Chapter 34 – More than Words

17 April, 2010

The Leaky Cauldron

Diagon Alley, London, England

Draco Malfoy

"Mia, I going to get changed. I'm hungry. I don't know what the fuck they served at that disaster of a dinner, but English food sucks. Please tell me London has a fucking Taco Bell, or a nice Mexican place. I want chili rellenos and tequila."

Mia pulls out her phone, "There's both, though the ratings aren't super high."

Sasha smiles, "Perfect! If British people hate it, it's probably really good. Come Theo, you can help me change. Mi we'll meet you down here in 20 minutes."

Theo smirks and says, "Thirty minutes."

They both go inside and Mia looks at me. "Would you like to get a drink?"

I smile, "I'll meet you back here in 30 minutes. I'm going home to change myself. If were going to muggle London, I need to change."

She smiles, but the smile doesn't reach her eyes, and she says, "Oh, alright, I'll see you then."

I walk around the corner and apparate home. I immediately go to my sitting room and pour a tall glass of firewhiskey. FUUUUUUCK!

Mia was amazing tonight. I don't think my mother could have handled herself so eloquently. Mia smiled and didn't raise her voice through the entire interaction. She kept her composure through the whole thing. The only way I knew any of it affected her, is she grabbed my hand under the table and wouldn't let go. When she was tense she squeezed my hand. I'm not even sure she realized she was doing it.

I'm still furious with her for running away. I know she feels this too. I know she remembers everything we had. I know it in my soul she knows it. I just have no idea how to be any more clear to her I love her with everything I am.

I hear my floo and the wards tell me it's my mother. Fuck it all! I get up and vanish my firewhiskey and greet her.

"Hello Mother, what brings you here this evening?

She kisses my check and says, "Draco. Hello my son."

She walks into my sitting room and has a seat in a chair and is wringing her hands. She is upset.

I have a seat on the settee. She looks at me and states, "You have been drinking. You told me you stopped drinking alone."

I look at her and smirk, "Maybe I'm not alone, Mother. Didn't we have a discussion on boundaries?"

She looks down and then back up to meet my eyes. "I was having dinner at The Leaky Cauldron with 'Meda."

I smirk again, "I see why you are so tense. Hannah's cooking is subpar at best."

She sighs, "Draco, since that incident at Gringott's awhile ago I have been doing some self reflection. Ophelia was right, I have been simply tolerating Andromeda instead of giving her the love she deserves as my sister. I invited her to attend the magical spa with me and she asked me to join her for a glass of wine and a bit of food. I agreed."

I smile at her, "That is an impressive feat for you. Congratulations, Mother. Let me show you back to the floo. I have plans."

She grimaces, "Draco wait. There's more."

Fuck she's annoying! I take a seat, and gesture for her to continue.

She gets up and goes to the drink cart and pours herself some firewhiskey and downs it. What?! She comes back down to sit, "'Meda mentioned she would have to cancel our normal Wednesday tea this week because she is expecting a guest. Sh-She's expecting Hermione Granger. She then told me how she was asked by Ophelia to teach Hermione Charms and Occlumency. 'Meda taught the girl for three years. She said she was the kindest, most polite young girl she has ever encountered. She talked about how much of a hard worker she was and how hard she studied. She spoke very highly of the girl. Granger is Teddy Lupin's godmother and sends him monthly correspondence, and gives him the best gifts. I never knew little Teddy had a godmother."

What the fuck is this? "I see, Mother. Do you have a point?"

She continues, "As she was talking about her it was if she conjured the girl. The door to The Leaky Cauldron opened and there she was, dressed elegantly with her hair perfectly coiffed. She's a beautiful woman now, Draco."

I nod, and carefully say, "She always was."

She sighs, "She is there now. You need to go apologize to her and win her back."

I flippantly ask, "Why would I need to?"

She sighs, "You love her."

I laugh, "Brilliant, Mother. Why do you care if I love her after you were the cause of me losing her?"

I sneers, "I made a mistake. She is a Dagworth-Granger."

I smirk, "Now that she is rich and related to Phea, I need to make amends because she is now worthy? I don't see why I would need to make amends with her when she was never worthy of me before."

Mother gives me an incredulous look, "She's your soulmate, Draco."

I sigh, "Why does that matter, Mother?"

She sighs and comes over to sit by me on the settee. She takes my hand, "My little dragon, I apologize. I was wrong about her. I shouldn't have interfered by telling your father you two were associated. I love you so much, my son. I want to see you happy, and you will only find happiness with her."

Uh…This is surprising. "Let me make sure I understand you, Mother. You want me to run to The Leaky Cauldron and apologize to Hermione Granger for breaking up with her in the off chance she will take me back after the way you forced me to treat her? After the articles you pushed for papers across Europe to write about her? Do you realize every publication that wrote something negative about Hermione, Ophelia purchased those publications and fired the editors and writers of those columns? I find it ironic you think she would want me after everything you put her through."

She huffs, "Draco, she left the country because of you."

I laugh, "I'm sure I was one of the factors. I'm pretty sure bleeding in drawing rooms and killing dark wizards, but remaining unemployable had a great deal to do with why Hermione Granger left."

She sighs, "Go apologize to her. Make amends. Soulmates always find a way back to each other."

I'm getting more irate as she talks. "Stop! I've already fucking tried. I went to New York last week and talked to her. Earlier today I laid my fucking bleeding heart on the line and she ran away from me. I want her, I need her, and I love her with every fucking fiber of my existence. She doesn't trust me, she only wants us to be friends. I don't know how to fucking get her to see I love her. So stop talking. This is what should have happened eleven fucking years ago, when she loved me, when she trusted me, when she was MINE! You are so fucking infuriating to tell me to go apologize now? Now that she is a pureblood? Now that she is the richest fucking woman in the fucking world and doesn't need me? I can't fucking stand to look at you right now."

She shakes her head, "But Draco, did you apologize?"

I'm absolutely fuming at this woman right now. The audacity of her to change her fucking mind now that Mia doesn't want me! FUUUUUUCK! I stop and think for a moment about all of our conversations all of our interactions in the last week and realize. "No, I haven't apologized. In the time I've been reacquainted with her, I haven't apologized."

She gives a smug smile, "See that you do, my dragon." She then gets up and walks to the floo and leaves.

FUUUUUUCK!

17 April 2010 7:30 PM

Taco Bell

Piccadilly Square, London, England

Draco

"We need 2 chicken quesadillas, 2 steak quesadillas, 4 soft tacos, 4 taco supremes, 4 chicken soft tacos, 4 7-layer burritos, 2 crunch wrap supremes cut in half, 2 nacho bell grandes, and 4 beers, Corona if you have it."

Mia clears her throat, and Sasha looks at her, and tells the cashier, "Oh and 4 Mexican Pizzas." Sasha then pulls out a black credit card, "You take AmEx correct?"

Hermione and I take a seat at a plastic booth while Sasha and Theo wait for our food. Mia sits down next to me. I leave her plenty of room. She reaches for my hand and looks at me. "If you hate this food I know of a pub that serves really good fish-n-chips close by. Sasha swears Taco Bell is a food group and a requirement in her diet. I thought the one bite of Fleur's dinner I took was phenomenal."

I smirk, "I think I took five bites of mine. Did my mother say anything to you at The Leaky?"

She looks taken aback, "She only said hello to me. Andi came to confirm our lunch for Wednesday. We are suppose to go to Hogwarts to meet Minerva. I am hoping to meet Teddy as well. I haven't seen him since he was a baby. I tried so hard to get Andi and Teddy to come visit me, but she refused every time."

I sigh, "Mia she took care of Ophelia. She checked in on her daily and made sure she took her potions. Ophelia was stubborn to the core. Ophelia hid her illness from everyone, but I noticed Aunt Andromeda calling on DG Potions three times a week. In the end, the socialite of the 20th Century had very few people she still cared about and who cared about her. I noticed her getting frail, but her death took me by surprise."

She nods, "I wish I had gotten to know her as her. As Mina I loved her fiercely, she was one of my only true friends. As Viola, I respected her, but envied her confidence. She taught me so much about history. Things I wasn't sure how she knew. She had a ease to her I never could relate to."

I smile at her, "I know she would have loved for you to know her too."

Sasha comes to sit down and is on her phone. "Yes. No. Maybe. I'll tell her. No she hasn't. Wednesday 4AM. Don't be late. Ta ta!"

Mia asks, "Well?"

Sasha starts passing out food, and says, "That was Josh. He, Colton, Mikey, and Amanda will be here Wednesday at 9AM so we can do a preliminary survey and get legal detail involved. Josh said they will need you for grunt work because of the tech you fired. He was a shit person, but our best for set ups. Kelly will be here the following week to start hiring. We'll be looking for techs in France, Ireland, and Germany to come work here for start up. Kelly will also need to hire for retail. We'll need to send them to a store in America possibly Paris if they are fluent in French to train for a few weeks."

Mia smiles and says, "Good. I'll owl Kingsley Monday before I go to DG Potions for a meeting. I should probably hire a legal team here. Amanda knows all the laws. I'll have her contact James Wulff the I.C.W U.S.A Rep to have him on stand by for Statute issues. Now where is my Mexican Pizza?"

I, Draco Lucius Malfoy can officially say Taco Bell's food is absolute shite! I've never eaten anything so singularly awful in my entire life. I tried a bite of everything. I didn't take a second bite of anything. We washed it all down with horrible muggle beer.

After everyone was done eating we walked around Piccadilly square and on our way back to The Leaky we passed a pub that was packed and could hear someone singing wretchedly. Mia stops in front of the pub and looks at Sasha and excitingly says, "Karaoke?"

Mia takes my hand and leads us into the pub. We find a table in the back and have a seat. Sasha orders 12 shots of tequila and whiskey and cokes for each of us. I sit down and wait for our drinks and Mia and Sasha disappear.

Theo sits across from me, "Mate, I'm already in love!"

I shake my head, "You've only know her 23 hours."

Theo sighs, "Feels like a lifetime. Fuck, she's amazing! She's smart, not Granger smart, but close. She's fun, spontaneous, independent, and takes control. I have never been so at ease with a woman before."

I smile, "I'm happy for you, Theo."

He smiles, "I'm happy for me, too! I hope I don't do something stupid and fuck it up. I don't have the best track record."

I laugh, "Luna Lovegood and Susan Bones are hardly track records. You didn't do anything to mess those relationships up. They just weren't good matches for you. Luna was too far in the clouds, and Susan was too busy with her training as a healer. You were too needy for her. Susan and you remained friends. She seems to really like Oliver Wood."

Theo smirks, "She always liked the wood."

I laugh and shake my head. Theo is a perpetual adolescent. I think his father caused a stunt in Theo's emotional growth. He turned out to be an amazing Editor-in-Chief for the Daily Prophet. He really excels at it. He's a great writer and has published a couple of books on Dumbledore. He published a book on debunking religions of the world that was well written, but not well received. He is absolute shite with personal relationships. He's an amazing mate to have in your corner, but I would loathe the thought of ever dating him. He's a clinger. He got on well with Luna because she was travelling. Susan and him fought all the time about personal boundaries. I don't think he would mess up a relationship with his soulmate, but I managed to epically fail with mine, so who am I to judge?

Sasha and Mia come back and we take back to back tequila shots. Nasty stuff. Mia and Sasha are excitingly talking about singing. I have never really heard Mia sing. She would sing to songs she played sometimes, but I was usually too busy trying to look down her shirt, or imagining her legs wrapped around me to notice her voice.

After a couple hours of talking, and drinking Mia's name is called. She grabs my hand and pulls me up near the stage so I can watch her sing. She pulls a bar stool from the side of the stage and sits down.

When the song begins she closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and begins,

"Saying "I love you"

Is not the words I want to

hear from you" (Footnote 1)

That got my fucking attention! She never said anything about what happened earlier today. I poured my heart to her and she ran away. I know Mia. She uses music to express her feelings. I thought it was a quirk from after the war, it's nice to see she still does it. It's what made us bond. We would spend hours listening to music we would discuss what the songs meant to each other. We built trust over music. I fell in love with her those nights so long ago. She gave me glimpse of the incredible soul she has, and I craved more. I still crave more from her. I always will.

"It's not that I want you

Not to say but if you only knew

How easy, it would be to show me how you feel

More than words is all you have to do to make it real

Then you wouldn't have to say that you love me

'Cause I'd already know" (Footnote 1)

It was incredibly selfish of me to blurt that shite out earlier. I do love her, I know she still loves me. I know by how easy she is with my small touches. Mia doesn't like to be touched. She always takes my hand. Her eyes. Fuck her eyes say everything she is too frightened to say. I hurt her, I know, but she still loves me. She opens her eyes and finds mine and continues.

"What would you do

If my heart was torn in two?

More than words to show you feel

That your love for me is real

What would you say

If I took those words away?

Then you couldn't make things new

Just by saying 'I love you'" (Footnote 1)

She's right. I did tear her heart, and mine, into a million pieces. In ten years, I haven't felt as whole as I did the day in her office. I wanted the hurt and the past to disappear so we can just move on. I know Mia doesn't let things go. She internalizes everything. Fuck, I have to build her trust again. I'll do it. I'll do anything to get the life with Mia I know we can have. I'll earn her trust. I waited in Eighth Year, I'll wait a lifetime for her. I'll give her actions over words. I'll give all I am. Because there is nothing more real than my love for Hermione Jean Ophelia Dagworth-Granger.

"Now that I've tried to

Talk to you and make you understand

All you have to do is close your eyes

And just reach out your hands and touch me

Hold me close, don't ever let me go

More than words is all I ever needed you to show

Then you wouldn't have to say that you love me

'Cause I'd already know

What would you do

If my heart was torn in two

More than words to show you feel

That your love for me is real

What would you say

If I took those words away

Then you couldn't make things new

Just by saying 'I love you'" (Footnote 1)

Her voice is phenomenal. She sings with her whole heart. I've never witnessed someone who lives music the way Mia does sing. Her eyes didn't leave mine the rest of the song. I smiled at her. She smiled back. An understanding passed through us, and when the song was done. The crowd roared with applause. She walked up to me and I held her close and I didn't let her go .