Draco had a faint smile on his lips before he even opened his eyes, reaching over across the bed only to find it empty. He opened his eyes and looked around the room. Granger wasn't in the guest room with him. He checked and her side of the bed was cool. He felt dread in the pit of his stomach and he tried to calm his spiking nerves. Maybe she just wanted to let him sleep? Best to just find her and find out. No need to start panicking.

Draco got dressed quickly and went downstairs, finding Hermione in the kitchen with Wendell and Narcissa. Wendell was already deep into preparations for the barbecue he was hosting that afternoon and Narcissa and Hermione looked like they were just finishing their breakfast.

"What's all this?" Draco asked, nervously as he looked at the kitchen, trying to get a read of Granger's attitude towards him after the events from the night before.

Hermione turned at the sound of his voice and gave him a big smile, before walking over and kissing him on the cheek without hesitation. "Good morning! The barbecue starts at two o'clock and we have a lot of food to get prepared before the guests arrive. I offered to act as Wendell's assistant again."

"And I'm glad of it." Hermione's father said. "This young lady is an amazing asset in the kitchen. Couldn't have asked for a better assistant than if I'd raised her myself!" Hermione's smile became brittle, and Draco winced sympathetically. Wendell continued on, oblivious to the impact his words had on the woman he didn't know was his daughter. "We've got a lot of work to do. We're aiming for more traditional Aussie fare today — although the guests are a mix of British expats and locals. Summer fare mostly — we're going to have a very busy grill this afternoon."

"Breakfast is whatever you want to get for yourself from yesterday's leftovers." Hermione told Draco. "I just had a turkey sandwich. I can make you one as well, if you'd like. Or toast, I suppose. Which would you prefer?"

Draco felt his heart clench at her kindness "I could go for a sandwich, Granger. Thank you so much."

"Please, it's nothing." She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a hug, whispering in his ear. "We can talk later, okay? I haven't forgotten."

Draco returned her hug, made sure Wendell was not looking and quickly squeezed her perfect arse. "Good. Don't forget." He kissed her forehead. "Wendell? What can I do to help?"

Granger hadn't been kidding. Wendell had them help him prepare a truly staggering amount of food. It seemed like the man had been cooking about half the time since they had arrived in Australia. It was clear that Wendell genuinely loved preparing meals for others and he was admittedly a very accomplished chef. Marinating food in preparation for the grill took a lot of the morning, and Wendell made quite a production out of showing Draco how to operate the grill. Admittedly, it was kind of fun. Draco wondered if he could get a barbecue. Maybe he'd have a whole area for more casual backyard entertaining installed on the grounds, since his mother apparently didn't give a shite about preserving them in their former glory. Maybe Hermione would like that as well?

There were a lot of guests at the house. Wendell seemed like a bit of a social butterfly to Draco. Narcissa's legendary hosting abilities were nothing to dismiss, but the friend group was clearly Wendell's. There was a mix of Australians, other British expats, the odd American and Draco had even spoken with a Canadian couple who had been living in Australia for the past ten years. Everyone wanted to meet Wendell's new stepson and they were very welcoming to Draco. It's not like anyone was rude to Hermione, but the guests tended to focus their attention on him.

It still felt odd to have what was effectively all of Hermione's father's social circle fawn over him, with Hermione as the afterthought. Hermione's smile was firmly in place, but it started to look a bit hollow as they made their way around the party. She was making small talk and interacting with the guests, but even when she was speaking with someone directly they tended to ask about Draco and Narcissa. Draco tried to compensate by loudly bragging about his brilliant girlfriend's accomplishments to anyone who would listen. Hermione flashed him a grateful smile and squeezed his hand.

The party had been ongoing for several hours when Draco's mother gestured for him to lean down so she could whisper in his ear. "Draco, please bring Hermione to the kitchen immediately." Narcissa's face was worried. Draco did not waste time on questions — not with his mother looking so concerned. He found Hermione talking to an American couple and quickly made their excuses before leading her away to the kitchen, where Narcissa was waiting behind the closed door. Narcissa spoke without preamble. "Monica is on her way here now. She'll be here within the next few minutes."

Hermione's eyes went wide and looked like she was going to be ill. Draco put a comforting hand on her shoulder, before turning to his mother and asking, "Mother, I thought she was away? Something to do with surfing?"

"She was. Apparently she rolled her ankle and had to cut the retreat short. She called Wendell this morning, but he only thought to tell me now, when her arrival was already imminent. I am so sorry to spring this on you my dear — I would have given you more time to prepare if I could."

Hermione drew in a shaky breath. "I understand. Thank you for giving me as much of a heads-up as possible."

"Of course, Hermione. If there is anything I can do for you to make things easier once she is here, please don't hesitate to ask."

Hermione nodded and Narcissa left the room, leaving her alone with Draco.

"You okay?"

Her responding laugh veered slightly into hysterical. "No. I'm going to see my mother for the first time since I oblivated her and she thinks that I'm her ex-husband's new stepson's girlfriend. I very am far from okay, Draco. But, I didn't think I'd get an opportunity to see her at all, so I guess I'll manage."

Draco could see Granger visibly steel herself for what was coming, straightening her spine and summoning her resolve. There was his girl. "You got this Granger. You know that, right?"

"We'll see," she said, giving him a nervous smile.

From the front of the house they could hear noises indicating a new guest had arrived. A feminine voice was heard laughing in response to a greeting and Hermione froze. It must be her mother. "Hermione," Draco said softly and Hermione jerked out of her emotional petrification and looked at him with wide eyes. "You've got this," he whispered, nodding at her for emphasis.

Hermione nodded back and reached to take his hand. She exhaled shakily, and they left the kitchen, their hands still clasped.

"Draco! And Hermione! Come over here and meet Monica, my ex-wife and forever business partner." Wendell had a wide smile on his face as he beamed at them both. Narcissa stood by his side, her expression for her husband was fond but Draco could tell that she was concerned about Hermione's reaction. Draco and Hermione both said hello to the newly arrived woman. Monica looked a lot like her, except for the hair and eyes — those were clearly Wendell's contribution — although her build was more athletic than her daughter's. Monica was on crutches, a little sunburned on her shoulders, but she looked happy. It was evident that neither Monica nor Wendell felt any awkwardness around the current state of their relationship. Especially judging by the way that Monica had just hugged Narcissa.

"Their flight got in a couple of days after you left, Mon. Draco works at a law firm in London and Hermione works with him."

Hermione's jaw twitched at her father's phrasing. Draco rushed to correct the misapprehension, especially in light of their conversation from the night before. "We're associates at the same level. We actually went to school together, but we never got on well until recently."

"And now they appear to be getting on quite well," Wendell said with a wink in Draco's direction.

"Well, it's lovely to meet you both. Narcissa raves about you constantly, Draco. I've never met a woman more full of admiration for her child."

Hermione shrank slightly and Draco put his arm around her. "May I ask what happened?" he said, inclining towards her crutches.

"Oh! Surfing injury. I fell off the board and I got hit by a wave. My foot was stuck in the leash and it rolled funny. It's not that bad — I just can't surf which is why I cut my retreat off short. I need to keep weight off of it for a few days, so I'm on crutches. But, on the bright side, I get a chance to meet you both! I booked this retreat before Wendell even met Narcissa, so I was very disappointed that I was going to miss out on meeting her boy."

Draco blushed, and tightened his arm around Hermione incrementally. He really wished she didn't have to stand next to him while her parents fawned over him — and not her.

"And, no offence to you lad, but Monica I just know that you and Hermione will get along like a house on fire. I'm so glad you were able to make it after all!" Wendell pulled his ex-wife in for a quick hug in front of Narcissa, Draco and Hermione. Hermione looked like she wanted to pass out. Or self-avada on the spot.

"Monica, can we find a place for you to sit? I'm sure Wendell or I could fix you a plate if you are hungry?" Narcissa said smoothly. Draco would never get over the fact that his mother now "fixed plates" for people, but he was very grateful for her taking the lead in this situation.

"Oh sure, maybe you could find a spot for me in the covered area on the back deck? Hermione is an unusual name, dear. I imagine Wendell told you it's in his favourite play."

"Yes, Monica. He mentioned it." Hermione said with a pained expression on her face that might have passed for a smile if you didn't know her.

They got Monica set up outside and Hermione ended up staying to speak with her, while Narcissa got her some food and Wendell was temporarily called back to the grill. Draco made himself scarce, speaking with other guests for a bit, before making his way back to Hermione and Monica, to see that things were still going well from Granger's perspective. It was a tricky balance — not wanting to intrude and not wanting to leave her in a situation that could spiral without notice. As he approached them, he overheard their conversation.

"And are you seeing anyone yourself, Monica?" Hermione asked, in a voice that was carefully neutral.

"Oh, no! I don't want to be in a relationship right now. If I meet the right person, who knows? But for now, I'm focused on trying new things. Which don't let the ankle injury fool you — I'm not that bad at surfing."

"Good for you, Monica. I'm glad you're happy." Hermione smiled at her mother.

"I am happy. I know it's strange for exes to be this close, but truly, Wendell is my best friend. He's been my best friend for over twenty-five years. And we still work together beautifully. We just didn't work out in the romantic sense. If I'm being honest, sometimes I'm not entirely sure why we got married in the first place, let alone stayed married for so long." Monica laughed at this like it was the most amusing thing she had heard in ages, so she missed Hermione's flinch. "And then he met this treasure — found himself a new partner and found me a new friend. Truly, it was all for the best."

After a few hours, the party wound down and the guest started trickling out. Hermione had stayed pretty close to Monica the entire time — she and Wendell both thanked Hermione profusely for keeping the 'injured' company, not realising that she was just trying to make the most of the unexpected opportunity to converse with her mother. Hermione had looked more and more pensive as the day wore on. Her mother was one of the last to leave, marvelling as she left that her foot felt so much better.

"I don't even feel like I need these crutches anymore. I swear, it's like coming here healed me," Monica said with wonderment as she hugged Wendell and Narcissa at the door and shook hands with Hermione and Draco.

Draco looked at Narcissa and Hermione, both of whom looked away guiltily. Likely, Monica had been on the receiving end of more than one non-verbal healing charm this afternoon. After they exchanged goodbyes, Hermione excused herself and left. Narcissa and Draco exchanged worried glances. Draco decided it would be best to give her a few minutes on her own — it had been a long, emotionally fraught day of performing her role as a stranger to her own parents, and she might need some time to process it.

When Hermione didn't come back after twenty minutes, Draco could no longer restrain his curiosity or worry. He went looking for her in the house and quickly found her behind the closed door of Wendell's office. He knocked as he opened, "It's just me, Granger." She looked up at him as he entered, her eyes wide and her breathing rapid. She looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack. "Are you okay?" he asked, worriedly.

"It was me," she gasped. Her eyes began to tear up and she started to blink rapidly. "It was me, Draco."

"What? Granger, what was you?" Hermione looked devastated, and Draco had the strong impression he was missing something important.

" I'm the reason they got married. The reason they stayed married too, apparently. The one they can't remember? It was me. I was born six months after their wedding, and I was not premature. If it wasn't for me, they would have just been friends. Really good friends, maybe. Lifelong friends perhaps. But friends. Instead, mum got pregnant and it altered the course of their entire lives."

Draco thought that having children altered the course of every parent's life, but didn't think it was the moment to make that observation to Hermione. Instead, he looked at her sympathetically, trying to be supportive towards her as she was clearly in crisis. "How are you doing?"

"It's — it's a different kind of awful. My existence has been fucking up their lives from the start."

Well, he had to answer. "Granger — they loved you. Hell, Wendell loves you now and as far as he's concerned you'd just met. And Monica seemed similarly inclined. And the Grangers adored you — even if they weren't right for each other. And they are alive and finding all this unexpected happiness because you were brave and clever." And ruthless. She had also been absolutely ruthless in her protection of those she loved.

"That's not how I feel , Draco. And it's not like I can check with them to see if they would agree my actions. Instead, it's like I stole their lives from them twice . Look — I know we said we'd talk about last night. Or very early this morning, whatever ."

Draco shook his head. She was already in a bit of a breakdown, and this was not a good time to have an emotionally sensitive conversation. Especially not if he wanted a positive outcome. "Granger, we don't need to do this now. Forget what I said about holding you to it. We can talk when it's a better time for you." And when you've had more than five minutes to process news that made you question your own existence , he thought to himself.

"No, Draco. Please just let me get this out. I'm glad we sorted out our personal issues as far as work is concerned, and I really hope that we can be friends going forward. Because I do like you. A lot." Her voice was tremulous and he could see tears forming in her wide eyes.

Draco's heart sank like a stone. Friends .

Hermione ran her fingers through her curls, pacing as she spoke. "You know, if I'm being brutally honest, I don't think I should have tried to date Ron after the war. But I was so afraid to be alone . Especially after I realised I couldn't have my parents back as my parents. So I clung to Ron and the Weasleys. They were my wizarding family and I was terrified I would lose them too. So I stayed dating Ron a lot longer than I ought to have. And in the end I lost them anyway. Along with my friendship with Ron. And that was not fair to him. He deserved better than me using him to keep myself afloat. I can't start a new relationship with someone else — with you — making the exact same fatal mistake. The temptation to use you so I have the ability to see my parents is too great and Draco, you deserve better than that."

"Granger, I —"

"Look, I can't talk about this anymore today," she wrung her hands in front of him, clearly at wit's end. "I'm sorry, but I just can't. I thought you ought to know where I'm coming from, especially since I promised to talk to you about us . I hope you can — I don't know, I hope we can be friends. Truly. But right now, I need time to process all of this, and I can't do that while I'm pretending to be something we aren't. I'm so sorry, Draco."

She left the office, pushing past him to get out the door. He saw the tears start to escape her eyes as she passed. Draco stayed in the office, feeling stupified. He was so happy last night. Waking up alone had been nerve-wracking, but then he had been so relieved when she was still amenable to him in the kitchen over breakfast. He had truly expected their conversation to be mostly making things officially official, only to have Monica, Wendell and the ghosts of Hermione's past come by and blow it up. It was ironic in a way. He would have assumed that his past would be what destroyed his happiness. Strange to have her baggage be what brought them down.

Draco didn't know how long he had been standing in Wendell's office, ruminating on his life, when his mother opened the door and entered the room. She looked relieved to see him, but whatever words she had intended to speak died on her lips as she looked at her son's face.

"What is wrong, my dragon." Narcissa's voice was full of tender concern.

"Oh, just being right about something. So I shouldn't be so upset. I usually adore it when I'm right." It was one of the things he had in common with Granger. Another reason why they should be perfect together.

"What happened to Hermione?"

"Hermione doesn't want a relationship with me, Mother. As I told you."

"What did she say?" Narcissa regarded him shrewdly.

"Essentially, she only dated Weasley because she loved being accepted by his family, and she didn't want to make the same mistake twice."

Narcissa furrowed her brow. "What did she say exactly , Draco?"

Draco sighed. "That she didn't want to use me so she could maintain access to her family and I deserved better."

Narcissa made a hum of acknowledgement, as she pursed her lips and thought. "She seemed upset earlier. Was it to do with this?"

"Not exactly." Draco filled his mother in on Hermione's revelations about why her parents had gotten and stayed married. "She's wracked with guilt. She shouldn't be, but she is."

"I see. Alright. You should try to get some sleep, love. We have a busy day tomorrow."

"We do."

"Yes," his mother smiled serenely, but her eyes sparkled. "We do."

Hermione was already sleeping when Draco made it upstairs. Or at least she was already aggressively pretending to be asleep. Draco lay down beside her, with as much space between them as possible, unable to rest. Mindful of what he had woken up to the past two mornings, he took his pillow from underneath his head and put it in between himself and Granger. Draco did not trust his sleeping self to keep his hands off of Hermione, and he did not think a slip-up would go as well tonight as it had the night before. He stared at the ceiling and thought over what had happened. The more he thought, the more certain he became that Granger, against all odds, was wrong .

She wouldn't hurt him — not in the way she was worried about anyway. And Draco didn't actually think that was the issue. She was in a tailspin over wiping her parents' memories and she was punishing herself out of a misplaced sense of guilt. He just needed to give her some time to collect herself and then, after cooler heads prevailed, he hoped he could convince her to give him a second look.

Hermione was long gone by the time Draco got out of bed. He woke as she was leaving the bed this time — he had slept so poorly that what sleep he did find was easily disturbed. He feigned sleep to allow her to leave and then gave her an extra thirty minutes before he rose, some of which was on purpose and some of which occurred because he drifted off. It might have been longer than thirty minutes, come to think of it.

He went downstairs and found the three other inhabitants of the house just finishing up breakfast. "Sorry, I'm so late. I didn't have a very good night's sleep." Draco still had to keep up appearances for the sake of his step-father, so he went over to Hermione and kissed her forehead, murmuring a quiet 'good morning' before he headed over to Wendell's coffee maker. Hermione started a bit as he kissed her, but she recovered and gave him a little smile.

"You sound like Hermione. She also didn't sleep well." The smirk on Wendell's face was disturbing for a couple of reasons. He clearly thought there was a more fun reason as to why Draco and Hermione were both exhausted. Also, that was his daughter and having him implying things about their night like that — just, no.

Narcissa cleared her throat. "Draco, Hermione, now that you are both here, I wanted to let you know that we are leaving for the beach in twenty minutes. I assume you have both packed swimsuits, but on the off chance you have not, I am certain I can find one for either of you lying around here somewhere." Hermione looked annoyed, her presumed objection to the plan dying in her throat, as Narcissa smiled at her warmly and only slightly triumphantly. "Wendell, why don't you go start packing up the car, my darling?"

Wendell kissed Narcissa on the cheek and left to go do that. Hermione spoke as soon as he left the room. "Narcissa, maybe I should just stay home? I am quite tired."

Narcissa smiled, but shook her head. "Nonsense, darling. It's important to Wendell and he's talked of nothing else since last evening. You wouldn't want to disappoint your father, dear. Go get changed." Narcissa's manner was all smiles and politeness, but there was an underlying steel that made it very difficult to argue with her, although Hermione made a few more efforts to try. Narcissa was inflexible. They were going to the beach. All four of them.

Hermione scowled as she left to get changed.

"What are you up to, Mother?"

"Same as any parent. Getting my children out of the house so they can spend time together, participating in a fun activity outside." Narcissa said, face betraying nothing. "And you? Still believe it's hopeless?"

"No. I gave into despair too quickly. As you already knew."

"So I did my dragon. She's too concerned about inadvertently hurting you not to care deeply for you. And you are too intelligent to let someone that well suited to you go without a fight, correct?"

"Correct, Mother. You are right as always."

"Excellent. I will go see if Wendell needs any help. I expect you to be especially charming today, Draco." She reached up and patted him on the cheek, walking out of the room. Draco watched her leave, hesitating for a minute, before calling out.

"Mum?" he said, his voice uncertain. Narcissa stopped dead in her tracks before turning to face her son. "Thank you for this. I love you."

Narcissa's expression transformed as first she looked like she might cry and then she had the biggest smile Draco ever saw across her face. She rushed back and put her arms around her son in a bear hug, giving him an extra squeeze as she whispered back to him. "I love you too, Draco. And I am so proud of the man that you have become."

Draco looked away blinking. His mum squeezed his hand before leaving.

Hermione came downstairs in a two piece bathing suit, wearing an open weave beige coverup over top of it. Her bathing suit was emerald green for the love of Merlin. And he could tell because the coverup - despite the misleading name — did not particularly cover up all that much.

Draco was flabbergasted.

Hermione looked at him, clearly irritated. "What?" she said tersely.

"Nothing."

"Oh for the love of God! It's just a bathing suit."

"I know that." He did know that. Not sure he had ever seen one on a living person before, but he knew what it was. And he had definitely never seen one on Granger before. Draco knew she was gorgeous. He'd even touched a lot of what he was seeing now for the first time. But it had been dark and this was his first opportunity to look at her in her gorgeousness and the sight of her was taking his breath away. Why did her swimsuit have to be green?

Hermione made a disgusted sound and she looked at him with irritation. "It's not my fault wizards get all flustered at the sight of an exposed collarbone."

"That's a lot more than a collarbone, Granger!"

"It's normal beachwear! You will see a lot of women wearing a lot less, I assure you."

But none of them are you , he thought. His expression must have given something away, because Hermione wasn't done.

"It's not even that revealing! It's a tankini for crying out loud. It's the most coverage you can get and still be a two-piece suit. I'd bet at least a third of the people you're going to see today are going to be practically naked in comparison, Draco ."

She huffed out of the room, heading for the car carrying her beach bag. Wendell was already outside, loading the car and he helped Hermione get her back into the boot.

Narcissa removed her wand and quickly cast a sun protection charm over her son. "Sunscreen will be insufficient for you, my dear. Not with this much sun. There you go, my dragon." She smiled at him fondly. "Hermione certainly looks nice."

"She does." She always looked nice. He just didn't normally get to see quite so much of her.

The beach was packed with Muggles. The waves were fairly tame today, to the disappointment of a few departing surfers they passed on their way down to the beach. They set up their towels and beach umbrellas. It wasn't too long before Narcissa found a reason to drag Wendell away for a bit, claiming she saw some acquaintances they must greet. She actually winked at Draco as she left. Draco was startled to be on the receiving end of that gesture from his mother and he smiled.

Hermione already had her book out in front of her, as she lay on the towel in the sand. But she wasn't reading. She hadn't turned a page for five solid minutes. Draco cleared his throat and spoke with a deliberate casualness. "You said you hoped we'd at least be friends, Granger. Did you know that friends talk to each other and occasionally make eye contact?"

She laughed ruefully, before putting her book down as she sighed. She turned to Draco and gave him her full attention. "Okay, fair enough. I'm sorry. This has been a very emotional trip for me." She gave him a half-smile, looking embarrassed and a touch wistful. "I'm sorry I shut down last night. I was upset about my parents and I may have lost the plot a bit."

"I'm sorry it's been so hard on you, Hermione," he said genuinely. These circumstances were hard and it was hard to watch her endure it because he cared for her. Deeply.

"Oh it's not your fault. Every time I've come to Australia it's been a complete shitshow. Pretty sure the blame for this falls to me. And I was serious about trying to be friends." She looked at him worriedly. "If you want to be friends."

"Yes." He couldn't go back to detached politeness. He'd take whatever he could get, although he was still hoping he could convince her to give them a real shot. "I would very much like to be your friend."

"Okay."

They went back to reading, but this time Hermione turned the pages. It was only slight progress, but at least he was moving in the right direction. They read side by side for a while. Draco got them both ice lollies, which dripped down Hermione's hand as she tried to eat it in the heat. She started to lick the melted treat off the side of her hand and Draco nearly snapped the stick on his own as he watched her pink tongue slide down her wrist to catch the drips before it made more of a mess. Thank Merlin she hadn't noticed his reaction.

After she was finished, she looked in his direction, squinting at him in the sunlight. "Your natural paleness is blinding in this sunlight. Do you need me to reapply your sunscreen?"

"Mother hit me with a charm."

"Oh, good." She paused for a bit. "Want to go in the water?" she asked hesitantly.

Draco felt his heart leap, but he fought to maintain an air of indifference. "Well we came all this way."

"Right. Race you."

"Wha —" Granger had already taken off running as fast as she could for the ocean. Draco was shocked into stillness for a moment, before he took off, his much longer legs easily overtaking her just as she got into water above her ankles. He raced ahead of her until he was in waist deep water, turning to see her coming in just behind him, feigning a pout.

"It's not fair. Your legs are so much longer!"

He just smirked, looking from the ocean to her hair. "How big are those curls of yours going to get if they get wet?"

"Oh huge. They'll need a separate car."

He splashed her. The shock of the water hitting her face caused her to gasp. After a moment of being weighed down by the water, her curls did indeed get bigger. Her expression was a perfect mix of amusement and irritation as she aimed water back at him, hitting him square in the eye. He blinked and tried to wipe his face, only to be shot with another spray just when he thought he'd cleared the first. Okay, Draco might have underestimated her here. Granger was bizarrely good at aiming concentrated beams of water with her hands. Perhaps it was a Muggle skill of some kind? He had just finished rubbing the sea water out of his eyes when she got him again.

"Witch! Stop that." He cringed. He hadn't meant to say 'witch' at a beach populated by Muggles.

Hermione saw his face and laughed. "Oh, don't worry. I don't think anyone can hear us, but if they did it's not a problem. People will just think you're insulting me."

"I don't want people to think I'm insulting you."

"Better that than violating international secrecy laws while you're on vacation. You'd get fired for starters. Guess I'd have free reign on the Wolfsbane bill then, though. Suppose it wouldn't be all bad."

"We're partners on that now, Granger. No need to annihilate me." It's not like he was going back on his word as regards their workplace arrangements. It wouldn't be very friendly of him to do so, after all.

"Alright. You can live for another day, provided you don't actually violate the international secrecy laws." And she splashed him in the eyes again. He lunged for her, as she turned away squealing. He scooped her up, getting his hands under her back and thighs, lifting her and then hoisting her in the air before throwing her into the deeper waters behind them. She sank with a splash.

And didn't come up.

And still didn't come up.

Draco felt a hot knife of worry slide into his guts. "Granger?" He started to move in the direction he had thrown her.

Hermione burst through the water behind him and yelled "Boo!", nearly scaring the life out of him. He lept back — both surprised, relieved and angry with her for scaring him like that. She must have swum behind him, the sneaky witch. Draco splashed her as she turned away laughing.

Draco had a moment of marvelling at the extraordinarily strange circumstances he found himself in. But he couldn't deny that was happy spending time with Hermione. Fuck he hoped he'd be able to convince her to stop punishing herself so they could have more moments like this. He splashed her again and she squealed.

They stayed in the ocean for a bit, before finding Wendell and Narcissa and leaving for the house. On their way home, Hermione leaned over to Draco in the backseat. "You have dimples too, you know."

"What?"

"You have your mother's dimples. But only when you smile really big. I saw them earlier today. When I made you eat sea water."

Draco smiled at her, laughing and feeling the tension ease out of him. He was going to talk to her again. As hard as it might be to convince her, Granger was wrong about them. They could be so good together. He grinned at her, riding the high from the moment of hope he found in the back of Wendell's car.

"There they are!" she said, her own smile wide and her eyes sparkling.

Draco felt a surge of optimism at her words. He could convince her to give him a real chance, he was certain of it. He just needed to convince her to listen to him first.