Hermione

Hermione stumbled into Astoria's room after dinner, her eyes were bleary and her limbs felt heavy. It was dark now, and if she had it her way she'd be curled up on her cot on the floor. But Astoria needed attending to, Astoria always seemed to need attending to.

"'Mione!" Astoria squeaked, flying out of bed. "Where have you been?" She was wearing a soft pink satin night gown, and her hair was still in the chignon it had been in this morning. This morning, shit. Her best friend had the most stressful experience of her life and Hermione wasn't there to support her; her gut flipped with guilt over her early twinge of guilt.

"Had some things to do," She groaned, sinking into the edge of the bed as Astoria flopped backwards. "I'm so sorry."

"This morning was such a disaster. I clammed up. I had nothing to say, nothing. I've never felt more stupid."Her voice was muffled as she dragged her hands down her face, staring up at the ceiling. Hermone sighed, taking Astoria's hand in hers to console the younger girl, it wasn't easy for her. In fact it was ridiculous that she was getting married off this young, let alone to someone as difficult to deal with as Draco. When had they gotten onto a first name basis? She supposed it was when she collapsed in his arms but she wasn't quite in the mood to think about that right now. She turned her attention back to the problem in front of her.

"Oh Tori, you are not stupid, whatever happened is not your fault, I'll help you as much as I can to get you ready, you'll be okay we'll make it work." She assured the other girl, contemplating what she could do to help. She could offer her valuable expertise in making a fool out of yourself, but it seemed like Astoria kind of had that in the bag.

"Mione! I sneezed tea on him." Astoria blurted, finally getting to the root of the problem. The image immediately presented itself to Hermione's imagination and she could honestly say it was one of the most beautiful things that she had ever pictured in her life.

"You what?" Hermione tried, she really genuinely tried, but she wasn't that strong. She burst out laughing, sputtering and gasping and clapping in the most unladylike way possible. Astoria buried her face in her hands, turning a violent purple with embarrassment.

"I know, I know it was horrible." Astoria whined. Hermione would comfort her, once she could breathe again. Astoria flung a pillow at her head, but it didn't stop Hermione from laughing for another two minutes, until Astoria joined in, then she didn't stop for what felt like hours. It wasn't a terrible way to spend an evening.

Draco

The morning after The Incident Draco spent some time with an old tutor discussing current events and politics, then he wallowed for a bit in his own uselessness, then he kicked Blaise out for being a pain in the arse, then he was prepared to do it a second time when there was a knock.

"Hello?" He asked curiously as he swung it open. Hermione was standing in the hallway, well he lasted a solid eighteen hours, seems like enough distance to him.

"I'm delivering a letter from Her Lady Astoria." She said simply, handing him the yellow envelope that he had no doubt had been scented to match Astoria's cloying pineapple aroma. She looked down, very carefully, courteously not looking up as she held the letter out. She was being careful, reminding him of her closeness to his soon to be fiancee, which was awkward, but he spent most of his time pointedly not thinking of the youngest Greengrass daughter, he could keep it up.

"Do come in." He teased, opening his door and gesturing her inside. She froze.

"Sir?" She asked carefully, peeking up at him from beneath her eyelashes. It struck him how delicate her features were, he had clearly misjudged her.

"I'm not dismissing you until you come in, and I know you won't just leave, I don't know why, but I know you won't." He challenged, pleased when she didn't even bother responding and just slipped inside of his sitting room. She eyed the couch warily. "Just a couple questions, then I'll leave you alone." She nodded, dropping the letter on his coffee table and taking the arm chair as he took the farthest side of the couch. He wasn't even sure what questions he was going to ask at first, her just knew that he was confused. Then the questions started popping out.

"Why'd you leave?" He sounded scarily hurt before he could check it. He wasn't hurt, just curious. He swore.

"I had things to do." She answered without looking up. It was a lie, but he was used to them.

"How are you not trained?" He demanded. She flinched, so he softened his tone slightly, "You're bad at it." Okay maybe slightly was an exaggeration.

"What?" She snapped, irritation slipping into her tone. He appreciated the coarseness, it was the first hint of honesty he had seen from her today.

"Resisting." He clarified, she stiffened.

"What?" It seemed less like confusion and more like outrage at this point.

"I'd like to help you; its' kind of a train wreck if that's how you react to every alpha." He didn't know who was speaking because it certainly wasn't him, he wouldn't have made such a dumb ass offer, would he?

"Daphne doesn't typically grab the back of my neck." She hissed, and that was better, she was more real when she was angry, a part of him liked getting on his nerves.

"Scent mark." He corrected easily.

"What?" She repeated, and wasn't she just starting to sound like a ripped Howler. How did she know nothing about this, it was her own biology.

"My scent, my pheromones, on your neck would've convinced whoever was coming that we were screwing." He replied sharply, allowing his language to get a little crude, maybe it would wake her up. It did. Her eyes snapped up, glaring at him.

"And how does that help me?" She hissed, her hands digging into the arm rests of his chair. That's it, angry Hermione was almost as interesting as O Space Hermione.

"You don't get killed for theft." He snarled, and the color drained out of her face. Apparently, she had forgotten the cause of their issues, her intrusion.

"I wasn't stealing, I swear on my powers as a witch, I was just delivering something for a friend. Nothing nefarious I swear." She promised genuinely, and he believed her, no one made promises on their powers lightly, but he probably should turn her in anyway, it would be his bollocks if she turned out to be a spy and he let her get away with it. He should, but was he going to, no.

"Mmmm, it's a good thing my father and I aren't exactly on speaking terms then, huh?" He shrugged, pleased to watch the relief spread across her face.

"I guess so." She nodded timidly, doing that eyelashes thing.

"In return, you should let me help you. It's really not safe for you to be that susceptible." He pushed, and maybe he was really concerned for her safety, and maybe she was a good distraction for his impending engagement, either way, he wasn't relenting so easily.

"While I appreciate the offer, I'm afraid I have to decline." She answered formally, sliding out the door without waiting to be dismissed, leaving Draco with a sickly sweet envelope and burning curiosity.

Hermione

Daphne sneezed. Blaise coughed. Hermione peered over the top of her book, and yes, Blaise and Daphne were still facing entirely opposite directions. Since the fiasco of the one and only formal dinner at the Malfoy estate, Lady Greengrass had insisted that her eldest daughter spend more time with her fiancé, naturally, Hermione was tasked with overseeing said 'quality time.' The mother had been concerned that Katie would be too easy going and Daphne's virtue would be compromised.

From where Hermione sat, that was probably a miscalculation. Daphne and Blaise hadn't looked at each other since they arrived, they had walked to exact opposite ends of the library, Daphne grabbing a set of law books and Blaise choosing a volume on natural philosophy. Hermione was reviewing some of the etiquette books Minerva had given her and worrying. The stickiness of the leather chair was uncomfortable against her, and she shifted, the quiet noise loud in the silent room. Daphne shot her an irritated look, and Hermione shrunk automatically, before reminding herself that she was the chaperone in this situation.

No matter how reluctant she was to admit it, she was bad at holding her own. In fact, she was terrible at it, utterly useless. Most importantly, she was absolutely awful at resisting Draco Malfoy. Maybe it was just that he was attractive. That simple. She had never been legitimately attracted to an alpha before this. Maybe it was the fact that she could never anticipate his next move to be ready for it. Maybe it was just that if she didn't focus she ended up daydreaming about shagging him. Who knew?

Any angle she looked at it, it was a fiasco. She was going to be a manager, an honest to goodness manager, and she had promised she'd be in control of her biology. She had to be perfect.

She prided herself on her rationality and knew that she couldn't hesitate to deal with her problems, not when the time crunch was so near. She has to go to the source.

She cleared her throat and stood up, ignoring Blaise's disgusted glare.

"Time to go Daphne, I have a matter to attend to." She announced. The other girl shrugged and left gratefully, and Hermione just barely caught Blaise sighing softly as he slumped with relief.

Draco

Draco supposed he probably should've been expecting her.

There was a sharp rap on the outer door to his quarters when he was in his sitting room reading that night. His father didn't believe he had a brain, but that didn't mean Draco couldn't use it to study well enough so that he could prove him wrong someday.

The knock surprised him, but he set down his book quietly and carefully opened his door. The omega was standing there, chin tilted up pride fully with her arms crossed against her chest. He raised an eyebrow; she lifted one back. He smirked; her mouth slipped into a pout. He didn't say anything, sparing her the embarrassment of asking as he welcomed her into his sitting room for the second time that day.

She lowered herself onto one end of the couch and he courteously did the same; she seemed nervous enough without him helping. He caught the rich scent of cherries, and for a single beat he wondered if it would be his control that would be the problem.

"I'm going to tell you everything I'm going to do before I do it okay?" He offered quietly, this all seemed too delicate to speak loudly about.

She nodded. "I want verbal confirmation. " He stressed. He knew what the rules were now, and he knew that surprising her too badly would only end with her passed out on his couch.

"Okay." She agreed, and her hands shook a little bit.

"The key is to stay present. So I need you to identify the moment you start to feel like you're slipping by saying the least sexual word you can think of. " He used his most professional, talking to visiting nobles voice, with less charm.

"Astoria." She offered, and wow, that was a little unexpected. He didn't particularly like the reminder that she worked for his pre fiancée, but it would definitely work as a mood killer.

"Well then" He said out loud, eyeing her for the unexpected outburst.

"It will work won't it?" She challenged, a tad confrontational. He liked it.

"Yes, it definitely will." He assured her, shaking his head slightly as he did it. "I'm gonna start pretty neutral, okay?" He promised, reaching for her hand slowly, "Just touching your hands, okay?"

"Okay." She nodded, holding out her arm.

He trailed two fingers over the soft skin of her inner wrist, moving in wide circles, eventually he slipped to just one, drawing the curves of the Malfoy seal, which always seemed to be floating somewhere in his subconscious. She shivered, which prompted him to look up at her face for the first time since they had started. Her eyes were wide and he noticed again how warm the color is, with tiny flecks of gold.

"You doing okay?" He asked her carefully. She nodded, her eyes not leaving the spot his finger was tracing. "I'm going to move on, just your forearm, don't forget to focus."

"That's fine," She murmured coolly, and he chuckled to himself, he might have even believed it if she wasn't sitting ramrod straight, staring at his hand.

"Tell me about yourself." He requested, trying to break some of the tension.

"No." She snapped, and he glanced up at her with surprise at first, until he saw the tiny hint of a smile.

"Okay, proving that you're not affected, that's good, but I was hoping to hear an answer." He smiled back, teasing her a little bit as he let his own professional exterior relax.

"You first." She challenged as the two fingers made its first pass up the length of her arm, turning back at the inside of her elbow. This was about trust, he wouldn't go any farther than exactly what she agreed to.

"Fine, what do you want to know?" He shrugged; it wasn't as if he had that many secrets. The court gossip covered most of it.

"Why are you helping me?" She asked timidly, refusing to look up at him. He wasn't sure he fully understood the answer but he figured that he had been enough of a dick in the past that she deserved an attempt.

"I've been trying this new thing lately, it's called not being an arse all the time." He offered as an answer. She laughed; he liked the way it sounded.

"This goes a little bit beyond that." She teased, before closing her eyes as he lingered on a particularly sensitive part of her arm. Huh, he didn't realize there were THAT many sensitive parts of a person's arm, maybe he should explore more often, usually he just stuck to his favorite spots on a bird.

"Still with me?" He asked casually when her eyes didn't open, her head bobbed before she sat up straight again as she blinked sleepily.

"Sorry, sleepy not Alpha Drunk, promise." She teased, a little glimmer in her eyes.

"I believe you, if you're that tired we can end here, pick up another day?" He offered, a little hesitant to stop, especially since there was no guarantee that she'd actually come back.

"Absolutely." She nodded, standing up slowly, he let her his fingers trail down the length of her arm and palm as she stood. He watched her stiffen even as she pretended not to notice.

"I'll escort you back." He offered, standing to follow her, she paused at his door and shook her head.

"Servant," She chuckled, gesturing towards herself. "No need to treat for the chivalry."

"I still should." He paused reluctantly, and when she shook her head firmly, a part of him was disappointing.

"No, really, it's just a quick walk," She nodded again, stepping out the door. "Stay."

As the door clicked shut, he felt like he had missed something about the whole experience.

A/N: Hello everybody, thank you so much for reading, I got this one out relatively quick, so I'm pretty proud. Please please please review with your thoughts, it really does help me to write faster. A couple quick questions to get those lovely reviews flowing (pretty please).

Do you think Blaise and Daphne will ever come to some sort of accord?

Wasn't chivalrous Draco kind of cute? I thought so.

Do you think Hermione's conditioning training will help?

What exactly are Draco's favorite spots on a bird?

Does anyone else feel kind of bad for Astoria here? Draco and Hermione are just keeping it professionalish (as of right now) does she have a reason to be angry if she finds out?

Would you guys be interested in doing a sneak peek offer for the next chapter? (Reviewers on the next chapter get a sneak peek in their preview)