A/N: Just basically a filler. I need sleep. I own nothing. Review. Enjoy!
Chapter Eleven-April
Hello there, the angel from my nightmare
The shadow in the background of the morgue
The unsuspecting victim of darkness in the valley…
…And in the night we'll wish this never ends.
We'll wish this never ends.
Miss you, Miss you.
-Blink 182
Two weeks had passed and it was now spring. Draco didn't show up to work, taking sometime for a personal leave. Coincidently it happened just after Ginny told him that he was about to be a father. Or more like it is because of that. Anyway, Robards was starting to get annoyed with how everyone in the office was acting. Ron got suspended for three days after he got into another fight with Ginny.
However, Ron's suspension really knocked some sense into his head because the fight had ended there. Or maybe it was because he didn't have to look at Draco right now. Maybe both. Either way they were getting along again.
Ginny tried not to spend her time wondering about Draco. He left their office that day completely shocked and unable to form words. She knew he would come back but she didn't like how he had been gone for two weeks. Blaise hasn't even heard from him.
The longer he stayed away, the more frustrated she became. It was now April and she was now fourteen weeks pregnant and two weeks away from beginning her leave from work. If Draco was going to take his time coming to terms with everything, then she would simply have to continue her life instead of waiting on him, expecting him to just come back.
Maybe she was wrong about him all this time…
Hermione sat at her desk at work. Her head was in her hands, as it was most days now. She was working hard to keep up with everything and she was doing everything she could to hide her stress from Robards.
It's not like she couldn't handle the work without a secretary. She was Hermione Granger and no task was too big for her. She was just so utterly stressed and distracted. It wasn't much help that she usually got help when she was stressed from Ginny, who was currently off the charts with stress.
There was a knock at the door and Hermione immediately perked up and told them that they could come in. Her office was clean at least. Cleaning was the only thing she could get done because it didn't require actual thinking.
"Well hello there." Blaise said walking into the office. Hermione couldn't help but smile. This guy was something else, but whatever it was it made Hermione feel better. Over the past three weeks, the two of them became quick friends and Hermione quickly learned why Ginny said Blaise was such a good friend.
He hadn't lied when he said he didn't want all the drama. He showed absolutely no romantic interest in Hermione since that night. That didn't mean that he wouldn't pop up at her work a few times a week.
"It's good to see you." Hermione said and he led her away from the desk. "Where am I going?" She asked him, reaching out for her purse, just barely grabbing it.
"It's lunch and today I have no one to eat with. That simply does not suit me." He said, opening the door and Hermione rolled her eyes and shook her head. However, she did smile and walk out the door.
"Where are we going to eat?" Hermione asked, following Blaise to an apparation safe zone. He cleared his throat.
"We have to make a quick stop first. Then we can go anywhere you would like." He said and Hermione nodded, taking his head as he apparated them away.
Hermione stared around and looked at Blaise, trying to figure out what was going on. He still had a firm grip on her hand as he led her thru the cemetery.
"Ginny?" Dean asked, kind of surprised to see her. Although he wasn't sure why he was because Luna did still live with him.
"Hey Talon!" Ginny said excitedly to the little boy running up to her. She scooped him up, ignoring Dean's shock. He did smile in amusement while Ginny tickled Talon, before setting him down.
"Did you come to visit Talon?" Dean asked her, knowing it wasn't the reason that she came.
"Why are you so surprised that I am here?" Ginny asked him, slipping of her coat and shoes.
"Well I know you're not popping up to visit me and you haven't spoken to Luna in months. Not surprising once you find out Harry is Talon's father." Dean said, his voice a little dry towards the end and Ginny rolled her eyes.
"For starters, according to everyone, you are his father." She said and Dean smiled a little, but Ginny continued. "I am not mad. Merlin that is the last thing that I am. I am just not ready to lose Luna." Ginny explained and he nodded.
"It hasn't been easy. She's lost a lot of weight and she is very frail. Bed rest mostly. Talon spends most of his time with her though." Dean explained and Ginny felt her heart sting. She couldn't go without visiting Luna though. She nodded and then followed Dean to where Luna was in bed.
It didn't take more than two seconds for tears to spring to Ginny's eyes. What happened to the days when she didn't cry, she held her emotions well. Oh yeah, pregnancy happened. Dean did look surprised by her tears as he let her in the room.
"Hey Luna." Ginny said, walking towards the bed. Luna turned her head over to look at Ginny, who now had tears spilling out.
"You can't be Ginny. She doesn't cry." Luna said weakly, her voice fading in and out. Ginny smiled and took a seat on the bed next to her.
"That's why I didn't come until now. I wasn't mad at you. I just knew that I couldn't handle it." Ginny said, grabbing Luna's bony, cold hand, who was smiling weakly. "We've gone through so much. I had the will to survive in that dungeon because you did it for so much longer than me." Ginny said and Talon reached over, wiping away the tears on Ginny's face and telling her 'mommy would be fine'. Not that it helped her crying any, but she did laugh a little.
"Lucius Malfoy. Isn't he a charmer." Luna said weakly with a small smile. Ginny nodded noticing how sunken in her face looks and she was frail, cold and practically lifeless. She muttered something about taking a nap and Talon laid down next to her and Ginny nodded.
"Why are we here?" Hermione asked him, but he said nothing. He only kept walking until he found the gravestone he had been looking for. Hermione froze and then sent him a look, before looking back to Chloe's gravestone.
"You are not going to get over this if you do not confront it." He said and Hermione shook her head, looking away from the grave.
"Blaise I-" She began but he cut her off.
"Was in love with Chloe whether you want to admit it or not." He said before telling her he had to go find someone else. "I'll be back in ten or twenty minutes to see how you are doing." He said, before walking off. Hermione froze, not willing to look at the grave for a few minutes. Finally she caved and looked at it once more. She sighed and took a seat.
"I never treated you fairly." Hermione said finally, the fear of feeling stupid talking to a stone finally gone. "I was just so confused and in denial of how I was feeling. I was scared and I'm sorry." Hermione said, feeling herself tear as she finally confessed her guilt. "Everything happened so fast, losing Ron and falling for you. You were so patient with me and I know it must have been hard to get your love turned down again and again. You never gave up though so I guess you must have known that deep down I loved you." Hermione said, standing up. She took a deep breath and feeling better than she had in weeks, even with tear streaks down her cheeks. She quickly wiped them away as Blaise walked over.
"Wasn't that bad was it?" He asked and Hermione smiled, shaking her head.
"Who did you visit?" Hermione asked him as he held out his hand. She took it, still smiling.
"Daphne." He said and Hermione nodded, not really sure what to say. "I had to let her know I would never replace her, but I had to let her go. I've been holding onto her for years now." He explained and Hermione smiled when she seen him smile before she apparated him away to get food.
Ginny was having a cup of tea with Dean for a while. He was explaining to her everything the doctor had said last time he came, but none of it was very good at all. It tore Ginny's heart to see Luna suffering and to see Talon clinging on to her.
"It's going to be so hard on him." Ginny said quietly and Dean nodded solemnly.
"He will be okay eventually. He has me and Harry still wants to spend time with him." Dean explained and Ginny nodded, happy to hear that Dean was keeping Talon. She was sure Harry wouldn't take him away, but you never know, she might not know him as well as she think she does. Stupid Draco, now she was back on how he just left her after she said she was pregnant with his child. Bloody coward.
"I guess I should be going." She said, finishing the rest of her tea. Dean stood and led her to the door, opening it up for her. He told her she was welcome over whenever and then she stepped outside, apparating away. Might as well apparate while she still can.
Ginny appeared outside Hermione's flat, walking inside in time to see Hermione setting her purse down, noticing Hermione had a smile on her face.
"Where did you go today?" She asked before Ginny had a chance to, noticing the red stains on her cheeks.
"I went to visit Luna." Ginny said and Hermione nodded, no reason to ask her why she was crying. "Where were you?" Ginny asked and Hermione smiled once again.
"Visited Chloe." She said and Ginny's jaw dropped.
"And exactly how many times did I tell you to do that?" Ginny said, surprised that the girl finally went.
"Yeah, Blaise really left me with no choice when he left me standing in front of her grave." She said and Ginny was once again shocked.
"You and Blaise. I have been hearing more and more about you two. Always together. Have I missed something? I didn't even know you two were friends or whatever you are." Ginny rambled on and Hermione smiled.
"We are friends. Perhaps something more in the future, but just friends now." Hermione said and Ginny couldn't help but laugh.
"And I thought my love life was intense." Ginny said and Hermione rolled her eyes, but still smiling.
"Trust me, your love life is off the radar. Especially if Draco doesn't return soon. Your family is starting to think he won't come back." Hermione said and Ginny rolled her eyes, because she was starting to believe them and she hated herself for it. She was feeling a lot of hate towards Draco, too.
"Of course they think that. They will all believe the worst of him. Soon they will have no choice but to see Draco as an actual person." Ginny said, obviously frustrated that Draco wasn't here and that her family believed he wouldn't be. She showed her frustration, but she didn't want to tell Hermione she was starting to lose faith. She knew he was really ticked off when she took off, but there was a lot of people she was not ready to face after the news broke.
"I believe he will come back, if it makes you feel any better." Hermione said and Ginny smiled weakly, nodding her head. Of course it was nice to have someone on your side completely, but it would be nice if he just came back.
"Oh that reminds me." Ginny began and Hermione waited. "The two of us are going to hang out with Pansy very soon." Ginny said quickly and Hermione's jaw dropt.
"Do we have to?" Hermione complained and Ginny nodded, smacking Hermione's arm.
"Excuse me, that's not nice. Pansy is how I met Draco and Blaise. Without her, you wouldn't be able to be so infatuated with Blaise." Ginny said and Hermione rolled her eyes.
"I am not smitten. I just happen to smile when he is around. A lot." Hermione said and Ginny nodded, before the older girl finally caved.
Draco stepped into the cold, dark manor. It felt good to be back home, but he wasn't sure how long he would want to call this manor home. After Ginny told him about her pregnancy, he realized how much he did not think of this place as home. Sure he grew up here and was raised here, but this is also where he was abused, not to mention where Ginny and himself were captured and tortured.
Draco never opened the doors to the dungeon or the room in which Voldemort's held his meetings and tortures. The one where Bellatrix left the scar along Ginny's back or where Lucius attempted, and nearly succeeded, to violate Ginny in front of him.
This place was not his home. He realized that as soon as he got home that day. This was his parents' manor and although it was his now, he no longer wanted it. It was like a revelation as he walked through the manor those two weeks ago. Although he had a happy childhood, those were distant memories compared to the others from this place.
Now after these two weeks he was returning. Not only because his soon to be fatherhood soaked in, but because he had found another place. He found a decent size flat, three bedroom and it was spacious for a flat on a pretty decent piece of land. It hadn't taken him long to find it, but it did take a while for him to process that he would soon be a father.
He spent a lot of his time away thinking. Wondering if he would possibly turn out like his father, cold hearted and abusive. Maybe that's what kept him away for as long as it did. One of the reasons he got a smaller house than he would normally get, was because he knew Ginny preferred it that way. A kind of material way to apologize. He sighed, opening up the door to his study, stopping dead.
"Parkinson!" He said, his voice dripping with venom.
"Oh, I guess the years haven't calmed you down." She said quietly, quite unlike her as he slammed the door shut.
"What in the bloody hell are you doing here!" Draco snapped, walking over to her. She cringed slightly, but he couldn't care less, hoping she was frightened.
"I was wrong Draco. I knew it was wrong after you left that day." Pansy said and Draco was sure this is the first time he ever heard her voice sound like this. Almost pleading. He rolled his eyes.
"Why didn't you fix it then?" He asked her incautiously. He wasn't about to let the fact she was one of his best friends for so long effect how entirely pissed he was at her. She ruined everything for him and made everything much more complicated. Almost, or possibly completely, ruining his relationship with Ginny, the only person that was actually able to prove to himself that he could be a decent guy.
"Too much pride. I've played out this scene here for years, wondering how it would be, just as I replayed our last day at Hogwarts." She said and Draco turned away trying to figure everything out.
"Pansy, I need to talk to you." Draco said and the girl nodded, following him through the school as he led her to the Slytherin common room. She sashayed over to the couch, taking a seat, noticing Draco walk up, running a handing through his eye level, soft blond hair.
"What was so important that you couldn't tell me somewhere besides the common room?" She asked as Draco chased anyone who was there out of the room, quite harshly. "Alone?" She asked again and he walked over to her, clearing his throat.
"I think I am dating Ginny." He said after a few moments and Pansy had been floored. "I think I may be falling for her." He admitted to her, which were words he never thought would leave his mouth, and Pansy had been completely shocked, not looking at all thrilled.
"No!" She snapped and he was a bit taken aback. "You think what you two had in the tent was real? We are all about to be thrown out into the Wizarding World as adults. That's enough stress, let alone the fact that your father hasn't been caught yet. Besides Malfoy's don't love." She said and Draco tried to defend himself, but she jumped back in. "Your father wouldn't stop looking for her and if you still chose to date her, just know you can never marry her." She sneered at him and Draco looked at her shocked.
"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" He asked and she smirked, standing up from her seat on the couch.
"There is no way I would approve or agree to your marriage to Ginny." She said and Draco's face fell as he just stared at her. Feeling many things at the moment, none of them good…
…"I don't know what you may think, but there is nothing between us." Draco had said a few days later, his voice cold and plain, no emotion. Sounding much like Lucius.
"What the hell is this about?" Ginny asked him, crossing her arms. He didn't really meant that. He never opened up to anyone before. Not entirely at least.
"You mean nothing to me. Everything that happened between us was just my protecting you and sex." He said, his voice blunt. Ginny never was one to give up.
"What were you feeling when you opened up to me?" She asked him, taking a step closer. While he looked away.
"I told you before I only told you because you cornered me into telling you." He said, stepping away. Her jaw practically fell open. She turned and lift the back of her shirt, exposing this long gash. She turned around in time to see him wiping a shocked look off his face. "A battle wound, what's the supposed to mean. We all have them." He said, waving it off.
"I know you could hear me scream from dungeon when your aunt sliced open my back. I know you felt something." She said and grabbed a hold of him, not letting him take a step away. She pulled the neckline of her shirt down, forcing him to look at the mark on her neck and he pushed her away. "Don't feed me this bullshit! I know you felt something because you would have let you father keep places his hands all over me. Your father biting my neck and exposing me, all right in front of you. He would have actually raped me if you-" She was in the middle of speaking and he started to shout.
"When I did what I promised! To PROTECT you! Does not mean I felt anything watching him do any of that to you." He said, rambling off at the end. Blaise was standing behind them by now although Draco had no clue, but he stayed a while back, realizing they were fighting.
"Draco." She said weakly and he threw his arms up.
"Bloody hell women your just as bad as the rest of them. I was alone in the forest with only you for company. Of course I fucked you! But that's all you mean to me. Our time together was nothing. And I do think you're crazy for saying you were falling for me." He said, the last part ending the conversation. She couldn't control it anymore, the tears just spilling out.
She turned away, walking back over to her spot by the lake. It was then that Draco realized that Blaise heard most of the fight, never giving Draco the chance to explain.
"You know you have been my best friend for years. I have defended you when others called you heartless and I told people to look passed the mark on your arm. I told Ginny to let you in because you weren't that bad of a guy." Blaise said as he began walking backwards towards Ginny. "You had me fooled and had me lying to everyone for you. You're not welcome here and your friendship is not welcome with me anymore." He said turning around. Draco shouted a few curses before walking away and back towards the castle where he noticed Pansy.
"Draco-" She began but he held his hand up.
"Don't speak to me now. Don't even speak to me again." He said harshly, pushing his way passed her and walking into the castle.
"Yeah well, I guess you suffered long enough." He said and Pansy smiled, clapping her hands.
"I'm so happy your over it. It would be hard to be in the baby's life if you hated me." She said and Draco looked at her shocked, surprised to hear that she knew that Ginny was pregnant. Pansy smiled at him. "Those two weeks Ginny ran away, she stayed with me. I confessed everything to her, telling her I was the reason you ended things with her in the first place. She is a good girl, very forgiving. Anyways, I was there when she realized that she was pregnant." Pansy said, her tone a little cocky because she was the first person to know.
I probably wouldn't be this way
I probably wouldn't hurt so bad
I never pictured every minute without you in it
Oh You left so fast…
Sometimes I feel that I'm so lucky
To have had the chance to love this much…
'Cause if I'd never seen your face
I probably wouldn't be this way
-Leanne Rimes