A/N Sorry, sorry, sorry for the wait. Thank you for everyone who reviewed and encouraged (demanded) me to update. The first part of this was written straight away, the rest was longer in coming. It went a direction I didn't intend it. At all. I'm a little cranky at my fingers for ruining my plans but oh well, what are you going to do?

This close to Christmas the Leaky cauldron was completely booked out. As was the bed and breakfast on the outskirts of Godric's Hollow and the few other wizard hotels they could think of, scattered around Britain. In the end they had to settle for a Muggle hotel a few streets away from the Leaky Cauldron that Hermione had stayed at with her parents as a child. She had a clear recollection of being seven and asking her mother if a shop they passed was a magic shop.
"Maybe," her mother had replied, not giving the dirty little pub another glance as they rushed to make their way to the train station.
Now Hermione sagged in relief as she checked them into the remaining room - a family sized suite.
"Get yourself into a bad way, love?" The nosy landlady indicated Draco, slumped into an armchair, eyeing his surroundings with disgust. "Even if your parents kicked you out, at least your young man's sticking with you."
Hermione smiled tightly and took the offered key. Leaving the old woman to speculate, Hermione kicked Draco as she went past him. He jumped up, following her up the stairs to their room.

Hermione was in pieces. This isn't what she wanted. When she had decided to commit herself to her marriage she never thought, for one moment, that this is where she would end up; alone on Christmas save for Draco Malfoy. Her
heart thudded dully in her chest while behind her she could feel Draco's smugness grow. He had got what he wanted, her alone at Christmas. As soon as they had let themselves into the room and closed the door Hermione turned to him.
"Did you tell him? Did you do this deliberately, Draco?"
Draco looked startled. "No, of course not. He asked me, out of the blue." He saw than what a toll this evening had taken on her.

Dark circles shadowed her eyes, her face was tight with stress and her knuckles were white where she gripped the key tightly in her clenched fist. Any pleasure he felt in separating Hermione from her husband evaporated as Hermione dissolved into tears. He took her in his arms and guided her to the edge of the double bed. He rocked her gently as Hermione wept. Draco murmured quietly to her until her tears ran dry and she fell asleep, draped across Draco's lap.
Sighing into the dark room, Draco stroked her hair and watched the snow begin to fall outside the window. He thought back to his reunion with his mother earlier in the day. She had been spectacularly reminiscent of his father, telling him she didn't want any mudblood lovers in her house. It was almost like having his father back again. His mother must be very lonely tonight, he thought. He hugged the exhausted girl in his arms closer to his body. Almost as lonely as him.

Bhdbhd

Hermione trudged through the snow-covered Diagon Alley, lost in thought. She didn't know if her friends and family would want Christmas presents from her but she would send them all the same. She had everyone's but Ginny's. The beautiful white snow that had greeted her first thing this morning was now dirty and slushy. People bustled all around her, desperately trying to get all their Christmas shopping done.
She had woken tired and gritty eyed this morning. Draco was sprawled out on one of the single beds, his hair mussed from sleep. When she had asked if he was coming shopping he had merely grunted, rolled over and went back to sleep. Hermione had smiled fondly at her last remaining friend and had left him in peace. She may not be on her own two days out from Christmas if Draco had never confessed his feelings but she knew the man he was now and she couldn't be angry at him. At her husband, her friends and at herself most of all but she could not bring herself to blame Draco at all.
"Hermione!"
Hermione looked back over her shoulder to find Charlie Weasley pushing through the crowd to get to her. He wasn't a tall man but he was solid and people were happy to step out of his way. A path opened up between them and Hermione inelegantly grunted as Charlie picked her up in a big bear hug.
"You are a sight for sore eyes," He said, beaming at her.
Hermione laughed. "You're not so bad yourself."
"Come on let's ditch this stuff and Fred and George's and get a drink." He indicated their bags, he had almost as many as he did.
"I still don't have anything for Ginny," she said.
"I got her a few things, you can have one of mine. Not that she deserves anything."
Hermione smiled as she added another friend to her list.
She waited outside Weasley Wizard Wheezes as Charlie deposited their bags upstairs in the twin's old flat. They had both moved out with their wives so the flat was most filled with excess stock for their shop.
"Ready?" Charlie asked, emerging from the chaos of people trying to come and go through the doors.
She nodded and Charlie led her back through the over crowded streets all the way back to the Leaky Cauldron where they lucked into two empty stools at the bar. They waved to the people they knew in full to bursting pub before giving their order to a flustered looking Tom.
Hermione smiled at Charlie and he smiled back while they waited in silence. Tom slammed their drinks down, not waiting to take the money Charlie offered before rushing to the other end of the bar where two tipsy looking witches past their prime were urgently gesturing for him to attend them.
"How are you?" Charlie asked, still smiling pleasantly.
"Fucking awful," Hermione answered, blushing at the obscenity even as she said it, but still smiling. "You?"
"About the fucking same." Charlie chuckled harshly before downing his drink in one. "Let's drink to that."
Hermione clinked her full glass against Charlie's empty one and downed her drink as best she could, coughing delicately as the drink burned her throat.
"Another!" Charlie called to Tom.
"And leave the bottle!" Hermione added, slapping a galleon down on the table.
"I don't want any trouble out of you two," Tom said as he placed a bottle of Firewhiskey down on the bar between them. "You just sit here quietly and drink your drinks. I've got a pub full of families and I don't need any tomfoolery this close to Christmas."
Hermione nodded, her most innocent look plastered on her face while Charlie saluted the aging barman. As Tom turned away, though, Charlie shot Hermione a wink before filling up her glass then his.
"To our husband and wife."
"To our husband and wife," Hermione repeated. They clinked their over full glasses, slopping a little on the bar before again downing them in one go.

bhdbhd

Hermione looked up at the figure standing over her through bleary eyes. Her wand was stowed deep in her pocket, not that it mattered. The only spell she could currently remember was the one to tie her shoes and she didn't think that would be much help.
"You run off with another man and then I find you drunk with yet another." Her husband shook his head at her.
"I'ms not with another man. I'ms with Charlie," Hermione smiled stupidly up at Blaise. Beside her Charlie snored softly.
"Where's Draco?" Blaise demanded, not at all amused by the newest mess his wife had gotten herself into. She just shrugged. But they needn't have worried. The man in question burst through the door, his usual slick down hair resembled a blond version of Harry's mop of hair.
"There you are!" he cried, spotting Hermione slumped at the bar. It was just before dinner and the pub was mostly empty of people to view their drama. "You said you were going shopping for a few Christmas things and you never came back! I've been searching for you since lunch..." Draco trailed off as he realised who the man with his back to him was. "What are you doing here, Zabini?"
"Last I checked, Hermione was my wife."
"Last I checked, you kicked her out of your house."
The two witched from earlier in the day sat silently at the end of the bar, watching the back and forth play between the two handsome young men. Little did the men know that those two actually formed 'Roberta Brooks'. Bobby as 'she' was known to her readers had a way of sniffing out the most delicious gossip for Witch Weekly. They had already submitted their column for the Christmas edition but with a bit of luck, they'd be able to squeeze this salacious encounter in before the magazine when to print at 9pm that night. Moving quickly yet subtly, the older of the two slipped out a quick quotes quill and a piece of parchment from her bag. She jotted down what she had seen and heard before letting the quill take over.
"I'm still responsible for her," Blaise countered. He lifted Hermione's slack hand up off the bar top. "This ring means she's mine for the next two and a half years."
"Yours," Draco scoffed. "You threw her away like a piece of garbage. You broke her heart! She cried herself to sleep last night!" Draco got louder and louder until he was yelling at the man.
"Because you fucking kissed her!" Blaise shouted back, shoving Draco away from the woman in question, back towards the exit. "Just leave, you've done enough damage to our family."
"Family?! And what a family. You leave the second it got tough, you didn't even stay and fight for her." He pointed to Hermione who was struggling to sit up straight as she watched the men argue, her eyes swivelling from one to the other and back again. "Do you honestly think you have any chance of keeping her if this is how you are going to continue to act? You think because you put a ring on her finger that she's yours. She's not, you have to earn her love." Blaise flinched and Draco knew he'd found a sore point. Hermione had told him after he kissed her that she loved her husband but she had obviously never told the man herself. He took a moment to debate with himself. Would he be selfless or selfish. Confess Hermione's feelings for her or let Blaise continue to wonder if his wife loved him. It was a test, the universe was testing him, to see if he really was a changed man. If he wasn't, he didn't deserve her.
"You are such an idiot, Blaise. You didn't even have to stay and fight, you just had to stay. She loves you. Maybe I would have had a chance if we were matched but it doesn't matter because she was matched with you. And by some grace of God, you've managed to get her to love you, despite what an absolute wanker you are. But guess what? People fall out of love too. So don't fuck it up." With one last look at Hermione, tears in her eyes and his, he turned and strode out of the Leaky Cauldron and out of the life of the woman he loved.

A/N2 I'm very tired and while I did read over this, please feel free to point out any mistakes I made. Thanks for reading!