An Indefinite Amount of Forever (A Harry Potter Fanfiction--Dramione)

If You Existed, I'd Divorce You

"Well, I don't know about you, but I think that actually went quite well."

Draco clenched his jaw and pulled himself off the floor. "We should go back down."

"Don't worry." She reached out a hand to stroke his arm. "I won't let him make a scene."

"I'm not worried." He didn't look at her, but he covered her hand with his own. His thumb brushed back and forth against it, almost absently. "Hermione, we have to tell him."

"Not yet." She gripped his arm tighter. "I know how to handle him. Just let me be the one to set the pace."

He looked at her through a lock of hair that had fallen in front of his eyes. "No."

And then he left the room.

With a slight, cracking panic in her voice, she called after him. "Draco? Where are you going?"

He was already downstairs when he immediately found Edward scowling in a corner. The man was petulantly nursing a (third?) scotch. He almost looked like he wanted someone to approach him and ask him what was wrong with him. "Excuse me, Edward. I need to have words with you."

He whipped past him into the kitchen, casting a Silencing Charm. Predictably, Edward trailed just behind him, looking impossibly angrier at being bossed around by an overdressed blond person. "You don't summon me in my own home, boy. I don't know how things are in Wiltshire in your fancy mansion, but in this house—"

"Why don't you like me?"

Edward gaped at Draco. It must have floored him that Draco, a proven sissy, had the balls to just say it. Finally.

When Edward didn't answer, Draco continued. "I love your daughter. I love her more than anything. For most fathers that would be enough. But you? I can't figure you out. It's like you—"

"I don't like you."

It was Draco's turn to gape at Edward. "Oh. So, we're doing this."

"You're not good enough for my daughter."

"Bit harsh, but alright."

Edward continued as if Draco had said nothing. "When her mother and I sent her off to school and she used to come home during the holidays, she would always talk about a rude little boy who called her dirty names and teased her."

Draco suppressed the urge to point out that he still occasionally called her dirty names and teased her, and that she seemed to like it pretty well nowadays. But he highly doubted Edward would find the parallel humorous. Plus, every time Draco thought about how awful he was to Hermione back at Hogwarts, it made him feel a tad ill.

"This little boy told her that she didn't belong in his world. And Hermione hated him. She hated the things he stood for and she hated that he made her feel like she didn't belong."

"I imagine so," Draco said. None of this was news. Still, it wasn't exactly fantastic hearing about it in detail. Edward had no reason to hold back from saying all the things Hermione was too tactful to say.

"So, imagine my surprise when she brings that same ignorant little bully to my home and tells me she's in love with him."

Draco stared at the patterns in the kitchen island countertop. He didn't know what to say. How does one defend oneself when they don't have a leg to stand on? "I understand."

Edward sneered disbelievingly and folded his arms across his chest. "You understand?"

"If anybody ever treated a daughter of mine like I treated Hermione when we were growing up, I would hang him over the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch by his fingernails."