Ginny huffed before placing all her shopping bags down on a nearby bench, "Honestly Hermione, as much as I love you and shopping, having done this in the Muggle realm is a pain in the—"
"Gin, I swear I'll make it up to you! I'm treating you to lunch." Hermione spoke quickly as she noticed a woman with a baby stroller and a toddler walking by the duo.
The redhead sighed, "Alright, but can we please go somewhere where we can magically condense all these shopping bags into one, just putting an expansion charm on it?"
"There's a pub up ahead, we can go behind the alleyway and do it there." Hermione offered. Both agreed and begrudgingly hauled their shopping bags as quickly as possible to the alley way.
About 5 minutes later, the women decided they were too tired to walk any further, and entered the building. Flat screen tv's were placed on all corners of the pub, each one having a different sports channel being played.
Ginny was both confused and in awe of her surroundings, "What is this place? How are those pictures moving continuously and not repeating a moment?"
"Those are telly's, Gin. They show those things I taught you before, "videos", only these show things that are far longer than most videos." Hermione grinned at her friend before leading them to a booth towards the back of the pub.
Both women were famished and scanned the menus hungrily, not bothering to look up once their waiter arrived to take their order. Ginny spoke, "I'll have the cheeseburger with fries, and a butter-beer please. How about you Hermione?"
"I'll go with chicken parmigiana, and a Shirley temple, thank you—-" Hermione looked up to see a smug looking Draco.
"With pleasure, ladies." He winked at her and began walking away quickly before Ginny could catch sight of his face.
Ginny's eyebrows furrowed, "His voice sounds awfully familiar...did you see who that was?"
"Hm?" Hermione was looking through the menu as if it was the most interesting article of paper she's ever seen, "I'm sorry, I was browsing the dessert menu."
Ginny eyed her suspiciously before catching the mysterious blonde man vanish behind saloon doors leading to the kitchens. "You know...Harry tells me you've been seeing someone lately..."
Hermione took a sip of her service water before answering, "Yes...I have been. He's widowed and has a wonderful 6 year old boy whom I've grown to love as my own."
Ginny looked at her with mixed emotions of happiness and concern, "I'm happy you're putting yourself out there!"
"But?..." Hermione noticed her hesitance.
Ginny sighed, "...But do you genuinely like the man or do you like the idea of being a family and having this opportunity to become a mother?"
Hermione was taken aback by Ginny's insinuation,"Wow...you think I've really become pathetic haven't you?"
Ginny shook her head vigorously, trying to explain her questioning better, "No that's not it at all! I just...I want to make sure you're with someone who genuinely makes you happy and not just...trying to fill a void, you know? It doesn't just hurt you in the long run, but could also affect the man and his kid, and I know you...you would never want to do that."
Hermione sighed, "...I'm happy Gin...after what happened with Ronald a couple days ago, it solidified whatever conclusions I've drawn in regards to my feelings...I should also let you know that I've known the man I've been seeing, since I was 11 years old."
Ginny's eyes bugged out, "Are you serious? Did he go to Hogwarts with us? Who is it?"
There was a sparkle in Hermione's eyes as she spoke, "We've only reconnected 2 months ago, but goodness, Ginny! In a span of 2 months, I've learned how intelligent, witty, loving, caring, thoughtful, and wonderful he could be...I think I—"
"Sorry to interrupt you both, here's your Shirley temple, and your butter-beer. Normally, we wouldn't serve butter-beer in Muggle places, but luckily for you Red, I'm no muggle."
Ginny's jaw dropped at the sight of Draco, his infamous Malfoy smirk etched onto his annoyingly handsome face. She looked towards Hermione who's blush grew rapidly on her face, even more so when she wouldn't meet Ginny's eye.
"Malfoy? The prick who used to always bully you and call you derogatory names? Draco Malfoy???" Ginny couldn't believe it.
Draco cleared his throat, shifting his feet in preparation of a retreat, "Oh, I'm sorry, did I walk in at a bad time? I think I should—"
"Stay." Hermione grabbed his hand, and pulled him to sit beside her in the booth. She began mustering up the courage to spill the beans to Ginny, while Draco's anxiety began to spike.
The brunette bit her lip before looking Ginny in the eye, "Yeah...I'm with the prick."
Draco didn't know whether to nod his head in agreement or take offense.
Before he could say anything, Hermione continued, "Really though, he's not as bad as he used to be...besides, he did help us win the war at the end, he didn't identify Harry, Ron, or myself when we were at the Manor, he gave his wand to Harry at the crucial second of defeating Voldemort, His mum saved Harry by not identifying him either—-"
"He was at Fred's funeral."
Hermione and Draco's eyes widened at the redhead who spoke up. The man cleared his throat before sitting up, "H-how'd you know that?"
Ginny gave him a sad smile, "George told me...He saw you there after everyone else left..."
Draco was quiet for a moment, looking down at his folded hands, before saying "I'm sorry...for everything."
Ginny shook her head, "You aren't to blame for what happened...thank you...for paying your respects."
A silence hung in the air before Ginny spoke up again, "I want you both to know...that I'm happy for you."
Hermione blinked away her watery eyes in surprise, "I'm sorry, what?"
Ginny chuckled a little, "I'll admit, I was quite shocked at first after having connected the dots...but the only reason why I was shocked was because I wouldn't have expected you'd move on from your past with him."
Draco grimaced a little, and Hermione placed her hand on his, catching his eye, "I've moved on from it all. We were only kids who didn't know the whole story of what either of us went through...There's no use looking back now, what matters is that we've found our way to today."
Ginny continued to observe the two in their precious little moment. Hermione chuckled happily as Draco pulled her closer to kiss her temple and whispered sweet-nothings into her ear.
The redhead took a large gulp of her butter-beer before muttering to herself, "And I thought Harry and I were too sweet...I'll have to schedule a dental appointment from the secondhand cavities you both are giving me..."
"Oi, love birds!" Ginny called after they had been lost in their own little world far longer than she was comfortable with, and gave them a pointed look, catching their attention, "I'm still waiting on my cheeseburger!"
•••
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•••
Hermione buried her head in her pillow, recounting the day's events, and thinking to herself, "I finished all my Christmas shopping with Ginny...turns out Draco owned that sports pub...Ginny found out about us and will most likely tell Harry and George...George will tell everyone he comes across...I'll have to hide in the Muggle realm forever, but that won't be so bad as long as I'm with..."
She shot up from her bed, eyes widening, and placing a hand to her mouth as she spoke her thoughts aloud, having remembered, "Oh my...I nearly confessed my feelings to Draco...well I mean, he knows my feelings for him, but..."
She stuffed her face in her pillow again, face as red as Ginny's hair, internally dying of embarrassment as she thought to herself, "He almost heard me admit that I..."
The sound of tapping was heard from a nearby window in her room. She opened the window to let in a beautiful black owl with a note tied to its leg.
After giving it a treat, the owl remained perched on her bedside table, most likely waiting to deliver her response to the note. She sat back down on the edge of the bed before reading it carefully:
Dear Hermione,
I know we have each other's phone numbers now, but I figured taking the time to write out a letter to you would have been more meaningful than an instant message. Like you always say when you help Scorpius with his homework..."A for effort".
I just wanted you to know how appreciative I am of you, not just for being so wonderful with my son, but for assuring me, believing in me, and forgiving me, when I have difficulties doing that myself...
I was happy to hear that Weaslette gave us her blessing. I know other people's opinions on us shouldn't really matter, but knowing a best friend of yours approves of me for you, has pushed me to allow myself to treasure you like how I've been wanting to treasure you, but was too scared of rushing things with you...
Scorpius will be staying at Daphne's house for the weekend to bond with his cousins...I was wondering if you would like to take this opportunity to spend the weekend with me. If you have prior engagements however, I'll understand. There's no rush as I'm not going anywhere.
- D.M.
Hermione flopped over, laying on her bed, and looked up at the ceiling. She sighed, "Well shit..."
She turned her head to see the owl looking at her curiously, prompting her to cover her reddening face, "Ugh...I think I'm in falling love with him..."
•••
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Author's Note:
(^///^)
^blushing
(And yes I reformatted the page breakers, I saw how broken the 2 lines I used were, so please bear with me, lol)