The friendship between Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy was an odd one. It wasn't so much of a friendship as it was a mutual tolerance between old enemies that had grown to an appreciation of each other. Malfoy Apothecary worked closely with the Ministry Department of Magical Law Enforcement. There was so much bad magic left in the business that Draco went out of his way to seek help from the Ministry to overturn the business. Now Malfoy Apothecary was a well run, and decent business. With at least most of the dark magic that had been binding people and objects to the business. After the war Draco just wanted things to be right. His father in prison and his mother sickly, it was up to him to turn the Malfoy name into a respectable one once again. And that didn't include the dark arts or any association with the dark side at all. That chapter was over in his life, not that he was ever willingly a part of it to begin with.

This is where Hermione came in, being a higher up in Magical Law. While her friend and fiancé were the ones who went out into the field, she was happy to stay behind with the mountains of paper work and clients to deal with. Draco was trying to be a better person, and she took interest in his case. She ended up being the reason so much success had come from it. It was something she was rather proud of.

Somewhere during this a spark of tolerance and understanding spread through them, engulfing up the past between them and burning it. They treated each other with respect and genuinely enjoyed each others' company. It was slightly complicated, and neither of their groups of friends could understand it, but it worked and it made them happy.

"She's late," Draco muttered in a bored tone, though inside he was sending up red flags. It was so unlike Hermione to be late.

"Sorry sir, I'll call her office and see what I can find out," the voice of his receptionist chirped.

He was nervous. He was launching something big, revolutionary. Something that would turn Malfoy Apothecary on its head. He needed Hermione to be there. But she was late. And that worried him. They only had a week left to get their acts together to present this to the rest of the company and then on to the Ministry.

Draco liked to have a finger in every pie, as the phrase goes. He wanted to be part of anything that could bring him wealth and success. The apothecary had grown to be far more than an assortment of potion equipment, dark magic objects, and their famous red wine. It was now a huge business that had separate locations for different branches. But this new change was something he wasn't sure even he could get away with. There was so much hatred and skewed values in the company's past that he didn't know if he could break it anymore than he already had.

He went back into his office but wasn't waiting long before the receptionist knocked on his door. "Mr. Malfoy? She asked to reschedule. She didn't give me a reason but she seemed pretty upset so I'm guessing it's a personal matter."

He nodded, deciding that he was going to stop by there instead. He needed to talk to her and he was just a bit curious of what was wrong with her. "Thanks Helena. Could you act as though my meeting was happening? I'm going to step out for a bit and take care of a few other things."

"Of course." Helena was rather fond of Hermione, and she knew letting out that small amount of information would get Draco moving. She needed a friend at the moment... and Draco could be that friend.

He gathered his material and flooed to the Ministry. He found her office blinds closed and her door shut tight, but could hear the sounds of slight movement from the other side of the door. So he knocked.

There were a few seconds of silence, before a sniffle and whispered response, "Sorry...I'm busy at the moment."

"What's wrong, Granger?"

She seemed surprised to hear his voice. "N-nothing. Go away Malfoy." He knew she only called him Malfoy when she was upset or teasing him in some manner.

"Helena said you were blatting like a baby. What's wrong?"

"She did not say that!" She knew Helena wouldn't have openly said something like that.

"I read between the lines," he shrugged. "Are we really going to do this through a door? Where anyone could hear when you finally crack and tell me what's wrong?"

Silence.

Then the door opened just a fragment, but enough for Draco to push it open to reveal a darkened room and a ball of a person sitting on a swivel chair. Her legs pulled against her chest and her arms were wrapped tightly around herself as she rested her head on her knees.

"Hi."

"Hi yourself." Draco wasn't a big feelings person. He liked to ignore emotional problems, they usually went away on their own.

She picked her puffy face up to look at him, "What do you want?"

"To find out why you bailed on me today," he spoke in an attempted light hearted manner.

"It's been a rough day."

"Obviously."

"Yeah."

He watched her as she stared off into the distance of the shadows in her room. "So... are you going to tell me?"

She sighed. "You won't care."

"Try me," slightly annoyed at her comment.

"It's about Ron."

"What'd the idiot do now? Kill your cat?" He noticed how insensitive he sounded, but she was used to his harsh mannerisms.

She sounded horrified with an intake of breath, at the thought of anything happening to poor Crookshanks, but then whispered, "No..."

He waited for her to go on, but she didn't. "So?"

"He cheated on me," the words came rushed and at a low volume.

He didn't know how to react. Of course he hated Weasley, but he knew Hermione was happy with him. "Oh Granger..."

"He's been doing it for years," her voice cracked. "Years, Draco." She sniffled, "How could I be so stupid?"

"You're not stupid." He didn't know how to comfort her, but everyone knew she wasn't stupid.

"I didn't see any of the signs. They were so obvious. How didn't I see them?"

"They weren't obvious...obviously." Emotional conversation had a way of taking his away his normal and intelligent ways of speaking.

"But it gets worse. He said he still wanted to marry me." She cracked a smile, but not a genuine one. She was smiling at how odd it sounded.

Draco was confused. "You don't want to marry him though, right?"

"Of course not." She seemed almost insulted. "But he wants to marry me. Because...because 'it looks good' is what he said. Can you believe that? He wants to marry me for the publicity that it creates but he wants to be able to sleep with other women too. He told me he wanted an open marriage on his part. He couldn't see anything wrong with that."

"Hermione," Ron laughed, "take it as a compliment. I still want to marry you."

She was in awe of his brash, "How is that a compliment?"

"Because you'd still get to marry me."

She rolled her watering eyes, "But only if I share."

"It'd work out best this way. We'd be married. It would look good to everyone and we would be the perfect couple. But you wouldn't have to be physical with me, I would have others for that. You and I both know that attraction isn't there."

"Since when Ron?" She had felt that before, but she didn't care. Their great friendship in their relationship made up for the lack of physical attraction.

"Since...well forever. I could always tell you weren't feeling it. It's obvious you don't enjoy sex, so now you won't have to even pretend." The way he looked at her told her everything, he didn't find any of this wrong. He found this to be a perfectly reasonable request, like this sort of thing was how most marriages were. But even if that was the case, it wouldn't be her marriage.

"This is unbelievable. I can't believe you did this to me. How many times? How many girls?"

He made an unsure facial expression, "I don't know...a few years? There haven't been too many girls, five or six. I stay with one for a while."

"How very thoughtful of you," she spat.

"I don't see what the problem is..."

She sighed, "I don't want to be in a relationship with someone that needs other people. Don't you care about me at all?"

Ron shrugged, "I do care about you Hermione, but this isn't optional. You're going to have to deal with it. We're getting married in a few months."

"No Ron, we aren't."

"Yes we are. You'll come around," he smiled at her before placing a kiss on the top of her head and walking to the bedroom.

She had moved her stuff out that morning, coming to work late...not that she was getting any work done anyway. She was staying at her parents until she could find a flat to rent.

Draco couldn't believe how incredible dense Weasley was. Why would he ever mess up what he had with Hermione for whatever trash he had on the side? "Well he's a fool."

"Yeah...but he played me for one."

"Is there anyway I can help?"

"No, but you offering is very kind." She smiled at him, "You're getting soft hearted Malfoy." She smirked at him.

Hermione was doing well three months later. She had moved into a small flat and out of her parents' home. She stayed busy. She was still friends with her friends, though some of the Weasley family felt awkward around her, and she around them. But Harry was still there, caught in the crossfire. But what took up most of her time was working on a big project with Malfoy Apothecary. Their idea from months ago had surpassingly passed. The development of the MWAS, Muggle Wizard Adaptive Services, branch was in place. The Malfoy business was creating ways to make muggle objects work better in the presence of magical communities. As well as making certain magical objects more muggle friendly, some even being able to work by the hand of a muggle. It revolutionized the way muggle borns were able to adapt to magic. The branch also housed classes that were similar to muggle studies classes in Hogwarts, but reverse. It taught the parents and muggle born wizards or witches all about magic. This way the children would go to Hogwarts with some basic knowledge of what was happening to them.

When Draco had brought up the idea to Hermione she was shocked. She didn't know he would ever have this in him. A Malfoy ever branching out to make those of "dirty blood" feel more welcomed into a community that had once shamed them.

News of the project gained the attention of the media, and they were having a field day with it. They used Hermione and Draco as the example of forgiveness after the war. The two were opposite. Dark vs light, pureblood vs muggleborn, Slytherin vs Gryffindor. So different, but they had learned to be friends. Of course some papers pitched them as more than just friends. After all, it would take something, or someone, special change the ways of a Malfoy. They took it in stride, not caring what the papers or people said. They were friends who were taking this new opportunity to create a better world.

But their friendship had gained the attention of more than just the media. It also enraptured the thoughts of a particularly sore man, one who ironically felt cheated.

-Author's Note-
Hello there lovelies, this is something I've been playing with for a while. I'll be writing in an original character that I have been dying to write for a long time, I just couldn't think of what I wanted to write about with them. It was originally going to be titled The Plan, but there are too many aspects to the plan that you'll be introduced to in the next chapter so it reminded me of webs, thus The Webs We Weave. I really don't plan on Ron bashing too much, just enough to show that he is the antagonist in this story (Sorry Ron lovers!) I know many, many, many people had a problem with the Ron bashing in The Thief, and I promise it won't be that bad. But hey, I'm a Dramione writer and Ron just has to go. Please don't judge this story on this chapter alone yet, there is so much more this story has to offer.