Ch 10: Dinner Meeting
Hello, everyone! Happy new years! XD
Just to put this out there, Hermione said she was 26 in one of the chapters :) I hope this cleared things up ^_^
Draco knocked on Hermione's cubicle and entered when he heard a soft, "it's open!"
"Granger, there's something new happening at the ministry and me," Draco began, eyes bright, "as your mentor, will help you understand these new arrangements over dinner," Draco finished.
Hermione feigned a sigh, "Alright, see you then, Malfoy," but was in fact, a little excited.
"Great! I'll meet you at the front desk at the end of the day," Draco smiled as he walked off.
…
"Harry Potter!" Draco announced, wand poised in hand, as he stormed into Harry's office.
"Yes? Draco Malfoy," Harry answered not looking up. After a small moment of silence, Harry tilted his head up, raised an eyebrow and asked, "What's with the wand?"
"I thought, I told you NOT to mention the book to anyone," Draco said, teeth gritted, emphasising the word 'not.'
Harry stood up slowly, panic clear on his face, "Malfoy… Put that wand of yours down… Now."
Draco held onto his wand more firmly and aimed it at Harry, "Now, why should I do that," he spat.
Slowly standing up, Harry kept eye contact with the blonde. He discreetly pulled out his wand from his own pocket, where it was concealed. When suddenly-
"Expelliarmus!" Draco snapped quickly, still glaring.
Harry's wand immediately propelled out of his hand, and into Draco's, as he, Harry, inwardly cursed.
Draco smirked at the frightened Harry. "Too slow, Potter. Now, what did I tell you about that mouth of yours?" Draco watched Harry's still bent form as he continued, "And out of all the people, out of everyone! You decide to tell Granger. Granger."
"I'm sorry mate, I just- I just thought," Harry shook his head, "th- that maybe she deserved to know," Harry mumbled. He noticed his hands had begun to tremble slightly and decided to form tight fists to stop this, and also, to prepare for self-defence. Harry began to stand up straight, preparing himself for Draco's next curse.
At that instant, Seamus walked into the room and as soon as he saw Draco with his wand pointed at Harry's face, he shouted, "Expelliarmus!"
This time, Draco cursed as he turned around, still glaring, to see who had disarmed him.
Harry let out a breath, grateful for Seamus' save.
…
Hermione stood at the front desk of the ministry as she waited for Draco. Hermione felt oddly satisfied as she watched the receptionist organise letters and deal with the complaints and questions from other wizards and witches, across the country. Quite abruptly, her thoughts were interrupted by a moody looking Draco, who was busy stuffing his wand, clumsily, into his pants pocket.
"Time to go," he said in a rushed voice as they both, together, disappeared in the chimney.
Hermione had expected to arrive at a restaurant or diner, however, that was not the case. instead, they had arrived at a high-end clothing store filled with beautiful gowns and suits for all occasions that ranged in all different colours, tones and shades. "Umm… Draco?" Hermione began, "Where have you taken me? Is the dinner place nearby?" Hermione questioned, feeling especially confused.
"No, Granger, you see, one does not simply walk into a fancy restaurant wearing work clothes," Draco stated, irritated. "Hurry, choose a gown and I'll take you there immediately and don't even bother with the price tag."
Hermione began to roam among the stunning dresses.
Draco took a seat on one of the leather customer couches as he kept his eyes on his apprentice and began to wildly tap his fingers on the armrest, in order to signal Hermione to speed up.
After ten minutes, Hermione had finally settled on a breathtakingly beautiful rose gown and asked, hesitantly, "Is this appropriate?"
Draco looked at the brunette, mouth slightly open, stunned, however, only a second as he clamped it shut, almost instantly. It was simply gorgeous on her. "Yes it's appropriate," he stated bluntly, monotonous, "now, tick tock and let's get going! We've wasted enough time already and this is an extremely important discussion." Draco held onto Hermione as he apparated them to an upper-class restaurant.
'Thank goodness, for this gown' Hermione thought to herself, as she stared, open-mouthed around at the five-star restaurant's set up.
Hermione couldn't help but notice the fancy clothes worn by both men and women. As stunned as ever, Hermione observed Draco's appointed dinner place. It was a posh restaurant, to say the least. It had tables clothed in white linen and chairs elegantly decorated with gold string, that matched the ceiling. Hermione's mouth formed an 'O' shape, unable to suppress her awestruck feeling; she'd repeatedly whispered 'wow' multiples times, whilst taking in her surroundings.
As soon as they'd ordered their three-course meal, "Granger," Draco began, "there's been an import of love potions, so if you're organising any past papers and that comes up, bring it in."
Hermione looked shocked, "Of course, is there anything else?"
"Well, you could put your intelligent brain to some use. Let's brainstorm right now. Who would be in desperate need for love potions?" Draco asked, whilst eating a piece of medium rare lamb. "By the way, if we solve this crime case, I'll make sure you will get a pay rise and also move into a higher position in the ministry."
"Hmm, there is no particular way to pinpoint it on someone yet, but we can possibly start this investigation by listing previous Amortentia suspects and those who have connections to companies outside," Hermione answered. She enjoyed the idea of a pay rise, however, she was totally fine with staying put in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. In her mind, she still thought that the house-elves deserved their rights.
With that, they both lowered their voices and began brainstorming. Every time, one of them said the idea the other had something to add. They came up with many possible suspects and followers and arrived at great conclusions, but they lacked evidence and were still unable to pinpoint a specific leader or culprit.
"Ok, Hermione! I think that's enough for now, my brain's going to explode! No more work talk!" Draco wailed, after thirty minutes, as Hermione began to laugh. "We make a good team," Draco stated.
Hermione shook her head and smiled, "We do, Malfoy," before looking back that him.
After a moment of silence, Draco broke it, "I didn't even plan on talking about our jobs today," he admitted, with a small shake of his head. Draco looked at Hermione's confused expression, before adding, "Why do you call me Malfoy?"
"Isn't that your name?" Hermione pointed out.
"It is," Draco agreed, "But so is Draco."
Hermione raised her eyebrows but was amused, "Okay then, Draco," she said with a suppressed and shy laugh.
The two continued to talk casually throughout the night, whilst having their meal. They bonded and conversed, with small talk, over unimportant things and opinions. Once the two were finished with their final meal course, Draco took the bill and the two walked out of the automatic restaurant doors and onto the streets of London.
"You know, I've learnt to respect muggles, and their contraptions," Draco suddenly said as they had begun to walk.
"Now that is something I would never have expected you to say," Hermione grinned.
Draco smirked at this, "You're not the only one, ten years ago, if someone were to tell me that I'd say this, I would've proudly disassociated from them."
Hermione smiled, looked at Draco's carefree attitude and beaming form and questioned whether he was actually Draco or a stranger with polyjuice potion.
"Tell you what," Draco said when he noticed Hermione looking at him, with her eyebrows raised and the wrinkles on her forehead were really beginning sink deeper from all the times she questioned Draco's statements. "Let's play a game."
"Twenty questions, me first," Hermione began dominatingly, "Why did you decide to take me out?"
Draco tried to hold back laughter, "To talk about the ministry."
"Seriously, there is no way you took me out to say one sentence about work," Hermione rolled her eyes, "You also said that you didn't plan on talking about our jobs," she added.
"You're interesting, and you said we could become good friends," Draco admitted. "How did you feel? When I asked you to dinner," Draco smirked.
Hermione smiled, "Normal?" she said, however, she saw Draco's mock feint hurt and corrected, "Very flattered. How do you feel about being my mentor?"
"Very lucky," Draco answered, "How do you feel about me, being your mentor?"
"Very lucky," Hermione mimicked, "where are we walking?"
"Wherever our legs take us, how do you feel about me," Draco paused, "in general."
"You seem like a changed person, from what Harry told me," Hermione glanced at Draco and noticed him hesitate, "was it- was it true? What Harry said, what I mentioned the other day?" she finished.
"I told you this, the other day," Draco said laughing nervously, as he felt his heart rate increase.
Hermione looked at him, "but you didn't have to tell the truth before."
Draco slowed down his pace and began to steady his breath as he and Hermione looked each other in the eye. After a while, Draco gave an embarrassed nod.
Hermione smiled, saw Draco visibly swallow, grabbed his hand and whispered, "it's okay," as she held eye contact with him and said in a soft, comforting voice. She continued to hold his hand as he walked to sit down on a nearby bench.
Once he sat down, he detangled himself from Hermione's hand and began to rub his face, self-consciously, not daring to look at Hermione.
"Malfoy," Hermione began, "Malfoy." She'd repeated several times, however, Draco still didn't look at her. Not until, the word "Draco," left her mouth, did he finally sit up straight to look at her.
"Come on, I'll take you home," Draco said firmly as he stood up and began to walk. After a few steps, Draco noticed Hermione wasn't following and turned around to see her looking at him from the bench.
"I'm not moving until we've talked," Hermione said stubbornly as she watched Draco walk back to the bench. Grinning she said, "you've changed, the old you wouldn't have come back, he'd probably keep walking."
Draco sat beside her, "What is there to say?"
"Do you regret Harry telling me?" Hermione asked.
Draco took a deep breath as he, shook his head uncertainly as if he were trying to convince himself, "it had to come out at some point."
"How long?" Hermione asked softly.
"Since school. And again after monopoly, and Quidditch just confirmed it," Draco answered.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Hermione asked.
"I- I wasn't ready, I'm still not. If you hadn't asked, you still wouldn't know."
Hermione nodded, "is that all?"
"Nothing can ever become of us…" Draco began, "we are complete opposites."
"Well maybe in the future we could…" Hermione stuttered into silence and couldn't think of a reply to this awkward statement.
At that moment, Draco took her arm and apparated them both to Harry and Ginny's front door, saving her from stuttering absolute nonsense.
"Well goodnight, Granger, it was a nice night," Draco sounded embarrassed and wished that this moment would end quickly.
"Night, Malfoy. Thanks for everything, I had a lot of fun," Hermione said gently. She looked as if she was about to give him a hug but decided against it. Hermione faced the front door, turned the doorknob and took a deep breath, before turning around. "Malfoy, about what you said before, I guess we could give it a sh-" however, Hermione's words were interrupted by the loud crack of Draco as he apparated into the darkness.