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7 - Anywhere but the Museum:
Hermione stood on the sidewalk with her sandal in her hand and a pout on her face. She said, "I really wanted to go to the museum today. This museum is world renowned for its 15th century Italian tapestries. It has the largest collection of tapestries in all of Italy, not to mention it has the largest collection of Milo Artemis paintings, as this was his birthplace."
"Yes, I know. The villa I bought once belonged to him," he said, without enthusiasm.
She pushed him hard and said, "You're joking!"
He pushed her back, laughed, and said, "No, I'm not."
"Wow," she was shaking her head, "you're so lucky. I thought you were lucky to have bought a house that had one of his paintings in it, but you bought his house!"
Draco thought to himself, 'I must not forget to give her that bloody painting,' because he had indeed forgotten.
Without another word to him, she walked over to a little shop across the street, throwing both her shoes in a trash bin before she entered. As she was entering the shop, he yelled across the street, "What are you doing?"
"I need shoes if we're going to the museum!" she yelled back.
He didn't want to go to the museum. He would have to try another tactic. He ran into the shop as she looked around at the shoes. He said, "Would you really rather go to some boring museum and see some old moth eaten tapestries, when you could spend the day with me?" Usually when he turned on the charm with women, he got his way. He wanted her to feel guilty, then feel sorry for him, and then want to make it up to him.
Instead, she said, "Why can't I do both? Don't you want to go to the museum with me?"
How dare she turn this around! She was so damn logical. He said, "I just thought it would be nice to spend a day alone, instead of with a crowd in some dusty, dark, dirty museum, but if that's what you would rather do, even though I don't want to do that, but if that's what you want, then I guess we can do that." He was trying hard. He was almost whining. He would surely get his way now.
"Thanks, Malfoy," she answered, "I'm so glad you're willing to do that for me, how very sweet." She turned back toward the shoes. Bloody hell, she was good at this, he thought. She was getting her way and he was getting nada, nothing.
She turned and saw his frown and said, "What's wrong, don't you want to be with me? If you don't want the pleasure of my company, you can go back to the hotel; my feelings won't be very hurt."
"When you put it like that, then of course I want to go," he said. Fine, let her win. He was a big enough person to bow to the master.
She went up to pay for her sandals, this time a little red pair with gemstones, and a beautiful silk printed Italian scarf. He took the scarf off the counter and said, "Let me buy this for you."
"No, I'm buying it for my mum, I thought she would like it," she said, taking it from his hands.
Draco noticed that it was very expensive. She paid for her purchases and started out the door. "Hurry, Draco, we need to get to the museum. The tour has probably already started."
He wanted to kill more time, and he wanted to buy her one of those scarves, so the two fitted perfectly together. He said, "Go on out and hail us a taxi, and I'll be right there." He picked out a yellow and red printed scarf, paid for it, and put it in his pocket.
Hermione was on the curb trying to hail a cab. As she stood there, he came up behind her and started to tie the scarf he bought around her ponytail. She tried to turn around and she said, "What are you doing?" He held the scarf out to her, and then went back to tying it her hair. She said, "That's very pretty, thank you."
"You're very pretty," he unexpectedly said.
She turned back to look at him and her mouth was parted, and her eyes wide. "What did you say?"
"I said you were pretty," he said softer this time. Was it too soon to say things like that?
"Do you really think so?" She seemed confused for some reason.
He stepped closer to her and said, "Come now, Granger, you're a grown woman who has been engaged three times, so I know you've been told you were pretty before."
She looked at the pavement, and said, "I just never thought you would think so."
He took her chin in his hand, rubbed her bottom lip with his thumb, and took one more step and kissed her slowly; she was melting under his mouth. He withdrew his lips from hers and said, "I've always thought so."
She was shaking slightly, which he didn't understand. She turned back around and tried to hail another cab. He came up beside her and said, "Do you speak Italian, because I know I don't." He was lying. He spoke fluent Italian.
"I think I can manage to get us to the museum. I know the name of it, so surely the driver will understand. I'm sure they get a lot of tourist here," she stated, as a cab finally stopped in front of them. She climbed in the back and he climbed in beside her. She leaned up to the driver and said, slowly and deliberately, "Please take us to the Museum of the Diocese."
The cab driver shook his head and said, "No understand good English."
"Museum of the Diocese," Hermione repeated, slower.
The man still shook his head. Draco said, "Listen, I lied before. I know a little Italian, so allow me." He leaned forward and in perfect Italian told the cab driver, "Please take us anywhere at all except to the Museum of the Diocese, and I will give you a large tip."
The driver nodded, smiled and said, "Yes, yes," and started the cab.
The only word Hermione understood was the name of the museum, but she said, "It sounded like you just spoke fluent Italian, Malfoy."
He wasn't used to dating smart girls like Granger. She was going to be a challenge. "I known enough of the language to order in restaurants, and to talk to cab drivers, but that's it," he said, hoping to cover for his seemingly perfect Italian.
As they started their drive he said, "So tell me about your latest engagement, who was this man, what did he do, and why did you break your engagement?"
"Umm," she said stalling. She wasn't expecting to have to talk about her personal life to Malfoy of all people. "His name was Eric, and he works at the Museum with me, which is somewhat difficult, and it ended very badly, and I don't want to say much else."
"What about the other two engagements, tell me about those?" he said, turning in the backseat to face her.
She turned as well, shocked, and said, "Why in the world do you want to know that?"
"I just do." He was being honest.
"Fine, my first engagement was to Ron, okay. I went off to school, and he went to work, and we grew apart, but we're still great friends. We were too young. My second engagement was to a man named Ian, and he was 15 years old than I, and a wonderful man, who was more into his business than me, and I was more into my work than him, and he wanted a pretty young trophy wife, and that just wasn't me."
She stopped talking and turned in her seat to look out the window. She was in a semi-bad mood now, and it was Malfoy's fault. As she looked out the window she said, "Malfoy, we're leaving town! Look out the window. This man isn't taking us to the museum!"
Draco leaned forward again, and in perfect Italian said once more, "You are doing a great job, just be sure you stay far away from the Museum of the Diocese."
"Yes, yes, Museum of the Diocese," the man repeated.
Draco turned and said, "He seems to understand, Granger. Perhaps this is a shortcut."
"Out of town?" she shouted. She leaned forward for the last time and said, "Stop the damn taxi!" The man understood that. She got out of the car and slammed the door. Both Draco and the driver got out as well. She started walking back toward the town.
The driver yelled, in broken English, "Is this not far way enough from Museum? I take you far away."
She ran back and said, "We want to go to the museum, not far away from it!"
The driver looked over at Draco and said, "English man say take far way from museum."
Hermione shouted, "Draco Malfoy!"
"I told you my Italian was poor. I thought I told him to take us to the museum," he lied. Damn her for being the smartest witch he had ever met! She glared at him. He was beginning to like it when she glared. He said, "Fine, so sue me, I wanted to spend time alone with you, alright? But, we can go to the museum now. I've learned my lesson, and I'm sorry." He gave her his best pout. She simply had to forgive him.
Maybe not. She threw money at the cab driver, then turned around again and walked over toward the side of the road, where once she was out of sight, she apparated back to the hotel. He knew that was where she would go, so he had no choice but to follow. He was cursing himself the whole time, hoping he didn't screw up too badly.
When he arrived in the lobby of their little hotel, she was sitting in a chair, looking glum, with her legs and her arms crossed. He walked up to the clerk and said, "Please order Miss Granger and me a cab to the Museum of the Diocese."
He walked back over to her and said, "Sorry, Granger. It's not too late to go to the museum still. It's almost time for lunch, so we'll pick up with them after their lunch at the café, okay?" When she said nothing, he said, "Did you hear me?"
"Yes, Malfoy, I speak fluent English," she said sarcastically.
"How upset are you?" he asked.
"How upset do I look?" she asked back.
"Frankly, I've seen you much more upset before, so I would say on a scale of one to ten, you're about a five," he mused.
"You are so observant," she said, but she couldn't help but smile.
"I know how I can make it up to you," Draco said, smiling, and grabbing her hand.
She stood and said, "How?"
"You'll see tonight, but it's good, believe me. Now, come on, the cab should be here any minute. We can wait outside for it." He started walking, but had to stop when she had yet to move a muscle. He was still holding her hand, so when she didn't move, he stopped moving.
"There's no point now. I just want to go upstairs and take a nap, and then maybe we can go have some lunch somewhere," she exclaimed, and started for the stairs.
He hadn't let go of her hand, so this time she didn't get far. "You shall not wallow in self-pity. I believe that's one of those ten commandment things," he joked.
She laughed and said, "Yes, its right between thou shall not smirk and thou shall not lie about speaking Italian, although you had no trouble breaking those two."
"In all truthfulness, I've probably broken at least seven of the real commandments," he said almost with pride.
She was racking her brain trying to remember them all, and hoped he was joking. "Have you killed anyone?" She thought that was the most important one.
"Okay, so I guess I've broken eight," he said in jest.
"Oh, Malfoy, you're so funny," she said without a trace of a laugh.
The cab arrived and he started pulling her to the door. She said, "I want to go upstairs and rest."
He was still pulling her and he said, "I want to go to the museum."
"Stop man handling me," she said, putting her free wrist on the wrist of his hand that was pulling her arm out of its socket.
"Then come on!" he urged, still pulling, this time with both his hands. They must have made for a comical sight. The cab driver was staring as Malfoy was pulling her out the front door, and the desk clerk was laughing, as he held the door open for them.
Once more with determination, he said, "Come on, Granger!" and pulled her harder.
"Stop mauling me," she laughed. She finally said, "Fine, let's go," and she stopped resisting. Now the thing about the laws of physics is this: Force always wins out. When her force stopped resisting, and his force was still forcing, the cause and effect was such that as he pulled on her arm, with no resistance this time, he promptly fell over right on his bum!
She laughed so hard. She knelt down beside him and put her hand on his shoulder to steady her body, which was racked with laughter. He was more embarrassed than he had been in a long time. He sat on the pavement, listening to the laughter and snorts of Granger, the driver, the desk clerk, and various pedestrians passing by. He figured he had three options. One, he could accept her hand, which she had just offered from her now standing position, which also meant he would probable accept her heart. Two, he could hex the whole bloody lot of them, or three, he could push her down on her bum, but that meant he would probably have to ravish her right there and then in front of the whole lot of them, and that might not look good. Therefore, the real options were one or two.
If he picked one, he would have to go to the museum. If he picked two, he would have to go to jail. He decided to pick option one. He took a hold of her offered hand, stood up with her help and said, "Let's go to the blasted museum now, shall we?" He brushed off his pants. She stood behind him and brushed him off as well. He turned as she was touching his bum and said, "Fresh" and hit her hand.
She took his hand that just slapped hers and said, "Who wants to see a bunch of moss eaten tapestries, anyway. Take me out to lunch, Malfoy." He smiled and opened the door to the cab. They were going to go to lunch instead of the museum. See, Draco Malfoy always got his way.
Coming up: Sing for your Supper
