Hermione sighed as she let herself relax into Draco's strong, steady arms, his fingertips tracing along her spine, never straying from the chaste safety of the middle of her back.
She couldn't believe that she had kissed him.
Or that he had kissed her.
She didn't know who had made the first move, but it had released trapped emotions from within her, the pain of having to hurt Ron simply to get her point across went from being almost too much to bear and had gradually faded into a dull ache.
Draco's gentle touch was a balm to her battered nerves, so she allowed herself to be soothed.
It was quite the strange situation they had gotten themselves into, and she tried to stamp out the feelings of uncertainty that had begun to coil around her ribcage like ivy, squeezing the life force from her very soul.
She didn't know it then, but Draco was unsure of himself as well.
He had never been in this position. He had never been more vulnerable in most of his adult life than he was now.
This was Hermione Granger, after all.
Before yesterday morning's events, they hadn't even known about each other.
Now, here they were, after 12 years of being apart (and prior to that, being known as enemies to each other), and they were possibly romantically involved?
Draco shook his head.
"I'm sorry…"
"I thought you weren't sorry for the kiss?" Hermione murmured, drawing back from his embrace.
"And I'm not… I'm just sorry to rush things… I shouldn't have kissed you. I mean, I don't regret it, but I do regret acting upon these raw feelings. You only just broke up with Ron hours ago and it's only been a day since we've come back into each other's lives, in a much different way than when we parted, I might add…"
Hermione sat back and Draco's hands slid down her arms to hold her hands tenderly in his own.
She nodded.
"I understand. Perhaps things are moving far too quickly… In your defense, I believe I initiated the kiss…"
Draco rolled his eyes.
"No matter who made the first move, we both kissed back."
"True."
"Why did you do it? Why'd you kiss me back?" Draco asked, his long hair falling down and framing his face, the slight waves to it reflecting the early morning sun.
Hermione tossed her head to the side and blew an errant strand of her hair back from her face in a way that Draco found very endearing.
"Well, for starters… I like you. You're similar to me. You understand what we go through. We have similar lifestyles… If I were to come across you in a breakroom at work and you looked exhausted beyond wits and were pouring a five-hour energy potion into a cup of coffee, I'd ask if you had new residents in training, because I can relate to that."
Draco snorted.
"Guilty as charged, although I don't think I've ever been that tired, not even working around the clock during the aftermath of 9/11…" He stated, shrugging slightly.
Hermione gasped and her hands went rigid in his.
"I didn't know you were there for that…" She whispered, her eyebrows knitting together in concern.
"What? Oh…" Draco nodded, his grey eyes looking up at the dream catcher Hermione had hanging above them, "Yeah…I was… I was there at the World Trade Center when the second plane hit… I remember running with the crowds when they came crashing down… the people that decided jumping was better than whatever horrors they were facing up above…"
He swallowed thickly, feeling the stinging in his sinuses that precluded tears and closed his eyes, those tears leaking from the corners of his eyes as he saw the horrors of that day replaying across the inside of his eyelids. He flinched as the sound of the body making contact with the glass ceiling of the lobby echoed in his head.
He still wore earplugs when he was taking off and landing in an airplane.
The thunder of turbines was freeing and terrifying to him at the same time and the deep, groaning sounds that steel made when it buckled and fell through would haunt him forever.
He felt her hands on his face, thumbs wiping his tears aside before her arms wound around his broad shoulders, pulling him into her body.
"I'm here. I'm right here…" she reassured softly, soothing him.
9/11 had been one of the things that still kept him up at night.
Not even Voldemort scared him as much as that day did, and that was saying something.
He inhaled shakily and placed his chin on top of her shoulder, careful not to hurt her by pressing his sharp chin against her.
"I'm sorry… it isn't right for me to cry…" He muttered.
"Boys don't cry!" came the cold, commanding voice of Lucius Malfoy, echoing unbidden throughout his head.
Hermione tutted at him softly and pushed his shoulders back, looking into his eyes, red-rimmed and teary, his face flushing with emotion.
For a split second, she saw him, a terrified younger man, running through the crowds and the clouds of dust, then she saw him as a teenager, shaking and fearful as Voldemort announced that Harry Potter was dead.
He had been put through the wringer and had been dealt a rather difficult hand in this life, even with the opulence of his upbringing, but here he was anyway; living and breathing and surviving.
"Oh, it is very human to cry… men do it all the time… whether in pain or relief or joy…" Hermione reassured him, "Trust me… I've drained synovial fluid from enough inflamed joints and administered enough cortisone injections to know that men cry and I very nearly decided to go into obstetrics when I assisted in my first delivery as a junior doctor going through specialty rotations… the father cried… it was messy, but beautiful… I know for a fact that you've told families enough good and bad news in your life to see men cry… There is no shame in it at all…"
Draco nodded.
"You're right."
Hermione smiled softly.
"I find I generally am…"
Draco smirked at her and rolled his eyes.
"Shut it…"
They sat in easy silence for the next few minutes until Hermione spoke up.
"Why did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Kiss me back. Why did you do it?"
Draco shrugged.
"Well, I do like you. I enjoy the comfortable ease and pleasure of being in your company, and I honestly think that, if things had been different between us, if the circumstances of my upbringing and fate had been kinder, this could have been us years earlier, possibly in school…"
"Us…" Hermione breathed and nodded, "I kind of like that..."
"Yeah…" Draco replied sitting back against the pillows in her window seat.
Hermione looked slightly panicked.
"Is it too soon? If it's unprofessional or if we're moving too quickly, I understand completely…"
"I would say things are moving at a rather brisk pace… I mean, I know this breakup must've been a long time coming, but I still don't really like the thought of being a rebound of sorts."
"Then you aren't."
"Then what am I, exactly?" Draco asked, "I don't mean to pry or pressure you, but I am a man who prefers to have everything labeled and sorted out in life…"
"I understand… I just don't think there's a term for this that hasn't been sullied by popular societal conventions… and then there are terms that wouldn't apply to us at all…"
Draco nodded.
"I understand."
"Good… We'll find that term which suits us in due time, for now, I think its best that we get some breakfast."
"Right, you have surgery today… you're not going to be late for that, are you?" Draco asked.
Hermione looked at her alarm clock and shook her head.
"My first surgery isn't scheduled to arrive at hospital until ten. I have a good surgical team, so all I really have to do is show up, open the incision, replace the hip, and then go about my business… I have some time."
Draco smiled slightly, his fingertips brushed down her forearms, feeling the scarred slur that his aunt had put on Hermione. He felt sadness arc through his body at that memory.
"Wish my surgeries went that smoothly." He remarked.
"Well, one rarely schedules traumatic events… you just learned how to work and think on your feet, which is a talent that few doctors seem to have these days."
"You possess that talent."
"I think that the War had something to do with that…"
Hermione wished that she could swallow her words. Why did she have to bring up the bloody War, of all things?
Draco noticed the look on her face, one of regret, and he knew why.
"Don't feel bad for bringing up the War… it was the thing that defined our generation. While I wished that it never happened, I have to admit that those of us who survived were changed, some for the better, by those experiences… I'm living proof of that."
Hermione nodded, her own fingertips trailing down his arm absentmindedly.
"What did you do for fun?"
"Pardon?"
"Fun… what did you do for fun back in the United States?" Hermione asked, "I'm trying to learn more about you and avoid talking about the War."
"Oh, well, I have a motorcycle, I really enjoyed taking that out on days when the weather was nice. I did some traveling in the US, went to some of the national parks out west, like Yosemite. For all the hype that Yosemite gets, I actually found that Olympic National Park was more beautiful… It reminded me of home, England, that is… Assateague Island is rather beautiful as well, and it's much closer to Baltimore than a place that nice truly has a right to be, does that make sense? I actually camped there for a few days during the summer back in 2008, the ponies are what makes beach camping there interesting."
"Ponies?"
Draco nodded.
"Wild ponies are native to the island and they just sort of roam around. If you're visiting, they really won't bother you that much, but it is pretty crazy to come out of your tent in the morning and find a pony grazing in your campsite, completely unbothered by your presence there."
"That is pretty crazy."
"Uh, I also liked going to museums and historic sites…"
"Same here… I had the opportunity to do some traveling abroad in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and the Czech Republic and I greatly enjoyed visiting all the old churches and cathedrals… I went to Italy and there are churches with bones in them in Florence… it's very bizarre…"
"There is one place I've always wanted to go that I didn't get to go and visit while I was in the States; Mexico and South America… There's rumored to be so many species of magical creatures living in the Amazon rainforest."
"I never took you for someone who enjoyed magical creatures."
Draco let out a short huff of self-depreciating laughter.
"I couldn't let my classmates know that I enjoyed the course in school because my father probably would have beaten me for it when I went home for winter or spring holiday, just because he didn't like the thought of Hagrid teaching the course… You've got no idea how much my cruel nature was influenced by self-preservation, and there were snitches everywhere in Slytherin house…"
Draco's eyes took on a faraway look as he turned his head and gazed out of the window into the rising sun. Hermione sighed, placing a hand beneath his chin and turning his face back towards her.
"Hey, now… none of that…"
A soft smile tugged at the corners of his lips and he was about to say something in response when his stomach decided to growl quite loudly.
"Pardon me."
"It's alright… I s'pose it's time for breakfast then?" Hermione replied, smiling gently and rising to her feet, holding out her hand to Draco.
He took her hand and stood up fully, gasping as his joints popped and cracked.
"Christ, I feel like a shambling corpse… I'm only 30…" he muttered, and Hermione chuckled.
"I'll put the tea on… do you take yours with milk and sugar?"
"Yeah, just a bit of sugar, barely half a teaspoon." Draco replied as they left her room and ventured out into the hall.
Draco peered into the spare bedroom as he passed it and saw her office, impeccably immaculate, but the thing that surprised him the most was the hanging rack on one wall with five guitars hanging off of it and the amp and pedal array beneath the rack.
He had no idea that Hermione was musically inclined.
He followed her into the living room and she waved her wand at the wall near the door and all the framed pictures on the wall straightened themselves, having been knocked askew the night before by Ron's hasty departure. She pointed her wand again at the food items that Ron had left on the stove and vanished the food from within the pots and pans before they flew over and began washing themselves out in her sink.
Draco took a moment to look around the place and wasn't surprised when he saw most of the amenities that muggle households possessed, as well as a select few that were common finds in magical households.
She had a TV in a console on the wall, surrounded by book shelves and cabinets that housed vinyl records, cassettes, CDs, and DVDs on one side and an all in one record, cassette, and CD player unit on the other.
The pictures on the wall were of her mother and father, but he noticed with a sinking sensation, that in many of the pictures, there were spaces. An empty high chair here, her parents smiling at him with a blank space between them there. It was living proof of her obliviating charm, how it had been powerful enough to wipe her very presence from photographs.
Draco tore his eyes away from them, not wanting to be reminded of his role in all of that.
The room was cozy with her sofa in the middle, facing the TV with a coffee table and there was an alcove in the corner with a cozy chair in it for reading, although Crookshanks was currently snoozing in it.
Draco turned his attention towards the kitchen and noticed the more magical aspects of her home. There was a fireplace on one side of the room with a Floo powder jar on the wall next to it, a cauldron sat on the floor next to her hearth along with a secretary desk that held magical texts as well as cookbooks. Her balcony was perpendicular to the fireplace and there was a cat perch and a small herb garden on the windowsill. There wasn't a dining room, rather a wooden table in the middle of the kitchen with chairs around it.
He had never envisioned how Hermione's home would be set up, but looking at it now, he had to say that this place felt like her; friendly, warm, and inviting.
"Oh, damn it all… I'm out of tea…" She muttered, "Would you mind coffee instead?"
"Not at all. I drink it the same way as my tea, milk with a little sugar, just to take some of the bite out of the flavor…" He trailed off before speaking again, "I didn't know you played the guitar…"
Hermione nodded.
"I picked it up after Hogwarts. They required an arts and humanities credit in my first semester, so I took an introductory course for the guitar, and I found that I was both quite good at it and that I really enjoyed it just because it helped me refocus my mind on other things instead of the War… my therapist said it was good for me to have a hobby, so I stuck with it." Hermione replied.
Draco nodded.
"That's as good a reason as any… If it isn't too forward of me to say so, I'd love to hear you play sometime, if that's okay with you, of course…"
Hermione turned to him with their coffees in hand and they sat down at the table, a slight blush coloring her cheeks.
"I'd like that, but I must warn you, I don't have the greatest singing voice to accompany my performances."
Draco smiled.
"That's quite alright by me. If I recognize what you're playing, I might just take care of the vocals for you." He replied, sipping his coffee and sighing as the hot liquid raced down his throat.
"You can sing?"
Draco shrugged.
"I wouldn't say that I can sing well, but the bottles of shampoo in my shower haven't complained, so I suppose I can't be that bad."
Hermione laughed at his joke and the sound of her laughter was like music all on its own.
Crookshanks hopped up on his cat perch by the window and Draco regarded the ginger cat with a curious look.
"Wait, is that the same cat you had at Hogwarts?" He asked.
Hermione nodded.
"Yeah… I think he had a run in with Nicolas Flamel and his Elixir of Life… I've already done reversal spells on him that would have revealed if he was an Animagus in disguise, but there's nothing there to reverse. He's just a ridiculously old cat, that's all…" Hermione replied with a shrug and sipped her coffee.
"That is odd…" Draco mused aloud.
Hermione stood up and walked over to her refrigerator.
"So, what do you want for breakfast? I can whip up some scrambled eggs and toast…" she opened the refrigerator and began to rummage around, "I'm afraid I'm all out of bacon and sausage though… and cheese as well… Merlin, I really need to go to the market… Christ, I haven't even got a box of cheerios…"
Draco smiled at her mutterings and musings.
"Scrambled eggs with toast sounds great, thank you. Here, let me help…" He said, rising from the table to grab the loaf of bread from its spot atop the refrigerator as Hermione spun around and found herself trapped between the refrigerator and Draco's chest.
Noticing their close proximity, Draco backed away as much as he could with the table behind him, which wasn't much, to say the least.
Her big brown eyes stared up at him and she bit her lip as a soft blush rose to her cheeks. She was alluring, he'd be lying if he even thought otherwise, and he wanted so badly to kiss her again, to feel those soft lips on his once more.
This time, he definitely made the first move, dropping the bread on the table behind him, he wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her close, the other hand tipping her chin up so that he could press his lips to hers.
Hermione put the eggs on the table behind Draco and kicked the refrigerator door closed as she sighed into the kiss, her hands wrapping around his waist, tugging him closer.
She tasted like coffee and sugar, so sweet, and he was a goner for sure when he felt her relax in his arms and give herself over to the kiss.
She stood on tiptoe and he felt one of her steady hands winding its way into his long hair, threading through it at the base of his neck, and he sighed in return, parting his lips, inviting her in.
She took the hint and wound her tongue with his as he pushed her back against the cool stainless steel of her refrigerator, moaning softly at all the contact, urging him onward.
For all the times she had been kissed by Ron, she had never had a kiss that made her feel weak in the knees until now.
Perhaps it was because this time, she was finally interested in the person kissing her.
Draco pulled away and inhaled deeply before opening his eyes to gaze at her. Her eyes had darkened a bit and were richer in color now.
"This is a dangerous game you're playing, Doctor Malfoy…" Hermione whispered, biting her lower lip which was darkened and slightly swollen from their kiss.
"How so?"
"Kiss me like that again and I may not want you to stop…" she murmured, her fingertips winding through his hair carelessly.
Her quiet response thrilled him down to his core.
"And what if neither of us wants to stop?" He asked, pulling her body against his, feeling her soft curves through her clothes.
"Then things may go further than just kissing…" she replied, beginning to feel the physical evidence of his interest in her against her abdomen.
"I'm not opposed to that if you aren't, Doctor Granger…" Draco murmured in response, brushing his fingertips across her cheek to cup her chin.
"I'm not opposed to it either, and that's the problem…"
Draco closed his eyes and nodded as the logic behind her words sunk in.
"Yes. That is a problem… I don't want to rush into things…" He replied, pulling away from her.
Hermione nodded and released him. Although it didn't hurt to let him go, she still felt the dull, pressing ache of need in her abdomen, something she hadn't felt in the longest time.
"Neither do I… everything is just too, I don't know, raw…" She replied, crossing her arms across her chest.
Draco nodded.
"Yeah, I understand… Between moving here and starting work and finding out just how bad things have gotten and how much the magical community still loathes me, I think I got carried away…"
"Same here, but I think my situation is more of a complex juggling act between my private practice, surgery, and my position at St. Mungo's than anything else. Ron, or rather, the thought of being with Ron for the rest of my life was just the one that made me dive headlong into all of it, and now I have to remain committed to seeing it through until the end… Merlin only knows what sort of shitstorm would blow up if anyone knew about what is going on between us, this… whatever this is…"
Hermione grabbed the eggs and broke a couple into the pan before salting and peppering them and beginning to stir them over the hot burner.
"Right. That's another thing… If we keep this up, someone would find out eventually. It would be front-page news: "Golden Granger Dumps War Hero Weasley and Snogs Death Eater Malfoy!". Extra! Extra! Read all about it!" He replied, sarcasm evident in his tone for the last few phrases, "I mean could you imagine all the hate mail we'd get, not to mention how badly it could derail the hybridization process at St. Mungo's? I still have people who want to see me in Azkaban, Ron Weasley is one of them…"
Hermione turned to face him.
"I'm worried about that too, but I can't live in fear anymore, and neither can you…" she said, "The War is over and most people have moved on with their lives. We have to move on with them…"
Draco nodded.
"You're right."
She set their plates before them and sipped her coffee.
"I think the major question is how are we going to manage to do all of this while also moving on?"
Draco began to eat and nodded in agreement.
"How indeed…"
Hermione thought for a moment.
"Maybe we should take a chance and dive headlong into, well, whatever this is between us… Maybe my status could redeem you in the eyes of the community?" She mused aloud, "Perhaps there are more people who would support this than we truly realize…"
Draco looked up at her and saw the wheels turning in her mind.
"Its true what they say about Gryffindors being brave…" He murmured in awe of her, "But I don't know if I could really and truly live with myself if this whole thing backfired and ruined both your career and reputation..."
She blushed softly and sighed.
"I suppose there's really only one way to find out for sure, though…" She replied and patted yesterday's morning edition of the Daily Prophet, "Tell the media… It'll probably make the Society Column at least…"
Draco shook his head and reached across the table to hold her hand.
"No. I'm not going to drag you down with me, especially not if they drag your image through the dirt. The media, well, American media at least, is particularly known for placing blame on a woman for her choices in a dating partner… I can't and won't see the same done to you."
Hermione bit her lip.
His grey eyes were full of sincere concern and she realized that he had seen the media in their community destroy (or attempt to destroy) the image of everyone he knew; his mother, his friends, even himself. She realized with a jolt that he was trying to protect her.
If they were going to be successful with changing the way their world viewed medicine, their reputations had to remain immaculate.
"Do you have a better idea?" She asked.
He thought for a moment and then she saw an idea pop into his head.
"You've never officially met my mother." He stated, "That could be our start…"
"Narcissa? Are you sure? I mean, she lives with Andromeda and Teddy… Harry visits her every week…"
Hermione looked uncertain.
"Hogwarts is back in session and Andromeda is going to visit her late husband's family in Scotland soon. My mother is going to have the house to herself, we can go then."
Draco was determined to make this work and she could see it in his eyes.
Hermione squeezed his hand gently.
"Alright. That will be our start." She agreed, watching the way Draco smiled and feeling that warm rush of jitters fill her stomach.
"Until then, we need to keep this hidden and formulate a plan to stay out of the news…"
"Agreed."
They agreed to keep things quiet and only work together in the public eye if need be and that they would text each other to establish meetups outside of work, always in each other's flats, never in public.
"My father might be incarcerated, but I still shudder to think what he might be able to do if word got out about us." Draco said solemnly.
He didn't have to go into extensive detail about how dangerous his father could be, Hermione already knew.
Before they knew it, it was time for Draco to depart so that Hermione could get ready for work.
They stood in the living room and Hermione smiled softly as he raised one of her hands to his lips and kissed it softly.
"Until next time, Dr. Granger."
"I'll hold you to that, Dr. Malfoy." She replied, blushing softly.
With a final, chaste kiss to her forehead, Draco apparated from her flat.
Crookshanks stared at her from his spot on the reading chair in her alcove, his front paws crossed in a sassy manner as if to say, "You've got it bad."
She shook her head at the cat.
"I do not. He and I are just… well, I don't know what we are, but I do not 'have it bad'…" She said, replying to the unspoken comment that he surely would have said if he could have talked.
The big ginger cat blinked slowly at her, judging her silently.
She walked away and went about her business, mulling the past twelve hours over in her head.
She went to work and attempted and failed to push the thoughts of her feelings and the events of the past day or so from her mind as she operated on her patients. She made no mistakes and all procedures and follow-ups went smoothly, all the while unaware that across London, in St. Mungo's, Draco was utterly unable to keep her from his mind as well.
Gina Wick, his assistant, was the first one to notice.
"Dr. Malfoy, with all due respect, you seem to be a bit distant today. Anything you need to talk about?" She asked as they ended their rounds of the emergency room.
Draco shook his head.
"Not at all… I'm just readjusting to life here. I almost drove on the wrong side of the road today…"
"Sounds to me like you're distracted by something… I know the patients can be a bit hesitant to be treated by you, but that's only because they haven't met you. They only know what's been published in the papers, and, unfortunately, they'll only hang onto the bad stuff that was written over a decade ago. Give it time. They'll come around… I should know." She replied.
He glanced at the lanky witch with her long brown hair and intense blue eyes and gave her a curious look.
"What do you mean by that?" He asked.
She pursed her lips.
"I mean that a lot of patients didn't take too kindly to me being trans… especially while I was in the process of transitioning from male to female…" She replied, "A fair few of them flat out told me that I had no right to live, let alone be a witch… Norrington's a good bloke in the way that he shut most of that down by getting rid of the coworkers I had who called me some very transphobic things and outed me in front of others during the War, knowing full well that I could have been murdered for it. Say what you will about how he can be disorganized and unsure of himself at times, but you'll not find a less judgmental wizard here, I promise you that…" Gina said with a curt nod of her head.
"I had no idea." Draco replied sincerely, "Not that you were trans or that you were that much older than me."
Gina laughed.
"You'll find that once you discover the type of life and moisturizing cream that works best for you, you'll remain young forever." She said, coaxing a laugh from Draco as well.
"I suppose you're right about that, but this isn't quite about my being accepted here… This is about a certain witch that I'm involved with. I-I'd rather not go into detail until the time is right."
Gina nodded.
"I understand. I hope that things work out between you and this witch of yours."
"Thank you."
Gina nodded and went off to check on the patient documents as Draco gathered his mail from his letterbox and entered his office and closed the door behind himself.
He sat down at his desk chair and hummed to himself as he read his mail.
Then he felt his cell phone buzz with a new message.
He took it out and smiled when he saw it was from Hermione.
Finished early at work, had to reschedule some patients due to demand for the operating theatres, dinner at my place tonight?
He messaged her back.
Sounds like a plan. See you at seven?
Her response was almost immediate.
Seven on the dot. See you then.
He put his phone away and sighed before leaving his office, totally unaware of the trouble brewing across London at The Daily Prophet.
Thelma and her husband, Victor were there, helping Rita on the story.
"Couldn't get a decent shot of either of them, can't we just recirculate some old photos of them?" Victor commented as he laid out a bunch of blurry moving photos on the desk before him.
"No, we cannot just recirculate old photos, this is a big story!" Rita snapped at her son in law.
"Mum, he's trying his best. What would you have us do, break into the muggle hospital where Hermione Granger works and get arrested by the Ministry for potentially violating the Statute of Secrecy? Ambush Malfoy at St. Mungo's? That'll go over well…" Thelma replied, rolling her eyes at her mother.
"No, of course not, but we need photos of them together."
Victor got an idea.
"But we know where both of them live… We could post one photographer undercover at Malfoy's house and one undercover at Granger's, like hiding in a car or something… Hopefully they'll slip up and one will go to the other's flat… if we can chance a shot through a window and catch them together, it'll be the perfect photo for the front page. As long as we can get that photo, we can put some separate, recirculated images further along in the story."
Rita nodded.
"Good idea. Victor, you'll stake out at Granger's house, I'll send Benny over to Malfoy's house." She replied.
Benny had been the photographer working on all the stories with Rita since her writing debut in Witch Weekly many years prior. He had been the one who had taken the infamous shot of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger embracing before the first Triwizard Tournament event.
They all nodded and dispersed; Thelma to her typewriter to get cracking on the finer details of editing her mother's story, Rita to finally get some sleep, and Victor to grab Benny from the darkroom and go undercover.
And so, they went and waited.
Benny snapped a few photos of Hermione parking her faded red Volvo and heading into her building in her scrubs, Victor didn't have any luck at Malfoy's flat, so he went to St. Mungo's and he and Thelma began working on their coverage of the transition from healing arts to modern medicine, interviewing a few doctors and healers here and there, all the while hoping that they would get a glimpse of Draco Malfoy.
Before he was about to leave from St. Mungo's, Draco heard a knock on his office door that made him jump and drop a stack of files on the floor.
"The sooner we switch over to electronic health records, the better…" He thought as he bent over to pick them up, recalling that there was someone at his office door.
"Ah, come in!" he shouted, kneeling on the floor and shuffling papers into their correct order.
He heard the door open and close again.
"How may I help you?" He asked before standing up again to properly face his visitor, nearly dropping the files again as he spun to face them.
Ron Weasley stood nearly toe to toe with him, his arms crossed over his chest in an intimidating manner, a scowl firmly in place on his lips.
"You can help me by staying the fuck away from my fiancée." The redhead growled at him.
At the word "fiancée", Draco stood up straighter.
Weasley may have been able to get away with gaslighting Hermione and everyone else into believing that the things he did to her, he did out of love, but Draco had seen all of that before with his mother and father.
He refused to let that slip.
"But she's not your fiancée, is she?" Draco replied coolly, "She broke up with you. I don't think Dr. Granger would appreciate you spreading lies about her accepting your proposal. From where I was standing, it seemed like a clear rejection."
Ron looked shocked at this revelation.
"I knew it. I knew someone was in her closet. Cold floorboards, my arse. If I had known it was you, I'd be going to Azkaban for murder."
"I'm sure my father would have been delighted to see you." Draco said in a humorless voice.
He knew that his father had killed other people in Azkaban, his mother had told him as much.
"I guess I would have been applauded by him, eh? Does he know what you've become? I'm sure he'll love to hear just how much you've sullied your family name by working with muggles… I mean, I'd be willing to bet that your dear old dad would even defend me if I told him that I had drawn my wand and snuffed you while you were snogging Hermione Granger in that window seat this morning…" Ron said in a dangerous tone.
"Then why didn't you, hm?" Draco asked, "Why didn't you kill me then and there? You had a clear shot and could have taken it, you know the spell, we all were taught it in fourth year, and if your aim is as good as it was in school, you could have done it without hitting Hermione, so why didn't you kill me when you had a chance?"
Draco knew he was provoking Ron, he knew it was a bad idea, but was so angry at all the hurt he had caused Hermione over the years that he didn't care in the slightest.
"Because I'm not a murderer. There's only one of them in this room and you're it."
"I never killed anyone, you idiot." He snapped back.
"But you're the reason why so many are dead." Ron replied, "Voldemort asked you a question about the muggleborn population at Hogwarts, who you knew to be less than half blood, and you sang like a fucking canary."
"Because Voldemort would have killed my mother otherwise, or worse…"
Ron let out a humorless laugh.
"You sounded just like Hermione then…" he muttered, recalling a long past conversation they had had before he and Harry had truly become friends with her, "There's nothing worse than death."
Draco rolled his eyes and checked his watch, noting that it was almost time for his evening rounds before leaving so the night shift could take over. He wasn't going to tell Ron about how the Death Eaters treated women, he didn't care.
"I have an appointment to get to Weasley, so either tell me what you came here to tell me or you can leave." Draco said in an exasperated voice.
"Fair enough." Ron said and turned towards the door before swinging back around again with a massive right hook that caught Draco square in the jaw and sent him crashing to the floor, "There's my message, I hope we understand each other." He sneered before leaving his office and closing the door behind him.
Draco reeled from the blow, already feeling the beginnings of a bruise blossoming along his jaw and tasting blood in his mouth from where his flesh had been broken against his teeth.
A second knock came at his door.
"Dr. Malfoy? I saw that man leaving your office, he was rubbing his knuckles. Are you okay?" Gina asked through the frosted glass.
"Come in, Wick." He replied, leaning against his desk and gingerly touching his cheek.
Gina came in and closed the door behind herself.
"Merlin's beard, let me call hospital security!" She said positioning herself to conjure a Patronus when she saw his jaw.
"That won't be necessary."
"He accosted you! With all due respect, I think it's necessary he be turned over to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at once, at least for assault and battery." Gina replied.
"Gina, please, it isn't necessary… I-I had that coming…" he replied, conjuring up some ice cubes from the water bottle that sat on his desk and placing them in a nitrile exam glove before pressing them against his cheek, wincing slightly at the stinging sensation.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I mean to say that that witch I'm involved with happens to be Dr. Hermione Granger… that man you saw leaving was Ronald Weasley… he came to give me a warm welcome back to England, I suppose." He replied with a little chuckle at his own joke.
"Oh… I see what you mean now about wanting to wait until the right time… He and Hermione, Dr. Granger, have been dating on and off for ages…" She said, "I s'pose they're off again, eh?"
"Yeah, hopefully permanently…" Draco replied.
"Has he... has he hurt her?" Gina asked, "Only asking because I know some people who work with domestic violence victims and they have a great network of people who can help her if that's the case, of course we're all mandated reporters here…"
He shook his head.
"Not to my knowledge."
"Thank the Gods for that." Gina sighed.
They stood in silence for a bit before Draco took the ice off his cheek.
"How bad is it?" He asked.
"Not so awful, but you might want to put some essence of dittany on there, or some arnica cream, just to help with the bruising…"
"Do you think I should hold off on making the rounds and just leave early? I don't want the patients to think we've got a fight club going back here…"
Gina laughed a bit.
"I'll get Dr. McGarity over here to see if she can take up your rounds. Go home, ice your face, and please tell someone that Ron Weasley did that to you… You don't just hit someone and walk away scot free…"
"Will do, Nurse Wick, oh, but before you leave, I have a question."
She raised her penciled eyebrows.
"Would you be interested in training to become my assistant surgical nurse?" he asked.
Gina smiled.
"I would be honored… Oh gosh, wait until my wife hears about this, she'll be overjoyed. She works here too, you know?"
"Oh? What department?"
"She's a sister on the pediatric ward… she says it's a hard job, seeing children in pain, but being able to help them get better and see them smile and play again makes it all worthwhile." Gina replied, her face glowing as she talked about her wife, "Gosh, I love her so, she's just the most caring person I've ever met." She paused as she went to leave, "If it's not so bold of me to say so, I hope you and Dr. Granger are happy. From what I've seen so far, you two seem to work very well together."
Draco smiled at her words.
"Thank you, Gina."
Gina nodded and left the office.
Draco ignored the throbbing in his cheek as he tidied up his office and set out tomorrow's work for when he came in.
It did bother him to let Ron just leave like that, but he didn't want to make a move without first consulting Hermione. Her career and reputation were at stake here, too.
He did want to grab some food before heading off to Hermione's flat and used the camera on his phone as a mirror while he charmed the bruised area of his face so that it would look like normal skin again. He left and went downstairs to the lobby, smiling genially at the reporters from the Daily Prophet and waving casually as one of their photographers snapped a picture of him.
When he arrived at the market down the block, he paused and realized that he had absolutely no idea what sort of food Hermione liked.
"Well, she took her coffee with cream and sugar, so that means she isn't allergic to dairy products." He thought to himself, eyeing up the deal that was advertised for frozen pizzas, "But it's a dreary day, and she has gone through a breakup, so perhaps takeaway would be better as a form of comfort food?"
Draco ultimately sighed and decided to text her instead of guessing hopelessly.
Her response was almost immediate.
That sounds wonderful. There's a Chinese takeaway the next street over from me called Lucky Inn, meet me there and I'll buy dinner for us both.
He felt a lump form in his throat.
I should be the one buying, it's only proper.
He should have expected her next message.
Says who? Why can't a woman buy a man dinner? This is the 21st century, after all. I'm buying and that's that. See you in a few minutes.
He smirked, ignoring the pain in his jaw caused by the motion.
Alright then, I'll see you there.
He quickly moved himself out of sight so he could search for an image of the Lucky Inn and get it in his mind's eye to apparate into the alley beside the restaurant, which he did a second later.
As he waited for Hermione outside of the establishment, he began to text his mother.
Mum, something rather wonderful has happened…
He stared at the message for a moment and then deleted it. He didn't want to get his hopes up and it was best not to count his dragons before they were hatched, especially now.
Hermione fixed her hair before apparating to the alley near Lucky Inn and nearly collided with Draco as she rounded the corner.
They both went to apologize at the same time before they realized what had just happened and laughed.
"Sorry about that… I hardly recognized you with your hair down." Hermione said, placing her hand gently against his forearm to steady herself.
"I find that if I keep it up for too long, it begins to make my scalp feel tight, and that's rather painful after a while…" he replied as they entered the restaurant.
"I have a product that helps with that, it doesn't smell too good, but it definitely does help with relieving that tension. If it hurts now, you could try it when we get home." She said, looking up at him with a smile, her stomach doing a little flip when she realized that she had referred to her flat as their home without even thinking.
"I think I'll take you up on that offer."
Hermione ordered for both of them after Draco admitted that he wanted to be surprised.
They decided to walk back to her flat after getting their food, allowing it to cool off. The rain had stopped too, and they walked and talked.
"So, after school, was becoming a doctor your first choice?" Draco asked, "In my mind, you always seemed more of the type to pursue legal interests and a career that reflected those things."
"I did think about going into law, but after doing some research on the topic, I realized that it wasn't my calling, especially after going through the hearings and trials after the war was over. I wanted to put that in the past."
"Fair enough."
"How about you, any reason why you went into medicine?" she asked as they rounded the corner and began walking up the street to her building.
"Well, it started off as being the best way to support myself, then I realized I was good at it. I was a nurse first, and that experience really helped me when I decided to set my sights on becoming a doctor."
They paused as she handed him the food to grab her key to the building, both of them unaware that their pictures were being taken.
When they got into Hermione's flat, they both drew their wands and levitated the food to the table before taking off their coats and shoes at the door.
"Um, which one is your bathroom?" Draco asked, nodding to the identical doors on the right side of her hallway.
"Oh, second door on the right."
"Thanks."
He entered and closed the door behind himself, removing the charm to hide his face and wincing softly as he noticed how bad it had become in the past half hour or so.
He washed up and then left the bathroom; pausing in the hallway and taking a deep breath before entering the kitchen.
"Uh, I was wondering if you had any dittany… I got in a bit of a tussle at work." He said as he approached her.
"Oh, it's in the bathroom, I can- Merlin's beard, what happened?" she began before facing him and recoiling at the sight of his darkly bruised face and jawline, her voice raising in pitch as she stepped closer, immediately taking his hand and pulling him into the bathroom.
"Sit on the toilet and tell me what happened." She said, opening her medicine cabinet and pulling out different tinctures and potions to address his injury.
Draco swallowed hard. He didn't want to lie to Hermione, but he didn't want to cause her to worry about his safety either. After a tense second, he decided to tell the truth.
"Well, uh, Ron Weasley decided to pay me a visit today… Evidently, he has a very good right hook…"
Hermione stopped in her tracks.
"Ron did this to you?" she asked quietly, reaching out to touch his face, partially to assess whether or not anything was broken, but also to try and comfort Draco, "Did he say why?"
Draco nodded.
"He told me that he saw us kiss this morning… that he stood outside your flat all night." Draco purposefully left out the other parts of their conversation, not wanting to upset her right now. He gazed up at her, "I'm sorry."
She shook her head.
"You have nothing to apologize for. I'm the one who should be apologizing… I dragged you right into the middle of this mess, I shouldn't have come to your flat. If I had only been smart enough to strictly remain professional, none of this would have happened…"
Draco saw her beginning to spiral into the same state of self-blame that he had seen his mother go through after his father had abused her and made her think that she was the one at fault. The very sight of that happening to Hermione made him stand up and take her hands.
"Hey, hey listen to me, I don't regret you reaching out to me, I don't regret comforting you, and I certainly do not regret kissing you. You shouldn't regret any of those things either." He said as he rubbed his thumbs over the backs of her hands, trying his best to comfort her.
"But he hurt you because of me."
"Hermione, he would have hurt me anyway. None of this is your fault. I knew that there would be people who weren't comfortable with me coming back into the community, and I came anyway. I knew the risks and accepted them." He paused before asking if he could hug her, and she nodded her consent, tucking herself into his embrace like she belonged there.
"I just wish there weren't associated risks that came from being with me." She muttered.
"Well, I accept those risks, too."
Hermione stepped back and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.
"Well, then, lets get you patched up. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can eat." She said, sighing and beginning to work on his bruises.
"That sounds like a plan to me." Draco agreed and closed his eyes, allowing Hermione to work.
There was silence for a few minutes and Hermione took that time to memorize Draco's face.
He had always been conventionally handsome, even at Hogwarts, but as she healed his face, she could denote tiny scars from acne, his five o' clock shadow coming in, which was darker than the hair on his head, the tiny lines that set themselves into the skin around his eyes and a curious little scar on his right cheekbone.
"Did you cut yourself while shaving?" she asked, smoothing her thumb over the scar.
"No, it was from running through a spray of flying glass."
"9/11?"
"Yeah. I was lucky. I caught most of it with my forearm." Draco replied, pulling up his right sleeve to show her the matching scars on his outer arm.
"I can't even begin to imagine being there for that…" She whispered, "Watching it on the news was bad enough…"
Draco inhaled and exhaled.
"Can we talk about something else, please?" He asked quietly.
"Sure. Uh, what's your Patronus?" She asked.
"Oh, you're going to love this one…" He chuckled, "You remember how in fourth year I was talking shit to Potter that one time and Moody, well, Barty Crouch Jr. masquerading as Moody, transfigured me into a ferret?"
Hermione's mouth fell open and she tried not to laugh in his face.
"No, no fucking way." She replied, "No way is your Patronus a fucking ferret."
"Swear to God, it is!" He countered, drawing his wand and conjuring his Patronus.
A glowing, silvery white ferret streaked through the air and crawled onto Hermione's bathroom counter, standing on its hind legs and tilting its head from side to side.
Hermione laughed then.
"Well, isn't that clever." She said as it vanished.
"I showed you mine, you show me yours?" Draco asked.
"Oh, fine then, fair is fair." She said, conjuring her Patronus.
"An otter?" He asked in awe as it squeaked and floated around in the air as if it were swimming.
"Yeah… I wasn't expecting to see it my first time conjuring either…" she replied, as the charm faded out.
They washed their hands and went into the kitchen.
"What's your favorite color?" Draco asked as they ate.
"Mmm, forest green… but I've been told that dark red is my color, not because I was Gryffindor either, just that it suits my skin tone. How about you?" Hermione replied.
"Me? Uh, pink."
"Pink?"
"Yeah, that was the color of my Shock-Trauma scrubs and it grew on me. It was also the color of my favorite flavor of ice cream from Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor; Strawberries and Cream." He replied, "But if my father is the one asking, my favorite color is gray."
Hermione rolled her eyes at that.
"Did you have any pets growing up?" Hermione asked.
"Uh, we had thestrals, owls, peacocks, and my mum had a cat when I was young… you?"
"I had a hamster when I was six, but it died a few years later… I wanted to get a cat, but my dad wanted me to wait until I was thirteen to get one, that way I would be responsible enough to take care of it… that's why I got Crookshanks in the summer between second and third year."
Hermione paused.
"Will your mum approve of you being with me?" she asked tentatively.
Draco stopped eating.
"I think she will. A lot of her time has been spent working on addressing her prejudices and unlearning behaviors she's been taught her entire life. She's embraced muggle culture. She even learned how to drive, but you probably knew all of that. I mean, Harry is Teddy's godfather, I s'pose that makes you his aunt in a way?"
"Yeah, kind of. Ron is his uncle because Harry married Ginny, but I always thought it was odd to be considered an aunt of a child you only really met on a couple of occasions. He's always been closer to Harry."
"Speaking of Harry, will he approve?" Draco asked.
"His opinion is biased in favor of Ron and whatever Molly Weasley says; Molly is like the mum Harry never had, and he's married to Ginny, so that makes him her son in law." Hermione muttered, staring at her food.
"If he knew what happened though, would that change his mind?"
"It might, but he's always been significantly closer to Ron as a friend than he has been to me." Hermione paused, "Honestly, I'm a bit tired of always being held to their standards. Harry didn't say anything when Ron would date other women when he and I were broken up, but the one time I was asked on a date by someone from the Ministry, I was stood up by the guy because Harry had told him how I was off limits or some other nonsense like that."
"Sounds like a bit of rebellion is in order." Draco replied.
Hermione grinned.
"Is that what we are? A rebellion?" she asked.
Draco shrugged.
"Sure, why not? I can't think of a better term for us. I'm rebelling against everything my father has ever taught me, you're rebelling against Weasley and Potter and their wrongfully imposed boundaries regarding your romantic life; a rebellion seems fitting to me."
Hermione smiled at Draco.
"Very well then, we're partners in rebellion."
As they shook hands over Chinese takeaway and grinned at the prospect of their new-found partnership, they were blissfully unaware of the story that was being added as front page news to the Daily Prophet and of the fallout that would follow.
