Past Memories From A Phone Call Part Five

Dinggg Dongggg

"Hold on, I'll be right there!"

"Hello Ginny."

"Draco. Ooh, I don't suppose those flowers are for me."

"In your dreams."

"That's what I thought. Anyway, I don't want three measly roses. I'll get Hermione. Oh, come on in."

"Thank you."

"I'll be right back. Have a seat…..Hermione? Where are you?"

"Bedroom."

"I'm coming in."

"Alright."

"Wow, Hermione, you look great!"

"Thanks Gin. Is Draco here?"

"He's waiting for you in the living room."

"Oh great."

"Don't be nervous Hermione, even if Draco does look stunning and you haven't been out with him in ten years."

"Ginny, you really aren't helping."

"Sorry. Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

"Then go forth into the world, Hermione Granger."

"Anything to get away from you."

"That's the plan! I won't wait up for you."

"Then you should be in bed early."

"Just go Hermione."

"Okay, okay, I'm going. Bye Ginny."

"Goodbye. Have fun."

"Hey Draco."

"Hey. Here, have some flowers."

"Haha, thanks. You're certainly the charmer. Aw! Draco! I can't believe you remembered the three white roses!"

"Of course I remembered. How could I forget, Hermione? Are you ready to go?"

"You don't want to give me time to put my flowers in water?"

"Love, do you really think that I wouldn't put a charm on them so they wouldn't need water?"

"Oh…right….okay, let's go."

"Wow…Draco…nice car. I have no idea you liked Muggle things."

"Apparating all the time gets boring. Besides, this way I have some way to impress people. And I can't very well Apparate Muggle dates back to my house."

"You date Muggles, too?"

"Not long-term. Just do me a favor and get in the car already, Hermione. I don't want to be badgered about my dates on a date."

"Fine! So, where are you taking me? Oh, no, let me guess, it's a—"

"Surprise." "—Surprise."

"Yes, that's what I thought. I know you like the air of mystery and everything, Draco, but for once, could it not be a surprise?"

"No, sorry."

"We've never gone anywhere in a car together before."

"Well, things change."

"Apparently. For the better, I hope."

"After you see where we're going, you'll know that it's for the better."

"Oh good, so we're not going to some lousy old pub. Because you just always used to take me to pubs, you know, because you're just sooooooo tactless, Draco."

"I see your wit has grown for the better, too."

"Oh I was always witty, Draco, and you know it."

"You keep thinking that, Hermione. Hey! Don't stick your tongue out at me!"

"I was sure that my tongue was going to provoke some sexual pun. I'm amazed it didn't."

"Yea, well, you're just not sexually appealing to me anymore, love. I just want to date you for your brains and quick wit."

"Oh ha ha."

"What, no witty retort?"

"You look rather dashing tonight."

"You do too. But that wasn't witty, nor was it any sort of retort."

"It got me a compliment, didn't it?"

"You're sneaky Hermione."

"It got me too compliments, it would seem."

"Ah, but I'll get you back. You won't know where or when, but I will get you back."

"Draco…this is Muggle London."

"Why Hermione, I'm glad to see that you can state the obvious."

"But…why are we here?"

"Well, I do believe that it was on our trip to Muggle London that I got you three white roses that you adored so much."

"So we're going to—"

"You'll see."

"Ah-ha! We are! There it is!"

"Damn. You've gone and ruined the surprise."

"Well, it's a bit obvious, Draco. Why—hey, where are you going? The restaurant is back there…"

"I know. We're not going there."

"You're good."

"I know. Now we're here, so you can get out of the car."

"I'm glad I dressed up for this evening. This is a fancy place."

"Of course it is; do you expect anything less from me? So, shall we go in?"

"Of course."

"After you."

"What a gentleman you are."

"I try."

"Good evening sir, madam. Do you have reservation?"

"Yes, it's under Malfoy. Party of two."

"Oh, yes, right this way."

"Draco, this may be the nicest restaurant I've ever been in."

"Here are your seats. Enjoy your meal."

"Thank you."

"Are you sad that your name doesn't have any meaning here, Draco?"

"Very funny Hermione."

"Is our entire relationship going to consist of witty banter?"

"You started it, but no, it won't. We'll shag too."

"Draco! Do not smirk at me after a comment like that!"

"How about we just look at the menu."

"If you ask me, we're way too comfortable with each other for our first date."

"Are you suggesting that we pretend not to know one another?"

"Sure. I haven't had an awkward first date in a while, and I'm sure you just skip to snogging with your dates."

"Alright, fine. Hello, I'm Draco Malfoy."

"Hello, Draco, I'm Hermione Granger."

"Hi Hermione. Would you like to look at a menu?"

"Why thank you, I would. So tell me a bout yourself, Draco."

"Well, I'm a wizard and I attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I was Head Boy for a year while I was there. I helped to defeat Lord Voldemort, became an orphan, and I fell in love with the Head Girl. After school, I started to travel the world and met loads of famous people."

"My life sounds much the same, except for the end part."

"Does it now? Then doesn't it seem just a little bit silly to be pretending that we don't know each other? Our lives have too much of each other in them already."

"Now why, Mr. Malfoy, are you not satisfied until you are right?"

"Someone could argue that you're the same way, Miss Granger."

"You just don't want to have any fun."

"No, I just want to know you better. Get reacquainted with my first and last love."

"Can we at least talk without all of the sarcastic comments to one another? We're not really getting anywhere that way."

"As much fun as they are, I suppose we could cut them out of our conversation. So Hermione, what have you been up to for the past ten years?"

"Well…oh, hello."

"Good evening madam. May I take your order?"

"Oh…um…well, I'll have the chicken and clam dish."

"Chicken and clams…alright. And for you sir?"

"I'll have the penne pasta. And we'll take a bottle of your best chardonnay."

"Thank you. I'll be back shortly with your drink."

"As you were saying, Hermione?"

"Oh, yes. Well, after Hogwarts I went to the United States for a few years and student taught at a school over there. I thought that I wanted to be a teacher, as you know. Then, their Ministry offered me a job. I worked there for two years. I started to miss home so I moved back here. The American Ministry referred me to Scrimgeour and that's how I came to work at the Ministry."

"What about your love life? I'm sure you've had quite a few boyfriends in the last decade."

"While I was in the States I met someone in the Ministry. His name was Jordan."

"That's a woman's name."

"Draco, be nice! It can be a man's name too. Anyway, the two of us were together for the two years I worked at the American Ministry."

"Excuse me. Here is your chardonnay."

"Thank you."

"Continue, love."

"He was from Pennsylvania, if you know where that is. He proposed to me right before I came back to England. I turned him down."

"Why was that?"

"I wasn't in love with him. I wanted to be, but I wasn't. But enough about me, what about your love life?"

"Well…"

"Draco! Don't scoff and smirk like that. I don't want to hear about the massive amounts of sex you've had. Love life."

"I had a girlfriend a couple of year ago."

"Did you love her?"

"I don't think so."

"Sir, madam, your food."

"Oh, thank you."

"How is the chardonnay?"

"Excellent."

"Enjoy your meals."

"You know, Draco, I'm really glad that you convinced me to come with you tonight."

"I knew you would be."

"So tell me, when did you become interested in the Muggle world?"

"When I started to travel and I wouldn't find witches everywhere. For that, I needed to learn to drive a car."

"In other words, you didn't want to search for witches because you can't go for more than a few days without sex."

"You know me too well, Hermione."

"You've a bad addiction Draco. You could have a disease or have gotten someone pregnant."

"I'm not completely inconsiderate, Hermione. I do protect both of us every time."

"It's still dangerous. Do you use magical protection?"

"Yes, mother."

"Well, how do you manage that if they're Muggles?

"I usually know going into the date that we're going to shag."

"Do you use Muggle protection too?"

"Yes Hermione, now will you stop pressing me about my sex life? I thought that you were the one who didn't want to know about it."

"Are you magically protected now?"

"What?"

"You heard me, Draco. Are you magically protected now? Did you put a spell on yourself before you picked me up this evening?"

"No."

"Don't lie to me Draco. I can tell when you're lying."

"Fine. Yes, I did."

"Draco Lucius Malfoy, did you think that I would sleep with you on our first date?"

"Hermione, calm down! Don't raise your voice! I never know with you. Sometimes, when you're comfortable with someone, you like to be spontaneous. And so I thought that maybe…if I was lucky..."

"Draco!"

"You're not mad, Hermione, you're grinning. Ahh, I see now. You were hoping that I had…see, I told you you could be spontaneous."

"Well it's not being spontaneous now. Maybe I'll just have to surprise you later. You were too prepared already."

"It's too late to back out now, Hermione. Are you finished with your meal?"

"What? Yes. Wait…Draco—"

"Good. Let's go."

"But—wait!"

"I've been waiting for ten years. Get your ass out of that chair."