The first chapter grew from a prompt on a Dramione Fanfiction FB group. The chapters from now on started from a nice chat with my lovely Martee98, who gave me the start of plunny: what if Hermione stubbornly refused to follow the conventional path? Expect smut, banter, and humour. And a baby Malfoy.
I can't thank my beta Marly (martee98) enough!
Chapter 2: Oh shit.
During the week following the mystery dinner, an impressive eagle owl appeared daily at her office carrying a parchment with the same question.
Go to dinner with me.
DM
She read it dutifully and repeatedly answered with the same words.
Thank you, but not interested.
HG
Their worlds couldn't be further apart than this.
She took her NEWT's, accepted a job inside the Department for Regulation of Magical Creatures, grew frustrated with the lack of improvement and was now studying hard to become a lawyer, fighting the system where it mattered the most, straight against the Wizengamot.
After his obliged NEWT's - it was that or Azkaban - he got a job at the department of sports and international liaisons, a smart move from the Ministry to use his talent for sweet-talking and benefit from the old connections through the Malfoy name. Basically, it meant that he got access to free game tickets - as if he couldn't afford them - and dinner with all the VIPs. He called it work, she catalogued it as an extended branch of his spoiled life.
After a week of owls, he finally got the message and dropped the case. They still met at the bar after work, each with their own peers. A chin jerk was enough. If he tried to come too close, she would move away, even call it a night in some cases.
Not that she believed him to be the bigoted, blood-prejudiced git of yesteryear. She was not the slightest interested in knowing if he was changed. Too much bad water between them to extend the olive branch.
She had fed the curiosity, admitted to herself that the man looked too good for his own being, not even denying the fact that the devil knew it. Never would she admit either that he was her best bed partner until today. Like Mozart on his favourite piano, the bloody ferret knew how to manipulate her into the orgasm of orgasms. It must be the year long fine tuning of his experience. But that was it. Each in his own corner, she lived happier this way.
Although.
It was as if the fates were involved. For months, Hermione never bumped into the platinum blond. One night stand later, and bam! At every corner, wherever she went to, so was he.
What a luck.
*Draco*
If he ever doubted on her talent to drive him barmy, he learned quickly that it was her best quality after her rational brain.
They shagged. It has given him the best wanking fantasies ever since, and it stroked a string of something, until then, unknown to him. He wanted more.
He wasn't planning on pursuing a possible Mrs. Malfoy, he enjoyed life as a free bird a little too much to give it up. All his previous flames had one thing in common, galleon signs in their eyes, the wish of the green card to enter his vaults. When he ended things with a witch, gifting them some kind of expensive baubles as a thank-you, the masks dropped, and the vulture rose to the surface.
This was what pureblood wives from the sacred twenty-eight were raised to become. The Greengrass sister was, and he never saw Pansy change because he simply never gone there again after their little snogging in Hogwarts. She was one of his best friends, but not a person he could see sharing his life with. The thought alone…
Granger felt like a new type of fresh air. He knew the witch didn't give the bullocks about wealth, so his vaults were safe. She was a pleasure for the eye, and he didn't mind to enter a friendship with benefits with the witch.
Ironically enough she was the one ditching him, where he was even contemplating if she could become more than just a temporary shag until they grew tired of each other.
She is cut from another wood; indeed, none of the other witches would refuse to go out with him, even for one dinner. Being seen with him put the woman in the spotlights, and they all love the attention. Unless they are the Muggleborn swot, off course.
Oh well, there are more fish in the ocean. Pussy's enough out there, methinks.
-oOo-
*Hermione*
Two weeks later, Hermione arrived at her weekly lunch with Ginny, all flushed and carrying the pack of books all clumsy.
"What's into you, sister? You're never late."
"I'm having one of those days. I overslept, I arrived at the wrong room for my morning class forgetting the latest change, forgot to take the correct book with me… In summary, I'm experiencing a Murphy day."
"I don't know any Murphy bloke, 'Mia, but are you feeling okay? You look pale."
"I feel more tired than usual, I must be needing a vitamin potions cure." She blew a hair out of her face. "I'm hungry, have you ordered already?" Hermione registered the denial while signalling the waitress. A quick look and she knew what her stomach desired. "For me an ice tea and a ham and cheese toast."
Ginny eyed her, "They have a whole wheat sandwich with organic zucchini and tahini spread, isn't that more your cup of tea?"
"Not today, I'm into cheezy comfy food."
"You do need your vitamins, your choices are not your usual you." Drinks arrived, and both women sipped, "Do you have your dress sorted out for the Robarts wedding?"
"Yes, a strapless thing in navy blue, I found at Madam Malkin's. I can use it later for other occasions. I don't understand why he invited the entire Ministry and most of all me."
"To show off, what else? He's after that Wizengamot promotion and is trying to gather votes. You, my dear, do you really want an answer to that one?"
"Great. Amazing, I hope people would grow tired of inviting the golden trio to every little fart they organise." The steamy toasty arrived, and she bit hungry, pushing the rebel cheese strings into her mouth.
"If it's boring, leave under the excuse of conflicting schedules. You have to be so-called somewhere else also…"
"I'll try to memorise that one, conflict of schedules. Perfect. How are you?"
"Bah, you know how tiring it is, this second trimester." Ginny rubbed her bump, "With James making everything else extra busy, I run out of batteries by nine in the evening."
"Pretend I do, Ginny." The toasty was almost fully devoured, "Pretend I'm also pregnant of my second at my twenty-five."
"Sorry." Ginny was surprised with the speed with which Hermione ate her plate. "Are you still hungry?"
"It was a small toasty…" She perused after a pie piece, "Madam, can I have a blueberry pie?" She stopped at Ginny's surprised face, "What? I'm extra hungry, yes. Probably because I'm feeling exhausted lately. It must be the change of seasons."
"Go by the Apothecary before going home and get some decent sleep, 'Mia. You are not you, right now."
"I'll do."
-oOo-
Hermione arrived home by six, after a shopping trip with Ginny for baby clothes - as if the witch didn't have a wardrobe full from James. Kicking her shoes off, she headed to the kitchen to tidy up the set of vitamin vials Ginny forced her to buy.
"I'll just lay down for five minutes, take a power nap. Afterwards, I'll tackle tomorrow's subject." Instead, she collapsed like a log.
"Damn, it will be one of these days. Again." She had overslept. Again.
-oOo-
"Mum, I don't want to go…" Hermione was complaining to her mirror, about being forced to go to this social event of the year. "I don't even like the man, why was I invited to his wedding?"
With much reluctance, Hermione dragged herself under the shower, hoping the jet would save her from her misery. The past five weeks, she didn't get out of bed as the early bird she used to be. No, sir. Lately, she begged for five more minutes, after sleeping for more than nine hours straight.
"Those vitamin potions are a fraud, I should brew them myself."
"What was that, 'Mia?" Ginny's voice came from the other side. "Will you hurry? We only have an hour a half left."
"Yes, Mum!" Oh fuck, I want to sleep…
Twenty minutes and the queen of headaches later, thanks to Ginny's insistent knocking, Hermione emerged from the bathroom.
"You look like crap."
"Good morning to you too."
"I'm just stating the obvious. Are you taking those vials?"
"They are a fraud, I don't feel any improvement." She sat down before her dresser table, Ginny promised to do her hair. "Can I stay home, please?"
"Have you eaten?" Frowning, the red-haired opened the bedroom door, "Harry, can you go and pick a scone for Hermione, please?" The lecture followed, "If you don't get better, I'm dragging you to a healer. It could be something bubbling underneath. Two weeks ago, you bought those potions, and you should have been showing signs of recovery by now. Instead, you look paler. Are you studying too much again?"
"Ginny, I'm studying nearly nothing, I fall asleep above my books around eight. Last night I didn't even have the fumes left to pick it up, I went straight to bed."
"That's it, tomorrow I'm dragging you to a healer."
Harry offered the paper bag with the requested scone. One sniff and Hermione returned to sender. "Thank you, Harry. But I can't stomach the smell."
Ginny forced it back into her hands, "You'll eat, or you'll faint during the wedding from weakness. Unless you hope the git comes and rescues you from the fall."
"Oh, shut up." That's what I'm really hoping for, my saving hero in the shape of the ferret. She ate the bloody thing with long teeth, forcing herself to swallow. She managed to keep it up, until the last bite.
As Ginny was about to apply the finishing touch to her bun, she flew into the bathroom and vomited the recently consumed food. A glass of water appeared in front of her, "You're not escaping me tomorrow. If it weren't this bloody wedding, I would be dragging you right now."
"Zip it for a second Ginny. I implore you."
-oOo-
The invited guests entered the large banquet ballroom after the ceremony, in pairs; Harry served as a double companion, between Ginny and Hermione.
Pansy met them halfway, dressed in a long sapphire green gown, covered in diamonds. "Potterette you look amazing. Fire red underlines your fiery temperament." The women kissed. "But you, Granger. You look as if you have had better days."
"Parkinson, I'm so glad about your compliment, it confirms how I feel. Like crap." She picked a flute with champagne from a flying-by tray. "To my most miserable day ever."
Draco remarked approaching her from the back, "You haven't even spoken to me, yet, Granger. It's going to become much more miserable now." This way, she couldn't avoid him.
"I feel so lucky…"
Theo and Luna joined their little group, Luna taking Hermione in, "Dear Hermione, you have so many Plimpies flying around. You need to sleep more…"
"Luna, I barely do anything else. I sleep, I eat, I puke, and I sleep again."
"Sounds like the flu." Pansy redrew a few steps back, fearing something contagious.
"I'm dragging her tomorrow to have a check-up. It's getting worse for three weeks now." Ginny sent an accusing look Hermione's way, the witch should have take measures by now.
"Stop naggin-" Ron joined their group, and Hermione paled. Hand flew to her mouth, trying to fight off the urge, "Ron, your after-shav-" A new wave of nausea hit her, full strength. "Oh, fuck." She ran as fast as possible out to the garden, as the bathroom was too far away. Between a tight set of bushes, she emptied the little she had left in her stomach.
Ginny showed up again with a new glass of water, "Now I'm worried."
Hermione waved her off, flushing the nasty taste from her mouth. Feeling better, she rejoined the group, Ron now distancing further from her, to avoid a new episode. Blaise was with them. All looking seriously concerned towards her direction.
Harry touched her from afar, "You should go home Hermione, you're getting sick."
Luna calmed them down, "Oh, no Harry, she's not sick. Hermione's pregnant, I can see it in her aura."
"Wha?" Hermione never finished her sentence. She fainted.