67A/N: Written for the DFW 2023 Trope Fest. My assigned trope was 'friends with benefits' :)
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"Benefits?" Draco asked.
"Yes," Hermione groaned. "Most places offer retirement fund contributions and life insurance, but the Daily Prophet is going above and beyond. They're giving their reporters and their families Malicious Curse Insurance—"
"Malicious Curse Insurance?" Draco repeated, amused. "They're journalists, not Aurors. Is that really necessary?"
Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Have you never wanted to hex a reporter?"
Draco paused. "…fair point. Carry on."
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Anyway, they've got Malicious Curse Insurance, and now they've also got free legal services," Hermione complained. "Undoubtedly, it's because their nosy reporters end up in sticky situations all the time, but still."
"And the Ministry doesn't offer benefits like that?" Draco asked.
"Oh, I mean, they've got all the typical ones," Hermione said, waving her hand dismissively. "Holidays, retirement contributions, life insurance, disability insurance. The only real one they have that's not customary is 'free lunches', and even that's iffy, given the slop they try to pass off as food."
Draco snickered. "Valid."
"Do you not get benefits from Malfoy Industries?" Hermione asked, curious. "I know you said your father is still in charge of everything, but even as an employee, you must get something."
Draco shifted uncomfortably. "I mean. They've got the fairly typical ones, but nothing special. I think that's under review, though."
"I wouldn't be surprised," Hermione sighed. "With the dearth of people available to work since the war, employers need to compete to get the best workers with more than just wages. It's good for us, but I'm just jealous, I guess. I wish the Ministry would keep up."
"You could always leave the Ministry…" Draco suggested.
Hermione scoffed. "What, and be a gossip reporter? I'd sooner face Voldemort again."
"You could find something else," Draco told her, encouraging. "Or you could do your own research, like you've talked about. You'd be able to set up your own consulting company."
"It's a nice dream, Draco," Hermione said, shrugging. "But it's simply not practical. I need the income from the Ministry, and I don't have the savings to finance an entrepreneurial venture right now."
"I could help with—"
"You are not giving me a loan," Hermione snapped. "Lending money between friends is the fastest way to ruin a friendship. Even if you mean well, it never ends well, and I'm not risking our friendship on a pipe dream because I'm dissatisfied with the Ministry."
She Apparated on the spot to go to work, leaving Draco staring at the empty space she'd vanished from. Crookshanks looked up at Draco, meowing.
"I was just going to give it to her," he said, crouching to pet the cat. "I'd never ask for it back. I'd give her the world, if she'd let me."
Crookshanks gave Draco a look that seemed to indicate he didn't think Hermione would ever let him do such a thing, and Draco sighed.
"Yeah," he said. "Me too."
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The next day found Draco and Blaise Zabini in Draco's corner office, throwing a miniature Quaffle back and forth.
"We offer more paid time off and more holidays than most places," Blaise said. "We also offer fertility assistance and daycare to employees."
"We have a daycare?" Draco said, surprised.
Blaise rolled his eyes. "For a company CEO, you really have no idea, do you?"
"Hey, I have you for that," Draco protested. "And an executive board. I'm more just CEO in name because I own the company. I don't need to know everything that goes on – I just need to be informed on strategic business decisions."
"And attracting and retaining employees isn't a strategic business decision?" Blaise countered.
"Are we having trouble with keeping staff?" Draco asked.
"Not more than anywhere else," Blaise said with a sigh. "Why?"
Draco hesitated.
"The Daily Prophet offers Malicious Curse insurance to their employees and their families," he said.
"Do you think our employees are likely to be cursed?" Blaise said, skeptically.
"No," Draco said. "But… I don't know. It's a nice thing. Just in case someone gets into trouble."
Blaise raised an eyebrow.
"You're the one most likely to get hexed out of everyone here," he said. "And I don't think you need Malicious Curse insurance to handle anything that comes your way."
"They offer it to their families, too," Draco said again, two spots of color appearing high on his pale cheeks.
Blaise gave him a long look.
"Even if we did offer Malicious Curse insurance," he said, "you do realize that roommates don't typically count as 'family' in terms of benefits, right?"
"I know that," Draco snapped. "I just—it was just a thought. Nevermind."
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Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy lived together at 61 Euclid Way. Most people were very surprised by this fact, upon learning it. When asked why they lived together, both would cite sharing living expenses in a tight wizarding real estate market. When asked how it happened, both would just shrug and uncomfortably change the subject.
How it had happened was thus:
Harry Potter and Pansy Parkinson had thrown an engagement party, where Draco and Hermione had both been in attendance. They'd sniped at each other with snide remarks over dinner, traded barbs over cocktails, and had devolved into a full-fledged debate near the bathroom during the dancing. After a long night bickering back and forth, Draco and Hermione had drunkenly Floo'd the Malfoy Family library to verify an obscure fact that was the point of contention that they'd been arguing about for an hour. Once there, they had somehow ended up having mad, passionate sex on the floor of the library, Hermione riding Draco until she clenched down on him hard, her eyes holding his as she gasped her climax, and Draco was lost.
The sex had been excellent – excellent enough that when they both woke on his childhood bed the next morning, hung over and regretting not drinking more water the night before, Draco had casually suggested an encore, and Hermione had agreed. In the light of morning, Draco had been able to see Hermione's body more and appreciate just how lovely she was, and Hermione appreciated his appreciativeness.
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("You're very good at that," Hermione said. She gave him a small, almost shy smile. "Ron never went down on me unless I practically begged."
"First, it's considered in poor taste to talk about an ex-lover while in bed with your current one," Draco said, looking up at her from between her legs. "Second, Weasley is an idiot, so this does not surprise me in the slightest. And third—" he licked her bottom to top slowly, the flat of his tongue trailing its way up her labia to engulf her clit, "your pussy is divine.")
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Draco had been in a good mood afterwards, even if he was sorry to see her go. Still, he hadn't had such great sex in years – possibly never, actually – and he was rather smug that even his childhood enemy hadn't been able to resist him the moment they'd been alone.
The next week, Hermione had invited Draco out for coffee, where she'd put forward a proposal that had shocked Draco: becoming friends with benefits.
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("And we just… we just do it?" Draco hissed, his eyes darting around wildly. "Granger, I don't know what you think is customary, but most boyfriends require monogamy from their—"
"I don't have a boyfriend," Hermione snapped. "And that's rather the problem, isn't it? If I want to get laid, I have to chance a random bloke at a pub. I'd much rather have a friend with benefits who I trust who I know knows how to get me off."
"And—that'd be me," Draco repeated, to make sure he understood. "You would use me for sex?"
"I mean, you'd enjoy the sex too," Hermione hedged, suddenly looking nervous. "You did have fun, didn't you? I thought—"
"Granger," Draco interrupted her, his silver eyes catching hers as he took her hand. "You are the best sex I've ever had."
Hermione blushed, pleased.
"Then it would be mutually beneficial," she told him, explaining further. "If one of us ended up in a relationship with someone, we could put the arrangement on pause or end it, but in the meantime, we'd both be able to have a bit of fun without worrying about getting tangled up in strings.")
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Draco, not being a complete idiot, had agreed.
Sex without strings with Hermione was excellent. Because they weren't dating, Hermione felt free to be fully uninhibited with him in bed, a fact that Draco greatly enjoyed.
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("I'm aware I can be rather a lot," Hermione admitted at one point. "I try to hold back when dating, getting to know someone. But with you – you already know me, and I don't particularly care if you think I'm too loud, so long as it's not enough to put you off going down on me."
"Granger, you could scream loud enough to deafen me, and it wouldn't be enough to stop me from kissing your pretty pussy," Draco assured her, smirking. "But by all means, you're welcome to try.")
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Draco's friends were also astonished and envious. Having sex with a woman you weren't actively courting simply wasn't done. Even modern witches generally wanted a committed relationship for at least three months before they'd give it up. Hermione wanting sex without the relationship attached was shocking and completely ass-backwards, but then, Hermione had never cared what the rest of the wizarding world thought, had she? Draco was rather smug about the whole thing, which made the situation even more unbearable to his jealous friends.
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("So you just have sex with each other?" Theo said. "You don't have to wine and dine her beforehand? None of the getting flowers or jewelry either?"
"Nope," Draco said. "She just owls me, or I owl her, and we meet up and have sex."
"That's fantastic," Theo said, groaning. "I'm jealous. Maybe I should start talking to Muggleborns, see if I could find someone with modern views like that too.")
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What had started as just sex quickly evolved into sex marathons over the weekends – long hours of exploring each other in bed, ordering food in, and conversation during refractory periods. That turned into weeknight hookups that left one of them having to drag themselves from the covers to Floo home late in the night. After a few months, Hermione had cautiously come to Draco with a suggestion – moving in together.
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("My lease is up at the end of next month," she said. "And you keep talking about needing to get out of the manor and away from your parents. We get along, we're both neat, and we could combine our libraries. And…" She bit her lip, hesitating. "Well. We would have separate bedrooms, but you wouldn't have to leave at the end of the night."
"To make sure I am understanding this correctly," Draco said, rather astonished, "you would like us to move in together as friends who are becoming roommates. But you would like to continue to have sex regularly – again, just as friends, without any romantic strings attached."
"Yes," said Hermione.
"I will begin packing immediately," Draco said. "Did you have a place in mind?")
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Living together had taken some adjustments – arguments over the optimal organization method for the kitchen and the library, how to decorate the sitting room, and how they would handle meals. Any particularly fierce arguments generally ended in fiery sex, a conclusion which Draco was particularly fond of, and after a few weeks, they'd found their equilibrium, both very satisfied with the arrangement.
Draco found having Hermione nearby excellent. Not only was he able to turn her around and snog her senseless whenever he wanted, but she was also brilliant. Intelligent conversation was something he wasn't able to get easily, and Hermione enjoyed discussing the theoretical with him and examining various ideas. From time to time, they'd decide to work on a Potions experiment together, and he found her a highly capable partner in this, too. He'd found himself glancing over at her, her hair tied up haphazardly in a bun as she frowned down at the cauldron, and wondering what would have happened if they'd been partners back in school, if things would have turned out differently.
Draco only realized how far gone he was when Hermione came home one night, telling Draco he was on his own for dinner.
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("What do you mean, you have a date?" Draco asked, following after Hermione as she changed out of her work robes and into a black dress.
"Just that," she said, wrangling her hair into a fancy twist. "I have a date. I'm meeting him for dinner in half an hour."
"But why?" Draco complained. "You've got me."
"Because he asked me," Hermione said, not looking at him while she looked for her jewelry. "He expressed romantic interest, and I was intrigued enough to accept to learn more about him. It's just a date, Draco – I'm not going to have sex with him right off the bat, so relax."
"He's not going to approve of our arrangement, and—"
"Unless things become serious, our arrangement is none of his business," Hermione said curtly. "I daresay a first date is a bit premature to discuss such things.")
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Draco had spent the evening at Blaise's, drinking with Blaise and Theo to forget. The alcohol didn't help him forget his feelings, though – he just got more and more maudlin and upset the drunker he became. They seemed to find Draco being upset over getting no strings attached consistently was extremely funny, and they peppered him with incredulous questions all night, ruining Draco's melancholy drunken haze by refusing to let him forget how far gone he really was for Hermione.
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("You get to have sex with her all the time, and you see her every day," Blaise pointed out. "And that's not enough?"
"No," Draco said stubbornly. "It's not."
"What more is there?" Theo wanted to know. "You've got all the benefits of being married with none of the downsides – there's no nagging, no expectations, no pressure, no demands—"
"I want her to make demands," Draco said. "I want her to be able to depend on me, to come to me for support, to trust that I would be there for her."
"You want her to come complaining to you about her menstrual cramps? Instead of just dealing with it herself?"
"Yes. Anything. I want to share her life.")
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Draco had gone home, taken a sober-up potion, and gone to bed fully aware that somewhere along the way, he'd fallen head-first in love with Hermione Granger, and he had no idea how to deal with it.
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(She'd come home that night, crawling into bed with him.
"Is it okay if I just snuggle and sleep with you tonight?" she asked quietly. "The date—things didn't go well, and I don't want to be alone right now."
Draco had felt a rush of warmth in his heart. "Of course. Come here.")
(The next morning had been a different scene:
"What do you mean, he attacked you?"
"Just that – he drew his wand, screaming that I was filth of the earth, that it was my fault that the Dark Lord had fallen—"
"Why didn't you call the Aurors? Why didn't you call for me? If you'd sent a Patronus, I would have been there in a heartbeat—"
"It really wasn't that big of a deal, Draco – the man was clearly an idealist, not a dueler. I disarmed him and trussed him up, and then it was just a matter of waiting for the DMLE to send someone out to make a report.")
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Because their relationship had been founded on practicality and efficiency, Draco found himself doing his best to make a case for why Hermione should let him more into her life. Some things worked – she was happy turn over her laundry for him to wash with his own (though he secretly just paid a House Elf to do it all for him), and she agreed upon a shared calendar on the wall they could mark things down on, but with some things, she just wouldn't let him in.
He'd wake up some mornings alone, and find that Hermione had returned to her own bed so she wouldn't wake him from her night terrors. No matter how often he told her he didn't mind, he'd be happy to hold her and comfort her when she awoke from her nightmares, she would demur, saying she didn't want to be a bother.
He'd find her curled up on her bed in the winter, sniffling with tissues scattered around, suffering with a cold instead of asking him to go to the apothecary and pick up a Pepper-Up Potion for her. It was something so simple that he couldn't imagine her not asking one of her other friends to grab one for her, so why didn't she just ask him?
He still had no idea why she seemed obsessed with studying Memory Charms, despite the fact she clearly disliked them. She had a full shelf and a half of nothing but advanced books on memory, Legilimency, and the magical mind, and whenever Draco asked, she'd shrug him off, saying she thought that the Ministry flung Obliviates around too freely and she was making a case against it in her free time. Her excuse had the sound of truth to it, but Draco suspected there was something more, something personal behind her obsession.
And she'd disassociate sometimes, just staring at nothing and going through the motions of her life like she was under the Imperius, and Draco didn't know why. Hermione in robot-mode, as Harry called it, was an uncanny and unsettling thing – she was just as efficient as ever, and she could even still help answer difficult questions or solve problems, but she did it all through an emotionless filter, where nothing seemed able to touch her or phase her into reacting with feeling. Draco guessed it had something to do with the memories of the war, but Hermione wouldn't open up and confirm his suspicions.
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("Part of the reason we both agreed to this is that there weren't strings, Draco – none of the messy emotions, remember? I'm not about to make you deal with my trauma."
"You're not making me – I'm offering. It's different."
"You're offering out of obligation, Draco. I'll handle it and be back to normal soon enough, and then you can sigh in relief.")
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But now, with the employee shortage hitting everywhere, a side-effect of having a very deadly war, there was a new potential angle for Draco to tie Hermione closer to him – one that Draco definitely wanted to explore, especially as he saw Hermione's envy for her friends grow with each new benefit she heard of.
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("Gringotts is offering not just Tuition Assistance and Reimbursement for Masteries, but also sponsoring Research Sabbaticals!" Hermione ranted, storming around. "Padma and Seamus are going to Turkey to study the ruins at Göbekli Tepe – or at least, she's going to, I don't know what he's going to do—"
"Wait, she gets to bring her husband along on this?" Draco asked, astonished.
"Yes!" Hermione burst out. "If he wanted to, he could go for a Mastery, and so long as Padma was still working for the goblins, Gringotts would even pay for his Mastery!"
"Wow," Draco whistled. "Sounds like you should get a new job with Gringotts."
"I've already applied and been denied," Hermione grumbled. "Something about not hiring people who rob them and steal their abused dragons.")
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So it was with this knowledge that Draco returned to Blaise, a new plan growing in his mind.
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"Let me get this straight: so we're not actually looking at what we can do to attract new employees," Blaise said, twirling his quill. "We're looking to figure out what benefits we could plausibly offer employees and their families that are things that Hermione Granger, and specifically Hermione Granger, would want to take advantage of."
"It sounds so obsessive when you put it that way," Draco complained. "I'm just trying to be thoughtful."
"You are obsessive," Blaise pointed out. "You're essentially trying to trick the woman into marrying you for a work benefit."
"She likes benefits," Draco argued. "That was the whole point of being friends with benefits. I just have to find a case good enough to make her want to be spouses with benefits, and then she'll go for it."
"You're mad," Blaise said. "It won't work."
"Why not?" Draco demanded. "It might be a little obsessive, but—"
"—but that's nothing new for you," Blaise dismissed, smirking. "I've just come to accept that you're whiny when you don't get what you want and move on. Now, these benefits. What's first?"
After about an hour, they had a list:
• Pet insurance
• Malicious Curse Insurance
• Magical Mishap Insurance
• Research Sabbaticals
• Mastery Tuition Assistance
• Apprenticeship Sponsorships
• Legal Services
• Dueling Gym membership
• Ongoing Education stipend (books)
"So what's the plan?" Blaise asked, looking over the list. "You find out which of these Hermione would want, then we go from there?"
"Roughly, yeah," Draco said. "If she doesn't show an interest in it, what's the point?"
Blaise raised an eyebrow. "You realize these benefits would help us recruit and retain employees massively, if you approved the funding for it?"
Draco shrugged. He didn't really care about recruiting employees at all. "We'll see what Hermione thinks."
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Draco made his first approach that day after work, broaching the topic after dinner, when they were both reading in front of the fireplace.
He told Hermione he'd been put on a committee to explore potential new benefits packages to help them recruit and keep employees. He framed it as if he were part of a group exploring different options – Hermione was under the impression that Draco worked for Malfoy Industries, under his father, not that he was Malfoy Industries and ran the entire company.
Hermione brightened at his first proposal, giving Draco a rush of hope toward the entire plan.
"Pet insurance?" she said, blinking. "That's brilliant. Owls—well, owls are avian, so honestly once they start showing symptoms of ill health, they're probably already half-dead – but that'd be lovely for cats. I know cat vet bills can be astronomical, though I've been lucky with Crookshanks so far."
Hermione rubbed his fur, cooing at Crookshanks, who preened.
"It'd be for employees and their families," Draco said, his heart pounding. "So—"
"Ah, right." Hermione faltered, then perked up. "Well, you live with Crookshanks, right? That makes him at least partly your cat, right? I bet they'd put him on your insurance if you asked."
"I—you're probably right," Draco faltered. "Um. Yeah. They probably would."
Hermione beamed at him.
"I hope they do that one, then."
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("So just to be clear, we're not doing pet insurance, even though she wants it, because her cat would be able to be covered through you, and not through her-as-part-of-you?"
"Shut up, Blaise.")
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"A Dueling Gym?" Hermione seemed surprised. "Doesn't Malfoy Industries mostly do Potions and business investments?"
"Yeah, but—people are still paranoid from the war, you know," Draco said casually. "It's not a bad idea, making sure that employees know how to defend themselves. They're considering Malicious Curse Insurance and Magical Mishap Insurance too, just in case. You know, for peace of mind."
"That's fair." Hermione considered. "The question is, do you think employees would go to a Dueling Gym?"
"I don't know," Draco said. "Would you?"
"I'd like to think I would," Hermione said, frowning. "It'd be good to keep my skills sharp and my reaction time up. But realistically, I'd probably lapse and forget to go all the time and just go home after work to curl up and read a book."
"We could go together," Draco suggested. "Dueling classes together could be fun."
Hermione laughed. "With us in the back, criticizing the instructor under our breath at every turn?"
"Hey, wouldn't be our fault the teacher wouldn't have much practical experience," Draco said, smirking. "Incompetent people deserve snarky comments."
Hermione laughed again.
"That would be fun," she admitted. "I wonder if they have Dueling Gyms that are open to the general public? We could look for a class and enroll."
"They're considering offering it as a benefit," Draco pointed out. "If I go back and support this one, and they pick it—"
"Then you get access to a Dueling Gym," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "And I am not about to apply to work for your father just so I can roll around on mats cursing people once a week."
"He's actually not that bad," Draco argued.
"He tried to kill me."
"He was under a lot of duress at the time! If you'd just agree to sit down and meet with him once—"
"I am not," Hermione said dangerously, her eyes flashing, "meeting your parents."
"I don't see why not," Draco said, sulking. "They've asked to meet you."
"You've mentioned. Repeatedly."
"They'd be kind, you know. Polite. They want to get to know you—"
"The answer is no, Draco. Go have fun at your Dueling Gym."
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Draco started pulling out the big guns next, bringing it up while they did up their boots and cloaks before work one day.
"They're considering copying Gringotts," he said. "Paid mastery tuition assistance for employees and their families."
Hermione exhaled. "Damn."
"Yeah," Draco said.
"I didn't realize the employment crisis had gotten that bad," she said, shaking her head. She was still bent over, doing up her boots. "I mean, if I were willing to work for a Death Eater, it would certainly attract me as a candidate. I'm not sure how practical it would be for your business, though – how much work would you be able to get out of employees if they were busy earning a mastery instead of doing their job?"
"You wouldn't have to work for a Death Eater," Draco said. "It would extend to employees and their families."
"Yes, but I'm not your family—"
"Then we make it so you are," Draco said, shrugging. "If we get married, you'll count as my family, and then the benefits would extend to you."
Hermione jaw dropped. "Are you serious?"
"If you're my legal wife, they wouldn't be able to deny it to you," Draco pointed out. "Then so long as worked at Malfoy Industries, you'd be able to use the benefit to get a Mastery in whatever field you wanted."
"While I'm sure that would work, Draco, I'm not about to marry you just so I can get a cheap mastery," Hermione said, standing up. "If I decide to get a Mastery, I can figure out a way to finance it myself."
"But why bother?" Draco protested. "If there was an easy solution within reach to take advantage of the benefits—"
"Good-bye, Draco," Hermione said sharply, and then she was gone.
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He tried again that evening, over dinner.
"They decided not everyone would have the time to pursue a mastery, so they're considering offering an annual ongoing education stipend as well," Draco said casually, passing the salad. "Employees and their families would get an annual credit for Flourish and Blotts each year, just to spend on books."
Hermione gave him a look. "Really?"
"Hey, I didn't come up with it," Draco said, shrugging. He paused. "Well, maybe I did a little, but only because I was trying to think of what would help attract top employees, and you're one of those."
"I'm not," Hermione scoffed. "It takes me ages to get anything done."
"You're wasted at the Ministry – you'd be brilliant anywhere else, and you know it – and wouldn't you like it?" Draco asked. "An amount of money you'd be given just to spend on books?"
"Of course I'd like it," Hermione said curtly. "But I can also just spend my salary on books as I please."
"Yes, but then the company isn't sponsoring your ongoing education and self-betterment," Draco pointed out.
Hermione paused, considering this.
"There is that," she said reluctantly. "Okay. Fine. That makes sense."
"It would extend to employees and their families," Draco said, "so employees could be sure they were raising smart children and the like. I wouldn't really need the book benefit, but if you wanted to take advantage of it—"
"This again?" Hermione looked angry. "Draco."
"It's just an idea," Draco said, defensive. "If we got married, you'd be entitled to the book benefit too."
"If we were married, I'd be entitled to your wealth as your wife," Hermione said curtly. "I wouldn't need the book benefit either."
Draco brightened.
"That's true," he said. "Then you could buy yourself whatever books you wanted. You never let me buy books for you. That would work too."
"I am not marrying you for books, Draco," Hermione said flatly. She sounded upset. "And that is the end of this conversation."
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"They're considering doing research sabbaticals," Draco mentioned the next day, as they sipped tea after dinner. Reading books in the living room before bed was a tradition, as it helped them both wind down from the day. "Fully paid, for employees and their families."
"For Malfoy Industries?" Hermione said, raising an eyebrow incredulously from over her book. "What, to investigate new sources of potions ingredients or apothecary partners?"
"Something like that, probably," Draco said, ambivalent. "Would you want that?"
"A research sabbatical? Of course. I don't know if it'd be enough to lure me over if I had multiple job offers at a time—"
"That's fair. Plus you like making a difference at the Ministry," Draco said, trying for casual. "I know you're not looking to change jobs. This is all hypothetical."
"Are you being snide?" Hermione closed her book and gave Draco a look. "Draco, you know how I feel about the Ministry."
"Still! I'm just saying," Draco protested. "If you wanted to stay at the Ministry, though, and they went for this benefit, we could still work out a way for you to go on a research sabbatical."
Hermione looked up at him sharply.
"Draco—" she said warningly.
"All we'd need to do is get married, and we could go to Alexandria, or to Cairo," Draco said, all in a rush. "We could see the sights during the day – they have magical tours, you know—"
"And have wild, passionate honeymoon sex at night?" Hermione said, her voice flat.
"I mean, I wouldn't say no to that," Draco said, flinching at the look she gave him, "but it'd be a research sabbatical – that'd be the point of it. We could tour the tombs, look through the old scrolls—"
"We could go on a trip ourselves if we wanted to, Draco," Hermione snapped. "We could plan a trip to Egypt and tour the tombs. You do realize this, don't you?"
"Well, yes," Draco said, not quite sure how to proceed. "But—this would be a benefit of me working for Malfoy Industries—we wouldn't have to pay for it, and we could—"
"I am going to bed," Hermione said, standing and throwing her book into the cushioned chair. "Alone. Don't come after me, Draco."
She stormed off, and Draco wondered just where he'd gone wrong this time.
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Draco finally went to Hermione's friends for help, wondering what he was missing. Ron wasn't much help, shrugging and suggesting free lunches (which made zero sense if the whole point was Hermione wouldn't have to actually work there to get the benefit), but Harry was more useful.
"This list is pretty good," he said slowly. "If the Malicious Curse or Magical Mishap Insurance is retroactive, Hermione might go for it."
"Retroactive?" Draco asked. "What do you mean?"
"Well, Hermione's experiences with malicious curses were all in the war or in the Department of Mysteries," Harry pointed out. "If she wanted to file a claim to get help with them, the incidents would predate the policy start date."
"Ah, of course." Draco was fast realizing he had no real idea how the intricacies of insurance worked. "And the Magical Mishaps?"
"Well, that'd be for her parents," Harry said, as if it were obvious. "That'd be dated before the start date of the policy too, back to seventh year."
"Her parents?" Draco repeated. "What happened to her parents?"
Harry's eyes went wide, and he turned to look at Draco in horror.
"Merlin, she hadn't told you?" he said, paling. "About her parents?"
"No, she hasn't," Draco said. "What happened to them?"
But Harry was shaking his head vehemently.
"If she hasn't opened up enough to tell you about them, I'm certainly not going to be the one to tell you," he informed Draco. "And if she isn't at that point with you yet, you may want to put this plan on pause and try to get there with her first."
"That's the point of all this," Draco argued. "She won't open up with me – she says that part of the whole arrangement was for the benefits with none of the messy strings. I need to give her benefits to being closer, for going further."
Harry looked confused.
"Wait, back up. You're trying to recruit her to Malfoy Industries so she opens up emotionally with you?" he asked. "That seems entirely backwards."
"I'm trying to make a case for why she should marry me," Draco told him, scowling as Harry started laughing. "If I want an upgrade from 'friends with benefits' to 'husband with benefits', I need to make sure the benefits are good enough that she'd go for it—"
Harry's laughter eventually calmed. He looked back at Draco, unable to suppress one last snort at the expression on Draco's face.
"Hermione is not going to marry you for a book stipend and a research trip," he told him. "Just ask her out on a date."
.
.
Not one to be deterred, Draco took Ron Weasley out for drinks one day. He led conversation back to the past, them both fondly reminiscing on how much they'd hated each other as children and laughing about it. Draco casually asked about how Ron's seventh year had been, given he'd been on the run that year and hadn't gone to Hogwarts.
"Merlin, that year sucked for us all," Ron said, making a face. "All the prep for it, too – 'Mione was ready for nearly a month before the Ministry fell. Packed the tent, gotten all the supplies ready, prepped everything to go. All I had to do on my side was jinx the ghoul in the attic to look like me with Spattergroit so they didn't come after my family…"
"Smart," Draco complimented him, and Ron grinned, drunk.
"Yeah. 'Least we just had to worry about the Snatchers," he said, remembering. "'Mione had to worry about the Death Eaters coming to kill her family – bit of a worse threat, y'know? Poor girl."
"What did she do?" Draco asked, trying to keep his voice normal. "Did the Order of the Phoenix put shields or wards in place to protect them?"
"What?" Ron looked at him, confused. "No, no – the Order didn't do things like that. Nah, 'Mione had to take care of it all herself."
"What did she do?"
"Wiped their memories, convinced them they were Wendell and Monica Wilkins and that they didn't have a daughter, then set them up with an entirely new life across the globe in Australia," Ron said promptly. "She said that if her family didn't exist anymore, there'd be no one for the Death Eaters to try and kill, and her parents would be able to live safely and happily in the meanwhile."
Draco's jaw dropped, and Ron nodded.
"Yeah, grim business, running from Death Eaters," he said. "She went back after the war to try and reverse it, but she'd done too good of a job – she couldn't undo the Memory Charm and get them to remember her or who they were before."
"But—but she goes and visits them," Draco protested. "Every Christmas Eve, she takes and International Portkey—"
"Yeah, and joins in the community barbecue with everyone else on the beach," Ron said. "She makes conversation and catches up with them – I forget her cover story, something about a consultant, I think – and it helps her know how they're doing, what's bothering them. I know last year they were worried about the roof of their dental practice, so she went and spelled that for them to fix it before she left, but yeah – she's just a distant neighbor to them who says hi every once in a while to catch up."
.
(When Draco finally made it home that night, Hermione was already asleep, and he crawled into her bed.
"Whassa matter?" Hermione said sleepily. "D'you want to—"
"I just wanted to hold you," Draco murmured to her, wrapping his arms around her and spooning her close. "Go back to sleep.")
.
Hermione had rebuffed Pet Insurance, a Dueling Gym, Malicious Curse Insurance, Magical Mishap Insurance, Research Sabbaticals, Mastery Tuition Assistance, Apprenticeship Sponsorships, Legal Services, and an Ongoing Education Stipend. With new information gained from Ron Weasley, Draco made another attempt one night, as they read in front of the fire after dinner.
"They're talking about Malicious Curse and Magical Mishap Insurance again," he said.
"Did they already consider that one?" Hermione asked, glancing up over her book. "I thought that came with the Dueling Gym."
"Yeah, but this time they're considering making it retroactive," Draco said, his tone casual.
Hermione's brow furrowed. "Retroactive?"
"Yeah," Draco said. "So it would cover things that happened in the war."
Hermione froze. Draco watched her carefully.
"That… wow." Hermione took a deep, even breath, closing her book and setting it aside. "That's… yeah. That would attract a lot of people."
"You think?" Draco asked.
"Absolutely," Hermione said. She was looking out the window, not meeting his eyes. "People have a lot of mental trauma from the war, but there's a lot of physical trauma, too. Like poor Lavender –she could get a specialist to help with those werewolf scars across her face. Or everyone who had nerve damage from the Carrows casting Cruciatus all the time."
"It would cover acts, too," Draco said, taking a deep breath. "I made the point that employees should be given the opportunity to make themselves better people. So any acts performed by someone covered would also be eligible for coverage."
"So if Dolohov worked for you, he could submit my curse wound for treatment?" Hermione scoffed. "Not likely."
"Dolohov's dead, so it doesn't matter if he would or not," Draco said, "but Hermione, you would be covered. You could just go get treatment for that yourself if you wanted."
Now Hermione turned to face him.
"Draco," she said warningly. "Don't you start this again—"
"And any acts you committed would be covered," Draco plunged on, desperate. "So your Memory Charms – you could get specialists for your parents, and it would all be covered—"
Hermione gasped, struck, but her shock quickly turned to outrage. "Who told you about my parents?!"
"It doesn't matter – Hermione, we could fix them. We could get you your parents back." He looked at her earnestly, his eyes pleading. "If we got married, you'd be covered too—"
"I am not marrying you to help my parents," Hermione said, but her voice wavered, emotional. Her eyes were closed, tears slipping out from under her lids, and Draco felt her resolve weaken.
"Why not?" he pushed. "Hermione, even you have to realize that the benefits would be immense—"
"Why are you pushing this so much?" Hermione's voice was anguished. "Can't you just accept a 'no'—"
"Sure, I can, but I don't see why you're saying no," Draco objected. "It's illogical – when the benefits would be so immense for you, it doesn't make sense for us not to get married so you can—"
"Because I want to marry someone that loves me!"
Hermione had leapt to her feet, her voice like a whip. Her hair billowed out in unseen winds behind her, like a curly brown mane. Her eyes were bright, practically glowing as she glared at Draco, who cowered back.
"I want to marry for love someday," she said, her voice wavering, though it was hard with anger. "I don't want to marry because my fuck buddy doesn't want to give up easy sex and thinks I can be bought over with books. I want to marry someone who loves me, who wants to share their life with me, not just legally tie me to them so I can't escape—"
"We can do that, then," Draco pleaded. "We can share our lives, Hermione, and—"
"Did you miss the part about love?" Hermione spat. "Because—"
"I do love you!" Draco burst out. "Hermione, I do love you. I've been in love with you for ages, now."
Hermione froze. She was looking at Draco with wide eyes, her expression unreadable, and Draco plowed on.
"I love you. I love you so much, Hermione. And—I'm sure if we got married, you could come to love me too, and then you could get your Mastery and pursue your dreams, and we could help your parents, and I could help you be happy. All I want is to make you happy, Hermione," he said. He moved towards her on his knees across the carpet, his eyes holding hers. "I do want to share your life. I want to be there for you. I want the strings, I want your trauma. And I know this all started because of the benefits, so I'm trying to make marriage seem worth it to you—"
"Wait," Hermione said, her eyes wide. "You're—"
"This is all a scheme thought up by me and Blaise," Draco confessed, the truth spilling out of him like a closet of Quaffles stacked too high. "The plan was whatever benefits you wanted that would convince you marrying me would be worth it, we'd institute those at Malfoy Industries. There was no committee making decisions. It was just me asking you. Just you. Your opinion was the only one that mattered."
"You were ready to marry me," Hermione said, astonished, "and you were prepared to bribe me into marrying you, even if you thought I didn't love you back?"
"Would it matter?" Draco said desperately. "If we were married, we'd end up with the strings, and I thought then you'd feel safe and secure enough in our relationship to let me in, to tell me about your parents yourself, to let me help, to let me make you happy—"
"You'd be fine with that?" Hermione repeated, horrified. "With just an eternal, endless unrequited love locked into a marriage?"
"I'm already in love with you, so it's not like this would be any worse," Draco pointed out. "And—I thought it would be better. You'd get all the benefits of being my wife, and I'd get the benefit of being near you, of being able to help you and be a part of your life—"
Hermione was crying openly now.
"Why didn't you just tell me that?" she demanded. "Why am I only learning about this now?"
"Because—I—I didn't want to mess up what we had," Draco admitted, his voice wavering. He felt weak. "I didn't want to risk losing you, by admitting I had feelings for you, when from the start you made it apparent that this was working because we didn't have feelings for each other. I couldn't bear the risk of losing you entirely. It would kill me."
"Draco," Hermione said, her voice frustrated, "why didn't you just ask me out?"
There was a pause.
"I don't understand," Draco said.
Hermione stood up.
"'Hermione, I've noticed we make a good pair, and I'd like to get closer and explore deepening our relationship together'," she said in a deeper voice, imitating him. "'Would you like to get dinner with me in Paris this weekend?'"
"Would that have worked?" Draco got to his feet as well, staring at her in astonishment. "Just asking you out?"
"Who knows?" Hermione shot back. "You never tried!"
"I didn't want to lose you!" Draco defended. "If you said 'no' and I ruined everything—"
"Oh, so your solution was to bribe me into marrying you for the benefits—?"
Seeing no other way around it and Hermione anger mounting again, Draco took the leap, moving forwards and grabbing her hands.
"Hermione, I'm madly in love with you," Draco he told her, his silver eyes looking deep into her rich brown ones. "I've fallen desperately in love with you, and I don't want to climb back out. Would you like to go to a fancy dinner with me in Paris?"
Hermione looked at him for a long moment, Draco's heart thudding hard in his chest.
"Yes," she said finally. "I'd like that, Draco."
Draco felt his knees weaken, nearly giving out with relief. He stumbled back against a chair, and he saw Hermione's lips twitch with amusement.
"Do you want to go for a dinner boat trip on the Seine and see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night?" he asked her. "If you want romance and love, I swear I can give you that. It's quite a view, and I think you'd like—"
"Yes," Hermione said, her brown eyes warmer now, though they still sparkled with tears. "That'd be lovely."
His heart was pounding, but the emotion in Hermione's eyes and voice gave him courage to ask for one more yes.
"Do you want to run away to Gretna Green with me afterwards?" he asked her. "We can get married, and I can promise to love you forever and ever until the end of time. We could make love under the stars, and I could worship your body and kiss you everywhere and promise to love you forever and never let you go."
Hermione was shaking her head with amusement. She was crying again, but this time there was a smile on her lips.
"We can run away to Gretna Green," she agreed.
"Really?"
"For a handfasting," she told him, her eyes firm. "I'll commit to a handfasting, but that's all. You'll have a year and a day to convince me to marry you."
"I can do that," Draco said, feeling a thrill. Fantasies of how to sweep Hermione off her feet ran through his head for a wild moment, of being to unleash his ability to love her full force. It took a moment, but he dragged his head back to reality, his silver gaze meeting hers once more, though he couldn't contain the joy in his voice. "Really? You'll let me love you freely, openly? Will you tell me what you want and how best to love you? I can do that – I will do that – and I'll show you how wonderful we'd be together as a couple, how good of a husband I could be for you, how much I love you and don't want to let you go—"
"You talk an awful lot about 'convincing' me to marry you," Hermione said, her lips quirked. "You haven't once mentioned convincing me to love you."
"That's because I can't, really," Draco said helplessly. "Love just comes. I can't control that, can't deny it. I certainly didn't intend on falling in love with you. I just got to know you better, and it just happened. I can't make that happen, I can't make you fall in love with me, but I can love you with all my heart and do the best I can to make you happy, and I can hope that that's enough."
Hermione was smiling.
"Just as well," she said. "It already came for me."
Draco's breath caught.
"Wait," he said, his heart now beating wildly. "When you say that— what do you mean—"
Hermione stepped up to him, closely into his personal space, her hands resting lightly on his chest. She looked up right into his eyes, a smile still playing around her lips.
"I already love you, you silly man," she told him. "I have for a long time."
She leaned forward and kissed him, and Draco responded immediately, holding her close and pouring his feelings into the kiss.
He'd never kissed her freely before – not really, not like this. He'd kissed her teasingly, he'd kissed her affectionately, and he'd kissed her sexually, but never before had he unleashed the full gamut of his feelings into a kiss. Emotions had been taboo, off the table so he wouldn't scare her away. Now, Draco's feelings of love and devotion flooded into the kiss, sweeping them both away as he cupped her face, and holding her to him as they lost themselves in the kiss and each other.
When they broke away from the kiss, they were both panting, looking at each other with wide eyes.
"I didn't know you could kiss like that," Hermione said. Her voice was light and teasing as she tried to catch her breath. "Don't get me wrong – you've always been a good kisser – but that – that was something else."
"I didn't know I could kiss you like that," Draco told her, cupping her face softly. "I didn't know that you'd let me, that you'd let me love you like that."
Hermione softened, looking up at him with stars in her eyes.
"You can love me freely," she told him, her voice soft. "Please do."
"In that case," he said, his gaze holding hers, "we should probably leave for Paris now, because if we don't, I'm going to kiss you until you're breathless and make love to you right here on the floor."
"More kissing sounds like a brilliant idea," Hermione said, still a bit breathless. Her eyes danced with mischief. "You never said the fancy dinner had to be tonight."
Draco groaned.
"I'm trying to do right by you now, Hermione," he told her, his voice strangled. "I asked you out, and I want to do it properly so you want me at the end—"
"I already want you, Draco," Hermione murmured. She leaned forward and kissed his chest, right between his clavicle at the base of his neck, before slowly kissing her way up the column of his neck to his jaw. She pulled back slightly, a teasing, impish sparkle in her eyes. "Don't you want to show me the benefits of letting you love me, Draco?"
Paris could wait, Draco decided, as he swept her up in his arms again, kissing her for all he was worth. Hermione gasped in surprise, then moaned and went pliant in his arms, wrapping her body around his and kissing him back. The fact he managed to Apparate them into his bed without Splinching was nothing short of a miracle, and Hermione only seemed more turned on by it, showing her appreciation for his impatience by pressing up against him more, rolling her hips against his, and Draco turned his full attention to the matter of making love to Hermione and showing her the full run of benefits she could enjoy with him as her husband.
.
.
After, when Hermione and he were both a bit sweaty and satisfied, cuddling propped up on the pillows, a thought occurred to Draco.
"They already offer Fertility Assistance and Daycare for employees," he said. "Malfoy Industries, I mean. As a benefit. Without me interfering."
Hermione turned to give him a look, and Draco did his best to look entirely angelic and innocent. Hermione rolled her eyes and looked away, smirking.
"Good to know," she said.
"Is it?" he asked.
"Yeah," Hermione said. She shrugged. "Maybe we'll take advantage of that someday."
Draco felt his heart thud in his chest hard, and he held her tighter.
"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, we will."
"To be clear," Hermione said pointedly, "if we do end up married and I do end up taking advantage of the benefits of your work position, it is not because of the benefits that I would marry you." She looked at him, meeting his eyes with hers. Her gaze was soft. "Just your love would be enough."
"You already have that," Draco promised her, and Hermione let her eyes close, a smile playing around her lips as she laid her head on his chest.
"You'll need a ring," she told him. "If we decide to go through with this after Gretna Green, you have to propose properly, and we have to have an engagement and a proper wedding, you realize."
"You will have the best ring," Draco vowed. "You will have the finest wedding around—"
"We will have the finest wedding," Hermione corrected, smiling. "You will undoubtedly finance it, but I will be the one to plan it, and it will be a celebration of us, of we, Draco – not just of me. Of we."
Draco paused. He smiled softly.
"Yeah," he said. "Benefits of marrying you."