Lovers

Part 25: Sinking Ships Don't Float

He slept like shit.

Technically he didn't sleep at all.

It bothered him.

She bothered him.

If he had a Time-Turner, he would go back and change what happened. He would be kind and not a little bitch about having sex with her or he wouldn't engage at all.

Or he would have taken his wand and obliviated the officers- but what about his patrons down stairs? They would need to be spared of her screaming.

It occurs to him now- that maybe he was actually hurting her.

But certainly not on purpose.

He would never hurt her.

Not willingly.

"Oi?! Mate? Are you alive up here?" Hines asks as he opens his front door. "I heard what happened. Bloody Hell, I'm sorry she'd done that to you."

"What do you want?" He asks and Hines sits on a stool near his bedroom window and crosses his arms.

"Jus' wanted to see if you needed anything. I know how hard it is being in this position."

"You mean feeling like jumping off a building? Or having your wife lie to you and put a PFA against you for the world to think you sexually assaulted your wife and abused her?!" Sitting up, Draco, flies out of bed and paces. "That's what they all think! Isn't it!? They think I'm an abusive husband! All of 'em!"

"No, Mate. No! We don't think that."

"Then who called, Hines?! Who the fuck called the Bobbies on me?!" He grabs his friend by the shirt collar, despite Hines being from a military background and could crush him like a pencil with two fingers.

"I don't know. I been watching the tapes. I've been looking for suspicious characters."

"I want to see them. There's no way that the cops would have got the call and got here in time. It wasn't that big a spat." Draco let's go of him and heads down to the surveillance cameras they keep in the kitchen. As they sit at the computers, Rodney comes in and Hines and Draco look at him.

"You're up...how are you?"

"If you value your life- don't ask." Draco growls and Hines pulls up the file storage from last night.

"What time did you guys even get back- we didn't see you enter." Hines asks as they sit through the first file.

"We got back around 4:00 and we took the fire escape." He says and the guys look at each other oddly. "Just keep watching."

"Roughly about what time did you two start...arguing?"

"5:30...roughly."

"There!" Rodney points to the screen at four individuals walking in.

"What?" Hines asks.

"That's how the cops got here so fast- look those three came in with that guy." Rodney says and pushes Hines' hand off the controller so he can zoom in. As the pixels slowly clean up a bit- Draco's blood boils.

"That fucker..."

"Who is that?" Hines who never had the displeasure of meeting the man on the screen- takes the hint that this man is public enemy number one.

"That is Gavin Hunter. Hermione's ex-fiancé. Switch to the hallway camera." Draco directs and they do. Sure enough they see the four men enter the stairwell and Hines flips to that camera. "Look, they're just standing there. Turn on the sound."