Marry Me (Dramione)

26. The Bottle of Firewhisky

Ginny and Harry sat down on their couch. "We only had one good outcome today: Pansy and Blaise finally got married." Ginny said with a loud sigh. "God, did you see the way he looked?"

"Yeah, he looked horrible. Same thing goes for Hermione," Harry said, rubbing his eyes.

"I thought seeing each other again would ... I don't know, change things. I thought they'd get back together again." Ginny stated somberly. "But I think all we've managed to do is drag our best friend to a wedding and make her even more miserable."

"We tried so hard - all of us. I guess these things just take time, you know? We were trying to force them to get back together, love doesn't work like that. We had good intentions, but we were looking it at all wrong."

"I guess you're right. I just hope ... they're okay." Ginny resigned, shutting her eyes.

"They will be .." Harry whispered as he put his arm around his wife comfortingly.

"I just keep wondering if there was something else we could've done." Ginny muttered restlessly.

"I don't think we can do anything any more. Just like we saw today, we shouldn't get in between and try to force them together like that, Ginny. We can give them a push but that's it - we should let them take care of themselves."

"I guess you're right."

—

Hermione walked into the tea shop just across from her flat and let out a deep sigh. She was absolutely exhausted. It had been a few days since the wedding and she'd been burying herself with work. There was something troubling her and the only way she could occupy herself was with work.

She perused the menu to see if there was a drink that could shoot up her energy in one sip. While gazing at the menu, someone tapped her shoulder. Hermione creased her eyebrows, turning around and seeing Pansy. "Pansy," She greeted her with a small smile. "Hey, it's ... nice meeting you here."

"Good morning, Hermione. Yeah, Blaise and I were up all night last night and ... I'm just here picking up something to drink. We didn't get a wink of sleep last night." Pansy said with an inward groan, rolling her eyes.

"I can see why you wouldn't get any sleep last night but ... I don't see why you seemed to have dreaded it." Hermione stated cautiously as she cocked up an eyebrow.

"Oh! Oh, no, Hermione. I was not up all night with Blaise because of sex - no, I wish. We were up last night because ... Narcissa suddenly fell ill. We are supposed to be on our honeymoon but we felt bad leaving Draco alone. She's been refusing to talk to anyone and ... she's just locked up inside her bedroom. We stayed up all night with Draco - just in case we heard back from Narcissa. I don't know what happened, she was fine two days ago and yesterday, she just ... stopped talking to everyone. Blaise and I were supposed to leave for Venice yesterday night, but we stayed."

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

"Yeah, it's okay. We can just go on our honeymoon another time, I guess." Pansy said with a shrug before letting her eyes land on Hermione's. "Unless ... there's someone who's willing to ..." Her voice trailed off as she gave Hermione a pitiful look that read please-I-need-your-help.