Disclaimer: I do not own Draco Malfoy (as much as I, and a lot more ladies, want to) or Hermione Granger. The only aspects of this fic that I own are the characters you don't recognize from the book, and the plot. All other credit goes to JK Rowling.
Chapter 2
Draco Malfoy stared at her, and she was pretty sure her face mirrored the same shock that was now evident on his face.
"G-Granger?" Draco managed to stammer out when he had finally found his voice. Damn, he swore to himself. He had not thought that the girl that attracted his eyes as soon as he entered the bar's doors would be the same girl he had loathed back in school. No one in their right mind would ever imagine Hermione Granger looking sexy from behind in a green flannel shirt and skinny jeans.
"Seriously?" Hermione said as soon as she had gotten over the shock. "Draco Malfoy, in Muggle London?" The last time she had seen the git was a year and a half ago, when he had accidentally bumped into her in Diagon Alley as she was exiting the Apothecary with an armload of ingredients for medicinal potions. She repressed a frown as she remembered how he had walked away muttering curses at her for bumping into him, when it had been the other way around.
"So," she resumed, when he did not answer. "What's a Malfoy doing in a Muggle restaurant, hitting on a supposedly Muggle girl?" She ran her eyes up and down his body, scrutinizing his attire. "You actually even managed to look Muggle, Malfoy," she observed. And look hot in it, said the part of her brain that had been celibate for the longest time.
She mentally rolled her eyes at herself, disgusted that she had even entertained that particular train of thought even only for a few seconds.
But he did look gorgeous in his black turtleneck and dark blue denims.
UGH.
She took another sip of her Martini in order to calm herself down.
Draco pulled back to give her a fuller view before he could consider what he was doing, and would have made a twirl if he didn't think it was absolutely gay. "So I do pass for one?" he asked. "I was just passing by. I love their pasta here, and I do come often." Trying to keep the thought of almost doing a twirl in front of Hermione Granger out of his mind, he pulled a chair beside her at the bar and sat down, oblivious to the expression in Hermione's face that shouted Why-are-you-sitting-beside-me? "One whisky, Pablo," he called.
He turned in his seat to face her, and noticed her staring. "What?"
Hermione shook her head and blinked to clear her thoughts, but still continued looking at him confusedly. "No qualms about sitting beside a muggleborn in public, Malfoy?" she asked haughtily. "That's two surprises in a row today."
Draco threw her a disgusted look. "I'm not about to give up my favorite seat just because you happen to be here, Mudblood," he spat. He noticed Pablo eyeing them both as he was handed the drink.
"Any problems, beloved customers?" Pablo asked, looking at both of them. "You know each other?"
Hermione gave a helpless smile. "Yes, Pablo. An… Acquaintance from school."
"Ahhh…" Pablo answered knowingly. "I take it that Mr. Malfoy here is one of those select few you kept on ranting about before?"
Hermione laughed evilly as Draco glowered at her. "Not one of the few, Pablo," she said sweetly, returning a glare at the blonde haired boy beside her. "The very source of everything I kept ranting about."
Draco rolled his eyes and chose to ignore her comment and the resounding chuckle from Pablo, taking a sip of his whiskey. The weather was cold, which he rather liked, and he was in good spirits before entering the restaurant. He didn't want to ruin his good mood by bickering with the Mudblood again.
"Here," Pablo said, presenting them with another glass each of their drinks. "These are on me. Do some catching up without trying to kill one another." With a sarcastic salute, the bartender turned and went into the kitchen to replenish the bowl of sliced lemons to be used for tequila shots.
Hermione smiled. "I love that guy," she muttered, mostly to herself.
"Yeah, so do I," Draco said, answering before he could stop himself, and in turn lowering the barrier of awkwardness that separated them.
"I still can't believe I'm beside you at a bar, Malfoy." Hermione finished her first glass of Martini with a final gulp. She turned to him, holding her second glass, and eyed him from behind the stray lock of hair that absolutely would not stay in place.
Draco grunted in assent, still not answering.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Come, on," she said exasperatedly. "Grow up and get over that childish habit of being uncivil to me, Malfoy. Besides, silent treatment does not become you. I can't believe you're still so immature after all these years."
"I'm only 21, Granger," he replied dryly. "I have the right to still be immature." Draco looked at her from behind his glass of whiskey before taking draining it. "Besides, we've never really been on a decent-conversational-chat relationship, and to start now would be quite awkward, I think."
Hermione sniffed derisively. "Of course. Not when you spent all those years trying to pull me down and humiliate me. What a huge amount of happy memories we'd be talking about now."
"See." He slid the glass away from him with a tiny flick and reached for the next one. "So there's really nothing to talk about." With that, he returned to silence, brooding on his own.
"Oh, no," Hermione said, stopping him halfway between putting his second glass to his lips. "Being alone with you is a rare thing, but being alone with you in a public Muggle place is even more rare. I intend to bug the shit out of you until I find out what ever made Draco Malfoy stoop so low, since you think so lowly of us, as to dine in a Muggle place."
Draco couldn't help but roll his eyes at her. "Haven't you got anything better to do?" he asked her testily. "You're being a real pain at the moment." He grudgingly noticed, as she rolled her eyes back at him, that she looked adorable when she pouted.
The way the jeans hug her hips is very enticing, too. He had to force himself to tear his eyes away from her curves and remind himself who—what—she was. That's the Mudblood, Malfoy. The hybrid. The unfortunately hot hybrid.
"Nevermind, Malfoy," he heard her say, cutting off his thoughts. From the corners of his eyes he saw that she had faced the bar again, sipping daintily on her Martini. He found his eyes straying to her lips, thinking of how many different things those lips could do. He stopped himself before that frame of thought could even progress to something dirtier.
He put his whiskey down, eyeing the glass suspiciously and blaming it for his unusual attraction to the pretty witch beside him. "What the bloody hell do Muggles put in this thing?" he voiced out loud before he could stop himself, then shook his head. "Nevermind. I don't really need an answer to that."
He downed the rest of the glass and semi-slammed it down the table, reaching out for his wallet at the same time. He called Pablo to show that he was leaving his money at the counter, then hurriedly, but reluctantly, left the restaurant. He had really wanted to stay longer, but his hormones seemed to be getting to him, which is a really bad thing if the girl his hormones were reacting to was the Mudblood.
The freaking Mudblood.
Hermione sighed once he had flown out the door. "Well, that didn't go well," she muttered to herself. Then she huffed indignantly at the thought of Draco still being so bad-mannered. She barely noticed that she had already finished her second glass, and was surprised to find nothing when she brought it to her lips one more time.
"Got into a fight?" Pablo asked as he collected the money Draco had left, smiling to see that Draco still was generous with the tip.
"Nothing new," Hermione replied, her mood getting fouler and fouler just at the thought of meeting Draco, accidental as it may have been. "Some things just never change, Pablo. Oh, that man just makes my blood boil!" She looked pleadingly at the bartender, as if by doing so she could get him to do something about it.
Pablo chuckled and pat her cheek. "Don't you let that man worry your beautiful face," he said, noting how her features softened at his compliment. "There are better things to do than let that occupy your already occupied mind." He mussed up her hair a bit before taking her already-empty glass. "Another helping?"
"No, thanks," Hermione said with a small shake of her head. "Oh, I love you so, old man. You keep me sane whenever I think I'm going to blow." She laughed, wanting to give the man a hug but knowing it was impossible due to the width of the bar.
"It's part of the plan, really," Pablo said, wiping glasses clean. "Pretending to be good-natured brings customers back and feeds the restaurant's income." He smirked at Hermione and laughed as she rolled her eyes.
"Don't expect me anytime in the next five years, Pablo," Hermione joked, reaching into her purse to take out her money. "I think I should get going, dear. I'm really still quite sleepy, despite all the surprises this night." She eyed the bottle of Martini on display behind Pablo, but shook her head. No more alcohol for tonight. Not in this foul mood.
Pablo accepted the money she handed to him, not bothering to count it knowing that Hermione always gave the exact amount she was due, and more. "Yes, I think you should do that, too. You still look like hell, and a livid Hermione didn't look too appealing."
"Oh," Hermione said with a tiny, evil laugh. "You haven't seen the best parts, Pablo. You wouldn't want to see Malfoy and I in full blow. Possible trauma on anyone who witnesses the clash of the two mortal enemies, you know." She smiled devilishly before blowing the man a kiss. "I'll visit again soon, I promise."
Pablo gave her another smirk, something which he loved doing, and waved her away. "Make sure you do, lovely lady," was the last thing she heard before the door closed with a jingle of chimes behind her.
Hermione felt for the wand in her pocket, looking around to see if anyone was in the vicinity so that she could Apparate to her flat which was only three blocks away. Seeing no one, she entered a phone booth that was located at the corner of the street and Disapparated from there.
She found herself inside her kitchen one second later, and went to the fridge to get herself a glass of cold water before proceeding to the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash up. Thirty minutes later, she was lying on her bed, eyes drooping until they closed entirely, and she drifted off to a deep, undisturbed sleep.
**********
Author's Note: Next chapter… You guessed it right. Hermione and Draco encounter one another again. I wonder what will happen this time. Seriously, I do wonder. I myself haven't quite figured out yet what I want to happen between them. HAHAHAHA!
I hadn't noticed that MS Word automatically changed "Apparate" into "Apparatus". *poker face* So I've updated this with the edited version. :))