Chapter Nine

Making the House a Home

The success of my shop was absolutely phenomenal. By the end of the summer, I had almost a third of the fortune it took my parents a lifetime to acquire. There was more than the gold though. Every day, Hermione would show up and stay until I closed. Depending on when she could leave, she would stay a few hours or all day. The latter is what I lived for. She would come in on her days off, dressed in dark green work robes, and sell what she could to the customers while I tried to keep up with the demand. Once September rolled around, however, everything slowed down. There were no longer hordes of children and their parents around, only adult wizards looking to replenish their stores of ingredients and potions. I could finally relax.

Once the heat of the summer had fled, Hermione stayed with me more often as she was no longer burdened with the orientation of Muggle parents and half Muggle children. Often, we would just sit in my shop, talking of business and her job.

I could bore you, my daughter, with the details of those next months. It seemed so surreal, not going to Hogwarts, but I didn't lament that fact. There were happier thoughts on my mind during that time. The summer hit again and, sadly, Hermione was taken away from me for much of the day.

It was one of those days, though, in the middle of summer, when I could no longer stand being away from her for so long. We were closing up, she had arrived only an hour before, and I had just sold my last bit of vampire blood to a rather…shady…character. But he had money and I wasn't picky.

I came up behind her as she was locking the door to the back room and wrapped my arms around her waist, taking in the scent of her hair. She laughed a little and leaned back against me a little. I took her weight easily.

"Hermione, you come here every day to see me and yet you have not been to my house since last year."

"Mmm hmmm…" she said, allowing me to go on. I wasn't nervous about what her reaction would be. She was the one who had pulled me out of my hole, and the one that I knew I had to be with. She gave me strength, but if she did not want me, then I truly was nothing. It was a chance that I had to take.

"Why go home tonight? Stay with me…" I said, trying to keep any trace of pleading from my voice. She didn't say anything for a moment. I could only assume that she was considering it. When she did speak, however, her voice was strong, as if she had been thinking the same thing for a while.

"As long as I get to see your horses that you tell me about…"

I smiled, perhaps I was even a little relieved.

"Of course," I promised. "We can even go riding in the morning. We both need a day off..."

The old Hermione would have blanched at the thought of missing work, but this new Hermione, the one that I was falling in…well, falling for, simply laughed again.

"They won't miss me…" she lied. I hugged her tighter and turned her around so that she faced me. Leaning in close, her lips inches from mine, I reached around behind her and took the key that was in the lock and backed away from her. She sighed, though she was almost getting used to me doing that to her by now. I gave her my best smile and took a step away from her. I had her for that night, and, at that moment, it seemed like forever.

I had been expecting her to come that night, so the house elves had prepared a wonderful dinner for us. I don't remember what it was…all I could focus on was the way that she seemed to make me laugh that night. My house had suddenly become a home, just with the addition of her presence. I lit a magical fire that gave no heat, as we didn't need it in the summer, and we sat on my couch, just talking. Soon, though, the conversation turned to that eventful night over a year ago.

"Why did you do it, Hermione?" I suddenly asked. She lay her head in my lap and I absently twirled my fingers through her hair as she thought about how to answer.

"Do what, Draco?" she almost muttered.

"Save me. Why did you help me that night, when all I had ever been to you was…awful."

I felt her shrug her shoulders in a simple response. But I didn't want to accept that. I kept my silence until courage seemed to invade her and she spoke again.

"I suppose because, at that moment in time, you were not my enemy. That you were afraid for your family, much as I would have been in that situation. We weren't so different anymore. And, I knew, that if I were in that situation, that I would want someone to help me." She sat up then and looked over at me. There were actual tears in her eyes. "I feel so responsible, Draco. I really do. If I could have been a little stronger, deflected those spells a little faster, then you might have made it…"

She didn't finish that thought. I pulled her close to me and she buried her face in my shirt. There were no tears now, but I could sense that she had been keeping this from me for quite a long time.

"Hermione…it is stupid to blame yourself." Before I could go on, however, she interrupted me.

"But if I do not blame myself, then I have to blame Harry…" I narrowed my eyes suddenly and my arms around her loosened just a little. She must have realized how that affected me and wrapped her own arms around my neck, her eyes inches from me.

"I do not hate you for your feelings towards Harry. But I do not believe as you do. I cannot blame Harry for what he felt that he had to do." I nodded. Of course she was right. Her words did not change how I felt towards the awkward hero, but I pulled her close again, our lips touching. There were no hard feelings any longer.

We slept together that night, in the full meaning of the phrase. There were no regrets the next morning, only a sense that everything that had happened was so surreal. I would have thought it was a dream, if it had not been for the feeling of her warm body snuggled next to mine. Though a wondrous dream it would have been…