Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter franchise, nor anything affiliated with it.
Draco's POV
We're back to school on Monday, but I'm not sure I want this holiday break to stop. We haven't done much, but it's been nice and relaxing. Once the break is over we'll have to start thinking about exams and culminating projects. I also have to start thinking about putting together the exam itself for Muggle Studies. Hermione will be putting together the review package as she's pretty good at it, but it means I'll be responsible for writing the exam for all the different grades. It also means I have to read through all of the notes and study packages for all the grades before actually finding questions that would be suitable for them. At least Hermione knows most of the stuff from her heritage, but I'll have a huge amount of information bombarding me and overloading my brain.
Since today is the Saturday before we go back, I want to take Hermione on a proper date before we don't have enough time to do so. I know of a place in muggle London that has a separate section in the restaurant for wizarding folk. My mother used to take me there every now and then, usually on a day when she would be shopping in the wizarding clothing high streets. It's pretty formal, but they have really good and flavourful food. I got permission from McGonagall to apparate with Hermione there as long as we get back before midnight.
We've come up to our room after hanging out for the morning and afternoon with our friends. This time we went for a hike in the deep snow near the Forbidden Forest and Hagrid's hut. The snow was so deep that when we were walking, Blaise manage to trip over the wall as he was telling us a joke. There's been a lot more snow this year, more than there should be for this part of Scotland. Either someone's using magic on the weather or it's just been getting more extreme.
Hermione went into her room for a nap since we did a lot today and we've had a lot of late nights recently. Everything is all set for tonight, I just need to find a way to ask her out when she wakes up.
I enter my own room, and pull out a piece of parchment and a quill, to write a small note to her. When I'm finished I place it in a cream coloured envelope and then seal it with a small piece of wax. I walk out to her doorway while leaning on the wall for support, so that I can slip it under the door for her to see when she wakes up. I return to my room and get dressed for this evening in a suit since we'll have to pass by some muggles at some point.
I've just gotten out of my bathroom after changing and freshening up a bit, when my phone buzzes. I check the screen and see that Hermione's texted me.
What's with the fancy note? Why'd you want want me to text you?
I smirk to myself before going over to her door again. I try my best to stand up straight without support and then knock on her door. She answers fairly quickly and I'm met with her confused face surrounded by her extremely messy hair.
"What's going on, and what's with the suit and… flowers?" She gasps a little bit before continuing. "Did I forget a special occassion or something?"
"Oh no, not at all. I was wondering if you would like to come out with me to dinner in London? I have everything sorted out, in the meantime you can have these." I then hand her the small bouquet of wildflowers that I collected from the greenhouse with the help of Neville.
"Thank you so much and, umm, sure. I'd love to come, I just need some time to get ready seeing as how I'm guessing this is a fancy place. I can't exactly go in looking like some walking bird's nest now can I?" She says in a joking tone.
"Sure, go ahead. I have reservations set for 6:30, about 1 hour away from now, but I can have it moved up if you want."
"An hour is plenty of time. I better go now though."
"Right, see you soon then." I say. She nods then turns around and shuts the door behind her.
As soon as she closes the door, I lean against the wall. I take a deep breath and then enter my room. I gather a couple items to take with me consisting of my phone, my wand, and my crutches. I then head down to the common room and browse a bit of music on my phone. I like doing this every now and then so I'm not just listening to the same stuff over and over again. After a while I just twiddle my thumbs and wait when I hear a rustle behind me.
I turn around and I'm greeted with the sight of Hermione walking down the stairs like during fourth year and the night of the Halloween ball. She wears a cream coloured lacey long sleeved dress and her hair is pinned up half up half down with a few strands loose to frame her face. I don't think she's wearing any makeup, but she's put on some moisturizer. She also wears the necklace I gave her the night of the Halloween ball, but in this light it looks almost silver.
I walk over as steady as I can and take her left arm in my right while grabbing a crutch from my pocket and unshrinking it to use with my left arm.
"You look gorgeous tonight." I say. She smiles and replies.
"Well you look handsome as well. I can't believe you've managed to move down to crutches, and sometimes even just one. It's great progress. By the way, thank you for inviting me tonight."
"You're welcome, though we haven't actually left yet. How about we see how this goes before you thank me." I say in a teasing tone.
We walk down to the entrance hall and give the statues there a password that McGonagall gave us to open the doors. We continue down the path till we get past the wards for the castle so we can apparate down to London.
With a twist, we arrive in the bustling streets next to the restaurant. We walk out of the alley and journey a little further before I find the entrance to the place we're supposed to go.
We enter through the doors and go up to the counter to be seated. The main restaurant has a very old style to it, with lots of wood everywhere and dim yellow lights and candles everywhere. The ceiling has lots of wooden support beams and the floor is a hardwood with the same dark brown of the beams. When we finally get serviced, the man asks us a question.
"Have you guys heard the most recent story in the, the Daily...um."
"Prophet?" I offer.
"Ah yes, that's right. They say that the Minister is doing pretty well with his new campaign, I must say it's pretty good. In the meantime, is it just the two of you tonight?"
"Yes, the reservation is under the name of Malfoy."
"Right, this way then. Follow me." He says as he collects two menus and leads us to a stairway at the back and gestures for us to go up.
We walk up and he shows us to our table by a window overlooking the city.
"Your server will be with you momentarily." He then leaves us our menus before returning back downstairs.
"What was with the question about the newspaper? Surely they don't just ask informal questions like that all the time." Hermione asks me.
"This restaurant services both muggles and wizarding folk. In order to distinguish between the two in a more subtle way, they ask an open ended question that would be answered differently depending on your background. Wizarding folk are seated upstairs while muggles are on the ground floor."
"Wow, that's pretty cool. By the way, how do you know about this restaurant? It doesn't quite seem like something your family would go to since we're surrounded by muggles in this part of the city, no offence." I smile at her.
"None taken. Well, my mother was friends with the original owners of this restaurant, that's the only reasons she tolerated coming out to this part of the city. She used to take me here when I was younger and my father was out conducting business for the evening. It used to be the only time she could shop without him bothering her so she'd shop late and then have dinner." I reply.
"That makes sense." She says. After that we fall into an awkward silence.
The place has changed since I last saw it 8 years ago. There is now purple carpet on the floors instead of the hardwood floorboards it used to be. The wallpaper has stayed the same patterned cream style as before, but the lighting fixtures have been replaced to be cozier. There are a lot less people than there used to be, though the sound levels are the same. They have muffliato charms cast around each table to allow for privacy as much of the clientele are rich or business folk.
A waiter comes over to us and asks if we would like any drinks to start with.
"I'll have an iced water please." Says Hermione.
"I'll have the same, but could I have a slice of lemon in it as well?" I add.
"Of course." Our waiter says as he jots this down. "Are you ready to order or would you like a few minutes to decide?"
"A few more minutes would be great, thank you." I say.
He nods before walking off.
"What are you thinking of having?" I ask Hermione.
"I'm thinking about the seafood linguine, what about you? Also, do you want to get an appetizer to share as well?"
"I'm thinking about the pad thai noodles and chicken. I've never had it before and I like trying different foods. In terms of appetizers, I know that the stuffed mushrooms are really good. They're stuffed with cream cheese and cheddar and covered in a thin layer of garlic butter and breadcrumbs."
"That's sounds pretty good. I think we should be ready to order then." Just as she says this, the waiter comes back to ask if we know what we want yet.
"We'll have one seafood linguine, one pad thai noodles, and one stuffed mushroom appetizer please." He nods and collects our menus from us, then walks away as he writes our order onto his notepad.
"So have you been thinking about what we should do for the presentation component of our muggle studies project? I know most of the class has their ideas ready, but we haven't had a lot of time to really do our work." Hermione says.
"Actually I had an idea a couple days ago. What about doing another interactive activity with transportation, similar to the one we were supposed to do with Professor Carrington, however we could do it on either the Hogwarts grounds or the Manor grounds seeing as how I have a lot of land that isn't being used. It'll take some work and convincing McGonagall and the Hogwarts' Board of Directors, but I think it could work. For things like airplanes, we could use the simulators that pilots use to train. In fact if we do that, we could even try getting a simulator for a rocket ship as well. Things like bullet trains may prove to be more difficult, but cars should be simple enough."
"That's a really good idea, and I'm glad you've been thinking a lot about this, but how on Earth will we pay for all of it?" replies Hermione with a bit of concern in her voice. However her eyes betray a certain kind of wonder at my creative suggestion.
"Well even though the Ministry taxed the Death Eater families quite heavily after the war, my mother has a very large art collection that is worth millions, if not billions, of galleons that I wouldn't mind selling a percentage of. It's not like it's being used in the Manor right now."
"Are you sure? I mean this is just a school project."
"Well, the class missed out on what would have been a very interesting field trip, if my research tells me anything, and I think it would be wonderful for them to be able to experience it all first-hand."
"That's generous of you, but you had better let me plan this all out and try to procure the necessary equipment. I feel like I'm not going to be able to contribute as much as I'd like with this project."
"Don't worry, I'm counting on you finding out how to get all of the equipment seeing as how you're better at that stuff and have more general knowledge on that stuff than I do."
Hermione smirks and nods before looking down at her hands.
"So, how are things with your dad? If I remember correctly, he's in Azkaban right now. Do you know if anything happened to him during the break out back in… November?" She asks me.
"I haven't had much of an opportunity to visit him, but I also kind of forgot about him in all honesty. To add to that, I haven't been in the best physical condition so visiting was pretty much out of the question. I sent a letter to him awhile back informing him about Mother's death, but I never received a response. I might try to visit him soon seeing as how I'm better now and first semester is coming to an end."
"That's good. You know you should probably inform him at some point about the two of us. He'll want to know."
"I know, and I know that he isn't as biased and prejudiced as he used to be, but I'm still scared that he'll overreact. Especially considering that he's been in Azkaban for a few months now and it could have addled his brain."
"Don't worry. You'll have to do it at some point, and it would be better to do it sooner so he'll be more sane. Besides, hearing the news from you will be better than him hearing it from any of the Death Eaters we sent back to Azkaban after the airport. " She says. Her words comfort me a bit, but not much.
At this point the appetizer comes and we start eating. Their mushrooms are just as good as I remember and I savour the taste for as long as possible. Just as soon as we finish that, our main course comes and we dig in. The pad thai is wonderful and there's so much flavour in it. We both try a bit of each other's food and the linguine that Hermione ordered is really rich and creamy.
When we finish everything, the waiter brings our bill and I pay it through the tab for my family. We then leave and take a walk down the street.
"Hey, I know this area!" Says Hermione once we've walked for about a block. "There's a really nice dessert shop and bakery near here that isn't too pricey. It's just one or two more blocks down."
"That sounds like a good place to go for dessert then. You lead the way." I say.
We walk down and then enter a small shop that seems pretty quiet. It's fairly cozy and there are lots of armchairs and fancy wooden tables everywhere, the kind of furniture I have in my family's library. Hermione leads me to the counter and shows me the selection of tea cakes and other confections.
"Do you have any idea about what's good or…" I ask.
"Well the last time I came here with me family we had this little orange chiffon cake. It may look like a lot, but it's very light and sweet. They have a smaller one that would be the perfect size for us to share. Do you want to try that?"
"Sure." I say.
"In that case, I'll go buy it since I actually have muggle cash." She says while gesturing to one of the chairs for me to sit down.
She comes back pretty soon with the cake and we sit at the spot I chose near the window. She gives me one fork and then uses the other. We spend about 20 minutes sitting there eating the cake and chatting about little things before we decide it's time to head back.
We walk back to the alley at a very casual pace, enjoying the fresh night air and the buzz of the people milling around. Once we're back to the spot we arrived at, we apparate back to Hogsmeade.
We trek back up to the castle, and then to our dorm, giving all of the necessary passwords along the way.
"Thank you for coming with me this evening Hermione, I had a wonderful time." I say.
"You're welcome, but thank you for inviting me out and coming up with the idea in the first place. It was amazing and the restaurant was great." she says. "Goodnight Draco, try to get some sleep. We only have one more day before we're back in school."
"Don't remind me." I say. "And goodnight Hermione, you should try getting some sleep as well. I know you have insomnia too."
"Goodnight." she says with a sad smile before walking up the stairs to her room.
I follow behind her up the stairs and open my door. Then I get changed immediately before climbing in to bed. That night, I dream of cakes, curly hair, my father, and simulators.
Author's Note: I managed to get my computer back early, but it still took awhile to copy from my notebook to laptop. Thanks for all your support. Please review! All feedback is welcome. Have a great week all of you, till next time.