Hermione 14 August 2017
Today - I just don't really know if it is today or if it is still tomorrow - the aurors, lead by Harry, will extract Trini and I. It's been about a week that I've been here. My love told us yesterday - I think - that we'll be free tomorrow. Or today. I wish I knew what day it was. This lightless hole is something that Dumbledore discussed "Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." I need to find the light within. The light that keeps me going.
Draco is my light.
I know it is around Rosie's birthday. Have I missed it? I've never missed it. The day she was born, I promised I would be there for every one of her birthdays after her father missed her birth.
I remember that day. For a month Harry wouldn't talk to Ron. I barely did, but that was because I was working and caring for the newborn. Pretty much by myself. Harry said that Ron was on an assignment for a few days afterwards, reluctantly, that he volunteered for. Who would volunteer for an assignment away from his wife and their new child? My former husband, that's who. I've never talked about it. I've never had to. All his family was there, and most of our friends, when Harry came out and introduced my daughter to her family. It worked because he is her godfather, but it should have been Ronald, her FATHER.
This birthday, she will have lost a father and gained a stepfather in the matter of months. Then I also guess she has a stepmother, maybe.
But she will have a stepfather that I know will take care of her. And Hugo. I wonder if Draco knows Rosie's birthday is coming up. I wouldn't put it past him.
I wonder what my baby girl wants for her birthday this year. I know what I want for her birthday, I want to be home. Home with her and Hugo, maybe a small party, but the family around.
I will invite Draco and Scorpius.
Ginny probably has something planned already. I just hope that I can be part of it.
I have to be. I have to be there for my baby girl. I will get out of here. I will get home. I will be there to see her turn eleven. I will go shopping with her in Diagon Alley. We will find her wand and get her supplies. Because in a few short weeks she will be off to Hogwarts.
I need to be there. I want to see the color of her cake.
Close my eyes. Think about the color of her cake and her blowing out eleven candles.
Trini is shaking me awake. "Hermione, wake up. I hear it starting. Get up!"
"What? It's now?"
We both hear a fight going on outside the door. Brace yourself for when the door opens.
"Remember to stay low and stay with the aurors, just like Draco said."
"I don't remember him saying it, but thank you."
The door flew open and two aurors I recognized and one I didn't came in. "Mr Nott is going to take you Trini to the safe house. Mrs Weasley, you're with me." Theo Nott came in shortly afterwards and picked up Trini, I remember him vaguely from school. The one auror I didn't recognize pulled me up. "Can you walk ma'am?" I shake my head, I really didn't think my legs would hold me.
"Hermione," Theo turned to me, "I hope you don't mind me calling you that… but here you'll need this." He hands me my wand. "Do you still have the anklet Draco gave you?" I nod. "Good. Let's get you two ladies back." Nodding to the auror, the two of them carry us outside the main room; the one that we were originally in. It reminds me of the Battle of Hogwarts. Fighting going on everywhere. But this time, it is obvious that we are winning.
I see Harry advancing on the leader of the group. Then I see him punch him. "That's what you get for kidnapping my best friend!" And he was out cold. Harry just turned around and downed four or five of his inner circle before we got out of the hall and apparated.
We landed in a hotel suite. I recognize it because there were meetings held here with the Muggle President.
"Honey! Trini! Thank Merlin you two are safe." It's Draco. He picks me up and Theo has Trini. He looks at Theo, "Ready?" Nodding Theo apparates again with Trini and Draco takes me in his arms, "I have you honey. Just relax." He apparates us away.
He lays me down on a plush - is this a bed? My eyes close from just being near him and his safe feeling. "Shhh honey, sleep. I'll be here when you wake up. I love you" are the last words I remember before drifting off into sleep again.
It was still dark outside when my eyes opened voluntarily this time. I recognize the arm around me, his smell - cologne sweat and apples, the gentle touch, the sweetness of his warm breath on my neck. "Draco?"
"What are you doing awake honey?"
"I just wanted to make sure this isn't a dream and I was still in that pit." I didn't know what else to say right then. "What day is it?"
"You haven't missed it honey." He calmly says.
"What? You don't even know…"
"Harry told me. You didn't miss Rose's birthday. It's tomorrow. If you eat something and get some strength, Harry said you can stay with her and be there when she wakes up. You are all she wants for her birthday." His gentle eyes held mine, "we wanted to make sure you didn't miss it. Ginny has a party planned, she took care of everything. You just need to be there for her when she wakes up."
His caresses lulled me back into a peaceful slumber. I will see my little girl. I will hold her. My husband and best friends made sure of it.
Now, the question is, will my former husband see fit.
There was light peeking through the sheer curtains of the room that I was lying in today. I was in comfort for the first time in weeks, not just not in pain, but comfortable. It was an overly plush mattress framed by a dark wooden four poster bed frame. Fabric drifted down from the beams between the posters, similar to the fabric on the windows. It was breezy and light throughout. A large fan circled and hummed above us.
Draco was holding me like he was never going to let me go. I wanted it. I needed it. I wasn't going to let him let go. Ever.
This is what I should have had with Ron. It's what I could have had with Draco years ago.
I will make up the time with every kiss, every time we make love. I will show him that he was always the one and I am so grateful for second chances.
"I know you're awake," he whispers in my ear.
"Just hungry. Well famished. And is that breakfast I smell?"
"You need to eat breakfast and lunch then we will go home. You can be there when Rose wakes up. You'll be the biggest and best birthday present that she could ask for."
"Thank you."
"You never need to thank me. I just am glad I was able to help." His gentle touch on my arms soothes any sores that I have from my time in that hole. "And now I'm so happy to have you back. Ecstatic doesn't begin to explain it. Please don't do that again. Don't scare me like that."
"I won't. I will be home for a couple days for Rosie, then I have one meeting that is a no-miss. It's about what happened with Ron and Harry. So I have to go."
"No honey, you don't."
"Yes I do."
"I'm sending Theo with you then. Don't even try and say no. You're lucky I'm not coming with you."
"Why don't you?"
"Scorpius. He asked me to go shopping with him."
"Not Astoria?"
"She will be there too. But he asked for both of us. It's the least we can do for him."
"That is so different… than Ron."
"I heard. He should be glad I wasn't around earlier. I don't have Harry's restraint." He kissed my cheek gently. "Honey you do need to eat though."
"I'd rather be not eating." I rolled over to face him. All I wanted to do right now was to thank him properly. I pull myself up to kiss him, one of the things I want to do over and over to my husband.
"Eat." He drew out the word, sat me up, and put at tray of food in front of me. "You're going to be running on adrenaline once you step into the Potter's."
Breakfast was divine. It was an explosion for my taste buds, over and over. Draco insisted that I stay in bed for breakfast, so I rested between his legs while he rubbed my shoulders, whispering how much he missed me and catch me up with everything I've missed. There was one thing that I missed, and now that I have it back I'm keeping him close. Feeling his strong body behind me, protecting me, loving me is sensual and eliciting the animal attraction between us. I run my free hand down his leg, and I feel him sigh deeply.
"Honey," he has a strained tone to his voice, "I love you. I've missed you. But this isn't the time. You need your strength." He then leans down and starts kissing my ear and moving down my neck. "I love you so much Hermione Malfoy." I get goosebumps hearing him say that. "You are one of the best things in my life. I was terrified. But you're safe. You're home. I have you."
Words I remember hearing in the darkness that was bleaker than the night. 'I have you.' Three words that exemplified the love he has for me. He risked so much to get me, even if just for a few minutes.
Now he has me and he isn't letting go. I'm not either.
"Draco." A mummer fell from my lips.
"Yes love."
"I want you."
I feel him smiling against my cheek. It was soft and warm and ernest. "Not tonight honey. When we get home, our home, then we can."
"Our home?" What did he mean by that?
"It's a surprise my bride. Consider it a wedding present."
"Draco Lucius Malfoy," I said sternly, "I haven't got you anything."
"Yes you did. You gave me your heart. You've had mine for years, so that couldn't be my present to you. But your love, that is the greatest gift."
This is one of the few Author's Notes around, not that I don't like them, it is just when reading they break my train of thought.
Thank you for all the follows and reviews I've got. Even the reads. I am humbled. Honored really.
I must apologize for the delay in the posting I try to post the day after the events but it was my anniversary on the 12th and well hubby was stuck at work. :/ So he has tried to make up for it... unsuccessfully.
I am in the process of writing a sequel to this (since this was completed last year). I will be working on it once my kiddo is back in school on the 23rd.
Again, thank you for the reviews, follows, and favorites. When I see them in my email, I blush.
