THE MALFOY MARRIAGE MEMOIR
Chapter 2
Maybe It's Not As Bad As It Seems
Blaise gulped down a large swig of butterbeer from one of the bottles he'd specially had Madam Rosemerta pack for him since he couldn't get enough of the frothy drink, and leaned back on his couch. 'So she said you were cheating on her. Big deal, I get that from Pansy every time she's PMS-ing. It's not like she means it.'
Draco huffed. 'Hermione wasn't PMS-ing, you idiot. And she wouldn't have said it if the thought wasn't lurking around in the recesses of her brilliantly complicated mind somewhere. And you know how it's been these past few years.'
'True, but you keep saying there's no valid reason for all these fights you guys keep having. It must be just a little rough patch you're going through. Everyone goes through it, man. Even Pansy and I did. We've said some rude shit to each other – heck, we still do sometimes. But it's not easy living with another person, no matter how compatible you are, and Granger and you have always been the type of couple to fight and make-up.'
'I wish I could believe what you're saying, Blaise, I really do,' Draco sighed. 'But that would be deluding myself, and I don't want to do that. Ever since we've had Leo, things have just spiraled downhill. I always thought that having a child together would sort of intensify our love or bond or whatever, but for some reason, Hermione and my marriage has been the exception to the rule. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love my kid, and wouldn't want to reverse having him for even a second, but sometimes I just miss the way things were back when we were just dating. And not to mention –'
He was cut off when Pansy bounded into the room and plopped onto the sofa next to her husband, lifting her legs up to rest them on his lap with an ease only Pansy could manage.
'Well, Draco, I couldn't help but overhear your little conversation with my darling husband, and I, frankly, would love to give you my two-cents about the entire matter.' She looked him dead in the eye and said, 'You, my friend, are being a twat.'
'I'm being a what?' Draco spat out, narrowing his eyes at his childhood friend.
'I said you are being a twat.' She held up her hand when Draco opened his mouth to interrupt her. 'Let me finish. There are three reasons I believe so. Number one - we all know the difficult pregnancy that Hermione had. The medi-wizards had clearly said that the chances that Leo would make it out alive would be little to none. But he did. And it was because Hermione fought for him. It was because of her resilience. And we all know the toll it's taken on her health. She's got half the strength she used to have, but she's still harbouring an indomitable spirit within her. And it's something she wants you to appreciate.'
'I do appreciate it! I always have. You know I was ready to abort the pregnancy, even. I never wanted to lose her, and I thank God every day that both she and Leo made it out.'
'I get that, Draco, but I don't think you're going about it the correct way.'
'The correct way?' Draco raised an eyebrow. 'I wasn't aware there was a guidebook to this.'
Pansy swatted his arm. 'Which brings me to number two. Hermione is the kind of woman who doesn't need someone doing everything for her. She's an independent person and always has been. We were raised differently, Draco. She's used to her independence and you're treating her like a china-doll, which doesn't really bode well with her. I'm sure that's playing up in a way and leading to all the frustration.'
Draco set his mouth in a firm line. 'If not letting her exert herself by making her presence known at the store from morning to evening is me treating her like a china-doll, then so be it. She needs the rest, as you've said – you know the toll the pregnancy took on her. She's going at it with SPEW at home, believe me. Besides, Leo needs her. We both decided that we don't want to leave him with his Gran or a nanny or someone who's not his parent.'
'I get that,' Pansy huffed. 'But if you throw a fit every time she goes on that hiking trip with her friends, not to mention the countless other times you're a pain in the ass, she's bound to get cranky.'
'Fine,' Draco relented. 'No causing trouble whenever she wants to do something, no matter how potentially exhausting it may be for her. What's number three?'
'Good. And number three is that you know all of what I just told you. You're aware of the fact that you aren't being a really easy person to live with. But the stubborn prick that you are, you're still going to be sitting here and bitching about how great the good ol' days were and how much you miss them. Grow up! It's called the honeymoon period for a reason. You're not gonna be like an infatuated teenager around your wife after four years of marriage, and neither is she! So, grow up, and realise that this is real life, and if you just, for a second, quit whining about it, you'd like it a whole lot more.'
Blaise chuckled, and pecked Pansy on the cheek.
Draco smiled, and shook his head. 'You really are something, you know, Pans?'
Pansy smirked, and Blaise did nothing but smile, and thank his stars that he hadn't listened to Draco all those years ago and married the witch who was resting luxuriously in his arms.
-X-X-X-
'Do you think it's my fault?' Hermione nervously asked Ginny as she nestled a warm cup of coffee in her hands. Leo was sleeping in his room, and Ginny had come over because Hermione had said that it was an "emergency."
'I think it's both your faults,' Ginny said bluntly. 'I'm sorry but I don't think either of you are showing a whole lot of intelligence or maturity by going on the way you are.'
'Well, I can't help it, Ginny! The man just gets on my nerves sometimes!'
'And so do you. Face it, you love the guy, he loves you, you've had a kid together, and you're sitting here having a marital crisis in front of me, a two-time divorcee.'
Hermione winced and shrugged apologetically. 'I'm sorry.'
'Don't be. I mean, it's not like you're rubbing your marriage in my face or anything, but honestly? I'd prefer that to what you're doing right now. Sweetheart, I know that right now, to you, these differences in opinion may appear like there are cracks forming in your life with Draco, but believe me, if I'd had even half of what you and him have right now with either Harry or Oliver, I'd probably be married right now.'
'Does it still affect you,' Hermione asked hesitantly, sipping at her coffee. 'What happened with those two?' Ginny had gotten divorced from Harry within a year of wedded bliss (or lack thereof) and just seven to eight months when it came to a certain dashing seeker who played for Puddlemore United.
'I'm fine, Hermione,' Ginny sighed. 'I mean, I mostly blame myself for even marrying Oliver in the first place – five weeks of dating and mind-blowing multi-orgasmic sex shouldn't be the deciding factors of "to marry or not to marry" – but I guess I'm mostly fine. I miss Harry, sometimes, but if it's not meant to be, it's not meant to be, right? Besides, our marriage had gotten very intense, and toxic, and…you were there, you know how it went down. To be honest, we're better off as friends – he gives the best Christmas presents to his mates, but when we were married? He never did make any effort with the gifts.'
Hermione smiled, and patted her friend on the back, looking down into the cup she and Draco had personally selected from a little flea market just outside of Muggle London. Draco had made faces throughout, but she'd not relented, and the entire fiasco had resulted in them coming home with a set of these hand-painted mugs and an old, elaborate candlestick Draco had insisted they buy, that they had never used even once.
She sighed, and looked up at the clock, absent-mindedly noting that Draco would be home in a bit. And, who knew, maybe Ginny really was right. She couldn't help but wonder that if she really couldn't point a finger at what exactly had gone wrong down the road, it must mean that maybe there really was nothing wrong.
Maybe they were just looking for there to be something. And she didn't know why.
-X-X-X-
'I popped over to Blaise's today for a bit,' Draco said, walking out of the bathroom and clumsily putting on the loose pajamas he liked to sleep in, shucking off his shirt haphazardly in the process.
'That's nice,' his wife acknowledged, bent over a thick volume on their bed.
'What're you reading?' he asked casually, slipping in beside her and getting under the covers, propping his back against the headboard.
'Oh, nothing really, just this month's issue of The Modern Wizard's Guide to Ancient Arithmancy,' she replied, distractedly.
'Sounds swell,' he commented dryly.
She looked up then, catching his tone, and narrowed her eyes at him. 'I'll have you know that it's actually a very informative and interesting read, once you get past your "I won't read school-related books because I'm not in school anymore" bigotry.'
He chuckled. 'Well, suit yourself, Granger, but I've got myself a much more – compelling – read, so to speak.'
She rolled her eyes at his use of her maiden name, and muttered a snarky "whatever" before going back to her digest. She didn't notice when her husband reached inside a drawer and extracted his old journal, neither did she notice when he noisily started flicking through the pages to grab her attention. He did catch her fancy, however, when he started reading a passage aloud.
'15th Januray, 2002. Mark the date, journal, this date is going to be monumental. It's the date I realised that I am looking at the witch I am going to spend the rest of my mediocre life with.'
Hermione spun around to face him, and her eyes widened when they came to rest upon what Draco held in his hands.
'Is that -?'
'My old diary?' Draco cut in. 'Why, yes. I do believe it is.'
Within a second, Hermione had shuffled up so that she now sat to his immediate right, her eyes glued to what he held in his hands.
'Why? Why, all of sudden?'
He sighed and put the journal down, rubbing at his eyes wearily. 'I don't know. I came across the thing in the attic the other day, and haven't really had the courage to properly go through it since then.'
Hermione nodded and carefully settled against him, resting her head on his shoulder, and drawing her knees closer to hug them to her chest. 'And now?' she asked.
'I guess I've gathered some of your infamous Gryffindor bravery,' he replied.
'I want to listen,' she simply said, and he nodded, focusing his attention back to the leather-bound on his lap, as he began to read.
'15th Januray, 2002. Mark the date, journal, this date is going to be monumental. It's the date I realised that I am looking at the witch I am going to spend the rest of my mediocre life with.'
Hermione drew in a breath and glanced up to search for his eyes, but he looked forward, and continued reading, pretending that he couldn't feel her penetrating gaze upon him.
'We'd gone out for dinner at a quaint little Muggle café, and as usual, I'd ordered pizza, and she'd rolled her eyes at my inability to order anything but whenever I visited Muggle food joints. I'd simply grinned and said that thin slices of baked flour topped with cheese and tomato sauce were my weakness and she'd laughed then, and Merlin, it had gone straight to my heart.
Lately, I've wanted to do nothing but spend all my time with her. I spend most of work hanging around her shop (since not a soul pops into mine anyway), and then after work we take off together for dinner, and it's none of those fancy places I used to frequent before, mind you. She's somewhat keen on making sure her money goes on helping small business owners pay for their kids' tuition than, say, helping an established restaurateur buy a third house in France. So we go to little places she scouts off her Dailies, and takes me along with her, and…it's not half bad. Really, I think it should be pretty obvious to even the most remarkable of idiots by now that I go for the company, not for the food. To be perfectly honest, nothing except the pizza bodes well with me.'
Hermione laughed at that, and snuggled in closer to Draco, and he twisted his head to the side to press an affectionate, tight kiss to her forehead.
'And then I'd walked her home, and on the way we had an argument about how she always had to split the bill. She has a thing against letting me pay for her. I constantly reminded her that since I was her boyfriend, she should let me pay for her - if not all the time, then some times at least. But she said that according to her it was a supremely sexist rule made up by supremely sexist people at a time when women didn't work, and hence, had no money of their own to split the bill. And she, to quote her directly, was a "working woman" who made more than enough money to pay for her meal – boyfriend or no boyfriend.
'And that was when I knew. I just knew, when I kissed her goodnight outside her apartment, and I just knew when she was walking towards her door, and I just knew when she turned back once she reached the door to wink at me and blow me a playful air-kiss that I caught and pretended to throw away nonchalantly, and I just knew when she laughed at this and shook her head, and I just knew when she had gone inside and wasn't visible anymore. I just knew when I immediately felt the desperate need to bang on her door just so I could see her again.
'And with that revelation enveloping me in its soul-crushing embrace, I walked back home, a new-found spring in my step, for I had never been surer of anything else in my entire life.'
Draco shut the diary then, and leaned his head against the head-board, staring at a non-existent spot on the ceiling.
Hermione shifted in her position, and her ever-bushy hair tickled Draco's neck and caused him to smile.
'That – that really was something,' she breathed out.
Draco merely hummed and caressed Hermione's hand that lay on his stomach, rubbing soothing circles against it.
'You know, I feel kind of – I dunno – voyeuristic,' she giggled.
Draco barked out a laugh at that and shook his head, bringing up her hand to his mouth and kissing it softly. 'And we haven't even got to the good parts yet.'
'The good parts?' She raised a questioning brow and sat up. 'Do you mean what I think you mean?'
'Oh, absolutely,' Draco replied with a smirk.
She only laughed harder at that and gasped at the realisation of what her husband must have recorded in his journal.
'Did you – did you write about the ice-cream?' she asked, a gorgeous blush creeping up her neck.
'Why, Mrs. Malfoy,' Draco replied, sitting up straight. 'I do believe you're blushing.'
'Am not!' she replied hotly, and swatted him in the arm. 'Seriously, though? The ice-cream incident is-'
'Recorded,' Draco confirmed, a wide, boyish grin gracing his face. 'Would you like to read it?'
She bit her lip and ran her hands through her hair in a doomed effort to flatten it, and he had a simple surge to just lean in and kiss her soundly. So he did.
About a minute later, a thoroughly kissed Hermione, with a flushed face and a messy head of hair, was back in her original position – seated next to Draco as he hunted for the page, fanning herself as she told him that this was just a one-time thing and he was not, under any circumstance, to hold it over her head, or make fun of her.
And so they read on, and Draco gave her a replay of what they read, minus the ice-cream, of course, and they fell asleep in an exhausted mess, in a tangle of limbs, and in an air of content propriety.
-X-X-X-
A/N – A massive thank you to ALL those who read and reviewed the previous chapters! I can't tell you how much your feedback means to me – it certainly is the catalyst behind me writing this particular chapter! Many thanks to Chanberra, Megha, rebelsaurus29, venus1985, Rapidasher, Guest, and al0ry for their wonderful words of appreciation!
Please leave a review!