Disclaimer: I am pretty sure JKR would never write anything like this about Hermione, so therefore I am not her, hence I don't own anything but this crazy plot.

Draco had dropped off a book every day that week, every book chosen with care and the thought of what he suspected where her tastes in mind. He may not know who she was now, but he remembered enough about her from their school days that he felt confident that his books would not go unappreciated; and he was right.

He did not allow himself to get too near her, not wanting to take risk that he would not be able to control himself once her scent permeated the air, but he did walk down her street every day and through a very simple spell was able to see her through her window curled up on her couch reading the book that he had dropped off that morning. It would bring a smile to his lips to watch as she would stare down at one of his books with such intensity. Her fingers absentmindedly twirling her hair, her lips curled up into a half smile of concentration. He studied every expression that she would make from curiosity, to joy, to sadness, and of course rapt interest.

Draco went to her place the same time as always, holding a brown package in his hands, he knocked lightly on the door. The door opened before he even got a chance to finish his third rap; she had been obviously waiting for his knock. Granger stood there curiously eyeing the package he was holding.

He hadn't planned on seeing her again this soon and had no idea what he was going to do now, so instead of following his head and turning around to leave as he had every day before that, he decided to stay.

"Er…can I come in?" She stood aside to let him enter her flat as her eyes trailed his every movement. Draco placed the package on one of her end tables and as soon as it was out of his hands she rushed forward and tore at the paper.

Draco watched on, pleased with her reaction of covetous rapture. It was the best book yet; a first edition, hand painted, leather bound copy of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. He smirked as he watched her run her fingers along the cover, opening the book to the first page and taking in the aroma of the old paper. She seemed to have forgotten that he was standing there because she then proceeded to her normal spot on the couch and started reading.

"Ahem," Draco cleared his throat.

Granger looked up at him, obviously startled to see that he was still in her flat. Her eyes narrowed, "Can I help you?"

After seeing her reaction to his gift he had expected a little more civility from her and wasn't sure how to respond at first. After a couple of moments he finally said, "…a 'thanks' would be nice."

"Oh, yeah, thanks then," she flipped her hand lightly in the air she turned her attention back to the book. Draco, not one to be deterred, went and sat down on the other end of the couch. Granger still did not look up at him, he used this time to soak in her beauty, taking in the tiniest gesture and filing it away for when he found himself without her. His eyes followed her legs, which were curled up underneath her as she leaned on the side of the couch, down to her tiny feet.

After battling with himself he moved his hand gently towards her little toes and started to trail his hand up her feet. The feel of her skin after all of those days apart was wonderful, it was like touching silk after years of only touching wool. He was so engrossed in his hand moving across her skin that it took him a while to notice that she was now staring at him.

Their eyes met and his heart rate soared. It took all of his self possession not to take her right then, especially after she wet her lips slowly with her tongue. He had to readjust his robes slightly to try and hide the growing bulge in his pants and turned his eyes away to focus instead on her growing book collection that ran along the top of her mantel.

"Can I help you?" This time when she said it, it sounded like an invitation. Draco gulped and removed his hand from her foot and grabbed on tightly to his other hand. Staring straight ahead at the mantel in front of him he gathered his thoughts.

"I thought that maybe we should talk."

He dared a glance in her direction and saw that she wore a curious expression, replacing the desire that he had seen just moments before.

"You want to talk? Why?"

Why? He hadn't really thought this through. Why did he want to talk? Because he wanted to get to know her. He couldn't very well say that. She wouldn't believe him anyway, hell he could barely believe it himself.

"I…I wanted to know what you thought about my gifts." Not quite what he wanted to say but maybe it would help to break the ice.

Her eyes glazed over as she looked over to her mantle, "they're great." She shook her head slightly and the glazed look disappeared.

"Yeah?" Draco couldn't hide the insecurity from his voice.

She looked back towards him and nodded her head slowly, "yeah," she said so quietly that Draco wasn't sure if he heard her correctly or if it was just a sigh.

He tried to think of something else to say, anything to break the tension, but words wouldn't come. Thankfully he was saved the task when Granger began the conversation again.

"Where did you get them?" She was genuinely curious and her eyes shone with a gleam of interest. Draco explained all of the different places that he had gone to get the books, and Granger listened with rapt attention. She seemed especially interested in his story of how he was able to attain the Jane Austen novel.

He regaled her of the tale of the muggle book store owner that he had had to deal with when obtaining that specific book; the man had been loath to part with that particular copy, but after a round at the pub and a rousing game of scrabble, in which Draco had to try not to use any wizarding words, he was able to get the book at a ridiculously high price.

She never cracked a smile, but he could see the laughter hiding behind her chocolate eyes. She even made a few comments here and there which emboldened him to add a few erroneous details to his story, just to entertain and try and get her to speak more. Their conversation was stilted and he could tell that she was wary of his intentions, but he plowed on, trying to make her feel as much at ease speaking with him as she was in sleeping with him.

They didn't talk for long, twenty maybe thirty minutes at the most, but she hadn't thrown him out, in fact he was the one to end their pleasantries and leave. He wouldn't have been able to last much longer without taking it too far and also Draco knew that he would not be able to bombard her with his presence all in one day, that this process to open her up would take time, time which he was more than willing to give, even if it caused him a bit of minor torture to himself. It had been a struggle to not grab her and kiss her, but he was proud of himself and left her flat with a huge grin on his face.

It had been the oddest day; she was so excited by her new book that she had forgotten about his presence entirely. It was the best gift he could have given. That it had been Malfoy bringing her those gifts she had no doubt, who else could afford such costly presents. She figured that she could just catch him in the act of dropping off her gift, just to prove her suspicions correct, and then he would want to leave as he had done all of those other days.

When he stayed and then didn't try to sleep with her she was intrigued by what he could have possibly wanted. She assumed the gifts were his way of trying to get back in her good graces so that he could get back into her bed, or in their case, anything other than the bed, but she had made her desire obvious and he had turned away from it, wanting to 'talk' instead.

Hermione hadn't had a real conversation in a while, sure she play acted at work with people, but they only ever spoke about work, and Hermione would cut those conversations as short as she could. This was different, even though it was not a deep conversation it was interesting, and she delighted in his tale of the muggle book store owner, shocked that he would ever deign to ever enter such a place, and for her.
Then he was gone, and he left her with a strange desire to talk with him again.

He stomped the door with his foot as the cardboard tray, held precariously in his left hand, wobbled. She hadn't been waiting by the door this time, and he was finally greeted with the sight of her, not in her sweats, but a proper outfit. Draco lifted his arms in offering.

"Breakfast?"

She opened the door wider to allow him entrance and he went straight for the kitchen table. After putting down the tray of drinks and the rather cumbersome brown paper bag that he had been holding, Draco sat down.

Hermione, who had followed him into the kitchen gave the tray of drinks a curious stare. Before letting her ask the question that he saw in her eyes, Draco said, "I didn't know what you fancied, so I got an assortment." She peeked over at the tray of drinks, trying to decipher through their lids what could be inside.

"That ones regular coffee, that one's decaff, the one back there is tea, and the last one is orange juice."

"And in the bag?"

"Ah yes, the bag," he shot her his sexiest smirk, "that is the best part."

She reached for the bag, but Draco grabbed her by the wrist before she could take a peek.
"Uh-uh. Not yet. Choose your drink of choice first." She took only a moment to decide on the regular coffee. "Sit." Draco ordered and surprisingly she obeyed.

He put his hand in the bag and brought out a rather large muffin. It was as big as a dinner plate, with crumbles of brown sugar on top. Hermione eyed the muffin with part incredulity and part scorn. She had obviously been expecting something else.

"Just taste it." Again she obeyed and with her thumb and pointer finger pinched a bit off of the top of the muffin. Draco watched her as she closed her eyes, taking in the taste of the treat. She chewed slowly, savoring every bite, and moaning in pure delight at the taste of it.

At the sound of her moan Draco felt a shiver of desire creep up his spine and he gripped the back of the chair, knuckles turning white. "I take it you like it then?" He managed to choke out.

Her eyes fluttered open and he could see his own desire mirrored in them. Draco quickly looked away.

"Where did you get it?"

"A pastry shop near where I used to live."

"And where was that?"

"In a muggle part of London , by Kings Cross."

She started to laugh, but because she had just put another piece of muffin in her mouth, she ended up choking instead. She coughed, laughed, and coughed some more. Her face was turning red, but Draco couldn't tell if it was from the coughing or the laughing. He moved his chair closer and patted her back while Hermione tried to collect herself.

Finally she was able to get out, "You lived in a muggle part of London ?"

"Well I wasn't allowed to do magic, and was ousted from the wizarding community as you should know"

"No actually, I don't, why?"

"Yes, you do. Potter was there, at the trial. He testified against me."

Realization dawned on her face, "Oh, yes, the trial. Sorry I guess I forgot." She shrugged.

"Nice for you isn't it?"

"Well I had other things going on Malfoy, and you were the last on my list of concerns."
Ouch. He drew back at her barb. Draco didn't know why it hurt him so much, it wasn't like they were on friendly terms then, but it stung just the same.

"Harry didn't testify against you, you know."

"I was there Granger, I heard what he told them."

"You mean the truth. What was he supposed to do lie for you? Really? He went hoping that his testimony would help you, and it did."

"Oh, yeah, it helped me loads. I got five years of no magic, I got ostracized by the entire wizarding community. Great guy that Potter."

"Well they were talking about throwing you straight into Azkaban. You had the mark, Harry was the one to tell them about how you didn't want to recognize us at the manor and how you tried to stop Crabbe from killing us. They weren't even going to give you a trial until Harry made them."

Draco bit his tongue, he couldn't believe it. Potter had gone to bat for him? He had long ago gotten over his childhood hatred for the Boy-Who-Lived, but deep down resentment had still festered. Now he didn't know what to think. Was Potter really so good that he would have tried to help him, Draco Malfoy, the boy who tormented him throughout school? It was beyond any reasoning that Draco could understand, him being a selfish being most of his life. He was broken from his reverie by Grangers voice.

"So, how did you like being a muggle?"

"It was bloody awful at first," and he thought hard about his next words before speaking them, "but then I met someone and it got better."

"You met someone?"

Draco's countenance darkened, he hadn't really talked about her, not since the break-up, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to start now. Granger brushed her fingers along the top of his and he realized that if he wanted her to open up then he would have to as well.

"Yes, her name was Sarah, she was of course a muggle."

"So what happened?" She pulled her hand away to take another bite of the muffin.

"We broke it off."

She rolled her eyes, "well obviously, but why?"

Draco ran his fingers through his hair and his eyes blurred out of focus, "because she cheated on me."

There was a small smile on her face that began to infuriate him; Granger thought his pain was funny. What was he thinking? Hermione Granger would never be able to care for him. A weeks worth of gifts was not going to change that. Instead of feeling the despair that he knew would come with this realization, Draco turned to anger.

"That's funny to you is it?" He snapped at her. It was the meanest he had been to her since they had re met again in the pub.

The smile that had been playing on her face immediately disappeared. "Not funny, just interesting."

Draco scowled as he rose from the chair. He needed to get out of here, he needed to think, but before he could make it to the door he felt tiny fingers clasp his hand. All thought of leaving immediately left his head at the familiar feel of her skin against his own.

"Stay." There was no pleading in her voice, but underneath the calm request he felt a sense of desperation that he had not heard from her before.

They stood in her entranceway for a moment, holding hands, gazing into each other's eyes. He looked intently, hoping to find something in them that had been missing all this time, looking for more than just desire, or pain. He searched her pleading gaze for minutes, not finding anything new, but just as he was about to turn his head away he saw it. Tenderness, he must have shown some sort of recognition of the strange emotion because then it turned to fear. Draco couldn't understand it, why would she be afraid, of him?

He pulled her body towards him, wrapping her up in a warm embrace. Her arms slowly wound their way around his torso, as his one hand rubbed her back slowly and the other held her head to his chest. He leaned in and took in a large whiff of her hair; her scent wrapped itself around him almost as fully as his arms had encased her. His longing for her became almost unbearable, and a few more minutes in her embrace and he knew his determination would fail. With a great amount of effort he broke apart from her grasping arms.

A/N: Hey, so that was chapter ten. It is much more dialogue than normal, is it awkward? Is it good? Is it awful... either way I want to hear so I can improve :) Thanks to all of you who have been reading, favoriting and reviewing.