Hey guys! So I've finally gotten over my writer's block (for now) and I was able to write this chapter which I'm somewhat happy with but considering I haven't posted in like a week (I've lost track of time) I think this will do. thank you so much for all your wonderful ideas and thanks for understanding as well :) I hope you guys like what I came up with.
Around 2am the three couples burst out of the club laughing and slightly stumbling, onto the sidewalk.
"That was so much fun!" exclaimed Ginny "we should do this more often"
Hermione laughed, she was so glad her friends had enjoyed themselves.
They stood outside the club for a bit before separating, Ginny and Blaise were going back to their hotel so Draco along with Harry and Luna, left with Hermione back to her loft.
After the couples separated, a certain ginger also emerged from the night club; he didn't see Ginny and Blaise head toward their (and his) hotel, he only looked out for Hermione so as soon as he spotted the brunette beauty in her gold dress heading down the street with Draco, Harry and Luna, he again cast a disillusion spell on himself and followed after them.
As they neared near building, Hermione suddenly felt uneasy; she suddenly stopped and looked around but saw nothing out of the ordinary so she quickly dismissed the feeling and decided that all the alcohol she had was finally getting to her.
Ron peeked around the corner and once Hermione had finally turned back around, he came out and started following them again; he may have cast a spell on himself but one could never be too careful.
He had originally thought to follow them all the way into the building and to Hermione's actual loft but decided against it when he saw Harry with her; he figured he could take on Malfoy (A/N yeah right) but he knew that he could not take Harry on, they were once as close as brothers and not to mention that Harry was the ministry's most skilled Auror. No, he would not follow them all the way inside but just knowing where she lived would be enough…for now.
Again as they reached the front entrance of her building, Hermione's uneasy feeling came back again. She stopped and looked around again but didn't find anything out of the ordinary this time either.
"Hermione?"
Hermione turned around and saw Draco, Harry and Luna standing by the revolving door of her building staring at her with a look of worry upon their faces.
"Are you alright love? Are you looking for someone?" asked Draco.
She gave him a weak smile, "no, it's just…ever since we left the club, I've had this uneasy feeling, like if someone was following us. But I've looked around twice since we've left but there seems to be nothing out of the ordinary."
Draco walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders, "Don't worry about it, if there is something amiss, Harry and I will take care of it."
"Thanks Draco, but it's probably just the alcohol getting to me or something; I'm sure there's nothing to worry about." She said as she reached her hand to his cheek, smiling.
"If you're sure…"he said.
"I'm sure" she replied although she didn't really believe it herself.
She walked forward and along with Harry and Luna entered her building through the revolving door; Draco lingered outside for a minute or two and also looked around as if trying to spot something, anything, that might seem out of place and give them reason to panic; but he found nothing. He let out a sigh of relief and also went through the revolving door to join Hermione, Harry and Luna inside.
Ron once again came out from hiding, this time behind a concrete pillar of the building's parking garage; he wouldn't push his luck further by going inside, at least he now knew where she lived and for now that was enough. He lifted the spell and slowly made his way back to The Joule hotel, happy with his progress so far.
That night all three couples went to sleep peacefully, completely oblivious to the fact that a certain ginger was up in his hotel room, not too far from one of the three couples, concocting a plan to get to Hermione and take her far away.
The next morning Hermione awoke with her body intertwined with Draco's but she couldn't even enjoy that because she had a massive headache.
"Damn cocktails" she muttered to herself.
She checked her clock and found that it was only 8am, she'd gotten less than six hours sleep, normally she'd just go back to sleep but now that she'd felt the force of her hangover, she might as well get up now because there was no way she'd be able to go back to sleep.
She started to untangle herself from Draco and slowly made her way out of bed; she grabbed her cell from the bedside table and a small vial of Pepper Up potion from the table's small drawer and swallowed the potion before heading toward her closet to get dressed.
As she was looking for what to wear, she felt her phone vibrate, it was a text from Santi asking if she wanted to go out and get some Starbucks; she thought about it for a few minutes before accepting, they would go to the closest Starbucks instead of their favorite one on Ross St and they'd have their coffee on their building's rooftop pool/green area so she could quickly come back to her own place if anyone woke up and found her missing.
She dressed quickly, settling on gray jeans, her favorite Victoria's Secret Dallas Cowboys long sleeve tee, navy TOMS, and a thin knit gray scarf. She tiptoed to the door, stopped by the table near the front door and grabbed her infinity snake ring and juicy couture hobo bag before finally slipping out without waking anyone. Once outside her door, she closed and locked the door ever so slowly even though she was sure everyone was still asleep.
She slowly turned around and almost screamed when she saw that Santi was already standing outside behind her.
"Good morning to you too" said Santi laughing after seeing Hermione jump at the sight of him.
"Sorry Santi, it's just that Draco, Harry and Luna are still asleep and I snuck out without any of them noticing."
"I know the feeling" started Santi, "Devin and I didn't get back until 3am and the only reason I'm up now is because I had a hangover."
Hermione laughed; she knew there was a reason they were best friends.
They took off together and headed down Main St toward the nearest Starbucks.
Half an hour after Hermione left Draco was woken up by his loud and very annoying, ringing cell phone. He was lying face down in bed and groaned into his pillow as he reached over to the table on his side where his phone rested.
"Hello?" he groaned out
"Draco!" said a frantic Ginny
Her tone of voice immediately woke Draco up, "Ginny? What's wrong? Is Blaise alright? Are you alright?"
"We're both fine Draco" she replied
"Then what's wrong? You sound extremely worried."
"Where's Hermione?" she asked
"Hermione?" he looked over and saw the bed empty next to him, "um I don't know, she's not in bed next to me, maybe she's in the kitchen." He replied
Ginny swore before saying quickly "Look for her and MAKE sure she's there"
Draco decided to act first and ask later, he got up and looked in the closet and bathroom but found nothing. He ran out of the room, into the living room and found Harry and Luna drinking coffee on the couch, but no Hermione.
"Have either of you seen Hermione?" asked Draco. Both of them shook their heads no and Harry immediately asked "Why?" after sensing Draco's unease.
Draco didn't answer; he just put his phone on speaker and told Ginny that Hermione was not in the loft.
"Shit" said Ginny.
"What happened Ginny? Why is it so important that Hermione be here?"
Ginny hesitated before answering "…Ron is in Dallas."
Draco froze for a bit but then grew confused, why did it matter that Ron was in Dallas? Then he noticed Harry and Luna's eyes grow wide, what did they know that he didn't?
He was about to speak when Harry interrupted him, "How do you know?" he asked.
"Blaise and I went down to the Charlie Palmer restaurant here in the hotel for breakfast; we sat down at a booth near the windows, we began eating when Blaise looked like he was about to choke on his coffee. I asked what was wrong and he told me to turn around, I looked behind me and I saw Ron sitting outside in the restaurant's patio area drinking coffee and reading the Daily Prophet."
"And you're SURE it was Ron you saw" asked Harry.
Ginny scoffed "Harry, please, I think I would be able to recognize my own brother."
"Excuse me, but can someone explain to me why it's such a bloody big deal if the weasel is in town?" asked Draco
"Harry, I'll leave you to take this one…anyways, I have to go, PLEASE call me if Hermione turns up" said Ginny before hanging up.
Harry nodded to himself and told Draco about Ron's surprise visits to him back in London and how he'd wanted his help to get Hermione back.
Had it been anyone else but the weasel, Draco would care less if Hermione's ex fiancé wanted her back because she would just reject him and that would be that; unfortunately, her ex fiancé WAS the weasel and if his temper was anything like Ginny's, he wouldn't take rejection very well…or at all.
About an hour and a half later, Harry and Draco were still pacing in the living room and Luna was on her 4th cup of coffee, when they heard the locks turn on the front door.
Hermione and Santi had a great time just sipping their coffee and catching up. After they got their coffee from Starbucks, they headed back to their building but instead of heading back to Santi's or Hermione's loft, they went all the way up to the roof and just sat on loungers in front of the pool talking.
Hermione told Santi that she was glad that Harry and Ginny finally knew everything and that she was now officially Draco Malfoy's girlfriend, which made him tease her endlessly. Santi told her that he'd finally asked Devin to move in with him and he said yes so he was going to be moving in sometime next week. Hermione congratulated him and said she was glad that he and Devin were doing so well.
They continued to catch up until Hermione realized that it was now 10am and that her guest were probably waking up or already up so she and Santi headed back down to their floor. They said goodbye to each other and agreed to see each other again later that night before she went on to perform at the House of Blues.
She unlocked her door and walked into her living room and found that her guests were already awake and that Harry and Draco were glaring at her…Hard.
"what's going on?" she asked slowly.
"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!" shouted Draco and Harry.
Hermione was taken aback at the anger in their voice, "Um, I went out for coffee with Santi. You all were still asleep and I hadn't spent any time alone with him in a while so we went to get Starbucks" she answered slowly.
"It took you an hour and a half to get coffee?" asked Draco still miffed.
"No" she replied "after we got our coffee we came back to the building and had our coffee on the roof."
Draco and Harry breathed a sigh of relief, which Hermione thought was a bit odd.
"Guys…"she started "what's wrong? Why were you so worried about where I was?"
Harry and Draco looked at each other before Harry threw his hands up and went to go sit down on the couch next to Luna.
Draco sighed, walked over to Hermione grabbed her hand and led her back to the couch where he sat her down.
"Okay, you guys are scaring me a bit, what happened?" she immideately thought the worst "Did something happen to Ginny? To Blaise?"
Draco shook his head, "OH GOD, did something happen to my parents?" she asked frantically.
"Calm down love, nothing happened to your parents."
Hermione breathed a sigh of relief "okay so if everyone's okay, then why so serious?"
"Umm…I don't know how quite to say this…"started Draco
"Just tell me what's wrong"
Draco was about to answer when Luna spoke "Ron is here in Dallas"
Hermione's eyes grew wide and her palms became sweaty, she suddenly felt like there was no air around her.
"What?" she gasped out "how do you know?"
"Ginny called and told us, apparently he's also staying at the Joule" replied Draco softly so as not to alarm her more than he already had.
She started to hyperventilate and Draco immediately pulled her close to him and rubbed her back while whispering soothing words, hoping to calm her down.
A few minutes later, Hermione was calm again but she was just staring blankly into her fireplace, letting the fact that Ron was in the same city as her, set in.
Draco took the time to call Ginny and tell her that Hermione had come home and why she had been missing in the first place which calmed Ginny down but she still insisted on going to check on her.
Not even five minutes after hanging up, Ginny was knocking on the front door; Draco opened the door and Ginny rushed inside, she found Hermione lying on her bed hugging a body pillow, staring blankly out her window.
Ginny walked over and sat down on the bed next to her.
"Is it true?" asked Hermione, her voice barely above a whisper.
Ginny sighed "I'm sorry Mione but it's true."
Hermione simply hugged her body pillow tighter; Ginny tried to talk to her and make her feel better but nothing seemed to work so after half an hour she gave up.
Everyone took a turn at going into her bedroom and trying to get her to talk but none were successful.
Hours passed, Ginny and Blaise left, and Hermione still didn't come out.
As the clock struck 8pm, Draco was starting to think that Hermione was never going to come out when he heard her door open.
His jaw dropped when he saw her, she was no longer wearing her Dallas cowboys long sleeve, jeans and TOMS. She was now wearing dark skinny jeans, a silver sequined tank top; white Manolo Blahnik swan embellished satin pumps, a black heart locket necklace, a silver cuff bracelet on her right arm and her infinity snake ring on her left hand.
Even her makeup was flawless, she had smoky sliver eye shadow, red glazed lips and even had the British flag painted on her nails. You couldn't even tell that she'd had a mini break down earlier that day.
"Um…wow. Hermione you look great" said Draco.
"thanks" she replied.
"But why are you dressed up? I don't think us going out clubbing again is such a good idea considering Ron is so close."
Hermione winced at the mention of Ron, "I actually agree with you but I'm not dressed up to go clubbing, don't you remember I have a job? I'm going to the House of Blues."
Draco stared at her for a bit before saying "Are you so sure it's safe for you to leave?"
Hermione huffed "Draco please, I'm not going to stay cooped up in here, afraid to step outside just because Ronald Weasley is here. Besides, I'm a big girl; I can take care of myself."
Draco was about to protest again but Hermione interrupted, "Stop. Nothing you say is going to make me change my mind, I'm going to sing and that's that. So either go shower and get dressed to go with me or I'll go alone" she said to him before turning to look at Harry and Luna "the same goes for the both of you."
The three of them simply nodded, she could be just as stubborn as Ginny when she wanted to so there was no point in arguing further. They all got up and went to shower; Draco had brought an extra change of close the last night, before they left for the club since he had no intention of going back to the Joule with Blaise and Ginny afterwards.
As they were all getting ready, Hermione called Ginny basically had the exact same argument with her that she did with Draco; and just like Draco, Ginny eventually relented and said that she and Blaise would be over in a few minutes.
Half an hour later, they were all dressed and ready so they headed out to the House of Blues, the guys on high alert and the girls staying close to Hermione. Hermione wanted to tell them to back off but in all honesty, she felt safer this way, she'd forced herself to push Ron out of her mind as she got ready but she was definitely worried that he might show up out of nowhere.
She wasn't far from the truth; Ron had been at the bar of the PM nightlife lounge when he saw Ginny and Blaise leave the hotel, he paid his bill and quickly followed them. He saw them heading into Hermione's building so he hid once again behind a pillar of the building's garage and waited until he saw the group come out.
As the group emerged from the building, he disillusioned himself again and followed them from a distance to their destination.
The group made it to the House of Blues without noticing anything "out of the ordinary" and were convinced that there was no way Ron knew that Hermione sang here so they all breathed a sigh of relief as they entered the building and sat down at a booth. They laughed, drank a bit and ate for another half hour until it was time for Hermione to head to her room to prepare. Draco insisted that she have a bodyguard stand outside her dressing room and only allow them and Santi to enter, Hermione thought this was a bit excessive but agreed. Luckily, her friend Alec was there that night and agreed to stand outside to make sure no one "suspicious" went near her.
Ron sat watching from a private booth at the back of the room, he didn't understand why Hermione was going back stage and had planned on following her but after seeing the muscular man follow her, he decided not to. A few minutes passed and Ron just sat there sipping his drink, he hadn't seen Hermione come back from back stage and was wondering where she was when the lights were dimmed and a spotlight was cast on the stage, the curtain was raised and there stood Hermione in front of a microphone.
:D like it? hate it? :( hopefully its the former and not the latter :) don't forget to review! PS i've made a Polyvore account, which I thought would be better than my photobucket account since I can put the outfits together on Polyvore as opposed to just uploading each item one by one so yea. Go check it out! its azure93(dot)polyvore(dot)com . All the outfits in the story are in a collection but I also have some random outfits that I made on there too. :)
