Disclaimer: Don't own Harry and the gang. Don't Sue me.

A/n: Thank you, HPlover143 for reviewing!

R&R!

I'm Only Me When I'm With You – 5

Hermione came to her flat with a disgruntled sigh. Her feet hurt from wearing those really uncomfortable too tight flats and walking around all day. Her shirt was caked with all different kind of food from Chocolate cake to chocolate fondue. There was a party at St. Sophia's Home for Girls today and two of the volunteers didn't show, so she had to do everything double time. She also had to drive all the way from the city to Worcestershire to pick up a painting that was a donation for Knightsbury Homes. She was dead tired and her stomach rumbled like there was no tomorrow.

She dragged herself to her kitchen, where she was sure that there would at least be food in the fridge. She had done the groceries the other day, and she left everything in its proper place, just before she left to pick up Annie's cake and balloons.

But something was wrong. Her house smelled like lavender and vanilla. It was a specific odor that she had bought from a muggle store about 15 months before and had loved instantly. Today, the smell was that of spices, curry, and roasted nuts. Weird.

When she reached the Kitchen, she had almost knocked over an intricate lamp that stood on the corner in surprise.

"What do you think are you doing, Malfoy?" Hermione demanded as she crossed her arms, glaring at the man who was currently hunched over a plate that looked like it came from a cooking magazine.

"Wait." Draco said as his eyebrows knitted in concentration. He placed a single leaf on top of the plate and he looked up, grinning at her. "Hey Granger, long day at work?"

"Well, yes." Hermione admitted, "But you didn't answer my question. What are you doing here?"

"Cooking." Draco said, looking at her as if it was perfectly normal to barge into someones house and start cooking gourmet meals. "What do you think I'm doing?"

"Breach of Privacy?" Hermione countered as she checked the boiling pots on her stove. "And how did you even find me?"

"Honestly?" Draco drawled raising his left brow, "You're easy to find. You called yourself Jean Wilkins back then on the bridge, right? All I did was ask around in the area. Most of the shops and tenants knew who you are. A particularly old and groggy old lady pointed me here."

"You still remember that day? You called yourself Xavier." Hermione snorted. She was referring to the day that they had met on the bridge. "And Lucille isn't a groggy old lady, she's just... feminine."

"Feminine, my ass." Draco mumbled before saying, "I called myself Xavier because it's my middle name."

"How did you even remember me?"

"You left quite an impression." Draco shrugged, bending over to his dish. "I was bound to check you out. Oh, and why did you choose Jean Wilkins, anyway?"

"Well, we have our reasons." Hermione said contritely, and she glared once more at the mercurial-eyed man. "But you still haven't given me any. Why do you suppose that I wouldn't use magic to kick you out?"

"Because we're friends." Draco grinned as he stirred a cranberry-red soup. "Friends do all sorts of these kinds of crap. Believe me. I've read it somewhere."

"Since when did we become friends?"

"Since last week."

"No... I don't remember being friends with you as a consequence in our deal." Hermione retorted, arms still crossed and glare still in place.

"Well, if I'm going to meddle with your life and you with mine, then we might as well be friends... or civil with each other." Draco shrugged as he pulled out a delectable tasting pie from the oven.

"You could have backed down, you know." Hermione frowned.

"But that bloody spell you put on us didn't let me." Draco shrugged nonchalantly.

"No, I didn't." Hermione said, eyes widening in horror.

"Yes. You did."

"Fine." Hermione said as she made her way to sit on the table. "But don't expect me to actually be nice to you."

"I never did." Draco said as he put mounds of food on the table. "And don't expect me to be nice too."

End of Flashback

It had been three years since that faithful and err... colorful dinner. And it had become Hermione and Draco's little tradition to have diner together everyday. They had distracted each other and slowly, they had rebuilt their lives. But their reason of being together was still far from being done.

Hermione smiled as she walked towards the bridge where they had unconsciously met at that day almost four years ago. It was another tradition of theirs. During completely random moments when they were both free, they would just go here and talk.

It was one of the only times Hermione could only truly relax. Everything was light and carefree during these times. Everything was how it was supposed to be.

"You're late." Draco smiled as she sat down on the bench next to him.

"Nope, I'm not." Hermione retorted, sticking her tongue out at him. "You're just early."

"Right." Draco grinned as he rolled his eyes. "So, how about taking a break?"

"What for?"

"Come on, Granger." Draco said, looking at her disbelievingly. "It's almost been a year since we had that deal but you still don't think that you can come back. I think that it's about time to have you return to the wizarding world. After all, who would put those two goons of yours into place? Surely, their heads must have grown larger than mine during these past three years."

"Don't bring Harry and Ron into this," Hermione scolded lightly as she observed the sky and its shifting clouds. "And what about you? I've become practically your mother, your sister, and your best friend this past year. I know for a fact that the amount of girls that you've been seeing dropped to almost zero in the past year. You're love life isn't faring as well as my search. That's for sure."

"It doesn't matter." Draco said as he pulled his eyes away from the shifting sky and looked towards his brunette friend. He stared at her in silence while she dreamily gazed at the sky. They remained like that for a moment before Draco finally added, "You can't help me – well, at least right now. Let's attempt to make your wish come true first before breaching into the subject of mine."

"I'm sure your love life is easier to fix than my life all together." Hermione said softly as she drifted her gaze to two lovebirds huddled together in the cold.

"Believe me, my love life is more complicated than that." Draco said sadly, a trace regret and longing clearly visible in his mercurial eyes.

"Fine, if you want to fulfill my wish first, then by all means, do." Hermione sighed, knowing that a battle between words wasn't worth destroying the tranquil atmosphere. "But how long would this break need to be? St. Sophia's can't afford loosing one of the volunteers for too long. We're scarce enough as it is. Plus, Carmichael's just received about 5 new Seniors last week. They'll need help if they're ever going to sort things out with all the problems."

"Don't worry, I got them covered." Draco smirked. "You know, there are certain perks to being a billionaire's best friend."

"Money can't buy everything, you know." Hermione frowned, but still felt thankful to Draco for donating enough money to help the places where she volunteers.

"Yup, It can't buy you, for one." Draco teased as she punched him in the arm. "But it can buy you about two to three weeks worth of time."

"This is such an extravagant thing to do." Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "I thought we were past doing the extravagant nonsense?"

"This isn't extravagant." Draco smirked, standing up and stretching his long lean arms. "This is a break. You haven't had one since... since... I can't even remember. You were always working or reading or being a nerd."

"Shut up. I took two days off last month." Hermione said indignantly, crossing her arms at him. He looked at her disbelievingly, his delicate pale brows raised up in surprise.

"You call going to France with me to help me with business a break? Seriously, Hermione, I thought we were done talking about the nasty habits of overworking?" Draco said as he shook his head at her.

"You took me to help you while I relaxed, and I did." Hermione said indignantly, her stubborn soul flaring.

"Yeah right." Draco whispered, snorting. "Come on, this will be fun, and you'll get your bloody wish fulfilled."

"Alright, I'll go with you." Hermione sighed. Draco grinned and out stretched his hand. Hermione smiled and took it, saying, "But on one condition."

"Fire on, oh bookishness," Draco said as he led her towards the end of the bridge. If you had told him fifteen years ago that the day would come that he would be holding Hermione Granger's hand right now, he would have sneered at you and told you that he could get her easy. He was really an idiot – but an adorable one – back then.

"I get to decide on what we do."

"As long as it doesn't involve ferrets and clowns, I'm all up for it!" Draco exclaimed enthusiastically, thrilled that he got Hermione to take a bit of time off.

"Are you?" Hermione questioned, a mischievous glint in her currently sapphire eyes. She only took her contacts off at her flat – even after four years of being declared missing, some people still looked for her. She was touched, of course, but it made her take precautions that would have been unnecessary if they wouldn't search in the first place.

"Are you doubting my skills, woman?"

"What if I am?" Hermione challenged, raising her left brow. Draco smirked at her, still holding her hand.

He pulled her close, his breath interlacing with hers as his mouth came dangerously close to her own lips. He whispered, "You'll regret it, then." And then he let her go, stalking off towards the end of the bridge.

When he was about to step off, he turned to her and shouted, "Dinner will be at my place tonight! See you then, beaver!"

A/n: Reeeeevieeeeew! =)