Last Lesson in Love - (Sequel to Tutoring A Malfoy)

Chapter Fifteen - 'After five years.'

She piled up the nightie on the counter and put her wand beside it before getting into the shower, drawing the curtain over. Leaning her head against the shower wall, she felt water cascade down her skin until she had relaxed even the tiniest bit before starting to quickly shower. Rubbing her hands through her brown locks, she washed out all the shampoo before starting to wash her body.

Hermione stepped out of the shower, drying herself quickly before putting on her underwear. She wrapped the towel around herself before she grabbed her clothes and came out of the bathroom, quickly flitting across the landing in a flurry of white towel and wet, brown hair. She needed to see if Rose was okay since she hadn’t really noticed that she had spent quite some time in the shower.

‘Rose?’ Hermione asked, frowning at the slightly open door. Hadn’t she left the door open all the way when she went to take a shower? Her brain screamed that she had and millions of thoughts zapped through her, probably paranoid, mind. Edging the door open, Hermione felt her heart beat faster and faster in her chest before coming to a stop when she saw Rose sitting next to a man on the bed.

A man that had taken Hermione’s first kiss.

‘Hermione,’ Ron Weasley stood up, looking at her in surprise.

Hermione felt her eyes graze over the man she hadn’t seen in five years, the man she had left with hardly any excuse. Ron was slightly taller than when she had seen him last, just after the war, but his hair was the same red and his eyes were the same, if not a little older. Ron ran a shaky hand through his hair, blushing when he took in Hermione in a barely covering towel.

‘Ron,’ Hermione murmured, blushing too as she bent quite awkwardly to pick up her clothes and then backed into the door, hitting it with her behind slightly, ‘I’m just going to... get dressed.’

‘Blimey, you look different,’ Ron said before he could help it.

Hermione pretended like she hadn’t heard him as she nearly flew from the room and into the bathroom once again, leaning her back against the closed door. In, out.... In, out... She breathed as evenly as she could although her heart was fluttering unevenly, maybe even unhealthy, in her chest.

Hermione just hadn’t expected to see him so suddenly and it hadn’t registered in her mind when Mrs Weasley said that Ron was also here. She hadn’t thought of anyone but Draco the whole time she had been here and felt the guilt pile up higher on her head. Hermione let her eyes close, picturing Ron sitting next to Rose. What if they asked who the father was? How would it look if she said it was a random man she had met and dated for a while?

Well, random wasn’t true but still... They had hardly been together for two months but it was like they were truly in love. You know the feeling you get when he phones you up just to ask how you slept? When he tells you not to hang up even though you’ve half heartedly told him you have to go? When he stares into your eyes and your heart flips itself upside down before your whole world flips?

Yes, it had definitely been love.

Hermione shook her head. Then she had fallen pregnant and the fights had started. The tears, shouts, door banging... Everything came rushing back since Hermione had fought so hard to keep it out. Rose had been and continues to be the best decision Hermione had ever made and she couldn’t imagine life without her... or without Draco for that matter. Hermione forced herself to get dressed into a light pink top and some jeans that were a little tight on her but she didn’t mind. Taking a deep breath, she left the bathroom.

Hermione crossed the landing, slipping her wand into her pocket, and opened the door. She walked in to see Rose chatting animatedly to Ron about her drawing, saying something about how she had drawn for her mother all the time and how Hermione liked to pin her drawings up around the house because they were that good.