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-Seven
Monday, February 1st, 1999
"Hermione!"
Hermione turned before she could process who was calling out to her, before she could really consider why they might be trying to get her attention. It was Ben. She froze, her mind realizing that in all of their careful considerations, neither she nor Draco had ever brought up Ben, the man she had been involved with at the beginning of the school year who also happened to be Draco's actual Muggle Studies professor.
"Shit," she said softly under her breath before smiling widely at his approaching form.
Luckily, he was navigating his way through a few first years and didn't seem to notice. "Can we talk really quickly?" he asked.
Hermione glanced around at the students in the hallway, as if one of them may offer her an escape, but none was provided. "Sure," she told him.
"Uh," Ben took a few steps and peeked his head into a nearby classroom. "This one's empty," he said, pushing the door open more widely.
Hermione crossed hallway to enter the room, inwardly cursing herself for forgetting that she probably could have mentioned to him that she and Draco were dating before letting the entire school discover it. They hadn't been going out of their way to make out in the hallway or anything, but they were making it clear that they were together. Luckily, most of the students seemed supportive, or at least too shocked to say anything rude to them about it yet. There were a lot of confused stares.
Behind her, Ben closed the door, his demeanor changing from the friendly professor to a quiet man as soon as it clicked shut. Hermione held her books tightly to her chest, biting her lip nervously.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"I was going to ask you the same thing," he said, lifting his hands and then letting them drop back to his sides.
"What do you mean?" It was best to make him say it.
"You know what I mean. You're with Malfoy now?" His face scrunched unpleasantly as he asked.
"Yes," she said. No explanation. Get this over with quickly.
"Why?"
She laughed, looking at him in confusion. "Why?" she repeated.
"Yes." He nodded. "Why are you with him?"
"I like him. I want to be," she said simply.
"He's a Death Eater," Ben told him, as if she hadn't known this.
"I'm very aware of the role he played in the war, Ben. I was there." She shifted her weight, hoping to convey just how irritated she was.
"How do you go from being on completely different sides in the war to … well this." He motioned in her general direction, as if that explained exactly what he was trying to say.
"I don't think this is any of your business," she told him.
"Is this why you broke it off? Between us?" he asked.
"No. I broke it off between us because you wanted to date me because of what my name could give you," she said, fuming at the memory.
"That isn't true!" he insisted. "And, you were already trying to stop seeing me before that."
"Draco didn't have anything to do with it," she lied. There was no reason to add drama to their lives at this point. Draco had kissed her, which had been the reason she initially had wanted to take a break from seeing Ben. She had enjoyed that kiss, enjoyed the way Draco made her feel far too much to not take a break to figure out what she wanted to do, but when she had gone to talk to Ben, she had ended things after he made it clear what he saw in her.
"I thought, well, I had hoped that we might be able to get back together after you left Hogwarts."
"That was never going to happen, Ben," she told him. They stood there in silence, each fidgeting nervously. "I'm going to go. I have class."
"Okay. Yeah," he said, waving towards the door. He looked disappointed. Hermione didn't really think that she had ever given him any reason to expect her to be coming back to him in the future, especially after he had made her cry in the girl's bathroom the day she had broken things off with him. She hoped that Ben would leave it at this and not bring any of this up with Draco because she honestly wasn't sure how he would react.
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Draco didn't love Muggle Studies. That probably wasn't an accurate statement. He enjoyed his Muggle Studies tutoring with Hermione. He could not stand his Muggle Studies class with Professor Benjamin Crowley. Professor Crowley, Hermione's ex-boyfriend, was one of the people Draco disliked most in the world that had not been involved with Voldemort and the Death Eaters. The man was gutless and power-seeking. He had tried to use Hermione to help his own rise up the MInistry's ladder, and it made Draco sick to sit in his presence.
Nevertheless, he did just that two days a week to learn about Muggles. Professor Crowley's lessons were not anything near as educational as Hermione's. He wasn't a horrible teacher, all things considered, but Hermione was that much better than him.
From the moment he and Hermione went public with their relationship, Draco had been waiting for Crowley to react in some way, but he hadn't yet. By Monday, Draco started to think that perhaps he was going to rise above the news and continue on with his life as if he hadn't heard about it. This was incorrect.
Muggle Studies on Monday was pure hell. Crowley spent the entire lesson lecturing. He kept calling on Draco and demanding answers out of him about things they hadn't covered yet. Some of it Draco knew from Hermione, but not everything. It took an incredible amount of effort for him to remain seated in his chair and get through the lesson. It was clear what was happening, so when Crowley told him to stay after, Draco wasn't surprised.
After the rest of the class had gone, Draco stood next to his chair, not going to be stuck in a damn chair as the 'professor' who was two years older than him threw his hissy fit. Crowley moved to his desk and leaned back against it, crossing his arms. He was the embodiment of a tool in that moment.
"Hermione and I were together at the beginning of the year," Crowley told him, clearly expecting this to be news.
"I know that," Draco said, carefully controlling his voice. He couldn't act out in any way. He couldn't say or do any of the things he would normally want to say or do to the ass because Hermione would be pissed, and it would not be good for him when his hearing came around to have punched the Muggle Studies teacher.
Crowley looked at him as if he doubted the truth of his words. "We were only taking a break," he said.
"No, you were not." Draco shifted his bag from his desk onto his shoulder.
"I think I know what was going on in my own relationship."
"You clearly did not. Hermione very clearly ended things with you in October, before we got together," Draco told him, ensuring that Crowley got the picture of just how informed he was about their 'relationship.'
"Which we both know is not good for her." Crowley frowned and shook his head.
Draco fist clenched hard around the strap of his bag. "What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean. You're still one foot in Azkaban. You'll ruin her career and any chances she ever had of making a difference in this world," Ben explained, echoing Draco's own concerns, but there was no reason to let him know that.
"She's fully capable of making her own decisions, and if you think she would ever let anything get in the way of her dreams, you don't know the first thing about Hermione." Draco moved to leave the classroom, but Ben step sideways, standing in his way.
"Everyone knows what you are, Malfoy. You'll be back where you belong soon enough."
Draco stared into the other man's eyes, imagining what he could do to him, but wouldn't. It was nice to watch this asshole be destroyed, even if it was only in his mind. It was no wonder Hermione had run far, far away from him. "Get. Out. Of. My. Way," he said sternly, pausing to give deference to each word, making them an unspoken threat. He couldn't follow through on it, but Ben didn't know whether he was crazy enough to say fuck it and pull his wand which he was only permitted to use for his lessons.
The professor glared as he moved back out of his student's way. Draco left the classroom as quickly as he could, his feet moving him away from the temptation to do something stupid as quickly as they possibly could.
Friday, February 5th, 1999
When Harry came home from work Thursday evening, Ginny was surprised to see him smiling widely, a twinkle in his eye. She was standing in the library, her plays pinned on the wall in front of her. Small figures on brooms were running plays while the names associated with each one flashed at the top of the parchment.
"You're in a good mood," Ginny told him, kissing him briefly as he approached her.
"Yes, I am," he agreed. He let her go back to looking at her plays, but he wrapped his arms around her from behind and kissed the soft space between her neck and shoulder.
"Is there any particular reason?" she asked as she leaned back into him.
"Yes, actually." His voice was filled with an excitement she hadn't heard out of him in a long time. "You should go pack some things," he said softly.
Ginny grinned, unable to react in any other way to his glee. "What do you mean?"
"You don't have practice, so I'm taking you away for the weekend. We're getting out of here."
"You have to work tomorrow," she insisted, turning to face him.
"I'm taking it off. Now that I think about it-" he pulled her closer again, running his hands down her hips, "If you don't want to want to pack anything, I could probably get behind that plan."
"You're horrible." Ginny laughed and pushed him away."What should I pack for?"
"Cold." Harry told her. "Very, very cold. The kind of cold that encourages staying in bed by a fire."
It sounded like the perfect way to spend a winter weekend, Ginny thought.
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The cabin was seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Harry apparated their bags and then Ginny to the front porch on Friday morning. She moved to the porch railing, and stared out at the snow covered forest. It was still early, and the sun hadn't slid above the towering trees surrounding the small clearing where the little cabin sat alone.
"Harry, this is beautiful," she said, not wanting to turn back to go in. He came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her.
"Isn't it? Kingsley helped me find it. I mentioned I wanted to get away this weekend." He sighed contentedly behind her.
"It's perfect. Thank you for doing this. It'll be so nice to be alone and away from London." She let out a happy sigh as she rested her head back on his shoulder, taking in the view.
Once Harry had convinced her to go inside, they took a quick tour of the four room cabin. There was one bedroom, an eat-in kitchen, living room, and bathroom. It was decorated rustically with an old wood burning furnace in the center. It was a perfect match to the peaceful land outside. Harry pulled out his wand and lit the furnace with a quick movement from his wand. Ginny appreciated the bit of warmth that started to radiate from it as it flared up.
They divided the work of getting their things put away. Ginny took their weekend bags into the bedroom and put their clothes and toiletries away, while Harry unpacked the food and started making a quick breakfast for them. They ate it on the porch. The combination of hot food and clean, crisp air was perfection.
"Can we stay out here forever?" she asked him as she sipped at her coffee. The mugs were charmed to keep it warm, a feature she was sure they were going to have to add to their own dishware at home.
Harry laughed. "It's early. We still have all weekend to get sick of each other, and you have a job to get back to."
"I suppose, and you have a job to get back to as well." She sighed. Ginny loved being a Holyhead Harpy, but there was something special about this little piece of simple living and the knowledge that no one could make any demands of them for the next three days.
"Actually," Harry said, not meeting her eye. "I've taken a leave."
"A leave?" Ginny asked, surprised. "From work?" Harry confirmed this with a nod. "Why?"
"I've been thinking about it for a while. Kingsley said something months ago about me not owing anyone anything, and then Hermione said at Christmas that maybe I shouldn't be an Auror, and I don't know if I want to be an Auror or not, but … I know that I want to make things work with you, and training to be an Auror is only making it harder to get on with life right now." He stared down at his own drink the entire time he spoke, as if he was worried that she wouldn't understand, which was the furthest thing from the truth. A strong sense of relief filled her at his words. He needed a change. He needed to stop reading those old case files that Ron kept telling her about. He needed to stop having access to horrible things on a daily basis to blame himself for.
"Okay," Ginny said slowly. "What do you want to do during your leave?"
"I don't know." He shrugged. Harry lifted his own mug to take a drink as Ginny stared at him, waiting. "I might try to learn more about my family, or work on Grimmauld. I thought about getting rid of it, but we haven't really talked about it."
"You want to sell the house?"
"I don't know. If we're going to keep living together, it's probably something we should figure out together. Either way, it needs a lot of work," Harry told her.
"Yeah. I don't mind Grimmauld. I don't know if Kreacher would let you go, and if we moved, I doubt we would get something large enough to want Ron to come along, unless you want him as a buffer," she teased with a smile.
"If we move, I don't think we need to plan to have space for Ron," Harry replied, also ginning. "I don't know how Kreacher would react, but it's worth figuring out." Harry took another drink as he thought, and then said, "Maybe we should talk to Ron and see how he is feeling about having you in the house as well. When I first asked him to move in, you were living at school. Hermione is also technically living there."
"You don't think she'll want to get a place with Malfoy?" Ginny asked. "They've been living together all this time, I doubt their going to want to stop."
"They aren't living together," Harry said. "They're at Hogwarts."
"I've seen the 8th year space, Harry," Ginny said with a grin. "They are living together."
Harry stared at Ginny, not appreciating the train of thought her words had started. "Well, I … I guess we'll just talk to her and find out what her plans are."
Ginny shook her head at him and laughed. "What if she asks to move him in? There is room."
"Do you think she will?" Harry looked horrified. "I mean … I'm trying to be supportive, but I don't know if we're ready for that."
"No, Harry." Ginny reached across the table and squeezed his hand. "Hermione knows you would kill each other, and Ron's head would probably explode." Harry laughed, but it was uneasy. "Let's stop thinking about it and go inside to get started on that too cold to leave bed stuff."
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Harry moved his hand behind his head, staring up at the ceiling of the cabin as Ginny slept beside him. He was tracing the patterns in the wood grain as he thought back to what Ginny had said about Hermione and Malfoy. It wasn't that he wanted them to move into Grimmauld with them, it was more about where that conversation had taken his mind. If he hadn't inherited the house, he imagined that it would have ended up belonging to Narcissa, and ultimately Draco.
Harry wasn't sure that he could sell the house. It held a lot of reminders to terrible things, people, and memories he would sooner forget, but the strongest memory associated with Grimmauld Place was Sirius. Every inch of the place, each and every room, reminded him of his godfather. It was painful and beautiful at the same time, memories that hurt in the best possible way, the kind of memories he wished he had about his parents.
If he decided to move out of the house, should he offer it to the Malfoys? Would Sirius have wanted that? Probably not, but he doubted that his godfather could have ever predicted that his young cousin would fall in love with a Muggleborn. Harry wondered what he was like now. He wished that he been with Ron the day he had run into Hermione in Hogsmeade. He wanted to see the transformation which had taken place in them both with his own eyes. He believed Hermione about Draco, and he believed Ron about what he had seen with Hermione and Draco, but it was one thing to hear about something and entirely another thing altogether to experience it first hand.
He just wanted to know without a shadow of a doubt that Draco Malfoy had been reformed, that he was going to be a good man for his best friend, for the Wizarding World that so desperately needed him to be not only a good man, but a damn great one. It was the whole point of sending him back to Hogwarts. He hadn't thought that Hermione would place such an important role in the transformation, but he had been hoping for their to be one. Perhaps not in the other man's personality, but in the way he looked at the world, the way he encouraged others to look at the Wizarding World after the war. There were so many broken pieces which needed to be mended. So many lines had been drawn in the sand which Harry could not possibly undraw. Someone like Malfoy, however, well, he could surely blur if not erase many of those lines.
In theory, Draco and Hermione had the potential to be a force to be reckoned with. Perhaps that was what McGonagall and Kingsley had been thinking when they had encouraged the pair to go public with their relationship. Hermione had a very clear vision of what their world should look like. It was a place where some people were not less than. A place where magical creatures were treated with respect and care. A place where family's like Draco's would not do well. A place, in fact, where the Malfoy's would be an artifact of an old fashioned and archaic way of living. Having a living monument of that time at her side, supporting her, could only make her message stronger.
They had so much work to do. Harry didn't yet know what his role in all of it would be. He wasn't sure what he should do to help shape the Wizarding World into the better thing it needed to become, but he was sure that Hermione was going to be key in it's transformation, and he would be there to help her in any way that he could.
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A/N: Thank you so much for the time you all take to write reviews and for continuing to read this story. I appreciate it so much.
XOXO
Meg
