December 2010
Hermione frowned at her reflection in the mirror, smoothing her hands over her dress.
"I'm still not sure," she muttered as her frown deepened, the lines in her forehead causing Susan to tut as she looked up from her copy of Witch Weekly.
"Honestly woman, you will make yourself age a decade doing that," Susan chided, shaking her head.
Hermione relaxed her forehead as she quirked an eyebrow at Susan, her petite hands gripping her waist as she spun on her heel.
"Are you sure this outfit is appropriate?" Hermione questioned her as a loud rap of the door caused Susan to fling her magazine to one side while simultaneously jumping from Hermione's bed.
"You look gorgeous," Susan breathed as she rushed down the stairs to open the front door.
Hermione groaned as she followed Susan out of her bedroom. "That's not what I asked!"
Susan pulled the front door open, ushering Theo and Blaise in. "Tell her she looks gorgeous," Susan smiled as the two wizards greeted her with a kiss of the cheek.
"You look gorgeous!" they chorused amusedly as Hermione rolled her eyes.
"That isn't what I asked!" Hermione cried, frustratedly.
Blaise regarded her quizzically. "What did you ask?"
"Whether this dress is appropriate," Hermione replied, gesturing to her outfit as Theo took her hand, turning her around.
"What's the occasion?" Blaise inquired, scrutinising her carefully.
"She has a date with Draco Malfoy," Susan gushed before Hermione could answer. Clamping her mouth shut, Hermione pursed her lips for a moment as Blaise's eyes went wide and the colour drained from Theo's face.
"It's not a date," Hermione hissed.
"What did you do?" Theo asked, the slight bite to his tone causing Hermione to roll her eyes once more.
"I didn't do anything," Hermione rushed, avoiding the look he gave her as she grabbed her cardigan from where it was draped over the back of a chair.
Theo watched the slight flush creep across Hermione's skin. "Hermione Granger, you promised!" he scolded, throwing his hands up in the air as he collapsed into a wingback chair.
"Oh, honestly, Theo, you are worrying about nothing. He was fine!" Hermione replied somewhat distractedly as she pulled her cardigan on, fixing her hair.
Theo regarded her sceptically as Susan grinned. "Only because I calmed him down. He was pretty pissed when he got here."
Hermione's eyes snapped to Susan's as Theo dropped his head in his hands groaning loudly.
"You're not helping," Hermione snapped as she grabbed her purse.
"I know," Susan grinned sarcastically as she winked.
"Anyone going to clue me in here?" Blaise asked looking at each of his friends.
Theo lifted his head, dragging his fingers down his face as he inhaled sharply. "This one couldn't leave it alone as to who was funding all this," he replied, gesturing vaguely to the house.
"And I presume that is our dear reformed death eater Draco?" Blaise interjected, grinning broadly.
Theo made an affirmative noise.
"I see, and how did we get from 'Draco Malfoy is my benefactor', to 'Draco Malfoy is my lover'?" he smirked as he made his way to the kitchen to grab a bottle of wine and glasses, his question causing Susan to giggle much to Hermione's chagrin.
"He is not my lover!" Hermione cried, her slight flush deepening to full on crimson.
"Not yet he isn't," Susan smirked.
Hermione narrowed her eyes. "I hate you."
"No you don't, you love me," Susan retorted playfully.
"I do, but you really should push off to Seamus's because you really are not being helpful," Hermione complained as Susan glanced at her wristwatch.
"I should, but I like to keep him on his toes and winding you up is fun," she grinned.
"Ridiculous," Hermione muttered as Blaise handed her a glass of Sauvignon Blanc that she accepted gratefully.
"So about this date…"
"It's not a date," Hermione insisted cutting him off. "It's a business meeting. Over dinner. At 'The Ivory Wand'," she clarified, ignoring the look Blaise was giving her.
"'The Ivory Wand' is the most exclusive restaurant in Diagon Alley," Blaise informed her. "If that is where Malfoy is taking you, it is a date."
"It's so not a date," Hermione retorted, finishing her wine and shoving her glass into Blaise's hand before crossing the room and grabbing a handful of floo powder as he chuckled.
"It so is!" he called after her, laughing as the emerald flames whisked her away.
Hermione nervously sipped her wine as the waiter cleared away their dishes.
"So, tell me what inspired you to choose this for your life?" Draco asked as he folded his napkin.
Taking a finger, she traced the rim of the glass as she chewed on the inside of her cheek, considering his question. "I guess I have Rita Skeeter to thank…" she began, causing Draco to scoff. Their eyes met for a moment.
"I'm sorry," he apologised, realising she was serious.
"It was her biography that got me thinking," Hermione clarified.
"You read that garbage?" Draco asked, quirking an eyebrow in disbelief. Even for someone pretty much universally regarded as a bookworm that little insight seemed extraordinary. Skeeter was well known to be nothing but a troublemaker, Draco considered, with it being similarly universally acknowledged that her previous foray into celebrity biographies had been nothing more than embellished drivel from a hack journalist.
Hermione smiled, understanding his train of thought. It was a well known fact that Hermione did not like Rita Skeeter, and that she had her own brand of retribution for the witch and her distasteful articles regarding The Golden Trio.
"Somewhere between the lines that had been thickly coated in fiction, was a truth: a truth of a young boy, conceived in tragic circumstances, abandoned to a life in a system that left him not only self sufficient but self dependent. More than a loner, he was someone who actively chose isolation. A child with extraordinary talent but also with a desire to control and to hurt. A child who learnt how to employ his natural charisma in order to manipulate others so that they would feel they were the centre of his world until he dashed them against a rock simply because it gave him pleasure." Hermione paused as Draco took in her words, the flicker of empathy in his face not going unnoticed by her. She tilted her head to one side, changing her tact.
"Do you know what it was that allowed Harry to survive the night Voldemort killed his parents?" She watched as the question took Draco aback slightly.
Smiling she answered her rhetorical question. "Love, Draco. Love is a powerful force; old magic. And it really is that simple, as clichéd as it sounds." She shrugged thoughtfully as she lifted her glass to her lips, stilling her hand. "Love is all broken children need to heal."
Draco took in her words, stunned by the simplicity of her solution. He thought of his own childhood and wondered, not for the first time, if with a bit more love from his Father, things might have turned out differently. Oh he did not doubt that Lucius had loved his wife and child in his own dysfunctional way, considering the sacrifices he made, however misguided they were. But his Father had loved him at a distance, under layers and layers of indifference. Not in the open way that Hermione spoke of, the same love that she had always been able to display to her friends. The love that the boy he had been derided, and the man he now was craved. He sat back, awestruck by her words and the passionate way she had expressed them, regarding her with newfound respect as the waiter placed their souffles in front of them.
"I meant what I said," Draco spoke as the waiter disappeared, causing Hermione to look up, her spoon poised, breath catching in her throat as she waited for his clarification.
"I want to help."
"You already do," she smiled but Draco shook his head.
"No, Granger. I want to help you. I want to be hands on, not just a financier," he insisted, gripping his napkin. "I know what people think of me, even now. I know people think that people like me just throw money at people like you to assuage our guilt through altruism," he told her, a bitter edge to his voice as he looked down at the hand that currently had a death grip on his napkin. "That's why I kept it anonymous all these years. I don't want people to think my actions over the years have been superficial. I promise you I do not sleep easier at night simply because I sign my name to a cheque once a month…"
Hermione reached across the table, her small hand squeezing his larger one, her soothing touch simultaneously startling and relaxing him. Looking up, his steely eyes met her warm honey gaze.
"If I thought that, Draco, I wouldn't be here."
Opening the little gate to the footpath of her cottage, Hermione turned and, in her nervousness, almost stumbled into Draco. Blushing, she smiled up at him.
"Thank you for dinner, Draco, and thank you for accompanying me home."
Draco nodded politely, smiling down at her. He found her nervousness endearing.
"I'll see you tomorrow, then," she murmured as he reached out, brushing a loose curl behind her ear, his touch causing her skin to tingle.
"Goodnight, Granger," he whispered, before pressing a soft kiss to her cheek, then stepping backwards, his eyes locked on hers. Instinctively, Hermione raised her fingers to where his lips had been, her heart pounding in her chest as he disapparated. Lost in thought, she turned and made her way into the cottage, making a beeline straight for the kitchen and more wine, almost on autopilot but not without noticing the pair acting like teenagers on her couch.
"You two are ridiculous," she called through to the lounge as Theo and Blaise made themselves more presentable.
"Never mind us, how was your not-a-date-date?" Theo grinned as he sat up on the sofa, Blaise sitting back on his heels, twisting to reach for their wine glasses for Hermione to refill. She quirked her eyebrow at him as she did so.
"My not-a-date-date was exactly that," she mocked as Theo frowned, confused. Hermione rolled her eyes, exasperated. "It wasn't a date."
"That goodnight kiss says otherwise," Blaise commented giving Hermione a knowing look that caused her to flush furiously.
"Oh Merlin, you saw that?" she cried, embarrassed.
"No love, he was rather preoccupied by me, but thank you for confirming that little hunch. Susan owes us ten galleons," Theo grinned as Hermione pulled one of the cushions out from under him and began to beat him with it.
"I don't know what you are laughing at, you are no better!" she cried, smacking Blaise with it.
"Calm yourself, woman, Matilda Truffle Laura Ashley does not benefit from Merlot!" he laughed as he held his glass away from the sofa. With a huff, Hermione dropped into an armchair, glaring contemptuously at them both.
"It wasn't a date."
Blaise grinned. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that, love."