Yes, I do realise that it has been almost a month, and my apologies will never cover up for it. But I do hope that the last chapter didn't make you all want to rip out your hair. And I really do think that this chapter covers a bit of a few questions that you may have had, and if not, please feel free to ask them because I will be glad to try and give you an answer.

A few things have happened within the past month to no longer be in contact with Aly, meaning that I no longer have a beta for this story and that this chapter was only edited by me. So if anyone would love to help me out with good grammar and spelling skills, and able to help me check out some facts relating to the HP world, I would love it. Let me know.

Chapter Four
Chain of Bad News

It was as if a permanent buzz had taken up residence in her ears, because after Ginny's last two words, Hermione felt everything fall apart. Again. She was confused on so many levels, and had no idea what to believe. Her friend's statement had been so ambiguous and she didn't know which meaning to pick from. It was like standing in front of a prize machine in a carnival, holding the stick that controlled the crane and completely missing the only gift she wanted out of it.

"He's married?" Hermione asked with wide eyes, followed by Ginny's rushed reply of her head nodding. "Please don't tell me that you and Blaise have eloped, without me being there." Even to Hermione, her last statement didn't make any sense because her redheaded friend's voice was void of any excitement, but filled with… dread. She obviously picked the wrong meaning of 'he's married.'

"Oh, gosh no Hermione. I would never do that without my maid of honor."

"Okay, well then who's married?" Who could have this fiery redhead been talking about? Surely Draco couldn't have gotten married, especially since the both of them had only been apart for less than a month.

"Todd," Ginny answered skeptically, afraid of her best friend's reaction. Her head banged down onto the table and her next words were a bit muffled, but Hermione heard them perfectly. "I'm sorry, 'Mione."

"What? How do you know he's married? He obviously didn't relay that information to you," Hermione asked skeptically with her tone a bit harsher. First of all no one would walk up to someone else they didn't know at all and state the fact that they were married.

"I know, but here's the thing," Ginny started. "I was supposed to meet with Blaise for lunch today down at the Three Broomsticks, and I sat there for awhile but he never showed up. So, I decided to leave. On my way out, I caught a glimpse of him sitting at the bar with some lady all over him."

"How do you know it just wasn't some girl trying to get a drink from him? Or maybe even better than a wife, his girlfriend?"

"She had a wedding ring on, Hermione. I'm really sorry," Ginny said, leaning over to give her friend a hug.

"This isn't happening, Ginny!" she exclaimed, her own voice muffled that time because her face was buried into the redhead's shirt. "I finally get over Mr. Asshole over here," she said, thinking that Draco was still in the room, "and then it's all shot to hell because the new guy is married."

"Hermione," Ana had finally said after being silent for awhile, "there are plenty of other great and amazing guys out there. Todd is just a typical horny bastard who thinks that getting shagged by some girl who's not his wife will turn him on even more."

Ginny looked at the girl across the table from her, and gave a wide smile. With Hermione's face still buried into her shirt, Ginny reached across and offered her hand out.

"By the way, I'm Ginny!" she said enthusiastically and Ana shook her hand.

"Yes, I've been hearing a lot about you, nonstop actually. I'm Leanne, but you can call me Ana."

"Hey!" Hermione shouted, lifting her head up. "This isn't the time. Don't you see that I'm in a crisis here?"

"Honey, since when have you ever been this worried and upset? You've been an emotional wreck lately, especially crying over Mr. Blondie." Ginny felt bad for bringing the subject up, but it needed to be spoken about, because Hermione had never been the emotional type. She would always hold her head up high and move on with her life.

"Ginny!" she seethed through her teeth quietly. "Don't mention his name, he's right behind me!"

"No, he's not," the two other girls answered at the same time.

She turned her head around, and just like Ginny and Ana had pointed out, he was no where to be found within the break room, but the door was still open from Ginny bursting through it.

"Anyway… I'm been completely miserable because I'm twenty-six years old, I'm still not married, and I want children!" she whined, acting like a child herself. All she wanted was someone there for her like Ginny and Lavender had. Why was it her that always found it difficult to keep someone around, even if she wasn't the drama filled type of girl?

"How about we just declare lunch time over," Ana said, getting up out of her seat and throwing her salad in the trash. "Let's just try to get through the rest of our work day, and we'll settle this later."

"But how am I supposed to get through the day, knowing that two relationships have been total hell within the matter of only three months!" But she agreed and threw away her own Styrofoam bowl that still held half of an uneaten salad, away in the trash.

"Honey, I've been in and out of plenty relationships. Just try to put it in the back of your mind for the sake of both our jobs." Leanne's eyes still didn't match the seriousness of her voice, because she could almost literally hear Hermione's heart breaking. But she knew that it wouldn't help her situation any if losing her job would be added to the top of the pile of shitty situations in her life.

"Speaking of jobs, I need to get back to work. Harry will kill me if he finds out my break went on longer than necessary. He already gave me all that time off to spend it with you my dear, in Florida." She reached over once again and gave her a tight squeeze, trying to somehow transfer a bit of happiness into her. "I'll go over your place after work, okay? And we'll all work this out, and you can vent all your frustration on me." She turned to Ana and said, "you're more than welcome to join us."

Hermione didn't want Ginny to leave—she loved using her shoulder to cry on even though she rarely needed to use it before. She still wasn't too comfortable acting like a broken-down baby in front of Ana, so she mustered up all the courage she could so they could head back to Sector Seven. Hermione figured that bossing a few people around might even help her let out a bit of frustration anyway.

With her mouth sealed shut, she walked through the double doors that led to her section of the hospital, only to find a sight she absolutely couldn't handle at that moment. Standing there in front of her secretary's desk were two men that she had dared never speak to again, looking as if they were fighting with each other. But there was no way that she would let anything happen at that moment. Either they had to leave, or she did, and it was her office after all.

Her back was straightened out and the evil glared in her eyes more than ever, and she marched straight up to them, Ana in tow.

"How dare you even show your face here!" she shouted, her anger currently directed towards Todd. "Let alone even think about stepping foot into this hospital unless if it were for the reason of getting run over by the Knight Bus, from which I had pushed you into its path!"

He backed up a bit, his arms thrown in the air for defense, letting the bouquet of flowers he had been holding, to drop to the floor, smashing all its petals. "Now, now love. I don't know what's going on here, but can we settle this somewhere else?" His 'oh-so-hypnotising eyes were no longer glowing, but dull from the fright that had overtaken his system. He was literally scared for his life.

"Let's get some things straight here," Hermione said, pulling her wand from her robe pocket and pointing it towards him, only mere centimeters from his throat. "One—don't ever call me love again if you still want to be able to experience pleasure in the lower region of your body. Two—we cannot and will not settle this little dilemma you have put yourself into somewhere else, because if you haven't noticed, I'm at work, it's a Friday afternoon, and I have enough hatred running through my body to kill you if we were in private. Three—do you seriously think that you could have fooled me for long, hiding the fact that you're married? This is the Wizarding world we live in honey, it's not as big of a community as you think it is and word spreads faster than snake venom in your system." After letting all of her words spill faster than she thought she could have ever done, a deep breath escaped her body, and her next words were whispered, but still filled with anger. "Which I wish would actually run through your body right now."

"Wow," was the only thing heard from Todd at that moment. No one knew if he was about to say something, or even if he wanted to let his opinion out, because Hermione spoke up once again. But this time turned towards Draco, the other man she thought lowly of at that moment.

"And you. What reason could you possibly have to walk into my sector of this floor, to show your unwanted face around here?"

Everyone knew that Draco had a small amount of will power to hold in his anger just like Hermione had. So when she blew up on him there was no way in hell he would take it standing there, his mouth gaping like a fat fish trying to catch a bubble in its tank.

"Excuse me Missy, but I have just as much of a right to wander around this hospital as you do. So don't you dare start letting your explosive ways get directed towards me because your precious boyfriend for a week has been lying to you!" Yep, his anger was just as terrifying as Hermione's and just as blunt.

"Who in the hell said he was my boyfriend?"

"You! The way you talk about him in the break room, it's absolutely sickening. I had to leave earlier because I was about to puke all over my lunch. Which I couldn't even gather enough strength to begin eating."

"Oh my God! You're in-fucking-furiating, you know that?"

"Well, I must be if my habits are starting to make the precious and innocent Granger blurt out profanities."

"You know more than anybody that I'm nowhere near innocent." Hermione immediately regretted letting those words slip out. But her tongue was faster than her brain.

"Yeah, baby, I do know that," Draco tried to say fierce and huskily at the same time. "I knew it from the moment your hands first touched me. Oh, and I especially know it from the way you used to scream my name out every night in the hotel room." His smirk was making its reappearance, and Hermione knew she had to hit him hard to make it disappear.

"Why don't you just let the whole world know about us? Better yet, tell them the whole entire story how you left me all alone at the beach, intoxicated. Just let them all know that you never really loved me like you said you did. Why don't you just admit it to me, that it was all one big fat lie?"

"Let's make a deal… I'll admit to all of it, when you look into my eyes and tell me you really didn't mean to sleep with another man in my own bed, and that you never wanted it to happen."

"Why, you evil slime ball. If it weren't for the fact that you could easily be mended up in two seconds due to another fact that we're still in a warehouse for sick people, I would tear your limbs apart, piece by piece."

"Try it, love, just give it a go." Draco stood there, cocky as ever with his arms crossed over his chest, waiting for his ex to make a move for it. When he saw the look of determination disappear slowly from her features, he smirked yet again. "I knew it. You wouldn't dare touch me, because everyone here knows you still love me."

"You wish," she seethed through clenched teeth, her anger boiling to an even higher temperature.

"Oh yeah, that's right. You don't love me, because you fucked someone else."

"Give it a rest, Malfoy." This time it wasn't Hermione to speak up, but the other man that she had threatened only five minutes ago.

"Fuck off, Rainey. You'd keep your nose in your own business, if you knew what was good for you. And I'm pretty sure you would like to keep your head." Draco had turned to face the dark haired man standing next to him, threatening him, daring to see if you would speak.

"It is my business. It's been all of business since Saturday night, when you fucked my wife, you bastard."

"You what?" Hermione screeched even louder towards Draco, not believing the chain of bad news she kept on hearing that day.

"Asshole," Draco whispered through his teeth.

"You are a complete hypocrite! Ignoring me after what happened only two weeks ago wasn't enough for you, but you still had to go out and have sex with someone else? Let alone, someone's wife? How low could you possibly go?"

"Come on, Hermione. Don't even start giving me some self-righteous speech now. What's done is done, okay?"

"No it's not alright, Malfoy," she said, spitting his name out like it was just a bad taste in her mouth and nothing more. "Yes, it's true that I still love you, okay? Are you happy that I admit it? I was foolish to think that it was ever possible for us to try and move on even after what has happened. But now, it hurts more than all the times you ever called me Mudblood."

"Yeah, well now you know how I feel after I walked in on you and what's-his-face." He stared at her with so much anger that it all fell away so quickly that all was left of his emotions was sorrow. Before he could continue breaking himself down through all his available layers, he turned on his heel and pushed through the swinging doors to walk away from Hermione.

But she had no time to waste. She had no anger to waste, and she wanted to let out her last drops of madness to be leashed out on Todd.

"Please, don't tell me that the only reason you started seeing me was to get back at Draco for what he did to you." All of her anger was gone, so everyone could sense the tears just threatening to release themselves from her eyes at that moment.

"I wish I could, but I don't want to lie to you anymore." With that said, he left as well, never to see the people in that room ever again.

And that was the moment that Leanne finally found out everything she wanted to know about Hermione and Draco, plus more. So did all of the employees of Sector Seven and Eight of St. Mungo's. But the fight still wasn't over.

XXX

Five hours, forty-two minutes, and one massive headache. That's how much time had passed by since the outburst in the middle of Hermione's workplace caused by the two of the three men that had made her current life a burning inferno. And the only way to get rid of fire, is to wash it down with gallons of water.

Hermione had shed all of her clothing off, and jumped straight into the bathtub the second she had successfully apparated into her lonesome flat. The bubbles were completely covering her naked body while she doused herself in her larger-than-average tub. Fortunately for her, she was not completely alone. Both of her cats, Crookshanks and Ivory, were sitting on the floor side-by-side in front of her, practically staring her down.

"What do you think I should do?" she asked to the wiser and oldest of the two, but received nothing in reply. The orange fur-ball still kept staring straight into his owner's saddened brown eyes.

"Crookshanks, you're supposed to help me out here. It's completely unfair how you can help out Sirius Black, but not your owner. I feed you and give you milk when you beg for it. You even get to sleep on my bed! How unjust is this?"

Meow. At least it was some form of a reply. Did she actually expect her cat of all creatures to speak in perfect English? Recent situations were probably driving her a bit up the wall and supplying her a tiny ounce of insanity.

"I've gone completely mental. It's one thing to talk to you, but to expect an answer… What about you Ivory, do you have anything to say about the mentality of your owner."

Meow. And then she licked herself.

"Yes, you are completely insane." Hermione turned towards the door of her bathroom to see a head poking in with a mess of jet black hair.

"Harry. Nice of you to pop in on me, like always," she replied back, waving her hand, motioning for him to step inside. He went on in and sat on the toilet seat, just like he had a week ago on the evening of Neville and Padma's get together. And just like every other time he walked in on her. But just like always she never did mind, because in all actuality, he was just a big brother to her.

Taking one quick look at her best friend, Hermione realised that he looked as if he had too been going through one hell of a time. Even though if hair was always a jumbled mess, if was a tad more unorganised than usual. His light orange pin-striped shirt was half tucked in and the other half was hanging out, with the top three buttons messily undone showing off his white beater underneath.

"It seems as if our Mr. Potter has some problems of his own. Care to talk about them, seeing as I know for a fact someone has passed on the information about what happened at work today."

"Yeah, sorry about that," he said, drawing out his reply, running his fingers through his hair as if it would help it any. "Ginny told me all about the massive fight. How she always manages to find her information still surprises me."

"I hope you don't mind, but the timing isn't too perfect to talk about it, just yet. But I'm still here for you if you need someone to talk to." And it was true. Hermione was always there for Harry, and vice versa. He wouldn't go over to her place only in the case of an emergency when he needed advice, but he always felt safe there. It seemed as though they connected on a more deeper level since they left Hogwarts, and seeing as they were both in the same boat, the could relate to each other.

"To put it all in simple terms, love sucks." Blunt, very blunt Potter.

"Amen to that," Hermione responded, even though she had never been too religious. "Let me guess, its Luna once again?"

Harry nodded, biting his lower lip. "I just… I couldn't take it anymore, Hermione. I know I'm not completely mature, but she's just too much to handle. She's always off in la-la-land, and it was driving me up the wall."

"What did you do Harry?"

"I broke it off with her. For good this time. I told her that it was cute when we were in school, but now that we're in our mid-twenties, I need someone who can actually take life in reality. She doesn't realise that there are bills to be paid and mouths to feed. How do you think she would ever take care of kids if we ever were to have any?" He took a deep breath and buried his face within his hands, not knowing if he was frustrated with the fact that his ex-girlfriend lived in a different world or if it was because he would never find someone to settle down with.

"Harry, I'm truly sorry." Hermione wished that she could just reach over and give him a pat on the back or rub his shoulders, but that would leave her completely exposed to him. "How did she take it?"

"That's one of the things that's bugging me… She never cried, never said anything. Just smiled, got up out of her seat, and walked out of my house. How could she have been so calm about it?"

"Maybe she finally realised that something was missing, just like you feel. But maybe it's something completely different in each of our perspectives." She unplugged the stopper in the tub, waiting for the water to go down the drain.

"Maybe."

Once all the soapy water was out of sight, Hermione wrapped a soft and plush towel around her bubble covered body, stepping out of the tub, ready for a night filled with crying and some reading. Maybe she would have Harry join her.

"Do you think something was missing between you and Malfoy?" Harry asked silently, not even disturbed by the fact that he just saw his best friend completely naked. For probably the thirteenth time just within the past twelve months…

She stood there in still in her towel, with three pairs of eyes looking fixedly at her, waiting for some answer. But the harder she thought about it, the easier she found it to answer his question.

"No, Harry. There was nothing missing."