This Is War

Chances Not Taken

It had been a month since Granger told him about the murder of Zabini's mother. It had been a month since she'd kissed him on the cheek to reassure him things would be okay, but things had become far too strange since then.

Neither of them were ones to give up or accept defeat, but it seemed for the time being they had forgotten about the main problem they were facing. Hermione had stopped looking through the endless supply of books at the Hogwarts library to investigate viciously to find a way out of the body-swap, and Draco had taken it upon himself to pay close attention to the information selected Gryffindors had instead.

Though Hermione was focusing her time on studying, watching over the Greengrass girls, monitoring Harry and Ron as best she could, and helping Blaise move on with his grieving, she hadn't any idea how she still managed to find some time to sneak off with Malfoy and just coexist.

Knowing he was just buying time, collecting information, watching carefully for anything that could be of use, Draco couldn't help but notice that the delay of finding a solution wasn't filled with strong paranoia as it'd been a month ago. He had learned to calm himself. As he did so, as he listened intently, he didn't know why he always drifted unconsciously to a secluded part of the castle with Granger without much retort.

The first week of unproductively finding anything that could help with the body-swap issue, they had just sat in silence; each doing their share of homework. They studied and pulled off the masks they'd been wearing all day as they posed as each other and just took the time to breathe freely (which Hermione also used to check the homework Malfoy was submitting as hers thoroughly).

The second week of unsuccessfully finding anything, Granger started talking; updating him on Blaise. They talked about each others' friends, letting each other know what was going on in their lives and what they needed to know once they were back to their original bodies. He'd told her how irritating the Weasel was being, how he was so close to feeding the Brown girl to the Giant Squid, how Potter was still as holy as ever; and she'd informed him that Pansy was still as eager to start a romance with him, how Nott was still muttering about attacking the Gryffindors, and how Daphne was the best Slytherin out of the lot.

On the third week of their informal get-togethers, Hermione let slip something about her parents. She'd been sad, he could see it in the way his silver eyes grew hazy, but he'd refrained from asking. It was until a Tuesday rolled around that she said it was her parents' anniversary. The rest of that week they had started talking about little trivial things, things they were comfortable with saying and yet were personal. She learned his favorite foods, books, colors; and he'd learned that she pretty much enjoyed everything.

On a Wednesday of the fourth week of their encounters, Draco had been the one who initiated the next move of their understanding. He had arrived late to wherever it was that they were meeting that day because of a mishap in a Herbology project that Finnegan had managed to blow up. He'd been silent, frowning and muttering curses under his breath, until he finally sighed with great frustration and spoke about the matter. He told her how his anger had begun when he went to the girls lavatory—Moaning Myrtle's, of course—and started to wash her arms from the dirt when the annoying ghost pointed out the disgusting scar on her left arm. Draco hadn't told Granger how he'd been refusing to look at it, always making sure he dressed her with long-sleeves so he didn't have to remember how those scars came to be, but he was sure she knew that subconsciously.

It had been with a hesitant and unwilling whisper that he told her, "I see things now that I hadn't before." He refused to look at her, not finding comfort that it was technically his face because she was still the one controlling it. "And I saw things I wish I hadn't. It just....it changes everything."