Thank you for your response! For the reviews AND the flood of story alerts you have place this story in. I'm very excited now to post the entire story up now just to hear your opinions! Anyways, I didn't expect to be updating soon but here it is! I should be updating once again Friday, so hang on until then.

Enjoy!

Dragon's Blood

Chapter Two

Hermione stared down the Manor she had just purchased. She stood underneath an umbrella Bernadette was holding out for the both of them as they looked up at the manor, sizing it up to it's poor expectations. It didn't help having a grey wet background that nearly concealed a big grey manor. The drizzling rain was enough to soak them completely in a matter for some minutes… if you were standing at the edge of any cover to receive the concentration of water. Hermione hugged herself, shivering slightly, prying her open to withstand the drops of rain that sporadically attacked her lids.

"And if there's anything you need," Bernadette clear her throat, "Please do not hesitate to call. Here are your keys…"

She took out the most elaborate, chunky, and rusted looking keys she's ever saw and handed her the last things Hermione need to move in. As Hermione reached for them a picture was taken, and soon enough, Bernadette and her photographer congratulated her and were off on their way. Hermione watched them climb into the beat up taxi car and speed off as she braced herself jogging up the path up to her manor. It was difficult to find a clear path when the entire front garden was over grown and dried out, despite the spring season. Hermione reach her front door and fortunately enough, found the right key on her first try and allow herself in.

ooo

The first night, Hermione bundled herself up beside the fireplace in the ballroom she planned to work on first thing tomorrow. The fireplace was enormous. It stretched out twice the height of Hermione and possibly three times her height for the length of the fireplace. Moments before, Hermione used her wand to light a fire which was kept under control by a simple charm so the Ballroom wouldn't get too hot or too bright.

The fire crackled and popped as Hermione pulled the comforter tighter around herself, scooting closer to the fire.

"There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces."

Hermione read out loud to herself, clutching onto an old copy of Moby Dick. She frown and reread the paragraph softly to herself again. "There is a wisdom that is woe…"

Hermione pursed her lips and closed the book, inserting her index finger in the pages as a temporary bookmark. She looked around at the room she was sitting in. It had taken her several hours to have a brief run through of her own house. Exactly ten spacious rooms, a study with a library full of books like the one she was reading, a rather unnecessary large kitchen, an even more unnecessary large dining room, the entrance which housed a staircase that split at the very top and curve away from each other and reached the ground floor in an open mouth fashion, a conservatory that seemed like it was made of entirely out of glass, and the ballroom that Hermione was currently enjoying the fireplace to read a couple of pages of a book. As she gathered her findings of the Manor, she concluded that Bernadette was right; the house was a very large task for any normal family.

Hermione by her lonesome was not a family, but normal she was not.

She was confident with a little magic she will be able to ease the amount of work she needed to put into this Manor.

If Ron could see me now…

Hermione felt a bittersweet smile stretch over her face. No doubt he would have killed her for spending a fraction of her earnings on a place like this and living by herself, but that's exactly what she needed. A manor was so far into the extreme of what she was used to. She was used to warm homes, filled with family and friends, laughter and chatter. The last things she wanted was to return to an ambient that caused her so much grief. She needed to breathe. She needed to hide. But most importantly she needed to detach herself from a dream that was impossible to achieve anymore. Although the Weasley's will always consider her as part of the family, without Ron she felt a bit alienated from everyone. How was is possible to related to every single one of them when her lifeline to them was gone?

She didn't want to be reminded that she was alone, although, it just so happens that the Manor echoed with every shuffle, every cough, every tiny movement she made as a constant reminder that she was, in fact, very alone. Hermione huffed and shook her head.

Some trade…

Despite the drastic change in her life Hermione felt at peace in her own space. Hermione understood how abrupt and irrational she sounded when she announced she had found a home for herself in Wiltshire. And despite how outraged Harry was, Arthur and Molly were supportive of her and the others reluctantly follow suit. Ginny constantly bugged her to see if she could drop by but Hermione assured the minute she was done fixing up her place she would be glad to have everyone over.

And she intended to keep her promise.

Although she did keep out that the amount of work could take days, possibly weeks, Hermione wasn't bothered by it. She purposely promise Ginny because she knew it would take her that long to tidy up the place and because she needed her space and time before testing the waters again.

Hermione knew upon seeing the sea of red hair pouring into her house she would instinctively look for Ron's face. She wouldn't be able to help herself and upon realizing her mistake, she might just be set in another downward spiral. Hermione sighed and opened up her book again, this time to another page. She had read Moby Dick several times as a child she didn't have the energy to read through it all once more but she did love reading snippets to remind herself of the essence of the tale.

"How it is I know not; but there is no place like a bed for confidential disclosures between friends. Man and wife…" Hermione stared at the words for a brief second before continuing on, "…they say, there open the very bottom of their souls to each other; and some old couples often lie and chat over old times till nearly morning. Thus, then, in our hearts' honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg—a cosy, loving pair."

Hermione slammed the book shut and lightly tossed it aside. She tried very hard to ignore the bare feeling on her ring finger on her left hand. She was sure if she checked, there would be a band around it of light skin to further remind her that she was indeed in this position. Hermione fiddled with her hands, more specifically with her ringer finger and let out an exhausted sigh. In a split second the roaring fire was hissed into a black smoke, and Hermione left her spot near the fireplace to drag in a mattress she had de-bugged, cleaned, and manually dusted by hitting it with a broom she found lying around. The comforter she had wrapped around herself was the only possession she brought into the house besides her clothes and her wand. It's the only thing she thought of bringing because anything else had a heavy connection to Ron, even the ring. She flopped down to the floor and sighed. She pointed her wand to the large window, one of the many in a row, and had it's curtain drawn back slightly to let a peak of the moonlight in. Tomorrow would be a new beginning.
Tomorrow she would be Hermione Granger again.

ooo

Hermione woke up before the sun rose; ready to begin the massive clean up. It was yet another dreamless night, as if all her body did was shut down like the computers she used to use in school before Hogwarts. It bothered her at first, not to dream. The only trauma in her life was to blame for to black nights she hat but in the few weeks she stopped dreaming, she had grown used to it. She figured that there wasn't much to dream for anyways. The world was right and Ron was gone. What else was there to hope for?

Hermione placed her hands on her waist, scanning the room and figuring a plan of attack. She cleared the Ballroom of any random furniture covered in plastic and set it aside. The furniture scrapped the floor loudly, cause them to streak the floor from the dust that has collected over decades. Curiously, Hermione swept the dirty floor with her sock and, much to her surprise, revealed what looked like black crystal marble flooring. With a flick of the wand all the dust had been removed, leaving a cloud of dust in the air, causing Hermione to cough and sputter.

"Alright… let's see." Hermione said to herself, "Aguamenti!"

Water poured out of Hermione's wand, she grabbed a mop and scrubbed the floor with her own hands. Most of the left over dirt was removed to reveal the most onyx look marble Hermione's ever seen. Delighted at the beauty of the flooring she stopped herself before she cleaned the entire area. She knew better than getting carried away when there are other things to attend to.

A floor should always be the last to clean…

Hermione nodded to herself and looked for another task to concentrate on. Lucky enough, there was more than enough work to do other than mopping; the problem was what to chose?

Hermione's eyes landed on the curtains and decided, no matter what, she was going try to restore them. They looked beyond repair, frayed, and sun damaged but she truly believed they were worth the salvage.

Another flick of the wand and, in domino effect, each of the five curtains came billowing down to the floor, causing another cloud of dust to poof up into the air.

Hermione covered her face, coughing. She fanned the air to give herself a breathing space and when the dust had settled Hermione looked outside. The sun was just about to rise and Hermione had a beautiful view of the morning light. She approached the window and dreamily rested her arms on the sill, admiring the view she had.

Upon the beaten path her Manor was located on, she could see from far off a couple, walking past. She perked up and watched them. The stranger somehow sensed her presence because a few seconds later, they paused and glanced towards her direction. Hermione lifted her upper body off the windowsill and stared back. It was bold of her and in her thoughts she had decided against it but despite her rational mind, Hermione irrationally waved at the stranger, who surprisingly (and quite possible confusedly) waved back before continuing on his way.

ooo

Ginny,

I have received all of your owls. Please trust in me when I say that I have not been ignoring you or anybody at that. I've been extremely busy trying to tidy up the place a bit. You'd be surprise at how big this place is. I know it's taking me a while but I swear I haven't been isolating myself. I've talked to the neighbor's gardener and have been a regular at the Teashop out by the outskirts of Mere two miles away. You have every right to be worried about me but please understand that I'm working on myself and I refused to be bedbound for months grieving in the most sadistic way that Ron would disapprove. I'm sure he would encourage me to pour my heart into something instead of wasting away. But then again, knowing your brother, he would have selfishly say something along the lines of "Of course I want you to grieve over me, 'Mione! What kind of girlfriend would you be if you didn't at least swallow yourself in sorrow and self-pity over my sudden death?"

I smile when I think of him.

You'd be surprise of how often I don't think of him. It's not because I'm over his death. I'm so preoccupied trying to fix the house up quickly that I don't have time to pause and think if Ronald would have liked this Manor or if he would have prefer the other house he never had a chance to see. I suppose I have hope that upon fixing this house up, in turn, I could help fix myself up. Reconstruct myself inside out. I don't mean to sound harsh but with the passing of your brother also came the death of my future with him. I know I will always have a family within the Weasley Family but you must understand and I must learn that in the future that won't be the case. If I should ever met someone as great as Ron or something close to him, I will try to begin a new chapter with him. I know it hurts to think of it now, which is why I'm avoiding it, but they are question I must answer when the appropriate time comes.
I hear you and Harry might be expecting. Details.

-'Mione

Hermione set her quill down and dripped a bit of wax on to seal her letter. She smiled in content at the letter she had written to Ginny hoping to have the stream of letters die down for a while. It's been two weeks since she's been away and it seems like they are still stuck on day one. Hermione rolled up her trousers and jumped into some slippers to make her way out to the stonewall out in the front yard. For the past couple of days Hermione had noticed an owl perched on a post just within reach. She was sure it was one of the Weasley owls waiting for a parcel to take back home. Hermione reach out to pet the owl. The bird hooted contently and closed its eyes in satisfaction of a gentle touch.

"Some weather we got here, don't we Pigwidgeon?" Hermione cooed, looking up at the cloudy sky, "Hardly any days with sun."

"Is that what you're up to these days Granger? Talking to owls?"

Hermione was startled at the voice that seemed to come out of nowhere. It was somewhat recognizable that she almost fooled herself to believe it might have been Ron's but upon scanning her surroundings she found an old foe she never thought she would seem much of again.

"Malfoy?" Hermione narrowed her eyes instinctively, "What are you doing here?"

Surprised? Ha, I think not. I'm sure you all expected him to pop up soon. Tell me what you think!