I hadn't planned to update this soon, but here we are. I love all of you so much, and can't wait to hear what you think after you read this. :)

To the person who made it a point to tell me they didn't want the letters to stop, here you go. To the person who asked for a oneshot of Neville/Hermione in Hogwarts, I want you to remember you asked for it when I drop a massive oneshot because I want to write them too.

Part Five

She couldn't breathe.

Hermione Granger had found herself in the lobby of St. Mungo's three days after she'd apparated from Malfoy's flat in London. It had been her fear that her suppressants had failed, or perhaps she was having an adverse reaction to the contraceptive potion - a potion that had been specially brewed for her while she was still at Hogwarts.

She panicked at the thought of said potion failing, and she feared a healer was moments from telling her she should prepare for a child. Her heart felt as if she was going to burst, and that was the moment she'd collapsed against the floor.

Waking under the bright lights of a hospital room, beneath the faces of her closest friends, she thought she was in more trouble than she was. Yet when a healer finally came into the room, she learned there was nothing wrong with her at all. Physically at least.

She was in prime health, and they brushed over the basics. When was your last heat? Have you had any new partners? And then the most shocking - diagnostic spells have found the trace of an old magic. How familiar are you with the soulmate charm?

Sitting in her flat now, she stared at Luna who explained that there was another aspect of the matching spell, but it wasn't one she had used with Hermione, or with Draco Malfoy for that matter. Neville and Ginny's eyes had widened as Hermione revealed who she'd spent her heat with, but slowly, the facts seemed to come together.

Her heat had come earlier, striking her head on nearly immediately after she had passed Malfoy in the atrium that fateful morning. Luna theorized it was because of the soulmate bond taking place, and it had pushed them together as quickly as possible. It was a stroke of bad luck - or good depending on when you asked Hermione for her opinion - that her soulmate had been in the same room when she had stormed in to confront Ron.

Luna told her that she would have gone to him even if it hadn't happened. It was like playing with fire for them to have been in the same building, or even within the same blasted ten mile radius. Whatever this magic was, it was old, and it was powerful, and it had been used for centuries in the ceremonial weddings of Purebloods.

"Why wasn't I told this was being a part of the matching, Luna?" Hermione's voice was weak. "I know it wasn't meant to be used with me, I understand that, I just -"

Ginny chimed in, placing her hand on Hermione's knee. "It will be okay, Hermione. There must be a way to reverse the magic, right?"

Her heart thudded painfully in her chest, and Hermione shook her head. "I feel like my heart is being ripped from inside of me when I'm away from him." She swallowed, pushing her friends hand from her knee. "Just thinking of undoing this makes me feel like I'm going to suffocate." Hermione's hand flew to her throat as she coughed.

Luna nodded while Neville looked apologetic at her side. "Do you want us to see if it's possible to undo the charm?" He asked her, and she shook her head quickly. "Then you need to see him, Hermione. Or you're going to make yourself sick."

She winced. "I ran away from him. How can I just show up like it's nothing?"

Neville reached out for her, and she reeled back as if his touch would burn her. He sighed, motioning towards her. "This is why you need to go to him. This," he waved his hand between them. "Will happen with every man that tries to touch you, platonic or not. And if Malfoy is anywhere near you he's going to maul that man."

Her eyes widened. "I'm not - I'm not his!" She spluttered. Her cheeks heated up as she remembered that she had told him exactly the opposite. She felt like she'd been made for him, and Hermione could vividly recall how she had begged for him to claim her.

"You and I both know that's not true, Hermione." Neville told her quietly. The other two girls had quieted down, staring at him, listening to him as his designation shined through. The soft, but firm tone that quieted Hermione down.

And it made her want to apparate to the place she needed to be.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she whispered.

"Don't lie to me, or yourself, Hermione Granger." He ordered, his voice like velvet. "Take a moment, and think back to your last year in Hogwarts. I took care of you, and I was never possessive of you afterwards. Not with Ron, not when Cormac McLaggen tried to ask you to a ball."

"We were friends; it was a chance thing, Neville." She protested.

He snorted. "Luna and I were friends. After the first time we spent together, and she wasn't in her heat yet, Terry Boot groped her arse in the corridor and I sent him to St. Mungo's. Hermione, love, you need to listen to us. The point here is that you weren't attached to me because there was nothing there for the future."

"I don't know that there's anything for me in the future with Draco."

He laughed and wrapped an arm around Luna's shoulders. "Tell me if you would have called him Draco if you thought that."

She bristled. "I can be polite. Considering he fucked me sixty ways from Sunday, I think the two of us are on a first name basis now."

Ginny gaped at her, giggling to herself while she brought her knees to her chest. "Isn't the saying six ways from Sunday?"

Hermione glared at her. "I meant what I said."

"If you don't send him some sort of letter, I will." Neville warned her. "I'll deliver it even. You need him just as much as he needs you - and trust me, he's dying. It seems the Alpha side has it worse than an Omega."

Hermione's hand clenched into a fist. "Is he okay?" Her question was tentative, and she wouldn't, couldn't make eye contact with Neville. "I don't know how much of this pain is mine, and how much of it is his."

Neville ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "He asked me not to share anything with you. Malfoy doesn't want you to return to him just because-"

"Tell me." Hermione hissed. Ginny scrambled away from her at the sound. "Neville, I swear I'll-"

"He's wrecked." Neville told her, putting his free hand up in front of him as she nearly came across the coffee table. "Hermione, he's fucked. He came to me if that tells you anything. The two of us aren't close at all, and he came to me to ask if you were okay. He felt when you collapsed in St Mungo's and it took all of his self control to not show up on your doorstep."

She swallowed, casting a look down towards her feet. "You don't think he's angry with me? Why would you need to deliver it? I have a perfectly good owl."

He smiled at her as if he were holding in a laugh. "I fear if I'm not there to stop him, you will end up with Draco Malfoy at your door. If that's not what you want.."

She nodded. "Okay, just give me a moment." Hermione stood from the couch, walking all too quickly to her bedroom and grabbed a quill and scrap of paper. It was a simple note, and after pressing it into Neville's waiting hand, she was left wondering what Malfoy would have to say.

If he had anything to say at all.


He jumped when a knock on the door came, and he took a spare moment to make himself not look like he'd been brooding in silence for nearly a week. Which he had been, and he'd torn his flat apart several times before fixing it, and wrecking his furniture once more. It was a vicious cycle, and he was rather certain he was approaching the end of his self control.

The entire flat smelled like her, like the vanilla body wash she used, like the sweat that had languidly rolled down her body as he fucked her over and over and over again. He craved her.

So when there was a knock at the door, even though he knew it wasn't her, he hoped it was. Instead he let the door swing open to show Neville Longbottom, who thrust a piece of parchment in his face. "You're welcome, Malfoy, but I'm here to make sure you don't storm off to her flat."

Draco blinked, taking the paper from his outstretched hand eagerly. "I don't even know where she lives." At the incredulous look he received, he grumbled. "So maybe I do; it's only for..reasons."

Neville scoffed. "It took some convincing, but she's a logical person, so I used her experience in the past to make her see reason."

Draco nodded, clenching the note in his hand impatiently. "Right, there was some bloke she was with during her first heat is what she told me. Out of curiosity, do you know who he was?"

The man opposite Draco froze. "She didn't..tell you?" Draco shook his head. "Well, this is awkward."

"Who was it? I know it wasn't Weasley since he's a beta. Was it Potter?"

Neville chuckled. "No, actually, it was me."

Draco's eyes narrowed. "You?"

"It was, but if you try to attack me for something that happened years ago, I'll knock the shite out of you." Neville warned. "Thanks to auror training that you paid for."

"Fuck off, Longbottom. How exactly did you use logic to convince her then? If you brought up fucking her, I want to know about it."

Neville turned towards the door, his fingers wrapping around the door knob. "It was nothing. She's attached to you, and she's a mess, Malfoy. I've never seen someone in so much pain besides you. Regardless, I reminded her that we weren't attached to the other after that."

"She's in pain?" Draco looked towards the floo. "Would she see-"

"Not yet, Malfoy. Don't even try it. Just read her letter, and reply to her. Start small before you fuck it all up." The door closed behind him and the lock clicked into place.

He sat on the sofa, another place that smelled just like her, and flashes of him lifting her to straddle his waist went through his mind. The letter was a simple one, and his heart clenched, and he gnashed his teeth together as he tugged it open.

Draco, I can't begin to understand what's happened. Luna tells me it's old magic, some sort of soulmate charm that Purebloods used in marriage ceremonies. It wasn't supposed to happen, but it has.

And Gods, I just miss you so much. It physically hurts.

X


Hermione was curled up on her sofa with a worn out copy of a Muggle novel when there was a peck at her window. Glancing up she saw an unfamiliar owl, and realised it must have been Malfoy's personal owl. Scalding tea sloshed against her hand as she set her cup down rather harshly. She left her book open, facedown on the table, and the fact she'd left the spine to bend showed just how distracted she was.

Wrenching the window open, the black owl hopped in and perched on the bookshelf below the window. Taking the letter from his leg, she opened it, and leaned against the shelf. "There are some treats in the kitchen." She told the large owl quietly, stroking the top of his head. He flew across her living room.

Thank Merlin you finally wrote me. I thought I was going to go insane. I've torn my flat apart.

Are you alright? Longbottom said you collapsed in St. Mungo's a few days ago. I wanted to visit you, but I thought staying away until you wished to speak to me would be better.

X

She definitely didn't hold the letter to her chest.


I'm mostly fine now. It was merely a lot to take in after leaving your flat. I couldn't understand why I felt so sick after leaving you. At first I thought my contraceptive potion had failed, but as it turns out, it's just that you're my soulmate.

That wasn't funny, was it? Forgive me, I'm trying to make light of this in order to make myself feel better.

The only problem I've truly had was that Ron realized exactly what happened in the training room last week, and I'm preparing for when he tries to confront me about my relationships.

Fuck, talking to you has taken this weight off of my shoulders.

X


Fuck Weasley.

I missed you as well, sweetheart. I wanted to see you, but Longbottom reminded me that it would be a foolish thing to do.

I just don't know where you want to go from here.

X


I want to know you. The thought of searching for a way to reverse this cuts me so deeply. Draco, I don't know you all that well. Which is ludicrous because I know every inch of you. Would you be willing to have dinner with me?

I suppose I should have asked if you wanted to reverse this first. If you do, then I wouldn't stand in the way of that.

X


Being without you has felt like being without air, so no, I don't want to return to a life where I don't know you. It hardly seems like a life I would want at all if I don't know what it's like to feel you beneath me, clinging to me. I want all of you, Granger. Your dreams, your fears, your pleasure.

Mine.

X


Possessive.

X


You have no idea. Are you available this Friday for dinner? And perhaps tomorrow morning for breakfast? I'm visiting France for a few days. While I'll be back by Friday, I can't stand the thought of not seeing you.

Say yes, sweetheart.

X


Yes, come by my flat tomorrow morning. Neville told me you know where I live. It gave me a laugh.

Goodnight, Draco.

X

Hermione had fallen asleep on her couch before the last letter returned to her, and the owl dropped it on her chest before tugging the light blanket over her chest with its beak.