Coffee (not a) date

It's in time like these that Hermione honestly missed the Muggle world, no matter how much she loved magic.

The last war might have brought about some drastic – well, at least drastic compared to the way things used to be – changes in the way wizards thought about Muggle technology and advancement (after all, it was difficult for old wizarding families to keep trying to impose the supremacy of their traditions when a) doing so labelled them as Dark more often than not and b) they actually were dying out because of all the deaths in the last two wars), but there were still a lot of things that could be improved.

Coffee was definitely one of those.

Were she at a Muggle job, she'd have had access to coffee machines at pretty much anytime and everywhere, and if that wasn't enough, well there always were coffee shops outside pretty much every building.

In the Wizarding world however, things weren't so easy. Being a hidden society with buildings concealed under other buildings wasn't very conductive to opening shops right outside their workplaces after all, and Merlin forbid the Ministry offer anything but the magical equivalent of a cafeteria.

And the food and drinks were great there – far better than what she knew most people got at their workplaces – thanks to the House Elves working there.

That wasn't the problem. No, the problem was that all this meant that every time Hermione wanted coffee, she had to go get it herself (House Elves might be willing to get her food and drinks to her desk, but for some reason the coffee they got her then usually wasn't of the same quality as the one she got when she left her office – she suspected they were trying not to have her stay in one place all day) and get to the cafeteria, which was probably on the other side of the building.

This meant taking the elevator and walking for a good ten minutes, which was really inefficient when one considered that all they wanted was a cup of coffee or tea.

Of course, she could always get more than one cup at a time and use heating charms later on, but she always found that they spoiled the taste.

"You okay there Granger? Because you may be glaring at that panel very hard but I don't think it'll help arrive any faster," Draco-Malfoy's voice dragged her out of her musing, and she turned her back on the elevator to face him.

"Maybe not, but it does make me feel better," she answered with a slight smirk. "And are we back to Granger already? And here I thought we were getting somewhere..."

He rolled his eyes at her (if she had been told five years ago that she'd ever see this happen she'd have laughed in that person's face and sent them to St Mango's). "Why did I ever invite you to come, Hermione?"

"Must be my winning personality," she drawled. "That, and I'm far better company than everyone else in our department." Not that they were bad company – most of them were actually very nice, except for Stephen who was a chauvinistic asshole – but she had noticed that Draco, like herself, had some trouble really socializing with others.

(he put on too much charm, she didn't put on enough)

"That you are," he replied, laughing. "That you are."

Behind her, the elevator pinged its arrival, and the doors opened to let them in.

For a moment, neither of them moved.

(he had a very nice laugh)