21.

15th March 2002. Ministry of Magic. Fourth Level. Being Division. Office for House Elf Welfare and Relocation.

As Draco stepped out of the elevator onto the fourth floor at the Ministry on Friday morning, he knew exactly what type of mood Granger would be in today. He remembered the way she used to behave leading up to any of their final exams: she was constantly in the library, checking and rechecking every single fact she had ever learnt in case she had written it down wrong. If she wasn't doing that, then she was forcing her friends to test her on every subject, bonking them on the nose with a book if she didn't get the answer right word for word.

Today it just so happened that Draco was her 'friend' in this situation and he had an ominous feeling he was going to get a lot worse than a book being thrown at him if he did or said anything out of line.

He was not disappointed.

'Where the hell have you been?' she screeched at him, the minute he stepped foot in her office and saw her rushing around doing a million things at once, 'You are late!'

Already he was getting the urge to throw a hex at her.

'I am five minutes late, Granger, bloody hell,' he muttered, dropping himself down onto one of her chairs while she stood next to him, looking scandalised, 'I don't know why you've got yourself in such a state. You need to calm down.'

He could practically feel the burning on the back of his head as she glared at him, her eyes turned to slits.

'You're telling me to calm down? Tomorrow is going to be, quite possibly, the biggest night of my career and most importantly the biggest night for the promotion of House-Elf rights and you are telling me to calm down.'

Merlin, he had forgotten how scary she looked when she was angry. Getting up from his seat with a roll of his eyes, he gave in.

'Right, what are the orders, Captain?'

She ignored his sarcasm and began to list off everything.

'First of all, I need you to gather up every antique we managed to find for the auction and put them in the hall where the event is being held. There should be some sort of broom cupboard at the back where you can store them, but for heaven's sake, please make sure they are hidden and locked because we cannot afford to have any of them stolen –'

'Where am I supposed to find all these antiques, Granger? My father dealt with most of those.'

'There is a full list on my desk with the names of the items and where you can pick them up from. Your father – who was here two hours ago by the way – may have picked some up already so you'll have to check up with him.'

'And where is he?' Draco replied, cursing his father for being such a suck up.

'He's in the hall at the moment getting everything set up. Thankfully we had a number of volunteers come forward for that so the House-Elves didn't need to do anything.'

'You do realise that their purpose is –'

'Don't even say it!' she warned him, raising a threatening finger towards his face. He shut up almost immediately, eyeing her pointed finger with apprehension.

'Also, I need you to go up to Magical Transportation and confirm that they will be keeping the Floo open for departing guests between the hours of …'

Draco began to drift off just listening to her ramblings, his eyes unfocussed as he realised just how tired he was … and then all of a sudden, he was aware of something large and heavy being battered over his head and he shouted out in agony.

His eyes streaming and his head pounding, he looked up into the enraged face of Hermione Granger, who was looking at him with more hatred than he had ever seen in his entire life.

'What the fucking hell was that for, you crazy bint!' he hissed at her as pains shot through his forehead and where - to his distress - he could definitely feel a lump beginning to form.

'YOU WEREN'T LISTENING TO ME!' she shrieked, throwing the heavy book she had just hit him with down on her desk, 'I need you to be paying attention, Draco, this is so important –'

'Now, now, what's going on here?'

Both of them turned to see Lucius standing at the entrance, looking both amused and concerned at the scene he was watching in front of him. Draco was appalled to see him looking so calm.

'She's absolutely fucking mental, she just tried to take my head off with that book!'

'You deserved it, Malfoy, I knew you weren't listening to anything I was saying –'

'That's enough,' Lucius stated, holding a hand up before them both as they glared at him, 'Now, Draco, if you could be so kind as to do the job that Hermione asked you to do, I would be most grateful. The list is on the desk.'

Draco sneered at his father but did as he was told and grabbed the list before storming out of the office, looking absolutely mutinous. Hermione looked extremely close to a breakdown, which Lucius noticed with some alarm and he strode over to her immediately as frustrated tears began to fill her eyes.

'This is going to be a complete disaster, I just know it! Something will happen with the antiques, or Jenny and Wilbur won't turn up to do the speech, or the band won't be able to get here and it will all be ruined –'

'Hermione, look at me,' Lucius said very calmly, grasping her upper arms with his hands as he deliberately stared into her eyes, 'Good. Now, what are we not going to do?'

'We're not going to lose our heads,' she replied with a huff.

'That's right. And why is this event going to be the best of the best?'

'Because you are organising it.'

'Yes, well done. '

'I'm not doing any of the work, obviously –'

'Hush, my dear, we're going off script,' he reprimanded, rubbing his hands slowly up and down her arms in a calming gesture, 'And lastly, why do you have nothing to worry about?'

'Because everything is going to be alright in the end.'

'Wonderful, you remembered every line.'

'Stop being so bloody condescending, Lucius.'

'I'm afraid I can't do that, it's just too much fun watching you get annoyed by it.'

Hermione folded her arms and scowled at him as he chuckled. Every scowl that she gave him felt like a smile in his book.

'I am going to finish overseeing the set up,' he told her, 'Now, if you would, can you please attend to the jobs you are supposed to be doing and leave the rest to me. It is your day, as I have reminded you a number of times. Do me the favour of keeping calm, please - I do not want to have to explain to all the guests tomorrow why you are being sent to Azkaban for murdering my son.'

'Oh, get out of my office, you stupid man,' she hissed at him, slapping his arm lightly and getting back to her work.

Lucius watched her from the office door, a slight smirk on his face before departing. He would make sure that everything went without a hitch tomorrow if it was the last thing he did.