When Draco Met Hermione

Chapter 16: Double Date

Winter was almost over. Draco and Hermione saw very little of each other after the New Year's Eve party, partly due to work, but mostly because they felt a bit uneasy around each other after that evening.

It was the end of February, a good month since Hermione had seen Draco. At the moment, she and Ginny were walking towards a restaurant where they were meeting Draco and Blaise. They decided that they were having terrible luck with finding significant others, so they decided to set each other up with the other person's best friend (of the same sex).

"Blast this cold! I don't believe it was ever this bitter back in England! I mean, I am walking around with a warming charm and I still feel the chill!" Ginny stepped off the curb, a frozen Hermione at her heels. "Oh, and by the way, I sent flowers to myself the other day."

Hermione, out of breath, had finally caught up with her friend. "Were you feeling a bit down? Sending flowers to yourself seems perfectly fine; you sound a bit off about it."

"No, I sent it so that that stupid prat, that waste of my time, Mr. Stupid would see them in the front hall and ask questions." Ginny sniffed, and Hermione saw the angry and disappointed look on Ginny's face.

"So you sent yourself these flowers to get under Mr. Stupid's skin?"

"Sixty dollars I spent! I meant, I could have transfigured the bloody toilet into a bouquet, but I really thought that if I was genuinely muggle and authentic about it, the whole idea would have better karma! I spent sixty bloody dollars on this big stupid arrangement of flowers and I wrote a card that I planned to leave out on the front table so Mr. Stupid would come in and see it."

"Can I ask what the card said?" Hermione stopped walking to hear the story. Ginny leaned against a light post and sighed. "It said 'Please say yes. Love, Jhonathan.'"

"Well," asked Hermione as she grabbed onto Ginny's arm and led her towards the restaurant, "did it work?"

A small sob escaped from Ginny's mouth, "He never even came over! He forgot he had some bloody charity thing that his cow of a wife was a chairwoman of. He's never going to leave her!"

"Well Ginny, of course he isn't. I believe Lavender and I have told you this many times."

"You're right, you're right. I know you're right! Ugh. Anyways, where is this place?"

Hermione looked around, "I believe it's somewhere on the next block."

"Ugh....I can't believe I'm doing this! This is Draco Malfoy! You know how Ron feels about him! Merlin, he is drop-dead yummy, but Herms! He was in Slytherin....although that whole 'bad-boy' thing is pretty alluring..."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "First of all, he is not a 'bad-boy.' He works very hard and is very successful. And he's one of my best friends, and you're one of my best friends, and if by some chance you two hit if off, then we can all still be friends instead of drifting apart the way you do when you get involved with someone who doesn't know your friends."

"That's not true! You and I have not 'drifted apart' since I started seeing Mr. Stupid."

"Alright, well, if Mr. Stupid ever left his wife, and I actually met him, i am sure that you and I would drift apart."

"He's never going to leave her Herms!"

"Well, of course he isn't," said Hermione matter-of-factly, "Have you not listened to me for the past year? The past month? Hour?"

Ginny sobbed again, "You're right, you are and I know it and i'm a fool to think that he even loved me!"

"Hush up, we're almost there."

~*~

"Draco, I don't know about this." Blaise walked slowly as if he was on his way to his own funeral. Draco was setting him up with Hermione. I mean, she was breathtaking in every sense of the word, but she was, or at least from what Draco had told him, very.....articulate and intense.....he wanted someone who was a bit flighty, carefree, someone who would run off to London on a whim and not even worry if they forgot to leave food for the cat. Hermione did not seem like an on-a-whim kind of girl, more like a full itinerary type.

"It's just dinner!"

Blaise shook his head, "You know Malfoy, and I have finally gone to a new place in my life where I am comfortable with the fact that it's just me and my work. If she's so damn great, why aren't you taking her out?"

"For the last time Zabini, we're just bloody friends!"

Blaise winced a bit, "Are you saying that she's not attractive?"

"No, I told you that she is attractive!" Draco stuffed his hands in his pockets, irritated with Blaise's attitude towards the night.

"Well, you also told me that Hermione had a great personality! When someone is not that attractive, they're always described as having a great personality."

Draco stopped walking. "Look, if you would ask me, 'What does she look like?' and I said 'She has a good personality,' that means that she's not attractive. But just because I happened to mention that she does have a good personality, she could be either. She could be attractive with a good personality, or not attractive with a good personality."

Blaise crossed his arms over his chest and began to walk again. After a few moments of silence, Blaise turned his head towards Draco, "So which one is she?"

"Attractive."

Blaise thought for a moment, "But she's not beautiful, right?"

~*~

Dinner was a quiet affair. Draco and Ginny sat across from Blaise and Hermione. Neither couple said much to each other. The silence was almost palpable. In the middle of the main course, Ginny struck up a conversation about robots with Draco was trying his hardest to appear interested in what the red-head was saying. Hermione was rearranging the food on her plate when Blaise decided to strike up a conversation as well.

"So how's the writing going?" Hermione looked up, almost startled that he was speaking to her. "Oh, well, its fine, I suppose. I'm an editor at the moment, so all I really write is a bit of snippet in my 'Editor's Corner.' But hopefully, when i'm not too busy, I'll have a go at an article. I just haven't written in so long now and I need to find an article that I am passionate about. You're a writer as well, am I right?"

Blaise nodded his head. "I am current working for the New York Stargazer."

"Oh, well, that must be fascinating, nagging celebrities an all." Hermione frowned. She literally hated the Stargazer. It was a tabloid magazine focused on the socialites of New York and the celebrities that they mingled with. Blaise frowned, thinking of a retort.

"I'll have you know that I write intriguing columns. Some are quite intellectual, far from that dribble your writers spurt out in that women's lib rag that you call Stratosphere. And what is that name? It's so bland! Who in the world knows what a stratosphere is, who cares? I sure don't. Intellectual magazine it is not! Lining for your pet cat's liter box, yes."

Draco and Ginny stopped their conversation to witness the fight that was brewing between Blaise and Hermione. Hermione's face was red, and Blaise was literally fuming. Both had their hands in their jackets, most likely on their wands. Draco knew this would be interesting, if not, at least entertaining. More so than the conversation on robots he was just having.

"Well, Blaise, I will have you know that my 'rag' is directed towards the professional witch: doctors, lawyers, and healers, professors, living and working in the muggle or wizarding world. I have over two million subscribers in America alone, not to mention how many I have overseas. And just to enlighten that mind of yours that must be so overworked from tattling on which American starlet was seen cavorting with Mr. Millionaire on Park Avenue, the meaning of stratosphere that my magazine is based on is 'an extremely high or the highest point or degree on a ranked scale.' That is what my 'rag' is: the highest on a ranked scale. Now if you will excuse me, I need to use the ladies room."

With a huff, Hermione stomped to the bathroom leaving Blaise speechless, Ginny giggling, and Draco amused. He looked around the table and smiled at his remaining table companions.

"Shall we order dessert then?"

Just as the waiter arrived, Hermione came back to her seat looking a bit calmer. She took the dessert menu and looked at it for a moment and nodded to the waiter.

"I will have the strawberry shortcake, with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream, but I would like the ice cream and whipped cream on the side, not on the shortcake, and the strawberries on the side as well. And I will only have the vanilla ice cream if it's vanilla bean, if not, then no ice cream." Hermione set her menu down and took in the dumbfounded look on Blaise's face. Draco noticed as well and jumped in before either could fire caustic remarks at each other.

"Blaise, what you have just witnessed is Hermione's great skill at ordering. You missed her order at dinner since you conveniently planted yourself at the bar for most of the night." Blaise almost said something, but Draco continued, "Not only does she always pick the best thing on the menu, but she orders it in a way that the chef didn't even know how good it could be!"

Hermione smiled at Draco. Blaise just sat back in his chair, "I think restaurants have become too important."

Ginny leaned forward and nodded, "I completely agree. Restaurants are to people today what theatre was to people in the sixties. I read that in a magazine."

Blaise leaned forward to face Ginny, a smile growing on his face, "I wrote that."

"Get out," Ginny playfully swatted his arm and giggled.

"No, I really did write that." Blaise smiled at Ginny and Ginny blushed. "I have never quoted anything from a magazine in my life! That is bloody amazing!" She looked around the table to Draco and Hermione, "Isn't that just amazing?" Draco and Hermione shrugged. Turning her attention back to Blaise she giggled a bit more, "And you of all people wrote it!"

Blaise felt his cheeks get a bit red from all the attention Ginny was giving him. This was a Weasley. He hated Ron Weasley in Hogwarts. But looking at Ginny, he could care less about who she was to him back in school. "I also wrote this article called 'Pass the Quiche: Waving Wands for Kitchen Wonders.'"

Ginny clasped her hands over her heart, "Are you serious?! I remember reading that in Witch Weekly! You know, that piece really had an impact on me, I mean, I don't know too much about writing, but you know......."

"Well, it spoke to you Ginny, and that is what I aim for in my writing, a piece that speaks to the public as a whole, not just a select group," said Blaise, directing the last part to Hermione who rolled her eyes and began to concentrate on her wine with feigned interest.

Ginny and Blaise continued to talk all throughout dessert. Draco and Hermione sat in silence, obviously annoyed that their set-up had not worked out as planned. Once outside, Blaise took Ginny's arm and led her down the street, Draco and Hermione lagging behind.

"You know Ginny; no one has ever quoted me before." Ginny smiled. She looked back at Hermione who had her hands stuffed in the pockets of her coat, frowning at the ground.

"I'll be right back Blaise," said Ginny as she went up to Hermione and grabbed her by the arm.

Once they were out of earshot from the boys, Ginny giggled excitedly. "Well? What do you think of Blaise? I mean, you don't seem too taken by him, and I adore talking to him and feel fantastic around him and..."

"So you're saying that you want to date Blaise Zabini?"

"Well, only if it's alright with you herms. I don't want to be dodgy about it you know?"

"Sure, sure, that's perfectly alright with me." Hermione turned towards the direction of the guys who were engaged in some conversation, possibly involving the cab full of young, blond Americans who were waving at them. "I am just a bit worried about Draco. He's very sensitive you know. He's been through this awful period in his life and I just, well, I think it would be dreadful if you rejected him right now."

"Well, herms, I am sure that I can find a way to let him down gently, you know?"

Hermione nodded, her attention still focused on Draco and Blaise.

~*~

"Draco, you're my best mate right?" Blaise was fiddling with his watch, occasionally gazing up to meet Draco's gaze. Draco just nodded.

"Well, if you're not at all interested in Ginny, well, would it be alright if I called her sometime?

"Not at all mate, best of luck to you with that. I was never too fond of dating a Weasley to begin with. I believe her brother still holds a bit of grudge against me."

Blaise's smile grew larger, "Good, that's bloody fantastic!"

"But Zabini, I must say, you really shouldn't try anything tonight. I mean, Hermione is still a bit vulnerable, after seeing Potter engaged to one of the Patil twins and all over the hols. I mean, you can chat Ginny up all you want, but as far as calling her and taking her out and all; I would perhaps wait a week. Don't make any moves tonight and make yourself look like a complete prat."

At that moment the girls walked over to them, Ginny automatically walking and standing next to Blaise. "You know what, I was never too fond of walking, and I think we should just get a cab."

Blaise looked at the mischievous glint in Ginny's eyes and saw a taxi approaching them. He held out his hand to hail it and as soon as it pulled up to the curb, He and Ginny jumped right in and sped off leaving a bewildered and visibly annoyed Hermione and Draco standing on the curb watching the cab disappear around the corner.