#smuttokfyp

Friday morning Hermione was awoken by a tapping on her window. She walked over to see a large eagle owl sitting on the ledge. She opened her window to let it in. She fed him a few treats she stored in her desk, which earned her some lovely little happy twittering. She removed the note from the owl's leg.

Granger,

I'd like to take you out to dinner tonight at the three broomsticks. Meet outside the Gryffindor common room at 7?

-DM

Hermione was grinning from ear to ear. She quickly scribbled her acceptance and sent Draco's owl back out the window. She tried to think about what to wear. It was the three broomsticks, so casual, but it was their first date, so she wanted to look nice. She didn't have much experience dressing for dates. She couldn't exactly wear her Yule ball dress as she had with Viktor. And she and Ron had mostly hung out at the Burrow or with Harry and Ginny at the Leaky. Hermione decided she'd just have to figure it out later and got ready for her day of classes.

As she walked across the grounds on her way to Herbology, Draco strode up next to her, his long legs catching up to her with ease.

"Hello Granger," he greeted her smoothly with his aristocratic drawl.

"Having a good morning?"

"Why yes I am. How about you?"

"Well let's see I'm walking to class next to you and I have a date with a very sexy witch tonight, so yes, I'd say today is going splendidly."

Hermione could help but smile at his shameless flirting.

"You know you could have just asked me out in person right?"

"Absolutely not." He looked appalled. "That's not how things are done. And to be clear, I intend to do this right."

HERMIONE

Ginny pounced on Hermione the moment she walked back into the room.

"How did it go?"

"It was a disaster." She answered with a smile.

"You look… thrilled about that?"

"Gin, he put in so much effort. It was incredibly sweet." She explained as she threw off her dress and changed into her pajamas.

“He booked us a table at the Three Broomsticks and he brought me the most beautiful bouquet. It was so romantic. I don't think Ron gave me flowers once while we were together." At the reminder of her flowers, she removed them from her bag, cast Engorgio, and placed them in a vase. She filled the vase with Aguamenti before she began braiding her hair for the night.

Ginny sat down cross-legged on her bed. "So what was so disastrous then?"

"He planned everything so meticulously and then Anthony came and interrupted. Wands were drawn and they almost dueled when Anthony pointed his wand at me. Draco looked so dishearted by the whole thing, so I took him to McDonald's."

"Ooo two men fighting after you? Sound fun. Wait, you took him to the muggle place? You never let me go with you, Justin, and Hannah there!"

"It's normally just a muggle-borns thing, you know that. I promise I’ll take you some time. And It was decidedly not fun getting kicked out of the Three Broomsticks. But he needed a place where no one knew him as Former Death Eater Draco Malfoy. A place where he could just be another face in the crowd. A very handsome face."

"I can't believe Anthony confronted him. Jealous little prat. I also can't believe I'm siding with Draco Malfoy. Do you think you'll have a second date?

Continued on AO3

Ch. 1

DRACO

Draco was torn. Part of him was dying to have this conversation with Granger and get it over with. The other part of him was happy she was letting him flirt with her again and was hoping he could just keep things like this for a while longer. But Pansy was right, he was done with his cowardly phase. So after classes were done for the day he sought her out. He found her in the library at her usual table. She was talking animatedly with Luna as he approached.

"Hello Draco" Luna greeted him with a dreamy smile."

Hi Luna, how's the hunt for nargles going?"

"Quite well thank you! I think I can have the last few cleared from the castle soon. Hermione was just explaining to me that Nargles are extinct, isn't that silly?"

"Very silly indeed."

"Well I think I'll go check my Nargle traps in the Astronomy tower. Bye Hermione!"Hermione said goodbye before giving Draco a glare." Why would you encourage her? No one has seen a Nargle in ages. The texts I've read aren't even sure they ever existed, they may have just been a children's story."

Draco sat down in the seat Luna had vacated. "If I learned one thing while spending time with her at the Manor it's that she knows things the rest of us don't. She… sees things we can't. It must be hard to interact with all of us while she operates on a higher field of understanding. If she says there are Nargles then I promise you there are.

"What kind of things did she know at the Manor?"