Story: Starting Over

Synopsis: Hermione and Ron's marriage fails after the miscarriage of their first child. Over a year later she is given the chance to try and start over. Will she take it? Can a new love mend the pain of an old one, or are their some scars that never heal.

Rating: M

Pairing: Draco/Hermione

Beta Love: Thank you SO SO SO much to my three incredible, beautiful, hilarious beta's who make me laugh and help make this story so much more than it was before!

Disclaimer: I am not profiting from this story. Anything you recognize belongs to the great and mighty JKR.

Warnings: Late term pregnancy loss, Scenes of a sexual nature, Mild violence

Chapter Two: The Estranged Wife

The next few weeks passed in the same fashion Hermione had become accustomed to living out her days since she had moved into her flat. She woke early, went to work, spent the evening at home working or at Harry and Ginny's doting on her godsons, and then she went home to bed. If not for the sense of impending doom that seemed to greet her every time she laid eyes on the door of the next apartment down the hall, Hermione would have hardly noticed a change at all. She hadn't seen Malfoy once, and she was very grateful for this. She had even begun to hope that he had decided to find another apartment building, but three weeks after his arrival the owls were still dropping post for him into his box. It wasn't that she cared enough to check, she just happened to notice as she was gathering her own letters. This was precisely what she was doing when the second unwelcome Slytherin from the past collided with her life in the form of a shrill voice outside the building.

Hermione spun to see what all the commotion was about and instantly regretted her decision. The noise was coming from a skinny, brunette woman wearing blue robes that seemed to move around her like water instead of clothing. "I know that my husband is here," she shrieked at the doorman, Howard.

Hermione couldn't help but be impressed by Howard's staunch stance. He gripped his wand tightly in his right hand making it very clear that he meant to keep the woman, whom Hermione had identified as Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy, out. "I'm sorry, Ma'am. Even if that were the case, you aren't on the guest list of any of our residents, and therefore, I cannot let you in."

Hermione smiled at the thought of her first day in her apartment when she had been asked to create a list of close friends and family. She had thought it was silly at the time, but Howard had explained that they housed several high-profile figures, such as herself, and it was only for their own safety and privacy that they asked for the list.

At this announcement, Pansy flipped her hair, her blazing eyes suddenly stopped at Hermione. Pansy's arm flew out immediately and pointed at the woman. "There! She knows my husband and I. Surely you can let me in."

"Ms. Granger, do you know this woman?" Howard asked, his eyes sliding from Pansy to Hermione.

"Yes, but she's no friend of mine," Hermione answered as she took an immense amount of pleasure in the sneer that spread across Pansy's face.

"Granger, just because you and Weasel are incapable of keeping a marriage together doesn't mean everyone is," Pansy snapped. "Let me in this bloody building to see my husband."

Hermione's rage at Pansy's words made her blood pound in her ears. Why did these idiot Slytherin's make her feel like she was eleven years old and back at Hogwarts? "I'll be sure to let your husband know that when I'm with him tonight." The words slipped out of her mouth before she could stop them, but once they came there was no turning back. "I guess you should have spent less time in Paris leaving poor Draco on his own. Someone had to warm his bed at night."

It was good for Hermione that Howard had his wand at the ready, because Pansy lunged forward and only stopped when Howard flicked the wood in his hand in her direction. For effect, Hermione made a show of grabbing Draco Malfoy's mail from the box next to her own and headed for the lift.

When she reached the ninth floor, Hermione realised the flaw in her extremely terrible plan of making Pansy believe that she was sleeping with her husband. She was now in possession of Malfoy's mail, and he would probably be wanting it. Hoping he would be asleep, Hermione tapped lightly on his door, but a moment later she heard approaching footsteps and the sound of the door clicking open.

The sight that met her was unexpected, but certainly not unpleasant. He was wearing trousers, but his chest was bare and water droplets were sticking to the ends of his hair. Hermione watched him as one droplet fell. She attempted not to follow it, but was betrayed as her eyes watched the droplet move from the end of his blonde hair to his hard shoulder and run down his sleek chest. As she thought about the reality of just what she had strongly suggested to Pansy about those abs, Hermione felt a blush creep up from her chest into her cheeks.

"I grabbed this for you and told your wife we're sleeping together. Have a good day!" she said thrusting the letters into his hand.

She turned for her own door then, but wasn't quite quick enough to escape him. As she placed her wand against her door, he caught up to her. "You want to run that last bit by me again?" he asked her with one brow raised.

She nodded, "Um, well, I was just wishing you a good day, you know being neighbourly. Not something you seem to have a good grasp on."

"How about the bit before that?" he asked, ignoring her jab at his behaviour during their previous meeting.

"Oh." Hermione pushed the door open and walked into her flat, hoping he would go back to his own, but instead he followed her inside. "Ah, well," she began, setting her own mail on the kitchen table. "It seems that your wife desired to visit and things were said, and I may have implied, that we were, well, together."

She expected some sort or explosion or snide comment, but instead he asked, "How did she take the news?" She noticed the slightest upturn at the corner of his mouth. Was Draco Malfoy fighting off a smile?

"I simply told her it was natural that you needed someone to warm your bed while she was in Paris." His mouth fell open, and Hermione looked away from him and rushed through the rest of what had happened. "And, well, she tried to attack me, but Howard kept her at bay."

"I didn't think you possible of such disgusting behaviour, Granger," he told her. Malfoy actually laughed then, and Hermione looked back at him, staring in disbelief. "Serves the ruddy bitch right." As he said this, he seemed to become aware of Hermione losing the battle with her eyes, which were trailing another drop of water down his chest. "I guess I should be going then," he told her simply. "Thanks for grabbing this."

He waved the mail in his hand at her and with a click of the door, he was gone, leaving Hermione to marvel in the fact that Pansy would want to cheat on such a body. Her French boyfriend must have been downright godly. Then, Hermione remembered whom the chest she had been ogling belonged to and found herself chastising her own foolishness for pitying Malfoy. He probably gave as good as he got in their marriage. He certainly always had at school.

XXX

That evening, Hermione finished her work earlier than usual due to her dinner plans with Harry and Ginny. Harry had told her earlier it was to discuss a serious matter, but try as she might, Hermione had been unsuccessful at getting it out of him. To her surprise, when Hermione emerged from her office that night, Malfoy was chatting with her assistant about Quidditch. "Hello, Granger," he said, smiling at her. It was unnerving. That morning he had laughed and now he was smiling.

"See you tomorrow, Ms. Granger," her assistant waved as he walked away from the pair of them.

"Have a good night," she told him.

"He's a nice fellow," Malfoy told her.

"Hello, Malfoy," she said uncertainly, feeling instantly suspicious of his motives showing up at her work. "Do you need something?"

"I thought I would invite you to dine and get drunk with me tonight to thank you for this morning."

Hermione was taken aback for a minute. This was the absolute last thing she had been expecting. She sputtered for a moment, but soon found her voice, "Don't you have friends?" He looked affronted, and she realised a moment too late how absolutely rude she sounded and covered her mouth with her fingers.

"Of course, I have friends," he answered her as if she was ridiculous. "Unfortunately, most of my friends are married to her friends and refuse to say a word about her in fear that it will end them up in the same place I am now."

"Of course. I'm sorry," Hermione said, suddenly reminded of the months of despair and the loneliness that still followed her after her own divorce. It would have been nice to have someone who wasn't a friend of Ron's. "Well, I have to go to Harry and Ginny's for dinner, but maybe after," she said noncommittally.

"Sounds good," Malfoy told her and began to walk away.

She felt guilty as she watched him move away from her. She couldn't imagine just showing up at Gringott's and asking him for dinner or a drink. She couldn't imagine how she would feel if he had said no. "Malfoy?" she stepped forward and called after him. "I was going to walk from the Apparition point, do you want to head there together?"

He looked as surprised by her invitation as she had felt about his, but he gave her a one-sided grin. "Sure," he replied.

They walked, mostly in silence, but with a few attempts at light conversation along the way. At times the silence was uncomfortable, and Hermione chided herself that she must be one of the dumbest people alive for inviting him to walk home with her.

"So, you work at Gringott's?"

"Yeah."

"What do you do for them?"

"I work closely with the Ministry. Mostly the Minister and his financial advisor's."

"Oh, that must be interesting."

"It's okay."

The silence became thick.

"So, Potter had a couple kids now?"

"Two boys."

"Hmm."

Hermione kept quiet as the silence between questions became almost unbearable.

"His wife was on the Harpies, yeah?"

"Yeah. She was very good, I'm told."

"You don't follow Quidditch?"

"No."

Luckily, it was a short walk after the apparition, and they reached their flats without any great event, besides the raising of an eyebrow from Howard. Hermione found her thoughts and words from the morning racing back, making her cheeks tinge pink again at what Howard must have thought of them. By the time Hermione reached her door, she was very glad she had plans with Harry and Ginny.

"See you, Granger," Malfoy told her as he walked past her. He pressed his wand against his door to unlock it, and disappeared behind it without a backwards glance. Hermione followed his example and wondered what on earth could ever convince her to go to his flat for drinks.

A/N: Thank you so much for reviewing, following, and adding this story to your favorite stories lists ! You are all so amazing. I am pretty excited about the response to this story and about where it is going from here.

I'm trying really hard to stick to my posting schedule of every thursday. I really wanted to post early but I held out until after midnight my time. Haha.

I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you think in the little box below for reviews and I will love you forever !

XOXO

Meg