A/N: New chapter up! Yay! I want to thank everyone who has favored/followed and reviewed this story so far. Your feedback is much appreciated.

Now, let me present to you: Theo, Blaise and Teddy!

Disclaimer: If it sounds familiar, it's not mine! I'm just playing with them.

A dream's a deed unsigned
A nameless ghost of yesterday defied
So the answers aren't streamlined
To open up before you pay to try
And it's all seen through your lenses
Coloring
The images you call
To give you wings

So weave the world a play
Such turns of fate
To let you have your way

~Poets Of The Fall, Center Stage~

Oh, the things you learn when you sit down and listen:

That your friends decided long before you, that they didn't want to support the dark lord's cause anymore…

That they never told you because they never believed you had it in you to defect…

That your aunt, who you thought, your whole life, was a coward and not worthy the family name, was so much like her sister, Narcissa. As just, as courageous, as proud and every bit as Black…

That she held a safehouse that didn't answer to the Order….

That the order didn't know who she kept here safe and that your old Transfiguration professor actually would support something so outrageous…

You think you know people…know what to expect of them… He glanced sideways to Granger, sitting next to him holding her hand lightly on his thigh under the table…Then they do something completely out of character, and what you thought you knew will be shattered to pieces.

He must be awfully bad at reading people….

Now they had been left alone to the kitchen: him, Granger, Theo and Blaise.

"Your turn Draco! Tell us what you've been up to? How are you here?" Theo threw a sharp look at him.

He shrugged, "Nothing much… Just lying around Granger's"

Blaise raised an eyebrow looking from him to her and back…. They were sitting suspiciously close, he reckoned, but didn't really want to move away from her comforting warmth.

"Death eaters tried to torture him to death…he has been staying at my place ever since." She cleared out.

"So, you fight for the order now?" Theo still sounded suspicious. Why? He couldn't figure out…

"I just want this war to end" He said silent but determined.

Granger had taken his hand and squeezed tightly.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Theo shot.

"What side do you fight for Nott?"

He thought he heard an accusation in her voice as she faced Theo across the table.

"What I do, is not your problem to figure out, princess. I've earned my place here, haven't I?"

"Theo" Blaise warned with a low voice.

Why did Theo find a need to question his motives? He had no idea…What exactly had happened to his friends?

"What? Doesn't it bother you Blaise?" Theo was still glaring at them, "Last time we saw him, he swore loyalty to the Dark Lord. Wasn't he the last we thought would turn? And now we're expected to just believe his story?"

"You have no idea…" Draco muttered.

"He was questioned under veritaserum. McGonagall had no reason to suspect him of anything." Hermione stated.

"Maybe she didn't ask the right questions"

"What's the matter with you Nott?" Granger stood up suddenly, "This is Draco! Your friend Draco! And he has told you everything there is to tell. What is it you need, to be convinced?"

Every eye in the room was staring at her now. She had placed her hand on his shoulder and that seemed to throw bought Blaise and Theo of track. They were just gaping at that hand…

Then Blaise looked at him, Draco, like he had just walked in the room.

"You're here because of her…" Blaise muttered as to himself

"What?" Theo asked loudly still sounding angry.

"Draco's here because of Granger."

"Yes, she told you she saved me…" He was getting rather frustrated.

He had been so relieved they were not dead and now they threw this to him?

"No, that's irrelevant." Blaise was looking at Hermione now.

She was still standing, hand warm on his shoulder.

"Blaise you can't seriously think…" Theo still wouldn't give up.

"Look at them Theo!" Blaise motioned to their direction.

He knew, Blaise knew him well enough to see it. And he knew, him leaning into Granger's touch was telling enough. He hadn't been aware of that before: how he shifted lightly to her direction every time they were close. She was like a magnet pulling him to her. He could have fought the feeling…he had had time to leave, to run from this war, but he hadn't. There was no point denying it was all because of her…

No one said a word, glaring at each other across the table.

"Go on Draco…" Theo challenged, "Deny it."

He stayed silent.

"Seriously? You abandon everything you were because of…a mudblood?"

He didn't have time to think why Theo would say something like that here.

He didn't think he had ever moved so fast. Within seconds he had jumped up, pulled his wand out of his pocket and pointed it at his friend.

"Draco" She said in a quiet soothing voice.

"What did you call her Nott?" He growled, not hearing her.

Theo had raised his hands as a sign of surrender, "your words not mine." there was a hint of amusement in his voice now.

"Don't you dare." He hissed, not lowering his wand, "You have no right"

His free hand pressed to a fist. But at the same time, she lifted her hand to his wand holding one, pushing it down tenderly.

"Draco," He looked at her, she was facing him now, her calm eyes beholding his, "It's ok"

"I can't believe it…"

For a moment there, he had forgotten there were other people in the room, the sound of Theo's voice snapped him back.

His friends were staring at them with whole different look on their faces, now.

"You and her, eh?" Blaise asked nearly teasingly.

What was he to say to that? So, he just shrugged giving a slight grin.

"I fucking knew it!" Theo screamed out, smacking Blaise's arm, "Pay up!"

The air in the room had turned from threatening to light in mere seconds.

"You…that was all an act, wasn't it?" Her voice sounded surprised, but a little amused too.

"You think we would have gotten it out of Draco Malfoy nicely?" Blaise was grinning widely, "We've had a bet on you two since the Yule Ball."

Yule ball? on fourth year? that was like eight years ago?

"What?" She seemed to follow his train of thought.

"Oh, come on! You are like two sides of the same coin! Intelligent, passionate, prideful…" The note on Theo's voice was completely different now, "Besides, I just kind of love Rome and Juliet!" he said over dramatically.

"Except the dying in the end part…" Blaise added rolling his eyes.

"So, you made a bet on us? we hated each other back then!" She sounded like she thought they were crazy.

"You'd like to think so Granger." Theo challenged.

"Oh, you wouldn't believe how he went on and on about you that night!" Blaise pointed at Draco, "I think it lasted for weeks..."

"The nerve of that mudblood Granger, showing up with Krum." Theo imitated, and he felt the redness rise to his cheeks, "Did you see her ridiculous dress?", "Wonder how many hours it took to tame that catastrophic hair.", "It's not like she could be pretty, no matter what she tried."

"Nice try mate, but we caught how you looked her…"

They were definitely enjoying this…

"You can't be serious!" Granger threw her hands in the air, "That's so…so Slytherin of you!"

They all laughed.

It felt good to laugh with Blaise and Theo again. Like something broken had been fixed…like his soul was little more whole than yesterday…like the war and the darkness shifted a little further...

They talked for hours. By lunchtime the rest of the safehouse joined them.

.

.

.

Days went by

Andromeda and McGonagall kept a safehouse for outcasts it seemed. In addition to them, Blaise and Theo there were three other people: A girl, about 18-year-old, Lyanna, who had been bitten by Greyback. Her parents were pureblood…they had thrown her out to die. McGonagall had found her starving in the forbidden forest. Lyanna's boyfriend Alexander had refused to leave her alone and join his muggle parents into hiding. So, he was there too. They kept to themselves mostly.

And then there was Andromeda's grandson, Draco's second cousin, a five-year-old Teddy Lupin.

Teddy was a painful reminder of the cruelty of war. His parents were dead…Grangers eyes filled with sorrow every time she looked at the boy. Teddy, on the other hand, seemed to have no worry of the world. He would bounce around happily, babbling endlessly. It was kind of twisted, how he brought bought sorrow and happiness to the house.

"Ddraco! Look, look!" the boy had turned his hair the same shade of blond as his.

Teddy was a metamorphmagus like his late mother Nymphadora.

"That's great." Draco muttered. He had never been close to children before, so he didn't quite know how to talk to the boy.

Hermione giggled beside him.

"What?"

"You really need to relax around Teddy. He's just trying to be your friend." She smiled.

"YEE Ddraco's my friend?" Teddy yelled out.

Hermione kneeled beside the boy and whispered: "I think Draco is a little shy around you Teddy."

Draco rolled his eyes.

"Shy? Why? I'm not dangerous?"

"No, you're not sweetheart."

He glanced at her smiling to the child. Seeing her like this stirred weird feelings in him…feelings he couldn't put names on.

Theo burst into the room, "Teddy, mate! What did you do to your hair?"

"THENO!" Teddy immediately turned his hair to match Theos dirty blond.

"Why does he call you that?" Hermione laughed standing up.

Theo shrugged, "I guess it's short of Theo Nott…He has called me that since the first time we met."

Teddy was clinging on Theos arm now, "Can we play chess again Theno? Pretty please!"

Theo too smiled to the boy warmly. Draco thought the expression looked strange on his friend's face. Pureblood faces were obviously made for negative emotions like malicious glaring and sneering, only.

Theo and Teddy left the room.

Hermione looked after them with sadness in her eyes.

"You pity him?"

She turned to look at him, "No…I mean, he has Andromeda and the boys. I can see he's happy…but he reminds me so much of his parents. He's a constant reminder that they are not here anymore. They won't see him grow and he will never get to know them…"

"He will know them…Andromeda and you, others, will make sure they're never forgotten."

She tried to blink the tears away…but they rolled over. He reached for her and pulled her closer.

It was almost funny, how having her close calmed him. Like the heat of her body took away all the worry he might have…except for these mushy thoughts in his head…jeez, get a grip!

"Do you think it's time for us to get home?" Her voice was muffled against him.

They had been staying for about a week. He had assumed they were staying the rest of the war…

"I didn't know we were going back?"

"Well, I sleep better at home." She lifted her face to look at him, "And I'm used to privacy."

He said nothing… Truthfully, he wanted to grab her and go already. He liked to spend time with Theo and Blaise, yes, but he missed their routines at home…her home! He had to remind himself.

"Besides…we have a war to end!" She was staring ahead now, "One more success and we'll be free…"

"Hermione,"

She lifted her face, her breath ghosting on his face, serious eyes looking deep into his like she could see right through his soul. He took a deep breath, "About Tuscany…"

She smiled brilliantly, "Like I would let you slither out of it."

She rose on her toes to meet his lips.

Kissing her freely like this… his hand on the small of her back and hers warm on his chest... it just felt right. Like for that moment he knew where he stood in this world, who he was and what he wanted out of life. Like he was whole.

It thrilled and frightened him, how someone could hold his life in their hands like that…What if she died? What if she didn't want him after the war? He shouldn't let her define him like this... But what could you do? It was not like he was leaving either…

Someone cleared their throat by the door. They broke apart at once.

"I still can't believe that is real." Blaise grinned at them.

He lifted an eyebrow.

"I mean you two!" Blaise waved his hand between them… "I mean, it looks real, but we, me and Theo, we expected denial...especially from you, Draco."

He shrugged. He was not going to explain himself to Blaise. But he had thought about it too…how he just excepted what he was feeling for her. It had been easy to ignore everything when it was just the two of them, and their only reality existed inside the walls of her apartment. It had been easy not to think about what they were. Then, he had nearly lost her, and knowing the excruciating pain the thought of her gone caused him… what would be the point of fighting the will of never letting her out of sight again? If the thought of losing her made him feel so terrible and lost, why bother denying?

"We are at war Blaise." She said next to him, "There is no promise of tomorrow and I don't know about you, but if I had some way of defying, even a little, the darkness surrounding my life, why would I deny it?"

"Does someone else know about him?"

She shook her head.

"You're quite something, Granger." Blaise said with a half-smile on his face.

Draco pulled her closer to his side. Yes, she was…

.

.

.

They returned home. Her home! But when he fell asleep on the familiar bed with her familiar scent around him, he couldn't help but to think how much this felt like home for him, too.

Should he be bothered? He was asleep before he had time to process it further.