"I can't believe Ginny did that." Ron said for the thousandth time since the incident at the Manor. "She was well out of order."
"Forget about it Ron, I have." Hermione replied, locking the floo network in the penthouse behind them.
"Mum will be furious when she hears about it." Ron said, flopping down on Hermione's large sofa.
"Why does Molly have to find out?" Hermione questioned.
"As if Fred and George will keep this a secret." Ron said with a laugh. "That was probably where they were disappearing off to so quickly."
Hermione nodded, knowing Ron was right. There was no way the twins were not going to gossip about what Ginny had done. Hermione was just going to settle down on the sofa next to Ron when a voice from the doorway startled her.
"I thought I heard voices." Hermione's mother, Helen, said. "How was the afternoon?"
"Eventful." Ron grinned.
"What happened?" Helen asked, always eager for gossip.
"Is dad still in the nursery?" Hermione asked, not wanting to partake in the gossip.
"Yes, he's nearly finished." Helen said, brushing her daughter off as she settled down next to Ron.
As Ron started to tell Helen about what had happened at the Manor, Hermione headed towards the spare room that was currently being decorated as a nursery. Hermione's father, David, was doing the decorating and Hermione had been banned from the room until he had finished.
"Dad can I come in?" Hermione asked as she knocked on the door.
"Two minutes." Her father's voice answered back.
Hermione stood waiting for a couple of minutes before her father opened the door slightly and squeezed out of the room. Hermione raised her eyebrow in question as she had expected her father to allow her to walk straight in.
"It's a surprise." David chuckled at his daughter as he moved behind her and covered her eyes with his hands. "I want you to get the full effect." He explained as he walked Hermione into the room.
Once they were in the room and the door was shut behind them David removed his hands so Hermione could see the room. When Hermione's father removed his hands from her eyes she blinked a few times before her eyes focused on the room in front of her. Hermione gasped and spun round as she took in the elaborately decorated room.
Instead of the four walls being painted one colour the room was decorated with a fairy-tale princess mural. The base of the walls were decorated green and designed to look like grass while the top of the walls were blue with fluffy white clouds dotted around the room. There was a large castle on one wall while on another was a unicorn drinking from a stream. There were also several animals frolicking among the grass and a toadstool ring with several fairies flying about near it.
"Do you like it?" David asked.
"It's amazing, I love it." Hermione said, hugging her father. She'd always known that her father had a passion for art but she had no idea that he was so skilled himself.
As Hermione was hugging her father she spotted a part of the mural she hadn't seen as her father had been standing in the way. Hermione let go of her father and walked over to the princess and prince that her father had painted on the wall near to the castle. David bit his lip anxiously as Hermione examined the part of the picture he was most nervous about.
"I can change it if you want." David offered, wondering if he had made a mistake.
"No, it's perfect." Hermione said, fighting the urge to caress the wall or more specifically the face of the prince.
Hermione stared at the fairy-tale couple on the wall. The princess was wearing a long purple dress and had long curly, brown hair and brown eyes. The prince however was what Hermione was really interested in. The outfit reminded Hermione of a Disney prince but it was the features that were really compelling to her. With the prince's pale blond hair and piercing grey eyes it was obvious that Hermione's father had modelled the prince on Draco. The princess was clearly modelled on her but Hermione was much more interested in the prince.
"Are you sure it's okay?" David asked, still unsure if he had upset Hermione. "If it's too painful I can change it."
"Don't, I love it." Hermione said, turning to face her father. "Everything is perfect, thank you so much."
"You're welcome darling." David hugged Hermione, pleased that she was happy with his decision to commemorate Draco. He had figured it would be nice for his granddaughter to have her father's presence in the room since he couldn't be there for her in reality.
Hermione took one final look around the beautiful room before she left with her father. As they headed to the front room Hermione started to mentally make a list of the furniture she would need for the nursery. She had been putting off buying anything until the room was decorated and she knew what style room she was buying for.
When Hermione entered the front room Ron gave her a hug before he left. Hermione had known Ron couldn't stay long but he had insisted on making sure she got home safely. The only reason he had been in the penthouse as long was that her mother had collared him asking for gossip.
"Ron told me what happened." Helen said once Ron had left.
"It was a misunderstanding. Ginny got hold of the wrong end of the stick." Hermione explained.
"It wouldn't be wrong if you moved on. Although moving on with your best friend who's already taken isn't the best idea." Helen said.
"I'm not moving on." Hermione snapped. "Harry and I are just friends."
"You have to move on one day." Helen insisted.
"One day, not now. Draco's only been gone six months." Hermione said, getting angry with her mother.
"He's not gone, Hermione, he's dead." Helen said. She didn't want to be cruel to her daughter but she felt that Hermione hadn't really accepted that Draco was dead, she had never once said he was dead she always used gone when describing him.
"Do you not think I know that?" Hermione yelled. "Do I not think I realise that when I go to sleep alone very night or when I wake up alone in the morning and remember why the other half of the bed's empty. Or how about when I look around the penthouse and every room has a dozen memories attached to it."
"I don't want to upset you Hermione." Helen said as Hermione started crying softly. "But you're not dealing with this very well."
"I'm sorry, I didn't realise there was a right way to grieve for your fiancé." Hermione said sarcastically.
"I didn't mean that. You can grieve however you want." Helen said. "But I think it's time you finally accepted that Draco isn't coming back."
"I know that." Hermione whispered. She had actually put off dealing with the reality of never seeing Draco again for weeks after the accident but she had finally accepted that he was gone.
"Do you?" Helen asked gently. "You still have all of his belongings packed away in the study and you only stopped wearing your engagement ring because your fingers were swelling with the pregnancy."
"Just because I've kept things doesn't mean I'm not aware of what's happening." Hermione insisted.
Helen opened her mouth to speak again but David stopped her, sensing that if she said much more to Hermione their daughter would react badly.
"Come on, it's time we were leaving." David said to his wife. "Hermione needs to rest, she's had a long day."
Hermione smiled appreciatively at her father as he bundled her mother into her coat and led her to the door.
"I never meant to upset you, Hermione." Helen said as they reached the door.
"I know." Hermione hugged her mother before her father steered her out of the door.
Hermione sighed in relief as the door shut behind her parents. Hermione loved her mother and she knew that she only had her best intentions at heart but she was proving slightly overbearing lately. She had been nagging at her to get rid of Draco's things for a couple of months now but so far Hermione had refused to budge. Hermione knew there was no point in keeping all of Draco's belonging's in the study but she just couldn't bring herself to part with them yet.
As Hermione settled on the sofa she pulled out the silver chain she wore around her neck as her mother's words about the engagement ring ran through her head. On the chain around Hermione's neck were her engagement ring and Draco's signet ring that he had accidently left behind the weekend he had his accident. Hermione had found Draco's ring in the bathroom on the day he had left with his friends, obviously he had forgotten to put it back on before he left the penthouse. Hermione's engagement ring was on the chain because like her mother said her fingers were swollen with pregnancy and she could no longer wear the diamond ring without it cutting into her circulation. Hermione had been planning on putting the ring back on the moment her fingers were back to normal but now her mother was making her doubt the decision.
Hermione tucked the chain back under her top and stood up. She still had a few months before she would be able to wear the ring again and she could make a decision then, until then it was perfectly fine hanging around her neck so it was close to her heart.
Helen's words haunted Hermione as she tidied the front room and headed into the kitchen for a drink. As Hermione drank her glass of water she wondered if her mother was right and she was failing to accept that Draco had gone. Placing her half-drunk glass on the kitchen counter Hermione left the kitchen and headed towards the study.
In all the years they had lived in the penthouse Hermione had rarely entered the study. The room was very much Draco's space and Hermione had respected the fact that sometimes he had needed to be alone. As such Hermione only ever entered the room occasionally so it was the obvious choice of room to store Draco's belongings in. Hermione knew that if she had kept Draco's things in another room that she would be constantly rummaging through them as she tried to hold onto his memory.
Hermione entered the study and stood in the doorway for several seconds as she looked at the room full of boxes. Harry and Ron had helped her with the packing and it had been them who had placed the boxes in the study so Hermione was pleased to find that they had kept things relatively neat. Ignoring the boxes for the time being Hermione wandered over to Draco's desk and sat down in the large black chair behind it.
While Hermione had packed up most of Draco's belonging's around the penthouse she hadn't touched the study so Draco's desk was exactly as he had left it. Hermione smiled at the obsessively tidy desk of her fiancé. Hermione knew that Draco was a neat freak so she hadn't expected anything less from his desk. Hermione ignored the quills and parchment that were neatly arranged on the desk as she reached for the gold picture frame that stood on the corner of his desk. Hermione immediately recognised the photo of herself and Draco, it had been taken in the gardens of the Manor a few weeks after graduation.
Hermione hadn't wanted to visit the Manor after the events of the war but Draco had wanted her to meet Narcissa so she agreed to go back to the place that occasionally haunted her dreams. Hermione had been pleasantly surprised to find that Narcissa had redecorated the entire house and it was now warm and welcoming rather than the foreboding place it had once been. Hermione had immediately fallen in love with the magnificent gardens so she and Draco spent the majority of the afternoon lying outside.
Narcissa had taken the picture after seeing how happy Draco looked. Neither Draco or Hermione had even been aware that Narcissa had taken the picture until she gave it to them before Hermione left. The picture showed Draco and Hermione lying in the grass, Draco was lying on his side tracing his finger down Hermione's face when Hermione opened her eyes and smiled at Draco. Hermione watched the moving picture for quite a while, reliving the memory of being so care free and in love.
Replacing the frame in its place Hermione opened the top drawer in the desk. Spotting several documents from Draco's company Hermione wondered whether anyone would need them but then she figured if they were important surely someone would have asked about them before now.
Draco's company was currently being managed by his second in command while Narcissa and Hermione debated what to do with the business. In Draco's will he had left his shares in the business to Hermione but Narcissa had several shares herself, mostly what she inherited from Lucius after he had received his life sentence in Azkaban. While Hermione had the controlling share she didn't want Narcissa to feel left out so she had asked her opinion. Narcissa wasn't keen on selling the business and she had gotten Hermione to agree to wait until after the baby was born before they made any final decision about the future of the company.
Shutting the top drawer Hermione opened the second drawer. In the drawer she found extra stationary supplies along with a cream folder tucked at the bottom of the drawer. Opening the folder Hermione was surprised to find several cut out newspaper articles. Tipping them onto the desk Hermione found they all had one common theme, Lucius.
Some of the articles dated back to their school days and Hermione wondered how long Draco had been collecting the cuttings for. Sorting the cuttings out Hermione found the first article was dated in October of their first year of Hogwarts. Hermione knew how much Draco had idolised his father at that age so she wasn't that surprised that he would keep press cuttings about him. What did surprise Hermione was that the cuttings went right up to the end of the war, when she knew for a fact that Draco's relationship with Lucius was practically non-existent. There were even several articles that went beyond the war, detailing his arrest and subsequent prison sentence.
Hermione gathered the articles back up and put them in the file before she returned them to the drawer. She had had no idea that Draco kept such a file, clearly he hadn't been as immune to Lucius as he liked to claim to be. Hermione was upset that Draco had never confided in her about the file and his feelings towards his father. It was something she would have loved to have asked him about, but now she would never get the chance.
Shutting the second drawer and shutting away her questions at the same time Hermione opened the last drawer. All the bottom drawer held was an ornately decorated wooden box with her name carved on the top. Very curious as to what the box contained Hermione lifted it onto the desk and opened it to reveal several vials of silvery memories. Hermione lifted the first bottle out of the box, before she even had a chance to wonder what it contained she spotted a neat label with Draco's writing on the side of the bottle. Hermione smiled when she read the label on the bottle - first date. Hermione searched through the remaining bottles and found they were all labelled similarly. Among the bottles she found; first kiss, proposal, first night together, first I love you, first night in penthouse. Hermione also found several larger vials labelled with various destinations around the world that they had visited together.
Hermione couldn't help but cry as she looked at the box full of memories of their relationship. Draco had preserved every one of their special moments and holidays together. Hermione continued to cry as she realised their entire relationship was in the box, they would never have the chance to add to the collection of memories. There should have been thousands more memories to add to the box but now it would remain as it was, incomplete. There would never be a vial marked, wedding or honeymoon. Even the memories Hermione would eventually have of giving birth to their first child wouldn't fit into the box as Draco wouldn't be a part of the happy day.
Still crying Hermione replaced the box in the drawer before she left the study. One day she would view the memories that Draco had collected but for now all Hermione wanted to do was curl up in bed and mourn for the love she had lost.
