Draco was at Hermione's for dinner, and he couldn't help but look around her empty apartment again, and he had so many questions but he didn't want to insult her.
"I haven't unpacked yet," she offered, realising he was looking for anything to show who lived in the house.
"Oh, did you just move in?" he asked curiously. That would make sense.
Hermione looked uncomfortable for a moment, and Draco wanted to kick himself. He could clearly tell that she didn't want to talk about it.
"Well, no," she admitted slowly. "I've lived here for about a year now."
"A year?" Draco asked, astonished. He could understand if she had lived there for three weeks, but a year? It looked so uninhabited that he figured she could just walk away without even having to pack.
Hermione looked embarrassed and bit her lip again, and Draco decided to just drop it. He'd normally push until he had every drop of information, snarking and sneering until he pressured it out of someone, but he didn't want to start any sort of relationship with Granger that way.
A relationship! Hah! Keep dreaming, old boy.
"Thanks for inviting me over," he said instead of pushing her, making his way to the small singular couch in the living area.
A look of relief flashed into her eyes and he was glad he'd just moved past it.
"I couldn't sit at home anymore. Ava has moved in and she is a right bitch, so I needed to get away for a while."
"She's actually going to stay with you?" Hermione asked, joining him on the couch, glad that he hadn't pressed her about the state of her flat.
"Yes, until the baby is born. She's miserable, though."
"I'm sorry," Hermione replied, and she was.
An awkward silence filled the room. They weren't exactly friends, per se, so he didn't entirely know how to talk to her. Plus, she was Granger! He still didn't understand why she was even giving him the time of day.
"Did you want something to drink?" She asked politely after a few moments.
"Sure."
Hermione retreated back to the kitchen and Draco took a breath. He wanted to know Hermione, he'd admitted it to himself earlier, and he was dedicated to at least becoming her friend. He knew that he felt a little stronger toward her than that, had known after the first time he went into her store, but he was sure that would never be an option.
Take what you can get, Death Eater scum.
He rolled his eyes at his internal monologue as Granger carried him a glass of water.
"Hopefully you're fine with water," she remarked with a small laugh. "I don't have a whole lot here, refreshment wise."
"Or in general," he thought. Was she poor, or something? Maybe her apothecary cost so much that she wasn't making any profit? It would explain the emptiness.
Draco had been thinking about the fact that he had to apologise to her since he had seen her a week before. He knew it was necessary in order for them to move on from everything, he just didn't know how to say it.
She deserved one from him, no doubt. He had been absolutely horrible to her for things out of her control. He would never say he was glad about the war, but he was thankful it had opened his eyes to the real issues of the Wizarding World.
Once his trial was completed and he was found not guilty he put a lot of effort into denouncing blood supremacy for himself. It took him a long time to finally take a walk in the muggle world, and the experience was terrifying, to say the least, but muggles didn't seem much different from him. He hadn't spent much time there at all, but it was enough.
His friends had all come to the same conclusions in their own time, and all of them felt regrets for the way they behaved as children, but Draco knew that Granger and her friends got it bad from him, at the very least.
"I'm so sorry," he blurted as she settled down beside him, but she looked up at him, confused.
Of course she's so fucking perfect that she wouldn't even know what I'm apologizing for.
"I'm sorry for the way I treated you growing up, you didn't deserve it."
"Draco, please. We were children."
"That does not excuse my behaviour," he responded, looking fierce. "I was a spoiled child, a brat, and a bigot, and I'm truly sorry for the things I said and did to you."
"Thank you," she responded from beside him and something in his chest loosened a bit. "I'm sorry too, you know."
Wait, what?
"You have absolutely nothing to apologise to me for, Granger."
"I wasn't a little ray of sunshine, myself. I gave as good as I got."
"In retaliation. I deserved anything you did or said to me, because I was a little shit."
"Well, I'm still sorry."
Hermione was wringing her hands in her lap and Draco had the sudden urge to reach the small distance between them and touch her hand, but he stopped himself. He didn't need to make her uneasy with his presence.
"Are you still close with Potter and Weasley?" he asked curiously. He noticed the last couple times they were together that she hadn't spoken about them at all.
"Yes," she said after a short contemplation. "Harry married Ginny basically the second she graduated and they have a son. Harry's an Auror now, I don't know if you knew that, and Ginny stays home with James. We usually have Sunday dinner together at their place, except the last Sunday of the month is reserved for dinner at the Weasley family home.
Ron got together with Lavender Brown and they also have a son. He works in Diagon Alley too, at the joke shop. We don't spend all that much time together since his girlfriend isn't my biggest fan, but we do see each other at the monthly Weasley family dinner."
"So Brown doesn't want you to be friends with Weasley?" Draco asked, confused. They had been friends since they were eleven, it seemed odd that she would try and wedge them apart.
"Well, Ron wanted to date me near the end of the war. He pursued me for a short time, but he gave up once he finally accepted that I really wasn't interested in him as anything other than a friend. We remained friends and I think she sees me as a threat, which I am not, but… I can understand where she's coming from."
"Any woman should see you as a threat," he thought, giving her another once over. He couldn't help it, she was gorgeous.
"No other boyfriends?" he asked instead of voicing his thoughts.
Hermione stopped for a moment again, seeming to weigh her words before she made a statement of any kind.
"Not anything overly serious. I tried to date but I wasn't interested in being someone's trophy wife or a notch on their bedpost. Everyone just wanted to date the Hermione Granger, war heroine. I didn't feel like anyone genuinely wanted to get to know the actual me, and it was harder once I… well, I'm sure you've noticed that I've put on a little bit of weight…"
She had to be joking right? He could actually tell that she had gained a few pounds, he'd noticed it right away because she wasn't skin and bones like she had been during the war, but he felt that was something he shouldn't voice aloud. Regardless, she had soft looking curves, a pert arse, shapely legs, and extraordinary shaped breasts.
Draco just shrugged, legitimately unsure what to say.
"Well, apparently some men aren't interested in that."
She said it matter of factly, but he knew there was more to it than that. This was an awkward topic of conversation; he never wanted to talk to another woman about their weight again in his life.
"I'd hardly call you large," he offered.
"Well, I'm also not thin," she said, a hint of accusation in her voice. "I know what I look like, but after starving for a year on the run I just… I just don't want to starve ever again."
Draco nodded, his mind grasping at something nice to say. Then his mouth went on without his brain and said, "I think you're beautiful."
It was the truth, anyway. Granger seemed to like the truth.
She looked at him in shock and her cheeks reddened as her lips started to turn up into a smile. She looked like she was going to say something but a knock on her door made her jump and look away from him.
"That's the pizza," she said, getting to her feet quickly.
Draco hovered in the background as she waved her wand and undid a ludicrous amount of warding spells, tucking her wand into her pocket before answering the door and paying the man on the other side, who handed her two flat boxes. She shut and locked the door, balancing the pizza things in one hand.
She set all of her wards again immediately before carrying the pizza by him and into the kitchen.
"That smells delicious," he said as she opened the lids of the boxes.
Draco peered inside the white boxes; he had never seen anything like this food before, but judging how good it smelled he was sure he would enjoy it.
He watched as Hermione pulled her wand out again before she quickly and efficiently cast a few detection spells over the food, nodding to herself when they all came back showing nothing.
Interesting. He filed that information away as well.
Hermione handed him a plate as though nothing unusual had happened, and he watched as she pulled a triangular piece free from each box.
Draco copied her actions, shuffling the piping hot triangles onto his plate, the cheese pulling away from the other pieces in melted strings.
He licked his fingers once he had two pieces settled on his plate, and caught Granger out of the corner of his eye watching his tongue and fingers with red cheeks. Her eyes darted away and she led him back into the living room.
They perched side by side on the sofa, a first for Draco as there was no dining table in the flat, and he carefully picked up his pizza and bit into it. Hermione couldn't help but watch him closely as he savoured it, enjoying the complete novelty.
"Tell me about your friends," she said as she took a bite.
"There's not too much to tell. They're in France and don't have much interest in coming back here, but I didn't have a choice as I was given my title when my father went to prison."
"What does that entail?"
"Well, I have to oversee all the business dealings beneath the umbrella of our family company, which only takes about two days a week between all of the board meetings. I'm supposed to handle all of the goings on at Malfoy Manor but I've hired someone else to take on that task. I don't enjoy going there and would really prefer to not."
"You don't live at the manor anymore?" Hermione asked, glad to hear it. She would never set foot on that property again, as long as she lived.
"No, Merlin. I live in the country."
"I see," Hermione responded.
Granger likes the truth.
"There's nothing for me at the Manor except horrible memories. I won't go there again as long as I can help it."
Hermione nodded thoughtfully, looking relieved by that information as Draco got to his feet to grab more pizza.
"I like this one more," he informed her, gesturing to the pepperoni pizza on his plate. "I am not a fan of green peppers."
"I wasn't sure, but pepperoni is always a safe bet."
They continued chatting as they ate, Draco feeling a lot more comfortable as time went on, and when they were done Hermione put the boxes into her fridge. She looked exhausted suddenly and Draco decided it was time for him to say goodbye.
"Thanks for inviting me over, Granger," He said, turning toward the fireplace. "The pizza was delicious."
"Anytime," she responded with a smile. Draco thought she actually meant it, too
Go for it now, this is your chance.
"I'm going to France for a week to see Pansy, Theo and Blaise. I'm leaving tomorrow morning, but I'd love it if you would come and have dinner at my place some time once I'm home."
"Sure," she responded, happily. "Owl me."
Draco nodded as he reached for the Floo powder; he couldn't apparate out alone due to the wards on her flat. He'd just Floo to a public hearth and then apparate home.
"See you," Draco said with a nod.
"Bye," Hermione whispered to the flames.
—-
Two days after her dinner with Draco, Hermione sat at the scrubbed oak table in Grimmauld Place while Ginny put the finishing touches on dinner. James was already secured in his high chair and was loudly beating a plastic spoon off the tray whilst giggling to himself.
"And he told me that he thinks I'm beautiful," Hermione was saying, a blush on her cheeks.
"Of course you are," Harry said as he entered the kitchen.
"It's different coming from someone other than you guys," Hermione responded bashfully. The unexpected compliment had been on her mind since Draco left her flat on Friday evening.
"Who is the lucky man, anyway?" Harry asked, freshly showered from a game of pickup Quidditch he had played with his friends.
"It isn't anything at this point, we just had dinner. But Draco Malfoy."
"You had dinner? With Malfoy?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Pizza, and yes. He's really not what I expected him to be like. He's… nice."
"Draco Malfoy is nice?"
"Well I think it's excellent," Ginny chimed in, bringing a pan of bangers to the table. "I know you've had problems in this department in the past, Hermione, so I'm sure you're more than capable of making a judgement about whether he is sincere or not."
"I brought him to my flat," she said quietly. "I didn't even really think about it, I just invited him and sent him ahead of me in the Floo."
"Hermione," Harry said, reaching toward her hand. She didn't invite people over in general, but especially not someone who was mostly a stranger.
"It's fine," she said, releasing a breath. "We just hung out and ate pizza and chatted."
"And he told you that he thinks you're beautiful," Ginny reminded.
"Yes," Hermione said with a smile. "He asked about my love life or lack thereof and I brought up my weight and he didn't even seem to realise what I was talking about."
"Because your weight is fine, Hermione."
This was a common discussion between the three of them, Hermione feeling insecure about her extra weight often. She knew that she was at least a stone too heavy, but it was a security blanket for her among other things. The wrong kind of men wouldn't approach her wanting her just for her name and body and the right kind of men wouldn't let it bother them.
"Are you going to see him again?" Harry asked, clearly trying to push aside any of his own feelings about the man.
"He's gone to France to visit his friends and won't be home until this coming Thursday, but he did invite me to have dinner at his place soon."
"At the Manor?" Harry asked, his fork stilling.
"No, he doesn't live there. He said he lives in the country but we didn't really get into the details."
"Because he was too busy telling you how beautiful you are," Ginny sighed.
"Stop," Hermione chided, embarrassed.
"Never," Ginny grinned.
—-
Draco was enjoying the time with his friends. In the six months since he'd seen them, he had missed them terribly, but international portkeys for him were few and far between, despite the gold he could throw at the problem, and Flooing long distances was impossible. It was for local travel only.
He was ready to head back to Britain though, for the first time in years.
"So I had dinner with Hermione Granger," he said, dropping the bomb on his last night in France.
It had the effect he was looking for and he grinned at his friends' reactions.
Pansy's dark eyes widened in shock and she went perfectly still as she stared at him and Blaise blinked in confusion, looking like he had been hit in the face with something heavy.
Theo choked off a laugh, the least surprised of the three of them.
"I was waiting for you to bring it up."
"How could you have possibly known?" Draco asked Theodore in confusion.
Was someone spying on him? Or worse, her?
The fear gripped his gut for a moment. Theo's smiling, he told himself, forcing his face to stay relaxed in a calm facade. He wouldn't be smiling if it was something nefarious.
"I, unlike these two, still have friends in Britain. It was mentioned recently that you had gone to her little apothecary a few times. I didn't actually know about the dinner."
"Wait, wait," Pansy said, leaning forward in her chair. "Hermione Granger? You had dinner with Hermione Granger? How is she not married off to Weasley yet?"
"Yes, and it was interesting, to say the least. I like her. She also made it clear that she's not interested in Weasley."
"You like her?" Blaise asked, still shocked. "But you hated her growing up!"
"Well, I'm not eleven anymore," Draco pointed out.
"How is she still single? Heroine of the Wizarding World and all that rot." Pansy was genuinely confused.
Theo started to speak and then hesitated, eyeing the group for a moment. "I've heard some things," he began slowly.
"What type of things?" Pansy demanded, and Draco gave him his full attention.
"Spill it, Nott," Blaise said as he settled himself more comfortably into his chair.
"Well firstly, everyone knows about what happened to her parents, right?"
Everyone nodded their heads, that was common knowledge. Hermione had obliviated them before the war really kicked off, sending them abroad. After the war someone close to her had told the press and every major publication in Wizarding Britain did a story on it.
"So there's that. And then I heard that after the war she was single and looking, and apparently the men were basically like crups salivating after her. Trying to get her attention and her favour, but not really because they liked her."
Draco nodded, pressing his lips together in a firm line as he recalled her telling him she wasn't going to be a trophy wife. He kept the thought to himself, determined to keep her confidence, but despite his purposely blank face he was listening raptly.
"Apparently some of the men would get pretty aggressive about it, treating her like an object. Neville hinted at something happening to her and then she just stopped looking around for men entirely."
"Like what?" Pansy asked, but Theo just shrugged.
"I don't know, Neville isn't a gossiper. He mostly deals in facts and he didn't know either, just that something had happened"
The amount of wards she has on her depressing flat and not for fear of a thief, the way she checked her food with poison detection spells before she would eat it - something had definitely happened to Granger.
"Are you planning on seeing her again?" Theo asked him, interested.
"Friday," Draco replied with a nod. He'd owled her a couple days previous asking her over, and she responded with a very enthusiastic yes. "She's coming to my place."
"Even though that vile bitch is there?" Pansy huffed, her arms crossed over her chest.
"Ava won't leave her room anyway, so I'm not too concerned. She doesn't want anyone to know she's there."
"I still can't believe you're going to have a child," Blaise said. "It's so surreal. Does Granger know about all of that?"
"Of course she does. Granger likes the truth."
Blaise looked taken aback by his remark, but after a moment nodded in agreement.
—-
Hermione had owled Draco once he was settled back at his house in Britain and requested he meet her at her apothecary so he could apparate her to his house. She hadn't been there before so no amount of Destination, Determination, and Deliberation would have gotten her to his house safely.
He'd only need to do it once.
She was standing at the locked front door, since her apothecary was closed on weekends, waiting for him to meet her after she'd checked on her weekend brews.
"Hermione Granger," an oily voice said, and she looked up and mentally rolled her eyes when she saw Cormac McLaggen making his way over.
"Hello, Cormac," she said unenthusiastically.
"When are you finally going to let me take you out," he said without any intonation of a question, going so far as bringing his thumb to his lips so he could bite it gently as his eyes raked over her form greedily.
"Still never," she responded. He was such a creep.
He looked offended for a split second. It seemed like a lot of brain effort, so he quickly switched to ogling her.
"We'll see," he replied airily, his eyes glued to her chest. "You know what they say about Keepers."
Hermione's lips twitched in disgust but she didn't answer, clinging to the vain hope that he might leave if ignored.
"Well Miss Know-It-All, found something you can't answer? Would've paid to see that in school." He snorted, raking her body with a leer. "Guess you traded brains for tits. Finally learned it's better to be fit than boring and brainy."
He leaned in close. "Could show you why they say it," he crooned in a singsong. He probably thinks he's whispering, she thought with revulsion. How he could be this pissed before half five, she couldn't imagine and wasn't about to ask. "I could. Be my pleasure an' I promise you that."
"Since I can't imagine it would be any pleasure of mine, I will gladly decline your disgusting offer." With a shudder, Hermione flicked her eyes across the square, hoping Draco might show a bit early.
"Baby, I'll give you pleasure," he groaned, grabbing her arm and leaning into her shoulder, sloppily licking her neck. "Let's just have a wander into that shop you work in, eh? I've a fantasy of bending you over a worktable for a fu–"
The wand jabbed under his chin was sufficient motivation, it seemed, to finally shut him up. Hermione used her wand arm as leverage to step away from him, glaring until he released her arm, and then took two more paces for good measure.
"Get your arse away from me before I hex your bollocks off and make good use of a shrinking charm," she snarled. Her eyes flicked downward, leaving him in no doubt as to the intended application for said spellwork. "If you've gone before I count to ten, I might not file with the Aurors."
McLaggen gulped and raised his hands in surrender. A pissed off Hermione wasn't someone to be around; he took the hint and kept walking.
Hermione huffed aloud, crossed her arms, and glared at him until he was out of sight.
Not a minute later she started to hear grumbling around her and looked up, noticing that the passersby were crossing the street around her.
Then she looked to her right and realised that Draco was only a few metres away, and the crowds were reacting to him.
How dare they?!
They'd let stupid Cormac McLaggen swagger around obviously undressing people with his eyes and being the creep of the century, but treat Draco Malfoy like scum because he was forced to make impossible decisions as a child?
Things needed to change.
As Draco approached her, people seemed to understand that he was closing in on her, but he kept his head high as they all stopped and watched what was about to happen.
"Hi," Hermione said, smiling at him. His jaw was clenched a little tighter than usual, but other than that she wouldn't have known he was bothered by the treatment.
"Granger," he said with a nod. "Are you ready?" he asked politely, gesturing for her to take his arm.
"Yes," she said clearly, making fierce eye contact with some of the strangers who had stopped to watch and were looking extremely confused.
She took his proffered arm and held on tightly as they disappeared from Diagon alley completely.
