Chapter 1
It is pure chance—nothing more and nothing less—that leads Draco Malfoy here.
The little muggle town of Babel is hardly big enough to put on a map, but it's at a convenient midway point in Draco's cross-country apparition. He didn't get much sleep the night before—he never really gets much sleep, these days—and so he decides to stop by the coffee shop for a cuppa before trying to apparate again.
It feels like something more complicated than chance, though, that has organized the universe such that Hermione Granger is reading at a table in the back corner.
Draco feels so few emotions these days that he can register each one as clearly and sharply as a sudden sound in a silent room.
The first thing he feels is surprise.
It has been years since he last saw her in person. It’s weird, seeing her with her nose buried in a book. Like they’re back in school again, back before everything happened. Before the war, before the trials.
The next thing he feels is confusion.
Because Granger has been missing for almost three months. Everyone has been looking for her. The Ministry has been trying to keep it somewhat quiet but people are starting to whisper about it anyway. Even Draco—a disgraced Death Eater, friendless and fresh out of Azkaban, has heard rumors about the Golden Girl’s mysterious disappearance.
And here she is.
She appears to be in hiding, maybe? She’s dressed in plain muggle clothing, though she did not even make an effort to transfigure her appearance, which strikes Draco as odd. Perhaps she is so confident that nobody will look for her in this little muggle town that she did not feel she had to.
For a few minutes Draco just watches her. She’s deep in focus, a pen tipped to her lips.
Suddenly, she looks up from her book.
Draco doesn’t have time to turn away or hide his face, and he is briefly stricken with panic at the thought of how she will react when she sees him. But, to his surprise, her brown eyes slide right past him to look at the clock on the wall. Then, she slips the book into her bag and stands, taking a moment to stretch her arms above her head before heading out.
Draco waits uncertainly for a moment before getting up to follow her.
He’s not sure why he does it. She's halfway down the street by the time he sees her, but his strides are longer than hers and he makes up the brief distance quickly, though he makes sure to stay a few meters behind her. She rounds a corner into a little alleyway and at that exact moment—by chance—her bag splits open at the seam.
Her things spill to the ground with a clatter. Books, pens, loose sheets of paper.
No quills. No parchment. No wand.
Granger swears softly, then drops to her knees to pick them up. She is irritatedly examining her broken bag when Draco gets close enough for his shadow to touch her.
Being that she’s crouched on the ground, she sees his shoes first. Polished dragonhide—he wonders if that will be enough to clue her in to the fact that he is not a muggle man, that she has been discovered hiding out here in this town. But when she tilts her head back to look curiously up at him, there’s not a trace of concern or recognition on her face.
Hermione Granger smiles at him.
Draco’s heart stutters.
“Hello,” she says, and it is strange to hear her voice sound friendly. Her smile is warm and unguarded.
There is a little question mark implicit at the end of her “hello”—she is waiting for him to say something. To explain why he has stopped next to her. But Draco can’t find the words.
Granger’s smile falters for a moment, presumably because he is very much not smiling, instead looking down at her with a mixture of shock and confusion.
“Are you alright?” she asks, sounding concerned.
“What are you doing here?” he asks.
It comes out more sharply than he means it to—he’s never been good at talking to people—and Granger flinches, though not in fear. More like surprise.
“I’m—I’m just picking up my things,” she says defensively. “My bag broke. I’ll be out of your way in a second.”
The alleyway is narrow. She thinks he is upset because she’s blocking the path.
Before he even knows what to do with this information, Granger is standing. She gives him an annoyed look then walks past, her arms full of the contents of her now-broken bag.
Draco just stares, wordless, watching Granger as she makes her way to a nondescript brown building across the street. She uses her hip to push open the door and slips inside.
The sign in front of the building reads: Babel Public Library.
—
Granger works at the library.
Draco adds this to an ongoing tally of things that appear to be the case but that he still does not understand.
When he walks in, having followed her once more, he sees her seated behind the counter talking to one of the other librarians—an older muggle woman. Draco can’t hear what Granger is saying but he sees her lift a corner of her broken bag in exasperation. The other woman shakes her head sympathetically.
Draco approaches the counter without a plan. Granger gives him a funny look. The rude stranger from outside, he can almost hear her thinking.
“Can I help you?” she asks.
He opens his mouth but no words come out. He closes it again.
Granger’s eyebrows rise and the other librarian titters.
“I’m—looking for a book,” he says finally.
“Alright,” she says. She spins her chair to face the glowing muggle device in front of her—a screen of some kind. “What book?”
What book, indeed.
“Can you recommend something?”
The other librarian titters again and Draco considers casting a surreptitious voice removal spell on her.
There is a look of exasperation on Granger’s face. That’s it though—no dislike, no fear, not even judgment. She’s just annoyed.
“What do you like?” she asks, none too patiently. “Fiction? Nonfiction?”
“Fiction.”
She looks at him for a moment, assessing, then turns to the trolley behind her. There are a few books on the top shelf, and she casts a quick glance at all of them before picking up a yellowish paperback. She slides it across the counter to him.
Pride and Prejudice.
“This is a good one,” she says.
“Okay. I’ll take it.”
Granger nods, then extends her hand. Draco freezes. After a moment, he reaches out tentatively and brushes his fingers against hers.
The look she gives him is disbelieving.
“Your library card. Can I have it, please?”
Oh.
“I—I don’t have one.”
Draco turns red, and maybe this is what makes Granger take pity on him.
“Let’s get you signed up, then,” she says, her tone a little kinder.
Draco leaves the library with a new library card and the yellowed copy of Pride and Prejudice. He apparates back to his flat in London, doesn’t tell anybody that he found Granger, doesn’t tell anyone that the missing Golden Girl is alive and well and appears to have no memory of her past life.
He stays up all night to finish the book, so that he has a reason to go back to Babel and return it tomorrow.
—
He returns to Babel at the same time the next day, hoping Granger will be there again but bracing himself for her to be gone.
But there she is. She’s seated behind the counter, in her swivel chair, same as the last time Draco saw her. Her hair is up today.
He slides the book across the counter to her, and Granger’s eyes flick to it first before sliding up to him.
For someone who has not felt very many emotions in the last year, Draco is certainly being put through his paces. Currently, anxiety grips him.
“Done already?” she asks, sounding a little amused.
He nods, mouth dry.
She takes the book, slides it under a strange red light, then places it on a small shelf beside her. To-be-shelved, he assumes.
Draco realizes almost too late that this interaction will be over soon, and if he wants to talk to her he is going to need to come up with something to say.
“What’s your name?” he blurts out.
He wonders if she remembers what her name is. Or if—for whatever reason—that part of her is gone too, along with her memories of him.
“Hermione,” she says, looking at him oddly. “What about you?”
She knows her name.
“I’m Draco.”
“What an unusual name,” she says. Her tone is curious, not mocking.
She extends her hand, and Draco quickly pats at his pockets, looking for his library card. He looks up only when he hears her giggle.
Did he make her giggle?
“Not the card this time,” she says, still giving him that funny look. Confused—charmed? She wiggles her fingers when he still doesn’t do anything.
Draco swallows, then reaches out to take her hand.
“Nice to meet you, Draco," she says.