Tainted Love - Drarry

Another Chapter Seventeen

Hermione 

It occurred to me a couple of weeks ago that I didn't know myself as well as I thought I had. 

I had always known I was going to go to Hogwarts. I had always known that I was going to work for the Ministry when I finished school. I had always known that I was going to find a husband like Ron one day and maybe start a family.

At least I thought I had known that last fact. 

These last couple of weeks have been...strange to say the least. I thought that getting together with Ron was going to fulfill this missing piece that I had inside of me. This hole that my one true love was supposed to wedge themselves into. And I just assumed that that person was going to be him. I mean, we had never really talked about getting together before we kissed in the Chamber last year. And to be perfectly honest, I thought that if anything I would end up dating Harry. But, it just seemed right for the two of us to be together after the war was over. We had been through so much it just...seemed necessary. 

But everything is different now. Ron and I but heads on just about everything in our relationship. I want to go for a picnic, he wants to watch a Quidditch match. I want to go to the bookstore, he wants to go to Honeydukes. I like sugar in my tea, he doesn't even like tea. And we would always get into little tifts over that sort of thing, which was utterly ridiculous. 

"I don't know how you stomach that dirty grass water." Ron ridiculed as I sipped my chamomile tea. 

"It's just a drink Ron, that's like saying I don't know how you could possible like chicken." 

"Chicken is a quality food. That's just disgusting." 

"Everyone has their preferences, why is this such  problem?"  I sassed. 

"It's not a problem I just think it's gross." 

"Well mind your own damn business, and let me enjoy my tea!" And so on and so forth. 

So it was slowly starting to seem like Ron and I really weren't meant for each other. However, I didn't know how I was supposed to tell him this. I mean he didn't seem to be too happy in this relationship either, but would either of us have the guts to say anything? And on top of that, there's my other problem. 

And that problem revolved around a certain Slytherin girl who I had recently befriended. 

I had never been the biggest Pansy fan in my previous years at Hogwarts. So I was honestly quite skeptical when she and Draco first began to hang around us. Aside form me, she was probably one of the smartest witches in our year, which of course made me jealous when were were children. But, she seemed to have changed after the war. She was calmer, and less boastful, but still snarky like any Slytherin. We had so much in common. She surprisingly had a small obsession with Muggle books, which were the root of most of our conversations the first few weeks of our friendship. She also loved to travel, just like me. We often compared notes of the places we've been, and the places we want to go. And we both loved chamomile tea with two scoops of sugar. 

As the weeks went on, Pansy and I became closer and closer. But...it was different than my friendships with Ron and Harry (who were my best friends in the universe). At first, I thought it was just because I had never had many girl friends before. They had always made me nervous, and I just naturally gravitated towards boys. I had never felt as attached to Harry and Ron as I did to her. It was like when she wasn't around, everything was a little less exciting. A little less enjoyable. But I didn't realize what that feeling was until last week. When we were sitting outside by the rock where I punched Draco in the face in third year (and her favorite place to relax). She was lying in the grass, looking at the sunset with the most serene look on her face, her short black hair whipping through the wind and a slight pink color in her cheeks. She was...beautiful dare I say it. It was a sight that made my heart feel warm and fuzzy. That's when it clicked.