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It's incredibly lonely to be Draco Malfoy. The sleepless nights started after he was tasked with killing Dumbledore. He was a boy. Not a murderer. Being on the wrong side of war has caused him plenty of problems, Not to mention how much of his life he gave to fixing the cabinet for the death eaters. In those days, he barely slept or ate. He just simply existed.
Post War problems for Draco included a messy relationship with Astoria Greengrass. He did not enjoy her company. When he started to date Astoria things were starting to look up. He no longer felt alone, isolated. He had someone who depended on him. His beautiful perfect Pureblood. slowly over time it came to his attention, that she was indeed not perfect. She would disappear days from the flat they bought together. She would show up days later and pretend she never left.
Until one day Draco had enough. He changed the locks and returned all of Astoria’s things to her parents house. She had been missing for two weeks this time, he was worried. What if something was wrong?He began to panic. He wouldn’t forgive himself if harm had come to her.
That is until he saw the daily profit that she was caught in Paris shagging another wizard. It was assumed that eventually he was to propose to her. They had even written up a contract with her family. He grabbed the contract from his study and with a wordless finate it went up in flames.
He summoned an elf from the manor and with a quick pop a small child like elf appeared in front of him.
He thanked the elf for being punctual and asked it nicely to remove his things from the shared flat. He didn’t want to be there anymore. When the elf asked where they were to take it, he told them to put it in a muggle storage holder. He didn’t want to return the manor. He couldn’t face his mother.
Where could he go without being recognized? He thought to himself. He couldn’t imagine going to Hogmeade. He would instantly be recognized. He didn’t want to be fucked with. That’s when he got the idea to go to muggle London. He needed a drink. Maybe a few. He apparated to a pub Blaise had told him about a few months ago. He noticed right away that it was quite dirty. Beggars can’t be choosers, he thought.
The next few hours went by very slowly drowning himself in alcohol. He started with a simple muggle whiskey. That had eventually turned into tequila. Suddenly his vision was blurred and his life problems no longer mattered. All that mattered was the little cup in his hand that had seemed to fill up magically every time it was empty. soon enough it was closing time. He walked out of the pub wondering his next move. Should he go back to the manor? No way He said out loud to himself. He began to stumble down the street. He spotted an alleyway. It wasn’t what he was used to, but he desperately needed to lay down before all of his drink came back up. He slouched down, taking in a deep breath. He chuckled imaging the horror his mother would have when he would tell her where he spent the night. Draco quickly felt sleep overcome him. And for the first time in months,
He felt peaceful.
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Hermione spent most of her evenings at the ministry cleaning up her department's messes. She had gotten the head role of the Office for House-Elf Relocation straight out of Hogwarts. They specifically made the department with her in mind. But the ministry had gotten lazy over the few years. The people they hired always came and went. Nobody was ever there long term. Nobody cared about the house elf’s like Hermione did.
The day Harry got promoted to the head of the auror department wasn’t surprising. He had put in so much work, that they finally decided that it was time he called the big shots. Hermione was excited for Harry, but also felt scared. She didn’t want him to be turned into a mindless ministry chess piece.
Harry came around that day and invited her to a celebration out in muggle London. She wasn’t sure she could manage to leave her department, but Harry assured her it wouldn’t burn to the ground without her for a few hours. She meekly agreed to accompany Harry out that night.
Hermione returned to her flat and put on her favorite muggle jeans and a sweater. It felt nice to not have to wear robes for once. She felt free. She was excited to have a nice night out with Harry and their friends. She almost felt normal once.
At 8pm, she apparated the pub. She spotted Harry, Ron and Lavender waiting for her. Hermione felt sick to her stomach. She didn’t realize Ron would be so thick in the head to invite lavender. They had only broken up a few months ago. The wounds were still fresh in her mind.
Hermione played it off rather beautifully. Instead of throwing a fit she drowned in her sorrows. She had a few shots of muggle whiskey. Not enough to completely black out, but enough to shrink her problems for once. Around 10 pm it was time for her to leave. She had given Harry a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow, owl me before you leave home if you need a hangover potion” she told him jokingly. He grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her.
“Thank you Hermione, for not causing a scene” he murmured against her curls,holding her close. She gave in and gave him a squeeze back. She walked out of the pub and let out a much needed sigh. Instead of apparating back to her flat, she thought she would take the muggle way. She didn’t want to get splinched in her drunken haze.
As Hermione was walking down the street she took her shoes off and held them in her hand. “That’s much better” She spoke out loud to herself. She crossed the street and remembered there was a quick shortcut she could take that would lead her right home. She looked both ways before she crossed the street into the alleyway.
At first, the alleyway was awfully quiet. So much so that she began to wonder if she made the right choice taking the shortcut. As she was starting to walk faster she saw someone laying on bags of trash. Are they dead? She stopped in her tracks. She couldn’t just leave the person there. She was obviously meant to find him, why else would her consciousness lead her there? She walked over to the body and gave it a light kick. A moan was returned. Relief washed over Hermione’s face.
“I’m going to walk closer now, if that's okay” she spoke. She didn’t wait for an answer. “Lumos” she casted with her wand in her hand. As her wand began to glow the person in front of her started to look pretty familiar.
The light blonde hair should’ve been a dead giveaway. She leaned closer watching his ice blue eyes open and dart to her face.
“Granger- Do you have anything better to do than bother me?” Malfoy sneered scowling at her. What was he doing in an alleyway in muggle London on a trash pile? She was sure it wasn’t for fun.
“You know, I think I do Malfoy. I was just making sure you weren’t dead. Thought you were a muggle at first glance. But unfortunately, it’s you and you’re still alive. So I’ll go about my way. Enjoy your trash” she spoke back with venom in her voice. She began to walk away when she stiffened. What really was the reason why he was on that trash? She thought. She turned back around to where he was.
“Malfoy, I could Apparate you home if you would like?” He laughed at her still feeling the buzz the muggle alcohol was giving him.
“Granger, I don’t have a home anymore. I left Astoria this morning. Right now- this trash is home. Thank you for the offer but i will unfortunately have to decline.” He slouched back down onto the trash pile closing his eyes hoping she would walk away.
Unfortunately, Hermione was not the type of witch to just give up.
She tapped him lightly on the shoulder to gain his attention again. “I have an extra room at my place you can stay at for the night. I won’t tell a soul you stayed the night. Come and get a goodnight rest Malfoy. I’ll make you breakfast in the morning”
Malfoy was frozen. She began to panic. What if he thought she was trying to hit on him? Oh god she wouldn’t be able to live that down. What seemed like 100 minutes later he simply nodded and sat up and dusted himself off.
This was going to be a long night.