Unexpected Union

Chapter 11

Letting out a big sigh, she stopped and spun around to face Ginny. "I'm sorry about my dumb twat of a brother. I don't know what the hell is wrong with him," the pretty redhead apologized.

"If it makes you feel any better, Ginny levitated the entire container of syrup over him, and then poured it on his head after you walked out," Harry chuckled. He was clearly proud of his little witch.

Hermione burst out laughing at the image. "Oh Merlin, Ginny!"

"He said he wanted syrup. I was trying to give him what he wanted," Ginny said with a mischievous smirk.

"It was bloody brilliant," Harry laughed.

The friends then walked down the hallway and split up to each head to their respective classes. The rest of the day was uneventful. She didn't see Ron or Lavender at supper. Her eyes drifted over to Draco's and noticed that he was also looking at her. She smiled warmly at him before turning back to her meal.

Later that evening while they sat quietly studying in the common room, Hermione broke the silence by asking, "Is everything okay? I saw you and Pansy fighting in the Great Hall this morning."

"It's fine. It was nothing."

"It didn't look like nothing. If you want to talk, you know you can talk to me," Hermione offered.

Draco looked up at her from his book. "Thank you, but seriously. I'm fine. Pansy and I were never anything serious. It always had an expiration date."

"Okay..." Hermione said.

"I heard that She-Weasel dumped an entire flask of syrup on her brother's head." Draco said with a smirk.

Hermione's laugh bubbled up out of her. Draco thought he'd never heard anything as magical as the sound of her laughter. She couldn't stop. The laughs and giggles just kept erupting from her at the vision of Ron all dripping with syrup. Draco suddenly found himself joining her, his own laughter bursting out of him as if her laughter was contagious. They sat there laughing for long moments, eventually it died down and they were left trying to catch their breaths.

"Seriously Granger, that guy is a twat. I never understood what you saw in him." Draco said after a fashion.

Hermione didn't respond. She wasn't sure what she could say. She certainly didn't want to come to Ron's defense, but she also felt odd badmouthing him too. After a moment of silence, she broke it by asking, "Are you going home for Christmas?"

"No."

"Why not?" She asked.

"It's not the same. Father is in Azkaban. Mother is in France. The manor feels wrong now. It doesn't feel like home anymore," Draco answered.

Hermione nodded sadly.

"What about you? Are you going home?" Draco asked.

"I don't really...I don't really have a home," she answered.

Draco stared at her with a stunned expression. He wasn't sure what to say to that. He remembered seeing her with her muggle parents on platform 9 3/4. "What do you mean? Where are your parents?"

"I...They're in Austrailia."

"Okay...so why can't you go there?" He asked.

Hermione was silent for so long that Draco thought she wasn't going to answer his question. She sat there looking down at her hands as she picked at the skin around her nails. This was a habit of hers that he'd noticed she did when she was upset. He saw that they were now red and bleeding.

He put his hand over hers to stop her from causing herself more damage. "Hermione, why can't you go to Austrailia?"

"Because they don't know who I am."

His eyes went wide as her words slammed into him. "What?! Why? What do you mean?"

"During the war, they were killing muggle parents. I had to Obliviate them to save their lives. I erased myself from their lives." She said with emotion clogging up her throat. She was fighting the tears, "The Ministry said that it's irreversible."

"Hermione," Draco stared at the pretty young witch in front of him with a mixture of horror and awe. He was blown away by the selfless act, and also the emotional toll that something like that must have had on her. His hand gripped hers in an effort to comfort her. "I....I had no idea." Then a thought hit him like a sledgehammer, "Where did you go after the war?"

"The Weasley's took me in, Harry too."

"You lived with Weasley?" Draco asked, suddenly feeling uncomfortable, but also needing to know.

"Yes."

"So, now that you're broken up, you're homeless?" Draco asked uncomfortably.

"Not really. I could go back there if I want. I won't really have much of a choice come summer. Ginny assured me that my relationship status with Ron is irrelevant, but it will probably be uncomfortable. It's not why I'm staying here for the holidays though. Their parents are going to see their brother Charlie and his family in Romania. So, we're all staying here."

Something about the idea of Hermione Granger, Gryffindor's princess, having no real home bothered Draco. He always thought of her as always being surrounded by loving family and friends, and now he was seeing that maybe wasn't completely the case. Her life after the war was not the sunshine and roses that he had thought it was. In fact, it was so much worse than his. He still had his mother in France. He could go see her whenever he wanted, and would be welcomed with open arms. Her parents didn't even know who she was. Something in his chest cracked at that thought.

"Do you want some cocoa?" Draco asked.

"Yes please," Hermione responded with a sad smile.

Draco got up and made his way to their little kitchen area. He quickly whipped up two mugs of steaming hot chocolate with extra marshmallows and then carried them back to where she had moved over near the hearth. "Here you go," he said as he placed the hot mug down in front of her on the coffee table.

"Thank you," she said.

Draco didn't say anything, he just sat next to her on the couch and sipped on his hot chocolate. They sat in comfortable silence, watching the flames in the hearth flicker as they drank their cocoa. After a while of being lost in his thoughts, he looked over at Granger and found her curled up asleep on the couch. He watched her for a moment. She looked like an angel with her brown curls spread out over the arm of the couch, and her pretty face so relaxed and peaceful.

It was then, as he gazed at her sleeping peacefully bathed in firelight, that he realized how much he'd grown to care about her. He realized then how much he wanted her. Would she want him though? He knew he didn't deserve her. She was pure and good, and he was a former Death Eater. He also was extremely selfish. He may not deserve her, but he was not going to let that stop him from having her if she was willing.

He decided not to disturb her. He leaned over her sleeping form before gently brushing a stray curl away from her face. He then grabbed the afghan off the back of the couch and covered her before he went upstairs to go to bed.