Chapter Seven.
Not My Cup of Tea
Draco was tired of changing clothes. Jane had said no to everything that he had put on so far. "This would be easier if you told me where we're going." He said as he stomped back up the stairs.
"That would take the fun out of it though." She yelled up the stairs at him. She was excited and happy, he could hear the smile in her voice. He smirked a little at the quip and went back into his room to change, again. When he descended the stairs again Jane looked him up and down and twirled her finger for him to spin. Feeling ridiculous, he slowly spun on the spot once.
"Much better!" she said as she grabbed her purse off of the chair on her way to the door.
"You're not driving are you?" He tried to make the question a joke, but he was honest in his concern. He had survived her driving once, he didn't want to test fate.
She mocked offense as she frogged his arm. "No… We're taking a cab." She said. "And we're meeting Garret there." He followed her out into the misty night air.
"Ah, the mystery man has a name." He watched her roll her eyes as she locked the door, they both got into the cab. Draco could tell that she was nervous. The fact that he didn't know where they were going had his nerves set on end as well. He watched out the cab's window as she dug around in her purse, the silence between the two of them familiar and comfortable.
"Here." She finally said. She held out a key and a wad of cash. "It's not a lot of money, so make sure that you count it out before you order too many drinks. The bartenders aren't going to like it if you come up short on your tab."
"We're going to a bar?" Draco was shocked. She had been nothing but a homebody since he moved in with her, but he guessed maybe she was a homebody because of him.
"We're going to a nightclub." She correct. "I like to dance." She flashed him a white smile as she pointed at the key in his still open palm. "This is my extra key to the house, please don't lose it."
"I'm going to be going home alone tonight?" He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Probably not." She said without looking at him. "It's just in case you want to go home earlier than I do."
"Ahh…" he pocketed the money and the key as the cab slowed to the stop outside of the flashy club and followed her as she led the way inside.
Hermione was sick and tired of paperwork, meetings, and hearing about Draco Malfoy and Jane Sharpe. She took a glance down at her watch again and resisted the urge to roll her eyes as yet another wizard had something to say about the arrangements of his rehabilitation. It was late, too late to be here listening to this nonsense.
"How do we know that he hasn't manipulated this young woman into a romantic relationship. That could explain all the rave reviews about his progress." A plump young witch said and to Hermione's despair, there were many heads around the long table that were shaking in agreement. This meeting was far from over, and she rubbed her hands over her face.
"Ms. Granger." Kingsley's deep voice was directed to her.
She dropped her hands and looked up at him, resisting the urge to grimace under his intense stare. "I went for my observation a few weeks ago. It's all in my notes…" she started.
"Yes, Ms. Granger." The plump witch said, her voice stuck up and stubborn. "We've all read the notes." Her voice was condescending and Hermione had to stamp down the irritation that was building up under her skin.
"Look, this was where you all agreed to send him." Hermione started, feeling her formalities slip away as her voice rose. "He's doing a wonderful job there, and he is changing. Changing for the better, and I'm sorry… but I don't understand why you all agreed to send him to rehabilitation if none of you were prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt when he did well with it."
The silence of the room seemed to scream back at her. They were all staring at her wide-eyed, and she realized that she was standing, glaring down at all of them in anger. Taking a deep breath she gathered the papers that were in front of her. "If any of you doubt my notes or Jane's reports about him then please, be my guest and go visit him yourselves." Without another look at any of them, she slipped all her papers back into her briefcase and stormed out of the room.
She knew that the meeting wasn't over and that there was going to be repercussions for her rudeness, but she couldn't sit there listening to them speculate Draco and Jane's relationship another minute. She knew that she should go visit the pair to see if all the talk was correct, but she hadn't been able to force herself to go. The whole situation frustrated her, and it frustrated her more that she couldn't understand why the thought of the two of them together bothered her so much. He had been such a prick to her in the years past, how was she able to so quickly change her thoughts about him? Jane always put him in a wonderful light everytime she talked to him, and it was like, through Jane, she was getting to know another man altogether, and that man wasn't at like Draco Malfoy at all.
"Hermione." Kingsley's voice boomed down the hall at her. "Wait."
She stopped but didn't turn to look at him.
"You're right." He said as he came up next to her, and she looked up at him in shock.
"I'm right?" She hated the disbelief in her voice, now wasn't the time to sound doubtful.
"We all agreed for him to go through this, but not many of us were prepared for the fact that he might actually do well with it." Kingsley's eyes looked like they were seeing through her, taking out all of her thoughts and picking them apart. "And I don't think that there's a romantic relationship behind his success either."
"You don't?" She kept her voice professional, still not sure why she cared if the two of them had started seeing one another or not.
He shook his head at her. "No, I don't. I have read all the reports too, and I just don't see any signs of that happening."
"You're not going to move him to another host then?"
"No, and he's not going to Azkaban either."
She let out the long breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding. The mention of the wizarding prison early in the meeting had awakened panic inside her, but she had kept telling herself that there was no way it would happen. He was doing too well, and anyone that saw him would know that he was sincerely changing for the better. They just had to see him like she had seen him the day they all went shopping.
"Thank you." She said giving him a small smile.
"I'll calm down the masses." He said as he patted her on the shoulder and started back up the hallway towards the conference room.
She took a few more steady breaths before apparating away.
It didn't take Draco long to realize that he was completely out of his element. He was used to large groups of people and noise, he had gone to Hogwarts after all. But what he had found himself in the middle of now was nothing like he had expected. There were people everywhere, and he could feel the vibrations of the music in his teeth. People were grinding on one another all over the place, and he just couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching him. He scanned his gaze over the crowd again, and for the first time since he was sent to live with Jane, he felt completely helpless without his magic.
Thankfully, Jane hadn't abandoned him, which seemed to displease Garret. The other man kept shooting him nasty looks everytime the young woman included him in conversation. Draco chose to ignore it but made a note to himself to talk to Jane about what a prick he was when they got home. He looked down at his barely touched drink and came to the decision that he just couldn't handle it anymore.
He leaned over closer to Jane. "Hey… I think I'm going to head on home." He yelled in the direction of her ear. She frowned but nodded her head at him. "I was nice to meet you." He threw an acid grin at Garret as he offered his hand to the other man. They shook, both men squeezing the others hand too tightly.
Draco got out of the booth and went back outside. The night's cooler air cleared his mind instantly. He got a cab and made the ride home alone. He watched out the window as the vehicle weaved through the streets back towards the house. He couldn't remember the last time that he had been alone, he soaked in the sensation as he got out of the cab and unlocked the front door, stepping inside.
"Where have you been?" Hermione watched as Draco jumped and did the most ungraceful dance she had ever seen. She hadn't meant to scare him, but unable to stop herself, she started laughing. She couldn't remember the last time that she had laughed so hard.
"Bloody hell." He shut the door behind him and locked it. He leaned his back against it as he tried to catch his breath. "I wasn't expecting anyone to be here." He said defensively. He watched as she laughed, there was genuine mirth in it and before he could stop himself he laughed too.
"I'm sorry." She said as she tried to regain her composer.
"It's one in the morning, what are you doing here?" He said as all kinds of reasons for her late visit started flashing through his mind. "Is something wr…"
"Everything's fine." she cut him off. "And it wasn't one in the morning when I got here."
She watched a blush crept onto his face. "You've been here... waiting?"
She nodded her head at him as she went back into the living room, taking the same seat on the couch that she had been on for the last 3 hours. "Where's Jane?"
"Clubbing." He took a seat on the other end of the couch and stretched his legs out in front of him.
"Clubbing!" she looked at him shocked. "You went clubbing too?"
"Yeah… it's not really my cup of tea." His voice told her more about his thoughts on it than the statement.
"Mine either." She confessed. "Do you know when she will be home?"
"I don't…" he leaned his head back onto the back of the couch. "I can tell you that she's probably not going to be fit to rationally talk to you when she gets home."
"I should probably go home then." She said, but she didn't move to leave. He turned his head to look at her. She looked like she had come straight from work, and she looked tired.
"You can stay with me if you want." Her head snapped around to pin him in a stare of disbelief. "Not... like that." He said defensively. "There's a spare room upstairs that no one uses. You can sleep there if you want." He turned his head back and settled it back on the couch, closing his eyes.
She took a few minutes to think of her reply and she watched him closely those few minutes. He looked relaxed again. Sitting with his head leaned back exposing his neck, like had no worries in the world. He closed his eyes like he was completely at ease with her staying here with him. The only sign that he was nervous about her reply was the bobbing of his Adam's apple as he swallowed hard.
"Okay." She said finally. He opened his eyes and looked over at her. His grey eyes pinned her in place as he gave her a smirk.
"Come on," he said standing up and offering her his hand. "I have enough extra pajamas to clothe an army thanks to our shopping trip. You can borrow a pair."