"This isn't working." She was already halfway buttoned up when she turned to face him. His slacks still unbuttoned and his shirt open around his shoulder, which he gave no indication of closing anytime soon. Hermione rolled her eyes, continuing to do up her blouse. "We just finished. Give it a moment. Besides, I have to be-" "No, not this," Draco scoffs, gesturing to his open trousers. "This." She blinks carefully, watching his long fingers extend from his own chest to hers.

"I just don't understand. Why... why Malfoy?" She was scrubbing the dishes in front of her the muggle way, a habit she did when she was nervous, uncomfortable, or angry. And now, with her fiancé red in the face and not meeting her eye, she was all three. "He's..." From her peripheral she watched him run a shaking hand through his hair. "He's just everything I'm not. Everything I've always wanted to be."

He didn't mean to find it and it wasn't his fault it was there and really you couldn't blame him because the entire house was made of wood and wood naturally had holes and he didn't build the damned house and technically if he hadn't found it, someone else surely would have and what were the odds that she was in the next room anyway? And mostly all of that was right. For instance, he did not mean to find it. But he had anyway.

How did it feel? It felt like he was barely holding it together. She, of all people, should shun him. Or yell at him. Curse him. Spit at him. Take out her wand and blast him off the face of the earth. It was crushing guilt and relief and confusion all at once when he looked at Hermione Granger. The monotony of Draco's daily routine had become both a lifeline and a noose. But this new habit of grabbing morning coffee with Hermione Granger is quickly becoming a reason to get out of bed and is unfortunately forcing him to re-evaluate his inconsequential existence. Hermione is living her life in fragments, separate pieces scattered about, and she can't find a way to step back and let the full picture form. Why is morning coffee with Draco Malfoy the only thing that makes sense anymore? *cover art created by @eternallyreadinggoodthings

Hermione felt the pounding in her ears again. She would see him for the first time since the Great Hall, gaunt and stricken at the Slytherin table with his mother clutching his arm. She hadn't meant to look for him. Not in the corridors, not beneath the white sheets of the fallen, not on the way to the Chamber of Secrets with Ron, but she was a stupid girl.