A/N: Judging by the reviews I got, everyone has been sufficiently upset by last weeks chapter. Again, buckle up, the next chapters are also going to be bummers. But believe me, I love Dramione, and they will be happy in the end. Hermione needs to go through some growth in the pride department, but bear with her. #justicefordraco

A/N: Also there's a lot of cursing in this chapter. Sorry-ish about it.

Chapter 47

Draco watched the sun rise on the balcony to his bedroom, a bottle of gin loosely held in his hand.

Since he had left Granger's he had barely moved, barely thought. He took another deep swig from his bottle and watched the horizon.

Behind him, he heard flames rise from the fireplace, and Blaise's footsteps.

"I got your owl," He said by way of greeting.

Draco sniffed, pushing a tear aside with the back of his forearm.

"Got to be totally honest, it seems to be a little gin soaked… but I think I got the salient points." Blaise laid a hand on his shoulder. "Mate, do you want to put some pants on before we have this conversation?"

"Why?" He croaked out.

"I would like you to put on some pants." Blaise said definitively, pulling Draco back inside.

His skin prickled from the sudden warmth, and he sat down on his couch in a haze as Blaise closed the french doors behind them. Reluctantly, and with a cross look, he gathered up the throw off the back of the couch and draped it around himself.

"How did you leave things?" Blaise settled himself across from Draco in the chair where, just a few days ago, Granger had sat. He was wearing a plain inky blue robe over his pajamas, which were a silky affair in a pale blue. The only thing that interrupted the Italian's picture perfect "Moroccan Wizard in Repose" look were his hastily thrown on black muggle trainers.

"Not good. There was some yelling." Draco said quietly.

Blaise nodded, "You yelling, her trying to explain, of course."

Draco shook his head. "You could be a little less equanimous about this, y'know."

"I could, but I won't. It's not my style. Just like dramatically drinking on a balcony is yours." Blaise said curtly. "I'm sorry, mate."

"It was suppos' to be over when he died. Potter was supposed to fix it and kill him and end it. Everything was supposed to go back to normal," Draco replied darkly, taking another long drink.

"I don't know about you, but for me, he was a part of the normal. Now… there is no normal," Blaise said after a long pause.

"We were supposed to be allowed to be free. To make our own minds up for fucking once," Draco pulled the edges of the blanket tighter, suddenly realizing how freezing he was. "I swore when my father's trial ended, I wouldn't be trapped ever again."

"I don't think she was trying to trap you-" Blaise began.

"Then what would you call it? She was going to make me fall in fucking love with her to save the fucking world again?" He drank again, swallowing the burning liquid hastily and coughing before he continued. "I swore I wouldn't be a pawn again. I swore."

"Alright, alright, Drake, calm down." Blaise held out a palm.

"So what? You start fucking her ex and now everything she does is a'right?" Draco sneered.

Blaise gritted his teeth. "That is well out of line. I am here, I am on your side, I am always on your side. I just want you to calm down, I want you to take a deep breath."

Draco took in a shaky breath.

"You're angry. And you're right to be." Blaise said in a slow, steady voice. "You have a right to never see Granger again if you want to. But what you don't have a right to do is to drink yourself into a stupor and fall off your balcony because I won't let you. So take it down about fifty notches and let's try to think rationally for a second."

Draco took a large drink instead, making eye contact with his disappointed friend as he did so.

"Stop that."

"Why?" Draco slurred. "I don't know what to do. I don't know why she… she did this to me. I don' know what to say to her, I don't… And I feel like a bastard for believing it. For believing it even for a moment. I must have been out of my mind."

Blaise was silent, leaning over to take the gin bottle away from Draco, as if that could stop the thoughts now spilling out of his mouth.

"I just can't… I can't fucking believe it. I can't believe she lied to me, she bloody lied to me, and she made an idiot out of me." He shook his head vehemently. "She was… no she is supposed to be this truthful person. I saw inside her head, I thought I knew her, I thought… I never thought she would do this to me."

Blaise shook his head. "Drake…"

"What? What can you possibly say to defend her?" Draco leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

"I can't, she clearly made you feel-" Blaise put the gin behind the chair away from Draco, as far as he could reach.

"Used? Fucking yeah." Draco sunk down with his head in his hands. "Wasn' she supposed to be my fucking soulmate? Wasn' she supposed to be so fucking perfect for me and shit? Is the universe actually that cruel?"

"It's not the universe-" Blaise laid a hand on his shoulder again.

"Yes! Yes it actually is! There is a cosmic predisposition for my life and the lives of my fucking children that we are going to be fucked with for the rest of bloody eternity, and there is nothing I can do about it. It's out of my hands! 'Less I want to bloody doom everyone else to another swaggering Slytherin psychopath like the Dark Lord." Draco pounded a fist on the coffee table.

"Okay first of all we have to work on letting other people finish sentences." Blaise punctuated the last word by opening his eyes wide. "Seriously let me get to a verb."

Draco chuckled, drawing in a breath. "I'm sorry, Blaise, I just… I don't know what to do and I feel so fucking helpless."

"So you feel helpless. Fine. What would make you feel better?" Blaise patted him on the back.

"Nothing." Draco leaned back into the couch and stared at the ceiling.

"What would make you feel like yourself again?" Blaise continued undeterred. "Not that you drinking naked and feeling sorry for yourself is out of character."

"I'm not feeling sorry for myself." Draco covered his eyes with his forearm.

"Sure you're not. But if you were, what would make you feel less sorry for yourself?" Blaise said.

"I dunno… if Granger was feeling as miserable as me." Draco twisted the corner of his mouth into a wry smile.

"Well I'd bet all the galleons in Gringotts she doesn't feel great." Blaise came back just as wry.

Draco sat up. "Wait-"

Blaise looked him over. "Oh no, I don't like that look."

"What look? This is me at my smartest look ever." Draco drawled.

"It's you at your drunkest look ever," Blaise blinked sardonically, crossing his arms. "What are you thinking of doing?"

"Getting even." Draco replied.

"Drake-" Blaise began with a warning look.

"Does she deserve it?" Draco shot back.

"Maybe she does, but I don't have to like it." Blaise shook his head gently. "Maybe she had reasons for doing what she did."

Draco scoffed. "Protecting me? That was a bold faced lie."

Blaise raised his eyebrows. "You're right. Why wouldn't she want to have this conversation?"

"What does that mean?" Draco said with a heavy tongue.

"You're a mean motherfucker, Drake. Not a bad bloke, but you're a mean motherfucker. I certainly wouldn't want to be the one to tell you I didn't want to get married to you, but had to." Blaise smirked.

"Firs' of all, you could be so lucky. And secondly," He hiccuped. "She could have told me, and I could have dealt with it."

"Yes, obviously, but it would still be a difficult conversation emotionally," Blaise said levelly. "She knew it would hurt you to do it."

"Why does everyone keep saying that? I'm not hurt! Nothing she could do would ever hurt me!" Draco waved his hand lazily through the air.

"Oh, yeah, you're right, you've been very logical and rational this whole time," Blaise slapped his hand away. "Just admit it."

"Fiiiine I'm hurt. I trusted her and I'm hurt. So all the more reason to hurt her back!" Draco shot back. "I'm Draco sodding Malfoy. She doesn't get to do this to me."

Blaise pointed a finger just inches from Draco's nose. "I don't like that face."

"I can't tell you my plan, you're consorting with the enemy." Draco countered, as the room spun lazily around Blaise's face.

"Please do not make plans, you are so drunk." Blaise put his hand on Draco's shoulder.

"Yes, when I make my best plans." Draco replied.

"Your worst plans. You were drunk when you got back together with Pansy. You were drunk when you decided to wear that velvet blazer and crash the Minister's gala for reopening Hogwarts." Blaise crossed his arms again.

"That blazer looked great." Draco pulled his blanket tighter around his shoulders.

"We got kicked out." Blaise snapped back. "And it green isn't your color, Draco, it makes your skin sallow."

"You take that back." Draco spit.

"This, whatever it is, is a bad idea, Drake. You should sleep it off." Blaise said in a low, calm voice.

"It's not a bad idea. I'm going to do exactly what Granger wanted," Draco slurred. "Ex-bloody-actly."

"What, just pretend that this didn't happen?" Blaise raised an eyebrow dubiously.

"Obviously, there's no going back now. But we will get married, and she will move into the manor. She accused me of cutting and running, I won' give her the satisfaction of being right about that," Draco reasoned, most reasonably.

Blaise just shook his head.

"We'll keep pretending in public, sure fine. But that's it." Draco made a sweeping motion with his hand. "No more looking down on me, or deceiving me. We'll be honest."

Blaise rolled his eyes. "Except, of course, for the fact that you obviously had feelings for her."

"'Xactly." Draco replied.

Blaise lowered his chin and regarded Draco darkly. "Drake, are you sure there wasn't some other reason she didn't tell you about this awful business?"

"I'm sure she was planning to tell me when I told her I lo- when I said something embarrassing and emotional, just to really humiliate me," Draco growled.

"No other reasons, at all?" Blaise repeated.

"I don't know." He threw up his hands. "She said she didn't know me before, whatever that means."

Blaise contemplated this for a long moment before rising smoothly, and laying a hand on Draco's shoulder.

"Don't do anything right away." He said, "Think about what being honest actually means, before you talk to her. And for fuck's sake, sober up."

"I don't want to be made a fool of again," Draco defended himself, pulling the "shoulders" of his blanket.

Blaise hesitated, his eyes darting to the fireplace. "I want you… to call out of work today. And sleep this off. Okay?"

"Fine." Draco bit out.

Blaise turned to go, and hesitated again. "I won't stop dating Weasley."

Draco raised his eyebrows sky high. "I would never ask you to."

Blaise's shoulders relaxed. "Check in with me tomorrow."

"I will." Draco pulled the blanket tighter and fell sideways into a throw pillow.

Blaise stepped into the fireplace and gathered a handful of floo powder from the waiting bowl.

He held it aloft for a moment. "Drake… it's gonna be alright. In the end."

Draco shook his head. "That's what we said about the Dark Lord. And it isn't."

"Yet." Blaise finished quickly, as he dashed the powder to the ashes and named his apartment as his destination.