Draco stood up from the bed, "I want you by my side." He said with a passion she was too scared to believe.
Hermione looked up at him and shook her head. She was so confused, "By your side?" She repeated with a furrowed brow. "How can I -"
"Mudblood's who are bound to a wizard hold more power than a pureblood wife," He explained, tucking a russet curl behind her ear. "There is nothing more intimate, more powerful, than a bonded pair, and I want you to be by my side, and not because I'm forcing you, but because you choose to be."
Hermione opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by a loud popping noise. It was Inigo.
"Sorry Inigo is disturbing the Masters, but the Parkinson is here," The elf said with a sour look.
Parkinson. The name sounded uncomfortably familiar. "Pansy Parkinson?" She asked.
Draco rolled his eyes and turned to the elf. "For Salazar's sake," He sighed heavily. "Make her go away."
"Inigo tried," The elf said miserably. "It doesn't listen."
Suddenly there was banging at the door, followed by the most ear curdling pleas to be let in.
"You should go to her," Hermione told him. "Whatever it is, it sounds important."
"I can promise you, it's not," He breathed out in annoyance. "She's here because she knows about you."
"Already?"
Draco shrugged. "Word travels fast in elite circles."
Hermione winced as the girl's petulant moans grew louder.
"Forget about her for a moment," Said Draco, taking her hands in his and drawing her attention back to him. "Think about what I just said."
"I have," She said, pulling away from him, this time slowly, as if it wasn't the easiest choice, but the right one, the moral one. "I took a calculated risk in asking to be bound to you. I was so desperate to have even an ounce of control over my life, and believe it or not, despite our past, I am grateful for what you did." She told him, warm brown eyes brimming with tears. " You could have left me there to whatever misery fate had designed, but you didn't. You kept your word. I just … I just wasn't expecting this…"
"What were you expecting?" He asked gently, so gently she almost forgot he bore the name Malfoy.
Hermione shrugged her shoulders weakly. "In truth, I was prepared to be enslaved, mocked, ridiculed. I thought best case scenario you would become indifferent, grow bored of me, and if anything you'd see me as something you managed to conquer." Draco watched as the tears fell from her lashes and rolled down her cheek. "But not this. You're asking me to be an accomplice, to betray everyone I love."
"That's not true." Draco took a step closer and took her face in his hands. "I'm not asking you to raise a shrine in the dark lords honor. I'm asking you to play the hand you've been dealt."
"And what if I can't learn to love you?" She asked him.
Draco merely smiled. "Even Hogwarts wasn't built in a day."
For the first time in months Hermione felt a small smile tug at the corner of her mouth as she recalled a similar muggle metaphor. "Whose side are you really on?" She asked him as he brushed away her tears with his thumbs.
"Our side," He whispered before bending his head to capture her lips with his own.