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A/N: I was blown away by the reviews last chapter! I love every single one of them. I will be answering those that I can soon but wanted to get this out for you all! Please review!

Chapter 10

HERMIONE
-Present-

"You don't have to do this." Harry said, again, and Hermione fought the urge to pull her wand on him, again.

"Harry-"

"No, Hermione, no one expects you to return so soon. They all know that something happened and they all know that we're working on it and… well Kingsley wouldn't-"

"Harry" She said firmly, moving in to the grate. "I am going back to work, whether you come with me or not. Please, don't make this any harder than it has to be."

Harry smiled sheepishly and grabbed his robes, rubbing the back of his neck. "You're right. I'm sorry, it's just, I worry about you."

"I know, and I'm grateful, really, I am. But I'm not made of glass. I won't break at the slightest touch. I promise, I'll be fine."

"Right, and if you aren't-"

"If I'm not, you're only a few doors away." She sighed and he smiled at her as she picked up the floo powder and spoke her destination plainly as the green flames swallowed her up.

"Mrs. Malfoy! How are you feeling?" The young witch asked, her cheeks pink and her long blonde hair pulled up haphazardly on her head as she ran to catch up to Hermione.

"Um… I'm good, thanks." Hermione said slowly as she began to wish she hadn't insisted on making the trek to her office without Harry's company.

"Good, great, Minster Shacklebolt sent down the rough draft of the proposal this morning and asked that I have you look over it once more before we push it to the wizengamot, also, Healer Edgecombe asked that you owl her once you return in order to discuss the Derrick case and how she should proceed. Also, if you have a chance, Malfada was hoping that you would be able to-"

Hermione's head was spinning as the witch in front of her continued to prattle on and finally, she spoke up. "I'm sorry, umm-"

"Oh." The girl said, looking slightly taken aback. "I'm Sadie… I've been your assistant for a few months now…"

"Right." Hermione sighed. "I'm sorry, it's just-"

"Hermione!" Ron appeared beside her, smiling widely as he handed her a steaming cup of tea, smiling at the witches. "Hey Sadie."

Hermione smirked as she watched the blush rise up the witch's neck and in to her too pale cheeks. "Mr. Weasley."

The witch looked slightly flustered under Ron's gaze and she looked down at her feet before she quickly thrust the stack of rolled parchment into Hermione's hands, turned and practically ran around the corner and out of sight.

"Mr. Weasley." Hermione mimicked the flustered witch, smiling at the man beside her.

Ron chuckled and reached out, taking some of the scrolls from her as she shifted the rest of her things in her arms.

"Did Harry send you?" She asked, thinking better of it only after the words had left her mouth as the man's smile faltered and she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming in frustration.

"I heard you were coming back today, thought you might be overwhelmed." Ron said quietly as the two started to walk to the door that held Hermione's name.

"Look… I know something is going on." Hermione started. "Not just between you and Harry. Ron… we were- we were engaged. I know Malfoy knows, I can just tell when we talk and-"

"You talk to Malfoy?" Ron asked, meeting her gaze finally.

"Of course I do. We have children Ronald…" Ron nodded but said nothing before she continued on. "I know there's something there but no one wants to just tell me what it is."

Ron sighed as Hermione finally reached her office and he reached out to open her door for her before setting her scrolls in her arms. "You're right. Look, Hermione, you're right and I do think you have a right to know but… not here. Okay?"

She gaped at him, worried that her hearing was going bad before she finally realized she wasn't going loony and he had indeed just agreed with her. "Right. Okay."

He chuckled lightly and reached out to open her door for her and letting her pass before he came in and set the scrolls down on her desk. "Look, how about we go out for dinner. Just the two of us…"

"Er… I don't-" she started to protest.

"No funny business." He laughed at the look on her face. "We used to go out for dinner all the time 'Mione."

"No. You're right." She said. "Dinner sounds lovely."

"Good." He smiled. "I'll owl you later to set it up. Robards is going to murder me if I'm late again."

She watched as he walked out, waving over his shoulder before he disappeared around the corner and she sat down, surveying the overflowing stacks of parchment on her desk with a great sigh. It was going to take her all day, she thought, before she finally just dived in to it realizing that sooner or later she was going to have to deal with the mess her life had become, she might as well start with her desk.

DRACO
-Past-

"You seem to get along well." Hermione said as they glided around the dance floor and he was careful to keep his hands stiff, his shoulders tight, as they moved. "Astoria I mean."

Draco scoffed and looked down his nose to meet her gaze. "No more than you and the Weasel, I presume."

Hermione's lips pursed and his eyes flickered to the rock on her finger and he saw her move her hand slightly as though trying to keep it hidden.

"Not what I would expect, that." He finally said, and his hand reached of its own accord to grab her hand, his thumb running along the ring on her finger. "Doesn't seem like you."

Hermione scoffed this time, but he noticed, with a small amount of glee that she didn't make a move to remove her hand from his grip. "Because you know me so well, do you?"

He smiled as they turned and his fingers tightened around her hand as he pushed her away and pulled her back in to him, closer than he would have ever dared before. He could feel all the eyes on them but at the moment, he didn't really care.

"You would be surprised."

They were quiet as they moved and he watched her worry her bottom lip between her teeth and for a moment he was transported back to the alley, to the time his lips were on hers and the world had seemed suspended in time. In stillness. She breathed, and he looked back up to her eyes to see that she had caught him staring.

"So tell me, what would you expect?"

"Well, for starters, you've always been one to grab attention but never in the sense that this thing does." He said softly, and he let go of her hand to trail his hand down to her waist as she let her hand fall on his shoulder. "You like history, enough to have at least six copies of 'Hogwarts: A History' on your bookshelf and family is important to you. Both your own and your future family. Something new and flashy, it's not you, but an heirloom… I could see that."

Hermione cleared her throat and lifted her chin up as she tightened her grip on him once more just as the song slowly started to end. "Ronald did a wonderful job, I'm pleased…"

Draco smiled and nodded as the music slowly died and he nodded, pulling away from her to grab the hand on which the gaudy ring sat. "Keep telling yourself that."

And before she could protest he placed a kiss on her knuckles, straightened up and walked away, ignoring the stares and glares coming from every pair of eyes in the room, including the ones he had just turned away from.

HERMIONE
-Present-

Four hours and three stacks of parchment later and she was sure there was no end to the disaster that had become her desk. Not only was she sure someone had cast a neverending work curse on her, she was also sure that she should have listened to Harry in the first place.

The job should have been straightforward, she should have known what in Godric's name she was doing. Instead she found herself resting her forehead on her fingertips as she fought off an impending headache and tried to remember what made her think returning at all was a good idea to begin with.

"'Mione?" She looked up as Harry stood in the doorway, his eyebrow raised as he took in the view of his best friend before him.

"Go ahead and say it." She sighed, leaning back in her chair and trying not to cry.

"Say what?"

"I told you so." Hermione cried, eliciting a small chuckle from the bespectacled man leaning against her doorframe.

"Never." He said softly and held his hand out, beckoning her to him. "Let's go get some lunch."

She thought about declining and burying her nose in the cataclysm in front of her but thought better of it as yet another yellow memo flew in through the opened door and dropped itself, unceremoniously, on her desk. Quickly she was up and out of her seat, crossing the room and taking Harry's hand in gratitude just as a picture played in her mind.

"mione." Harry said, squeezing her hand. "he only thought-"

"I don't care what he thought Harry." She seethed and she tried to pull her hand away, only to have him hold on tighter. "He shouldn't have done it in the first place."

"Well, of course he shouldn't have done it." Harry said softly. "But that's who he is…"

"That's no excuse Harry." She all but yelled before the tears came rolling softly down her cheeks. "He made a fool of me and now everything is ruined!"

She gasped as she looked to Harry, quickly pulling her hand from his as she leaned against the wall behind her for support. Her best friend looked on worriedly as she tried to regain more of the memory, only to have it slip through her fingers too quickly. She was sure though, that whatever she had remembered was just the beginning.

DRACO
-Past-

"You're staring again." She said, her voice low and he smirked to himself as he picked up his mug from the table, not bothering to break eye contact.

"So?"

Hermione rolled her eyes but picked up her own glass of butterbeer as she set back to her paperwork. "So, it's a little disconcerting is all."

Draco sat forward, setting his cup down as he leaned further in towards her. "How so?"

"Because… oh nevermind." She quipped and then she gasped.

"I know, I'm devilishly handsome, shame you're just realizing it." Draco quipped and Hermione glared at him from across the table.

"Shut up."

"Fine." He said, shutting his mouth tightly as he watched her. He had come to realize, in the short time that he had spent with Hermione that she could, and did, put up with him more so than he would have ever imagined possible. However, he also came to realize her little quirks, her tells for when to back off if you will. He was as surprised as she was to realize how well the two worked together.

He had tried to stay away, after the event they had attended. He had resigned himself to the fact that the last conversation he would have with Hermione Granger would be him mocking her engagement jewelry as they danced- well, he danced and she clumsily stumbled- to a stupid waltz. He was not expecting her owl a mere two days later asking him to meet her at the dingy little pub in Hogsmeade that seemed to reek of barn animals. She had, excitedly, shown him the files she had managed to pull of crimes against the Malfoy family in the past and he had tried not to push her away again.

As was how he found himself now, watching as she read files and halfheartedly made conversation with him over semi stale biscuits and a grimy glass.

"Do you now the Rowle's?"

Draco scoffed. "Of course I know the Rowle's."

"Right." Hermione said, only glancing up then. "Sacred twenty-eight."

"Anyway-" He pressed.

"Anyway," She smirked. "Thorfinn Rowle was a death eater and-"

"An he was my cousin." Draco said tersely, picking at his too dry biscuit.

Hermione sighed then and he heard the sound of her slamming her folder closed as he finally looked back up to meet her gaze. "Okay, I'll bite, what's going on?"

"What do you mean?" Malfoy asked, trying to keep his tone light.

"I mean that you're being more broody and pithy than usual…"

"So you assume something is wrong?" He snapped.

"Well, yes, because I thought we were okay but today you're treating me like… well like we're back in Hogwarts."

His anger flared then and he leaned in, his voice hot and fierce. "You want to know what's wrong? What's wrong is that my family is no closer to finding out who is targeting our house elves, or us for that matter, and you're too worried about things that happened in the past to focus on what's happening right now. In the meantime you bring me to some seedy pub so that you don't have to be seen in public with me and I'm sure your fiancée is none the wiser."

"Excuse me-" She retorted, meeting him halfway across the table as her face grew red. "Who do you think-"

"So tell me it's not true. Tell me you didn't pick this pub because no one here gives a rats arse about who you and I are and I will let it go. Tell me you haven't snuck away from wedding planning with the Weasel to meet me with some halfassed excuse-"

She looked down then, her fingers curling on the top of the table and he blanched as he stood up, tossing some coins on to the table. "Good-bye Granger."

He didn't stick around to hear her halfhearted excuses as he marched out into Hogsmeade and promptly apparated home. He cursed as he appeared in his foyer, reaching out to kick the stand beside the fireplace, enjoying the echoes it made as it skittered across the stone floor. He had tried, Merlin had he tried, but he should have known better. Girls like Hermione Granger belonged with boys like Ronald Weasley. The sooner he grasped that, he realized, the better