Chapter 2: Shopping

….

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Before Hermione stepped into one of the large fireplaces in the atrium of the Ministry of Magic, she told Draco the address to her home. She grabbed a fistful of fine green powder and threw it into the flames, calling out her own address and stepping out, moments later, into her living room.

The first thing Draco noticed as he stepped out of the fireplace and into Hermione's home was that it was quite possibly the most cheerful place he had ever seen. The walls were painted a pale shade of yellow. There were gauzy curtains at the large windows billowing in the breeze and blue accents dotted here and there. A large sofa with blue throw pillows sat opposite of a funny looking silver box. The entire room almost reminded him of the seaside and a sense of tranquility settled over him.

The second thing he noticed was the over-abundance of books which were organized neatly in book cases which spanned an entire wall. He crossed the room to look at her miniature library noting everything from novels, to old text books, to books which could only be found in the restricted section of the Hogwarts library. There were several texts he recognized and even more that he didn't.

"You can peruse my books another time, Malfoy. We have shopping to do." She said, urging him to move towards the door.

"Oh? So there will be another time, will there Granger?" He smirked.

"Only if I don't hex you first," she sighed with a shake of her curls and half-hearted eye roll. "Come on, the car's outside."

"Car?" Draco froze in his spot.

"How did you think we were getting to Selfridges, Malfoy? We can't very well apparate into one of the busiest places in muggle London."

"I'm not getting in one of those muggle death traps." He said firmly, crossing his arms indignantly over his chest.

Hermione chewed on her bottom lip and stared at him as he stood there, like a pouting toddler. She knew pleading wouldn't work with him, he was far too stubborn for that, so she opted to try logic on her companion. "Cars are an essential part of muggle culture. Collins will be expecting them to be part of the curriculum you are writing."

He groaned and scowled at her, as she predicted, but he began moving towards the door once more. "Fine. Let's just get it over with."

Hermioned locked the door to her modest single story home and bounded down the steps and over to her car which was parked in a short drive way. She unlocked it with a click of a button on the remote and slid into the driver's seat.

"How did you do that?" He demanded, standing between the car and the opened door.

"Do what?" she asked.

"You did something and some lights flashed and I heard a sound. Was that wandless magic?"

Hermione laughed and held out the set of keys she was getting ready to place into the ignition of the car. "No, it was the remote. I pressed the button that looks like an open lock. It sends a special signal through the air which causes the locks to engage or disengage depending on the button pressed."

Draco held the remote up to his eyes and examined it closely with a bit of a pinched look on his face. He gave up and handed the set back to Hermione without a word before moving to the opposite side of the car. He opened the door and slid in to the seat.

"Make sure you buckle up." She said, turning the key in the ignition causing the car to roar to life.

Draco nearly jumped out of his seat. "Salazar's soul, Granger. What the hell was that?"

"The engine. It's what makes the car go. If you want to know more, we'll have to go see a mechanic because I honestly have no idea how one works." Hermione said, checking her mirrors to ensure they were properly aligned.

"You intend to take me around in one of these death traps and you don't even know how it works?" He stared at her with an open mouth and a mild look of fear on his face. It didn't even occur to him that Granger had openly admitted she didn't know something.

"I know enough to drive us safely to where we need to go, Malfoy. You don't need to know the specifics of a modern combustion engine in order to drive a car." She pinched the bridge of her nose, starting to regret this assignment. "Now, please put on your safety belt." She said, motioning to the one across her own lap.

Draco did as he was told without arguing. He wasn't certain the fabric belt would do much to protect him in any sort of emergency, unless perhaps it was imbued with some kind of magic, which he highly doubted it was. He glanced over at Hermione who pulled some kind of lever, moved her feet to push something on the floor of the car, and started turning a large wheel in front of her, all of which seemed to cause the car to move in a backwards motion.

Once they had turned out on the street, she was leaned back in the seat, looking more relaxed and only kept one hand on the large circle. Draco would've preferred if she had kept two. He glanced out of the window and noticed they were moving fairly quickly as though he were riding a broom, but without the wind in his face. Draco was just thinking how he missed the wind when Hermione turned a knob and pushed a button and a blast of cold air hit in him the face.

Hermione pressed another button and the sound of instrumental music filled the silence. Draco listened for a few minutes before he found himself humming along.

"I know this one." He said, his fingers tapping out a distinct pattern on the leg of his apparently-too-formal-trousers.

"It's Debussy. How do you know it?" She said with a brief glance his way before refocusing her eyes on the road.

He thought about taking the cop out that he'd heard it played at a concert, but instead, he revealed one small personal fact about himself, though he didn't know why. He was typically a very private person. "I play the piano. Mother made me learn when I was younger and this is one of the pieces I learned to play."

"Oh, that's lovely."

They pulled into a car-park nearby Selfridges and Hermione shut off the car. "We'll have to walk a bit, but it shouldn't take long." She told him as they exited her sedan, making their way towards the store.

Draco stood back a few feet from the entrance and whispered over into Hermione's ear. She smelled like sin and sunshine once his nose brushed against her riotous curls. He never in his life thought he would be this close to the witch, but here he was, standing outside of a muggle department store on the strangest assignment he had been given yet, fascinated by a pair of sliding glass doors.

"Granger, they're moving."

"Yes, just walk through them. They won't get you." She laughed and shook her curls. In a moment of impulsivity, Hermione grabbed him by the hand and led him through the doors and into the department store.

Draco found himself in sensation overload. He had never seen so many things displayed in one place before. He had taken several shopping trips with his mother before, but they had never been to any place similar to this.

"I know you're taking it all in, Malfoy… but don't forget to breathe." She quipped, letting go of his hand. "Our first priority is to get you something to wear."

He blinked rapidly and nodded to the witch at his side. "Right. Clothing." Had he really been that obvious? He had never considered the muggles were capable of this giant building containing goods for sale. The lights were entirely too bright and his nose was assaulted with a mélange of scents which caused a wrinkle of his nose as they walked towards a set of moving stairs.

"We need to go up, so we'll take the escalators." Hermione said, motioning to the moving steps which didn't seem so different from the changing staircases at Hogwarts.

"Up." He confirmed, following Hermione's lead and placing his hand on the moving handrail and stepping onto the moving steps. He was carried up to the next floor much faster than he expected. He felt a bit giddy when he stepped off of the escalator and grinned at Granger like he'd just spent his entire allowance at Honeydukes.

In front of him stood racks and shelves of men's clothing with advertisements and fake white busts of people without faces dressed in clothing on them sprinkled in between. Hermione left him to marvel at it all before moving between the racks with a practiced precision which reminded him of his mother. She pulled several items from the racks and shelves and piled them up in his arms. Yep. Just like his mother.

When she was satisfied in her selections, Hermione led them to the dressing room. "You'll need to go try these on to make sure they fit. I think I guessed your sizing correctly, but if things are too small or too big, we can adjust the sizing fairly easily." She said with a smile

Draco groaned and walked into the dressing room. While he thoroughly enjoyed a well-tailored suit and robes, he loathed trying on clothing. Granger was right, however, in that if he wanted to blend in with the muggles, he at least needed to look the part.

He stepped out first in a pair of light colored khaki trousers and a back short-sleeved shirt with a collar and a few buttons at the top. He looked at himself in the mirror before stepping out to show Hermione.

"I hate it." He said with a frown. With how casual the outfit was, he almost felt as though he was dressed in pajamas.

"But you have nice arms." She said, eyeing pale but his well-toned arms.

He quirked an eyebrow and flashed her a sly smile. "Did you just pay me a compliment, Granger? I think I may drop down dead."

"Oh shush, you arrogant prat. Don't let it go to your head." She gestured to the clothing he was wearing. "We're buying that, now, get back in there and try on something else." She ordered, calmly while holding a small, black rectangle in the palm of her hand which was not erratically waving at Draco.

"What is that?" Draco asked, curiously, taking a few steps towards her to examine the object in her hand.

"It's my mobile phone." She said, turning it so Draco could see the screen. It was a small, black rectangle with one large button at the bottom and several other tiny pictures on the screen.

He quirked and eyebrow, staring at her derisively. "…and?"

"It's a way for muggles to communicate. Much faster than owls. We'll get you one later." She said with another wave of her hand. "Now, off you pop."

"Pop?" He crossed his arms over his chest and trained his eyes on her. "Malfoy's don't pop."

Hermione set her phone down and stared at him with contempt, her lips creased into a thin line. "Draco Malfoy, if you don't get back in there this instant, I will pull out of this project and will absolutely make sure that you get stuck with Dennis Creevey showing you everything this world has to offer."

Draco blanched and took slow steps back towards the dressing room with his hands up in surrender. Dennis Creevey who worked in his department had turned out to be a notorious ass-kisser, rivaling the likes of Percy Weasley and he grated on Draco's last nerve. Granger's presence, though somewhat awkward, was much preferable to that insufferable brown-noser.

"No need to make threats, Granger, when a simple 'please, Draco go try on more clothes so I can ogle your body some more' would have sufficed." He said with a wink, turning on his heel with a pleased smirk on his face to re-enter the dressing room when a shoe made contact with the wall next to him.

He laughed and retreated within the supposed safety of the dressing cubicle. Messing with Granger was turning out to be more fun than he realized. He could only imagine that her curls were puffed out in anger and that she was practically breathing fire.

….

I'll murder him before this day is out. Hermione Granger swore to herself as she went to retrieve the shoe she had lobbed at Draco's head. Damn the Statute of Secrecy. She wanted nothing more than to send a stinging jinx his way every time he quipped at her. It made her feel uncomfortable the casual way he teased her without a trace of malice behind it. Weren't they supposed to be mortal enemies? Pureblood versus Mudblood and all of that nonsense?

He walked out in a pair of jeans paired with a charcoal, light gray, and black plaid button-down with the sleeves rolled up to just under the crook of his elbows. His hands were tucked into the pockets of the dark washed jeans. Clearly, years of helping Ginny pick out clothing for Harry and Ron had paid off. Everything she had picked out so far fit him like a glove and Hermione couldn't help but admire how handsome he looked when he wasn't dressed as though he was going to a funeral.

Wait. No. Shut up brain.

"I hate this one less." He said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Good." She said with a nod of her head as she walked over and plucked the tags from the clothes he was wearing. "Grab the rest of it and let's go pay for everything."

"I'm not letting you buy clothes for me, Granger." He said with a slight warning tone to his voice.

"We didn't make a stop at Gringotts before we came here, so you can pay me back later." She said, pulling a small plastic card from the beaded bag she was carrying. "Now, go shrink your funeral clothes and I'll tuck it in here."