Ordinary Just Won't Do

"Ordinary Just Won't Do"

Ch. 7

+The Next Day+

Draco stood at Hermione's door, trying his best to stay nonchalant, trying to hide the nervous feeling that was running through his veins. His visit with Pansy had gone well, with the circumstance, he had never let anyone else tell her bad news about her family. However, this visit had a whole different reason behind it, he needed to find his supposed-to-be-bride, or if she refused to begin what she had ended, he would return home empty handed, no matter what Blaise thought.

The sun beat down on his back but he still couldn't make himself knock. In his mind’s eye he could see her glaring at him, much like she did when they were at Hogwarts, asking, in a very McGonnagal type tone, why he even returned.

But before he could turn coward and run, the door opened, without him even knocking. There she stood, her deep purple robes hugging her closely, her hair was in curls that framed her face like a picture, and she smiled. Draco gasped inaudibly, he wasn't expecting this, he wasn't expecting this vision of loveliness before his eyes.

Hermione grabbed his arm, and pulled him into the cool house, "Come in out that horrid heat, we've been having a heat wave all month."

Draco smiled down at her as she pulled him into the Living Room, "Thanks."

She looked down momentarily, sitting on the couch's arm, "What happened?"

He sighed and leaned against the door frame, "After reviewing the memories in the Pensieve Minister Percy Weasley went as far as to ask the Counsel to execute them, just as Harry wanted, but that never happened. They said something about Memories out of a Pensieve wasn't technically ground for execution. That pissed us all off, the whole council had seen your memories, the letter of confession from Gram Tunnelly, and the Pensieve made by force by the other three men. Nevertheless, in the end the bastards just got kissed, do they know if any of those men had any happy memories to feed off? The men who assigned them to avenge my bastard of a father are probably being executed. I felt I could do so much more."

"Two months weren't wasted," Hermione said as a sad smile settled against her lips. "Just getting them into Azkaban was all I could ask of you Draco."

Draco looked up, the look of disappointment etched on his face, "I'm sorry."

She stood up, walked over to him, and took his hand, "Don't be, you were always the one to keep me safe."

That made him smile, she wasn't ever dependant on anyone that he knew, "Hermione we need to talk."

Hermione looked away abruptly, making the robes turn with her, "About what?"

"What's next," he replied still leaning against the door frame.

She sighed loudly and turned back to him, "I can't talk about what's next until I tell you the truth."

"The truth?" Draco asked, standing up straight, the thought of her lying to him making his eyebrows furrow.

"The truth about my knowledge of those men," Hermione said, walking further away from him to stand right in front of the unused fireplace.

"Hermione what are you trying to say?" he asked, warning her in his voice that he wasn't ready for disappointment.

"I'm trying to say, my relationship with one of the men was more than prey and hunter," she replied, her eyes were still focused on the mantle before her.

Draco's mouth was dry, when she disappeared they were engaged, "Are you saying you were ---"

Hermione's eyes squeezed shut, all the work she had done to push herself away from him just so he wouldn't get hurt was going down the drain, "I'm saying Draco that I ran for your life but I also ran because he didn't want to us to stop seeing each other."

"What?" he asked, trying his best to keep his expression set in stone.

"Draco, I cheated on you long before the war was over. Draco, I didn't want to do it but he was going to blackmail me. He thought I was weak, he thought I couldn't sacrifice myself for you, and when he finally figured out that I would do anything for you and Harry he was already too deep," she replied, turning to look at him, she forced back the flood of emotion that begged to be released, she could see the pain in his eyes.

"Slow down Hermione, now who is he?" Draco whispered, clenching his fist at his side.

"Antonius Rosier," Hermione whispered, flinching at the sound of his name.

"What could he, Pansy's cousin, blackmail you with?" he asked, sitting in the recliner with a dazed look, he could remember many memories from the Pensieve where Rosier would whisper 'I'm sorry'.

She sighed, wringing her hands worriedly, "We met one year exactly before the 'Fall of Voldemort' at a bar in Paramaribo in Suriname. I was drinking that night, the night you got hit with a Paralice, I remember I was really upset. He was there, we talked, well he got me talking, he took advantage of me, and when I woke up the next morning he told me everything I had revealed. If I didn't do what I did for the next year Harry would have never defeated Voldemort. I told him so much classified information that night, I had to protect Harry, and I had to protect you. Sometime in that year his feelings changed and he was dead set on killing you because he loved me. In my eyes that just wasn't going to happen, the rest is history."

Draco exhaled loudly, he didn't know what was worse the anger or the pain, "Why didn't you just tell me Hermione? Do you know all of this could have been prevented? Merlin, woman, do you know how you infuriate me?"

Hermione was confused, "What? How could any of this be prevented Draco? Didn't you hear me? I told the Order's biggest secrets, I only had one choice, either let them win or sacrifice."

"It didn't matter what you told him, Hermione, I -- the Malfoy's know things that could have prevented Rosier from taking that job from Stephson Parkinson. He would have been so intent on killing his dear old Uncle that anything you told him would have been null and void. Hermione, if you had trusted me six years ago none of this would have happened," he replied, his tone making him seem more like Lucius.

For the first time in five years Hermione started to see the wrong in her decisions, it wasn't often that she was wrong, and she hated the way it felt, "What could you have told him? He was set on either killing me or having me and killing you."

"There was one thing in his life that, to this day, takes precedence over everything else. The murder of his father, Evan Rosier. Do you know that the man has searched since he was sixteen years old for the Aurors that killed his father? But he has never found them, for one simple reason that could have changed everything for you. Aurors did not kill Evan Rosier in 1980," Draco replied angrily, his eyes forcing themselves to stare, intently, into Hermione's.

Hermione wrenched her eyes away from those flaming pools of silver, "Who killed his father then?"

"His Uncle, Stephson Parkinson, killed him to show loyalty to Voldemort. Lucius told me, he told me one day I would kill a relative in the inner circle to show loyalty just as Stephson did. It was all a set-up to keep Death Eater rituals under-wraps. So you see Hermione, with those words I could have kept Antonius from accepting that job from Stephson. And he wouldn't doubt me, my father was the General over all of Voldemort's legions, Death Eaters are programmed to believe Malfoys," he answered arrogantly, trying to mask some of his pain with that old contempt he used to put on display at Hogwarts.

"Merlin, what have I done?" she whispered, closing her eyes briefly, as a single tear rolled down her cheek.

"You have ruined any chance we had Hermione," Draco whispered as the contempt disappated from his eyes.

"Draco don't say that, you -- we have hoped for so long," Hermione pleaded as another tear treaded down the other cheek.

He slammed his fist on the chair's arm, "Dammit I need a drink."

"Draco a drink won't solve anything, it seems to be the root of our problems here," she whispered, sitting on the edge of the coffee table with a sigh.

Draco gave a deep dark chuckle that seemed to come from down further than his throat, "If only you could see the problems Whiskey helped me forget five years ago. Somehow, this time, I'm hoping for far worse than alcohol poisoning this time."

"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked, her eyes wide with fright.

He chuckled again, this time he looked at her with something close to loathing, "Five years ago you died in the Wizarding world, Hermione, and I was determined to follow you. I know you remember my fascination with the Muggle drink Whiskey. I told you in our Common room Seventh year. Do you remember the night I told how when I was three or four, Lucius would allow me to sit in his lap and drink his favorite drink, Whiskey? I never realized the irony of it all until it was almost too late you know. I remember wanting so much to be like Lucius, I wanted to have a part of him, and so I learned to take Whiskey over all other things. My father's demon followed him throughout his life, sometimes I'm sure Whiskey was his only friend."

She struggled to regulate her breathing as he sneered at nothing in-particular, "Draco --"

Draco interrupted her, "So you die on me, my salvation, my redemption is gone. So I pick up my bottle and drown my sorrows. Not so blatantly that everyone could see a Malfoy's one weakness but to the point where my private indulgence almost took me to my resting place. In the end my father's demon comforted me when no one else understood my pain. That demon took the pain so far away that I almost felt like a bird that I could fly anywhere you never existed, as long as I had my good friend Whiskey. Yet there came a moment when I almost died from my freedom and with the insistence of so many I cut back on seeing my friend. Now we only visit when I feel it can get no worse."

Hermione turned away from him, so he could not spot the tears that refused to slow down, but she hid the emotion from her voice, "So you think this situation can't get any better?"

"Basically in my life when it rains, it pours," he snapped running his fingers through his long white hair.

Suddenly she stood up, her eye’s red and he voice loud, "Draco how could you love someone like me that much? How could you put me on a pedestal that NO ONE deserves? It's only natural that I fell off and you were hurt beyond repair! It's your own fault, you put me up there with Dumbledore and Harry, somewhere I don't belong."

"The ONLY pedestal I put you on was the one that my father vacated LONG ago. I have never in my life elevated Dumbledore or Potter, you were the only worthy of the view I used to have of my father. Merlin, Hermione you were so perfect once that no one, not even Potter, expected you to fall. We all have you on a pedestal, especially Potter and I, haven't you seen it yet?" Draco replied, his expression set but voice elevated with every syllable.

Hermione hated being proved even the tiniest bit incorrect on anything and so Draco's words did nothing but fuel her fire, "It doesn't matter what you thought you saw or what you thought you knew. How could you love me Draco? You, a helpless soul in need of everything I knew NOTHING about! How could you love me? The girl who knew everything but love."

He looked as the Malfoy seal on his ring that sat on his pinky before speaking, "It doesn't matter why I loved you, all that mattered was that I did."

"Did? Did, as in you don't anymore? Was love the only thing that mattered that night at your mother's Social? The night when I realized that you needed protecting from me? You were a Rose in bloom and I was a weed. Was love all that mattered when you realized that I didn't belong along side people like Pansy, Blaise, or even Millicent Bullstrode?" she yelled as the tears found their way down her cheeks, this time refusing to hide.

"Merlin, for the woman who destroyed my father you sure think much of his words. I never said, or thought, any of that, those were Lucius' words, words I stopped valuing long ago. Hermione that was years ago, when are you women going to learn to let sleeping dogs lie?" Draco replied, looking up at the woman who had just broken his heart for the thousandth time it seemed.

"When you dogs stop lying! If you didn't think that then why did you look so ashamed when he said it Draco?" Hermione asked, finally getting to the root of most of her denial.

"Why must I be a liar? I looked ashamed because you standing beside me and this supposedly cultured man, who was my father, was standing there insulting you like he had no training at all," he said flinching at the memory.

She gasped in surprise, "Are you telling me that the source of my insecurities was wrong?"

"Correct again Miss Granger," Draco nodded, sounding oddly enough like Snape. "Even Mother was mortified by my -- Lucius' behavior that night, I'm sure I had the privilege of being ashamed of that monster."

"Merlin," Hermione groaned, sitting on the coffee table again holding her head in her hands.

Draco moved onto the table beside her and whispered softly, "You never really understood us Malfoys, the dark ones or the light ones. You always used to see us in black and white because you spent most of your previous time seeing us in between shades of grey and obscenely bright colors."

"I tried Draco, I really did, I thought I knew you," she whispered, her head still laying in her hands forlornly.

"Lucius' hate was based on a want that he had to keep buried deep inside, and it was a well-known fact in our household. My love was based on a need that developed into something some in my status would call unhealthy and others would call pure truth. Hermione I warned you long ago, you don't know the madness that grows in men's hearts," Draco whispered, feeling his face flush, he could remember that night well, it was Graduation.

"Have I ruined it all? From my infidelity to my naivety, have I ruined what we worked so hard to keep all those years?" Hermione asked, finally raising her head to face him.

He bit his lip nervously, "I can't answer that Hermione, I honestly can't. Still, I have to ask . . . did you really not trust me at all? You kept so much from me, from your feelings about Mother's ball to Antonius Rosier. Or was it that you never loved me enough to trust me in the first place?"

She turned to him completely, their knees were touching, "I trusted you and I trusted you because I loved so much I knew you wouldn't fail me. But I was proud too, I had so much confidence in what I had read that I forgot some things can't be learned in a book."

Draco stood, exhaled loudly, straightening his robes, "I'm actually quite happy to hear that. Still, I have to go, I'm not asking are you coming back, I think I know the answer to that question. If you want to talk or something you know where I am, I am checking out tomorrow at six, Potter and Blaise will be here to help. Don't worry I'm not going to send Potter this way, this will probably be the last time you see me or any of us."

Hermione was quiet as she followed him to the door, she could hear the emotion in his voice, she could almost see the tears falling from his eyes, "Draco I can't believe it's over."

"Goodbye Hermione," he whispered as he stood on the threshold, a lone tear fell from his eye and floated down his cheek.

She didn't even try to contain the sobs that ran through her body, "Good-bye Draco."

Draco caressed her cheek with his knuckles, as another tear escaped, "Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened. There will never be another woman like you in my life Hermione and I think that's fine with me."

Hermione could do nothing but cry as he walked out of her yard and prepared to Dissapparate. Her words were soft but they weren't spoken to deaf ears, "I love you."

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Draco awoke the next morning with a groan, he had returned to his room and indulged himself with an old demon. It hard to believe that after all this time she wasn't coming home, it made him lose faith in an old belief in the power of love. His love was worth nothing to her any more and her love was of no worth to him anymore either.

As he yawned and stretched he could hear voices from the living room, several voices, deep and soft. He felt an air of familiarity from each voice and hurried to put on his robe and discover who the group of people in his living room was.

Draco put a ribbon around his hair and leaned on the door frame. He was expecting only two visitors but instead it was a group of five, some he knew where only there to see Hermione. He, as usually, had to be the bearer of bad news.

"Morning," he drawled bringing attention to himself for the first time.

All five visitors turned to him with a smile, "Morning."

Harry stood and peered over his shoulder, grinning, "So where is she?"

Draco squeezed his eyes shut before turning to his once archenemy, "She's at her house."

"Why? I would think after five years I would want to spend the entire night with you," Pansy replied as Ron took her coffee cup from her and sat it on the table.

He sat beside Blaise, who was looking through Draco's file that had to be returned to George O'Hare by next week, "Because we aren't getting back together and she isn't coming home."

Blaise dropped the file with a gasp, "After everything? What happened?'

"To make a long story short, she cheated on me and told some very important secrets just a year before the War was over. She thought she was strong enough to take care of everything, of course she wasn't, and it was the reason we couldn't salvage our relationship," Draco replied with a sigh not wanting to go any deeper into it.

"I know you are hurt Draco but can't you forgive and forget? I thought your love was stronger than that?" Ginny asked as Harry sat beside her with a dazed look.

"Hurt is the operative word Ginny. If you only knew how much she kept from me, it was like she didn't trust me at all. She didn't refuse when I said she wouldn't see any of us again," he sighed tying his robe tighter.

"Does it matter? What happened five or six years ago? I don't want to feel like I'm losing my best friend all over again! Can't you talk this over? Malfoy I know your temper and I know hers, you two just need to sit down and discuss this. We need her back and so do you," Ron replied more rationally than he ever could in his Hogwarts days.

"Hermione is not going to discuss this with me or anyone, I refused to hear about Antonius Rosier's obsession with her, and I refused to hear how she compromised 'The Order' in a moment of drunken stupor. I don't want to think about her like that ever again," Draco yelled standing and heading for the shower before any of them could comment.

"Antonius? He told me he was in love with a Muggle-born once," Pansy whispered to Ginny who sat beside her quietly.

"But why would she not want to come back?" Harry asked as she slumped into the chair next to the fireplace.

They all sat like that, dazed and mournful, for another hour until Draco returned from the showers adjusting his robe. No one spoke, they all just stared out into space, grasping for answers they knew no one but Draco had.

"We need to get out of here soon," Draco said coldly as he engaged himself in making a drink at the bar. He hated remembering, he hated knowing no matter how much he visited that demon she wasn't going away, for any of them.

"I can't leave and not see her," Ron replied, looking at Draco with the eyes of a restless soul, a soul who has forever lived off his friends, like the soul that had always surrounded Harry.

"She doesn't want to see you or any of us, I hate to say," he replied drinking the shot in one gulp, it was working already, the moment he felt the burning sensation go down his throat he knew that it was working.

Ginny looked over at the obviously broken man, her eyes trying to find a way to comfort him, "You don't know that for sure, Draco."

"Unfortunately, I do Ginny, I do," Draco replied pouring himself another drink as Blaise prepared to hide that bottle the first chance he got.

"Please Draco, don't give up," Pansy whispered wrapping her delicate arms around her best friend.

"If you give up, what will I do?" Harry replied, his eyes focused on the dark, bare, fireplace before him.

Ron was quiet for a moment, "Can we really not see her?"

"That's what she wants Ron," Draco replied as Pansy removed her arms from around his neck.

"I think it's time we pack up and leave all this behind," Blaise said less than cheerily as he threw the bottle of Whiskey in the garbage can for the House-elves to find.

"You mean leave Hermione behind, don't you?" Ginny whispered, noticing her boyfriends eyes that were glaring at Blaise.

"Blaise," Pansy warned, noticing the menacing glares three ex-Gryffindor's were sending him.

"Of course that's what I meant! It's what the bloody woman wants, isn't it Draco?" Blaise exclaimed ignoring Pansy's warning.

"Look, I'm tired of discussing this, let's just go home," Draco snapped, his cold gray eyes staring angrily into Blaise's coal black eyes.

"Malfoy, I thought you believed in her, I thought you loved her more than anything. What happened to that? One mention of drunken infidelity and telling some old forgotten secrets that never hurt us and you give up," Harry yelled walking over to the tall, pale, Slytherin that had once been his greatest enemy and turned into one of his greatest Allies.

Draco turned toward Harry with the look of a fierce Tiger, his eyes were cold and deadly like his father's, and his lips were turned up in a trademark sneer, "Potter, don't act as if you know the entire story. Don't ever, may I repeat, EVER question my feelings for her. There are the same as they were ten years ago and they will never change. There are just some things you will never understand and if she wanted to be here, she would. I did tell her I was expecting you this morning."

The two men just stood like that, glaring at one another, before Pansy stepped between them, "Ok, you two, calm down. Harry maybe Draco is right we may never understand some things and Draco maybe Harry is right you loving her more than anything should be all that matters."

Ginny looked at Blaise and her brother for support and found that they had chosen their sides, she stood beside Harry, caressing his arm, "She's right you know. We just have to deal with this how Hermione wants us to. Harry, it’s obvious to see that Draco didn't give up because he wanted to and Draco, you have to understand Harry's grief, he feels like he is losing her again. Boys please, lets not fight, not now."

"On one condition, I will not say another word," Harry sneered, looking over Pansy's blond head at Draco.

"What's that?" Draco asked, the glint of anger lighting a fire in his eyes.

"Tell me where I could find out where she lives without you telling me," Harry demanded as Ginny pleaded with him to just let it go.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Are you telling me that you let him walk out that door because you felt guilty?" Ella asked as Hermione handed her a glass of Lemonade.

"After all this time I can't forgive myself even if he does," Hermione replied sitting on the couch opposite of her friend, her eyes bloodshot, and her lips swollen from crying.

"Why can't you? Are you going to make everyone else suffer because of your pity party?" Ella asked sitting the glass on the table in front of her.

Hermione sighed, holding back another flood of tears, "I just can't face them, not after everything."

"But you faced Draco?" Ella questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"I faced Draco because he faced me. He showed up at the Cooling Cauldron that night and I just couldn't refuse him," she replied drinking the cool drink as it settled her senses.

"If you can forgive, forget, and put all this behind you, do you know how happy you could be? You could be Mrs. Draco Xavier Malfoy, Mistress of Malfoy Manor, socialite of every season, and the most beloved woman of one of the best looking men in England. What is going through your head?" Ella exclaimed loudly, her face wearing an expression of disbelief.

Hermione looked over at her friend, exhaling loudly, "What's going through my head? His eyes, the way they looked when he said all that mattered was that he did love me, the insane way they flashed as he told me about his demons, and they won't leave my mind for a second. I can't forget the anger and pain that laced his every word. God, the disappointment, Ella, it was so deep, and it's haunting me."

"Well, how can you change all that sitting here wallowing in your self-pity? I don't see the qualities that made you Harry Potter's best friend. Every article I read Harry would say how brave and resilient you were. I don't see any of it now, no bravery, no resourcefulness. Because if you were the same Hermione Granger who accompanied Harry Potter to Hell and back you would be finding a way to make Draco Malfoy remember what ya'll have," Ella retorted, her tone sounding like a Mother reprimanding her child over a very bad decision.

"I want to be that girl again but it's been so long, Ella," Hermione sobbed knowing that her friend’s words of wisdom were right.

Ella sat beside her weary friend, wiping her tears off her cheeks, and turning her toward her by placing her hands on her shoulders, "It doesn’t matter Hermione. What happened yesterday holds no meaning on what could happen today. Self-pity is honestly the end of the road, Hermione, and it's not over yet."

Hermione nodded her head, her eyes set on Ella’s, “What can I do?”

Before Ella could answer an urgent knock came at the door, Hermione glanced at her friend before leaving to answer the door. She looked back at Ella hopefully, hoping that it was Draco, she had to hope, it was all she had. She stood in front of the door, took a deep breath, and pulled the knob. Her eyes were wide and her jaw fell open.

“Hello,” came the soft reply, who like Hermione was awestruck.