New Chapter! Also, please excuse any and all grammatical errors. I do my best but after reading the same thing so many times my brain just "fixes" the problems and doesn't have the decency to tell me. Love you all!

-ooOoo-

Sammy could feel Draco's trepidation through their clasped hands as she led them over to the Gryffindor table where her sisters sat. She'd watched Kailey return with Harry; both of them looking a little star struck as they walked hand in hand to sit by Emma and Brittany. Draco had smirked when she'd pointed it out and bent down to whisper, "Don't count on me looking that stupid after our first kiss."

She'd given him a mock angry glare before it morphed into a Cheshire grin, "Challenge accepted."

She'd been tempted to spring the kiss on him right then and there but almost immediately dismissed the idea. She knew that the first kiss between soulmates was a spectacular show of magic as their cores came together. It wasn't something she wanted to share with the entire Great Hall. So instead she simple smirked and winked at him before turning to finish her plate of food.

Now as they made their way towards her sisters and everyone she knew Draco didn't like, she tried to invoke feelings of peace and calm through their hands.

Brittany was the first to see them. Grinning excitedly, she beckoned them to sit in the empty spot in front of her and her match.

"Hi you two! Sit down, sit down." She reached across the table and held her hand out to Draco, "I'm Brittany. The second oldest in this Bradey Bunch."

Draco gently shook her hand but clearly didn't understand the muggle reference. Sammy made a mental note to educate him. Otherwise he'd never keep up with her family.

"Pleasure. Draco Malfoy."

Brittany gave him a beaming smile and sat back as their attention turned to the red head beside her. The man held his hand out to Draco, his blue eyes steady as he said, "Charlie Weasley. Let's leave it all in the past yeah?"

Sammy was so relieved when Draco didn't even hesitate. "Draco Malfoy. And yeah, I'd like that."

"Great!"

Everyone's attention turned to the two twins who had spoken at the same time. They leaned across the table, each holding out a hand to Draco.

"Fred Weasley."

"And I'm George."

Emma snorted from between them and shook her head, "It's the opposite Draco. Don't pay them any mind."

The silence around the table had Emma looking around in confusion.

"What?"

The twins were staring at her in utter awe before the one on her left seemed to snap out of it.

"My dear, beautiful goddess,"

"You are perfect for us."

Emma rolled her eyes but blushed all the same as the whole table burst out laughing.

"Whatever. You just need to be nice to our new brother-in-law and tell him who you both really are. The last thing he needs in this already awkward situation is to think you're switched."

Draco shrugged and reached out to shake each twins hands in turn, "It's not like I'd have known either way. I think you're the only one who can tell which is which."

Harry's voice piped up from a bit further down the table, "Yeah, how'd you do that anyways?"

Emma shrugged, "I dunno. I can just tell." She gestured vaguely to her sisters and said, "Give my sisters time to observe them and I'm sure they'll be able to tell them apart too."

There was half a beat of silence before Ron asked, "Why should they be able to tell?"

Brittany was the one to answer, "We had four different sets of identical twins in our grade at school. Two sets were some of our best friends. It was a matter of survival in figuring out how to tell the difference." She laughed and added, "Besides, Sammy and Kailey are twins, albeit not identical, but I think it's given us an edge when it comes to that."

"Wait. You're part of a twin set?"

Sammy leaned forward a bit to look down the table and watch Kailey nod. Harry's eyes then found hers before looking at Draco with a bit of a grimace on his face.

"Yes Potter. We are bonded to twins. We will have to figure out how to be civil with each other."

Ron snorted and muttered, "Like you even know what civil is ferret."

Before anyone else could respond Sammy had her wand out and had thrown a silenceo spell at him.

"I warned you to keep your opinions to yourself Ronald Weasley. You're lucky you're going to be my brother-in-law, otherwise that spell would have been something a bit more permeant." She then glared at the rest of the people at the table. "Let me make myself perfectly clear. I will not tolerate people speaking ill of my family. Draco is now my family. I understand that there are things that have happened in the past that will be difficult to address and move on from. But we will move on. I refuse to raise my children in a toxic environment where their own family will shun them or speak badly of them because of who their father is. My children will get enough of that from complete strangers and while I can't control that, I can control what their family says about them." She paused, her face softening, to look around the table again, "I'll be the first to admit that my sisters and I don't have any idea what you all have been through and I wouldn't dream of downplaying the history that's between all of you. But for the sake of my children, I have to draw the line and I hope that it will be respected because I really want to be a big happy family."

"I think that is a perfectly acceptable request and I will expect the same."

Everyone turned to see Hermione holding Theo's hand beside the table. Sammy smiled and nudged Draco over so there would be room for them to sit beside her.

"Hermione! Come, sit. Welcome!"

The twins boisterous voices broke some of the tension at the table.

Hermione cleared her throat and said, "Everyone, I believe you know Theo Nott."

Again Charlie was the first to extend a hand and as they shook he said, "I'll tell you what I told Malfoy, let's leave it in the past yeah?"

Theo nodded and smiled, "Sounds like a good idea to me."

Sammy flicked her wand, releasing Ron from the silencing spell and watched as his bonded placed her hand on his arm and speak before he had a chance to.

"I think your request for all of us to be civil is a wonderful idea. Especially for the sake of our children. I think we have the perfect opportunity with this situation to raise children who won't judge each other based solely on which house they get sorted in. If we want any kind of chance at making sure something like Voldemort never happens again, the best shot we have at that is raising all our children to love each other regardless."

Most everyone nodded grimly as Lavender went on to added, "I honestly think that it's a good thing Emma, Brittaney, Kailey and Sammy weren't in the war. Having them as non-partisan in our group will be a good thing. It will help keep us all honest."

There was a moment of silence at her words, during which Sammy leaned back into Draco and felt him wrap his arm around her waist, his hand splayed across her stomach.

"You're absolutely right Lavender. It will take time, but we will move on from our shared history. For the good of our children and the magic community at large."

The twins raised their glasses and said together, "Well said Hermione. Let's all toast to that."

Everyone raised their glasses as George said, "To moving on"

They all repeated the mantra and drank. As the glasses were sat back on the table with varying degrees of roughness, Fred turned to Brittaney with a rather miscevious grin on his face and asked, "So my dear sister-in-law to be, what do you think of dragons?"

Brittaney's whole face lit up while at the same time her sisters groaned.

Emma slapped Fred's arm and huffed, "Great! Now you've done it. We'll never get her to shut up now."

"I think they're the absolute best thing in the whole world!"

George ignored Emma and said in an overly excited voice, "Really? That's fortuitous. What do you like about them?"

"Everything. Absolutely everything. I was so lucky to get an internship with the sanctuary in the States for the past three summers and I'm absolutely ecstatic about the opportunity Mark Kodiah, the director of the sanctuary, gave me in funding my research project I'm going to start after I finish school."

Sammy watched Charlie take a calculated drink as he asked, "What are you wanting to research exactly?"

She turned her excited gaze on him, clearly pleased her husband-to-be was interested in hearing about her life's passion.

"Did you know that contact between sanctuary's is almost nonexistent? None of them are in communication about their discoveries of the dragons they care for. Not for each individual dragon or each species as a whole. On top of that none of those crazy dragon keepers write any observations, tips, tricks or anything else useful down. They just pass it all on verbally to the new recruits. I Owled every single dragon sanctuary to specifically ask. I was shocked when they responded that none of their keepers keep logs. And the worst part is none of the directors I wrote to seemed to be concerned about it! I mean, this is how information is lost over time! Anyways, I brought my concerns to Mark and told him how I'd like to fix it. He liked my idea enough to fund me. I'm going to travel to all the sanctuaries and gather absolutely everything I can from the keepers to be written down. I'm then planning on compiling it all together into one book, or more probably a series of books, to be published. My hope after that is to have built a good relationship with all the sanctuaries so that I can then implement a better communication's system between them all so that we can better care for the dragons. I'd love to be able to include a proposition for an international breeding program in there too, but we'll have to see how everything else goes."

By this point the only people listening to Brittany talk about her life goals was Hermione, Theo, Draco, and Sammy, as they were the closest. Charlie's eyes had never once strayed from Brittany's face and he truly seemed excited about what she was talking about. His eyes had slowly lit up the more she talked until towards the end he was nodding eagerly with all her points.

"After that, I want to do field research on the Norwegian Ridgeback. It's the rarest dragon and we really don't have a lot of information on it and," she paused and seemed to realize just how much she had been talking about dragons and blushed, "Sorry, sorry. I really do get carried away."

At that the four watched as Charlie set his glass of pumpkin juice down and said with a huge grin on his face, "Love you can talk about dragons all day long as far as I'm concerned. It's all I do anyways."

At her confused look, he chuckled. "I'm one of those crazy dragon keepers that doesn't write anything down you're so rightly frustrated with."

Sammy grinned as her sister stared opened mouthed at her fiancé. "You… you are?"

"Yup. And I think you're ideas are bloody brilliant. It'll be difficult for us to get into some of those sanctuary's you're wanting to visit, as a couple of 'em like to guard their secrets more fiercely than a dragon guards his gold, but I think once we explain why we're wanting to write the books and establish a communications system, they'll get on board."

Brittany blinked at him, "We?"

Charlie shrugged, "Part of this whole marriage law thing is that we have to live together full time until we've fulfilled the five kids requirement. We'll have to pull a few strings to get them to let us leave the country, but I think as long as we promise to remain citizens here and send our kids to Hogwarts, we should get them to let us travel."

"But… but what about your job as a dragon keeper? Surely you don't want to give that up?"

He leaned forward to brush a strand of her hair behind her ear. "I just want to be working with dragons period. While I loved being a keeper while a bachelor, the job doesn't lend well to being married and having kids. A bit too dangerous yeah? Besides, what you're wanting to do will be a huge step in the right direction for the sanctuaries and the dragons they care for. I'd be honored if you'd let me help you with that."

She stared at him for a split second before throwing herself into his arms and kissing him a bit too passionately for the dinner table. Sammy chuckled with the others who had still been following the conversation as Brittany finally pulled away to stare adoringly up at her fiancé.

Charlie had a bit of a dazed look on his face as he asked, "Bloody hell woman, is that a yes?"

"Yes! Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. I can't believe you like dragons as much as me. What are the odds of that, I mean really?"

Sammy snorted, "Like? I think you mean obsessed."

She felt Draco's chuckle rumble through his chest and couldn't help the shiver that ran down her spine at the feeling.

Both Brittany and Charlie completely ignored her comment and continued to talk excitedly with their foreheads pressed together even as she was still practically in his lap.

Hermione turned to Sammy and smiled, "It's like they were made for each other."

"Yeah. I think all my sisters and I got extremely lucky in this whole thing. We've all found our perfect partners, inadvertently and without having to go through anything messy. It's amazing really."

Sammy watched as the girl's eyes flickered from her to Draco and back again. She could practically see the gears in the brilliant girl's head turning; most likely trying to figure out why she thought Draco Malfoy was her perfect partner.

Theo broke the silence by leaning around Hermione and asking, "Hey Draco, how are you planning on handling the 'meet and greet' with your family?"

Sammy felt Draco stiffen.

"I hadn't thought that far ahead. I guess I'll take her to have tea with mum."

Theo nodded, "Mind if Hermione and I join? It'd be easier to do it at once."

Draco chuckled, "I think mum would be mad if you weren't there. You know you're the second son she's always wanted."

The two chuckled even as Sammy noticed Hermione's face pale significantly.

She reached out to place a gentle hand on her arm, "Are you ok Hermione?"

Draco suddenly froze and immediately said, "We'll go to Diagon Ally for tea Granger."

She nodded stiffly but visibly relaxed, "Thank you."

Theo had wrapped an arm around the girl's shoulders and pulled her into a hug as he murmured, "Shit, I'm sorry Hermione. I'd forgotten about all that. We don't have to go, if you're not comfortable with meeting Mrs. Malfoy."

"No, no. We're putting it all in the past remember? I can meet for tea in Diagon Ally." Her voice dropped to a whisper as she added, "I'll just have to work up to going to the house."

"Only when you're ready. If, you're ever ready. I won't make you go to that house Hermione. I give you my word."

Sammy got the distinct feeling that something really bad had happened to the girl in Draco's house because the strong, determined girl had shrunk down and was huddled against Theo, tears slipping down her cheeks; even as Draco sat so stiff behind her he was almost trembling in an effort to not move. When it became apparent that Hermione was having a difficult time calming down, Theo carefully got her up from the table and ushered her from the hall. No one but Sammy and Draco seemed to realize they'd left as no one gave them a second glance. But the moment the door to the hall closed behind them, she felt Draco begin to tremble.

Sammy reached back and hugged Draco closer, turning her head to drop a kiss to his temple when he pressed his forehead to her shoulder again with an almost painful pressure. His skin was cold, a bit clammy and a sheen of sweat covered his face. Suddenly concerned, she turned around fully on the bench and taking one look at his face, she realized he must be suffering from a panic attack. She quickly slipped in his lap to pull him flush with her body and wrapped her arms tightly around him.

"It's alright baby. I've got you. Everything is ok. You're safe." She whispered the words soothingly in his ear until his trembling stopped and his grip had relaxed a bit.

"Hey, let's get out of here and take a walk."

He nodded against her neck and she wasted no time in calling her goodbye's, even as she pulled Draco towards the double doors. She led him outside and towards the Black Lake. She'd fallen in love with the little path that meandered around its banks in the time she'd been here. The moon was high and full in the sky so it was easy to see the path as they walked in silence. They were over half way around the lake when Draco stopped to turn and look out over the still waters.

"She was tortured in my house by my aunt. For hours that crazy bitch threw cruico after cruico at her. Finally took a cursed knife and carved mudblood into her skin and still she didn't break. It was the bravest thing I've ever seen in my life." There was a pause and then he whispered, "I still hear her screams in my nightmares."

Sammy didn't say anything, after all, there were no words to make something like that better. So instead she just moved to wrap her arms around him and squeezed as hard as she could, pouring as much love and comfort as she could through their bond. They stood there like that for almost an hour before Draco released a shuddery sigh and the tension left his body slowly. He turned and gathered her fully into his arms, laying his cheek on top of her head.

"I am not a good man Samantha."

"That's ok."

"People hate me for what I've done. Rightfully hate me."

"That's ok too."

"The name Malfoy insights anger and malice wherever it's spoken."

Sammy shrugged, "We'll change that. Together."

Another long moment of silence and then Draco was pulling back enough to reach down and tilt her head up to catch her lips with his.

Gold magic burst out around them, shooting to the sky in swirls of light. The giddy sensation that had been running through Sammy's veins all evening finally seemed to catch fire and burn up in one huge flame. It was perfect. He was perfect. She could feel the darker parts of his soul as it melded and meshed with her own. Instead of pulling away from the darkness, she felt her own soul rush forward to meet it, caress it, engulf it gently and hold it. She felt Draco shudder and pulled him closer to deepen the kiss as she fiercely thought, I accept ALL of you Draco. The light, the dark. All of it. You. Are. MINE!

She felt another powerful wave of magic pulse out from their bodies and then it was gone. She pulled back to find tears running down Draco's cheeks as his shoulders heaved in a sob. Taking his face in her hands, she reached up and began kissing the tears away as she whispered, "You're mine Draco. All of you is mine, the good, the bad. I'm taking it all baby."

She held him as he clung to her and sobbed. Looking out over the moonlit lake she couldn't help but smile even as her own tears slid down her cheeks. She'd woken up this morning worried about her future. But now, holding her soulmate, she knew. The road ahead wouldn't be perfect but it would be perfect for her; for them. After all, she mused, she was already halfway in love with him. And she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was going to protect him with every ounce of who she was. He deserved it.