Once everyone had departed their house, Draco reluctantly admitted he needed to pop back to the office. Since he'd left in such a hurry, he needed to be sure that everything had been filed properly and the place was secure. Assuring her husband that she would be fine and he should take as long as he needed, Hermione shooed him back off to the office and revelled in the peace that had fallen over her home after such a turbulent afternoon.
Settling back down on the sofa, Hermione couldn't help but wonder how things were going with Theo and Pansy, more specifically how Pansy was coping with everything. Despite Pansy's revelations that she had a lover she wished to be with, Hermione was guessing that the former Slytherin was actually pretty hurt by what had happened. She knew that Pansy was far more sensitive than she let on, and even though she didn't have a marriage anything like the one Hermione shared with Draco, Hermione knew she valued the relationship she had with Theo. So to find out he'd had a child with someone else, must have been a pretty mighty blow. Hermione just hoped that Pansy would be okay and she would get in touch if she was struggling and needed some support.
As well as thinking about how events of the afternoon affected Theo and Pansy, she couldn't help but dwell on how things could have tuned out very differently for her and Draco. As it was, her trust in Draco was so complete that she'd never even considered the fact that the child on her doorstep was her husband's. Even with everything they were going through with trying for their own child, it had never occurred to Hermione that Draco had sought comfort elsewhere. She supposed they were lucky that their struggles to have a baby hadn't adversely affected their relationship, and she hadn't thought the worst of her husband. If things had been different, she could well have allowed her feelings to get the better of her and to have believed Marina when she claimed Draco was the father of her child. But rather than create problems within their relationship, their struggle for a baby, had only brought her and Draco closer together, and as such she'd never doubted him. But things could very easily have taken a different turn and she could be sitting here right now with her marriage in tatters.
Shuddering at what might have been, and grateful for the strong relationship she had, Hermione hauled herself from the sofa before she drowned herself in what ifs. Heading to the kitchen, she sorted herself a belated lunch of a sandwich and after brewing herself a cup of herbal tea, she returned to the living room and summoned her book.
A couple of hours later, Hermione had pretty much abandoned her book as she couldn't concentrate, and was just sitting curled up on the sofa when Draco arrived home. Apologising for how long it had taken him, he sat down beside her and pulled her into his arms.
"Are you okay?" he asked softly.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Hermione confirmed.
"Are you sure, today must have been rather draining for you," Draco remarked.
"I'm okay," Hermione assured her husband, whom she felt nodding his head as they lapsed into silence, content to just sit snuggled up together.
"Hermione?" Draco questioned after several minutes of silence. "Did you believe her?"
Knowing exactly what her husband was asking, Hermione whipped her head around to face Draco before answering. "No," she insisted vehemently.
"Not even for a brief moment?"
"I will admit there was less than a second when I felt sick, but as quickly as it came, it went. I knew immediately that the baby wasn't yours, Draco. I know you would never do that to me."
"I wouldn't," Draco confirmed. "My parents haven't always been the best role models for life, but one thing I do think they got right, was showing me what a marriage should be like."
"Theirs was an arranged marriage, wasn't it?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, like Pansy and Theo their fathers organised their marriage," Draco replied with a nod. "I guess they could have gone down the same route as Pansy and Theo did, and I'm sure it's what a lot of other pure-blood marriages are like. But they made the decision that since they were stuck together they would make the best of things, and that involved being faithful to one another. And I think it's because they were faithful that they gave themselves the chance to really fall in love. I guess I've always believed that if you can commit yourself and be faithful to someone you don't love, you should certainly do it with someone you do love."
"I've never doubted your fidelity, Draco," Hermione assured her husband. "I guess in that respect, Theo was lucky that witch ended up on our doorstep. As bad as he timing is with the baby, at least it hasn't caused trouble in our marriage. We're solid enough so that I never doubted you."
"And it might not have been the case if she'd ended up on someone else doorstep," Draco said. "Not everyone is lucky enough to have a wife who trusts them."
"Not everyone is lucky enough to have a husband who has never given them cause for concern," Hermione countered. "I trust you, because I've never doubted your loyalty. Even before we were together, you never played the field and showed an unwillingness to commit."
"Unlike Blaise," Draco snorted, easily able to guess that Hermione was talking about his best friend, who had been rather wild in his youth. "But you know, he would never cheat on Daphne. He adores her."
"I know, and I'm sure Daphne knows that as well," Hermione replied. "But his past is certainly more colourful than yours, and he and Daphne haven't even been married for two years yet. I think their relationship is still a bit too fragile to deal with something like this without it causing issues between them. And who knows who else's names Theo has used. This could have happened to anyone of our friends."
"And without sounding too arrogant, I do believe our marriage is one of the solidest around. I think there's a few more of our friends who would have found this tricker to deal with, not just Blaise and Daphne."
Hermione had to agree with Draco, and while several of their friends were married, and happily so, she shared her husband's belief that their union was one of the stronger ones. Even her best friend, Harry Potter's, marriage to his wife Ginny, could have come under stress if someone had turned up on their door claiming to have Harry's baby. Not that Harry had ever cheated on Ginny, or even been tempted, but he was pretty popular in their world, and as such, Ginny had been known to be jealous on occasion.
"What do you think will happen to Theo now?" Hermione asked her husband.
"Right at this moment, I couldn't care less," Draco admitted in a tight voice. "His actions might not have rocked our marriage, but this afternoon was stress we both could have done without."
"That's true," Hermione agreed with a sigh. "Given what's going on with us, the timing wouldn't have been ideal if she'd turned up any day, but today of all days, I could have done without it."
"I knew you weren't okay," Draco protested. "I should have stayed with you after all."
"We can't drop everything and stop living our lives every time I get my period," Hermione said to her husband. "I might have overexaggerated how well I was coping this morning, but I didn't want to spoil your plans."
"Speaking of plans, what happened to going out with Ginny?" Draco asked, still looking annoyed that he'd left his wife that morning.
"I cancelled," Hermione admitted. "I knew before you left this morning that I was going to cancel. We can rearrange for another day. Today, I just needed some time on my own."
"Time you didn't get thanks to Theo and the lies he's been telling," Draco grouched. "Honestly, I could swing for him."
"I think Pansy has you covered on that score," Hermione chuckled. "Do you think she's okay?"
"I think Pansy will be just fine," Draco assured his wife. "I'll give her a call later, just to be sure though."
"Do you think their marriage really is over?"
"I can't see Pansy getting over something like this," Draco replied. "And she did seem to imply she had someone waiting in the wings for her. I think she's going to use this to her advantage and get what she wants from life."
"I hope she does," Hermione said. "She deserves to be happy."
"We all do," Draco said quietly, pressing a kiss to the top of his wife's head. "I was going to see if you wanted to go out for dinner tonight, but given the day we've had, I don't really think it's a good idea. So, why don't I cook instead."
"You?" Hermione queried, giving her husband a disbelieving look. While Draco often helped her in the kitchen, he didn't usually offer to cook on his own.
"Yes, me," Draco replied with a roll of his eyes. "Potter's been teaching me everything he knows."
"Talk about the blind leading the blind," Hermione laughed. "Harry is hopeless in the kitchen."
"He told me he used to cook for his awful relatives all the time when he lived with them," Draco protested.
"They used to get him to make their cooked breakfasts," Hermione said. "He can fry an egg, or some bacon. But his aunt never made him cook decent meals. So unless he taught you how to make a fry-up, I would say his advice was pretty useless."
"Wait until I get my hands on him, I'll throttle the git," Draco vowed.
"I guess I'd better sort dinner," Hermione chuckled as she made to get off the sofa.
"Not so fast," Draco called, pulling Hermione back down beside him. "I can do this without Potter. I'm not a complete idiot."
"You're going to cook dinner, all by yourself?" Hermione checked.
"How hard can it be? House elves do it all the time, and I'm smarter than any house elf."
Not wanting to burst her husband's bubble, Hermione sat back and allowed Draco to go and attempt to cook dinner. Part of her wanted to go and watch the fun in person, but she controlled herself and remained where she was. A few minutes later, Draco re-entered the room and Hermione thought he was coming to beg for help, but instead he handed her a glass of wine and assured her everything was in hand.
"What are we having?" she asked.
"I'm still deciding," Draco admitted. "I'm browsing through your cookbooks looking for something nice."
"Just do something simple," Hermione advised. "Especially since it's your first time."
Whether Draco heeded her advice, Hermione wasn't sure as he headed back off to the kitchen with a spring in his step. Picking up her book, Hermione began to read, only to be interrupted ten minutes later by a loud burst of inventive swearing coming from the direction of the kitchen. For the next half hour, Hermione amused herself by listening to her husband's colourful language as he clearly struggled to follow the directions of whatever recipe he'd chosen to make.
Eventually the language stopped and fifteen minutes later a harassed looking Draco appeared to tell her that dinner was in the oven and would be another half hour. He then announced he was heading off for a soak in the bath, and would be back before it was time to serve dinner.
The second had husband had disappeared off upstairs, Hermione quietly headed into the kitchen, to see what sort of mess Draco had made. However, she was shocked to find a spotlessly clean kitchen. On the top of the oven a pan of new potatoes was boiling, along with a pan of fresh vegetables, and through the glass of the oven door, she could see a dish with what looked to be chicken resting inside.
"Maybe he's a natural in the kitchen," she mused as she returned to the living room and her book.
By the time Draco returned, Hermione was engrossed in her book and she only looked up when he poked his head around the door to say dinner was on the table. Since it was just the two of them, they are dinner at the small kitchen table. The table itself had been perfectly set and there were two fresh glasses of wine sitting on the table alongside a steaming plate of chicken in a mushroom and white wine sauce, accompanied by new potatoes and fresh vegetables.
"Wow, this looks and smells amazing," Hermione remarked as she entered the kitchen. "What recipe book did you use?"
"None, they were all so bloody complicated," Draco snorted. "In the end I found a picture that looked nice and created my own thing."
"Mmm, you've done a great job, this is gorgeous," Hermione sighed as she cut into the perfectly cooked chicken and tasted it. "You're a natural in the kitchen."
"I'm a natural in other rooms as well," Draco countered with a wicked smirk.
"I'm aware of that," Hermione chuckled. "Thank you Draco, after the day I've had, I needed this."
Content to be with each other, the couple did their best to forget about events of the day, and the problems Theo's lies had could have caused between them. At the end of the day, they were as solid as ever, and it was Theo whose life had come crashing down around his ears.