Chapter Eight

"I heard that someone made the Quidditch team!" Elina heard behind her as a heavy person swung her arms around her with a bottle of Butterbeer.

"Ah! Hermione!," Elina squealed. "Get off of me!"

Hermione rolled onto the grass and looked up at her daughter. There was a glow about her that let Hermione see her from miles away and pick her out with her eyes closed.

"Sorry love," she said with a giggle. "but I can't help but be excited that the girl who practiced with a professional team made her school team."

Elina rolled her eyes at her mother. "Sometimes you can be such a kid Professor Granger."

The girls laughed together and looked around the lake. There was a group of Elina's classmates and other fellow students sitting around. Hermione had obviously sat in on a gathering of friends.

"Sorry children," Hermione said with a giggle. "You all carry on. I'll catch this one later."

Everyone bid their favorite professor farewell and went back to what they were doing.

"I swear, she's like a child sometimes," Elina joked.

"I heard that!"

Hermione watched Elina with her friends. She never had any trouble making friends. There was something spectacular about her that drew people to her.

"There's something special about that girl," she heard Draco say.

He walked up beside her and looked at the group of teenagers. They saw Darren walk up to Elina with a few friends. Miles looked up at Darren while he and Elina were talking as though he wanted to pounce him.

Draco chuckled. "It looks like mine is a bit infatuated with yours."

Hermione nodded in agreement. "You might want to let him know that Darren is like a brother to her." Draco smiled when he heard that. "I caught them only a few months ago, but I made sure it didn't progress."

"What?"

"Darren stayed with us last summer and they got a little closer than usual," she explained absentmindedly. "I caught them making out on my couch when everyone was at our house for her birthday."

Draco stared at Hermione. "And you let this go on in your house?"

"Of course not!" She exclaimed. "I spoke to Elina. He was still fifteen and she was fourteen, so there wasn't much of an age difference, but it's important for me that she knows about getting serious with a boy. I don't want her to make the same mistake I did," she trailed off, deep in her thoughts.

Draco stared at Hermione. She realized what she said and stared right back. "Granger?"

Hermione giggled nervously and leaned against the tree. "Forget about it Malfoy. You're guessing wrong. So tell me, where are we going tonight?"

"Well, I was thinking of going into Hogsmead for dinner and walking around for a bit," he told her. "A walk down memory lane before we begin to party."

"You're going on a date with Malfoy?" Elina exclaimed. She had stopped in Hermione's quarters before dinner to talk to her mother.

Hermione turned around form inside her closet and rolled her eyes. "It isn't a date. We both have the night off tonight so we're going to catch up. Usually the professors don't do anything other than go for a drink after curfew."

Elina uncrossed her legs and walked over. She took the clothes out of Hermione's hands and pulled out her favorite outfit. "Flowy red skirt. Yellow halt-"

"It's October Lini."

"Black sweater. Black knee-high boots."

Hermione took the clothes and smiled. "This would be the perfect outfit. If only it was a date."

"You're going on a date with my potions professor?" Miles exclaimed.

Draco rolled his eyes at his son. "This isn't a date. We're just two colleagues who are going out for dinner and catching up.

"But you were never friends and she's hot."

Draco hit Miles on the back of the head with a grin. "She's not the only Granger sister you find attractive."

Miles blushed and sat down on the bed. "Too bad she's spoken for."

Draco wanted to tell Miles what Hermione had said at the lake, but didn't know how to tell him. Instead, he knelt down and put his arm around Miles. "Miles, if you want her, you go for her. She's only spoken for if she says she is."

Miles looked up at his dad and smiled. "Thanks." He jumped up from the bed and walked down the stairs to the kitchen.

"Come on," he heard Elina's voice urge from the other side of the wall. "You're going to be late."

"Don't rush me or I'll take away house points," Hermione said.

He looked around the wall at Elina pulling Hermione down the stairs. Elina looked very excited about the date her sister and his dad were going on, but Hermione looked ready to call it a night already.

Hermione saw Miles in the kitchen and asked, "will your brother be coming down any time soon? This one is beginning to get on my nerves."

Elina blushed and tried not to make eye contact with Miles.

"Don't bother, I'm here," Draco said as he entered the kitchen with a smile.

Hermione couldn't help but check out her former classmate. He was handsome in school, on the plane, at the professors' table, but he was hot with jeans and a black shirt.

Draco was doing the same thing. He couldn't believe the shy bookworm he used to torment had grown into such a beautiful woman. He already found her attractive, but tonight there was something special about the way her jeans hugged her bottom and her top fell where there was just enough room for imagination, covered by an open sweater with her hair flowing down to her back and the heels her boots clicking with every step she made.

Hermione held out her elbow and said, "hello Malfoy. Are you ready for your evening off?"

Draco smiled and took her elbow. "As long as I get away from these two."

Hermione laughed and led Draco to her doorway. "Lini, make sure you don't throw any parties while we're out," she called over her shoulder as the door closed.

Elina looked at Miles. He'd been behaving strangely since her tryout. "Miles, are you okay?" she asked.

Miles opened the refrigerator and took out an apple. "Yeah Ellie, why do you ask?"

She leaned over the counter as Miles turned around to catch him in a kiss, but she heard a knock at the portrait hole.

"I wonder who that could be."

Elina and Miles walked over to the entrance and looked through a one-way hole to see who was outside. To their surprise, it was Darren. Elina opened the doorway and welcomed him in.

"What are you doing here?" she asked with a smile.

"Interrupting a romantic evening, apparently," he replied, looking over at Miles, who had sulked over to the couch without either friend noticing.

Elina wanted to tell Darren what he had actually interrupted, but didn't want Miles to know how upset she really was. "Don't worry. We're just two innocent teenagers alone in the professors' suite at night."

Darren laughed. "Well I was going to ask you if you wanted to sneak into Hogsmead with-"

"Hermione and Professor Malfoy are there."

"Oh, well that's a shame," Darren said. "We were going to go to the Hog's Head, but thanks for the warning. What time are they coming home?"

Elina shrugged. "How many friends were you going with?"

"Just a few sixth and seventh years," he told her. "Julie and Tad, Bobby and Cora, Sam, Frankie and, we were hoping, you. You too Miles."

Elina thought for a minute. Seven people isn't a part; nine, including herself and Miles. "Why don't you just come here," she suggested. "Just keep it calm, evidence-free and on the down low. Oh, and you have to be out those windows the second we hear Hermione come back."

Darren smiled. "I knew I kept you around for a reason," he told her with a pat on the head. "I'll go get everyone and we'll be right back." He turned around and ran out the doorway.

Elina walked over to Miles. "Do you mind if I have them over?"

Miles looked up at Elina. He wouldn't mind if she threw a bucket of water on his face. She was so beautiful and sweet and intelligent and just perfect. It was like there was a light that followed her around wherever she went that made it impossible to be upset…unless Darren was around. "Not at all."

Darren returned a few minutes later with his friends. Elina let them in, after changing out of her uniform and into her mother's denim skirt and T-shirt with a picture of Harry's team's mascot.

All of Darren's friends were stunned that they were in a professor's quarters. They were polite to Elina and Miles when they came in and thanked Elina for stopping them from going to Hogsmaed and showed her their gratitude with a bottle of firewhiskey they had snuck in their last time they went out.

"So Elina, how do you know Darren?" Bobby asked Elina when they were getting cups and chips.

"His dad and m-my sister are friends," she said, catching herself before she said 'my mother.'

Miles watched as Elina instantly clicked with the older students. Bobby and Sam were in Ravenclaw, with her, and Cora and Tad, siblings, were in Hufflepuff. He knew Frankie from the Gryffindor quidditch team as the keeper.

Elina was having a blast talking with Darren's friends. She always connected well with people of all ages, and they seemed to like her as well. They called it an early night, though, because it was an hour past curfew and they were in the professors' quarters. Luckily, though, no one drank a lot and they were able to get back to their dorms successfully.

Darren stayed behind to help Elina and Miles clean up the small mess left by his friends.

"It was really cool of you to let us come here tonight," he told them.

"It was nothing," Elina said happily. "We had fun. You have great friends."

"Well you still didn't have to. I know how upset Hermione would get if she knew. She could get fired if anyone found out."

Elina's head shot up. She hadn't even thought about what might happen to Hermione. They may have had to move again! Though she didn't mind moving all the time, she wanted to stop for just a few years. The longest time she was ever in the same place was when they lived in Greece for just over three years.

"Don't worry," Miles said with his arm around her frozen shoulder. "You're not leaving this place any time soon," he told her, knowing what was wrong.

"Thanks," she said.

"Everything seems to be back where it was," Darren said, snapping Elina out of her thoughts. "I'm going to go back to the common room. Are you coming Miles?"

"No. I'm just going to stay until Draco comes back," he said, even though that wasn't the whole plan.

Elina and Darren said good night and he left to return to the tower.

"That was fun," she said as she jumped onto the couch beside Miles.

Miles agreed, not knowing what to say.

Elina looked at Miles and put her hand over his. "Thanks for comforting me before. I was really scared."

He couldn't stop himself as he wrapped his arms around her. "I meant it. You're not leaving me."

Elina smiled into his shoulder and sighed. She put her arms around him too. "Thanks."

Neither teen knew what to do. Miles thought Elina and Darren had something going on and Elina thought that Miles only thought of her as a friend.

She backed away, though and looked into his eyes.

"You're so beautiful," Miles wanted to say, but instead he said, "You and Darren are really close."

"We're just friends," she replied instantly, hoping it would lead to one of them making a move.

"You just seem so-"

"We kissed on my birthday, but that was the only time anything ever happened," she explained. "But in any other way he's always been a close friend."

The moment she brought up the kiss, Elina wished she could take it back. Miles took back something he was about to say, and she knew it.

"The kiss was because we got lost in a moment," she tried to go on with. "It was my birthday and I was upset because I had never kissed a boy and he comforted me, telling me that kissing isn't as great as everyone says, but then I told him that I had kissed someone, but never someone important to me, and we talked and ended up kissing." She wanted to cut out her tongue for talking more, but couldn't stop herself. She wanted Miles to know that the kiss was nothing and there were no lingering feelings.

"It's okay," Miles said, knowing what Elina was doing. "I get it." He wanted her to stop talking about it because he was afraid that the kiss meant something, even though she was trying to explain that it didn't.

Elina breathed a sigh of relief. "I don't have a boyfriend right now. I haven't in a long time." She hoped that this would let him know that, if he ever saw her in any way other than a friend, she was available.

Miles wanted to get off the topic, because now he was starting to think she only saw him as a friend in order to share that. "What do you think our siblings are doing?"

Hermione laughed at Draco and wiped the ice cream off his nose. They had just finished an enjoyable meal at a muggle Italian restaurant they ran into by accident and were now walking along the streets with ice cream cones and shooting the breeze.

She had found out more about Draco's divorce and life with Miles and just information about who he was now. She liked this friendship that had formed between them.

Draco watched Hermione as she backed away after wiping off the ice cream. He half-wished she had liked it off as he watched her cute, pink tongue resume to licking her ice cream cone.

He loved learning more about the woman she had grown into and wanted to learn more.

"So why did you and Elina keep moving around?" He asked.

Hermione looked up and thought for a moment. She didn't know how to answer his question. "Well, nothing really stuck," she began. "I became a bit of a flake after we graduated. I wanted to go to university and just settle somewhere, but nothing ever felt right. It was horrible making Elina move, but she was always good with it. At one point we tried living as muggles when we lived in Greece, but I didn't want to hide her heritage from her." She laughed. "I'm surprised she turned out so great."

"She had a great role model," Draco said, looking down at the beautiful woman he used to torture.

Hermione blushed and took a long lick at her dessert. "What about you? Miles seems great. And by 'great,' I mean nothing like you as a child."

Draco chuckled. "Thanks. That's what I was aiming for." He sighed. "Moving him from the nuthouse manor to Ireland wasn't too great, neither was his-well, the divorce wasn't too pretty and neither was my ex. I think it's our strong relationship that keeps him level though. I remember my father and how he was with me. I don't want to repeat that line."

Hermione nodded silently. "Sometimes I feel like it's Elina who's raising me."

"How did we ever get here?"

"Booze and a lack of condoms?" Hermione joked.

Draco burst into a short laughter. "I think you're right. Or it could have been teenage hormones and a bad spell."

Hermione joined him in laughter until she realized what he said. "Wait, what?"

Draco mentally kicked himself. "My parents were eighteen when they married and I was born," he tried to save himself.

"Oh."

The two were silent as they continued walking down the road.

"So where are we going?" Hermione finally asked, hoping to put the last bit of conversation behind them.

"There's a club I used to go to when we were in seventh year," he said. "I thought it might be fun to continue our dance."

Hermione smiled and put the last piece of her cone into her mouth. "Good. I need a good workout after that meal."

Draco laughed. "I think it might take a few more before you're allowed to say that. You're perfect."

Hermione blushed and hit him on the arm. "Shut up! You're just trying to get into my pants," she joked.

"Oh come on," he said, "like I need a line other than 'hello, my name is Draco Malfoy' to get a girl in bed."

Hermione laughed and clapped her hands. "Okay. I was wrong. You didn't all change in the past twelve years."

"Well if you're going to hurt my feelings, I don't think I want to bring you tonight. Good night. I'll see you at the castle." He began to quicken his pace and walk away.

Hermione ran up to him and jumped onto his back. "Don't think you're getting rid of me that easily."

Draco grabbed her legs and spun around. They ended up in a nearby park running around in the sprinklers laughing until they fell on their backs and looked up at the stars.

"We can go dancing another night," Hermione panted.

"I don't think I'll be able to move for at least a week."

Hermione laughed and turned onto her stomach, looking into Draco's steel-blue eyes. She wanted to kiss him, but couldn't. She didn't want a reason to leave Hogwarts. "Then I think I'll just leave you here until then."

Draco smiled. He wanted to reach up and pull her into a kiss, but knew that he couldn't. He didn't want her to feel awkward and leave. "If you do, I'll pull you back and not let you go."

"I don't quite think Dumbledore would appreciate it if his charms teacher kept his potions teacher captive because of his laziness."

"Yeah" he agreed. "I don't think it would look too good on an application after I got fired for it."

Hermione rolled her eyes and smiled. She fell back onto her back and looked up. "I remember my favorite part of the day was always looking up at the stars."

"Day?"

"I meant during a class." She explained. "Numbers and spells are fun, but it's nice to just look up at something that can only change itself and goes by its own rules."

"That was my favorite class just for that reason," Draco said. "Why would anyone want to explain nature? It's beautiful without a reason, so why give it one?"

Hermione thought about what he said. "I never thought of it like that."

"I like this place. It's quiet."

She looked at Draco. "I like you like this."

Draco leaned over and kissed her. He couldn't hold himself back any longer, but was surprised when he felt her kiss him back.

She opened her mouth a little and rolled over so she was partially on top of him. He put his hands on her waist and deepened the kiss.

Neither one knew how long they were there, or even cared, until the sprinklers went off again one foot away.

They separated and ran away until they were back on the sidewalk hand in hand.

On the way back, neither Hermione nor Draco wanted to say anything to ruin the moment they had just shared, but Hermione knew that she had to.

She stopped walking and looked at him when he turned around.

"I'm sorry," he said before she could say anything.

"Stop," she said, putting a finger to his lips. "Draco, you're a great guy who I could see something happening with, but I can't. If anything were to happen, I can't have I become awkward. I need to be here for Elina."

"Can we start slower?" Draco asked.

Hermione looked into his eyes. She had never seen him like this. "It's a secret. We keep things as slow as possible. Just friends who date. I can't believe I'm doing this."

"If I kiss you again will it make you more confident?" he asked with a smirk.

Hermione smiled and kissed him softly on the lips. "Let's get back to the castle. I'm sure Elina and Miles have finished cleaning up their wild party."