A/N: Hello! It has been too long since I last updated this story. I apologize for the delay.
Notes on this chapter: There is some OOC on some characters and the horcrux locket was not stolen.
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Chapter 26
The week had finally come to end. Hermione and Draco sat at the table with Snape eating breakfast when they heard a noise at the front door. Snape was the first one to race to the door. He peered through the peep hole and saw Dumbledore and Harry.
"What did I tell you I would give you eighteen years ago when I asked for their safety?" Snape questioned.
"Anything," Dumbledore answered.
Snape opened the door and the two entered the house. Hermione rushed at Harry, throwing her arms around him. Draco remained out of the way, leaning against the wall, watching the others. He felt a little jealousy toward Hermione hugging Harry. He wasn't jealous about the hug but he wished he had friends who were as worried about him as Hermione was toward Harry.
"Hermione," Harry said, "I'm happy to see you but you're squeezing me too hard."
Hermione released Harry and took a step back. "How did your trip go?"
"Not too bad," Harry replied as he pulled a blackened locket out of his pocket and held it up for Hermione to see.
"Is that...the horcrux?" Hermione asked.
Harry nodded his head.
"That's amazing. But you shouldn't have to worry too much about hunting those down anymore." Hermione glanced back at Draco and smiled. "We've made up and are back together so we can continue with our plan."
Dumbledore clapped his hands together. "This is wonderful news! We shall start soon with your training. Severus, can I have a word with you?"
The two older wizards walked into the dining room, shutting the door behind them. Hermione gave Harry another quick hug. She was so glad to see him back and well. Harry glanced over Hermione's shoulder and looked at Draco. He kept his smile inside but he was happy to know his plan worked.
"I'm glad to be back but I promised Ginny I would see her at the Burrow when I returned," Harry said as he pulled away from Hermione.
"Of course. Go see her. You can tell me about the trip when you get back."
Harry gave Draco a nod before walking to the door and apparating. Right after he left, Dumbledore and Snape walked out of the dining room.
"I'll be here the day after tomorrow then," Dumbledore said to Snape.
"Alright, sir."
Dumbledore said his good-byes and left. Snape looked at them, "I've got to return to my house to collect some materials. I'll be back shortly."
Once they were alone, Draco walked over to Hermione. "Let's finish our breakfast, shall we?"
Hermione smiled at Draco and followed him back to the table to finish their breakfast.
After finishing their meal, Draco and Hermione moved up into the library. They sat together on a ouch and Hermione read aloud one of her books, Jane Eyre. But they were once again interrupted about thirty minutes later by a noise at the front door. They both went downstairs, and after checking the identities, Harry and Ginny entered the house. Hermione greeted both of them with a hug.
"I'm so happy to see you, Gin," Hermione said.
"Glad to see you too. Mum was very reluctant to let me leave the house and come here. Bu since you are here and Dumbledore will be coming frequently, she agreed." Ginny noticed Draco was in the room."I assume there are some things you need to be telling me about?"
Hermione's cheeks blushed. Ginny's eyes widened. She grabbed Hermione's hand, dragged upstairs to a room and slammed the door shut.
Harry and Draco watched their girlfriends leave. They made eye contact but looked away immediately.
"Well, I'll uh...see you around, Potter," Draco said awkwardly heading toward the stairs but Harry stopped him.
"Wait a second, Malfoy. I need to talk to you."
Draco looked back at Harry, confused. He folded his arms against his chest. "I'm listening."
Harry cleared his throat to give himself a moment to prepare what he was going to say. "Hermione is one of my best friends and I really care about her. She's been through a lot over the years, particularly this past year."
"Potter, you've already given me this talk. What are you getting at?"
"Let me finish. If you screw this up again, I will not be accountable for my actions. Hermione trusts you still so I'm willing to try and trust you again. If Hermione can put the past behind her, I can too and maybe we can be civil toward each other for Hermione."
Draco looked at Harry for a moment, "Alright, Potter. I'll do it for Hermione. But I'm not going to be your best friend or anything like that."
"I'm not expecting you too."
They started at each other but there was no longer hate in their eyes.
While the two men were bonding downstairs, Ginny sat on the bed, listening intently to Hermione's story.
"So, after the letter and him coming over, it took us a couple of days to finally talk. He professed his love for me like in a romantic movie and said 'I love you, Hermione Jean Granger." Then we kissed and Ginny, it was amazing." Hermione paused for a moment to reflect on that memory but Ginny was too curious to know what happened next.
"What happened next?"
Hermione smiled and blushed again. "We...made love."
"What was it like?But not too many details, I don't want to picture Malfoy that way."
Hermione laughed, "Simply amazing. I didn't expect it to be that good not did I expect that I would be able to go through it again after...but it was just amazing."
They sat there for a moment in silence.
"You know Harry had Snape and Draco come here on purpose," Ginny said, "He told me in a letter."
"Oh really."
"Yeah. The letter was all on Draco, but Harry knew if you two didn't talk face to face soon, you weren't going to fix your relationship. He asked Snape to come here and bring Draco for a week."
"I'm truly surprised with Harry," Hermione said.
"Are you mad at him for it?"
"No, not at all. Harry was right and it helped get us back together. I', just surprised he came up with a plan on his own that worked.
Both girls busted it out laughing. Once their laughter subsided, Ginny asked, "How do you think our boyfriends are getting along?"
"Hopefully not killing each other."
XxX
The following day was a fun but interesting day. The two couples made a trip to Diagon Alley to get out of the house, by Hermione's suggestion. She knew it was asking a lot of her friends to accept Draco but she wanted her best friends and boyfriend to get along.
They went into various shops looking around and were getting along for the most part. They ran into other friends like Seamus and Dean, who were shocked to see Draco Malfoy with them. They treated themselves to a cone from Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor and bought a couple of huge bags of sweets from a sweet shop.
Draco was enjoying himself with the three Gryffindors despite how he thought the outing would go. But it last the whole time. Before they were going to leave, they went to Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes. Harry and Ginny went into the shop first.
"Hermione, I'm going to just hang out here while you're in there. I might go down to the Quidditch supplies shop," Draco said before Hermione entered the shop.
"Why don't you want to come in?" Hermione asked.
Draco sighed and stepped closer to Hermione. "I don't belong in there. I'm OK with waiting for you."
"Draco Malfoy! You're coming in this shop with me. I don't care if you think you don't belong or whatever, but you are still coming in here with me," Hermione said with a stern tone.
Draco was taken back by her tone. "I'm not embarrassed or anything to be with you. I just know I won't be accepted in this shop and I don't want to subject you to criticism by your friends for being with me."
"But we ran into some friends earlier and you didn't say anything."
"I know you are closer to the Weasley family and would care about what they think about us."
Hermione's tempered cooled when she realized Draco was worried about her and not himself. "Yes, I'm closer to the Weasleys and would like for them to accept our relationship but I'm also not afraid of what they will say. Now come on, let's go in."
Draco followed Hermione into the shop and braced himself for what was going to happen once he was in the shop.
"Hermione, good to see you!" George greeted walking over to her from the counter.
"How have you been?" Fred asked joining his twin.
"I'm good," she replied.
Once Draco came into view, the twins expression changed. "What are you doing in here, Malfoy?" George asked.
"Malfoys aren't welcome in here," Fred added.
Draco glared at the twins but before he could say anything, Hermione spoke first.
"Back off you two. He's with me."
The twins looked back at Hermione confused. "What do you mean he's with you?"
"He's with me," she repeated.
The twins looked back and forth between Hermione and Draco. "After all of the years of his bullying and insults...you're dating Malfoy?" Fred asked.
"Yes I am," Hermione said in a matter-of-fact tone. "And it's really none of your business who I'm with. Now, if you will excuse us, we're going to look around."
Hermione walked away from Fred and George and Draco followed. The twins were unhappy but a customer prevented them from saying anything else.
"I'm impressed with the way you stand up to your friends to defend me," Draco said as he looked around at the shelves.
"I stand up for what I believe in no matter who it's to," Hermione replied.
"They've got some great products. I'm pretty impressed with them," Draco said as he took a box off the shelf.
Hermione smiled but didn't say anything. They soon bumped into Harry.
"Where's Ginny at?" Hermione asked.
Without looking at her, Harry replied, "Talking to her brothers about you two."
Once Ginny had finished talking to Fred and George, they paid for their things and returned to Grimmauld Place.
They went into the drawing room to relax, talk and eat their sweets. Draco remained quiet sitting next to Hermione. He didn't feel completely comfortable with Harry and Ginny yet and he was still thinking about how the twins had reacted to him when he came into their shop. Before, he didn't care and would have said something back to them.
While glancing around the room, Draco saw the Black Family Tree tapestry on the wall. He stood up and walked over to it to have a better look, ignoring the other staring at him. Draco found his immediate family on the tree and himself. He also noticed those who were blacked out, his aunt Andromeda and Sirius, both he had never met, plus a few others.
"Why are some people blacked out on this?" Draco asked. He knew Andromeda's story of marrying a muggle-born wizard and was sure the others were blacked out for similar reasons.
Harry looked over at Draco, "Sirius' mum marked out those who were disowned from the family for going against the blood purity ideology.
Draco felt a shiver run down his spine. He glanced at his father and aunt Bellatrix's faces before turning away. "Excuse me," was all he said as he exited the room.
The three stared after him. Hermione looked at her friends before standing up and following after him. She found him in the room they shared sitting on the bed. Hermione closed the door and sat next to him. He didn't look at her. So, she placed her hand on his shoulder and said, "Draco, what's wrong?"
"I'm sorry for being rude and walking out like that. I just needed to be alone."
"Do you want me to leave then?"
"No, please stay. I couldn't be in there and look at Harry..."Draco stopped himself.
"You can talk to me, Draco."
"I know. It's just... I just couldn't be in that room after seeing that tapestry. It reminded me of my up bringing. How I used to be. There are people in my own family I've never met like Sirius or my own aunt because other members of the family considered them to be traitors. It's ridiculous that families are separated by the ideal of blood purity. I was brought up to think that same way and it just bothered me to see their faces blacked out on that tapestry. My face will be marked off the tree too because I'm with you and I'm trying to stop the Dark Lord, not that I'm ashamed to be with you or anything. But I love my mum and she doesn't even see her own sister because she married a muggle-born. What will she do to me when she finds out?"
Hermione was at a lost of words. "I don't know how your mum will react to the new you. If she loves you then she'll accept you. You are her son. But, if she disowns you, you still have me. You'll always have me, Draco."
Draco gave Hermione a weak smile. "I'm happy to have you. But even though I've changed and you've accepted me, most people won't. To them, I'm just a Malfoy, the blood purist who doesn't like anyone who isn't to his standard. You saw how the Weasley twins reacted to me coming into their store. People are either going to act like that or be scared of me and I don't want any of that."
"Well, it will take time but people will accept you for the new you if you give them time."
"I love you, Hermione." Draco leaned over and kissed her.
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A/N: I hope you liked it. Review and let me know what you think. I don't how long it will take for the next chapter to be up and I won't make any promises. I got a Pottermore beta spot so once I get access, I'll be on that a lot and my semester starts at the end of the month.