Hermione's P.O.V
When Draco told me to look at the marks on the women's arms, I instantly rubbed my arm where I have a similar mark. I could feel the bumps of the scarred writing, all smooth and horrible. I remember when Bellatrix did that to me and it was probably the most painful experience that I have ever had. The scar was going to be a permanent reminder of what I am to other people, especially purebloods. However, not many people know about it though which is a good thing. The only people that know are my friends and the ones that witnessed it.
I feel ever so sorry for those girls, they shouldn't have to be put through something like that, they don't deserve to have that happen to them, and they haven't done anything wrong. They had to go through the pain I did with the mark and that was painful and I bet that they would have endured a lot more than what I did. They look terrible, cuts and bruises all over them, their hair all matted with what I can assume is blood, their clothes are ripped to shreds, barely covering them up. My eyes tear up at the sight. How could John, who I thought was nice, do something like this? How could anyone do something like this?
Draco led me away. I didn't speak throughout our journey home. Draco didn't make any conversation either because I think he knows I don't want to talk, I like him for that, not pestering me like Harry and Ron would do but, Draco just leaves me to let me be on my own with my thoughts, which I do appreciate.
I still remember that day as if it was yesterday. It was so incredibly painful, something I have hoped that nno one else has to go through. I remember everything, everyone that was there and the smells, the way everything looked and everything. I remember Draco being there, he did nothing but watch, I couldn't see his facial expressions because my eyes were blurred with tears, I remember that he got taken out of the room and I never knew why. I still remember being annoyed that Draco didn't do anything but I suppose, if I think about it, he couldn't have actually done anything without making it worse.
'I'm sorry.' Draco says as we walk down the path to our home.
'What for?' I ask bewildered.
'Because I was there when you were going through that pain. I am sorry I didn't do anything.' He says sadly.
'It's not your fault.' I tell him honestly.
'My Father took me out of the room you know, as you started screaming. I wanted to hurt Bellatrix as much as she was hurting you because I hate seeing people in pain. My Father told me that I should have had the Malfoy's blank expression to show that we don't care so no one will get suspicious. He told me that I wouldn't have to watch anything again, the only time I would have to is when the Lord was there. Luckily no one saw my expressions so we were safe, at that time.' He says trembling.
'I understand Draco. I used to think, why didn't Draco do something but now I understand. If you had helped you would have ruined your whole families cover and you would have been tortured and killed as well as the rest of your family.' I say touching his arm.
He looks at me defeated and sad. He nods but I know he will still blame himself. I can't imagine what it was like having to watch and go through everything that Draco did knowing that you couldn't do anything about it.
We don't talk as we do our normal routine. I brush my teeth and get changed in the bedroom whilst Draco showers. Before Draco finishes his shower I am already curled up in bed. I can still hear the shower on as I think about what transpired that night. I can't believe John would actually do something like that. Muggleborns are the same as purebloods, just because they don't have magical parents doesn't mean that they are worthless. If we were chosen to be witches and wizards that should show them that we are magical and that we belong here. If we didn't belong here we wouldn't be magical. We are all humans and we are all capable of magic. Nothing separates us from them apart from magical parentage.
Those girls don't deserve to be treated the way they are. I remember getting my "Stamp". It was extremely painful and something that I would never wish for anyone else to go through.
'I'm going to have a conversation with this one. Girl, to Girl.' Bellatrix said right into my face. Ron and Harry get dragged out of the room and I am left with the Malfoy's and Bellatrix. Bellatrix gets right up in my face.
'Where did you get the sword from?' Bellatrix almost screeches.
'I don't know.' She uses the crutiatus curse. I scream in pain.
'Where did you get the sword from?' She shouts louder.
'I don't know.' I cry out as she uses crucio on me again.
She pins me onto the floor with my arms out.
'The sword was meant to be in my vault in Gringotts, how did you get it? What did you and your friends take from my vault?'She whispers in my face.
I cry. 'I didn't take anything. I didn't take anything.'
'I don't believe it.' She whispers and turns and digs into my arm with her wand and I scream from the pain and I try and move but she is strong.
When she finished she turned to the goblin and leaves me. I cry quietly whilst the blood from what she carved on me still drips.
I didn't even know Draco got into bed until his arm touched my shoulder. I flinch in surprise and Draco retracts his hand away from my shoulder.
'Sorry.' Draco mumbles.
'It's ok. You just caught me by surprise; I didn't know you got into bed as I was thinking.' I say.
Draco puts his arm around my waist and pulls me to him.
'Are you ok?' He asks into my back.
'Yea, just a bit shaken by the way the women looked tonight.' I say holding onto his hand tightly around my waist. I lie there in silence thinking about something happy. Suddenly, the conversation I overheard with Draco and John pops into my mind. I remember all the nice things that he said he loved about me. I also remember that I still have to tell him what I love about him.
'Draco?' I ask to see if he is still awake.
'Yeah?' His reply is muffled by the pillow.
'Do you remember when I told you that I would tell you what I loved about you after we got back?' I wait for a reply which comes in the form of a muffled sound. 'Well do you want to hear them now?' I ask quietly, hoping to talk about something happy.
'Yes, I've been anxious about what you are going to say.' He says.
'Well, I love the smile you have. Not your smirk but when you genuinely smile, like when you read your letters. I also love how you make my day exciting and challenging. I love the way you hold me at night even though you don't know you are doing it, I feel safe. I love the way your hair looks in the morning, all scraggy and covering your eyes. I love your chuckle and I love the way you try and do things like the breakfast this morning, even if you could call it breakfast.' I chuckle.
'Hey! I have never made it before, don't be mean.' He says.
'I love more or less everything about you except the fact that you can be stubborn.' I turn to face him.
'Same about you, you are way stubborn than me. I really like what you said you love about me. I know I am a great person.' I smack him across the head. 'Ow.'
'Stop being cocky.' I say hitting across the head again. There are a few minutes of silence. 'I think we should bring our daughter down here on Thursday, the day before we follow John because I doubt we could bring her when we are planning on capturing John. Also, I don't think I can be without seeing her until we get back, that's too long. Don't you agree?' I ask looking at his face.
'Yes, definitely. I think we can protect her, definitely. I will send an owl in the morning to the minister to ask if it will be ok and if he can take her to us.' He says smiling down at me. I nod whilst looking into his eyes. He has beautiful eyes; they are a very unusual colour, blue/grey colour, oceanic. His eyes give away his emotions, I can tell when he is angry when he is sad and when he is confused. However, right now his eyes are portraying a different emotion that I don't quite know. I swear our faces are getting closer, is he going to kiss me? Oh my god, I think he is, he is looking at my lips, I think I might kiss him. His lips touch mine and it's a gentle kiss at first as he waits for me to push him away but I don't. I've missed this. Our kiss is getting deeper. I shouldn't be doing this, we aren't even friends yet we can't just jump to something like this, no matter how much I want to. I pull away. I see the hurt in his eyes but that quickly disappears.
'What?' Draco asks.
'We can't just kiss like that. We have decided we would try and be friends. We can't just jump over that and start making out or whatever. I do like you Draco and I mean a lot but we should take it slowly so we don't mess this up because I don't want to ruin whatever this could be in the future if we rush into it now.' I get out of bed and walk out the room and downstairs towards the back garden.
It's quite warm considering how late it is. I walk over to the bench in the middle of our small garden and sit there with my face buried in my hands. I shouldn't have let that happen. I enjoyed it yes, but we can't just jump straight into something like that. I know I jumped into it at the end of the war but that was just to get away from everything. I know it seems like I have already taken that jump with Draco but this time it is different, I don't want things to go back to the way they were when we get back, I don't want it to just be like a one night stand like last time. I know that it probably won't happen like that but I never know. Not until I am certain that it won't just be another one time thing I will try and have a relationship with Draco if that's what he wants.
'I know what you are thinking.' Draco says from behind me. I've been too engrossed in my thoughts that I didn't here Draco come outside. 'You're thinking that it's going to be like the last time. Well it's not Granger. I'm not just going to have my way with you and then pretend it never happened when we get back. I'm not like that anymore Hermione. I know we said that we would be friends first but we have already been passed the stage of friends ages ago in the room of Requirement, so it's not like we are jumping into something that we haven't done before because we have. I really like you Hermione and if this is going to work I want to do this properly. I know I kissed you but I wouldn't have taken it further, not yet anyway. I think we should skip friendship because we already know lots about each other, we are living together right now and it wasn't great at first but it has gotten better, I think we should have a relationship. If it works out it will be great for our daughter to have the proper family she deserves and not parents who will hardly see each other but only when she is there.' He says standing in front of me now.
'That was a long speech.' I smile.
'Yes of course I have been sat in the bedroom thinking about what I was going to say while you were out here. Now do you want to try and have a relationship?' He asks tiredly, looking at me.
'Well, that was a nice way to ask me out Draco so, ask me nicely and we will see what my answer will be.' I can see that he is getting slightly annoyed because he wants to know. I think it's funny to make him ask me out properly because I don't think he has treated a lady nicely or asked her nicely for anything.
'Hermione.' He sighs. 'Will you be my girlfriend?' He looks quite nervous of what my answers going to be.
'Hmmmm... I will think about it.' I get up and leave before Draco can say anything. I know he will come and follow me so I quickly go into the bedroom. I get into bed and use my wand to turn out the lights and put my wand on the bed-side table. A few minutes later Draco storms into the bedroom calling my name. I don't open my eyes and I pretend to be sleeping and I try and keep my face neutral.
'Granger, I know you're not sleeping.' Draco growls from next to me. I ignore him.
'Hermione, don't leave me hanging, it will frustrate me and you know it.' He pauses. 'Please.' He begs into the darkness.
I ignore him again and he huffs and mumbles something about me being annoying. Seconds later he is in bed. I wait for a few minutes before I turn over and jump onto him so that I am sitting on him. I look at him in the eyes and I know that I have caught him by surprise by the way he's looking at me.
'Of course I will be your girlfriend.' I kiss him. 'But we take it slowly.' I say smiling.
'I will take it as slow as you want.' He says kissing me again.
I close my eyes again after a while so I can catch up on some needed rest. This time, instead of facing away from each other, we are embraced in each other's arms. This is so much better I think just before I drift off to sleep.
I wake up to an owl pecking on the window. I turn over to face the window to find that Draco is gone. I frown. I get up and open the window and the owl sweeps in and lands on the desk. I untie the letter of the owls' leg and give him a treat. With that, the owl hoots and flies off into the sky. I look down at the letter and see that it's named to Draco. I turn it over to see a ministry stamp on the back. I frown. What could this be about?
'Draco?' I shout from the bedroom. I wait for a response for a few seconds and get none. I go downstairs and into the living room whilst looking at the letter in my hand. I raise my head to see if Draco is in the room and notice that he isn't. I walk into the kitchen and notice that he is outside sitting on the bench. I open the backdoor and walk over to him.
'This came for you.' I say and Draco turns around.
'Thanks.' He reaches out and takes the letter from me. Whilst he reads it, I go and sit next to him wondering what the letter can be about. I see from the corner of my eye that Draco is grinning widely so it must mean that it isn't anything bad.
'So, what's it about?' I ask.
'I remembered to write to Kingsley this morning and he replied.' He tells me.
'When did you send that? Surely it wouldn't arrive till late afternoon.' I say puzzled.
'I wrote at about 2 this morning because I woke up and thought that if I didn't write it then I would probably forget to do it in the morning.' He informs me.
'Oh okay. So what does it say?' I ask curiously.
'He says that there would be no problem in bringing our daughter down for the day. He even said he will escort her to and from her.' He says excitedly.
I don't reply but instead and turn and hug him tightly.
'This is amazing; I never thought that he would allow it.' I say excitedly.
'I know, neither did I.' He says and I kiss him excitedly. He responds after a few seconds of shock. After a few seconds and get up and smile at Draco and turn around and skip happily to the backdoor.
'I am going to write to her telling her that she can come and see us both.' I say happily before going inside and upstairs to tell her that's she is coming on Thursday, 3 days from now.
I am sorry that I took so long to update, I have been struggling writing the parts between the main parts. But I have finally finished this chapter. As you can tell. I would really appreciate it if you could do a little review so I will know if you are enjoying it and what you are thinking of it so far. Thanks muchly :3 xx
