A/N: This chapter took ages to write and I'm not sure I've found my groove again, but I think I've got a good grasp of where we're going. And we're gonna finish, y'all. You've come so far on this journey with me, and I think we all deserve a resolution. So it might take awhile longer than I thought, but Draco and Hermione will find their happy ending.

TW: Depression

Hermione's Patronus had changed for him.

Rather, Hermione's Patronus had changed to reflect him. It reassured Draco that his love impacted Hermione just as much as her love had healed him. However, there was a small part of Draco that wondered if he had pushed Hermione too far or too quickly. Had she truly wanted to move to the manor, or was she simply desperate to escape her parents? Was she moving forward for the sake of their relationship, or was she still trying to prove something to Ron and Alicia Weasley?

"Have you noticed we haven't had sex since I moved in?"

Draco yawned and blinked himself awake.

"Sorry, what?"

"Have you noticed we haven't had sex since I moved in?"

Draco chuckled and rolled onto his side to see Hermione with the duvet pulled up to her chin. He placed his free hand on her thigh and asked,

"You think I wake up to you every morning and haven't noticed? You haven't been interested."

"That is part of the problem. When I think about sex now it's just work. I don't want it."

Draco frowned, a bit hurt.

"Not the most flattering thing to say to me."

"But it is not you, it's me. I think it is the potion I have to take. Penelope and Padma advised there could be side effects but they never mentioned this. You know I have rather naughty fantasies saved for the nights we are not together."

"No, I did not know that. Do tell."

Hermione's cheeks turned a delightful shade of pink.

"No, it is too embarrassing to say."

"Come on, my powerful, incredibly sexy girlfriend. Let me into your head for once and tell me what gets you off."

A hint of a smile crossed Hermione's face before she settled on a more neutral expression.

"'Incredibly sexy' is a new one."

"Shouldn't be," replied Draco. "You know how much I enjoy your tits."

Hermione revealed, "The bet one is you, me, and Viktor. He is in the front and you are ..." She awkwardly shifted away from him. "Not."

"Why am I in the back?"

"Because I've never done that before and you are the only person I trust to do it."

That gave Draco an unexpected sense of satisfaction. Hermione trusted him wholeheartedly. The biggest struggle was getting her to trust herself and have confidence in the choices she would make. Draco asked,

"Is this truly bothering you?"

"Yes!" Hermione groaned. "Even that fantasy doesn't get me going anymore. God, I am so tired all the time. I feel lost and now I can't even have sex with my gorgeous boyfriend. Padma said I won't be on the potion forever. It is only to give me a boost, ensure that I do not get so low I can never get up again. I need time to take stock and look at my life, figure out where I've gone wrong. Perhaps once I find myself I can stop these awful potions and we can have sex again."

Draco gave her thigh a reassuring squeeze.

"Yes; you, me, and Viktor Krum."

"I can barely satisfy myself, not sure how I could satisfy the two of you."

"All I am saying is that one does not have to be a fantasy."

Hermione rolled her head to the side and blinked up at Draco, skeptical. He sighed.

"I do not want you to get the wrong idea, that I am open to bringing other people into our bedroom. However, you having dated Viktor Krum would be like me saying I dated Merlin. I came out in Third Year, then right as everyone adjusted to it, my biggest crush in the world was roaming the halls of Hogwarts. I have been fascinated by him for as long as I can recall. The only thing better than having sex with you, Hermione, would be having sex with you and Viktor Krum."

"But you aren't having sex with me right now," replied Hermione, "and I feel as though I am depriving you of part of our relationship."

"You aren't depriving me of much. Two hands, one cock, a perfectly acceptable ratio."

"Two very talented hands."

Draco grinned.

"Are you ready to return to work today"

"As ever."

Draco found Hermione's hand beneath the covers and twined their fingers together.

"Whatever it is you need, I am here for you."

"I know." Hermione nodded." You are always where I need you to be."

.oOo.

Hermione went to work and Draco spent the day running errands, preparing to reclaim his title as head of the Malfoy estate. He hugged Sebastien and Scarlett before making his way to Tracey's home office. She brightened up immediately, obscured a bit by piles of parchment. She spread her arms wide and said,

"This is all yours now."

Draco sat in the chair across from her and admitted,

"I missed this more than I realized."

"Everything has stabilized. Outstanding action items are all on a list for you. We have a notary on staff at the distillery so all my forms are signed and will be presented to the Ministry tomorrow. On the first of January you will have your company back."

"It feels more like the estate is getting me back."

"Draco, we are all getting you back. For years we have watched you fade to almost nothing. Nobody wants to admit they failed you, but we did. You know, none of us signed up to be in this family. You and Theo found each other as toddlers. Blaise became part of this life when his mother left him with your parents time and time again. Bastien fell in with you lot when he was Sorted into Slytherin. I married in. Dean married in. Pansy keeps coming back. This family keeps growing, expanding, and it all comes back to you. You are the centre, the heart. You hold us together and we should have been there for you. Should've asked what you needed."

"I didn't know what I needed," replied Draco. "If you had asked, I would not have had an answer."

"We should've seen it, though. That's why you and Hermione understand each other so well. You both hid your pain in plain view and we shrugged it off."

"Am I rushing into this?"

"With Hermione?" Tracey shook her head. "Do what feels right for you both. If you wanted to get married tomorrow I'd find the officiant myself. You've got a flower girl and ring bearer on standby. You've got a ballroom at your disposal. Say the word and I'll make a guest list."

Draco laughed.

"We both need some time, but I told her I will ask one day and she confirmed she will say yes. It all comes down to timing."

"There is something else I need to speak with you about." Tracey moved some parchment so she was in full view. "Scarlett met a new friend and they have a playdate."

"Okay."

"Now, I think Scar's got a bit of a crush. I offered you up as a chaperone so they can figure it out without their parents hovering. Plus, it's one of those Quidditch matches with the tot teams; the ten-year-olds. Two years from now, Scarlett will be able to try out. You'll be able to explain the game better than Theo or I could."

"Why do I get the feeling there is another reason you volunteered me for this?"

Tracey grimaced.

"There's a couple more. You know Scarlett's always been a bit too much like you. To a frightening degree sometimes."

"I know, but she has the one thing I needed."

"What's that?"

"Parents who will put her and her brother above everything else."

Tracey smiled softly and said, "Thank you for saying that. But, um, this friend? It's a boy."

"What?" Draco's jaw fell open in shock. "But I thought ..."

"Both, Draco. It's both."

"Does she ... understand?"

"No, it's perfectly normal to her. She wants to hold his hand. She has never wanted that with a girl, but we both know one day she will. And I think you should be the one she feels safe talking to about it as she gets older. Theo and I, we're straight and we never had a relationship that wasn't this one. You know best what it will be like for her."

"Perhaps she is straight and we have been wrong. Maybe—"

"Draco, I know my daughter."

He shook his head.

"I don't want her to go through this, Trace. The things people say to my face—"

"And she won't let them because there will be no one in Scarlett's life to tell her it's wrong. Everyone around her will say she can hold hands with boys and she can hold hands with girls. This world will not do to my daughter what it did to you."

"Okay." Draco's palms were sweaty. "Okay."

"One other thing."

"Merlin's saggy left—"

"Her crush is Little J."

"Oh, good lord!" Draco groaned. "You mean to tell me that not only is my goddaughter bisexual, she has a crush on the Potter boy?"

"Like I said," Tracey shrugged, "she's you."

.oOo.

Draco walked through the front door of Malfoy Manor with a bunch of parchment tucked beneath his arm. It felt like coming home. As he made for the stairs, Draco caught sight of his parents in deep conversation with Hermione in Lucius's study. Draco turned on his heel and shouted,

"What's this?"

Hermione jumped and turned backward in the chair to face him. Narcissa answered as Draco made his way into the room.

"Your father and I are helping Ms. Granger transition to the next phase of her life."

"Next phase? Hermione, what are you doing?"

Lucius asked, "Did you not tell him?"

"Tell me what?"

"No, I made the decision and came straight here because ..." Hermione let her head fall into her hands. "I can't believe I am doing this."

"Doing what?" asked Draco. He tossed the stack of parchment onto the desk. "What is going on?"

"Ms. Granger has decided to resign her position as Head of the Office of International Magical Cooperation. She asked me to help write the letter." Lucius placed his quill in its inkpot. "Effective tomorrow."

Draco collapsed into the available chair.

"Why? What happened?"

"I took the Calming Drought." Hermione's hands trembled as she spoke. "The bit of it I keep in my desk? I took it all this morning. I can't make it a day anymore. Draco, I am so tense, so terrified of something falling through the cracks. I can't do my job. But that's not the worst part."

Draco leaned forward to place a hand on Hermione's shoulder.

"We can do whatever you need to do."

"That's just it," replied Hermione, "I think this will hurt you."

"How?"

"The narrative," Narcissa interjected. "Ms. Granger moves into the manor then suddenly quits the job she worked so hard for? They will make us the villains."

Oh.

"You know better than anyone how it works," Hermione said. "The papers wrap a lie up in just enough truth so people will swallow it. If I had a Galleon for every time I supposedly snogged Harry, I'd be able to buy Witch Weekly and rid the world of that nonsense."

"I don't care what the world says about me. I have survived being the villain, the whore, if they want to make me out to be something else then I cannot bring myself to care."

Hermione insisted, "I care. I don't want you to suffer because of me. I am losing the career I have worked nearly ten years to get, I cannot become a burden to you, too."

"You will never be a burden to me."

Narcissa revealed, "There are many ways to frame the narrative to our advantage. Obviously, my preference is a grandchild, but—"

"We are not having a baby to distract the papers!" Draco shouted. "I don't care about the narrative."

"I believe that is why Ms. Granger came to us," replied Narcissa. "She did not come to you."

"Fine, craft a statement or whatever you need to do. One that does not involve marriage or a child."

"My solution is to provide them with an alternate career path for Ms. Granger. We can drag the narrative out as long as we need, so she can find a true path on from this. Something along the lines of, 'Hermione Granger is delighted to announce her relocation to Malfoy Manor as she and Draco Malfoy begin to blend their families. While her personal life continues to move forward, Ms. Granger has resigned her position as Head of the Office of International Magical Cooperation. The Ministry has many capable employees who will carry on as the international magical community moves forward, and Hermione has chosen to find alternate methods to make a positive impact on the worldwide magical community."

"Perfect," Hermione said. "I love it. The statement says everything the world needs to know, which is nothing."

"Thank you, mother. Send it out tomorrow at noon."

"We will release a statement on behalf of the estate as well," said Lucius. "Shift the pronouns around, say what amounts to exactly the same thing."

"Nothing."

"Precisely."

"Right, I would like to lie down now," Hermione said as she stood up. She looked at Draco and said, "Come with me?"

He grabbed the stack of parchment and walked hand-in-hand with Hermione back to their room. Hermione kicked her shoes off and nestled onto the bed fully-clothed. Draco made for the bathroom but Hermione shouted after him,

"Will you come with me tomorrow?"

"Of course."

Hermione closed her eyes and wondered, "Am I doing the right thing?"

"I told you I believed the Ministry to be a waste of your time."

"You didn't answer the question."

"No," Draco agreed, "I suppose I didn't."

.oOo.

The following day, Draco stood inside Hermione's office as she placed a box on her desk. The room was suffocating, much like the bedroom she had in her parents' house. There were certificates and photographs that covered the wall opposite the door, charting Hermione's time from Hogwarts on. Then the tiny painting of a cat Draco purchased for her a year earlier. Several pieces of parchment were spread out across the desk, like she had left in a hurry the previous day.

Her hands shook as she began to fill the box with the mementos on her desk. A few seconds in, she just stopped. Her hands froze in midair as though she had been Stunned.

"Hermione?"

She did not move.

"Hermione, are you alright?"

"What am I doing?" she asked. "What the bloody hell am I doing?"

"You are making a choice."

"I don't know ..."

The box burst into flame. Draco jumped backward, while Hermione simply waved her hand to extinguish the fire.

She admitted, "I did not intend to do that. I am losing control of myself, and losing control of my magic." Hermione shook her head. "I don't understand what is happening to me."

"This is difficult, Hermione. I understand probably better than anyone how difficult it is to recognize you are on the wrong path. You see yourself in the proper light and recognize you are doing yourself a disservice, losing control like this. If you stay here, how long before the walls cave in on you?"

"I don't know." A single tear escaped Hermione's eye. "I just want to be happy."

"I want nothing more than for you to be happy, but happiness is love with a purpose. You have love, Hermione; I love you and I believe you when you say you love me. But look around this office and tell me, is this your purpose?"

Draco watched as Hermione glanced around the room. She didn't respond except to shrug.

"If it is, tell me and we can walk to Minister Shacklebolt's office to tell him we were wrong and you want this job. But we both know you don't want this job, you want his job."

Hermione nodded.

"You can't sit here and wait another decade or two for him to retire. You are too brilliant and too powerful to waste your time in that manner. And I love you too much to let you be anything less than what you are."

"I know." Hermione wiped her eyes and repeated, "I know. This is just so ... permanent. Once I walk out of here I will never get this part of my life back. After I leave, there is nothing. There's just me."

"No, there's us."

"You have a job, a home, and your closest friends know exactly where they stand with you. I have quit my job, am trying to make a new home, and I know Ron and Harry are keeping things from me. My entire life is nothing but question after question after question."

"Are there any answers in this room?"

Hermione shook her head.

"God, are there any answers in this fucking building? This place where we both have witnessed so much tragedy? Where we have been through such trauma? You keep searching for answers in the past, where there aren't any. What happened to us should not have happened. The people who were meant to protect us failed time and time again. I felt the same way in the manor so I had someone else tear it down and rebuild. I know it hurts to tear yourself apart like this, Hermione, but I promise I will be here to help you through it."

"I know. I believe you."

"Let's get through this together."

"How?"

"You take what you need, and leave the rest. Look around this room, Hermione, and figure out what you need."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Draco blinked and everything was gone. The walls were bare, her desk was free of everything except a quill and inkpot. Draco shook his head and asked,

"What the hell just happened?"

"You," replied Hermione. "The only thing in this room that I need is you."

.oOo.

Draco left early the following morning for a shortened run with Bastien. Five kilometres because it was too cold for much more. Every breath was like ice coating his lungs. The air sliced at his throat, but Draco had to do this, had to keep pace lest he slide backward in his progress. Bastien kept up easily, it was the last few kilometres of their longer runs that seemed to do him in.

"Theo told me about Scarlett."

"That girl is trouble," replied Draco.

Bastien countered, "That girl is you."

"I fear for her, you know? It's one thing to be publicly shamed, it's another to watch your family go through it."

"Yeah, mate, we all watched you get strung up by the papers. I think Scarlett's going to be alright because she's got a family who loves her unconditionally."

"I think so, too."

"I read the paper before coming out this morning. Sounds like you and Hermione are getting close."

"Close to what?" asked Draco.

"I dunno, just close."

"I did realize something last night. When I was holding her, I knew it was right. I know I have found the woman I want to spend my life with. But it made me realize something about my previous relationships."

"What's that?"

Draco took another deep, stinging breath.

"I loved Blaise."

"What?" Bastien grabbed Draco by the arm and pulled him to a dead stop. "What did you say?"

"I did," admitted Draco, "I loved him. I loved Gabby. What I felt for them was love. Hermione is something different, something more. You and Padma, Blaise and Dean, Theo and Tracey, Gabe and Romi ... What makes all of your relationships work?"

Bastien shrugged.

"I kind of thought it was love."

"No, it's more than love; it's conviction. That is what I feel for her. She is everything to me."

"Why don't you get back to her, then?" Bastien's teeth clacked together. "I'm freezing my bloody balls off."

Draco laughed and hugged Bastien before Apparating back to the manor. He jogged upstairs and into the bedroom ...

Hermione was sitting on the edge of the bed, fully-dressed. She had put on one of her Ministry dresses and done her hair. Hermione's makeup was perfect as she sat there, staring at the floor, hands resting on her knees palms-up. Draco gently closed the door and toed off his shoes. He slowly walked toward Hermione and she said,

"I forgot."

"What did you forget?"

"Every day I wake up, get dressed, and go to work. Now I don't have work, so why get dressed? If I don't need to get dressed, why should I get up at all?"

Draco remembered this moment. When he believed he deserved to die, Draco believed he brought out the worst parts of the people he loved: Astoria abused him, Hermione hit him, Blaise gave up on loving him.

"I am so lost. I don't even feel my magic anymore, there is only an emptiness inside of me. I woke up and didn't remember I quit until I was about to walk out the door. Then it all hit me at once. I feel so alone, even though I know I'm not. How can anyone be happy like this?"

If Draco had to guess, Hermione had watched everything she loved slip through her fingers. She lost her relationship with her parents, then her marriage to Ron Weasley, she lost a friend in Alicia, and all she had was this job. The one thing that kept her going every day had disappeared.

"What are you thinking, Hermione?"

She looked up at Draco with wide, terrified eyes. Hermione looked defeated. It was scary, seeing her fall apart right in front of him.

"What do I do?" Her voice cracked as she begged, "Tell me what to do."

A/N: Thank you for being patient with me, and I plan to have the next chapter up soon. Hope y'all are happy and healthy.