Disclaimer: all characters and the wider wizarding world belong to J. K. Rowling.

February had arrived and the younger inhabitants of the castle descended into bedlam as Valentine's Day approached.

The older years had mellowed somewhat, the tacky declarations of love favoured in their younger years paled somewhat when they'd lived through a war. Couples were steadier; they didn't need tea at Madam Puddifoot's or charmed paper hearts.

Hermione woke early on the dreaded holiday and breakfasted before the hall was too full of squealing girls and sheepish boys. Having signed out of the castle for the Sunday so she could come and go as she pleased, she headed to Hogsmeade early and completed her shopping in Flourish and Blotts before it got busy.

As the village filled up, she saw many of her fellow students pairing up and enjoying their days. She'd even spotted Neville taking Hannah Abbott for a romantic meal in the wand and candlestick, the fanciest restaurant in Hogsmeade. She hadn't even realised they were dating. She made a note to ask him about it later.

At lunch, she realised she had no desire to attempt to eat at any of the local establishments, who were almost certainly catering for hormonal teenage couples. Nor did she feel ready to return to the castle and be one of the few senior girls on her own in the Quidditch stands.

She decided she would send a quick patronus to Andromeda and see if it would be appropriate to visit with her and Teddy. When Andromeda's eagle patronus returned with a yes, she walked to the edge of the village and apparated to the little cottage in Devon.

Andromeda opened the door with a smile and gathered the young girl into her arms even as Hermione professed her thanks for accepting her with such short notice.

"Nonsense, my dear, it's so lovely to see you," she said as they walked in. "Teddy will be so pleased. He was getting quite fed up with just his grandmother and great aunt for company. He will be thoroughly spoiled today."

Hermione nearly smacked herself. How could she have forgotten Narcissa was here? Even if she'd been able to forget the events that had led to her being driven from her home and recuperating with her sister she had just struck up a conversation with the aurors in Hogsmeade as she made it to the apparition point.

She was spared thinking of anything to say in response to that by the appearance of the woman in question holding up a toddling Teddy Lupin, his hair the same pale shade of blond, concentrating hard on walking on unsteady legs towards the door and the new arrival.

"He just couldn't wait, had to know what was going on out here," Narcissa explained, as she bent double walking with the small boy. It was such an unusual pose for the usually unflappable Malfoy matriarch Hermione took a moment longer than she would normally have to step forward and relieve her.

As Hermione bent to pick up Teddy and his gurgling laughter filled the house, he changed his hair from straight blond to curly brown.

"No fair, Granger. I only just got him to change it to blond."

Hermione's eyes widened as she recognised the deep voice coming from the direction of the living room. Draco Malfoy was lounging against the doorframe, looking utterly bored by the proceedings. If it weren't for the slight upturn of one side of his mouth and the glint in his eye, Hermione would have assumed he had regressed to the school bully from previous years.

"He just likes me better, don't you Teddy?"

Teddy's gurgling laughter was answer enough and a broader smile crept across Draco's face. Hermione jigged the laughing tot on her hip to make him laugh more as she carried him back to the sun-filled living room where a lavish spread of sandwiches, cakes and tea was set out, with stasis charms holding it all perfectly until they were seated.

Tea was a relatively casual affair and conversation between the adults hovered around safe subjects such as the speedy recovery of Mrs Malfoy ("Please call me Narcissa, the divorce has been finalised"), the plans for the evening feast ("Minnie always was a romantic") and what subjects Hermione was ahead of her reading in (all of them, and even one she wasn't strictly taking). Nobody mentioned the other Black sister, and everyone seemed glad for the distraction of Teddy's many interjections.

During one particularly grouchy outburst, Draco grabbed a biscuit from the table and handed it to Teddy, who took it in his chubby hands and proceeded to attempt to eat a bit of it. He was so happy with the offering he changed his hair back to blond, although he kept the soft curls.

"Traitor," Hermione mumbled under her breath, cleaning some of the biscuit detritus from his face.

"He just likes me better," Draco replied.

"Nonsense," Hermione countered. "He's one and you bribed him with a biscuit. Hardly fair, Malfoy."

"What on earth gave you the impression I play fair, Hermione?"

At the use of her first name she looked up and stuck her tongue out over Teddy's head, earning a small smile from the otherwise impassive blond. Her eyes wandered to her other lunch companions and she was surprised to find they were staring at the trio on the opposite side of the table with near identical grins. If Hermione had struggled to see any familial similarity between Narcissa and Andromeda before, she was left in no doubt now that these two women were at one time very close knit sisters.

"You are at a table of Slytherins, my dear," Andromeda sympathised. As Teddy grizzled more, even with the biscuit in hand, she rose to take him up for a nap and free Hermione to clear the biscuit detritus from her lap.

Draco watched her clear biscuit crumbs from her lap with a couple of sweeps of her hand rather than a deft sweep of her wand. Always the muggle way first. He reached over to pull a particularly large, soggy lump of biscuit from her hair, which made her start and he held his now biscuity hands up.

"How did he get quite so much in your hair?"

Hermione frowned and flushed slightly as she tried to find additional bits in amongst her curls.

"Stop, woman, Merlin you're a nightmare," he grumbled, pulling his wand from his jacket and cleaning first his hand and then all of her with a wordless spell.

"Impressive wordless casting, and it didn't frizz my hair like a scourgify normally does. You'll have to teach me that one."

She was granted another half-smile for her efforts at civility and her stomach resisted the urge to flip with nerves and excitement. She smiled in response and flushed further, before a small cough brought her back to reality.

"Draco, now that you've exhausted your cousin you should really accompany Miss Granger back to the school." Narcissus carefully buttered half a tea cake as she spoke, making her words seem like throw away comments. Hermione made a note to remember that trick for future use.

She looked up to Draco who was scowling at his mother, doing that Slytherin thing of communicating without the use of words. He was obviously no more fooled by Narcissa's tone than she was.

"Darling, I'm just saying you should head back. Andie said there's to be some sort of Quidditch match and I know how much you enjoy that, and I'm sure Hermione will appreciate the company."

"Mother…" Draco warned, but Narcissa took no notice, continuing to butter the tea cake with a fastidiousness Hermione had rarely seen applied to baked goods. She sat, stuck in the awkward silence as mother and son played power games over the remnants of their lunch. Being Slytherin seemed exhausting in school, but she was beginning to understand it didn't end when the school let out.

"Actually, Mrs- Narcissa," Hermione corrected herself before earning so much as a glance from the woman. "It's fine, I'll just head to the quidditch to watch and then to my rooms. Really, it's fine-"

"Nonsense," Narcissa decreed, finally balancing her butter knife against the edge of her plate. "Draco, do see that Miss Granger makes it safely back to the school. One can never be too careful at times like this."

"Yes, mother," Draco replied in a tone that brokered no argument.

When Andromeda returned, they said their goodbyes. Hermione was surprised by Narcissa's warm hug on the threshold, but she was reminded that whatever their background she was Andromeda's sister and that warmth had to come from somewhere.

Draco and Hermione walked to the edge of the wards around the property and agreed which apparition point to meet at and apparated separately to the one nearest the school. The aurors tensed slightly at the sight of white blond hair and black clothes and relaxed only slightly when they recognised Hermione next to him.

Draco bristled at the reaction, his shoulders pulled back and Hermione watched as the aristocratic mask he'd all but she'd over lunch fell into place. Fuming at the injustice, she very obviously grabbed his hand, being sure to pointedly look at the aurors and pulled him away before he could say anything.

Once they were out of view of the aurors and walking back to the castle along the path that practically sparkled with protective enchantments she dropped his hand.

"Sorry," she mumbled. "I know you only left with me because your mother said so. You don't have to walk with me if you don't want to."

Draco counted to ten slowly in his head. He hadn't appreciated the aurors' tactless reminder of how much he looked like his father, but when she'd slipped her small hand into his and defended him with nothing more than a look, it didn't seem to matter anymore. What did it matter what some aurors on school-kid duty thought when Hermione Granger was willing to defend you?

"The fact that I would do anything for my mother notwithstanding, Granger, accompanying you back to the school is not something I'm doing just to please her."

Hermione tried to control the flutter of butterflies in her stomach at his slight smile. He was a constant mystery to her, and she kept sneaking glances in his direction as they began walking back to the school in companionable silence.

The embarrassment with the quill had been her first misstep. She probably could have got out of that if she hadn't also collapsed into a panic attack - in his arms, if Molly was to be believed - and then if Ron hadn't suggested he join the DA straight after. Granted, that last one wasn't her fault, but she reckoned she was guilty by association. But before all that she'd definitely felt something. Maybe not much of something, and maybe those incidents had doused it for good, but she had to know if there was even a flicker left.

They had made it halfway back to the castle before she mustered the courage to speak.

"Draco," she began, so caught up in her own thoughts she hadn't realised that he'd stopped walking.

"Granger, can we go back to being friends?"

Hermione forgot how to breathe for a minute. She was sure he must have noticed the change in her demeanour, the widening of her eyes, the lack of colour in her cheeks. She quickly recovered herself.

"Friends. Right, yes, of course."

He watched her hands fidget as she stared at her shoes and acknowledged again how uncomfortably heavy guilt felt.

"Hermione-"

Her eyes flicked up and he nearly fell over with the depth of feeling he could see in them. They swam a little with unshed tears and he briefly wondered if he was making a horrible mistake. His eyes were drawn to her right hand, rubbing up and down the length of her left forearm and he reminded himself of all the very good reasons why Hermione Granger, war heroine, muggle-born, golden girl, Gryffindor princess and smartest witch of her age would never be - should never be with him.

"Hermione," he continued. "I don't have many friends and you were one of the closest I had. I can't exactly afford to fall out with anyone over something as silly as a bloody quill."

The rest of what had followed the quill incident was better left unsaid, he decided.

"There are far more important things happening right now, don't you think?"

Hermione seemed to shudder slightly before shaking it off and nodding, smiling a little too brightly to be genuine.

"Absolutely," Hermione said, with forced cheer in her voice. It would have worked on Ron, but Slytherins put on masks of deception with their socks in the morning so she knew it wouldn't fool him.

"What were you going to say?"

"I was going to ask if you wanted me to cheer for you in the quidditch," she said, a little too quickly. "As Harry and Ginny won't be there, you'll be my favourite seeker."

Draco swallowed the gnawing feeling of disappointment and smiled, not a genuine smile, but not a completely false one either.

"So I'm your third favourite seeker? After Ginny? Really?" He feigned hurt and pouted slightly. "She's not even a real seeker, Hermione, you're killing me."

"Nonsense, ''tis but a scratch'," she countered, sniggering to herself at her own movie quote. At his quizzical look she muttered something about teaching him about films some time and they carried on walking.

Draco had no idea what a film was but if it made her chuckle like that he would happily learn all about them. That's what friends did, right?


Hermione wrapped up in her warmest jumper and picked a neutral grey scarf to wear to the quidditch match and headed to the pitch.

She could see people flying around but she didn't think they'd started yet as she found Luna and took a seat in the mostly abandoned stands.

"Hi Hermione," Luna said without tearing her eyes from her book. "Nice day for it, isn't it?"

Hermione considered the grey, cold February day before deciding it wasn't worth the argument, agreeing with the blonde and making herself comfortable.

"I'm glad to see the fizzburgles have stopped following you so closely," she said airily, as Draco Malfoy sidled up to them on his broom.

"Granger! Will you hold onto my hat? I won't need it when I'm flying and I don't want to head back to the locker room."

Hermione huffed but held out her hand all the same. He threw the hat directly onto her hand and flew off smiling. She folded the - obviously ludicrously expensive cashmere - hat in her lap and tried to resist the temptation to stroke it.

"I'm glad the fizzburgles have stopped following him too," Luna added.

Hermione's head jerked to the blonde witch but she had returned to her spaced-out look. She flitted from looking for non-existent creatures to scarily astute in the blink of an eye, and Hermione was never quite sure when the change had occurred.

Much as they had at her birthday, the teams split mostly along house lines, with Gryffindor and Hufflepuff playing against Slytherin and Ravenclaw. There were practice bludgers so they could play without full kit, but a real game Snitch so the winner wouldn't be in doubt.

Hermione enjoyed the game, much as she always did; she enjoyed seeing her friends having fun, flying around like lunatics, and the banter was excellent, as per usual.

When Draco and Cadwallader from Hufflepuff - who Luna could never remember the name of - started darting for the Snitch, play stopped momentarily, allowing Ron to score his first goal, leaving his post as keeper to throw the quaffle through the hoops while nobody was looking.

The two seekers neared the ground, Cadwallader pulled up short but Draco kept going, pulling up only when the snitch was firmly wrapped in his fingers. Hermione clapped and whooped as he did a quick victory lap on the broom, laughing as he was engulfed by his teammates. Even Ron patted him on the back in congratulations.

The gathered fifth, sixth and seventh years were so engrossed in their celebrations that nobody noticed the pale form of a tabby cat sprinting across the sky until it stopped in front of Ron and the voice of the Headmistress carried across the rapidly quieting stands.

"Mr Weasley, I'm sorry to interrupt your enjoyment but there has been an attack on the Burrow. Everyone is safe, but please come to my office at once."

Ron looked for a moment like a man who had lost everything. Even the Headmistress' assurance that everyone was safe wasn't enough. A desperate croak ripped itself from his throat before recovered his senses and started to move. He was on his broom and speeding over the back of the quidditch stands towards the castle before anyone realised he was going.

The shining tabby turned towards Hermione and, tilting its head, decided she had received the message as well. It turned and bounded away, south towards London and the youngest Weasley.

Hermione stood motionless. Although the Headmistress hadn't specifically invited her, she knew the message was for her as well. Ron had already flown off and she could feel the panic rising. An attack on the Burrow meant one thing; Bellatrix was on the move. It would only be a matter of time before she gathered enough followers to start attacking muggles and muggle-borns. The edges of her vision were blurring and she swayed slightly.

Draco could see from across the pitch that Hermione was going into a state of shock. He made eye contact with Blaise and Theo who gathered the crowd and started moving them back to the castle. Jumping onto his broom he flew up to where Luna was lowering Hermione to sit on the benches. It was hard to see her like this, even though he'd seen it before. She was nearly unresponsive, the fire in her eyes all but gone.

"Lovegood, did she say anything?"

The blond witch shook her head in response, shocked from her usual dream-like state by the sight of her friend. Draco knelt in front of Hermione and stilled her right hand that was rubbing furiously at her left forearm. She barely stirred.

"Hermione," Draco tried, but she was in her own world. "Granger! Get out of your own head! Come on, I know you're in there," he shouted.

Hermione focused on the grey eyes in front of her and calmed her breathing, her jumbled thoughts clearing slowly. She quickly took stock of the situation, the worried look on Draco's face, Seamus and Dean landing behind him looking shocked and shaken. Even Luna was looking directly at her, not staring into the middle distance.

"It's ok, I'm ok," she mumbled, her hands gripping Draco's. He moved to pull back but she held on as her eyes widened. "My parents," she gasped. "If she can attack the Burrow then she could attack my parents, I have to get them to safety. I need to get to the Headmistress' office and floo to them, I have portkeys…"

She started to move then, gathering her things and throwing her bag over her shoulder. She made it two steps towards the stairs before a tug on her hand made her turn back.

"Get on."

Hermione looked at Draco as if he had two heads. He was straddling his broom, hovering just above the level of the stands, his hand in hers. Her fear of flying fought with her desire to get to her parents as quickly as possible. She'd never been that fond of heights, something which manifested itself in her complete inability to ride a broom well. She could use one, sure, when the occasion called for it - like escaping fiendfyre for example - but she couldn't sit a racing broom or carry a quaffle. Her hesitation must have shown.

"Merlin, Granger, I thought you wanted to get there quickly? Just get on the broom and hold on to me, I'm not going to drop you."

She met his eyes and the audience seemed to fade away.

"Trust me."

She ignored the traitorous flutter in her stomach as she climbed on behind him and put her arms around his waist. Seamus and Dean were exchanging looks she would have to give them a hard time for later but Luna simply smiled at her as they kicked off.

Her arms tensed and she heard him wince but as the Quidditch stand retreated beneath her feet she found she couldn't have relaxed her hold if she'd wanted to. Her experiences of flying with Ron and Harry had taught her that no matter how safe they said it was they always went too high and too fast for her liking.

"Granger," Draco's strangled whisper reached her. "I do need to breathe…"

Hermione loosened her hold slightly in exchange for hiding her face in his back. She braced herself for the quick acceleration she'd come to expect of the racing brooms the boys flew but it never came. She counted to ten, willing her racing heart to slow before she opened her eyes. They were speeding towards the school, yes, but the acceleration had been slow and they weren't too far off the ground.

As they approached the school, Draco flew them higher and approached a large window on the fourth or fifth floor of the castle that was wide open. They flew in over the heads of confused students and, only when they reached a corridor that forced them to land did she release her death-grip on his torso.

She didn't spare him a backward glance as she ran towards the Headmistress' office. It was only when she reached the first turning and she didn't hear him behind her that she looked back. He was still holding his broom giving a group of giggling younger girls a filthy look.

"Draco," she called over the hubbub of gossip and shocked whispers. "Aren't you coming?"

He smirked and followed her, the shocked whispers gathering momentum behind them.


A/N: Apologies for the gap - mental health, two young kids, full-time job, etc. I have another few chapters written and I have a few more sketched out so I'll hope to publish one a month for the rest of the year and then see where I can fit in time for writing in 2024. Thanks for all the reviews and the messages asking if I'm carrying on, I do intend to finish this labour of love - I can only hope some of you are still reading at the end of it!