It was midday on a Wednesday, and Hermione was sat in the coffee shop, reading her book and sipping her masala chai, when the barista called out “Earl gray tea for a uh.. Draco?”
She shook her head, there was no chance that it could be him. She looked up, and she saw that it was. She smiled. “Hi.”
Draco walked over to her with a warm grin, “Hi, how are you?”
“I’m great, and yourself?”
“I’m wonderful, thank you. May I sit?” He gestured to the empty chair opposite her, and Hermione nodded.
“How’s everyone at the burrow? Ginny?”
“Ginny’s being Ginny, you know. Engaged to Harry, planning a wedding.”
“Wow,” Draco sighed, taking a sip of his tea. “A long way from fighting in 6th year,” he grinned.
They spoke for a while, a little nonsensical chatter, talking about the weather and their jobs and where they were in life, almost 5 years on from the war. Draco finished his tea and his scone, and he stood up from the table. “This was really nice, maybe we should do this on purpose some time,” he smiled at her.
“Maybe it will have been long enough that we won’t harp on arguments in the courtyard.” Hermione grinned softly.
“All the ways we sabotaged it,” Draco mused.
“What it was, and what it wasn’t.” She nodded, giving him a brief hug before he walked out of the coffee shop, leaving Hermione behind once again.
She apparated to Ginny’s whilst Draco apparated straight to Theo’s, both telling their friends about the whimsical encounter they had both just had with their high school sweetheart.
Hermione was pacing up and down in Ginny and Harry’s living room in Grimmauld Place, “it was like we were swimming on the edge of a cliff,”
“I’m resistant to going down with the ship, Theo,” Draco muttered, twirling his wand in his hand.
“But it would be so nice, right?” Hermione groaned into a pillow.
Draco flung himself back onto Theo’s bed, staring at the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling that had been there since Theo was a small child. “But what if we could just.. take it all off and just exist?”
“You want to go Skinny Dipping, Hermione?” Ginny giggled and brought Hermione out of her musings about Draco.
“What?”
“Let’s just take it all off, and just exist. Let’s go skinny dip, it’ll be water under the bridge.” Ginny grinned, and Hermione did, too.
She received an owl from Draco the next day, rapping on her bedroom window before flying in through the small opening she had kept for owls so that they don’t have to wait outside if she gets one during the night. “Hello, Thaddeus,” she greeted the owl, a small, burnt orange colour, not like an owl Draco would own at all, but he picked him when Hermione was accompanying him. Thaddeus had pooed on Draco’s hand, and Hermione told him instantly that this was the owl for him. “It’s been a while,” she murmured, stroking the owl under his chin.
Thaddeus nipped gently at her finger, before he stuck his little foot out and shook it incessantly, and Hermione laughed. “So eager, little beaver.”
She took the note from his leg, recognising Draco’s script, except it was shakier this time, not as neat as it once was back in school, showing his hands weren’t as steady as they used to be, and she gave Thaddeus some owl treats she kept in a bowl on her desk.
She opened the note.
Hermione,
I think the fates were shining down on us that day in the coffee shop, having us meet again after all this time.
I’d like to not take it for granted, and I’d like to see you again, if you would like.
I thought that I could treat you to dinner, we could get to know each other all over again.
I’m thinking that I can take you to that place in London, the one that serves really nice Italian food.
You don’t have to respond straight away, if I’m making a mistake, just tear this letter up and I’ll never mention it again, however, on the off chance that I do pique your interest, Thaddeus will wait for a response.
Always yours,
Your Draco.
She definitely didn’t ignore the fact that the restaurant he mentioned was one that she took him to in muggle London, and she responded.
To my Draco,
Won’t that be too nostalgic?
Yours,
Your Granger.
She sent Thaddeus back with the lavender smelling note and a pat on the head, and went about her daily activities. She fed Crookshanks, floo-called Ron to find out about Padma’s labour status: still contracting but not given birth yet, and she made sure that he remembered to keep her updated on the birth of her God Son. She got ready for lunch with Harry, and after a lovely meal, she ended up back at Grimmauld Place.
She was just settling Albus down in his playpen, when Thaddeus came flying through the kitchen into the living room, landing on Harry’s shoulder. Harry laughed, picking the owl up and handing him to Hermione. “I think he’s for you.”
Hermione grinned, untying the note from his foot again.
My Granger,
Maybe it’ll be too nostalgic, but let’s do it anyway.
We won’t have to sit at our same table, I promise,
and we won’t bring up the past.
We’ll keep it bureaucratic.
Are you in? I’m all in.
Yours,
Your Draco x
Hermione blushed, looking up at Harry and Ginny with glassy eyes. “Don’t say it.”
“We’re all thinking it.” Ginny smiled.
“You’re both so different from those scared little kids you once were that had the heartbreak in the courtyard.” Harry put his hand on Hermione’s shoulder.
A tear slid down her cheek. “All the ways it was sabotaged,”
“What it was and what it wasn’t,” Ginny nodded. “Go, get changed. You know where he is.”
Hermione rushed home to get dressed into something more suitable. A simple white turtleneck and a black skirt, leaving her hair wild. He always liked that about her, how she could look so put together until someone laid eyes on her mane. She bit her lip before apparating into muggle London, a few stores down from the restaurant they were going to. She felt as though she was swimming on the edge of a cliff, preparing herself to go down with the already sailed ship that was her and Draco.
Draco stood outside, smoking a cigarette. She noted that it was a change from who he once was, no longer a boy but a man. He was dressed in a white shirt with a black jacket and trousers, and she almost felt her mouth salivate at the sight of him.
“Hi,” she whispered.
“Hello, you.” He brought her into a hug, and she finally felt like she could breathe again.
They sat opposite each other, laughing and reminiscing on the good times, ignoring the bad, and Draco reached across the table and took hold of Hermione’s hand. “We’re different now, Granger.”
“How so?” She smiled, taking a sip of her drink through her straw.
“Well, do you feel like you’re swimming against the current on the edge of the cliff? Either we jump, or we go down with the ship?”
“Our ship that sailed back in 7th year, you mean..” she mused, looking at him through her lashes.
“We’re not those scared little kids anymore. We don’t have the threats of life being taken from us. No one else is going to sabotage this, all of this ‘what it was and what it wasn’t,’ let’s just..”
“Take it all off, and just.. exist?” She grinned, and he mirrored her expression.
“Let’s just skinny dip in the water that’s under the bridge.”