"Hermione," he began. "Neville wanted me to give you a message. There's been an attack."
The world stopped spinning with a sharp jerk. Hermione flopped back in the couch. Questions raced through her brain like wildfire but she couldn't seem to get any of them to come out. Draco stepped carefully across the floor and sat down next to her.
"I don't know all the details," he said softly. "Ron's been in St. Mungo's since yesterday. Neville's waiting for you in the Great Hall."
Ron was attacked? Ron was in St. Mungo's? She'd seen Ginny. Last night. Had she known then? She tried to recall her friend's face, to remember if she'd looked sad or scared or anything, but all she could remember was her sitting by the fireplace. She'd been working on homework—or at least pretending to—and it hadn't seemed like anything was wrong, like her brother being in mortal peril.
Maybe she hadn't known. Hermione clung to that slender hope as she stood up.
"I have to talk to Neville," she croaked.
Draco stood up to follow, but she motioned him to sit back down on the couch. If she was going to do this, she wanted it to be without worrying about the fight. "I'll be right back."
He must have understood, because he sat back down and watched her leave. Hermione didn't know how she made it to the Great Hall, but before she knew it she was standing outside of the immense doors. She pushed through them to see Neville waiting for her at the end of the Gryffindor table. The room was mostly empty, but she wouldn't have cared any more if it was filled to the brim.
"What's going on?" she asked Neville as she reached him.
Neville moved over, waiting for her to sit before he spoke. "A group of Aurors were tracking down a lead on a couple of Death Eaters last night. They found more than a couple. Ron got hit in the chest with a curse."
Hermione couldn't breathe. She forced the air down into her lungs and back out again. "He's going to be okay?"
"They're keeping him for a few days, but he'll be fine. The others caught the Death Eater that attacked him but most of them got away. I just…I thought you should know. I think the Auror Office is trying to keep it out of the Daily Prophet but I didn't want you to find out from someone else."
"Thanks, Neville." Hermione smiled but it dropped away when a thought kicked her in the chest. This should be Ginny and Harry sitting here, explaining everything. She should be comforting Ron's sister, reassuring her that everything was okay once and it would be again. She could take the awkward silences, someone else in her seat at dinner, the avoidance, the looks, the gossip, but this was something else. They weren't friends. They weren't enemies. They were strangers.
Hermione broke. Tears ran down on her face and she shook with sobs. Neville leaned over, pulling her into a hug. She rested her face on his shoulder, crying into his shirt. Her friends, the ones that she'd die for and indeed almost had many times, were gone.
When the tears finally ran out, Hermione leaned back and wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. "I'm sorry."
Neville shook his head. "I'll let you know if anything changes. And, Hermione?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm still here for you. And Luna too, of course."
Hermione stood up, needing to do something. "Thank you. Really."
"I'll see you later."
"See you." Hermione wandered out of the Great Hall and back to the Room of Requirement. A bolt of fear struck her as the door appeared. What if Draco wasn't waiting for her? What if he was still mad? What if he'd only come to deliver Neville's message and now she'd lost him again?
Hermione pushed the door open.
Draco smiled at her from the couch. Relief washed over her like a tidal wave. She stumbled across the carpet and into his arms. She knew deep down that the fight was still sitting there, waiting to be acknowledged, but for now she was ready to settle next to him.
"He's going to be okay," Hermione murmured. "I just can't believe…nobody…"
"I'm sorry." Draco held her tight and they lapsed into silence. There wasn't anything more that could be said between them, not now. After what felt like hours of silence, Hermione finally broke it.
"I'm sorry that I didn't trust you. About the necklace." Guilt coiled inside of her like a poisonous viper.
"I meant what I said, you know. About you. That when I'm with you, I really feel like I've changed."
"I know." Hermione snuggled closer to him. "I do trust you. It's just hard sometimes." She'd lost so much—her friends, her sense of who she was—but somehow, when she was with Draco, it was almost worth it.
Draco rested his chin in her hair. "We're a pair, aren't we?"
Hermione nodded but didn't reply. They really were. The war hero and the Death Eater. The Gryffindor and the Slytherin. The lioness and the snake.
She twisted so she could look into his eyes and place her hand on his chest. His heart beat under his palm, just as strong and steady as hers. If she put her hand on her own, she wondered, would their hearts beat together?
"Are we okay?" she asked.
Draco leaned over and kissed her forehead. "We're okay."
"You're still coming home with me for Christmas?"
"Wouldn't miss it."
He didn't offer to give the necklace back and she didn't ask. That was something she was going to have to earn and she was ready to try.
They stayed silent for the rest of the evening, just enjoying the pleasure of each other's company. An undercurrent of tension remained between them, the knowledge that she hadn't trusted him weighing on both their minds. It was well after midnight before they let each other go and headed to their respective dormitories.
Hermione wished that Draco would ask her to stay with him, but he didn't and she couldn't find the words.
Her bed felt strangely cold and lonely, especially with the knowledge that Ginny was lying just a few beds away. She peeked out of her curtains but Ginny's were drawn up tight around her bed. Hermione stayed awake until the early hours of the morning, unable to shut her mind down. How was Ron doing? What about the Death Eaters? Had they been able to get any information out of the one they'd arrested?
If Ron and the others had been surprised by the number of Death Eaters gathered, what did that mean? How many Death Eaters were involved?
She felt restless trapped in the castle. She wanted to do something, wanted to help. She'd always been able to turn to her books and come up with something that could help them. It was hard just sitting on the sidelines and watching it all play out around her.
Finally, with just a few hours before sunrise, Hermione was able to drift off to sleep.
When she rolled out of bed the next morning, Ginny was already gone. Hermione wandered down to breakfast but her old friend wasn't there either. Draco sat at the end of the table in his usual seat and for once he wasn't alone.
Sitting next to him, of all people, was Luna.
Of the two of them, Draco looked the most uncomfortable, a touch of the old Malfoy look etched onto his face. Though that may have been related to the fact that Luna was wearing an enormous straw hat with what looked like orange cherries rolling around of their own accord inside the brim.
"Hey, Luna," Hermione said as she slid into her seat, unable to take her eyes off the strange hat.
"Good morning, Hermione." Luna's eyes looked dreamy as she picked at a plate of potatoes mixed with peppers. "These are Gingerian cherries. They like to be taken out for walks. Don't get out much, poor things."
Hermione couldn't figure out how the cherries could know that they were being taken out for a walk, as they didn't appear to have any visible eyes or anything at all beyond their strangely colored skins, but she knew better than to point that out to Luna.
The small fruits did seem to be having a good time rolling around, to say the least. Just having Luna sitting there made Hermione feel strangely warm. After everyone talking behind her back and never to her, it meant so much that Luna was here with them now.
"Neville told me he told you about Ron," Luna continued.
"Yes, he did. Is there any news?"
Luna smiled dreamily. "He's still in St. Mungo's but I heard they're going to release him soon. Ginny got permission to go visit him for a couple of days."
The explained Ginny's sudden absence from Gryffindor tower and the Great Hall. Hermione frowned at her plate, struggling to come to terms with the fact that Ginny hadn't even found her to explain that everything was okay.
What if Ron had died? Would anyone even have bothered to let her know? Or would she have found out from the Daily Prophet or the rumor mill? The thought made her stomach turn over and she pushed away her plate.
"Thanks for telling me," Hermione replied.
"You're welcome." One of the cherries made a particularly large leap, tumbling over the edge of the hat and onto the table. Luna chuckled and tossed it back up with its buddies. "They're very active little creatures."
"I can see that." She glanced from Luna to Draco, thinking about how strange it was to see the two of them sitting at the same end of the table. Next to each other. Without looks of pure hatred. Everyone around them seemed to have the same idea, because they kept shooting covert looks in their direction and whispering to their friends.
Luna kept her eyes averted from the Slytherin next to her. Draco couldn't seem to stop staring at her. "I'm sorry," he blurted out. "I'm sorry for everything that happened to you and your family. I wish I could go back and change it, I really do." His voice was rough and hurried, like he couldn't get the words out fast enough. Hermione curled her hands in her lap, remembering the fear and weariness in Draco's face in those horrible days at Malfoy manor. He hadn't instigated any of it, he'd been swept up like the rest of the them.
Luna turned her gaze on him, lacking her usual smile. "One apology does not change a lifetime. But it is a start."
Draco looked grateful as he nodded. Three of the cherries hopped out of their corral and rolled over the table. Draco caught a pair of them in his hands, chuckling as they appeared to nuzzle his fingers. Hermione captured the third before it rolled off the edge, examining it with a curious eye. It didn't seem any different than regular cherries—ignoring the color, slightly larger size, and the fact that it moved constantly.
She handed it back to Luna who returned the three to her hat. "I should probably get going," she said. "These guys don't like to sit still for very long and I need to get to class."
"I'll see you later, Luna," Hermione said.
"Of course." Luna skipped away, the cherries bouncing up and down precariously in her hat. Hermione and Draco shared a confused glance. Hermione felt like Luna had removed a brick from the wall between them and the rest of the school. Like, for once, they weren't alone. It was at once liberating and terrifying.
When Draco walked through the door of the Room of Requirement that evening, he carried a letter in his hands and an invisible weight on his shoulders.
"What's going on?" Hermione asked, the possibilities flashing through her brain. Lucius had been released. Or broken out. Narcissa was captured or injured or worse. He was being kicked out of Hogwarts.
Draco unfolded the letter with shaking hands. "Mr. Malfoy, we regret to inform you that your application to attend the Healers' Academy upon your graduation from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has been waitlisted. It is still early in the academic year and openings are constantly being made. We will inform you immediately of any changes regarding your application."
Hermione reached out to grasp his wrist, pulling him down onto the couch next to her. "You didn't tell me that you'd already applied to be trained as a Healer."
"I applied at the beginning of the year. Before…" Before any of this started. "I didn't want to say anything until I was sure it would work out." He looked wrecked, his fists clenched around the letter so hard his knuckles were turning white.
"I'm sure something will open up and you'll be let in," Hermione said. She tried to pull him in for a hug, but he wasn't having it. He slid away from her until he was pressed against the other end of the couch.
"What if it doesn't?" He ripped the letter in half and crumpled it into a ball. "What if this has nothing to do with openings or my qualifications or other candidates? What if this is about me? I thought this might be my chance to choose my own future, but what if I can't?"
Hermione's breath caught in her throat, the weight of everything he was carrying crashing down around her. Even in this their lives were on completely different wavelengths. There would be a place for her at the Ministry, but Draco…he would always have to struggle to change people's minds about him.
Everyone—his coworkers, his subordinates, his bosses—would be colored by the shadows of his past and his family.
"What are we doing, Draco?" Hermione asked, the words squeaking out of her throat.
"What do you mean?" He turned towards her, the dark shadows under his eyes seeming more pronounced.
"This whole thing. You and me. This goes up against everything you've ever known, everything your family has ever taught you." Hermione tapped into the dark shadow at the back of her mind, the one that told her that someday Draco would wake up and realize what was going on. Or maybe that this whole thing was just some elaborate game.
"Me? Most of my family has been in favor of Muggle slavery at some point in time and yet you want to take me home and introduce me to your parents?" Draco's expression twisted into something defensive, like a cornered animal, rather than condescending.
"What about you?" Hermione snapped. "Do you think that Muggles aren't equal to wizards just because they weren't born to do magic?"
"Of course not!" Draco sighed with a huff.
"Then what are we doing? We're from two completely separate worlds, different sides of the tracks."
"What tracks?" Draco's face scrunched up in confusion.
"It's a figure of speech," Hermione snapped, practically shaking now. "What happens when we get out of here and you go back to being you and I go back to being me?" It was strange to think of herself that way, like who she was with Draco and who she was without him were two completely separate people. She didn't want to admit it, but she'd grown comfortable in their little world inside Hogwarts. It wasn't perfect and it wasn't easy, but it was like being inside of a bubble. It wouldn't be too much longer and that bubble would pop, they'd both graduate and go out into the real world. Hermione had allowed herself to believe that things might be different out there, that they'd be accepted, but that was a fantasy.
She had grown used to the idea that she would have a position waiting for her but now that she'd thrown her lot in with Draco, was everything as certain as she thought? If the Healers were refusing to accept Draco because of his past, would the Ministry question her judgment as well?
"I am me. Right here. Right now," Draco said, breaking her out of her thoughts. "All I know is that I'm better with you and that as long as you'll let me in, I'll be here."
Hermione moved a little closer towards him and he took the cue and pushed himself over next to her. "It doesn't make sense," Hermione whispered.
Draco rested his head on her shoulder. "Life rarely does." Hermione closed her eyes, snuggling closer to him. She felt content sitting here but also strangely segmented, like her life had been divided into "Before Draco" and "After Draco" and she couldn't figure out how the two coincided. Nothing about this made any logical sense but she felt like she was in the right place in a way she hadn't experienced since hunting Horcruxes with Harry and Ron. She'd made her choice and it was too late to go back, even if she'd wanted to.