The morning of September first Draco helped Hermione move her things back to Gryffindor Tower. They'd both ordered the books they'd need for the year via the post and, once she'd locked away her things where he couldn't go they both stood in the hall outside the portrait.
"Well," Draco said. "This is it. First day of school."
Hermione crossed her arms, uncrossed them, and then sighed. "Yeah," she said. "Goodbye peace, hello itty-bitty first years who can't find the toilets and who lose their familiars."
"Whatever happened to that cat of yours," Draco asked her.
"Ran off during the war," Hermione said. "Lost, like so many other things."
Draco nodded and reached out for her hand. "I'm sorry," he said. "Do you want another one?"
She shook her head. "I don't think I have it in me to look after a pet right now," she said. "And I like to think he's on the grounds somewhere and once he knows things have calmed down he'll come back, a little skinny, maybe, and with a scar or two where he defeated some nasty stray, but mostly in one piece."
Draco gave her a long look as that but she didn't seem to mean anything other than the surface words. Pansy would have meant something else. Theo would have meant something else. Hermione, however, seemed to be just talking about her missing cat.
"Do you want to go for a walk before the train arrives?" Draco asked. "One more glorious afternoon of freedom?"
She squeezed his hand. "I'm not going to abandon you," she said.
"Doesn't matter what you plan," Draco said. They began making their way down the stairs and slipped into a passage that had survived the destruction and rebuilding of the castle so they could take a short cut to an herb garden Professor Sprout had started. "This school is designed to separate people. Starting tonight we'll be sitting across a huge hall from one another at every meal, spending free time in separate dorms. We'll meet for classes but only because there are so few people in things like advanced Arithmancy they have to combine the Houses." He shrugged and let got of her hand to push open the door that led outside. "Wouldn't want anyone else to get contaminated by too much contact with the snakes, after all."
Hermione ignored the bitterness in his tone as she passed by him, thanking him with the automatic courtesy she still offered every time he held a door, and settling on a small bench in the walled garden. "I love this spot," she said. "I hope it doesn't get to overrun." She ran her hands along a stem of lavender, pulling the purple flowers off and dropping them into Draco's outstretched hands. "And do you really think I don't plan to sit with you at meals?"
"I don't think I'll be welcome at the Gryffindor table," he said, bringing his hands to his face to smell the herb. "And you might be uncomfortable surrounded by Slytherins."
Hermione tilted her head to the side and smiled. "Do you think that would stop me?" she asked.
"You can't sit with me tonight," he protested. "It's the Sorting Feast."
Hermione shrugged and tipped her face up to soak in the sun. "House Unity is supposed to be a thing," she said. "And I'll sit where I please."
"Rules - " he began and then stopped. "You mean it," he said.
"Did I ever mention how I robbed a bank?" Hermione asked.
Draco began to laugh. "No," he said, "though I am aware anyway. Some of your exploits are pretty common knowledge."
"If I sit with you," she said, "your parents will find out. Are you ready for that?"
Draco let the purple flowers fall through his fingers to the brick pavers and said, "I wrote them weeks ago, after the thing with the Prophet I figured I had to."
"You never said."
He shrugged and looked away. "I was hoping to be able to tell you they didn't care," he admitted. When she didn't say anything he turned back to face her. She had her eyes closed and was trembling. "I think if you can rob a bank, I can survive a little parental disapproval of my dating choice," he said. She let out a breath and he could see her throat bob as she swallowed.
"I know how important they are to you," she said.
He took her hand. "I love them," he said. "But they don't get to pick my girlfriend."
. . . . . . . . . . . .
A/N - Argghh! I've only got 6 chapters front loaded! Need to write!
Thank you, again, for all your lovely support and kind words here and on tumblr. You don't know how much that means to me or how it keeps me going.