Story: Starting Over

Synopsis: Hermione and Ron's marriage fails after the loss of their first child. Several months later she is given the chance to try and start over. Will she take it? Can a new love mend the pain of an old one, or are their some scars that never heal.

Rating: M

Pairing: Draco/Hermione

Beta Love: Love these ladies more than life. Thank you oblivion . baby and RooOJoy for your work on this chapter.

Disclaimer: I am not profiting from this story. Anything you recognize belongs to the great and mighty JKR.

Chapter Twenty Five

Draco had arrived at the field first and finalized the arrangements for their tent. A few hours later, under the guise of a few small cosmetic charms and a hooded cloak, Hermione had joined him. He had frowned at her long black hair and demanded that she "change that right now." Hermione had laughed at him, but obliged, using her wand to return her appearance to its normal state.

"I'm sorry," she told him, but he didn't really believe the apology to be genuine. He had no desire to see her as anything like his ex-wife, particularly right now. They had both been on edge this week, sure that the news would get out early, that something would go wrong, but nothing had. Blaise had told Daphne about Hermione, and the woman had, so far, kept the information to herself as Draco had known that she would. Pansy was her friend, but Blaise was her husband. There was a difference. They had also been waiting for news that Lavender had gone into labor early, and the couple would be unable to attend, but that news never came. Hermione felt a little guilty for wanting the other woman's child to abide by their schedule, but so much of their plan relied on Ron and Lavender being in that box the following day.

Hermione had completed her final day in the Department of Magical Creatures the previous day as well. She was taking a week off for the World Cup, and then she would be returning to work in her new role as head of the Improper Use of Magic Office. She was nervous, still unsure that she had made the right decision, but she was also excited and looking forward to the challenge of a new position.

Mr. Benton had continued to work on finding them a home, but nothing he showed them seemed to be right. He was still leaning towards Draco's idea of what he wanted in a home, and Hermione was beginning to get discouraged. They had begun arguing about idiotic things like whether the master bath was so large it really ought to be in Hogwarts instead of a home, or whether they really needed a dining room capable of feeding a small army. She and Ginny had also looked at several homes without letting Draco know about them, but none of them seemed like anything that Draco would be interested in. Hermione knew they were going to have to find some middle ground to compromise on, but at the moment she wasn't sure that they would ever find it.

Draco was full on ignoring his father now, and Hermione had been unable to avoid the subject any longer. When they had talked about it, he had refused to meet her eye as he admitted that Lucius was having a difficult time accepting their relationship. Hermione had felt something inside of her that she hadn't felt in quite a long time as he held her, promising that he didn't care what his father thought. They had met with Narcissa again once after that for lunch. The three of them had talked about their plans at the World Cup, and Narcissa had seemed to approve, believing that it would be a good way to break the news.

They had met with a reporter from the Prophet the previous weekend. She had come highly recommended by Kingsley. The woman had come to Hermione's flat where the three of them talked for several hours about their relationship, how they had fallen in love after the article about them was published, and their plans for their first public outing together at the World Cup. The reporter and Hermione had also met with Ron briefly for lunch during the week to get his opinion about the turn of events. They had all been mailed a copy of the article she was intending to publish the morning after the World Cup began. Her plan was to have a photographer at the match snap a few images of them in their box during the game. Hermione had shared her copy of the article with Kingsley, and Draco had done the same with his boss. It had been approved all around. They hoped that it would be enough to quell most of the rumors and assumptions that were sure to surface over the coming days.

Draco reached out for her, placing a soft kiss on her mouth. "This time tomorrow, this will all be over."

"Then why does this seem like it is just the beginning?" She sighed against his lips, her mind flipping through all of the obstacles still to come.

"Because you worry too much." His hands slip up her body. As his fingers reached the hem of her blouse, they slipped, just barely, underneath the material to rub circles on her skin. "We've done everything we can."

"I know." Hermione's hands moved up into his hair, burying her fingers there before she kissed him again.

"Draco?" Blaise's voice carried into the tent from the entrance. Draco pulled his hands back, kissing her one last time before she moved away from him.

"Come on in." Draco called.

The door to the tent was pulled aside to allow Daphne and Blaise to walk inside. Hermione tried not to tense at the appearance of the other woman, but she was uneasy about the meeting and couldn't help it. Daphne was tall and elegant. She wore Muggle clothing with ease, making it seem as if her expensive jeans and blouse were her every day garb, which Hermione doubted. Muggle clothing had become more and more popular, but to her knowledge, most pureblood women still preferred their traditional robes. Her blonde hair was pleated into a long braid that fell down her back, and her expression was cool and controlled.

"Daphne." Draco moved forward to greet her, and, for a moment, her eyes flashed ice and fury.

"Don't," she told him, her tone even. "I've not forgiven you for pulling me into this. Pansy is going to be livid with me."

"Just blame Blaise and I. You had no idea who I was bringing," Draco suggested.

"It won't matter," she snapped. "You know that." She passed him, moving towards Hermione. Her eyes moved down Hermione's body as she closed the gap. "What are you doing with him?" Daphne asked, apparently confused by the idea.

"I'm not actually sure," Hermione replied, smiling over at Draco.

Daphne followed her gaze, eyeing Draco with that same icey expression. "He's surely not worth all this fuss."

"Now, Daphne," Blaise cut in, but his mouth turned up at the corner into a smile, removing any doubt that he was genuinely chiding her.

"No, I'm probably not," Draco admitted, "but she is."

Daphne rolled her eyes, moving them back to Hermione. "Malfoys are so dramatic. In that sense, Pansy always fit right in." Hermione tried to think of something to say to that, but she couldn't come up with anything that wouldn't be offensive to this woman's friend. Daphne let the silence stretch on long enough for Hermione to start fumbling at her shirt, smoothing it again. "She never loved him though," the blonde witch said finally, and Hermione watched as a small smile graced her face.

"I'm really sorry that she is going to be upset with you," Hermione replied, trying not to interrupt what seemed to be Daphne tenuously accepting her into their group without explicitly saying so.

"Don't worry about Pansy. She's a bit of a bitch, but aren't we all?" She full on laughed at this, and Hermione just stared at Daphne, unsure of what to say.

"You're scaring her, Daph," Blaise told her as his arm moved around his wife's waist.

"I suppose I should remember my audience," Daphne mused. "Have they warned you about Theo's wife yet?" She raised one of her perfectly sculpted eyebrows as her eyes sparkled with something Hermione didn't quite understand.

"No," Draco answered, "I haven't."

Daphne let a short laugh. "She's the one you should worry about. That cow … Why Theo chose her of all the women. His father was in prison, and his mother was dead, but he still let his Aunt convince him to marry Elise."

"No one likes her," Blaise told Hermione, "not even Theo, so feel no obligation to get along with her." Hermione looked to Draco, wondering why he hadn't shared this with her.

"I was going to let you come to your own opinions about her," Draco answered her unasked question. "You might like her."

"No. You really won't," Daphne insisted as she patted Hermione's hand.

"Mate, are you making food, or what?" Blaise asked, changing the subject.

Draco moved towards one of the doors, presumably into the kitchen. "I'll get on it," he promised. "Help yourselves to some wine." He motioned over to a bottle surrounded by glasses.

Hermione turned to follow him, not comfortable enough to stay behind with Blaise and Daphne. "I'll help."

Once they were safely behind the closed kitchen door, she let out a long steady breath. "She's interesting," she said softly.

"I think she might actually like you," Draco said, amused by the very idea. He reached into a cupboard above their heads for a pot.

Hermione bit her lips, thinking over the conversation again as she watched him start the water for pasta. His wand had it boiling in moments. "Is Theo's wife really that terrible?"

"Everyone hates her," Draco admitted. "If she actually shows up tomorrow ,I will be amazed."

"They aren't staying the night?" Hermione asked, surprised. Everyone always stayed on the grounds at these things. It was part of the experience, or something.

"Theo will. He's been here working for the past week. He might come by if he has time. Elise won't stay in a tent, not matter how nice it may be. She'll come for the match if she feels like it and probably leave early." Draco shrugged as if this didn't matter to him either way.

"And, Theo is okay with that?" she asked as she pulled a baguette from another cupboard.

"They have an arrangement. He doesn't make her go to his things, and she doesn't make him go to hers," Draco explained. An arrangement. It sounded horrible. She had bowed out of her fair share of Quidditch games over the years, but she had always attended the big ones with their friends and family.

"Blaise said Theo doesn't even like her," Hermione said, disbelieving. The idea of marrying someone you weren't in love with still seemed so odd to her.

"He doesn't. He loves her I think, somewhere, somehow, but they don't like each other very much. It's complicated." Draco stopped talking, but Hermione set her knife down next to the bread and stared at him, demanding more. "Theo isn't like most people. I was raised the way I was, but my parents loved me. In the end, everything they did was for me. My mother lied to the Dark Lord for me. Theo..." he trailed off, presumably thinking hard about what the next words should be, how to make her understand. "His mother died when we were young. We weren't close, but we were always together because of our fathers. I don't know exactly what happened to her, but I overheard my mother asking my father if Theo's father had something to do with it."

"Theo can see Thestrals," Hermione recalled as if from another life.

"Yes, he can," Draco agreed. "Well, we all can now, but he could before the rest of us."

"I see," she told him, wondering what on earth Theo had witnessed all those years ago.

"She was all right. Probably not mother of the year or anything, but she was decent to him. His father was a bastard. Theo never talked much about that either, but sometimes you don't have to." Draco stirred the pasta as he stared down at the pot. "Snape would always call Theo down to his office the first night of the year. It took me four years to realize why." His hand gripped the counter, and Hermione moved behind him to kiss his shoulder as her arms wrapped around his waist. "I walked in on him changing his robes that year. He was covered in marks."

"That's horrible," Hermione breathed against his back, wishing there was something more she could say.

"He'd kill me if he knew I was telling you this." His voice was heavy with emotion.

"I won't say anything," she promised.

"Anyway, he never really had a great example of what a marriage, or love should look like. When his aunt suggested he marry Elise, he just did it, and they do their best. I think they do love each other in their own messed up way." Draco shrugged, as if this could push away the somber mood that had settled over them both. "I wish we had been closer, that I could have done something."

"You were a child. What could you have done?" Hermione asked. They could both get lost down this road very easily, but she couldn't let that happen. Regret would eat at them and pull her back to that place she had been when he had found her.

"Nothing, I suppose," he sighed, but she could tell that he didn't really believe his words. Somewhere in his mind, he had convinced himself that he was somehow at fault for this wrong as well.

"He knows that he has you now." She pulled him back from the stove, forcing him to face her. He looked down into her eyes, and she reached up to cup his face in her hand. "I love you, Draco," she told him. "You are a good man."

He closed his eyes and let his body lean against hers for support. "I love you, too," he whispered.

A/N: Thank you for reading ! I appreciate you so much. I hope that you are still enjoying this story. We are 25 chapters in, which is kind of amazing to me.

XOXO

Meg