"Good morn-" Neville Longbottom's smile dropped in the middle of his greeting, noticing the fiery anger in Hermione Granger's eyes. He clears his throat as she reaches the checkout counter.
"Good morning, Minister Granger…to what do I owe the honor of your visit to my humble flower shop?" He asks as she glances around the empty shop.
"Neville, can I not simply visit my oldest friend at his shop?" Hermione grimaces as she attempts a bright smile.
Neville frowns, "Not when your divorce is covering the front pages of every major tabloid and you're very obviously angry at.." he glanced at his watch, "5:45 in the morning."
"How do I passive-aggressively say 'fuck you' with flowers?" Hermione gave him a harsh smile.
Neville smirked, "I see. Well, I can put together a bouquet of geraniums, which means stupidity, foxglove, which means insincerity, meadowsweet, which means uselessness, yellow carnations, meaning you've disappointed me, and orange lilies, which means hatred."
As he spoke, he gathered the flowers, flitting around the shop and locking the front door as he went.
Hermione grinned viciously, "That sounds perfect and looks much nicer than it is."
Neville grins, comes back to the counter, and places them into a crystal vase, "Who will I be sending this to?"
"Draco Malfoy," is her simple answer as she fishes around in her beaded bag and pulls out a few galleons.
Neville's eyebrows shoot up in surprise, "I thought you were going to say, Ron or Lavender…"
Hermione snorted, "If only I'd caught Ronald with Lavender."
Neville almost dropped the vase as he turned to place it in a large flower box, reaching for the green ribbon to secure it.
"You caught Ron….with Draco?" Neville almost chokes on the words as he ties the ribbon around the vase and the box.
"Mm..yes." Hermione sighed, "So, you understand why I am the first Minister of Magic to have filed for divorce whilst in office. It's bad enough to have found out my husband is cheating on me with one of my personal assistants, but if it had been known that it had been with my male personal assistant, I would be the laughing stock of the Wizarding world."
"So, it's been three months since you filed for divorce and you won the case in the Wizengamot two weeks ago. What's caused you to suddenly decide to send "fuck you flowers" to Malfoy?" Neville asked as he collected a few owls from their cages in his back office, readying them to take a few orders.
"He's been sending me apology flowers, gifts, and notes for the last few weeks. I'm tired of them. I've been ignoring them or burning them upon delivery. He hasn't taken the hint." Hermione stated, poking around the shop as she and Neville talked, scenting the more unique flowers and playing with the shop kneazle, reminiscing about Crookshanks.
"I understand. Well, these are ready to go." Neville grinned at her. Hermione smiled as she made her way back to the front counter.
"How much do I owe you?" Hermione asked as she held out the galleons she'd pulled from her bag earlier.
"Nothing." Neville smiled at her.
"Neville, if you don't accept the money, I'll hide it throughout your shop or have the goblins transfer it to your vault." Hermione smiled wryly at him.
Shaking his head, he let out a small chuckle before allowing her to place the small stack of galleons on the counter.
"Where shall I send the bouquet? To his home or to the Ministry?" Neville asked.
Hermione hummed, "Have them delivered during his lunch hour. He usually eats in the atrium of the Ministry, with Ronald, Seamus, and Theo. And I would like you to add this to the bouquet." She slips a bright red envelope out of her bag, tapping her wand to it, "Don't worry, it won't go off until he or Ronald touch it themselves."
Neville fully laughs at that and nods, taking the envelope from her and placing it in the bouquet, "I'll take care of it."
Hermione smiles, "It will coincide with the release of my most recent interview," and with a wink, she unlocked the shop door and left without another word.
Neville shakes his head and grins, he's suddenly looking forward to his lunch hour, already planning to hand deliver the bouquet at the MInistry so he can have a front-row seat to the outing of Ronald Weasley and Draco Malfoy's affair.
It wasn't a secret that Draco Malfoy was gay. It was very publicly announced when he'd broken off his engagement to Astoria Greengrass. Ronald Weasley came out as bisexual in the middle of the Great Hall when he found out Harry and Ginny were together because he'd thought he and Harry were together at the time. But Ron hadn't been with a wizard since the end of the war, he and Hermione had been the most famous couple, even overtaking Harry and Ginny when Hermione became the youngest Minister of Magic in the world three years prior.
The Prophet had had a field day when Hermione announced that she was filing for divorce a week before their 5 year wedding anniversary. However, no matter how much the reporters tried to pry the words from Hermione's mouth, she never once gave any indication as to why they were divorcing. The speculation was rampant and the entire Wizarding community was on tenterhooks every time Hermione was in the papers, waiting to find out if she would give up the gossip they were all wanting.
Neville got to work for the rest of the morning, filling the orders he'd received via owl and sending them off, occasionally glancing with a vindictive smirk at the bouquet on the counter.
His wand alarm went off at exactly 11:45, which gave him enough time to close down the shop for the lunch hour and grab the bouquet and walk to the Ministry with enough time to spare to watch Draco and Ron making their way from the lift and towards a table near the middle of the atrium's cafe. Neville huffed a silent chuckle as he glanced up at the MInister's balcony to see Hermione delicately seated at a small table, sipping a cuppa.
Neville quietly checked in at the visitor's desk and registered his wand before making his way through the large crowd. He reached the table Draco was seated at and cleared his throat, drawing the occupants' attention.
"'Lo, Neville!" Seamus greeted him with a grin.
"Seamus." Neville nodded, before turning to Draco, "Delivery for you, Malfoy."
Draco looks up in surprise as Neville sets the flower box on the table in front of him.
"Have a good day, gents." Neville nodded once again before making his way toward the other side of the fountain to watch the ensuing drama.
Draco, confused, unravels the ribbon wrapped around the flower box and opens the front of the box to unveil the egregious bouquet. He pulls the vase out of the box and grimaces as he notes the meaning of each flower, the sender no longer a mystery to him. He frowns and pushes his food away from him, no longer hungry.
"There's an envelope, Malfoy," Seamus says with a slight grin, no doubt noticing the red of the envelope. Draco groans quietly, not wanting to touch it. Unfortunately, Ron didn't look at the envelope before grabbing it from the bouquet. The howler shook and jumped out of Ron's hand and turned to Draco.
"Malfoy," Hermione's cold tone pierced through the conversations of the Ministry's atrium, the crowd seeming to go silent as the howler spoke, "I have come to the decision that I forgive you. However, I cannot forget what I saw you and my ex-husband doing in my bedroom three months ago. As of today, you are fired. I will give you the afternoon to collect your belongings and vacate your office."
The howler then turned to Ron, "Ronald, our divorce was finalized two weeks ago, if you have not vacated our home by this evening, I will have you removed by Aurors. The house has been sold and the goblins will be arriving in the morning. You may keep whatever has been left. Finally, as per the law, I must inform you both that my most recent interview will be coming out in the Prophet, Witch Weekly, and the International Confederate of Wizards newspaper at exactly 1 o'clock this afternoon. Have a lovely weekend."
The howler exploded in a burst of flames and the entire atrium stared at the two men, Draco's face was much paler than usual, and Ron's face was so red that it clashed horrifically with his hair. They didn't even notice when a Prophet photographer snapped a few pictures of them.
Neville snorted, glancing back up to the Minister's balcony. Hermione was no longer there, but he could see the last of her riotous curls flitting into her office as she shut the balcony door behind her.
Neville felt he couldn't be more in love with Hermione than he was at that moment, even more so than he felt when he first saw her at her and Ron's wedding, and even more so than the very first day he saw her on the Hogwarts Express when she helped him search for his Trevor.
Leaving the Ministry, Neville felt a twinge in his chest as he thought back to that first train ride to Hogwarts. He knew he should have told her then that she was his soulmate, the bond only growing over the years as they became closer friends. He should have explained it all to her, she was Muggleborn after all, it's not like she'd known. She might not even know today. Sighing, he continued on his way back to his lonely little flower shop.