wind - Dramione

10

Come Monday morning, Hermione left the house before her husband had even woken. He always hated that.

Hermione was making herself a cup of tea in the kitchen at the precinct when a distinctive wind crashed into her. She rolled her eyes, twirling her finger over her cup, stirring in the cream. Turning around, with cup in hand, she started to walk away. To her dismay, the figure traced her steps.

"What do you want, Ronan?" she groaned. Her office door was only a few meters away from her. A place where she could choose to close the door and have some silence to mull over the entirety of her extremely trying weekend. He followed her still, much to her annoyance. She found her seat as Ronan sat on the arm of the chair opposite her desk, closing the door nonverbally. "Please sit on the furniture correctly."

"Heard you and that Malfoy twit went on the case without me..." He grabbed a pen off her desk as she sighed in disapproval. She always hated people touching her things without asking.

"Ronan, please, this is petty even for you," Hermione said, snatching the pen out of his hand using potent magic, much more potent than his. He made quick movement to grab her collar, pulling her up from across the desk, bringing her face extremely close to his.

"Don't fucking play with me. This is my case and I'll be damned if you keep running around with pity employees. Get rid of him," he snarled, venom dripping from his lips. Hermione wasn't sure whether to be frightened or enraged. There was a small tap on the door; it was Ronan's mistake to leave it ajar.

"If I were you, I would watch myself, Decker," the man seethed, "Now, get off her."

With a wave of his wand, Ronan was thrown into the bookcase opposite Hermione. She looked at him, wildly unprepared to see the expression blatantly posed on his face.

A look of pure hatred rested in his eyes.

"Oy, what the hell is going on here?" Harry stumbled into the room, pulling Malfoy's arm down to his side, "Damn it, Malfoy, put your wand away. You can't just attack another Auror! Let's go, we need to have a conversation."

Ronan stood at the wall, clawing at his neck, finally able to breathe with ease. Harry started to restrain Draco with silvery strands of rope; Draco, however, did not fight Harry on it and remained looking quite pleased with himself.

He stole a glance toward Hermione whose face told him everything he needed to know. She looked scared. Conflict. For a second she seemed to stumble on her words before speaking up to Harry.

"Harry, wait! Ronan attacked me," she started, eyeing Ronan carefully, "Draco was only defending me."

Draco? everyone in the room seemed to ask themselves. The three men looked at her, quizzically mulling over her mistake in their minds.

"Damn it, Decker," Harry angrily released Draco and restrained Decker, pulling him out of the room, presumably to his office. He was out of Hermione's once the two left in her office heard Harry's annoyed shout, "The bloody paperwork I've got to fill out now!"

Hermione let out a pained chuckle before slipping into the chair on the wrong side of her desk, rubbing her forehead to ease her anxiety. Draco remained at the door.

She couldn't get that look out of her mind. Why did he look so emotional? Sure, they were partners for a while and they were coworkers of course, but why would he ever act with such violence to protect her? She hadn't seen that side of him. He was never even like that during or before the war. Yes, he was nasty to her and her friends, especially her now-husband, but she had never seen such hatred, such anger and rage. Such raw emotion. Ron never would've done that. He would be mad, yes, but not being he was afraid the person would hurt her. Hermione was sure her husband would be angry merely because Ronan had touched her!

Draco noticed her internalized conflict and walked over, slowly and quietly as to not disrupt her thoughts. He began to gently rub her shoulder, trying to comfort her, kneeling when she finally looked up at him. He didn't want her to feel small, so he knelt and looked up at her, hoping it would make her realize how strong she was.

"Are you alright?" he whispered, his thumb gracing her cheek, her hair falling onto his hand. Concern was laced into his repertoire, eyebrows raised in the middle, his head turned to the side to better see her face. Her anxiety lessened at the sight of his face.

Hermione closed her eyes, tears unintentionally slipping out, and nodded into his hand, inhaling sharply.

"Come on..." he clutched her hand, pulling her up into an embrace. The windows were still opaque, which Hermione was glad for. Not that she thought she was doing anything wrong, but if word got out that she was being comforted by Draco Malfoy, she wasn't sure if her husband could handle that. "You're going to take the rest of the day off whether you like it or not."

Before she could say another word, Draco sent a paper bird to Harry, who was merely a few doors down, and disapparated.

They landed in the alley next to the Muir Flats, taking to stairs to what Hermione hoped was Draco's floor. Once they reached his floor, to her dismay, Draco brought them up one more flight and led her to her own door, bidding her goodbye.

***

"Oh, hey 'Mione, what're you doing home early?"

"Ronald, I thought you were at your interview?" She nonchalantly dodged his embrace, heading to the kitchen to fix herself some lunch. About a week prior, her husband told her he had an interview schedule that day for a floo powder company called "Floogamatters."

"Yeah, it was earlier this morning... but after you left of course... and before you came just right now," he chuckled, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck, avoiding eye contact at all cost.

Hermione couldn't believe it. She suspected it had been a lie, but she hoped to Merlin she was just being ignorant. Ideas came to her mind, to talk about this with him, to get him hired herself, to do anything, but she didn't act on any of them for fear he might get mad. Fighting was the worst thing, it was something she never wanted to do. Not only did her husband have incredible anger issues, he was quite blinded by his image of things.

She was sure he loved her, and she loved him, but she knew how easily fooled he is by his own emotions. Merlin help him, she wished she could do something.

The poor bastard wouldn't accept it from anyone, not her, not Harry, not even his just-as-stubborn sister! Of course, that was one of the things that made her fall in love with him... his determination and hard-headedness.

Her mind took her back to a time during the war. When Ron had left them in the forest and his adorably phony story about trying to get back to her. She loved that man. Her irritation eased as she looked at the man standing in front of her. He was that same man and she loved him. Stepping closer to him, she pulled down on his neck gently, to press a kiss onto his lips. Nothing fiery or passion-filled, but soft and tender. She missed those kinds of kisses.

Ronald smiled through the kiss, attempting to heat it up, he bit her bottom lip and slipped his tongue into her mouth. She let out a small giggle and let him lead her to their bedroom.