~Saturday~

Draco woke up first, and took the opportunity to slip out of bed and make breakfast while Hermione slept. Crookshanks circled his feet, as if greeting him. He bent down and stroked the cat fondly on its head before he scurried away. He's never been a huge fan of pets, but that's probably because he never had any growing up. He didn't mind Crookshanks, but this particular cat seemed more human than feline. It seemed to understand everything they were saying, which most people would find creepy, but Draco appreciated it. He started the coffee and started frying up bacon and sausages. He could have easily done this with magic, but he found cooking to be calming. Just as he placed everything on plates he heard Hermione's movements from the bedroom.

"Stay in there, breakfast is coming to you!" Draco called, levitating the plates and mugs and having them trail him into the bedroom. When he entered Hermione was just sitting back into bed, it seemed she had run to the bathroom and that's what he heard.

"This is unnecessary." Hermione said, clearly uncomfortable with being catered to.

"A thank you will do." He shot back, joining her in bed and kissing her cheek as the plates and mugs landed softly in between them.

"Thank you." She said softly. "You made so much!"

"Well the pancakes we can reheat tomorrow for breakfast." Draco explained.

"True, so what time are we going to Astoria's?" Hermione asked, and Draco caught how she used her name instead of his.

"They said anytime, but just a warning, they will keep us all night." Draco warned, rolling his eyes at the thought.

"I want to finish my book today, I only have three chapters left!" She exclaimed.

"So finish it, and then we will go." He said, filling in the blanks. "There's also something I wanted to tell you, in case it comes up."

"Do tell." She answered, biting her sausage and looking at him with intrigued.

"I may have bought Nott a Christmas gift."

"And what would this…possible gift be?" Hermione countered.

"A new broom, it's getting delivered to him at the great hall on Christmas day."

"So it's not a maybe, it's a definite?" Hermione corrected, looking rather proud of herself.

"Yes…" He chuckled. "...he's not going home, and I know how his father is going to act. I just wanted to make sure he got a Christmas gift." Draco said softly, shifting uncomfortably. Hermione flung herself onto him, kissing him aggressively.

"I love you too." She said, and he grabbed her and brought her face to him. They disregarded the food and removed piece by piece of clothing from the other. When they finally finished they laid there short of breath, Hermione's head on his chest and her leg in between his. "Will he know it's from you?"

"He should, yea." Draco said, stroking her hair softly.

"That was very kind of you." Draco shifted uncomfortably under her. "I'm serious, not many people would think to do that, you did a really nice thing."

"Anyway…" He started awkwardly. "...I'm going to take a shower, do not clean a single thing." He ordered, kissing her on the forehead and bouncing up the bed.

Hermione watched him walk into the bathroom with a satisfied smile on her face. She reached dramatically over to the end table and grabbed her book, cracking it open and beginning to read. She was almost finished with the last chapter when Draco came back into the room. She didn't look up until she had finished the book, and found Draco was already dressed and ready to go. She put her book down, laying her bookmark on top of the book and made her way to the shower. When she reentered the room Draco was no longer there so she got dressed quickly and made the bed with a flick of her wand. She walked out to the living room to see Draco reading his own book, but did a double take when she realized it was her own.

"Excuse me, what are you reading?" She asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"You told me I'd have to read it to find out, so I'm reading it." He answered matter of factly.

"Mhm, well I'm ready when you are."

"Give me oneeee second." He drawled, seemingly speed reading the last couple pages of the chapter. "Okay, let's go."

The couple made their way to the fireplace and Draco took the powder and yelled their destination. Their feet landed on hard brick, and they immediately heard Astoria's voice.

"Blaise! They are here!" Astoria yelled, as she carried drinks into the living room. "How are you? Please come sit!"

"Hey Stori." Draco said, hugging her briefly. Hermione couldn't help but notice how she found his fondness and comfortability with Astoria attractive.

"Nevermind you, Hermione!" Astoria greeted after all but shoving Draco aside. Hermione saw the boys do their little handshake as she was hugging Astoria.

"Hey Granger." Blaise greeted, the two hugged and then Astoria ushered all of them to the couch.

"I'm so glad you two came this early, I have a whole day's worth of games planned!" Astoria exclaimed, summoning a slew of objects to her. "Okay so we have gobstones…" Astoria pointed to the set up on the floor to the left. "...wizard skittles…" She pointed to the game on the end table off to the right of the couch. "...exploding snap…" She pointed to the coffee table in front of them. "...and finally pictionary!" Astoria said the last word like she was unsure, and a large chalkboard appeared in front of the fireplace.

"What in the bloody hell is pictunary?" Draco asked, and Blaise murmured in agreement.

"It's a muggle game, where you get given a word to draw and your partner has to guess what you are drawing. How do you know about it?" Hermione asked, looking at Astoria.

"Andromeda told me about it!" Astoria explained, and the boys looked confused. "She called me to invite me over for Christmas Eve and I was telling her about our game night."

"Ah, makes sense." Draco said. "So what do we do first?"

They had such a fun time together, competing and swapping stories. Astoria was telling Hermione about Draco's adventures when they were younger, and asking Hermione which rumors about the golden trio were true and which weren't. The boys spent the night placing bets on the winner of the games, getting more competitive with every outcome. Astoria had made a slew of finger foods for them to pick on, and even had some sweats out by the end of the night. Which came in handy because by the time they got to pictionary, it was almost 10pm. Hermione was surprised with how quickly the night flew by, and realized that this friend group wasn't much different than her own. Astoria was the brains of the operation, keeping them out of trouble, but still having a deviant side to her, while Blaise was the bold hotheaded one and Draco was the more studious sneaky one. She was enjoying observing so much that there were quite a few times that Draco had to make her pay attention to what he was drawing.

When it was time to leave, Draco guided a sleepy Hermione to the floo and shouted their destination. It was midnight and they were exhausted, so they both got into PJs and fell right to sleep.

~Sunday~

Hermione woke before Draco, she felt his warm arms wrapped around her torso and smiled. She lay there for a minute enjoying the feeling before slipping out of his grasp without waking him. She figured it was only fair that she cook breakfast for once, so she headed to the kitchen and started the coffee pot. As she was heating the pans and pulling the food out of the fridge, she was thinking about how much fun they had last night. Seeing the way he was with his friends made Hermione love him even more. She knew it sounded crazy, to be in love with him so quickly, but she couldn't lie about how she felt. For the first time in her life she felt like a relationship, whether it be romantic or platonic, was finally completely even. Her relationship with Ron was staggeringly one sided, with her doing the most for him and him only returning that a quarter of the time. Even her friendship with Harry was much more dependent on her than him. It wasn't anything that she would ever complain about, but it was definitely there. Her friendship with Ginny was the closest to even she'd ever had, but she knew if she didn't reach out, she would rarely do so herself. Draco was the first person that it felt reciprocal in every way. She never felt like he told her less or they did more of what he wanted to do or anything like that. He also completely respected her views, even if he disagreed with her. She knew it was early, but she really did already fall for him. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't hear Draco get up, and was surprised to see him slaunter into the room.

"Good morning!" Hermione exclaimed, pouring him a cup of coffee.

"Mornin'" He mumbled, kissing her on the cheek before sitting. "You didn't have to make breakfast." He added, as if he was just now realizing.

"Nonsense, I actually got up first for once." She answered while filling his plate with eggs and french toast. "What time are you going?"

"I told Neville to come here for 10." He answered with his mouth full. "But I've been thinking…" He swallowed the last bit of his food and put his fork down. "I'd like you to come with me, if you're comfortable with that." Draco said quickly, and Hermione's mouth fell open.

"Of course I will, but are you sure?" She asked, placing her hand on his.

"Yea I er…talk to her a lot and I…mention you." He said awkwardly, but Hermione nodded her head to encourage him to tell her more. "I thought it would be nice if she could hear your voice…they say they can hear us, I don't know how true that is…"

"I'll come." She said, seeing the wheels turning in his head.

"Have you ever seen someone that er…"

"I've seen Neville's parents." She interjected evenly.

"So you know what to expect?" He asked, clearly concerned that it would be hard for her.

"Yes, I won't be surprised."

"Good, how'd you like game night?" He asked, resuming eating now.

"It was fun! Astoria is amazing, I really like her!"

"Yea Stori is great, don't know what she sees in Blaise." He said with a chuckle.

"You know he said the same thing to me about you!" She chided, and Draco laughed loftily.

"Sounds about right, I'm glad Andromeda is inviting them to Christmas Eve, they don't have much family."

"I know why Blaise doesn't speak to his family, but Astoria?" Hermione asked, sipping her coffee.

"Similar issues, her family is part of the sacred twenty eight…"

"Pureblood families with no 'blemishes'" Hermione offered, a bit of disdain in her voice.

"Yes. She never bought into it, and she really only kept ties with her older sister Daphne." Draco explained.

"Makes sense, did you know her well in school?" Hermione pried.

"Not really, her sister Daphne was in our year but honestly Pansy didn't let many women near me." He shuddered.

"Quite the obsession she had…I don't see the appeal." Hermione joked.

"Oh you don't?" Draco asked, his voice up an octave and reached across the counter pulling her towards him. He kissed her passionately and then pulled away abruptly, leaving Hermione open- mouthed and waiting. "Still don't?"

"Not really, no." He said defiantly. This time Draco got up and walked behind her, pulling her hair away from her neck and kissing her softly in little bursts. His hand traveled down the length of her whole body, stopping at her upper thigh and Hermione's breath caught. "Okay, I see it." She caved.

"Do you really? He answered, his hand moving up slowly. She pivoted her head around and caught his lips, kissing him thoroughly, their tongues fighting for dominance. "Now you get it." He said with a satisfied grin as they pulled away.

"Go in the shower." She ordered.

"Are you meeting me there?" He asked slyly.

"You wish"

"Oh how I do" He wailed, but he did as she said and went in the shower.

Hermione cleaned everything up with a wave of her wand and gave Crookshanks some of the leftovers. Draco's shower was quick, so she went in after him. The couple were dressed and ready to go ten minutes before Neville arrived. Neville didn't question why Hermione was going, if anything he seemed happy about it. Hermione followed the boys' lead, knowing that this was their thing. Unlike them she had to stop at the desk and give her name and ID. Hermione knew where they were going, having been here before, but let Draco lead the way. Neville waved goodbye as they stopped and he continued walking. Draco took Hermione's hand before they entered, and led her into the room. Hermione was taken aback by the stark difference between his mother then and now. She was always on the thinner side, but her body seemed hallowed out. Her hair that was once multicolored black and blonde, was now all black. Draco led Hermione to the bench that sat next to the hospital bed. They both sat in silence for a good couple of minutes but eventually Draco spoke.

"Mum…I brought Hermione with me today."

"Hi Mrs Malfoy, I'm here." Hermione added sheepishly, and Draco grabbed her hands and squeezed them.

"It's Christmas week mum…and you'll never guess what my plans are, I'm going to the Weasley's!" He chuckled, and Hermione watched in awe how the man who said so little could talk like this with his mother. "Andromeda and Teddy are doing well, we are going there for Christmas Eve. She was nice enough to extend the invite to Blaise and Astoria as well. Dad hasn't broken out or sent any messages…I know, shocking!" He took a deep breath as if this was hard to say. "That kid I told you about, Nott…he refused to go home for the holidays, says he doesn't want to surround himself with it anymore. I think I might have reached him in time mum…" Hermione squeezed his hand and he looked at her softly. "I sent him a new broomstick for christmas, I wanted to make sure he got a present, seeing as his father isn't likely to send anything. I do hope his mum is somewhat like you, willing to break the mold for him…" Draco cleared his throat.

"I'll go get us water." Hermione said, and Draco nodded.

Hermione stopped at the door, listening to him telling her about his patronus. Seeing this exchange broke her heart, she really hoped that she could hear him. She went to the healer station and grabbed cold water. When she came back, he could hear Draco talking about her so she stood just out of sight, eavesdropping.

"I think this is it mum, what you always described as love. She makes me happy and safe and it's hard to remember what my life was like before her. I know you haven't felt that with dad in a very long time, but I'm sure you remember it. It would be really nice if you could meet her, I hope that's possible one day…you'd like her I think. She's witty and smart and gorgeous…I don't know how I didn't see those things before…" Draco's voice trailed off and Hermione took the opportunity to walk back in.

"Waters" She announced, and was surprised when he kissed her softly. "Can I..?" She gestured towards his mother and he nodded. "He's come so far Mrs Malfoy. He's kind and thoughtful, despite his desire for mischief." She said and Draco chuckled lightly. "You've raised a good man, who is good to me and for that I am grateful to you. I know we didn't know each other that well…but I hope one day in the future this is all a distant memory." Draco got up, and Hermione thought she might have offended him somehow.

"Bathroom." He whispered, and kissed her on the cheek, leaving her in the room with his mother.

"Did you know he's been researching how to cure you? I'm sure he hasn't mentioned that, he does have a humble bone in him somewhere…" She said and laughed to herself, she wasn't aware that Draco was listening from the hall. "...he spends all his free time reading books about your condition, he is incurably a momma's boy. I've been researching too, if there's a way to fix this we will find it." Hermione said firmly, placing her hand on his mothers.

Draco reentered the room moments later, placing his hand on top of both of theirs and smiling at Hermione. She could tell he was fighting back tears, this must have been very hard for him. They spent a long time in that room, swapping stories and filling his mom in on everything. When they left, Neville met them in the hall and the trio went back to Hermione's flat. Neville stayed for a coffee and then bid them farewell. Hermione whipped up a pasta dish and they finished the whole pound by themselves because they hadn't eaten since breakfast. After they ate they both read their own books for a bit before getting into bed. Draco pulled Hermione to him, her back against his bare chest and kissed her hair.

"Thank you for coming today."

"Thank you for having me." She answered, and the two fell soundly asleep.