Chapter 2

The next day, at 4:45 Bill started putting away all his papers, except for the notes he needed for the meeting and headed towards the front door. He and Hermione agreed to meet at her flat after work which meant he could walk and enjoy the nice summer breeze.

He had made sure to wear a nice blue shirt and grey pants to work, the most dressed up he had been in a while. He had cut his ponytail off long ago and let his ear piercing close up, there was a difference between being able to dress how you wanted when you worked through the pyramids and tombs in Egypt, and sitting at a desk in the actual bank. But he still wanted to look good for Hermione.

When he finally got to her flat, Bill knocked on the door and was greeted in an equally dresses up Hermione. She was wearing a crimson dress and black high heels. Her hair was curled and hanging down her back with a section over her shoulder. She was beautiful.

"Come in!" I was just making dinner. Would you like some?"

"If you're offering,"

Hermione laughed. "Of course, I forgot you're a Weasley. You must always be hungry."

"Guilty as charged. I'm just a little bit more well-mannered than my youngest brother." He had seen Ron eat, it was like an animal devouring its prey. He took the plate of pasta from Hermione and followed her to the living room.

"I figured we could just eat while talking if that's alright?"

"This is your home you know, you make the rules." Bill laughed helping her carry the rest of their things over to the coffee table and throwing a couple of pillows on the floor to sit on. "So I was thinking for the meeting…"

They ate quickly and talked for hours after. About the meeting, about their jobs, and about the Weasley family.

"We all really did think that you and Ron would get together." Bill confided, "What ever happened to that?"

Finishing the wine in her glass, Hermione refilled it. "I have an idea, we play twenty questions."

Bill filled his glass as well, polishing off the bottle. "I'm in, but what does the wine have to do with it?"

"I want to drink while we do this, and we have wine."

"Fair enough, I still stand by my Ron question."

"We fought too much. There was nothing that really made us relatable besides that fact that we were both friends with Harry." Hermione drank, she had decided to leave out the part about kissing Ron in the chamber of secrets. "What about you and Fleur?"

Bill and the half-Veela had dated seriously for a few years but they had mysteriously broken up. "She decided to move back to France with her parents and sister. I wasn't willing to relocate because I wanted to be near my family as well, so we started to argue more and more about it and ended up just deciding that it was better to split up." Thinking for a moment Bill looked more closely at Hermione Granger. She seemed less tense than when she was in a room full of people, something Bill was sure that she didn't enjoy very much. "What was your favorite memory of Hogwarts?"

"There were so many! How can you expect me to pick just one?" The brunette shifted while she thought and tool off her heels. "There was the Yule Ball, which was a lot of fun up until the end. I was having a wonderful time and for once felt like the most beautiful girl in the room. And that included a group of Veelas."

"How could you not always feel that way?" The question had come out of Bill's mouth before he could filter it, luckily the red in his cheeks from drinking covered up most of the blush. "I mean look at you, you're brilliant and gorgeous to boot. Any bloke would be lucky to have you."

It was Hermione's turn to blush. She had always been modest in her looks, hiding behind her big curly hair and thick books. Now though, she was a grown woman and had learned how to make herself look well groomed daily. "Do you really think so?"

"I do. It's not difficult to see what kind of woman you've become, and while you were always intelligent I think you've finally found a way to see yourself as beautiful and it's making you more confident than ever. It's been showing a lot more." Bill smiled which made the scars on his cheeks wrinkle a bit.

"I think it's my question?" Hermione nodded taking another deep drink from her glass. "Are you seeing anyone right now?"

"No, I'm not. Are you?"

The pair smiled at each other, even giggled a bit at the almost childishness of their questions. "Not unless you count seeing goblins every day."

"I don't think that counts no." The joke made Hermione laugh and she was happy for it. There had been times where she didn't laugh for weeks on end, being back in a peaceful world made her happier than she could ever imagine but she still didn't laugh as often as she used to. "Do they ever hurt?"

The scars that Fenrir Greyback had left on Bill's face had made some people recoil from him at first, but eventually when the scars softened people stopped staring. There had been a war going on after all, people everywhere had scars.

"Not anymore. When it first happened they hurt any time I moved my mouth, smiling and talking became a problem. But now I barely notice. Do you have any scars?"

Not many people knew about what had happened at Malfoy Manor during the war, and Hermione had taken to wearing long sleeves whenever she could to hide it. Tonight though, she pulled her sleeve up to her elbow and leaned forward to show Bill the mark. "Bellatrix Lestrange tortured me after we had been captured. The cruciatus wasn't bad enough so she carved this into my arm as a constant reminder of what I am." Suddenly she felt very exposed and went to pull her sleeve back down.

Bill caught her hand before she could pull the fabric back down. "I didn't mean-"

"I know." Everyone had scars from the war, Hermione reminded herself every day. Not everyone was willing to share theirs with others, but others didn't have a choice. "I don't share this part of the war with many people, and I don't like the idea of knowing that others were hurt and killed, let alone myself at barely seventeen." Another swallow of wine drained Hermione's glass again. "But, I know that in having this done there were maybe tens or hundreds of people that were spared even for a little time. And that's the only thing that keeps me from being ashamed of it."

She always has been more mature for her age. The fact that she was willing to accept the fact that she had been tortured and found the silver lining made her even more amazing in his eyes. "Will you let me clean the dishes?"

"I believe that was two questions in a row Bill, that's breaking the rules or the game." Glad that she was back to joking, Bill gave her a hand to help pick her up off the floor and carried the dishes to her kitchen.

"Then you can ask me two questions, and then it'll be balanced again."

Hermione thought for a while before hoisting herself up on the counter. Bill had forbidden her from helping him since she had cooked. "What's your favorite meal?"

"My mum's beef stew. The gravy is so thick, and I love to butter some break and soak it in the stew before taking a bite."

"Do you have any tattoos?"

"These questions you're asking are making me wonder if you want me to ask you the same, Miss Granger."

"That's not an answer."

"Yes, I have a tattoo on my right shoulder blade. Mum doesn't know."

Honestly, Hermione was intrigued to see what it was of, and even more curious if Molly Weasley would be accepting of it or not.

"We will have to continue this game at a later time though, it's starting to get late and we both have work in the morning." Bill had finished the dishes and went back to the table to collect his things. "It was lovely spending time with you Hermione."

Turning the color of her dress when Bill kissed the back of her hand before leaving, Hermione stood there conflicted.

Ginny is going to kill me.