"Granger!" he exclaimed, looking round desperately to see if he could pretend he wasn't there.

Hermione felt her hand hand slide to her pocket where her wand was. This was Draco Malfoy, a Death Eater, he must be here to harm some poor, innocent muggles for sport to awaken him after his long time away from action. For Godrics sake why else would he be in a muggle bookshop?

Malfoy's gaze slid down to her hand and a scowl passed over his face,

"Is that really the first thing you think to do? You Gryfindors are all the same."

"Well why else would you be in a muggle bookshop? You're a slytherin, you're not going to be going to book club!" she heard herself snapping.

"Shh!" hissed the little, old ladies in the coffee shop, clearly thinking that these unruly young people should be sent away from any place where they had to be quiet.

Hermione mentioned to Malfoy to step outside with her. He glowered at her and folded her arms, evidently unwilling to do anything she asked, even if it was the sensible course of action. She raised her eyebrows and turned on her heel, walking out the door. Not long after walking out the shop she heard his heavy footsteps behind her and she turned and stopped.

"So?" she asked.

"So what?" he replied, obviously he was going to be difficult about it, he was Draco Malfoy when was he not difficult and irritating and obnoxious. A thousand insults flashed through her mind but she refrained from saying any of them. For now anyway.

"If you don't want me to jump to conclusions then you're going to have to talk to me. I'm you're ministry spokesperson, if I wanted to I could get your wand taken away again. And don't doubt it Malfoy, if I think you're harming innocent people I will do that without flinching."

"Oohhh, Grangers getting feisty. For once I'm telling the truth when I say that I was not planning to kill anyone." he said with a smirk.

"If you weren't there for those reasons then why were you there? Are you seriously going to expect me to believe that you were enjoying the literature?" she said.

"I don't care if you believe me or not actually. But for your information I got bored last year and my mother used to love muggle literature. It's surprising how many books you can get through when you have nothing else to do. Besides, are you really going to judge me for reading muggle books. Because that would be a serious case of pot calling kettle black"

She found herself smiling despite her determination not to.

"No, I'm not. But I am surprised by you. Draco Malfoy, the great reader. Who would've thought it?" "If you tell anyone I will kill you. And as you know I can do that without flinching." he replied with a small smile.

"I won't. Yet. But I want you to remember that the next time I want you to do something." she said laughing.

He was caught and the cunning Slytherin knew it.

"Well, I might as well owe two favours rather than one. I need something. Not for me, for my mother..." he said slowly.

She looked at him, surprised at the sudden change of tone.

"What?" she asked.

"Mother hasn't been the same since the war. She needs something to do, to get her out of the house. I was wondering if you could get her a job somewhere gardening or organising parties or something?"

"Gardening? Since when did your mother like gardening?" Hermione asked surprised once more.

"Since my father died. I think she likes the whole the plant dies in winter but with the right care it can grow back in summer thing."

She looked at him and saw the emotion in his face. She had known that his father was dead of course, but had never really thought about how that had affected him.

"Don't worry about the second favour. I'll do it for her anyway."

He looked up and met her gaze. She had never really noticed the colour of his eyes before, they were grey like a stormy cloud and there was a world of emotions, grief and loss being the foremost of them.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because if I ever lost a parent then I don't know how I would go on."

They stared at each other for a few moments more that could have been eternity or it could have been seconds, time seemed to stop and speed up all at once. She broke the stare, embarrassed, choking something about needing to get to work, she fled leaving a very confused Malfoy behind.