Hi all! It has been a minute, that was totally unintentional. Life has been a little crazy, and motivation has been slight. I'm excited to get the next installment out and would really appreciate hearing your thoughts!


Eleanor and Draco awoke with a start when the Moon Door slammed shut at the first sign of sunlight in the morning. The two had found some burlap sacks that they had curled up on the night before and had apparently fallen asleep on. Eleanor was tucked under Draco's dress robe coat and her head was on his chest.

"We fell asleep." Eleanor mumbled groggily, wiping sleep from her eyes and brushing her unruly hair back.

"Yeah," Draco agreed while he stretched his neck out of the uncomfortable position he'd fallen asleep in.

"What time is it?" Eleanor asked. Draco reached into his pocket and looked at the pocketwatch Eleanor had gotten him the year prior for Christmas.

"Eight," he responded in a bit of a panic, "the train home leaves in an hour."

"Shit," Eleanor burst out, scrambling to her feet and pulling her dress so that it was correctly adjusted, "will you tie it back up?"

"I wish I didn't have to." Draco sighed as he stood and began kissing Eleanor's exposed shoulder.

"We don't have time for this." Eleanor hurried him along. Draco chuckled and tied up the back of her dress and handed her his dress robe coat to cover her more for the walk back to the Common Room. He quickly rebuttoned his own shirt and adjusted his cleaned the sacks that they had drug out the night before and relocked the greenhouse before scurrying through the hallways, hoping not to be seen.

"I'll see you on the train," Eleanor gave Draco a swift kiss and a smile before rushing up the stairs, covering her dress in his robe, hoping it made her look less suspicious, but not sure if that was actually true.

When she finally tumbled through the portrait hole, she was surprised to find her friends already on the couches with their luggages packed and ready to go. Eleanor gave them a sheepish smile and continued clutching the robe closed.

"Where have you been, Eleanor?" Hermione asked with a ghost of a grin.

"Went for a walk this morning." Eleanor supplied quickly. Harry rolled his eyes and pointedly looked away.

"Walk of shame," Ron laughed loudly as Ginny tugged on the robe and revealed her dress from the night before underneath.

"Is...is that dirt...in your hair?" Ginny asked. "And a leaf?"

"Eleanor, you didn't…" Hermione crossed her arms, a laugh clearly about to escape her lips. "The greenhouse?"

"Dirt and leaves can come from all sorts of places." Eleanor pointed out, but defeat was clear in her voice.

"You hooked up with Malfoy in the greenhouse?" Ron shouted out, whooping with laughter. Harry continued to turn pink but was chuckling as well.

"I'm the only one who has a key, it just made sense." Eleanor tried to rationalize with them, but was starting to laugh at the thought of it as well.

"Oh my god, I'll never be able to sit in Herbology ever again." Ginny muttered softly.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic, they didn't actually have sex. They just snogged." Hermione waved off. Eleanor turned a deep shade of red as she continued to push by them to change her clothes and gather her holiday items.

"Hermione, look at her face, they definitely had sex." Ginny called out.

"No they didn't, right Eleanor? Eleanor!" Hermione called after her friend, but Eleanor was too far up the stairs to respond.


Eleanor tried to ignore the horrible pain in her neck from sleeping in such an uncomfortable position as she sat in the compartment on the train with Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Draco. Draco seemed nervous as he ran his palms up and down his legs and avoided looking at the rest of them. Eleanor was confused as she watched him, unsure of what was making him so uncomfortable.

"Malfoy, what do you know about Blaise Zabini?" Harry finally asked, nodding towards Draco. Hermione whacked his shoulder immediately. "Ow, it's a valid question Hermione."

"We go a long way back," Draco answered, his nervous composure shifting to a guarded one when being questioned. "Why?"

"He showed up at the Slug Club Christmas party after you both went off to the greenhouse." Harry answered. Draco's eyes bulged out and shot to Eleanor.

"I didn't tell them about the greenhouse, they just found out."

"How do they always just find shit out?" Draco grumbled and rubbed his eyes in slight frustration for a moment. "Did he cause any trouble, what was he doing?"

"He was just hiding out in the curtains,he said he was just trying to crash the party, and then Snape came and dragged him out." Harry explained.

"And you undoubtedly followed them." Draco was nearly sneering, but kept most of the trained malice out of his voice and tried to remind himself that they were all on the same side. "What did they say?"

"Nothing explicitly incriminating, but Snape basically told him to stop being an idiot and just get his work done. I was just wondering if Blaise is the type to…" Harry trailed off, unsure of how to ask the question that was on his mind.

Draco sucked in a deep breath and looked out the window of the compartment. He felt a lot of things. He felt guilt and shame knowing he'd kept that information from Harry who was in obvious danger, knowing he'd told Eleanor to keep it a secret to protect his ties to his old life. He felt grief over his old life, even for all of its flaws. He was comfortable then, not particularly happy, but he had a good family standing, and he knew he could have had anything he wanted.

He stopped his thought process there and shook his head. Because he hadn't had everything he had wanted. His relationship with Eleanor had been rocky at best, and toxic at worst. His relationship with his parents had been based on fear, and his relationship with his friends had been based on history as well fear. He had let fear and resentment rule his life for so long, and he didn't want to do that anymore. He needed to actively make changes. It wasn't enough to simply not associate with Death Eaters, he had to be actively against it.

One of Draco's biggest obstacles was not being able to apologize to Eleanor. He'd always been jealous of her ease at admitting her mistakes and overcoming them. He sat in front of her and her friends and he felt like a fraud. He'd been benefiting from their trust without earning it, without deserving it. He clenched his jaw, he knew what he needed to do and fought against his natural instincts to do it.

"I think I owe you all an apology." He finally said, so quietly everyone in the compartment thought they were imagining it. Even Eleanor, who knew how good Draco was, was admittedly shocked to hear those words. He'd only apologized to her once, when he'd lost his temper and yelled unforgivingly at her a year ago while they had their argument in her parent's bedroom. It was never something she resented, but it was also not something she expected from him. He made it up to her in other ways and it was something she'd grown to expect. Hearing his words leave his mouth left her intrigued, shocked, and very proud.

"I've been skating by hoping that my love for El was enough of a penance for everything I've done to you all, and it's become increasingly clear to me that it isn't. You all began trusting me because Eleanor asked you too and because I stopped purposefully hurting you all and I'm grateful, but I also feel like I need to earn this trust on my own." Draco didn't look at any of them directly, just stared at his hands clasped in his lap. His voice remained low and almost submissive as he spoke. Eleanor knew this was hard for him and she wanted to reach out to comfort him, but something told her that he wanted to stand on his own as he did this. It was his choice to say these things.

"I know I won't ever be able to go back and remember every terrible thing I did and said when we were younger, so I hope an overarching apology will do." He chuckled nervously here. "But Weasley, I'm sorry for all of the times I made fun of you and your family. I was a spoiled brat growing up, which isn't an excuse, but I was trained to look down on people and that...that isn't fair, and most certainly isn't right. You're richer and more accomplished than I am in a lot of ways, in ways that really count. A lot of my cruel words were born from jealousy and I'm sorry." Ron looked pale and shocked at the words coming out of Draco's mouth, he simply gave a single nod in acceptance, unsure of what else to say.

"Potter, I've made a lot of angry comments about you and your family too. I took your lack of friendship to me as a snub and your affection for El as competition and I acted out really unfairly. I was jealous of a lot of things and I let that jealousy rule my life for a long time. I'm sorry for that."

"Jealous of my life?" Harry repeated, incredulous that someone would be envious of him.

"Believe me, now that I see the circumstances up close I know that you've seen and dealt with a lot of shit and I'm not envious of that, but I do want to help." Draco rubbed his face and finally looked directly at Hermione, he hadn't lifted his gaze for anyone else. "And Granger-" He stopped himself, seeming to want to be even more gentle and sincere for this one "Hermione, I was especially cruel to you. I called you awful names and looked down on you because of your blood status, mocked you and made threats. That was all wrong. So wrong. Before the war started I didn't really understand the weight my words carried, and I was ignorant of how much it can affect people. Again, that isn't an excuse, I don't want that behavior to be defended, but I want you to know that I know where it came from and I'm moving away from those beliefs. You're everything that I want to be in terms of success and I hope that you'll allow me to learn from you. I'm so sorry."

The four of them stared at Draco in disbelief. No one had heard Draco speak that long and that regretfully about anything, not even Eleanor.

"And El," he grabbed her hand softly, "I don't think I'll ever apologize enough times for the hell I put you through and I'll spend forever trying to make it up to you." He sighed and straightened his back. "So, because I'm actively helping you and moving away from old habits, rather than passively not doing anything, I do need to tell you that Blaise is a Death Eater. He told me at the beginning of this year, and I've been keeping tabs on him. I asked Eleanor not to tell you all because I didn't want to give you more of a reason not to trust me, but to be honest, he surprised me and terrified me when he cursed Katie Bell. I thought he was just spying, I didn't realize what he was capable of. I immediately told everything I knew to Dumbledore, who seemed wholly unconcerned about the issue."

Harry rubbed his chin in thought. "Do you know anything about Snape?"

"Nothing that I haven't told you." Draco responded. "I know my mother heard my Aunt say that Peter Pettigrew was living with her until Snape returned from Hogwarts like I said over the summer, and him talking with Blaise makes me suspicious, but he'd never given me any reasons not to trust him otherwise."

"Thank you, Draco." Hermione smiled warmly at him from across the compartment. "We're happy to have your help. And your apologies mean a lot."

Draco remained quiet the rest of the train ride, mentally exhausted from owning up to years of mistakes and wrongdoings, but he felt more comfortable than ever around Harry, Ron, and Hermione because he felt like he had earned his spot there.

When they all finally arrived at the platform, Eleanor excitedly hopped off the train ahead of everyone else and into Remus' arms. Sirius sat, in dog form, next to him and looked at the train in anticipation of seeing Harry.

"Hello, my love." Remus whispered into her hair as he held onto her tightly. He felt whole with her around and was overjoyed to be holding his daughter in his arms again. Eleanor pulled away and smiled up at him. Then patted Sirius on the head affectionately. "How are you?" Remus asked, "How was the term?"

"Good, all good." Eleanor responded. "I'm so happy to see you." Remus chuckled and wrapped her in another hug.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Draco came walking up behind them and greeted Remus and Sirius in amusement. Draco gave a formal handshake with Remus, but said very little.

"The twins are already at the Castle, you can bring Molly and Arthur over later. Unfortunately, Bill, Charlie, and Percy won't be joining us." Remus informed. Eleanor had invited the Weasleys to stay at Cordarri Castle over the holidays. Attacks on the Order were becoming more commonplace, and Eleanor didn't want that worry hanging over anyone's head. She loved filling her home with the people she loved, and she had more than enough room for everyone.

"I'll be there for Christmas Dinner and will stay until we go back." Hermione promised, giving everyone a swift hug for departure - even Draco- before rushing to hug her parents on the platform. This made Draco stiffen and turn slightly pink and earned raised eyebrows from Remus.

"What happened this term?" He muttered softly to Sirius who whined in response.


Upon arrival at the Castle, she saw that Remus and Sirius had brought some Christmas decorations from Grimmauld Place and had attempted to start sprucing the place up for the holiday season. Eleanor was truly touched by the gesture, and put a smile on her face while she swallowed the critiques of how she felt her home should look and reminded herself that she had chosen to share her life with people and that old traditions weren't a necessity in this new chapter of her life.

Draco put a gentle hand on her shoulder when no one was looking, having seen her false smile that no one else could see through. She smiled gratefully at him and took her leave to bring Molly and Arthur to the Castle and directed them to their room before she rummaged through the attic to find her family's proper collection of Christmas decor.

"So Eleanor," Fred's voice popped from behind a corner as Eleanor carried a box of decorations down the hallway. She jumped in surprise but smiled at him, she didn't realize how much she'd missed the twins and their antics during this term.

"Are we to understand the greenhouse is off limits during our stay here?" George continued.

"No, why?" Eleanor asked, setting the box down and putting her hands on her hips. "Did Sirius do something to my plants?" She continued.

"No, no. We just wouldn't want to walk in on anything...distasteful." Fred answered. Eleanor's cheeks flared up.

"Who told you?" She demanded, earning a cacophony of laughter from the twins. "Was it Ron or Ginny?"

"You think Harry wouldn't tell us?"

"Are you saying the Weasleys are blabber mouths?"

"Harry would rather pretend I'm not sleeping with his childhood enemy so I don't think he would talk about it willingly." Eleanor answered with her arms crossed.

"You're right, it was Ginny." Fred gave in with laughter. George joined in mockingly.

"You two live above a joke shop in a shared flat, so I'm sure you have embarrassing places you've had sex too" Eleanor huffed. "And if anyone else in this house hears about it, I will personally find out and exploit every one of your less-than-savory moments. You're mum would love to hear them I'm sure."

"Oh, Eleanor, you aren't devious enough for that little plot." Fred hummed.

"Do you want to take that chance, though?" Eleanor raised a brow. "I'm serious, any hint to Remus and Sirius, and you'll be very sorry."

"Yes ma'am." George gave a mock salute and reached down to pick up the box of decorations Eleanor had set down. "Also, do you have any information on this Lavender Brown who has been spending an awful lot of time with our brother? You've always been a wealth of information."

"You mean Ron isn't boasting about her himself?" Eleanor sniffed, "That's odd."

"Come now, Eleanor, you have no space to have an attitude about someone else's love interest." Fred admonished good naturedly. Eleanor ground her teeth slightly, but ended up chuckling along with the two of them.

"Well the details on Lavender depends on who you ask," Eleanor answered, "According to Ron, it's true love but she is a little clingy, according to Harry it's a purely physical and Ron is really liking the attention, according to Hermione she's manipulative and also stupid all at once."

"What's your opinion on it?" Fred asked.

"I think there are better people for Ron, but he's also able to make his own decisions and he'll figure it out."

"What about Ginny and Dean?" George put in.

"I thought they broke up," Fred continued.

"I think there are better people for her, too." Eleanor shrugged with a smirk.

"Are you suggesting matchmaking? Because we can make that happen." George said, causing a smile to break out on Eleanor's face.

"I think they will find their way without meddling, don't you?"

"Oh, Eleanor, don't deny us our greatest love," George started.

"Which is definitely meddling." Fred finished.

"I'll keep my eye out for any opportunities of meddling if it will keep your smart remarks at bay." Eleanor rolled her eyes. She led the twins to the front parlor to drop the box of decorations. She was surprised to see Sirius sitting in the room already, he seemed to be telling a story from his time at Hogwarts. Harry and Draco both sat, both engrossed in his every word. Eleanor smiled and sat next to Draco on the loveseat. He automatically put his arm around her shoulders, but didn't break eye contact with an amused Sirius.

"So, after we'd been in the woods for about two hours, we were absolutely panicked. We couldn't find Moony anywhere, we thought we were late and that he was off alone. We felt awful, so eventually Wormtail changed back and began calling out to him. Me and Prongs both decided to stay in our animal forms because we were larger and could sustain a furry surprise if he sprung out at us, and Wormtail is just screaming for him, almost in tears, and where does Moony come from? Behind the damn tree, not a werewolf at all, just regular Moony." Sirius stopped to laugh for a moment. "We were in shock, we'd been searching for him for so long and there he was just laughing away at our panic." Harry, Draco, and the twins chuckled at the story.

"I was tired of you lot always asking when the next full moon was, it wasn't that hard to check it yourselves, but you never did." Remus spoke up from the entrance of the room.

"Well, we never fell for that again." Sirius laughed. "I didn't finish a Potions essay because I was out all night worrying about you."

"You wouldn't have done that Potions essay anyway." Remus waved off with good humor.

"D-do you have any more stories? About my mum and dad?" Harry seemed embarrassed to ask for it, but Sirius just gave him a knowing look and a soft nod.

"Harry, I have so many stories about your mum and dad. And I am so excited to share every single one of them with you." Sirius smiled.

It felt good to be home.