Disclaimer: All Harry Potter related characters, places and themes belong to J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury and Scholastic.

Seemingly Debatable

Chapter One

Hermione stormed through the office. Men and women hurried out of her way; the fire in her eyes and the set expression of her face were evident warnings for everybody to keep away. Each step she took oozed of confidence and innate female sexuality, the later she was completely unaware of, yet it sent every man gazing after her as she strode down the corridor.

"Excuse me I would like to see the Director now." She uttered to the quivering secretary who was unlucky enough to be dealing with a very enraged Hermione Granger. It was a fearsome sight, and a rare one as well. Hermione, if anything, always prided herself in making calm, clear decisions in any situation. This was what helped her through the war, through her volatile friendship with Ronald Weasley and mostly every encounter in which she as a young female muggleborn was discriminated against.

However now she had reached her threshold. She had entered the building at exactly 10.30 in the morning for a scheduled meeting with an architect. Magicap was a renowned building company that designed buildings to withstand and accommodate magic; Hermione was here to design a new house that would facilitate the new addition to her life. It was now 4 in the afternoon. She had seen at least 12 architects, all of whom upon hearing her requests gapped and stared as if she had grown another head.

"The director is busy-"

"Sorry?"

The poor secretary fiddled with the paperweight on her desk and blushed under Hermione's gaze.

"Err, you can go in but-"

Hermione did not wait to hear the end of the girl's sentence and strode into the office.

"Oh dear." The secretary murmured burying her head in her arms. An angry Hermione was terrifying but it paled in comparison of the anger capable from her boss. Perhaps this was not a good idea.

"Hello. I would like you to build a house for me which can accommodate child magic, my son is about six years old now." Hermione pulled herself a seat at the desk. Its owner was seated in a leather swivel chair and currently she was speaking to the back of said swivel chair. Without further introduction, Hermione bent down to rummage through her tote for her papers that briefly summarized all of her requirements as well as the statistics of the site where she wanted her house to be constructed on.

"I never took you for the marrying and family type-"

Hermione growled as she dug deeper into her bag for the stray documents that had been scattered in her bag during her frog march from office to office. It seemed as if that was all she had heard that day. Did she have a label announcing that she was anti-family stamped across her face? She could have excused the first architect who had blurted it out and then started to stare at her as if dumbstruck. However it began to become a bit repetitive when a similar experience resulted from the next six architects she had seen. By the twelfth architect she was fuming. One of life's lessons Hermione's mother had drilled into her from young was that if you wanted to get something done, you had to do it yourself, and if that failed, result to only the professionals.

Apparently Magicap was unprofessional at best and incompetent at worst, perhaps she was wrong in not attempting to design her own home.

"-Granger."

The voice brought Hermione out of her musings. Immediately her hand froze in its exploration of her bag. She knew that voice. Startled, her eyes flickered up to the chair opposite her. This time instead of seeing the black back of the seat, a chiselled face with enticing grey eyes and tousled blonde hair stared back at her.

This explains their incompetence; they have the king of ineptitude leading them.

"Malfoy" She uttered, her voice carefully neutral.

They both stared at each other, carefully concealing their emotions. Draco did it because he had been brought up to do so and had been doing so since then; Hermione did it because she honestly did not know how she felt about facing him here. Sure he did help their cause in the end, and she was a creature who believed in second chances; however Draco Malfoy was a different entity altogether.

"I didn't know you were an architect." Hermione finally uttered breaking the silence between them.

"Terribly newfangled thing Granger, it is called a job. You would find that 89% of the population has one. Though given the amount of time you spent with the Weasleys, it is clear why you may think otherwise."

Hermione took in a breath and tightened her fists. Nobody ever condescended to her. Malfoy managed to do that and insult her friends at one go. All thoughts of her offering the olive branch or any neutrally cordial gesture went out the window.

"My mistake. I never realized that lollygagging and bullying were the sole requirements to become an architect here, or perhaps you bought your way up and are content with chaperoning incompetent fools. After all, isn't that your forte?"

Draco's face betrayed no emotion but his temper flared briefly. He had forgotten how utterly annoying and infuriating this witch she-bitch could be.

"Regrettably Granger, you will never get to experience the position of being in-charge and of course it is not expected for you to even understand the perks of being an architect."

Internally Hermione fumed, mainly because what Draco said was blatantly and cruelly true. The current wizarding society was still too backward to accept a female muggleborn to hold any head positions. Currently she herself was deputy mistress for international relations and had been told to her face that she could be promoted no further unless she chose to switch ministry and start from the bottom rung all over again.

Draco was not fazed by her non-comment and continued.

"For example, who would have known that you were the shag me and dump me type?"

Draco watched her face to see how far he could push her. Engaging Hermione like this was amusing to say the least. For one thing, she actually gave as well as she got, unlike many others, and it was actually stimulating if he was to be perfectly honest. He knew she had a concealed vindictive side that he loved to bring out; it was somewhat enjoyable to see that the golden trio were not as perfect as they were made out to be and Hermione was not the naïve girl that they intended for her to remain.

Hermione chose to ignore Draco Malfoy. It had succeeded before, it will succeed again and if worse came to worst she could leave and find another company to trust her house with. Though she highly doubted it. She had done her homework and despite what she had said earlier, Magicap was the best. Malfoy may be a rude bastard but he was, grudgingly admitted, a smart and perfection vying rude bastard.

She pulled out her papers and straightened them on the table.

"So is it Potter's or Weasel's?" He questioned briefly. Surprisingly he saw a flash of fear and pain fly across her face. He sat back, puzzling over this slightly disturbing piece of information.

"They don't know." He whispered softly. Hermione's eyes flickered to his and held them. To say that Draco was intrigued was an understatement. He read people very well, that was his forte. It had saved his life numerous times and he had perfected the art into a niche. Granger to everyone else was a puzzle. She mastered her emotions and schooled them around most except her treasured friends. To them she was a blatant open book to any who chose to study her. Very few did. However, years with her in school and two with the Order made it almost impossible for him not to do so.

He would admit she was strikingly brilliant and fierily passionate about all she undertook, he appreciated it in his own little way. However she had her flaws, and it went beyond simply being the annoying know-it-all that she was labelled as. Hermione was a firm believer of friendship, so much so that she trusted Harry and Ron with everything. He knew they abused this privilege; countless times they chose to protect and almost mollycoddle her and her brilliant mind. It was a waste to have her sent on petty assignments, while the doddering duo attempted to take on more serious work without her tutelage. He knew she was frustrated, but till the end she kept at their side. Their apparent chivalry and hero complexes smothered a fantastic mind and also carved Hermione into an oblivious and almost annoyingly moralistic woman.

Now Granger was acting completely out of her perceived character. She had a secret which Potty and Weasel were not privy on.

Draco sighed and sat back in his chair, never taking his eyes off the witch in front of her.

"How old is he?"

Hermione breathed out and studied him. She knew something had changed in the last minute but she was not entirely sure what it was. A bitter part of her was still seething at the comments Malfoy had hurled at her, how he had deduced the truth so easily in a matter of seconds was also very alarming.

This is not a good idea.

For a moment Hermione allowed herself a lapse. She began to think. Malfoy was too connected, no doubt the word would get out. Pathetic really, a secret she had successfully kept for a week, and had promised to keep till the conditions of the will were fulfilled, was blurted out in a moment of irritation and to the worst possible person. Perhaps she could sell him the lie she had been feeding his employees, and hope to salvage the situation.

I can do this. I can do this for Hayden.

Draco watched as another flash of pain flew across her face before she suddenly schooled it and adorned a confident expression. She fiddled slightly with her papers before turning her face up to his. The transformation was complete, the women who sat before him was now the Hermione Granger which he liked to call ganz natürlich. Hermione Granger now stared back at him with a calm smile and sparkling brown eyes which radiated professionalism, confidence and collectiveness.

"Malfoy, as a professional, I am sure you can conduct yourself in what befits a simple business transaction; after which we can both go on to hating each other in solitude and you will have the added satisfaction of knowing that I came to you to seek your services."

Malfoy almost smirked. Granger was playing all the right tunes; she had almost stroked his ego and had successfully tempted his Slytherin nature. Off course her unintended sexual innuendo made it hard not to reply with a scathing comment, but he wanted to find out this great big secret and hence was almost willing to go along with her faux professional relationship.

"Certainly Granger, now if you could tell me a bit about your son."

Hermione breathed in and then rattled off the lie she had intended to feed the architect. She had rehearsed it, already prepared for the questions the architect could ask. Anyone else would have bought it, unfortunately none of the lesser architects could even get around to asking that question and now she was left telling Malfoy.

"My son's name is Jake, he is 6 years old and 4 months-"

"Stop."

Hermione's heart jumped to her mouth. Certainly he could not tell she was lying, she had not even begun telling the untruths!

"You had a son before the war?"

Hermione rolled her eyes as her heart returned to its slightly higher than normal rate.

"No, Jake was the son of my close friend. She passed away two days ago and now her son, her son is living with me." Hermione uttered breathlessly.

Draco studied her. He could tell the raw anguish in her voice when she spoke of her friend, so certainly something terrible had happened to her. However when it came to mentioning the date of passing, Hermione's eyes glanced away slightly and she bit on her lower lip. If he did not know her that would have easily passed as emotion of remembering her friend's death, however to Draco that screamed that she was lying.

He nodded vaguely giving no inkling of his thoughts. Waving he brought a quill and parchment flying to his desk.

"Your son, is he pureblood, halfblood or muggleborn?"

If Hermione was not trying to be civil or fighting her nerves, she would have commented on Malfoy's preoccupation with blood. However trying to avoid this tricky question took her thoughts away from everything else.

"Does it matter?" She did not have to fake her irritation.

"Yes. A child's raw magic is dependent on his heritage."

Hermione did recall reading something along those lines. She faltered slightly.

"He is a halfblood, however would it not be more prudent to equip the house to facilitate all forms, he will bring friends over."

True. In fact blood was not a problem at Magicap, they had long migrated away from using that as a marker for the type of wards and charms to place. That question was merely for his personal benefit, she was lying and something told him that Granger's son was a pureblood. Reaching across the table, Draco picked up the small folio of documents Hermione had brought in with her.

She had done her research well and he expected no less. Information that architects would take a week or so to compile was now sitting obediently in his hand. Almost idly Draco's hand flipped to the page of biographies. There were two pages, one for Hermione and the second for her son. His eyes flipped to the accompanying photograph of her son and his jaw clenched.

Impossible.

Again he studied the photograph. The eye colour and hair were different; it was an easy spell to alter on the photograph, however there was no mistaking the face and the candid smile he shot at Draco. Frowning openly Draco immediately scanned the data provided of the child's magic fluctuations. It was high and cultured, all the more enforcing his theory.

A silent rage built in Draco. He wanted answers and he was going to get them now.

"Granger. Let us be honest with each other."

Hermione froze and then tightened her jaw. "I would expect you to be honest in this transaction." She stated calmly.

Lying little hypocrite.

Draco flipped his wand twice around his office. It was a self designed security system, immediately all animagus in their animal form would be forced to transform, polyjuice would be ineffective and above all it ensured that nothing said in the room would be heard by anyone except the two of them.

"I did not realize my housing plans required such secrecy Malfoy." Hermione uttered carefully. She had recognized the spell when he cast it, it was slightly modified but the fundamental was there. Immediately she fingered her wand under her robe.

Draco eyed her, taking in all of her for the first time. Surprisingly his subconscious noted that she looked tired, drawn almost haggard. He waved up a cup of tea to her side; he would prefer truthful answers, something she would only give if she were drugged or if she trusted him. The latter did not seem to be happening anytime soon.

"What is this?" She questioned uncertainly. Draco raised a singular eyebrow; her trust would be near impossible to gain.

"It is tea Granger. You drink it"

Hermione frowned. "That is evident Malfoy. I meant why are you giving me tea?"

"Common decency."

"Which seemingly always escapes you in my presence."

Draco smirked lightly, before reaching across the table and taking a sip of Hermione's drink.

"Satisfied?"

"What's the fourth ingredient for the pepper up potion?" Hermione questioned. She was not going to take any risks with any form of the truth serum.

"Unicorn's blood." Draco almost rolled his eyes in exasperation. One day he would most definitely kill this witch.

Hermione nodded and took a sip of the tea. It calmed her nerves and soothed her throat from the yelling she had dished out on his employees.

"What do you know of Hayden Kintch?"

Hermione's eyes widened. Oh Merlin. He knew.

Then suddenly, as if her tongue was operating on its own, it began to rattle off answers. "Hayden Kintch is 6 years old and four months. His favourite colour is blue. He likes to read anything and everything especially Muggle poems. His birthday is on January 14th and he wants a-"

"Stop."

Hermione's mouth snapped shut, before her face morphed into one of pure fury.

"You poisoned me!"

As if sensing her next move, Malfoy immediately disarmed her and vanished her wand. Hermione stared back at him, seething.

"On the contrary, it was not poisoning. You simply chose to forget that I am immune to mild forms of the truth potion and willingly drank the tea. As much as we can debate this issue I prefer to get to more important things. You will sit down and answer me or I will bind you and question you on the intimate details of your insignificant life before moving on to the task at hand."

"You would never." Hermione's next plan of action was to wait out the effects of the potion and drag out their conversation into meaningless arguing. Apparently Draco pre-empted that and did not rise to the bait.

"Why is Hayden living with you?"

"I don't know actually, I think it all started back in university. I went to-"

"Where are Ariel and Caleb?"

Hermione's entire face fell. "They are dead." She uttered monotonously before glaring up at Draco as if taunting him to continue the interrogation.

His reaction was entirely unexpected. He suddenly ran his fingers through his hair. "Oh Merlin" he whispered before collapsing into his chair only to jump up and start pacing the room.

"How?"

"I don't know." Hermione whispered the anguish tingeing her words.

"Why was I not informed? The will, the reading and Hayden… oh Morgana." Hermione could barely hear what Malfoy was murmuring under his breath. Then suddenly it clicked, everything fell into place, Hermione's mind whirred at the implications and she let out a soft exclamation of shock.

Draco's head swivelled to her as he heard her exclamation.

"What is it Granger?"

"You. You're his Godfather." She uttered simply, the potion still in effect.

Draco breathed in. This was real. Nobody else knew except for Ariel, Caleb and their son Hayden of course.

Hermione's mind was overdrive. This changed everything.

"We need to talk."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. If she were not here right now, she would have found a flustered Malfoy entirely amusing. However the moot point was that this was happening and for Hayden she had to try, for Aria and Caleb she promised them to.

"Where is Hayden?"

"My place." Hermione uttered. Draco nodded. He had composed himself after a rare moment of lapse and he had seen that Granger had held herself well. She was calm, collected and above all evidently loved Hayden enough to forget their tense and dysfunctional relationship.

"The muggle pad?"

Hermione nodded. Conversation was better facilitated between the two if they dealt with the facts and schooled their emotions. She would ponder over why he even knew that piece of information later.

Draco seemed to be thinking likewise as he curbed his tongue from shooting any derogatory remarks of her living choice. He retrieved her wand from wherever he sent it to and handed it to her. Hermione nodded once, almost in thanks.

Thanks for returning my wand that you stole?

She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Being cordial with Malfoy was a foreign and almost difficult task. Nevertheless she tightened her hand around Malfoy's arm, applying a bit more force than required before apparating home.

a/n: So it has been a long time and I decided to come back to this and try a new story. Do let me know what you think; hopefully this would stay a bit more true to the Hermione and Draco interaction. xx