It was 7:58 pm and Harry had just pulled up to the Parkinson house. It wasn't a mansion by any means but it was sufficiently impressive. He was looking forward to this about as much as he looked forward to a bonding session with Malfoy!. Although even that might be less painful than Pansy Parkinson's pathetic excuses for intelligent conversation. Not to mention her nauseating attempt at trying to seduce Harry. He was positive he'd have a headache by the end of the first hour.
He got to the door and moved to the spot that would set the internal ward alarms off , but before he could even do it, the door flung wide open revealing....Pansy. Harry fought the urge to laugh. He should have actually felt sorry for her. There she stood...dressed to the nines, trying painfully hard to look younger than she actually was. Her dress was too tight and her makeup too heavy.
All he could think was that if he were with Hermione that night it would be different. Hermione could smile and be the most beautiful woman in the room. And he loved her best when she first woke up in the mornings, her face void of makeup and her hair tangled from sleep. Now that, that was what Harry thought of as sexy.
Pansy Parkinson was like nothing he had encountered before…
The contrast between the woman Harry would rather be spending his evening with and the woman the stood before him was startling.
"James....you're right on time!" Pansy's whiny voice exclaimed.
"Yes...are you ready Ms. Parkinson?" He offered his arm out of politeness as Pansy immediately launched into some ridiculous story.
It was going to be a long night.
****
After their very relaxing afternoon at the spa the girls had gone back to the apartment to dress for their night out. Neville and Ron were going to meet them at the apartment and then they were heading to their dinner reservation.
Hermione tried several more times to get a hold of Harry but was unsuccessful. She figured he must have been at work. She was about to check her voice mail when the door wards went off. She was the only one completely ready and went to answer it.
To her great surprise, there stood Draco Malfoy!
"Mr Malfoy...what are you doing here?" Hermione asked, trying to keep her tone polite.
"Oh...please it's Draco. ''I was the one that suggested dinner tonight. I wanted to take you all out sort of as a celebration."
"Oh...well, that's very nice of you. ''Erm Luna and Ginny are almost ready. And Ronald and Neville should be here shortly," Hermione told him, letting him into the apartment.
"What about you, don't you have a date tonight?" Malfoy asked.
"No...not tonight," was the only reply he got. "What about you? Malfoy shrugged. "No...my previous plans for the evening were cancelled."
"Oh...I see. Well, let me go see if the other's are ready yet."
Hermione left Malfoy alone in the living room and went into Luna's bedroom, quickly shutting the door."
"Okay...what's the deal with Malfoy showing up here?"
Hermione asked.
"Malfoy's here?" Luna asked looking confused.
Hermione nodded. "He says he's taking us all to dinner."
Luna looked quite taken back..''GIN''! ''Get in here now!''
" I think this is a bad idea," Hermione told her.
"Hermione, hun, you know that I totally agree that Malfoy is no good scum and he probably does have some ulterior motive, but....it's a free dinner,siad Ginny said & as Draco and I used to date years ago, I thought it only fitting he was to come for our last meal , as it were, before I get married and for him to try and bury the hatchet with Neville"
Hermione still wasn't convinced but she went along with it. What else could she do? She didn't want to be left out of a good time with her friends. She could tolerate Malfoy for a little while.
Neville & Ron and grumbling all the way to the apparition point they all followed Malfoy to the restaurant.
The golden Griffin.
Ginny was extremely excited & nervous all in one as was Luna. Hermione was just hoping this would become fun sometime in the near future. Their group was ushered inside and after talking with the Host Malfoy motioned for them to follow him.
They'd just been seated when Luna saw something out of the corner of her eyes. If she wasn't mistaken, that
something was Harry sitting at a table across the
restaurant. And he wasn't sitting alone.
This was not good.
Luna knew that she needed to warn Hermione before she saw Harry herself.
"Uh...Hermione would you come with me to the bathroom?" Luna asked.
Hermione looked confused but agreed.
Malfoy watched Luna leave the table with Hermione. The suddenness of their departure gave him the excuse he needed
to look around the restaurant. He was hoping to have a little fun tonight and stir up a little trouble at Harry
Potter's expense. Trouble that would involve Malfoy having to comfort a distraught Hermione Granger.
Harry was told that he was to pick up a Ms Parkinson, using the psuedonym *James* & to take her here were a table would
be ready and waiting for there arrival. This in part was something to do with busting a prostitution ring & that
covered the Dark artefacts scam too very nicely…, to which it was rumoured that Ms Parkinsons,s secret partner, was the
head honcho of.. Trouble is no one knew who he was?? Draco almost laughed hystericly….The young Auror was so near, yet
so far…..
He spotted them across the way, sitting at table that was almost diagonal to where he was seated. Harry looked like he was being attentive enough and Ms Parkinson was babbling away. He had to think about the best way to orchestrate things from this vantage point.
Neville and Ginny were too wrapped up in each other to really pay much attention to what was going on. Ron was getting antsy. Luna had already dragged Hermione off for a potty talk session and now he was stuck with no one to talk to but that ferret Malfoy. He didn't care if the guy was his own sister's old flame. He was creepy.
As Ron sat there, waiting for Luna to come back he noticed Malfoy starring at something. He looked in the direction that Malfoy was and was surprised to find Hermione's boyfriend Harry seated at a table with some older looking witch. It dawned on him then that that must be why Luna had dragged Hermione off to the ladies room. This was bad news. Ron, knowing something was up, decided to find out what was going on. "You see something interesting, Malfoy?" he asked.
At this both Neville and Ginny came out of their romantic stupor to see what was going on.
Malfoy shrugged and gave his ex girlfriends brother a sly ferrety a smile. "Just someone I know. I might have to go say hello later."
Ron only nodded in response. Malfoy definitely had something up his sleeve.
****
Luna pulled Hermione into the bathroom quickly. "Harry is here," she said, not wanting to waist any time.
"What? Where is he? I didn't even get to tell him where we'd be," Hermione said.
"No...I mean.. he'd here at another table with someone. You said he still had to do three assignements right? I think that's why he's here and why you haven't been able to get a hold of him."
Understanding dawned on Hermione.
"Well, where was he sitting?" '' I see that Malfoy has put him upro this eh? The sneaky ferret''…Hermione was fuming
"They were sitting across the restaurant from us. Maybe we can go sneak around to get a better look," Luna suggested.
Hermione was hesitant at first, but her desire to see what was happening soon took over. They left the ladies room, hoping not to be seen by anyone from their group. They had to be quick about this.
Luna found the perfect spot. It was several tables away from where Harry was seated. A dissolusion charm served to hide them. Hermione could only imagine how silly they looked crouched down, while other people at the tables around them ate "Look.." Luna said, causing Hermione to refocus her attention on Harry instead of the embarrassment of their covert operation.
Hermione sucked in a breath when she finally saw him. He looked good. Really good. He was wearing the same suit he'd worn on their first date. She could almost smell the cologne he was probably wearing. She loved the way he smelled.
"He looks bored," Luna commented.
Hermione studied Harry's features. She'd come to know his many expressions quite intimately and Luna was right. He looked like he was about ready to fall asleep. A part of her surged with pride because he never looked that way when he was with her. Hermione let her gaze shift from Harry to the greasy, over made up witch sitting across from him. Her momentarily swell of pride took a dive and she felt the beginnings of a jealous rage bubbling forth. That is until she really looked at the woman. She was obviously older than Harry by about ten...maybe even fifteen years.
Luna gasped suddenly.
"What? What is it?" Hermione asked, tearing her eyes away from the table.
"She's trying to play footsie with him. She just
slipped off her shoe."
Hermione's eyes shot to where Luna was looking . Sure enough...the woman's stiletto shoe had been discarded and she was now trying to work her foot up Harry's pant leg.
****
Harry's first reaction when he felt Pansys' foot on his leg was to start choking. His coughing fit startled her so that she pulled away.
"Are you okay James?" she asked, her heavily made up eyes wide with concern.
"Yes..yes, fine. I just..." he'd barely been able to say he was okay before she was jabbing her toes into his shin again. Harry shifted uncomfortable in his chair, moving his leg, pretending like he didn't realize what she was doing.
Pansy's persisted though and Harry was about to tell her to stop when a commotion occurred about three tables away. He could quite see what was going on because of a potted tree that was blocking his view. He thanked Merlin for the slight reprieve as Pansy turned her attentions away from Harry's leg to the voices that could be heard from the commotion.
****
Hermione had been two seconds away from marching over to Harry's 'date' and slapping her silly while she pulled out her frizzy brunnette hair when it happened.
A waiter was bringing by a tray of deserts and Luna stood up and the exact moment he passed by. He was so startled to see no one, he let go of the tray. It flew out of his hands and landed on another table causing a woman to spill wine all over herself.
Luna immediately voiced her apology & then ralised no one could see her! As a manager came running over to ask the waiter what was going on. Hermione wasn't sure how they were going to escape getting seen at this point. Practically everyone in the restaurant was looking in their direction. She didn't dare look over at Harry's table.
Before it could get any worse though, Hermione straightened herself up and grabbed Luna, pulling her back quickly in the direction of their own table.
****
Harry droned out the sound of Pansy's squeals of ' laughter. She was amused by whatever she was seeing going on at the other tables. His interest in whatever was happening had dwindled quickly. Out of the corner of his eye though he caught sight of two women trying get away from the commotion very quickly.
Luna and Hermione.
Hermione was there. In the restaurant. Oh Merlin. Had she seen him? He hadn't had a chance to talk to her about the assignement he was forced to be on? Was she mad about the voice mail? He didn't want her to be upset but...how could she not be?
Luna and Hermione sat down at their table quickly, both trying to control their erratic breathing. They were met with four sets of questioning eyes.
"What happened?" Ron asked. "Did you fall in?"
Luna shot Ron a very airy a look. " No, Ronald. We did not fall in." Deciding it would be best to leave out an explanation she changed the subject. "So....what's good to eat here?"
They all ordered a few moments later and made small talk as they waited. Ginny and Neville talked about their impending marriage vows. Ron talked about Chudley Canons whom he played for and Luna just talked to fill the silence. Hermione was too busy thinking about Harry and the hussy he was with to notice much else. Malfoy was pretty quiet & smug as well. But Ron still noticed him looking around.
Trying to be discrete he motioned to Luna and whispered that he thought Malfoy was up to something. After watching that sneaky, ferrety creep for a moment, Luna agreed. He was looking around ....directly at Harry and his date. Almost like he was trying to draw attention to what he was doing. Luna kicked Hermione under the table.
"Ouch.." Hermione started to respond as she felt the stinging sensation of Luna's shoe on her shin. She stopped when she saw Luna's look. She was gesturing not so subtly with her head for Hermione to watch Malfoy. Taking the hint she did....and saw exactly what he was doing. He kept looking in the direction that Harry was sitting. About the fourth time he tried to casually, but not so casually look in that direction, Hermione put two and two together. Of course he knew that Harry was here. And what a coincidence that they were all here too. Hermione knew that Malfoy had probably set this up to get Harry into some sort of trouble. That was the only explanation.
As they waited for their food Hermione tried to decide how she was going to handle this. She refused to let Malfoy get to her and she didn't want to cause any trouble for Harry. It took all of her self control though to keep from turning around to see what was happening at Harry's table. She just had to remind herself that she trusted Harry implicitly and no matter what kind of astonished faces Malfoy made when he looked in that direction, she would not succumb.
After the food came, Malfoy perked up and began trying to tell stories that, for the most part, were unamusing and in bad taste, so Hermione tuned him out. But the fifth time she felt him brush up against her she decided she'd had enough. Pretending clumsiness she spilled her water on herself, figuring it was a small price to pay in an attempt to escape.
"Oh...gosh...I'm such a klutz," she exclaimed as she excused herself to clean up. She could see her friends laughing at Hermione none to subtle attempt at getting away from .
****
****
Harry was doing his best to pretend that the joke Pansy had just told was funny. Truthfully the only funny part had been the way she had severely butchered the punch line.
"Excuse me Mr. black," the waiter said, approaching the table. "You have a Owl at the front desk sir."
Harry was confused but he quickly excused himself. Taking any escape would work for him. He was about to turn around and walk back when a slender arm reached out an pulled him into the small cloak room near the entryway.
He stumbled in his surprise and took whomever had grabbed him tumbling to the floor with him. He landed first with the other person on top of him. He knew it had to be a woman from the way her slight frame landed but he was scared to open his eyes. He wasn't sure what he'd find. That is until he heard a familiar giggle. His eyes immediately snapped open and he found himself looking into the face of an angel.
"Hermione..." he said.
"Hi Harry," she whispered back. Before he could say anything else, Hermione decided to take full advantage of their current position. She lowered her face, capturing his lips with her own. He kissed her back hungrily. His hands moving from where he'd braced himself on the floor, up to her hips. While one hand lingered there, the other trailed up her body to weave itself into her hair.
The kiss lasted until they were forced to pull apart for oxygen. "What are you doing here?" he asked even as his lips continued to brush against hers.
" I could ask you the same," Hermione said pointedly.
Harry had the grace to look guilty. "Yes...I'm sorry about this. I didn't have much of a choice."
Hermione put a finger to his lips. "I understand. Listen...I had the waiter come get you because I needed to
talk to you. I think that we've been set up....by Malfoy. He's the one that brought us here tonight. It was
supposed to be a undercover copu for me trying to get info on that job, little does Malfoy know, he is under careful
watch too… He's been acting weird all night. He keeps looking over at you and your 'date'," Hermione
explained.
''He will do''. ''Ms Parkinson is an asscociate of Malfoy but he doesn't know I know
that…'' but he will do. I just need more proof as to what exactly is his involvment is with her
''…