She wasn't sure what she was expecting from Ron after her lunch with Draco made the front page of the Prophet, but showing up in her office doorway with another bouquet of flowers was not it.
"So that was you in the Prophet," He sighed. "I should've known he would take you out to lunch right after."
She rolled her eyes. "What do you want, Ron?"
"Can we talk?" He asked quietly, gesturing towards her slightly with the flowers.
She raised an eyebrow at him before looking down at her work. "I suppose that you won't leave me alone until I do?"
"I hear it's better to talk sooner rather than later," He said as he walked in and set the flowers on the corner of her desk and sat down.
"You've never been one to talk sooner," She said as she gathered her papers together and put them in her drawer. "Your tactic was to always ignore the person. You did it plenty of times to Harry and I."
He gave her a sheepish look before running a hand through his hair. "I know, and it was extremely immature of me but right now I'm trying to do the right thing."
"Well it's a little late for that, isn't it?" She asked, glaring at him.
"'Mione, I know I messed up-"
"Messed up?" She interrupted in an annoyed tone. "That's what you think you did? No, Ron; blowing up a potion back in school was messing up."
"I know, I know..." He sighed and put his head in his hands for a few moments before sitting back up. "Please just tell me how I can fix this, I want to get things back to the way they were."
"I'm sorry, but there's no chance at fixing this," She said, shaking her head. "I'm filing divorce paperwork this weekend."
The look in his eyes would've broken her heart if she wasn't already upset about the situation. He didn't say anything though for a few minutes and she broke the silence by asking, "Why did you even do it?"
Ron sighed and looked down. "I honestly thought you were shagging Malfoy behind my back, and I retaliated."
"That's your reasoning?" She glared at him. "You thought I was cheating when I explained multiple times that we are simply working together?"
"How was I not supposed to think something was going on?" He countered. "You two were writing notes to each other!"
"Notes that had to do with his employee and my wellbeing considering I was working myself so hard that I wasn't eating!" She exclaimed. "And you still had no right to read that letter!"
"Okay yes, maybe I was in the wrong but-"
"Maybe?!" She pointed towards the door, glaring at him. "Get out of my office."
"What?" He gave her a dumbfounded look. "But I'm not done explaining yet!"
"No, I've heard enough." She crossed her arms against her chest and continued to glare at him.
Ron slowly stood up and made it two steps towards the door before turning back around. "Can we at least finish talking later?"
"What else do you need to say?" She asked exasperatedly. "I've honestly heard enough and I don't want to hear anymore. I'm not changing my mind, Ronald."
He frowned and let out a long sigh. "Please give me a chance, Hermione."
"I gave you a chance," She said quietly. "We've been together for five years, and I haven't ever cheated on you. I've never even considered the idea, but you always became overly jealous anytime I interacted with any man. I'm done with that."
"I can change, I promise," He pleaded.
"Ron, please leave." She gestured towards the door again with a hardened look on her face.
He stared at her sadly for a few moments before nodding and finally turning away to leave her office. When she was alone again, she put her head in her hands and let out a frustrated sigh, knowing full well that this was not going to be the last time they talked about what happened.
That next morning there was another bouquet of flowers on her desk, and another the day after that. She had started throwing them in the bin out of frustration, and soon enough she didn't even feel guilty about it anymore.
"Knock knock."
She looked up and saw Draco standing in her doorway, and he gave her a smile that she returned. "Oh, hi Draco; I wasn't expecting you!"
"Yeah, sorry," He rubbed the back of his neck as he stepped in. "I just wanted to drop by, see how you were doing."
"I'm doing alright," She sighed, leaning back in her chair. "Would be a lot better though if I wasn't having to throw out a new set of flowers every day."
He scowled at that. "He's been sending you flowers?"
She nodded. "I guess he thinks I'll come back if he sends enough of them."
Draco's mouth formed a thin line and he glared down at the flowers in the bin without saying a word. Hermione didn't notice though as she put her paperwork together and put it in her desk before looking up at him. "Did you need something, Draco?"
"Not really." He shrugged then. "I did, however, find a few houses that I think you might like."
She blinked at him, surprised. "Really? You were house-searching for me?"
"I told you I wanted to help," He smiled. "It's the least I could do. I actually figured since it was Friday, I could steal you away for a longer lunch and we could go take a look at them."
She stared at him then, her mouth dropping slightly. "Really?"
"If you'd like to, of course," He added quickly. "I mean, I could always give you the addresses and you can go look for yourself, but I thought I'd offer to go with you since I have a bit of time today."
After quickly debating whether or not she had time, she decided that it couldn't hurt and after all, she had caught up on everything she needed to do. "Okay, let's go!"
He was caught off guard by her answer but then grinned. "Wonderful!"
"Draco, this is too much..."
They were walking through the third house together and he was amused as he watched her inspect everything.
"How is it too much?" He asked. "It's only six bedrooms."
"Yes, but I don't need six bedrooms," She laughed. "I'm fine with two, maybe three at the max."
"Really?" He asked in surprise. "What about when your family comes to visit?"
"It's just my parents and I," She said, walking slowly through the kitchen. "And they're usually off travelling anyway."
In truth though, she really did like the house. It was beautiful and had quite a bit of land surrounding it so it was fairly private, and wasn't that far from her parents' house. The countertops were a nice beige stone while the cabinets and wood floors were a warm, dark brown. And the longer she stayed in the house, the more she fell in love with it.
"Well I'm sure we could always alter the floorplan and take out a bedroom or two," He said, looking around. "Do you like it otherwise though? I know you didn't really like the other two."
"This one is definitely more my style," She said slowly, running her hand over the countertops as she walked by them. "It just feels very warm and inviting."
"If you want to take some time to think about it, that's perfectly fine," He said with a smile. "It's currently being held off the market until you make a decision on it to make sure that no one else tries to get it."
She paused and looked over at him. "You didn't need to do that."
He shrugged. "I know. But I had a feeling you would've wanted this one so I wanted to make sure you could get it if you could."
"Why?"
He blinked, trying to come up with an excuse. Truthfully, he didn't know why he wanted to help her this much; he knew she was more than capable of doing it herself. But after realizing he had been quiet for too long, he cleared his throat and quickly said, "I just think you should be focusing all of your attention on your clients instead of where you will be living next."
She raised an eyebrow but smiled slightly. "You're not that convincing but I suppose I'll accept that reasoning."
Looking around one last time, she leaned back against the counter and nodded. "Alright, I'll take the house."
"Wonderful!" He grinned at her. "We should be able to start moving you in tonight if you'd like."
"Really?" She asked, surprised. "Wait, we?"
He nodded. "I'm happy to help."
"I don't have that much stuff to move," She said, looking around. "Just books and clothes."
"You don't want anything from your old house?" He asked curiously.
"No, definitely not." She pushed off the counter and walked around the kitchen slowly. "Everything I wanted, I took with me in my bag."
"That should make it easy then," He said. "That's completely up to you; I'm happy to help though."
"You've helped so much already," She said, smiling at him.
"Is that bad?" He asked.
"No, just surprising," She answered simply. "A month ago, you were still an arrogant jerk."
He laughed at that. "That's true. I've gotten to know you a little more in that time though."
"I know, but now I'm starting to wonder if it's really you, or if someone else is passing themselves off as you," She teased. "You're not one to be this nice."
"What can I say? I have a heart somewhere in here," He grinned as he put a hand on his chest.
They both laughed at that.
After she had gotten settled into the new house, Hermione sent Ginny the address and told her to come by for a visit. Not ten minutes after, she heard an excited knock on her door and when she opened the door, Ginny nearly ran her over as she rushed inside.
"Oh my, it's beautiful!" Ginny exclaimed as she slowed down. "I'm surprised you went with one this large!"
"I know," Hermione smiled. "Draco convinced me though, and it's actually starting to grow on me."
"Oooh, spending time with Draco, are we?" Ginny asked slyly as she raised an eyebrow.
Rolling her eyes, Hermione said, "He was returning the favor of me helping him and wanted to help me find a new place to live."
"So he knows where you live now?"
Hermione scowled at her. "Nothing is happening, Gin."
"Whatever you say," Ginny grinned.
They both walked into the living room and Ginny happily explored the area. "Man, I can't get over how beautiful this house is!"
"I know!" Hermione grinned. "I'm happy I went with this one; the others that he showed me were too...stiff, I guess you could say. They didn't feel like home."
"That is pretty important," Ginny said. Then she sighed and looked over at Hermione. "Can you believe how much has changed this week?"
"I'm still shocked as well," Hermione said as they both sat down on one of the couches. "I mean...your marriage pretty much ended because my marriage ended."
"Mine was honestly going to end anyway," Ginny said with a wave of her hand. "Harry and I were leaning more towards friendship anyway and neither one of us wanted to admit it."
"So I'm guessing you and Blaise are doing well?" Hermione asked with a smile.
"We couldn't be happier," Ginny replied with the largest smile on her face. "He's been absolutely wonderful; we go out to lunch nearly every day."
"That is so cute!" Hermione said before frowning slightly. "How did your family react when you told them?"
Ginny sighed then and looked down at the floor. "I mean, they weren't exactly happy that I was leaving Harry but once I explained they were a bit more understanding. I haven't told them about Blaise yet and Harry agreed not to say anything to them."
"I haven't spoken to your family yet about mine yet," Hermione said worriedly. "I don't even know what Ron's told them, but I'm sure after seeing the Prophet they aren't happy with me."
"Hermione, they aren't mad at you," Ginny said. "They were upset at first because they didn't know the whole story but Harry let them know that it was Ron's fault."
"Oh good..." Hermione sighed and leaned back against the couch, looking up at the ceiling. "I was just worried that they wouldn't want me over anymore after that."
"'Mione, they wouldn't do that; you're practically their second daughter."
"Your mum believed Rita Skeeter once though, back in my fourth year," Hermione said sadly. "I just got worried that she would believe the lies again."
Ginny frowned and reached over to squeeze her friend's arm. "I understand, but I can assure you that they aren't upset with you. They just want to talk it over with you."
"I'll go visit them this weekend," Hermione said. "I haven't been over in a few weeks, now that I think about it."
"They're going to be really happy to see you again," Ginny said with a smile. "Mum keeps asking me when you're going to come back; I think they like you better than Ron."
Hermione laughed at that. "That's because I'd help around the kitchen and wouldn't just eat everything like he did."
Rolling her eyes, Ginny said, "At least you won't have to spend as much on groceries now!"
"True, silver linings!" Hermione said, looking around again at the house.
There was still something about all of it that seemed like a dream. It hadn't even been a week yet, but so much had changed already in her life, and it was still surreal. She knew that it was eventually going to sink in, but she wasn't quite sure if she was ready for that yet. But Hermione pushed those thoughts to the side again, not wanting to deal with them that night.
A/N: I am so sorry for the delay with getting this one updated, it just did not want to be written. Next chapter will be up tomorrow though, I promise! Enjoy! <3