The Great Hall roared with excitement as students had finished with final exams for the year. Students were yelling with a jubilance that only came out once a year. They would all be heading home the following day, leaving behind the stress and rigor of another school year. For some, it was the last feast they would ever have with their fellow classmates and they soaked up every moment they had left in the great castle. All those except for Draco Malfoy.
Now, he did love the school, there was no doubt about that, there was just something he loved even more. He was dreading going home to the Manor and not being able to see a certain curly headed witch every day. He had driven away the only thing that had mattered to him and he was entirely to blame.
Blaise titled his head back and nudged Draco with his elbow. "Mate, quit it. You're making it snow again."
Draco blinked and shook his head. This was the third time this week he had let his emotions control the weather around him; a very un-Malfoy thing to do. He had just been looking at the Gryffindor table with guilt and self-loathing swimming in his head.
Hermione had made herself scarce from his presence the first three weeks after he ended their… relationship. It wasn't like he was thoroughly seeking her out, she just didn't even cross his path once. Ginny had sent him multiple dirty looks, confirming that Hermione had told her completely everything. Blaise had spoken to Ginny and relayed to Draco that Hermione had been locking herself in her room, only to come out for classes and mealtimes.
After the three weeks were up, however, Hermione had started to make an appearance again, to only ignore him entirely. He had tried to approach her at least a dozen times, but every time she would almost disappear before his very eyes. That was when he realized that she was avoiding him on purpose and she meant to continue.
Today, though, was his last chance to come clean with her. Tomorrow they would be taking the boats back across the lake, as was tradition for the seventh years (some nostalgic bullshit), hop on the train for the last time and begin their adult lives. Today was the day he had to pluck up the courage and tell her absolutely everything, no matter what happened.
Theo sat down in a huff and slammed his textbook down with a SMACK. "This is utterly ridiculous. I've talked to about eight girls and none of them want to come to my party tonight!" He whined.
"Well who did you ask?" Blaise questioned.
Theo began to fidget in his seat. "Well I asked just about everyone all week so I had to start asking some of the third year Hufflepuffs and…"
Blaise interrupted him with a laugh. "Third years?! Oh, you must be desperate!" He threw his head back in laughter again. "No one seems to want to come to another one of your parties after what happened last time."
"What happened last time was completely out of my control and you know it!"
Blaise continued to laugh, tears pooling in his eyes now. "But you started the whole thing."
Not wanting to relive what happened the night of his last party, Theo quickly changed the subject. "Oi, what's wrong with you?"
Draco slowly raised his eyes to meet his friend's. "Nothing," he hissed.
"He's still pissy over the whole Granger thing," Blaise answered as he wiped the tears from his eyes.
"Still?!" Theo huffed out. "You've got to either tell her or move on, mate. This whole thing is starting to make me depressed."
"I'm planning on it," Draco snipped.
Theo's hand flew dramatically to his chest as he gasped. "Oh my stars, do you hear that, dear Blaise? Our little man has finally grown a pair."
"Well I'll be," Blaise joined in, also putting on a fake accent of his own.
"Fuck off," Draco spat at the two as he stood up from his seat. There was only so much he could take from the two Slytherins.
The timing of his departure of the Slytherin table was pertinent as a head of brown curly hair also rose from the table across the hall, and luckily, she seemed to be leaving alone.
Draco caught up with her as she crossed the courtyard. She had her arms wrapped around her middle, despite the warm air, as if she were trying to protect herself. She had looked perfectly fine to him from away away, even joking with her friends again. Closer up, though, he could see the dark circles under her eyes and the slight dishevelment of her uniform.
She stopped and stared out into the grounds of Hogwarts, the wind tugged on her hair and pulled it behind her. Draco approached slowly, so as to not scare her. His feet stepped on a dry stick causing it to crack loudly throughout the stone courtyard. Hermione whipped her head around and froze. Brown met grey and didn't drift away, each waiting for the other to start talking.
Now, they found themselves in the same situation. Each of them waiting for the other to break the silence that consumed them. They stood and stared for what felt like hours. Finally Draco cleared his throat, the sound echoing in the small, cramped office.
"I… uh, I should find another curse breaker perhaps," he stated, as if he had already made up his mind.
Hermione simply blinked back in response. "Perhaps," she said slowly.
Suddenly her apprehension was too much for him to handle. She should be hurling hexes at his arse on his way out the door, yelling every curse word imaginable. She should be cursing him into next week. Instead she stood stock-still, almost as pale as him, looking as if she'd seen a ghost. This was not Hermione and he could not stand to see her in this state. He channeled the self hatred he felt in himself toward her as he huffed out a breath in annoyance.
"Actually yes I will find another curse breaker. I can't do this," he forced out bitterly. He turned on his heel and reached for the doorknob, not waiting to hear her response.
Something clunked into the back of his head and clattered to the floor. He looked down and saw a tape dispenser bounce past his feet. He whipped around to face the now furious brunette. "Oi, are you mental?! That hurt!"
"Good! I hope you're bleeding!" She grasped the closest thing to her on her desk, a stapler, and pulled her arm back in preparation to throw.
Draco moved his head to the left, dodging the stapler as it soared into the wooden door behind him. "I said I was leaving, you loony!"
"You don't get to come in here after years and call me loony, Malfoy! I was having a perfectly pleasant day until you showed up!" She grabbed the next thing on her desk, a file full of papers on her recent case.
"I didn't know you worked here!" He put up his arm to protect himself from paper cuts as she launched the file in his direction. Papers rained down over their heads as they glared at each other from across the room.
Hermione gaped at him for a few moments before sputtering out, "Y-you're the new client?"
"Well I was trying to be, but since you don't want me here I'll just be leaving. Is there another curse breaker I could talk to?"
Hermione shook her head slowly. "No. I'm the only one here today. You could come back on Monday when everyone else is back in the office."
Draco sighed and shook his head as well. "I was really hoping to get started on this today."
Hermione stood there thinking for a few moments before she threw her head back and groaned very loudly. "Fiiiine," She stretched out the syllable as long as she possibly could in one breath. When she ran out of air, she motioned to the seat in front of her shirtily. "Sit down."
He remained frozen in his spot trying to decide if he should have her work his case or if he should just wait for another curse breaker. She was clearly impatient waiting for him to make up his mind because she sighed loudly again and said, "Listen, Malfoy, my time is valuable so if you want a curse breaker I'm all you have right now. So make a decision."
He made up his mind and slowly sat in the chair across from her desk.
"Great," she said sarcastically.
This was going to be more difficult than Draco thought. He was grateful that she was willing to help him, but he was hoping that she would never find out about this. He had wanted to approach her when the time was right and he was free to do whatever he pleased. One part of him wanted to only give her part of his story, but as a curse breaker, she would need every nitty gritty detail in order to break the curse. He had hoped that without the curse he would be able to go back to her, even after all these years, but he was beginning to see now that might not be possible at this point. He had hurt her too many times and had let too much time pass in order for her to forgive him.
It had been three years. She probably had a nice boyfriend that was perfectly normal and most definitely not a previous Death Eater. Maybe even nice and not a giant sodding prick.
"What I say here. It stays between us right?" He wanted to make sure that no one else got wind of his life. Especially the Daily Prophet. The last thing he needed was to be on the front of the newspaper with a headline that read: Malfoy Heir, In Need of Wife, Or Else.
Hermione looked taken aback by the question. "O-of course. Breaker-client confidentiality and all that."
Draco nodded. "Alright good. I don't need any of this getting out."
"Alright let's get started then," she mumbled and pulled out a muggle notebook and pen, ever the diligent note taker.
Oh how he had missed those eyes. He had seen her walking around, sure, but he had not been given another chance to actually look into her eyes. He could walk away right now and be perfectly happy the rest of his life having looked in her eyes one last time.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" she spit out, getting over her surprise of seeing him behind her.
"I- I want to talk," he said pathetically.
"You've had plenty of time to talk."
"Yes but… tomorrow…," He mumbled. He really was a complete prat.
"Oh I see. We leave tomorrow, so you'd like to get in one last jab, just to ruin my last day here. Okay, go right ahead." She tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for the inevitable insult that he no longer had the heart for.
"Hermione, I have to talk to you. There's something important I need to tell you," he reached his hand out toward her and then let it fall when he saw her eyes flicker toward the movement and then direct a glare in his direction.
Hermione looked around, almost as if she were hoping someone would stumble upon this unwelcome reunion, delaying what he needed to discuss with her. "Fine," she huffed out, realizing no one was coming to her rescue. "You've got five minutes."
Hope radiated through his chest. This was it, he would tell her everything and they would get back together and everything would be as it was. He reached for her hand again, this time making contact and pulled her onto a bench beside him.
As soon as they were seated, Hermione pulled her hand from his and crossed her arms. After a few moments of silence she gestured with her hand for him to begin.
"Okay, well you see," he started, even though he didn't know where he meant to go with it. He cleared his throat and tried again. "There's this thing with my family about marrying someone of pure blood before I'm twenty-one."
Hermione flinched at the words pure blood. Draco swallowed and looked down at his hands. That probably was not the best thing he could have led with.
He was really mucking this up and he had barely gotten more than a sentence out.
"Oh and what? I'm too much of a mudblood for you?" She spit the word out like it was a curse on her tongue.
Draco winced at her choice of word to describe herself. "I didn't come up with this," he said lamely.
"So your family couldn't stand you bringing in someone without the purest of blood or what? They'll cut off your inheritance?" His silence gave her the answer she needed. "Oh I see how it is," she whispered darkly.
"No it's not like that," he plucked up the courage to say. He reached for her hands, the words bubbling on his tongue that he had been holding back for months. "I…I love you, Hermione"
She pulled her hands from his grasp and laughed gravely, no humor at all behind the noise. "No. You don't," she hissed.
He flinched, her cold words a slap across his face.
"If you really loved me, this wouldn't matter to you. If you loved me, you would have told me before, not string me along until it was convenient for you to let me go. You don't love me." She stood up, towering over him as he slumped on the bench. "You only love yourself. Goodbye, Draco," she whispered through clenched teeth, tears now flowing down her face.
Draco drew in a shuttering breath, tears trailing down his face as well. That went as terrible as it could have possibly gone. He had tried to tell her the entire truth, but he hadn't even gotten that far. She was right. He didn't love her, not the way she deserved to be loved. It was probably for the best. She wouldn't want to try and fight this thing with him so that they could be together, she deserved better than that. He didn't want her to stick around with the hope of breaking the curse, only to not find the answers he needed and still end up having to end things with her. It seemed like no matter what, he was doomed to marry a pureblood girl to save his mother's life. It was an entirely hopeless situation.
Hermione tapped the end of her pen in her fingers and waited for the blond across from her to begin speaking. He was looking everywhere but at her, flicking his eyes to every corner of the room, clearly anxious to start his story.
Finally he cleared his throat and locked his eyes to the notebook sitting in front of her. "Well, Granger, simply put I'm cursed."
Hermione stared at him, waiting for him to add more before she snorted. At her noise he finally looked up at her. "Well no shit, Malfoy. Obviously you're cursed otherwise you wouldn't have come to see a curse breaker."
If Draco Malfoy could get embarrassed, this was exactly the time his ears would flame red and he would look away. Malfoy's face, however, still held the blank look he had since sitting down, the only difference now was that his eyes narrowed. "Would you let me continue, witch?" he hissed.
Hermione held back a chuckle and waved her hand, signaling for him to continue.
He narrowed his eyes a little more before clearing his throat and continuing his story. "My great grandfather had a curse placed on our family to… uh, ensure that we married the er, right kind."
Hermione rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue. "Yes, yes you've told me this already, Malfoy. Or do you not remember?"
Malfoy frowned, "Of course I remember, Granger. But you didn't get the full story before."
"Oh really? And what's the full story then? If you don't marry a pureblood you end up poor?" she said sarcastically.
Malfoy shook his head sadly and coughed. "No. If I don't marry a pureblood, I'll die."
a/n: This one is a little shorter than normal and I'm sorry! A lot of you were complaining that Malfoy went that long without talking to her, so I hope this clears things up a bit for you. Yes he is a coward for not telling her everything in the first place, but you have to remember the essence of of his character. He is a bit of a coward and is used to handling things on his own (hello only child).
Let me know what you think :) XO!