O Tell Me the Truth
About Love
By Eamane-Shu
Disclaimer
- I do not own
any of the characters from Harry Potter – I’m just borrowing them to have my
own warped fun.
Will
it come like a change in the weather? Will its greeting be courteous or rough? Will
it alter my life altogether? O tell me the truth about
love. W. H. Auden (1938)
Love
is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to
remove: O no! It is an ever-fixed mark which looks on tempests and is never
shaken.
William
Shakespeare
Hermione
stepped out of the restaurant, and closed the door behind her quietly, she
didn’t wish to cause a scene, not here and not like this. Tears were streaming
down her face, but she held her head high, after all she still had her pride.
She walked quickly through Diagon Alley, until she saw a deserted bench, and
she sat down gingerly, and sobbed as though her heart would break. Inside the
restaurant, where Hermione had been due to meet one of her friends for lunch,
sat Ron, with a pretty blonde witch, who Hermione didn’t recognise. She assumed
that it was simply a business lunch that he had simply neglected to mention,
after all they had been dating for three years now, living together for two of
those, and Hermione trusted him. Until he leant over the table and kissed the
blonde, and it certainly wasn’t a friendly kiss, oh no, Hermione would never
dream of kissing Harry like that.
A
flicker of black in the corner of Hermione’s eyes caught her attention;
somebody was sitting on the bench beside her. She looked up and was greeted by
startling blue eyes, framed by long blond hair. She was sitting on a bench with
Lucius Malfoy, former death eater, servant of the dark lord and general bad
guy. At the end of the war, in seventh year, Harry had finally defeated
Voldemort and all the death eaters had been rounded up, or as in Lucius
Malfoy’s case, pleaded the imperius curse, donated a few thousand galleons and
found himself once again a reputable member of society.
“Why
Miss Granger, what on earth could be the matter?”
Hermione
moved as far away from him as she could. “Boyfriend troubles?” he chuckled to
himself. “If I were you” he continued, “I would want payback, to hurt him as
much as he hurt you.”
“How”
her voice was so low it was almost a snarl.
“I
beg your pardon?”
“How
would you hurt him? How would you make him pay?”
“Go
home” Lucius commanded suddenly. “Act as if none of this has happened, then
tonight meet me in le chaudron bouillant.” He threw around the name of the most exclusive
restaurant in Diagon Alley as if it were the local Macdonald’s “I will advise
you on what to do next then.” Hermione nodded her agreement before apparating
back to the small apartment that she and Ron shared.
She started to wander into the
kitchen, not really paying attention to where she was going, and she gasped as
she walked headlong into somebody, she looked up to see Harry laughing at her.
“Hey Mione,
what you doing home so early? I
thought you were having lunch with Cassie.”
“I did, she had to rush off
early, and I was tired, so I came back.”
“Where did you go?” Harry asked,
helping himself to a biscuit.
“Just to café rouge” Hermione
commented evenly. Harry’s face paled. It suddenly dawned on Hermione. He knows.
This fresh betrayal cut her like a knife, apart from Ron, Harry was her best
friend in the entire universe. How could he have even considered hiding
something like this from her?
“Harry, I’m sorry.” She said
coldly, her voice chilled like the northern wind “I have to change, I’m going
out tonight and I need to get ready”
“Where are you going?” he asked
suddenly worried, if she had found out about Ron’s affair god only knows what
she was capable of.
“Le chaudron bouillant” she
replied, naming the exquisite French restaurant where she was due to meet
Lucius Malfoy in a matter of hours.
“Oh” said Harry feeling relieved,
“Is Ron taking you out?”
“No, I’m going with a colleague
from work” she lied smoothly, willing Harry not to ask any more questions. He
didn’t.
“Well I’ll leave you to it.” He
smiled, kissing her affectionately on the cheek. Hermione did her best not to
grimace, she would forgive Harry eventually, but it would take time.
With a crack, he was gone and
Hermione was left alone in the flat. Although it was cramped, and in the bad
end of wizarding
She eventually settled on a
simple strapless black dress, and a pair of low kitten heels, before running
herself a bath. A couple of cucumber slices removed the puffiness and tired
feeling from her eyes, and she was soon feeling relatively relaxed. After her
long soak in the tub, she began to put some make up on. Current wizarding
fashion dictated the natural look, so her face was soft, with pink lips and
eyes. Her hair was swept back and piled up on the back of her head, with a few
tendrils running loose. She was sitting in her dressing room, pinning the last
few tendrils in place, when Ron arrived home.
He let out a low whistle. “What’s
the occasion babe? You look lovely” he came over and kissed her on the cheek.
It took all of Hermione’s composure not to turn around and slap him.
“I’m going out to dinner sweetie”
she replied with a forced smile.
“Where?” he asked puzzled, he
didn’t remember her mentioning anything earlier.
“Le chaudron bouillant” she
started applying her mascara, no longer paying him any attention.
She definitely hadn’t told him
about going there. “When did you plan this” he asked suspiciously.
“It’s a last minute thing; it was
only arranged this afternoon.”
“But reservations take weeks,
remember when I tried to get a table there last year.”
“My friend is friends with the
maitre d’” she replied, hoping that he would let the matter go. He did,
changing the topic.
“I may be in with a chance for
promotion” he grinned
Hermione choked out her reply
“How… How wonderful Ron!”
“Isn’t it? We’ll finally be able to
move out of this dump, and when you finish your apprenticeship we’ll be able to
afford to get married.
There was no way in hell Hermione
was having this conversation. Marriage was something that they had often talked
about, but it was way way down the line, and Hermione just didn’t know what to
say.
“We’ll talk about it later” Ron
smiled seeing the gob smacked look on Hermione’s face and misinterpreting it
completely. “I’ll leave you in peace to get ready.”
When Ron had gone Hermione
quickly changed, grabbed a black lacy shawl, yelled goodbye to Ron and
apparated to Diagon Alley. She strolled down the street slowly, a part of her
not wanting to reach the restaurant, now her anger had cooled slightly she was
feeling apprehensive. She looked up from the cobbled street, to the restaurant,
outside stood a man with blond hair, but it wasn’t Lucius, this man’s hair was
much shorter, and he was much younger.
“Granger” he nodded cordially.
“Malfoy” she greeted warmly.
Since leaving Hogwarts the pair had settled into an easy, alliance. Draco was
an apprentice potion maker at St Mungo’s, so the pair had been forced to work
together in a professional manner. “Is your father inside?”
“No, he was detained on urgent
business, so I am here in his stead. Shall we?” He gestured towards the
restaurant, then followed Hermione inside. They were
quickly seated by the Maitre d’, who recognized Malfoy immediately.
When they had ordered their food,
which was to be put on the Malfoy tab, Draco turned to Hermione, worry etched
on his face.
“So how are you holding up?”
This simple piece of concern
nearly brought Hermione to tears. “I’m not too sure that I am. Everything has
just come crashing down all at once.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I really don’t know”, she sighed
as their starters were brought out.
“Do you want to stay with him?”
Hermione shook her head “But I can’t
afford to leave him, I can’t afford the rent on a place alone, which is why we
moved in together in the first place.”
Draco smiled to her encouragingly
“I have a proposition for you. You can improve your financial and social
standing, while getting the perfect revenge on that cheating scum, you call
your boyfriend.”
“How?” Hermione asked intrigued.
“To put it simply, father and I
think that you are the ideal candidate to be the next Mrs Malfoy.”
Hermione nearly choked on her
wine. “Draco if this is some form of joke, it really isn’t funny.”
“I assure you, I’m perfectly
serious.”
“I need some time, to think this
through.”
Draco smiled at her warmly, “Of
course. But in the meantime, I want you to come and stay with me; you need to
get out of your flat.”
“You don’t mind?”
“No, the town house is a bit
large for just me. It’s a bit lonely rattling around the place on my own.”
“Thanks Malfoy” Hermione smiled
gratefully.
“It’s ok. Just consider my
offer.”
“But why, I… I don’t understand”
she stammered “I would have thought I was the last person on earth you would
want to marry. For one thing, I’m muggleborn”
“Being a completely pureblooded
family is less than prudent these days” Draco worded delicately. “Father
believes that we need some fresh blood in the family, so we don’t have the
stigma of being falsely linked to the dark lord.”
Hermione raised an eyebrow
“Falsely linked?”
Draco replied with a dark glare.
“Keep your mouth shut. If you agree to this deal, you believe father was under
the imperius.”
“It’ll kill Ron when he finds
out” Hermione mused to herself.
“Don’t do this purely for
revenge” Draco said suddenly and calmly “Because one day you are going to wake
up and you wont be angry any more, and you may regret any descisions you will
make.”
Draco called for the bill, and
handed Hermione his address. “This is where you need to send your stuff to;
I’ll wait by the fire to pick it up.”
Hermione nodded and apparated
home, to find Ron sitting on the sofa flicking through a quidditch magazine,
reading about the cannons latest victory.
He waited until she sat down on
the couch beside him to greet her. “Hey”
“Hey” she whispered softly, “Ron
we need to talk.”
“Sure, what about?” he sat up,
giving her his full attention.
“Things haven’t been right with
us for quite some time.”
“What are you trying to say
Hermione?”
“It’s over Ron.” Tears sprang to
her eyes “It just isn’t going to work.”
Ron didn’t offer any comeback, he
just stood and stared as Hermione walked into the bedroom, packed up her things
and left.
Authors Note – the quotes at the
top are from W. H. Audens – O Telll
Me the Truth About Love and Shakespeare’s sonnet 116
and can be viewed in their entirety here