May 2014

Hermione had her head buried in paperwork. She didn't know why, but towards the end of spring and into the summer she was really put to the test in being a lawyer. She didn't handle defense or prosecution. She was more of an advisor; spewing out magical law to her clients that owned businesses, wanted to get licenses, write wills, etcetera. Somehow it was this time of year that everyone either began having problems, wanted to crush old ones, or venture into new endeavors. Perhaps it was the change of season and wanting to start fresh that brought this on. But regardless, this accompanied with the onset of allergies made working a living torment.

It was in this harried state, hair messily pulled into a bun, glasses slightly askew, and regrettably chewing on the feather end of her quill that Hermione gained a visitor. She absent-mindedly told him or her to come in and, without looking up from her desk, unprofessionally asked what her guest wanted. There was a pause. Hermione raised her gaze and soon her entire body that had previously been hunched over. She slowly slipped her reading glasses off and stared.

"…Draco…" She said softly. "Draco, what are you doing here?"

Draco stared at her, grinned slightly, and then huffed. "I thought I'd get a hello. It's been a while-"

"Two years and eight months." Hermione said automatically as she stood and walked out from behind her desk. "A really, really long two years and eight months."

Hermione wrapped her arms around Draco and he brought his around her. They stood in an embrace for what felt like hours when it was only a few seconds. They pulled back, arms still around each other as they smiled.

"It's good to see you, Draco."

"You too," Draco replied. He sighed as he finally broke their hold on one another and revealed a large brown envelope that Hermione had failed to notice when he had come in. "I wish I could've come on less professional terms."

"Hmm," Hermione said as she gestured her head to the envelope. "That's the professional terms?"

Draco nodded as he walked over to one of the two armchairs in front of Hermione's desk. Hermione shifted around what she had been working on before Draco handed the envelope over. The first thing that she noticed when she opened it was all the numbers.

"What is this?"

"Properties that I own and their worth." Draco answered her. "Bank accounts, investments, basically everything that makes up my net worth. You're the only person I trust and I need you to go through it for me. Find out what, if, and how Astoria could get her grubby little hands on any of it."

At that Hermione snapped her eyes from the papers and to Draco's face. His was set in stone while hers was in complete disarray. "No… Draco you can't be… I thought you two…-"

"Astoria had had enough of me. Tossed divorce papers at me earlier this week." Draco said nonchalantly. He ran a hand through his messy hair and that's when Hermione really took notice of him. His usual pristine nature was utterly wracked with dishevelment. Whether it was how unkempt his clothes looked, the strewn about nature of his hair, or the fact that his eyes told her he was sleep deprived, the overall look of him wasn't good.

"Draco, I…" Hermione frowned. She couldn't bring her eyes to him and let her gaze fall to her desk. "Draco, I'm sorry. I thought-"

"No, I'm sorry." Draco interjected. "I'm sorry that I listened to you. I'm sorry that I agreed to spend less time with you; to just…cut you out of my life. I realized something when I did. You kept me sane. When I had fights with Astoria or was simply fed up with life, I always turned to you. When I didn't have you, I kept everything I felt on the inside. It made me lash out at Astoria even more until she couldn't take it anymore. Having you in my life wasn't ruining my marriage. Quite the opposite."

Hermione sat there in awe. She set his documents on her desk and stared at him in disbelief at his audacity. "…You know, for someone who claims to be sorry, you sure sound like you're blaming me for a lot. For Merlin's sake, Draco, you had me. I wrote you letters! If you were having problems you could've told me. I was still your friend. I still am."

"You call those generic, 'I hope you're enjoying the holiday, here's a photo of my kid' letters?" Draco scoffed. "Those are things you send to people you don't care about, not your childhood best friend."

"Oh, well I'm sorry," Hermione said exaggeratedly. "What should I have said then? I miss you? I wish I could see you?" Hermione angrily pushed herself up from her seat and walked around her desk. With a hand placed on either side of Draco's armchair, she leaned over him and glared. "Tell me, what did you want the source of your failing marriage, with or without my presence, to say? How about, 'this whole not seeing each other thing is tearing me apart?' Or maybe, 'Ron is driving me mad. Can you sneak away, I really want to be with you right now?' Is that better?"

Hermione sighed. She leaned away from him and sat on the edge of her desk. She fiddled with her fingers and instead of being angry she was sadder than anything else. "…I wanted to say a lot of things to you, Draco. But I didn't want to be a home-wrecker. And for the record," She added, her angry tone rising again. "If you missed me so much, if your marriage was still rotting despite agreeing to my idea of not seeing each other, you could've written to me too. So here," Hermione gathered his papers from her desk, messily put them back into the envelope he had given her, and shoved it into his open arms. "Find someone else to contribute to your divorce."

Draco stared at her as she brought herself back to the chair behind her desk. He watched as she pulled some of the work she had been focusing on before he had gotten there back in front of her. She was beyond angry at him and he knew that her silence was the cue for him to leave. But instead Draco just continued to sit there and take in the reddening of her cheeks with each passing second.

"Let's get something to eat." Draco said. Hermione stopped her work for a moment, obviously confused.

"…What?"

"You heard me. Let's get something."

Hermione looked up from her desk then. She was taken aback but soon gathered herself and began shaking her head. "…I'm meeting Ron for dinner in an hour."

Draco nodded and then shrugged. "Fine, a drink then."

"Draco,-"

"Hermione," Draco pleaded. He sighed and let his hands slide over his face in exhaustion. "It's been almost three years. I can't just leave here with us like this. We don't fight, Hermione. Tease each other like hell, sure, but we don't fight."

Hermione stared at him and bit her bottom lip. After a few agonizing seconds of an unofficial staring match, Hermione pulled out her wand and leaned over to reach her bottom drawer. After hearing a clicking sound she placed her wand on her table and a second later a bottle of firewhiskey that was already open.

"One drink,"

Draco was smiling in amusement as she conjured two small glasses. "I'm impressed."

Hermione shrugged. "Yes, well… It's a busy time of year for me. The Leaky Cauldron thanks me for my patronage with a bottle every month from spring until the end of summer. So," She filled their two glasses and raised one of them. "What do we toast to?"

Draco raised his glass and paused to think for a moment. He then pursed his lips and touched glasses with hers. "To having you back."

February, 2015

Hermione was anxiously pacing back and forth behind her desk while Draco was sitting in the chair before it with a thumb under his chin. He kept looking up at her every once in a while. He was trying his hardest not to say anything, but there was only so many times he could take seeing Hermione's form moving across his peripheral vision.

"You're going to walk right through the floor if you keep pacing like that."

Hermione instantly stopped and stared at him. "Sorry. I'm just nervous."

Draco chuckled. "I can see that. I also have no idea why. I'm the one getting a divorce here, not you."

"I know that, but throughout this bitter divorce we mutually agreed that your friendship with me is the reason you're getting divorced in the first place." Hermione sighed. She finally sat down at her desk and placed her head in her hands. "Unfortunately for me I'm your lawyer and so I have to be here."

Draco couldn't help but smile at her. He reached over and took one of her hands in his. "It'll be fine. We're just here to go over the final paperwork and sign off on them. After that we'll be free."

Hermione huffed. "Someone's forgotten that I'm still married."

"I didn't forget. Just willfully chose not to remember." Draco replied.

A knock was suddenly heard which quickly broke their hands apart. Draco leaned further back into his chair with his hands cupped as Hermione took a professional stance. "Come in."

The door opened and in walked Astoria looking as regal and pristine as ever with her lawyer at her heels. "Thank you for seeing us today, Mrs. Weasley." She said as she walked in. "This is my lawyer, Mr. Calhoun."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you both in person." Hermione greeted as she shook both of their hands. "This meeting should go by pretty quickly now that we're not communicating through letters."

At that Draco childishly snorted and Astoria shot him an angry look. Hermione would have also given him a scolding if she wasn't so conscious of her professionalism. When normally dealing with divorces, Hermione and her client would meet with the other spouse and his or her lawyer. Most times it was bitter fighting, sometimes a mutual breakup and therefore few and peaceful meetings. At the mention of writing to Astoria's lawyer for a get together Draco had immediately shot the idea down. "If you want to be in the middle of wand fight then by all means, let's do it." Draco had told her, and since then his and Astoria's divorce had been done through countless letters with worn out Speed Owls. It was the only reason finalizing the divorce had taken so long.

"Okay, so let's go through everything one more time, shall we?" Mr. Calhoun said he pulled out the final divorce papers. Since it was Astoria that had initiated the divorce, it was on Mr. Calhoun to draft them up after Astoria and Draco had come to an agreement. Hermione had been owled a copy two nights before and had already familiarized herself with what it contained. "Regarding Scorpius, joint custody will be shared between Astoria and Draco and he will take residence with his mother. As to when Scorpius will spend days with his father, that's up to the discretion of both parents. At the very least two weekends a month. Draco has agreed to pay two thousand galleons a month in support of Scorpius.

'In regards to owned properties, Astoria will continue to live in the countryside home of Kingsbride while Draco remains at Malfoy Manor where he has been since the start of the divorce. Finally, the finances. Since joint accounts were never made, whatever financial assets are in Draco's name will remain his and whatever financial assets that are in Astoria's name will remain hers. This includes bank accounts, any and all stocks in the Wizard Financial Exchange, and investments. The five stocks there were jointly made between Astoria and Draco have been since cashed in and equally divided between the two."

"Well, that does it then." Hermione said with a contented sigh. "All the two of you have to do is just sign and then-"

"Oh, not quite, Mrs. Weasley." Mr. Calhoun politely interrupted. "There's one more. A slight addition, to be exact."

Hermione cocked a brow just as Draco eyed Astoria and her lawyer curiously. "A slight addition?" She repeated. "One that so happened not to make it into the copy of the divorce papers you sent me, I see."

"It was a very recent afterthought." Astoria said with a modest smile.

"And your afterthought was what exactly?"

"Fifty thousand galleons for each year of Astoria's marriage to Draco up until the separation as a recompense for his infidelity. That would be a total of four hundred thousand." Mr. Calhoun answered. Hermione stared wide-eyed as Draco's eyes turned to narrow slits.

"Like hell I'm giving you a bloody dime and you know it." Draco snarled at her. "That's why you made that slight addition after everything was settled!"

"Draco," Hermione warned. He snapped his eyes to her quickly before heeding her warning and settling back down into his seat. "Mr. Calhoun, this isn't right."

"Isn't right?" Astoria echoed as she stared Hermione down. "What would you do if it was you? What if your husband was cheating on you for eight years? The entire marriage! I deserve something for the love I should've gotten and I'm going to get it."

Hermione sighed. "I understand how you may feel, but this is not how things are done. And you know this." She added to Astoria's lawyer. "Terms like these have to be agreed upon."

"Not if it's settled in court."

Hermione scoffed. "Then you and Astoria clearly don't want this divorce to go through today. But Draco and I do. He won't sign it. Not with that clause in there."

"Damn right I won't." Draco said firmly. "You can't even prove that I cheated!"

"Oh we're sure that a history of your actions could sway a Ministry official." Mr. Calhoun said smugly. That enraged Draco even further and Hermione could instantly see how wrong this meeting was going.

"A history of my actions!"

"That's right!" Astoria shouted at him. "The late nights. Missing from home most of the day. Your mumbles in your sleep-"

"That's circumstantial!"

"By the time I'm through, it sure won't look that way." Mr. Calhoun grinned and that was the final nail for Draco. He angrily rose from his seat, red in the face, fists balled tightly.

"Look here you pompous, loaded piece of-"

Hermione quickly scrambled out of her chair and stood in front of Draco. "Draco, stop. You need to sit down." She said calmly. She placed her hands on his chest to try to settle him, but the fierce look in his eyes told her that she was completely being ignored. The derisive snort that came from Astoria promptly after didn't help the situation any.

"Just look at them, Mr. Calhoun." Astoria drawled maliciously. "For all I know it's the mudblood Draco's been sleeping with all this time."

That had done it. Draco did the unthinkable and pushed past Hermione and dove straight for Astoria. She screamed as she fell out of her chair and soon she was gasping for air. Draco was on top of her as he effectively cut off her air supply with two strong hands on her throat.

"DON'T YOU EVER CALL HER THAT! DO YOU HEAR ME? DON'T."

Hermione and Mr. Calhoun rushed over, both of them trying to wrestle Draco off of Astoria before it was too late. "Draco, let her go!" Hermione shouted. She grabbed under his arm and tugged as hard as she could while Mr. Calhoun was attempting to pry off Draco's fingers. Astoria was helplessly pushing and hitting at Draco's face which had no effect. One good scratch though got him in the eye which loosened him enough to allow Hermione to fully pull him off of her.

"Hell!" Draco yelled as he placed a hand to his eye. Astoria rolled over onto her hands and knees as she coughed and wheezed.

"You…liar." Astoria rasped. She coughed once more before Mr. Calhoun got her to her feet. "You bloody liar! It was her." She accused, pointing a shaking finger at Hermione while her other hand rested on her neck.

Hermione, who had completely dropped all professionalism and was inspecting Draco's scarred and bleeding eye, immediately stopped and turned her gaze to Astoria. She swallowed and shook her head. "I know you're upset, but that's no reason to go wildly accusing people-"

"I don't know who you think I am, but I'm not stupid." Astoria shot at her. "No one's that protective over their lawyers. Nor are lawyers so attentive to their clients."

Hermione felt annoyed with herself that she was inclined to agree with her. Regardless, Hermione rose her head up high and said as coolly as possible, "Prove it."

Astoria threw a look that had once only been reserved for Draco and headed towards the door. Mr. Calhoun followed, but not before saying one more thing. "See you court then, Mr. Malfoy. And not just for the money."

Mr. Calhoun winked and then left the office, closing the door after him. Draco sighed, but soon he was shouting out in pain as Hermione delivered the hardest slap to his face that she could muster.

"Damn it, Draco!" She screamed at him. "Are you crazy? Do you have any idea what you've just done?!"

"She called you a mudblood, Hermione!" Draco yelled back. "I got angry and I snapped. Sue me!"

"No, I'm not going to do it because that's what they're already going to do to you!" Hermione smartly yelled back. She ran her hands through her hair and sat on the corner of her desk. "Astoria's going to have you arrested for what you just did. That is, of course, unless we give her a reason not to."

Draco cocked a brow and urged her on. "How?"

Hermione reached over to the stack of divorce papers on her desk that Mr. Calhoun had left behind. "You're going to sign these."

"The hell I am." Draco scowled stubbornly. "I'm not giving her nearly half a million galleons for something she can't prove I did."

"You're right." Hermione replied as she thumbed through the papers and picked up the last page with a quill in her hand. "You're going to pay her that and more to make her forget the catastrophe that just happened in my office."

Author's note: I'm sorry for the ramble about this chapter, but I have to. I've had this written for the past month, possibly before that. I've read it over several times and it has been and will always be my favorite chapter (aside from the ending).

Having Hermione in Draco's life kept him centered and without her he just simply fell apart. She took up the most room in his heart and, unfortunately for Astoria, it utterly destroyed their marriage. As for the divorce scene, I had written it long after the first part where Draco asked Hermione to handle his divorce. I thought long and hard about whether or not Draco would really lose all self-control and attack Astoria like that. Whatever my feelings, I kept it because I think it showed just how much and how far Draco would go to protect Hermione from anyone who'd hurt her. In addition, it provided Astoria the perfect opportunity to insinuate, if not appropriately guess, who it was that held her (ex) husband's attention for so long. As a pissed off and an emotionally strained wife, I think Astoria deserved some sort of closure. Although, I think you'd agree that finding out the love of her life preferred a muggleborn over her opened up fresh wounds rather than closed the ones she already had.

-WP