Author's Note: A sleepless night, resulting to a weird Dramione one-shot story. Not used to write awesome fluff fictions, so I'm apologizing in advance if you proceed to read this. I'm not sure how to rate this, so I'll rate it mid-way to T to be safe because I did mention "safe sex" and cigarettes. Be warned, since it's fluff, this is super OOC. But still, hope you read, enjoy, and review!
Disclaimer: I don't own Hogwarts, St. Mungo's, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, and the rest of the characters I mentioned.
"Why are still up at four in the morning?"
Draco Malfoy arrived at his flat one morning when he saw Hermione Granger on their couch, typing away in her laptop. He came from a birthday party thrown by his new girlfriend, Astoria Greengrass, to her sister Daphne, who just turned 24. He expected his roommate to be sound asleep in her room, but much to his surprise, he saw her wide awake in her pajamas and typing furiously on the muggle contraption on her lap.
"I couldn't sleep. I had to type down something. Or read. I don't know. I shouldn't have had that coffee."
The two former enemies became friends after spending a few months studying and graduating from Hogwarts. After the war, Draco did his best to find everyone's approval and wanted a fresh start. Hermione also wanted to heal the scars of her past and decided to make amends with Draco as she saw it fit. With Hermione's faith in Draco, he slowly made his way to becoming the man he had always wanted to be.
Both had been doing well after leaving Hogwarts. Draco trained to become a Mediwizard, which was something he had always wanted to do. For the past six years, he had spent it building a new identifier to the Malfoy name. He donated most of the Malfoy's money for charity in aiding the victims of the war and offered free services to his less fortunate patients. He also spent it mourning for his friend Vicent Crabbe who died during the war and for the innocent who died with him. But apart from that, he occupied himself with a handful of women who found him to be an eligible bachelor. He kept in touch with Hermione as well, which made him very happy that they became good friends.
As soon as Hermione left school, she decided to spend most of her time with the Weasley family, who lost their dearest Fred, while Ron was off to Auror training with Harry. Also researching on ways on how to reverse the effects of the memory charm she casted on her parents, she located them somewhere in Australia and made them remember her through a potion of her own invention. Though it was a little ineffective at first, they eventually remembered having a daughter, and that daughter being Hermione. In time, she made her relationship with Ron official, as well, and had been dating him ever since. Being offered a position in the Ministry, she decided to continue her work on S.P.E.W., which made Draco a great financer for awareness gatherings.
Hermione and Draco had been sharing a place for over five months, much to Ron's disapproval. Growing very close, they thought that sharing a place wouldn't be a bad idea. The financial split of the monthly bills made the thought attractive to the two as both wanted to save up; Hermione wanting to save up for her future with Ron and Draco wanting to save up as he didn't want to rely on his family's gold. Draco also expressed his interest in living a slightly muggle life, which Hermione was glad enough to provide. They rented a rather spacious apartment with two bedrooms and two bathrooms (one on each floor) in Muggle London.
"Relax. I thought you could handle your coffee well?" Draco smirked at the sight of Hermione, almost panicking at her inability to feel even a little sleepy. "I think I have been mistaken."
"You should go upstairs, you must be tired," she uttered tiredly.
"Hardly. All I did there was sit and wait. I barely talked to anyone except Ria. Well, I greeted Daph 'Happy Birthday', too." He sat beside Hermione and placed an arm behind her shoulder.
"Wow, that sounds rather fun and exciting." She said with a smile, shutting down her laptop and placing it on the nearby coffee table. "Tell me more."
"Very funny, Granger. I didn't want to talk to anyone there, especially since everyone was very much hopped up about Pansy's pregnancy and how she's still single." He said, almost disgusted.
"Really? Was she there? How is she?" she asked, genuinely interested, "How come she's not asking the father to take responsibility? Do you have any idea who the father is?"
"Not you, too? I didn't take you to be the gossiping type. I've been proving myself wrong about you twice tonight." He laughed, taking his arm away from her.
"Well, I'm sorry. But she just happened to be your ex-girlfriend. Your first ever girlfriend, to be exact," she exclaimed, turning the living room lights on with her wand, "besides, I also happen to be a classmate of hers, so of course, I'm very much interested." She turned to him with her arms crossed.
Draco was hardly fond of talking about Pansy to anyone. She was his first girlfriend, and much to everyone's surprise, he genuinely liked her because she made her feel strong and confident. But after the war, the two never knew how to patch things up and consequently, they broke up. Hermione knew about this as she was a witness during their last year Hogwarts.
Sighing, Draco answered, "She wasn't there. I have no idea how she is. The father's a bastard. I have no idea who he is," he stood up and faced her again, "happy?"
"Not really. Actually, I'm quite sad about it. It's horrible how this is happening to her, don't you think?" she said, swaying her head.
Hermione thought about the increasing number of single mothers, both in the muggle and wizarding world. She felt deep concern to them as she believed raising a child alone is not an easy task. The thought of her possibly being pregnant flashed across her mind, as well. But it disappeared right away as she never failed to ensure that she and Ron were having safe sex. She licked her lips at the thought of Ron, who she hadn't seen in a week as he was assigned to investigate a complex murder.
"It is." It was the only thing he could say.
He sighed and sat back on the couch, looking at the unlit fireplace in front of them. He took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and offered Hermione one. As expected, she declined and later stood up to get the ashtray from Draco's shelf.
"You're a Mediwizard and it's you who's not taking care of your health." She sat next to him again, this time with her legs curled up on the couch.
"Hey! Who said I'm not taking care of myself? I'm pampering myself well." Draco said, lighting his stick.
"How was the rest of the party, then?" Hermione asked cheerfully, trying to change the mood.
"It was the usual; single men and women mingling and gossiping, dating couples flaunting and bickering, and Draco Malfoy sitting and waiting."
"Then, I could assume how much you like Astoria, then. The Draco Malfoy I know wouldn't put up with just sitting and waiting." She said, lightly punching Draco's arm. "Looks like little Drakey's in love."
"Speak for yourself, Granger! It's not like you've never put up with Weasley. Come think of it, you always put up with him. In everything." He said, playfully mocking her with his raised eyebrows and trademark smirk.
"I hardly have to compromise for him now. We've been together for so long and we've been through so much, the bickering stage was over years ago." Hermione straightened herself and copied Draco's facial expression. "Yours is in the post. And I'll be here watching every single argument that'll happen between you two."
"I don't think so. I'm the perfect gentleman; Astoria and I will never bicker over stupid things like you and Weasley used to. We can skip your bickering stage, thank you very much." Draco took another puff of his Dunhill cigar. "We're going to be just fine."
"Hopefully. But only time will tell, Malfoy, only time will tell." She rested her head on the couch's back and changed the topic, "I saw Harry today at the Ministry."
"Did you really? How is he?"
Draco became good friends with Harry, as well, when Hermione started living with him. Harry would always stop by and make sure Hermione was fine for the first month. During moments when Hermione would be getting ready for Harry's visit, they would share conversations which made them more comfortable with each other.
"He's doing fine actually. He said he saw you at St. Mungo's the other day when they went for Ginny's check-up. You look awfully busy that he didn't bother you to say hi."
"Really now? Well, send him my regards. I'm looking forward to that wedding of his." He said, almost laughing.
"I'm sure you are."
They spent a few moments in silence, interrupted by a few crows from the magical rooster they had on their roof. Contemplating on their surroundings, Hermione observed how different the contents of their separate shelves contained. Her shelf was full of pictures of her with Ron, Harry, and her parents, the books she accumulated since she was ten (the copy of her Alice in Wonderland as the first one, located at the top left), and a few trinkets (such as her time turner and her first ever quill). Draco's shelf, on the other hand, looked half empty and was occupied by a few books (mainly magical history books and novels) and a picture of his family. The mild smell of nicotine reminding her of the days when she and Draco would have lunch together almost every day when they still weren't housemates.
Draco looked at his front and took his time in reminiscing how each object in that living room held a happy memory in his mind. He observed how their Scrabble board, which they played every Sunday morning, was laying messily on their coffee table beside Hermione's computer. He admired the curtains that hang in front of the window which he insisted in buying, arguing that it looked better than what Hermione originally wanted to buy. He looked at the little television on the side of the window, where they would watch Big Brother 4 whenever they could and laugh on how boring it was. He also noticed the picture of him and Hermione standing beside the plant they bought when they took the picture. He smiled, remembering how that day somewhat solidified their friendship.
"Say, Granger. Can I ask you something?" he said almost in monotone, killing his cigarette on the glass ashtray.
"Sure." She said quietly. "What is it?"
"Did you know that I knew you had a crush on me when we were in first year?"
Hermione blinked in shock, breaking her train of thought. "No, I had no idea."
"To be honest, that's the main reason why I always bullied you backed then. I just wanted to see you how you'd react." He said, putting his hands together.
"Really?" she said, with a hint of astonishment and disbelief, "That's a weird thing to bring up. It's been more than a decade ago—"
"I had a crush on you, too, you know, 'til third year. Then I started hanging out with Pansy. And you developed feelings for Weasley."
An awkward silence enveloped them for a few seconds after both simultaneously broke into giggles. One of the few reasons that they became friends easily after the war was because both had a secret motive on reliving their childhood fantasies of spending time together. They knew nothing romantic would occur between them in that point in time; Hermione being in a serious relationship with Ron and Draco starting a romantic relationship with Astoria. However, they had to admit to themselves that the thought of being close friends with their childhood crush did excited them in some level.
"Why are you bringing this up?" she giggled.
"I don't know. I just felt like saying it," he smiled at her, putting the loose strands of her pony-tailed hair behind her ear. "I guess we should just admit that we somehow had a weird relationship before."
"We did, definitely," She took his hand from her face and held it tight. "We still do, actually. Six years of friendship, and we still call each other by our last names."
Draco pulled her hand and kissed it lightly, making Hermione blush a bit. They let out a few more chuckles, realizing how weird and hilarious the moment they shared was. He winked at her and stood up, saying, "Don't worry, it'll be our little secret. I mean, Weasley would be very worried if he knew about it. He might make you move out."
"Ron? I'm more worried about Astoria and her gang harassing me when they find out." She stood up next to him, getting her laptop and pulling the charger out of the socket. She took Ron's deluminator from the shelf and turned off the lights, yawning.
"I don't think she'll do that. She likes you a lot, for some reason." He climbed the stairs, with Hermione following him. "Nothing will change, right?"
"Of course, Malfoy. Why would you think anything will change?" She proceeded towards her bedroom door, and stopped to wait for his reply.
"No reason… I'm glad we had that chat." Draco opened his door slowly and faced Hermione one more time. "Good morning, roomie."
Hermione grinned and replied, "Morning, roomie."
Quarter to five in the morning, Draco and Hermione lied down on their separate beds, in their separate rooms, with their separate thoughts. Both couldn't wipe the smiles off their faces, enjoying the randomness of the moment they had both individually been imagining for years to happen. Years of bickering and fighting that masked their innocent attraction towards each other, it took them Hermione's sleepless night, Draco's late arrival, and a silent contemplation on the friendship to make them admit to themselves and each other that they did have a weird connection no one else would understand but them.
After two years of being housemates, Hermione and Draco will decide to sell the house and live separately. The decision will be made after Draco proposes to Astoria and will want move back to the Malfoy Manor to build his family there with the aid of his parents. It won't take long until Hermione will be engaged to Ron, as well. However, Hermione and Ron's wedding might be earlier, as Molly will insist it would be best to keep the engagement short. In spite of the wedding being open to most of their Hogwarts classmates, Ron would definitely not want to invite Draco to the wedding, but Hermione will insist that Draco and Astoria attend the reception. During the said reception, Astoria and Hermione might even share a laugh about how much Ron will still probably hate Draco's guts after all those years. Draco and Astoria's wedding, in contrast, will be rather private. Even so, Hermione and Harry might be invited to the intimate gathering.
Every now and then after each other's marriages, the two will exchange letters, conversing about how their lives will be and later, how their children will change them. They will also spend their occasional lunch dates, reminiscing their days living together. Every time they will do so, they will always find a moment laughing about that morning they confessed to each other, even forgetting which of them initiated the random revelation. To that day, no one will know about their strange attraction towards each other, except them.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading! You found grammatical errors? Sorry about that. I just did this under a few hours. Reviews will be highly appreciated. ;)