Yearning a Little Too Much for Love
"And?" Ron asked impatiently a few days later.
Hermione, Ron, and Harry were all at the new SPEW building, unofficially called the SPEW Headquarters, and Ron and Harry were, of course, grilling Hermione about what had happened in Snape's classroom.
"And what?" Hermione asked, avoiding both of their eyes as she shuffled together a sheaf of parchment on the modern desk in her new office. The room was a little bit larger than a quarter of a football field; unquestionably the biggest room in the building. Hermione had been settling in during the last couple of days, and gradually the office began to look more personalized by Hermione's things that were scattered everywhere; her huge teddy bear that her parents had given her the day she was born, her OWL results safely enclosed in glass picture frame along with her acceptance letter to Hogwarts, and of course, a picture of Draco in her desk. That, though, was just for her. That way, she could pretend to go to Draco whenever she needed help with something or another; sure, perhaps it was a tad pathetic. But Hermione loved Draco, and if he could not be around to be there for her when she needed him most, than she would damn well pretend that he was.
"And, what's going on?" Harry exclaimed, awed that Hermione was being so impervious. Ron watched on, nodding his head eagerly in agreement; obviously, both wanted the full, detailed 411.
"I've dropped out of Hogwarts." Hermione replied, still avoiding their eyes so that she would not have to see their dubious expressions.
"But…" Ron began, at a loss for words.
"But you're Hermione." Harry supplied. "You're the one that everyone expected to pass her OWLs and NEWTs with flying colors and advance to become Minister for Magic or something!"
"Well, you already know that my number one priority is SPEW." Hermione replied, her tone indicating that her news should not have come as such a shock to them.
"I thought your number one priority was Draco." Ron muttered under his breath, obviously not meaning for Hermione to hear him. However, she did.
"Excuse me?" Hermione demanded, her face suddenly growing red with anger. "What did you say?"
Harry glanced at Ron, shaking his head and almost grinning as if to say damn, you're screwed now.
"I… uh… just said that, uh…" Ron stammered, unable to repeat the sentence. He glanced at Harry, looking for backup support, but Harry shook his head and took a step back. No way was he getting involved; after all, Ron had just dug his own grave.
"My number one priority is SPEW," Hermione stated, her voice a little bit shriller than usual. "I will see to it that it stands on its feet. I'm not even thinking about Draco. How dare you even-"
"Sorry!" Ron exclaimed, obviously terrified of a full-blown yelling, one-sided argument from Hermione. "I didn't mean it, honest!"
Hermione glared at Ron angrily, watching him cower in fear on the other side of her desk. Then, she burst out laughing. "You're so stupid!" She exclaimed, still laughing. "What, do you think I'm going to like, kill you or something?" She suddenly went quiet. Joking about killing Ron was not even funny. It only took the flick of a wand or the movement of a knife to kill someone, as Hermione knew full well, seeing as she witnessed a murder.
"Hermione?" Harry asked, softly. "Are you okay?"
Hermione nodded, a lump forming in her throat. Oh god, I'm going to cry.
"So, uh, what did Dumbledore have to say?" Ron asked, eager to change the subject.
Hermione, equally as eager, dropped her head in shame. "He was not too happy, I can tell you that. He is completely against students not completing Hogwarts. He said that if I did this, it would be a waste of my talent and intellect. But I explained to him about SPEW and how much it means to me, so he didn't press the matter. He just wished me the best of luck and said that I could come back anytime. And that was it."
Ron let out a long whistle. "Was he angry?"
Hermione shook her head. "I think that was the worst thing about it. He wasn't angry at all; more disappointed."
"What about your parents?" Harry asked.
"My mom is royally pissed." Hermione replied. "And I think my dad is even more pissed. After the Draco incident, they were already incredibly disappointed with me. I shouldn't have even told them about that. And now this? I think that if I do one more stupid thing, they're going to disown me."
Harry laughed, then realized that Hermione was not kidding. "I'm sure they'll never disown you. Once they see how big of a success SPEW is, they won't think twice about all of this nonsense. Don't give it another thought."
Hermione smiled, preparing to thank Harry for being so kind considering everything that had gone on between them, but just as she opened her mouth, they were interrupted by a knock at the door.
"Yo, boss." Ace said. Hermione glanced over Ron's shoulder to see who had spoken, and boy, was she shocked to see Ace. He was dressed in an expensive navy blue suit; it made him look older and more sophisticated, but the distinguishable blond highlights in his hair and the way his bangs flickered across his forehead brought out the younger, boyish part in him. The sexy, boyish part.
Finally realizing that she was staring, Hermione cleared her throat and said, "What can I do for you, Ace?"
"I figured we should go over the advertisements for SPEW." Ace suggested, indicating the large, leather brief case in his hand. "I scribbled down some ideas, so I guess it's up to you to see what you like and what you don't like."
Hermione's jaw dropped in disbelief. Ace actually taking SPEW seriously? Unbelievable. "You know that's not your job." Hermione said. "I'll hire someone for design-"
"And until then, we need to get this going." Ace interrupted, walking over to Hermione's desk and dropping his brief case on top of it. "Now, if you two don't mind-"
"But we do." Ron snarled, glaring at Ace.
"Yeah, so you can get lost until we're finished our conversation." Harry added, incredulous at Ace's extreme rudeness.
Ace glanced at Hermione, as though asking her what to do.
Hermione looked solemnly at both Harry and Ron. "Harry, Ron, I'm sorry, but we do need to start cracking. We have a long ways ahead of us, and we really should get started as soon as possible-"
Ron stared at her in astonishment, but decided not to comment or get angry. That was the last thing that any of them needed.
"Yeah, and you two should be scooting off to school anyways, shouldn't you?" Ace added, smirking.
Ron and Harry both sent Ace the dirtiest look they could muster, but they still stayed silent.
"Okay then, we'll go." Ron said to Hermione. "If you need us, just send an owl."
"Yeah," Harry agreed. "Later, Hermione."
"Bye," Hermione said, waving as she watched them disappear out of thin air. She then turned her attention to Ace, secretly cursing him for making her seem evil in front of her best friends. She couldn't argue, though; Ace was right, it was about time that they started getting down to business.
"They are seriously the most annoying children I've ever met." Ace commented, taking a seat in the chair across from Hermione's desk.
"They're not children." Hermione said. "They're the same age as I am, if I must remind you."
"Yes, but they're the ones who are still in school." Ace replied.
"Yeah, they're the smart ones." Hermione muttered under her breath.
"Whoa-ho!" Ace exclaimed. He reached his hand across the desk and lifted Hermione's chin so that she was looking directly into his eyes. "We're not having second thoughts now, are we?"
Hermione sighed. "No. I just… I just don't know, you know? This is such a big decision to make, but compared to other life decisions, it's nothing. If I'm doubting myself now, how am I supposed to know whether I'll be doubting myself in a few years from now when an even harder decision surfaces?"
Ace considered this. The expression on his face made him look as though he had never thought about anything difficult in his life; definitely priceless. "How about you just take it one step at a time, okay? Believe it or not, this is not that big of a decision. You can always go back to Hogwarts, no questions asked. Think of it as spell work. Say you're working on the Impedimenta charm, right? Well, you're halfway through it and then the Patronus charm pops up and you think, 'hey, I really want to learn that'. So, you stop learning Impedimenta and you improve your Patronus. Since the Patronus is much better, you probably want to keep working on it until it's flawless, right? But you can always go back and finish learning the Impedimenta charm. You can always go back. Don't sweat it, Hermione. You'll be fine."
Hermione was speechless; she found herself staring into Ace's mysterious, blue eyes, completely unaware that she was doing so. How could such a wonderful answer come out of the mouth of a boy who portrays himself to be selfish, horny, and at a complete disregard for other people's feelings? There was seriously something wrong with him. "Um, Ace? Really, what's up?"
"Huh?" Ace asked, playing the part of the innocent, know-nothing boy.
"What's up with you! You're so… weird, lately."
"So because I try to give you some advice, I'm suddenly weird?" Ace asked, insulted. "Fine, I see how it is. See if I ever try and help again. Later." Ace stood up abruptly and left the office without another word.
"Shit." Hermione muttered under her breath. What's wrong with me? He seemed like he genuinely wanted to help. I just strike out left and right, don't I?
If only Narcissa were there at that moment. She'd be able to answer that question.
………………………………
Hermione yawned and rubbed her eyes before stretching every ounce of her body, all the while almost wishing that she hadn't started SPEW. Who would have thought that the first night as President of her own company, Hermione would be stuck in the office at ten thirty at night? Not Hermione, obviously. She was still constantly examining the different layouts of advertisements that Ace had drawn up. Surprisingly, they were all done extremely well; however, there was something missing. The drawing that Hermione was considering using on the front of the building was clear and straight to the point: a unity of nicely dressed house-elves all holding up one, huge planet earth, they're grins extending all the way to their fashionably pointy hats. It was wonderful and concise, but Hermione could not help but feel that something was missing.
"Hmm…" She thought aloud; suddenly, an idea hit her. She finally picked up a quill and began sketching Ace's drawing onto a separate piece of parchment; it was almost an exact replica of Ace's drawing (with the exception that it was not done as nicely), except that Hermione had added a house-elf who looked uncannily like Dobby directly underneath the large earth, and he was assisting in helping hold it up. The only difference from the other house-elves was that he was wearing a sash around his chest that read Minister for Magic. Grinning, Hermione threw down the quill on top of the parchment, extremely relieved that she had finally gotten one task out of the way.
Knock, Knock!
Startled, Hermione let out a little cry of shock. "Ace!" She exclaimed, surprised at seeing Ace framed in the doorway to her gigantic, homey office. "I didn't know that anyone else was still here!"
"Yeah, well, it's late." Ace said, with a hint of iciness.
"Look, I'm happy you're here." Hermione said concisely. "I wanted to apologize for what happened earlier. You're right; I'm being rude in continuing to assume that there is something wrong with you. Maybe you have changed, and I'm just slow on the uptake. I'll get used to it, I promise."
"That's actually why I'm here." Ace said. "I wanted to talk to you."
"About?" Hermione asked.
"About what's wrong with me." Ace replied.
"I just said that I didn't think there was-"
"But there is something wrong." Ace interrupted, cutting Hermione off.
"Oh." Hermione replied, dumbfounded. She stood up and sat on top of her desk so that she did not look too formal when Ace obviously wanted to talk about something important. "Uh, okay. Take a seat." She indicated the comfy looking armchair opposite of her desk.
Ace shook his head. Instead of sitting down, he walked straight up to Hermione so that his face was only a few inches away from her own.
"Do you ever get that feeling?" He said quietly, running his thumb along Hermione's thigh.
Completely taken aback, Hermione replied, "What feeling?"
"That feeling when you really want something and you know that you can't have it." Ace answered, still speaking softly. "But then when you're really close to it, all you really want to do is reach out and grab it and never let it go."
Without warning, Ace put both of his hands on Hermione's waist and leaned in. He kissed her gently, then pulled away and looked deep within her eyes. Hermione gazed back, shocked at Ace's repetitive actions, but also stunned that he had only kissed her gently.
When Hermione did not protest, Ace leaned in once more for a more passionate kiss; he wrapped his arms around her and smashed into her lips with his own. Instead of impeding him, Hermione lifted her arms and wrapped them around Ace's neck, returning the kiss with an equal amount of passion. They kissed for what felt like centuries until they both slowly descended onto the desk, Hermione lying down on top of the parchment with her sketch scrawled on it. Ace moved his hands around Hermione's body; finally, they began to move up. He gently moved them up and over Hermione's breasts, then without stopping, down towards her back before he dropped them palm-first onto the hard, oak desk. Finally, Ace pulled away. He and Hermione were both breathing very heavily.
"Now, here's my question for you." Ace said, still panting. He dropped his tone to a soft, low voice and whispered, "Can you succumb to desire?"
Before Hermione could answer, she heard footsteps growing louder and louder, obviously going in her direction. Her eyes widened and she sat up abruptly, causing Ace to stand up as well. "Oh my god, somebody's coming!" She whispered, anxiously. "What if it's Ron or Harry!"
Ace grinned. He leaned in and kissed Hermione once more, then took a step back and Apparated, disappearing from sight. Slightly hysterical, Hermione patted down her extremely messy hair, attempting to make it look as though nothing had just happened. She smoothed out the creases in her skirt as the footsteps increased in volume, then hurried around frantically, shuffling together the parchment on her desk and straightening everything so that it looked professional. Suddenly, the footsteps stopped. Hermione, who was not facing the entrance, took a quick, silent breath. She prayed that there was no evidence lying around of what had just happened. But what had just happened? Did she just willingly make out with Ace McGonagall? Hermione was mistaken. There wasn't anything wrong with Ace; there was something wrong with her.
Sighing internally, Hermione turned around to see who was in hernew building at this time of night. But the sight that met her eyes was not who she had expected; in fact, she had expected anyone but him. Anyone. His eyes were darker than they had been before; the last time she had seen him, his eyes had been gray and challenging. Now, they were dark and mysterious, as though he had been through traumas that no one could relate to. Yet, how ever dark and mysterious he may have been, he still smirked slightly the moment he and Hermione had locked eyes. That same, infamous, wondrous smirk that, since the moment she had realized how much he meant to her, had made her heart melt like ice on a hot summer's day.
She cupped her trembling hand on her mouth and whispered, "Oh, my god." Then, without another thought, she raced across the room and threw her arms around him, pulling him into a deep, meaningful embrace. A single tear glided down her cheek as she held on to him for dear life. "Draco." she whispered. Then, of course, the tears began to flow.