The rest of the dinner went by a bit awkwardly, as Draco and Harry struggled to be civil to one another. After Draco admitted his feeling for Hermione, Harry was a bit more accepting of his presence. When the dinner was over, Draco told Hermione he was tired and he would see her tomorrow.

He arrived at his apartment to find Blaise sitting on his couch.

"So you don't show up to work and now you look like you want to bang your head against a wall" Draco laughed as he took off his coat. It was a normal occurrence for Blaise to show up randomly, it was almost weird for him not to do it.

"Were people asking where we were?" Blaise made an annoyed sound

"No, Ben said you guys were doing research." Draco nodded "More importantly, you all right mate?"

"Sure why?"

"Oh please, did you realize you love her yet?" Draco gasped

"Is it really that obvious?"

"Yes mate it is" Blaise patted the seat next to him, indicating for Draco to sit.

"Thank you for inviting me onto my own coach" Blaise laughed, and Draco sat and put his head in his hands. "This can't happen."

"Why not?" Draco looked at Blaise as if he had eight heads

"Are you mad? There are so many reasons. I don't deserve her, she doesn't like me, and we work together for merlin's sake!"

"Oh sod off Draco. You know as well as anyone that those are excuses."

"How so!?" Draco exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air angrily.

"I'm not even going to talk about your obsession with bringing yourself down. I think we both know she likes you and nobody at work gives a damn, there is actually a bet going on." Right after he said it, Blaise regretted it. Draco's head snapped up

"A bet? You people are sick!" Blaise laughed at Draco's exaggeration. "So I really have a shot then huh?" Blaise nodded, patting his best friend on the back.

"You do mate, go to bed, you look like hell." Blaise got up, stepped in the fireplace and disappeared before Draco could even argue. Draco got up slowly and walked into his room, stopping at his closet to change.

His mind started to drift off, he started to think about Hermione. He thought about how kind she was, and how comfortable he felt with her in his arms. Although his mind was eager to run through all possibilities, yet again his thoughts got off track. He then started to think about what kind of wizard could possibly know about the false memory charm. Before he could draw any conclusions, he drifted off to sleep.

Hermione woke up the next morning later than usual. After the dinner last night, she was tossing and turning because her brain was on speed. She couldn't get herself to stop thinking about the case, but she was unable to draw any helpful conclusions from her thoughts. She woke up multiple times during the night because she kept having nightmares about her torture that occurred at the Malfoy Manor. She had really thought she was over it, but going there must have sparked something.

It was 7:00 and she only had a half an hour to get ready. She quickly took a shower, made two coffees, and got dressed. She left a bit later than usual, and didn't even stop to check how she looked. She walked into the office, running into nobody as she passed by. She walked into her office, sitting at her desk solemnly. She took out her files and started scanning through everything she had wrote down the day before. It was Friday, but that didn't mean anything. Normally Draco and Hermione worked through the weekend anyway. She heard soft swift footsteps and she looked up to see a tall blond muscular man in front of her door.

"Morning Draco" Hermione said while raising his cup of coffee to him. He shut the door behind him, took the cup and stared at Hermione for a long minute.

"What's wrong?" It totally skipped Hermione's mind that she had such little sleep the night before until Draco asked that question.

"Trouble sleeping, no big deal."

"Is it because of the manor?" Hermione nodded sheepishly and before Draco could help himself, words started falling out of his mouth. "I want to take you on a date"

"Excuse me?" It wasn't exactly the question that was confusing, but the way Draco had delivered it. He had said it so nonchalantly, and then plopped down in the chair across from her. Hermione took a minute to process. "Why?"

"Why not?"

"Professionalism"

"Granger you kissed me yesterday." Hermione blushed "We had a nice dinner with Potter and we are together all the time. We tend to get along quite well and I think we would make a good couple."

"Is Draco Malfoy asking me out?" Hermione seemed to enjoy this a bit too much

"Is that a problem if he is?"

"Not necessarily." Draco smiled and Hermione blushed

"Tonight 7pm, my choice of restaurant" Hermione nodded and two started quietly working. After about an hour of paperwork, the two headed over to where the victims were held and started invading their minds. They did this until lunch with no avail. Hermione decided they should call it a day with that so they wouldn't overwork the victims' minds. About an hour after lunch Draco came storming into Hermione's office, causing her to jump slightly.

"I think it's time I paid a visit to my father." Hermione was confused as to why he rushed in to say this, so instead of responding she waited for an explanation. "We found that charm in the manor library, and Voldemort used it. Maybe my father would know how to reverse it. It's a long shot bu-"

"It's brilliant, let's go"

"I don't know if you-"

"Don't be silly. You haven't visited your father since he was put in there have you?" Draco shook his head solemnly. "I am not letting you go alone."

Draco shook his head, but did not object to her offer. The two spent the next half hour preparing the paperwork from the victims' interrogation to give to their boss. When they walked into their boss' office they found that it was empty. Hermione wrote a quick note of where they were going, and left the interrogation notes on his desk along with it.

Hermione and Draco arrived at the gates of Azkaban and Draco stood still. Hermione turned towards him, stepping closer to him and sliding her hand into his.

"You okay?" Draco exhaled, as if her touch released all his worries.

"Yea, I just…"

"You've never visited him, I get it. I'm here, just remember that" Draco huffed as if he didn't believe her, and Hermione reached her hand up to his face, forcing him to look at her. As his grey/blue eyes mixed with her chocolate ones, they stayed silent until Draco cleared his throat and started walking forward.

They reached a desk in which they signed their names and who they were visiting. The rules of Azkaban had been completely changed since Kingsley took over. There were no more dementors, there were visiting hours allowed, and there were different kinds of cell blocks similar to the way the muggle world ran prisons. In order to speak with more dangerous criminals, you had to have a certain amount of clearance. The paper in which you write your names and the visitor was magicked to know whether the person had such clearance. On a normal basis, Hermione would not have such clearance, seeing as she was not family and her normal job would not require it. When the paper didn't erase her name and the door to the prison opened for them, it was obvious that Kingsley had given her the clearance necessary.

The pair walked all the way down the cold dark hallway until they reached a cross-road. They turned left which lead to solitary confinement and it wasn't long before they were a cell away from Lucius'. Without thinking about it, Hermione dropped Draco's hand as they approached. Draco glanced at her for a second until he realized that it was probably a good idea. The thing about visiting an inmate in Azkaban was that there was no waiting room simply because they didn't trust the inmates enough to move them. There were chairs folded against the walls that you needed to insert a wand in order to take, and you just sat on the other side of the bars and talked. It was quite a creepy and eerie process, but it was the safest one. Draco inserted his wand and took two chairs from the wall, setting them up hastily in front of his fathers' cell. Hermione and Draco sat, and Lucius turned around responding to the noise.

"Well well, the prodigal son returns."