Signum Vitalis (a dramione story)

Draco Bloody Malfoy

They walked across the street, deliberated and decided on drinks, and found a table that could still view the entrance of the arcade.

Malfoy sat first, taking the seat nudged into the corner that Hermione had been eyeing. She glanced uncomfortably at the other two seats, both with entirely too much of the café behind her to be in her peripheral vision.

"Er... Malfoy? I'd like to sit there, actually. Would it be too much to take another seat?" She asked politely.

Malfoy looked up from his tea and stared at her, look away as he processed the information, and then looked back at her again with a quirked eyebrow. "You want... my seat?"

Hermione's lips thinned as she nodded and shifted anxiously.

He leaned over to glance at the other seats. "There's a problem with all three of the other chairs?"

"I'm... just more comfortable with my back against a wall."

Malfoy lifted an eyebrow.

"Forget it," Hermione grumbled. She sat down and stared down at her tea and focused on her breathing exercises.

"Hell, Granger, when you ask a bloke for his seat give him a chance to find out bloody why first."

Hermione, already feeling a little exposed, simply glared at him.

"You give me a good answer and I'll give it to you, Granger. I don't succumb to death glares."

It almost sounded like something she would say to Ron when he was throwing a tantrum. She reluctantly relented, not caring to be on the Ron side of this conversation.

"Because, Malfoy, I get anxious when I can't keep an eye on all possible angles," she gritted through her teeth.

"Angles?" Malfoy didn't sound like he was mocking, besides the little amount that was always in his voice when he asked a question. Hermione suspected he didn't even realize it was there anymore.

"Angles of attack."

Both eyebrows raised. "Ah." He got up and switched seats with her without saying anything more.

"Thanks," she muttered at her tea and then slipped into the seat.

He nodded.

They both nursed their tea as they waited for it to cool, lapsing into a silence that Hermione wasn't sure was awkward or not. It should have been. She was sitting across from Draco bloody Malfoy. Two childhood nemeses were sitting in a café and one of them had just told the other something rather personal.

It wasn't, though. Awkward. The only awkwardness stemmed from Hermione's expectation that it should be awkward.

The tea was good. Brewed well so the flavors melded together in her mouth. She got absorbed into enjoying it for a while before the conversation began again.

"The Muggles, they are good for Ari. I'm glad you want him to spend time with them," she said at last.

He nodded. "I want him to turn out differently." Malfoy didn't meet her eye, and was watching the eddies he made in his cup with his straw. She knew what he was saying.

"Good. I think with you in his life he has that chance."

Malfoy looked up, his eyes wide. "Really?" he asked sharply.

She nodded. It was true. She knew once she had said it out loud. Even if he was Draco bloody Malfoy.

His face pulled into several expressions and then he looked away. He said in a deep but soft voice. "Thanks."