Not mine... blah blah ... Whatever

Number 11

The chops were sizzling under the grill when Hermione arrived home. A bowl of salad was preparing itself on the side. Lily was out at her party, the house was silent apart from the hiss of the shower running upstairs.

By the time Harry appeared, wearing a red and gold striped towel around his waist, Hermione had made two mugs of tea.

'Thanks.' Taking a mouthful, Harry froze then spat it back into the mug ' Merlin, What did you put in that?'

'Salt. And mustard. And Bubotuber pus.' Hermione said serenely, because Harry particularly hated bubotuber pus.

'Why? Oh Fuck, that is disgusting, I think… I'm going to….' Racing to the sink as the bubotuber pus started to make a dramatic re-appearance. Aiming an Aguamenti straight into his own mouth, he tried to get rid of the taste of revisited pus.

'Good. Maybe you'll remember this the next time you start spewing word vomit and chatting up girls like Pansy Parkinson'

'I wasn't chatting her up ACTUALLY. Mum told me to be nice to her. Polite, that's all' said Harry, Still vigorously rinsing and spitting.

'From what I hear, you were being more than polite. She's a stroppy cow and you have no business chatting her up when she's been so vile to me.'

Harry straightened up and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

'Look, You're both adults. She's back, and in a place this size you can't just ignore her. It's stupid. Put it behind you'

' But she….'

'She probably regrets her actions. We've all done and said some stupid things in the past Hermione' swallowing and pulling a face Harry pointedly added ' Look at you and this Malfoy thing, If that's not stupid, I don't know what is'

'You're supposed to be on my side' Hermione watched him as he poured himself another mug of tea. 'If she regretted it , she would have apologised.'

'OK I'll tell her that, shall I? I'll be the go between and let her know if she's really sorry, you'll be friends with her again.'

Hermione gave him a pitying look ' It wasn't just me, remember. She said horrible things about you too.'

'She doesn't any more though' Amused, Harry said 'she fancies me rotten now. Anyway, who told you about me talking to Pansy?

Hermione counted on her fingers ' Susan was watching from the pub. Izzy saw you. And Mrs O'Flanigan.'

'Ah, the usual suspects.' grabbing himself a biscuit, Harry added modestly, 'They all fancy me to'

He didn't notice the spoon Hermione chucked at his over sized head, until it hit him.

When Draco had moved back to England, he had rented a flat in the city, Just a few hundred yards away from the office. He went to his mother's old house every week or so just to keep an eye on the place and check it hadn't burned to the ground. He'd always gone in the evening and never ventured into the town itself.

This time, purely out of curiosity, he did.

Ok, it possibly had something to do with Hermione Granger, but he thought t would be nice to see how the place looked , find out if it had changed much over the years.

With the evening sun now low in the sky, Draco put on his dark glasses and a disillusionment charm as he approached the outskirts of the tiny town. There was a school on the right. He passed over a bridge over a small river. Ahead of him he saw a small war memorial. He went past the Occamy and an assortment of shops. Some he recognised, other's he didn't. There was the standing stones where Hermione worked. Carrying on up the hill, Draco reached the outskirts of the town where new houses were being built. He turned and headed back into the town, this time passing a row of craft workshops. There was a sign for Potter's business. Within moments he was passing the very cottage where Hermione lived with Potter and His daughter; ridiculously, he found it hard to tear his eyes away from the low , honey coloured building. He felt like a giddy teenager wondering if he would get caught sneaking a peek at the girls dormitory, but he couldn't stop, mustn't draw attention to himself. Instead he carried on, turning back to walk in the direction he'd come and back to the apparition point close to his mother's former residence.

Continuing up the narrow lane, he saw a figure of a woman ahead , walking a dog. With her back to him, wearing a jogging suit and a baseball cap on her head, it was impossible to gauge the identity of the dog-walker.

Of course if this was a romantic play, the dog would suddenly morph into a werewolf with the rising moon and turn to attack the person holding his restraint. Draco, paying attention, would throw off the dissillusion and stupefy the creature and with super-human speed, snatch the woman away to safety. And,- this still being a romance story - it wouldn't be until the woman turned to face him, gibbering with tearful gratitude and thanking him for saving her life, that he'd realise that it was Andromeda. She would be so thankful, all would be forgiven and he and Hermione could finally be together.

Well, it was a nice fantasy. Draco smiled wryly to himself as he passed the woman with the waddling dog. Beneath the peak of her cap he couldn't see much of her face, just enough to let him know that she was younger than Andromeda.

At the top of the lane he saw the girl and her dog turning into a driveway. Almost to the apparition point, he dropped the disillusionment. Just as he was about to spin away, the girl turned to look at him and he felt a flicker of recognition. A momentary glimpse of profile wasn't much to go on but he was almost sure it was Pansy Parkinson.

Landing with his feet firmly back in London, Draco walked the 2 minutes to his flat. He had an early start tomorrow and wall to wall meetings with clients.

When he was out of sight, Pansy turned and stared down the empty, tree-lined lane. Had that been Draco Malfoy? Merlin, had it really? But what was he doing here in Kinship? As far as she was aware, he'd moved away years ago.

Then again, if his mother was still living in the same house, he must have to visit her sometimes. Although no one seemed to know for sure if Narcissa Malfoy was still alive: according to Viola, nobody had clapped eyes on her for years.

Draco Malfoy, disillusioned and wearing dark glasses. It had been quite a while -OK, a bloody long while - since they'd last seen each other, but Pansy instinctively knew it was him. Her heart was beating like a big base drum inside her ribs. She felt overheated and frozen at the same time. And Boris at her feet, giving her that look that signified he knew exactly what was going through her head.

She was fairly sure Draco hadn't seen her scars. She certainly hoped he hadn't seen them - although this was pointless really. If she was never going to see Draco again, what did it matter? And if they did meet up, well sooner or later there was a chance he was going to notice her spooky new resemblance to Mad-eye Moody.

Oh forget it. If it wasn't for her accident, she'd have been overjoyed to see Draco again, may even have waved him over. She had been smitten with him once and, modesty aside, he'd been pretty interested in return. Who knew, if they each didn't have to leave and…..

Anyway, too late now. The accident happened, and unexpectedly bumping into old boyfriends was no longer a joyful experience.

'Who's uglier Boris? You or me?'

Boris gazed up at her

'Except it's easier for you,' Pansy gave his lead a let's-get-going- tug 'You've always looked like that'

Viola greeted them at the door with a beaming smile on her face.

'Darling, fantastic news! Guess who's just owled?'

Pansy couldn't help it; for a split second her thoughts flew back to Draco Malfoy. He'd recognised her…he'd been too shy to stop….. owled as soon as he'd arrived home… if she hadn't spent the last ten minutes gazing after him before dawdling back up the drive, she'd have been there to receive the owl herself…..

'Daddy!'

'Oh' Bending, Pansy unclipped Boris's lead and watched him waddle through to the kitchen. Oh well, served her right for getting carried away. An in all honesty, since when had Draco Malfoy been shy?

'He's coming home tomorrow,' Viola gabbled on, overdoing it as usual, 'For a whole week! isn't that wonderful?'

'Wonderful.' Dutifully, Pansy forced herself to smile. Not that she didn't want to see her father, but it was hardly the most earth-shattering news in the world. Like most Business men, he was a workaholic, spending most of his time dashing off around the world at a moment's notice. When he was home, he'd spend most of his time on his office on Fire-call or answering Owls. It wasn't as if she was suddenly going to have a father to play games with. Kratos Parkinson preferred real life stakes for real Money.

'He'll be here around midday, he's sorry that he couldn't come home before now, but he'll make it up to you tomorrow. I think he's bought you a present.' Viola said with a conspirational wink.

It was like being seven again. Her father never changed.

'You mean he's told his secretary to buy me a present.' But Pansy couldn't be cross, she was too used to it. Besides, it might be new shoes. Merlin knows, anything that drew the attention away from her face had to be worth a try.