All characters belong to JKR
Chapter 22: Overwhelmed:
She started to open the triangle with fingers that shook so badly she felt immediately overwhelmed. She peered at the words written on the small piece of paper, but then she folded it back up, and placed it in her purse. She took his hand and looked up into his eyes.
"Do you trust me?" she asked.
He looked down at her beautiful, brown eyes, which seemed to hold his future so firmly in their depths, certain that he trusted her more than he trusted anyone. He would probably even trust her with his life, so he said, "Not really, but perhaps." He couldn't let on to her how taken by her he was.
"Well, try to trust me, okay, because I'm going to ask you a question, and if you answer truthfully, I'll find a solution to our dilemma, but you have to be truthful for a change. Do you really think you love me?"
He wanted to groan aloud and shake her, because he was tired of talking about the same things, but then he gave that question some serious thought and said, "I might not be in love yet, but I could fall in love with you so easily. I want to fall in love with you, or at least, I want the chance to fall in love, but I don't want you to walk away from me before I find out if what I feel is real and valid."
She grinned and said, "I think you're being truthful for a change. I don't know what I feel for you yet, because frankly, this whole weekend has been a bit overwhelming, but I'd like to get to know you better, too, Draco. I've had the best weekend, and I want it to continue, so since you were honest, let me be honest to you." She brought his hand up to her mouth and kissed the back of it, a gesture that touched him more than he could say. "I think I could easily fall in love with you also. Nevertheless, we can't get married just to date. Give me until the end of the weekend to figure out a solution. I'm smart, and I've gotten myself out of harder situations than this. Let me figure out the answer to our problem, and if, and only if, I can't come to a resolution, then I'll read this note, agreed?"
He laughed and said, "It's actually just my shopping list, anyway."
She gave him a funny look and asked, "Really?" She took it out of her purse and started to open it, but he stopped her.
"I'm joking…NOT LYING, joking, although the note might not say what you think it says. Fine, figure something out, my Granger the Smart, and if you can't come up with something, you must read that note, and give me your answer. I'll give you until Tuesday, agreed?" He cupped her cheek again and then rubbed his thumb back and forth across her lips. "What do you want to do? Go back to the resort, or on to the cathedral?"
"It's my birthday, and I want to have fun, and celebrate, and frankly, the thought of celebrating my one and only thirtieth birthday in an old, musky monastery, with old books, a boring tour, with a bunch of Muggles, is just, well, how do I put this…" she stopped talking.
"Boring, terrifying, mind-numbing, what?' he asked.
"NO, better than I can imagine!" she squealed, pulling on his arm, and leading him toward the car. He frowned. Maybe he didn't want to marry her if she was excited over such boring things as old books and moldy monasteries, but he would go to the boring cathedral with her, even if they weren't getting married, if it meant that she was going to figure out a way for them to continue to see each other.
He held open the passenger door for her and she said, "You didn't really steal this car, did you?" She laughed, because she thought it was funny, until, he didn't answer. "Draco, did you steal this car?"
"Don't worry, my Granger." He ushered her in her seat, and before he shut the door, he said, "I changed the colour, so I doubt anyone will notice, and I'll return it before the owner realizes it gone." He slammed the door shut and came around to sit down beside her. She stared at him, hoping for once this was one of his lies, otherwise, she was accomplice to theft, and even the new Hermione didn't want to spend time in prison, although perhaps only Draco would go to jail. If he did, he wouldn't be president of his company any longer, and she could probably date him. She almost laughed when she thought these things. This might work out after all.
However, when she turned to say as much to him, she noticed that he wasn't even narrowing his eyes, or trying to say anything flippant, so he was telling the truth.
"YOU STOLE THIS CAR?" she shouted.
"Borrowed is a better word," he said. "I have one at home, almost just like this, but I didn't know I would need it, so I BORROWED this one."
"Oh," she said softly. "From a friend?" She thought, 'please, say from a friend.'
"No, I don't rightly know the owner, but he's away on Holiday, so he won't know it's gone," he said, while driving back toward the village.
"How do you know he's on vacation?" Hermione asked.
Draco smiled and said, "When I broke into his house, there was dust all around, and the mail was piled up on the floor by the front door, under the mail chute."
She breathed in quickly and said, "Tell me you at least know what the man looks like, or his name!"
"Of course I do," he said back quickly.
"Oh, good," she sighed.
"I saw a picture of him in his house, and his name was on his mail," he said.
"Draco, are you lying?" she yelled. "You had better be lying!"
"First you say, don't lie, then you say, lie. I can't keep up with you," he said, for once truthfully. He would change the subject, because the whole truthfulness thing was apparently causing her distress, and he felt they had both felt enough distress for one day. "Forget about the car right now. It doesn't matter. Let's just have a nice day and do all sorts of Hermione like things, agreed?"
She nodded and then she felt another smile come to her face when he blindly reached for her hand, held it in his, and then squeezed it tightly.
He looked over at her, saw her large smile, and asked, "Happy?"
"I think I am."
"When you're sure, let me know," he said with a smirk. He released her hand as he turned down another road, but as soon as he could, he reached over for her hand again and said, "Now when we get to the cathedral, act all Muggle like, so we'll blend in. The first time I went there I acted like a Muggle, so I wouldn't stand out in the crowd."
She giggled, thinking he was joking again, but then she saw that he was serious. "Draco Malfoy, whatever do you mean by the phrase, 'act all Muggle like'? Muggles aren't so very different than us."
"Ha!" he laughed. "Yes they really are. They have to do all sorts of things without magic."
"Oh the horrors," Hermione mocked. "There's advantageous, too. For instance, you know that I only use Muggle pens and paper, right, I mean, for goodness sakes, we're wizards, and we write with stupid quills and ink and parchment!"
"Yeah, that one is crap," he laughed, "but, magic is handy in a pinch if you're hungry! If I don't want to get off my bum, and I need a sandwich, I can just flick my wand, and voilà, a sandwich magically appears!"
"Even magic can't make food just appear! In your scenario, a sandwich appears because you yell for your house elf to make you one," she said with disdain. "Who needs magic to do slave things when you have actual slaves?"
"You know, a wife could make a sandwich for me, too. Another reason you should marry me, to make me sandwiches," he said perfectly seriously.
She glared at him. "I will never make you a sandwich." She decided to change the subject. "You know, Muggles have computers. They're quite useful."
"Yes, I've seen them before." He turned down a narrow lane, crossed a bridge, and added, "They're very handy to view porn."
Hermione couldn't help but laugh again. "Yes, I think that's the reason Muggles made them, forget about all of the other useful things you can do with them." She added, "Mobile phones beat floos and owls any day, for communication."
"Apparating trumps everything else," he said.
"True, that's handy, and portkeys are a wonder," she said. "I love being a witch."
"Even without internet porn?" he asked. He turned toward her and was smiling, so she didn't hit him. "I'm glad you're a witch, too."
"Too bad magic can't solve world hunger or health problems, and why is it that we can transfigure a hedgehog into a teacup, but we can't transfigure buttons into galleons? I've never understood that. I mean, I know there are laws to magic, just like laws of physics, and such, but seriously, that one's flawed in my opinion," she stated.
"I believe my great-great granddad made all his money that way," Draco said.
Hermione gasped and said, "He figured out a way to transfigure buttons into galleons?"
"No," Draco began, "he turned hedgehogs into teacups and sold them for a galleon a piece." He laughed at his stupid joke.
"Draco, are you ever serious?" she asked.
"Sometimes I'm too serious. This joyful Draco you see before you is a direct result of being here with you." He had never proclaimed a more honest statement. He pulled along the curb on an old brick lined street, and shut off the engine. He turned toward her and she was staring at him intently.
"That's the nicest thing you could have ever said to me," she concluded. "I think I usually have the opposite affect on people."
He thought it was funny that she would admit that, because he didn't doubt it was true, but for him, she made him feel happy and carefree. He reached over and stroked her cheek. He held her gaze and said, "You do make me happy. I haven't always been the happiest of people you know."
"You make me happy, too. Frustrated sometimes, but happy," she admitted. "Even though I kept spouting off things about being a new Hermione, until this weekend, I was really just the old one wrapped in new paper. This weekend, I've done all sorts of things I wouldn't normally do, and every gut reaction I've had I've had to re-examine, and some of the things I've done have shocked even me."
"Example?" he urged.
She shrugged for a moment, then said, "That first night, it was really hard not to slap your face when I found out about the blind date. My first instinct was to do just that and then run up to my room, pack my bags, and disapparate away. Then after we started eating, and I got all miffed again, and went out on the terrace, I almost left that time, too. And don't get me started on the whole spa thing, because that was so not me," she laughed and said, "and I built a bloody sandcastle, and I didn't even harm you when you wrecked it. I thought it was funny. Me! I wasn't angry or upset!"
"You flew on a broom," he pointed out.
"Yes, I did!" She seemed pleased.
"You lied and had fun while doing it," he added.
"True, under the influence of Draco Malfoy, I have turned to a life of lies, and so what, right?" She smiled back at him.
"You've been a right randy little bugger, kissing me unprovoked, and you're even going to have sex with me tonight, which is so unlike you," he said with a lilt. Before she could dispute that claim, he opened his door and walked around to hers.
"That one's not going to happen," she quipped. In her mind she added, 'not yet.'
"I beg to differ," he said. He placed her hand on his arm, and held it there with his free hand. They began to walk down the sidewalk, and before long, he pointed toward a massive, stone cathedral, still at least a kilometer away, tucked safely in a valley between two hills. "Your birthday awaits, Hermione."
She could barely contain her delight, and she turned to him and said, "Is it okay for the new Hermione to be happy about visiting an old church?"
"Well," he drawled out, "I would rather that the new Hermione be happy that she's spending the day with her new boyfriend, but you can think whatever you'd like. I'll pretend I'm the reason for your joy."
She liked the way that sounded. Her boyfriend. He was her new boyfriend. The thought overwhelmed her yet again. They walked along, and the cogs in her head began to spin overtime, contemplating solutions to their dilemma.
The only viable solution came to her immediately, and she knew it would work like a charm. She wouldn't be totally happy with the solution she came up with, but she would be happy with him, and just as he said that apparition trumps everything Muggle, Draco Malfoy trumped any job, any day.
Yes, the solution was to be fired. If she had to be fired, and take the severance pay, which was almost as much as a year's salary, she would do it. Even if it meant spending a year not working, she thought she could do it, for him. The old Hermione would never consider giving up her dream job, and spending a whole year bored and complacent, but the new Hermione would give it all up for him. She didn't need to read his note. She would tell him her decision on Tuesday morning when she got back to work.
Now she just had to think of a reason for him to fire her.