A/N: This is not a new chapter, just a bit of a rewrite to the old chapter 16. Hopefully, chapter 17 will be coming soon. I can't promise frequent updates, but there will be more updates.
Chapter 16 - Christmas
It ended up that Hermione and Draco did not get up to much more mischief that day. They spent most of it just talking about everything and nothing. Hermione enjoyed spending time with Draco, conversation flowed easily, just like breathing. Really, once he had gotten over the whole 'all muggle-borns are filth' thing, he was really a great guy.
He had bid her goodnight at around 5 o'clock, saying he had promised to be home for dinner. She was sad to see him go, though she had a hard time accepting why. 'I miss him' she concluded, marvelling at how silly it was, but was it really that silly? She was used to seeing him everyday in lessons, and then after dinner. She enjoyed his presence, there was something calming about it, having someone who understood her. Maybe Harry could kind of understand her, he had gone through a lot too, but Draco had seen her pain, and gone through it himself. That night, they had been connected in something dreadful, yet it seemed to have taken a turn for the better.
The flow of the days continued with Draco writing to her constantly. He still hated how it was at home, but it was slightly better knowing he was not alone.
Soon enough, it was Christmas. Hermione had arranged to spend the actual Christmas with her family, and Boxing Day at The Burrow with the Weasleys, as they had really become like a second family to her. Harry would also be there, and she had not seen him for ages. She had also barely written to him, something she felt awful for. She was not sure she wanted to see Ron though. Though they had been friends for ages, she had still not quite forgiven him. She understood that he was upset, but not writing to her and snogging other girls really was not the answer.
Christmas night, the night before she was going to The Burrow for a couple days, she had the weirdest dream yet. Her dreams had been odd for a while now. Though her nightmares were getting better, she found she often woke up confused rather than terrified in a cold sweat.
That night, she dreamed she was back at Hogwarts, just getting out of bed, but found she was under some sort of restraint. She looked down to find an arm draped around her, and realized with a shock she was naked. She looked over to see that the arm belonged to Draco, and her eyes widened with shock at what must have occurred. Then, the arm turned into a metal restraint, and she felt cuffs on her arms and legs too. She struggled and struggled until the metal restraints turned into a very confused Draco. He asked her why she was struggling and what was wrong. She however, could not speak. She was so confused at what had just happened, and the fact that Draco was completely naked as her struggling had thrown the sheets off him, that her vocal chords simply refused to work.
She woke up confused as always, trying to shake the image of a naked-Draco from her mind. She went downstairs to have breakfast, then showered, got dressed, and brushed her teeth like the good daughter of two dentists. When she had finished packing, it was 10:54, and she was planning on arriving at 11. She double checked she had remembered everything, and Apparated to The Burrow.
"Hermione!" She was greeted by the cries of . She wondered how many of the rest of the Weasley clan was even awake, as she remembered, most of the children did not like waking up before noon, even if it was for their mother's cooking.
"Hi ." Hermione greeted her with a smile. "Good Christmas?"
"Oh, it was wonderful! Most of the boys are still sleeping, we had the whole family over this time." Said happily, but Hermione could see the sadness in her eyes, and knew that the whole family had not been there, because of Fred.
"Oh that's wonderful. Do you want any help making lunch?"
"Oh no, dear. Don't you worry about me, I'm used to feeding this lot." Mrs Weasley smiled at her. "Now, why don't you go upstairs and put your stuff in Ginny's room? I'm sure she will be happy to see you."
As soon as Hermione walked through the door, Harry and Ginny pulled apart, looking very embarrassed.
"Hermione!" Ginny flung her arms around her friend, recovering quickly. Harry had the decency to continue to look awkward at the situation.
"Er... Hi Hermione. Sorry 'bout that." He mumbled. Hermione laughed at her friend's bashfulness.
"No use hiding in a corner Harry." She smiled. "Get your arse over here." Harry laughed and went over to join in the hug of two of his favourite women in the whole world.
"So, Hermione." Ginny began after they had broken apart. "What's the deal with Malfoy?" Hermione groaned. That was the very question she had been asking herself for a while, and she had been hoping for a bit more time of reflection on the subject before someone brought it up.
"You're going to have to be more specific, Gin. He's a very complicated person." She laughed.
"Well how about you start from the beginning?" Harry suggested.
"Alright, you two. Do you think Ron should be here for this?" She asked.
"Er... Ron's not really being the most open-minded about this. I'm sure he'll come around eventually, but right now he's being a bloody stubborn git."
"Well, he is Ronald Weasley." She laughed. "I guess I'll tell him later then. Sit yourselves down, I'll start from when you last saw me." Harry and Ginny sat themselves down on Ginny's bed, and Hermione sat down on the bed she would be occupying for the next few days.
"Well, as you two know, this year, I was made Head Girl, and upon arriving, I found out that Draco had been made Head Boy. Because of this, we had to share the same quarters. The first night, McGonagall let us eat in our common room, so we could have a little peace. As we were eating Draco apologized to me! It was so bizarre, the great Draco Malfoy looking so sad about every bad thing he had ever done, and just outright apologizing. After that, we managed a fairly good routine, we weren't friends or anything, but we weren't hostile either. It was strange, but nice, just having someone to be pleasant with who wasn't pushing for anything more. It changed when you sent me that letter though, Harry.
I got your letter at lunch, and went back to the common room to read it. I, well, I had a bit of a breakdown, I knew that things were bad with Ron, but I wasn't sure how bad there were until that point. I just couldn't take it anymore, with all the stress of school, struggling with what happened in the war, it was like the final straw. I just, I really thought it was going to work between us, then we had that horrid fight, I just wished I could take back everything I had said, but at the same time, I had to say them. I just felt so confused and awful about the whole thing. Anyway, I was crying in the common room, and Draco walked in and asked to read your letter. I'm not sure why, but I let him.
After he was done reading the letter, I had regained most of my composure, and so I apologized for making him see that, and he did the weirdest thing. He acted like he actually cared, and told me I couldn't hold everything in. At the time, I was still unstable, so I got mad at him, and we got into a bit of a row, but looking back, he was actually concerned with my welfare. At the time, I couldn't see it though, because I was convinced he still hated me, and I just had another complete meltdown and took all my anger and frustration out on him. After saying a fair few things I really wasn't proud of, I did what I do best, I just completely ignored him.
It was like that for the next few weeks, I just ignored him, and honestly, I felt sad in doing so. My mood got worse, I was barely keeping up with my assignments, I could barely sleep. Finally, after lunch one day, I decided I needed to get some rest, so I went to my dorm for a nap. I had a rather bad nightmare, and I woke up to find Draco Malfoy holding me. I completely freaked out, and I sort of attacked him. I was so busy being in a rage that I didn't stop to think about why he would be in my bed, and well, he let his anger fly too, told me everything he had been holding back basically since term started.
He told me how much I had hurt him when I assumed that he still had his old beliefs and thought all muggle-borns were scum, and all that he had gone through during and after the war. In a strange way, we understood what the other had been through, if that makes any sense. After he just completely blew up at me, I started crying again, and instead of just walking away, he held me. We just stood their in each other's arms for the longest time, and I realized that he was a lot more like me than I had ever realized before, or he is now at least. For the first time, I stopped to think how difficult the war must have been for him." She drifted off for a moment, thinking about what he had said to her that night yet again. She had left out the part about her having nightmares every night, and as much as she felt bad for not telling Harry and Ginny, she felt it would just worry them.
"So after that, we were on good terms again, back to the steady routine we had had before, and then, well, Ron showed up. Draco had asked me to go to Hogsmeade with him, and so we were walking towards the village, just enjoying each others company, and then he told me I was beautiful." She blushed heavily, remembering the incident, before quickly moving on with her story. "Ron then decided to show up, and the two of them got into a bit of a spat, with Ron threatening Draco, and then I took Draco's side – don't look at me like that, Ron started it and Draco was mad at him because he had made me upset – and then Ron apologized, and I hugged him, and when I looked around again, I saw Draco walking away.
I agreed to go to the Three Broomsticks with Ron, and he seemed to be genuinely sorry for what happened between us, and I told him while I would forgive him, we could not go back to the way we were before. Too much had happened, and if after one bad fight, he would just walk away, I didn't know if I could ever trust him not to do it again. He took it rather well, and we just wandered around Hogsmeade as friends. We parted ways later and I went back to the common room in hopes to find Draco to apologize since I had told him I would spend the day with him.
As soon as I saw him, I felt really bad, especially because he looked so hurt. I started to apologize and he got all mad at me, and we got into a terrible row. For some reason, he was pissed off about me having a date with Ron, and when I didn't correct him and tell him it wasn't actually a date, he just got more upset. He got mad at me for forgiving Ron, then somehow I got mad about how I had been persecuted in the war, then I told him that he had never questions the beliefs that he was brought up by and he didn't deserve pity, at which point he became more infuriated as he had already made it clear he had questioned his previous beliefs, and finally I told him that I hated him. That I would always hate him for what he had done and nothing he could do would change that.
Then, well, he kissed me. It was completely unexpected, and for some reason, I didn't break the kiss. It was just so full of passion, it consumed me. Honestly, I've never been kissed like that before, not that I have a lot of experience with kissing, but still, I'm quite certain it wasn't just an everyday kiss, it was incredible. I never thought I would say that, that Draco Malfoy kissed me and I actually enjoyed it - oh shove off, you asked for the whole story - but he did, and Merlin I enjoyed it. Funnily enough, it was actually Pig who broke us out of of trance and I practically ran away from him, scared out of my mind at what had just happened. I hadn't a clue if he was just messing with me or if it actually meant something.
The next day, McGonagall dropped in, and told us we needed to work on House Unity, so I decided I couldn't very well go ignoring him again, but that didn't mean I needed to talk about the kiss either. So we fell back into a bit of a routine again, and then, one night after dinner, I walked in to our common room to find him writing a letter, and a bag of Hagrid's rock cakes beside him. It was probably one of the most confusing scenes I had ever walked in on, especially considering the letter he was writing was to you, Harry.
After much prompting on my part, he told me that he had gone to visit Hagrid, to apologize for everything he had done to him. They had had tea, and Hagrid had ended up giving him some rock cakes for a snack later. He then told me he was writing a letter to you, and considering writing a letter to all the Weasleys. Actually, if you still have the letters, I would quite like to read them, I went to bed before he had finished them." At this, Harry nodded, then urged her to continue her tale.
"Then, the day we were leaving for Christmas, he kissed me again. I was being my usual stubborn self and I wouldn't admit that I enjoyed kissing him, and so he kissed me again to prove me wrong. Honestly I don't know how he brings these feelings out of me, I just melt whenever he gets close, it's rather annoying when I'm trying to be clever than then he gets close and I can hardly think. Then, he did another puzzling thing. For all of his retorts, he not only told me I was worth more than any other girl, but when he asked me how I felt, instead of pushing a response out of me, he just told me to think about it. It's basically all I've been thinking about since."
She finished her tale there, not wanting to tell Harry or Ginny what had happened over the holidays. She did not want them knowing she had seen Draco more over the holidays then she had seen them. As much as they were more understanding than Ron, she still did not want to push her luck.
They sat in silence for a little while, Harry and Ginny obviously needed some time to digest the information she had just told them.
"Who would have though, Hermione and Draco?" Ginny was the first one to break the silence.
"We aren't an item yet, Ginny." Hermione replied.
"Well, from what I've heard, Draco isn't a prat anymore, which means you like him, plus you like snogging him. And from what you've said, it seems he likes you, and likes snogging you, so I don't really see what there's left to think about."
"Ginny, it's not that simple!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Why, because it's Draco?" Harry spoke this time. "Look Hermione, I'm not ruling out what he did in the past, but he's really changed. If you were speaking the truth about what you said to Ron, then you've already walked away from him. If Draco is going through this much trouble to make amends, I would say give him a chance. Who knows, he might be just what you need." Harry smiled at her.
Hermione looked at her two friends, shocked. She had expected outrage at Draco daring to kiss her, but here they were, telling her to go ahead and be his girlfriend!
"Can I read his letter now?" Harry got up and walked out of the room, returning a few minutes later with two letters.
"I got you the one he wrote to the Weasleys too."
As Hermione read the two letters, she felt a wave of pride and affection for Draco fill her. He had admitted his wrong doings, something that could not have been easy. As she read the words he had written, she made up her mind. He had changed, and she would give him a chance.
Hope you enjoyed,
See you again soon for chapter 17!
Thanks for reading!
Always,
Shan :)
