Chapter 16

The second she woke up, she was met by a pair of concerned, grey eyes. Concern and fright were a combination she would have never thought to see in the eyes of her school-nemesis. Yet here they were. They maintained eye contact as she leveled out her breathing and told her beginning-anxiety-attack to fuck off, vaguely aware that she might be mirroring his breathing. When she finally came back down from her dream, she realized that it wasn't just a dream - but in fact, a memory coming back to her. She gasped, her hands coming up to cover her mouth in disbelieving shock.

"I know what he wanted me for. Breeding."

"That was what Father suspected as well. But before you attack me again with that psyco-wandless-nonverbal-shit; I promise I didn't tell him anything compromising. But I needed someone I could trust, who had inside-information from the death-eater-point of view, and he was the only one." He looked at her to make sure that she wasn't on the verge of killing him, but to his great surprise, she just nodded and looked down at her lap where her arms were now clasped, white knuckles showing.

"Do you want to tell me what you remembered that got you so shook up?" He asked cautiously. That she was starting to remember was both a good and a bad thing. Definitely a very bad thing taking her current state of mind into account.

"I'd rather not, to be honest," She pulled her legs up to rest her chin in it, putting her arms around the knees to keep them in place. She really didn't want to recall it. "But I guess I'll have to." And then she did the one thing she never thought she could. She trusted Draco Malfoy, and she told him. Everything.

Malfoy sat silently and listened, though she could see his eyebrows mowing synchronized with the sneer that appeared from time to time. though, he never said a word afraid of throwing her off and making her forget the memory.

"Where are Harry and George?" She asked after some time where none of them had spoken.

"Harry hasn't been back yet, but I suspect he's on his way with the rest of the crowd. George Popped in about an hour ago to check on you and left again to deal with something in the shop. He said he'd be back in about 20 minutes from now, with dinner."

Silence.

"Regarding your memory; I think we should wait to tell the others until your crew has left again. I believe Healer Magnus would be fairly interested in hearing everything about it tomorrow." He said, looking down, clearly uncomfortable.

They sat in awkward silence for some time, before she started noticing things. Like the way he was holding a guitar at an iron-grip, like he had been playing and was pulled suddenly from his focus.

"Do you play?" she asked him, nodding at the guitar.

"I do," he said sheepishly, giving her a soft, genuine smile. "Guitar, piano and violin. It was something my mother insisted on during my upbringing. I had to follow my school of course, but I also had to excel in either sports or at least one instrument. Lucky as I was, I enjoyed both quidditch and music way too much to just choose one. Some may say I took it a bit to the extreme." He laughed at himself, and she smiled at him.

"Will you play something for me? I don't play and my singing is absolute shit, but I enjoy listening." She shrugged and smiled again, at her own shortcomings.

He looked at her for a moment, trying to figure out if she was kidding or not. No one but Astoria and his parents had ever asked him to play. When he decided that she was being honest with him, he nodded. If she had finally decided to trust him, who was he to deny her? "Sure. I heard this one on the radio last week so I don't know the actual chords so it might as well go straight to hell, but nevertheless, it's been stuck in my head ever since."

He sat back in his chair, obviously making himself comfortable once again, and adjusted the guitar in his hands. He put his fingers on the strings and made a series of different strokes, probably trying to get the right key. But really, how would she know?

"Alright," He said, "let's see how this goes. I am sorry in advance though; I haven't played for anyone in a while." She smiled encouragingly at him, and he started playing.

He started playing the soft but catchy tune, and she understood immediately hy it had been stuck in his head for a week. there was a good chance she would have the same problem after this.

Now that she's back in the atmosphere,

With drops of Jupiter in her hair, hey,

She acts like summer and walks like rain,

Reminds me that there's a time to change, hey,

Since the return from her stay on the moon,

She listens like spring and she talks like June, hey, hey,

But tell me, did you sail across the sun?

Did you make it to the Milky Way,

To see the lights all faded,

And that heaven is overrated?

Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star?

One without a permanent scar,

And did you miss me,

While you were looking for yourself out there?

The melody continued for a while he hummed along, but then suddenly started chuckling, "I just realized that I only remember the first half of the lyrics, which is the same part I have been humming to myself for the past week. What a joke." She chuckled along with him for a bid, seeing the fun in it.

"Oh that's fine, It sounded lovely anyway." She smiled at him, but her attention was drawn to someone coughing at the door, trying to get their attention.

"Am I interrupting something?" George asked, looking at Draco with a raised eyebrow.

"Hi babe. You're not interrupting, Draco was just distracting me." Hermione smiled at him, and he noticed how her eyes sparkled at him. Damn, he could get lost in those any day of the week.

He looked at Draco again. He had decided a long time ago that he wouldn't interfere in other people's life, but it seemed he had to tell the man where he stood. "A word, Malfoy? Outside?" He nodded at the door.

Hermione raised her eyebrow in obvious disbelief of what he was doing, when he opened the door and Draco went out with him. Oh, no you don't. You better fucking not. She thought to herself.

When they came back in a few minutes later, laughing, she asked the question that had been boiling up inside of her. "Are you done with your pissing-contest?" She shot at George, anger lacing her words.

"Absolutely, love. And I won the biggest prize of them all; Knowing that prettyboy over there actually got over his major schoolboy crush on you, and decided to start a family with none other than Astoria Greengrass." He said and chucked at the flabbergasted look she shot at Draco, "Congrats, by the way, mate." He smiled at Draco, all malice away from his tone and body language.

"We'll get back to the crush thing later, don't worry. But does that mean you're done with the jealousy thing or do I have to prove once again that I'm yours?" She lifted her necklace with the ring as a question, raising her eyebrow while doing so. Try me. Her look said, and the man had the decency to smile even bigger at her.

"Sorry love. I just can't handle other men hitting on what's obviously mine, with something as cheesy as a song played on guitar. It's so much above my level." He laughed sheepishly, scratching at the back of his head.

She nodded at him, taking in his words. "Well, you better get used to me being comfortable with other men, or we're going to have a problem. But speaking of men; Draco - that crush of yours. Talk."

Seeing Draco go from close-to-albino to tomato-red just made it to her personal top five of "best moments of my life".

"Yeah, it - umm," he coughed slightly and she wasn't unaware of his discomfort as he looked out of the window, obviously stalling. She was enjoying this way too much. He coughed again, and his whole demeanor changed as he crossed his legs by the knee and leaned back in the chair, clearly trying to bring forth his old aristocratic facade. "I mean, It wasn't really that big, George," He shot him a look of indifference," It was just a couple of weeks until I got my head out of my ass once again. I realized you were too much of a know-it-all, and I chose to steal your notes in ancient runes instead. Got An "O" by the way, so thank you for that." He nodded at her and she started laughing at him. When she had finished, she used a finger to remove a tear running down her cheek. "So that's where they went! Well don't worry; but I got an "O", so it may seem like I didn't need them anyway. Though, as far as I remember, my translation of the ancient viking Runes on that rock in Denmark were quite deficient. I mean, I would feel deeply violated if I was Danish, based on that rubbish translation..." She blushed deeply as she realized that the entire room had gone silent and the two men were staring at her. "Sorry about that…" She said crestfallen.

"Aaaaand - wait for it! - there it was! Hermione's back on the ground again!" George said enthusiastically and chuckled, while she shot daggers at him. "You love me, darling, just admit it." he said and sent a kiss her way.

"I would never." She said mockingly with the palm of her hand against her chest. But flashed George a wide smile when he winked at her. God, she had missed that man.

"Yuck. Are you done eating each other up yet, or should I leave?" The blond sneered at them, but they never answered him as there was a knock on the door. When Harry opened the door, he breathed out a relieved sigh, "Thank Merlin some decent company, those two are making me mad with their lovesick behavior."

"Careful Blondie, you can't become something you already are." Harry winked, and opened the door. Through the door came two redheads and a blond. Ron barely made it through the door before he flung himself into her open arms. He held her tight, burrowing his head in her hair as she crumbled against her chest, silent tears finding their way don't her cheeks.

"Please - Please believe me -" She sobbed against one of her best friends, "Please -" She tried again, but failed.

"Shh, shh, it's okay. I-I've got you." She heard his voice as it cracked, "I've got you 'Mione." he breathed.

After a silent moment in his protective arms, she sniffed one last time, "Please believe that I never meant to leave you. He left me no other choice…"

He pulled slightly away from her and put both of his hands at each cheek. He guided her eyes up until she could see every emotion in his soft smile and his eyes which were shining with unshed tears, "You're not exactly known for making rash and unplanned decisions 'Mione. When you left, we all knew that there was a reason, whatever that reason may have been. Our biggest fear was that something terrible had happened to you - which, obviously, did happen." He let go of her cheeks and embraced her once again. "We're just so glad that you're home. We missed you. I missed you."

"Does he realize that she's taken?" She heard George whisper way too loud to have been something no one should have heard.

"Shut up, you moron." Ron chuckled against her, but let go of her. "I just happened to have missed my best friend."

She took a step away from his personal space, and smiled at him, "I missed you too, Ron." She looked away from him and towards the door where she saw first Neville smiling at her, and then Ginny… Sweet, strong, beautiful Ginny, who was standing by Harry whose side she was carefully curled around. She was holding her hand against her mouth, probably trying to silence any kind of sound coming from her, as she cried openly. When her eyes met Hermione's, the dams broke and she hiccupped turning to Harry, burrowing herself against him while he held her tight.

Hermione looked at Harry, not knowing what to do. He nodded and lifted one arm from his wife, silently inviting Hermione in. She took first one step towards them, then another. When She was within arm's reach of her soulmate, he put his open palm against her cheek and sighed and she felt all of his emotion flowing into her, calming her instantly. She leaned into his hand, as he moved it back towards the back of her head and pulled her the rest of the way into his and Ginny's comfort with slight pressure against the nape of her neck. She put one arm around Harry, laying it against Ginny's arm, while the other arm embraced her friend. She felt Harry's arm move from her neck to her shoulder in one swift motion as she felt his wife do the same. They stood like that for a couple of moments before she kissed the redhead's temple, and slowly let go.

….

The night had been a long time coming and she had enjoyed the company of her friends immensely. They had eaten their dinner slowly and had shared memories from their times at Hogwarts which had brought boys tears and laughter from the group. Though Draco had seemed slightly uncomfortable and out of place, he had laughed along and shared in another point of view from all of their rule breaking. It seemed though, that he saw things from a completely different side when they told the story of how Harry and Hermione had saved Sirius and Buckbeak in their third year. He looked completely dumbstruck during the entirety of the retelling of the adventure.

"I thought I saw something that looked mistakenly a lot like a hippogriff that night! Damn. I'm glad Father hadn't believed a word of what I told him." he said. "Thank you. I may not have had any contact with him, but family is family whether they are on the tapestry or not."

"You had a tapestry as well? I thought the only one was at Grimmauld place." Harry asked in clear surprise.

Draco shook his head. "As far as I'm concerned, there is one in every estate or townhouse that has been a main living space for the Black-house, for as long as they have existed. As I am the last heir - except for you of course - the ancient and most noble house Black, I have a tapestry at the manor. There is also one at the Black family-home in France near Bordeaux."

"Bordeaux? I used to travel there every summer with mum and dad." Hermione inclined and continued, "It's a beautiful city." Draco agreed silently, with a smile and a nod of his head.

They had talked back and forth like that for what felt like hours, until Draco left while muttering something about pregnant women and their chocolate frogs. Not long after, she hugged Ron, Ginny and Harry as they left to go home.

She fell asleep against George as he whispered sweet words of love and affection.