Dramione Drabbles

19. Walkman

"Granger?" Draco cleared his throat.

She looked up at him from behind their desk, her wand stuffed haphazardly in her hair.

"There's an exercise called 'show and tell' in Muggle Studies where—"

"I know what that is," she cut him off impatiently. He was holding up her studies.

"Right. Well. I haven't got any Muggle gadgets, so I wondered if you might lend me..." He paused mid-sentence. They were co-heads, true, and Granger had been civil these past three months. But why would she do him a favour? "Actually. Forget it."

Draco left, hiding his face before she noticed how hard he was blushing. He would find something else.

By Sunday night, Draco was colossally screwed. If he failed Muggle Studies, he failed eighth year. He had no Muggle-born friends and no Muggle currency to order something from a nearby town, nor did he know how to do that in the first place.

He knocked on Granger's door.

She wore an oversized Gryffindor shirt, hair twisted up with her wand speared through it. It smelled distinctly like 'girl' in her room, he noted, as she invited him inside and tossed her monogrammed trunk open. "You can rummage through it."

He hesitated. It seemed too personal to riffle through her belongings.

"What?" she demanded when he didn't move. She had that impatient look on her face and Draco was well aware of the scrolls and textbooks on her bed, abandoned mid-study.

"Are you sure?"

"I have nothing to hide, Malfoy." She crawled onto her bed and cracked her book open.

He found various objects in the trunk. Muggle books without moving pictures, a photo album he didn't dare flick through, until a strange wired object caught his eye, its buttons marked with odd lines and shapes.

"You'll want to choose something else." Granger's voice made him jump. How long had she been watching him? "The school's magic inhibits Muggle electricity. It's useless here."

Was that wistfulness in her voice? He hardly knew her well enough to tell. "What does it do?"

"Plays music." She hopped off the bed and joined him, bending over to grab something from the trunk.

The shoebox clattered when she set it down. Inside were dozens of colourful plastic... somethings. She thumbed through them as if they were index cards, reading the miniscule labels. She cleared her throat and Draco was alarmed to find her tearing up.

"These were from my father's collection." She smiled, extracting a beige one from its case. "One of my favourites." She handed it to him.

Draco read 'Rumours – Fleetwood Mac' and beneath it some odd words.

"Songs," she said, as if reading his mind. "Then you flip it around and—"

"More songs," he surmised. "How does it work?"

She showed him. Sliding a 'cassette' into the device, explaining how the sound travelled. "Here," she said, wrapping the wires around the 'Walkman'. "Might be worth showing the class, after all."

"I'll take good care of it," he promised, leaving her room feeling all kinds of confused and affected.

Draco nailed the assignment. In a lineup of matches and gel pens, the Walkman was undeniably special. But he couldn't unsee the yearning in Granger's eyes when she'd showed him the cassettes. Magic had a way of silencing Muggles, pretending like they didn't exist. He thought maybe he could change it.

☀️

"I have a confession to make." Draco sat next to Granger at the lip of the Black Lake. The sunset had washed the clouds in glorious coppers and golds. A Gryffindor sky.

She looked up at him fondly, setting her book aside without even bookmarking it. "Here to admit you're hopelessly in love?"

He froze, his heartbeat ricocheting in his ears and his tongue suddenly three sizes too big.

And then she laughed. "Go on. I'm only teasing."

He released a sigh of relief, though his hands trembled removing the object from his satchel. "I gave you back a Transfigured cup," he admitted guiltily. "This is the real one."

Granger frowned, taking the Walkman. Before she could ask why, he said, "Press play."

Surprise flashed across her face, meeting his gaze. Tentatively, she put the earpieces on and clicked the button. A delightful gasp as she shut her eyes and listened. She yanked them off. "How?"

"Took a few months," he admitted sheepishly. Six, actually. Too embarrassing to divulge. "I suppose it's useless now that the year's almost ov—"

She pressed her fingers over his mouth.

Draco swallowed the rest of his words, the scent of 'girl' all over him. Gods, she looked pretty in the sunset.

"Have you listened to it?"

"A little to test it out. But I was waiting...erm...for you to tell me about the songs." It sounded silly out loud. Romantic, even though he wasn't. And they weren't...

"It's for you," he amended. "To feel close to your parents."

Her eyes were shining and Draco felt a pang in his chest. Great, now he'd made her cry. "Granger, I'm sorry—" He faltered as she sat up on her knees, shutting him up by crawling into his lap.

He could only stare as she planted an earpiece delicately in his ear, placing the other one in hers so they were connected. She hit 'play'. The music poured in clearly, drowning out the hum of the outdoors and transporting them away.

"This one's my favourite," she murmured, pressing her cheek to his. Yes, he remembered.

She was warm and soft. Draco was certain she could feel his insatiable heart pounding against her chest. Granger sang softly, her lips moving against his cheek, her eyelashes tickling his cheekbone. "When the rain washes you clean, you'll know..."

Draco became acquainted with Stevie Nicks in Granger's arms.

He met Etta James hours later, sprawled out on burgundy sheets, and woke to Janis Joplin screeching in his ear. He learned the shape of Granger's lips to Billie Holiday and the curves of her body while Nina Simone serenaded them soulfully.

Six weeks of pure, musical bliss.

And when the school year drew to an end, Granger laced her fingers through his and guided him through London until they reached a music store and stocked up on another shoebox worth of adventures.

(1040 words, first written Jan 7 2024, inspired by ivmaruva's art from twitter -- find it here: twitter.com/sodamnradd/status/1744102551404822792)