Chapter 28

Hermione would have been offended at Draco's comment if he hadn't meant it to be funny. In any case, she did need clothes, and as it turned out, he was quite serious about buying them for her.

The two apparated to Diagon alley, just short of Gringotts.

"Ok, let's go fill our pockets with gold and get you a proper outfit or two." Draco said, marching off to the bank.

Hermione looked around her, nervous. She had insisted that Draco dress in his muggle clothes; sunglasses and all. He had protested, but being safe was probably worth more than not looking silly. He looked dreadfully out of place, and was probably extremely embarrassed, but at least it wasn't so likely anyone would recognize him. Draco Malfoy in muggle jeans? Not likely!

Still, she was worried. She felt eyes on her from all around, and knew she had been recognized easily enough. She had vaguely remembered seeing her picture in the prophet along with Harry's. Damn. Was she going to draw unneeded attention to the two of them? Maybe she should have cast some spells on Draco to hide him better…maybe changed his hair color…

But then, they wouldn't have been able to get to his vault as easily.

Draco strode up to the goblin at his table and produced an ornate key. The goblin simply nodded and led them back to the transportation cart.

Hermione was very nervous about this, as well. She had just broke into this place not long ago, afterall. But she had been in disguise….hopefully no one had gotten a good look at her…

She just tried her best to stay behind Draco and look small and innocent.

When the three reached the Malfoy vault, Hermione had to stare. Inside there was as much loot as Bellatrix's vault- maybe even more. Not that she was the type to be impressed with money…but damn!

The goblin had waited outside patiently, after being assured by Draco that Hermione's presence was ok. Draco looked back at her and laughed, and she remembered to close her mouth.

"What is so funny?"

"Nothing. Sorry. Your just cute, looking like that." He sighed. "All this crap doesn't mean much if the lot of my family ends up in prison, does it?" He kicked a jeweled cup softly, and it "plunked" into a pile of galleons.

He began to look around, taking inventory and grabbing a few things here and there. True to his word, he stuffed his pockets full of Galleons. Being that he was wearing jeans, he found this to be less than effective. He grabbed Hermione by her robes and pulled her closer, a wicked grin on his face. He kissed her deeply as they stood there in the vault, his hands trapping her face.

"Can I borrow your pockets?" he asked. A very strange sentence if taken out of context, but she just smiled and nodded. He proceeded to stuff gold into the pockets of her robes, until she felt the weight pulling down the cloth at strange angles.

As it was his own pockets looked strange stuffed with gold and small trinkets of this and that.

"What all did you grab?" Hermione asked, curious about all the lumps.

Draco just shook his head, grinning. "Feel free to look around and be awed at the greatness of the Malfoys." He joked. Well, half joked.

She did look around, and actually was quite awed. Some of the antiques were just itching to be looked at closer, to be studied…

But it would be rude to go riffling through someone else's vault. She shook her head and headed for the door. Draco shrugged and followed.

***

The two entered the robe shop just around 8am. Two hours left until Hermione was needed. No time to be fitted.

She flipped through the racks of ready-made clothes, trying hard not to think about why she needed the appropriate robes…

Draco saw her looking blankly at the garments and sighed. He grabbed one, looked at her, looked at it, and nodded. "Here, this one would be appropriate."

It was an incredibly bright white. Hermione looked skeptical. "It's pretty…but white?"

Draco stared at her. "What else would you wear to a funeral?"

"Er…never mind….thank you." She said in a small voice.

Draco reached over and pulled down several other robes. The witch in charge looked over, watching the strange muggle-dressed man pulling down witch's garments. What did she think they'd do, bolt with them?

That's when Hermione noticed the price on one of the dress robes Draco shoved her way.

"No way! I don't need something this expensive! Let's go look somewhere else."

Draco was wearing the sunglasses, but she imagined him rolling his eyes. "Just hold these and shut up."

He grabbed a few more, and some jewelry that matched. Actually, he was doing all this rather fast, so Hermione was impressed with the things he threw at her. He had good taste.

The dressmaker could hardly believe her eyes when Draco pulled all the gold from his pockets and handed it over. She had eyed them suspiciously up until the point that the cash was out.

The two exited, carrying bags and bags of loot. Hermione felt slightly ill thinking about all the money that had just been tossed away.

"You didn't have to spend so much on me…how am I supposed to pay so much back?"

Draco stopped walking and looked at her over the lenses of his sunglasses. He was getting good at using those things to the best advantage. "Look, these were just gifts, ok? Don't embarrass me by talking about paying me back. It's not like I can't spare the gold. Money is not one of my many problems."

He could say that, but Hermione still felt bad about it…

But there was no time left for pressing her point. She selected the bag with the white robes in it and hurried into a bathroom at a small café to change, leaving Draco with the bags.

When she emerged, Draco nodded. "It looks ok, then? Ok. I…I'll meet you back at the house in a few hours…Please go back right away; I'd hate it if something happened to you while I was gone."

"Where am I going to go with all this junk? Of course I'll go back to your house." He brushed his hand slightly on one of her arms in a comforting gesture. "Just…I'll be there for you when you get back, ok? Unless you want me to go with you…"

She stopped herself from screaming 'NO!' just in time, and just shook her head. He didn't want to go, and no one there would want him to go. Just she wanted him to be with her. She couldn't be that selfish.

Draco nodded as she apparated away, heading towards the cemetery just a mile away from the burrow…