Chapter 7

Draco was breathless with the information that Harry was feeding him, he had not been aware that Dumbledore was dying when Draco had been ordered to murder him.

"He made a deal with Snape that he would kill him before the curse did if it needed to be done, and he was, under no circumstance, allowed to let you do it. Dumbledore didn't want you to taint your soul."

"Are you joking?" He gasped, gripping the counter top so tightly his knuckles turned white.

"I'm dead serious. Snape left me memories, that was part of them. I was so angry with Dumbledore for not helping you before that, throwing out a token offer the night he died was cowardly and I felt horrible for you when I realised everything you were up against."

Draco stayed quiet for a few moments, trying to process everything Potter had just told him. He had been beating himself up for years over something that had been a plan between his headmaster and godfather. What a slap in the face.

He felt discombobulated for a minute but got his breathing under control.

"Thank you for telling me that, Potter," he said quietly. "But we've gotten off track. The point is that I haven't felt negatively about Hermione in years, and I have this amazing witch who seems to genuinely enjoy spending time with me. She makes me feel like I'm a good person, like I have a real chance, you know? She's already so important to me."

"She does that," Harry said with a grin. "She sinks her claws in right away and that's it. I mean it when I say she's my best friend. She's like the sister I never had and I would do anything for her."

"You guys never… you didn't have - uhhhh- any romantic relationship?" Draco asked haltingly. This was something he was always curious about, even during school.

"Merlin, no!" Harry all but shouted. "No. She is literally like a sister to me and always has been. I think she was the first person to actually make me understand what family love is like."

Draco's eyebrows scrunched in confusion again as he busied himself clearing their empty plates. "I thought you were raised by your aunt and uncle?"

Harry's face reddened and he looked away, but Draco was immediately distracted from that line of thought when a shiver ran down his spine.

Hermione had crossed his wards.

He grinned quickly and stepped away from the kitchen, opening the front door after she had knocked only once.

"Hi!," she said, stepping inside and going on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his lips. "I hope I'm not too early. I tried to give you guys some bonding time but I also really didn't want to miss out on the treacle tart," she admitted with a slight blush.

Draco kissed her again.

"Your timing is impeccable," he grinned, helping her remove her outer layers before taking her hand and heading back to the kitchen.

"Hi Harry!" Hermione chirped when they entered, and she immediately approached him and gave him a huge hug.

"Tea?" Draco asked casually as he brought out teacups with a swish of his hand and sent them to line up on the counter.

"Please," Hermione responded, stepping away from Harry and coming back to Draco's side of the island. "Did you have a good dinner?"

"It was great," Harry responded with a small smile. "Malfoy made me fish and chips; best I've ever had, mate."

Draco's cheeks reddened slightly.

"Oh wait until you try his baking, Harry. Honestly, it's ridiculous."

Draco was pleased by the praise as he dug out tea bags and dropped them into three different teacups before filling them with water and heating them with his wand.

He passed the cups out before he pulled a steel bowl from the fridge and Hermione lifted her head to peek in - it was full of whipped cream.

"I'm assuming you didn't bring your broom?" Hermione asked, eyeing Harry's uniform closely.

"You know as well as I do that James would have lost his little head if I went home and then immediately left again."

Hermione laughed and watched as Draco cut the tart into triangles and transferred them to plates before dolloping a large drop of whipped cream onto each.

Harry wasted no time taking a bite from his piece before his eyes all but rolled back in his head with delight but Hermione was more hesitant. She eyed her tea and tart, and Draco quickly excused himself to the loo. He needed a moment to wrap his head around everything he'd learned from Potter and would also give Hermione time to check her food.

—-

"I had a good time, even though some of it was tough," Draco admitted to Hermione later as they snuggled on the couch in front of the fire.

Harry had left after tea and dessert and Draco wasted no time telling her everything that had happened.

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. It's important to me that you and Harry get along, at the very least."

"I know it is," he murmured, but he didn't think he'd have a problem with any of her friends. Maybe Weasley, but he was less of a fixture in Hermione's life, now.

Draco was sitting on the couch with his back against the arm rest, Hermione's back to his chest as she leaned against him. Her bottom was between his thighs and he couldn't keep his hands from wandering anymore.

He let his fingers graze lightly against her neck, just the tips skimming over her skin. She tried to suppress a shiver, but Draco felt it and was emboldened.

He continued for a few moments, loving the way she quivered against him with the light contact, and then dared to drag his fingers lower.

He skimmed them over her ribs to the hemline of her shirt, but he felt her stiffen against him when his fingers touched her stomach.

He closed his eyes for a moment but decided to be daring, and slipped his hands beneath her shirt and ran them up her sides, up the dip in her waist, and gently toyed with the skin beneath her bra.

She breathed deeply, giving him control, and kept her hands planted on his thighs.

Draco slipped his fingers beneath her bra and groaned at the softness of her breasts. His fingers inched higher until he felt the tightened buds of her nipples, already hard, and flicked his fingertips over them softly.

She moaned quietly, and he started pinching her nipples lightly before applying more pressure that had her groaning and shifting between his thighs.

Her head dropped into the front of his chest as she relinquished herself to his hands, and he toyed with her nipples for another moment before he slipped his hands down to the waistline of her pants.

She stilled as he quickly undid the buttons on the front but groaned and arched into him as his fingers slipped beneath her knickers and were skimming past her hip bones and down between her thighs.

He groaned at the feeling of her pussy under his fingers, sliding his fingertips down the sides of her inner thighs before gently caressing her opening. She gasped as he gathered up the slight moisture there and slipped his fingers back up to the tight bundle of her clit, circling lazily.

His lips attached themselves to her neck as his fingers slipped around beneath her waistband, stimulating her.

She moaned again, and he couldn't help but nip her neck with his teeth.

"Does this feel good?" His low voice sent jolts from her ear to her core, his breath making her shiver as the fingers on his other hand dipped lower.

She nodded frantically as he pushed one of his long fingers inside her, his left hand still working her clit as his lips and tongue nibbled and laved at the juncture of her neck and shoulder.

"You feel so good," he groaned, both hands down her pants as she writhed against him, her bottom pushing into his thighs and rapidly hardening cock as her head pressed into the front of his shoulder.

"Don't stop," she gasped, as Draco increased the pressure on her clit as he slowly worked a second finger into her.

She was tight around him, and he curled his fingers into her as his fingers on his other hand slipped back and forth on her clit quickly.

He continued pushing into her, her walls pulsing around his fingers as he went from curling them to pressing them as deeply as he could, all the while keeping up the pressure on her bundle of nerves.

"Don't stop, don't stop," she gasped, and Draco growled low in his throat, attaching his teeth to her neck tightly.

"Fuck Hermione," he groaned, biting into her skin.

She seemed to enjoy the feeling of his teeth; she moaned loudly, completely overwhelmed by him.

He released his teeth and his tongue soothed her skin there before he moved his head up and bit into her again, a little higher than before.

She seemed to be on the edge, the sounds coming from her plump lips were sinful and he could feel her tightening ever more around his long fingers.

He curled them roughly once more while simultaneously pinching her clit and sinking his teeth deeper into neck, and she was suddenly coming undone.

Her entire body went taut before she cried out and bowed beneath him, her walls clamping down on his fingers so tightly he could hardly move them.

He worked her through it gently, soothing her neck with his tongue again as she cried out over and over.

When she went limp, he removed his soaked fingers from her knickers, glancing at her closed eyes before pushing the two that were inside her into his mouth while he suppressed a groan of delight and arousal.

"I didn't think I would ever dislike a pregnant woman, especially one carrying my child, but I swear that Ava is doing everything in her power to make me miserable."

"Well she's just over halfway now, at least. Four more months."

Draco groaned. "That feels like forever."

Hermione nodded. She had heard all the stories about the pregnant witch and her awful behaviour, and while she'd been to Draco's for dinner a couple times she had never actually met her.

"Have you thought about the nursery yet?" Hermione asked. "Maybe you can distract her by asking her to help decorate or something?"

"She doesn't want to decorate the nursery, Granger. She isn't even going to be around after the baby is born."

Hermione let out a small breath, still unable to understand how Ava was just going to give birth and then leave.

"Did you want my help setting it up?" She asked quietly as she bit her lip. They hadn't discussed anything serious about their relationship, not really, and she didn't know if she was overstepping or not.

She finally looked up to see Draco watching her closely. "You'd want to help me do that?"

"Of course," she responded automatically. "I want to do pretty much everything with you," She admitted softly, looking down at her hands. "I…I really like you, Draco."

There. She had said it. She had finally admitted what she had known for months now. She thought about him almost constantly, even the most mundane things made her think about him, and she thought about kissing him literally all the time.

They had told each other they were interested in each other when they had gone boomslang skin hunting, but that had been almost two months before.

Now Hermione knew that she was not only interested, but that she wanted to be a significant part of Draco's life for as long as he'd allow it.

He was silent, and she bit her lip in nervousness before she finally looked up to meet his eyes. They were burning at her, the silver darkened to a stormy grey as he took her in for a moment, judging her seriousness.

He was in front of her in seconds, his hands sliding up her neck and his fingers caressing her cheeks gently before he lowered his mouth to hers.

"I have been waiting to hear you say that for months, Hermione," he whispered before pressing his lips to hers.

She whimpered into his mouth and pressed herself closer to his body, his arms caging her in as his hands pushed into her hair.

"I want us to be exclusive," he finally said, once their kiss ended.

Hermione laughed slightly before assuring him she wasn't seeing anyone other than him.

"So. Would you help me with the nursery?" he asked, retreating a bit to give her space to continue slicing dandelion root into perfectly even pieces.

"Yes, when would you like to do it?"

"I've already got some catalogues, but I think Thursday and Friday I'll be at work for longer than usual. We've had a couple changes in staff that need to be sorted out, so Saturday might be best for me. We can have dinner, too, if you want to stay that long?"

He seemed timid about the question, and Hermione looked up from her slicing to meet his gaze. Even though they just expressed how they felt about each other, even though they had kissed numerous times and he'd literally had his fingers inside of her, he still seemed unsure about what it meant.

"I'll stay as long as you want," she said quietly, because she suddenly understood that Draco wasn't entirely confident in himself when it came to their relationship.

His smile transformed his face as he watched her, nodding.

—-

Hermione made an emergency stop at Grimmauld Place after she closed the shop for the night. She tumbled out of the Floo in a heap and scared the living daylights out of Ginny, who had not been expecting her to show up randomly on a Tuesday.

"Hermione! What are you doing here?!"

"I need to tell you guys something, is Harry home?"

"Yes, he's just getting James into bed. Are you okay? You look a little… peaky."

"I'm fine," Hermione reassured breathlessly. "I just need to talk to you guys."

"Hi, Hermione!" Harry said cheerfully as he stumbled into the kitchen and went directly to the mug of the tea Ginny had prepared for him. "What are you doing here?"

"Can we sit?"

"Yes of course," Ginny assured, shooing her to the table as she pulled out another tea cup.

"I know you guys know that I have been spending time with Draco and we're into each other and stuff, but there's more to it than that."

"Okay?" Harry queried, suddenly looking tense.

"He's having a baby," Hermione blurted. "I've known about it since the beginning, and the woman he impregnated is currently hiding at his home in the country. She's going to give birth to his child and then leave because she doesn't want anything to do with them or the Malfoy family in general."

Harry and Ginny were silent as they stared at her across the table.

"You've known about this baby for months? Was this woman at his house when I was there for dinner?"

"He came to me for a pregnancy revealing potion - that's when we really started talking in the first place. I obviously wasn't expecting for us to get so close, but yes I've known about the baby the whole time."

Hermione met his gaze slowly, looking embarrassed. "And yes, she was there. She mostly stays in her room when people are around, I think."

Harry looked disturbed for a moment to realise there was someone else present in Draco's home that he had no idea about, but he pushed it aside, focusing on the discussion at hand.

"And the pregnant woman - "

"Ava," Hermione interrupted.

"And Ava is just going to leave?" Ginny reiterated, stunned.

"Yes. She's been a nightmare, from the sounds of it, but Draco wants this baby so she agreed to keep it and give birth. I'm sure Draco is paying her off, even though he hasn't said anything about that, but once the baby is born she is leaving. It's been made quite clear."

"Poor bloke," Harry mumbled. "I could not imagine having to go through parenthood alone."

"It'll be tough," Ginny agreed, sipping from her teacup thoughtfully.

"At least he's got his mum to help out, right?"

Hermione shook her head slowly. "He does not speak to his parents, Harry. Mr. Malfoy is in Azkaban for life, anyway."

"Mrs. Malfoy?"

"He has nothing to do with her. He's touchy about it but…I think his childhood was pretty bad, and he doesn't even speak to her."

Harry let out a low whistle, remembering the things Draco had told him. Now that he was looking at it from hindsight, the blond had all but told Harry he didn't like his parents. He hadn't even mentioned them except the few stories about his childhood, and he had looked quite disgusted when he said his mother was proud of him for taking the Dark Mark.

He blinked as he came out of his thoughts again, looking at Hermione closely. Too closely. She looked away only to find that Ginny was also looking at her knowingly.

"Why are you guys looking at me like that?" She demanded.

"You told him you like him, he reciprocated, and now you're here suddenly telling us about this unborn baby even though you've known about it for months. You want to be… this is just an assumption Hermione, but it sounds like you are telling us that you are going to have a baby soon, too."

Hermione's cheeks reddened, because now that she heard it aloud she realised that Harry was most definitely not wrong. That wasn't the point of her coming here and informing them about everything happening, but Harry had caught her out.

She and Draco had not talked about anything of the sort, but Hermione knew that she actually really liked Draco and if he still wanted her around after the baby was born she was all for it.

"I want to be there for them," she whispered, feeling dreaded tears welling up in her eyes.

"Draco and I decided today that we are dating exclusively. I haven't been so sure about anything for years, Harry. I can't even unpack my bag and make myself a home without having panic attacks, but this is something I feel so sure about that it's almost scary."

Ginny reached across the table and touched her hand gently.

"We will always have your back, Hermione, you know that. If this is something you're choosing to do, and you're truly happy, we support you."

"Always," Harry repeated, and Hermione's tears broke free.

They sat in silence for a few minutes as Hermione collected herself and Ginny rubbed her hand. She was so lucky to have such understanding friends, people who would support her decisions.

"Well, onto other news. We were going to tell you this at our Sunday dinner, but we might as well just do it now. We're going to move out of Grimmauld Place soon, we're just beginning to look at the housing market now."

"What?" Hermione asked, shocked.

"It's just… I know that it belonged to Sirius, and I miss him, but I don't know that I want to raise our children here."

Hermione looked around the kitchen objectively, and she wasn't sure if it was just because she had been there so often and stopped paying attention to her surroundings, or if she never actually looked properly at all, but it was… dismal.

Hermione nodded in understanding. "It makes sense. Even if you didn't sell it, it isn't really costing you anything."

"We will stay here while we search for a new home for sure, and then figure it out from there. We told Ron yesterday and he said he'd keep his eyes open for anything that would suit our needs. We all know how often Lavender looks for houses; she hates the flat they're in right now," Ginny added absentmindedly, taking another sip from her cup.

"James needs a happier place to grow up, I mean no offence to Sirius, not that it was his fault since he was in Azkaban, but this place is a dump. I can't even believe we've been here as long as we have, if I'm being honest."

"Well, I mean… Harry… there are severed elf heads on the wall!"

"Stuck there forever too unless we demolish the place," he agreed, nodding.

"Did you mention me and Draco when you talked to Ron?" Hermione asked, she hadn't seen him for a while.

"I did end up bringing it up, because I was telling him about the dinner I had with him."

"Well, good," Hermione said, surprising her friends. "It'll make it less harsh when he finds out from me."

Harry laughed. "He seemed pretty alright with it, if I'm being honest. Especially when I told him a few of the details of our conversation. I don't think you'll get any shite from him, anyway."

Hermione smiled. She honestly just loved her friends.