Draco was always an early riser so it was to no surprise to find him already drinking his morning coffee at the table. I had just gotten out of the shower myself but he was already impeccably dressed and ready for the day.

"Morning."

He glanced up at me from his coffee cup that was perched in his hand, "Good morning." Draco began flipping through this morning's edition of The Daily Prophet when he spoke, "My mother owlled this morning asking for your accompaniment. Shopping, I'm assuming."

I perked up at this. I loved spending the day with Narcissa, "probably, you know how that woman loves to shop." I giggled. "Are you terribly busy today?"

He shook his head, "Not terribly, I have a meeting with someone from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement today. A product went wrong and we're trying to stay out of any legal troubles that it may have brought up."

We knew many people from the Ministry and it was always nice to do business with a friend. "Oh? Anyone we know?"

"From DMLE? No, I don't think so. They are sending a 'higher up' member of the squad, but I don't know who they are sending. Regardless, I'm sure he'll be fine and get us out of any trouble. Even the law enforcers have their price," Draco winked. In our world money could solve any problem…well any of his problems.

"Are you having the meeting here?I'm not sure when we'll be back."

"Yes, we'll either be in my office or my meeting room most likely, so don't worry about it." He smiled at me as he moved from the table to place a coffee cup on the tray left by the house elves, "Say, what about we go out for dinner tonight? To celebrate getting out of this legal problem and moving the business forward. "

"You don't know if you're out of it yet," I smiled back at him.

He came around behind where I was sitting at the table, placing his hands on the back of my chair, "Have I ever lost a case like this?" He smirked at me.

I rolled my eyes looking up at him, "of course not. I'm just saying you shouldn't count all your dragons before they hatch."

"Mmm," he placed a kiss to my neck, "so dinner?"

I titled my head, allowing him better access, "When should I be ready?"

"We'll leave at 6:30." Teeth sunk into skin and I released an animalistic noise.

I heard Draco chuckle in response but then also heard another voice.

"Am I interrupting something?"

I turned to see an amused Narcissa standing in the doorway, "No!" I squeaked out, feeling the heat rush to tinge my cheeks and nose.

Draco smirked at me before turning to his mother, "Come to steal her away?"

"Only for the morning, then you can ave her back."

"Good we have plans tonight."

"Are you ready?" She turned to ask me.

I jumped up from my chair, "yes, let's go."

"I'll see you later, have fun you two. Don't spend more than what a small country is worth," Draco joked knowing his mother and her spending tendencies.

We flood to a shopping district proceeded with our day, going into many shops and buying more than we could carry. Most of the packages and bags were sent straight back to our homes.

We decided to stop and get a small meal since I had skipped breakfast this morning.

While eating Narcissa spoke up, "Lucius bothered you last night after I left you two alone, didn't he?"

I chewed slowly, swallowing only when I had decided on telling her the truth, "He may have…" I felt like I was tattling on him.

"Don't listen to him, he's so angry all the time. He takes it out on anyone that he can. Unfortunately for you, you're the most fragile of us all." I didn't really know how to take that statement, was I fragile?

I did want her opinion on something. "Have you ever felt like your marriage was in trouble? You know since so much has happened while you were married?"

"Is something wrong?" She questioned instantly, wanting to know if something could possibly be wrong between Draco and I. If she only knew.

"No! Of course not," I pulled a face that the idea of marriage problems seemed simply ludicrous.

She seemed to think about it for a minute, "No, I don't suppose we've ever had problems…but I also don't allow that to happen."

"Hmm?" I questioned, trying not to seem too interested.

"I try my hardest to make sure my marriage works. The reason so many fail is because someone in the relationship stops trying, any marriage will work if you work hard enough."

I had my doubts about that statement but I didn't say anything. Could any marriage work? Probably not, but mine could. And I decided, right then and there, that I would do anything to make it work.


Narcissa and I were carrying a few small bags into the manor when I heard a screen door slam against the frame. I followed the noise and noticed a back door was open, the light screen door attached to it was blowing in the slight breeze. This caused it to hit against the frame every so often. I heard soft voices coming through the opened door. It caught my attention because no one should be around other than the house elves.

The both of us were obviously curious so we walked toward the open door. I heard the tinkle of feminine laughter come from the patio. Narcissa and I both gave each other questioning looks. Who could that be coming from? I turned the corner to see Draco and someone who was vaguely familiar sitting at the patio table, sheets of paper spread out between the two. The woman was dressed in a tight grey sweater, black pants, and black kitten heels. Oh how I loathed kitten heels. She was rather pretty though, I thought unhappily.

The brunette caught sight of me first, her eyes coming up to meet mine. She looked at Narcissa as well, a strained smile toying at her lips. Making a turn around signal with her hand she got Draco to do so.

"Astoria, mother." He called our way, "back so soon?"

"We've been gone for hours!" Narcissa rolled her eyes, holding up shopping were just two of the many of others that had already been brought into the house.

"Right. Well Astoria I don't believe you've ever properly met Hermione Granger. She's the new second in command of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement." And that's when I remembered who she was. The brightest witch. She had definitely changed, going from an awkward girl to a tall and slender woman. Puberty had certainly done her well, and she had needed it too.

"Working my way up there." She smiled brightly.

"Oh well…" I didn't know what to say to this woman. From my understanding Draco had always hated her, but he seemed perfectly friendly now. He was right though, I never had properly met her. I never really desired to either, after all she was just a mudblood. Still her new job title was impressive, "good for you."

"And as I'm sure you know this is my wife, Astoria."

"A pleasure," Hermione smiled at me. She really seemed pleasant, all smiles and friendliness (even to people who were horrible to her in the past) but something about her just made me feel uneasy.

"We figured since it was such a lovely day out we would conduct our meeting out here instead of the stuffy meeting room." Draco gave me the answer to one of my questions. Yet I couldn't see his incredibly large meeting room as "stuffy".

"How are you dear?" Narcissa asked the woman.

"I am wonderful." A huge smile, "and yourself?"

"Rather well myself." She arched an eyebrow, "Are you still with the Weasley boy? Ronald was it?" Narcissa asked, always one for information grabbing.

"Oh no," Hermione smiled shyly, "Ron and I are just friends. We tried to give it a go but after all was said and done we found it just didn't work for us. It was a little awkward at first, but we're okay now."

"Well that is too bad."

"No, we're very happy this way. He has moved on and is a very successful relationship currently," I swore she could tell Narcissa was dying to ask, "with Lavender Brown. They dated once in Hogwarts, but she's a lot less crazy now."

"What about that darling Harry Potter?"

I watched as Hermione struggled not to roll her eyes at Narcissa's comment. She let out a deep breath, "He's great. Ginny Weasley and he got married three years ago."

"I did hear about that, a little sad that I didn't get invited." Narcissa smirked at Hermione.

It was very clear that the two had some unresolved issues. "It wouldn't have been up to your standards. It looked nothing like Draco and Astoria's if what I hear is true. It was just cozy little wedding at the burrow."

I saw Narcissa visibly shudder. A wedding should never be called "cozy" in my books. I loved the grander of my wedding. "And you?"

"Married to my work." Hermione shrugged.

"No children?"

"Oh no, one day though," she smiled softly. "But Harry and Ginny are trying so I may be a godmother soon." She seemed to be handing over information willingly to Narcissa just to make her go away.

"I know how you feel, I'm waiting to be a grandmother."

"Mother!"

It was Hermione's turn to look curious. "Oh, are you…?" She looked at me, her eyes glancing at my flat stomach.

"No."

"We're not." Draco said firmly, staring at me. He turned to Hermione again, "maybe we should continue this inside of my office."

"Okay?" she questioned but moved to pick up her papers and put them in a neat folder. "It was nice to meet you, Astoria." She smiled at me.

Something in the back of my mind was nagging at me as I watched her follow my husband to his office. Something that told me this wouldn't be the last I saw of Hermione Granger.