A/N: Guess what! Finally some Dramione action in this chapter! Some true interaction in a non official setting! I hope y'all enjoy this chapter. I truly enjoyed writing it. From here on out, the story really picks up and gets to where I envisioned it.

XoXo,

Elle!

Chapter 7

Late July had slipped into August and now it was nearing September. As Hermione and Ron walked along Diagon Alley hand in hand, she could see a few families doing some last minute shopping before school started the next week. "Don't you miss it, Ron? Going off to Hogwarts?" She looked up at her boyfriend with a smile, watching as his face wrinkled.

"Bloody hell, no. You know I only passed because of you. I like where I am now just fine. Being an Auror is the best."

Hermione had laughed. She had, of course, known his answer all along. She was the only one out of the three of them that had returned to Hogwarts after the war. In fact, McGonagall still wrote to her, in hopes that she would come and be a professor. But she loved her job in the Ministry.

She was pulled from her thoughts when Ron tugged her off course. She looked up and laughed. He was headed for Quality Quidditch Supplies. "You do realize, that if you drag me in there. I will drag you into Flourish and Blotts." He just waved her off with a roll of his eyes. She laughed again and followed him into the store. He was worse than a kid in a candy shop, his eyes alight with a joy that was near indescribable.

Hermione couldn't help but roll her eyes as he let go of her hand to look at the newest broom. She just stood next to him, staring out of the window at the street beyond. Off in the distance, a head of blonde hair caught her attention. She watched as Draco ducked into Flourish and Blotts. Their Domestic Abuse Decree had been passed without any problems. The Wizengamot had even expanded on their child abuse laws, much to their excitement.

She glanced at Ron, who was still engrossed in ogling that racing broom. "Ron, I'm going to Flourish and Blotts. Come find me when you're done drooling." She didn't wait for a response, she knew she wouldn't receive an intelligent one anyway.

Finally leaving the Quidditch store behind, Hermione breathed in the fresh air before heading to her favorite store in Diagon Alley. Once inside, she inhaled again, filling her lungs with the scent of books old and new. She wound her way through the stacks, fingers trailing along the spines. She wasn't looking for anything in particular, but pulled out a copy of Hogwarts: A History. Her old favorite.

This copy was a more recent edition; what she wouldn't give to get her hands on a first edition.

"Just how many copies of that book do you have, Granger?"

Hermione screamed, whirling around and using the heavy book as a defensive object, hitting Malfoy in the arm with it. "Draco Malfoy! What in the bloody hell did you do that for? It's not nice to sneak up on people like that!"

"Ow! Fuck, Granger! That book is like a brick! That shite fucking hurts!" Draco whined, rubbing his arm through his suit jacket.

"Well you deserved it, arsehole." Hermione huffed, brushing her hair behind her ear as she returned the book to its rightful place.

"Right, I am sorry, Granger. Truly." His whole demeanor changed when he apologized, he stopped rubbing his arm and his normal, haughty expression was gone.

It took Hermione aback for a moment, but she recovered quickly and smiled at him. "I accept your apology, Malfoy. So, how is life lately?"

Malfoy shrugged with a grin, "Life is life, Granger. Just running my company, not much more than that. Oh, and appeasing my mother's every whim. Now she is wanting to run off to Paris for a week." Malfoy chuckled and Hermione smiled.

"Well, Paris is very beautiful. At least, muggle Paris is. I've never been to wizarding Paris. Are you going to take her?"

"Of course I am. Happy mum, happy life. Isn't that what the saying is? Or not." Draco laughed, truly laughed. The sound gave Hermione chills. In all the years they had known each other, she had never heard him laugh.

"Will Elle be joining the two of you?" Last Hermione had heard, they were still dating—though that had been a couple of weeks ago.

Malfoy rubbed the back of his neck, looking extremely awkward at the question posed to him, "Ah, we actually broke things off last week. It was just really difficult to keep up such a long distance relationship. Not that the traveling was the problem. Especially not with the Floo Network. But with the five-hour time difference, it was hard for either of us to meet up at an appropriate time.

"It was either too early for her, or too late for me. Or it was interfering with our jobs. So, she and I just decided that remaining friends and business associates would be for the best." Hermione nodded, seeing the sense and logic behind that. Also, it felt as if a curious weight had been lifted from her body.

"I am deeply sorry to hear that, Malfoy. I thought you both had great chemistry." She was lying through near gritted teeth, but she didn't think he could tell.

"So how are things with the Weaselbee?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Malfoy, grow up. Things have been going remarkably well. We are really enjoying getting to know one another."

At that statement, Malfoy raised his brows. "Getting to know one another? You two and Potter were attached at the hip all throughout our school years. I'd say you know each other pretty well, wouldn't you?"

Hermione scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "I don't see why it matters to you. But if you must know, we haven't had much time to spend with each other over the last few years. And we have all changed after the war. So we are reacquainting ourselves with one another."

XxX

Draco truly tried not to look at Granger's chest when she crossed her arms. But the view was just too tempting. His eyes flicked down quickly, but then just as quickly, they were back on hers. What she was saying made sense, they had all changed since the war had ended, himself included. He supposed it made sense that you would have to reacquaint yourself with your friend after spending time apart.

"Okay, okay, I surrender, Granger. You win."

Granger smiled up at him, her eyes crinkled at the corners when she did that. It was kind of adorable. "Smart wizard, Mr. Malfoy."

He smirked at her, "Well, if I remember correctly, I was the smartest wizard in our year. That has to count for something."

Draco leaned against a shelf, grinning down at the witch before him. She had started to shake her head, a wide grin on her own face. "You always were a cocky twit. Nice to see that hasn't changed."

"Well, one can't change their ways completely, Granger. Some things have to stick. You are still a know-it-all swot after all."

Granger's jaw dropped at his words, but there was a grin behind the shock as she reached her hand forward and smacked his bicep yet again. "Prick." Draco opened his mouth to utter a retort when he was cut off.

"'Mione? Why are you talking to that ferret? Is he bothering you?" Draco rolled his eyes as the Weasel showed up.

Granger drew in a deep breath, releasing it slowly before answering her boyfriend, "No, Ronald, he wasn't bothering me. We were having a civil conversation, like two normal adults."

Ron turned his eyes away from Draco finally, to look at Granger. "What are you saying? That I can't hold an adult conversation? That I can't be civil?" Draco could see the Weasel's temper rising and he could tell this wasn't going to be good.

"No, Ron. That is not what I was saying. You are perfectly capable of holding a civil conversation, with anyone other than that man right there." At this, she pointed at Draco and he actually wanted to shrink in on himself. If there was anything he had learned in the time after third year and the war, you did not want to be on the other side of Hermione's wrath.

"That's because he's a tool and a menace and he tortured us all throughout our years at Hogwarts! Before he found his guilty conscience and realized he was on the wrong side of the war and chose to help! He's no better than that no-good father of his. Serves him right that a Weasley was the one to take him out."

Weaselbee's ears were now as red as his hair, but Granger's hair was starting to frizz and crackle with magic. Draco would have come to his own defense, but Granger beat him to it. Smart man that Draco was, he took a couple of steps farther away. But that distance did nothing to distract him from the fact that he found Granger extremely fucking hot at the moment.

XxX

Ron had just gone one step too far, but he hadn't seemed to notice it. Hermione could feel her hair crackling with her magic as she stepped closer to Ron, her finger poking into his chest. "You listen to me, Ronald Weasley. You are going to apologize to Draco right here and now. Then you are going to go home to your flat and think about your actions. I will contact you when I am good and bloody well ready and no longer pissed off at you. But I also want you to think about this, and I will be writing it down for you. A great man from America, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., once said, 'The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.'"

At this point, Hermione crossed her arms, her eyes boring into Ron. She could tell when his anger turned into embarrassment, the red in his ears deepened to more of a purple. "Mione, I, uh, I don't think…" But the glare that she shot him had him shutting his mouth. Then he turned to Malfoy, his head ducked mumbling quietly. "I'm sorry, Malfoy."

XxX

Draco listened to Ron's mumbled apology, a snarky reply on the tip of his tongue to spit towards the Weasel. But yet again, Hermione beat him to it, "Excuse me? I didn't hear you, Ronald. Or, actually, I did. But if you call that an apology, I think you are very sadly mistaken. Try again." Ron's eyes snapped up to glare at Granger. He had apparently expected that kind of remark from Draco, not his girlfriend.

Draco cleared his throat, "Hermione, it's fine, really." He put his hand on her shoulder, and when she looked at him, he nodded at her.

She took a deep breath and seemed to deflate with its release. "Goodbye, Ronald. I'll see you tomorrow." Ron left without saying another word, his shoulders slumped in dejection. Draco let his hand slide free of Granger's shoulder.

She gave him a sad smile as she looked up at him, "I am sorry about him, Draco. He can be so childish still. I think it stems from him being one of the youngest in his family." Draco still couldn't deny the thrill he got every time he heard her say his first name. While it only seemed to come out in times of great emotion, he cherished it every time.

On the opposite side of that, he also got a thrill from saying hers. He wondered if she hated the pet name that the Weasel had given her, because he sure as hell did. What the hell kind of nickname was 'Mione anyway? It was like the arse was too lazy to say her full name and it was a beautiful name. Mentally shaking himself, he reasserted himself into the conversation, "I can understand that, though. I am an only child of a pureblood family. I was raised to be a selfish, prejudiced, judgmental arse."

Hermione chuckled quietly as she ran her fingers along the spine of a book. "I suppose you are right, of course. But he was still way out of line. Especially what he said about your father." She looked at him, her eyes sad and remorseful as if she had said the words herself.

"Hermione, believe me when I say, I am glad my father is gone. While the Weas—while Weasley may have been out of line, he was right.

"Lucius deserved to be taken down by someone he deemed below him. Even though that someone was also of the same blood status. Arthur Weasley represents everything that my no-good father could never have been. He was an over-bearing, manipulative and abusive arsehole. With him gone, I have never felt more free in my life. My mother no longer cowers in fear. We are finally free."

Draco watched as a tear escaped Hermione's eye and slid down her cheek. He couldn't have stopped himself even if he wanted to—his arm extended as he leaned forward and wiped the tear from her cheek. He rubbed it away between his thumb and forefinger, looking down into her eyes. "Please don't cry for me. I'd hate to have you ruin my good handkerchief."

She laughed then and that was what he had been aiming for. He stepped away from her, trying to control his rapid heart rate. "You are such an arse, Malfoy." She crossed her arms again and sighed softly. "I think it is time that I go home. Crookshanks is probably getting hungry anyway."

"That old bag of fur is still alive?" Draco asked, fully bracing himself for the backhanded smack to his abdomen that he saw coming.

"Draco Malfoy! Don't you dare talk about my cat like that!"

He laughed loudly, the sound echoing in the aisle they were in. "My apologies, Granger. I am so glad that he is still living. Shall I walk you out?" She laughed with him and nodded, walking ahead of him.

"Yes, he is still living. And doing quite well." Hermione reached the door, but Draco beat her to the handle, pulling it open for her, his hand hovering just over her lower back.

"I'm surprised, to be honest, that a half-kneazle has lived so long." Once they were outside, they stood facing each other a bit awkwardly.

"Well, goodbye, Draco!" She lifted up on her tiptoes and placed a kiss on his cheek, then she turned on her heel and Disapparated right before his very eyes.

Draco was left staring at the spot she had occupied, a tingling sensation where her lips had touched his skin. "Goodbye, Hermione."

A/N: I really do hope that you enjoyed the chapter! Please leave me a review and let me know what you thought. Much love!

XoXo,

Elle!