New story! I own nothing! Also, there's a blizzard, so everyone stay safe!

Chapter 1

Hermione Granger breathed a sad sigh of relief as she exited the Minister's chambers. Minutes later, her now ex-husband joined her. His posture mirrored her own - back against the wall, shoulders slumped, head down. She looked to the man beside her. "Draco, I-" she started, but had no idea where to go from there.

Lips pursed, Draco Malfoy nodded. They had both blamed him for ruining the marriage. At nineteen, they had been young and in love. The only two from their year to return to Hogwarts, the pair had grown close as the school year passed. By the time they stepped off the Hogwarts Express for the final time, they were a couple. Few approved of the new relationship. His parents had begged him to end it. Her friends refused to be in the same room as Draco. Shortly after finishing school, the couple travelled to Australia to locate her parents. Upon their return, Hermione had a family and a fiance.

And five years later, it was all over.

Sniffling, he pushed away from the wall. "I really am sorry, love," he told her.

With a nod of her head, she accepted the apology. "What do we do now?" she wondered, fiddling with the wedding ring she couldn't bring herself to remove.

"I could...buy you a cup of coffee," he offered. "I just...I'm not ready to walk away just yet. One little apology and some coffee won't make up for me being a terrible husband, I know that. But...can I?"

The tears in his gray eyes broke her resolve to walk away. "Let's go," she said, making her way to the lifts. They rode to the Atrium in awkward silence, and that feeling permeated their trek to the nearest cafe. It wasn't until they were seated with their drinks that Hermione spoke. "Are we doing this right? Being divorced, I mean. I've never been divorced, so I'm not sure what the protocol here is."

"I think we can make up whatever protocol we want," Draco replied, brushing a stray curl away from her mouth before it landed in her coffee. "If you still want to talk to me, I'll listen."

Hermione snorted. "If only you'd done that when we were married," she muttered. Head hung, her ex-husband blushed. "Sorry, that was out of line."

But they both knew it was true. Though they often put their careers first, Hermione was more willing to make an effort for the sake of their relationship than Draco had been. He worked long hours, was often away on business, and had little time for her when he was home. She often joked that she might have been married to a lamp post.

"You're not wrong," he said honestly. "Look, I really am sorry for what I put you through. You deserved better, and got me instead. I don't blame you for wanting to split up."

Reaching across the table, she took his hand. "I do love you, Draco," she told him. "And you were good to me."

"Until we got married," he added.

Hermione, though, disagreed. Letting go of his hand, she rose and beckoned him to follow. Unsure of her intentions, Draco followed. When they reached the front door, she held his hand once more. They walked in silence until they reached the Leaky Cauldron. "I don't think coffee is hard enough," she explained, taking a seat at the bar. "Not, um, not that I feel I have to be drunk to talk to you, I just don't know what else to do, and this seemed like it would calm my nerves better than coffee would."

"Still proving to be smarter than me," he replied, always in awe of her intelligence. Their drinks came, and Draco downed his in one sip. "Did I tell you I'm staying at the Manor? Who'd have thought the Malfoys would be so accepting of divorce. My mother was thrilled when I moved home."

Narcissa Malfoy had been devastated when the newly wedded couple announced that they had found the perfect little cottage in Godric's Hollow. It had been tradition in the Malfoy family to live on the ancestral grounds, and take ownership of the property when the older generation passed on.

"Do you really want to live there?" she asked, shuddering at the thought.

"No, but I'm not quite ready to look for a place of my own," he admitted.

Hermione stared at her still-full glass of firewhiskey. "You could always stay at our house," she offered. "Being alone these last couple of months...I'm not a fan of it. I know it's not conventional, given we're no longer married, but the house is big enough. We might never see each other."

He considered the idea for a moment. Malfoy Manor had only served to exacerbate the nightmares he'd managed to quell during his marriage. Though he hadn't managed to shake them completely, a new environment had helped to minimize the numbers of nights that saw him awake in a cold sweat and blind panic. "It could work," he conceded hesitantly. "This is really what you want?"

Pushing the glass toward him, she nodded. "Does being divorced mean we can't still be friends?" she asked. "Because I've loved you for a long time, and that's not something I can just stop doing because we signed a few pieces of parchment."

"Do you regret it?" he wondered, knowing he regretted the circumstances that led to the dissolution of their marriage.

Letting out a wistful sigh, she shrugged. "I think...maybe it's for the best," she finally said, choosing her words carefully. "I regret that we couldn't make us work. I'd regret it if we walked away from one another and never spoke again. We worked so well as friends and as a couple, but...I don't know. Maybe we got married too young."

"Yeah, maybe," he mumbled, staring at the hand that now held his. He tightened his hold on her hand, afraid to ever let it go. With his free hand, he picked up her drink and examined it briefly. "Why am I drinking this?"

Looking away, she chewed her bottom lip briefly. "I don't know how to tell you this," Hermione mumbled. He offered her hand a gentle squeeze to show his support. "I haven't been feeling well lately. I thought it was stress that was making me nauseous. Then, this morning, I took a pregnancy test."

Alcohol forgotten, Draco reached over, forcing her to look him in the eye. "We're having a baby?" he asked.

Brown eyes shimmered with unshed tears. "We're having a baby," she confirmed.