On Saturday night, Hermione opened the door to Draco's doorbell ringing in her bunny pajama shorts and Hello Kitty t-shirt. She used to care what she looked like around such a wealthy man, but their time together had proven to her that Draco was as much of a slob as any other man; he just hid it better under his well-kept face and attire. Really, she couldn't care less about the fact that she probably looked like a little girl; she was just happy to spend some quality time with her boyfriend to make up for all the time that they had lost.
Also, it seemed that Draco had a sense of this newfound comfort as well. Instead of his usual crisp suits, he came to her house wearing sweatpants and an Abercrombie & Fitch hoodie, tied together with some casual (though expensive-looking) running shoes.
He stepped in and gave her a kiss, and she took the boxes of pizza and wings out of his hands. She walked into the kitchen and dropped them onto the counter since they were quite heavy. He followed her in and sat down at the table, opening one of the cans of Sprite she had laid out for them.
She couldn't help but notice that when he went to open the can, there was a cut on his right knuckle between the middle and ring finger, and his pale-white hand looked somewhat pinkish. He turned his head in time to see Hermione take in the sight of his hand, so he walked over to her and put his hands around her waist and clasped them in the back. She did the same around his neck.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"Of course I am," he said with a smile. "Are you okay?"
She nodded. "Are you sure? Your hand makes it seem otherwise."
"I was trying to get some coins out of a jar. I accidentally knocked it over and I was trying to catch it before it fell, but it reached the ground before I could touch it. A little shard bounced and slip up my hand. The bleeding stopped, so I'm fine now, okay?"
She was too hungry to question it, so she let it slide. She just smiled back and walked over to the cupboard to get some paper plates for the two of them. Draco had disappeared when she turned back to face the table, so she just put one in his usual spot. She walked back to the counter to get the pizza boxes so she could put them onto the table, and when she turned around, she saw Draco coming down the stairs with an armful of blankets and the pillows from her bed.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
He walked over to the living room where the TV was and dumped everything on the floor and turned around to face her. He simply gave a big smile and gestured towards the blankets.
She looked at him curiously as he spread out one blanket to cover the carpeted living room floor and put the two pillows side-by-side. He then lay the comforter down on top and looked back at her, still smiling.
Hermione put down the pizza boxes on the table and then put her hands on her hips. She opened her mouth to say something when the ring of the telephone interrupted her. She put a finger up to signal "one moment," and then she went to answer the phone.
"Hello?" she asked.
"Hermione." It was Harry. It was quick, harsh, and he sounded very annoyed.
"Harry, are you okay? You sound angry," she pointed out.
"As a matter of fact, I am. What are you doing right now?"
"Well, I'm at home. Draco and I were about to watch-"
"Hermione I need you to go upstairs or downstairs or something. Somewhere private, okay?"
"What's this about?" she asked worriedly.
"Just- please? Okay? I need to tell you something and I don't want your boyfriend anywhere within near you while I tell you."
She was taken aback. She thought Harry didn't mind Draco.
She covered the receiver with her hand and said to Draco, "I'll just take this upstairs." He nodded and sat down to face the TV.
Hermione went upstairs and into her bedroom. Closing the door behind her, she asked Harry, "Okay, I'm in my room, the door is closed. What is so important that you needed to tell me privately?"
He loudly sighed into the phone. There was a bit of a pause before he answered her question. Just when she heard him take a deep breath, she heard Ginny's distant voice come from the phone: "Harry? Do you need more ice?"
Ice? For what? she thought. "No," Harry answered to Ginny, "I'm good with the ice for now, thanks."
She heard the sound of a door closing on the other end of the line and assumed that Ginny had left. After waiting a few seconds, Hermione asked, "What do you need ice for?"
He sighed again. "I got a black eye about an hour ago," was all he said. Short and to the point.
"What?! From where? How did you get it? Who gave it to you?" she interrogated.
"Well, like I said, about an hour ago I was leaving the hardware store with Ginny. We went to look at paint colors for the new house, and as we were checking out, we saw Draco checking out, too. We only saw him though, and he was laughing so Ginny and I assumed he was there with you. But when he was leaving, we saw him with some other blonde girl. They were walking beside each other and he… He pecked her on the side of her head. Obviously we were confused, so I confronted him about it. My simple, 'Who is this?' turned into a fight, and then the fight escalated, and then black eye. I was wearing my glasses though, so when he hit the side of my face, the frames cut his knuckles."
He paused, waiting for Hermione to respond. She was absolutely shocked. First of all, Draco punched Harry in the face. The fight must have been pretty serious since Draco didn't seem like the person who would just randomly take a swing.
Well, he didn't seem like that recently.
But second of all, Draco and Cecelia spending time together on weekends? What was that all about? They've been with each other so much lately, it hardly even seems like "just work stuff" anymore.
She could feel the sting of tears burning up in her eyes. She willed them not to fall down her face, but they did anyway, and then they became heavy sobs that she tried not to let Draco or Harry hear.
But it didn't work.
"Hermione," Harry said through the phone, "do not cry over this please. I know I said that I didn't mind if you guys dated but now I do and now I want you to stop seeing him. I mean, I can't make you stop seeing him, but at least now you know it's what I want, and what Ginny wants, too." He stayed quiet for a little while longer while she tried to stop crying.
"Harry," she said softly, her voice breaking, "I have to go. I'll call you tomorrow."
She didn't wait for him to respond and just hung up. She went to her ensuite to make sure her eyes weren't too red and her nose wasn't too puffy. After almost five minutes of staring herself in the face, she looked back to normal. She practiced out smiles that she would use downstairs so that it would look like nothing was wrong. Even though she knew damn well that trying to look happy when you're not is the hardest thing in the world.
As she was going downstairs, she decided that she was just going to ask him about his hand again, and see what he tells her. She knew the truth now, and if he kept insisting on lying, she was going to make him pay for it.
When she got to the kitchen, she looked out into the living room and saw him sitting on the floor watching TV. She was getting hungry, and it looked like the pizza was getting cold but she needed to know why he and this girl were spending so much time together.
She sat down beside him on the floor and leaned her back against the couch. He did the same and took her hand.
Her left hand was holding his right, where the scar was. Their clasped hands turned his hand slightly up. Without moving her whole head, she looked down at the scar again. She used her other hand to touch it and she said, "The scar, it's straight."
He looked at it. "Yeah, I guess it is. Is that bad?"
"No, no, it's not bad, it's just that, well, all the scars from when I got cut from glass were all jagged and uneven. But this one looks like a solid line," she said, trying to play dumb.
"I guess all cuts are different," was all he said before turning his attention back to the TV.
She shook her head. "So, what did you do before you came here?" she asked.
"Well, I got pizza," he said.
"Before that?"
"The hardware store, looking for some flowers."
"Did you happen to run in to anyone at the hardware store? Like, I don't know, Harry?" she said, sounding a bit sassy at the end even though she wasn't meaning to.
He sighed deeply and loudly. He closed his eyes for a bit before responding. "Obviously you know the truth now," he said, and looked up to the ceiling in exasperation.
Hermione suddenly felt a white hot anger inside. "Well, yes Harry just so kindly happened when he called me. WHY on earth would you punch him? You know that he's just looking out for me, right? To protect me from people like you who go around with other girls!" She tried to stop herself from yelling, but she couldn't. "And second, why are you spending so much time with Cecelia now?! She's always in your office, you spend time together after hours and on the weekends. Harry even said that you kissed her-" she broke off crying.
All of the rage inside her subsided when she said to herself out loud that he had kissed her. Not on the lips, but still. That was not something that platonic coworkers do. She had had suspicions before that they might be something more, but this- this was evidence. It was all the proof she needed.
Even when she tried to stop crying so that she could finish her rant, Draco didn't even deny that fact that he kissed her, which infuriated Hermione even more.
"Look," he started, "it's not what you think-"
"I think you should leave," she said. Short and simple.
She could feel him trying to cuddle her and hold her in his arms, but she pushed him away, ran upstairs to her room, shut the door behind her and sobbed on her bed like she did when she was a little girl. She cried her heart out, until there were no more tears to be let out even though she wanted to keep crying.
She lay there on her bed, making a star out of her body so that it covered the comforter. After taking several deep breaths to calm herself down, she went back downstairs.
She didn't expect him to be there when she returned, and she was right.
He had left.