Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I don't own.


The thing about Maggie was that when she was around it was hard for people to say no. Jasmine was relying on this for her encounter with Hermione. Today was the start of her elaborate plans to get Hermione and Draco together at her wedding. And to start those plans off she needed to establish more of a relationship with Hermione. Currently what they had was a friendly work place relationship, but she needed more than that for Draco not to suspect her meddling ways. And it was a perk that Jasmine actually did like and enjoy Hermione's company.

So, carrying Maggie on her hip, Jasmine approached Hermione as she was getting off of her shift. Jasmine's shift had just ended and Theo had been on time delivering Maggie into her arms with an amused smile on his face at his future wife's antics.

"Hey Hermione." Jasmine called with a smile.

"Hi Jasmine, what can I do for you?" Hermione replied taking note of the smiling toddler on Jasmine's hip.

Maggie really was a cute toddler, and even though she was dark where Jasmine was fair, the two just seemed to belong together.

"Well, I could use a woman's perspective on some things. Maggie and I are about to go shopping for some new furniture. Theo has found a bigger flat for the three of us and insists that we get all new furniture. Now I've only ever had hand me downs, so I have no idea what to get even armed with Theo's money."

Hermione nodded in understanding, "I've actually just finished redecorating my flat and know a good place for you."

"Is there any way you could take us there right now?"

Hermione smiled, "Of course, I don't have any plans."

Jasmine smiled pleasantly, while inside she was doing a victory dance. Her ruse hadn't been a lie: Theo really did want her to pick out new furniture for their new place and it was true that she really had no idea what to get. Her first instinct had been to call one of her sisters or her mother, but remembering her plan, Hermione had seemed to be the obvious choice.

A little while later the three of them arrived at a furniture store that sold both muggle and magical pieces. Jasmine and Maggie looked around the brightly lit place in wonder, taking in all the shapes and colors. Hermione, however, confidently led the way into the store and towards the living room pieces.

"Let's start with the living room. Do you know how much space you have to work with?"

Jasmine nodded and pulled a piece of parchment from her bag which displayed the floor plan of the entire flat. Hermione took the parchment and looked it over with a critical eye.

"This is a nice flat." She commented. "And you have plenty of space to work with. However, what kind of color schemes do you have in mind?"

Jasmine shrugged and set Maggie down on the floor, firmly taking her hand before she replied: "All I know is that we want Maggie's room to be shades of purple, as that is her favorite color."

Hermione nodded, "Okay, then let's start with Maggie's room."

After more than two hours of picking out furniture for the entire flat, all three of the girls were tired and in Maggie's case a bit grumpy. But that was okay because through the process of picking out furniture, Jasmine was sure that she and Hermione had started on a new course of their relationship. So she and Maggie parted ways with Hermione with smiles on their faces and headed home to where Theo was waiting for them expectantly.

"How much of my money did you spend?" He asked as he walked over and dropped a kiss to the top of Maggie's head and then pecked Jasmine on the lips quickly.

Jasmine set Maggie down and watched as she ran to find one of her dragons to play with before she turned back to Theo with a guilty expression her face. She had been raised pretty frugally, so it was crazy to her how much money she had spent today on furniture. If her mother ever found out, she'd have a stroke.

"More than I was comfortable with." Jasmine said guiltily.

Theo chuckled and pulled her into his arms. Her head only reached the middle of his chest, which he loved, especially when she burrowed her head in there just as she was at the moment. He had always been a fan of taller girls, but oddly Jasmine was the perfect fit for him despite the fact she was a good head shorter than he.

"It's okay. I wanted you to buy the furniture. However, I trust that you picked things that will last."

"Of course! I had Hermione help me just as I planned and she was very helpful."

"Hermione Granger would never buy something impractical, so that's a relief." Theo chuckled.

"Hey! I wouldn't have bought impractical things. I just needed help with style and the like."

Theo dropped a kiss on the top of her hair and laughed, "I know. So how did your bonding go?"

"As I planned." Jasmine replied happily. "From here on out I'll chat her up at work and go on a few lunch dates and then we're golden."

"Well it is only March, so there's plenty of time until the wedding on September fifth."

"Theo, my Mom needs all this information by May at the latest."

"Then I guess you better have a productive March and April."

Xxx

This night had been inevitable, ever since she went to Draco with her potion and salve. However, that didn't mean she had ever been looking forward to it. In fact, she had been putting it off for as long as she could. But Hermione could not ignore the desperate owl she had just received from Ginny.

Hermione,

I am about to crack! Harry has been asking questions about why Draco has been seen in the hospital and why you've been seen in public with him and I can't change the subject anymore. He is already suspicious of me and I know that he is only a moment away from asking me a question that I cannot lie about nor change the subject away from. Come tonight for dinner at 6:30 or I will tell him myself tonight.

Yours,

Ginny

There really wasn't much room for argument with Ginny's note. The truth about her dealings with Draco would be better coming from her mouth, because unlike Ginny, she knew every detail of the business relationship and also would remain calm under Harry's gaze to rationally explain everything.

When Hermione arrived at the Potter household at six twenty five, she was greeted at the door by Harry, who was carrying James up on his shoulder. Hermione smiled at her best friend and stroked the top of James' head with a light finger. He was out like a light.

"Ginny is in the kitchen, I'm about to put him down." Harry stated.

With a nod Hermione headed into the kitchen where Ginny was putting the final touches on dinner. At the sound of her approach Ginny looked up and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that it was Hermione.

"Thank Merlin."

"You don't really think this is going to go bad do you?" Hermione asked anxiously.

Personally, she thought that once she explained her reasoning Harry would accept and appreciate what she had done. Of course, he had to let her explain that first.

Ginny shrugged, "Probably not. I'm just a nervous wreck. I don't keep things from Harry, you know that."

Hermione chuckled at that because Ginny pretty much told Harry everything: including intimate details about her time of the month and her visits to the doctor.

"But just in case, I made Harry's favorite dishes tonight."

Sure enough, Harry's eyes lit up when he took in the spread before him once the three of them were seated at the dining room table. For the first five minutes or so nothing was said besides 'pass me the potatoes please' or 'this is delicious, Ginny'. But once Harry had put a large dent into what was on his plate, Hermione decided to broach the topic.

"So, do you remember my potion I mentioned to you a while back?" Hermione asked suddenly, causing Ginny to jerk her attention from her plate across the table to where her husband sat.

"Yeah." Harry replied.

"Well, I decided to go to Draco Malfoy with my ideas since he does own the most respected potion company. He liked my idea and the two of us worked on-"

"Draco Malfoy?" Harry asked incredulously.

Hermione nodded, "He is the head of the company, so I figured it was best to go to the source."

Harry seemed to be digesting what Hermione was saying and nodded to Hermione that she should continue. So far so good: he was an adult now, not some emotional teenager with the weight of the wizarding world on his shoulders.

"He liked my idea and was even willing to be a test subject for my salve. In fact, his dark mark is almost invisible. And, as you know, the potion has been helping me out daily since I found the right ingredient combination."

"He actually wanted to get rid of his dark mark?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Yes, he regrets his past, Harry. I'm sure you're thinking that he just acts like he accepts everything because that's how society is now, but that's not true. He accepts everything because he has changed and he hates being branded with dark magic. The salve won't completely take the mark away, he'll have to apply it daily, but it allows him a sense of freedom."

Harry scoffed, "He should be reminded of what he was so willing to do at one point."

"Yes, but that was at one point. He was young and misguided, you can relate, I know you can. I'm not about to debate how he's changed and why, that's his story to tell, but I trust him. In fact, we've become friends through this business partnership of ours. And I wanted you to know that the potion is going to go public soon: his team at the company loved it and is working on it as we speak."

Harry sighed and ran a hand through his always disheveled dark hair, "Congratulations Hermione, I knew you could do it. And I have to admit that if anyone could get you this success, it is Draco Malfoy. I may not like him, I probably never will, but I have to admit he does have good business sense."

With that said the three went back to quietly eating their dinner. Until Ginny started to relate her day of clothes shopping with James and how she'd bought him the cutest little stuffed dragon, which immediately turned Hermione's thoughts to Maggie. While shopping today with Jasmine and Maggie, the little girl had all the while clutched on to a purple dragon quite affectionately. Jasmine, having seen her looking at the stuffed dragon, told her Draco had bought her a whole colorful family of them.

"You know Jasmine, Draco's friend, the girl who works in the ward with me?" Hermione asked.

Ginny nodded and Harry said he had a vague idea from what Ginny had told him.

"Well, she and Theodore Nott are engaged to be married. I was with Jasmine and Nott's little girl today helping her pick out furniture."

"I didn't know you two were friends." Ginny said in surprise.

Hermione shrugged, "We've never really interacted outside work before, but she needed some help and she's not so bad to be around."

"Wait. Was she the one that you always complained about being late?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Hermione chuckled, "but she's gotten better, especially after she got a new shift."

"And Theo Nott: was it true what they said in the paper about his daughter and her deranged muggle uncle?"

Hermione nodded, "I was there when he brought her into the hospital. I took care of her, actually. She's a precious little girl and couldn't be more loved by Theo and Jasmine from what I can tell."

Ginny smiled, "That guy deserves some happiness after that bistro accident."

Hermione cringed at the memory of working on repairing Theo's destroyed face months ago. Thankfully, they had been able to leave him with a normal life. According to Jasmine, he didn't seem to mind the few scars he had and neither did those who looked upon him.

"Malfoy will be giving you your share of the profits I hope." Harry said suddenly.

"Of course, not that I was in it for the money anyway."

"Well, just remember: despite the fact that he has changed a Slytherin is always a Slytherin."

"And a Gryffindor is always a Gryffindor." Hermione replied wryly.

Xxx

After leaving the Potter residence, Hermione returned back to her flat eager to crawl under the covers and fall asleep with her cat, Crookshanks. He was getting on in age, but he seemed too stubborn to leave Hermione any time soon. He was waiting for her by the door when she entered and eagerly followed her into the kitchen where she pulled out his favorite wet food, chicken and liver feast, and plopped it into his bowl.

"Enjoy." She chuckled, before moving on to her bedroom to slip into her comfortable pajamas.

Once her pajamas were on she ventured out into the living room and found an owl patiently waiting for her on the window seal. Crookshanks was staring up at the owl, his tail slowly swishing back and forth as he contemplated his next move. But Hermione beat him to it as she opened the window and quickly accepted the letter. She was about to slip him a treat, but the owl flew away too quickly. He probably saw Crookshanks lick his lips.

Hermione,

Both the potion team and the advertising team want to meet with you tomorrow. I know that you are a busy healer, so I've persuaded both teams to wait until four o clock when I know your shift is over, thanks to Jasmine. The ad team has already come up with a mock up, so anything they have won't take too long. However, I can't make any promises for how long the potion team will take; they seem to be very impressed with your potion and are eager to pick your brain about it.

See you tomorrow,

Draco Malfoy

Xxx

Hermione's shift at the hospital the next day passed by quickly. She had shared a pleasant lunch with Jasmine in the break room and, other than a slight emergency in the early afternoon, she mostly just spent her time doing rounds and working on charts. So, when four arrived she said goodbye to Jasmine and headed to Malfoy Potions Incorporated.

Draco's secretary, Mrs. Poppin, was in the middle of packing up for the day when Hermione arrived on the floor where Draco's office was housed. Mrs. Poppin looked up from her purse and smiled at Hermione, immediately recognizing her from the many lunch meetings she and Draco had had the past few weeks.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Granger."

"Hello Mrs. Poppin, is Draco in his office?"

She nodded, "Yes, he is. Just go ahead and go in, he's been waiting for you."

Even though she had been given permission to just go inside, Hermione didn't feel right about barging into Draco's office. So, she lifted a hand and lightly knocked on the solid oak of his office door. She only had to wait a second before a 'come in' answered her knock.

Draco was sitting behind his desk finishing putting his signature on documents for the company when Hermione entered and shut the door behind her. He looked up at the sound of the closing door and smiled up at Hermione.

"Let me sign this last document and then the two of us will go meet the advertising team. I know they're eager to get this done so they can go home."

"I feel bad that they've had to stay late." Hermione sighed.

Draco waved a dismissive hand before putting quill back to paper, "Don't worry about it. Most of the team doesn't have lives. Only Johnson has a family and lately he's been eager to put in extra time."

Hermione rolled her eyes at Draco. While he had changed for the most part, there was a certain amount of snarkiness that would never change about Draco. It would just be too strange if it did and it wasn't as if it was meant to be cruel anymore, just matter of fact.

Once Draco was done with his documents, he and Hermione made their way to the lift where Draco proceeded to hit a button that conducted them to the advertising floor. Like every other floor in the building, it was designed simply but with a sense of style. There were plenty of windows to let light in and the walls were painted a warm beige color accented by dark browns and light greens.

The team, which consisted of three members, was waiting for the two of them in a small conference room half way down the hall.

"Everyone, this is Hermione Granger and these three are Johnson, Pellet, and Masterson."

Hermione smiled kindly at the three wizards and took the seat Draco indicated next to where he sat himself down. Once they were seated the team of three immediately launched into their idea for the ad campaign for the potion.

"We want you to be the face of the potion, Ms. Granger. Research has shown that the public is very responsive to you and your two best friends, as would be expected. So, why not use this to our favor? Mr. Malfoy told us that you are a user of the potion yourself, is that right?"

Hermione nodded, "Yes, that is true. But I don't want to be the face of the advertisement."

"At least let them tell you how they want to use you, Granger."

"It would be just a simple picture of you drinking the potion. And the script to accompany the picture would say: 'Hermione Granger: Healer, war hero, and victim of the pains of residual dark magic. But with the blank potion, pain is no longer a concern for this busy witch.' Of course we're not calling the potion 'blank', Mr. Malfoy told us that it was up to you to come up with a name."

Hermione looked thoughtful. Even though she had poured a lot of time and effort into this potion, she had never really thought as far as what to name the potion. In the scheme of things it just didn't seem that important. Of course, most potions were named for their practical purposes, such as the calming draught, pepper up potion, and skele -grow. So, why not pick something along those lines?

"Why not just dark magic pain potion?"

"No offense, Granger, but that's extremely dull." Draco chuckled. "I thought a brilliant witch like you would have a fancy name for it."

Huffing, Hermione crossed her arms as she scraped her memory for the little Latin she knew. Unfortunately, her Spanish knowledge was clouding most of her Latin, but after a few minutes she was confident she had come up with something satisfactory enough for a potion.

"Dolor de opacus magia," Hermione said proudly, "Dolor meaning pain, opacus dark, and magia magic. Is that fancy enough for you, Malfoy?"

"We love it!" Johnson said excitedly. "Hermione Granger: Healer, war hero, and victim of the pains of residual dark magic. But with dolor de opacus magia potion, pain is no longer a concern for this busy witch."

Hermione shrugged, "It seems like a mouthful, but you three are the advertising experts, not me."

"Does this mean you'll do the ad?" Draco asked hopefully.

Hermione looked into Draco's hopeful gray eyes and sighed, "All I have to do is have you take a picture of me while I drink the potion?"

"Yes."

"And where will this ad be?"

"Mostly the newspapers and magazines." Johnson answered.

"Fine."

"Great, we'll hire a photographer and make up crew-"

"Make up crew?" Hermione asked incredulously cutting Draco off.

He gave her a look as if to say well duh, and said: "Of course. You want to look your best for your appearance in the ads don't you? If not, people will be focused on that over the potion and we can't have that."

Hermione shook her head, disgusted, even though she knew Draco was right. Most of the reason she fought so hard to stay out of the public eye after the war was because of her experience immediately following the final battle. After just a week most of the serious issues of the war had grown boring for most of the public and had, therefore, turned their attention to who was dating whom in the Golden Trio and what Hermione should do about her hair.

After quietly taking advice about a hair serum, which resulted in a lot tamer hair for Hermione, she had quietly removed herself from the public eye, along with Harry and Ron. Of course, after Ron's death only a year ago the press had immediately tried to hunt her down again, but she was too smart to let them get the best of her again. There was no way her tear stained face was going to end up in the Daily Prophet for everyone to see. They had finally given up on her and, while every once in a while Hermione saw someone with a camera stalking after her, a simple confundus usually got rid of them.

"We'll set that up and I'll owl you with the date for the photo to be taken." Draco said. "Now, let's head down to the brewing floor to meet with that team."

Without a second glance at the team of three, Draco led Hermione from the conference room and once again back to the lift. The brewery was underground on the last floor of the building and was under extreme security to keep those who sought out MPI's secret ingredients, as well as unqualified people that may bring danger to the floor.

The team was waiting for them in a special room of the brewery, assembled around a large cauldron which Hermione immediately recognized as brewing a mass amount of her potion.

"Ms. Granger! It's an honor to see the creator of the potion once again. I don't know if you remember me, but I'm Adrian Pucey."

Hermione took in the appearance of the man dressed in robes stained by numerous potions and realized that she did, indeed, recognize him. Not that she had ever really had a significant interaction with him, but she remembered his face from around Hogwarts.

"Yes, you do look familiar." She replied.

"Both myself and my team are interested in picking your brain about how you came to the conclusion about this ingredients. I would have never thought about using…"

At this point Draco tuned out and stood back and watched as the team of four stared at Hermione in adoration as she explained her choices and her processes for the entire potion. They were even more fascinated when she talked about the salve that would not be made for mass production and when she said that he, himself, had been using the salve she insisted he come over and show everyone his arm.

With a sigh, he rolled up his shirtsleeve and showed his employees his now blank arm. After this morning's application he had watched in amazement as the faint lines of the dark mark receded to nothing until he was left with nothing but a stretch of pale forearm.

"Amazing!" Pucey exclaimed.

"Draco! You didn't tell me that it had completely disappeared!" Hermione yelled in happy surprise.

"It just happened this morning." Draco replied.

Hermione smiled, "Well, remember to keep up with applications and if it comes back despite that let me know." Then turning back to the team she explained, "Just like the potion, the salve has to be of continued use since it cannot completely eradicate the dark magic: only subdue it for a while."

Pucey nodded with a grin, "Otherwise, it wouldn't be profitable."

Hermione shook her head, "That's not the point. If I could've made it so it was a onetime thing, I would have. But in order to achieve such a thing, the measurement of ingredients would have had to be upped which would then serve to poison the taker."

That shut the potion team up, Draco thought with satisfaction. Pucey was a brilliant brewer, but he could be bloody annoying sometimes. And his team were like a bunch of little puppies: always willing to follow Pucey blindly.

After fifteen more minutes of questions the potion team was finally satisfied and Draco immediately pulled Hermione along to the lift in order to escape the brewery floor. Once in the lift his stomach rumbled, causing Hermione to look at him in amusement.

"Hungry?"

"Obviously. How about I treat you to dinner after that hour of torture I put you through?"

Hermione laughed, "It wasn't torture, Draco. And I would love that, but I have a stew waiting for me in my slow cooker and I've been craving it all day."

Draco's brow wrinkled in confusion. Although he felt like he had some vague idea of what a slow cooker was thanks to the cookbook Jasmine got him, he still wasn't entirely positive what Hermione was referring to.

Hermione saw his look of confusion and hurried to explain: "It's a muggle cooking device, obviously. You put your food in it in the morning and it cooks on low heat the entire day. If you'd like, you can come to my place and have some of my stew. You certainly sound hungry enough for it."

"Are you a good cook?" Draco asked skeptically.

"I learned all my cooking from my Mum, so while I tend to cook the muggle way, I've been told it's all very delicious."

"By whom?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, "My parents, Harry, Ginny, and Ron never complained."

Draco chuckled, "If I remember correctly, Weasley ate just about anything. But alright, I'll try it. Though I have to warn you, Meredith did cook for me before and it might have spoiled me to muggle cooking."

Hermione nodded, "Fair enough."

After arriving at an apparation point, Hermione grabbed Draco's hand and apparated the two of them directly in front of her flat door. Then with a wave of her wand to open the wards for her and Draco, she opened the door and the two of them stepped inside.

Hermione immediately moved towards the kitchen, where a delicious scent was wafting from, and to Draco said: "Make yourself comfortable."

Draco looked around her living room curiously, noting how neat and orderly everything was. One whole wall was taken up by two large bookcases, both filled to the brim with books of all shapes and styles, and judging from the titles: both muggle and magical books. A cream couch and arm chair sat facing a black square object which Draco recognized as a muggle television. Her walls were a pleasant maroon color; not too Gryffindor-y to turn him off, but tasteful when paired with the accenting cream color.

Draco was about to take a seat on her comfy looking couch when a streak of orange stopped him in his tracks.

"What the bloody hell?" He muttered looking around for what he had only seen very briefly. Seeing nothing, Draco proceeded to sit down, only to be halted by a hiss.

Spinning around Draco stared down at the angry orange cat with a smushed in face; a cat he recognized from the halls of Hogwarts, specifically chasing a rat back in third year. He and the Slytherins used to make fun of Hermione Granger's ugly cat, but they had always been careful to keep their distance and with just cause!

"What's going on out there?" Hermione called from the kitchen.

"I just met your cat." Draco replied, still engaged in a staring contest with the orange fur ball.

Hermione laughed, "You must have tried to take Crookshank's seat on the couch: that's his spot."

"As I just learned." Draco said with a glare to the cat before he sat down in the armchair.

The cat continued to watch him with assessing eyes, completely freaking Draco out. It was like the cat could see into his soul with those slitty little eyes of his. Cursing, Draco stood up and walked into the kitchen where Hermione had filled two bowls of stew and had them placed on her little kitchen table nestled into the corner of the room next to the window.

"Perfect timing." She smiled as he walked into the room. "What would you like to drink? I've got pumpkin juice."

"I'll have some of that, thanks."

Once Hermione had poured two glasses of juice she joined him at the table and the two began to eat her stew. Draco moaned in pleasure at his first bite; the meat was tender and just plain delicious, as were the vegetables.

Hermione chuckled at his expression, "I take that as a moan of appreciation."

"It was. You can cook, Hermione."

Hermione smiled in pleasure, "You weren't so bad yourself when you made us those omelets; I still haven't mastered the art of cooking eggs in any way besides hard boiling."

"It was actually surprisingly easy. If someone like me, who barely even prepared food magically up until a few years ago, can do it, so can you."

"You'll have to teach me sometime. My Mum has tried in the past, but even her omelets don't taste as good as yours did."

Draco beamed at her praise, a wide smile completely transforming his face, which Hermione immediately noted.

"So this ad…it isn't going to be provocative is it?" Hermione asked cautiously.

Draco shook his head, "Of course not! Most of the people we're selling this to are older people. The honest angle is the best. If we were selling to young men, then yes. Don't worry about it: the photographer I work with is the best at what he does."

"Good, I'd rather have as much of the spotlight off me as I can."

"Understandable."

After Draco had eaten three bowls of Hermione's stew, he said goodnight to her and after one last glare aimed at Crookshanks walked out of her flat and apparated home.