Work Text:
Hermione’s fingers drummed impatiently on the desk as she flipped through a large book in front of her, barely able to focus on the codes and laws in front of her, the words swimming on the page and making her have to go back to the top of the page and start over.
“Do you have the notes from the last staff meeting?” Greta, the witch Hermione shared an office with, spoke up, breaking her shattering concentration.
“Huh?”
“The notes from the last staff meeting,” Greta repeated. “I can’t remember if it was our department or not that was meant to do the follow up for the hearings calendar next month.”
“That would be us,” Hermione said with a sigh, flipping through a file on her desk and handing the notes to her co-worker. “We also need to prepare for public comment, the next one is on Tuesday.”
“I’m considering faking sick that day,” Greta teased, “the thought of having to coach Wizengamot members through public comment makes my skin crawl.”
“Maybe we both are coming down with something,” Hermione teased back. The Wizengamot member she worked for, Colhorn, was an older fellow, and he remained pretty neutral on a lot of issues, which bothered Hermione, if she was being honest with herself. Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem, but next week the wizard community would be welcome to come and air grievances with the ministry, and she was sure that Colhorn was going to say something rude or outdated that she would have to clean up afterwards.
“Hermione Granger?” Hermione and Greta looked up to find a young courier at the door, his eyes widening as they looked up at him.
“Yes?” Hermione asked.
“Delivery for you,” he said, and before Hermione could ask, he came through the door holding a vase of flowers that he gently placed on her desk. He waved awkwardly and hurried out of the office.
The flowers were beautiful, bright yellows and whites and greens that made Hermione smile. She leaned in and smelled them, humming at the scent of them.
“Someone sent you flowers?” Greta asked in surprise. “Who?” Hermione had an idea.
She pulled a card out of the center of the bouquet and smiled to herself when she recognized Draco’s neat scratchy scrawl on the card.
Hermione,
I saw these and thought you would enjoy them. I’m looking forward to tonight.
-D
“Oh my god,” Greta crowed, making Hermione jump to her senses. “You got flowers from a man ?” She sighed, green with envy. Hermione just smiled and arranged the vase on her desk. “That’s why you’ve been in such a good mood all week!”
“I don’t have the faintest idea what you’re talking about,” Hermione said coyly, sitting back at her desk and re-opening the code book.
“Well good for you, Granger!” She said, “I hope a man who sends flowers like that is also good in bed…” Hermione’s cheeks reddened, but she didn’t say anything else, idly flipping pages. “Fine, keep your secrets!”
“Get back to work, G,” Hermione said with a laugh. “Those reports won’t analyze themselves.”
“I hate when you’re right,” Greta grumbled. “And you’re always always right.”
“Don’t you forget it,” Hermione laughed.
#
“Okay,” Draco said calmly, crouching down so that he was nearly sitting on the floor. “One more time.” He took a breath and channeled any patience he may have deep deep down in his very being. “Exactly how many pieces did you eat?” He narrowed his gray eyes at the big blue ones staring back at him.
The toddler in front of him held up 5 chubby fingers. Next to the kid, a small boy, clearly the older brother, rolled his eyes.
“It was more like 10,” the kid said haughtily. Draco smirked with amusement.
“Oh really, are you sure?” He asked. “You wouldn’t know how many your little brother swallowed, would you?”
“I only got three back,” the kid pouted, pulling three miniature wizard’s chess pawns out and handing them to Draco. “He wasn’t playing right.”
“Probably because he’s only two,” Draco said. “You don’t get to be good at chess until you are at least seven.”
“I’m seven!” The kid said excitedly. Draco made a ‘well there you have it’ gesture and then handed the kid the pawns as he stood up, facing a worried mother.
“Well, the good news is that the pieces are small,” Draco said. “I’ll have one of the nurses bring you a potion to help him pass them, but he’s going to be uncomfortable for a day or two.”
“Thank you,” the woman said, relieved. “The boys wouldn’t tell me how many he ate. If it was the whole set…”
“You were right to bring him in,” Draco said, removing gloves and putting them in the bin. “I’ll get that potion for you. Have a good rest of your Thursday.”
He left the room and brought the patient’s file to the main station, handing it to the nurse assigned to that room. It was a quiet day at emergency healing. Draco tried to keep himself busy because when he wasn’t, he was idling around the staff room, staring at his watch, waiting for his shift to end.
“This came for you,” one of the nurses said, trading him a clipboard for a memo paper missive. It was folded neatly in thirds with a blue seal keeping it closed. Draco hummed in thanks and took the letter back to his office.
At the desk across from his, Terry Boot was half asleep, his feet propped up on the desk, snoring softly. When Draco shut the door behind him, Terry shot up and nearly fell out of his chair.
“I’m certain you have other work you could be doing,” Draco said absently, sitting at his desk and using a letter opener to break the seal and unfold the letter.
“Parkinson and I are tag teaming that new migraine potion we’re working on,” Terry said, rubbing his eyes. “I was up half the night watching the damn thing boil.”
“I warned you she was ambitious,” Draco said. “Told you doing a joint project with her was a bad call.”
“But it's for a good cause,” Terry said, resuming his sleeping position on his desk. Draco shook his head at the bleeding heart who he sat across from and then looked down to the letter he received. One single daisy slipped out of it into Draco’s hand.
Draco -
The flowers are lovely, and they’ve made my co-worker rather nosy.
I’m looking forward to tonight as well. Dress comfortably!
-Hermione
Draco twirled the daisy between his fingers, happy to know she enjoyed the flowers. He’d never sent flowers to a girl before, and he spent ten minutes of his lunch break in the shop agonizing over choices before the shopkeeper took pity on him and helped him pick something.
Draco looked at his watch. Just another hour of work.
What did it mean to dress comfortably?
“Healer Malfoy?” the nurse he spoke to a moment ago had come in, knocking on the door. He hummed in acknowledgement. “The boy who ate the chess pieces? His brother has now swallowed the rest of the set.” Draco let out a long sigh and placed the letter and the flower on his desk and hurried back out to the fray.
#
Hermione quickly changed after work. She had agreed to meet Draco at her place at seven, thinking she would have had plenty of time after work to get ready. But of course, they got an assignment right as she was walking out the door, and it was urgent. Once she and Greta got that sorted, she only had fifteen minutes to change and re-do her make-up.
She was tying up her hair into a loose ponytail when she heard the whoosh of the Floo. “Just a minute!” She called out, straightening her sweater and tugging up her leggings.
“Take your time,” Draco called back, and she shook her head, knowing he was being nosy with her things in her living room. Finally satisfied that she looked both cute and comfortable, she came out of her bedroom to find Draco bent over, peering into her bookshelf.
“Find something interesting?” she asked, leaning against her door frame and checking him out.
“Just curious,” Draco said idly. “I haven’t heard of most of these authors.”
“They’re mostly muggle,” Hermione said. “I doubt the library at the Manor had Austen and Emmerson in their ranks.”
“No, mostly practical non-fiction books,” Draco said, standing up and turning to her. He smiled when their eyes met and she nodded in his direction.
“I told you to dress comfortably,” she teased. Draco gestured to his slacks and sweater.
“I am comfortable,” he said, laughing. “It was this or the clothes I sleep in.”
“This will do,” she moved closer to him and rose up on her tiptoes, kissing him lightly. Draco’s hands rested on her hips, keeping her close.
“Good, because I don’t sleep in clothes,” he said huskily, and Hermione chuckled until Draco pulled her in for another, deeper, kiss. Hermione made a satisfied noise as he kissed her and Draco took that as a cue to bring her in closer, nipping her bottom lip.
Reluctantly, Hermione put her hand on his chest and pressed him back just slightly. “As much as I’m enjoying this,” she said breathlessly. “We’re going to be late if we don’t go soon.”
“Five more minutes,” Draco pleaded, nuzzling against her throat. She chuckled and stepped away.
“I promise to make it up to you later,” she said, giving him a little wink. She took his hand and laced their fingers together. “But for now, come with me.”
“Where are we going?” Draco asked as she led him out of her home and down the street, toward muggle London, away from the direction of Diagon Alley.
“It’s a classic muggle date,” Hermione said. “Are you familiar with movies?”
“No?” Draco asked. His answer made Hermione beam with excitement.
“Okay, well if you keep an open mind, I think you’re going to enjoy it,” she said. Draco nodded, the barest hint of nerves and confusion on his face as Hermione led him through the crowded muggle streets. “How was work?”
Draco filled her in on his day, highlighting the more interesting stories and ending with the brothers who improperly were playing chess, which made Hermione laugh.
“He was feeling left out,” she said while Draco explained that the boy had to one-up his baby brother by shoving a pawn up his nose. “Oh here we are,” she led Draco to the front of a brightly lit building with names on the marquee flashing brightly.
“What even are these?” he pointed to the marquee. Hermione looked up, contemplating for a moment.
“Something funny I think,” she said, not really answering his question before walking up to the man behind the ticket counter and buying two tickets. She turned to Draco and handed him a paper ticket.
“Something funny?” he asked, confused.
“You’re very handsome when you’re laughing,” she explained, and Draco’s face went hot. Hermione took his hand, clearly excited. “Come on.”
#
Hermione bought them popcorn and drinks and guided Draco to a pair of seats toward the middle of the theater. “Think of it like a magical photograph,” Hermione explained to him quietly. “But it will last for over an hour, and there’s a whole story to it.” Draco nodded as the room got dark. Hermione put her finger to her lips, signaling yo hom not to talk, and then she turned to the screen to watch.
A few times during the film, Hermione would turn to look at Draco, just to see if he was enjoying himself at all. She caught him laughing at a particular scene, a deep chuckle that released the last bits of tension that sat in his shoulders, and the look on his face made Hermione want to lean over and kiss him senseless.
But she refrained from doing so, and instead she took some popcorn out of the bucket between them and moved closer to Draco, leaning her head on his shoulder and smiling softly to herself as she kept watching the movie.
It took Draco more time than he expected to catch on to how this “movie” worked, but he figured it out well enough, even getting emotionally invested in some of the plot lines playing out on screen. Even in the dark, he could tell Hermione was occasionally glancing at him, likely hoping that he was enjoying himself. And he was surprised to find that he was. And it wasn’t just because of his date’s company, which is what he expected would be the case when she told him she had planned a muggle date night. He genuinely did enjoy the experience as a whole.
Hermione’s head rested on his shoulder and he turned his head to kiss the top of her head before turning back to watch the end of the movie.
#
“Now what do we do?” Draco asked as the credits for the movie rolled and people around them began to get up from their seats.
“Movie’s over,” Hermione said, sitting up from where she had been resting comfortably on Draco’s arm. “You liked it?”
“Absolutely fascinating,” Draco said. “But those muggles are just trapped in there? They have to do it all over again later tonight?” He asked as they stood up and she took the empty popcorn bucket from him, leading him out of the theater.
“Hmm? Oh no!” Hermione said, trying not to laugh at Draco’s confusion. “No, they filmed all this earlier, and then projected the movie. The actors are fine, probably off filming something else by now,” she mused, taking his hand and lacing their fingers together as they walked out of the theater. It had grown dark while they were in there, and the first hints of stars began to twinkle in the sky as they left the busier streets. “Come with me,” Hermione said suddenly, pulling him sharply to the side.
“So what else is common for muggle dates?” Draco asked when they were out of the crowds and walking down a quieter path.
“They’re pretty similar to wizarding dates,” Hermione said. “But just less magic,” she shrugged. “This way.”
“This isn’t the direction of your flat,” Draco said, though he kept up with her with a steady stride.
“It’s not,” she agreed with a little smile. Hermione led him to a park that was only lit by a couple street lanterns. “I used to have to do my astronomy summer assignments here because it was the darkest area away from the city lights,” she explained, bringing him past the paved paths and up a small hill. When they reached the top, Hermione transfigured a napkin from her purse into a blanket and then sat down. Draco sat beside her and lied back on the blanket, staring up at the stars.
“I used to hang out in the astronomy tower when the Slytherin common room was too much,” Draco said absently as he spotted different constellations. “People usually didn't want to climb up all those stairs, so it was relatively quiet.”
“I would have had you pegged for the Quidditch stands,” Hermione said, lying back beside him, her head resting beside his shoulder.
“I figured people would try to find me there,” Draco shrugged. Hermione nodded, understanding. She figured no matter which alcove or hiding place in the library she tried to be in, someone always found her eventually.
Above them, a shooting star flashed across the sky. Draco pointed up at it first, seeing it before Hermione did. “First one of the night,” he said.
“That wish is yours then,” Hermione said. Draco turned to her curiously. “If you’re first to see a shooting star, you get to make a wish.”
“Interesting,” Draco said, humming to himself thoughtfully. “Wonder what I’ll wish for.”
“Keep it to yourself, Hermione warned. “If you tell, it won’t come true.” Draco chuckled a little under his breath.
He tried to think of a wish, but all he could think about was the witch with her head leaning on his shoulder, the scent of her perfume encompassing him. It struck him that the wish he truly had was that he didn’t want this to end. Not tonight, not whatever this budding thing with Hermione was, none of it. He felt too good, too free, too…happy? These weren’t things he was used to feeling, but whenever he was with her, it was all he felt. And he wanted that feeling always.
“You have a very serious expression there, Draco Malfoy,” Hermione turned on her side and pressed her finger delicately against the crease in between his eyebrows. “What are you thinking about?”
“My wish,” Draco said, turning to face her. When their eyes met, he smiled and leaned over, kissing her deeply. Hermione moved with him, rolling onto her back again and bringing him with her, sliding her tongue against his bottom lip. He laced his fingers in her hair, trying to be gentle when they got caught in her curls.
When they pulled away, Hermione smiled wryly. “What is it?” Draco asked.
“I’m just wondering if your wish is the same as a wish I was thinking of,” she said quietly. Draco hoped she was right as he leaned down and kissed her again.
Draco had a feeling that maybe Hermione was wrong earlier, about muggle dates.
There might be a little magic in them after all.