𝐂𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐄 | 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘦

eight

"I still can't believe this," Ginny said sadly, looking at the empty walls of Hermione's house. She, Hermione, Harry and Ron had all decorated the place together when they first moved in.

Ginny had come to help her move all of her stuff out. Hermione was glad for the company, afraid that she would go to pieces if she had to do it alone. Like Harry had said: she loved this place.

"Me neither," Hermione muttered, plunking the last box into her car. She looked sadly at the stairs leading up to the doorway. All four of them had put their hands in it when it was still drying, Harry and Ginny and Hermione and Ron. Underneath their handprints, it messily read R+H H+G.

Ginny caught her looking at it and smiled sadly at the reminder of the past. "It's going to be fine."

"I know," Hermione said. It would be fine, eventually, but right now, it hurt.

"Hermione, why do you still have this?" Ginny asked, holding up a set of photo frames of her and Ron from the day they had gotten engaged. "I'm throwing it out."

"All right," she said. Ginny slipped the pictures of her and Ron out of the frame and threw them in the waste bin.

Ginny was helping her unpack her things into the guest bedroom. "Didn't Ron give you this? You know, after a breakup, getting rid of the things that remind you of them help."

"I just put all of the stuff in a box and shoved it in the back of the closet," Hermione said mildly, folding her clothes and neatly stacking them on the closet shelf. "I never took it back out."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "I'm throwing it all out."

"Okay," Hermione said. She didn't really care about little trinkets, pictures that were still in cameras, in phones. She cared a lot about their house. It held so many good memories, and letting it go was hard. She groaned in frustration. She needed to stop thinking about it.

"Stop thinking about your house," Ginny said, coming back in, as if she'd read Hermione's mind. Hermione groaned again.

Ginny flopped dramatically onto the mattress. "Let's do something fun. To distract you."

"Like what?"

"Like... I don't know. Let's go to Italy."

"What?"

"Yeah. Let's go to Italy," Ginny said jokingly.

"Right now?"

"Yeah."

Hermione sat up straight. "You know what, let's go."

"What?" Ginny stared at her with wide eyes.

"Let's go to Italy."

"You're actually agreeing with me? That means it's probably a bad decision," Ginny muttered.

"Yes. Let's go before I change my mind," Hermione said. Ginny beamed. "I'm calling Luna, she's coming too," she said excitedly. "Pack clothes for three days. You don't have to work on the weekends, right?"

"Nope," Hermione said, already at the closet.

"I'm so hyped for this, you don't even know-" Ginny said delightedly as she darted out of the room, cell phone in hand.

"I brought these two," Luna said.

They were standing in a plaza with a fountain in the center. It was almost six, and foot traffic was starting to pick up. Hermione had her hair in a ponytail for once, up and out of her face, since Venice was quite humid. She had on a backpack that she'd never used. She'd bought it for a camping trip she and Harry were going to go on, but Harry ended up getting the flu so the whole plan was for nothing.

Ginny was looking around everyone, excitement evident in her face. Her backpack was considerably smaller than Hermione's, the kind that a kid would bring to primary school. Luna's was similar to Ginny's.

"'These two'," Blaise repeated, scoffing. He had a backpack on as well, leaving Malfoy as the only one with a suitcase.

"Draco, why do you have a suitcase?" Ginny asked him, frowning in confusion.

"So that I could bring my things!" Draco said defensively, crossing his arms.

"What things?" Ginny asked, laughing. "You only need clothes."

He scowled at her and muttered something about annoying worms. He Apparated away, then reappeared with a backpack. "Happy?" he asked her.

His hair wasn't as gelled anymore, as he had kept it back at Hogwarts. Today, not a trace of gel in it, blowing around in the wind. He kept pushing stray strands out of his eyes with an adorably frustrated look on his face. Hermione's eyes skipped over him, lingering on the way the sun cast the strands of his hair and the tips of his eyelashes in molten gold.

"Hermione?" Ginny asked, nudging her.

"Huh?" she asked, snapping back into reality.

"You zoned out a bit there," Ginny said, patting her friend on the back.

"You were busy staring at Draco," Luna said matter-of-factly. Hermione flushed, sputtering, "What? I-"

"It's okay, Granger. I'm not offended," Draco said, grinning. "I would stare at myself too. I'm quite dashing."

She scowled and flipped him off. Ginny chortled lightly, remembering that they had been like that all the time at Hogwarts. How had they fallen out of touch, Draco and Hermione? They'd always had so much fun together. Well. "We've got to find a hotel. Blaise, you've been here before, would you mind-"

"This way, madame," he said, walking off with a flourish. Ginny laughed, pleased with his goofiness. Hermione smiled knowingly at the way Blaise lit up when she laughed.

Draco kept noticing the little things that Hermione did all throughout the night. She held doors for strangers. She complimented the random woman walking down the street. She retied her ponytail slightly up and to the left. Her left eye closed more than her right when she laughed, but her right closed more than her left when she smiled.

It was all coming back to him. Everything, everything about her that had entranced him back at Hogwarts, every single memory that warmed him like syrup on a lazy day- how had he forgotten this, let it slip through the imperfect sieve of memory? How had he forgotten everything that they shared, everything that had pulled him out of the darkness out of the war? How... how had they fallen out of contact, just stopped speaking, just like that?

"Hey, what's up with you?" Blaise whispered when Hermione and Ginny stopped to go into a stationery store. "You've been acting weird all night."

"It's nothing," Draco said, shaking his head. It was Hermione.

"No, it's not," Luna said, joining the conversation. "Draco keeps making eyes at Hermione."

"I am not! And keep your voice down!"

"Oh, he is," Blaise said to Luna seriously, ignoring him.

"I am not making eyes at Granger!" he hissed under his breath. Luna sighed. "Draco, you look at her the way that Blaise looks at Ginny."

Blaise looked down bashfully and Draco crossed his arms. "Granger just looks nice tonight, that's all."

"Are you saying that I don't look nice every day? Honestly, Malfoy, I'm offended."

Draco whirled, seeing Granger standing behind him with a grin on her face. Ah, revenge is sweet. "That's not what I- why were you listening to our conversation, anyway?"

"I wasn't. You're just very bad at whispering," Granger said smugly. Ginny soon came out of the store, oblivious, and they set off for their hotel.