After the end of the war Draco decided that the best thing for him to do was to make use of the family resources and become a man of leisure. That high profile Ministry job could easily wait a few years. A generation, even, it wasn't like he actually needed to work for a living.

What he did need was a hobby and after a short period of introspection he thought he would try his hand at magical repair. It certainly sounded suitably boring and appropriate for the image of a quiet gentleman he was trying to adopt. It was also something he had a knack for, at least judging by his experience with the Vanishing Cabinet at Hogwarts.

While originally chosen half-heartedly, Draco's hobby soon became an obsession. He found fixing things and sometimes even building them from scratch deeply satisfying. Eventually, he bought the Knockturn Alley shop off Borgin in order to have access to a wider variety of magical items. He started making a name for himself and soon became a minor celebrity amongst magical engineers and private collectors alike. He was simply good at his job. He would, on occasion, go as far as to say that he was one of the best at what he did. But sitting across the room from Hermione Granger he was reminded that what he did wasn't particularly difficult to begin with.

Sure, he needed a steady hand, an observant eye and a considerable amount of background knowledge. But while the execution was often tricky, every single one of his projects followed a simple pattern: take the item apart, find the problem, fix it, and put the thing back together. All he needed to do was make sure nothing escaped him or got misplaced in the process.

Hermione, though... what she did really was something. While Draco created, she took pleasure in destroying; while he needed order, she thrived in chaos. There were no rules in what she did. Her official position in the Auror Office was Magical Artifact Specialist. In reality that meant she was something between a detective and an engineer; the sort of person who deals with the cases no one else wants to tackle. The Draco was currently sitting across her was precisely one of those cases.

He loved watching her work. In public she was polite but reserved, while in the privacy of her study he could read every single emotion on her face.

Above all, Draco adored watching Hermione read. When she was in a good mood, she would just sit very quietly, deaf to the world and a small smile on her lips. If she was looking for something specific in a book, she would play with the pen in her hand – she nearly always used pens instead of quills. If she was tired and couldn't make sense of the text, she would just stare at it with such intensity that a more delicate book might catch on fire. He could tell she's finding it difficult to concentrate then. But best of all, when she was completely engrossed in her reading she would mouth the words with the slightest of motions, her lips barely moving. It made him want to kiss her and he sometimes did.

But Hermione wasn't reading now. In fact, she had completely abandoned the mahogany desk and instead sat cross-legged on the floor, looking intently at the giant pocket watch.

For a while she just sat very still. Then she traced a delicate finger along the hummingbird engraving of the case of the watch. It was bothering her from the very beginning, long before she had sought out Draco's help. She could never figure out why, however.

Then Hermione felt something. Draco watched as the look on her face changed from bored to slightly amused to genuinely interested. Instead of haphazardly going over the metal, her hand hovered over the beak of the bird, and she closed her eyes and let her fingers explore the craftsmanship. And then, just as suddenly, she stopped.

Draco knew Hermione had seen something. Ten excruciatingly slow seconds passed during which she sat very, very still. He could almost hear the different bits of information slowly sliding into place in her mind. The whirlwind of notes around her desk stopped moving and she opened her eyes and smiled. It was a strange smile – wicked, proud, and happy all at the same time.

'I know what the pocket watch is supposed to do' she said.

A/N:

Thank you for reading – I hope you've enjoyed it! Both drabbles were based on a longer Dramione story I outlined a while back. If you're interested in co-authoring this please drop me a line! Don't worry if you can't commit to a long collaboration or if you don't have much experience.

Cheers,

Jazz