A Piece of Forever

Disclaimer: all but the plot belongs to JKR


Chapter Five:


“Give us a statement, won’t you, Mr. Malfoy?” The reporters cried out as Draco clenched his jaw. He couldn’t even walk down Diagon Alley in peace. It was nine in the evening, for Merlin’s sake, didn’t these people have better things to do?

Alyssa, on the other hand, smiled and posed for the cameras, waving and beaming at the reporters as the light bulbs went off, capturing the scene of London’s current hot couple walking down Diagon Alley, hand in hand.

“Mr. Malfoy, why the sudden decision to get married?” Someone called out. “We last heard that you were attached to Ms. Hermione Granger, did you break up because of Ms. Guinevere?”

Draco’s knuckles turned white as his fingers curled into fists. “Shut up,” he hissed through clenched teeth.

“Here we are!” Alyssa stopped in front of Twilfitt and Tattings, the dressmaker.

Draco ducked inside the store, muttering curses.

“Hello, Mrs. Malfoy,” a petite woman chirped, beaming.

“Draco, this is Augusta Twilfitt,” Alyssa introduced. “She is taking over her sister today.”

“Hi,” Draco mumbled grumpily, sitting down on the white sofa.

“Let’s start by taking your measurements first, shall we?” Augusta Twilfitt brandished a measuring tape and smiled at Alyssa. They disappeared into a room upstairs, leaving Draco alone.

Draco heard a sudden roar outside the shop and his gaze averted to the glass doors. The reporters looked extremely excited and were all craning their necks to see something and camera flashes went off all around.

Scowling, Draco stormed to the window, ready to hex them all into silence.

Once the door was cracked open, he heard their voices shouting.

“Ms. Granger, what do you think of former lover Mr. Malfoy getting married to Ms. Alyssa Guinevere?” Draco heard and he took a step backward, swallowing.

“Ms. Granger, are you even aware of the wedding?” someone shouted.

“Out of our way, you idiots!” Draco heard the unmistakable voice of Harry Potter. “Or I’ll hex the whole lot of you!”

The crowd fell into silence and parted to let the Boy-who-Lived pass.

Draco watched Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley each grab one of Hermione’s elbows and support her as they weaved through the small path that had been formed to let them through.

“Hermione,” Draco said hoarsely. He needed to make her understand. “Hermione!” he shouted.

He ran down the steps and stopped a few meters in front of her.

“Hermione, I can-“ he began but she pointed her wand at him, her hand shaking. He took a step back involuntarily, startled to see hatred blazing in her honey coloured eyes.

“You keep your mouth shut, Draco Malfoy,” she hissed, spitting his name out as though it was vile.

“Look,” Draco started, holding up his palms in surrender, “Hermione, hear me out.”

“Hermione, don’t listen to a word he says,” Ginny Weasley said scornfully.

“Hey,” Draco shouted at her angrily. “Keep your nose out of this!”

“Draco?”

Oh fuck, Draco thought as Alyssa ran down the steps and over to him.

“Draco? What’s the matter?” she asked, clinging onto him.

Draco looked helplessly at Hermione, getting more frustrated as her expression changed from anger to horror and finally, to disappointment.

“Isn’t this Harry Potter?” Alyssa smiled and waved. “Nice to meet you. You were schoolmates with Draco, weren’t you?”

“Alyssa,” Draco snarled softly so only Alyssa could hear, to everyone else it looked like a smile, albeit forced but better than screaming at his wife in public. “Get indoors. Now!”

Alyssa ignored him. “I don’t know if you know me, I’m Alyssa, Draco’s wife,” she paused and giggled. “Well, at least after the wedding. It’s two weeks from now, I don’t know if you’re on the invitation list but in case you aren’t, Mr. Potter, you are welcome to the wedding. Oh, and bring your friends too,” she gestured to Ginny and Hermione.

Potter’s face twisted in anger and he glared at Draco.

“Let’s go, we can get my dress another day,” Hermione said faintly. She tugged on Ginny’s sleeve. “Please?”

Ginny threw Draco a dirty look and they disappeared in three loud cracks.

There was an uproar as the reporters clambered to ask more questions about the drama that they had just witnessed.

“Come on, darling, Augusta is done with my measurements and it’s time for yours now,” Alyssa said brightly.

Draco allowed himself to be pulled back into the store, his gaze still transfixed to where Hermione had been standing.

~

Didn’t she deserve to know first? Couldn’t he have told her? Couldn’t he have told her straight that he was getting married with another woman?

Hermione ripped another of their photos apart, splitting the photo in half- her on one half and him on the other. She hurled the halves into the air, and proceeded to do the same to the rest of the photos.

She hated the way that woman had clung to him as though he was hers, and the way he had not pushed her away, or he had not complained when she introduced herself as his wife.

How could he do this to her, when she loved him so much, and as much as she would like to deny it, she knew deep inside that she still loved him?

The doorbell rang. She choked back an irritated growl. She already told Ginny that she was fine and she really wanted time alone!

She stormed to the door, yanking it open; ready to tell Ginny slowly once more that she was perfectly fine and God, please she wanted to be left alone, when she found herself utterly speechless.

“Hermione.”

~

Draco felt really sick.

He tried to block out Alyssa’s insistent chatter about her dress and his robes.

He barely gathered enough energy to apparate but he didn’t want to end up splinched, so he forced himself to concentrate and apparate home.

Arriving in Malfoy Manor, he felt worse than ever. His stomach was churning madly as though ready to rebel at any moment.

He lowered himself onto the sofa as Alyssa told his parents all about her dress, completely unaware of Draco’s discomfort.

They were interrupted by the arrival of the Nightly Entertainment, a newspaper that had long taken over the Daily Prophet in reporting all the juicy gossip.

On the cover was a photo of Alyssa and Draco, walking hand in hand- Alyssa was flashing a brilliant smile, looking prettier than ever while Draco was scowling.

“London’s Hottest Couple!” the headlines screamed.

Draco wanted to hurl. Alyssa giggled and unfolded the paper, reveling the lower section of the front page, where there was a photo of Harry and Ginny, with a flustered Hermione between them as they struggled to make their way through the throngs of reporters.

“Caught in the act by ex-lover!” the caption read. Draco’s eyes read the first few sentences beneath Hermione’s picture- Mr. Draco Malfoy’s previous lover, Hermione Granger, witnessed every painful moment of her ex walking happily into Twilfitt and Tattings, hands locked with his soon-to-be wife, to take measurements for their wedding gown and robes. Apparently gripped by jealously, Granger pulls her wand but Ms. Alyssa Guinevere appears in time to stop the quarrel between the has-been couple…’

Draco stood up so abruptly, all heads turned towards him. He nearly tripped as he made a dash out of the front doors, his stomach rebelling violently. He bent over the bushes, throwing up until there was nothing left in his stomach but guilt.

He pressed his forehead against the stone wall, panting.

He still couldn’t get that look in her eyes out of his head. Those honey coloured eyes filled with loathing and hurt when she saw him.

He wiped his mouth roughly, disgusted at himself. He shook Alyssa’s concerned hand off his back but accepted the glass of water Narcissa passed to him.

He washed his mouth with the first mouthful, and drank the rest.

“I have to do something. Don’t wait up,” He told Alyssa coldly.

He did not wait for her parting words and apparated before she could get anything out of her mouth.

~

Her name rolled of his tongue like honey.

She stared at him in disbelief. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be home with your darling Alyssa?”

“Hermione,” He said again, stepping in before she could slam the door shut in his face. “Just hear me out this once, ok?”

Hermione hesitated and then nodded grudgingly. “Have a seat,” she murmured.

She ducked into the kitchen, still stunned. She leaned against the refrigerator, trying to slow her breathing.

Her hands reached automatically for the coffee maker. She could make his favorite coffee with her eyes closed.

She slid the cup onto a saucer and she was about to walk out when she pulled back. With trembling fingers, she pulled the fridge open and reached for the tub of strawberry ice cream.

She had bought it for him before they had broken up. She didn’t eat strawberry ice cream; he was the one who loved it.

She got a spoon for him, knowing he preferred to eat straight from the tub.

There was still so much him around her. She couldn’t look at green, remembering it was his favorite color, couldn’t even eat chocolate chip cookies, and remembering he loved them.

She forced those thoughts out of her head and set the cup in front of him.

“Here,” she said shortly and suddenly remembered she was still holding the tub of ice cream and the spoon. She shoved the tub and spoon to him.

He looked down at the ice cream and all of a sudden, he was overwhelmed with this urge to pull her into his arms and cry.

“I got it before you asked me to go the church,” she said, in answer to his unspoken question.

Draco put the ice cream down. “I came here to make things clear to you.”

“Things are already very clear to me, thank you very much,” Hermione said coldly.

“No, they are not,” He said quietly.

“They are perfectly clear!” Hermione snapped. “I get the idea, ok? Stop rubbing it in my face!”

“I’m not rubbing it in your face, for goodness sake!” he protested. “I love you!”

Hermione felt every part of her body stiffen at those words. She swallowed. “No, you don’t,” she told him shakily.

“I do,” he said softly. “I always loved you and I still do, and I sure as hell know that I’m not going to stop loving you any time soon, in fact, not ever.”

“There’s no use, telling me all this. It’s all over, Draco. It’s Alyssa you should saying this to, not me,” she said in resignation.

“I just want you to know that the one I love is you,” he said.

“So what if you love me?” she asked bitterly. “You’re marrying Alyssa!”

“If I had a choice, the one I choose to marry would be you!” he shouted.

“Then why?” she shouted back.

“Because she’s fucking pregnant!” Draco bellowed.

Hermione choked on her words. “She what?”

“I slept with her when I was drunk and got her pregnant! What can I do?” He said wearily.

“You slept with her when we were still together,” Hermione realized. “You bloody bastard!! She grabbed a cushion and whacked him in the face with it.

“I was drunk! I was completely utterly wasted! I didn’t even know her name when I woke up!” He yelled.

They were both on their feet now, shouting at each together.

“I HATE you! Go to HELL!” screamed Hermione.

A painful silence followed her words.

Hermione spoke up at last, her voice small and tired. “What did I do to deserve this, Draco?”

“Nothing. All you did was to be perfect,” He said, bringing a small smile to his lips.

“No, all I did was love you,” she told herself, too late to realize she had spoken out loud.

After that, everything happened too fast. He crossed over to her, crushing her to him, kissing her so harshly she couldn’t breathe.

His lips were on hers and his tongues battling with hers as he wrapped his arms around her as though afraid she might disappear.

His hand moved up to her neck, grazing her collarbone and hitting a sensitive spot, making her knees buckle.

He was kissing her with a kind of need that was almost animal, wanting to claim her once more with just this one kiss. He moved his hands up to cup her face, pressing harder against her, trembling from head to toe, as she made small moans deep inside her throat, the way he loved so much.

He nibbled on her bottom lip roughly and felt her grip on his hair tighten almost painfully.

“Draco,” she breathed, the name muffled and lost in the fiery kiss.

“I’m so sorry,” he said against her mouth and in case she missed it, he broke the kiss and repeated it again loudly.

“I know, God, I know,” she whispered.

“I love you,” He said loudly, not wanting her to doubt that, not now, or ever.

”I love you too,” she said and then she stood on the tips of her toes, pressed her hands against his chest for balance, leaned up and pressed her lips firmly to his.

Outside the window, the wind seemed to sing the sad song of how love always, always hurts and the naked branches of the trees swayed to its tune, while the two lovers kissed inside the warmth of a small apartment, barely large enough to contain their love.

~*~

This is the longest chapter yet and i hope it was good.

Please review.