#thenewworldorders

“What? Why is Malfoy coming here?” Harry shrieked, glaring at Hermione. She ignored him as she made adjustments to let Malfoy into the closed floo network, sighing as she opened the last of the wards and turned to Harry.

“Because apparently I’m not dressed appropriately for tea with his mother.” She grumbled.

“But- I still don’t understand why he’s coming-” Harry started. Malfoy finally appeared in the network and walked out into Hermione, nearly sending the girl to the floor if not for his reflexes in catching her. “Here...”

“Granger, why are you standing in front of the fireplace?” Malfoy questioned. “And why was I stuck in the fucking floo for so long? I assume that’s your doing.”

“You can let go of me now, Malfoy. And technically that’d be Harry’s doing. He decides who can come in.”

“Again, why is he in my house?” Harry asked, wand still clutched in the fist at his side as he glared at the blond man in his living room.

“I’m helping Granger select appropriate attire for tea,” Malfoy told him distractedly. “Where are we exactly?”

“Harry put your wand down. I can handle him if something happens and we’ll only be a few minutes upstairs.” She told her friend as she started walking towards her room. “And we’re at Harry’s.”

“Obviously,” Malfoy muttered under his breath. “Why are we at St Potter’s? I thought we were going to your flat?”

“Because I live here, since I only got back from Australia a few weeks ago. It doesn't pay to get a flat for a few weeks to move again when I'm married.” He seemed confused by her response but followed quietly anyway. When she pushed open her door, she quickly grabbed the clean clothes from her chair and shoved them into a drawer so he wouldn’t think she was a slob.

“What in Merlin’s name is that?” He asked incredulously as he pointed to her bed. She laughed slightly as Crookshanks simply stared at Malfoy for a second before he went back to cleaning himself.

“That’s my cat.” She told him as she opened her closet.

“That beast is not a cat. And it certainly will not be moving in when you do.”

“The cat’s not negotiable Malfoy, I’ve had him since third year and he’s not going anywhere.” She replied exasperated. “Here’s what I have, what is to your standards?” She muttered ‘prat’ under her breath as he came to examine her dresses. He looked into her closet, frowning (presumably at her lack of choices) before selecting a light blue and lace dress that she’d worn to a relative’s wedding a handful of years ago.

“This will do. Do you have heels that go with it?” He asked her as he continued looking about her room.

“Yes. Don’t go through my things while I’m changing.” She threw over her shoulder as she left for the bathroom. She changed quickly and came back to see him studying the walkman that she’d left on her bed, turning it about, evidently confused.

“Granger, what is this weird disk contraption?” He asked. She reminded herself that he was referring to a throwing disk and not the kind that worked in the machine.

“It’s a walkman. It plays music.” She told him as she went to put her clothes away and throw her hair back in an elastic.

“How does it do that? Is there a band in this that you’ve captured and miniaturized?” She giggled before walking over and holding out her hand for the device.

“It plays CDs. They’re compact discs like this,” she said, opening the device and taking out the one inside to show him.

“Muggles create them using technology and... Well, think of them as music boxes with actual singing and full bands with more than one song on them.” She told him, realising he likely wouldn’t understand the actual mechanics.

“Well, I hear no music and there is no crank. It obviously didn’t play anything when you opened it, so it must be broken.”

“No, it’s not actu- Here, put these on.” She told him, handing over the headphones as she attached them to the disc player.

“On where?” She repressed a chuckle, remembering when Ron was just as clueless about muggle things. She tucked the device under her arm and took the headphones from him.

“Over your ears, like this.” She put them over his head (reaching slightly as he jerked away from her). “Now, all you have to do is press play. It’s this little triangle here.” She showed him as she turned on the device and pressed the button, laughing when he jumped and began looking around wildly as the music started.

“How do you get it to stop?” He shouted.

“You press the pause button, the symbol resembling roman numeral two.” She said as she hit the button. She helped him remove the headphones once more before turning to collect her wand and her shoes.

“That was... Strange.” Malfoy told her, an unnerved expression on his face that said he wasn’t sure if he enjoyed the experience or not.

“Well, you only had it on for a few seconds, so you didn’t get the whole experience. But it’s not nearly as nice as a record.” She said, standing so they could leave.

“A what?”