What a Vacation Can Do

“Then there was that time, back in third year, when I was about to dive for the snitch and…-“

Hermione sat across from Draco as they ate lunch at The Leaky Cauldron. Her right elbow sat on the edge of the table with her chin propped up on her hand. Her left arm laid across the table, her index finger taping on the wood surface as she listened to Draco talk. Because that was all he had been doing for the past twenty minutes. He hadn’t stopped talking, and he talked about absolutely nothing. He talked about things that had happened to him in Hogwarts and what he had been doing since he started working at the Ministry. All in all, it was things that Hermione could really care less about. And he only stopped when Hermione guessed his mouth was too dry from talking, and he had to take a drink of his butterbeer.

She sighed to herself as he started talking about a potion he made once in Potions that got him twenty points for his house. With her head still propped up on her arm, she allowed her eyes to wander the room. She watched as everybody else talked with smiles on their faces and as a group of men in black cloaks entered the room and took a seat by the window. She sighed again and was relieved when their waitress came over with their lunch and placed it on the table.

Hermione was delighted to see that Draco had now stopped talking to eat his roast chicken, and she happily starting digging into her own Sheperd’s pie. She pocked a potato with her fork and was just bringing it to her mouth, when Draco suddenly started talking again. “Working at the Ministry has diffidently been…-.“ Draco paused when he noticed Hermione roll her eyes and place her fork down on the table. “Something wrong, Granger?” He asked, taking a forkful of his chicken.

“Look, Malfoy, no offense, but… when did you become so bloody annoying?” Hermione found herself snapping at him even though she didn’t really mean it. She just couldn’t take it anymore. It was like he was purposely trying to annoy her, for whatever reason, and he was succeeding. She sighed at the sudden hurt look on Draco’s face. “I’m sorry, but I don’t really care about how many points Snape gave you during fourth year for making a potion that even sixth years were having trouble with. Everybody knows he favored you and even if you did it wrong, he would have praised you for it.”

Draco smirked. “Jealous Granger?”

Hermione frowned at Draco before taking another bit of her pie. “No.” She swallowed before continuing. “Snape favored you Slytherins. That’s the only reason you all got so ahead of us in that class. You all sucked at everything else.”

Draco snorted. “Please, Granger.”

“Okay, fine, then why did we beat you in everything else?”

“Who? The Gryffindors?” Draco asked with another laugh.

“No, the Hufflepuffs.” She said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “Of course the Gryffindors!”

Draco just laughed before calmly saying: “You didn’t beat us in everything.”

Hermione scoffed before laughing slightly. “Yes we did. Everything except Potions.”

“And Quidditch.” Draco pointed at, pointing at her with his fork.

Hermione just rolled her eyes. “That has got nothing to do with academics.”

“You never said it had to do with academics.” Draco said with a smirk.

“Fine, if we’re not talking about academics then I have some more.” Draco took another bite of his chicken before sitting back in his chair, arms crossed, and looking at Hermione with a smirk. “How about that time in third year when you and some of your Slytherin ‘minions’ decided to dress up as deatheaters and walk onto the Quidditch field to try and scare Harry so he wouldn’t catch the snitch… yet he caught it anyway.” Hermione smiled triumphantly as Draco’s smirk fell.

He suddenly got serious and sat forward again. “Okay. How about the time when Weasley was going to try and curse me, but instead his spell backfired and he ended up puking up slugs for the next month.” Draco laughed after he finished talking.

“He didn’t puke them up for the next month!” Hermione said loudly, defending her best friend. “And you deserved to get cursed.”

Draco just laughed. “Too bad I wasn’t the one to get cursed.”

Hermione’s nostrils flared and she was now on the edge of her seat. “You know what you did deserve Malfoy?”

Draco laughed again and looked around the room, listening but not watching Hermione as she spoke. He figured he had won… but he was so wrong. “What, Granger? What did I deserve?”

“That time when I slapped you across the face.” Hermione said it quietly, but loud enough so Draco could hear it. He slowly turned his head, his smirk now gone, and stared at Hermione. Hermione’s lips curved triumphantly as she watched Draco glaring back at her.

“Well that bloody hippogriff deserved to die.” He said through his teeth.

“Too bad he didn’t die.” Hermione snapped. “Buckbeak is still out there, somewhere, alive and happy, no thanks to you.”

Draco turned so he was looking Hermione square in the face, then crossed his hands on top of the table. Hermione gave him a sweet, fake smile, showing him her teeth as he glared back. He looked at her teeth for a couple seconds, before his glare turned to a smirk, causing Hermione to shut her mouth. “Aren’t you glad Pomfrey could shrink your teeth back to their normal size after I cursed them in fourth year?”

“Aren’t you glad that her and Snape could fix you up after Harry cursed you with Sectumsempra in sixth year?” Draco’s smirk faded and he opened his mouth to argue, but stayed quiet instead. They both glared at each other and Hermione could tell that they were no longer joking around with each other. There little play argument had suddenly turned very serious.

“How about first year, Granger?”

“What about it?”

“When you, Weasley, and Scarface fell right into my booby trap to get you all in trouble. I told you all to meet me in the trophy room at midnight for a duel, and you all actually bought it.” He snickered at the memory. “Like the stupid little Gryffindorks you are.”

“I didn’t go with them on purpose.” Hermione said defensively. “I was trying to stop them because I knew it was a trap, but ended up getting locked outside the common room. It was not my fault.”

Draco just laughed. “Yeah right, likely story.”

Hermione just scoffed and threw her back against the chair. “You think you’re so bloody perfect.” She said under her breath, but Draco had heart her.

“I am bloody perfect, thank you very much, Granger.”

Hermione just let out a sarcastic laugh. “Please, Malfoy. You wouldn’t know perfect if it smacked you right in-between the nose.”

“You’re just jealous because I am in, in fact,… perfect.” Draco said with a smirk. He took a bit of his chicken and pretended to be looking around the room, watching Hermione in his peripheral vision the entire time. He watched as her blood boiled from frustration and as she slowly started to lose all the restraint she had.

She clenched her fist together and before Hermione could stop herself… the words just left her. “If you’re so bloody perfect how come you couldn’t kill Dumbledore up in the Astronomy Tower?” Draco suddenly turned and looked at Hermione. “If you’re so perfect then how come Snape had to do it and not you!”

Hermione had yelled it all louder then she planned to. Almost all of The Leaky Cauldron had gone silent and all eyes were on them. Draco stared at Hermione for a couple of seconds, a look of hurt, embarrassment, and shock written on his face. He closed his eyes for a couple seconds, then looked down at the table, licking his lips nervously. Hermione immediately felt bad for what she had said, and just as she was about to apologize, Draco stood up. He pushed the seat back and reached into his cloak, pulling out a couple of sickles to pay for his meal. He placed them on the table, and then without another word, he walked out of The Leaky Cauldron.

Hermione closed her eyes and sighed to herself. She placed her head in her hands and licked her lips. “Don’t feel bad. He deserved every word. Don’t feel bad.” She continued to repeat this to herself in a low whisper, but she couldn’t keep it up for long. She looked up just in time to see Draco walking quickly down the street and she made up her mind.

She quickly stood up from her seat, placed down the money to pay for her meal, then sprinted after Draco. She found him just as he was about to turn the corner and quickly yelled out his name. “Malfoy! Malfoy, WAIT!”

He stopped, and with his back still turned to her, started talking. “What , Granger?”

Hermione, who was now standing directly behind him, gulped quickly before speaking. The words would kill her to say, but she needed to say them. “I’m sorry. That was really uncalled for.”

He turned around and looked at her. “Do you think so?” He asked sarcastically. Hermione just nodded, not knowing what to say to him. “Nobody understands, so I don’t except you to either.” He turned around again and started walking, but Hermione wasn’t done yet. She knew he hadn’t forgiven her and, for some strange reason, it would kill her forever if he didn’t.

“Malfoy, wait.” He didn’t stop, so Hermione chased after him. “Malfoy, please wait and talk to me.” When he still continued to ignore her, Hermione tried the last thing she could think of. “Draco….” He stopped suddenly and turned to face her, surprise written all over his face. “Please forgive me.”

“You can’t bring up a person worst memory and then just except them to forgive you when you say sorry. It doesn’t work like that.” He turned around again and slowly started to walk away.

Hermione sighed and let out a little groan. “I’ll… I’ll make it up to you.” Draco stopped again and turned to face her, a small smirk present on his face. “What can I do to make it up to you?” She asked slowly, afraid of the answer.

Draco thought for a moment and then finally smirked his famous Malfoy smirk. “Come on a date with me tonight. We can go after we get done work at the shop.”

Hermione stared at him, wide eyed and open mouthed. “Are you crazy?” She asked. Draco said nothing, just crossed his arms and shook his head ‘no’. Hermione was speechless. Why in the name of Merlin would Draco Malfoy want to go on a date with her, Hermione Granger? Didn’t he hate her? They were enemies, right? They hated each other for 7 years now, what suddenly changed? “Why?”

“Because you want to make it up to me and that’s all I can think of.” It was a lie, and Hermione knew it, but did she really have a choice? If she wanted Draco to forgive her for what she said, she would have to go on a date with him. She knew that going on a date with him would be sufficient to what she said to him.

“Alright.” She said with a sigh. “But just one date, Malfoy.”

Draco smirked. “Great. Now come on, we have to get back to work.” He turned back around and started walking back towards Pansy’s shop like nothing had ever happened.

Hermione regretted her decision that second.

Draco, however, couldn’t stop smirking. His plan had worked.

Part one was a success.


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Draco smiled to himself as he watched Hermione standing at the front desk in Pansy’s shop. She kept looking at the time, then she would frown at it, before turning back to what she was previously doing. He knew she was counting down the time she had left until she had to go on the date with him, and he couldn’t help but find the way she was dreading it entertaining.

Lunch had turned out exactly like he had planned it to; it couldn’t have gone any better. He wanted to annoy her to the point of where she would snap at him. He could then pretend to be hurt by what she said and not forgive her until she agreed to go on a date with him. She fell right into his little trap, and Draco couldn’t be happier with himself. He was a brilliant actor after all.

He checked his watch at ten of seven, and then turned to Amanda with a smile. “Can you handle everything else until closing?” He asked her. He knew she would be able to. The shop had died down excessively and she wouldn’t have any problem handling the very few customers that would come in with the hour left of the stores business hours.

“Of course, Mr. Malfoy.” She said smiling back.

“Great. I’ll be heading out then until tomorrow and Ms. Granger will be going with me.” He straightened up his cloak and then, smiling once more at Amanda, turned and made his way over to where Hermione was standing. He smirked at her as he approached her, and as soon as she noticed him, her facial expression fell. He could tell that she was inwardly kicking herself for allowing herself to get into this situation. She turned to him and faked a smile, only causing Draco’s smirk to grow even more. “Ready?” He asked her.

She sighed and nodded her head. “Please promise me we’re not going somewhere crazy.” Draco said nothing, holding his arm out for Hermione to take. She ignored his friendly gesture and started heading straight for the door. Draco, slightly frustrated by her lack of manners, followed her quickly out the door and took the lead, leading her off towards one of the popular streets in Diagon Alley. “You didn’t answer me.” Hermione pointed out after a couple minutes of walking. “I asked if we were going somewhere crazy or not?”

“No you didn’t.” Draco said simply. “You said, and I quote ‘please promise me we’re not going somewhere crazy.’. Last time I checked, that wasn’t a question.”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “It was a question in sentence form and you know it, Malfoy.” Draco just nodded his head and continued walking. Hermione let out a groan. “Will you answer me please?”

Draco laughed. “What’s the question?”

“Are we going somewhere crazy?” Draco opened his mouth to ask another question, but Hermione already saw it coming. “No fancy, expensive restaurants right?”

“It’s not fancy.” Draco said quickly, getting a nod from Hermione. Draco just smirked when she said no more on the subject. It was true that he wasn’t taking her to a fancy restaurant, at least not yet, but he never said it wasn’t a cheap restaurant. He was a Malfoy, and strictly speaking, Malfoy’s don’t do anything cheap. He wasn’t going to take her to a fancy restaurant because they both weren’t dressed well enough to get into the restaurants he went to. But there were still plenty of nice restaurants out there that were good enough for a Malfoy to get into without looking bad in the pureblood society while still dressing in his casual clothes. “This way, Granger.” Draco said, taking a turn down one of the streets that led right to the restaurant they were going to.

Draco could see it from where they were standing. It was a beautiful, Italian restaurant, designed to make it look like you were sitting in a restaurant in Italy. It was also one of Draco’s favorite places to eat. He lightly grabbed Hermione’s hand to pull her in the direction of the restaurant, but she quickly pulled away. Draco turned to her and frowned. “I wasn’t trying to hold your hand, Granger.”

“Then why did you grab it?” She asked. They were both now standing a mere ten feet from the entrance to the restaurant. They faced each other and Hermione quickly put her hands behind her back and out of Draco’s reach.

He sighed. “I just wanted to guide you into the restaurant.” He lifted his hand and pointed at the door. Hermione quickly tore her eyes from Draco and glanced up at the beautiful building before her.

“We’re eating in there?” She asked, still looking up at it.

“Yes. I made reservations right after we got back from lunch.”

Hermione’s eyes shot to Draco. It was then that the thought that Draco might have planned all this out crossed her mind, but she quickly blew it off. Draco might be smart, but he wasn’t smart enough to outplay her… was he? “Why would you make reservations?”

Draco just laughed like this was the dumbest question he ever heard. “Because you need to make reservations for this place. Usually you have to make them about a week in advance to even get a seat for two, but I gave them my name and they told me it wasn’t a problem.”

“You told me we weren’t going somewhere expensive and fancy.” Hermione said, now glaring at him.

“Wrong.” He said with a smirk. “All I said was that it wasn’t fancy.”

“This looks pretty fancy to me.” Hermione said, pointing at the restaurant.

“It’s not. It’s casual.”

“Well… it looks expensive!” Hermione was quickly running out of excuses.

“That’s because it is.” Draco said, reaching behind Hermione and grabbing her hand. She quickly tried to pull it away, but Draco had a death grip on her. “Stop squirming Granger. You promised you would go on a date with me and now you are. Who cares if it’s expensive?”

“I-do!” Hermione said, still fighting to get away.

Draco just rolled his eyes and continued to pull her in. He was stronger than she was, and no matter how much she pulled, she was never going to get away.

That thought was probably what caused Hermione to stop pulling after Draco forced her inside, because she suddenly stopped, or it could have been the fact that she got her first glimpse of the restaurants beauty. Draco turned to her to see that she was looking around the room in awe. He smirked and then turned to the hostess and smiled at her. “Last name’s Malfoy. Table for two.”

The hostess smiled at Draco and then grabbed two menus before waving her hand for Draco to follow her. “We have the best table in the house reserved for you Mr. Malfoy.” She guided them over to their table and handed them their menu’s when they were seated. “Enjoy your meal.” She said before walking away and leaving Draco and Hermione alone.

Hermione was still looking around the room in awe, and Draco couldn’t help but laugh. “Beautiful isn’t it?”

Hermione, who had heard his laugh, turned and finally made eye contact with him. When she saw Draco’s smirk, she glared at him suddenly. “You find this amusing, don’t you Malfoy?”

He shook his head quickly. “I find it nice. The fact that two people who hated each other for about seven years can sit down and have a nice dinner together is a good feeling.”

“Hate.” Hermione said quickly. Draco raised an eyebrow at her, not understanding what she was talking about, causing Hermione to roll her eyes. “You said ‘hated each other’ when you should have said hate each other.” Draco just smirked at her. “Last time I checked we still hated each other.”

Draco just shook his head slightly before speaking in a small whisper. “And I thought I would be the one to always hold the grudge against you.” Hermione opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted as their waiter came to the table. Draco quickly ordered a bottle of his favorite red wine and two house salads for him and Hermione. Hermione went to argue, but Draco cut her off by saying that was all they needed for now.

“You know, I can talk.” Hermione snapped, picking her menu up and flipping through the pages.

“Congratulations.” Draco said with a smile, picking up his menu and ignoring the glare Hermione was sending his way. The waiter came back within a couple minutes, carrying both their salads and their wine, which he poured for them, then got their dinner order. Draco order pasta fazool while Hermione ordered some lasagna. The waiter nodded and then went on his way to put their order in.

Hermione, who suddenly felt starving from not eating much of her lunch, starting eating her salad straight away. Draco ate as well, only he took his time and watched Hermione with a smirk. One thing was sure, she had an appetite. “Did you learn some of your eating techniques from Weasley when we were back in Hogwarts?” Hermione stopped with a fork hallway to her mouth and glared at a smirking Draco.

“I’m hungry… okay?” She said, taking a forkful of salad. “It’s because of you I didn’t eat my lunch.”

Draco laughed. “How is that my fault?”

“Because you had to start that stupid argument.” She pointed out, picking up her wine and bringing it to her lips to take a sip.

“I believe you started it.” Draco said, taking a sip of his own wine.

Hermione just rolled her eyes. “Whatever Malfoy. I don’t want to argue about an argument. That’s just stupid.”

Draco just shrugged his shoulders and continued eating his salad. They sat in silence until their dinner came, when Draco finally decided that he was getting fed up with the silence and if he ever wanted another chance with Granger, he should keep talking. “So, why Australia?”

Hermione swallowed what was in her mouth before speaking. “I’m sorry?”

“Since you’re a reporter for an Australian paper, I assume that you live in Australia. So, why Australia? I’m guessing you didn’t just wake up one morning and decide to move almost across the world, leaving your friends and everything you knew behind.”

Hermione let out a little laugh. “No, it wasn’t a split second decision. I…” She sighed before continuing. “I went to go and find my parents.”

“What were you parents doing in Australia?” Draco asked, suddenly really interested.

“Before Harry, Ron and I went out on our horcrux hunt, I wanted to keep my parents safe from Voldemort and the Deatheaters.” Draco suddenly felt a pang of guilt, but it quickly disappeared. “So I modified their memories. They became Wendell and Monica Wilkins who’s life ambitions were to move to Australia and they…,” She paused for a second, forcing the words to leave her mouth. “they completely forgot they ever had a daughter.”

“Wow.” Draco said quietly.

“Yeah.” Hermione said with a sigh, nodding and lowering her head.

“That must have been hard.”

Hermione nodded, her head still low towards her plate. “You have no idea.”

Draco quickly decided to change the subject away from the war. They talked about what they had been doing after they graduated from Hogwarts and what they had accomplished so far with their current jobs. They seemed to be getting along fairly well, still sending glares to each other with each sarcastic comment, but all in all… the date was as much of a success as it was going to get. Draco quickly paid for the meal, ignoring Hermione’s requests to allow her to pay for her part, and they exited the restaurant and back out into the streets.

They walked down the streets of Diagon Alley in silence, both their minds on the war that had passed through their lives so roughly. Draco couldn’t help but look at Hermione and see a girl who was hurt and on the inside, and he couldn’t help but blame himself for that. She had been through so much to keep herself and the ones she loved safe in the war, even going to the extreme to change her parents memory so they didn’t remember her at all. As Draco pondered this, something crossed him that he didn’t quite understand. “So, Granger… you went to Australia to find your parents, right?” Hermione nodded. “Did you ever find them?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“But you stayed in Australia, so much to the point that you had to get a job there. Did something happen?”

Hermione sighed and looked up the stars for a second, biting her lips together before answering. “I found them and told them who I was. They didn’t believe me at all and right before they went to kick me out of their house, I performed the spell on them that would give them their memories back but… I didn’t work. Something happened and I can’t figure out what it is.” She shook her head and bit her lip before continuing. “It’s like my parents are dead, only I can see them everyday living their lives like everything was normal. They don’t even know I exist.” She said the last part as an afterthought, and Draco suddenly found the need to apologize.

“I’m sorry, Granger.”

“No you’re not.” Hermione snapped, turning to look at him with small tears in her eyes. “You couldn’t even possibly begin to understand how much this war has screwed up my life. You couldn’t understand how much this war has screwed up all of our lives.”

“Granger, I underst-“

“No you don’t!” Hermione was finally yelling. She inhaled a deep breath to try and control herself, but it wasn’t working. “The side I fought on, the side you fought against, suffered more then you could ever imagine. Ron lost a brother, Harry lost a godfather, and I lost my parents. And that is only a fraction of what we have all lost. There is a little boy out there who goes by the name of Teddy Lupin who not only lost his father during the war, but also lost his mother. And it’s all because of you and you’re stupid Deatheaters.”

“Granger-“

“I don’t want to hear it Malfoy.” Hermione said sadly. “I don’t expect you to understand what we went though. We all lived in fear of Voldemort every day. We were always hiding, fighting, and protecting each other. It was a like a nightmare that you just couldn’t wake up from. It was awful and nothing that you have been though could ever compare to what I have been through.”

Draco was silent for a couple seconds, watching Hermione as she walked with her head down low. He sighed and then shook his head, looking up at the stars now. “It’s like I said earlier. Nobody understands.”

Hermione raised her head and looked over at Draco. “What are you talking about?”

Draco stopped walking and turned to Hermione, causing her to do the same. “Everybody is always so busy worrying about the side that Potter fought on, about the side that won, that they don’t even give a rat’s ass to look and see what might have happened to the other side.” Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but Draco kept going. He had months and months of frustration built up inside of him when it came to the war and now that he had the perfect opportunity to vent it, he wasn’t going to continue to keep it bottled up. “I get it, I really do. I get the fact that you had to run in fear that he would be there when you turned you back, a wand pointing at your throat and an unforgivable curse about to be said. You feared every day that he would find you and kill you.”

Hermione just watched Draco as he continued to talk. “But you just don’t seem to understand that we had just as much or even more to fear then you all did.” He paused, running a hand through his hair as he turned and folded his arms across his chest, thinking carefully before he spoke. “I never wanted it, Granger. I never wanted to be the person I became. It all sounded so great to me a couple years ago. Getting a job from Voldemort, a job that if I succeeded in doing, would make me Voldemort’s right hand man. It sounded great.” He smiled slightly at the memory, but it quickly faded. “But then I actually had to do it, and in doing it, I realized that that wasn’t who I was. I wasn’t a murderer and I couldn’t kill Dumbledore. I couldn’t kill anybody.”

He turned suddenly and looked at Hermione, and for the first time, Hermione saw sadness in his eyes that she had never seen before. “But after that night in the Astronomy tower, I had to do just what I feared. I had to kill, and if I didn’t… he would kill me.” He licked his lips and lowered his head to the ground, shaking it. “You might have feared him having to find you, but at least you had that much of an escape. He already knew where we were, and if he wanted to, he could kill us without a second thought. You couldn’t possibly begin to understand what it’s like to fear him when he’s standing next you every minute of every hour of every day. You couldn’t possibly begin to understand what it’s like to be on his side and still fear him.”

“Malfoy….”

“Just forget it.” Draco snapped lightly, turning and quickly walking away from Hermione.

Hermione bit her lips together and watched as he walked down the street with his head hanging down low. She sighed before making up her mind and chasing after him. When she was behind him, she reached her hand out and grabbed his tightly in hers. He quickly stopped walking and turned to look at Hermione. She smiled kindly at him and he just looked back at her.

They both stared into each other’s eyes for a couple minutes until Hermione felt Draco tighten his grip on her hand and she smiled contently as he smiled back at her.

Something had happened between them at that very moment, and it was something that hadn’t happened yet since the war was over. Two enemies, people who hated each other for years on end, had shared stories and their feelings towards the war. The only thing was, in the end… they both had a complete and total understanding for what the other person felt.

And for the first time in their lives, Draco and Hermione could stand next to each other without throwing a curse in the other ones direction.

For the first time in their lives, Draco and Hermione… were finally friends.