Lucinda's
Hermione tugged her pullover around herself tighter, expelling the cool air from the midst of her coverings. Her shoes clacked over the stone street as she walked past Gringotts, sounding strangely high pitched over the near silence. Tugging on her pullover again, and then pulling the books clutched to her chest even tighter, she quickened her pace. Something felt out of place.
Hermione glanced into the still empty store of Olivander's Wands. The windows and door were boarded up with mismatched planks of wood. There was barely any light peeking in through the gaps to light the inside of the store. Hermione spun around to scan the rest of the street behind her. There were still several shops which had not been repaired since Voldemort's defeat.
Why was there no one out on the street?
She continued quickly up the street, passing the entrance to Knockturn Alley, and shuddered as a howl seemed to echo up from it. Hermione felt a hundred eyes watching her from behind, yet every time she spun around there was no one there. Clutching the pile of books in one hand, she withdrew her wand from its sleeve holder, which she had kept since last year. Shadows seemed to be filing in from the side of the street, and she muttered lumos under her breath. Goosebumps ran up and down Hermione's body as she caught sight of Flourish and Blotts and quickly stepped inside.
The door shut behind her with the merry tinkle of a door bell, and she walked calmly over to the counter. A man with a white beard stepped out from a door behind the counter. He had aged eyes and wore a faded brown waistcoat.
"Morning sir," Hermione began, placing the three heavy books down on the counter. "I received these as gifts over Christmas, except I already have copies of them. I was wondering if I could perhaps exchange them for other books?"
The old man nodded at Hermione and selected the book on top of the pile. It was a rusty brown colour, with gold trimming up the spine.
"Ah," the man said, a gleam in his eye. "Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century. A classic to be sure."
Hermione beamed at him. "My favourite chapter is the one with Harry Potter in it. It's fascinating to learn about him and the reasons behind his scar."
"Oh-ho yes indeed. That Mr Potter was a fine example of Great Wizarding to be sure. Still can't believe You-Know-Who's gone forever, hey?"
Hermione nodded, fully understanding that, even a year on, her life still felt surprising empty without Voldemort. She had been struggling to come to terms with what to do with her life now that Harry didn't need her brains to discover ways of beating Voldemort, and Ron didn't need her steadfast calm in the face of certain death.
"Ah well," the old man muttered, picking up the second book in the pile. He chuckled merrily, "Flesh Eating Trees of the World? Who gave you this one?"
Hermione blushed. "A friend. Thought it would be quite the laugh. Of course, when I told him I'd read it back in sixth year, Ron didn't seem to think the joke was all he thought it would be."
He turned the red book over in his hands, his eyes skimming the blurb on the back cover. He gave the book another hearty chuckle before placing it down on top of Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century and picked up the final book Hermione had brought in.
"Enchantment in Baking."
The old man merely said the name of the green book aloud, rather than discussing its background with Hermione. He looked up at her, placing the final book back with the previous two.
"Yes, everything seems in order. The total comes to 28 Galleons, so you may choose to purchase anything and that will be taken off the price."
Hermione bobbed her head at the old man, who strolled back into the room behind the counter, leaving Hermione alone with a large roomful of books.
This was dangerous that the most decent of times, leaving Hermione alone in a room of books, let alone a store which was currently home to almost a whole wall full of brand new stock. Hermione walked slowly around the closest bookcase, her finger gently thrumming along the titles of books as she looked. She was quick to discover it was a shelf on Quidditch, and so began searching for a book for either Harry or Ron. So what if Christmas had just passed? They could always benefit from more reading.
Hermione pulled several titles off the shelves and scanned the covers, only to put them back. She was sure Harry had once owned Quidditch Through the Ages. And she knew that Ron had borrowed Beating the Bludgers: A Study of Defensive Strategies in Quidditch from the library during their sixth year. In fact, she remembered how Madame Pince had stiffly told her to make sure that Ron returned it by the end of the seventh week he had had it, or he would have a detention for it being over-due. Chuckling to herself, she placed the book back on the shelf and brushed upstairs to the top level of books.
A good two hours later, Hermione walked back up to the counter and gently pressed the bell for service. The old man shuffled back into the room and plucked up the books, scanning them with his wand and skimming over the titles.
Hermione looked down at the four books she had chosen on: The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self Protection, Compendium of Common Curses and Their Counter-Actions, Notable Magic Names of Our Time and Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes. She had selected them all carefully. As these books would become the foundation for what she was planning. If she could convince Harry…
Hermione, whose mind was quite out of the room, dreamily handed over the four extra galleons needed to pay for the books and collected her package.
Hermione stepped out of the store to find night settling. Diagon Alley, she noticed, was still increasingly quiet. Hoisting the bag of books more comfily onto her shoulder she began down the street, pondering what to do for dinner.
Hermione glanced up at the darkening sky. It was eerily quite and dark for six o'clock at night. Normally Diagon Alley was bustling with people doing some evening shopping or eating out at several of the new restaurants that had opened up recently.
"Hermione!?" a voice called from behind her.
"Blaise?" Hermione said, her guard instantly picking up at the sight of the Slytherin.
Blaise Zabini chuckled as he looked Hermione up and down good naturedly. "Might I say that life outside of Hogwarts is treating you very well."
"Thanks," she said slowly, cocking her head slightly to the side. "You too."
Blaise was wearing a black muggle suit. Hermione noticed that muggle clothing had since become increasingly popular in the wizarding world, so much so that the only people who regularly wore dress robes were people the age of her parents. Blaise's dark skin was hard for Hermione to see clearly in the long shadows of the shop lights, but she noticed he still remained fairly good looking, as he had been at Hogwarts.
Blaise stuffed two hands into his pant pockets. "So what are you doing out tonight?"
Hermione glanced down at the bag of books and lifted them up for him to see.
"I had to return a few books I got for Christmas," she said, still not completely comfortable in his presence. He hadn't talked to her during school, except generally when Malfoy would make cruel remarks to herself, Ron or Harry, or any other Gryfindor for that matter.
"Ah, I see," he said with a very easy smile. "Have you read Hubert's new book on Dumbledore and the Dark Lord?"
Hermione nodded, her love of books opening her up to his near stranger.
"Yes, I got that for Christmas. Incredible, isn't it, how so many people claim to know so much about both Dumbledore and Voldemort."
Blaise let out a harsh laugh and rolled his eyes. "Especially Skeeter and that bloody book of hers."
Hermione nodded in complete agreement. "I know!" she cried, slightly uncharacteristically.
"Well look Hermione," Blaise said, whipping around his arm and checking his watch. "I had a reservation to keep, so I best be going."
Hermione nodded, "yeah, I should get going too."
"I'll see you around then."
Hermione smiled and nodded, then continued towards the Leaky Cauldron without waiting for Blaise to leave. A few seconds later she heard a shout.
"Oi! Granger!"
She spun around.
"Yeah Zabini?" she shouted to him.
"Is it true you're looking to start your own business?"
Hermione paced back to Blaise. She nodded.
"Yeah. Well, sort of. How did you know?"
"It's going around," Blaise grinned at her. "I might be able to help you out. I'm an investor of sorts. How would you like to discuss business over dinner?"
Hermione glanced at her watch then shrugged.
"Er, okay. Sure."
"Excellent!" Blaise beamed at her, grabbing her elbow and steering her towards a restaurant called Lucinda's. He held the glass door open for her, ushering her into the cosy foyer. A waiter breezed past, a tray of drinks on his arm.
"Have a seat here, I'll be with you in a moment."
Blaise nodded and took a seat next to Hermione beside the door.
"What is this place?" Hermione asked. "I've never noticed it before."
Blaise looked around fondly. "This is one of my investments. Once You-Know-Who was defeated, a lot of remodelling and modernising happened here in Diagon Alley."
Hermione nodded along, already knowing what he was telling her.
"I opened up a business with my business partner and we tried to get a lot of wizarding London back on its feet. This was our first endeavour."
Hermione smiled at Blaise.
"Wow, that's really resourceful of you, Blaise." Hermione complimented, gazing around at the red plush carpet and golden table and chairs. "It's so pretty."
"Thanks. We're both really proud of this place. It's like our child."
"Who's your partner?" Hermione asked, tearing her eyes from the restaurant and fixing them on Blaise. "Do I know him or her?"
Blaise raised a hand to his head, his eyes scrunched in awkwardness, which alerted Hermione she wasn't going to like his answer.
"Um, yeah you do know him…"
"It's Malfoy isn't it?" Hermione sighed.
"Well, kinda."
"So, if I agree to this business deal, I'll be working with Malfoy?" Hermione said, almost ready to stand up, tell Blaise thanks, but she couldn't accept and then head on home.
"Not directly, if you don't want to."
Hermione cocked her head in slight relief. "Oh."
"So you still up for dinner? Malfoy is coming."
"You know what Zabini?" Hermione said, rising to her feet as the waiter returned. "Bring it on."
The waiter greeted Blaise and Hermione warmly.
"Reservation for Malfoy," Blaise stated.
"Ah, come this way please."
Hermione followed the waiter and Blaise past all the dinning tables into a secluded table in the far corner.
Blaise pulled out a chair for Hermione, who sat down. The waiter pulled out two menus, which had been tucked under his arm and set them down.
"We're going to need an extra seat tonight, Terry," Blaise said before taking the other seat at the table.
The waiter, Terry, nodded and pulled a seat from a nearby empty table and set an extra place. He then pulled the napkins off the table and tucked them onto both Hermione and Blaise's laps.
"Thanks Terry."
Hermione smiled at Blaise and then picked up a menu, skimming over the options.
"What's good here?" she asked.
"Everything," Blaise said with a twinkle in his eye. "But personally, I'd recommend either the Duck or the Salmon."
Hermione nodded, reading through the two descriptions on her menu.
Blaise placed down his menu and looked at Hermione.
"I'm going to have the salmon tonight," he stated. "What about you?"
"I think I'll go with the duck," Hermione said with a cheeky smile.
She was finding Blaise very easy to get along with, quite unlike his partner, or even Ron half of the time. He seemed very smart and witty, which Hermione found very attractive in a person.
Why had he been such a prat during Hogwarts? They were getting alone fine now, only a year later. Well, two. She hadn't returned for her seventh year. But regardless, they seemed to have a lot in common. And so many people had changed so drastically since Voldemort's defeat, Hermione figured.
"A fine choice, m'lady," Blaise said smoothly, swiping up her menu and stacking it on top of his.
"So when should Malfoy be arriving?"
"Anytime now," Blaise said.
The waiter returned, and Blaise ordered for them both. Hermione sighed and looked around the room. It was very fancy, and not as expensive as she would have thought. She would bring Harry and Ron here and see what they thought.
"So, Miss Granger," Blaise said, pulling out a conference book and pen from inside a briefcase at his feet. "Tell me about this business of yours."
Hermione nodded.
"Okay, well I would like to run a sort of education centre which deals with defence against the dark arts. I'm thinking it would be a place graduates of Hogwarts could go to for more background before starting a job such as an auror. Do you know what a university is?"
"No," Blaise said, looking up from his notes. "Can you explain it to me?"
"Well a university is a form of muggle schooling when a student finishes high school, so Hogwarts in our case, and needs further education for a job, such as becoming a doctor or lawyer. Does that make sense?"
Blaise nodded slowly, as if trying to understand by processing the information slower than she had said it. "So it's like a higher system of learning for more educated jobs?"
"You could say that, yes," Hermione agreed. "I would like to set up a sort of university which would primarily be based around the defensive spells. I think a lot of parents would encourage their children to attend a place like that after these last few years. It would make people a lot less vulnerable, and it wouldn't be just for people who want further training to achieve a job... anyone could go really. I was hoping Harry might teach or lecture maybe once a week. That should help bring in initial students. Then when it's up and running we can expand on it. Create a library, maybe focus on different areas aside from just defence."
Blaise looked up when he finished writing.
"Hermione... that's genius!"
"What's genius?" a cool, aristocratic voice drawled above them. Hermione looked up to see Draco Malfoy pulling out the spare chair and sitting down beside her.
Blaise pushed his notes towards Malfoy. "Our newest line of investment."
Malfoy skimmed over the notes and pushed them back to Blaise.
"Not bad Granger. I have to hand it to you. You always were brilliant."
Hermione's mouth twitched, unable to form a smile in his presence.
"Thanks Malfoy," she said. She was just waiting for an insult, or a pointing out of a flaw in her school plans, or even a comment on her blood.
Nothing came.
Had the battle at Hogwarts and the year past changed one man so greatly?
Actually, looking at Harry, that wouldn't be so hard to believe. Even looking at herself and Ron. They were all much different, all feeling as though they were twice as old as they really were. They all felt the feeling of relief at no longer fighting death constantly. The feeling of uncertainty of what to do now Voldemort was gone.
Perhaps Malfoy had changed. Maybe he was still Malfoy, just less… Malfoy-like? It made sense in her head. Had the final battle really opened Malfoy's eyes so much that he no longer considered blood status or house rivalry to mean anything? Maybe…
Blaise interrupted her train of thought.
"Oh, Draco, mate. We already ordered…"
Malfoy shook his hand at Blaise. "Not to worry, Terry asked me what I wanted when I came in. He said you had already ordered. Did you get a drink?"
Blaise shook his head and called for a waiter.
Terry came back to their table and walked away with an order of three drinks. Hermione hadn't been paying much attention as she realised, for the first time she had stepped foot inside Lucinda's, that she was completely under dressed.
Both Blaise and Malfoy wore nice suits, as did the rest of the men dining there. Most of the women were wearing nice dresses, their make up done and high heels adorning their feet. Hermione was wearing a pullover and jeans. She blushed.
"I have to go to the bathroom," she said, getting up.
Blaise pointed in the direction of the women's toilets and she made a bee line for them.
Once inside, having made sure no one else was in there, she conjured up a chair so she could sit in front of the sink and mirror. She needed to take out her hair… maybe put on some lipstick and eye liner. She pulled a small make up bag from her purse and placed it on the counter.
Tugging a hair band out of her hair, she slipped it around her wrist and fluffed up her hair. It was big and curly, as it always had been; only now, it was starting to come into fashion. This made Hermione thankful; as she could simply leave it how it was naturally and people would comment on it, wondering how long it had taken her to style it so perfectly. It was a complete turn around from her days at Hogwarts.
She quickly smeared a layer of foundation onto her face, covering her freckles and then wound up her red lipstick. When she was done she nodded to her reflection, put the make up bag back in her purse and vanished the chair. What would she do about her clothes?
She peered down at her flats, then pointed her wand at them. She seemed to grow several inches in the mirror and looked back down at her shoes. The flats now had heels, which made her jeans much more presentable. Good, Hermione, she thought.
She pulled off her jumper and looked at the shirt she was wearing underneath. It was a white button up, long sleeve shirt, with small pastel purple stripes running up and down it. She unbuttoned the top two buttons and tucked the shirt into her jeans. She adjusted necklace to draw attention to her bust line and found herself ginning at her reflection. And Ginny had muttered under her breath just last month that Hermione couldn't understand fashion if it bit her in the butt.
She looked like a high power business women on a mission.
Hermione collected all her stuff and draped her pullover over her arm before heading back to the table. When she returned she pulled the jumper over the back of the seat and placed her purse down beside her bag of books.
Blaise and Malfoy, who were sipping on what appeared to be firewhisky, finished their conversation and turned to Hermione.
To Hermione's inner joy, they both seemed to do a double take at her appearance, and seemed to like it.
Take that Ginny! Hermione inwardly smirked.
She and Ginny had never really got along all that well, and more recently, Ginny had been saying things when she hadn't thought Hermione could hear her. It hurt when she heard Ginny bitching about her, and ever since Christmas, when Ginny had first started, their relationship had been going downhill.
"Sorry about that," Hermione said, plucking up her glass of butterbeer. "What were we talking about?"
"Your new school," Malfoy said, peering across at Blaise's notes.
"Oh," Hermione said. "Yes. I will need to create a curriculum first, and maybe write up some text books. I really hope Harry might be interested in teaching a course, and I could run it as well as teach. Oh, and Ernie might be interested. He is a bit old fashioned, but he certainly knows his charms."
Both Blaise and Malfoy glanced at each other. Hermione appeared to be talking to herself now.
"Should I write all this down?" Blaise interrupted.
Hermione shook her head. "No, no. I can remember it all."
"If you're sure…" Malfoy trailed off.
"Oh!" Hermione cried.
Both Malfoy and Blaise look startled.
"What is it?" Malfoy said quickly.
"We could have a pre-Hogwarts class! Like a kindergarten or preschool! Teddy could learn there before he goes to Hogwarts… and he could meet friends. I could teach them simple spells like lumos, and then they could have reading time… they could make drawings of animals when Hagrid comes and teaches them about different magical creatures…"
"Hermione?" Blaise said.
"And then we could hang them up around the room and we could learn about a different creature each week."
"Hermione!"
"Oh, sorry."
"Listen, we'd be very happy to help you set this school up. Would you be able to come into my office on Monday around 11am and we can talk costs, classes, locations excreta?" Blaise asked.
Hermione nodded. "That would be great."
"Excellent!" Blaise beamed as their meals arrived. "We can use the rest of this dinner to catch up with you, Hermione. What have you been doing since last year?"
Hermione took a bite of the duck. "Wow this really is good. Well, I've been trying to get S.P.E.W off the ground in my spare time. I've been working around the ministry a little bit, and adding to a collection of research I've been doing."
"What's the research about?" Malfoy asked.
Hermione found herself somehow not completely shocked that she was sitting at a table with Malfoy and Zabini, eating dinner and holding a normal conversation. However, weirder things had happened.
"Well, in the beginning it involved a lot of revising and adding notes to Skeeter's book," Hermione said, nodding towards Blaise. "Since then I've been studying a lot of the older spells that had fallen into disuse, and the evolved forms of them. I'm trying to come up with a new line of defensive spells, and I think my school would be a great place for people to do similar research and learn these new spells."
"Impressive," Blaise said.
Hermione blushed. "Oh no, not really. It just interests me a great deal, and I really enjoy doing it."
"I heard you also took your N.E.W.T.S outside of school, just before Christmas?" Malfoy asked.
Hermione nodded as she finished her side salad and took a large sip of her butterbeer. "I took them just after our year graduated."
"But you weren't at school all of last year." Blaise pointed out.
"I did some fast tracking in the month leading up to when I took them. I covered all the criteria on the exams."
"Wonders never do cease with you Granger," Malfoy drawled. Hermione couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not.
"Yes. Well," she said, cutting up the rest of her duck. "You two formed a company?"
Blaise nodded, chasing down the last of his salmon with his firewhisky.
"It's pretty under the radar of the public at the moment. We call it MZ & Co."
"Malfoy Zabini and Company?" Hermione asked, chuckling.
Malfoy nodded. A small smirk crept up his face, and Hermione realised she hadn't seen that smirk since quite a few years.
"Not the greatest name ever, but it does the job."
"You know Malfoy, you're really different," Hermione said, staring at him as he pushed his finished plate away.
"I get that a lot," he said, looking up at her.
Hermione twitched her mouth, again unable to fully smile in his presence. She bent her head over and finished the last of her meal.
After desert, Hermione parted ways with both Blaise and Malfoy at the restaurant's door. She paced mindlessly towards the Leaky Cauldron. Her idea, her school, her baby was finally getting off the ground.
She walked through the stone archway and wove her way around the tables of the pub to the fireplace. Hermione took a pinch of floo power and stepped inside the large stone fireplace.
"Apartment C!" she cried, and spun away from Diagon Alley surrounded by green flames.
Hermione stepped out of her fireplace calmly, brushing a small amount of soot off her shoulder. The living room was dark, but she could make out the TV and the couch from the moonlight that was coming in through the window. Hermione placed the bag of books down on the coffee table in front of the couch and made her way through the living room into the kitchen.
Thoughts still on Blaise, Malfoy and her new school, she filled the kettle and began heating it over the stove. She hadn't even bothered to flick the light on. Hermione reached into the top cupboard and pulled out a mug and flicked a bag of tea into her cup. When the kettle was boiled, she poured the steaming water into her cup and padded into her bedroom, ready to curl up with a book and fall asleep.
Hermione placed the tea onto her bedside table and spun around to look for pyjamas.
She screamed.
There was someone standing in her bedroom.