Hermione groaned as her bedside alarm clock was blasting a song from the radio. She immediately reached over to shut it off. She grabbed the soft pillow lying next to her. She placed it over her head, trying to drown out the noise from outside of her window. Her building bordered a busy intersection. Typically she'd be able to drone out the typical traffic sounds such as squealing of tires and honking but that morning, despite her desperation to fall back asleep, she was wide awake.
Reluctantly Hermione rolled off the left side of her bed and started to get ready for the day. She poured hot water from the tea kettle steaming into her teacup over her caramel vanilla flavored tea bag and added a bit of honey. She grabbed a croissant from the bed box next to the refrigerator.
She grabbed that day's newspaper from outside of her door. She was a stickler for reading the newspaper. She refused to read the news from her phone on the internet. She considered herself old fashioned when it came to technology. Magic, she was up to date with. She knew all of the latest spells and could create the latest potions. Yet, she hardly paid attention to any of the latest technology. Preferring to read paperback books and not books on the kindle or other electronic sources and preferring to complete any research at the library instead of endlessly googling resources.
She was nibbling on the end of her croissant when she skimmed past the local engagement announcements section.
'Local barrister, Draco Malfoy, 25, son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy of Wiltshire is now engaged to Flower Shop owner Giselle Sullivan, 24, daughter of Benjamin and Celine Sullivan of Birmingham.',
Hermione nearly spit out her tea after reading that Draco was a barrister. He was argumentative in school and challenged almost everything professors had thrown at him but she didn't believe he was ethical or righteous in his behavior.
She shouldn't have been surprised really. Draco came from an aristocratic background. His family had money to send him to law school. His life was unlike Hermione's, as she had to scrape by and work hard to get through University and earn her bachelor and master's degrees. She had to compete with professors in the finance and Econ departments that seemed hell-bent on knocking Hermione down a notch. She fought tooth and nail to earn those degrees. She worked just as hard every day at her job where her colleagues were predominately men who seemed polite and acted properly to her face but behind her back belittled her.
She thought of him as a stuck up, narcissistic prick who somehow ended up together with a sweet, bubbly flower shop owner. How their relationship worked, Hermione could not surmise. Even as they had stood side by side right in front of her in the supermarket, she was confused. Yes, they physically looked similar, both tall, with bronzed skin and platinum locks. Draco's skin had always been pale when they were in school together and Hermione guessed that he had either just came back from somewhere warm and tropical or he had tanned his skin artificially. They both had striking light colored eyes, although Hermione always thought of Draco's eyes as more of an icy grey, whose coolness pierced had her when his gaze fell upon her.
Hermione had tried her best not to gawk at him that long during their run in at the supermarket. She had tried to look down at her feet when he was speaking to her. I'm being before her had brought back too many painful memories of him being so close to her face that she could practically feel his warm breath on her cheek. He whispering in her ear that she was a mud blood and he being a pureblood meant he would always be superior to her. He had reminded her throughout their school years that she was muggle born and that somehow made her inferior. It didn't matter how well she learned spells or what potions she mixed. She would never be good enough in his eyes.
Good enough for what though? She wasn't exactly sure how to answer that question. Good enough to be a student at Hogwarts? Good enough to be seen in his presence? In a way, Hermione had always thought that he had been projecting his own insecurities onto her. She had rationalized his insults as him feeling low and taking it out on her.
She had never been sure why he had targeted her the most. Harry and Ron did get teased and bullied as well but not in the same way; not to the same extreme as the way he treated her. He didn't breather down their backs. He didn't touch them. He had always been touching her, mostly to poke at her with his fingers but she felt that he was always reaching out for her, while she was trying to get away from his touch. She would flinch when he touched her as if his fingers would burn a hole in her clothing.
The rest of her day was pretty mundane. She went to work; she had lunch in her office before a 2 pm board meeting. She chatted with a few of her coworkers. She flirted with James, who had an office across the hall from hers.
She flirted with James because she felt like he was a nice, down to earth guy who was smart, funny and unattainable. She knew that he wouldn't flirt back, because he was dating the CEOs daughter, who was in her last year at a prestigious University. It was harmless to flirt with him, give him a wink and a smile, dress in skirts that were a little too short or wear blouses that were just low enough to reveal a bit of cleavage. She thought that he wasn't interested in her so she could flirt all she wanted and not face any repercussions from it. He was always polite to her and she enjoyed their conversations.
Around 4 pm a reminder dinged on her outlook calendar, a reminder about her dinner date with Gisselle's brother, that she found out was named Samuel. Samuel was 32 and owned a book store on the outskirts of west London.
Giselle had found Hermione on Facebook and had messaged her all of the details on where to meet up at Chez Nous. She didn't have Draco's contact information and she didn't want it. She found it perfectly fine to correspond with Giselle instead.
She arrived back home and took a long, hot shower. She dried her hair straight and curled the ends. She decided to treat the dinner as if she was flirting with James. She would wear a V neck, black, cotton dress with spaghetti straps, black strappy heels with rhinestone accents. She would spend some time with her makeup and wear the lashes that made her brown eyes stand out. She would wear the red lipstick that had reminded her of a deep red color that Marilyn Monroe would famously wear at her movie premieres.
She just couldn't wait to see what Draco's reaction would be when he saw her. It was going to be epic.
Hermione arrived at Chez Nous around 7:15. She wanted to be fashionably late. Late enough that the others were already seated and waiting for her. Late enough that she could get a good look upon Draco's face when she strolled past him.
She forwent her coat even though it was a chilly evening because she wanted the full effect of her dress to be on display. She had been working out nonstop for the past year at the gym as well as trying to make healthier food choices. She had also taken up running and she thought she looked pretty good as a result. Her legs were lean and muscular; her arm muscles were more defined then before.
She spotted Draco, Giselle and what she presumed was Giselle's brother, Samuel sitting at a high top table by the bar.
Samuel turned and smiled at her as she approached their table.
Giselle also smiled at her, "Her, it's nice to see you again", Giselle remarked.
Draco was not founded. If anything he appeared awestruck. His jaw was gaping open and his eyes were open wide, gazing slowly down her body and then quickly returning to her face.
Giselle appeared to notice that her fiancée was staring a little too long at Hermione and nudged him with her elbow.
"Don't be shy now Draco, say hi to her", Giselle scolded.
Draco seemed to be moving his mouth, but no words were coming out. Finally he shook his head.
"Granger. Hello. It's nice to see you again. I am glad you could make it tonight", he said, appearing to stumble on his words.
Giselle gestured towards Samuel, "Hermione, this is my brother, Samuel. Samuel meet Hermione Granger. She was pals with Draco back when he was in secondary school. They go way back", she explained.
Hermione cringed at the word 'pals'. She thought about what Draco must have told Giselle about how close they were in school.
Most certainly, everything he had told her was lies. Clearly he had lied if he told her that they were pals.
Did they have to work together in order to stay alive? Certainly. Did they have to face each other in classes every day? Certainly. Pals though? Hermione would not have considered them friends back then. They were forced together by circumstances but definitely not by choice.
As a teenager she could have never imagined Draco having a polite conversation with her over dinner with his fiancée. That idea seemed so farfetched. Here she was though.
She kept telling herself that she could do this. She could get through the night without having an outburst of anger about the past.
"Oh most certainly Granger, I mean Hermione and I had some interesting tales to tell about out time at school together", Draco reminisced.
Describing their time together as 'Interesting', thought Hermione that was more realistic then saying that they were ever 'pals'.
Samuel started talking, taking Hermione's attention off of Draco and on him. He wasn't unattractive; he was charming and could certainly distract Hermione. He did most of the talking except when he occasionally would ask her questions about her but mostly, he talked about himself at least until their food came.
Someone had ordered for her, she assumed it was Draco because he had ordered her the least expensive item from the menu, most likely assuming that she could not afford anything else.
Hermione stared down at the hamburger in front of her that was on a brioche bun. She gulped her anger down and smiled at the group at her table.
"Do you like the burger, Hermione?" Giselle questioned her as she ate her coq au vin dish and Draco ate a plate of Boeuf Bourguignon. Samuel had a fish dish that Hermione couldn't identify
Hermione nodded. "Oh thank you so much for ordering for me, I really appreciate it", she stated trying not to let the sarcasm drip from her words.
"Oh it was completely Draco's doing. He said you were definitely a burger and chips type of gal", Giselle said.
It was true that Hermione much preferred simple, plain dishes to fancy food when they were in school. She had eaten pub type foods mostly but her tastes had gotten more sophisticated as she got older. She started to explore different types of cuisines both with cooking and when she'd occasionally go out to eat.
It would have been nice if he had at least asked her before ordering for her.
Draco nodded. He hadn't spoken much throughout the night, mostly having a conversation with Giselle and occasionally shifting his gaze to Hermione... His eyes would drift down to her cleavage and when Hermione would stare back, he'd look embarrassed that he was caught looking and would turn back to his conversation with Giselle.
At one point during the night, Hermione got up and pretended to drop something on the ground towards where Draco was seated, She then leaned forward and bent to pick the item up . She made sure that Draco could tell that she wasn't wearing a bra, which had been easier with the spaghetti strapped dress.
She heard a gasp and low moan come from Draco's lips.
Hermione sat back down and grinned to herself. She was satisfied with herself. She had accomplished her first goal of the evening, which had been to make Draco uncomfortable.
An hour into the dinner, after they had eaten and everyone and declined to order dessert, Hermione grew bored with her conversation with Samuel. She could tell that Giselle and him were throwing each other signals all night. She could tell that Samuel was uncomfortable. He obviously felt no connection just as Hermione felt no connection with him.
Giselle had even taken over asking questions to Hermione instead of Samuel. At one point she felt like she was being interrogated.
"What do you do for a living? Do you like your job? Where are you living now? Do you live with anyone? Are you seeing anyone? Where did you get your Masters degree at? Where do you usually shop for clothing?
Her answers were politely given but after Draco excused himself off the table for the second time and slipped her a slip of paper, that he had tossed into her purse as he made his way to the lavatory. He mothed to her 'now is your chance to leave Granger' to her as he slipped past her.
She nodded to him. She thanked Giselle and Samuel for a lovely evening and laid down 20 quid to cover her burger and sparkling water.
They both got up , hugged her and kissed her on the cheek.
She was relieved to take a deep breath of the chilly night air as she waited for her taxi.
She pulled out the slip of paper that Draco had left in her purse.
It contained a phone number the following Tuesday's date, time and an address to a café that was only a block away from her workplace.
Below that information in Draco's large scribbled handwriting there was a message 'Sorry about tonight. Please meet me at the café so we can catch up. I have something to tell you.'