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It's Not Over	By : cpetnm Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 70649 -:- Recommendations : 6 -:- Currently Reading : 5
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
A.N. Thanks to everyone reading It’s Not Over.

ummm- Your review made me laugh! You’re right on both accounts.

Knock, knock, knock. Hermione woke to rapping on the front door. The Grangers were at work on this Tuesday morning. She groggily waited to see if the visitor might leave, but a few seconds later the knocking continued. Pulling on jeans and a shirt, Hermione went downstairs to answer the door.

“Just a minute,” she called.

She opened the door to find an unhappy, disheveled Theodore Nott.

“Theo! Is something wrong?”

“Can we talk?”

She beckoned him into the house. He followed her to the modern kitchen so she could make coffee. She set the coffee to percolate and sat down across from Theo.

“Are you seeing Malfoy?” he asked. His normally tranquil, handsome face was grim.

Hermione bit her lower lip and nodded.

“Did you stop seeing me to date him?”

“No, Theo!”

He stared at her incredulously. “I thought you were trying to make a clean break when you went to the United States. Why would you change your mind for that arsehole?”

Hermione didn’t know how to answer Theo. She got up and poured two cups of coffee. She set a cup in front of Theo and took a sip of her own brew.

“My relationship with Draco is complicated. I don’t think anything I could say to you would make you feel better about this situation.” While she didn’t feel that she had to explain herself to Theo, she didn’t want to injure him any more that he obviously was injured now.

“Draco looks out for himself above all else. Your needs, your desires will always be second to his.”

“Maybe, Theo.”

Hermione cared very much for Theo. He was perfect in so many ways, but he didn’t make her toes curl and her stomach flutter in excitement. Theo was comfort and stability, while Draco was passion and intensity. Hermione knew Draco was self-centered, but she also knew from experience that he did care for her. But his quick temper and ego could obfuscate his good intentions.

Theo stood. “He will hurt you, Hermione. I hope when it happens you can recover.” He gave her a sad smile before walking out of the kitchen. She heard the front door close behind him a moment later.

Hermione put her head down on the table and took deep breaths. Her fight-or-flight response had been activated and her body was tingling with adrenaline. She dumped her coffee in the sink and thought about what Theo had said about his former friend.

Draco walked into Gringotts to exchange Galleons for American dollars. He and Hermione would leave for the United States in two days. He was watching an old wizard in sparkly yellow robes when a punch hit his jaw and knocked him to the ground. Looking up, he found a furious Theo Nott standing over him. All around them witches and wizards gave them a wide berth. The security wizards were running towards them.

Draco got up and lunged at Nott’s midsection. They fell to the ground, Draco punching Theo’s face twice before he was pulled away by the security wizards.

“What the fuck, Theo?” Draco spat.

“You know what that’s about, you backstabbing piece of shit!” Theo swore at him. “I would have asked her to be my wife. You’ll never be able to give her what she deserves.”

Bill Weasley had come out of his office and took Theo by the shoulders. “Not here, Theo, not here.” Theo shrugged Bill off.

“You know nothing about my relationship with Hermione. If I find out you went near her…” Draco left the threat unfinished, allowing Theo to draw a conclusion to that statement.

“What? You’ll take it out on her, make her feel like shit about it? You’re an abusive fuck, Malfoy!”

“Screw you, Theo. She made her choice. Deal with it.” Draco looked at Theo contemptuously and stalked out of the bank.

Too upset to Apparate, he walked to the Leaky Cauldron to enter Muggle London. His face was throbbing where Theo had punched him. His knuckles hurt, too. Did Theo really say I was abusive to Hermione? I would never lay a hand on her, but he insinuated that I would hurt her emotionally if I was angry enough. Draco thought about that idea. Merlin, did he really do that to her? Draco had to see her. He needed the reassurance that he wasn’t the man Theo painted him to be.

Hermione drove up to her parents’ home and noticed Draco sitting on the steps. When she saw the angry purple bruise on his jaw, she knew, she just knew, something had happened with Theo.

She exited the car and sat next to him on the step.

“What happened?”

Draco looked at the ground for another moment before looking at Hermione.

“Theo and I had an altercation.”

“He came here this morning,” Hermione told him.

Merlin’s balls. “What did he want?”

“He wanted to know if I was seeing you.”

Draco’s face betrayed his agitation. “And?”

“And he was hurt, Draco! He doesn’t understand why we broke up because I was leaving only for me to turn around and start seeing you.”

“He wanted to marry you,” Draco murmured.

Hermione looked at Draco sharply.

“Would you have accepted a proposal?” he asked, his stomach in knots.

Hermione watched a young mother and a toddler walking past the house.

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

Draco felt sick with this knowledge. Hermione stood and offered Draco her hand.

“Come in and let me heal you. We can talk inside.”

Hermione knew Draco was insecure about Theo and the events of the day had worn him down. They sat on her bed as Hermione used her wand to ease the swelling on his face. She used a small amount of Essence of Dittany to erase the bruise that had formed.

“What did Theo say that has you so quiet?” Hermione asked as she watched the bruise fade. She smoothed his hair from his face and looked at his serious expression.

“Theo referred to me as abusive.”

“In what way?” Hermione wondered. Draco was no angel, but she didn’t consider him abusive, though his anger could be impetuous.

“I believe he thinks I’ve been emotionally abusive to you.”

Ah. “When I first started seeing Theo, I was surprised he didn’t want to hide our relationship. I think after he went to see you a few months ago, he figured out what had transpired between us. That’s my guess, anyway. I never talked to him about you.”

“I know I’ve hurt you, but I never considered what I did abuse.”

Hermione shook her head. “If I thought your behavior was abusive, I wouldn’t maintain any kind of relationship with you. I’m sorry he attacked you. That doesn’t seem like him.”

“I got in a couple of good punches,” Draco admitted.

“Will you let it go with Theo? He’s hurt, Draco, and he took it out on you. I think he liked the idea of a family and he got some of that with me and my parents.”

Draco rubbed his hand over his face. “Merlin, your parents probably loved him.”

Hermione put her arm around Draco’s shoulders. “I won’t lie to you. They liked him a lot. But they want me to be happy.”

Draco rested his head against hers. “Will you tell me if Theo seeks you out?”

“I don’t think he will, Draco.”

“Humor me, please.”

“Yeah. I’ll tell you if he does,” she said.

“Fuck, my father is going to kill me when he finds out what happened.”

“Did you start the fight, Draco?”

“No, no. Theo threw the first punch. The fight was in the Gringotts lobby.”

“Oh, that’s not good. The goblins aren’t very forgiving.”

“I know. Ugh, what a bloody mess.”

Here’s your chance to show Draco how much you care for him, said the voice in Hermione’s head that always cheered for Draco. Don’t let him feel inferior to Theo, because he worries that you’ll go back to Theo next time he fucks up.

“I’m not going to leave you for Theo,” Hermione reassured him. Her hand stroked the hair at the nape of his neck. His muscles were tense and she kneaded them lightly.

“No?” he whispered, his head down to allow her hands better access. Hermione lightly scraped his scalp with her blunt nails.

“You know what I’ve always appreciated most about you?”

“What?” he said, sighing. Her hands felt like heaven.

“You don’t treat me with kid gloves. When people don’t know me, they assume because I’m slight and have delicate features that I’m breakable. You would not believe how often I get treated like a little girl, which is ridiculous to me, because I’m a responsible adult. Even when people know me, they act like I have to know everything. People don’t challenge my opinions.”

She stopped to move behind him and massage his shoulders with both hands.

“I love that you challenge me, Draco. It’s true that nothing has ever been simple between us, but I happily accept that because I know the burden isn’t entirely on me.”

“Well, I certainly don’t treat you like a china doll in bed.”

Hermione could hear the smirk in his voice. She wrapped her arms around him, her chin on his shoulder.

“Trust me to give this—us—a chance. I know you’re a prat and yet here I am.”

“It was only a matter of time before you came to your senses, Granger. I am quite irresistible.”

Hermione gently nuzzled his cheek and lightly kissed him. “Thank you for helping me see reason, Malfoy.”
- 15
- 16
- 17
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It's Not Over