A/n: for those of you who haven't noticed, I edited the second chappie, so this one might not make any sense. The first part is in italics, because it is Hermione telling the story, and is sort of in flashback mode. Ok?

Chapter3: Tell Me a Story

Hermione Granger looked around the crowded coffee shop, and sipped her tea pensively. Her "date", if you could call him that, was late, and for once she was not surprised. The posh, beautiful heir Draco Malfoy would expect his women to wait for him, and wait she did. She just hoped he would damn well hurry up. The older couple in the booth next to her table were starting to stare. Of course they were staring at the thin wooden rod in her pocket that they now knew as a wand. After all, the Statute for Wizarding secrecy had been dissolved, and she, for one, was royally pissed. These muggles were treating her like some sort of freak. Giving them a glare, she slid her finger against the tip of her wand. The couple quickly returned to their coffee.

"Having fun are we, Granger?"

Malfoy's slow drawl hissed from next to her. Clever. He had managed to sneak into the other chair without her even noticing. Damn Clever. She had to make sure it would never happen again.

She gave him a civil smeil. "How are you, malfoy?"

He laughed. "You know, Granger, you wouldn't have agreed to meet me here if you had just wanted to continue our current relationship."

She scoffed at the word "relationship".

"That is hardly the word I would use to describe it."

"Our," he paused, "Co-existence then, if you will. What I was getting at is that if we wish to make amends, or at least word together somehow, we should start calling each other by our given names. Please," he placed an outstretched hand on the table, "call me Draco." He quirked an eyebrow, and gave a patented Malfoy-esque smirk.

She raised her own eyebrow in turn, and placed her hand in his. "Hermione."

He nodded, then raised her hand, and kissed it. "A Pleasure," he said, with a cheeky grin. She rolled her eyes, and took another sip from her tea.

The waitress walked over, and Draco ordered a shot of espresso with a slice of cheesecake. Hermione looked impressed.

"So you do have a soft side," she commented.

"if you could really call a penchant for cheesecake that," he said, then leaned back with an evil look in his eyes. "So, I heard you finally put that sick animal down."

She was puzzled. "What on Earth are you talking about, Mal…..Draco?"

He stared, then enunciated, "The sick……..pathetic……ruddy….tag along dog….excuse of a boyfriend that you had for about 3 years. His name was…..Weasley, am I correct?"

Her mouth dropped open. "How dare……" she started, but he cut her off.

"Don't even bother trying to dictate Weasley's merits to me, Hermione," he spat. "People like him have ruined it for everyone. His father's bloody suggestion that we all should 'stop deceiving', and 'integrate' was the hugest load of pure bullshit I have ever heard! Why, even self-righteous demi-god Potter protested that! He knew how mudbl…..muggles reacted to wizards like us in their midst!"

Hermione blushed. "Draco, don't say that in here. What if someone hears?"

Draco stared into her eyes. "If the Weasley integration plan had really worked, I wouldn't have to worry if someone heard me. Face it, Hermione. Its Weasley's fault that that Muggle policeman is targeting us right now."

She looked into the window behind her, and sure enough, a policeman was string at her and Draco whilst talking into his radio. She turned to look back at him.

"I think we should leave," he said. She nodded. As they stood up, their waitress ran over, carrying the espresso and cheesecake on a tray. Without a word, Draco downed the shot, and threw a handful of wizard change on the table.

"That should cover it," he said to the alarmed teenager. "Ta."

Hermione looked at the young girl with compassion. She probably had no clue to what was going on around her. To her, Hermione and Draco were just 2 young adults, rude maybe, and rich looking, who said funny things, and carried odd money. She probably never watched the news, or know of wizards, aside from the small bit of gossip she got from her friends. She was just doing her job.

Hermione leant over, and whispered into her ear, "I envy you," then ran after Draco's retreating back, and disapperated.

A mob of police charged the shop seconds after the two wizards had left. The chief muttered something about a planned conspiracy, and turned his eye to the shocked and confused young girl. She surrendered Draco's payment, and they snatched it out of her hands.

"We need this place shut down for a while," the policeman said. He pointed at the waitress. "You. You're going with us."

She followed another cop, scared out of her wits. Her vision began to cloud, she could already see her boss telling her she was fired. What she didn't see was the face of a young man with piercing green eyes, staring at her through the window.

"How many more bystanders will get crushed in this freedom fight," we wondered, then walked quietly away.

"Draco had quickly gotten me set up with his surviving relations, who provided me with room and board. In return, I helped him and some others make plans for overthrowing the government. What I didn't know was that at the time, he and I were wanted by the ministry, reason being that we started a 'riot' in that small coffee shop in Edinburgh."

Minerva McGonagall, and a few others came to listen in on Hermione's story. She cleared her throat, and continued.

"This alerted some of Draco's 'old friends', and soon we were associated again with the Death Eaters. They were actually all on the right path at the time, and had some good ideas. We had some documents on what we were to do, and even devised a small weapon ti aid us. Then Voldemort re-appeared, and all hell broke loose."

She shivered, remembering the horror.

"He seized the plans. I have no idea what he did with them, but I have the feeling that that is where his superweapon came from." Hermione paused. "I thought nothing good coule ever come out of that time, but something did. I married Draco."

Small sighs echoed across the room, and Ron grimaced. Hermione nervously twirled her golden band around her finger, and started up that story….

Draco fretted nervously. However small and low-scale this wedding was, the waiting was this hell for the young groom. He had proposed to Mione just 2 weeks before, which was just a month before the Reformation of the Circle, the ceremony that would start the new order of the Death Eaters. Draco had wanted her to be at his side for the moment. He wanted someone he could trust, and most of all, someone he could love.

The room hushed, and the door opened. An unknown, hooded Death Eater walked her up the aisle, and she turned to stand next to her intended. The Dark Lord himself would be performing the ceremony, an ancient wizarding ritual, and he would tolerate no interjections of muggle culture.

Voldemort took a heavily bejeweled dagger from a stone box, and pricked each of their fingers so that two drops of blood from each finger would fall onto his pale, waxy hand. He mumbled a few words, and the ruby drops transformed into 2 red tinged wedding bands. With a fluent strand of Latin, he handed each a ring, and they exchanged them, somehow knowing exactly what to do. Then, following more Latin, they kissed, and everything seemed right.

"It was around that time that Death Eaters from all over came to join us."

McGonagall nodded. "I would assume that was the time Severus rejoined the circle."

Hermione smiled. "Yes, that would explain his surprise when he saw I was still alive. After the reformation, all Death Eaters are masked at all times when meeting."

Coming closer, Ginny inquired, "When did you have your baby?"

"About 1 ½ years later. That was what made me want to escape the Death Eaters. That and the fact that their attention had turned from the government to the Muggles. I didn't want our little Fiona to grow up with them all hovering around her."

"And here you are now," Minerva said, and she hugged Hermione and her petite baby. "You must be tired. We can all hear the rest of the story later. For now, you need rest."

Hermione couldn't agree more