Harry Potter 1. Prolouge

Starting Over

Draco / Hermione

Hermione and Ron's marriage fails after the miscarriage of their first child. Several months later she is given the chance to try and start over. Will she take it? Can a new love mend the pain of an old one, or are their some scars that never heal.

Rating : M

Prolouge

Beyond the patter of her own feet, the sounds of the world seemed distant and muffled by the ache of her muscles. The dull pain pulsing through her arms and legs made her aware that she had forced herself to run further than was really wise or necessary. She knew that people ran for various reason, but none of the normal reason were hers. Her reason for running simply happened to be that while she ran she found it easier to handle her problems, or at least easier to ignore them. It seemed that while she was running she could concentrate on her breathing, her form, her direction, and push her thoughts of her estranged husband and their lost child from her mind.

But as her feet gave way to a slower walk at the entrance of her apartment building and her breathing began to stabilize once again, she knew that her previous thoughts were returning. The pain was resurfacing. The ache in her muscles gave way to a deeper ache in her heart and by the time she stopped to grab her mail the misery of her life had swallowed her amid it once again. She intentionally didn't look through the mail at the box, instead she went straight to the elevator and waited patiently for it to return to the ground floor.

She was grateful when the elevator was empty and took her to the ninth floor without stopping. She wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone else today. She really wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone most days. While she waited her thoughts drifted to her sad existance. She was now nearly single again, or would be soon. She loved on Diagon Alley in her apartment that was actually quite beautiful, but it almost saddened her that it's beauty was wasted on her, when it could house a new couple or even a small family. As the elevator chimed it's arrival at her floor, she waited for the door to slide open and departed. When she reached her apartment, she pressed her wand against the door for a moment and heard the locks click. She turned the handle as if expecting something wonderful, or perhaps dreadful waiting for her inside, but found her apartment exactly as she had left it.

The mail fell onto the kitchen table, still unread, as she passed it on her way to her bathroom. After she had turned the water on for her shower, she stood in front of the mirror, watching herself strip down to her skin. She placed her palm over her stomach as she always did and then turned to the side, imaging what her stomach had looked like eight months ago when she had gave birth. She had carried the child for seven months, done everything necesarry and right, but it had been in vain. She had slipped on stairs, fallen, and everything had changed.

At first they thought everything was fine, but the doctor hadn't been able to find a heartbeat. She could never as long as she lived imagine a pain as cruel and heartbreaking as giving birth to her dead child. And, now, eight months later, try as she might, she couldn't imagine her stomach swelled with the extra weight of a child anymore. She used to be able to see it clearly but now it seemed as distant as the sounds of the world had been during her run.

Reluctantly she walked into the shower and felt the water pouring down her body in sheets. It was hot and fierce, but she liked it that way. It kept her alert, aware, and it hid the sounds of her sobbing. The walls in her apartment were thin and she knew that the elderly, lonely lady from next door often felt sorry for her when she heard her crying late into the night. As she lathered her hair with shampoo, she rubbed her head and then her temples, trying to release some of the tension from her body. Then she pressed the bar of soap to her skin, cradling it carefully, rubbing in slow circles.

After her shower she dried herself with a large beige towel, dressed in jeans and a tank top and left her room with her hair still damp to tackle the mail. She always waited until her shower was over to check it. The papers could be in there today. What if it was this day that they arrived? What would she do? She went straight to the kitchen table and rifled through the mail. It was in a large package hidden by a few advertisements. She lifted the package and took in the small details that made it clear it was the papers she had been expecting for a week. It was addressed to her full name. It was clearly marked with two stamps promoting that the package was 'confidential' and 'urgent.' Her lawyers name was in the corner as the sender.

She ripped the seal and her final doubts were washed away. Here they were. Her divorce papers. After sixty eight days of pure hell she was about to finalize her divorce. She would be retaking her maiden name and recieve half of everything they owned. It was that simple. Ron kept their flat in London, she got the sofa, things of that nature had been solved a long time ago. She was more than ready for this moment, but now that it arrived the lost feelings seemed to magnify inside her very soul. She wondered if life could ever get better again.

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	2. Ch One : A New Neighbor

Starting Over

Draco / Hermione

Rating : M

Chapter One : A New Neighbor

One Year Later

The moving boxes outside of the apartment next to Hermione's was no reason for alarm at first glance. Her neighbor, the elderly lady who had brought her cookies and bottles of wine for the first six months of her stay in her apartment as a result of her late nights up crying, had left the apartment in favor of an assisted living home nearer to her three sons and their families. Hermione had been waiting for her new neighbor for nearly two weeks so the sight of the boxes was actually more cause for anticipation or excitement.

She first laid eyes on them after her morning run and saw nothing out of the ordinary. She watched as a man appeared in the hall next to her, ignored her, and walked inside. She waited for him to return empty handed and watched as he disappeared again. She was familiar with this fashion of 'mover' now. It was humorous to think of a truck trying to make it's way down Diagon Alley to their building, so the 'movers' used Apparition to get the job done in the wizarding world.

She watched for a few minutes hoping to catch sight of her new neighbor but was unsuccessful, so she simply entered her own apartment and went through her daily morning routine. Shower, dress, mail, breakfast, hair and makeup, go to work. She was doing her best to improve the lives of the inferiors of the wizarding world in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures these days.

When she left her apartment that morning to leave for work she was startled by the sight that greeted her. A man was standing in her doorway, hand raised as if he was about to knock on her door. His mouth had fallen open, she assumed in shock as hers had done the same thing for the same reason. His blonde hair fell into his grey eyes as they hardened. His hand fell back to his side. The corners of his mouth lifted in a sneer.

"I thought you married Weasley. Shouldn't you be in that hovel of a thing they call a house with twelve babies hovering around your skirts?" He asked her and she felt her nose upturn at his drawl. She knew her eyes had narrowed and her lips were pursed.

"I'm not wearing a skirt." She told him simply and shut the door to her apartment behind her. She didn't even like talking about the life she used to have with Harry, Ginny, Neville, or Luna. She certainly wasn't going to bare it all to Draco Malfoy. "Can I help you with something?" She asked as he took a step backwards to make the space between them more acceptable.

"No, I was just going around, meeting the neighbors, Weasley." She closed her eyes as he threw the past at her again.

"It's Granger. Does this mean I will have the pleasure of you as a neighbor?" She did not change her tone from the monotonous wave it had taken on.

"It does indeed, Granger." He told her and she forced a smile.

"Well, Isn't that just delightful. It will be just like old times back at Hogwarts, but better. I can't wait for all the good memories to start building." She moved past him to the place where his movers had been appearing this morning.

"Should be a right good time." He called after her, his footsteps mimicking hers.

"Just great." She said with a final nod and then she continued down the stairs to the lobby of their building and straight over to the fireplace, just in case he decided to follow her she refrained from stopping to talk to anyone else that was present that morning. Instead she grabbed a pinch of floo powder and cried, "Ministry of Magic."

It was twelve thirty when Hermione looked up to see Harry leaning against her door frame and staring at her intently. "How are you today?" He asked and she shrugged.

"I have a new neighbor. I think you know him. Goes by ferret to his good friends." She looked back down at her work and waited for Harry to remember the event to which she was referring and then listened as his laughter filled the room.

"That's horrible, Hermione." He told her as he walked over to her desk. He sat atop it, right next to her and handed her an envelope. She eyed it uneasily and took it with the same reluctance. She put the letter in a drawer at the bottom of the right side of her desk and sighed as it fell atop the rest of the identical, unopened letters also hidden there. "This is just a thought, but perhaps you should open one."

"No. I can't do that." She told him simply and he accepted it with the air of someone who had taken this response many times before. "So, Is Ginny going to make it today?" She asked as she pushed away from her desk and grabbed her purse. He shook his head and grabbed her hand.

"Just you and me kid." He told her and they walked out of the room together as Harry's head bobbed to invisible music only he could hear. She remembered being that happy once and was instantly happy for and jealous of her best friend. He had two sons now. James and Albus, who Ginny had been pregnant with when she had lost Rosie. They were the most precious little godsons she could have asked for, but she had already sensed a bit of a troublesome quality in James. Apparently George had also discovered this quality and began to produce toddler safe trouble making items. Ginny had put her foot down and told him that James wasn't to touch a single one until he was at least three years old, but this didn't really stop George from trying to entice his nephew.

"How's Ron?" Hermione asked Harry as they sat down to eat.

Harry let out a sigh and a shrug. "I don't know. Same I suppose. He's got good days and bad, same as you."

"Ginny said he's seeing someone." She told him bluntly, deciding not to beat around the bush.

Harry suddenly looked uneasy. "Yea, he is. It's odd really, he's been out with Lavender a few times."

"I guess he never got over that wonderful emotional connection they shared back in sixth year." Hermione said sarcastically as they looked over their menus.

Harry shrugged again, but didn't speak. He always waited for her to end this part of the conversation. He never supplied her a way out.

"How are the boys?" She asked finally a few minutes later after they had placed their orders.

"You mean since you saw them yesterday?" They both laughed, but he answered her question anyway. "They are great. Ginny's exhausted, I'm exhausted, James is a crazy energy machine. Too bad he can't loan us some every once in awhile. Albus is so quiet, calm, calculating. He's a nice break from the chaos of his older brother. So what is this neighbor business? Is it really Malfoy, as in Draco Malfoy?"

"Yes, It is Malfoy as in Draco Malfoy. I just saw him on my way to work and the conversation wasn't exactly thrilling or inviting, but it wasn't nearly as cruel as such a confrontation should be." She told him reflecting on their morning chat. "He mentioned the divorce, but nothing to bad really. I do wonder why it is he's moved into my apartment building of all places though."

"I heard from Neville that he and Pansy Parkinson split recently. They must have been living together and he probably wanted a place near the bank."

"I forgot he's working for them now." Hermione admitted, a bit ashamed at this forgotten knowledge. "What exactly is it he does for them?" She asked and watched Harry shrug yet again.

"No one has any idea. The only reason I know he and Parkinson split is Neville works with her and he came in one afternoon and went nuts. Apparently she'd been cheating on him for a while and he just found out. That's got to be rough. He's pretty private usually. If I didn't know him better I'd suspect a change of heart in him, but we both know that's next to impossible."

"I'll second that." Hermione agreed, remembering the sneer from that very morning when she had walked out of her apartment.

When Hermione returned home that evening she paused for a single moment at her door to look at the one next to it. It didn't seem to be hiding any dark evil force, but it was possible that Draco Malfoy was standing behind that very door at that very moment staring into the corridor at her.

At the thought she hurried to place her wand against her door and opened it. When she walked into the room she took in the familiar scene of her home and felt the rush of loneliness that always seemed to swallow her after the door shut behind her.

Her thoughts moved back to Ron and she immediately chided herself. They had been divorced for a year, separated for more than that, and she had left him. It was acceptable that he was dating. It was nearly unacceptable that she wasn't. Ginny and Luna were constantly bothering her about it. It wasn't that she didn't have some nice offers, after all she was Hermione Granger. She had helped save the world nine years ago. She was the most brilliant witch of her age. She wasn't a beauty, but she was pretty in her own right.

She had offers sure enough, but none of them seemed right. It hadn't been that way with Ron. With Ron she'd always known. She knew for years that they were meant to be before she'd kissed him over discarded basilisk fangs during that fateful battle at Hogwarts. It had been an inevitable force that had thrust them together, and now she could never have that again. Truth be told she was terrified of dating. She longed to be loved again, but she wasn't sure that it was possible anymore.

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Thanks goes out to pattign for being my first story alert and justine for my first review !

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	3. Ch Two: An Estranged Wife

Starting Over

Draco / Hermione

Rating : M

Disclaimer … Honestly … If I owned these characters Hermione and Draco would have locked themselves in a broom closet after she punched him.

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Chapter Two: The Estranged Wife

The next two weeks passed in the same fashion Hermione had become accustom to living out her days. She woke early, ran, showered, went to work, spent the evening at home working or at the potters, and then she went to bed. If not for the sense of impending doom that seemed to greet her every time she laid eyes on the door of the next apartment, Hermione would have hardly noticed a change at all. She hadn't seen Malfoy once in the last two weeks and she was very grateful for this. She had even begun to hope that he had decided to find another apartment building, but two weeks after his arrival the owls were still dropping mail for him into his box. It wasn't that she cared enough to check, she just happened to see as she was gathering her own letters, which was precisely what she was doing when the second blast from the past hit her in the form of a shrill voice clearly yelling at the doorman.

Hermione spun to see what all the commotion was about, and instantly regretted her decision. The yelling was coming from an impossibly skinny blonde woman wearing blue robes that seemed to move around her like water instead of clothing. "I know that my husband is here." She told the doorman. Hermione couldn't help but be impressed by the door man's staunch stance, his wand gripped tightly in his right hand made it very clear that he meant to keep the woman Hermione had identified as Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy out.

"I'm sorry, Mam, even if that were the case, you aren't on the guest list of any of our residents and therefore I cannot let you in." Hermione smiled at the thought of her first day in her apartment when she had been asked to create a list of close friends and family. She had thought it was silly at the time but the doorman explained they housed for several high profile figures such as her own self and it was only a safety measure.

At this announcement Pansy flipped her hair and her eyes stopped at Hermione's. Pansy's arm flew out immediately and pointed at Hermione. "There she knows me and my husband. Surely, you can let me in."

"Ms. Granger, do you know this woman?" The door man asked, his eyes moving from Pansy.

"Yes, Howard, but I'm afraid she's no friend of mine." Hermione took an immense, probably nearing sick, amount of pleasure in the sneer that spread across Pansy's face.

"Granger, just because you and Weasel are incapable of keeping a marriage together doesn't mean everyone is. Let me in this bloody building to see my husband." Hermione rage made her blood pound in her ears.

"I'll be sure to let your 'husband' know that when I'm underneath him tonight." She could hardly believe the words that rushed from her mouth, but once they came there was no turning back. "He'll find that interesting indeed." It was good for Hermione that Howard had his wand at the ready because Pansy lunged forward and only stopped when Howard flicked his wand. "I guess you should have spent less time in Paris leaving poor Draco on his own. Someone had to warm his bed at night." For effect, Hermione made a show of grabbing Draco Malfoy's mail from the box next to her own and headed for the lift.

When she reached the ninth floor, Hermione realized that she was now in possession of Malfoy's mail and he would probably want it. Hoping he would still be asleep, Hermione tapped lightly on his door, but a moment later she heard approaching footsteps and the sound of the door clicking open. The sight that met her was unexpected, but certainly not unpleasant. A towel was wrapped at Malfoy's waist and water droplets were sticking to the ends of his hair. As she watched, one fell onto his shoulder and slid down his chest. She was reminded of her previous statement to Pansy and felt a blush creep into her cheeks. "I grabbed your mail and told your wife we're sleeping together. Have a good day." She said thrusting his mail into his hand.

She was placing her wand against her door when he caught up to her. "You want to run that last bit by me again?" He asked her and she nodded.

"Um, well, I was just wishing you a good day, you know being neighborly."

"How about the bit before that."

"Oh." Hermione pushed the door open and walked into her apartment, hoping he would go back to his own, but instead he followed her inside, towel and all, dripping on her carpet. "Ah, well," She began, setting the mail on the kitchen table. "It seems that your wife desired to visit and things were said and I may have implied, very strongly mind you, that we were, well, together."

Contrary to her belief that he would kill her he looked amused. "How did she take the news?" He asked, the slightest upturn visible on the corner of his mouth.

"Well, she tried to attack me, but Howard kept her at bay and I told her it was natural that you needed someone to warm your bed while she was in Paris."

"I didn't think you possible of such disgusting behavior, Granger. Serves the ruddy bitch right." As he said this he seemed to become aware of Hermione trailing anther drop of water down his chest.

"I guess I'll be going then." He told her simply and with a click of the door, he was gone, leaving Hermione to marvel in the fact that Pansy could want to cheat on such a body. Her French boyfriend must have been down right godly. And, then, Hermione remembered who the chest belonged to and found herself chastising her own foolishness for pittying Malfoy. He probably gave as good as he got in their marriage, he always had at school.

* * *

That evening, Hermione finished her work earlier than usual because she was going to Harry and Ginny's for dinner. Harry had told her earlier it was to discuss a serious matter, but try as she might; Hermione had been unsuccessful at getting it out of him. To her surprise, Malfoy was chatting with her assistant about Quidditch when she emerged from her office that night. "Hello, Granger." He told her, and she kept back the urge to glare at him.

"Hello Malfoy." She said instead, resigning herself to suspicion.

"Do you need something?"

"I thought I would invite you to dine and get drunk with me tonight to celebrate and thank you for this morning."

She was taken aback for a minute, but soon found her voice. "Don't you have friends?" She asked him and he looked affronted.

"Of course I have friends. Unfortunately most of my friends are married to her friends and refuse to say a bad word about her in fear that it will end them up in the same place I am now."

"Oh…" Hermione was suddenly reminded of the months of despair and the loneliness that still followed her after her own divorce. It would have been nice to have someone who wasn't a friend of Ron's. "Well, I have to go to Harry and Ginny's for dinner, but maybe I'll stop by for a drink after."

"Sound's good." Malfoy told her and began to walk away.

"Malfoy?" She called. "I was going to walk from the Apparition point, do you want to come?"

He looked as surprised by her invitation as she had felt about his, but his mouth turned up in the same fashion as it had that morning and she assumed this was his attempt at a smile. "Sure." He replied, and so they walked, mostly in silence, but with a few attempts at light conversation along the way. At times the silence was uncomfortable and Hermione was yelling at herself that she must be one of the dumbest people to ever live fore inviting him to walk home with her. Luckily it was a short walk after the apparition and they reached their apartments without any great event, besides the raising of an eyebrow from Howard. Hermione found her thoughts and words from the morning racing back and this made her cheeks tinge pink again.

By the time Hermione reached her door she was very glad she'd had plans with Harry and Ginny.

"See you." Malfoy told her and pressed his wand against the door. She followed his example and thought about what could happen if she went to his apartment for drinks tonight.

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Please Review ! Silent Readers are appreciated as always !

Chapter One Nods :

Thanks to dracosprincess4ever, JennyLunaR, HarmlessLies, Singingalone, rowenra, Writer of Mysteries, Aisling Malfoy, Real Anime Lover 300, dawntodusk08, hermione1978, luvHaru7, pattign, and wildmagic 1621 for adding this story to your story alerts or favorite stories !

Thanks to for Writer of Mysteries adding me to your author alerts and favorite authors ! This really means a lot to me !

Review Responses :

Special thanks to those who took the extra minute to review ! That would be:

hermione1978 ... glad you like it . ill attempt to keep it up to snuff . have a cookie .

Writer of Mysteries ... well thank you very much :) have a chippy chololatey cookie ...

Aisling Malfoy ... i hope this satisfies your need for more :) If not i'm sure that there will be more soon ... can't leave draco to his own devices for too long or he eats all the cookies, oh here have a cookie by the way ...

Kat Eyes 17 ... here is that next chappy you were wanting :) hope this one was as interesting as the rest ! ... have a chocolate chippy cookie ...

B ... wow ... thanks ... you must be magnificent as well ... you know they always say takes one to know one ... have a cookie ! no . have two cookies . wow ...

junebride ... Yea ... She needs to be sad ... She's lost her husband and a child, but at the same time she is Hermione and she is The driving force behind her leaving Ron is no secret . you will get more in the story along the way including one quite tearful time, but the reason she left him stems from their daughter being born stillborn. You will understand it ALL . I promise . If not I'll bake you a whole batch of any sort of yummy treat you want . here have a cookie to tide you over . p.s. i feel that only cop outs avoid dh because it makes d/hr difficult . im glad you approve .


	4. Ch Three: A Reason to Drink

Starting Over

Draco / Hermione

Rating : M

Disclaimer … Honestly … If I owned these characters Hermione and Draco would have locked themselves in a broom closet after she punched him.

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Chapter Three: A Reason to Drink

Hermione arrived at Harry and Ginny's at eight o'clock that evening. She ignored their uneasy glances and instead hugged them each in turn before inquiring about the location of her godsons.

"Oh, we put the boys to bed early tonight. They had a long day." Harry told her as they walked towards the kitchen.

Hermione nodded her understanding. "It's okay; I only see them every day. I suppose the two of you appreciate every moment of adult time you get these days."

When they reached the kitchen Ginny flicked her wand and steaming bowls and plates of food moved from several odd places in the kitchen onto the table, while Harry grabbed two of the bottles of wine Dudley had given him and Ginny for their last anniversary. "I didn't want to leave Sev at home before, but I think he's old enough now. My mum's dieing to keep them both overnight. I don't think she realizes how much energy it takes to keep them both happy that long."

"She raised seven children, Gin." Harry manages through a laugh. "I think we would be leaving them in capable hands. We should plan a night out, Hermione. It's just what we all need."

Hermione sipped at her wine and ate with her friends in complete happiness. She looked forward to these moments of peace stolen every once in awhile. They were what kept her going when it seemed like everything was so lost. "You'll never believe what I did today." She told them as they were finishing their desserts. "I told you Malfoy lives in my building now, and today Pansy Parkinson showed up and Howard wouldn't let her in."

"She wasn't on Malfoy's list?" Ginny said in feign shock and Harry laughed. "She must have really pissed him off, what with her cheating on him and everything. He's totally overreacting."

"No, She wasn't on the list, so you know what she did? She saw me and she expected me to tell Howard to let her in!"

"No!" Harry said, his eyes watering from laughter.

"Yea, I know. So of course I said no, and then she said something about how just because my marriage was over didn't mean theirs was and I told her I would let her husband know that when I was underneath him tonight." Ginny snorted, Harry choked on his cake, and Hermione laughed so loud she worried she might wake the boys.

"You did not!" Ginny said in disbelief and Hermione nodded.

"I did, and then I grabbed his mail, just to prove a point and left her to deal with Howard. That crazy psycho tried to attack me! Howard had to keep her out with his wand. It was probably right under punching Malfoy in third year on my list of great encounters with Slytherin's."

"What did you do with his mail?" Ginny asked with a giggle.

Hermione sobered up a bit as thoughts of their morning came rushing back again. "I took it too him and told him what I'd done. He thought it was great, he even asked me over for dinner tonight." Hermione thought it appropriate to leave out the fact that he was wearing a towel and that he had come all the way to the ministry to ask her to eat dinner with him and that she was seriously considering having a drink with him once she returned to her apartment.

Harry seemed to think this was the greatest part of the entire story and started choking on his wine this time. Ginny laughed as she patted her husband on the back and then turned back to her friend. "You know I saw Malfoy at Gringots a couple months ago. He is quite the handsome bloke these days." Harry turned to her and stared in disbelief. "Not as handsome as you of course, Harry." Ginny kissed him then and Hermione felt the pang of longing shoot through her again. It wasn't that she wanted Ron so much as that she wanted someone to love and care about her again.

"So, what is it you two needed to talk to me about?" She asked and the couple immediately looked at her. She saw pity in the lines of their faces and she herself frowned. "What is it? Is he all right?"

"He's fine," Harry told her, "Only we just thought we should tell you some things that are happening with him right now."

"What sort of things?" Both Harry and Ginny were silent for an entire minute and she asked her question again. "What sort of things?"

"He's, well, Lavender is moving into the flat." She stared at him and waited for him to laugh.

"Our flat? The flat we bought together after we found out I was pregnant?" Harry nodded and she let her elbows rest against the table as her face fell into her hands. Then a conversation she'd had with Harry just two weeks came floating back to her. She remembered Harry's uneasy look and then his words; _he's been out with Lavender a few times._ "You told me they'd only been out a few times." She said letting her hands fall back to her lap, her eyes looking straight at Harry.

"I know. I thought that was the case, but it seems they've been pretty serious for a while now." She knew from his expression he hadn't known, but she still couldn't believe the words.

"Pretty serious? She's moving into OUR flat! I would say that's pretty serious. How could he do that? We were going to be a family there."

"I'm so sorry Hermione." Ginny had tears in her eyes and that is when Hermione knew there was more. Ginny was one of the strongest people Hermione knew, she never cried easily.

"What else do you have to tell me?" She croaked, the words catching in her throat.

"They're getting married, and Lavender's pregnant." Ginny whispered the words like poison on her tongue. This was too much for Hermione to take in. She stood up from the table and grabbed her bag.

"I've got to go." She told them, hurrying from the room.

"Hermione!" Harry yelled and she heard his chair scrape against the floor. He caught up with her at the front door and held her against his shoulder as she began to cry. "I'm so sorry, Hermione. I'm so sorry. I didn't know what to do. He wanted to tell you himself, but I thought you would need some time. I'm so sorry." He rocked her against him and she moved backwards, forcing him to release her.

"I need to go home, Harry. I'll talk to you tomorrow okay?"

"Will you be alright? You can stay here tonight." She saw the worry etched in his face and glanced to the hall where Ginny was watching them, tears still falling silently down her cheeks.

"No, I think I need to be alone. I'll talk to you tomorrow though. I'll be fine I promise."

* * *

Hermione stood in front of her apartment door for nearly ten minutes. She was holding her wand, but she had yet to press it against the wood to be admitted. She didn't want to go inside. She didn't want to be in the apartment she had spent every day since her divorce. She couldn't bear to see the table where she ate alone. She couldn't bear to see the bed she slept in alone. She couldn't bear to see the shower she had used to cover the sounds of her sobs. She didn't want to be alone anymore. She was so tired of being alone. And, so, she turned and walked a few more steps, slid her wand in her pocket and knocked on the door.

Draco Malfoy was finishing his dishes from dinner when he heard the knock. He knew it had to be Hermione Granger, as she was the only person who could get into this building who would have a reason to knock on his door this late at night. He set his wand in his pocket and went to open the door. He could hear her shuffling around outside for a moment before he turned the knob and she stood before him.

His immediate thought was that she had been attacked, but there was no sign of any sort of struggle. Her clothing seemed to be in place, but she seemed tired. Not tired in the sense that she needed a nap, but tired in the sense that she needed a new life. Her face was red and it was clear to him that she had been crying at some point in the recent past. "Are you alright?" He asked her, stepping aside so that she could move into the apartment. She did, shuffling more than walking.

"No. Do you want to get drunk?" She asked him and he could tell she was dead serious.

"I suppose I could handle getting drunk. I know why I'm drinking, but what's your story?" He led the way to the kitchen and handed her a bottle of firewhiskey before taking one for himself.

"Ron and Lavender are getting married and having a baby and moving into OUR flat." She told him and took a drink of her firewhiskey. She flinched as it slid down her throat, but she took another drink as soon as the first was down.

"Sounds like a hell of a reason to me. I'm drinking because my wife who I was never unfaithful to for a single moment was cheating on me for all but the first three months of our marriage." He held his bottle to his lips and poured the liquid into his mouth. It burned on the way down, but it only served as a reminder that he was still here, still feeling, still living.

"I get jealous when I see Harry and Ginny together. They love each other in a way that could have survived what happened to me and Ron and I'm jealous." He watched her drink again, half her bottle gone.

"I'll drink to that. Happy couples make me sick." He threw back his firewhiskey again. "How about, I'm one of the richest men in the wizarding world and I'm hiding from my soon to be ex wife in this apartment building because I can't go to the house I just bought for us without her showing up to grovel." They both drank.

"I'm one of the brightest witches alive, I've passed more legislature in the last five years than went through in the past five centuries in the benefit of magical creatures, and I live in this apartment building because I'm afraid to date." They both drank.

"I'm afraid of dating too." He told her grabbing two fresh firewhiskey's to replace the empty bottles in their hands. "Pansy was the only girl I ever dated and she remains the only woman I've ever had sex with. It seems an awful waste of my youth." They both drank.

"I've never been with anyone but Ron either." They both drank.

"I hate my friends. They all remind me of a life I no longer belong in." They both drank.

"I miss Hogwarts. I miss classes. I miss the teachers. I miss the adventure. I miss being the bookworm. I miss the 'golden trio.'" They both drank.

"I miss Quidditch. I miss Dumbledore. I miss potions. I miss Snape." They both drank.

"Harry and Ginny named their son after them both." They both drank and fetched new bottles.

"That's fairly noble of them, as always." They both drank.

"I miss my daughter." They both drank.

"I wish I had children. Maybe that would have made my marriage better." They both drank.

"That's a horrible reason to have children." They both drank.

"Yea, well I was always a horrible person, now wasn't I." They both drank.

"You didn't stay on their side. I mean you didn't exactly hug Harry and print up the Order of the Pheonix badges, but that must count for something." They both drank.

"Yea, I suppose it counts that my family desired nothing more than being alive once it was over." They both drank and he once again handed her a new bottle as he took one for himself.

"I think that's what everyone wanted." They both drank.

"I saw so many people killed and tortured. You wouldn't believe the things I saw in my own home of all places." They both drank.

"You wouldn't believe the things we saw that last year either. His damn snake became an old lady for Merlin's sake." They both drank.

"I think I'm very on my way to drunkenness." He told her sliding to the floor, his eyesight began to focus, but the fog around his brain remained.

"I think we're both arriving at drunkenness." Hermione slid next to him and they both leaned against the cabinets, still drinking. "You ever wonder if things could have been different?"

"What sort of things?" He asks her as he notices that her skirt has ridden up and a healthy amount of her thigh is revealed. He can think of nothing more thrilling than the idea of putting her on the counter and holding her thigh as he moved inside of her. The thought that she was Hermione Granger seemed to be floating in the recesses of his brain, but it didn't seem to mean as much under the effects of a few good firewhiskey's.

"Well, What if there was no Voldemort, you know? I mean I doubt Harry and I would have been friends." Hermione lets her newest empty bottle fall from her hand to the ground and roll away. She rested her head on his shoulder and stares at nothing in particular. "Maybe I would have been in Ravenclaw or something and you and I could have studied together. Then I could have told you to never ever marry that Parkinson Pansy and we both would have saveded ourselves from horrible marriages."

He couldn't help but openly laugh. Even as smashed as he was there was no way he could accept that lame story she'd just attempted to tell. "That's an awful scenario. There is no way it would have happened that way."

"Oh yea! Well, what would have happened you big smart tough smart guy?" She pulled her head up from his shoulder and stared into his eyes.

There was a moment of hesitation where he considered the fact that she was clearly plastered beyond all normal thought and that she was emotionally damaged, but in the end Draco, deciding he could blame it all on the Firewhiskey in the morning, pressed his lips against hers in a hungry fervor. He made no move to be gentle; instead he deepened the kiss instantly, moving his tongue around hers as if to pull her very soul from her with a kiss.

From there it was a mess of limbs as they fought with each other for the ends of clothing that needed to be removed immediately. He'd never had sex with Pansy like this. It was always soft and gentle and careful, because that is what she thought he wanted. They always took the time to move back to the bedroom, no matter where they were, and he always spent the majority of the time making sure she was 'ready' to go. As he watched Hermione unbuckle her bra and pull him down onto his own kitchen floor, he couldn't help but think that if he'd been presented with this opportunity during their marriage he might have cheated too. There were no tender touches, carefully placed kisses, or awkward first time pauses.

Instead, he simply shoved her pants off as quickly as possible while she attempted to do the same to him. He entered her with his fingers first to find her moisture lining them in a satisfactory manor. He pressed his thumb against her clit and rubbed small circles against it while he thrust inside of her. She arched against him and he was lost to the world. All that mattered was moving inside of her until she screamed his name again and again.

* * *

Thanks to junebride, spikeecat, and cosmopolitan for taking the extra minure to review!

Thanks to Tereza8472, Lizy22, dgirlm, ProwlingKitKat, GrangerRanger, Hopeless4NonExistentLove, and cosmopolitan for adding this to your story alerts!

Thanks to DemonicMiko18 for the favorites add!

Please Review ! It really helps and also makes me write faster ! Also, I'm aware that the naughty bit was short and quick, but it's to be that way on purpose. They aren't really having sex with each other at this point, they are just having sex. It's a means to get what they both want and a bit of revenge on each side to their respective ex-spouses. In short, there will be much better bigger naughtier naughty bits to come.


	5. Ch Four: Retrieving A Wand

Starting Over

Draco / Hermione

Rating : M

Disclaimer … Honestly … If I owned these characters Hermione and Draco would have locked themselves in a broom closet after she punched him.

* * *

Chapter Four: Retrieving A Wand

As the first rays of morning light fell across the bed, Hermione Granger was just waking from a pleasant slumber. After a moment of regaining consciousness, she moaned from the pain beginning to rise in her head and stretched her body only to find that her hand came into contact with something hairy. She opened her eyes immediately and sat up to find Draco Malfoy still deep in sleep beside her, his hair shooting off in odd directions, his mouth slightly parted, his body bare against the sheets for the world, or at least for her, to see. With a sharp intake of breath she realized that she was also without clothing and pulled the covers up to cover her breasts, which she noticed were covered in small red marks, no doubt from the multiple times that he had sucked, licked, and bit at her the night before. She then realized that as Malfoy was sleeping their was no one in the room to actually see her breasts, and let the sheet fall back to her lap as she evaluated the situation.

She remembered her dinner last night, and then coming home and her longing to not be alone anymore. She then recalled the fire whiskey and the talking and the sex. Oh, Merlin, the sex. The sex with Malfoy had been so random, so hot, so fast, so unlike anything she'd ever experienced. Ron had made wonderful, sensual, slow love to her many times, and each time was new and better than the time before, but never had it been anything like the wild abandon she'd experienced the night before. The simple fact that she shouldn't have even been in his apartment only seemed to make the idea of Malfoy wanting her as badly as she wanted him more erotic. She remembered the final time they had been together in this very bed just a couple hours before and the words he had whispered into her ear. They had not been words of love or care, but instead they were filled with passion and lust.

It was a beautiful thing, lust. She had never in her entire life given herself to lust before, and now it seemed that she had been missing out on a great pastime. She had loved Ron with every drop of blood in her body, but never had she felt the overwhelming desire to have him inside of her before she burst into a million pieces from the overdrive of her senses like she had the night before. It was terrifying. She looked again at the naked body lying beside her and it terrified her. Two days ago he was nothing but Malfoy, git extraordinaire and now she couldn't help but think how much she just wanted to keep lying with him until he woke up, ready for another go.

With a sudden sense of urgency to get the hell away from this place before he awoke, Hermione climbed out of the bed slowly and walked into the living room. She felt awkward walking around his apartment naked, but she wasn't about to waste time to grab one of Draco Malfoy's sheets or t-shirts to go find her clothes because it would give him more time to awake and find her there. So, she was quick in her movements to gather and put on her clothes in the kitchen. Her purse was discarded in the living room, and her shoes were by his front door. Without a moment of hesitation she left him still sleeping and headed for her own apartment, all the while her head pounding to remind her of her idiocy.

It wasn't until she was standing outside of her own door that she realized her mistake; she'd left her wand in his room, on his bedside table. With a giant groan she walked back to his apartment, willing the door to open for her, but it remained shut as it was made to open for one thing and one thing only; Draco Malfoy's wand, which happened to be in his room right beside hers. She considered knocking for all of a single second before she turned for lift and took it down to the lobby, opting for a few more hours of Malfoy free time before she was faced with the inevitable confrontation. Grateful that it was still early and no one would see her in her disheveled state, Hermione used the fire to floo to Harry and Ginny's home and prayed that they wouldn't ask too many questions.

* * *

When Hermione arrived that morning she was greeted with the sounds of her youngest godsons' cries. "Ginny?" She called out to the house and was surprised when Ginny moved into the room immediately bouncing Al on her hip. "Hermione? What the bloody hell happened to you?" She asked, shock apparent in her eyes as she observed her friend.

"Is it that bad? I'm locked out of my apartment; you think I can wash up here?" She knew the next question that Ginny was going to ask before it even bridged her lips.

"Where is your wand?" Hermione crossed the room and shrugged.

"I left it somewhere."

Ginny frowned at Hermione. "You left it somewhere?"

"Yes, I left it somewhere!" Hermione looked towards the door when James came running into the room.

"MOMMY! I MADE A WAFFLE ALL BY MYSELF MOMMY!" He screamed and Ginny paled.

"James!" She held Albus out to Hermione and rushed into the kitchen after her son was safely in her friends arms.

"Hi, James." She said, kneeling to the floor and reaching her free arm out to hug him.

"Auntie Herminny, you look bad." James said scrunching his face and Hermione couldn't help but laugh.

"I know, but thank you for being honest, James. Let's go help mommy in the kitchen." She grabbed his hand and took both of the boys through the hall and into the kitchen where Ginny was flipping her wand around in a very Mrs. Weasley like manner. "I've got to get them fed and to my mother. Merlin knows why anyone would volunteer to watch my boys all day. If you help, you can use the shower, but I'm not letting this wand thing go." She said in a deflated tone as Hermione set the children in their high chairs.

* * *

An hour later Hermione climbed out of the shower and dried her body with an oversized beige towel Ginny had set on the counter for her. She couldn't help but stare at herself in the mirror for a full minute before walking away, shaking her head slightly. She couldn't imagine what she was going to say to Ginny about Draco Malfoy and their night together. Perhaps she could just say that she'd fallen asleep on the couch and nothing happened, but in her haste to leave she left her wand. She almost snorted in laughter at the thought of this scenario compared to the one that actually took place.

Hermione silently thanked Harry for insisting she keep a few things at their house in case of emergencies or late nights as she slipped on jeans and a sweater. It would be strange to wear muggle clothing to work, but ultimately better than facing Draco Malfoy this early in the morning. Without her wand, Hermione was a bit concerned with her hair, but she dried it the best she could with the towel and tried to use some of Ginny's products to get it to stay in a clip. It was however a lost cause from the start and by the time Ginny returned home, Hermione was sipping at coffee through a mass of her hair.

"Oh, Hermione!" Ginny squealed, laughing in a manner that made Hermione quite resentful of her friend, until with a flick of her wand Ginny tamed her locks to curls and she could see again.

"Thanks." Hermione mumbled into her coffee. She watched Ginny pour herself a cup and waited until she was seated next to her until she became nervous.

"So?" Ginny asked, making it very clear with that single word that she wanted to know exactly what had happened the night before.

"So, I went home." Hermione told her, the truth if not exactly the whole one.

"And, then?" Ginny asked, her eyes piercing into Hermione's.

"And, then, I didn't want to be alone." Hermione whispered, though she wasn't exactly sure why. There was no one left to hear her but her friend. "I went next door for that drink."

Lines formed around Ginny's eyes and mouth as she figured out exactly what Hermione was telling her. "Oh my … Please tell me you didn't sleep with him." This came out as a harsh whisper that seemed to sting Hermione as if she had been slapped.

"I …" She tried to find the right words, but it wasn't possible. She couldn't seem to string together a logical reason. "I was drunk."

Without ado, Ginny stood up and started walking out of the kitchen. "Where are you going?" Hermione yelled after her.

"Stay here!" Ginny told her. "I'll be right back." Hermione had no intention of staying there, however, and was at the fireplace as soon as Ginny was gone. She threw in the floo, but nothing happened. It was not difficult for Hermione to piece together what had happened. Ginny had gone to get her wand and closed the wards Harry always had around their home. Hermione was stuck until her friend returned, hopefully with her wand. She shuddered to think what Ginny was going to do to Malfoy. She found she was actually a bit worried her friend might lose all sense and murder him if he said the wrong thing. She silently prayed that Malfoy would remember the result of a quick flick of Ginny Weasley's wand.

* * *

Draco Malfoy was never really a morning person. He preferred to sleep late and stay up late, and thus was his course of action that very day. He woke just as Ginny Potter was returning to her kitchen that morning, looking for answers. It was with a jolt that he stirred and with a pulsating pounding that his headache emerged from the deep recesses of his intoxicated mind. He reached for his wand lazily hoping to ease his pain, but when he muttered the charm, after feeling the cool wood fall uneasily into his hand, nothing happened. He spoke the words again, but again nothing happened.

He forced his eyes to open slightly and stared at the wand in his hand. It was clearly not his. Instead of investigating this further, he found that his own wand was still sitting on the nightstand. He gripped it with his free hand and this time, after the charm was cast, he felt the fog clearing from his mind and the throbbing dieing down to a gentle pulse every so often. He then looked at the wand in his other hand and examined it.

He wondered who it belonged to for a single moment before he saw her face flash before his eyes as she tossed it on his nightstand and stood beside the bed, her hands on her hips, his shirt falling over her skin loosely. He'd decided she was wearing way to many clothes and pulled her towards him then and hadn't let her go until he'd had his way with her once again, murmuring things that would have made even his mother blush, and they had fallen asleep together.

"Shit." He said in a tone characteristic of someone who had spent the evening sleeping with an old enemy, but his lips curled into a small smile and he crawled off his bed and grabbed a pair of boxers from a drawer. After he'd covered himself, he began the search for Granger, as she would without a doubt need her wand to get into her apartment and to do her work. Seeing as how their were only four rooms she could be hiding in, it didn't take him longer than a few minutes to realize she'd left the apartment already. He headed for the door, thinking that without her wand, she was most likely waiting in the hall for him to wake up and give it back. He was surprised therefore when he opened the door and found Potter's wife looking back at him with a glare that threatened to scare him into shutting the door in her face.

"Give it to me." She told him sharply and he couldn't help but notice she sounded and looked like a mother chiding her child.

"Where is Granger? She couldn't come get her wand on her own? Had to send Mommy to get it?"

"I came of my own accord after she informed me of it's location. Speaking of such, you better keep away from her, Malfoy. I may be a Mommy now, but I haven't lost one ounce of my talent and you'd do well to remember just what I can do." Malfoy needed no explaining to get her point. He remembered all too well what the other side of Ginny Weasley's wand had done to her classmates.

"If your brother had done his job right as her husband, there would be no reason to worry about me staying away from her. She's a big girl." He told her, turning Hermione's wand in his left hand all the while.

"You know nothing about Ron and Hermione's marriage!" Ginny bellowed, her skin tinged a light red now.

"I know much more than you think. Here you are, Weasel." He said, holding out to her Hermione's wand. "Be sure to extend my gratitude to Granger for last night."

"You have no idea what you are getting yourself into. You have no idea what happened to them. You have no idea what they went through. It's a story to you, something that happened to other people too long ago for you to understand what it did to her. She doesn't need this crap from you. Why don't you stick to ruining your own life and leave Hermione's alone." Ginny snatched the wand from him. "So sod off, Ferret." She then turned fuming towards the lift, anger at her own self pouring through her veins for falling to his level with petty fighting and name-calling.

* * *

Thanks to PiNK FluRO xX, DRM-QUN, Junebride, Darbythomas, Fergs, Akira M, DemonicMiko18, Dracoxohermione, IndulgentWriter, Xoxmwaahxox, and ONIX-21 for adding this to your story alerts. Thanks to DRM-QUN for the add to your author alerts as well. A special thanks to Ayyara for the add to your favorite stories.

Thanks to all my reviewers ….

Junebride … Yes and yes. I happen to like Draco as a non man -- as well.

Tereza8472 … Thanks for the input. I will be inserting more of those elements as the story goes on . It's all a bit depressing in the beginning though so hopefully you'll like the way this story unfolds.

Cosmopolitan … I'm flattered. I'm blushing. I'm giving you a smore. Enjoy.

Hopeless4NonExistantLove … Hehe. Sorry about the cliffy this is actually not solved because you have no idea how they are going to react to each other. We will surely get to the undrunken sex, which is much better than dunk sex, which is sloppy and sometimes difficult to remember, not that I have any idea or anything … lol … just don't drink vodka at a work party and sleep with your boss. Ever.

Heidi191976 … Thank you so much. You'll find out about whether they regret it in the next chappy.

Dragongirl89 … Thank you sooooo much.

Dgirlm … Thank you for the review and hope this satisfies.

Akira M … I thought it was rather entertaining as well. I had a lot of fun writing that bit.

Dracoxohermione … Thank you. I'm glad you like.

PiNK FluRO xx … Thanks . Love 7th book stories myself. I think it adds to the challenge.

You all leave warm fuzzy feelings in my heart when you add me to your alerts or review. I really enjoy reading your thoughts. I hope you like this new chapter and let me apologize for the amount of time it took me to get it onto the site. It's been done for nearly two weeks now but my grandfather past away and I cracked the screen on my laptop so I've been thoroughly depressed for about two weeks now. Hopefully things will start looking up. It's going to take them three weeks to fix the laptop when I drop it off which is so depressing I can hardly think about it. Anyway I'll try to never make you wait this long again.

Much Much Much Much Love .


	6. Ch Five : Ron Reunited

Starting Over

Draco / Hermione

Rating : M

Disclaimer … Honestly … If I owned these characters Hermione and Draco would have locked themselves in a broom closet after she punched him.

* * *

Chapter Four : Ron Reunited 

A half after Ginny's departure from his apartment found Draco Malfoy showered, shaved, and dressed in the finest robes his bountiful salary from Gringott's could buy. He had taken his first drink from his cup of coffee just as he turned his daily prophet to page four. At first it had seemed to be the same gossip ridden drabble that page four always was, until he had then preceded to choke on that drink of coffee when he saw a picture of himself and Hermione Granger walking into their apartment building together the day before followed by the headline, '_Malfoy Divorce Uncloaked_.'

_After months of waiting for the other highly polished shoe to drop, it seems the wizarding world has finally been rewarded for their patience with the scandal of the century surrounding Draco Malfoy's divorce to Pansy Parkinson. Three months ago when Malfoy filed for his separation with the ministry, it was under a murmur that his wife had been less than faithful. The wizarding community was fed the story that Parkinson currently has residence in Paris, France where she is living with a man that is certainly not her husband, but now it is safe to say Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy had no fault in the demise of her marriage._

_Instead, its roots lie in a divorce that took place one year ago between two of the trio accredited with the downfall of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. In this particular incident, Hermione Granger filed for her divorce from Ron Weasley just months after the loss of their first unborn child. At the time, covered by family and friends, Granger and Weasley did not comment on the reasons behind their divorce, but their loss was considered a major factor. Due to a private source, we now have reason to believe this to be untrue._

_ In fact, we now know that Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy had more in common that a desire for the end of their respective marriages quickly and quietly. It seems that their desire was a result of their long time affair, which began months before Granger filed her divorce with the Ministry and has since continued throughout the past year. As unbelievable as this seems, according to reliable sources the couple, once known for their animosity towards one another in their days at Hogwarts Wizarding School, is now living together on Diagon Alley in a fairly new building called, 'The Snitch's Secret.'_

_This, and other apartments of its nature, are especially reserved for high profile tenants and are known to have surly guards who will stop at nothing, even assault to keep innocent visitors away. The residence of Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy aside, the new pair are keeping busy. Plans of a wedding as soon as the Malfoy divorce is final have leaked along with rumors of a child soon joining their family. It seems that Granger and Malfoy will spare neither of their previous spouses the pain of watching them live happily ever after, no matter the cost to those who love them._

_ - **Rita Skeeter** _

It took Draco two and a half minutes to finish reading the article and the only thing running through his mind at the end of this disastrous read was that his job was seriously in stake. As junior manager of Gringotts he was in charge of the greatest account Gringott's handled, the Ministry of Magic's accounts. The largest part of Draco's job was to maintain the funds in each department of the ministry. This required long hours spent both at Gringotts and at the Ministry. Any suspicious spending was his responsibility. Even single galleon, down the very last knut that left or entered the Ministry's pocket was Draco's responsibility. Each law that affected the way the ministry spent, allocated, donated, or received money, even when paying their employees, was Draco's responsibility.

The general job requirements were down to three things:

One) He kept in good standing with the Manager of the bank, a Goblin by the name of Gangoek. This was basically a clause to be sure that Gangoek could fire him without reason.

Two) He must keep in good standing in Gringotts, the Ministry, and the Wizarding world at large. This clause was the very reason that Draco Malfoy had been trying so hard to keep his divorce as quiet and quick as possible. Being in the center of the largest marriage scandal in years certainly would not have been 'keeping in good standing.'

Three) He must get the job done, whatever it took. The junior manager of Gringotts did not abide by the same laws as normal wizards when performing his duties. The second part of the rule was that he kept his mouth shut and was sure that the prophet and nosy Ministry officials never caught wind of his less than desirable activities as this would violate both rules one and two by pissing of Gangoek and blemishing the record Draco Malfoy had worked so hard to clean.

Fortunately before today Pansy had been only too willing to keep the approaching end of their marriage between the two of them, hoping that she could salvage the pieces before it was final. It seemed that all of this had changed when Hermione had pissed her off and given her a chance to turn the divorce against him instead. As his wife, Pansy had been at his side through thick and thin and knew the conditions of his position at Gringotts and had obviously chosen to attack what she knew had always meant the most to him, right after her, of course. Well, right up until he had figured out that her shopping trips to France were a rouse to visit her lover, of course. After this discovery his job has taken top rung of the ladder and she had been pushed right off of it to the ground.

* * *

Hermione waited for Ginny with a quick pace around the kitchen table. She had no idea what she was going to do. Ron was going to kill her. Mrs. Weasley was never going to talk to her again. She would never be able to go back to work without someone staring at her and thinking those horrible things about her. The worst of all of it was that there was an inkling of truth behind the story printed about her in the paper because of last night. She had never even considered cheating on Ron, and Malfoys' marriage was over long before their drunken night, but they had slept together and now the entire wizarding world was finding out over their breakfast. 

Ginny appeared with a slam of the door and handed Hermione her wand with a red face. "THAT MAN!" She bellowed, falling into a seat the table. She seemed too caught up in her own fury to realize Hermione's had resumed her circle of the table.

"Gin, read this." Hermione told her desperately setting the paper in front of her friend without breaking stride. Ginny pulled the prophet closer to herself and began to read. With each word her face turned a bit more pink and her jaw opened a slight bit more.

Once she had finished she handed the paper back to Hermione and stared at her, lost. "Who would spread such a lie about you."

"It had to be Pansy Parkinson didn't it? I mean no one even knows Draco Malfoy is my neighbor but you, Harry, and Pansy. No one else that cares anyway, and I don't think this was Harry's doing. He's never really been one to talk to the prophet, always preferred the quibbler didn't he? What am I going to do, Gin?" Hermione groaned, allowing herself to fall into the chair next to Ginny's.

"Go to work." Ginny told her. "Go, or it will look even more suspicious. I'll go see Harry about this mess and you go to work. He'll have an idea of what to do. I'll kill Rita Skeeter with my own two hands if I have to."

* * *

Hermione walked through the ministry an hour after she had left the Potter's house and made sure to keep her pace as quick as possible without making a larger scene than her appearance already seemed to be causing. She had no idea where to even start cleaning up the mess that was printed on page four of the Prophet clutched in her hand. As she passed, wizards and witches of all ranks and power, their eyes followed her for a single moment of disgust and then turned back to their work. 

When she finally reached her office, after the longest ride in the lift of her life, her assistant stopped her. "Ms. Granger, you have about an 'undred messages and your ex-'usband is in your office. I asked him to wait out 'ere but he kept pacing back and forth, back and forth, and I couldn't 'andle it anymore, so I sent 'im on inside."

Hermione looked straight at the door for a full minute before speaking. "Sort through the messages. Deal with the ones you can, send me the rest after you sort them in order of urgency. And, help me try to find a way to fix this." She told him shaking her prophet in the air. "It's complete thestral shit, so find me someone to talk to at the prophet. Keep everyone out of my office while Ron is here. He's probably going to have a nasty temper this morning." She finished.

"And the calls? I've been saying no comment but I'm not sure 'ow long I can 'old them off."

Hermione bit her bottom lip. "I suppose just keep that up for now. I don't know what else we could say except that it is indeed shit." Hermione took one long look around the floor and after a moment's hesitation walked into her office to meet her ex-husband.

* * *

At first, Hermione thought Ron had left her office after all, but at the sound of robes rustling her eyes were drawn to the dark corner by her bookshelves. Ron moved toward her then and held a copy of the prophet out to her as her own copy fell out of her hand and onto her desk. "Is this true?" Ron demanded, his ears turning red as his hands shook. 

"I don't see how that would be any of your business, Ronald." Hermione snapped at him, trying to keep her voice steady as Lavender Brown snogging Ron at Hogwarts kept popping into her head.

"None of my business, is it?" Ron asked and moved the paper in front of himself. "_their long time affair,which began months before Granger filed her divorce with the Ministry and has since continued throughout the past year_." Ron read the words in a mocking tone and then stared at her, hard and unforgiving. "Is this where you were all those nights you never came home? You were shagging Draco bloody Malfoy instead of coming home to me? Is this why you left, so that you could be his mistress and now that just isn't enough and the pair of you have finally decided to the thing proper?"

Hermione listened to Ron's scenario with disbelief on her face. "You are an idiot." She told him, reminding herself of how she used to be years ago when they would fight back at Hogwarts, and Ron would go completely off the deep end. "Do you really think I was cheating on you? I loved you more than anyone else ever has and you dare to claim I gave up on you to become Malfoy's mistress?" After everything they had been through, Hermione still loved Ron as much as she had the day she first kissed him, but now it was seasoned and veiled with loss.

"Then tell me you are not sleeping with him. Look in my eyes and tell me you never have and you never will shag Draco Malfoy." She could tell from the look in his eyes he hadn't really believed a word in the Prophet, but it was in his nature to over-react. Hermione considered obliging his request for a moment before she remembered he had gotten Lavender pregnant and moved her into their flat.

"Well, I'm afraid I can't do that. I'm not marrying him, and I never so much as kissed him while we were married, but I can't say what you're asking of me."

The red in Ron's ears spread to his cheeks and he opened his mouth to retort when the door to Hermione's office opened and Draco came marching in followed by Hermione's assistant, who looked rather harried. "Hermione we need to talk, darling." Hermione knew he had added this last bit to piss off Ron, and it was clearly working.

"Ron, look, if you need to talk we'll go out for lunch or something, but right now I need to clean this up." She told him pointing at the paper on her desk. "Please leave for now, okay?" For a moment, she thought he would refuse, but instead he simply turned and headed toward the door of her office. By the time Hermione realized what he was going to do, he had his fist flying. All Hermione could do was listen to the unnatural sound of crunching cheek and nose as Draco fell onto the floor, followed by Ron's immediate departure as he shook his clearly aching hand.

* * *

Thanks to cheeky splash, irishhellgirl, MystiqueFaery, me613, KRL2008, ZacEfronIsHot, miss.pebbles, ams71080, GiggleGirl89, Fanatic482, and Dramione27 for the story alert adds .

Thanks to carsonsheir for the author alert add .

Thanks to stevie20 for the favorite author add.

Thanks to ZacEfronIsHot, GiggleGirl89 for the favorite stories adds.

And the Review Responses of course ….

Bubbes … why thank you I believe I'm blushing . have a piece of ice cream cake . it reminds me of summer .

D. Frank … Hermione was already drinking at the Potters and Malfoy was pretty much ready to get on with his life and screw Pansy over just like she had done to him. The opportunity with Hermione was good timing influence by the alcohol he'd been drinking with his dinner. Eat some ice cream cake .

Darbythomas … in love with you . ginny feels like Hermione is 'still part of the family.' She is having trouble letting go of the sister she had in Hermione while Ron and she were married, but Ginny knows that Hermione is a big girl. She wants her to be a big girl with a good boy though, not a ferret. Enjoy your ice cream cake .

Junebride … thank you . im so sorry I denied you the Hermione Draco reunion moment but hopefully you enjoyed the Ron Draco reunion moment, because I did . laptop is finally fixed and all mine again . p.s. I hate best buy ; ) and take some ice cream cake by all means .

Me613 … thank you . have ice cream cake .

KRL2008 … Thank you : ) I'm glad you like . I'm glad you thought Ginny was appropriate . Have ice cream cake .

ZacEfronIsHot … Thankssomuch …. Eat some ice cream cake before you go .

Fanatic482 … Thank you . I hated the epilogue , but its growing on me . I like mine better because Hermione and Draco end up shagging . bam . lol . have some ice cream cake .

ALSO … if anyone knows a good Severus Snape story … send it my way . I'm very into them right now .

Love Love Love .


	7. Ch Six : A Statement

Starting Over

Draco / Hermione

Rating : M

Disclaimer … Honestly … If I owned these characters Hermione and Draco would have locked themselves in a broom closet after she punched him.

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Chapter Six : A Statement

At the sight of Draco's battered face, Hermione couldn't help but be reminded of the time he had destroyed Harry's nose on the Hogwarts Express so many years ago. As she waved her wand above him, she didn't even bother to hide the smile stretching across her lips at the thought that karma had come back to bite the blonde man in the butt.

"I'm glad your ex-husband breaking my nose is so amusing for you." He stood once she had finished and winced in pain when he reached to touch his nose.

Hermione rolled her eyes and pulled his hand away from his face. "You'll be sore for a few hours, so leave it alone. You can't tell me you don't find irony in the situation, Malfoy."

"Ah, and we're back to last names. How professional, though after the paper this morning, I really do think you ought to call me Draco. Usually people who are madly in love call each other things like darling and sweetheart, but I think that might be a bit too much for me to take, so Draco will do." His smirk was back and Hermione chose to ignore his words as she walked around her desk.

"I think we have more important things to talk about than what I'm calling you these days, Malfoy. Like this article." At her words she held the paper up for him to see and then let it fall back to her desk. "Do you have any ideas?"

"Several." Draco fell into the chair in front of her desk and placed his hands in his lap. He looked rather like he was at home in a lounger than on one of the most uncomfortable chairs Hermione had ever had the displeasure of sitting in. "We can go along with the story and tell everyone we've seen the error of our ways and called off the wedding."

"That is ridiculous! We didn't do a bloody half of what is in this article!" Hermione was outraged that he had even suggested such a thing. Who in their right mind would want to admit that they had cheated on their wife for years?

Draco held up his hands then and frowned. "Look, Granger, I'm not too fond of that option either, so we move on. Our next option is that we ignore it. We do nothing, say nothing, and live our lives as if this article never happened."

Hermione considered this for a moment and then sighed. "That doesn't really help either. The entire wizarding world will still believe it if we ignore it. They will consider it an admission. I bloody hate Rita Skeeter." She added this last sentence under her breath and silently cursed the journalist for registering her little secret with the ministry. Hermione secretly thought that this had a lot to do with her and in the past it had made her feel empowered, but now it made her powerless.

Draco nodded. "I agree. We could therefore tell the truth. You and Ron split because of the baby, Pansy and I split because of her adultery, not mine, and we had no relationship before last night. The only problem with this option is that my boss is still going to be pissed, and in the end we still end up together, so most people won't believe it."

"Your boss?"

"He's a nice little piece of work named Gangoek, and he has the right and means to fire me for any little thing. This story is not any little thing, it's a big thing and he's not going to be happy. I run the ministry's vaults and that job requires someone with a clean record, something I'm not really known for, but I'm good at my job. So, If I keep my issues and sticky situations quiet I keep my job, if not I'm out. Now Pansy's gone and fucked that up. She's the only one who knew how important my image is to my job. She knew this one little scandal was all it would take to put me back at the bottom. Below the bottom actually."

Hermione frowned at him and shrugged. "Malfoy, what does it really matter? You don't need to work, certainly."

"Of course I don't need to work. My family has more money than you could ever dream of seeing, but I happen to know for a fact that you have enough money to support yourself for the next hundred years, and yet here you are, right in the middle of the ministry of magic, making the world a better place." Malfoy waved his arm around her office to emphasize his point. "You forget I'm second in command at Gringotts."

"You've been snooping around my bank?" Hermione's stood up and pressed her palms onto her desk. "What makes you think you have the right …?"

"Lay off, Granger. It was a long time ago. I was curious what war heroes pull in these days. But, It doesn't matter, the point is I work because if I didn't I would go crazy. Can you imagine living the next eighty years doing nothing every day? No purpose, no point, no job, nothing?" Hermione nodded her understanding, but didn't take her seat again. Instead she moved away from him to her bookcases. Her fingers fell against the spines in a rhythm that had been familiar to her from the time she had learned the magic of the written word. None of these books could help her now. She was realizing as she got older that her life was becoming one large problem after another and all the reading in the world couldn't fix this. It made her feel lost and insecure, but mostly it made her feel dumb, something she had rarely felt in her life and always been able to rectify quickly.

"What do you suggest, then? You obviously have an idea, or you wouldn't be here." She stopped her hand on "If your idea involved denial you wouldn't be here. So, what is? What version of the truth is it that we'll be spinning?"

Draco shook his head and avoided looking at her. "I have no idea what we should do. My current vote is we avoid the topic of our past relationships and make a joint statement that we are neighbors. Other than that, any option seems to put us as the guilty party."

"And, what about Pansy? Does she walk away smelling like roses?" Hermione demanded, infuriated that this prank may be working in favor of her old school pal.

"No. I stopped in to see the member of the Wizengamot who's assigned to our case on my way to your office. Even though Pansy committed adultery I was still going to give her a significant amount of money to go noiselessly on her merry way. Obviously this fits into our previous claims that neither of us were at fault for our marriage, but now she's ruined that image. We agreed that instead of the settlement I was offering she will be receiving nothing. She's the guilty party and I can easily prove it. So, with any luck she'll disappear of to France with her idiot artist and leave me to fix my tattered reputation, again." Hermione felt herself smirking at the thought of Pansy living the life of a poor struggling artist's wife. It was very amusing indeed.

Hermione then recalled exactly what it meant that Draco was requesting a divorce from the Wizengamot and decided to try and give him a bit of support. "Ron and I were the first divorce in the wizarding world in seventeen years. I'm very sorry that you have to go through what we did."

Draco smiled at this; Not a smirk, not a condescending turn of the lips, a real smile. "Pansy and I are the first pureblooded marriage to officially separate before death in sixty eight years. Last time, the woman who requested the end of her marriage for abuse never went out in public again. She died in her house alone, after forty years of living like that. The other purebloods just didn't think she was right in the head and went about making sure the entire wizarding world knew it."

Hermione found herself horrified at his story. "They wouldn't … I mean, Pansy?" As much as she detested Pansy she would never wish that upon anyone. Forty years of sitting in the same house, never leaving, never breathing fresh air, feeling the warmth of sunlight, or the chill of snow. That was no way to die.

"She'll be fine. Especially if she moves to France, like I've told her, too. No one will risk the fact that I might still love her enough to have them killed, or ruined. I am still a Malfoy you know, these things do happen." This seemed to horrify Hermione, who was now returning to her seat, almost more than his story had. "Not that I would kill them, Granger."

"Of course not." Hermione replied, looking still slightly doubtful. "So, about our statement . . ."

Draco pulled a piece of paper out of the air and handed it to her. "I drafted this before I left the house and I think it more than does the job. I also let the doorman this morning know we needed to talk to our landlord about him verifying that we are indeed both renting from him separately and that he had no reason to believe we were interested in living in the same building." Hermione read over the paper in her hands and found out that Draco Malfoy could be a very eloquent person when he put his mind to it. She had been expecting a few sentences and instead found a few paragraphs detailing their obvious hatred for each other in the past and the fact that they had hardly seen each other once since they had left Hogwarts after the final battle. The statement then explained that they had seen each other on Diagon Alley that afternoon, certainly not an unlikely incident, and decided to walk to their building together. They were under no circumstances friends of any kind and were not considering dating, marriage, or children of any sort either separately or together. "So?" He asked as she handed it back.

"I think it's perfect, and I like how you left out that we're neighbors." She told him honestly and he nodded.

"I thought it would be better to leave that bit out." He stood then and to her surprise, smiled again. "Now, would you like to have dinner with me on Saturday?" He asked her and she looked at him carefully, disbelief etched in her face.

"Pardon?" She asked, hoping she had misheard.

"Dinner, Granger. Dinner with me on Saturday?" As he spoke he moved towards the door.

"Why?"

"Because, I think I want to take you on a date." He had been thinking this in fact since he had woke that very morning. Well, after he had rid himself of his headache, of course. She was a pretty woman, intelligent, rich, and he already knew that being with her would never be boring, if nothing else. What else could a man want?

"I don't think that's such a good idea." Hermione told him and she once again held up the Prophet to make her point.

"We'll go to a muggle restaurant. No one will recognize us. You aren't a hero there, just another pretty lady having dinner with a devilishly handsome man." His hand was on the doorknob now and as he turned it she frowned.

"You sure know how to knock a girl off her feet, Malfoy."

"You would know. I'll be by at eight on Saturday." He left her office then without giving her a chance to say no again and she couldn't help but be a tiny bit grateful that he had made it so that she couldn't refuse. She was excited at the prospect of seeing him again. She wasn't sure that it was an entirely healthy relationship, but being with Draco Malfoy would never be boring, that she was sure of.

* * *

"A statement?" Harry asked, raising his eyebrow as he questioned Hermione over lunch that afternoon. They were sitting in his kitchen eating with Ginny.

"Yes. A statement just saying things like 'We royally hate each other's arses.'" Hermione saw Ginny frown at this and she knew in that moment that her friend had not told her husband where Hermione had spent the night.

Harry frowned at this, but nodded. "I suppose that'd be a way to go about it, though I still don't understand why you can't have Ron and Pansy come forward and say …"

"Pansy Parkinson is the reason this is an issue. Do you really think she's going to be the one to fix it?" Hermione asked, though not unkindly. She knew that Harry was just trying to help.

"Yes, Well Ron would surely …?" Harry trailed off then, as if to give Hermione a chance to finish his sentence. Clearly Harry hadn't spoken to Ron, yet.

Hermione took a bite of her sandwhich as she tried to decide the best way of letting Harry know that Ron had punched Draco this morning because they had slept together, and he probably wasn't going to be in the mood to be helping him or her any time soon. "I don't think Ron would …"

"Sure, he would." It was Ginny this time. Why hadn't Hermione briefed her on the events of this morning? Then Ginny would have been on her side, but now it seemed she was going to have to tell Harry what had happened. Who knew how he would react?

"No." Hermione shook her head and took a drink of her pumpkin juice.

Ginny sighed heavily and gave Hermione a look that clearly told her Ginny thought she was refusing Ron's help because of Lavender. "He still loves you Hermione. He knows why you left, he isn't a total idiot. He would help if you asked him."

"He came to see me this morning." Hermione looked at her plate to keep herself from looking at either of them. Her fork pushed at her vegetables and she waited for a reaction.

"Ron?" Harry asked. "Ron came to see you?"

"Yes, and so did Malfoy. Ron and I got into an argument, you see, and … well … I told him the truth." Hermione kept her eyes on her sandwich and veggies, but her ears picked up Ginny's gasp.

"NO." She heard the other woman whisper and she nodded.

"I was so angry and he was going on like we were teenagers again and I told him." Hermione finally looked up to see Harry's confusion and Ginny's surprise.

Harry decided to try to speak then. "You mean, it's true?" He was quiet and his voice was steady, but Hermione supposed that he was forcing this.

"No. No, Harry. You know I never cheated on Ron, but last night…" She trailed off and let Harry finish her sentence in his mind.

Harry looked at his wife then and Ginny told him, "She went to Malfoy's last night after we told her about Ron and Lavender."

Hermione didn't look away this time. She watched Harry as he watched her and waited several long minutes before he spoke. "I suppose, well, I mean to, it's not, it's your business Hermione, who, you … well … who you are with." Hermione couldn't help it then she felt tears falling down her face then and put her hands over her eyes to cover them.

A moment later she felt Ginny's arms wrap around her. Her friend squeezed her as she spoke into Hermione's hair. "It's all right." She said. "Everything will be all right." But, it wasn't all right. Hermione knew that. She knew that things would never be all right, ever again.

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Thanks to everyone for reading : ) Love you all very much . Just so you know my pen name is going to change soon, so if you haven't added to alerts perhaps you should. Also, I apologize that themajority of this chapter was dialogue. Dialogue kills me, but unfortunaltey I think this was all necessary. So, now Draco and Hermione have a date, Pansy, the cow, is assumed to be running away to France, Ron is mad at Hermione, Harry and Ginny both know about Draco and Hermione started crying … but why? Perhaps because she is a little nutty? I wonder …

Thanks to darbythomas, dreamingdarling, alexiscullen, Cacophonic for favorite story add .

Thanks to Ziggy89, .Smart.Ass.Punk., MonkeyMania342, Salsa94, dreamingdarling, alexis cullen, MusicalCatharsis, NoTsOSuRe, elliee505, Nalye, Justice's Quill, lily-lake, dancinchic93 for story alert add .

Review Responses :

KRL2008: Haha . No Draco payback in this chapter. I am deeply sorry for this. Shagging to come . Beautiful shagging with … well I'm getting carried away. For now, I offer you a date on Saturday. Shagging? No shagging? Who knows? Why me of course, silly . Have a balloon.

Pstibbons: haha … just keeping with the canon dear . so so sorry to have distressed you … obviously I love Dramione as well . Have a balloon .

Spikeecat : I like the idea of Pansy living the life of a poor artist's wife. How about you? Have a balloon.

Lily Anngel: Thank you . My brilliance appreciates your recognition. Have a balloon .

Conquistador Imp: I apologize that Hermione did not punch Ron. Perhaps in the future . Have a balloon .

Alexiscullen: Thank you very much : ) Have a balloon .

NoTsOSuRe: No huge fight . I apologize . I thought a punch could go unnoticed, but a huge fight would definitely draw attention. Have a balloon?

Elliee505: That really means a lot to me. Thank you ! Have a bundle of balloons !

Justice's Quill : Thanks for the offers of madAnge and Ms. Figg for Snape stories . I am in love with both of them now . You are bloody brilliant : ) Have a balloon and a cookie .


	8. Ch Seven : The Letters

**Starting Over**

**Draco/Hermione**

**Rating : M**

**Disclaimer : … uhm … you should know the drill by now .**

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**Chapter Seven : The Letters**

**The next few days were an odd few days for Hermione Granger as she dreaded and awaited Saturday's arrival. After their statement was posted in the Daily Prophet with an additional paragraph from the hotel's manager, she was able to walk at a normal pace again, and found herself the target of less glares with each passing day. She had even received an owl from Mrs. Weasley explaining that the elder woman had personally sent an owl to Rita Skeeter letting her know exacting what she thought of her writing skills. She then went on to invite Hermione to dinner at the Burrow, stating that 'the whole family' would be there. Hermione had tried to keep the Weasley's a large part of her life since her divorce, but she found that it was impossible to keep away from Ron and be part of his family. Instead she stopped in to see each member of the family at various times, usually at work or a dinner at their separate homes. The only time she saw Molly was when Ginny invited them both over for lunch at the same time. **

**Everything that happened after the prophet posted the follow-up article would have been great news if she hadn't been worrying about her dinner date, and the fact that she had lied to Harry and Ginny about seeing Draco Malfoy again. She had promised them that their night had been a fluke, the result of alcohol and misery brought on by the news of Ron's news, and that she would be immediately reverting back to her previous state of hating everything about Malfoy as much as she rightly should. Several times during the week, she had considered sending Malfoy an owl to let him know that she could not accept his offer of a dinner for that Saturday, but each time she had sat down to write to him she had felt his breath on her skin or his hands in her hair, and found that she was unable to turn him down. Even when he wasn't there to argue his case, her body did it for him. She thought that it was more likely that she missed these things, being touched, held, and kissed, than she actually wanted to be with Malfoy. After all under the fire whiskey and the misery, she had still been shagging Malfoy, and there was something very wrong with that. Wasn't there? **

**Nevertheless, each night before bed, she stood in front of her closet and stared at her clothes, with a frown on her lips. What did you wear to a muggle restaurant when you were attending with someone you hated, but were insanely attracted to? Honestly she had no idea whether Malfoy even knew of any Muggle restaurants. Obviously, his parents hadn't taken him to any when he was a child, and why would he have had any reason to venture into the world of the undesirables during adulthood? Certainly he didn't think that any old Muggle could cook better than a wizard. He would probably trick her into eating in his apartment and then take advantage of her again. Hermione always laughed at herself at this and went back to trying to write her letter, only to leave the parchment blank. **

**The long moments before bed were the worst. If she moved, her sheets felt like the tips of his fingers running across her leg. If she sighed, she could feel her heart beat a little faster in her chest, and was reminded of how it raced when he had kissed her neck. If she closed her eyes, she could see him over her moving into her as she arched against him, moaning his name. The result of this was usually that she got out of bed and took a shower, where she could relieve herself of pent up frustrations and imagine how it would be when she and Malfoy were together again. Because, as much as it pained her to admit it, she wanted him again. She wanted him so much that several times she had to stop herself from knocking on his door and requesting that he touch her body until she lost all sense of what was right or wrong and she gave into the feel of his skin against hers. **

**Fortunately she had more common sense and self control than that and she was able to keep herself in her own apartment at night and found herself staying late at work, and then spending more time at Harry and Ginny's with her godson's to occupy her time and keep her mind off a certain blonde that was consuming it every spare moment of each day. And so, when Saturday arrived Hermione was more than ready to see him, but at the same time she dreaded it with ever fiber of her being. She spent the morning running as always, and found that her thoughts were able to stay behind at her apartment as she pounded the less crowded streets away from Diagon Alley. She was in a fury as she returned, determined to make the best of her day and try not the think about her date every moment of the day. She found this impossible as she was on her own for the entire day, since Ron was spending the day at Harry and Ginny's. **

**After she had taken a shower, she sat at her kitchen counter pushing an egg around her plate with a piece of toast. She found her thoughts drifting over the past few days and comparing them to the time she had been scorned for supposedly breaking Harry's heart. Her memories of her burning hands and the hate mail she had received gave way to thoughts of Ron years after they had started dating, revealing to her that he had once thought Hermione was in love with Harry as well. She had laughed it off at the time, but thinking back she wondered if he had been hurt by that as well. What if she hadn't realized just how much her actions hurt him? What if simple things like laughing off something that obviously bothered him when they were kids had been part of the reason they hadn't been able to survive the blow of losing a child. **

**Suddenly, without warning or preconceived desire to see them, Hermione wanted to read his letters. She found herself wondering what Ron had said all those times he had tried to reach her when she had been hiding from him, wanting nothing more than to be filled with her own misery and pain and live her life alone. Deciding that their was no time like the present, Hermione put her half eaten breakfast in the trash and her dishes in the sink. She wasn't sure why, but she thought that if she was going to really deal with what happened between her and Ron she was going to have to find out what he had needed to say to her in letters he very well knew she wasn't reading. It took her less than five minutes to finish getting ready and head out the door, bringing with her a bundle of nerves and anxiety. **

**The ministry was bustling even on the weekends, and this Saturday was no exception. She smiled and waved at a few acquaintances, but her need to get to her office was much greater than her desire to be polite and stop to chat. Her assistant's desk was empty when she reached it, so she grabbed the key to her office from his desk drawer and pushed the door open, only to close it quickly behind her, and move to her desk without a second thought about what she was getting herself into. She pulled the bottom drawer of the right side open as soon as she had taken her seat on the floor next to it. **

**The letters sat there, waiting for someone to open them, to read the secret feelings of her ex-husband. Waiting to help her move on or to help her destroy the little bit of progress she had made over the last year. Now that she sat before them it was easy to remember why she had stuck them in here in the first place, fear. A fear that maybe Ron was the only man she would ever love as fiercely as she once had. A fear that each letter would reopen the pain that she had felt after she had first left him. A memory of her standing sideways in front of the mirror, tears rolling down her face as she tried to remember the shape of her body when it had been swelled with their child. Another memory of Ron whispering to her stomach as they got ready for bed moved to replace the last. Ron's face when he had told him that they were going to be parents topped them all, and the joy that he had shared with her when they had told their families and friends. Not for the first time, Hermione wondered if she had given up on her marriage too soon, left Ron for her own reasons instead of for the right reasons. Maybe they had been strong enough, but she had not given them the chance to be. Maybe it was all her fault that all she had left from that time was a stack of letters in her desk drawer. **

**Hermione covered her face with her hands and started to breathe deeply to clear her head. Once she had focused her thoughts again on the drawer in front of her she moved her hands to grab the stack and pulled the very bottom letter from the rest. The side of the seal was still torn from when she had started to open it the day Harry had given her. She had stopped herself before she could finish opening it and stuck it in the drawer instead, where it had stayed until this day. She waited another moment, knowing that as soon as seal on the first letter was broken she wouldn't be able to stop reading. She ran her finger under the wax, tearing the parchment under it a little as she fumbled with her shaking hands. Her eyes absorbed the words almost all at once and she had to force herself to stop to read the words slow enough that she could understand them. **

**Hermione – **

**I need you to know that I don't understand why you are gone. Harry says it's just that you need time, but I think it's more. I think I know you well enough to know that now that you've left you aren't coming back to me. I was standing in Rose's room today, holding her blanket, the one you got to bring her home in, and it hit me that this is my fault. I wanted so badly for things to be right again that I couldn't admit that everything between us was going horribly wrong. I don't know what I'm going to do without you here to make sure that the world isn't crashing in around us. Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night and reach for you, but the bed is empty beside me. Then I remember that everything is so wrong and all I want to do is find you and let you know that everything that has ever mattered to me is empty without you. I love you so much, Hermione. I think I just need to know that you know that.**

**Ron**

**His words were so simple, so utterly Ron, that she knew he had scribbled them down in haste and hadn't bothered to think about it before sending it to her. Her tears stained his writing as she reread the short note and a pain that rivaled the worst she had ever felt exploded in her heart. The thought of him reaching for her, as he had so many times when they were married, had pushed her to admit that she missed these small things about being with him. She missed waking up next to someone who cared about her. She missed having someone who knew her so well there was hardly a reason for her to explain herself. She missed that he used to make her breakfast in the morning. She missed soft kisses and having someone hold her as she read her favorite book. She even missed fighting with him about the stupidest things imaginable. She missed laughing at his jokes, but most of all, more than any of these things, She missed being sure that someone loved her more than they loved anyone else in the entire world. **

**After the first one, the letters were longer and more planned out. She imagined Ron sitting in his desk in their apartment biting the end of a quill, searching for the right way to tell her the things he wanted her to know. He told her about his family. He shared their news with them and updated her on their insane lives. Hermione knew all of this from speaking to them, but it was nice to know that he had wanted her to feel included, to still know what was going on with the people who she had considered family for over ten years. Every once in a while he would write about a certain memory of them that had been stuck in his head, or something about Rose. **

**She found that he had written a letter dedicated entirely to her on the anniversary of the day they had lost her. Hermione had read the words which spoke of what he had wanted for their daughter with careful scrutiny and tried to keep her eyes from clouding as each word burned its way into her memory. He started by talking about nights they had never been awoken by the cry of a beautiful girl from the nursery, and moved on to how everyone would have fawned over their beautiful girl. He then guessed that she would have made mischief with James, but never would have been caught, because she would have inherited her mother's brilliance. Next was her first trip to Hogwarts. They would take her to Platform 9 ¾ and he would have wanted to pick her up and take her back home and never let her leave the house so that she would always be safe, always be their little girl. But, she would have gone to school and used that brilliance and sneaky nature to stay at the top of the class, and one day they would have been awaken by her screaming because she had made head girl, and then Hermione would have started screaming and the two of them would have driven Ron to hide from their excited shrieks in the safety of a broom cupboard. Next he spoke of the undeniable fact that Hermione's brilliant girl would have no doubt climbed the ladder of the Ministry and become the youngest Minister of Magic in a hundred years. And then, after she had a solid career she would have married some other genius and given them a pair of the most beautiful grandchildren ever known. And, they through all of this would have been happy and loved their daughter with a ferocity challenged only by their love of each other. **

**After she read this, Hermione had clutched it to her chest and lay on her side on the floor of her office. As she stared at her desk, lost in her thoughts, her vision blurred with more of her tears and she stayed there like that for so long that she fell asleep.**

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**A/N … Before you kill me for not giving you the date hear me out. The point of these letter's had nothing to do with Ron, really. It was just to remind Hermione of how happy she used to be. Something needed to give her a reason to actually go out with Draco and expect more out of it than a free meal and some groping before she told him that she had to go home and never see him again because it wasn't right. Now she is filled with this intense desire to have someone just be there for her again. All this crying sickens me … Thank Merlin she's going to be happy again in the near future or else I'd have to punch some sense into her . Seriously. **

**And someone is going to find her sleeping in her office by the way. Oh … I wonder who?**

**Thanks to Navy Brat 13, Webberfan1, Meghan1989, and Mintie for story alert adds.**

**Thanks to Beautiful-Me89 for the Author Alert add. **

**Review Responses: **

**KRL2008 … No date, So Sorry ! Hermione is still nutty but thankfully she's getting over her nuttiness soon. Pansy is gone at the mo' but you know … things do happen .**

**Cosmopolitan … Thank you . **

**Hopeless4NonExistentLove … Hahaha … Hermione is so not pregnant. She isn't that dumb, but good try. Harry and Ginny saw Hermione go through a really bad time after she left Ron, so right now I think he's just trying to be happy she's with anyone, but I don't think he would be as understanding if she was to be in a real relationship with him. **

**Heidi191976 … For now they are fairly safe, but as I say things happen . **

**Beautiful-Me89 … Thank you very muches .**

**Annieboo92 … Her life does seem to be pretty sucky at the moment . Ew . It's all my fault to … I must be an awful person. **

**Pstibbons … lol … hehe … how evil … **

'**I hate you, Ron.'**

'**But, Harry, I didn't do anything, mate.'**

'**Yes, but this is a D/Hr, so I think I have to hate you and become best mates with the ferret now.'**

'**Oh, well when you put it like that I should probably do something really horrible like kidnap Hermione or get drunk and kill Draco. What do you think?'**

'**Sounds good. I guess I'll see you in Azkaban, because I'm going to have to arrest you, of course.'**

'**Naturally, because there are no other Aurors who could do that.' **

'**Duh.'**

'**Bye, Harry.'**

'**Bye, Ron.' **

**How's that ?**


	9. Ch Eight : A First Date

Starting Over

Starting Over

Draco / Hermione

Rating - M

* * *

Chapter Eight : A First Date

Hermione's office was pitch black when Draco pushed opened the door at eighty thirty that evening. She was simply a heap of dark shadows on the floor until he waved his wand, lighting the room immediately. It was clear then that she had fallen asleep amongst of pile of paper, letters by the look of it. Due to his desire to know everything that was going on at all times, Draco could not resist but to bend down next to her and lift one of these sheets from the mess. His eyes traced her name and the words that followed until another name revealed to him that these letters were sent to her by her all too familiar ex-husband.

Draco set the parchment back onto the floor and tried to decide if he should be angry that she fell asleep reading letters from another man and thus missed the beginning of their date, or if he should pity her that she had fallen asleep on the floor of a ministry office, and was sure to be terribly sore when she awoke. This thought led to another, much less innocent, thought, in which he was massaging her bare skin on his bed to release her pain. Thoughts like this one had been invading his daily routine more often than could be healthy, and as disturbing as it was to him that he was acting like a sixteen year old, he rather enjoyed them and rarely tried to shake them away.

"Granger." He said aloud, setting a hand on her shoulder. She jumped immediately and opened her eyes groggily.

"Whatssit?" She mumbled, bringing a hand up to rub at her face.

"You've missed our date." He told her, moving back to lean against her desk, enjoying the site of a less coherent Hermione Granger. This Granger was one that not many people had seen, and he was considering himself lucky to have the pleasure of viewing her with a bit of weakness about her. It made her seem a bit more human, and less like the machine which she would have the world believe she was.

Carefully, he watched her as she sat up slowly and observed her surroundings, including him, and then sighed, making her chest rise and fall, a sight that he enjoyed as well. Her hands fall into her lap, and he couldn't help but think she looked very much like a lost child. "I can't have, what time is it?" Her voice cracked as she spoke and Draco resisted the urge to laugh at her.

"It's eight thirty." He replied instead, holding a hand out to her, which she ignored, instead pushing herself off the floor with her own hands. One look at the floor she had just been sitting on made her blush and look at him quickly.

"Did you read them?" She asked then, staring him in the eye, making it very difficult to think about lying.

"One, yes. I suppose this means you love him and I am the greatest mistake of your life, meaning you never want to see me again?" He didn't really think this at all, but he was still rather perturbed that Ron Weasley had been the reason behind her missing the beginning of her date.

"If that's what you would like to think, I won't stop you. Merlin knows that would be a lot bloodier simple than the mess I've got myself in now." Granger began to gather the letters, folding each one carefully, before placing them inside one of the drawers behind her desk.

Draco watched her and then approached her carefully. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, to begin, I'm not sure I even like you as a person, in fact I think you are a bloody arse, yet we are going on a date. Your wife is a psychotic liar who would like nothing more than to ruin both of our reputations, and it seems that even thinking about pursuing this …" She waved her hands around in front of her at a loss for a word to describe them, and then continued. "this thing would be suicide for both of our reputations because we just adamantly denied the story that she had posted in the prophet. What do you think is going to happen when someone sees us even speaking to each other? What do you think is going to be in tomorrow's paper? I can see it now, 'Malfoy pays a special late night visit to Granger's office.' I've told Ginny and Harry that it was a one time fluke, and as much as I wish I could be telling them the truth, I doubt it is. And, the kicker really is that my ex-husband is living in my flat with his new wife, who just happens to be pregnant with a child that I couldn't give him. And, you are an arse."

Draco crossed his arms and stared at her. "You called me an arse twice." He informed her and she shook her head, and then fell into the chair behind her desk.

"This is ridiculous, just go home Malfoy. Leave me alone." She watched him carefully as he remained still as stone, standing only feet from her, staring at the ground.

"So, Am I right in assuming this is about Hogwarts?" He asked the ground and she was filled with an anger she hadn't felt in years. This feeling building inside of her chest was in fact a very special anger that she had always reserved for the man standing before her.

"Hogwarts, the war, your father, your aunt, the manor, Voldemort, Harry, Dobby, all of it matters. It all happened and you can't make it all go away by pretending to be a different person now."

"I am not pretending. I am a different person now. Granted, I'm still an arse on occasion, but Granger it's been ten years. Do you honestly think I'm still the same person? Are you the same person you were ten years ago? I seem to recall a skinny little bookworm who was completely and utterly devoted to a gangly boy with a scar and the fireball that insisted on following him around. You have made a name for yourself apart from that girl. You are a woman, with quite delicious curves and an intelligence that has risen you to places that being Potter's sidekick would never have taken you." He continued to stare at the floor for a few minutes, and then glanced up at her to see her staring at the door. "Fine, I'll leave." He told her, and he began the walk to the door, but was not surprised when he heard her get out of her chair. He stopped then and turned to face her again.

"This is ridiculous." She said again, not really to him, but more to the room around them.

"Yes, it is." He agreed.

"I think this might be the death of us both."

"I think that might be okay. My life isn't exactly a wonderland."

"I know what you mean." His hands had found her waist by then and he proceeded to pull her towards him, and their lips met softly, in a careful, tentative kiss that made Hermione fold against him. One of her hands slid up his arm as the other grabbed his neck, making the kiss deeper, which in turn made them need more than the just a kiss to express the blood boiling in their veins.

Hermione parted her lips first, but Draco responded immediately, sucking on her bottom lip before sliding his tongue into the slight opening, eliciting a moan from his female counterpart. After he had explored her mouth thoroughly, Draco withdrew his tongue and kissed the corner of her mouth. Hermione turned her head, and allowed him to kiss his way to her ear where his breath sent a shiver of anticipation through her body. "You taste much better than fire whiskey." He teased and she smiled.

"So, do you." She responded.

"As much as I want to let this get out of hand, there are still a couple people working out there." He continued, his breath still tickling her ear.

"I'll come by tonight, after I get changed." She told him, hearing Harry's voice filled with disappointment inside of her head.

"No need to change, Granger, I intend on shedding you of any and all clothing before bed." She laughed to herself and lightly pushed him away, reaching instead for a folder off of her desk and then handed it to him.

"What is this?" He asked thumbing through the folder.

"The reason you've been in my office for nearly half an hour of course." It was his turn to laugh at her, before leaving her office, with a slight smile at the corner of his usual smirk. As soon as the door closed behind him, she sighed and ran her hands through her hair. It was knotted and frizzy from her nap and she wondered why the hell anyone would want to strip her of all her clothing while she looked like a banshee.

* * *

And hour later, Hermione had decided on a pair of jeans and a dark blue t-shirt. It was simple, but the jeans made her legs look amazing, so she knew that she would not disappoint. She had tamed her hair, her puffy eyes, and shaved her legs as quickly as possible during a nice hot shower and was currently sitting on Draco's living room floor. There was a wine glass in her left hand and she was squinting at the chessboard in front on her. She bit her lip softly and told her knight to move.

"You are awful at this game." Draco told her as his rook moved forward and knocked her knight off the board with such force that Hermione dropped her glass.

"Shit!" She yelled and grabbed it off the floor, as Draco stared at her with obvious glee from across the board. Hermione sent a glare in his direction and waved her wand at his carpet and her jeans, cleaning the wine from both places. "I give up. You win." As she spoke these words her king threw down his crown and she stood with a sigh. "I am absolute shit at Chess and its all Harry and Ron's fault." She informed the man across from her, who was staring at her in disbelief.

"You surrendered?"

"Of course I did. My defeat was inevitable. You win. Congratulations."

Draco pushed himself off the floor then, and pumped a fist into the air. "I have defeated the infamous Hermione Granger. I am man, hear me roar."

Another glare was the only response he received, as Hermione walked into the kitchen, followed by Draco. She was standing by the sink rinsing her glass, so he moved behind her and moved his hands down her sides to rest at her hips. "We both have rather fond memories of this kitchen, if I recall correctly."

"I'm not sure I would call them fond memories. I was rather in a state the next morning." Lips had found their way to her neck and she held onto the edge of the sink for support.

"I can put you in a state again if you would like. I reckon I could put you in a state until the end of next week." A hand had found its way under her shirt, and was moving against her stomach, up to her breast. As his thumb grazed her nipple she leaned back so that he was supporting her. His left hand began to move towards her front as the right pulled on her bra, until her breast was exposed and his hand was cupping her skin. Her pants were unbuttoned then and fingers were moving into her underwear and then meeting her clit, moving in small circles around the sensitive ball. His tongue mimicked the motion on her neck and then his teeth bit her softly as a single finger found its way inside of her, its path made easier by the moisture that had been building at her heat from the moment she felt him behind her. "Are you in a state yet?" He asked.

"Yes." Hermione moaned as his finger was pulled back, but instead of leaving her it was joined by a second, and they plunged her depths together as his thumb continued to roll over her clit and his other hand teased her nipple. The heat at her core was growing to a point of delicious torture and she found herself rocking against his fingers in small motions that made all the difference. The first wave of her orgasm came in a small crash that made her freeze and catch her breath, but as Draco continued to touch her the waves grew larger and she heard herself moaning from far away, resisting the urge to scream his name as loudly as possible. Bliss overcame her as she fell completely against his back.

As she came back down, Draco turned her to face him, and kissed her soundly. She was only too happy to return his advances by moving her own fumbling fingers to the button of his pants and pulling it apart. Instead of falling to the floor to repeat their previous encounter here, Draco tugged her pants down and set her on the edge of the counter. She pulled her shirt off and then his; careful to rub her hands up and down his chest, attempting to sate her desire for skin to skin contact. He had undone her bra in moments and she let it fall to the floor while she watched him shed his pants and boxers. "I love this kitchen." He told her, causing her to laugh as he moved back into her arms, and positioned himself between her.

"I'm growing to appreciate it." She told him, just before their lips crashed together in a wave of passion, as Draco pushed himself inside of her. He was slow at first, and Hermione knew that he was torturing her with his soft movements, but after only a couple minutes his own restraint gave out and he was meeting her with fast forceful thrusts that made Hermione grab the edge of the counter and wrap her long legs around him. There was sweat beading on their foreheads and backs, moans were escaping from each of them and hanging in the air, kisses were exchanged quickly, and their bodies were moving against each other with a ferocity that would have startled them, had they been in the state of mind to register this fact. Instead all they felt was the joining of their bodies and the building tension until Draco sped up one final time and spilt his seed inside of her. His thumb pressed against her clit once again and after torturously long minutes, during which hid fingers found his way inside of her once again she felt the explosion of orgasm for a second time and didn't attempt to mask his name, his last name of course, escaping her lips.

After a few moments of rest, Draco kissed her shoulders and pulled out of her. "I want to keep you here in this kitchen forever." He joked and she couldn't help but laugh. "I might be okay with that, but first I need to sleep."

"I have a bed." He mumbled into her neck and she sighed softly, content.

"Lead the way."

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A/N : Let me say now … I'm crazy sorry for the long break. I've had the first half of this chapter typed for two months. The second half has been changed so much that it hardly even comes close to resembling what it once was, but I'm okay with this version. The other was ... just not quite right. Anyway I am so so so so sorry for making you wait so long.

Thanks to everyone for the story alerts, favorites, and author alert adds. These make me extremely happy and wonderfully delighted to be writing.

Heidi191976 Thanks for reading and taking the time to review. I hope you enjoy this bit.

KRL2008 Here is your date : ) . Let me know what you think of it?

nana41 Glad to have you on board !

Eva1983 I think Hermione got a fair bit of happiness in the second half … Here's hoping it sticks around for a while.

ProwlingKitKat Sorry about the last chapter being bold. It was an accident, one that will not happen again and I appreciate you letting me know as I had no idea that I had done it until you said so.

mofo Thanks for your review and for reading … I hope you continue to enjoy.

ZacEfronIsHot Three chapters worth of reviews all at once …. You spoil me! Hope everything is okay with you and I'm glad you enjoyed. I rather liked the skit as well.

P.S. I'm writing the next chapter already and fully expect to have it up within the next 24 hours as a sort of apology for being horrible about not posting.


	10. Ch Nine : Defining Lines

Starting Over

Starting Over

Draco / Hermione

Rating – M

A/N . It is my birthday today, but I'm giving you all a present : ) Giving is better than receiving and all that, you know? YAY … I'm 19. What an awful age.

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Chapter Nine: Defining Lines

When Hermione woke for the second time in the bed of Draco Malfoy, she was much more aware of her surroundings and indeed pleased to be in them. She did not open her eyes at first for fear that once she did she would wake from a delicious dream of a gorgeous man desiring her, but the weight of an arm loosely hanging over her waist and the unfamiliar smell of his pillow made her smile at the realization that it was indeed not a dream. She opened her eyes then, slowly letting them become accustom to the light streaming in the window to her right. One look to her left told her that Malfoy still slept, his mouth slightly parted as he breathed, causing his body to rise just enough that she could feel the movement, but not enough to be bothered.

She pushed herself up carefully, sliding from underneath his arm as slowly as possible and left the bed. Instead of gathering her things for a quick exit once again, Hermione decided to make breakfast, because that was what normal people did in the morning, they made breakfast. By searching his kitchen, after a few minutes spent cleaning it, she found that Draco Malfoy enjoyed food quite a lot, or at least he enjoyed having it around. Between his refrigerator, cabinets, and pantry she imagined that one might feed Hogwarts for nearly two weeks, and that was no small feat.

Deciding not to venture into the extreme that was certainly possible given the various foods hidden inside of his kitchen, Hermione went for the old standby and made pancakes. By the time Draco emerged from his room in naught but his boxers, she had just begun to eat and read the morning Prophet. "You look hot in my shirt, Granger." He informed her, kissing her cheek as he passed the table to get a glass of pumpkin juice.

"Thank you. Would you like a pancake?" She asked setting down the prophet to look over at him.

"I would love a pancake." He joined her at the table and forked two pancakes onto his plate. "Do you always get up so early?"

She smiled at him then and shook her head. "I always get up 'so early'. I have always gotten up 'so early' and I will continue to get up 'so early' for the rest of my life, most likely. It seems a waste of perfectly good daylight to spend it sleeping."

"As long as you make me breakfast, you can get up as early as you like when you are here." This comment implied very strongly that he would be having her as a house guest more often, leaving Hermione with an odd feeling that she could neither describe as good or bad. "I must admit I was rather surprised to see you still here when I woke."

Hermione raised an eye at him. "Why is that?"

Draco set down his fork, and took a drink of his juice before looking at her again. "I assumed that you would once again be feeling guilty and leave me here alone to defend myself against Potter's insane wife."

"Well, as it happens I am going to feel guilty about this no matter whether I left when I woke or after I've eaten, so it would seem that I get the better end of the deal this way. Guilt and food all in one. As for Ginny, I would say that it's most likely she has no idea I'm here, so I would be rather surprised if she showed up at your front door this morning." As Draco opened his mouth to respond, there was a knock at the front door.

They both looked out of the kitchen in the general direction of the door and then back at each other. "I guess I'll go get that." Draco said, rising from his seat. "If it is Potter's wife, I'm ratting you out. To be honest, she terrifies me and I intend on having children one day." He added the last part of this thought as he left the room, leaving Hermione behind as well to ponder the situation as she stared at his half eaten breakfast.

Instead of Ginny yelling at Malfoy, she heard a male voice instead, one that was responded to by Malfoy's. As they continued to speak, they moved closer to her until she found herself looking at Blaise Zabini, a man that she thought herself better off not getting acquainted with. Unlike Malfoy, she had seen Zabini all too much for her taste since they had both been working for the Ministry for years.

"So, it is true." Zabini's eyes traced the shape of her legs beneath the boxers she had stolen from Draco's drawer the night. "Daphne was ranting at me about this all week, I'll have you know. Apparently Pansy paid her a visit while I was at work on Monday and well, you know how they get."

Choosing to ignore their guest, Hermione rose from her chair and took her dishes to the sink. Usually Hermione would wash her dishes by hand, but as she remembered that Blaise Zabini was just as bit as prejudiced as the next pureblood, she flicked her wand, which she had set on the counter after the food had finished and the table had been set, and walked back to Malfoy's room, without a backward glance.

"Not much of a social butterfly, Draco." Blaise told his friend as soon as she had vanished.

"I don't reckon she was very pleased to see you, though I can hardly say the same about you. I might need to cause you harm if you look at her that way again." He retook his place at the table and invited Blaise to join him, which he did.

"Well, what else am I supposed to do when I see a half naked woman at your table, a half naked woman who I might remind you is not your wife, and who you denied being involved with on any level very publicly just this week."

"My soon to be ex-wife if you please, and you know that I wasn't screwing around on Pansy. That tramp is getting what she deserves and Daphne would do well to remember that and be reminded what happens when you stray." Draco spoke calmly and continued to eat slowly, knowing that his friend would understand just how serious he was without raised voices or sneers.

"Leave my wife out of this. She's guilty of nothing but listening to her idiot of a friend. But, Granger? What the bloody hell are you thinking?" Blaise let his hand drop to the table which made a louder noise than he expected, and they both stared at his hand a bit lost for a second. "She's Potter's Granger. She married into that horrific brood of Weasley's."

Draco decided to ignore the answer Blaise was fishing for and instead supplied, "Granger is my neighbor."

'So this is an arrangement based on convenience? You are a wizard. You could just as easily floo to a pureblood than walk to her apartment door." Blaise looked behind him uneasily, as if he was worried that Hermione might be standing behind him. "She's dirty blood, if you will remember, mate. You can't be messing with the likes of her. Leave this alone and move on. Daphne's sister is single again. Astoria is fond of you and she's damn good looking to boot. She never cared for Pansy and you know she is loyal."

Draco had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. "I am not marrying a Greengrass, Blaise. Tell Daphne to give it up. Besides, Granger is a dirty vixen, but that has nothing to do with her blood. And, as you have noticed, she is damn good looking as well. I hardly see how this is any of your business, but I know that I can trust you to keep the fact that I was entertaining her this morning quiet." It was not a question, Draco did know that Blaise would take his secrets, no matter how big or small, to the grave, not out of loyalty, but rather because Draco knew too many of his own secrets to risk angering him.

"I won't tell Daphne, if that's what you mean. Merlin knows I don't need that to listen to for the rest of the month. Are you coming to the match today?" He asked then, moving from his chair, clearly done with his visit.

"It depends on how the day unfolds I suspect." Draco replied with a look at the door of his bedroom.

"You are an idiot, mate. All I'm suggesting is that you don't get wrapped up in this. Chances are that woman has other motives than a roll in your sheets." And, then Blaise was gone, and Draco was left cleaning the dishes. As he shut off the water in the sink, he heard the shower turn on in his bathroom. He sighed heavily and gripped the edge of the sink, much like Hermione had done the night before. She was going to be royally pissed off that Blaise Zabini had seen her, especially if she thought he had been invited.

When he reached the bathroom fifteen minutes later, he had already deposited his boxers on the floor of his bedroom. The door of the shower slid open easily and he found Granger standing directly under the water, completely still. "Did he really leave?" She asked.

"Yes." He replied, stepping in and shutting the door behind him. "Are you trying to drown yourself?" She turned to face him, and shook her head.

"Just washing away the dirt I suppose." She had clearly listened to their conversation. "Thank you for not agreeing with him by the way. I know that he is your friend, and I respect how difficult that must have been, and I'm glad to hear that you think I am damn good looking."

"Didn't I make that clear before?" He asked, reaching behind her for the soap, which he rubbed between his hands.

"No." She replied. "You said I looked hot in your shirt, they are completely different statements. "

"Well I think you are damn good looking, definitely better looking than Astoria Greengrass." She couldn't help but grin appreciatively at this, especially when he had begun to rub soap into his skin and he was fully naked before her.

"Do you trust that he wouldn't tell Daphne for sure?"

"Yes. Blaise Zabini is nothing if not looking out for himself, and in this case looking out for himself means that he keeps his mouth shut in regards to what he witnessed here this morning." He finished with his soap and reached behind her again for his shampoo.

"What exactly was he witnessing this morning?" She asked careful to watch his face for any reaction, which was hardly likely to give a reaction as he had moved past her to rinse off his hair and body.

"Breakfast." He said simply, turning back to her.

"Malfoy …" He moved towards her which resulted in her being pushed against the wall of the shower. His hand took its place on the wall beside her as his other comfortably sat on her waist.

"Granger…" he responded, dipping down to claim her with a kiss that she had been waiting for since she woke that morning. "You are damn good looking." He growled, his lips brushing hers as he spoke.

"I need to know what this is." She told him.

He looked around him quickly and then back into her eyes. "This is a shower." He told her, his face serious, though they both knew he was just avoiding her question.

"Honestly." She pushed him away, and stepped out of the shower, leaving the door open behind her as the water shut off.

"What's wrong?" He asked, watching her wrap her body in a towel, hiding all of his favorite parts of her from view.

"Don't get the wrong idea, I don't even want to be in a serious relationship, I just need to know what you expect from me before I can even let you know if I am capable of giving it to you."

Draco grabbed a towel from above the rack and began to dry off as well. "What do you mean capable of giving it to me? You are very capable of …"

"Teenagers are capable of sex, Malfoy. The fact that I can have sex with you doesn't mean that I can give you something else if you so desire it. I need to know what you want from me so that I can tell you what to expect." She was staring at him, arms across her chest, her barely covered breasts distracting him from the tone of her voice.

"Granger, I just want to see where this goes. I'm getting divorced, and I don't plan on getting married again right away. That would be ridiculous."

She sighed and pushed a piece of wet hair from her face. "I don't know if I can do that." She covered her face with her hand and then let it fall down to her side. "When you went to answer the door, you said that you intend on having children someday."

"Not today, Granger. If that is what has you all hot and bothered, then you need to calm down." He moved towards her and rubbed her shoulders with his hands. "I'm not asking you to be the mother of my children right now."

"I'm not sure I can go through that again." She said and it felt strange. It was the first time she had thought this aloud.

He moved his hands down her arms and squeezed softly. "What do you mean?"

"After I lost Rose, I decided not to have anymore children. It was my fault." She felt like crying then, which really made everything so much better in her opinion. Not only had she already been blabbering on to Malfoy about them having children, now she was about to start crying about it.

"That was not your fault. It was an accident. It was no one's fault."

"It was my job to protect her." She told him wiping her face clear of the tears rolling down her cheeks. "It doesn't matter now, all I need you to know is that I won't have children, and if that is a problem, then I understand." She waited for the hat to drop, for him to tell her to leave and she knew when he moved towards her it was to kiss for the last time and then he would go find an unbroken woman who could give him the possibility of a life she would never have and the children that he wanted.

"I still say we should just see where this goes, Granger. I like having you around. I don't want to give this up as a bad job quite yet, besides babies smell bad and they throw up on you. I haven't really decided that I want babies at all, it was just something I said that I didn't think about before it came out."

"Okay." She said, nodding and feeling quite awkward that she was standing naked in his bathroom talking to him about children with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry that Blaise came by. We usually go to a Quidditch game on Sundays, but he never comes by this early." He spoke as he moved out of the bathroom and into his closet to begin to get dressed.

"Should I go then?" She asked, replacing her own day old clothing.

"If you need to, but I'm not going to the game. I don't feel like listening to him complain about Pansy for hours on end. I was thinking we could spend the day together if you don't have plans." He had finished getting dressed and was watching her pull her t-shirt back over her head.

Her lips turned slightly into a smile at his words, but she knew that it was not possible. "I would like to, but I have plans with my parents."

Draco "And, tomorrow I have more meetings with the Ministry. I'm still accommodating for the excess publicity so I have no idea how long they will last."

"We don't have to plan something now then. I'll see you sometime this week though?" She asked and he nodded, moving towards her.

"I count on it." His hand found her cheek and she leaned into it as his lips moved softly across hers in the ghost of a kiss.

Thanks to HighTemperedRedHead, 2KAZUMA, snarkybookworm89, Freaking Lawrence, BlackAngel79, katertot84, dracoshott28, Dram-gone-wrong, Revenge, starangel2183, mrivera, heavenleehime, kimmlpStory Alerts adds.

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I hope that you enjoy this chapter and are warm with the thought that I have begun the next . I have come to a point where I must decide whether to make this one long story or two separate long stories . I'm leaning towards the second option . What say you, my readers?

Thanks to mrivera, katertot84 for the Favorite Story add.

Review Replies :

Scfap88 … thanks very much .

Jussicakaycobb … I am glad I am back as well. You will have an end to this story ! I promise you !

Heidi191976 … Hermione and Draco will be seeing each other more often it would seem but … about the marriage and children … well I imagine I have squashed your dreams with this chapter.

Dracoshott28 … well . thank you for liking my story : ) . I hope this is soon enough?

Mofo … glad to see you back and appreciate that it was worth the wait … here is that update I promised .


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