When Draco Met Hermione

Chapter 12: You Made a Girl 'Meow'?

The next day, Hermione and Draco were lugging a huge Persian rug up to Hermione's apartment. They made it up the front steps and into her place with only two stops. Not to say that Draco was pleased about this. He was sweating. It was irritating him beyond belief, but he had promised to help Hermione out. They made it in and promptly fell to the floor. Hermione rolled over and got up, walked to the kitchen and grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge.

She tossed one over to Draco and they both propped up against the rolled up rug and took long sips of the cold water before either one spoke.

"Last night was the most uncomfortable night of my life. Allanna was dreadful company. And I have you to thank for making me call her and spend the evening with her." Draco drank his water and wiped the sweat from his brow.

"It couldn't have been that bad, you baby. I remember plenty of bad dates that always turned out much better than I thought they would!" Hermione got up and began to circle her living room, mentally planning where to put the rug.

Draco got up and followed her around. "How do you know it won't get worse? I mean, this was horrid! It started out fine, I mean, she's a very nice person, and we're sitting and we're talking at this Ethiopian restaurant that she wanted to go to. And I was making jokes, you know, like 'Hey! I didn't know they had food in Ethiopia? This will be a quick meal. Waiter! I'll have two empty plates please!' "

Hermione laughed while she had been taking a sip of water. She managed to spit out some water and have it dribble down her chin. Draco thought the sight was wonderful. She looked embarrassed and happy at the same time. They both made it to the huge, overstuffed pillows that Hermione had all over the living room. They sat down Indian style facing each other, and Draco continued his story.

"See! You dribble water down your chin you're laughing so hard! Do you know what I got out of Allanna? Nothing! Not even a smile. So I decided to down shift to small talk, which you know I am just plain awful at, so I asked her some other questions about herself like where she went to school and she said 'Michigan State.' And then this awful wave of realization just washed over me." Draco made a gesture of a wave and proceeded to fall and roll around on the ground. Hermione watched his display and didn't know whether to laugh out loud or call a healer. She decided to just watch and observe. After his 'demonstration,' Draco got back up on his pillow. "I was suddenly reminded to Helen. All of a sudden I'm in the middle of this mess of an anxiety attack, my heart beating like a wild man and I start sweating!"

Hermione scrunched up her nose in confusion, "Helen attended Michigan State University?"

Draco shook his head and pulled out his wand. He summoned another bottle of water, a bag of potato chips and some chocolate frogs Hermione hid in her cupboards. "No, she went to another muggle university, Northwestern, but according to the muggle magazines, they are both what are considered 'Big Ten' schools. I'm guessing that's a good thing?" Hermione just shrugged, waiting to hear the rest of the story. "Well, anyways, that's how I made the connection, the big ten school deal, and I got so upset I literally apparated out of the place," said Draco who noticed the shocked look on Hermione's face. She knew Allanna was a muggle and she was always chastising Draco to be more cautious about magic. "No, I didn't apparate, so wipe that scolding look off your face. I just ran out of there really fast. How was your date?"

"Equally dreadful."

"Do I get details?" Draco lay down on the ground. Hermione followed suit and lay down so that the tops of their heads were touching,

"Nope. But trust me; I don't think I'm quite back into the swing of things yet. You know what Draco? I think it might be months before we're actually able to enjoy going out with someone new."

A sigh escaped from Draco's lips, "Yeah."

"And it may be longer, you know, before we're actually able to go to bed with someone new......"

Draco got up, "Speak for yourself, woman. I have no trouble getting myself to bed with another warm body..."

Hermione shot up as well and turned to glare at Draco, "What I meant by 'bed' is to go to bed with someone who you want to keep waking up next to, not some shag of the week!" Hermione got up and looked him in the eye as if she was searching for something. She obviously found it. "Ah-ha! You went to bed with Allanna didn't you? Despite the fact that you most likely acted like a complete prat and ran out on her, you went back and managed to bed her didn't you?"

"I sure did," said Draco, not noticing the anger in Hermione's eyes. She got up and began to survey the area for the rug. "Well, Malfoy, I think we can start putting this bloody rug down and you can back in bed with Allanna."

"Oh, no worries Hermione, I believe she's already left my bed, so I can spend the rest of the morning tinkering with the rug."

"Oh," was all Hermione said as she untied the ropes that held the rug together.

~*~

Draco left Hermione's a little confused as to why Hermione was so quiet the rest of the morning. She barely spoke to him and worked as fast as she could, as if she was trying to get rid of him. 'Nah,' thought Draco, 'She's probably just tuckered out from her awful date last night and lugging that blasted rug for ten blocks.' He opened the door to his apartment to find Blaise sitting in his den flipping through the Daily Prophet.

"Any good news in there?" Blaise looked up and gave Draco a smile. "Not much Malfoy, you know the usual, you mum and dad are still on 'vacation' in Monte Carlo....pretty nice to take a ten year vacation....."

Draco went into the kitchen and grabbed two bottles of butterbeer. He brought one to Blaise and sat down across from his best friend. "What do you say we got to the batting cages and pretend we're hitting bludgers?" Draco had a nostalgic look in his eyes as he remembered his quidditch days.

Blaise smiled and nodded. Sometimes he wished he was back in the wizarding world too.

~*~

Draco and Blaise managed to get to the batting cages a little after noon that day. Draco was up at bat and hitting the balls with all his might.

Blaise was leaning against the fence watching his friend at bat and looking at the daily prophet, which he had brought with him. He noticed a small article about Hermione and the new magazine she would be running in New York. "Draco, mate, you know, I don't understand this 'relationship' you have with this Granger girl."

Draco leaned forward and hit the ball that was hurled towards him by the machine with such force he managed to get it to shoot out of the cage.....again. The owner was not a big fan of Blaise and Draco, but they always paid for the damages. "What do you mean Zabini?"

"Do you enjoy being with her?"

Another ball crashed through the netting and set off to disappear. Draco reckoned it was all the repressed magic he had since he wasn't using magic as much these days. "Yah."

Blaise continued to read the article about her education and her venturing out to attend the muggle university where she and Draco had met. He looked at the picture in the paper. 'Well, she's not completely unfortunate....never was into brunettes....what am I saying! She's bloody gorgeous. Malfoy needs to see a psych-witch......how can he not have slept with her yet?' "Oi, Malfoy, do you find this girl attractive?" A muffled 'yeah' was heard from Draco's direction. Blaise shook his head, "And you're not sleeping with her?" Another mumbled sound came from Draco that sounded like a 'no.'

Draco put down his bat and took his protective helmet off. He handed the bat to Blaise who put on his own helmet and took his place at bat. "You know Draco, you are just afraid to let yourself be happy."

Draco turned red and started wishing that he had his own bat.......and Blaise's head hurling towards him so he could hit it with all his might. 'What the hell is Blaise ranting on about? And where does he come off asking me if I'm sleeping with her and i'm afraid to be happy? Because I'm not sleeping with her? Because I managed to make a friend who happens to be a woman I have never been involved with sexually? Bloody nosy bastard......I hope his helmet falls into his eyes and a baseball just clocks him right in the.....' "Why can't you give me credit for this?" Draco's voice could be heard at the other cages, seeing as he was shouting at the top of his lungs.

Blaise was startled and turned to face Draco just as a baseball came flying out of the machine and hit him right where Draco wanted him to be hit. Blaise fell over, his hands over his crotch, moaning in pain. Draco walked over to him and stood over Blaise who was rolling around the cage. "This is a bloody big thing for me. I have never had a relationship with a woman that didn't involve sex!" Draco took a deep breathe to calm down and helped Blaise up. "You know, I really feel like this whole experience has helped me grow as a person."

"Hey!" Draco and Blaise looked behind them and saw a boy who was about eleven glaring at the two of them. "Are you finish yet?"

Draco walked over and glared right back at the kid. "Look here, I have a whole stack of tokens in my pocket and I was here first. Does that answer your questions?"

The boy was not about to back off. "You were not."

"Was too," said Draco defensively.

"Were NOT!"

"WAS TOO!"

The boy glared at Draco and stuck his tongue out. It took all of Draco's self-control to not pull out his wand and hex the child for all eternity. "You're a BIG JERK mister." One more glare and the boy stomped off. "Blasted children, they should be kept in cages!" yelled Draco to the boy who was pointing at him and speaking to a woman who was surely his mother. "Where was I now?"

Blaise picked up his bat and got back to hitting the baseballs. "You said something about how you were growing."

"Oh, yes. It's very freeing. I can say anything to her."

Blaise stopped in mid-bat and promptly moved aside as to not get hit again. "Are you saying that you can say things to her that you can't say to me?" Blaise's eyes flashed with resentment. Draco patted him on the back. "Nah, mate, it's just....different. It's a whole new perspective. I get the woman's point of view on things. She tells me about the men she goes out with and I can talk to her about the women that I see."

The look on Blaise's face was unreadable, "You tell Granger about the women you've been with?"

Draco nodded, "Yeah, like the other night. I made love to Allanna, and it was so incredible, I believe I took her to a place that wasn't humanly possible to reach.....Blaise....she meowed."

"You made a woman meow?"

"Yeah, that's the point; I can say these things to her. Can you imagine if I ever tried to talk to Parkinson back at Hogwarts about what women meowed while having sex with me? She would have gone absolutely nutters. But Hermione is different. And the great thing is I don't have to lie because I'm not always thinking about how to get her into bed. I can just...be myself! So...Blaise? Mate? Are you alright?" Draco shook Blaise's shoulder. He had a dazed look on his face. Blaise turned to Draco,

"You made a woman meow?"