3 STARS—I LIKED ELEMENTS QUITE A BIT BUT IT HAD MAJOR FLAWS
It's seventh year, and instead of joining Ron and Harry on the hunt for horcruxes, Hermione has returned to Hogwarts as head girl, where she actually has no plans to attend classes but to use the safety until Voldemort inevitably takes over the castle to pore over library texts researching horcruxes. She shares quarters with head boy Draco Malfoy, and they maintain a hostile, largely silent icy reserve from one another. One day she forgets to stow away her notebook, detailing everything she knows about Tom Riddle, horcruxes, and his defeat, and Malfoy finds it and hides it, and ostensibly reads it. She's horrified and begs him to give it back. He says he will, but only if she gives him a little sugar. This is not wholly out of the blue, as over the weeks they've accidentally caught one another looking rather closely, and Hermione has realized, to her consternation, that he's grown into quite the good-looking young man. Enough he's-only-wearing-a-towel-after-a-shower and she's-clearly-not-wearing-a-bra moments have ratcheted the sexual tension up quite high. Desperate to preserve her secrets, she agrees to be Draco's plaything for four hours—from eight until midnight—after which he promises to return her journals and never reveal to anyone what he read in them. On the night in question he shows up to their private common room with a bag, which he goads her to open; she's fairly certain it contains sex toys and he's just messing with her, so she refuses on principle to grant him the satisfaction and doesn't look. As the hours go by, she's quite surprised that, aside from some light binding and frankly expected-because-that's-the-kind-of-asshole-he-is humiliation, Draco's actually quite a patient, caring, attentive sexual partner and is possibly more interested in her pleasure than even his own. They can't help but start to bond over the hours and numerous successful orgasms, and as their mutual pleasure intensifies, Feelings begin to emerge. By the end, their reserve is broken, they're emotionally bare to one another, and they're quite bonded, and Draco admits that the bag didn't hold sex toys but Hermione's notebook, and he'd wanted her to find it so she could take it and hie off without doing anything sexual with Draco if she'd wanted; he'd never wanted her to feel forced. He then brokenly tells her that the Death Eaters plan to storm the castle the following weekend, and she must be gone by then for her own safety. She is now fully open with him about the horcrux hunt, and he is able to give her vital information that will help bring about Voldemort's downfall: he tells her to find one in his Aunt Bella's Gringott's vault, and another, Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem, he fetches from the Room of Hidden things, which he'd seen over the months he'd spent repairing the wardrobes in sixth year. Hermione urges him to destroy the diadem, which he does, after enduring bloodcurdling torment by Voldemort's spirit, who tries to convince him that he's an utter failure and can never redeem himself and has irrevocably destroyed his parents' lives through his inadequacies and guaranteed that he could never be worthy of Hermione. We skip forward to the end of the war, where Draco is on trial for his crimes. Hermione submits in his defense her memories of that fateful evening, where the court sees he warned Hermione of the Death Eaters' imminent invasion at his own peril and himself provided material aid in the destruction of horcruxes. He's acquitted. In the end, he and Granger stand together, lock eyes, and Share A Loaded Look. The book ends here, allowing the reader to imagine what their future might look like.
The pacing is off and the first section dragged and repeated quite a bit (they sit in mutual stony and belligerent silence! for a very, very long time!), and certain details are lazily vague (how is she back at school as head girl but never attending classes for weeks—months?—on end without gaining any notice? Surely McGonnagal would insist on some level of participation, even if she does know of Granger's task to research horcruxes. And surely other students—Ginny, Neville, Luna—would be knocking on her door. And surely Granger would have to leave her private common room SOMETIMES for meals . . .). Further, while the author does an okay job introducing a sexual awareness between Draco and Hermione, it still feels a little cheap and corny to have him propose an evening of sexual bondage in exchange for the notebook; I firmly believe ANY plot, however outlandish, can be made realistic by a talented author, but this set-up remains silly and pie-in-the-sky, wish-fulfillment-y, instead of feeling grounded and earned. And a seventeen-year-old as an S&M savant is always so ridiculous to me; I'm fine with throw-away wish-fulfillment fanfic, but it's not truly enjoyable unless the author works to make it credible, which this isn't quite. Further, I think it was a real cheat that Draco is given a get-out-of-coercive-rapey-prison-free card because he brought the notebooks in the bag but still won his kinky evening because Hermione's rageful pride kept her from looking; in the end, she didn't in point of fact know he would let her go and she only submitted to sex because she was trying to save lives. So it remains rape while the story is trying to give us Soft, Hey-He-Didn't-Really-Mean-It Draco, which I think is trying to have it both ways and not succeeding. Let me be clear: I am FINE with consent-challenged, toxic Draco in theory. My beef is with the author trying to exonerate him and failing.
That said, the sexual progression, once the Horny Evening is upon us, was excellent and the introduction of personal angst, bonding, and shared trust incredibly moving. The author's weaving together this Draco’s choices regarding horcruxes and canon events was very well done. While I continue to laugh whenever a teenager is drawn to be an utter sex god, the author handled this better than many—with specifics and techniques that seemed entirely human/attainable and not merely relying on A Big Cock And Magical Yet Unspecified Mutual Chemistry to draw out the big O's. In other words, her detail work on the sexual mechanics was good and made the subsequent fervent bond feel earned.
The epilogues were very moving, but they felt rushed, especially the second one. I’m sad it ended ambiguously, but also I love that it did. This maintains a narrative tension that’s actually quite pleasing, allowing the reader hope and to anticipate what happens between them next. (NB: I do recall that there were two epilogues, but I can't remember details. Was the trial maybe one and the meeting-each-other-with-a-poignant-gaze one a second epilogue? I have no recollection and am too lazy to look right now.)