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When they came downstairs after unpacking Draco's trunk, Snape had decided to leave. He patted on Draco's back and left after saying "Trust Me". Draco just nodded. They entered the living room where Moody was pacing- or limping back and forth. Lupin was sitting on an armchair and Tonks was looking at nothing in particular with a faraway expression. But they all looked at the pair when they came, hands knotted together. Moody scoffed. Lupin gave a shrug and Tonks gave a faint smile.
"We'll have to arrange a lot of things. Lots of change of plans." Moody rumbled.
"We can't take any decisions on our own. We need to check with Dumbledore. After all he knows what's going on. Frankly I still am not clear how Draco came to the Order." Lupin said glancing at Malfoy.
"Another Death Eater in the Order." Moody muttered with disgust. Malfoy couldn't help tense a bit.
"Draco….. What happened? I guess you owe us an explanation." Tonks said looking at her cousin. She couldn't help notice how much he had grown. Why, she only remembered when he could hardly speak a word and giggle at each face she made. Tonks could only remember the cute toddler.
Draco glanced at Hermione and they both related what happened, leaving out the parts of Dumbledore's planned death. After all it wasn't their story to tell, though how much Hermione wanted to tell. She had countless of times tried to convince the headmaster to change his mind. With him gone, how were they going to face the coming war? But it was useless. Dumbledore had his own plans.
When they finished telling their story, they were greeted with a surprised silence.
"Well, we're really lucky that Draco decided to switch sides. Just think what it would be like if we had not known. Without Dumbledore it would have been a tough fight for us." Lupin said.
Moody still looked at Draco skeptically. He still wasn't that sure of Draco. It was definitely fishy that he had suddenly felt all this unbelievable remorse so quickly and how he had attached himself to Hermione. Moody felt there was something behind Draco's switch, something possibly between Malfoy and Snape. And he was going to find it out even if it killed him.
Alastor Moody then declared that he wished to go to Dumbledore.
Deciding to leave Lupin and Tonks alone to discuss matters, Draco and Hermione decided to head back upstairs. Their fingers entwined together, as they climbed up the stairs in silence.
"Where's your room?" Draco asked, as they climbed the last flight of stairs.
Hermione gave a shy smile and guided him to the room nearby. It was just like the one he was given to stay but her room had a brighter and lively look than his. Draco studied the room, as if it was something that would have come for his N.E.W.T paper. He noticed a picture on the dresser and picked up the frame. There was a photo of the younger version of the trio. The 'golden' trio. Potter, Weasley and Hermione looked like they were twelve or thirteen. Probably the second year. The year Hermione was attacked by the basilisk. The year Draco had wished Hermione dead. It was bitter but true. Draco gazed at the laughing figure of Hermione, her arms around Potters and Weasley's shoulders, laughing at the camera, her hair flying around. Weasley was grinning stupidly, one arm around her waist. Potter was smiling shyly, his hair a crows nest. But Draco gazed at Hermione in the photo. Then he looked up to look at the Hermione standing beside him. The Hermione he had grown to love and know.
Hermione looked at Draco questioningly. His lips were in a slight smile as he kept the picture down.
"You look cute." He said and Hermione couldn't help blush.
"Nah, look at my teeth. They're huge."
"Cute."
"Thanks to you, I got them fixed. Why hadn't I ever thought of that?"
Malfoy frowned at the memory in the fourth year. How he had hexed at Potter, and it had hit Hermione instead. He scowled. What a git he had been. An utter moron.
"Gosh, stop blaming yourself. Forget what you used to be." Hermione scolded. "What matters is that you don't feel the same at the present. You don't, do you?" She asked.
"Never." Malfoy swore.
"That's good." She said softly, with a smile and kissed his cheek.
Malfoy felt his body snap inside as he felt her lips on his cheek. It was as if something inside had just switched on or something. He wasn't gonna let Hermione just get away with only a kiss on his cheek. He pulled Hermione back to him, and snuggled his face to her neck. Hermione gave a slight moan. Draco trailed his lips against her neck till they reached to her soft lips. He gently sucked her lower lip, pulling Hermione as closer as he could. He felt her hands clutching the front of his shirt. He gently nipped her lip and gave a faint growl. Hermione giggled. She slightly withdrew from him.
"Enough. You're making me …."
Malfoy raised his eyebrow, a slight smirk on his lips.
Hermione gave a sigh. "Restless." She whispered as she gently pushed him back.
Malfoy adorably groaned. "I didn't see you for days…." He said huskily. Hermione giggled, dodging Draco's arms, which were trying to catch her.
"Try to catch me!"
Draco smirked as he lunged at her. Hermione squealed as she felt Draco's arms around her, and his weight against her as they fell on the bed. Hermione giggled as Draco grinned. They gazed at each other, smiling.
"I missed you." Hermione said.
"Me too." Draco said solemnly, as he snuggled closer to Hermione. They stared at each others eyes, as if they read something they only understood. "When did you come here?" Draco asked as he fingered Hermione's locks.
"Well, last week. I begged Mom to let me come. I said I had some stuff to ask from a wizard friend."
"Whoa, Hermione Granger lied to her mother? Imagine that." Draco smirked playfully.
"Well, I did have a question to ask….."
"What is it? How you side apparate? How can you brew a fool proof liquid luck?" he teased.
"No…"
"Then…..?"
"Do you love me?" Hermione's lips were in a shy smile.
"More than you can imagine." Draco said fiercely.
"I know" But Hermione's eyes shone brighter than before.
"So you were alone here for a week?"
"Well, yeah, after I got to know that you were going to come here…"
"I tried sending letters to you but they returned back."
"Really?" Hermione smiled wide. "Well, you can't send owls here. This is supposed to be a hidden place. Only Dumbledore's owls make it here. I couldn't send owls either because I don't have an owl. Still I didn't want to let Harry or Ron know about my coming here. I don't want to mess their Christmas holiday when they can stay with their family."
"But Potter doesn't have….."
"The Weasley's have been the closest Harry could have. So it almost is his family. They consider it that way."
"That's…nice."
"It is. Me and Ron try as much as we can to include Harry in everything."
Draco was silent a bit. A thought nagged him.
"I still don't understand how you and Weasel ended up being back to BFFs …" Not wanting any argument like the ones they had before, he gently urged. "Tell me about it."
Hemrione smiled. "I don't know. He was a big part in my life, Draco. It was a bit hard to forget him."
"But he was a bloody insensitive git….. I mean, he broke your heart."
"Sometimes, forgiving is important than holding a grudge for something someone did before."
Draco couldn't help feeling impatient. "He left you crying every freaking night. You were a mess because of him"
"Yes, but that was because I was in love with him. But now, why would I hold a grudge against him? I'm entirely over him. I love you, so there's no reason for me to be all nasty to him. Nor does he, 'cause he loves Lavender."
"Hmmmm… I guess that's reasonable. Who surrendered first?"
"Ron did." Hermione said remembering with a smile. "I was in the library and he came and sat beside me. He said he was sorry, that he was an all round git and that he missed me and if we could be friends again. He apologized for being mean and that he hasn't forgiven himself for what he did."
"And you believed him…." Draco said looking up at the ceiling.
"It was all in his eyes. I said I was sorry too cause I've being underestimating him all the time. I didn't believe in him. So we were back in speaking terms and I realized how much I missed him. He made Lavender be nice to me too."
Draco stared at the ceiling silently.
"He didn't exactly understand the relationship between you and me." Hermione continued. "He's still convinced that you're the bad guy."
"You didn't tell him about the switch?"
"No, not yet. He's still Ron."
Draco turned to face Hermione.
"Hermione?"
She smiled. She loved hearing him say her name. "Yeah?"
"Are you sure you don't want to be with Weasley?"
Hermione looked at him, taken aback by the question.
"Look, its okay, I guess, if you still fancy him. I mean he fancied you too. Even after we started going out. And you always came back looking all happy and bright after chatting—"
Hermione gently placed a finger on his lips, still staring at him. She fingered his lips absent mindedly. Then her hand went down and rested on his chest.
"Is that what you think?"
Draco couldn't ignore the sudden cold tone that came to her voice, but it was too late. He had said what he felt. He nodded.
"You still think so?"
"I still feel that you'd want the good guy better."
Hermione looked at Draco, her face expressionless. Draco couldn't interpret what she was feeling. He closed his eyes and sighed. What the bloody hell had he done? He had started it again. Not even a day had gone and they were back to the route of the cold treatment. Draco sat up on the bed. He ran his hand through his hair. Then he felt slender arms wrap around his waist. He felt the soft bundle of hair against his shoulder.
"If I fancied Ron I wouldn't be friends with him, would I?"
Draco couldn't help feeling relieved and more satisfied. He smiled, stroking her hand.
"So the friendship between you two means that you love me?"
"Of course." She smiled ruffling Draco's hair more and got off the bed. With a content smile Draco followed her downstairs.
The rest of the day went by, as Hermione and Draco talked with Lupin about what they were going to do. Draco didn't talk much, just listened to the other two talk. Then Hermione helped with some of the homework Snape and McGonagall had given them. Kingsley dropped by to hear draco's story, trying to find some glitch in it. Nobody seemed to trust Draco. Lupin didn't make it a big issue though. Draco couldn't help feeling a bit grateful to his ex-defense against the dark arts teacher.
Hermione felt a small bubble of happiness inside her, now that Draco was here. She constantly studied his face, mesmerized how perfectly his face was shaped, how precisely his nosed was placed and how soft his hair was. She would, at random moments, reach out and run her fingers through his hair. He would glance at her and smile blushing so bad, Hermione couldn't help giggle.
Before they had dinner Hermione sneaked off to her bed room and got out the list of stuff she was thinking to order from Diagon Alley to be delivered on Christmas. She smiled at her list neatly written on a piece of parchment. After making sure there was no mistake, she went to ask Draco if she could borrow his owl.
"What for?"
"To send a love letter"
Draco frowned.
Hermione laughed. "Loosen up, silly. I'm just sending a love letter to Santa." She teased.
Draco couldn't help feeling relieved. For a fraction of a moment he had actually thought she was sending a love letter or something. He gave a faint smile.
"Sure. Just tickle Silver under the neck first. Or she might bite you." he warned before he went back to the book Hermione had given to read. He had never tried muggle fiction. It was called "Shakespear". There were a collection of stories and so far from what he had read, most of them depressed him. He couldn't help wondering what was wrong with muggles. But right now he was reading a much more interesting story. "A Winter's Tale". He couldn't help smile every time the name "Hermione" came up in the story.
Hermione took Draco's owl from the cage and skipped off to her room, humming happily. She very much hoped that Draco would love her present.
XD review what ya think XD