Disclaimer: I am not the owner of the Harry Potter Series, people.

Incorporated

Draco could not believe where he was at that very moment. Pansy definitely had a death wish. His location, if it were up to him, would have been labeled Hell. The wedding planner Pansy had hired owned the most revolting shop in the word. It was worse than Madame Puddifoots on Valentines Day. The place was an explosion of flower and lace. It was maddening. He clutched onto the armchair of his plushy couch and tried to reign in his anger and breakfast.

"Draco, love, please release the armchair before you break it and have a look at this place in France near the Eiffel tower. Do you think you can afford it?"

Draco took a second to comprehend her sentence.

"Afford what?"

"This place," she said while pointing at one of the numerous books on the table.

"Why would I need to afford it?"

"You're paying for it."

"Excuse me? You better fucking explain yourself before I-!"

"Shhh Draco! Geez, at least try to act somewhat civilized."

Blaise laughed from where he sat stuffing his face with sugary cupcakes. It was nauseating. He wiped his mouth off with a napkin and proceeded to leer at Draco.

"In Pansy's wedding everyone involved pays for one thing to show their acceptance of the bond."

"Well I don't accept therefore I am not paying."

"Draco!"

Draco growled at Pansy and looked at the thing he was supposed to pay. She had to be kidding him. That kind of money didn't fucking grow on trees.

"You're shitting me right?"

"It's for the wedding of a lifetime! Please?"

"You better not be expecting a wedding gift."

"Thank you, Draco," Pansy said as she practically threw herself at him. He glowered.

After deciding on the colors for the wedding and having to pry the check for the wedding cite from Draco's surprisingly strong grasp, Pansy had decided they were done for the day. Draco checked his watch and sighed in relief, he had about twenty minutes before his lunch with Granger.

As they left the shop and headed down the road to the apparition point Draco frowned.

"Blaise what the hell are you paying?"

Blaise grinned and responded, "Well I am paying the caterers. If I am being forced to attend this love fest I might as well get a good meal out of it."

'Point taken,' Draco noted.

"Since I know you are going to ask, Draco, yes the remaining two of the Golden Trio are paying their half as well. Granger is buying invitations and flowers and Potter is paying the guest expenses at the hotel you guys will be staying in."

"What are you paying?"

"My wedding dress and Ron will be paying for his robes."

Draco nearly killed her. As they arrived at the apparition point he bid Blaise goodbye and gave Pansy a parting glare. He appeared in an alleyway near Caffé Rosso and walked towards the place. As he entered he noticed Hermione was already there.

"Hello Granger," he said as he sat down across from her. She peered over her tea cup at his disgruntled expression and said, "I take it the place Pansy picked was high on the price scale?"

"Paris! The bitch chose a place in Paris! This is unacceptable."

Hermione laughed and gestured for him to order. He called the waiter over and ordered a steak. He would drown his sorrows in food if he needed to. Hermione for her part ordered some chicken and fries. Simple.

"You remind me a lot of Blaise. That is just the kind of thing he would order."

"Oh?"

"Yes. So are those invitations and flowers going to set you back at all?"

"No not really…the invitations are probably the cheapest thing on her list. You and Harry got the brunt of it all. You are the richest of us, you deserve it," she said with a laugh.

"Not when I was the last to know," Draco said.

"Sorry about that, I felt bad not telling you," she said apologetically.

"Yea well maybe you could have warned me to save up money with something cryptic like 'a big expense is coming you're way, young Dragon. Beware.'"

That brought Hermione to tears in laughter. He enjoyed making her laugh and seem care-free. Hermione wiped her tears and grinned at Draco as he popped more steak into his mouth.

"I am not exactly Professor Trelawney, you know," she said grinning. He quickly flashed her a grin and continued eating his meal. After a minute he still felt her eyes on him. He looked up and raised an eyebrow in question.

"Thank you, Draco," she said softly and he understood. Thank you for making an effort to be there. Thank you for allowing me a moment's peace. Thank you for everything.

"You're welcome," he said serenely as he sipped a bit of his lemonade.

Hermione smiled and they ate peacefully together, for the first time in ages.

A week had past and Draco found himself once again in the sword fighting room with Harry. They were waiting for his students to arrive and were taking the time to polish their swords. Draco had brought his own sword this time. Harry had fallen in love with it. The handle was that of a snake winding upwards. The snake's body had jewels encrusted here and there and its eyes were emerald. The sword was built for speed and agility. It was appropriate that Draco should own it.

"It's a Malfoy heirloom," Draco had told Harry when he inquired about it. "It's the one I've used since I started training."

They made small talk and one by one Harry's students had started to appear. When everyone was present Harry cleared his throat to signal it was time to begin.

"Hello everyone, as you probably already noticed class will be a bit different today. He-," said Harry gesturing towards Malfoy, "and I will duel to show you exactly what you're suppose to be doing. Pay attention to our posture and quick movements since that's what you have been having trouble with. Would you like to introduce yourself?" he asked Draco a bit uncertainly.

Draco smirked and walked forward nonchalantly. His eyes and finger traced the sharp edge of his sword as he introduced himself.

"Hello, I am Draco Malfoy-" He waited a moment for them to gasp and process the information, "and I am going to be assisting Potter here in teaching you the art of sword fighting. Frankly from what I saw last week, you guys were dreadful. I am hoping I will be able to change that."

Some of the students shifted guiltily. However one of the students, Strauss, flushed angrily.

"What gives you the right to criticize-"demanded Strauss.

He didn't quite manage to finish that sentence for Draco's sword was suddenly at his throat. He hadn't even seen the man move. Draco's eyes bore into Strauss', his smirk was sinister.

"This situation right here gives me the right to criticize you," said Draco icily. "You're dead, Strauss. Do you know that?"

Harry watched amused as Malfoy taunted his student. Frankly he didn't like Strauss that much anyway. The guy was a know-it-all and had quite a holier-than-thou attitude. On the first day of class he had entered and quickly informed Harry to not be expecting any fawning from him just because he was The-Boy-Who-Lived. In fact, Strauss and Malfoy were similar now that he came to think about it. This would make for an interesting combination.

"Malfoy stop taunting my student," Harry said with an amused tone. Draco simply gave him an angelic look and removed his sword from Strauss's throat causing Harry to roll his eyes.

"Anyway, so first we're just going to give you a visual of what you're supposed to do, to get the basic ideas. As Malfoy and I duel we will be coaching and pointing out things as well. Pay attention, you will be tested on this."

He and Draco met at the center of the room as his students took their places on the sidelines.

"Scared, Potter?"

Harry grinned. He could feel the adrenalin that Malfoy provided him.

"You wish."

Draco attacked first and the duel began. This duel was better than the last one even if he had to coach through it. The determination on Malfoy's face was riveting. His skill could not be denied. Even Strauss was slack-jawed after the first five minutes. He dodged a particularly dangerous jab on Draco's part and smirked at Draco. Both of then had a thin sheen of sweat covering their faces and neck. Whereas he was sure he didn't look his best he was surprised how the sweat only seem to make Malfoy radiate.

It took quite a while but Malfoy finally gained the upper hand and Harry felt it sword fly out of his hand. The class burst into applause as Malfoy grabbed Harry and held the sword at his throat similar to what Harry did to Hawthorn in the lesson prior to that one. Harry smiled and clapped for Draco along with the rest as he tried not to notice how his back was pressed into Draco's chest and how Draco's warmth was pleasing. Draco let him go, much to Harry's disappointment, and did little bow for the class.

"Ok class," Harry said, "time to put what you just learned to the test." Draco and I will duel whoever feels like they can be a match for us based on what they learned today."

Strauss immediately stepped up. "I want to duel him," he said jerking his head towards Draco. Draco's answering grin was almost predatory.

In the end Draco had wiped the floor with Strauss. Their duel was done in about five minutes. Harry had dueled Hawthorn who had indeed improved. He made sure to congratulate him before he left. As they placed the swords on the racks and cast cleaning charms on themselves to rid of the sweat Harry studied Draco. His aura of arrogance wasn't as pronounced as before and he seemed more subdued. Harry took in Malfoy's physical appearance as he watched the man yawn. There was no denying that Malfoy was fit and he had grown his hair to his shoulder which allowed him to keep his youthful look.

'Wait a second', Harry thought, 'What the fuck am I thinking! I have a fucking wife which he kindly insulted earlier this month!' Harry smiled bitterly. 'Well it wasn't like what he said wasn't somewhat true.' He took the time to remember Ginny's rant about ferrets and perverts. She had attacked him with this rant when he had come home the day Malfoy had insulted her. He didn't much care for it and barely contained himself from commenting that maybe Malfoy had a fucking point.

His marriage with Ginny was not the marriage he had imagined it to be. At first Ginny was amazing but since the war, her fiery personality, which he loved, had subdued into dying embers. Also for the past few months Ginny, for the lack of a better word, had become a 'two-bit whore.' He had had to give Malfoy silent credit for that one, it was priceless. Harry didn't know how to tell her that her dressing habits were a bit disconcerting. He ignored her outfits and further ignored her as she flirted with her Quidditch mates. He barely went to her games anymore and when he did he planned his work week through most of it and made sure to clap at the appropriate times.

"Hey Potter, how's the Weaslette?"

Harry snapped out of it and took in what Malfoy was saying. Sometimes Malfoy was a bit too knowledgeable of what was running through Harry's mind.

"She's fine, Malfoy" Harry sighed.

"You don't sound very excited to talk about your wife. Trouble in paradise?" Draco said with a look that Harry was quickly realizing was some sort of Malfoy-esque concern.

"What paradise?"

"Now Potter I am sure she wasn't bad when you first married her."

"No, I guess not, but I can't really remember. Her actions lately have overshadowed any good quality I may have seen in her."

Draco gave him a calculating look before he headed towards the door. "I am off so nice working with you, Potter."

"Malfoy wait! Can you come back next week?"

"You actually want me to come back?" said Draco in a questioning tone as he hid his astonishment.

"Yea you are right. It was nice working with you and you're help obviously helped the trainees…"

"Uhm…well sure I guess. Same time next week?"

"Same time next week," Harry affirmed with a smile.

Draco gave him a nod before heading out the door. Harry was still smiling at the door Draco had just left through when Hermione popped her head in.

"Harry do you want to…" she trailed off as she took in his expression.

"Are you happy to see me or is the owner of that smile the person who just walked through this door?"

Hermione was lucky that Harry had enough sense to not throw a sword at her.

Authors Note: So I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm sorry I did not reveal Pansy's tattoo in this one. It won't be in the next either. I am entering school soon so my updates will probably be less frequent. I have the next chapter written and I will probably submit it tomorrow so keep an eye open for it. Reviews make me feliz!