Hello

Hermione sat opposite of her admirer and looked at him. One of her guesses had in fact been right. Across from her sat Draco Malfoy, and quite frankly she was stunned.

"I hope you're not disappointed." Draco said quietly.

"I'm not. But very, very curious. I always thought that you hated me." Hermione glanced at Draco as she spoke.

"When I was younger, I was…mislead, by certain ideals that people around me held. But I have my own mind now." He sighed. "I hope you won't hold my past against me."

"It's kind of hard to look past some of the things not only you, but your family have done. But…we all do things we regret I suppose. Can you tell me why I should trust that you've changed?"

"A valid question. If you'll listen I'd like to tell you why and how I've changed." He looked at Hermione with his piercing blue eyes and she nodded. "I suppose my views started changing in the summer before our sixth year at school. I was tasked to kill Dumbledore, a task that was pretty much impossible, and Voldemort knew it. He was doing it to punish my father for failing him in the department of mysteries. I started to realize that Voldemort was not really fighting for blood purity. He was fighting for power, and he was never going to share his power. I started examining why I cared so much about blood purity. I slowly came to realize that I had been indoctrinated to believe that having two magical parents made me a better wizard. That magical bloodlines were all that mattered.

"Even still I didn't want to die, and I didn't want my family to be in danger either. So even though I was losing faith in Voldemort's cause I still had to do his bidding. I realized too late that I should have sought help. Then Dumbledore died anyway, killed by Snape, and everyone thought I was to blame. I guess I sort of was. Living became almost intolerable for me. Voldemort set up in my family's manor, and my only escape from him was at Hogwarts. But even there I was still being watched, so I had to keep up the pretence that I was an elitist blood purist. But I mainly kept my head down and tried to stay out of things as much as possible. In the final battle at Hogwarts I was instructed to track Potter and stop him at all costs. But, when it came down to it I couldn't and wouldn't stop Potter. I hoped that your side would win the war because I was tired, of everything, living a false life." Draco sighed and looked down. Dinner had come at some point during his story and neither of the two had touched it. "This is horribly morose dinner chat, forgive me."

"No, please keep going." Hermione encouraged. While she started picking at her food.

"I guess I started noticing you around sixth year. I wished that there were some way for us to get to know each other or be friends. But it wasn't possible at that time." He sighed and looked away. He took a bite of food and chewed it thoughtfully. "Then after the war I was pardoned, I didn't kill anybody, and I even got away with not torturing anybody. I never had it in me to do that. Thankfully I was never even imprisoned. My father is in Azkaban, and my mother rarely leaves the house. Everybody hates our family. I'm trying to turn our image around, but it isn't easy."

"I guess I see why you didn't want to tell me who you were right from the start. But, you could have. I understand that the war wasn't easy on either side; we all had to do things we aren't proud of. Things we wouldn't normally do." Hermione said, setting down her silverware. "Although, given our history it might be a good thing you didn't tell me who you were." Hermione flashed a quick smile at Draco. The corner of his lip pulled up in a smirk.

"I was kind of a tosser back at school, wasn't I?" He looked down at his hands for a minute before looking back up at Hermione. "Back then I was just my dad's puppet, he told me not to like Gryffindors, and people without full blood status, so I didn't. If I could go back, and change how I used to be, believe me I would." They both sat in silence for a moment. A waitress came in and took away the main courses and promised to be back in with dessert soon.

"So the war changed you, but what about the rest of your family? I can't imagine Lucious Malfoy being a fan of his son pursuing a muggle born." Hermione rested her chin on her fist and shot a level gaze at Draco.

"My father…and my mother I suppose were raised in households where blood status was everything. It defined them. They were part of old magical households, where money and power went hand in hand with blood. My father will never understand me, but I think my mother does. I don't see my father ever getting out of prison. That makes me sad, but, at the same time I'm free to do as I please. My mother is far more tolerant, but I see no reason to tell her that I fancy a muggle born for the time being."

"Fancy a muggle born?" Hermione laughed. "A phrase I can't say I ever thought would come out of your mouth. You changed a lot since I last talked to you. It's a nice change." She smiled

"To be honest, I am surprised you didn't walk straight back out of here when you saw it was me. I'm glad you gave me a chance to explain myself to you."

"I don't think I would have walked out regardless of who was in here. My curiosity would have gotten the better of me despite who turned out to be here." She sighed. "But I think you knew that. You planned out your whole charade based on it." Draco nodded his head slightly.

"I was kind of counting on it, yes." The door opened and the waitress came into the room setting dessert on the table before leaving the room again. They ate silently for a bit, and Hermione stood when she was done eating, she walked over to the window and looked up at the sky. Soon she felt Draco's presence behind her and spun around to face him. He looked nervous. "So, would you ever consider going out with me again?" He asked.

"I might." She grinned at him. "Write me, I'll get back to you."

"Okay, thank you, for at least giving me a chance." He held a hand out, and Hermione slowly took it and instead of shaking hands they just kind of stood there. Hermione smiled a bit and then shook her head, taking her hand back, she walked to the door and opened it before turning around and looking at Draco.

"See you later V. Thanks for dinner, it was really great." With that she shut the door and made her way from the restaurant. Draco stood looking at the spot Hermione had just been occupying and shook his head with a smile on his face. Things had gone better than he expected.

AN: So they finally meet. This chapter isn't the longest and it took me awhile to get it out. I apologize some rough stuff happening in my life right now. But writing is a good distraction so I got this chapter out for you! Please let me know what you guys think! I'd like to send a shout out to my reviewers so far reviews always make my day! Thanks for reading!