Take Your Sweet Time
It isn't a crime to want
A little space to breath.
But you will be fine.
The sun again will shine on you,
Whatever you do…
Feeling that familiar clenching feeling in her gut every time this happened to her, Rose opened her eyes, and found herself standing in the middle of an alleyway. Clutching the long silver strap that hung over her right shoulder, her silver painted fingers began to nervously tap at the silver clutch purse resting against her thigh. Hermione often thought she was childish because of how she liked to paint her nails, but she loved it. Using two colors to paint every other toe, she would paint all her fingers with just one color, but make her thumb the second color. So this time, she made all her fingers silver while her thumb was painted pink. Another habit of hers, which she knew annoyed everyone to no end, was that she would make each piercing match whatever color she decided to make her thumb. Hence everything was pink on her tonight. The past three weeks, she had everything green because it was John's favorite color. The thought alone made her nauseated. That's the last time she'll ever try to prove Dean or Seamus wrong about anything.
"Stop being nervous," leading Rose out of the alleyway and onto the street, Ginny saw she was fidgeting with her purse. "You look hot, Rose. There's no way in hell, he'll screw up this date."
That was it… she looked hot. She didn't want to look hot on her first time meeting someone, because she wasn't always looking hot. There were days when she didn't want to brush her hair, or she preferred sweats and decided to not put on her makeup. Looking down at her outfit once more, she groaned. "I don't like these heels, Gin."
"Those were Pansy's ideas," Ginny smirked. "Pans knows how much this guy loves his women in five inched heels. Not to mention, you're only five foot four. He's six foot one. These heels are to help you out."
Scowling at the open toed silver heels on her feet, she reminded herself to punch Pansy in the throat once she got the chance. She may not be able to hex her or use a wand against her, but she sure as hell can use her fist. "And this dress is annoying."
"You use dresses all the time," Ginny rolled her eyes. "Will you stop whining Rose? Trust me, once you see him you'll forget about all of your annoyances, and you'll just be happy. And as long as you both act like yourselves, you'll both get the shag of your lives tonight."
"First of all," Rose growled through clenched teeth, "I do wear dresses all the time, and granted they are often this short, but those dresses are comfortable and loose. This thing shouldn't even be considered a dress; this is more like a bloody towel pretending to be a dress. And second of all, I'm not shagging this guy tonight."
"You'll regret saying that once you see him, Rose," sighing, Ginny shook her head. "I know how much your pride is going to get in the way, and you won't shag him just to prove yourself right, but trust me… once you see him, you're going to regret it."
With a scowl still set on her face, Rose looked down at what she was forced to wear. The straps were extremely thin; barely there as it hugged around her neck. Shaped like a heart as it covered only a minimal amount of her chest, the ivory globes popped out, as if teasing everyone who looked its way. Because of the style of her dress, she wasn't allowed to wear a bra with it, but because of the size of her breasts, she tried her hardest not to bounce too much when she walked. "I look like some slag," the dress was a pale pink color, hugging very tightly against her body, stopping at the beginning of her legs. Grateful for the 'no-rising' spell that Pansy used on it, she didn't have to worry about tugging at the dress all night. "A slag that is on a dinner date with one of her customers, this is what you and your bloody boyfriend have turned me into."
"At least at the end of the night you'll be a slag who got thoroughly shagged," giggling at her own humor, Ginny saw the daggers coming from her friend's eyes, and quickly shut up. Ginny may have been feared with a wand in the wizarding world, but Rose was feared with her temper from everyone who knew the muggle girl. "At least promise me that you'll try to have some fun tonight Rose. Who knows, maybe you'll actually enjoy it."
"I'm being forced against my will to go on a date with some bloke I don't even know, who was once in your rival house at Hogwarts, Gin. I'm the cousin of Hermione Granger, and he's a Slytherin. I'll worry about having fun once I'm positive he won't try to kill me."
"Oh, stop being so dramatic," the cinnamon haired girl rolled her eyes. "I'm sure he won't try to kill you. He loves muggles. Blaise promised me that. Besides, you know Blaise won't allow you to go on a date with someone who wants to kill you. Blaise is very fond of you."
Take your sweet, sweet time.
'cause I will be here when you change your mind.
Take your sweet, sweet time.
I will be here for you baby,
Anytime.
Ginny was nervously glancing towards the alleyway, while Rose continued to fidget with her purse. She could see the annoyance mixed in with worry on Ginny's face. The fear that Blaise's friend had stood them up was clearly evident in her eyes. Rose was just about to make a comment about being five minutes late meaning that he wasn't going to show at all, when she saw the relieved grin take over her friend's face. Turning to the alleyway, her eyes widened. What was that about her regretting the no shagging him tonight thing? Damn Ginny! Her blind date was dressed in long black slacks, and a black dinner jacket over an egg white oxford shirt, but Rose's eyes were more impressed by the tie around his neck. While his dinner jacket was unbuttoned completely, and the top four buttons were undone, she was impressed with the way the solid silver tie was hanging loosely around his neck. She felt herself biting her lip at the way his pale blonde hair looked as if he had been running his fingers through it all night. His quicksilver eyes landed on her, and she saw them darken.
Draco wanted to choke Blaise. They were running late because Draco argued about everything Blaise wanted him to wear, and in the end, Blaise had to petrify him just to get him dressed. The tie was loosened, and the buttons were opened once the spell was released, and they landed in the alleyway. This was all Blaise's fault. If he only told him that the woman they were setting him up with looked like this, then he would have been ready an hour ago. His eyes raked her body, and he mentally slapped himself – if only he changed his boxers when Blaise told him to. He would have to escape to the loo sometime within the night, and magically change the color from green to something else. Taking her in once more, Draco grinned. She seemed to love silver as much as he did. He would change his boxers from green to silver.
"You made it," Ginny grinned, trying to cover up the nervousness in her voice.
"Draco couldn't decide what to wear," Blaise grinned back, already knowing what that gleam in his friend's eyes meant. Draco approved of this set up. "You look beautiful tonight Rose."
Feeling herself blush, Rose looked away from Draco, and accepted Blaise's hug. "Thanks Blaise," she smiled, kissing him back on his cheek. "I thought Pans was going to hex me when I argued with her about the heels."
Chuckling as he looked down at the heels, Blaise pulled away from her. "That's Pansy for you," giving his girlfriend of four years, a quick and passionate kiss, he held out his hand towards Draco. "Rose this is Draco Malfoy. Draco, mate, this is Rose Granger."
"Granger!" Draco meant to be all suave, and grab her hand to kiss it in a seductive way, but then he heard her surname. Granger? Blaise set him up on a blind date with a Granger? He continued to stare at the woman who looked as shocked as him. "Granger?" he choked out again. A bloody Granger? At least now it made sense when Blaise told him that he was almost killed after setting this night up.
"Malfoy?" Rose's normally brave voice came out in a squeak. "You guys didn't tell me it was Malfoy!" turning her eyes onto Ginny who now looked guilty, and Blaise who looked confused, she instantly took a step away from the man she was just admiring. He wasn't just any Slytherin. And she didn't care that he was once a Death Eater, it was the fact that he was a Malfoy. He hated muggles more than any other pureblooded person there was out there. He called her cousin all sorts of nasty names, and used to pick on her in school. He stood there, watching as his aunt tortured her cousin right before the war, and he tried to hex her while they were in school. What the hell was Hermione thinking when she approved of this set up?
"Granger?" Draco repeated, "As in Hermione Granger?"
"She's my cousin," the squeak was gone in a second, and Rose's brave voice returned to her instantly. "I want to go home, Gin."
"Me too, Blaise," Draco said, not wanting to be the one who got left standing alone outside the restaurant. "Take me back to the manor."
"Oh grow up you two," Ginny rolled her eyes, linking her arm in with Blaise's arm. She could feel him chuckling beside her. "Rose, Hermione forgave him for treating her the way he did, and as I already told you… Blaise wouldn't have approved of this date if he thought Draco was going to try to kill you. He's grown up a lot since the war, and he has an office in muggle London. He works with muggles now, and he hasn't hexed anyone in a year."
"And Draco, mate," Blaise continued this scolding session, by turning to his friend. "Rose has nothing to do with turning you into a ferret in our fourth year, nor was it her who punched you in our third – although technically to be fair, it was her who taught Hermione how to throw a punch like that – and it isn't as if you and Hermione aren't on decent terms now. And occasionally, you help them out on Auror runs."
"You're both single," Ginny continued on, "And you're both here already. So why not just go inside, and sit down, and have dinner."
I'm feeling you pull away
'cause letting go isn't easy for me.
But you'll never fly
With someone else's wings.
I know wherever you go…
It took about five minutes of pleading and chastising, but it worked. Ginny and Blaise were now gone, and they were left standing there. Sighing, Draco held out his arm for her. Surprised by such a gentleman's gesture, Rose smiled politely and accepted it. With her arm linked into his, she allowed him to lead her into the restaurant. She allowed Draco to give his name to the waiter, and ignored the way the waiter's dull blue eyes so blatantly stared at her. She could feel Draco tense against her as he noticed it as well. He must not be so used to having another male stare at his date. Following the waiter over to the table, Rose allowed Draco to hold out her chair for her, and she even giggled when he walked into the table, trying to walk across to his own chair. The table cloth was a cream color while a lit candle sat between them. Immediately pouring out two glasses of white wine, the waiter left them their menus then walked away.
"I'm sorry."
Lifting her eyes away from the menu, Rose looked up at Draco. "For what?"
"For behaving rudely outside of the restaurant," he admitted. Refusing to allow himself to seem weak, Dracomkept his gaze matched with hers. He saw the confusion in her eyes, so he continued. "I may have overreacted when I heard you were a Granger. It's just that I wasn't expecting that. Nor did I realize that Granger had any cousins. I always thought she was the only child from her family," he saw that she was making no motion to interrupt him, so he continued again. "And although I do work occasionally with Granger, Potter or even Weasley when they come to me for help with a mission, I'm still used to being an enemy to them. They may come to me for help, and we may invite each other to all the dinner parties, but it's still hard to think of the other as something other than an enemy. We stay decent because of Blaise, and Pansy, but to them I'm still just some Death Eater. And to me, they're still the annoying golden trio."
Rose smiled now. She watched his facial expressions, and he was waiting for her to say something. She could see that he was expecting an apology as well, but she was too stubborn – just another thing that often annoyed her cousin. "Alright," she said, looking back down at the menu in her hands. "Have you ever eaten here before?"
He could have choked. If he had anything in his mouth, he would have. He wanted to strangle her. Being a Malfoy, he was taught to never apologize. And he never did. This was only the third apology that he's ever spoken in all of his twenty-two years of living, and she says alright? Not even an apology back, or an; it's okay; I accept your apology, thank you for manning up? She simply just said, alright, then asked if he ever ate there before? "Yes," he nodded his head, deciding to not let her see how much her reaction to his apology pissed him the hell off. "Are you a vegetarian?" he asked her, praying she shook her head.
"Oh god no," she shook her head, the disgust evident in her voice. "I mean, I don't mind the occasional veggie meal, but I need to have meat."
Shocked at himself for chuckling to her response, Draco reached over the table, and pointed at an item on her menu, "The red wine fillet with the jacket potato, and runner beans is quite excellent," he pointed out to her. (fillet- filet mignon, jacket potato- baked potato, runner beans- string beans)
Looking over the menu, Rose nodded her head. "Alright, I'll trust your judgment. Is that what you're getting as well?"
"I was thinking of getting the rump steak covered in spring onions and white sauce with the jacket potato, and runner beans."(rump steak- sirloin steak, spring onions- green onions, white sauce- gravy)
Nodding her head, Rose closed up her menu, and put it back down on the table. "That sounds good as well, but I'll get the red wine fillet as you suggested."
"Do you want to stick to drinking the white wine?" Draco asked her, "Or would you like something else?"
"The white wine is fine," she insisted.
They sat there in silence until the waiter came. Allowing Draco to order her food for her, Rose felt that familiar feeling return to her. She was already bored with him, but it was odd. He was the first person she's dated who pulled out her chair for her, or suggested something then ordered something different. No one else has ever ordered for her before either, or asked her opinion about what she wanted to drink. Even all the other wizards that she had been set up on with had ordered their food first then looked over at her. Even that one Hufflepuff she went on that one date with sat down before she even reached the table. This was different. She liked it, but it bored her. This seemed all too newly familiar to her. Like this was a routine she would be stuck in, that she already wanted out of. Fancy restaurants like this annoyed her, and it seemed like Draco was so at home here. She was bored.
"So…" the silence was comfortable. They didn't have to talk or fill the silence, because it was a comfortable silence. It was the fact that it was so comfortable, that made it awkward. "How are you and Granger cousins?"
"Our dads are brothers," she answered. Playing with the hem of her dress beneath the table, Rose was clamping her legs tightly together. The sight of Draco's tussled hair, and messy tie was making her knickers wet. "I'm her only cousin actually, Mione's mum is an only child, and our dads are the only two siblings in the Granger family."
"Do you have any other cousins from your mum's side?"
"Nope," she smiled kindly. "My mum is an only child to. Growing up, 'Mione and I were always really close. Then when she got her letter at eleven, we sort of drifted apart."
"Oh," taking a sip from his wine, Draco didn't want it to fall silent again. "Did she tell you who she was?"
Rose nodded her head, and took a sip of her wine as well. These were all the same questions that the other wizards all asked her. "Yeah," she explained. "I knew all about who she was. I was with her when she got her letter actually. We just sort of fell apart because she began to hang out with Harry and Ron, and she was scared for me. Even though she was only a first year, she already knew that her muggle family would be in danger. We talked only once in a while. It wasn't until after the war, that she didn't bother hiding me anymore. I met Harry and Ron in your guys' second year, but it wasn't until a week after the war that I met everyone else."
"Oh," Draco took another sip. Her explanation was well recited, and he could tell she was tired of having to repeat it so many times. "So what do you do, Rose?" it was odd calling her by her first name when he knew she was a Granger. But her name matched her. Just like any other rose, she was beautiful in her own way.
She chuckled. This was also a part of her dating routine. It was all boring to her. "I'm a therapist," she told him. "I work with both children and adults."
"At only twenty-two?" Draco was amazed. "I thought that in the muggle world, it took about seven years of schooling to go through that?"
"It does," and this is the part when her dates usually start to look at her funny. "I graduated from my muggle school at only fifteen," she told him. "I'm smarter than most muggles my age. I just got my therapy license about four months ago, but until then I was studying with other therapists, and I had permission to sit in on a couple of sessions."
"Wow," Draco saw her watching him carefully, as if analyzing his reaction to her statement. He chuckled, and rubbed his jaw. "Well I guess that was expected then, eh? Being a Granger yourself, it's only obvious that while your cousin is the brightest-witch-of-our-age, you would be the brightest-muggle-of-our-age. I can imagine those family gatherings."
She heard the joking in his voice, but could also sense he was being serious. He wasn't mocking her, nor was he mocking her cousin. "I heard you're pretty smart yourself," this was new to her. Once she mentioned graduating from school at only fifteen years old, all her other dates – wizards, and muggles alike – would start to stare at her as if she were nothing more than a bookworm. The conversations usually ended at this point. "I remember in the few letters that 'Mione and I would send to each other, she would always complain about how you were right on her arse with your scores. Weren't you only behind her by two points in each class?"
"It was three," Draco was man enough to admit that Hermione always beat him by three points. He was shocked enough that Hermione would write about something like that though. Were his scores really important enough in her mind? He expected her to complain about him hexing her or bullying her, and about him being a Death Eater, but she wrote about him being as smart as she was? "She was always above me by three points."
She knew that it was three points, because Hermione spoke about it every chance she had, but Rose wanted to see what he would say. She was curious if he would have accepted her mistake, and make himself seem brighter by that one point. Smiling as he corrected her, she tightened her legs even more. She was sure that her chair was soaked by now. "Here comes our food," glad to have a reason to get off the topic of grades, and scores, she watched as their waiter placed their plates on the table.
Take your sweet, sweet time.
I will be here when you change your mind.
Take your sweet, sweet time.
I will be here for you baby,
Anytime.
"So I heard you mention Pansy to Blaise?" Draco asked a couple of minutes into their meals.
Covering her mouth her hand, Rose nodded her head. "Yeah, she was one of the ones in on this set-up. She came over with my cousin and Ginny, and mauled me as I got ready. These heels were originally only two inches high."
Sneaking a quick glance underneath the table, Draco began to laugh. Looking back up, he saw the amusement in his date's eyes. "Yeah, that sounds like Pans to me. If you want, I could alter them back to its normal size once we leave."
"Oh thank you," taking another bite of her fillet, Rose covered her mouth once more. She didn't understand why most girls waited until they had no food in their mouth to speak. Not only was it pointless, but it would mean they didn't eat anything on their dates. It was just stupid. "I don't usually dress like this," she told him. "But all of my cousin's friends have this thing about having to set me up on dates every chance they get. By this point, I'm pretty sure I dated half of the male population from Hogwarts."
"And you usually go along with it?" Draco found himself imitating her hand motion, which caused him to grin behind his own hand. It wasn't something he was doing just because she was doing it. He always did this. It was rude to speak with your mouth full because the other person could see the food in your mouth. This way, he could speak and not show the other person his chewed up food. It seemed like this was normal for her as well.
"I don't have a choice," she sighed, taking a sip from her wine. "I'm always being attacked by one of them. It's an endless cycle… once I tell them I hated the night before; I'm being pushed out on another date that same night."
Draco chuckled, "Blaise and Pansy have been trying to get me to go out ever since my fiancée left me last year," he admitted. "That was the last time I used a hex. I hexed Corner, and Astoria."
"Oh right," laughing at this point, and using both of her hands to prevent the food from flying out of her mouth, Rose quickly swallowed it. "Pans told me about that. She came over to my flat that night, mixed between tears and laughter. You turned Astoria's hair pink, and caused boils to sport all over Corner's body right?"
Draco was laughing as hard as her now. Nodding his head, he spit his food into the napkin next to him. "Wait – Pansy told you about that?"
"Yeah. We were supposed to go out that night because Seamus was out on a mission with some of the other Aurors, and I had another miserable date. She was three hours late by the time she floo'd over, and she was in hysterics. At first I thought something was wrong with Seamus or that something had happened to her. It took her a while before she could finally tell me what happened."
"Astoria owled her," Draco was still laughing. It was slowing down, but there was still laughter in his voice. "She thought that Pansy would be able to calm me down. Pansy and Blaise both showed up at the same time, and it took Blaise to stop me from doing anything stupid to Corner."
"That was the night that Pans ended up slapping Astoria, right?" Rose asked, stabbing at one of the runner beans with her fork.
"Yeah," Draco nodded his head, taking a sip from his wine, hoping that it would calm him down a bit. "The stupid bint thought that Pansy would back her up, and started shouting at me for turning her hair pink. Pansy is like my sister though. We grew up together, and have been through too much for her to just suddenly turn against me. Pansy got sick of all of it, and slapped her right across her face. Blaise and I started laughing at that point. Corner had to carry Astoria out of my manor, because she was crying too much."
Playing with her fork, Rose was smiling now. It felt as if she were talking to an old friend at this point, and that they were catching up on lost time. "I remember Pans telling me about that," she nodded her head, taking a bite of her fillet. "Then Blaise came over the next day, and I heard it all again."
"Pans?" it only now dawned on Draco, the name that Rose had been calling one of his best friends. "Pansy only allows certain people to call her that. I knew that she got close to most of the Gryffindors because of Finnigan, but I didn't know she was that close."
Smirking a smirk that would have made even Lucius Malfoy proud, Rose shook her head. "She's not. Only I call her Pans. Once in a while Ginny or Hermione will, but other than those two… well and Seamus… only I call her Pans. She absolutely hates Lavender with a passion, and Luna isn't with us as often as the others are. But Pans and I came kinda close over the years."
"And yet, I've never heard of you," Draco reminded himself to approach Pansy about all of this. All these years, she was close friends with the muggle cousin of Hermione Granger, and not once had he ever heard of her.
"Everyone in the wizarding world knows of me," Rose shrugged her shoulders. "I'm always around. And I've been to a couple of events with Pans when Seamus was out on a mission. And I've been to the Ministry a couple of times."
"But Blaise, and Pansy never mentioned you to me," thinking hard, he tried to remember if he saw her around before. This wasn't a face that you would forget, but he tried to see if maybe he spotted her around the wizarding world.
Rose shrugged her shoulders, "They talk about you all the time. Actually, all I ever hear is your name. I guess they just didn't think I was important enough to mention."
"Are you that friend that Pansy is always with?" Draco asked suddenly. "She would be late to our weekly lunches sometimes, or when I would owl her, she would tell me she was with one of her friends," then it struck him, and he groaned. "Rose! She did talk about you. She just never mentioned that you were Granger's cousin. She would always just say her friend, Rose."
Chuckling, Rose took a sip of her wine. She watched as Draco rubbed his forehead with his hand. Squeezing the hell out of her legs, she cursed herself for insisting that she wasn't going to sleep with her blind date. "That's me."
Draco watched her as she watched him. The conversation turned to why she hated the color green. It came up randomly when she put one of the runner beans up to her lips. She explained how it all happened when they were eight. It was before Hermione found out she was a witch, and they were playing inside of Rose's room one day. Rose's favorite color is pink, and Hermione's is green – Draco snorted at that statement – and while they were playing, they got into an argument. Hermione was being the bossy know-it-all that she always is, and said that the hot pink walls of Rose's room didn't match the pale pink ceiling. Rose stated that pink is a better color than green, and the next thing she knew, everything was green. The walls, the ceiling, the curtains, the bed, the floor and the carpet, all of her toys, her dressers, closet, telly, toy chest, mirror, and all of her clothing… just everything. Everything was suddenly green. Of course no one knew that Hermione was a witch at that time, and the two cousins got grounded for painting everything green, but ever since then, Rose has always hated the color green.
"Can I have the bill?" Draco asked after they finished off their desserts. He was excited to have been on a date with someone who didn't care how much she ate. Eating everything she had for dinner, along with all of her dessert, Rose softly burped into her hands, excused herself and patted her stomach. It was so rare to find real females anymore.
Allowing Draco to lead her outside of the restaurant once everything had been paid for, Rose smiled. "Thank you for dinner Draco."
I will never stand in your way.
Wherever your heart may lead you,
I will love you the same.
And I will be your comfort every day.
Do you hear the words I say?
"Blaise told me that you just broke up with your boyfriend," Draco said suddenly. Once again filling the silence with something he just blurted out.
Chuckling, Rose nodded her head. True to his word, Draco altered her heels back to its original form once they left the restaurant, and when he felt her shiver, he placed his jacket on her. Holding onto his arm, she led him back to her apartment. It was a fifteen minute walk, and after that meal, they both decided to just walk back instead of apparating. "Today as a matter of a fact."
"Oh," cocking an eyebrow down at her, Draco tried to see if she was going to start crying or anything. "Really?"
"Mhmm."
"And you… you're okay?"
"Yep," sensing his confusion, she chuckled again. "John was a complete wanker. Not only was his favorite color green, but he was a complete idiot. He was a horrible kisser, and he was rude. Not to mention that he was a muggle, so I had to sneak around him whenever I would owl 'Mione or one of the others. And we always had to be careful of what we said around him."
Scrunching up his nose, Draco understood why she wasn't miserable that she just broke up with her boyfriend earlier that day. "How long were you with him?"
"Two months and one day. Apparently Seamus and Dean having been keeping a calendar of all my boyfriends, and blind dates – my relationships don't exceed past two months, and my blind dates never go past just a first date. They bet me that I couldn't keep a boyfriend for two months."
"Ahh," Draco grinned now. He liked her style. "So you broke up with him on the second day after two months, to prove them wrong."
Grinning, she nodded her head, "Exactly."
"So how many blind dates have you been on exactly?" he asked, curious as to how many times she's gone through this. In the beginning of the date, he could tell that her responses had been routine, then later on in the date, she told him how she practically dated half of the males from Hogwarts. It wasn't until the date progressed that she answered him with surprise. He was hoping that he had been one of the better dates that gets to see a second night.
Rose counted in her mind. She didn't know an exact number, and sighed. "I don't know," she admitted. "They started pushing me on dates only a year ago. But it's like every night, I have a new one. They think I should be settled down already."
"And you don't want to be?"
Hearing the sadness in his voice, Rose quickly shook her head. "It isn't that. I mean, I understand how in the wizarding world it's normal to be married or engaged by twenty-one and twenty-two. But I was raised in the muggle world. I don't want to have to worry about finding 'the one' until I'm at least twenty five. I mean I just got my dream career; I don't want to have to worry about a family just yet. If I find the right guy, then sure… okay. But I don't want to push it. I just want to be young still."
Draco absorbed her answer. It made reasonable sense to him. She was right. She wasn't raised as a witch, the same way that her friends were. Hermione and Dean may have both been muggle-borns, but they've been living in the wizarding world since they were only eleven years old. Of course they saw things differently from their muggle relatives. "Why don't you just explain that to them?" he asked.
"I do," Rose shrugged her shoulders. "All the bloody time. They don't listen to me though. They just send me off on another blind date."
They continued talking a little while longer: Rose explaining how horrible most of her dates had been, and Draco explaining how he tried to date only twice after Astoria cheated on him, but how terrible they were. They continued talking about their jobs and about their families for a little while longer. Then they reached the apartment complex. They were both nervous as they took the elevator up to the eleventh floor. Draco was nervous because his boxers were still green, and Rose was nervous because she was sure he was expecting something from her. She wasn't some sort of slag who would shag a guy after the first date. There were a couple of times where she did, and there were even a couple of times when she would shag a complete stranger that she just met. Then there were those times when she would slam the door in her date's face, and go right to sleep after a date. There were more of those times than her slag moments. It wasn't that she didn't want to shag Draco, because she did. But she had to go and tell Ginny she wouldn't, and of course she just had to prove herself right.
"I had fun tonight," she told Draco once they were outside of her flat's door.
Draco knew what that meant. Disappointed, he took a step back. "Me too, you're not that bad for a Granger."
Rose laughed. She was both excited and disappointed when he stepped away from her. She was excited because she didn't lie to Ginny. She was disappointed because for the first time, she wouldn't have minded being proven wrong for once. "You're not so bad yourself, Malfoy. You were really sweet tonight. Thank you for walking me home."
"Thank you for giving me a chance to prove myself to you," Draco smiled. Normally, this is the point where he pins her against her door, and tries to open it with her legs wrapped around his waist. This one was different though. She wasn't flirting with him. She wasn't making any moves on him. She wasn't shivering at his soft touches.
If it wasn't for the fact that she knew Draco was the male version of herself, Rose would have pinned him against her door, refusing to let him leave her alone tonight. She took pride in being the one to forget a guy's name the next morning. Something in her couldn't bear the thought of being the forgotten one. Shrugging out of Draco's jacket, she fought a battle with herself. So many mixed emotions were taking over, that she was just so confused. "Here's your jacket back. Thanks for letting me use it."
Nodding his head, as he threw it over his shoulders, Draco realized what her angle was now. Now he understood why Blaise and Ginny felt they were perfect for each other. Now he understood why she brushed against him beneath the table when crossing her legs together, and why she watched his every movement. She was him. Rose Granger was the female Draco Malfoy. "Would you like to do this again sometime?" he asked her. "Go on a second date?"
Smiling widely, Rose nodded her head. "I would love that," opening her door, she stood on her toes and leaned in towards him. Softly kissing his cheek, she pulled away. "I'll owl you."
Draco stood there. The door was already shut, and he shook his head. He knew what that meant. She used his exact lines. He knew that game already. She wasn't going to owl him. There was no second date. Chuckling to himself, Draco pulled at his hair in a frustrated way. He was attracted to a Granger, and she just blew him off. He was definitely going to kill Blaise.
Take your sweet, sweet time.
I will be here when you change your mind.
Take your sweet, sweet time.
I will be here for you baby.
Take your sweet, sweet time.
I will be here when you change your mind.
Take your sweet, sweet time.
I will be here for you baby,
Anytime.
I will be here for you.
I will be here.
I will be here.
I will be here for you!
Song: Take Your Sweet Time. Artist: Jesse McCartney.
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