DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters (although there are some that I made up).

A/N: Hello! This was supposed to be a one-shot. Then it turned into well… to this. I already have a few chapters written, but decided to post the first one to see if I can get reviews that will help lead me through them. I would appreciate it if you like it, but won't take any offense if you don't. I'm merely doing this for my own creative sanity, to be perfectly honest. The last time I published anything was in 2012 (I had to check my old profile just now. Wow, it's literally been 10 years hahaha).

But I do hope you enjoy it! Anyway...

On with it!

— — — — —

"Okay, so we can set the meeting on Friday for the prefects–"

"Make it Thursday, Granger. Let people enjoy their Friday nights." Draco Malfoy interrupted.

Hermione Granger leaned back from the calendar in front of her, taking into consideration what the Head Boy just told her. "But… there will still be prefects patrolling on Friday night. So they'll be working anyway."

Draco rolled his eyes at the Head Girl. "That doesn't mean you load people with work just because they're already working, Granger." He leaned in closer to her, looking over the calendar as well. "Trust me. Let's schedule the prefects' meeting just before dinner on Thursday night. They'll still have time to do whatever they want and then do rounds after."

Hermione let out a puff and wrote the schedule in, just as Draco had laid it out. Draco had leaned back on the sofa and was re-reading one of his homework that he had finished. Hermione put the calendar and her quill down on the coffee table and leaned back on the sofa. They were in the Heads' dorms, during their weekly Monday meeting as Heads of the year. With the roaring fire in front of them, the night was cool on the outside, but perfectly warm in their own common room.

She looked over at Malfoy and continued to stare at him as he read his essay. It wasn't even a minute before he spoke up, "It's very rude to stare, witch."

Hermione bit her lip and he looked up at her with an inquisitive face. "Who are you?" She asked suddenly.

Draco raised his eyebrow, placed the parchment on the table, and proceeded to look at her. "What in the heavens do you mean by that?"

She fumbled with her fingers in her hand. "I just mean… wow, Draco Malfoy is actually being considerate about other people's time."

He stared at her and laughed. He reached for her fumbling fingers and pulled her to him. Now her back was on his front, her hair that had developed into a beautiful set of curls that surrounded her face, in the crook of his neck. His other hand pulled her close to him so he was hugging her from behind.

"It all started in my darkest days in our 6th year, when a very curious and yet overly caring Gryffindor Princess came to me, concerned for my well-being." She was smiling, he knew. Even if he didn't see it, she knew she was. They both watched the fire in front of them as it roared in the night. "Since then she's taught me consideration, empathy, and love." He kissed her hair. "It was a no-brainer, Granger. I wanted to be everything she taught me, for her."

They were silent for a moment until he surprised her with a small laugh and a smack on his thigh.

"I certainly did not teach you to be cheesy, Malfoy." He rolled his eyes and tickled her side. "Hey!"

"Here I am professing my feelings for you and yet you wound me with a laugh."

She turned in his arms and looked up at him. Their eyes told each other everything they had ever felt in the time that they've been together.

He was right–when Hermione had found out what he was tasked to do against Dumbledore, she found him and was surprised that it didn't take too much for him to break down his walls and open up to her. He had kept it to himself for too long and he needed to talk to someone who would at least listen. For months they had tried to keep in contact in secret, undeniably forming deep feelings for one another. After the war, they had found each other right as soon as they had both left St. Mungo's.

They cried together–cried for the people they have lost, for the war, and for each other. That night, they kissed and made love, as they both succumbed to the strongest feelings they had ever felt for anyone else. It almost felt like they found their own halves in one another.

A couple of months later, Headmistress McGonagall had reopened Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and had sent out their usual letters to every single student. With one last year to finish, Hermione and her best friends, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, decided they would finish their schooling. Surprisingly, everyone else in their year who had survived the war had decided to do the same.

Tonight marks the start of their countdown to one month left in school.

"Draco, I–"

There was a tap on the window. She looked over, stood up, leaving her boyfriend on the sofa. She took the letter from the owl and gave him a treat. The letter was addressed to her and she read it on the way back to the sofa.

"Oh, no!" Hermione's hand covered her mouth.

"What is it?" Draco asked. He was reading another one of his essays that was due tomorrow.

As she sat down beside him, she read the letter aloud, "Dearest Hermione, I hope you're well. Your father and I can't wait to see you in a month when you finish your schooling. Unfortunately, my daughter, I have some terrible news–your Aunt Marie has been diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer. She is going through treatment right now, but the doctors have told me to prepare for the worst. I know she would appreciate hearing from you, but only at your most utter convenience as I know you're getting ready for graduation. We love you. Say hello to Draco for us. Love, mum."

"Who's Aunt Marie?" Draco asked when she finished reading the letter.

In the few months before the re-opening of Hogwarts, Hermione had brought Draco to her muggle home and introduced him to her parents. While Draco's father was on trial and his mother had moved to their home in France, he was invited by the Grangers to stay for a couple of weeks before visiting his mother. He humbly accepted, enjoying the time he got to spend with his girlfriend, introducing himself to her mother and father, and learning all about the Muggle world.

"Aunt Marie is my mother's sister. She's the only other family member who knows of me being a witch." Hermione was re-reading the letter for the third time, hoping maybe it would change its contents. Finally, she took a blank parchment and started writing her aunt a letter. Draco rubbed her back as she wrote and went back to reading his essay as he let his girlfriend undoubtedly write a very caring letter for her relative.

Twenty minutes later, she finished and kept it in an envelope. She would go up to the Owlery first thing in the morning. Draco was now looking at her as she stared into the fire, their playfulness just earlier had long gone and she looked forlorn. He glanced at the clock, 10 o'clock. It wasn't that late yet, but he knew she wouldn't be able to sleep with all these thoughts running in her mind.

"Tell me about her, Mine." His small nickname for her, derived from Mione, the nickname her friends had called her for years. He wanted to be the only one who called her that. While the term sounded possessive, she loved being his just as much as he was hers. "Tell me about this aunt of yours."

She continued to stare at the fire. "She's wonderful. She was never married and doesn't have any children… Well, she lost him. Her son. You see, she used to travel a lot. As soon as she finished her schooling, my mum said that Aunt Marie had told their parents that her heart was not in one place, but in the entire world. She was very smart, graduating at the top of her class…"

"Sounds like somebody I know," Draco smirked. She smiled and nodded.

"Mum says I get it from her. She would only come back to Britain a few times a year, mostly for big events. One of them was my birth–that was the longest she had ever stayed in Britain since she started her travels. She stayed for three years. She helped my parents raise me as a baby. Every single day, she would tell me that I was really special and she knew I would have a major impact on Earth while I was alive." Hermione looked at Draco. "It was like she knew. So when my first Hogwarts letter arrived, I called her on the muggle phone while she was in Asia, and all she ever said was, 'I told you so.'"

Draco smiled. He could tell that talking about her aunt seemed to help her process her feelings.

"So Aunt Marie traveled the world and she found that she also had a passion to teach, especially in rural areas of each country. So in every place she visited, she stayed for a while and taught English to the children. One day, in a rural village in Thailand, she met a man, Pen-Chan. He was Thai, but he spoke English fluently. They fell in love almost instantly. I remember she even wrote me a letter that I still have, she said, 'Talking to him feels like the world finally made sense. Like the moon and the stars shined brightly above us, for us, at that very moment.'"

"Sounds very romantic," Draco commented.

She nodded sadly. "Unfortunately, their love could not be. He was in an arranged marriage."

Draco was taken back. "I didn't know there were arranged marriages in the Muggle world."

"You would be surprised by how many similarities there are in terms of marriage in between the Muggle and Magical worlds. A lot of them aren't as popular as most are still here, but I read that it can still happen in very small, rural areas of the world. Arranged marriages are one of them." She looked at Draco.

He looked at her in understanding. If the war had not happened, or if the Light had not won, he would still be in an arranged marriage with Astoria Greengrass. She was younger than he was, but their fates, as arranged by their parents, were sealed as soon as they were both born. Astoria's older sister Daphne, who was in Draco's year and house, was previously arranged to be betrothed to Theodore Nott. Fortunately for them, the war was over, Lucius was nowhere near the family, and Narcissa, Draco Malfoy's mother, was not interested in keeping any traditions alive. There were some, but not very many. So his arranged marriage was dismissed.

He held Hermione's hand and rubbed his thumb over it, encouraging her to continue with her story. "I'm right here, Mine." He noticed she was starting to develop tears in her eyes.

"Anyway, Aunt Marie and Pen-Chan continued their affair in secret. He was meant to be married in a few months, but their love was undeniable. Just a month before he was supposed to be married, she found out she was pregnant." Hermione's tear fell. "She kept it from him, knowing that she would have to raise her child on her own. The night before his wedding, they were together for one last time. Aunt Marie had told me that her tears that night were silent as she surrendered her love for him. Before he could leave, she started to bleed. He got worried and being in the rural parts of Thailand, he could only bring her to the nearest healer. It was there that he found out her secret. The healer said they had lost the child that night."

Hermione sniffled and she wiped her tears away. "Unfortunately for Aunt Marie, she had also lost Pen-Chan. He felt so betrayed by her secret and even worse to find out that he had lost his child before he even knew it existed. So after bringing her back to where she lived, he expressed that he was upset with her and that he never wanted to speak with her again." She let out a long breath and Draco was hugging her close to him.

"Mine, are you good to continue?"

She nodded against his chest. "For weeks, Aunt Marie was devastated. First few days, she had to take care of herself in her little house as she recovered from the death of her child and then she had to deal with the loss of her one true love. She knew that the next day was his wedding. She tried to mend her broken heart in isolation for three weeks before she had finally decided to leave the country and find her heart somewhere else. But as she was preparing for her trip to leave, she went to the school where she and Pen-Chan met. It was only then that she found out that he had died the same night they lost their unborn child." She heard Draco gasp.

"He was involved in a horrific car accident. The villagers had no idea where Pen-Chan had come from–although she knew it was from her house–when he crossed the road and a car that had lost its brakes had crashed into him, leaving him and the driver dead. She had no idea of the accident since she was in isolation for weeks. No one had told her because no one knew they were even friends." Hermione sighed.

"Aunt Marie flew to Madrid that same day. She said that it was the only itinerary that was available the very moment she decided she wanted to leave. She mourned for so long in Spain, feeling as though the time she had with Pen-Chan was almost non-existent because no one had known about their affair. No one had told her he died, no one knew she was once pregnant with their child, no one knew their love was like fire. She had nothing to hold on to but the memories of their love. But sometimes she felt crazy because he was taken from her so suddenly, that it felt as if maybe it never happened."

As Hermione stared at the fire, she noticed it was beginning to die down. Draco glanced at the clock. An hour had passed.

"The only reason I know of this entire story is that mum had brought me to visit her in Madrid once before fourth year. She had been visiting Aunt Marie on her own a few times while I was here in school. Aunt Marie had settled there, created a new life for herself as a teacher, but she never looked for love again." She looked at Draco. "She said she had come to peace with the loss of her family that never was, and she gave them life by honoring the memories she and Pen-Chan shared."

"Does your mother know about this story?"

Hermione shook her head slowly. "I think she knows bits and pieces. Aunt Marie only ever told the whole thing to me, I think. But she also told some of it to my mum, to my grandmother on her deathbed. They knew she had lost a child, especially. She told me she was tired of keeping secrets."

Draco nodded in understanding. Hermione looked at the clock. "Oh, heavens! It's almost midnight." They both stood up and gathered all their things. Silently, they brought their respective items to their rooms and got ready for bed. Hermione had just put on her pajamas when Draco entered her room in only pajama bottoms.

"I was thinking we could sleep here tonight instead of mine?" He said.

She nodded and climbed into bed, Draco following after her. He turned off the only light that was left on in her room and immediately hugged her from behind, and she snuggled herself deeper into Draco's body. In the stillness of the dark room and into the night, Draco spoke.

"Thank you for telling me about your remarkable Aunt Marie, Mine."

Hermione was holding his hands in hers, letting him know that she was still awake. "I know you let me talk about her as a way of dealing with my feelings. Thank you for being so supportive." She held onto Draco's hand tight. "I do hope she doesn't have to go through too much pain before the inevitable."

"Maybe you could visit her after we graduate," Draco paused. "If it's alright, I'd love to go with you and meet her."

If it was any possible, Hermione moved even closer into her boyfriend's body. "There's nothing more I'd want, Draco."

The clock said 4 o'clock in the morning. She had woken up an hour before and could not stop thinking about Aunt Marie and the stories she had told Hermione about Pen-Chan. It seemed unfair. Aunt Marie was a good woman, her only great sin might be her inability to stop herself from falling into an affair with a man who was to be wed with another. She didn't deserve to have cancer, she didn't deserve to have her days numbered.

She looked over at Draco. Naturally and unconsciously, they had separated in their sleep. She was now lying on one side of the bed and Draco on the other. Hermione stared at him, sleeping softly with his arm reaching out to her. She thought about how Aunt Marie described her love for Pen-Chan, "Talking to him feels like the world finally made sense. Like the moon and the stars that shined brightly above us, were for us, at that very moment."

The day she and Draco had found each other after being discharged from St. Mungo's, they had agreed to check in at a Muggle hotel. The Wizarding World was still in disarray at the time and they had wanted to talk in private. Draco was supposed to stay in the room for a few days while she planned to go home to where her parents were waiting for her arrival. In the room is where they mourned the war and rejoiced in finally finding each other after. They had dinner on the hotel's rooftop restaurant and looking at it now, the way Aunt Marie spoke of Pen-Chan, feels incredibly like the way Hermione felt with Draco that night. When they went back to Draco's room, the tension was palpable. Hermione kissed him, for the very first time, and not long they ended up making love in bed.

Needless to say, Hermione's parents didn't see her 'til the next afternoon.

Their romantic relationship seemed like it was fast, but it was built up by almost a year of confiding in one another, finding solace in each letter they could ever write to one another while they were separated at war. She knew neither of them would have ever replaced their time together for anything else in the world. If anything, Draco would sometimes joke it should have happened sooner. But no, she would tell him it all happened just in the Universe's most perfect timing.

But then, there was one problem.

With the Wizarding World slowly rebuilding itself, there were hearings after hearings for people involved in the war. She herself and her friends have testified for a few people… Even Draco himself. Draco's hearing didn't take long. He was brought in to be questioned with his participation in the war, in both dark and light sides. With enough testimonies from Hermione, Professor McGonagall, and even Harry Potter himself, he was set free. Lucius Malfoy, on the other hand, still has ongoing proceedings. Draco told Hermione that he had already accepted his father's fate in Azkaban and that even Lucius seemed like he already knew what was ahead of him.

The prejudice in their world seemed to dissipate almost quickly, but for others, not quick enough. If not about prejudice, some wizards and witches held grudges against each other for their differences before the war.

For this very reason, no one, apart from Hermione's family, knew of her relationship with Draco Malfoy.

They started it in secret, but for obvious reasons in the war. After the war, they had agreed to let the hype die down, and maybe start off the school year with them telling their friends about it. When she and Draco received their letters about being Head Boy and Girl, they decided to keep it to themselves as they looked forward to sharing dorms together. They said they would wait 'til most likely the middle of the year so they could finally come out to their friends. But alas, it has been months since then and with everything they've been doing as Heads and as 7th year students, they have failed with their mission.

Until just a month ago, when Hermione brought it up again.

"Draco? Maybe it's time we told our friends." She said as they turned to a corner of the castle. They had just finished with their rounds and were heading back to their dorms.

At the question, Draco whipped his head to look at her. "Why so suddenly?"

She snorted. "Suddenly? Draco, we've been together for almost a year."

Draco looked left and right, making sure no one heard her. Fortunately, they were already at their dorms. He looked at the portrait and said, "Gaudete." Rejoice, in Latin. McGonagall chose it to remind them to find joy in life they were given a chance to live after the war.

Hermione eyed him warily, with how cautious he looked because of what she said. Failing to ignore the small pang she felt in her chest, she asked him, "Draco Malfoy, are you ashamed of me?"

Draco turned around suddenly, looked at her and she could see his face turn almost dark. He walked back to her, his eyes looking straight to her brown ones. "Don't you EVER ask me that again, Granger. Don't you EVER ask. that. again." He walked away before she could answer and sat down on one of the seats in the common room. She stood in front of him.

"Well, I'm sorry! But when a man looks right and left after I've called him my boyfriend, it kind of feels like–"

"Don't you get it, woman?! It's the other way around! You should be ashamed of me!" Draco shouted.

She looked at him dumbfounded. She plomped herself on the coffee table so that they could look at each other eye to eye. She took his hand and asked, "Draco, I don't understand. Where is this coming from? How could I ever be ashamed of you?"

Draco scoffed, took his hand, and landed his face in both. Hermione was worried. The last time she saw him this way was when they were in the muggle hotel room. "Draco?" she said softly.

He looked up at her again. "You are the Gryffindor Princess, I am the Slytherin Prince. You stood on the right side of Harry Potter, while my father stood on Voldemort's left. I was brought in for questioning, while you testified. I called you the foulest names in our world, you worked the last six years saving the people who were called the same. Everyone loves you, Granger. Meanwhile, they see me, figure out who I am, and they immediately walk the other way." Draco held her hands tightly. "Every single day, Hermione, I wait for you to realize all of this. I wait for you to figure out that I am no good for you. That night when you found me, my prejudice went out the window, and it was the first time I felt shame. I didn't deserve you then, I don't deserve you now."

He suddenly stood up and walked in front of the fire as Hermione watched him. He leaned on the fireplace with one hand. "I know we've talked about coming out to our friends in the past, but every time I was comforted by the thought that you wanted to push it back as I did. But I was pushing it back because I dreaded losing you. I was afraid that when you told your friends about us, when I told my friends about us, they would most likely talk you out of it. They would make you realize that this is not meant to happen for us."

Hermione couldn't believe everything that was coming out of his mouth. She had no idea he felt this way.

"That night in the hotel room, I didn't sleep. I couldn't. I kept watching you, waiting for you to wake up, realize where you were and who you were with. I kept waiting for you to regret everything that happened. Sometimes I still do." He laughed to himself darkly. "My mind was in a constant state of panic. At one point, I even had the idea that maybe you'd wake up, see me, and run to the Ministry to tell them I had used the Imperio on you."

He poked at the fire. "Even when we were apart, I kept waiting for the day that you would stop replying to my letters. Don't tell anybody, Granger, but every time I saw that you had sent me a new one, I held it to myself before opening it if only to cherish feeling you through the parchment. When I read your letters and it never told me that you no longer wanted to speak to me, I would be relieved. I just could not believe you were so willing to even speak to me after all the horrible things I did to you."

He had stepped back from the fire but still faced it. He wouldn't look at her. Hermione was speechless, finding this all hard to believe. "Granger… I…" He sighed and bowed his head. "Hermione, to me… This is—this is borrowed time for me. I know that even when this is over, I will always be yours. I don't think I will ever be able to love anyone else the way I love you. But you… There will always be someone better than me, better for you. So for as long as I can, I will hold on to you. For whatever time I have, I want to pretend that you are mine. For as long as you'll have me."

Draco finally looked at her. "If we tell our friends, once the world knows about us, I know that this will end. I know that you will finally be told the truth about us and that you will wake up and leave me. So please, Hermione. This is my request. Please, let's keep this for now, and when the time comes, we will tell them."

She just looked back at him. When she said nothing, he stepped back. "I'm sorry." Then he sped to his room, leaving her in the common room alone.

After that, Hermione and Draco had given each other some time apart. On the third night of their separation, Hermione had woken up in her own bed with a weird feeling, like something was wrong. She made her way to the Head Boy's room and found Draco thrashing on the bed, deep into a nightmare. She knew he had them sometimes, most of them memories of the war. She had some of them too, but not as bad as his. Without a second thought, she shook him and comforted him, telling him it was a dream. He woke up and as soon as he realized that Hermione was in his bed with him, he kissed her and they made love.

Their conversation three days ago was never spoken of again and remained in the back of their minds.

Now a month later, she couldn't help but want to bring it back up. There was a month left of school. She had no idea how her friends would react, given everything that was changing in their world. But remembering her Aunt's story, she didn't want to live in regret as she did. She didn't want to stay in hiding anymore. She loved Draco and she knew he loved her. She couldn't see reason as to why he thought that would stop her from shouting it to the world.

Aunt Marie never left her mind. The more Hermione thought of her and the more she looked at Draco, her sadness grew. Eventually, she felt tears landing on her pillow. When she started to sniffle, Draco's eyes slowly opened. She tried to wipe her tears, but it was too late. He had seen them. "Mine? What's wrong?" He sat up and turned on the lamp beside him. He was surprised when he saw it was half-past 4 in the morning.

When Hermione didn't respond, he laid back down and held her close to him. "Mine, you're scaring me. Please tell me what's wrong."

"Draco…" she hiccuped.

"Yes?" he asked as he tried to wipe as much as he could of her tears.

"Draco, I'm sorry…"

"Love, what is it? Whatever could you be apologizing for?"

When she finally calmed down her hiccups, she sat up on the bed and he followed. "Draco, I'm sorry… I can no longer keep this to ourselves anymore. With everything that's happening to my aunt, the more I think about her lost love… Draco, I don't want us to keep hiding and regret doing so later. I want to tell my friends that I love you."

He dreaded this. The more she told the story last night, the more he knew she would bring this up again. How could she not understand where he was coming from? With his father still on trial, his mother hiding out in France in denial… "Hermione, how can you not understand that you are the only good thing in my life right now? If we tell them–"

She stood up suddenly from the bed and raised her voice. "Draco, how could you not understand that you are the most amazing part of my life? You have been for more than a year. Even when we didn't know it then, we were in love. We both kept us afloat in a war, for crying out loud!"

He was about to speak when she cut him off again. "No! This time, I get to speak. It's time I get to tell you how I feel. I am not going to invalidate your feelings, Draco. I may not understand them fully, because I am not you. But every day and night since then, I have tried my best." She started pacing the bedroom. He stayed on the bed, silent. He was giving her the time to speak.

"Draco, do you know how I felt after you said all of those words to me? Do you know how frustrated I was, how speechless I was, how useless I felt when you said them to me?" She stopped and looked at his blank stare. "I could not believe that the man I have been madly in love with felt that way about me, about us. I felt so useless, feeling like I failed as your partner for not knowing how you felt."

"But I didn't tell you 'til then."

"Exactly! How could I have known, Draco? If not for you telling me that night? I was speechless, to say the least. Then you went running off to your room and left me alone! You didn't even talk to me the next morning, which is why I decided that maybe it was best to stay apart for a while." She felt like she wanted to pull on her hair. "Which frustrated me even further, because Merlin, Draco Malfoy. I love you, you stupid twit! Have a little faith in me, will you?!"

He couldn't help it anymore. He stood up and pulled her to him. He hugged her tight with his head on hers. He could almost feel like the frustration was radiating out of her. She continued to speak with her head on his chest. "Have faith in me, Malfoy. Please. Have faith in me that even if Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini all gang up together and try to pull us apart… Have faith that I will stand by you, by us. I will stand up for us." She pulled back and took his face into her hands. "As long as you will have me, love, please stand with me, for us."

Draco had a pensive look on his face.

"Draco, you have to trust us together. I know you said that you will forever be mine. But Draco, you just don't know that." He tried to cut her off. "No, Draco… We don't know what tomorrow will bring. My aunt's own story can tell us that. She thought she had only lost him as he married someone else. Deep inside, she felt that maybe she still had a chance even if she had upset him. But the moment she found out that he had died, she had nothing more to hold onto." She placed her hands on his chest. "We have nothing to rely on when it comes to tomorrow, Draco. For all we know, you could be the one leaving me in the end and I would be alone while you have your own life. But if we worked on this together, if our faith in our relationship was as strong as our love for each other, then maybe tomorrow could give us a chance."

He kissed her. Hard, passionately, full of love. She welcomed the kiss. As he started to pull up her top, she paused and stared up at him again. "I'm not going to rush you, Malfoy. Again, I don't fully understand where you're coming from, but I will give you space. Please, at least think about it from my perspective. Understand that: I. love. you."

"I love you, Granger." He replied before they spent the rest of the early morning, tangled in her sheets.