Against All Odds

Chapter Sixteen

Daniel found it very hard to do what his father had asked him to: not to say anything to his mother. But he had promised, and he was going to keep his promise. Dad doesn't know me so well like Mom yet, he thought, and if I break my promise now, he might never trust me again and never tell me things. I want him to know he can trust me with anything.

Therefore, even though it was very difficult not to say anything, Daniel kept quiet. You promised, he told himself sternly every time his mother looked so miserable he felt he had to cheer her up somehow, and the most natural way, in his opinion, was to tell her to take his dad back. But he held himself and didn't say anything.

And that was before the flowers started to come.

On Sunday morning, Hermione woke up to see a red rose on the edge of her bed, right in front of her. She asked Daniel if he knew anything about it, but he honestly didn't, so she figured it was probably a mistake.

She thought afterwards that she should have realized the truth. At lunch time, a large owl carrying a small box flew inside, straight towards Hermione. Instead of dropping the box in front of her, like owls normally do with post, the owl hovered above Hermione's head, tipped the box over and a rain of pink rose petals fell on Hermione's hair. Wonderful scent of roses spread in the kitchen.

"What – what – "Hermione gasped as a piece of parchment fell on her head as well. The owl flew out of window and disappeared. Hermione grabbed the piece of parchment and read out loud the four words written on it: I love you Hermione.

"Mom," said Daniel, who also had some petals on his head, "you look so beautiful..."

Hermione raised her eyes, even more shocked. She looked very beautiful, indeed – her long hair was full of pink petals, that matched the pink flush on her cheeks.

"W-what is going on?!" she stammered.

"Obviously it's Dad," said Daniel simply.

"I know it's him!" Hermione cried. "But why did he send all these rose petals?" she tried to wipe them out of her hair, but it was harder than she had thought. "Daniel, could you help me here?"

Daniel got up, went behind his mother started pulling the petals out of her hair. "It's stated here very clearly why he did that, isn't it?" he said, pointing at the piece of parchment. "He loves you."

----

After taking a long shower and washing her head, Hermione sat in the living room and tried to calm down. The whole thing was ridiculous – yes, the rose petals were sweet, but she had already turned him down, why did he keep doing everything to convince her?

Daniel's voice echoed in her mind: "...very clearly why he did that, isn't it? He loves you." Draco loved her, he would have never bothered so much if he hadn't; Hermione felt herself starting to soften... No! I cannot allow myself to fall in love with him all over again. I have decided this is not going to happen, and it's not!

But it already has. Hermione almost slapped herself mentally – I have already fallen in love with him again... Or perhaps the love she had had for him eleven years ago hadn't died like she'd thought. Perhaps it had just 'fallen asleep', and now it was awakening?

Three more owls arrived until dinner, all carrying roses and pieces of parchment on which Draco declared his feelings. I love you so much, Hermione. I miss you. Falling in love with you is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.

And Hermione read these words and cried softly, because she knew how much she loved him back; but she could not return his love, although she wanted to more than anything. She could not trust him yet. She was so afraid of abandonment repeating itself; what if he got another job offer abroad? Or what if they got together and it didn't work out between them, and they had to break up? She would not be able to face it. Nor would Daniel; his young heart would be broken. He was so sensitive – she couldn't do this to him.

It was too late; she had been waiting for so many years for him to come back to her, but he hadn't, and she forced herself to forget. Now she realized she had never managed to forget completely. There was nothing she wanted more than to say yes and be with him, but her mind and pride wouldn't let her.

Meanwhile, she couldn't do anything. A week passed; owls came every day with roses of all colors. At nights, she cried into her pillow; in the days she waited. Wherever she was – at work, at home, at Harry's or at Ron's – she was waiting. She knew he was proud, so the odds he would come instead of sending an owl were small, but she was still praying: "Draco, please come. I can't promise I'll say yes, but please, I cannot live without seeing you, please come!"

----

Draco did not know what to do anymore. Hermione didn't return any of his owls; he couldn't do anything except for concluding she was still rejecting him. He wanted to see her so badly, but couldn't – he knew he would not be able to face her and know she did not belong to him without collapsing. So he could not even see Daniel, though he missed him a lot; they had become so close to each other, and not being able to see him often killed Draco from inside.

But he wouldn't go there. He couldn't. He kept sending her owls with roses every day, but did everything he could to stop himself from running there to see her. He knew how much it would hurt him, and preferred to stay at home.

Daniel, however, was not willing to give up so easily. Although Hermione was less than thrilled when he told her he was going to his father, she let him – she knew she had to. He was his dad, after all. And so Daniel went about fifteen blocks until he reached Draco's apartment, which he had rented after Christine had thrown him out of the house.

He rang the doorbell and Draco opened it after a few minutes.

"Daniel!" he cried and gathered him up in his arms. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you, of course," Daniel answered. He walked inside and looked around him.

Draco felt a little uncomofortable. In all those days, he hadn't bothered to clean up the place, and it indeed became a complete mess. He knew Hermione would kill him if she saw that – but then again, she wasn't coming, so what was the point?

Then Daniel turned around and looked at him, and Draco suddenly became very aware of how sloppy he looked, unshaved and wearing old and dirty clothes. "Sorry about the mess," he apologized, "but my mind was fixed on... other issues."

"I know," Daniel replied simply and sat down on the couch.

"Do you always know everything?"

"No. But I see Mom every day, and I see how miserable she is. And I know why: it's because of you."

"Because of me?" Draco took a step back. "What did I do?"

"I'm not blaming you, of course," said Daniel quickly. "All I'm saying is that being without you is not good for Mom. She misses you, I see it on her face. She thinks I don't know, but I hear her every night from my room. She cries every night, and I know exactly why."

Draco didn't know exactly why he was consulting with a eleven-year-old boy, but he did it anyway: "Do you think I should stop sending all the roses? I have no other way of showing her that I love her."

"Sure you do," Daniel answered. "You can come and tell her."

"I've already done that several times," Draco said. "She knows how I feel – now it's her call."

"So you're just waiting for her to come?" Daniel demanded. "Don't you realize she's waiting for you to come? She doesn't see it the way you do. She thinks it's your call."

"But what do you want me to do, Dan?" Draco asked desperately. "If you have any idea, just say it. I've got nothing. I really don't know how to convince her anymore. I've tried everything."

Silence spread in the room.

"Propose to her," Daniel said suddenly.

"What?" Draco said.

"Propose to her," Daniel repeated. "Maybe she doesn't think you're serious enough about her. This might help proving her that you are serious."

Draco gazed at his 11-year-old son. "You know, Daniel," he drawled, "sometimes you surprise me with your ideas."

"So will you do it?" Daniel asked excitedly.

"I'll think about it," Draco replied, and Daniel knew that when someone says 'I'll think about it' in that way, they usually mean 'yes'.

----

A/N: I am driving you crazy with Hermione saying no over and over again, aren't I? I'm sorry but I simply feel that Hermione in my story was so hurt when Draco left her, that she can't just take him back when he wants to. I know, it was not his fault, I truly believe a person has the right to develop his career even if he has to move to another country for that, but Hermione doesn't see it that way and she has the right not to, because she felt so abandoned when she had to raise Daniel all by herself. And you already know how much he needed his father.

You don't have to worry, though. This story is Draco/Hermione for a reason.

And I know it was short. But next chapter will be longer, I think. Hope you enjoyed it anyway... review!

My dearest Crazy12, Sarah: LOL!!! You're so sweet! As I've already said, I have some devoted reviewers I care about very much, who include you of course. From time to time I would like to thank these dear, dear reviewers personally and I'm trying to, but remember Sarah, you were the first one I thanked personally and you are definitely allowed to consider yourself #1 fan. Hugs and love ---- Roni.

ScRibBLrOfDrEaMs: When you upload a document, you can edit it and it works like in the Microsoft Word program with the bold and italic and underlined words. Good luck, and thanks for the compliments. :-)

Magical Moonstone: Are you serious? A whole story dedicated to me? And with such an interesting plot! Wow! Thank you! Even if it doesn't happen eventually, I mean, if you decide not to write this story – I'll still thank you for the idea. You're really sweet. :-)