Draco checked his watch once more. Dr. Milligan was waiting patiently, but he too was glancing at the clock that hung above his client's head. Both were painfully aware that Hermione was never late. Even if by chance she was, it was never more than five minutes, not twenty. Something was wrong.

"I have to go look for her." Draco said suddenly as he rose from the sofa. Dr. Milligan nodded as he also got to his feet.

"Very well. And don't worry, I won't charge for the session. I'll just put it towards the next one, if that's alright?"

"That's fine."

Draco left Dr. Milligan's office in search of Hermione. While he was frantically about, apparating to every place he thought she might be and worrying that she had dropped dead somewhere, said witch was perfectly fine. She had made a clear, conscious choice not to go to the counseling session today. Instead of leaving her office early, she stayed behind and partook in every nervous habit imaginable –particularly nail biting.

Hermione had already bitten the nails on her left hand to the nub and was halfway through her right when a loud pop! resonated in the room. She looked up to the figure standing in the middle of her office and she practically leapt out of her seat.

"Draco, what the hell are you doing here?!" She shouted. She quickly took out her wand and casted several locking and silencing charms on her office door. She even temporarily deactivated her Floo. "Someone could've been here! Ron could've been here!"

Draco took a quick look around before laying his eyes back on her, his nostrils flaring almost as badly as hers. "Since no one is, let's stick to the matter at hand, shall we? I've been looking everywhere for you! Why weren't you at Dr. Milligan's office?"

Hermione pursed her lips and pulled down her rolled up sleeves before returning to her seat. "I decided not to go today. I probably should've owled you in advance or called Dr. Milligan, but I was…quite busy with my work."

Draco narrowed his eyes. He stared at her desk, perfectly clean and not a piece of parchment, quill, or book out of place. He huffed. "You're a terrible liar. Try again."

Hermione groaned exasperatedly and crossed her arms angrily over her chest. "This isn't a big deal, Draco. So what I didn't go today? Maybe I won't go next week. Hell, maybe I won't go the week after that either. It's been weeks. I admit, we've had interesting sessions, and sure, it may have us acting a bit more amicable. But open your eyes! I'm still planning a wedding despite what's happening."

Draco's ears twitched at those last words. He took a step closer as Hermione shrank back in her seat. "What's happening?"

"Nothing,"

"Like I said, terrible liar."

Hermione clamped her mouth shut and refused to meet his eyes. Draco's heart was aching yet again, and he could see from the look on her face that hers was the same. He swallowed and took one of the seats in front of her desk.

"You can't marry Weasley."

Hermione looked up for a short moment before chuckling and looking down again. "You should really start throwing around another sales pitch-"

"I'm serious."

"So am I." Hermione sighed and starting going in on her right hand nails again. Before long she stopped and placed both of her hands in her lap as well as her gaze. "It's not uncommon, you know. For former spouses to feel something again after reminiscing..." She braved the task of staring at Draco and immediately regretted it. He looked hopeful, but she knew her words were only going to crush him. "But under different circumstances this would never happen."

Draco frowned. "But these aren't different circumstances. If you're starting to love me again then-"

"I never stopped loving you." Hermione interrupted. She shrugged and began playing with the hems of her sleeves. "I don't think I ever could. But I love Ron more."

The flinch Draco exhibited made Hermione do the same. Soon he was rising out of his chair and standing in the middle of her office again. As he prepared to disapparate Draco gave her once last look.

"You never took me off the list."

Hermione furrowed her brow. "What are you talking about?"

"Your office," he gestured to the room. "Only people with clearance from the office holder can apparate in and out of here." Draco smiled then, a soft, knowing smile that made Hermione fidget terribly. "I'll see you next week, Hermione."

The following week came much faster than Hermione could have anticipated. She had greatly considered not going to this session either, but the last thing that she wanted was for Draco to suddenly tack on more sessions as recompense for missing others. Her wedding was four months away, and she needed to be shot of her husband as soon as possible.

"Hermione," Draco greeted as he entered Dr. Milligan's office. She had only gotten there five minutes before him and was sitting in her usual spot.

"Draco,"

He met her address with a nod and sat down. Neither said anything else while Dr. Milligan watched his two clients. Something was different about them today. Their relationship, as he'd determined thus far, was strained. It always had been –before they were friends, while they were dating, during their marriage, and even now after all this time apart. But even then, it was a strain that they both welcomed and daresay enjoyed. This tension now, this very palpable disruption in their relationship, this was quite new.

Dr. Milligan decided not to address it, as he was quite sure it would come out during the session on its own.

"As I said two weeks prior, I'd like to take our sessions into a different direction. While this may not be pleasant, I'd like to start talking about what you feel…went wrong during your marriage. The things that you feel eventually contributed to your divorce."

Hermione frowned. She looked across at Draco who was sporting the same expression. "It was…"

Draco cleared his throat. "There were a lot of…"

"How about this," Dr. Milligan said. "Think of your marriage. Your problems. Name the first thing that comes to your mind."

The office grew silent for a moment. After a few passing seconds both parties answered with surprising strength in their tones.

"Insecurities,"

"Weasley,"

Hermione rounded on Draco quickly at his answer and felt blood rush to her face. "Are you kidding me? That's what you really think? We had much bigger problems Draco and he was not it.'

"He was too, and you know it." Draco practically snarled at her. Dr. Milligan was surprised at the anger suddenly in the room and tentatively tried to capture their attention.

"I'm sorry, but who's Weasley?"

"Her ex."

"And my friend at the time." Hermione added to Dr. Milligan before returning her furious gaze back to Draco. "You've never liked him. You hated him the worst out of all of my friends, so of course you'd pin our failure on him."

"No, I pin our failure on him because he was a like a bloody cockroach! We argue, and he's there. At our house, in a letter, a Floo call-"

"Draco!"

"-And I knew what he was saying. That I wasn't worth it. That you'd made a mistake. That you could do better. It could have been anyone else –Potter, his wife, hell, even the local barkeep, but Weasley? The one who'd been following you around like puppy for years? The only reason I never hexed his arse-"

"Draco, damn it!"

"-Is because you would've hated me for it."

Hermione was beyond angry. Not just because he'd essentially blamed Ron for everything that went wrong with them, but also because he so blatantly alluded to magic in front of Dr. Milligan. Their counselor, however, was busily jotting down notes about them and was seemingly oblivious to the "oddities" that had spewed out of Draco's mouth.

She took a deep breath to calm her raging nerves. "I admit that you weren't his favorite person, but I was, and still am, a big girl. I wouldn't be so easily swayed just because I was mad at you!"

"Oh yeah, why did we file for divorce then?" Draco challenged. "Why, out of every man out there, did it have to be him for you to start seeing?"

Hermione huffed. "You can't control who you fall for. You should know that better than anyone. And to answer your first question, it was because you didn't think we could last."

Draco gaped at her. "When the hell did I ever say that?"

"When you said you didn't want to have children…with me." Hermione said sadly, her anger gone as quickly as it had come. "That's what told me that."

Draco swallowed deeply. He wished more than anything now that Dr. Milligan wasn't there and that he and Hermione were alone. He needed to talk to her. He needed to make her understand that that wasn't how he'd meant for her to take it. And, for Merlin's sake, if that had been her motivation for wanting to divorce him…

Well, the last five years had been an unnecessary waste, hadn't they?

This week…was a hard week. Hermione had felt a sadness she hadn't felt since getting divorced from Draco. She thought that putting her heart and soul into wedding planning would help take her mind off of things, but it only helped so much. Being around Ron only made Draco's words about him resound in her ears. By Sunday she was turning down dinner at the Weasley residence to spend an evening with her parents. While her father got shooed out of the kitchen by the women, Hermione and her mother got to work on dinner.

"Do you remember Mrs. Duncan? The woman who lives just a few houses down?"

Hermione scrunched her brows together in thought as she tackled vegetables with a knife. "The one who comes to play cards with you sometimes?"

"Yes, that's the one. Well, it was during one of our card games recently that she told me that her daughter got a part-time job."

"That's nice. Good for her to get a little money rolling in."

"Isn't it? She...ah...got the job at an ice rink."

Hermione slowed her chopping down immediately, but didn't look up at her mother. The ice rink. The ice rink. But she was there with both Draco and Ron. Oh no… "Oh?"

"Mhmm, Katie. I don't expect you to know her, but she's been to the house plenty of times and, well, with all the photographs your father and I have of you..."

Hermione's chopping had stopped altogether now and she finally turned to her mother. "You're fishing, mum. What is it?"

Mrs. Granger sighed and wiped her hands on her apron. "Katie saw you at the ice rink last week with a, and I quote, handsome blonde guy. She also added that you two were quite friendly."

Hermione felt terrible. She knew what her mother must be thinking, and all at once she began to feel appalled.

"I would never cheat on Ron. Mum, you should know that. You should know me."

Her mother's cheeks flushed with embarrassment. "I know, and I'm sorry dear. I just...I had to ask. Please, forgive me."

Hermione didn't want to. She felt utterly betrayed by her mother, but held in her anger because she remembered what had happened at the ice rink. She knew what it must've looked like. She also knew what she'd felt. That, in its own right, made her feel like she'd cheated.

Hermione frowned. "It's alright. We were having a good time that night. The fun –innocent fun, I might add –that we were having could've easily seemed like something more. I assure you that it wasn't."

"Good." Mrs. Granger smiled. She went back to kneading dough, but kept looking at her daughter from her periphery. Hermione knew that she wanted to say something more. She wasn't surprised then by what came out of her mouth. "Who was he?"

Hermione was absolutely dreading her mother's reaction. She went back to chopping vegetables so she wouldn't have to look at her when she said, "It was Draco."

Her mother turned to get daughter with wide eyes. "Draco?"

"Yes."

"Draco, Draco?"

"Yes."

"As in your ex-husband, Draco?"

"Mum!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! But...Draco? The two of you haven't spoken in five years!"

Hermione frowned bitterly. How was it that her own mother didn't fudge with the length of time of her divorce, but she did?

"When on earth did this happen?"

"October,"

"October!" Her mother gasped. She then pinched her daughter on the arm and Hermione yelped. "Hermione Jean Granger, you mean to tell me that you've been in contact with your ex-husband since October and you've just now told me?!"

"I didn't think it was a big deal."

"Well it certainly is! You know good and well that boy was like a son to me!"

Hermione tried to hide her smile. Her mother wasn't exaggerating. She'd heard plenty of awful stories about Draco from her over the years, and so when Hermione told her mother, her father too, who she was dating, they had both been skeptical and thought her mad. Nearly six months into the relationship Draco was brought home to meet her parents. Hermione had expected her father to rip him to shreds, but was thoroughly thrown for a loop when her mother had done it instead. She'd walked right up to Draco, no hello, no welcome to our home, and said, "Our daughter says you're not cruel as you once were. Must be true for her to be seeing you. But if you do anything to hurt her, this muggle will do worse to you than if I were a witch. Understand?"

After Draco had stared in shock for a few seconds, he nodded. Mrs. Granger smiled then, finally issuing words of welcome and promptly began giving him a tour of the house. After that night was over, Hermione had apologized profusely to him, but Draco waved her off and smiled broadly. "I love your mother. She reminds me of you."

Mrs. Granger had loved him too. He was, as she said, like a son to him, and they wrote each other often. He even visited the Granger residence without Hermione, just to see her mother. That said, their divorce had broken her. She and Draco had continued writing to each other even after the divorce –mostly filled with Mrs. Granger's deepest wishes that he and her daughter find a way to work things out. Those letters stopped, however, when Hermione found out and screamed at her mother for keeping in contact with him. Her father had disapproved of how she'd handled the situation. She hadn't cared. It was only now that she regretted breaking up such a wonderful relationship.

"How is he?"

Hermione was wrenched from her thoughts. "He's doing well. I'll let him know you asked about him."

It got quiet then. Both women went back to their respective cooking tasks, but soon the silence was breached again.

"You two had ended so terribly." Mrs. Granger said softly. "How did you get on friendly terms with him again?"

The "son" you love so much blackmailed me.

"He saw my wedding announcement and owled to congratulate me."

Her mother scoffed. "Draco congratulated you? He does know that you're marrying Ron, right?"

Merlin, she knows him well.

"Yes, he does."

"Is he ill?"

"Mum..."

"Oh don't 'mum' me. We both know Draco, and he would sooner give up magic and live as a muggle than approve of your engagement to Ron."

Hermione couldn't help her grin. "Is it really that hard to believe that he's...matured?"

Mrs. Granger gave her an incredulous look. Hermione couldn't hold it back and smiled fully. Soon she was laughing. "Alright, alright, he hates the idea. He thinks I can do better." She bit her lower lip and sighed. "I hate him for it."

Her mother gazed at her daughter with a sad expression. "No, you don't. You could never hate him. You loved him much too much for those feelings to ever turn to true hate. For them to...go away."

Hermione suddenly stared at her mother harshly. "What are you saying?"

Mrs. Granger sighed. "Just that Draco's thoughts on the matter wouldn't be affecting you so much if you didn't still feel something. And he wouldn't care about you getting remarried if he didn't still feel something."

Hermione scowled. "Draco doesn't care that I'm getting married again. He cares that it's Ron." Her face softened as she took back up her chopping. "I know that he still loves me. I...love him too. We were married. It's natural. But if he really, truly loved me, he'd want me to be happy and let me live my life."

"I see." Mrs. Granger replied solemnly. She stared at her daughter, took in her slumped shoulders, her sorrowful disposition, and felt the weight that her only child was carrying. "May I say something?"

Hermione nodded.

"It's...a bit hard to 'live your life' as you say when you're ice skating with the very person you want to get away from."

Hermione immediately nicked her finger on the knife she was holding. It hurt, yes, but nothing hurt more than what her mother had just said. But she didn't understand, did she? She didn't know that she was stuck with Draco for the time being. Her mother didn't know that her relationship with Ron was being tested. That she was being tested. And as blood from Hermione's finger mingled in with freshly chopped vegetables, so did a tear.

She was failing her test.

When Mrs. Granger saw the tears streaming down her daughter's face she knew that there was a lot more going on than what there appeared to be. So, with her full mother mode on, she removed her daughter from the kitchen, sat her down in the living room, and they talked. They talked a lot. Hermione told her the truth, starting with the denied marriage license up to her hideous realization that she had begun to want her relationship with Ron to be like the one she had with Draco.

"None of this would be happening if he had just signed the damn divorce papers when I asked."

Mrs. Granger frowned. "I do admit that was quite childish of him."

"It's Draco." Hermione shrugged. "But I have to be fair and blame myself too. I'm a smart girl. I could've found another way."

"Why didn't you?"

Hermione shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "He challenged me... My relationship... I wanted to prove him wrong and, that too, was childish."

"It was." Her mother agreed. "Why don't you do it now?"

"Do what?"

"Find another way. It's obvious Draco wants to keep this going –to keep you from marrying Ron. You said it yourself. You're a smart girl. Why don't you find another way to finalize your divorce?"

Hermione hung her head low in shame before answering. "Because I'm...curious. Dr. Milligan is a wonderful marriage counselor. I just can't help but wonder if he can, you know, fix us."

"So, let me get this straight." Her mother said with an amused smile. "You want to, in essence, fix your relationship with Draco, but still marry Ron? Sweetheart, you do realize how improbable that is, don't you?"

"Of course I do. But it's not like I want to fix things just to be with him. That's not it at all."

"It's not?"

"No!" Hermione yelled with much less conviction than there should've been. "I just... I want to know if we could've worked."

"What then? What if you find out that it could have? That it still can?"

Hermione frowned. She didn't know. She honestly didn't know.

Author's note: On the funny side, I had a blast writing Mrs. Granger's reaction to finding out Hermione's been talking to Draco. She's just so…cute haha. On a more serious note: Draco. Of course you already know that he hates Ron, but this was some fierce bout of anger that came out of him during the counseling session. Then there's Hermione and a tiny glimpse of what drove her away. If it hasn't before, I hope the image of Draco and Hermione's marriage is starting to come full circle. The rest of that circle is chapter 11.

-WP