Disclaimer: Of course, these lovely characters do not belong to me. I do borrow them for my idea.
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Old married couple
August 2006
They had been doing this terrible dance for weeks now. He had been gone for most of the weekdays to work on his project in Italy. The weekends were split between the Manor and Hermione's cottage. He usually had breakfast with his mother, while he spent the rest of the day either helping with Hermione's research or taking her out for a meal.
Maybe it was the years of being bound to each other, but it almost felt like they were this old couple who had a set routine. However, sometimes the routines seemed almost too much. With none of his former girlfriends or fiancées did he experience being so careful about every new step.
Once he had returned from Italy, finding her in the middle of the living room floor, legs crossed, books all around her, rubbing her neck with one hand, as the other one took notes with a quill that didn't seem to cooperate. When he followed his first instinct to step behind her and massage her stiff neck for her, he had not only felt, but visibly seen her stiffen until she glanced up at him and relax.
Another time he had been leaning over drawings in his study back at the Manor when she had snuck her arms around him and he had gone just as stiff, before reminding himself that this was the new normal.
Of course, nothing topped the meals with his mother and Hermione. After all the older Malfoy was determined to further their relationship, which was not what Draco wanted at all. He wanted the time to really get to know Hermione this time.
Being at his current location didn't further that very much. His eyes were on his mother who dragged Hermione around the room introducing her to anyone who remotely worked in the medical field.
"Narcissa is really trying to make the next Lady Malfoy out of Granger, isn't she?"
He glanced at Daphne's little sister who was on Theos arm.
"Someone should tell her that you are to marry Daphne."
Draco gave Theo a look, before he turned.
"Your sister understands we won't be married. In fact, it was her meddling for me to be courting Hermione now."
He was pleased to hear her choke on her champagne as he walked over to join his mother and girlfriend. His hand first at the small of her back, he wrapped it around her waist as the grandest of statements at one of these events. Even couples who had been married for years didn't show this kind of affection.
"What are you doing?" She wiggled uncomfortably in his arms.
"Clarifying that I won't marry Daphne."
His mother smirked before she turned to talk to another visitor of the party.
"Didn't we agree to not let all the attending purebloods know yet?"
He sighed, loosening his arm and then offering it to her to walk with him. All eyes were on them, he could feel it, but he decided to not concern himself with that. It was simple, this way he could shut anyone down who attempted to be rude to her and that was all he wanted at this point. He could feel her fidgeting though.
"Let's just leave. There are so many activities that are much more fun than this."
"Like what?"
"Reading a book!"
She laughed, but her face already told him that she wasn't going to leave just yet. Draco didn't understand it, but she was still very much committed to enduring these events to make his mother happy. His eyes scanned the garden they were in.
"Have you met Healer Wattsworth already?"
"Yes, very pleasant man."
"Healer Abercombie?"
Her nose scrunched up. "He is everything I thought women's rights had established as wrong."
"Healer Magleby?"
"First one Narcissa dragged me too."
His eyes kept sweeping over the wizards and witches. His mother seemed to have done a throughout job introducing her to everyone important. Everyone else he saw, he figured would be rude behind their overly polite smile and there was no point of impressing them.
It was her coming to an abrupt stop that took him out of his thoughts.
"Do you know Yuri Blishen?"
Draco followed her eyes to the wizard. He had heard of him of course and had to study his book to pass his runes classes. While he enjoyed the subject, Blishen wasn't one of the first people he wanted to talk to do.
"Not personally."
Her face fell and she continued walking.
"He has probably heard of you though, so why not make introductions. It doesn't matter who you know, as long as someone introduces you."
"You think?" Her hand was in her hair, fixing it, before he smoothed the material of her dress.
"Please don't turn into one of those hysteric witches who meet some author." His mind went back to Lockhart. The most pedantic teacher he had ever had, who had somehow convinced every witch, including his mother that he was a genius one had to love.
"I'm not." Her voice was clipped and he rolled his eyes.
"Just don't go Lockhart crazy."
She blushed.
"I didn't go Lockhart crazy in the first place."
"Oh please. I heard you at the bookstore back then, and your attention to him in class was too funny." Her hand slapped against his chest.
"Quit."
"Pointing out where you went wrong? I will never quit doing that."
Her hand hit him once more as he stirred her towards Blishen.
"I was thirteen and silly alright." Her blush made her even more endearing to him. "I would also assume that not all of the authors of our schoolbooks were such frauds."
He snorted but didn't respond as they came within ear shot.
"Mr. Blishen, can I introduce Hermione Granger to you?"
"What an honor Miss Granger. I do hope you are enjoying your attendance. It wasn't the crowd I had pictured you in."
His eyes fell to Draco. Apparently, he was still recognized for his own kind of fame. Perfect. It was what he needed on top of all his supposed family friends to hate on Hermione to have found one of those hating him. If it hadn't been for Hermione's arms wrapping more tightly around his, he would have excused himself.
"Some of my dearest friends are here. I couldn't let them have all the fun on their own."
"Of course."
Draco wished for the second time that he could excuse himself, when she dove into a discussion of runes and their translations. He could follow with no problem, after all he had excelled in the subject as well, but they were still at the garden party and that was enough to sour his mood a bit.
He stood through the conversation without a smile, but polite enough to not make a bad impression, although it was probably too late for that. It was Hermione who finally bit her farewell and guided him back towards the apparation point.
"So what book are you going to read?"
He snorted again, before he could stop the undignified sound from coming out.
"I'm not sure, there are a couple of your muggle literature books that I have been eyeing."
She looked happy enough with that answer, before they returned to her cottage.
"How about a trade? You tell me a must-read from your childhood or youth that a muggle-born wouldn't have read and I tell you one of mine?"
Her eyes were sparkling at the suggestion, so he wouldn't have said no, if had really wanted to. Instead, he called for Roks to grab a couple of books from the Manor Library, while Hermione went for one of her bookshelves.
After Roks returned they both settled on her couch, with a book in hand. Halfway through his first chapter he caught her staring at him.
"What?"
"Nothing."
He raised an eyebrow, certain it wasn't nothing.
"I just…" there was her adorable blush again. "Maybe we could cuddle while reading."
"Isn't that a bit distracting?"
"We don't have to snog." She obviously didn't know how distracting even the smell of her hair was.
"Alright." Draco finally muttered as he shifted on the couch, which gave her the chance to move within his arms, which he promptly wrapped around her before he continued reading.
"Are you always this stiff around new girlfriends?"
He glanced down at her brown curls. His girlfriends had certainly never asked him this question before. Of course, he also had never dated his ex-wife before who was also the girl he tormented as a child and had fallen madly in love with, while she had desperately tried to stay married to her Hogwarts sweetheart.
"I wouldn't hope so."
She didn't answer, when but settled her head against his chest. When he was sure, she wouldn't respond, he returned to his own book. While he was sure his mother wouldn't approve they spend the rest of their time reading. It was getting dark out when he settled the book on her coffee table and pressed a kiss in her hair.
"I should go."
She nodded, but didn't get up immediately. When she finally did, she placed a bookmark in his copy of one of his childhood favorites and stood to walk him out. He grabbed her hand without even thinking about it. After putting his cloak on, he pulled her closer and first placed a kiss to her cheek, before settling on her lips.
Her free arm wrapped around his neck keeping him down, where she could reach his lips, while his arm wrapped around her and drew her closer. He wouldn't allow the kiss to get to wild though and finally took a step back.
"You could stay." He glanced at her hand, still in his and he could tell she wasn't planning on letting go. They stood at her travel fireplace and he had been prepared to grab the floo powder.
"It wouldn't be proper." His voice wasn't convincing at all.
"Your mother made very clear that she thinks we are very involved anyway."
He groaned, a light blush heating his cheeks. It was moments like this when he hated how involved his mother was in not only his life, but also Hermione's. When he caught her hopeful eyes, he finally gave a soft nod. Her smile widened and she pulled him behind her into her bedroom.
Draco had made a point to it, not to enter the room after they had started courting and so it was the first time that he saw it all put together. It looked a lot homier than the rooms his mother put together, which was probably due to the stacks of books and soft blankets stacked in the chair.
Once they were in there, she seemed to rethink her plan and he watched a deep blush creep into her cheeks. He loved when that happened.
"Well now this is awkward." He took a moment to regard her nervous ticks, and finally ended one of them by placing a soft kiss to her lips, effectively stopping her from biting her lower lip.
"What makes you say that?" Her blush deepened.
"It's just not the grand heated moment I imagined when I thought of us in this room."
His laugh turned into a strangled cough. He saw her face fall and stepped closer to cup her face. After carefully moving her curls behind her ear. The blonde did not want to have this conversation, especially not at this time of the day. But it appeared she would either assume, he didn't want her or hear the reasoning for it now. Either one would not end as she had anticipated.
"There is a reason, why I go home at night."
She withdrew from his grasp and turned, clearly pulling her shields up. Years of animosity would do that to someone he assumed. Although the hope was that they could get past that since a relationship without deep routed trust was not worth much.
"Please hear me out, before you make assumptions."
She nodded but kept her back to him.
"Last year, when I was doing the research on lifting the bind, I found a few things that I didn't think necessary to tell you." She shot him a glare, probably well deserved. "You were with Weasely, just keep that in mind."
A huff. He stared at her back, before moving to her bed and sitting on the edge.
"It is far easier to reactivate the bind than to ever break it. This old magic wants the couple reunited under any circumstance and while we cut through all the magics abilities to enforce that, there is still our free will."
Draco glanced at her back, thinking that she didn't look quite as stiff anymore.
"And let's say we are to engage in a sexual activity the bind would definitely flare back up. It would be the magics permission to reinforce and strengthen what we decided on our own. Assuming in this old magical world that one-night stands aren't an option."
He could hear her breathing and carefully reached for her hand. When she let him, he tugged her closer until she stood right by him.
"So while there is not much I would want more than to rip your clothes of and engage in whatever heated moment you had in mind, I'm trying really hard not to, because I stand by what I said: I always wanted this to be your choice not the binds."
Her shoulders sank, a clear indication that she was about to give up on whatever anger he had caused with his rejection.
"We won't ever be intimate then?"
He raised an eyebrow. Knowing her as a rather conservative person in school, it wasn't the first question he had expected from her.
"I assure you we will once you agreed on your own free will to marry me and end up doing so. Once you choose to marry me, I don't see any problem with adding the bind to our vows."
She was nervously kneading her arm with her free hand and he caught the exact moment when she drew her lip back between her teeth.
"What is it?"
"You would want to marry me one day then?" He hadn't expected this question to carry so much insecurity from her. He loosened her hands from each other to take one in each of his and entwining them.
"You know how I feel about you."
"You never said it." Because Daphne had been so terribly early with her reveal that it hadn't felt right. Who told a woman he loved her after one date, before ever even asking for a second one? It was a faux par. Of course, when it came to his family, he wasn't sure if his ancestors had ever voiced such feelings.
He moved one of her hands to his lips, place soft kisses on each knuckle.
"Hermione, I am in love with you." He was glad to see her eyes light up. "I'm in love with every little bit of you, the curls, your stubbornness, your magic, your love for others, your unique style of putting together your house, your impulse to portkey back to Italy and fall asleep in my bed."
He placed another kiss on the back of her hand.
"I'm in love with the researcher in you, who is out to find the last detail. I'm in love with the girl, who calls me out on my stupid decisions. I love the woman the girl who once punched me grew into. I love the woman who endured the worst anyone could ever experience and still put others first."
A kiss to her palm, before she could move it to cup his cheek.
"I love your eyes and the way they light up when life it good to you. I love that you still attend mothers' terrible parties and took Daphne furniture shopping with you. I love that you cook although you clearly shouldn't."
His brain didn't register the missing warmth on his cheek, before she slapped him against the arm. He smirked at her.
"I love that you pretend Roks isn't going back to fix what you cook, before serving it."
"No, he doesn't." She looked horrified.
"He does."
Taking her hand in his once more, he pushed further back on her bed, before pulling her on his lap.
"I love you so much that if I could be certain, you felt the same, I would marry you right now."
"What if I do?" Her soft whisper was barely audible. Her admission surprised him. He hadn't expected her to think about marriage this soon into their relationship. And of course, there was always the fear that she would realize what a pain it was to be a Malfoy. She had suffered quite a bite the last time she had held his last name on her records.
"I believe my feelings had much longer to develop, therefore, I will stick with the approach of waiting for yours to develop further."
"I do love you too."
His smile grew and he let her hands go as they wrapped around his neck. She leaned in to kiss and he marveled at the tenderness of it. It was so different from the heat that had always accompanied kissing his exes. This was almost endearing, their love at the forefront rather than lust.
"If we agree on the terrible terms of cuddling, I'd be happy to stay." He mumbled into her lips, as they broke apart for air.