Chapter 3
The first thing Hermione realized when she walked into the trashy muggle bar was that she was cold. She was so upset when she left her flat she didn't even change out of her pajamas. There she was, sitting in a dark corner of some London dive bar, sipping some cheap liquor, freezing her ass off because her husband had other women in his bed.
“It didn't look inappropriate.” She thought to herself.
“Having another woman in your room, let alone on your bed, with the door shut is inappropriate enough.” She countered, swirling the drink in her glass.
She had only been there five minutes when she heard someone throw the bar door open.
“Have you seen a girl in here ya high with brown curly hair?” She watched the interaction between Draco and the bartender. The bartender seemed like he had crazy people come looking for their spouses before because he wasn't giving Draco any information.
Hermione stood up from her table and called over to Draco.
“What do you want, Malfoy?” She said it loud enough for Draco to hear her and the bartender to see that this man belonged to her.
“What the hell Granger?” Draco shouted at her. Hermione looked over and saw the bartender raise his eyebrows. She waved him off so he knew she was safe and could handle herself.
Hermione threw back the rest of her drink, squared her shoulders, and prepared for an argument.
“You forget yourself. I'm actually a Malfoy. Remember? We got married and I had to change my name.” She was giving him her best ‘I hate you’ look.
Draco sat down across from her. “Why did you leave?”
“Are you really asking me why I left? Why didn't I want to be in /OUR/ home when you had another woman in your bed? Gods I knew you were an idiot but I didn't realize you were stupid too.”
Draco cursed under his breath and cast a muffliato charm under the table to work around them so they don't accidentally break the statue of secrecy.
“So you leave? You don't even give me a chance to explain?”
“Well you rather give me the silent treatment rather than actually speak to me about what's wrong. In fact you go to other people, specifically other women about the problems in our marriage.” She finally sat down with a huff.
“Our forced marriage I might add. That you made clear from the jump you did not want.”
“Of course I didn't want to be forced into a marriage Malfoy. I wanted to fall in love with someone. I wanted to marry someone because I chose to not because the ministry deemed it so.”
“Exactly Hermione! You didn't choose me! You didn't want me!”
“I never said I didn't want you, I said I didn't want to be forced!”
“For the last 5 months I've been working with Astoria to get the Repopulation Act overturned. She finally got her parents to dissolve the marriage contract she's been in since a child with Theo last year. She didn't want to be forced into another marriage. I've been helping her so once we get it overturned you can leave. She was at our flat because--”
“No no she wasn't just in our flat. She was in your room. On your bed. With the door closed.”
“She was in my room because she came to tell me the good news that we finally have a hearing date to possibly overturn the act.”
“So instead of working with me, your wife, you decided to take it upon yourself to decide I didn't want to be married to you? That I'd want to leave you? That I didn't even want to try to make it work?”
“Hermione, you didn't want this. I never wanted to force myself on you. It's easier for me not to be around you. I can't stand the fact that I love you and you hate being married to me. So I figured the best thing I could do for you would be to let you go.”
Hermione started to tear up.
“You are stupid, so so stupid Draco Malfoy. You think spending as much time together as we did before all of this I didn't have any feelings for you? I kept giving you hints but you never took the bait! I thought I was making it all up. And when the Act came into effect i thought to myself ‘You know at least we're friends, I can handle friends’ but no! You couldn't even give me that! I doubted myself everyday. I thought you hated the idea of being married to a muggle born.” Draco looked at her jaw tight and eyebrows raised.
“Don't look at me all offended. You can't expect me to know any better when you ignore me for 6 months straight.”
Draco's face softened, “Did you say you had feelings for me?”
“Yes of course I did but that's not the point, the point is that--”
Draco crashed his lips into hers. His kiss was frantic and desperate, like he was trying to prove something. Hermione felt her anger melt into relief. She felt his hand move to her jaw to deepen the kiss.
Hermione broke away, “You know this doesn't fix anything right? You really hurt me.” Hermione looked away.
for her to take.
“Where are we going?” Hermione stood up and took his hand.
“We're going home. We're going to make tea, sit on the couch, and finish this conversation. But you're half naked and I don't love bars where my feet stick to the floor.” Draco made a disgusted face and dragged her outside.
When they arrived home Hermjone started the electric kettle and Draco gathered all of his paperwork from the project him and Astoria were working on. They talked all throughout the entire night, trying to clear up all miscommunications.
Meanwhile Hermiones phone was buzzing in her room as Theo tried to call her. Much to his disappointment he never got a call back.