Out of embarrassment of myself, I stand up from my chair and proceed to the exit.

Chapter 6: Considerations

02-04 Sunday (1425 hrs)
Exit of The Lenviosa Restaurant

Once I am out into the fresh air, I feel a strong hand grip my left shoulder. I try to shrug it off but it would not go. I turn to look at the owner of this stubborn, stupid hand. Malfoy. Who else?

I cross my arms and say "Hey!" boringly. I seriously do not like what happened back in there. That was disturbing to say the least!

What he says next only makes me feel worse. "Hey… Come on. You can't be this petty and… what, stupid?" He teases. Superb way to approach a blazing clever-with-spells young witch.

I draw out my old but somehow, still spotless wand from my robe's inner pocket. "Hands off! I want to have nothing to do with you, Malfoy! You'll get my resignation letter first thing in the morning tomorrow. Just wait." Big mistake. You know you'll regret this, Hermione Granger.

"You know you'll regret this, Hermione." Whoa, easy on the mind-reading.

"I don't give that a damn, you ignorant ferret. How can -?" I stop really short. Surrounding us are a couple of curious wizards and witches. I take a scan around the broad dusty street, everything is quiet, like they were afraid that they might miss the world's Biggest Pureblood versus Muggleborn War. How fun.

After a full second of staring eye to eye with many of these nosey parkers, I sense the same strong grip pulling me away to a dark and deserted alley which leads to Knobturn Street.

"What?" I spat, making sure he got the venom hiding openly in my word.

"What what?" he asks incredulously, "I just saved you from more embarrassment, didn't you realise? You could at least express some kind of gratitude. A kiss might suffice." A dashing smile forms. Prick. I snort in response. He caught on quickly and says, "Well, after all you do owe me lots even before this."

"Oh?"my quiet exclamation was dripping wet with sarcasm. "How so?"

He let out a cold laugh and shook his head lightly. "Tsk, Hermione. Your job. I gave you a job." He said, stressing the word 'I' like it's definition is 'Merlin'.

"Ha, Malfoy!" I manage my best death glare, "I said I am quitting."

"You won't want to. Trust me, you won't."

I consider his words for a moment. Maybe, just maybe, he is right. However, there has got to be another job out there that suits me and is not Malfoy-associated. I hope. I tell him what I thought, "Well, I can't say things for sure. Maybe I wouldn't find another job out there that could satisfy my needs…" his face is thoroughly unbearable. "BUT you are still missing the point."

"Which is?" He raises that thick light-coloured eyebrow of his.

"Which is I'm still quitting." I reply. My mind makes great leaps as I joyously notice the large change of his expression. From Heaven to Hell. "Yeah, I know I might just be desperate again for jobs but I'll never ever beg you." I give him a pleasant smile.

I am going home to finish a nice long polite resignation letter. Ha! That will feel nice. Quitting on my first day!

"Hermione?" Malfoy asks. I focus my attention back on him as he steps an inch closer to my current position. Something really strange just caught that attention of mine. That gleeful smirk on his face. While he is still smirking down at me, I realise my heart pumps a little faster than normal. Good Merlin. "Did you forget the contract you signed this very morning right before the end of the interview?"

The contract? Right.

I hate my life. With the very exception of the portion of my life where I was still a young kid to age eighteen when I was still carefree and adventurous. If only life never follow a pattern. Like when you use up your luck in the early part of your life, you suffer at the next half part of it.

"Do you remember it now?" Malfoy's smirk grows wider and wider with every millisecond passed. "It says that you are to work for two full years before you can choose to quit or continue. If you breach it right now, you are to pay a total sum of one thousand galleons… Need I continue?"

Okay, contract. One thousand galleons. Do I have that much? "No." I mutter. "And I thought I'm only on probation."

"Yup, dear. And I have no wish to kick you out of my company so you are still on probation and the contract." His disgusting smirk grows so wide, it seems like it is made of super elastic material. One day, I will rip it off his smelly face, literally. "Great! Finally we reach this agreement. Do you still want your lunch?"

"No." Unless they are cooking up the Malfoy clan for their specialty.

He wraps his right arm around my shoulders and a weird tingle runs down the entire length of my spine. "Alright, then. To the company."

I shrug off his arm and Disapparate immediately.

02-04 Sunday (1428 hrs)
Entrance of Majix Enterprise

Ahh… The air smells so fresh without a Malfoy tainting it. Malfoy-free moments are getting rarer and rarer these days and I do not know why. I wish I knew because I may be able to reverse it then.

"Hermione, why treat me like… like a… um…" Bad air.

As he struggles for the correct word, I supply, "Like vermin? Well, that's because you are vermin." I stomp to the lift.

He laughs nonchalantly, "You will change your opinions soon."

"You wish." I mutter.

"Ouch, Hermione."

I step into the lift and press the button hurriedly when Malfoy dashes in. A mental image of him stuck in between the sliding doors of the lift flashes past my mind. Nice…

Jabbing the button with a curvy '21', I curse and swear that this lift can actually go at such snail speed.

"Do you mind?" He asks, clearly referring to my low rumble of mild obscenities. I steal a look at him.

Actually, he's quite handsome… I mean, I did notice this before. Like whenever I see him, besides the usual loathing, I feel attracted. 'Nothing's perfect in the world.' That's why. Given his totally appealing looks, he has got all the rights to turn bad at his core. If only he is not the Mudbloods-are-scums-whose-only-rightful-position-is-under-my-foot Malfoy, I might like the way he's been acting around me lately…

To hell with the above! What was I thinking?

"Twenty-first floor. The Editing Department of the Daily Prophet." A cool female's voice rings, follows by the sliding open of the doors…

Malfoy is about to exit the lift when I unexpectedly grasp his wrist and pull him back. There is some more talking to do.

His face shows puzzlement and interest. "So you've finally been touched by my confessions and want to bring me on a date? All you have to do is ask, I'll be glad to oblige."

"Draco Malfoy, my last warning to you is this: you better stop being so egotistical. It seriously is getting on my nerve." I hiss through tightly clenched teeth as I press the '1' button.

He chortles and responds, "Since when have I not been getting on your nerve? I mean, come on Hermione, I am a different person now. I love others more than I love myself nowadays."

"Ha-ha," I reply. "The day you change is the day I marry a Slytherin." Hmm, this sounds wrong.

He looks at me straight in the eye and says, almost seductively, "Oh, you never know." The way he said it… it was horrifying. You know, like those times when you think the seer's a phoney but what he said turned out to be true? I involuntarily shudder slightly. He turns to look at the doors while digging his hands deep into his pockets. "So… why drag me back in here and where are we going?"

"We," I say, after recovering from a certain shock, "are not we. You and I are going to somewhere where the both of us can talk."

"Ah… And where's that?" Malfoy bobs his brows a few times.

I open my mouth to speak. An abrupt crash left my mouth ajar. The crash, followed by the dimming of the orange light above, caused me to gasp. I turn to Malfoy and saw him holding out his wand in a ready-for-anything manner. Great, I even forgot I am a witch. I quickly fumble for my wand.

"Lumos. Hermione, are you fine?" Malfoy comes over to me and took my shoulder by his left hand.

"I – I'm fine." I say, wand out. "What do you think happened?"

"No idea. Have you heard of any enchanted lift breakdown in the middle of servicing?"

"No." I reply honestly. And then I laughed. "I – I just can't believe enchanted lifts can… yeah…" I gesture with some waves of my hands.

He smiles and says, "Me too. I'm going to find out what went wrong once we're out of here. Meanwhile, maybe we can try spelling this lift to make it work?"

"Eh… well, it's a fine suggestion but… Oh wait, I think this door is made of spell-reflecting material!" I exclaim, knocking at the door and studying its details.

"Hell, I forgot! Yeah, I had this to prevent people from using spells in the lifts, you know. They might blow up the lift if they err…" Malfoy explains, "Now what?" he questions, scratching his head. He looks just like a young child solving a one-plus-one-equals-to-two question.

Accidentally, I let out a smile. "I think we have to wait. Bad thing you don't have an emergency button here…"

"Wizards need no emergency buttons. We have wands." He defends.

"Wands are useless in this situation you realise?"

Silence.

"Great. So now you know." I sigh. "Let's try the primitive method – yell for help."

Malfoy looks appalled by my suggestion. "You go ahead. I like this current situation better, thank you."

I knew it. I turn away from him and form a circle round my mouth with my hands. "He- " I didn't have a chance to finish yelling. Because another yell came in.

"Hey, anybody in there?" A soft, muffled voice calls.

Hope flickers in my mind. "Yes. Please help! There are two of us here!" I reply with a deafening shout.

"This will take a moment. Wait!" And that was all. Maybe the person rushes off to find professionals already.

I gaze back at Malfoy. "You sure can scream." He comments.

I retort with a poke in his ribs.

"That's not how you use a wand."

"What? I'm just maximising its use." I say while settling myself on the floor.

Malfoy comes to my side and seated himself a few inches from me. "So… is this a fine enough place to tell me what you wanted to say?" He asks inquisitively.

I sigh. The thing is I am not too sure of what to say. I just want to know what's going on with him. But I don't think he will tell me the truth… "Yes."

"Go on…" He prompts, looking at me.

I look back at him. I try to look deeper into his eyes… maybe I can discover something more in there. The profound grey eyes are sparkling under the faint wandlight. I can't see anything. His eyes cannot reveal much about him. Maybe he really has changed. Changed into a person with more personality than the past when his eyes reflect only hatred and loathe. My eyes travel to his other facial features. His nose... his lips... and cheeks. I force my eyes to go back to his eyes. "There's just this thing that I keep thinking about you."

"Oh. So you have been thinking of me, huh?" He replies, sounding somewhat pleased with himself.

"Get a grip, Malfoy. It's just that I find it difficult to talk to you… it was a mistake to take on the job. You made a mistake to hire me. Why make our lives so unbearable? You keep bothering me with all the little things and bigger things… I mean, I don't know. What do you want? You don't have to do all these things okay? If this is a way to torture me, you can be more direct." I pour out part of what I feel towards him. I do not know what I said, actually. They didn't make sense, at least, not to me.

Silence engulfs us. It is really weird, sitting here peacefully with him. Alone with him in this quiet space, I can consider more about him. If he really changed, I guess… it won't hurt to befriend him.

But he will never change. I doubt he will.

Why am I contradicting myself?

"Hermione." His voice broke my inner debates, thankfully. He shuffles in his position as he turns me around to face him. Unwillingly, I did so. As we sit there, with his hands on my shoulders, we stare into each others' eyes again. Again, nothing shone in his eyes. There is a block of something shielding his emotion sea. "I know how weird, inappropriate, silly and impossible this is but… feelings can be modified. And you know, the past hatred I had for you… it was long wiped out of me, together with the animosity I have for other Muggleborns… I'm quite confused with my feelings too, sometimes. But I can't fight it. It's all you. I think… I'm in love with you, Hermione Granger. Since I saw you at Flourish and Blotts, I sort of find myself attracted to you. Yes, you of all people."

This time, I feel more than nothing. It's the second time today and I had certainly learnt something from the first experience. I have to look at him first, to search for any signs of pretence before making any judgement.

"What do you mean, Malfoy? You know you don't and won't like me. Okay, so there's a small chance that you may not hate me. But you won't like me. Trust me, I know you enough to say that." I reply with my eyes still locked with his misty grey ones.

At this point, Malfoy groans, "Hermione, you still don't understand, do you? Why make life difficult for me? I really like you. Stop stereotyping Malfoys and Slytherins. When I like somebody, I like her with a passion – "

"But in my case, I would think that you hate me with a passion." I retort.

He sighs, his head bows slightly. "Do you think we have a communication gap?"

I hesitated, "Was that supposed to be funny?"

"No?"

"Actua –"

"Sorry. But you two will have to wait till nightfall before they come to repair! Hang in there! Only a few more hours to go!" The same voice came and went. Then, it is just down to us again.

"Malfoy! I can't believe I'll be here with you for a few more HOURS! I want to –"

"Woman, calm down will you? It's just too bad we didn't really eat just now. It only ten to three and there's still a long way to go."

I calm myself at his words. He's right. And I am not going to panic. I examine us sitting cross-legged together and think how nice it is to be like this if we are not trapped in a lift.

Still, the eye contact has not been broken. It is crazy. I keep looking at his eyes and he keeps looking at me. Blinking is impossible here.

"Hermione…" He breaks the magical silence, "Do... you still hate me?"

I just continue to stare at him. There is no answer to that question.

"I mean, from what you said, I think you are not ready to accept me and the changes and… everything. But I just want you to know that it's all simple. I'm just a different person. We hadn't seen each other for such a long time… I know how it feels when there're these changes." Malfoy admits.

I smile again. "Fine, let's just be friends okay? I'm sorry for the stereotype but I still don't feel comfortable. So maybe there'll still be times when I reject you…" I offer him my hand. He takes it and we shake hands gladly.

I like his hands. They are big, warm, and incredibly comfortable to hold. However, time has come to separate my hand with his. "If there's any chance when we can be just a little more than friends, tell me." Malfoy informs.

With a laugh, I reply"We'll see, alright?"

His face, which is as straight as ever, still radiates all his charm to me. The way certain stands of his hair fall into his eyes... It takes a lot of self-control to keep myself from pushing them away for him. "You are so beautiful."

He's just being kind. I think I am just going to avada kedavra myself. "You too." Greeeaaaat! Way to go, Granger! People will think you want him or things like that.

Malfoy lifts the corners of his mouth into a shy smile. Was that really SHYNESS? From a MALFOY? If so, I'm ready to believe that I'm completely insane. He inches forward and gives me a polite peck on my forehead. He then pulls his head back slightly to look at me.

There is nothing much to look at, actually. Just the usual look of total surprise one gets when a person who is an enemy minutes ago kisses you. I stand up quickly and retreated to the other corner of the lift. I sense that his eyes follow me all the way and I just ignore him. I think I will talk to him after thinking through what has just happened.

My feelings are like mash potatoes.

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love, LD.