Month 15 – Australia
Month 15 – Australia
It’d been a week since Hermione had left to go with her father to Australia. Draco had grown accustomed to seeing her at least once a week. He felt lost without her.
The previous months they met at the pub as they normally had on the third Tuesday, but they’d also branched out to hangout each weekend (often over the whole weekend) to do things together. Draco’s house was the usual meeting place since it was the biggest. The guys ended up meeting to do guy things and the girls had several girl’s nights.
Draco had grown to love their game nights the most. Even if he wasn’t teamed up with Hermione, he loved the competitive atmosphere, and it tended to show different sides of people. They played all sorts of games. Some more often than others. Pictionary was grueling since he was one of the worst artists. Card games were fun, especially poker, and he was fascinated that Ron was so strategic when playing chess.
The game that caused the biggest rivalry was when they started frequenting a local muggle pub that had Trivia night every Thursday. While most of the group joined, there was also the steady 4 of Cho, Blaise, Hermione and Draco. When it was pairs, Blaise and Hermione swept the floor with everyone else at the pub. Cho and Draco followed second. Yet when they were a group, their team was always unstoppable. Hermione’s swottiness was a blessing. Blaise’s love of muggle history also came in handy. While Cho had always been very studious at Hogwarts, Blaise’s influence for her to learn more about muggle culture and history helped her gain more knowledge than Harry. She had some muggle family on her mother’s side, so she was aware of some major points in muggle history, but learning more helped their cause to always win.
Draco looked forward to each time they would meet up. The close quarters in the muggle pub had them standing most of the time. He always found the excuse to stand behind Hermione as she pointed out or filled out the questions. Often reaching over her, pressing into her back. It helped them both grow more comfortable with physical contact with each other. He loved the feel of her and longed to touch her even more.
After the night he shared her bed when her father had come back into her life, he longed to touch her even more. Not having her at trivia night felt hollow. Draco was quieter than normal. He watched Tori, Ron and Harry step up to help. Even though they weren’t able to fill Hermione’s shoes, Cho and Blaise were able to help them win.
Looking around, Draco realized that Luna was missing. She usually was at Trivia night, mostly to people watch the muggles in the pub, but she was surprisingly absent this time around. Nudging Harry, he asked him where she was.
“Oh yeah, yesterday Luna called me. Hermione asked Luna if she could go to Australia to help her. Her father is struggling. Seems everything has finally caught up with him and he’s in a deep depression. He’s a bit anxious that he’s gonna lose Mione again. Luna was able to help him when he was here, so she asked Luna if she could go to help. Also, apparently, Mione’s cat has been with her parents this whole time. They also have another cat of their own, so Luna agreed to help with them as well. Luna’s taking some time off to go help. They forgot to tell anyone, so Luna called me to let me know and I was supposed to inform everyone else.” Harry blurted out.
Draco groaned inwardly. He would have jumped at the chance to go help as well. While jealous of Luna, he regretfully admitted that she was the logical choice to be the one who Hermione would call upon to help. Her skills were the reason why she was needed there.
“That is logical. How’s Hermione doing?” Draco asked.
Harry studied Draco’s face before responding. “You know. Hermione’s the strongest when she needs to be. She won’t let anything get to her until she’s alone, or with people she feels comfortable breaking down in front of. She won’t seek comfort unless she is ready for it. She’ll put on a good face for her dad. She will act like nothing is wrong, and get the job done. After she obliviated her parents, she didn’t tell us until after the war. About a week after the final battle, she broke down cause she finally could. She’s good at compartmentalizing. She’ll probably need us when she gets back. My best guess is that she’s reeling inside, but stoic on the outside. We should make a plan to be with her for a while after they get back. Her dad will also need help. Would you help me organize a schedule for us?”
Draco tried not to eagerly nod. Frankly he wanted to fill every time slot with his own name. But he knew he couldn’t be selfish. She had fully admitted that they were all her family and needed to share the load.
“Of course, Potter. It would be my pleasure.”
The next day, the group chat received news from Luna. She was going to send updates as often as possible on their status and plan.
Due to the cost of bringing Hermione’s mother’s body back, they opted to cremate her remains. They were also cleaning out her parent’s home and getting it ready to sell. Their plan was to be back within two weeks. They had put the house on the market a couple of days prior and they already had 3 offers, so that wasn’t going to hold them up.
To distract the mourning Grangers, Luna had asked for a tour of the local town. They had taken a day to explore and the pictures she sent were lovely. Draco saved a candid one of Hermione. She had been standing alone, looking out at the ocean, hair blown back with the breeze. She looked haunted, yet her beauty made his heart ache, wishing he could reach out and hold her.
Draco was in a terrible mood. He tried to distract himself from worrying about Hermione and her father by spending time doing the same tasks he’d done before she became such an important part of his life, yet his mind always returned to her.
He’d immediately arranged with everyone on who could help after the Grangers returned. Most of the day was filled with the Slytherins, and the evenings were the DA group. Neville and Tori were the only ones who couldn’t commit until the weekends, being in school. Draco opted to be the person who would be there overnights, if the need arose. He tried not to monopolize the entire Granger schedule with himself. He knew being selfish wasn’t going to benefit them. Hermione and her dad needed all her friends. He still ached to be there 24/7. He would sacrifice sleep to make sure they were cared for in any way they might need. He felt like he was channeling Hermione pretty well with his organizational skills. While he didn’t talk out loud to himself, he did go over every minutia of it in his head. He even cushioned it with contingencies. For example, if Hermione needed companionship once she got home from work, he had a plan for someone to come keep her company. While he couldn’t plan for everything, he was ready for the challenge once the Grangers got home.
Luna contacted Draco directly 2 days after she arrived in Australia asking for his help to get Hermione’s apartment ready for her to bring the cats home directly. She was going to portkey them in and needed his help to maintain them while she went back to Australia to get the Grangers ready to fly back.
Luna explained that Phillip had developed a phobia of magic in recent days and refused to travel by magical means or the use of magic in his presence. He’d been overwhelmed with delving into the magical world again. Taking a portkey back to Australia and then watching his daughter and Luna pack up all his belongings via magic was the straw that broke the camel’s back. He had a panic attack on the first day, so Hermione and Luna had to do magic outside of his eyeshot. It became very difficult cause he kept sneaking up on them, worried that they were going to take his memories again. His anxiety was palpable. Hermione decided to stay up at night to do the magic required, while Luna stayed with her father and made sure he slept. Hermione’s lack of sleep kept her on edge too and she was snapping at her father, making the situation even more tenuous. There was a wedge forming between father and daughter that Luna didn’t know how to mend. Yet Phillip didn’t want to be away from Hermione for too long. It was a double edge sword and Hermione was becoming exhausted.
While Harry had arranged for a portkey back for all of them, he had to get two more for Luna to portkey back after dropping off the animals, and then return again if she didn’t want to fly back with the Grangers.
So as Draco waited in Hermione’s apartment for the arrival of two cats. He kept himself busy by cleaning up. Being alone in Hermione’s home was surreal, and somewhat uncomfortable. He was always used to her presence while he was in her home. It was lonely and dark. He realized that she brought the brightness to her home.
When they had hurriedly left for Australia, they had left the apartment in shambles. Several of the transfigured pieces of furniture were still set larger, beds were unmade, and dishes weren’t put away or cleaned. Draco was a minimalist and liked his own home to be tidy and everything put in its place. He noticed that Hermione didn’t hold the same proclivities, she still kept a system of organization that he could easily mimic. Her study was the untidiest (in his opinion). He took the opportunity to enjoy how she lived her life. He opened books and found the notes she left in the margins, getting to know how her mind worked as he read the titles. Her love of romance novels shocked him while it also intrigued him. He couldn’t help to notice the most worn of the books, which he deduced were her favorites.
While he was still getting comfortable using magic again, he called on Theo and Ginny for help to reverse the larger transfigured objects. He wasn’t as sure of all of Hermione’s belongings, and Ginny was her best friend outside of Luna and knew Hermione’s home better than most.
When Theo and Ginny arrived, Draco yelled from Hermione’s bedroom, letting them know where he was.
As Theo entered the bedroom, Draco heard a laugh. His back was to the door and he was in the middle of making Hermione’s bed. He’d stripped it of all the linens and was putting on a new clean set. He was going to do laundry and work up the guest room next.
Turning around with a pillow under his chin, Draco looked at Theo with wide eyes, questioning his laughter, while he started to put the pillowcase on.
Theo’s grin was obnoxious. “Look at you, little miss homemaker. I half expected to see you wearing an apron.”
Draco’s forehead furrowed, placing the pillow on her bed. Turning back around, he leaned toward the pile of dirty bedding to gather it up to clean. “I’m just doing my duty as a friend and helping get Hermione’s home back in shape. I don’t want her to have to come home to a dirty house. It’ll just stress her out even more.”
Ginny walked out of the study as they were walking by on their way to the living room. “Yeah, Luna said Mione’s super stressed. She’s about ready to burst and a broken Hermione is not someone anyone wants to deal with.”
Ginny wasn’t really saying the last part to anyone in particular, but both men turned toward her with questioning looks on their faces..
With a shrug of her shoulders she looked at them like it was common knowledge. “You know, when Hermione gets stressed, she can be unbearable. During our NEWT year, she created all these schedules. Not just for her, but all of us and she was so annoyed when we wouldn’t keep them. I hid from her a lot those last few weeks. I can’t tell you how crazy she can get.”
Neither Draco nor Theo had gone back to Hogwarts for their final year so they had no clue. Theo laughed, trying to picture it and Draco gave him a dirty look.
“Babe, don’t you dare try to get her to her a broken stressed point just so you can see her freak out.” Ginny grabbed Theo’s bicep, squeezing hard, trying to make her point. “Hemione’s wrath is not something you need to experience.”
Theo had a playful grin as he said quietly, “Hulk Hermione.” And Ginny kept squeezing his arm. Draco tried to distract him by getting down to the business of returning all the furniture to their previous states. Luckily Theo’s thoughts were set on the right track, although Draco knew it wasn’t the end of Theo’s plans of getting hulk Hermione to come out….
As they finished up, Draco grabbed all of the dirty laundry to start the wash. He thought Theo and Ginny had left when he walked into the living room to find them cuddled on the couch, waiting for him.
“You like her, don’t you?” Ginny asked out of the blue.
“Granger?” Draco raised his eyebrows at her as Ginny nodded. “Well, yeah. She’s one of my good friends. I don’t know how I couldn’t like her.” While Draco knew exactly what Ginny was asking, he decided to play it cool.
“Man, you’re so obtuse. We all know you like, like her. Like you want to get in her pants – like her.” Theo scoffed as he looked at the nails on his left hand, stroking Ginny’s legs with his right hand, which she had draped over his lap.
Ginny looked right at Draco with a big grin. “Yeah.” She said with a mocking grin cocking her head at him.
Draco let out a large breath. “Of course I like her. What is there not to like? She’s brilliant, hardworking, generous, kind, fantastically skilled magically. Not to mention she is bloody gorgeous. Her smile lights up the room, and her hair….” Draco had been looking away as he spoke, as his eyes tracked back to the annoying couple in front of him, he stopped when both of their mouths were hung open.
Theo finally spoke, “Shit. You don’t just like her. You love her!” Theo clapped. “Hot Damn. I owe Blaise 100 galleons.”
Ginny held her hand over her grin. Holding her other hand over Theo’s mouth, she looked at Draco while shaking her head.
Draco’s face dropped. He knew he cared for Hermione, but he hadn’t realized he was in love with her. Was he?
Ginny leaned forward as she watched Draco. “You didn’t know, did you?” she said.
Draco hadn’t thought what he was feeling was love. He wanted to help her. He was her friend.
“Malfoy, would you be doing this for anyone else? Cleaning her house, making sure everything was set right? You’re going to take care of her bloody cats until she get’s back. You even arranged to have people here when they get back, so they aren’t alone. I’ve been her friend longer and I didn’t think to do any of that. Although, I do feel bad that I didn’t think to clean up before we left after we stayed the night.” She looked remorsefully around.
Draco sat down in the chair across from the couch, slouching and sinking down, hoping it would swallow him up. He knew he liked Hermione as more than friends, but realizing he was in love with her was not what he was expecting.
Pulling his hand down his face, he looked at his friends and said, “Yes. I’m in love with her. I just didn’t realize what I was feeling, until now. I’ve never felt like this. Fuck. She’s never going to want me. We’re only friends. She doesn’t feel like that for me. She lets me help her and she helps me. It’s what friends do for each other.”
“How do you know she doesn’t feel the same way?” Ginny asked.
“Did she say something?” Draco said, sitting up straight in the chair.
“Not in words, but I know her and she’s different with you. I wouldn’t give up on the notion.”
During the entire conversation, Ginny’s hand had been holding Theo’s mouth closed. While Theo couldn’t talk, he mumbled, agreeing, and nodding his head. His eyes were too expressive, and he finally licked Ginny’s hand, getting her to pull it away. “Yeah, mate. She’s got it bad for you. We all see it. You two are ridiculous. Just fuck her already.”
Ginny rolled her eyes and hit Theo on the back of the head. “You are an idiot. He can’t do that now. She just lost her mum and she’s going to be broken when she returns.” At the hopeful look Theo gave her, she chided. “Not hulk broken. She’s grieving and we all just need to be there for her. Nothing more.” She looked at Draco remorsefully. “She’s going to need her family above anything else. Just give her time. When it’s right, then make a move. Yeah?” she pleaded with Draco.
All Draco could do was nod. He agreed. He wouldn’t make a move, but he knew he wouldn’t give up hope.
Hermione sat in her parents’ darkened house. She’d finished packing but couldn’t find the energy to try to sleep.
The last week had been difficult. Her dad had been so scared of her. Her magic scared him. He wanted to be part of her life again, but his fear of her using magic on him was painful. She’d done this to him. She’d been the cause of all his pain. Her mum was dead because of her.
She was so thankful Luna had come to help. She didn’t know how she’d be able to take care of everything and keep her dad calm through it all. While Luna used her legilimancy abilities on him, he didn’t seem to understand that it was magical. Her connection didn’t require a wave of her wand, or verbal spell. Luna was a natural so she could enter his mind and calm him. At least enough to sleep at night.
Hermione’s mind wandered. While packing she had looked around the home her parents had made and hadn’t recognized most of their belongings. They’d become different people than she’d grown up with. They had started to surf, and her dad took up cooking while her mum had started to paint and learn to play the piano. She couldn’t remember them ever desiring to do those things. They weren’t the same. She hadn’t even gotten to know her mum and how she’d changed. When she’d been here after the war, she’d just watched them. The healers could assess from a distance that there was nothing they could have done to reverse their memories. She’d stayed an extra few weeks just to watch them. There was one time she was at the beach when her mother had said a few kind words to the bushy-haired stranger, and that was when Hermione had decided she couldn’t linger. The pain of losing them was too much. She decided to not go back unless she could reverse their memories. She’s lost so much time with them. She chastised herself for not working harder on restoring their memories.
Hermione curled up, pulling her knees to her chest, allowing the darkness to envelop her. She wanted nothing more than to take a vial of dreamless sleep and not wake up for days. As she blinked, praying for her eyes to drift shut, she felt the tears running down her cheeks. She hadn’t allowed herself to cry in front of her father since her dad told her about her mum. She didn’t want to be weak for him. But now was the time she had to get it out. It had built up and she couldn’t hold it in any longer.
Wrapping her arms around her legs, she turned her head to rest her cheek on her knees. She had been unable to stop her mind since her father showed up at her door. Her thoughts drifted from her father to her mother. Mostly on her mum while she packed her things. It was difficult since her father wanted to donate most of them and keep a few items for the trip back to Britian. He was a practical man, always had been, therefore he deduced that it would be difficult to take everything back with them to England. His aversion to magic caused Hermione to hold her tongue more than she usually did. Instead of trying to convince him of letting her shrink everything and port keying it back, she made the decision to do it without his permission. She’d keep it all in their old house until he was able to deal with going through everything. She was going to have Luna take the trunk back at the same time as the cats.
The most difficult part was doing magic without him seeing. He’d become so paranoid that she would take his memories again. His anxiety towards her magic had become difficult to bear. She’d hurt him in so many ways and she didn’t know how to help give him reassurance that she’d never hurt him again. Having Luna close was a godsend. She was grateful for her friend and she was the buffer they needed during this trying time.
Taking a deep breath in she thought of the last person she should. At least the last person she felt like she should.
Draco.
He’d stayed by her side that night her father found her, and she’d woken up feeling protected. It was the last time she’d slept where it wasn’t fitful nor restless. Then she went and muffed it up by ranting out loud. She hated that she couldn’t stop from talking out loud to herself around him. She’d never really done that around anyone, accept her parents. He was so easy to talk to, until he wasn’t and she would do her self-talk rants. She had developed the habit at a young age. With magic, she could disillusion herself, thus hiding the habit from her closest friends. But with Draco, it’d been so easy to let him see it.
Even with everything going on, he was always present in her mind. Like sitting next to a warm fire. His caress on her mind was comforting. At the same time, she felt guilty thinking of him. Her mum had just passed away and her father was struggling. Yet in the darkness of the empty living room, she longed for him. She wanted to curl up in his arms.
Hermione craved to have the ability to occlude. She had always wanted to learn. Other duties had always been pushed up as priorities. Perhaps it was time to start learning. Luna was going to take her father out tomorrow, leaving Hermione alone, so Hermione decided to go to the Australian ministry to start some research on the topic. She needed to be there for her dad. He was dealing with too much and she couldn’t break down around him anymore. She would put all thoughts of Draco on the shelf for now. Focusing on her parents was her priority.
Two sets of cat eyes stared back at Draco as he sat on the couch.
As soon as Luna had arrived, she’d quickly dropped off the cats, giving him a hurried run down of what to do to take care of them, then she rushed off with a big trunk, stating she needed to get back to Australia.
The rush of his cousin sweeping through hadn’t allowed Draco to let the cats out of their carriers. As soon as he took a few breaths, he knelt to look in the cages. One hissed while he tried to soothingly talk to it. The other meowed weakly, both clearly scared. Sitting next to the carriers he opened the doors. He’d allow them to come out on their own, not wanting to rush them. Draco sat next to the carriers for several minutes, not wanting to scare them further.
Getting up slowly, Draco went about the apartment, setting out food for the creatures and getting their litterboxes ready. As he moved from room to room, he kept checking to see if they had moved out of their carriers. He’d remembered the orange one from his time at Hogwarts. He was quite surprised that the creature was still alive. Hermione must be so happy to have him back.
He stopped in the doorway of the guestroom. Memories of Hermione sleeping next to him flooded his thoughts. He hoped she was sleeping. Knowing her, she would sacrifice her sleep to make sure her father was okay.
Draco suddenly felt a softness around his ankles. Looking down, the younger cat, gray with beautiful blue eyes, rubbed against his legs. It looked up at him, wanting attention. Bending over, Draco petted it’s head and heard it start to purr. Deciding to take a break, he went back to the living room and rest on the couch. He wouldn’t leave the felines alone. The shock of change would create enough panic in their tiny souls, and he didn’t want them to scratch up Hermione’s stuff before she got back. He planned on sleeping at Hermione’s until she got back. Although there were two big beds available, he refused to sleep in either. The couch was good enough for him.
As he sat down on the couch, he saw the younger cat exploring, while the orange one (he couldn’t remember it’s name) was still in it’s carrier. Leaning his head on the back of the couch, he closed his eyes. Hearing a small meow, he opened his eyes to watch the younger cat approach the carrier of the orange one. It was communicating that everything was okay and they were safe. The orange cat slowly exited it’s carrier and sat upright. Draco decided to close his eyes again, grabbing a blanket from the back of the couch to cuddle up with. Pulling it up to his face he smelled Hermione’s familiar sent. The movement of the orange cat caused Draco to look up again, noticing it jumped up onto the coffee table. The younger one followed – leading to a staring contest with the two fuzz balls.
Eventually Draco fell asleep, only to wake up with one cat on his chest and the other tanged in his legs. Content with them feeling safe, he fell back asleep, only to dream of Hermione’s crazy hair and how he wished his face was buried in it.
After Hermione’s day at the Australian ministry, she felt renewed. Occlumency was the answer to all her current problems. She found a detailed book and started implementing the practices immediately. While she knew it would take some refinement, she was going to master it regardless. She wouldn’t let her father down.
Arriving at her parent’s home, she walked into the kitchen as Luna and her father were setting out the takeout they got for dinner. Instantly Luna’s attention was on Hermione as she looked at her quizzically.
“Everything alright Hermione?” Luna asked.
Smiling sweetly Hermione said. “Of course. Never better.”
As Luna watched Hermione throughout dinner, she noticed the glassy look in Hermione’s eyes that always followed when she used legilimancy on others. Although, she was not using legilimancy on her friend, there was a sureness that Hermione was occluding, or at least trying to. More successfully than she thought possible, having never attempted to do it before. Luna tried to reach out to Hermione’s mind, but felt the walls, blocking her out. Hermione turned to look at her with her head cocked, almost robotic.
Luna simply smiled at her friend, although Luna’s concern was getting stronger with each passing moment. At least Phillip hadn’t noticed a change in his daughter. But if Hermione continued down this path, it would get harder for her to come out of it. Luna was a natural Legilimens and Occulmens, but she knew if someone new tried to either in a rush, it would cause her to become addicted. Hermione was clearly trying to rush occluding, and she needed to help her friend out of it. She knew why her friend had decided to go down this path and as she looked a Phillip, she understood Hermione’s motive. She needed to help her friend get out of this. Get her to communicate with her father, and grieve the loss of her mother in a healthier way. But if she couldn’t touch Hermione’s mind, she needed to rally the family to help her.