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To Be Himself	By : RavieSnake Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 11253 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters from it. I make no money from the writing/publishing of this story.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
The members of the family all simply smiled as Draco’s declaration that he was no longer pretending seemed to go unheard and Imogen patted his arm again.
“Just know we’ll be here for you if she gets to be too much,” she offered, “we’d like you to think of us as family now.”
Draco narrowed his eyes at that. “Yeah,” he said, “I bet you would. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to attempt to console the love of my life. How she’s ever managed to put up with the lot of you, I don’t know. I think you are all despicable, and, coming from me, that means something.”
“Excuse me?” Len asked crossly as the others gaped at Draco’s sudden harshness.
“Never in my life have I met a family as unloving and unsupportive as yours,” Draco replied, “You haven’t any idea what Hermione has gone through in her life.”
He turned and glared at Imogen, “She fought in a fucking war and lost more friends than she can stand to count and your fat-fuck son has the balls to make fun of her deceased father, YOUR brother, right to her face. And you laughed. Know this, madam…I’m going to personally see to it that you and the rest of your wretched family never find prosperity. You will wallow here in your shabby house, eating bland, undercooked food, and squabbling with your slow, bigoted husband for the rest of your miserable life.”
“Told you he was no good,” Sal spat from where he sat.
“How dare you?” Jude demanded angrily.
Draco turned the most contemptuous look he could manage to her. “How dare I what? Tell the truth? Well, let me tell you some more. You’re boring and cold-hearted. Your husband is more so and smarmy to boot. And those two,” he said, pointing to the twins, “are the shallowest, ugliest, least interesting girls I’ve ever had the displeasure of faking my way through liking.”
Imogen and Sal both shook with rage as Peg and Isabelle both started crying. Len and Jude glared daggers at Draco who had bent over and was tugging up the right leg of his trousers.
“Get out,” Imogen demanded then, “you get out of my house you dis-”
“Obliviate.”
The whispered spell slipped easily over Draco’s lips as he pointed his wand at her and then swiveled it swiftly around at the others. He smirked as their eyes all went vacant and they blinked at him stupidly. He quickly stowed his wand back into his ankle holster and then stood up.
“You’re all very tired,” he told them pleasantly, “you want to go to bed. You’re going to go up to your rooms right now and go to sleep.”
They all blinked again and then turned to each other. “We should go to sleep,” they said to each other as they all stood.
Draco stepped to the side to allow them to dazedly march past him and up the stairs. He watched them disappear down the upstairs hall to their respective rooms and then travelled his gaze to the closed door of the guestroom Hermione was in. He took a deep breath and then made his way up.
“Well, congratulations,” Hermione said when Draco finally entered their room a moment later and shut the door.
He made a face as he turned to her where she stood. “Congratulations for what?”
Hermione sniffed at him and shook her head. “Such a bastard,” she muttered to herself as she crossed her arms. She waited a moment and then looked back at him with a despondency in her eyes that made him cringe.
“Congratulations on getting in one last major insult,” she said. “Take my money, make me think you’re actually going to help me…then pull this. I knew you were ruthless, but I’d thought after all these years you’d…” She shook her head again and hugged her arms tighter around herself.
Draco regarded her for a minute. “We made a binding vow,” he said, “a vow that ensured I’d be myself. That’s all I’ve done.”
“Yes,” she agreed, “yourself. Your lying, conniving, Slytherin self. That’s all you’ve been all day.”
Draco suddenly looked like he’d been punched in the gut. “That…that’s not what I intend-”
“Just stop,” Hermione said quietly. She leaned against the nearest wall and closed her eyes with a sigh. “Why don’t you just go back down there and have your fun. You’ve been such a huge help, Malfoy,” she whispered sarcastically.
“I sent them all to bed,” he said flatly. “They were pissing me off.”
Hermione laughed derisively at that, but didn’t say anything.
“I don’t understand why you’re so upset,” Draco said, looking wholly miserable, sitting down on the low bed and lounging back on his arms, “you’re whole intent was to change their perspective so they’d finally like someone you brought here. They like me.”
"Yes,” she agreed angrily, opening her eyes, “but now...now they'll like only you! They’ll really hate anyone else I bring along because they’ll always be comparing him to you!"
Draco's chest rose and fell with several heavy breaths as he stared back at her.
"Then maybe you should just keep bringing me back," he said very seriously.
Hermione began to scoff and then stopped abruptly when the statement seemed to really register. Her eyes widened as she looked him in his.
"Thing for a Muggle-born?" she nearly whispered.
Draco swallowed hard as he sat straight and set his shoulders. "I...I want to be the one you keep bringing back," he said.
Hermione lowered her arms from her chest as she stared at him in shocked realization. "Three years?"
Something like sadness flickered in his eyes as he lightly shook his head. "More like ten," he said quietly.
"But..." Hermione started, suddenly frowning, "...but you were horrible to me. You-"
"Said what I had to at the time," he interrupted. "I've liked you since we were thirteen. But I was...my father still had a lot of influence over me then and I listened when he said not to pursue you. By the time I realized how wrong his ideas were...the Dark Lord had returned and I knew it'd be too dangerous to be with you."
Hermione processed his words with a few calming puffs and then shook her head. "But...what about after? We won the war. I've worked with you for years now. You've never said anything. You were a jerk to me just last week when I asked you to come here!"
"Would you have believed me if I'd said anything before now?" Draco asked harshly. "If I'd acted all doey-eyed and excited that you were finally, FINALLY, presenting me with a chance to win you over would you have trusted me?"
Hermione made a face. “Of course I -“
“No,” he cut her off again, “no you wouldn’t have. I’m the prick, remember? You said so yourself just today. Always the prick.”
His facial muscles twitched at that and for a moment he looked as if he might cry, but caught himself quickly and set his expression into an angry pout. Hermione studied him for a moment and then kicked off the wall and went to the bed and sat beside him.
“Why are you always the prick?” she asked.
Draco shook his head and looked away from her to glare at the wall. “It’s what everyone expects me to be, isn’t it? I have a reputation. In my business…if you deviate from your reputation…it makes you look unpredictable, unreliable. Nothing scares away investors and customers faster than unpredictability.”
“So you just pretend to be an arsehole?” Hermione asked outright.
Draco didn’t respond and simply continued to glare at the wall. Hermione sat, silently watching him until, after a whole minute, he finally sagged and put his forehead in his hands.
“I…I just wanted one person…just one person besides my mother to know who I really am,” he said shakily. “To be able to come home and shake it off and just be…”
“Yourself?”
Draco sighed behind his hands. “I thought…with the binding vow you’d… But not even that worked. Fucked it all up didn’t I? … Always the failure…always the prick.”
Hermione’s mouth twisted in thought. “You said your father knew you liked me?”
He simply nodded and she went on. “Does he know you’re with me now?”
“Why do you think he’s not speaking to me?” he said.
Hermione was quiet for a time as she looked down at her hands twisting in her lap and eyed the small chip in the polish on her thumb. “What did you do with the money that I paid you to come here?” she finally asked. Draco gave a small, mirthless chuckle.
"Nothing,” he said hopelessly, “It's sitting in a bag in the boot of my car at this very moment. I was going to give it back to you the moment we got back to your place."
“And then what?” she asked, turning herself and lifting her one leg up onto the bed to face him. “You thought I’d just fall in love with you and we’d live happily ever after?”
Draco shrugged. “A bloke can dream, right?”
Hermione reached up and gently pulled his hands down from his face and set them in his lap. “Kiss me,” she said. Draco looked askance at her.
“I don’t want your pity, Granger,” he said. She squeezed his fingers.
“I want you to kiss me,” she repeated. He raised his face and blinked at her.
“Why?”
She was quiet for a second and then answered, “My mum once told me that you can tell a man’s true intentions by the way he first kisses you.”
Draco simply looked at her and she released his hands and started to turn away. “I’ll understand if you don’t want to, I-”
Draco grabbed at her hands. “No, I…” he gulped and scanned his eyes over her relaxed features. He raised one hand up slowly and tentatively touched it to her face. When she didn’t flinch or pull away, he cupped his palm to her cheek and licked his bottom lip before cautiously leaning forward to set his mouth to hers.
Both of their eyes fluttered shut at the kiss and Draco slid his hand toward the back of her head to pull her closer.
The kiss was slow and determined and Draco moaned as if he were a man receiving water after a thirst. Hermione raised a hand to his hair and pressed herself into him as their tongues found each other and deepened the kiss. The snogging went on for some minutes until Hermione finally pulled back.
“Wow,” she said breathlessly, her fingers coming up to brush over her mouth. Draco licked his lips and looked at her like he’d experienced nirvana.
“Are you alright?” she asked with a small chuckle. He nodded mutely and then shook himself of his daze.
“Well,” he said anxiously, “do you believe my intentions?”
Hermione licked at her own bottom lip. “I…I think so,” she replied softly.
"So, what…what now?" he asked, daring to let a bit of optimism into his voice. Hermione smiled and laced her fingers with his.
"I… I think we ought to get to know each other...start-off properly," she replied.
Draco was quiet for a moment and then smiled back. "I hate salmon," he said.
Hermione barked out a laugh. "And she made you eat so much of it!"
He scrunched up his nose in disgust. "And she promised more tomorrow," he replied with a groan and shuddered for effect.
"Well..." Hermione said, biting back another laugh, "my house is entirely salmon-free."
Draco quirked an eyebrow. "Yeah...?"
She nodded. "Yeah. We could...maybe go there. We’d have the whole weekend just to ourselves to…to work on getting to know each other.”
She suddenly looked self-conscious when Draco simply blinked at her. “Of course,” she rushed on, “I'll understand if you prefer to spend the rest of the holiday here what with how much they all-"
"No, no," he interrupted, "I think I'd much prefer salmon-free...and Sal-free, and Jett-free, and Peg and Isabelle-fr- oomph!"
He was silenced by Hermione flinging herself forward and covering his mouth with hers in another kiss. He grinned at her widely when she pulled back a moment later.
"Let's go," she said, standing to grab her coat. Draco nodded in agreement but then looked thoughtful.
"What about Christmas being a time for family?" he asked.
Hermione shrugged. “I think I’ve had enough ‘family’ to last several Christmases…we can go.”
Draco smirked and stood. "So... do we tell them we're leaving or just slip out?" he asked.
Hermione tugged on her coat. “If you want to say your farewells, be my guest. I’ll be in the car,” she said.
Draco snatched up his coat and both of their bags. He gave her a playful grin. “Two thousand Galleons says I beat you there.”
“You’re on,” she said, biting her lip and taking a quick step at the door that had Draco bolting out of the room. Hermione watched him disappear out the door and then shook her head and touched the wand up her sleeve before Disapparating with a crack.
She landed half a second later right next to Draco’s car. She giggled to herself as she watched Draco stumble out the front door and race over.
“About time you got here,” she teased when he finally ran up to her. He panted slightly.
“How…you?”
She merely gave him a smug look of triumph and opened her door. Draco watched her get in and chuckled low in his throat.
“You cheated,” he said, grinning as he got into the car.
“Did we say ‘no magic’?” Hermione challenged.
Draco tossed their bags into the back seat. “No, I don’t suppose we did,” he conceded. The upstairs windows suddenly glowed bright with lights and both Draco and Hermione snapped their attention up at them.
“Looks like your little Apparating stunt woke the others,” he said.
Hermione frowned up at the house. “Fuck ‘em,” she said, eliciting an amused smirk from the blond at her right, “Let’s go.”
Draco beamed at her a moment until lights flared to life in the downstairs windows of the house as well.
“Shit,” he cursed, turning from her and fumbling with the keys at the ignition.
“Go, go, go!” Hermione squealed urgently.
“I’m trying!” he said, finally starting the engine.
“Drive, Draco! Go, go!” she shouted as he threw the car into gear. The front door of the house opened then to reveal a livid looking Imogen wearing a dressing gown.
“Hermione Jean!!” the woman hollered angrily.
“GO! GO!” Hermione screeched, pawing at Draco’s arm as he whipped the car around and put pedal to the metal.
Gravel spit in all directions as the tires spun fiercely and Hermione cackled loudly as she looked back to see Imogen shielding her face behind the edge of her dressing gown from the flying rocks.
The tires finally caught and they sped forward. Hermione quickly lowered the window and leaned out of it to yell back at her aunt.
“Happy Christmas!!!” she hollered, two finger salute held high. Draco laughed at her.
“I think I’m really going to enjoy getting to know you,” he said as she pulled herself back inside and rolled the window back up. Hermione grinned over at him and eyed the way he changed gears again.
“Did you really learn to drive just for me?” she asked.
Draco nodded as they sped away from the property. Hermione placed her hand over his on the shifter.
“I think I’m going to enjoy getting to know you too.”
- 5
- 6
- 7
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To Be Himself