(Please read the author's note at the end for more information.)

(Republished because the system was bugged yesterday. Let me know if you can see this chapter.)

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Destroys solid objects.

the kitchen was palpable the next morning.

Draco found Blaise, Pansy and Luna engaged in a lively conversation about the Order. Theo and Hermione, on the other hand, sat quietly on the counter. Everyone turned him when he entered.

"Hermione," he said. "Could you help Lovegood into the room? The four of us have some things to discuss."

She nodded and went to help Luna up. After the girls left, Draco cast a muffling charm and turned to his friends.

"I once said that we can't fall apart," he started. "So I think that we're better off sticking together. Sorry, Theo," he added, with an apologetic look at his friend.

Theo shrugged. He'd guessed that this would be the outcome. Blaise and Pansy were so insistent that Draco would have to go along with them.

"But we're going to defect my way," Draco continued, and Theo smirked now, because it was just classic, arrogant Draco Malfoy and the world was now righted on its axis once again.

"Alright," Blaise agreed. "What do you suggest we do?"

"We'll have to destroy this place," Draco replied promptly, "so that no one discovers what we've been doing this past three years. We'll have to camp somewhere else in the meantime."

His words were met with stunned silence.

Theo slowly recovered, but his expression was still laced with incredulity. "Are you serious?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

"But - but this is our home," Pansy said, sounding well and truly distressed. "You're talking about leaving everything - and I do mean everything, all the memories and all the fun we've had behind, and it's just - "

"Do you want to defect, or not?"

Pansy subsided. "Sorry."

"It's fine." He shook his head. "I hate this too, but it's the safest option. We have to destroy this place. The second thing is that we can't all defect at once. It's too suspicious. I don't want us to be killed before we can even contact the Order."

"Actually," Blaise cut in, setting down his mug of tea, "I think I have a suggestion. How about Pansy and I defect - while you and Theo find some other more obscure way around it?" Draco began to frown, and Blaise hastily explained, "this is something the two of us chose to do. You and Theo are just going along with it. So we should bear the consequences of our decision in full force."

Pansy nodded. Draco mulled over Blaise's words for a while.

"Alright," he acknowledged, at last. "You two can defect, and you two can do it on the day the Order attacks us. And Theo and I will somehow allow ourselves to be captured by the Order."

"What?"

"It's not difficult. You just don't fight back or block any spells."

"What if they shoot an Avada at me?" Theo yelped, glaring daggers at Draco. "Am I supposed to just stand still and let them?"

"Yes."

"Fuck you, Draco - "

"They don't use killing curses, Theo," Blaise cut in, with an amused chuckle. "Didn't you notice when you fought the Order the other night? They don't use any of the Unforgivables."

"Harry didn't even use an Avada on the Dark Lord during the battle of Hogwarts," Pansy added. "Remember? He used a stupid Expelliarmus. Practically child's play compared to the killing curse."

Theo glared at Draco. "And you knew that?"

"I didn't survive three years just for the Order to kill me." He smirked and grabbed his mug of tea, before he left the kitchen.

"Maybe I would," Theo muttered under his breath, reaching for his wand and casting a random, harmless jinx at Draco's departing figure.

Only to have Draco easily deflect it without even having to glance over his shoulder. Theo groaned in defeat. As usual.

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The day came for them to leave. The, as usual, was the last to finish packing. Draco had to help him, while the rest waited out in the living room.

"So, Luna," Blaise said to the blonde witch opposite him. "Are you excited to go back to the Order?"

She smiled. "Very. I'll miss this place, though. Although I do miss the Moon Frogs back at the Order's base too."

Pansy shot her a strange look and leaned against Blaise's shoulder. "I can't believe we have leave forever."

"I know," Blaise replied rather absentmindedly, before reaching for one of the bags on the floor. "You know what? We should take a picture together."

"Oh, brilliant idea. Hermione? Are you ready?"

"Almost!" Hermione stepped out of the room. She picked at the hem of the coat that Pansy had Transfigured for her and bit her lip. "How do I look?"

"Disturbingly Gryffindor­," came Theo's voice as he stepped out of his room, grunting as he lugged a huge bag that seemed twice his weight. Draco followed him, casting a quick extension charm on the bag to lighten its weight and shrink its size.

"Thanks, mate," Theo said, before turning back to Hermione. "Yeah, we're not going to have a Gryffindor-pride parade along the streets - I forbid it." He pointed his wand at her. "Colovaria."

Immediately, Hermione's coat darkened to an obscure shade of emerald green. She laughed, thoroughly fascinated by yet another spell, but Pansy rolled her eyes. "Yes, and now we have a Slytherin-pride parade on the streets."

"Better than a Gryffindor one." Theo grinned and turned to Blaise. "By the way, what was that I heard about taking a picture? You know I hate taking pictures."

"Only because you look fucking ugly in them," Draco commented dryly, raising his eyebrows when Hermione sent a disapproving frown his way. "What? He does!"

"It's true. I do. But at least I don't look fucking ugly all the time like the rest of you," Theo added wickedly.

Unfazed, Blaise got up, camera in hand. "Come on, let's take a picture."

Hermione went over to help Luna up as the others stood in front of the camera. Only Theo remained where he was, with a scowl on his face.

"Theo!" Pansy rolled her eyes as he continued to stand there unmoving. "Get your arse over here right now!"

"No. Nothing you say can - "

"Theo." Hermione's voice was pleading. "It's our last day here."

He stared at her for a moment, his firm resolve slowly ebbing away and, after awhile, he sighed in defeat and walked over to her. "Fine."

Hermione's smile widened and she pulled Luna closer to her so that Theo could stand on the Luna's other side. She slipped her hand through Draco's, and he shot her a brief glance, his lips curling into a half-smirk.

And as she smiled at the camera, she thought about the months she'd spent with the Slytherins. It was the happiest she'd been in the past three years. Somehow, it made all the bad things that had happened worth it.

And she wished for nothing to ever change.

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Draco and Hermione were the last to leave. Pansy hadn't wanted to see the place destroyed, so Blaise and Luna had left with her. Even Theo looked a little choked up when he glanced around for one last time.

Hermione waited for Draco as he destroyed the other rooms. This had to be the hardest for him, because he'd been living here long before any of them did. This was his home. And in a war, there weren't many places you could call home. But if the war ever ended, then what next?

This was no longer a place they could come back to.

Hermione looked around the living room. She remembered the earliest days. Her countless nightmares. Leaving the room for the first time. Learning about 17-65. Meeting Luna. Telephone calls with Andromeda. Afternoon talks with Pansy. Learning healing spells from Blaise. Playing Theo's apple game. Spending Christmas with the Slytherins.

And Draco. Every single bit of her memory of this place involved Draco. Draco helping her that first night and promising to keep her safe. Waiting for Draco to return. Healing Draco when he was hurt. Draco keeping his distance. Draco kissing her for the first time. Kissing Draco for the second time. Talking to him, listening to him, staring into the silence with him.

She wasn't sad about leaving this place behind. She was sad about leaving the memories of the people she loved in this place behind.

"Granger?" Draco's voice interrupted her thoughts, and she glanced up at him. "You alright?"

She took a deep breath. "Do you think we could come back to see this place? After the war?"

His expression was unreadable. "We?"

"Yes," she frowned. "You and me. Un-unless you don't want to - "

But the words had barely left her lips when he lowered his head and kissed her. He nipped at her lips in a familiarity that made her stomach tighten with delicious pleasure, and she pushed herself up on the tips of her toes, looping her arms around his neck to pull him closer. Her unexpected eagerness wrenched a low groan from him, and he kissed her harder, his lips demanding and fervent on hers in a way that was both mind-numbing and electrifying all at once.

If there was another memory she'd like to add to her collection - it was this. Draco Malfoy kissing her in an empty apartment like nothing else mattered but them.

He finally dragged away; his lips flushed red and eyes liquid silver. And then he smiled, one of his rare, soft smiles that made her heart stutter. "We should go."

She nodded and headed out of the flat. Sounds of the furniture being exploded echoed behind her. When Draco stepped out, the tip of his wand was singed red.

"Is it gone?" she breathed.

"Not quite," he drew out the telephone that he'd hidden behind him. Her eyes lit up. "Thought you might like that, even though your little muggle invention's quite useless now."

Hermione smiled and quickly opened her bag, stuffing the telephone in along with her other muggle books and stolen jumpers from Draco. She picked up her bag, slinging it on her shoulders, along with the other bag of healing potions that Blaise and Pansy had given her for Christmas. The wand Theo had found for her was safely in the pocket of her coat.

She followed Draco out, but when she found herself near the stairwell, she paused. A part of her suddenly registered that this was the first time she was ever going to leave the apartment. The thought of going outside was exciting, but for the most part it was terrifying.

Draco seemed to sense that she hadn't moved and he turned, his expression softening when he noticed the fear in her eyes. He wanted to make a teasing remark, but he bit it back and held out his hand instead.

"Ready?"

She smiled, her fears slowly dissipating when she remembered that she'd always felt safest with him, and took his hand.

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Thank you for reading the first twenty-five chapters of Draconian. If you have any questions regarding this story or Trigger, please leave them in and I will try my best to answer as many as I can in the following FAQ section. (Do note that I will not answer any questions related to my other universes.)

x Noelle