Chapter 11
Draco made his way over to the coffee shop at 6 AM, as he was unable to sleep the entire night. He walked up to the entrance, and rolled his eyes as he saw that it hadn't opened yet. Bloody muggles and their punctuality…he knew the shop was supposed to be open at 6 AM. He stood there, peering through the glass door to see if there was anyone inside at least trying to get the place ready.
"Malfoy?"
Draco turned to see Hermione walking up to the shop, her eyes a bit wide from surprise to see him, while also worn with exhaustion.
"Wh-what are you doing here so early?" She asked. "We're not meeting until 7:30."
Draco looked away from her and peered back in the room. "Couldn’t sleep," he said flatly. "Was hoping to get some work done before our meeting." He felt his shoulders tense, as he wanted to turn and look at Hermione again, just to see how exhausted and worn she was. It wasn't very often he got to see the prim and stiff Gryffindor look so defeated.
Hermione stepped beside him and peered inside. "Me too," she mumbled. "There's so much I wanted to dig up in Snape and Bellatrix's files….I didn’t get any sleep at all…"
Draco blinked and took a step back, realizing how close she was standing next to him.
To his surprise, Hermione kept talking as she faced the door. "Ugh….Ron was under the Imperius Curse….you have no idea how confusing this makes everything."
He stared at her from behind, noticing that her hair was looking similar to how it did during their Hogwarts days. Since her job as Assistant Minister, she always made the effort to look put together and professional. But this time, it seemed like the efforts were lacking. She must've been too tired to get ready as efficiently.
Draco started to feel a strange pain course through him. For some reason, he didn’t want to make fun of her for looking as worn as she did. Instead, he started to feel….sorry for her? Shite….am I actually pitying the mudbl…am I actually pitying Granger?
Then Draco's heart leapt. He noticed the glass door in front of Hermione showed a vague image of his own reflection, and Hermione was staring at him, noticing that he was eying her from behind.
He immediately turned his head and awkwardly looked to the side. He frowned and cleared his throat. "Right," he grumbled, trying to refocus on what she had just said. "I don't have any idea, because I never had any interest in connecting with the Weasley myself."
His tone lacked the usual spitefulness.
He felt Hermione was still sneakily staring at his reflection on the door in front of her. She mumbled something under her breath that he was unable to hear.
Draco stood there for another awkward moment, then felt a wave of relief as he two muggles coming up to the coffee shop. They unlocked the door and allowed them in.
Draco waited until Hermione stepped in first, then slowly walked in after her. The smell of coffee soothed him a bit, until he was hit with the realization that he was still alone with Hermione.
And for some reason, he wasn't disgusted. In fact, he found himself a bit relieved and anxious at the same time.
He found himself walking over to a table to pull out his laptop. He tried to keep his eyes off of Hermione as she awkwardly walked toward the table beside him, only to walk toward a table further down from him. She sat down and pulled out her laptop, but then let out a huff and quickly made her way to the restroom.
Draco lifted an eye to watch her rub her eye before disappearing into the halls where the restroom was. He then turned to his laptop….then suddenly decided he could use some freshening in the bathroom.
He left his stuff at the table and then made his way to the men's restroom. But before he could push his way in, the ladies' restroom opened and Hermione stepped out, her face looking pale and the hair around her ears and forehead wet. Draco figured she must've just went in to splash water on her face.
"Hmph," he found himself speaking up. "That's the quickest trip to the loo I've ever seen a female make."
Hermione stopped to fix her troubled gaze on the ground. She was just a few feet behind Draco. "I just needed to wash my face," she remarked quietly.
Draco stood there behind the door of the restroom for a moment, about to reply, until he realized he didn’t know what he was going to say.
He suddenly felt his face grow hot. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Hermione's shoulders were tensing.
Then in a split of a second, the two of them turned to embrace each other. Draco found himself pressing Hermione against the wall between the doors to the men and women's restrooms, his lips against hers.
The moment was a complete blur, and then Draco found himself turning to stomp away, through the halls and back into the opening space of the coffee shop. He sat himself behind his laptop, panting. From the corner of his eye, he saw Hermione stomping back to her table and immediately began typing away on her laptop. She didn’t look in Draco's direction.
Draco found himself doing the same.