Aconite - Dramione/Blinny

Ch. 23

It wasn't until the second week of June that Hermione had noticed she hadn't been receiving flowers from Ron. Not that it bothered her; she was happy she was no longer receiving them. She wondered if Ron had finally come around to the idea that they weren't getting back together, but the thought was soon pushed to the back of her mind as she focused on her work. It was the ninth of June and the full moon was that Saturday, so her first task was to remind her clients to take their potions. The task kept her occupied and she completely forgot about Ron and her pending divorce.

That is until lunch came around.

"Hi."

Hermione looked up and froze when she saw the person standing awkwardly in her doorway, unsure of what to say. After a few seconds of silence, Hermione took a deep breath and said, "Hello, Claire."

Claire shifted her weight from one foot to the other and adjusted the purse strap on her shoulder, looking between the floor and Hermione's desk. "I was hoping we could talk."

Raising an eyebrow, Hermione set down the papers that she was holding. "Talk about what?"

"I just want to clear the air and tell you the truth about everything, because I have a feeling that you don't know everything that's happened," Claire said quietly.

There was a sudden twist of pain on Hermione's heart as the memories resurfaced again; even though it had only been a couple of weeks, so much had happened since Ron's infidelity that it felt like it was a lifetime ago. But now everything was fresh again in her mind, including the hurt.

Hermione found herself agreeing to go to lunch with her former assistant, and the two women were soon sitting awkwardly across from each other in a little café that they used to frequent.

Claire shifted in her chair and glanced up at Hermione before swallowing the lump in her throat. "I...I like what you've done with your hair."

"Thank you." Hermione wasn't quite sure what else to say. She felt about as uncomfortable as Claire looked in that moment, and with a deep sigh she decided to just get things over with. "Why don't you just start from the beginning?"

This seemed to catch Claire off guard but the woman nodded and looked down at her plate. She was quiet while she gathered her thoughts, and after taking a drink of her water she began to speak.

"I just want to start off by saying that I am so very sorry for my part in everything," Claire began, finally looking up at Hermione. "I understand that I am just as in the wrong as Ron is, and there isn't an excuse for my actions."

She paused then, looking down at her plate again before continuing. "It all just happened very quickly. I think it started in late March, about a month before the mess with the potion brewer being murdered."

Hermione thought back to that time and remembered that Ron had started getting snippy with her over small things around then. She nodded and Claire went on.

"It started out innocently enough. He'd say hi to me whenever he passed by to go to your office, and that turned into small talk and him getting to know me," She explained. "Then there was one day during lunch when you had a sudden meeting with the Minister over something and he wanted to take you out to lunch. Because you couldn't go, he asked me to go instead since he already had the reservation. I stupidly accepted and I shouldn't have, but I did."

Claire took a deep breath and glanced up at Hermione before continuing. "He let slip that you two were starting to have problems, and I think he wanted someone to talk to about them with. I don't know why he couldn't sort them out with you, but I didn't ask either. He ended the lunch by giving me a kiss on the cheek and that was it. But later that week he asked me out to lunch again because you were busy. I honestly enjoyed lunch with him the first time around and I thought it was just talking so I accepted again."