Ordinary Just Won't Do

"Ordinary Just Won't Do"

Ch. 8

 "Ginny?" Hermione asked breathlessly. The moment she had laid eyes on the redhead her ability to breathe had become a problem.

 "Hermione, it's so nice to see you again," Ginny spoke in a voice not unlike the formal tone her mother had taught her to use in uncomfortable situations.

 Hermione was thinking Harry or Draco would turn up at her door not Ginny. "I didn't know you were coming to town."

 "It was a surprise . . . for Draco. Ron and Pansy are here too, they are all at Draco's room . . . packing," Ginny said matter-of-factly, fighting an urge to hug the older woman who had become something between the cross of a sister and best-friend to her.

 Hermione looked away for a moment before she heard a voice behind her whispering 'hug her,' she knew Ella was right, there was no reason to be cold. She looked up at Ginny, and without warning, pulled the younger girl into her arms. Relishing the memories that came flooding back to her, the feeling of home, and everything that she had given up five years ago. Ginny held onto her and Hermione knew there was a reason to go home. If not for Draco then for her family, her friends, and herself. But inside the head of the most brilliant Hogwarts alumni, since Rowena Ravenclaw, there were still doubts.

 Ginny let go and dabbed at her eyes. "It's really good to see you."

"Did Draco tell you how to get here?" Hermione asked as Ginny walked into the small, comfortable, house.

 "No, the girl at the desk, at the Corner Tavern, told me. Harry was going to come but I doubt you wanted to see him, so I came instead," she replied as Hermione closed the door.

 Ella picked up her purse, smiled at Ginny, then before opening the door, touched Hermione's arm whispering, "Good luck."

Hermione stared at the door as it clicked softly behind Ella, she didn't even know where to start.

But Ginny did, "Hermione, I'm not here to try to talk you into coming back with Draco and starting over. No, that was Harry's pitch, my reason for being here is closure."

 "Closure? Come into the sitting room," Hermione said, passing Ginny to open the door to the room she and Ella had just used.

 "Don't you want that too? Closure is the one thing I think we all need. It’s been a long time coming Hermione," Ginny replied, walking into the rather cold room with more confidence

"Truthfully, Ginny, I don't know what I want," Hermione replied as she sat on the arm of the chair that Draco had received his horrid news in.

 "Can I ask you a question?" Ginny asked sitting on the edge of the sofa with a pained expression.

 "Sure," Hermione mumbled staring down at the chipped red polish on her toes.

 "Did you love Rosier?" Ginny asked looking over at the woman who had been so much to her boyfriend and her.

 Hermione's eyes shut and her breathing became deeper. "Ginny I don't want to talk about that."

 "Please, Hermione, please. You don't know how Draco and Harry are hurting from this. Harry feels like he's lost you again and Draco . . . I doubt any of us can understand how he feels. I just need to know. I won't tell Draco and I won't tell Harry, I just need to know," Ginny pleaded feeling her own burst of emotion run through her.

 "I loved Rosier, I did, maybe that's why coming clean to Draco was so hard. But I knew that no matter how I loved Antonius it wasn't real, it was purely physical. It was something that was not worth losing Draco over. But yes, I did love Antonius, even after he attempted to kill me," Hermione replied as the tears fell silently and Ginny went as pale as a Ghost.

 Ginny's eyes narrowed and she wiped away a tear, asking softly, "Hermione, do you still love Draco?"

 "More than I'll ever understand but I fear I've lost him," she whispered, not looking up at the redheaded young woman.

 "He still loves you, you know. Even after hearing all of that, he still loves you. He still has dreams of things hoped for," Ginny replied, running her fingers through her long red hair.

 "But will it work? After everything, can I step back into his life and expect it to be the same?" Hermione asked looking up at the younger woman with a confused expression.

 "Hermione, nothing will ever be the same. Merlin, Harry and I, our relationship hasn't been the same for years. He has more demons that Draco has now. But as I grew up I realized everything he went through and everything I went through would change our relationship. No one's relationship can be like it was back at Hogwarts, I hate to say it, but it's impossible," Ginny replied sounding older than Hermione.

 "I --" Hermione started but a rather angry Ginny interrupted.

 "You just want us to leave you behind don't you? You want us to skip away from this place back to England and forget all about you, don't you? Well, damn it all to hell, I'm sorry, it's just NOT going to happen Hermione! So either you leave this dreadful pity party and go after him or you will never forgive yourself for what you done; because neither will we. Because this time we won't grieve because you died. This time we will hate you for all the pain you've put us through, we will hate you for not loving us how we loved you, and we will NEVER forgive you. So I don't care how guilty or sorry you feel. All I care about is that you get up, become the Hermione Granger I looked up to for years, and decide to do it right this time! That's all I have to say," Ginny yelled before standing to her feet, glaring holes into Hermione, before she picked up her purse and walked out of Hermione's house without another word.

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 "You said what?" Draco yelled as came out of his room with his black suitcases with silver 'D. X. M' engraved on them in silver.

 "I told her exactly what was on my mind. I could do no less," Ginny replied as she cleaned the bar of all the alcohol.

 Pansy smiled, as she Ron put all of Draco's paperwork into a briefcase. "I think she needed to hear it."

 "Sometimes harsh words are needed to make someone see what standing in front of them," Blaise replied as Draco pushed suitcases into his arms.

 "I can't imagine Ginny saying anything like that to anyone." Draco laughed, pulling out his new robes he wore to the dinner-date from Hell with Hermione.

 Harry laughed looking up at Draco. "Then you don't know Ginny, she's more like Molly Weasely than she let's on."

 At that Ginny smacked Harry playfully on the arm. "Shut up Harry."

 "I guess I'm ready to go," Draco announced as he pulled the door to the bedroom shut.

 Ginny turned to look at him, she didn't think he deserved to go scot free, and she decided to tell him what was on her mind, "Draco Xavier Malfoy, how could you just leave? She needs to see proof that you haven't given up and you are ready to leave? I know I told her something's have to change but most things don't! How can you go on knowing you let her slip away? You have to be the deciding factor in all of this because, if you ask me, she's so confused she won't make it over here until you are back at your flat. If you have any love left in your heart for her, which you should, hell you spent five years mourning her death, you need to march your pasty white arse over to her and make her see that what you have will never go away! Or I will never forgive you and you certainly won't forgive yourself! I'm taking your bags to your apartment."

 Five surprised faces stared at her as she stepped into the fire place and said ‘Draco Malfoy's Flat’ before disappearing. Harry looked up at Draco. noticing that her words hit him hard, he knew they were true, now what was he to do.

 Harry took the new robe from Draco, raising an eyebrow questioningly, "So what are you going to do Draco?"

 "She makes a good point Draco," Pansy pointed out as she closed the case of hair products she was holding.

 "Sounds like Hermione to me." Ron chuckled moving to stand beside his fiancé.

Blaise put a hand on Draco's shoulder, trying to give a mini pep talk, "Drake, the future Mrs. Potter makes a good point, as usual. You will never forgive yourself for leaving her here."

 "Draco," Pansy said as she walked over to him calmly. "I will never forgive you if you let this chance for happiness pass you by. Even if that means you never return to England and I never see you again. I'd rather you are here and happy than be at home miserable."

 Draco looked over his best friend carefully, he knew she meant it. Pansy hardly ever said things she didn't mean. "I don't know about that Pans."

 "Draco Malfoy, don't say such things," she scolded quietly, the other three men in the room knew not to say a word. "You will go see Hermione Granger and you will be happy about it. I don't want to see you again until you can promise me that you are content."

 Draco's eyes widened as she kissed him on the cheek and stepped into the fireplace, just as Ginny, had without so much as a good-bye. Ron broke the silence as he stepped into the fireplace, "She's right you know, it's better to be here than at home drowning your sorrows."

 Draco watched silently as Ron disappeared, he turned to Harry, "So I guess I have no choice, my best friend just told me she didn't want to see me until I got Hermione back."

 "Draco think of this as more than just for you, it's for all of us. Pansy and Ginny included," he replied before stepping into the fireplace and following Ron.

 Blaise picked up his remaining bag before stepping into the fireplace with a laugh, "Whatever happens, happens for a reason."

 Before Draco could say another word he was alone again, he growled to himself, picturing Ginny's face, "Ahh, Virginia Weasely I am going to get you!"

 He picked up his keys and started out the door, not even knowing what he was going to say when he got to where he was going.

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Hermione was in a hurry, about an hour after Ginny left her house she dressed and left her home on a mission. She was on a mission to save herself from her own emotions. She was halfway down the sidewalk when she ran into someone, someone tall, soft yet muscled, and blond. Hermione looked up into the eyes she had been dreading looking into, the fear was not absent from his, as was something she was accustom seeing there.

"Hermione," Draco whispered, breaking the silence that threatened to deafen them.

"Draco, I'm such a fool, I'm dying without you," she whispered looking up into his silver eyes as she had done a thousand times before.

Draco's eyes narrowed and he forgot everyone who was walking past them. "How are you going to stand there and ask me to feel the things you never show anymore? How dare you?"

"I don't know Draco, I guess for once my stupidity stopped me from doing what was right. Maybe I have no right to stand here and ask you to feel those things any more, but I am. I am standing here, I do feel those things, and I do want to show them to you again Draco," Hermione pleaded, much unlike the girl who spent seven years at Hogwart. She would have never pleaded Draco Malfoy for anything.

 "You pushed my love aside Hermione! I don't know if I can deal with that," he growled as so not scream their business out into the ears of all those strolling by.

 "I know Draco, I know, and I'm sorry. That wasn't me thinking, it was something else. It was something I let Antonius plant in me, it was fear, it was anxiety," she replied running her fingers through her thick hair, like she used to when she was unsure of something.

 Draco looked down at her, his expression set in stone but his eyes were phrentic, his voice was slow and eloquent, "Truthfully Hermione, did you love Rosier like you loved me?"

 "No and that's the honest truth," Hermione answered, her voice thick with emotion.

 "Why?" he whispered reaching out to touch her for the first time that day.

 "Because I felt like I had loved you forever, even in lifetimes before. I don't think I can love another person the way I love you," she replied as he caught her hand, she blinked slowly as a lonely tear escaped her eye.

 Draco squeezed her hand before speaking, feeling the sun bear down on them, "I remember the first time I laid with you. I thought my joy would fill the Earth, but it didn't, I wasn't even sure if it filled you. I was so in love with you that I didn't even realize that your eyes didn't twinkle afterward and I'm sorry."

 Hermione looked confused, she didn't understand what he was saying. "You're sorry? Sorry for what?"

 "I'm sorry for taking more joy from being with you than you ever did with me," he replied as she pulled her hand away from him, looking like she was three seconds from slapping him.

 "No, Now you are in the wrong! How do you think I survived for five years without you? The memories of joyful nights were all I had. Maybe you didn't see the dazed look in my eyes because you weren't looking deep enough! Maybe you didn't realize that with me the little things meant so much. Like the way you used to lay your head on my shoulder for no reason, the way you touched me like it was always the first time, or even the way you looked at me. You looked at me like I was the sun, moon, and the stars up until yesterday, now it's gone," she replied angrily, not attempting to stop the water works that followed. It hadn't taken her long to figure out what was missing from his gaze; it had been there too long for her not to remember.

 "No, it's not gone, just buried," Draco whispered as he pulled her into a hug, fighting back his own tears.

 "I want it back Draco. Please, I want you back. I just want you to love me again," Hermione cried into his chest, forgetting that they were standing on the sidewalk not far from the Cooling Cauldron.

 "I do love you, I do. There was no way I was ever going to stop you – you -- Gryffindor," he smiled, kissing her hair, basking in the redolent fragrance of her shampoo.

 "Then you won't leave?" she asked pulling away from, wiping her tears with her fingers.

 "Whatever reason to leave that I had they all seem trivial. I know that my place is beside you but my life is there," Draco replied, reaching up to push a stray piece of hair from her face.

 Hermione looked around the place that had become her sanctuary of sorts. "My life is here . . . and there."

 Draco looked around the quaint little town. "Why can't you come back to England and we could visit often?"

 She didn't answer, she just placed both hands on each side of his head and made him look at her, asking, "Draco am I the bride you lost five years ago?"

"Huh?" he asked confused as she stared at him with eyes that were demanding an answer.

"You told me that night, when you first arrived, that I wasn't the woman you lost so long ago. Draco, am I her again?" Hermione repeated, her voice pleading with him to answer her.

"Yes, you are her, you were always her. I just refused to see your flaws until I had to," Draco replied truthfully, taking both her hands into his.

"Now am I still the fiancé from five years past?" she asked looking up into his silver eyes, wishing she could drown in them.

He smirked, looking down at her left hand. "Only if you want to go back and start all over. Only if you want to live in Malfoy Manor, only if you want to wear a five-karat blue diamond on your hand, only if you want to be Hermione."

Hermione looked around the place she had grown to love with a sad smile. "I -- we can visit often?"

"Of course," Draco whispered looking down at her, his eyes glowing with love he hadn't felt so strongly in years.

"And I can still own the Cooling Cauldron?" she asked locking onto the gaze that had lost the fear and uncovered the adoration.

"Whatever you want, you can even bring Jaden and Ella to visit," he replied as a smile crossed her face, they had reached the finished line, finally.

"Then it's time to go home," Hermione smiled as he pulled her to him smiling like a new father.

"I love you, Hermione Granger," Draco whispered as she wrapped her arms around him, like she hadn't done in years.

"Oh what an ordinary way to say that Draco," she chided playfully, kissing his neck.

"Who cares," he replied as they pulled apart and smiles engulfed both their expressions.

"Come on Draco! Remember the things you used to say to me? Please, you know I love you too? Come on, please," Hermione pleaded as they turned and walked toward her house.

"OK," Draco said before clearing his throat. "Hermione you are love. It is a short word, easy to spell, difficult to define, yet impossible to live without."

Hermione beamed as they decided to stop and catch a carriage to her house. "I told you that the less ordinary, the better."