Chapter Text
Hermione was sitting in her parent’s house, having returned their memories to them during the summer after the war. She had decided to live with them, rebuilding their broken relationship. They hated that she had turned on them with her magic, even if it did save their lives.
She hated that she’d had to go to war and couldn’t stay and protect her parents in a different way. Hermione had tried to explain that she hadn’t been able to figure out another foolproof way to protect them. After having both Harry and Ron explain the war, her parents finally forgave her. But they no longer trusted her. They tried to hide their distrust towards her, but she could feel it in the way they spoke to her. In their eyes, she was a dangerous child who needed to be kept on a short leash.
Hermione felt she needed to heal the relationship, and the only way to heal it would be time.
It was now July fifth of the year following Voldemort’s demise. Hermione had spent time training to be a Curse-Breaker. The job was perfect for her puzzle-oriented mind, and she had recently been offered a position working with the Aurors as they needed her.
The doorbell rang after dinner while Hermione read a book on curses, and her parents watched the news on the telly.
“I’ll get it,” Daniel Granger said as he walked to answer the door.
Hermione heard a gasp of shock and a call from her father. “Hermione, I think this is for you.”
“Okay Dad, be right there.” She put marked her place in her book and walked to the door where she found a large white bear.
“Granger, can I come in?” A sexy, gravelly voice spoke from the bear’s mouth.
Hermione drew her wand and asked, “Who the hell are you? And how did you know where I live?”
“I’m Draco Malfoy, surely you don’t see very many white bears around. Didn’t you hear about the curse? Potter told me you could help. He said besides Bill Weasley, you were the best Curse-Breaker. It comes naturally to you. Now, can I please come in? I can only keep a Notice-Me-Not charm on for a few moments, and I would hate to have someone notice a huge white bear entering your abode.” The bear spoke confidently like the Malfoy she knew, so she nodded her head and moved out of the way for him to enter.
He walked into the living room, and Hermione’s mother gasped in shock. “Hermione, what’s going on?” She asked distrustfully.
“Mum, Dad, this is Draco Malfoy. He’s a boy I went to school with at Hogwarts. Apparently, he has been cursed and Harry sent him to me. Hopefully, I can fix this quickly,” Hermione explained quietly as she turned to Draco and introduced her parents, “Draco, this is Daniel and Cassandra Granger, my parents. Let’s go to my room so I can run some diagnostics.”
“It’s nice to meet you, sir, ma’am.” Draco nodded his furry head in greeting and lumbered after Hermione up the stairs. Hermione heard him growl and grumble about having to climb stairs but didn’t acknowledge his complaining. If Harry sent Malfoy to her, then she would help.
When they arrived at her room, she waved her wand and sent a Patronus to Harry.
“Harry, did you send Draco Malfoy to my house without warning? What were you thinking?” Her otter scurried away after sniffing Draco curiously.
Draco chuckled—or at least Hermione thought he chuckled—at the adorable otter. “Can you teach me that?”
“Let’s just get your curse broken first, ok? Then we can plan some lessons.” Hermione went to her desk and pulled out a spiral notebook and ballpoint pen. She waved her wand at Draco and wrote notes on what the runes from her diagnostics revealed.
…..
Hermione wasn’t aware, because, well, Draco was a huge white bear, but he was smiling a shy smile at her promise for lessons. It was his dream to spend more time with her. That was why he had chosen her over Bill Weasley—no matter the difference in experience. He hated how he treated her in school and wanted to make amends. Draco hadn’t wanted to cause her pain, but he had to keep her safe. The Dark Lord or Bellatrix would have killed her otherwise.
He listened as Hermione muttered to herself as she wrote down the runes and their meanings. He watched her and was in awe of her beauty. After half an hour of her taking notes, Draco looked around Hermione’s room. It looked just as he thought it would: books overflowing from two large bookshelves, a desk with notebooks and parchment covering it, and a patchwork quilt on a full bed. But what captured his attention, besides the woman grumbling as she took notes, was a painting across the wall above her bed.
He studied it carefully but couldn’t place the scene. It felt peaceful, completely familiar yet foreign.
A blue river flowed through tall trees with a waterfall in the distance. The trees were in brilliant shades of green, and the rocks in the river looked real. It was a gloriously beautiful scene. It felt like a dream.
Hermione’s voice broke through his thoughts on the painting. “Well, the good news is that I may be able to break this curse,” she finally told him, standing up and walking around. “The curse was definitely the work of Bellatrix.”
He interrupted her, saying, “How can you tell?”
“All of her curses have a signature. I can almost hear her cackling madly through it.”
“Oh, okay.”
Hermione continued, “This curse is terribly complex. It will take at least a week for me to break through the layers on the curse—to break it permanently. Plus we’ll need to travel a bit for some rare potion ingredients and brew a very persnickety potion. Right now though, I can make it to where you can be human during the night.”
Her words gave him hope. He hadn’t been sure that she could help him, but as she spoke his attention was drawn to the painting on Hermione’s wall again.
Then she spoke again, “Yes, I painted that. It came to me in a dream. I dreamt that I was East of the Sun but West of the Moon, and this is where I landed. I couldn’t describe it, so I had to paint it. That was last month, around your birthday.” She looked confused for a moment, before continuing, “There was a bear, a white bear in my dream. He was looking for something, something so important he would die without it. But he was so sad and broken.”
Draco’s breath caught, “What was he looking for?”
Hermione’s eyes misted over. She closed her eyes as if remembering the dream all over again. When she opened her eyes again, she looked at Draco in the face, searching his grey eyes for an answer to her unasked question. Hermione must have seen an answer because she nodded before whispering, “Me.”