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**** HERMIONE *

"Ms. Granger?" The crystal ball on my desk glowed red as Alexis' voice sounded.

I frowned, Ms. Granger? She never called me Ms. Granger. I touched it with my fingertip, "Yes, Alexis?"

"There's a Mr. Ronald Weasley here to see you. Are you available, or would you prefer me to schedule a meeting with him later in the week?"

I bit the inside of my cheek to stop the laughter. Ron would hate that Alexis didn't know who he was – even though it was only an act.

"Ah, no, it should be fine. Tell Mr. Weasley that if he is happy to wait, I'll be down as soon as I can." I said keeping my voice even.

"I'll let him know." Her voice was wavering as she spoke and I knew she was also attempting not to laugh.

The small crystal ball returned to its clear state and I stared at it.

He couldn't have been more predictable.

The entire wizarding world was aware of the fact that I was working at MZP Potions, and the entire world now knew that Draco and I were more than just colleagues. And it would just so happen that at barely 9am on the Monday morning after Draco and I revealed that piece of information to the world that Ronald Weasley chose to show up. Wonderful.

I sighed. He had proven over the last few months that he could have cared less about me. I hadn't seen nor heard from him since I slapped his face and disappeared. He'd not tried to find me, had not asked Harry or Ginny where I was, had not even sent an owl.

It wasn't until I did something that outshone him, did something that took him from the front covers, did something that made him look like a fool, that he could be bothered to come and see me.

I knew him far too well to know that his indiscretions wouldn't have concerned him. Oh, he would have been embarrassed to have to face his mother, but mostly he would have felt like a big man. He wouldn't have cared about the negative publicity, he would have loved the attention, loved that he could brag about just how many women he had slept with, just how many women wanted him.

But I also knew that he would hate that I wasn't pining for him, that I had moved on. And that I had moved on with Draco, had moved on with the very last person that he, or anyone else, would have expected, would have been eating him alive.

I made my way down the hall, headed for Draco's office, and was surprised to see him walking towards me. His lips were drawn into a thin line, his eyes were dark and he looked ready to explode.

"He's here?" His voice was full of venom.

"It appears so." I said, putting my hand on his chest and stopping him from tearing downstairs and ripping Ron a new one.

"Do you want me to deal with him?"

"No," I said and smoothed my hand down his shirt and gently lifted his arm, and prised his wand from his hand. "And maybe it would be best if you left this up here. I don't care to visit you in Azkaban."

He looked at me, his face calming considerably, "Do you want to see him?"

I shrugged one shoulder, "Not really. But I've faced much worse than Ronald Weasley."

"Do you seriously think you're going down there alone?"

"Oh, that would never have happened." Blaise said stepping up beside me.

"Thank you, really, but I'm sure it will be fine. I mean, what's he going to do?"

"Against you?" Pansy called from her spot beside the elevator where she was waiting for us. "Probably weep with fear."

"Was there an office memo that I missed?" I asked looking between the three of them.

"You're family now, Granger." Blaise looped his arm around my shoulders and hugged me, "We take care of our own."

Draco's hand was firmly planted in mine as we waited for the elevator doors to open. I chuckled and all three looked at me.

"What?" Pansy asked.

"Slytherins' golden trio," I shook my head, "About to go into battle for me."

Draco smiled at me; "Blaise is right" he said and kissed my cheek, "Family."

I steeled myself as the elevator doors slid open. I had asked the three of them to let me deal with him, to stay back and observe only. They had all protested, and I while I loved them all for their concern, this was something I needed to do myself. I explained that their presence would be off putting enough for him since they were scarily menacing when they were on a tear, so they were to only step in if things got ugly.

They reluctantly agreed and Draco squeezed my hand tighter as the doors slid open.

We stepped out and I looked up to see Ron attempting to step around the reception desk but then stopping and holding his hands up as Alexis aimed her wand directly at him.

"I've told you already, Mr. Weasley, do not try to go past this desk. If you don't want to be blasted onto the street, I suggest you take a step back." Her voice sounded menacing, a far cry from the timid, mild mannered looking woman that she appeared to be.

"Fucking Slytherins," he muttered and stepped back.

"Not that it matters, Mr. Weasley, but I am a Ravenclaw, not a Slytherin. Your presumption is rude and uncalled for."

He muttered an apology, and then straightened his spine when he saw us.

"Ronald, what the hell are you doing here?" I glared at him as I crossed the foyer to stand beside the desk.

He stepped towards me, his eyes on Alexis and her wand, his hands still held out, as if protecting himself. "I just wanted to see you." He gave me a sad little smile and I rolled my eyes.

"You haven't bothered to try to see me before today." I shook my head.

"I had no idea where you were!" He sounded indignant, "How could I talk to you?"

"You could have sent an owl." I pointed out, "And I've worked here for a month now, you could have come here at any time, yet you just happen choose today to come and see me. Why?"

His face went red, "Hermione, I—" He looked over my shoulder, seeing Draco, Blaise and Pansy all watching, "I, ah...can we talk somewhere else?"

"Like an office?" I huffed out a laugh, "You'd like that, wouldn't you? Somewhere quiet and private, somewhere you could hide what's happening?"

He said nothing, but managed to look like he'd been the one who was wronged.

"Why are you really here, Ronald?"

He glanced over my shoulder again and I sighed and turned to walk away. Ron grabbed my arm, and I saw Draco's fist clench, but he remained where he was.

"Do not touch me." I looked at Ron's hand on my arm, "You've lost the right to ever touch me again."

"I made a mistake," Ron admitted, pulling his hand quickly from my arm, knowing full well the consequences if he didn't. "They meant nothing, truly they didn't. Not one of them compares to you."

I heard Blaise chuckle behind me and Ron glared over my shoulder at him. I stifled my own laugh; he only ever admitted to me to having slept with one woman. I knew the truth of course - the entire world knew the truth - but his slip up was all the ammunition I needed.

"They?" I narrowed my eyes at him, "You told me she meant nothing, that she was the only one. You repeatedly denied that there were more and told me that the stories were all wrong. How many were there, Ronald?

Realising his mistake, his face drained of all its colour, "No...I meant...she," He spluttered. "She meant nothing."

I just stared at him. "She meant nothing? The woman you were fucking on your desk meant nothing? Really?" His face went even paler and I huffed out a laugh, "Then why was she at the ball with you then?"

He choked out a sound, knowing that he'd been caught in yet another lie. He softened his face, and tried to deflect my question, "You looked great the other night...beautiful."

"Just...don't," I told him.

"Hermione—"

I held up my hand, "You've got about three seconds to tell me what you're really doing here before I let Alexis blast you back out into the street."

"I miss you. I miss seeing you." He gave me a soft smile that at one time would have melted my heart. But now it just made me nauseous. "I miss talking with you."

"So talk with her." I snapped and his smile faltered.

"She's, ah, not really…interested." He winced.

I didn't have to look over my shoulder to know Pansy would be laughing at this revelation. The woman that we had seen him with didn't exactly look like the conversational type. In fact, I was sure that she would barely be able to string an entire sentence together.

"So thinking you could just easily replace me wasn't your best idea then?"

"No, it wasn't," he tried again with the puppy-dog eyes, and I wanted to slap the stupid expression off his face. "I shouldn't have treated you like I did. I shouldn't have just taken you for granted. You were the best thing in my life and I just want you back."

"Wha—what?" I stared at him in disbelief. "You cannot seriously think I'd ever take you back?"

"We could try."

"Try what!?" I yelled, "Try forgetting that you fucked every piece of arse who threw themselves at you? Try to forget that you fucked her on your desk? Try to forget that in the last year and a half we were together, you slept with at least a dozen different women? Is that what you want me to try?"

"Hermione, come on, after everything we've been through together, I deserve another chance."

"Are you joking!? You deserve nothing." I threw my hands in the air and Ron took several steps back. "You're not sorry, not in the slightest. You're just embarrassed that everyone thinks – no - that everyone knows that you're an idiot."

Both Ginny and Pansy had informed me that the pointing and whispering apparently hadn't stopped after Draco's and my departure from the ball. The mild taunting that Pansy and I had overheard had continued in a not so friendly way, with everyone sniggering and pointing at Ron and the bimbo he had replaced me with.

His kicked-puppy face changed instantly and he sneered at me, "Why are you being so irrational? I came here to try to do the right thing, to work this out, and you're not even willing to try.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and shook my head, "So what you're saying is that this is my fault? That you did nothing wrong?"

"This is us Hermione, we can work it out. But you have to try too."

"Ron, there is no us," I told him harshly, "You ruined any chance of there ever being an us. This is all on you. You're the arse here, not me, and I have no idea why you would even think I would consider taking you back."

I felt a hand on my back and Ron scowled, "This doesn't concern you, Malfoy."

"It does." Draco said coolly as he stepped up beside me. "You won't speak to her like this. Or you will be asked to leave."

Ron barked out an incredulous laugh, "I won't speak to her like this!? You spoke to her like she was dirt for years."

"I did," Draco said, "And I asked her to forgive me, and she has."

"So you'll forgive this arsehole, but not me?"

"You're the fucking arsehole, Weasley." Pansy spat at him as she stood to my other side. Blaise's hand squeezed my shoulder, letting me know that all three of them had my back. "Draco might have treated her like shit at school, but at least he was honest about it. You couldn't keep you dick in your pants and you're blaming everyone else."

"Stay out of it Parkinson," Ron shot back, but the upward lilt in his tone implied that Pansy had hit a nerve. His expression changed again; he'd been caught out lying over and over again, and he stupidly proved once more that he truly did not know me at all.

I had been friends with him since he was eleven years old, and while I had taken the time to get to know everything about him – everything he liked and disliked; his moods; his expressions; the tone in his voice; everything – he had barely looked past the surface. I was sure that at one time he loved me, and maybe he even still did, or thought he did. But the fact that he come here thinking that he could make sweet faces and say kind things showed how very little he really knew about me.

Ron's eyes darted back to me and he tried to look smug, "So this is what you've lowered yourself to? Being friends with this lot?"

I made a show of bumping Pansy's shoulder with mine, "Yeah, I am. As are Harry and Ginny. Neville too. Katie Bell works in the lab with Pansy, Hannah Abbot works with me, and Charlie drops in from time to time with Dragon Scales for us."

His eyes went wide. I was sure that he believed that there was no way that Harry would be friends with them, and I knew that he had written Ginny off as his sister after her flooring him in The Ministry hallway, but Charlie dealing with us was clearly new information.

He managed to straighten his face and then dared to shake his head and smirk, "You've lost your mind, Hermione! I mean it's bad enough to be friends with them, but it's just pathetic when the best you can do is fuck Malfoy."

I let a slow smile creep across my face and took a step closer to him. He attempted to keep his face straight and not show any fear, but he failed.

"You're right," I said in a low voice, "The best I can do is fuck Malfoy." I took another step closer to him, "Because he is the best. I have orgasms that don't require the use of my own hands, lots of orgasms. Orgasms outside the bedroom. Orgasms in the kitchen and in the shower and on floor in the living room, right where everyone could easily see us."

His face burned red.

"And that one thing you absolutely refused to do because you thought it indecent? Well..." I shrugged my shoulder and winked at Draco, who grinned back at me.

Ron looked as though his head would explode. He opened his mouth to speak, but I shook my head.

"Just leave, Ron." My voice was steady and calm, "You're not sorry for what you did, you're only sorry you got caught. I'll never forgive you. Never. And from this moment, you have no place in my life. None."

I took Draco's hand and turned around, and walked towards the elevator without so much as another look behind me.

I sat staring into space. My desk was tidy, everything was its place, and I was ready to go home. I was just waiting on Draco. He had insisted that I not leave on my own, that he leave with me, and had (along with everyone else in the building) been checking in on me all day.

I had become increasingly annoyed at the constant hovering, but realised that this was what Blaise had meant by family. They were all watching out for me, and would continue to do so whether I liked it or not.

But now, a late floo meeting was holding Draco up, and of course, that gave me time to stew over the events of the day.

Ronald Weasley was a bastard...no, he wasn't, not really...he cheated on me, several times...I was in love with him once...but he still cheated on me...we went through a lot together...yes, but he deserves to have his balls ripped off...

My thoughts had bounced back and forth between hatred for him, and something akin to forgiveness. Not forgiveness for what he had done - I would never forgive that - but forgiveness for myself, to enable me to move on and not let him still be in my life.

And I had moved on. I was happy, with my work, with my home, with Draco. Happy with my new-found sense of knowing exactly where I was headed, and who I was headed there with.

Because I knew I had found my forever.

Luna had told me years ago that when I found it, I would know. Of course, I laughed it off, thinking she was crazy, and because I thought I had it with Ron. But now that I was with Draco, I knew that I had been wrong.

The feeling was different, it was stronger, more intense, and it was a feeling that I never wanted to lose. I wanted to know that he was there when I went to sleep, and there when I woke up. I liked knowing that he was close by, but that he gave me my space. I like the quiet with him, like reading while he played the piano, like watching him run and walking the last half mile with him.

I loved it all, and I knew that I wanted more.

"You're one scary-arse motherfucker, Granger, you know that?"

My head shot up, startled, and I laughed at Blaise as he leaned on the door frame, grinning like a mad man. It was late in the day, and he looked to be on his way out. He crossed the room and sat in the chair on the other side of my desk, drawing his ankle across his knee.

"Thank you?"

He laughed, "That was quite a show you put on this morning. I think Weasley's dick will be so shrivelled that it won't work for weeks."

"Not an image that I want in my head, thank you." I grimaced and shuddered, and then grinned, "But, yes, I very much hope you're right."

"You're okay though?"

I tilted my head to the side and smiled, "Blaise Zabini, are you being thoughtful and sweet?"

"It happens on occasion," He dropped his foot back to the floor and leaned forward, steeling me with what I assumed was a big-brotherly look, "But I'm also serious. Are you okay?"

I reached across my desk and took his hand, "I am." I said and then frowned and added, "I think."

"You think?"

I shrugged, "I don't know what it is, I've felt...grimy...all day."

"Yeah, Weasley will do that to you," he mused and laughed at my eye roll. He held his hand up, "Sorry, that was uncalled for."

"No, you're probably right. We've all made bad choices in our lives."

He nodded, "You know it's not your fault, what he did?"

"Yeah, I know, but," I sighed. "I just don't understand what he was thinking. I mean, everything that Draco and I do—"

I stopped, my cheeks heating up. This was Blaise, not Ginny or Pansy, and I wasn't sure that I should be sharing with him.

He chuckled, "I might not be 'one of the girls,' but you know you can talk to me."

"Does Draco talk to you?"

"About you two?" He asked and I nodded. His brow creased as if he was trying to remember something, and then shook his head, "Actually, no. He's said nothing. Not of an explicit nature in any case."

"Has he, ah, previously?"

"He has," he admitted, "But apparently he's not one to share when the woman in question is important to him."

I lowered my head, hiding my smile and wondering just how much Draco had told Blaise. Ginny and Pansy wanted every detail of my new life with Draco. I gave them snippets, but refused to tell them everything – much to their disappointment.

"I've known Draco for a long time and he's never been in love, not until you," Blaise said when I looked back up at him, "What he's told me about other women he's been with is still minimal. He's not that guy. And I doubt that I'll ever hear anything more about you other than how brilliant you are. And can I be honest with you?"

I nodded and he continued.

"I have no idea what you ever saw in Weasley. He's a prat, always had been. He latched on to Potter the minute he met him and rode on his coattails. Everyone was aware that Potter and you were the talent, he was basically the idiot sidekick. Draco's not perfect by any means, but Weasley? Not even in your league."

I smiled, "How long have you been waiting to get that off your chest?"

"A while," He laughed, "Your moratorium on degrading comments about him has held me back, but I stand by it. And you and Draco? I don't know what it is, but," He shrugged, "You just fit."

"Narcissa said the same."

"Ah, you got the Wicked Witches' approval." He gave me an impressed nod, "That's quite the achievement, Granger."

"Approval, maybe, but she still terrifies me." I admitted.

"Me too," He said quietly and grimaced, "She's…interesting."

I looked out the window. The sky was dark, but clear for what seemed like the first time in months, and I was sure that t was some universal sign that all was good in my life. "I'm sure it will be fine," I murmured, "She knows I love her son, so I think I'm okay with her."

When I looked back at him, his eyes sparkled with amusement, and I let out a relieved sighed.

"Yes, I'm in love with him too." It felt good to say it out loud.

He winked at me, "I already knew that, gorgeous. The two of you are so in love it's nauseating."

"It's only nauseating to a miserable git like you," Draco said from the doorway. He was smiling at us both as he crossed to kiss me. "Don't listen to him, he's extremely jealous and incredibly upset his dick isn't getting any action."

Blaise snorted, "I'm surprised that Granger puts up with the pathetic excuse that you call a dick. I mean seriously, Pansy has bigger balls than you."

"Don't let Pansy hear you say that." I said in a warning tone that wasn't even close to serious considering my laughter.

"It's true." He waved his hand at me, "She knows it. This one knows it. Drinks?"

Draco raised an eyebrow in question and I shrugged, "Sure. Why not."

"People will stare," He reminded me, holding my coat up while I slipped my arms into it. "Are you ready for that?"

"I am," I told him, "Besides, maybe we can find a pretty piece of arse for Blaise so he can wipe the cobwebs off his dick."

After several seconds of stunned silence, they both roared with laughter, "Shit Granger, I knew I liked you."

I gave Blaise a sweet smile that just made him laugh more.

"Was he being an arse?" Draco asked as we headed out the door.

I turned and shook my head, "No, he was just making sure his best mate's girlfriend wasn't stringing him along, and that she is in fact, in love with him."

"And is she?"

"More and more every day."

He kissed me, and took my hand in his. "Good answer."

Blaise groaned, and we both looked at him, but his face was grinning when he said, "See. Nauseating."