Chapter Five

Draco's POV:

Three words: women are scary. That gets my point across. Hermione most definitely was scary, Harry probably had more experiences with that side of her. Seeing as they've been through practically everything together. She shouted at a whole room of people in my defense. That said a lot about how courteous she was. "Why didn't you let them attack me?" I ask.

"You saved me." She states simply. "Without you, I don't know what I'd have done."

"I don't deserve your kindness, Hermione. I cruel and selfish." I say, avoiding her eyes.

"Yes, you were cruel and selfish when we were in school. People change, Draco, you letting me live in your house isn't being selfish, that was an act of selflessness." She replies.

"But I am cruel and selfish. Six years, Hermione, I bullied you, Harry, and Ron for six years! A few small things-" She stops me by wrapping her arms around me tightly.

"You aren't cruel or selfish. You just need to be more loved. Your family never gave you love, that's why you don't know how to accept it when someone loves you, whether it be as a friend or a partner." She states clearly. "You don't know what love is."

"So teach me. Teach me how to accept the monster I am."

"There's not much I can do to teach you. You need to learn to accept yourself." She smiles, still holding me in her embrace. It was nice, having someone hug me. I hadn't gotten many of those during my childhood. Sure, my mother showed more appreciation than anybody, but even that wasn't much. She was always busy running around doing tasks with my death eater father. Then there was Dobby, my only friend seeing as I couldn't go around playing with muggle children. My parents didn't allow it, though at the time I didn't see why not. As I got older, I was led to believe that pureblood supremacy was the correct way to think. I've changed my perspective on people now, all 'blood-types' should be treated equally. Nobody deserves disrespect for who they are or what family they had come from. I still needed to apologize to all but one of the Weasleys for calling them blood-traitors. Ron didn't deserve my apology, he deserved to endure pain. For all I cared, he could go rot in hell.

"Do I have to apologize Ron?" I ask sneakily.

"Yes, Draco. Even he deserves an apology for what you did to him. I know that you may not want to, but even I'm going to forgive him." She expressed, letting out a faint laugh. "Everybody deserves to be forgiven, especially you. You've been through so much and was basically hexed into doing all of that." She smiles.

"Okay." I sigh dramatically.

"Thank you."

Hermione's POV:

So now I needed to teach Draco how to formally apologize for what he'd done to everybody, which most likely wouldn't be easy. Who knew if they'd even be up to forgive him. Well, technically Molly, Ginny, and Harry had forgiven him, but they still deserved a proper apology. "Who first," I ask, "Who do you want to apologize to first?"

"Ron, I suppose I should go ahead and get Weasle-bee done with." He snarls.

"Draco! No nicknames, call him Ron. Honestly, you have no reason to hate him but you do. I'm the one who he cheated on, but I've still given him forgiveness." I shake my head angrily.

"Sorry," he says while looking at the floor.

"It's fine. You just need to improve how you think of people."

"He hurt you!" He exclaims angrily.

"Calm down," I say, my voice still calm. "Calm down." I muttered, wrapping my arms around him once again.

"I can't! Okay?" He shouts, forcing me away. "I'm sorry, I just-nevermind." His hands run through his tousled hair. "I'm sorry, I really am."

"I know. You just need someone to love you. You need friends, friends that actually care about you," I reply, "What about Neville? He's nice, I'm sure he'd forgive you if he heard the full story."

"Really?"

"Most definitely."

I message Neville, seeing as I still had his number. Turns out he had married Hannah Abbott, and they had a daughter together. "He said that it'd be great for us to come over!" I exclaim happily.

"So you told him I'd be coming with you?" Draco asks nervously.

"Yes. He said that he'd like to know why you were so detached," I reply. "which I haven't thought about it much before but you really were."

"How so?"

"You never really spoke much to anybody about your personal life. It was always you picking on me and Harry. Why is that?" I ask.

"If I were to answer very simply, my father," he says, "he made me think he cared. He made me believe lies, and that we were the 'good guys' while others were the 'bad guys."

"And then, second year in Diagon Alley. When he slammed his cane on your shoulder. Did it hurt?"

"Yes."

Flashback:

"Bet you loved that didn't you Pottah. Famous Harry Pottah, can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page." Draco snarled at Harry.

"Leave him alone." Ginny stated in defense of Harry.

"Alright Pottah, you've got yourself a girlfriend!" Draco smiled mockingly.

"Now now Draco, play nicely." Lucius approaches from behind, slams the snake on his cane onto Draco's shoulder. Draco immediately steps away, a sadistic look on his face, but I could tell that he had tried to hold back the urge to run.

End of Flashback:

"As I assumed," I sigh, "Did he ever leave...marks on you?" I ask awkwardly.

"...No." He says but his face showed a sign of hurt.

"Are you lying?" I ask carefully.

"Yes." He whispers

"Can you show me?" I ask. He lets his black suit jacket fall from his shoulder. Then quickly unbuttons a few buttons on his shirt, and pulls the right side of his shirt away to reveal faint, but noticeable puncture scars. "He did this to you?" I ask, gripping his hand tightly in mine. Draco nods his head, unable to speak. "And he's not in Azkaban?"

"He was put in Azkaban but escaped. Then my mother got all sorts of security measures put on the manor." He replies, quickly pulling the shirt back over his shoulder.

"He's a cruel, foul beast! How did you live with him for 18 years?!"

"I just...got used to it." He mutters. I couldn't help but let the 'waterworks' begin to flow. This was heartbreaking. What had he done to deserve a verbally and physically abusive father? Nothing, which proved my point. He was innocent and Lucius was the problem.

"YOU GOT USED TO IT!" I shout, "No child should have to get used to a parent abusing them." I say, doing my best to comfort him. I'd never really been great at comforting people, but when I needed to I would try.

"No, it's fine," He smiles sadly. I could tell it was fake, "I'm fine." He smiles more believably this time. I shake my head and tighten my arms around him. To my surprise, he didn't object but instead hugged me just as tightly.

"Are you sure?" I ask, "You had to deal with that for...how many years did you deal with that?"

"19, I think. It didn't feel that long." He replies this was the truth. He said that a couple of years ago he had started the project of his cottage. It was now a beautiful house, covered by vines and surrounded by a forest. But instead of continuing this conversation, I drag him into the living room so that we could sit together. Maybe talk about something other than our pasts. Draco would find that more comforting. I tell myself repeatedly. I knew the thought of those scars on his shoulder would linger on my mind forever but there really wasn't much use in bringing them up. It's not like I could make them disappear or change his past to one where he had normal wizard parents. All I could do was hope that I made his life better and didn't remind him of his awful childhood.

"Do you know when we'll be going to Longbott-Neville's house?" He asks, catching his mistake in the process and fixing it.

"Really, it's up to him. His schedule's pretty busy. Did you know he has a daughter now? And he's the new herbology teacher." I smile brightly, moving the subject of his parents to the back of my head. I wouldn't forget about it, but the subject would remain untouched for a while.

"No. I don't think that Neville would give me his phone number, much less want to talk to me." He laughs. I could tell that talking about something new had really brought the mood up. He wasn't as downhearted anymore. He looked genuinely happy talking about Neville. I was too, it's been forever since I'd seen him. I don't think I've seen him since after the battle. Has it really been that long? I ask in silence. I guess it had. Wow!

Draco's POV:

Hermione and I had talked about the subject of my parents for a while, but I changed the subject, not wanting to bring up the thought of my past any longer. Then we began to talk about when we would visit Neville, who'd I'd just learned was married and had a daughter. He had a family. He had something that I'd hopefully have one day. A few children, maybe four. I'd never really thought much about having a family until I'd regained touch with Hermione. What? No, I didn't think of her like that. I'd have a wife who was placed in Slytherin and was a pureblood. Maybe Astoria or Daphne Greengrass. Not Hermione Granger. I couldn't think of her like that. It would ruin my family tree, create a whole line of half-bloods until we returned to our expected pureblood-bloodline. Hermione is and will forever be just a friend, I think. We're just friends. I think it's bad that I have to remind myself of that. No, it wasn't, I had to remind myself that because we used to be known enemies.

Hermione's POV:

Talking about Neville was a lot less stressful than talking about Draco. Neville had an easy life. A wife, a child, a good job. Everything someone could want and more. He was a wizard which meant that he was gifted with talents that only people of our kind had. He had a perfect life. My life wasn't perfect. My parents were dead, I broke up with my fiancé, I lived in a tiny cottage with my classmate from Hogwarts. Dracos' life wasn't perfect either, he had an abusive father and a neglective mother. Our lives are everything anybody could ask for. Not. But we made do, we made what could be a miserable day into a day filled with laughter. We made our lives perfect. He made my life perfect. No, no, no! Not this again. I do not think of Draco as more than a friend! Or do I? Hell, I can't even decide. I just left Ron, isn't it too soon to be jumping into all of this again? Yes. I need to focus on other things, not boys. I've had enough of that in my life. I need to focus on myself and helping Draco with his problems. I needed to help Draco. I need to help Draco. Which I did, he was my main focus right now, and then afterward maybe I could take a month to myself and get my life sorted out. Right now it was a wreck, I still hadn't figured out if I wanted to be friends with that arrogant prick, Ronald Weasley. He didn't deserve my friendship, he deserved to feel my pain, the pain that I had to hide for Draco. The pain I had to let out at night when Draco's sleeping. Second chances. I had to give him another chance. I had given Draco a second chance after everything, so I should be able to give Ron forgiveness. Not now, but I will forgive him. I had to. Compared to Harry, he was lazy, but he had still helped us on our Horcrux hunt. He was the reason that Salazar Slytherin's locket had been destroyed. He was a small portion of the reason why Voldemort was dead right now. Though really, Neville was the one who killed Nagini, which had lead to the death of Voldemort. Nowadays, wizards weren't afraid to speak his name aloud. He was once the 'Dark Lord' but today he was just a dark wizard who'd almost taken over the majority of the wizarding world. To children that I would have in the future, he would be no different from me and whoever their father ends up being. Now that I'd left Ron, there was no telling who'd father my children. Oh well, I'd forgiven Ron and it was time to move past mistakes of the past. "Do you ever want children?" I find myself asking Malfoy while we're sitting on the sofa. He paused for a moment and began to think about the question.

"Yes?" He questions his response. "Yes." He finalizes the thought, making it obvious that his answer wasn't a question.

"Really? I've always wanted children, just a few. No more than four. One day I hope to have a family. Something that right now, I don't have." I reply, smiling sadly at the thought of my parents. I had missed them, but they were safe now. They wouldn't ever have to deal with the darkness this world held. Who knew, another 'Voldemort' could be lurking around the corner.

"Yes, a kind family. I never had that. A family who'd put others before themselves, a variety of personalities." He smiles. I knew that he'd grown up in a bad household. He'd told me about his father and mother. Narcissa, his mother, being the kinder of the two. He'd actually learned that in the forbidden forest, during the war, that Narcissa had asked Harry if Draco was still alive. Risking her life for her sons, but in the end, still choosing her evil husband over her son. That was really what made her horrible, and just as bad as Lucius. She had picked a verbally and physically abusive man over the boy whom she'd raised to be kind.

"A kind family." I reply. That was something I'd grown up with. My loving parents, and grandparents. I'd never really gotten close with my grandparents. They had passed when I was six, I think. None the less, I wanted a kind, loving family. I wanted something that would embrace me in warmth from the love it produced.

Third Person POV:

When would these two come to the obvious conclusion that they had feelings for each other. By feelings, you know, romantic feelings. They knew they thought of each other as more than friends, but didn't want to believe because of the past. The past which involved Draco bullying Hermione because of her blood-purity. A past that involved Hermione loathing Draco for this reason, and even punching him in the nose in third year. The past was its own time period though. Now the two were great friends. People who trusted each other with even the deepest, darkest secrets. The only thing left was for one or the other to confesss. Confess his or her immense romantic feelings for the other.