Come Find Me | Dramione

Chapter 10: Gift Wrapped

She slowly closed the book she had been trying to read for the past few hours and checked the time on the grandfather clock in the living area. Half past noon. She still had time to pop into London to shop around.

Shifting her reading glasses to the top of her head, she rose from her writing desk and lightly stepped around the sofa to face Ron. He hadn't started drinking yet, so his temper was still at bay, though he stared at her incredulously.

"What is it?" he asked.

Hermione steeled herself. "I've got to go into London to pick up a few things for work." It was only a half lie. She really did want to pick up a few new pens and go to the bookstore. Still, her heart pounded in her chest. "I'll only be gone for a bit. Would you like me to pick up anything for you?"

He returned his gaze to the television, watching an old rerun of the Muggle football championship. "Need another bottle of Odgens," he supplied, indifferently.

She tried no to flinch at the request, knowing it would only upset him. "Okay. I'll be back soon." He grunted at her as she walked away.

She grabbed her bag and wand from her desk. Once she safely Apparated into Muggle London, she set off for the local jeweler.

The city streets were calm for a Sunday afternoon, and the clouds overhead were turning her favorite shade of grey, bringing with them, she hoped, a cool summer drizzle. She watched as children stomped around in the wet puddles left behind by the last rainfall, remembering when she was once that carefree.

When she was a girl, her parents would take her to the local candy store – though, not often, as they were both dentists and heavily advocated against the overindulging of sweets. She would walk hand-in-hand with them, cheering 'again, again!' every time they would swing her by her arms between the two of them. Her curls would grow twice their normal size in the summer humidity, breaking free of the carefully placed ponytail her mother had wrestled it into. She would giggle and her parents would smile at her.

She yearned for that innocence again. Before she fought in an entire war as a mere teenager. Before witnessing her schoolmates, people she grew up with, or looked up to die much too young. Before her husband changed into someone unrecognizable.

She shook her head free of those memories as she approached the jeweler's shop. She remembered that Malfoy's watch had broken on Thursday, and while she was sure he had an entire wardrobe full of accessories at his disposal, she still hoped it would be a thoughtful enough gesture.

She stepped through the door, greeted by the ding of a bell and the smiling face of an older woman behind the glass jewels display case.

"Hello there, how can I help you this afternoon?" she called to Hermione where stood in the doorway.

"Hi, I'm interested in your collection of men's watches for..." She trailed off, unsure of how to word her request. She couldn't very well say, 'for my extremely handsome and obscenely rich coworker, who I only just recently started to get along with, because he was a true prat in our school years, but he's changed and is actually a decent bloke now and he makes me feel safe, which is ridiculous but I'm still going to buy him a watch anyway,' now, could she?

"For my father," she finally supplied, sheepishly.

"Okay, dear, right this way," the saleswoman ushered her to the opposite display case, filled with a smorgasbord of watches to choose from. "What style does he prefer?"

"Something sleek," she replied. "But perhaps with a bit of traditional charm?" She was making no sense, pitying the woman who had to assist her.

"Hmm," she debated, eyeing the array of very regal looking wrist watches. "What about something like this?"