Reunited [ dramione ]

five

"A room without books is like a body without a soul."
— Marcus Tullius Cicero

A knock came at Hermione's door 4 days after the party at the manor. She hadn't spoken to Draco or Theodore since that night and had instead thrown herself into the case that she had been working on with Draco. It was significantly harder to do without a partner but she wouldn't give up.
She had spent her days cleaning her apartment several times, cleaning her office several times, she made a large number of cupcakes and gave them to her co-workers. Hermione didn't know why she felt lonely, Theodore had sent countless owls apologising and asking to meet up again. Needless to say Hermione had not replied. She had been pulled into Draco's world first with Pansy and then again with Theodore and she was exhausted.

"Who is it?" Hermione asked, reluctantly getting off the sofa to answer the door. She was currently wearing leggings and an oversized Quidditch tshirt.

"It's me" replied the voice which she instantly recognised to be Draco's.

"Draco? It's 9 in the morning" She asked through the door, despite already knowing the answer.

"Yeah, it's me" Came the reply.

Hermione sighed and opened the door, allowing Draco to come in. He was greatly overdressed compared to her. He was wearing a black suit as per usual which clung to his toned figure.

He looked around at Hermione's spotless apartment, just as he had imagined it. It was spotless and incredibly homely, similar to the Weesley's house.

"So what brings you here?" she asked, plopping onto the sofa.

Draco took a seat on one of her burgundy arm chairs "I wanted to apologise for the other night"

Hermione smiled at him "How very un-Malfoy"

"Are you going to mock me or accept my apology, Granger?"

"I'm sorry, thank you I accept your apology" She replied.

They sat in silence for a few moments as Draco looked around her room. He saw a book in front of her, he remembered her reading it the last time he saw her before she disappeared to hunt horcruxes.

"What was it like?" Draco asked "Hunting horcruxes"

Hermione looked down, it clearly wasn't a nice memory. "Did you ever play the game monster? I guess it's a muggle game. I used to play it with my cousins when I was younger, my uncle would wear a mask and we'd go into the park at night and then we would hide and he would chase us. We didn't know where he was but the pure terror we got was more from not knowing where he was or when we would be attacked was the scariest part. That's what it was like, there were death eaters everywhere we turned and it felt like we couldn't go anywhere. Except there was no time out, no replay and if you got scared you couldn't go crying to the adults"

Draco watched as she told the story, he'd forgotten that she'd grown up a muggle. The fact no longer made him wrinkle his nose, it actually interested him.

"I always thought of the war from my point of view, it never occurred to me until now that other people experienced it differently" He mused

Hermione gave him a small smile "Thats because you're egotistical" she said smugly.

Draco nodded slowly, he wasn't sure what to do now but he really didn't want to go back home. Astoria hadn't spoken to him once and his mother had been avoiding him for days. He realised how few friends he actually had, he couldn't go to Theodore's, he didn't want to go to Pansy's and Blaise was out of town. Hermione watched him deep in thought and got up to make some coffee.

"You want some coffee?" She asked when he looked up at her.

Draco nodded, he liked Hermione's apartment, it felt more homely than anywhere else he knew of.

Hermione poured the coffee and handed Draco a cup with a cheery smile.

"So, about this case" He said as she took a seat.

"I've gotten no where with it, I could really use your input"

Draco thought for a moment "In order to catch him we need to find his next victim.We should send out a message for everyone in the area to submit information about their house elves so that we can map out where they are and which direction he's heading in"

Hermione's eyes lit up "That's a brilliant idea, a census for elves!"

Draco smiled proudly and shrugged "No big deal"

Before Hermione could go into any further detail about their plan and owl landed on her windowsill, an owl she didn't recognise.

She walked over to the beautiful white barn owl and took the letter out of its beak.
The envelope was a sleek black, sealed with silver wax. It looked very glamorous and different to the usual post Hermione got.

Hermione opened it gingerly and then read it quickly.

Miss Granger,

I understand you have spent a lot of time with Draco and Theodore recently and I think it is time I get to know you.

Let's have coffee at 1pm at De Lucas today.

Pansy Parkinson.

Hermione let out a loud sigh and thrust the letter into Draco's hands causing him to jump at the abrupt contact between their two hands. Despite only touching for a second their hands both felt slightly tingly, though they both pretended not to notice.

"Pansy wants to have coffee with you?" He asked in disbelief as he read the letter.

Hermione nodded "She didn't give me much notice, it's almost 11 now. I'd better get dressed"
She stood up and walked into her room to get ready. She realised that she'd left Draco in her living room alone but assumed he could amuse himself for a few minutes.

Unlike usual when Draco being left alone in a room would make him extremely uncomfortable, Draco lay back and picked up one of Hermione's books.

Lord of the rings he expected it to be a trashy muggle book however 5 pages in and he was engrossed in the story already.

Hermione emerged in simple jeans and a purple woollen jumper to see Draco reading one of her favourite books.

"Enjoying it?" She asked with a laugh as she took a seat back on the sofa.

"Who knew muggle books could be so entertaining" He laughed in surprise.

"Wizards are so closed minded about muggles I doubt half of them have ever read Lord of the Rings, you can keep it if you like I have quite a few copies"

Draco smiled slightly and nodded "Thank you"

They sat and chatted for quite a while until Hermione looked at the time "Oh merlin, it's almost 1 I should go" She said in utter dread "If I don't make it out alive tell Crookshanks I love him"

Draco smirked and stood up "Maybe you'll enjoy it."

Hermione rolled her eyes and stepped into her fireplace and then clearly said "De Lucas" and was gone, Draco watched where she'd been for a couple of moments as though expecting her to reappear. When she didn't he left, pulling her door shut to lock it. He would look back on this day with a bittersweet feeling. He should have stayed, everything would have been far easier if he had just stayed at Hermione's and waited for her. But Draco didn't stay, he apparated back to the manor.