"Draco… I…" Hermione looked at the table. "I just don't know. Everything is just going way too fast for my liking."

"Hermione, I know that this is sudden but, I want to start over with you. Please Mione?" Draco said and reached out across the table, taking her hand in his. He put on a pouty face and made his eyes wide.

Hermione smiled at his attempts, but she was too unsure of whether to go back to him or not. "I'll think about it, ok? I just feel like we should take some time to get to know each other before things get too serious."

Draco's face when back to normal and he nodded, "I don't want you to feel like I'm pressuring you. I will wait until you are ready to be with me, again."

"Draco, you don't know how much that means to me," Hermione said, hugging Rose tightly. Draco smiled slightly. "Now where is that waitress? I'm starved!"

O.o.O

Hermione chose a house salad from the menu since, it was the cheapest thing on it and ordered Rose a kid's chicken nugget meal. Draco rolled his eyes at her attempts to be frugal and ordered her the most expensive steak instead. Hermione hadn't realized that when Draco said two premium meal steaks one of them was for her; when the food got there, she almost got into a huge argument with him. Although, not wanting the steak to go to waste, she reluctantly ate it and shot dirty looks at Draco every so often. He smirked, knowing that she secretly was relieved that he ordered her something other than a salad.

Rose ate her star shaped chicken nuggets happily and sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star about a dozen times. Draco was getting sick of it; Hermione told her to sing quieter, but it did not bother her as much as it did Draco. He let out a long held in sigh of relief when she had eaten all of the nuggets and stopped singing; he desperately hoped that there wasn't a song for sticks or anything else that might resemble a French fry.

The rest of the time they ate quietly. Rose had nothing else to sing about, and there was something awkward in the air between Draco and Hermione. Hermione had no idea what to say to Draco, and he was waiting for her to bring up the next topic for a conversation.

It became less awkward as the restaurant began to fill up and muffled conversations could be heard from other tables. Hermione decided to talk about simple things like about work and how she wanted to enroll Rose in Muggle Primary School in September before she went to Hogwarts. Draco didn't think that was necessary for his daughter. Rose was a wizard and wouldn't need to use any of the rubbish the Muggle teachers taught the kids at school. He just nodded at Hermione, not wanting to upset her by speaking his mind. Although, Hermione could tell he was upset with that by the way he was gripping the fork in his hand; his already pale knuckles were turning bone white.

It would have made her laugh, but suddenly people appeared with cameras and swarmed around their table. People were firing questions at them and all of their words were mashed together; Draco and Hermione couldn't make out what any of the questions were. There were so many flashes of light from the cameras the people had, that Hermione had to remind herself that they had not been in a car crash and weren't about to have a head on collision; the lights were not headlights and they were not about to get killed (or at least she hoped).

Draco stood up pointing his wand at all of the reporters and shouted at them to go away or he would hex the whole lot of them. Hermione followed suit, clutching Rose in her arms. Rose hid her face in her mother's chest, scared of all the commotion. The reporters continued to harass them, knowing Draco most likely wouldn't do anything.

"Apparate to the Manor," Draco whispered to Hermione, hoping none of the reporters had heard him. He didn't want them to follow them home. She nodded and Apparated with Rose. He waited until they were gone and, then left the reporters without any useful information that he might have given them if they weren't so annoying.

When he got home he found Hermione sitting on one of the couches looking scared. Her heart beat was so fast it was ringing through her ears and pounded hard in her chest. She was afraid of what story would appear in the Daily Prophet about her and Draco. She was not used to being publically ridiculed and it was seriously starting to get to her head.

"Did it feel like this to you when people ridiculed your family after the War?" Hermione asked Draco, staring at a wall. Her eyes were glassy and unfocused and he thought that she might burst into tears at any second.

He came over to her and sat next to her in the empty spot on the couch. Putting an arm around her, he sighed, "Hermione, it was hard, but it wasn't the end of the world for me or anyone else in my family. Yes it was better when we were just mentioned in Witch Weekly but, we never beat ourselves up about any unfavorable things the Daily Prophet had started to say about us. Hermione you shouldn't care about what people say about you as long as you are happy with yourself. I for one know you were a faithful wife to the Weasel; everyone just assumed the wrong thing. Honestly, I'm sorry. If Rose was anyone else's daughter, besides for Potter's maybe, no one would care as much," Draco said hugging Hermione. His face looked strained as he whispered, "If she was anyone else's daughter you wouldn't have been in this mess in the first place right? You would have told them that you were having their child and this whole mess with Weasel boy wouldn't have happened."

"I'm so sorry, Draco," Hermione said trying to wipe away the tears that were forming in her eyes. "I really am."

"I know…" he said, his voice distant, but not mad. "I think I'm ready to forgive you now."

Hermione looked up at him wide eyed and smiled meekly, "Are you sure? You don't have to ever forgive me for what I have done."

"Of course I'm sure. How can we ever go forward if I am still upset over this for the rest of my life? Look, I understand, ok? If I was you I probably would have done the same thing," he said and hugged her. She put her head on his shoulder and sighed.

"My mother said she would watch Rose tomorrow night, if we wanted to do something. We could go out to a fancy restaurant or if you wanted to go to that Muggle place where you go and watch movies- I mean you don't strike me as a club kind of girl, but we can do that, too, if you want," Draco said and smirked once Hermione broke from his embrace.

"I- we don't have to do anything Draco. I don't want your mother to feel like she has to watch Rose. I'm quite content with staying here," Hermione said.

"Mother wants some time alone with Rose, Hermione. You wouldn't be doing her any favors by not letting her watch her only grandchild," Draco said stubbornly. "Come on, why won't you go on a date with me?"

"It's not that I don't Draco. I just think that you made your mother watch Rose,"

"I asked her, Hermione, and she said she would be delighted to. It's not like I held her at wand point and told her if she didn't watch Rose for me I would Crucio her. You are so stubborn!"

"Fine I'll go out with you tomorrow night, ok? Just stop being so dramtic. I can see that we are just going to get into an argument that I am either going to lose or I will not want to speak to you for a while. I don't care what we do as long as it's nothing too fancy or expensive. I don't go out partying and drinking, so anything having to do with that is out of the question. I think going to the movie theater is for cheesy teenagers whose relationships don't really mean anything. Honestly don't bother on getting me any flowers because Rose has allergies to almost everything except roses and it is a dumb thing to be wasting money on," Hermione said and rolled her chocolate eyes. Draco was always so adamant to get what he wanted.

"That is a lot of stipulations, but I'll see what I can do on such short notice. You really should lift the money stipulation, because all the places we could go out to dinner are only for the upper class," Draco said, hoping she would change her mind about the money aspect. Maybe he would conveniently forget that she had mentioned anything about money.

"I'm not going to. We should be able to do something at a normal person's price range. Besides, why would you even want to spend money on me anyways? I'm still just a Muggle Born," Hermione said.

"Yes, Hermione, you may be just a Muggle Born wizard, but you are my Muggle Born," Draco said. Hermione's cheeks blushed crimson and couldn't decide if she was happy or upset with his comment.

O.o.O

Hermione had woken up in the afternoon again and spent the rest of the time getting ready for her date with Draco that night.

She found a shopping bag with her name written on it and took out the contents inside. There was a teal halter neck top that had a little white flower print on it and a pair of white jean shorts. There were teal sequined flip flops and a white knit bolero.

Sighing she put the clothes on and looked in the mirror. The outfit looked wonderful on her and she wondered where Draco got such a talent for picking out Muggle clothing. She hoped it didn't cost him too much, but knowing Draco it could have cost a fortune.

She applied little makeup to look more natural and spent two hours trying to defrizz her hair. Now it fell down to her mid back in silky curls, nearly the way Rose's did. All the effort had paid off and she beamed at her appearance in the mirror.

Rose came into the room and squealed, "You look so pretty, Mummy! Daddy asked me to see if you were ready to go. I wanna come, too!"

Hermione went over to her daughter and ruffled her hair, "Thank you, sweetie. I'm ready but you are going to stay here with Narcissa," Rose pouted and crossed her arms. "Don't worry you two will have lots of fun. I think she told me that she had a surprise waiting for you and she would love to play tea party with the real tea, again."

Rose's face lit up instantly, "Ok Mummy, I'll miss you!" She scampered out the door leaving it wide open.

Draco walked into the room and nearly gasped, "Hermione you look beautiful."

Hermione turned around and smiled at him, "Thanks, and thank you for the outfit. I didn't know you were into Muggle clothes yourself. Was there a reason you wanted us to match?" She looked at his teal polo and white and teal plaid shorts and giggled at the matching colors.

"No problem. I don't wear Muggle clothing in public usually, but I find them more comfortable than robes or a suit. Plus you and Rose look cute in them. As for the matching, well, I thought it would be more romantic and I like the teal color. It also matches where we are going," Draco said and smiled and grabbed Hermione's hand before she could say anything. "Close your eyes," he whispered.

She shut her eyes and felt the familiar feeling of Apparation. Draco led her blindly for a minute and then stopped. Hermione heard the sound of moving water, and a warm breeze caressed her face.

"Open," Draco whispered into her ear.

She opened her eyes and blinked for a minute. She was facing a white pristine beach; the clear teal waves crashed in the sand and the sun was turning pink. Hermione turned around to find Draco in an elegant pavilion connected to a large summer beach home. He grinned at her as he poured two glasses of red wine.

She walked into the pavilion up to him.

"Just so you know we already owned the island and the house elves made the food," he said motioning towards the table that was filled with different kinds of pasta and meat. "We are not seeing a cheesy movie and I didn't buy you any flowers. Also, I hope you aren't going to get totally wasted tonight on the wine, but I can't control that," He said and smiled. He pulled out a chair for Hermione and motioned her to sit down.

"Thank you, it's lovely, Draco," Hermione said, a little shyly as she took a bite of chicken parmesan.

"It's not a problem," he said smiling. "So tell me about yourself, Hermione."

O.o.O

Several hours later, the sun had already set, and Draco and Hermione were still talking about everything. Many different subjects came up and Hermione noticed they had very similar viewpoints on a lot of topics. He was still the charming man she remembered from Hogwarts.

When it was time to go back to the Manor, Hermione ran up and hugged Draco, "I just wanted to say that no one has ever done anything like this for me before. This has been one of the best nights of my entire life, and I just wanted to say there are no words to describe how thankful I am."

Draco smiled and pulled her into a long passionate kiss. When they broke away he caressed her cheek, "I love you, Hermione. I would do anything for you."

"Draco, I-I think… that I… I love you, too," Hermione said hesitantly.

Draco's face broke out into a huge grin as they Disapparated back to the Manor.

They walked into the main room hand in hand and grinning only to find a hysterically sobbing Narcissa and an angry Lucius trying to comfort her.

"What happened?" Draco said running up to his parents. Hermione walked slowly towards them getting worried.

Narcissa threw Draco the afternoon the Daily Prophet article. Hermione looked over his shoulder and read it with him. It read:

Escaped Loon From St. Mungo's Psychiatric Ward

This afternoon at about 12:27 pm Ronald Bilius Weasley escaped from the Psychiatric Ward in St. Mungo's. He is not considered armed with a wand yet, but is highly dangerous. He has been involved in the abuse of his ex-stepdaughter, Rose Malfoy, causing severe damage to her. He has only been in rehabilitation for a few weeks and his problems are still evident. If anyone has any information regarding his whereabouts please call the Auror department in the Ministry of Magic.

"Somehow he broke in," Narcissa sobbed. "I tried to get her back, but he had a wand to her head threatening to kill her. He took Rose!"

O.o.O

I'm so sorry with the lack of updates but, I'm afraid it will be at least a week or two before I post again- at least until spring break. Also, I have two other Dramione stories that are going to be posted eventually. One is about a Pureblood Hermione and the other is about Hermione disappearing, marrying Draco, and then returning after several years with children. Do you think I should post one soon or wait until this story is finished? If so which one?