Hermione woke early in the morning. She hadn’t slept well due to her uncomfortable position against the door. When she stood, it felt like all of the bones in her legs and back popped and cracked under the stress. She quickly stretched out the kinks and raced up to her apartment, praying that Harry and Ginny were still asleep.
When the door swung open soundlessly, she was greeted with a dark room; they hadn’t stirred yet. Hermione decided to jump in the shower and wash off all of the feelings from the night before as well as the tracks left on her face from the relentless tears. She focused on scrubbing her hair and skin to keep from thinking about Draco.
By the time she emerged from the bathroom in jeans and a sweater, her visitors were just waking up. They were quietly whispering in their transfigured bed (that used to be the couch) and planted soft kisses on each other. Hermione would have found this endearing but the thought of last night just made her want to vomit.
“Morning, ‘Mione!” Ginny greeted, her red hair was sticking up almost as bad as Harry’s. “What happened last night? We waited for you to come back up but decided to just go to sleep.”
“Oh, well,” Hermione paused, frantically wracking her brain for a solution. She definitely couldn’t mention Malfoy, Harry would probably explode. “One of our workers left his wallet and I helped him look for it. It took a while to find.”
She turned towards the kitchen so they couldn’t read her face as she prayed for their acceptance. Hermione always hating lying to her friends. As she started breakfast cooking, she tried to think of an excuse to get out of spending time with them this afternoon. She felt like this sneaking around was becoming a pattern with Malfoy and she wasn’t all too comfortable with it.
“So about today,” Hermione started, still trying to think of a good excuse: work, errands, pretending to be sick all raced through her mind.
“Yeah, about that,” Harry interrupted. “We figured you probably have to get back to work, huh? I mean we’ve kept you for a few days now, I’m sure your bosses are irritated with us.”
What perfect timing! Hermione thought as she filled each plate with eggs and bagels. Harry had a perfect excuse for her.
“After all, we did show up uninvited and you probably had plans that we ruined.” Ginny seemed sympathetic. If only she knew my deceit.
“We’ll let you get back to work today,” Harry said as he filled his mouth with eggs. “We have plans to go to the Louvre anyways. I’m sure you’ve seen it about a hundred times already.” He tried to grin but his eggs just spilled out of his mouth causing Ginny to laugh hysterically.
“Please, Harry. It’s too early to make me lose my lunch!”
Hermione couldn’t help but laugh along with her friends. It was so good to see them. She really loved that they surprised her. It gave her hope that she could happy again. Already, her stay in France had changed her. And not just into someone who sneaks around her friends. But she became more independent.
She always felt headstrong when she was younger, but at Hogwarts it was always so easy to get caught up in being a part of the “Golden Trio” that sometimes she felt a little lost on her own. And then after school, during the war, she was a part of the Order of the Phoenix. More importantly, she became part of a couple, Hermione and Ron. She rarely did anything without him.
Now as the weather changed into fall, Hermione realized she hadn’t remembered to return to Hogwarts to teach again. How strange, she thought. I never gave it a thought. I’ve become so involved in my work here and with the mystery of Malfoy, I never even wrote to Professor McGonagall. Things have changed.
Ginny offered to do the dishes and with a swish of her wand they started clinking in the sink. Harry pulled out a map and spread it out on the counter. Hermione’s first thought was that it was the Marauder’s Map, detailing the passages and inhabitants of Hogwarts. But as she leaned in, she realized it was just a Muggle map of Paris.
“So Hermione, where is the Louvre located?” Harry asked after about ten minutes of scanning all the intersecting lines with their tiny labels. Apparently, he couldn’t read French.
Hermione glanced at the map and immediately placed her finger exactly where the Louvre stood. “It’s right here, by the Seine.” She looked at Harry assuming she had helped him as he nodded in agreement.
“Right,” he paused, as he looked up at her. “And where exactly, are we?”
Hermione laughed out loud. Harry was being his usual self. She left her first finger and traced a route backwards with her other hand and pointed to where the bookstore would be. “We are right here.” She left her two hands so Harry could better gain their locations, but Hermione could tell he would easily become confused.
To ease his troubles, Hermione pulled out her wand and performed a navigation spell so that the map could tell Harry if he was going in the wrong direction. She explained that all he had to do was find a destination on the map and it would guide him there (The Muggle version of this is known as a GPS).
Hermione decided it was time to go to work, and to also divert Harry and Ginny in case Malfoy was already downstairs. As she made her way down the stairs, Harry ran to catch her. “Hermione wait up.” He glanced back upstairs to make sure Ginny wasn’t within earshot.
“Umm…” Harry looked uncomfortable and started to turn slightly pink like he was embarrassed.
“What is it Harry?” Hermione was a little confused but expected some kind of confession from him. He kind of looked the way he did when he confessed he still had feelings for Ginny.
“I just wanted to tell you not to wait up for us tonight. I have something planned and I just don’t want you to wait around for us for dinner or anything.” After the hesitation, Harry ran through this admission quickly.
Hermione grinned back, she had a slight inkling of what he could be referring to but she didn’t want to steal his thunder so she played innocent. “Okay, Harry. Take all the time you need. Paris is rather beautiful and a bit magical, as well.” She gave him a wink as she continued downstairs, confident that her two friends might be changing their lives forever tonight.
After a quick check in the back, Hermione made her way to the Muggle half of the store to be on the lookout for Malfoy. She didn’t see anybody except a customer in the back corner with dark brown hair. She was relieved because not a minute later Harry and Ginny came through the store and wished her a good-bye.
The store seemed absolutely empty and Hermione checked to see if perhaps Malfoy was coming down the street. A quick check confirmed that he was no where in sight. She made her way to the back of the store. She figured she might as well help the only customer since it seemed Malfoy might not show up at all.
“Excuse me, sir. Can I help you find anything?”
“Well, Granger. Decided to come back to work did we?” Hermione was shocked as the face and voice that greeted her belonged to none other than Malfoy. She gave him a brief survey as she took in his brown hair and slightly tanned complexion. It definitely didn’t look like him. Except for the steel grey eyes and slightly pointed features of his face.
“Decided to use last names again?” Hermione met his mocking eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest. But at Hermione’s words, Draco looked a little uncomfortable.
“About last night,” he started, but when he was unable to continue Hermione interrupted.
“Good job with the hair. I didn’t recognize you so I’m sure my friends didn’t either.”
“Yeah, well, Potty was never the sharpest bowtruckle in the bunch now was he?” Hermione narrowed her eyes at him; she still didn’t appreciate his insulting her friends. But Draco just ignored the look and smirked back. “So are we on for lunch?”
He tried to be as nonchalant as he could but Hermione could feel the unease from him. Neither of them was really looking forward to another confrontation and Hermione wasn’t entirely sure he remembered last night’s events. He did seem awfully smashed during his visit.
“Yeah, Harry and Ginny will be gone all day. But we should probably stay away from any paths towards the Louvre.” Hermione didn’t like keeping things from them, but she just couldn’t let them find out without her telling them exactly what was going on. She knew they’d be hurt much worse that way.
“How original,” Draco tried to mutter under his breath but Hermione still heard. “I know the perfect place. It’s out of the way and always crowded, but I’m in good with the owner so I can get us a spot in back where we won’t be disturbed.”
Hermione had a fleeting thought that she was walking into a trap but she immediately felt silly. Draco didn’t have a wand and she did; besides, she had punched him before hadn’t she?
“Fine just let me know when you’re ready.” And with that, she turned on her heel and made a beeline for the stock room where she could work on inventory and not be disturbed, but she was also within shouting distance when Malfoy was ready to go.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right around noon Draco’s voice echoed through the stock room to where Hermione was busy counting inventory. At first she thought about just pretending she couldn’t hear him but after she realized she had counted the same books twice, she decided to just quit.
The pair left the shop together with Draco slightly in the lead. His long legs stretched out so Hermione had to almost jog to keep up. “So where exactly are you taking me?” Hermione wondered as they ventured farther into a neighborhood she’d never been to.
“Relax, Granger,” Draco glanced back and smirked when he saw her rapid movements to keep up. “I’d tell you to trust me, but given our past, I don’t expect it.”
Hermione snorted at the thought, “That’s a bit of an understatement.” Although once she started to think about it, she did almost trust him. She trusted that he was telling the truth about the past five years and that this wasn’t some big set-up. In fact, the thought hadn’t even crossed her mind until just now. “Huh.”
“What’s that?” Draco asked. He slowed down to keep pace with Hermione.
“What? Oh, nothing.” Hermione didn’t realize she had spoken out loud and quickly averted her eyes. She definitely didn’t want to bring up the fact that she had unwittingly trusted him all this time.
“Still a nutter then? Always talking to yourself and muttering under your breath.” Draco started chuckling, but it was more genuine than when he made fun of Harry. It was more like friendly banter than cruel jokes, which seemed to shock the both of them into silence until they reached their destination.
The dilapidated front and the falling sign, which read “The Laughing Llama,” didn’t do much to ease Hermione’s mind as they entered the dimly lit restaurant. Although the room was dark, it was crammed full of people in business suits and tourists. Hermione tried to not let the shock show on her face as the host lead them to the back to a partially secluded table.
“Will this do Mr. Westerfield?” the waiter asked in an American accent.
“This will definitely work. Thank you, Zach.” Draco took his seat and motioned for Hermione to sit as well as he started to peruse the menu already laid down.
Hermione looked at her own menu and realized this was definitely not French food. There were cheeseburgers, steak sandwiches, fried chicken, and something called okra. She could order fries, which she knew as chips. Or order chips, which she knew as crisps. “What is this place?” Hermione asked baffled.
Draco chuckled as he put down his menu. “It’s owned by a couple of American blokes. A couple of cowboys, hell-bent on making the French population fat.”
The waiter returned to take their order; Hermione order fried chicken and Draco ordered a cheeseburger.
“I’ll tell you one thing,” Draco started, “those Americans can sure cook. Even if they are just a couple of Muggles.”
After the waiter left, there was a bit of an awkward silence. Hermione was busy staring around the restaurant. They had the strangest decorations; she could’ve sworn there was a stuffed armadillo on the wall wearing a bandana and a straw hat.
Draco was busy watching Hermione. After a while, he decided to interrupt her inventory of the place. “So when are we going to talk about the other night?”
Second Chance by WebSpinner
Chapter Endnotes: I know, I know, I know! It's been nearly two whole years since I've updated this. And if you're still here reading it then thank you so much for your dedication. And if you're new to this story then welcome!
There's not really an excuse except life and writer's block got in the way. I sort of lost track of where I was headed but now that I'm back, the story is flowing nicely I think.
So please review and let me know what you think.