My Soul's longing for you...

ChApTeR 4

„Good morning Sleeping Beauty..." Hermione turned her head, slightly smirking, and wanted to sit up, but Narcissa pushed her gently back into the pillows: „Slowly Hermione..." she whispered, and the younger witch asked: „I splintered, didn't I?"

„Do you prefer honesty or a lie...?"

Hermione chuckled slightly, and flinched, when she felt the pain in her left side.

„Now I know how Ron felt, when this had happened to him..."

Narcissa nodded, and explained her, that she had given her a few stronger potions, and the pain should be gone in one or two hours...

Hermione nodded, and fell asleep again... she woke up a few hours later and there was no pain any more. She felt still only a bit weak, but tried to stand up... she walked through a beautiful flat... from the kitchen she could smell something delicious, and was surprised to find Narcissa standing in the kitchen, while Potatoes, and Vegetables were cutting themselves, flew slowly through a flame in the air, and landet on plates, followed by two steaks.

„Shouldn't you be in bed...?"

„I don't want to lay in bed the whole day... Question..." Hermione said, taking the offered plate, and Narcissa said: „You're wondering why I'm living in a flat, and not in a huge Manor?"

„That was my second Question, yes." Narcissa smiled at her, took her own plate, and lead Hermione into her living room, where the younger witch found her own trunks, Narcissa's Trunks, bookshelves, and an old broomstick, hanging on the wall...

„You played Quidditch?"

„Yes... Seeker and Team captain, until my sixth year. I stopped playing in my last year, because of all the exams, and I couldn't risk to miss one, because of an injury..."

Hermione nodded, and while they were eating, Narcissa said: „To answer your other two questions: yes I can cook by myself, I mean, a wand is not only for fighting, or opening locked doors.... and I don't wanted to live in a manor again. I'm alone, and this flat is perfectly fine, and definitely enough for me..."

Hermione nodded in understanding, and they continued their meal...

„Would you like to talk about what happened between you and Ron?" Narcissa asked, and Hermione somehow had waited for this question to come. She sighed, and nodded: „He is an asshole... it had started when we had had that odd kiss in the chamber of secrets, after we've destroyed one of the last horcruxes. I thought it was just a kiss in the heat of the moment, but I moved in into the Burrow, because I hadn't a place to go... we spent a lot of time together, and also with Harry, until Harry and I moved out a year later...

I didn't heard a thing from Harry for allost three months, until he had knocked on my door, with an arm around Draco's neck.

Draco had told me, that he didn't know where else he should bring him..." Hermione had to laugh, and also Narcissa had to smirk: „So Harry was drunk, and my son brought him to your place?"

„Oh he wasn't only drunk. He was drunk as hell, muttering something about how much he loved Draco, and I never seen Draco blushing before."

Narcissa laughed, and nodded for Hermione to continue.

„Well, I let them in, and at first Draco and I weren't talking a single word, until he apologized to me... that was actually my first reminder of our letters, and I have to confess, that I've told him about them."

„What did he say?"

„He had known it already... he'd told me, that he had seen your second owl once in a while flying through the great hall, and that I've received the letter it was carrying..."

Narcissa smiled: „I never would've thought about my son carrying a secret... I think I'm going to ask him, why he didn't say something..."

Hermione nodded, and continued: „Anyway, we were talking about those letters, and about Harry. If I have seen them during the year, that we've repeated. Of course I saw them talking, and flirting, but it was none of my business, I mean, I knew Harry would have had told me about it one day or another, so why asking him out... and somehow after that very long night, Ron asked me out."

„And something went wrong?"

„After a few months, yes..." Hermione sighed: „It was not only that the sex was... well... unsatisfying. He wanted to have sex after my cat died, and he made fun of me, because of that. But it wasn't just this... I... I don't know what it was."

Narcissa thought about everything for a few minutes, before she said: „I hope you won't hate me for that, but I don't think that there were any feelings between the both of you... I think that this heat of this one moment lastet a bit longer..."

„Does something like that ever happened to you?"

„Yes during my marriage."

„Oh... Narcissa... I-I'm sorry..." Narcissa smiled: „It's alright... the truth is, and I'm not ashamed to say it, I hated Lucius... it is true, that I've managed to fell in love with him over the years, but there was that small part of him, I loathed. That part of him, which followed Voldemort, the monster who had killed the first love of my life."

„You... you were in love with Harry's mom?"

„Yes... do you remember when I told you, that we shared more than Love?"

„Of course..."

„It was passion, we shared. The passion for books, for poems, and to have secrets... it was good to have this secret. At least for me... and also of course for her, I mean she had had a much harder life than I."

„I think you both had had hard lives..." Hermione muttered.

„I think no one on this planet has the perfect life, without any problems at all, without flaws, without the need of a mask... such a life doesn't exist in my opinion. There's always something... inner pain, inner walls we all are building up over the years. Some walls are thicker, others are thin... I think it is what we are doing with this life, that really matters... I believe it is how we handle particular problems, and whether we can face them... and whether we can face ourselves... that's why I can't blame Ron for his actions... I think he didn't manage the death of his brother.. he just wanted to be with someone. And so did I..." she added...

Narcissa didn't say a single word... there was no need to. Not yet, so she just wrapped an arm around the younger witch...

TBC...