Worth the Wait
Chapter Two
Hermione Granger tosses today's copy of the Daily Prophet into the bin without even looking at it. She already knows what it would say. That insipid paper has been reporting the exact same story all week– Draco Malfoy and his wife, Astoria Greengrass-Malfoy, celebrating their first wedding anniversary.
That means that it's been thirteen months since Hermione Granger ended her relationship with the aforementioned Draco Malfoy. To this day, it's one of the hardest things she's ever had to do– literal War notwithstanding.
Against reason, Hermione had been in love with the blonde prat. He'd managed to make her fall completely head over heels over the course of their "Eighth Year" at Hogwarts after the War. He'd made her fall in love with him before he told her that he was engaged to be married the day after Astoria's twenty-first birthday.
He'd explained to her that the engagement had been orchestrated by his and Astoria's parents before Astoria could even walk– Or the betrothal, as he'd called it.
Of course, he didn't tell Hermione any of this until long after their relationship started. He had claimed that he didn't know where their relationship would go and therefore, it didn't make sense for him to explain the whole story of Pureblood obligations to Hermione. Hermione argued that he should've told her as soon as he realized there were real feelings involved. Draco disagreed slightly.
Instead, he waited until after they'd graduated Hogwarts. He waited until after Hermione was reintroduced to his mother. He waited until after Hermione fell in love with not only him, but the Malfoy library, too. He waited until after Hermione had finally learned all of his family's recently freed house elves' names, and had developed relationships with many of them.
He waited until after Harry and Ron had finally come around and gotten used to seeing her and Draco together. He waited until after Hermione and Pansy Parkinson had become almost as close as sisters. He waited until after Hermione had started to imagine a future with him.
For all of the good qualities Hermione had learned about Draco in their time together, one bad quality is what she remembers– His selfishness. He'd been so incredibly selfish to think that he could've had his cake and eaten it too.
Hermione slumps down in her office chair at the Ministry. Shortly after graduating from Hogwarts, Hermione, along with Harry and Ron, had been offered positions in whichever Ministry department they wanted. Kingsley had told her that he'd create a position for her if she so desired.
Harry and Ron had, as expected, both become Aurors. Their training had been rough, but they're both terribly happy in their posts, which pleases Hermione. Of course, she'd want her two best friends to be happy– even if it scares her when they're away on missions.
Hermione had taken a liaison post within the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. She quite loves her job, even if it is far more paperwork than she had expected it to be.
Hermione had considered transferring posts and also becoming an Auror when she'd gotten fed up with all of the paperwork (and the lack of initiative) in the DRCMC, but truth be told, she'd had quite enough of dark wizards in her life. Her choice had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that, at the time, the Auror department was working overtime on decommissioning Malfoy Manor, which was a project which was projected to take, at minimum, a year. Hermione knew that she could not– would not– walk back into that house every day and see him with her.
Hermione shakes her head. She knows it's of no use to worry herself, or allow herself to be upset, by Draco's marriage. He's married. Hermione knows that, logically, a marriage isn't necessarily permanent, but in the wizarding world, it's as good as.
Hermione never asked Draco what the terms of his marriage contract were. She didn't really want to know, if she's being honest. She didn't want to hear him say that he'd have to make an Unbreakable Vow with Astoria. She knew that that was a possibility, but she decidedly did not want to hear that it was the reality.
Hermione holds no ill-will toward Astoria. It'd be too easy to hate her. Hermione knows that Astoria had as much say in her marriage as Draco did– that is to say, not much, if any– and she also knows that it is far beneath the caliber of Hermione Granger to hate another woman simply because 'she got the guy.' No, that simply would not do.
It didn't help that in the few interactions she's had with Astoria, that she's actually been quite a lovely witch. Those interactions were prior to Hermione knowing the truth about the witch's betrothal to Hermione's boyfriend, but even Hermione thinks that it would be splitting hairs to penalize Astoria for something she had so little to do with.
In any event, Hermione decides she's quite finished thinking about her former boyfriend and his wife. The centaurs need her far more.
"'Mione!"
Hermione smiles, a smile that reaches her eyes, when she hears that voice. She'd know it anywhere.
"Ron!" Hermione greets back, flinging herself into her best friend's arms as she walks through the door of the Burrow.
Ron squeezes Hermione tightly, as if he hadn't just seen her two days ago. Hermione doesn't mind though. She's grateful that Harry and Ron are still on her side, and by extension, the entire Weasley clan. Times had been touchy there for a moment when she first told them about her relationship with Draco, but they did eventually come around, and they consoled her after the break-up, which was more than she expected.
"We weren't sure you were coming," Ron says, slinging his arm over Hermione's shoulders, guiding her through the house into the kitchen, where everyone else is gathered.
Hermione furrows her brows.
"Why wouldn't I have come?"
Ron stops short, frowning to himself, as if knowing he'd said something he shouldn't have.
"Well, it's just that today is today, and all. But we're glad you're here, of course!"
Ah. Hermione catches on. They'd expected her to hide away and wallow on Draco's wedding anniversary, while the aforementioned blonde is celebrating. Not so. Hermione thought there was no place she'd rather be today than surrounded by her family.
Ron and Hermione enter the kitchen, both smiling brightly as Hermione takes in the faces surrounding her. As always, it's an eclectic mix.
"Look who I found!" Ron calls, smiling again at Hermione, squeezing her shoulder once more before he crosses the room into the arms of Lavender Brown, his girlfriend of the last two years.
Hermione is quickly pulled into another warm embrace, this time from a visibly pregnant Ginny Weasley-Potter.
"How are you, Hermione?" Ginny asks, and Hermione understands that Ginny is not just asking about how she's doing in general– she's asking how she's doing today specifically.
Hermione pulls back from Ginny, and makes eye contact with her friend.
"I'm okay, really," Hermione replies, and she almost means it.
Truthfully, Hermione is mostly okay. It has been a year, after all. There's a small part of her which still thinks it would hex Draco Malfoy's bollocks off if she ever saw him again, but mostly, she's okay– a bit angry, but okay.
"Damn. I'd hoped we'd be sneaking away to crash a party," Ginny jokes– at least, Hermione hopes that was a joke, but with Ginny, sometimes it's difficult to tell.
Hermione laughs and shakes her head.
"I'm sure it would've been an affair to remember," Hermione says with faux wistfulness.
Hermione doesn't think there's enough galleons in the world to get her to attend one of the Malfoys' soirees. Especially not this one.
"Pansy's there, right?" Ginny asks, and Hermione nods.
What Hermione doesn't say is that Pansy positively did not want to attend that particular party. She'd been at Hermione's flat just last night complaining about having to go.
Pansy loves Draco, she does, but their relationship has been strained since their own break-up in sixth year, understandably so. They're still friends and would do anything for one another, but Pansy still wasn't inclined to attend her former boyfriend's anniversary ball. Furthermore, her best friend is also an ex of the celebrant, and Pansy had been one of the people who had to stitch Hermione back together following the break-up, and she certainly did not want to celebrate that.
In the end, it was Hermione who convinced Pansy to go. She'd been invited, and it would not have gone unnoticed if she didn't attend. On top of that, Draco and Astoria would've both known precisely why Pansy opted not to go. Pansy promised Hermione that she would not have any fun, though, which Hermione found to be a very Pansy thing to say.
"I bet she's just having a grand old time," Ginny snorts, wrapping her arm around Hermione's waist and dragging her through the kitchen towards the living room.
Hermione chuckles as she follows Ginny.
"Oh, I'm sure," Hermione responds, looking around and noticing that a familiar mop of black hair is noticeably absent from the sea of red hair around her. "Where's Harry?"
"On a case," Ginny frowns, her free hand dropping to rest on her protruding stomach.
Hermione knows that Ginny worries about Harry even more than she does, for obvious reasons. Ginny has been trying to get Harry to step down from his position as Head Auror, or even to accept the offer he keeps getting of stepping up to the position as the Department Head of the entire DMLE– anything to keep him out of the field– for a long while.
Hermione decides that Ginny needs a distraction.
"C'mon, Gin, let's go see what stories Charlie has for us this time."
Hermione arrives home from the gathering at the Weasleys' later than she'd intended, but it is a Friday, so it's not like she has work in the morning. It had been so wonderful to see everyone. As usual, though, Hermione spent the majority of the evening with Ginny, George and Charlie. She always appreciates getting to see Charlie when he's home from Romania, and Ginny and George can never fail to make her laugh when she's in need.
After quickly refilling Crooks' food and water dishes, Hermione trudges off to her en suite to shower off this day.
Under the spray of the water, Hermione allows herself a moment– just a moment– to feel. She'd been telling everyone all day, and for the better part of a year now, that she's fine. She is fine… But she's also not fine.
She'd been on exactly one date following her break-up with Draco. She'd taken Cormac McLaggen up on his offer to buy her dinner about four and a half months after she'd broken up with Draco. It went about as well as she'd expected. Needless to say, there was not a second date.
In her defense, Cormac has grown up since their time at Hogwarts. He's still handsome and well-spoken, if a bit pushy. He's a decent enough bloke, Hermione supposes… He was also the first bloke to ask Hermione on a date after her very public split from the Malfoy heir.
If Hermione is being honest with herself, she still thinks about Draco every day. Sometimes she thinks about what an utter arse he is and how badly he hurt her. Other days, she thinks about the good times. She thinks about the time she introduced him to Muggle television. She thinks about the time she visited Malfoy Manor, only to find Draco taking a cooking lesson from Neve, one of his house elves. She thinks about later putting those skills to work as she and Draco cooked together in her tiny flat kitchen. She thinks about how they used to dance together in the Manor library. She thinks about the time she told Draco about going to the zoo with her parents when she was young, and he insisted on taking her again.
Hermione pretends that what she knows are tears, are actually just water droplets from the spray of the shower.
She thinks about the first time he told her he loved her. She thinks about the last time, too. She thinks about the first time they spent the night together. She thinks about the last time, too.
Hermione knows that one day she won't ache like this. One day, hopefully in the not too distant future, she'll move on. Perhaps, one day, she'll even fall in love again. Hermione attempts to ignore the pit that develops in her stomach when she thinks about falling in love again with someone who isn't Draco Malfoy.
Hi, friends. So, here's our first Hermione chapter. Just quickly, I want to say that writing in Hermione's point of view for this story has been oddly healing. I myself went through a break-up in the past year and much of how Hermione feels is pulled straight from my own feelings. It's been oddly healing to turn those difficult and confusing feelings into something good. So, thank you for the opportunity to share this with you.
Also, I failed to mention last week that I will be adopting a once a week upload schedule, for the most part. I may forget here and there, but I intend to upload a new chapter of this story on Tuesdays. I've written an additional two chapters since last count, so now we're up to twelve and I'm starting on thirteen today.
Also, fair warning, we do have a ways to go before any real Dramione happens. Clearly, there's some tension and backstory here that needs to be addressed beforehand. But it will happen, I promise. Just stick with me, lol. Draco and Hermione don't even interact for a few more chapters, as they would have no reason to right now. All I ask is that you be patient and stick with me for a while until we get to the part we all want, lol.
In any event, thank you for reading. It means more to me than you know. Please review if you're so inclined. Reviews are like candy and often make me want to upload sooner- just saying. :P