"Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering."
Hermione turned the last page of her book and closed the cover, sighing in contentment with another book completed. She looked at the walls of her study, covered in books ranging from fictional romantics to wizarding encyclopedias, and of course, Hogwarts, A History.
"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed in surprise as her eyes jumped to the clock on her desk. Draco should be home soon, and she hadn't even started dinner!
Jumping up and running to the kitchen, she took a quick look at herself in the mirror in their front hall. Her mass of bushy hair had calmed as she aged, and was settled brown ringlets framing her face. The dark circles under her eyes were pronounced from years of reading in low light. Hermione smoothed her clothes with hands dry from continual washing—hygiene was not taken lightly in the field of medicine, even in the magical world—and continued on to the kitchen.
Checking the clock again, Hermione realized that she would have to conjure up dinner magically. She normally would try to cook dinner for herself and Draco, as she had done for a great majority of her life, but tonight she just didn't have time.
Pots and pans whirled around each other in a chaotic dance, but not a single collision occurred. In less than 15 minutes, dinner was ready.
And as if the finale to the entire production, Draco appeared in the fireplace with a loud crack.
"I'm home," he crowed as he dropped his bags heavily on the floor.
"Hello, honey," said Hermione, barely looking up from setting the table. "Anything interesting happen at work today?"
"It seems Old Man Weasleby's gotten himself appointed Minister of Magic," said Draco with a chuckle.
"Draco!" Hermione admonished. "Can you really not stop that?"
"Fine. But you have to admit," Draco was cut off by another sharp glare from Hermione, and decided to move on. "Other than that, just another glorious day of paperwork."
"This was what you signed up for when you became an Auror. With Voldemort dead and most of his followers too scared to try anything, there can't be much left for you to do."
"Yes, yes, I know. Now what is this delicious smell I smell?" Draco got a mischievous grin on his face and wrapped his arms around Hermione's waist, dragging her over to the dinner table.
Both laughing heartily, they sat down and ate together.
Later that night, Hermione and Draco were getting ready to go to bed. Hermione picked up a book from the pile on her bedside table and cracked the spine, getting ready to delve into the latest volume of Magical Maladies. Draco had settled down in the covers, obviously trying to sleep. He punched the pillow into shape, laid down, and then punched the pillow again. Giving up, he pulled the pillow over his head and the covers up to his chin. Still not satisfied, he threw off the covers and pillow and turned around to face Hermione, who had been oblivious to his entire ordeal.
"Notice anything?" Draco snapped.
"Yes," replied Hermione coolly, not looking up from her book. "A great floundering in our bed, in case you didn't notice."
"Well there wouldn't be any floundering if you would just turn off that bloody light! It's sort of hard to get any sleep with it on, in case you didn't notice." Draco threw Hermione's words back into her face.
"You know I have to read this for work," said Hermione.
"And you know that I must get a good night's sleep to be productive in my work. So could you please just turn out the light? You read fast anyway. What's one night off going to hurt?" Draco was becoming more irritated.
"You're always doing this!" Hermione exclaimed, finally snapping the book shut and turning to face Draco.
"Doing what?!"
"You always think that just because you're an Auror and you work for the Ministry, that your job is more important than mine!"
"That's because it is!"
"I save people's lives every day, Draco. Neville gets to know the parents he never had as a child now. Because of me!"
"Well it's because of people like me that horrendous people like that are found and taken care of!"
"And if they're doing such a great job, then why are people still getting cursed? Why do we have to find new spells and potions to counteract the ever-growing amount of dark curses? WHY, DRACO? TELL ME. WHY?"
"That's it," Draco said. "I'm done. I'm going home."
"Home?" screeched Hermione. "Home?! Your father's in Azkaban because of his actions, your mother's a shell of what she was, but you want to go home? This is your home!"
"No, Hermione. I'm done. We are done."
And with that, Draco rolled out of bed, and taking the clothes from that day, he apparated to Merlin knows where.
"Bloody hell," murmured Hermione, who replaced her book on her bedside table, turned off the light, and went to sleep.
A/N: So, first chapter! Yay! I'm sorry it was so short, but the other chapters will be longer. I hope you liked it, and please review!