"Give me a minute, okay?" said Hermione, giving in upon seeing how adamant he was in the matter.

Draco nodded, and waited for her to return.

True to her word, she opened the door, and gestured that he could come in then. He stepped in, not really paying any attention to his surroundings.

"Can I get you something to drink?" she asked, trailing behind him as he stood wordlessly in her living room.

He simply waved her off, and plunked himself on her couch.

"Draco?"

"Do you still hate me?" he asked, staring at her blankly.

"What? No, Draco, I never hated you," she said, taken aback at his random question.

"Fine, do you still despise my existence?" he asked, visibly getting more agitated with each word he said.

"What's brought on this random session of questions? And to answer you, no, of course, I don't despise your existence. We are friends now, remember?"

He nodded, satisfaction washing over his features.

"Do you love me?"

"Yeah, sure. You've become like Harry or Ron in my life," she smiled, glad that his mood seemed to be lifting from the gloom it had been set on previously.

He shook his head. "Are you in love with me?"

Hermione looked at him in shock, her brows furrowed, and an awkward silence looming over the two of them.

"Have you been drinking, Draco?" There was no other explanation for this behavior from him.

"Are you in love with me?" he repeated.

"No, of course not. Draco, you are my friend, and my boss. I have never had such a thought about you. What is the matter with you?" she said, appalled at the improper thought.

"Then why did you lie to Stella?"

"What?!"

"Why did you lie to Stella, Hermione?" he stood up, looming over her seat.

"What did you do, Draco?"

"Answer the question, Hermione!" he bellowed, grabbing hold of her arms, pulling her up and looking directly into her eyes.

"Draco, you're hurting me," she said, her eyes shining with tears. Tears of fear.

He shook her, determined to get his answers. "You've hurt me! Tell me why you lied to her."

"I don-"

"Don't even try that, Hermione. You're only insulting your own intelligence. Why did you tell her I loved her?"

"Did you send her away?"

"Hermione! Why did you tell her I loved her?"

He let go of her then, and she fell back to the couch unceremoniously. He paced the room in front of her, troubled by the questions running around his brain.

"You either did it because you hate me so much, you decided to be childish about us having to work together and sic one of my ex-girlfriends on me, which would get rid of me from your office, or because you are in love with me, and because of your principles, you tried to get over it by sticking me with Stella. Which one is it then, Hermione?"

"Draco, I-"

"Which. one."

"Neither! Okay, Draco? It's neither of them. I didn't do it because I hate you or love you. It's not about me in the first place. And honestly, did you send her away?" she said, jumping up from the sofa.

"Oh, for fuck's sake. Why do you even care about her?"

"Because she was supposed to marry you!" she blurted out.

"What?!"

"No-"

"Don't. What do you mean by that?"

"That is not the point. Did you send her away?"

"Of course, I did. And of course it is the point. Why are you trying to get her to marry me?"

"Because."

"I know you have a massive vocabulary, so just put a proper reasoning to words."

"You're supposed to marry her, or you'll lose your inheritance."

"What inheritance?"

"The Malfoy inheritance," she said.

"I have to marry Stella, or I won't get the Malfoy inheritance?" he asked incredulously.

"Well not Stella, per say…"

"So, I have to marry, or I won't get the whole fortune?"

"Exactly. And it has to be done before your thirty-first birthday, which is-"

"In almost a year, now," he sighed, sitting on the sofa, his head cradled in his palms.

Hermione sat in silence.

"Father put you up to this?" he peeked at her through his fingers.

She nodded.

"And that friend, Susan, was part of your plan?"

She nodded again.

"Oh, I'm going to kill him," he groaned.

"Draco, I-"

"Hermione, I don't want to marry anyone," he said, looking up at her.

"Draco, you'll literally lose it all. Your parents will, too. It isn't only your future at stake here. It's your parents' too, and of the thousands of employees at Malfoy Enterprises. They will all be affected majorly if you fail to inherit the fortune. And anyway, you have to get married someday or the other. What difference does doing it a little sooner make?"

"A lot. I don't want to get married to these random girls. If I ever do get married, no matter how cheesy this might sound, it will be for love. I have seen way too many failed arranged marriages to want the stress for myself. My parents used to fight over everything, and I know that the only reason they stuck together was for my sake. It may have changed now, but those years before were absolute torture. I want someone I know I want to spend my last living days with as my wife. I want to be able to call my wife the love of my life."

"You don't have the time to fall in love, Draco. And trust me, I wouldn't fix you up with a complete bimbo," she said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Stella," he reminded her promptly.

"What?" she said defensively. "You said you dated her for months."

"For completely different reasons than you thought," he replied pointedly, winking at her.

She huffed at him in annoyance before continuing. "Do you have anyone in mind, then?"

He looked at her, but didn't say what he wanted to say. Their argument had indirectly revealed to him that she didn't harbor the same feelings for him that he did for her. He shook his head.

"Will you trust me, then?"

He nodded.

She smiled, and reached out to pat his hand.

They would be okay.


(A/N: Hi guys, hope you're liking this. :D
Thanks for reading, and let me know what you thought. :) )