Meet Your Match

3. Dinner and Dringking in Pub on Friday

"Oh, hey, wait! I meant to ask. Will you come to dinner and drinks at the pub on Friday with Hermione?"

Draco froze halfway between standing from behind the desk. Thomas was shoving a book into his bag. The other students filed out past them.

"Dinner and drinks at the pub on Friday?" he repeated.

"Yeah."

"With Granger?"

"Yeah."

"The four of us?"

"Yeah."

Draco swallowed the impending crack in his voice. "Erm, yeah, okay, I suppose I could do that."

"Cheers! I'll see you later then."

***

"We should have dinner and drinks at the pub on Friday with Draco."

Hermione snapped her head up, fork suspended halfway to her mouth. She gave a feeble laugh. "Yeah, sounds great, except that there is no possible way that Malfoy will agree to have dinner and drinks with me."

Shannon screwed up her face in exaggerated confusion. "Oh, really?" She stroked her chin in a pantomime of deep thought. "Well, that is so interesting because he's already said yes."

Hermione's fork clattered on the plate. "What?"

"Just dinner and drinks, very casual, no big deal."

"He's agreed to go?"

"Yes."

"To dinner and drinks at the pub on Friday?"

"Yes."

"With me?"

"Yes."

"The four of us?"

"Yes."

"What time?"

***

"Hey, just so you know, Hermione's agreed to go to dinner and drinks at the pub, so we're on for Friday."

Draco glanced sharply over at Thomas. "What do you mean she's agreed?"

Thomas opened his notebook and thumbed to a blank page. "I mean she says she'll go, so we're on."

"She hadn't already agreed?"

Thomas looked up at him, clicking his pen. "Shannon told me yesterday that she had."

Draco narrowed his eyes. "So when you asked me the day before that, she hadn't agreed yet? Does she know I agreed first?"

"Erm, I dunno, maybe?"

Draco scoffed.

"Does that matter?" Thomas asked.

"What? No, of course not."

"Great, so... We're good?"

"Yes. Good."

This was not good.