"Well it's clean at least." Hermione stood in the center of the drawing room, hands on her hips. They had to get rid of most everything in the room, so now it lay bare. No furniture, no light fixtures, no decor.

"I have an idea, if you're interested."

Hermione looked at Draco curiously. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, since you are living here now, I think you should decorate this room, however you want. Kind of symbolically take this room back, claim it as yours. Show everyone you have power over this room."

Hermione smiled mischievously "I like the sound of that."

"As long as you don't turn it into the gryffindor common room! If you did that my father may start to haunt the place."

Hermione laughed "Deal. I honestly don't like red that much anyway. I like softer colors like lilac or light greys. I don't really go for gold much either now that I think about it. So there's no need to worry about that. I wore those colors to show house pride but it's not quite my taste."

"Duly noted. Now how do you feel about green?" He smirked at her and raised an eyebrow.

She shoved him with her shoulder. "I actually quite like green, believe it or not. Though slytherin green is much too bright. I find I like more muted colors."

"Well, like I said you redecorate this room however you wish. Honestly you could redecorate the whole house for all I care."

"Don't get carried away, I'm not your mother I don't redecorate just because. She actually had quite good taste and I'm sad to see so much of this beautiful house destroyed. Not to mention all the history that's been lost, no matter how dark."

Draco's eyes widened, "History…oh Merlin!" He ran to the door joining the drawing room to the library and started frantically searching. Hermione followed behind looking concerned.

"Draco, what am I missing what's wrong?"

"Dammit!" Draco slammed his hands down on the desk. Hermione came up behind him and lightly squeezed his shoulder.

"Hey, talk to me what's going on?"

"They took our family grimoire."

"You have a grimoire?"

"Yes, when the sacred 28 was established all of the families included were given a family grimoire. It contains any spells, charms, potions, etc that a family member has invented. It also includes hundreds of years of family history. Our family tree is in there. Only a member of the immediate family can open it. So why did they take it? If there was one bloody heirloom I cared about it was that book and the bloody order stole it!"

"They probably took it because they thought there might be some dark spells in there. We'll find it and take it back."

"I'm sure it not that simple. What if they've already found a way to destroy it?"

"Is it protected?"

"It's water and fire proof, even fiendfyre. It won't rip and has an extension charm on it. Undetectable of course. It won't open for anyone that doesn't bear the Malfoy name. I never asked but I assume it wouldn't be tricked by poly juice."

"Then it'll probably just be stored in the ministry somewhere. And when we take the order down, we'll get it back."

Draco put his hand over hers. "How did I get so lucky to land a witch like you?"

Hermione leaned over and whispered in his ear. "Well having me kill your aunt was a good start."

Draco rolled his eyes, "You're never going to let me live that down are you?"

"Never", Hermione said with a smirk.

"Like I've said before. Seeing you relish in the power you had over her, was very, very sexy."

Hermione pulled out her wand from the bun on top of her head, causing her curls to fall. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and ran the tip of her wand across Draco's collarbone. "You like power do you?"

Draco's eyes darkened and he sucked in a sharp breath. "Evil witch, I am a Malfoy after all."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For once Draco was thankful for his father's paranoia. It had been almost three weeks since he rescued Hermione and supplies were running low. It's not like he or Hermione could just waltz into Gringotts, but they needed money to buy food and more supplies to remodel the manor. It wasn't until yesterday he remembered his father had about half of their fortune stashed away throughout the house, mostly because he didn't trust goblins, but he kept enough in the Gringotts vault to keep up appearances. He only knew where some of these stashes were, and hoped the order hadn't found them.

Apparently they didn't look very hard. The first place he looked he found a stash of galleons. It was in a false bottom of one of the drawers of the built in shelves in his father's office, only responding to blood magic.

Hermione had recruited Molly, Arthur and Harry to run errands for them, as well as for Ron and Pansy, but that wouldn't work long term. They all had more important things to do than to smuggle supplies to a group of the orders most wanted.

At dinner that night, Hermione had a suggestion that left Draco awestruck.

"I think it would be prudent to hire a house elf."

Draco choked on his food. "What?"

"We need help. We can't go out to get food or other things we need. These repairs are taking up valuable time we could be spending planning against Shacklebolt. The grounds outside are overgrown. And even with the two of us, we can hardly keep up with the maintenance a house of this age and size need. Not to mention daily cleaning, laundry and cooking."

"I agree, I just never thought I'd hear you say that is all."

"I'm not against houselves working per se. But they would need to be treated fairly. We would pay them a good wage, give them decent living quarters, access to healthcare, and time off. Employed not enslaved."

Draco smiled from ear to ear. "I think that's a great idea." He loved when she talked this way. Made plans for the future with him. Like they were a unit, a team. Like they would be together forever. The thought warmed him from the inside out.

~~~~~~~~~~~

A few days after that they met with all of their supporters at the Zabini residence. They were surprised when over 50 people showed up in support to remove Shacklebolt. If the rumor mill were to be trusted, apparently he had plans to enact a law stating every eligible pure blood needed to forge a marriage contract with someone half blood or muggleborn that was expected to be fulfilled by their 20th birthday. That would end all pure blood lines in the matter of a generation.

"That's appalling! That would only lead to more resentment and division! Not to mention removing the basic freedom of marrying who they love. This isn't the dark ages!" Hermione was livid.

Also, after sharing the news of Draco's family grimoire being stolen, it turns out his wasn't the only case. Any member of the sacred 28, including the Weasleys and Longbottoms, had to turn in their grimoires or else have them confiscated. Families like the Zabinis, Notts and Parkinson's were not given that choice, but had their homes searched for their grimoires and any dark artifacts were confiscated, no warrant required.

Amelia Bones stood at the head of the table, having accepted the nomination the group unanimously agreed on. "They're trying to erase parts of history that they don't deem necessary. There would be no such thing as pure blood supremacy if there aren't any pure bloods."

Hermione shook her head. "The muggle world is a prime example of that line of thinking not going well."

"A lot of Shacklebolt's supporters want to see the pure bloods punished for how they've behaved toward them. What makes him more convincing to them is that his family are also members of the sacred 28, so he's seen as willing to sacrifice in order to 'see justice done'. He was the first to store his family grimoire and have his property searched."

"But he agreed to it! It wasn't forced upon him and I'm sure they didn't leave his house looking like a bludger flew through it! And he doesn't have any children that will be forced to participate in that stupid law!" Draco was barely holding onto his temper. Hermione squeezed his hand under the table and began stroking his knuckles with her thumb. She saw his muscles and face relax, the storm had passed.

Hermione began to think of what would happen if that law was enacted. Draco wouldn't be subjected to it because, well, if they found him he'd be killed. Ron and Pansy too. But she thought of Neville, Luna and the other Weasleys. Of Blaise and Theo and the Greengrass sisters. Harry would probably marry Ginny in a heart beat. But what of the others?

The group spent hours strategizing and planning and by the time they got back to the manor, both Draco and Hermione were mentally exhausted.

Draco plopped down on the only couch left in the living room. "I need to turn my brain off."

"I understand perfectly." Hermione said as she downed a pain reliever potion.

"You ok?"

"Yeah just a headache. All the planning and the arguing only to have to start all over again was just so draining."

Draco placed a pillow on his lap and patted on it. "Come here."

Hermione did as instructed and laid her head down on his lap. When she did so, he started gently massaging his fingers around her forehead and into her hair. It wasn't too long before she was fast asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two days later, the article appeared in the daily prophet, announcing Amelia bones' bid for minister. It included her plan of reparations, which specified that pure blood families involved in the war would pay the bill for the reconstruction of public areas. All pure blood families would have their grimoires returned.

She would work together with Headmistress McGonagall on adjusting the curriculum at Hogwarts to be more inclusive. This included a required 'Muggle Education' course for those raised in the wizarding community and a required 'Welcome to the Wizarding World' course for those who were not.

Her plan also offered assistance to parents or guardians of muggleborn wizards, and also magical children that had been orphaned or abandoned by their parents.

All currently imprisoned death eaters would stay in Azkaban while their cases are reevaluated. If they were not given a fair trial before then they will be given one. Only those who took the dark mark were to be considered a death eater. If they didn't have the mark but had proven involvement in the war they would pay the one time reparation.

Hermione was unsure where she stood in all of this. She definitely wasn't a death eater and didn't fight for the other side, but she was sentenced to Azkaban by the original order. Would she get a trial?

She was also concerned about Draco. He was technically a death eater and would be tried as such. Though because he was under 17 when he first took the mark he would also be tried as a minor.

Amelia received raving reviews from the article. It definitely helped that she had the public backing of The Boy Who Defeated Voldemort. Just a month after the article was published, the election was held.

Minister Bones won in a landslide. Her first order of business was to arrange trials for those condemned by the original order without trial.

So starting on June 1st, just four days before Draco's birthday, he, Hermione, Ron, and Pansy were all to be brought to trial. Things were moving far too quickly for Hermione's liking. What if they were sentenced to Azkaban? She thought she had more time. She needed more time.