A/N: I have to thank my friend wonderwall05's stories for the inspiration for this story.
Hermione Granger sat at the bar in the Leaky Cauldron and drained yet another shot glass of firewhiskey. Even though it was her fifth shot, it still burned like hell as it traveled down her throat. Tom the bartender was starting to give her looks of concern.
"Tom, every time I have been here, I have had a butterbeer. A lousy old butterbeer which, I'll have you know, is what all of the minors drink when they come here. Now for once in my life, I would like to let loose and I'll have no judgment from you!" she said, banging her fist on the bar in defiance. Tom just shook his head and filled her glass up again.
"Amen to that!" said a voice from behind. Hermione whipped around in her stool to see Draco Malfoy standing behind her. She noticed his appearance had changed considerably. His face was no longer sallow and pale, but full and healthy looking. His hair was no longer white-blonde, but more of a dirty blonde. On the whole, he looked much more attractive.
"Well if it isn't Mister Flip Flop," said Hermione, downing another glass of firewhiskey.
"Very clever, Hermione," said Draco, sitting down on the stool next to her, "I assume you are referring to my renouncement of the Dark Arts." Hermione drank another glass.
"Glad yeh cawdon," she slurred. She was reaching for another glass when Draco took it away and drank it himself.
"You have had enough," he said firmly and then looked at Tom. "We'll have two coffees over here, please," he said. Tom nodded, more in gratitude than anything else.
Hermione sipped her coffee and seemed to come back to her normal self. Well, not quite her normal self seeing as she had much more alcohol in fifteen minutes than she had ever consumed in her life.
"I should have just stuck with butterbeer," she said regretfully.
"Ahhh, c'mon, at least now you can say you've had more than one drink here," said Draco.
"You are so weird," said Hermione, clearly exhibiting that the effects of the alcohol had not worn off just yet.
"How do you mean?" asked Draco.
"You've acted like this total evil…git ever since I've known you and now all of a sudden you say 'Oh, I wanna be on the good side' and it just happens like that. No questions asked. People don't just change, Draco, they don't just wake up one morning and decide that they are a different person," said Hermione.
"I think you've just said what a lot of people have been wanting to say to me. And I'll tell you, it didn't happen 'just like that'. Sure, when I was younger I looked up to my father, thinking that I wanted to be just like him; proud, confident, and powerful. Then when he was sent to Azkaban and I got branded with the Dark Mark, my world came crashing down. The life I was leading was one of constant pressure and expectations. It didn't help that my father's fate of being in Azkaban haunted me, like it was going to happen to me, one way or another. I was looking through the Hogwarts yearbook and I saw a picture of you and Weasley and Potter. I watched you three laughing and hugging in that picture and I thought, I thought 'wouldn't it be great to be like them, to be happy'. I thought about being on the good side. I thought of people understanding and being compassionate when I didn't think I could do something. I thought of putting people into Azkaban instead of being put into it myself. And I thought that maybe I could be in a picture like that someday."
There was a long pause and then Hermione finally broke the silence. "Well, you've won me over," she said.
"I'm glad to hear it," responded Draco, smiling, "now I've just got to win Potter and Weasley over."
"I dunno how you're going to manage that," said Hermione, "you have said some very nasty things to them in the past. Not only did you insult them, but they're families as well. You even insulted Harry's dead parents."
Draco winced. "I was jealous of you all. You and Harry and Ron were better at everything than me. Harry was better at Quidditch, you were smarter than me, Ron…well Ron wasn't necessarily better than me at anything, but he had a loving family. I couldn't beat you guys at anything, so I got revenge in the only way that I could, being mean and nasty."
"Come on, lets go sit on the couches," said Draco, pointing to some comfy couches around the fireplace. Hermione nodded and they took their coffees over to the couches. They settled on one particularly small couch next to the fire.
"So what brings you to this pub, all alone on a Saturday night?" asked Draco, wrapping his arm around her. Hermione did not object, but instead she snuggled closer to him.
"Ron" responded Hermione spitefully.
"Are you two…"
"No, he ended it," said Hermione, tears welling up in her eyes. Draco stroked her hair gently
"His loss," said Draco softly. Hermione leaned her head on his chest.
"Do you really think so?" she asked, unable to stop the tears from dripping onto his shirt.
"I know so," he replied in a whisper, lifting her chin up so it was level with his. Then he kissed her, gently at first, but it turned into something more passionate. They soon both lost themselves in this kiss. When they broke apart, Hermione laid her head back on to his chest and he stroked her hair gently until they both fell asleep.
Tom checked his watch and realized it was closing time. He looked at the two lovers sleeping peacefully on the couch and decided to let them stay like that. He would wake them early in the morning, but he would let them have tonight.