JANUARY

Hermione had to defrost the rope before she sat on the tyre swing in the front paddock.

Despite how overcast it was, she could still see the tip of Hogwarts' astronomy tower in the distant skyline. McGonagall had told them recently that elves were hired to clean up the school a week after the battle, therefore she was at peace knowing that Ron's body wasn't lying on that cold concrete anymore.

Now he was simply buried in the ground somewhere they may never know the location of.

The horses in the next paddock were harassing the herd of sheep. They were making a commotion with their neighing and chased the other animals around for fun. Hermione giggled to herself as she watched it play out. There was still so much good in the world if you looked close enough.

Crunching snow came from behind. She turned around on the swing to see Cho approaching. She had on ear muffs and what looked to be three layers of coats.

"Sorry if I'm disturbing you," she said when she reached the tyre. "I just needed to get away from the house for a moment."

"Ophelia?"

"Not this time. The twins have somehow turned the laundry into a bug infestation and Andromeda's lost her head."

Hermione grimaced. "That'll take a while to undo. Maybe we should stay out here until everyone cools off, or worse, we get asked to help fix it."

"My thoughts exactly. I just washed my hair this morning, I don't want insects anywhere near my head."

A rolling sound of yelling came from the house. Fred and George ran to the stables to hide from whatever was coming their way. Their proud faces gleaming as they fled.

Andromeda soon far behind, her wand pointed for punishment.

Days like this reminded Hermione of when Umbridge was in charge at school. While everyone else was gloomy, the twins always knew how to make the best of a bad situation.

Her and Cho took turns swinging on the tyre until it got so cold they couldn't feel their noses. Cho said this next year she wanted to do something so brave that it would be the story that her grandkids brag about someday. Hermione said she wanted to end the war with her best friend at her side.

Nevertheless, they both agreed that they're greatest desire for this new year was to get off this farm and never have to clean up after a horse ever again.

It was lunch time when they walked back to the house and Ophelia had made fresh bread for deviled egg sandwiches. The tiny bite that Hermione had was mouth watering. She cursed the brunette beauty for setting the bar too high for the rest of the witches in the world.

"My head still bloody well hurts," Dean groaned with his face down on the wood of the table.

George clapped him on the back. "You'll get used to it, kid."

"Yeah," Fred mimicked his brother, "You'll be a big boy too one day."

"Hey, lay off him." Harry snickered, "Dean can't help that he's a lightweight."

Dean raised his head purely to punch Harry in the arm, and then went back to his overly dramatic hangover complaints.

When everyone had finished their food, and Hermione had substantially ripped her bread into pieces, Malfoy took the empty plates to the sink.

When she woke this morning, she found his ankles had ended up crossed with hers in the middle of the night. With their backs still facing, there were minutes filled with contemplation over whether or not she should extract herself or not. He had done them both a favour by rolling over in his sleep and detangling their feet.

Hermione had slipped out for a shower first and when she came back, he was gone.

They reunited in the kitchen half an hour later with everyone else half alive, trying to remember what happened the night before. Cho also threw up her breakfast.

Midway through Malfoy doing the dishes by hand, Teddy started screaming so loudly his face turned red. Andromeda slipped him out of the high chair and tried to calm him down, but the screams were piercing and unending.

"What happened?" Malfoy asked, dropping the damp cloth in his hand. "Is he hurt?"

Andromeda checked the baby's face. "He might be teething again."

"That doesn't sound like his usual cry."

Ophelia stood from her seat and tried to take the baby out of Andromeda's arms but Teddy screamed even louder. He buried his head in his grandmother's shoulder trying to get as far away from her as possible. Ophelia flushed and sat back down.

Teddy reached for his cousin, so strongly that he nearly fell out of Andromeda's grip. Malfoy caught him in time to pull him free and set him on his hip. The cries continued.

"Andromeda, could you freeze something for him to chew on?" Malfoy turned to the table. "Granger, help me upstairs."

Hermione jarred. He left the kitchen without an expectation for her to follow.

Everyone else looked at her with worry, to which she shrugged off their concern having no clue why she was being involved. However, she did notice that Malfoy had asked his aunt to help, but commanded her.

Standing from her seat, she assumed Malfoy went to the baby's room but found him in the bathroom instead. He was running the bath.

"Is he overheating?" She asked upon approach.

Malfoy handed her Teddy to hold him under his armpits, zipped down his onesie and removed his nappy. "He's sweating. He needs to cool down."

"Alright, make sure you don't fill the bath too high. He only needs enough for his legs."

He nodded and turned the taps off. Hermione tested the temperature of the water first and then placed the crying baby in the tub. Teddy wormed around, uncomfortable with the heat of his body. He was definitely coming down with an illness.

"Have you got him?" Malfoy came off sitting on the edge and knelt beside her. Hermione let him take over and splashed small amounts of water over Teddy's little limbs.

Andromeda came into the bathroom and handed over a frozen strawberry. "That's all I could find. I know he doesn't like them, but it will have to do."

"Thank you."

Hermione took the fruit and offered it to the baby. His cries had settled to hiccups, but he took the strawberry and threw it into the tub, refusing to accept it.

This made all three of them laugh. "The absolute cheek of it," Malfoy rumbled.

"We think he might have overheated, or is coming down with something anyway." Hermione said. "Do we have any medicine that could help?"

Andromeda thought for a moment. "I have small amounts that he could take. Do you two mind cooling him off while I get it all sorted? He might need a lie down once you're finished."

"Absolutely. We'll be fine."

With a nod and a look of gratefulness, Andromeda left.

Malfoy continued to hold Teddy upright while Hermione washed him down with a small cloth.

"How did you know to put him in the tub so quickly?"

"My mother used to make the elves do it whenever I was unwell."

"She didn't want to do it herself?"

"Are you really that surprised?"

Their elbows crossed over when she rinsed Teddy's stomach. Everyday Malfoy managed to say something that would chip away at her glass heart. He was breaking her, bit by bit with the story that made up his life so far.

"I'm sorry," she spoke softly.

He rubbed his chin with his shoulder. "You apologise too much for other people."

"I cannot help it, I'm afraid. It is one of my less charming traits."

"I wouldn't call it less charming. Narcissa Malfoy does not deserve an apology for her lack of a motherly nature from a witch with a heart double hers in size."

Hermione smiled to herself. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Deliver words as if they aren't some of the kindest things you have ever said to me. I am pretty sure you didn't even blink."

He looked at her from the side. Straight faced. "It is one of my many charming traits."

Hermione splashed him with enough water to dampen his scrunched up sleeves. Teddy laughed snottily at his cousin's punishment and copied the action by trying to splash him as well. Malfoy let it ride out, not caring at all for the droplets hitting his face.

"You're a bad influence, Granger. You know that right?" He said with his eyes clenched shut.

"Believe it or not, I've heard that before."

They let Teddy play in the water some more until his forehead was no longer burning. Hermione wrapped him in a fluffy towel and gave him to Malfoy who gave him a new diaper and a new onesie. Andromeda let him have two teaspoons of medicine before they tried to place him back in his crib.

He refused. He whimpered until he was in Hermione's arms wrapped in a blanket with a fist scrunching up her shirt.

Hermione sat in the rocking chair and gently rocked him to sleep until he nodded off. He looked so peaceful she didn't want to move in case it woke him. Andromeda left but Malfoy stayed with her.

He was standing over his aunt's bed, which had a standing frame, and had his arms above his head, hanging from it. It made his sweater lift up the perfect amount for her to see an inch of pale skin that she'd gotten familiar with last night.

"You are very good with him," she said, referring to Teddy. "I did not expect you to be patient enough to enjoy the company of children."

"An infant is different from a child. Come back to me when he starts talking."

"He already knows the word no. Learned that one from Harry, actually."

"Yes, he finds it funny when I tell him to stop throwing his morning eggs in my hair and he refuses."

She grinned. "God forbid you have a bad hair day, Malfoy."

He swung his arms off the bed frame and rolled his eyes. "Unlike you, Hermione, I don't take pride in not having brushed my hair each day.

Even though he said it sarcastically, she wanted to bathe in the way her name came from his mouth. He made it sound soulful.

"After all these years of you relentlessly teasing me for the state of my hair, anyone might be led to believe you secretly adore it."

He leant against the wall and folded his arms. A playful upturn to his lips.

"Whatever gets you through the day, Granger."

She already hated his return of her surname.

Teddy sneezed in his sleep, reminding Hermione that she was holding him. She smiled down at the baby, wishing he would do it again so she could hear that world's sweetest sound once more. He nuzzled up further into his blanket and sighed.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Malfoy asked, "Now that Potter's going to walk again."

"If the Order doesn't make a plan soon enough, he and I will most likely go out and find Nagini. After that…"

She couldn't quite finish the sentence. The words were there, waiting to be said out loud, but speaking out into the universe meant that it would have to come into fruition.

Malfoy was reading her. He never had an issue being able to see straight through her, no matter how hard she tried to disguise herself.

"Does he know?" He asked.

It shouldn't have surprised her that he caught on so quickly. Behind his bratty exterior, Malfoy was almost always within the top students of his classes. He just didn't care to use his intelligence for good.

Not yet, anyway.

"I think he is willing to lay down his life," she answered.

"But he doesn't know that he has to."

Hermione shamefully shook her head. "When the moment is right, he will know what needs to be done."

"He has a connection to him, doesn't he? You-Know-Who. That's why he has that scar."

She noted his change of name for Voldemort. He was no longer The Dark Lord. "If Harry truly is a horcrux, then, yes. A part of his soul was transferred into Harry when his parents were killed. In order for You-Know-Who to die-"

"Potter does too."

"For the most part. Deep down I'm hoping that when the time comes, only the soul is destroyed."

"And if it isn't?"

Taking a deep breath, she looked down at the baby boy in her arms. "Then life will move on. It will be worse, but it will also be better, in their own ways. It won't be for nothing, and even if I may never heal from any of this, I'll know it was for the greater good."

She looked back up to Malfoy and he was staring at her in a way that Hermione couldn't quite translate. The baby stirred and she repositioned him to lay with his head on her other arm.

"You were right to send your parents to Australia." He said suddenly, and out of context. "No matter what happens to them over there, it's better than what would have happened to them here. That was for the greater good."

This was him telling her that Voldemort had tried to find her family. It was what she had suspected, but she was always that little bit ignorant enough to think it wouldn't be true.

"Do I want to know what was planned for them?" She asked.

"No."

"Will you tell me anyway?"

"No."

He said it with such certainty that Hermione knew not to push him any further. Whatever her parent's destiny could have been, was no longer their fate.

One day she would use this testimony to persuade them into forgiving her for her traspasses against them, she was sure of it.

"If there is another battle, will you fight? With the Order?"

Malfoy pushed off from the wall and then leant back on it again, crossing his legs and looking down at the ground. "I don't have magic."

"Oh," her mouth made the shape of her word. "Right. But if it comes back?"

"It might not come back."

"But if it does."

He must have seen the longing written across her face. She wanted him to say yes. She needed him to say yes.

"If I have my magic, I will fight."

Hermione perked up, "Even if it is against your parents?"

"Even if it is against my parents."

"Malfoy, don't make promises you can't-"

"I said I was going to fight, Granger. I'm not saying anything to please you, I mean every word that comes out of my mouth. At all times."

The glaze of darkness that glossed over his eyes restated his seriousness.

"I'm not a fence sitter," he continued. "I chose my side a long time ago, and I refuse to be a coward this time around."

She had told him he was a fence sitter months ago when they first bumped into each other. Turns out her reckless words had power behind them, and had stuck with him more so than she thought they would. It was a cheap shot, but it worked.

"Could you come here?" Hermione gestured to the spot next to her. He came closer. "Bend down." He crouched to sit on his ankles.

With the baby still in her arms, she kissed his cheek. Right where the curse tore his skin. Her lips lingered until he carefully pulled away.

"You haven't been a coward for a long time."

Their faces were close enough that if she accidentally fell forward, they'd break a boundary she wasn't sure he wanted to cross. To honour that, she retracted and sat back into the rocking chair, leaving him to balance on his own accord.

"You're not allowed to try to fix me with a child between us," he said.

"I'm not allowed?" She bypassed the 'fix' him part.

"You're not allowed."

"Why?"

He placed his hands on either side of the chair arms and ducked his head to suck on the most ticklish area of her neck, below her ear. She shivered at the pressure.

"Because it's inappropriate to want to taste you when he's here," he mumbled to her.

Hermione questioned whether her jeans had always felt as tight as they do now.

In a spur of confidence she didn't have control of, she said, "That must mean I've been awfully inappropriate ever since you first held Teddy that night."

Malfoy rested his forehead against her shoulder and growled. She liked having this kind of power over him, it made her feel like she could conquer the world.

He stood to stand straight, "I'm leaving. I'm not scarring this child today."

"Today?"

"Shut up, Granger."

That tether tied between them tugged so much it hurt when he left the room. They were frolocking on dangerous grounds. Hermione was terrified of the secret feelings that were harbouring within her.

It was alarming how much she hated to see him go.

She sat in the rocking chair for the remainder of the afternoon. Andromeda came back to check up on them before dinner and gently woke Teddy up to see if he was up for some supper. He woke groggy but had less of a temperature and seemed to be hungry.

Harry was making shepherd's pie when she came into the kitchen. His chair was to the side and he was standing wobbly at the dining table trying to peel potatoes.

"Hey," Hermione said, "Do you need any help?"

"Yeah maybe, actually."

He practically collapsed back into his chair when she took the blade from him. He looked exhausted.

"Andromeda said that the curse has eaten at my bones so I have to take a little bit of Skele-Gro everyday until they're grown back."

"That's good, isn't it?"

"I mean yeah, but I was hoping that once the curse was gone I'd be able to walk like nothing happened. Now we have to wait even more."

She was precise with every potato that she shaved. "Harry, don't make me remind you again of how this is going to take as long as it is going to take."

"I know, I know. If we're going to win, we're going to win well."

"Exactly. Your legs will need time, and right now it seems like we still have a little bit of it. We have to be grateful that we've gotten this far."

"Don't think, I'm not grateful, Hermione. I'm just frustrated at how long this has been drawn out."

"We will get there. You and me. We'll do it."

Harry agreed and rolled around the rest of the kitchen preparing the pie. He tended to use magic more than the rest of them did, it saved him from bumping into cabinets and chairs trying to do two things at once.

"So are you going to tell me why Malfoy needed your help with Teddy at lunch today?" He asked, with an undeniable amount of curiosity.

"He needed help putting him in the bath."

"And his aunt couldn't have done that?"

Being honest to herself, Hermione wasn't sure why Malfoy had asked to join him. The only logical reason she could think of was that he was paranoid that his hands might shake and he'd drop the baby in the water.

"I'm not sure, Harry. Perhaps he was flustered and thought I would know what to do."

He eyed her suspiciously, and then seemed to believe her lie. "You'll tell me if something is going on between you two, won't you?"

She nervously laughed and cursed her inability to lie well. "If there is something to share, I will tell you. However, there isn't."

"Really? Because you told me not to worry about Theo, and look where-"

"Malfoy's noth-Malfoy is not like Theo. He might be distant and robotic half the time, but if you see him in the right way, he is much kinder than he used to be. We know the old Malfoy, and even you can't tell me he isn't like how he was at school."

"Yes, but why should I believe that he's changed for good?"

"We've all changed for good. Neither you or I have been lucky enough to be undamaged from this war. He's lost everything, and so have I. Can you blame us for kindling a friendship because of that?"

Harry mixed his meat and vegetables together without looking at her. "If he hurts you, Hermione-"

"He won't. Or maybe he will, but it won't be on purpose. Let him find a place here without being questioned about his intentions, okay?"

"Okay, fine. Alright. I get it."

She gave a curt nod and started to set the table. "Good. Now did you remember that Dean is allergic to peas?"

"Shit!"

One pea-less pie later, everyone was sitting at the table rubbing their bellies from how full they were. Hermione had eaten three spoonfuls, and then left the rest for later. Harry had done a very good job despite the top layer being a bit too crisp.

Andromeda had taken Teddy to bed early and said that she would have her serving of dinner in her room. Since she was gone, the dinner discussions were getting rather sad for the first day of the new year.

"Ophelia, how did you come to join the Order?" Cho asked across the table.

"I joined the day of the battle when my parents did. They're in another safe house with your brother, Fred and George."

"Which one?" The twins said in unison.

"Percy, I believe. I received a letter from them last time Professor McGonagall was here, they said that he wears ministry robes everyday and refuses to wear mismatched socks. That's quite silly, don't you think?"

"Very silly indeed," George said. "That's our Perc, though! The comedian of the family, he is."

"Yeah, can never get a word in with that guy. He's always making us laugh too hard." Fred added on.

"Where are your parents, Dean?" Harry asked.

"They're still in Surrey. At least I think they are. My step-father also has property out near Bredon Hill, so they could be there too. Last I saw them was before I went on the run, and told 'em not to go looking for me. Was a hard row that one, but after everything that happened with my real dad, they understood."

"What happened to your real dad?" Ophelia asked, placing a hand over Dean's. Her delicate fingers rubbed circles over his skin.

Hermione almost scoffed out loud.

"He was murdered by Death Eaters after refusing the join. Mum never knew he was a wizard, and I grew up thinking I was a muggle-born."

"That's awful, I am so sorry. Your mother would be very proud to know how hard you've been fighting in his honour."

"Thank you," Dean held her hand before turning to the end of the table. "What about you, Hermione? Where are your parents?"

Underneath, Malfoy nudged her leg. He wasn't looking at her but did it to let her know he was there.

"They-uh-they're in Australia." She cleared her throat to sound less waverd. "I asked them to stay there until it was safe to come home."

"That's a big ask," Cho said.

"Yes," Ophelia chimed in. "How on earth did you manage to persuade them to leave you here?"

Harry was subtly shaking his head, reminding her that she did not have to share anything that she did not want to. This time, Malfoy nudged her leg and kept the touch lasting.

"They understand that the magical world is too dangerous for them right now, and that I would always be taken care of by my friends."

She looked at Malfoy from the side, and watched him play with his fork as if he didn't care about any of the topics being talked about.

"Well, I am sure that they will get to come home soon." Cho said, optimistically.

Everyone's eyes were on her. The pity in each colour wanted to make her vomit.

"Yeah, I hope so too."

"Right everyone!" Fred clapped, "Forget dishes and board games tonight. We're havin' a campfire. Get your sorrowful arses up and out of here now."

"A campfire? It's below freezing point out there!" Hermione protested.

"Well aren't you lucky that you have a wand that can help you with that?" said George.

Knowing this wasn't an argument that she was going to win, and also not wanting to be the bore of the group, Hermione reluctantly surrendered to the idea. Dean wheeled Harry outside and the rest of the group followed.

The snow was agonisingly cold. Hermione immediately casted a warming charm on herself before they even reached the tyre swing. It didn't help very much so she prayed that the twins knew how to make a good fire pit.

Turns out they did.

During the day they must have collected a bunch of wood logs and tossed them into a pile in the back paddock. Their wands knew how to create a powerful enough flame like they had been doing it every second day since they were born. The fire was as big as a car.

Everyone gathered around and took seats on pieces of wood. It gave an awfully familiar ambiance to a camp she'd been on in primary school where they sang, "Jesus Loves Me", seven times over.

She was sitting in between Cho and Harry. Ophelia voluntarily planted herself next to Malfoy, who was shivering, if only for himself to notice. Hermione silently warmed him up from two seats down, to which he thanked her wordlessly.

"Okay you lot," Dean yelled. "Dessert is served."

With a click of his fingers, a bowl of marshmallows and broken pieces of chocolate appeared in every person's lap. Nice to know he was still putting that old elf magic trick to good use. This must have been what it was like when Malfoy was living in the attic.

"Woah! Brilliant trick!" Harry exclaimed. "How'd you do that?"

Dean tapped his nose and winked.

Looking down at the sweets, Hermione wanted nothing more than to stuff the entire thing in her mouth. Then Cho's as well, knowing that she wouldn't be full after one serving. She saw everyone else around the fire start to either roast their marshmallows by the end of their wands or devour the chocolate quite aggressively. Except Ophelia, she was picking at it like a mouse.

Taking one block of chocolate, she looked up to see if anyone was watching. Only Malfoy, who was licking sticky sugar off his forefinger. He gave her a go-ahead, to which she bravely puffed her chest and ate the whole sweet.

Funny how the most fearless thing she used to do was fight trolls and Death Eaters, and now? Now it was eating in front of housemates.

She didn't make it to the marshmallows before a strange sensation of shame washed over her.

Baby steps, she told herself. She needed to learn how to crawl before she could learn how to run again.

"Let's play Truth or Dare!" Cho sang.

"Absolutely not," Dean whined. "No more dares. I'm still trying to recover from last night."

"Okay, what about Two Truths and One Lie?"

"Where are you learning all these muggle games from?" Hermione asked, laughing at her friend's enthusiasm.

"Dean and Harry taught us. If you actually came to game nights you would know this."

She lifted her hands in surrender. "Okay, I get it. I'm here now, aren't I?"

"Good. Are we all for Two Truths, One Lie?"

Heads nodded around the circle. Fred went first.

"I'll start us off. One, I once broke into Pomfrey's dormitory and caught her in her knickers. Two, I convinced Ginny that she was a boy until she was five, and three, at the Yule Ball I stuck a stink bomb under Snapes robes."

George obviously couldn't participate in the voting for this round, however everyone collectively agreed that the lie was that he'd caught Pomfrey in her knickers.

"Well, you got me," Fred shrugged. "It was actually Professor Trelawney. Right set of nanna knickers she has."

"Ew!" They all said.

"Harry's turn next."

"Aright," Harry pretended to think, but obviously already knew what he was going to say. "One, my grandfather invented Sleakeazy's Hair Potion, two I have a hippogriff tattoo somewhere the sun doesn't shine, and three, I own one of the Deathly Hallows."

"Okay, well it's clearly the Deathly Hallows, they aren't even real," said Ophelia.

"There's no way you have a tattoo on your arse," George argued.

In the end they settled that Harry did not own one of the Deathly Hallows. Hermione kept her mouth shut and didn't say a peep to indicate otherwise. Harry lied saying that they were right, and denied a showing party of this supposed tattoo he had.

They went around the circle and landed on Malfoy. He seemed pissed off that he was being included in the game, but participated anyway.

"One, up until I was ten I wanted to be sorted in Ravenclaw. Two, I'm ambidextrous. Three, I've met the muggle Queen."

Dean let out a single "Hah!"

"As if you've ever met the queen," Harry grumbled. "What the fuck for?"

"That's what got you, Potter? Not the Ravenclaw bit?"

"Knowing you, they're all lies, Malfoy."

The two wizards scowled at one another until Cho said, "I know for a fact that he is ambidextrous. He wrote a note on the shopping list with his left hand once, but made tea with his right hand afterwards."

Harry had been correct in thinking that Malfoy was cheating. All three of his facts were true.

After everyone threw snow at him for being such a dick, he explained that he met the queen accidentally when he ran into the Minister for Magic's office as a child while his father was in a meeting. He didn't know who it was at the time, but the smack he got after told him it wasn't anyone his father respected.

The game fizzled along with the fire. Soon enough, after most people had gone to bed, the only things that remained were low ambers, Cho, Malfoy and Hermione.

"Do you really think that Harry has a hippogriff tattoo?" Cho asked with a yawn.

"Definitely not." Hermione replied. "I've seen him almost stark naked. There was no tattoo in sight. He was merely stirring you up."

"I knew it!"

Both witches laughed. Malfoy looked as if he was still processing her comment on seeing Harry nude.

He had moved only one seat up once Ophelia went to bed, and Hermione was disappointed when he left a full seat space between them. Now she was internally begging Cho to leave so that she could close the gap.

"Alright, well us girls should head back inside." Cho said, standing and dusting snow off her trousers.

Hermione shifted awkwardly, "I-uh-I actually might stay for a bit longer."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I am sure. You go to bed."

Cho flicked between looking at Malfoy and back to Hermione. She pursed her lips and seemed to pick up what was being put down. "Alright. I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Night."

"Goodnight." Malfoy's manners only kicking in now.

The remaining two sat in silence until they heard the back door of the farmhouse click shut. Hermione used a charm to bring life back into the fire while Malfoy moved to sit closer to her. He offered her his dessert bowl.

"You didn't finish your chocolate." She stated the obvious.

He poured her leftover sweets into his, "Do you not like marshmallows?" Ignoring her comment.

"I do. I could only eat so much in front of everyone."

"Well, you can finish them now," he pushed the bowel into her hands. "Plus more."

"You really don't have to do that-"

"Take the bowl, Granger. I know you're hungry. I ate too much pie anyway."

Orange and yellow shadows flickered across his face as he turned back to look into the fire. The warmer colours made him look softer than what he was. Hermione didn't think she would ever describe Draco Malfoy as gorgeous, but seeing him here, he was a gorgeous sight.

"Thank you," she whispered as she ate her dessert.

He sort of shoved her as a joke and threw a clump of snow into the fire. It turned blue then melted instantaneously.

With a final marshmallow still in her cheek, Hermione said, "Confession?"

"Mmm."

"I don't like being a damsel in distress. I'll repay you back for these times that you're rescuing me, one way or another."

Malfoy turned to straddle the log they were sitting on. "In the spirit of confession, I don't like being a hero. This whole saviour complex is far too egotistical for me."

"Too egotistical? Merlin, who are you and what have you done with the real Draco Malfoy?"

"Settle down." He smiled. "I know I'm not the most humble of wizards out there, however that's probably due to how I was raised rather than a Gryffindor mindset."

"Well, if we don't save the day, who will?"

"I guess we'll never know." His thumb brushed what must have been dust from the marshmallow from the corner of her lip. He licked it off himself, which naturally made her tint pink.

"As much as I will protest any repaying on your behalf, what did you have in mind?"

She dropped the bowl onto the ground and stood to place herself in his lap. It was less comfortable than when she had done it on the bed yesterday.

This is what most men want as a thank you, right? She thought.

Heart pounding in her chest. "Is this what you were wanting?"

Hands on her upper legs, he shook his head and moved her to sit more on his thighs than in his lap. "No."

"Oh."

Rejection was a new type of humiliation that Hermione hadn't known before. It stung far worse than any hex that had been invented, and she knew all of them.

"You don't have to earn this," he continued. "I want you to want this for yourself, not because you think it's what I want."

He traced the outside of her ear, and tucked a stray hair behind in the process. Hermione was right when she told Harry that Malfoy wasn't anything like Theo. In fact, he wasn't like any other man that she'd been intimate with before.

"I need you to make a confession," she said, on the brink of pleading. "You can read me as if I'm as easy as a children's book, and I can never read you."

"You can ask me whatever you want to hear, Granger."

"Am I still a Mudblood to you?"

He winced. The reaction alone made her heart sink. She started to extract herself from his lap but he pulled her back down.

"Don't go," he asked of her.

"You're not exactly giving me a reason to stay, Malfoy."

"That word was used as a weapon within my household, even throughout the Death Eaters. It was the cruellest slur that I knew as a child and I used it wrongly against you. That was my envy speaking, not my truest opinion."

She frowned. "What did I have that you would have been envious of?"

"I was born into the purest of magical families, and struggled to keep up with you at school. I even had an eleven year head start. You're a natural at everything you do, and I hated you for that."

"Please," she rolled her eyes. "I am not a natural. I am constantly trying, all of the time."

He appeared to want to touch her but stopped himself from doing so. Hermione squirmed on his legs, considering that perhaps he still found her repulsive.

"Are you ashamed of touching me?" She asked.

The fire had died slightly, so his striking eyes were back when they snapped up to meet hers. "Not even in the slightest."

"So why won't you?"

"Because I don't want to mend a strife by distracting you."

"Not because you think that I will make you dirty?"

He gave a breathy laugh. "The scars on my body and the dark magic in my skin make me dirty, not you. You," he ran a line down the bridge of her nose, "make me feel clean."

There was never any rush when Malfoy touched her. He did everything slowly, and Hermione was picking up that it was intentional. She was being given an out.

"Can I tell you a charming trait you have that you may add to your collection?" She asked.

"It's probably nothing I haven't heard before."

She poked his chest, "Don't be a prat." He threw his head back and laughed in a way that caused her brain to implode. "You don't make me feel trapped."

He looked down. "I haven't heard that one."

Even though he had told her that he didn't want to fix an argument with distractions, Hermione really wanted to kiss him right now. On the lips, until she couldn't breathe anymore. But he'd respected her so far, who was she to not do the same for him.

She ran her hands through his lengthy hair and left a small kiss on the wound along his face, then one under his jaw along the same line. Malfoy hummed. He cupped her bum and dragged their bodies closer together.

Coals were popping in the background while she sucked on his neck and he fed his fingers under the back of her shirt.

He lifted them up to lay her down onto the log, but he slipped on snow and they both came tumbling down to the ground. Their foreheads clunked together and Hermione saw stars immediately. She laughed and groaned as they fell apart on the floor.

"Are you alright?" He asked, sitting up to check her for injuries.

"Maybe you're not as graceful as I always thought you were," she teased, reaching to flop her hand on his bicep.

He smirked. "You're fine."

The ice was stinging her skin in the parts that were exposed, but she didn't want to move. Malfoy stood first, giving his help to pull her up and steadied her when she wobbled. They kept their hands interlocked for eight seconds before he pulled away to guide her back to the house.

It was at this moment that Hermione realised that Malfoy was the one in control of whatever it was between them. He started them, and he could end them just as quickly.

While they walked silently back to the house, Hermione also realised that she liked not being in charge for once.