1. You Can Never Love People As Much As You Can Miss Them
Hermione glared at the wall clock that hung above her kitchen door. She had already finished her cup of coffee, but the breakfast remained on the plate completely untouched. She knew she should eat something, but she didn't have the slightest thought about food. She made a mistake last night and cursed herself for it today. Again. Why was she so weak when it came to him? He offered her comfort, and she selfishly took it from him. The hands on the clock finally pointed to seven o'clock, and the door to her bedroom opened. Exactly at seven as always.
"Good morning," Draco said with a smile as he peeked into the kitchen. He was ready to leave, as he had been every other time he had spent the night here. It made Hermione sick. She was sick of herself . When did she become a woman who sleeps with her friend? When did she become a woman who sleeps with her ex-husband's best friend?
"You should go," she said softly before walking to the door to see him off. "I'll see you tomorrow for dinner," she whispered as she opened the door.
Draco nodded and hugged her goodbye. Then he was about to leave, but a hand on his wrist stopped him. He gave the brunette a look and had to smirk. "Go ahead, say it," he urged her amused because he could tell from her expression alone what she wanted to tell him.
"This won't happen again," she told him in a fairly firm and even voice. She would almost convince him with that, but only almost…
"Where have I heard that before?" he asked, pretending to be thoughtful.
"I mean it," she insisted.
"That's what you always say, and let's see, so far, the situation keeps repeating itself," he reminded her, and this time he left. Hermione closed the door behind him and leaned against it with a sigh.
He was right, and that was the problem. Two months ago, they got drunk and ended up in bed together. That's when they decided to deal with it like adults and put it behind them. They just slept together, there was no need to make a science out of it. And being really good friends, they managed to forget about it. But after a week the situation happened again, and no matter how many times Hermione reassured him that it wouldn't happen again, they always ended up together again after a few days. In addition, lately, the interval between their nights together has been getting shorter. They both knew why, and Hermione hated herself even more for it. The one-year anniversary of her divorce from Blaise was coming up, and she needed to fill the void that had settled inside her the second her husband had told her they should divorce. And what did she do to fill that void? She started sleeping with a man who was like a brother to Blaise. When she started dating Blaise, she was a little unhappy that she would have to accept Malfoy as well, who wasn't too happy about it either. But for Blaise's sake, they tried to get along and eventually became real friends. She was surprised to find that Malfoy was actually an intelligent and funny man. That didn't mean she wanted to have an affair with him. Even after those two months, she couldn't explain how they ended up in bed together in the first place. All she knew was that it had to stop because in the end it would only hurt everyone, and she didn't want that.
Hermione used to love solitude. She liked it when she had a quiet moment to read. However, that changed when she met Blaise. She loved him so much that it was almost impossible for her not to spend every minute of her life with him. She quickly got used to having him by her side. And now her apartment was empty, and she wanted to cry. She missed him so much. She always believed in love, after all, she was a bookworm and read a lot of novels in her young life. So she always knew she would find her prince, but she never knew she could feel something so intense. Everything was easier with Blaise. She had a feeling that they could do anything together. But now she was on her own. And the longer she was alone, the more she began to think that maybe she was just making it all up. Maybe it wasn't really what she remembered. Maybe she was blindly in love with him and didn't want to see that it really didn't work out for them at all.
"You have to stop with this," she muttered to herself and took a deep breath before grabbing her purse and disapparating to Muggle London. She still had a little time before she had to go to work, so she decided to visit her mother.
She needed a distraction. Her marriage to Blaise didn't work out, but that didn't mean it was bad from the start. She had mostly good memories of their relationship, and she wasn't going to let her head rob her of what little she had left.
She moved straight to the garden because she knew that there was no view of her from the street or from curious neighbors. Appearing in the garden that her mother tended so nicely was much more pleasant than moving to some back alley. She glanced at her mother's flowers and forced a small smile, even though she knew it was completely unnecessary. Her mother always knew when she was unhappy.
"I thought you'd stop by," the older brunette said with a pleased smile, opening the back door for her before Hermione could even get to it. "Charlie's still asleep. Blaise brought him here half asleep. You just missed him,” she informed her as she walked inside.
"I bet Blaise left him up past his bedtime," sighed Hermione as she followed her mother into the kitchen where black tea and homemade biscuits were already waiting for her. She still hadn't thought about food, but she could never resist mom's cookies.
"You look just as horrible as he does," Jean remarked carefully.
Hermione put down the biscuit she had bitten and took a drink of tea as her throat suddenly felt dry. She didn't understand why the others kept bringing it up. It was over. She herself didn't understand why, but she accepted it, while her friends and family still thought it was all a mistake that would soon be resolved and they would be together again. “I don't want to talk about it, Mom. And I'd like it to be the last time I have to tell you this. It's not like we had a nasty fight that we could still make up after. We are divorced. Our marriage is over, we have it in black and white.”
Jean took a breath to add something else, but before she could say anything, a child's voice echoed through the kitchen. So she just sighed and drank her tea. She didn't like seeing her daughter unhappy, but she had to admit that she couldn't do anything about it. Both she and Blaise were adults. She couldn't talk into their lives, even if she would very much like to.
"Mommy!" cried the little boy happily, and in a second he was on Hermione's lap.
"Did you miss me?" Hermione asked with a smile and kissed his forehead. Charlie was the only joy in her life right now. He was a reminder that her fairy tale was once real.
And while Hermione was enjoying the morning with her son, on the other side of London, Draco had just arrived at work. He had to admit that he quite enjoyed wizarding law, but he never would have gone to study it if it weren't for Blaise. And he probably wouldn't have done it if he didn't have his best friend as a colleague. Work was so much better when you had friends in it.
"Good morning," he greeted Blaise as he entered their office.
"I see someone here had a good time again last night," Blaise smirked instead of greeting, looking up from the papers he was studying intently before Draco arrived. He desperately needed to distract himself from thinking about what Jean had said to him in the morning. He was tired of everyone telling him what to do. That time he screwed up royally, and he couldn't fix it. It will be a year soon, and that was a very long time for him to suddenly start correcting his mistakes. Besides, he was sure Hermione hated him, which he wasn't surprised about when he hurt her so much.
"You've always had a wild imagination," the blond chuckled as he went to make some coffee. He wasn't worried that Blaise would find out, but at the same time, he knew full well that this was something that would always come out. He should stop it, while there was still time, but he didn't want to. Even though he knew how bad it was, he didn't want to stop. And so he had no choice but to pray to Merlin that Blaise wouldn't find out.
"Sure. Say what you want, but a guy can always tell when another guy is enjoying time with a lady," he said, keeping his eyes on him. Draco had never been one for serious relationships, but lately, Blaise felt like he might want to settle down after all. But in reality, he didn't know anything at all, since Draco had never been very forthcoming about this, so he had no choice but to rely on his gut feeling. He could be wrong too, and for that reason, he didn't push his friend too hard. He would hate to embarrass himself.
If you only knew… I'd be in the family tomb by now and you'd be on your way to Azkaban for my murder, Draco thought. "That imagination of yours. And not that you're going to bring it up at dinner tomorrow, I'd hate to be the subject of their debate circle."
"Well, you don't have to worry about that. I'm busy these days so I won't make it to dinner," he muttered and went back to reading his papers.
Draco wanted to start coaxing him, knowing full well that work was just an excuse, but eventually changed his mind and went to work himself. For a long time, he and the others tried to hammer some sense into their heads. But it will be a year already, and if they haven't gotten back together by now, they probably never will.