Chapter 1
CRACK!
"What the fu—" Pale eyes flew open at the sharp sound of someone apparating into his flat.
"Did we wake you from your beauty sleep?" Ron Weasley asked with a smirk.
Gray eyes glared at the two intruders in his home who happened to be holding a very drunk witch between them, who looked as if she had passed out.
"Drunk again?" Draco snapped.
"Right on schedule," Harry Potter said tiredly. "Get off the couch, Malfoy. We need to put her down."
Draco scowled. "There are other couches here, in case you haven't noticed."
"Yeah, but this is the biggest one and you know how Hermione is. She'll probably roll off of a smaller one," replied Ron impatiently.
The ex-Slytherin sighed and moved off the couch, looking at the clock. Damn. He'd been asleep for two hours and it was barely midnight. "Where has she been?" he asked as Potter and the Weasel set her down gently.
Potter pushed back Hermione's hair from her face as she slept off the alcohol. "In a muggle pub near here. She was getting picked up by this bloke who oddly enough looked like Krum," Harry said.
"This is getting ridiculous; she needs to see a shrink!" Draco ranted. Harry and Ron looked at him with raised brows. "What?" Draco snapped. "I live with a muggle-born roommate; I pick up things from her and the TV."
Ron ignored his comment. "It's been a bloody year already, why isn't she over him?" he exasperated.
"Tomorrow is the 'anniversary' of you know what with you know who. Seeing the calendar was going to remind her that it's been a year since that sod broke her heart," Harry said darkly.
"I checked on her today in the morning and she told me that she was fine. She even looked okay, too," said Draco.
"Yeah, and she promised us that she wouldn't get drunk… I mean, I'd worry if she were an alcoholic who drank every day, but still, getting drunk on one specific day every single month is a tad creepier. It makes me wonder if Mione isn't off her rocker," Ron said as he sat down and ran a hand through his hair.
"We have to do something about this. We can't let her keep on this destructive path, because the more time that passes, the worse this will get, no matter what Hermione says," Harry said critically.
Draco sighed and mulled things over for a few minutes. A little more than two years ago, he and Hermione had moved into a shared flat. She had wanted to get her own independence in the wizarding world, and Draco had been disowned for turning away from his father's cause. Good old Lucius could rot with his own bloody money for all Draco cared. Though he did feel sorry for his mother, who had practically begged Lucius to take him back.
Besides, his grandparents on his mother's side had left him a hefty amount in a Gringott's vault that would last him two lifetimes; not nearly as much as his father's fortune, but enough that it didn't have to matter what job he got as long as he was happy with it.
Granger had been suspicious when he had asked her if she wanted to share his flat—he had overheard the Weasel and Potty talking about her looking for a place to stay that was near their own flat, but not with them—so he had had a long conversation with her, and she had agreed.
Their living arrangements were cozy and they only interacted with each other when they wanted to. Draco liked silence and solitude, and so did Hermione, though she insisted on inviting Potter and Weasley to have dinner with them once a week.
