Ch. 23

In the morning Draco got ready to head out to see Hermione. When he came downstairs he saw his father was already at the table waiting for him.

"Morning Draco," he offered as Draco took a seat.

"Morning."

"I see you're almost ready to leave?"

"Yes, camping." Draco smiled. He wanted to call it muggle camping like Hermione did but didn't want to push his father's buttons.

Lucious took the smile as a positive sign. "Have fun." He tried to sound encouraging.

Draco gave him an odd look and then smiled again. "Thanks."

They ate breakfast in silence for a few moments and then Narcissa joined them. She liked that there was no tension between them anymore.

"Where are you camping at Draco?" his mother asked him.

"I'm not sure, Hermione didn't really say…" he began. "Oh, before I forget, I wanted to bring her by when we get done camping." He didn't look at them when he said it.

Narcissa and Lucious looked at one another and Lucious nodded to her that she should answer, he wasn't ready for something like that. She took it that he was fine with the visit.

"Sure," she answered, "that's fine."

Lucious was just frozen and Draco looked at the both of them and smiled again. Lucious returned his son's smile lightly and looked back at his wife who saw the puzzled look on his face and raised her eyebrows at his as if to say "what?" He looked back at his son, who hadn't truly been happy in a very long time and sighed. He wasn't going to change his mind now.

Draco took a couple more bites of food and stood up. "I'd better get going if I'm going to be on time," he said.

"See you when you get back," Narcissa smiled at him. His father just nodded. He went out into the garden and after a second they heard the familiar 'pop' sound that meant Draco was gone.

Lucious grabbed his wife's hand and held it and after a moment he brought it up to his lips to kiss it.

Draco arrived just outside her parent's house in the back yard. Their yard was surrounded by hedges so that they blocked the neighbors view. He was happy he hadn't mis-shot their yard. When Hermione heard the 'pop' she ran out in the yard and gave Draco a big hug.

Wendell had time to fill Monica in on the conversation he and Draco had during his last visit and Monica couldn't be more excited for her daughter. She also liked Draco very much and thought she was getting a great future son in law.

He walked with Hermione into the house and shook Wendell's hand at seeing him again and gave Monica a hug.

"Ready to head out?" Wendell asked.

"Yes," Draco answered.

Wendell stopped and gave him an odd look. "Where's your sleeping bag, change of clothes…" he questioned.

"I packed them for him," Hermione answered when her parents looked at her. "He's never been camping before," she added.

Donning registered on her parent's faces and they started to head out to the car.

"You're going to have fun then!" Monica added.

"We're going to the Forest of Dean," Wendell said, "It might be quite a drive."

Hermione went pale but quickly recovered. It had been a while since she was there. Draco saw the look on her face. "Hermione, I'm glad to see you," he said as he squeezed her hand.

After several hours in the car and a lot of talking about what (muggle) people do when they go camping, they had finally arrived. Hermione and her mom went to round up sticks for a fire while Draco and Wendell went to set up the tents.

Draco had gone camping before with his family but they hadn't done it often. The act of going camping seemed to occupy most of the muggle experience, while when wizards camped they lived nearly the same way, but just in a glorified outside tent. He had trouble figuring out what poles went to which parts. After Wendell was done building his and Monica's tent he came over to help Draco.

"Need that pole," he pointed and Draco grabbed it, "and here's the frame. You're doing good for your first time," he encouraged.

"Are you saying that just to make me feel better?" Draco asked dryly. He wasn't enjoying failing.

"Kind of," Wendell laughed, he noticed Draco didn't seem like the outdoors type. "You're doing okay," he added.

"This would be so much easier if I could use magic, I'm not used to doing things without it very often," he sighed as he tried matching up the poles again. A few more minutes in Wendell had helped Draco to finish it.

Monica and Hermione got back with the wood and Draco took a seat and watched as Hermione set up and lit the fire. Seeing her muggle side was fascinating to him now, when years ago he wouldn't even think twice about muggle life. He couldn't believe she knew how to do all of these things that he'd never considered.

When the fire was roaring Monica grabbed the cooler and some sticks and they began to roast hot dogs for dinner. Draco thought it was a lot of work for a very little reward.

In the evening they roasted marshmallows and talked by the fire and watched the stars as they shown in the night sky. When the mosquitos came out, all of them headed into their tents for the night.

Hermione had zipped their sleeping bags together so they could cuddle in one big bag. When they got in the bag and he put his arms around her; she finally felt at peace.

"I missed you Draco," she whispered to him.

"Same, I'm glad you wrote this time," he leaned in to kiss her. "So, I told my parent's I'd bring you by when we were done camping," Draco added. He knew Hermione might get irritated and nervous at him again.

"Okay," she sighed. She missed him too much to argue

"You're good with this?" he asked her.

"If it means I get more time with you, yes."

He hugged her tightly and drifted off to sleep.

In the morning he was up before Hermione and got out of the tent. The grounds were truly beautiful and he decided to explore the area for a little bit. When he had got done hiking about an hour had gone by and he came back to the campsite to see Wendell and Monica already up and eating.

"Morning," he called out to them. "Is Hermione still sleeping?" he asked.

"Yeah," Monica answered. "She doesn't seem to have been sleeping very well lately," she shared.

Draco knew the feeling.

"So are you a hiking kind of guy?" Wendell asked.

"Not really, I just wanted to take in the scenery, it's so nice here," he added.

Wendell sighed. "I just can't pin you down, you aren't into sports, you don't seem to be the outdoors type, most literature we talked about on the ride up you had never heard of, what do you and Hermione have in common?"

"Wendell!" Monica half shouted and playfully slapped his arm as they both looked at Draco for a response.

"Well I supposed it was the war…" he began. He thought that should have been obvious, but then again muggles seemed to think differently about many things that wizards did.

"Come again?" Monica said.

"You know, the wizard war?" When they continued to draw a blank he continued. "Hermione was on the run for about a year and a half…"

"Hermione?" her dad asked and pointed to the tent, asking if they were talking about the same girl.

It donned on him that when Hermione said she had taken their memories of her away, he assumed she probably gave them back after the war. But for some reason he couldn't understand why they wouldn't know about this. Could it be possible that she really hadn't told them?

"…um…maybe this is something Hermione needs to talk to you about…" he started.

Wendell stood up, some of the details of Hermione's behavior over the last two years was starting to make sense to him. "Can magic…is there a way…to make people forget things you don't want them to know?" he asked Draco.

Draco felt like he was on dangerous ground now. He stared Wendell and Monica in the eyes as he slowly nodded his head once.

"She was in a war," Monica said to herself. "Oh God. And that's how you met, so you must have helped her!" Monica had tears welling up in her eyes.

Draco took a step back from them, it was too much. "How could she not have told them!" he thought. He found his voice. "No, I captured her and her friends," it slipped out quickly in his shock; it was the truth and he felt they deserved it.

Wendell came at him before Draco had a chance to react and punched him in the face. "You're not marrying my daughter!"

Draco could feel his nose break like it had only one other time in his life. Blood started gushing out over his hands that were covering his face.

Hermione heard the yelling and came running from the tent, she put together her father's balled up fist and Draco's face. She ran over to Draco.

"Oh my God, what happened!" She quickly pulled out her wand and did a spell to fix his nose and stop the bleeding.

"Dad, what is wrong with you!" She shouted at him.

"You were in a war Hermione?" He asked, hurt.

"How did this get brought up?" She looked at Draco.

Draco was angry with her for withholding information from them. These two people cared about her so much and she let them live in the dark. "How did this NOT get brought up Hermione?!" he shouted at her. He backed up from her and looked between her and her angry parents.

His eyes were wide, and he had that scared and worried look she had seen in them only a number of times.

"He held you captive and you brought him home to meet us?" her mother asked.

"How much did you tell them," she yelled at Draco as she started shaking.

Draco didn't answer.

"More than you did," her father answered. "Monica, we're going for a walk. When we come back, we expect the truth Hermione, do you understand?" Her dad asked in a dangerous tone.

"Yes," she answered.

"And you," He pointed at Draco, "when I come back you better be gone, or so help me…" he said as he flexed his fist again.

Hermione and Draco watched her parents walk away behind some trees until they disappeared from sight.

"It's going to take a powerful charm to fix what happened here," she said in a shaky voice to Draco.

"You're still not going to tell them!" He remembered what Potter had said about her shielding the ones she loved from the truth.

"What good will the truth do them? It would devastate them to know what I've been through, you saw what happened!" she answered, becoming hysterical.

"Is that what you think, the truth is only important when it's convenient? Have you been hiding things from me too?" He was incredulous.

"How can you ask me that?" she couldn't believe him. "I've told you everything Draco," she said as she stepped closer to him.

"Don't," he stepped back from her. "I can't do this," he said as he turned on the spot and apparated, leaving Hermione to deal with the mess she created years ago.

He came back to the manor garden and in through the living room.