Come Find Me | Dramione

Chapter 10: Gift Wrapped

*TW* Drug abuse, brief mention of domestic violence.

Hermione woke with a start, her own screams ringing in her ears.

She quickly turned to see if she had woken Ron, finding him sound asleep, snoring and sweating off the alcohol he had drank the night before.

She wasn't sure when her nightmares shifted from battlefields and a deranged Bellatrix to the angry voice of the redhead that slept next to her. Having barely survived his violence in her dream, she clutched her chest, trying to coax a sense of calm back to her.

The last two days had been especially hard. Work wasn't the same without Malfoy there, distracting her from life. Without his boyish smile, or his midwinter eyes trailing the pages of a book. She hadn't realized how safe work felt with him there. And she reluctantly admitted to herself that she missed him when he was gone.

Theo still came by for lunch, which helped lighten her day a bit. He made her laugh and she enjoyed their conversations. Theo was quite smart, helping her through spots in her werewolf project where she and Malfoy had been stuck.

He had begged her to come to Nott Manor for Malfoy's birthday celebration. Her heart sank at the idea of missing it, though she wasn't sure why. It wasn't as if she regularly went to see the Slytherins outside of work.

Nothing in her life made sense anymore. The people she knew and loved growing up were strangers in this life. The new friends she looked to for clarity or escape were the last people she ever thought she would care about. But she did. She looked forward to seeing them. And she had no idea what to do with those feelings.

She wracked her brain for any excuse to attend the party but could find none. She would be needed at home with Ron. And she shuddered at the thought of him finding out who she would have spent her Saturday night with.

So, instead, she spent it at home, making dinner for her husband. The day started out fine, as they usually do. Ron woke up, showered off his filth from the night before, and met Hermione in the kitchen for his coffee.

Sometime around lunch, he popped open a new bottle of Odgens and the day took a turn Hermione, unfortunately, saw coming. She had looked at him the wrong way, made the wrong thing for dinner. Why couldn't she do anything right? What good was she? She nursed her new bruises as she had the night before.

She shifted where she laid in the bed, picking up the bottle of blue pills and swallowing her preferred amount. She could have just taken a dose of Dreamless Sleep Potion, but she enjoyed the numb feeling that came with her Muggle pills.

That was all. It was just convenient. She had it all under control.

If she were to be seen at the apothecary buying Dreamless Sleep potions and Calming Draughts, people would ask questions. She would raise suspicions. The rumors would spread faster than Black Cat Flu.

Have you seen Hermione Granger-Weasley frequenting the local apothecary? She walks out every other day with vials of pain and calming potions. Do you think she's an addict? How scandalous.

The pills were easier. She wasn't The Golden Girl in the Muggle world. Just another woman on the street. She'd make less of a spectacle of herself that way.

She settled back into her pillow and silently wondered when she'd wake up from the nightmare that was her reality.

***

She had decided. She was going to get Malfoy a birthday present.

It was silly, and perhaps a bit manic of her to be so determined about something as trivial as simply getting her coworker a present for his birthday. But she couldn't help but feel like she owed him something. Some sort of show of gratitude for the offer of friendship and security he gave to her.