Chapter 2

Draco awoke to the sound of his doorbell ringing. He unwillingly opened his eyes to read the clock on his nightstand; it was ten o'clock. He was surprised that Strix hadn't hooted and woken him up for food like he had the past couple of weeks; instead, the bird was missing.

He answered the door to find Hermione standing there with a hot coffee and a striped scarf. Just the person he wanted to see.

"Hi, Drake! Oh-did I wake you up? I'm sorry. I've always been an early riser; I've been up since six. Well my parents always said-"

Again, with the talking. Did it ever stop? He tuned her out and waited until she got to the point, but a word spiked his interest.

"Like this one year, I dressed up as a witch for Halloween and-"

"You what?"

"Dressed up as a witch for Halloween."

Draco vaguely remembered hearing about this 'Halloween' it had something to do with dressing up and getting candy, but he wasn't totally sure.

"I've always been interested in witches and wizards; it's so cool! I mean, of course they don't exist, but that would be neat."

Draco let out his breath that he wasn't aware that he was holding. So she didn't think wizards were real but she had an interest. Through what Draco had experienced, Hermione + Interest = finding out information; that would not be good.

"Anyways, I was thinking we could drive to Manchester today, just for fun. What do you think?"

"Sure," he mumbled, still dumbfounded by her wizard comment.

"Do you want to drive or should I?"

"Well…I don't know how to drive," he said and regretted it moments later. He knew that it seemed uncommon for a boy like him to not be able to drive and he didn't want her to start remembering a life without cars.

"Are you serious? You've never driven?"

Figuring he had already dug himself in a hole, he shook his head.

"Then I know what we'll do today; I'll teach you!"

"Really, that isn't necessary," he wanted to avoid any situation where he wouldn't get information. Why go through more torture than needed?

"Oh don't be silly. I'll meet you in the lobby in ten," was all she said before leaving. He figured she wouldn't take no for an answer. How hard could Muggle driving be anyways?

..

Apparently very difficult.

Fifteen minutes later, Hermione was sitting in the drivers seat and a very nervous Draco was in the passenger's seat. The only time he had ever experienced anything with a car was when Weasley and Potter crashed it into the Whomping Willow second year and stole the show. Even then, that was a magical car.

"Okay, this here is the shift lever," Hermione explained from the front seat of the car. "It is so you can put the car in park (like we are now), reverse, neutral, or drive. All you have to do is put your foot on the break and move it to reverse so we can move out of the parking spot. But first, put on your seat belt," she said quickly.

Draco blinked at all of the information. He was still stuck on the part where she put the key in; it had all happened so quickly. He looked around for a 'seat belt' and, judging by its name, he figured it was something to go over his waist. He watched Granger take the belt from the wall and put in in a buckle to her right. Draco followed suit, figuring it had to be the 'seat belt'.

He felt the car start to move and he got extremely nervous. He was putting his life into the hands of a Mudblood a in a complicated device that he had no idea how to operate. And to top it all off, he didn't have a wand if something went awry. He grabbed onto the side for dear life. Putting his life on the line was not something he had signed up for.

"Are you okay, Drake? We're not even out of the parking lot." She laughed as she noticed his white face.

"Fine," he lied, but he heard his voice crack.

"Alright, so now that we're out of the parking space I'm going to put my foot on the brake and I'm going to shift the car to 'drive' so that we can move forward. Alright?"

Draco nodded, too afraid to respond.

"Now, we just give it a little gas and-" she paused, "Are you sure you're alright? You look ill."

"I told you, I'm fine. Just get on with it," he said harshly.

"Watch your tone, Malfoy," she said sternly.

Draco froze. So did she. He had made it a point not to tell her his last name, so how had she known?

"I-I'm sorry. I honestly don't know why I called you that…it just sort of came out. I-I don't even know what that means…"

"It's my last name," he lied smoothly, "I told you when I first met you."

This seemed to ease her spirit and she continued "Oh right, of course! Oh, uh where were we? Right! Now we're going forward. And this here is your indicator," she said, pointing to a lever by the steering wheel. "It lets the other cars know which directions you're turning. Up for right and down for left."

She moved forward out of the parking lot and Draco felt his insides knot tighter with every inch. He admitted that he was a control freak and letting his enemy in control of this situation terrified him. He was sure his father would be proud of him learning to drive this Muggle vehicle and truly getting involved with the mission at hand; that was the only thought that kept him from jumping out of the car and running all of the way back to the manor.

Hermione drove onto a street and stopped at a red light, "Red means go, yellow means slow down, and green means go," she said. "But you already knew that."

Sure he did. She accelerated forward when the light turned green. He noticed that the entire street was filled with oblivious, stupid Muggles and that thought made him even more nervous. He had to trust that all of these Muggles wouldn't randomly crash into the car and kill him instantly. He realized with horror that the car next to him was mere feet away.

When she stopped at the next light, he loosened his grip ever so slightly. He saw that she and the other Muggles had obviously been driving for a while and knew what they were doing. However, he still kept a wary eye; Hermione seemed to be remembering her hatred for him.

"What does that thing mean?" he asked pointing to one of the gauges that was currently pointing to '45'. He was determined how to learn and operate this thing so that he could do it himself and not have to trust anyone else.

She paused for a moment, "That's a speedometer, Drake. It shows you how fast you're going," she said. "Have you ever been in a car before?"

"Of course I have," he fibbed. He still had no idea what the '45' meant.

He studied all of the confusing gauges and lights on the dashboard. Even though he didn't like anything about the Muggle world, he figured he could at least learn how to drive. He could perhaps take a break and find some wizarding spots around as pretending to be a Muggle could be quite exhausting.

An hour later, he collapsed on the sofa in his bedroom. He had taken his hand at driving behind the wheel and, judging by Granger's face, he wasn't doing so well. He never knew that some Muggle contraption could be so tricky (but he would never admit it).

Strix was back now which reminded Draco of the letter he needed to write.

..

Report for Week 3 of Surveillance

Well, I suppose this isn't good.

She slipped up when she was angry and called me 'Malfoy' when I didn't tell her my last name at all. Also, she said she dressed up as a witch for some 'Halloween' if that has any significance. She also stated that she had an interest in wizards (interest never turns out well in her case).

On another note, I'm learning how to drive a Muggle car, and I'm even better than Granger at it. Aren't you proud, Father?

I'm running low on owl food (not that it upsets me), so please send some over.

With my excellent cooperation and observation of Hermione Granger I think I am well deserving of my wand, wouldn't you agree? I felt as vulnerable as a mere Muggle being trapped in a small car with her.

..

No, this is not good. I knew little slip-ups and forces of habit would come up, but not this soon. Along with some extra food, I have attached a small vial containing a stronger dose of the potion for you to slip in a drink of hers without her noticing.

Is driving a Muggle car absolutely necessary? You shouldn't need to go any other place that's not immediately around you...I don't want you wandering around.

As for your wand goes, Hermione Granger will not kill you. Even if she did regain her memory, one of the greatest drawbacks of the three of them is their inability to kill.

If anything, I'm worried that you'd be the one killing her.

..

Draco woke with a pounding in his head. He had spent the remainder of the previous day doing what he did best: nothing. He had downright ignored several doorbells and knocks from Granger; he figured he had done enough that day.

The next day, he found Granger in the lobby with a small dog on a leash. "Why do you have that animal?" he asked, looking at the pathetic little being wagging its tail and sticking its tongue excitedly.

"I just got him! I tried to show you yesterday but you must have been asleep or out. Don't you like him?"

"I'm more of a cat person," he said simply. He never fancied dogs; all they did was poop and follow you everywhere, at least cats were somewhat self-sufficient. But both animals took some sort of work, something that he hated doing.

"I've named him Ron, it's a nice name don't you think?"

He looked at her with the most cheery face he could manage, "Lovely."

He had to get that vial in her drink as quickly as possible, but her usual coffee was missing. Instead, there was a book called "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K Le Guin tucked under her arm.

He knocked that off on his mental checklist of things that were going wrong with the potion. Now she was reading a book about wizards.

He walked out of the door and across the street to the coffee shop. Hermione seemed to notice his eyes on her book because she said, "I'm reading this new book. It's really good! It was written a long time ago and is about a young wizard named Ged who-"

"Hermione," he cut her off. "You mustn't waste your time on such childish fairy tales. Wizards aren't real."

"Of course I know that," she crossed her arms, "It's just that...I think it's interesting, you know? To be different; to be magical."

"It doesn't sound too fantastic to me," he said. He looked both ways before crossing the street and opened the door to the coffee shop. A little bell tingled at their entrance. Many arm chairs and tables were dotted across the floor and people sat reading or on computers; Hermione spent much of her time there.

"I'll have tea," Draco said at the counter, "black." He wasn't fond of coffee.

"I'll have the same, but put milk in mine please," she said after him.

"No coffee?" he asked after they sat down. She usually had coffee in her hand at any moment.

"It's been...giving me nightmares," she said as she rubbed her forehead, "My head is already starting to hurt."

Draco shrugged and took a long drink of his tea. He had been expecting to enjoy it by himself this morning. Must she follow him everywhere? He glanced down at Ron. The dog's eyes were looking at him happily and one of his ears was flopped over. Draco fixed the flopped over ear, Ron's tail wagging with enthusiasm at the attention. He rolled his eyes and continued to his tea.

The rest of the day went by painfully slowly. Hermione went to the library (of course), and Draco didn't find much else to do. It wasn't until she had left that he realized he had forgotten to slip the potion into her drink.

He wandered the streets and wondered if any of the people he made eye contact with was a witch or wizard. He longed for an equal to talk to instead of the constant pretending to live in a world in which he didn't belong.

He longed for home, not the manor in specific, but just some place where he could have his wand and didn't have to pretend. It was this thought that gave him a startling realization: he didn't miss anything besides magic. He definitely didn't miss his father or the Dark Lord, he didn't find himself thinking about his mother, and he could hardly call the oafs Crabbe and Goyle his friends. The one thing he truly only longed for was magic.

He thought of what would happen if the situation were reversed and Hermione had to watch him. She would be missing lots of things: her Muggle parents, her awful friends, her brothers, and magic on top of that. For a split second, he felt envious. He wanted something to miss, something to look forward coming back to.

He shook the envious feeling off immediately. Why should he be jealous of Granger? She was nothing but a Mudblood and surely was not as rich as he with a lavish mansion and House Elves waiting on him hand and foot. But still lay that one nagging thought that pulled at his insides: he truly didn't have anyone to live for.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I know I have sucked at multi-chap stories before but I already have a few chapters written for this one and a really detailed outline this time :O. I'm so excited.

Btw, this song is based of the song 'Clarity' by Zedd and the Foxes (as seen by the title formerly 'Just a Muggle' which was incredibly stupid). I suggest you listen to the acoustic version