Post-war, Hermione has moved on with her life but spends most of her time alone. That is until she finds her previous schoolmate (and personal bully), Malfoy, near death in the shadows of a back alley close to her bookshop. She decides to bring him...
This is a Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy fanfic. It is considered a dark romance and will have trigger warnings that I will do my best to add at the beginning of each chapter. Some of these trigger warnings will include Drug Abuse, Alcohol Abuse, Suicide, Nudity, Bad Language, Sexual Assault, Violence, Death, Physical Abuse, and Verbal Abuse. I will add more if they come up. The timeline for this story is after the books by J.K. Rowling. The characters are in their late 20s and have changed much since the end of the book series.
About: Hermione has moved on with her life, but spends most of her time alone. That is until she finds her previous schoolmate (and personal bully), Malfoy, near death in the shadows of a back alley close to her bookshop. She decides to bring him home and nurse him back to health, which sets off a chain of events that her heart may never recover from.
Chapter One: Once A Bully
It was growing dark outside as Hermione reluctantly snapped her book shut, blinking several times to refocus her blurry vision. She checked her watch and let out an audible sigh - it was late. She lifted her wand and waved it effortlessly in the air, the disheveled books stacked around her swept back into their proper places. Hermione had opened this bookstore with the hope of helping others, like herself, in their search for knowledge. However, she has spent much more time here conducting her own research than she had planned.
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Today had been a slow day, just like every other day before it. Hermione knew that she needed to come up with a new strategy to attract more customers to her shop, but she decided to leave that problem for tomorrow. After all, why worry about tomorrow's problems today?
She felt tired and wanted to head back home to get some rest. She knew that Crookshanks, her half-Kneazle, half-cat hybrid pet, would be getting impatient as she had not fed him "properly" and would be seeking her attention before bed.
Hermione shut her shop door with a soft click and the lock snapped into place with an inconspicuous wave of her wand. Satisfied, she hurried down the road toward her apartment. She lived and operated mostly in the muggle world. After her unexpected fallout with Ron Weasley, she distanced herself from the wizarding world as much as witchly possible.
Even Harry Potter had stopped making time for her, not because he was holding what happened between her and Ron against her, but because he was about to become a father. Hermione understood he was busy, and that family came first. Though she would be lying to herself if she didn't admit that it was lonely without her friends, she had to move on.
Being so lost in her thoughts, Hermione barely noticed when a panicked girl suddenly ran towards her from a side street, nearly colliding with her. The girl looked disheveled with her midnight black hair hanging messy over her bare shoulders, and her dark makeup smudging her pale face. Her teary, wide eyes met Hermione's gaze.
"Please, you have to help me!" she cried.
"Of course, I'll help you. Please calm down," Hermione responded without any hesitation and immediately sprang into action. Helping people in need was just part of her personality. "What happened?" she asked the girl. The timid girl then took Hermione by the wrist and led her down an alleyway beside a popular nightclub.
