Second Chances {Dramione}

Chapter One - An unexpected meeting

At seven-thirty o'clock Hermione Granger entered the small coffee shop, she usually visited during her lunch break. But today everything was different. She had left her home early before her boyfriend had woken and left nothing but a tiny note.

She knew she was being anything but fair to the man that had loved her so sweet and unconditionally all these years, but she couldn't do it anymore. He was nice, he treated her well and he was the most responsible guy she'd ever met.

Well, at least he was now. But somehow, she just now realised that she stopped loving him the way she should. Well, at least the way he wanted her to love him. She loved him dearly, as a friend, but sometimes, she wasn't entirely sure when she had fallen out of love with him.

And she was just not brave enough to just walk up to him and say that after all the memories they've shared. She sat down at her usual table and just stared out of the window to see the busy streets before her.

"Of course, they're busy. It's seven-thirty on a Tuesday," she muttered to herself. Then she fell into her own thoughts again. Why had she done it? She could have just spoken to Ronald. No, she crept away like a thief in the night and gave him a piece of paper as some last words.

She had not even told him that she loved him still, as a friend. The only thing she had done, left her engagement ring at home. She wouldn't need that now, and it would have just been a painful reminder of what she had just let go of. But she had to do it. Even when it meant that she would probably not only lose Ron but Harry and Ginny as well.

"Can I bring you something, Miss?" the waitress asked her and Hermione was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts.

"Yes, I'd like a cup of tea, Earl Grey with milk and a scone, please," she answered and the waitress nodded, after walking off again. She turned her head to the window again and drifted off. She didn't notice the voice which loudly requested a black coffee or the man who sat down in front of her. Only when the waitress brought her the order, did she come back into the real world again.

"Thank you," she said and took a sip of her tea.

"Nice to see you again," a voice she didn't recognise at first said and she quickly turned her head in the direction it was coming from. When she noticed which young man sat before her she instinctively stood up.

"Now, now, Granger. No need to leave all of a sudden," he said and pointed towards her chair. "Sit down again."

She could not believe her own eyes. Was that Draco Malfoy? Sure, his voice was the same and the colour of his stormy grey eyes had not changed either, but he looked like a different man. His once platinum blonde hair was now darker like it had been pulled through muddy ground. Also, he did dress differently. His once so black attire, a suit and his Slytherin tie, had been exchanged for a casual blue jean, as far as she could tell through the glass of the table, and a big red sweater. She would have never taken him for a man to wear red knitted sweaters, but who was she to know? She never knew him, really, only the things he showed her in school.

"What are you doing here?" she asked with disbelief in her voice. And maybe a bit of prejudice.

"Drinking coffee, Granger. What else would I do in a coffee shop?" he asked as if she was asking him whether or not the goblins managed Gringotts.

"I meant, what are you doing in Muggle London. It's not like you to spend time among these worthless people." She mocked him and he knew she was. And even though he may have earned to be treated like that by her, it still hurt him. He had become another person and he needed that person to be seen. At least by some.

"Granger..., Hermione. I live in Muggle London, I work in Muggle London, as a doctor, if it might interest you, and I also drink coffee in Muggle London. So, what is it you're blaming me for? Having the audacity to sit with you?" She was astonished, she really was. He was living and working here? The place without magic, without the luxury of not having

to hide? And as a doctor? When had Draco Malfoy made his

degree? And when did he have the time to study to become a doctor? He had attended the seventh year, well, the second time at least, with her and it had only been five years since then.

"I know what you're thinking. And no, I did not compel someone to hire me. I studied, fair and square. I was fast and now I'm doing my practice year. People can change, Hermione."

She shrugged. She knew people could change. She saw it when she took a look in the mirror this morning. But she really couldn't believe that Draco Malfoy had changed that much. Even the slightest chance of change seemed impossible when it came to him.

"Do you not find it in you to believe that I've changed?" he asked and he sounded hurt. She frowned. Maybe, she thought to herself, maybe she was just wrong and the boy he was in school had become a man now. And that man could be different. No, she thought, she didn't find it in herself to take in the fact that someone who had treated her so bad would become a different person. So, she shook her head.

As if he had read her mind, he placed a few pounds on the table, enough to pay what they both had ordered and grabbed her hand. She wanted to protest, but somehow the feeling of his hands on her wrist made it impossible for her to even utter a word. And so, he pulled her out of the shop with him, and right to the next Tube Station.