Reformed
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Goldensnitch18
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Rated M for Scenes of a Sexual Nature, Language, and Violence.
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Summary: Draco Malfoy is released from Azkaban and sent to Hogwarts for his eighth year where he has a year to show that he can be reformed. Hermione Granger, and her friends, are struggling to come to terms with what has happened to them and move on, but she has agreed to be Malfoy's Muggle Studies tutor anyway.
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Disclaimer: I am not profiting from this story.
Anything you recognize belongs to the great and mighty JKR.
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Chapter Twenty Two
Wednesday, December 31st, 1998
Draco lay brooding over his Potions textbook when the knock came at his door. He wasn't in the mood for Theo right now. His Christmas had been shit, he missed Hermione all the damn time, and, if he was being honest, it had not been easy to be cut off from regular sex cold turkey for over a week. He was pretty fucking done with this break. He was ready for her to be back, to hold her again, to have her with him as he studied, to know that she was okay, to hear about how her Christmas had been.
He heard the knock again, and he sighed, letting his head fall back against the headboard. "Fuck off, Theo," he snapped loudly.
"It isn't Theo." It took his brain a nanosecond to realize who was speaking. He quickly jumped off the bed, his book abandoned with a loud thud as it hit the floor. He swung the door open, taking in the sight of her, drinking her in. She had pulled her mad hair up into a bun, her cheeks were pink, her eyes bright, and her arms held a bundle of books as she bit her bottom lip as she smiled.
"Fuck," he said softly, and moved forward, his hand moved to her neck, pulling her closer to kiss her hard. She reacted in alarm, pushing back on him, but he just wrapped his other arm around her, pulling her closer as he kissed her deeply. He had missed her so fucking much, and she was here right in front of him. She tasted like tea and felt like home. It was still a bit terrifying how much she made him feel. His emotions were battling inside of his body, struggling to overpower each other.
When it became clear that he wasn't letting her go, Hermione finally started to kiss him back, one hand gripping his sweater tightly in her fingers as she let out a small noise against his lips and probably tried not to drop her beloved books. He hoped to Merlin they were just props and she hadn't really been expecting to study.
He pulled back after several long minutes when he could finally bear to put inches between them, leaning his forehead against hers, but she turned her head away. He was confused at first but then realized she was turning to look at Theo, who was in fact staring at them both, mouth hanging open like an idiot.
"He knows," Draco told her. "He knew before you left because he's apparently stalking us."
"Why does he look like that then?" she asked, turning back toward him. She didn't seem upset by the news that Theo knew about them, which was something.
"It's one thing to know, quite another to have the two of you going at it in front of me," Theo said. Draco glared at him over Hermione's shoulder as a flush spread up her cheeks. That flush of pink made him crazy. His cock had been hard from the moment he touched her, but that flush made him ache. He was losing his fucking mind, and he needed her naked and anyway she would have him.
"Shut the fuck up," Draco snapped at Theo. His hand gripped her elbow, and he pulled her gently by the arm into his room.
"Harry knows too," Hermione whispered.Draco shut the door, separating them from Theo. He stared at the wood grain for a solid thirty seconds before he turned to face her, afraid of what was coming next. What if her best friend didn't want her to be with him? "You told him?" Draco asked, trying to conceal his surprise, but likely failing. He was struggling to hide anything from her these days.
"We … well, we went to see your mother together, and he suspected something." She stared at the carpet, her arms still clutching her books tightly to her chest.
"You saw my mother?" he asked. His mother had actually seen her, spent time with Hermione.
"We had tea," Hermione told him.
"You had tea with my mother?" It seemed a bit too odd to be possible. Surely his mother had not given tea to Hermione and Harry Potter.
"Yes. Yesterday."
"Yesterday," he repeated.
"Yeah."
"Why?" he asked, lacking a better response. He had imagined that one day he would need to put the two in a room together, force his mother to accept Hermione, hope and plead that they might get along, but the two of them had just gotten together for tea over Christmas.
"I wanted to … I don't know. I just thought somehow it might help you." Hermione walked towards his bed, and he watched her sit down, the mattress sinking slightly with her body.
"Did you … what did you talk about?" he asked, not entirely sure he was ready for the answer. Had she told his mother what they were? Surely not. But, she said Potter had figured it out, so … His mother was not a stupid woman.
"You. She wanted to know how you're doing. She gave me this." Hermione shuffled through the small stack and grabbed a thin book Draco remembered quite well from his childhood, holding it out to him.
"I …" he trailed off, overwhelmed with emotion as his fingertips touched the smooth cover of the book.
"She … didn't seem to be happy to be talking to me, but she misses you and would do anything to get news about you. That is clear," Hermione said. She set the rest of her books down beside her. Her expression was off, a bit sad or sullen. He hated that thinking about his mother made her feel that way. He didn't expect Narcissa to understand or even approve, but he wished it wouldn't be so hard on Hermione. He was in love with her, he wasn't going to let her go, and there was nothing he could do at the moment to change how his mother thought about her.
"Hermione ... thank you." He closed the space between them, leaning down to kiss her head. "Thank you," he said again. The book was silly. It was just children's tales, but it was something that connected him to the only family he had left, something that connected him to a time when life was much simpler.
Her fingers dug into his shirt, and she leaned into him. "What are we going to do?" she asked, and the emotion thick in her voice made it clear she was trying not to cry.
"What do you mean?" he asked. He dropped the book onto the others and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
"She hates me, Draco," she told his chest, and it hurt. Fuck did it hurt to hear those words.
"I'm sure …" he started, trying to lie.
"She tried," Hermione cut him off, knowing the lie for what it would have been. "She tried very hard to be polite because I was giving her what no one else would or could, but she isn't going to be okay with this, and Harry thinks if people find out they will accuse you of doing something to bewitch me and throw you back … back there." He could feel her tears through his shirt, but they were falling silently, the moisture the only sign of any change in her.
"Hermione …" he whispered. He didn't know what to say. They could throw him back there. They could do whatever the hell they wanted. He was a criminal, and he had done terrible things. This year they had given him to try to learn about Muggles, to try to repent for what he had done, to try to become a model citizen … it could all be taken away in the blink of an eye. He had no illusions about that.
"I can't stop thinking about it. What it must have been like for you there, and I can't stop thinking that I might be why they send you back, and they can't do that to you, they just can't."
"Hermione …" he said again, his own voice catching as he remembered, as memories flooded him. It had been the worst time of his life. Just the memory made him itch for a shower.
"I had just been refusing to say it out loud, but Harry said it, and now I'm terrified. I'm just so scared of what they could do to ..."He pulled her chin up with his finger and thumb and kissed her then, not the fervent, hard kiss he had given her in the open doorway, but the slow, steady kiss of a man reassuring the woman he loved that they were together, that he was here in front of her and nowhere else. She tasted like salty tears and home.
"Hermione," he whispered against her moist lips, "I love you."
"I love you, too," she muttered, shaking.
He pulled back, refusing to let her look down as he met her eyes. "We're not going to let that happen, okay? And … I don't know about my mother. I really don't, but we'll figure it out. She had you for tea, and I'm sure it was hard for you, but that's honestly more than I would have expected at this point."
"She's going to hate us being together," she told him. "I can't … if we … I mean …."
"What?" he asked, not sure what he was missing.
XXX
Wednesday, December 31st, 1998
Draco let go of her chin as she struggled to find words, and she slipped out from the bed. She couldn't have him standing over her like that if she was going to bare her soul. She couldn't feel stuck between him and the mattress.
She took a few steps away from him, but she didn't feel any more confident. "I just … I've been thinking … long term, and I don't know what you're thinking … but how is she going to react if … I don't know ..."
She was seeing visions of a life with him. Marriage, careers, and she did want children someday, but it was utterly mad to say that, to even think it. They had just admitted that they were in love with each other before she left. It had only been months since they could hold a conversation.It wasn't like when she used to imagine her future. Everything had been so set in stone before the war. The marriage was to Ron, she had just known they would figure things out eventually, the career was something in the Ministry of Magic, likely in Magical Creatures and then moving up through the ranks, the children came when her career was well established, and they had found a house. The plan was concrete, it never changed, except perhaps the color of the front door.
Now, her plan was hardly a plan, just vague imaginings of what she and Draco could have if they stayed together after the year ended, and he was cleared by the Ministry. She had no idea what they would do for work, or where they would live, or if they would get married, or if he would ever want children, but she still dreamed about it. She still found the logical side of her brain giving way to the girl who had fallen in love with a boy that she didn't want to let go of, a boy that she wanted a life with, and when she found her mind leaping forward, creating images of what could be, he was always there. He was the constant feature of her future life.
Draco just stared at her, his expression hard as he clearly thought through his own inner turmoil. "Hermione," he said finally, breaking a long silence, "I'm not sure you understand what your life is going to be like if you stay with me."
"Don't treat me like I'm a child, Draco," she snapped.
"I'm not," he insisted.
"You think I don't know things are going to be hard? My life hasn't exactly been the smoothest in this area, you know." She scowled at him. "I still get the rogue hate mail about destroying Harry or Viktor, and the only boy I ever wanted before you spent sixth year with his face attached to my roommate."
"It's not the same. We won't be kids at school navigating crushes."
"Bobotuber pus." She could still remember the way it felt when it touched her skin, sending her running to the hospital wing as quickly as her feet would take her.
He closed the gap between them, reaching for her hand. She nearly pulled hers back, but let him take it. He was trying to be noble, to protect her, however misguided the attempt may be. "People will be trying to destroy me and everything I care about."
"I don't care," she told him.
"You say that, but,"
"I don't care, Draco. You're the only person that makes me feel like I'm me again, like I've found a new part of myself that can be happy after what I've been through." She squeezed his hand, and leaned her forehead against his. "All I wanted over break was to be back with you."
"I know." He sighed, his breath tickling her lips. "Me too, but they won't see that."
"I don't care what they see," she whispered.
Draco kissed her softly, his lips moving in a gentle rhythm against hers, as if thanking her for wanting to stay by his side. "So, what do you want?" he asked when he had pulled back.
"What do you mean?"
"After the year is over, what do you want? What does that look like?" he pushed his hand through his hair, and she imagined that he was trying to appear as if he wasn't just as terrified as she was.
"I don't know." She shrugged as her own hand ran along the back of her neck.
"You obviously were thinking something," he told her. "Something you thought my mother wouldn't like.""Do I have to spell it out?"
"You wanted the actual words when I said I loved you," he reminded her, still giving her plenty of space to fidget.
She shook her head, smiling at him as she couldn't argue that point. She had made him say the words, and now it was his turn to insist she be clear. "I don't know where we go from here. I just want it to be with you, and I want … I've always wanted certain things that I would hope to have with you."
"What things?" He was smirking now, and she was about ready to slap him for being a cocky shit, but she held back, balling up her fingers. "A life, Draco. A home, maybe one day being married or having children. I doubt your mother would approve of you having any of those things with me."
It only took him a second to be right in front of her again, kissing her hard, pulling her back to his bed. She didn't even fight it. His reaction to her words sent a shiver of pleasure through her body. It seemed as if he was agreeing, as if he wanted these things too, as if they would find a way to overcome whatever was facing them out there. She was tempted to be lulled back into the comfortable feeling of him and her, where nothing else mattered, but she had gone back out into the world, and no matter what, she couldn't let herself forget that there were people out there, people who wanted Draco in prison, who would do anything to separate them, to refuse to believe that he could have changed.
Draco dropped her onto the bed and climbed up her body. She tried to control herself as he began to kiss her again, moving to the exposed skin above her breasts, but she was letting out small moans within seconds. He made his way up her chest and neck, slowly devouring her skin as she gripped his t-shirt with her fingers. She realized that he was heading for her ear moments before his breath tickled her there. "I love you so fucking much, and I don't give a Niffler's ass what my mother thinks." His hand snaked underneath her shirt, and she pressed her body up into the sensation of his skin touching hers. He hadn't touched her in far too long. She wanted nothing more than to be bare before him, to feel his body over hers. "I will take everything you give me, Hermione. Everything." She wished she could see his eyes, but he seemed to be intentionally positioning himself to avoid her gaze with his lips at her ear, so she just pulled up on the shirt she was gripping, refusing to deal with him being clothed any longer. The words he had whispered were too much, meant too much for her to deal with right now. She needed him now, the rush of sensations that only he could give her, the feeling of being utterly complete when he was inside of her.
XXX
Friday, January 2nd, 1999
He was late. Usually, that was Harry's job, but today he had been early. Shockingly early in fact. So early that he had already finished two cups of coffee when Dudley appeared in the doorway. He was wearing a hat and jacket which were both dusted with the snow falling outside. He met Harry's eyes for a brief moment as he looked around the coffee shop, and then look down at his black boots as he walked towards the counter to order his own drink. Harry sat fidgeting with the handle of his cup for several long minutes as he waited for his cousin to find his way into the chair across from him.
After he had found his seat, Dudley pulled off his hat and set it on the table before pulling his mug closer to his body. "Hey, Harry."
"Hey, Dudley," Harry replied, still unsure why in the world he was here. It made very little sense for Dudley to have written him and less still that he had written back and agreed to this meeting.
"Did you have a good holiday?" Dudley asked. He was still a big man, but he mass had continued to change, morphing into muscle where there had once been pudge.
"Yeah. Spent it with the Weasleys. You?" Harry wasn't positive that Dudley would remember who the Weasley's were, but he suspected the twins had left enough of an impression on him that he might.
He nodded as if Harry's statement made perfect sense. "Yeah. You know. Same as ever."
They sat there, staring down at the liquid in their respective cups, watching steam rise. "So," Harry said, breaking the silence, "you wanted to meet?"
"Oh, I just … I wanted to see how you were." Dudley shrugged his massive shoulders.
"I'm fine," Harry told him, trying not to think about the many reasons that he was, in fact, not fine at all. Dudley didn't need to know about any of that.
"I guess … I just heard sort of what happened from that fellow who came to move us back home, and it seemed really crazy," Dudley explained.
"I suppose it was," Harry agreed, desperately hoping that Dudley was not going to continue deeper into the war.
"So … I just thought I could write you, and, well, just check up." Dudley shrugged again, which seemed to be his default reaction to this entire affair.
"Oh," Harry said, unsure what in the world he could say to that. He was shocked honestly that Dudley would have cared what he had been through, especially enough to contact him, even if it did take six months for him to do so.
"I guess … It's weird. I can just go," Dudley said, reaching for his hat.
"No," Harry spat out quickly, before he could even really think. It was so odd, this whole thing, but he had no one left that he really could call family. Hermione and Ron were like family, but their blood was not his blood. As peculiar as it was, Harry found himself hoping that perhaps, he and Dudley might be able to find some way of navigating a relationship beyond ignoring each other's existence. Dudley stopped at looked at him both of them quiet, waiting for Harry to speak. "It is weird, but … you don't have to go," he said finally.
Dudley hesitated for another few moments before he settled back in his seat and released his grip on his hat. "Okay."
"So, what are you doing now?" Harry asked, hoping to move the conversation in a safer direction.
"University. Boxing. Seeing a girl. Mum hates her, of course." Dudley shook his head.
Harry laughed at this, suddenly feeling more comfortable. The idea of his Aunt Petunia having to accept another woman in her son's life was more than a little amusing. "I'm pretty sure she's going to hate anyone you date."
"I'm pretty sure, yeah. I told her I was looking at getting an apartment, and she cried for days, so … that's Mum, I guess. You seeing anyone?"
"Yeah. Uh, living with someone actually," Harry told him.
"Living with her? Who is she?"
"Her name is Ginny. She's my friend Ron's sister. She plays Quidditch, it's a sport on brooms, and she's just been recruited to a pretty big team. She's really excited."
"You mean … like flying around on them?" Dudley asked, amazed.
Harry nodded as he sipped at his coffee, trying to remember the last time he had a decent fly about and realizing it had been too long. "Yeah. Your Mum would hate her, too." He smiled at the thought of what Ginny might do if she ever met his Aunt.
It was Dudley's turn to laugh then, and Harry marveled over the moment. He was sitting in a coffee shop with his cousin drinking coffee and talking about girls. It was so utterly unexpected, but at the same time, so completely welcome. There was a lot of pain left when he thought about his Aunt and Uncle, pain that he doubted he would ever truly be able to look past to have any sort of relationship with them, not that they had asked for one, but between him and Dudley … well, there might be room for something there.
XXX
A/N: Heyyyyy. I'm trying to be better and update more often because I love you. Hope you liked this chapter.
xoxo
Meg
