Paris. February 14, 2023. 8pm.
Walking along the Seine, Hermione Granger couldn't believe that she was stuck in Paris today out of all days. It wasn't as if she was ungrateful, quite the opposite in reality, but she could really do differently in regards to the timing. She had a meeting with the French Minister in the afternoon, but the old bugger went off for more than an hour longer than she had anticipated, thus her portkey expired well before the meeting was adjourned.
Oh well, she thought to herself, there could be worse things in life. Hermione really tried to think positively, but she was constantly reminded of her loveless life all throughout her stroll. There were young couples snogging in a bench, old couples laughing at old memories, and the general vibe the city gave of, worthy of its nickname as the city of love.
Truth be told, she couldn't stand it. What's worse was the Witch Weekly Rose had sent her that morning, along with a thoughtful bouquet of violets. Although the flowers were very lovely, she could've blissfully ignored the cover of Ronald snogging his new twenty-something bird. Huffing at her thoughts, she entered a quaint muggle restaurant in Île de la Cité and sat at the small corner booth in the back to avoid being alone in the crowd of lovers. With this seat, she could simply serve as a spectator.
As the bottle of red wine she ordered had arrived at her table, she didn't hesitate to make her money's worth of the expensive liquor. It was quite tasteful, so it made drowning in her own thoughts at least somewhat pleasant.
"Granger?"
Hermione almost flew out of her seat in surprise and bulged her eyes wide open in horror as she thought back to a mere six weeks ago. "Malfoy? What are you doing here?"
Draco Malfoy tilted his head slightly, "Why is that always the first thing you say to me nowadays?" He chuckled at the thought, then slid into the seat across from her and poured some of the wine into his own glass.
She huffed in annoyance, "Well, why do I keep running into you in Muggle places during romantic holidays?"
He looked as if he was thinking long and hard about the question. "It's more like why do I keep on running into you, since you are the Minister for Magic and should be busy 24/7, yet here you are in a different country looking like you're on vacation," he signaled to her outfit, which was a silky midi wrap dress, paired with her black pumps and ruby jewelry.
Hermione gasped, "First of all, Malfoy, I had something planned for tonight so I wore this underneath my robes, but now I'm just putting it into good use. Second, I know you're a concerned citizen and are wondering what in the world am I doing with my time, so I have two words for you: Olympe Maxime."
Draco confusedly looked at her, "The Beauxbatons headmaster? What's she got to do with anything?"
Hermione sighed, "Apparently, she was asked to become the French Minister for Magic during the time of Rebuilding, and she had stayed there ever since. She's nearing a century in a few years, so I don't understand why they haven't replaced her yet. I know she won't willingly retire until she croaks, that's for sure."
"Curse wizards' longer lifespan in comparison to muggles!" he jokingly objected as he shook his fist, which made both of them giggle for a few moments.
"Exactly!" Hermione agreed as she refilled her glass. "Anyways, we had a meeting today and she decided to reminisce about the Triwizard's Tournament randomly in the middle of it! So the meeting ran super late and the portkey expired so I need to request for a new one in the morning and I'll be back home before noon."
Draco looked at her sympathetically, "Poor you, I remember that cow being…" she looked at him pointedly, "unpleasant in the past, so I can't truly imagine how worse she is now. I'm sorry I judged, I guess you're really not stalking me."
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Although I have the legal means to do so, I don't care enough to do so. And you don't have to worry about her, the are worse Ministers I had to deal with."
"Ahh, so the government can spy on us civilians!" Hermione slapped him on the shoulder, "Oi! Don't worry, I won't tell anyone,"
She rolled her eyes again, "You better not because we don't abuse that power." As she looked around the restaurant, she noticed that the number of couples dwindled from before. Turning back to the blonde in front of her, she questioned, "So why are you here, Malfoy? Another business meeting?"
He scoffed, "I don't work that much, it would be absolutely insane if we expanded outside the UK. No, I'm here because I always visit every Valentine's. Even after Tori and I divorced, it became a hard habit to break. I don't know, I just love it here."
She nodded, "I understand what you're saying, it's incredibly beautiful. It's almost as if you're constantly falling in love without the difficult shite involved, making the feeling so addictive."
"Perfectly said," he beamed. A silence fell around them, but in a different manner than before. They were reflecting on her interpretation and connected it to their own individual struggles. An empty bottle of wine and some time later, Draco asked, "Do you have a place to stay tonight? I'm pretty sure that most hotel rooms are taken and you don't want to be in the midst of all that."
"I was going to rent a room later, but you're probably right."
"Well, you can stay at my place tonight, if you'd like. In an accommodating way, of course."
Hermione nodded, "I'd like that."
A/N: Hello again! Hope you enjoyed that. Let me know if you want me to continue this or not, because I kind of like where it ended? But also I want to share what happens when they're at his place, so I'm currently very conflicted.
Anyways, please forgive any mistakes I may have made, since it took me an hour to write and I didn't edit anything.
Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day! See you next time~