AN: I didn't intend this one to be as long as it is. Oh well. Not my characters, as ever.
"What's it going to take for you to believe me?"
"Nothing could make me believe you, Malfoy. Nothing on this earth."
"Why not?"
She laughed, as though he couldn't have asked a more stupid question if he'd tried. "Think about it, will you? You're not a complete idiot, or so I thought."
"It's because of my name, my family. I can't help that any more than you can help being a… a…"
"Oh, just say it already. What's stopping you? It's not like you haven't called me a mudblood plenty of times before, after all."
"Must you always be so damn difficult?"
"Me? Difficult? I'm not the one who boasted about the pureblood line for six years, then suddenly changed his tune. Excuse me if I'm finding it a little difficult to believe you at the moment, Malfoy."
"I'm trying to tell you I've changed."
"Prove it, Malfoy. Prove it."
The door slammed as Hermione Granger stormed out of the Heads' common room, no doubt to find Potter and Weasley. Draco raked one hand through his hair, exasperated, and collapsed into a chair. The movement wasn't quite as graceful as usual, but right now, he didn't care. How on earth could one girl get on his nerves so much? After he'd tried to be polite as well. She just couldn't see that he'd changed since the war. They all had, in different ways. He'd seen her take down more Death Eaters than he could count, and that was when his attitude towards her had altered. If a muggleborn witch could hold her own against members of the finest pureblood families, and win, perhaps he was missing the point. Perhaps blood wasn't everything, after all. It wasn't, he'd since decided.
The argument had started over something stupid, he wasn't entirely sure what, but it may have been the prefect rotas. It had escalated into a fill-scale row about his views on purebloods and how she couldn't accept that he wasn't the same person now. Prove it, she'd said. Well, he was going to prove it to her if it was the last thing he ever did.
………………
He was waiting for her when she returned, well after curfew.
"I don't need a welcoming committee, Malfoy. I'm not a little lost first year."
"I was hoping we could talk, actually."
All this got was a raised eyebrow from her. "Who are you and what have you done with the real Draco Malfoy?"
"What do you mean? I'm right here."
"Oh, never mind. It's a muggle reference, you wouldn't understand."
"So educate me."
She gaped at him. Her mouth actually fell open in surprise.
"Now I'm convinced I'm talking to the wrong person. Are you taking polyjuice potion? What have you done with Malfoy?"
"I'm sitting right here, Granger."
She sat down, shaking her head. "I must be dreaming. I must be."
"You know a lot about magic, and I know nothing about muggles. So teach me. I don't see what the problem is."
"Ok. I can give it a try. If it is just a dream, it won't hurt, will it?"
"Get some sleep, Granger. You're rambling."
Taking his own advice, he went into his room. Hermione was still sitting in the armchair, muttering to herself about aliens, he thought the word was. Clearly, she was in shock and the best thing to do was leave it until the morning. By then she might be making more sense.
………………
When he woke up, she was sitting in that same armchair. If her clothes had been the same, he'd have sworn she hadn't moved all night. But no, she was dressed in muggle clothes instead of her uniform, and he had to admit they looked more comfortable than his robes.
"Morning, Granger."
They hadn't quite started using first names yet, but they'd overcome the insults stage. Well, most of the time.
"Morning. Malfoy, did I imagine it last night, or did you ask me to teach you about muggles?"
"Why would you have imagined something like that?"
"Ooh, I don't know, maybe because of the intense hatred you've had for muggles since you knew what the word meant?"
Ok, even I have to admit she has a point with that one. "You didn't imagine it."
She let that piece of information sink in for a few moments. "Where do I start?"
"Maybe by explaining what an alien is?" He had difficulty pronouncing the strange word, and Hermione laughed.
"I suppose that's as good a place to start as any." She thought about it for a while, then shook her head. "You're going to have to watch some films – I just can't think of any other way to explain it." A pause. "Don't tell me you've never heard of films?"
"Haven't got a clue what you're talking about, Granger. Sounds like you're talking a foreign language to me."
"Stay here. I'll ask Dumbledore if we can leave the school for a few hours today."
"Why's that?"
"Because muggle electronics don't work here. The magic interferes with them. And transfigure your clothes – you can't wear robes where we're going."
He still looked completely baffled, but she stood up and climbed out of the portrait hole before he could ask any more questions.
………………
About thirty minutes later, Hermione returned.
"Get your shoes on, Malfoy, we're leaving."
"Where are we going?"
"Floo to the Leaky Cauldron, and then we're going into Muggle London."
Hermione disappeared into her bedroom, coming back out with a handbag, and checking some funny looking plastic things.
"And those are…?"
"Debit cards, Malfoy. To pay for things."
"That's money?"
"Well, sort of." She reached into the bag again, pulling out a handful of coins. "This is actual money, but the cards are more convenient."
"I… see."
"No, you don't, but never mind." And with that, she threw down some floo powder, stepped into the fire, and disappeared from sight. He quickly followed. This part, at least, he understood.
Muggle London confused him. It was too noisy, full of too many people and all these loud, moving objects.
"Those are cars. It's what we use to get around, instead of broomsticks."
"Kind of like a flying carpet, but covered and on the ground?"
"Yes, I suppose so."
She steered him quickly down the road and into a large building. "This is what we call a cinema. Now shut up while I get us some tickets."
Draco watched intently as the guy behind the counter pressed some buttons on that thing covered in letters and numbers (a keyboard, she told him in a whisper, part of a computer), took Hermione's card (that should really be called plastic, he decided), and then handed it back along with two tickets.
"Do you want anything to eat or drink?" He looked at the array of machines in front of them, and asked where the drinks were.
"Get one of those cups, press it against the lever, and the drink comes out. Watch."
"I don't know what any of them are."
"Then just pick one and try it."
She'd chosen something called Coca Cola, so that's what he had. He tasted it before they moved to the till, and though it wasn't like anything he'd ever had before, it wasn't bad.
………………
Two hours later, he was shaking as they walked back out. "That was…strange. Like photographs, but much bigger, and talking."
"We'd better head back to Hogwarts now."
Hermione was, secretly, amazed that Draco Malfoy had come into Muggle London and watched a film. With her, of all people. Perhaps he really had changed.
Back in Hogwarts, they both collapsed into their respective armchairs in front of the fire.
"I have to say, the muggles weren't what I expected, Granger."
"I'll have to show you some other things – if you're still interested. I'd better tell Dumbledore we're back, since he asked if I would."
He waited until she'd left the room, then smirked. She'd been much more relaxed, less uptight, in the muggle world where she'd grown up.
"Oh, I'm interested, Hermione. I'm definitely interested."
………………
Their trips into the muggle world became a regular occurrence. Every weekend, Hermione would introduce Draco to something else new. The week she took him out in her car, he clung to the seat, terrified. She couldn't help but laugh.
"I don't see what's so funny about it. We're sitting in a metal box on wheels that's moving very fast."
She just laughed even louder. "Not scared, are you, Malfoy?"
"Yes, damn it, I'm scared."
"I'm sorry." She couldn't quite disguise the sniggering, though.
That evening, she actually sat on the sofa, next to him, instead of in her usual armchair.
"I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't think you'd actually be scared by it." She paused, thinking. "I guess it's how I feel on a broomstick – I don't like flying."
To his great surprise, she leaned closer and hugged him.
"I guess I believe, now, that you have changed. You'd never have admitted that before."
"I'd never have done this either," he murmured, tilting her head upwards and kissing her softly. He was astonished when she kissed him back.
"You proved it, Draco. You proved it."
AN: Time for you to review! The little button is there to be clicked, after all.