Sorry for the late update! I meant to update earlier this week, but got caught up in some work. Anyway, enjoy!
It was July 31st, 1997 when Hermione came barreling through the front door of the Burrow, a smile tearing through her cheeks as she searched the small kitchen for the faces she desperately wanted to see.
There, at the table with cups of steaming tea, sat Ron and Harry. Their solemn expressions changed in an instant when they caught sight of Hermione. Ron was the first to his feet as he scrambled around the table towards her. Her face slammed into his chest as her arms wound around his torso. Harry was quick to follow, his arms wrapping around the two of them.
"Hermione! We didn't think you were going to come!" Ron's voice was filled with pure happiness as he pulled back and grabbed her face in his hands to take a good look at her. "You look good," he said with a small smile.
'Please don't let me know if the Weasel gets a little too excited to see you,' Malfoy chimed in. Hermione chuckled. Things had been surprisingly good between her and Malfoy in the past several weeks. It seemed as though after everything they had gone through, they came to a sort of amicable understanding.
"How could I not come to see one of my very best friends on his birthday?" She exclaimed as she pulled back from Ron and looked over at Harry, who was grinning wildly. "Happy birthday, Harry," she said with a joyous laugh as she pulled him in for a hug, giving him a hard kiss on the cheek. "And I wouldn't miss your brother's wedding for the world," she said to Ron.
"How have you been doing down at that cottage all on your own?" Harry asked in a concerned tone. "I spoke to McGonagall and she said that no one's been to visit you."
"That's not entirely true," she said with a smile. "I get my ingredients and sundries hand delivered by Professor McGonagall bi-weekly. She just doesn't tend to hang around much longer than necessary."
"Don't you get lonely, Hermione?" Ron asked her. "I couldn't imagine being locked away by myself, studying for damn near three months already."
Hermione's mind unconsciously wandered to Malfoy. While in the beginning his presence and their sessions had been the bane of her existence, as of late she felt he kept her company.
'I am not your friend, Granger, don't get that twisted. It's just more convenient to not actively be hating each other.'
She rolled her eyes. Of course she would never consider him her friend - but she felt as though he was no longer her enemy. His thoughts concurred.
She shrugged and looked back and forth between the boys. "I have your letters each day to keep me company. I also write to Neville, Luna, and Ginny every once in a while, and it almost feels like you all are with me." Hermione looked around at the empty room. There should be so many people here preparing for tomorrow. "Where is everybody?"
The two boys looked at each other with pained expressions and Hermione's stomach dropped. "What? What is it?"
"Well, some people are out back getting set up for the wedding and stuff," Ron said as he looked over to Harry, prompting him to be the one to share the bad news, she assumed.
She looked over to Harry with expectant eyes. He let out a long breath. "A few nights ago we had to safely transport me from Privet Drive to the Burrow," Harry began, "we didn't tell you because, well, because you asked us not to."
Hermione nodded. "Go on," she urged.
"Seven of us took Polyjuice to look like me, you know, in case we got intercepted along the way. Me, Luna, Ron, the twins, Fleur, and Mundungus Fletcher."
"The prick," Ron sneered and Harry nodded in agreement.
"It was awful, Hermione. Somehow word of our plan got out. Voldemort himself was there - trying to kill me."
Hermione shook her head. Malfoy's thoughts were spiraling in excitement, fear, and confusion. He clearly didn't know how to feel about either side, and Hermione didn't want to bother to help him work through that at the moment.
"Was anyone hurt?" She asked.
There was a long, cold pause. "George lost his left ear," Ron said, and Harry shot him an angered look. Hermione assumed this meant that, once again, Ron was leaving it to Harry to break the worse news.
"Hedwig and Moody were killed last night," Harry finally said. "Everyone else is in a meeting discussing where everything went wrong. They don't want us apart of that discussion right now."
Hermione's heart sank as she scrambled to find herself a seat. "Oh my god," she breathed out. "That's awful news, Harry. I'm so sorry about Hedwig," she managed to choke out. What were they going to do without Mad-Eye Moody on their side?
'He was always a prick anyway. Good riddance,' Malfoy thought to himself. Hermione felt enraged by his thought, but chose to ignore it.
"So," she began. "What now?"
Harry placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder and gave her a comforting squeeze. She shut her eyes as a tear slipped down her cheek. "For now, we focus on making tomorrow the very best day for Bill and Fleur."
It was August 1st, 1997, and it had been a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the heat was mild, and the wind gave a pleasant breeze.
Hermione had made the decision to come to the wedding after spending more and more time with Draco Malfoy. She felt as though she could trust him on some level with information like this.
"Go to the wedding, Granger," he had said to her one night while they were sitting in his living quarters with a cup of tea. "It's of little interest to me anyway, and if you don't go you will never shut up about it."
She knew his intentions were just that - he wanted her to go to the wedding and get the thought out of her head. So, now feeling that he could be trusted, she made the decision to go.
Hermione giggled happily with Ginny and Fleur's sisters as they did their hair up in plaits with August flowers intertwined in the twists. Her lips were painted red to match her A-line ruby dress. For the first time in a long time, Hermione Granger had felt beautiful.
Bill and Fleur, as Hermione came to learn, had a lot of friends and family. Witches and wizards from all over Europe came to wish the happy couple congratulations and to celebrate their love on such a wonderful day. Harry was disguised as a Weasley cousin named 'Barny'. Hermione had laughed along with Ron and Ginny as he bounded down the stairs - short, stout, and ginger everywhere. She felt warm.
As Hermione danced on the dance floor with Luna, a dark and familiar figure walked into her peripheral. Luna smirked and kept dancing as she looked to Hermione. "Looks like you've got a suitor, Hermione. I'll leave you to it," she said daintily as she floated away to dance with Neville and 'Barny'.
Hermione turned around and her face spread into a wide grin. Viktor Krum stood in front of her with a smile, his hand held out. "May I have dis dance, Her-my-oh-nee?" He said her name in careful syllables, just as she taught him.
She smiled warmly and took his hand. "Of course."
Hermione hadn't heard anything from Malfoy all day, so she assumed he was asleep. This wouldn't be unusual if she didn't know him to be so nosy - she had thought he would want to take in every second of this to use for ammo. She shrugged the thought away and enjoyed her dance as she caught up with her former Yule Ball date.
Suddenly, without warning, a blue lynx Patronus appeared in the middle of the dance floor. "The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming." The voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt echoed through the party tent and a shiver ran down Hermione's spin as Viktor held her tight.
"Vot should ve do?" He asked her, his lips grazing her ear as she shivered.
She shook free from his grasp and looked back at him, shock and fear etched into her face. "You should go back to Bulgaria - warn the others there," she said as logic came back to her. "I will be safe, Viktor, I promise."
Hermione looked around to find Harry and Ron. She spotted them running toward the Burrow, wands in hand as witches and wizards apparated away from the wedding left and right.
"Ron!" She called as she held her wand tightly in her hand.
He paused and turned to look back at her - he was covering Harry, who was turning back into himself. "We have to go, Hermione!" She nodded and ran toward them, but stopped when Ron waved her away. "No - we have to go. Now. You need to go back to the cottage, Hermione," he shouted over the crowd.
Hermione froze. She felt isolated and alone as she watched Harry and Ron apparate away from her. She held her wand in limp fingers as a thought came over her. There was only one conceivable way that the Death Eater's would find out about this wedding - only one potential traitor that was there without being present. Rage swelled in Hermione's body as he hands began to shake.
"Hermione, dear!" Molly Weasley grabbed her by her shoulders and ran her towards the field.
Suddenly, Hermione heard snaps and pops in the air - her eyes caught sight of them, and her blood turned to ice. Death Eaters.
"Go, now!" Molly pleaded as she pushed Hermione into the field, shrouding her in the tall meadow grass.
Without a second thought, Hermione apparated away with one thought in her mind.
Draco Malfoy had betrayed her.
Before she was even aware what she was doing, Hermione was outside of Malfoy's room, waiting for the door to appear. Her thoughts were running rampant as she screamed internally for him to listen to her - to get his cowardly arse out and let her in.
Her mind paused - why would he still be here if he passed along this information? Would he be with the Dark Lord and his family again? Or maybe he was leaking the information through Snape. Hermione had let her guard down, and she was furious with herself. How could she trust that Mafloy wasn't hiding his thoughts from her when they were apart? What if he lulled her into a false sense of security by making her think he only had this control when they were together?
She was shaking in rage by the time the door appeared. Before he could fully open the door for her, she came flying into the room, her wand extended out to his throat.
"You," she growled through gritted teeth. "I trusted you! You made a fool out of me." She pressed the tip of the wand further into his neck as she focused on keeping him out of her mind now that they were together.
He looked into her eyes with a truly fearful expression, trying to read her but being denied access. His hand wrapped long fingers around her wand as he tried to push it out of his neck. "What in Merlin's name are you doing, you psycho?!"
"You made false thoughts in your head to get me to trust you," she growled as she pulled the wand out of his grasp. "Voldemort is never going to take you back, do you know that? You could have gotten people killed today for nothing!"
Malfoy shook his head and furrowed his brows as he examined her. "I have no idea what you're talking about!" He shouted, his voice straining. "I haven't done anything, alright! Can you stop pointing your wand at me?"
Hermione kept her wand pointed toward him as she examined him. He was clearly exhibiting signs of stress; fear in his eyes, shakiness, confusion written on his face.
"Open your mind to me," she said in a hushed tone, her voice filled with careful rage. "Now."
Just as she asked, he let her in. Hermione grabbed his face with both of her hands and let herself get lost in his mind.
He didn't do it. She let him into her mind, and his hands found her face as well. He saw what had happened today through her thoughts, and she felt fear in his mind when he saw this.
She pulled back and felt her body slacken. "You didn't tell anyone about the wedding."
Malfoy's face twisted in disgust as he wiped his hands on his sleep shirt. "Of all the information I could share with the Dark Lord, I think a Weasley wedding would be the least likely to keep me alive," he said as he walked away from her.
"If not you, then who?" she asked as she followed behind him, her wand at her side. "Who would do this?"
He whipped around and looked at her. "Look, Granger, I am not here to be your sounding board for ideas and guesses. Especially after you came here and physically assaulted me," he snapped in a clipped tone. "Do the math - the Ministry has fallen. Any number of bandwagoners could have let on to today's events."
Hermione bit her lip and nodded. "I suppose you're right," she conceded. "I don't know why you seemed to be the only answer for me."
He scoffed and looked away from her. "Because I'm a Death Eater and nothing more," he began. "You'll never be able to trust me, and now having me attached to you is your biggest flaw."
"It's hard having someone who hates you live in your mind," she snapped back defensively.
"Oh, please, Granger," Malfoy said with a scoff. "You were already living with that before I came along." She swallowed and looked away, knowing he was right but too embarrassed to admit it. "That doesn't make you unique."
His mind was closed off to her, but she knew that he had been dealing with the same thing. "I suppose it doesn't. But I have some evil in me now that I never had before."
"Have you ever stopped for a moment and thought that I always saw you as the evil in this world?" He asked her with a shrug.
"What do you mean?" She asked. "Of course, you hate Muggle-borns, that's no -"
"No, no. You as in 'the Light'," he turned towards her, but looked past her. "Your entire belief system is that you are good and 'the Dark' is evil. Have you ever thought that the people on that side feel the same way?"
Hermione laughed bitterly. "Well, you all can think that, but there is only one good side here."
"In a sense, yes," he woefully agreed. "But many of us were raised to believe what we are doing and what we believe in is what is right. We don't see ourselves as evil, is the point."
She scoffed and shook her head as she laughed in a mocking tone. "Right - yes, exterminating and enslaving others is totally good and pure, and we should give those people a chance!"
"It's not about giving a chance," he said in exhaustion. "It doesn't matter, you're not getting the point."
"I guess I'm not," she said stubbornly, not wanting him to continue.
His eyes found hers. "I guess what I am saying is that I've had the opportunity now to see that I was raised wrong. And that perspective isn't something everyone gets to see."
Hermione froze - she never expected to hear anything like this come out of a Death Eater's mouth - out of Draco Malfoy's mouth. She nodded her head in agreement. "I suppose not."
"Anyway, I'm trying to say that I've given up on my ideals of getting back to where I was before this. You needn't worry about me being loose lipped," he assured her. "I hope that's enough to keep this from ever happening again."
Hermione nodded slowly. She truly believed him. She opened her mind for him to see that as she said, "In that case, I'm truly sorry for accusing you of this."
His lips curved into a smirk. "You want to really show me you're sorry, Granger?"
"Of course," she said willingly.
"Then get out of here - You've seriously interrupted my beauty sleep." With a flick of his wand, he conjured the door. "Also, you could wear your hair like that more. The 'tamed' style looks, well, decent on you," he said with a smirk. He held up an orange lily that had been in her plait - he must have plucked it earlier without her noticing. She flushed and swallowed. He nodded his head in the direction of the door, willing her to leave. With red in her cheeks from embarrassment, Hermione was more than willing to comply.
As both of them were left alone with each other's thoughts, they both realized something. Maybe, just maybe, there was something more than hate there.
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