First Encounter

I don't care
If he buys you nice things
Does his gifts come from the heart
I don't know
But if you were my girl
I'd make it so we'd never be apart

Hermione woke from her dream just as the second man was walking out the door. She could hear his voice and it sounded so familiar, yet she could never place a face to voice in her dreams.

She sat up and looked at Ron, still asleep, at her side. It was the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary and five years since they had graduated from Hogwarts. 'Hmmm…that must mean it has been five and a half years since I have seen Malfoy. I wonder what happened to him?'she found herself thinking. When she realised how strange the thought was, Ron stirred.

"Morning," he said, his voice groggy with sleep. "Happy anniversary, darling." They shared a short kiss and then Ron got out of bed to make his wife breakfast before she went to work. Ron had only gotten back the night before from his latest Quidditch match, having been the keeper for England's national team for three years now.

"So, what do you have planned for dinner, honey?" Hermione asked as she freshened up in the bathroom.

"Oh, you will see; that reminds me. I asked Harry and Ginny around for dinner tomorrow if that's okay with you."

"That's brilliant," replied Hermione as she dressed in her usual navy blue skirt, high heels and suit jacket, "I haven't seen Harry or Ginny in ages. It will be fun to catch up."

Hermione walked into the kitchen, which now smelled deliciously of freshly cooked blueberry pancakes and ice cream just waiting for her to devour. "You are too good to me Ron."

"Anything for my beautiful Hermione Weasley." He bent to give her a tender kiss, which Hermione accepted with pleasure. When he pulled away he said, "You better eat those before they get cold. I didn't cook them just to be looked at and then ignored while you have your way with me."

"Hey! You're the one that started kissing me!" Hermione exclaimed, loving the playful smile on Ron's face.

"Don't blame me for you getting carried away," Ron said, amused. He dished himself a plate full of pancakes and ice cream and tucked in. They spent the rest of their time together that morning eating and enjoying each other's company.

Hermione looked at her watch to find she was already six minute late for work. "Sorry Hun, but I gotta scoot. The minister won't be happy if the Head of the Department of International Magical Co-operation isn't in the important meeting with Australia and Germany we have this morning."

"Aww, that's not fair. Can't you just tell my dad I kept you?"

"Then he will probably be even more annoyed," stated Hermione and Ron watched her disapparate.


It was 1 o'clock before Hermione got out of the meeting with the Australian and German ministers, so Arthur told her to take a long lunch. She decided she would head down for something in muggle London and see what the news in their world was.

Since Voldemort's defeat at Harry's hand, the muggle world was back to being blissfully ignorant, with no idea about the wizarding world.

As Hermione was about to walk out the back entrance to the Ministry, someone came walking in through the door and she collided with them, headfirst.

"Hey," came a surprisingly familiar voice. "You might want to watch where you're going, lady."

Hermione rubbed her forehead, "Sorry, that probably was my fault. You're right; I wasn't watching where I was going. I just wanted to get out of here after the long meeting I just had." She babbled on and then looked up to see a blonde haired man standing in front of her, rubbing his own head.

"Granger?" asked the man.

"Umm… it's Mrs. Weasley now," she corrected him. "Ah, do I know you from somewhere?" She looked at him curiously.

"Oh don't tell me you don't remember me?" he said taking his hand away from his face to reveal a sinister smirk. Then it struck her.

"Malfoy?" she asked in disbelief.

"The one and only." he replied. "Well, now anyway. My mother died a year ago, in Azkaban."

"I'm so sorry to hear that."

"It's okay. She got her dying wish. That I would stay on the good side and not end up like my father. So, can I get inside?"

"Of course, sorry." Hermione stepped back to let Draco pass. "Hey, I was just going on my lunch break. Do you want to come with me and we can… catch up?" 'What the hell did I just do?' Hermione thought to herself. 'I haven't seen this guy in over five years and I'm asking him out for lunch.'

"I just got off working overtime on night shift at the office and am rather tired," Draco was procrastinating deciding on whether to accept the offer or not.

"Oh, that's okay. I'll just go on my own then" said Hermione. 'Nice going Hermione…wait, what am I saying? Isn't him not accepting a good thing?'

Meanwhile, Draco was thinking, 'Is she asking me out? Of course not, silly. She is married. But she still wants to catch up? It's a friendly invite. I knew I shouldn't have let Ron push me out of that tent five years ago. Maybe it would be my name Hermione had taken instead of his. Well, if you want a chance to change that, what better one than this? Even my dad wouldn't have stooped this low to get a girl, no… I'll accept, but just as a friend.'

"Now we can't have that. I couldn't let a friend go out by themselves," Draco finally managed, as Hermione turned and started to walk away from the door and out onto the street. Hermione turned her head back, with a smile on her face, to see Draco walking to stand beside her.

"Well then, where shall we go… friend?" she found it a bit weird using that word to describe Draco Malfoy, but it did seem to fit nicely. After all, he had been on the good side for a long time now. He could no longer be called an enemy and Hermione felt glad of that fact (for reasons she did not yet know).

As they walked down the street together, Draco asked, "So, where are we going?"

"Oh, I know this great café. It is owned by one of my primary school buddies and she makes a mean apple slice. The coffee is good too," Hermione added as an afterthought.

They walked the four blocks to the café, chatting all the while. Hermione told Draco about being married to Ron and how she had become the Head of the Department of International Magical Co-operation. Draco found this very interesting and they got to talk about what interesting places she had been and some of the sticky messes she'd had to get herself out of.

They arrived at 'The Hot Drop' and ordered some sandwiches as well as a couple of coffees with an apple slice for Hermione and a vanilla slice for Draco. They took a table outside, seeing as it was such a beautiful day. The sun was shining and no clouds were in sight.

"So, Malfoy," Hermione began their conversation again, "tell me what you have been up to all these years. Where have you been hiding out and do you have a special someone?"

"Oh, you don't want to talk about me," Draco said, taking a sip of his coffee. "I'd just bore you."

"Aww, come on. Your life can't be that bad. You said something about getting off nightshift earlier. Where do you work?"

"You seriously want to know?" Draco knew Hermione was a nice girl but why would she ever be interested in a guy like him. Besides, she was taken. Maybe she was just trying to be friendly.

"Yeah, I want to know, seriously," Hermione answered with her beautiful smile.

"Well, you gotta promise you won't laugh. It is probably going to sound really weird."

"I promise," said Hermione solemnly.

"After the war, I got a job with this law company and I ended up becoming a lawyer," Draco paused to see Hermione's reaction. But her smile was still there, with no obvious laughter trying to escape.

"That's great. Lawyers are always in need. Well, good ones anyway" she joked.

"Yeah, I haven't lost a case so far," Draco said.

Just as their conversation was about kick off again, who should happen to walk past but Hermione's husband, Ron.

At first, he just acknowledged his wife and continued walking. After a few more paces, he did a double take and looked back to realise the person sitting with his wife was Malfoy. I thought I told him to never show his face around any of my friends or me again. Not return five years later and have lunch with my wife. He walked back to the table they were sitting at and whispered out of the corner of his mouth to Hermione, while flashing a fake smile towards Draco, "What is hedoing here?"

"Dracois having a cup of coffee while talking to me," Hermione said in a normal voice, having nothing to hide from Ron. "Is there a law against that?"

There should be,Ron thought and then replied, again in a whisper, "No, I guess not. But I would prefer you didn't."

"Look Hermione. Maybe it would be better if I just went. I'm really tired anyway and I need to get some sleep," Draco said while getting up from his seat.

"Oh, that's not necessary. Ron was…"

"It's okay, I gotta be up tonight for work anyway. Maybe I'll see you around?"

"Yeah, maybe," Hermione said, disappointment in her voice as Draco walked away.


As Draco walked away from Hermione and Ron, the memories of the last time he'd seen them five years ago came flooding back to him. Ron was being controlling and possessive of Hermione. Draco didn't know whether what he was thinking was out of jealousy or just respect, but he knew Hermione didn't deserve a man that restricted who she could or couldn't see.

Why couldn't she have a friendly conversation over coffee with a male friend? He was sure Ron wouldn't act like that if it were Harry. Maybe it was just the fact he was a Malfoy and a former enemy. Or maybe it was because Ron didn't trust Hermione. Or even that he thought Draco might try and take Hermione away from him, as he had probably thought back when Draco was trying to save her life.

Whatever it was, Draco knew not to go looking for trouble with Ron. He was still seen, by some people, to be on the dark side. He didn't fancy going to Azkaban if he made a wrong move.

It was times like these Draco wished he had not backed down in that muggle tent but had seen that he had treated Hermione's poisoning properly.