Draco sat at a table in the library at Malfoy Manor surrounded by books, most of them laid open on pages about pureblood marriages. He wasn't getting very far, as he was glancing up at the doorway every time he heard a noise that might signify her arrival. Just as he told himself to stop and concentrate for about the 40th time, the unmistakable voice of his house elf greeting someone rang through the halls.
"Hello Miss! Master has been waiting for you! Wumply will bring you to him!"
Draco rose from his seat and felt his heart begin to race as he crossed to the doorway. Just as he reached it, she came around the corner and they nearly collided, resulting in them standing face to face, only inches apart.
"Oh! Sorry!" they said in unison.
"Wumply is bringing Master his Miss who just arrived in the floo with his owl sir!"
Draco tore his eyes from Hermione to look at his elf. "Yes, thank you very much Wumply, you can go now," he said kindly.
The elf hung his head, clearly wanting to be of more assistance. Hermione picked up on this and added, "that is, after you bring us some tea please." The elf perked up, "Right away Miss!" and disappeared with a pop.
They both stared at the spot where the elf had just disappeared, avoiding eye contact.
"Have they been here this whole time in your absence?" she said to the empty space where the elf had just been.
"No, all of our elves were removed from the manor and sent to work at Hogwarts. We've been paying their fee of course."
She looked up into his eyes now, and he stared back, noticing that she glanced down at his lips for a moment. She was clearly thinking the same thing he was.
"When I was released they were put back in my care and I let them remain at the school. I just called Wumply back to assist me for today."
She had abandoned all pretense and was solely staring at his lips now.
"Right, I think I recall reading that… somewhere…" she said, breathless.
And then she was kissing him, and the room around them seemed to spin and disappear. She wrapped her arms around his neck and swayed on the spot. He responded with equal enthusiasm, wrapping his arms around her waist and swaying with her. He had forgotten the feel of her, the taste of her. Even though he'd been replaying their first kiss in his mind on a constant loop, somehow his memory had failed him.
He didn't know how long they stood there, enveloped in their bliss, unaware of the world continuing to move around them. Stopping and starting and desperately trying to devour one another in a way that couldn't be satisfied by this alone.
When they finally broke apart, he placed a light kiss on her forehead and she let her head lay upon his chest. He held her to him tightly, then began running his hands gently up and down her back. She let out a sigh and her breath shuddered.
"I need to move away from you now or I will never leave this spot, and I really do need to speak with you," he said, painstakingly.
She pulled back and stared up at him. He noticed the detail of her eyes, the deep brown color with subtle flecks of hazel. He'd never looked at her this closely before, and she seemed like a different person to the girl he'd tormented from age eleven.
He had the overwhelming desire to lean forward and kiss each of her eyelids. Her jawline. Her neck. He wanted to kiss every inch of her, but he restrained himself. Truly, he wanted to take her hand and lead her to his wing of the manor where his bedroom lay empty, yet recently cleaned and prepared by his elf, in case he should want to spend the night. Oh how he wanted to lead her there now.
Just as he thought this, his mother's voice invaded his mind…
Not lust. Not obsession…
He took a large step backward.
"I'm sure the tea is waiting for us by now," he said, staring directly into her eyes. She was taking deep breaths, and he suspected she was feeling a similar urge to seek privacy and speak not a single word to one another.
She nodded and made to follow him through the door of the library. He turned and led on, bringing her to two leather armchairs separated by a small table, which indeed held a tray of steaming hot tea.
Neither of them touched the tea, however, both bracing themselves for the conversation.
"Draco, before you say anything… I think I know what you're going to say."
"I seriously doubt that," he said, "but give it a go."
Hermione looked at him with fear behind her eyes, and gulped before saying, "I believe that you need to tell me that Astoria Greengrass has asked you to marry her."
His eyebrows flew up.
"And furthermore, that you've been forced to accept."
He let out a swift sigh, "wow Granger, I knew you were smart but I have to say I'm impressed."
She raised her eyebrows, "returning to my surname, then?"
"Only when you act annoyingly brilliant," he said with a smirk.
She blushed and a small smile crossed her lips before she took a breath and continued.
"It's happened then? The marriage promise?"
He leaned in, elbows on knees, almost amused by this turn of events. He'd been steeling himself to deliver this fresh, painful news and here she was already seeing into the future.
"How did you-" he began.
"Ron," she said simply.
"Weasley?"
"I saw him this morning, he told me Astoria's plans to find a suitable husband. He… he said she was going to refuse his right to see the child. I just put two and two together and assumed that that was why she'd been to see you," she finished sadly.
He didn't want to look at her. He hadn't expected them to get to this point of the conversation so quickly and wasn't yet ready for the next bit.
"So it's true then? The promise?" she prompted him.
He stared at the floor, nodding. He knew that he still had more information than she could hope to have, yet he was grateful for not having to explain it all in full.
It also occurred to him in that moment that she was still there with him, had still kissed him… perhaps there was hope. Perhaps she would agree to his request.
"But what I can't seem to understand," she said, breaking his thought pattern and causing him to look up, "is how did they re-instate it? I've been doing research in the Delacour library for hours and I can't find anything concrete on re-sealing a previous promise."
"However they achieved it, it seems it's real. I went to see my Father in Azkaban this morning."
He watched as her face went from confused to fearful at the mention of his father.
"And what did he say?"
"Not much. I didn't either, to be fair," he said.
"But he definitely confirmed it?" she asked.
Draco nodded, "He means to punish me for how I've behaved since I've been out."
"But- that's-" she sputtered, "How could he seek to hurt his only son? His family name? He's forcing a Weasely child to become a Malfoy? It's preposterous!"
Draco grinned, solemnly. "That's what my mother said."
She stared at him.
"Draco, how is it that your Father is even able to make these sorts of deals in his... position?"
Draco did not respond, but sat back and took a sip of tea, determined to avoid answering that question. He didn't want to get into this discussion about his father when he had something more pressing to get to in the conversation.
"Did he tell you what the clauses are?"
Draco scoffed, "as if he'd give me proper warning now. I expect he's waiting to bestow that information on me if and when I attempt to go back on my word."
"So you've- you've officially said yes then."
"Of course I have, I had no choice," he said, "my Mother warned me about that part, thank Merlin I spoke to her first. She of course actually cares for my well being. Father has always been desperately jealous of her love for me."
"But he's still your father! You're still his son! He couldn't possibly-"
"My father has never loved me, Hermione. He has proven it time and time again, and I've done nothing but give him reason to become even more spiteful and full of hatred for me these past three years. I believe this to be his moment of glory, as it were. He has me under his control, as far as he is aware."
Hermione grimaced, looking away and letting his words sink in.
"Cretin," she said through gritted teeth, "I hope he rots there," she said, and then slapped her hand over her mouth, eyes wide.
Her words were obstructed by the hand over he mouth as she mumbled, "I'm sorry, Malfoy."
Looking bemused, he said, "Back to my surname, then?"
She removed the hand from her mouth, looking at him apologetically.
"I didn't mean to say that. He is still your father and-"
He brushed his hand through the air, saying, "it's not a big deal, he has had little regard for me for some time now, I'm over it."
Hermione looked at him quizzically, but dropped the issue quickly, for which he was grateful.
"Draco… I've been doing research on these promises," she said, taking a slip of paper out of her robes and unfolding it, "and what I've found has been quite startling."
He nodded, motioning over to the table full of opened books on the other side of the room, "so have I."
She smiled ever so briefly as she looked over at the books, clearly noting their shared love of libraries and research. She turned her attention back to him and said, "then you know that awful things can happen to witches and wizards who attempt to break marriage promises."
He nodded. "I do know, yes," he said, feeling anxious again to get to the point. He was sure he knew even more than she did about the promises, but he had a plan. He needed to request that she trust him enough to spend time with him before the wedding. It wouldn't be breaking the promise for them to appear to be forming a friendship, and now was the time to make his intentions clear.
"Hermione, I know that the circumstances surrounding the marriage promise are… difficult, but I want to ask that we continue to spend time together prior to the wedding."
"P- pardon?" she said, looking frightened.
He recoiled slightly.
He hadn't expected her response to be one of fear.
Hesitation, sure, he had predicted that, but instead the look she gave him made his stomach turn over. It was as if he had requested she become a Death Eater.
"Draco, you can't disobey the promise, it's far too dangerous," she said, in a panicked voice.
His heart sank, his mind drawing multiple conclusions about her response at once.
She was afraid of him. It was all he could hear.
He was poison to her, just as he had always been.
"Well if you don't think it would be worth it…" he said, looking down.
"That's so far from the point!" and suddenly she was shouting, "we are talking about a potential life or death situation, do you really think… that this is-"
"Well that potential for life or death didn't stop you from snogging me the second you walked in here, and if you'll notice, we're both fine. No dark magic has been enacted upon us."
"I- I'm sorry, that was- I shouldn't have-"
He scoffed. "You know, Hermione, if you felt this strongly against us I wonder why you bothered coming here. I gave you a clear choice. I said you could write me back and say you weren't willing. I especially thought you wouldn't want to come back to this house and I wasn't going to force you, but here you are. Perhaps you could make up your damn mind about what you want for once."
She gasped, "and what is that supposed to mean? 'For once?'"
He turned away, a familiar righteous smirk on his face, "Never mind, forget I said it."
She stood. "No, I want to know what you meant, since you seem to have me all figured out!"
"The only thing I have figured out is that you don't want to be with me, you've made yourself quite clear."
She looked at him, stunned.
All of his walls were up, and he was not going to take them down for anything.
When she next spoke, it was in a softer tone, "Draco please do not take this personally right now, there's more at stake than just our… whatever this is."
He grimaced at her description of their relationship, feeling all the more resigned about any possibility of them falling in true love.
"And what else is at stake exactly, by your estimation?" he asked through gritted teeth.
She took a deep breath and looked down at her notes.
"This is only a theory, but… I fear that the unborn child is at risk."
Draco grunted by way of response.
"It's happened before," she offered, "a couple had a child outside of a marriage bond, and they refused the promise. The results were quite… devastating," she finished, her voice growing weaker with each word.
"Well you don't actually know that will happen here, do you? Any number of things could have been included in the clauses."
"Yes but are you really willing to risk it?"
"Clearly you're not. Clearly you're the one who has things all figured out, so why do you give a damn what I think?"
"I said it was a theory, Draco, I never said-"
"You've made yourself clear, Granger. We have nothing else to discuss," he said, rising from his chair, "Wumply will see you out."
She didn't move immediately, but watched him cross the library and begin closing and stacking the books he'd been reading. Then, slowly, she crossed to the door, stopping to turn and look back at him once she reached it.
"Draco I-" she began. He listened intently but did not look up.
Then she turned and ran from the room and he heard a single gasping sob as she made her way to the floo.
—
"Hermione, tell me the bit about the couple with the baby again," Neville said as he started in on his third butter beer. She had flooed directly into the three broomsticks and sent a message to Neville in his living quarters asking him to meet her there immediately.
It had taken two full pints for her to get through the entire story, and Neville had listened intently, gasping and expressing outrage, while also being comforting and understanding in all the right places.
He had graciously accepted her apology for shouting at him the previous night, citing that she too was horrible at keeping secrets. He also hadn't minded hearing that he was the first and only person she considered going to about this.
She supposed she could go to Harry and Ginny as well, but there had been less foundation to lay with Neville, less explaining to do. She knew she'd go to her other friends in time, but at this moment she really needed to speak to someone who could intimately relate to at least part of her plight.
"I really don't want to repeat it, Neville."
"Alright, sorry. Just trying to get it straight, it's a lot to take in. That part sounded truly horrific. Do you really think Lucius Malfoy would stoop that-"
"I put nothing past Lucius Malfoy, Neville. That's why this is so tenuous! I can't imagine what good would come from Draco and I attempting to continue a relationship! And yet…"
"And yet you still want to, and you feel cheated out of the opportunity to see what would come of it."
"Neville this is exactly why I came to you. I still feel I'm losing my mind, and yet you understand it. Thank Merlin for you," she said, taking his hand across the table.
He smiled and squeezed her hand. "I know it sounds odd, but when Pansy… broke things off with me, I felt similarly cheated. We had never really connected beyond the… the sex." He blushed.
Hermione grimaced at the thought, but Neville continued on.
"We had these small moments, though, where we seemed to really get on. I think if she could have put down her tough girl act, we might have had more between us. As it was, she just shut down as soon as things got a tiny bit real."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, now with rapt attention.
"Well… after a while I started to want more and she seemed to as well. Yet, the moment that I voiced concern for what people would think, she blew it completely out of proportion! She accused me of not wanting to be seen with her, which wasn't even true. I was merely trying to open a conversation about how we should tell people, but she just went off on me and ended things."
Hermione let this sink in, noticing some glaring similarities between Pansy and Draco. They were both Slytherins, of course, and known for their tempers and bold personalities veiling their insecurities. She looked up at Neville and noticed he was staring off into a corner wistfully.
"Neville, do you really… regret it that much? I mean, you're with Hannah now…"
He put his hands up, "Oh no! Not at all, Hermione, I'm very happy with Hannah. I just- sometimes I wish I'd had the opportunity to know… if it could have worked." He looked at her apologetically, but she knew he wasn't saying anything against his current wife.
She nodded. "I understand. Even if it is with the pug face," she said with a grin.
"Hey you're one to talk, snogging the ferret. Have you got little white hairs all over your clothes or did you brush them off before flooing here?" he asked, examining her clothing.
"Neville!" she groaned, smacking his hand away, "it's not funny!" Even as she said it, she laughed.
"Alright Hermione, I'm done," he said, taking a sip, "but you're clearly not."
She looked up, surprised. "What do you mean?"
He leaned in, "I mean, you told him you don't want to see him anymore, yet here you are pouring your heart out about it. You're not done with him by a long shot," he finished, taking yet another sip of butter beer.
"But I didn't even tell him that! Wait, did I?"
Neville shrugged, "sounded that way to me based on his reaction."
Hermione thought hard. Had she said that? She hadn't felt it, so it didn't seem logical that she would have spoken it. She did want to see him again. Desperately, so. She simply wasn't willing to engage in some plot to disobey the promise when an innocent child's life may very well hang in the balance. Was that so unreasonable? And wasn't that what he had asked her to do?
How had this gone so wrong so quickly? This was, without a doubt, the worst week of her life.
Well, after the Battle of Hogwarts, of course… and a large number of other horrific experiences in her life. Ok, so she was being rather dramatic, but perhaps the magnitude of a problem was directly related to a person's most recent circumstances, and couldn't just be weighed against all potential cruelties the world had to offer.
Her mind was spinning, and it wasn't from the butter beer. In fact, she'd been talking so much that she'd scarcely touched her first one.
She put her head in her hands and groaned again. "Ugh, I am a complete disaster, Neville!" she said, and she wrapped her arms around her head and put her forehead down on the table in front of her.
"The ferret must be a right good snog," he said with a grin.
She looked up at him, desperation in her eyes, "It's more than that, Neville. I think we could have- that is- I just…"
Neville stopped mid-sip and eyed her quizzically, "you really like him, don't you?"
"I don't know!" she shouted, loud enough to draw attention from a number of patrons at the bar.
He smiled and nodded, returning to his drink, "You definitely do. You just can't let yourself admit it. It's just like it was with Ron. You always have to make it complicated rather than simply being honest with yourself."
Hermione glared daggers at him upon hearing this.
"Neville, I think I should let you know that I am dangerously close to hexing you again."
"Then it's a good thing I took a Weasley hex-protective potion before coming here," he said, wiggling his eyebrows.
"Oh you absolute git, you did not!" she shouted.
Neville smirked, "I guess you'll have to hex me and find out when it rebounds on you. Still won't change the fact that you like Malfoy more than you want to admit."
"Ok fine! I do. I like him a lot, Neville, are you happy now?"
"I am!" he said, grinning, "now you just need to let yourself be."
"But how could I possibly be happy about this, Neville? It's all so inconvenient!"
"Love usually is," he said, matter of factly.
Her eyes widened, "I never said I was in love!"
Neville shrugged, "Only a matter of time."
"But Neville, he's to be married in a month's time!"
"Yes I did gather that, Hermione, you've only been explaining it to me for the past hour, along with all of the potentially disastrous consequences of him breaking his promise. I'm just saying… even a marriage promise can't get in the way of true love."
Hermione stared at him, perplexed.
"What in the world are you on about?"
He slammed his drink down, and she noticed a small sway in his body, indicating the beginnings of being quite pissed.
"Hermione, you read all sorts of books, don't you ever delve into romantic fiction? This is the perfect set up!"
"Neville," she said with a laugh, "are you actually telling me you read romantic fiction?"
Realizing his embarrassing admission, he grew still and said, "Maybe," through almost unmoving lips. She attempted not to laugh more, but unsuccessfully.
"I may have gotten bored on holiday with Hannah and picked up her copy of Pride and Prejudice! Jane Austen is a classic muggle author, though. It's hardly something to be embarrassed about!" he shouted.
"And yet your cheeks have never looked rosier," she said, taking a sip of her own butter beer.
"Well ha ha, Hermione, your point is made, shall I get back to mine?"
"Oh please do, I can't wait to hear this." She continued taking long gulps of her drink.
"Well… actually I'm not sure of my exact point," he said, looking confusedly around, "it's just important to note that most great love stories involve a fair amount of struggle before a resolution. Darcy and Elizabeth go through plenty before they get together, including him being promised to another, though of course they are muggles, so no violent catastrophes threaten to befall them should they choose another. Lots of societal pressure though! And his Aunt is formidable…"
Hermione was holding back fits of giggles and staring at him with a most gleeful expression.
"You know, you should read that one and see for yourself, Hermione, I'm not going to sit here and explain the plot to you. I mean, I would, but I don't think I can take you looking at me like that for much longer."
Hermione put her hand to her face and smiled, "I'm sorry, Neville, it's just such an amusing revelation."
"Glad I can be here for some comic relief," he said, downing his pint.
Hermione took his hand again, "Seriously Neville, thank you. I mean, I think I'm even more confused now, but still. I needed this."
"Any time, Mione," he said, squeezing her hand again and smiling. She returned to her drink before he spoke again.
"Hey how come we never dated, Hermione?"
She choked on her butter beer and then began coughing and sputtering.
"Neville that's quite enough drink for you, I think!"
"I'm just saying! We always got on well…"
"You're pissed, Neville. I always know you're at your limit when you start attempting flirtatious conversation with me. It's no wonder you ended up where you did with Pansy that night. There was quite a good amount of fire whiskey wasn't there?"
"Hey! That was a deep-seated and unspoken attraction she'd been sitting on for years!" he shouted, and some witches nearby looked over, giggling.
Hermione tossed a few coins down and leaned across the table, "and that right there is the difference between me and Pansy Parkinson, Neville. I was a bit busy harboring my own unspoken attraction for someone from another house."
She kissed him on the cheek.
"Thanks again. Get back to the castle safely, ok? Patronus me when you're there, if you can pull it off in your current… state," she smirked and walked to the floo.
"Hey, Mione?"
She turned to look at him. "Yes?"
"Whatever you do, please be careful. I know you will be, but… will you keep me posted so I don't worry? You know, about whether you're going to chance… things?"
"I don't think you have anything to worry about, Neville. I just needed to vent, I don't intend to stray from the current plan."
"Ok just… still promise me, okay?"
"Ok fine, I promise! Don't trouble yourself with it, Neville, truly. I'll be fine." she said as she waved goodbye to him.
He waved back as she disappeared into the green flames.