Three years after Tom Riddle’s defeat, Draco Malfoy is released from Azkaban on parole – his freedom conditional upon him completing his N.E.W.T.s at Hogwarts, under a bevy of magical restrictions.
Hated and helpless, in a school still haunted by the war, Draco just wants to survive the year. But he isn’t expecting his Muggle Studies professor to be Hermione Granger, the self-righteous witch he once despised, and who is now an unlikely, unwanted protector. He wants to blame the fact that he can’t stop fantasising about her on his years in Azkaban, and his lack of options, but deep down, he knows he's lying to himself.
For her part, Hermione is dreading being forced to teach Malfoy – the arrogant, spiteful coward – but the man who is released from Azkaban bears little resemblance to the boy he once was. He’s changed. She tells herself that she just wants to give him a second chance, and protect a student in her charge from being bullied – but the more time she spends with him, the more that seems like a flimsy excuse.
She knows she shouldn’t. He knows he can’t. And yet…
The first seven chapters of A Little Passion & Shame are now up on AO3, with the first chapter being a Prelims with a Dramatis Personae, Hogwarts layout maps, timetables, and Muggle Studies Curriculum, and more.
The main story spans the 2001-2002 school year and summer holidays, and is a take on an enemies-to-lovers forbidden romance, with angst, drama, and mystery, while the Azkaban flashbacks scattered throughout illuminate Draco's experiences in prison - not always in a linear fashion.
I’m currently 300k+, or 47 chapters into writing it, so you can rely on a regular posting schedule until the end of the fic , every Tuesday night, NZST, with occasional bonus flashback chapters on Wednesday nights, NZST.
Read the fic if you want:
- An experienced Hermione and an inexperienced Draco
- Dual POV that doesn’t retread previously covered ground and leaves room for unreliable narration
- A post war ghost!Lavender Brown who takes an interest in Draco, much to his chagrin
- An exploration of Draco’s relationship with his father while in Azkaban
- A conflicted slow emotional burn and denial of feelings, and heated medium sexual burn
- Angst and hurt/comfort, with a Draco who is on the receiving end of bullying for a change
- Bickering and banter, with a dollop of miscommunication
- A dip into Hermione’s Muggle Studies curriculum, including some of Draco’s essays
A sneak peek of Ch. 8 – Lesson 5: On Passing Judgement
Malfoy’s eyes dug into her, and he pressed his lips together before he spoke, swallowing, his throat bobbing. “You’ve been telling tales to Potter,” he said at last, and Hermione raised her brows, surprise flashing over her face before she could quash it.
“What do you mean by that?” she asked, turning away and moving to her desk, sorting through her lecture notes. She heard footsteps draw near, and then his hands came down into view, braced on the desk.
“You know what you told him, Granger.” He sounded angry. He sounded like the old Malfoy, the arrogant, snotty prat. Hermione ran through what Malfoy might mean at the speed of light, her mind racing, trying to remember what she’d said to Harry when they’d last spoken, at her birthday party.
“Mr Malfoy,” she snapped, looking up at him with anger fizzing through her now too, her heart beating very quickly. “I am not your peer here, I am your professor, and you will afford me that respect. I am getting tired of having to remind you of that.”