A/N: Hello! I want to preface this chapter with, I'm not particularly happy with it. I want all of this stuff set up and said, but I want to get into the interesting stuff! Everything's too happy right now... haha. In saying all of that, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please don't expect anything too soon, right now my assignments are piling up and I have to get through them, so I tried to set the scene but not end on anything cliff-hanger-esque. I'm not a horrible person and I don't want a million messages asking for the next chapter because I left you with someone maybe dying or something, knowing that I won't be able to give it to you.
As always, your reviews are very much welcomed and loved. Thank you to all who have been reviewing week in and week out.
Disclaimer: JKR owns and created the entire HP universe and I am just using her amazing work and writing. I do not make any profit from this.
Song: Issues – Julia Michaels
Lyrics: 'Cause I got issues/ But you got 'em too/ So give 'em all to me/ And I'll give mine to you/ Bask in the glory/ Of all our problems/ 'Cause we got the kind of love/ It takes to solve 'em…
Chapter Seven: First Day
The next morning, Hermione woke early, wrapped in Draco's arms in his bed, decorated in Slytherin green, silver, and dark wood furnishings. She slowly disentangled herself, attempting not to wake him, and padded her way to his trunk, pulling out one of Draco's jumpers and donning it, swimming in the lush fabric. Hermione left his bedroom, moving into the common area she checked the time on the clock, noting that it was several hours before breakfast was served in the Great Hall. She plucked one of the advanced Charms readings from their bookshelf and made her way over to the bay window, folding her legs underneath herself and thumbing through the pages of the thick tome.
She began to read the introduction but her mind was distracted, reading over the same sentence several times before huffing and closing the book, staring out the window over the Black Lake. Her thoughts drifted back to last night and she absently touched her fingers to her lips, sighing.
His lips touched hers softly, much more tentatively than she had expected. She wasn't sure why, but she had expected it. She responded confidently, her confidence rubbing off on Draco as the two locked lips in a fervent and passionate kiss. They drew back breathlessly, his hands gripping her shoulders as their foreheads rested together.
"Hermione…" Draco trailed off as she placed a finger over his lips.
"Draco…" Hermione started, but she didn't know how to articulate what she wanted to say.
"Hermione," Draco attempted again, "I know it hasn't been that long, but you're the best thing that's happened to me."
"Draco, that's not fair." Hermione blushed, "You were already amazing before we connected, albeit a little misguided."
Draco chuckled at that, "I'm not going to claim to be perfect, or even suggest that I might be anywhere near your league. I barely deserve your friendship, but I was hoping that maybe-"
"Will you go out with me, Draco?" Hermione smirked as she beat him to the punch.
"Hermione!" Draco whined, "I wanted to do it properly."
"Sorry, you can do it again if you'd like." Hermione mimed zipping her lips.
"You've ruined it now." Draco grumbled like a petulant child and Hermione laughed openly. She leaned up on her tiptoes and brushed her lips against his, pulling away with big doe eyes.
"If you keep it up with those, I'd forgive you for murder, Hermione." Draco ran his thumb down her cheek. Hermione smiled, then yawned.
"It's getting late, we should get some sleep before classes tomorrow." Hermione's eyes drifted towards her bedroom door.
"Mi, would it be too forward of me to ask you to stay with me tonight?" Draco asked, eyes flicking to the floor. "I didn't have nightmares when we were sleeping together before."
"Me neither." Hermione breathed. She stepped into his personal space and his eyes met hers again, "Of course I'll stay with you, Draco."
She was drawn from her reverie by Draco's soft footsteps padding towards her.
"That was my favourite jumper." He pronounced as he came to stand before her, "Although, it does look better on my girlfriend. What are we off dreaming about?"
Hermione felt the butterflies stir in her stomach at the word 'girlfriend' and smiled shyly at Draco. "Just this guy I know. Tall, blonde, kind of a prat."
He scooped her up bridal style and the book fell lamely to the seat. He nuzzled into her hair before she turned her face and he kissed her sweetly. After breaking away, he smirked at her, "Would a prat do that?"
Hermione just laughed. He set her down and they changed in their respective rooms to begin the day – and she kept the jumper.
The Great Hall was once again silent when they walked in, however this time as they neared the eighth year table, some of the students started sniggering. Draco's arm shot out just in time before Hermione stepped into a shoddily glamoured hole. He pulled her back and she righted herself, waving her wand over the charm to break it and patching up the hole. Tentatively she took another step forward, whispering incantations to break spells or reveal traps as she walked. Draco shoved his hands in his pockets, somewhat helplessly, and followed closely behind her. As they found their seats, they noticed that no other eighth year students had chosen to sit at the assigned table, although not everyone was awake yet.
"I guess no one else will be joining us then. This is an awful lot of food for just two people." Draco commented, dishing some bacon and eggs for the two of them as Hermione poured them cups of tea.
"I guess we could call this our first date then." Hermione winked mischievously and giggled.
Draco rolled his eyes, "Love, I'm going to make our first date the most unforgettable date you've ever had."
"That won't be too hard," Hermione countered, "I've never been on a real date. Unless you count the Yule Ball with Krum, but that was a school mandated date, and I hardly think it counts. Ron took me out a couple of times, but once was at the Burrow and Molly watched us from the kitchen, and the other time was with Ginny and Harry and it didn't really feel like a date."
Draco looked shocked, "You've never been on a date?" He blubbered for a moment, a look that was completely unbecoming of the Draco she used to know, "But you're beautiful, intelligent, funny, witty. You're absolutely perfect! Stunning! How has no one snapped you up yet?"
Hermione feigned pondering the question, exaggeratedly tapping her finger to her chin, "Hmmm."
Draco growled.
"Guess I hadn't found the right person yet." Hermione smiled and her eyes twinkled. Draco leaned down to kiss her.
"Morning!" A particularly chipper voice broke them apart and they both turned to glare at the offender. Harry blundered towards them, manoeuvring around the various obstacles that Hermione had uncovered with her spellwork earlier. "Sorry, were you having a moment?" He winked at the pair and their faces burned bright red. Harry smiled knowingly and sat down opposite the pair, piling food onto his plate.
"Why aren't you sitting with Ron?" Hermione asked, craning her neck to find the ginger.
Harry swallowed his food, "We had another fight. Think we'll be fine, but I don't think he likes that we're chummy." He indicated the trio with his fork.
"No surprises there." Draco waved his hand at the obstacle course, "Look at all our fans, laying out the red carpet for us, and this is just breakfast."
"We'll just have to look out for each other." Hermione decided, nodding once and setting her fork down to punctuate her sentence.
McGonagall strode towards the three, "I have your timetables here. Mr Malfoy, Miss Granger, you are both taking almost all of the same subjects. It's a wonder that you haven't befriended each other sooner. Your timetables are practically identical." She handed them a piece of parchment each and were glad that she didn't mention their history.
"How about mine, Professor?" Harry asked.
"You seem to be well on track to Auror training, Mr Potter. I would hazard a guess that there will be at least one less distraction from your studies this year." McGonagall passes him the final piece of parchment, "I will see you all after breakfast for Transfiguration."
As McGonagall left, they compared their timetables.
"Alright so when I have Care of Magical Creatures, you have… Divination?" Hermione wrinkled her nose at Draco's timetable.
"What? Turns out I'm pretty good at it." Draco looked smug.
"I know. You are particularly adept at talking shit." Hermione seemed satisfied with her quip and Draco's smug look disappeared.
Harry laughed openly at the pair, "I'm pretty sure I've got most of the same classes, but I have more free periods because I don't take Ancient Runes or Arithmancy. More time for me to study, right 'Mione?"
"I sincerely hope you mean it, Harry Potter, or do I have to remind you of what is expected from you to become an Auror?" Hermione asked pointedly.
"Actually, I read the book you gave me for Christmas." Harry replied, "It seems that, whilst good grades are what is expected of the Auror applicants, more rests upon the initial interview in the process. So as much as I will study hard now that, as McGonagall puts it, my distractions are gone, I will probably need more help in preparing for that interview."
"You know that they'll just give you the job if you've got the grades, right Potter?" Draco asked, "In fact I'm sure that the grades are just a formality. If you walk into that interview room and say nothing, you'd be in by default."
Harry frowned at this, "I know. I want to work for this though. I want to prove that I'm more than just my name and this scar."
"Don't forget the titles: 'Boy Who Lived', 'Saviour of the Wizarding World', and 'Golden Boy'. You've got a lot to live up to." Hermione stated absently, skimming through a copy of the Daily Prophet.
Harry scowled at her but changed the subject. "What's your dormitory like?" He quietly asked them, looking around for eavesdroppers.
Hermione's eyes flicked up from her paper and a slow grin spread across her face. She began gushing about how wonderful the place was and how they really should thank McGonagall for everything that she's done. Draco couldn't agree more, nodding throughout his girlfriend's description of their room, telling Harry that they'd give him the password and directions in a less public setting.
The trio embarked for their first class, still chatting amicably, oblivious to the burning eyes of the majority of their cohort, along with a particularly vindictive pair from a seventh year.
The Transfiguration classroom had rows of desks facing McGonagall's at the front, along with her diagrams, charts, blackboard, and a bird stand. The desks seated two, so Hermione and Draco took one bench close to the centre of the room and Harry took one just behind them – not at the back so Hermione could still play teacher's pet to her heart's content, and not at the front so they couldn't see what was behind them, a habit from the war. As other students filed into the classroom, the three noticed that they left a wide berth around the occupied desks in the centre of the room. Ron walked in and almost immediately sat beside Harry, but remembering their fight just as abruptly, he moved to find a seat nearer his sister. In the end, Luna Lovegood chose the seat with Harry, engaging him, along with Draco and Hermione, in a one-sided conversation about Plimpies.
"Today, we will be learning the spell piertotum locomotor." McGonagall swept into the room and announced, silencing the class. With a wave of her wand, small statues appeared in front of each student. "I will show you the wand movements, and then you may begin."
After a small demonstration, McGonagall sat at her desk, marking attendance whilst the students began their work. After two attempts, Hermione had already mastered the spell and Professor McGonagall requested that she play around with the wording of the spell in an attempt to make the statue do more than just move, including one transfiguration. Hermione was ecstatic, grabbing a notepad out and scribbling different permutations of Latin words, English incantations, and ancient runes. Draco stared at his girlfriend gobsmacked, knowing how brilliant she is and seeing it were two different things.
Harry kicked the back of his chair, drawing him from his reverie, "Stop ogling my sister and do some work." He chastised.
Draco smiled a bit, still distracted by Hermione's furious scribbling, as he turned to his own statue, reaching for a wand he forgot he didn't have in his possession. He looked up to see Professor McGonagall proffering the wand to him.
"Thank you." Draco breathed as he felt the weight of the familiar wood in his hands. His magic hummed within him. Carefully he removed the necklace that Hermione had fashioned for him all those months ago and the magic presented itself fully.
"Are you alright?" Hermione asked, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.
His knuckles had gone white from gripping the wand too tightly and sweat at begun beading on his brow, "I'm not used to this kind of magic anymore, Hermione. This might take a while."
"Maybe you should try something simple to start with, just so you can get a feel of what it's meant to be like before you accidently blow a statue up with too much strength." Hermione suggested, sitting back slightly and fully staring at Draco's wand movements.
Draco coughed, nodding, "Wingardium Leviosa." He stated, and the statue flew two metres in the air before he had control of it.
Hermione smiled, "It's nice to see you doing magic again. You look so much more comfortable with a wand than with a television remote."
Draco chuckled, "This feels right." He manoeuvred the statue back towards him and set about beginning the task at hand.
The rest of the lesson seemed to go rather uneventfully with most of the students moving on to spell manipulation. Draco mastered the spell quite soon after he regained the use of his magic and he and Hermione had knowledgeable conversations about the spell's manipulation.
"I would like a three-foot essay on spell manipulation and the considerations you must make before finding a successful spell, to be handed in next week." McGonagall stated as the class drew to a close, "Are there any final questions?"
Her gaze swept the room and a hand raised in the back corner, "Yes, Miss Parkinson?"
Pansy cleared her throat purposefully, "I was just wondering when the school allowed Death Eaters to be able to roam freely in the halls? I'm only voicing my concern for the school as a collective, as I personally feel unsafe whenever I see one." Her pug-nosed face swivelled to Draco. Hermione gripped his hand under their desk.
"I'm sorry, Miss Parkinson, you seem quite mistaken. There are no Death Eaters currently enrolled in this school. Anyone that you, or any other student, has concerns or issues with, my office door is always open to you. Otherwise, if you're feeling unsafe, perhaps a strong protego will help." Professor McGonagall drew herself impressively taller and looked down her nose at the girl, "Now, if there aren't any more questions." She swept her pointed look at the class and Pansy's look of gloating turned into a scowl.
Once the class was dismissed, Draco turned his wand back in to McGonagall, thanking her again and replacing his necklace, moving with Hermione, Harry and Luna to head to their next class, potions.
"That's not going to be the last of it, Hermione." Draco muttered to her as they wound through the hallways towards the dungeons, "If it becomes too unsafe for you and I to be together because of my… history, I want you to promise me that you'll-"
"Stay by your side no matter what." Hermione cut him off abruptly. "Draco, I care about you. You'd have to be a fool not to see it. Besides the fact that we're dating, you're also my friend, and after being friends with Harry bloody Potter, I think I can handle a bit of booby-trapping from our classmates."
"I'm scared it'll get worse. You don't know Pansy. If she and the rest of the Slytherins think I'm bad, you can bet the whole school does." Draco sighed.
"I don't understand how they could call you a friend for years and then turn around and shun you for being forced to take the Dark Mark. Does loyalty mean nothing to them?" Hermione became agitated.
"I never knew the true meaning of having a friend until I met you, love." Draco smiled, reaching for her hand.
"Oi!" Harry grumbled from behind them.
"Yes, yes." Draco smirked, "You too, love"
Harry huffed, preening like a child on show, "That's better, honey-bear."
"Please never call my boyfriend that again." Hermione rolled her eyes at the antics of her best friends and let a small chuckle escape her pursed lips.
The rest of the day passed in much the same manner where students either actively avoided them, or tried to injure them – mainly Draco, considering Hermione's status as a war hero. They used many of the passages linked to their dormitory to avoid nasty encounters, especially with the Slytherins, who had proven the most vindictive of them all.
As the couple approached the table for dinner, they were once again alone. They took their seats and began eating, watching the other students as they prattled on about their first day of classes.
"Honestly, Hermione, if the rest of the year is going to be as exhausting as today, I don't know how I'm going to survive." Draco moaned. Hermione stared at him, then allowed her eyes to drift across the room in front of them. She noticed Ron stuffing his face full of chicken and silently appreciated that her current boyfriend had better etiquette than her ex.
"Draco, we'll get through it. Today was the first day of school, I'm sure it will die down by next week." Hermione infused optimism in her words.
Draco looked around the room as well, his eyes finding his past friends. Blaise and Theo were laughing together about something, whilst Daphne was chattering animatedly to Pansy, who looked disinterested, nodding at odd intervals, her gaze fixed somewhere Draco couldn't pinpoint. You would never have guessed Draco could fit into their group as one of their oldest friends.
"Do you miss them?" Hermione asked quietly, pushing food around on her plate. She knew Draco's past was a touchy subject, and she didn't want to push him to open up to her if he didn't want to.
Draco pondered the question for a moment, "Yes and no." He tore his eyes from them and looked back to Hermione, "I miss the friendship, the loyalty – contrary to popular believe, Slytherins are loyal, just only within themselves. I miss having my mates and the familiarity of it all. They're the ones who kept me sane through sixth year. They're the ones who got me through this war. It's odd being back at this school and having such a distance between us."
Hermione knew he wasn't talking about the physical distance, but she still let her eyes travel the expanse of tables to where his friends were sat on the opposite side of the hall.
"I don't, however, miss this. The grudges and the malice. Slytherins are cunning and ambitious. They know that now my name has been dragged through the dirt, I'm useless to them. Besides the fact that I'm currently dating, no offense, 'Mudblood No. 1', all four of them stayed out of the war by remaining neutral and it wouldn't be in their best interests to befriend a Death Eater like me." Draco spat, his eyes turning dark.
"Love, you're not a Death Eater. You never were. Not in here." Hermione pressed her hand over his heart.
Draco sighed, still mollified at Hermione's kind heart and forgiveness. He moved his hand over her own and closed his eyes, feeling the darkness ebb away.
"How are you with all of this?" Draco asked her. He didn't want to pressure her to answer him. He still knew very little about her history and her past friendships.
"I'm glad I have you and Harry. You're all I need." Hermione replied. Her eyes moved back down the Gryffindor table and she sighed a little, "I miss them. I can't throw away years of my friendships over something so stupid."
"You understand where they're coming from though?" Draco asked.
"I know exactly what's going through their closed-minded brains, but I miss them. Ron's daft and hot-headed at times, but he's fiercely loyal and incredibly brave. Ginny was my only female friend for a lot of my childhood. We gushed over boys together, stayed up late sharing secrets and painting each other's nails. She's incredibly intelligent and I think I miss losing her more than I do Ron." Hermione rambled.
"Why is that?" Draco wondered aloud, curious.
"Ron and I were dating and we broke up. Our friendship died when we tried for more. I knew it wasn't going to work as soon as we fumbled through that first awkward kiss. Still, I tried, and the more I realised how much our morals differed, the less likely our friendship would have survived. Harry had always been the glue between us, and in a relationship, Harry wasn't there to act as our buffer. I feel as though I've said my peace with Ron, whereas Ginny and I haven't talked since I stormed out of the Burrow and bought myself a house." Hermione was a mixture of forlorn and angry.
"Maybe you should send her a note and meet somewhere, just to chat? You might not be friends after, you might have a girlfriend back, who knows unless you try." Draco suggested.
"When did you get so wise, Mr Malfoy?" Hermione smiled.
"Around the time a certain frizzy-haired know-it-all came back into my life." Draco responded, earning him a light whack on his arm.
When the two returned to their dormitory that night, Hermione penned a note to Ginny, asking to meet her and sending a copy of her timetable so she could find a suitable time. She then charmed the note like the Ministry's interdepartmental memos, and allowed it to fly out their window.
After a study session to reinforce what they had learnt today, Draco summoned a Malfoy Manor house elf, Pipsy, to fetch them some tea – earning him a long lecture from Hermione. When the elf popped back with the tea, Hermione attempted to free the elf, causing distress in the poor creature, its eyes widening in alarm. After some pacifying from Draco, both parties seemed calmer, with an agreement that Hermione could call upon Pipsy to learn more about the elves, helping her to build a case for them when she finished school. Hermione learnt that Pipsy was Draco's personal house elf, she had taken care of him since he was born and was bound to Draco as her only master. Of course, with Lucius in Azkaban, the estate had passed to Narcissa, but she was hoping to move all of the Malfoy family undertakings into Draco's name once he was back in the Wizarding World.
After finishing their tea, they moved into Hermione's bedroom, decorated in predictable reds and golds, with the same dark wood furnishings as Draco's. They curled up together, Draco lying on his back with an arm protectively around Hermione's shoulders, and Hermione's head laid on his chest, listening to the familiar sound of his heartbeat and feeling his chest rise and fall with each breath. Her leg hooked over his, revelling in each other's touch, feeling comfort in this moment.
"This year is going to be different." Draco stated sadly.
"Yeah, it is." Hermione replied, "It's going to be better."