learn all of Ron's siblings' names. "Yes, the one with the missing ear."

"Why is he so angry?"

"Harry says it's because he feels protective of me. They all do, but he thinks George does the most." Knowing Draco would ask another question, Hermione continued. "Harry has a theory that George is so protective of me because I helped save Fred when he would have died. And had Fred died, a part of George would have as well. I've told him over and over again that he and Fred are like my brothers, but George will have none of it and treats me the way he treats Ginny, except to the extreme."

Draco blinked. "Who knew blokes could think like that?"

"Me, of course, and Harry too, which is one of the reasons why Ginny loves him."

"Of course, Hermione," Draco said. When Hermione gave him that look, it was best to just agree with whatever she was rambling on about.

They sat in companionable silence, their eyes on the television although neither of them was paying attention. Hermione kept thinking back to that elderly woman from a while back, the one that commented on "young love." No one, the exception being the Weasleys, had ever said that about her and Ron. Then a random stranger said it about Hermione and Draco. How odd was that?

Draco, on the other hand, was doing his best to stay away from sappy and cliché thoughts revolving around the way having Hermione in his arms and flat felt right. Insane thoughts lead to insane actions, after all, he reminded himself. He considered telling Hermione how odd he thought their current position was, but when he glanced down at her, he found that she was asleep once again.

He sighed, out of relief more than anything else. Draco turned a bit and brushed a light kiss on the top of Hermione's head – he wouldn't have dared to do such a thing if she had been conscious.

"Sleep well princess."

A/N: It's raining buckets where I am so I'm more or less miserable ._. I have chapters eleven and twelve already written, but I'm saving them so I have something to upload tomorrow and on Thanksgiving. Don't track me down and kill me, now.

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