The Road I'm On - Chapter 3

"I think I get it now." she said making Draco look up at her. Draco didn't understand what she was getting at which is why he responded with a simple, "What?"

"The girl and–"

"Look I said you could stay because I felt bad for all those years of taunting you. I do not, however, need you talking about something you have no idea about. Drop it, now." His voice was so low and dark that it actually frightened Hermione quite a bit.

"I barely said anything–"

"You said enough!"

"Look I'm just trying to understand–"

Suddenly Draco stood on his feet and anger spread across his face. "To understand everything like always! Maybe there are some things that you're not suppose to know about or understand. Maybe some things are suppose to stay buried!"

Hermione nodded looking down feeling the tears welling up in her eyes. She didn't want to be there anymore. She didn't want to be there when he was so angry. "Look I'll go grab my clothes and leave. I shouldn't be here."

Draco let out a sigh and said, "No, wait…" She looked back at him to see him rubbing the back of his neck, his flushed face dissolving into his usual paleness. He saw the tears sliding down her cheeks making him feel bad almost instantly. "Ignore me. It's a hard time for me right now. I'm normally not like this." She hesitated, but then nodded at him again. "Well it's almost noon. You want some lunch?"

"Sure." she replied meekly not wanting to set him off again.

"Pizza okay?" She started laughing before she said, "You and muggle food? I can't picture that."

"Get use to it. It's all I eat." She smiled at him.

"Okay. That sounds really good actually. I haven't had pizza in so long."

"Pepperoni?"

She nodded at him before he stood up and grabbed his phone. He began calling for the pizza and Hermione looked around the house some more. It was as though he was never a wizard. There was not one sign of magic in the house. He had a phone, a TV, and all these muggle devices that she never thought would belong to a Malfoy.

Of course, he also had a lot more pictures around. One that caught her eye was hanging in the corner as though hidden from the rest of the room. She looked over at Draco and noticed that he was still on the phone so she moved toward it so she could get a better look. In the picture, Draco was wearing a black suit with his tie hanging loosely around his neck. The same blonde girl from all of the other pictures was wearing a stunning white dress which, Hermione assumed, was a wedding dress. What struck Hermione as odd was the picture was of the couple exchanging rings, but it was in a living room with nobody around. They got married without anyone at the wedding?

She moved back to her original spot just in time for Draco came back in the room and sat next to the fire. She sat down on the couch looking over at him.

"So, can I ask you a question?" he asked not looking at her.

"Sure."

"How is it that you're not married?" he asked looking up at her. She looked away from his gaze thinking about the question. I shouldn't tell him. Not yet at least. He then said, "I mean you're a beautiful girl. You should be married."

"I told you. I'm married to my work. I have spent my life working against evil and it's all I ever do." Draco looked away from her.

"You should give love a chance."

"Some times love is hard to come by. Sometimes love is harsh."

"How do you see it as harsh?" asked Draco looking at her a little odd. She knew she said a little too much too soon so she covered up her mistake and said, "I'm just weird like that. I mean what is love for you?" Draco smiled completely forgetting about her last comment.

"It feels good."

"What does it feel like?" she asked with a smile on her lips.

"It feels like walking on water. Like you can do anything and what's funny is that you can. You really can do anything or say anything or feel anything. Even now…" He stopped as he looked down at his ring.

"Wow. It sounds great." she said as he nodded towards her. "Love hasn't been as easy for me. I mean how many times have you been in love?"

"Only once." said Draco wholeheartedly.

"Once more than me."

"You'll get there." he said with a nod.

"I hope so. I mean I'd like to be in love someday. Get married and even have kids."

"Yeah. Kids…" There was even more sadness in his voice as he looked back at the fire. She wanted to know exactly why, but figured that he would get upset again. She decided not to push the matter.

"So what do you do?" she asked changing the subject.

"Um I work at a hospital." She raised her eyebrows at him and he smiled at her. "Yeah. After Hogwarts and everything else…I got away. I got into medicine, muggle-medicine, and it's not bad."

"So then you're a doctor?" she asked rather baffled.

"No I mostly manage a hospital. It was small, but me and a few others built it up into one of the biggest hospitals in London. It's a good one and it's doing well as it should. You know me. I don't do anything half-assed."

"That's great."

"Yeah. A lot of the Malfoy money went into that hospital and I'm proud of that. I put it to use for a good cause. My father would love that." he said with a smile. He hated his father and spending his money on anything related to the muggle world would certainly drive him mad.

"You really are a different Malfoy."

"Draco. It's Draco."

"You're a different Draco. And it's Hermione. I prefer that over Granger." He nodded at her with a smile. "Well Draco, how is muggle life? I mean you were once so anti-muggle everything that…"

"It's good. It has its perks. I like muggle music and I've grown accustom to the food. Phones are faster than owls. Though sometimes a wand is rather handy."

"Like last night." she said looking down wanting that to have not happened.

"Yeah. It was necessary or else I wouldn't have used it. Magic is really dead to me now." Hermione looked at him taking in his expression as he looked at the fire. There was something about his face that showed her that he hid a lot more pain behind his eyes then he led on.

"I just don't understand that."

"Not a lot of people do." said Draco still not looking at her. There was silence for a few moments, neither of them really knew what to say. Hermione decided that the silence was too much and spoke up again.

"So then family?"

"My mother went crazy after my dad was sent to Azkaban. I haven't seen her for years. I don't even know where she is. As for my father, well let's just say I don't visit him." he said with a monotone voice.

"What about anyone from Slytherin? What about Blaise?"

Draco looked down letting out a heavy sigh. It had been so long since he had even thought about any of them. "I saw Blaise that last day of Hogwarts right before Dumbledore... I haven't spoken to him since."

"You never kept in touch with anyone? Not a single person from Slytherin?"

"There was no point. They all hated me after...Just after something that I did so let's just not think about."

"Draco come on…" she was stopped by a knock at the door.

Draco looked at her before standing up and said, "I'll get it." She nodded as he went to the door. He checked it first and then opened it for the pizza delivery man. He paid him quickly and then shut the door, not allowing any small talk to be exchanged. He threw the box on the table and then sat back down in front of the fire. Hermione kept her eyes on him.

"Suddenly I don't feel like eating." he mumbled still thinking about their conversation.

"Yeah, me neither."

"Been a crazy couple of days. With you I mean. Randomly running into you." He looked at her giving her a slight smile. It was the smile that made her relax again.

"Eh it wasn't really random. I was suppose to be there."

"I figured as much. You know I'm not as stupid as you perceived me to be in school."

"I never thought you were stupid. In fact, I knew you were smart. That's why you always intimidated me in some classes." Draco raised his eyebrows completely shocked by her comment. Granger was intimidated by me when it came to books? Wonders never cease.

"I intimidated you?" he asked actually uncertain if that was actually true.

"You didn't know that?" she asked looking at him as though she herself was shocked. He shook his head at her. "Come on. You were smart. You understood potions better than most people. Charms came naturally to you. You were brilliant in fact. I was scared of losing my title to you." Draco laughed.

"Trust me, you weren't going to lose it to me. I was smart though." He smiled which she returned.

"Appetite came back." she said with a smile. He chuckled lightly.

"Mine too."

They laughed as they went for the pizza and enjoyed a few slices. Draco never thought he'd see the day when he was enjoying muggle food with Hermione Granger in his living room.

A/N: Alright well I'm sure that you're all a little confused with this chapter. My suggestion is to listen to the song from the chapter title.

Please don't get mad at Draco for his reaction of yelling at Hermione because I wanted to make it real. When I lost someone whom I care about more than one can know, I didn't talk about him for four years. I was so angry by the circumstances of his death that I didn't even want to hear anyone even mention his name. Sadly, he'd be 26 this year. Anyways, what I'm getting at is that I think the reaction is genuine. Some people just don't handle things well so they bottle everything up. I think Draco would be someone like that (Draco from the book as well).

"The Road I'm On" is a song by my favorite band 3 Doors Down. This is a powerful song and fits so well with the chapter so I recommend it to everyone. Actually I recommend 3 Doors Down all together. They're amazing and I can't wait to see them live:)

READ AND REVIEW!!!! If you can read it, you can review it.

Iris is a work of fanfiction. The characters belong to J.K. Rowling, but the featured story is mine.