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-Six

Sunday, January 24th, 1999

When Ron arrived back at Grimmauld that evening, he found Harry and Ginny playing chess. They both looked at him as he walked into the room, and Harry asked, "What's wrong with you?"

"I ran into Hermione in Hogsmeade. We got a butterbeer."

"That doesn't sound bad," Ginny told him. "Did you do something stupid?"

"She was there with Malfoy." Ron said, looking at Harry. It was clear from his tone and expression that he was clearly accusing Harry of something.

Ginny raised her eyebrows at Harry. "Is there something you need to tell us, Harry?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's not my place to tell anyone anything," Harry said, leaning forward to look more closely at the board.

"Hermione told me," Ron said. He fell onto the sofa with a large sigh.

"Told you what?" Ginny asked, leaving her chair to move to take a seat at the sofa as well.

"Apparently, they've been together since October," Ron told her.

Ginny's mouth dropped open as she looked between her brother and her boyfriend. "No, she - I was still at Hogwarts with them in October. I would have noticed."

"It's true, Gin," Harry said.

"She … When did she tell you?" Ginny demanded.

Harry sighed, rubbing his face with his hand. Hermione was so going to hear about this. It was not his job to bear the brunt of the emotional fallout of her relationship. "She didn't tell me. After we went to see Narcissa Malfoy, I guessed. She was so … invested in him. It was obvious."

Ginny's eyes lit up in realization. "I came home from my trial that afternoon, and the two of you were arguing."

"Yes," Harry agreed. "I was telling her that she needs to be careful, that there are people in this world who will very much not want her with him."

"I can't imagine why," Ron said.

"You need to be very careful how you choose to react to this information," Harry told him. "She's in love with him."

"You don't need to tell me. I could see that much." Ron leaned back, resting his head on the sofa as he closed his eyes.

"In love with Malfoy, though? Really?" Ginny asked. Harry nodded, his face serious. "Merlin," Ginny whispered.

"I know," Harry said. His tone was level, as if he still didn't really know what to think about the information.

"And, what did you do when she told you?" Ginny asked her brother, nudging him until he picked his head back up and looked at her. .

"She told me at Christmas she was seeing someone, so when I saw them together, I guess it just made sense. Well, not why she would want to be with him, but that it was him. I shook his hand and asked them get a butterbeer." Ron shrugged.

His sister laughed. "Well, that is very unlike you."

"I know Hermione well enough to know that she isn't going to handle me losing it over her choice in boyfriend very well," Ron told her. "I've made that mistake before."

"And, you fucked up when you had your shot, so any credibility you had is gone," Ginny added.

"Yes, I did." Ron glared at her. "Well, we all better get ready to defend them as well. Kingsley and McGonagall suggested they share the news. Hermione and Malfoy are arguing about it, but I suspect Hermione will win, and everyone will know soon enough."

"Can you imagine Lucius Malfoy finding out that his son is dating Hermione?" Ginny shook her head as she imagined the fall out.

"Well, let's just hope the Azkaban guards have a better hold on him than the Dementors did," Harry said seriously. "I really don't want to find out how he would react."

"What do you think his mother will say?"

"She was at the same tea I was. She's blind if she isn't expecting the news to come any day," Harry told them.

"Doesn't mean she has to like it," Ron chimed in. "Or be supportive."

Tuesday, January 26th, 1999

The shift from private to public was simple, really. Hermione slipped off her shoe, moved her foot across the soft carpet of the library annex, and rubbed it against Draco's leg just above his ankle. He ignored her, staring down at his book without any indication that below the table he had removed his own shoe, allowing him to rub his own foot against hers, their sock-clad toes beginning a war of their own. Hermione grinned down at her book, biting her bottom lip as she searched for the correct goblin name in her color coded notes from one of her November History of Magic lectures. And, just like that, she was publically playing footsie with her boyfriend in the Hogwarts library.

They studied for three hours that evening. An hour in, Theo showed up, dropping his bag on the table and loudly declaring that they were disgusting. Draco made a show of telling him to, "Bugger off," but Theo sat next to Hermione and begged her to help him with his Advanced Arithmancy. She agreed, putting away her History of Magic notes and replacing them with her favorite subject.

Not fifteen minutes later, Neville Longbottom arrived and took a seat at the table as well. As he was pulling out his books, he turned to Draco and asked, "So, are we done pretending none of us have any idea you're together?"

Draco just stared at him for a long moment, and then turned to Hermione. "Don't," he said.

"I told you," she said with a broad smile.

"I mean, you can only sneak into each other's rooms so many times before we all realize what is going on." Neville shrugged, but he was grinning slyly into his Herbology book.

"You're clearly a genius, Longbottom," Draco said. "And, yes, we're sharing the happy news with the world now, apparently."

"Draco isn't exactly thrilled, but we decided it was time," Hermione told Neville.

"Ron seemed to take it well."

"You told Weasley? Why have I not been filled in on this, Draco?" Theo asked, clearly affronted.

Draco rolled his eyes, sinking down into his seat. "I didn't realize you needed a play by play of my relationship, Nott."

Theo scoffed. "Your relationship is the most interesting thing happening in this school, no, actually, probably all of Wizarding gossip right now. I should have sent an owl into Witch Weekly the moment the news broke if I wanted to get a featured quote."

"Merlin."

Hermione rubbed her foot at his again, but Draco continued to frown down at his notes. Their drink with Ron had gone more decently than she really could have expected. Ron and Draco had both been respectful. Hermione had given Ron a very brief, filtered overview of how she and Draco had ended up together, and Ron had talked to them about the progress he and George were making with the shop. He seemed genuinely happy for the first time in a really long time, and Hermione hoped that she seemed the same to him.

Afterwards, she and Draco had been walking up to the castle, and he had laced his fingers with hers, holding her hand as they walked. There wasn't really anyone around, but anyone could have seen, and she had taken it as his tentative willingness to share their relationship publically. She didn't know if was because of Ron or not, but she wasn't going to ask, because at the end of the day, it didn't matter.

By Monday at breakfast, there had been a low hum about their trip traveling amongst the students. When Draco walked her to dinner, the hum turned to a buzz, following them everywhere they went. At this moment, there were at least three students staring at their feet through the stacks. It was all working out exactly as Hermione had hoped. Letters including the news would certainly be leaving the school for friends and family of the students by tomorrow. She felt a bit ridiculous and conceited to even consider it, but she expected their relationship would be in a magazine or newspaper by the end of the following weekend.

She had take precautions for this by sending letters to Ginny and her parents letting them know she was dating Draco. Her parents weren't likely to hear the news from anyone else, but Hermione had wanted to make sure that Ginny heard it in her words before she saw it in a paper or heard a rumor. Hopefully Harry had already told her or dropped enough clues that it wouldn't be a shock to the newest Holyhead Harpies team member.

"Hermione," Draco said, pulling her out of her musings.

"Yeah?"

"Do you know what in the world Longbottom is talking about?" Hermione stood up, moving around the table to look at the sketch Neville had been showing Draco. As they talked, Draco laid his hand on the base of her back. The gesture was so simple, yet it said so much.

Two hours later, Draco carried her books out of the library while he and Nott told her about the time they had shattered one of the statues at the manor and stolen Narcissa's wand to try to fix it.

"She told me she wasn't going to let me get my own wand. I seriously believed her until it was time to go to Hogwarts. I asked her the night before we went shopping. She said that she would get me a wand, but that she would always know what I did with it. Prophetic, I guess," Draco said shrugging as Hermione also thought about his wand checks.

"She never told our fathers, though," Nott said, smiling at the memory. "Scared us close to death, but at least, well," he shrugged, trailing off.

"Yeah," Draco agreed.

"I can't imagine growing up with magic so easily accessible, but not being able to actually reach out and use it," Hermione mused. She had never really thought of her Muggle heritage as a blessing in that way, but it really had been. As soon as she had found out about her magic, she was basically swept off to school, ready to learn how to use it. Draco and Theo spent eleven years knowing that they could hypothetically do magic, but really banned from doing it or experimenting.

"Hence the shattered statue," Draco agreed.

"And the many other things we did that we shouldn't have," Theo told her. Hermione considered asking for more information, but ultimately she decided that she didn't need to know about everything right away. They could pace themselves.

When they reached their rooms, Draco followed Hermione into hers, dropping her books on her desk. "You have a letter," he told her, reaching out to hand her the letter that had been waiting on the desk for her.

"It's from Ron," she said, reading the quick note Ron had sent. "He wants Harry and I to come to the shop on Saturday and help him work on it."

"You should go," Draco said, wrapping her in his arms.

"I know." She kissed him softly. "It will be good to spend time with them. I just may have had other visions of where we would spend Saturday morning," she teased.

"Hmmm," Draco nipped at her bottom lip. "Maybe, we can reschedule that for Saturday evening. I'll see if my crazy tutor will let me out of my lessons."

"I think she might, if you promise to get together with her on Sunday." Draco was already pushing her backwards towards the bed, his hand under her sweater.

"I'll do literally anything she wants if I get to spend Saturday night in this room uninterrupted," Draco told her, devouring her neck between his words.

XXX

Friday, January 29th, 1999

Grimmauld was quiet when Harry and Ginny returned from dinner out Friday evening. Harry kissed Ginny softly as she took off her coat. He wasn't really interested in wasting time handing their jackets tonight. He pushed her back against the door, kissing her deeply.

"I love you," he told her.

"I love you, too," she told him through her smile. They hadn't been out for a real date in far too long. It had been a great evening out, just the two of them. Harry had made reservations in Muggle London, and no one had looked twice at them as they were led to a small table in a corner of the restaurant. They had followed this up with a movie out, which Ginny had absolutely loved. It was her first time actually visiting a theatre. They had made their way to an abandoned alley near the theatre and apparated home, and here they were, snogging against the front door. She would have loved to let him strip her right there and bury himself inside of her against the door in a desperate frenzy, but she couldn't. "Ron," she said as a reminder when Harry's hand reached her breast beneath her shirt.

"Fucking Ron," Harry murmured, seeming to forget that he was the one who had told Ron to move in. They started moving back through the house, touching as much of each other as they could as they made their way up the stairs. She pinned him against the wall at one point, nearly deciding that her brother could fuck off, until Harry pushed her back, urging her up the last few stairs. She had her shirt half off before they were entirely in their room. The door slammed behind them, and Ginny tossed the garment to the floor, grinning at him eagerly.

"You're gorgeous," Harry told her. He dropped to his knees before her, pulling down her long skirt until it was pool around her legs. She stood nude before him, and he looked up at her surprised.

"If you would have told me you left your knickers at home, we could have skipped the show," he told her. Ginny laughed, a blush rising in her cheeks as Harry's fingers started their path up her legs. She let her head fall back, her eyes closing in expectation. Harry's tongue quickly followed the trail his hands had made, making its way to her core. She let out a soft sound of satisfaction as he tasted her, licking at her core with deliberate care. Her legs trembled as he held her steady, his hands the only force keeping her upright. Eventually she fell against him, and he helped her to make her way to the floor of their bedroom, laying out on the rug. He didn't stop his feast for more than a few seconds. His hands traveled the expanse of her skin, massaging her thighs and breasts as she wriggled beneath him.

"Harry," she moaned, his name a silent prayer, begging for release briefly before she dove off the edge of satisfaction into sweet oblivion. "Fuck, yes," she cried out, scratching at the rug beneath her, not giving two shits if their housemate happened to hear her.

As she came down, Harry moved to pull off his clothes. By the time he was naked before her, she was pulling him towards her, ready to feel him buried inside of her. "I love you so damn much," he told her. Ginny kissed him deeply, reaching between them, wanting him so fucking bad she couldn't deal with words.

He was coming back to her. If she thought about that and tried to speak, it would break the spell, make him realize that something was changing for her, and he wouldn't realize that it was good, so damn good. So, she kept her mouth shut, and pulled him towards her core, urging him on until he thrust inside of her, and her face was safely over his shoulder, out of sight. She closed her eyes, the emotion making her lose her cool. She felt like she would start crying at any moment, but she needed to keep her shit together.

The rug burned her skin, but she didn't care. She moaned against Harry's neck, meeting each thrust, her breathing growing heavier with each move. Harry's knees had to be killing him, but he didn't seem to care any more than she did. He just kept telling her that she was beautiful, that she felt so damn good, that he never wanted to stop being inside of her. She felt every bit of tension leave his body as he came, and she felt her own control slip away as well, leaving her a mess beneath him, her tears flowing openly now.

Harry overreacted at once, just like she knew he would. "Gin, what - what did I do? Are you okay? I'm sorry."

"Stop, I'm fine," she told him, but he was pulling out of her reaching for his wand in case she needed something. "Harry, stop." She grabbed his hand, moving closer to him.

He seemed to realize that she wasn't in any immediate danger and let her rest against his chest. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing, really. I just … I don't even know how to explain."

"Gin-"

"I know." She shook her head, knowing he needed some sort of reason for her dissolving into a mess while they were having sex after a really nice evening out. "Since the war, it's been like you weren't really here, Harry. I just … I felt so far away from you, and I finally feel like I can actually feel you again."

Harry looked at her, his face filled with pain and regret. "I'm sorry," he said.

"I know. I … I probably could have been better in some way, I just … I didn't know what to do." She kissed his chest, holding onto him tightly.

"I'm trying to be better," he told her. "I - I know we need to talk about it."

"Yeah," she agreed, hoping that he meant it, that he was really going to keep telling her things, letting her in.

"Come on," Harry lifted himself from the ground, pulling her with him, moving towards their bed. She followed, sliding beneath the mess of blankets with him before he spoke again. "I'm … I'm mad at Dumbledore."

Ginny looked at him, thinking carefully, not wanting to say something to make him shut down. "Why?" she asked.

"I just … There was so much he didn't tell me when he was alive." Harry shook his head. "It seems impossible, but I - Christ, Ginny, I saw him."

"What do you mean?"

"When Voldemort tried to murder me, I saw Dumbledore. He told me things - things that only Dumbeldore could have known. I don't know. Did I die? Did I go … wherever we go when we're dead? Did I really see him again? How am I here if I was there?"

Ginny moved her hand to grab his, lacing their fingers together. "What do you think?" she asked him.

"I think it was him, that I would have died if Voldemort hadn't used my blood in that damn spell to bring him back, but even after everything I've experienced, it doesn't seem like it should be possible. I keep waiting to realize that -" he choked on his emotion, and Ginny squeezed his hand with hers as her other hand brushed the hair from his forehead. She leaned in to kiss him gently.

"It's okay," she whispered.

Harry closed his eyes, leaning his forehead against hers, and he spoke so softly she barely heard him. "I keep waiting to realized that I really died that day, that I never really came back."

Ginny's tears were back, rolling down her face as she held him, not knowing what to even say to that. All she could do was help him to keep feeling the things that only life could offer. She would love him to the best of her ability and give him rug burn as often as possible. "Harry," she whispered back, "I don't think it would hurt like this."

XXX

Saturday, January 30th, 1999

"You told me I should go," Hermione reminded Draco as she pulled on her boots.

"I know," he told her. He was still in his pajamas, and he was whining about her leaving to go down to Hogsmeade. "That was before you were leaving me alone in bed."

"You're such a baby," she told him. She shook her head and grabbed her sweater from the chair she had put her clothes on. She pulled it over her head and when her head resurfaced, Draco had actually crawled out of bed. He moved towards her, and she let him kiss her good-bye. "I need to do this. I'll be back this afternoon."

"I know. I'm going to spend the morning in the library with Longbottom and Theo, which is just fucking depressing."

"What?" she asked, laughing at him.

"I have plans with Longbottom," he said, his face wrinkling.

"Don't be an arse," she reprimanded.

"It's my natural disposition. You've been spoiled. You probably won't like me anymore now that you have to deal with me around other people," he whined.

"Oh, Draco. Bye." Hermione rolled her eyes, wondering about her life choices. As she opened the door, she saw Blaise Zabini reclining in the chair directly across from Draco's bedroom.

"Taking out the trash, Draco?" he sneered. Hermione shoved her body back into Draco, putting her arm out to keep him from moving across the room to throttle the other boy.

"Don't," she said quietly, turning to look at him. "We knew some people wouldn't be okay with this," she reminded him.

Draco shook his head, avoiding looking beyond her.

"Just get dressed and go down to the library, okay?" Draco nodded, and she leaned in to kiss him, not giving a shit that Blaise was watching them. "Love you."

"Love you," he told her. Hermione turned back around and glared at Zabini as she passed him. He smirked back at her, and she hated that it reminded her of Draco.

XXX

A/N: Thank you again for continuing this journey with me. It means the world to me.

XOXO

Meg