Finding A Way

He looked across the crowded room to see her sitting at her table, talking and laughing to some moron from the Department of Mysteries. He sat at his table, looking at his glass of fire whiskey, trying to drown out the noise coming from the person talking to him. She was beautiful and well-mannered, just like any other pureblood female. And she was boring as hell, without an ounce of personality and almost zero intellect. He would rather fight a hippogriff than continue to listen to this woman ramble on about material for curtains. He looked across the room again and saw her put her hand on that moron’s arm as she laughed. He couldn’t take it anymore, he slammed the rest of his drink and stood up to get another.

“Where are you going, Draco?”

“I am getting another drink, Astoria. I will be back later.”

Thanks to his father, that was what the rest of his life was going to be like. Damn it!! Unless Blaise could figure out a loophole in that damn arranged marriage contract, he was stuck with her. Stuck with that boring, stuffy woman for the rest of his life.

He found out about a month ago that his bastard father had made the arrangement with the Greengrass family while he was in prison. Then, low and behold the bastard died in prison from pneumonia shortly after that. Couldn’t happen to a better person, he thought bitterly, as he went up to the bar. But he wasn’t the least bit sad about it; he hated the man and everything he stood for.

He was standing at the bar waiting for his drink when she came up and asked for another glass of wine. God, she smelled so good! That was his favorite perfume and combined with how sexy and amazing she looked in that little black dress, he was more than depressed with his situation.

“Hello Draco. How have you been?” she asked him, with a sad smile.

He checked to make sure no one was around, “Hey Beautiful…You look amazing!”

She thanked him and she sipped her wine. There were so many things she wanted to say and just didn’t know how to. He looked at her and thought about all the amazing times they had together and how badly he wanted to be with her.

“Are you doing ok? I worry about you…”

“I am fine Draco. Well, as fine as I can be when the man I love is arranged to be married to some idiot in heels. But, I am just fine…” She wished she had something stronger than wine at that point.

“Baby…Blaise is looking for a way out, looking for a loophole. He is one of the best and he will find a way out of this. Then we can be together again! Don’t give up, Baby. Please Hermione…”

“Draco, I don’t want to! I want to have hope that someday we can be together, but I just don’t. I know how some of those pureblood laws work! They are extremely hard to get around and break! That’s how we got together, remember? Trying to find ways to break them?”

“Baby, please…Don’t give up!” He said in a pleading voice.

She looked at him with tears in her eyes, “I will try…But at some point I have to let go and move on. I have to brace myself for seeing her with you and try not to let it bother me. I have to pick up the pieces of my broken heart and try and put it back together. I don’t have anyone to help me do that. I will be all alone!”

He so desperately wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her with every ounce of love he had. He could see that she was heart-broken and he wanted nothing more than to take away the pain she was feeling. He was feeling it too and he cursed his father under his breath for continuing to ruin his life.

He had done it from the time Draco was eight until he went to Azkaban. Or so he thought, then the owl came several weeks ago from the family lawyer saying that at 25 he was arranged to be married to Ms. Astoria Greengrass. The arrangement was made by Mr. Lucius Malfoy and Mr. Nathan Greengrass. Just thinking about when he got the letter that day made him angry all over again. No, not angry, LIVID. He slammed back the rest of his drink and dropped the glass on the bar top and asked for another.

She looked at him and saw the pain he was in. She knew it well as she was there herself. She drained the rest of her wine, got another glass, and walked back to her table, trying to put on a brave face. She sat back down at the table and smiled, apologized to Nigel for the delay and told him to continue the story that she hadn’t been listening to. This was her third glass of wine and was starting to get a slight buzz.

Draco stalked back to his table and sat back down, looking at his watch seeing that it was 11:00 and it was almost time for him to be able to leave this damn ministry event. Minister Shacklebolt had asked him to attend as director of the largest wizard banking and finance firm. He was brilliant at his job and was making millions of galleons for his clients and himself. He had so many plans for his life and they all included Hermione Granger being with him.

He sighed as Astoria started in again about redecorating HIS house, then one that he had just spent millions doing just that. He was trying to redo the past and erase the memories that it held. He liked his house now, it was slowly helping him heal from the horrors he has witnessed and survived. He was better, a better man, a better wizard and he just wanted a normal life.

“Astoria, I have told you repeatedly that I like my house and the way it is now. Can you please give it a rest! We haven’t even gone public with this yet, can you just PLEASE STOP!”

“But Draco, I-“

“ENOUGH!” He whispered in a firm tone. “We are leaving!”

He stood up, forgetting all his manners and decorum, making her follow behind him. She finally caught up to him at the cloak room as they both took theirs and went to the fireplaces to floo home. She had her cloak on and was hoping to be invited back to Malfoy Manor to spend the night.

She had always found him attractive at Hogwarts. It didn’t hurt that he was extremely smart and very rich. Her family had lost a lot of its money after the second wizard war and her father thought this might fix their situation. So he went to the prison to see Lucius Malfoy and arrange it.

She took his hand and looked up at him with a smile and asked, “How about a nightcap at your place?”

Good Lord, that was the last thing wanted! He had her over for a few dinners because he had to, not because he wanted to. He had a time line he had to follow based on pureblood law, about making contact and how long he had until he had to marry her, but he was dragging it out as long as possible to give Blaise the time to try and get him out of this.

“Not tonight Astoria. I am not really in the mood.”

Her smile fell a little, “Ok. Have a good evening, Draco. I will owl you soon.”

He nodded as she stepped in and left in a flash of green smoke. He sighed again, and walked down the hall and out the front doors, needing time to think. He had no idea how long he walked through the streets of Diagon Alley in the cool, dark night wondering what he was going to do. He stopped once and bought a small bottle of fire whiskey that he took a few long swallows of. He felt his phone vibrate and looked at it and was shocked as he saw Hermione’s number.

‘Are you still awake?’ the text read.

He texted back, ‘yeah, slightly drunk though. It’s 1:15, why are you still awake?’

‘I need you…’

That’s all he needed to see and turned on the spot and arrived at the door to her flat.