22. Friendship Often Ends In Love; But Love In Friendship - Never
Silence fell between the two brunettes. The younger one had nothing more to add, so she just lowered her head in shame and stared intently at the patterned tablecloth on the table. The older one tried to process her daughter's words, but it was rather difficult for her. She never, even not in her wildest dreams, would have thought that she would ever hear this from her.
"Ah baby, didn't you know?" Jean finally sighed. She knew her daughter, so she knew she still loved Blaise, but hearing her say it out loud kind of broke her heart.
Hermione looked at her in confusion. "I didn't know what?"
"Friendship often ends in love, but love in friendship - never. Look, I know you're both trying, but are you really the friends you used to be at Hogwarts?"
The younger brunette wanted to protest right away, but she only opened her mouth blankly, knowing very well that it would be a lie. Yes, their friendship is not what it was at Hogwarts, but how could it be? How could it be when they had been through so much together?
"It's not," she said weakly. "But we're friends," she insisted. Sure, it had its ups and downs, but if Hermione was being honest, she liked to think that their friendship never quite ended. After all, even though they were married, they were friends! They just had to find their way back to each other after the divorce, which was understandable, innit? They both tried so hard. It wasn't the friendship they had years ago, but it was still a friendship.
"I never talked you into what you should do. Not even into marriage, but let me ask. Why did you get divorced? Your love was stronger than a few arguments."
Hermione just shrugged her shoulders at that, trying to hold back the tears. That's what she thought too. And obviously, she was alone in that. Blaise didn't care about her anymore, and yesterday just proved it. It didn't matter that for a small moment she found herself back in the past. It was only physical to him, just like she had told Draco. Blaise no longer loved her. That's why they got divorced.
"Maybe I should go somewhere," she sighed tiredly.
Jean nodded in agreement. "Maybe you should."
"You know I can't do that."
"And why couldn't you? Take Charlie and go with him to the countryside. You'll have peace from Draco, and Blaise can drop by for Charlie anytime. You are wizards, aren't you?” she pointed out the obvious fact.
"But then it would mean I am running away, and I never run away from a fight," she countered.
"Perhaps you shouldn't look at this as a battle, darling," her mother remarked with concern.
Hermione didn't understand why she was doing this. But she was tired of being on a never-ending emotional roller coaster. She couldn't wait for things to work themselves out because it wasn't going to work out by itself, and she wanted to be in control of her own life. She didn't want to feel like everything was back to normal one day, only to have everything fall apart the next day.
Completely exhausted after the night shift, she used the floo at St. Mungo, and a few seconds later she emerged from the green flames in the familiar living room.
"I knew you wouldn't last long without me!" stated the blond, who was one of the cores of her problems.
“Have you been drinking?” she asked, ignoring his comment. Her shift tonight was cut short, so it was only two in the morning.
"Not much, I only had two glasses. Why do you keep asking me if I'm drunk?" he asked a little hurt, but she knew very well that he was just pretending.
The brunette didn't say anything, just stood quietly in front of the fireplace. She didn't know why she came here. It was impulsive, and she should have let it go. Didn't her impulsive decision get her into trouble already?
Draco got up from the couch and walked over to her but stopped at a respectful distance, which impressed her a little. "To what do I owe for your visit?"
"I got the book," she said instead of answering.
The blond just nodded.
"I threw her out. Then I regretted it, so I took it out of the bin and donated it to the library of St. Mungo so patients have something to read," she continued honestly.
"Is it because of Tom?" he asked relatively calmly.
"What?" she blurted out in confusion.
"Go ahead and enjoy yourself with him," he smirked. "I admit I was jealous when I first saw you two together, but I figured he was no match for me."
“Tom and I are just friends. Just like the two of us used to be," she snapped, all her composure gone. Why did he always have to make her so angry?
That surprised Draco. "Used to?"
Hermione nodded. "Yes, used to be, because friends don't hurt each other."
"Are we hurting each other?" he didn't understand and moved slightly closer to her.
She nodded again. "The fact that you don't know just makes it worse. Why can't we stay friends, Draco? You know, I really thought about it for the past few days, and yes, you're right, there is something between us. But it's only physical. You were just at hand. It could just as well have been anyone else, and like I said, I'm sorry. Please, can we be friends?"
"That probably won't work," he whispered in a dangerously deep voice, and before Hermione could react he captured her lips with his own.
So she could add another item to her imaginary list of reasons to hate herself because her body reacted to it almost in a second. It was as if her body was turning against her and not listening to what she was saying all this time.
He bit her bottom lip a little aggressively, and she surrendered to him without thinking. It was so wrong. She had to force her mind to think, but it seemed that her mind betrayed her too, as she suddenly couldn't remember why it was bad, because it was actually quite wonderful.
And then her mind did what it did best and showed her pictures from last night. It showed her Blaise.
With all the strength she could muster, she pulled away from him. "I kissed Blaise," she blurted out.
Finally, something worked perfectly as Draco untangled his hands from her curls and took a step back. All his self-confidence had vanished. Blaise was an opponent he didn't stand a chance against, he had already made that clear a few days ago. Although - no, he couldn't do that. He had to push the thought out of his head as quickly as possible before he would act like a typical Malfoy and do it.
"Congratulations then," he said coldly with a stone mask on his face.
Hermione swallowed hard. "You have nothing to congratulate on, but that's not the point. You should know that as much as you make me angry, I realize the bad person here is actually me. And I really hope we can put it all behind us. Are you capable of it?"
"Probably not right now, because I'd rather rip your clothes off," he smirked. "So if there's nothing to congratulate, we should get back to business."
"No, definitely not," she protested, and quickly took a few steps back. "Are you going to be like an oak tree forever? Just say it, and I won't bother talking to you, and I'll just go find some real tree."
"Where would you look for a tree as charming as I am?"
Hermione groaned, grabbed the floo powder, and hurriedly stepped into the fireplace. Draco sighed and went to sit back on the couch. It annoyed him a bit, but otherwise, it was quite fun with her. He was going to get the stubborn Gryffindor one day because there was no way she was reacting to him the way she was, even though she was mad at him, and nothing came of it.
He simply pulls out even more of his charm and buries the thought of telling Blaise about it deep in his mind. If possible to forever.