Marcus spent his Sunday wallowing in self pity of how he'd fucked things up with Hermione so royally. Grateful to have the day off of Quidditch practice - he especially didn't want to face Potter so soon - he broke into his firewhiskey stash much earlier than he'd care to admit, letting the burn of the liquid burn away his guilt.

He waited steadfastly for Hermione to respond to his owl.

By the time two p.m. rolled around, he had to face the facts that Hermione probably wasn't going to respond.

He couldn't believe that he'd been so stupid to talk to Gemma, especially when Hermione told him that she'd been visited by the persistent witch. But, she'd caught him off guard when he was walking by the bar and he couldn't help but laugh at her desperate attempts to seduce him. When he looked over at their table, he'd seen Hermione swirling away, clearly hurt. By the time he'd gotten outside, she was already gone.

It wasn't until late afternoon that his floo finally flared up and Adrian Pucey walked out, subtly wiping his shoulders free of soot. He was carrying a copy of Witch's Weekly rolled up under his arm, which Marcus thought was unusual. "Wow, you and Granger really go from zero to sixty then," his dark haired friend teased him.

"What are you talking about?" Marcus groused from his spot on the couch.

Adrian tossed him the magazine, and Marcus instantly felt his heart speed up reading over the cover. "So, Granger has a love child? Do tell. Do you know who the father is? It's not Potter is it?" he quipped.

Marcus swallowed thickly. "Of course she doesn't have a love child. That's Teddy Lupin, Potter's godson, I guess," he explained. "Hermione watches him sometimes and I invited her to bring him to the game yesterday." He quickly opened the magazine to read the story fully. Everything he read just made his heart plummet further. "Shite, she doesn't deserve this," he said, disappointed.

"Yeah, and what's up with this Weasley bint? I thought they were friends," Adrian asked, thinking that Marcus might be able to shed a little information on them.

"No, I think as soon as Harry Potter didn't want to marry her, that was when they had a falling out," Marcus told his friend. "Of course, Potter is important to Hermione."

"And...what's this about you and Gemma? Please tell me you aren't getting back together with her," Adrian pleaded, remembering all of the awful things that their former classmate did when she was dating Marcus.

"Fuck no! See this picture?" He held up the magazine so that Adrian could see it too. "This is me laughing off her pathetic attempt at seduction. It looks pretty damning though. And Hermione saw it...she really did leave last night in tears. I feel awful," He admitted.

"That's harsh, mate," Adrian admitted. He didn't really know Hermione very well, but even he could agree that she didn't deserve this. "So what are you going to do?"

"I have no idea, mate," Marcus admitted, finishing the last of his firewhiskey. "I sent her an owl this morning, but she hasn't responded. She has already gone through so much for me...I don't see why she would be able to forgive me."

It made Marcus nervous. When he was with Hermione, he felt more complete than he did with anyone else.

"Listen, you really like her, yeah?" Adrian asked, waiting for Marcus's grunt of agreement. "Well, an apology on paper isn't going to cut it with a witch like Granger," he tried to explain to his friend. "Gryffindors are so emotional. They need to see the apology on your face, you know, make sure that you are true."

Marcus understood what his friend meant, so after a few more minutes of conversation with his friend, Marcus located a sober-up potion so that he could go and speak to Hermione. Looking at his appearance to make sure that he was presentable, he apparated to the hallway outside of Hermione's flat. Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door.

He must have waited there for at least five minutes, knocking three separate times, but she never answered. Marcus felt his confidence leave him, hoping that she was just out and not that she was avoiding him to this degree. Sighing, he left her flat to return home.

With his poor focus at practice on Monday, Marcus was sent home early, as even their head coach had read the article and seemed to understand that their big chaser needed some time to figure things out. During his shower, he came up with a brilliant plan.

He knew that Hermione would be at work right now, but he knew where she worked, so he could go visit her there. Giving himself a new purpose, he quickly got into his regular clothes and apparated to the general area of Hermione's office.

When he got there, he walked right past the receptionist, who didn't make any attempt to stop him, instead she sighed and made some kind of noise about how romantic Hermione's life was. To say that Hermione was surprised to see him was an understatement. She looked up at him shocked, before hissing at him. "What on Earth are you doing here?" she asked.

"I know that you probably don't want to see me, but I couldn't leave things as they were," Marcus told her, trying to show his emotion on his face, which was quite the challenge, as purebloods were taught to always keep a stoic mask. "I want to apologize to you. I never should have talked to Gemma, especially after you told me that she visited you. But I promise that it was not with any romantic intentions. I was just telling her that there would never be anything between her and I, regardless of the turns our relationship takes. I am very very sorry, Hermione."

Hermione felt her breath leave her body. It seemed that Marcus was at the very least, being honest. She was having trouble deciding if she was ready to forgive him. Then, she remembered that he was as much of a victim of the tabloids as she was, and she shouldn't be so quick to believe them. "Apology accepted," she murmured.

"I know I don't deserve it, Hermione, but will you please give me one more chance?" Marcus questioned, fingers crossed that she would give him a shot.

Hermione bit her lip. Was Marcus worth all the trouble?