Crash Into Me.
Chapter 2 might not be that much better than chapter 1, storyline wise, sorry. I'm up to my brains in schoolwork and writing calms me down, but I can't write much in these little amounts of time.
Hermione woke with a start.
The nightmare had haunted her sleep again that night. It was an awful memory of the battle, the wall falling, and the lost dreams. Hermione sat in bed with her sheets wrapped around her, damp from terrified sweat. The sky outside her rented apartment was still dark, no one was awake yet, and Hermione felt alone and isolated in her nightmarish world.
She got out of bed and showered before pulling on her work clothes halfheartedly and steeping her tea. As she sipped the bitter drink, her Daily Prophet was delivered by a tawny owl.
Hermione had stopped reading the Daily Prophet after Fred had died, but she subscribed again when she found his ghost.
His ghost.
Hermione knew that the ghost was at Hogwarts, and quite concious, but she went rarely to see him. It.. Because it wasn't the same. The last time she had gone to visit, she had accidentally tried to touch his face as she had a thousand times, but instead her hand made contact with nothing. She laughed it off, but at home she cried for hours before pulling herself together.
Hermione could never show her grief in public. Everyone would have thought that she had some major trauma from the battle, considering her best friends had been uninjured in the fray. No one understood the true weight of her loss.
That morning, the Prophet announced the scandal of the year:
Malfoy to be a Bachelor?
It has been decided that the woman of the Malfoy Manor, Pansy Malfoy, will be leaving the Manor for unknown reasons. Draco, 23, and Pansy, 23, are parting in an official divorce. Pansy, who is pregnant, will be staying in a hidden shelter as to not attract the attention of the reporters. Worked well, huh? Draco has not disclosed a statement about his future plans or the reasoning behind the split, but we have heard from sources that Pansy is taking with her almost half of Draco's fortune. As for Pansy, she says "The most ridiculous mistake that I have ever made was to marry Draco Malfoy." -
Hermione closed the paper. She allowed a sigh to escape her lips before dumping the paper in her fireplace to be burned later that night. Another owl stood at her window, tapping the glass patiently. She let the owl inside and took the letter from his leg.
Hermione,
Ron, Luna, Neville, and George are all coming over tonight for a celebratory dinner in honor of James. He took his first step yesterday! I also haven't seen you in ages! Ron's been going on about how busy you must be, but I think that he's just nervous to see you again after 4 years of being in Romania with Bill and Charlie. Perhaps you would like to stop by for a drink or two before you need to be whisked away to cure every sickness in England?
Anyways, I hope you can drop by.
Much love, as always,
Ginny and Harry (and Rose and James)
Hermione crumpled up the note and let one tear fall. Her best friends were inviting her to come over and celebrate their child's life. Their goddamn child took a step, and they're throwing a goddamned dinner party, she thought angrily before sinking into her couch and hating herself for thinking it. Of course she would go, and she would praise little James as she did with Rose, and she would drink wine with the adults and she would relive past triumphs, and she would see George and remember...
But first, she had to go to work and forget.
---
"Hermione did you read the Prophet?" Draco closed her office door and sat in her visitors chair. He was aggravated and hadn't shaved ... or bathed, she assumed. "She took HALF of my bloody fortune, which I earned."
"I read it. Perhaps you should have told her to stuff herself..." Hermione shrugged and continued her case.
"HERMIONE, I need you to be on my side here. My wife... ex wife" he corrected himself bitterly "is moving into a relationship with BLAISE, my old best friend, and I am alone in a house the size of Hogwarts with nothing. NOTHING" Hermione took time to notice that he had buttoned a wrong button on his shirt, but didn't interrupt.
"Why are you so worked up about this? Didn't you pray for a divorce every day?"
"I prayed for her to be hit by a bus, Hermione. It was a loveless marriage, and I resent everything." Draco stopped to breathe before continuing his tirade. "I made love to her ONCE and we were drunk. That is not my child."
"I believe you, Draco" Hermione stood up and crossed the room. "But the panel didn't."
Draco showed that famous sneer and threw his pen at the wall. "She is such a bitch. Why would she do this to me, I know that she was head over heels for me in school."
"Do you care about her, or about your respect and dignity, because I don't think you gave a crap about her wellbeing, Draco?" Hermione placed her hand on his arm. "Either way, I'm very sorry about the whole mess."
"Thank you. It's been so hectic. I'm trying to diagnose these patients, and not murder Pansy with the candelabra, and it's so lonely when she's not around, and to be honest-" Draco hesitated "I was looking forward to being a father... even if it was under false pretenses."
Claire knocked on the door softly and Hermione opened it to receive a load of parchment that she'd requested. "Claire would you mind getting me a glass of water and can you tell Ms. Needles that I'll see her now?"
"I'm drowning" Draco said as Hermione closed the door.
"No you're perfectly fine. Find a way to make this constructive!" Hermione chocked back the hypocrisy in her statement.
"Alright. Well have a good session." Draco smiled blankly and left the room.
Ms. Needles entered and Hermione pointed at the examining table. Ms. Needles sat on the table lightly. "Let me just get your file..." Hermione reached into the back of her filing cabinet where she kept all her old notes and cried secretly.
---
"HERMIONE!"
Hermione smiled and looked at everyone in the Potter's roomy parlor. Even little James looked excited to see her.
"Hermione!" This came from the kitchen down the hall where Ginny was with Rose, pouring wine and finishing dinner. Rose smiled her toothy little kid smile and ran down the hall to hug Hermione's leg. Hermione picked up the little girl and hugged her. Rose had been the first person who made Hermione smile fully after the battle.
Then Ron appeared at the top of the stairs and everyone shifted to subtly watch what would happen.
"Hey, Ron." Hermione stood awkwardly.
"Hey.." He looked at her and she knew what he saw. Hermione hadn't changed. He was noticing how everything was exactly how it had been when they were 17 and stupid. He saw her bushy hair, her perfect teeth and her fair complexion. And she saw who he was becoming. His years in Romania had toughened his hands, his arms were muscular and scarred, and his face was broader; more mature.
She crossed the space in 2 seconds and hugged him as hard as she could. She didn't know this man, anymore, but she hopped that he would still know her.
"I missed you, Hermione!" Ron's voice was lower. Everything about him had become rugged and deep.
"I missed you too. When did you get back?"
"Only a week ago. Ginny's told me all about what you do now, and your promotion..." Ron smiled and became the awkward tall adolescent that Hermione had been so close with in the past.
"Thanks... It's a really rewarding career - "
"And I've heard that Fred's a GHOST!?" That was directed at George, who stole a guilty look at me before responding.
"Yes, actually, Malfoy was the one who found that out about 2 years ago? It's wild, now I know what I'll look like dead!" George had accepted the death of his twin after he saw the ghost. He resolved to visit everyday and that way Fred could still be a part of the shop.
"No way! Ferret's still around!?"
"Yea, he works with me" Hermione felt herself saying. "He divorced Pansy. They've been having some drama in the last few months."
"DINNER" Yelled Ginny from the kitchen. She used the same voice that Mrs. Weasley had always used, it was true that everyone was changing and evolving, into a man, into a mother, into a leader, except for Hermione who found herself exactly where she had been since she was 14.
