She Was An Enigma
When Hermione came to, it wasn’t to the view of her flat as she had been expecting. Instead, she gained consciousness to a heavy pressure in her chest and the blaring voice of one Ginny Weasley.
“You no-good, lying little prat! Your brilliant idea left Hermione with two broken ribs!”
Hermione didn’t have a clear view of the redhead, but she could perfectly imagine her mannerisms. She would be gesturing wildly with her arms while stopping periodically to point in the offender’s direction.
“A bloody unicorn? A bloody fucking unicorn? You’re lucky I’m leaving the honor of killing you to Hermione, or you’d be the one in a hospital bed right now!”
Ah, so she was yelling at Draco. Hermione supposed that was warranted. Her ribs were feeling quite tender, to be honest. She gingerly began to stand up, only to be held down by Ginny.
“Oh no you don’t, Hermione. You’re on strict bed rest. Your ribs haven’t finished regrowing.”
With that, Ginny backed away and sat in one of the provided chairs lining the wall. Hermione studied her for a few moments, contemplating her situation before a cough brought her attention to the unicorn-wrangler himself. She settled for a sitting position and turned her attention to Draco.
He was standing at her bedside, looking distinctly uncomfortable, and Hermione got the impression she hadn’t caught all of Ginny’s chastisement. He didn’t speak, however. He just carefully eyed Hermione as if she was some wild animal he was waiting to attack him. Well, Ginny had just granted her the honor of killing him. She spoke instead, saying,
“Hello Draco.”
It wasn’t an unkind tone, but it was short. She wasn’t sure what she was feeling towards the blonde at the moment. The date itself had certainly brought them closer, but the unicorn had brought that crashing down. She supposed she wasn’t mad. Was she…disappointed? Disappointed over what? Bugger, she never had been intune with her emotions. While she was musing, Draco had gathered the nerve to respond, saying,
“Hey, Hermione.”
Hermione blinked. That was it? No, ‘I’m sorry, my brain malfunctioned and I didn’t think through the ramifications of bringing a unicorn to our date.’ That would have been a fine start for him. Sod it. Hermione wasn’t letting him leave without getting answers. Answers for everything. Addressing Ginny, she said,
“Do you mind giving us some room? I think we have some things to discuss. Privately.”
Ginny offered no push back, only shooting Draco a nasty grin before skirting out the door. Hermione waited a few seconds after her departure before stating,
“I’m tired, Draco. Of all the surprises. I felt we had a well-established camaraderie, one that was mutually-beneficial, but now I’m sitting in a hospital bed. I don’t understand, and I don’t like it.”
She fell silent, but Draco had enough sense to not laugh at her last remark. She continued,
“Just walk me through what you were thinking. From the beginning, when you first proposed the deal. I can’t help but feel like I missed something.”
Draco sighed and crossed the room to the seat Ginny had vacated. Hermione worried he would refuse to answer, but he slowly started speaking.
“You’ve intrigued me for a long time, Hermione. You were an enigma; a muggleborn witch at the top of her-our-class? Impossible.”
He avoided eye contact with her, continually staring at the wall.
“So, naturally, I wanted to learn everything I could about you. I wanted to unravel you. Find out how you were repeatedly beating me in, well, everything. Except flying, of course.”
He mustered a subdued smile at this, seemingly lost in his memories. Hermione waited for him to continue.
“Of course, I couldn’t be your friend. I had an image to uphold, one you didn’t fit into. Instead, I…well, I tormented you. I couldn’t be your friend so I became your foe. For that, I am so, so, sorry Hermione.”
At this admission he met her eyes. They conveyed repentance and apology. She quickly cut in,
“I know, Draco. Believe me, I know.”
He relaxed and dropped his eyes once more before continuing his tale.
“You, well, you know this next part. The war happened and we were more opposed than ever. Then, it was over, but my curiosity around you wasn’t. Here you stood, the victorious Gryffindor princess, yet you didn’t seem to be elated. You took one look at the war’s aftermath and continued your work. It amazed me. While your comrades were out celebrating, you were writing legislation. I knew I had to know you. Then I, well…”
He abruptly stopped. He was finding the floor extraordinarily fascinating again. Hermione prompted him,
“Go one, Draco. I’m listening.”
He visibly gathered himself before continuing.
“I, well, I applied for a job in International Magical Cooperation on the off-chance I could get to know you. Slowly, that’s exactly what happened. We partnered on projects and struck up a cautious friendship. And that astounded me more than anything. You had a plethora of reasons to hate me, practically a book's worth. Yet, you didn’t. You talked to me with civility, more than anything I had ever deserved. Suddenly, curiosity turned to something else. Something more. I knew you, and yet I wanted to continue spending time around you. Our quick meetings weren’t enough. So, I devised a plan. It was plain to see how you were working yourself to death in pursuit of the promotion. I figured if I offered my assistance to you, I could get the one thing I finally admitted to myself I wanted. A date with you, Hermione.”
Well, that didn’t help. Hermione was still bewildered, albeit now for a whole separate reason. She had thought the date was a means to an end. She figured he would use it to pitch her a project or proposal he required assistance on.
“You…actually wanted to go out with me? It wasn’t a ruse to secure my assistance on a project?”
Draco looked practically scandalized by the question, answering quickly.
“Of course not! Hermione I like you, not your knowledge on magical contracts. Although it is extensive, you swot.”
Taken off guard by the quip, Hermione barked out a laugh, one she quickly felt in her regrowing ribs. She cringed, and Draco adopted his serious manner once more.
“Hermione, I fucked up, I did. Admittedly, a unicorn wasn’t the avenue to go-”
“-the fact you figured that out after the fact is sad-”
“-but I admit, I only wanted you to be impressed. I wanted you to be as interested in me as I was in you.”
Hermione could feel her anger abating. Damn him, stop looking at her with those puppy eyes!
“Draco, you don’t need to wrangle a unicorn and bribe my boss to get me to go on a date with you.”
She thought about the past few days.
“Well, maybe you needed to a week ago, but Draco believe me, I am interested. Perhaps if you asked me, without the caveats, I would say yes.”
She could practically see the hope radiating off of him-
“Hermione Granger, will you go on a date with me?”
“No.”
-and promptly fall to the ground and shatter.
“What?”
Hermione wasn’t going to completely let him off the hook.
“I don’t believe you’ve held up your end of the deal yet.”
Draco was thrown off.
“You mean-you still want me to bribe your boss?”
“I want the promotion.”
“You want me to bribe your boss?”
“The promotion.”
Draco huffed, and looked at her with exasperation.
“We’re talking in circles.”
Hermione broke into a grin, staring back at a peeved Draco Malfoy.
“I’m just joking. Unless you did want to bribe my boss-”
She broke off conspiratorially and winked at him. Soon they dissolved into laughter, their earlier seriousness gone. Finally, she said,
“Yes, Draco. I will go on a date with you. As long as there are no bloody unicorns involved.”
Draco solemnly placed his hand over his heart.
“I swear it.”
Their laughs echoed down the hall, past a grinning Ginny Weasley.