Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I don't own Harry Potter. I don't own Harry Potter. I don't own Harry Potter. ... How many times do you need me to write this, Professor?
A/N: I am so very, truly sorry for updating so slowly. I wasn't even aware it had been this long. It has just not been an easy chapter. For some reason, it's taken me some work to get down on paper, and I've been gone for a few days fixing up my new place, plus I've been doing a lot more things with my mum these days since I have to go back to uni soon. Anyway. Enough excuses. It's finally time for Chapter 13. :)
Chapter 13 / The Reunion
She had every intention of turning him away, of appearing disinterested and cold when he came around her house the next day. Unfortunately for her, the presence of Draco Malfoy had started to give her chronically weak knees. She had to get that checked. She suspected a dubious potion slipped into her drink.
Her intentions were immediately reconsidered as he entered the living room, his hair looking delectably messy. She stood up, determined to show him she felt nothing...nothing at all. But that turned out to be quite difficult, because the fact that she did feel a whole lot became apparent when he placed his hands softly on her cheeks, placing a tender kiss on her lips in greeting.
To try to explain everything that happened in her body at that moment would only sound like a pathetic attempt to be poetic. Either way, it left her completely dazed and she remained with her eyes closed for several seconds. When she felt strong enough to open them she found him looking down upon her, wrinkles of a smile framing his eyes.
"Sorry about Steve and Al," he said as his eyes glittered in amusement.
"It's fine," she laughed, pushing one of her curls back into place. "The embarrassment has pretty much passed. It was quite funny, now that I think about it."
"They're a bit inconsiderate at times, but really great lads," he assured her, and she felt his hand follow the contour of her arm before lacing her fingers softly with his own. "Wizards too."
"I take it they're not Slytherins."
"How did you know?" he asked dryly.
"Well, it might be the total lack of tact, and the refreshing lack of arrogance."
She smiled as he tugged on her arm, leading her towards the exit.
"Hufflepuffs the both of them. Couple of years older than us," he explained as she followed quite obediently. "Come to dinner with me?"
"Sure, I'm starved," she nodded, closing the door behind them with her free hand. "Do they know who you are?"
"Yeah, they're the only ones I've told. And then somehow the Lewbells know. Al and Steve remembered me from Hogwarts anyway. Keeping it a secret was pointless."
"Miranda knows too," Hermione said in a hushed voice, shooting him an apologetic look. When he looked back in surprise, she hurried to explain. "I had to talk to someone. I was so frustrated about our argument, and it was just so good to talk about it all. But she didn't take it bad or anything."
"No, the people who know haven't taken it badly," he admitted. "The lads both know what I've done in the war."
"Did they fight?" she asked as they turned, following the road into town.
"Ah no," he said, shaking his head. "They both had reasons for leaving the war behind. Al's sister was sick and needed to be escorted out of the most dangerous areas. Steve has a magical injury that can't be healed, and his eyesight is quite bad in the dark, which would have been a huge disadvantage. He chose not to risk it all, since his girlfriend was pregnant at the time."
She nodded solemnly, feeling his thumb running softly along hers.
"Some part of me thinks running from it all is a cowardly choice, but wouldn't we if he had the chance? For some of us, that just wasn't an option. As Harry Potter's friend, you could hardly run out. For me, it was either to stand by my parents, or to fight against them. Staying neutral was never an option."
They had reached the town square as he spoke, and he lead the way past the fountain and towards a charming wooden house opposite of where they had descended into the wizarding pub. The entrance had ornaments carved into the dark wood, some of it painted in dark red in a wonderful pattern.
"A table for two, please", Draco announced as they reached the hostess, who looked up with a bright smile.
"This way", she told them, clutching her clipboard as she ventured through many whiteclothed tables.
Some of them were occupied by dining couples, friends and families, some of whom looked up as they passed. A free table was presented them in the very right hand corner, and the hostess left them with a slight nod of her head.
"Sometimes I wish I had the chance to run", Hermione admitted after they had seated. "But even if I had the choice, I don't know if I would have chosen to bail. It's just not in my nature"
"No, I suppose not. Gryffindor and all", he quipped, smiling gently.
"Sometimes I envy those who never had to see what we saw, but in many ways I think it has made us all wiser"
"It definitely changed me", he smiled, picking up the menu. "See anything you want?"
"The steak looks really good"
"I prefer the veal, I think", he pondered, his eyes sweeping over the list.
"Leave it to you to eat baby meat", she teased, forcing back a smile.
"Just be glad I don't eat your precious house elves"
She gave a squeak of surprise, putting the menu down on her plate.
"That is disgusting"
"Tell me about it", he said, pulling a grimace. "I've nearly lost my appetite while imagining eating that thing; Kreature"
He gave a shudder, and she glared at him from across the table.
"House elves are very loyal and magically gifted creatures", she chastised, before picking up the menu again and then adding with a scrunch of her nose, "And they probably taste as chewy as slugs."
He laughed incredulously at her unexpected joke and watched as she ducked down behind the menu, obviously in shock over what she had brought herself to say about her beloved house elves. The conversation between them came to a halt as he ordered from the menu, taking care to also order dessert and a surprisingly cheap white wine.
"How's Potter?" he asked quietly, when the meal had long since been put in front of them.
She looked up in surprise, giving him a questioning glance over the lit candle.
"I thought you couldn't care less."
"Oh for Merlin's sake, I don't hate Potter. Now, don't give me that appraising look! I don't love him either, the dislike just faded over time."
"Does he know how you feel about him?"
His eyes were wide and frightful when his head snapped up.
"Granger, will you stop. You make us sound like a pair of fruits. It's not like I'm passionately in love with the Golden Boy, I just happen to tolerate him."
She rolled her eyes. "Just answer the bloody question, ferret-face"
"No, he doesn't know that I can actually stay in his presence without getting the urge to claw out his eyes," he said haughtily. "And I'd like for it to stay that way."
She just glared at him, but soon noticed small wrinkles in the corner of his eyes, and her gaze softened.
"Harry's doing good", she finally answered, allowing a smile onto her lips. "He moved in with Ginny a year ago, and they're as close as ever. And he ended up becoming an Auror, which I guess none of us expected. We all thought he was fed up with running around after the 'bad guys', but I suppose that's just who he is. He could never just sit still and watch someone else save the world"
She smiled affectionately, actually finding Harry's hero complex one of his most appealing qualities. There was hardly any other person alive with a bigger capacity for caring and empathy, making him a man who couldn't stand sitting idly by as people were hurt.
"It is quite spectacular that he still wants to do that after spending half his childhood being forced into war," Draco acknowledged. "But someone has to do it, and I suppose Potter already came to terms with his role years ago."
She nodded solemnly. "He's happy with it, you know. When he talks about a mission, or case or just something funny that happened around the office, his face lights up and he shows so much excitement about it. It's not something he has to do anymore, it's something he wants to do."
"After seeing everything he did to save everyone else, even I can admit he deserves it."
"How generous of you, Mr. Malfoy," she quipped with a crooked grin, making him turn the corners of his mouth downwards into a displeased grimace.
"Yeah, I'm going to have to ask you to keep quiet about that."
She chuckled warmly, raising the glass of white wine to her lips.
"You basically want me to shut up about all your good sides?"
"Well... yes."
"So you'd rather have me portray you as elitist, arrogant, egocentric and ferrety?" she asked lightly.
"You forgot irresistible," he commented helpfully, smirking unmistakably.
"In your dreams," she laughed, trying so very hard to suppress the unwelcome leap of excitement his smirk caused.
"Indeed," he just remarked, giving her a knowing look.
Oh, this was getting worse by the minute. She was sure her cheeks had caught flame by now. As one waitress suddenly showed up to clear the table from dinner and another one followed with dessert, she tried furiously to calm down, taking several deep breaths.
"Well, Granger. How does it feel to have been on your first successful date?" he asked pouring more wine in her nearly empty glass. "I propose a toast for that particular occasion"
She choked on her creme brulé, falling into a furious coughing fit. Tears sprung in her eyes as she heaved for breath.
"Wh... I...You... - Sorry?"
"Date, Granger," he repeated slowly, as if talking to a child. "Two people mutually agreeing to meet in a romantic setting, in this case dinner."
"Are you serious?" she croaked, gripping her glass desperately as if it was her lifeline.
She gulped down two large sips of the alcoholic beverage trying to calm the nerves that pulsated dangerously under her skin.
"You're supposed to be nervous before the date, not after the one you brought told you it was a successful one," he commented dryly as he held his glass up, still waiting for her to join him in the toast.
"You mean I've been on a date all night and I didn't know?" she asked in panic, staring at him with wide eyes. "Fuck, I don't even remember what I said. What am I wearing? Did I put on make up before I left? Oh my God, Draco, I didn't put on make up. Why didn't you tell me?!"
"Granger..."
"And I ate like a hippogriff, dessert and everything. Oh great Merlin, there's food on my face isn't there?"
"Granger!"
"I insulted you! I went on my first real date and I insulted my date...on purpose. I'm the worst date ever!"
"HERMIONE!", he bellowed, making her head – and everyone else's for that matter – snap up in surprise. "Will you bloody toast me before my arm loses all its blood, falls off and has to be regrown?"
She started in realisation when his hand gave a threatening tremble and she rushed to clink her glass almost too forcefully against his. The she tipped it against her lips and drank the rest in one swallow.
"Now; breathe."
She did as she was told, moving her hand in a soothing motion in sync with her breathing.
"Let's leave," he said calmly, rising from his chair to hold his hand out for her.
"Why?" she asked suspiciously, giving him a weary look.
"Because, Granger, we ate all the food, drank all the wine and paid the bill."
She blushed quite generously, chastising herself for her out of control paranoia. Okey, so she had been on a date with Draco Malfoy. There was no reason to panic.He was still with her wasn't he? He hadn't run out screaming in horror over her terrible manners and poor communication skills.Actually, his hand was currently at her back guiding her towards the exit of the restaurant. Her attempt to block out his touch was futile.
Cool air soothed her flaming cheeks once their feet touched the pavement outside. She regretted not bringing a coat, but blocked out the surprisingly chilly breeze and focused instead on the warmth radiating from the man walking beside her.
"Do you know what this means?" she asked gravely after long moments of comfortable silence.
He shook his head, giving her the same serious gaze back. She beckoned him closer and watched him lean in against her.
"I fucking shagged you before the first date," she cried loudly, making him jump in surprise.
He grinned sheepishly at an older couple giving them odd glances as they passed by. Hermione looked around in horror and then lowered her voice into a low murmur.
"I read somewhere that one should – no exceptions – always wait for the third date," she said worriedly. "Look, I told you I'm clueless. I'm messing up the order of things!"
"Believe it or not, Granger, the world has not hidden a rule by rule dating book that everyone else but you knows about," he stated dryly. "Nothing is written in stone. People are different, relationships come about differently, they evolve differently. There's no right way to do any of this."
She looked at him doubtfully. "So you're saying everyone is fumbling around blindly?"
"Pretty much."
"I can do that!" she said, releasing an audible sigh.
"No kidding."
She took no notice of his muttered reply as they stopped outside her house. Instead, she turned towards him, smiling carefully at the pale face she had never thought she would look at with anything but disdain or indifference. She couldn't for the life of her remember when taking in his features started to cause this twirl of something in her stomach. A something that was neither disdain nor indifference.
"So, what you're basically saying is that I can make up my own dating rules?" she asked, biting down on the inside of her cheek in anxiousness.
"Be my guest," he smiled.
"And you would follow them?"
"I will have you know I can follow rules perfectly fine when I put my mind to it."
"In that case I just decided on my first rule," she said with a small smile, wondering where on earth she had gotten the nerve to play this little game.
He looked at her in anticipation, waiting for her to continue down this unpredictable path.
"So, rule number one in Hermione Granger's Dating Book," she begins, sounding just as if she was reciting the correct answer to a Professor's question, "explains that it would be perfectly fine – if not expected – for a certain blond Slytherin to follow a certain adorable lioness upstairs after a first date."
As silence reigned for mere seconds, she wondered how she ever got the courage to say that and was just about to get incredibly embarrassed when he gave a short groan.
"Oh good Lord, Granger. That's the best dating rule I've ever encountered," he exclaimed and she had no chance to reply before she was yanked by the hand down the pathway and into her house.
What on earth was he doing? He was just going to fetch them some breakfast they could munch on in bed, neither of them exactly willing to get out of it just to have breakfast downstairs. The problem was that he had been downstairs for ages, and she had no clue what he was up to. She swung the covers aside, shivering slightly from the sudden rush of cold, and scurried barefoot over the wooden floors towards the door.
She leaned out into the hallway, looking left and right but didn't see him anywhere. She reckoned he was down in the kitchens brewing coffee, and she ventured out of the room immediately regretting not throwing a tshirt over herself. It was turning quite cold walking around in just your underwear. When she reached the top of the stairs, she could see Draco stand completely still in her living room. Or rather, she could see his feet stand frozen to the ground, and more of him in his boxer became visible as she descended the stairs.
"Draco, are you ever intending on coming back to bed? I'm this close to just going ahead without you."
She reached the bottom of the stairs just as finished speaking, giving the oddly frozen Draco a perplexed look.
"Now is so not the time, love," he muttered out of the corner of his mouth, looking at her quite intently.
When she remained equally confused, he started nudging his head towards something, and she looked at him as if he was going completely mad.
"I don't know what the hell is up with you, but right now I don't care. Just get out of those boxers and come back to bed."
When his head started nodding even more furiously towards something in front of him, she turned with her eyebrows raised and let out a horrified shriek that shook the entire foundation of the house. The shriek seemed to pull the entirely stunned Harry Potter – whose head was bobbing up and down in the fire – out of his state and his eyes went to her immediately.
"Harry, what are you doing in there?!" she exclaimed in horror, looking quickly over at Draco who seemed uncertain on how to handle the predicament.
"No, Hermione. What is he doing in there?!" Harry cried back, looking positively livid.
"I don't think that's really any of your business," she retorted in a chilly tone. "There's a reason why I haven't given anyone this address."
"Yeah, so you can shag Draco Malfoy."
"So I could have some privacy. I didn't want people popping out of the fire every other second to check on me. I didn't want anyone to know where I was, so I could be alone and decide for myself when I wanted to see people. Don't you get it?"
"No apparently I don't, cause all I get right now is that you're standing her in your underwear telling Draco Bloody Malfoy to come shag you!" he bellowed angrily. "And will you put some clothes on?"
"Accio shirt," she said in a bored voice, showing off the little bit of wandless magic she had managed to teach herself.
It came darting down the stairs towards her, and she barely caught it before it went too far.
"How can you be so flippant about invading my privacy like this?" she stated angrily as she pulled the shirt over her head.
"If you had told me you were doing this, believe me, I would have thought twice about checking in," he replied icily. "I managed to get the address from your boss, after quite some rounds of persuasion. I just wanted to check on you, is that a crime now?"
"I talked to Ginny just yesterday."
"Yeah, you talked to Ginny, not me. I haven't talked to you in person for ages," he commented sulkily, and then glared at Draco.
"Harry, I'm sorry. I really am," she sighed, sitting down on the couch. "I know I should've checked in, but things have been kind of ... crazy."
"I can imagine," he replied dryly.
"I came down here thinking I'd be cut off from everyone I know, and then it turned out Draco is my neighbour."
"He's your neighbour?!"
"Yeah, you thought I brought him up here to hide from all of you?" she asked indignantly. "I had no intention of meeting anyone up here, and definitely not Draco Malfoy of all people."
"Hey," Draco exclaimed indignantly.
"Sorry," she said with a crooked smile. "How should I have known that you'd changed so drastically?"
"Changed?" Harry laughed hollowly. "Yeah, right."
Hermione set her eyes sternly at him. "You have no idea what you're speaking of, so I don't want to hear a word about it. I've been living around Draco for months now, becoming better friends with him over time, and I think I'm more qualified than you are to assess whether he's changed or not."
Harry just snorted.
"And besides; would the old Draco have just stood here watching you?" she asked dryly. "If Draco hadn't changed he would've punched your face in or hexed you ages ago."
"Yeah okey, so maybe you have a point there," he admitted reluctantly. "Look, I'm coming through."
"No, you're not," she replied forcefully, making him stop his struggles to push through the fire. "Harry, can't you just let me have my privacy, please. This is my place, where I'm picking up the pieces of my so-called life."
"I don't understand why he's the one 'helping' you, while the rest of us have to wait for you to throw a measly letter our way once in a while," he muttered resentfully, looking anywhere but at Hermione.
"Look, I'm really not trying to shut you out. I'm not. But I came here to get away for a while, and Draco happened to be here. And he also happened to listen to my confessions when I trusted him enough, and he helped me through it."
She watched her bestfriend's sulky expression with a pained grimace. When he refused to look at her, she fell down to her knees on the floor in front of him.
"No matter how much I love you, Harry, you're Ron's best friend too. And no matter how much I love Ginny, she's Ron's sister. Everyone I trust back home have a strong connection to Ron in some way, and while I know you don't mean it, you constantly remind me of him whenever I talk to you," she confessed softly. "Draco gets my mind off Ron. To be honest, I haven't even thought of Ron for weeks, and it's such a relief. Don't you get it, I'm finally moving on."
Harry's expression softened as she spoke, and he looked a bit ashamed of himself.
"What about Ron, Hermione?" he then asked quietly. "What is he going to say when he finds out about this ordeal?"
Her eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Yeah, what about Ron? He moved on even before we broke up, Harry. He has no right to keep tabs on who I associate with anymore. Sure, some day we might be friends again, but he's no longer my boyfriend ... Harry, I don't know.."
She looked helpless, having issues vocalizing her thoughts and she shrugged her shoulders with a sigh.
"Potter... I know you're friends with Weasley, and you feel some sort of obligation towards him even after all this, but he did this himself. We've all seen the pictures in the Prophet. He has already moved on. Weasley made his choice, now let Hermione make her own choices. She's not doing any of this to punish you guys, she just needs to sort things out on her own for once."
Hermione gave him a bewildered, but grateful look, and nodded in agreement.
"I never planned for this to happen, and quite frankly I don't feel like discussing it with you...or anyone... and definitely not in front of the guy. The guy in question isn't supposed to hear these conversations, you know," she commented dryly.
"Well, we've already established that you make your own dating rules, Granger," he said, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned towards the banister.
"Not like you have objected so far, ferret-face," she replied with a raised eyebrow in his direction, and he smiled crookedly.
"Got me there, dust collector."
"Dust collector?!" she repeated incredulously. "Oh you did not just imply..."
"Oh, I so did imply," he retorted with a smirk.
"You are so dead, you man-whore!" she exclaimed getting up from the floor with one swift movement.
"I'm not a man-whore, I'm simply irresistible."
"Oh don't tempt me to find out just how resistible I can really find you, Malfoy."
"Ouch, you didn't need to go there!" he complained, looking displeased. "I'll be good."
"Harry, as amusing as you probably find this, I'm going to have to ask you to stick your head back into your own flat," she said, her back still turned to the fireplace.
There was a hint of laughter in Harry's voice as he spoke next. "Yeah, bye Hermione."
She let out an enormous sigh as his head disappeared from the fire, and she sank down onto the couch.
"God, I need a good breakfast to drown the memory of this horrible encounter," she exclaimed, throwing her hand over her eyes.
She rose reluctantly from the couch again and walked lazily towards the kitchen.
"Fuck that. I need a fantastic shag to drown the memory of this horrible encounter," he replied loudly. "But I'm not opposed to the kitchen..."
A/N: Thanks so very, very much to everyone who has reviews. Please do keep on reviewing, and I hope you at least liked the chapter I've been struggling so much to get on paper. At least it's one of the longest ones for you!