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Hermione had told everyone that she wanted to be alone the night before the wedding. The girls had all offered to do a sleepover with intensive skincare and the like, but she had refused. She needed peace and quiet. And see what she could do about the knot in her stomach that wouldn’t relent.
She had soup for dinner, nothing too heavy, in case her dress didn’t fit in the morning (Molly’s words, not hers). She ate a slice of bread as well, just to be petty.
The wedding planning had been a disaster. She had pushed back so much on everything, the date, the food, the dress, the guest list, that one day she gave up and gave in. She didn’t give a fuck about her wedding. She didn’t even want to be married yet! She was 25 and had barely finished her Muggle medicine studies. Ron and everyone else around her had pushed for the marriage. Her role was to lead a tranquil life now and start a family. She had done so much for Wizarding Britain and the world. It was time for her to rest.
Rest?! Hermione Granger?!
For once, she wanted to feel seen and understood. She had put the war behind her, but now there was so much more to do for the well-being of wizardkind and the creatures that live alongside them.
She put the dishes away and changed her clothes to go to bed.
Then, the wards shimmered just slightly. A lesser person wouldn’t have thought too much about it, but this was Hermione Granger, and this was her house. She had put the war behind her, but she still lived with a target on her back. Her land was unplottable. No one without her explicit access would know where it was.
She heard a sound coming from her back door.
Tap. Tap tap. Tap.
No.
Tap. Tap tap. Tap.
It can’t be.
He’s not even in England.
She wrapped her robe around her and walked to the back door. A shadowy figure in a black cape, his head and face covered, stood there. Waiting. She opened up the door with her wand in her hand.
“Hello, Granger.”
That voice. She felt her knees wobble. She thought she’d never see him again.
“Draco?”
“Care to let me in?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“For who?”
“Anyone could see you… your magical signature… I don’t want you to get in trouble, Draco. You have suffered enough. We agreed it was for the best.”
“You agreed it was for the best. I went along with it because you gave me no choice.”
Hermione sighed and turned so he could walk into the house. Once he was inside, he removed the cape, and there he was. His white blonde hair was cut short, military-style. He had grown taller (if that was possible), but now he had defined muscles everywhere. She gaped at him.
“Like what you see, Granger?” He said with a smirk that he knew exactly what she was thinking.
Hermione jumped on him and broke down in tears. Everything came crashing into her. The despair she felt over her life echoed in the sobs she couldn’t hold anymore. Draco caught her and held her tightly, running his hands across her back. His demeanor changed immediately. He was irate.
“My beautiful girl. What have they done to you?”
“I can’t. I can’t do it. I can’t.”
Draco pulled away just slightly so he could see her face, now blotchy and wet. He smiled gently at her and wiped the tears from her face.
“You’re not going to marry Weasley. I have come for you.”
“What do you… What do you mean?”
“I told you I would come for you when I knew for sure I could protect us. Well… guess what?”
“Draco, I’m not following. What are you talking about? You said that to me at the Astronomy Tower in eighth year. That was seven years ago.”
“I follow through with my promises, Granger. Just because we haven’t seen each other since we graduated doesn’t mean I stopped loving you. I wanted to be with you. I just wanted to do it in a way that wouldn’t taint you with my crimes.”
Hermione let that sink in. She was sure her depression was making her hallucinate at this point.
She sighed. “What’s your plan, Draco?”
He smiled at her. “You have to listen until the end before you interrupt.”
Hermione laughed and rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
“We marry now. You leave a note. Take the things you care most about with you. We change the wards to make it truly unplottable. No one will be able to find your house if you don’t want them to. Since your disappearance is going to cause an uproar and the Aurors will descend on this place tomorrow faster than you can say Bertie Bott’s Every Flavored Beans, we will wear these capes when we leave. They suppress magic temporarily; therefore, they will not be able to trace our magical signatures until we are far away from this place. It’s unpleasant but useful. I have a car waiting for us. We will take a jet to France. Once there, we can take a portkey to my family’s estate to regroup. We’ll grab our things and go to the Muggle United States so you can start your medical residency there. I think we’d like the Northeast, but I also have options in California or the Pacific Northwest, less predictable. After you’re done studying everything you want, we’ll figure out the rest.”
“Draco, how long have you been following me?”
“Since the day I was released. They sent me to Hogwarts to avoid prison, and then sent me there because of the stupid fight with Weasley. I know you tried to get me out. I used other means to reduce my sentence and had to do some awful things in the name of the Ministry of Magic. Today was my last day working for them. I have been planning this for a long time, Hermione. We’ll have to stay away from England for a while. If you are willing to do that, everything else is in place waiting for us.”
Hermione’s head was spinning. Draco was here, after seven years, and he wanted her to study, to continue her education. He was willing to move to America as a Muggle so they could be together.
“How will we marry without witnesses?”
“We’ll use the old magic rites,” he said, incredibly sure of himself. “I’ve written them down. You have a stream close by, correct?”
“Yes. It’s right within the boundaries of my wards.”
“Even better. We need to have the four elements around us.”
Hermione sighed. Draco stopped to recalibrate himself around her.
“I am asking you to remove yourself completely from your life, shred seven years of preparation in under two minutes, and you have no questions?”
“Could you kiss me, Draco?”
He smiled, walked over to her, took her face in his hands, and leaned toward her. Their lips sparked when they met, making Hermione gasp.
“I have missed you for so long, Hermione.”
She kissed him harder this time and started to cry. This time, there were tears of relief.
“You came. You actually came,” she said, her brain catching up to what had been happening.
“I did, Darling. I told you I would.” Draco hugged her tightly and kissed her cheeks, her jaw, and her neck before returning to her lips.
“All right. I trust you.”
“Pack your things. We don’t have a lot of time.”
Hermione moved her wand, and two suitcases came to the kitchen floor. She shrunk them and put everything in a bag with a magical extension charm. She took a deep breath. “I… I’ve been so unsure. I didn’t want these things to be tainted by my marriage. I was going to leave them in my vault. Everything else I can buy.”
Draco caressed her cheek. “I will buy you whatever you need. I’ve already got Muggle bank accounts we’ll be able to use. Let’s go.”
“Draco? Our names are so noticeable. Do you think we can be found?”
“I think the Ministry of Magic knows better than to follow me now.”
“Will you tell me?”
“When we’re safe.”
Hermione grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and wrote: “I'm sorry. Don’t try to find me.” Draco handed her the second cape.
“Put it on after the rite is complete.”
“All right.”
Hermione permanently closed the Floo and shut the windows of her home while Draco adjusted the wards. She walked out of the house and saw his intricate wand movements blend into her magic. The wind howled in the night. She grabbed his hand and led him to the stream.
“Take off your shoes, Hermione.”
Draco set a small fire between them. “We need to cut our palms as part of the rite.”
“All right.”
He took out a dagger and cut his right palm. He asked for her left hand. She gave it to him. They held hands. Draco charmed the paper to hover next to Hermione so she could read it. He had already memorized it.
“We call to Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. You who remember, carry, witness, and transform. Hold us. We bleed truthfully and willingly. What is offered cannot be recalled. What is bound cannot be severed.”
Hermione felt the earth and water move around her feet. The fire grew slowly. The wind continued.
“I claim you as mine. Bone to bone. Where I stand, you shall not fall.
I claim you as mine. Current to current. What you carry, I carry also.
I claim you as mine. Flame to flame. Scar to scar. What has forged you has forged me.
I claim you as mine. Breath to breath. Name to name. When I am nothing, I am still yours.”
Earth, water, air, and fire surrounded them in a quickening pace. Hermione wouldn’t dare blink to miss anything. She felt her magic tingling in every part of her body; it wished to expand, to reach towards Draco.
“Soul to soul, we are no longer separate.
Our magic is no longer divided.
This bond will live beyond choice, beyond death, beyond forgetting. It will outlast everything.
It is done and cannot be undone.
Draco, take me. Keep me. I am bound to you. I choose you completely.”
Hermione's certainty in her voice surprised her. Her eyes filled with tears listening to Draco repeat the words with the devotion and intensity that characterized him.
She felt part of her magic leave her body and a current of new magic come into her. It was ferocious and protective. She had never felt anything like this.
The rings of the four elements wrapped around them until they settled around their bloodied palms and then settled in their skins. Both of them gasped at once. Draco grabbed her face and kissed her.
“I love you.”
“I love you.”
Draco took a small bag out of his cloak and took out two rings. “Put the cape on, my love. We cannot risk being seen.”
He grabbed her hand and put the ring on. It adjusted automatically to her size. She grabbed the other and put it on his finger. She kissed his knuckles.
“Let's go.”
He took her hand and went deeper into the woods, disappearing into their new life. Tomorrow, the Ministry of Magic will receive a notification of an ancient rite that joined Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy in matrimony and soul bond. The Granger house disappeared. Her Gringotts vault merged into the Malfoy vaults.
The Ministry of Magic refused to redirect any resources into their disappearance, fulfilling its part of the deal with Draco Malfoy.
And somewhere, on the other side of the Atlantic, Mr. and Mrs. Black landed on the United States’ West Coast to begin their new life.