Wholeheartedly

Hermione was perplexed, she had passed by the alcove she would sneak into with Fred and burst into tears. The same as she did when she spent her days at the burrow, clutching onto Harry, the only other person she thought knew about her and Fred. He knew how much she missed him, the way she screamed as she watched Bellatrix, the woman who carved into her arm after torturing her for what felt like hours, top it off with killing the boy she spent hours looking for, the boy she had fallen in love with, the very same boy who had shown her she was worth being loved, her scream was enough to bring anyone to tears.
Hermione and Fred had loved each other, he had purposefully done their pranks and snuck out of the tower when he knew she was on prefect duty because she would be the one who had to oversee his detention. A major plus was Theodore Nott who despite his fathers standing in the war, George had taken a fancy to. It was while George and Theo were whispering to one another that Fred felt confident enough to tell Hermione how he felt.
As the words left his lips “Hermione, I like you as more than just a friend.” He watched the blush spread across her cheeks as her face turned what he thought to be the prettiest shade of pink. “Go to lunch with me, on the next hogsmeade trip? Please? I’ll get on my knees and beg.”
“No need, Fred. Of course I’ll go with you.” George had never seen such a wide grin on his twin's face, if he hadn’t known better he would have assumed Hermione and Fred had shagged while he was talking to Theo.

Hermione was never one to hold onto a prejudice as she was a victim to one herself, but to say her friendship with Theo was slightly unexpected was an understatement. Regardless they became close not only to the fact that although his relationship with George didn’t last due to the war, they were both in love with a Weasley twin, had no other family, and were seen as the biggest swots in their respective houses their friendship easily blossomed. It didn’t surprise her to learn that he had seen Fred sneaking her behind tapestries or secret notes charmed for just the two of them.
Theo knew she missed Fred and let her cry over his death, knowing in her head her new friend was cursing Bellatrix for tormenting Hermione. He knew rationally Bellatrix would have had to use her ability as a legilimens to see Fred’s relationship with Hermione but he also had no doubt in his mind that under the hours she was tortured Draco’s aunt would have had no issue finding out if this was the Weasley she was after, as well as holding off to end his life until Hermione had been able to see it. Bellatrix was twisted, but the torture didn’t break hermiones gryffindor spirit, Fred’s death did. She seemed to have no fight simply telling Theo “I don’t see a future that I’m happy without him.”
When Draco malfoy sent Hermione a close to six page letter apologizing to her for the last seven years as well as a request to meet with her in person she was taken aback and asked Theo what he thought of this, “I think it’d be good, maybe just to hear him out. You don’t have to forgive him but maybe it’ll help you both heal.” That conversation is how she found herself sitting with Draco by the black lake. “Hello Malfoy.” She said after a moment “Hello Hermione.” She was startled by the use of her first name. “I wanted to apologize in person along with the letter. I never meant for you to get hurt and I would have never wished what happened in the manor on you, yes I was an asshole to you when we were young but in all honesty I was repeating what I was told. But regardless of the ideology I held, you didn’t deserve what happened on that drawing room floor.”
“It’s not your fault, you were a child who wanted his fathers approval, you just did what you thought would get you that approval, nor is the manor thing your fault, I never thanked you for lying about who Harry was.”
“You did at the wizengamot yo-“
“That’s not a thank you unless I was speaking to you like this, one on one.”
“Oh. Well regardless I’m sorry.”
“I forgave you Draco, I forgave you a long time ago.”
“You did?”
“Fourth year, that’s when it hit me that things were changing. That summer I knew things were gonna be bad and you, given your family, wouldn’t have a choice on which side you wanted to fight for, it was either follow and save your family, or become a “traitor” and allow your parents to be harmed. You love your mom. I knew you wouldn’t abandon her.”
“How do you know that? No one ever asked.”
“Because I had to make the same decision. Stay in the muggle world and just learn to adapt after being in the wizarding world, or save my parents and fight for the other muggle borns.”
“What happened to your mum and dad?”
“I obliviated them, but the Death Eaters didn’t believe them when they said they didn’t know anyone named Hermione, they didn’t know who I was and died confused and scared with no previous context of the wizarding world.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Did you tell them where they were?”
“Well no, but-“
“Then you don’t have to apologize.”
“But I was one of them.”
“You were a child fighting a war the adults should have handled. We were both children without a choice.”
Unexpectedly Draco had begun crying and in an attempt to comfort him she helped him stand and wrapped her arm around him, to her surprise he did the same, and for the first time in a long time she felt the same comfort she did when Fred would hug her. They didn’t let go for a long time both finding comfort in each other, when they did let go Hermione discovered she’d prefer to keep hold of him and held his hand while looking up at him, he looked from their intertwined fingers to her face and smiled softly at her pulling her towards the great hall for dinner. “Come eat with me?” She asked as they entered the castle, “Theo does it and I’d like you to join us.” He simply nodded knowing he’d never be able to deny her anything and they walked towards the gryffindor table hand in hand completely aware of the shocked silence from people closest to them.