Bite me Granger: a dramione fanfiction~

t h i r t y f o u r

[Hermione's POV]

Hermione paced up and down the front of a small, vintage-looking bakery that Fleur had recommended with her hands on her hips and her shoes clacking against the pavement as she blew her hair out of her eyes while she was waiting for Draco. They were supposed to meet at the bakery at two o'clock but it was nearing two-thirty and he still wasn't there. He can't have forgotten it, no. He wouldn't have. He's just caught up with something, maybe he's in a meeting or something. For Merlin's sake, Hermione. Just stop worrying! He'll be here soon. He'll be here.

CRACK!

Hermione had a sudden intake of breath as Draco apparated behind her, "Where have you been?" She whisper-shouted at him.

"Sorry, I got caught up." He muttered nimbly, "Let's go order a cake shall we? I'm sure the baker's been waiting long enough." He grabbed her hand and lead her though the door. Something had scared him. She knew it but he wasn't telling her, so many things had been going on with their lives but nothing had broken them yet and she hoped that whatever happened wouldn't.

The moment she stepped through the door she was hit with a wave of freshly baked bread, the smell bringing back childhood memories when she used to go to the local bakery with her parents. Cakes, tarts and éclairs of all flavours and sizes lined the shelves to the left and bread, croissants and other mouth watering pastries filled the baskets and shelves to the right. Fleur really did know her stuff because Hermione had never seen such a small bakery hold so much diversity.

"Wow," Draco breathed, "This is like a bread and pastry museum."

"Haha, I told you. Fleur knows her stuff." She made her way to the front of the counter and waited in line after a customer who was just ordering a baguette. "Do you have any ideas yet?"

"Nope, but we'll come up with something." He shrugged and smiled down at her, "I mean, we could just make it ourselves?"

"Draco. Do you even know how big a wedding cake is? They're huge. And not to mention fancy as well."

"Yeah but you'll come up with a way. After all, brightest witch in our year." he grinned and Hermione rolled her eyes to hide a small blush.

"Can I help you?" The baker called from behind the counter.

"Yes. We'd like to order a wedding cake?"

"Oh no, I am so sorry. We don't do wedding cakes, we usually do the catering for the wedding but no cakes." He said through a very thick french accent and rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "What are your names?"

"I'm Hermione and this is my fiancé, Draco."

"Ah ha! Hermione! You are a friend of Fleur, yes?" she nodded slowly, "She called me a couple of days ago and asked if I could do a wedding for a friend of hers, I thought it was catering you wanted?"

"We were think of a wedding cake," Draco awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck and gave Hermione a look as if to say we might actually be screwed.

"But have you got a catering service?"

They didn't have a catering service yet, as a matter of fact. "No, we don't actually."

"Wonderful! I would gladly do the catering for you then, if you'd like, of course mademoiselle."

"Um, sure!" Hermione said and turned to Draco, "That's fine, right?"

"Yep,"

"Great, please write down your address and I'll send you the list of food you might want for your wedding." He handed her and piece of paper and Hermione wrote their address down. "Ah, merci and I'll send that on your way."

The two of them exited the bakery with somewhat of a success. They had initially planned to order a wedding cake they ended with the catering but it wasn't all that bad, right? Now, they just had to find another bakery for their wedding cake or they could just make it themselves but Hermione doubted that that would end up well.

"Anddddd we still don't have a wedding cake." Draco raised his eyebrow at her in amusement.

"Look, if worst comes to worst, we could just make it ourselves!"

"And end up blowing up the kitchen,"

"We won't end up blowing up the kitchen."

"Yeah, we will." He grinned and grabbed her hands as they walked to catch a bus, "We have something else to worry about." He said, his voice turning grim.

"What is it?" She wished that she was wrong. Wrong about the attack at her house being connected to whatever he was about to tell her. She had never wanted to be wrong so badly before.

"I met with Pansy to sort things out," he took a deep breath as if mentally steadying himself, "She admitted that it was her. She did everything, attacked your house, pretended to be Astoria, everything. And she's going to do more."

"What do you mean, more?"

"She said she was going to ruin our wedding, ruin us. Break us apart."

"Maybe she's bluffing."

"She's not. I know her. She's about as Slytherin as you can get. Pansy, she doesn't just say whatever she likes. She'll say them, and she'll do them."

The bus was just pulling over when they reached the bus stop and they got on the bus, ready to head back to Draco apartment, "Remember how this all started off with some bickering, us becoming prefects, taking an interest in someone, a couple mugs of Butterbeer,"

"And some Firewhiskey," Draco said with a small grin and Hermione relived the fond memory of when things weren't complicated. When Pansy was just another girl who was jealous of Draco's girlfriend and nothing more. But never, not even in her wildest nightmares did she imagine that things would go this far. Sometimes she couldn't help blame herself for everything. Maybe if she had been more patient with Ron, tried to be more than just a close friend then all of this might not even happen at all.

No one would have to get hurt.

She hadn't realised how long she had been quiet for until Draco nudged her arm to tell her that it was their stop. "Hermione," he took her hands and held them in his, "You can't possibly blame yourself for all of this."

"But if we hadn't gone out in the first place, no one would be getting hurt." She ran a hand through her hair and sighed, "We can't let her them. All of them. Not Harry, Ron, Ginny, Molly and Arthur, she can't."

"And we won't let her." Draco lead her to the couch and went to make them a drink, he returned and offered the Butterbeer to her and took a swig of Firewhiskey, "She's changed. So much. You know, I used to really like her in like third year or something. She could've been so much more but - it's all gone for her. She's gone."

She had never really liked Pansy but in a way she could understand why Draco was upset. She was his friend long before Hermione was ever anything to Draco. She put her hand on the back of his neck and pressed her kips to his, tasting the Firewhiskey that warmed her lips. "I don't know if it's possible, but we could try to - I don't know - save her from going to far."

"I don't think we can." He sighed and rested his head on her lap, "I saw her today. I saw the way she looked at me, the way she said your name as if it was poison burning her tongue. She's too far gone, not to mention her parents."

"Her parents?"

"I mean, with them being ex-death eaters and all, what did you expect?"

Hermione didn't know how to reply to that, she understood that her parents had somewhat high expectations of her but she could never know what Pansy was going through. In a way she pitied the girl but she was scared. Scared for the people around her, the people she loved and cared about. She stroked Draco's hair lightly as her eyelids became too heavy and fell asleep, not having a clue about what her nightmares held for her.

Planning a wedding was harder than she had thought, they didn't even have a wedding cake yet.