Author's Note: That's all the betaed chapters re-loaded. For those reading this for the first time, I hope you enjoyed and for those reading it for a second time, I hope it was a good read the second time round :)

Thank you for all your reviews both for this repost and originally.

And last, but never least, a massive thank you to swirlsofblack, who really is a superb and patient beta.


Reconciliation

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Ron asked for the fifth time.

"No," Harry responded. "I hate to admit it, but Malfoy is right: we have treated Hermione badly and should go and apologise and make it up to her."

"Blimey, Harry, did he Imperio you whilst you were alone?"

He grimaced. "I'm beginning to wonder that myself. I can't believe I'm going to do this."

"I'm not sure I should allow you to."

He stopped and grabbed Ron's arm. "You do agree to this is the right thing, don't you?"

Ron looked indecisive for several moments. "I'm not sure. I mean, we're effectively giving her our blessing and that doesn't sit well with me, but things can't continue as they are."

"I know and I'm in two minds, too. It is Malfoy after all."

"Yeah, but it's also Hermione and I don't like not being her friend so let's just get this over and done with before we lose our nerve."

The two boys stopped in front of Hermione's common room, taking a few deep breaths before raising their hands to knock.

Hermione was lonely. Her common room felt strange without Draco's presence and where she once revelled in the peace and quiet, it now felt silent and cold. She was so used to snuggling up to Draco at the end of the day. They would revise together before he would tempt her away from her studying and into bed with his kisses. Now she was left with only her books for company and didn't like it.

She sighed, aware that she was being ridiculous. They couldn't spend all their time together. He had friends and so did she – well, she'd had once. She flung her Ancient Runes book back on the table and slumped into the sofa cushions. Now that Draco wasn't here to distract her, all her fears and worries about her friendship with Harry and Ron came crowding in.

Ginny assured her that she was working on Harry, but it was slow going. But what if Harry and Ron never forgave her and refused to speak to her again? She didn't think she could cope with that and who was to say that she would always have Draco? How many teenage relationships lasted forever? She rubbed her eyes. This was why he shouldn't leave her alone - because she got a little insane. But she couldn't exactly go track him down and demand that he drop whatever he had planned to do with Blaise and stay with her, although it was seriously tempting.

The knock on her door made her jump, as she wasn't expecting anyone. If it were Ginny then she would have just breezed in. Maybe it was something official for her to do. At that moment in time she'd take any distraction going.

She jumped up and hurried over to the door, pulling it open. She froze as she looked into the green and blue eyes of her best friends.

Draco dragged his way through the Slytherin common room, ignoring the eyes that followed him. After his contretemps with Theo the other day, no one dared to say anything about Granger, not even to whisper the word Mudblood around him. They were too worried about what his reaction would be. He might not have covered himself in glory as a Death Eater, but he had shown that he was unpredictable when roused.

He pushed the door to his dorm room open and groaned when he saw that it was full. Both Theo and Blaise were there, along with Pansy.

"Draco!" Pansy exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"Has Granger finally seen the light at last and dumped your pathetic arse?" Theo asked.

Draco sent him a dirty look but otherwise ignored him and flopped down on his bed.

"This is my dorm room, Pans. Am I not allowed to be here?"

"Of course you are, I just thought you'd be with Hermione."

"We can have a break every now and again."

"Yep, she's definitely ditched him," Theo commented to the room at large.

"Shut up, Theo!" Pansy yelled.

"Don't let him get to you, Pans. His point of view is meaningless and, besides, I don't see him with a girl. You spent how long sniffing around Daphne? But she's got better taste than that."

Theo glared at him and descended into sulky silence.

"So, where is Hermione?" Pansy asked.

"She's probably making up with Potter and Weasley."

"What? How did that happen?"

"I might have done the unthinkable and gone and spoken to the Chosen Prick."

"You did?" Blaise asked, surprised.

"It was getting ridiculous. You'd think she'd gone and announced that she was pregnant with Voldemort's love child the way Potter was carrying on."

Blaise laughed. "Now that really would be something."

Pansy ignored her chuckling boyfriend. "What did he say?"

"He was aggressive at first but I think I got through to him. I gave him permission to beat me up if I broke Hermione's heart."

Pansy got up and threw herself on Draco, strangling him in a massive hug. "I'm so proud of you," she sniffled.

"Pans, I can't breathe!"

She loosened her grip around his throat but continued to hug him. "It's not that big a deal," he complained.

"Yes, it is. You did something incredibly selfless for Hermione."

"Salazar's rod, you're all getting fucking sappy," Theo whined from his bed.

The other three occupants of the room just glared at him. Theo huffed and pulled a pillow over his face. "I'm going to ask Slughorn for a room change. The hormones in here are stifling."

"Hello," Hermione said hesitantly.

"Hi," Harry said with uncertainty in his voice. "Can we come in?"

"Sure," she said, stepping aside so they could pass.

The three of them looked at each other nervously and the tension ratcheted up in the room.

"I'm just going to come out and say it," Harry blurted out. "We were wrong to treat you the way we have been the last few days. We might not be happy about you dating Malfoy but that doesn't excuse our treatment of you."

Hermione stared wide-eyed at them. "You mean that?" she asked, shocked.

"Yes," Ron replied.

"What's brought this on?"

Harry and Ron exchanged glances before turning back to her. "Malfoy came to find me," Harry admitted.

"What?"

"Malfoy sought me out to talk about this."

Hermione groped behind her until her hand made contact with the sofa and she sat down slowly, struggling to take everything in. "He did that?"

"As much as it pains me to admit it, yes."

"Not before he sent me away as if I'm some kind of child," Ron said sulkily.

She gave a shaky laugh. "It wouldn't be Draco if he wasn't annoying at least one of you."

"It was touch and go for a while regarding whether we were going to be able to maintain a civil conversation or start hexing each other," Harry said.

"That sounds about right."

"Look," he continued. "I'm not sure if this is the right thing or not, or even if you will care, but you have our blessing."

Hermione looked back and forth between the two wizards standing in front of her. She'd been through so much with the pair of them and the distance between them over the past week had torn her up. But she wasn't sure she liked the idea of them bestowing their blessing on her.

"And I'm meant to be grateful for that? I don't need your blessing."

Her green-eyed friend shuffled nervously on the floor. "I realise that and I know that we've been absolute gits to you over this."

She folded her arms and looked unimpressed. She wasn't going to let them off the hook with some half-hearted apology. She wanted them to know how much they'd hurt her with their reaction.

"I didn't expect you to be happy about it and I would've accepted that but you treated me as if I'd suddenly become some kind of social pariah."

Harry ran a hand around the inside of his collar almost as if he was loosening it because it had become too tight. "It was a shock," he defended.

"That's not an excuse."

"I know that. I think I've known that for a while but I needed time to come to terms with it. But now that I have, I accept that it's your decision and that it's not as if you can control your feelings or that you should have to suppress them to make your friends happy."

"Hmm …" she said, pursing her lips and giving him a stern stare before turning to Ron. "And what about you? Harry appears to be doing all the apologising here."

"I can't say I like the fact that you're dating the ferret but I guess it's your decision at the end of the day."

They weren't the most gracious of apologies but as she took in their unsure expressions, she knew how much this had cost them. It was probably almost as much as it had cost Draco to approach Harry.

She jumped up and flew across the room to them and dragged them into a group hug.

"Thank you," she said tearfully.

They squeezed her hard before letting her go. "Just to let you know, if he does anything to hurt you then I reserve the right to go and hex his bollocks off," Harry warned.

Hermione giggled. "You'll have to wait your turn."

Ron ruffled her hair. "That's my girl. Don't let Malfoy give you any grief."

"I almost feel sorry for the sucker now," Harry added.

They all squished onto the sofa, with Hermione in the middle. It seemed that now they had made up, they were determined not to let anything come between them again, not even a cushion.

"I can't believe Draco spoke to you about this," she said incredulously.

"Me neither. It was strange when he accosted me demanding that we talk."

"It was okay, though?" she asked worriedly.

"I'm not going to lie and say that we didn't insult each other or that we're now best buddies or anything, but we managed to talk without any violence."

"And you're fine with Malfoy and me?"

Ron grimaced. "To be honest, the thought makes me sick and seeing him touch you makes me reach for my wand, but if that's what you want then I'll put up with it."

"At least you didn't walk in on them practically naked," Harry said with a shudder.

She blushed; that incident still mortified her.

He looked sternly down at her. "Just don't lie to us again."

"Yes, Dad."

"I'm being serious, Hermione. I'm not saying that I wouldn't have tried to keep you away from Malfoy, so I understand why you lied, but I think we've all learnt something from this argument."

"Kill Malfoy when we have the chance?" Ron asked hopefully.

Harry and Hermione both rolled their eyes. "No. We should trust each other's judgement," Harry continued.

"Meh! That's boring. I prefer the kill Malfoy option," Ron teased.

Hermione grinned at Ron. "I'm so happy we're friends again."

They both looped an arm around her. "We missed you too," Harry said.

"Besides, McGonagall's disapproving glares were starting to get to me," Ron said.

Hermione looked at him. "She was giving you disapproving stares?"

"Yes, and muttering about how disappointed she was under her breath every time she passed us."

She laughed. "At least you didn't have to endure an embarrassing conversation with her about your relationship with Malfoy."

"So she did keep you back to question you?" Harry asked.

"Ugh! It was mortifying."

Ron sniggered. "I still can't believe you're snogging the ferret."

Hermione pressed her hands against her hot, pink cheeks. "At least I'm not engaged!"

Ron's face paled. "You don't think he's going to propose or anything, do you?"

She looked alarmed. "I hope not! I'm too young to get married."

"You're older than us!" Harry protested.

"Yes, but you're crazy!"

"Hey! I resent that," Ginny said from the door. She put her hands on her hips and sternly looked at her fiancé. "It's about time."

Harry reddened and looked chastised. Hermione suppressed her smile. She could already see Ginny ruling the Potter household.

The redhead grinned and bounded over. "I knew my constant nagging would work eventually."

"Ha! It wasn't you! Malfoy jumped out at us in the Entrance Hall and spoke to Harry," Ron crowed.

"What?" Ginny asked, wide-eyed and even more annoyed that she'd gotten detention and had to miss Quidditch practice.

"Yep, he was lurking in the shadows like the creepy Slytherin he is."

"I can't believe Harry listened to him and not me," she said indignantly.

Harry and Hermione shared an amused glance as the siblings continued to bicker. They relaxed back against the sofa cushions and just watched it play out.

Draco tossed and turned for what felt like the hundredth time. It was no good; his bed wasn't as comfortable as Granger's. Either that, or he couldn't sleep without her anymore. No, it was bound to be the beds. He bet Dumbledore had neglected replacing them with something as comfortable as the ones he gave the Gryffindors. There was such a pro-Gryffindor bias in this place.

"For fuck's sake, Draco, piss off back to your witch if you're going to be this fucking irritating," Theo moaned from across the room.

"As much as I don't want to agree with Theo's obnoxiousness, your constant shifting about is getting on my nerves," Blaise added sleepily.

"All we need to make this more miserable is one of your fucking nightmares," Theo continued.

Draco sat up, flung his covers off and got out of bed. "Fine!" he said crossly. This was why he didn't like having roommates other than his girlfriend: they were fucking moody.

He stomped around the room gathering up his clothes and then slammed the door behind him.

"He's such a delight," he heard Theo say sarcastically.

He slipped silently up to Gryffindor Tower. This was the last time he was giving Granger space to make up with her friends, as all it resulted in was him having to deal with Theo.

He swore as he stopped outside her door and heard the riotous laughter, which was loud enough for him to hear even with the portrait hole closed. Great! Here he was moping around without her and she was having a whale of a time with her moronic friends. If it didn't mean having to face Theo's nasty barbs, he would've turned back round and gone back to the dungeons. Then again, he got to kick the annoying Gryffindors out. An evil smirk formed on his lips. He said the password and entered.

It was a cosy scene inside the common room; Cauldron Cakes and butterbeer surrounded the four Gryffindors and there was a party-like atmosphere. The green-eyed monster surfaced briefly as he saw Hermione tucked into the side of Ron but her beaming smile as she saw him soon slayed that beast.

She bounced up, ran over and jumped into his arms. He stumbled as he caught her. "Hello," she said softly.

"Hello back. I see everything worked out okay," he said with a nod in the direction of the three staring Gryffindors.

She pecked him on the lips. "Yes, thanks to you, you meddlesome Slytherin."

Weasley coughed pointedly, clearly uncomfortable at the affectionate welcome she was giving him. Draco smirked in the redhead's direction as his grip around Hermione's waist tightened. For good effect he leaned down and kissed her properly.

"Okay, that's enough. Break it up. Just because I said you can date him doesn't mean I want see you snogging him," Ron grumbled from the sofa.

She turned in his arms and frowned at Weasley. "Ron, you're going to have to get used to seeing me with Draco."

"Can't you just do that stuff when I'm not around?"

"You hug Hannah all the time! And kiss her!"

"Don't you mean inhale her?" Draco commented wickedly.

Granger elbowed him in the ribs, whilst the Weaselette grimaced. "Malfoy has a point, Ron. You do look like you're eating her. It's a little gross, really."

"At least you don't walk in on your sister making out with your best friend in your dorm room. You're lucky I haven't told mum about your shenanigans," he scolded.

"At least you didn't see Malfoy in his underwear lounging in Hermione's bed. That traumatised me," Potter commented to Weasley, who gagged.

Draco looked down at the witch currently snuggling into him. Predictably she was blushing but at least she had changed the password after that fiasco.

"It might have distressed you, Potter, but little Weasley enjoys seeing me half-naked," he said with a wink at the redhead.

"Well, if you're going to parade around Hermione's common room like that, I might as well enjoy the show," she replied with aplomb.

Draco laughed as Potter and Weasley looked really disturbed at the turn this conversation was taking. "How many times have you seen Malfoy half-naked?" Potter asked.

"Only twice," she said sadly, enjoying teasing her fiancé.

"Don't forget to tell him about the time you kidnapped me in the dungeons," Draco added, smirking at the look on Potter's face.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" Potter asked, crossing his arms and glaring at his fiancée.

The Weaselette shot Draco a mock-reproachful look. "Now you're not shouting at every mention of Malfoy's name, I guess I can fill you in on everything."

"That sounds like a great idea," Draco said before he strolled over to the door and pulled it open. "How about you go and tell him back in the Gryffindor common room."

"Hey! You can't kick us out," Weasley protested.

"Well, unless you want to join the club and see me without my clothes, I suggest you leave now."

"Eww … I really am going to be sick now."

"Just pretend that she reads Hogwarts: A History to him. That's how I deal with it."

"Thanks for the suggestion, Potter. I like it when Granger gets all swotty."

Granger groaned. "Draco!" she objected, turning bright red.

Amusingly, her two male best friends blushed as well. The only other person in the room as unaffected as him was the Weaselette, who just looked amused.

"Your friends have had your attention long enough. Now it's my turn."

"Trust Hermione to get the spoiled, demanding boyfriend," Potter grumbled.

"Tut, tut, Potter, you need to learn to share."

"And I'm not an object for the pair of you to fight over!" Hermione said.

The Weaselette got up and dragged her fiancé with her. "Come on, Ron!" she ordered. "It's time to give the lovebirds some privacy."

The three Gryffindors made their way out of the common room, the two boys glaring at Draco on their way out. He smirked at them, knowing they were desperate to stay and play chaperone but were too scared of either witch to suggest it.

"Finally," he mumbled, grabbing Hermione, pulling her flush against him and backing her into her bedroom.

"You can't just kick my friends out," she started to argue.

"Yes, I can. They were in the way," he said before kissing her and effectively shutting her up.

Hermione sighed as she curled into Draco's side, her head resting on his shoulder. The peaceful moments they shared in her bed were worth all the trouble they'd suffered to get there.

"Do you ever think what would have happened if I had ignored the noise in the dungeons in January and not come across you, Pansy and Blaise?"

He tugged playfully at the curl he was winding around his finger. "You would have found some other way to meddle. You can't help it."

"I do not meddle," she objected.

"Hermione, you are the bossiest woman I've ever met and that includes McGonagall. You're not happy unless you're telling someone what to do."

She propped herself up on her elbow and looked down at the blond. "That's not true."

"I'm not complaining. I find your bossy persona has all sorts of perks."

"You're such a sleaze."

"But you love it," he said with a wink.

She huffed but smiled as she kissed him briefly. "I didn't thank you for today."

"I thought you just did."

She thumped his chest. "Draco, why do you make everything so difficult?"

He shrugged. "It's all part of my charm."

"Charm? What charm?" she scoffed. "But thank you for going to Harry."

He shrugged nonchalantly as if it was nothing but Hermione wasn't fooled. He wouldn't have approached Harry for just anything; he'd done it for her and it was a declaration of how he strongly he felt for her. When she thought back to those fraught weeks at the beginning of term, she could never have imagined that she would end the school year wrapped in his arms. It just went to show how giving someone a chance, even against your better judgement, could be rewarding.

"I love you," she said, leaning down and kissing him.

"I love you, too, Princess," he murmured against her lips.


The End.

AN: If you liked that and want to read anything else from me, I'm currently posting two stories, The Accidental Malfoy, which is back after a long 5 month wait and chapter 5 should be up in a few days. And The Demise of Severus Snape, a short 6 chapter story, written for the Hawthorn and Vine Treasured Tropes fest. Of course, you can also look at my already completed works and one-shots and/or follow me on Tumblr or Live Journal for updates on what I'm doing (I can't guarantee to be interesting :)). Links are on my profile page.