The Leaky Cauldron had in the past few years become a place Draco Malfoy found himself quite often. It was quiet, most of the time, and it allowed him to sit and drown his thoughts without having to deal with the ever so present echo of his fathers voice that never seemed to leave his family home. He was an adult now. He lived off his hos fortune really. Trading stocks and estate that had once been controlled by his father. He still lived with his mother, or he supposed his mother lived with him. It was a large home and to be honest he saw her just about as often as he would had either of them lived separately. Life was no so bad, but it was not all that good either. Being the son of a death eater, as well as technically being a death eater himself made life less than accommodating after the fall of the dark lord. Not to say that Draco was unhappy at the dark lords defeat, but that many people around him felt the need to scoff in distaste when they now heard the name Malfoy.

"You really need a hobby." A voice suddenly spoke. Draco turned his head to see the face of a woman he had not seen in years.

"Hello Stella." Draco greeted quietly.

"Hello again Draco. It's been a while."

Stella Simmons was a lovely, blonde Ravenclaw that had somehow managed to befriend Draco in third year. She stood their looking exactly the same and yet somehow completely different. She wore a light brow trench coat. It was unbuttoned and revealed her black blouse and gray dress pants. Her hands were covered, as they usually were, by a pair of brown leather gloves.

Draco smirked and look down. "Yeah...yeah I haven't seen you since..."

Draco stood next to his mother and father, whom both gripped him in relief. It was clear to him that they had thought he may have died in what was left of Hogwarts. As the dark lord spoke, Draco's eyes scanned the crowed till he found her. Dried blood crusted on her forehead, he clothes dirty and tethered. She looked so tiered and so sad.

"Yeah...I know." Stella said nodding. "So, what have you been up to?" She asked casually.

Draco swallowed and blinked as he tried to come up with something of any interest.

"I..nothing..I mean, I..." Pathetic.

"Well you should get a hobby. I see you down here all the time, you clearly have some free time on your hands. Do something with it."

His brows furrowed as he looked at her. "You see me all the time? But you never-"

Stella shrugged. "You always look like you have a lot on your mind. Never seemed like a good time."

"Why now then?"

A breath like laugh escaped her lips. "I don't know really."

A smile crept onto Draco's face causing Stella to now be the one to look at him confused.

"What?"

"I haven't heard you laugh in 6 years. I missed it I guess."

Tilting her head to the side Stella rolled her eyes and smiled.

"You look well, what have you been up to?" Draco asked, wanting to know with more desire than he expected about where she had been for the past few years.

Stella finally sat down at the table across from him and took a deep breath.

"Well, after the war, I finished my studies. I got married, started working for the Ministry, got divorced-"

"You got married?" Draco asked almost whispering.

"And divorced." Stella confirmed. Her hands folded together tightly, giving away that it was a touchy subject for her.

"What do you do in the Ministry?" Draco asked, changing the subject to Stella's relief.

"Nothing you would find interesting. I work in the Misuse of Muggle artifacts office."

"Your right, that's not at all interesting." Smirked Draco.

Stella rolled her eyes. "Well, I like it. Better than doing nothing all day like some people."

"To each their own." Retorted Draco, as he held up his drink to her before taking a sip.

Biting her lip Stella once again nodded and smiled.

"It was nice seeing you again Draco. I mean that."

She then got up from the table and headed for the door. Draco threw back the last of his drink before following after her.

"Stella wait!" He called, causing her to pause and turn around.

"It was nice seeing you too. I mean that. Can we do it again sometime?"

"Sure Draco." She then handed him a card. It was her business card for work, but it was something.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Malfoy and Simmons." Professor Snape called with a lazy tone.

Draco thumped into his seat and watched as his partner made her way over to join him. She was a Ravenclaw, he had determined from her robes. Great, all he needed was some know it all trying to tell him how to brew a potion. Her presence took him by suprise when she plopped down beside him and gave him a friendly smile.

"Hey, hows it goin?"

He gave her a disturbed look. Did she not know who he was? How did she come across the idea that she could address him so casually. She continued to look at him awaiting his looked down at her extended hand, which was covered with little black gloves but only sneered at her.

"Don't get in my way."

Simmons raised an eyebrow before holding her hands up in surrender.

"Well pardon the hell out of me."

American, Draco could now tell. Simmons said nothing more and Draco listened to Snape give instruction on the potion they would be brewing today. A confusing Concoction. It always seemed to amaze Draco when he would find out the names of certain potions. You had potions with odd names like Polyjuice which if you had never heard of it, you would have no idea what it was for, and then you had potions with names like Confusing Concoction, which all in all was rather self explanatory.

"Shall I get our ingredients or do you want to?" Simmons asked.

"Go for it." Mumbled Draco, who just wanted to get this over with.

When she returned with the ingredients, Simmons sat the on their table and opened her book.

"Alright, it says here we need to bring Water to a boil and separate the Barbs from the Jabberknoll Feathers."

"Yeah, I can read Simmons." Draco snapped as he began dong as the instructions said.

Simmons pursed her lips and her foot which was wrapped abound her other one at the ankle began to twitch.

"Listen," She began with a deep breath. "I don't know what has you in such a pissy mood, but I got nothin' to do with it. So take your attitude and leave it at the door. Honestly, this is not a hard potion to make, if you want to do it by yourself, just say so, but I am your partner till Snape says other wise and I'm going to offer my help."

Giving her a side glance, Draco weighed his options. Having her help was not actually an issue. She probably knew what she was doing and that meant less work for himself. If Draco was honest with only himself, he really just wanted to make the point that he didn't need her help. She seemed to get that though.

"When it starts to boil start to stir it clockwise twelve times." he permitted. Simmons gave him a thumbs up and small nod.

"Whats with the gloves?" He finally asked breaking the silence.

Simmons shrugged. "It's cold."

"No it isn't." Draco argued.

"It is to me. Does it matter?"

"Whatever."

When time was up, Snape walked around to each group. When he got to Simmons and Malfoy's potion, he stired it around giving it a closer look.

"Very good Mr. Malfoy, Miss Simmons." He then continued on to the next group.

As they packed up their things Draco noticed Simmons smiling at him. It seemed genuine, which only confused him more, being that they really had not had any conversation, and the bit of conversation they did have was not what he would quite call friendly.

"This was nice. I mean that. I hope we can do it again."

"Be partnered in potions?" Draco asked her in response to her strange statement.

"Succeed as partners in potions."

"Sure Simmons." He said uncertain. Her friendliness was somewhat unsettling for Draco. He thought she was being weird, but maybe he just wasn't used to someone he didn't really know talking to him like that. Like they looked forward to his company. She then turned around and exited the room with the rest of their peers, Draco soon making his way out as well.

Alright so I happen to have this idea in my head and had to get it out. I hope you guys like it, I dont really know how popular Harry Potter type stories are these days. Let me know in the comments below what you think so far!