Chapter 2

Hermione was fidgeting. She couldn't seem to help herself. Ever since the communal secretary for the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures had informed her that Draco Malfoy- of all people- had scheduled an appointment to meet with her, she'd been on edge.

Not that she was afraid of him. She never truly had been, and she was convinced that he'd changed since the war anyway. She just couldn't come up with any reason he'd make an appointment with her. That made her nervous.

She could only think of the way he'd fled from her in apparent terror at the fundraiser a couple of months ago, which was the last time she'd seen him, and wonder what he could possibly want from her little underappreciated and much maligned department. Also, why had he chosen to make an appointment with her specifically?

She wasn't even the boss. While the Malfoys had certainly been knocked down a few pegs in society following the war, they definitely still had the clout to get a meeting with most of the department heads in the ministry. Yet he'd asked for her.

Truth be told she'd had a bit of a crush on Draco- no, Malfoy, she corrected her overly familiar thought- since he'd snuck up on her nearly a year ago during one of the fundraisers that had, unfortunately, become a staple of her post-war life. He had only laughed good naturedly at her when she'd jumped in surprise at his presence. He had then proceeded to amuse her with witty conversation for the rest of the night, or at least until Ron had stormed up and pulled her away.

But she'd enjoyed his company on several occasions since then. She hated to think that she'd lost his good opinion for some unknown reason. Though, when she'd started valuing his opinion she could not say, and she tried not to examine the question too closely.

She supposed, if she was honest, it didn't hurt that he'd become a devastatingly handsome man and it was rather captivating to be able to hold his attention. In short, his company had flattered her. His running from her had been mortifying and so this random appointment made her nervous. What was his game?

In the midst of her inner turmoil he arrived, creating a flurry of activity as he did. Most of the employees in her department had not mastered the art of subtlety. Not that she had either, but the war had taught her a few things at least.

She didn't know whether to laugh with amusement or cringe with embarrassment as her co-workers scrambled to get a look at the infamous tall blond wizard. She could actually hear the murmured conversations break out as they wondered what he was doing in their offices.

He solved the problem of making her decide how to respond by striding into her office before she could do anything at all. He kicked the door shut as he entered. Then he somehow managed to actually fall gracefully into one of her stiff, straight-backed visitors chairs.

"You're looking good, Hermione," he said, like he strode into her office and greeted her conversationally every day.

The look on his face as he perused her body, making no attempt to disguise his appraisal, was surprisingly appreciative and it made her blush.

"Thank you," she couldn't help but reply, demurely, even as her brain was going a bit haywire at the sound of her first name on his lips, "So are you," she responded.

And he did, they were 20- supposedly done growing- but she was certain that Draco got taller every time she saw him, and more handsome too, unbelievably. She longed to touch him and she hated herself a little bit for it. She wasn't usually so superficial.

And though she'd truly begun to enjoy his company as of late, it really didn't matter, because there wasn't a single person she loved who would understand. Especially considering that she didn't understand it herself. He may not be the awful boy he had been, but he was a Death Eater.

She had managed to see past that in the two years since the war had ended. But Harry, and especially Ron, had found it impossible to do so. She had to get over this silly crush.

"What can I do for you Malfoy? Honestly, I was a bit surprised to see you'd made an appointment," she asked, her voice sounding falsely cheerful to her own ears.

She watched him as he gathered himself and realized that while he was as handsome as always, she had been mistaken, because he didn't actually look well. He may have been beautiful, but he didn't seem healthy. In fact, he looked exhausted.

Though he was impeccably dressed, and his hair perfectly coiffed in an artfully careless way; there were dark circles under his eyes, his posture was rather slumped, and most telling, his trademark smirk was absent. He took a deep breath and fidgeted in his chair. Hermione had to resist the urge to respond in kind.

She'd been around this man in a lot of different situations, including some terrible ones, but she'd never seen him look uncomfortable. It put her automatically on guard.

"What do you know about veela?" he eventually asked her.

She relaxed slightly, while certainly unexpected this was nothing she couldn't handle.

"Oh! Well, I'm sorry to tell you, but you've come to the wrong place, they don't come under our jurisdiction and I don't know much myself. I've tried to do a bit of research on my own, of course, just out of curiosity but I didn't get very far, they're quite secretive," she babbled, as she was wont to do when she was excited or nervous, and she was a bit of both at the moment.

He chuckled and the sound went straight to her groin, to her mortification. He peered at her through the fringe of his hair because he had ducked his head shyly.

Shyly?

Who was this and what had he done with Draco Malfoy?

"I wasn't asking you as the Deputy Head of this department," he said with a small smile.

That brought her up short. Why would he come to her place of work to ask her what she knew of veela, of all things, only to tell her it didn't actually have anything to do with her work?

"Are you saying that was a personal question?" she asked timidly.

He just nodded.

"But I'm at work," she responded dumbly.

He chuckled again

"I thought you might say that, which is why I made the appointment around lunch time. Would you accompany me to lunch?"

"You want to take me to lunch?" she questioned.

He nodded.

"To talk about veela?"

He nodded again.

"Um, okay, I don't have any other plans," she frowned to herself, "but why the ruse with the appointment? Why didn't you simply ask me to have lunch with you?"

He visibly hesitated.

"I wasn't sure how that would be received. I don't know where you live and I didn't want to just send an owl," he confessed.

She thought about this for a moment and then her lips twitched in amusement.

"If I was determined to turn you down, you were going to make me do it in person," she surmised.

He shrugged sheepishly.

"You're a bleeding heart Gryffindor, if I was sitting here across from you I thought you might have a harder time saying 'no.'"

"Very Slytherin," she said with a grin.

"It's in my blood," he said and then immediately blanched, he looked at her, clearly panicked, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean anything by that!" he blurted.

She frowned to herself, baffled by his reaction. Was he actually apologizing for making an innocent comment about blood? She didn't know how to respond to that other than to shrug it off.

"Merlin, Malfoy! What's the matter with you? Why are you being so weird? Let's get out of here before I become convinced you've been taken over by pod people or something," she rolled her eyes and stood up.

"Pod people?" he asked incredulously.

"It's a muggle thing," she assured him, "don't worry about it," she added, at a loss as to how to further explain, that would require far too many layers of cultural references none of which he was likely to understand.

"I know this all seems very odd to you at the moment, but I assure you it's important," he said solemnly, bringing her to a halt with a hand on her arm just as they were about to exit her office.

She simply shrugged, she had to admit that she was intrigued, but she wasn't put out and saw no reason to make him sweat, especially with him already looking so stressed and serious. She shot him a small smile.

"For future reference you can just send an owl."

She nearly breathed a sigh of relief when he finally did something predictable and smirked.

"Noted."

Author's note: Well, Hermione's in for quite a surprise. Thanks for all the support in just the last few hours! I'll post two more chapters in a few days, they just need editing. Not sure if I'll continue to update back to back like that but it makes sense for now. Thanks everybody!