"Hmm, it's better than I expected," the faceless tattoo artist murmured as he watched Hermione work on her drawing. Her left hand was in a weird angle as she held the pencil between her index finger and her thumb while drawing meticulous lines of a beautiful unicorn, her eyes blurring slightly at the artwork. It was the exact reflection of Selene.

"Thank you," she sighed contentedly.

She hadn't seen Selene. Not since she took Vindico Parea. And nor did Draco. It was strange as just like Estrella, Selene seemed to be erased form the world and even Solana didn't know where her sister was. Ever since that January day when she woke up at St. Mungo's, she had been looking for the magical creature, all in vain. Nothing seemed to fuel forward her investigation, and day by day, she started accepting the fact that she would never see again the disabled unicorn.

There was a fat chance that when she used the potion, it killed Selene. It made sense after all – a life for a life, a cruel, but fair bargain for sure. She shivered at the thought, her grip loosening on the pencil.

After graduating, she decided what she wanted to do with her life that she was given back – she asked Luna, and she nodded on the idea of opening a Tattoo Salon on Diagon. The name was simple: Solar System, scientific, but still understandable enough for anyone of wizarding kind. It was something both Luna and her never ceased to be amazed about – the proof were the numerous constellations adorning her skin.

Hermione decided before the opening tomorrow, she would get her last piece done. So a month after graduation, she was back there at the heart of muggle London, getting the last details of a drawing on Selene. By the end of the day, the whitened, capital letters of the word mudblood would disappear from her skin, and even thinking about it made her giddy in the insides.

"Are you ready?" the faceless artist asked and Hermione nodded, taking her place on the stool as she waited for him to peel of the drawing from the paper. The light buzz of the needle was comforting to her ears, something familiar that she hadn't heard since last summer.

The first sting was the worst – it was always the first. She winced and prayed that the sensation would fade overtime, as now she would be stuck there for five hours at the very least. The tattoo would take up her entire forearm and it would probably hurt for a few days too. Besides the 'freckles' – as Ron referred to her beloved constellations – she had never get done anything, nothing this enormous or detailed.

She remembered when Draco had his first made two weeks ago – over the hardly perceptible outline of the skull, he asked for a compass that had no needle in the middle. He still kept whining about it, but she was sure he just wanted more attention than she gave to Crooks.

As if Draco needed to do these ridiculous actions! As if he didn't know there would always be a place in her life just for him. Only for him.

She let a smile quirk up her lips, even forgetting about the light sting on her wrist.

The time when she first opened her eyes after taking Vindico Parea, and now every morning, it was always Draco whom she saw first. And it was comforting, knowing that he would be there, heck, would always be there for her, no matter what.

They obviously had mistakes, he was rude and she was vehement, he was cold and she was ever the fire, scorching everything near her. However, the most important thing was that he could love her unconditionally and she could love him back. His arms were her shelter from the world and her hugs meant the world for him. They completed each other, no matter the occasional shouting matches and plates throwing, they worked through every problem and contradiction slowly and gently, not daring to go for the fast and simple, but obviously wrong solutions.

It was perfect for her, even though some days, she just wanted to castrate him for his stupidity. Like the day when she woke up from the ten-day-long coma and be surprised with tears, books on magic and chopsticks. He wanted to help gradually rebuild her strength, with her magic and gaining back the full mobility of her left hand.

Turned out training with chopsticks wasn't entirely idiotic – she had firm control over her fingers now and paired with her knack for arts – she managed to create fine drawings in little time, even though she still had sometimes problem with magic.

After all, it was hard to catch up with the knowledge she had gained during the years in a few months' time.

She scrunched up her face at that thought.

"Is it that bad?" the tattoo artist asked with concern, for a moment stopping to wipe away the blood from her skin. She studied the colour – bright and healthy red. Nothing like mud.

"Um, no, not bad," she said cautiously, the piece of art slowly turning into her beloved unicorn, "Just thinking."

He seemed to amused at her reply as he tutted with his tongue appreciatively, "Now now, I remember you, chit. You wanted a peacock over hat ugly wound of yours, and now, you're going with a magical creature? Do tell why," he encouraged and Hermione smiled, surprised that he did remember.

"I had a rocky year," she answered, "Turned out a peacock would be no competition for a unicorn. Even my boyfriend thinks the same," she confessed and the artist's scathing, usually uncaring, green eyes widened with recognition.

"So you two are together," he asked, but it came out more like a statement. Hermione nodded, not being able to tamper down her grin. "The guy with the bad decisions and you?"

"Yes the whining blonde is my boyfriend."

The tattoo artist snorted at that, not taking away his eyes from the needle as he carefully traced the lines, "Nice catch, chit."

"I know," were the last words she uttered until he finished with Selene's picture and she left the salon and muggle London – for an eternity.

She belonged elsewhere after all, – Hermione thought with a smile – right at the side of Draco's, back in the magical world.

After 122 pages and over 60k words, I can happily announce that A tiny bit broken is now finished. There's gonna be no epilogues after this snippet. It has ended. Thank you for reading and reviewing, I have never got this high numbers in statics before! 3 And I'm sorry if you think this story was a waste of your time or if not, I'm glad you had tagged along in this journey! I would be delighted, if, for the last time, people would share their opinions - because yes, I noticed the numbers going down as a lot of people seemed to lost interest as we went further down the angst-train.

Until next time! ;D

Aischenna