Disclaimer: I own nuh-ting!

A/N: Yes, this has taken forever, I realize that, but here is the fifth, and final part to Unmasked. I hope you enjoy it and please review!

££££££

Part Five

Along the French Riviera sits a large, airy villa that is Unplottable and is disguised magically. The large deck at the back of it extends over the warm ocean, and seven teenagers lie on the deck chairs that rest there, seemingly asleep in the warm Mediterranean sun.

"I love France," said Draco Malfoy, who was applying more No-Burn potion to his chest.

"Draco, how can you be truly English and say that?" asked Hermione, who was lying on the chair beside him. "Please pass the No-Burn potion, if you will."

"I'm half-French, Hermione," Draco replied.

"You didn't know that?" Blaise Zabini said, sitting up on his deck chair, looking over at Hermione, who was surprised. "I thought everyone knew. Did you guess that I'm Italian?"

"Yes, the 'Zabini' gave it away," Hermione said dryly, returning to her book, A History of Hogwarts Professors.

"Honestly, Hermione," Ron Weasley said, taking the potion and applying it to his pale skin, "how can you read when we're here, on a beautiful beach? Especially some boring book called 'A History of Hogwarts Professors'."

"I'll have you know it's entirely educational," Hermione said stuffily. Draco snorted, and she elbowed him.

"I think that's Ron's point, Hermione," Millicent Bulstrode said, sipping her iced pumpkin juice.

"Oh." Hermione picked her book up again, just to be interrupted by Pansy Parkinson, who came out of the house with a nauseatingly pink bikini on and swaggered over to the chair next to Ron, her boyfriend's, chair.

"Nice," Ron said, casting a very appreciative eye over her as she lay down on the chair.

"Ronald, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't think of me as a piece of meat," Pansy said, to the shock of all her friends. She giggled at their faces. "I'm just joking. Stare away, Ron, dear." She leaned over and kissed him on the lips. She laughed. "As if I could ever be like that. It's more Millie after reading some feminist book."

"Well, don't do it again," Ron warned. "It's disturbing."

"I won't, Ronnie, dear," she reassured him. "So," she slathered on some No-Burn potion, "what's on the calendar after we leave tomorrow?"

Draco sighed. "Must we think about that? I was trying to relax." The No-Burn potion hit him in the center of his chest. "Fine. I was thinking of going back to Malfoy Man-"

"Oh, no you won't," Hermione told him, taking her sunglasses off and glaring at him. "You're going to work."

"Hermione!" he moaned. "I've been working for the past seven years! I really do not want to work any more. At least not now."

"Well, I'm going too," Hermione said, turning a page in her book as Draco got up and went in the house for a magazine. "Dumbledore wrote me the other day, and I'm going to take over the job as Transfiguration teacher."

"What happened to McGonagall?" Ron asked, sipping a glass of watered-down wine that the French maid had let him have.

"She's decided to spend more time with her and Dumbledore's children," Hermione responded coolly. Ron spit out his drink.

"Blimey! She actually bred with someone?" Ron exclaimed.

"I am thankful that you put that the way you did," remarked Hermione. "There were so many other, cruder, terms you could've used."

"Shit!" Ginny said.

"What?" Harry asked, fanning Millie.

"I just realized something," she said.

"What?" Harry, Millie and Pansy said.

"If Hermione's the Transfiguration professor," Ginny said, "than she'll be my teacher for the N.E.W.T.s. Blimey, it's going to be absolute hell."

"Good luck, Gin," Ron said cheerfully. "After McGonagall's Iron Fist, you're going to have fun with the Unbendable Hermione."

"She bends just fine!" protested Draco as he came back out of the house with Ultimate Broomsticks, eliciting groans and moans from his friends.

"More than we wanted to know, Draco!" Blaise said, throwing a towel at the smirking Draco.

"I," he said, sniffing, "am just defending my poor girlfriend. And I don't mean monetarily."

"Shut up, Draco!" everyone said to him. Hermione grinned at kissed his cheek.

"Nice thought, poor acting on it," she told him.

£££££

The next day, they all packed and traveled to the Floo Hub, even though seven of them had their Apparating licenses, Ginny didn't, since she had chosen to go to France with the group instead of getting her license. Bill, upon her departure, remarked on how she got the better deal than anyone else in their family with not getting their license.

The subject of Bill Weasley rarely came up without Draco breaking something or Hermione turning bright red. Or without every one of the Slytherins (excepting Draco) to tease either Draco or Hermione about the love-triangle-that-wasn't, really. He had left Hogwarts soon after Hermione said the letter from Dumbledore about the Transfiguration job came open. With the job came her being the Head of Gryffindor, which made Ginny's day a bit brighter, even if she knew Hermione was much more of a bear about school than McGonagall, if that was even possible.

Draco was wondering what, exactly, he should do that year when they arrived back in England, and, predictably, it was drizzling and damp. The Weasley's were there, though Bill left soon after saying hello to Ginny. Though not because Hermione was there, apparently. Ginny later told Hermione that Bill was headed off for a date. Hermione smiled and Draco muttered, "He'd better stay away," whereupon Hermione elbowed him as she went to hug Narcissa Malfoy, who was there to greet them.

Though the group had left soon after they had healed, in mid-July, Hermione had taken the time to get to know the beautiful ice queen and matriarch of the Malfoy clan, if there was one. Once she got to know Narcissa, she realized that the woman was funny and had an interest in Muggle cinema. She watched every fashion show she could, and movies whenever she laid her hands on them. Lucius, she said, was not often at Malfoy House, in London, where she lived most of the time, so she got away with these things.

From the Floo Hub, she went to the Burrow, where she was going to stay until school started. She had been preparing her curriculum, and had written McGonagall for weeks for advice on teaching and being the Head of a House. After three weeks of sitting on the deck of the Malfoy's villa in France, which, she surmised, must be paradise, since it was the most beautiful place she'd seen in a long time. Certainly since she was last in France.

When the news of her impending job reached Mrs. Weasley's ears (total time of being inside the Burrow before it happened: five minutes) she rushed over to Hermione and started telling her all sorts of things on how to deal with rowdy teenagers and useful Silencing spells to cast on dormitories so that others wouldn't be disturbed. Hermione was a bit overwhelmed and was relieved when they finally made the trek to Platform 9 ¾ for the ride to Hogwarts. In all the excitement, she barely realized that she hadn't mentioned her new status as Transfiguration teacher to Draco.

£££££

When Draco arrived back at Malfoy Manor after spending the summer in France with the "Octagon of Goodness" as his mother had teasingly dubbed them, he looked around in the old leaking stone mansion and sighed. Without his friends and one-time enemies, life seemed dull and almost lifeless.

His mother preferred the city to the dank Manor, and Draco knew he had his work cut out for him when he ventured down into the dungeons one day to find things that a few years ago would've fascinated him, but now just disgusted him. He instructed the House-Elves to take them out and burn everything. The one House-Elf that contested him was given clothes. After that, he received no more second-guessing from his servants. One day he went into the library and smiled for the first time since Hermione had gone to the Burrow. The library, twice the size of the one at Hogwarts would surely have her shocked, mouth hanging open, just begging to be kissed. Once he would've used the phrase "gagging for it" but now that seemed too crude, too uncouth for her.

He spent the rest of that day reading Hogwarts, A History in the alcove by the large bay window.

His major project over the last few weeks of summer was the renovating—"If you can call it that," he'd remarked to his mother during her weekly visit—of the Manor, and it was going along well. The roof was fixed, and charmed not to leak or fall in. He'd gotten rid of all of the disturbing portraits, including the one of Uncle Bynar and Aunt Hetar doing something rather disgusting on a couch, which he found in a drawing room and then proceeded to burn.

The low point of his summer was when, on August 15, he went to Azkaban to visit his father. He viewed this as something that could be classified both as 'Necessary' and 'A Mistake'. When the guards escorted him to the cell of prisoner 943, he was gripping his wand the entire time, lips smashed together as his chewed on the bit of his lower lip that stuck into his mouth. At the end of his visit he discovered it was bloody.

"Draco," his father had greeted him from his sitting position on the floor, where he was chained to the wall. "I would stand and greet you properly, but, as you see, I am unable."

"Lucius," Draco said curtly. "I am here to ask you to sign this document." He handed Lucius a scroll. Lucius looked it over and growled ferally.

"This," he hissed, "is a divorce document."

"I am aware of that," Draco said coolly. "Mother wishes you to sign it and be done."

"Oh, she does? Then the bitch can come and ask herself," said Lucius, throwing the document back at Draco.

"I really must insist," Draco said. "Otherwise I'll have to get it by force."

"Oh, you'll get a guard to manhandle me?" asked Lucius, his voice tinted with madness. "You were always weak, Draco. Weak. I could never trust you to do anything properly. You always messed things up one way or another. At the World Cup I specifically ordered you to steer the Granger mudblood-" Draco roared and pointed his wand at his father.

"Go on," he said, voice tight. "Say it. Give me a reason. Do you really think these guards will care? I'm the famous boyfriend of Hermione Granger. No one can touch me, and no one would mourn your loss, Lucius. Now give me a reason to kill you or sign the document. Live or die. It is your choice. I give it to you once, and no more."

"Give me the document," Lucius rasped. "Give it to me!" Draco handed it over, along with a pen that Lucius frowned at. "Muggle garbage," he spat, signing his name on the line that was specified.

"Thank you," Draco told him, taking the paper back and rolling it up. He turned to exit with Lucius called out again.

"Do intend to leave me here, Draco? I am your father, you know."

Draco turned and looked at Lucius. "No, you are not," he replied quietly. "My father is dead. You are just someone who bears his name. And yes, this is the last time I will ever see you. Goodbye, Lucius." He walked out of the cell, the door clanging shut with an echoing bang that sounded final.

When he arrived home he sat in his study, surrounded by candlelight and a crystal decanter of Firewhiskey and his half-full rocks glass. He sat there broodily, staring at the fire, thoughts swirling through his head when something tapped on the window. He glanced at it, and pulled the curtain back to reveal an unfamiliar owl with a letter tied to its leg. He let it in, took the letter and gave it some Owl Treats as he read the letter.

Dear Mister Malfoy, the letter went.

I am writing to you to formally request to obtain your services as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor this year, and, if you are so inclined, next year as well. Please write with your decision no later than this Friday.

Sincerely,

Albus Dumbledore

Headmaster of Hogwarts

Draco picked up his glass and swirled the whiskey and ice around for a moment before deciding. He grabbed a quill and some parchment and wrote his response.

To the Headmaster of Hogwarts, he wrote.

I would be honored to accept the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts for this year as a trial. If I feel up to it, I shall return next year as well.

Sincerely,

Draco Malfoy

£££££

Time flew and soon it was the end of August. Draco had spent his remaining weeks coming up with a curriculum and syllabus for his classes. He had the House-Elves pack his things and Apparated to Platform 9 ¾ to get on board the train, for old times' sake.

He boarded the train at a quarter to eleven and found the only empty compartment at the far back of the train. Students who had known him during his school days stepped aside. Draco as Prefect was bad enough. For them to make him a teacher was asking for it. Two minutes to eleven he heard a voice coming down the hall, "…honestly, only one empty compartment and everyone's afraid to sit there because the new Defense professor's in there."

Draco looked up from Hogwarts: A History, Revised Edition and frowned. That was Hermione. The compartment door slid open and Hermione poked her head in.

"D'you mind if we… Oh, my. Draco?" She looked at him in surprise. "What're you doing here?"

"I'm the new Defense professor," he said, smiling. "And you?"

"Transfiguration and Head of Gryffindor," she said, laughing. "I am so sorry, I forgot to tell you! Everything was so busy that it flew out of my mind to write you and tell you that Dumbledore asked me to teach this year!"

"He just asked me a few weeks ago," Draco admitted. "I thought about it for a minute before saying yes." He smiled wryly. "I don't suppose that this is at all a coincidence."

"No, I don't suppose so," Hermione said, sitting by him. He looked into her eyes for a few seconds before bending down to kiss her as the train pulled out of Platform 9 ¾.

£££££

A/N: That end this fic. Thank you to jackrocs, BabyRuth, sugar n spice 522, hpdanrad, AbeLinclon (Tony, did you ever read the rest? Email me), shuggr-holic, Anaili, fizzy, calipinkstar13, tab-sempai, kriCket x0, Artemis-at-hart, Alenor, DramaQueen007, Faery Finder, Silwen Aurdomiel, MistressOfDeath, Alcapacien, Beach-Babi, Mysteriously Intriuging Angel, dracosgurl1234, Lady-Of-the-Moon, soccerchika2120, Lani, Kaaera, alicia rosewild (Yes, finally I have updated call me and tell me what you think), ThePatternInTheIvy, Annie (I hope you're out of the hospital now and still reading fanfiction; my best wishes to you), danluver654, Katjuska, blackaces924, vache, Slytheringirl22, Moonlight Angel 2004, , Prillygirl, leynia, Red Blood Black Soul, sweetblackstallion, ann, Javalass, valentines-hater (Love your SN), Anaili. You all have been wonderfully patient with me during this fic and I sincerely hope you enjoyed it.

M.N.