Draco loved this part of London. Her flat wasn't in the center of the city, so he had to walk quite long to get from his place to hers, but it was worth it. Today was one of those days where nothing could go wrong. Or so he thought.
"Going to see that mudblood again, eh, Malfoy?" a raspy voice came from behind him. He turned around and immediately wished he didn't. Knowing there's no point in standing up to them, he decided to play it nicely.
"Ah, Goyle, Blaise!" he said, faking a friendly smile. "Haven't seen you in a while. What brings you here, in this part of the city?"
Goyle, the bigger one, moved closer to Malfoy. As he opened his mouth to speak, smell of his bad breath filled Malfoy's nose. "Answer my question. You are going to see her again, aren't you?"
"Come on, boys, we're friends, right?" Malfoy flinched. He knew Goyle. He saw him at his worst and it wasn't pretty. When Goyle gave him a malicious look, words slipped over his tongue without his permission. "Yes. Yes, I am."
Before he could say anything else, two boys rushed at him. Goyle grabbed his hands, making him unable to take out his wand, which was a perfect opportunity for Zabini to put his own wand under Malfoy's chin.
"You are a disgrace, Malfoy," he hissed at him. "A mudblood, really? A bloody mudblood?"
Zabini's insults seemed to be hilarious to Goyle, who was laughing while Zabini was throwing spells at his powerless ex-best friend. All because he put prejudices aside.
They were all his friends from school. Goyle was a typical bully, with muscles bigger and stronger than brain. Zabini wasn't tough, but he sure knew how to hurt people with words. Mean, vicious words were his best weapon, weapon which he used too often on anyone who annoyed him. Both proud purebloods, they didn't stand anyone of "the other kind", just like Malfoy's father and even, not so long ago, Malfoy himself.
Few minutes later, their rampage was over. With one last hiss at Malfoy, they left, feeling more satisfied with themselves than when they first came. Malfoy kept lying on cold, concrete floor, unable to get up. He felt weak. Many thoughts were swirling around in his head, so many questions with no answers. Where should he go? Should he go to her place? Will they find out and beat the hell out of him again? It wasn't until few minutes later, when he finally managed to get on his feet, that he realized he was covered in blood.
She was dancing to the melody of Bob Seger's classic, Old Time Rock n Roll, when somebody knocked on the door. Quickly turning the radio off, she rushed to the door and opened it. "Malfoy!" her shout was a mix of surprise, happiness and shock. "What happened to you?"
In following minutes, he told her what had happened. Her shocked brown eyes, now bigger than usual, were on him the whole time, but not because he was very dear to her lately, but because she was cleaning his wounds.
"Ah!"
"Sorry," she mumbled, quickly removing medicine she used to make his wounds heal faster.
"It's... um... thanks," he said. Little smile appeared on his face, and it was genuine this time. He hated to admit it, but she made him smile quite a lot.
"No need to thank me, Malfoy. After all, if it wasn't for me..."
"No, it's not your fault," he reassured her. "I'm actually glad you invited me."
She blushed. They sat in silence for few moments, when she cheerfully announced: "There - all done!"
He gave her another warm smile. She really knew how to take care of people, especially those she cared about. And even though he wasn't always nice to her, and, truth be told, she wasn't always nice to him, they somehow managed to find a common language. He didn't know exactly when, but at some point after the war, he managed to get over ancient prejudices about muggle borns. She had something to do with it, that's for sure. How and why, he had no idea.
Before he realized he was staring at her, she blushed again and said: "I think you should go now. It's getting late and I don't-"
He interrupted her with a kiss. As he put his hands on her face, she threw her own hands around his neck and deepened the kiss. Draco was used to playing it rough, getting straight down to action, but this was different. She was so gentle in his arms that he wanted to take it as slow as possible.
When they broke it after a good minute, she finished her sentence: "- want to oversleep the work tomorrow."
She leaned towards him again and kissed him gently, yet somehow fiercely.
AN: I'm still learning, so it would mean a lot if you gave me an honest review. We learn from mistakes, right? I know this is not completely grammatically correct, but English is not my first language and, no matter how much I love it, I'm still not sure about use of most past tenses. Feel free to correct me, but I'd also love to know if you liked the story :) I might continue it, but it all depends.