After a War ((Old Copy))

Chapter 13 Book 4

Back In Those Days

Draco lay in bed, he couldn't sleep again, even when Hermione was there. Something was either wrong, or he was paranoid. He was almost sure that Hermione was asleep, that was until she rolled over and looked right at him.

"Draco?" Hermione asked. Draco put his hands behind his head, allowing her to move a little closer.

"Hmm?"

"Why did you want to go back in time?" She asked quietly. Draco sat up, not the question he was expecting. He didn't answer for a while, trying to come up with the words for it. He didn't want to say he was scared, she could take it the wrong way.

"I was scared." He blurted out, she sat up next to him and put her head on his bare shoulder. He didn't understand how she could possibly be so warm.

"Of what?" She asked. He stood up, he had to stay quiet, Teddy and Justin were only in the next room.

"I was scared of getting married." He said quietly as he put a shirt on. He always wore pajama pants to bed, but not usually a shirt. He left the room, leaving her sitting on the bed. He didn't want to explain everything and possibly make it worse.

The floor was cold as usual under his bare feet. He was going to go to Solomon's room and try and get some sleep, but there was no way he'd fall asleep now. So he found the large double doors that led outside to the back yard.

It was exactly the same as it was in his dream. It almost made him want to change it. Because in that dream he wasn't only married to Hermione, he also had three kids, not including Justin or Teddy. They weren't real.

Someone sat next to him.

"Cant sleep?" Maya asked, looking over the backyard, her eyes landing on the forest at the back of the yard.

"Something like that." Draco responded.

"Oh, wedding jitters?" Maya questioned, Draco looked at her, she smiled weakly and held up her left hand to reveal a ring. "Me too."

"And what's the best way to tell your fiancée that you're terrified of getting married." Draco asked sarcastically, he knew she didn't have the answer.

"No idea, my parents never got married, of course, they were in Animagus shape for the first eleven years of my life until they learned I was human." Maya said, she looked at her hands in her lap, more directly at her left hand.

"What do you do to get this kind of stuff out of your head for a few hours?" Draco asked, he was done trying his methods, they never cleared his mind, and Maya could be a very calm person at times that were rough. Somehow she had to clear her head.

"Leave a note so nobody is afraid you've gone missing, and then, go for a run. Works every time. Especially at night for me. Sometimes I could go away for days, just me and the forest. It's even more fun when it's a forest iv never explored before." Maya said, looking directly at the forest, Draco called it the Tyrexinal Forest when he was a kid. He didn't even remember why.

Draco nodded, they both got up, Maya told him exactly what to say in the sticky note and they parted to put the notes on their fiancée's doors. They met at the back door.

"What took you so long?" Draco asked grumpily, he had been there for at least ten minutes waiting for her.

"George was awake, had to say I was going out on a run to babysit you." She smirked and walked outside before he could respond. She jumped down the stairs, her hands turning to paws before she hit the ground. Black and White wolf, Draco just noticed how much she looked like a panda. Cute.

"I don't need to be babysat." He grumbled to himself before shutting the door behind himself and jumping from the top stair, turning into a lynx before he landed. He ran to catch up with her. She had longer legs, it wasn't exactly fair, but, thanks to alternate universe Makayla, he learned a few things, what paths would carry him better, what ground was too soft to run on, etc. So he passed her before they ever reached the woods.  

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Draco stopped for a break when he reached an opening, he'd been here before, when he was younger. His mother would be away with another one of her meetups with the pureblood mothers, and his father would be off, probably with Bellatrix now that he thought about. Bella was the same age he was, which means his father, never cared about his wife. Draco looked at the stars. He had never been out here at night of course, only during the day.

Maya sat next to him, turning back into a human, her hands behind her back to prop herself up, she looked at the stars. Draco remained a lynx, he felt more peaceful that way.

"You know, Hermione has been off lately. I think she needs something to work at, she was always doing school at Hogwarts, and now all she does is explore the house. Of course she's happy, but, I feel like there's something missing for her." Draco said after a while, he finally turned to human form. Maya sighed and nodded.

"Iv noticed to. Iv seen her with Teddy and Justin. She works with them all the time, to make sure they know their cared for and she teaches them all the time. But she still looks like something's off, something's missing." Maya agreed. Draco looked at the forest around them, there was so much they could do in there.

"Potter." Draco said, then he looked down. "Or Weasley. She probably misses them. She used to be around them every day, and she hasn't told me of any plans of meeting with them. Maybe that's why she wanted me to invite them to live with us. She misses living with them. I took her away from her normal life with the trio. She'd still be with Weasley if it wasn't for me." Draco frowned, he didn't like the thought, but it was true. He'd taken her away from everything. He put the idea in her head that she could possibly be a Slytherin, and from there, he kept pulling her further and further away from her true friends.

"That's not how she thinks Draco, she loves you, and she loves her old friends. Besides, if she'd never gone out with you, she never would have met me and. . . . ." Maya cut herself off before saying Bella, then continued. "And I never would have met George. So it's not a bad thing. Life would be so boring if you and her hadn't gotten together. So stop complaining. Yes, something's missing, but that's not it." Maya snapped.

"She used to work at Hogwarts all the time. . . ." Draco mumbled, mostly to himself, but he said it out loud so Maya had a chance to see what he was leading onto.

"What?" Maya asked, ugh.

"I should suggest she go and get a job! Justin will be fine without her, he's really clingy to me anyway, Teddy is ok with you, Solomon and me, and of course there aren't any other kids running around the house to distract her. If she got a job, then she could work at something like she did at school. I bet she'd love it. Put her beautiful brain to good use. That's what she originally wanted to do right? Was to grow up and get a good job?" Draco rambled.

"You're forgetting something though." Maya said, Draco blinked a few times.

"And what's that?"

"The whole Voldemort thing? Oh, and the fact that the ministry sucks, they cant even tell when they have spies working for them. Where would she work?" Maya asked. She was right. With the Voldemort situation, it wasn't safe for her to go and work alone, not when someone could easily assassinate her at any time. Well, she obviously wouldn't go down without a fight, but she could still be hurt.

"Oh, yeah. Well, failed Idea then." Draco said. The stars were fading, the sun was coming up. Hermione woke up before the sun was even up. And she most likely didn't sleep at all. "Lets go back then." Draco said. Maya nodded and turned into a Wolf, leading the way back.