The following morning, Draco woke up to Hermione already up and dressed.
"Put these on," She said as he sat up in bed, tossing him a red shirt and jeans. "You have to look ordinary...or," She looks up at his light blonde hair knowing he would stand out anyway. "as ordinary as possible."
"What are these for? And ordinary how?" Draco asks in confusion, looking down at the clothes. There was no way he, especially looking like his father, wasn't going to stand out wearing jeans and a shirt. His father always dressed in no less than the finest robes. And Hermione, who was now wearing a striped long-sleeved shirt and blue jeans, looked nothing like what his mother would. She wouldn't be caught dead in something that looked so...muggle, so lower class.
"Well, I figured we could go get something to eat first." Hermione answers, "and since it would be obvious if we ate somewhere around here when we are not even supposed to be here, Dumbledore gave us pounds to use."
"Pounds?" Draco asked in confusion at the term. "That makes no sense Granger. How are those supposed to help us? What are those, even?"
"Muggle money," Hermione answered as Draco took off his shirt and threw another one on. He didn't see as Hermione looked down uncomfortably, blushing slightly at the sight of Draco's defined biceps from years of Quidditch. "They are...umm...we are..." She looked back up at him in a fluster from the thought of him half-naked in front of her. "We are going to eat at a muggle restaurant."
"No, no. WE are not." Draco answers firmly. "I am not stepping foot in a filthy muggle building. Who knows what kind of...filth...they have there." He argued.
"Fine!" Hermione answers, her face determined. "I guess I'm eating alone then." She said as she picked up a handful of floo powder and stepped into the fireplace.
"What about me?!" He says, shocked that she would just leave him there without food.
"Well," Hermione says, thinking about it momentarily. "You can either come with me or you can go without breakfast. It's your choice."
"Fine, I'll go." He answers, still in awe that she would leave him. "But if I catch anything..."
"You can blame me." Hermione answers, rolling her eyes as he got into the fireplace with her. "The Leaky Cauldron." She says firmly, taking Draco's hand as the green fire surrounds them, taking them into the Leaky Cauldron. "Don't make eye contact." She whispers as she pulls him through the dark and shabby pub out into the streets of Muggle London. As they get out into the street, she sighs with relief. They were safe, no one noticed them.
"Now where to Granger?" Draco asks, yanking his hand out of hers before she could notice that it was sweating.
"This way," Hermione says firmly, taking him to the right of the Leaky Cauldron to a small cafe. The bell above the door dings as they walk in, Draco quickly looking around in disgust. The hardwood floors looked clean enough but the chairs, which had the old-fashioned metal backs on them and a simple black leather seat, sat on either side of the light pink tables forcing Draco and Hermione to sit close as they looked around at the white walls. Neither of them said a word as Hermione handed him a menu to look at.
"Can I help you?" A young waitress, not looking much older than Draco and Hermione themselves, asked. Her hair was up in a blonde ponytail as she chewed sloppily on a piece of gum and stared at Draco. Hermione knew this was a bad idea, that Draco stood out too much in a crowd for them to go somewhere muggle. His hair gave away the fact that this wasn't somewhere he belonged. She should have just brought food back to the Shrieking Shack, but she wanted to show him that muggles weren't everything he thought they were.
"A cappuccino." Hermione says politely as Draco stares at the menu. "And a muffin." She watched as the young waitress wrote down her order on her notepad.
"And for you?" The waitress asks, smacking her gum again.
"Two hotcakes." Draco answers, putting down the menu. "And a pumpkin juice."
"A what?!" The waitress asks, a bit of a tone in her voice as she raised her eyebrow at him in disgust.
"Orange Juice." Hermione interrupts quickly. "Sorry, my friend here is from out of town. He would like an orange juice."
"Kay," The waitress answers, writing it down before walking to the back of the cafe, leaving Draco and Hermione alone again.
"They don't have pumpkin juice?" Draco asks, as if that made going to a muggle cafe that much worse.
"No, they don't." Hermione answers, trying to stay discrete. "That is a...a Hogwarts thing." She says softly, not wanting to tell him where they could be overheard that pumpkin juice was only available in the wizarding world. "So how are we going to do it?" She asks softly, leaning closer to him so they couldn't be overheard. "How are we going to get the hair?"
"I was hoping you had an idea." Draco says, still scrunching his nose up at the cafe.
"Will you stop that?" Hermione groans, "Okay, I realize that you aren't happy about eating here, but we are limited on options. Your father is gone all day, right?" She asks, playing possible scenarios in her head.
"If you are thinking about sneaking into my parents home, you are more mad than I thought." Draco answers before the waitress brings their food and drinks back to them, placing everything in its proper place and putting the ticket down on the table face down.
The two teens eat silently, each one focusing on their food instead of the conversation they had just been having. Draco looks down at the orange juice, shocked at how good it really did taste. Maybe some of these muggle things weren't so bad after all, their drinks at least. As Hermione pays for their food and the two of them walk out, Draco looks over at her.
"That really wasn't that bad." He says before realizing that he was nearly complimenting muggle food. "For being mud-made food, I mean." He adds on quickly. Hermione nods her head, trying to hide a smirk on her face as she leads Draco back to the Leaky Cauldron and floo's them back to the Shrieking Shack.
"Focus Draco," Hermione says to him with determination as they stand in the basement of the Shrieking Shack, a vial on the other side of the room. "It is wandless magic, but magic all the same."
"I am focusing!" Draco hollers back in frustration. "It's not that easy."
"You aren't focusing hard enough. Just picture it coming to you. You don't even have to do a swish-and-flick for a summoning spell." She says, looking from him to the vial. "Just see it coming to you as you think the words. I'll show you-"
"You don't have to show me MUDBLOOD!" Draco yells out in fury, feeling as though he were a young child being criticized by his father once again. "I can do it on my own!"
"Do it then." Hermione answers, deciding to ignore the degrading term he had just called her. She knew he was only saying it out of frustration.
Accio vial, Draco told himself firmly. Accio Vial. Accio Vial. Accio Vial. He watched as the vial shook slightly, not moving from where it was, causing him to curse under his breath as he sighed in defeat.
"Okay," Hermione answers softly. She had hoped he would have been able to do it this time. That he would have been able to retrieve the vial. "Let's take a break and work on the occlumency then."
"Close your mind." Draco warns her as Hermione thinks about what secrets she had to keep from him. Harry's dreams for sure. He couldn't know about them, just in case. She also couldn't let him find out about...well, he already knew about the D.A., and about Voldermort's return. She quickly put the conversation about Harry's dreams to the back of her mind as Draco stared into her eyes, entering her mind.
"I'm going to bed before either of you come up with another idea to get us killed, or worse; expelled."
"Are you sure that's a real spell? Well, it's not very good is it? I've tried a few simple spells myself and they've all worked for me."
"Vill you go to the Yule Ball vith me Hermy-own-ninny?"
"Pathetic," Draco answered with a snarl, "and I'm surprised you haven't shown me you snogging Weasel-bee yet."
"His name is Ron!" Hermione shot back defensively. "And we have never snogged!"
"Obviously," Draco snaps back, "because I can see everything in your mind. Close it Granger, I can read you like one of your damned books!"
"You can not!" Hermione answers boldly. "Watch, try again."
Draco's eyes met hers as she fought against him forcefully, trying to ignore the pain right behind her eyes as she tried to fight against him entering her mind.
"You foul, loathsome, evil little cochroach!"
"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in. They got in on pure talent."
"Flipendo," Hermione says firmly, not wanting Draco to see too much. Quickly he flies back against the wall, hitting it hard as his wand flies a good two feet away from.
Draco, now immediately in dueling mode, looks at his wand. Accio wand! He thinks with force as the wand quickly comes to his hand and he stares at it in shock.
"Draco! You did it!" Hermione hollers, running up to him quickly and hugging him. "You did it! You used wandless magic!"
Draco smirked lightly, "I did, didn't I?" He said as he stared down at his wand in his hand. "You can let go of me now Granger." He said, the smirk never leaving his face as Hermione pulled away with a blush. "Thanks though."