Bring Me Calm

Motivated! Going to try and make the most of it! Massive, MASSIVE thank yous to Honoria Granger for pointing out something in the prologue which I had completely messed up in my hurry to get on with it! Thank you for giving this little story a chance, I know the chapters are woefully short but I hope to make them a bit longer in the future! Thank you so much!

DISCLAIMER – Still not a world famous author, sorry!

Chapter Nine

HPOV

It was almost time. She had just finished work and was currently hiding out in the cafe toilet, staring at her reflection in the mirror. It was no wonder that her boss had told her she looked like she needed all the help she could get when she first got the job. She looked like utter hell. Her hair, which she had finally somewhat tamed, seemed to droop lifelessly. She had massive bags under her eyes that couldn't be hidden by any amount of concealer and her skin was ashen and she had clearly lost weight. Why did you agree to meet Malfoy you silly woman? He looked so perfect this morning, you're going to look even more like hell! And you're bound to bloody cry too. Is it really worth it to get the chance to interrogate him? Wouldn't you rather just go home and open a bottle of wine and just forget for a little while? Why are you going to drag it all up for that bloody nosy fuckers sake?

She argued with herself all the way out of the cafe, wondering if her curiosity was worth the ordeal that tonight was almost guaranteed to be. She was snapped out of her internal monologue by Draco greeting her.

"Hello again Malfoy, so where are we off to for round two?"

"Well Granger, I thought as there is obviously a lot to talk about we could pick up takeaway from one of the places along here and then grab a taxi back to mine?" At her sceptical look he continued "now, now, listen. I promise this isn't an evil plot. If you are still as nosy as you were in school I am pretty sure you have lots of questions for me too and quite frankly I would rather discuss them in private after yesterdays little fiasco."

She stayed quiet for a few seconds, absorbing his reasons. Deciding that if he was going to ask her about the previous night she would prefer some privacy too she agreed and suggested the Chinese on the corner of the road.

DPOV

This was it, he was going to show another person from his past what he had been doing for the last few years, what he had been doing since the end of the war. Well, someone magical at least. He didn't count his muggle friends or conquests. He felt extremely anxious, his palms were sweating and his heart was racing. It was highly irrational, why did he give a flying fuck what Hermione Granger thought of his damn house? He was so absorbed in his thoughts and trying not to freak out for no reason that he missed Grangers face pale as they turned down his road.

Helping Granger out of the taxi, he thanked the driver and gave him the money plus tip for the journey.

"Granger?" He queried, noticing finally her paler-than-usual face and slightly subdued manner. "This is my little house, you okay?"

She appeared to shake herself out of it a little bit, replying that she was indeed fine, just nervous and tired from working all day. Nodding to her, he led the way to the front door and lead them both in to the main living area. He was extremely glad that he had tidied up the small amount of mess that morning. The house was pretty darn immaculate even if he did say so himself and he still felt that small rush of pride that yes, he had tidied everything up himself and everything she saw was his own personal effort.

Showing her to the sofa, he made his way to the kitchen area and portioned out the Chinese and got them both a cold beer out of the fridge. Mentally steeling himself for the discussion that was to follow, he made his way back to Granger.

HPOV

While Malfoy was dishing up the dinner she took the chance to eye up the inside of his house. She couldn't deny that regardless of how uneasy she felt at sitting on his sofa he did have a beautiful home. It was so clean! The living space screamed 'bachelor' with pale grey walls and charcoal sofas. She was surprised how many muggle items were in the room, she didn't know what she expected but Draco pureblood Malfoy with a big old TV and gaming system in his house was not it.

There wasn't much personalisation in the room, just a couple of pictures on the wall of what looked like Draco with the same group of people in various places. She got up to take a closer look. There he was on a beautiful white sandy beach, blonde hair shining, arm slung around a tiny brunette as he laughed his head off at two red headed women who were soaked through, a brunette man behind them with an empty bucket in his hands, evidently having been caught on camera pranking the ladies. Here he was again, at some music festival with the same group of people, covered in mud with ludicrously bright wellies on and a giant smile on his face, arms slung around the petite brunette and one of the tall red heads. There were a couple more, this one in a club, that one at a restaurant for what looked like his birthday, another one in the snow with a massive snow man. Each photo had the same group of five people and in each photo Malfoy was grinning from ear to ear.

She was shocked how different he looked with a genuine smile on his face, as someone who had never seen him smiling without malicious intent she was shocked how normal and young it made him look. Without his customary sneer his whole demeanour seemed to change, she noted that if he had presented himself like this when they were children she would have probably tried to befriend him and dare she say it? Have a crush on him!

"Odd little bunch aren't we?"

Startled, she turned to see Draco putting down two plates piled up with noodles and various other items and two bottles of beer on the coffee table.

"Sorry" she half-mumbled, "I was curious as you didn't have much else that was personal in here. You looked like you were all having fun."

"We were, they are a funny lot and they put up with me even when I am in a crappy mood, which is a bit of an ordeal."

"And are they-"

"Muggles, yes all of them. Surprised?" He noted her raised eyebrows.

"A little." She admitted honestly. "How did that come about?" She asked as she made her way to sit on the other side of the sofa.

"I work with them, the small brunette is my boss and the owner of the bar. Her name is Jenny and she is about 15 years older than us. The others are all around our age. The guy is Daniel, the two red heads are called Louise and Rebecca, they're not twins or even remotely related but they do look it! Which is weird as they are dating... Anyways, we all met through Jenny's bar and we became really close really quickly. They are like my family and we do a lot of things together, as you could see from my favourite pictures."

He seemed to realise that he had divulged quite a lot at once and quickly picked up his plate and started eating. She had found it interesting to watch his face as he spoke about his group of friends, he had seemed to light up from within and despite only having the smallest twitch at the corners of his mouth she could tell that he would be smiling when talking to anyone else.

That thought reminded her of whose couch she was currently sat on as she picked at Chinese takeaway and sipped on beer. The absurdity of the situation hit her like a ton of bricks. If someone had said to me even 3 months ago that I would be sitting on Draco Malfoy's sofa eating junk food and talking about his muggle friends and Ron would be-

She stopped that thought, dragging a deep breath in through her pursed lips as she banished that thought to the back of her mind. Plenty of time for that later. For now she could try to interrogate Malfoy and see if solving the puzzle before her would help her to sleep a little.

"So Malfoy, how did you come to be working and living in the most muggle area imaginable? How long have you been here? Why do you have a television? Do you use magic anymore? Why does no-one in the wizarding world know you are alive? What about your parents?" She couldn't stop herself, she was so close to answers.

"Woah woah woah Granger!" He chuckled, "plenty of time for me to answer those questions throughout the evening. I will start by saying that I moved here at the end of the war, I am living a muggle life, with all that entails, and I prefer that no-one from that life knows where I am or that I exist. Ah, ah, ah" he held up his hand to stop her onslaught of questions. "That is as much as I am prepared to divulge right now, I have questions for you which I would like answers to first, especially after last night. Once you have answered those we can drag up my past if we have time".

He seemed to sense her apprehension and instead of starting to quiz her as she expected, he took a long swig of beer and picked at his dinner. She let the silence rest for a few moments while she played with her food but truthfully the reminder of his intentions had rather ruined her already fragile appetite.

"Right Malfoy, where do you want to begin? I suppose we should stop delaying and get this over with."

Yay! Much longer chapter than I am used to writing! Hope it isn't total garbage! Please read and review! Hehe! Thank you