FIC: The Marked Man (Draco/Hermione)
Title: The Marked Man
Author: Inspire inspired_ideas
Written for: The Harry Potter Kink Fest hp_kinkfest
Prompt: She makes his scars beautiful.
Rating: Soft R
Word Count: 2,850
Pairing(s): Draco Malfoy / Hermione Granger
Summary: Draco's scars are a map of his world.
Warnings: Non-graphic scarification, language, scratching, wanking, wounds, branding, burns, voyeurism, pain, knife-play, bondage, blood, juices, and minor character death.
The first time was accidental.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, Malfoy. I didn't mean to. Honestly," Hermione caught her lower lip between her teeth in that way that drove him mad with the desire to replace her teeth with his own. The only thing keeping Draco's cock from stirring at the sight now, was how completely rung out he was from shagging the wildcat he'd miraculously managed to get into bed.
When she tried to squirm loose of the hold he had on her, he drew her back against him. "Will you stop wriggling about for five minutes and allow a wizard to recover? You're going to be the death of me, you know."
"Will you turn me loose? I'm trying to reach my wand so I can heal you," she huffed. Draco chuckled. He adored when she got all bossy and huffy on him. It always made him want to haul her off to bed. He chuckled again at that thought. This time he actually had her in bed and she was bossy and huffy there too. He was completely gleeful over that. While he hadn't expected a shag to change her, a bloke never knew for certain how some personality traits would carry over into the bedroom. Granger in bed, as in life, was bossy, brave, passionate, curious, and right now too stubborn for words.
"No," he said as he swung his leg over hers, pinning her to him. "I don't need healing. I need to rest and I need you right where you …" He managed to catch a mouthful of hair as she squirmed again and he spit it out. "Possibly not quite where you are. I'd prefer not to suffocate on this wild tangle of brush on your head, but otherwise, I was very comfortable. Stop ruining the mood, Granger."
"If I don't heal it, it could leave a scar!" Hermione pressed her point and Draco just laughed. It felt good to have someone care.
"As if one more scar on my body would matter. Granger … Hermione, it's all right. It doesn't matter. You scratched me. I liked it. If a scar is the price I have to pay for the most amazing shag of my life, I'll take it gladly and ask for more." As soon as the words left his mouth, Draco wanted to take them back. He didn't need for her to know she had that sort of power of over him.
Hermione looked like the cat who caught the canary and Draco knew he was done for now. "It was amazing. Wasn't it? Thank heavens you think so too. I was so worried you might not want another go considering how wet and sticky I got your sheets."
Leave it to Hermione Granger to take his confession and give him one in return instead of keeping his to hold against him later. He had no idea what he'd done to deserve her, but it only strengthened his determination to make the most of the chance he'd been given.
The next morning after she'd gone to feed that squashed-faced, fat, orange cat of hers and get ready for work, Draco stood nude in front of his dressing mirror cataloging the marks she'd left on his body during the past ten hours and committing them to memory. Most of them would fade in a day or two. He wasn't sure he was ready to examine why that bothered him. Slowly he traced the parallel scratch marks that bisected a section of the long Sectumsempra scar on his chest. Her scratches with his existing scar connecting them formed a slightly tilted letter. Draco traced the initial with his fingers and smiled. Reaching for his wand, he carefully cleaned her marks, and then focusing carefully, he cast a spell to heal himself, purposefully leaving a heavily ridged scar behind. Her mark. A perfect letter H.
The second time was a fluke.
"Oh, gods! Malfoy, are you all right? What have I done? Malfoy! Malfoy! Speak to me!" Hermione cried after she'd put out the fire with her wand.
"Dammit, woman! I would if you'd let me get a word in edgewise," he shouted over her. He was fine. Mostly. His shirt was another story. It was destroyed. So were his nerves. Fire and Draco Malfoy were not friends. At least her frightened babbling had given him time to control his own panic. "It was my own fault for sneaking up behind you like that. Ouch," he winced. "Help me get this off, will you? I think the silver fastener burned into my skin."
Hermione blanched but helped him remove what was left of his shirt. She'd put the fire out before he'd been seriously injured but he wasn't unscathed. "It's a bad burn. I'm so sorry, Malfoy. Let me get the burn paste. We'll fix you right up," his girlfriend said before running off to fetch the potion.
While she was out of the room, Draco examined the burn. It was right over the top of one of the nastier scars he'd received when that menace-elf Dobby dropped a chandelier practically on top of him. Looking at it more closely, he discovered a new shape obliterated the old scar. Draco could feel his cock stirring. She'd done it again. Marked him. Without stopping to think, he found his wand with one hand and his groin with the other.
Hermione had hurried back with the burn paste and some aloe but froze in the doorway when she caught sight of him. "Heavens," she breathed, breaking Draco out of his trance. He'd forgot she'd be hurrying back in his rush to insure the burn mark turned into a brand. Where he'd expected to see horror on her face, there was only a look of intense interest and arousal. "Don't let me stop you," she encouraged him as she came closer. He could see her breath quicken. "You're beautiful," she said, with far more awe in her voice than he felt he deserved. This woman never failed to amaze him.
"Unbutton me?" his voice held the question despite the words being more of a command. Hermione nodded and worked the buttons of his trousers open to free his erection. Draco's own breath quickened when she took his hand and moved it back to his cock.
"What were you doing to the burn?" Hermione looked at closely. "It looks like a rune. Jera."
She saw it too. "It does. Hopes and expectations for peace and prosperity." He replied to her comment without answering the earlier question.
"A time of peace and happiness," she kissed his chest just to the left of it. Of course she knew her runes. She knew practically everything. "You didn't tell me what you were doing to it, Malfoy." Hermione looked up into his eyes. It was clear he wasn't going to get away with avoiding her question.
"Making it permanent," he admitted softly. Now would come the look of horror, he was sure of it. Draco closed his eyes and bowed his head when she took a step back.
"It is more symbolic than the old scar," she said in that voice she used when she was testing out a new theory or trying to figure something out. When Draco opened his eyes, he found that instead of looking horrified, Hermione was drinking him in with her eyes. "Does … um-that appeal to you?" Her eyes were on his cock now.
"Yes. Does that bother you?" Draco asked, hoping, praying she'd say it didn't.
"Not necessarily," she answered tentatively. "Do scars turn you on?" There was a note in her voice that made Draco think he needed to answer very carefully.
As much as his sense of self-preservation demanded he gloss over his weaknesses, his burning desire to be accepted and understood by this particular witch overrode his reluctance to expose himself. "This one does. Because you're the one who marked me. I like your marks on my body."
Hermione nodded and he could see the tension draining away. He risked a question. "You look as relieved about my answer as I feel about your response. What had you worried, Granger? Will you tell me?"
She blushed but squared her shoulders to answer his question. "I was worried for a moment that you might only be with me because I have scars too."
"No, love. Your scars are a part of you and I love you as you are, but I don't love you because you have scars. I love you because you're you." Draco snaked out his arm to pull her close.
"You love me?" Hermione asked, looking up at him with a smile as bright as the sun. "That's remarkably convenient, Malfoy, considering I love you too." Draco felt his heart soar. He'd not meant to confess his love quite this way, but there didn't seem like a better time than right now. And if he'd waited, he'd still be wondering about her feelings. Now he knew.
When they finally broke apart from the kiss that followed their mutual declarations, Hermione's eyes turned speculative. "Would my marking you have something to do with why these scratches healed raised this way?" Hermione traced the H on his chest. "I've been worried. I thought perhaps you blamed me for adding to your collection. I know you said you weren't worried about me healing them back when I scratched you, but then the next time we made love it looked so … pronounced I kept expecting you to take me to task." Hermione looked from the H to the rune burn and then up into his eyes. "You caused the first one to heal that way too. Didn't you?"
Draco nodded. "I did. I thought that even if you decided I was too much trouble, I'd still have your mark to remember you-us together. You're not upset?" He released the breath he was holding when she shook her head.
"No. I'm not upset. I'm a little turned on over the idea of my marks on you, but no, I'm not upset." Hermione looked at his burn with concern. "I am worried about how painful that burn looks. If you have it the way you want it, may I apply the paste now? There's no need for you to suffer too much for my art, after all." She winked at him saucily and Draco knew it wasn't just her jera that would bring him peace and happiness. It was also her.
The fourth time was deliberate.
"Hold still, Malfoy. I won't get this right if you keep thrusting your hips at me," Hermione huffed.
"Then move that pert arse of yours down six inches so I have contact with that cunt of yours. You're dripping all over my stomach, Granger. I'd rather have you dripping all over my cock." Draco smirked when Hermione growled at him. He did enjoy riling her up.
"I can't get this right if I move any lower. Now hold still or I'll tie you down so I can finish this scar without you wriggling and causing me to muck up," she told him firmly.
"Only if I get to tie you down afterward," Draco said, only half in jest. He thought she'd look brilliant tied to his bed. The only problem, his girlfriend was so bossy, he wasn't sure she'd go for the idea.
"Would you?" Hermione asked breathlessly. Her eyes had popped up to his and he could feel her vibrating against him.
"You'll just have to try it and see." He waggled his eyebrows in challenge.
Hermione Granger was always up to a challenge.
While Draco wasn't particularly interested in being tied down himself, he'd do just about anything to have her marks transform his old scars. The opportunity to tie her down in turn was definitely a bonus, because he was interested in that. Very interested. Learning later on that she was bossy, even while tied spread eagle to his bed, made it exponentially better.
The eighth time was aborted.
"Are you absolutely sure you want me to try this?" His fiancée was worrying her lower lip the way she did when she was anxious. Draco smoothed his thumb over the dent her teeth left.
"Hermione, if you're not comfortable doing this, then don't. It's not worth upsetting you," Draco wrapped his arms around her and carefully ran his fingers through her hair, trying hard not to let it get tangled up in his ring.
"This is your Dark Mark we're dealing with. Even if it has faded away to almost nothing, I'm worried that this could actually damage you if I make a mistake. It could be agonizing, Malfoy. Not just for a few moments like this one," she traced the sixth mark she'd placed on his body. The otter shaped scar she'd give him to obliterate the snake his demented Auntie Bellatrix had carved into his flesh had been agonizing, but Hermione's otter mark - her Patronus - was now his protector and his favorite scar.
Draco kissed the top of her head. "If you're this worried, then we won't do it. You have good instincts, Granger. If the idea bothers you this much, then we'll skip it. We can always discuss the idea again in a year or two. Who knows, by then, this monstrosity might be faded completely away. Maybe I still need the reminder to keep me on the straight and narrow, eh?"
The eleventh time was mutual.
"Fuck!" Draco's back arched up off the bed as the potion crawled into the wound and sizzled. Hermione shrieked in pleasure as she impaled herself on his rock hard cock and rode him to completion.
Later, once they'd caught their breath and he'd come down off the endorphin high, Draco smiled up at his bride who was tracing his latest scar, an infinity symbol, positively enthralled by it. "My turn. Do it to me. I want one of these too."
"Yes," he growled, flipping her onto her back and proceeding to work her into that frenzy of desire that he knew would transform the pain of the blade and the potion into a searing pleasure.
The thirteenth time was unique.
"There's really not a good scar to adapt for this, Malfoy." Hermione looked over his chest, neck, and upper arms, with a frown.
"Then pick a blank space, Granger." Draco had long since given up making any claims about not loving his scars. His wife made his scars beautiful. "Aren't you at all curious about what it would be like to work on a blank piece of parchment for once?" He waggled his eyebrows at her. "You know how much you love fresh parchment."
"Yes, but…" She bit her lip and Draco growled.
"No buts, Hermione. Scorpius deserves his own space." If she wouldn't do it for herself, he knew she'd do it for their newborn son.
The constellation she carved into his left arm supplanted the otter as his favorite but his wife didn't mind. It held the position of favorite for two years until the birth of their daughter Rose forced a tie.
The seventeenth time was in remembrance.
Draco turned from his father's harsh words. His face was a mask he was certain no one could see through. No one except Hermione, that was. She could see; she always could. He offered his arm to his wife and together they left the family crypt where his mother was being interred. His overwhelming grief at the loss of the only parent who had loved him unconditionally made it impossible for him to do more than hold on and trust his wife to see them safely home.
He collapsed in his wife's arms, crying all the tears that he'd never, even for a hundred vaults full of Galleons, have let anyone but her see. Later, after releasing some of his grief in his wife's welcoming body, he was ready to talk. "I don't want to forget her, Hermione. She always did her best to protect me, not that I appreciated it, ungrateful wretch that I am."
"She was a great lady," Hermione told him and Draco knew she meant it. His wife and mother, for all their differences, were both strong, loyal, supportive women who had come to appreciate each other and their importance in his life. "She'll always be a part of you here," she laid her hand over his heart. A moment later her hand slid lower and she began tracing one of still unmodified parts of his Sectumsepra scar. "I've been thinking for some time now that this looks quite a bit like a stem. Your mother always smelled of lavender. Do you think it might help you to remember her if I turned this into a sprig of English lavender for you?"
Draco looked down where her fingers were moving along his stomach and smiled for the first time that day. His mother might have loved him unconditionally, but it was his wife who understood him. "I think that would be perfect."
Author: Inspire inspired_ideas
Written for: The Harry Potter Kink Fest hp_kinkfest
Prompt: She makes his scars beautiful.
Rating: Soft R
Word Count: 2,850
Pairing(s): Draco Malfoy / Hermione Granger
Summary: Draco's scars are a map of his world.
Warnings: Non-graphic scarification, language, scratching, wanking, wounds, branding, burns, voyeurism, pain, knife-play, bondage, blood, juices, and minor character death.
The first time was accidental.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, Malfoy. I didn't mean to. Honestly," Hermione caught her lower lip between her teeth in that way that drove him mad with the desire to replace her teeth with his own. The only thing keeping Draco's cock from stirring at the sight now, was how completely rung out he was from shagging the wildcat he'd miraculously managed to get into bed.
When she tried to squirm loose of the hold he had on her, he drew her back against him. "Will you stop wriggling about for five minutes and allow a wizard to recover? You're going to be the death of me, you know."
"Will you turn me loose? I'm trying to reach my wand so I can heal you," she huffed. Draco chuckled. He adored when she got all bossy and huffy on him. It always made him want to haul her off to bed. He chuckled again at that thought. This time he actually had her in bed and she was bossy and huffy there too. He was completely gleeful over that. While he hadn't expected a shag to change her, a bloke never knew for certain how some personality traits would carry over into the bedroom. Granger in bed, as in life, was bossy, brave, passionate, curious, and right now too stubborn for words.
"No," he said as he swung his leg over hers, pinning her to him. "I don't need healing. I need to rest and I need you right where you …" He managed to catch a mouthful of hair as she squirmed again and he spit it out. "Possibly not quite where you are. I'd prefer not to suffocate on this wild tangle of brush on your head, but otherwise, I was very comfortable. Stop ruining the mood, Granger."
"If I don't heal it, it could leave a scar!" Hermione pressed her point and Draco just laughed. It felt good to have someone care.
"As if one more scar on my body would matter. Granger … Hermione, it's all right. It doesn't matter. You scratched me. I liked it. If a scar is the price I have to pay for the most amazing shag of my life, I'll take it gladly and ask for more." As soon as the words left his mouth, Draco wanted to take them back. He didn't need for her to know she had that sort of power of over him.
Hermione looked like the cat who caught the canary and Draco knew he was done for now. "It was amazing. Wasn't it? Thank heavens you think so too. I was so worried you might not want another go considering how wet and sticky I got your sheets."
Leave it to Hermione Granger to take his confession and give him one in return instead of keeping his to hold against him later. He had no idea what he'd done to deserve her, but it only strengthened his determination to make the most of the chance he'd been given.
The next morning after she'd gone to feed that squashed-faced, fat, orange cat of hers and get ready for work, Draco stood nude in front of his dressing mirror cataloging the marks she'd left on his body during the past ten hours and committing them to memory. Most of them would fade in a day or two. He wasn't sure he was ready to examine why that bothered him. Slowly he traced the parallel scratch marks that bisected a section of the long Sectumsempra scar on his chest. Her scratches with his existing scar connecting them formed a slightly tilted letter. Draco traced the initial with his fingers and smiled. Reaching for his wand, he carefully cleaned her marks, and then focusing carefully, he cast a spell to heal himself, purposefully leaving a heavily ridged scar behind. Her mark. A perfect letter H.
The second time was a fluke.
"Oh, gods! Malfoy, are you all right? What have I done? Malfoy! Malfoy! Speak to me!" Hermione cried after she'd put out the fire with her wand.
"Dammit, woman! I would if you'd let me get a word in edgewise," he shouted over her. He was fine. Mostly. His shirt was another story. It was destroyed. So were his nerves. Fire and Draco Malfoy were not friends. At least her frightened babbling had given him time to control his own panic. "It was my own fault for sneaking up behind you like that. Ouch," he winced. "Help me get this off, will you? I think the silver fastener burned into my skin."
Hermione blanched but helped him remove what was left of his shirt. She'd put the fire out before he'd been seriously injured but he wasn't unscathed. "It's a bad burn. I'm so sorry, Malfoy. Let me get the burn paste. We'll fix you right up," his girlfriend said before running off to fetch the potion.
While she was out of the room, Draco examined the burn. It was right over the top of one of the nastier scars he'd received when that menace-elf Dobby dropped a chandelier practically on top of him. Looking at it more closely, he discovered a new shape obliterated the old scar. Draco could feel his cock stirring. She'd done it again. Marked him. Without stopping to think, he found his wand with one hand and his groin with the other.
Hermione had hurried back with the burn paste and some aloe but froze in the doorway when she caught sight of him. "Heavens," she breathed, breaking Draco out of his trance. He'd forgot she'd be hurrying back in his rush to insure the burn mark turned into a brand. Where he'd expected to see horror on her face, there was only a look of intense interest and arousal. "Don't let me stop you," she encouraged him as she came closer. He could see her breath quicken. "You're beautiful," she said, with far more awe in her voice than he felt he deserved. This woman never failed to amaze him.
"Unbutton me?" his voice held the question despite the words being more of a command. Hermione nodded and worked the buttons of his trousers open to free his erection. Draco's own breath quickened when she took his hand and moved it back to his cock.
"What were you doing to the burn?" Hermione looked at closely. "It looks like a rune. Jera."
She saw it too. "It does. Hopes and expectations for peace and prosperity." He replied to her comment without answering the earlier question.
"A time of peace and happiness," she kissed his chest just to the left of it. Of course she knew her runes. She knew practically everything. "You didn't tell me what you were doing to it, Malfoy." Hermione looked up into his eyes. It was clear he wasn't going to get away with avoiding her question.
"Making it permanent," he admitted softly. Now would come the look of horror, he was sure of it. Draco closed his eyes and bowed his head when she took a step back.
"It is more symbolic than the old scar," she said in that voice she used when she was testing out a new theory or trying to figure something out. When Draco opened his eyes, he found that instead of looking horrified, Hermione was drinking him in with her eyes. "Does … um-that appeal to you?" Her eyes were on his cock now.
"Yes. Does that bother you?" Draco asked, hoping, praying she'd say it didn't.
"Not necessarily," she answered tentatively. "Do scars turn you on?" There was a note in her voice that made Draco think he needed to answer very carefully.
As much as his sense of self-preservation demanded he gloss over his weaknesses, his burning desire to be accepted and understood by this particular witch overrode his reluctance to expose himself. "This one does. Because you're the one who marked me. I like your marks on my body."
Hermione nodded and he could see the tension draining away. He risked a question. "You look as relieved about my answer as I feel about your response. What had you worried, Granger? Will you tell me?"
She blushed but squared her shoulders to answer his question. "I was worried for a moment that you might only be with me because I have scars too."
"No, love. Your scars are a part of you and I love you as you are, but I don't love you because you have scars. I love you because you're you." Draco snaked out his arm to pull her close.
"You love me?" Hermione asked, looking up at him with a smile as bright as the sun. "That's remarkably convenient, Malfoy, considering I love you too." Draco felt his heart soar. He'd not meant to confess his love quite this way, but there didn't seem like a better time than right now. And if he'd waited, he'd still be wondering about her feelings. Now he knew.
When they finally broke apart from the kiss that followed their mutual declarations, Hermione's eyes turned speculative. "Would my marking you have something to do with why these scratches healed raised this way?" Hermione traced the H on his chest. "I've been worried. I thought perhaps you blamed me for adding to your collection. I know you said you weren't worried about me healing them back when I scratched you, but then the next time we made love it looked so … pronounced I kept expecting you to take me to task." Hermione looked from the H to the rune burn and then up into his eyes. "You caused the first one to heal that way too. Didn't you?"
Draco nodded. "I did. I thought that even if you decided I was too much trouble, I'd still have your mark to remember you-us together. You're not upset?" He released the breath he was holding when she shook her head.
"No. I'm not upset. I'm a little turned on over the idea of my marks on you, but no, I'm not upset." Hermione looked at his burn with concern. "I am worried about how painful that burn looks. If you have it the way you want it, may I apply the paste now? There's no need for you to suffer too much for my art, after all." She winked at him saucily and Draco knew it wasn't just her jera that would bring him peace and happiness. It was also her.
The fourth time was deliberate.
"Hold still, Malfoy. I won't get this right if you keep thrusting your hips at me," Hermione huffed.
"Then move that pert arse of yours down six inches so I have contact with that cunt of yours. You're dripping all over my stomach, Granger. I'd rather have you dripping all over my cock." Draco smirked when Hermione growled at him. He did enjoy riling her up.
"I can't get this right if I move any lower. Now hold still or I'll tie you down so I can finish this scar without you wriggling and causing me to muck up," she told him firmly.
"Only if I get to tie you down afterward," Draco said, only half in jest. He thought she'd look brilliant tied to his bed. The only problem, his girlfriend was so bossy, he wasn't sure she'd go for the idea.
"Would you?" Hermione asked breathlessly. Her eyes had popped up to his and he could feel her vibrating against him.
"You'll just have to try it and see." He waggled his eyebrows in challenge.
Hermione Granger was always up to a challenge.
While Draco wasn't particularly interested in being tied down himself, he'd do just about anything to have her marks transform his old scars. The opportunity to tie her down in turn was definitely a bonus, because he was interested in that. Very interested. Learning later on that she was bossy, even while tied spread eagle to his bed, made it exponentially better.
The eighth time was aborted.
"Are you absolutely sure you want me to try this?" His fiancée was worrying her lower lip the way she did when she was anxious. Draco smoothed his thumb over the dent her teeth left.
"Hermione, if you're not comfortable doing this, then don't. It's not worth upsetting you," Draco wrapped his arms around her and carefully ran his fingers through her hair, trying hard not to let it get tangled up in his ring.
"This is your Dark Mark we're dealing with. Even if it has faded away to almost nothing, I'm worried that this could actually damage you if I make a mistake. It could be agonizing, Malfoy. Not just for a few moments like this one," she traced the sixth mark she'd placed on his body. The otter shaped scar she'd give him to obliterate the snake his demented Auntie Bellatrix had carved into his flesh had been agonizing, but Hermione's otter mark - her Patronus - was now his protector and his favorite scar.
Draco kissed the top of her head. "If you're this worried, then we won't do it. You have good instincts, Granger. If the idea bothers you this much, then we'll skip it. We can always discuss the idea again in a year or two. Who knows, by then, this monstrosity might be faded completely away. Maybe I still need the reminder to keep me on the straight and narrow, eh?"
The eleventh time was mutual.
"Fuck!" Draco's back arched up off the bed as the potion crawled into the wound and sizzled. Hermione shrieked in pleasure as she impaled herself on his rock hard cock and rode him to completion.
Later, once they'd caught their breath and he'd come down off the endorphin high, Draco smiled up at his bride who was tracing his latest scar, an infinity symbol, positively enthralled by it. "My turn. Do it to me. I want one of these too."
"Yes," he growled, flipping her onto her back and proceeding to work her into that frenzy of desire that he knew would transform the pain of the blade and the potion into a searing pleasure.
The thirteenth time was unique.
"There's really not a good scar to adapt for this, Malfoy." Hermione looked over his chest, neck, and upper arms, with a frown.
"Then pick a blank space, Granger." Draco had long since given up making any claims about not loving his scars. His wife made his scars beautiful. "Aren't you at all curious about what it would be like to work on a blank piece of parchment for once?" He waggled his eyebrows at her. "You know how much you love fresh parchment."
"Yes, but…" She bit her lip and Draco growled.
"No buts, Hermione. Scorpius deserves his own space." If she wouldn't do it for herself, he knew she'd do it for their newborn son.
The constellation she carved into his left arm supplanted the otter as his favorite but his wife didn't mind. It held the position of favorite for two years until the birth of their daughter Rose forced a tie.
The seventeenth time was in remembrance.
Draco turned from his father's harsh words. His face was a mask he was certain no one could see through. No one except Hermione, that was. She could see; she always could. He offered his arm to his wife and together they left the family crypt where his mother was being interred. His overwhelming grief at the loss of the only parent who had loved him unconditionally made it impossible for him to do more than hold on and trust his wife to see them safely home.
He collapsed in his wife's arms, crying all the tears that he'd never, even for a hundred vaults full of Galleons, have let anyone but her see. Later, after releasing some of his grief in his wife's welcoming body, he was ready to talk. "I don't want to forget her, Hermione. She always did her best to protect me, not that I appreciated it, ungrateful wretch that I am."
"She was a great lady," Hermione told him and Draco knew she meant it. His wife and mother, for all their differences, were both strong, loyal, supportive women who had come to appreciate each other and their importance in his life. "She'll always be a part of you here," she laid her hand over his heart. A moment later her hand slid lower and she began tracing one of still unmodified parts of his Sectumsepra scar. "I've been thinking for some time now that this looks quite a bit like a stem. Your mother always smelled of lavender. Do you think it might help you to remember her if I turned this into a sprig of English lavender for you?"
Draco looked down where her fingers were moving along his stomach and smiled for the first time that day. His mother might have loved him unconditionally, but it was his wife who understood him. "I think that would be perfect."