"Fucking Pansy," Draco grumbled as he all but dragged Hermione away from the portrait hole to their shared dorm. Hermione followed in a fit of giggles she was failing to hide as Draco shut the door to the 8th-year boys' common room. While he grumbled about what he was going to do to Pansy, she sat on Theo's bed and tried to control the fit of laughter that she couldn't quite control.
Pansy had warded their door and, with a charm, stuck a sign to the door that read, "Nice try, Drake, get that stick out of your arse."
Hermione thought it was marvelous.
"Darcey," Draco called with a huff. A moment later, the little elf popped into the room, an excited look stretching over her overly large mouth when she saw Hermione in the room with him. "Could you please get us some clothes for the evening from our rooms?"
"Of course, of course! Darcey would loves nothing more!"
A second later, she'd popped out of the room, and another second and a small pile of clothes appeared on what used to be his bed, followed quickly by an arrangement of snack foods and a table to hold them all.
"She never holds back," Hermione chuckles as she gets up from Theo's bed to rummage through the clothes.
She quickly noted all the shirts were Draco's, and Darcey had only brought her new knickers and pajama shorts. Nibbling her lip, she took the black t-shirt in the middle of the pile, avoiding her old favorite, his jersey, knickers, and a pair of bottoms before moving to the bathroom.
Might as well be comfortable while they talk.
In the bathroom, Hermione got dressed before nervously brushing her fingers through her curls in an attempt to stall going into the room and having the conversation awaiting her.
A knock on the door made her jump. Hermione rolled her eyes at herself before calling out, "Yes?"
"I wanted you to know that I'm going across the way. I have to use the loo, but I'll be right back."
Opening the door, Hermione smirked at him, "You don't have to. I'm done." Giving him a wide birth, she moved back into the room while he closed the door behind her, leaving her fidgeting nervously at the foot of Theo's bed. She knew it was Theo's. She just wasn't ready to sit on Draco's bed yet, so she'd perched on Theo's, which was mirroring his.
Draco emerged from the bathroom in a fresh t-shirt and silk pants, her favorite combination on him. They made him look fantastic. Looking at her curled up on Theo's bed with knees tucked up to her chest, he had to stop himself from picking her up and putting her in her rightful spot in his bed. Instead, he sat opposite her on his own bed.
"What would you like to talk about, love?"
He reveled in the blush that lit her cheeks.
"What are we doing, Draco?" she whispered, and his chest tightened at how scared she sounded.
Once more, he fought the urge to go to her. "I want us to be what we would pretend we were."
Hermione took a deep breath, it sounded like a gasp that made him shiver.
"I want to be your Dragon again. I want to walk you to classes and eat meals together. Not as housemates or head boy and girl, but as a couple. I want to be able to pull you to me and kiss your forehead whenever I want, not just when we wake up. I want to be able to go back to Christmas Eve, swallow my fucking pride so I could just admit that seeing you with Krum made me so merlin be damned jealous instead of wrecking us and what we were building." Looking into her eyes, he tried to swallow the pain in his chest that blossomed at the sight of the tears in her eyes. "I want everything. With you. I want us."
Hermione took a few moments to collect herself before swiping away the tear that had fallen.
"Just because you know we're bonded."
Draco shook his head, "No. I wanted it before then. If I'm being honest, I wanted to do it Christmas morning when I woke up without you and nearly every moment since."
"I tried to tell you in February."
"You can't hold February against me completely. You were heavily dosed on pain management potions. I was trying to preserve what little of us there was left because I thought I was not your bonded. I might have broken us on Christmas Eve, but when I did it, you were never truly mine. It's part of why I did it. Part of why I said what I did in February. I didn't know. I was trying to help us."
Laying her head on her knees, Hermione looked at him before nodding. "That's fair. You hadn't found your mark. All you knew is that I was bonded."
"And I never asked if it was me."
"No," she said softly, "You didn't. But a lie by omission is still a lie." She repeated the words she spoke to Harry back in February. "I just...I wanted you to want me without the bond."
Draco sighed, running a shaking hand through his hair. "Hermione, I have wanted you since we were kids, and you punched me in the face."
"Don't be ridiculous."
"I'm serious. I didn't know it then, but that's when my infatuation with you started. By fourth year, I was obsessed and knew I could never show it. I hid you in a tiny little box in the back of my mind once the war started, and that helped. I knew that if they found out, you'd be an even bigger target, and they would try to use you to get me to do more things I wasn't ready for." Standing, he began to pace. "There is a lot I wouldn't do and managed to find a way out of rather than saying it. If they'd known I harbored even the slightest of affections for you, I'd likely have been married off and forced further into my devotion."
"Draco," Hermione tried to say as calmly as she could, but he didn't seem to hear her.
"When I saw you on the train, I was shocked you let me close enough to lower your wand. Why would you? It didn't make sense. I was half expecting you to curse me. I'd bullied you for years. We'd just fought a war on opposite sides, and you'd testified for my family. I had honestly thought about leaving when you started shaking, and by then, I just...couldn't."
She watched him continue to pace for a moment before uncurling her legs and blocking his path.
He stopped just before walking into her and closed his mouth mid-rant to stare down at her. He'd stopped three or four steps before her, and Hermione closed the distance to just look up at him. She was close enough that their chests were nearly touching.
"Hermione?"
Taking a deep breath, Hermione let it out slowly before wrapping her arms around his center and squeezing gently.
"What are you doing?" he whispered into her hair.
"Just hug me back, Draco."
Instantly, his arms wrapped around her, pulling her against him so there was no room between them. He squeezed tightly, probably tighter than he meant to, but he could make himself let her go.
The contact, the smell of his cologne so close, going directly into her nose from his shirt. Grabbing the back of his shirt, Hermione clung to him as her eyes began to sting. She felt every emotion she tried to occlude for those months begin to rise in her. Draco's arms moved lower to better anchor her to him. Hermione responded by moving her own arms from his waist to his neck. Taking her cue, Draco shifted his arms to her thighs and lifted, happy when she immediately responded by wrapping her legs around him.
"I just want you too."
Taking advantage of the situation, worried it might be short-lived, Draco turned his face into her hair. "We still need to talk about things. But I.." Shaking his head, he instead moved them to his old bed. Carefully putting his knee on his bed, he gently laid Hermione down, following her so they were constantly touching. With a wave of a hand, he summoned the blanket from Theo's bed so they wouldn't have to move to get under the ones beneath them.
"Where do we go from here, love?"
Hermione shivered in his arms but said nothing.
"What did mother talk to you about?"
This time, she responded, but he couldn't hear her with her face smooshed in his chest.
Gently putting his hand on the back of her neck, Draco laced his fingers into her hair and gently pulled back so her pink eyes and tear-lined cheeks were looking up at him. "Say it again."
Giving him a watery half smile, Hermione repeated herself, "She talked about me being a Malfoy."
Draco sucked in a sharp breath. "She doesn't know the meaning of the word subtly."
"I want to be a Malfoy," she whispered so quietly that Draco almost didn't hear her.
It took a moment to register her words before he reared back, eyes wide. "Say that again."
Hermione shook her head.
"Say it again, Hermione."
Nibbling her lip, she sighed, "I want to be a Malfoy. One day." Hermione felt the unease blossom in her chest the longer he stared at her. "I mean, if you want," she whispered again, "I wouldn't presume to assume that you want that too simply because of what I want and what your mother said. But I...I know how I feel when I enter the Manor, it feels like home and when I found out your father had me wearing the Malofy emeralds, I was scared but also proud. I know that seeing my face embroidered next to yours made me wonder what our kids might look like under us-"
Draco put his forehead to hers effectively stopping her rambling.
"I want that too, Hermione. One day. When we've had a chance to establish ourselves and when we decide it's right. Until then, I just want to be here for you, with you."
Hermione closed her eyes and breathed him in. The sharp scent of his cologne, still clinging to him, settled something in her.
"We still have a long way to go," Draco's breath skated over her eyelashes, "but you need to sleep. I need to sleep with you in my arms again." Combing his fingers through her hair, he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I will forever regret what happened between us these past few months, but I promise I will never let something like this happen again. I swear it, Hermione. I swear it on our future together."
In response, Hermione wrapped her own arms around his neck, her fingers playing with the hair near his neck.
"Starting with our Hogsmeade date tomorrow." Hermione chuckled, and Draco smirked into her hair. "Gods, I've been waiting for it for the past two weeks. Before that, all I could think of was how to approach you to even ask."
"Drake...," she snuggled into his chest again. Draco responded in kind to cradling her against his body.
"Yes, princess."
Her responding shiver made him grin.
"Theo will be so mad when he realizes we took his blanket." Draco couldn't stop the laugh that erupted from him.
Hermione woke up when she tried to stretch her legs and couldn't straighten her legs completely. Blindly reaching to her right, she felt Draco next to her. Squinting she saw him there, the picture of peace with an arm still pillowed under her neck and the other bent under his head. Once more trying to stretch out her legs, she met resistance and frowned. Leaning away from Draco, she propped herself up on her elbows and looked down at their feet. Theo was pillowed on Draco's feet, his body dramatically dropped over Hermione's half of the bed under the blanket Draco had stolen from his bed.
Smirking, she wiggled her toes and pushed him under what she assumed was Theo's hip, only to find him shirtless. He jerked but otherwise stayed asleep.
Chuckling she let herself relax back into the bed and succumb to sleep again.
The next time she woke, Hermione was alone but cocooned in the blankets. Wiggling her arms out, she stretched before unwrapping herself from the blankets.
As she finished, the bathroom door opened and Blaise emerged dressed in a fresh pair of slacks and a dark green tailored shirt. Seeing her, he grinned, even as he reached for the belt that was laid at the foot of his bed.
"I see you escaped from the linen trap Theo managed to roll you into."
Smiling, Hermione shrugged, "Looks that way." Standing up she stretched again before moving over to the pile of clothes Darcey had brought them the night before. "Speaking of, where is Theo? And Draco?"
"They went to breakfast. Draco tried to wake you, but then you slept through Theo's little prank, and he figured you needed the extra sleep. The man was positively glowing seeing you still in bed with him this morning. I don't think anything would wipe that arrogant smirk of his face."
Hermione smiled at that. Having collected her clothes, she walked up to him and nudged him playfully with her hip, "Not unlike you and Luna?"
"Enthralled by the lunar glow's allure
Blindly treading the path I would endure
Stubbornly pressed on, heedless of the toll
Ignoring the cracks within my weary soul
As I draw closer, happiness and solace unfurl
Yet my touch, ignites the flames that wildly swirl
Burning yet I cling, despite the searing pain
I stand my ground holding you in my embrace," he recited with a smoldering grin.
"Case in point," Hermione chuckled. Sending him a wink, Hermione disappeared into the bathroom while Blaise started towards the bedroom door.
She took her time getting ready, taking a little extra care as she put up her hair so her curls stayed out of her face. When she'd donned her tights and cuffed, long-sleeved blue dress, she made her way to the portrait hole to their shared common room in hopes of finding more appropriate shoes than the heels Pansy had coaxed her into the night before.
The butterflies in her stomach started when she saw the jewelry box placed on her pillow. Pulling her lip between her teeth nervously, Hermione approached the bed and hesitantly picked it up. Taking a steady breath, she opened it and stared at the bracelet pillowed within, a small piece of parchment folded in the center of it. Eyeing the replica of her original bracelet Hermione opened the note with one hand.
'I didn't know yours had broken. Darcey helped me find the pieces, and I took it to the jeweler to mend it. Please wear it today. ~DM'
Smiling again, Hermione set the note on her bed and gently took the restored bracelet out of the box. After a little finagling, she managed to put it on her left wrist, the slight weight of it making her smile widen, she grabbed her beaded bag and left for the Great Hall.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the little blanket thief."
Sitting down, she looked at Theo through her lashes with a smirk. "Draco did it."
"Witch," the blonde beside her grumbled, "He only just let it go."
Smiling at Draco, she raised a brow seeing him grinning at her, "Obviously he didn't."
"Because your white Dragon here said you needed it, and I couldn't deny you that."
"You seemed pretty comfortable last night," Hermione quipped back.
"Your toes are bloody icicles, Granger."
Draco rolled his eyes, "If you want to blame anyone, blame Pans. She locked us out of our rooms. We had to improvise."
"You didn't have to lay on top of your blanket."
"I said I was sorry," Draco huffed, "What more do you want?"
Theo grinned, "Well since you offered-"
Hermione laughed, "You walked into that one."
"I did," Draco shook his head.
"I'll take the middle name of your firstborn."
That set off Blaise and Milicent while Draco dropped his fork in shock and Hermione started coughing after inhaling a bit of tea.
"That's the only way I think I could forgive you both," Theo shrugged like he'd asked for a spare quill. "Theodore for a boy, Theodora for a girl."
"Stop," Hermione laughed, her cheeks turning pink.
Winking at her, Draco looked back at his best friend, "That's enough out of you, Theodore. That won't be happening."
Theo dramatically humphed. "We'll see what Mother has to say about that. She happens to adore the name Theodora."
Pansy joined them, squishing herself between Hermione and Draco, making the blonde huff as he moved for her to give her room, "Fucking Pansy," Hermione heard him grunt but still she smiled.
"What are your plans for today, dear?" Pansy asked Hermione as if she didn't hear Draco.
Hermione chuckled. "I've got a date today, Pans. Then a dress fitting."
"The fitting! Merlin, I need to get Weasley and remind her. She mentioned quidditch after Hogsmeade, I think she forgot!"
As quick as she appeared, she was gone, leaving them all shell-shocked in her wake.
Hermione stood in front of the large mirror Narcissa had conjured upon their arrival, nibbling her lip and staring past her shoulder in the mirror to the door behind her. On her left, Narcissa was talking to the seamstress who was making adjustments to the waistline of her dress. Sitting on the bed behind them were Pansy and Ginny, playing with fabric swatches and pairing them with sketches.
"Raise your arms, please, dear," the seamstress spoke gently.
Hermione did as she told, moving her right hand to twirl the bracelet on her left wrist. Continuing to nibble her lip and stare into nothing, Hermione let her mind wander back to her afternoon.
Draco had walked her to Hogsmeade, offering her his arm in a way that made her blush. They'd spent the afternoon in the used bookstore, wandering the aisles for what felt like hours before she noticed that Draco wasn't looking at any books. He was just watching her do so with a smile on his face as he spoke with her. They left when her stomach growled in a manner that had Draco bite back a laugh and Hermione red with embarrassment as she checked around them to see if anyone else in the store had heard.
He'd surprised her by taking her to a prepared area near the edge of the village and admitted to asking Darcey to prepare them lunch so they could have time alone without the crowd of the Three Broomsticks. They'd enjoyed a delicious lunch overlooking the Black Lake until it started to sprinkle and they'd quickly packed up and run, laughing, back into the village. Together they'd gone to Tomes and Scrolls for new ink and Spintwitches for new quidditch gloves for him. He'd tucked her into his side as they started back towards the castle when Pansy and Ginny intercepted them and practically wrenched her from his arms to bring her here.
"Draco fixed your bracelet."
Blinking twice with a frown, Hermione looked at Narcissa, who was now standing in front of her.
"I'm sorry, what?"
Narcissa only smiled and reached out to hold Hermione's hands, actively stopping her fidgeting, "Draco fixed your bracelet."
Her own smile resurfaced, "Yes."
"He's a good boy." Hermione smiled a bit wider, hearing the pride in her voice. "How was your date?"
"Wonderful."
It was Narcissa's turn to flash her a frown. "Then what is it, dear?"
Hermione smirked, "I'm scared the other foot will fall." Absently, she heard Ginny and Pansy stop chatting, but looking at Narcissa's beautifully kind eyes, Hermione couldn't find it in herself to care, "I want this so badly, Cissa, I want him so badly. Today was wonderful. He was so attentive and loving. Darcey made my favorite sandwiches, and we talked for hours. It was so easy. So easy that I'm waiting for the other foot to fall because it's never been this easy."
Bringing one hand up to brush a curl from the younger witch's face, Narcissa smiled, "It's supposed to be easy. Easy is good. Easy means it's right. That he is the right person, that you are his right person."
Taking three deep breathes, Hermione nodded.
"Easy."