Everything the Light Touches

It had only been two days since the crash when Saturday morning rolled around, but Draco already felt much better. Hermione, however, was suffering still. Her collarbone had been the worst injury, but she’d also had several broken ribs and her pelvis had a hairline fracture too. All of which had been held together by the magic she had innately. Those would have still taken weeks to heal if not for the potions, so she was grateful to have them, but they didn’t hurt like her collar did. The magic within them had drawn the potion to those areas first.

Pansy came over first thing to help Hermione wash her hair properly, spells worked fine but nothing could quite replace a proper wash. She sat in the bath as Pansy scrubbed it with different products, carefully washing it away with the showerhead. Luna was downstairs putting breakfast together for them all and Draco had nipped down the road to get them all an iced coffee from the café they liked. She showed Pansy which products to use once they were done to define her curls rather than have a bushy mess and she apologised for the amount of work it took.

“Don’t apologise to me, you deserve to look nice, even if you are completely useless right now.” Pansy smiled at her through the bedroom mirror.

“It’s a good job you’re a kind person because your impoliteness borders on criminal.” Hermione shook her head. Pansy cackled.

“You know I say it out of love!”

Draco cleaned up the breakfast pots before joining all three of them on the back garden, they’d pulled sun loungers from the shed and were relaxing together on the grass. They were discussing Draco’s reintroduction to their peers as he sat on one of the chairs on the patio.

“Obviously me being reintroduced first helped everyone feel more at ease when Theo came back, so it’s not surprising that by the time Draco came out, he was easily accepted.”

“Ahh yes, Pansy the trailblazer.. Do you remember the first time you joined us all for that barbeque?” Hermione laughed.

“When she threatened to poison us?” Luna grinned; Pansy rolled her eyes.

“I did not threaten to poison you. I threatened to poison Ron and I still wish I had.” Hermione and Draco shared a look, they hadn’t told anyone about his appearance yet.

“That’s a story I want to hear.” Draco stated as he picked up his chair and moved closer to them.

“Okay so….”

Flashback

Hermione had just finished landscaping the garden and decided it was the perfect time to have everyone over together. Pansy had only met all of them in passing, as she passed them in the hallway to stomp up to her room. The only person she’d spoken to other than Hermione was Luna, and that was only to mock her for some reason or another. One thing that she’d noticed about Pansy was her incessant desire to have perfectly crafted cocktails, so she’d promise to give her access to the entire liquor cabinet, all of the beautiful glasses and the decorative extras. But she had to attend the barbeque Hermione was hosting to use them. Less than an hour into the gathering Pansy rolled her eyes she as stepped outside to see who was in attendance. Harry, obviously. Ron, gross. Ginny, fine. Luna, ugh. Seamus and Dean, boring. Romilda, okay. And then a man she didn’t immediately recognise.

“Who’s that?” She whispered to Hermione. “No! Not that one, I know who Ron is, the tall one.”

Hermione instantly pulled back from her and removed the ring that helped her monitor Pansy. The flurry of torrid thoughts she felt from her had made her feel sick. It was Neville for goodness’ sake. Pansy returned to the dining room and began making cocktails, she decided to make one for each of the women in attendance. She returned and passed them out. Ginny hesitated as she passed her the last glass.

“Ugh. Ginny, I’m not a poison kind of girl. If I wanted to hurt you I’d just hex you.” Ginny appreciated her candour, and raised her glass to Pansy, promising sweet revenge if she was lying. “I’d expect nothing less.”

Harry, who was chewing on a toothpick at the time sat next to Ginny, she offered him a taste of her drink and he cheerfully accepted. He asked who he needed to kiss in order to get one of them and Pansy looked at him with disgust.

“I will not be making you one, Mr Potter. And Miss Weasley, if you continue to share it with him I will rethink my poison policy.” She didn’t look at them, but she had been vaguely pointing in their direction. She was far too busy gazing at Neville, in absolute denial of who he used to be.

“You know, I think she’s starting to like me.” Harry joked as he passed the glass back to Ginny.

Hermione leaned over to Ron who was sat beside her, “Would you like to try it?”

“I will definitely poison it if he touches it.” Pansy said. The group laughed but Hermione couldn’t tell if she was joking or not. Pansy glared daggers at him as he swiped the glass and sipped it regardless before she moved to take a seat on the wall away from everyone. She whipped out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter, the only thing she could do to calm her nerves other than drink. Neville took a seat next to her and asked for one, and the rest was history.

“We should have a barbeque next weekend; it sounds like a fun time.” Draco offered.

“Even more fun if we invite Ron and I actually get to poison him this time.” Pansy tested. He and Hermione looked at each other again and she noticed. “That’s the second time you’ve done that. What are you not telling us?” They both looked at her with raised brows. “You’re not very good at hiding things. Either of you. Spill!”

Needless to say, when they did spill, she was furious. Pansy had never taken to Ron, initially just because of the rhetoric spewed about him when they were younger. But eventually she realised it was something deeper, there was just something unsavoury about him. The more she grew to care about Hermione, the more she noticed the changes in her behaviour when he was around. It got worse over the years, which only deepened her distain for him. When she’d find him in a drunken stupor on the sofa she’d fantasise about making sure he never woke up. But she’d hated Azkaban more than she hated Ron so, he’d made it out intact every time.

“The nerve of that man! I can’t wait until I get to piss on his grave. I’ve never hated someone like this.” She fumed.

“Don’t say things like that..” Hermione winced.

“No, I mean it. You lot all had a connection with him at some point, so I understand it’s hard for you, but it isn’t for me. To see him do that to my best friend?! Just be grateful I haven’t put him there already. He isn’t worth the time in Azkaban!”

The rest of the weekend was significantly less interesting.

Hermione stretched in her bed on Monday morning and realised there was no pain, she sighed with relief. She had one more potion left to take so she went downstairs to flick the kettle on and realised that Draco’s bedroom door was open, he was not in bed. He was usually up after her, and he rarely left his door open. She trod lightly on the stairs and missed the one that Edgar was perched on. She spotted him in the sofa in the living room, wearing only his pyjama bottoms with the dragons on. He was partially obscured by a thin blanket and the book that he’d laid on his chest. He’d finally started it; he’d said he was going to right before the crash. She could see the scars that Harry had given him in the duel she’d written about in that book. They weren’t thin and barely visible like the one on his face from mere days ago, they were raised and pale, like he’d healed as a muggle. She’d wanted to watch him for a little longer, but it felt intrusive.

She wondered whether that had been why he didn’t want to read it, because he didn’t want to read about that. But, she supposed, there was a lot of things that went wrong for him that year. She was in the kitchen making coffee when he appeared beside her, with a shirt on, holding the book in one hand and a mug in the other.

“Please and thank you.” He said with a groggy smile as he placed it in front of her. “I had to sleep down here last night, the sun being on my room all day is a killer some nights.”

“You should have said.” She mumbled, still sleepy. “I’d have cooled it for you”

“It’s okay, the sofa was fine. Besides, I couldn’t stop reading until I literally passed out.” He lifted the book. “It’s odd to see myself through your eyes this year. I remember it all very differently.”

“What do you mean?” She asked, genuinely curious.

“Well, it feels like I went from a bully to a criminal mastermind. Like suddenly I’m this huge threat to society and everything I do is placed under a microscope.. But for me I was drowning under the weight of trying to keep myself and my family alive. And honestly, that’s all these books have been so far, a desperate bid to keep oneself and loved ones safe.. Harry and I, we’re two sides of the same coin here.” He took a deep breath as he looked at her and sighed.

“How so?” She quizzed, now holding a steaming hot mug of coffee, ready for a riveting conversation.

“Well, he was desperately trying to kill Voldemort to save himself and you guys. I was desperately trying to kill Dumbledore so that my family would live. Don’t get me wrong, I did consider trying to eliminate Voldemort instead but… I couldn’t get close enough if I tried. Plus, that would have meant certain death for me, Bellatrix would have torn me limb from limb.” He stated. “The self-preservation efforts of a sixteen-year-old boy will lead him down a very dark path.” He added as he noticed Hermione’s expression.

“You know, you inadvertently poisoned Ron once, Pansy is going to be pissed.” She joked, he looked at her confused. “The mead you tried to get to Dumbledore, Slughorn kept it for himself and gave him some. Harry saved his life with a bezoar. You’ll get to it eventually.” He laughed as he leaned past her to pick up the drink she’d made for him, she almost shivered when she felt his breath on her neck.

“Hey, a win is a win.” He was still chuckling to himself as he leaned back onto the worktop. “But yeah, the dichotomy between what I experienced that year and the way it was perceived is really interesting.”

“If you ever want to talk about it, I’d be interested to know.” She offered.

“Yeah, maybe.”

The conversation was cut short by the sound of a letter coming through the door. He’d been just about to retrieve it before Luna appeared from the bottom step and scooped it up. She was humming to herself, looking very much like she’d slept in a bush and the reason why she looked like that stepped into view not long afterwards.

“Morning!” Draco chimed.

“Don’t remind me.” Theo muttered, very much not a morning person. “Coffee?” Hermione pointed to the recently boiled kettle, and they went to sit in the living room, leaving the couple to it.

Hermione sat on the sofa opposite Draco, giving them both room to spread out. He continued reading his book as she turned on the TV and began opening the letter. She let out a loud gasp and placed her hand over her mouth as she read. Draco looked over at her as her eyes flitted back and forth, waiting for her to share the information. She looked up at him with a wide grin and passed the letter over, not giving him chance to read it as she spoke.

“I applied for a permit for you to see your mother after the crash, they’ve approved it with certain stipulations!” She chattered and he laid the letter down to listen to her instead. “There’s a safe house in Sussex that they use to facilitate contact between the families of people on probation. She’ll have to consent to her wand being bound whilst you’re there so that she can’t do anything silly but.. You’ll get 48 hours alone with her.”

“I thought I couldn’t see her until after the first part of my probation.. That’s what it said in my paperwork..” He whispered.

“Yeah well, they’ve made an exception because of the potentially life-threatening incident.” Her smile faltered; he wasn’t reacting how she’d expected.

“You did this?” He looked over the letter and back at her, his expression still shocked and his voice low.

“I mean.. I thought you might want to see her..” Her smile vanished entirely as he continued to stare at her.

“I can’t believe you did this for me..” He muttered as he picked up the letter and left the room. She watched him take the stairs two at a time and then watched Edgar as he followed, stopping for a moment to look at her through the spindles as if to tell her to follow too. So, she did. He’d already closed his door, so she knocked but didn’t receive an answer. She turned to leave but Edgar was right behind her, watching her. She scowled at him before turning back around and opening the door. He was facing away from her, several feet away when she stepped over the threshold.

“Draco, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean..” She began lightly, but he cut her off as he turned and pulled her into the tightest embrace he dared to give. She could feel the wet of his tears on her forehead where his cheek sat.

“Thank you so much. For everything. You have no idea…” He spoke barely above a whisper and had to stop as he continued to sob. His arms were around her shoulders, holding her to his chest, as she began to feel what he felt through the ring.

Joy. Pure, unadulterated joy.

She pulled away from him, he momentarily looked put out until she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck. He took in a sharp breath in shock.

“You can move your arm!” She pulled back slightly so they were almost nose to nose and smiled widely.

“I can!” She laughed as his head fell back with relief and overwhelm; two tears traced the side of his face.

“Merlin, I’m so fucking happy you’re okay. I don’t deserve you, Hermione Granger. No one does.” He stated, his breath hitching a few times as he pulled her in tighter, her face now in the crook of his neck. It was the first time she’d been this close to a man since Cormac. For him, it had been far longer. It was the first hug he’d had since he had been thirteen that felt truly and wholly good. He groaned slightly. “I don’t want to let go.” She chuckled.

“Well, you don’t leave for three more days so, you’ve got time.”