You're Beautiful | By : rush22 Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 4420 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story. |
Chapter 4
Draco’s
first thought was that his mind was playing tricks on him. There were so many
times in the past when he had been out in public and thought that he caught at
glimpse of her or that he smelt her nearby. He would of course search the surrounding
area for any signs of her, onlookers always whispering about the normally
composed Malfoy’s intensity in searching for something that never seemed to
exist in the first place.
‘Damn
it! I have to stop putting myself through this shit,’ Draco thought to
himself. The bell on the Hogwarts Express signaled 15 minutes till departure.
Draco made his way towards Kieran.
“Kieran!” called Draco walking over
to where his son was. He noticed that there were a few other children talking
to Kieran and Draco immediately felt better about his son’s future knowing that
he was already making friends.
“Dad! Come
here and meet my new friends,” Kieran called at seeing his father.
Draco moved swiftly towards the
group of children. Some of them he recognized instantly as the children of some
of his old schoolmates but there were a few that he couldn’t quite place.
“Hello children, I am Draco Malfoy,
Kieran’s father.”
Some of the children stared at him
in awe, after all Draco along with other Order members were the topic of many
heroic tales due to the final battle.
“Dad, I want you to introduce
you to Robert, Katie, Michaela, Patrick, and Grace.” Draco began to mentally
figure out who the parents of these kids may be. ‘Robert is definitely a Higgs, Patrick a
Finnegan, and Katie a Jordan.’ Michaela
he didn’t recognize anyone he knew in her and he figured that she must be
muggleborn and Grace; well there was just something about her Draco couldn’t put
his finger on. She looked like he should know her parents somehow but the
answer was eluding him. The girl had light auburn hair, cinnamon colored eyes,
and a smattering of freckles on the bridge of her nose.
“You kids best go find your parents
one last time before the train departs for Hogwarts,” Draco said in a fatherly
voice. The group of children began to scatter off to their respective families.
Turning to his son, Draco began to offer some last minute advice about the castle
and the sorting ritual. Draco very early on had told his son that it didn’t matter
which house he was placed in, only that if he stuck to his morals, was true to
himself, and treated everyone that he met with the respect that he deserved he
would make out just fine.
A flash of orange hair out of the
corner of his eye made Draco lose his concentration. He saw the girl, Grace,
bound over to the man who was obviously her father. Draco took a closer look
and realized that the man was none other than Ron Weasley.
Draco rolled his eyes, leave it to
the Weasley’s to reproduce like rabbits noticing a woman with her back to him,
a small baby slung over her hip. The baby Draco noted seemed to be blessed like
Grace with auburn hair and not that garish shade of orange that the entire Weasley
family seemed to be cursed with. For a moment Draco had wondered who had been
fool enough to marry the man. Even though both he and Ron had worked together
during the War they had still regarded each other as the enemy. Only speaking to each other when considered necessary. It
had been almost 11 years since he’d seen the man last and now it seemed that
his son was making friends with the Weasel’s daughter.
Draco sighed, he had taught his son tolerance
where his own parents had not with him and he had meant every word. Besides it wasn’t
like Kieran was going to be bringing the girl home for tea or anything like
that soon.
Draco picked up Kieran’s trunk and
began walking his son to the boarding ramp of the train with Kieran trailing
behind him happily chatting about all the new spells he was going to be
studying. Suddenly Draco stopped cold in his tracks. The woman who was with
Weasley had turned around. It was Hermione.
Draco could tell that she didn’t see
him because she was too busy saying goodbye to Grace and trying to keep the baby
from tugging on her earring. Draco’s heart caught in his chest. ‘It’s really her,’ his mind kept
screaming. All those years and she still looked incredibly beautiful to him. Her
chestnut hair was pulled back into a neat braid exposing her slender neck to
him. His could hear his pulse in his ears. She was laughing at something that
Grace has said as she handed the baby to Ron. Draco could see the love for her
daughter as she hugged Grace one last time before sending her off onto the
train.
“That’s her isn’t it Dad?” Kieran
broke into his trance.
“Huh?”
“Grace’s mum, that’s the woman from
your story. The one you loved isn’t it?” Kieran was looking at his father and
motioned back to where Grace’s parents were standing. Draco nodded solemnly.
“Hermione,” Draco managed to
whisper.
“I love you Dad, I promise to
write as soon as I can,” was all Kieran said before moving onto the train,
noticing his father’s expression. Draco almost missed the fact that Kieran had
left. He was just staring at the back of Hermione’s head. Draco looked back to
where Kieran had just boarded the train and then back to where Hermione was
standing. She was gone.
‘She
was here, she wasn’t a product of you’re over active imagination,’ Draco’s
mind kept screaming at himself. Hermione was real. She was still as beautiful
as she was all those years ago. She looked happy. She was married to the
Weasel.
Draco felt his heart bottom out at
the last thought. He knew logically that she would move on eventually after he
broke her heart, but somewhere in the deepest recesses of his heart was still
the juvenile thought that Weasley had ended up with something he wanted.
He knew that most of his dislike of
Weasley stemmed from when they were younger, because Weasley’s family, the
family Draco always wanted. When he was younger he would taunt the other boy mercilessly
about the poor financial state of his family. He enjoyed the fact that Ron would
become all defensive and tried to retaliate against Draco’s verbal barbs, but secretly
Draco was always jealous. It had always seemed that no matter what happened to
the Weasley family they always had each other to pull one another through.
Draco at best had his mother but as the precursor to Pansy’s mothering techniques,
she chose not to be around most of the time.
Narcissa
Malfoy had spent most of Draco’s childhood spending her husband’s fortune on
being the perfection of a society wife. After her difficult pregnancy with
Draco she could have no more children after, not that she had wanted any more
but Draco was left as the only child in a harsh environment. Draco had been
left to the care of the house elves until he was old enough to receive ‘schooling’
from his father.
Besides
the family that he was so desirous of, Draco had always been envious of the friendship
of the Golden Trio. He had tried to befriend Harry Potter that first day of
Hogwarts only to have been spurned when the boy took up with Weasley and then
eventually Hermione became the third person in their trio. He understood their
friendship a bit more when he was with Hermione, but deep inside he was still
green-eyed all the same wanting to have close friends that would be there no
matter what circumstances occurred. Draco for the most part of his life had ‘friends’
that were there simply because they thought they could gain something from
being his friend. He had very few true friends, Blaise Zabini being one of
them.
Now,
Draco had seen the proof that Weasley had the one thing that Draco had wanted
most desperately for himself, he had Hermione. Draco could only assume that by
his memory they must have gotten married sometime after graduation and before
he saw her in the study that night at Grimmauld Place. Something in Draco’s stomach turned when
he realized that she must have gotten married sometime around when he wedded
Pansy and pregnant shortly after seeing how Grace was the same year as Kieran.
He never remembered seeing anything in the Daily Prophet about their wedding or
a birth announcement for Grace.
Draco
was actually glad that he hadn’t uncovered her wedding at the time. If it was
around the time of his own marriage, he was already under a lot of stress due
to his unwanted marriage to Pansy, never mind the fact that he was still
thinking of her daily at that point. He still thought about her to this very day.
The
hulking steam engine of the Hogwarts Express blew its whistle one last time
signaling its departure from the station. Draco glanced to the cabin window
where he saw Kieran along with Grace and the other kids pressing their eager
faces against the window, waving to the parents as they began their journey
towards Hogwarts. Draco caught Kieran’s gaze. Kieran smiled at his father and
nodded.
A
slight prickle of tears threatened to fall from his eyes. Draco Malfoy hadn’t cried
since the day his son was born and here he was standing on the platform of 9
and ¾, his son leaving him to begin his own life in some regards and the woman
he loved for the majority of his life was married with children of her own. He took
a deep breath to steady himself before departing the station to head back to
the Manor.
The
last car of the Express whirred past Draco and he looked at its passing. It was
time to go home. Draco looked up across the platform and saw Hermione standing
there. She was looking at the tail end of the train. He took a moment before leaving
to look at her one last time.
He
was trying to memorize everything about her at this time, in this place. ‘If only things had been different,’ he
thought to himself one last time before turning to leave, but not before Hermione
turned to meet his gaze.
Draco
stood frozen as if someone had cast a spell on him. Hermione was looking right
at him and she too seemed if she was unable to move. He could feel the heat of
her gaze on him even from across the platform and it warmed a part of his heart
he thought was locked away years ago.
Draco
wanted to call out to her, to tell her that he still loved her. He opened his
mouth to speak to her but found nothing would come out. People were rushing to
and fro about the platform but all he could see was Hermione. It was if just the
two of them existed. He could see as he looked into her eyes the spark that he
used to see when it was just the two of them alone.
The
look she was sending him was giving so much away. He could see the years of
pain that she built up over him; he could only recognize it easily because he
saw it in himself many times before. He wanted to cross the platform and
comfort her. He wanted to tell her the truth about his hasty wedding to Pansy
and why he had lied to her like he had wanted to do so many times before. She
was his! She said she would always be his and he still wanted to believe in the
power of her declaration from so long ago. He had ached so much for her touch
and here she was just a few feet away from him!
She
never stopped loving him! Draco could see it in her eyes. Inwardly he felt
pleased but was shocked out of the feeling of pleasantness by the hand that
currently resting on Hermione’s shoulder. Draco’s eyes shot up to where Weasley
was standing.
The
man obviously thought that Hermione was staring off into space, which was good;
Draco didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention to himself.
He could see Hermione’s eyes shifting between himself and Weasley as if trying
to choose between them. Ron was trying to drag her towards the barrier back
into London, placing their baby in her arms. Hermione
quickly looked at him again. Her eyes shining with apologetic
tears. Draco nodded to her in defeat, his eyes motioning to Weasley who
looked like he had somewhere better to be.
Hermione
graced him with a smile causing her unshed tears to let go and leave tracks
down her cheeks before turning to leave the station. Draco watched as Weasley’s
arm snaked itself around her waist as they made their way through the crowd. It
felt like they had been looking at each other for what seemed like a lifetime
when it was nothing more than a few moments. She was gone.
Draco
wasn’t sure how long he had stood there after Hermione had left the station. It
didn’t matter much to him. He had known all along that one day he would be
faced with the ultimate reality. Hermione would never again be his. He would always
love her that he was sure of, but he would never be with her again.
Draco
turned to exit the train station glancing back to where he last saw Hermione
standing.
“I’ll
love you forever, goodbye Hermione.” He whispered into the afternoon sun,
before exiting the magical barrier. His heart feeling slightly better than it
had in years.
*~~~The End~~~*
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