Another Drabble
Feb. 9th, 2009 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madeleoneWritten for the Valentine2009 challenge at Dramione Drabbles. prompt from Notting Hill, " It just got to the point where I couldn't remember any of the reasons why we were together."
Alone
He stood in the back among the shadows watching the girl he remembered from his childhood, a woman now. Their childhood seemed so very far away, they were both adults with children of their own. Yet here sat the girl he had teased and tormented and secretly wanted so badly with all of his little black Slytherin heart, even though he knew according to everything he’d been taught that he shouldn’t. Impure, dirty blood, far beneath a Malfoy……it all seemed so stupid now. The things he’d been taught to believe.
The crowds had left the station with the departure of the train. The Hogwarts Express on its way to a new school year, families waving goodbye to sons and daughters, chatting with friends and gradually leaving through the portal back to King’s Cross Station.
Yet she sat here, all alone on the bench. Her friends had take her son, their nephew, with them; her ex-husband had gone home to his new family and still she sat. She’d been crying, he could tell. Oh, not heart wrenching sobs, but soft quiet tears sliding silently down her cheeks interspersed with an occasional sniffle. He sat on the other end of her bench and just stared at her for a moment, willing her to look up at him. She finally did and gave him a little half smile of recognition combined with a sniff.
“You gonna be okay, Granger?” he asked, handing her fresh linen handkerchief to replace the tissue she had thoroughly destroyed.
She nodded and with a small grimace whispered, “I guess I’ll survive.”
“It’s hard putting them on the train for the first time isn’t it? Your daughters’ first year, right?” She nodded. “Yeah, my son’s as well.”
“I saw you earlier with your wife, she’s lovely.”
“Ex,” he stated quietly.
“Pardon me?” she asked not sure she understood.
“Ex-wife, or very soon to be. The papers are all signed just waiting on the filing.”
“Oh, Draco, I’m sorry. I had no idea, I hadn’t heard.”
“Well, it’s probably for the best. We drifted apart, it had never been a love match from the beginning, more something both our families wanted and we felt obligated to make it happen. It just got to the point where we couldn’t remember why we were together. We’ve tried to keep it away from the gossip mongers, and out of the spotlight for our son’s sake.” As soon as he said it he regretted the words, remembering that her divorce had been THE hot topic in the tabloids for weeks. Changing the subject he asked, “So is that why you’re crying, because Rose is off to Hogwarts?”
“Partially,” she sighed. “And in a couple years it’ll be Hugo, then I’ll be all alone. It’s such a depressing thought.”
“Oh, come on, you won’t be alone, you have lots of friends and family.”
She gave him a look, rolling her eyes. “My own family consists of my parents who opted to stay in Australia after the war, my friends all have their own very busy lives. I’ve decided that I’ll never find someone of my own. I’ve tried dating but it just never seems to work out somehow… either I end up going out with guys I knew in school, Dean Thomas, Ernie McMillan, Terry Boot, Anthony Goldstein, but they’re all old school chums, you know? It’s almost like dating Ron all over again; and we all know what a mistake that turned out to be. And the other guys I’ve dated….It always seems like they don’t want me, they want, ’the brain’ of the golden trio, or the war hero, or the fame of being with Harry Potters’ best friend. I don’t know maybe there’s something wrong with me, why can‘t anyone just want me for me? I feel like such a failure.”
As soon as the words left her mouth she wanted to call them back. What was she thinking, laying bare her heart and soul to Draco Malfoy of all people. He would probably be laughing at her with all his friends, telling them what a loser she was, how depressingly sad and pathetic she was.
But then something wondrous happened, he didn’t laugh, he didn’t sneer, he didn’t tease. Draco leaned towards her and took her hand in his, lifting it up to his lips and softly kissing the back of it like something out of one of Ginny’s romance novels. “You are not a failure, sweet. You’ve just been looking in all the wrong places, glory hunters, attention seekers, Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, oh my! What you need my darling is a Slytherin.”
Alone
He stood in the back among the shadows watching the girl he remembered from his childhood, a woman now. Their childhood seemed so very far away, they were both adults with children of their own. Yet here sat the girl he had teased and tormented and secretly wanted so badly with all of his little black Slytherin heart, even though he knew according to everything he’d been taught that he shouldn’t. Impure, dirty blood, far beneath a Malfoy……it all seemed so stupid now. The things he’d been taught to believe.
The crowds had left the station with the departure of the train. The Hogwarts Express on its way to a new school year, families waving goodbye to sons and daughters, chatting with friends and gradually leaving through the portal back to King’s Cross Station.
Yet she sat here, all alone on the bench. Her friends had take her son, their nephew, with them; her ex-husband had gone home to his new family and still she sat. She’d been crying, he could tell. Oh, not heart wrenching sobs, but soft quiet tears sliding silently down her cheeks interspersed with an occasional sniffle. He sat on the other end of her bench and just stared at her for a moment, willing her to look up at him. She finally did and gave him a little half smile of recognition combined with a sniff.
“You gonna be okay, Granger?” he asked, handing her fresh linen handkerchief to replace the tissue she had thoroughly destroyed.
She nodded and with a small grimace whispered, “I guess I’ll survive.”
“It’s hard putting them on the train for the first time isn’t it? Your daughters’ first year, right?” She nodded. “Yeah, my son’s as well.”
“I saw you earlier with your wife, she’s lovely.”
“Ex,” he stated quietly.
“Pardon me?” she asked not sure she understood.
“Ex-wife, or very soon to be. The papers are all signed just waiting on the filing.”
“Oh, Draco, I’m sorry. I had no idea, I hadn’t heard.”
“Well, it’s probably for the best. We drifted apart, it had never been a love match from the beginning, more something both our families wanted and we felt obligated to make it happen. It just got to the point where we couldn’t remember why we were together. We’ve tried to keep it away from the gossip mongers, and out of the spotlight for our son’s sake.” As soon as he said it he regretted the words, remembering that her divorce had been THE hot topic in the tabloids for weeks. Changing the subject he asked, “So is that why you’re crying, because Rose is off to Hogwarts?”
“Partially,” she sighed. “And in a couple years it’ll be Hugo, then I’ll be all alone. It’s such a depressing thought.”
“Oh, come on, you won’t be alone, you have lots of friends and family.”
She gave him a look, rolling her eyes. “My own family consists of my parents who opted to stay in Australia after the war, my friends all have their own very busy lives. I’ve decided that I’ll never find someone of my own. I’ve tried dating but it just never seems to work out somehow… either I end up going out with guys I knew in school, Dean Thomas, Ernie McMillan, Terry Boot, Anthony Goldstein, but they’re all old school chums, you know? It’s almost like dating Ron all over again; and we all know what a mistake that turned out to be. And the other guys I’ve dated….It always seems like they don’t want me, they want, ’the brain’ of the golden trio, or the war hero, or the fame of being with Harry Potters’ best friend. I don’t know maybe there’s something wrong with me, why can‘t anyone just want me for me? I feel like such a failure.”
As soon as the words left her mouth she wanted to call them back. What was she thinking, laying bare her heart and soul to Draco Malfoy of all people. He would probably be laughing at her with all his friends, telling them what a loser she was, how depressingly sad and pathetic she was.
But then something wondrous happened, he didn’t laugh, he didn’t sneer, he didn’t tease. Draco leaned towards her and took her hand in his, lifting it up to his lips and softly kissing the back of it like something out of one of Ginny’s romance novels. “You are not a failure, sweet. You’ve just been looking in all the wrong places, glory hunters, attention seekers, Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, oh my! What you need my darling is a Slytherin.”