Aconite - Dramione/Blinny

Ch. 18

The next morning, Hermione paused in her doorway after waving the lights in her office on. Instead of one bouquet of flowers, there were two. Only the second one was entirely red roses, and she knew Ron would never get her those.

She set her bag down and reached for the card that was placed against the vase of the roses, smiling at the familiar black envelope as she opened it up and read the note.

Hermione,

I figured you needed some flowers that you actually would want on your desk. Hope these put a smile on your face this morning!

I hope you don't mind but I've also already planned out our dinner for Wednesday. You're going to love it, I promise! I will be picking you up at 6:30, wear something similar to the dress you wore last night.

Draco

"Of course you have dinner planned already," She laughed quietly as she set the note down and leaned over to smell the roses.

After straightening up and pulling her coat off, she spied the Prophet on the corner of her desk and groaned slightly as she read the headline.

May 27th, 2003

Married Hermione Granger Spotted with Bachelor Draco Malfoy!

Underneath the headline was a picture of her and Draco walking down the sidewalk closely together, smiling at each other. She relaxed when she realized that it wasn't obvious they were holding hands, and even smiled down at the picture.

"So you are seeing him."

She jumped and turned to see Ron standing in her doorway, a blank expression on his face. Glaring at him, she set the paper down and looked away from him as she went around to her desk.

After a few more moments of silence, he asked, "Are the roses from him too?"

"I don't believe that's any of your business," She answered simply.

"It is my business, considering we're still married," He said with an edge in his voice.

"I've already filed the divorce paperwork, Ron," Hermione said, grabbing a few books off her shelf before returning to her desk.

"I'm not signing them."

She looked up at him quickly. "What?"

"You heard me," He said slowly, taking a few steps towards her with his hands in his pockets. "I am not signing the divorce paperwork. I want to work this out."

"Well I don't." She glared at him and said quietly, "Please don't make this difficult, Ron. You've hurt me enough already."

"Then why won't you let me make it up to you?" He gave her a pleading look, tilting his head slightly.

Looking down at her desk, she sighed and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "I really don't have time for this right now, Ron."

"You never have time for this," He said exasperatedly. "Why are you throwing away five years of a happy relationship?"

"I'm not the one who shagged another person!" She exclaimed.

"It was a mistake!" He exclaimed in return.

"Yes, a very large mistake!" She ran her hands through her hair in frustration and glared at him again. "I don't think you understand just how much you hurt me, Ron. You wrongly jumped to conclusions after reading notes you were not supposed to read, and you reacted very poorly to say the least. If this is how you are going to react to similar situations in the future, then I want absolutely no part of it. I don't want to put myself through that again."