I Love(d) You (Once)

Chapter Eighteen: Distracted

February was the month of love and in the first week, the following events occurred:

Hermione Granger got over her first love.

Pansy Parkinson was in love.

Draco Malfoy fell out of love.

Astoria Greengrass put a face to a heart she broke.

Theodore Nott learnt love desecrated morality.

And at the end of it all:

"It feels like I'm loved."

"I do care for you," said Hermione, pulling Draco into a hug.

"I know you do."

Blaise took a drink of his tea—he made a New Year's resolution of not drinking until 3pm and he was doing it… if he just waited fifteen more minutes… he did not want to break his resolution two and half months in—his friend coughed and he looked up. Concentrate, he told himself. How often does Draco talk to you about his love life? Not that he had one to speak of for the past six years!)

"I need to ask you something, since you're, you…" Draco searched a word to describe his best mate that wouldn't offend. "Have so much experience with the fairer sex."

"Ask away, Dray-man."

"I told you to stop calling me that."

"Whatever, Dray-man, now tell me how can Daddy Blaise help you with?"

He pursed his lips and glared at Blaise. "Look, it's serious. Can you be serious for just one minute?"

Blaise looked at his watch. "Three… two… one… go!"

"Astoria has been acting cold. I've texted her a few more times. She's slow to reply. On dates she seems distracted, or maybe bored; there's thirty seconds left, give me your reply, I need help." Draco took a huge gulp of air after he gave Blaise the quick rundown.

"Maybe she's intimidated by you or something, I don't know."

"I'm not intimidating!" Draco said indignantly. "I mean, not to her."

"Yeah, I was just kidding, you're more whipped than cream on pancakes." Blaise chuckled to himself. "I hate to break it to you. But she's not into you. Actually I'm not sure why anyone would be. Merlin knows what Pansy was thinking."

"Oh, I just love it when you talk about me when I'm not there!"

"Parkinson, Dray-dray has a problem and needs Aunt Pansy's help. Astoria's very cold. What say you about the situation?"

She pursed her lips. "I wouldn't care too much about her," Pansy warned. "I mean it, Draco. Just leave her while you can."

"Is this because of that," Draco asked, shooting Pansy a pointed look.

"What's that?"

"Because if it's that I'd be rather disappointed in you, Pansy."

Pansy pressed her lips together. "No it's not because of that. Look, I just don't think she's good enough for you."

Draco folded his arms. "And why not? I thought you approved of her."

She fiddled with her napkin and lowered her eyes. Might as well break the news as Astoria seems to have forgotten to inform Draco herself. "Well now I don't."

"Are you going to tell me why?"

"Well, it all started last Friday night…."

(Last Friday night)

"Are you feeling better now, Granger?" Draco said when they finished dinner. Hermione had looked down and he couldn't help but notice…and eventually she had confessed that she and Ron had broken up. "This is the nice as I get. If you need some more of that Nice, you'll have to go knocking on someone else's door."

That managed to put a smile on her face. "Thank you, I mean, I don't think I would have remembered to eat."

"Whoop-dee doo. You've been Weasel-free for two weeks. You're single! You should be celebrating, not moping by yourself on a Friday night like this. Would you have spent the whole night working if I hadn't come to pick something up from the office?"

"It was half-past seven," she protested. "We've stayed in the office later than that."

Draco scoffed. "Yeah, when we were doing high-level stuff that actually allowed us to use our brains. Grunt work! Pah. If another gnome bites my toes while I'm carrying out an extermination I'm going to storm up to Pucey's office and hex his hair off."

"Now who sounds like a workaholic or a psycho?" she teased him with the same words he said an hour ago.

"I know you and the Weasel just broke up, but as a third person totally objective to your situation, you need to go out. Have some fun."

"I was having fun."

"You were working." Draco pulled Hermione up and handed her coat. "And you had this expired cat food expression on your face."

"Malfoy," Hermione said, "Thank you for worrying, spending your Friday night with me like this."

"It's all right," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "It wasn't like he had much to do anyway."

"Are things not going well with Astoria," she asked carefully.

Draco's sighed and he leaned back in his seat. "I would like a front-row seat to the inner workings of her mind."

"I think it would be best if you went to talk to her in person," "she said in a measured tone,

Draco frowned. "If she would reply my attempts to arrange a time and place, half the problem would be solved."

Hermione's heart pounded and she kept her best to keep a straight face. It was not her business, and even though Draco was her friend, it would be ridiculous to tell him what she saw. She wasn't even sure… They settled into a languid silence, staring out of the window, watching pedestrians scurry across the streets. They continued to sit in silence, and slowly but surely, the number of patrons in the restaurant began to diminish.

"That was enjoyable," Hermione said, as her eyes followed a couple grabbing their coats by the door.

Draco tilted his head to read his watch. "It is getting late."

They both shifted out of their chairs and fetched their coats. Winding her long woollen scarf around her neck, Hermione said: "I will see you tomorrow."

"Don't feel too down."

Hermione waved as Draco grabbed a handful of Floo powder and disappeared in a flash of green flames. Hermione herself opened the door of the restaurant and as she exited, she let out a long breath. She watched the misty, white exhale rose up and melted into the winter sky. She needed a good, hard drink. With her hands in her pockets, she made her way towards an alleyway, took a left and into a well-lit bar.

Something didn't sit well with Pansy's gut. Though she was no longer revolted by the idea of hanging Muggle-borns and so forth (spending ample time with the doctors, surgeons and fellow patients made sure of that), but having a drink, with THE Hermione Granger (war-heroine, first-class awards and honours, object-of-Draco's-affections-until-recently) sit down next to her at her bar gave her the motions. Hermione sipped the foam of her ale, pretending not to feel the awkwardness of the meeting. They could have both ignored each other when they bumped into one another. Or, they could have exchanged superficial greetings and gone on their merry separate ways.

Pansy, for the love of all things beautiful, could not understand why Hermione would choose to sit in the same booth as her.

"Pansy," Hermione began and she shifted nervously in her seat. "Here's a hypothetical question."

"Hypothetical," she repeated, gesturing inverted commas with her hand. "What are you going to say next, that it's about a friend and you're asking for them?" Pansy's hand flew to her mouth at seeing Hermione's shock. "I was just joking! But why are you asking me?"

"Uh…" Hermione began.

"You don't have to tell me," Pansy said putting a palm towards Hermione. "I already know. There is only one person in the world, probably, that we both mutually care about."

"Well yes," she admitted. "I'm trying to be a good person here… I mean, Draco's been wonderful to me the past few years and I consider him a true friend even after all we've been through… and he even took me out for dinner just now and I just—" Hermione flushed as she gripped her glass—"want to be a good person and do the right thing."

"All right," Pansy said. "Tell me what this self-righteous act is."

Hermione took a deep breath. "Before I do anything, I would like to get all my facts straight. So that's the reason why we are doing this," Hermione said, as she gestured at herself and then at Pansy.

"So you need intel."

Hermione nodded. "Does Astoria have a brother?"

"No," Pansy replied. She furrowed her brows. "And no, she doesn't have a father, or male relatives that she would be particularly close with. Who was she with? What was she doing?"

Hermione shook her head. "This could be nothing." But coupled with Astoria completely freezing Draco out? No. "One final question." She could feel the tips of her ears burning with embarrassment, and if her face were not already tinged with pink from her drink, her cheeks were definitely sporting a healthy flush now.

"What is it?" Pansy asked impatiently.

"Draco is still a solid boxers' man right?"

"What?" Pansy asked, confused at the sudden question. "Um. Yes? Unless he's changed his preferences. Wait what?"

Now that the floodgates were open, Hermione leaned in forward and Pansy, in turn, drew closer towards her—until they were almost touching foreheads. "I was walking past the men's underwear section."

"Ewkaaaay. Why?"

"To get to the women's section. That's not important. But I saw Astoria there, buying male briefs."

"Briefs?" Pansy's eyes grew wide and solemn. "Briefs."

"Yes," she said.

"No," Pansy said, recoiling from her position. Her That lying cheating little harlot! Oh, when I get my hands on her, she's going to be bald."

"It could be for some other male relative." (No.) "Wait. One final detail. Draco is still a solid boxers' man right?"

Pansy raised her eyebrows suspiciously. "He swears by them—but how would you know this? I thought you two were close, but work partner close. I find it wildly inappropriate to be discussing about Draco's choice of undergarments to an outsider. We're not friends."

"We were classmates before workmates you know," Hermione said. Pansy said nothing because she didn't know what that was supposed to mean. "When you're classmates in the same cohort for three years… and you attend the same initiation parties and your upperclassmen forces alcohol down your throat, you—not that I remember much of it either, but that's neither here or there… but what should we do? Tell him?"

Pansy shook her head. "He probably knows their relationship is on its last dregs already. And if not, I'll deal with the Astoria situation. I'll make sure everything turns out the way it should."

"How?" Hermione asked, because out of concern for both Draco and Astoria. Pansy's spite could curdle milk.

"Of course," and Pansy scoffed at her, "Draco's my best friend."

"Nothing illegal."

"Nothing that I would be charged for," Pansy promised.