London. December 31, 2022. 11:30 PM.
"Hold the door!" Hermione pleaded as the lift door was rapidly closing. She rushed inside, just in the nick of time, thanks to a stranger's patient, well-manicured hand. "Thanks so much," she breathlessly said to the owner of that hand.
"Not a problem," the stranger drawled out familiarly. However, Hermione couldn't remember whose voice sounded similar to the mystery man's. "What floor?" he inquired.
"70, please."
He pressed said button along with the 'P' button, which led to Hermione assuming general information about the man: rich, aloof, mostly keeps to himself. She often makes up little backgrounds for the people she spies on the street. A woman with a loud toddler in a stroller and multiple stains on her blouse? A stay-at-home mother, who hasn't had a day off in 5 years. An adolescent boy with very shifty eyes wearing a coat two sizes too large? He's probably doing something he believes is sketchy, when it's actually trivial and normal. Because Hermione plays this little game inside her head and never lets it influence her external actions, she thought of it as harmless.
"Pfft, yeah right," the man, barely audible, mumbled.
"Um, excuse me? Can I help you?" Hermione hesitantly voiced, not sure whether the comment was directed towards her or if he was thinking out loud.
"Both," he stated. "I'm voicing out my thoughts towards yours."
Frazzled, Hermione discreetly searched if he was wearing a wireless earbud. She would be embarrassed either way.
Suddenly turning towards her, Draco Malfoy announced, "I'd have to agree with that thought. But you shouldn't care to be embarrassed anyways. It's just me."
Hermione's eyes bulged out. "Malfoy? What are you doing here? In Muggle London?" Also, please stop barging into my head. I know you're an expert on Occulmency, but I've learned how to block it out. She promptly pushed him out of her mind.
He laughed mirthlessly, "Granger in the flesh. Still the same, I see. How's Weasley and the kids?"
In a polite, but monotone manner, she replied, "The kids are alright. Can't say the same about Ron. How about you? How's Greengrass and the heir?"
Draco shifted for an instantly before quickly regaining his posture. "Ditto," he responded. "And to answer your first question, I'm on a little business trip, which requires some meetings with the muggle London office, and I usually stay here whenever it's too late to apparate back to the Manor. What's your excuse?"
"Needed a break. Heard how this was a nice hotel to spend New Year's alone. Thought I'd give it a chance," she shrugged.
"Interesting," Draco quipped. "And why would you want to do that instead of spending it with your family?"
Hermione squinted her eyes at her former classmate. "Not that it's your business, but they're with their father for New Year's. I had them for Christmas."
An awkward silence grew among them, until Hermione mentioned, "It's been, what, 20 something years since we last saw each other, isn't it?"
Draco slowly nodded, "Peculiar it's been so long, I remember meeting you for the first time like it was yesterday."
They both thought of the time they met, more than 30 years ago:
August 1991. Diagon Alley.
Hermione entered Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions for the first time to collect her school robes, carefully following the steps Professor McGonagall instructed her to follow. Draco, bored out of his mind, began to wander around the store while waiting for his mother to finish her shopping. As Hermione was admiring all the different kinds of robes put onto display and Draco was busy focusing on his toy quidditch set, they both hadn't noticed that they were headed towards each other until they crashed into one another.
"Hey!" Draco exclaimed, dropping his broom and letting go of his snitch on accident.
"I'm so sorry! I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," she profusely apologized while she picked up the broom and he caught the snitch. As she gave him the broom, she glanced at the little golden sphere and asked, for clarification purposes, "So that's the Snitch, right? The one that the Seeker needs to catch?"
Draco, slightly confused since he thought everyone knew about Quidditch, nodded, "Yeah, this is the one. You've never seen it before?"
Hermione shook her head, "Not in real life. I've never watched a game before, but I've read about it."
"You know this isn't the real thing, right? A real snitch is about this big!" he made a small circle with his hand.
Hermione was amazed, "Woah, that's so small! No wonder it's worth 150!"
In awe, Draco responded, "Wow, you know your stuff even though you've never seen it before!"
With a nonchalant shrug and a sly smile, Hermione said, "What can I say? I love to read."
Draco put out his hand to her. "The name's Draco Malfoy."
Hermione took it and voiced, "Hermione Granger, pleased to meet you."
"Are you attending Hogwarts?"
"Yep, I'll be starting this year."
"Me too! What house do you think you'll be in?"
"I don't know, I think I'm deciding between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, to be quite honest. Don't know which one will be best for me. How about you?"
Draco scoffed, "Slytherin, obviously, as my whole entire family has always been Slytherin," he beamed. "I hope you'll be sorted into Ravenclaw, so we can hang out. My father says that I shouldn't associate with Gryffindors because they aren't any good."
"Why aren't Gryffindors any good?" she asked, with impeding curiosity.
He shrugged. "I don't fully understand, but I think it's mostly because the house is dirty from all the Mudbloods."
"What's a Mudblood?"
Draco gaped in response. "You don't know Mudbloods? Why, they're the worst kind of all! Their parents are both Muggles, which means they aren't really magical at all."
"Muggles?" Hermione asked nervously, afraid what the meaning entails.
He nodded, "Non-magical beings, unlike you and I." Hermione's face visibly fell. "What?" Draco asked, out of genuine concern.
Hermione looked down at the floor, her shoulders slummed. "I believe my parents are both Muggles..."
Draco, at his highest confusion point, questioned, "Wha-"
"Which means that I'm a Mudblood and I'm the worst of them all. I'd understand if you wouldn't want to speak to me now."
Draco stammered, "But-"
Hermione looked up at the boy, interrupting him yet again, and held his hand for a second. "It was nice talking to you, Draco. I'll see you at school." She trudged her way towards Madam Malkin to carry on her current task.
"Hermio-" Draco began to call out.
"Draco," a tall, slender woman hissed at him. "We need to go now."
Draco looked down at his feet and similarly trudged like his supposed new friend. "Yes, Mother," he called out, following the woman and never looking back to the little girl. Hermione saw his every move until he was out of her eyesight, then begrudgingly continued on her to-do list.
"Truth be told, I was smitten by your knowledge of Quidditch even though you never had any experience with the sport," Draco confessed.
Hermione shrugged, "I was so obsessed with learning about everything in the magical world that I managed to finish 'Hogwarts: A History' the weekend I learned I was a witch. Quidditch was a section in it, naturally." He nodded slowly. "That was when I first learned about the prejudices in this realm," she acknowledged, "Thank you for that, I guess."
Draco was silent in his response, unsurprisingly. After they had gone up another 20 floors, he apologized to her with a clear voice: "I'm sorry for every negative thing I said and caused you to feel. I was an immature school bully, always foolishly gloating about how 'superior' I was with such a trivial thing that didn't really matter. I know this apology is not enough to erase the damage I instigated towards you, but I just wanted to state it clearly before another 20 years passed by."
Now it was Hermione's turn of not breaking the peace. Eventually she did, with a soft, "Thank you," fluttering in the space between the two. A curt nod was received on the other end, then the silence ensued once again.
58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64-
Suddenly, the lift rumbled to a shaky stop as the lights inside went out. Hermione gracelessly began to fall when Draco managed to elegantly catch her and pull her up.
Remembering to enclose her mind, she then thought, Drat! It was so close to 70! Ugh, why did he catch my fall, like I'm some bumbling 5th year! Scrapping those thoughts away, Hermione murmured her thanks to him.
Walking back and forth in the small space stirred his agitation. "Well, this is bloody perfect alright," he muttered, then slammed his fist to the wall, which made her jump. "Sorry," Draco looked back from his left shoulder, "Didn't mean to make you jump."
Hermione sighed in relief. "Not a problem," she restated his first sentence confidently. She gathered her wits and promptly pressed the "call" button, then picked up the in-lift telephone and proceeded to inform the front desk about the current situation. After hanging up, she told him that they were to be rescued in an hour or two, depending on how crazy the New Year's antics were going to be.
"An hour?!" Draco exclaimed. "It's 11:40, so we're going to be in here for the countdown," he sulked. He looked at the woman present, "Do you, by any chance, have your wand at hand? So we can apparate out of here?"
She shook her head. "Do you have yours?"
Draco took out the wand he'd been using for the last two decades and handed it to the witch, "My original wand was discarded during the Final Battle and because I was on the other side, the Ministry took it upon themselves to restrict my power as much as they could; the result is this dud wand only useful for levitation."
Hermione sighed, knowing fully well of how he was found not guilty of the crimes he did under Voldemort's influence, but still got the brunt end of the stick for his adolescent mistakes. "We couldn't apparate if we wanted to anyway, since the hotel would be concerned at how we got stuck in the lift without actually being in the lift itself," she reasoned.
Draco slid his back on the wall and plopped down to the floor. Taking out his flask and patting the spot next to him, he welcomed Hermione, "Come sit and drink with me. If there's nothing better to do than wait until we're rescued, we might as well make the most of it."
Tired from the day and mildly stressed out from being trapped inside a lift, Hermione ignored her previous grudges and prejudices by joining her former school enemy for a drink. He handed the flask and she took a swig, enjoying the refreshing burn Firewhisky offered her. "Ah, that's the good stuff," she commented. He nodded his head in agreement as he took in another gulp.
Draco checked his watch, which read 11:45 PM, and suggested, "Wanna play a game? Or else I'll die of boredom."
"Convincing argument," Hermione teased, "But sure, what did you have in mind?"
"Hmm..." he thought for a moment, "Never have I ever? Although juvenile, I remember enjoying playing it." Begrudgingly, she agreed with a nod. "And," Draco added, "let's spice it up by making it Hogwarts edition." Hermione raised an eyebrow. "If you did do the thing during your time at Hogwarts, you count it. If you didn't, you don't," he clarified.
She cleared her throat. "Alright, deal. And since it was your idea, you go first."
"I'm fine with that." They held up all of their fingers to commence the start of the game. "Okay, never have I ever had a snogging session inside a broom closet." Both of them promptly put a finger down. "Oh?" Draco mused, slightly surprised, "May I ask who? Or do I not need clarification?"
Hermione flushed, "No, it's not who you think." Draco gasped dramatically. "Oh bugger off, Malfoy," she joked, "I only had one session with Viktor, that's all."
Draco visibly blanched in true shock. "Oh my Merlin, you're kidding, right?" She shyly shook her head. He was obviously taken aback, "Now you have to describe this one off with the Russian oaf with vivid details! I'm truly shocked. No, actually I'm so impressed. Who knew you had it in you?"
Hermione giggled at his praises. "Thank you for your kind words, but I have to admit that you're overestimating his abilities. To put it plainly, he was a terribly bland kisser. Even though I hadn't kissed anyone else before, I knew it was plain, to say the least. I knew we'd be better off as friends, but he still wanted to court me to the Yule Ball."
To her surprise, Draco started clapping for her, "Well done, Granger! Turning down a famous international Quidditch player makes you even more impressive." She grinned at his remarks.
"Thank you, thank you," Hermione laughed. "Now how about you? Who was your snogging partner?"
"Oh, it's quite dull compared to yours. It was with Pansy when we were 13. Since we knew our parents wanted to pair us up together, we tentatively wanted to test out if we worked together. Unsurprising to say, but it was a fail. She's a bit of a slob when it comes to kisses, but she's still a good friend."
"She's married to Zabini, isn't she?" He nodded in affirmation. "Good for them," she mused.
"Your turn."
"Alright, never have I ever used an enchanted quill to cheat on exams." Draco put down another finger. "Tsk tsk tsk," Hermione reprimanded, "Explain yourself."
He brought up his hands in defense. "Partied too hard when Slytherin won a game, so I was too hungover to study and decided that it'll be better to use one. Didn't get caught, but didn't get the grade I could've gotten if I tried," he explained.
"Oh, boo hoo," she mock complained. He stuck his tongue out to her and she returned the gesture, as if they were both first years again.
Draco brought back his remaining eight fingers when he stated, "Never have I ever reached a home run when I was attending Hogwarts." He held up his fingers proudly, while she lowered one gently, blushing furiously.
"I have no idea if it counts, but it was when we were camping. It's during the time when we were supposed to do our seventh year, but I'd think you'll count it."
"Oh, definitely," he smirked. "And I know how you feel about the bastard, or at least I can assume the worst, so I won't beg for juicy details."
Hermione sighed in relief. "Thanks for that." Draco nodded in response. "Never have I ever snogged someone from a different house. I'm not counting Viktor because he went to Durmstrang." His finger shot down, while hers stood defiantly.
"Susan Bones." Her eyes shot out in response. "In a game of 'Spin the Bottle'. Neither of us wanted a repeat performance," he justified.
"That bad, huh?" she sympathized. He nodded grimly.
Draco checked his watch once more, surprised to see that it was already 11:59. He looked at the witch sat beside him and suggested, "So there is currently one minute left in 2022 and since we are the only ones here, I propose we settle for each other."
Hermione countered with, "Aren't you worried about me tainting you?"
Draco guffawed, "Hermione Granger, it's been two decades. I've had enough time to figure out that I was fed with ridiculous propaganda for a tradition that had no real value. So no, I'm not worried about you 'tainting' me, whatever that means."
She sat in silence for a few seconds, then bursted out laughing. "I cannot believe you didn't pick up my sarcastic tone! Thank you Draco, really, for defending my honor to me." He looked horrified, so she gave him an appreciative grin. Hermione glanced to the face of his watch and noticed that there were 10 seconds left until 2023. "10, 9, 8, 7..." she began.
"6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1," they counted in unison, then looked at each other.
Draco brought up his hand to her cheek and leaned in towards her, until her lips met his in the middle. It started tentative and slow, both scared of the unknown. As the kiss lingered, they found a rhythm that they both found comfortable and enjoyed thoroughly until they needed to take a breath several minutes later.
Hermione tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear and started giggling, rallying Draco along as their chuckling grew louder and more rowdy, increasing exponentially to raucous sobbing from laughter. Once again, it took a couple of minutes for them to try to readjust and act as normal, grounded adults. In the midst of the turn of these events, Hermione found her way into cuddling Draco, with her legs laying on top of his lap and his arms circling her body.
He kissed her forehead, "Happy New Year's, Hermione."
She snuggled deeper into the crook of his neck, "Happy New Year's to you too, Draco."
A/N: Hello all! It's been a long time since I last saw you here. Hope you enjoyed it. I wrote it in the last 24 hours without rereading or editing it, so sorry about mistakes you may have seen.
Happy 2018 to all!
(Hello, popping in here again to promote another short from this same timeline a few weeks afterwards. It is titled "Valentine's Day" so please check it out and support it! I may continue that one if enough people like it~ Thanks and hope you're having a good year so far!)