Hermione had spent all of Friday night baking with her mom. "Did you wrap his gift?" "Yes mom that's all done. I just need to get this cake done."

"Does he even like chocolate?"

"I don't know mom, why wouldn't he?"

"Maybe he prefers vanilla."

Hermione groaned. "Mom. Why would you say that? Now I'm second guessing myself." She mixed the ingredients harshly.

Mrs. Granger shrugged, putting a hand on Hermione's shoulder. "This is a whole lot of trouble you're going through for this boy you know."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "He's just a friend mom. Like Harry. Or Ron."

"Ron was more than just a friend." She said in a sing-song voice as she continued to squeeze the lemons for the lemonade.

"Mom. Stop."

Mrs. Granger laughed. "I'm sure chocolate will be just fine, Mimi."

"I think so too. And please don't call me Mimi when he gets here." Mrs. Granger gave a very loud and deliberate sigh. "Just don't forget to put everything back once you're all done. I don't want this house a mess with pillows everywhere."

"Yes mom." Hermione sighed again, putting the cake into the oven.

Hermione fussed over the little details the next day until Draco arrived. When the doorbell rang she ran over to the door. But then she realized that might seem anxious, so she paused. Until she realized he had probably heard her running to open the door, which would make the pause seem odd. She opened the door. "Happy Belated Birthday!" She threw up her arms in a ta-da sort of way.

"Hello there," Mrs. Granger stuck her head out of the kitchen. "Draco this is my mom," she said, leading him into the kitchen. "Mom, Draco. Draco, mom." "Pleasure to meet you Mrs. Granger." He said, shaking her hand. "Pleasure to meet you too." She said, giving Hermione the 'I like how well-mannered this boy is' look. "So we're just gonna be building a fort in the living room." She said. "Don't forget the present!"

"I-"

"Oh you didn't have to get me anythi-"

"No it's fine," she told him, "I wanted to. Come on." She made her way out of the kitchen and into the living room.

"Ok, so," she put her hands on her hips. "We gotta get this fort done, and then I'll let you open your present." "Alright." Draco smiled. The fort was a bit more of a struggle than either of them had anticipated. Draco was rather tall and so the blankets kept falling in on themselves in their attempt to make the ceiling high enough. "Can't we just use a little magic?" Hermione shook her head furiously. "No, that's cheating." Draco rolled his eyes. Eventually though, they got it, and they crawled in to admire their handiwork. "Not bad." Hermione said, glancing around. "It only took seven hours." Draco teased. "Oh hush. You want your present or not?" "Of course." he said. "Wait here."

Hermione crawled back in with a big box. Draco's eyes were wide and his eyebrows were high up on his face. "Hermione really you shouldn't-" "Just open it." She rolled her eyes. Draco laughed as he opened his present. "This is a very orange blanket Hermione." She smiled and nodded. "I figured you could use it, just place it on the edge of your bed or whatever. Do you like it?" He smiled and nodded. "I do, thank you." At that moment Hermione's mom came over with popcorn. They graciously accepted.

Hermione took a handful of popcorn and shoved it into her mouth. "Ok," she said, mouth still slightly full, "Now is when we're gonna reveal our deepest darkest secrets." "Are we now?" Draco said, grabbing a pillow to make himself more comfortable. Hermione nodded, grabbing some more popcorn. "And we will be doing this because?" "Because that's what you do inside a pillow fort Draco!" Hermione sounded annoyed that she would have to explain such an obvious thing. "Alright," he said as he grabbed some popcorn for himself, "You first."

"Oliver Wood." She said. Draco made a face to show he didn't understand. Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oliver Wood is like hands down the sexiest guy Gryffindor has ever had. He makes the running for the whole school." Draco couldn't help but laugh. "No. Stop. You can't be serious. Oliver?" Hermione's eyes widened. "Uh, yeah." "He has that awful voice." Draco said. Hermione gasped. "You mean sexy voice! Draco stop. You're ruining this. Every girl loves Oliver Wood. It's just a thing." "That awful voice is a thing?" She smacked him with a pillow. "Your turn." She said.

He thought a bit. "I'm sorry my brain is blocked. I can't get over this Oliver thing." Hermione shot him a look. He laughed again. "Fine, fine. There was this girl, you probably don't remember her. She was finishing up when we were third years. Astrid Longwood. Absolutely gorgeous. Drove all of us mad." Hermione nodded. "I think I remember her. She had really long hair didn't she?" Draco smiled and nodded. "Yeah she did. I wonder what happened to her." "She's probably got a really rich husband by now. Maybe one kid. Definitely not more than that. She's gotta maintain her figure you know." She grabbed more popcorn. Draco nodded, his features slightly scrunched up the way they did when he was thinking.

"Her husband is rich but also good looking. And they love each other, but not really." he added.

"Well it's probably because he's working so much. All she can do to fill up the time is shop."

"Well he can't very well stop working if all she does is shop."

Hermione giggled. "That's a little sad though. Maybe give her a baby so she has something to do."

"Fine," Draco sighed, "She's got a bratty eleven-year-old and a new baby that she loves dearly."

Hermione smiled but raised an eyebrow. "Does that math even add up?"

Draco shrugged, "Does it matter?"

Hermione nodded. "Good point."

"Ok so you've got to give me something other than Oliver. Because I feel like you're just twisting my arm with that one." Hermione rolled her eyes and gave a dramatic sigh. "Let's see…there was Victor." This time Draco rolled his eyes. "Oh god Victor Krum. He was the worst." "He was nice!" Hermione interjected. "I would take Oliver over Krum." He said. She shook her head violently. "Krum was much stronger than Wood." Draco raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know you were so shallow, Granger." Hermione laughed. "Oh come on. You can hardly talk. You've dated just about everyone." "Not everyone," He scoffed, "Never dated a Gryffindor." He challenged. "Nope. Just Pansy. And that's bad enough." Hermione laughed. "What did you see in her?" He shrugged, grabbing more popcorn. "Nothing. She was just someone to pass the time with."

She was just someone to pass the time with.

"Oh." Hermione said. Draco cleared his throat. "But that was a long time ago. Ages. I'm much more careful now. Time is an important thing you know." His words were fast and jumbled. Hermione nodded. "Ok," Hermione said, her hands out in front of her, slightly leaning into him, "What's something super embarrassing that you've never told anyone?" "I'd have to think about that one." "No, no," she lightly smacked his arm, "Off the top of your head come on." "Uhh…" he rubbed the back of his neck, "When I was little I liked to splash around in puddles. But one time I guess I jumped too high so I got this giant splash all over the crotch of my pants, and so everyone had thought I peed myself. Never splashed in puddles again." "Aww. Poor baby Draco." "What about you?" "This one time in kindergarten, it was pajama day, and I had these cloud pajamas, and I loved them so much. But apparently, clouds were for babies and everyone made fun of them. I never wore them after that." He smacked her with a pillow. "What was that for!" "You said an embarrassing story not a sob story!" Hermione laughed and smacked him back "It was embarrassing!"

At that moment Hermione's phone began to vibrate. She jumped a bit. "Sorry, it's Emma." Hermione quickly typed her reply and put the phone back in her pocket. "What is that?" Draco asked. "Oh, it's a phone. Pretty much a muggle device to help stay in contact with one another." Draco blinked a few times. "So you write words...and they get sent to other devices?" he said. Hermione nodded. Draco looked at her sternly.

"I want one."

She laughed, "I don't think they work in the wizarding world."

Draco didn't budge. "I want one though."

This time Hermione could only blink. "They're not the cheapest things around, and you have to-"

"I have money."

"But Draco-"

"Come on. It's my birthday right? This is what I want." Hermione rolled her eyes and smacked him lazily with a pillow but got up anyway. "Fine. You're kind of spoiled you know." "Well I'm a Malfoy." He said rather matter-of-factly.

"Mom! We're going out! Should be back soon!" "Have fun dear!" She called from the kitchen.

So they got Draco a phone. A fancy one too. The salesman was rather patient and willing to go through the details with Draco. He was already starting to fumble around with the texts on the car ride home. "But how do I send it to you?"

Hermione laughed, "I told you, you have to type in my number."

"I keep trying to spell 'Hermione' but it won't go."

"Probably because you haven't saved me as a contact yet?" she suggested.

"Well how the bloody hell am I supposed to do that?"

"Draco. Type in the phone number." Draco grunted but followed her instructions. "Now click send." She felt her phone buzzing. "See? Good it went through. Now click on the number and type in my name when it tells you to."

"This is madness," he said, "Muggles make something that should be easy all complicated."

"It's not complicated." She insisted.

"Did it go through?"

"Jesus, Draco I'm driving."

"But did it go through?"

"My phone buzzed so I'm assuming so. When we get inside I'll check," she said pulling into the driveway.

"Good thing you're back, the living room is a mess." Hermione rolled her eyes and shot an apologetic look to Draco. "We were out getting him a phone," she explained, "His first one."

"Oh how exciting! How are you liking it?" she asked him. "It's interesting…" he began, "I think I just have to get used to it." Mrs. Granger nodded in agreement. "Say Draco, we have a block party around here every year at the end of July, you should join us. You can even add it as a notification on your new device there." Mrs. Granger smiled. "He doesn't know how to do that mom." Hermione said. "Well you can show him," Mrs. Granger nudged, "It'll be fun, waddaya say?"

"Um, sure, yeah, that sounds like fun." Draco told her.

"Perfect."