The update didn't take as long as the last one. That's an improvement, right?

I know Draco has been the one appearing all magical and mysterious in the relationship, so I thought it would be fun to see Hermione do something Dracoish. Hence the inspiration behind this chapter.


Enjoy!


No one tells you a lot of things.

No one for example, told Hermione Granger that she was going to oversleep today. No one told her that the darn doorbell was going to disturb her from her well earned rest on her big white bed. No one told her that she was going to open the door to one of the most pleasant surprise she received in years while wearing her tattered pink bathrobe and barefoot.

But all these happened, right now in her embarrassingly old bathrobe at the front door.

The delivery boy just grinned toothily at her. He was in an awfully good mood for someone who had to work at nine-thirty on a weekend.

"Miss Hermione Granger?" He asked, his gold foiled teeth showing.

"That's me," Hermione replied, rubbing her eyes sleepily. She wanted to go back to sleep, to that dream that she was enjoying.

"I 'ave a delivery for you."

The delivery boy then proceed to pull out a flower bouquet from behind and thrust it happily to a startled Hermione, overwhelming her with its monstrous size.

Her eyes popped a little. The boy chuckled. It didn't take much to guess her reaction.

"Overwhelmed?"

"Where do I sign?" she asked faintly. He handed over a receipt.

Hermione struggled to hold the ball point pen while balancing the horrifying large bouquet, but eventually she managed to draw a few zig zags at the signature line. The boy inspected her chicken scrawl and was satisfied, shoving the paper into his jean pocket.

"There is a card along with your delivery," he told her, chuckling, and then added, as if informing her of something special. "This is the first time I ever since such a request."

And then he handed her an envelope and gave a wave as he walked away from her apartment.

Still dazed, Hermione carried the flowers back into her apartment, almost forgetting to shut the door. She placed it on her bedside table, set it down and did the only thing she could—stare.

The bouquet was of a hideously large size. Overly large. But it wasn't its sheer monstrosity that amazed her and amused the delivery boy. No, plenty of rich man had probably bought out flowers stores just to please their girlfriends.

But this bouquet was made up of every single flower she could name off her finger. A rose. A sunflower. An orchid. A orange tulip. Lavender. Daffodil. Baby's breath. One large lily. Even something she recalled as Birds of Paradise.

All in all, the bouquet was a very weird arrangement of big, tall, small and short flowers. The look did not mesh together at all. Hermione couldn't even use the word pretty to describe it. Odd. Unusual.

If Prudence were here, she would have called it hideous.

No wonder the delivery boy was smiling like that.

Who on earth would request for such a weird bouquet? One that is made up of every single flower on the planet… All the flowers except one.

Hermione tore open the envelope to reveal a white card. She smiled, comparing its stark clean lines to the funny flowers in front of her. She quickly flipped open the card.

A poem was written on one side. The other had a note.

They say that roses are red

Some claim the violets are blue

Even with this knowledge I can't tell one from the other

Because all I can see is you, you, and

Only—

you.

Her heart skipped a little again and she tried to regain her composure. She told herself it was cheesy, it was bad poetry, that it was cliché. But her heart seemed to ignore all these flaws and only see how lovely this utterly childish poem was.

The other side of the card had a drawing. And beneath it Draco wrote the words.

Because the real thing is you.

And on the top he drew a daisy.

This was the day Hermione Granger first discovered that Draco Malfoy was a romantic at heart.

Her second discovery was when she stepped into the Muggle supermarket that afternoon. A shopping list had been made an hour prior to this trip after she discovered that her depleting supply of Twizzlers was in fact, depleting. Hence her sudden visit to the supermarket.

She picked up some pastries in her shopping cart when her eye was caught by something which made her smile. A cherry pie.

Pausing, she replayed some of her earlier meet ups with Draco Malfoy inside her head. If she was not wrong, a cherry pie was included in one of them.

Yes, there was a cherry pie in his arms when she first spied Draco wearing that hideous pair of horn-rimmed glasses. She grinned uncontrollably at the memory. Only he of all people could look cute in it. Not even the hero with sello-taped glasses came near.

Determined not to day dream, she quickly walked away and got into the check out line. She didn't want anybody to see her stand at the bakery section like a blushing idiot.

Luckily it was a typical day in the supermarket, and no one was paying attention to her.

At the check out queue, she glanced, out of habit, at the advertising board to her right above the magazine stands. A nanny was needed. Somebody was selling his vacuum cleaner. Anyone who needed a flat could call the Joneses…

Her breath caught slightly as she saw a particular note.

There, pinned up among the other colourful flyers and advertisements, was a single notebook sized white paper. With a single, childishly drawn daisy in the middle of it.

It was signed love, D.M.

"Miss?"

Hermione returned her attention back to the cashier, distracted.

"Ready to check out?" The cashier asked kindly.

"Actually," Hermione replied, her cheeks warmed. "I just remembered I have to grab something."

And she dashed to the bakery section once again to grab the cherry pie.

They didn't make any plans for today, nor mentioned anything about getting together soon at all. In fact, their first date wasn't even planned, at least on Hermione's side. She had no idea when she was going to see Draco again.

But as she sat in the park that afternoon and she felt a hand on her shoulder, Hermione was certain it belonged to the man she was thinking of.

"Hello, Draco," she greeted without glancing at him.

"Second time you greeted me normally," The blond man commented. "How did you know it was me?"

Hermione looked at him. He had on his horn-rimmed glasses, the very one she was thinking about in the supermarket. And unsurprisingly it still brought flutters to her heart.

"I recognize its warm touch," she replied distractedly, hit by an inspiration. She quickly fished her spectacles out and put in on, no longer felt self-conscious in public with it on. Not with Draco anyway. "How do I look?" she asked coyly.

"You look good with those on. I told you before. Especially since you match me," Draco told Hermione, taking a seat beside her on the park bench. "Don't you want to know how I knew you were here?"

"I do know," Hermione said in a deadpanned voice. "You are stalking me."

"Ah, how true. And how did you come to that conclusion?"

"Simple. I have been receiving weird messages from every corner of Muggle London with a flower- "

"Daisy," Draco corrected. Only daisies.

"Daisies on it. Everywhere I go, it seems, I see it. Signed by the same lovesick fool."

"That's not called stalking," Draco said good-naturedly. "That's called devotion. And it does not mean I am following you. It simply means that I have stuck a number of notes in every bus stop, supermarket and phone booth in Muggle London."

Draco heard Hermione's breath catch.

"You couldn't simply call me to relay the message?" she asked.

Draco pretended to think over it.

"I could. But where is the romance and fun in it?"

Silly, romantic man.

"I must confess I enjoy it very much." Hermione said. "Although that being said, I have a gift of my own to give to you."

He raised his eyebrows, as he watched the bespectacled Hermione Granger pull out something from her shopping carrier. Two things actually.

"Cherry pie, my favourite," he commented.

"Well that answers the question I was pondering about. What was your favourite dessert, that is."

"You think about me?" He asked slyly, stealing a glance at her.

"Of course," she scoffed. "You are not the only one who can do romantic things. I also remember in one of our first run ins, you were carrying this exact sort of dessert and the both of us were wearing these spectacles."

Draco didn't respond; he was too busy staring at the other cleverly wrapped package Hermione passed to him.

"Open it," she told him, her pretty brown eyes wide.

He didn't catch her eye. Draco was too busy staring at his present.

"This is for me," he finally said.

"Is that a question or statement? Yes, it is for you."

He mulled over that fact for a while. "I haven't received a single tangible present since 5th Year."

"Well, take it as an accumulation of years worth of Christmas and birthday present."

"Thank you," he told her, breaking suddenly into a riotous grin.

"You haven't even open it yet," Hermione observed, pushing up her glasses a little. "Open it."

Still he didn't make a move.

"I can't bear to," Draco explained. "It's so… pretty." He gestured to the wrapper. It was light blue with cartoon Care Bears on it. Not the type Hermione pinned Draco would be a fan of, but she found this fact endearing. It made Draco somehow even cuter.

Still, the delay in opening his present was killing her.

"Draco, if you like the paper so much just stroll over to the nearest stationery shop down that street," She sighed, pointing towards the right of the park. "It cost seventy-nine pence only. Now open the stupid present before I murder you."

"Okay." A grin appeared on his face. And with steady fingers, Draco carefully pry open the wrapper according to the foldings. He couldn't risk tearing pink and purple bears on the paper.

And slowly, he pulled out a sleek rectangular box.

Draco thanked her.

"You don't even know what it is," she said bluntly, folding her arms.

He looked at his present.

"Of course I do," he said. With a pause, he added. "Besides, don't Muggles have a saying that goes, It's the thought that counts?"

"I knew it," Hermione grinned triumphantly, punching the air. "You don't know what is it."

"It has the same buttons as those on a telephone."

"That's because it is one."

"And this thing works?" He opened the box and pick up the palm-sized object.

"Of course it does!"

Draco looked amazed. "How on earth does it work without those wires?"

Hermione thought about explaining the power of satellites and network technology to him, but the answer seemed daft. She decided to settle for the simple answer. "Magic," she simply said.

Her romantic interest looked overly excited with his gift. "So how do you use it?"

She spent the next 15 minutes explaining it to him, showing him the charger, the card slot, and giving him the instruction manual.

"And to think you pride yourself with keeping up with the Muggle world," she teased. "And you don't even know what a cell phone is."

"They usually use something called Blackberry or iPhone," he frowned. "Why didn't you get me one of those?"

"Too common in London," Hermione answered, "Besides, those are really business type of phones. You didn't need one. I got you a Sony Ercisson instead."

"Oh. Do you have one?"

She pulled her own cell phone out. "It's the same as yours. It's a good trusty model."

"Same as yours," he repeated. "I like the idea of that. So what is your number?"

"Surely you can find a more suave move to get it?"

All the same, she told him her number. She watched as he slowly punched in the numbers and saved it.

"There," he said proudly declared. "My first ever contact. Hermione Granger."

"Yes." She smiled. "Now you can always contact me without doing the stalker-ish thing."

Just then, her own cell phone chirped. She excused herself and answered the phone without a glance at the screen.

"Hello?"

"Just testing the functions of my present, my lovely Daisy."

Sure enough, as she cocked her head back in the direction of the blond man, he had his ear pressed up to his mobile.

"You are sure a lot better than Ron," she snorted. "I almost went deaf on our first ever telephone conversation."

"Well your boyfriend isn't an idiot."

"Boyfriend?" She glanced at Draco.

He hung up the phone, looking at her rougishly. "What else would I be?"

"I don't know. My stalker whom I occasionally have tea with."

"I think I prefer the title 'boyfriend'."

"You never asked." Hermione retorted.

The corners of his mouth twitched as he pulled her hands into his grasps.

"Will you be my girlfriend, Hermione?" Draco asked earnestly.

Her heart paced and then soared. He was asking her!

"Hmmm," she pretended to hesitate, tapping her finger against her chin. She told herself not to jump right at the delicious-looking man.

"Your reply wounds me."

"Oh it's not that. It just so happens that I am a more traditional person. No one goes steady after just one date, Draco."

Sulkily Draco asked, "Did Vicky had to go more than one date before asking you to be his girlfriend?"

"What?" Hermione blushed. How did he know about that?

"You heard me… Besides we have been on plenty of unofficial dates. Sufficient I should say. So please?"

Oh, he was too difficult to resist when he was looking at her like that with his grey eyes, sorrowful. Hermione berated herself silently for giving in so early. She broke into a sunny smile. "Okay, I will be your girlfriend."

"Certain?"

"Very."

"My girlfriend," he murmured contentedly, as if in deep thought. "I like the sound of that even more."

"And I like the sound of being Draco Malfoy's first ever girlfriend." And last one, she silently added.

"So if you are my girlfriend, I am entitled to some privileges am I?" He asked excitedly.

"A few I guess?" Hermione looked puzzled. She was clueless why Draco looked so eager.

"So I am allowed to kiss you?" He asked happily.

Ah, the penny dropped. Hermione smiled. "Yes."

"Can I kiss you now, Hermione?"

"You may, if you promise never to ask my permission again."

And then Draco Malfoy, blond man, Hogwarts Graduate, Slytherin Prefect and more recently, Hermione's lover, leaned forward and pressed his lips against the object of his affections.

He was however, unsuccessful in his task. Their thick glasses clinked together before he could touch her lips.

"Oops," Hermione commented. Her head hurt slightly from the accidental knock.

Draco looked amused. "Never mind," he said. "I remember Muggles also having the saying 'if you don't succeed, try, try again'." And then he bend a little to kiss her again, this time succeeded.

Said object of affections returned this gesture rather too enthusiastically, and when she pulled back she blushed.

"No need to be shy Hermione. I enjoyed that very much as well." Draco grinned and grabbed her hands.

"And where do we go from here?" She asked curiously. His hand engulfed hers tightly and gave a squeeze.

"Well, I suppose we go on more dates. And then some more. I will introduce you to my mother and friends, and you will introduce me to yours. And we will receive a lot of heckling. We will pretend to be embarrassed but secretly enjoy the attention. And then we will find that we don't care and carry on with more rendezvous. Everyone will get jealous, if they aren't already so."

"Sounds like a plan to me," she smiled, tweaking his nose.

"All part of my seven step plan to seduce you," Draco answered, his eyes gleaming. "And it looks like I succeeded too."

Hermione let out an unladylike snort, squinting her eyes slightly when the light hit her glass lenses at an angle. "I expected so," she said, frowning. "Come to think of it, even in school you were always so meticulous and organized. I heard from Blaise you practically sorted your notes in alphabetical order."

"You are hearing from an unreliable source Hermione. I sorted them by subjects before sorting them to topics and then finally A to Z."

"That makes you worse," She said bluntly, but broke into a heartbreaking grin. "Don't worry. I don't think you are anal. Besides… I colour coded my notes."

"Good. It's a bit too late for you to realize my uptight ways now, anyway. How are Prudence and Blaise getting on?"

"Rather overzealously. Prue can't even bare to leave Blaise alone for fifteen minutes so she could have tea with me, But of course, this is part of your masterplan, isn't it?

The brunette grinned again, and Draco took a second to admire the honey streaks in her curly hair as the sunlight hit it. He almost stopped himself, but realized he now had the good fortune of staring at her shamelessly and openly. Which he did.

"I take credit for that. I plan most of that of course. In fact I plan almost everything… Including our courtship."

Hermione looked at him, eyes widening. "You planned our relationship?"

"I did not plan to become bewitched by you of course, although I dare say that was of the finest things that happened. That part wasn't planned. But even I have to admit, most of the courtship and our reaccquaintance were part of my wise plotting and scheming ways."

Hermione glanced at Draco. "Oh?"

"You didn't honestly think that I just happened to pop by when Narcissus/Harvey took you out on a date did you? Or that I happen to met you coincidentally so many times on the street."

"I did." She glared at him. "Stalker," she accused.

"Wounded lover, you mean." He chuckled. "Besides, I was desperate to see you again, after seeing you that day reading that book with butterfly clips in your hair."

"So all those fateful meetings weren't coincidences."

"Not really. But I had to find an excuse to see you again didn't I?" Draco told her proudly. She gave him a slight slap on his hand.

"And that day in the park?"

"A finely engineered meeting."

"So it wasn't really fate that threw us in the same paths?" She sighed. "That would have been more romantic. Serendipity and all."

Draco smiled. "Look at it this way. If a boy keeps arranging meet ups and desperately manufactures coincidences just so to surprise the girl, pops up whenever she least expects him, turns up when she needs him and pursues her in a very merry-go-round old-fashioned manner…Isn't that the kind of guy worth keeping?"

She beamed as she said softly. "Yes, he is."

"So treasure me well."

"I should have known this is some roundabout way to compliment yourself." She said laughingly, tossing her head a little. "Although I'm glad that some of your 'coincidences' didn't go quite as well as planned?"

Draco raised an eyebrow. With his trenchcoat on he looked like a detective. "Like?" he inquired.

"Oh, our date for one." She smiled. "And the time I wore my glasses. I'm pretty sure those were accidents."

He scowled. "Don't remind me of that."

"But it turned out for the better didn't it? So you see, my darling Malfoy, things don't always go as well as you planned. There is an element of surprise, even for you."

He didn't like to concede defeat. "On very rare occasions."

"On very rare occasions," She agreed, patting his knee. "And I admit, I think it is more romantic picturing you trying to scheme and plot in order to have a date with me. But watch out though."

"Watch out?"

"Yes, watch out," Hermione repeated. "Because one day the element of surprise will come and bite you."

"I will be on my guard."

"Or perhaps," she said mischieviously. "It will be a manufactured one on my part."

Draco almost didn't catch that statement. He was too busy planting a kiss on his girlfriend's cherry coloured lips.

Draco Malfoy woke up on Sunday from the loud chirp emitted by his cell phone. Spending a few minutes trying to navigate the functions, Draco finally managed to open his inbox, where he received his first ever text from Hermione Granger.

And the message was very odd.

Go down and buy a National Geographic.

No smiley faces or kisses at the back. He had to have the most clear-headed girlfriend ever. Not that he would change her for anything.

Two hours later he strolled to the aisle of the supermarket, holding a bar of Mars Bars and a Coke in hand. The magazine stand was right there, and the tell-tale yellow cover a particular magazine told him that that was the National Gepgraphic he was seeking.

As he reached to grabbed a copy, he noticed his own little daisy picture pinned on the corkboard above the magazine rack. He grinned, admiring his handiwork. It took him a long time to manually stick these all around London, but the results were worth it.

His eyes glanced at his cheerful drawing down to the note below it.

"Sir! Don't you want your purchases?" The cashier called out. But Draco had already ran out of the supermarket.

He dashed to the nearest bus stop. And then to the news agent two blocks down. And then to another supermarket. And then he realized Hermione had done it. She had given him his surprise.

She had pasted three thousand nine hundred and eighty two pieces of white paper under the three thousand nine hundred and eighty two he had written to her all over London. And on each of the white paper, she drew a big red hat and wrote You bewitched me as well.

She signed her note as love always, HG. And best of all, Hermione Granger drew a little daisy in the middle of her name.

There you go. So now you know their cutesy meetings aren't exactly unplanned or coincidences. If you reread the story, you can probably catch a few hints now and there. I hope this makes my story summary where Draco has a line "You seem to believe entirely too much in coincidence" makes more sense now.

This is the ending…sort of. I mean, this story basically is supposed to explore their relationship and its budding. But don't worry, There are probably 2-3 subsequent chapters, except there are more like epilogues.

As always, I would like to plead all my readers to review!