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Here she was again, just woken up and already with an open bottle of wine.
Hermione didn’t have a drinking problem.
That wasn’t her convincing herself, it was the truth.
She only drank on celebratory happenings: birthdays, promotions, weddings, etc.
The only exception: heartbreak.
As of a week ago she had been dumped and dumped badly.
His name was Corbin. He was the head of Magical Law at the Ministry.
They met at some charity event for St. Mungos two years ago.
He was infatuated, she couldn’t care less about him.
After four months of insistent visits to her place of work (St. Mungos) with offering of tea and coffee, she agreed to go out with him.
They dated casually for three months before making it official.
All of that down the fucking drain when he took her out just to say he wanted to grow emotionally and he wanted a break.
It was shit.
A pile of heaping shit is what it was.
Hermione knew him, she knew what he wanted.
He wanted to go fuck other girls.
She scoffed to herself at the thought as she drank straight from the wine bottle.
“Grow emotionally my arse,” she muttered and took another drink.
The floo of her flat burned green and the last people she wanted to see came through.
Ginny, Pansy, and Theo all stood on the other side of the kitchen counter with their arms crossed. Disapproving looks on each of their faces.
“Good morning, my friends,” Hermione saluted her bottle of wine to them.
“Put the bottle down, Granger,” Pansy snapped. “This is fucking ridiculous. It’s been a week.”
“Whoo, I’ll drink to that,” Hermione whooped and brought the bottle to her lips.
She tipped her head back but the bottle disappeared straight out of her hands.
“Hey you wankers, give it back,” she demanded.
“No,” Theo snapped. “Go take a shower and then get dressed. We’re going out.”
“It’s ten in the morning, going out where?”
“You can get pissed at ten a.m but going out is where you cross the line?” Ginny asked with a raised eyebrow.
“To brunch,” Pansy corrected.
Hermione rolled her eyes. “I hate brunch.”
“Not today, go,” Pansy demanded.
Hermione huffed but still turned toward the bathroom.
“We’ll be here,” Theo called out.
“Mhm,” she hummed before shutting the bathroom door.
She really was acting dramatic.
She wasn’t in love in love with Corbin. They had fun together, sure. He had a nice enough personality. He was nice enough to look at. He was handsome in the way a boat can be handsome. He had all the right features. He just didn’t excite Hermione the way she needed. He didn’t push her in the way she needed.
He constantly praised her for everything she did. Which was good, but she needed someone to question her findings. It was the only way she could push herself to her full potential.
She was a healer but did a lot of research with healing potions to improve them or to discover new ones.
Corbin didn’t understand anything she did. She would show him a molten ruined potion and he would still praise her for doing a great job.
So no, she wasn’t heart broken over the fact he wasn’t in her life anymore.
She was upset because it was the third relationship in a row that ended with the same words.
“We should take a break.” “I need to grow emotionally.” “This was a mistake.”
The last one sent a shot to her heart as if it happened yesterday.
She was thirty two for Merlin sake.
All her friends were married with kids or were in long term relationships.
Always the third wheel, Hermione Granger. After a while it makes a girl question what was wrong with her.
After her much needed shower and real clothes on, Hermione didn’t feel much better. It was probably the several bottles of wine she had consumed in the last week.
“She lives!” Theo announced as she went into the living room.
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s get this over with,” she muttered.
They went to Pansy and Harry’s favorite brunch place.
The two of them had been married for six years.
The pairing was a shock to everyone. Hermione worked at the hospital with Theo when they got out of healing training. From there they became friends and their friend groups merged.
And merged they did.
Harry and Pansy fell in love almost instantly. They kept it from everyone for a while. When they did tell the group it was a shock, but they made sense.
Theo and Ginny were the next big shock. No one thought they would last. Their chaotic personalities would not be compatible and all that, but both of them being so similar was what made them work. They knew how to keep up with each other.
Blaise married Luna after a month of dating. They lived in Italy year round. Blaise was the heir of some wine dynasty. Great for Hermione, free wine.
Ron and Daphne Greengrass were the most recent couple. It was something that had been building for years. They were good for each other.
As for Hermione, well let’s just say her and a certain ferret had a go nearly a decade ago and it was the worst decision Hermione had ever made.
(It was in fact the start of he exception with drinking).
“I need to go out,” Hemione announced as the check was being paid for their meals (and mimosas).
“Alright,” Ginny said. “Tonight?”
“Yes, I need to go be in a sweaty club drunk off my ass. Then I will be done, okay, no more drinking. I’ll get my shit back together.”
The three of them glanced at each other with concerned looks.
“Please guys,” she begged. “Bring Harry, Molly will watch the kids, I just need to go out. Have a rebound maybe, I need this.”
They sighed in unison and nodded.
“Alright, we’ll go out,” Theo said. “But you have a curfew of midnight. You cannot be trusted when you are drunk and out.”
Hermione smiled. “Excellent.”
Hours later, Hermione was in fact drunk in the middle of a club.
She giggled to herself as she bumped into the person behind her.
“Sorry,” she shouted to them.
“It’s all good,” the guy said.
“You’re hot,” she shouted without thinking.
“Er, thanks but my girlfriend is over there,” he pointed.
“Fuck,” she rolled her eyes. “Of course she is. All the hot ones are taken or fucking assholes.”
“Right,” the guy said and then walked away.
Hermione shook her head as she watched him walk away. She smoothed down her frizzy hair. She looked down at the blue mini dress she was wearing. It was short and sparkly and showed off her boobs very nicely. She was even wearing heels.
She felt hot, she was hot. There were other hot people there, but there seemed to be no one there who wanted her.
And she wanted to feel wanted.
Then she got the most brilliant idea.
She ran over to where Pansy, Harry, Theo, and Ginny were watching her. She snatched her purse from Pansy and pulled out her mobile.
“I’ll be back,” she shouted at them and then rushed to find a quieter place.
In the corner of the club, she swayed back and forth as she scrolled through the contact list. She was looking for the ex boyfriend after him , Dominic. He was a rebound that turned into something more. Hermione really liked him and he really loved her. He loved her way more than she ever would. He always picked up the phone when she called.
Her eyes crossed as she looked for the name. She pressed on a name she thought was right and brought the phone to her ear.
She hummed along to the song playing and swayed back and forth with a smile.
“Hermione?” that voice said that made her heart plummet to her feet.
Everything around her stopped. She felt frozen as she heard his voice for the first time in years.
“Dr-Draco?” she stuttered.
All the alcohol she had consumed that night caught up with her. The room was spinning around her. She felt hot and not in the good way.
“Are you okay?” his voice almost sounded panicked.
“Y-yes I’m fine. I must have dilated the wrong number.”
“Are you drunk? Where are you?” he asked.
“I said I’m fine. It doesn't matter. I didn’t mean to call you.”
“Who were you trying to call when you are drunk and at a club I’m assuming?”
“None of your business. Not you.”
She heard his scoff through the phone.
“It is my business now since I’m talking to you.”
“Oh this is just like you, inserting yourself in places that don’t concern you. You ended it with me, remember, that means you don’t get to know anything about me anymore. Goodbye.”
She pulled the phone from her ear and ended the call.
She suddenly wasn’t feeling well. She fought her way through the crowd and to her friends.
“I need to go home, right now,” she told them.
“Who did you call?” Pansy asked.
“No one, it doesn’t matter. I need to get the fuck out of here.”
“Alright, we’ll go,” Ginny nodded. “Come one.”
They made their way to the floos. Hermione felt antsy and unwell overall. Like she needed to throw up but not because of the alcohol.
The last time she spoke to Draco Malfoy was at Ginny and Theo’s wedding, five years ago. She had seen him since then of course. He was a potions master. She did research in potions, it was the first thing they bonded over. It was the start of their story, stupid potions. So, they saw each other from time to time. He published essays and articles on his own research. Hermione had admittedly used them in her own research. They had the same friends, it was impossible to avoid each other indefinitely.
It was easier now. The last she had heard he was living in France for research.
Their break up had destroyed Hermine inside and out. He was the only boy she had ever been in love with. She thought he was the only person she would ever be able to be in love with.
They had fallen in love fast. It wasn’t instantly, but it was unexpected. They were both in their early twenties and just starting their careers, but Hermione really thought she would spend the rest of her life with him. They had been together for two years.
She was wrong.
He couldn’t give her a reason for why he was ending it. He just kept saying it was a mistake.
He had been crying before he sat her down and broke up with her. She knew he didn’t want to. After everything they went through together with winning over both of their parents, getting backlash from the press and their co-workers, even their friends being skeptical at first, Hermione thought they were in it together.
Apparently not as he said it was a mistake.
Hermione fought him on it, of course she did. It was what they did, they fought. They pushed each other professionally. He made her a better healer and she made him better with potions. She refused to hear him out when he was trying to end it. She questioned if it had to do with his parents. Hermione didn’t think it was because they had spent so much time working on the Malfoy’s approval.
They got to a point where Narcissa claimed Hermione as her own. Lucius was less on board but respected Hermione for the witch she was.
Then Hermione wondered if it was her parents that told him to end it.
Her parents were not on board with them. They never wanted to be immersed in the wizarding world after Hermione got their memories back. They were very vocal about Hermione finding a muggle boy.
Hermione did not find a muggle boy.
She found a pureblood, Sacred 28 even, wizard.
One who had been in the stories Hermione had told her parents as a child. Hermione was convinced it was her father who went to Draco to end it. No one confirmed her suspicions, but it was never denied either.
“Will you be okay here alone tonight?” Pansy asked Hermione from outside of her flat.
“Yes, thanks for tonight. I just want to go to bed,” Hermione said, feeling much more sober than she did before they left the club.
“Come to the Burrow tomorrow, Mum wants to see you,” Ginny said.
“She’s making roast,” Theo nodded in agreement.
“Okay, I will. Bye guys.”
“Love you,” Harry said.
“Love you,” she said back and went inside her door.
The lights were on in her flat as she walked in. She was positive she turned them off before she left.
She screamed and jumped in the air as she saw him sitting on her couch.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” she yelled and tried to get her heart to beat normally.
“Granger,” Draco said, standing up from the couch.
“What are you doing here?” she asked again, more calm this time. “How did you get in here?”
“I’m still warded in,” he said.
Hermione sucked in a breath. It was true, she didn’t have the willpower to remove him all those years ago. She had forgotten he could get in whenever he wanted.
“You need to go,” she said. “Now.”
“I’m not leaving, Hermione,” he said.
“The hell you are. Go! Now!” she yelled.
“No! Not when you call me for the first time in five years drunk.”
“Don’t you live in France? What the hell are you doing here?” she said again, still not believing he was there in front of her.
“Yes, I do live in France. I came here because I need to talk to you.”
Hermione’s jaw dropped. “You came all the way from France just to talk to me? No, absolutely not, get out now.”
“Hermione, please. Hear me out.”
“No, go back to France.”
“I can’t.”
“And why not?”
“Because I hate it there.”
“That’s not my problem. You moved there all on your own.”
“Why do you think I moved?”
“I don’t know. We haven’t talked in years, I don’t know why you do anything anymore.”
“Because I couldn’t handle being in the same country as you without telling you I still love you.”
Her entire world stopped.
“W-what?”
“Damn it, Hermione, I love you. I always have and I think I always will-”
“Stop talking,” she begged.
“I tried to stay away. Your dad begged me to. Ten years ago when I ended things. He kept telling me I was bad for you. I would ruin your life. If I didn’t end things he said him and your mom would cut you out of their lives. You deserved better and I listened. I'm sorry baby for doing that to you. I didn’t want to, but I thought I was doing the right thing. You had already lost them once, I didn’t want to be the reason you lost them again. After I ended it, I promised I would stay away and I have. I left the country after I saw you two years ago at some event because I could go over and kiss you. I couldn’t tell you what you mean to me.”
“Draco,” she said, tears dripping down her face.
“Then you called me tonight and just hearing your voice I couldn’t stay away anymore. I love you Hermione. I loved you then and I love you now.”
“You don’t even know me anymore, Malfoy.”
“Then I want to get to know this version of you and fall in love with you again.”
“You’re saying all of this suddenly because I called you by mistake.”
“No, it’s not all of a sudden. I think about getting a portkey to come here and tell you all of this every day. I have thought about this moment since I walked away ten years ago.”
“Then why haven’t you!” she shouted. “I was heartbroken beyond relief. I would have taken you back without a second thought if you had just said this all to me.”
“I know. I should have told you, I was just scared. Of everything. I was so worried I was going to fuck things up with you and I still did.”
“We wasted so much time, Draco because you couldn’t tell me my dad wanted to break us up. Because you listened to my dad . You don't even listen to your own parents.”
“It’s my only regret in life. Even with everything with the war and after, my only regret is walking away from you. I love you. I needed to come here and tell you.”
She was really crying now.
“I spent ten years thinking you didn’t want me anymore. I’ve tried to get over you. You ruined me for anyone else. I can’t love anyone other than you and I hate you. You stupid, stupid man,” she chanted the last words over and over as she started to pound her fists against his chest.
“I am a stupid man,” he said, taking her wrists in his hands to still them against his chest. “But I will do anything you want in order to get you back, you beautiful witch.”
“I don’t know if I can do this again with you.”
“I understand baby, I do, but I want to try. I will do anything. Please trust me I will never do that again. But if you don’t want this, I will go back to France and try to move on with my life. I will leave you alone for the rest of our lives. But just know I will always love you no matter what.”
“I really do hate you, Draco Malfoy,” she said, looking into those stupid gray eyes she loves so much. “But I don’t think I can live without you anymore.”
He let out the deepest sigh of relief. “I can’t live without you either.”
“Pansy is going to kill me for this.”
“She’ll get over it.”
“Kiss me you stupid man, will you?”
“Whatever you want gorgeous.”
He then proceeded to kiss her like his life depended on it. Hermione felt like coming home after years of wandering around alone.
She pulled away first. “Are we really doing this?”
“Only if you want to.”
“I do, but you will have to never do that again.”
“I won’t.” He kissed her again.
“Do you have a place to go tonight?”
“Only a portkey back to France in case this didn’t go my way.”
“You could stay, but no funny business.”
“Fair enough. You are even more beautiful than the day I left you.”
“You are such an idiot.”
“I know.”
She sighed and shook her head while looking at him.
“I really can’t be trusted when I’m drunk.”
“I beg to differ.”
“I missed you,” she admitted.
“I missed you more. What the hell were you drinking tonight?”
She smirked at him. “My go go juice, duh.”