So I decided to turn this into a multi-chaptered fic! Thanks so much for the reviews, favs and follows!

Meeting up at Madam Laurie's became a weekly routine for Draco and Hermione, much to Ron's displeasure. In fact, Ron was so put out one day that he suggested Hermione to "marry the ferret and have ferret babies to increase the rodent population." This, of course, was met with Hermione throwing dozens of inanimate objects at him -which Ron skillfully dodged-, shouting a colourful array of impertinent insults his way, and storming out the front door of the Burrow.

"You're fuming." Draco pointed out to her as she added five dollops of sugar into her tea. She hadn't spoken to him at all, except for acknowledging him with a curt nod and it was starting to get on his nerves.

"I'm not." Hermione took a sip of her tea and inwardly gagged. Too sweet. She picked up a crumpet and bit into it, pretending it was the head of a certain ginger.

"Definitely fuming."

"Lay off it, Malfoy."

"Granger, I don't know if you remember but you're the one who practically begged for this little chat. I'll have you know that I actually made the effort to free up some space in my busy schedule for this, so kindly do me the honour of returning the favour by boring me with your personal issues because I am not, and I repeat, I am not going to waste my precious time watching you devour that crumpet like an ogre." Draco paused. "However, if it's about your time of the month, then I'm not interested."

Hermione listened to his tiny, almost monotonous speech with the crumpet half-way through her mouth, annoyed by his persistence and somewhat surprised that he actually admitted to fitting this little meeting into his 'busy schedule'. She knew it was unfair that she was taking up his time like this when he probably had other important things to do. Sighing, she put her crumpet down and said, "It's Ron. He's not too pleased about, well, all this." She waved a hand around the table they were seated in.

Draco rolled his eyes at her. That was it? "It's called being solicitous of one's amour, Granger. Honestly, are you that dense? Aren't you and Weasley romantically involved? He's just afraid that I might use my charm on you and steal you away from him. Which I'm not, mind you, going to pursue. I told you that you aren't exactly my type, you know."

Hermione gritted her teeth at him. 'Such a prat.' she thought. "To answer your questions, Malfoy. No, I am not dense. And no, Ron and I aren't romantically involved, as you put it. I mean, we used to be. Not anymore, though." She looked away from Draco and stared out the window, suddenly feigning interest in a lamp-post.

Draco noticed the poignant look in her eyes before she turned away from him and almost felt bad. Almost. "Well, that's a bit of a shock. What happened? Were you too rigid in bed?"

Hermione turned her head sharply to look at him. "Malfoy! How dare you insinuate that I-"

"It's called a joke, Granger. Know what that is? Something a person tells to another person so that the latter would laugh?" Draco inwardly flinched as she continued glaring at him. "Well, I'll take that as a no. So, tell me. Why aren't you in an amorous entanglement with Weasley?"

Hermione huffed and thought about it for a while. She didn't want to open up to Draco. Not yet, anyway. The nerve of him to ask such personal questions irritated her to oblivion. But she was the one who asked for this, this one-on-one conversation with him. Still, he had absolutely no right. "No offense, Malfoy. But I don't believe it's any of your business."

"Touchy. I see I'm treading impermissible waters. And here I thought we were acquaintances, if not friends."

Hermione bit back a smile. "We aren't friends."

"That's what I said. And yet, here we are. Having tea and crumpets like good old friends." Draco emphasized the last word, purposefully trying to get on Hermione's nerves. Hermione, however, was quick to notice and said, "Honestly, Malfoy. If you wanted a friend, all you had to do was ask." Draco spluttered his tea out and glared at her but could only do so for a short bit of time as she seemed amused by his response, which he didn't like at all. Not one bit. No one mocks a Malfoy.

"Conniving little wench. Now look what you've done." He pointed towards the spot on his shirt where a tea stain had developed. "This shirt cost galleons."

"Oh do come off your contemptuous demeanor, Malfoy. I know you long for someone to talk to. If you didn't, then you wouldn't have dropped by a few weeks back."

"The only reason I came is because I thought I had a secret admirer." Draco said quickly, focusing intently on the spot as he tried to hide the rush of blood to his cheeks (he wouldn't admit that he was blushing because, after all, Malfoys don't blush).

"Really?"

"Really." But he wasn't really paying attention to her now. He was trying to remove that stubborn stain with a dampened tissue rather furiously. "It's not coming off!"

"Here, let me do it." Hermione grabbed Draco's hand, ignored his look of surprise and took out her wand. "Granger, the muggles will see." Draco whispered alarmingly. "I don't know if you've noticed at all, Malfoy. But they aren't particularly interested in us." And with that being said, she pointed her wand at the stain and it disappeared.

"All done."

"Right. You can let go of my hand now, Granger."

"Oh, sorry." Hermione dropped his hand as if it burned her. "Wouldn't want to taint your pristine hands with my mudblood germs." She quickly brought her hands to her mouth and widened her eyes. She hadn't meant to say that at all; she was merely taking her previous anger out on him. "I'm sorry, Malfoy. I don't know what had gotten into me-"

"It's fine, Granger. It really is." Draco said, ignoring the slight twinge of pain her words had caused him. "I expected that, anyway. I'm not- I'm not as prejudiced as I was before, though." He looked away from her and started fiddling with his fingers. "I realized that this blood prejudice didn't make sense at all, and it was most definitely not worth my time." He snuck a peek at Hermione. "Do close your mouth, Granger. It isn't very appealing."

"I can't believe this. Draco Malfoy has the ability to feel. I never pegged you as empathic."

"Retreat that sharp tongue of yours right now, Granger." Draco narrowed his eyes at her. "And besides, the Pureblood lineage isn't going to last for very long what with all the inbreeding so… Nice weather today, isn't it?" He tried to steer away from the subject as he took a sip from his tea.

"You'd have to marry one of your cousins."

Draco once again spluttered out his tea, narrowly missing his shirt by a few inches and sneered at her.

"You really should learn to keep things in your mouth, Malfoy." Hermione grinned.

"You first, Granger."

Silence suddenly engulfed the atmosphere surrounding the unlikely pair but neither of them seemed to mind. It was, as though, they felt comfortable in each other's presence. It was queer, but it was tranquil. It was odd, but it was pleasant. It was-

"Sir, would you like to order anything else?" Hermione and Draco turned to look at a waitress who was standing extremely close to the latter, bosom out and all, as she fluttered her eyes flirtatiously at him. Obviously what she asked was a double entendre. Draco, however, was unfazed and said, "No, thank you. I'm fine."

Hermione held back a giggle as the waitress put on a distressed face and asked again "Are you sure?", this time leaning against the table so that both of them could get a better look at her assets. Draco narrowed his eyes at her and said, "Would you like me to spell it out for you-" he paused and took a closer look at her name tag, "Janelle?"

'Janelle' gaped at his response but quickly composed herself and said, "No. Very well, sir. However, if you change your mind, you know what to do." He was about to ask her what she meant when she suddenly slipped a crumpled piece of paper into the front pocket of his shirt, gave him a saucy wink and sauntered off. He took out the paper and skimmed through it.

"Granger, she just gave me her address. Why would she do that? Are muggles always like this? Giving their address away like- why are you smirking? That's my job!"

Hermione raised an eyebrow and shook her head at him. "Are you that dense, Malfoy?"

"What?"

"That waitress. She could care less about your order."

"What do you mean?"

"She was flirting with you. Stop pretending as if you didn't notice. From what I've heard, girls were always at your beck and call."

"Contrary to popular belief, Granger. I was never really well-liked among females. I am rather finicky. I have a particular liking to certain attributes in women, you know, and whiny brats are most certainly not included in my figurative book of likable traits in the opposite sex."

'But you are a whiny brat.' Hermione thought to herself. She watched as he threw the piece of paper aside and she took a peek over his shoulder to find that Janelle had been watching them all along. She was angry, Hermione could tell, flushing from her forehead to who knows where underneath her uniform. Janelle narrowed her eyes at her, flicked her long blonde hair and disappeared behind the counter. Hermione rolled her eyes and looked at Draco to find that he was rummaging through a newspaper in his hands. She took the opportunity to really assess him. His hair was long but not too long - with bangs falling over his forehead and almost reaching his eyes; he ditched the gel, as far as she could tell. His eyes were sunken in, obviously from lack of sleep, and his cheeks were hollow.

"I'd appreciate it if you would stop undressing me with your eyes, Granger."

Hermione snapped out of her analytical reverie and glared at him. "I wasn't." That git.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Draco smirked. "What does help you sleep at night, Granger?"

"Shut up."

"Your eloquence is intriguing."

"I will hex you."

"It isn't in your nature to-" Draco's words were cut off when he noticed his ears twitching uncontrollably.

"Granger."

"Yes, Malfoy?"

"Make it stop."

"No."

"Make it stop."

"No."

And so the rest of the afternoon consisted of them bickering back and forth, each silently casting hexes at each other until one of them called truce. Of course, no one did. Until Draco missed and cast a spell on one of the customer's plates, thus causing it to grow legs and run off.

The sound of a rolled up piece of paper being thrown into a dustbin, followed by a grunt of frustration could be heard resounding off the walls of Draco's home. He was sitting at his desk, trying to compose a letter to his parents for the past two hours.

Dear Mother and Father,

Muggle London is great.

No. Too cheery.

Dear Mother and Father,

I like it here.

Gah.

Draco got up from his seat, walked around his bedroom and scrutinized it. It was too messy and very un-Malfoy-like. If his mother saw the state his room was in, she'd probably chide him. He was so used to having house elves bend to his every whim. 'House elves.' All of a sudden, he started thinking about Hermione. And about S.P.E.W. And about the last few weeks. And about the fun they had today. 'Wait, fun? Forget I even said that.' He was thinking real hard as to whether he should tell his parents about the unlikely alliance he has with her. 'They'd probably hurl and ask me to come back to the manor right this instant. Or they'd probably scream for joy and congratulate me for finally getting rid of that stick of arrogance up my prestigious behind. Maybe. I don't know. Stupid, annoying Granger. She's making my head hurt.'

And then, he was lost. Completely lost.

'I'm associating with Granger. Granger, out of all people. G-r-a-n-g-e-r. One-third of that infuriating Golden Trio. Gryffindork. Bushy-haired bookworm. Merlin, maybe I've lost it.'

He scuffled around his room, pulled at his hair and rubbed his eyes out. 'I've officially gone barmy.' He sat back in his chair and started to scribble furiously.

Dear Mother and Father,

Muggle London is great. I like it here. My entire home's a mess, though. Haven't bothered to make it look nice with fancy furniture and all. I met Potter, Weasley and Granger a few weeks ago. They were surprised to see me here. So surprised that they invited me for lunch. I said no but obliged afterwards as I couldn't escape their persistence. Well, Potter and Granger's persistence. Weasley wasn't too pleased to see me because he still feels inferior, I guess. Lunch was alright. I was happy when it was finally over, though.

Other than that, it's been quite nice here. I haven't been sneered at even once because no one knows me. It feels free and very blissful.

I miss you both. So much. A lot. As you can see, staying here has made me very sappy. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would actually miss someone. But I miss you both. Don't tell anyone I said that.

Well, that's pretty much all I have to say for now. Emphasis on 'for now'. Yes, Mother. I'll send you more letters. Don't you worry.

It's late so I'm off to bed.

I miss you both.

Love,

Your son.

P.S. I'm allies with Hermione Granger.

P.P.S. Yes, the war heroine. The girl who I used to loathe with every fiber of my being. That one.

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