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"Can I play with your dolls?" Rose asked. |
Lydia shrugged in answer. Rose left the window seat and went over to grab a few dolls from where they were lined up on a shelf in the corner of the room. Rose went back over to the window seat and held out a doll in offering to her. |
"Would you like to play with me?" Rose asked. |
Lydia snapped her book shut with a loud crack. "I just want to read," she shouted at Rose. "I want to be left alone so that I can read. I don’t want to play with dolls. I don’t...." |
"Lydia," Charlie barked. "That’s not a way to treat your sister or a guest in this house." |
Draco went over to Rose, who was looking tearfully at the dolls in her hands. He picked her up, dolls and all, and carried her over to a couch against the wall and sat with her in his lap. |
"Why she don’t want to play with me?" Rose asked tearfully. |
"I don’t know, princess. Maybe she just wants some quiet time," Draco offered. |
Charlie came over and sat at the end of the sofa. "I’m sorry," he said in weariness. Charlie raked a hand through his long hair. "They’re not having an easy time at school, and it’s gotten worse since the trial." |
"What’s going on?" Draco asked. He wanted not to care, but Hermione considered these people family. He had developed a reluctant liking of Charlie Weasley. Draco set Rose down on the floor at his feet to play with the dolls. |
"I never realized how cruel kids could be to each other, especially at their age," Charlie said, gesturing to Lydia and Arthur. "I know the kids are just repeating what their parents are saying about Ron and Lavender." |
Draco knew how brutal children could be to one another. He’d been one of those cruel children. He bullied anyone he viewed as beneath himself, and that was almost everyone. He didn’t really grow out of it until his seventh year. He was still required to act the part. He was too scared not to. |
"We’ve been up to Hogwarts every day this week," Charlie continued. "Neville is at his wits end about what to do with Fred." |
Curious, Draco asked, "What’s going on with Fred?" |
"Fighting, jinxes, the usual," Charlie told him. |
Not that it mattered, but Draco pressed on, "Who starts it?" |
Charlie sighed and rubbed a rough hand over his face. "Sometimes it’s Fred. Sometimes it’s the other kid. I’m starting to think that when it’s Fred, he attacks first before the other kid gets a chance to attack him." |
Draco and Hermione hadn’t received any letters from Scorpius or Minerva saying that Fred was bullying them. Draco made a mental note to ask in his next letter to the children. |
"I see you worrying about if it’s your kids," Charlie commented. |
Draco mentally kicked himself for being so transparent. It was a very un-Slytherin thing to do. |
"Don’t go all poker face on me," Charlie said in a teasing tone. "Given their history, I was sure Fred would be targeting them." |
"Yes," Draco agreed, "I was worried he would be targeting at least Minerva as the "source’ of his grievances." |
Muffled sounds of Hermione and Lavender still arguing could be heard drifting up the stairs. |
"Should we go down and put a stop to this?" Draco wondered. He didn’t like it that Hermione was so getting so worked up. He knew stress couldn’t be good for her or the twins. |
"Nah," Charlie said, "they’ll both either calm down soon or storm off in opposite directions." |
"Gryffindors," Draco said with an eye roll. |
"Witches," Charlie shot back with a grin. |
Stomping now echoed up the stairs, and soon Hermione’s curly head appeared at the top of the stairs. |
"We’re leaving," she announced to the room. |
"Have a nice visit," Charlie said sardonically. |
Hermione shot him a nasty look. "She’s being stubborn," Hermione seethed quietly. Draco supposed that it was so Lavender’s children wouldn’t hear her talking negatively about their mother. "She doesn’t need to be so self-sacrificing, so.." |
"Like a Gryffindor," Charlie interrupted. |
Hermione looked like she was ready to protest Charlie’s assessment, but Charlie held up his hand. |
"You need to go easy on her," Charlie urged. "She’s having a rough time right now with the kids and school. She’s very stressed out. She thinks she’s doing the right thing by quitting, even though she didn’t want to do it." Charlie paused before he told Hermione, "She was excited to be able to do something good for others." |
"That’s why we shouldn’t let her quit," Hermione said. "She wants to do this, and I don’t think we should let negative publicity keep her from it." |
"Just give her some space. Let this die down," Charlie urged again. |
"Let’s go home, Hermione," Draco said. "It’s getting close to dinner time anyway." |
Hermione’s stomach growled loud enough for it to be heard by everyone in their small group. |
"Are you hungry, mummy?" Rose asked. |
Hermione smoothed her hand over Rose’s curls. "Yes, I’m getting rather hungry." |
"Why don’t you go put the dolls away?" Draco suggested. |
They left Lavender’s house with quiet and stilted goodbyes. Awkward because they were the invaders in this home. Welcome, but not exactly. |
"I forgot to ask," Hermione said after Rose was put to bed that night after three stories had been wheedled from them before Rose fell into an exhausted sleep. "What’s going on with Lavender’s children?" |
Draco sagged down on the couch. Hermione sat down on the opposite side and put her feet in his lap. Draco started massaging her feet and calves. He told her what Charlie confessed to him about Fred, Lydia, and Arthur. |
"Oh, that’s so horrible," Hermione said, aghast. "We should write to Scorpius and Minerva and tell them to befriend Fred." |
"No," Draco spoke the word firmly. He did not want the children to feel forced into a friendship with Lavender Brown’s children. Fred had bullied them at the beginning of the year. If Scorpius and Minerva wanted to forgive and forget, that was up to them to decide. |
Hermione looked stubborn with her jaw set as she started to try and pull her feet from his grasp. Draco grasped her ankle to keep her in place. |
"Hear me out," Draco coaxed. "They’re old enough to decide who they want to be friends with without our interference. I know I didn’t much care for my father telling me who I could be friends with at that age." Draco shrugged to himself. Mostly it had been who he could not be friends with. "Would you have wanted your parents telling you that you had to go make friends with someone you might not necessarily want to be around?" Draco asked. |
He could tell that Hermione wanted to deny his assessment of the situation. However, honesty made her agree that she wouldn’t have welcomed her parents’ interference in her friendships. |
"I just feel so bad for them," Hermione said. |
"I know. I do too," Draco agreed. "But it’s not for us to sort out. I’m sure that Scorpius and Minerva aren’t part of the group that’s bullying Fred. Charlie assured me that the children weren’t on either side of Fred’s altercations." |
"That’s good to hear, at least," Hermione said in relief. |
She moaned as Draco dug his thumb into the arch of her foot. Draco loved the sound of that moan as it fell from her lips. He continued massaging her feet. Then he started sliding his hands up to rub her calves, earning himself another moan in appreciation. |
"You tempt me so when you make those noises, lioness," Draco said huskily. |
Hermione gave him a saucy look. "Why don’t we head to bed then so I may tempt you further?" |
Draco opened the paper and was not surprised to see Hermione’s letter gracing the front page of The Daily Prophet. After her explosive argument with Lavender, Hermione had worked on it furiously for a few days. She wouldn’t let him see it before the letter was finished and sent off to the editor, and Draco was positively dying with curiosity. |
Dear Witches and Wizards of Britain, |
I am not going to bother to hide behind anonymity. I am Hermione Granger. I am the Hermione Granger who stood beside Harry Potter when none of you believed Voldemort had returned. I am the Hermione Granger, the warrior witch, who withstood being tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange and would have died rather than betray Harry or our plan to defeat Voldemort. |
I am the Hermione Granger who publicly found out about my former husband’s affair on our children’s boarding school train platform. I learned a lot more about my husband in the days and weeks that followed. Things that I would never have believed of the boy I grew up with and loved for most of my life if not confronted with proof of it. |
I have stayed mostly silent on my relationships; the end of my marriage with Ronald Weasley, the beginning of my relationship with Draco Malfoy, and my inclusion of Lavender Brown in the managing of Granger House. Despite being considered a war heroine and the "Brightest Witch of Her Age," I have always considered my private relationships just that, private, but you have not respected my privacy. You have not respected my right to choose my relationships. You have not considered the children involved in these tumultuous upheavals, their rights to privacy, mental health, and overall well-being. Your rapacious need for gossip and to sell newspapers was your only consideration. |
So I am speaking out about my relationships. I am here to set the story straight. I loved Ronald Weasley for much of my young life, even though he was too oblivious to notice me. We married young, probably much too young, considering we had both just survived a traumatic event. He lost a brother and me, my parents, and so much loss tends to make you cling to those around you, even if they aren’t good for you. Even though we were hardened by war, we were still children. Children who hadn’t been given a chance to find who they were. |
When I found out that Ron was obliviating me, I wondered where we went wrong. What road had we turned down to make this horrible thing possible? It was hard to imagine that the boy I had known since would violate me so horribly. I thought a great deal about Ron’s actions. I’m sure they started innocent enough, an act of self-preservation, which isn’t innocent but oddly understandable. There’s a Muggle saying about power. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." And what better example of absolute power can you have over another person than to have complete control over their memories. So I believe and have to believe that what started as self-preservation corrupted Ronald Weasley to do unspeakable things to me. |
I am grateful that the relationship with Ron ended when it did. That I found out the way I did. If it weren’t for the actions of a tired and frustrated woman and a small child, who knows what would be left of my mind and possibly my body. Many of you wonder how I can forgive Lavender Brown; even my friends and family find it odd. She saved me that day. Lavender Brown saved me from years of abuse at the hands of my former husband. So I forgave the woman that slept with my former husband for years because she publicly outed her relationship with him and let herself be painted as a home-wrecking hussy to the media, because she was tired of hiding, because she wanted better for her children than to be kept as shameful secrets, because she was a woman in an impossible situation. I can forgive her the sin she committed against me for so many reasons. |
Lavender Brown and I received much speculation and ridicule over the last few days with the unveiling of the non-profit organization I started, Granger House. I started Granger House to provide women and children with a safe place to go if they were in abusive situations. I asked Lavender to co-manage the shelter with my former assistant, Methuselah Edvard. I asked Lavender, not because we were in collusion and not out of gratitude, but so that she could have a place of her own to work and do good. Where she could make a life of her own. Where Lavender could be accepted for herself, rather than the image the world forced on her. After the media backlash surrounding the announcement that we were working together, Lavender tried to resign. She didn’t want women to not seek the help they needed because of her. |
I found out recently that Lavender’s children are also bearing the brunt of the media backlash surrounding Lavender and Ron’s affair, as well as Ron’s attack on Draco Malfoy and myself. As someone who has built a career in educating children and ensuring that we do not repeat our past mistakes, I find this difficult to excuse. What does this say about us as adults that we would punish children for the sins of their parents? What does this say about us after all that we have been through, after all that we fought against, that we would bully children? That we would teach or allow our children to bully others for something they have no control over. You punish them for being illegitimate or for their father being in prison. How are either of these things their fault? How is this different from the pureblood prejudicial ideals that we fought against, that people died fighting against? |
I’ve saved the best for last, and I’m sure it’s the bit of gossip that you’re all dying to read about. I LOVE Draco Malfoy. I cannot say it any more plainly than that. I love Draco Malfoy. Looking back now, I know that it was odd that I chose to leave with him that day on the platform and even odder that I chose to stay with him. I knew that it would drive Ron insane that I stayed with him, but that wasn’t the reason. I trusted him. I trusted him with my daughter. I trusted him as he helped me through the pain of Ron’s betrayal. Every day he proved himself worthy of my trust. He protected me when Ron tried to attack me more than once, even going so far as to throw himself in the line of fire. He showed me what a good, healthy relationship was; that’s not to say that we don’t fight because we are both head-strong individuals. Draco is not the boy I knew in school. He’s a man, tested by the circumstances of fate and upbringing. A man that was forced to confront the ideals of his upbringing when presented with the harsh reality of what they truly meant. |
He is judged, often unfairly, for his actions as a teenager. For becoming a Death Eater at the age of sixteen. For trying to kill Albus Dumbledore. I don’t excuse his actions; even he doesn’t excuse them. How many of us can say that we would refuse to join Voldemort when he threatened to kill those we love? How many of us can say that we would not do anything we could to keep that tyrant from hurting our families? I empathize with his actions, and as someone who saw his struggles during our sixth year, I know that it wasn’t an easy task, that his conscience struggled with what was expected of him. |
Draco Malfoy turned into an admirable man, a loving father, a supportive partner, and considering his early life and the examples he was given; I believe this was no small feat for him. This is not to say that his parents are not loving people; I know it is hard to envision the Malfoys as loving individuals. However, I know for a fact that there is nothing Narcissa Malfoy holds higher than her love of family. She did lie to Voldemort’s face to find her son after all. Though she probably won’t thank me for revealing such vulnerabilities about her, I find it admirable how far she was willing to go to protect her son. And having children of my own, I can understand that there isn’t anything a parent wouldn’t do for their child. |
Through a bit of old Malfoy magic, I found out that Draco and I are soulmates. It was quite startling at first. I have to admit that Draco and I had a row about it. I unfairly accused him of putting the bracelet on me while I slept as a means of claiming me as his in some pureblood, Neanderthal mating ritual. He was just as surprised as I was to find the bracelet on my wrist. His mother was not surprised in the least. You can’t seem to get anything past Narcissa Malfoy. |
The surprise has worn off considerably since then. Now it seems fitting, the knowledge that we were always meant to be together. Even with all the conflict around us, I am happier than I have ever been, and that is because I know he is by my side no matter what. The road that led us to each other has been long and winding, and at times full of potholes, but it made us who we are today. It made us ready to love the other. |
Just as we learned when Harry defeated Voldemort, love is the only way. Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior, once said, "We must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that, we will be able to make this old world a new world. Love is the only way." Dr. King knew a few things about fighting discrimination and social prejudice. He spoke out for equal rights for all persons of color. He spoke out that a person not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. |
Dr. King had a dream for equal rights, just as we had a dream for equal rights. I was once judged based on the purity of my blood and not the strength of the magic within me. Like many other Muggleborns, I was once hunted and tortured because I dared to be magical where none others before me possessed magic. |
Dr. King may not have known about the magical powers of love, how it can save a life, how it can defeat those incapable of it. But, Dr. King did understand that love can move mountains. Love can make the impossible possible. Let us not forget the lessons we learned with the spilled blood of those that fell during the last war. So, my brothers and sisters, I beseech you to let love into your lives. Let love for your fellow neighbor overcome hurts and prejudice. Let love for your children guide them to be kinder to those who are different. Let love show you a path to forgiveness and understanding. Let us create a new and better world for our children and grandchildren. |
Hermione Granger |
Draco had to set the paper back down on the table. His coffee and breakfast had long since gone cold as he read Hermione’s letter. Tears blurred his vision as Draco looked unseeing at the wall in front of him. He was moved by her public and heartfelt declaration of love for him. He was in awe of how she made her letter both about her relationships, the scandals revolving around them, and the issues in their society. |
Hermione walked through the door into the dining room. She looked so fresh and beautiful. Her hair was braided into a crown around her head. She had donned an eggplant-colored, three-quartered sleeve, cable-knit sweater, and light gray slacks for the day. Her cuff glittered on one wrist while her three infinity rings glittered on her right ring finger. Simple round diamond studs adorned her ears. How Draco longed to shower her in jewels though he knew Hermione felt no need for such things. |
Draco wiped the moisture from his eyes and walked over to intercept her before she started filling her plate with food. |
"What is it?" Hermione asked right before Draco crashed his mouth down upon hers. |
She tasted of everything Draco had ever hoped to have in his life; love, acceptance, forgiveness, belonging, and family. |
Draco dropped to one knee and held out the ring Scorpius picked out. "Marry me," Draco blurted out. |
Hermione’s hand flew to her mouth. "Oh, Draco." |
Realizing that he’d just blurted out his proposal, Draco apologized, "I’m sorry. You deserve a better proposal. I’ve carried this ring around for a while now, and I’ve been waiting for the right time. I love you. And I want to have babies with you. And raise our children together. And grow old together. And I couldn’t wait another second to do all that with you." |
"Oh, Draco," Hermione said again. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She held out her left hand for him to put the ring on. "I want all of that with you. And I love you too. Of course, I’ll marry you." |
Draco, with trembling hands, slipped the ring onto her finger. Draco rose to his feet and gathered Hermione into his arms. She stretched out her hand and gazed at her engagement ring. |
"Are you disappointed?" Draco asked. |
Hermione pulled back to look at him, her eyebrows wrinkling down. "Of course not. Why would you think that?" |
Draco raked a hand through his hair. "I didn’t exactly make it very romantic for you. Blurting out a proposal before you’ve even had a chance to eat breakfast." |
Hermione turned in his arms and placed a hand on his cheek. "It was perfect." She rose on tiptoe to kiss him. |
"Eww, gross," Rose protested as she came into the dining room for her breakfast. |
Draco and Hermione broke apart. Hermione appeared a little dazed by what just happened between them. She looked questioningly up at him; her left eyebrow arched to punctuate her confusion. |
"I love you, and you have made me the happiest man alive since the day you walked into my life," Draco told her. |
The years of Hermione and Draco's life sped by as years are wont to do. They had good years and bad. The good outweighed the bad and even during the bad, their love for one another helped bolster them through the storm. Their love for one another grew stronger every year. The hope that Draco always harbored to make the world a better place was realized through the hard work of the Wizengamot with the leadership of Hermione. They never had to worry about their children or grandchildren fighting in a war like they had. |
Hermione steadily made her way through the Malfoy library. It was her birthday and one hundred years had passed too quickly for both of them. Her small frame had shrunk a little bit over the years. Her once bushy, chestnut hair had gone gray, then white over the years. Her beautiful, smooth face was still beautiful to Draco even if it was lined with wrinkles around her mouth and eyes. Her eyes. Those beautiful, chocolate eyes still sparkled with intelligence and still shone with love whenever she looked at him or their large family. |
Draco was still the tall, proud man he had always been. He needed a cane now to help him walk around the Manor and trying to climb the stairs had become difficult. His platinum blonde hair had steadily receded until there was only a few whisps of white left. The smile lines around his mouth and eyes from his many years of happiness with Hermione had carved deep wrinkles in his once smooth face. |
She stopped, as she often did, at the book that stood in a case in the middle of the room. Draco stood beside her, looking at the book. He had asked over the years what the book was but Hermione always refused to tell him. It had appeared there on the day of their wedding, thin like a newly started book. As the years went by, the book grew, each successive year adding more and more pages to the book. |
"The last one," she said. |
"I never would have expected you to be able to read all the books in the library." |
"Well, you didn't make it easy. Every time I got close, you would add more books." |
"I had no intention of letting you win the bet." |
"Cunning snake." |
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