Harry Potter 1. Star Crossed Lovers

**DISCLAIMER:** _I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own any other characters in J.K. Rowling's original series. I merely am here to demonstrate a different approach to the plot, characters, and overall experience in the world of witchcraft and wizardry._

**Author's Note:** I'd like to start off by saying hello to my old fans, since I know a lot of you have been looking forward to the Forbidden Necessities sequel. Well, it's finally here! Updates for this story may be a bit delayed due to my full-time job now.

As for those of you who are new to this whole series, welcome! I do recommend you read the first story, which is Forbidden Necessities (you can reach it by going to my profile), since this is the sequel to that story. However, this story isn't completely impossible to read if you haven't read the first story – it's just recommended.

I won't delay this anymore. I really appreciate you all being so patient and supportive for me to get writing this. As always, I appreciate feedback from you guys in the form of a review, and you can reach me through my email as well (on my profile). I really hope you guys like this, and I'm excited to get back into writing on here!

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><p><strong>Chapter One<strong>

**Star Crossed Lovers**

It took Hermione Granger three hours to travel on foot from her home in London to reach this bar. Perhaps if the sudden snowfall hadn't caused her to take different paths, she would have reached it within an hour, and she refused to Apparate in the presence of Muggles. Her only reasoning for that was the fact she had caused a ninety-year-old woman to have a heart attack and then be placed in a psychiatric ward when she tried to explain how she had watched a woman just disappear in front of her eyes.

The bar was a dim, untidy one that had an odour which caused Hermione to cover her nose upon entrance. There was a homeless Muggle perched at the bar with a beer bottle in his hand, half of his body slumped off the stool and the other half just barely staying on. Grimacing, Hermione approached the bum and lifted him under his arms, steadying him back on the bar stool.

"Er... thanks," he muttered, sniffing at the neck of his beer bottle.

"You're welcome." Hermione grimaced as she realized her hands were damp from the sweat of the bum's arm pits. She hurriedly wiped them off on the back of her cloak and glanced around the bar before walking over to a lit booth that rested against the far wall. She shrugged her royal blue cloak off her shoulders and folded it neatly to rest beside her in the booth.

"Can I help you?" A waitress, who was wearing tiny black denim shorts (despite the cold weather outside), a see-through white tank top (no bra), and far too much make-up for any human being looked rather bored as she rested against the side of Hermione's booth, ready to take an order.

Hermione shook her head to clear her head. "Can I get chips and any red wine you have would be nice," she replied. The waitress rolled her shoulders back before turning to leave, smacking a huge wad of gum between her teeth as she slinked behind the bar.

Hermione rested her hands on the table, examining the glistening diamond ring that perched on her ring finger. She examined the sparkle that even the dimmest light in the bar gave the three carat diamond, and how it reflected her matured features in its white gold band as she spun it around her finger. Her light brown hair had grown significantly, where it hung down her back in very natural looking waves. Her dark brown eyes were not framed with wrinkles yet, and she wore only mascara and a light pink lipstick. She wore a black lace shirt over a white T-shirt and dark jeans tucked into ankle boots, clearly looking more dressed up than anyone else in the bar. Hermione was surprised that he hadn't arrived yet, considering she had been an hour and a half late.

Five years had passed since Hermione left Hogwarts. She had found herself a very fulfilling career in the Ministry of Magic as the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She traveled to work every day with her two oldest friends, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley – both who had become Aurors, and lived in a quaint little home on the opposite side of London, two streets away from Harry and Ginny. She had no real hobbies when she was not working, apart from reading and going out with Ginny and Luna Lovegood every now and then. Other than that, Hermione had kept herself closed off from the rest of the world – for multiple reasons. One of these reasons being the human being she was waiting for right then.

The waitress returned ten minutes later with a basket of chips and a wine glass filled with a ruby red wine, which was not one of the greatest that she had tasted. Hermione picked at a few chips between sips, glancing around the bar to make sure she hadn't missed him yet. However, his very recognizable face was nowhere to be seen in the bar.

About twenty minutes after receiving her second glass of wine, the bell above the door to the bar chimed and Hermione lifted her eyes to see a familiar face, the one she had been waiting for. She couldn't hide back the wide smile that spread across her lips as he approached her booth, his jacket snow-dusted and slung over his arm.

"I'm sorry I'm late," he said softly, bending down to place a gentle kiss on Hermione's beaming smile. "I got caught up in my work, and I didn't realize the time."

"I was two hours late as it was, so it's fine. I'm just glad you're here." She reached across the table to take hold of his hand, the hand that had a white gold engagement band over his ring finger. His hand was pale beneath her warm toned skin, and he smiled up at her in return.

The waitress came over to the table once more, which allowed him to order a Guinness. He reached up and combed his finger through his blonde hair, grinning over at Hermione the whole time.

"God, you are so beautiful, Hermione," he murmured, taking both of her hands in his. "How did I ever get so lucky to be engaged to you?"

Hermione grinned. "It wouldn't have happened if you hadn't asked me," she replied.

The two were interrupted once more by the waitress, who slid the Guinness in front of him slowly. Just as she was turning to head back to the bar, she paused and did a double take of his face. "Aren't you..." she started, her eyes wide.

"Yes, I am." He laughed and tucked a lock of stray hair behind his ear, trying to play it cool that he had been recognized out in public once more.

"Oh my God!" the waitress squealed, wiping her hands off on her shorts. "I have read all your books, listened to all your audio books. Can I get a picture with you?"

He glanced over at Hermione, who smiled before he nodded and stood up. The waitress called over the bartender, a thick, muscular man with a handlebar moustache and at least five visible tattoos. He took the waitress' mobile phone out of her hand and took a picture of the two standing together, his arm wrapped around her waist and her arms both wrapped firmly around his neck.

"I am such a huge fan! Can you sign this?" She handed over a dirty napkin and a pen that she had stuffed into one of her pockets. He modestly took the pen and napkin and swirled his signature on the napkin before handing it back to the waitress, who hurried off with an enormous grin on her face. He sighed and slid back into his seat, shaking his head.

"Can we go anywhere without you having a million fan girls after you? You'd think you were Justin Bieber or something with the kind of commotion you get wherever you are," Hermione remarked.

He smirked and winked at her. "I can't help it that I've sold 50 million copies _each_ of every single book I've written," he said.

"My mother didn't believe me the day I told her I was marrying you," Hermione said with a laugh. "She said it must have been some kind of joke, but I swore on my life."

He wiped his hands off on the legs of his pants and laughed. "Even your mother is a fan girl."

An hour had passed with the two of them sitting there, enjoying the company of one another, when the bell above the door chimed again. No one paid attention to the man who had walked in, yet Hermione gave a side glance as he began to walk past their booth. Her heart stopped and sank into the pit of her stomach. Composing herself and maintaining the smile on her face so that he wouldn't see the reaction the man had given her, Hermione cleared her throat lightly and took another sip of red wine. That's when the man turned his head in her direction.

"Hermione?" The man asked in a voice so cool and collected that her body trembled to hear him say her name again.

"Draco." She smiled and lifted herself from the booth to stand in front of him. He looked better than she had remembered. His white-blonde hair was swept back and held in place with hair spray, keeping it out of his cool grey eyes. He wore a business suit underneath a black cloak, which swept around his feet on the floor.

Draco Malfoy paused before smiling back, reaching forward to give her a very tense hug. His chin rested on her shoulder and his own heart sank as he saw the man she was sitting with.

Hermione pulled back. "It's great to see you. You look good," she said, her voice quivering with emotion.

"You look great." Draco studied the expression on Hermione's face, his grey eyes searching deep into the depths of her own chocolate brown. He had to pull himself together and remove his eyes from hers when the man from the booth stood up and rested his hand on Hermione's hip.

"I don't think we've been introduced," he said, extending a hand to Draco. "I'm Austin Braves."

Draco took the hand and widened his eyes. "The author?" he asked.

Austin grinned a bright, white smile. "The very same. And who might you be?"

"Draco Malfoy." He shook Austin's hand quickly and dropped it, returning his gaze to Hermione.

"Austin is my fiancé," she explained, her voice quiet and her eyes remaining at Draco's chest rather than at his face. She couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes. "And Draco is a friend I went to school with, Austin."

"Fantastic! A friend of Hermione's is a friend of mine," Austin said with a bright laugh, reaching over to clap Draco on the shoulder. "Why don't you sit and have a drink with us?"

"Oh, well..." Draco hesitated and glanced over at Hermione, who was gently chewing on her lower lip. The sight made him tremble, but he pulled it off as being cold. "I guess I could."

Austin slid into the booth once more and Hermione took the seat next to him, leaving Draco to sit across from the two. Draco couldn't help but notice how ridiculously charming and handsome Austin Braves was. His hair was golden blonde with light blonde highlights, his skin pale yet dewy, his eyes bright green and a dusting of dark blonde facial hair over his jaw and upper lip. He became furiously jealous of the man instantly – for having the one thing he wished he could regain.

"So..." Draco cleared his throat nervously. "How did you two meet?"

Hermione was obviously very quiet, so Austin smiled and took charge. "Well, I was doing a book signing about four months ago in a quaint little book store downtown when Hermione had come in. I immediately noticed her from across the store, and dropped all my things to go talk to her. She was just stunning; I knew I had to meet her." Austin smiled and wrapped an arm around Hermione's shoulders, causing Draco's heart to sink.

"You two have only known each other for four months?" he asked. "That seems quite soon to already be engaged."

"I had to make her my wife. I mean, look at her." Austin rested his hand under Hermione's chin, lifting her face to his and placing a quick kiss on her lips. "She's everything a man could ever want." Hermione pulled away, giving Austin a timid smile, but immediately dropping it when her head turned back in Draco's direction.

Austin rubbed his hands together. "So, were you two friends throughout your stay at Hogwarts?" he asked.

Hermione laughed quietly. "Not at all," she murmured.

"Hermione and I weren't very close until our final year," Draco explained. "We were from separate houses, rival houses – we were pretty much destined to hate each other."

"So what made you change your minds in the final year?" Austin asked.

"We were Head Boy and Head Girl," Hermione answered, her head still hung low. "We had to get along for the sake of the school. It eventually just turned into a real friendship."

Austin nodded slowly to show he understood. "Have you two had any communication since then?"

Hermione touched her bottom lip with her forefinger, noticing a drop of blood from chewing so hard. She took a napkin and dabbed at her lip before answering. "For about a year. Then we just... grew apart." She chose her words carefully and lifted her eyes to see Draco had turned his gaze to the floor as well, his eyebrows drawn together in frustration.

"Things happen." Austin clapped his hands together and smiled at the two of them. "Pardon me, I have to use the restroom." He lifted himself from the booth and walked over to the back of the bar, where the restroom was.

Neither Hermione nor Draco spoke for a good thirty seconds, both of them just staring at the floor, until Hermione chose to spoke. "You never wrote," she murmured.

"I did." Draco lifted his gaze to hers, his eyes glassy. "I promise you that I did."

Hermione seemed sceptical of his response, her fingers combing through the ends of her hair nervously. "Every night I waited," she said. "Every night, I would wait by the window for an hour, waiting for a trace of an owl in the sky with a letter for me from you. And every night, I was disappointed."

Draco rushed forward and grasped Hermione's hands, his body leaning over the table and his face directly in front of hers. "This is not the time to talk about that. Can we see each other soon? Have a discussion about it? I have so much to tell you." He nodded backwards towards the restroom. "And apparently, you have a lot to tell me."

Studying his face quietly, Hermione gently sighed and nodded slowly, her gaze lowering to their hands, which were clasped together. She found herself tracing a red scar along his knuckle, her finger drawing a line from the scar to the cuticle bed of his nail. She lifted her eyes and looked into Draco's, who looked confused and deeply upset. It took every ounce of strength in her body to refrain from kissing him, to familiarize herself with the same lips that had enchanted her the first time they kissed in the dungeons during the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor game. Although it had been five years ago, it felt as if it was just yesterday she had been wearing his engagement ring rather than Austin's.

"I will come see you," Draco said, combing through her the ends of her hair lightly with his fingers. "Where do you live?"

"I... I..." She paused as she noticed the restroom door open from the back of the bar, and gently pushed Draco forward so he fell back into his seat in the booth. He desperately mouthed the words again before Austin could sit down, but she had no time to reply as her fiancé slid into the booth beside her.

"Sorry about that," he said with a smile. "I'm sure you two had time to catch up, though."

Draco solemnly nodded, but forced a smile to come across his face. Draco had been the master at hiding his emotions – except for a few occasions. "Yeah, definitely." He glanced over at the clock on the wall, giving himself the opportunity to pretend that he was late for something as he hurriedly gathered his things. "I'm afraid I have to get going, I have somewhere else to be. It was great to see you again, Hermione." He reached over and gave Hermione's shoulder a gentle squeeze before shaking Austin's hand. "And it was good to meet you, Austin. I wish you two happiness and a long marriage."

Hermione gasped and opened her eyes, the bright sunlight from the windows temporarily blinding her. She lifted a hand to her forehead to cover her eyes as they focused on her surroundings, which were obviously not where she had previously thought. She was sprawled out on a king size four-poster bed entangled in luxurious silk and Egyptian cotton sheets, her long wavy hair fanned out around her head.

"A dream," she murmured, clasping her hand over her eyes. "It was just a dream." This was the second night she had found herself dreaming of him, her long lost love who she had lost touch with five years ago. This was also the second night she had been stirred awake suddenly by that one simple word: marriage.

"Hermione? Are you awake?" a male voice called from the hall. The same man that had been in her dream appeared in her doorway, his gold hair carelessly messy over his forehead and his face covered in scruff from not yet shaving. He was shirtless, exposing his well toned torso with the gold blonde trail of hair that lead from his chest and disappeared at the waistband of his navy pyjama pants. His reading glasses were perched on his nose and a book was in his hand, his thumb marking his place.

Hermione sat up and stretched her arms above her head before lowering them to her sides, causing a strap of her white cotton sleeping gown to fall off her shoulder. "Good morning," she said with a soft smile.

Austin returned the smile and walked towards her, sitting at the side of the bed and resting his book open on the page where he was on the sheets. "I look forward to waking up to you every morning," he murmured gently, placing a soft kiss on her lips. "Tea?"

Hermione nodded and smiled, watching Austin lift himself off the bed and exit the room once more. She took the time to slide out of bed and slip her feet into the woollen slipper booties her mother had knitted for her as a Christmas gift. She then went to stand in front of the vanity mirror across the bed and examine herself. Her wild mess of wavy brown hair was flattened on one side from sleeping, leading her to brush through her hair to relax all of it as well as she could. Her sleeping gown stopped at mid-thigh, exposing her goosebump-scattered legs and causing her to shiver at the sight. She grabbed the silk robe off a hook on the back of the door and slid it around herself before heading out of the bedroom.

Immediately outside of the bedroom of Austin's luxurious home was an enormous library. Every wall was covered in shelves and shelves of books that reached the ceiling, which stood approximately twenty feet high. Plus black sofas and chairs were carefully places around the room with mahogany tables placed beside or around them. A large fireplace stood in the centre of one wall of shelves, which already held a roaring flame in it.

Making her way out of the library, Hermione found herself at the top of the tall, winding staircase that lead down to the main foyer of the home. She stepped down the stairs and turned left to go into the kitchen, which had been newly renovated a few months ago and was very modern yet still old-fashioned to match the atmosphere of the rest of the home. Austin was standing by the stove and had put on a shirt to avoid his chest being splattered by bacon grease. A cup of tea was placed on the island in the centre of the kitchen, steaming billowing out of it, and the Daily Prophet lay next to it.

"Scrambled eggs okay?" Austin asked without turning, grabbing a plate from the cupboards.

"Of course." Hermione slid onto a stool by the island and glanced at the cover of the Daily Prophet. Since Voldemort had been defeated during their final year at Hogwarts, very few crimes and mishaps had occurred in the wizarding world, which caused the front pages of the newspapers to be rather dull. However, the election of a new Minister of Magic was currently taking place after the previous Minister had had an affair with a girl who was not of age, which had caused a lot of stir and the loss of his job. Therefore, the front page of the Daily Prophet this morning had a picture of three men, all in their forties, beaming at the camera and waving with their arms around each other. The headline read: _"One Week Left: Who Will Overrule?"_

"I have a meeting with my publisher this afternoon," Austin said. He appeared at Hermione's side with a plate of scrambled eggs, two pieces of toast, and some pieces of bacon. He placed it in front of her and gave her a gentle kiss on the top of her head. "You're welcome to come along, although you can't come in the conference room."

"I was thinking of looking at flower arrangements," Hermione said, gazing down at the enormous diamond ring that rested on her ring finger. "I was going to call up Ginny and ask her to join me."

Austin had proposed to Hermione two months ago, and very little had been done for their wedding yet, which was scheduled to take place four months from now. Hermione had only just declared Ginny Weasley to be her maid of honour, followed by Luna Lovegood, Fleur Delacour and her mother as bridesmaids. Austin had yet to pick his best man and groomsmen, which frustrated Hermione, and the guest list had not even been made up.

"That sounds wonderful. Perhaps Ginny and Harry would like to join us for dinner tonight," Austin suggested, returning on the opposite side of the island with his own plate of food. Austin had found an interest in Harry lately after the two had competed in a friendly game of Quidditch at The Burrow with Ron and George and had been the two most competitive, constantly trying to out-fly one another.

"I'll see," Hermione said with a soft smile. Suddenly, she was momentarily blinded by a vision in her head: her standing at the altar in a long, glamorous white dress that trailed down the stairs, her hands in the pale hands of another man, white blonde hair slicked back, steely grey eyes glossy with pure love for her. Suddenly, a flash of black, a scream, guests running to the exit and the white tent collapsing over them.

"Are you alright?" Austin asked, placing a hand on hers.

Hermione blinked and forced a weak smile. "I'm still tired, that's all." She removed her hand from his to lift her tea mug to her lips, her eyes glassy and tearing up. _Pull yourself together_.


	2. The Drooney Case

**DISCLAIMER: **_I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own any other characters in J.K. Rowling's original series. I merely am here to demonstrate a different approach to the plot, characters, and overall experience in the world of witchcraft and wizardry._

**Author's Note: **So I figured after making you all wait so long for the first chapter of the sequel to even come up, I would post the second chapter as soon as I could. I wanted to spend a little more time in regards to the editing of this chapter, however, so I hope that it seems a little more organized than the first chapter. I apologize for that seeming a little short and also slightly all over the place, but I just wanted to get it out there. I will be taking my time with the plot and starting to plan out the storyline from now on!

Once again, I would just like to thank all the readers for being so patient for this sequel (as it was promised a long time ago) and I hope that you all enjoy the sequel just as much as you enjoyed the original story. As always, feedback is welcomed through reviews. I may be a little delayed with updating the story on the third chapter, but it shouldn't be any longer than a week. Anyway, enjoy the second chapter!

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><p><strong>II<strong>

**The Drooney Case**

The cool pair of grey eyes slowly opened to meet the blinding white light of the sun that shone through the crack of the curtains, causing them to immediately shut in shock. A soft groan came from under the pillow and Draco Malfoy rolled over to face the opposite side of the bed, slinging his arm over what he thought was a pillow. When the 'pillow' moved, Draco stirred and opened one eye slowly to see what he had really thrown his arm over: a pair of tan, slender shoulders peeked over the top of a slender curved hip covered in his black silk sheets.

"Get up," Draco mumbled groggily, removing his arm from the woman's shoulder and rolling over to lie on his back. He slid his arms under his head and watched as the woman shifted herself out of the sheets cautiously.

"W-what?" The woman rubbed at her eyes and opened them to look at Draco, revealing a pair of glittering hazel eyes and full lips that parted slightly in a drowsy state. Her hair was long and silky light brown, falling over her naked chest as she lifted herself in a sitting position on the bed.

Draco flicked his eyes away from her exposed body, licking at his dry lips. "You need to leave," he said coldly.

"Leave?" The woman blinked in confusion and furrowed her brows. "What about last night? I mean, we had such a wonderful time –"

"What's your name again?" he interrupted, removing one of his hands to look down at his chewed cuticles. His question had given him the exact reaction he had hoped for as he heard the woman huff and saw her slide out of his bed to grab at the pile of clothes on the floor next to the bed. He paid no attention as she soundlessly slid on her dress and grabbed her purse before making her way to the door and slamming it shut.

Draco sighed and stared at the ceiling. It was nothing out of the ordinary for him to wake up the next morning with a splitting headache and a random woman passed out in the bed next to him. For the past five years, this had become sort of a routine to him: go to the pub or a club after work, find a beautiful woman, loosen her up with a few drinks, and bring her back to his glamorous home to have hours of meaningless sex. He would have the exact same dream every night, wake up the next morning feeling like complete shit, and shove the woman out of his life completely. He had become exactly what he had been at Hogwarts up until seventh year: the Slytherin Sex God.

Lifting himself up on his elbows, Draco reached over to grab his wand from the nightstand and swirled it at the curtains to shut them. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and his head immediately began throbbing as he sat up, causing him to rest his forehead in his hand. It had been weeks since he had woken up sober, and that had only been because he had spent the night at work looking over some last minute paperwork. Alcohol had become something he could rely on when he needed a 'shoulder' – and something to keep his mind off of her.

Draco carefully stood to his full height, stretching his arms wide above his head and grabbing the button-up shirt that had been strewn across the floor last night. He slid it onto his shoulders and paused in his reflection in the mirror that hung on his wardrobe. He grimaced at the marking on his arm that caused him pain and regret every morning he looked at it: the serpent slithered slowly of the skull at the top of his inner arm, winding its way down and down until it stopped just above his wrist. He bit his bottom lip and hurriedly covered the marking with his shirt sleeve, fighting back a wave of painful memories that came to him every time he saw it.

There was a light tap at the window, and Draco walked over to draw back the heavy grey curtains. A tawny owl was circling outside of the window, a newspaper rolled up and tied to its leg. He opened the shutters and allowed the owl inside, where it circled the ceiling before landing delicately on the bed post at the end of Draco's bed. The owl stuck out its leg to allow Draco to untie the newspaper roll, which he did, and then stuck out its opposite leg to show the tiny coin bag that was tied to there.

"Shit, hold on." Draco went over to his wardrobe and dug through the pockets of the robe that was thrown over it. He removed a coin bag and shook out two silver coins, which he returned to the owl's own coin bag. Pleased with the exchange, the owl spread its large wings and soared out of the window, leaving Draco to close it. He slid the rolled up newspaper under his arm and made his way out of the bedroom and into the hallway, where he took his time preparing his daily routine in the washroom.

After showering, shaving, and putting on a fresh change of clothes, Draco walked downstairs and into the kitchen. Up until a few years ago, Draco would have been greeted every morning with a cup of warm coffee, a plate of eggs with toast, and some fresh fruit from the help of his house-elf, Irving. However, someone had been hired at the Ministry of Magic that declared a ban on house-elves, which was granted. At first Draco had been furious about the abrupt decision from the Ministry and had even gone into the Minister's office to complain – however, when he was introduced to the new head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, he apologised for his harsh attitude.

Draco solemnly stared at the small door beside his refrigerator, which used to open regularly in the morning as Irving would come in and out through it to prepare Draco's breakfast. It wasn't so much that he had enjoyed having someone to boss around and do all the chores for him: it was the company. He had become so lonesome and depressed in the enormous house all by himself that he had found warmth and friendship in the house-elf, something that his father would have completely disowned him for if he had still been living. Draco could still remember the day he freed Irving: Christmas morning.

_"Irving cannot accept presents from master," the house-elf had said, his ears drooping at the sight of the sparkling, wrapped gift._

_ "Please just open it," Draco replied with a sad smile. "I know you will enjoy it."_

_ Irving had cautiously glanced at Draco, who had nodded his head slowly, before opening the gift. Inside was a beautiful cashmere scarf in pale green that had a fine stitch of dark green throughout it. Irving had gasped and held the scarf in his hands, eagerly throwing it around his neck, before pausing and staring up at Draco._

_ "Master has presented Irving with a scarf," he had said sadly, his ears drooping once more. "Master is freeing Irving?"_

_ Draco smiled sadly, feeling his eyes water ever so slightly. "Unfortunately, yes. Trust me, I would keep you around if I could," he explained. "A new law has been passed in the Ministry that bans the use of house-elves. I have to set you free."_

_ "But breaking the law has never stopped Master before!" Irving cried out, clutching onto Draco's leg. "Master must keep Irving around."_

_ Draco knelt down to meet Irving eye-to-eye. "I'm sorry, Irving. In most cases I would let this pass. But there's another reason I have to let you go. It would mean everything to someone very special to me if I did this, someone I need to reconnect with." Draco smiled a crooked smile and wrapped the scarf carefully around Irving's neck. "You will be happier this way."_

_ Irving wrapped his arms around Draco's neck and sobbed into his shoulder. "Irving will never forget you, Master. Irving will visit every Christmas, because Irving knows how Master is on Christmas," the house-elf sniffled._

_ Draco smiled and put Irving back on the ground. "That would mean a lot to me," he said._

_ Irving smiled as well. "May Irving at least stay for the rest of the day? It is Christmas after all, Master."_

_ "Of course you can stay. And Draco." He smiled. "Call me Draco."_

Draco laughed quietly to himself and shook his head, wiping a single tear from his cheek. "If my father was still alive," he said to himself. "He'd have killed you within seconds for crying over a house-elf." He shook his head and went to the kitchen to grab a jug of milk from the fridge.

Irving never had visited on Christmas, despite him saying he would. Foolishly, Draco had been excited each Christmas since their last one together for his house-elf to return to him. He had simply wanted the company of another person that did not involve having meaningless, drunken sex with. Sadly, Irving had not come. He had even attempted to write him a letter, hoping the owl would somehow find the lost house-elf: the owl came back with the letter still attached to its leg.

After preparing a quick breakfast and glancing through the _Daily Prophet_, Draco gathered his work robes and materials to leave for the day. Draco had recently been honoured to take the position as head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic, which was an enormous amount of responsibility for him. He had been offered the job as a replacement for his previous job, which was an Auror. He had worked alongside Harry Potter, who is head of the department, Ron Weasley, and Neville Longbottom, as well as his fellow Slytherin, Blaise Zabini. However, after Harry had rejected the offer, the Minister had offered it to Draco. At the time, Draco had no idea why Harry would turn down the position – however, after a week of being there, he quickly discovered why. Draco had one of the most difficult positions in the Ministry, in his opinion. He was constantly staying late in his office and always had to deal with the problems and mishaps that occurred with the Aurors, which were often more challenging cases than he had dealt with when he was one of them.

By the time Draco finally left his house, the beautiful sunshine that had greeted him this morning had disappeared and was replaced with thick black clouds and a heavy downpour. He dug out his umbrella from beneath his robe and opened it over his head, shielding him from the heavy rain as he treaded through the puddles along the sidewalk towards the nearest phone booth. Draco had not yet received the confirmation to have a Floo Powder network through his home's fireplace, so he had to continue to make his way to the phone booth three blocks over to get to work.

A Muggle card sped through a puddle by Draco, causing an enormous wave of water to cover him from head to toe. Furrowing his brow and sighing in frustration, Draco found no need for the umbrella anymore and closed it while continuing his journey to work. His hair dripped in soggy strands over his eyes, adding difficulty with the heavy rain to see where the hell he was going.

When he finally reached the phone booth, Draco ground his teeth together angrily as he saw an older Muggle standing in the booth, casually chatting to someone on the other line. Draco patiently leaned against the phone booth, resting the back of his head against the red metal and allowing the rain to drench him completely. He sighed heavily and straightened in surprise as he heard the door of the phone booth open.

"Sorry for the wait," the Muggle said, glancing at Draco's soaked clothes and closed umbrella from under his own. "Why don't you use...?"

"It broke," Draco muttered, shoving past the Muggle and closing the door to the phone booth before anyone else could say a word. He punched in M-A-G-I-C and waited as it lowered beneath the ground.

The doors opened into the lobby of the Ministry of Magic, where a bustle of people from every direction came hurrying past him to get to their desired locations. Draco was squeezing the water from his robes when he saw a familiar face appear from the fireplace across from where he had arrived. The soft brown waves framed a rosy smooth face of a woman he had stared at many times, her chocolate brown eyes hidden behind modern-looking frames. She didn't say a word as she squeezed in between crowds and hurried down the corridor of the lobby.

Draco's eyes followed after her briefly before he shook himself out of his day dream and reached into his pocket for his wand. He made a swift motion with his wand, causing a blast of hot air to appear at the end of his it. He pointed it at his hair and robes as he twisted his way through the crowd to head to the elevator and make his way to his office.

At the elevator, Draco waited patiently for the lift to make its way down to him with his hands tucked in the pockets of his robe. He felt the presence of someone come up next to him and peeked out of the corner of his eye to see who had joined him: a flash of vibrant red hair caught his attention.

"Morning Weasley," Draco said in a flat voice.

"Morning." Ron Weasley had never completely warmed up to Draco after he had practically stolen his girlfriend during their final year together. However, now that Draco and Hermione were no longer together, Draco had noticed a more polite side of Ron that had not been prevalent at Hogwarts. Perhaps it was due to their similar work environment, or perhaps Ron had let the whole situation slide: whatever it was, Draco wasn't complaining.

"How is the Drooney case going for you?" Draco asked.

Ron shrugged. "Okay. I mean, Harry and I haven't had any luck reaching the so-called witnesses. It's kind of difficult when they keep fucking Apparating all over the place," he said.

Draco chuckled. "Perhaps we should set up boundaries around the country momentarily," he suggested.

"Can you do that?" Ron exclaimed, excitement rising in his voice as he turned to face Draco. His red hair was combed back somewhat-neatly away from his face, and his freckles had diminished slightly over the past five years so his face was almost completely clear – with the exception of his red scruff above his lip, that was.

Draco grinned and tucked a stray blonde hair behind his ear. "I don't think it's possible to set up invisible boundaries across the entire United Kingdom. I could look into doing specific locations if you two are really having difficulty catching that witness." Draco paused for a moment and furrowed his brow. "It seems almost a little suspicious that a witness of a murder isn't revealing any information to you."

"That's why we're trying to catch him so badly," Ron explained. The elevator had arrived by then and the two walked inside, continuing their conversation. "Harry believes he is more than just a witness: we believe he may be a suspect."

"Find out any information you can on that one girl." Draco snapped his fingers as he tried to remember her name. "Dorothy something."

"Crook," Ron stated.

"Ironic last name, no?"

Ron grinned. "That's what I said."

The two continued the discussion about the Drooney case all the way to the floor they were both heading towards. When the elevator door opened, they stepped out together deep in conversation and paused in front of Draco's office.

"I will talk to Dringus about setting up some boundaries for you," Draco said finally. "If you have any issues in regards to it, you know how to find me."

"Thanks for this, Draco," Ron said. "I know I don't say that a lot, or this, but that really means a lot to me."

Draco laughed. "I'd be more surprised if you had said that six years ago," he said.

Ron chuckled as well and the two shook hands before Ron departed down the corridor to his office further down, leaving Draco to go in his own. When he unlocked the door, he was greeted with his spacious office that had been tidied by the caretakers the night before. His enormous mahogany desk stood in the middle of the room, polished to its best. Behind the desk stood four enormous filing cabinets that reached up to the ceiling of the room, each one appropriately labelled for their contents. On the wall parallel to his desk, a painting of him, his mother, and his father stood looking over him. It was the only portrait of the three of them smiling and it was done years before Voldemort had returned – which was why Draco had chosen to display that portrait in particular. On the other wall, a large bookcase stuffed with books was displayed, completely covering any wall space left in the room.

Draco took a seat behind his desk and immediately began organizing cluttered papers that he had left there from the previous day. His owl, Vule, was perched in his opened cage, cleaning his feathers and minding his own business. Draco made sure his water and food dish were filled before he continued on with his work for the day.

A few hours later, a soft knock came on the door.

"Come in," Draco said, his eyes peeled to a report that an Auror had handed him.

Harry Potter came into his office, which caused Draco to lift his eyes to face him. Harry had grown drastically since Hogwarts and had filled out his wardrobe very well. His black hair was still completely unruly and stuck out in every direction, but his green eyes were no longer hidden behind frames and his face had taken on more structure than it had previously when he was only seventeen.

"Are you ready for the meeting on the Drooney case then?" Harry asked, twirling his wand absentmindedly between his fingers.

"Dringus already set it up?" Draco said, referring to the current Minister of Magic.

Harry nodded. "He asked for everyone to meet in the conference room down the hall," Harry explained.

Draco gathered his things in his arms and shoved them into his suitcase, snapping it shut. "I guess so then," he muttered. He stood up and followed Harry out of his office, locking it behind him as the two made their way down the corridor to the conference room.

The conference room stood across from Ron's office, so the redhead met up with them on his way there. When the three walked in, they saw that all of the Aurors had gathered along the long conference table, leaving only four seats left to be dealt with. Dringus sat at the head, his hands neatly folded in his lap, and two chairs sat empty on either side of him – obviously for the Head Auror and head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The Aurors sat all along the table – Neville Longbottom, Blaise Zabini, Thomas MacMillian, Frederik Cleisman, Sabrina Bronte, Aurora Tingsley, Jessia Mendov, and one seat for Ron. There was, however, another empty seat left that made Draco curious as he came in and sat next to Dringus.

"So glad you could join us, Draco," Dringus said with a smile. Dringus was around thirty-five, which was young for a Minister, and had tawny brown hair, pale hazel eyes, and a long pointed face. He was very thin and his robes always seemed to overwhelm in at work. He wore a slouched burgundy hat and royal blue robes over a tailored grey suit that told Draco he would be heading somewhere important after this meeting.

"Not a problem. I supposed it would make sense for me to be here, since I did request for some things with this case," Draco said.

Dringus smiled. "Naturally."

"Shall we get started then?" Harry suggested.

"We have one more person to wait for," Dringus said, gesturing towards the empty seat next to Jessia.

Draco blinked in confusion. "Who?"

Just then, the door to the conference room opened and all heads turned to see who would be joining them. Draco's heart sank as he saw an oh-too-familiar face come in from the corridor, her arms full of books. Hermione's back was facing them as she shut the door, but she turned with an enormous smile to everyone.

"I'm sorry that I'm late," she said, out of breath. "I just had to hurry down here from the upper level and all the elevators were taking forever –"

Dringus held up a hand to silence her and smiled. "Take a seat, my dear," he said.

Hermione smiled and made her way down to the seat beside Jessia, placing her things down. Draco followed her intently with his cool grey eyes and felt his heart jump into his throat as he saw her look up at him. She was just as stunning as she had been the day of their wedding. Her hair had grown a significant length since then and fell down her back and chest in soft flattering waves that framed her face. Her brown eyes were wide in excitement, and her lips pouted ever so slightly that it caused Draco pain to even look at them. She was wearing dark grey robes over a white ruffled blouse that was tucked into a fitted black high-waisted skirt with black heels.

Draco swallowed hard as images of Hermione flashed through his mind: those same black heels attached to the ends of her long, smooth legs wrapped around his hips and her hands clutching at the same silky black sheets he woke up in every morning. Her back arched in pleasure and her lips parted as she cried out his name, their bodies entangled in pure passion. He could still feel her writhing beneath him.

He shook the image out of his head and tore his eyes away. It had been years since the two had spoken to each other, which was difficult considering they had worked in the same building for many years. Though they would see each other on a daily basis, they had never been given a reason to interact with one another because their jobs rarely crossed paths. This was the first time the two of them had been in a meeting together.

"Now we can get started," Dringus said with a smile. He gestured towards Harry. "If you would please."

Harry stood up and faced everyone in the room. "Obviously, we are all here in regards to the Drooney case," Harry began. "I know you're all probably wondering why Hermione is here, since this is normally not her area of expertise." Harry raised an eyebrow at Hermione.

She cleared her throat. "There's been a recent development in the case," she explained. "As you all know, Mincent Drooney has been on our most wanted list for quite some time now. He's been wanted for the capture and brutal murder of twelve Muggles in the past year and is believed to be using some type of magical torture device with his victims. However..." Hermione paused to open up one of her filing folders, taking out three photographs and grimacing at them before sliding them down the table. "There has been a similar case of murders recently in homes that are still illegally using house-elves."

The Aurors around the table took a moment to lean in and examine the pictures. Ron took one from the table and examined it, his eyebrows gathering to meet in the middle. "How do you know it's the same person?" he asked.

Hermione shifted in her seat. "Well, if you take a look at the ligature marks on the necks of the elves, you can see a very similar – almost identical – shape of a star by the base of their throat," she explained. "Also, he seems to be removing their ears from their body. Is that not what Drooney has been doing to his own victims?"

"Well yeah, but why house-elves?" Ron said, his voice becoming slightly bitter. "This doesn't make any sense at all. We were actually getting somewhere with this case and now this has brought us back to square one."

Draco saw Hermione raise a little in her seat and a look of frustration appear in her eyes. "How does this in any case bring you back to square one?" she asked, her own voice thick with anger. "At square one, you had no idea who the murderer was, you didn't know where to look, and you had no clue about the method behind his murders."

Harry stepped in. "If anything, this improves our chances of closing this case."

"How?" Ron asked, his attention turning to his best friend.

"I did a background check on Crook this morning," Harry said with a slight smile. "One of the house-elves that Drooney killed had been hers."

Ron's eyebrows shot up. "Drooney killed one of Crook's house-elves?"

"Yes," Hermione said, who looked victorious. "Drooney had an ongoing relationship with Crook for many years, and he murdered her house-elf as well as two more."

Draco cleared his throat timidly. "Why would Drooney kill house-elves?" he asked.

"That's what we're hoping to find out," Harry explained. He turned to face Dringus. "If you could just get the approval from border control around the regions Drooney has been spotted, we could be able to not only catch Crook and get answers, but catch Drooney as well."

"How long will that take?" Jessia jumped in. Jessia had also been avoiding Draco's presence, since she had been one of his victims of his drunken sex romps. She had long black hair that fell over one shoulder and stunning violet eyes, something that had caught Draco's attention in the first place. She had been a lousy fuck, however, and was into the weirdest shit in the bedroom that Draco had immediately cut off all communication with her and avoided her at all costs.

"It will only take me a day or two to speak with border control, but it's tricky," Dringus explained, his calm smile still spread across his lips. Dringus was a fantastic Minister, probably the best that the Ministry had ever had, and he was also so calm and collected that he was extremely easy to get along with. However, it was difficult for him to see the wrong in people, which had lead to some very lousy employees to be hired in very necessary positions within the Ministry. Draco or Harry always had to speak with Dringus about the employee's poor work ethics in order for him to reconsider who he was hiring.

"What makes it tricky?" Ron asked.

"There are a lot of paper work and things to be organized in order for it to be set up," Dringus explained. "Also, they often cannot put up invisible boundaries for much longer than a week."

"A week?" Ron exclaimed, rising from his seat. "How the fuck are we supposed to find the most sought-after killer since Voldemort in a week?"

"Ron!" Harry yelled, his eyes fierce. Ron lowered back into his seat, clearly not impressed with Dringus' response.

"If you had let me finish, I could have explained further," Dringus said with another calm smile. "I did say _often_. There are always exceptions. If I speak to the right people and have the right paperwork, I should be able to give you a month – but I can keep no promises."

"We appreciate any amount of time that you can give us, Dringus," Harry said with a polite smile. "You have no idea how important this case is to our department."

"I'm happy to help," Dringus said, standing up from his seat. He turned to Draco. "Do you have any final words? You are in charge of these men and women, after all."

"He's not in charge of me," Hermione said. Draco lifted his eyes to see her, and she looked at him with a sad frown, casting her eyes down at the feet once more.

Draco smiled at Dringus and then looked at the rest of the Aurors. "All I want to say is that I hope this whole thing goes smoothly and that we find this son of a bitch. As much as my father raised me to hate anything related to Muggles, I would never want any harm to come to another human being no matter what they are," he said. He looked over at Hermione hopefully at his words, but she continued to stare down at her feet.

"I agree," Dringus said. He clapped his hands together to show that the meeting had ended. "I suggest you all get back to your work and I will let you know about boundaries being set up as soon as I can, Draco and Harry."

Harry and Draco each took a turn in shaking Dringus' hand in thanks before the Minister exited the conference room. The Aurors began filing out of the room as well, but Draco took his time lingering with his things. Just before Hermione was about to leave, he turned and took hold of her upper arm very gently.

"Can I talk to you?" he asked. It was the first words either of them had said to the other in the past four years, and it took Hermione off guard as she tensed up under his touch. She slowly turned to face him, her eyes not quite meeting his as their gaze landed on his nose instead.

"I have a lot of work to do..." She began.

"Five minutes," Draco pleaded. His bent slightly so that his eyes met hers hopefully, and he felt his heart melt just at the sight of them.

Hermione glanced out the corridor to see Ron staring at the two of them from the doorway of his office. She sighed. "Fine." She closed the door to the conference room and pressed her back against the door of it, her arms crossed across her chest. "Five minutes."

Draco let go of her arm and leaned against the table. "Hermione..." He didn't know where to start. They had lost five years that the two of them could have potentially shared in complete bliss together as a happily married couple, all because of his foolishness.

He cleared his throat and tried again. "I'm sorry."

Hermione waited for him to continue, and when he didn't she laughed sarcastically. "That's it?" she asked. "That's all you have to say? 'I'm sorry' is all you're saying to me?"

Draco bit his lip. "Are you happy?" he asked.

"What the fuck, Draco. Do I look happy to you? I mean, you could have at least given me an explanation towards the sorry..."

"No." Draco shook his head and stood up. "I meant are you happy... with him?"

Hermione's brows relaxed and Draco saw her tighten up at his words. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Don't play dumb, Hermione," he said. "Out of everyone in the world, you should be the last person to play dumb."

"I'm very happy," she snapped. Her body language was gradually loosening up, and Draco took the opportunity to close the space between them a little more.

"You can honestly say that you don't miss me then?" he murmured softly. He stood at least six inches taller than her, so he had to tilt his head down a little to look at her.

Hermione turned her gaze to the floor. "Draco, Austin is..." She was cut off by Draco's hand under her chin, which he lifted up very softly so that their eyes met again. He could hear his heart beating rapidly in his ears and his breath slowing down to match hers.

"He isn't me, Hermione. And I don't mean that in a cocky way either," he said softly. "He doesn't make you feel the way that I made you feel. It's impossible."

"You don't know that." Hermione shook her head out of his grasp to look away, but he took his hand and rested it on her cheek to turn her to him again.

"You've been with him for what, six months? He can't know everything about you in that time. I was with you for one year, Hermione." He let his hand slowly go to the back of her hair and into her soft waves. He lowered his voice to a husky whisper. "Does he know that soft spot behind your ear that drives you insane when you bite it very lightly?" Draco tiled his head a little to kiss the very same spot and was satisfied to feel the soft sigh of Hermione's breath on his neck.

"Draco..." She pushed at him gently with her hands, enough to push him back a little but not enough force to show him that she wanted him to stop.

He moved his lips down from her neck to her collarbone. "Does he know how you feel to be pressed up against something, such as this door?" As he spoke the words, Draco slowly took Hermione's hands off his chest and entwined their fingers, pressing the back of her hands against the dark wood of the door.

"Stop," she whispered softly. Draco lifted himself until he was just a few inches above her and observed her. Her eyes were half open and her lips had parted in the very same way they had five years ago when they had kissed for the first time.

"Does he know how badly I think about kissing you every night? Or how you think about me before you fall asleep?" Draco lowered his lips to just be a few inches away from hers so that she could feel every word he breathed. "Does he know that I think about your legs wrapped around me in this very same position?"

The two of them were so close now that Draco could feel Hermione's heart beating against his, the steady pace of their heartbeats rhythmic in his ears. She was biting her bottom lip now and practically pressing her breasts up against Draco's body. He let a hand slide from one of hers and rested it in the back of her hair, pulling her face even closer to his.

"Draco..." She whispered.

Draco let his thumb trace the curve of Hermione's delicate bottom lip, feeling the smooth soft skin that he missed against his own lips. "Does he know that I want you back so terribly, I have to continuously go out at night and look for your perfect duplicate?"

Suddenly, everything that had been so passionate and heated between them diminished as Hermione opened her eyes wide and looked up at him. "What does that mean?"

_Shit_, Draco thought. "Uh, well..."

Hermione put her hands on his chest and pushed him off of her. "Are you saying that you go out every night and fucking any girl that looks even remotely similar to me?" she snapped.

Draco was speechless. He had been seconds away from having her back in his clutches and he had completely fucked that up by letting one little dark secret slip.

"You are fucking disgusting," Hermione exclaimed, turning away from him to grab at the door handle. "I bet that's why Jessia won't even look at you anymore." She laughed dryly. "I wonder how many other people you have fucked in this office."

"Hermione, please..." Draco begged.

"Don't talk to me." She didn't glance at him again as she pulled open the door and slammed it in his face. Draco let his back fall against the wall by the door and put his hand on his forehead.

_Fuck me._


	3. The Meeting

**DISCLAIMER: **_I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own any other characters in J.K. Rowling's original series. I merely am here to demonstrate a different approach to the plot, characters, and overall experience in the world of witchcraft and wizardry._

**Author's Note: **I've been receiving a lot of positive feedback about this story, which I'm pleased about. I'm also glad that I frustrated a lot of you with the ending of the second chapter, as that was my intention. You didn't really think they would be back together so soon, did you? I have to make a story out of this, after all!

As always, feedback is always appreciated in the form of a review – I love to hear what you guys think of it so far, and what improvements/changes I could make. It allows me to satisfy the people who matter the most: the readers!

* * *

><p><strong>III<br>****The Meeting  
><strong>

Hermione closed the door to the conference and exhaled slowly. Her heart had only just returned to its normal steady beat as she slowly sank against the wall behind her. The moment Draco had even touched her arm to ask if they could speak, she had felt electric sparks shoot up her arm. She had seen a million images flash through her mind of the two of them, entwined in the sheets and even drinking tea together in a cafe a few days before their wedding.

Tears began to sting at her eyes and she quickly wiped them away as she heard Ron's office door open. He poked his head out and glanced down the corridor to see if Draco was still there.

"Are you alright?" he asked. "He didn't hurt you or touch you, did he?"

"Ron, please," Hermione barked. "We just talked."

Ron stepped out of his office and rested his shoulder against the frame of his doorway. "What did he talk to you about?"

"Us. Well..." Hermione stepped off the wall slightly. "What we used to be, I guess."

"He was the one that ruined everything," Ron snapped in frustration, his hands balling up at his sides. "You feel sorry for the bastard, don't you?"

"Leave me the fuck alone, Ron," she muttered, walking away from him and down the corridor towards the elevator, her eyes cloudy with tears.

"You two can never be, Hermione!" Ron shouted after her, but she didn't turn around again. She fanned her hair to cover her tears so that no one would see her while she made her way into the lift and back towards her floor.

She punched the button for the correct floor and pressed her back against the wall of it. Ron had always been so judgemental of their relationship, and Hermione knew he had never truly forgiven her for choosing Draco over him during their years together at Hogwarts. However, she did not want to be reminded of the past constantly anymore – the past was behind them, and Hermione refused to let her lingering emotions for Draco separate her from her real life and her real romance with her fiancée.

As the doors to the lift slid open, Hermione rushed out with her head down, causing her to bump into the person who was waiting for the lift.

"Oh, sorry about that," she said. She lifted her eyes and met a pair of striking green eyes under a tousled mess of golden blonde hair. He towered Hermione's small frame, but his smile grew as recognized her.

"I've been looking for you everywhere," Austin said with a soft laugh. He was wearing a dark green sweater that hugged his well-toned frame, and white jeans that would have looked very strange on anyone else. Hermione had always hated that about her fiancée – he could pull anything off, from a tuxedo in the middle of a busy street to a paper bag at a formal dinner.

Hermione was stunned, speechless. It took her a moment before she could even manage a few words.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, looking up at him in surprise.

"I came to surprise you," he said with a smile. "I thought we could go have some lunch." The smile slowly faded from his face as he saw Hermione's swollen red eyes and a dried up tear streak on her cheek. "Have you been crying?"

"Oh." Hermione rubbed her cheek frantically and fanned at her eyes. "I just hit my elbow off a desk. You know my funny bone always makes my eyes water."

Austin looked over her sceptically. "Be honest with me, Hermione," he said in a hushed voice.

"I'm fine." She smiled. "Lunch sounds perfect." She hurried past Austin, grabbing his hand behind her and dragging him along to her office to get her belongings. A few people gawked at Austin as the two made their way to the office, yet they were both so used to that now that neither paid any attention. When one is engaged to a stunningly handsome, rich, polite, and successful author, one really becomes accustomed to the stares and gawks of those surrounding them.

Hermione closed the door to her office and went behind her desk to organize some papers. "Have a seat, I'll just tidy up and gather my things," she said, gesturing to a chair on the other side of her desk.

Austin slid into one of the armchairs, his fingers lightly drumming at the arms. "I spoke to my parents today," he said very suddenly.

"You did?" Hermione asked. Austin had rarely spoken to his parents since he had become successful a few years ago with his first book. They had not always been very supportive of Austin's decision to not find a job at the Ministry like he had always wanted when he was younger. Instead, he had begun writing on scrap pieces of paper that he found in coffee shops and cafes, gradually building a story out of those paper clippings. Soon, that story had become his first best-seller and had launched the most successful career any author had ever had.

"I told them about our engagement," he admitted.

Hermione paused, her hands still holding the stack of papers she was about to file. "What did they say?"

"Well..." Austin cleared his throat. "They aren't pleased, naturally. I mean, I only told them I had been seeing you two months ago. My mother thinks I am rushing into something, and my father is only agreeing with anything she says."

"Great," Hermione said sarcastically. "So now your parents hate me before they have even met me."

"No, dear." Austin frowned and stood up, coming around her desk to place his hands on her shoulders. "They don't hate you, they have no reason to. They are mad at _me_ for making a decision that _they_ don't approve of again," he said with a sigh. "They have to meet you first and then they will fall in love with you, I know it."

"Right," Hermione muttered.

"Hey." Austin rested his fingers under her chin and lifted her gaze to his. "The first time I laid my eyes on you, I knew I was in love. If I'm supposed to be their offspring, I know they will feel the same."

Hermione smiled softly, just to show she appreciated his sweet words despite the fact that she still didn't believe him. "If you say so."

Austin dipped down and swung his arms around her, bringing her up to kiss her softly and romantically on her lips. He set her back down with a childish grin. "I know so." He patted her lower back. "Come on. Let's go grab some lunch."

* * *

><p>Austin held the door open to the quaint little cafe down the street for Hermione, who walked in slowly and gazed around. She had always wanted to venture into the cafe, which was appropriately named <em>Magik<em>, yet she had never had the time or company to do so. The cafe was moderately decorated in glass walls and granite counter tops, giving it a bright and lively appearance in the main foyer. However, there was a heavily curtained entrance way towards the back of the cafe which led to more private seating areas. The tables were glass-topped which cast iron legs and chairs, and everyone was dressed in thick robes of blue and grey.

"Welcome to Magik," the hostess greeted them. She stood behind a black podium and had the most beautiful long, red hair that Hermione had ever seen – though she would never tell Ginny that. The woman was stunning and Hermione felt slightly haggard in her work robes and tear stained cheeks compared to her. Her name tag said _Harmony_. "A table for two, I presume?"

"I have a reservation under Braves for a private table," Austin said, his arm wrapped firmly around Hermione's hip.

Harmony checked the book at the podium, ticked off something on it, and then reached down to grab two menus. "Right this way," she said in a husky voice. Hermione and Austin followed her into the curtained room, which was primarily lit with candles and had floors made of stone. They were lead to a booth in the corner of the spacious room.

"May I take drink orders while you wait for the waitress?" Harmony asked.

"Just water with lemon for me," Hermione said.

"And a pint of Honey Lager, if you have it," Austin said with a toothy grin.

Hermione watched the hostess walk off, an enticing swing to her full hips. She frowned. "She's quite stunning," she admitted.

"Unless you are looking in the mirror, love, I have no idea what you're talking about," Austin said with a charming chuckle.

"Stop," Hermione said. Her voice was a lot firmer than she had intended, and she immediately winced as she heard her own voice.

Austin frowned. "Is everything okay?" he asked.

"I've just had a bad work day. A lot of things to be done," Hermione said. She lifted the menu over her face to cover it briefly, looking over her food options without really reading them. The only reason she had snapped at him in the first place was the fact that she was still bitter towards Draco about earlier. How could he just advance on her like that after what had happened? Granted, she had not exactly pushed him away from her when he tried to kiss her – God knows she wanted it. She knew she would have probably had sex with him right then and there if he had not said what he had said. She ached for the passion that she and Draco had once had together, since it was something she and Austin had lacked.

Hermione had never been a very sexual person through puberty, something she knew that Harry and Ron had very much developed. Towards her final year, she had only once thought about sex and that had been with Ron. However, that one night she had given herself up completely to Draco had changed everything. She had never expected her first time to be the way it had – the intensity of romance the two had shared, the pleasure that had shuddered through her body, as well as it being the first time the two had ever admitted they were in love with one another. When that experience was compared to her time with Austin, it was nothing. Yes, Austin was a very caring and loving partner in bed, but she felt no spark like she had with Draco.

"Are you ready to order?" Austin asked, hurt showing in his tone from Hermione's reaction earlier.

Hermione nodded and placed the menu down, just as the waitress came over and took their order. Hermione ordered a turkey and Swiss cheese sandwich, while Austin ordered a stuffed baked potato and salad. When the waitress had left, the two were alone in silence. Neither one said a word to the other for the entire time they sat there. Hermione had completely ruined Austin's plans for a romantic lunch outing together, and she knew she had made Austin feel uncomfortable for her outburst. She had never been so harsh to him before, and she immediately felt terrible because of it. Yet, despite how she felt, the images of her and Draco holding hands and smiling as they sat in the common room together still lingered through her mind. It took every ounce of strength in her body to remain calm as she and Austin sat together in silence.

He was the first one to speak after ten minutes of undisturbed silence. "I have a surprise for you," he said timidly.

Hermione lifted her chin off her head to appear more alert and sat up. "What is it?" she asked, her voice much more neutral than it had been previously.

Austin reached into his pocket and withdrew his wallet, which he opened and slid a card out of. He placed the card on the table and slid it over to Hermione. "I booked something for our wedding," he said.

Hermione picked up the card and read the details of it. It was a music card, displaying the contact information for the exact local orchestra Hermione had been listening to albums of for the past four months. Her eyes became slightly glassy and she blinked rapidly to hold back tears.

"You booked the Bringly Temple Orchestra?" Hermione said in awe.

Austin smiled softly. "I know how much you've been listening to them," he answered.

"B-But they just left London last week to do a four month long tour," she murmured.

"I managed to convince them to come back for one day to be at our wedding," Austin said. "I had to pay a hefty penny, but it was worth it."

Speechless, Hermione glanced from the card to Austin. She got up from the table, came over to where he was and kissed him gently on the lips. Neither of them had to say another word after that because everything that had caused any tension between them before immediately disappeared with that one simple gesture.

By the end of the day, Hermione had managed to organize all of her filing cabinets in alphabetical order and date, separate previous cases from current ones, and call any clients that had been in her outstanding list. It neared five thirty by the time she was completely caught up on all her work, and she left her office with a satisfied smile that night. As she stood by the lift and waited for it to arrive at her floor, she slid on her coat and fastened it up without any thought as to who had joined her by the lift.

"Hi," a familiar voice said. Hermione turned to see Ron, who looked rather disgruntled and uneasy. His coat hung open over his robes and his briefcase was dented from nicking it off the side of Hermione's desk last week.

"Hi," Hermione said bluntly. She peeled her eyes away from Ron to stare at the doors of the lift. Ron did the same.

"I just wanted to apologize for earlier," he said, his eyes still on the lifts of the door.

Hermione shifted on place. "It's okay," she lied.

"I mean it, Hermione." Ron turned to face her and frowned. "Forget everything I said. Whatever happened between the two of you is none of my business."

"It's really not," Hermione agreed. "But I appreciated your concern regardless."

"Can we just forget it happened?" Ron suggested.

The lift had arrived by then, and Hermione stepped into it, closely followed by Ron. She pushed the L for the lobby and waited as it slid further beneath the ground. "I suppose," she said.

Ron shifted closer towards her nervously and slid an arm around her waist. "I'm sorry." He waited briefly before leaning in to give her a hug. Hermione tensed up for a moment at the gesture, but loosened up gradually and allowed her arms to wrap around Ron as she returned the hug.

The lift doors opened once more and displayed the beautiful lobby that the two of them worked in. Most of the staff had cleared out for the night, so the lobby was completely empty as they separated by the fountain. Ron disappeared in a green blast of smoke in one of the fireplaces and Hermione watched to make sure he had completely disappeared in it before she began to head for her own fireplace. Ron's apology had definitely brightened her spirits, and she felt as if her day could not get any worse at that moment.

"Hermione," a male voice called out. She paused and turned in the direction of the voice, and she felt her heart beat increase. Draco was walking towards her, his cool eyes bloodshot and his lips dry and parched.

"I have to go," Hermione said through clenched teeth. She had begun to turn her back on her former blonde flame, but his gentle touch on her shoulder made her freeze once more.

"Can we talk?" he asked. His voice was so soft and similar to the way he had spoken to her before in the conference room that it caused immediate goosebumps to trickle up her arms and shoulders.

Hermione hesitated between Draco and the fireplace. With one step and a simple word, she could easily transport herself back into her living room and would not have to deal with anything involving Draco Malfoy for the rest of the day. However, that meant she would have to go out of her way completely tomorrow just to avoid him in any way she could. With a heavy sigh, she turned and made her way over to the fountain to sit on the edge. She waited for a moment to see if he would join and when he stood still in the same spot, she patted at the spot next to her.

Draco slid down on the ledge of the fountain next to her, his white blonde hair falling in his eyes. He calmly slid a hand through his hair and inhaled slowly. Hermione watched his forehead crease and flatten as he organized his thoughts, a trait she had always admired in him.

"I don't know where to begin," he said, resting a finger to his temple.

"From the beginning?" Hermione suggested, a slight teasing tone to her voice.

Draco grinned very faintly before he began to speak. "I'm sorry."

"Beg your pardon?"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. Everything from the way I had acted earlier, to... the past."

Hermione had not expected to be so affected by so few words. She shifted around on her seat and stared down into her lap. So many things had happened between the two of them: they had dated for almost ten months before they became engaged, which lasted for another six months. Then, their wedding had taken place – until it ended dramatically. After the fiasco at the wedding, Hermione had avoided all contact with him up until today. She had been very successful at it, as well – until now.

After the wedding incident, Hermione became extremely depressed. She had temporarily moved out of the home she had shared with Draco to live with her parents, yet had locked herself up in her room for a majority of the day. It took her four months until she even attempted to step out of the house and make something out of herself. That was when she had applied for a job at the Ministry of Magic, which she had gotten very easily. After a month of working there, Ginny had convinced her to go out dancing with her and Luna so that the three of them could unwind from work. On these nights out, Hermione had become a completely different person.

"I think we need to talk in a more private area," she said finally. She lifted her gaze to Draco's, whose eyes carefully searched hers. "I don't think this is the right setting for what we need to talk about."

Draco bit his lip. "What would you suggest then?" he asked.

Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment as she contemplated the best place for it. "Honestly, I would say my parents' place. They have been on vacation in Rome for about a week now, and I don't think going to my place is the best idea." Hermione knew now would not be the time to bring up with her former love that she was engaged to another man, despite the fact that he probably already knew about it from the hustle and bustle around work.

Draco nodded, his expression obviously showing that he was slightly stunned. "Okay. Sure," he said. "When?"

"I'm assuming you already know where they live, since you've been there before. Tonight, after ten if that's okay."

"Okay." Draco stood from the side of the fountain and looked down into her eyes once more. "I just want to have you in my life again, Hermione – in one way or another."

Hermione stood up as well and smiled softly. "I know." Without another word, she turned and walked towards the fireplace, where she said her destination, released the powder, and disappeared in a blast of green flames.

* * *

><p>Draco stood outside of Hermione's parents' home with his hands dug deep down in his pockets. He had brought over a bottle of wine as a gesture of welcome, something Hermione had taught him when they were together, and he had changed from his work clothes. Instead of heavy robes and dress clothes, he had chosen some black jeans and a clean white dress shirt – casual with a touch of class. He had debated for a good hour on exactly what he should wear and how he should present himself, since he wasn't exactly sure what type of discussion was going to place tonight.<p>

Draco had become very familiar with this home during his time with Hermione. Every other month, the couple had visited the home together to greet her parents with a warm smile and a bottle of wine. Gradually, he had come to absolutely adore her parents as well – both of them absolutely adored every bit of Hermione for whom she was, and cherished Draco as a child of their own. It was almost as if Draco had looked up to them as the parents he had lost when he was in his seventh year.

Bringing his hand up through his white blonde hair and inhaling deeply, Draco dropped the same hand to the wood of the door and knocked his knuckles against it gently. Every muscle in his body immediately tensed and his heart leapt into his throat as he waited for Hermione to answer the door.

After a moment, the door opened wide and Hermione greeted Draco with an emotionless expression. She wore the same skirt she had been wearing earlier at work but a red and black lace corset top. The sight caused Draco to swallow hard, who prayed that she had not noticed, but left him speechless for a moment before he smiled very weakly.

"I'm sorry for the outfit," Hermione said with a gesture at her torso. "I went out for dinner tonight and I was wearing a cardigan, but it got very warm so I took it off. Come in." She stepped aside to expand the door some more and allow Draco in, who stepped in slowly.

"I brought you some wine," he said, lifting the wine up. "I mean, if you want it."

Hermione gave him a friendly smile as she took the wine from his hands. "That wasn't necessary, you know. But I appreciate it. Why don't you go in the living room and have a seat, and I'll pour us some wine?" she suggested.

Draco nodded and turned to the direction of the living room, which he still remembered. He was greeted with the familiar layout of the very inviting room. Two plush navy couches sat across from one another on the opposite sides of a mahogany table and a roaring fireplace stood ablaze on the wall beside them. Draco slid into his normal seat, which had always been at the furthest couch to the right, and crossed his ankle nervously over his knee. The whole situation reminded him of his first date ever when he was fourteen, which had been with a family friend. He had been so nervous and excited that night that he had thrown up in the carriage on the way back. That was the last time he had spoken to her.

Hermione came in a few minutes later with two wine glasses half filled with the red wine Draco had brought, and Hermione hesitated at the two couches before taking a seat across from Draco on the opposite one. She placed the two wine glasses on the table between them and rested her arms on the back of the couch, her leg over the other. She then remained silent.

Draco cleared his throat nervously after a moment of silence and put his hands on his knees. "So, you called me over here to talk?" He said it as a question, but he meant it to be kind of firm and powerful. Obviously Hermione had the upper hand in this situation.

"Yes," Hermione said with a smile. "I thought we should talk about everything between us. I mean..." She paused and placed her hands around one of the wine glasses, bringing it up to her lips. "Things just kind of fell apart between us after the wedding."

Draco glanced down at his forearm, making sure every inch of the mark was covered with his shirt sleeve. "During, really," he corrected.

Hermione bit her lip. "I refrained from wording it that way," she said. "Regardless, I think we need to talk about it – about everything."

"So talk," Draco said with a slightly firmer tone. "It's something I tried to make you do for months after the wedding. Now do it."

Hermione frowned. "That's hardly fair, Draco. I was furious with you and I had reason to be," she said.

"Hermione, it wasn't my fault!" he exclaimed, frustration in his voice. "For Christ's sakes, I don't know how many times I have to tell you that."

"You know, maybe this wasn't such a good idea..." Hermione set her glass down and began to stand up, but Draco quickly grabbed her hand from across the table.

"I'm sorry," he said. His inhaled deeply and closed his eyes briefly before opening them once more. "I didn't mean to yell at you. I'm just... nervous."

Hermione stared at the table between them, her hand under his and her eyes transfixed on them. "Okay." She slid her hand out from beneath his slowly and sat back against the couch.

"Talk to me," Draco pleaded. He positioned himself so that he was sitting on the edge of the couch to be slightly closer to her, yet still keeping his distance. He held his hands together in a conjoined fist and knotted his fingers between his own. His whole body was tense in anticipation for any word that came out of her mouth, from between her perfect pink lips.

Hermione lifted her gaze to his briefly, their eyes connecting for just a moment. It was enough to make Draco feel a spark of electricity surge between them, something he had not felt for many years. He waited patiently for her to speak first.

"Part of me is furious for what happened at the wedding," she started. Her voice was calm and even, though Draco could tell she was struggling to remain that way. "Of course, I'm sure you know that, since that I didn't answer your letters or anything. But you have to understand that our wedding was ruined and that's why I refused to talk to you. You ruined what was supposed to be the happiest day of our life."

"I understand that, but..."

"Let me finish," Hermione jumped in. She brushed back a fallen wave away from her face and continued. "I know that it was not entirely your fault. It wasn't as if you had embellished the mark upon yourself and I know that your father had done it to you during the summer of sixth year. Yet it still was the cause of everything, and you refused to let me use a charm to get it off."

"That was because the last charm you used ended up making me lose my voice for a week," Draco pointed out, smiling sheepishly.

Hermione didn't smile. "I was trying out new charms that were requested upon me from the Ministry. I was still young then, I considered it to be a big deal that they wanted anything to do with me," she explained. She shook her hands in the air to dismiss the topic. "It doesn't matter. What matters is that despite everything that happened at the wedding..." She inhaled slowly. "I'm still in love with you, Draco. I know that is for certain. My mother always told me that one day, I would meet the man that would always be in the back of my mind as my true love, even if he and I never ended up together. I knew that was you after the first time we... consummated our relationship. Even if you had told me at the wedding you hated me and didn't actually want to marry me, I still would have been deeply in love with you."

Draco's heart was beating wildly in his chest and he reached across the table to take Hermione's hand again, but she kept it in her lap. Wincing at the rejection, he leaned back against the couch once again.

"Draco..." Hermione started, but she paused as she tried to pick her words carefully. "Surely word has spread around the office that I am engaged to someone."

"Yeah," he mumbled. "I mean, I never found out who it was, but I remember hearing someone mention it in passing."

Hermione nodded and bit her lip. "It's Austin Braves."

Draco arched an eyebrow and looked up. "The author?" he asked.

"The author," she confirmed. "I met him in a book shop, ironically enough. Six months ago."

Draco drooped slightly in his seat. "Six months? Hermione, you've barely known the man. How long have you been engaged to him?" he questioned.

"Two months," she admitted hesitantly.

"Two months!" Draco laughed dryly and let his head fall back against the top of the couch. "God, you are making the biggest mistake of your life if you marry this guy."  
>Hermione scowled. "Why, Draco? Is it because I'm not marrying you? Is it because I'm actually going through with this wedding and it will be a glamorous success, unlike ours?"<p>

"Oh that's fucking harsh," Draco snapped back. "You're making a mistake because you haven't even had time to get to know the guy. You and I dated for ten months before we were engaged, but we had known each other for six years before that."

Hermione laughed dryly as well and set her wine glass on the table. "Sure, I knew you – I knew that I hated everything about you and everything you believed in," she retorted. "Draco, you are a completely different person than what I thought you were in school."

"Hermione, you still knew who I was. You knew my name, my parents, my friends, my culture, and my upbringing. You knew more about me in those six years than I'm sure you know about Austin now," he explained. Draco stood up and came around the table, taking a seat beside Hermione.

"I know him perfectly fine!" she snapped, turning slightly in the couch to face him. "I know that his favourite colour is blue, and he loves herbal tea, and he had a dog when he was younger..."

She was cut off by Draco's hand resting on the side of her neck and rubbing at it gently. The gesture had caught her off guard and caused her to catch her breath in her throat, which came off as a gasp. Slowly, she closed her eyes and let Draco's smooth hand gently massage at the side of her neck. His cool skin felt relaxing against her and she let her head tilt slightly to the side as his hand continued its way up until he slid it into the depths of her wavy brown hair.

Draco took the opportunity to slide himself closer to her on the couch until only a few inches separated their bodies. He let his lips fall slowly to the side of her neck as he pressed them against her flesh, leaving a soft kiss against her skin. He heard her sigh gently against his ear and then slid his lips up until they caught her ear lobe. His tongue darted out very lightly to run against the side of it and he could feel the shudder run through her body.

"Draco," Hermione sighed, her back arching towards him. He cupped her lower back and brought her body into his, causing another light gasp to escape her lips. He moved his head back so his eyes could stare down into hers, which were half opened and staring up at him.

"I have never stopped loving you, Hermione," he murmured softly. "I never will either." He dipped his head to rest his forehead against hers, his eyes never tearing away from the depths of hers.

"Draco..." she repeated, biting at her bottom lip. He pressed a finger to her lips to silence her before leaning in slowly, his lips only an inch away from hers. The intensity of the moment was causing sparks to fly between their bodies, and Hermione desperately clutched at the back of his gleaming locks as if he was already inside of her.

"Let me do what I've been dying to do for years again," he whispered, his breath hot on her lips.

Hermione stared up at him. "I still haven't forgiven you, you know," she murmured.

Draco dipped his head to draw more kisses along her collarbone. "I know," he replied. "But does this influence you to more, at least?"

"I suppose," she sighed, pressing herself into him. "We do still need to talk about what happened, though."

Draco pulled his lips away from her neck and looked in her eyes once again. "Can we talk about that after?"

"After." Hermione slowly opened her eyes and it took her a moment to realize what he had said. She frowned. "After," she repeated. Suddenly, realization of how close their bodies were and how near his lips were to her own caused Hermione to snap back into a more focused mind. She placed her hands flat on Draco's chest and gently pushed him back.

"Hermione?" Draco questioned, furrowing his brow.

"We can't do that, Draco," she said firmly, her tone completely different than it had been earlier. "We need to concentrate on the real matter at the moment, which is why I asked you to come over. I invited you over to discuss this, Draco, not to have sex with you." She bit her lip and looked up at him sternly. "I am engaged. I'm not willing to cheat on Austin with you."

Draco snorted. "Except you were seconds away from letting it happen," he pointed out.

"Well, I wasn't thinking straight just then," she snapped. Hermione gazed from the couch across from her to Draco. "I think you should go sit over there again."

"I won't touch you again," he said, putting his hands up defensively.

"No, I just think it would be better to see you face-to-face in front of me rather than turning in my seat." Hermione shook her head in disbelief. "That and I want to stop myself from continuously giving in to you."

Draco grinned sheepishly and quickly leaned in to press his lips against her cheek for a brief kiss. He pulled away. "I think you will eventually."

Hermione laughed dryly. "I think you are far too full of yourself," she corrected.

"I think you should be full of something, to be honest," Draco growled huskily.

Hermione slapped at his arm and pushed him away. "Sit over there," she instructed.

Draco sighed and stood up to return to his couch. Once again, he had failed to get into Hermione's pants or win her back – but he was not giving up just yet.


	4. The Wedding

**DISCLAIMER: **_I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own any other characters in J.K. Rowling's original series. I merely am here to demonstrate a different approach to the plot, characters, and overall experience in the world of witchcraft and wizardry._

**Author's Note: **You all have no idea how happy I am to be back into the swing of writing. It really gives me something to look forward to when I'm in bed at night after a long day of work. I will be a little delayed with getting some chapters up, since the first ones were so easy for me to get out. I always seem to have a little more difficulty with stories towards the middle of them, so it takes me a little longer to plan out the chapter and make sure it's exactly the way I want it.

Please review – You, the readers, are my favourite critics!

* * *

><p><strong>IV<strong>

**The Wedding**

"So." Draco rested his left ankle over his right knee and his arm on the armrest of the sofa. "You invited me over to talk so, since I have no idea where to start with this shit, start talking."

Hermione had returned from the kitchen, where she had exchanged their empty wine glasses for two mugs of butterbeer. She set one down in front of Draco and then one for herself, taking a seat on the couch in front of the mug. She had fixed her hair and straightened herself out to look more presentable for him so she would not give him any more ideas that she wished she could have just jumped on him only a few minutes ago.

"We need to talk about what happened at the wedding," she said.

Draco winced at the words, his fingers digging into the armrest slightly. "What about it?"

"What do you mean by that?" Hermione asked with a frown.

"Well, do you want to discuss how you dragged me around for hours looking at flowers, centerpieces, gowns and place settings?" he questioned, a sly smile spreading across his face.

Hermione's expression, however, remained firm and emotionless. "Draco, you know what I mean. We need to talk about what caused me to refuse to talk to you for all these years. We need to talk about what ruined the wedding."

Draco inhaled slowly. "Hermione, you know I never thought it would happen..."

She held up a hand to stop him in mid-sentence. "Can we go back to the beginning?" she asked. "I want to start right with the ceremony."

* * *

><p>"Could you hold still? I can't tighten the corset when you're jumping around like an idiot," Ginny snapped.<p>

Hermione was nervously shifting from foot to foot in front of a three-way mirror, trying her best to be as calm as possible. Today was her wedding day – _her_ wedding day. She had only dreamed of this day since she was a little girl and now that it was coming to life, it all seemed like a dream. She had always thought that Ron would be the man she would marry, ever since she met him on the Hogwarts Express during their first year. He had been a little grubby then and not quite as gentlemanly, but she had already found herself having an enormous crush on him. That's a lot of praise for Ron, since the infamous Harry Potter happened to be sitting across from him at the exact moment they met.

Now, here she stood in front of the three-way mirror in a white tent outside near the shores of the ocean – exactly as she had dreamed it. Ginny, her maid of honour, was dressed in the dress the two of them had picked out, which was a fitted lavender dress that stopped just above her knees, and some nude pumps. Her gleaming red hair was done in soft elegant waves and fell over one shoulder, and she was yanking on the strings of Hermione's corset for her wedding gown. Hermione's gown was something else entirely. It was a very slight off-white shade and mermaid style, meaning it clung to ever curve of her body until her mid-thigh, where it began to flare out slightly. It had tiny black roses detailed in a curve from her stomach to her right calf, and she had a beautiful indigo tulip broche that her mother had given her fastened at the bust. The broche had been her mother's gift to her – it was her something old, something borrowed, and something blue. Her something new was the garter around her thigh, which was green and silver – for her husband-to-be.

"I'm sorry," Hermione apologized for the seventh time. "I can't help it."

"Well I would have been finished this long ago if you were holding still," Ginny said with a soft laugh. She yanked at the strings one last time and finally had them fully tightened and tied, stepping back to admire her work. "There. You're all done."

Hermione admired her gown in the mirror one more time and smiled. "How long until it starts?" she asked.

"A few minutes," Ginny said. "Where are the others?"

"We're here," a female voice called from outside the tent. The folds of the curtain pulled back to reveal Hermione's bridesmaids – Luna Lovegood and Fleur Delacour. The two women were wearing the same dresses and shoes as Ginny, although Ginny had a black sash tied around her waist to signify she was the maid of honour. They were also holding bouquets of deep purple and white orchids, Hermione's favourite flower.

"You look extravagant," Luna said in her cool voice, a smile on her face. "You all do."

"So do you, Luna," Hermione said with a smile. "Is everyone already in there?"

Ginny walked over to the farthest side of the tent, poking her head out just a bit. "I think so. There's no one else around the outside of the tent, and I can seem some shadows on the inside," she said.

Hermione took a deep breath once more. "When does the music start?"

As if on cue, soft classical music began to play from the larger tent just across from hers. She felt her stomach dip slightly with the sudden wave of nerves and excitement.

"Shit," Ginny said. She pushed back the folds of the curtain and grabbed the extra bouquet out of Luna's hands before stepping out on the carpet that lead into the tent opposite theirs. From the tent next door, which had a carpet connecting with theirs, came Blaise Zabini in a classy dark grey suit and light green tie to meet up with Ginny. He smiled at her and extended his arm so she could link their arms together before the two made their way slowly into the larger tent.

Next, Luna stepped out and was greeted by Crabbe. Both Crabbe and Goyle had lost a significant amount of weight over the past year or so, and it made them appear more attractive as their bone structures and natural face shape were more apparent. Crabbe was also wearing a dark grey suit, yet his tie was slightly darker than Blaise's had been. Those two also linked arms and followed after Ginny and Blaise into the tent.

Lastly, Fleur stepped forward and linked arms with Goyle, who was slightly speechless for a moment as he stared up at the fair-skinned and blonde-haired beauty. Hermione laughed softly at his reaction – it was also entertaining to watch strangers meet Fleur and be hypnotized by her part-Veela blood. The two were the last of the bridal party to make their way into the tent, leaving only the bride and groom.

Hermione knew it was bad luck to see Draco before the wedding, yet it was technically the wedding now. She decided to take the chance and peeked through the curtains of the white tent. She saw Draco come out of his tent and make his way down the carpet, fixing his tie and hair for one last moment to make sure everything was straight and orderly. He was wearing a handsome grey tuxedo that was lighter than the other's had been, and his tie was a deep green striped with white. His hair was combed back, but not slicked back as he had had it when he was younger. His face was neatly shaved and he had a glow to him that Hermione though was only prevalent with brides and pregnant women. He looked very handsome and she exhaled a soft sigh as she watched him disappear into the tent.

"You look beautiful," a male voice said from behind her. Hermione turned and beamed as she was greeted by her father. His glasses were perched on the bridge of his nose and he smiled warmly at his daughter, dressed in a very classic black and white suit.

"You look handsome yourself, dad," she noted. She leaned into him and gave him a warm hug.

"Are you ready?" he asked, gesturing his arm to her.

Hermione smiled and linked her arm through his. "I'm ready," she announced. Without hesitation, the father and daughter duo made their way out of the tent and down the carpeted aisle to the tent where everyone else had disappeared into – the tent where Hermione would finally wed Draco Malfoy.

The wedding was everything Hermione had envisioned when they were preparing for it. The curtains of the tent fell back to reveal an archway made of white branches with phoenix feathers woven through them, causing it to glitter red and gold. The white chairs that stood along the carpet that Hermione was destined to walk down were covered in green vines with silver leaves, and the guests had all turned to face the bride who was entering. Small globes of light levitated just under the highest parts of the tent, and fireflies glittered around the globes to create a beautiful illuminating glow around the entire area. The gentle sounds of waves crashing against the rocks beneath them by the edge of the cliff could be heard from outside the tent, and the wedding party all stood awaiting the bride at the altar. Yet the only thing Hermione was looking at was the tall blonde man in the grey suit that stood awaiting her at the front, a soft smile on his face and his hands behind his back.

Hermione took a slow breath and walked down the aisle with her arm linked through with her father's. She saw Harry near the front of the crowd, smiling up at her reassuringly with a soft bundle cradled in his arms. In that bundle, Hermione saw the beaming face of Harry's daughter, Lily, whose bright green eyes stared up into her own. Only a few months old, the infant was the most stunning child Hermione had ever seen – she knew she would look identical to Harry's mother.

On the other side of Harry was Ron, and the sight of him caused Hermione's stomach to clench slightly. She knew this was a difficult moment for Ron to sit through because, in reality, he was still deeply in love with Hermione. His eyes were surly and dark under his mess of red hair though he softened slightly under Hermione's gaze and forced a very small smile.

Finally, Hermione stopped in front of the altar and gave her father a kiss on the cheek, smiling at him before he departed to sit beside her mother in the front row. With no other place to turn, Hermione slowly turned to face Draco and smiled at him. He was beaming with complete joy at the sight of her and took her hands in his own.

"You look stunning," he whispered, leaning in to place a soft kiss on her cheek.

"You look pretty good yourself," she whispered back with a smirk.

The minister cleared his through very softly to catch their attention, and the two of them turned to face him. He beamed at the two and opened his arms to the rest of the guests.

"Ladies and gentleman," he said. "Today, we have gathered here to celebrate the marriage of Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy. Marriage is the promise between two people who love each other, who trust that love, who honour one another as individuals in that togetherness, and who wish to spend the rest of their lives together." He smiled again. "It enables the two separate souls to share their desires, longings, dreams, and memories, their joys and sorrows, and to help each other through all uncertainties of life.

"Marriage has certain qualities of contact, in which two people take on the housekeeping tasks of living together, to enhance life's joy. However, marriage is more than a contract. Marriage is a commitment to take that joy deep, deeper than happiness, deep into the discovery of who you must truly are. It is a commitment to a spiritual journey, to a life of becoming, in which joy can comprehend despair, running through rivers of pain into joy again. And thus marriage is even deeper than the commitment, it is a covenant – a covenant that says 'I love you, I trust you, I will be here for you when you are hurting, when I am hurting, and I will not leave.' It is a covenant intended not to provide haven from pain or from anger and sorrow. Life offers no such haven. Instead, marriage is intended to provide a sanctuary safe enough to risk loving, to risk living and sharing from the center of oneself. This is worth everything."

The minister turned to face Draco and smiled softly. "Draco, do you take Hermione to be your wife? Will you love her, comfort her, honour and protect her and forsaking all others to be faithful to her until death do you part?"

Draco had not removed his eyes from Hermione and he smiled, speaking with full confidence. "I do."

"And Hermione, do you take Draco to be your husband? Will you love him, comfort him, honour and protect him and forsaking all others to be faithful to him until death do you part?"

Hermione returned the smile and nodded. "I do."

"With that, I believe Draco has written his own vows, which he will read for you now," the minister announced, stepping back slightly.

Hermione's eyes widened and she looked up in horror at Draco. This was not part of the agreement the two of them had made. "You wrote your own?" she asked.

"Surprise," he said with a sly grin.

"Draco," she murmured. "I thought we were going to do the traditional vows."

Draco laughed softly. "I thought this would be better. Don't worry, you can still say those ones."

Hermione was about to speak, but Draco interrupted her by clearing his throat and squeezing her hands gently.

"Hermione," he said. "When I met you years ago, I never thought for as long as I lived that I would be marrying you. You were such a... unique looking girl, with hair wilder than a wildebeest and you had two big teeth that made you look like an adorable rabbit." All the guests chuckled lightly, causing Hermione to blush in embarrassment and look down. Draco took his finger and lifted her chin to meet her eyes once more. "But you were still beautiful to me. I had been raised in a completely negative household that caused me to automatically be disapproving of anyone that didn't possess purely magical blood. From that, I was so, so rude to you for years and years. Up until seventh year, when I was forced into a small tower to live with you for a full semester, I kept the exact same thoughts about you from my father's influence. I should have never listened to a word he said, because from being in that enclosed space with you and only you, I fell in love. I discovered what a genuine, beautiful, incredible woman you are inside and out. You made me feel what real love can do to a human being, and you made me throw away all the negativity in my life. You changed me forever in the most positive way possible, and I could never in all my years express how much that means to me."

A small tear began to build in the corner of Draco's eye, something Hermione had rarely seen. She squeezed his hand tighter.

"Hermione," he continued. "I know now that I never, in all my life, want to be with another human being. You are the only one for me, and I feel as if I have been made to be with you. I was put here for a purpose – and that purpose was you." He smiled and gently stroked the side of her face with his hand. "I love you so much."

Hermione knew her eye make-up was going to smudge from the wave of tears that began to pour out of her eyes, no matter how waterproof they claimed to be. "I love you too, Draco," she managed to whisper.

The minister stepped forward slightly and turned to Hermione. "Shall I recite the vows prepared?" he asked.

"No," Hermione said suddenly. "I have something I'd like to say too."

Draco arched an eyebrow and smiled. "You do?" he asked.

"Spur of the moment." She lifted her finger to wipe a single teardrop from her cheek. "Trust me, I never would have pictured standing where I am standing now eight years ago with you. I had this image in my head of the perfect wedding with the perfect husband, and I knew for a fact that my husband would not be Draco Malfoy – the slimy, rude eleven-year-old I met at Hogwarts. You made our years there a living hell for a good portion of the school year, but we remained enemies. But here I am, standing with you." She laughed softly. "And I know that this is right. I know this is love, and I know that this is the happiest moment of my entire life up 'til now. You are my true love, and I love you more than words could explain."

Draco stood smiling at Hermione, gently rubbing his thumb over the skin between her thumb and forefinger. He mouthed another _I love you_ to her before the minister stepped in once more.

"Now, we will exchange the rings," he announced.

Blaise and Ginny stepped forward on either side of the altar, handing Draco and Hermione the rings. Draco took the ring, which was a beautiful white gold, and slowly slid it onto Hermione's ring finger. Then, Hermione did the very same to his finger with his wedding band. The two smiled at one another, deeply in love, before being cut off by the minister again.

"Until now, Hermione and Draco have spent each moment of their lives as separate individuals. But from this day on, and every day after, their each moment shall be shared and spent as one. By the power invested in me by the Ministry of Magic, I now pronounce you husband –"

His words were cut off by the sudden loud crack of thunder that came from outside, causing all of the guests to jump in surprise. Lily began crying from Harry's arms from the swarm of guests, and Hermione frowned as she looked up at the tent's roof.

"It wasn't supposed to rain today," she said. She looked back down to look over at Draco, but he had fallen to the floor onto his knees and was clutching his forearm. His brows were furrowed and his teeth clenched, suggesting that he was in pain.

"What happened?" Hermione asked, falling onto the floor in front of him.

"My arm is burning," he said through clenched teeth.

Hermione went to lift the sleeve of his shirt, and Draco groaned in pain as the fabric rubbed against his skin. She gasped in surprise. The Dark Mark that had been etched into his skin was glowing red and his skin had begun to flake around the edges of it, making it look like an enormous scabbed cut.

"Draco?" Hermione questioned.

Before she could say anything else, Ginny came running over to them from the side of the altar. "We're not alone!" she screamed over another crack of thunder.

After the second crack of thunder, high winds began to pick up and blow at the tent so violently that the seams were coming apart. Guests began screaming and running for the exit of the tent, which was now flung wide open. Hermione's curls were windswept into soft waves and she remained kneeling on the ground with Draco as she glanced out and saw a circle of pitch black in the sky surrounding the area of the tent. The sun had disappeared and the sound of waves crashing against the rocks became much more violent.

"What the hell is going on?" Hermione yelled over the winds.

"We need to get out of here!" Draco shouted, grabbing at Hermione's arm and pulling her up as he got up as well. He winced in pain again from his arm but began pulling her out of the now-empty, but froze as he heard a voice from behind.

"Draco," an all-too familiar voice said.

Draco turned slowly to face the clouded image of his father at the altar where he had stood only moments ago. His father's hair was perfectly still, despite the enormous winds that had picked up by now, and he had a black cloak covering his body. His wand was tucked in the pocket of the cloak, and he had a small smile on his face. Behind him were two Death Eaters, their faces concealed with masks. Beside each of them was a Dementor.

"What the hell are you doing?" Draco yelled at him over the high winds, protectively covering Hermione.

"I'm disappointed that I was not invited to the wedding," he said with a mocking frown. "Just because I am dead, doesn't mean I can't come."

"You are a fucking spirit," Draco spat. "That and you are the last person on this entire Earth I would ever invite to my wedding – dead or not."

Lucius smiled. "Is it because you're marrying a Mudblood? Don't want to disappoint me do you now, Draco?"

"Fuck you." Draco muttered, his eyes furious. He gently pushed away from Hermione and became walking over to his father's spirit. "Fuck you! You have no idea what this feels like, do you? You _never_ loved mother because the only person you ever loved was a disgusting excuse for a wizard named Voldemort."

"You will not speak boldly of the dead!" Lucius hollered, his voice booming over the sound of the thunder. "He is your authority!"  
>"He's dead and so are you!" Draco yelled. He reached into the back pocket of his pants and removed his wand, pointing at the Dementor. "<em>Expecto Patronum!"<em>

A blast of light came from his wand, though the shape was unrecognizable, and leapt onto the Dementor, which let out a high-pitched squeal that sounded similar to a balloon losing its air. The Dementor immediately fled the tent, floating towards the sky. When Draco was pleased with the reaction, he turned to point his wand at his father.

Lucius chuckled. "What will that do to me?" he asked.

"Obviously, you have not been around lately," Draco spat. "One of the most powerful witches I know has developed a new spell to rest the dead – in this case, get rid of you."

"Bullshit," Lucius hissed. "That isn't possible."

"Don't be stupid, Draco," one of the Death Eaters mumbled from inside his mask. He slid his wand out of his pocket and pointed it at Draco. The other Death Eater followed suit.

"_Avada Kedavara!_" A voice called out from behind Draco and Hermione. Draco looked behind him to see Harry standing there with Ginny behind him, her arms protectively around Lily. A flash of green light came from the tip of his wand and hit the first Death Eater square in the chest, causing him to fly back so far that he tore through the tent and a moment later, the sound of a large splash in the water below could be heard.

"I'll do it to you too, I swear," Harry hissed, pointing his wand at the second Death Eater, who was standing with their wand pointed at Harry in return.

"Draco, are you honestly companions with Potter?" Lucius asked in disbelief. "You are not the person I raised you to be. You've become as filthy as a Mudblood."  
>"Shut the fuck up." Draco stepped closer to his father until he was only a foot away. "You made me into a complete fraud, someone I would never want to be today. I'm sick and tired of being reminded of my past and being reminded of the filthy piece of shit that you are." He did a very complicated moment with his wand and said in a cool, collected voice. <em>"Inspirio Deceasito."<em>

The three friends watched in horror as Lucius' face began to slowly dissolve, almost melt away from his ghostly skeleton. His cloudy face slowly dripped away from the rest of his bones and melted into the ground below them until gradually and gradually, his ghost had disappeared. The spell had completely worn Draco out and he fell back against the nearest table, clutching his wrist and panting heavily.

The Death Eater lifted his wand to cast a spell, but Harry beat him to it once more and a second flash of green light sent him flying back through the tent and into the water. Immediately, the clouds in the sky disappeared and the blue sky peeked through once more. The guests had all gathered on the far side of the field by the cliff, the breeze from the ocean very lightly causing their hair to swirl in the air. Harry and Ginny stood near the entrance of the tent, embraced in one another's arms, while Draco was leaning against the table furthest away from Hermione. Hermione had collapsed onto the grassy ground with her white dress smudged with grass stains and her head staring beneath her.

"Thank God," Draco said finally, sliding his wand back into his pocket and turning to face Hermione. "I'm so sor – "

"You're sorry, right?" Hermione mumbled. She sniffled and lifted her head, her cheeks shiny with tears and her eyes red from crying. "You're sorry. And I'm supposed to forgive you and we are supposed to just go on and get married."

Draco frowned and froze five feet away from her. "Well... Isn't that what you want?"

"Draco, what the fuck just happened?" Hermione hissed. "Your father, who is dead, just came back as a spirit to completely ruin this wedding. Two Death Eaters and a Dementor just also happened to come along, leaving everyone here at risk. This all happened because of that stupid thing!" She pointed at the Dark Mark on Draco's arm, which was no longer burning red. "If you never had that thing, which I thought you said you had gotten rid of him, we would have had a wonderful time today. I would've married you."  
>"Would've? Hermione, what are you saying?" Draco asked.<p>

"The wedding is off, Draco." She stood up and looked at him with disgust. "You've ruined everything." She turned and walked toward the entrance of the tent, where Harry and Ginny put their arms around her and guided her out of the tent, leaving Draco to stand there in disbelief.

As quickly as it happened, it was over – Draco watched as Hermione's back grew smaller and smaller as she left the tent, and then watched as the crowd of guests gathered around her to comfort her. He stood staring at his arm in complete shock before he finally broke down and collapsed on the ground, crying into the grassy Earth. From one simple tattoo that he had never put on himself, he had lost everything he ever loved within the course of ten minutes. Sitting in the grass by Draco's knees, to his disappointment and horror, was the shiny white gold of Hermione's wedding band.


	5. The Aftermath

**DISCLAIMER: **_I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own any other characters in J.K. Rowling's original series. I merely am here to demonstrate a different approach to the plot, characters, and overall experience in the world of witchcraft and wizardry._

**Author's Note: **I laughed so hard at all of the responses from the last chapter, specifically because they were all the same! I received feedback from everyone saying they hated Hermione and thought it was all her fault in regards to the wedding, rather than Draco's. Well, the point of that chapter was to make you feel a little hatred towards Hermione for just a little while, at least.

Please review! I love the feedback, and I love reading it at work the morning after I update.

**V**

**The Aftermath**

Draco placed his forefinger and middle finger on his temple and rubbed slowly, which throbbed numbly. He did not want to be reminded for the umpteenth time that the tattoo embellished on his flesh had caused their marriage to end before it even began. Every night, he would sit by the end of his bed and put his head in his hands, trying to sort out his thoughts on how he could convince Hermione that they belonged together. He would replay the wedding in his head and often had a tear trickle down his cheek. Tonight, however, it frustrated him beyond belief to hear it from her lips and be forced to remember it again.

"Hermione," he said calmly. "You don't need to run through the events again. I know what happened. I _was_ there, after all."

"It's important that we discuss it, though," she reminded him. "And I wanted to make sure I included every detail, just to refresh your memory.

Draco laughed to himself. _The last thing I need refreshed is that memory_, he thought. "Okay. We will discuss it." His voice was calm and steady, but his hands were clenching and unclenching into fists on his lap. Draco was aware that Hermione could tell when he was frustrated and now was no exception, since she shifted uneasily in her seat.

Hermione cleared her throat and crossed one knee over the other. "First of all," she said. "Why the hell did the Dark Mark burn red in your skin?"

"Ah, so there is something I know more than Hermione Granger," Draco mocked, loosening up with a grin. "Of course it never did that when Voldemort was nearing. There is a certain bond given that causes that to happen. Since my father retracted the Dark Mark from his own arm and embedded it onto mine, a bond forms between the shared ink that causes the primary owner of the mark to inflict emotional and physical reactions on whoever they gave it to. Therefore, my father had obviously wanted to inflict pain on me and the only way he could do so is if he was within at least five hundred feet from me. What he does is he presses his wand against the mark and merely thinks of my name and an emotional or physical action. In this case, he chose fire because he knew I feared the sensation of being burned ever since I burnt my finger on a birthday cake candle when I was three." Draco shrugged. "It's kind of difficult to explain. Do you get the idea, though?"

Hermione nodded. "It's similar to an Unforgivable Curse, but through a physical bond you two share," she said. "He can control how you feel and what you do."

Draco smiled. "It's similar, yes. He can't control me anymore, though."

"I don't know that for sure," Hermione said with a scowl.

"Hermione, for Merlin's sake," Draco snapped. "How many times have you practiced that spell and succeeded? He's gone and he hasn't returned since. You would think his spirit would have greeted us at least once, or haunted me to tell me I did the right thing not marrying him. I wouldn't agree with that, though," he hastily added as he saw Hermione's brow begin to narrow.

"That doesn't mean I'm going to jump at the chance to marry you again, though," she said.

"I had never said that," Draco pointed out. "I was just making a point."

Hermione waved her hands in the air finally. "It doesn't matter. I do want to apologize, however," she said.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "Apologize for what?"

"For blaming it all on you," she said with a frown. "I mean, even though he was your father, it wasn't as if you had wanted him to be there. You didn't summon them to the wedding and you weren't the cause for it being destroyed. I know what I did was wrong by just ending it then and there, however." She inhaled deeply. "You do have to understand that the wedding wouldn't have been the same after that. I had to end it because of the circumstances."

"We could have rescheduled it, Hermione," Draco said. He leaned over the table to place a hand over Hermione's. "We could have still been happy, completely happy. You chose to ignore that, though."  
>Hermione shifted her hand away. "I didn't know how to feel after what happened," she explained. "I was hurt, angry, confused – I couldn't marry you when my feelings were so tangled and unstable. That wouldn't have been fair to you, Draco. I did it so that I could have time to think and to see if I could have the same feelings for you that I once had."<p>

"I think you're close to it, if not completely there again," Draco said. "When we were in the conference room, you didn't pull away until – well, you didn't exactly complain, let's just say that."

"I still have feelings for you, Draco," she said. "But I'm with Austin now, and he and I are getting married. You have to understand that I can't always have these feelings for you."

"You could. People can be in love for years and never be together. Is that what you want? Do you want to be with Austin, but feel so guilty for knowing you have feelings for another man?" Draco said urgently.

Hermione didn't say a word for a moment. She stared into Draco's eyes intently, searching for the right answer until she finally lifted herself off the couch. She smoothed out her skirt and gathered the two mugs of half-drunk butterbeer. "It's late. I need to go to sleep."

"That's how you want to end things, Hermione?" Draco said, standing up and walking over to her. He placed a hand on her shoulder to turn her around, but she shook it off.

"We both need to work tomorrow, Draco," she said with a frown. "I'll walk you out."

Draco was speechless as Hermione gathered her things and followed him out of her parent's house, locking the door behind her. The two stood on the front porch for a moment in the silent pitch black night. It was nearing on midnight and Hermione knew Austin would be questioning her as to why she was so late, but she truly didn't care at the moment.

"I appreciate you coming over to talk," she said, her eyes focused on the ground.

"I knew I had to see you face-to-face outside of work," Draco said. He put a finger under Hermione's chin and lifted her to face him. "You're beautiful, you know that?"  
>Hermione's cheeks flushed, and Draco smiled down at her. He knew he had made her re-think things tonight, specifically with his last comment. He wasn't completely proud of himself for making Hermione recalculate her relationship with Austin, but he was being greedy and selfish – he needed her to himself.<p>

"Draco," Hermione said, her eyes still staring up at him. "We need to go." She began to move towards her Muggle car, but Draco caught her arm and pulled her back, pulling her body close to hers. She gasped in shock and pressed a hand against Draco's chest to push him back, but froze when his eyes met hers again.

"Just once," he whispered. In one slow movement, Draco slid his hand into the depths of Hermione's soft waves and pulled her head towards his. He could feel her breath quicken ever so slightly, her heart beat picking up against his chest, as he pressed his lips against hers for a slow, passionate kiss. The sparks that ran through Draco's body were indescribable and he felt as if he was where he belonged once more as his other hand found the smooth curve of her hip and pulled her in closer. To his surprise and delight, he felt Hermione's body push closer against his and her arms reach up around his neck.

After a moment, Hermione slowly pulled away from his lips and touched her own with her fingertips. Her chocolate brown eyes were large and she was staring up at Draco.

"I'll see you later," she said in a rushed voice. Before Draco could stop her, she was in her car and backing out of the driveway to leave Draco standing on her parent's front porch with a steady heartbeat and a sinking feeling in his stomach.

A week had passed and the Ministry of Magic buzzed with activity. It was nearing the month's end, meaning that everyone had to get their monthly totals in for their paperwork and filing. It was the most stressful few days every four weeks and everyone was always busy going through their endless piles of paperwork to manually read and pick the appropriate one. Since this job was very tiresome, everyone often became irritable and stressed with other co-workers, leaving tension lingering in the air.

Hermione had finally organized her four massive piles of paperwork after six long hours of filing them chronologically. She sighed in relief and wiped her brow as if to finalize her day, deciding that she would leave the rest for tomorrow. She gathered her things from the side of her desk and walked out of her office, making sure to lock it behind it securely so no one would tamper with her work in the morning. The Ministry was eerily silent, since a majority of the staff had gone home an hour ago so she left in silence by herself. It was comforting to be in complete silence for the first time in a very long time and she took the opportunity to really let herself relax.

The week had been a very tense week for Hermione. Not only was it nearing the month's end, but she had a lot of other tension surrounding her. After the incident with Draco in front of her parent's home, she couldn't seem to get him out of her head – his face nearing hers was a reoccurring dream for her at night now. Austin had also been a cause for her tension this week, since he was having a difficult time writing his next book and seemed to be spending more nights at the bar rather than with Hermione in his home. On more than one occasion, Austin had stumbled into the house around three or four in the morning hiccupping and laughing uncontrollably – obviously drunk. This had been very unlike him, so Hermione would go down to check on him to make sure he was okay, which would often lead to him yelling at her and him sleeping in the guest room. Last night had been the first night the couple slept in the same bed together in a very long time, though they had not had sex.

With sex now on her mind, Hermione attempted to remember the last time she and Austin had had sex. The factor of sex had never been a very important part of her relationship with Austin however it was always a hard time to not have sex for an extended amount of time in a committed relationship. Thinking back on the past few weeks, it finally hit Hermione that she and Austin had not had sex since the night they came home from visiting her parents – which had been a month ago.

"A month," she said in a stunned voice. Surely Austin had not lost interest in her, or no longer found her attractive? Biting at her bottom lip, Hermione continued to worry about this thought the entire way home. Perhaps tonight when Austin returned from his interview for an article in the Daily Prophet, she would wait for him – and hopefully he'd be happy to see her.

When she arrived home, Hermione was not surprised to find that Austin was nowhere to be seen inside of the house. Judging by the time, he was most likely three-quarters the way through his interview and would be home in about an hour. Hermione took the time to set up the house for a romantic night together, making sure that everything would be perfect for their first night together in a very long time.

She started by levitating and lighting vanilla scented candles around their bedroom, circling the four-poster bed just high enough so it cast a glowing light over the bed itself. She removed their sheets, blankets and pillows and replaced with them silk ones that she had found in a hallway closet. The vase of roses on the bedside table she removed and picked the petals off of to scatter them in a trail leading from the doorway to the bed – very cliché, but if she was the one being surprised, she would have loved the little touch of elegance it gave.

Once the bedroom was set up, Hermione dug through her wardrobe to find the perfect set of lingerie. In the early stages of her relationship with Austin, the two had been very experimentally sexual and therefore Hermione had multiple different sets of lingerie she could wear for tonight. She chose a pair she had never ended up wearing because his book tour had gotten in the way of one of their monthly anniversaries: a black and white lace set with soft silver feathers sprouted from the tops of the bra. She found a black garter in the bottom drawer of her wardrobe as well and quickly threw that on, along with thigh-high stockings that were held up by the garter and had tiny black bows on the outside of the tops. The outfit was extremely naughty, which satisfied Hermione as she sat in front of her vanity mirror and began to comb through her waves. The mess of curls slowly began to sculpt her face and turn into very soft waves that hung down her back, which she fluffed with her fingers to give volume to.

Finally, after a dash of perfume to the key points on her body and a make-up touch up, Hermione slinked on her white silk robe from the back of the door and made her way downstairs to prepare some more. She turned off most of the lights from the bedroom down to the doorway, though she lit whatever candles were decorating the house along the way. In the kitchen, she took two wine glasses and filled them halfway each with some white wine she found in the fridge and set out a big bowl of cherries as well. She took the wine and the cherries into the bedroom as well before looking at the clock – in a few minutes, Austin should be arriving. Therefore, she made herself comfortable by sprawling out over one of the sofas in the living room and flipping through a novel she was reading.

Ten minutes passed. Twenty minutes. The sun was setting before there was a light tap on the door.

_Austin wouldn't be knocking_, Hermione thought as she lifted herself from the sofa. She straightened her robe and made sure it was securely knotted around her waist before she opened the door a crack to see who it was. To her surprise, Draco stood on the doorstep.

"Hi," he said simply, no emotion on his face.

"Draco," Hermione said, stunned. She opened the door a little wider. "What are you doing here?"

"I needed to talk to you," Draco said. He let his eyes fall on the short hem of her robe, which stopped about mid-thigh, slowly dragging them up the curves of her body and toward her eyes again. His eyes were wider now, a sparkle of lust lingering in the depths of them. "You look... Wow. Am I interrupting something?"

"No – well, sort of." Hermione shook her head. "Don't worry about it. How did you even know where Austin lived?" she asked.

"I asked Harry," he said with a shrug. "I told him that I had some paperwork I wanted to drop off for you."

Hermione looked at Draco's hands, which were shoved in the pockets of his dark jeans. "Obviously you didn't have paperwork for me," she noted.

Draco smiled. "Not exactly. Can I come in, or is this a bad time?"

"You probably shouldn't come in," Hermione said. She stepped through the doorway and closed the door behind her softly, resting her back against the dark wood. "Talk here."

"Okay." Draco inhaled deeply and took one of his hands out of his pocket to run it through the soft tousles of his white blonde hair. "Look, Hermione... The thing is... I, uh... I haven't been..."

"Draco," she said with a patient smile.

"I haven't been able to get last week out of my head," he said. "I know I shouldn't be saying all this, since you're with Austin now, but that kiss... It made me re-remember everything that happened between us. It brought back memories that I have been trying to forget for the longest time."

Hermione's heart raced slightly at his words, biting at her bottom lip between her teeth. The whole setup inside and the fact that a very attractive, very willing man was standing in front of her right now was causing Hermione to get slightly... irritable. She shifted from foot to foot to attempt to calm herself down. "What memories?"

"Happy memories," he said with a smile. "Ones of our time together, our nights together, and our wedding. I haven't been able to get you out of my head for years now, but this has been the hardest for me since that kiss."

"We shouldn't talk about that, Draco," she said. "It never happened."

Draco stepped forward suddenly, pressing his palms against the door behind Hermione on either side of her head. "It did happen. I could never forget that," he murmured softly. "I could never forget those lips on mine."

"Draco, please," Hermione urged, but her tone didn't show any remorse. Her voice was very calm and almost pleading him to go on. His closeness was almost too much for her at the moment and she had to remind herself that she was wearing very little underneath the robe.

"Can I come in?" Draco asked again, staring down at Hermione thoughtfully. "I'll behave."

Hermione laughed very softly. "I can't promise the same for myself, though," she said in a hushed voice.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "Do you really have to tempt me like that?" he asked with a grin. "You know that I know exactly what buttons to push."

"Don't you dare," Hermione said, her voice taunting him.

Suddenly, without any thought, Draco pressed his lips against Hermione's in a fiery passion that she happily returned. His arms found the curves of her hips as hers found the circle of his neck and their bodies met within seconds as he pressed her back against the door gently. Large hedges blocked the view on either side of the porch, allowing Hermione and Draco as much privacy as they could have for the neighbourhood.

"Come here," Hermione whispered huskily. She pressed her lips to his once more and reached behind her blindly to turn the doorknob, pushing the door back with her body until the two of them stumbled into the dark entranceway. The candlelight allowed them to have a small amount of light as Draco kicked the door closed with his foot, his hands never leaving the small of Hermione's back. Instead, he slithered them down to grab hold of her rear and lifted her hips into his.

"Oh," Hermione gasped as she felt his manhood press against her silk-covered thigh. She removed her lips from his for only a moment to tear off his T-shirt, which she threw around his neck and pulled at to pull Draco forward up the stairs. She walked backwards with ease up the steps, smirking at him all the way as he followed her like a puppy dog, a smile on his lips.

When her foot hit the top of the stairs, Hermione's lips found Draco's once more and she walked backwards with her hand in his to guide him into the bedroom. The candles continued to levitate just as they had when she had set them up earlier, which allowed just enough light so the two could faintly see the other.

Draco reached down and undid the knot in Hermione's robe, letting the silky fabric slip to the floor. He stood in shock and amazement as he saw her outfit underneath, his eyes wide and his lips parted just a bit.

"You are fucking gorgeous," he growled huskily. His hands immediately grabbed onto her hips and he pressed her to the end of the bed until she fell back against it. Draco crawled over top of her, his lips tracing a line from her hips to her neck, where he paused at the soft spot behind her neck to gently suck at the skin.

"Draco," Hermione sighed, her fingernails gently clawing at the back of his neck. She arched her back off the silky fabrics to press her body closer to his, feeling her skin shiver as her stomach touched his.

Draco wasted no time removing Hermione's bra and panties, sliding them both off painfully slow for Hermione. She couldn't seem to remove her lips from his the entire time her hands found the fly of his jeans, which she undid with ease. Soon, his jeans were off his legs and onto the floor and Hermione finally realized only one piece of fabric separated them from one another – minus the stockings and garter she wore, which Draco eagerly told her to keep on.

"Are you sure, Hermione?" Draco asked softly, his lips trapping one of her earlobes to gently bite at it.

"Draco," she sighed, and he lifted his head to look down in her eyes. "Draco, I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" he asked, puzzled.

"For blaming everything on you," she said with a gentle sigh. She let her hand slide up to cup his cheek and she looked deep into his eyes. "I need this more than you know. I need you."

Those words let Draco know all he needed to know and he smiled before dipping down to kiss at her neck, shimmying himself out of his boxers. Hermione immediately felt his length press against her thigh and smiled to herself as she remembered his well-endowed state.

Draco's lips trailed down to capture Hermione's left nipple, gently rolling it between his teeth and tongue. He was pleased to hear a satisfied moan come from Hermione's lips and he let his fingers slip down between her legs, pressing his middle finger against her spot. Very sensitive to the touch, Hermione gasped in surprise and rocked her hips against his hand, pleading him to continue. When he pulled away, Hermione was breathless for a moment. She then lifted her legs to wrap them around his waist and began to pull his hips in with the back of her heels. Draco paused for a moment.

"Do you still know that charm, or do you have a... what are they called...?"

"Condom," Hermione said with a smile. "My wand's all the way downstairs. Let's just try the condom." She gently pushed Draco off of her and rolled over to the bedside table, reaching in to extract a condom there. She turned to face him again, kneeling on the silky fabric as she tore it open.

"How does this work?" Draco asked, resting on his back as he watched her.

"Let me do it," she said gently. She took the condom and held it between her teeth, slowly moving down towards his member and letting it rest on the tip. Then, with one slow movement, she gently rolled the edge of the condom down from the tip to the base. She gripped him with her fist once to make sure it was all the way on there and smiled with satisfaction.

"Hermione," he murmured throatily. Draco grabbed her hips and pulled her on top of him, her hips just below his as she sat up on his lap. Hermione held eye contact with Draco as he lifted her with ease and very slowly pushed himself halfway into her.

"Oh," she gasped out, arching her back and biting her lip as he began to fill her. Hermione knew that this was only half, but it still felt so amazing. She knew Draco would be gently with her as well – but tonight, she wasn't looking for gentle.

"More," she managed to breathe. Draco very carefully pushed his hips up further and only stopped until he completely filled her. He held his breath and looked up at Hermione intently to make sure she was enjoying it, which she very obviously was.

"Draco," she moaned. Hermione began to rock her hips back and forth slowly, pushing him in an out of her an inch or two at a time. Draco took the sign and lifted himself to a full sitting position, letting his hands hold Hermione securely at the hips as he lifted her up and down onto him. The two of them moved in complete unison as if they had been made for each other, as if they were the only people who were meant to make love this way.

After a moment of that, Draco flipped Hermione onto her back so he hovered over her and began to thrust into her. He groaned in complete pleasure as he watched Hermione squirm beneath him and grab at the silky sheets, pulling them up higher and higher with each thrust. Hermione was in complete bliss. She had almost forgotten how good Draco was at this – he knew exactly how hard to go and when, exactly when to slow down or speed up, and the perfect angles where Hermione would feel the most pleasure.

The two of them rolled in the sheets, making animal-like noises and completely in bliss. Hermione knew she was nearing her third orgasm soon near the end of it, and she pulled Draco down into her to enclose any space between them.

"Draco," she panted. "Oh fuck, please."

"Oh god," Draco grunted. His hips came down harder, faster, until his thrusts were almost too fast to see. The two of them panted and cried out in complete pleasure until each of them knew what was coming next and their orgasms collided at once. Hermione's body tensed and she cried out in pleasure when Draco slammed himself into her once last time, releasing everything he held.

"Fuck... me." Draco collapsed onto the side of the bed beside Hermione, his breath ragged and uneven.

"Mm," Hermione purred, slithering up to rest her head on his chest. Draco slid an arm around her neck and held her close against him, their heartbeats matched in perfect timing. Judging by the grandfather clock in the corner of the bedroom, it was one in the morning. That meant the two of them had been going at it for at least two hours now.

"Should I go?" Draco whispered into Hermione's hair, stroking his thumb along her shoulders.

"If he's not home now, he won't be until at least three. Lay with me for a while," she murmured breathlessly.

"Do you regret it?" he asked.

Hermione rolled over to rest her chin on his chest instead. She let her fingers dance over the small amount of blonde hair that trailed from his belly button down. "Regret what?" she asked.

"What we just did. Come on, Granger, I thought you were smarter than that," he said with a smirk.

Hermione bit her lip to hide her smile. "I never regret anything, _Malfoy_." Her hand trailed a little further down and Draco gasped as she wrapped her hand around him and began to stroke him.

"Merlin," Draco groaned. "You're obviously ready for round two."

"Say when," she said with a smile.

Draco lifted himself up to stand beside the bed and it was very obvious he was ready for round two. He took Hermione's hand and pulled her up to press her against the wall beside the bed, wrapping her legs around him and immediately pushing deep inside of her.

"When," he chuckled.


	6. The Fight

**DISCLAIMER: **_I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own any other characters in J.K. Rowling's original series. I merely am here to demonstrate a different approach to the plot, characters, and overall experience in the world of witchcraft and wizardry._

**Author's Note: **As usual, I'm always happy to hear feedback from you guys and I'm glad that you are all enjoying the story so far. I'm really going to continue on with this story no matter what and I will try to update at least once a week so that I can satisfy the fans. I'm really sorry that I took so long to update this! A lot has been going on at work and I am trying to juggle a lot of things at once, but I promise that I will try my best to do better with updating! Also, I'm sorry if this seems kind of short or rushed – I just wanted to get it out for you guys. I promise the next chapter will have a little more time put into it! I also didn't proofread, so I'm sorry for any spelling or grammatical errors.

I was also thinking of making a blog for my FanFiction, but I don't know if you guys would be interested in that. I would either make it on Tumblr or Blogspot, so let me guys know what you think. I would be sharing reviews of books I read, very short stories, or any thoughts that come to my mind in regards to personal life or FanFiction itself. Please let me know!

With that said, enjoy the next chapter! As always, reviews are appreciated.

**VI – The Fight**

The next morning, Hermione awoke to the smell of coffee floating into the bedroom from downstairs. A small crack of light shone through the curtains of the four-poster bed, causing her to open both of her eyes very reluctantly. She allowed her arms to stretch above her head and then fall against the bed next to her, disappointed when she didn't feel a body beside her. She knew that it was foolish of her to expect Draco to still be there when she woke, but Austin wasn't sleeping next to her either.

Confused, Hermione rolled out of bed and slipped on one of Austin's dress shirts that was lying on the floor casually. She wrapped herself in the luxurious fabric and slipped downstairs to see what was going on.

In the kitchen, Hermione saw a pot of coffee on the counter brewing, which meant it had obviously just been put on not very long ago. There was no sign of life in the kitchen, dining room, or living room and that left Hermione to think the worst.

"Hello?" Hermione called out, her voice echoing across the house. She listened for a moment to hear if anyone would reply, but there was silence.

Frowning, Hermione walked over to the pot of coffee to pour herself a mug. That's when she noticed the small note folded on the side of the coffee maker with her name on it. Curious, she opened the note and read it carefully:

_I made you coffee. I didn't want to disturb you from your sleep, since you looked so peaceful. I left around 7 this morning – Austin didn't come home. I think that may have been important. Last night was amazing. I will come by later._

_- Draco_

Hermione bit her lip and re-read the note several times before she crumpled it and threw it in the garbage. The clock on the coffee maker said that it was only seven thirty, meaning Draco had only just left not long ago. It had barely hit her yet that the two of them had made love last night, and Hermione refused to believe it for a moment simply because the guilt of cheating on Austin would kill her.

The next part of the note made her heart sink into her stomach. Austin had not come home last night and, although she was glad that he hadn't come in to see her and Draco lying naked in their bed, it worried her deeply. It wasn't like Austin to stay out all night, since he had always been a formal and trustworthy person. The thought made Hermione sick to her stomach.

_You're such a hypocrite_, Hermione thought to herself. Here she was, worrying about her fiancée coming home to tell her that he had been out all night with another woman when she had spent the night with Draco – in their house. In the bed she shared with Austin. Not only that, but she had set up the romantic evening for Austin rather than Draco as well.

It hit her like a ton of bricks and she grasped the side of the kitchen counter to steady herself. She had cheated on her fiancée. The words sounded foreign in her head as she repeated them over and over to herself. Never in her entire life did Hermione believe she would cheat on someone, no matter whom with. She had always strongly believed in the trust in a relationship when she was dating someone, and marriage was so much worse.

Just then, the front door opened and Hermione heard the sound of keys being dropped on the table by the door. There was a shuffling of feet and then Austin appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. He looked terrible – his hair was ruffled and messy, his face unshaven and unkempt, his clothes thrown on rather hurriedly. His eyes were glassy and he had bags under his eyes.

"Hermione," he said in a hoarse voice.

Hermione stood there speechless, unsure of what to say. She tugged at the bottom of the dress shirt to cover her thighs a little more, nervously fidgeting with the buttons on the shirt next. She could detect the faint scent of alcohol and cigarettes on Austin's clothes.

"Where were you?" she finally asked, her voice timid.

Austin took a step towards her, but she backed up. He frowned.

"Where were you?" she repeated.

"I... I stayed late." Austin's face showed a flicker of guilt. "I had a few too many and I passed out."

"Where?" Hermione's voice was shaking slightly, fear and her own guilt getting the best of her.

Austin hesitated, his hands in his pockets and his brow furrowed. It took him a moment before he spoke. "Diana Wheaton's house. She's the one who interviewed me."

"So you just fell asleep there. You had a lot to drink and you asked if you could crash there so you wouldn't have to travel home." Hermione frowned. "You could have Apparated."

"I..." Austin sighed. "Hermione..."

"Don't." She smiled, though her eyes were glassy with tears. She lifted her hands to silence him from saying anything further and briskly walked towards the entrance of the kitchen. When Austin reached out to grab her arm, she shrugged him off and proceeded upstairs to their bedroom. She threw on tights with the dress shirt, tucked her feet into some boots and threw her hair into a messy bun. It was the best she could do for now.

Walking downstairs with only her purse, Hermione kept her eyes on the floor as she made her way towards the front door. She had her hand on the doorknob when Austin appeared behind her and grabbed hold of her waist from behind, turning her to face him.

"Let me go," she said in a quiet voice.

"Please, Hermione..." he begged.

"Did you sleep with her?" she asked. She finally got the courage to lift her eyes and look him in the face directly. Tears were creeping out of the corners of her eyes, but she kept her body tense and stood firmly in place.

Austin let his hand fall slowly from her arm to his side. "Yes."

Hermione already knew the answer before he said it, so she simply turned her back and walked out the front door. She knew that she had no right to be furious with him since she had also cheated on him last night, but he had done it first – how childish was that of her to think?

Without hesitation, Hermione knew exactly where she wanted to be. She turned on the spot to Apparate in front of a well-kept, enormous mansion surrounded with groomed green grass and bushes. She strode up to the front door and knocked hard, tears streaming down her cheeks.

The door opened and Draco stood in front of her wearing a fitted black T-shirt and white jeans. He smiled at the sight of her, but immediately frowned when he saw the tears in her eyes.

"Hermione?"

"Can I come in?" she asked.

Draco frowned and opened the door a little wider. "Of course. Come in," he gestured.

Hermione walked in past Draco, her eyes dripping with tears and her breathing ragged. "I don't even know why I am freaking out over this. I mean, I don't exactly deserve fiancée of the year award after last night either. But I never would have expected this from him! I mean, I wouldn't expect this from myself either." Hermione was talking so quickly that she found herself stumbling over her own words as she was lost in thought. She paced from the doorway to the stairs that led up to the second floor, biting her thumb nail.

Draco stood in front of the closed door speechless, his eyebrows furrowed as he tried to make out what Hermione was mumbling. He crossed his arms at his chest and remained where he was. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

Hermione looked up with a shocked expression, as if she had just noticed Draco was there. "Austin. He... He..."

"Hermione?"

"He cheated on me last night, Draco." She took a deep breath as the words escaped her lips. "And yes, I did the exact same thing to him last night – so why do I feel like I have been so betrayed?"

Draco frowned. "He cheated on you? With who?"

"Why does it matter who it was with?" she snapped in return.

"It doesn't," Draco reassured, taking a step forward and placing his arms around her waist. "I mean, it wasn't right for him to do what he did. And yes, perhaps you have no right to be upset given what happened between us last night. You have to remember though, Hermione, that you and I have a history. The only reason I asked who it was with was because the person he slept with might have had a history with him as well."  
>Hermione frowned. "That really doesn't make me feel better," she said.<p>

"Listen to me," Draco said. He took Hermione's hand and guided her over to the living room of the Malfoy mansion. The spacious room was redecorated to fit Draco's needs rather than his mother or father's, and the light grey walls had just been freshly painted as the scent was still lingering in the air. Draco sat Hermione on one of the plush black leather couches and kneeled in front of her with her hands in his.

"Perhaps last night was not smart. Don't get me wrong, I loved every minute I had with you – but you are an engaged woman, as much as I hate to admit that. I shouldn't have let myself get so carried away with you," Draco explained. He smiled. "If you weren't so fucking beautiful and I wasn't so insanely in love with you, I never would have agreed to it last night. However, it's too late to go back and change what happened. The point is that the reason it happened last night was because you and I shared a strong emotional and physical connection from our past. We have history, Hermione, and although that doesn't excuse us for having sex, it was difficult for us to say no when there was still a very obvious attraction present."

Hermione bit her lip and sniffed, the tears beginning to dry in the corners of her eyes. "Last night was a mistake, Draco."

"So why did you come to me? You could have easily gone to Ginny with this," Draco noted.

"I... I don't know. I guess I wanted a man's opinion."

Draco smiled. "Again, you could have gone to Harry or Ron. You know that they approve of Austin more than they approve of me. You see, Hermione? That connection keeps us close to each other in more ways than one. I am not asking you to leave Austin for me, but I am asking you to reconsider what happened last night. That could not have been a one night stand."

"He cheated on me with Diane Wheaton," Hermione said suddenly.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "The reporter?"

"Yes. She had an interview with him last night and the only reason he didn't come home was because he was fucking her instead."

"What poor taste," Draco said. "She looks like blonde troll."

"Are you trying to make me feel worse here?" she snapped.

Draco took hold of Hermione's hands again and squeezed them. "That isn't my intention. I'm sorry, I'm being a jackass."

"What should I do?" Hermione asked.

Draco frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I need to go back to Austin," she said. As soon as the words left her lips, Hermione could see Draco's heart sinking in the depths of his eyes.

"You're not serious... Are you?" he asked, releasing her hands.

"I need to tell him what happened last night and see if we can somehow fix things." Hermione shrugged her shoulders and stood up, wiping invisible dust from her legs. "I guess I just needed to talk to someone about it to get that in my head."

Draco stood up, stunned. "So everything I just told you was completely pointless then."

Hermione frowned. "Draco. I'm engaged. I need to at least make this work. I can't have a second failed attempt."

"But I have been trying for fucking years to make it up to you! What happened between us was nothing compared to what Austin did to you. I never cheated on you, and I never meant to hurt you." The rage built up in Draco finally unleashed, and he took a step back in surprise at his own reaction.

Hermione was speechless for a moment. She looked up into Draco's eyes with uncertainty, her hands on her hips before she finally relaxed. "I can't see you anymore. Outside of work."  
>Draco immediately regretted his actions at her words. "Hermione... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to –"<p>

"I'm sorry I came here bothering you with this," she said. She patted his shoulder once before striding past him to the door. "I'll show myself out."

Before Draco could even take a step from where he was standing, he heard the crack outside that let him know Hermione had Apparated from his property. His shoulders sank and he stared down at the floor in defeat.

_Fuck._

When Hermione reappeared in front of Austin's home, she felt her entire body shudder with the fear of confronting her fiancée. Not only was she going to tell him about her night with Draco, but she was going to attempt to rekindle their relationship so that this would never happen again. Her fingers twitched at her sides and her breathing sped up in anticipation before she took a step towards the door, stretching her fingers out to grasp the doorknob. She slowly turned it and took a moment to calm down before she placed a foot into the threshold.

The foyer had a few candles that remained to burn after she had lit them last night, casting a soft glow around the main entrance. Hermione placed a foot from the rug to the wooden floorboards, cringing as a soft creak came from them.

"Austin?" she called out, gently closing the door behind her – silence. She placed a hand on the large archway that stretched out above her head, peering around the room for any sign of him.

"Austin?" She raised her voice a little more, and this time a soft sniffle came from the living room next to her. Hermione turned the corner to see Austin sitting on the edge of the couch, his head in his hands and his shoulders slouched over the rest of his body.

Hermione paused, unsure of whether or not she should take a step towards him. He was obviously crying and she knew that Austin often became very harsh and hurtful when he was so emotional. She clutched her hands down in front of her and let slow breaths draw in and out from her chest.

"Say something," she said quietly. Her voice squeaked from the nerves in the pit of her stomach.

"Come here," Austin managed to murmur. Hermione almost thought she had imagined that he had said anything since he was so soft spoken, but when he lifted his head slightly to look at her she made her way over to the couch. She sat down beside him.

"There's something I should tell you," Hermione said.

"Let me say something first," Austin replied, lifting his head and wiping his bloodshot eyes. He had a dry line of snot running from his nostril to the top of his lip and he rubbed at it roughly. "Let me just say... Hermione... I-I never meant to hurt you."

Hermione remained still, her heart racing so fast in her chest that she thought she might soon have a heart attack. She kept her composure, however, as Austin continued.

"Last night was such a huge mistake," he explained. "Diana had offered me a glass of wine and I accepted it. And then the bottle gradually became more and more empty, and before I could say anything, she was on top of me asking the questions for the interview. She was forcing me to mess around with her –"

Hermione held up her hand to silence him, feeling the tightness in her chest. She knew that was a lie, and she could always tell when Austin was lying to her because he spoke very fast, just as he was now. She turned to face him, taking a deep breath before opening her eyes to look at him.

"I slept with Draco last night," she confessed.

Austin's hurt expression immediately grew to confusion as he tried to make sense of what she had just said. Then, his brow furrowed in anger. "You slept with your ex?"

"Austin, I never meant for it to happen," she explained. "I was very... turned on last night, and I had been waiting for you to come home, which is why there were candles lit and everything. Then Draco came here out of nowhere, I never expected him, and our feelings from the past just got the best of us. Please, believe me when I say it was an accident."

Austin's knuckles clenched on his knees and turned white as he made fists. He bit his bottom lip so hard that a small trickle of blood drew from the centre of it. "So, basically, this morning you made me feel like the biggest bag of shit on the planet, only to tell me now that I wasn't the only one who cheated last night?" he muttered.

Hermione frowned, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "I wanted to tell you, but I got scared..."

"Oh, so you think it was fucking terrifying for me to confess what happened? I didn't want to tell you, Hermione, because I fucking love you! I didn't want to ruin what we had, and I thought we could get over this. Not after that, though," he spat. Austin raised himself up from the couch and grabbed his coat off the back of it, marching over to the front door shaking his head.

Hermione stood from the couch and watched as Austin left. "So what, we can't even try to make this work? We both fucked up! We can get through this, Austin!" she cried out.

Austin paused at the door and turned to face Hermione with a sarcastic smile. "If you had fucked any other guy other than Draco last night, I probably would've forgiven you. But, you two had chemistry. I can't risk getting fucked over by that. At least for me, I know I will never see Diana or have feelings for her. In your case, Draco could come crawling back for more and you would be all over that. So yeah, this is it," he snarled.

Hermione glared angrily at Austin and yanked her engagement ring off her finger, throwing it directly towards the archway that Austin stood inches from. There was a loud bang as it hit the wood and fell to the floor in two pieces, the ring detached from the diamond.

"Nice knowing you," Hermione snapped.

"Fuck off." Austin slammed the door behind him, leaving Hermione to collapse on the floor and burst into tears.


	7. The Confession

**DISCLAIMER: **_I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own any other characters in J.K. Rowling's original series. I merely am here to demonstrate a different approach to the plot, characters, and overall experience in the world of witchcraft and wizardry._

**VII**

Hermione finished packing the last of her belongings into the cardboard box marked _Kitchen_ and took a look around the area. A stack of boxes stood by the front door in Austin's home where all of her life had somehow been stored into nine cardboard boxes and two suitcases. The last box, which she had just finished packing, sat on the counter in the kitchen beneath her hands.

Hermione sighed. The past few weeks had turned her into a complete wreck. Not only had she been living in her now-ex-fiancée's home until she could find her own place – a very gracious offer from Austin himself while he stayed with a friend – but she had done everything humanly possible to avoid not only Draco at work, but Harry and Ron as well. She knew her two closest friends would not approve if they found out that Austin and her were separating based on her actions, and she felt as if they would completely disown her as a friend if they did find out the truth. It was only a matter of time, though.

There was a soft knock at the door and Hermione lifted her head. To her surprise, Austin's stepped into the foyer and stood in front of the boxes beside the doorway. It had been three weeks since they had seen each other, and it tore at Hermione's heart a little to see him now. He looked thinner than she remembered, and his hair was not as carefully styled as it usually was. Everything seemed out of balance.

Hermione stepped out from the kitchen with her last box of belongings in her hands and froze, unsure of what to say exactly. She bit her bottom lip in thought, shifting the weight of the box in her hands until it rested against her hip.

Austin spoke first. "Hi," he said, keeping his eyes just below her gaze.

"Hi." Hermione's heart jumped into her throat after the single word left her mouth.

"I came by to see if you, uh, needed help loading these into the truck," he said.

"Oh," Hermione said, a little shocked. "Well, I mean, that would be great... If you don't mind..."

"I wouldn't have offered if I didn't." Austin bent down to pick up a box labelled _Books_ and propped open the front door with another box as he made his way down to the driveway, where Hermione's father's pickup truck waited. Hermione watched him leave with a sinking feeling of guilt in her stomach and followed him out to the truck.

Austin was heading back in for the next box as Hermione was coming out and the two locked eyes for a brief moment. Hermione could feel the tension coursing through her veins from that one single gaze and she averted her eyes to the ground quickly before it became overwhelming. After having the house to herself for the past few weeks, Hermione had realized how completely unreasonable she had been with everyone around her. Her actions had caused her to lose multiple loved ones in her life, and she was promising herself to make a change in the upcoming week.

The two stacked the boxes in the back of the truck in silence until there was only one box left, which they stood on either side of in the doorway. Hermione shifted her weight from foot to foot as she stared down at the box before she lifted her eyes to look up at Austin. She froze when she saw his eyes on her as well.

"How have you been?" he asked softly.

Hermione frowned. "Not good, but I deserve that," she said. "How about you?"

Austin shrugged. "Not exactly the best either. I just wanted to make sure... I mean, I don't know why... but I wanted to see if you were okay."

"You don't need to worry about me," Hermione explained. She leaned down to pick up the last box and walked past Austin to carry it out to the truck. Once she had stored it in the back, she leaned up against the side of it and rested her forehead on the cool metal. The rest of her body felt so warm, even though it was a very chilly day in London, and she felt as if she was becoming warmer and warmer by the second.

Lifting her head off the side of the truck, Hermione walked over to the driver's side and lifted herself in. She fastened her seatbelt and began to put the key in the ignition when she saw Austin coming out in her rear view mirror. He walked up to her window and gently tapped the glass. Hermione turned the car on so she could roll down the window.

"You forgot your wallet," Austin said, handing Hermione her folded up leather wallet.

"Thanks." Hermione took it off him and looked up at him one last time.

"I guess this is goodbye then," he said, his brows furrowed.

Hermione nodded solemnly, staring down at her knuckles. "Oh," she said suddenly. Hermione slid the diamond ring that sparkled on her ring finger off and placed it in Austin's outstretched hand. "I guess I don't need that anymore."

Austin stared down at the ring, as if he was unsure that this was really happening. He looked up at Hermione again just as she reached out to graze his cheek with her palm.

"I'm sorry," she said. "But I know you will be happy with someone else." Without another word, Hermione rolled up the window and steered out of the driveway of Austin's home, on her way to her new location. She didn't look in the rear-view mirror once until she knew that he was out of sight.

Hermione turned off the engine and rested her forehead against the steering wheel. She wasn't sure how to feel at the moment. Fear came to her mind – fear of being alone again and how she would well she would adjust to her new environment. She took a long, deep breath and steadied herself before opening the door of the truck and stepping out. Instead of Austin's home, she now stood in front of a two-bedroom house that she was renting from a very nice witch who lived down the street. It reminded Hermione of her parent's house because it had the warm, inviting look to it – white walls, a fence around the outside, and plants nestled in front of the windows.

Hermione hoisted the first box in the truck up under her arm, took a deep breath, and made her way up to the porch of her new home. She reached in her pocket for the key and unlocked it, feeling as if she was unlocking a new chapter of her life.

On Monday, Hermione returned to work with a heavy heart and a nervous stomach. She chose different routes and elevators to make her way around work, choosing paths she knew that Harry, Ron and Draco never took. Even the sight of Persius McDougall, a wizard who once worked in the same department as Draco, caused Hermione to feel queasy. It was unhealthy for her to go on feeling this way and she knew she would eventually have to face Draco, Harry and Ron. What she didn't expect was that today would be that day.

"Hermione," a voice called from behind her. She turned around to see Dringus heading towards her, a leather bound notebook tucked under one of his arms.

"Yes?" She paused and turned to face him directly.

"We're meeting in the conference room. There's been a break in this Drooney case," he said with a smile. "That Potter is one lucky son of a bitch to catch the break that he did."

Hermione's breath caught in her throat. A meeting with the Aurors meant she would have to confront the people she had been avoiding for ages, and the people she loved the most. She had not prepared for this today, although she knew she couldn't tell the Minister that she couldn't make the meeting simply because she didn't want to see her best friends and ex-fiancé. All she could do was smile and nod before following Dringus towards the conference room.

When she walked in, she noticed that she was the last ones to arrive. Draco, Harry and Ron sat around the head of the table with one seat left open for Dringus, and the only remaining seat was placed right between Harry and Draco. She groaned internally, her nail in her mouth as she gnawed on it before sliding into the empty seat. Her body tensed at the closeness of her two people she loved more than anything.

"Hey," Harry whispered, lowering his eyes to look at her. "Where have you been for the past few weeks?"

"Busy," Hermione managed to mutter. "Work and everything."

Harry frowned. "Austin's good?"

Hermione sensed Draco's body tighten up beside her and noticed that his fists had balled up into fists on his thighs at Harry's words. All Hermione could do was nod and smile. She tried to look up at Harry, but she knew that he could tell she was lying the minute their eyes made contact.

"Please talk to me after this," Harry whispered sadly. "Ron and I miss you."

Hermione nodded as Dringus cleared his throat to avert everyone's attention to him. He had set up a board behind him with various pictures of suspects and victims tacked to it, including Crook and Drooney as well as the house-elves that had been brutally murdered.

"I have some good news for everyone," Dringus said with a smile. He lifted up a stack of paper clipped papers and shook them in the air for all to see. "I have received approval from border control for invisible borders to be placed around the designated areas Harry gave me a few weeks back."

"Fuck yes!" Ron said with a laugh, raising his hand to high-five Harry. Harry blushed and shook his head, leaving Ron to sit awkwardly with his hand still in the air for a few seconds before he slowly lowered it. "So, uh, how long will these borders be up?"

"For a month as of tomorrow, no more and no less," Dringus said. "Aurors will be the only ones given permission to Apparate outside of the given borders, although only up until eleven at night. This will give you access to see if they have somehow tampered with the borders."

"So where are the borders exactly?" Blaise Zabini asked, his hands folded neatly on the top of the table.

Harry stood up and opened a map of England with various red and green lines and circles drawn over around twenty areas. "You'll all get a copy of this, of course. The areas in red are the ones that have the borders set up. The green is where the sightings of Drooney have been over the past month."

Dringus began to pass out copies of the map and Hermione ran her hand over the smooth paper as it was placed in front of her. She noticed that a border had been set up near her new rented house, about three blocks away, and a green dot five blocks from that marked a place where Drooney had been spotted. She frowned at the close proximity.

"There's one more piece of good news for you all as well," Dringus said with a smile. He walked over to Harry and clapped a strong hand on his shoulder, beaming down at the black haired wizard. "Harry has caught our first witness."

"WHAT?" Ron exclaimed, clearly thrilled. "You bastard, you never told me _anything_ about this. Who the fuck is it?"

Dringus cleared his throat to note that Ron shouldn't interrupt again before returning to his calm and collected state. "Harry, why don't you bring them in?"

Harry's eyes widened as he looked up at the Minister. "Is that such a good idea sir?

"I want them to see who they should really be fearing," Dringus said with a smile. Hermione saw the twinkle in his eye and realized that she had never really seen the Minister so rebellious and spontaneous with his decisions before.

Harry stood up from his seat and nervous stepped out of the conference room for a moment. When the door opened a minute later, he was steering in someone confined to a wheelchair. Hermione's eyes flicked up to the picture on the board behind Dringus and immediately recognized the person in the wheelchair – Dorothy Crook.

The woman in the chair was obviously a natural beauty, however she didn't look anything like one in the state she was in now. Her long black hair was matted in areas and frizzy around the crown of her head, and her grey eyes were surrounded in dark circles that sunk into her olive skin. She had freckles dotting over her nose and her full lips were cracked and bled crimson red in areas. She was wearing a filthy grey hospital gown and her thin wrists were bound to the chair with invisible binds. Her teeth were clenched as if she was in pain but attempting not to show it.

"Holy fuck," Ron whispered under his breath.

"Meet Dorothy Crook, ex-lover and victim of Drooney's," Dringus announced with a smile.

"Victim?" Hermione questioned. She hadn't spoken for the entire meeting, but Dringus' words caused her to be curious.

"Not only has she lost a house-elf to the hands of Drooney, but we found out that he had also performed the Cruciatus Curse on her before the house-elf's death," Harry explained.

Hermione swallowed hard and examined Dorothy's face for a moment. Her eyes were fixed on the floor of the room, but she lifted the pools of grey to stare into Hermione's own brown eyes. Hermione felt uneasy and quickly changed to look at Dringus instead.

"Where is she being kept? How are we dealing with having her in custody to be interviewed?" she asked.

Dringus beamed his cheerful, calm smile and stepped over to the wheelchair. He kneeled in front of her and spoke to Hermione while his eyes were fixated on Crook. "She's being kept in the dungeons for now, and we'll find ways of making her talk."

Crook furrowed her brow and pursed her lips, spitting a line of saliva onto Dringus' face as he knelt in front of her. She let out a loud, wild cackle that caused shivers to run down Hermione's spine as Dringus rubbed the saliva off on the back of his sweater sleeve.

"Let Thames deal with her," Dringus hissed, his eyes narrowed on the dark haired beauty as she was wheeled out of the room. From hearing the name Thames mentioned, she began to scream in a high pitched wail that could easily be heard even after the door had been closed behind them.

"What does Thames do?" Draco questioned, his eyes still fixed on the closed door where Crook had once been.

"Let's just say he keeps her sane while we have her in," Dringus said, wiping his hands on his pants. "What I wanted to point out was that we have the very best victim/witness in custody and we should use this to our advantage. I want Aurors to begin interviewing her tomorrow and use anything you can to get something out of her about Drooney's whereabouts or anything. It's very important that we suck out every piece of information this girl has to offer."

Hermione cleared her throat a little. "We're not... We're not performing Unforgiveable Curses on her, are we?"

Dringus smiled and lightly shook his head. "Why would we do something illegal, Hermione?" She shrugged and shifted in her seat uncomfortably.

"Starting tomorrow, I want the interviews to begin. Harry will be the first one up, followed by Ron, then the rest of you can pick from a hat or something. I want this girl to be in custody until we find out something, anything, about Drooney that we don't already know." Dringus put the papers that he had spread out over the table back in the notebook he took them out of and closed it. "This meeting is over, back to work everyone."

Hermione stood up to leave and gathered her books and papers to hurry herself out of the door before someone could stop her. Draco seemed to be trying to catch her gaze the entire meeting or even make physical contact by touching her knee with his, so she immediately flew out of the door when he had stood up and started to face her. She left so quickly that she didn't even see Harry standing by the doorway and bumped right into him.

"Oh!" She frowned and looked up. "Sorry Harry."  
>"You said you would talk to us after the meeting, Hermione," Harry said with a frown. "Can we talk in one of our offices or something?"<p>

Ron came up behind Hermione soon after, leaving Hermione trapped between her two best friends. She looked up into their eyes and frowned, knowing she would eventually have to tell them the truth about Austin: there was no running now. She nodded and followed Harry and Ron into Ron's office since it was directly across from the conference room. Ron closed the door and sat behind his desk, leaving Harry and Hermione to take the two seats in front of it.

"What's going on with you Hermione?" Ron asked, frowning as he leaned back in the seat.

Hermione put her books down on top of Ron's desk and put her forehead in her hands. The tears were already coming and she hadn't even said a single word to the two of them yet. Slowly, she lifted her gaze to stare at the polished mahogany of Ron's desk – she still couldn't face looking them in the eye.

"Austin cheated on me." There. She had said the words that she had been dreading for weeks. There was still the manner of Draco, though.

Ron dug his nails into the desk and ground his teeth together audibly, causing Hermione to look up at him. "He cheated on you?" he spat. "Who the fuck with?"

"Does it really matter?" Harry said, casting a stern glance towards Ron before putting his hand on Hermione's shoulder. "You should have told us. When did it happen?"

Hermione shifted in her seat. "A few weeks ago. I was scared to tell you two, honestly. I moved out of Austin's house and rented a place of my own."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "So that explains your absence the past few weeks. Again, I wish you had said something sooner."

"Well, that isn't the only thing," she mumbled, squeezing her hands tightly in her lap. She could feel her throat closing up at the anticipation of telling them about her night with Draco, about how Austin had not been the only unfaithful one, and her heart was beating rapidly against her chest.

"Hermione?" Harry asked, a hint of concern in his voice as he placed his hand on Hermione's knee.

"I slept with Draco the same night," she squeaked. Her lips clamped together in a tight line as soon as the words escaped them and she closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to face the facial reactions of the two people who's judgement she trusted the most.

There was dead silence for a long time. No one said anything and Hermione could hear her heartbeat in her ears as she held her breath, waiting for one of them to say something – anything – that would make her feel better. However, when she opened her eyes, she saw their discouraged expressions and immediately wished she had kept her eyes and mouth shut.

"Why would you do something like that?" Harry asked. "Out of everyone I know, you would be the very last person I would see being the type to cheat on her fiancée."

Ron clicked his tongue against his teeth before he spoke, catching Hermione's attention and drawing her eyes to his. "He used a love potion on you, didn't he?"

Hermione's eyes widened and she shook her head. "Of course he didn't. I can't blame my actions on something like that. It was entirely my fault and choice, I was the one who lured him in when I should've shooed him away," she explained.

"So what made you do it then?" Ron asked, his face completely emotionless but his hands gripping the edges of the table tightly. Hermione knew that Ron had never been a fan of their relationship and was relieved when they finally broke up, only because Ron still didn't trust Draco. He would always think of him as Malfoy, the slimy Mudblood-hating Slytherin serpent that they had despised for years at Hogwarts and was only semi-decent to him at work because he had to be.

"Ron," Hermione sighed. She was already exhausted and all she could think about was going straight back home and crawling into bed. "You know that Draco and I have history, there will always be something there for him. I let my emotions get the best of me when I saw him and one thing lead to another..."

"Fucking Malfoy," Ron hissed under his breath. "Years after you two have broken up and still he manages to win the fucking girl."

"Ron?" Hermione questioned.

Ron stood up abruptly and swung around to face his office door, slamming it open and staring down the hallway. Hermione watched, confused, as Ron began to hurriedly walk towards something down the hall and she and Harry had no choice but to leap up and follow him out.

Down the hall, Draco was standing with his back leaning against the arch of a stone wall, talking in a low voice to Blaise about something, when he noticed Ron coming towards him. Hermione could hear him say, "What's up, Ro-" before he was interrupted by a fist hitting him in the face.

"Ron!" Hermione screamed, running towards the scene.

"What the hell, Weasley?" Draco shouted, wiping the blood that had begun to dribble from his nose. Blaise had slid his wand out of his robes and stood behind Draco protectively while Hermione came over to grab Ron's arms back and pull him away.

"You horny bastard," Ron snapped. Harry had joined them now, replacing Hermione's arms with his own as he held Ron back from Draco and Blaise held Draco away from Ron. All Hermione could do was stand to the side awkwardly, her hands yanking on the ends of her hair as she stood nervously between the two.

"What the fuck are you on about?" Draco hissed, his voice cold and harsh.

"You think you can just go around and fuck one of my best friends and fuck up her marriage?" Ron exclaimed.

"Ron!" Hermione shouted. "That is not what happened, for Merlin's sake."

Draco cast a cold look at Hermione, his eyes narrowed as he looked down at her. A trickle of blood was trailing down his nose to his chin and he spat out another blob of red liquid from his mouth. "Seriously, Hermione? What did you tell him, that I raped you or some shit?"

"You idiot," Hermione snapped back. "I didn't say anything like that at all. Ron is taking this all out of context."

Harry had begun to steer Ron away from the scene, allowing Blaise to lower Draco's arms. Draco was rubbing off the blood from his face, but Hermione could distinctly hear him say into the sleeve of his robes, "You're right, that night was a mistake."

She had no idea why it hurt, but it did. Wordlessly, she turned on her heel and marched away from Draco, hiding the tears that had begun to slide down her cheek.


	8. The Morning After

**DISCLAIMER: **_I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own any other characters in J.K. Rowling's original series. I merely am here to demonstrate a different approach to the plot, characters, and overall experience in the world of witchcraft and wizardry._

* * *

><p><strong>VIII<strong>

Draco slid into the only remaining seat by the bar and ran a cool hand through his silk hair, letting it fall carelessly back over his swollen eye. The dark circle surrounding his left eye had swollen up so much that it was almost impossible to see anything through it, leaving Draco having to squint through his right eye when the bartender came up in front of him.

"Firewhisky," he said softly, keeping his eyes – or eye, rather – on the bar top.

"What happened to you, mate?" the bartender asked as he poured the liquid ember into a shot glass. He was about seven inches shorter than Draco with curly black hair and a thick moustache. He must have been in his late-forties-early-fifties, but he looked to be about thirty.

Draco shook his head and took the glass away from under the stream. He lifted it and tipped it towards the bartender slightly, a crooked smiled on his lips. "To being single," he toasted.

The bartender laughed huskily. "I would, 'cept I have a wife and three kids back home who probably wouldn't enjoy that too much," he said.

"Ah fuck it." Draco tipped his head back and downed the liquid, wincing as it burned his throat on the way down. "You could've at least toasted to how awesome it is."

"True, but I love Alice more than I love bartending and that should say a lot," the bartender said with a chuckle. He topped off Draco's glass once more before moving to a Muggle down the line to attend to him, leaving the one-eyed Slytherin to circle his hands around the glass and sigh.

After letting the bartender – who he later found out was named Cyrus – top off his drink about five more times, Draco cut himself off when he felt a good buzz coming on. He tried standing up and immediately grabbed for the bar top to steady himself.

"You need a ride home, mate?" Cyrus asked, concern in his voice.

"Nah, just a bit tipsy. I'll be fine walking," Draco said. He dropped a few galleons on the bar and raised two fingers to his forehead to salute Cyrus. "Thanks for the drinks, was good meeting you."

"You too, kid," Cyrus answered, frowning. Draco stumbled away from the bar and made his way towards the door, grasping the doorknob and smiling down at it for no apparent reason. He wiggled it once, twice, three times before it finally seemed to turn and allowed him to slip out into the streets.

It was near three in the morning and the streets of London were fairly quiet. Here and there bars were beginning to close up, pushing the drunks out onto the streets and avoiding the drunken slurs being tossed back at them as they locked up. Draco tucked the collar of his jacket up over his ears and slouched to the right, making his way to nowhere in particular. He squeezed himself between two drunks who were caught in an engaging conversation about egg cartons only to catch his toe on the shoe of one of them and stumble forward, landing on the sidewalk on his palms.

"What where yer goin', losey kid," one of them slurred, cackling hysterically and high-fiving his friend.

"Fuck off," Draco mumbled under his breath, gritting his teeth as he hoisted himself off the cement and continued down the street. He had no idea where he was going, but he knew he had to get away from wherever he was. The only reason he had stepped into the bar that night was to get away from thinking of her. In the end, he turned to two things when he couldn't get her out of his mind: alcohol and sex.

As if on cue with his thoughts, the door to a club opened and a group of girls stumbled out, all Muggle. They giggled and yanked down the edges of their barely-there dresses, despite it being ridiculous cold outside, and drunkenly scrambled around in their high heels to clutch onto one another for support. All of them seemed to be about twenty, two blonde and three brunette, overly done in make-up and all with itty bitty bodies that made them look much younger.

Draco glanced over them once before looking over at the club they had come out of. The bouncer was closing the door behind them with a concerned expression on his face, and a final locking noise made it apparent that the club was closing as well. Moving swiftly, Draco slid up behind the group of girls and smiled boldly.

"Ladies," he exclaimed. "Where's the part off to next?"

The girls turned around and examined him from head to toe. The obvious leader of the group, a tall and curvy brunette with long, voluminous wavy hair and big brown eyes, grinned sheepishly. She reminded Draco of her immediately, with the crooked smile and the dark eyes. She was wearing an impossibly tight navy dress that left little to the imagination.

"We were going to head on over to Absinthe, since they're open until six and we aren't ready to call it a night yet," she said, her words coming out as one rushed sentence. "Care to join us?"

Draco grinned. "You sure you don't mind? I wouldn't want to impose on ladies night out."

The brunette laughed and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Please. As if _you_ would be imposing." She reached out and slid her arm through Draco's. "I'm Lacey."

"Draco Malfoy," he replied with a wink.

"What happened to your eye?" one of the blondes asked, giggling behind her ridiculous tiny and probably pointless silver purse.

"Let's just say, you don't want to see the other guy," Draco said with a wink. Every single girl squealed with laughter and lead Draco down the road, though he always kept a hand on Lacey's side.

A soft, breathy purr awoke Draco several hours later. He opened his eye weakly and winced as the bright sunlight peaked between the cracks of his curtains. Using one hand blindly, he yanked the curtains shut and rolled over to face the other side of the bed. A beautiful twenty year old with silky brown hair and smooth, bare olive skin was curled under the sheets of his bed, her naked breasts exposed ever so slightly over the tops of the sheets. She had one hand placed under the pillow and her lips were parted as she softly sighed in her sleep, her hip moving up and down.

The nausea hit Draco hard and he sat up quickly, reaching over to the side of his bed and grabbing the garbage pail next to hit. He had only just ducked his head in when a violent stream of vomit came retching out of his system. When he was finished, he groaned and tossed it aside carelessly.

The sound of him vomiting had obviously awoken the girl, whose name had already slipped his mind, and she opened her eyes slowly. He saw her wrinkle her nose as she detected the smell of vomit.

"Did you just barf?" she asked groggily.

"Get out," Draco muttered, wiping the vomit from his lips onto the back of his hand.

The brunette raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me? What about last night?"

"Get the fuck out before I call the cops," Draco snapped, throwing the sheets off of him and standing up to collect her clothes off the floor.

"Asshole." She grabbed the clothes from him silently and stormed out of the bedroom, her naked body teasing him as she slammed the bathroom door shut to change. Draco slid on his boxers and jeans, buttoning them up as she came out of the bathroom in her barely-there dress.

"Do you even remember my name?" she asked, shoving her panties into her purse.

"Are you fucking deaf? GET OUT!" Draco yelled. Obviously that had done it, because the girl flashed him the middle finger before hurrying out of his house and slamming the door shut behind her. Draco collapsed on his bed and buried his face into his hands, gritting his teeth angrily as the pounding headache seared through his skull. He vaguely remembered meeting a group of girls outside of a club last night, and he definitely remembered fucking one of the blondes in the bathroom at the other club they went to. But he did not remember coming home with the leader of the pack, or fucking her either.

Rubbing his swollen eyes, Draco glanced at the clock: three in the afternoon. _Terrific_, he thought. He stood up and stumbled into his bathroom, turning the hot water on the shower and letting the steam fill up the room before stepping in, jeans and all. As soon as the steaming water hit his body, he sighed in relaxation and closed his eyes, resting his head against the tiles. He had dreamed of her again last night, of their night together. Her body had moved so perfectly against his, her hair tickling the tops of his chest as she rode him. He could still feel her kiss his lips, her tongue on his, her hands on his chest. He could even feel her breath as she murmured _I love you _on his skin.

Turning the hot water off, Draco dried himself off and changed into fresh clothes. He winced at the appearance in the mirror – an obviously disheveled boy stared back at him, hair wet and hanging over his eyes, one still swollen but slightly more useable as he was able to see out of it a bit more this morning, and dark circles under both from nights of drinking and sleeplessness.

"Fuck," he muttered. He tentatively touched his swollen eye, the skin purple and shiny under his pale fingers, wincing slightly at the burning sensation the slight pressure of his finger had caused. He couldn't keep this up: he had to better himself and soon. How long could he go on pining for someone that he was not going to get in the end?

Draco slowly ran his pale fingers through his wet hair and shook his head vigorously. He pressed his forehead against the cool tile of his shower stall and closed his eyes. He remembered the night a week before the wedding, just after Hermione had come home from work when Draco was sick, and his mind began to wander back to it...

* * *

><p><em>"Draco, you home?"<em>

_ Draco didn't answer – instead, he let out as silent of a sneeze that he could manage and dipped his head under the water once more. The warm water in the tub swirled around his body and washed away every ounce of stress that was weighed on his shoulders. He sighed and leaned his head back, letting the hot steam attempt to unclog his sinuses. He had been sick for a week now and had refused to let Hermione anywhere near him in fear that she would catch the cold as well. This meant having him sleep in the bed alone, which Hermione had offered, and her sleeping in the guest room down the hall. The two had never gone this long being so distant from each other physically, and it was killing Draco – he had never been so sexually frustrated in all his life._

_ There was a soft tap on the door and Draco tilted his head to the side to see Hermione poke her head in. Her long brown waves were dripping wet and her clothes were soaked through, meaning it was raining outside and she had forgotten her umbrella once again. Draco had constantly pointed out that she could simply use a cloaking charm to block the rain from her, but he knew she was not a fan of using magic in public places unless it was completely necessary. Instead, she had walked home in the rain and although it was only a short distance away, she was soaked through._

_ "How are you feeling?" she asked soothingly, pushing the door open more and stepping in. She shut the lid of the toilet and sat on top of it, leaning over to brush the damp locks of hair from Draco's eyes._

_ He shook his head and tilted his head away. "Don't touch, Mione. I don't want you getting sick too," he said._

_ Hermione rolled her eyes. "Just let me feel your forehead, you butthead." She reached forward again and pressed the back of her smooth hand to Draco's forehead. He could feel the cold skin against his own hot flesh and he sighed in surprise. Although his forehead was burning up, the rest of his body was shivering and he never felt fully warm when he was ill._

_ "You're burning," she said with a frown. "Did you take your temperature today?"_

_ "Right before I got in the bath. Still a bit high, but it's coming down I swear," Draco replied with a smile. "How was work?"  
>Hermione shrugged. "You know, the usual. They miss you down there, you know," she said, smirking. "Especially Ron."<em>

_ Draco scoffed. "I'm sure. It's nice having a break from work, but I'm also bored out of my fucking mind. I tried watching that... thing... in the living room, and I don't know how to turn it on still!"_

_ "Oh for Merlin's sake, Draco, it's called a television. And I've showed you so many times how to turn it on!" She laughed and combed his hair with her fingers. "You're hopeless."_

_ "Only with the stupid Muggle things you insist we have in the house," he mumbled._

_ Hermione grinned. "I need to change and dry off. There's no chance you'd let me share the tub, right?"_

_ Draco frowned. "Hermione, I really don't want you to be sick. The wedding is in a week and the last thing we need is the bride feeling under the weather," he replied._

_ "But I'm freezing!" She stood up and pouted, kicking her shoes off slowly to imply that she wanted in._

_ Draco sank further into the tub so his body stretched out and his toes hit the end of it, making no room left. "Hermione, don't..."_

_ "Suit yourself," she said with a shrug. She turned her back to Draco and rested her hands just under her shirt, slowly peeling the soaking fabric off her skin. Draco watched longingly as she slid the wet cloth off of her skin, tiny droplets of water clinging to her skin still, and she dropped it onto the bathroom floor. Next, she shimmied herself out of her skirt and yanked it off her body, leaving her left in only her underwear. Her skin gleamed from the rain still lingering on her flesh and she carefully looked over her shoulder at Draco._

_ "Still not going to let me in?" she asked. When Draco shook his head, Hermione reached behind her back to unhook the clasps of her bra and let the two ends fall down her back, the straps slipping off her shoulders slowly. Draco stared in amazement at the curves of her waist to her hips and smiled a little – after all of these years, he was still falling deeper in love with her, and would continue to for the rest of his life. Her body never ceased to get the reaction out of him that she wanted._

_ Hermione giggled softly and Draco snapped out of it to look down, noticing the very tip of his shaft sticking out of the water. He quickly arched his hips down so it disappeared under the water, but that's all it took for Hermione. She knelt down beside the tub and slipped her hand under the water, slowly beginning to move it up and down him._

_ "Hermione, fuck... stop it! I'm sick for, oh my fucking..." he stuttered, closing his eyes and resting his head back._

_ Hermione grinned and took her hand back out to slip off her panties, dropping them to the floor. "Can I come in?" she asked huskily._

_ Draco grinned. "If you don't, I'll have to jump out of this tub any second, my love," he replied with a gravely voice, eager for her to finish where she left off. Hermione simply wordlessly slipped into the tub and wrapped herself in Draco's arms, and together they helped Draco feel much better._

_ The next morning, Hermione called into work. She was sneezing and coughing worse thn Draco, and ended up having to stay in bed all day with him._

_ "Are you proud of yourself?" Draco asked with a sad smile._

_ Hermione sniffled and smiled back. "Very. I would do it again and again. Totally worth it," she said. Draco laughed and brought her closer to him, and they stayed in bed up until the day of the wedding._

* * *

><p>Draco frowned. He remembered the day so vividly because it was the most amazing time he had ever had with Hermione – staying in bed all day, watching television and reading before curling up at night to keep each other warm. It was the fondest memory he had with her, because it was the time he knew completely and one hundred percent that Hermione Granger was the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.<p>

"That is why you are pining over her, you idiot," he mumbled to himself. Draco turned the hot water off and stepped out of the shower, feeling a little more upbeat and refreshed. He changed into fresh clothes and went downstairs to prepare some food, his mind jumbled with thoughts of the night before. This was a constant reoccurrence for him, waking up in the morning with a girl he had no recollection of. However, every single girl had some sort of characteristic that was similar to Hermione's, whether it be the wavy brown hair, dark brown eyes, or body shape. This one had all three, and it pained him to think of what Hermione had said to him not long ago, calling him disgusting for sleeping with girls that looked like her. He was not over her, nor would he ever be. The only thing for him to do was to win her back.

"Today," Draco said out loud. "I'm changing my life around." He looked out the window and stared into the garden for a moment, chewing on an apple he had washed. No more drinking every night and going out. Instead, he was going to work on making his life better by working hard on the case at work, getting back into the routine of working out and eating better, and finding something to do with his time, perhaps working on the novel he had put away years ago.

Draco nodded. "It's time."

Monday morning started out the same as it normally would: Draco had settled himself down in his office chair at work with a mug full of coffee and the Daily Prophet propped open against a stack of books for him to read. He had finished his morning paperwork stack that greeted him when he walked in two hours earlier, so he chose to take a small break from more paperwork to relax at his desk and read. A plate full of pumpkin pasties stood on the corner of his desk, but he chose to ignore them and settle on a bag of carrots instead, though his stomach growled for real food.

There was a soft tap on the door and Draco lifted his eyes from the newspaper to the doorway, his heart jumping into his throat immediately. Hermione had poked her head in, her wavy brown tresses creating a waterfall curtain between the doorframe and his office as she peered in. Her eyes were red and she had dark circles set under them as if she had not slept for days.

"Sorry to bother you," she said in a croaky voice. "Do you happen to have the folder on the Darlett case?"

"Yeah, sure." Draco closed the newspaper and got up from his desk to go to the filing cabinet next to his bookshelf. He opened it and searched through the D's before pulling out a file marked _A. Dartlett_. He turned back to Hermione and handed it to her through the doorway, frowning in concern.

"Thanks," she said, beginning to close the door again before Draco put his foot out to stop her.

"Are you alright?" he asked, concern in his voice as he spoke.

Hermione glanced down at the shoe that stopped her from closing the door all the way and then back up at Draco. "Fine, why?"

Draco furrowed his brows. "You don't look fine. You look as if you haven't slept in a while."

Hermione shrugged nonchalantly and pressed the folders against her chest. "Just work keeping me up. I'll see you later." She had turned and hurried off before Draco had another chance to say a single word to her. He watched her dart around the corner of the hallway and sighed heavily.

Closing the door shut once more, Draco glanced through the newspaper once more as he sank into the heavy plush chair behind his desk and froze. A picture and an enormous headline on the open page caught his eye and he picked up the paper to inspect in closer:

_Famous Novelist's Affair to Remember: Where is Braves-to-Be?_

_It has been confirmed that best-selling novelist Austin Braves, who is well-known for his infamous _Deke Sawyer_ series and is popular among both Muggles and the magical community, has separated from his girlfriend and fiancée-to-be of four months. The separation, sources say, was mutual – however, it has been confirmed by close friends of the couple that Austin was caught with reporter Diana Wheaton and was apparently having an on-again-off-again relationship with the reporter for the past years. When asked about the relationship, Wheaton explained that she had "never been in love" with Braves, although they had often spoke about a future together._

_However, this drastic and heartbreaking story between two seemingly love-stricken love birds leaves all of us wondering – where is Hermione Granger, ex-fiancée of Braves? Many eye witnesses reported that Granger has been seen on more than one occasion hanging around empty cafes with her face concealed from cameras and crowds._

"_I've never seen someone so broken up before," says an eye witness. "She had all these scarves around her face and sunglasses on, as if she was trying to hide her pain from the world."_

_Hermione Granger was last spotted stepping out of a phone booth two weeks ago. It is rumoured that she has moved back in with former lover, classmate and co-worker Draco Malfoy, son of the late Death Eater Lucius Malfoy, although that has not been confirmed._

"_I know she was in love with Draco for years," a close friend of the two explains with a smile. "I never knew why Hermione went with Austin Braves in the first place – the guy is a horrible womanizer. Despite Draco's past, you can tell he's a pretty decent guy deep down. I think she should have just stuck with him in the first place."_

_The Prophet is always interested in the whereabouts of Granger, and encourages its readers to send owls in if any information is known. An in-depth interview with Granger in the next few issues is to be expected if any clues are given._

"You rat bastards," Draco muttered, tossing the paper aside. He didn't even bother to read who had written the lies – though he wish that Hermione had actually moved back in with him – but he knew that the article was mainly false. Other than the fact that Hermione and Austin were no more, the rest of the article was hilariously false. Perhaps that was why Hermione had come into his office with bloodshot eyes and dark circles under her eyes. Had she been stressed out over the article? Had she wondered what others would think of it?

Draco stood up and opened the door to his office, only to be stopped by the same brown bloodshot eyes he had just been speaking about.

"Can I come in?" Hermione asked softly.

Draco nodded and wordlessly stepped back to let her in, closing the door behind them.


	9. The Encounter

**DISCLAIMER:**_I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own any other characters in J.K. Rowling's original series. I merely am here to demonstrate a different approach to the plot, characters, and overall experience in the world of witchcraft and wizardry._

**Author's Note:** Okay so after posting two more chapters, I thought I would finally add a quick note explaining what's going on with the writing here. I have been MIA once again from lack of motivation for writing, and I do apologize. I'm slowly but surely getting back into the swing of writing. I appreciate every single review I have received and I encourage you guys to keep reviewing, it helps with the writing process sometimes. (Since I don't ever plan my stories and I usually just wing them as I write the chapter). I'm hoping to be more involved in the website again soon as well! Enjoy the next chapter and thank you for all the feedback.

**IV**

**The Encounter**

Draco silently closed the door to his office and slid around to sit in the chair behind the desk, leaving the only remaining chair in the room for Hermione to sit in. There were dark circles under her eyes that were proof she had not had a lot of sleep lately, and her skin had a strange gray tint to it.

"Are you alright? Seriously, Hermione, don't just say you're fine either because I can tell you're not," Draco said, frowning.

Hermione stared into her lap, her thumbs rubbing against the tops of her knuckles. Draco saw her bite her lip nervously and tap her toes on the ground before she finally said anything.

"Have you read the Prophet?" she asked timidly.

Draco nodded. "I only read it a few minutes ago. Is that what's been bothering you? Everything they're saying?" he asked.

Hermione shook her head and sighed. "Well, partially. I don't know. Draco, there were people outside of my house last night – paparazzi, to be specific. They're trying to get a glimpse of me to see how I look, what I'm doing, and who I'm with. I never expected this."

"How are they outside of your house? Don't they think you live with me?" he questioned. "I mean, that's what the article said. It was asking for clues of your whereabouts and everything."

"It's clear they only wrote that to get a rise out of the readers – and Austin. That's why they said I was staying at your place, although I am clearly not. Someone must have tipped them off about my new place. Maybe it was Austin trying to get back at me. I have no idea," she said. Another sigh slowly escaped her lips. "I feel like an idiot."

Draco sat on the edge of his seat and leaned towards her. "What makes you say that?" he asked softly.

Hermione laughed sarcastically. "Here I am, complaining about all the attention I've been getting. I don't even know why I came here to tell you all of this. I guess I'm trying to give you a heads up, in case someone shows up outside of your house as well. You've been dragged into this now from the rumours they're trying to spread," she explained.

Draco stood up and came around to stand in front of Hermione. He knelt down until his eyes were lined up with hers, crouching on the ground with his hands on her shoulders. He urged her eyes to meet his and when they finally did, he smiled warmly.

"I'm used to attention, Hermione. I was begging for it during school, so of course I can handle a little bit of press," he insisted. "It's you that I'm worried about."

Hermione rolled her eyes and pushed him away slightly. "Please, Draco, I've been nothing but a complete moron. Here I am running between men, whether it's being torn up over Austin or aching for your love again. You shouldn't be worried about me when I'm already an emotional wreck."

Draco shrugged and stood up. "We all make mistakes, Hermione. You're going through a lot right now, with work and your personal life. I'm trying to turn my life around as well." He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "No more sex groupies."

"Great to hear," Hermione mumbled. "Did you really think telling me that would cheer me up?"

"A little." Draco grinned, the first sign of his real self in a long time.

Hermione stood up and rolled her shoulders back. "I just wanted to warn you about any mysterious visitors on your property, if you get any. That's the only reason I came here."

"I don't really believe that, but thanks," Draco said. He smirked as Hermione just rolled her eyes and shook her head, turning to leave.

"Has he talked to you?" he asked suddenly.

Hermione stopped with her hand on the door knob, frozen in front of the door. It was a few seconds before she said anything. "No."

"Have you tried to talk to him?"

"What do you think, Draco?" Hermione spun around and he could see her eyes watering up slightly. "Do you think I would do that? I cheated on him, and he cheated on me. As much as I wanted to fix things – part of me still does – do you really think I could?"

Draco frowned. "I just thought I'd ask," he said softly.

"Forget it." She shook her head and opened the door to his office. "I'll see you later at that meeting." Those were her last words before she closed the door behind her and disappeared down the hallway.

A soft sigh escaped Draco's lips as he dropped his gaze from the door of his office. He clenched and unclenched his knuckles before turning on the spot to sit back at his desk. This really was his entire fault. If he had never slept with Hermione in the first place – no matter how tempting the offer had been – she would have been at least half decent. The guilt of her cheating on Austin, despite him cheating on her as well, had clearly been eating her apart inside.

Draco glanced at the cell phone sitting on the top of his work bag – another Muggle gift from Hermione when they were together. The only reason he kept it and brought it along with him wherever he went was for the entertaining games she had helped him put on the phone. Biting his lower lip, he picked up the phone and skimmed through his very short contact list until he found the number he had been looking for. Glancing up at the door quickly once more, he pressed the talk button and held the phone to his ear. The sound of the dial tone made him feel more nervous than just silence.

"Hi," he said when the person on the other end answered. He cleared his throat nervously. "It's Draco. Yes, that Draco." He paused as he listened to them reply. "I know I'm probably the last person you want to talk to right now, but I think it's really important that you and I meet and talk; for her sake." Draco closed his eyes and pressed his fingers to each side of the bridge of his nose. "Look, I don't exactly want to fucking talk to you either but if you can meet me at that cafe near your place tomorrow at five, that'd be fan-fucking-tastic. Asshole." Draco pulled the phone away from his ear and hit the end button before he could hear the person on the other end reply.

"That went smoothly," he mumbled to himself.

The next day, Draco got out of work half an hour early specifically so he could go to the cafe before five. He pushed open the door to the cafe, named Merlin's Beard, and scanned through the crowd of customers. It was still slightly early, but he wanted to make sure he was the first one there if his companion even bothered to show up.

Draco slid into a secluded booth by the back of the cafe near a window, keeping his head low but his eyes glued to the door. He didn't even realize there was someone standing next to him until they cleared their throat. Draco glanced up.

"What can I get ya?" a nineteen-year-old waitress asked, smacking on a piece of gum. She had bright red hair tied into a ponytail and beautiful hazel eyes that looked bored and uninterested. Her apron was crooked around her waist and the skirt of her uniform was hiked up an extra two inches to expose more of her thighs.

"Uh, coffee," Draco muttered, looking away quickly.

"Ya, well, what do you want _in_ the coffee? What _size_? You can't just say coffee, ya know," the waitress retorted, blowing a large bubble.

"Fuck, I don't know. Just give me any size you want and all the shit for it," Draco snapped, glaring up at the waitress. She rolled her eyes and walked behind the counter near the front to get his drink, allowing Draco to return his gaze to the window.

When she came back with his coffee, it was two minutes after five and Draco's heart sped up when he finally saw the familiar face coming towards the cafe. He straightened his back and circled his hands around the mug in front of him as the cafe door opened, a bell jingling overhead. Draco looked up from under his tousled hair to see the familiar face, the one he had been waiting for, scan through the customers before finally resting on Draco's own gaze. They then reluctantly made their way towards Draco's table.

"You came," Draco said, looking up at them.

"Not necessarily because I wanted to," Austin mumbled. His lips were chapped and his complexion looked duller than it had previously. He was bundled up in a heavy wool winter coat and wore sunglasses and a baseball hat to hide himself from the customers.

"Take a seat," Draco said, making it sound like more of a command rather than a suggestion.

Austin frowned and glanced over his shoulder before deciding to slide into the booth across from Draco. Neither of them spoke for a minute before the waitress came back.

"What do ya want?" she asked, staring at her nail beds.

"Just water," Austin said, looking in the general direction of Draco. It was hard to tell whether or not he was actually looking at him with the sunglasses on.

When the waitress came back with the water, Draco narrowed his eyes on Austin. "Would you take those things off so I can talk to you face to face? I feel like I'm talking to a fucking mannequin."

Austin snorted. "I'd be risking a lot by doing that right now, and I don't think you're worth it," he snapped.

Draco gritted his teeth – just the sight of Austin was making his blood boil. "Could you take off the glasses?"

Without saying anything, Austin slid the sunglasses off his nose and set them beside his water. His eyes were bloodshot and his eyelids puffy, all signs that he had been crying or having trouble sleeping, similar to Hermione.

Draco cracked his knuckles and rested his hands on his knees. "Now that we can finally have a man to man discussion here, let's talk about Hermione," he said.

"What about her?" Austin muttered.

"I've never seen her so fucked up," Draco said with a small frown. "It's like she has no motivation anymore. I can tell she's trying to focus on work so that she doesn't have to think about all this bullshit that she's going through, but that's only going to make things worse. She's been stalked by paparazzi, and she's barely slept."

Austin arched an eyebrow. "So how do you know all this? I guess you two must be pretty cozy, all snuggled up in the same house together. She should be having the time of her life, no? You know, now that her school sweetheart is back in her life."

"I don't know where you're getting your information from, but if you trust anything from the Daily Prophet, you're an idiot," Draco snapped. "Hermione barely talks to me, so why the hell would she live with me? I know all this because I'm not an idiot or an asshole. I actually pay attention and understand. I've paid attention to how she's been acting around the office, and it's the conclusion that I've come to."

"So if she's not living with you, where the hell is she?" Austin snapped back.

"She lives in her own place. I don't exactly know where she lives because I've never been. Like I said, she's barely spoken to me."

Austin grinned. "Ironic, isn't it? You fuck my fiancée, and now she wants nothing to do with you and is wallowing in her own self misery. How fitting."

It took everything in Draco to stop himself from jumping across the table and strangling Austin then and there at his words. Instead, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath to slow his heartbeat and let his blood cool down before he spoke.

"I'm sorry, but weren't you the one who fucked the reporter that same night? It takes two to tango, asshole," he said.

Austin opened his mouth to argue, but decided against it and closed it immediately.

Draco shook his head. "I didn't come here to fight with you, even though I knew it was eventually going to happen anyway. I came here to tell you one thing and one thing only." He reached into his pocket and slid out his wand, leaping across the table in his hand and pressing the tip of it between Austin's wide eyes. "You better stop this paparazzi shit and get these newspapers off her ass, or you'll see what happens to you. I'm pretty good with charms that can permanently fuck up someone's face."

Austin swallowed hard and looked at Draco down the slender handle of his wand. "How the fuck am I supposed to do that?"  
>"Figure it out," Draco hissed. "I'm sick of seeing her like this. Hermione is supposed to be a happy person, one of the happiest people I know. I miss that." He lowered his wand slowly and sat back in his seat, his eyes softening and his lips turning down into a frown. "She isn't herself anymore."<p>

Austin studied Draco's face, furrowing his brows. "Do you love her?"

Draco looked up at Austin with disgust. "What kind of question is that?"

"Pretty simple, actually. Do you still love her?" he asked again.

Draco's face softened and he looked down into his mug. "I'll never stop."

He smiled sadly. "That's how we're different," Austin said, his voice making him sound as if he was coming to a realization. "I can actually see the love in your eyes. I can see how you two would have worked out. You made sense." He shook his head in disbelief and laughed, his eyes turning glassy as he spoke. "If I believed in the term soul mates, it would be the definition of you two. I never saw that in us. I mean, I loved her. I don't think I was in love with her though. I don't think I saw a future with her, despite proposing to her."

Draco stared at Austin in surprise, analyzing every word that came out of his mouth. He opened his mouth to reply, but Austin held up a hand to silence him.

"I proposed to her because I thought it was the right idea. Hermione is a sweet girl, possibly the sweetest girl out there. She's selfless, beautiful, smart, charming... she's every quality every guy wants in a girl. I loved her. I do love her." He shook his head. "But I wasn't completely positive that she was the one. And I think it's because of you. Man." He laughed. "I never fucking realized that."

Silence filled the booth for a long time after that, the only sound coming from the chatter of customers and the sound of utensils touching plates as people ate. Draco just stared at Austin in disbelief, watching him stare down into his lap, unsure of what to say as a response. Here he was, ready to lash out the man who had broken Hermione's heart and made her life a living hell, only to be completely shocked to learn that he was pretty much flat out telling him that he thought she and Draco should be together.

"You need to tell her that," Draco said finally.

Austin glanced up at Draco. "Tell her what exactly?" he asked.

"Tell her what you told me. Tell her that you loved her, but you were never in love with her. Tell her that it makes more sense for her to be with me. Tell her that I have always loved her, and always will."

"Why?"

Draco frowned. "I can't get her back. No matter what I say, she'll never come back to me if I beg. If you tell her, she may listen. She may come to her senses and see what's right."

Austin bit his lip and mulled it over, unsure of what to do, before finally nodding. "I hated the fuck out of you, you know."

"I hated you, too." Draco smirked. "Part of me still does. A big part of me."

"I don't blame you," Austin said with a sad smile.

"Thanks for coming." Draco placed a couple of pounds on the table – Muggle money – and stood up. "Seriously, thank you."

"I'm actually glad I came, as weird as that sounds. You helped me realize a lot right now." Austin stood up too and slid his hands in his pockets. "I need to get my shit together. Maybe work on my career for a while and not worry so much about relationships."

Draco stuck his hand out and Austin took it firmly, shaking their hands together. Without another word, the two exited the cafe and went their separate directions. Draco shook his head as he walked away from the cafe: the meeting did not seem real.

That night, Draco got home around seven o'clock and let out a heavy sigh of relief as he dropped his coat onto the coat rack by the front door. He closed the front door and locked it, pressing his back against the wooden frame. His eyes glanced over the entranceway of his home and he frowned – something wasn't right.

Draco stepped into the living room and turned the light on, glancing around for any sign of what was causing him to feel uncomfortable. Everything was in its right place and had no visual sign of being touched. The fireplace was not lit and there was no trace of footprints on the hardwood floor. When he couldn't see anything, he turned towards the kitchen and there it was.

A short man with a heavy set build and glasses grinned at Draco from the corner of the room. He was balding and wore dingy grey robes that appeared to be lived in for a couple of weeks at least. In one hand, he had a thin white wand pointing to what was in his other hand. The sight of what was in his clutch made Draco's stomach drop.

"Irving," he managed to choke.

"Master Draco," the house-elf squeaked. His throat was being held onto by the thick hairy hand of the man in the kitchen and his ears drooped over on either side of his grey face. Draco looked up into the man's eyes in anger and immediately recognized him. How could he not recognize him – his photos were all over the wall at his work.

"Drooney," Draco hissed.

"Not sure how ye know me, son, but I sure as hell knew yer father," Drooney said with a wide grin.

Draco leapt forward with his wand extended, but Drooney pressed the tip of his wand into Irving's throat harder, causing Draco to pause. He lowered his wand slowly. "How the fuck did you find him?"

"It ain't hard if ye look in the right places," Drooney chuckled.

Draco took a careful step closer to the two, keeping his eyes on Drooney the whole time. "And how exactly did you know my father?" he asked.

Drooney smirked and stepped back into the corner of the kitchen. "Lucius and I go way back; Hogwarts and all." He chuckled again, causing Draco to grit his teeth.

"Let him go," he begged.

"Guess you'll have to catch us first." Drooney winked and swished his wand on the spot at the exact moment Draco dove towards him. There was a loud crack throughout the house and Draco rammed his shoulder roughly into the corner of the kitchen where Drooney once stood – he had Apparated.

"MOTHER FUCKER!" Draco screamed. He grabbed at the top of his hair and sank into the corner, feeling his breath increase and tears start to form in his eyes. He had set Irving free. This was not fair to him, to one of the only friends he had. If he knew this would happen, he would have never set him free in the first place.

Draco pressed his forehead into his knees and drew long, deep breaths. Suddenly, he couldn't take it anymore and broke into angry sobs.

"I have to find that son of a bitch," he sobbed to himself. "Fuck the Ministry. I'm going to kill him."


	10. The Goblet

**DISCLAIMER:** _I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own any other characters in J.K. Rowling's original series. I merely am here to demonstrate a different approach to the plot, characters, and overall experience in the world of witchcraft and wizardry._

**Author's Note: **So I'm trying my best to get back into the swing of writing gradually and gradually. I took a break (again) for a while to sort out my life a bit and now that I have a lot more extra time, I will try my best to update more. I really hope you guys love this sequel so far and I was thrilled to receive reviews telling me that old fans were still hanging around and were thrilled I had updated! As always, I appreciate any feedback in the form of a review from you guys and message me any time if you have any questions – I will do my best to answer them as quickly and thoroughly as I can. I also noticed that I put IV as the title in the last chapter. Please ignore that, I'm a little slow sometimes.

* * *

><p><strong>X<strong>

**The Goblet**

Hermione had just finished putting all of the dishes away from the dishwasher when the owl arrived. She was drying her hands on the towel by the stove and heard the soft flutter of wings from the window, causing her to turn around. A barn owl was perched on the outside of the window, pecking at the glass at an attempt to get inside the house. It had a few feathers missing from its left wing and a rolled up newspaper was attached to its leg.

Hermione opened the latch to the window and let the owl inside, sealing it quickly as to not let the cold air in. It was the first day of December and the winter was clearly on its way as she had woken up this morning to several centimetres of snow on the ground. The owl clicked its beak and stuck its leg out to allow Hermione to untie the newspaper. When it was off, she placed a galleon in the bag attached to its opposite leg and opened the window once more to allow the owl to fly off.

"I hate winter," she mumbled to herself, rubbing her arms as she sank into her seat at the kitchen table. She unrolled the _Daily Prophet_ and laid it flat out to examine the front page. Her heart skipped a beat as she recognized the familiar pale face that was staring back at her on the first article:

_Drooney Strikes Home of Ex-Death Eater's Son_

_Yesterday evening, Mincent Drooney allegedly returned to the city of London to visit the home of ex-Death Eater Lucius Malfoy's son, Draco Malfoy. There are no details yet as to why he visited the twenty-two year old, but multiple eye witnesses can vouch for the Prophet, saying that they had recognized the loose murderer through Malfoy's front window._

_ "I didn't see exactly what he was doing," an anonymous source said. "But I do know that it was him. He looked to be in terrible shape, as he has been for years. And he was holding something that I couldn't make out. I didn't see Draco's face, though, so I don't know if he was in the home or what happened. All I know is that Drooney is still at large and it's terrifying to think that he was in my own neighbourhood last night."_

_According to our records, Drooney had attended Hogwarts with Lucius Malfoy, who passed away many years ago, and the two had apparently been close friends. Does this mean that Drooney is trying to reconnect with his long lost friend's son, or is he out for his blood as a means of revenge for something we do not know of?_

_The Prophet continues to watch this story closely and will have updates on Drooney as they come to us._

Hermione bit her lower lip and looked up from the newspaper, feeling her heart tighten in fear in her chest. Had something terrible happened to Draco? What with Drooney want with him, especially after all this time?

Hermione glanced over at her cell phone, which sat on the desk near the front door of her flat. She knew Draco still had the phone she had given to him when they were together, even though it was outdated and she was sure he barely used it. It was doubtful he even remembered how to answer the bloody thing, so what would be the point of calling him?

Still, something in Hermione's head told her to do it and she found herself standing in front of the table where the phone was without remembering walking there in the first place. She rested her hand on the small black device and lifted it to her gaze, taking her time to go through her contact list. Draco's name was still in her phone because, for whatever reason, she had not brought herself to deleting it after all these years. With slight hesitation, she clicked the call icon next to his name and held the phone against her ear. She could feel her heart racing as the phone rang against her eardrum, so fast and hard that she thought it might burst through her chest.

After three rings, he answered. "Hermione," he said with a soft, cool tone that sent shivers down her spine.

"Draco." She paused. "I just read the article in the _Prophet_."

"I figured you would," he replied. His voice sounded off, like he was getting sick or had been crying.

"What happened? Why was he there?"

She heard him sigh on the other end and the sound of a chair scraping against a floor. "He wasn't here for me – at least, I don't think that was why. He had Irving, Hermione. He's holding him hostage, I think. Or he may have already killed him. I have no idea. I..." His voice started to break ever so slightly, and it pained her to listen. "I-I don't know. Fuck, Mione. I can't let him kill him, but I don't know where the fuck to look."

It was a few seconds before Hermione said anything. She had very rarely heard Draco cry because he had always been such a strong person around her. Hearing him sound so vulnerable, so scared, and childlike tore her apart inside. It made her forget everything that had happened between them in the past five years for only a moment and it made her want to focus on nothing but Draco. It made her feel the urge to comfort him, and rush over to his house to be with him. She wanted to tell him everything was going to be okay and kiss him. She wanted Draco.

Instead, she held back her feelings and took a deep breath. She had to be professional Hermione now. "Draco, we have the resources. Dringus has borders up around the areas where he's been, so he can't get too far now. There's a lot of ground to cover, but we have a good set of Auror's at the Ministry that can look for him..."

"I want him," Draco snapped, his tone immediately changing. "I want to kill him."

That left Hermione at a loss for words. She had never heard Draco sound so threatening and almost terrifying.

"You know you can't do that, Draco," she answered calmly. "The Ministry..."

"Fuck the Ministry, Hermione. He has Irving. Even though I set him free, he was the only elf I ever felt close to. I know that sounds weird, but you know how Harry was with Dobby during the school years? Multiply that by fifty and you'll get how I feel about Irving." Draco laughed sarcastically. "If my father had heard me say that, he would've had my head in."

Hermione frowned. "I can't just let you go out looking for a mass murderer on your own. If Dringus or anyone at the Ministry even found out, they would fire you," she explained.

"I don't even care if they do, Hermione." He sounded frustrated now, almost defeated.

She sighed and took a moment to mull over her words before she said anything. "Do you want me to come over?" she asked.

There was silence on the other end, which made Hermione feel nervous and unsettled. Finally, he answered after a moment's hesitation: "Not today."

Her heart sank a little at being rejected, something she wasn't used to with him. Biting her bottom lip, she shook her head sadly and rested her thumb over the end call button. "I'll see you tomorrow at the office, then," she said. Without waiting for his response, she hung up the phone and set it back down on the table. She stood there staring at it for a minute, feeling a little broken. She was just about to turn away from the phone and the front hallway when there was a knock on her door.

Surprised, Hermione cautiously walked over to it and froze with her hand on the doorknob before looking through the peephole. Every since the whole Austin fiasco, she had been bothered numerous times by paparazzi knocking on her door or hiding in her bushes. She always had to take careful precautions and make sure all her curtains were always drawn to avoid being seen by them.

To her amazement, when she looked through the peephole, Austin Braves was standing on her front porch with his hands in his pockets, a scarf hiding half his face, and sunglasses over his eyes. She opened the door a crack.

"Austin... What are you..."

"Let me in, please, before they figure out it's me," he said in a hurried voice, muffled by the scarf.

Hermione pushed the door open slightly and stepped back to let him in. He shuffled in quickly and pressed the door shut behind him, sighing in relief as he slipped off the scarf and pushed the sunglasses onto the top of his head.

"Sorry. I know it's rude to just burst in here thinking you'll be okay with it, but the last thing either of us need right now is the paparazzi taking me being here the wrong way. So I'm trying to be incognito."

Hermione narrowed her eyes and glanced over him from head to toe. "So why are you here, then?"

Austin looked hesitant and frowned down at her. "I need to talk to you about everything. I know you may not want to talk to me, but I think you should hear me out first."

Hermione bit her lip in thought and dropped her gaze to the floor. There was little she could argue about – even though he had cheated on her, she hadn't exactly been the most loyal to him either. "Come in," she said finally, turning to lead him into the living room.

She took a seat on the plush chair by the window, leaving Austin to sit on the sofa. He had chosen to leave his jacket on, leaving Hermione to believe that his visit was going to be a short one.

"Can I get you something to drink?" she offered.

"No, I'm okay. Thank you." Austin smiled, clearing his throat. "I, uh, I came over to tell you something."

Hermione leaned back in the chair and crossed one leg over the other. "Go on then," she said.

Austin cracked his knuckles and tensed his fists, playing with his hands a lot before finally resting them on the sofa. "I met with Draco yesterday," he said, pausing for her reaction.

Hermione's eyes went wide and she sat up a little straighter. "Why?"

"He wanted to meet with me," he explained. "Honestly, I didn't want to meet with him at all. I thought the guy was a jackass and part of me still really hates him, but..." He hesitated, mulling over his thoughts before speaking again. "He made me realize a lot, Hermione. A lot about why you and I didn't work out, and why you cheated on me and vice versa. Meeting with Draco really gave me some insight into how he feels about you. I can tell the guy is still fucking crazy about you, as he should be – you're a wonderful catch, don't forget that." He smiled. "Seeing him talk about you and everything, I could just tell that he was still head over heels in love with you.

"He also made me see how fucked up I have been. I love you, Hermione. I think you're a beautiful and amazing woman, but I don't think I was ever... in love with you. I proposed to you so early in hopes that it would ground me because you seemed like the right idea. I know that sounds horrible, but it's true. I wanted to marry you so I could feel like I had a normal life. The truth is, though, I don't think I'm the type of guy to settle down with – not yet, at least. I'm still young and so are you. I don't think I'm going to be ready for a marriage in a long time. I like being single, and I love my job. I want time to focus on that."

Hermione stared at Austin for a long time, letting his words sink in. She wanted to be mad at him, she really did, but she couldn't. Hearing him saying he was never in love with her made her realize only one thing: she had always been in love with Draco. Even after she had called off the wedding, she loved him. She had dreamt of him much more than she had ever dreamt of Austin. After that night she had lured Draco in and slept with him, she never felt regret because she knew it was love, not only lust. She loved Draco Malfoy.

Before she could reply, Austin held up his hand to continue. "You need to realize that even if you think you hate the guy, I can tell he would drop everything and doing anything to make you happy. I know right now that is something I could never do, especially if it was related to work. Draco clearly loves you, Hermione, and I think deep down you still love him, too. You need to be with him." He shook his head and laughed a little. "I never thought I would say that," he admitted.

"You don't have to say anything else, Austin," Hermione said with a calm voice.

"Good." He stood up and walked over to her, kneeling down to meet her eyes. "You're a fantastic girl, Hermione."

Hermione smiled. "Thanks," she said.

Austin simply nodded and leaned in to gently kiss her forehead before standing up straight. "I'm still sorry, though. For cheating on you," he said with a frown.

Hermione shook her head. "We're both to blame, you know. I guess it was for the best in the end."

"I think it was," he agreed. "I should get going, though. I have a book signing in West London. I just wanted to stop by and talk to you, because I think you needed that right now."

Hermione nodded and stood up to lead him out the door, pausing when they were in front of it to stand on her tiptoes and hug Austin. It was an awkward, tense hug – despite being on good terms now, it still felt unsettling to be so close to someone she was once engaged to. When she came out of his embrace, she gave him a small smile and opened the door to walk him out.

"Oh." Austin turned to face Hermione once more before leaving. "I've had a discussion with my publicist – you won't have paparazzi bothering you anymore. But if you still do for whatever reason, call me and I'll take care of it."

"Thank you, Austin," she said. And without another word, she watched him walk down the path to her house and closed her door slowly to his retreating back. A huge weight felt as if it had been lifted off her shoulders as she rested her back against the door and closed her eyes. Finally, she had come to her senses – it had always been, and would always be, Draco Malfoy.

* * *

><p>"Where's Granger?"<p>

"I'm here!" Hermione slid into the only remaining seat in the conference room at the Ministry of Magic, which just happened to be right between Harry and Draco. Her hair was a mess and it was the first time she had put makeup on in days. Since the paparazzi had surprisingly began to die down outside of her house, she felt a lot chipper this morning than she had last week – despite the pain in her heart from worrying and stressing over Draco.

"Nice of you to join us," Dringus said with a joking smile. "Shall I begin the meeting now?"

"What is this about, exactly?" Harry asked, folding his hands together on the table. "I thought everything was being taken care of with the Drooney case."

"We have to make a few adjustments, so it seems." Dringus stood up from his seat and walked over to the board that was standing by the head of the table. The board had a map of England, primarily London, and was outlined in various areas in red or green. There were tiny pins set all over the map and next to the map were various pictures of Drooney, Crook, and the victims of the murder – both human and house-elf.

"As you all know, I got the go ahead to set up boundaries a bit ago. At first I had only allowed Auror's to Apparate within in these boundaries. However..." Dringus set his gaze on Draco's, causing Hermione's stomach to drop. "Due to a recent event, I am now allowing everyone on this case to Apparate. If you are not an Auror, you are still able to Apparate within the boundaries."

"Well that's pretty fucking awesome," Ron said with an eye-roll. "Was that really worth a meeting, though?"

"I actually wasn't the one who called this meeting," Dringus said. He took a seat and gestured towards Draco, who had his head hung low but his eyes lifted to meet Dringus'. "Draco did. Do you care to explain, Draco?"

Hermione frowned as she watched him lift himself from his seat and stand next to the conference room table to look over the group. His eyes were puffy and swollen, signs he had been crying over the whole incident.

"I'm sure a lot of you have read the newspaper by now to know what happened to me a couple days ago," he said, his voice croaky and hoarse. "The answer is yes, Drooney was in my home. I don't know what he wants from me, if anything, but he has someone very important to me. I..." Draco hesitated and looked down at his hands, struggling to maintain his composure. "I don't want to get into specific details, but he may or may not have a house-elf with him right now. I don't know why he's travelling with him, or if the house-elf is even still alive. But after a lot of consideration, I think he is trying to lure me to him somehow."

The whole room was quiet and focusing on Draco as he spoke. After a moment of silence, Ron spoke up: "A house-elf?"

Draco nodded. "The house-elf used to belong to me, until I set it free. Being a member of the Ministry, I find it unfair to let him be tortured or used as bait because that would be elf cruelty, which is very much frowned upon nowadays. Therefore, I want to really make sure that we find Drooney to not only ensure that Muggles are safe, but house-elves as well."

Hermione felt a twinge of pain as she listened to how he had worded his speech. She knew how much Irving meant to Draco, and she also knew that Draco had tiptoed his way around this to maintain his leader status among the group. If Ron knew that Draco had been best friends with a house-elf and had been crying over his capture, he would have instantly begun to mock him and a fight would have definitely broken out.

"I am ordering a patrol of the areas we have bordered off. I've set them up so every night, we patrol the areas from seven until eleven-thirty and work our way through the fifty areas. I've brought out a familiar object to help pick who will be patrolling which areas." Draco reached over and lifted an object that had been sitting on the chair beside him, concealed with a cloak. He pinched the cloak between his fingers and removed it to reveal a large goblet that Hermione instantly recognized – the Goblet of Fire.

"I have put all of our names into the goblet and will have it select pairings for the patrol. There will be two members per area and six pairs, three areas per pair. However, some of you will get an extra area since there are twenty sections we're dealing with here. So..." Draco put the goblet on the table and saw the roar of flame erupt from it. "Let's begin."

The first two pieces of paper flew out of the goblet and soared towards the ceiling. They carefully floated down and rested in Draco's outstretched palm, slightly burnt around the edges. He unfolded the pieces of paper and read the first pairing off: "Neville Longbottom and Thomas MacMillian." Draco walked over to the map and took his wand out, waving it in the air until three sparks came out and rested on three different areas on the map. "You will be patrolling Essex, Oxford, and Worcester."

Neville was frantically scribbling something on a notebook in front of him, most likely taking note of the areas. Thomas sat across from him and rolled his eyes.

"You will Apparate between the three areas and travel by broom overlooking the city. May I please, please stress to use your invisibility cloaking charm while on the brooms if you are in a visible area and going through streets as well?" Dringus said with a grin. "We don't want any Muggles wetting themselves when they see people flying around on brooms."

The next two pairings floated out of the goblet into Draco's hands. "Blaise Zabini and Frederik Cleisman. You two will patrol Surrey, Suffolk, and Norfolk."

The goblet continued to spit out pairings, matching Harry and Ron together and leaving only two people left. Hermione's stomach flip-flopped as she realized that she and Draco had not yet been matched. So it came as no surprise when the goblet spit out two pieces of paper with their names on it.

"I guess we're together," Draco said softly, sinking back into his seat and looking over at Hermione.

She smiled timidly. "I guess so."

Dringus clapped his hands together and beamed. "Right. So now that everything is in order, let's set the ground rules. You will not be out any later than eleven-thirty on patrol. You may stop to have something to eat for half an hour, no more no less. If any of you do not have your cloaking charms on, you will be suspended from the case for a week. If any of you for whatever reason fail to patrol your area, you will also be suspended from the case. Suspension will mean paperwork duties, filing duties, and various other tasks given to you by other Aurors, myself, or Draco. If there are any signs of Drooney or evidence around your areas, please report this evidence." Dringus looked around the group and smiled once more. "Remember, take any cautionary measure you must in order to capture this son of a bitch. Meeting over!"

Everyone stood up to collect their things and leave, including Hermione. She paused when she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked behind her to see who it belonged to.

"Can we talk for a minute?" Draco asked, studying her expression carefully.

Hermione lifted her books into her arms and pushed her hair out of her face with a free hand. "Why don't we go have lunch somewhere and talk? I'm hungry," she suggested.

Draco looked surprise. "You want to go out with me?"

Hermione grinned. "Wow, you sure did sound like a teenager just then. A casual lunch, you know? Not in _that_ way."

She was pleased to see a small smile form on his lips, the first sign of him being in good spirits since he had given her the news about Irving. "I didn't mean it that way, either," he retorted.

"I'll meet you outside the office in a couple minutes," she said, turning and leaving the conference room. Her emotions had been haywire for the past few weeks, but there was one thing she knew for sure: she was still in love with Draco. No amount of paparazzi or negative press regarding her and Austin had changed that.


End file.
