Chapter Text
Six Months Later. INT LONDON FLAT. Late Sunday morning. DRACO MALFOY and HERMIONE GRANGER are lounging in the living room, sitting next to each other in arm chairs, listening to music and handing sections of the newspaper back and forth.
“Didn’t you say you wanted me to tell you my version of the night we first ‘met’ again?” Draco asked, folding his paper and looking up.
“Yes, I did! It was something you said the other day - about how you found me in the audience at your show. It made me think we had two different takes on it. So now I want the whole story.” She put down her section of the Times and straightened in her chair.
“Right, right. It was at Potter’s party. You were on about some bollocks theory that our magic reached out and touched before we even saw each other. Very wooly magical doctrine to be coming from you, Granger…” he tsked.
She flipped him the bird. “Then how did you know to come directly to me not two minutes after you stepped off stage??”
“Because I saw you, you silly cow. Stage lights aren’t completely blinding, you know. And for a few songs we had them down very low. The Point Club is rather small and you were sitting at the bar, which is lit. I recognised you! By your gorgeous, luscious, cascading hair.”
“What?” she squinted at him.
“You don’t think I would come bounding offstage for any Joe Wizard who happened to show up at a gig, do you? No, I was watching you all night. And you looked good. I wanted to come talk to you.”
“But the first thing you said was, ‘It was you.’!”
“No, I said, “'it was you.’ Subtle but important distinction.”
She stared at him for a full ten seconds, “This changes everything!”
He stretched and yawned. “Not really.”
“Well not to you! But I thought you spent the whole first part of the night becoming attracted to me!”
“When in actuality, I wanted to get in your knickers all along,” he supplied with a smirk.
She threw a pillow at him and he caught it, his eyes dancing. “Now, now darling. So where was I…? Oh yes, so I hustled off the stage and back to the bar posthaste and was greeted with the spectacular sight of you bending over to retrieve something off the ground.” He stared into space as if reliving a fond memory. Hermione growled.
“Ok, ok. But this is actually a crucial point in the story. Because I had no idea why you were there. Did you know it was my band? How did you feel about me? We hadn’t talked in, what, 7 or 8 years? And I remember thinking that if you were cool to me or in a hurry or seemed uninterested, I would say a quick hello and let you go on your way. But you turned around with the most beautiful, warm smile.” He paused and looked at her, covering his heart with his hand. “You knocked me sideways. I’d forgotten how beautiful you were.”
Hermione sent him a sweet look. “Well I had just watched you be utterly sexy and talented on stage for an hour. Of course I was warm.” He raised his brows in a suggestive manner and she made a ‘continue’ motion with her hand.
“So then I made it my mission to make sure you didn’t leave before having a drink with me. Mission accomplished by putting my controlling, yet charming and persuasive nature to good use. And then, let’s see. We had a lovely little conversation. You were even more intriguing once I started talking to you.” Hermione blew him a kiss and he smiled.
“And I managed to get you to agree to see me again by dangling my library in front of you… Stroke of genius, I must say. Then, I was just trying to figure out how to get you to come to a second location with me when Seb’s timely text came in. Thank you, Seb.”
“So when we got to the gig,” asked Hermione, squinting at him. “Were you deliberately flirting with me by whispering in my ear and leaning over me and all that? Or was that all in my mind?
“Absolutely flirting. Absolutely trying to get you hot and bothered. Absolutely getting my own sexual gratification out of it,” he confirmed. She snorted and rolled her eyes. “Look,” he continued, “I’d decided by then that I wanted to ask you out. I also definitely wanted to kiss you that night. I could tell you were into it.” He put on a high-pitched voice, “Oh let me just twist my arm up around the back of his head and practically nibble his ear while I ask him an unbearably sexy question about alternate tunings.” Hermione sent him a wicked smile; Guilty. “But!” he held up a finger, “the joke was on you because when you did that I could see all the way down your top!” She stuck her tongue out at him. “That lovely, lovely top,” he mused.
“It was a grey cotton vest top, Draco.”
“And it clung so lovingly to your breasts. I spent a good part of the night imagining the strap slipping off and me kissing the spot underneath.” He shot her a heated look that she returned with interest.
“In fact, you’re wearing a very similar top right now,” he said with narrowed eyes. “Why don’t you come here and sit with me while I tell you the rest of my story,” he patted his lap.
“Will you stay focused?” she asked.
“Probably not. But we’ve got nothing on today.”
She went.
53 MINUTES LATER …
“Ah, so where was I?” he asked, raking his hair back - a bit breathless.
“Mmm, your performance with Seb,” she sighed, sounding very relaxed. “Completely destroyed my knickers with that.”
He looked at her for a beat. “If we hadn’t just... I would...”
“I know. I’ll tell you all about the state of my knickers that night in great detail later. Now, the rest of the story.”
“Ok. So onstage with Seb. Was thinking about you specifically the whole time I sang. I think it made the performance more intense, which is why the crowd loved it so much.”
“And I loved it so much. Let’s face it, it’s a big reason you got laid that night.”
“Thank god for the power of song,” he said fervently. “Anyway, yeah so after that I went out with Seb and then you came and found me. And that’s when the night got really interesting. Because I did intend to kiss you and of course I wanted to sleep with you, but the possibility of that actually happening wasn’t even in my mind. I thought we would snog and it would be great and I would ask you out for Thursday and see where it went next. Hopefully with the ultimate result being you sitting on my face at some point in the near future. But you know, in a few weeks. The following week if I was lucky.” Hermione smirked.
“But then we kissed,” he paused and looked down at her. “And it was simply like nothing I’d ever felt. It was like accelerating very fast - like flying for the first time. I lost track of everything around me - I still don’t know how much time passed before we came up for air and I asked you to go home with me. I hardly even remember forming those words. So maybe there is something to your wooly little theory.” He gazed at her and tapped his chin.
“I truly think there is, Draco. I mean there’s the muggle science-y bit; our pheromones really like each other - hence our enjoyment of each other’s scent and taste. I also love your mind.” His eyes warmed on her. “And we’re obviously attracted to each other physically.”
“Obviously,” he said silkily, flicking down the strap of her top and ogling her breast. She swatted his hand.
“But there is something more. And I think it’s to do with our magic. The best way I can describe it is that it’s an affinity. I actually found some books in the library...”
“I concede.” He held up his hand, smiling affectionately at her. “It probably explains a bit of what happened after I asked you to go home with me - and everything since.”
“Mmm I think that’s my favourite part of the story,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Mine too.” He kissed her.
“So, it was the unexpected best night ever no matter who tells the tale.”
“Exactly.”
FIN