Chapter Nine: Listen Carefully

Draco was making liberal use of the libations on offer. This was not what he expected to be doing today, attending the wedding of his best mate and… and Hermione Granger. They looked so ridiculously, ecstatically happy too. Blaise and Pansy had both checked in on him, but he assured them he was fine. And for the most part he was. Unless he thought about the wedding or Theo or Granger. Other than that, he was completely fine.

The Montague kid appeared to be babysitting him, watching him carefully but not preventing him from drinking.

"So, you couldn't stop it after all?"

Devin smiled at him. "Mr. Malfoy you are far more coherent than I thought you would be after imbibing that much alcohol so quickly. Though I suppose you do own that club of yours so you must be used to it."

Draco snorted at him. "Aren't you upset, little pup, knowing you're one and only Miss Hermione has married someone else?"

"My crush faded in time. It was rather indecent of me to fixate on my boss anyway. I'm glad she forgave me the transgression. We are very good friends now and I love her very much. That's why I'm here looking after you." He smiled again and sank some whisky.

Draco scoffed, "Quitter."

Devin laughed and shook his head. He ran a careful eye over Draco.

"You knew they would get married immediately," Draco accused him. "That's why you told me there were only six months left. How'd you know?"

Devin cocked his head, glancing at the ceiling. "I know Hermione very well. In my position she shares most of her memories and thoughts with me. I know how focused she is, her drive to become Minister for Magic before the decade is out. The ambassadorship isn't really something she covets, nor the power of the Minister's office beyond helping others and creating change for the better. She puts up with the prestige but it's not innate to her. I knew she would want to have a small ceremony and quickly after she accepted so the press didn't get wind of it. That's why I volunteered to be the officiant."

"Why does she want to become Minister for Magic so quickly?" Draco thought that was odd, it usually took at least 20 years in the Ministry to garner enough support to run. Though Granger was a special case.

"I guess just in case something happens to her," Devin gave a careful shrug. Draco side-eyed it but let it go for now.

"They did debate warning you," Devin changed the subject. "Knowing your aversion to them as a couple, they thought if you knew you wouldn't come. Or do something drastic to stop it. But they desperately wanted you here. You mean a lot to Theo. And by extension Hermione."

There was a beat of silence. There wasn't anything Draco could say to that, he doubted he would have come if he'd known.

"How long?" Devin asked quietly. His eyes held steady and urged a no-bullshit response, there was a lack of judgment and even understanding coming from him.

Draco sighed. He may as well admit it, his surly standoffish behaviour today would have given it away to the most blind of people. "Eleven years, that's why you're a quitter." He poured another whisky from the bottle he had absconded with from the bar.

"What about Astoria Greengrass? There was talk that might be happening," Devin queried.

"Might still be. Absolutely not anything I want. Something my parents do want, however. Carry on the Malfoy line and all that." Draco gave a magnificent eye roll.

"If you insinuate not to be a quitter, how come you didn't try to actually win Hermione? You're always rather awful to her," Devin seemed perplexed by Draco's behaviour.

Draco looked at him with a raised eyebrow as if it were all rather obvious. "You quit wanting to be in love with her, I have yet to quit the opposite."

Devin pondered the statement before slowly rolling through his thoughts. "You have spent eleven years being horrible to Hermione to fall out of love with her. You don't want to want her…" Devin sighed and stood up. "Your life is a tragedy Mr. Malfoy." He walked off and Draco poured another large glass of whisky.

A flouncing of tulle crinkled as someone sat in the seat Devin had exited. Draco sighed as if this day couldn't get any worse.

"What do you want, Granger?" he wanted to keep his teeth gritted hard, but that made it difficult to drink and he'd rather not have all his faculties at his disposal and his desire to get obliterated won out.

It was distractingly unfair that she looked more beautiful than she ever had, and she'd been pulling out some showstoppers since arriving in Italy.

"Devin informed me that now would be the best time for you to insult me, so I came over," she waved a hand in the air before placing her head in it, her form hunched over to purposely annoy him that she wasn't utilising his posture training.

Draco was bristling from being near her, his lip curling. "And why do you want me to insult you? Formed some kind of weird kink on the continent?"

"No, I don't like it at all. I just want to help you." She said it easily and he hated it.

His eyes turned cold, wintry and freezing as he met her gaze. "That is the kind of sanctimonious bullshit I detest in you Granger. Your smug holier-than-thou aura ringing like a halo over your perfect head pitying those beneath you. And don't say you don't believe you're better than me because we both know it's a lie. But just because it is the truth doesn't mean you have to be so disgustingly aware of it." The words were frigid, gliding and crashing out of him like a glacier losing an ice shelf and her expression fell a little more with each word. He felt a thrill of victory that she knew he was right.

Finished he drew a deep breath and sculled back the rest of his whisky while she watched him refill.

"Do you feel better now?" she asked, her voice neutral and enunciated.

He cocked his head from side to side as if relieving a small amount of remaining tension and he sat back in the chair. "Very much so."

She stood and kissed her fingers before patting him on the head with them. Her eyes glittered with too many contained emotions to properly discern them. "You know I only let you treat me this way because I love him so much."

She went back to the throng and Blaise sheepishly joined him again.

"So… when you said you were 'fine' earlier, you meant you were going to be a raging tosser to Granger on her wedding day?"

"Isn't that what it usually means?" Draco intoned sarcastically.

"Mate, seriously? Hermione has tried really fucking hard with you and all do is insult her or fuck with her or try to make her uncomfortable." He sighed looking very concerned. "Please Draco, you didn't used to be like this, not this bad anyway. I'm fucking begging you, what can me or Pansy or anyone do to stop you acting like this."

Blaise was looking at him pleadingly. Draco snorted into his drink. It was way too fucking late to be asking for help. He didn't know what had changed exactly, his infatuation with the witch had been mild before all this. Before he had woken up and seen Granger's runes with Theo's fucking name on her in the newspaper. It had just turned on that day, an alien feeling inside him. It all seemed… wrong somehow. Then the infatuation had turned to obsession and he couldn't turn it off. Though he doubted Blaise would believe him, he had been restraining himself for Theo's sake. If it had been someone else, he would have destroyed Granger's connection with that person like he had with Wood. Instead, he haunted his club, pretty much only leaving when social engagements or his parents dictated he had to, distracting himself with alcohol and other women. He hated it all, it wasn't like he wanted things to be this way.

"Blaise, always so comforting." He rolled his eyes. "Granger is just fine. Remember she finds me of so little consequence as to be beneath her notice."

"How can you say that when she was considerate enough to actually give you an opportunity to insult her so you would feel better?" Blaise hissed at him. "She cares about you Draco, you pillock."

Draco surveyed the room, but the two of them were apart from everyone else. The others all seemed happy, talking and laughing with Granger and Theo. Making the most of the bar, admiring Granger's ring, hugging each other and smiling as the stars on Granger's dress floated out occasionally to nestle into Theo's dress robes.

Draco pulled his gaze away dragging everything he felt that he still wouldn't acknowledge properly into his mind behind his walls, separating himself.

"I will only say this once ever Blaise, so listen carefully." Draco looked at his friend who blinked in surprise knowing Draco was going to actually say something real for once. "If I don't insult her, I will say something else, something she's never wanted to hear and will drive Theo from my life. Granger understands it's a tentative balance, that's why she allows my particular methods. But it's all for Theo, so don't try manipulate me by insinuating her actions are an indication of any sort of affection. I don't want this, I never have. But nothing I do seems to stop it either. So, let me avail myself to more whisky and stop making this harder than it already is."

Blaise sat in silent shock. Draco could tell he'd never expected that level of being candid. Finally the man spoke, "I wish you'd said all this while Pansy was around. She'd know what to say much better than me."

Draco sneered and gestured to where Pansy was unsubtly fondling Longbottom's backside, a hand on his bicep, her head resting on his shoulder. "Pans has grown soft around all the lions. She'd probably have done something awful like tell me she understood or worse given me a hug." He shuddered.

Blaise laughed which was much more the kind of comfort Draco needed. His friend summoned a glass.

"Well, then. Let's cost the happy couple far too much money and see how many times they will restock the top shelf. He gave Draco a mischievous grin and Draco topped up his glass and toasted him.

A little bit later on Theo came up to them. He joined them for a drink and then Blaise slipped away to let Draco and Theo talk.

Theo gave a small nervous smile. "Are you OK, Drake? I know we kind of sprung this on everyone."

"Well, it only took you exactly 381 proposals, but you finally managed to bag the Golden Girl. I offer you my sincere congratulations. I never once thought she would seriously settle down with a Slytherin." Draco gave Theo a whisky and clinked it.

Theo looked down at it with a small crease of sadness. "I'm sorry," his words held guilt and shame.

Draco just raised an eyebrow. Theo continued, "I should have told you that I had feelings for her, too. That I was meeting with her. I should have gone to see you when the Transit kicked in before I went to her. I shouldn't have blown up at you when you proved to be the biggest obstacle I had to face to keep her."

"We always get through it though, don't we?" Draco gave him a smirk, an easy brotherly teasing smoothing the conversation.

"Yeah," Theo sighed, his shoulders relaxing. "I should have trusted you."

"Nah, you were probably right not to," Draco replied and both of them laughed.

There was a quiet moment between them when they both just enjoyed each other's company, a feeling that was often too cached in difficult conversations to find.

Draco found himself curious about something though, "Why did Granger change her vows?"

Theo looked at him.

"You know, when she stammered over the phrase, 'our lives' and changed it to 'my life', why did she do that?" Draco leaned forward showing he didn't mean any malice by it.

Theo shook his head. "Mione was giving me some leeway on the binding magic. She has this silly notion that something terrible might befall her. As long as I love her that will never happen. I don't think anyone here will let it. That includes you despite all your posturing. I know when it came down to it, you'd protect her."

Draco tsked at him with an eye roll. "I wouldn't count on it, I might be quite happy to finally be rid of her."

They laughed again knowing the threat was empty. Or perhaps it was just full of sarcasm instead of conviction.

Theo was watching Granger again, a soft and affectionate look on him. "Can you believe it, Drake? Hermione Granger is my wife." He sighed in a way that sounded like every hope and wish had been answered with her tying herself to him. "I'm really glad you're here."

He smiled at Draco and clapped him on the shoulder, leaving him to pull Granger into a tight embrace, joking with Blaise as he started dancing with her. They spoke to each other in quiet voices, smiles unable to leave their faces. Granger laughed, throwing her head back and Theo smiled in the way he did when he was being teased. Draco watched Granger lift a hand to caress the dimple in his cheek, leaning up to her tiptoes to kiss it and Theo's eyes fluttered shut as he wrapped his arms around her, crushing her to him.

"Fucking disgusting, isn't it," Pansy had crouched by him. She held his gaze and tutted in annoyance at the couple.

"You've been rather revolting yourself lately," Draco gave her a disappointed look. Shaking his head indicating she was losing her cred for heartlessness.

"I have never looked that pathetic. I just like starting the foreplay early. Seeing what he'll let me get away with." Draco chuckled at her. She stood and grabbed his hand, trying to pull him up. "Come on and socialise. Ginny's at that stage of drunk we love where she'll do anything if we dare her that she can't do it."

"That is rather fun. Even better is Potter desperately trying to stop her." He let her pull him up.

Pansy gave him a devilish grin. "Exactly, now stop being such a grump and let's cause some mischief."

And that's how the Prophet who were staking out the public areas of the hotel waiting for a now rare photo of the Golden Trio together ended up with a picture of Ginevra Potter streaking across the hotel lobby floor wearing only a makeshift sandwich board made of two drink trays with The Boy Who Lived chasing after her with a hotel robe.