Hermione awoke suddenly, aware of a lot of noise. She sat up in bed and wondered where she was for a moment until she remembered she was at Draco's. She heard raised voices and scrambled out of bed. When she opened the bedroom door the lights were all on and she had to shield her eyes. She entered the living room to find Draco, Blaise and two men she didn't recognize standing around.
"What's the matter?" she asked. Blaise turned to look at her, startled and she saw a strange look pass across his face. She glanced over at Draco who was in his robe and realized that she was wearing only her pyjamas. She couldn't blame Blaise for jumping to conclusions. Before she could speak to him, Draco was answering her.
"There's been a break in at the lab. They've stolen all of the potion you and Blaise made earlier along with the recipe."
"You kept the recipe with the potion?" Hermione asked in a disbelieving voice.
"Yeh, thanks for pointing out our stupidity," Draco said, his frustration obviously not aimed at Hermione but at himself.
"How did they get in?" Hermione asked the next obvious question and this time Blaise answered.
"They had a key."
"A key? How? Is it someone who works there?"
"Only Draco and I have a key to the lab, Hermione," Blaise walked over to her and she stared at him taking in his words. "Someone must have made a copy but I really don't know how."
"And what about the magical protection?"
"We don't know how they got past that." Blaise was staring at her and Hermione knew that although he was answering her questions he was wondering what was going on. She stepped closer and lowered her voice.
"It's not what you think. I'm in the guest room, I'll tell you the whole tale later."
Blaise nodded and walked back over to Draco. "Get dressed, let's go and have a look ourselves."
"Ooh! I'll come too," Hermione offered but they shook their heads at her.
"No." Draco's answer was to the point.
"Why not?"
"Just to be on the safe side," he said and started heading towards his room so Hermione stepped in his way.
"Will you stop treating me like a precious little Princess! I've fought Lord Voldemort for Merlin's sake! I'm a better witch than you are a wizard and I'm perfectly capable of defending myself and you if you need me too!" she spoke firmly and looked at him challengingly. After a moment his face broke into a grin.
"Okay! Keep your knickers on! You can come."
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
The lab was a mess with equipment and ingredients spread across the floor. Draco looked upset as he examined the devastation, picking up items as he walked around the room.
"You have another copy of the recipe don't you?" Hermione asked and Blaise nodded then glanced at Draco. Hermione glanced over at Draco as well and he shrugged. Hermione frowned. "Don't you?"
Blaise tapped his head with his finger. "Yeh, right here."
"What?" Hermione exclaimed. "In your head? Are you joking?"
"No he's not. We thought it best that we only had one copy," Draco said and Hermione groaned.
"She thinks we're stupid," Blaise commented and he nudged Hermione's shoulder playfully.
"You are stupid!" Hermione said, only half joining in with his joke. "I mean – only one copy of the recipe and stored at the lab!" She stood up suddenly and both Blaise and Draco stopped what they were doing and looked at her. "So, someone else has the recipe and the trial mixture. We need to remember the recipe," she looked at Blaise who cringed, "and re-make it. We need to do it fast because if whoever broke in here manages to get it mixed before us then it will become theirs. We have no proof it's your idea so the race is on!" Blaise and Draco both remained silent and Hermione moved towards Blaise. "Tomorrow you come back here and work on the recipe and mixture."
Blaise saluted her mockingly but smiled. "Does this mean our date is off?" he asked.
Hermione nodded. "I'm afraid so...just postponed..."
She moved over to Draco. "You and I are going to get some Blue Violet by whatever means necessary."
Draco raised his eyebrows at her. "By whatever means necessary?" he asked and Hermione nodded.
"Yes. We need that ingredient by this time tomorrow so if we have to brake a few rules then so be it!"
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
It was early afternoon and Draco was at Hermione's shop. She had taken the unusual decision to close at lunch time so that she and Draco would have time to work out how they were going to get some Blue Violet quickly. Hermione had a huge pile of books open in front of her and she had been contacting her suppliers all day. She had a legal way to obtain some as her license allowed her to purchase a small quantity of the prohibited ingredient. However she would have to disclose what it was going to be used for and the authority to buy it meant completing forms and waiting for authorisation. They hadn't got time for this so she had to move on to plan B.
As morally upstanding as she was, Hermione still knew how to get her hands on certain ingredients by less than official methods. Her contacts had contacts and although she'd never used this line of supply she knew it was available. So she'd buried her morals and contacted one of her less scrupulous suppliers who had given her the name of her another contact who she had arranged to meet this afternoon. They were just leaving to meet him when she noticed Draco was staring at her.
"What? Why are you staring at me?" Hermione asked.
"You just never cease to amaze me," Draco said. "Here we are about to meet some low life who will give us the details of another low life who we can buy an illegal ingredient from! All arranged by Hermione "best pupil at Hogwarts" Granger!"
"Yeh, well this is a one-off. Don't expect me to make a habit of this!" Hermione said. "Come on or we'll be late."
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
They were meeting in a small street that lead of Diagon Alley and as they moved away from the main street it seemed very quiet.
"This is a bit creepy," Draco commented.
"Put your hood up," Hermione said and he did as she asked. They stood around nervously for a few minutes but no-one arrived.
"Is this a no-show?" Draco asked but Hermione shook her head and pointed towards an approaching figure. The man was stocky and short with an almost bald head. He approached them casually, seemingly comfortable with this strange meeting.
"Greenway?" he asked using the false name Hermione had told him so Hermione nodded. He handed her a piece of parchment. "It's all arranged for this evening. Knockturn Alley, 11pm by the Black Wizard's statue. Make sure you have the right payment and keep it discreet, okay?"
Hermione nodded and took the parchment, slipping it into her cloak. "Who is it I'll be meeting?"
"Don't worry, he'll find you," the man answered and without another word he turned and disappeared back down the alley. Hermione turned to Draco who looked as astonished as she was.
"We have to go to Knockturn Alley! Do these things really happen? I thought it was all made up!" he said.
Hermione leant against the wall, pushing her hood off. "What the hell am I doing? If I get caught I'll lose my license and the shop!"
"You can still back out. I'll meet him later, you can step away from it," Draco offered.
"No, it's me they've arranged to meet. They won't deal with you," Hermione said. She glanced over at Draco. "Don't panic I'm just having a moment! This isn't exactly what I normally do on a Saturday night."
"Don't you? I'm always meeting dodgy men down dark alleys myself!" Draco joked and they both laughed.
Thank you for the reviews...next chapter up soon and Draco makes a little confession...x