A/N: Bit dialogue heavy at the start. Also, this chapter won't be as long as the previous one. Enjoy!
Draco and Hermione both stayed out on the grassy hill after their initial kiss. Following their New Year wishes to each other, Draco had dropped down onto his back again and the two resumed looking at the sky. The silence between them both was comfortable and Draco didn't feel like he had done anything bad. Sure, the kiss had been sudden and unexpected, but maybe that's what he needed in life — something unexpected to knock him breathless and jolt him back into reality. He didn't know the minutes since they had laid back down when he felt her hand rest in his, and he made the move to lift his fingers to thread through hers. When he turned his head after to look at her, he saw that she was still looking up at the sky with a smile on her lips. She must have felt his gaze upon her and turned her head so they were both looking at each other. "Did you expect that to happen?" He broke the silence.
"Not expect, no," she answered. They fell into silence again and he glanced away from her but only very briefly before looking back. "It's better not to expect these kind of things though," she said.
"I agree," Draco said. "Which is unlike me," he laughed softly.
She smiled and laughed too. "It's nice to be faced with the unknown once in a while. I don't like being fully settled into a routine of always knowing what's ahead."
"You wouldn't have guessed that we would have kissed?" He asked curiously.
He saw her blush then. "I would have hoped," she admitted and then looked away from him in embarrassment. "Was that too forward of me?" She laughed to try and defuse what she felt to be awkward.
"If that was too forward, what am I? I kissed you, remember?"
Hermione didn't say anything for a few seconds but still smiled. "Yeah," she nodded. "You've wanted to do it?"
"Granger, if I hadn't wanted to do it, we wouldn't be here lying in the aftermath of it," he smirked.
"I guess you're right…"
"I thought you knew me, Granger. I'm always right."
—
The both of them had retreated back to the house after spending a bit more time out on the grass talking to each other about nothing in particular. Outside, his hand had left hers after a while to rest behind his head, but it was when they both got too cold that they decided that being indoors was a more appealing idea. Inside, Hermione got herself another glass of champagne whilst Draco poured himself a firewhiskey and glanced to his left when he saw Harry come up to him. "Are you and Hermione together?"
Draco repressed the urge to roll his eyes and he picked up his glass and took a sip of the strong whiskey before answering, "No, Potter."
"You both just—"
"We went outside for half an hour, does that automatically mean she's my girlfriend?" He drawled.
"An hour, more like it."
"Potter, the whole 'protective best friend' speech I can see you planning in your mind is a bit too much like a dramatic movie. Save it for a dream," Draco concluded, not in the mood to be having that sort of conversation, especially with Harry. He himself was confused about what had just happened with Granger and knew everything Potter was trying to say was based on the speculation that they had done something in the time they had outside. Little did he know….
His drink was finished quite quickly and when he went to refill it, he sighed when he felt another person standing by him and repressed the urge to snap, thinking it was Harry, when he turned and saw it was Hermione. "Not happy to see me?" She asked with an arched brow.
"Thought it was Potter," Draco said and put his glass down.
"I saw him talking to you before, what was that about? You looked pissed, to be frank."
"I'm ninety nine percent sure he was going to give me the speech on how I'd better not hurt you or there would be hell to pay," he scoffed.
"Wait. Did he see what happened?" Hermione asked and her eyes widened slightly.
"Nice to see you don't mind if it had happened," he drawled in a joke.
"It's not that, Draco, don't be silly."
"He didn't see us," Draco said. "We were halfway up a bloody hill, no one could see us."
Hermione smiled and then agreed with him. "I've just said my goodbyes to everyone. Are you going to stay?"
"I'd rather scrub fifty cauldrons clean than stay here," Draco said.
"You've had a good time, don't be a spoilt sport," Hermione laughed softly. "Will we go?"
Draco smirked and then looked at the door. "We?" He looked back at her.
"You know what I mean!"
"You're blushing."
"You kiss me once and all of a sudden you tease me even more?" Hermione laughed. "That's very 'school yard' of you."
Draco gave her a look of confusion. "What?"
"It's always been said when a boy likes a girl, he'll try and tease her because he likes her."
"I'm a man and you're a woman, Granger," he said, wanting to rile her up more.
She rolled her eyes and looked back at the door. "Are you coming?"
"If you want me to go home with you so badly, all you have to do is ask."
—
Three days had passed since Draco and Hermione's goodbye during the early morning hours after the Weasley's New Year's Eve party. They had walked from the Burrow and out into the front yard, passed the fence and the hill they had shared their kiss upon. Draco had decided that he should just go home and Hermione seemed fine with that. Neither of them had made any move to kiss and they'd been okay with that too. Miraculously, in the time it had taken him to say his farewells to the few people he wanted to inside (Harry, Ginny and her parents) and then reached where he and Hermione stood then, he had come to the acknowledgement that he had to think, and think hard. While they didn't kiss goodbye, she did reach out slightly and held his fingers and looked up at him to say that she was glad he'd came. He returned the sentiment and then unlaced their fingers and said goodbye. He'd waited for her to say it back before he apparated home.
By himself in the dark of his bedroom that night, laying on his bed with the alcohol making him feel warm and numb at the same time, he had fallen asleep and slept almost until noon the next day. During his sleep, his brain had given him a wild train of thought of the 'alternative' way he and Hermione could have kissed the night previous and a long cold shower was needed once he woke up to let him think straight. Even then, three days later, every morning he had to welcome the day with a freezing shower just because of thoughts about that night.
Over the previous days since the kiss, neither had gotten to see each other again due to the expected increase in work load. Draco had many meetings throughout the day with his clients, and fixing their business and making a case took up the remaining hours of his work day and even when he finished work too. Hermione's exchange program took the back-burner, not only for him, but for her as well and he knew this from the letter she'd sent him two days before, indicating that she didn't have any free time to schedule meetings. Without their regular meetings in place, they didn't see each other at all, not even at break or lunch times which Draco spent in his office while trying to get his work done. As much as he didn't have a home life, he still didn't really like taking it home with him, as the moment he stepped out of the floo, he made himself dinner, ate and then retreated to bed ready to repeat it all again.
He didn't miss Granger because he knew that she was still there and he knew that any feelings about the two of them wouldn't disappear for her in a few short days, just like it hadn't for him. If he was being honest with himself, he didn't know how to proceed from there. In his twenty-nine years, he'd had three relationships — Astoria being the only serious one. Aside from the woman he'd slept with a few times when he was twenty-five, he'd been involved, for lack of a better word, with Pansy in the summer leading into fifth year. That relationship had mainly been for show and an experimentation on what it really was like to have a girlfriend, but they didn't pass anything more than a snog, nor did either of them fall in love. They were teenagers, they didn't know what love was. None of his relationships had been initiated by him and even though he knew how to plan dates, he had no idea how he was supposed to bring up the idea to Hermione. Her words ran through his head then: 'It's better not to expect these kind of things though'.
Draco wasn't one to deny the blatantly obvious, and right now, that was that he was still fond of Hermione. Long gone were his old prejudices and he hadn't even thought of that since he began to work with her and eventually come to like her. No longer was she the bane of his existence with bushy hair and a prissy attitude, like he had thought back in their school years. While she still had her bushy hair, to him, she was interesting. She was an open and a closed book all at the same time, no matter if that didn't make sense. He felt like he could know what she was feeling just by looking at her face or listening to how she spoke, but then there were parts of her that he knew she wouldn't let him get to easily. Realising he felt for her had been abrupt but he hadn't denied it. He'd been told countless times that he should start looking for someone, not to necessarily settle with, but to be in a relationship with and finally his eyes were beginning to open that maybe that was a good idea. His relationship with Astoria didn't always have the best of times, but he had enjoyed being with her for the most part and he couldn't help but wonder what being with Hermione would be like.
He sighed and pushed his hands through his hair. At present, he was lying in bed and his mind wouldn't give him enough peace to sleep. He wanted to see Hermione again, just to figure out what was happening. With a groan, he sat up in bed and trudged through his house to get to the study. It was a cold night and in retrospect, he realised he should have put on at least one scrap of clothing to stay warm, but he knew he wouldn't be long. He opted out of sitting down on the leather chair at his desk as he knew that wouldn't be the most warmest of things, so he stood and wrote his letter without sitting.
Granger,
I'm taking lunch at one o'clock tomorrow. You're the head of your department, I'm sure you can arrange for yourself to be free at that time too. I'll be dining in the cafe we had our last lunch.
D.
With that, he rolled the letter and went to his backdoor to get his owl to come to him. Two minutes later, the large bird was off and Draco went back to his bedroom and got under the covers to warm himself. There was no harm in what he'd done and he didn't regret it, and with that, he fell asleep.
—
Draco sat down with a menu in hand in the cafe he'd arranged to meet Hermione in. She had sent a letter back and it had got to him just as he was about to floo to work. His morning had been a rush after he slept ten minutes passed his alarm. He took to a shower and instead of turning the taps to cold, he decided to relieve himself in a more traditional manner which only made him more tired than what he was before. After cleaning, he rushed through having breakfast (he only had the end slice of bread left to toast) and a cup of coffee then took the floo to work after reading Hermione's letter, just in time for his first meeting of the day.
Right on schedule, the door of the cafe opened and Hermione walked in and left her umbrella in the stand by the door. She spotted him across the room and walked over to the table and her face split into a smile. "Long time no see," she greeted him.
He was smiling too and rest his forearms on the table when she sat down. "I'm surprised we still recognise each other," he joked.
"I had a bit of trouble," she laughed and opened the menu in front of her then looked up at him. "What have you been up to?" She asked then started to scan for what she wanted to order.
"This and that," he answered and just watched her since he'd already decided on what he'd be eating. "Meetings galore and mountains of paperwork."
"Tell me about it," she snorted. "It's been incredibly busy and it doesn't seem to be stopping."
"Busier than last year."
"Mmm, I wonder why that is…" She mused and then closed her menu and looked back up at him with a smile. She was just about to open her mouth when a waitress who walked by asked if she could take their order. They placed what they wanted to eat and drink then were left alone again. "I was wondering when you would have owled me," she said.
"What made you think I would?" He smirked.
"Oh, I just knew," she laughed softly. "But really, I would have been owling you today if I hadn't got your note last night."
"Miss me, Granger?" He asked and delighted in seeing the flush over her cheeks, the smirk not leaving his face.
"Maybe I did, Malfoy," Hermione answered and put her hand down to the knife and fork on the table and straightened them out. Silence ensued and Draco glanced around the cafe as it started to get busy for the lunch rush-hour, but instead of sitting in, many people took their coffees and food to go. Not that it would have mattered anyway since Draco had chosen the table furthest from the others so they could have as much privacy as possible in a very non-private area. "What did New Year's mean to you?" She blurted out and then snapped her mouth shut.
He looked to her and raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" He asked her slowly.
She took a short breath and then made eye contact. "Did it change anything for you?"
Draco looked down at the table as he thought about what he was going to say. Here was the moment he'd been waiting for, the 'defining' moment as some may put it. "Of course it changed something for me, Granger," he said and didn't look her in the eyes until she said his name.
"It changed things for me too."
"Like?"
"How I think about you…" She trailed off. She looked up quickly when the waitress returned with their drinks and they were both quick to take a sip for a few seconds of thinking time.
"And how do you?" He asked. She chewed slightly on her bottom lip and he knew that it was a sign of her deliberating over if she should speak or not, so he spoke for her, "I know how I think about you. I know that the reason I kissed you was because I wanted to," he said and then thought he'd said too much and shut off and looked away from the table and tried to look outside but the rain obstructed any view.
Hermione sensed his discomfort and she only reached across the table with her hand and traced her fingers over the back of his hand. "Who knows what we're doing, right?" She asked and gave a small smile.
"Good point," he said but didn't have it in him to turn his head and look her in the eye.
—
The rest of their lunch passed seamlessly and the both of them came out of their shells they had started to retreat into at the start. They spoke for so long about everything, but nothing relating to their feelings to each other, and when Draco looked at his watch, he realised they were meant to be back at work in two minutes.
"If anyone asks, we were having a meeting about the exchange program," Hermione laughed as they walked back to the Ministry.
Draco laughed too and held the umbrella tighter when a gust of wind pulled at it. It hadn't been raining when he'd arrived at the cafe, but since it was now, he took responsibility of adequately covering the both of them as they returned to work. "Thank you for coming today," he said to her as they turned onto the road where they would enter the Ministry.
"I wouldn't have said no," Hermione told him and he was extremely aware of how tightly pressed to his side she was. Maybe it was only to keep out of the rain, but maybe it was for other combined reasons as well — he liked to think it was the latter. They stopped by the street entrance of the Ministry, but Hermione put her hand on his arm and walked a little further from the door. He knew she was about to say something and he looked down at her while her gaze was down at her own feet for a few seconds. "I would like to do this more often," she admitted. "Not just lunches, but proper…you know."
"I know," he nodded and saw her shoulders relax.
"I… Call me crazy, but I want this to progress," she laughed and pushed her fringe back from nerves and he smiled slightly and shook his head at her.
"Then I'll have to call the both of us crazy."
She looked up at him and he lifted his hand up to fix the strand of her fringe that was sticking up. "I'll owl you when I get home," she said. He nodded and went to hand her umbrella back to her but was blindsided when she lifted up onto her tip-toes and pressed her lips to his. It was a peck at first until they drew away and Draco's hand, seemingly on its own accord, cupped her cheek and drew her back in. He kissed her back softly and when he pulled away they both silently agreed that would be the end of their kisses — for that day. She smiled up at him then and shook her head as she laughed.
He laughed too and handed her umbrella back to her. "I'll respond to your owl as soon as I get it," he told her.
"I look forward to it," she said and gave him one last smile before she turned and headed to the entrance of the Ministry and disappeared inside, leaving Draco out so he could use the cool, fine air to his advantage of clearing his head.
A/N: There you go! Hope you enjoyed, I scrapped and re-wrote a lot of this so I'm not particularly fond of it. Please do review and let me know how you're finding the progression! Thanks for reading!