This is the 10th last chapter. Two months left of school and a little more after that, and it's done. Enjoy. Ta ta.
S. White
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter 37 – Lesson Three: Tea with the Neighbours
Draco was awake before her the next morning, and she awoke to see him leaving the bathroom after a shower, holding a towel around his waist. She blushed as he grinned at her, detouring to kiss her before going to find some clothes. She took the chance to hurry into the bathroom herself, feeling very embarrassed about how sexy she thought he looked, and that he could probably read her thoughts on her face. She took her time getting ready, since there was nothing to hurry for. Draco had gotten breakfast and she did the washing up afterward, doing what was left of their dishes from the day before as well. They spent the rest of the morning reading muggle fiction; Draco was quite engrossed in another Dickens book. Hermione thought it might be nice to do something from the muggle world before they went to take tea with muggles, so that he might have something fresh in his mind to talk about.
They had a light lunch before they left, taking a packet of biscuits as a gift, and getting into the elevator. Draco looked gloomy, despite Hermione's cheerfulness, and he was clearly not excited for this visit. Hermione hoped this would give him a wider experience of muggle living, and she suspected that older people might be the best place to start. They got off at the fourth floor and found Mrs. Gibson's door slightly ajar and the two ladies voices coming from inside. Draco took a breath and straightened, his expression morphing from resignation into his blank mask, and then knocked. He smiled and bowed as the two ladies shuffled to the door and pulled them in.
"Oh welcome dears, it's so good of you to come, oh thank you dear!" Mrs. Gibson said happily as Draco handed her the biscuits.
"Did you have a good Easter?" Hermione asked, smiling at the two sweet little ladies.
"Oh so kind, Ms. Granger, dear. Yes, we did." They babbled on for a short time about how nice their respective families had been. "I hope you two had a good Easter."
"Oh yes, we spent it with our friends from school." Hermione said with a smile.
"No family, dear?" Mrs. Smithson said, patting her hand kindly.
"No, we're both only children, and we're really close with our friends." Hermione explained.
"Well, it's nice you have such lovely friends then, dear." Mrs. Smithson said.
Mrs. Gibson had been making tea in the kitchen and Draco was looking around without a change in expression. All the furniture was old and everything was the pale, faded colours which indicated long use. Mrs. Gibson came back in with a pink china teapot and four matching pink patterned teacups on a tray. Draco had wandered over to one corner of the room, where the ladies had a small television set up and he was looking at it with interest. Hermione held a hand to her mouth to stop herself from laughing and helped Mrs. Gibson with the tea to cover her amusement for both Draco's sake, and the ladies.
"The old shows are much better than the new ones, aren't they, Mr. Malfoy?" Mrs. Smithson said, noticing Draco's interest and elbowing him playfully. Hermione was working very hard not to laugh.
"I've never seen it." Draco said, truthfully.
"Oh, well, we must fix that." Mrs. Smithson said, and pushed him onto the couch in front of the television. Hermione sat close to him and the ladies took the places furthest from the screen and they chatted. When Hermione handed Draco a cup of tea, she saw the black and white opening to "I Love Lucy" on the screen. She looked around and found the remote and turned the volume up for him, so that he would be able to actually hear the dialogue. She thought she saw him jump slightly, and she handed him the remote in case he was interested and rejoined the ladies' conversation.
The ladies were discussing the drawbacks of modern television programmes and Hermione was forced to use her excuse that their school didn't have any televisions fairly early in the visit. She had grown up around a television, but she hadn't seen much on it for at least five years now as she spent more and more time in the wizarding world. She was able to discuss the older programmes she had seen before she had learned she was a witch, since her parents had really enjoyed the classic shows of the type Mrs. Smithson and Mrs. Gibson enjoyed. They were discussing different filmed versions of A Christmas Carol when the episode of "I Love Lucy" ended and they quizzed Draco on how he liked it. Hermione only had to answer once for him when they compared it to other shows, which he had obviously never seen.
Draco did very well, she thought. He was able to talk about the weather, the show he had just watched, and the Dickens books he had read. His knowledge of Pride and Prejudice absolutely delightedly the ladies who discussed it with him and insisted they watch the television movie version. Hermione hoped he wasn't getting to angry about coming up against so many things he was ignorant of. She knew how much he hated not knowing something, but if he was angry, he wasn't showing it. She thought he was getting a bit frustrated, but that was all she could glean from his looks and eyes.
They stayed a couple of hours and then left with much thanks and a vague promise to call again once they were finished school in the summer. Draco took her arm as they went back to the elevator and went back up to the Draco's flat.
"That wasn't so bad." Hermione said with a smile.
"What was it I saw?" Draco asked with a slight grimace.
"It's called a television, or TV, show. Actors make a lot of shows like short plays and the muggles electrically send them to people's televisions so they don't have to be there to watch. That show, 'I Love Lucy' was made about thirty or forty years ago and it's a classic. They do them in colour, now." Hermione tried to explain. He nodded.
"I think I follow. Muggles do create some strange contraptions."
"Yes," She said with a giggle. "Movies are the same thing, but longer, so it's more like watching a play. And just like plays and books they're all completely different in tone."
"So they're not all like that?" Draco said.
"Definitely not," Hermione laughed.
"Well, in that case I think I might be able to bear experiencing more of them." Draco grinned.
"Not a fan of Lucy?" Hermione said, breaking out in giggles.
Draco simply grimaced. However, he was interested enough that they spent the afternoon picking out the latest in televisions for his flat, a stand to put it on, a VHS player, and a decent size collection of films that either Hermione or the salesman recommended. The man was slightly baffled when they simply loaded the large television onto a cart, declining help or delivery. They simply apparated straight onto the landing front of Draco's flat and used magic to assemble the stand and place the television.
Hermione explained to him that muggles need to provide electricity to their sets, but since this one was in a magical dwelling, it was less likely to work plugged in. Instead she used her wand and cast a spell or two until one worked to turn it on. Draco watched with interest as she explained that muggles also normally paid for their television channels, which he seemed to be receiving magically, as the larger than life man on the screen read the news. Hermione wasn't too sure if he was hearing everything she said, but she connected the player to the television and had him pick out a film.
She tried not to laugh as they curled up on his couch together and spent the afternoon and evening watching Indiana Jones, Citizen Kane, and Rear Window. When Hermione rose to make something for dinner, Draco was putting Star Wars into the player. She could see Draco on the couch from the kitchen, though the large television was partly blocked from view, and laughed quietly at him sitting there, rapt with attention as the film opened. She had needed to explain a couple of concepts to him. Planes had been quick, and the reasoning behind guns had been depressingly quick, however. Growing up with Lucius as a father and recently around Voldemort, she could understand why he might easily understand people's desire to inflict harm on each other. He had more needed to know the physical facts of the hammer creating a spark in the chamber which sent the bullet flying. The explanation of films as a kind of play you could take home seemed to have cleared up that concept very quickly, although he still didn't fully understand how they worked.
Still, Draco was grasping concepts very well for someone who had very little contact with the muggle world. He looked up when she put a dinner plate of pasta in front of him and gave her a kiss and a thank you. As much as she liked Star Wars, Hermione was almost asleep when it was finished. Draco got up and replacing it in its case, and almost put the next one in when he noticed Hermione asleep beside him and looked at the time. She woke up to him carrying her up to bed again.
"Sorry for falling asleep." She mumbled.
"That's alright. I didn't realize how late it was." Draco said, yawning.
"Maybe I shouldn't have introduced you to movies." Hermione said with a chuckle.
"How is it they do it?" Draco said curiously. His desire to understand for once overwhelming his pride. She had tried to explain it earlier but it hadn't worked very well.
"Let's see," Hermione thought, and pulled out her wand and conjured a notebook. "Have you ever taken the pages of a notebook and drawn something in the bottom corner of each page?" She waved her wand again and the letters of the alphabet began to appear on the pages, each page adding an additional letter. Hermione caught it as it dropped out of the air and Draco watched over her shoulder. She flipped quickly through the pages and they watched as the alphabet appeared. Draco took it and looked at each page separately and then fanned through it himself.
"Muggles take a series of pictures, like that, and when you play a lot of still images in front of people very quickly the pictures blend together and they look like they're moving." Hermione explained as Draco examined the book. "You could do it with any pictures. But for the films they have to take hundreds and hundreds of pictures and they print them on a film you can shine light through. That's how they project it."
"It really is amazing what muggles have created without magic." Draco said, looking at the conjured book.
"It's almost frightening, actually. Televisions and that seemed to have changed quite a bit since I last spent a lot of time at my parents' house. And computers seem to have come on quite a bit. The salesman was trying to get you to buy that DVD thing instead of VHS. I wouldn't be surprised if muggle technology developed even faster in the coming years." Hermione said sleepily. "You could probably learn quite a bit about muggle life by watching the news."
"But first, sleep." Draco grinned, leaning so far over that he pushed her back onto the bed as he kissed her.
"This isn't sleep." She giggled as he kissed her neck and slid his hands up her shirt.
Draco insisted on watching the next Star Wars film before they left the flat for Grimmauld Place the next day. Hermione laughed but agreed. She wasn't sure whether he was going to regret his choice when he found out how it ended, but she would have been willing to bet that he was going to watch the Return of the Jedi when they got back that night. That didn't stop her watching with interest as he experienced the famous plot twist near the end of the film, since he hadn't been prepared like some muggles had been by pop culture. He had reacted, but not as dramatically as she had, she remembered being shocked watching it as a child, and he simply sat up straighter on the couch, paying a little closer attention. She wondered if he could relate to the characters, being part of so much evil, but also trying to change it.
He checked his defensive spells before they left grumbling under his breath about not knowing what happened, but trying to maintain the image that he didn't care about this science fiction muggle film. Again they apparated from the shadows beside the building and walked calmly to the door of Harry's house.
Hermione and Harry had a very good laugh about Draco, the Slytherin Prince, enjoying muggle films, but Ron treated him with sympathy, not understanding Hermione and Harry's discussions of films. After they had laughed about that for some time, Draco commented about how his parents would be so disappointed. He then filled them in on what had happened after they had returned to his flat on Easter. Everyone else was just as horrified by his father's threat to torture him as Hermione had been.
"Look, Harry, I don't need my father bothered, it'd just be nice to have an eye kept on my flat while I'm at Hogwarts, make sure there's no magic going on there. I don't want to walk home into a trap at the end of June." Draco said wearily.
"This isn't the first time he's done something is it?" Harry said, watching Draco.
"Did everyone become therapists while I was away?" Draco grumbled. "No, it isn't. But I'm fine now, and I'm worried about now."
"But Draco, if he used any illegal curses on you, he should be arrested for that." Harry protested.
"Oh yes, and how would that help? Beyond having to break the spells Voldemort put on the manor to keep anyone with remotely good intentions out, all he's doing in there is moping and being furious. Doesn't want to hurt anyone but me, and I don't think he sees Hermione as leverage to get to me, yet anyway." Draco said firmly. "I don't think he's really capable of doing any real damage. Not right now. And bastard or not, I won't give evidence to put my father in Azkaban without good reason. But believe me, Harry, the minute he threatens Hermione, you can have him."
It was a little difficult for Draco to look serious while he was holding Teddy on his lap, but he managed it. He also held one of Hermione's hands over his shoulder to reassure her. He and Harry looked steadily at each other, green at silver, and sized each other up.
"Fine. But I'm putting in for us to watch him as well as your flat. If there's a chance he might hurt Hermione, or you, I want him stopped before it happens. Look, we're worried, okay. The werewolves have been attacking every full moon since the New Year and even between the full moons as well. It's really hard for us to keep tabs on that many people, some of whom have already had a lot of experience avoiding the Aurors." Harry said, grimacing. "And we haven't caught anyone who can or has told us the reason they're trying these spells. They must have a plan in mind, or why else would they be confunding and now imperiousing their victims?"
"You're really that worried?" Hermione said, keeping her voice level.
"Yeah, we are. We're doing the best we can to try and find them and find out what their plans are, but you guys all know how determined people can avoid the authorities for months on end."
"Yes," Hermione said sadly, and Draco's hand squeezed hers tightly.
"Is there any chance your father would be working with Greyback, or start working with him?"
"No, I think he would have to be very desperate to work with that monster." Draco shook his head.
"Yes, but is he that desperate?" Harry asked very seriously. Draco opened his mouth, and then shut again, thinking. Harry continued, "Look, I know he's your dad, but if he's a danger, we need to do something."
"Of course that's true. I always hoped it wouldn't fall to me to do it." Draco said quietly. "No, I don't think he's that desperate. He'll try on his own for a while. I think we have a few months, anyway. I'll have to check my mail very carefully at Hogwarts and watch myself when school ends and I come home. And empty all the vaults they have access to at Gringotts." He added with an afterthought.
"Okay. But if he does anything suspicious we'll be asking him about it, okay?"
"Yes, thanks Harry." Draco said, and the two men grinned at each other.
"Honestly, I wouldn't mind taking him in." Ron growled.
"I would be happy if he would just leave me alone." Draco shrugged. "But he and mother are having a hard time accepting that I'm living my own life now. Oh, Aunt Andy, I gave mother your message. She took it relatively well."
"I'm glad." Aunt Andy said with a smile.
"Yes, she's a little more rational than father, it seems, although she's still unhappy about my choices." Draco said, tickling Teddy and smiling at his cousin.
"At least you aren't." Ginny grinned at him, and he grinned back.
"Certainly not. I'm having the time of my life." Draco drawled as Teddy bounced on his knees. He continued in mock melancholy, "Oh yes, babies drooling on me, a demanding aunt, and a tyrannical girlfriend forcing me to study all the time."
They all laughed and Hermione gave him a gentle smack on the head, making Teddy laugh. They turned to other subjects and spent a very pleasant day at Grimmauld Place. They managed to persuade Draco to stay for dinner, though Hermione and Harry knew he was eager to get back to watch the third Star Wars film, which made it rather amusing for them. It took him about a minute after when they got back to his flat for him to be sitting on the couch, starting Return of the Jedi. Hermione laughed and shook her head, wondering if she would regret introducing him to muggle entertainment.
"I'm not going to have to start walking around half naked to get your attention, am I?" She joked as she sat beside him. He grinned at her.
"Is that an option?" He drawled, and pulled her on top of him, wrapping his arms around her while they watched the film.
Once again she wondered while he watched as Luke Skywalker was tempted and faced the decision of whether to turn to the Dark Side, if he was considering how it related to his own story. The comparison rather fell down however, because of Luke's steadfast refusal to turn, in fact a comparison to Vader himself might be more apt, but she very much hoped that his change of alliance wouldn't result in his death like Vader's had. She looked at him as he watched intently and on the television the climatic final battle was fought. He glanced over and smiled at her and she smiled back and gave him a quick kiss. Well, he seemed to like it alright. She considered that the world of Mr. Darcy and Pip were much more relatable to him than those of Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones, particularly his experiences as a single man of good fortune, like Mr. Darcy.
They got to bed on time that night, though Draco went thoughtfully. That didn't stop him taking her shirt off, however. When she laughed about this he told her with a grin that he had to take advantage of having her in his bed every night before they returned to school. She felt as though she was going to start having a much harder time saying no to him after this, however, especially when her only reason was that she felt Professor McGonagall would be disappointed if she knew they were getting up to that sort of thing at school.
Though, the founders, headmasters and headmistresses surely knew that their students had gotten up to things and still did. That was the whole reason that the girls' staircases wouldn't let boys up them, but the boys' would allow girls, because they had felt the girls had a little more judgment. She wondered if the staircase would allow Draco up it as a dog, and wondered whether she dare suggest it. If she did, he would probably be in her room every night.
The week passed far too quickly for Hermione's liking. She was enjoying spending her days with at Grimmauld Place with Harry, Ron, George, Ginny, Kreacher, Aunt Andy, Teddy, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and then returning with Draco to his flat that night. They were able to be a little more separate at Harry's, which meant that she enjoyed the time with him in the evening even more. She even took him into muggle London one day and found a bookstore where he bought multiple more books by Dickens, as well as a few other muggle classics. He had been watching bits of the news and after the films he was doing much better in muggle society.
Of course, he had strode down the street with all his lazy elegance before, but now she knew he was no longer just affecting it. The fact that he wasn't wearing his expressionless mask was a giveaway, for one. She was glad he felt more comfortable, but also glad that the fact they were in muggle London had allowed him to take her hand. Hermione noticed more than one female head turned by this grinning, handsome, and somehow aristocratic young man. He still wore his black slacks with a variety of shirts, all of which looked very flattering on him, but of course they would; he hadn't known where to pick up his post, but he knew where the closest muggle tailor to his building was.
What Hermione didn't notice was that she turned a couple of male heads, her wild curls and warm smile attracting their gaze. This meant that when they stopped for tea and one of the other customers was watching her, she was completely obvious. Draco paid and while they waited he took her hand again and gave her a kiss, making her smile at him. Once they were outside he laughed a little and told her about the man.
While Draco loved the attention, he had also wanted to make sure that people like the interested man in the tea shop knew that Hermione was his. If his kiss hadn't done that, that smile she had given him, the most warm and loving smile, the one she seemed to unconsciously reserve only for him, had convinced those around that she was not to be taken from him. She had protested that she hadn't even known someone was looking at her, and she couldn't really understand what there was to see anyway, making Draco laugh. He kissed her again and kissed her hand before he took it again as they continued. Hermione privately considered that he was charming when he got possessive.
Hermione had purposefully ignored the Prophet for the rest of the Easter holidays, not wanting to know what they had printed about her and Draco. Draco read it happily though, and updated her on what was in it. Rita Skeeter had tried to harass Harry and Ron at the Ministry, and Harry had allowed her to quote him that they were completely fine with it before telling her in no uncertain terms to leave them alone at work. Skeeter had wisely sent someone else to get a quote from the Malfoy's, however, because the Prophet reported that they hadn't even seen them before the gate to the manor had thrown them back. Draco had snorted with disgust when he read this. Every day of the holidays the Prophet had managed to find a new angle on the story. Hermione had hoped that the interest might have died down a little by the time they returned but she had always known it wouldn't.