Finished this a lot sooner than expected. Thank you again for reading!

-x-

Hermione paced back and forth across the living room floor. She held the small rolled parchment in one hand, tapping it on the opposite. She had awoken that morning to a large regal looking owl pecking at her window with a message from Draco. After Christmas, the rest of the week seemed to drag on as she waited for Friday evening. The time however, caused her to over analyze the situation and she now found herself racked with nerves. Unrolling the parchment, she read over the note once more.

Granger,

I'll meet you at the store at 7.

D.M.

She found herself second guessing her acceptance to his request but at the same time she was looking forward to seeing him again. That night a new Malfoy emerged. She suspected that it was who he was all along, it had merely been masked behind the insane ideology that his father had instilled in him for so long.

Her heart broke for him when he explained why he wasn't able to pursue the career path that he had truly wanted. Prejudice had a way of doing that though. The way he looked at her with his storm cloud eyes after she revealed when she truly understood that he had changed, it was as if it was the first time someone had genuinely validated his newly found tolerance of his world. Truly she couldn't have been the first to acknowledge it, so then why did it seem to cause such emotion within him?

She glanced over at the clock. Draco would be arriving shortly. Releasing a sigh, she tossed the parchment onto the end table and walked over to the floor length mirror in her entry way. She had opted to wear a pair of light grey dress slacks with a soft pink cardigan that was simple and free of any design or lavish embellishment. She paired it with a set of flats, wearing minimal makeup, and allowing her curls to cascade down her back. Satisfied with her appearance, she made her way downstairs, only to find Draco already waiting for her outside. Stealing the moment to compose herself, she wrapped her coat around her, and made her way to the door.

When the bells clambered, signaling her leave, Draco turned to greet her.

"Evening Granger." he said.

"Malfoy" she smiled, pulling the buttons on her coat together. "Where are we going this evening?" she said as she stepped towards him.

"You'll see soon enough, we will be apparating if you don't mind." he said.

Hermione started towards him but hesitated for a moment while she looked around the street before setting her gaze on the man before her. "Draco, what are we doing?" she asked.

Furrowing his brows in confusion he replied. "Having dinner?" he asked.

"Not that" she paused "I mean, what is this? A date?" she asked.

Draco shoved his hands in his pocket thinking carefully before responding, understanding the confliction within her as he too had been unsure of what to consider the night to be. "Do you want it to be?" he asked.

"I'm don't know. Yes? No? Given our history, I'm not sure what to make of this all." she said.

Studying her, he could see the worry on her face as she was trying not to offend him. Honestly, he wasn't entirely sure if he wanted it to be a date or not. "Well, how about this. Tonight is nothing more then two old classmates, becoming reacquainted. We'll start there, see were it goes?" he asked.

The idea seemed to put her mind at ease, allowing the tension to slowly dissipate. She gave him a timid nod of approval, hoping that her hesitation would not discourage him.

He offered his arm to her so that he could take them to their destination. Trying not to let her see his amusement at her trepidation, he smirked at her as she gently intertwined his arm with hers.

A loud crack resounded around them, in an instant they were standing in a long brownstone hallway before a black door. Hermione looked around for a sign of where they had arrived, when she found none she looked to Draco for an answer.

Reaching out, Draco opened the door leading into his flat.

"Where are we? I thought we were going to dinner?" she asked in confusion.

"I asked you to have dinner with me, not if you wanted to go to dinner with me" he said as she stepped through the door. Placing his hands on her coat, he eased it down her arms, and set it on the coat rack. "I am an exceptional cook I'll have you know Granger."

She was surprised at the warmth the room held. The walls were painted a soft grey, the couches were a rich shade of blue, accented by cream throw pillows. A coffee table sat in front made out of deep espresso colored wood.

"You didn't have to do this, we could have gone somewhere." she said.

"I did consider that option, however, you do realize if the two of us showed up somewhere together that the press would be all over us right?

"I didn't think of that actually"

"We can still go if you would prefer-"

"No." she stopped him. "Sorry, this is perfectly fine, I was just surprised."

For the first time so far that evening, she examined him, he wore black dress slacks, a dark grey button down shirt, with a silk black tie. She had never seen Draco dressed any less then exceptional.

"Dinner will be ready soon, can I get you something to drink?" he asked.

"Please" she smiled at him.

As Draco made his leave towards the kitchen, Hermione stepped further into the living room. There was a massive black granite fireplace, the mantle adorned with pictures. Most were of him and his friends. There were also quite a few of him with his mother, one in particular catching her eye, and she delicately removed the frame from its spot to examine it more closely.

He was fairly young in the photo, maybe six or seven. He was perched upon a broom, his hair lightly swayed probably due to a breeze. He was laughing as his mother smiled down at him. She smiled at this picture, wondering what he was like at that age. She hadn't heard Draco return, and was startled a little when he spoke. He took the picture from her as he handed her a glass of wine.

"She was the one who taught me how to fly." he said as he admired the photo himself, before returning it to it's space upon the mantle.

"She was? I would've thought your father-"

"Lucius? No, he was busy a lot of the time when I was that age. My mother would spend hours with me on the grounds of the manor. How do you think I made seeker second year?"

"According to Harry, by your father's purchase of some very expensive brooms." she said somewhat mockingly.

He laughed at the memory. "That was what I let them believe. Honestly, I made the team on my own, the brooms came after. At the time I just didn't care what people thought."

"I highly doubt that"

"Well I didn't care what Potter thought anyway."

"That sounds more like it."

She took a sip of her wine and looked over the other photo's of him with Narcissa. Draco watching her all the while. For him, seeing her in this light, was something he had always secretly wanted. He had known since a young age how brilliant she was, and had it not been for her blood status, he would've gotten to know her long ago. With his long abandoned prejudices behind him, he reveled at the sight of her, slowly meandering through his living room.

"You're close with your mother a presume? She asked turning to him.

"Very much so actually. She's nothing like my father. She is caring and compassionate, extremely smart, cunning, amongst other things. She was happy to leave the blood status nonsense behind after the war. She never really agreed with it anyway, she just couldn't bare to leave her family the way her sister did, although the two of them have since reconnected."

Hermione crossed the floor and sat on the couch, Draco followed suit.

"Now that you mention it, I believe Harry told me that Andromeda and her have become close over the past few years."

"They were when they were younger. When Andromeda left it devastated my mother. She was angry at her for a long time, but ultimately understood that my aunt did what she felt she needed to do. My mother wrote to her shortly after the war, and they've been talking again ever since."

"I think it's good they've reconnected. It's never too late to salvage a relationship."

"No, I suppose not." he said with a sly smile.

The timer sounded from the kitchen, alerting them that dinner was ready. "Shall we?" he asked.

Hermione followed Draco into the kitchen. There were two places set at large center island. With a wave of his his wand, both plates were filled as they took their seats.

"Where did you learn that? I've only ever seen it at Hogwarts."

"Teenie, my mothers house elf" Hermione shot him a displeased glare. "Don't give me that look Granger. She was never once mistreated and never will be."

"I find that hard to believe after Dobby-"

"Dobby belonged to my father. Teenie is my mothers elf. My mother may have been married to my father, but they are two vastly different people. She nor I have ever mistreated Teenie." he said rather harshly.

"I didn't mean to offend you. I just assumed-"

"You didn't." he looked to her. "You didn't offend me. My mother is assumed to be so much like Lucius because of their marriage, but she is quite the opposite, always has been."

Nodding in acknowledgment, she decided it best to leave the subject as she could sense anything involving is father was touchy.

"Where did you learn to cook?" she asked as she twirled the pasta around her fork.

"Teenie again. After my hearing I wasn't allowed to use magic aside from at school for six months. I had Teenie teach me a few easy things to make, and rather enjoyed it so I kept doing it."

"I must say I'm surprised. Out of everything you could have learned you chose cooking?"

"It's not much different then potion making. Guess that's why a like it."

The conversation over dinner stayed light. They talked about the day to day routine for the two of them, their hobbies, things that interested them. She learned that he still played quidditch on the occasional weekend with friends, that he had become a fan of muggle literature, that he appreciated art and music though that didn't seem to surprise her, and that he and his mother had dinner together on Sundays. He learned that she loved history, both magical and muggle, that she had taken ballet classes as a child but was rubbish at it, though she enjoyed going to shows still. She was a big fan of theater, particularly Shakespeare, one of the muggle authors whose work he appreciated, and that she genuinely had no desire to return to the ministry for work.

After both of their plates were cleared, Hermione insisted on helping with the clean up despite his protests. They lingered in the kitchen a while longer, both of them not looking forward to the evenings close. Taking note of the hour, Draco offered to take her home. After retrieving her coat and the pair stepped into the hall and offered his arm to her to apparate them.

"Is my flat far from here?" she asked.

"No, only about fifteen minutes."

"Would you like to walk?"

He extended his arm, directing her towards the exit of the building. The air was bitter as they stepped outside and she removed her wand to cast a warming charm over them.

They walked along in silence, the company of the other seeming to be enough. After a few minutes Hermione interjected.

"Can I ask you something?"

Turning his head to look at her, he gave an accepting nod.

"The other night. I told you I knew you had changed back at school, and it seemed...I don't know, important to you? I guess I was just wondering if that were true?"

He kept a stoic but indifferent look about him but nodded again.

"Can I ask why?"

Placing his hands in his pockets, his eyes darted across the street as his formulated the words in his head.

"There are a lot of people who have accepted me Granger. There are also a lot that haven't. I'm okay with that though, as I don't really know any of them personally."

"You don't really know me either." she reminded.

"Not really, but, I had hurt you personally when we were younger. All for what? Some ideology that my blood somehow made me better than you? I think I knew early on how preposterous that notion was after seeing how brilliant you were. Yet I still continued treating you terribly. Call it validation I guess. If you were willing to acknowledge that I have changed, then it made real somehow."

"I don't blame you. For your past that is. Your father raised you to believe those things. That blood purity mattered. What matters is that you saw the wrong in it. You questioned it when most wouldn't."

"Questioned it, yes. But I didn't act on it, not until it was too late."

"I wouldn't say that."

He looked her with no real sense of emotion, merely expectant for her to elaborate.

"That night in the manor." Draco cringed at the thought but she pressed on anyway. "You knew it was Harry, but you didn't tell them. You barely tried to duel Harry, and when he took your wand? He said you all but gave it to him."

He did not respond, shrugging at the memory.

"Why do you do that?" she stopped.

"Do what?"

"Doubt yourself."

"How do I-"

"You're acting like it didn't matter, like you doing that didn't help. If you told them who Harry was they wouldn't have put Ron and him in the dungeon, they would've summoned Voldemort and all three of us would be dead right now. But it's not just that, the night I fired Christine, you said I didn't need to, like it was okay, like you deserve to be treated like that.

"I do though. I did things that were wrong. I took the mark. I'll forever be branded a Death Eater, and the treatment I receive for it is my burden to bare."

"You were never a Death Eater Draco."

"Then what's this?" he said as he pulled the sleeve to both his coat and shirt up simultaneously to reveal the faded white scar where his mark once was.

Without flinching she mirrored his action revealing the word mudblood across her forearm, though it had diminished over time, it was still a light shade of pink.

"And is this what I am?"

Without thinking he reached out and gently grabbed her arm running the pad of his thumb over the raised skin.

"You know I don't think that." he responded in a defeated tone.

Turning the attention of her hand to his mark, she matched the gesture.

"And I don't think this about you. I don't think you ever truly wanted this. You were a mislead teen. You are not a bad man Draco, and you do not deserve to be treated like one."

They stayed like that for only a few moments though it seemed much longer. The bells from a far off square rang to signal the hour and the two were pulled from their reverie. It was Draco who spoke first.

"I should really get you home, it's getting late."

She nodded as he reluctantly released her arm and they continued on their way.

The rest of the walk the pair didn't speak another word until they reached the door.

"I meant what I said Draco," she began softly. "If my acceptance can provide you with some sort validation, then accept that you are a good man, and think of that the next time someone mistreats you."

He nodded with affirmation.

"I did enjoy tonight Granger."

"I did too." flashing him a sincere smile.

"Goodnight." he said as he took a step back away from her.

"Goodnight." she said slipping into her door.

As Draco made his way home he thought of everything she had said to him, her words echoing through his ears. If she could see the good in him, forgive him fully, look beyond his past mistakes, why couldn't he?

-x-

Hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you think in a review!