22. Chapter 22

Well here we are. I won't be posting for a few weeks, but I promise I'll post a soon as possible. Here's the last chapter for now. Thank you for all the support.

Disclaimer: I don't own HP

Goddamn you Weasel, Draco thought. Seriously, of all the moments for you to walk in, did it have to be right now?

The Weasel stormed into the room, and let his anger out immediately.

"How dare you Malfoy!" he roared. Draco barely flinched. He was very used to the Weasel yelling at him.

"What did I do this time?" he asked casually. The weasel seemed to inflate with even more rage.

"How dare you take advantage of Hermione!" Draco felt his eyes pop out.

"Take advantage of her?" he stuttered. "I didn't take advantage of her!"

"You slept in her bed! You aren't denying it." Draco shook his head.

"Yes, I slept in her bed, but that doesn't mean I banged her. There's a difference. Learn it."

"And even if he did sleep with her," Potter cut in. "It would be none of your business. You and Hermione ended a long time ago, as you are very much aware."

The world must have ended. Draco had to pinch himself. Something was wrong. Maybe the planets had aligned, or they were messed up in time, or maybe even apocalypse now. All he knew, was something was wrong. Potter had just defended him, when weasel had attacked. What the hell? Merlin, he might as well just fall asleep. His dreams were more realistic than this.

Weasel gaped. "We didn't really end. She was just confused, it had been a long year, and she just needed a bit of space…."

Potter snorted. "No, that's not what happened, and you need to accept it. Hermione didn't want to be with you. That's all."

Weasel's eyes narrowed. "Of course Potter, you'd be fighting with me about this again."

Draco's eyebrows raised. Again?

Kingsley cut into the argument. "If the two of you want to argue like normal, could you wait until after Hermione finishes her story."

The two Gryffindors nodded. The weasel walked to the opposite end of the room as Potter. Now, Potter was sitting next to Hermione and Draco was leaning on the desk.

Hermione looked down and continued the story. "So I was really freaked out, and Draco came over and woke me up. He calmed me down. I asked him to stay with me for the night, and he did. I didn't have the nightmare again."

Weasley started muttering obscenities. Kingsley shot him a glare before urging Hermione to continue.

"Anyway, when Draco and I woke up, we headed downstairs for breakfast. When we got there, Narcissa handed us the paper, which was basically about me. I wanted to know what my real life was. So I read it. There was a section about my life during this war you guys keep mentioning. The paper told me that once I was apparently captured and tortured at Malfoy Manor."

Hermione shivered. "It was real. This terrible nightmare was real. I ran out of the kitchen and Draco followed. I confronted him, and he told me everything. That's when your magical mist animal arrived."

Kingsley nodded. "Before this, had you ever had any nightmares like this, or random flashes?"

Hermione shook her head. "No….well…once."

"Once?" Potter questioned.

"It was a few weeks ago," she muttered, avoiding Draco's eyes.

"What happened?" Draco asked.

She finally turned to look at him. "It was at the gala. When we were talking about that girl, and you said she'd probably forgotten you. I had a weird vision pop through my head. The vision was me punching you in the face."

Draco nodded, chuckling slightly. "I remember that. I thought I saw recognition in your eyes. And yes, that really did happen."

Potter leaned forward. "What girl were you talking about?"

Draco froze.

Hermione didn't notice. "We were talking about Draco's school days, and how he was always second in his class. He said this one girl would always beat him. After a brief description of this girl, I realized Draco most likely had been in love with her, but wouldn't admit it."

If hell wanted to swallow him up, now would be the perfect time.

The three men turned and looked at him.

"Were you?" Potter asked calmly, while the Weasel looked ready to explode.

"No!" Draco argued. "I was not in love with her."

"Who was she anyway?" Hermione asked.

Anytime hell.

Weasel gave her a look of complete disdain. "It was you."

The longest moment in Draco's life prior to this had been the moment when Potter had shot the final spell at the Dark Lord to end the war. But that felt like a second long compared to the time it took Hermione to turn her head and look him in the eye. Draco felt as though his feet had been glued to the floor. He couldn't look away. He was forced to stare deep into her eyes as she realized truth. He could practically see the conversation replaying in her mind. Everything he had said, how strong she was, how beautiful, Hermione now knew to be about her.

From the moment they became friends, Draco had felt as though their friendship was the easiest thing he had ever done. Everything was simple with Hermione. They just clicked. Even though she was currently angry at him, he still recognized simplicity in their relationship. Now, Draco realized, with his heart pounding, everything was about to change.

Who was he kidding? Their relationship had never been simple. Conversing with her, being with her, that was simple. But the relationship consisted of more than simply that. Beneath the friendly conversation and everyday hangouts was something else. Something was brewing, something deep, something complicated. Something that was going to forever change their lives.

Draco had been able to ignore it beforehand. He could always live in the simplicity, and ignore that other something that would change everything. But the wall separating the two had been torn down. It had been torn down the second he had met Hermione's eyes. It was time to face it. There was no way out. Draco took a deep breath, and prepared himself for the unknown waters ahead.

Hermione was gaping. "It was me?" she asked, in a hushed whisper. Draco didn't know why she needed confirmation; the look on his face should have been enough. Any who, he gave her a quick nod, his eyes not leaving her face.

"I was the one who beat you in every class?" Another quick nod. "The compassionate one?" Nod. "The strongest person you'd ever known?" Another nod.

Hermione, without warning, stood up. She walked over to Draco, who was feeling very apprehensive. Hermione looked at him, and threw her arms around him, wrapping him in a hug. Draco, ignoring his shock, immediately returned the hug.

Hermione pulled away from him a bit, looking up at him with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you," she said quietly.

Draco gave a half-smile. "I'm sorry I gave you a reason to."

Kingsley coughed discretly. Draco got the message, and brought Hermione back to her chair. He sat her down, and stood behind her.

Kingsley studied the two of carefully for several moments. When Draco became uncomfortable under his scrutiny, he spoke.

"Our first priority in this situation is to retrieve Hermione's memory. Given what you two have told me about Hermione's few memories that have returned, I'd guess our best chance at full memory restoration is stimulation."

Potter pushed his glasses up his nose. "Stimulation?"

Kinglsey gave a brief nod. "Yes. This hardly ever happens, but sometimes, with memory charms, slimulation can reverse the effects. I've heard of this happening twice in my lifetime. We need to try and remind her of her life by showing her things that magical Hermione knew very well."

"But Kinglsey," Weasel argued. "She didn't remember anything when she sees me! And I dated her!"

Potter muttered something incomprehensible. Draco shot him a look. What was going on with the boy wonder and Weasel?

Kinglsey rolled his eyes at Weasel's statement. "I apologize Ron, but I feel like that's not enough. These need to be life-changing things that we show her. The drawing room at Malfoy Manor changed her life spectacularily. We need something else like that, something without which, Hermione's life would never be the same."

Draco looked up. Life changing…

He met Potter's eyes, which were alit with a bright fire. They gave each other a quick nod. It was obvious they were both thinking the same thing. They both only knew of one place that had changed, not only Hermione's life, but the lives of everyone in the room.

"Hogwarts," they said in unison.

Kinglsey regarded the two of them. He nodded slowly. "I could not think of a more life-changing experience than walking into that school for the very first time. You two agree?"

Draco nodded. He was in complete agreement. He remembered the first time he'd walked through those large doors. Coming from a rich household, Draco had been no stranger to extravagance, and Hogwarts was extravagant, no question. But there was something Hogwarts offered him that Malfoy Manor had always come up short on.

Hogwarts was home.

Draco knew he wasn't the only one to experience the feeling of belonging on arriving at the castle. When he had walked into the great hall, he had seen it on all the faces, even the teachers. Everyone belonged. Whether you be a Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, or a Ravenclaw, or even a faculty member, Hogwarts was your home. If that feeling wasn't enough to jog Hermione's memory, they might as well jump ship then and there.

Potter spoke again. "So should one of us bring Hermione over?"

Weasel inched closer to the sitting brunette.

Kingsley noticed. "Draco can do it. She'd be the most comfortable with you, I assume."

Hermione looked up at him, and gave him a smile. It warmed Draco's heart. The twenty minutes they'd been fighting had been the worst twenty minutes Draco had experienced within the last seven years.

Weasel looked very disgruntled with this arrangement. Draco smirked. Screwing with muggle ginger had been fun, but it was nothing compared to the real thing.

Surprisingly, Potter also looked very annoyed with this. He eyed Hermione with a strange emotion in his eye. Draco couldn't recognize it. It definitely wasn't something Draco had seen in Potter's eyes before.

Draco turned back to Kingsley. "Perfect. We can do that tomorrow."

Kingsley assented, when Potter interrupted.

"Shouldn't we be trying to find the bastards who did to her?"

Kingsley looked. "I've been considering that. I'm not sure that we can."

Draco jumped up. "What do you mean you can't?"

Kingsley eyed him. The minister for magic proceeded calmly. "We can assume that whoever did this was a death eater."

Draco nodded, not understanding what the minister was saying.

"Well, all the death eaters were either killed in the war or captured in the weeks afterwards. There was not a single known death eater who escaped. We got them all."

"Wouldn't that make it easier to catch them?" The minister was making no sense at all.

Kingsley shook his head. "The criminal is either dead, or has been locked in Azkaban for years. Why would they confess to something else? It wouldn't change their sentence. It would only gain our hatred."

Draco opened his mouth to argue, but found he couldn't. Damn logic.

"Also," Kingsley continued. "We have absolutely nothing to go on. Hermione was kidnapped a week after the final battle. There were death eaters loose for approximately six months after that."

Draco tried to think of a loophole, but found he couldn't. His fists clenched. The bloody bastards would probably get away with it. He saw red.

He looked up at Potter, to see the boy-who-would-never-die mirroring his rage. The chosen's one's skin had gone red, and Draco could practically see steam omitting from his ears. Draco shot a look at Weasel. Red skin, red hair, angry face on, what else was new?

Draco turned to Kingsley. "We can't let them get away with it," he snarled.

Kingsley sighed. "I hate this just as much as you do, Draco. But I, as minister for magic, must think logically and rationally."

Draco felt the air in the room change. He winced slightly. He recognized this feeling, like at the beginning of a storm. Someone was about to explode, the same way Blaise did. This would not be pretty. A scream came from his right. Potter had blown his top.

"Screw logic and rationality!" Potter yelled. Hermione visibly flinched back from the noise. Potter barely noticed.

Draco found himself impressed. He hadn't known Potter had the capacity to get so angry. The chosen one was always the calm one. Seeing Potter with steam coming out his ears was not something you saw every day. This would be entertaining.

Kingsley quaked a little in his boots. "Harry, listen…."

Potter cut across him. "No Kingsley! I will not listen! I've waited seven years to get my hands on those bastards! They took Hermione away from me! My bloody best friend! They almost ruined my relationships with my wife and other best friend! They basically ruined my life! And I wasn't even the one who had my memory erased!"

Potter took a deep breath and continued.

"These bloody bastards deserve to rot in hell for what they did to us. And I will not rest until I can see them finished. That's not even enough. I will not rest until I can finish them myself."

Kingsley sighed. "I know what Hermione's disappearance did to you Harry. I was there."

Draco was exceptionally confused. It had been obvious how broken Harry had been since Hermione's disappearance. But, how did that affect his relationship with Weasel or Weaslette? There was a second side to this story.

"You heard about it, Kingsley," Potter sighed. "You did not live through it."

Weasel scoffed. "Everything's always about you, isn't it. You lived through terrible things, blahblahblah. I lost my brother! I lost my girlfriend!"

"She wasn't your fucking girlfriend!" Potter exploded.

Hermione stood up suddenly. Turning to Draco, she spoke quickly. "Can we got back to your house?"

Draco nodded. Weasel and Potter were about to really go at it, and he didn't want to be there for it.

He spoke at Kingsley. "We'll go to Hogwarts tomorrow. We'll relax today. Bye everyone."

Draco grabbed Hermione's arm, and apparated away. As they disappeared, Draco heard Potter yell at Ron once more.

"She was never in love with you!"

Good lord, there had to be another side of this story.

Review my friends. I will see you soon.