Before All Else

II

Chapter ii

Hermione was one the lounge nervously chewing on the inside of her lip when a crack announced Draco has apparated back into their apartment. His features conflicted and Hermione instantly feels his turmoil.

"What happened?" She asked, hoping to pull him from his internal battle and offering him a soothing hug.

Draco shrugged Hermione off, leaving her to watch him pace the width of their living room, "Draco you're worrying me. What's ha-"

"He threatened me Mione." He cut her off, now looking more like a scared infant then the proud, confident man Hermione admired. She gasped, and he continued in the same frightened tone "He told me to make you disappear or he'd be sure to make sure I lose more then just the family vault." Draco recollected the conversation, his breathing labored and his grey eyes swimming with the ghosts of his fathers words.

Hermione looked at Draco, her brown eyes now matching his own terror, "And what did you tell him?" She asked, her voice a whisper over the lump she struggled to swallow.

Draco looked across at Hermione, her small frame trembling in an attempt to fight of tears. He moved to enclose her in a protective embrace, "I told him I don't know and then I left." Draco spoke, trying to keep his voice reassuring.

Hermione pulled away, "You don't know? It's not a hard decision Drake." She was in disbelief. The spacious living room now feeling more like a mine shaft with the way the walls were closing in on her.

Draco dropped his eyes, not wanting to witness the betrayal he was sure would be written all over her face, "Money is all I have." He tried to justify, running a hand through his platinum blond hair.

Hermione scowled at his words before she squared her shoulders and looked him dead in the eye. Draco knew that look, he'd been on the receiving end of it many a time during their years at Hogwarts... disgust. Hermione Granger was disgusted in him, again. But this time it was a thousand times worse because for the first time in his life, he knows it's exactly what he deserves.

"If that is what you believe Draco Malfoy then I've been wasting my time here." Her voice breaking. She looked calm but Draco didn't miss the tears in her beautiful brown eyes, "I'll go. Enjoy being the richest man in the wizarding world." She congratulated, moving towards the front door.

Without so much as another look at him she was gone. Hermione didn't take any belongings, not even an over night bag. Draco took solace in that, she has to be back, he thought while sitting down and waiting for any sign she has returned.

Hours passed, but still Draco sat. Then days. Then weeks. Endless seconds of waiting, drinking, worrying and owling. When the same familiar crack of somebody apparating into the apartment sounded Draco's' heart skips a beat, clinging to the hope that it's Hermione coming home.

It was his father.

Draco lay back down on the sofa, praying his father will just leave him to rot in his own pity.

"No Mudblood?" Lucius queried, already knowing the answer "Her things are gone." He added, looking around the practically empty apartment.

Draco swallowed, "Don't call her that." He spat in a flat, tired voice. "And you know very well she has left. You wouldn't be here terrorizing me otherwise." Draco added, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.

"Nevertheless Draco, the Malfoy fortune will remain yours. Congratulations." Lucius announced in delight.

"I don't want it." Draco spat, sitting up and running a hand over his stubbled face. "Keep your money. I want none of it!" Draco yelled this time, throwing his family crest ring at his fathers feet.

Lucius bent down and picked the jewel up, unaffected by the outburst, simply shrugging and stuffing the ring in his pocket, "Can't say I'm pleased to hear that. I should have seen it coming though, you have always been a disappointment."

The words cut through Draco like a knife, hurting worse then any  Cruciatus he'd ever received. But Draco's scowl never faltered "I guess it's genetic." He bit back without missing a beat.

Lucius smirked at his son and left. Draco returning to his seat, releasing a breath he wasn't aware he had been holding.

Once again he turned to the door and waited.

Another week passed. Another hangover. sure enough all his vaults had been sealed and his apartment seized. Draco squatted in various vacant apartments for a while, he earned his meals cleaning dishes at the Leaky Cauldron, sometimes he'd even get a room upstairs, other nights it was slim pickings of bags of trash or the occasional bed on the Knight Bus.

Ginny had stopped returning his Owls when an he stopped having an address, that's when Draco turned to drinking whatever he could find left in glasses at whichever pub he stumbled into that night.

Drink, wait and beg. That was his life now. It's all he could do. Nobody would hire him for anything better then cleaning dishes for a meal.

A year passed and Draco was just coming to after another binge when he found the article printed to the front of this mornings Daily Prophet:

WAR HEROES WED.