Draco felt much more human after he had apparated home and had a nice refreshing shower. He double checked his appearance in the mirror, trying on his practiced confident smile and straightening his cufflinks. He always was at his best on the inside when he looked good on the outside. He needed to schedule a meeting with Daphne, and purchase her a nice parting gift. He needed to look into polyjuice iterations that would last a full evening without maintenance and find out who was on the current list of known Metamorphmagi. He needed to do damage control and make sure that the real Hermione didn't get wind of their supposed tete a tete.
He took the stairs two at a time to the patio where he had requested a late brunch and fresh coffee. He had every confidence that he would be able to contain the situation and find out who had seduced him, and why, in short order. His positive mood was wonderful for a few short moments but was shattered rather violently when he pulled the morning paper over to glance at the front page to get a bit of news while he ate breakfast.
There she was, in full blown color, draped against him as they made their way down a cobblestone street. Hermione Granger out with Draco Malfoy, unmistakably intimate.
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Fuckity fuck fuck.
There was no way that she hadn't seen the paper. He glanced at his watch and noted he was overdue to receive a howler. Why hadn't she contacted him yet? Perhaps she was having a lie in. More likely she was at work. He'd read she worked at some sort of high security lab. He snapped at an elf to fetch his assistant immediately. He needed to contact her first, smooth things over, before she snapped and turned him permanently into a ferret. Flowers. All women loved flowers. He'd send her flowers.
Harry and Ginny were waiting for her next to the apparition point behind her offices. Hermione resisted the urge to try to hide the gigantic vase of flowers she was toting like a reticent child. Ginny was wearing a rather impish smirk and Harry was giving her that 'I don't know what to say' look and Hermione sighed out loud. They knew. She should have realized that Ron's 'I'm pissed and I have to rant' mindset would outweigh any tiny ounce of discretion he had. But they knew Ron as well as she did and had obviously planned to get her side of the story. She gave Harry a tight smile and allowed him to relieve her of her flowers so she could give Ginny a hug.
Ginny slung a friendly arm over her shoulders and the trio turned to walk on down the alley towards a pub they often frequented when they met with her after work. It was a nice place. Deep leather seats, decent lighting, and music low enough to have a conversation. Harry sat the vase down in the middle of their table and asked about her work as if there was nothing else to talk about and she shrugged. It was one of those polite things adults said. Harry didn't really want to hear about the intricacies of her job and Hermione had long since lost the burning need to try to educate everyone around her whether they wanted to be educated or not.
When she ordered only water from the waitress his eyebrow went up asking a million questions but his lips stayed closed. Harry wouldn't push, he would wait until she was ready to talk. Ginny was not so reserved. "So it's true then," she said, a cat got the cream glee in her voice. "You are pregnant."
"It's far too early to know," Hermione said primly, scooping up a handful of nuts to keep her hands busy and not making eye contact.
"What I want to know," Harry interrupted Ginny's squeal. "Is why Ron seems to be convinced that the father of your possible pregnancy is…" he paused, started to form the M for Malfoy before chickening out and finishing with a mumbled "someone else."
"Because it's been weeks since Ron has had the opportunity to do any fathering," Hermione answered. She couldn't help her blush but she did manage to keep her voice to her usual matter of fact cadence. She had never been able to talk to Harry about sex, but hey, he asked. And she would rather answer the actual question he'd asked than the real question he wanted her to answer.
"I don't understand. When Ron left our house he was going straight home to apologize and make things right. Now, out of nowhere, you have moved out and Ron is accusing you of sleeping with…" another awkward pause. "Someone else."
"There was nothing to make right," Hermione said gently reaching over and giving Harry's hand a reassuring squeeze. "I ended things, it was final. Not because he did anything wrong, or I did anything wrong. The relationship had run its course and it was time to move on. There was nothing Ron could do to 'fix' the relationship. It was over and I let him know that. I left him and it is no longer Ronalds business who I keep company with."
"However," she continued when Harry started to speak, "What Ron chose to do after we broke up may have broken our friendship beyond repair and I'm guessing he has not told you about that."
She drew her arm back, sitting up straight and putting a chill into her voice. "Ron decided to try to 'force' a reason for us to be together by magically sabotaging my birth control, dosing me with a fertility potion, and trying to entice me into sex."
Her friends wide eyed silence said it all. Ron had spilled all about her run in with Malfoy to her friends, but had owned none of his own wrongdoing.
Finally Harry stuttered out a weak "he was drunk,".
"Don't care," Herminione said firmly. "He hasn't even apologized. He pelted my office with howlers. He ran to my friends to tell them I'd misbehaved. He sent me a box of muggle morning after pill so I could clean up the mess. He was drunk does not excuse this. Nothing can excuse this." Her voice broke a bit and Hermione took an angry swipe at her eyes.
"You can't be serious," Ginny finally whispered. "Ron wouldn't do that."
"He would and he did," Hermione got up and grabbed her purse. "To be fair, he hasn't confessed to the fertility potion. I'm just assuming he used the empty bottle he left in my bathroom. Excuse me."
She hightailed it to the bathroom to clean up her face, hoping no one recognized her. Every move she made was scrutinized. She didn't want it to be in the paper one day that she was canoodling with Malfoy and the next bawling her eyes out in a public loo.
She sat too long on the stool, trying to dry up her stupid dripping eyes. She wanted to get out her phone and google just how quickly emotional swings started during pregnancy but she didn't want to keep her friends waiting. Finally she heard someone else enter the bath with a click of the door. "Hermione, are you still in here?"
She didn't answer but Ginny was not to be deterred, and checked the stalls until she arrived at Hermione's chosen hiding place. She squatted down and took her hand. "I'm sorry, my brother is a stupid arse."
"Yes," she agreed with a sniffle. "He is."
"I don't understand, you've never, I mean...Draco Malfoy?" Ginny was trying to ask in the nicest way possible without making her cry harder and her face was all screwed up with the effort and her hand was holding Hermione's just a little too tight.
Hermione gave a twisted little laugh and shook her head. "I don't know Ginny. I had a lot to drink. He was flirting with me. Guys like that don't typically give me a second glance and I was feeling so low, it was kind of exciting and flattering you know," Ginny nodded, Hermione knew she would understand. "And I guess I wanted to do something I couldn't come back from. I've broken up with Ron before, but he gives me those sweet looks and those sweet kisses and tells me how much he loves me and I cave everytime. I could never sleep with Malfoy and then go back to Ron. Every kiss, it was like a death knell. I don't really remember it all that well."
"Well every woman has to do something crazy and wild at least once," Ginny said with a knee slap. "Come on girl, let's wash your face and get you home."
Ginny and Harry did a great job of keeping her mind off Ron and Malfoy and all things pregnancy related. They ordered take out and watched a muggle movie that they giggled through, and stuffed themselves with junk food. However, time away from home was a precious commodity when you had two children, and they said their goodbyes by ten o'clock so they could go relieve the babysitter. Ginny offered to stay, gave her flat belly a look, but Hermione shooed her off. She wasn't ready to talk about her possible pregnancy yet.
Leaving her alone with her thoughts, and her worries, and the damnable flowers that had spiced her entire apartment with their lovely subtle scent. The fact that her friends, her coworkers, and the entire wizarding world at large knew she'd been out on the town with Malfoy squashed all possibility of a quiet mysterious pregnancy. Every hour she delayed taking action made plan B less effective. She'd been quietly thrilled with the possibility of life this morning. This evening it was more a sense of dread.
Sleep.
She should sleep on it and see how she felt in the morning.
She took another sip of water and stared at the flowers. It was going to be harder than anticipated to choke down 8 glasses of water a day. She'd made an effort today and was only on glass number 5. She'd have to do better tomorrow if she wanted a healthy baby. The thought of a child maybe resting below her belly button gave her a flare of joy and she put her hand to the flat firm skin thinking about how maybe soon her hips would spread and her tummy would swell and her baby would kick.
Why should she let what anyone else thought take that away from her?
With a rush of determination she slapped the water glass down, strode across the apartment and grabbed the card tucked in her flowers. She flicked the envelope open with her thumb and pulled out the note. Terse and Polite. Inviting her to lunch. What had she expected? A romantic declaration of some type? She snorted. Malfoy had seen the paper and wanted to damage control before his girlfriend dumped him over a one night stand. Well, what was done was done and there was no need to indulge him. He wouldn't care about her possible pregnancy so there was nothing to talk with him about.
She penned a quick 'no thank you' on the card, summoned an owl and crossed Malfoy from her mental list of things to do. She braided her hair, shimmied into pajamas and slipped under the covers in short order. Sleep, she needed to make sure she got enough sleep for a successful pregnancy.