Work Text:
Heal
When Draco Malfoy entered the Head dorms’ common room, he wanted nothing more than to spend all of his Christmas holidays on the couch by the fireplace, a good book in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. He had always loved spending Christmas at Hogwarts and since he was now in his last year, going back home for the holidays hadn’t even crossed his mind. Not that he had a real home to go back to.
The manor hadn’t felt like home for years now, ever since Voldemort and his death eaters had claimed it as their headquarters. Now the dark lord was gone, his father was imprisoned in Azkaban and his mother lived with a few relatives in France, leaving the manor empty. Draco was sure he would never want to go back there, so he had put it up for sale in the summer before he went back to Hogwarts. When he was done with school, he would just get a small apartment somewhere, but for now, the castle was his home.
He had pretty early on decided that he would go back to school to finish his education and to redeem himself and what was left of his family’s good name. It had not been easy so far, but he was doing alright.
One surprising factor in that had been his fellow head girl, Hermione Granger. When McGonagall had offered him the position as head boy, he had been confused, but he had accepted to show that he was ready to right his wrongs from the past. Also, he knew that it was important to show house unity now more than ever, which had been the reason he apologized to Hermione on their first evening back in school. She had forgiven him, stating that she had been impressed that Draco had not given Harry away to Voldemort although he had recognized him immediately.
Slowly, but surely, they had started to form a friendship, discovering that when you looked away blood prejudice and the way they had grown up, they actually had a lot in common.
They were both brilliant students, had always been the two best in their year.
They enjoyed books and reading by their fireplace was one of their favorite hobbies. Hermione had even given him a few of her books from muggle authors, which he immensely enjoyed. Since neither Ron and Harry, nor Draco's friends had returned to Hogwarts, both of them had been kind of lost in the beginning of the year and had, unbelievably considering their history, found comfort in each other.
One night, under the influence of fire whiskey, Draco had even told her that he had had a small crush on her growing up, but that he had always thought she was into Ron anyway.
And she had been into Ron. She had even been with him for half a year, but when she went back to Hogwarts, the distance was too much and they had decided they were better of as friends.
The friendship with Draco had helped her through her heartbreak a lot, even though she would never tell him that.
She had also helped him immensely. She stood up for him and gave anyone who called him a death eater or a murderer detention for one full month. Draco had told her he didn’t care what those people said about him, but she had been furious and told him that he had to have a little respect for himself because he was bloody worth it.
That had been the first time Draco had noticed that his feelings for her were more than just friendly feelings. He liked her. He liked her a lot and he knew that sooner or later, he had to tell her. Might as well get it over with during Christmas, when they were both staying at Hogwarts. Even though Hermione had restored her parent’s memories, their relationship was still a little complicated, so she had decided not to return home just now.
Draco took of his robes and shoes and was just about to sit back on one of their fluffy couches when he heard a sob coming from Hermione’s room. Slowly, he paced up the stairs and knocked on her door.
“Hermione? Can I come in?”
He opened the door and found a crying Hermione on her bed, leaning against her headboard and hugging her pillow close to her chest. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong. He slowly stepped closer and saw a piece of paper next to her. It was a letter, he supposed.
“Draco?”
“Hey, what’s wrong? What happened?”, he said, sitting down next to her and touching her shoulder gently. In the next second, she hugged him fiercely and began to cry into his sweater, head laying on his shoulder.
“My dad… he’s in the hospital and… it doesn’t look good, Draco. I’m so scared that he won’t…”
“Hey, everything is going to be fine, okay?”
Slowly, he gently smoothed her hair down and hugged her back. After a few minutes, her crying stopped and he looked at her.
“Look, we need to get to McGonagall, okay? She needs to know that we’ll leave school for a few days.”
“We are what? Draco, don’t be ridiculous, we don’t even have anything packed up and we have duties and…”
“And I’m sure the house elves that adore you so much will gladly send us some clothes. And it is an emergency, the perfects can easily take over our patrols. But I need you to come with me now, okay?”
Draco got up from the bed and took her hand into his own, lacing their fingers together and smiled a reassuring smile. And suddenly, Hermione knew everything was going to be okay. Draco would take care of it and he would be right at her side for the whole way. She could count on him. So she got up from her bed, whipped away her tears and squeezed his hand, getting used to the feeling of her hand in his.
Just a little over an hour later, the two wizards sat in the waiting room of a muggle hospital, waiting to hear news on Hermione’s dad. Draco and Hermione sat on a bench next to her mother who had been very thankful that her daughter had come there. After a bone crushing hug, Hermione had told her that Draco had taken care of everything and that she wouldn’t be there without him. That had earned Draco a hug, too.
Now they were all sitting in the waiting room in silence. Draco had one arm draped over Hermione’s shoulder and she had her head nestled into his neck. Even though the situation was a horrible one, Draco felt more content then he had in years. He was happy that he could be there for Hermione and her mother.
Half an hour later, a nurse walked in and called for the Grangers.
“Mr. Ganger is out of surgery, you can see him if you want to.”
With another glance at Draco, who was still holding Hermione’s hand, she continued: “But only family, for now. Sorry.”
“That’s alright.”, Draco said kindly.
“But Draco...”
“You go see your dad, Hermione. I’ll be right here. Okay?”
“Okay.”, she answered, hugging him quickly before following the nurse and her mother out of the room.
Draco sat back down and began to read some magazine about the muggle royal families. As always when he read, he got sucked into the stories and didn’t notice when a certain bushy haired woman sat down next to him.
“If I had known that you’re so invested into the royal families, I would’ve given you my encyclopedia about them.”, Hermione smiled when he looked up from the magazine.
“Sue me, it’s pretty interesting. How’s your dad?”
“He’ll be fine. Mom asked if you and I want to stay with her for the night, it’s already pretty late and I don’t feel like going back to the castle tonight. That okay with you?”
“Sure, just let me get our stuff from the leaking cauldron? I asked the elves to send it there. I can meet you back at your house?”
Hermione nodded and together, they made their way out of the hospital, unconsciously holding hands.
Before she got into her mom’s car, Hermione turned to Draco.
“Draco, I just wanted to say thank you. For everything.”
“Anytime, Hermione. You helped me heal myself so much this year, it was the least I could do and-“
“You helped me heal, too! Especially after Ron and-“
“I like you, Hermione.”, Draco said, looking directly into her eyes.
Her eyes lit up with pure joy and in the next second, her lips found his, her hands on the lapels of his coat and his arms around her waist. As Draco pulled away slightly, he leaned his forehead against Hermione’s and whispered:
“I’ll see you in a couple minutes, love.”
“I like the sound of that. I like this, us, helping each other heal. And I like you, too, Draco.”
Before his disapparated, he kissed her again, fully content with everyone watching them.
When someone had told eleven-year-old Draco Malfoy that one day, he would be kissing Hermione Granger on the open street, he would’ve hexed them into next week. Luckily, even blood prejudice and arrogance could be healed. And finally, after everything he had been through, he had found just the right person to help him heal all his flaws.
And he intended to keep her right by his side, until their happily ever after.