Title: The Present
Author: Decinda
Translated by Miko & Stephanie
Declaimer: We do not own the characters contained in this fanfiction, they belongs to J.K. Rowling. We will not sell or reproduce this story for profit. The story belongs to Decinda. The website of this story is (delete me) tieba.(delete me) baidu.(delete me)com (delete me)/p/2197266138?pid=30057731566&cid=0#30057731566.
A/N: This story is translated from Chinese and it is our first translation. We are sorry if there is any mistake. All constructive criticisms are welcomed(: Enjoy the story~
This is the twentieth day that Hermione has been spying on the wizard in the opposite building.
Room 707, seventh floor, the largest flat on the east side of the whole building with a spacious balcony, is where Draco Malfoy, her arch enemy, is living in. The man who was once the only heir of the closest family to Voldemort, is now living in a muggle estate.
Twenty days of spying is not an easy job. For the first five days, she spied on his moves with a high precision telescope. Luckily, she could finally sneak into his flat and bug it on the sixth day when he had been out for a short period of time.
Hermione sips some water and relaxes her sore neck.
The war has come to an end, it seems like everybody agrees with that. With Voldemort's death, death eaters dismissed, and the Ministry of Magic leading by a group of young, upright wizards to solve the post-war problems. It seems that Britain is heading to a new era.
Hermione knows better than that. She knows that it is only a wishful thinking. The Ministry of Magic still hasn't found the most important thing – the treasure of Voldemort, which had been accumulating long before the beginning of the war.
Spying on Draco is a boring task as his living style is unbelievably regular.
At 7 am, he wakes up sharply, washes up, makes a coffee for himself, and a breakfast which looks delicious.
At 8 am, he usually sits on his sofa and reads the Daily Prophet. Hermione has to admit that he looks handsome while concentrating after staring at the side of his face for a couple of days.
At 9 am, he starts a series of experiments, which looks like potion making.
He wouldn't take a rest until noon. He usually has something simple for lunch.
To Hermione's surprise, he seems to be exceptional at cooking.
After lunch, he would continue his experiments inside his study.
He goes out for a walk or exercise, sometimes shopping in muggle bookstores or super markets every few days. He seems to be familiar with the clothings and languages of muggle, and never put on some colorful clothes like the other wizards did. His isn't very well-built, is evenly-built, which allows him to look good no matter what he had put on.
At 3 pm, he usually has a mug of espresso in his canteen. Then he would pick out a book from that old bookcase and lies on the sofa, reads it page by page. The books he picks are usually the old thick books of potion, sometimes a biography. He only read magazines on a leisure weekend.
He is an extraordinarily restrained person.
He can't help but fall asleep sometimes, slowly lies down on the sofa, until the dropping sound of books wakes him up.
Then he would rub his eyes and continue reading his book. When he rubs his eyes, he looks like a child.
The sunlight lies on his blonde hair when he is sleeping. The scene is as quiet as Monet's painting.
At 6 pm, he goes to the restaurant beneath the building for dinner and a few glasses of wines in the bar afterwards. He usually sits in the corner of the bar alone quietly, being indifferent when someone tries to talk with him. Nobody accosts him gradually as they get to know his indifference.
Near midnight, when the store is ready to close, when everybody has left, he will sit in front of the piano in the bar and play a song. The bartender and the owner will put down what they are doing and listen to him. He puts on the coat and leaves the store right after the song has finished, when everybody hasn't realized that.
Hermione looks down at the telescope when Draco is walking out from his study as usual to sit on his sofa.
"He is a robot!" Hermione whispers.
Hermione hears the sound of knocking from the eavesdropper when she was staring at Draco.
She adjusts the telescope to face the door and sees Draco opening it.
"Hi, I'm a courier, do you have anything to deliver?" It's a young courier.
"Yes, please wait." Draco walks over to his bookcase and picks a book, he drops a few words on a piece of paper and gives them to the courier. "Please deliver it to this address."
He closes the door and sits back on his sofa after the courier has left.
Was it an imagination? How come Hermione can feel that he glanced at her before looking down to the book with a smile drew on his lips.
Hermione is scared that she quickly puts down the telescope and hides herself behind the curtain. Her heart is jumping quickly and she has no idea if it is because of his smile or his gaze. She stopped for quite a long time before she picks up the telescope to watch Draco again. He has already fallen asleep on the sofa.
The bell rings shortly after she has calmed down.
The bell can't be ringing here? Is it Harry? Hermione puts down the telescope and walks over to the door with her wand tightly held in her hand.
She looks out through the peephole, it is that courier! She opens the door shockingly.
"Miss, this is your express delivery, please sign your name here." That young guy takes out the packed book that she was staring at and gives it to her.
Hermione has no idea what to do, so she blankly signs her name and closes the door with the book in her hand.
She sits on the sofa and unpacks the book, it is an exquisite little book.
Lignes de faille, Hermione's fingers lightly touch the title of the book. She opens the book and sees some words on it: To Dear Miss Hermione Granger, the twentieth day, hope that she won't be too bored when paying close attention to my life.
Hermione dashes to Draco's flat in the opposite building as fast as she can, she never thought that she will knock on Draco's door one day.
He doesn't feel surprise when he opens the door and sees her there, he smirks and asks "May I help you?"
"How could you know that?"
"Know what?"
The wizard is still looking at her and smiling.
Hermione wants to look into his eyes and tries to know what he is thinking.
The sunshine of afternoon seems to be dissolved into Draco's eyes.
There are ten thousand questions in Hermione's heart.
How could you know that today is my birthday?
How could you know that I like Nancy Huston's books?
How could you know that I like to listen to those piano songs?
How could you know that I don't like to see you being accosted?
How could you know that I have already started to pay attention on your life but not simply spying on you?
But she doesn't know how to say it out at this moment, so she lowers her head quietly.
Draco doesn't prepare to answer her questions, he glances at her face, and says "Do you want a birthday present, Granger?"
Harry got an anonymous letter ten days later, there was a mysterious map in it. The young Ministry of Magic found the treasure of Voldemort with the help of the map. Harry and his friends used this money to rebuild the schools and hospitals that had been destroyed in the war. They helped a lot of injured wizards, well- placed a lot of war orphans and repaired a lot of wizard's residential areas.
No one knew who the mysterious person that had sent that map and left the word "present" on the envelope was.
And no one knew where the brown hair witch who had stood bravely on the same line with Harry Potter in the last war had gone.
Many years later, when someone is asking about the old news, the Harry Potter with a beard would only wink and look over to somewhere far away, saying nothing but smiling.