"Hermione! We can't stand each other! You know that EXTREMELY well!"
Hermione sighed as Draco ranted on about Ron's bad traits and habits. "Draco, I know, I know, but Ron is one of my closest friends! I can't just send him away because you want me to!"
"Yes you can! That would be wonderful! Isn't he a stubborn ass, Hermione? You don't want to be associated with someone so-"
"DRACO!"
"What!"
"Draco, you are going to have to live with the fact that Ron is special to me, and, by the way, you are being awfully inconsiderate and selfish! If you don't stop complaining right now, I'm going to throw you out of my-"
Draco sighed. "Fine…"
"What do you mean "fine"?"
"Fine, I'll try to cope with the bastard."
"Stop calling him names. Good. Thanks for making an effort. Please try to be a little nicer to him, and try to stop starting fights with him-"
"He's the one that starts everything!" Draco said childishly.
"That. Isn't. The. Point."
Draco looked put out. "Okay. I'll make an effort, but if he picks a fight with me, I won't be able to control my temper and I'll probably kill him."
"Draco."
"Sorry."
"Okay. Thank you."
"I hope you know I'm only doing this for your sake."
"Don't worry. I appreciate it. I'll talk to Ron too."
Draco nodded. "That's settled then."
Hermione smiled and quickly kissed him, but he pulled her back, and kissed her with more passion then before. She was mildly surprised, but kissed back. This continued for around five minutes. Then, slowly, Hermione felt Draco unbuttoning her blouse. She stopped, and when he realized she wasn't responding, he sighed and pulled away.
"I'm sorry, Draco, I was just surprised-"
"It's alright. I guess you aren't ready. Sorry."
"Oh, Draco, I know we've been dating for a long time-"
"This isn't going anywhere."
Hermione looked at him, shock etched on her face. "What are you talking about? We have gone somewhere! Where else do you want to go!"
"Hermione, it's alright. Never mind."
"But-"
He kissed her, but it lacked the enthusiasm he had kissed her with just a few moments ago.
"Draco, I'm sorry, I'm being such a prude-"
"It's okay, I should've given you more time-"
Hermione noticed the disappointment in his voice and felt horrible. But what was she supposed to do if she really wasn't ready? Not stop him and actually let herself to go through with it? She shook her head. She had made the right decision. She sighed and kissed him apologetically.
"I really am sorry."
He forced a smile onto his face. "I know. I'm sorry too."
She smiled back, and went off to attend to Hailey, who had begun to wail.
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Draco slammed his apartment door closed. He couldn't help feeling frustrated. He just wanted something other than a quick kiss on the lips from Hermione, and he had almost…he had almost taken their relationship to the next level. He felt so discouraged.
He began to think of why Hermione stopped him. Was she a "I won't have sex with him until we're married" sort of person? Or was she just not interested in that type of thing? Was she interested enough in him? He shook his head. Of course she was interested in him! It just took some time for her to be ready for the next level.
He instantly felt sorry about the way he tried to make her feel guilty. He would apologize when he saw her again.
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Ginny was babysitting Hailey in Hermione's apartment when Hermione came in, back from work, and screamed. Ginny shot up. "Hermione? What's wrong?"
But Hermione looked happy, not scared. "Hermione?"
"I GOT PROMOTED!"
Ginny gasped, and smiled widely. "YOU DID? I knew you would get promoted sooner or later! Now what are you?"
"A waitress!"
"This is so awesome! Why don't you tell Draco the news? I'm sure he'll be happy for you!"
Hermione's smile vanished, and was replaced with a glum frown.
"What happened?"
"I screwed up our relationship AGAIN."
"What?"
"It isn't exactly a fight, but he's awfully dissatisfied with our relationship."
"But you have a great relationship! There isn't anything wrong with-"
"He said we weren't going anywhere! But what am I supposed to do? Have sex with him when I'm not ready at all?"
"Oh." Ginny got it now. Men.
"Hermione, men are always thinking like that. They forget to respect you. Draco's just a typical guy."
"Well, it's really irritating!"
Ginny laughed. "I agree."
"But I guess I should share the news with everyone I know…I'll call him anyway."
"Alright then. Hey, Hailey?"
Hailey looked up at Ginny. "Your mom got promoted! How do you like that?"
Hailey beamed and laughed. Saliva dribbled from her mouth to her chin, and Hermione and Ginny laughed and wiped it away. Hailey was such a big girl now! Six months, and in a few weeks, she would be seven. Why, she could even feed herself now! That made Hermione extremely proud.
Hermione gave her daughter one last smile and exited the room to call Draco.
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"You did! Congratulations! I knew you could do it!"
"Thank you, Draco." There was a pause, and Draco spoke.
"Listen, Hermione, about yesterday-"
Hermione sighed.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have tried to coax you by making you feel guilty, I'm so sorry, I-"
"Draco, I told you it's okay."
He grinned with relief.
"Thank you Hermione."
"Sure." She hung up.
Well, she wasn't completely over it. But it was a start, and that was good enough for Draco.
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Ron, once again, confronted Hermione.
"-and he's an arrogant, insensitive bastard! He's probably just using you because-"
"Ron."
"-he's going to break you're heart-"
"Ron."
"-and he'll laugh at you when you break down crying, and-"
"RON!"
"What? I'm just telling you what's going to happen!"
"Ron, that isn't going to happen."
"It might!"
"Ron, if he planned any of that, he would have dumped me ages ago. I doubt his "plan to break my heart" would take this long."
"But still-"
"Enough, Ron. I talked to Draco recently, and he agreed to try his best to be cordial with you."
"He did?"
"Yes, he did, so I want you to be cordial with him as well."
"But-"
"Ron, please. Do this for me."
He looked at her pleading face, and saw how much she wanted this. "O…okay. I'll try."
She jumped up and down and squealed. "You will!"
"Ye…yeah."
She smiled widely. "Okay. Okay, Ron, please don't provoke him-"
"He's the one that provokes me!"
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"That doesn't matter! Anyway, thanks a lot Ron."
Ron tried his best to give her a smile.
Shit, he thought.
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Blaise and Ginny were browsing Muggle baby shops.
Blaise had complained it was way too early, but Ginny thought otherwise. She had also demanded him to come with her, because, it was his baby too. And naturally, he had given in.
They were currently looking at stuffed toys; they had already looked at pacifiers and bottles. Ginny was enthusiastically pointing out white bunnies with rainbows on their belly, and lion cubs with glassy eyes.
Blaise preferred the snake and the hyena. But Ginny said it would give their baby nightmares. And he didn't want that. He wondered why there were even stuffed toys of hyenas when they would probably scare the living shit out of a baby.
Earlier that day, they had looked at cribs and wallpaper for their baby's nursery. They would get that lovely, pleasant sky wallpaper, with poofy clouds and an unbelievably bright sun, next to the rainbow.
All in all, the couple was very excited. Sure, there were about, eight months to go until the baby was born, but they wanted everything to be ready.
And who could blame them?
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Hermione woke up and laughed. It was her big day today.
Her first day as a waitress! The pay was a lot better, better than her housekeeping job, which she absolutely abhorred, and her barmaid job, which wasn't all that awesome either. Yes, being a waitress was fine with her.
She showered and dressed, ate breakfast with Hailey, and dropped her off at the day care center before making her way happily to work.
When she arrived there, she realized it wasn't going to be easy. The Three Broomsticks was always packed. She sighed and made her way to a random table.
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Hermione collapsed onto her bed. That day had been incredibly strenuous. She had to go back and forth, from the kitchens to the tables, and she had to literally bite her tongue (and that hurt A LOT) to not insult the customers that complained about her "slow ass service", and "where is the fucking cheese on these fries?". The dude didn't even ask for cheese on his fries! She had very nearly called him a stupid asshole.
Hermione groaned. This was tougher than she had ever imagined.
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Draco made his way up to Hermione's apartment. He had heard of how stressful her new job was, and he wanted to make her feel better. The door was opened by Ron Weasly.
Both men stiffened. "Oh, Weasley. It's you."
Ron glared at him. "Malfoy. Come in."
Draco nodded, and stepped inside the apartment. "Where's Hermione, Weasley?"
"She's in the bathroom right now."
"Ah." Draco sat down, and ignored Ron, who was pointedly glowering, full force, at him.
Hermione entered the room, and gave Ron a warning look, saying "stop glaring at him or you'll get a long lecture". He understood, quietly sighed, and stopped. Hermione then looked at Draco, who looked like he really wanted to end trying to be pleasant and just strangle Ron. Hermione smiled weakly and talked to the two men, acting like she didn't sense the intense hatred radiating from them.
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A/N: Hi everybody! I'm back from China! Please review!
