December 2000 last chapter
December 2003
He was late.
He was never late.
Hermione swirled her spoon in her tea that had long since gone cold. If Narcissa had been there she would have scolded her for fidgeting. She could remember another time when she been too unfocused to read in this same cafe. A different book. A different year. She sighed and looked again at the red door across the cafe. She tried to push her irritation down. He was never late, there had to be a reason.
She knew there was no reason to panic, she would have felt that. Their string often conveyed strong emotions. She closed her eyes and could feel a small amount of nerves from him and an almost overwhelming sense of excitement. That quashed any irritation with curiosity on what exactly had him feeling that way.
She felt a tug on her wrist and a smile pulled at her lips.
She glanced down and saw her string pulled tight leading away from her, it's brilliance reflected as it caught the light.
The bell chimed as he entered. He was more graceful this time. The air around him was not full of anxiety but anticipation.
Draco Malfoy strode toward her with a confidence that his younger self would hardly recognize. Gone was the self important prat who looked down on everyone around him. He had also left behind the damaged man who thought he was not worthy of love and happiness. Instead, he walked towards her with a smirk on his lips that spoke of a deep contentment she knew he had never thought he would deserve or achieve.
"I know I'm late." He started before even greeting her. "I promise there's a good reason."
She lifted one eyebrow. A skill she was proud to have learned from him. "And that is?"
His smirk turned into a smile full of promise. "Let's take a walk."
With a small laugh she shook her head and took his hand. She would follow him anywhere.
She was not too surprised to find he had led them along the same path that followed the Seine that they had walked three years ago. It was a path they took often but she realized it had been a few months since they had last visited.
The contented silence was broken by her small gasp as they came to where their favorite bench had been. The entire area had been recently renovated. While the new seating had been updated from it's predecessor, it lacked the same charm and familiarity. It also was a piece of their history.
She turned to Draco, her eyes full of a loss only he would understand and was disappointed to find his expression had not dropped as her's had. Instead he was smiling.
Before her disappointment could turn to anger, he squeezed her hand and dropped a kiss to her forehead, an action that always calmed her.
"Do you trust me?" He asked, a spark of mischief in his grey eyes.
She squinted at him. "Always."
His smile widened. He tugged her around a corner and disapparated on the spot.
They landed in the garden facing their Parisian town home. They had argued over whether a five bedroom house could really be called that but he insisted. When his comparison was a Manor with more bedrooms than could be counted, she had decided his view was slightly skewed.
With a grin on his face he turned her.
There, under a cluster of trees, was their bench.
She could tell there had been some magic involved. The wood looked restored and it had been repainted. Red.
"Do you like the color?" For the first time that day she heard nerves in his voice.
She spun in his arms and kissed him. She felt him smile against her lips as he got his answer. He tugged her toward the bench and pulled her down so she fell across his lap.
"Not quite the same arrangement as the first time." She said with a laugh as she settled herself against him.
"Not quite." He agreed with a chuckle that vibrated through her.
She intertwined their fingers and wrapped the string that was often present around their linked hands. The gold glinted in the dying sunlight, matching the shade of the rings that adorned their fingers.
December 2002
The day had been cold. Not the biting cold that comes with a deep freeze but cool enough to require heating charms. The snow had cooperated and was a light dusting over the garden.
The ceremony was held in the gardens of Narcissa's home where she resided just outside of Paris. Even in winter, magical roses were abundant.
Unlike the expected production of a Malfoy wedding, it was small, intimate. The only attendants were their friends made in France, the few still in touch from England and a handful of colleagues and mentors from their chosen fields.
Draco was the one to watch as Hermione made her way through the garden. The usually stoic man, only readable to those closest to him, was an open book in those moments. His face full of love and devotion for the woman walking towards him. Her dress matched the season with it's long lace sleeves. His breath had caught in his throat as he saw the slightest glimpse of red in the layers of her skirt, matching both the roses she held and the one pinned to his lapel.
Her mentor had been their bonder. After countless hours of searching, Hermione had found a spell that made their string visible to the guests for the duration of the ceremony. The red was vibrant against the snow and pulsed in anticipation.
Declarations of love were said, vows were made, and the last step was one no one present had previously witnessed. Their string was wrapped around their joined hands, and through magic and time and space their souls were bound eternally. The red enveloping their hands shone too bright for the eye to see and when the light faded their string glinted in the sun. It was no longer red but a brilliant gold.
"Any lifetime, I will find you." Draco said low enough for only Hermione to hear.
With tears in her eyes she kissed her husband, surrounded by a sea of gold connecting them.
Present
"Where did you go just now?" Draco asked as the sun sank further into the horizon. The winter air nearest to them was tempered by heating charms but the rest garden still held a light layer of frost.
Hermione smiled, "I was thinking of our wedding."
Draco kissed her temple. "One of the best days of my life."
"Not the best?" Hermione's question was teasing but real.
Draco gazed at their house. Their home. Full of red coffee mugs and picture frames, red rugs and throw pillows. Their home was filled with far too much red for any respectable Slytherin. However, since their wedding and the change in the color of their string, they both liked the reminder. He had lived so long avoiding it, only to have it bring him to her. Of all the places he had lived, this town house had felt the most like home. But he knew that was because it was where she was. Wherever Hermione was would always be home.
"No." He said with a small smile and tightened his arm around her. "The first time you told me you loved me, the first time you told me I was your home. That was the best day."
Hermione felt his voice resonate through her and laid her head on his shoulder. "I do love you and you will always be my home."
May 2001
Ending up on the velvet grey couch in Draco's flat had become their regular routine for most Sunday afternoons. Breakfast was often a drawn out affair, Draco experimenting with recipes and Hermione reading various papers and correspondence aloud for them both. Some weeks involved culinary disasters and difficult news stories while others involved creative delicacies and tales of Luna and Theo's latest creature hunting adventures.
Those mornings were enjoyable, a time Draco looked forward to all week and mourned on the rare weekend they had conflicting plans. However, Sunday afternoons were his favorite. After all the morning's indulgence, Hermione would curl up on his couch to read with her head in his lap. It never took long for her book to drop from her hands as she fell asleep while he ran his fingers through her curls.
On one May afternoon, Draco watched Hermione's habitual waking up routine. The stretching of her back, the wiggling of her toes, and the slow blinking that brought her to awareness.
She looked up at him, not fully awake. He couldn't help but to smile down at her, the actions so familiar to him and said in a teasing tone, "How do you always end up falling asleep? I would have thought Jane Austen would have kept you up this time."
"I can't help it, you just feel like—" She paused, searching for the right word. "Home."
Draco felt his chest compress and expand all in the same moment. The emotion running through him too powerful to name. He closed his eyes and let the words sink in.
"You are my home Hermione."
Now fully awake, she pushed herself up on her elbows to bring her face closer to his. Her smile was blinding. " Draco Malfoy, I love you."
That was the emotion that was overwhelming him. Love. He dropped his forehead to hers.
"I love you too Hermione Granger."
He kissed her until he couldn't breathe and it still didn't feel like it was enough. He didn't think it would ever be enough.
He looked down to see the floor was littered with loops of red thread spiraling through the room.
He wrapped a length of it around her left ring finger and promised himself he would marry her one day.
Present
"That was also the day I knew I was going to ask you to marry me." Draco was not sure if he had ever told her that before. "I walked around with that ring in my pocket for three months before I found the nerve to ask you. Theo thought I would either end up proposing to you in the middle of an argument or just blurting it out accidentally while drunk or during sex."
She laughed and looked up at him with a knowing smile.
"You knew? For how long?" He demanded incredulously, not quite believing that look on her face. But she was Hermione Granger.
"About two and a half of those three months. For a Slytherin, you are not as sneaky as you think, love." Mischief danced in her eyes with her teasing tone.
He let out an indignant huff. "Just for that I think you owe me dinner."
"But it's so much better when you make it." She kissed him slowly, her hand carding through his hair.
He nipped her bottom lip playfully. "Fine. But you have to tell me how you knew."
She laughed, pulling him up with her and gave him a contemplative look. "Deal."
He threaded his fingers through hers and led her towards the house, golden thread trailing behind them.
Red string had brought them together and gold would follow them through lifetimes.