New and Old
By AuraAuthor
"Where's Draco?" she asked surveying the group that was gathered in Harry's back yard.
Blaise huffed. "Astoria got married today," was his simple, but loaded answer.
"So, he's what? Just going to hang out at his flat in misery?"
"Have you met Draco Malfoy? It sounds a bit like him," Blaise said sarcastically.
"Did she invite him to the wedding?" she asked, hoping the answer was no.
"Of course, she did," he answered with a sneer. "She truly believes that everything is ok between them and that she didn't rip his heart out and do a Mexican hat dance on it running it into the ground."
Hermione sighed. "Next you're going to tell me that he went to the wedding."
"Yep, he went but he didn't stay. He went long enough to talk to her and he left."
"What did he tell her?"
Blaise sipped his drink before he answered. "Some rubbish about wanting her to be happy and being glad that she had found happiness. He had a whole speech planned out for her. Practiced it with me a couple of times even though he knew I thought I was stupid."
She snorted. "I'll see you later Blaise."
"Where are you going?" he asked with a smirk.
"To draw a blond idiot out of his misery."
MMMMMM
Draco scratched the back of his black labs head and took a long sip of his beer. He had done it. He had said what he needed to say and had wished her well. It had fucking sucked. So now, here he was sitting on the patio just outside his flat with his pity and self-loathing. He knew she hadn't been the woman for him, but that didn't mean he didn't have feelings for her. You don't spend six years of your life with someone and not develop feelings for them, it just wasn't possible.
He sighed and looked down at the deep eyes of his best friend. "You and me girl," he said to the lab, "we'll take on the world, right?"
She panted slightly at him before meandering off to her bed and stretching out for a nap. "Or you can take your bony arse and have a lie in whatever works for you darling," he said with a chuckle. His statement didn't impact the lab, she just gave a great yawn and stretched out on the fluffy bed.
"Potter's having a yard party," he said out loud. "I should probably go, but I don't want to be around people and their pity right now."
He took another swig of his beer and settled back into the Adirondack chair. "Outside of you love I think all women suck," he said briskly and closed his eyes.
MMMMM
She stopped outside the gate to the patio when she heard him talking. He was obviously talking to Hazel, his black lab, but she stood stock still for a moment to ensure he was alone before she pushed the gate open. "Surely not all women?" she said moving up behind him and brushing her fingers over his forehead.
He opened his eyes and stared at her. "Granger," he said softly. "I meant what I said. All women suck including you and the Weaslette. You are all sent here to torture men who are obviously the weaker sex."
She frowned at him. "You don't mean that Draco. I thought we had become good friends."
He snatched his head away from her touch. "Get stuffed Granger, I want more than a bloody friend."
She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. Hazel rolled over on her fluffy bed to glare at the two of them with frustration that her nap was being interrupted. "You are such an arse," she said. "Why do you care so much that fucking Astoria Greengrass is getting married? You said yourself that the two of you weren't compatible. So why does it bother you so much that she found someone who is compatible with her?"
Draco pushed up from the chair and turned to face her. "I'm glad she's happy," he yelled. "But I don't fucking have to like that she is Granger! I can be pissed that she left me if I want to be!"
Hermione shook her head. "This pity party isn't like you Draco. She wasn't the one for you, you know that and so does she. Why are you letting it get you down like this? You've been hiding for two days. You missed our lunch yesterday and waved me off with some stupid excuse and then you didn't show for the yard party tonight. Why are you torturing yourself like this?"
"You want to know why!" he screamed at her.
"Yes," she said in a level voice. "I would like to know why."
"Because no one wants a fucking ex-death eater Hermione! No one wants a failed ex-death eater at that and no one wants me at all. I should have just let him kill me, it would be have been better than this shit life I've got now."
"You don't mean that," she said softly.
"The only fucking bint that would have anything to do with me was Astoria. I'm tainted goods Hermione!" He flipped his left forearm up and pulled back his sleeve. "This thing on my arm can't even pass for a bad tattoo anymore. So, its me and Hazel because she doesn't know that I'm a horrible person or if she does she stays because I feed her regularly and give her great belly rubs. One day I'll lose her and then where will I be Granger?"
Hermione stared at him with obvious hurt in her eyes. "I'm… I'm a fucking bint that wants something to do with you," she whispered obviously trying not to cry. "That mark on your arm means nothing to me and I don't see you as tainted goods. But I know that… well that you'd never see me as anything more than one of the guys so I could never be an option for you. I'm a big haired, buck toothed, book worm that you don't see as a woman, let alone as relationship material. I came here to try and cheer you up and once again I leave with you in a foul mood and myself hurt. But this time, this time I don't plan on coming back. Goodbye Draco."
She turned around and walked out of the gate, leaving him standing on his patio speechless.
MMMMMM
She had cried for twenty minutes in her shower. She had text Blaise and told him to go check on his friend because she was done and then she had turned her phone off. She had grabbed a half gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream out of the freezer and had sat down to watch a movie about people more miserable than she felt right now. Steel Magnolias had been her movie of choice because she knew the American film about a woman with diabetes who goes into kidney failure and dies would be the perfect depressing movie to add to her mood.
Crookshanks and curled around her feet and purred at her obvious mood. "You love me," she said rubbing his ears. "The only man that does."
The film started and she tried to get lost in the absurdity of the pink wedding and the dozens of dyed Easter eggs. She continued to sniffle and she knew that a good cry was just on the horizon and sure enough when the trunk slammed down on the cartons of Easter eggs, she began to cry at the thought of all that hard work lost.
She heard the knock on her front door, but she ignored it because whomever was on the other side of the door was not anyone she wanted to see. A few moments passed and the knock happened again, but this time louder and more insistent. "Granger," came his voice from the other side of the door and she froze. "I know you're home I can hear the TV."
She glanced down at Crookshanks and he yawned as an answer to her unspoken question. "Thanks for the help," she muttered as she stood from the couch and walked to the door. "What do you want Draco?" she asked through the still closed door.
"I… I want to talk Hermione. Can I please come in?"
She frowned. "I don't want to see you Draco. In fact, I think its better for both of us if you just go away."
"Hermione, please open the door. I really need to talk to you. I need to understand somethings."
She scoffed. "What do you need to understand Draco? Why someone like me would ever think they had a chance with someone like you? I don't want to talk to you so just go away."
She moved back to the couch and turned the volume up on the TV. She heard him say something on the other side of the door, but she couldn't understand him and she was surprisingly fine with that fact. She watched the movie to keep herself from crying over the finality of her feelings. She knew she would never get over him, but she just had to move on from thinking about him. She could ask for a transfer Monday to the Scotland branch of the company. She wouldn't be around him at all then and she could slowly begin to forget about his existence. She nodded into the air. That was a great idea. She'd be closer to her parents that way and they would be happy about the decision.
"Granger," came a voice from behind her and she screamed before jumping off the couch with Crookshanks in her arms.
"Draco!" she screamed at him. "How the fuck did you get inside my flat?"
He held his hands up in front of him. "Potter said your balcony door would be unlocked because you sleep with it open at night."
Her eyes grew wide. "Did you fucking climb up the building Draco? Are you crazy?"
He shook his head as he came around the couch to stand in front of her. "I asked your neighbor if I could walk out on his and jump to yours. He basically told me that he thought it was a great idea and he hoped I could help you get the stick out of your arse."
She frowned. "Oh, I'll take care of him," she murmured seriously.
"Not the point Hermione."
She stared at him. "Why are you here Draco?" she asked gently.
"Because I'm a fucking idiot," he said quickly.
She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "No, you aren't."
"Just, just give me a minute ok Hermione," he said holding a hand up to her. "When you left Hazel pushed me to go after you and when I didn't, she bit me."
"She bit you!"
He chuckled. "She did, it didn't hurt, but she bit me all the same. She wanted to get my attention and tell me that I was being an idiot."
"That's the second time you've said that," she said crossing her arms over her chest.
"Hermione I can't… fuck, I can't pretend that I've always been attracted to you, because I haven't."
She shook her head and turned towards the front door. "But that doesn't mean that I haven't changed how I look at you," he said to her back and she stopped moving. "You said that I only see a big haired, buck toothed, book worm or one of the guys and that isn't true at all."
He paused and she turned to slightly face him. "In truth," he continued staring at her, "I see a beautiful woman. Not a pretty girl, no, a beautiful woman. Pretty is for kids Hermione. Pretty is for teenage boys looking to catch a free feel. Beautiful is so much more than that and you are beautiful."
She turned to face him completely now and he swallowed. "Your hair is big and wild and where I once saw a menace that needed to be tamed, I now see the freedom that exists and the confidence that you carry. Your teeth, when you smile and I can see how radiant you look, your teeth just become part of the background. You are brilliant and because you love to read you grow more brilliant every day. And one of the guys, fuck Hermione I haven't thought of you as one of the guys since we graduated from Hogwart's. I still remember seeing you at graduation in that blue sun dress. You don't want to know the thoughts that went through my gutter brain when I looked at you. I wanted you then, but I couldn't have you. I had already followed in my fathers' footsteps and joined the death eaters. I couldn't' drag you into that life. You didn't deserve it and you don't deserve to be fitted with me now."
She sniffled. "Draco I…"
He held up his hand to stop her from speaking. "I'm not finished Hermione. You said that I would never see you as an option for me, but you're wrong. I'm not an option for you Hermione. My past, my bad decisions, they would only bring you down and I can't let that happen. With Astoria it was different. She, well, her father was a member of the gang and she knew what I had been through. She knew what I lived in up until Tom Riddle was killed. She was easy and, well, you aren't."
Her mouth dropped open and she moved so fast he didn't see the slap coming until she had already hit him. "You are such a self-absorbed arse hole!" she yelled at him. "Why in the bloody hell would you settle for easy when you could have so much more? Why would you settle for anything less than what you want?"
He glared at her, angrily for a moment. "Because I don't deserve it," he whispered and her breath caught at his admission. "The things I've done, I should be in jail Hermione, but because I was a minor for most of it and because my attorney convinced the judge that I was coerced into many of my actions I'm a free man. But I shouldn't be and I sure as hell don't deserve to be loved by you."
"Who said anything about love?" she said with a smirk. "I was just thinking a great shag would be nice from time to time."
He narrowed his eyes at her. "It might start out as a great shag, but once I've had you, I'll never be able to let you go you crazy bint."
She grinned at him. "Promise?" she said before throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him soundly.
MMMMMM
A little over an hour later they lay tangled together in Hermione's pink and white comforter. Sweaty from their activities and both more satiated than they had been in a long time. "I never knew it could be like that," he said against her lips.
"I imagined it would be with you," she said back before biting his lower lip.
"What now?" he asked.
"Sleep," she said with a yawn. "And when we wake up, we can do it again."
He snickered. "You really think we can make this work?"
"I know we can," she said with a quiet smile before turning her back to him. "Now go to sleep, you'll need your strength."
~FIN~
