When Draco Met Hermione

Chapter 6: Hermione and the date-a-fax

Thank you for all the wonderful feedback. My apologies for the awful spelling and grammatical mistakes. Think of them as creative potholes ok? Thanks! I'm updating as fast as I can!!!!

~*~

The plane landed with barely slight 'thump!' As soon as the seatbelt lights went off, Hermione literally leaped out of her seat and grabbed her carry-on bag and fled down the aisle pushing a few passengers aside. Draco watched her and could hardly contain himself. He casually straightened out his suit and took his briefcase from the overhead compartment. He took his time getting off the plane. Once he was in the terminal, the unmistakable mass of brown hair was just a few feet from him. He quickened his pace and fell in stride with a very red-in-the-face Hermione.

"Staying over?"

Hermione looked at Draco with a face that was unreadable. He knew he had gone to small lengths to offend her in any way, but she surely looked pissed. "Yes," she hissed between her clenched teeth.

"Well then, would you like to have dinner?" Hermione looked back at Draco with a look of hate in her eyes. She turned her head and pretended to concentrate on the throng of people surrounding them heading towards the exit. "Just as friends, Granger." His words did nothing to slow Hermione's pace.

"I thought you said that men and women couldn't be friends."

Draco struggled to keep up with her pace. 'Must she walk so fast? Where is she heading to that's more fun than me? Oh...well, probably someone who doesn't insult her all too much....' "Now, Herms, when did I say that?"

Hermione slowed her pace and walked in stride with Draco. "First, don't ever, ever, call me 'Herms' again. And you said it on the ride to New York."

"No no no, I never said that." From the look Hermione flashed his way, Draco knew better than to weasel himself out. "Well, yes, you're absolutely right; I did in fact say that. Men and women absolutely cannot be friends." Hermione was pleased enough that he admitted it, "Unless," Draco paused for a bit and Hermione slowed her pace again to hear what he was about to say, "both of them are involved with other people then they can." Hermione realized what he was saying. She was with Harry, and well, Draco was engaged. But she was still not buying it, and Draco sensed it. "This is an amendment to the earlier rule, if the two people are in relationships; the pressure of possibility of involvement is lifted. Wait," Draco paused and shook his head, then jogged up to catch back up to Hermione who was looking like she was losing interest in his speech, " that doesn't work either because what happens then is that the person you're involved with can't understand why you need to be friends with the person you're just friends with. Trust me, Potter knows me, and my reputation has tainted me. Like, it means something is missing from their relationship and 'why do you have to go outside to get it?' Then when you say, 'no no no, it's not true! Nothing is missing from the relationship!', the person you're involved with then accuses you of being secretly attracted to the person you're just friends with, which we probably are, I mean, come on, who the hell are we kidding, let's face it, which brings us back to the earlier rule before the amendment which is men and women can't be friends, so where does that leave us?"

A very amused grin played on Hermione's face. Draco had just gone full circle on a completely useless tirade meant to defend himself. "Draco...."

"Yes?"

"Good bye."

Draco looked at Hermione as she stepped onto a muggle escalator and descended up. "Right! Ok!" But she was no longer in view.

~*~

Another five years go by....

Hermione, Ginny, and Lavender sat around an outdoor café that overlooked central park. The day was clear and sunny and they were in the middle of hearing about another one of Ginny's relationship problems. Hermione looked a bit older, and it was a good thing that she aged well. Lavender's hair had gone from a shiny blond mane, to a sad, dusty bob. Ginny still has her fiery red hair, but it was now cropped so close to her scalp that she resembled her brother's even more.

It had been five years since Hermione had seen or heard from Draco Malfoy since their encounter at the airport. She rarely thought about him, but whenever the subject of men and women came up, she found herself drifting to his words. Hermione was staring off down to the park where there were children with little sailboats and mothers taking in the shade of the trees. Suddenly, she was snapped out of her reverie by Ginny who was waving her hands in front of her face. When she was satisfied that Hermione was once again part of the conversation, Ginny continued to talk.

"Well, I went through his pockets in bed."

Lavender looked stunned at Ginny's revelation. "Gin, why on earth are you going through his pockets?!"

Ginny ignored Lavender and focused her attention on Hermione. "Do you know what I found?"

"What?" Lavender leaned over to hear.

Ginny sighed and clutched her heart as if it was shattering in pieces. Sniff "They just bought a dining room table! He and his wife just went out and spent sixteen hundred dollars on a dining room table!"

"Where?" Lavender asked.

Hermione and Ginny shot Lavender a look that said 'SHUT UP!"

"...sniff... it doesn't matter where Lav, the point is he's never going to leave her!"

"Oh," Lavender sat back in her chair and pulled out a compact and began to examine her teeth for any food that might have gotten stuck, "well, we've known about this for two years now Gin. Why you decided to not curse the woman is beyond me. Your dad is pretty high up with the Ministry, I'm sure they would let you off with a warning."

"Oh Lav! " Ginny blew her nose into her napkin, "You're right, you're right, I know you're right."

"You know Ginny; you could go out and find someone who is single. When I was I knew lots of nice single men. There must be someone, Hermione found Harry remember."

Ginny and Lavender both smiled at Hermione who had once again drifted from the conversation. Lavender was now married to a stockbroker who's mum was a witch, but he didn't have a lick of magic in him. He was not at all worried about Lavender being one; he was used to seeing magic, and had hopes that their children would be magical. Hermione was still dating Harry, and everyone thought it was perfect. Even the tabloids in England that still followed Harry about thought they were destined to walk down the aisle soon.

"Well, Hermione got the last good bloke in all of New York City, why, in the whole world in fact!" Ginny smiled, but it soon faded when she saw the sad look on Hermione's face.

"Harry and I broke up."

The silence was almost palpable until it was broken by shrieks of "What?" and "When?" and a joint "Why?"

"We broke up on Monday."

"Well," Lavender put her compact back in her purse, "you waited three days to tell us?"

"Does this mean Harry is available?"

Hermione and Lavender shot Ginny a look. "Oh for Merlin's sakes Gin! Don't you have any feelings about this? She's obviously upset!"

Hermione shook her head, "I'm not that upset, we've been growing apart for quite a while."

Ginny scooted her chair closer to Hermione and grabbed her hands in her, "But you two were a couple! You had someone to go places with, and you had a date on all the U.S. national holidays!"

"Oh Ginny, I know what you mean, but I said to myself 'You deserve more than this, you're thirty-one years old....'"

"And the clock is ticking, tick tock Hermione!" Ginny shook her head.

"Not really Gin, the clock doesn't really start ticking until you're thirty-six."

Lavender sat back in her chair, mouth agape, "Wow Hermi," Hermione grimaced at the awful nickname Lavender had chosen for her, "you're in such great shape about all of this."

"Well, thanks, I've had a few days to get used to it, and um...well, I guess I feel ok."

"Oh good," Ginny clapped her hands together and pulled out a small slim case, "you're ready."

Ginny pressed a small button on the side of the case and it flipped over and inside out and did all sorts of fancy things before settling down to look like a muggle cell-phone. Lavender rolled her eyes. She knew exactly what Ginny was doing. She was pulling out her date-a-fax. In the case were names and profiles of hundreds of men that Ginny had entered. It was one magical thing she used on a daily basis, aside from her wand.

"Real nice there Gin," scowled Lavender. Ginny scowled right back and stuck her tongue out. "Well, how else do you propose we do this Mrs. I'm-too-fancy-because-I'm-bloody-married? Look, Hermione, I've got the perfect guy for you. I don't find him the least bit attractive, but you might. You don't have something against cleft chins right?"

"Ginny, I don't think I'm ready." Ginny rolled her eyes, "Hermione, you just said you were over him!"

"Drats, Gin, I am over him, but I'm in a mourning period......well, nonetheless, who is it?"

"Alex Anderson, aged 32, graduate of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," Lavender slapped Ginny's thigh to remind her not to speak so loudly about the wizarding part, "oh, right, well, he is currently an apparition teacher here in NYC with offices based in Greenwich Village, not too far from Chelsea Hermione. He has never been married, likes long walks in the evenings, but has an awfully big chin."

Hermione looked at Ginny with a bit of disgust, "Gin, you fixed me up with that man six years ago!"

"Oh, well, sorry about that one then," Ginny began to swirl her fingers on the screen of the date-a-fax. "Alright, here we go, Ken Darmen!"

"Gin," stated Hermione in an exasperated voice, "he's been married for over a year."

"Really?" Ginny continued to swirl through the names in her little gadget. Hermione sighed and leaned back on her chair. 'When did this get so complicated?' she thought. She was happy with Harry, well, at least she thought she was, and then one day, they were completely different that what they had thought each other to be.

"Herms!" Hermione cringed. She hated all the nicknames that everyone made up for her. "I got one!" Ginny shoved the screen of the date-a-fax in her face.

As politely as she could, Hermione took the silver case and placed it on the table. She looked at her two best friends and the eager and helpful faces they had on. She knew that they were only looking out for her well-being, but they weren't doing that great of a job. "Look, there is no point in my going out with someone I might really like if I met him at the right time, but who right now has no chance of being anything to me but a transitional man."

Ginny patted Hermione's hand gently, and put the date-a-fax back in her clutch. "Ok dear, but don't wait too long. Remember what happened to Colin Creevey that bloke Lav and I knew from Hogwarts? His wife left him, surely because of that picture obsession he had, and everyone said 'give him time, don't move in too fast.' Six months later, he was dead."

"What are you saying Gin?" Lavender and Ginny noted some panic in Hermione's voice. "Are you saying I should get married to someone right away in case he's about to die?"

Lavender looked at her wedding band wistfully, and then at Hermione, "Well, at least you could say you were married."

"Herms, darling, what Lavender and I are trying to say is that the right man for you might be out there right now, and if you don't grab him someone else will and you'll have spent the rest of your life knowing that someone else is married to your husband."

Hermione looked at her plate, then at her friends, and did nothing more than stare off at the children playing at the park.