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The next day Hermione was sitting in her office at her desk going through boring paperwork when there was a knock at the door. Looking up from her work she's surprised to see none other than Draco Malfoy leaning in the doorway. His blonde hair is ruffled like he'd run his hand through it one too many times this morning and there is a small apprehensive smile on his face. Hermione just stares at him in surprise, her mind going back to the other morning when she'd woken up next to him.

"What can we do for you Mr. Malfoy?" Ginny asks when Hermione continues to stare at him, speechless. What is he doing here?

"I was hoping to steal Hermione away for lunch," Draco answers as he cocks his head in Hermione's direction.

"Why?" Hermione blurts out before she has a chance to stop herself. As much as she'd love to go to lunch with Draco, she wasn't expecting the invitation. Until last week, they hadn't seen each other in years and had a real conversation, but then again when you wake up next to someone that might have a way of changing previous relationship statuses.

Draco laughs at Hermione's reaction. "We need to talk," he smiles at her, his grey eyes locked with her brown ones.

"I thought we talked everything out before you left on Sunday," Hermione says, suddenly nervous at the prospect of getting lunch alone with Draco. In her mind she'd resolved to stay far away from him so they didn't repeat what had happened the previous weekend. She felt guilty for everything, even though they'd only kissed. Draco was still married and Hermione needed to stay far from that, she didn't need or want to get caught up in the drama between Draco and Astoria. It was none of her business.

"We need to talk about a Pygmy Puff named Puffington," Draco elaborates, surprising Hermione yet again.

"What did Grace do?" she asks with a sigh. Immediately thinking something with Puffington had gotten out of hand. It was a relief Draco was here about that and not about what happened between the two of them.

"Nothing at all. I just have a few questions that I'm sure you can answer. So what do you say? Can I take you to lunch?" he studies her with his grey eyes and a sly smile.

"To talk about Pygmy Puffs?" Hermione asks, searching clarification. If that's their topic of conversation then she doesn't see any reason not to join him.

"Correct," Draco nods, an amused smile now playing on his thin pink lips. Lips Hermione had kissed less than three days ago. She feels the flush try to spread on her cheeks at the thought and does her best to push it away.

"Okay," Hermione nods, semi reluctantly agreeing to lunch.

"Great, can you go now?" Draco asks, looking at the clock on the wall next to Hermione's desk.

Hermione looks at Ginny for a second, gauging her friends reaction to all of this, and find Ginny nodding her eyes saying 'If you don't go with him, I will.'

"Yes," Hermione nods to Draco's questions and stands slowly from her chair. She loves Ginny and all, but she also knows her friend and if she were to let Ginny go to lunch with Draco instead of her she had no doubt Ginny would make a move of some sort. The fact that Draco was married didn't bother Ginny, maybe Hermione should take a page out of her friends book and see what happens. Even thinking about it, Hermione is sickened by the idea. She is strong in her resolve that Draco needs to be single in order for anything to happen between the two of them.

Ginny sends Hermione a wink on the way out the door and Hermione subtly flips her off so Draco doesn't see. "Where would you like to go?" Draco asks as the pair walk towards the fifth floor lifts and wait.

"It doesn't matter," Hermione shakes her head as the lift arrives and they enter. All of the sudden she has nervous butterflies in her stomach now that she's alone with Draco, this is a new development since Sunday morning. She's not exactly afraid to be alone with him, she's more so afraid of what she might do when their alone together. Her resolve is strong, but her pull towards him may be stronger.

"Have you ever been to the cafe in that little bookstore down the street?" Draco asks, looking down at Hermione once they are in the lift. Luckily the lift isn't empty so all of the fantasies of her and Draco alone in here are not pushing at the forefront of her mind.

"Dog Earred?" Hermione asks, her face lighting up. She loved the little cafe.

"That's the one," Draco nods as the lift starts to head down to the lobby.

"I love that place," Hermione smiles, surprised Draco picked her favorite spot that no one seemed to know about.

"Then let's head there," he smiles as the lift opens on the ground level and they both exit.

They make simple small talk about work as they walk the short distance to the small little bookstore. Once they've ordered and wound their way through racks of books, back to a little table hidden in the back, they get to the point of this lunch. "So what's this about Puffington?" Hermione looks on skeptically, hoping Grace didn't do something bad.

"Liam came home from daycare yesterday asking if he could have a Pygmy Puff," Draco says with an amused look, leaning back in his chair.

"Awe, so Grace bragged about Puffington," Hermione nods in understanding, a smile taking over her face as well.

"That she did," Draco nods with a laugh. "Is she able to handle the Pygmy Puff on her own?" Draco asks, playing concerned parent. Hermione likes this look on him.

"She is. She hasn't had it long, but there have been no problems this far," Hermione answers with a smile. "Are you thinking of letting Liam get one?"

"Much to his Mother's dismay, yes," Draco rolls his eyes at the mention of his wife, making Hermione even more curious about the relationship between Draco and Astoria. "We're heading into town on Saturday to get one," he adds with a smiles. Hermione has noticed that whenever his son is brought into the conversation he smiles. She has yet to see Draco with Liam, but it's clear that he adores his son. Hermione loves the thought of that.

"I guess I should be apologizing," Hermione jokes.

"Not at all," Draco shakes his head. "I just want Liam to be happy and if a Pygmy Puff makes him happy then he will get one."

"What about Astoria?" Hermione asks the questions against her better judgement, trying to satisfy her curiosity a little.

"I don't want to think about her right now," Draco shakes his head, a dark look coming over his face for only a second before it's gone.

Surprising even herself, Hermione finds herself saying, "I know something's off with your marriage right now, considering we woke together on Sunday. If you ever need someone to talk to about it, I'm here." Hermione finishes with a shrug. She's not sure where that came from, but the pained look that was in Draco's eyes at the mention of his wife made Hermione want to make him feel better. She'd been through a tough marriage, even though hers was to her best friend, she'd still had to deal with the fall out when everything fell apart. Her and Ron had parted on great terms, but they'd still had to go through the whole process. Maybe in some way she would be able to help Draco.

Draco studies her for a second before nodding. "Thank you Hermione. I may take you up on that one day," Draco smiles, touched.

Hermione smiles back, but doesn't know what to say back so she lets a silence fall between them. It doesn't last long before Draco breaks it. "You should come over for dinner one night," Draco says out of the blue.

"Umm," Hermione starts, unsure of how to answer. Did Draco really just invite her to dinner? With his wife? Or with just him? She wasn't exactly sure if it even mattered, she should say no either way.

"Sorry," Draco backtracks when he sees Hermione's look. "I meant you and Grace, Ginny too if you'd like. Liam was asking the other day if Grace could come over and play sometime," Draco explains, seeming slightly flustered, something Hermione wasn't used to from Draco Malfoy.

Hermione brushes her hair back from her face as she runs over possible responses in her head. She should say no, but she wanted to say yes. What could the harm be? This was basically a play date for the children and the grownups would have dinner as well. If Ginny was there too, it wouldn't be wrong, would it? "Okay," Hermione nods slowly, giving in. "If Ginny can come too."

"I'll invite Blaise," Draco sends her a knowing wink. Apparently he knew that Ginny and Blaise had spend the majority of the weekend in bed together too.

"Perfect," Hermione smiles, happier that it wouldn't just be her and Draco alone in the house. If Astoria wasn't there it would still be weird, but she'd deal with it. This was for Grace and Liam after all.

"What night works for you?" Draco asks as he appraises Hermione with his eyes. The attraction between the two of them is hard to miss.

"I have Grace through Friday night this week," Hermione answers, twirling a strand of hair around her finger absently.

"Then how does Friday work? My Mum will be back from her trip into the country by then, I'm sure she'd like to join all of us," Draco says, giving Hermione even more of a reason to say yes. A dinner with Draco can't be interpreted the wrong way is Narcissa is there as well.

"That's perfect," Hermione nods, feeling safer about her choice to have dinner at the Malfoy Manor with Grace. By then, maybe she'll be able to subdue the urge to lean forward and kiss him. Hermione was in for a tough time trying to push these feelings for Draco that had suddenly appeared down. She'd do her best to stop fantasizing about him. He was married and she needed to get that through her head. Friday night would be for the kids, or at least that's what Hermione was going to keep telling herself.

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