Inside Your Mind

the one that got away

The One That Got Away - Brielle Von Hugel

December 25th 1999

It had been a long seven and a half weeks since Hermione last spoke to Draco.

Yes, she had seen him at the Ministry for four days running when she went to his parent's trial.

Yes, she had wanted to hug him when they found out that his parents wouldn't go to Azkaban and Draco would get to rebuild his relationship with them while they were on house arrest.

Yes, she had stood next to him as Narcissa embraced her when the trial was over and thanked her for everything she had done.

Yes, she had almost grasped Draco's hand in support when Lucius turned to her and gave his own show of gratitude with a few words and the offer of a semi-reluctant handshake.

Yes, she had wanted to break their silence at the sound of his footsteps echoing off the walls deep within the Ministry when he walked away from her once more.

But, no, they had not said a word to each other since he had healed her in the bathroom that morning at The Burrow.

It was lucky that Hermione spent a lot of her time around other people that were healing from wounds worse than the ones that Draco had inflicted on her with his silence. She was unsure how well she would be doing at processing her feelings towards him if she hadn't spent so much of the recent weeks at The Burrow as part of the support system they had built.

Parvati, Lavender and Ernie only stayed with the Weasleys for a few days before going home once the Ministry deemed it safe for them to leave what had become the safe house for the escaped prisoners. Mrs Weasley had kindly made it an extended invitation for everyone to stay, who wished to, but Hermione only officially stayed a day longer than Parvati, Lavender, and Ernie in favour of continuing to live in her flat and working at the dentists office while she got back into her life as a witch.

Luna was moved to St Mungo's after a week of being at The Burrow and Theo went with her, practically living in the chair by her hospital bed. Hermione visited a couple of times a week, for Theo's benefit mostly, but when Luna woke up a couple of weeks ago she made more frequent trips. A few tears were shed by both Hermione and Theo that day when Luna woke up as if she had simply had a long sleep,  back to her usual self, no remnants of Unforgivables left in her system.

Harry didn't have much too choice in the matter of staying at The Burrow. Mrs Weasley insisted that he lived with them while he attended the counselling sessions, that had begun two weeks after his rescue, until he felt back to his old self. Harry reluctantly agreed after Pansy said she would stay too, providing that Mrs Weasley would let her (the woman had hugged her close and whispered thank yous, for getting Harry to stay, in her ear so she took that as a firm yes).

The last time Hermione had gone to The Burrow, three days ago, Harry had just come back from a session and had surprised Hermione to tears of happiness when he made a few jokes like his old self. The walls were slowly crumbling away from his mind and the side of Harry, the loveable, carefree, often sarcastic friend that Hermione was so familiar with, slowly crept back into view.

Blaise was adamant that he go home to his parents' Manor but Ginny made him stay with her for a while longer. Blaise accepted, again asking permission of Mrs Weasley before agreeing, and Hermione was sure a small part of it was so that Pansy had a fellow Slytherin and old friend in a house full of Gryffindors.

Ginny and Blaise had been living with Draco in the six months that Hermione had been hidden, which explained where she had been taken to when they restored her memories, so they were used to living together and Ginny hadn't wanted that to end.