IT SHOULD BE US (DRAMIONE)

3: love you

*Draco*
I sat down at the end of a park bench as Hermione laid down across the bench and placed her head in my lap.

As I started stroking her hair she sighed and then said "Hmm, I'm going to miss this."

"What do you mean, miss this? I'm not going anywhere." I said, confused.

"It's me whose going. I'm teaching a course at llvermorny on the in-depth history of magical Britain, remember? I told you like three months ago that it was my last job before being promoted to the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. You totally forgot, didn't you?" She said lifting herself off of my lap a little so she can look me in the eyes.

I pushed her back down onto my lap gently and continued stroking her hair, before saying "Well I tend to forget things I don't want to believe. How long are you going to be there anyway?"

"Three months." She replied drowsily.

"THREE MONTHS? What am I supposed to do without you here?" I asked indignantly.

"You could probably just get one of your ladies to keep you company." She said drowsily.

"It's not the same, I don't actually talk to any of them. Who am I supposed to talk to?" I asked, while pouting.

"You can still talk to me. You can't floo call, but you can use the cell phone I got you for Christmas last year. It already has my number in it, you just have to press down on the one." She said even quieter than before.

"Can't I just come wi-"

"No because you have that big meeting to sell your new acne potion, and that's important, even if you don't need the money." She said in a voice that was stern even though she was half asleep, she then added "But, you can come to the airport with me tomorrow, it would be nice to have someone to drop me off."

"I'll come of course, but even though I don't hate muggles anymore I won't ever condone the use of those death traps." I said.

When I didn't get a reply I looked down to see Hermione sound asleep in my lap.

My night ended with me apparating to her flat, carrying her to bed, tucking her in, and going home to my own cold bed.

****
I flooed into Hermione's flat at seven in the morning, so I wouldn't risk missing her. Just as I was going to go find her, she walked out of her bedroom with bedhead to get a cup of coffee.

"Good morning Draco." She mumbled while yawning.

"Why aren't you ready, don't you have to get on one of the air boxes?"

"Airplanes." She corrected, with a roll of her eyes , and then continued by saying, "I have an hour till I need to be at the airport and I'm already packed, so I'm going to go shower after my coffee and then we can apparate there."

We spent about five minutes talking before she went and got ready.

Then before I could fathom it, we were hugging goodbye at the security line.

****
I waited a day, so I could be sure she'd be there and settled and then I called her, only to get a not available message in her voice.

I called again the next day, but it cut out.

Finally, when I was able to get through with a stable connection, it was two in the morning over there and she had to go back to sleep.

I decided that I would let her call me when it worked for her, but the one time she did I was in the bathroom, away from my phone.

As if that wasn't problematic enough, my back started hurting, and I wasn't even interested in sex right now because of the back pain.

After two weeks of back pain and feeling out of it, I finally told Blaise, Theo and Harry about it.

"Well it's rather obvious why Draco." Harry said while we were all eating lunch.

"Do enlighten me I said." Not interested in his crackpot theories.

"You miss Hermione, I mean when was the last time you guys even talked?" He asked.

"We talked for a few minutes almost two weeks ago, but she's been difficult to get a hold of. That being said, I doubt my back pain is caused by friend being out of town. I mean Theo goes out of town all the time and my back faces no problem. Plus, this isn't the first time she's gone out of town." I said nonchalantly.

"Not for this long." Harry chimed in.

Before I could reply Blaise indignantly asked "you really don't see it, do you?"

"See what?" I asked.

Theo cut in and said "I genuinely thought you were avoiding it, but you don't even realize it. You're madly in love with her, it's so obvious."

"I'm not in love with her, she's my best friend, and frankly I don't believe in that type of love." I said.

"Yeah you don't love her, and that's why you spend all of your waking hours, those not spent fucking a random girl of course, with her or thinking about her." Blaise said sarcastically.

"Like I said, she's my best friend." I said.

"We're your best friends, SHE is the love of your life." Theo said.

"No she isn't, you can all fuck off." I said and scowled at my lunch until the topic changed.

****
Love, please, as if. Plus even if I did have feelings for her, there was no way she reciprocated.

But, reminded of Hermione's absence once again, I summoned my photo albums from the past five years, so I could reminisce.

As I went through the pictures I found a collection of images from Mother's weddings two through seven and pictures from the Oxford days.

At the very back of the first album there was a picture that led me to a damning realization.

Hermione and I were dressed in our graduation robes surrounded by all of our friends, from Weasley and his then girlfriend, now wife and Ginny and Harry to Theo and Blaise.

I remember the picture, my mother took it before having Harry take a picture of herself, Hermione, and me.

The picture itself had nothing wrong with it, in fact it was wonderful, but that didn't stop the guilt that consumed me when I realized Hermione wasn't looking at the camera like everyone else but fondly up at me.

Even the idea that she's held me in her heart for this long, while I've been parading all of these women around makes me feel terrible.

I mean she of all people had the right to loathe me, but she gave me the best second chance of my life and I went on to be an asshole, again.

It took me a longtime fall asleep, but once I did, I had the best dream.

Hermione and I were married, and I had just come back home through the floo. When I walked into the library, that I assumed Hermione vied for, I found Hermione asleep with a book propped open on top of her rounded stomach.

I walked up to her, picked up the book, making sure to mark it, and placed it on the side table, all before lying down and pulling her into me.

She roused a little and nestled into me, so I kissed her forehead and said "I-"

"love you" I gasped out, as I bolted upright.

This quickly convinced my brain to open the albums again to look at my expression.

In all of the pictures I was standing protectively near her, in a manner unlike myself, and in a specific picture from Harry and Ginny's wedding I was glaring jealousy at Krum when Hermione was laughing at a joke he'd made.

Needless to say, I immediately flooed to Grimmauld Place, disregarding the time.

****