~six~

Draco jogged briskly across the courtyard at the front of the student digs. A relentless autumnal drizzle quickly drenched his hair as he returned to the flat after spending the morning in the library working on his study. As soon as he opened the door to the flat, his stomach churned as he heard the sound of Hermione's voice coming from within. The dreaded day of Hermione's birthday had finally rolled around.

The couple were sitting on the sofa, and it appeared that Justin had just presented Hermione with her gift, as a fancy picnic basket, garnished with a big pick bow lay open on the coffee table. Lying at its side was a bottle of champagne and two wrapped gifts that were clearly the two books Draco had somehow ended up suggesting.

Hermione looked up and smiled brightly at Draco as he made his way over to the lounge.

"Hi."

"Happy birthday," he replied with a small smile in return. "I, um… got you a gift. Let me just..." he trailed off with a nod towards his room, quickly heading off in that direction.

"Oh? You didn't have to do that!" she called after him.

Draco returned a moment later with a thin, flat, square parcel, wrapped in metallic red paper and a gold bow. He handed it to her, stating quietly that she didn't need to open it right now and that he hoped she would like it.

She shook her head incredulously and immediately began to open her gift.

Justin, having an inquisitive look on his face as he observed the interchange between the pair, began to lead the conversation around to his own gift.

"So… the weather's not exactly on our side for my little picnic idea, is it?" he suggested, as Hermione's face lit up at The Beatles' Abbey Road record that Draco had given her. She grinned brightly at him.

"Thanks Draco. And… no Justin. I guess we're going to have to postpone it. I don't even think a shield charm will remedy it?"

Draco, went over to the kitchen to make himself a brew, unable to suppress the satisfied grin on his face as he continued to listen in on their chat.

"Hmm. So… I'd suggest dinner…"

"No, I can't Justin. After you said that you wanted to spend time together during the day today, I promised Ginny I'd go over to hers later for a girls' sleepover. Wedding planning and all that. Sorry."

"Oh don't be silly. No need to apologise. So… how about a spot of lunch then? And we'll have our special picnic on another, drier day. How does that sound?"

"Perfect!" came Hermione's reply.

"Wedding planning?" Draco enquired, perching on one of the tall stools in the kitchen.

"Yes, Harry and Ginny plan on getting married next year. He proposed during the summer holidays."

Draco raised his eyebrows as he took a slurp of his tea. "Potter and Weaselette eh?"

"They've been dating for ages, Draco, since before the war. Didn't you notice how often Harry came to visit Hogwarts during eighth year?"

"Nope," he replied quickly. "Was too busy keeping my head down."

Justin made a small, grumpy sound that sounded a little like "Hmph", earning sharp glances from both Hermione and Draco, before he quickly added "Well, I think it's great. Childhood sweethearts and all that? Anyway," he said jumping to his feet and offering Hermione his hand to pull her up. "Shall we go for a little… birthday nibble?"

As he said it, he leaned in and nuzzled Hermione's neck and she squirmed away from him with a small giggle and a flush of what Draco thought looked like embarrassment.

"Alright, let's go then," she replied, going to collect her coat from the stand by the door to the flat. As she passed Draco, he noticed that she still had a slightly embarrassed expression, and seemed to not want to meet his eyes.

She put on her coat as Justin came over to fetch his own and she called out to him.

"Thanks again for the gift, Draco. I really like it." And with a click of the door, the couple were gone.

Draco jumped down off the kitchen stool and walked over to the lounge, taking another swig of his drink. He saw the birthday card that Justin had given Hermione lying on the table alongside the picnic basket. It had a picture of a large bouquet of flowers on the front, and reminded him of ones he had owled over to his great aunt as a child.

Draco sorted out some lunch for himself and then returned to his studies in his room for a few more hours. He had hit upon something that he was sure was going to open up a whole realm of possibilities in the field of memory loss and restoration, and had recently found himself filling many hours of his spare time with his research.

At just before 5pm, the floo fired up and Theo called out from the lounge.

"Malfoy, you twat! Where are you hiding?"

Draco tossed his quill down, stretched and walked out into the lounge to greet his friend.

"Theo," he replied. "To what do I owe this honour?"

"Well," Theo replied as he sat down with a bounce on the nearest sofa, "it just so happens that the last time I saw you, you were getting a bit friendly with that saucy little curly haired witch in the Leaky. So I thought you might want to come for a few bevvies and fill me in?" he suggested, waggling his eyebrows up and down.

Draco sighed and sat down opposite him, sadly shaking his head, recalling the evening that Theo had taken him out after their disastrous lunch with Justin.

Theo noticed his friend's demeanour and immediately balked.

"For the love of Morgana's tits, Malfoy, please don't tell me that you fucked things up?!"

Draco screwed up his eyes and rubbed his hand across his face and stubbly chin.

"I brought her back here, ok?"

"You did?!" Theo barked enthusiastically. He leaned forwards and punched his friend on the shoulder in a congratulatory gesture. "You old snake, you! I knew you still had it in you! So… did it work then? Taking your mind off Granger and all that?"

Draco looked up at the ceiling, taking a deep breath.

"Not exactly, no." he replied.

"What? What do you mean? I mean, last I saw, she was seconds away from jumping on you in the pub. So you're not telling me things didn't continue in the same vein once you got back here?"

Draco stood up and went to get his jacket from the coat stand.

"Well, we came back here and… you know, things were going well, I suppose…"

"How well?" Theo asked, jumping up and walking over to his friend as he pulled on his sleeves.

"Really well," came Draco's reply with a suggestive raise of his eyebrows. "We were in my room, and she was heading… down there."

"Ha! I knew it! The minute I saw her I thought 'blowie' for sure!"

Draco paused with a look of confusion on his face for a moment. Shaking his head, he continued his sorry tale as they left the flat and jogged down the stairs to the apparition point.

"I was just getting close, and you know when you're getting close to shooting your load and you get all these mental images in your head?"

"Sure," Theo replied. "I'm always picturing pornographic scenes of your mum when I come."

Draco froze to the spot, staring at Theo with abject horror.

"For fuck's sake, Theo!"

"What?" he replied with an innocent shrug of his shoulders. "Ah, come on, mate. Just having you on. I haven't been picturing your mum during sex!" he assured Draco with a pat on the back, followed by a barely audible: "Not for a few weeks at least" as Draco continued to lead the way down the final few stairs, oblivious to his friend's mutterings.

"So anyway, I grabbed hold of her hair..."

"Ho ho! A light bit of BDSM eh?"

"Annnd" Draco continued, pointedly making an effort to get to the end of his story without further interruption.

"I may have started to imagine it was Hermione's hair, which made me totally lose control of myself."

"So?" Theo asked, non - plussed. "What did you do? Make her choke or something? 'Cause I'm surprised a little goer like her would've minded…"

"Nope. Worse than that. I accidentally called her Hermione while I was coming down her throat. Twice."

This time it was Theo's turn to freeze on the stairs. Draco turned back to look his friend in the eyes with a guilty expression.

Theo took one look at his friend and promptly burst out laughing.

"Oh I'm glad you find my plight so bloody entertaining!" he complained, turning back and walking away.

"Oh come on, Draco, you've got to admit, that is pretty fucking funny!"

"Not for me it wasn't. She went absolutely mental, Theo! I mean, psycho! She started chucking things at me, and screaming. Naturally, she knew who I was referring to. She went storming out of the flat, but not before she trashed a few of Justin's belongings on the way out. She assumed they were mine, of course."

"Really? Nice one! See? Every rusty cauldron has a silver lining and all that? Look at it like this, mate - you got a blowie and no doubt managed to totally piss Justin off at the same time. Sounds like a successful evening to me."

Draco smiled and shook his head incredulously at his friend who always managed to cheer him up, one way or another. They reached the apparition point and made their way to Diagon Alley for a couple of jars.

Theo and Draco soon met up with Blaise and it didn't take long for the young Malfoy to be happily distracted from his misery by his two friends and their lively banter. The afternoon turned into early evening, and the three were steadily drinking their way down their third pints at Warlocks bar. Draco was starting to feel as though this might develop into something of an all-nighter, when their attention was caught by a particularly raucous group of lads who had just entered.

Draco's heart immediately fell into his dragon hide boots as he registered the all too familiar figure of Justin, surrounded by his trainee-healer friends. Draco recalled the conversation that he had heard earlier between Justin and Hermione as he explained to Theo why Justin wasn't currently out with Hermione for her birthday.

"Oh shit, yes! I forgot about your brilliant romantic picnic idea!" he said sarcastically, before delighting in regaling Blaise with the woeful tale of how Draco had somehow come to Justin's assistance in securing the perfect gift for Hermione.

Blaise gave out a low chuckle.

"Wow, Malfoy. What the hell happened to you? If your younger self could see you now…"

"Yes, yes, alright! Gods, no need to rub it in!" Draco interrupted, not needing to be reminded of his recent failings in all traits Slytherin.

Just then, the trio noticed the approach of a few figures towards their table and all turned their attention in that direction.

"Oh fucking hell," Theo muttered as he saw Justin's approach, taking a hefty swig of his beer and placing it down loudly on the table.

"Oh look!" Justin announced, cheerfully. "If it isn't my little Slytherin roommate and his bum chums! What're you three miscreants up to then?"

Blaise glanced around at Draco and Theo, before answering with his usual bored intonation.

"Oh, you know Flinchley," he replied, earning a twitch from Justin's eyelid at the purposeful bastardisation of his name. "We just thought we'd come out for a few drinks, while we plan how resurrect the dark lord, thus returning pureblood order to the world and ensuring all muggle born abominations such as your good self are eradicated from existence."

Justin stood for a moment, mouth agape, glancing nervously between the three boys in disbelief.

"To the dark lord!" Theo announced with a broad grin, raising his glass and taking a large swig.

Draco couldn't help but smirk as Justin slowly realised they were having him on.

"You bloody fools!" he said with a nervous laugh. "That's pretty sick, you know! Good job I've got a sense of humour, eh?"

"Oh, have you really?" Blaise asked with deadpan seriousness. "And how are you getting on with that then?"

"Hey Justin!" called one of his friends from across the pub, as Justin blinked to process Blaise's mockery. "You coming or what?"

"Yeah, I'll be right there. Was just offering to buy Malfoy and his friends a round."

The Slytherins eyed each other with disbelief as Justin's friends sent daggers their way.

"Leave it, mate. They can afford their own bloody drinks!" called Justin's friend.

Justin shrugged his shoulders and walked back over to his friends leaving the three in stunned silence.

"What. An absolute. Ring piece." Theo stated pointedly. "Offering to buy us a drink? As if! Gods, Malfoy, how on earth can you out up with it?"

"I guess I just have to, don't I?" he relied resignedly. "Look, you two, I don't really feel like sticking around here now, and I'm bloody starving. D'you fancy coming with me to that muggle fish and chip shop down the road, before I head home? It's on me - I've got some of their currency in my wallet."

His friends hastily agreed, realising suddenly how the beer had given them an appetite. The three stood and necked the remains of their drinks, before slipping on their coats and heading out to apparate to a safe location near to the muggle chippy that they had frequented often after Theo's recent discovery of it.

Soon enough, the three Slytherins were trudging through the streets back towards The Leaky Cauldron, packets of hot chips in their hands and clumsily eating away with the fiddly little wooden forks provided that they found so amusing.

"I just don't get…" Blaise said between mouthfuls of chips, "…what an intelligent witch such as Granger sees in such a cretinous little turd as Flinchley?"

"Exactly" Theo agreed. "He's always such a complete twat."

"But that's just the problem, isn't it?" Draco suggested, finishing off his last few chips and aiming and throwing the balled up paper into a nearby bin with precision.

"He's not always a twat. Not in front of Hermione at least. Much as it pains me to say it, he treats her well as far as I can tell. Well - apart from a bit of 'wandering eye' that I've noticed at Mungo's. And he's not actually unintelligent is he? He got onto the healer training didn't he, so at least he matches her in that respect? Much better than fucking Weasley did anyway."

"Bloody hell, Malfoy, there you go again, sticking up for the dickhead." Theo remarked as he copied Draco's paper throwing antics, but failing miserably to hit the target, having to whip out his wand and levitate the chip wrapper into the bin instead.

Draco rolled his eyes at Theo's observation, before bidding his friends farewell and returning to the flat. He had decided that he didn't really feel much like having an all-nighter after all. His studies earlier, followed by three pints of beer and a belly full of hot chips had left him feeling rather tired, and a quiet night at home seemed much more appealing.

A relaxing evening back at the flat, safe in the knowledge that Justin was unlikely to return home for a few hours was just what Draco needed. He had a long, hot shower and changed into his comfy, green checked pyjamas and a soft t -shirt, before settling down in the living room with his beloved record collection and some music collector magasines that he had picked up from one the muggle record stores that he had visited the day before.

He was totally immersed in an article about a very rare vinyl that was being auctioned next month, when he was disturbed from his escape by the sound of the floo firing up. Jumping up to his feet, he was startled to see Hermione stepping cheerily through and into the lounge.

"Hermione?"

"Hi." she greeted, with a warm smile.

"I … um…. Justin's not here. He's out with his friends from healership."

"Yes I know. I'm just on my way to Ginny's," she explained, placing a small overnight bag on the nearby sofa and gesturing towards it, reminding Draco of her sleepover plans with her friend.

"O…kay?" he replied with uncertainty, still not sure he dared to suppose what she might be doing there.

"Did you… enjoy the rest of your birthday?" he asked.

"Yes thanks. "

She took small step towards him with and looked directly into his eyes, making him gulp and draw in a breath as she neared.

"I actually wanted to call by to say thank you for my birthday gift."

"Oh. Well, you're most welcome," Draco replied. "But you didn't need to do that - I'm certain that you thanked me amply earlier…"

"No," she interjected, "No, not for the record. Although I do love it. I mean…I wanted to thank you for my other present."

Draco eyed her with confusion, not understanding her meaning.

"The books? The picnic?" she explained, taking another step towards him as he schooled his face into a carefully practiced neutral expression.

"I'm not sure I follow."

"Oh come on, Draco! The books? Healing the Unhealable? The Complexity Of The Human Memory? I haven't once told Justin about my interest in those books and it just so happens that he gives them to me for my birthday after you caught me reading them from your bookshelf that morning all those weeks ago when…" she trailed off, her eyes briefly flickering down his torso for the briefest moments before she continued.

"…you know? The cushion incident?"

Draco turned away from her and screwed his face up in frustration. Shit. It was so obvious.

"And the picnic idea?" she went on. "I'm guessing that that's courtesy of you too after I told you all about the picnics with my parents?

Draco remained silent, not sure how to respond, but quickly felt the soft touch of a hand around his upper arm, turning him back around to face her.

"It's really, really sweet of you, Draco - helping Justin like that."

"Yeah? Well I didn't do it for Justin." he said mutely, looking down at the floor with embarrassment.

Without him realising what was happening, Hermione went up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek with a soft peck and a whispered "Thank you."

As they drew apart, their eyes met once more with a burning intensity. Draco couldn't help but look hungrily down at her slightly open mouth, taking a deep breath before returning his gaze to her wide, amber orbs.

They stared into each other's eyes intently for a few seconds, their bodies' mere centimetres apart and Hermione's hand still gently holding his arm, before she blinked in realisation and withdrew hurriedly.

"I… I should go. I really need to … um…" she trailed off as she beat her hasty retreat to the door of the flat, a look of embarrassment mingled with confusion written into her beautifully expressive face.

"Bye!" she called out as she exited hurriedly, snapping the door shut behind her.

"Bye" Draco replied to the door which he was now staring at, urging it to open once more and for Hermione to return. He toyed with the idea of running after her and strode urgently over to the door, but stopped abruptly and instead placed his forehead against the cold wooden panel.

Every fibre of his whole being was pulsating with warring emotions. The temptation to grab hold of Hermione and to kiss her just then had been overwhelming and there was an unmistakable connection developing between the two of them. He was left feeling frustrated at desperately wanting her whilst at the same time not wanting to hurt her feelings or ruin their friendship.

"Fucking hell fire!" he muttered bitterly, going over to the window and looking down at the courtyard, watching Hermione disappear promptly from the apparition point out at the front of the student digs. He sighed deeply, turned and sat on the windowsill for a while. His eyes lingered on the nearby bookcase and he relived the tormenting vision of the scantily clad object of his desires leafing through his books, all bare-legged and hair in wild abandon.

He mindlessly rose and shuffled unenthusiastically over to the fridge and took out a bottle of firewhiskey that he kept in there, wrenching the cork off angrily before lifting the cold glass neck to his lips. But, just as the fiery liquid was passing down his throat, he was startled to hear a sound coming from the door. Whirling around with a cough and a splutter, his eyes widened with anticipation.

"Hermione?" Draco whispered hopefully, as the brass handle lowered and the wooden door slowly opened with a gentle creak.