Walking into her flat thirty minutes before she was supposed to go out with Malfoy, Hermione had no energy. Her feet dragged as she walked across the carpeted floor and she considered sending Malfoy an owl to cancel. Unfortunately, he had likely already made reservations somewhere and she didn't want to make him change his plans at the last minute, so she went up to her bedroom to find something she could wear.

She was standing in front of her closet, still in her work clothes, when someone knocked on her door. Blinking quickly, she realised she'd completely stared off into space and lost all time to get ready.

"Coming!" she yelled, running out of her room. She raced across the living room and pulled open the door, an apology already falling from her lips. "I'm so sorry, Malfoy. I meant to get ready and then I just lost time staring at my closet and I swear I can be dressed in five minutes, but I'll probably be a mess—"

"Is everything good, Granger?" Malfoy asked, raising a worried eyebrow and interrupting her.

He was dressed in casual dress robes much to Hermione's surprise and he held a small arrangement of flowers and a bag of kneazle treats. When he saw her staring at the treats, he held them out uselessly.

"For Crookshanks. Figured I should get him dinner too."

"You got—Oh, okay," Hermione said in astonishment, taking the treats and the flowers. She called Crookshanks, but the kneazle was already brushing up against Malfoy's legs. "I'll go get dressed, then. Here, you can feed him while you wait. He—Watch out for his claws. He likes to swat at his food sometimes."

Malfoy nodded and crouched down to feed Crookshanks. Hermione set the flowers on her dining room table, transfiguring a vase to put them in before running back upstairs.

Basing her own attire off of Malfoy's casual dress robes, she grabbed a nice blouse and slacks. She didn't bother putting her work clothes back in the closet neatly. She was already pressed for time, so she used her wand to move them from her floor to her bed and quickly braided back her hair. Grabbing a pair of heels, she flew down the stairs, practically jumping from the fifth stair down.

"I'm ready," she announced, slipping on her shoes and summoning her cloak. "Again, I'm so sorry. There was—We figured out who broke into the vault and it wasn't who I thought so Harry and I stayed late but—Nevermind."

"You solved the case?" Malfoy asked, standing up after dumping the rest of the kneazle treats in front of Crookshanks.

Hermione frowned.

"Don't give him all of them," she said, ignoring his question. "He'll get sick."

"Who was it?"

Hermione pressed her lips together and stared at Malfoy, not sure if she wanted to tell him before hearing from Ron himself.

"I—don't want to think about it," she decided. Rather the press for an answer, Malfoy nodded.

"Alright," he agreed. He held out his arm and Hermione took it without reluctance. "Are we still alright for dinner? If you want to take the night, that's fine."

"No, dinner is fine," she assured him. She gave him a tight smile and said, "Just, maybe no talk about the case, okay?"

"Sure thing, Granger," Malfoy said, placing one hand over hers on his arm. "Hold on tight."

A second later, she felt the familiar pull of apparation and the uncomfortable swirling that accompanied side along apparation. It took a couple of seconds for her to reorientate herself after they landed, but Malfoy didn't tug away until he was sure she was steady on her feet.

"Was that normal apparation or that ridiculous soundless thing you and Zabini do?" she asked, pulling her hand from Malfoy's arm.

"Normal apparation," Malfoy assured her. With a slight smirk, he told her, "I'm not sure you'd necessarily want to side along for the other kind. It spins you a nasty bit and the lockpoints are nowhere near here."

Hermione nodded and tucked her hands in her cloak, looking around. She didn't recognise where they were, but she knew it was still somewhere in England. Just down the street, a small restaurant was lit up and she could see people dining together inside.

"Ever been here, Granger?" Malfoy asked, starting the walk towards the restaurant. "I must say, it's a delightful little place that serves only seafood."

"Oh, that's—yes, that's nice," Hermione said, trying not to grimace at the mention of seafood. She glanced at Malfoy to see him smirking.

"You enjoy seafood, don't you?" Malfoy asked with a bit of a teasing grin. Hermione bit her lip.

"I can't say it's my favourite," she admitted. Telling Malfoy she detested seafood of all kinds was probably not the way to go as they approached the restaurant, so she refrained.

"I'm kidding, Granger. I know you hate seafood," Malfoy told her, tapping his elbow to hers. "You'll be pleased to hear they serve very little of it here."

"Oh, that's good too," Hermione said, letting out a breath of relief.

Malfoy chuckled, but what was so funny, Hermione wasn't exactly sure. As he pulled open the restaurant door and let her through, though, she didn't have time to ask.

They were very quickly met by an elderly host who took them all the way to a back table and handed them menus. He recited that evening's specials and promised to return with their drinks if they knew what they wanted.

"I'll take a whiskey, Roger," Malfoy said, smiling quickly at the man then looking down at his menu.

The host—Roger—turned his attention to Hermione who in turn glanced at Malfoy.

"Order whatever you want, Granger," he said, smirking slightly. "This is your apology dinner."

"Right, yes," Hermione said, quickly looking over the menu. "I'll take a glass of red wine then, thank you."

Roger nodded and disappeared to the back of the restaurant while Hermione looked at Malfoy curiously. He glanced up at her, but said nothing.

"This is a muggle restaurant," she stated. He nodded once. "How are you so familiar with a muggle restaurant?"

"I found it during one of my many legal business ventures," he said. His eyes sparkled mischievously and Hermione gave him a look. "Alright, perhaps it wasn't so legal, but Roger gave us food and didn't ask questions. Zabini and I have been regulars since."

"So you're friendly with muggles now?" Hermione asked sceptically.

Malfoy sighed and set down his menu for a moment to look at her.

"I never hated muggles, Granger," he told her seriously. "That was always my father. I simply don't understand them and what you don't understand, you can only enjoy so much of."

"I disagree," Hermione said, lifting up her menu. "I think you can enjoy anything you don't understand if you find it interesting enough."

"Oh? So you enjoy divination then?" Malfoy asked. Hermione glared. "You certainly don't understand that."

"That is completely different," she argued haughtily, setting her menu back down to argue. "Divination is based on nothing but luck and belief, it's entirely not real. You can make those predictions come true yourself and then it's not magic, is it? If you do it yourself? Muggles, on the other hand, are real."

"Is your muggle science real then?" Malfoy prodded. "You make things happen with that just like divination, yet you, I believe, are someone who would believe in science."

"Again, that's different," Hermione explained. Science was based on natural laws, after all, and muggles simply tested things to find out what those laws were. "It's much more like spell casting or potions. The thing already exists, you just have to find the right way to make it according to nature. Amortentia existed before someone added crushed snails and stirred clockwise seven times."

Across the table, Malfoy was looking at her with a look of amusement and Hermione felt her cheeks heat slightly. Well, if he thought she was being ridiculous, then she would just inform him that it was his fault for getting her all riled up. She would not apologise.

"No, continue, Granger," he said, gesturing for her to go on. "I'm intrigued."

"I shouldn't have to defend myself just to keep you intrigued," Hermione replied primly. She would not let him lead her into arguing uselessly with him like back at Hogwarts. That was well and truly—okay, maybe not—above her now.

"Don't think of it as defending yourself then," Malfoy suggested, leaning back as Roger deposited their drinks.

"Are you ready to order?"

"Not yet, Roger," Malfoy said, flashing him a grin. "I'll call you over when we are."

Roger nodded and left them back to their conversation that Malfoy immediately picked back up.

"Think of it as educating the less privileged," he told her. Hermione gave him a look. "Fine, the less educated. Though I don't think 'educating the less educated' has a great ring to it."

"I think if you're interested in muggle science, you could have just said so," Hermione said, eyeing him curiously as she sipped her wine.

Malfoy raised an eyebrow. "That's what you think this is?"

"Well, you certainly never used to get me riled up about things you weren't interested in back in Hogwarts," Hermione reminded him. Malfoy nodded, conceding her point as she added, "If you didn't want to know about muggle science, you never would have mentioned it."

"Fine," Malfoy admitted, raising his hands in mock defence. "You got me. What are you going to do about it now?"

As it turned out, she was going to talk all evening about her newest favourite study and then invite Malfoy back to her apartment so she could show him the book she'd bought on it and explain further. She told him about DNA (in the most basic sense, of course. He was not prepared to handle all new information in one night) and about the solar system. Here, he seemed to have a better grasp of the idea as many wizards depended on constellations and the stars, but some of the ideas (and book photos) she shared with him made his eyebrows raise.

"But how do they know black holes exist if they've never seen one?" Malfoy asked. He seemed more interested in muggle astronomy than biology, but Hermione would convert him eventually.

"They can sense it," Hermione said. Immediately feeling ridiculous, she corrected, "Well, they have machines that can sense it. They've done loads of work and math and read tons from ancient studies too, so we can be certain they exist. One day they'll find one and take a photo, though."

"And you'll frame it in your sitting room?" Malfoy teased, looking at her from across the sofa.

Hermione shook her head. "I'd make it into a bookmark."

"Smart," Malfoy said with a small smirk. "That way you'll see it more."

Hermione scowled and, reaching behind her, threw a pillow at his head before going on to say how even though they're still looking for a black hole, other scientists are working on cloning animals and for Merlin's sake, Malfoy, pay attention to more than just the fucking stars.