From Wiltshire, With Love

Chapter 44

"I've changed my mind. Muggles are inferior to Wizards."

Hermione rolled over in the bed to face Draco in alarm.

"What are you–"

"Ewoks."

She sputtered as the righteous anger died on her lips, and burst out laughing.

"Muggles came up with Ewoks and Ewoks are ridiculous," Draco continued with a smile. "The first two Star Wars movies were brilliant. Why did they go and bollocks up the third with a bunch of sodding teddy bears? As if a primitive pre-historic tribe that hasn't even reached the iron age could defeat a battalion of Imperial Storm Troopers?"

He snorted in disgust.

"You know," she said with a raised eyebrow. "There's a group called the Society for the Extermination of the Ewoks. SEE. They have a president, a vice president, a treasurer and everything. It's fairly official."

He chuckled. "I'd like to get a membership. The world is better off without them. We should sic the Dark Lord on them and put his genocidal tendencies to good use."

"After you purchase a membership to SPEW."

Draco laughed.

Hermione was quiet.

He laughed even harder and then stopped.

"Oh. You're serious."

~

"Stop thinking." Draco mumbled into the back of her head. "I can't sleep."

Hermione turned around to face him. "How does me thinking disturb your sleep?"

He propped his head up in his hand and pulled her hair out of his mouth, blowing the remaining strands away from his lips. "The 'how' doesn't matter. The fact remains that it does." His voice was raspy from sleep – or the lack thereof – and he leaned down to kiss her nose. "What's bothering you?"

"I was thinking about that day at the National Gallery. And then I wondered how you figured out that I Obliviated my parents. Which started me thinking about my parents, and I wondered what they're doing. Where they are. If they're happy."

He jerked his head back. "You don't know where they are?"

Hermione shook her head.

"But then," Draco's voice was still husky and he coughed. "How will you find them when this is over?"

She brushed a curl away from her face. "I know their new names. It'll take some time but I'll find them. I'm more worried that I won't be able to reverse the charm." She bit her lip and felt her throat constrict. "I worry it was too drastic. Maybe I didn't need to go to such extremes." She started tearing up. "I just..." she sniffed, and Draco gently wiped a tear from her cheek with his thumb. "I just didn't know how to get them to leave quickly enough or how to even convince them. They don't know anything about this war. They never would have left me, and time was running out. I didn't know what else to do."

Draco left his hand atop her cheek and rubbed the area of her skin which had been wet from her tear.

"You did the right thing," His grey eyes focused intently on her, willing her to believe him. His hand was warm on her skin, comforting, but she felt his fingers flex. "It wasn't too much. This house was one of the first raid targets from that summer. You were right to get them out quickly, and you were right to help all the Muggle-borns go into hiding. Those that we caught, that didn't leave..." He shifted his gaze to the side, unable to meet her eyes. "were killed."

Draco had probably killed some of them.

"How did you know?" she asked, reaching up to clasp his fingers on the side of her face. Hermione loved how long they were, able to completely wrap around her hand. His fingers were thicker than hers, and more powerful, but elegant. "You figured out a while ago that I Obliviated them."