When Hermione came out of the kitchen, she saw Draco lying on the couch. He looked like he belonged there, Hermione thought, and tried to quell the quiet feeling of panic that seeped in at the thought. Pushing the thought away, she walked over to him and sat on the edge of the couch. Draco opened his arms and Hermione slid across him and tucked herself under his arm, putting herself between his body and the back of the couch. Draco wrapped his arm around her and they lay there in silence for several minutes, each lost in their own thoughts.
"What will your friends say?" Draco asked, breaking the silence. "If they know that we are...close."
"I honestly don't know," Hermione said, shifting so she could see his face. "It took a bit for everyone to adjust to Pansy but now she's a friend and Ron's girlfriend. I can't imagine they would treat you any differently than they did her. What about you?"
"What about me?" Draco replied, confused.
"What about your friends?" she wanted to know. "And your family."
"If you haven't noticed, my friends are either residents in your hospital ward or in a relationship with your friends," Draco replied. "And apparently my mother likes you as well, so that's everyone."
"What about your father?" Hermione asked him.
Draco was struck by her question. He realized he hadn't thought about his father since he'd been released from Azkaban.
"My father is never getting out of Azkaban," Draco told her. "It doesn't matter."
"He's still your father," Hermione pointed out.
"Yes, he's my father," Draco said, sitting up without warning, causing Hermione to slide behind him. She righted herself and looked at the vein pulsing in his neck. "He's my father but he's the reason that my life is so bloody fucked up. He taught me to hate, he brought Voldemort into our lives, into our home, he taught me to blindly follow someone who would kill for no reason other than he didn't like a certain kind of person."
Hermione reached for Draco's hands but he wrenched away and stood, his hands clenched in fists, staring down at her. "He would kill you and not think twice."
She rose cautiously and covered his fists with her hands. She stood up on her toes and kissed his clenched jaw, then kissed his lips. "It's a very good thing then, that you're nothing like him."
"But I was," Draco said, pulling away from her and turning his back. "Up until three months ago, I was exactly like him. Maybe I'm too far gone to really change."
Hermione walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his back. Draco's hands automatically came to rest on top of hers.
"You want to know how I know you've changed?" Hermione asked. When he didn't respond she continued. "This, right here," she said, squeezing her arms around him. "The old you would have never let me do this."
Draco still didn't answer.
"You know how else I know? You haven't called me a Mudblood since the first day we started working together," she told him, hugging him tighter when he flinched at her use of the word. "It used to roll so easily off your tongue. And that, that right there. You flinch when you hear it. The old you would have never done that."
"So I react differently to you," Draco said. "My father always had a soft spot for my mother, it could be nothing more than that."
"No, no, I don't think so," Hermione replied. "Turn around."
He reluctantly slid out of her arms and turned to face her. "Blaise told me what you told him about Gina," Hermione told him and watched as the emotions ran across his face. "He also told me that you looked like you were going to be sick when you realized it was her. And that when he asked you to tell him your side was right, you didn't say a word."
Draco shook his head in denial and tried to walk away from Hermione but she grabbed his arm, stopping him.
"You told me about the prisoners you killed, your moment of weakness, I know about lowering your wand when you were tasked with killing Dumbledore. Come here," she said in a firm voice.
He shook his head again but this time, allowed Hermione wrap her arms around him. "That has nothing to do with me, Draco," she told him. "None of it. You had already started to change, long before today, long before you were released from Azkaban. The last few months just gave you the kick you needed to finish what had been started."
"The trigger," Draco said quietly, remembering Blaise's words. Overwhelmed, Draco wrapped his arms around Hermione and hugged her close. She stroked his back.
"Thank you," he said into her hair.
"You're welcome," she replied.
A loud buzzer went off, causing Draco to jump and half toss Hermione behind him.
"What the hell is that?"
"It's the buzzer for my flat," she said with a laugh, freeing herself from his grip. "The food is here."
She ran into the kitchen and grabbed her wallet out of the same drawer the phone was in and walked out of the flat. While she was gone, Draco took a minute to try and pull himself together. This wasn't him, he thought. The kind of man to fall apart like this. But then again, he considered, he wasn't really sure who he was any more. He felt lost, unsure of where to go or what to do. Just then Hermione came bounding back into the flat and he felt his world shift and center. Here was his direction, he said to himself. She would help him. Merlin he sounded like a sap, he thought, shaking his head. He'd have to work on that too.
Seeing that Draco looked preoccupied, Hermione went in to the kitchen and set out all of the food. She grabbed two plates and, deciding Draco had had enough new things for one day, pulled out forks instead of chopsticks. She turned to walk from the kitchen into the living room and nearly collided with Draco who was standing in the doorway.
"Merlin!" she shouted, clutching her heart. "You scared me!"
"You'd think someone who survived a war wouldn't scare so easily," Draco said with a smile. "Or jump so high when they realize someone is behind them."
"Oh bugger off," she replied with a laugh. "Are you ready to eat?"
Draco looked at all the different foods spread out on the table. "Only if you tell me what exactly it is I'm eating," he said.
"I can do that," Hermione answered.
The two sat down and spent the next two hours eating, talking, and laughing. Almost as if they were a normal...couple? Hermione thought, as she watched Draco struggle with the lo mein. They were friends at least, she hoped, and obviously more since they'd snogged a couple of times but where was this going? What did he want? They'd take it slow, she decided. And see what happened.
Draco caught Hermione staring at him as he nearly choked on a noodle. I can practically hear her brain grinding from here, he thought, and realized he found it endearing more than annoying. Merlin he was really turning into a sap. He'd have to go kick his house elf or something to feel manly again.
They finished the meal and Hermione cleared the dishes. Draco wandered back into the living room as she put away the remainder of the food in the refrigerator. He laid down on the couch and, almost immediately, fell asleep. That's how Hermione found him when she emerged from the kitchen 10 minutes later. With a smile, she just stared at him for a few minutes. It had been an exhausting day for him, she thought. Mentally, more so than physically. He needed to sleep. So she covered him with a blanket and leaned over and gave him a kiss. She pulled back but he grabbed her wrist and she tumbled on top of him.
"Stay," he murmured and wrapped his arms around her. With a content sigh, Hermione settled herself next to him and closed her eyes. They were both awoken, however, in the early hours of the morning by bells ringing, waking Hermione instantly.
"Whatszthat?" Draco asked her, holding on to her as she tried to pull away.
"My floo," she said, giving him a quick kiss on the lips before disentangling herself from him and quickly putting her hair in a bun on top of her head. "I charmed it to ring before someone calls."
Sure enough as soon as she finished her sentence, Blaise's head appeared. "Hermione, you have to come now," he said frantically. "Draco never came home last night, I can't find him anywhere, and I need you to come here right now."
Then he noticed Draco lying behind her. He looked from Draco to Hermione and back and then grinned like the Cheshire cat. "Son of a bitch, looks like I owe my wife 10 galleons."
"What?" Hermione asked. "Why? And where are you?"
Blaise face quickly changed from a smile to concerned. "Malfoy Manor. Something is wrong with Narcissa," he said.
Draco jolted fully awake and jumped from the couch. "What's wrong with my mother?"
"Draco, you go," she told him. "I just need to grab a few things and I'll be right behind you. My floo is connected to your mother's room."
Not waiting for a response, she ran from the room. Blaise's head disappeared from the floo and Draco stepped through it, bracing himself for the worst.
A/N: BUM BUM BUUUUUUUM. Things are about to get very interesting!