Freedom

A/N: Again, I'm so sorry about the long wait. I just started a new job over here, and there was Halloween (which meant writing a one-shot for Snapes_Goddess' Dramione challenge), and I went to the Flogging Molly concert on Monday (which was AMAZING). So I've been pretty busy. But here's the next chapter. This story will probably be done in a couple more chapters. :)

Oh, and if you all would read my one-shot I wrote, it's called 'Forever Shroud Her in Night' and it's under Snapes_Goddess' story 'On All Hallows Eve,' chapter 12. I've gotten a lot of people saying that I should extend it and make it a story, but I need to know if people actually want me to extend that plot line, or do a different story involving Hermione being Draco's mate. Thanks, all. :D

Chapter 15

A month and a half had passed. The worst month and a half that the trio had ever gone through. Charlie was sleeping almost every night at the reservation, Draco slept over at the Manor whenever possible, and Hermione, sick of the loneliness of the empty flat, had become a boarder in Harry and Ginny’s spare bedroom.

Talk was strained, if existent at all, between Draco and Charlie. Hermione still talked to both of them, but they barely saw each other. Jamie stayed with his mother most of the time, but sometimes would go up to see Charlie. Draco came by to see if Hermione was all right, if she needed anything. She only wanted one thing, she wanted them all to be back together again.

It had started the day after they had stayed the night at Malfoy Manor. Draco had been so incredibly happy—happy about seeing his friends again, and from getting some money from his father, and from seeing his mother again, and finally being able to get everything out with everyone—and he had started talking about the new business he was going to open with the money that his father had given him.

Charlie had not been happy about that. He hadn’t given Draco the time to explain the whole situation. They had fought. Hermione had never seen them get into a huge row like that before. They yelled and screamed and tried to get the other to see their point of view. Charlie didn’t like that Draco was giving up working at the Ministry, Draco didn’t like that Charlie couldn’t understand that that was not really what he wanted to do. Hermione just didn’t like the tension between them.

At first, Charlie just made the excuse that he had to spend more time at the reservation. Then it became apparent that he really didn’t have to, that he was just doing it to avoid fighting with Draco. Draco got angry and spent more time with Blaise and Pansy and his parents. Hermione was left struggling in the middle between them. They fought through her. It was like back at school whenever Harry and Ron had had a snit. Sick of playing owl, she had left them both and told them she was staying with Harry and Ginny until they got over their stupid fight.

It had been a month and a half. Tomorrow was the 12th of December, Charlie’s 33rd birthday. They usually did something great for their birthdays. They went out to dinner or they made dinner themselves, or they just had dessert. They always had something planned though, always had something going on. They always did something together, for the last five years, and even before she had joined them. It had been the three of them for every one of their birthdays. She couldn’t imagine them being by themselves for a birthday, but she couldn’t think of anything to do about it.

And with Christmas being two weeks away, she had no idea what to do about that, either. She was planning on spending Christmas with the Weasleys this year, of course. But this year, Draco was supposed to be there, and she could actually kiss Charlie if she wanted to. She wouldn’t have to sneak away at midnight to shag him, she would be in the same room as him. It was supposed to be a great Christmas, an amazing new year.

And, going into her sixth month of pregnancy, she was very hormonal. Hormonal meaning horny. She didn’t know what to do with herself. She usually always had someone to take care of that for her, and now she didn’t have either one of them. She had tried propositioning Draco the last time he had visited her two days ago, but he had turned her down, saying that he wasn’t in the mood. He hadn’t been in the mood for over a month. Hermione knew that he was depressed about the fight with Charlie, and so was she, and so was Charlie. She just wished they could get over it.

There was a knock on the bedroom door and Hermione wiped the tears from her eyes. “Come in,” she said in a rough voice. Hormonal. Crying when she didn’t even realise that she had been crying.

Ginny poked her head in. “Oh, Hermione, are you all right?” she asked, going over to the bed to run her hand through Hermione’s curly brown hair.

“I just wish they’d get over this stupid fight,” Hermione said, more tears slipping over her cheeks.

“I know, me too,” Ginny said. “I’ve never seen Charlie so…vapid.”

“Him and Draco both!” Hermione said. “They are usually so happy and energetic, but they’ve been so stupid lately. And I can’t do anything about it.”

“Gin, we’re going to be late,” Harry poked his head in the door. “Oh, sorry,” he said, moving back out of the room.

“Sorry, Hermione,” Ginny said, waving towards Harry. “Harry wanted to go out to dinner tonight. We were wondering if you could watch the girls, but I’ll call Fiona.”

“No, it’s fine, Gin,” Hermione said, getting herself up from the bed. “I’ll watch them. I’m fine, really. I just wish they wouldn’t be so stupid.”

“So no plans for Charlie’s birthday tomorrow?” Ginny asked.

“Not that I’ve heard,” Hermione said. “It’s going to be so strange.”

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Draco,

I swear to Godric that if you two don’t make up soon, I’m going to kill the both of you. I will torture you more than you tortured the Weasel. I will use every curse and hex that I can think of, and trust me, I can think of a lot. Tomorrow is Charlie’s birthday, as you probably know, if you don’t talk to him tomorrow, you shant bother seeing me again, unless you want to die a horrible and painful death.

Your *very* pregnant and *very* horny girlfriend,

Hermione

Draco actually felt his lips pull into a smile for the first time in a month. He could practically feel the hormones radiate off the parchment. He knew that she was right, though. They needed to get over this fight. He needed to see Charlie again. They hadn’t fought like this since they had first gotten together. Draco had been putting his heart and soul into this new company, trying to get it off the ground. The real stake in the heart was when he had left the Ministry and Charlie had stopped talking to him.

He didn’t understand why it was so hard for Charlie to understand that Draco just didn’t want to be a lawyer or a law writer. He was good at it, yes, but he was better at potions. He was really good at potions. He had been experimenting in the potions department at the Ministry for a few years now and already had made some new helpful potions that he hadn’t been able to market. He was going to do that now. He was still getting his feet wet, but he had a feeling that this business was going to boom. He would be a self-made man.

He knew that’s why Charlie was so angry. Charlie didn’t like that Draco had money, since he had grown up having none. He was used to struggling with paying the bills, with having to do with not having the best. Draco wasn’t used to that and the last seven years had been hard on him for that. Draco was used to having the best, and he had had to do without that. But now, now he could have that again, if he could only get this business off the ground.

Charlie and Hermione meant more to him than money, however. He read the letter again and smiled again at Hermione. He could just imagine her writing this angrily, thinking of all the hexes she would use on them. He had no reservations that she would not do it, he knew that she would. Maybe not kill them, but definitely do some damage. She was right though, he needed to talk to Charlie, and he wasn’t going to wait until tomorrow.

He dropped the letter onto the table and apparated to Scotland.