DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter.
"For the last time, Harry, I am not going to work on that! I'm on leave, in case you haven't noticed."
Harry Potter watched quietly as his best friend pace around the quaint little kitchen of her modest flat while throwing her hands up in frustration. At the rate the brunette was going, it didn't seem like she would stop ranting about his request anytime soon. It dawned on him just then that he would much rather duel with the Dark Lord all over again than have to tell his best friend that they need her on the job. He understood why she was upset, after all, it was the day before Christmas.
"There must be someone else you can assign to this case. What about Ron? He's pretty good at tracking."
Harry cleared his throat and slowly shifted his gaze to the brilliant brunette. "Uh, well, he's not available -"
"And why's that?"
"Well," the saviour of the wizarding world said, his voice starting to falter. "i-it's tradition, he can't miss Christmas eve with the family."
Hermione fell silent for a good three seconds, trying to digest what her friend had just told her. Ron was being excused from Auror duty because of a family affair, so she had to take his place? It was absurd!
"Hermione," Harry said, giving her the sad puppy look he knew she couldn't resist. "I really could use my best Auror in this case."
She rolled her eyes in annoyance. She couldn't believe Harry resorted to this trick again. "It's not gonna work, Harry."
"Please, Mione? I promise I'll let you take another week off if you agree to go on this assignment," the bespectacled war hero pleaded. "Please? Pretty, pretty please?"
Hermione sighed. While she hated Harry at that very moment, she could never say no to him. With a heavy heart, she bade her plans of curling up on the couch with her new book goodbye, as she went to her room to change.
oOoOoOo
"It doesn't add up, Zabini."
Blaise Zabini must've rolled his eyes about fifteen times since he and Draco arrived at the cabin ten minutes ago. If he had his way, he wouldn't have volunteered to take Draco with him - as much as he loved his dear friend, the blond Auror proved to be very particular with details all the time. He couldn't count the number of times he begged Potter not to send them on missions together; today, however, was an exception.
"What is it this time, Draco?"
"Your informant said that Rowle has been using this hideout for at least two weeks, yet everything in this cabin has been untouched in at least ten months," the dashing blond said as he used his wand to scan the furnishings in the small snow cabin in the middle of the woods.
Blaise groaned silently and made a mental note to berate the person in charge of the cabin's details later. "Beats me, mate," the dusky Italian said in an attempt to sound nonchalant. "I'm not particularly aware of Rowle's domestic behaviour. Anyway, you know the golden rule..."
"Things are not always what they seem," he replied wearily. Just they heard the door creak open. The grey-eyed Auror immediately drew his wand and cast a Disillusionment Charm on both of them. His friend watched in silence as he moved stealthily towards the living room, attempting to catch their supposed villain red-handed.
"Potter?"
Blaise tried his best to suppress his laughter when he heard the faint trace of surprise in the blond Auror's voice. Their boss had perfect timing, as always.
"What are you doing here?"
"I beg your pardon Malfoy," Harry said, straightening up. "I believe I should be asking you that question."
Draco raised an eyebrow at his childhood nemesis who was now his supervisor. "Zabini and I are here on official business. We're investigating the -"
"Boss!" All three adults turned their attention to Blaise who had just walked into the living room with a smile. "It's so good to see you here. I see you've brought Granger along too."
"Zabini," Harry nodded. "Have you found anything?"
"Negative. Malfoy and I were going to inspect the bedroom when you arrived."
"Oh, well I think Granger can take over the investigation," Harry said curtly, nodding at the comely brunette who stood quietly beside him. "She's a far better investigator than your partner is."
It took all the strength in him not to cast a quick Avada on his supervisor. Draco silently took calming breaths while counting to ten, as he willed himself not to do anything regrettable. He straightened up and cleared his throat. "I take it I'm not needed then," he started. "Very well, I'll leave you both with the very capable Auror Granger -"
"No, not so fast, Mate," Blaise interrupted, pulling his friend's sleeve to keep him from leaving before he turned to Harry. "Boss, I think that Malfoy is more than capable of leading this task. In fact, I think he'll do a far better job than Auror Granger."
Harry narrowed his eyes at the dusky Auror. He wasn't pleased with people questioning his decisions, but perhaps Zabini was on to something. "Go on, Zabini."
The Slytherin Auror smiled wickedly at the three adults. "I suggest we let them both investigate the room and see who finds our next clue sooner," he said.
"Makes sense," the bespectacled Head Auror replied, nodding slowly. He shifted his gaze to the two other Aurors, who were both standing quietly near them. "Well, it looks like you've both got a job in your hands. Whenever you're ready to start."
Blaise smirked as he watched the two Aurors roll their eyes and walk silently towards the bedroom. He didn't miss the death glare Hermione gave her best friend before she followed the blond Auror into the room. While they manually searched the small room for clues, Harry leaned casually on the door frame and summoned their wands from their pockets silently.
"You really think this will work, Zabini? She's gonna kill me, you know."
"It better, this is our last hope," Blaise said as he left a hastily scribbled message on the desk. "Please don't fuck this up, Draco," he said, glancing at his best friend one last time before he followed Harry out the door.
"Ready?" Harry asked when Blaise shut the door of the tiny snow cabin.
"Ready since yesterday," the dusky Italian winked and raised his wand. "Let Operation: Snowed-in begin!"
oOoOoOo
'I'm going to murder that bloody bastard!'
Draco crumpled the sheet of paper Blaise left for him on top of the desk and shoved it in his pocket, silently cursing his best friend for doing this to him. How could Blaise leave him in the middle of nowhere with no other than the Gryffindor princess and resident goody-two-shoe herself? He wasn't complaining about his companion - far from it, in fact. The blond Auror always thought she was brilliant and if he had just been nicer to her from the onset, maybe they would've been good friends.
Except, being a good friend to Hermione Granger was the last thing he wanted to be. Somewhere in between Eighth Year and their first Auror assignment, he realized he had a little crush on the brilliant brunette. He thought it was preposterous - a proper pureblood like himself shouldn't be falling for Muggle-borns, after all. He tried to distract himself by dating other women - sometimes, even her friends, but his feelings for her only deepened. When Blaise caught him staring dreamily at her during the Ministry's summer gala, he had no choice but to admit his feelings towards the beautiful witch. In no time, all of their friends knew about it and had been waiting for him to make a move.
Taking matters into their own hands was the last thing he expected them to do. And now there he was - snowed in at a cabin in the middle of nowhere with the only person who makes his heart race.
"Malfoy, are you there?"
The sound of her voice brought him back to the present. Shaking away the remnants of his daydream, Draco straightened up and started for the living room. He had a feeling the feisty brunette was not going to like what he was going to tell her and braced himself for the worst.
"Malfoy -"
"Stop panicking, Granger. I'm still here," he replied coolly as he strode in the room.
"Any luck finding them?"
He shook his head. "Any luck with our wands?" Her frown was all the answer he needed. Sighing, he took his coat off and loosened his tie. "Very well."
"What are you doing?"
"What do you think?" He glanced at her curiously while rolling up his sleeves.
"I don't care if you walk around your house in your birthday suit, you can't do that here," she gasped.
"You think of me naked, Granger? How shocking!"
"I do not!"
He smirked when he saw her face turn beet red. He's never seen her blush in all the years he's known her and seeing it now gave him a sense of fulfilment - an 'Achievement Unlocked" moment, as Potter calls it. "Really?"
"Really," she huffed.
"Alright. If you say so," he teased, making her blush even harder. When he was satisfied with how he'd rolled up his sleeves, the dashing blond Auror moved to the kitchen, much to her relief.
oOoOoOo
'Harry, just wait till I get out of this place!'
Hermione watched the handsome blond Auror walk out of the living room, much to her relief. They've only been together for ten minutes but she could swear one could feel the tension between them from miles away. Crumpling the note Harry managed to slip into her pocket, she had thought of at least one hundred different ways to torture her best friend for leaving her snowed-in with the conceited, arrogant, and oh-so-gorgeous Draco Malfoy.
This was all her fault - if she had only stopped herself from staring longingly her fellow Auror during Neville and Pansy's wedding four months back, none of this would've happened. She sighed, wishing it were easy to resist his angelic face - those mysterious grey eyes, his perfect nose and his soft pink lips. His new pair of eyeglasses didn't help stop her growing attraction to him. She could still remember clearly the very first time she saw him with glasses on, and she spent the whole day admiring him from afar - and that's when Harry confronted her about her lingering glances at her fellow Auror, which prompted her to admit the obvious. Soon, Pansy and Charlie's wife Daphne started taking her with them for tea at the Malfoy Manor and forcing Draco to always hang around them. She knew what they were trying to do, but she didn't play along.
This, however, was crossing the line. She knew she shouldn't have fallen for Harry's drama earlier - after all, who among the Senior Aurors investigates crime scenes on Christmas anyway? That job was for rookies.
"This wasn't the Christmas I had in mind!"
"Oh, I feel you, Granger."
Hermione blushed when she heard Draco's voice from behind. "Malfoy -" she said, attempting to explain what she'd just blurted out. As she turned around to face him, she saw that he had a smile on his face and two cups of hot chocolate in his hands.
"I scoured the kitchen and found these. The pantry's well stocked too. Do you want one?"
"You made it yourself?"
He nodded and gestured for her to sit on the couch before he handed a warm cup of hot chocolate to her. "I figured I may as well make myself useful. It looks like we're snowed in," he replied.
"Oh," she said as she took a sip. "This is really good! I can't believe you can make this yourself."
"That's nothing. I'm boiling the potatoes I'm using for dinner, I'm making Shepherd' pie."
"By yourself?" She asked, choking on her hot chocolate. "Without a House-elf?"
"We don't cook House-elves, Granger," he teased and laughed when she blushed furiously once more. "Seriously, yes I'm quite capable of making decent Shepherd's Pie. Pansy and Daphne love it."
"I see. Sorry, I didn't know that," she said quietly.
He smirked. "There's a lot of things you don't know about me," he said as he set his cup on the coffee table.
"Oh," she replied and followed suit. "Like what?"
"Well, I cook and I make for decent company, especially on holidays," he winked.
"I didn't mean what I said earlier. I mean, I did want to spend Christmas differently - at home, curled up on my sofa with a good book," she explained. "I'm sure you'd rather spend your Christmas with your Slytherin friends too or… you know." She cursed herself silently, she was usually more articulate than this.
"Did you mean pureblood friends?" He asked, scooting closer. "Blood status doesn't matter to me anymore, Hermione, it hasn't for a while now."
"Oh," she said, bowing her head in embarrassment.
"But do you know what else you don't know about me," he asked again, cupping her chin and coaxing her to look at him. "You probably don't know that I've been wanting to get to know you for quite a while now."
She gasped and he chuckled softly. "I've wanted to ask you on a date, but I was pretty intimidated by the fact that you're Hermione Jean Granger - brilliant war hero, HeadGirl at Hogwarts, beautiful muggle-born," he confessed. "And I'm just me, ex-Death Eater turned Order Member, Auror…"
"Every girl's dream guy," she added. "Including mine."
Draco's eyes flew wide at her admission. "Do you mean it?"
She felt her heart race with her sudden revelation. "Yes," she replied and sighed. "The hot chocolate is spiked!"
The dashing blond winced. "The golden rule," he exclaimed and slapped his palm on his forehead. "Things aren't always what they seem. I'm gonna kill -"
"...Harry!"
"... Zabini!"
The pair stared at each other once again, bewildered. Draco shook his head and took out the piece of parchment Blaise had left for him, while Hermione slowly took out Harry's note. Right about that time, their wands appeared on the table and the door of the cabin flew open to reveal that the snowstorm has stopped and they were free to go.
"Looks like our friends wanted us to confess our feelings once and for all," Draco said.
"Yeah," she replied softly. "So, it looks like we're free to go home now."
"Looks like we are," he nodded and helped her up. "You can curl up on your couch and read all the books you want."
"Hooray for that," she said, trying her best to sound cheerful. "Too bad I'll miss tasting the famous Malfoy cooking."
"And I'll miss seeing you blush."
"You know what, this seems like a pretty comfortable place to read," she looked at him with hope in her eyes.
He smiled and cast a couple of locking charms on the door and windows. "Oh, what do you know, we're locked in."
She giggled and threw her arms around the blond Auror's neck. "Looks like you're stuck with me, Draco Malfoy."
"Granger, you have no idea how much I love that idea," he replied as he wrapped his arms around her waist and slanted his lips over hers. He'll probably give Zabini and Potter tickets to the best box in the house for the Quidditch finals, after he lets Hermione hex them, that is. For now, his heart was full and he'd never been happier to be snowed in for Christmas with his one true love.
The end.