The week after Hermione had confessed everything to Draco, she barely left her flat in hopes the blond wizard would turn up at her door. However as the week progressed and there was still no sign of her lover, Hermione began to face the fact she'd lost him. Although to be honest she felt it was no more than she deserved. Vengeance hadn't been the right way to deal with Ginny, and in the end she'd only succeeded in hurting herself and Draco.
By Friday afternoon, exactly a week after she'd last seen Draco, Hermione was trying to decide what to do about her future. She had to decide whether to expose Ginny for the murdering liar she was, or whether it was best to just walk away and forget about the redhead. She also had to decide about getting a job. Did she want to stay in London and settle back in England, or did she want a fresh start somewhere new? To be honest the thought of remaining in London without Draco just didn't appeal to Hermione. She was already without friends, so without Draco as well she didn't see the point in staying. She might as well move on and start over.
In a bid to try and get some focus, Hermione headed off for a walk. Since she doubted she was sticking around, she steered clear of the wizarding world and instead headed into muggle London. After walking around for several hours she'd still made no firm decisions as she headed back towards her flat.
As Hermione approached the building she lived in she spotted a figure hovering around the doors. For a second she thought it was Draco, but when she looked closer she could see the man had dark hair. Sighing in disappointment, Hermione carried on towards the front doors, ignoring the man on the street.
"Hermione," The man called, stopping her before she entered the building.
Hermione turned to look at the stranger, and realised that he wasn't a complete stranger after all. It was Blaise Zabini, Draco's best friend. Hermione hadn't seen Blaise since before the last year of the war, but she instantly recognised Draco's good looking best friend. Blaise owned a popular restaurant in London, which he was looking to expand into a chain, and he was often pictured in the papers with various beautiful witches on his arm.
"You probably don't remember me, but we went to school together," Blaise said, thinking Hermione didn't recognise him as they'd never really had anything to do with one another back in school.
"I know who you are," Hermione replied. "You're Blaise Zabini. Although I'm puzzled as to why you're here."
"I want to talk to you, it's about Draco," Blaise said, chuckling when Hermione's eyes widened at the mention of his best friend. "Don't look so shocked, Hermione. I know all about the two of you."
"How much do you know?" Hermione asked curiously. She was wondering if Draco had sent Blaise to make sure she got the message that things were over between them.
"Everything."
Hermione nodded before turning back towards the door of her building. "You better come in," She called back to Blaise as she entered the building.
Blaise followed Hermione into the building and up to her flat. He then followed her inside her small place and looked around in surprise. The flat was very spartan and held absolutely nothing to indicate it was somewhere that someone lived on a permanent basis. It looked very much like a stopgap place for Hermione to sleep when she was in town. There was no sign of her personality in the place at all.
"Do you want a cup of tea or coffee?" Hermione asked.
"Coffee would be great, thanks," Blaise replied.
"Take a seat," Hermione said, gesturing to the sofa in the corner of the front room. "I'll be back in a minute."
Blaise settled himself on the sofa, which was really rather comfortable, and continued his assessment of the room. Finally he managed to find some hint of Hermione in the place as there was a small bookshelf standing beside the sofa. No doubt the brunette witch had plenty more books somewhere, but at least it was an indication that she spent some time in the flat.
Blaise was happily checking out which books the former Gryffindor owned, when Hermione returned with the coffee. Handing Blaise his cup, she settled down on a chair opposite him, cradling her own cup in her hands.
"So, you know everything," Hermione said, deciding to jump straight into things and find out what Blaise wanted.
"I do," Blaise nodded. "Draco confided in me after your very first encounter, and I've been his confidant ever since."
"And what, you're here to tell me I've hurt him and I should leave him alone?" Hermione questioned.
"No," Blaise answered, shaking his head. "I don't think you should leave him alone at all. I think if you do that, then the pair of you will end up miserable."
"Then what do you want?" Hermione questioned.
"I want you to come with me and talk to him," Blaise said. "He's due at my place this evening, and I think you should talk."
"So he doesn't know you're here," Hermione sighed sadly. "He doesn't want to talk to me Blaise, if he did he would be here himself."
"Honestly, he doesn't know what he wants," Blaise told Hermione. "He's in a right mess, Hermione. At the minute he's focusing on Ginny and finding out if she was ever pregnant. He's refusing to thing about you and your situation."
"Then why should I go and see him?" Hermione asked. "If he won't even think about me, then surely that implies we're over."
"If you were over, he would have ended things by now," Blaise said. "He doesn't want to think about you, because he's hurt and confused. I'm not going to tell you how much you hurt him, because I think you know that. But I will tell you how much he loves you, if he didn't truly love you then he would have walked away from you. He wants to be with you, but he needs reassurance that you want the same thing."
"I told him I wanted to be with him, but I don't think he believed me," Hermione said.
"Draco is as stubborn as they come, if you want him you'll have to fight for him," Blaise advised. "You have to show him that you won't give up, that you truly want to be with him."
Hermione looked at Blaise curiously, wondering why he cared so much about bringing the together. Surely as Draco's best friend he should be against him having anything to do with the woman who lied to him and slept with him with the intention of ending his marriage.
"Why are you so determined to see us together?" Hermione asked.
"Because Draco's my best friend and I want him to be happy," Blaise answered. "These last six months have been the first time in years I've seen him happy. You make him happy, Hermione."
"But what about everything I've done?" Hermione questioned. "I lied to him, and I tried to wreck his marriage. I'm a terrible person, he deserves better than me."
"You're not a terrible person," Blaise told the witch, surprised she was so down on herself. "Granted your actions weren't the best, but they were a product of your anger and hurt. You'd just found out someone you considered a friend had ruined your life and you were angry, it was understandable that you weren't thinking straight and made some bad choices."
"But that doesn't justify dragging Draco into things," Hermione sighed. "I never should have messed with his life, he didn't deserve to have me come along and mess it up."
"Things may be messy now, but in the long run I think you've done him a favour," Blaise said. "He deserves better than to be married to a witch that trapped him into marriage and then lied about losing a child. What Draco deserves is someone who loves him, and I think that person is you."
"I do love him," Hermione whispered. It was only this last week that she realised she wasn't falling in love with Draco, she'd already fallen.
"Then fight for him," Blaise urged as he stood up and pulled a business card from his pocket and handed it to Hermione. "I've written my address on the back. Please come and at least talk to Draco. You both deserve that chance."
Leaving Hermione with his address, Blaise left the witch's flat. He'd done all he could, now he would just have to wait and see if Hermione showed up at his later on. He hoped she did, as until her and Draco settled down to talk nothing would be resolved and his best friend would only be miserable.
xXx
When Draco arrived at his flat, Blaise wondered if something bad had happened as his friend seemed even more withdrawn than he had been all week. Obviously his first thought revolved around Hermione and he hoped Draco hadn't done something stupid like send her a message telling her he never wanted to see her again.
"What's wrong?" Blaise asked as the pair settled down with a couple of beers. "You look more miserable than usual."
"The investigator I hired ran into a few problems at St Mungo's. His source no longer works there, so it will take longer to get what we need," Draco answered.
First thing on Monday morning, Draco had gotten in touch with a contact of his father's, who happened to be a private investigator, and set him on finding out the truth about Ginny. Before Draco could make any firm decisions about his marriage he needed to know how much Ginny had lied to him, he needed to know if she'd ever even been pregnant. Initially the investigator had promised him progress by today, but when he'd gone to see him before arriving at Blaise's, he'd discovered there was a snag.
"How much longer?" Blaise asked.
"He's not sure," Draco shrugged. "It could be Monday, or it could be the back end of next week."
"I don't suppose a week's going to make much difference," Blaise pointed out.
"I guess not, but I just need to know the truth," Draco replied. "I want to know if I've grieved over a child that never existed. I may not have originally been thrilled that Ginny was pregnant, but by the time she lost the baby, I was looking forward to becoming a father. I was genuinely upset when she told me she had a miscarriage."
"I know," Blaise said softly. Draco had actually come to see him a few days after the miscarriage, and Blaise had never seen him so cut up.
"I just want the whole thing to be over," Draco sighed, leaning back and closing his eyes. "I want to move on with my life."
"And is there a certain brunette witch involved in your plans to move on?" Blaise asked.
"I have no idea," Draco admitted. "I haven't plucked up the courage to go and talk to Hermione yet."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm afraid she'll tell me she's changed her mind, and she was just using me after all."
"You don't believe that," Blaise snorted. "You know, she really cares for you. If she was just using you, she would have made sure Ginny found out about the affair months ago."
Draco grunted in response, but before Blaise could question him further the doorbell rang. Draco opened his eyes and sat up at the sound.
"Are you expecting anyone?" He asked as Blaise jumped up to answer the door.
"Hopefully," Blaise answered, before disappearing from the front room.
Less than a minute later, Blaise returned to the front room with Hermione in tow. Draco's eyes widened at the sight of his lover, and he looked between her and his friend for an explanation.
"I invited Hermione," Blaise told Draco. "I memorised her address last weekend when you were sitting about staring at it for hours. This afternoon I went to see her and asked her to come and talk to you."
"I'm not sure we have anything to talk about," Draco muttered.
"Oh yes you do," Blaise insisted. "And neither of you are leaving this room until you've talked to one another."
"Blaise's right, we need to talk," Hermione said, approaching the sofa Draco was sitting on and hovering beside it.
"I guess we do," Draco conceded. "Sit down."
Blaise smiled as Hermione perched beside Draco. Telling the couple he would be in the kitchen if they needed him, Blaise left them alone to talk. Of course from the kitchen he would be able to hear enough to know how things were going between the pair.
"I'm so sorry Draco," Hermione said once they were alone. "The last thing I wanted to do was hurt you. I know I should have told you the truth months ago, but I was afraid."
"Of what?" Draco asked, turning his head so he was looking at Hermione.
"This," Hermione said, gesturing between the two of them. "I was afraid things would end up like this, with you hating me."
"I don't hate you," Draco said quietly. "I also understand that you never set out to hurt me. I know that when you started your plan for vengeance we didn't really know one another, and to be honest after everything I did to you at school, I probably deserved a bit of payback as well."
"That never entered my mind," Hermione said. "To be honest you never entered my mind. I was so focused on Ginny that I forgot to take you into consideration. I was so selfish that I never thought about the fact I was ruining your life as well."
"As Blaise pointed out, none of this could have happened if I wasn't willing to cheat on my wife and hop into bed with you," Draco said. "If Ginny and I had been really happy and I loved her, then your plan would have failed to even take off. I'm as much to blame as you are."
"I'm not sure I would say that," Hermione sighed. "All you're guilty of is cheating on your wife. I set out to destroy a marriage and I've ended up hurting the person I love more than anything in this world."
"You love me." Draco stared at Hermione in shock. The previous week he'd been very aware that Hermione kept saying she was falling in love with him, not that she actually loved him.
"I do," Hermione admitted. "I realised this week that I've been lying to myself. I was trying to tell myself I was only in the process of falling in love with you, and that I could stop myself before it was too late. But this last week I admitted to myself that I fell a long time ago. I've been in love with you for quite a while."
"I love you too," Draco said, reaching up and cupping Hermione's face in his hand. "Do you think there's any chance this will work?"
"That's entirely up to you," Hermione replied. "I'm the one that hurt you. I suppose it all depends on whether or not you can forgive me and we can move past this."
Draco studied Hermione for several seconds, before he offered her a smile. "I can forgive you. I want to see if we have a future together."
"For Merlin's sake, give her a kiss," Blaise's voice called from the kitchen.
Hermione and Draco both laughed at Blaise, but their laughter soon ceased as their eyes locked and the serious mood returned. Slowly Draco lowered his lips over Hermione's, and the pair shared a deep kiss. When they parted, Draco pulled Hermione into his arms and the couple sat for several minutes just holding one another.
Their future together wasn't a certainty, but at least now they had a chance. All they had to do was discover the truth about Ginny and decide what to do about Draco's wife. Only then could they really see if they had a future together, or if their entire relationship had just been a passionate fling.
