Sour Grapes

Chapter 28 - The Jobberknoll

Hermione sat slumped at her desk in the DMLE offices staring at her overflowing inbox of letters from everyone but the one person she wanted to hear from. It was Wednesday morning and it had been three days since she'd last seen or heard from Draco.

He had sent her an owl letting her know that Astoria's family in New Zealand requested his presence there and that he needed to leave immediately.

It had certainly put a damper on what had otherwise been an incredible weekend. Well, almost.

There was a part of her that had been grateful for a moment to breathe after the revelations of Sunday morning. She didn't quite know how to feel about any of it, especially in regard to Ron.

She didn't love him in that way anymore, but she still cared for him, and he truly seemed to be going off the deep end.

Pansy Parkinson was using him; she was sure of it. Maybe it wasn't her business anymore, but thinking back on the memory of him standing in the street outside the Leakey... gaunt, resigned, empty... it made her heart ache. She had fought herself hard under that cloak to resist charging forward and dragging him off to talk some sense into him.

It was no longer her place to do so, however. By her own choice, she had made it so.

She needed to let him go, and she supposed that ruminating over this whole debacle would not aid her in that need.

If only Draco were around to distract from her brooding. So far, everything had been so hot and cold with him; she was beginning to feel physically affected by the changing weather patterns. Just this time last week she had also suffered three days of no contact after a passionate interaction.

Two kisses and a row, to be exact. This past weekend, however, had included quite a few more of both, and a number of other things. And then just like that, he'd been gone.

Then again it was, by and large, what she'd signed up for. She let out a long, coarse sigh, feeling her hopefulness for the future leave her body along with the carbon dioxide.

Though it hadn't been printed in the papers, everyone at her office seemed to know about her divorce, and she'd noticed as much upon her arrival Monday morning. People weren't staring, rather, they seemed to be averting their eyes altogether. Their feigned ignorance to her presence was somehow worse than a barrage of apologies and offerings of supportive advice.

It'd been unsettling, though. What did it say about her that her colleagues were too timid to even acknowledge her?

She shuddered as she noticed that it startlingly resembled the way Ron had felt unable to go to her after the incident with Astoria, and who knows how many other things. Some she knew about, once she thought back on it. Small, stupid things like staining the couch cushion with spaghetti sauce and then buying a completely new couch just to avoid telling her he'd done it. Too bad for him that Ginny missed nothing and clued Hermione in.

Too bad for her that she'd made it a habit of alienating the people around her.

Unable to deal with her co-worker's behavior, she'd spent the week so far hiding in her office. She arrived before anyone else had arrived, and left after everyone else had left. People were steering clear of her, and sending copious memos rather than dropping by.

If she saw one more enchanted paper airplane today...

On cue, one such tiny plane zoomed in through the transom above her door and landed in front of her. She unfurled the note and saw her secretary's handwriting.

Luna Lovegood here to see you – shall I send her in or tell her you're occupied?

Luna! She must be back in Britain to visit with her Father!