"Granger..." Draco said softly, shaking Hermione. He raised his voice. "Hey, we're here."
"Hm?" Hermione mewed, and then cracked open a bleary eye to see Draco Malfoy right in front of her face. She jumped straight up, shock waking her up. "Jeez, don't scare me like that!" Draco rolled his eyes. Hermione rubbed her eyes. "Well, we should go then, shouldn't we?" Hermione stood up, and they both filed into the corridor and stepped off the train. Draco followed behind. Hermione grinned widely when she saw her three friends.
"Hey!" She greeted. Opposed to what she thought, Draco didn't hang back, but went to stand next to her. All of their eyes swept over him, and then went back to Hermione. She paused. "I guess this is a goodbye, then?" Hermione said awkwardly. Ginny laughed.
"I guess." She said, smiling. Harry looked Draco.
"Don't give her too much grief, yeah?" Harry said, cracking an easy smile. Surprisingly, Draco gave a reluctant smile back.
"I'll try my hardest." He replied back.
"I hope you two don't try to kill each other or anything in these six weeks." Ron interjected. Hermione laughed.
"It's funny; it feels like we're test subjects for the teachers or something." Hermione said. Everyone laughed. Draco looked down at her.
"Let's just hope it ends well." Ginny replied, grinning. Everyone fell into an awkward pause.
"Well. I'll see you all at school, right?" Hermione said refreshingly, and then stepped forward gathering the three of her friends into a quick, tight hug before releasing her and looking back at Draco, who was looking at the three of her friends. "We should go now." Hermione said to him.
"Yeah." He replied. All of them shouted goodbyes as soon as Hermione fell in step with Draco.
"I'll miss you guys!" Hermione called back, and turned her head back forward with a small smile. Draco looked at her, and she turned her head to meet his eyes. "What?"
"Is that what it's like all the time with your friends?" He asked quietly.
"Pretty much." She said, nodding. Draco nodded awkwardly and they were soon greeted with the fresh air of outside.
"So where to now?" He asked. Hermione smiled.
"To the nearest tube station." She replied. (A/N: Haha, I have no idea if there are any tube stations near Kings Cross, but what the hell.)
~.~.~
"Okay, what the hell is this place?" Draco asked loudly with wide eyes. He looked around uncomfortably.
"Shush!" Hermione scolded. "You're in the Muggle world now, so just act normally. I'm going to get a ticket for you, just wait here." Hermione said lowly, and then walked off to wherever the hell the tickets were sold. Draco snorted. Act normal? How the hell am I supposed to act normal if I don't know what normal is in this world? He leant back against a wall and saw a group of girls look at him and giggle, walking off. Well, at least the girls reacted to him normally. After watching crowd after crowd walk by, he saw Hermione appear. Draco stepped off the wall and walked over to her. She handed him a small piece of paper of some sort.
"What's this?" He asked.
"Your ticket. Now come on, we have to catch the next tube." She said, and they both walked over to the gateway. They joined the line of people before Hermione spoke to Draco again. "Okay, what you do is simple. There'll be a small slot on the model of the gateway. Put your ticket into that and it'll pop up again in the slot just above it. Take the ticket out, and the gate will open. After that, all you do it walk through and wait for me. Got it?" Hermione said, looking at Draco. He nodded uneasily. Before long, he was next in line. He determinedly put the ticket into the slot and it sucked it in. He looked back at Hermione with panicking eyes, but she just nudged him forward again. The ticket quickly popped up again and he took it slowly, before the black glass gateway opened with a click and he walked through. He looked back at Hermione who did the exact same thing with practiced hands, and then walked through. A real Muggle. She looked up at him.
"Let's go. We might miss it if we don't hurry up." She said. Draco nodded, and they both walked quickly. After passing through a series of dirty underpasses filled with musicians, they finally reached the platform.
"Wow." Draco said, looking around at the adverts pasted onto the wall and the rusty metal chairs attached to the wall. Hermione looked at him. "It's so... Different." Hermione nodded smiling. A loud wind rose up, signalling the tube's arrival.
"Come on." Hermione said, gesturing to the tube. They both stepped on, and it turned out that all the seats were taken. Hermione walked further into the carriage they were in and went to stand near back, Draco following her, looking around uneasily and stepping carefully. The tube doors slid close, and lurched, causing Draco to hold one of the handholds near him. Above the talking in their carriage, Hermione and Draco picked out a few that seemed to be directed at them.
"Do you see that boy? Oh my gosh, he's so fit!" (A/N: lol. 'Fit' is British slang for 'hot' or 'good-looking'.) A girl somewhere in the carriage whispered loudly.
"I see him!" A voice agreed. Draco's head turned to Hermione and he raised an eyebrow as if to prove that he was good looking in any world. Hermione rolled her eyes. The tube stopped at the next station... And the next, and the next. With this, more and more people filed in, filling up space. Someone jostled Draco, pushing him right up against Hermione. They both looked at each other with wide eyes for a moment, Draco's hot breath spilling onto Hermione's head. Hermione watched him, and Draco looked back at her, before he gave her a smirk and lowered his head to speak to her.
"Hey, you should be happy Granger. Not many girls have the privilege to get this close to me." He murmured, and then pulled back to see Hermione disgusted face.
"Pervert." She muttered. He grinned at her reaction, and then twisted his body so he wasn't touching Hermione as much. As they were nearing the end of their journey, Hermione turned to Draco.
"So, what do you think?" She asked, gesturing to all of it so far. Draco looked at her.
"It's like a seriously crap version of Kings Cross, but underground." He said bluntly. Hermione's face creased up in a grin, and it immediately reminded Draco of when she was sleeping, and when he smoothed her hair back. She looked a lot better smiling, rather than scowling.
"Well, I guess that's the Muggle world for you." She said shrugging.
"Although," He said, and Hermione looked up. "It is pretty developed, when I think about it. I mean, we just use magic for everything, but Muggles have worked their way around it." He looked down at Hermione. "It's not bad." He finished, shrugging. Hermione looked at the neon sign that stated the station they were heading for, and Hermione jumped up, causing Draco to look at her.
"The next stop's ours. Have you got your ticket? You need it to get out." Hermione stated.
"Yeah, I've got it." Draco replied, holding it up. The tube stopped at the next station, and they both pushed through people to get out. They both stepped off, and Hermione headed towards the stairs with Draco following. They appeared in a place similar to the station they had first appeared in, and they both lined up to get through the gateway. Draco smoothly put the ticket in and out, walking out, grinning proudly at Hermione once she'd stepped through. She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling at the same time. They walked out of the station and into the sunny weather.
"So where are we?" Draco asked, turning to Hermione.
"South London." She replied. Draco looked around. It seemed quite quiet, the shops spread around, and the streets looked normal enough. "My house is this way. Come on."
"Okay." Draco walked with Hermione. They turned the corner and passed a shopping centre, and then turned down a series of streets and finally into a quiet street that were filled with suburban houses. It seemed like quite a change from the shop-filled streets just a block down. They walked down a few houses and stopped at one. They were here. Hermione breathed deeply and looked at the house. It wasn't much, but it was her home. The house she'd grown up in.
"So, this is it." Hermione said. A small smile graced Draco's lips. "What?" She asked.
"I was just thinking," Draco said, his head turning to meet her eyes. "How much your house suits you." Hermione raised an eyebrow and shrugged.
"Come on in." She said, and they both walked down the front path. Hermione suddenly stopped, and Draco looked at her. She looked up at him. "Sorry. It's just... This is so weird. I'm inviting Draco Malfoy into my house!" Draco grinned at her.
"Usually it's me inviting girls back to my house." Draco said. Hermione turned to him and pulled a face.
"Are you serious? And why the plural?" She said incredulously. Draco crossed his arms and smirked at her.
"'Cause I can." He replied, his voice deep in his throat. Hermione rolled her eyes, and whipped out keys on a key ring.
"It's going to be hard dealing with that ego for three weeks." She said, her back turned as she walked to the door and turned the keys in. When she was on the second one, she turned back to Draco who was just watching her. "Why are you just standing there? Come on!" Draco walked and stood behind her, while she fiddled with the second key. She was having trouble turning the key, and Draco rolled his eyes. He reached out his arm, putting his hand over hers. Hermione froze as the warmth of his hand enveloped hers. His fingers on the key, he turned it with ease, and took his hand away.
"Thanks." Hermione said with her back turned, her voice wavering just slightly. Draco frowned at her. A moment later, the door swung open and they both stepped in. The smell of the Granger household surrounded Hermione, and she sighed with relief. They both turned to the suitcases that were sitting in the hallway.
"They're here already?" Draco said in a surprised tone. When they were back at school, they were told to pack, but also told that the transportation of their luggage was to be taken care of by the school to minimise the amount of items that could be lost on the way to the Muggle's house. Hermione leaned on the staircase and looked at Draco.
"So, this is where you'll be staying for three weeks. Think you'll be able to bear with it?" She asked smiling.
"I'll try." Draco replied with a side smile. Hermione ran a hand on the wooden post at the end of the staircase and sighed quietly. It already felt weird to have Draco Malfoy even talk to her normally. How was she supposed to get used to him living in her house for nearly a month?
It's going to be a long three weeks.
A/N: They're in! I hope the slightly longer chapter made up for the slow update? (Maybe not...) Please please please review your thoughts; it'd be great to have some feedback!