Chapter 8

In a sea of strangers,

you've longed to know me.

Your life spent sailing

to my shores.

The arms that yearn

to someday hold me,

will ache beneath

the heavy oars.

Please take your time

and take it slowly;

as all you do

will run its course.

And nothing else

can take what only -

was always meant

as solely yours.

-Lang Leav

Present Time: August 2000 / Draco's Time: Same as present

"Conveyancing," Narcissa said, reading from the next flashcard.

"To pay someone for services rendered?" Draco guessed.

"No. That's 'remunerate.'"

"Giving protection or compensation for losses or damages," he tried next.

"That's 'indemnity.'"

"Are either of those close?"

"No."

Draco groaned and pressed his fingers into his eyes, willing his brain to wake up. His thoughts felt so muddled and he wished he had more Brain Elixir, but he'd used up the last of their stores a few days ago and failed every time he tried to make another batch. Unfortunately, he didn't have any Brain Elixir to help him get through the complicated brew.

He felt his mother reach for his hand across the table. "Take a break, Draco."

"This job is a disaster. It wasn't supposed to be this hard."

"So, it wasn't," she agreed. "It was unlucky timing with Fitzgerald leaving, but it hasn't been the worst thing. It's forced you to start delegating other parts of the management of the estate and I think that's going well. You'll figure this out soon. It's still new."

"Yeah," Draco sighed.

"And I thought things were going okay with the Granger girl. Did something change?"

Draco dropped his hand from his face and looked back at his mother, who was watching him worriedly. "She's so much smarter than me," he said in a low voice. "This is something I would only tell you, of course," he added as an aside. "Soon, we're going to run out of simple laws to work on and get to new content and I'm worried she's going to run all over me. I'm supposed to be representing all the families but I'm not sure I'm cut out for this, Mother."

"You're too hard on yourself, Draco. You don't need to be smarter than her. You just need to be able to interpret the laws and say yes or no."

"I should be doing more than that. I should be pushing to enact change, getting new laws written, manipulating the system to get them approved, just like Father would."

"Your father was working in politics much longer than you. You'll get there, Draco, but you don't have to be there right now. You're too hard on yourself. Lucius wasn't always that savvy. He had to learn it, and you will too."

"You really think so?" he asked in an embarrassingly small voice. A few months ago, falling apart like this in front of his mother would have embarrassed him, but they'd been through so much, just the two of them, and discovered this newfound closeness. He didn't think they ever would have achieved it without his father's death and felt guilty every time he thought this, since what sort of son felt grateful for the loss of their father?

"I know so, Draco," she said, grabbing his hand again and squeezing it. She picked up the flashcards and cocked an eyebrow at him. "Are you sure you don't want a break?"

He was about to wave for her to continue when they both jumped at the sound of someone clearing their throat from the doorway.

"Theo!" she exclaimed, holding a hand to her heart. "You scared me. How did you get in without a house elf?"

"The Floo is still connected to my house from when Draco invited us over for drinks, ages ago. Someone must have forgotten to sever the connection." Draco groaned. This was just one more thing he'd let slip.

"That was my fault, Mother. Sorry."

"No matter. Welcome, Theo, how have you been? How's your mother?"

"Oh - uh - good. She's abroad, looking for a new husband."

"Oh, good for her," his mother replied tersely.

"Yeah, um," Theo turned to Draco. "I need to tell you something."

Narcissa placed the flashcards she was still holding on the table and rose from her chair. "I'll leave you two alone."

"No, uh, stay, please," Theo said. "Having a witness here will be good."

"Okay," she replied, giving Draco a curious look as she took her seat again.

"Okay," Theo continued as he walked into the room and took a seat in one of the armchairs close to Draco. "Uh - you remember Granger? From school? Bushy hair (which is more curly now), Muggleborn, friends with Potter, never stops talking-"

"Yes, I know Granger," Draco snapped. "What did she do?"

Theo began raking his hands through his hair nervously. "She came over to my desk and started talking about patents, which was weird, since no one wants to talk about patents. Then she saw the book I was reading on my desk and we started talking about books. She's really well read-"

"Yes, I know. Get on with it," Draco said through gritted teeth.

"Well, we got on the topic of libraries, then started talking about the library at my house, then she asked if she could see it and I brought her over and showed her. She was in awe, it was sort of funny, then she found this book on legal stuff and asked if she could borrow it and I didn't care so I let her take it home."

Draco Summoned the book of exceptions from across the room. "Was it a book like this?" he growled.

"Yeah. And - uh - I told Daphne about it and she said I should tell you since it was probably a really bad thing I'd done."

Draco looked up and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to keep his temper in check. Theo had made a good call when he'd insisted his mother stay because if she weren't here, Draco would have jumped out of his chair and tackled Theo and would be strangling him right now.

"Are you fucking kidding me, Theo? I'm already at a disadvantage here and I had one piece of leverage and you just gave it to her? She's threatening our way of life. If it was up to her, we'd give all our money to the Weasleys, give all the house elves clothes - or better yet, trade spots with them and have them run the houses while we serve them. And one of our first jobs would be to fix up the stables for centaurs and set up charity balls for banshees and werewolves - which wouldn't even be that good, since, like I said, we'd have no money."

"Oh," Theo replied, barely managing to suppress a smirk, "that does sound bad."

Draco looked over at his mother and saw she looked amused too. "Bloody, fucking hell," he swore.

"Damn," Theo said, "you swear a lot. Who raised you?" Then his eyes widened and he slapped a hand over his mouth, muttering, "Sorry," to Narcissa from behind it.

She just waved him away, her eyes still sparkling with mirth. "I don't claim credit for that. I believe the third governess, the one from Bulgaria, was with Draco for most of his formative years. She raised him, and I always thought she was a little rough around the edges."

"Funny, Mother," Draco said, scowling. "You both think this is a big joke, but it's a disaster."

His mother shrugged. "Just ask for it back."

"What?"

"These books can't be copied and there's a spell on them to keep anyone from remembering what they read once they're no longer in possession of the book. So once you get it back, everything will be fine."

"You think I can just ask for it back?" Theo asked.

"Yes," Narcissa said simply. "This girl is one of those people with a strong moral code. She tricked you, but she won't steal. If you ask her to return the book, Theo, she will."

"Huh," Draco said, thinking on her words. He thought she might be right. He'd been worried Granger would make copies or try to memorize the contents and was relieved to know that wasn't possible. He wondered if Granger knew that and if it would change her mind about returning the book.

"Don't worry about it now," his mother said, patting his arm. "You have your trip to the future, tomorrow, to focus on. When you return from that you can worry about the book."

Draco's head snapped up. "Mother," he said sternly, cocking his head to the side toward Theo just as Theo sat up in his chair and exclaimed, "What?!"

"Oh, oops."

Draco glared at her. He could tell she hadn't let that slip by accident. She wanted Theo to hear about the time travel. She'd told Draco he needed to confide in more of his friends and now she was forcing the issue.

"I'm very tired," she continued, holding her hand up to her head. "All these legal terms swirling around in my mind. I should rest. I'll leave you two alone for now. It seems like you have some catching up to do."

"You're not as good of an actress as you think," he called after her. "I miss Milenka! I wish she were my mother!"

Narcissa stopped in the doorway and turned back to give Draco a wicked smirk before closing the door behind her. He sighed and dropped his head in his hands. When Draco looked back up, Theo was sitting in his mother's chair, looking at him expectantly.

"You time travel?"

"Fine. I'll tell you. But you have to help me with these flash cards."

Theo shrugged and picked a card up from the pile. "Okay."

"If you laugh at how little I know I'll hex you."

"When have I ever laughed?" Theo asked seriously.

"Good point."

"Okay…" Theo started reading the card. "What's 'estoppel?'"

"Oh, uh, that's when you can't change your position if it was previously established under the law, or something like that."

"Yeah, sort of. Can you give an example?"

"Not really," Draco admitted.

"Then you don't really understand it."

Draco scoffed. "Can you give examples?"

"Yeah," he said simply. "If there was a child support suit where the ultimate ruling was that the wizard had to support the child, he couldn't claim in a later case that he wasn't the father. Or, if you had a tenant and promised a certain lease period, then changed it later, that's protected by estoppel. Or, if you forgave a debt, then went to collect it later. Conversely, you could-"

"Okay, I get it. Show off."

Theo just shrugged. Maybe he should be in Draco's role. Draco made a mental note to check when the Nott rotation was coming up. "Do the next one," he demanded.

Theo shook his head and pushed the flashcards away. "No. Tell me about the time travel, first."

"No?" Since when did Theo say no to anything? Besides having fun and being happy, he said no to those things all the time.

"Tell me about your time travel, then we'll go back to this."

Draco groaned. Damn, even Theo was being difficult. Everything in his life seemed hard now and he was running out of energy to fight back.

"Fine," Draco said in a resigned tone. "I'll start at the beginning."

When Draco woke up the following Thursday, a day when he was supposed to go to the Ministry to meet Granger, he just wanted to go right back to sleep. He felt depressed and couldn't pinpoint the cause, he just didn't want to deal with the day.

But he'd already missed a meeting with her earlier in the week because he'd been in the future and shouldn't miss a second one. So, Draco forced himself out of bed and into some clothes, then flew around the estate, feeling sorry for himself, until it was time to leave for the Ministry.

When he arrived, Granger was already sitting in the office, writing feverishly. He wondered if she ever just sat still. She always seemed to be busy and right now, the sight of it exhausted him. She had her hair down today and was wearing a simple grey dress with a red cardigan. He couldn't see her shoes and wondered if Daphne had ever taken her shoe shopping. He'd have to ask Daphne when he ate dinner with her tonight.

"Granger," he said as he took the seat opposite her. She finished writing out the line she was working on, then looked up at him.

"Hi, Malfoy. You look tired."

He yawned, as if on cue. She looked the opposite of tired. Her eyes were bright and her skin was glowing, nothing like the dull grey of his own complexion right now. Her hair alone looked more alive than Draco and he noticed for the first time it wasn't just plain brown, but a mix of all different shades of brown, gold, and red. He had a strong urge to reach out and twirl one of the curls around his finger. Fucking Granger.

"Is it the time travel that makes you tired?" she asked, leaning in to get a closer look at him. A curl dropped in front of her face and he almost reached out and tucked it behind her ear.

Draco leaned back, not wanting to do anything stupid, and also not wanting her to get a better look at him right now. "Sometimes when I time jump I end up several hours off. Then it takes me a few days to readjust." That was technically true but wasn't the case this time. He'd only had to deal with a three-hour difference during his last jump and had returned two days ago, so had plenty of time to readjust. Draco was just tired because he was depressed, but he wasn't about to tell her that.

"Oh. Muggles have a word for that, it's called 'jet lag.' We don't have a similar word in our world. Anyway, I wanted to start by asking you not to hex Theo. I'm the one who went to him and coerced him into giving me that book and I gave it back, then found out it has a charm on it to prevent me from memorizing anything I read. So, no harm was done and you should leave him alone."

"I - what?" Draco was trying to sift through all she'd said. Why did she have to speak so quickly?

"Theo. He's really sweet and I could tell he felt bad for upsetting you and was scared of how you'd react. It's me you should be angry with, not him."

"Theo? Sweet? Are we both talking about the same Theo?"

"Yes. Your friend, Theo Nott. So, you agree to be nice to him?"

Draco shook his head, still confused by the strangeness of this conversation. Granger was defending Theo? And she'd given the book back, just like that? "Uh, sure, I'll be nice to Theo. So - that's it? You're finished looking for the book?"

"No, of course not. But I'm not going to manipulate people like Theo to get it. I'll find another way. There are plenty of copies out there."

She said it so matter-of-factly, like she was sure she'd find the book somehow. How was she so confident? He needed that.

"How was the time jump? What year did you go to?"

"2003," he said automatically, then stopped talking. Did he really want to tell her this? She was leaning over the table now, giving him her full attention, and he liked when she did that (since these days he felt like no one listened to him), so continued talking. It couldn't hurt.

"I have a girlfriend in that time and was agonizing over how to ask her to move in with me."

"Oh. Why? Is that a big deal for Purebloods? Moving in before you're married? I guess it makes sense, given how traditional you all are."

"Most families take issue with it but my mother wouldn't care. I've recently learned she's a bit of a rebel. Apparently, in school when she was bored, she made up obscene songs - which are still around today - and got up to trouble with Peeves."

"With Peeves?"

"That's exactly what I said," Draco laughed. "Anyway, I wasn't nervous about my mother, but the girlfriend. My future self said she tends to overthink things and I was trying to figure out the best way to ask."

"Huh. That's so crazy that you talk to your future self when you go. You must have been so alarmed the first time it happened."

"Yeah," he replied, "that's an understatement. I expected Polyjuice, but he knew everything about me, then I convinced myself I'd gone mad and was imagining the whole thing in my head. It wasn't until I switched places with the other Draco, that I really began to believe."

What was Draco doing? Why was he telling her so much? Why did he find it so easy to talk to her whereas with Theo, he'd stopped and started twelve times before getting the whole time travel story out. It was probably because she was such a good listener.

It was funny since she usually talked incessantly without pause, but that didn't mean she wasn't able to sit quietly and listen, when she wanted to. But that wasn't the whole answer. There was a familiarity between them that put him at ease, he figured it was because they had the same overarching insecurities.

"I guess that's why it's imperative you make that November jump backward, since it played a big part of you believing in this time travel."

She'd remembered that? His heart swelled for some reason. He suddenly wanted to turn the topic away from him, so he said, "And I finally asked about Daphne's future. I was told it's good and that she shouldn't worry so much."

"She's going to hate that vague response."

"Yeah." Draco was about to ask if Granger had ever gone shoe shopping when the door opened abruptly. It was Potter.

"Hey, Hermione. Can I talk to you in the- damn, it's Arthur," he muttered under his breath, closing the door as he stepped into the office. "I guess we'll talk in here. Malfoy, close your ears."

Draco shrugged and leaned back in his chair, stretching his legs out in front of him. What was wrong with the alarmingly fucked up Boy Who Lived now?

Potter sat on the table, turning his back to Draco, and said in a low voice to Granger, "I've decided to ask Ginny to move in with me, officially, and I - er - don't know how to do it."

"Really? That's so exciting. Also, sort of funny, since Malfoy was just telling me how his future self was going through the same thing, in three years."

Potter looked over at Draco curiously, then turned back to face Granger. "Okay, I don't care. We're talking about me here. What should I do? Something big? Like pair it with a gift? She just had a birthday."

Granger leaned forward and put her hands on Potter's arms. "Just ask her. That gesture is enough, you don't need a double gesture. And if you're worrying she'll say no, don't. I'm positive she'll say yes, I mean, she already spends nearly every night there."

"Yeah, I think you're right. But Molly and Arthur are going to hate it. They don't want her to move in with someone until she's engaged, but I'm not ready to propose. I just - want to live with her before I do that, just - uh - in case it ends up being a complete disaster," he finished in an undertone.

Draco could tell Potter was embarrassed about having this conversation in front of him. Draco loved it, it was just the sort of pick-me-up he needed today. He loved being reminded that even Potter, who had saved the whole world and was loved by everyone, was struggling.

Potter muttered something to Granger, which Draco didn't catch and she whispered something back, which he also missed. Then Potter stood, gave Draco a quick nod, and left the room.

Granger sighed once the door closed. "I'm so glad they worked things out."

Draco was about to tell her he didn't care, but caught himself. She'd listened well when he'd been talking about his time travel earlier and he doubted she cared very much about that.

"You know you're a big part of the reason they were able to figure things out."

"What?"

"Yeah. First, you told him all those details about his future, which gave Harry the certainty he needed that things would turn out. Then, at the Gala, I don't know what you told him but after that he went home, called Ginny, and spent the entire night telling her everything he'd been keeping from her. They were really shaky and used to fight like crazy but that night - something sort of clicked and they've been stronger than ever."

"Oh," Draco replied awkwardly, unsure what else to say.

"So, thank you."

"I didn't do it for Potter," Draco said quickly. "I was trying to convince him the time traveling was real. And the second time - I was asking him for a favor and needed him to be in a good mood." He thought it was important she knew how selfish he was, since he could tell she was creating a false view of him as some nice, caring person, like her beloved Gryffindors.

She just shrugged. "Regardless of your motivations, you helped him, so the 'thank you' stands."

"Let's just work," Draco said, motioning toward the stack of papers in front of her, which was smaller than normal. "Since I missed last time, I'm sure we have a lot to catch up on."

"Actually, no." Granger pushed four stacks of parchment across the table and lined them in front of Draco. "While you were gone, I finalized the remaining laws we were working on and received signatures from the other four factions. Once you sign them, they'll go to the Elders."

Draco flipped to the last page of the first stack.

"You're not going to read it?" she asked, alarmed.

Draco looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. "Did you change anything?"

"No. But I could have."

Draco could tell immediately she hadn't. She was an awful liar. "But you didn't. You're not that sinister."

"How can you be so sure?" She leaned forward and gave him an overly stern look that was probably meant to be menacing, but just her look slightly constipated. Draco couldn't help but laugh.

"Is that your sinister look?"

She glowered for a few more seconds, then broke into a smile. "I can be sinister when I want to be."

"You don't have a sinister bone in your body."

But I wouldn't mind if you took that dress off so I can check, just to be sure.

What are you doing? Don't be lewd. Milenka raised you better than that.

Granger was quiet as she watched him sign all four laws. When he pushed the parchments back toward her, she said, "And I think you have a lot fewer sinister bones in your body than you think."

Draco wanted to protest, to remind her again that he wasn't nice. That he'd just been thinking improper thoughts about her. That even what she'd witnessed between him and Daphne was slightly selfish, as he had to be nice to her because she was his only friend and he needed her, but he stayed quiet this time. He didn't hate the way she was looking at him and didn't want to say anything to make the expression go away.

A curl fell into her face and he had an urge to push it away again, which snapped him back to reality. He took a deep breath and erected a few Occlumency Shields in his mind. This witch was far too captivating. And she didn't know it, which just added to her appeal.

"Okay," she said as she returned the laws he'd signed to her stack, "we're done."

"What?"

"That was all the easy stuff. The old laws and the non-contentious material I had on my list. Um - it's new legislation from here on out. Do you think we can manage it without ripping each other apart?"

Draco folded his arms over his chest. "That depends. Can you keep your self-righteousness in check?"

"Can you reign in your arrogance?"

"I don't think so. It's been bred in me for centuries."

Granger shook her head.

"I guess we'll just have to see," Draco continued. "It's not like we have a choice."

"We always have a choice," she said quickly. "Have you already forgotten the last law you signed? It adds limitations to your role. So, if you step down, it won't go to the Lestranges. The next family in line would be the Selwyns and their representative is reasonable and sane. You can walk away if you want."

He was offended she'd looked into who the next family in line would be with the new restrictions in place. Of course she had. There's no way she liked working with him.

If he was being honest, he liked this role, despite how much he complained about it. It gave him a chance to make a real difference and he didn't want to give that up so easily. He also couldn't ignore the fact that when he'd arrived at the office today, he'd felt like absolute shit and now, after just thirty minutes of talking and joking with Granger, he felt much better.

He didn't want to think about that now. He could unpack that later or, more likely, never.

"Nice try, Granger," he replied with a smirk. "You're not getting rid of me that easily."

She shrugged and he was glad to see she didn't look very upset. "Oh well, it was worth a try."

Present Time: October 2004 / Draco's Time: September 2000

A week later, Draco time jumped again. This was his second-to-last jump to the future and now that he was approaching the end, he was getting nervous. What would he do without the occasional reminders that everything was going to be okay? He was surprised to find he'd come to rely on his visits with his future self, even though in the middle of them, he spent most of the time irritated, trying not to hex the other man.

This time, Draco left when he was in the drawing room and when he reappeared, the other Draco wasn't waiting for him, like normal. Draco checked the date and time (October 22, 2004, 2:17pm) and jotted the information in his notebook. When he was finished, he spotted the other Draco lingering in the hall.

"What are you doing out there?"

"I don't like that room. Let's go somewhere else." Draco told the man the date and time he'd come from and watched him jot it down on the list he'd later give Draco as they walked to Draco's make-shift study. He was wondering about the drawing room as they walked. It wasn't Draco's favorite room in the house, since it held such awful memories, but he didn't mind sitting in there occasionally. He wondered if something bad would happen there in his future (this Draco's past) but knew if he asked the other Draco, he would just brush him off.

Plus, he had more pressing matters to address. "You postponed your wedding," he said when they reached the study, just as they were sitting down.

The man nodded. "I did. We were supposed to get married two weeks ago, but we're getting married next spring, instead."

"What happened?" Draco asked, though he knew the other Draco wouldn't tell him. "What did you fight about?"

"Don't worry about it, really. Though I know you won't listen and worry anyway. It was good. Painful, but good."

"What happened?" Draco repeated.

The other wizard let out a sigh. He took a long time to respond and Draco guessed he was carefully considering his words, or perhaps just trying to remember them.

"We each brought a lot of baggage from the past into our relationship and had never taken the time to address it. It all came pouring out and there was a big fight, but we got past it and decided to take some time to wade through all the crap between us before getting married. We're past the worst of it now. We do these talks every week that I named C.O.B.R.A talks, for Cathartic, Overdue, but Really Awful."

"And that's a good thing?" Draco asked skeptically.

"It is," he smiled.

Draco leaned forward and stared into the other Draco's eyes. "Tell me again that you're not upset about having to postpone your wedding."

The other Draco laughed, but complied. He opened his eyes wide and said, "I'm glad we postponed the wedding. I'm glad we fought and I'm even more glad that we're moving past it. By the end of this, I'll think we'll be stronger than ever."

Draco studied his eyes as he talked and unless he'd become extremely good at hiding his emotions, he was telling the truth. "So, you told her...everything?"

The older Draco nodded.

"Everything everything?"

"Yes, she knows about the war. All of it, and she didn't go running for the hills."

"Wow," he breathed, leaning back in his chair.

"I know."

They were quiet for several moments and Draco studied the other man again. He looked a lot better, calmer and not as thin and ragged as the Draco from a few months ago. Draco was glad he'd made it past that stress and made a mental note to remember this in four years when he was in the middle of the stress himself.

"It's almost over…" Draco said quietly. He knew he didn't have to voice the apprehension he was feeling. He was sure the other Draco remembered.

"Yes," the other man said, "it is." There was something odd in his eyes. He looked like he was hiding something, something big.

"What is it?" Draco asked, leaning toward his other self again.

The other Draco gave him a sad smile and shook his head. "Things are about to get really interesting in your time."

"Good interesting or bad interesting?"

"Both. And it's going to be hard, but trust your instincts. You'll get through it."

"That's all you're going to say about it, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"I hate you."

"I know."

A/N: Here's a short little in-between chapter that's mostly just laying the groundwork for future stuff. Hope you still enjoyed it. Thanks for reading!