Fraternizing with the enemy

Chapter 1

As Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Luna took a stroll down Diagon Alley one night, they passes a quaint little pub

"Harry, lets go get a butterbeer!" Ginny said as she pulled on Harry's arm and grabbed Hermione's hand. Ron and Luna quickely followed behind them. They grabbed a table on the far end of the pub and sat down. Harry and Ginny walked over to the bar to order all their drinks.

A song came over the pub. it was quite loud song. The place sounded and looked like a club on one side. It had a dance floor and some pretty coloful lights illuminating the floor and room. and on the other side, it was a nice, little pub. Luna stood up and yanked up Ron from his seat.

"Lets Dance!" Luna giggled "it'll make you feel young again"

"were only 20 years old!" ron joked as they entered the dance floor.

Harry and Ginny finally came back with the butterbeers when they saw Ron and Luna on the dance floor. As they sat the drinks down, Harry took Ginnys hand and started leading her to the floor too. Hermione was sitting at the table when Harry turned back to her and said "are you going to be okay just sitting here?"

"I'll be fine. im gonna go sit at the bar for a bit." she told him back as she gathered her purse with her.

"Okay but by the end of the night, we'll have one dance. i'm sure Ginny wont mind" he sent her a smile as he walked onto the dance floor.

Hermione sat her purse down on the counter of the bar while she sat on one of the stools. As she sifted through her purse, she came across an old picture of herself and Ron right after the final battle. They had shared a kiss that she couldnt forget. She put the picture on the counter upsidedown trying to forget the memory of Ron and her relationship. while she finished off the butterbeer Harry had bought her, she had asked the bartender to get her a Firewhiskey. once that was poured and in her hands, she heard a voice from her past she was not expecting to hear. His slurred speech made it hard to tell who it was at first, but soon she realized it wasnt a person she wanted to talk to.

Hermione turned to this man, who was very sloppy. His blonde hair hung in his face and his grey eyes were wide.

"Granger! Long ti-time no see." Draco Malfoy had said to her before he took a barstool next to her. He looked very drunk and Hermione didnt know what to do.

"Malfoy. Didnt expect you here." Hermione couldnt even look at him

"Yeah well not much else to do on a Friday night." He had now turned to face her. Hermione saw him out of the corner of her eye and figured she would atleast look at him while he was talking.

"There's things to do." she said coldly. "You just decide to get drunk."

"Yeah well i can do what i want. So how have you been?" he asked her as she thought to herself: "why does he care? he's never cared before."

"i've been fine. I'm here with Harry and the guys." she turned to point at the group dancing.

"So the Golden Trio is still together. I thought you guys would go your separate ways soon." he was still looking at her, watching her every move.

"Well we dont spend the time together like we used to. Harry and Ginny are engaged. Ron and Luna have started..." she trailed off and picked up the picture off the counter

Draco could now see what she was looking at. The picture was just them two. The way they loved each other when they were teenagers. The tears in Hermiones eyes started to well up, but not one drop fell from her face.

"Dating i'm going to take a guess?" Draco had now had locked eyes with Hermione.

"Yeah," she had a hard time finishing the word. "Dating"

Insead of asking anymore questions, they just sat in silence for a couple seconds. The tears in Hermiones eyes had now started to dry up, and she took another sip of her Firewhiskey. The song in the pub slowed down a bit. Draco stood up and help out his hand to Hermione.

"would you care to dance?" he asked her in the nicest way he could.

As she pondered the different responses to the question, she followed her heart to accept this request.

"Why not." She took his hand as he led her to the dance floor. He was more steady on his feet now. He pulled her close, put one hand on her lower back and one hand in her hand as they began to dance to the music.

Across the pub, the rest of the group had sat down at the table. All had started drinking their butterbeers, when Harry noticed that someone was missing.

"Where's Hermione? She was sitting at the bar." He scanned though the bar and the people around it. Eventually he saw a familar head of blonde hair dancing with a curly brunette girl. He knew that it was Draco and pointed it out to his friends.

"Is that Draco Malfoy?" Harry nudged Ron who turned his head to look at the man.

"Yeah, but who is he dancing with?" Ron joked. "who would want to dance with him, anyway?"

As the couple turned slowly, Harry and Ron finally noticed who was dancing with Draco. Hermione looked up at Malfoy and she was saying something to him.

"Bloody Hell!" Ron exclaimed. "Why is she dancing Malfoy?"

Harry felt his blood boiling when he saw them dancing.

"I think we need to get Hermione away from that ferret." Harry now felt his hands ball to fists.

"Guys, you gotta relax. Do you really think she would dance with him for no reason?" Ginny tried explaing to Ron and Harry. "She knows how to handle herself. She'll be fine."

"But she's dancing with a Death Eater!" Ron tried to yell at his sister. Instead it just came out as a loud talk.

"Like i said, she knows how to handle herself." Ginny was finally able to calm the boys down.

"I dont get it. Why are you being so nice?" Hermione asked Draco as they danced on the floor.

"Because I realized, right after the final battle, that what I said to you and did to you and your friends was wrong." He said right back to her, as he gazed into her brown eyes. "I was raised to believe i was better then everyone else, so i put myself above everyone. And to tell you the truth, since I'm confessing and apologizing, i had a little schoolboy crush on you back in school."

"A crush? i dont believe you one bit" She told him as he tried to explain his actions.

"Its true. but i couldnt tell anybody because it would ruin my reputation." His smirk from his childhood was growing on his face. "My friends would have made fun of me for liking a mudblood, so I hid it by making it seem like i hated you."

Hermione hated the term 'mudblood'. it sent chills down her spine whenever she was called that or when it was even said, especially from Draco Malfoy.

"You know i hate the term 'mudblood' right?" she asked him hoping he wouldnt use it anymore.

He got down close to her ear to whisper something to her.

"Yeah, well what if I called you a mudblood right now? What would you do?" he asked her, making his smirk grow.

Hermione pulled away for a second, but Draco pulled her back to him for her to answer.

"I would call you a bastard and walk away." She could look at him while she said that so she wouldnt have to see his reaction.

"Well its a good thing i didnt, did I?" he got her to look back at him. His smirk now had changed into a grin that started to grow when she started to grin along with him.

The song had ended and the pair had separated slowly. They walked back to the bar where they had started to talk again.

"So Granger, why are you sitting in a bar with an old enemy when your friends are sitting right across the room?" He had asked her, thinking out loud.

"Because im in a converation with you." she had told him, answering the question. "Why do you still call me Granger? Why can you use my first name?"

"Because Blaise and Pansy are right over there, and if they thought i was having a normal coveration with you, with no insults, then they would flip on me." As he told her this, Hermiones face drained of color. "I have a reputation to maintain, and if i get caught talking to a mudblood, then im done."

There's that term again, Mudblood. There was no word she hated more then Mudblood.

As she picked up her purse and the picture that was still on the bar, she got up from her stool and started to walk away. Draco grabbed her wrist, not hard but enough to let him talk to her first.

"Why are you getting mad? I have to keep up my image or things will get difficult for me." He tried to explain it to her.

"You know i hate the term 'Mudblood', yet you still use it." She started to raise her voice to him.

"i need to keep up appearences." As much as he tried to explain it, she didnt want to hear it. "Your just as stubborn as ever! Your not even listening!"

"I am listening, and its loud and clear that being seen with me would make your life hell. And I would rather be stubborn rather than prick!" Hermione had said and she yanked her arm back, and walked back to the table of her friends.

"What was goin on with Malfoy over there?" Ron had asked her as she gathered the rest of her things. "Where are you going?"

"Home. And to answer your first question," she finished picking up all her belongings while she said "nothing. He's just being the typical egotistical, self-absorbed bastard that Malfoy has always been."

She glanced over at the corner booth where Draco had now gone to sit. Almost as soon as she looked to see him watching her, Hermione turned her head back to the front and left the pub for the night.