Chapter 20 – Picture perfect memories

"Hermione. Wake up, babe, wake up." Hermione's eye sleepily opened to see Draco leaning over her a small smile on his face.

She immediately reached up and pulled him into a hug, "You're ok!"

"Ouch! Hermione my wrist, my wrist!" She quickly released him to see his braced wrist.

"Sorry! How are you? Are you ok?"

"I'm fine but I see you found my photo book." He said gesturing to the two books lying on the bed next to her.

She slightly blushed, "Yeah… sorry I was just…. Umm… I was-"

"It's fine." He reassured her as he sat down on the bed, picking up the photo album and opening it, "I haven't looked at this in almost three years." He said softly as he flicked through the book. Hermione watched him with a soft heart as he stopped on the last page, he stared at it for a moment, "We were so happy here."

"What happened?"

He took a shaky breath as he gently ran his fingers over the photo, "The day after this was taken my father was contacted… death-eaters… it had been almost ten years since they had anything to do with any of that and then all of a sudden they turned up at our door saying they had plans to bring him back and that they needed our family to be apart of it… that's when everything changed, I didn't even know anything about muggle-borns or death-eaters or any of that evil stuff, I was just a kid and it was all thrown at me. Everything changed, my father became stern and distant my mother got depressed and now… now I haven't even talked or heard from parents since I came back to Hogwarts." A small gasp escaped Hermione's lips.

"Draco… I'm sor-"

"Don't say you're sorry, just don't. It's not your fault. It's no ones fault."

"But… Draco…"

"It's fine." He sighed as he closed the book, "I'm fine." He put it to the side and turned to her, her eyes filled with sympathy, "Don't look at me like that!"

"Like what?"

"Like you're sorry for me, I don't need or want your sympathy!"

"Ok. I won't feel sorry for you; I shouldn't be feeling sorry for you. I haven't seen my parents in two years so I'm in no position to feel sorry for you."

Draco furrowed his eyebrows, "I thought they found your parents?"

"They did but there's no spell that can undo the 'oblivate' spell aside from scruciating torture that could trigger and that's still a weak possibility so I decided that they should just continue as they were, living happily in Australia with their peaceful lives… I'll probably never see them again." Hermione said looking down at her hands.

There was a moment of silence before Draco broke it trying to get Hermione to smile again, "Crap!"

"What?" She slightly sniffed as she tried to hold back tears.

"Now you've got me feeling sorry for you! You little minx!" Hermione slightly laughed. Draco smiled at her smile and leaned over to her and gave her a sweet kiss causing a smile her smile to slightly grow but as he went to lean in and deepen the kiss but she pulled away, "Nope."

"What? Why?!"

"Because you're injured and you need time to heal so none of this until you're better."

"But we can still do other things, for example." He placed a soft kiss on her lips, "Or this." He kissed her again, "and this," he kissed her neck.

"N-No. Draco. No! I don't want to be the reason your hand doesn't get better so yes we can make out but until you get better we cant do anything that could make your hand worse."

He pouted and sighed, "Fine!"

She slightly grinned at his childishness and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, "I know it sucks but it's for the best."

"Yeah, yeah I know. So what else have you been doing aside from snooping through me room?"

"I wasn't snooping!"

"I know, I'm just teasing. So what else did you …" He trailed off his eyes furrowed, "Where's your necklace?" Her smile died down and she looked at her hands trying to avoid the conversation, "Hermione, what did you do?"

"I, umm, I may have got it confiscated from my possession."

"And how exactly did that happen?"

"Well, I was angry with Ron and so I stormed into the Gryffindor Common Room and started screaming at him for being a self ritous douche and then I may have … performed a few spells I know on him."

Draco's eyes widened and a smug smirk crept onto his face, "Jeeze! I think I may have rubbed off on you too much. I think your skills may be better in Slytherin"

"Don't mock! I've never done anything like that! I was so blinded by anger that I just – just BLEW UP!"

Draco bit back his smirk and pushed her hair back of her face, "Ok, ok. I know that you must be hating yourself at the moment but I'm sure I could do something to get your mind off it." He leaned forward and kissed her attentively. She only momentarily leaned in before pulling away. "We just discussed this."

"Oh come on! Have a little faith, I can control myself if I have to."

"I do have some faith in that you can control yourself and I also have faith in myself but do I have faith in the both of us, together, is questionable."

"You do make a good point. But I also know that if we try to ignore or avoid it we're eventually going to and when we do it's going to be a lot more… dangerous?"

She slightly smirked, "We lasted three months, I'm sure we can last a few weeks." She said as she gave him a short sweet kiss before standing up.

"Where are you going?"

"Well, I was thinking of sitting in our common room, in front of the fire curled up with a nice cup of tea and a good book."

He slightly furrowed his eyebrows a curious smile on his face.

"Well I have to do something to keep my mind off… that! You're welcome to join but you have to keep you're distance."

"By distance?"

"The closest you can be is in the seat across from the couch."

"What about when we go to bed?"

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows, "I guess… well we've just slept before why not now?"

"Because now we know we cant touch which is only going to make us want each other more and may I remind you what we wear to bed."

"Umm… maybe you should wear pants, and a shirt then."

"I'm fine with that and it's not you that im worried about, it's me. You wear a practically see through white singlet and underwear. How the hell am I going to control myself when you wear that!?"

She sighed, "Maybe… maybe we should-"

"Don't say it!"

"You have no idea what I was going to say!"

"Let me guess, was it something along the lines of 'move back to our house dorms' ?"

"No! I was going to say that we should sleep in different rooms."

"Oh… I'm not sure which is worse though."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if I was in the Slytherin dorms I wouldn't have to know that you were in the next room but if I stay here it will be like that and it may be worse than being apart."

"Well, you could look at it that way but we wouldn't get to see each other in the morning before we have to go to classes and we wouldn't be able to see each other before we go to sleep and we wouldn't get any chance at being alone together."

A soft smile was pasted on Draco's lips, "You're right it would be worse."

"I'm always right!" She said self-centeredly.

"This is what I'm talking about, Gryffindor equals Cocky!"

"I'm not cocky! You just rub off on me!" she said as she tried to look serious but couldn't help the smile tugging at her lips. She took a deep breath, "I'm going down to our common room to read, do you want to join?"

He smiled softly at her, "I'll be down in a sec."

She shrugged and walked out of the room.

As the door closed behind her Draco let out a shaky breath, opening the photo book back to the last page. He remembered that day so clearly.

"What are you two doing out there?" shouted his mother from the back door of the Malfoy Mansion. At this point in time she had died her hair completely blonde – Malfoy blonde – it was tied up in a high ponytail, her fringe side swept. She was wearing bright blue jeans and a white singlet with heaps of silver necklaces, all different lengths, as well as her blue ballet flats. She was probably about 32, his father 35, Draco being only four at the time.

"Nothing dear!" his father shouted back as he hoisted Draco up so that he could get a better grip of the tree branch. His hair short at this point in time, all ruffled up. He was wearing plain black pants and a white button up shirt, the first few buttons undone and his sleeves rolled up.

"Doesn't look like nothing!" She yelled back as she made her way over to them. Just as Draco got a good footing and hoisted himself up onto the branch his mother exclaimed, "Draco! What are you doing up there!"

"Being a snake!" He said as he stood up and wiggled his hips while giggling.

"HE'S GOING TO FALL! DRACO GET DOWN NOW BEFORE YOU HURT YOUSELF!"

"He's fine! He's a Malfoy, he'll be fine. He's just having a little fun." Chuckled Lucious as he watched his son crawl further up the tree.

"you shouldn't be laughing! He could fall and hurt himself! DRACO PLEASE GET DOWN!"

"But I don't want to!" Draco yelled from one of the top branch.

He almost lost his footing which only cause her to panic even more, "DRACO! COME DOWN BEFORE YOU FALL!"

"I'm not going to fall!"

"He's not going to fall." Lucious confirmed as he leaned against the tree.

"DRACO! IF YOU DON'T COME DOWN HERE I'M COMING UP TO GET YOU!"

"Ok!" Draco shrugged as he continued discovering the tree.

Lucious started to laugh, "You're not going to go up there."

"Why not?!"

"Firstly, you can't climb. Secondly, you have a fear of heights remember? You had a panic attack when we were on the eiffle tower. You refuse to get on a broom or even when we stay at hotels you wont go above the fourth floor so… no. you're not going to go up there."

"Well… watch me!" Lucious laughed as he watched his wife tried to get a grip on the tree and climb up it.

THUMP! She had fallen on her butt. Lucious continued to laugh as he helped her up. She huffed as she dusted off the dirt. "DRACO! PLEASE! GET DOWN!"

"No!"

She huffed again and turned to the laughing Lucious, "Well atleast we know he's your son!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"He's got your stubbornness!"

"Correction – he has the Malfoy stubbornness"

"Give me your wand so that I can get him down!"

"No."

"AHH! Fine! I'll go get mine!" With that she stormed back in the house.

As soon as the door closed behind her Lucious hoisted himself up into the tree.

He soon found Draco and sat next to him, "Hi dad." Draco said carelessly as he tried to balance on the branch.

Lucious quickly whipped out his wand, a flick, and then he put it away again.

"What was that?" Draco asked as he sat down next to his father.

"Your mother went to get her wand so she can get you down so I put a protective spell on us that she can't" He said with a wink.

"That's amazing!"

Narcissa came storming out again, her wand ready. "Draco if you don't get- Lucious! What are you doing up there!?"

Both Malfoy's chuckled slightly, "Protecting my son from the fun police!"

"STOP MESSING AROUND! HE COULD FALL!"

"He's not gonna fall!"

"I'm not going to fall!" added Draco.

"Oh god. Oh god. Oh god." She started umbling as she paced infront of the tree looking up at the two grinning blonde's.

After about half an hour Narcissa ended up sitting down on the grass glaring up at the two of them while she mentally tried to figure out a way to get them down. Lucious whispering cheeky things about his wife to his son causing the little blonde to go into fits of giggles.

Another half an hour later and Narcissa was still thinking but Lucious and Draco had decided to see if they could climb any higher and descover other branches.

Eventually, about two hours later, Draco and Lucious climbed down to find Narcissa lying on her side, hand resting under her head, fast asleep. Just before Draco went to wake her luscious stopped him, whispering a plan in his son's ear.

Draco went and stood behind her, being as quiet as possible. Lucious gave his son a wink before roughly shaking his wife awake, "NARCISSA! DRACO FELL! HE'S HURT! I NEED YOUR HELP!"

She immediately got on her feet, her eyes filled with panic, "Where is he?! Where's my baby?!"

Draco went into a fit of giggles, "I'm right here mum."

She turned around immediately, panic slowly disappearing from her eyes at the realisation that they were messing with her. She spun back around to face her laughing husband, "This is not funny!"

"Yes it is!" Draco giggled as he ran up to his parents, one hand holding onto his mother's jeans as he looked up at her with that childish smile of his.

She couldn't hold back her small smile as she picked up her son, "It's not! But im going to let it slide because it's almost dinner time and you need to get washed up."

"But I'm not dirty!" Wined Draco.

"You've been climbing in a tree all day, I beg to differ."

Draco looked at his father for back up but got none, "Your mother is right, you need a bath."

Draco pouted and put his head down as his mother carried him into the house to get ready for dinner.

Draco didn't realise that he had been crying until a few tears splashed onto the page. Everything had been so perfect until they arrived. He hazerdly wiped away his tears and shut the book. He quickly got to his feet and rushed over to the bathroom. He quickly grabbed the sink for balance as more tears escaped his eyes as more perfect memories filled his thoughts. He took a few more shaky breaths but then even more memories came flooding in, happy ones form before they arrived and then there were the ones from after they arrived. Ever since they came into his life everything had changed, his father went cold, he was no longer aloud to call him 'dad' it was always 'father' his mother couldn't look anyone in the eye and was falling into a sea of depression. Draco himself was no longer happy, never could be, his happy family home now terrified him. He didn't even know if his parents were alive or not. A few small cries escaped his lips and his legs slightly shook but then something caught the corner of his eyes, a green hairbrush, Hermione's green hairbrush and everything went stopped. The pain, the tears, the memories all stopped and all that he saw was her. The only image he saw was her and he calmed down. He looked at himself in the mirror, taking deep calming breaths, his eyes and face were red and puffy, tears staining his cheeks. He quickly turned on the tap, washing his face, trying to get rid of any sign that he'd been crying, he didn't want Hermione pestering him about it. After making sure that all signs of his crying were gone he grabbed his book; the lion the witch and the wardrobe, and headed downstairs. About halfway down the stairs he heard Hermione, "I don't want to talk to you! Just leave!"

He sped up his pace to find Hermione standing with her arms crossed in front of a red-headed weasel.

"I said I'm sorry! Just stop ignoring me! Please!"

"Why should I?!"

"Because I'm your friend! Your best friend! We've known each other since we started Hogwarts! We cant let something like a stupid spat with Malfoy get in the way of that!"

Draco decided to make them known to his presence, "My wrist would have to disagree with it being a stupid spat because obviously it did some damage."

"Malfoy!" Ron growled while glaring at him.

"THIS IS WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT! YOU TURN INTO A CAVE MAN WHEN YOU'RE AROUND HIM! IT'S RIDCULOUS!"

"I'll be over here minding my own business by the way." Draco said as he plopped down in the armchair, while opening his book to the bookmarked page.

Hermione rolled her eyes at his comment but went back to yelling at Ron, "Just get out! I don't want to talk to you! Leave! NOW!"

"NO!"

"IT'S NOT YOUR DORM! SO GET OUT!"

"NO! HERMIONE WHY WON'T YOU JUST FORGIVE ME ALREADY!" He screamed as he grabbed her arms.

Draco was no longer reading, he was eyeing Ron, making sure he didn't do go to far with this argument.

"LET GO OF ME!"

"NO! NOT UNTIL YOU ANSWER ME!" He tightened his grip causing a small gasp of pain to escape Hermione's lips, her eyes slightly watering, "Ron… You're hurting me!"

"ANSWER ME!"

"STUPIFY!"

Ron landed with a thud against the wall, Hermione rubbing her sore arms while Draco continued to point his wand at Ron, "I think it's best you leave."

"I'm not leaving until I get answers!" He spat as he got to his feet.

"Look mate-"

"I'M NOT YOUR 'MATE'!"

"What ever, when a women tells you to leave it usually means you leave, now go before I get McGonagall in here. I'm sure she wont be so leanent this time after she find out that you came storming in here, practically threatening Hermione and what not. So how about you leave or I make you leave?" making sure he said his last words with his most threatening stare.

Ron looked over at Hermione for a second; she had her head down, facing away from Ron, rubbing her arms, before glaring back at Draco. With that he stormed out. As soon as he was gone Draco quickly rushed over to the painting whispering something to it before darting over to the shaking Hermione and pulling her close. She started to sob as she leaned into him.

"Shh, it's ok, he'll be fine he's, you'll be fine. You two will get over this, you cant let me stand between your friendship." He told her calmingly.

"But he's just… just… just… AHH! Why does he do this!" She screamed as she continued to let Draco hold her.

He slightly chuckled, "He's a Weasly."

This caused her to slightly laugh, "That's not funny."

"It's kind of funny."

She took a deep breath and leaned back slightly so that they were looking at each other, "Thank you." She said as she leaned up and kissed his cheek.

"It's what I do." He answered with a smirk. He partly lay down on the couch, pulling Hermione down with him so that she was lying in between his legs, leaning against his chest. Her hands were loosely sitting on her stomach; Draco wrapped his arms around her, intertwining their fingers. They stayed like that for a while, just laying there, in comfortable silence, Draco sometime whispering sweet nothings in her ear causing her to smile softly. Eventually Hermione started to drift off to sleep and so did Draco. She fell sleep listening to the calm, steady beat of his heart while he fell asleep listening to her soft, almost silent, breathing.

Did you like it? Please Review!