Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
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To Draco's great dismay, Professor McGonagall nullified the previous academic year as soon as she assumed the role of Headmaster.
No graduation ceremony followed the Battle of Hogwarts.
Instead, seventh year students were invited to return to the castle the following autumn to properly complete their magical educations.
Draco sighed to himself that September as he found himself riding the train that he had vowed her would never board again.
He scowled as he stared out the window at the passing landscape that rolled by.
The anticipated loneliness of the coming months and years seemed daunting.
His parents had privately commended his decision to throw Harry his wand in the battle's final moments, although publicly, they had denounced their son's actions.
Cast out from both their friends and from those who followed the path of good, the Malfoys found themselves without hardly anyone at all except each other.
Draco had always been prone to long sessions of brooding, but in that empty train compartment, as he glanced around, he wished that Goyle or Blaise would have been kind enough to sit with him.
It would have at least given him a moment's respite from his own self-hatred.
A sudden shadow from a passing figure caused him to leave his inner musings for a split second and look up….only to see Hermione pass by his train compartment's window.
Draco frowned as he imagined her on her way to join her two friends in their comfortable car while they reveled in their victory.
He grit his teeth as he wondered how she could be so blind.
Of course Weasley and Potter were her best friends, they could share her through each cycle and never have to bother with finding their own mates.
As he lamented the fact he could not be either of them, the shadow passed a second time and he looked up to see Hermione walking the opposite way down the hall as she passed by his train compartment's window once more.
Curious, Draco stood, opened the door, and shouted at her as he stuck his head into the hall, "GRANGER!"
Hermione stopped abruptly and turned to meet his gaze, "...Hello, Malfoy."
"What are you doing stomping up and down out here?" He demanded, "Forget where the loo is after all this time?"
"Actually, I've nowhere to sit." Hermione snapped as she clutched the books she held against her chest.
"Where's Weasley and Potter?" Draco frowned.
"Not here!" She exclaimed, "I expect they're at the Ministry, halfway through Auror orientation by now."
"Don't you have to have a diploma for that?" Draco scowled.
"Apparently not….if you've defeated the Dark Lord." Hermione shrugged.
It took Draco a split second to recover himself after the sunlight rolled through a nearby window and highlighted Hermione's brown hair in an almost ethereal glow.
"Well……." He stammered, determined to work against his dry throat, "Surely there's plenty of students who'd enjoy you sitting with them, give them a good retelling of the battle."
"That's just it, I'm not interested in talking about the war!" Hermione said with a frustrated gasp. A sadness Draco had never seen there before came into her eyes as she looked at him and sighed, "I just want to sit and read, that's all."
Draco jumped at the golden opportunity he had been given. "If you're certain you can be quiet, there's an empty seat next to me."
Hermione blinked.
Draco's eyes widened in silent fear.
Had he overstepped a boundary?
Had he asked too much? Offered a token that would surely give him away in the worst manner possible?
He inwardly braced himself for her hissing rejection, but to his great shock, Hermione shrugged and replied, "...Alright."
"Alright?" Draco scoffed.
"Yes." She snapped, "If I can have somewhere to sit without people pestering me, I'll take it, Malfoy, even if it happens to be next to you."
Draco watched in fascination as she walked towards him.
He moved aside and let her sit down without a word before he took his own seat across from her.
Hermione said nothing as she opened the book in her hands and began to read.
Draco watched her quietly as the scenery outside the train window rolled by, pulling them closer and closed towards what promised to be an eventful final year.
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By the time the train approached the castle later that evening, Draco writhed in frustration at the silence Hermione had asked him to endure.
Normally one content to sit in the quiet, he found himself bursting with the desire to chat.
It wouldn't matter what they talked about, as long as they talked.
He could ask about her summer, or discuss what she had chosen to read or-
"You really are a bookworm, aren't you?" He snapped.
Draco mentally berated himself for his own stupidity.
What kind of thing was that to say?!
To ask?!?!
Hermione shot him a glare as she glanced up from the page and snapped, "Don't pretend as if you don't enjoy reading too. I've caught you plenty of times with books in your hands when no one was looking."
"Well, I……..Hang on." Draco huffed, "Have you spied on me, Granger?"
"Only when Harry told me it was necessary." Hermione quipped.
"A dangerous mission." Draco grinned, "You could have seen something you didn't like."
"Who's to say I didn't?" Hermione snapped.
Her amber eyes lingered on his gray gaze as they lingered in their verbal stalemate.
It was all Draco could do not to throw himself at her feet and beg her to be his.
What would she think if he did?
He would lose her respect completely and whatever credibility as an alpha he had managed to cling to after the war.
The flirtation seemed so obscenely bold they could do little else other than stare at each other for a passing moment.
Once Hermione turned back to her book, Draco quipped, "You're bold to blush like that all alone in a compartment with an unmated alpha, Granger."
Hermione blinked innocently as she looked up before she mocked him, "Oh…….you're talking about yourself, aren't you, Malfoy?"
Draco scowled.
"I'm not worried about you." Hermione said calmly as a smug smile danced across her lips, "You won't harm me."
Draco longed to continue their conversation but before he could think of what to say next, the train pulled to a complete stop.
Without so much as a teasing glance, Hermione collected her book and left him sitting all alone once more.
He sighed to himself in her wake, saddened yet content.
It didn't matter that there would be many empty moments in the upcoming school year.
For once, he had a real opportunity to befriend his beloved and share his heart.
Draco's polished shoes clicked against the bricks of the platform after he stepped off the Hogwarts Express.
For once, a small smile graced his lips as he raised his head and looked at the castle in quiet anticipation of the upcoming academic term.
He silently vowed to himself to use his final two semesters as a Hogwarts student to get as close to Hermione Granger as possible, as close as she would let him, anyway.
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Draco put his plan into action without much fuss.
In perhaps what was the most uncharacteristic behavior he had ever seen from her, Hermione arrived thirty seconds late to Herbology on their first afternoon of classes and struggled to find an available bench.
Draco had purposely shooed anyone interested in the spot next to him away, hoping Hermione had chosen to take the course as well.
He had to work quite hard to hide his delight as she walked towards him with a defiant scowl and hesitantly placed her books down.
Madam Sprout walked out to face her class and begin the lesson just as Hermione hissed at him, "...Why is it, Malfoy, that the only seats I can find lately happen to be next to you?"
"I suppose you've just had strokes of luck, Granger." Draco replied with a wicked smile.
"...Or misfortune." Hermione grouched.
As Madam Sprout came forward and started the lecture, Hermione and Draco both tried their hardest to ignore each other and pay attention.
Regardless, Hermione's eyes kept wandering down to the subtle, elegant movement of Draco's long, tapered fingers as he held his quill, prepared to take notes.
In Draco's mind, his professor's words were slurred and hazy.
The soft, pleasant scent of Hermione's hair that drifted past his nose refused to allow him the privilege of concentration on anything else.
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A round of witty banter on the way to class in the morning.
Smirks discreetly exchanged across the Great Hall during lunch.
Excuses mumbled to housemates during dinner as they left Hogwarts' dining room minutes apart to not arouse suspicion.
By the beginning of the second semester, Draco and Hermione were well-accustomed to the decadent taboo in which they had decided to indulge.
While the rest of the castle's inhabitants continued their meal that night, Hermione and Draco clung to each other as if locked in a desperate race while they shared a furious kiss.
From their discrete hideaway close to the lavatories, their hands slipped over each other as they panted for breath.
It was in those moments Hermione found absolute freedom.
When she was in Draco's arms, she no longer cared about what Harry, Ron, her parents, or anyone else would think.
She no longer worried about what would come.
She no longer feared.
All she knew was the addictive smell of Draco's expensive cologne and the delightful sensation of bathing in his admiration.