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I fall in love with Hermione Granger when I am thirteen years old. It starts slowly, a bud of frustration every time she raises her hand in class, quickly blooming into an affection for her ceaseless talking.
She kisses me for the first time when I am fourteen, on the night of the Yule Ball, under an unfurling mistletoe in the gardens.
“Ron,” she explains, breathless. “He accused me of fraternising with the enemy.”
“So you’re going to fraternise with me?” I ask. She gives me a quieting look and a spark of electrified joy rushes through me. “As you wish.”
When she kisses me again, stars explode behind my eyes, and the constellation in the sky seems less bright in comparison.
0-0
Over the next five months, we take refuge in each other, disappearing to the library to study together or the Room of Requirement for a private rendezvous. Secretly and inexplicably, I fall in love with everything about her - her laugh, her smell, her mind. No one else knows of us.
When we part for the summer, I promise to write. I promise not to let my father wear me down.
0-0
The Malfoys have always been unlucky in love. My great-grandfather, Abraxas, married his first wife very young, and she passed away within six months of their union. He met his second wife, my great-grandmother, one grief-stricken year later. My grandfather managed six years with his first wife before she befell a potion-related accident at the Ministry. He met my grandmother one year later.
My parents have outlasted the curse so far, wed for seventeen years, and somewhat happily so. I assume that they have broken the curse, or that the tragedy has simply not happened to my mother yet. I assume that this means I can marry the woman I love without fear that she will die suddenly.
One evening in mid-August, my father calls me into his study.
“Draco,” he says, gesturing to the seat opposite him. “Please sit. I must speak with you.”
I sit down, concerned. “As you wish, Father. What is it?”
My father straightens his back and clears his throat. “I have noticed something about you since you have come home from school. You are marred by love.”
I swallow, thinking of Hermione and the thousands of ramifications a confession could have for her. I stay silent, unable to speak.
“Hide all you like. You know of the family curse?” I nod. “Then it seems you have a decision to make.”
I sit up straighter. “You and Mother are still together,” I say, as though pointing out the obvious. “You broke the curse.”
“Your mother is my second wife.”
My father tells me about her - his first wife. Maria Bird, she was called. She was nature-loving, and a fond friend that blossomed into love. They had eloped, young and desperate. It was completely out of character for my father, but he did it anyway. The ceremony was filled with flora and fireworks, their joined hands decorated with draping wisteria for the fasting. There followed three months of bliss before a case of dragon pox stole Maria away from him.
Alone, frustrated by falling to the curse, my father agreed to an arranged marriage with my mother.
0-0
I spend the rest of the summer consumed by conflict. I stop writing to Hermione. I complete my schoolwork and try to avoid thoughts of our inevitable and bitter reunion. I had thought that she might be my saviour, but it turns out that I am still beholden to the whims of my horrible, cursed family.
When I return to school, she accosts me, demanding to understand why I have turned cold against her.
I inform her that I no longer love her. I inform her that we ought to be parted.
My voice cracks painfully, and I know that she sees right through my lies.
“Your father has told you this, hasn’t he?”
I shake my head and tears brim into my eyes. “You know my family and the choices they will make when the Dark Lord returns to power. You will never be safe with me,” I tell her. That is at least one semblance of truth.
“I want to be with you,” she says. “I’ll be your family. You can call me Mrs Malfoy one day, if you-”
“No!” Chest heaving, I force a sigh, begging air into my lungs. “I don’t want that.”
Her face closes off and I know that we are over. She says, “As you wish,” and disappears into the castle.
0-0
Hermione Granger and I return to enemies. I join the Inquisitorial Squad. I join the Death Eaters. The war starts, and I resign myself to Malfoy Manor, sickened by the guests my father invites and even more sickened at the thought of her being hurt out there somewhere, taken down by a snatcher or a killing curse. When she turns up at my house, I can hardly move, wracked with fear. Blessedly, she manages to escape without my help.
Then, some years later when the war is over, my parents find me a girl, accompanied by a knowing look from my father.
Astoria Greengrass is beautiful. She will do as a sacrifice to the curse.
She gives me a son before her passing. Everyone in my life calls it a tragedy, and my father says nothing about it at all.
Time is cruel. The next time I see Hermione Granger is at King’s Cross, ferrying her children towards the Hogwarts Express. She glances up at me and my heart stops. Maybe this will be my chance to reclaim the love I lost long ago. Then she averts her eyes, staring up at her husband with deep affection in her gaze, and I know that she is lost forever.
My heart shrinks. I say goodbye to my son and head back to my empty home, bereft.