At the start of the work day, both Draco and Hermione discovered that their Lords and Masters were absent. Draco was not in a particular hurry to Forex, so Hermione suggested that he come down with her to the vaults to help her locate an item Bill had asked her to find.

Draco tried to hide his elation at the prospect of having something interesting to do. 'Yeah, I suppose.'

Down they travelled deep into the bank's bowels. Hermione unlocked a vault using the security spell Bill gave her.

Stepping in behind her, Draco looked around. Unlike his family's vaults, which were stuffed to the gills with Galleons, jewellery and other things rich people have, this vault looked more like a dusty warehouse.

Hermione looked at his suit apologetically. 'This is why Bill and I don't dress up for our jobs,' she quipped.

No complaints here, Draco thought as he took in her tight denim capris and grey tank top. Shrugging, he took off his suit jacket and tie, and strolled up to Hermione, who was holding a parchment and looking thoughtful.

'What are we looking for?' he asked.

'According to this, we're looking for a gold and onyx statue of a scorpion,' she replied, looking around. 'Bill's found one that's cursed, and he believes its uncursed twin is in one of these boxes. He wants to study the uncursed one before having a go at the cursed one.'

Draco followed her gaze. Merlin's mistresses, there were thousands of boxes.

He pulled out his wand. 'Can we use these?' he asked warily.

Hermione grinned. 'Of course we can!'

Even with their wands and combined intelligence, it took the better part of three hours to locate the scorpion. And Draco was the one who found it.

'Well done!' Hermione cheered when he emerged from a tottering tower of boxes, clutching the scorpion like it was the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup.

Draco celebrated his achievement by doing a little strutting and posturing, reducing Hermione to fits of laughter.

'Come on, you,' she said, grabbing his jacket and tie. 'Let's get you above-ground so you can clean up and go back to Forex-ing.'

'Hell, no,' Draco retorted. 'I found this baby, so I want to see this assignment through to the end!'

Hermione shrugged agreeably. 'I'm parched. Fancy a cuppa while we put ol' Scorpy here through its paces?'

Come to think of it, Draco's throat was on the dusty side, too. 'Good idea. Lead on!'

Hermione suspected something was wrong the second she opened the door to Bill's office. He left a note with the security code, saying not to expect him back until the afternoon, but -

Draco noticed Hermione's frown. 'What's' –

'Shh!' Hermione shushed. 'I think there's an intruder in Bill's office.'

Immediately, Draco pulled out his wand. 'Let me go first,' he whispered, moving past her.

The 'independent woman' side of Hermione was about to tell him to get knotted, but pragmatic Hermione won the argument. If there was an intruder, there wasn't any point sacrificing herself to whatever violence may be forthcoming if there was a perfectly acceptable human offering to go first.

When Hermione quietly closed the door, Draco heard a noise. A shuffle, a rustle. It was somewhere in the back of the office.

Signalling Hermione and putting his finger to his lips, he indicated the direction where he thought the noise was coming from. Together, wands drawn, the pair tiptoed around bookshelves and desks and cupboards and towers of boxes and papers, with the mystery sounds slowly getting louder.

Then, Draco heard another sound. Sort of like a squeak combined with a... moan?

Huh? It sounded like...

Eventually, he peered around a dilapidated suit of armour – and quickly drew his head back. Frantically, he indicated to Hermione to retreat, on the double.

'Why?' she mouthed. 'What did you see?'

'Nothing!' he mouthed back. 'Go! Go!'

But in his haste, Draco knocked the suit of armour's enormous accompanying pike over, and it went a-clattering to the floor at a great rate of decibels.

Behind Draco came lots more rustling, and also some cursing. 'Who's there?' came Bill's authoritative tones.

Hermione beamed in relief. 'Bill!' she laughed, shouldering past Draco, who was acting very oddly, trying to hold her back. 'I thought you were an intruder' –

But when she rounded the armour, she stopped short, and her mouth fell open.

For not only was Bill ensconced in the back of the office, he was also ensconced in the bosom of the lovely Fleur Delacour.

Who was wearing the sapphire ring Hermione admired so much on her left ring finger.