A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who favorited, followed or reviewed after last chapter! I can't believe we've surpassed 100 reviews, so thank you for your support! This chapter has a bit more unpleasantness with Harry, Ron and Ginny, but I promise Harry will realize he's being an idiot.
Please let me know what you thought of chapter eight, and be on the lookout for chapter nine soon!
August, 1999
It was only a matter of time before Hermione would have to face the music and well, face the Lucius. She knew that she couldn't avoid him forever, though she'd done a rather good job of it for two weeks. Still, she knew that it was impossible to avoid him, as he was quite persistent.
One day, Hermione got so caught up in her work, trying to finalize the Italian trade deal, as Lucian Bole had identified numerous potential issues with the wording. It was a lot of back and forth and a lot of tedious reading, and before she knew it the whole day had passed, and it was nearing seven o'clock.
Alerted to the sudden silence, Hermione looked up and realized that she was the only person in the office. Except...the light from under the door of Lucius's office indicated that he was still in the office as well. Her heart beat quicker, and she gathered her items so she could go home for the evening, undetected.
To her dismay the opening of the door caught her attention, letting her know that her presence had been noted. He probably hadn't even realized that she was still there until she'd made all that noise trying to leave! Flushed, Hermione turned to face him, chin jutted out, trying to appear strong.
"Hermione. We need to talk." He said, his voice silky and caressing, instantly making Hermione's head spin. Oh, she remembered exactly what his lips had felt like on hers.
"I don't think that's a good idea, Lucius." She said, bravely. "I think it's best if we pretend like...like it never even happened." Wincing at how she sounded like a scared first year, unable to even say the word kiss, she broke eye contact with him.
"I am afraid that's not possible." Lucius said, taking a step closer to her, so there was barely any space between her. Her breath caught in her throat. Was he seducing her? "At the Ministry party, I...misread the situation." He settled on diplomatically.
"You most definitely did." Hermione responded tritely, though she wasn't so sure she wouldn't like a repeat performance.
He gave a little huff, as if he were annoyed. "While I did misread the situation, I am not sorry for my actions. And I won't apologize for them." He said with some finality.
Hermione was surprised, that he was so vehement about it, and her heart was beating so wildly against her chest, she was sure he must be able to hear it. For a brief moment, his blue eyes flickered down to her lips and she was certain that he was going to kiss her again.
Until he pulled back. Hermione was grappling with the wild disappointment she felt. "So, you can stop avoiding me now, before anyone else notices." He gave her a smug look. "And, should you ever change your mind about the kiss and would like a drink, I've been known to spend evenings at The Bottle and Glass in Knockturn Alley."
With that, he spun away from her, returning to his office, the door shut behind him. Once she was safely alone, Hermione pressed a hand against her heart, feeling completely off kilter. Nibbling her lower lip, she thought about running to the bar right away, but the other more rational side of her brain told her to leave well enough alone.
She'd decided to leave Lucius alone and she was going to follow that through.
The last person Hermione expected to see waiting for her outside the building of her flat was Ginny Weasley. When she'd walked home from work, all she wanted to do was snuggle into the couch and read a good book, not talk with Ginny, who she'd been trying to avoid. "Ginny, what are you doing here?" Hermione didn't recall giving any of her friends her new address.
"Hello to you too, Hermione." Ginny said with a snort. "I came by because I wanted to invite you to dinner on Friday!" She said brightly.
Hermione groaned internally. She could write infinite letters of regret, but there was no way she was going to be able to say no to Ginny to her face. Any excuse that she could find, Ginny would see through the lie immediately. She kind of hated herself for feeling the need to explain anything to her friends. "Oh, I don't know, Ginny, I've been really busy lately."
"Exactly! You work too hard, Hermione." Ginny said with an indulgent smiled. "Think of this as a way to unwind."
The brunette thought that a glass of wine and a massage was probably a better way to unwind. "I'm not sure, Ginny. I think I will just be a boring lump."
"Please! You have to come!" The ginger girl insisted. "Harry and I have some news to share with the three of you!" She said with a grin.
"Three? Who all is going to be there?" Hermione asked, eyebrows pressed together in confusion. "Romilda? Please don't ask me to do that Ginny. I tried to hang out with the four of you at Harry's birthday and you saw what a disaster it was."
"You are going to have to move past it, Mione." Ginny whined. Hermione scowled. No she absolutely did not have to move past it and act like everything was just hunky dory. "We haven't seen you since Harry's birthday, and...well, I think you should just stop overreacting about the whole Ron thing."
"I am not overreacting about the Ron thing. I am not sure what hurts more...the fact that Ron was cheating on me for god knows how long, or the fact that you and Harry knew about it and didn't say anything." Hermione snarled, unwilling to cry in front of her. She didn't want Ginny reporting to Ron that Hermione was absolutely heartbroken over him.
Ginny had the decency to look a little bit guilty. "I don't want to get into that right now. Please, Hermione, just for one night?" She was practically begging. "Harry and I have some big news and I know how much it would hurt Harry if you weren't one of the first to know."
Hermione felt a headache forming behind her eyes. "Fine, just one night. But, I am not going out of my way to be nice to Romilda." She said firmly. She could be polite, she could ignore, but she wasn't going to act like things were okay, because they weren't.
Ginny threw her arms around Hermione, squeezing her tightly. "Thank you Hermione, you are the best!" Hermione briefly wondered if she'd just made a terrible mistake agreeing to come to dinner. "We'll see you on Friday, at Grimmauld Place!"
Despite all of her misgivings, and the fact that she'd already talked herself out of going four times, Hermione found herself standing on the steps of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. She'd dressed up for the occasion, nothing too fancy, but not the jumper and jeans she was sure that her friends expected her to show up in.
When Harry finally opened the door, she realized that she was the last to arrive...or perhaps the only one who didn't live there. She could imagine that Romilda probably spent a lot of time in Ron's room. Harry pulled her into a hug, that she couldn't return. "Perfect timing, Mione. The food's nearly ready."
He pulled her inside the tiny kitchen, where she was met with the faces of Ginny, Ron and Romilda. Hermione immediately felt like an outsider, and she knew she should have just pretended to be sick and stayed home, but...she didn't want Ron to think that he had any power over her, because he didn't.
It was oddly comforting to know how little his arm slung around Romilda's waist bothered her now. Harry poured her a generous glass of red wine before ushering the four others into the dining room, where he was serving them lasagne. The tension around the table was thick, everyone expecting something to go wrong, so finally Hermione sighed and broke the silence. "So, Harry, Ginny, come on tell us, what's the big news? I've been dying of curiousity."
Harry smiled at her before grabbing Ginny's hand. "Well, I've asked Ginny to marry me, and she's said yes!" Harry said eagerly.
Hermione was happy for him, if anyone deserved a happily ever after it was Harry. She quickly stood from her place, walking around the table and giving her friend a tight hug, before giving the same to Ginny. "Congratulations! It's about time you two!" She said indulgently.
They were glowing in their happiness, it was easy to forget that she was still pissed at them. Ron looked a weird shade of red, as Hermione was sure he was bursting to say something about Harry defiling his baby sister, but he miraculously held it in. "I'm happy for you mate." He finally said, slapping Harry on the back.
Talk of the impending nuptials kept the conversation light and flowing. It was a welcome distraction for Hermione because it gave her something else to focus on. But then, there was only so much that they could talk about before things became stale, and they immediately focused on her.
"How is your job going, Hermione?" Harry asked, wanting to know everything about the job that had kept Hermione so busy.
"Well, it's going well. It's with the International Trading Board. I've been working on a proposal for trade with Bulgaria, and I might even get to go on a trip, which would be lovely. I've been wanting to see Viktor again." Hermione said, a bit breathlessly. Ron snorted to her left, making her glare at him sharply. "Something to say Ronald?"
"How can you even be sure that Krum wants to see you again? It's been like five years Hermione." Ron said, rolling his eyes, sure that a famous quidditch player couldn't want anything to do with his friend. Surely the Triwizard tournament had been a fluke.
"Viktor and I remain friends to this day. We write each other at least once a month, and I've stayed with his family in Bulgaria before." Hermione said vehemently, annoyed that Ron would suggest she would lie about her friendship. She wanted to tell him that she'd even had sex with Viktor, but she didn't want to come off looking like a slag, bragging about the guys she'd been with.
Ron just huffed, obviously not too convinced by her words. "Well, I just don't think you should get your hopes up about dating him. He's got loads of witches throwing themselves at him." Even Romilda seemed uncomfortable with the way the conversation was going.
"I don't want to date Viktor, Ronald. We are just friends." She insisted. "And in any case I'm going on a date next week." She said, feeling a bit excited at the prospect. She couldn't wait to meet the wizard that Daphne selected for her.
But all of those good feelings quickly evaporated when Ron opened his big fat mouth. "Pfft. Who would want to go on a date with you?" He asked. Hermione hoped that he didn't realize how hurtful his words were and he was just clueless, not intentionally cruel.
"I'll have you know that Daphne Greengrass has set me up on a double date!" She responded, hands on her hips. She let the anger wash over her so that she wouldn't start crying. Did the man who'd been her friend for so long really find her so repulsive?
"Greengrass? She's a bloody Slytherin Hermione." Ron retorted.
"Yes, she's a Slytherin, but she's my friend!" Hermione responded, standing from the table. "I work with a lot of Slytherins. Grow up, they aren't all evil. Everything isn't black and white, Ronald!" Hermione let out a frustrated huff, before turning to Harry. "Thank you for the meal, it was delicious, but I should get going. Congratulations." She said, a bit more harshly than she should have.
She knew that she shouldn't have come, everything was still too raw, too fresh. She slammed the door behind her as she went out into the cooler London air. She knew it was a bit petty, but she needed some way to get her anger out.
Hermione knew that she couldn't go back to her flat to be sad and alone and thinking over Ron's words, letting them bring her down and breed insecurities. She knew that people wanted her, wanted to date her. There had been Neville and Viktor and Cormac and Ron. And even Lucius had kissed her.
Lucius.
She remembered his words from the week before about being available for a drink. Hermione nibbled on her lower lip, thinking that this was probably a horrible idea. She should leave well enough alone, especially when she was feeling sad and lonely.
But, she needed to talk to someone right now, and...
Making up her mind, Hermione grasped her wand and apparated to the entrance of Knockturn Alley. The Bottle and Glass wasn't difficult to find, especially considering it was easily the nicest building down the alley.
She paused once more at the doorway, considering what would happen if he wasn't there, before pushing her way inside. If he wasn't there, she would just get a drink and then leave.
In the end, it didn't matter, because she would recognize that white blond hair anywhere. He was sitting at the bar, nursing a whiskey, and hadn't paid any mind to anyone else entering or leaving the bar. She crossed the room in four strides, stopping when she stood next his side.
Only when she spoke his name, a bit breathlessly, did he regard her with surprised blue eyes. "Good evening, Lucius."