Disclaimer: I don't own Queen JK's characters, only the plot of this story and Laurie.
Unlike every other shopping trip that I've had since the war, I actually enjoyed this trip to the mall with Draco. And it had nothing to do with the fact that Draco is the dress up doll this time. I'm being completely honest. I swear.
Who am I kidding, of course it did. I spent the whole evening forcing Draco to try on every tight-fitting, abs-hugging, orgasm-inducing dress in the shop. And then dragging him to the next shop on that busy shopping street. We should have pissed off the store clerks but most of them were straight women with drool hanging off their chin. I even caught one bold cashier rubbing herself behind the counter. Draco was unsurprisingly less than thrilled at the five-hour long shopping ordeal, but he didn't verbally oppose me.
We fought a few times for the bill but ultimately he only allowed me to pay for one out of the six pairs of shirts and pants we ended up buying. Sometime during the day, he wandered off for a few minutes and came back with an extra shopping bag in his hand, which I can only assume contains a pack of his undergarments. Ultimately, we decided to eat out again as we were both too tired to go back home and cook. As the sky slowly inked itself in darkness, we finally started to make our way home after dinner, deciding to walk back from our local Subway.
"Thank you Draco, for that lovely date."
"Wow, the great Hermione Granger actually thanked me, Draco Malfoy, for something. Alert the Prophet." He wore an expression of shock but it was obvious that he was being sarcastic. I swatted the annoying git on his shoulder and he immediately caught his arm in mock pain.
"Really thou-"
"That wasn't a date, Hermione." I felt my heart drop down to my stomach, did I assume the wrong thing? Did I take it too far? Was I going to get turned down, before I even confessed?
Before I could have an internal breakdown and rethink my life choices, Draco continued. "Having dinner at a fast food restaurant, wearing stinky clothes from the night before and a trip to the mall cannot be called as a date. When I take you on a date, you will know it. You can be sure of that. So no, that wasn't a date. But I did get to spend some quality time with you and I had a good time doing that. Come on, let's get back now. We should get some rest."
As we climbed up the stairs, the only thing I could feel was relief. It wasn't until I reached my bed and lay down in my pyjamas that I realised that his statements didn't confirm that we'll actually have a date. I decided not to push the topic any further for the time being. These first 24 hours have made quite the mess of my usually calm and eventless life. I think that's enough for now.
It's been a four days since the day I opened my front door to find my best friend and my current roommate and I have to admit, despite his ego and occasional git like tendencies, Draco is a pretty good roommate. But don't ever tell him I said that, wouldn't want to inflate his giant blimp of an ego any further.
Hearing a knock on the front door, I walked over and opened it to find Narcissa Malfoy's girlfriend, Laurie.
"Hi. Hermione right?"
"Yeah, and you must be Laurie."
"It's a pleasure to meet you. So… Is Draco?"
"Yeah, he's here but he is sleeping… Do you want me to… to wake him up?"
"Good, he's sleeping. I wanted to talk to you." The redhead walked past me and sat herself down on my couch. Surprised, I stood by the door for a few more seconds before I closed it and followed her to my couch. Recently, seems like everyone thinks they can just barge into my home whenever they feel like it, and the worst part is that I can't actually deny that statement.
"I know we got off on an awkward note the other night, but I hope we can rectify that. You are Draco's roommate and that means you'll be seeing me, a lot. So I thought we could start over and begin as friends."
"Okay."
"Good, now that we are friends, I have so many things to ask you. But first things first. How is he taking it? Is he alright? Any specific incidents?"
"No incidents. He is doing just fine from what I can see. Though it does get a little awkward when the topic comes up."
"Oh that's alright. Thanks for looking after him. But now enough about that, tell me more about yourself, I've heard a lot about you." Draco talks about me?
"No. But he doesn't really talk about anyone from Hogwarts." Did I say that out loud? Control Hermione. You have to control your mouth.
"Then… then where did you?"
"Cissy… um… she used to talk about… you know… she used to talk about…" I could feel the awkwardness dampen the room once again.
"Hey. You don't have to talk about it. I know it's a little too soon for that." wrapping my arm around her shoulders I moved closer and slowly consoled her. Knowing how hard it must be for her, I tried to make her feel as comfortable as possible.
"No… It's okay… I'm fine." She turned her head away and slowly cried into my arm. My heart swelled with melancholy as I watched her in pain, one that was all too familiar to me. I wiped the tears from her eyes and slowly turned her to face me once again. Our eyes met for a fraction of second and I noticed something different in her eyes, something that didn't belong here. After a few seconds our gaze met once again and this time she held it, and I could still feel as if something was off about this situation.
Suddenly, I noticed that she was closer. Was she leaning in? Was she trying to kiss me? She wouldn't do that, would she? She was just mourning the death of her girlfriend. Technically, Narcissa is her ex-girlfriend, but that's not important right now. She was-… Oh fuck, she is leaning in… What the fuck is happening? How could… But… but…
I saw the expression change upon her face, I know that expression. The Weasley twins always… when they prank… Did Laurie just fucking prank me?!
Her laugh echoed through the living room. She just pranked me.
"You… What… Why… I mean… What the fuck?"
Her laughter just intensified at my sputtering and swearing.
"Couldn't you have left the poor girl alone? Did you really have to be so hard on a first timer?" Draco walked over from his bedroom. How much of that exchange was he there for?
"Draco, I'm sorry but it was too easy. She was right there and utterly defenseless, I couldn't help myself. Also, it was pretty awkward before that and you know how I act during awkward situations." Turning her attention back to me she said. "I'm sorry about that. I generally tend to prank people when I'm in an awkward situation. It's a bad habit, I know, but I can't help it. But yeah, everything else was true. I do want to be your friend, and Cissy was the one told me all about you and everything you did during the war. And from what I can see she was right about you. You're a very smart, beautiful and kind person who cares a lot about people, even if you don't know them very well." I felt a light tinge of pink creep up my cheeks. It felt nice to know that my former enemy who fought against us, for the most part, thought of me as kind and beautiful.
"And she was also right about the fact that you'd be insanely easy to prank." The redhead received stereo glares for that comment.
"Laurie, enough."
"What? It's better for you as well. You can finally say that you aren't the only one I went hard mode on during our first awkward situation." She turned to face me. "He must've told you about the time he confessed his love for me."
"I did not confess my love to you. I merely agreed that I'm fine if you wanted us to date." Draco interjected.
"Potato, Potato. You know that story, don't you?" I nodded my head lightly in response.
"Ever noticed that he never mentioned how that conversation ended? He always stops right after the confession, and he fails to mention what happened after that." Now that I think about it…
"Good, I have so much to tell you, and I promise, I won't prank you. I swear. Come on." She dragged me to my bedroom and we spent a few hours exchanging embarrassing stories about our mutual blonde friend. I figured it would be fine to talk about my Hogwarts days because Narcissa didn't really show up in that as much, while Laurie told me stories about Draco at the café, narrowly avoiding the topic of the blonde matriarch multiple times, but somehow we managed to make it to lunch without another awkward situation. Thank Merlin for that. Draco cooked us a delicious lunch of beef pudding, a bunch of treacle tarts and some leftover cake from the café.
Ten days ago, I would never have imagined my life to turn out like this. The bully from my childhood days and his mother's girlfriend among the last few people I would've expected to live with me. The latter doesn't actually live with me but, she comes here after class every evening and spends the night here, leaving for her apartment early the next morning for just an hour to freshen up, change and gather the appropriate books for that day's classes. In the evening, the two decided to take slots helping me out at the bookstore. In the evening, Laurie would help out while she finished her projects and assignments. And at night, Draco would help sort, stock and re-shelf the books. In the afternoons, Draco would help out until a while before lunch and then he'd go cook lunch for the two of us. I waited every evening for these intimate moments with him, but I could never muster my famous Gryffindor courage to talk to him about the date or no-date mix up. For now, it remained a mystery still.
The rule that defined our seemingly happy days was to avoid talking about the departed. The two of them could think about her all they wanted but we never really talked about it. Whenever they felt sad, they would walk over to me and I'd give them a hug but that was the extent to which the topic was ventured upon.
Today was the break to our short-lived bout of normalcy. Everything seemed fine in the morning, it was a Sunday, so Laurie woke up late and as the two of us grabbed a mug of coffee each, Draco walked into the room wearing a lost expression. Immediately, we put down our mugs and rushed over to him. We were worried that he was plagued by nightmares again and we didn't want him to revert back to alcohol to solve his problem.
"Draco, are you alright? Did you have a nightmare?" I asked, my hands automatically grabbing his shoulders to comfort him if necessary.
"Yeah… No, I didn't have a nightmare. And I'm fine. Really." He gently removed our worried hands from his shoulders. "It's just… I got an owl, from the Auror Department. It said that they've completed the analysis of her body and they want to know when we wish to conduct the funeral." Draco paused as he let the news sink into Laurie's mind. This would be the first time she'll see her lover's body since before the attack. "And that's not all... They've apparently found some leads to other Rogue Death Eaters. And… from what it seems, they might also have been involved in the attack."
That was decent in my opinion. Finally, the never-ending first day is over. Now, the next chapter might get a little sad, but it's all in good taste, I hope.
Thanks to all those who reviewed. Please review more as they are much more helpful to a reader than favs or follows. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks again. See you next time.
Oh, and if you are a fan of PJO and Percabeth, do check out my new story, 'The Day Before, It'.
