Draco Malfoy was walking down the street around the expensive shops of Diagonal Alley. His steps were steady, but faster than usual, because he was desperately trying to escape from so called reporter Rita and her flashing camera. She was trying to get interview with him since he got back from Greece. Yes, he, Draco Malfoy, decided to leave comfort of his manor and go study to a private college in Greece for a year after Hogwards.
"… and what will then…" continued Rita her questioning without even really waiting for his answer. He stopped listening about 5 minutes ago anyway.
Then he saw it- the perfect escape. There was a small and cozy looking coffee shop just left of him on the corner of the street. Surly, the annoying reporter won't follow him in there.
"Miss Skeeter" interrupted Draco politely and put on his most charming smile: "It was a great pleasure talking with you, but now, you must excuse me. I have a fairly important meeting here."
Her eyes followed his stare to the coffee shop. It did not take even a second and she had a sneaky smile on her face:" So, who is the lucky lady?"
He winked at her cheekily as an understanding that this is for him to know only. Then he departed. He knew she will probably wait around just to take a picture of mystery female, who is never going to show up since he just made that whole thing up.
As he entered the tiny place, he shook off bits of snow from his heavy coat and sat at one of the few empty tables away from window. The place was nor crowded, nor empty, so he was soon able to order. When waitress came back with his tea, he thanked her and focused on the cup. It was off white colour with few cracks on the edges and around the handle. The spoon which came with it didn't look any newer. Such a difference to what he was used to. Plates and cups back in manor were all in matching sets with a wide color variety, sometimes plated in gold. And the silverware was from actual silver.
He did not regretted having so much money growing up and always getting expensive toys, but older he got he started to hate the constant pressure, shallowness and lies. Any signs of emotions, even between family members, were strictly prohibited outside of manor. He was never allowed to hug his mother at the train station when he came back from school. His father and servants were constantly checking on him. Making sure he always sits straight and his chin is up, that he always uses the proper language, and eats his food with the 'correct' piece of silverware. A life of luxury also taught him that one only says things he is supposed to; always in line with class.
He heard a loud laughter and looked up through the window. There was a woman dressed just in sweater and pair of jeans rolling around in fresh snow trying to entertain an oversized gray-ginger dog. The dog was happily hopping around her and barking. People walking by stared at them like they were mental institution patients. He immediately looked down. He was angry at the unknown girl for doing whatever she wanted whenever she wanted and at her 'stupid fleabag' for being entertained by such a silly games. He knew that this was just a form of self- pity and unhappiness. Sometimes, he wished he could be a muggle, never know about magic or purity or any of that.
He frowned and threw 20 galleons on the table. He was ready to get out of there, but his quick exit was delayed as he bumped into someone at the door. It was the dog-woman from street, the reason of his departure in the first place.
"Shit!... Sorry, I wasn't looking ." she said still little laughing . The surprise came when she looked up to offer an apologetic smile.
"Granger?"/ "Malfoy?" exclaimed both at the same time.
I should have known it is her. Pathetic mudblood, he thought, but did not change his facial expressions a bit, not even a face of disgust. Couple years ago he would have probably made that face and told her something really offensive, but not anymore. He knew better now.
"Well, sorry again, Malfoy. Bye!" She quickly said and ran deeper into the store.
He turned towards the exit and saw her dog sitting at the door, waiting. It was a big fuzzy creature, about 150 pounds, with pointy ears and blue eyes. He never had a proper pet. In Hogwards, he kept an owl from his father's collection (eh..well people collect animals right?), but that was different, because that owl was for mail carrying only. It usually just dropped the mail by his window and flew off. He never pet it.
Maybe, now is the time. Granger's dog seemed friendly enough. He thought about it for a second. There was a slight feel of dirtiness and peasant-ness, because the dog did belong to Granger, after all. His father would definitely disapprove and that was the push he needed. He reached down, set his hand on the top of the dog's head, and scratched it in between its ears. Outside of all snow stuck to it, his fur still seemed quiet cold. Maybe he expected more and nothing happened. No life changing experience.
"Malfoy, what are you doing to my dog?" asked Hermione who just got back with steaming to-go cup in her hand.
"What does it look like?" snorted cynically Draco and stood up. Hermione decided to ignore the question, so Draco asked: "Shouldn't you use some heating charm on it or something?"
"First, it's he" she paused. "And second, he doesn't need it. He has a layer of undercoat, which keeps him warm."
After an uncomfortable quiet she walked past him and out of the coffee shop, her dog in her heels.
He came from Greece, he had a thirst for knowledge
he studied sculpture at Saint Martin's College
That's where I caught his eye
About week later as he was waiting for his new suit to be fitted, he saw her again. This time her dog was nowhere to be seen and her hands were full of carton boxes and books. The load reached way over her head, prohibiting her from seeing the street in front of her. Suddenly small-ish book slid from the top, hit Hermione on the head and fell onto the ground behind her.
At this point he laughed.
Stupid mudblood and her 'never-using-elves' rule! thought Draco as he watched her first try to reach with her hand after small book without dropping other books and then tapping it with her foot in an effort to get it closer. As Draco predicted for himself, that was not a good idea. Hermione's other foot slipped on the thick layer of ice covering the entire street and the weight of boxed books pulled her backwards to the certain doom of fall finished with her butt on the ground.
He wouldn't be Malfoy if he did not spend good 30 seconds laughing at the girl sitting in the middle of the street looking angrily at her feet, before even thinking about helping her. He did not feel pity for her, but neither the hate he used to. He still did not like muggles, but he understood very well that war for blood-purity was long lost after Voldemort's pitiful demise and Granger's high-skilled performance of magic during that war.
He still took his time walking towards her. He did not bother saying anything, just picked the book closest to him and handed it to her.
"I thoughtthat smartest witch of our age should handle basic shrinking spell or at least levitation charm." He said with a small smirk.
Hermione did not even looked at him and replied: "For your information, they have some anti-theft spell on them prohibiting anyone but the owner from shrinking it or lessening its weight."
"Only owner, heh? So, since you can't charm them, does it means you stole them?" shoot back Draco; the smirk never leaving his face.
At this Hermione frowned, picked up last book from the ground and looked at him: "You are correct I am not the owner, because I did not purchase them. I work for a book store."
She started to walk towards the said bookstore and added: "They were obtained from Nott's and Goyle's family library after their imprisonment. When the books are sold, the spell will transfer onto its new owner."
Malfoy followed her inside of the bookstore and to the cash register. She sat boxes down and started to sort through book s. At the same time Draco looked at some books behind the exposition glass. He has been in this place as a young boy and nothing really changed; just old man was replaced by his old school nemesis. His eyes kept scanning the selection until one book caught his eye. It was medium size, kind of new -looking and the cover read: Sammy's Recipe Book. Why would this book be in a rare books section?
"What is this?" he asked still eyeing the book.
"It's a cook-book." She stated and then added overly worried for her treasured book's safety : "Very expensive for that matter."
Malfoy snorted: "My family is rich, Granger. I could buy this entire shop."
"In that case I'll have Legacy and Coca-cola." Exclaimed Hermione cynically, while rolling her eyes; Legacy being one of the most expensive rums on the market. It was obvious Malfoy's snobby behavior was getting on her nerves.
"What?" asked puzzled Malfoy clearly unaware of muggle alcohol market.
"You know…rum and coke… eh like a drink…" tried Hermione, but then she gave up with simple 'Never mind' and wave of her hand.
Draco just kept staring at her poker-faced. Lots of things were going on in his mind. What is Coca-Cola and what does it have to do with money? From her insufficient explanation he understood that it is some sort of drink. Perhaps alcoholic? Doesn't drinking go against her bookworm rules? Probably some low class muggle drink… How can she live with herself? stated frustrated Draco in his mind.
"Fine" he said suddenly after couple minutes of inner argument.
"Fine what?" asked Hermione, who have already forgoten that young heir was even there.
Draco took a deep breath and repeated: "Fine, I will buy you your fancy drink."
Hermione started to laught, but met only with Malfoy's hard face.
He told me that his dad was loaded
I said "In that case I'll have rum and Coca-cola
he said "fine"
Neither of them could believe that this was actually happening. They were sitting side by side in a pup in muggle London, drinking heavily and having surprisingly pleasant conversation about everything and anything. Fairly drunk Hermione laughed heartily at the school story equally drunk Draco said.
And then in 30 seconds time he said
Draco looked up to her with calm face and blurred out: "I want to be normal."
I want to live like common people
"I don't want to live with my dad's money, nor in his house." He lowered his head.
Hermione gave him a soft smile, not really understanding his problem and asked: "Malfoy, what do you want to do?"
I want to do whatever common people do
"My father wants me to marry Pansy…" said Malfoy after a moment of silence and lowered his head even more in shame. He couldn't believe he told her. Hermione couldn't push back laughter and Draco joined her shortly after.
"I'm so sorry…Hahaha!" she exclaimed while wiping tears of laughter.
Draco rolled his eyes and snorted:"Hahaha…Yeah, very funny Granger. Haven't you almost married Weasel?"
"Hey! He is not that bad…"frowned brown haired witch, but soon laughed again: "Alright, alright! Maybe he is!"
I want to sleep with common people
I want to sleep with common people like you"
"You're normal enough; help me be normal like you." said Draco with childish grin. Hermione giggled and put her right hand where her heart is and said with funny drunken accent trying to sound noble: " I, the normal Hermione Jane Granger, hereby swear on my life to help Draco Malfoy…"
"The great and extraordinary Draco Malfoy" jumped Draco into her little oath, which ended with her lightly slapping his shoulder and mumbling something about having to do it all over before falling back into laughter.
Well what else could I do?
I said "I'll see what I can do"
It was already dark when they decided to leave the bar. They both stumbled up those 3 steps leading onto the sidewalk.
Hermione stretched and drunkenly yawned, saying: "I am hungry. Let's eat."
"OK. I know an exquisite restaurant in Diagonal Alley. It's…"answered Draco. The idea of lobster and wine sounded delightful to his empty stomach.
But Hermione shook her head and replied: "I have better idea. Let's go to the Christmas Market. It's better than Tesco and then we can cook."
I took him to a supermarket
I don't know why
but I had to start it somewhere
so it started there
As they reached the square with many stands and tents, in which many edible and material goods were sold, Draco looked like Alice in Wonderland, especially by the tent selling walky-talkies and other electronics. He was about to pull out his wallet and purchase some of those crazy looking, weird-acting devices, but Hermione stopped him.
"If you want to be normal, you can't just go around and buy everything you see." said Hermione, getting back into her nagging element. She opened her bag and pulled out her wallet: "And they do not take magical money anyway."
I said "pretend you've got no money"
"Well I've got only 30£ left, but that should be enough for some meat and I already have some pasta at home… So, here is 15 for you and you can buy something."
Draco raised his eyebrows and laughed: "You're kidding, right? You can't even buy that air blow thing!" Draco pointed at small selection of salon blow dryers, from which he was planning to make a purchase. At this, Hermione just rolled her eyes, grabbed his hand and pulled him deeper into the crowds of market, but not before saying: "Are you sure you want to live like common people?"
Draco just smirked and let her lead the way.
but he just laughed
and said "oh you're so funny"
I said "Yeah
Well I can't see anyone else smiling in here
Are you sure
you want to live like common people
you want to see whatever common people see
you want to sleep with common people
you want to sleep with common people like me?"
But he didn't understand
he just smiled and held my hand!
Forty-five minutes later they were standing back at Diagonal Alley in front of a flower shop with couple bags of different good from the market. Hermione unlocked the flower shop and let Draco in. At first he was wondering at why would they go into the random shop in the middle of the night, but it all became clearer when he saw a set of stairs leading into the first floor. In his still drunken state it was hard at first to make it all the way up those narrow steep stairs, but luckily apartment n. 3 was right by on the left side. Lucky, the dog, was already waiting at the door.
It was a tiny place. It reminded Draco of the house-elves' quarters in the manor, but way much nicely decorated. There was a living room with the kitchenette, small fireplace and 3 other door. One he recognized as a door onto the balcony and other two, he assumed, were a bedroom and a bathroom.
Hermione started to cook and he opened a bottle of wine. They had a small dinner and two more bottles of wine while watching some American movie, which was just playing on TV. He was amazed and actually impressed at how many different devices muggles came up with. He never saw a TV or cell-phone, nor microwave. After that, they stepped onto the small balcony, Hermione pulled out a box of cigarettes and offered one to Draco. He took it hesitantly.
"Aren't those really bad for you?" asked Draco
"That's matter of an opinion… but yeah, I guess they are." Answered Hermione and lit hers as the small cloud of smoke came out. She passed the lighter to him, but he did not lit his cigarette. He looked back at her: "So, what else do you do as a normal person?"
"Well…" started Hermione and gave her cigarette to Draco; this time he took a drag. "You simply…
Rent a flat above a shop
Cut your hair and get a job
Smoke some fags and play some pool
Pretend you never went to school
Draco was lying on couch, while Hermione was curled up in the chair across from him. She has fallen asleep 30 minutes ago, but he just couldn't. The couch was not comfy and the room was kind of cold, so he just watched hideous bug creature walking from the ceiling light onto the dark corner of the room. He glanced at Hermione. Tonight she has told him, hat in the end her high test scores and war heroism did not mean anything. Things changed while he was gone. Witches and wizards of England got caught in setting a new order and all the pain and war was slowly forgotten. Harry, Ron and Hermione all found a quiet job, as far from danger as they could; none of them becoming auror or medi-magician, as they planned. Draco's life on the other hand did not change much. He still had money, his dad was still pulling strings wherever he pleased, and Draco was still the heir. Seeing Hermione today he realized that she had all the freedom of the world. She had a job she wanted, even though it was not the best paying one. She was single by choice and no one was forcing her otherwise and she was free to have Lucky, the oversized non-magical dog. She had a freedom to talk to him and not hating him and he was bound by his birth to despise likes of her. But was freedom worth losing everything he had. Life in manor was imprisoning, but it was a security, an insurance that he and his family will always have place to sleep, an insurance that he won't ever worry about money, losing job or buying stuff. When his father first told him about the engagement plans, Draco was furious. He felt trapped inside of his own house, but now he felt trapped within the reality. Those people, even though war heroes, had boring lives with no reward. They were not treated any differently from a common muggles, even though they have saved the England. He has visited places and seen things, which people without his class status would never have. He got perfect education thanks to his family's funds, for crying out loud!
He quietly got up, covered Hermione with blanket he found in her bedroom, pet Lucky one lat time and walked out of the door. He knew what his decision was.
But still you'll never get it right
'cos when you're laid in bed at night
watching roaches climb the wall
if you called your dad he could stop it all
yeah
You'll never live like common people
You'll never do whatever common people do
You'll never fail like common people
You'll never watch your life slide out of view
and then dance and drink and screw
because there's nothing else to do
One month later, Hermione Granger walked into her apartment after visiting Potter's Christmas Party. She haven't heard from Draco since that strange drunken afternoon. He disappeared from her apartment sometime during night. She was worried the first morning, but soon got side-tracked by work and Ginny's pregnancy and forgot all about it. The event at Harry's house dragged way too late for Hermione's liking; she hated leaving Lucky alone for that long. Plus she saw most of the guests at Ginny's son's new-born party. Now she wanted to just relax and enjoy some quality TV time with her puppy. When she turned to get Lucky some canned food she noticed a big white box with blue ribbon on her coffee table. She quickly finished pouring Lucky some fresh water and walked to the box. It was little heavy but nothing obnoxious. When she opened it up there was 5 different blow dryers; one large red, one blue with zebra print of an average size, two green ones each by different brands, and black small travel sized one. Next to it lied at least yard long bone with red bow around it and red envelope. The note inside read:
I wasn't sure which one would you like. Thank you, DM.
Attached to it was a page from the newspaper with headline: Malfoy heir steps out of an engagement with Parkinson's daughter
Sing along with the common people
Sing along and it might just get you through
Laugh along with the common people
Laugh along although they're laughing at you
and the stupid things that you do
because you think that poor is cool…