The Web Of Love

Draco had just finished a meeting at the Leaky Cauldron, which, while it was largely successful, still didn't go the way he'd have liked. He liked to do contract reviews and things like that since he usually didn't have too much to do. But even so, it happened, from time to time, that he ran into a problem, like today. And since, although he didn't like to admit it, he didn't quite know how to solve this problem, he headed straight from the Leaky Cauldron to Flourish and Blotts.

He was leafing through the wizarding law books a bit bored when he suddenly thought he saw familiar locks that could only belong to one person. He immediately put the book he was looking at back on the shelf and quickly followed the brunette.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised to run into you here," he said instead of greeting her as he stopped behind her.

Hermione jumped a little startled before turning to him with a scowl on her face. "I'm putting the finishing touches on Charlie's party," she explained a little reluctantly. She wasn't exactly thrilled to see him here, and she was missing the times when it wasn't like that.

The blond looked at the book she was holding and smirked. "I thought gifts were supposed to bring joy to the birthday boy. Well, seriously, Granger, you don't have to abuse him at such a young age."

Her frown deepened considerably. "If we're going back to last names, you should, at least, call me the right one."

"Merlin, that was just a joke," he groaned. "Don't you understand jokes anymore?"

She just watched him for a few seconds then her face smoothed out. "I still understand humor, but lately, I don't understand you," she sighed and left for the cash register.

Draco followed her in silence. He let her pay and walked out of the store after her without a word. He didn't know what to say, but he didn't want to split up yet. Not until she insisted. Which he had no doubt would happen soon, and for that reason he had to enjoy her company while he could. It was kind of weird, but he missed the times when they could be together and not fight.

“Have you been thinking about our last conversation, or have you successfully ignored the fact that we talked at all?” she asked, not looking at him.

"That old song again," he muttered under his nose. Their moment of peace seems to have passed.

The brunette stopped abruptly and gave him a look. For a second she looked like she was going to yell at him, but in the end, she just nodded resignedly. "Ignored it then, is it," she whispered disappointedly and continued on her way again.

"Come with me to the Leaky Cauldron, and we can talk about it," he suggested.

She shook her head. "I can't, I still have to go to Hogsmeade."

"Then we'll go to the Three Broomsticks, no problem," he said triumphantly.

Hermione stopped once more. "It is a problem. I don't want to talk to you, Draco. I've already told you everything about it, and if you can't understand it, that's your business. I'm done, okay? I'm getting tired of it, and there's obviously nothing more I can do to fix it, so I'm done," she told him in complete surrender. Her mother was right, she needed to stop seeing this as a battle.

"What do you mean?" Draco didn't understand.

  "Are you even listening to me?" she asked a rather rhetorical question before walking away. "I don't like being on my guard around you all the time. Not knowing if you're acting like a friend or if you have some ulterior motives," she added as he followed her again. She didn't tell him that it reminded her of their school days.

“Why do you sound like I want to kill you? I just want to establish a closer relationship with you," he defended himself.

"I really don't want to deal with it anymore. It's not even possible to deal with it with you! You're still standing your ground, and I'm not going to back down from mine either, so I'll see you at Charlie's party, okay? Until then, no unannounced visits," she tried to end their conversation.

Draco was already taking a breath, he didn't even know what for, but before he could say something he would probably regret later, another person joined them. A woman neither of them expected to be there.

"I'm glad I ran into you! Mainly you, Hermione, but you know I'm always happy to see you, Draco," she said in a ringing voice instead of a greeting, while the two just looked at her in surprise. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" she asked when no one said anything. She couldn't help but notice them arguing from a distance. Or at least it seemed like that to her.

"Not at all, we just happened to run into each other at the Flourish and Blotts," replied Hermione with a sweet smile, who was the first to recover. "If you wanted to talk to me, you could have sent an owl," she added as she fully absorbed her words. She was a bit nervous about this situation because things between her and Draco were not ideal at all, and on top of that, Daphne, who she never spent much time with, appeared. They didn't have many opportunities to meet up when she and Theodore moved to France.

"I was also going to do it as soon as I got to the hotel. I've been walking around here all day, and I haven't found anything that Charlie might like," she told her, her smile faltering a little.

"You don't have to worry about that at all, anything will make him happy," she said with a big smile, she couldn't help when she saw how much the blonde cared about it. "But if you want to get bonus points from him, he loves trains."

"Thank you! Now I know exactly what to buy him," she almost shouted excitedly.

"Just please don't overdo it. I think he's getting more than he can handle with all the people," she complained a little. It was a side effect of having a big family. Everyone just wanted to spoil him, and it was up to Hermione to pamper everyone, which was something she didn't excel at at all.

Daphne waved her hand at this, giving her a little hint that she wasn't heeding her plea, but still said, “Don't worry. Don't you want to go somewhere when we're all here? Theodore is dealing with his family estate again so I have nothing to do. I just said goodbye to Astoria."

"That's a great idea, I was just telling Hermione that we could go to the Leaky Cauldron," Draco finally interjected.

"And I was just telling him that I still have a lot of arrangements to make. But you two should definitely go. Enjoy it,” she said, finally managing to get rid of Draco.

Daphne's arrival reminded her how close Charlie's birthday was and how much still needed to be arranged. She didn't have time to hang out with ex-Slytherins.