Sorry for another delay, but I promise that I'll start working on getting this story finished near the end of the month. In light of JKR's recent comments, I'd just like to say that to any trans readers out there that you are valid and respected and that I'm sorry if her ignorant remarks have made you feel unwelcomed in the fandom anymore. But let's praise Bonnie Wright, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint for putting that TERF biatch in her place. Now feel free to unload any bashing of JKR in the reviews since that's more than welcome and anyone who supports her comments will be blocked 3.


As the dust settled after the war had finally been won, Hermione could hardly believe that it was actually over. After she, Harry and Ron had spent some time by themselves, they headed back to the Great Hall where everyone was. It was the last place she had seen Draco as he sat there with his parents, only now he seemed to be gone as they sat there by themselves. They'd had a brief moment to themselves after what happened in the Room of Requirement, but that was more of a fleeting look between them before Draco took off running. At this point in time, there was nothing more that Hermione wanted to do than to see Draco again and finally be able to speak with him. But Ginny got to her first before she could try looking for him.

"Hey, Hermione," Ginny smiled sadly.

"Hi, Gin. How are you holding up?" Hermione asked.

Ginny sighed, "I'm trying really hard to be strong right now. I know that Fred wouldn't want us to be upset like this, but it's really hard to fight back the tears."

"It's over now though, so that's one good thing," Hermione said.

"Yeah, there's actually something that I wanted to talk to you about," Ginny stated.

"Oh?" Hermione narrowed her eyebrows.

"Malfoy," Ginny said bluntly.

"Oh," Hermione murmured.

"Come on, Hermione. You'd have to know that I would eventually bring him up. After all, I only let him help the D.A. after I knew he had your support. I suppose he ended up earning my trust regardless after he helped us," Ginny explained.

"What do you want to know?" Hermione asked.

"Just one thing, actually. Are you with him?" Ginny wondered.

"Kind of," Hermione shrugged. "It's a bit complicated. I'm not sure where we stand."

"Well, that's probably why he wants to see you. He told me to give you this message. I haven't read it, but I'm assuming that he wants to see you," Ginny said as she handed Hermione a piece of paper.

"Thank you, Ginny," Hermione nodded. "I'll see you later."

Turning around, Hermione unfolded the piece of paper before instantly recognising Draco's scrawly handwriting. How could she not, after they had been writing to each other for more than a year now? The message was quite clear, and it had Hermione darting out of the Common Room in an instant: you will find me in the Slytherin Common Room.

It didn't take Hermione long to find the Slytherin Common Room. It was one of the few places at Hogwarts that Hermione had never actually been to, although she would've been inside the Slytherin Dungeons in second year if not for that unfortunate Polyjuice incident. Strangely enough, Hermione didn't even need to have a password to enter the room as the entrance had been left blown open. The inside certainly didn't look any better, and with no sign of Draco she decided to look for what she thought was the boys dormitory. Sure enough, he was sitting in the room on one of the beds, facing away from the door.

"Draco," Hermione addressed him.

He turned his head to face her, and Hermione could've sworn that she saw a faint smile on his face. "Granger."

"You're still going to call me that, huh?" Hermione remarked.

Draco shrugged, "You'll always be Granger to me. I see Weaslette passed on my message."

"Why'd you give it to Ginny?" Hermione wondered.

"Because I just wanted to get away from it all and she was the first person I saw who would pass it on to you," Draco replied.

"How was it, being here and working with the D.A?" Hermione asked.

"I hardly did much. I just She-Weasley what she needed to know when it came to the Carrow's and everything else. Weaslette just about hexed me the first time I approached her, and she didn't entirely believe me when I said that you would trust me. It took her long enough to come around," Draco answered.

"I'm sorry that you had to go through what you did," Hermione apologised.

Draco scoffed, "If anyone should be apologising, it should be me for letting my psychotic aunt torture you like she did."

"There was nothing you could've done that would've made anything better," Hermione reassured him.

"Still doesn't make me feel any better," Draco muttered.

"At least Bellatrix is dead now," Hermione stated.

"I should thank mother Weasley for that," he scowled.

"Why aren't you with your parents?" Hermione asked.

"I just didn't want to be around anyone else, so before they could stop me I just got out of there. I only came here because it was basically my home for six years, not that I really enjoyed it that much," Draco said.

"I'm sorry about Crabbe," Hermione apologised. Even though Crabbe had essentially killed himself and would have killed them all if he could, Hermione knew that he was still Draco's friend and she could tell from their brief moment after the Room of Requirement that Crabbe's death had shook him.

Draco sighed, "I am too. We were supposed to be friends, but I guess in hindsight I treated them more like sidekicks than anything else. Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever had a real friend. At least until you came along."

Hermione smiled softly, "I'm glad that you can think of me that way now."

"How could I not, after you put up with pathetic ass for the past year without expecting anything in return? I still can't understand why you did it, but I appreciate it more than you could even begin to understand. Without you to talk to, I probably would've gone mental. Salazar's balls, I was already going mental," Draco said.

"But you're fine now. Everything's going to be oaky," Hermione stated.

"I'm not sure about that, Granger. I'm a Death Eater, remember?" Draco pointed out.

"A coerced Death Eater," Hermione argued.

"That doesn't matter. I've still got this bloody thing on my arm and the Ministry will probably send me to Azkaban the first chance they get. That's also kind of why I left. I'm just biting my time before I get sent to my own cell in Azkaban," Draco said.

"I won't let them do that to you. I'll fight for you. I'll do whatever I can to help you," Hermione insisted.

"Thanks for the support, then. It's probably all I'm gonna get," Draco muttered.

"You don't know that! Don't sit here with a defeatist attitude before anything even happens," Hermione proclaimed.

"Your optimism is astounding, Granger," Draco murmured.

Hermione sighed. As much as she did not want to see Draco giving up on himself like this already, she could understand why he would feel this way. With that thought in mind, Hermione found herself reminded of the first time she confronted Draco in the Room of Requirement and was met with the same pessimism that he had now. Now that they were together again, Hermione was just itching to address the Hippogriff in the room and by that, she meant the status of their relationship.

"So, I guess now that we're here, it would be a good time for us to talk about, well, us," Hermione said awkwardly.

"What's there to talk about?" Draco grumbled.

"Do you really see yourself with my for the long haul? I don't want this to be just some fling, and I certainly don't want to just be used so you can get your freedom," Hermione stated.

"I thought I made myself clear in our letters," Draco remarked.

"It would just be nice to have some reassurance from you face to face, that's all," Hermione argued.

"Granger, I'm not just serious about the fact that I think I'm screwed, but I'm also serious about whatever you want to have. I guess that now just probably wouldn't be a good time for us to have anything since I'll probably be thrown into a cell at Azkaban in the blink of an eye. And I don't think you really want to have dates in a cell, do you?" Draco said.

"Probably not," Hermione agreed. "But I would still want to see you."

"You'd probably be the only thing to keep me sane in there," Draco remarked.

"So, when this is all sorted and you're a free man, we'll give this a go? For real?" Hermione said.

"Yeah, we will," Draco nodded.

"You're not going to fight me anymore?" Hermione checked.

"I'm tired of fighting," Draco replied, and Hermione knew that he wasn't just talking about them.

"I am too," Hermione murmured.

"It's over now, like you said. I always knew that Potter was an immortal prick," Draco commented.

Hermione giggled, "Yeah, I guess he is. But you have to admit it came in handy."

Draco snorted, "I never thought that I'd be grateful for Potter in my life."

"I do have some ground rules if we're going to make this work," Hermione said.

"Lay it on me, Granger," Draco drawled.

"I don't want to hear anymore bigoted prejudice coming out of your mouth. If you so much even whisper the word, that will be it," Hermione proclaimed.

"I can hardly hold onto prejudices anymore after the so-called greatest Dark Lord of all time was defeated by an army of half-bloods and muggleborns," Draco remarked. "It'll still be hard to get over, but I'll try if that's what you want me to do."

Hermione smiled softly, "And another thing is that once we get you away from Azkaban, you're going to have to try and make nice with Harry and Ron."

Draco grimaced, "Ugh, Potter and Weasley? Seriously? I can turn down the prejudice, but asking me to be friends with them is asking for a little too much."

"I'm not asking for that much, Draco," Hermione rolled her eyes. "I just expect you to be civil with them and to refrain from engaging in petty and pointless conflicts. Besides, don't you think that you should try since Harry you know, saved your sorry ass."

"Don't remind me," Draco groaned. "But hey, I still saved Potter's ass at the Manor so I guess that makes us both even."

"You should know that Harry knows about our… thing, anyways," Hermione commented.

"How'd he find out? Last I checked, Potter barely had two brain cells to rub together," Draco said.

"He caught me writing to you one time, and I couldn't get away with it. But it felt nice to be able to talk to Harry about it, even if he wasn't exactly thrilled about it when he initially found out," Hermione explained.

Draco scoffed, "I'd say that would be an understatement."

"Yeah, he really was pissed off about it for a while, but he came around eventually. He even helped at one point, since I was doubting what you truly felt for me," Hermione said.

"What do you mean by that?" Draco wondered.

"Well, I had made my feelings to you clear but the last time we had spoken face to face, you certainly didn't reciprocate them. So for you to suddenly turn around and share that to me, I just didn't know what to think. I doubted how genuine you were being since I needed to hear it from you in person to believe it. But Harry understood what it was like to doubt what someone truly eels for you, so he let me talk to him about it once he had come around, which conveniently was right before we got sent off to the Manor," Hermione explained.

"I doubt that Weasley would be that understanding," Draco snorted.

Hermione bit her lip nervously, "Yeah, he probably won't be pleased when he finds out. But I'd hope that Ron would be mature enough to respect our relationship."

"Are we talking about the same Weasley here?" Draco snickered.

"You're really not going to make this easy, are you?" Hermione remarked.

"When have I ever made anything easy, Granger?" Draco retorted.

"Never, I guess," Hermione replied, since it was true. Nothing about her relationship with Draco had ever been easy up until now, and she figured that nothing would ever be easy for them.

"I don't remember if I've said it yet, but I guess I should be apologising to you for being a complete and utter prat for to you for six years. I'd give excuses, but I know you'd want none of that," Draco said.

"I wouldn't," Hermione nodded. "But it does mean a lot to hear that from you with your voice rather than your written words."

A comfortable silence fell over them, and Hermione found herself feeling more at ease with Draco than she had felt in months. Words couldn't describe how thrilled Hermione was that they had both survived the war, though she knew that Draco would first have to survive Azkaban. After sitting in silence for a few moments, Draco carefully inched his hand closer to Hermione's until he was gripping it tightly, and the feeling sent a swarm of butterflies through Hermione's chest.

"I kind of want to kiss you right now," Draco admitted.

Hermione blushed as she tried to find the right words to say, "That would be appropriate."

And so that's what he did. Considering Hermione's only real kissing experience had been with Viktor Krum and a less than desired snog with Cormac McLaggen after Slughorn's Party, she didn't have much to compare it with. But Hermione had certainly read enough romance novels to know what a good kiss was supposed to be like, and this one certainly put her others to shame. It was a bit messy as their lips fumbled and brushed against each other, but the tenderness and passion of it all was exactly what you'd want from a kiss. So when they eventually pulled apart, Hermione was left someone disappointed that it was over which saw her have a desire for more.

"Took your breath away, huh?" Draco remarked as his face broke into that old and familiar cocky grin that Hermione used to hate so much.

"Oh, don't even," Hermione stammered as she playfully whacked him on the arm.

"I can't help it if I'm irresistible," Draco smirked.

"Not only that, but you're an arrogant prick," Hermione retorted.

"Never lose that touch, Granger," Draco said.

"I could say the same to you," Hermione smiled softly.

"Let's just enjoy this time while it lusts, huh?" Draco suggested as he leaned back onto the bed.

"And we'll have plenty more time to enjoy together in the future," Hermione added in an attempt to keep the mood light.

"I'd like that," Draco conceded.

"Me too," Hermione agreed.

If you had asked Hermione what she thought would be the result of her communicating with a mysterious journal, she never would've predicted that this would be the outcome. She never would've expected that a simple journal would've lead her to Draco Malfoy, and Hermione was surprised to find herself say that she was quite thankful for that. Although their path together was uncertain, Hermione had every bit of faith that they'd get through it together.


And so that concludes the main story arc. What will follow this chapter is four bonus chapters that take place in the future before I wrap this story up. And just remember, to the trans members of the community, you are loved, appreciated and valid. Don't let anyone make you think otherwise and I'll see you guys in the bonus updates.