Author's note: Welcome back for year 13. Have you ever listened to the song Bette davis eyes by Kim Carnes? Well you should. I jammed to it while writing a good portion of this story and i liked it so much i added it to a later chapter for Draco to listen to. Enjoy lovelies, i hope you find the magic in your summer, wherever it is you're spending it.

ps in response to a recent review on :

'Harry? Harry's not a distant cousin Draco barely knows. Sirius would have made more sense. (And is it wicked of me to wish that Draco - and, for that matter, Sasuke - had responded to "We're all people" with the obvious retort, "We're also boys and girls"? I don't know where the conversation would have gone from there, but it would have been more interesting than a mere abject surrender to the Androgyny Sophistry.)

Sincerely,

Qoheleth

P.S.: Oh, yes, one other thing I should mention: I think you mean "his *sole* caretaker and provider", not "soul". (Though, really, if Draco's spending the summers with his grandmother, then Harry - or Sirius, or whoever - isn't strictly his sole caretaker, either.)'

This is an AU alternate universe. They don't have wands and the magic is entirely different. In an AU i could make Harry a 9 foot purple dragon with an overbite if i wanted. (And wouldn't that make quite a story, lol) In this AU i came up with Harry is Draco's distant cousin he barely knows. I see Canon as a guideline, and i chose not to abide by it in this story. Additionally i chose Harry and not someone like Sirius Black for specific reasons in the later part of this story that i'm not going to go over for spoiler purposes. As for Draco/ Sasuke's response you better believe we could have had an interesting delve into that conversation but i wanted this piece short and sweet, and if i had delved into that specific can of worms it probably would have turned into another 3 chapters of me dwelling on the topic. Lastly the grammar stuff at the end great catch, i have updated soul to sole and it should show up soon. I have another wip that deals with 'Souls' and so it didn't stand out to me or my beta when we read over the work i suppose. I meant sole caretaker as in more the aspect of during the school year and how Harry was/is the main caretaker. Gran gives Draco a couch to sleep on and makes him some food, but not much else. I made that specification for that as well. Anyways there you have it, thanks for leaving your review.

Xoxo Catstclaire

Year 13

Draco spent his school year dreaming of going back to Kure beach. He didn't look forward to Christmas like most kids did that year, nor was he looking forward to days spent by lakes, and riding around the city catching concerts. No he was looking forward to another summer spent with his Grandmother in her dilapidated little house.

Draco had a fleeting regret that he never got around to reading Frankenstein over the last summer. It was one of their reading assignments for school, he had even had to purchase a new copy because he left his over the summer at Gran's. He wondered if Gran left his books tucked under the side table in the living room or if she had maybe moved them out of her way to the shed. He hoped they weren't ruined at least.

Not that he expected to get much reading done for the coming summer because if he was honest he hoped it would be exactly like the previous summer had been. He zoned out at school coming up with things they could do. He couldn't get her off his mind no matter how hard he tried. He only knew her for 8 weeks the previous summer, but Hermione had made a lasting impression.

The girl in the field of flowers. She was young, and beautiful of course. That just wasn't what kept Draco thinking of her for weeks after he saw her. No the girl with the honey colored hair in the regally silk white dress was free. She looked more free than anyone Draco had ever known. She didn't seem to be weighed down by any of the things people typically were. Money, or responsibilities. When she wanted something she reached out with both hands and took it.

Dracp was just pulling his dads old bike back out of Gran's shed when he saw her the first time since the summer previous.

"Hermione!" He called out. She was pacing back and fourth in front of her house. She looked confused or upset he thought. But then she looked up and saw Draco and she started to smile.

"I was wondering if you'd really be back." She said waving. They met in front of the picket fences in front of the houses. Their crowns from the summer previous were still there hanging like no time had passed at all.

"I told you i'd be back didn't i?"

"Yeah. I just didn't really believe you." She laughed. "I figured one summer of Kure and you'd never set another foot here again." She grabbed his hand, and he was surprised by how cool her touch was but shrugged it off. She started to lead them down the sidewalk, hand in hand. "What you weren't bored enough the first summer? You had to come back for more?"

"I wasn't bored when i was with you." Draco corrected. The town was a sleepy little place where nothing much ever happened, but when he had been with Hermione it hadn't at all felt boring. Being with Hermione made him feel more alive than the city ever had.

As Draco figured she brought them to the field of flowers, and there was the lighthouse in the distance with it's line of tourists gathering round for photos.

"How was your year?" Draco asked when Hermione started pulling some flowers together. She frowned at him.

"How was yours?" She countered. "Big things in the big city, i imagine."

He told her about his year away. He started playing baseball with his middle school team. Harry got a job as a professor at the college where they lived, and so Draco got to stay home by himself quite a bit now. It hadn't been to eventful and of course everything was overshadowed by his desire to be back in Kure.

Hermione nodded along listening. He nudged her knee with his from the place he was sitting. The flowers were bowed out around them where they were sitting on the ground. "Come on-" he urged. "tell me something about your year." Had she made some friends or joined a club or she must have done something while he was away.

"It wasn't exactly an exciting year for me. Sorry." She placed the first woven crown on his head. This year someone had added poppy's to the field. His crown was red and orange. "My parents started fighting alot and then school was-" she abandoned whatever the end of that sentence was. "I'm just really glad you came back."

Draco noticed she was wearing the dress from the year previous. The one her mother made her wear for pictures. He thumbed the end of one of the pleats, even the cloth felt cool to the touch.

They walked back home together, and they hung their new crowns on the fence along with the others.

Hermione invited him over to her house for the first time. Last summer they had never gone into each other's houses. Draco smiled at how close they were getting.

Year 13 it turned out would be a year of video games. Hermione had apparently gotten into them during the school year, and Draco had never really liked them before but there was something about watching her control a 6 foot tall cyborg that was entertaining.

"Take that!" She said as she iced his character for the 10th time in the hour. "To slow, Draco."

Her hair was twisted up in the same kind of messy bun she had when they had met the summer prior. An identical white dress to the one she was wearing was laid out on the bed behind them, in her room. Odd he thought that her mother purchased 2 of them but she just must have really liked the design on Hermione he guessed. Her family must be taking another picture together like the year previous. Her face was dusted with glimmering peach shades, and her lips were gooey and when Draco got close enough he could smell the strawberry scent coming from them. She was wearing more makeup than last year.

It became a routine in year 13. Everyday started with video games, and then Draco and Hermione would walk together along the sidewalks and to the beach. They'd gather seashells, and laugh. Hermione didn't want any ice cream this summer, Draco figured it was a girl thing. He remembered how his own mother would skip out on treats when she was 'watching her figure.' Draco liked the times they spent in the wildflowers the best. From the middle of the field it was like they were the only 2 people in the world.

Hermione's parents it turned out owned a surf shop in town. They sometimes worked the same shift and even though Draco wasn't supposed to he would come to Hermione's while they weren't home. When Draco asked about them Hermione described them as the most uptight people around, and Draco wondered what exactly she would have made of his parents.

Before the start of this summer Draco had the forethought to find out what the assigned reading would be for the upcoming year. It was 'the great gatsby'. Draco had taken to carrying the book in his back pocket. When he found time he'd pull it out and read it. Then one day probably out of boredom Hermione asked him to read some of it to her. She seemed sad alot that summer and Draco wished it was a happier book, but all the same he read to her.

In the middle of that field of flowers Hermione leaned up against his back and listened to him.

'All the bright precious things fade so fast... and they don't come back.' Daisy buchannan had said that. Hermione asked him if he even knew what it meant.

"Sure." He lied. "Things change." He shrugged his shoulders.

"It's more than that." Hermione said looking up at the sky lost in the clouds as the billowed on by. "She's saying things change because time can't keep. Nothing will ever stay the same. Trying to stop time is like holding sand in your hands. No matter how tightly you hold on bits of it still slip through your fingers. In a way time is illusion Draco. We're here one minute-" Hermione plucked a poppy flower up, "then in the next minute we're gone and nothing can change it." she let the flower go and the wind carried it away.

Draco started to think of Hermione as Dasiy Buchanan. A beautiful, young charming woman. But she was better than Daisy. She wasn't shallow or sardonic. He wondered if their story would be one as poetic as the Great Gatsby. He wondered if it would be worse to be Gatsby or Tom Buchanan. Gatsby died fast and hard. Tom got the girl in the end but at what price? No Draco decided their story wasn't like the 'The great gatsby.'

Draco was probably kidding himself. Hermione was older than him, and there was no way she saw him that way. She mostly probably just humored him. Or maybe she really was that lonely. Whatever the reason was she spent time with him out of her summer, Draco wished he could stay in that moment forever. With Hermione against him, and sat in that field of flowers. It was peaceful and he was happy. But time can't keep like Hermione said...