When Enemies Interact

Chapter 17: The Perfect Ending, for the Perfect Beginning

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Hermione and Draco headed across the grounds to the lake, hand in hand. It was the last day of the Christmas holidays and all the students that had gone home were back in the castle, which grew noisy with their returning presence. Draco was feeling a lot better and some of his injuries were beginning to heal and disappear. A man from the Child Welfare office of the Ministry of Magic had come to see him after Dumbledore had contacted them about Lucius' evil-doing punishments. Both Draco and Hermione were waiting to hear some sort of verdict as to what was going to happen. The man, Manfred Lindley-Bay, had ruled out the idea of going to court about it, as it was quite clear that Lucius was responsible and guilty of these punishments.

Hermione and Draco silently sat down by the side of the still, slightly icy lake. The cool air caused them both to shiver slightly and pull their cloaks tighter around them.

"I really hope your father gets what he deserves," Hermione said quietly into the silence. "I know it's cruel of me to say this, but I hope he gets a lifetime in Azkaban. Not only for punishing you like he has, but also for all the evil, Death Eater things he's done and had a part in." Hermione rarely spoke like this and Draco was quite surprised, though he got over it rather quickly.

"Well, after what that Lindley-Bay told us, I'd say he'll get some sort of punishment like that," Draco said. "I want him to at least lose custody of me."

"I think that's going to happen anyway, Draco," Hermione said. "Besides, you're probably going to leave home the moment you graduate anyway, right?"

Draco lifted an eyebrow and gave a disbelieving, sideways glance. "Like my father would allow that. He'll probably want me to stay a few extra years for more Dark Arts lessons, even if I don't want it. He'd force me to learn every single little Dark curse."

"Not if you don't let him," Hermione said courageously. "You should be the one running your life, not him. It your choices that truly matter."

Draco couldn't help but give her a small smile and wrap his arm around her. "He'll lose custody of me, don't you worry."

"And he has," said a voice behind them, startling them. They turned their heads to see Dumbledore standing beside Lindley-Bay and the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge. Dumbledore, the speaker, smiled down at them before continuing. "He is also being taken to Azkaban. Your mother, surprisingly, Mr. Malfoy, is quite happy with this arrangement and says you are welcome back at home after you graduate. She had bravely reported to Mr. Fudge here, that she was brutally abused and bashed by you father numerous times over the past year or so."

Draco nodded and gave Hermione a glance, to see her smiling slightly at the three elderly gentlemen. Draco turned his gaze back to them.

"I thank you for doing this," he said. "As Hermione keeps reminding me, I'm lucky to be alive." Hermione looked at him, slightly surprised. "It's for the best that he's going to prison. There's a lot of things I know about him that I haven't told you and if I did tell you, you would've sent him straight into Azkaban without a single thought against it."

"Now, if you two would excuse us," Dumbledore said, "the rest of the staff are waiting for us in the staff room..." Dumbledore smiled and turned, with the other two gentlemen and began to head back to the castle.

Hermione watched them leave before turning to Draco. "What other things would you have told them?" she asked, curious.

"Death Eater stuff and about how he killed my grandmother," Draco replied with a shrug. Hermione eyes widened.

"You never told me he killed your grandmother," she gasped.

"I didn't feel I had to."

"Well, you should've at least told them," Hermione said. "Your grandmother's death might be a complete mystery to them and they might still be trying to work out how she died, or who killed her..."

"Hermione, just shut the hell up," Draco said with a small smile. "You're always being practical and thinking ahead of yourself." Hermione gave him a small glare, but couldn't hold it long, as a smile crept onto her lips.

"Sorry," she muttered. Draco gave her a smirk and lent across, towards her. He brushed his lips across hers.

"Your Know-it-all-ism is actually something that attracted me to you - even when we were enemies and always at each others throats," Draco admitted. Hermione frowned confused. Draco just mentally shook his head and bent in to kiss her again, but they were interrupted.

"So it is true what Ginny was telling us," a voice said coldly behind them. Draco and Hermione turned their heads around again, to see Harry and Ron standing there, cold, hateful looks on their faces. The speaker was Harry. "You two are truly going out and here we were thinking it was just one of your stupid 'I'm falling for the handsome guy' crushes, Hermione."

"Look, Potter," Draco sneered, "if you don't have a real reason to be here, then leave. I honestly can't stand the sight of your scarred, ugly face. Same with you Weasley."

"Make us, Malfoy," Ron snapped, his ears going red.

"You jealous as well, Weasley?" Draco snarled. "Hermione's fallen for the 'enemy', after so many years of you liking her as more than a friend. You and Potter are so alike in so many ways. You two should get married and Longbottom can be the flower girl."

"Shut up, Malfoy," Harry said, his fists clenched.

"No, I don't think I want to, Potter," Draco said. He looked sideways at Hermione, who was watching at the argument awkwardly.

"Draco," she said. "Stop it. Let them be."

"Why, Hermione?" Harry asked. "Why should he let us be? Why don't you have your input."

Hermione paused a moment, considering what he said. Her face was written with an expression of great thought. "Ok, then, if you really want me to," she said. "I think you and Ron are being more childish than I can ever remember. In other ways, you're being selfish. Both of you are quite obviously jealous, for reasons I am not sure of and don't want to go into. The truth is, is our friendship, the 'bond' between us was doomed right from the moment I said yes to going out with Harry. I was, truthfully, relieved when I saw you kissing Ginny outside that dungeon that night, Harry, but I honestly didn't think I'd lose Ron and all my other friends when dumping you. You basically put me where I am now, with no real friends other than Draco and he is so much more to me now than just a friend." She paused and looked at Draco, who was listening closely, taking in everything she said.

"You might think that even if I did have you two as friends still, Draco and I would've gotten where we are anyway, with him becoming Head Boy, our Polyjuice assignment... But we wouldn't be," she continued. "I would've respected your opinions and gone along with any of it. I wouldn't be sharing quarters with him or anything like that, because you two wouldn't have stood for it, so I wouldn't have done it, even if Draco and I had become friends. Not having you two as my friends has changed all that and to me, it's for the better. I love Draco and you probably think that that whole idea is absurd. You may be jealous, you may be angry, but it's your own fault, not mine. You put me where I am now." She finished her speech, feeling glad to have finally let them hear some of what she believed.

A long silence of surprise, shock and realisation followed her speech. Harry and Ron had looks of great bewilderment on their features and Draco was staring at them both with great amusement.

"The reason I told Draco to let you be, is exactly because of that," Hermione said to Harry and Ron, who continued to look bewildered. "He was basically bickering about you two having feelings that you guys caused for yourselves."

Harry and Ron were speechless. They stood there silently for a moment before Harry motioned to Ron and they turned around and began to head back towards the castle.

Draco turned back to look at Hermione. "How much thought did you put into that little speech?" he asked curiously, entwining his fingers with hers.

"Not all that much," Hermione admitted. "I could hardly sleep last night and that was just something that crossed my mind, that's all." Draco frowned. "I think they'll leave us alone now and that's good." Draco lent in again and kissed her softly on the lips.

Silence followed this, as Hermione played with a small lock of Draco's hair. After a moment of so, Draco decided to change the subject. "When we leave here, Hogwarts, should I go home and live with my mother?"

"That, Draco," Hermione said, standing up, "Is personally up to you." She grabbed Draco's hand and helped him stand up, as well.

Draco frowned, going into deep thought as he stared over the lake to the mountains in the distance. "I guess I will," he said after a long while. "For a while, anyway. You can move in, if you want. There's plenty of rooms in the manor." Hermione looked uncertain. "Perhaps we'll wait and see about that, then?"

Hermione nodded. "I think so."

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Once the new school term had started, it was quite amazing as to how quickly the word of Draco and Hermione "truly" being together spread through the school. There had of course been rumours earlier on, but now that it was official, it seemed no one could talk about anything else.

The Slytherins had totally disowned Draco for good. At Quidditch practice, no one spoke to him unless they were giving some sort of instruction for the next game or something else relevant to his skill and performance.

Hermione, on the other hand, didn't get much of stuff like that, though, she was always in the library or their study, doing research or work. She had already begun her N.E.W.T revision, which wasn't really out of the ordinary for her, but she was also starting to urge Draco into starting his as well.

All in all, though, neither one of them were bothered by other peoples assumptions and gossiping. They just went on like normal...

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Draco headed up the last couple of stairs to the common room and stopped in the doorway, a small smile coming to his lips when he noticed Hermione sitting in the armchair closest to the study. He headed over to her to see her reading from an extremely thick book, which was set in her lap. He startled her slightly when he gave her a light kiss on the cheek.

"Hi," she said simply, looking up at him, showing her slightly tired eyes.

Draco gave her a smile and sat down on the couch. "What's that?" he asked, nodding his head towards the book.

"Oh, Arithmancy Analyses. I'm reading up on an advanced equation formula," Hermione said in a matter-of-factly tone. "Where have you been?" she asked as he nodded.

"In the library," Draco replied, opening his bag and pulling out a book (The Dictionary of Advanced Astronomy), which he showed Hermione. "I have to look up this star constellation I took note of last night in class. Sinistra told me I have to do a whole bloody report on it, the stupid witch."

Hermione gave him a disapproving look and closed the book in her lap. "You really shouldn't say that about a teacher, Draco," she said. Draco just ignored her. Smiling, Hermione stood up and headed over to sit next to him. She took his hand in hers and snuggled a little closer, so she could rest her head on his shoulder. A pleasant silence occupied the room as they both stared into the blazingly warm fire. After a few minutes, Hermione broke it.

"It's truly amazing how so many things have happened over such a short period of time, isn't it?" she said, expressing her absent thoughts. "I mean, it hasn't been all that much longer than three months since we were in Potions, arguing over that stupid comment you made about me wanting to look down your pants." They both gave a small laugh before she continued. "Since then, Terry became sick and you took his place as Head Boy. On our first Head duty together, we saw Harry cheating on me. On the very next day, I dumped him and then, that night, we ended up kissing in the library. A couple of weeks after that, you got in that Quidditch accident and we soon moved into these quarters together. We then took the physical form of one another and soon afterwards, my parents decided to get a divorce. When the holidays finally arrived, Terry died and you got brutally bashed by your father and he got sent to prison and lost full custody of you. That's a hell of a lot of things to happen in three months and to top it all off, we fell in love with each other and I'm the happiest I have been for a long time." She took a deep breath and lifted her head off Draco's shoulder, wanting to see his expression.

His eyes were shining like diamonds and they were full with numerous emotions, all of which seemed to be directed towards her. She had never seen him like this, but it made her heart pound against her chest as it ached to reach out to him. She kept hold of his hand as she gazed at him in silence. She only let go when she felt him begin to wrap his arms around her and pull her closer, so she was suddenly sitting on top of him, straddling him.

"I love you so much," he said quietly, in a voice quivering like the string of a violin, slightly breathless - very unlike his own. Hermione didn't get a chance to respond as his lips were now on hers, kissing her with more intensity than he ever had...

- The End -