Pairing: Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger
Word Count: 632 words
Setting: Christmas during the War (e.g. opposing sides, or redeemed/order!Draco) for #dhrfavorites december
"You left without telling me." Her eyes didn't automatically trace the lines of his shoulders, but looked towards the table, at the crimson cloth, the basin of water and the string he was currently trying to thread through the needle with only one hand. He had changed, clearly, taking into account how spotlessly un-damaged his sweater was, and as she edged closer, the smell of sweat, mud and blood were absent.
"You weren't conscious for me to tell." Was his absent reply. then she shook as she could hear, not see, him prying his flesh open, and how his calloused hands brushed against the wooden handle.
She waited until he cursed lowly, sucked on his teeth until he no longer was in need of the knife and landed it with a dull thud on the table before going up to see his injury for the day. "Why don't you use a wand?"
By then, he had already closed the wound with his fingers, laid the inside of his wrist over the sponge beneath his hand. She watched without breathing as the casted hand grasped a needle, and his free hand unraveled the ball of black string. He still ignored her until he managed to pushing the string through. "It didn't feel the same as stitches." He emphasised his point by stabbing the needle in and criss-cross over his porcelain skim. "How easy it feels to heal when you got the injury by taking a few lives with you." He gave an extra hard tug so that the skin at the end of his wrist-bone pulled upwards so he could hurt more.
She ignored his annoyed grunt and took the knife from him and sniped the spare string off. "It's war. No one's innocent."
He thought she wasn't looking as she took the healing kit from him, but she saw him pull his sleeve down, as if now both of his arms bared the same abomination as his left did. "Who am I if I have no remorse? Yes, they were the enemy, but they were humans, too. They had breathed, they had lived and they were fighting for what they believed in. Who am I to proclaim the better of the species among us?" He used his free pinkie finger to trace over his sentenced limb.
She took his intact hand in hers; it was still icy from the water, laced with his own coldness towards what he had done. This was Draco Malfoy in the present day, the Draco Malfoy who had fought alongside the Order for nine months, the Draco Malfoy who had nearly let venom travel up the hand which bore his cursed signet to set himself free, the Draco Malfoy who would still gasp as she laid kisses on his bare chest too early in the mornings, the Draco Malfoy who had kissed her on the forehead that morning before taking her mission with the guilt and the nightmares that were meant for her.
This was the Draco Malfoy that kept her going, the man who he had become was the person she was desperately and delicately in love with. They could never be prepared enough to survive in that world, but he was enough for her to keep on fighting.
"I'm glad I would have a warm body next to me tonight." She would let it go for now. He would have a hard time that night, and she would be holding him through it, just as he would always do for her.
"Glad to be wanted as such." Draco chucked under her chin, and she scrunched up her nose to frown.
And then she stood over him, clasping his face in her hands, murmured, "I'm thankful I'm spending Christmas with you." before slating her lips over his.
A/N: hey it wouldn't be me if i don't make a festive and happiest season of the year angsty and gloomy and dark