Other Lives

III.

Zabini had never heard even a murmur from Draco's lips of what he had assumed happened in their Seventh Year, but somehow he knew. Draco could see that as Zabini slowly peeled himself off the armchair across his desk, letting emerald eyes linger on Hermione with a smirk still tucked into the corner of his mouth.

Come on, mate, something's going on.

Fuck off, Blaise.

Look, either she's bringing you back from the dead every night in order to murder you again and again, or she's shagging you. And while she is the bloody Brightest Witch of the Age and all that, she doesn't know the cure to death—hence, she's definitely shagging you, so just spill it.

There was once a time Draco wanted nothing more than to shout from the Astronomy Tower that he loved Hermione Granger with every cell in his body, but the secret had not been only his to tell. It had belonged to her just as much as it belonged to him—just as it eventually belonged to Astoria and even Nott. To have shared it with anyone meant revealing truths about the lives of others that were better left hidden.

Draco had to squeeze the gold coin in his hand a few times, inhaling and exhaling with every press to get control of his lungs again before he even mustered enough courage to look back at her.

Hermione looked like she did when they were seventeen—all wild, brown curls that danced around her shoulders, golden eyes bright like the summer sun, pink, uneven lips glossy and being bitten down by her top teeth, and laugh lines created by her tilting her head back, letting out music he missed every single day of his life since.

There were other lines starting to form around the corner of her eyes and she had a pink scar starting to turn silver at the corner of her left temple that had not been there years before, but she was still undeniably herself.

"You look like you," muttered Hermione, letting out a breath Draco had not registered she was holding in, too. She turned back to the door to assure herself Zabini had closed it before she decided to take a few slow steps forward. "Bit older, of course. None of us can escape that now, can we?"

"You haven't seen Pansy, I reckon. Claims she discovered the secret to eternal youth," Draco caught himself saying, pushing himself up from his seat. The last thing he wanted to talk to Hermione about was an ex-girlfriend, but he still added, "It's all just potions by a Japanese alchemist and plastic surgery from America."

She faltered when he moved from around his desk to meet her in the middle. It reminded Draco of the day after they had first kissed—she was yelling at him about breaking curfew as Head Boy, but more so for being so reckless as to walk the grounds at night, especially when a few nights prior some arseholes had cornered him after leaving the Astronomy Tower and roughed him up. There had been something about the flush of her cheeks and the wild, protective glisten in her eyes that made him cross the distance, taking her lips in his to silence her, but also to feel the way she had started to look at him. Her hands had gripped his elbows, holding him in place, but she later broke the kiss and told him it was a mistake. Yet, the next day after they had crawled back to their quarters, he had approached her carefully, his everything eager to hold, touch, kiss her again, but she was scared—she took a step back, her explanation as to why it would never happen again dying like the last bit of her restraint, curiosity, want.

This time it wouldn't end with a kiss.

Draco knew that as Hermione angled her body away, clearing her throat as she looked around his office, her hands balling into fists. "So, this is Virgo Labs." He wanted her to linger on the name, his homage to her, but she was quick to add, "Impressive work you are doing here, Draco. Clean, sustainable, ethical work. When Charlie told us what you two would be working on—all the activists, indigenous tribes, Naturalists, and Healers you were seeking to better what you produce here, I was blown away. You're doing what you wanted—you're changing the world for the better."