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Hermione looked at her ring again, it was beautiful. A gold band with an oval diamond that she didn’t even want to guess how many karats it was. Surrounded by smaller diamonds and a separate band that wrapped around the diamond in what looked like a tiara design. She knew exactly why Theo had bought it for her, she was his Gryffindor Princess it’s what he had always called her, and now the ring represented that.
He said it on their first date almost two years ago, it was joking and playful. She asked if they could stop by the bookstore on the way to her flat, there was a book that she had put on hold and it was finally in, and he said “anything for the Gryffindor Princess”. She laughed, it’s what the papers had called her after the war, hell it’s what most of Hogwarts called her while they were there, she knew he meant it jokingly but now after two years it was said more seriously. He would come home from work and ask how his Gryffindor Princess was doing, or would buy her lavish gifts and say he would buy his Princess the world if he could. It was endearing… or it should have been endearing, but lately it just seemed to grate at her.
It was a beautiful ring, and yet nothing she would have picked out for herself. It felt more constricting to wear than it should have.
“No, Hermione”, she told herself “it’s just new. You’ll get used to wearing it, it will just take some time”.
Was six months long enough that she shouldn’t still feel uncomfortable with the jewelry? She didn’t know, but compared to the rest of her life it seemed like a short amount of time.
In the past six months her life had become so different than she was used to, she had to meet Theo’s colleagues and impress his pureblood connections. It certainly helped that she was a war heroine, but that didn’t change her blood status. She had to learn proper poise and etiquette, she even had to take classes on how to eat and dance and do everything but breathe it felt like. Her hair was always straight now, after being taught the right glamour charms and basically drowning it in a Sleak Eazy potion every morning. Theo said it was calmer, more demure, it wasn’t a distraction to the wonderful things she had to say to the people in the room.
Yes, things were so different now. Which is why she loved the rare nights they visited the muggle pub down the road from her place. They used to go all the time, they even invited friends and started having regular nights all together. Hermione loved Theo’s friends, which was a surprise to both of them, but Pansy, Blaise, Millicent, and Draco were extremely welcoming to her. They all put the past behind them and had monthly get togethers. More times than she could count she had been out with the group and Theo had gotten an emergency owl telling him he was needed at work for one thing or another, it’s how she became so close to this particular group. He would have to go and she would stay to spend time with everyone instead of just heading home.
Tonight was the first night since they had gotten engaged that they planned a night at the pub, even tonight Hermione had to ask Theo several times before he finally found time in their very busy schedule to plan a night out.
It seemed pureblood marriage customs were always coming out of the woodwork, one more thing to do, one more person to meet, one more thing to plan, or one more class she had to take so she could properly fit in at her own wedding.
But tonight, tonight would be a night she could finally relax and be herself and it was her favorite night at the pub, open mic night. She loved listening to the live music, listening to everyone’s voices. There was something about music that could express emotions so much better than just words could.
When she got home from work she immediately jumped in the shower, she couldn’t wait to wash all of the potion out of her hair and let her unruly curls go free. She put on a pair of muggle denims and her favorite red jumper, it was a bit oversized and fell off one shoulder. She didn’t want to wear a full face of makeup, it was the first night in a long time she was allowed to not put on a different persona and she was not about to disguise her face into anything other than herself. Some mascara, some gloss, and she was ready to go. She looked at herself in the mirror and felt refreshed. There was the woman she knew; crazy curls, comfortable clothes, freckles out.
Theo picked her up and seemed a bit surprised by her outfit, but he schooled his facial expression quickly. He was of course in a suit, always looking his best no matter the location. “When had that changed?” she wondered, they used to go out and he would wear denims and a t-shirt. When did it become part of their everyday life that they had to always impress?
They got to the pub and noticed only Millie waiting for them, apparently Blaise and Pansy had made other plans for the evening.
“Where’s Draco?”, Theo asked.
“He’s here somewhere, I’m not sure where. He said he would be back in a few and I haven’t seen him since.” She replied.
Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, she didn’t know what to say to Draco. She had been avoiding him for months, she knew he kept trying to talk to her alone but she always managed to surround herself with people when he was around.
Theo went to the bar to grab them a couple beers and someone announced the next performer was coming up.
“Please welcome Draco to the stage, this is his first time performing so let’s give him a warm welcome”.
“Oh my God,” Millie said, “I didn’t know he played or sang, did you?”
It took Hermione a moment to catch her breath, “ummm, no. I didn’t” she said.
That was a lie, of course she did.
He had played for her countless times, she had helped him find a muggle teacher to help him practice his guitar skills. She had encouraged him to play for others, to sing for others, she knew what a beautiful voice he had. But how was she supposed to say any of that to Millie? How was she supposed to explain how much time they had clearly spent together alone? How was she supposed to say she knew that he played without also telling her that her favorite time to listen to him was in the morning wrapped up in one of his shirts, a cup of coffee in hand, walking into his living room while he was practicing?
She heard the guitar start playing. It sounded exquisite. It was a song she didn’t know, one she had never heard him play, but then again she had been avoiding him for the last six months. She hadn’t heard him play in just as long a time.
“Love is a beautiful thing,
Hugging, kissing, laughing, holding hands
Love is a beautiful thing
Unless it’s you loving another man”
She gasped and looked up after hearing the last line he sang. He looked so beautiful, denims with a tight black tee, simple and so sure of himself. She met his eyes and saw him staring at her, those grey eyes boring a hole into hers. She couldn’t look away as he kept singing.
“and I can’t stand to see you hugging
Kissing, laughing, holding hands
If it’s not me you see
How could that be a thing of beauty?”
Theo came back then holding their drinks and gave Hermione hers. She was still entranced with Draco. How could he be so bold? How could he be sitting here so calmly singing this to her? He knew she would be here with Theo tonight. Theo, who was supposed to be his best friend, who she was engaged to, and he’s singing to her as if she’s the only person here.
“Princess, did you hear me?”, Theo asked. When she didn’t answer, “Hermione, are you okay?”.
She looked up then, “what? I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you”.
He looked at her confused, clearly concerned that something was wrong.
“I just got a note, I’m needed at work. It’s apparently urgent. I’m so sorry but I have to go in. I promise to make it up to you, and Draco and Millie will keep you company”.
“Oh, okay”, she replied. “Why don’t I just go with you? I can apparate back to my flat while you go in”.
She was nervous to still be here when Draco was finished. What was she supposed to say to him? She couldn’t do this right now. At least if Theo was there she knew Draco wouldn’t push it, but with just Millie who knew.
“No. Absolutely not” Millie said., “You’ve been trying to get a night out for months and it’s your favorite night tonight. You will not go home to sit by yourself when you could be out with friends.”
“She’s right” said Theo, “you should stay, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He gave her a quick kiss and headed to exit the pub.
She turned back to the table and took a sip of her beer, listening to Draco’s song. He was still staring at her, pleading with her to listen. She had pushed this conversation for months, ignored it, ignored him, and now he was singing to her, telling her exactly how he felt in a better way than his words could have ever done.
“Love is a beautiful thing
The breeze is blowing, rustling Autumn leaves
But if those leaves are rustling
Underneath somebody else’s feet
If it's not me you see then
How could that be a thing of beauty?”
She hadn’t meant for it to ever happen. Theo was always leaving for work, always a business emergency, and she would be left with friends alone. Draco was always over for something; tea with Theo, dinner with them, just to have some company and not be alone in the house. That was how they started, always spending time together when Theo had to rush off.
The first time they kissed was in Theo’s library at the manor.
She was curled up on the love seat while Theo and Draco had tea together and suddenly Theo had to leave. Next thing she knew Draco was sitting next to her trying to read over her shoulder.
“Don’t be rude, Granger,” he drawled. “You shouldn’t ignore company when they’re over”.
“You’re hardly company at this point,” she responded. “You’re here at least twice a week, usually more”.
“Well, can you blame me? The conversation is superb, and I’ve never seen a better view!”
She looked up to roll her eyes at him, and she noticed that he was staring at her as he said it. He looked like he was leaning towards her, “ummm Draco, what are you doing?” she pulled back a bit.
“Just trying to see what you’re reading, Granger. What else would I be doing?”
“Oh, right” she said, a little embarrassed she thought it would have been for anything else.
She pulled her book back a little, she didn’t want him harassing her for it.
“It’s my favorite book, nothing exciting. There’s a whole library here you could read if you wanted.”
He smirked, “Hogwarts a History then?”
She looked up and just stared at him, “How did you know that?”
“I pay attention,” he shrugged. “You read it constantly in school, I never saw you without it actually, and even now it’s usually in whatever pile of books you have lying around that you’re in the middle of reading.”
He was so close now, if she turned her head anymore their noses would be touching.
He was just looking at her.
“Since when do you pay me attention?” she asked.
“I’ve always paid you attention. I was just never supposed to. In school it was because of blood purity.”
He dropped down to a whisper, “and now it's because you’re dating my best friend.”
There had always been some flirtatious banter when Theo wasn’t around. They were always debating, going back and forth on blood status, house elf rights, and ways to help magical creatures. She thought maybe the flirtation was in her head, she was imagining it, but here he was basically admitting that she had been right.
She shouldn’t lean in. Shouldn’t turn her face so they were closer, and yet there was a thrill in being desired by someone who challenged her this way and who was admittedly gorgeous.
She turned her head. The second their noses touched he took it as an invitation. His lips met hers and it felt like magic, she parted her lips and he didn’t hesitate to plunge his tongue inside. She tilted her head so that he could deepen the kiss which he greedily accepted. His hands dived into her hair while she clutched his shirt having to turn her head due to lack of breath, this just encouraged him to pepper kisses down her throat. She had never felt this with anyone, the immediate sparks and desire. No one, not even Theo.
Theo.
Oh gods.
She immediately pushed Draco back and stood up.
“Oh my god,” she said. “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.”
She was panicking. She had to get out of here. She started walking towards the fireplace.
“Granger, wait!” he said, standing up to come towards her. She put her hands up as if to stop him.
“Hermione... I’m sorry, I overstepped.”
She didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what to think.
She grabbed the floo powder and hurried home as fast as possible. She warded the place so no one could come through, she needed to be alone.
What was she supposed to do? She loved Theo. How was she supposed to tell him about this? It wasn’t even someone random, which would hurt enough, but it was his best friend.
She needed to sleep. She needed to think about this with a clear mind, not when she was tired or stressed. She took some dreamless sleep draught and went to sleep.
When she woke up she didn’t feel any better. She still didn’t know what she was supposed to do, she knew she had to tell Theo and hopefully before Draco. She didn’t want to hurt him like this but she also didn’t want him to think she was hiding anything.
Before she could do anything else there was a knock on the window, an owl. She opened it and took the letter off his leg and offered the bird a treat. The note read,
Hermione,
I’m terribly sorry for last night. It was I who crossed a line, not you. I truly hope you are not beating yourself up too badly for something that was not your fault. How we proceed is completely up to you. If you feel as if we should tell Theo, then we can do that in whatever manner you would like and deal with the fall out if it comes. However, I think it may be best if we just move forward and act as though last night didn’t happen. It clearly was a mistake and lack of judgment and I feel there’s no need to alert Theo of something that will not be happening again and would just cause him pain.
But again, if you would like to proceed differently, please let me know.
Your friend,
Draco
He sounded so impersonal. She was slightly disappointed before she regained her composure. He should be impersonal, last night a line was crossed and it wouldn’t happen again, couldn’t happen again. It was wrong, she knew, not to tell Theo. But wasn’t Malfoy right as well? If this was never going to happen again, and it wasn’t, then why tell him and upset him? He would be so upset and who knows if he would forgive her or Draco, it wasn’t fair for him to lose two people close to him because of one mistake.
She wrote her response,
Draco,
I agree, that’s the best course of action. It won’t happen again and there’s no need to cause unnecessary pain to someone important to both of us.
Sincerely,
Hermione
They kept a distance after that, tried to spend as little time alone together as possible. At least Hermione did, Draco didn’t seem to be nearly as affected as she was. He had no qualms about trying to stick around when Theo left, even if it was just the two of them. She decided the best course of action was to continue to ignore what happened and in turn ignore him as much as she could without being strange in front of everyone when they were all together.
One day he pulled her aside and simply told her there was no need to continue to act so strangely.
“You’re my friend too, Granger. I don’t want to act like you’re not. I miss talking to you and I promise nothing will happen again.”
“Okay, I miss talking to you too, well at least miss telling you how wrong you are about everything,” she grinned.
Weeks went by and everything was going back to normal.
Only now sometimes it was hard for her to not notice; his smirk, the way his blonde hair fell in his eyes when he was laughing, the way his eyebrows scrunched together when he was thinking intently, his mouth.
He didn’t seem to be having issues though, it was easy to fall back into how things used to be. Theo seemed to be gone more and more lately, she would maybe see him once or twice a week after work without him being called back for something else.
Draco and Hermione went back to spending quite a few nights a week together while he was out, but nothing else inappropriate happened, so she kept telling herself it was fine.
It didn’t matter that she was finding him more attractive, or would find herself looking forward to when Theo left so they could continue debates on werewolf rights, or discuss a book they were both reading.
Hermione’s birthday came and Theo threw her a lavish party. Left her a beautiful form fitting Gryffindor red gown with gold sparkly shoes in her flat and told her to meet him at the manor at 8:00. When she apparated in, he told her how beautiful she looked and placed a matching tiara on her head.
“Happy birthday to my Gryffindor Princess,” he said.
That was the first time it grated on her, he said it like she was a prize he could show off, like she wasn’t the brightest witch of her age or hadn’t fought in a war. She was not a princess to be taken care of, she could take care of herself and she certainly did not need lavish parties with dresses and jewelry. She honestly would have preferred none of it, but there was a room full of people waiting and Theo had gone through all this trouble.
The party was fine, far too extravagant for her liking but at least Theo had thought to invite Harry and the Weasleys as well. She smiled and danced appropriately and couldn’t wait until the end of the night. Theo wanted her to stay but she just wasn’t in the mood to be around anyone, she told him she was exhausted and wanted to be in her own bed.
She felt ungrateful, he had gone through all this work and had clearly thought about her, he wanted to celebrate her and had invited so many people to celebrate her birthday. It was nothing that she wanted. She would have much preferred a small dinner, some games with friends, ending the night curling up with a new book he had bought instead of the absurdly expensive jewelry.
She started to head to her room trying to talk herself out of her pity party, out of feeling like her boyfriend didn’t know her at all. She stopped when she noticed something sitting on her coffee table, it was a gift wrapped in beautiful blue paper and a purple bow and didn’t have a tag.
She sat down and started opening it and gasped when she realized what it was, a first edition of Hogwarts a History.
Inside was a note,
Granger,
I thought you may want to end the night reading after having to deal with smiling politely at everyone for the last few hours.
This edition incorporates some of the things the revised copy leaves out, specifically house elves serving the castle. It’s not as you so eloquently put it “A highly biased and selective History of Hogwarts which glosses over the nastier aspects of the school”. I hope you enjoy it, but try not to stay up all night reading it, you should try to get some sleep so it’s not too easy for me to win a debate over their servitude to the school tomorrow.
Happy Birthday to the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met.
With love,
Draco
On a split instant decision she apparated to his house. This was the most thoughtful gift she had ever received. How could he know her so well?
“Malfoy! Where are you?” she yelled.
There was no answer so she yelled one more, “Draco!”
He came out of his room in pajama pants with no shirt, drying his hair with a towel, clearly just getting out of the shower.
“Look Granger, there’s no way you’ve read through the house elf chapter enough to really give me a good debate and I would really-”
She kissed him before he had the chance to continue, and he was so stunned he didn’t respond.
She pulled back and started to apologize, before she could get too far away he pulled her in so their foreheads were touching and sighed, “please do not say you’re sorry and run away again.”
He kissed her and there was no going back. He ran his hands down her body in her red dress, before she could tell him where the zipper was he had ripped it. In between hot kisses he mumbled about how he hated the dress, hated that Theo always asked her to wear red, and honestly she hated it too.
That was the first night they were together, and afterwards she expected to feel guilty, expected to regret it and she just couldn’t bring herself to. Afterwards she laid in his bed curled into his body with his arms wrapped around her and asked, “what did you mean by saying you hate that Theo always wants me to wear red.”
“He wants you in red to try to fit this perfect Gryffindor Golden Girl persona. There’s so much more to you than that. Of course you’re brave and daring, you’ve proven that time and time again. You’re also cunning and one of the most ambitious people I’ve ever met… you would have made a great Slytherin.” he laughed as she teasingly hit him.
“You’re also logical, clever, smart, you’re loyal, patient and dedicated. You’re every damn house at Hogwarts, and he just wants you to be his Gryffindor princess. I cringe every time I hear it. First, why are we still trying to fit into our school houses? And second, you are the furthest thing from a princess I have ever seen.”
At first she was offended, she knew she wasn’t the most attractive but when she started to pull away he brought her back.
“You’re not the princess he wants is what I mean, you don’t need saving, you don’t want to stand on the side lines with someone holding the reins for you, especially when you probably designed the damn reins to be more efficient than whomever designed them in the first place.”
She laughed and relaxed a little at that.
“Do you know who Tamar of Georgia was?” he asked.
“The only female monarch in Georgia, but I don’t know much else about her,” she replied. “Don’t tell me you know more about something in muggle history than I do?”
“Ahh, I finally found something I know more about than the brightest witch of her age.”
He kissed her cheek as he continued, “Tamar of Georgia was known as ‘King Tamar’, she was no typical princess. She demanded respect, she convinced nobles with diplomacy and if that didn’t work she had them killed. She took no shit from anyone and when she was fed up with her husband she divorced him and exiled him to Constantinople.”
Trailing invisible lines down her body he said, “that’s you. You don’t need to have someone take care of you. You have spent years making it perfectly well known that you can handle yourself. Anyone you can’t convince of your plans you either change their minds or make it so they are irrelevant to your cause. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if you have disposed of a few people who’ve gotten in your way.” He chuckled, “now we just need to get onto the divorce and exiling part”.
She knew this was coming, the part where they would have to talk about where to go from here, and she didn’t know what to say.
“Draco, I can’t just leave him. I love him and I don’t want to hurt him. I don’t think he actually wants to put me up on some throne and never let me down, we just need to talk about it.”
He scoffed, “when are you going to do that Hermione? Sometime between all the work he leaves you for? You could start the conversation 73 times and he would leave in the middle of it every single time. Is that really what you want for the rest of your life?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know what I want. I just need some time, can you give me that?”
“I can wait while you figure things out, but not forever Granger. I want my hat in the ring but I’m too prideful to wait around while you break my heart and choose someone else.”
He sighed, there didn’t seem to be much else to say for now. She snuggled up to him and they fell asleep tangled up together.
It went on for a year. How could they have let it go on for so long? Sure they would get into arguments about it all the time. He wanted her to leave Theo and she would tell him it wasn’t that simple, they would go a few days without seeing each other and it just seemed like a magnet pulling them back together. Once he brought a girl to one of their group nights out and Hermione was so rude to her that Theo took her away from the table to ask what her problem was and if she needed to go home. She showed up to Draco’s that night and jumped on him as soon as he answered the door. He told her that’s how he felt every time he saw her with Theo, she didn’t know how he did it.
The first time he told her he loved her had been in his bed, whispered into her hair while they were holding each other. She pretended to be asleep because she didn’t know what to do.
The first time she told him she loved him was when he was leaving her flat one day. He kissed her and went to go to the floo and she said it absentmindedly, like it was the easiest thing in the world. He smiled the most beautiful smile and she tried to back track, tried to say it was out of habit, it’s something you say to people when they’re leaving. He knew she was lying. He knew she never said that to anyone so willingly, just because she felt she should. But he also never pushed her to say it again.
The longer things continued the harder it was to find a way out. She loved Theo and she didn’t want to hurt him, but it just wasn’t the same as how she felt for Draco. How do you decide who’s heart to break when you never wanted to hurt anyone?
The last straw for her was when Theo proposed. It was at the nicest restaurant Hermione had ever been to, he had rented out the whole place, had a full string quartet playing, there were hibiscus, white jasmine, and valerian everywhere. He told her how much he loved her and asked her to marry him. She said yes and took this as her sign, she was supposed to be with Theo. He loved her, he had always been good to her, had always treated her sweetly and wanted to take care of her. There was no reason to say no.
And now here they are, six months later. The longest six months of Hermione’s life dealing with marriage preparations and pureblood customs and tradition. She had been a coward when it came to ending things with Draco, she knew that. Simply showed up to dinner with everyone one night and Theo announced the engagement to them. She couldn’t even look up to see Draco’s face, she couldn’t look him in the eyes and hadn’t spoken to him since.
Now she was sitting in this pub listening to him sing the words he had been trying to tell her for months, the words she didn’t know if she could hear but now had no choice. She looked up and met his eyes again as he sang,
“Love is a beautiful thing
And on your hand I see that there’s a ring
And I would understand if I had put that ring upon your hand
But it was not me, it seems
How could that be a thing of beauty?”
She started to tear up. She looked down at her ring, the one that felt like a trap, the one that felt like a death sentence instead of a commitment. Draco had never made her feel that way, he wanted her to be herself. He was always disagreeing with her, trying to get a rise out of her, not to be malicious but to challenge her. He loved her hair, loved how wild it was, like her personality he always said. He especially loved to pull on it when they were together, loved the way she would gasp and whisper his name. Instead of feeling like a part of herself was dying, she felt a part of her come alive that she hadn’t felt in years.
He finished his song and she knew she had to leave. She couldn’t talk to him after that, she had made her decision. She said yes to Theo. She couldn’t go back on her word and hurt him like that. She looked at Millie and took out her mobile trying to come up with any excuse she could to leave when Draco came over to the table.
“That was beautiful Draco! Why didn’t you tell anyone you could do that?” Millie asked.
His eyes never left Hermione’s when he answered, “I’ve only ever wanted to play for one person.”
Hermione looked to Millie and Draco, she was trying to keep from crying. What was she supposed to do? She mumbled some excuse about needing to make a call and all but ran from the table. She made it to the alley outside the pub door before he grabbed her hand.
“When are you going to stop running from me?”, he was yelling. Hermione didn’t think she had ever seen him so hurt and angry. “I’ve tried to talk to you for months and you’ve been avoiding me, I had to find out about your engagement in front of everyone and you didn’t even have the decency to talk to me about it afterwards!”
“Draco, I can’t do this. I told him yes, that’s the answer. Whatever it was between us has to stop. It’s been six months, that’s enough for us to have gotten over it.”
“Gotten over it? I love you! I know you love me too, I’ve heard you say it more times than you probably even realize it’s come out of your mouth. You cannot tell me you are over it. This wasn’t some fling you can just throw away!”
“I love him too… and I can’t stand to hurt him this way. What am I supposed to tell him? ‘Hey Theo, your best friend and I have been hooking up for the last year and now I love him and am leaving you for him.’ I’m sure that would go over great!” I yelled back.
He was near tears now, from anger or sadness she didn’t know.
“I know you don’t love him like this. Sure maybe two years ago when you first got together, but since then? No.” With her lack of reply he took a tentative step towards her, “You can’t be yourself with him, he wants you to be someone else and we both know it. You can’t let loose with him, you can’t debate with him, you can barely have a full night together without him being called off for work. Oh, but let me guess he’s never had to leave one of your society gatherings he brings you to, or one of the many classes he’s forcing you to take so he can pretend you were born pureblood like him and impress his colleagues.”
“Don’t you dare!” now she was angry. “Don’t you dare act like he’s embarrassed of my blood status. I’ve dealt with enough people in this lifetime talking down to me because of it, I certainly know when someone thinks I’m a mudblood or not! You should know since you’re the one that taught me the damn word when we were in school!”
His eyes narrowed, “that’s a low blow Hermione and you know it. We’ve been through me making my amends for my past and I’m not the one making you take classes or asking you for a full pureblood traditional wedding ceremony.”
She looked down, she knew that had been too far, she knew bringing up his past was unfair.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that, but I know Theo loves me and I can’t leave him.”
She started to walk away but he pulled her back.
“Have you learned in all your classes what flower language is, or are you not there yet?” he asked.
Hermione looked confused, she had no idea what he was talking about.
“I’ll take that as a no,” he said. “Purebloods are taught that when courting someone you use flowers to tell them what you want to say. Since you don’t know, let me tell you what the flowers Theo used at your engagement symbolize.”
Before she could interject to ask how he knew he stopped her, “he told me all about it while he was setting it up, so trust me, I know. Hibiscus, for delicate beauty to tell you how delicate of a flower you are that he can just take care of. Valerian, for readiness, to essentially tell you he’s ready to settle down with you, and lastly white jasmine to symbolize amiability. You, amiable, as if what he wants from you is a pleasant manner constantly, which based on all the galas and dinners and classes he takes you to is exactly what he wants. Hermione, this is the first time I’ve seen you with your hair curly in months. You can’t tell me he doesn’t want to tame you the same way he asks you to tame this, to be sleek, prim, proper,” he finished pulling on a curl.
Hermione was stunned, she didn’t know any of that and while it angered her to think those were the flowers Theo had chosen it wasn’t fair for her to sit here and talk badly of his proposal. That was something they could talk about later.
“I would have proposed in that book shop on the corner by your flat that you love so much. I would have put in small bouquets of clematis to symbolize your beautiful mind, gardenias meaning secret love because I’ve loved you for so much longer than you even know, red salvia to tell you that you’re forever mine, red tulips symbolizing our passion for one another, and yarrow for everlasting love. I would have pulled book after book that I thought you would like and stacked them in the corner nook that you love to sit and read in so much. I would have bought that disgusting wine you like even though it tastes like pure rubbing alcohol. I would have drank it, and made faces because I know it would make you laugh and there’s no greater sound in the world, Hermione,” he said in a soft tone. “I would have gotten on one knee to tell you how much I adore you and admire you, how I couldn’t wait to see how you inspire our children with your intellect and ambition, how I can’t imagine possibly loving you more than I do now but I can’t wait to see how wrong I am. Then I would have pulled out this ring, and asked you to please spend the rest of your life with me.”
Draco pulled a ring from his pocket. It was simple, a rose gold band with a square solitaire diamond shining in the center. It was exactly what she would have picked out for herself.
Hermione was stunned, “when did you buy this? How long have you been carrying this around?”
He cupped her face, “the morning after our first kiss, I was praying you would send the owl back saying we needed to tell Theo.”
“I told you, I’ve loved you for years, Granger. I don’t want to keep standing in the background waiting for you to pick me,” he pleaded. "Please, pick me."
She looked up at him and realized there was no choice, maybe there never was, at least not since that first kiss. She couldn’t live the rest of her life with someone who only wanted half of her, someone she had to tone herself down for.
She kissed him then. Stood on her toes and leaned in to let him know her decision was made.
When they finally broke apart she said, “he’s never going to forgive us.”
“Probably not,” he told her in a wide smile.