"What the bloody hell are you rambling on about?"

Draco was extremely hung over, had just had to shoo some slag out of his bed that he didn't even remember shagging, and was now listening-or trying not to listen to Cato ramble on about...what the hell was he rambling on about.

"Were you not listening to me?" asked Cato, slightly annoyed. It wasn't his fault that Draco always drank too damn much.

It hadn't taken him long to find that out, and the random girls that would leave the flat early in the morning was also something he'd grown accustom to.

"No, I was too busy listening to the pounding in my head." he snapped, rubbing his temples.

"Why don't you just drink one of the potions-"

"Because I don't have any more of the bloody potions and I'm not really in the mood to try and make one."

Cato rolled his eyes and tried again, "Do you want to hear about the girl I met at the Leakey Cauldron or not?"

Draco sighed, of course he did, he always listened when Cato met girls. "Alright, what happened?"

He told him the story, and Draco nodded appreciatively, especially liking the description he gave of the girl.

"So did you get her name?"

"Yeah," he said, a smug smile on his face.

Draco scowled at him, "Are you going to tell me or not?"

"I'm not sure,"

Cato wasn't stupid. He'd heard Draco complain about Hermione countless times, and he knew the Muggle-born witch made his blood boil, but he also knew that that was all because of sexual frustration, or so he liked to think.

And ever since Cato met Hermione, he knew why. She was absolutely gorgeous. What he didn't understand is what irritated Draco so much about her. She seemed pretty carefree to him.

"For the love of Salazar, just bloody tell me or I will-"

"Hermione Granger." he said, a smug smirk on his face.

Draco's mouth fell open and he couldn't think of anything to say. Hermione Granger had irked him during their days at Hogwarts, and he hadn't really seen much of her aside from what he read in the paper. Most of what he read was about her and the Weasel, so it just annoyed him, because he knew even Granger could do better than stupid Weaselbee. He couldn't deny that she had turned out quite beautiful, at least from what he'd seen in articles. And he wouldn't ever admit to it, but she had been the star of quite a few, shall we say, 'wet dreams' of his.

"What the hell were you doing buying Granger a drink? At a bar?" Draco's voice came across harsher than he had wanted, and it didn't go unnoticed by Cato.

"Touchy, touchy. I know she's your girl so if-"

"She is most definitely not my girl."

"Well maybe if you got your head out of your ass for two seconds she would be." he held up a hand to stop him from saying anything and continued. "If it makes you feel better, I didn't know it was her. She didn't tell me her name until she was walking out the door."

Not that he would admit it, but it did make him feel better. For some reason he didn't like the thought of anyone being with Granger. He wanted to strangle Weaselbee for being with her. Just then something Cato said occurred to him.

"Did you say she was going to Rome?"

Cato nodded, "She said it was because she wanted to visit her cousin."

"She's probably going with that idiotic red-headed boyfriend of hers." he said, scowling.

Cato squinted, "She didn't seem like she had a boyfriend to me."

Draco sighed, abandoning the thought of Granger until he looked at the front page of The Daily Prophet.

WIZARDING WORLD'S GOLDEN COUPLE CALLS IT QUITS?

Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasely have allegedly broken up after two years of being the most talked about couple in the Wizarding World! An anonymous source tells us that he saw Miss Granger leaving her shared flat after a particularly loud argument. Ginny Weasely, Hermione Granger's best friend, and Ronald Weasely's little sister only had this to say, "What goes on in their relationship is their business, but Hermione had good reasons to leave. I love my brother, but he can be a royal idiot sometimes." Harry Potter was not available for questioning, but if he does have anything to say, you'll see it here.

Draco couldn't believe what he was reading. Granger had left the Weasel, no doubt because he'd been cheating with Lavender or whatever the hell the bint's name was.

He couldn't help but be proud of her. Granger deserved better than that, and it was about time she realized it.

Draco tossed the newspaper at Cato and said, "I assume this is the reason Granger decided to ditch London. She was trying to get away from this idiot."

Cato couldn't help but smirk, "Well if any place would be a good place, Rome would definitely be it. Especially if she's trying to get over him with someone new."

"Must we talk about this?" he snapped.

Cato knew why Draco was annoyed, but he decided to push just a little bit further.

"You know we could go to Rome and you could find her."

Draco snorted, "And say what exactly?"

"Well you'd better figure it out, because if you don't say something, then I will."

Cato did actually like Hermione. She was beautiful, intelligent, easy to be around, everything he could really ask for in a girl. But he wouldn't take her from Draco if he just admitted that he wanted her.

"What do you mean, you will?"

"She's a great girl Draco, and if you don't want to acknowledge that, I will."

Draco was livid, but schooled his features quickly, "Do whatever the bloody hell you want."


Draco was in a foul mood the entire day, and was eternally grateful that it was a Saturday and he didn't have to go in to work. The last thing he needed was a bunch of old racist business men breathing down his neck all day.

"So why exactly aren't we going to Rome?"

"Because then there's a chance we'll run into Granger."

"You say that like it's a bad thing. I'd love to run into her. She's really great." Cato said, a wistful smile on his face.

"Yeah, I'm sure you wouldn't mind." said Draco, annoyed that Cato was still talking about it. I mean they were eating dinner for Merlin's sake.

"Just come with me. I mean what's the worst that could happen? You hook up with some Italian girl?" countered Cato, not letting him off the hook so easily.

"No, the worst that could happen would be hooking up with Granger."

"I think you're lying." he said with a smirk.

"I think I don't give a damn." he replied back with a fake smile.

"I think you do. I think you're worried that Hermione's the only girl who won't fall for your bullshit." said Cato with a smirk.

Draco scowled and said, "I can get any girl I bloody well please, you and I both know that."

"Then it looks like we're going to Rome."

Cato, decided to leave before Draco had a chance to say no, and apparated to Diagon Alley. He knew that Draco would go, if only to prove that he was right. He would be furious, but he would go.

At least that's what Cato was hoping. He wanted to see his friend settle down and stop shagging all those dumb slags. He could see that Hermione would be good for him-great for him even.

Now the only trouble was going to be getting him to see that.

So basically...he had a lot of work to do.

Draco was stubborn and arrogant, but he had changed since the war, for the better. He knew it would be difficult to get him to get past his ego and admit that he fancied Hermione, but damn it all if he wasn't going to get him to do it.

Come hell or high water, Draco Malfoy was going to realize he had always had a thing for Hermione Granger.