Eccentricities

When she turned twenty-one, Hermione Granger learned something about herself that she never knew before, she had a special power. A power that no one else had, one that set her apart from others. She could find and design the perfect outfit for everyone. It seems silly, but it was actually quite beneficial, especially for that special occasion like a ball, or wedding, or even a first date. All she had to do was spend the day with them, studying them, reading them and noticing all their little eccentricities. After that she would go home and would design the perfect outfit: the outfit that everyone searched for their entire lives, both women and men, although most men won’t admit it.

One day, her world was changed with the simple tinkling of a bell. She was at her shop working behind the counter on a few last minute touchups for her latest project, Lavender Brown, soon to be Weasley, whose perfect outfit, ironically enough, was a wedding dress. The bell on her door tinkled and when she looked up, she met the steely silver eyes of her one-time enemy. After the war, a sort of acceptance fell between the Golden Trio and Draco Malfoy. They tolerated each other and were accepting, but they would never be the best of friends, especially Ron and Draco.

“Granger,” he acknowledged as he walked in letting the door fall closed behind him, “I hear that you are the best designer there is. So naturally, I came to you. I need an outfit for the Ministry Halloween Ball next month. Can you help me?”

“Well, Malfoy, can you afford my services, they are rather pricey?” she asked smirking as she teased him mercilessly.

“Hardy har, Granger, you know perfectly well I can afford anything I want. Now will you help me or not?”

“Yes, Malfoy, I will. Can’t you take a little teasing?” she laughed at him. “Okay. Do you know what this entails, because before you agree you might want to find out what I have to do to figure out your perfect outfit? It might be something horrifyingly degrading, or worse embarrassing.” She placed her hands on her hips and stared at him, awaiting his answer.

“Well, what do you do Granger?” She was clearly pulling teeth to get this response from him, but she laughed anyway.

“To design a person’s perfect outfit, I have to spend the day with them, observing their character, personality, actions and eccentricities.” She smiled, knowing that last word would get his goat, and he didn’t disappoint.

“Eccentricities! I have no eccentricities I will have you know. I am a Malfoy; everything about me is perfect and normal. Well, not everything.” He said, as he waggled his eyebrows at her in what he thought was supposed to be a sexy fashion, but just made him look like Groucho Marx.

She chuckled and continued to explain to him what was needed from him as the client, and what they would be accomplishing through the day, and finally the process of designing the outfit. As they were leaving the shop, he helped her into her coat and then held the door open for her. She was pleasantly surprised, thinking the day may not be as bad as she originally thought.

“So where to first?” He asked as he rubbed his hands together to keep them warm.

“I think first we shall go to the cinema. There’s a new film out that I have been waiting to see for a while. Take my arm and I’ll apparate us there.” She said as she watched him to see his reaction. This was where the test began, although he had already surprised her with his display of chivalry back in her shop. He took her arm a bit reluctantly.

“I’m not used to being the one apparated,” he muttered under his breath, “Normally I’m the one doing the apparating.” She chuckled at his antics; he obviously thought she couldn’t hear him.

When they arrived at the movie, she pulled out her wallet to pay and he snatched it away from her and told her to put it away. He paid for their tickets and they went into the movie. They sat right in the middle of the middle row of the theatre, “the perfect seats,” they both said at the same time. Leading them into a fit of laughter.

“So I’m surprised you didn’t complain about coming into Muggle London.” She stated nonchalantly. Trying to surmise how he stood on the age-old issue. The feelings she was getting off of him were normal ones, nervousness, a bit of embarrassment, and a tiny bit of unease, but nothing blaring like pure hatred or anger.

“I….well, I wouldn’t say I wasn’t into that, because that would be a lie. However, I was into it because my family was in it. So I did what they did, which looking back was kind of stupid, but hey, I was a kid. It’s not right to put that kind of pressure on a child. I never really had any animosity towards Muggles or Muggleborns. I mean I’ve read enough history to see Human error in racism and prejudice.”

“But you always called me Mudblood. That honestly meant nothing to you?” She asked completely baffled by the man sitting next to her.

“Mainly I did it because I knew it would hurt your feelings, I have a gift, not quite like yours, where I can pick out a persons weakness. And I could tell that yours was your inability to fit in, or at least you thought you didn’t fit in. So I played on that. It just happened to be that word that I chose to pick on you with. Really I could have called you bucktooth, frizz head, loser, bookworm, but none of them had the same depth of emotion behind them as Mudblood.” He said with a shrug. She just looked at him completely gobsmacked. That logic was just completely and utterly, understandable, in a sick and twisted way, she thought. The lights dimmed and the movie started.

When the film was finished, they stood to leave and Draco was asking her tons of questions.

“But I don’t get it. What’s so special about this Bella chick, maybe I’m just biased against the name? And I also don’t get the greatness of this Edward Cullen. I mean, what does he have that I don’t?” he asked as he puffed out his chest and fell down the stairs in the theatre. Hermione burst out laughing as he fell to the bottom of the stairs; thankfully they only had a few more steps to go.

“Are you okay?” she gasped as she tried to calm her breathing from laughing so hard. “By the way that’s part of the answer to your question.” He looked at her funny. “What Edward has that you don’t? Obviously grace! Plus, the beauty of the characters is that they are just so perfect and yet imperfect, and it is difficult to put that on the screen. If you want to get the full impact of them, you have to read the books.” She said as she finally reached him and stuck her hand out to help him up.

They left the theatre around lunchtime, “Want to go grab a bite?” she asked as they started to walk down the street. They found a quaint restaurant and were seated immediately. While they were waiting for their food, she continued to watch him for any abnormalities. So far he seemed pretty simple and she couldn’t really picture anything for him yet. But she still had time, so there was nothing to worry about.

“So what are you doing now, besides party hopping at ministry functions?”

“I happen to have been invited thank you very much.”

“Oh ho, sorry, grouchy pants.”

“I donate money to the ministry….”

“Of course you do.”

“’s department, I forget the actual name of it, but basically it pays for Hogwarts students that can’t afford to pay for the books, robes and other items. But what I actually do as my job is I am the Captain of Puddlemere United, and on the side I teach children how to play Quidditch.”

“I’m sorry, you want to repeat that?” she stuttered. This couldn’t possibly be Draco Malfoy could it? Not the same boy who had teased her and humiliated her for all those years.

“Do I really need to or are you just saying that so you can process the information?” he asked, chuckling at her shocked expression.

“No, I’m good.” She said as she lay her head down on the table to look at the wood. But her head wasn’t down for more than five seconds before her shoulder was tapped and a plate of food was set in front of her.

“Why are you so shocked? Surely you must have realized that I changed, if not a lot, at least a little?’ She opened her mouth to retort, but he beat her to it, “and don’t make the Airplane! Joke, it’s old and I’ve heard it way too many times.” She closed her mouth and looked back down at her food.

“I guess it just surprised me. I knew you changed but I continued to picture you changing in the universe of the teenager you, and not this man that you have so clearly become.”

“I guess I can deal with that. So let me ask you a question. Is it easier or harder to design an outfit for someone you know or even deeply care about? Like, is your vision clouded because you know them, or does it make it a faster process because you do know them so well?”

“It’s a little bit of both, if that makes sense. I do know them really well, so it makes it faster, but at the same time, I am seeing the true them, their essence, so I learn things I didn’t know before.”

“What about boyfriends? How does that work?”

“Well, I don’t know for sure. I’ve never done it with a boyfriend.” She said a blush began to creep up on her cheeks, “but,” she began as she leaned closer to him, whispering conspiratorially, “legend says that if one of us designs for our soul mate, they won’t have an outfit. The drawing will essentially be blank, or naked however, you want to put it.” She finished as she shrugged.

“That’s kinda cool though because that means you could actually know who your soul mate is, if you design for them that is.”

“Yeah, I guess so, but that takes all the fun out of dating in a way, that’s why I’ve never designed for a boyfriend, I don’t want to look down at my design and see clothes. I don’t mean that in the dirty way it sounds of course.”

“Why, Hermione Granger, your mind is in the gutter.” He smirked at her from across the table. When they finished, they got the bill and this time Hermione was able to steal it away from him and pay for them both.

“Where to now, oh wise designer?” he asked as he bowed, holding the door open, making a complete spectacle of himself to the patrons of the restaurant and the people walking by on the street. She laughed as she walked by.

“I think we will go to my favorite place in the city,” she stated simply, giving no detail or explanation.

“And that would be where?” he asked, waving his arms for annunciation.

“You’ll have to wait and see. After all, patience is a virtue.”

“Don’t be quoting The Mummy to me.” He stated. She looked at him, once again shocked at this person who, she was slowly realizing, she didn’t know at all. They continued to walk, with Draco only whining once about not apparating to their destination. We are almost there, she said as they passed a pond with a water fountain in the middle of it.

“Please don’t tell me you brought us to…oh you did.” He said as they turned a corner and they were met with one of the many famous landmarks in London, the statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, standing in the distance. “Why? That’s all I ask, why?” he said as he plopped down onto a bench close to the statue, looking for all the world like a petulant child who didn’t get a lolli before supper.

“This is my favorite place in the city. Have you ever read Peter Pan? I think you might find a kindred spirit in him. I personally think he’s a bit of a little punk, but hey, that’s my opinion. The book is amazing though. I have just always had a fondness for this spot. My mum would bring me here when I was little, this place has a lot of happy memories.” She smiled wistfully at him. Reading him for any feelings of nostalgia or happiness at the mention of family. She was learning quite a few things about Draco Malfoy today. Another one was just how much he loved his family. The day continued on in this fashion, her showing him things about herself, and reading things from him. A picture was starting to form in her mind, but the design was very fuzzy, nothing definite yet. As they were walking back to her shop, she started to shiver, he removed his jacket and placed it on her shoulders to keep her warm, after all, he didn’t really need it that badly.

When they arrived at the shop, she told him that she should have the design by tomorrow, and that the actual piece would probably take about a week, if not less depending on the intricacies of the piece. She bid him good day and went up to her flat above the shop and began working on the design for his outfit. She drew the general outline of his figure and then just stared at the page, contemplating what to do next.

Several hours later, she was still staring at the page, wondering how this could be. It just didn’t make sense. There was a knock on her door. She went down the stairs to open and she found Draco standing there. She invited him in.

“I realized I forgot my coat,” he chattered.

“And you had to come get it at,” she glanced at her watch, “11:30 at night?”

“Well, okay so I…is the design finished?” he asked as he glanced around the relatively neat flat, noticing the sheet of paper on the table.

“Yes, it is actually,” she stated as a blush once again claimed her cheeks. He moved around her and her eyes followed him as he made his way across the room towards the table, picking up the sheet and staring at it, just as she had for the past couple of hours. She muttered a meek no, but it fell on deaf ears as he stared at the page.

“Is this real?” he asked as he looked at her making eye contact for the first time since he entered her flat. She nodded her head.

“I knew something was up, it just felt different, but I couldn’t pinpoint what exactly it was. Well, I guess this explains a lot.”

“How can you take this so calmly? I have been staring at that thing for the past few hours and it still hasn’t fully soaked in,” she practically yelled at him. He started to move toward her, across the room.

“Well, I guess today just made me realize that I was wrong all those years. And when I realized that I came over here and found this.” He said as he walked up to her grasping the page. “But it doesn’t even matter what this page says, because I realized that there is something here,” he said as he motioned his arm between the two of them, “and that is all that matters.” And as he said this, he dropped the page and cupped her face dropping his lips to hers, kissing her gently and reverently. As the kiss continued, it started to heat up, tongues dancing, hands roving. He pulled her to him, encasing her completely in his arms. He stopped kissing her to catch a breath and rested his head on top of hers, simply holding her. Hermione flicked her wrist and a song started to play, filling the room with its soothing and yet upbeat melody. Their bodies began to dance together, simply feeling each other and living in the happiness that they felt at that moment.

“So I’ll be holdin’ my breath Right up to the end Until that moment when I find the one that I'll spend forever with `Cause nobody wants to be the last one there. 'Cause everyone wants to feel like someone cares. Someone to love with my life in their hands. There’s gotta be somebody for me like that.” He sang the lyrics quietly in her ear, and she smiled at the fact that he knew the lyrics to one of her all time favorite songs. As the song finished she looked up at him, and smiled sweetly, taking his hand and pulling him towards another room. As they entered, he realized it was her bedroom.

“Hermione, we don’t have to do anything, I’m completely fine just hanging out, talking, maybe a little kissing.”

“I want to.” She said as she lifts her shirt over her head revealing her green lace bra. He smirked at her lingerie choice.

“Allow me to assist you my lady.” He said as he swaggered forward and dropped to his knees in front of her, unbuckling the belt holding up her jeans, unbuttoning them, and lowering the zipper. She stepped out of the jeans and stood before him in only her underthings.

“Cor, you are beautiful. How did I never see it before?” he asked himself.

“Because you were a selfish prat and an asshole, and,” she tapped her chin thinking of another word to describe him, “I’m sure there’s more, but I can’t think of them right now.” He chuckled at her teasing nature.

“Well, how about we forget about how stupid I was and focus on how smart I am right now, being with you right here.” He said as he picked her up and carried her to the bed, setting her down gently, then undressing himself down to his boxers and lowering his body onto hers. He started kissing her face, then her neck, suckling on her collarbone, causing a delightful little moan to escape from her mouth. Her bra strap was getting in his way so he moved it down, unsnapping it and removing the offending garment completely. He reached out and cupped her breasts in her hands rolling his thumbs over her nipples. Lowering his head he took one into his mouth and applied just the right amount of pressure, causing her to cry out with pleasure. His hand delved down into her knickers, finding that pleasure spot and rubbing it. She started to move with his hand, causing more friction and increasing the pleasure. He couldn’t take any more. He removed the knickers and his boxers, laying back on top of her, pushing her legs apart and placing himself at her entrance. She looked down and laughed. A hurt expression crossed his face and she immediately felt guilty explaining her outburst.

“I was remembering your earlier comment about being almost perfect and normal, you were definitely right about the almost normal part, your cock is assuredly larger than normal.” She said watching as his eyes darkened with desire and all of a sudden he pushed forward into her, causing her to let out a gasp of pleasure. He fit perfectly; there was no other way to describe it. As they began moving, their bodies became one as they performed one of the oldest rituals of human kind. He moved his hand down to her center and began to rub, hoping to bring her over the edge at the same time as him. As he got closer and closer, he could feel her start to pulse around him, and all of a sudden with a shout of his name she came, gushing over him, sending him into a spiraling orgasm of his own.

Afterwards they lay in each other’s arms, cuddled under her covers, discussing everything that had happened during the eventful day. While out in the main room, Crookshanks the second walked up to the piece of paper laying on the floor, and stared at the naked man on it and then peed all over it, after all, she’d learned to go on paper or in a litter box.

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The lyrics are from Gotta Be Somebody By Nickelback.

Yeah, so that's it. Please review and let me know what you think.