The last two days at Hogwarts were a haze of congratulations and wishes for the future. She had one last session with Jenny who insisted she take one moment of Gryffindor bravery and kiss Malfoy, at least once. She had no idea how to initiate conversation with the man, let alone kiss him. Sex? That came easy. It was a given. But intimacy? That felt near impossible.

As always, she stumbled upon Malfoy waiting for his turn with Jenny. She offered no remark about his punctuality, no comments about how he was feeling, physically and magically, she just looked to him and offered him a smile, a genuine smile, knowing that after that night, things would never be the same, in one way or another.

The 8th years had planned, yet another celebration, something most of them seemed keen on. Hermione tried her hardest to socialise, to get involved, to seem like she wanted to be there, but the more she did, the more her body rejected it. She could think about nothing other than what was going to happen when they left. They hadn't made plans, hadn't even discussed how to meet. Hadn't spoken about opening her house to the floo, hadn't arranged anything.

Jenny had said not to worry, that that had a whole train ride the following day to figure it out but for Hermione, the closer it cale, the further away a solution felt.

As usual, she soon found herself on the outskirts of the party, looking in. Like she were a spectator in the lives of her friends and the only thing that mattered was whether she would see Malfoy or not.

It was an odd thing, thinking about Malfoy and the innate need to see him. To have him close by. It was the first time she had actually realised that she was thinking a out Malfoy as opposed to considering the need for them both to be well. Surely that meant something? Was she feeling something for him?

She turned and looked around the room, noticed that he was watching her. Concern etched upon his face.

She raised an eyebrow at him and he inclined his head towards their rooms. She shook hers slightly, indicating that it would be bad to leave the party, and quite obvious that they had done so together.

He looked around the room before he stood, took her by the hand and pulled her to his room anyway.

The last thing she heard before his door shut was a woof whistle.


"What was that Malfoy? They all saw us go in here together" she yelled.

"Does it look like a give a damn? I'm so sick of dancing around this issue. We're staying here till you decide what it is that you want, granger" he said sternly.

"What I want? How the hell am I supposed to know? I have no idea what my future holds Malfoy. Whether I'll get a job somewhere, do some training, travel... Either way, one of us will be holding back the other. And if somehow, we manage to get rid of this curse, you'll have no reason to keep me around anymore you won't have to sully yourself with this pathetic mud blood" she said, throwing her hands in the air and sitting on the corner of his bed.

"You really think that's what I'm doing?" he asked.

"Isn't it?" she asked.

"Fuck Granger... I don't even believe in that stuff anymore. I haven't believed it since watching Professor Burbage get eaten by that snake in my dining room. Since I watch you spill your blood on the floor of my drawing room. Since I saw muggle borns and pure bloods fight and die side by side in this very fucking castle. I thought you knew that. I thought it was clear to you" he said.

"How could I know any of that? How could I have known that?" she asked, throwing her arms up in frustration.

He ran his hand through his hair and paced around his room.

"Did Jenny tell you what I said?" he asked.

"What, that you think highly of me? Yes she told me that. But so does half the wizarding world since I was Harry bloody Potters side kick through the war" she said.

"That's.. You're so fucking blind" he said.

"Yes, Malfoy. Yes I am blind! I can't see past the fact that we have sex because we have no choice, that we would never be doing nay of it, let alone having this conversation if it wasn't for the curse".

"You fucking intolerable witch" he said.

"You bastard wizard" she roared back, her chest heaving and her head spinning.

The next thing that happened, happened so quick but so slow at the same time. She stood still, staring into his flushed angry face as his feet carried him forwards and his hands found her cheeks. She watched him swipe his tongue across his lower lip as he came close to her face, and when he stopped, she did as Jenny said, and took two seconds of Gryffindor courage and pressed her lips against his. When he didn't pull away, as she thought he would, her eyes closed as if acting on their own, shutting her off from reality. She hated her eyes in that moment because if she couldn't see, perhaps it wasn't real. But if it wasn't real, why did it feel so good?

As soon as her brain caught up her hands snaked their way up and around his neck and her lips melted into his. His tongue, eager, swiped across her lower lip, desperate for access which she allowed instantly. Her tongue soon found his and within a moment, or perhaps a year, or perhaps a lifetime she was kissing Draco Malfoy.

As soon as they stopped, she wanted nothing more than to start again. Separating from him felt like torture, like agony. She opened her eyes, seeing the reality in front of her. He was almost glowing in a bright yellow light, like he was her sun and she wanted nothing else.

Before he kissed her again he spoke.

"Marry me" he said.

"What?" she asked, the preposterous nature of his words almost foreign to her.

"Seal the bond. Marry me. Be with me. Properly" he said.

She held him close looking into his eyes, the eyes of a man she barely knew, but at the same time, a man she knew she loved. This must be what the bond truly felt like. How it felt to be drawn to someone, to feel the bond without the curse.

"Malfoy, we've barely spoken... We don't even..." she began, but he cut her off.

"The semantics we can work out later. We have a bond Granger, it's going to work out no matter what. Best to do it now than torture ourselves for longer" he said.

"So it's just about the curse? About the next step in satiating the curse?" and asked

"Of course it is... And it isn't... I wake up everyday wondering what you're doing wondering how you're coping from one day to the next. I put my hands on you and you're like fire, but in the best way. I look at you and I know I don't need to look at anyone else again. Of course it's the curse, but it's us too. I want this to work for us" he said.

"OK... Yes, OK I'll marry you" she said throwing caution to the wind.

He wrapped her in his arms, lifting her off the floor before crashing their lips back together again. Her mind was spinning, she was lost to him now. Completely and utterly.

She knew she had a lot to learn about him, but she figured she had a lifetime in which to do it.


After what felt like a lifetime of kissing, touching and more kissing, there came a knock at the door.

Malfoy hesitated before releasing her from his grip and moving to answer it.

She peered around his shoulder and was stunned to see the entire group of 8th years gathered around the doorway.

"Is someone going to tell us what's going on, or do we have to assume you've both been imperiorised?" Neville asked, his arm around Daphne Greengrass.

"Granger and I had a curse placed on us last year. We've been through a lot and hidden it from you all, but we have now decided that we are going to embrace it rather than fight it and we're going to be together" Malfoy said.

"Together, like... Together?" Pansy asked.

"Together as in, we've been shagging since Christmas and she's just agreed to marry me" he said.

"Good Godric man, I think we all need another drink and a good long hard explanation as to what the fuck we've all missed" Dean said, turning and heading back to where the drinks had been laid out.

Malfoy turned to her with his hand extended. He was offering her this opportunity to be out and open with her friend's and his, to officially be part of him, to be his. Truly his.

She smiled and took his hand, heading back out to the party with him, with her friends and his where she felt zero judgement.

She felt surrounded by love and trust as they told their story, appropriate gasps and laughs at appropriate times. They left out the gory details but overall, they conveyed what they had been going through to the hearts and minds of their friends who offered nothing but their support and sympathies.

It was funny, she had thought they'd all judge her, look down upon them, decide it was all phoney, a result of Bellatrix's deranged mind, but the more she thought about it the more it made sense.

"Well, you know what this means now, right?" Pansy said.

"What's that?" Hermione asked.

"The curse if lifted" she said.

Hermione looked at her tilting her head to the side. She could still feel the effects of the curse so it was definitely still at play.

"What I mean is, it was an enemy soul bond curse, right?... Enemies... You guys aren't enemies. Now... It's just a plain old bond. Once you marry, it's over. It's sealed" she said.

Hermione suddenly snapped her mind flooded with new possibilities.

"What if... Maybe there was never a curse to begin with? What if... It was purely just a bond? We were just too blinded by our prejudices to see it or to acknowledge it?" she asked him, her mind raking over the pile of books in the bottom of her trunk.

It made sense, it just also happened to fit with the idea that they had also been cursed.

"Doesn't matter" Malfoy said with a shrug.

"I guess you're right, it doesn't matter one bit. Not anymore" she said, feeling desire pool within her for a reason other than her survival.

That night, after everyone had retired to their own rooms, Daphne to Neville's and Pansy to Blaise's, Hermione crept from her room to his, through their adjoining doorway, not bothering to knock.. She climbed into his bed, pressing her body against his. They had come a long way, had done a lot of things but that night, he kissed her while he made love to her, he told her he loved her and she said it back, unquestioningly.

Because... She did love him. She loved who she knew him to be. Thoughtful, from their first time, when he went slow and apologised for not being what she thought she wanted, kind and giving, for making sure she came first, every single time, understanding, when she needed time and space, even if he was suffering.

They had barely spoken all yet, but she knew him. She really knew him.

That night, he captured her gasps and moans with his mouth on hers, promising that he would take care of her, love her, cherish her, until they were done with this life. It was enough for her. Suddenly all her doubts about her life, a out her future all vanished. She was clear on what she wanted.

They stayed up till the sun came up on their final day at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, talking, getting to know each other on a deeper level before packing and sagging again, just because they could.


The train back to King Cross was spent lounging in a single open carriage with everyone she now considered a close friend. She read with Malfoy, did a crossword with Blaise, played exploding snap with Neville and counted sheep with Dean. She and Malfoy took an unplanned nap together and woke to Pansy's gushing about how 'cute and adorable' they were.

Eventually, the train started to slow and she realised it would never again be like this. Life was about to begin and she was ready to embrace it ready for this next step.

She hopped off the train with her trunk magically shrunken and placed in her beaded bag.

She eyed the platform, knowing that Harry and Ron were going to be collecting her. They were the last ones she had to tell and she was dreading it.

"Hermione I can't tell you how much wee missed you" Harry said when he pulled her I to a hug.

"That's right, it's been crazy without you around" Ron added, hugging her also.

She wrapped her arms around both her best friends, knowing that it may be the last time they see her this way.

She let them go, with tears in her eyes, fearful of what was to come.

She had pre-planned this whole thing, gone over how it would look in her mind, but when the time came, she was frozen.

She could formulate the words to tell her best friends that their childhood enemy was going to be her husband as soon as they could arrange it.

"What's wrong Mione?" Ron asked, looking briefly to her and then suddenly. Over her shoulder.

She went to speak, to make a sound, but before she could, Malfoy was at her side his arms around her, his lips on her temple. She was instantly calmed. She was soothed by his very presence. There would be no explaining required. Not right away.

"What's this?" Harry asked, looking from Hermione to Malfoy and back again, like some deranged tennis match.

"There is a lot to explain, but basically, Malfoy and I are going to get married... In two weeks" she said, her face blanketed with fear.

"Married?" Ron asked.

"Hey Wesley, Potter, yeah married, insane right?..." came the voice of Pansy Parkinson. "There's this whole bond curse thing, loads of shagging too apparently, but they're kind of perfect together, don't you think?" she finished. She had been weirdly incredibly supportive of them since they outed themselves to their peers the night before. All her horrible attributes were replaced by kindness and offers of help to arrange the shot gun wedding.

"Bond? Curse?" Harry was stunned, lost for words. It took a private room, five or so people from the returning 8th year group plus over an hour to explain the situation. Harry was immediately happy for them, having buried the hatchet with Malfoy immediately. Ron not so much. He felt used, lied to and manipulated. He declared that she would never have slept with him if she didn't have to be with Malfoy and she agreed. She felt horrible that she used him like that but at the same time, she used it as a way to show him just how much he meant to her. How much she trusted him. Eventually, although he didn't accept it, he was no longer angry, which was a start.


Two weeks later, after having virtually lived with Malfoy in her parents house, Hermione became Mrs Malfoy in the gardens of Malfoy Manor. With Lucius in Azkaban for life, Narcissa was able to see beyond pure blood prejudices and open her mind, her heart and the wards of her home to the woman her son loved.

As she said "I do" and the officiant sealed their marriage, she felt the weight of the bond fall upon them, bringing them together, then lifting, removing the haze that had been clouding her vision for longer than she had realised.

She was bonded, sealed, tied to Malfoy for life and she couldn't be happier!


The end!

Hope you enjoyed where this went. I could have completed an entire epilogue, but i feel like its complete, just how it is.

Thanks for sticking around.

:-)