Return of The Dragon
A/N: This is part 3 of my 'Nicotine' series. If you haven't read that first, I recommend you do so or you'll be very confused at what the heck is happening.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter (oh how I wish I did). The Harry Potter franchise belongs to J. K. Rowling and associates.
Rated T for swearing and sensitive content.
He regretted it. Of course he did. How could he just up and leave? Of course this was a rhetorical question; he knew exactly why. He broke her and he knew it. He watched her after. He watched her spiral down her rabbit hole of self-destruction. Did he do anything? No, no he didn't. He regretted that as well.
He regretted so much in his life. If she knew what he had done, what he was. She would hate him for a very long time, possibly forever but she wouldn't. She would say she would but they both knew she couldn't.
I give him 5 years before someone finds him in a ditch. 7 tops. Those words from so long ago echoed in his head. They were what kept him going all these years. Those words and her. If he was honest (which he rarely was, least of all with himself) she was the only reason he kept on going. The hope that one day he would find her.
But he never expected this.
She was… happy. That was an emotion he hadn't felt in a long time. Anxious, worried, scared, betrayed, hurt and pain were his day to day emotions now. Sometimes numbed so he couldn't feel them anymore. Oh to be numb. It was a glorious feeling, forgetting all his problems and to simply – be. To simply exist was a luxury. One he didn't have often so when he did he relished in it.
He had tried. He really had, but wanting something so bad it hurt wasn't enough so he worked for it. Clawed his way to the top. To prove to himself that he could do it. To prove to all the bastards in his school days that he was more than a body to end up in a ditch. To prove to her that he had in him. To prove to his father that he was more than a punching bag. His father didn't like it when the punching bag punched back.
To prove – to prove everything really. To prove that he could. Then it all want to shit. That Potter had to waltz in and take everything he worked so hard for from under his feet. That Potter had sent him right back to the bottom. He was assigned to Potter and was always given the worse jobs. The boring ones, the meaningless ones, the ones that no-one else wanted to do, the ones that drove him insane. The ones that broke him.
He went crazy in there. Sure lost his cool, put three guys in the hospital. One critical but what did they expect him to do. Stay quiet and take it like a good little boy? He never was a good child. They knew his history but did that stop them? Of course not because people are vile, evil creatures.
He was fired naturally. Did time in the very prison he guarded. How the inmates loved that. They didn't like it so much when he fought back. No-one ever did. Mostly they left him alone, bored with their toy. There was always a new toy to play with after all.
Orange was not a good colour for him. But he got out. He was deemed ready to be integrated back into society. He was ready. Or so he thought until he saw her. Hermione.
He never really expected to see her again. But he always did hope. Now his biggest wish was coming true. So he followed her. Followed her into an inn to the bar there where he saw her embrace a man. He was nice looking enough he supposed but he didn't bat for that side so he couldn't really pass judgement. There was only one who held his heart and it seemed she didn't care for him anymore.
He sat at a table towards the back in the shadows. People avoided him, just the way he liked it. But the man Hermione had embraced came over to him. Turned out he was the owner of the inn and the bar tender.
"Look. Not to be rude or anything but are you gonna buy something because if you're not I'm going to have to ask you to leave." It was a nice enough request, perfectly reasonable. This bloke seemed alright apart from the fact he was obviously romantically involved with the only girl he had ever loved so he naturally wanted to kill him.
"Sure." He replied looking past him towards Hermione who was talking with a red haired girl. "I'll buy something."
The man sighed relieved. "Okay what'll be?" He seemed like the type that didn't like confrontation.
His grey eyes looked directly into his green ones. "Surprise me." He said tonelessly.
"Okay." The man replied with a worried tone but he was too busy staring at Hermione to notice what the bar tender was saying.
He watched the man go behind the bar and whisper something to Hermione. She turned in his direction and frowned. He met her gaze in a challenge. Does she recognise me? He wondered. She took the drink the man had just finished preparing and brought it over to his table. She set it down while looking at him.
"I'm sorry," she asked softly "But do I know you? I feel like I've seen you somewhere before."
There was his answer. She didn't remember him. This crushed him more than it should have. Yes they hadn't seen each other in years but he still recognised her.
"No." he stated bluntly. "Never seen you before in my life." And then just because he was nosy and wanted to confirm his suspicions. "That man behind the bar. Is he your boyfriend?"
She looked a bit shocked at the question but nodded. "Fiancée actually. His name's Jasper."
"Lucky man." Luckier than me.
"I'm Hermione by the way. You are?" Classic Hermione. Wanting to find out everything about him still. He was the only puzzle she could never solve after all. Only because he hadn't let her solve him.
"No-one you need to worry about." He said with monotone voice. How could she not remember him? She was breaking him without realising it.
"Okay then. Well enjoy your drink. Jasper said on the house." Like Jasper there was a worried tone to her voice. Even though she didn't realise it was him she still cared about him. She was the only one that did.
"Tell him thanks." He said quietly unsure if she heard.
"I will." She smiled over her shoulder.
He watched her and Jasper interact. They suited each other, he could tell. He heard her laugh and act like she had when he knew her before he left.
He finished his drink in silence watching them and got up without a word, left some money on the table anyway as nothing was free in this world on top of a note he left Hermione that only said one word.
He then walked out of the inn unseen leaving no trace of him ever being there save the note and money. He vowed he wouldn't go back there and see her again. He would only torture himself and he did that enough already.
After she had just kicked out a couple of underage kids and turned to head back to the bar she noticed that the platinum blond man had left.
That man had psyched her out. She knew that she knew him. She went over to clear his table shaking her head in a confused manner. She found the money he left on the table and smiled, it was more than enough for what Jasper had given him.
"He looks like he needs it. He has a tortured look about him. Like he's all alone in the world." Jasper had told her when he was making the man's drink. When she turned to see if Jasper was right she was hit with a sense of déjà vu but shook it off. He didn't look like anyone she knew.
She found the note under the money that had one word written on it. Only one word that made her blood run cold. She froze in place not being able to move even if she wanted to.
She had given up smoking earlier that year. It was her tie to him but she had finally healed from him leaving and was moving on with her life. But that one word brought it all rushing back.
Sneaking off school grounds, the whispers, the terrible singing and dancing, the kisses; the love.
The singular word was the thing that had starting her spiral of self-destruction. The thing she had cut out of her life. The only thing she needed to let herself know that she was right, that it was him. To let her know that her dragon had returned to her.
Nicotine.
A/N: What do you think? I was hounded for what Draco had been up to for all that time in 'Nicotine' and this is want happened to him. I know there's a lot of blank spots within it but as Draco said he's the only puzzle Hermione couldn't solve so he needs to keep some of his mystery.
Before you ask, the reason for why he left her will remain a mystery. I'm allowed to keep some of his secrets aren't I?
There is now a poll open to decide the outcome of part 4 'With Me Forever' which is yet in-posted.
Reviews, comments and criticisms are appreciated.
Cross-posted on 'Archive of Our Own' under the same name and title.