Why We Fight

Part 28:
The Best-Laid Plans
(Saturday, October 15, 1977 – Continued...)

Draco paced in Honeydukes as Peter and Remus watched him. "Er...Prongs?" Peter asked.

"I don't get what she sees in him," Draco said.

Peter shrugged. "Well. He is blonde. Some girls like that," Peter said.

"What?" Draco asked before noticing that Lily and James were heading into Madam Puddifoot's. "Of course, women like blondes." He examined his body as James animated it. "How could any girl resist such a devilishly handsome bloke?" Peter took a couple of steps away from Draco.

Draco glared at the rat-like boy. "I'm secure enough in my masculinity to appreciate another guy, doesn't mean I want to shag him." He paused and looked off into the distance. "What do you think they're doing?"

"Making googly eyes at one-another as he whispers sweet nothings into her ear?" Peter suggested as he nodded toward the window of Madam Puddifoot's where James and Lily were doing just that.

"Not them! Padfoot and Hermione!" Draco said.

Remus's sandy eyebrows rose. "They're definitely not quoting poetry to one-another."

---

"Drink to me, only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I'll not look for wine.
The thirst, that from the soul doth rise,
Doth ask a drink divine:
But might I of Jove's nectar sup,
I would not change for thine.

I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
Not so much honoring thee,
As giving it a hope, that there
It could not wither'd be.
But thou thereon didst only breathe,
And sent'st it back to me:
Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,
Not of itself, but thee."

Hermione's face flamed as Sirius whispered the sweet words into her ear; his hands twined in her brown curls. She fanned herself as she looked at him. "Wow, Sirius, I never would have figured you for a romantic. Er, who wrote that?"

"Ben Jonson." Sirius grinned, showing off perfect, blindingly-white teeth. "What can I say, Miss de Lioncourt, I'm a mystery wrapped inside an enigma," he purred.

Hermione's eyebrow arched. "I'm sure you are..." She snuggled into his arms, letting her fingers toy with his black hair, and breathing in his scent. Pine needles and something wild. He kissed the top of her head and nuzzled her vanilla-scented hair. She stiffened and Sirius looked to see what was wrong. Lily and James-in-Draco's-body were walking by hand-in-hand, laughing and whispering to one-another like school children. That was it!

Hermione gave Sirius a sweet smile. "I'll be right back," she said. She stood up, brushed off, and marched toward the couple. "We need to talk. Now." She gave a tight smile to Lily. "Do you mind if I borrow him for just a few minutes?"

"Uh, sure," Lily said, but Hermione was already dragging him away none-too-gently.

Once out of sight and hearing range, Hermione wheeled on him. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" she demanded.

James was confused. "Er...what?"

"What? No snide comments, Malfoy?" Hermione growled. James was too stunned to speak. "We're only here until we find a way back. And I won't let you keep James and Lily from getting together and having Harry. I won't let you destroy the future."

"The future!?" James demanded.

"Don't change the future, eh?" a voice came from behind her and Hermione whipped around to find its source. She knew that tone, even if it was in James's voice.

"Draco?" she squeaked. He didn't even have to reply. She knew. "And that makes you...James?" Draco's body nodded. There was a long, tense silence. "Bloody hell."

"So...the future, huh? What year is it?" James asked. He paused with realization. "I marry Lily Evans?" A dreamy grin came over his face and Hermione stared at him. That was definitely not a Malfoy look. In fact, Hermione wasn't even sure if she'd ever seen Draco give a non-patronizing smile in recent history. "And I have a son? Harry. Your friend?" Hermione gave a tight smile that was more of a grimace. "How old is he?"

"1996. And Harry? He's, uh, about sixteen and an insufferable git," Draco said.

Hermione glared at Draco. "He's just saying that because he's..." Draco sent her a pleading glance that surprised her so much she trailed off.

James looked at Hermione. "Because he's a Malfoy?" James asked.

Draco made James's face pale. "You told him?" he demanded.

James shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me, you seem an okay bloke," he stated. "I mean, by default, I should hate Sirius...him being a Black and all."

"Funny you should mention that..." Draco stated. "My mum's a Black."

James studied Draco and burst into laughter. "No way...Narcissa and Lucius?" James asked. Draco winced. "Bloody hell! Your mum's been trying to make the moves on you...ugh..."

Draco shuddered. "You didn't have to remind me..." he said with a sick look.

"Draco's going to have to invest in some high-quality psychiatric help," Hermione stated with a smug grin.

Draco glared at Hermione. "So...Harry, my son, Harry...he's the one who defeated a mountain troll in his first year?" James asked.

Hermione frowned as they went back to the subject of the future. "Er...yeah...one in the same," she said.

"The one you have a crush on?" James asked. Hermione paled.

"I--I never said I had a crush on H--Harry," she stammered. James gave a bit of a smirk and Hermione scowled at the very-familiar look.

"Yes. You did. When you told us about how you and Draco started dating--"

"Now. This is a story that I must hear..." Draco drawled.

James eyed Hermione. "The Yule Ball. Fourth year, you wore the black velvet dress robes. Like the song," James said, imitating a breathless young woman.

Draco looked at the girl, eyebrows rising. "You remembered what I wore?" he asked.

Hermione blushed, glaring at James and debating just how much the future would change if the elder Potter met an untimely death... "I remember a lot of things..." she insisted.

Draco smirked, an expression that was becoming all-too-familiar on James's face. "About me?"

Big, brown eyes narrowed as the Gryffindor-turned-Slytherin glared at the face of her best friend's father. "I remember you make a cute ferret..." she said in a low, threatening voice.

James turned to Draco. "You've been a ferret?" Draco scowled. "I'll take that as a 'yes.'" His gaze slid to the brunette. "Did you turn him into a ferret?"

"She most certainly did not!" Draco cried.

"Er...James...this isn't a good idea. We can't change the future..."

"That's rich, coming from a girl dating her best mate's godfather," Draco said.

"It's different..." Hermione protested.

"I'm going to have to side with Draco on this one," James said. His eyes widened. "Bloody hell, I'm twenty years older than you."

"N--nineteen," Hermione stammered.

"Nineteen? Wow. So what'm I like in the future?" he asked.

Hermione's eyes widened. "You live happily ever after with Lily and are constantly making your son sick with public displays of affection," Draco intervened.

James grinned. "Happily ever after? I could get used to that," he said.

Hermione couldn't look at James. "But you can't tell Lily, Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail, or anyone for that matter," Draco stated. "You shouldn't have been told, anyway, but Hermione got all antsy."

"I did not get antsy!" Hermione insisted. "I thought he was you. I'll let you get back to Lily now." James sauntered off, a grin plastered to Draco's face. Hermione turned to Draco when James was out of earshot. "I really appreciate what you did back there."

"It was no problem, I like James, he's a good bloke," Draco stated.

"You understand, don't you?" she said. "H--he and Lily have to die. That's the way it has to be." She swallowed an emotional constriction in her throat. "That's their destiny. They died fighting evil. Their death -- and the death of so many others -- that's the point, that's why we fight. To avenge them. To stop Voldemort from destroying any more innocent lives." She wiped a tear away. "That's the way it has to be."

Draco Malfoy wasn't sure how to respond to an emotional teenaged girl and he really didn't know how to respond to what Hermione Granger did next. She kissed him. Not like the tonsil-cleansing, anger-induced kiss that he'd given her just over a month ago: a real kiss. A chaste brush of her lips across his. Apparently as startled by her reaction as he was, Hermione's eyes widened and she rushed back to Sirius. Draco stood there for a long while, touching the pads of his fingers to his lips, a look of wonder and shock on James's face.