The Proposal

[Hanna Mia Sunrose]

Ma tahan edasi! [/i]

[Lissandra Sylvania]

A newly wed couple and what that can lead to.


After dinner the party decided to go back to Ginny and Thomas’ apartment, they weren’t at all tired and wanted to celebrate some more.


“I’m calling in sick tomorrow anyway,” Ginny said as she opened the second bottle of wine and poured it into the four empty glasses standing on the coffee table next to the first bottle of wine, which the quartet had already emptied.


“We’ll take one day of honeymoon tomorrow then,” Thomas suggested and loosened his tie.


“You’ll probably get a mean hangover so you couldn’t work tomorrow anyway,” Draco added with a side-glance towards the wine and firewhiskey bottles on the table.


“Well you only get married once,” Ginny laughed and Hermione raised an eyebrow at her.


“I thought you’d decided to give a family wedding next summer.”

The two men of the party laughed and toasted by clinking their glasses.


“Well then I won’t drink there!”


Hermione hmf’ed, she didn’t really believe that, but Ginny worked so much and hard to get her career going and to be a good friend and now wife, she deserved to enjoy herself for one evening. It wasn’t like she was out partying every Friday she worked the nightshift on Fridays.


Hermione herself never drank very much either, but here she had to drink something for the festive occasion and she soon found out that she felt nicely relaxed after a couple of glasses of wine. Her tongue loosened, and she lost some of her know-it-all attitude, especially after two firewhiskeys that Draco convinced her to try. It burned its way down her throat and the first time she almost spat it back out again, but she managed to get it down and make it stay there.


“At least now I know why they call it fire-whiskey,” she coughed after swallowing the first glass.


“You really never had firewhiskey before?” Draco asked and she shook her head, “But you’re twenty three years old!” He looked dumbstruck.


“At Hogwarts I was too smart to try any of those illegal things on school grounds and after I finished school I was too busy to go out and party,” Hermione explained trying to keep a serious face. Draco still looked like he was having trouble comprehending the new information.


“Here have another!” Ginny said and poured a generous shot into Hermione’s whiskey glass. She shook her head violently she didn’t want to have another.


“Come on, I’ll drink with you,” Draco said and lifted his own glass. She still tried to fight it.


“What if we all have one?” Thomas suggested and finally they convinced her that it wasn’t so bad after all. Draco went as far as to say that it wasn’t half as bad when one had reached glass number two, it was just the first one that felt like your throat was on fire.


After drinking the shot along with the others she found out that it had been a vicious lie, and that the second glass was possibly even worse than the first.

She slid down on the floor to sit in a more comfortable way and asked her husband with an accusing mine: “Why are you doing this to me?”


“A couple of firewhiskeys never hurt anyone,” Draco said, which very much resembled something she had thought herself about wine earlier that evening.


“Just promise me that you won’t make me drink another of those,” she asked and tried to make the puppy eyes.


He wouldn’t promise anything, and under the influence of the first two firewhiskeys he actually got her to drink and third and fourth. By then her throat was numb enough for her to swallow the drink without flinching. Luckily she wasn’t the only one drinking, the rest of the party probably had had more than she had by the time the clock reached eleven they were all kind of tipsy and their conversations started to loose all signs of adult sensibility and become more and more silly without them noticing.


Neither did they notice that the amount of empty bottles on the table was rapidly growing. Hermione only remembered that she at some point said that it was a good thing that the woman living in the apartment directly under Ginny’s was almost deaf, or they would have had complaints because of their stamping, dancing and loud singing in the middle of the night.


“On this solemn occasion,” Thomas stood up and announced, “I would like to make a toast.”


They all looked expectantly at him to see what he had to say.


“To Ginny. The most beautiful redhead east of the Irish border!”


They clinked their glasses together again and emptied them. It was a miracle that none of the glasses broke. Because of the liquor they didn’t pay attention to the fact that they were smashing their glasses against one another instead of just softly clinking them.


After Thomas toast and a quick refill Hermione got up: “I would like to bring a toast to Ginny and Thomas,” then she broke down in giggles, “and to all the things we’ll surely regret tomorrow!”


“I’ll drink to that!” Draco said dryly and swallowed the contents of his glass in one mouthful.


“Okay my turn,” it was Ginny who tried to stand up but had difficulties standing still, “To the floor that currently is moving beneath my feet.”


“You Draco,” Hermione slurred and nudged to her husband with an elbow. He slowly and carefully got to his feet, after half a bottle of firewhiskey he didn’t look quite as elegant as he usually did, his hair was falling over his face instead of staying in place and his shirt was wrinkled beyond compare.


“To all the Gryffindors of the world, you lucky wellartickulte… articulall…articulated people,” he finally finished and raised his glass. Hermione broke down in giggles again and got up to give him a kiss on the cheek. He unfortunately turned his head just before she hit his cheek and instead she ended up kissing his lips.


“’srry ‘bout that,” he said and wiped his mouth to get rid of Hermione’s red lipstick that clung to his lips as a sure proof that she had actually just kissed him, even though she hadn’t intended to do so.


“Well we better get home now,” Hermione said followed by a loud hiccup.

Ginny hugged her again for what must have been the thirtieth time that day and the Malfoy couple flooed back to Malfoy Manor in a flash of green flames.




“Do we have a bottle of that vicious stuff that burns all the way down your throat?” she asked as soon as they stepped into their own hall.


“What, firewhiskey?” Draco asked and walked towards the living room only reeling a little bit.


She nodded and followed him in there and watched him search through the cabinet under the window.


“Must have left it in my room…” he mumbled to himself and gestured her to follow him up the stairs. They clung to each other both feeling slightly out of balance.


In Draco’s room he located the bottle on in the cabinet and flung himself on to the large couch pulling Hermione, who had been holding tightly onto his arm, with him.


“’srry I don’t have a glass…” he apologised, but she just took the bottle and uncorked it from her position on the couch before tipping the bottle and taking a large sip.


He laughed at her newfound boldness and took the bottle out of her hands.


“You’re much too young for this,” he teased before taking a sip himself and holding the bottle out of reach for her, she fought to get it out of his hands, but firstly his arms were longer than hers and secondly she was caught beneath him and really couldn’t move that much.


She tried to hit him on the shoulder, but it wasn’t very hard and he only smirked at her.


“Give it to me,” she demanded and tried to look strict, a difficult task when trapped beneath another person, “I’m a big girl now, I’m allowed to drink and such…”


He held it even further away from her.


“You’ll just do something stupid,” he said with another smirk and she hit him again. Then a thought struck her, that it might be an idea to change tactics.


An evil grin worthy of a true Malfoy spread across her face.


“What?” he asked with a raised eyebrow, but he didn’t get any further.

Hermione took advantage of the fact that he was lying on top of her, and coldly kissed him while she snuck out her arm to get the bottle out of his hands while he was distracted.


What she hadn’t expected was for him to deepen the kiss and that way turning her plan against her. His lips were softer than she had expected and even though he was drunk; he was an excellent kisser managing to keep her coming back for more every time he drew back a little.

Soon she forgot all about firewhiskey in the storm of emotions, which were raging inside her. They pulled her down into a soft lustful dark. It felt good to surrender completely to her emotions.


This shouldn’t happen, she thought with a sudden clarity as Draco kissed that soft spot on the left side of her neck, but the thought quickly disappeared as she found a piece of soft skin down Draco’s back and her hand moved up under his shirt, which was wrinkled enough as it was. It didn’t matter.


The two of them rolled over and she didn’t object feeling the straps of her dress being pushed down her shoulders, and before she knew it she was helping him unbutton his shirt in between kisses.

His stomach was fantastic she noticed as the shirt was pushed of and revealed him midsection. Without hesitating she reached out and stroked the soft skin of his lower stomach with trembling fingers, wrapping her arm around it she pulled him down on top of her again. It was like this big river of feelings were flowing through her and she didn’t have time to sort them out before she was pushed under and drawn with them.


His lips found hers and all sense went out of her head completely and irreversibly.

[Liz-Miia Parker]

Vot nii juba läheb !!!! See osa mulle meeldis ! Ha ! Teada värk - ootan juba hommikut - see tuleb alles seebikas ! Irwww! ;D

[Lissandra Sylvania]

A morning of regret and the man in her life.



Hermione slowly woke up the next morning. At first she thought that she was at Jonathans because she could feel his arm around her and his leg lying parallel with hers on the mattress. She had a mean headache that pierced though every thought she tried to think and made it almost impossible for her to get herself together to get up.


Carefully she opened one of her eyes only to shut it quickly after. It was much too light in the room, she had forgotten to draw the curtains she concluded and held her eyes shut tightly for a while before hesitatingly trying to open them again.


This time she shut them again even faster than before.


It was correct that someone was lying next to her. But it definitively wasn’t Jonathan. With the terrible hangover playing bludger with her head she had difficulties remembering what had been going on the previous evening, and especially how she had ended up in a room that wasn’t hers or Jonathans without her clothes on and someone equally naked next to her.


With a third peek the situation only got worse. In the small slid between her eyelashes she could just see the blonde hair of her husband and a piece of the couch in his room.


This is not good! she though panicky and tried to open her eyes completely.

With a quick look around the room she concluded that they were indeed lying naked on the couch, her blue dress hopelessly wrinkled on the floor along with Draco’s pants. His shirt and tie was lying beneath her hip and on the floor she could see the firewhiskey-bottle that she faintly remember struggling to get, it was lying on its side without the cork on so the liquor had run out and formed a pool on the carpet.


Her mind was going; oh no, oh no, oh no repeatedly but it was hard to collect herself and think straight when her head was hurting as much and she promised herself never to drink that much again, it could only end in misery.

Most of all she wanted to close her eyes and disappear in midair, but the best she could do was get up and perhaps take a shower, get rid of the headache and calm herself down.


Carefully she tried to push of Draco’s arm so she could sneak out of the room unnoticed and try to collect her memories of the previous evening and find out who she had even ended up in this situation at all.


To remove Draco’s arm was easy enough but climbing over him proved to be a more difficult task, she was lying closer to the back of the couch and he was unknowingly trapping her behind his body. She felt very naked as she silently slid over his lean figure and picked up her dress from the floor. Her kickers she couldn’t find.


With one last glance at him lying in a sunbeam sleeping soundly she closed the door behind her.


First when she stepped into her own shower and turned on the water after swallowing two aspirins did she start crying. The running water wasn’t quite enough to cover up her loud sobs but Draco was asleep and Dinny in the kitchen so there were no one to hear it.


How could I do something so incredibly stupid?!




Already before she did it she knew that it was immature and stupid to leave before she had spoken with Draco, but she couldn’t stand the thought of talking to him right away. She dressed in a hurry and apparated out of the manor before anyone could get into her room.


She had no plan at all as she arrived in Diagon Alley, a moment she considered visiting Ginny and Thomas, but they were probably busy with each other or as hung-over as she was and wouldn’t be at much help in her situation.
None of the shops were open yet as it was still relatively early in the morning and not exactly the best weather for staying outside since the sky was grey and it looked like it might start to rain any minute.


Finally she decided to go into the coffee shop she had so often visited when she worked at the ministry and have some breakfast. Her departure from the manor had been so rapid that she hadn’t even considered brining something to eat before she went out the door in a hurry.


The bell over the door jingled merrily as she entered the empty shop. It didn’t take many looked around to conclude that it hadn’t changed at all in the six months she hadn’t been there; it still had the same warm atmosphere, small comfy tables and fresh flowers on each table, Mary herself stood behind the counter as she used to with a cup of tea in front of her and her hair in a neat bun.


“Hermione!” she exclaimed as the young woman stepped into view. Mary walked around the counter to greet Hermione with a smile and a hug.


“It’s been a while since I last saw you here,” the old lady said and led Hermione to a chair in front of the counter and started making her a cup of tea.


“Yes, I’ve been busy trying to get used to my new life,” she told and played with a napkin almost feeling a bit guilty that she hadn’t come by on one of her visits to London, after all she had spent so many hours in Mary’s Coffee shop and it had almost become her second home. What she had said wasn't entirely true anyway it hadn't taken much adjustment to get used to living at the Manor.


“Dear you look upset, is something wrong?” Mary asked as she got time to take a closer look at the girl sitting in front of her. Hermione knew that she probably didn’t look her best in a random pair of jeans and a large, soft jumper knitted from lilac yarn, a pale face and red, puffy eyes from crying. And she couldn’t even begin to explain how her hair looked. She was a mess and it wouldn’t help to deny it.


“Yeah…” she whispered and stared into the cup of hot earl grey Mary pushed towards her.


“Is it something you want to talk about?” the older lady tried to help, but Hermione shook her head. What was happened had happened and it was too late to change that now.


“Could I get a chocolate scone? I’ve really missed your scones…” Hermione said instead and Mary went in the back to fetch one for her.

A plate with the scone on and a new napkin appeared in front of her. The other napkin she had already destroyed beyond recognition.


“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it dear?” Mary tried again, and again Hermione slowly shook her head. At least her headache was beginning to ware of because of the aspirins she had taken before she left, now she could actually move without it was hurting and it helped a little on her thoughts too.


“I’ve just done something so incredibly stupid that I can’t believe it,” she said to her scone, “and now I just need some way to fix this mess.”


And some courage to face the real issue, she thought to herself.


“Well,” Mary said patiently and sat down with her teacup next to her, “It’s always a good thing to talk about ones problems.”

Hermione sighed deep.


“One of my problems I’m not brave enough to face yet, and the other of my problems are currently in France,” she said and took another bite of the scone, that was every bit as delicious as she remembered it too bee. Too bad she really didn’t have the extra energy to truly appreciate it.


“I’m sure you’re a brave young woman, so just talk to him, right?” Mary figured out on her own that Hermione’s problems had something to do with a man.


“I will…after I’ve had another scone please?” Hermione said with a weak hopeful smile.


“All right then,” Mary said and went to get her a second scone.




As she exited the shop she wondered where she could go. She still didn’t posses the courage to face Draco, therefore going home was not an option. She had had the time to process events while she was eating in the shop and now she had a pretty good picture of what had happened as she and Draco came home after Ginny and Thomas wedding.

It didn’t make the situation seem any brighter, but at least she then knew what was going on and what she had done. Her sleeping with Draco hadn’t been something she was forced to do. It had happened because both of them wanted it to at that time. She again cursed alcohols and promised herself never to touch anything alcoholic ever again. Not if this was the price she would have to pay for letting her guard down.


Why had she been drinking so much? Why hadn’t she said no after the first taste of firewhiskey?


Why’s and what if’s were floating around in her head, it was almost enough to bring back the terrible headache she had had just as she woke up.


At last she decided to apparate to France and talk to Jonathan, explain the situation before he heard any rumours and maybe rid her of some of the horrible guilt that was piling up inside her stomach.




In the hotel lobby she spoke to the manager and found out that the Green party was in the restaurant having breakfast. He was kind enough to show here were the restaurant was and even offered her the chance to get something to eat too. She didn’t know if he was mistaking her for one of the hotels guest or if he had just noticed she wasn’t very well.


She thanked him for his kindness and said that she just needed to find Mr. Jonathan Green.


In the restaurant it was very noisy, and she was surprised to see so many people gathered even though Jonathan had told her that it was a big family and they were almost sixty guests in Paris for the week.


It was hard to locate Jonathan because the restaurant was decorated so that most tables had some privacy and therefore she couldn’t see them all from the door. Before going inside to look for him she pulled off the lilac jumper, underneath it she was wearing a simple white t-shirt, but at least then she looked semi presentable.

Even in her emotional state she didn’t want to enter a restaurant full of pureblood aristocracy wearing a woollen jumper and looking messy, she didn’t want to embarrass Jonathan in front of his family so she even tried to comb her hair a little with her fingers. It didn’t help much but at least she’d tried.


With a hesitating look on her face she stepped inside the double doors and took a closer look at the tables and faces around them. The first tables she passed only had old ladies and kids around them, but from the far end she could hear loud voices and figured Jonathan was probably where the centre of the party was.


Her feeling proved to be right. At a long table surrounded by a whole crowd of younger wizards with dark robes Jonathan sat almost at the middle with a plate of eggs and bacon in front of him. He was deep into a conversation with a boy of about twenty who had a long ponytail and a pair of acid green glasses much like the ones Rita Skeeter wore back in fourth year on Hogwarts when she was chasing the trio mercilessly until Hermione had stepped into action and put a stopper to that. At least they looked fairly good on him.


As Hermione walked towards Jonathan she noticed that Elisabeth was staring deep into her teacup not talked to anyone and looking rather gloomy. Apparently Draco wasn’t the only one to be in a bad mood because of their separation.


“Jonathan, I need to talk to you,” Hermione whispered as she tapped Jonathan on the shoulder. He turned around with a surprised mine. Obviously he hadn’t expected her to show up. His surprise immediately turned to concern.


“Has something happened? Is Draco okay?”


“Somewhere else please?” she asked and he got up to follow her.


He didn’t lead her to the hotel garden, but instead took her upstairs to his room and closed the door behind them before asking her to take a seat in the light blue couch in front of the window. It was a pretty hotel room decorated in shades of blue and green, with a large flower arrangement placed about with fireplace where a sparking fire burned making it possible to floo into the room at all times, if the person had the magical key to the room of course.

He sat next to her and looked into her brown eyes with a worried look in his own dark blue ones.


“Now tell me what this is about? Not that I’m not thrilled to see you, I just didn’t expect you to show up here in France,” he said in a low voice and took her hand gently.


Hermione tried to breathe deeply, but it was hard for her to tell him that she had just cheated on him with her husband, especially because he was acting to nice towards her.


“I have no idea how to tell you this…” her voice started low and then disappeared completely.


“Please tell me, I get worried when you’re like this.”


“It would almost be easier if you weren’t so nice,” she said and inhaled deeply before she started telling what had happened. She left out the detail that it had been Ginny and Thomas’ wedding that was after all still a secret, so she just said that they had had a minor party the four of them. They had been really drunk because the others had talked her into drinking some firewhiskey along with several glasses of wine that she herself had chosen to drink. All in all she had been very drunk when they went home as had Draco, but that was mostly because he was miserable that he and Eliza still weren’t speaking to each other.

She told that they had gotten home very late and she had asked for more firewhiskey, which he had found for her in his room. They had sat down on the couch.


There she stopped her telling for a moment to collect all the courage she had in her, all the courage that had gotten her placed in Gryffindor thirteen years ago.


Then she told what had happened next without too many details and as shortly as possible.


When there was no more to tell she sat quiet looking down on her hands waiting for his reaction. She dared only peek at him, but there was nothing to see on his face. She expected him to feel angry or hurt, it was perfectly all right for him to feel that way she had been stupid and thoughtless and she regretted it deeply.


Finally after a silence that seemed endless she could see something stirring in Jonathans face. She halfway expected an outbreak of rage but instead he started laughing. She couldn’t believe her own ears.

Why was he laughing?!

She had expected him to yell at her and instead he sat there laughing widely and holding his stomach, he looked like a schoolboy as always when he laughed and she liked his boyish laugh very much, but she thought it was a highly inappropriate time to be laughing.


“Stop it Jonathan Melbury Green!” she said strictly and gave him a death-stare.


“Why can’t I laugh when I find it funny?”


“Because it’s not funny at all,” she said and tried to straighten the situation out in her head.


“I think its funny,” he said and smiled brightly at her, “You and Draco are some of the most faithful people I know. And I really was wondering when you’d start sliding over the boundaries between friendship and love you know, living together and all.”


She still didn’t find the situation funny, besides her and Draco weren’t sliding across any boundaries they had just been very drunk, which she also firmly informed Jonathan about.


“And besides that; don’t you find it a bit funny that you cheated on me with your husband?”


“You deserve a beating,” she said and sent him another death-stare, which he answered with a wink and yet another bright smile.


“Hermione I trust you when you say it was a mistake, why would I waste energy on being mad at you when I can use it to show you the most romantic city in the world, Paris?”

[Hanna Mia Sunrose]

Mulle ei meeldinud see osa!
Sest selle asemel, et rääkida Dracoga ja tunnistada, et nad mõlemad armastavad üksteist, läks ta mingi jobu Jonathani juurde, ja nüüd sebib temaga kuskil Pariisis.
EI!
UUUT!

[Liz-Miia Parker]

Hanna, seekord ma nõustun sinuga täiesti...ja jonathani reaktsioon..oli naq liiga lõdva - tundub, et tema küll asja tõsiselt ei võtta. Siiski......krt milla nad kokku saavad dracoga juba. Sellinne tunne, et see juhtub viimases osas ;D

[Lissandra Sylvania]

Being an adult.



She knew that it was cowardly of her to stay with Jonathan and explore Paris, but she still felt bad about having to talk to Draco. She stayed for the day walking around on the streets of Paris holding hands with Jon.

For long periods she even managed to forget about yesterday and just live in the moment while going up in the Eiffel Tower or sitting at a small intimate restaurant hidden deep inside the heart of fantastic Paris. As the responsible girl she was supposed to be she posted an instant note to Draco that he shouldn’t worry about her, and she would be back in the evening to talk things out.


She enjoyed being with Jonathan in Paris because she always knew that she could be herself completely around him just like she could with Ginny, Harry and Draco. Well she used to be able to be herself around Draco, but she wasn’t sure how she would feel in his company now after they had been together that way, she worried it would ruin their good relationship.


As the couple sat at a bench in the Garden of Luxembourg Hermione stared of into space thinking of Draco again.


“What are you thinking about?” Jonathan asked and squeezed her hand lightly.


“Draco, and what this is going to mean for our relationship…”she said and looked into Jonathans eyes. She loved those eyes; dark blue like a starry night and always full of warmth. He looked good as always with the park as an excellent background for his handsome features.


“I’m scared. Scared that because I made one lousy mistake our whole relationship, which I have come to appreciate a lot, will be ruined.”


He breathed in deep and took her other hand too: “Hermione I know Draco, and it wasn’t just your mistake, it was his too, and I’ll bet you that he’s very well aware of that. He loves you too, and he doesn’t want to ruin things between you two either.”


She sighed. Jonathan was probably right, but she still carried a small fear that things might not go back to normal so easily.


Jonathan smiled at her. The way he looked at her always made her feel beautiful and sexy even though she knew that she wasn’t that extraordinarily good looking. That was one of the things she liked the most about him.


“Jonathan?” she said and moved a little closer to him on the wooden bench.


“Yes?”


“I love you,” she said and pulled him towards her and into a thigh hug, it was nice just to feel the heartbeat through his t-shirt and know he was there for her. It was strange saying the words because she had never said them before to anyone she had never felt quite like this for anyone. The last time she felt something like it she had been to young to be confident that it was actually love.


“I’ve felt it for a while now and I just wanted you to know,” she said in a low voice into his ear.


“I knew already,” he said and she could hear to smile in his voice. They let go of each other enough to be able to look into the others eyes.


“I still wanted to tell you,” she smiled.


“And I hope that you know I love you too,” he said honestly and looked more sensitive than she had thought possible with a person like him.


“I know,” she whispered and pulled him towards her again, only this time to kiss him.




It was a very nervous Hermione who stepped in the front door a little to nine that evening. It was still light outside when she opened the door and went in, it was quiet in there and she wondered where Draco was or if he had left the house too. She pulled off the jumper and put it on the stair banister before she went into the kitchen. It was empty except for Dinny, who sat in a corner near the fire and knitted something that looked like a pair of lilac socks. It hit Hermione that they looked a lot like the jumper she had been wearing earlier.


“Dinny, do you know where Draco is?” Hermione asked and leaned on the doorframe. The elf looked up from her knitting and shook her large head so her ears flapped.


“I don’t know where Master is, but try the library,” she answered before returning her attention to the yarn in her lap.


In a trot she went up the stairs to the library door and stood quiet for a moment listening. She couldn’t hear a sound, but opened the door anyway, only to find it just as dark and abandoned as she had expected. There was no fire in the fireplace and she guessed no one had been in there all day.


Her second guess was Draco’s own room, but also that she found completely empty.

At last she found him in a room on the top floor sitting with a crystal water flask and a glass in one hand. He was sitting on the floor next to an old record player listening to some classic music she couldn’t identify.

She had never been much into music, though she still enjoyed listening to it sometimes.


“I didn’t know wizards had classical music,” she said and sat down beside him. He didn’t turn his head or greet her in any way, he just answered: “It’s Beethoven.” She nodded and took the glass out of his hand to have a sip.


When they looked out the window they could see the lake lying mirror blank, the tea pavilion was dark beside it and the glass of the windows reflected the last rays of the sun playing in the lake. Out in the horizon the forest spread surrounding the Malfoy property like the castle from Beauty and the Beast.


“I’m sorry I left this morning,” she said and put her hand on his shoulder.


“I was worried when I woke up and found that your knickers was in my room, but you weren’t anywhere to be found,” he sat the glass next to the flask on the wooden floor.


“I’m sorry,” she repeated and stroked her hair behind her ear.


“Where were you?” he asked and she had a hard time guessing what went on inside him, on the outside he wore his unreadable mask of perfection.


“In Paris, well first I went to London and ate breakfast in Mary’s Coffeshop, but then I apparated to Paris. I just had to talk to Jonathan.”


Draco nodded almost unnoticeably, like that was just what he had expected from her.


“What we did was…” he started, and she finished for him: “…a mistake.”


“Not that you’re not good at …it,” he said and a faint blush crept up his cheeks as Hermione’s face grew redder, “but it was definitely a mistake.”


“Why did we have to drink that much?” she asked with her common sense now restored. He shrugged his shoulders.


“Can we try not to let this come between us?” she asked concerned.


“We’re adults now,” he answered and she had a feeling that he hadn’t really answered her question, but let it slip without further notice, this day had already been emotional enough without having a fight with him too.


“I guess we are,” she just replied and looked out the window on the sun, which used all its last powers on making an image so beautiful that it would be forever stuck in the minds of those who saw it.




Even though she knew that it was none of her business she tried again to convince Draco that he should go see Eliza the next morning at breakfast. It was a task much like walking into the cave of a grizzly bear who hadn’t had a meal in five months to as much as mentioned the name Elisabeth, but Hermione felt that she had to try again. Eliza had looked so miserable when she saw her in Paris, the same way Draco had looked so often the past days.

She could see that it was hurting both of them to be mad at each other, but if they both followed the path they were on now they would stay this way for all eternity because none of them wanted to be the one to say they were sorry, or take the first step towards becoming friends again.


After first filling him up with waffles she managed to persuade him to at least try to talk to her, like the adult he had said he was last night.


With a few encouraging words from her he apparated out of the Manor after breakfast.


She was glad he finally had pulled himself together, now she was only worried about how Eliza would react upon seeing him there in Paris and if she would be open to reason. Hermione had no idea what Draco was going to say to her, but it really wasn’t her business and the couple had to work out their own problems.




While he was gone Hermione caught a bad case of what her mother used to call the ‘cleaning madness’ and started dusting everything in the library with one of those feathery things. She didn’t know the name of the thing, but it worked perfectly fine when it came to removing cobwebs from ancient books, and it obviously had a spell on it so the cobwebs disappeared as soon as the duster had picked them up.

She liked when her room was proper and things were orderly around her, but she wasn’t the person who were always seen with a vacuumcleaner, because there were just so many other things that were more interesting to do.

She was a little ashamed to admit that it was a great relief to have Dinny around doing most of the cooking and cleaning. So much for her youth obsession with the rights of houseelves.


Cleaning is cleansing for the soul, she remembered some old witch saying in ‘Hilda the Household-fairy’ in Witch Weekly.

It probably wasn’t true in all cases but right now it worked for her, and she got her mind of Draco, Eliza and Jonathan for a while. The spiders had almost conquered the whole library so it was about time someone stepped into action anyway.


She liked the steady work, and kept working almost until noon before she went down the latter again and took a break on the couch in front of the fire where Dinny brought her something to eat before she went back to work.

Another good thing about cleaning was that it gave her a chance to explore some of the corners of the library which she had yet to see, and on her tour round the room she found many hidden treasures which she made mental notes to check out properly at a more appropriate time.




Just before dinner she heard someone enter the library she turned around and saw Draco standing at the bottom of the latter looking up at her with his grey eyes. She couldn’t tell what he felt or how his day with Eliza had been, but as he gestured her to come down, she figured he probably would tell her over dinner.


Dinny had made spaghetti and meatballs for them a simple meal, but it was very delicious and none of them were in the mood for anything fancy anyway.

Even though she was extremely curious she didn’t ask what Elisabeth had said, she knew she had to wait for him to tell her on his own.


“I went to see Eliza,” he started and placed his fork in a piece of meatball. She managed not to tell him that it was a stupid thing to say because she herself had forced him to do so.


“She was mad,” he said slowly taking his time, “She yelled. And she threw a Ming vase at the wall.”


Apparently Eliza had her violent sides even though she always seemed so calm around other people. Maybe she didn’t let her guard down as much around other people than Draco, Jonathan and perhaps her family.


“At least she didn’t throw it at you,” Hermione said accompanied by a small smile.


“Believe me; she wanted to,” he said with a cold glance towards his plate. Hermione made a face, it sounded like it had been bad.


“But it calmed her down and after that we were able to talk seriously.”

He told her that Eliza and he had been talking almost all day and tried to sort out their relationship. They had known each other for more than four years and now were the time they both started to feel that. They had gotten used to each other - of course they loved each other, but mostly out of old habit. Eliza still felt like there was no room for her now that Draco had Hermione, and he denied it strongly even though he probably knew deep inside that it was partially true.


“We decided that we would stop being a couple for a while,” he said sounding natural like nothing was out of the ordinary. Hermione looked dumbfound. They had broken up?


“If we can live without each other it isn’t meant to be, and if we can’t…we’ll move in together sometime.”


She couldn’t believe that he could say those words and still sound like he was talking about getting a haircut or going to London for the day.


“You broke up? But why?” she asked completely confused.

He looked at her with surprise in his eyes, like he had expected her to be the first to understand.


“Either we will find out that we can’t live without each other or else we’ll find it that it’s not worth it and then no harm has been done,” he explained in a way she felt sounded almost cynical.


“I don’t understand,” she said again. It was like finding out that your parents were getting a divorce, uncomfortable and always a huge surprise that no one could ever really be properly prepared for.


“I’m sorry,” he said unreadable, “I’d expected you to.”


Then he got up and left the table leaving her alone with a half-eaten plate of spaghetti and more things on her mind than she could have whished for.

[Liz-Miia Parker]

Hermi on ikka nii loll vahest.
Siiski kaua see jama kestab !
Next.

[Lana Marye Allen]

Ma pean sinuga nõustuma, Liz.
Ja Jonathan hakkab mulle samuti aina vähem meeldima ...
..ahh..nojah, uut siis!

[Lissandra Sylvania]

A little happiness and then the consequences.



It was a lot easier to return to their normal relationship than Hermione had thought. They were both quite willing not to talk anymore about what had happened that night and she very much liked it so.

It was hard to know what Draco was thinking, because he was as unreadable and closed up as always. She couldn’t help but think about it sometimes when the two of them were sitting quietly eating or reading in the library, thinking about whether it actually meant something to him that they had done…that.

And thinking about how much he remembered from that night, he had been really drunk, but so had she, and she remembered almost every detail. Quite a few times she dreamt of that night and woke up with a strange feeling of premonition, like matters hadn’t been really closed between the two of them after all. It left her confused and wishing that the dream would never come back.


Hermione also wondered if it didn’t bother him to be broken up with Elisabeth, but he never mentioned anything about missing her. It annoyed Hermione a lot more than it annoyed Draco the way the couple had broken up, but again and again she repeated to herself that it wasn’t her business, and that she should stay out of it.


She found it quite hard though.


Sometimes she wished that Draco would be a little more open, for example she had no idea whether Draco had told anyone that he and Eliza weren’t together any longer, or if they ever spoke to one another at all. And she really wanted to know, so again she repeated to herself; it’s not my business.


She couldn’t totally stay out of the case, but at least she didn’t ask Draco
about it, in stead she talked to Jonathan.


“Do you think Draco is happy?” she asked one day and rolled over on the couch to be able to see Jonathan better. He looked at her seriously and carefully placed the bookmark where he had gotten to in the atlas.


“Why are you asking me that?” he wanted to know. She sighed and closed her on book and put it on the table next to her.


“I’m a bit worried about him. About the way he and Eliza broke up…”


“Hermione,” he got up and walked around the couch to sit down next to her on it, “Draco is a grown man, he knows what he’s doing. Does he ever seem like he regrets it to you?”


“No,” she answered without hesitation, “But I still don’t understand how they could break up so suddenly when they almost the day before seemed like the perfect couple.”


She shook her head; this made no sense!


“They seemed like the perfect couple for more than four years, maybe they just grew tired of each other,” Jonathan tried to explain while stroking her leg gently, “He’ll find the perfect one some day, and you should stop worrying about him, it’ll only give you a headache.”


“You’re probably right…” she mumbled mostly to herself and picked up the book again.




It was about a month and a half after the wedding when Hermione finally pulled herself together to visit Ginny and Thomas. She had been putting if off, not really sure why, but somehow she didn’t want to be confronted with anything that could remind of that evening, now that she had finally been able to forget about it most of the time.


Ginny had often send an owl with news or called on the floo-network to chat for half an hour in the evening, but Hermione had excused herself in some way and avoided longer conversations. Now she had decided it was time for her to start talking to Ginny again, she was after all Hermione’s best friend, and one of the few real friends she had. The two of them had always stuck together because they were the only girls around at the holidays at the Burrow and sometimes all those boys could be very annoying to be with all the time.


Ginny was in the kitchen when Hermione stepped out of the green flames in the fireplace, but the other woman abandoned her potato peeling to greet Hermione with a tight hug and a big smile.


“Oh Hermione you look great!” Ginny exclaimed and returned to stir in the saucer on the stove.


“Thank you, so do you. Everything going well?” she asked and sat down on a kitchen chair.


“Yes, I’m so happy,” and then Ginny started a longer speech of all the joys of marriage and how nice Thomas was to her and just the feeling of waking up next to him every morning and knowing that he was hers completely.

Hermione was happy for her it was nice that she had found a soulmate or whatever she preferred to call it. Everyone deserves a little happiness, she thought and smiled at her friend again.


Thomas was probably working late again, because he hadn’t come to say hello and Hermione couldn’t hear any noises indicating that he was somewhere in the apartment.


Those poor doctors had to work all the time, and it was probably a good thing that Ginny was in the same business as he was or else she wouldn’t have been able to understand why his job meant so much to him, and why he had to put so many hours into it.


Ginny was busy peeling the potatoes for dinner and she asked if Hermione was staying for dinner. Hermione shook her head and explained that Draco was expecting her to be home that evening, but she would like one of the potatoes.


“You want a potato?” Ginny asked disbelievingly and stared at her friend, who nodded.


“But they aren’t boiled yet…” Hermione could see that Ginny was confused, but she just really felt like eating a potato. Ginny handed her one, which she immediately started eating along with the M&M’s from the little glass bowl on the dinner table in front for her. She hadn’t even noticed that she had been picking out blue M&M’s all the time the two of them had been talking.

I get stranger every day she thought to herself and ate another blue covered piece of chocolate.


“Are you sure you’re all right Hermione?” Ginny asked concerned and sat down opposite her.


First Hermione nodded, then she added: “I was sick this morning but now, I’m absolutely fine.”


“And you were only sick this morning?” Ginny questioned and Hermione saw some of the professionalism Ginny always showed at work, she was after all a nurse.


“No yesterday I didn’t feel very well either, but it also disappeared by noon or so,” Hermione explained and she saw Ginny furrow her brows in concentration.


“You don’t have to worry about me Gin.”


That didn’t seem to convince the redhead and she didn’t stop her questioning before Hermione promised to see a doctor right away and find out if there was anything wrong with her, even though she highly doubted there would be. She had a strong health and beside that one time she had been sick where Mrs. Weasley had to come and cure her, she was rarely ill.


They moved on to other subjects but all through her visit Hermione noticed Ginny casting suspicious and concerned glances at her like there was something completely wrong. Hermione really wished she hadn’t done that, because she herself had been pretty sure nothing was the matter with her when she arrived but all those looks and the questions about whether she was well had made her a bit concerned too. Ginny was a professional, she should know if anything was wrong and see the signs even when regular people didn’t recognise them as being signs of illness.


Now was not a good time to get sick! Right when she was so happy with Jonathan it would ruin everything if she had to be in bed for the next two weeks doing nothing at all but think about all the great moments they could have had together if she hadn’t been bound to her bed.


Ginny told that Thomas and her had visited her parents the other day and announced their engagement and that they were getting married next summer. It hadn’t surprised her mother very much and both her parents were very happy for the young couple.


Throughout their visit and the lovely dinner Mrs. Weasley had made the two of them had tried really hard to firstly avoid telling their secret and secondly to start laughing seemingly without a reason. They had managed okay, and only broke down in hysteric laughter twice. Ginny had been able to convince the others that it was because of a prank Fred and George had just played on Bill and Fleur.


After that visit she hoped that it would get easier in time to hide the fact that they were already married.


“By next time we’ve hopefully grown up enough to not look like naughty children every time someone mentions the word wedding,” Ginny laughed and received a big smile from Hermione.


“Well I better get going if I’m to find a doctor and get home in time for dinner,” Hermione said and walked towards the fireplace after putting her chair back where it belonged.


“I glad you stopped by,” Ginny said as Hermione stepped into the fireplace and disappeared in a cloud of green flames and smoke.




The visit at the doctor had only been a short one, since there was not much to talk about, so Hermione returned to the manor just in time for dinner.

Dinny had prepared a huge bunch of pancakes, which awaited her as she entered the kitchen and found Draco already seated at the table with a bouquet of fresh flowers next to him. Dinny always made sure there was a comfy atmosphere in her kitchen and the flowers surely added a lot to that.

At the current moment though Hermione wasn’t exactly in the mood to enjoy the flowers or the delicious smell of pancakes that was spreading all the way through the house. A smell she had noticed even when she first stepped inside and pulled off her light coat to put it on the hanger next to the door.


With light steps she entered the kitchen without a word of greeting.


“Draco, we need to talk,” she said with a dead serious mine as she seated herself opposite from him and smoothed down her hair and skirt. He unfolded his napkin carefully and placed it neatly by his plate before tilting his head up awaiting her explanation. His grey eyes seemed cloudy on the summer evening, but she knew he was listening.


“I went to the doctor just now. Ginny made me,” she continued and completely ignored both her napkin and the plate of pancakes that Dinny offered her. The houseelf wasn’t happy to be dismissed without a word and proceeded to the other side of the table where Draco sat.


“Yes?” he asked and accepted the plate from the impatient houseelf and helped himself to a couple of pancakes while enduring Hermione’s disapproving look. Couldn’t he just not eat while she was trying to talk to him?


“Draco I’m pregnant!” her voice seemed calm at first but for him it was easy to hear the panic lying just beneath the surface. His hand stopped on it’s way from his plate to his mouth and stayed there hanging in midair while he tried to comprehend what she had just told him. He looked shocked for a moment before he hurriedly slid down the protecting mask of perfection.


“You’re…pregnant?” he repeated in a clear voice as if he didn’t believe her, she nodded.


“And you’re sure that you’re …pregnant?” he pronounced the word as if he had never heard it before, and she folded her hands in her lap and nodded again, this time even more animated. In his eyes she could see the struggle to sort out his emotions, but on the surface not much showed.


“That’s why I went to the doctor,” she explained her husband, who had now completely given up on eating anything and just stared at her with his grey eyes piercing.


“Have you told Jonathan?” he asked then and tried to look formal and business like, a thing he didn’t manage that well at the moment. For the first time in his life, he couldn’t pull down the unreadable mask and cover his emotions in a haze of indifference, he tried his best but it kept slipping away from him.


“No,” was her only answer and she looked down at her hands. She was squeezing them so tightly that it made her knuckles white.


“Why not?” he requested, clearly wondering why she was telling him this before she’d told Jonathan which would have been the obvious thing to do.


“Because it’s not his,” she paused for a while and even though he started to suspect what was coming next it still hit him full force and stunned him beyond anything he had ever experienced when she continued: “It’s yours.”

[Hanna Mia Sunrose]

Ma teadsin juba esimese "sick" sõna ajal, et ta saab lapse, ja et ta saab Dracolt lapse, mitte Jonathanilt
Nii et ... hmmhmm ... UUUT! [/i]

[Liz-Miia Parker]

Ma ka ;D
JEEEEEEE! Nii persse see jon ja lähme asja juurde ;D ;D

[Lissandra Sylvania]

Decisions for the future and being alone.



“Wait, what do you mean it’s mine?” Draco asked and started pacing back and forth across the kitchen floor with a frantic mine.


She remained sitting on her chair squeezing her hands and looking scared, her face pale and her eyes wide open.


“You’re the father,” she said quietly and he stopped on the middle of the floor to look at her.


“It can’t be!” he cried and started pacing again. Dinny sat in the corner and looked at the couple as if they were an interesting tv-soap.


“It can’t be,” he repeated as Hermione squeezed her hands even more and watched him walk back and forth with large, scared eyes. She wondered if she had done the right thing telling him right away or if she should have waited and thought things through completely.

He seemed completely unable to handle the information he had just been given, and it scared her to see him that way. He was always so calm, no matter what she had told him he was always composed. Always without exception.


She had been almost at the verge of tears as she first heard the words from the young witch in the white robe at Sct. Mungos Hospital where she had gone too meet her doctor ms. Mallory. She had said the exact same thing Draco was now repeating over and over again to convince himself that it wasn’t happening when she heard the news.


Doctor Mallory didn’t have to ask many questions before she knew what the case was. Hermione was pregnant, no doubt about it.


“Are you sure?” Draco asked again and she nodded again, “And you’re completely sure that it’s …mine?” He made a small pause before he said the last word, which came out voicing a world of doubts and hopes.


She knew him well enough to know what was going on inside him, what kind of struggles he was having understanding this.


“I went to Sct. Mungos, there is no doubt it’s yours,” she answered. The magical doctor could easily see who was the father of her baby, so there was no doubt. But even without magic she would have been able to tell who the father was because that night with Draco was the only time she hadn’t used protection. It had been kind of rushed, and definitely unplanned, so in their drunken states none of them had considered to cast the pregnancy protection spell.


“I’m not sure I can handle this…” he mumbled to himself before he stormed out of the kitchen. Hermione sat completely still on her chair and looked at the empty space in the middle of the kitchen, which had just a minute before been occupied by her husband.


If he couldn’t handle this, then how was she supposed to? She was afraid too.

Never had she really considered having a baby, and if she ever thought about it then she had imagined being a mother sometime when she was twenty-eight or something - not so soon. Never in her wildest dreams would she have though she would become pregnant at twenty-four.


A baby, she couldn’t handle a baby!


Only now had she gotten her own life together but she wasn’t sure she or Draco for that matter was ready to raise a child together.




Draco didn’t return that evening and Hermione had no idea where he had gone. If she had been in his place she would have gone to see her best friend, but she didn’t think Draco would go to Jonathan because Jon was so deeply involved in the problem. Draco probably knew that it was up to her to tell Jon the news, even though there was nothing else in the world he would rather do than to talk to Jon at this moment.


She couldn’t imagine him sitting in a bar drinking his brains out, or at least she hoped he didn’t do that. He would have to be really down to resort to that way of dealing with his problems.


She walked around in the empty house looking into all the rooms, but never finding what she was searching for. Outside it was beginning to darken and a light breeze lifted the leaves of the oak outside the window of the piano room on the first floor where she was temporarily standing.


It was like having one of those nightmares where she was running around in a dark house looking for something, but just couldn’t find it no matter how thoroughly she searched. Every room she entered seemed dark and shallow, even her own light-coloured room had an air of something that didn’t usually linger there, a silence which filled every corner and made her restless.


She knew he wasn’t there but wished he would be.


For a moment she rested on the piano bench and opened the lid to reveal the piano keys. Lightly she brushed her fingers over the black and whites playing a silent melody in her mind.


Playing the piano wasn’t something she knew how to do, so her fingers never pressed down the keys and the music she heard was only inside her head. Still a series of light tones formed the music inside her and made her heart calm down for a while allowing her to breathe freely.


It wasn’t the end of the world. She said to herself and somehow she even managed to believe the words. A baby was a gift, a treasure to be cherished.

Her breath caught in her throat as she realized she couldn’t get rid of the baby.
No matter how much she didn’t desire to be a mother at the current moment, she could never have the baby removed.
No matter that it wasn’t even big enough to look like a human yet.
No matter that it devastated her that she had to do this.
No matter that Draco was scared out of his mind and no matter that she was too.
This was it.


She was going to be a mother.


In surprise she pressed down on the key where her fingers lay and a single note sounded clearly through the house slowly fading out, but her decision lasted.




She slept surprisingly well that night, she heard Draco come home sometime around twelve, but she didn’t get up to find him, there would be plenty of time to talk in the morning. And she instinctively knew he would be ready to talk by then. By then he would have had time to process the fact that he was going to be a father.


With half a smile she thought about the evening where he had joked about wanting a daughter if he won their bet. It seemed now he might get his wish.


He said he hadn’t meant it as seriously as it came out first and he had explained that it was a joke, but she still questioned whether he was that much of an actor to sound so dead serious without meaning any of it. It was a thing she hadn’t been able to let go completely, he had sounded so sincere. Maybe she had been mistaken or reading too much into a tiny unimportant detail.


It something most girls did all the time, but still she couldn’t shake the feeling that there might have been a branch of earnestness in that request.


“Good morning.”


She opened her eyes gently and let them get used to the light in the room. He had pulled one of her comfortable chairs up and sat there in a sunbeam looking at her. By his pose she guessed he’d been sitting there for a while. Legs loosely crossed, one ankle on the opposite knee and hands together in front of his unreadable face with the piercing grey eyes upon her.


“Good morning,” she rubbed her eyes and opened them widely a couple of times trying to wake herself up a little more. It probably wasn’t just for fun he was sitting there and she wanted to be fully awake if they were to talk seriously right away.


She reached out to turn her alarm clock and figure out for how long she had been sleeping, it showed half past eight and she put it down again satisfied and turned towards Draco with a question burning in her eyes.


She wanted to know if he could accept her having a child. He sat still as a statue only his eyes moving to follow her light movements as she slowly put her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up straight in front of him. She pulled down her nightgown feeling a little too exposed in the short white dress she was wearing as she slept.


In her closet she found a fine light piece of clothing to cover her a little more before she returned to the bedside and sat down again opposite Draco.

He hadn’t moved at all, but as she sat still and looked him in the eyes he spoke softly.


“It’s your decision.”


The shadow of a smile crossed her face as she folded her hands in her lap.


“I’ll help you and support you all I can,” he continued solemnly and expressionlessly. She nodded.


“I’m going to keep it,” she said filled with wonder, like what she said had just became that much more real just because she spoke the words out loud. It didn’t alter her decision though…


“I knew you would,” he answered with a faint smirk, like he enjoyed that he could foresee what her actions might be, “And I’m proud of you,” he added to her surprise.


She sighed deep.


That part of the mess was over now, but she knew much more awaited when she’d have to tell Jonathan about her decision. It would hurt. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes as she thought of it. She didn’t fear that he would be angry; she could handle that.


What she feared the most was that he would be hurt, she feared that she would break his heart however stupid and corny that sounded it was how she felt.


Draco had gotten up and sat down beside her on the bedside with his arm around her shoulders. She was glad he knew exactly how to comfort her.


“We can’t raise a child this way we’re living now,” she said and stared into his grey eyes with sorrow in her own brown ones. He squeezed her shoulder and sighed deep.


They both knew what she had to do now.


It wasn’t something they had ever talked about or even considered, but instinctively they both knew that this was no way of raising a child. Things had to change. They had to change. The young couple didn’t need to speak and Hermione was glad it was like that, she was afraid that it would become even more real if she said the words to her husband.


Draco was happy about the prospect of being a father she could see it in the way his small smile got an extra dimension when he was staring into the empty air in front of him. He tried to hide it from her, but she knew him to well.


“No we can’t…” he said and again didn’t manage to cover up his smile completely.

She looked at her wedding ring with a sad smile. It was still as pretty as ever, but somehow it looked like it had changed a bit. The diamond was still the same sparkling clear stone as it had always been, but the silver around it seemed to shine more with a ghostly gleam to it and the emerald in the middle was darker and more rich in it’s colour than when she first put it on her finger.

She fiddled with it a bit and rubbed the silver as to see if it would return to normal if she rubbed it hard enough. Nothing really happened.


Draco took her hand and studied the ring with great interest for a while before kissing her fingers gently and letting go of her hand again.


“It’s a very special ring,” he said.


His words didn’t make sense to her, but before she got the chance to question him further he had left her room as quietly as he had gotten in.


She took of the ring and examined it closely again. The inscription on the inside stood out more than ever; Malfoy.

[Liz-Miia Parker]

Armas. hermi jätab joni maha - yay!

[Hanna Mia Sunrose]

Oeh, NII armas!
Aga jah, now the things start moving.
UUT!