Sixteen Years Late

Tw- Talk of abortion and suicide

Kinks- slight degradation and praise, makeup sex.

Hermione plucked the old newspaper off of her desk at the ministry. She fingered the deep black indents of the letters on the crisp parchment. Her fingers traced word for word the article before her. Her pointer finger presses deeper into the crisp script of Astoria.

A sigh escaped her painted red lips as she left the words and stroked the moving photo, temporarily pausing the frame.

He looked just the way she remembered him, at first glance anyway. Stoic and too strong for anyone's good. Sharp features, he looked as if he were chiseled out of marble, he always had.

Some changes fit him and others made him look ever so sad. He had dark circles under his eyes, which was oddly compelling, it made her want to cradle his face in her hands and stroke his temples. It made her want to care for him.  As for bad changes, his eyes. They were dull and lifeless. The photo captured Draco Malfoy slinking out of the ministry with flashes and cameras pointed at him as the paparazzi formed a barcode around him. The collar of his wool trench was popped to conceal his face to his cheek bones. Somehow skeeter weaseled her camera close enough to get his full jaded expression.

But this was to be expected especially in regards to the subject matter of the article.

'Draco Malfoy and Astoria Malfoy (nee greengrass) have filed for a magical bond separation, commonly known as a divorce. This no doubt shocks my faithful readers because just two weeks ago the malfoys were pictured happily at Narcissa Malfoys annual Winter ball (see page six). What happened in the last two weeks? That's something this writer wants to find out. Was Draco Malfoy, now eligible for the hottest bachelor of the year (yummy!), Unfaithful in his marriage? Why is there still, after sixteen years, no Malfoy heir? Who has the secrets, and where can I, Rita Skeeter, find them? Tune back for those answers tomorrow.
See page ten for Eligible Bachelors List.
See page eleven for more of my Malfoy Theories.
See page 12 for my books and where to buy them. '

She let out another shakey sigh. Two  weeks is long enough to wait. Right? She could always wait until the end of the month.

Hermione physically shook the thoughts from her head like when a character hits their head and they have to shake away the birds in the muggle looney toones.

Two weeks is enough time for Draco Malfoy to move on. It took him two hours to get over her.

Hermione clawed through her hair trying to calm herself down. For sixteen years she had been rehearsing what to say to him. Every night in the shower for the past two weeks she had yelled at the emerald green tiled wall as if it were him. She knew ten different ways to say it and twenty ways for him to respond to each. None of his responses were positive. She was screwed. She was pacing now, her heels slightly uneven on the rug gracing her vast office. She spun around to the fireplace and spoke to it as if it were a person.

"Hey Malfoy, long time no see, when you broke up with me two hours before your wedding sixteen years ago, I was pregnant with your daughter. And my parents made me keep it. So you have been shut out of your own child's life because I was afraid that your death eater father would kill us!" She said nonchalantly. That's it, she had gone insane. This was her breaking point. There is no longer a valid reason to keep this secret from him.

She sighed, you won't deflate like a balloon from sighing so much. There is no getting out of this. A voice in her head declared. But wouldn't it be lovely if she could deflate and just cease to exist.

She had some hope, their daughter took it rather well, maybe like daughter like father?

Two Days Prior