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Downstairs, Hermione was greeting her final prospective housemate for the day. He had introduced himself as Blaise, an odd name in Hermione's opinion, but she couldn't talk as her name wasn't exactly common either.

They took the elevator up to the fourth floor in silence. Hermione was beyond caring about making idle chit-chat and the man made no move to interact with her. He was of a tall build and solid looking, most likely around her age if she was to take a guess. When they stepped out of the elevator, she gestured with her hand as she had done with all the housemates. "This is the fourth floor where my apartment is. The door down there belongs to an elderly couple. They are lovely people."

She twisted the door knob and opened the door- she hadn't bothered locking it this time as Draco was still in the apartment. Something niggled at her about that, but she decided to think more on it later.

They stepped through the door and she called out to Draco to see where he was. "Draco?"

With no warning of his approach on the hardwood flooring, his head popped around the corner that was the laundry. "Yes?"

Hermione gave him a wide smile. "Just checking where you are. I'm about to show Blaise-" she gestured to the man standing silently behind her "-the tour of the house. You're welcome to stay for the stuff I missed with you."

Draco was staring at the man behind her with a look she couldn't decipher. "Right," he slowly drawled. "Well, I've already had a look around everywhere except the kitchen, so you carry on and I'll let you know when I'm done."

Hermione raised an eyebrow at the lack of eye contact. From her point, it looked like he was sizing the man behind her up, which was ridiculous as Blaise had at least double the muscle package that he did.

Men, Hermione thought with a roll of her eyes.

Blaise shifted behind her and spoke for the first time since introducing himself. "Draco," he said dismissively, before touching her arm. "Shall we look around? I have somewhere else to be shortly."

Hermione turned to face the man and smiled. "Sure. Well, this is the living room. I am happy for you to use it if you do not bring your own television," she recited, having done this speech all day.

She gestured for him to follow her and she showed him the room, the bathroom and the laundry. They passed Draco looking into kitchen cupboards and inspecting the various appliances on the bench. It was when they were standing by the big double glass doors looking at the view when Draco finally announced his departure. "Well, thanks for today Hermione," he said as he came to stand by her side. Blaise was watching them from his spot on her other side.

"It was no problem. I am not sure when I will be in contact, as I have had a lot of interest today."

Draco nodded his head in understanding, before shooting a hard look at Blaise which Hermione missed.

Despite his protests that she didn't need to leave just to walk him out, Hermione insisted on seeing Draco to the elevator. They stood in awkward silence while the elevator made its way down from the seventh floor, and Draco stepped into the square box when the doors dinged open. She was in the process of opening her mouth to say goodbye when he stepped forward and threw his arm over the door effectively blocking it.

"You'll be OK with that Blaise guy in there?" he asked with an intense expression on his face.

Hermione cocked her head to the side and raised an eyebrow at the concern in his voice but she reassured him that she would be fine- she had men coming to her house all day, so one more wouldn't hurt after all.

"He looks like he wants to eat you Hermione."

Snorting at the absurdity of his words, Hermione just shook her head and laughed. "I'm a big girl Draco," she said as she flicked the arm that was holding the elevator doors open. "Really, I'll be fine. You get back to base safely though, yeah?"

She sighed in relief when the elevators finally closed behind him. For such a young man, he had seemed worried about Blaise's presence.

When she walked back into her apartment, the tall man was pulling his hand away from looking at a figurine on her bookshelf. She smiled at him as she asked, "Well, if that's all?"

Blaise nodded, and started to walk towards where she stood by the door. His question of "So when will I be able to move in?" however startled her from continuing further out towards the elevator.

A bit pretentious expecting to move in, she thought to herself as she moved her legs again, speaking over her shoulder. "Well as I told Draco, I am not sure when I will be back in contact with people. I am quite busy at work, but I expect it to be by Friday."

Blaise nodded his head and the two stood by the elevator waiting for it to open. The man was staring at her the whole time much to her discomfort, and she let off a muted sigh of relief when the elevator doors finally arrived and he stepped in. With a wave, she hurried back to her apartment for a much needed drink as soon as the elevator doors closed.

So maybe she had missed the looks that Draco had seen that had promoted the eating comment, but those looks he has been giving her at the end creeped her out!

"Whose smart idea was this housemate thing again?" She murmured out loud as she crossed to the kitchen and filled the kettle with water. Crookshanks- who had been mysteriously missing while Blaise had been looking around- came out from his hiding spot and twined around her legs purring loudly.

After setting some cat food in a bowl for him, she made her way to the couch with her cup of tea. Setting the mug down on the side table, she picked up a notepad and pen and began listing the pros and cons of the people she had met today right under the list she had written about the housemate idea.


"So who are you going for?" Pansy asked down the phone.

Pansy had called right on six o'clock that night and had demanded that Hermione tell her everything. Hermione had spent the past five minutes recounting to her friend the horrors of her day.

"Well, there's no way I'm having children in this place. So those two men are definitely out!" she declared with a shudder.

Pansy laughed. "What about the girls?"

Hermione pursed her lips in disgust. "No way am I having that Astoria girl. Dear lord she was a total airhead! And Millicent would have been ok, except she had a partner who she expected could stay over. Don't people think about courtesy these days?" She grumbled, still annoyed that Millicent had just assumed her partner was entitled to stay over.

"Huh, we didn't think to put that in the ad did we?"

Hermione smirked. "I still managed to attract hot guys, that's for sure. The girls will be so proud."

Pansy gasped in excitement. "Spill!"

"The last two guys who came were gorgeous. Although one was probably still a teenager, so he's jailbait, but the last one was...phew!"

"OK, what!?" Pansy all but shrieked.

From her spot on the couch Hermione winced as she withdrew the phone from her ear. "They're just guys Pansy. And I'm not stupid enough to sleep with a housemate, so don't even think about telling me to choose the sexiest one."

Pansy remained silent for a few beats before demanding more information on the 'phew' guy.

"Really Pans? We're a bit too old for that aren't we?"

"Oh pish posh," she said. "A girl is never too old to daydream about a man she doesn't have to wake up next to every morning."

"Come on," Hermione laughed down the phone. "Theo's not that old. Well, if you get rid of the beer belly, the hairy chest and the old man beard," she giggled.

Pansy's outraged voice shrieked "My husband is not fat or hairy!" much to Hermione's amusement, and the two woman spent the rest of the conversation talking about Theo's desire to grow a mustache for Movember.

After the two women had hung up, Hermione relaxed back into her chair and channel surfed, finally settling on a Jackie Chan movie to fill the silence. The events of the day had exhausted her, and she was in the process of dozing off when she was startled by her door buzzer going off. Looking at her wrist watch wondering who on earth it was, Hermione noticed it was only half past seven. With a sigh, she pretended she was not there, but the person downstairs seemed persistent on pressing the button.

The voice coming from the box caught her attention however, and she soon found herself down in the foyer opening the glass doors to a sheepish looking Draco.

"Hey, er, sorry about the lateness," he apologized for the third time, having already said he was sorry twice over the intercom less than two minutes before.

Hermione shrugged and leant against the door waiting for him to disclose his reason for turning up at her apartment block. She hoped it wasn't a "Oh good, you're still alive" visit. That would really annoy her.

"I think I left my phone upstairs," he said to her while rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "I didn't have your number, so I couldn't call before I came."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you call your own phone?" she asked, deadpan.

Draco froze for the briefest moment and it would have gone unnoticeable except for the fact that Hermione was well trained in identifying body language. "The phone got wet when I was walking here earlier this afternoon," he responded with a blank face.

Too blank, Hermione thought to herself as she surveyed him. He was lying to her, she knew it but she didn't question it as she stood back and allowed him to enter the foyer. He led the way to the staircase, and with a smirk, challenged her to a race to the fourth floor.

Hermione rolled her eyes at the childish antics, but agreed. The two set off up the stairs with Hermione hopelessly lagging behind as Draco used his strength to propel his legs faster than her.

He was leaning against the fire escape door inspecting his nails when she finally made it up the stairs. She childishly stuck her tongue out as he flexed his arm muscles and made a show of stretching. Brushing past him, she led the way to her apartment door. "Do you know where you left it?" she asked as they stepped into the room.

Draco shrugged. "It could be anywhere actually."

Hermione trailed behind him as he backtracked their previous steps in silence. Unable to quell her burning curiosity, she asked him "Have you met Blaise before?"

Draco paused at the entrance to the kitchen and turned to face her with a neutral expression. "No, why?"

Hermione raised her eyebrows and gave him a look that said 'You're not fooling me'.

Draco sighed and leant against the kitchen bench. "Honestly? I didn't like the way he was looking at you. Women like you deserve better than to be leered at."

Speechless, she stood staring at Draco in shock before he rolled his eyes and muttered, "Fucking hell, real smooth Malfoy."

"Who's Malfoy?" she asked stupidly, her prior shock being obliterated by the weird word.

Draco looked at her like she was stupid. Maybe she was, Hermione couldn't tell anymore. "My last name," was all he said as he began pulling drawers open still looking for his phone.

"Oh," she murmured as she watched him looking under the sink. Really, why would be put his phone under a sink? Why would he even look under the sink anyway?

"Damn!" Draco cursed out loud. His face was beginning to sweat and he was running his tongue over his lips in agitation.

"Still not found it?" she queried as he stalked past her and made his way back to the living room.

She took his "Useless piece of shit" as an answer of no.

Now it was her turn to lean against the kitchen entrance and watch him look around her living room pulling all sorts of things from their spots to find the phone. Really, how could he have dropped his phone behind her bookcase?

Suddenly, Draco stood up and looked at her hard. "Can I be honest with you?"

Not knowing what to say, Hermione just shrugged and said, "Um, sure."

"I really want you to choose me as your housemate."

What was it with this man and leaving her speechless?! Hermione stared at him in- surprise surprise- shock after he said those words.

"I'm happy to pay more for the room if you want more money. And I can cook really well," he rushed, not giving her time to recover. "I'm clean and your cat likes me. And we seem to get along all right."

Hermione just stared at him. She had not liked it when Blaise had assumed he was able to move in, but somehow the way that Draco said it, it didn't seem so obnoxious.

She sighed as she made her way over to her couch. She gestured for Draco to sit down next to her before speaking. "Draco. I've had a long day. I've already had that Blaise guy ask when he can move in, and I don't need to hear it from you too." Draco scowled at the mention of Blaise's name, but she ignored it. "It's been a long time since I last lived with someone. I need to know I am making the right decision for me when I ask someone to move in."

Draco nodded his head in understanding and began to rise from the seat. "Yea sure. It's your decision in the end. Just trying to sell myself," Draco said with a wink, his mood having shifted dramatically from the almost desperation she witnessed before.

Hermione smiled and stood also. "Well, if I find your phone, I'll be sure to let you know." With a frown she stopped talking for a beat before picking up the note pad and pen next to her. Flicking to a new page, she held it out to him. "Write another number I can contact you on, since I'd have your phone."

Draco smirked and jotted down some numbers. "Well, how else are you going to let me know when to move in."

Rolling her eyes and scoffing at his cocky statement, Hermione shooed the grinning man out of her apartment.

There was one thing to say about this Draco Malfoy, and that was that he would keep her life interesting!


Next update next week :)

Any thoughts on who she'll choose?

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