Breath Mints / Battle Scars

**Breath Mints / Battle Scars** (also styled **Breath Mints & Battle Scars**) is a non-crossover fanfic by Onyx and Elm available at FanFiction.net and AO3; it was earlier also available on WattPad, but no longer as of Oct 2021. It is rated **Explicit** (but **Mature** on FF.net), contains slightly more than 150 000 words and was published between 2018 and 2020. It is set in the year after the War and is told from Hermione's perspective, interspersed with entries from Draco's diary; the Ministry of Magic has rebuilt Hogwarts without any visible trace of the Battle of Hogwarts, and everybody is back in school as if the previous year had never happened – except of course that it did, and both Hermione and Draco are too traumatized to fit in well with their peers.

## Trigger warnings

* **Attempted suicide**
* Consensual non-consent
* Emotional abuse
* Graphic depiction of torture and physical abuse
* Character death

## Plot summary

Returning to Hogwarts after the war, Hermione is surprised that everybody else seems to able to flow seamlessly back into their old lives as if the war was nothing but a bad dream. Even Harry seems no worse for wear, while she herself is quite unable to put her experiences during the past year behind her. On the first day of the school year, she keeps looking for hints that any of her friends are in a similar situation, but finds none. Or rather, she finds *one* — but not among her friends. Draco Malfoy has also had his life shattered. For a week she manages to keep her facade up, distracting herself by focusing on her studies and somehow managing to at least stay in her friends' presence even if she doesn't interact very much with them, but then she snaps. Suddenly she is running out of the castle — and by chance, interrupts Malfoy's attempt to drown himself in the Black Lake. He chases her off, but even though he's a former enemy she doesn't want him to die, and when he's half an hour late for breakfast the next morning she can't help to worry that maybe he tried again. Their paths keep crossing, and she starts noticing the bias against Slytherin students held by other students and teachers alike; when she destroys a bathroom in a sudden fit of anger, Malfoy — who only came by to see what the noise was — is automatically assumed to be the culprit and she almost has to fight to have the blame assigned to herself instead.

Under the influence of butterbeer laced with veritaserum, they for once manage a civil discussion; then she lets slip that she finds him good-looking, and he kisses her. And she returns the kiss, for a long while, until they are interrupted. Unfortunately, it leaves marks that are noticed by her friends — who are happy that she has found somebody, but also very curious about who it is... She can't tell them the truth, so she claims she doesn't know, that it was dark and she was drunk, and it was just a momentary thing.

She filches the little purple note book she's seen him write in, and finds out that it is a diary, whose entries he's supposed to send to a psychiatric healer regularly. She reads it, even though she knows she shouldn't, and learns exactly how broken he is — and that his opinion of her has begun to change, recently. But she has no idea what to do with it now; if he doesn't get it back, he'll be arrested or worse, but she can't simply return it without revealing that it was she who stole it... She hides it under her pillow in an attempt to buy some time, but a house elf finds it while she's at breakfast, so Parvati Patil hands it over — before class, in full view of everyone. After class, Malfoy chases her down and physically attacks her, until grabbed by Theodore Nott and stunned by professor Havershim. Then Ron beats him bloody. Hermione, feeling guilty and that she rather deserved the whole ordeal, berates him for beating up an unconscious man, and tries to correct her mistake the only way she can think of: she grabs the journal, writes an entry in his name and sends it off, hoping it isn't too late.

During the Halloween ball, he sneaks into the Samhain Quadrille to dance with her, dressed in a costume that hides his identity from the casual onlooker. Hermione almost confesses the truth to Ginny when Parvati notices the blond hair and comes to the conclusion that it was Zacharias Smith, and Hermione, noting Ginny's relief, agrees. The next day, the rumours are all over school, and soon Zacharias wants to talk to her. When he explains that he is gay, she ends up blurting out the truth — and he suggests they might play at being a couple, which would help him hide his orientation as well. But when a supposedly therapeutic D.A.D.A. lesson with a boggart goes awry, it isn't he who steps in front of her to shield her; it is Malfoy. And when she wants to end the charade — perhaps with a nicely scripted argument, to avoid suspicion — Zacharias threatens to reveal her secret.

One day when she is helping Madame Pomfrey in the hospital wing, Malfoy is brought in; he's tried to get rid of his infected Dark Mark by cutting away the skin it is grafted into, and now he's losing blood quickly. Since the dark magic prevents healing, Pomfrey prepares a torniquet, but Hermione has an idea that might save his arm: she casts imperio at the mark, and commands it to heal! It works, but also brings down the aurors on her. She gets away with a warning and her wand being blocked from using magic for twenty-four hours, but when she returns to school she again finds the biased rumour mill claiming Malfoy attacked her. When she visits him late at night, he is angry that she didn't let him get rid of the mark, even at the expense of an arm, but she simply bares her scar from Bellatrix' torture, saying "If I have to live with mine, then you have to live with yours". They end up in bed, going all the way — at her insistence — and for the first time, she calls him *Draco*.

The next morning, she finally tells Ginny. She isn't happy, but accepts it: "I may hate him. But it is none of my business who you see. [...] And while I may judge Malfoy — *will*, will judge Malfoy — I will never judge you." But Draco avoids her and spends his time with Pansy Parkinson, who is all over him whenever she gets the chance; when Hermione eventually corners him, he points out how she seems to be ashamed of their relationship.So, on Christmas Eve, she asks him for a date. To the muggle Christmas market on Trafalgar Square, where they won't be bothered, and as it turns out he quite likes it. The night ends in a pile of pillows in the Divination classroom. The date is the main news of the Daily Prophet on Christmas Day, and her friends are confused or — Ron, particularly — angry. When they return after Christmas break, she finds she can't stay in the Gryffindor dorms. Instead she seeks refuge in the Slytherin dungeon; Draco isn't there, but Theodore Nott lets her in over Pansy's protests and he and Blaise Zabini keep her company until Draco eventually returns.

The Daily Prophet reports on Crusaders For Justice, a newly founded organisation led by former auror John Dawlish, which calls for reopening all cases where a Death Eater or other supporter of Voldemort was sentenced to anything less than a Dementor's Kiss. Due to the Statute of Secrecy, any number of retrials is possible whenever the current sentence can be said to allow the subject to pose a threat to the secrecy of the Wizarding World.

Ron comes across them having sex in the Astronomy tower, and Hermione realises Draco deliberately set things up so that this would happen. Ron is devastated, of course, but Hermione ends up comforting him and the breach between them starts healing. Draco, meanwhile, loses himself in recrimination, going so far as to ask Theo to beat him up, and eventually encloses himself in a several feet thick wall of ice in the Slytherin common room. The other students try to breach it themselves for over an hour, then Pansy goes to find Hermione — who is allowed to cross. His Dark Mark has eaten away the flesh of his arm, down to the bone, and his main worry is that the others will see it. When she promises to help keep it hidden, he finally drops the enchantment, and collapses. She pulls him into a bathroom, under the excuse that he needs to be put in warm water, and starts cleaning out the wound. In the end, there's only skin and bone left between wrist and elbow, and she treats the skin with embalming fluid so it can be filled with cotton; there are charms that will let him use the hand, but he won't have any feeling in the arm. But from his perspective, that just means — for the first time in over two years — no more pain.

During dinner after a particularly rough encounter, Hermione suddenly realizes that they forgot to apply the contraceptive charm. She immediately leaves the Great Hall, rushing to the dungeon to brew what her more sexually active friends call *Last Resort Liquor* while everybody else is busy eating. When she is done, there is a ruckus outside; aurors led by John Dawlish are arresting Slytherin students right and left, bringing them in for repeat trials for their respective association with the death eaters..

The next day, McGonagal brings Hermione to the Ministry; she wants to act as a character witness for the incarcerated Slytherins — all of them, not just Draco — but is a bit shocked when she realizes there are twenty-six of them, including some she doesn't even recognize the names of. Draco, when she eventually finds him, argues that it is pointless and even dangerous to try to help them: Marcus Flint supposedly committed suicide the day after he was exonerated, and his solicitor suffered a fatal floo accident. Draco's own solicitor has had to let go of his case, fearing for his own life, and so he begs her to leave, to save herself because she won't be able to save him.

Hermione does go back to Hogwarts, but she doesn't drop the issue. Instead, she turns to what she does best: research. She bribes one of the remaining Slytherin students to bring her the journal diaries of any who had one — most, but not all, did — and reads them thoroughly to get a feel of their personalities. She reads historical tomes to trace their family histories. She reads old issues of the Daily Prophet, anything she can think of. Draco goes so far as to send a letter to Harry and ask him to read it to her, again pleading with her to drop the whole thing, but she doesn't; she can't let such injustice go.

On the first day of trials, Adrian Pucey is cleared of all charges after only ninety minutes, but Blaise Zabini is argued over for nine and a half hours before he is sentenced to a year's probation and paying 12 000 galleons in damages. Hermione is completely drained yet cannot say that her efforts affected the outcome in any way. After a nightmare where Pansy Parkinson — who is up next — is sentenced to death, she burns her notes and tries to come up with something useful. Harry offers to help, and joins her at the trial as much-needed moral support. This time, Hermione does not try to dispute any of the prosecution's claims, she merely reveals Pansy's love for Theo and claims that her fear for him and for herself was what drove her to do what she did. After a carefully worded examination under veritaserum, Pansy is sentenced to probation as well. Millicent Bulstrode breaks down in tears, asks for veritaserum herself and describes a life of constantly being an outsider, until she finally found a group that accepted her; since she never used any unforgivables, she is released with a fine. And so on; somehow, one way or another, she manages to save them all until the only ones left are the two hardest cases: Draco and Theo.

Zacharias Smith gets his revenge; he has somehow got hold of Draco's diary and submits it as evidence against him, reading carefully selected parts out loud. During recess, a house elf working for Narcissa Malfoy hands Hermione a letter and a vial with a memory, but she doesn't have the time to examine it. Back in court, Hermione reads other parts from the diary, showing Draco's change of mind, and emphasizes how he didn't identify them while they were held at Malfoy Manor, but she can't prove that he recognised them and, ultimately, his stance after the war is not what he is put on trial for. In desperation, she submits Narcissa's memory as evidence, even though she doesn't know what it is; it turns out to show Bellatrix Lestrange torturing Hermione, and Draco casting countercurses to prevent the poison on her knife from spreading.

The public uproar after Draco, too, gets a probation sentence is enough that Theo's trial is postponed indefinitely. He, having been as surprised as everybody else by Hermione's reveal of Pansy's feelings, wants to talk to her, but her probation rules don't allow her to visit him without an escort. The next morning he asks Hermione to bring her over, but when they get there it is too late: during the night Dawlish took him, and the rest of them as well, straight from Hogwarts, and plans to give them all his own form of justice. A carefully not-to-well hidden portkey behind the quidditch ground is clearly left behind for would-be rescuers to use, but the risk of a trap they have no other choice. Hermione sends her patronus to alert Harry and the Order, and off they go.

At Malfoy Manor, Dawlish reveals his grand plan to show Magical Britain that the bad guys are irredeemable, dangerous and not worth saving: he has Draco, under Imperious and dressed up in Death Eater uniform, use the Cruciatus on Hermione; when the Order arrives, Dawlish says, they will find the Death Eater surrounded by dead bodies. Pansy knocks Draco down and steals his wand, but is immediately set upon by "Crusaders" while Draco turns to physical violence instead. Only at the very moment she is about to turn unconscious is he able to overcome the curse and let her live. Instead he grabs her wand and shoots the Killing curse on Dawlish. Hermione, Pansy, Draco, Theo and Narcissa fight off the remaining crusaders, but the last of them only goes down after Pansy takes a curse meant for Theo and she dies in his arms.

Alerted by Hermione's patronus, Harry, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna immediately tried to follow them, but the portkey was jinxed and sent them somewhere else; thus, they only arrived at the Manor when the action was already over. As the adrenaline rush of the fight wore off, Hermione fainted and was brought to St Mungo's, along with Theo and Narcissa. When she wakes up after three days, Draco is gone. Not arrested, or in a hospital bed, or even dead; gone. He has left her a note, describing how the memory of nearly killing her will haunt him for the rest of his life, and that to avoid being continually reminded of it he has taken on a new identity and will be living as a muggle, without a wand and with magically binding oaths keeping him from ever using magic, brewing potions or doing anything else that a muggle cannot do. The deal, like a witness protection program, demands he has no contact with the magical world whatsoever, and so nobody can tell her where he is.

It takes her two long years of hard and painful work together with Theo, but Hermione never listened when somebody said it couldn't be done and in the end she makes it: *Seek and Find*, a potion that lets the drinker locate *and apparate to* anybody they wish to find. She finds him tending a garden outside a small cottage atop a sea-side cliff in Wales, with nothing but rolling hills and ocean as far as the eye can see, and the very first thing she does is tearing into him for making such a choice while she was still unconscious. Their argument, as so often, turns into sex, but returns in a calmer form in the aftermath. He doesn't think he deserves her — “It’s the basic law of things. Good should have good. Bad should have nothing. Light needs more light. Darkness only thinks about itself.” — but she argues that at this point they are both rather gray than light or dark. Still, he can't — he won't — return to the wizarding world; he needs the physical work in the garden, which for the first time has made him feel strong, capable and in control. The solution, even though he doesn't dare think it possible, is clear: she wants him by her side, and if this is where she needs to be to have that, then this is where she will be. For as long as he loves her.

## Characters

### Main characters

* Hermione Granger
* Draco Malfoy

### Minor characters

* Pansy Parkinson
* Theodore Nott

### Non-canonical characters mentioned

* Attlebush, Draco's solicitor (ch 28)
* Faith Burbage
* Havershim, new professor of Transfiguration (she)
* Merida Swoglot
* Tepsy, a House Elf in the service of Narcissa Malfoy

## Non-canonical potions

* Last Resort Liquor
* Seek and Find

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 1
2. ↑ Chapter 2
3. ↑ Chapter 3
4. ↑ Chapter 4
5. ↑ Chapter 7
6. ↑ Chapter 8
7. ↑ Chapter 9
8. ↑ Chapter 10
9. ↑ Chapter 11
10. ↑ Chapter 13
11. ↑ Chapter 14
12. ↑ Chapter 15
13. ↑ Chapter 16
14. ↑ Chapter 18
15. ↑ Chapter 19
16. ↑ Chapter 20
17. ↑ Chapter 21
18. ↑ Chapter 22
19. ↑ Chapter 23
20. ↑ Chapter 25
21. ↑ Chapter 26
22. ↑ Chapter 27
23. ↑ Chapter 28
24. ↑ Chapter 29
25. ↑ Chapter 30
26. ↑ Chapter 31
27. ↑ Chapter 32
28. ↑ Chapter 33
29. ↑ Chapter 35
30. ↑ Chapter 36
31. ↑ Chapter 37
32. ↑ Chapter 38
33. ↑ Chapter 39
34. ↑ Chapter 40
35. ↑ Chapter 41
36. ↑ Chapter 42
37. ↑ Chapter 43
38. ↑ Chapter 44
39. ↑ Chapter 45
40. ↑ Chapter 46
41. ↑ Chapter 47
42. ↑ Chapter 48
43. ↑ Chapter 49
44. ↑ Chapter 50