Hermione, found herself sitting once again, across from Malfoy. His legs propped against the wood of the dining room wall. The night before still burning in her memory; it felt wrong to be sitting here with Malfoy, the cheery wallpaper of her family home almost mocking her. Of course her family were safe on holiday, not that they would remember her if they should come home.
"so this is how muggles do it eh?"
Hermione felt the world crumble as she looked around, all the pictures of her had been erased. Every memory she had ever created all of it was gone by her own hand. Now through some sick twist of fate she was forced to relive it. She couldn't say anything, not that her counterpart would care.
"go on where are we then? Is this muggle London? Can we go… Granger?"
His voice wasn't as fluid as it usually was, it didn't hold the same slick that made her want to punch him, again. It was then that she realized the crack in her armor; she felt the warmth on her cheeks, the wetness on her chin. She had started crying. She turned and waved her wand at the kettle. She coudnt deal with Malfoy poking at her soft spots. Not just yet, when everything was so new and raw. How she wished someone else in the ministry had gotten this bloody job. Anybody, save Harry, and she knew really that's why she had taken it. Of MoM only her or Harry had been authorized to deal with issues of this sensitivity. Her heart sank a little as she pictured Harry and Ginny hunkered down in their cottage with hopefully all thoughts of the war, and lost loved ones put deeply away, at least until the honeymoon was over. She really hoped he could switch off, let himself be just Harry as she and Ginny always joked. She missed her best friends terribly. Even the thought of Ron was welcome, shacked up with some random bimbo.
"Bushy brown hair no doubt." Startled she looked up. "I assume its Weasel that has your brow furrowed. You made that face a lot the last few years at Hogwarts." He shrugged his not so malicious shrug and offered a not unkind smile.
"I wasn't aware you were watching." Hermione was fairly sure Malfoy blushed, not that he would offer the satisfaction willingly.
"you three were so tight, didn't really give any of us an opportunity to get at you." He looked only slightly less at home here in her muggle kitchen than he did swaggering down the hall at Hogwarts. The only tell his picking up and placing down random bric-a-brac on the shelves and counters
"you didn't seem to miss your target Malfoy"
"My name is Draco. Its really about time you start using it cupcake."
"Not going to happen Malfoy" she poured the tea and sat at the small white table. "this is cruel and unusual punishment, and I wouldn't give you the satisfaction."
"I could make you scream it." She blanched visibly, and clutched her forearm. It no longer held the cruel slander carved by this man's very aunt, but the pain remained, the memory still burned.
"Bloody hell, that's not what I meant." His left hand disheveled his nearly white hair and Draco Malfoy looked humbled. "I wouldn't…that was. Christ." He picked up a small silver figurine and fumble it when a slight stream of music escaped. The melody swirled around her, and she fought the urge to curse him. To her parents it was just a date they would remember as a lovely date, to her it was so much more.
Hermione picked up the brushed silver rose and twisted the nob. The tinkling sound of her childhood music box wafted around her.
"Beauty and the Beast," she hugged herself a little, cautiously knowing Malfoy was still in the room. "its silly I know, they don't even rememeber…"
"Christ" Malfoys delicate fingers dance the at the base as the rose turned, but he didn't dare touch it again. It was good she realized that she was with someone who didn't like her. She would never risk being this open with Harry or Ron, they needed her to be strong, to be wise. Malfoy was his own strength. The thought was so remote, so obscure she nearly laughed.
"do you know the story?" she was surprised she even asked, she knew that the wizarding world they had Fairy tales of a sort, but childhood memories didn't always cross that threshold. "She is fantastic, Smart, I mean properly clever, and he is beautiful but his pain is so crushing it transforms into a terrible beast. But her love saves him the end. From himself, what he is condemned to be. My parents took me when I was little, my father always sensible, spent an entire evening dancing with me to this very song the night I received my letter. Oh goodness im being silly" she dabbed at the tears on her cheeks again. "its just they don't even know who I am, they don't know I ever existed."
"Hermione," Draco stood before her now, his expression unreadable. "you gave up everything. Everything, why wont you let yourself be happy?"
"I'm sure I don't know what you mean." He stepped closer.
"Harry finaly got the girl. Not you, although we all know that's what he wanted." Another step forward and her breath hitched just a little.
"Ron never did get over you, that's why his new girlfriend's are always brown haired girls with, unforgiving eyes." Draco Malfoy was now firmly implanted in her personal space, and she was trying really hard to mind, but as he was speaking his mouth quirked a little just a bit in the corner. It was very distracting.
"What they missed, what everyone missed was this." One finger wiped the tear that was still lingering on her lash. "Beneath all that fire, all those brains, is the woman who helps the weak. Its why I hated you so long." He leaned forward now, unable to step any closer she realized. "I was afraid you could see my weakness."
"and now?" she wanted to pull away, she knew logically she should. But Hermione Granger, didn't want too, and Damnned if Malfoy wasn't right she had been denying herself to long.
"I want only one thing from you " he clasped a elegant hand around her waist, and Hermione was lady enough not to let the noise her body escape. She had no doubt that he was an expert with those hands. With his eyes locked on her Draco lowered his face to hers. "a dance"
As beauty and the beast wound down on the music box Hermione cringed she didn't mind so much that draco was so near, had his chest pressed to hers, thigh to thigh. She didn't want the magic to end, another moment and the dance would be done. Malfoy muttered something under his breath and titled her face upwards. With that he pressed his mouth to hers, soft and thick.
"Hermione," he said breathless against her lips. "Please." She wrapped he arms around his neck and gave what he asked for.