REDEMPTION: A Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger Bro-tp

Chapter 0: Prologue

Word count: 851

THIS CHAPTER IS AWFUL IT GETS BETTER PLEASE READ I SWEAR ITS WORTH IT :(

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Draco Malfoy's life had been turned upside down and inside out.

After the death of You-Know-Who, the Malfoy family had fled, back to the manor, which Lucius had enchanted heavily to avoid discovery. Draco had spent evenings by the staircase, listening to his parents arguing in the main room, about what to do, where to run, when, and how. During the day, he watched his father send owl after owl, trying to get in touch with his contacts at the Ministry to see how bad the situation was. And then, after a couple of weeks of living on edge, the Ministry had stormed the manor, raided everything, dragging away Lucius and Narcissa, leaving Draco behind because he was a child when the crimes were committed. 

Draco had lived on his own for a few weeks on the Malfoy estate, though he didn't like having the large grounds all to himself, eventually leading to his complete mental breakdown. He had realized how the Malfoys were on the wrong side of the war, that he had been on the wrong side of the war, and wronged many people in his lifetime. He had stayed awake for five days and four nights, writing personal letters of apologies to everyone he had mistreated. Some people wrote back, some sent Howlers, but most didn't respond. For Harry, Ron, and Hermione, he wrote about 10 pages worth of apologies for each. Harry had written back a short, cryptic letter, Ron did not respond, and Hermione had showed up at his doorstep a day after he sent her letter. 

She had pushed past an open-mouthed Draco, made him tea, and sat down and had a long talk with him. She explained that she was going to stay with him and help him heal. Draco had agreed, though there wasn't really another option. And Hermione had indeed helped him heal. She even got Dobby to come back. Dobby had also received a letter where Draco gushed to him about how Dobby had raised him, and how much he liked the elf. Hermione, still pushing for S.P.E.W, had convinced Dobby to return to visit, but upon seeing what an emotional wreck Draco was, Dobby burst into tears and decided to return to the Malfoy manor. Between Dobby and Hermione, a small army of house-elves was amassed to clean the Malfoy mansion and manicure the grounds, giving the estate the face lift it was in desperate need of. After, Hermione had still stayed with Draco, helping him learn to laugh and learn to live again, helping him to become human once more.

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Draco suspected that Ron opposed the idea of Hermione being alone with a mentally-unstable Malfoy. He dropped in often, and sent an endless barrage of owls to her. To make matters worse, Ron was not ready to forgive Draco, and certainly not ready to let his wife live with Draco without popping in at least once a week. When Draco had sent his apology to Ron, Ron had not even bothered to respond. It was only when Ron dropped by the manor to check in on Hermione that he had accepted Draco's spoken apology with a chilly "okay." It was hard for Ron, Draco supposed, to accept an apology from someone who bullied his wife, best friend and him for 7 years. And the Malfoy family hadn't always been kind towards the Weasleys. Well, what was left of the Malfoy family was now making effort. And what was left, who was left? Draco. Just Draco. Narcissa and Lucius had gone to Azkaban, with an excessive amount of dementors, sentenced to rot in cells for the rest of their lives. Shortly thereafter, Draco's mental breakdown occurred. 

He still did not know why Hermione had taken it upon herself to care for him, though he suspected it was because she longed to have someone to look after, and she couldn't have children. And it turned out she couldn't, as Draco later found out one evening, when he was eavesdropping. It was awful and he still felt rotten when he thought about it, he really shouldn't have done it, but he had been alone for weeks. 

One night, Ron and Hermione were having a hushed argument in the guest bedroom. Draco, on his way to the kitchen, heard his name and paused. Ron was uneasy about Hermione staying alone with Draco, convinced it was an elaborate prank that Draco had planned, or that Draco was setting her up to sacrifice her to Voldemort. Hermione had pleaded with Ron, begged him to see what she saw in Draco, how he had changed, how he just needed some help. Ron, angry, had remarked that if Hermione liked him so much now, she should shag him, and carry his neon-haired children. This had been followed by a heavy, tense pause. What happened next had sent Draco's head spinning, though some part of him recognized that he could never speak of this, ever, to anyone. Ron, in a broken voice, said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that." And Hermione responded, quietly, so quietly Draco almost didn't hear, "No, I'm sorry, I can't have children." 

A/N:

So this is my first fanfic and I'm a really dense writer who always uses waaay to many details :) tysm for reading and I will hopefully be updating this soon. I'm uploading super late rn so if there are any typos or mistakes, I truly apologize.