The Invitation
It was a typical Friday afternoon for Hermione and Draco. Settled in a corner booth across from the cafe on the first floor of the library and armed with copious amounts of coffee, Hermione was unprepared when Draco suddenly broke the comfortable silence of their study session.
“Hermione, I think I accidentally joined a frat.”
Immediately, Hermione choked mid-sip on her latte, sending droplets of coffee splattering onto the pages of their open textbooks. Between her rattled attempts to stop the coughing attack, she managed to gasp out a disbelieving, “I’m sorry, what? You must be joking!”
“Oi! Watch it!” Draco frantically began trying to clean the spill with a wad of napkins from the end of the table. He glared up at Hermione, who was still trying to gather her wits. “This shit is expensive, Granger!”
“Yes, I’m well aware, thank you!” She spat back, using the sleeve of her sweatshirt to soak up some of the damage. “Had you waited until I was done drinking before springing that bit of horrific news on me, this wouldn’t have happened!”
“Oh, so the fines we’re going to have to pay at the end of the semester are my fault now, Miss Skinny Vanilla Latte?”
“Yes, you prat! How does one *accidentally* rush a frat?!”
“I don’t know, but somehow I did and I don’t know what to do!”
“Oh my word!” Suddenly the sound of books being slammed closed cut through their argument. The two whipped around to see a girl behind them aggressively shoving study materials into her backpack. She met their looks with a bitter stare. “Quiet down, y’all! I know we’re on the first floor but it’s still the library! Some people are trying to get work done!” With a huff, she slung her bag onto her shoulder and hustled towards the stairwell. Presumably to go to the second floor, where there weren’t any students bickering about spilled coffee on textbooks.
After a few beats of silence Hermione turned to look back at Draco, eyes wide and the heated flush of embarrassment coloring her face a deep red. “Draco, we just disrupted that girl’s studies.”
Draco looked like he was desperately trying to hold back a smile. He knew exactly where this conversation was headed. “Yes, I suppose we did.”
“We were causing a complete scene in the library.”
“That we were.”
A beat of silence passed between them.
“Malfoy?”
“Yes, Granger?”
“I think I just became the thing I despise most.”
“Which is?”
“A delinquent.”
Shortly after that terrible realization, the pair decided it was time for them to pack up and leave as well. As they emerged from the library’s frigid air conditioning into the sweltering heat and humidity of a fall afternoon in Texas, Hermione couldn’t stop thinking about Draco being in a frat.
Draco Malfoy. In an American fraternity. In Texas.
The mere idea of it was simultaneously alarming yet incredibly funny. This was Draco, after all. Despite the absurdly large number of hours that he - and Hermione, for that matter - had spent in therapy after the war, he was still quite a pompous lad. After all, he was raised by Narcissa Malfoy. Even on a sweltering Texas day like this, Draco had worn a button down and pressed slacks to class. He shipped his favorite tea - Treacle’s Tea Company, a luxury wizarding brand that Hermione thought was definitely not worth 200 Euros per kilo - to their apartment, because the offerings at the coffee shop across the street were ‘abysmal at best.’ Everything in their apartment from their couch to Hermione’s coffee mugs was curated within a specific color scheme - burgundy and forest green, a nod to their former houses at Hogwarts - and sourced from only the best brands and designers. Hermione chuckled to herself. It had taken a few years of couples counseling (Professor McGonagall’s idea) and long, hard talks about the war and their time at Hogwarts for the two to have the level of friendship they did now, but Hermione had grown quite fond of the bloke, pompousness and all. But still. Picturing Draco shotgunning beers in a frat basement or hosing off cars while shirtless for a philanthropy event was downright laughable. As of today, however, that ridiculous idea was in fact reality.
“What are you thinking about, Granger?” Draco’s voice cut through Hermione’s thoughts. “I hope it’s not the Shakespeare paper. You’ve already revised it twice; it should be close to perfect now if it isn’t already.”
She glanced up at him, a half smile ticking up the corners of her mouth. “Oh no, it’s not the paper. I’m thinking about how the great, aloof Draco Malfoy is now an American frat star.” She nudged him with her elbow.
Draco groaned and buried his face in his hands. “Oh, don’t remind me!”
“What chapter did you even join?”
“AKB.”
Hermione’s jaw dropped. “You accidentally joined Beta? How on earth do you accidentally join Beta!” She cast another look up at Draco, whose face was now flushed a bright red. “You do know they are *the* party frat on campus, right? Like, the party people to end all party people? The social elite of Eagle Point? As in, the complete opposite of your nerd self?”
Draco gasped, acting offended. “A nerd, me? That’s rich coming from the likes of you, Granger! And yes, I’m well aware of Beta’s reputation! I might not be quite as high on the Dean’s List as you, but I do have a brain!”
Hermione laughed. “Just checking.”
They rounded the corner off of University onto Old Main, where their apartment was.
“I’m sorry, but you never actually said how you ended up joining Beta and I desperately want to know.”
“Well how could I, since you were so busy mocking me,” Draco grumbled. “You know how I went to that bar on Southeast with John yesterday?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, we ran into some lads there who seemed alright, so we ended up having a few drinks with them. They have a fantastic lavender mule there by the way, I think you would like it. But I had no idea they were in Beta at the time. I got absolutely blasted, which you know, so I don’t remember what happened the rest of the time we were at the bar. Then this morning I woke up and there was a text from someone named Caleb saying that I was invited to join Beta’s brotherhood and that there would be a party for pledges tonight.”
By this point they were in the elevator at their apartment complex. Hermione pondered Draco’s story until they walked into their apartment on the fourth floor. It was definitely an interesting situation, but it might actually do a lot of good for Draco, Hermione reasoned to herself. After all, it was already their sophomore year at Eagle Point University and they both were lacking a bit in friendships outside of their own, save for a few people like John and Savannah, who were in their Honors cohort. They were a part of a few clubs - a business society and club soccer for Draco, the literary magazine and a cycling job for Hermione - but both had managed to remain quite reserved. Maybe it was a stubborn bit of homesickness and longing for their friends still in the UK, or perhaps a bit of wariness from the war. Either way, Draco joining Beta might be a good way for him to get out of his shell.
After both she and Draco hung their bags on the hooks in their entryway, Hermione began setting up for their weekly video call with Professor McGonagall. These calls were part of the agreement between Hermione, Draco, and their professor when they first proposed going to university in the States as a way to put distance between themselves and the war. Although they were a contractual obligation, Hermione and Draco genuinely enjoyed and looked forward to the talks with their former professor.
As Hermione logged into the video call app, she raised her voice so that Draco could hear her say, “I think you should go to the party tonight.”
“What!” Draco shouts from his room, voice filled with surprise and confusion.
“I said, you should go to the Beta party tonight!”
“Why?” Draco asked as he walked into the living room, now clothed in joggers and a t-shirt. He sat down next to Hermione on the couch.
Once they were officially logged into the call, Hermione leaned back and changed her focus from the screen to Draco’s look of confusion. She shrugged. “I think it would be a good chance to meet more people. You had fun with the blokes at the bar last night, right? Maybe this will be a chance to become friends with them and some others in the chapter.”
“Hm. Maybe.”
Hermione grinned. “Let’s see what Professor McGonagall says.”