Dramione- When You Don't See Me

16. Haunted Hermione

Song: If I Can't Have You- Shawn Mendes

Hermione had just woken up and written back to Molly about how she was doing. She left it short and sweet because her tired mind couldn't possibly write more than a paragraph.

Groggy, she got up from the window seat and strolled into the kitchen. Upon her arrival she realized she wasn't hungry nor did she have any food in the house. She didn't want to go to the store or do anything. She just wandered aimlessly around the house, looking out the windows. From her apartment she could see the canals, they were almost always filled with happy couples. She didn't know why she ever thought it'd be great to live here as this had become her break up house, in a way.

She kept staring out the window at the happy people in canoes, she swore for a second she saw white hair and did a double take. It was a woman, she sighed. When would she forget Draco Malfoy? She'd received his letter early that morning.

"Dearest Hermione,

Please talk to me. It's been less than a day and I already miss seeing you. I miss your laugh, your voice, your hair, your everything.

Please even if it's just the once, reply to me. I will keep sending letters for as long as it takes to get a response.

I can't sleep here without you, I'm writing this at 3am. Every time I try I wake up from a nightmare. I thought nightmares of the war were bad but nothing compares to this. I swear Herms, I didn't lie or cheat on you. I was telling the truth when I said I love you. Please write back to me, come back to me. I need you.

-Draco"

Hermione cried when she got to the end of the letter. A lot of her wanted to believe him and come running back into his arms, kissing him and running her hands through his hair. She couldn't bring herself to reply to him, 90% of her still believed he lied to her. She knew he thought she was a toy he could play with. She was hurting and he swooped in and comforted her to try and get close to her. He got what he wanted and now that she wasn't there to throw herself at him, he wanted her back.

Hermione put the letter on the top of the fridge and didn't give Draco's owl anything, not note nor treat. She sent the owl away and closed her window. She was realizing that life would get harder faster than it did with Ron.

Hermione needed a job if she was going to pay rent. Her war hero royalties weren't ever quite enough to get her through a month, as she'd noticed last time. She didn't want to go back to working in the grocery store. She needed some place new and inviting. Somewhere happy and busy to distract herself. She looked in the muggle news paper for jobs and found an ad for a waitress job at a small Café. She circled it so she could go to the shop the next day. Hopefully she could get it and it would be enough money for rent.

The day went by and Hermione found herself on the couch a lot. She tried reading books but they didn't interest her. She even tried playing music. She'd forgotten about Draco's CD still being in it and that's what played first. She didn't recognize the song as she cleaned up some of the dust around the house. Then his voice came through the machine and she stopped everything. The vase she'd been cleaning fell from her hand and broke into shards.

One of the pieces cut her leg but she was too distracted to notice. She walked back to the radio and shut it off. Maybe what she needed was peace and quiet. She fixed the vase with Reparo then continued cleaning things up. She mopped the floors and that's when the cut came to her attention. It had bled and was more so dried out by the time she noticed it. Some of the blood stained the top of her sock. The cut was maybe an inch long and just above her ankle.

She sighed as she had been doing the entire day. Walking to the bathroom cabinet, she found her first aid kit and cleaned herself up with alcohol before putting a bandaid over it. She told herself she needed to go to the wizard market soon to get more Dittany. The cut stung as the antibacterial liquid seeped into it. Hermione had to bite her finger to not react to the pain.

She'd finished cleaning the house and it was now just about dinner time. She still wasn't hungry and apparently Molly knew this would happen. A beak hit her window and Hermione opened it for Illume to give her something. It was a filled Tupperware container and a letter. Hermione gave Illume a treat while she read the note.

"Hermione,

I know you haven't left the house today as you are probably reacting the same way as Draco. I figure you haven't gone to the store and your refrigerator is most likely empty. I had some left over sandwiches from lunch and thought I should send them to you. I hope they've arrived in good shape.

Hugs and kisses
-Molly"

Hermione smiled and quickly wrote a thank you note to Molly to send with Illume. As the owl left she opened the small container. Three triagular sandwiches were inside it and she took one, putting the rest in the fridge. She sat on a barstool in silence as she ate. It didn't really taste like anything which was odd as Molly usually made great and taste-filled foods.

Hermione was rereading the letter for entertainment, she frowned as she noticed Molly mentioned Draco. That meant he was still living with them and Molly believed he was innocent. She was surprised to hear he was actually sad not just faking it in his letter. She took his back from on top of the frige and compared it to Molly's notes from the day.

Molly and Draco had similar handwriting, very neat and slightly loopy. Draco's was written more like italics while Molly's was as upright as possible. Molly had some missing things like not every t had a line through it at the top, making them look like L's and I's. Draco's didn't skip anything, everything was written legibly and perfect. No missed dots, lines, or slashes, just perfect cursive. The way he signed his name was very curly and fancy. Almost unreadable at it's point of precision. The D was written in print and raco was in fancy cursive. The letters lead into each other flawlessly and the o had a little swoop of ink after it. She couldn't help but hope he would always write to her like this, she found it truly beautiful.

She put both of the letters away again and just laid on her bed. She couldn't fall asleep. She missed his presence, his warmth, his voice, his everything. She used to look forward to his deep morning voice and his kisses to her forehead and cheeks. She even enjoyed when he would blow a piece of her hair out of his face and it would land a small distance away from her eye. She giggled a little at the small memory. She really did miss him. Hermione wondered if he did actually love her, she knew he missed her but loving her was surely a stretch too far. Right?

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