Disclaimer: Not profiting from this fic.

Ch. 17

Draco picked himself up from the floor, his body sore from his violent flight across the room.

"What the bloody hell, Blaise?" Draco asked angrily, masking the slight fear he felt from angering his longtime friend.

"You fucking fucked her," Blaise seethed as he prowled towards Draco.

Draco didn't have to guess which "her" he was referring to. Though Draco knew that it would be for the best if he and Granger just get together already, there was a chance that Blaise would be mad at him for approaching Granger. He did not expect this reaction, though.

"Granger? What of it?" Draco asked. "I thought you said you don't bother with other people's love lives."

"You selfish boneheaded wanker," Blaise said. "I told you not to treat her like one of your mudblood whores."

Blaise grabbed Draco's robes, his hand reached on top of his head, ready to punch. Draco raised his hand in surrender.

"Would you please let me put on some clothes first?" Draco asked.

Blaise grudgingly allowed his old friend to cover his modesty. Draco quickly grabbed trousers and his shirt, not bothering to put underwear in his haste to cover himself up.

"What were you thinking, Malfoy?" Blaise asked.

Blaise never called him by his last name. This was serious.

"She's a veela," Blaise rattled on. "She's your mate. You can't just sleep with her."

"It was consensual," Draco insisted. "There's nothing wrong with two consensual adults having sex."

Blaise punched him in the face, surprising Draco.

"You fucking idiot," Blaise shouted. "She's in love with you, and you didn't even say a single word to her. Other mudbloods got the courtesy of getting photographed in your arms, and you didn't even talk to her."

That gave Draco pause. He couldn't remember talking with Granger last night. But surely, they did, right? Yet somehow, Draco could not remember a single topic they talked about last night. Did they really go straight to shagging each other without saying a single word to one another?

"How…?"

"She spent the morning bawling her eyes out all over my robes," Blaise said. "Do you know how much dry cleaning would cost to take out snot from Italian silk?"

Now that Blaise mentioned it, Blaise's robes had sticky wet patches all over that must have been Granger's snot and tears. Draco was reminded of the time when he cornered Granger at the bar. They almost kissed back then before Granger rushed into Goldstein's arms with tears in her eyes. How come Granger ran to other men's arms whenever they have a moment? God, he really was an ass. He should remedy this.

Draco decided that he needed to remedy the situation swiftly. He asked Blaise where Granger was, but Blaise declined to answer. Granger was passed out cold when Blaise left her. Her eyes and throat were swollen after a good cry. This only brought up the question of why they in the same room in the first place were.

There was a knock on the door, which was quickly followed by Draco's mother opening it. She looked impeccable in her matronly robes. Instantly, she asserted her dominance over the two young men by merely standing by the door, a skill only a mother could possess.

"Why is there so much ruckus in here?" she asked.

Draco quickly tried to say that everything is fine. The last thing he wanted was to discuss his apparently horrid night with Granger. Graciously, his mother left the room but left the door slightly ajar, letting the boys know that she could come back in at any time.

Thankfully, Blaise was not angry enough to embarrass him in front of his mother. Instead, he marched a little too harshly against the antique rug.

"I have one rule in life, Draco," Blaise said, switching back to calling him by his first name. "I do not get involved with anybody's love life, and I do not want to start now. Therefore, unless you stop playing around and take my heritage seriously, I do not want you anywhere near Granger."

Blaise left with a flourish of green flames far too dramatic for Draco's sensibilities. Italians…

Draco's disastrous day did not end with Blaise. Despite his mother's considerable tact, she could not ignore the little she overheard. What's worse, his father was involved.

"I've heard you had a merry little one-night-stand with your veela," his father said over dinner.

Oh, God.

"I also heard that she ran straight to Blaise's arms in tears afterward."

Oh, freaking God.

"I know you do not have any affection for the girl," his mother said. "However, it's uncouth to end your trysts with the girl crying. I know we did not discuss what is proper behavior…in these types of situations. But perhaps one is sorely needed."

Fuck.

"What exactly did you tell the Granger girl when you gave her the news that she would be your paramour?" His father asked.

The pregnant pause that came afterward heavily implied that Draco should answer. He definitely did not want to do so.

"We did not," Draco said simply.

Draco did not know which was more awkward, the silence, or the awkward conversation.

"Did you at least have a nice date with her?" His mother asked.

Draco maintained silent.

"I heard from my friends in the ministry that your little veela is heading a new project involving inheritance," his father said. "From what I heard, it involved something muggle, but it impressed Minister Podadera."

"Why would the head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports be interested in inheritance?" His mother asked.

"Apparently, it involves traits inherited from parents to child," Lucius Malfoy said. "Minister Podadera and I had an enlightening conversation on the physical attributes necessary to be successful as a professional Quidditch player."

"That is wonderfully interesting," Narcissa Malfoy said. "And you say that Ms. Granger is heading a project on this topic?"

"Yes, she is," Lucius replied. "It's still in its early stages, but the proposal looks promising. Draco, has she discussed this with you?"

"I am afraid that she did not," Draco said.

"Did you learn something new about your veela?" His mother asked.

When will this conversation end?

"Did you even exchange a single word with each other?" his father asked.

There was a stray tassel string on the tablecloth that was a centimeter longer than the rest. Draco would need to order one of the house-elves to fix that.

"I am highly disappointed in you," his mother said. "I did not teach you manners and courtesy appropriate for the heir this noble house so you could court your veela using the only charms available to a muggle street whore,"

Draco's parents whispered amongst themselves. He couldn't help but feel that Draco was a child once more. He prepared himself for a scolding that was eventually about to occur.

"It would seem that we have been too lax with you," his mother said.

"Perhaps it is time that you come under my tutelage," Lucius said. "It would seem that you would need a refresher course on how to behave as the Malfoy heir."

Hermione came by during his shift. She usually did that whenever she had a breakthrough in her research. Most of the time, they were really technical discoveries, even Anthony didn't understand. Most of the time, he was just happy seeing her excited that she was making progress doing something she loves.

This time…something was different. She met him in the cafeteria, instead of sneaking into the Healer's mess where they… Anthony smirked at the thought. What could he say? New discoveries made Hermione horny. God, he loved her brain.

Of course, that in itself was not unusual, but it was unexpected. Hermione smiled as soon as she saw him, though the smile didn't quite reach her eyes. On the table was a plastic bag filled with to-go boxes.

"I found it," Hermione said with a giant smile on her face.

She gestured for him to sit down across from her. She took out a to-go box and hand it to him. It was filled with curry and rice and presented in a haphazard manner that would be unappetizing if they weren't in St. Mungo's cafeteria.

"You're an angel," Anthony said. And he meant it. Any meal he wasn't eating the free hospital food was a blessing. "Found what?"

"So I bought you some butter chicken," Hermione said. "I know you don't like it really spicy, but the clerk said that they are an authentic Indian place, so they suggest people try the mild spice first. They even gave everybody a glass of milk just in case."

She took out a to-go cup, presumably filled with milk.

"I didn't even know that the best thing to use against spicy food was milk," Hermione said. "Apparently, the burning sensation we feel when we eat spicy food comes from a chemical called capsaicin. Milk, on the other hand, has a protein called casein, which binds with the capsaicin and washes it away from the tongue."

"That's interesting," Anthony said patiently.

Hermione was acting strangely, Anthony observed. Anthony never saw her ramble before, which was… fun. After a while, Anthony found that Hermione was not behaving like she usually did. She's energetic, yet unfocused. She was smiling, but Anthony sensed a deep sadness. Something was wrong.

"Hermione," Anthony said. "You mentioned that you discovered something new."

"Oh, right," Hermione said.

"I found it," Hermione said. "I found out where magic comes from."

Wait, what? Why was she rambling about milk and chilies when she discovered something that important? This was big news. Possibly the most significant discovery in the history of magic.

"I found it out during class," Hermione said. "We were learning about Non-Mendelian inheritance, then it came to me, that magical ability could be explained by a single autosomal dominant gene if it is caused by an expansion of trinucleotide repeats with non-Mendelian ratios of inheritance."

Anthony has no idea what she just said, but he was just excited for her.

"Of course," Hermione said. "It's just a working hypothesis. I still need further research to make sure that this is true-"

Anthony ran towards her side of the table and pulled her up from her chair. He carried hoisted her up and gave her an excited kiss. She giggled in response but suddenly stopped.

"Is there something wrong?" Anthony asked.

"I…I slept with someone," Hermione said against his lips.

Anthony chuckled. Was that all? Didn't he already demonstrate to her that it did not matter after she confessed to sleeping with one of the Weasley boys?

"I…," she paused. "I slept with Malfoy."

Oh, this was different. Anthony let her go, practically dropping her to the floor. This was different. This changed everything.

He sat down in silence, not even looking at her in the eye as he sat back down. They needed to talk about this, but they shouldn't make a scene in the middle of the cafeteria. Silently, Anthony finished his butter chicken.

They finished their meal in silence as Hermione looked at him with worried eyes the entire time. Once finished, Anthony gestured her to a quiet room. He could see that she was scared. For what, he didn't know. Was she afraid that he would explode on her? No, he would never do that.

"I can't do this anymore," Anthony finally said. "I can't be your fuck buddy anymore."

"Don't call yourself that," Hermione said.

Why would he call himself that? The term was so crude and demeaning. It diminished the friendship, the partnership they developed over the years.

"But that's what we are, or were," Anthony said. "We never really got around to defining what this is. We're not dating, nor are we a one-night stand. We're good friends, at least at one point we were. I think we both screwed it up once we started fucking each other, and I was fine with that for a while."

Anthony scratched his head, Hermione waited patiently for him to continue.

"I can't say exactly why I didn't stop this sooner, but I told myself that this has got to stop as soon as you find your mate," Anthony continued. "Of course, that was before I learned that it was Malfoy…and I thought it would end right then, and it didn't…but now that you screwed him… I don't know. It's just too much for me. I have to draw the line somewhere, and I guess this is where I'm going to draw it."

It broke her heart, but Hermione understood. They had been in a stagnant dead-end relationship for years now, preventing each other from moving on. She might be okay with it, but it was not fair for him.

She stood to give Anthony a gentle hug. She was happy to see him move on, but at the same time, she felt sad that this… thing… is ending.

Hermione pressed her head against Anthony's chest. Anthony wrapped his arms around her in a way that was both comforting and reassuring. Small tears started forming from her eyes. Strange, she was sad, yet she was happy for her friend at the same time.

"You put me in a bad place," Hermione said. "Now, I don't know who to bring for Harry and Ginny's wedding."

They both laughed.

"I didn't even know you were planning on taking me," Anthony said.

"Of course, you goof," Hermione said. "I couldn't imagine anybody else as my plus one."

She loved him in any way. Not the way a girlfriend should, not in the way she loved her mate. Yet, it was difficult not to harbor some affection for this man who warmed her bed for years. They were perfect on paper. They were both highly educated and ambitious young adults. By any standard, they were perfect for one another.

At the same time, they always knew that they were on borrowed time, and that time has come

A.N.

Special Thanks to catsgotmytongue, Dramioneloveraf, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, flower123, roon0, slytherinxbadxgirl, kimbclar, guest, guest, MarieGT18, dramdram613, tealisnice , Isabel, What, tsuki-shiroi, Snowflake Dazzle, guest, ksouza3, lexicon63738, Queen 0f Heartz, Lady Of The Sphinx, SkyBlue1309, Guest, LadyChaos-SlytherinPrincess, LullabyTales, Keke Koorime, and Guest.