"...And it was honestly just the best moment of my life, Malfoy, really. I don't know what came over me but you were just being such an insensitive git and all I remember was turning back to you and clocking you right in the nose!" Hermione burst into giggles, holding her stomach. Draco fought the smirk that was playing at his lips, but unsuccessfully. The wine had barely affected him but once they dipped into the firewhiskey his focus was much more muddied than he would like it to be.

"I mean...you should have seen...your face!" Hermione finished off her glass and shook her head with her eyes closed tight. "You never even expected it!"

"Of course I didn't expect it, Granger. You punched me in the face, and it hurt like a bitch. Who knew you'd have such a good arm?"

Hermione laughed again, throwing her head back and unsteadily standing from her chair. She crossed to the counter and picked up the wine bottle, turning it upside down over her glass. The drops that came out barely covered the bottom of the glass. She frowned.

"We finished the whole bottle."

"Correction. You finished the bottle. And you're bloody drunk, Granger." He shook his head with a smirk as she tried to steady herself on her way back to the table.

"And a sloppy drunk, at that. I take it you aren't a heavy drinker."

Hermione leaned against the table. "Honestly?" she said. "I've never had more than a glass of wine at a wedding. I don't even enjoy it."

Draco tilted his head. Hermione moved to fix her hair with her left hand, forgetting her left hand was supporting her body against the table. As she lifted her hand, she went straight down, clipping her mouth on the table as she fell. It took Draco a moment to process the whole thing.

"Granger? Give some sign that you're alright so I can laugh at whatever the hell just happened." He peered over the side of the table and Hermione was pushing herself off the ground.

"I'm fine! This table is obviously not sturdy." She hissed after this sentence, and Draco realized why as he saw the blood begin to form around her bottom lip.

"Oh, dammit, Granger. You gave yourself a bloody lip. Come on, sloppy." He grabbed her elbow and supported her as they walked toward the sink. Hermione stood and waited as he took the hand towel on the stove and held it under the faucet. When he turned and went to bring it to her lip, he stopped and frowned.

"You're too damn short." He lifted her by the waist and plopped her on the counter, like a rag doll. Hermione hissed in pain again as he pressed the cloth to her lip.

"I know it hurts, but we can't have you bleeding all over the place." Through Hermione's fog, she almost thought Malfoy was trying to smile at her. She thought of smiling back, but stopped herself for two reasons: She was probably just imagining his smile in the first place, and moving her mouth at all at this moment was the most unappealing thing in the world.

"I'll have you all fixed up in no time. Merlin, why would someone who claims they only have a glass of wine at a wedding even have a pack of firewhiskey in her possession? It couldn't have been for you, Granger. Who were you planning on sharing it with?" He chuckled, but Hermione froze. She lifted her hand up to the cloth and pushed it away.

"Get out."

"What? What's wrong?" Draco didn't move but Hermione started to shimmy off of the counter and he stepped back.

"I just think you need to go. It's late and I have things to be doing other than drinking with an acquaintance. Thank you for the company." She was secretly pleased with herself for being able to string together a sentence despite how incredibly tipsy she was feeling.

"Granger, what the hell are you talking about?" Draco was incredibly confused, enough to allow himself to be ushered to the doorway.

"I'll see you when I see you. Goodnight." She closed the door. And Draco...well. Draco just stood there. He quite honestly didn't know what to do. He could hear her bolt all of the locks on her door, all the way down. He couldn't even remember saying anything that could have upset her so much. In fact, he was quite sure he had been extremely nice to Granger for the duration of the night.

By the time he was kicking off his shoes and rolling into bed, Draco had concluded that, like all women, Granger was crazy.

Hermione didn't even clean up dinner before going to bed, which was so unlike her. It was almost freeing to be able to leave such a mess though. If she had left the kitchen of the burrow looking like that, Ron would have nagged her until she cleaned it up. After all, Ron hated "reading the newspaper with last night's casserole staring at him".

She felt terrible for turning on Malfoy so suddenly, but she knew if she hadn't she probably would have become the emotional drunk that she always feared she would be.

And she felt terrible that she had probably just destroyed her only chance of having a confidant in Marlow.

On the back of the receipt from the grocery store, Hermione jotted down a to-do list for the next day. It was a habit of hers, to plan out her every step. The first few bullets were written in small cursive: get groceries for the week, clean up kitchen, make bed. But right before Hermione sat on her bed, she wrote in all capital printed letters:

GET A JOB

To face facts, she probably wouldn't be in Marlow for a very long time, with the way things were going. But she needed something to do during the day, and extra cash was always a positive. Tomorrow, she decided, Hermione would take a walk around the center of town, and scope out possible job opportunities. Somewhere quaint; she would fit in well.

Hermione got into bed, and it took her a few moment to realize what was missing. She turned on the bedside lamp and scribbled on the back of the receipt. The words, 'buy sheets' were written in fresh ink, and circled, twice.