Snippets
Chapter Twenty-Six
"So, Ms. Granger, tell me about your week. Any new visions?" Healer Greengrass asks as she flicks her long, blonde hair over her left shoulder and poises her quill to take notes on the parchment in her lap.
Hermione sighs. If she's being honest, she had not been looking forward to this appointment with Healer Greengrass. It's her last appointment before her next course of her treatment spells, but it's also the first appointment after another one of her visions has come to pass– and Hermione isn't exactly looking forward to telling her Healer that one of the more personal visions she has had has now actually happened.
"No new visions– none that felt significant, anyway," Hermione shrugs, remembering a short vision in which she had watched the vision-version of herself fold a large basket of laundry– children's clothing. She still doesn't think that that one was particularly special– especially not in comparison to the one that came true. "But another vision came true."
Healer Greengrass' eyes widen as she sets her quill down in surprise.
"Really? You're sure?" Healer Greengrass asks, leaning toward Hermione slightly, as if in rapt interest.
Hermione nods, forcing herself to ignore the twinge of pain which originates somewhere near her ribs at the reminder of exactly which vision (or visions, depending on how Hermione looks at it) had come true.
"Unfortunately," Hermione frowns, averting her eyes from Healer Greengrass' in favor of focusing intently on a hangnail on her left thumb. "It was the fragmented vision pieces which I saw after my first treatment. There were pieces in between, of course, but the snippets that I had seen definitely happened– exactly as I saw them."
Healer Greengrass nods her clinical nod and flips back in her file, presumably to verify to which vision Hermione is referring. She reads for a moment from her own previous notes before responding.
"What can you tell me about the circumstances surrounding the vision coming to pass? I understand that these vision pieces were of a more personal nature, but any details that you can give me may be helpful," Healer Greengrass asks, and though Hermione knows that she has to be careful with how she responds in this case, she finds herself wanting to talk to someone about this.
"It happened exactly how I assumed it would," Hermione begins, picking at her hangnail absently. "The man showed up at my flat. He showed up at my flat after weeks of not speaking to me. I shouted at him, which he completely deserved."
Healer Greengrass scribbles out a few lines on a fresh sheet of parchment before nodding for Hermione to continue.
"We fought. I called him an arse," Hermione tries to remember exactly how the events of that night had unfolded and in what order. "Then he told me that he had feelings for me and that that's why he had been ignoring me."
Hermione knows that that isn't exactly accurate, but she thinks that it's perhaps close enough considering who she is telling this to and what her role in this situation is– or rather, the role of her sister, as it were.
"I– I kissed him. Then we– well," Hermione stammers, looking at Healer Greengrass with pleading eyes in hopes that she remembers what the second piece of the fragmented visions had been. Healer Greengrass smiles a half smile and nods, allowing Hermione to let out a breath which she hadn't realized that she was holding. "Then I woke up the following morning and he was gone. He left me a note, but all it said was, 'I'm sorry, Hermione.' It's been almost a week and I haven't heard from him since."
"What's going on, Hermione? I don't think you've ever called a girls' meeting before," Padma asks, her soothing Healer voice somewhat tense once she arrives at Hermione's flat the evening after her appointment with Healer Greengrass.
Hermione hadn't realized how helpful it might be to talk to someone until she spoke to Healer Greengrass, so in light of that revelation, she had decided that she would 'call a girls' meeting' as Padma had so eloquently put it as soon as she arrived home for the evening.
Green flames erupt in Hermione's floo as the final participant for this evening's installment of Girls' Meeting appears.
"Granger? Are you alright?" Pansy wonders as she steps through the floo, casting a quick scourgify over herself before rushing over to Hermione and placing her hands on her friend's shoulders. "What happened?"
Before Hermione is able to respond to either Padma or Pansy's question, Ginny returns from the kitchen, balancing a tray of mixed drinks and a handful of assorted bags of crisps between her two hands– evidently forgetting that she is a witch who can levitate such objects.
Hermione takes a seat on her sitting room sofa beside Pansy and tucks her legs up underneath herself. Ginny passes out the drinks before taking a seat on the floor in front of the fireplace beside the chair which Padma has claimed.
Hermione takes a sip of the drink which Ginny has prepared– which makes her eye twitch slightly– in an effort to stall the inevitable. She knows that she called her friends here for a reason, and that that reason is to tell them that she slept with Draco Malfoy, but that doesn't necessarily mean that she is looking forward to that prospect.
It's not that Hermione thinks that any of her friends will be disappointed in her or have anything negative to say– in fact, she thinks that it is far more likely that they will all be chomping at the bit to hear every detail– but that doesn't negate the decidedly uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach. That uncomfortable feeling is only exacerbated by whatever toxic mixture Ginny has concocted in the drink of the evening.
"Take your time, 'Mione," Ginny says, sensing Hermione's apprehension, even from across the room. The redheaded witch takes a sip from her own drink and smiles proudly to herself as she settles back against the wall, stretching her legs out in front of her.
Hermione sighs and scrubs her free hand down her face roughly before she finally explains herself.
"I slept with Draco."
Hermione watches as each of the faces surrounding her distort with emotion– Padma looks genuinely surprised, Ginny looks smug and entirely too pleased with herself and Pansy looks mildly annoyed and/or bored. If Hermione is being honest with herself, none of her friends' reactions surprise her.
Ginny seems to look around the room to see if anyone else is going to speak before she does. She takes another sip from her drink as she straightens her spine and smiles deviously at Hermione.
"And?" Ginny presses, and Hermione worries that if her friend smirks any harder that her face will freeze like that. "Last I heard, we weren't speaking to him."
Hermione laughs lightly, promising herself that she will never again question the loyalty of Ginny Weasley-Potter for as long as she lives.
"Speak for yourself," Pansy huffs, eyeing Ginny skeptically. "I'm speaking to him. Well, unless you tell me something completely heinous, I suppose."
Hermione reaches across the sofa and pats Pansy's hand. The last thing that Hermione wants to do is to come between Pansy and Draco, but she also felt the need to have Pansy here for this conversation as she is the one out of the group who knows Draco the best. She also doesn't think that anything she has to say would meet Pansy's criteria for being completely heinous.
"Why don't we let Hermione talk instead of arguing over who is or is not speaking to whom," Padma admonishes, attempting to silence both Ginny and Pansy.
Attempting being the operative word in that sentence, due to the fact that the next person who speaks is not, in fact, Hermione.
"No, because without our prompting, Hermione won't give nearly enough details," Ginny pouts, despite her laughter.
Hermione takes another fortifying sip of her cocktail before she decides to expound on her previous statement.
"We weren't speaking, and we're still not, evidently," Hermione shrugs, understanding that that statement is likely confusing to those who are not up-to-speed, so she continues quickly. "He came here one night last week. We fought and then we… stopped fighting."
Hermione feels her cheeks heat slightly, partially at her attempt to explain what happened, but also at the sudden influx of memories from the night in question which quickly flood her mind.
"I woke up the next morning and he was gone. He left me a note– a goodbye note– and I haven't heard from him since."
Pansy cocks her head to the side as she looks at Hermione questioningly.
"So, this was angry sex? Or hate sex?" she asks, though her tone of voice isn't accusatory– it's more akin to simple clarification or an attempt to understand.
Hermione shakes her head. No, absolutely nothing about that night had been angry or hateful– barring the actual fight which led to the sex, she supposes.
"No. It was… intense– but not angry or hateful."
Hermione bites her bottom lip in frustration and leans her head to the side against the back of her sofa.
"Good intense or bad intense?" Ginny questions, leaning slightly forward, giving Hermione her undivided attention.
Hermione sighs, closing her eyes for a brief moment of reprieve before she responds.
"Good intense. Really good intense."
Pansy still seems confused when she turns to more fully face Hermione.
"So, what's the problem, then? If it was good for you, then it was definitely good for him. Men are so easy," Pansy snarks, and Hermione knows that Pansy doesn't mean it as a snipe at her– that that's just Pansy's personality, which Hermione has come to know well since the witch showed up at her doorstep on the morning of the Mungo's gala.
Hermione shrugs her shoulders again. She's been wondering a similar question since the morning she woke up without him.
"I just– he told me that he had feelings for me, that he would be content to just be friends because at least then I would be in his life again. We had sex, and then he was gone."
Pansy scrunches her eyebrows together and narrows her eyes before she abruptly stands from the sofa.
"Excuse me, ladies, I'll be right back," Pansy states with a smile on her face which Hermione can only describe as scary.
Pansy spins on the spot and apparates away in the blink of an eye. Hermione stares at the spot where her friend had been for a moment before she registers what has just happened.
"Oh, I so hope that she just went to tear Draco a new one," Ginny snickers, downing the rest of her drink in one long pull.
Hermione frowns at that prospect. She hadn't intended to paint Draco in an unflattering light– especially when she considers the fact that she has more information about his history than either Padma or Ginny have. She had simply been confused and hurt by his disappearance (again) and had felt the need to vent.
Hermione doesn't have to wonder where Pansy apparated to for long, as the witch reappears in Hermione's sitting room just a few minutes later.
"Granger, I need to speak with you privately," Pansy announces upon her return, placing both hands on her hips as she waits for Hermione to stand alongside her.
Hermione turns to Ginny and Padma, who both nod encouragingly for her to follow Pansy down the hall to her bedroom. Once inside, Pansy shuts the door and casts a muffliato before she speaks.
"Draco is… complicated, Granger– I need you to understand that," Pansy says, her voice wavering slightly in an incredibly un-Pansy-like way. "By your explanation, I had a hunch and wanted to talk to Draco about it."
Hermione takes a seat on the edge of her bed and gestures for Pansy to sit beside her, which she does quickly.
"But when I got to Draco's, Daphne and Theo were already there, and the three of them were fighting. I didn't listen– too much– but they were fighting about Astoria. Astoria, who has been dead for almost four years, so you'll have to forgive me for thinking that it was about more than just her."
Hermione isn't exactly sure where Pansy is going with this explanation, but she nods for her to continue all the same.
"So, I can't say this for sure, but if I'm right, you are the first witch that Draco has been with since his wife died– probably long before then, too, considering how sick Tori was."
There it is. Hermione gasps softly, but something tugs at her heartstrings from Pansy's statement.
"Just– Granger, just please be gentle with him, and maybe cut him a little bit of slack. He's never been particularly gifted at dealing with his emotions in an appropriate manner, and my guess is that he's feeling quite conflicted right now."
Hi, friends! Happy Tuesday! (: Tbh, I forgot that it was Tuesday today. Lol. My bad. But here we are.
I'm feeling a bit better today than I was last week when I posted that I was feeling burned out on writing. I'm still feeling that way, but I have been writing a bit in the last week. Not nearly as much as I typically do, though. Just this morning, I did get to the scene where my two characters finally kiss, though, so that's exciting. :P I have no idea when this new fic that I'm working on will be complete, but it's getting there. Y'all will see it eventually.
Anyway. As always, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! I always love when the girls get involved. :P
Thank you so much, as always, for spending a bit of your time here with me this week. It truly, truly means so much to me. I really appreciate it.
Please, if you feel so inclined, leave a review. I love reading them. (:
See you next week.