...

Chapter 24

September 1, 1995 night

A long and wide green velvet chaise lounge dominated the Come and Go room tonight. And Draco had Theo in his lap, with his lips on his boyfriend's within moments of entering. All the pent up tension from the long train ride, the disturbing energy from dinner and Draco's pining for more intimate time with his beloveds went into his kiss.

Hermione entered a few minutes later and discovered Theo's shirt unbuttoned and both boys looking flushed and aroused.

"Couldn't wait for me?" she grinned, looking not the slightest bit bothered.

"Bloody hell Hermione, come here right now." Draco growled, reaching for her. He pulled her down on top of Theo. They both laughed and Draco switched off kissing both of them on the neck. Draco felt an urge inside himself to put marks on their necks, marks where everyone would know they were taken, that they were his.

He wasn't quite sure why it was such a strong feeling today, but gods, he wished he could. Just like on the train today, Draco wanted to shout from the rooftops that Theo was his. He didn't like the way Daphne had ran her hand over his arm after dinner and had nearly shoved her away from his boyfriend. That bitch.

The worst part was Daphne was sweet and would probably have left Theo alone if she knew he was in a relationship. It didn't stop Draco's anger and jealousy though.

He envied Pothead and the Weasel too, even the Weaslette for getting to sit with his Hermione and listen to her thoughts at meals. Even though he was well aware that they didn't appreciate her brilliance like they ought to.

"I missed the two of you so very much," Hermione breathed, "And I have some rather big news." She nuzzled into Theo's chest and he wrapped his arms around her.

"What's your news, love?" Draco stroked the napes of both of their necks and felt them melt under his touch. The three of them really had been apart for too long.

"What would you two think if I told you I was not in fact a Muggleborn, and it had been confirmed by Gringotts over break."

Draco sat in stunned silence, but not Theo. Theo started to laugh, deep and hard until tears ran down his face. Hermione was giggling too at this point and even Draco couldn't keep the smile off his usually serious face.

Once Theo's amusement finally settled down, Hermione told them the whole story.

...

Later, once they had secretly escorted Hermione as near to Gryffindor tower as they dared, Theo pulled Draco into an alcove in order to steal a few more minutes together before they had to return to their den of snakes.

Theo kissed Draco softly, stealing just a little more warmth and affection.

"Do you find this all ironic?" Theo asked

"What?" Draco put his face on Theo's shoulder, they were the same height now. Theo wondered if they would stay that way forever.

"Just that if squibs were kept as part of magical families, Hermione would be a Pureblood heiress and she'd be a highly desired bride for either of us. It just proves that the whole pureblood supremacy movement is full of shite. Because Muggleborns don't exist."

"What do you mean Muggleborns don't exist?" Draco looked into Theo's eyes confused.

"Hermione, the most well known Muggleborn in a generation or longer, isn't one. How much would you bet me that the tiny handful of so-called Muggleborns in the school are all descended from Squibs too?"

Draco thought about it for a minute and then shook his head, "I don't think I would take that bet. It seems more likely that it takes Magical blood for someone to be Magical."

"Genetics," Theo whispered, intrigued.

"What was that?"

"Oh nothing, I think I'll just have to have someone look in the Ravenclaw lending library for me."

...

September 1995

Draco had not been wrong. Dolores Umbridge was a nightmare, but she seemed to despise Potter most of all so he was able to find some enjoyment in that. The toad-faced woman intentionally pushed the Chosen One's buttons and gave him detention after detention.

Draco wasn't learning anything in her class however and had already written to his mother asking for her old fifth year DADA texts and anything she could find that might be beneficial for his O.W.L.S.. He expressed his deep concern for the low quality of education that they were receiving in the class, but he did not write to his father. He thought it very likely that the evil pink cow and his father served the same master.

And when Educational Decree 23 was issued by the Ministry of Magic making Dolores Umbridge Grand Inquisitor and giving her authority over Hogwarts, Draco received a letter telling him that he needed to join the Inquisitorial Squad within hours of its announcement. This was the moment that Draco knew that his gut intuition was correct.

"What I want to know," Draco complained with his head in Hermione's lap, while Theo sat next to her and stroked Draco's hair, "is how my father even knew? It had only been announced at breakfast and he sent an owl before dinner. I didn't even think owls could deliver letters at Hogwarts outside of breakfast."

"It is your father, Draco. I'm sure someone had to make sure he heard about this." Hermione started to giggle behind her hand, and Theo bit his lip so as not to laugh.

"Ugh you two, I'm never going to live that down am I?"

"Probably not," Theo and Hermione agreed in unison, their bright smiles as they grinned at each other warming his heart.

"I really don't want to join this thing," Draco whined.

"Draco, darling," Hermione sighed, "I don't think that you have a choice."

...

Dolores Umbridge's power at Hogwarts grew and Hermione felt the steady drain of fear and anxiety clouding her mind. She realised that all three of them were struggling with the same emotions and she wished that she had some way to keep all of them safe.

Defence Against the Dark Arts was a bloody joke. So Hermione convinced Harry to start a secret study club and duelling society. Unfortunately they got caught when they met in Hogsmeade and student organisations were banned. Then Harry decided to double down on his trouble making and called the group Dumbledore's Army.

Spending more and more time with Theo and Draco was really starting to drive home the bias in the way that Dumbledore ran the school. Slytherins were constantly hexed and assaulted and no one was ever held accountable, but if the Slytherin struck back and was caught then the punishments were severe. The Triwizard Tournament had been a Death trap and Dumbledore's record of hiring professors was questionable at best: people possessed, a Death Eater posing as a professor, and even though she liked Remus, he had tried to eat her once, not to mention the complete nutter that was Trelawney. The woman was a joke. He had allowed students to stay at the school while a basilisk roamed the hallways. Honestly it was a miracle that she wasn't dead due to Dumbledore's lackadaisical management.

Harry's continued hero worship of the man only made sense in the context of his horrendous home life, but when Hermione tried to express concerns about Dumbledore, Harry just shut her down. He didn't want to hear anything negative about his "mentor." So Hermione sighed and let him call the dueling club Dumbledore's Army even though it was a stupid thing to do.

Then Dobby threw a further wrench into Hermione's relationship by showing her and Harry what he called the Room of Requirement. Hermione had to pretend that she had never seen it before, didn't know how the magic worked and definitely did not know it intimately by another name, the Come and Go room.

Theo and Draco were livid when they found out that their secret place was now going to be invaded by "Gryffindorks." Hermione couldn't come up with a way to really make it up to them, because honestly she was upset about it too. Instead, the three of them started to meet in abandoned classrooms, the further out of the way the better. Hogwarts was huge. There were whole corridors and passages that were unused these days. Perhaps when there had been more students these areas would have been bustling with people. Perhaps once upon a time the castle had more professors and human staff. None of them knew.

In order to keep from being found out, Theo and Hermione both decided to make an extensive study of advanced wards. Theo knew quite a bit already and guided Hermione towards his favourite books on the topic. Theo couldn't set blood wards in the castle; the castle itself would rebel against it. So they had to be creative and look at different options. They both became masterfully adept at silencing and locking wards on doors and windows.

In the spirit of being creative, Hermione figured out how to cast the Protean charm, and gave coins to the boys so they could set up meetups. She had to be careful because she also gave coins to everyone in the DA to arrange DA sessions. Everything was horribly complicated. To keep the coins from getting mixed up, Hermione punched a hole in the one that was a direct line to Draco and Theo and wore it around her neck.

...

October 1995

Prefect rounds were as boring as ever, but at least Hermione had gotten paired with Draco tonight. He would subtly touch her lower back, smile when no one was watching and tuck a curl behind her ear periodically. She was so ridiculously in love with him at this point there was honestly no denying it. She wished that Theo was here too, but it was nice to be able to walk around Hogwarts with Draco semi-publically even if he did have to be a prat to her if they caught someone out after curfew.

He scolded her roundly in front of a Slytherin couple because she had "taken too many points arbitrarily" and argued that he would get to take points from the next Gryffindor couple that they caught.

"Are you saying that I am biased towards my own house, Malfoy," Hermione sneered and pulled her wand. The couple took this moment to run away very quickly from the commotion.

"I am indeed, Granger," Draco smirked and grabbed the wrist of the hand holding her wand. "You really shouldn't point these at people unless you plan to use it."

"I'm doing more than planning," she snarked, and then suddenly, Draco's lips were on hers and he was pulling her back behind a suit of armor. They embraced tightly, kissing with the wild abandon of sixteen year olds in love. They almost didn't hear Mrs. Norris at first, and then Draco stopped and Hermione held still and the low angry meow of the cat that had to be a hundred years old echoed down the corridor.

They smiled at each other and then took off running along their patrol route, hoping to get far enough away that the cat didn't report them to Filch. No one was quite sure how the cat reported things to the elderly Squib caretaker, only that she did.

Hermione looked over at Draco's quicksilver eyes and laughing mouth and wished that things could always be this way.