~Accidentally on Purpose!~

~21~ ~AUTUMN LEAVES~

Don't worry. I don't own anything. It is the world of JK Rowling. We are just living in it ;) And none of the art except the cover page belongs to me. HAPPY READING!

This was a serene morning, the wind blowing his hair in all directions, no sight of the sun as the clouds covered the sky. He had made a decision, but for the first time, he was unsure about it. After another date with Natasha, he realized Hermione was correct.

She truly was special.

Just a nagging thought lingered at the back of his brain that something was lacking and surely on his behalf. He waved off the feeling in his pit as a symptom of nervousness.

In his peripheral version, he saw the only person he was longing to talk to right now. His matchmaker.

She was draped in a large white muffler and was holding a cup, presumably of caffeine as it was still early morning by some people's standards. A smile crept upon his face unknowing to himself and he turned to look at her.

"So, how did it go? Two dates down, is there a third one coming up? Maybe a Jubilee Ball."

"Quite possibly", he replied at saw her smile in response. "If anything does happen you'll be the first person I tell, Ms. Granger." He winked at her to emphasize the innuendo.

"Real mature, Malfoy", she snorted and then bent down to pick up a periwinkle that had flown to them.

"But things are going well, aren't they?" she asked."She's quite a woman."

"Butterflies?" she queried with her eyebrows reaching her hairline.

"Actually, I have been following your advice and not overthink everything, but I would say that we are definitely headed in the right direction."

"Good, that's admirable." She replied and Draco moved past her to walk into the door.

He stopped in his tracks and decided to spill out what has been bugging him these few nights.

"Hermione", he said and turned around seeing her do the same, almost simultaneously.

"I know, when we first met out of Hogwarts, I was a tad skeptical as for your methods and beliefs and of course our history."

"Oh no, I never would have known that", she fake grimaced. She was truly enjoying seeing The Draco Malfoy wove out an apology out of his stoic exterior and that too for her. No, she was not letting go of this moment.

"Maybe, very skeptical", he corrected himself with a smug smile. "But through your determination, you have slowly opened my eyes and turned me into something of a ...." He paused as if finding the correct word.

"Believer! From baby steps to giant leaps." She completed his sentence while looking at him intently.

"Thank you, Hermione."

"Just doing my job", she sighed and cocked her head to the side while fumbling with the flower in her hands.

Draco studied the flower in her fingers and decided against going inside sooner.

"Do you know what the periwinkle symbolizes?"

"Yes, it is the symbol of purity and strength. I think you are forgetting I was always the first and you the second, not the other way around." She joked and gazed up in his eyes to get a reaction from his sassy self.

"Yeah, you don't need to rub it in my face every time we talk." He pouted unintentionally and Hermione saw a glance of the young Malfoy, who wasn't a Malfoy but Draco, his mother's son and not Voldemort's pawn. He broke her reverie by reaching out to take the flower from her hands and softly put them in her hair, just behind her ear.