Hi! Thank you for the love on the last chapter!
I hope you enjoy this one!
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Hermione passed the large fountain that used to command her attention—along with everyone else—and made her way down the long hallway, aiming for an empty fireplace on the right side.
She knew herself well enough to know that her mind would be occupied with the worst case scenario all day, stopping her from getting any real work done until she went to check on it. Anyways, she needed to pick up a few things; seeing as she didn't have any clothes at Draco's, let alone anything else.
Finding an empty fireplace, she reached her hand into the bowl on the mantle and stepped inside. Thanking Merlin she had set up a direct connection in the last year or two, sparing her a long walk out of the visitors entry and having to apparate.
"Granger residence," she said clearly, knowing better than to mumble, lest she end up somewhere unexpected like Harry in their second year.
A warm breeze washed over her and she closed her eyes. She jostled for merely a moment before her feet were solidly underneath her again. When she opened her eyes and rubbed them for good measure, her heart turned to lead.
Her flat looked as if it had been ransacked.
Cushions were thrown off the couch, lamps had been tossed and knocked over—leaving a thin carpet of glass everywhere she looked—and the stools that normally sat at her island were nowhere to be found.
She checked underfoot before stepping out of her fireplace and took a shaky breath.
Ron had always had a temper, but she never thought he would do something like this, not to her anyways. She did, however, have to admit that it wasn't entirely surprising, given how she had ended things.
It would take her ages to clean all of this, even with magic.
Pulling out her wand, she started moving items back where they belonged, calling others back from the abyss and putting them back in their homes.
The glass was swiftly dealt with, and a large bin followed her from room to room.
It wasn't until she reached her bedroom that she found the epicenter of the damage. Everything had been utterly destroyed, and she realized he had been kind; leaving the other rooms the way they were.
It was then for the third time in less than twenty four hours that Hermione broke down in tears.
Her walls had been burned; charred and flaking wallpaper clung to the surface desperately to stay attached. Her bedframe was reduced to rubble, and all manner of phrases had been seared into her mattress.
Liar.
Cheater.
Betrayal.
Even though she knew none of those accusations were true, she thought they spoke to the state of mind Ron had been in when he was here.
He thought she refused him because she found someone else. Ridiculous, absolutely mad.
She did pause to remind herself why she was here, and heat rushed into her already flushed cheeks.
She had never cheated on Ron, nor would she have; though her bringing clothes back to Dracos did make her feel dirty and somewhat ashamed.
It was even more imperative now, that no one knew she was staying there.
She was midway through cleaning up the ripped paperwork and files he had left strewn about her floor when she heard her floo come alive in the living room.
She froze, wand already in hand, aimed to defend herself against whoever walked into her apartment. Quickly she moved out of view, hiding between the closet door and the entry to her room.
Low grumbling came from the other room, and a few doors opened and closed but there wasn't enough noise to tell definitively who it was. The last thing she needed was Ron coming back to finish destroying the place, only to find her instead.
Harry had been so sure he was out of town that she doubted he was wrong, but one could never be too careful.
As the footsteps got closer to her door, her hand tightened on her wand.
Her heart hammered wildly in her chest, and she had to fight to keep herself still, keep herself hidden until the right moment.
The bathroom door opened beside the bedroom and she heard a subtle exclamation of disdain before the intruder moved to the room she was standing in.
Hermione steadied her hand, prepared and focused on whoever was about to step through that door, when a hand appeared and turned on the light switch.
She jumped forward, and paused when the person screamed. Shrieked, really.
"Draco what are you doing here?" she shouted.
He had taken several steps back and had, too late, reached for his wand. "You never came back so I thought someone ought to check on you."
"I'm fine… I just had some things to take care of."
"I can see that. What in Merlin's name happened here?"
She barked a stiff laugh, "isn't that abundantly clear."
"You're not telling me Weasley did this, are you?"
She tossed her wand onto the destroyed bed, and bent to pick up some of the larger scraps of paper. "Who else?"
Draco whistled but didn't say anything else. Instead he put his wand down next to hers and started picking up anything he thought was out of place.
They worked in silence for an hour before she finally straightened and picked her wand back up, needing to figure out how to fix her walls.
"Did… you… ya know?" Draco nodded towards the writing on the walls and she rolled her eyes.
"No. I would never, but that must have been the only reason he could come up with as to why I would say no."
Picking up his own wand, he wordlessly started repairing the torn up mattress, the sheets and pillows falling back into place as if they had never been disturbed.
"I appreciate your help," Hermione said softly, "not just with this, but all of it. I didn't mean to get you involved."
He smirked, "well Granger, no one but us knows I'm even involved."
Tension welled in her chest at that word again. She wondered if she was being dishonest, and she feared what might happen if Harry were to find out. Would he run to Ron? Would he tell Ginny, who would tell Ron? Would she be able to move on from this disaster with as little fallout as possible?
She highly doubted it.
She excused herself, and made it as far as her bathroom before she stopped to take some deep breaths. Needing a reset, she stared at her reflection in the mirror and tried to pick out the pieces of her that used to love Ron, willed them back. But she knew, they were gone, fragmented even more after seeing her flat.
There were no tears left, no sad longing, only quiet contempt remained.
Part of her pitied Ron, for needing to hurt her worse than she hurt him.
She didn't know if she wanted to laugh or scream. Laughter seemed the least destructive, and before she could help herself she was sitting on the edge of her tub; doubled over, clutching her sides.
The door creaked open and Draco stood in the opening, bewildered and wary. His well built frame filled most of the space as he watched her laugh and laugh. With a light hand she waved him into the room and he sat on the floor opposite her, his back against her vanity.
"What's so funny?"
She couldn't even find the words to explain to him the awful humor she was finding in the situation. Instead all she managed between breaths was "i'm so tired of crying."
He smiled at her in a way that told her he understood. Somehow he understood.
His smile turned to small chuckles, as she watched him watching her through half closed eyes.
Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy made quite a pair, as they sat on her bathroom floor laughing freely and without restraint. She tried to remember the last time she had laughed so openly with someone. It certainly hadn't been since the war.
She didn't know how long they sat there, but she knew somewhere along the way; something vital had changed.
As her laughter slowed and her chest, with its rising and falling began to return to normal she watched him more intently. The way his blonde hair, longer now than it had been in school, slid over his forehead, drifting in front of his eyes. The unbridled mirth in those eyes, lighter in the bathroom light than she had ever seen. How his smile brightened his face and made him look younger. He looked beautiful and happy and it brought a smile to her own face knowing that she got to share this moment with him.
His laughter returned to chuckles, and slowly he too stopped laughing, but he never looked away and that caused Hermione's smile to falter a moment.
What was she doing? Less than twenty four hours ago, she was being proposed to and here she was inviting and enjoying the company of Malfoy. This was madness, and she was the one responsible for it all. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him too, and was the risk worth their work relationship. She couldn't say, and Hermione liked definitive answers.
She cleared her throat, "I think I should get back to cleaning this mess."
His hand reached out, stopped and fell back to his side, "you can always leave it for today. We can get back to it in the next day or two."
Considering his words, she wanted to listen to him, pack a small overnight bag and leave the mess behind, but something tugged at her.
"I can't… I need to have a sleepable room."
Realization dawned, and for a moment she thought she saw something like hurt flash across his features but he cleared his throat and stood, offering her a hand.
She took it and as he brought her to her feet, she loosened her grip but he held on.
"It was nice having company, even if it was only for a night."
Hermione didn't know what to say, so she settled for the only words that came to her useless brain at the moment, "thank you."
His jaw flexed and he nodded once, "good luck getting it all cleaned up. If you need any help, you know where I am. I guess I'll see you tomorrow." And just like that, he was gone.
She heard her fireplace blaze to life and then there was only silence in her flat. Running her fingers through her hair, she walked back into the restored living room and sat on the edge of her couch.
When did all of this go so wrong? She wondered to herself, staring at the place he had just been.
Hermione knew better than to stay at Malfoys for another night, and knew that in her oddly not heartbroken state, she might make a mistake. The same sort of mistake that led her to his door in the first place, and she wouldn't be stupid enough to make it twice.
Getting up, she closed over the grate in front of her fireplace and returned to her room to clean.