Sorry I uploaded the same chapter twice! I'm so tired! lol

Here you go:

"This is what you want to use?" Hermione asked Draco incredulously. They were standing in the kitchen of her apartment later that evening, ingredients spread out on the table beside a smoking cauldron. Hermione's hair was beginning to frizz up, as it usually did when she spent considerable amounts of time bent over a cauldron. He had just handed her his family ring—a heavy silver ring bearing the Malfoy family crest.

Draco nodded. "I used to wear it all the time, I never took it off. It's the only piece of jewelry I have here with me."

"But it's your family ring! The spell will carve seven symbols on the inside of it. I don't want to tamper with your family ring!"

"This ring isn't even important to me anymore. There's no pride to be had in the Malfoy name these days. It's goblin-made, so it can't be destroyed—only altered. Don't worry about it. Besides, my mother's charmed necklace was a family heirloom, and she didn't have a problem with turning it into a talisman. She wore it all the time during the war, for protection against enemies in disguise."

Hermione frowned at that. "Hold on, so does that mean she was able to recognize Harry that night at the Manor? If she could see through magical alterations, was she able to see that it was Harry even through my stinging hex?"

Draco's mouth went slack and his eyes widened. "I…I don't know. I didn't even think about that."

"Your mother certainly seems to be an enigma," she muttered. "You're really sure about this?"

He nodded. "Go ahead."

She finally gave a nod of reluctance. "Alright, if you're sure…" She set the ring down carefully on the table, the heavy metal making a soft clink as she did so. Picking up her wand again, she stirred the cauldron's contents counter-clockwise four times, then added the vial of goat's blood. She glanced at the book, reading through the next few instructions before reaching for the large square of black satin that sat on the table. She smoothed it out on the wood, before dragging her wand over it and muttering the proper incantation. Three sigils appeared on the cloth as she did so, seeming to burn into the material.

Glancing up at Draco, she smiled. "Here we go."

She picked up the ring and set it on the black satin, muttered the next incantation, and pressed the ring to her lips before folding the ring within the cloth. She glanced at Draco, who was watching her with raised eyebrows.

"I'm just…following the instructions," she defended, embarrassment becoming apparent as her cheeks tinged pink.

He smirked. "If you want to kiss my ring, Granger, by all means—go right ahead. Whenever you like—you don't even have to ask."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You're such a prat," she muttered through a smile. Then she gingerly dropped the ring and cloth into the cauldron, which made a sizzling hiss before the smoke turned from clear to dark gray.

She waved her hand through the air, trying to clear some of the smoke. Then she held her wand over the cauldron and read the last incantation from the book.

"Sader, Prostas, Solaster." The smoke turned even darker. "Nades, Suradis, Manier." There was a loud hiss, and they leaned away from the cauldron instinctively.

Suddenly, the smoke cleared.

She and Draco both leaned carefully over the cauldron to inspect its contents. The cauldron was now empty of all contents, save the ring.

Draco reached in and picked it up, holding it out for observation. The silver glinted in the light. Along the inside of the band were seven sigils, just as Hermione had said there would be.

"Let's try it out," Draco said eagerly.

Hermione lifted her wand to her head. "Et Commuta Habitum," she said.

Draco watched as her appearance changed—her hair darkening, her eyes turning hazel, her face and height both changing as well.

He took a deep breath, and slipped the ring on the middle finger of his right hand. He looked back up at her to find Joan Spinner gone, and Hermione standing there instead. He blinked in surprise. He could see her—plain as day. She looked just like herself.

He smiled, reaching out to touch a lock of her honey brown hair. "It works," he told her.

She made a happy little sound and smiled, looking very proud of herself. "Good," she said with a nod. "Alright, I'll get this cleaned up and you can go put on that movie you wanted to watch."

Draco smirked. "Okay. But first…" He pulled her into a deep kiss, one hand on her back, pulling her flush against him, the other hand brushing along her cheek. He ran his tongue over her bottom lip in a way that sent shivers down her back. He finally pulled back, touching her lip tenderly with his thumb, before grinning and turning towards her living room.

Once Hermione caught her breath, she focused on the evidence of her completed spell before her. As she closed the grimoire carefully, she warmed inside, feeling that familiar satisfaction of having completed a new challenge once more. It had been so long since she had performed any kind of challenging magic! She cleared her table of the leftover ingredients with a vanishing spell and gave a sigh of contentment. Oh, how she had missed this.

Draco had become very fond of Muggle films. He normally watched them with rapt attention, but during the first few minutes, he had seemed more interested in fondling Hermione than anything else. Finally, as the introductory scene ended, Hermione demanded that Draco focus.

Draco agreed, grumbling under his breath, before wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her close against him. She snuggled up to him there on the couch, and they both turned their attention to the film with smiles on their faces.

He had chosen a sci-fi movie called Timeline, about a group of scientists who end up trapped in 14th century France.

"You know, this is actually based on a book," Hermione told him as the lead character came on screen.

"Really," Draco responded with a knowing smile. He trailed his finger lightly across her skin from her jaw down to her right elbow before pressing his lips softly to her shoulder. "And how does the book rate on your scale?"

"My scale?"

"I'm just saying that you're undoubtedly a very good judge of literature."

She hummed skeptically. "I quite enjoyed the book. It's written by Michael Crighton. He writes that Jurassic Park series—the one about the dinosaurs. They're very popular. They made an entire Jurassic Park film series as well."

Draco paused in the kisses he was placing along her shoulder. "Dinosaurs?"

She nodded. "They're very closely related to dragons. All extinct now, though."

He frowned. "Muggles know about dragons?"

"Well, no, not really. They think dragons are a fictional legend. But they collect the bones of dinosaurs and put them in museums. They're able to deduce quite a bit of information about dinosaurs just from studying their fossils."

"They display skeletons in museums?" He seemed rather affronted.

Hermione laughed. "It's quite impressive, really. There's an entire science devoted to it—paleontology."

His eyes lingered on the TV screen for a moment. "I see. I'd like to see one of these dinosaur skeletons some time," he said. "Do they have any of those museums here?"

Hermione, through great struggle, was barely able to refrain from laughing. "I'm not sure. I can look into it though. There are even more types of dinosaurs than there are dragons. They're quite fascinating."

"You're quite fascinating," Draco said through a smile as he continued kissing her shoulder, his hands wandering to her thighs.

"Draco," she protested. "We're…" She jumped as he ran his fingers over a particularly sensitive spot. "We're…but the movie!"

"What about it?" he purred in her ear.

"You're not even…watching it!" she complained.

"How can I when there's something much more interesting to distract me?"

She bit her lip. "Draco, come on. There's plenty of time for this…mmmm…later! Come on," she pleaded.

Draco sighed. "Alright, alright. Sorry." He kissed her one last time before turning back to the screen.

Hermione chuckled as she put her head on his shoulder and turned back to the television as well.

Mere moments later, Draco startled her with an exclaiming cry. "The professor went back in time!" he all but shouted.

She couldn't help but laugh at how impressed he was by the film. "He certainly did."

"They're all going to go back in time now, aren't they? To bring him back? Especially his son—his son will want to save him."

Hermione leaned back to look at him through narrowed eyes. "Are you one of those people who likes to guess how the movie is going to end every time something happens?"

Draco suddenly looked unsure. "Is that a bad thing?"

She shook her head affectionately. "It's fine," she said, kissing him on the cheek.

Draco continued commenting on the plot as the movie continued. He asked Hermione for answers—seeing as she'd read the book, she knew how it would end—but she refused to give anything away.

"He's going to die, isn't he? Don't shrug like you don't know! You do know! You didn't even warn me that they were going to kill Francois! There was no warning! I wasn't prepared!"

"They're not going to make it back in time, are they? They're going to be stuck in the past! Tell me, Granger!"

"Is she going to die? She's going to die, isn't she?"

"Oh wow, they've botched their entire timeline, haven't they? Haven't they? He saved that girl when she was supposed to die, and now it's changing history forever! You know, there's a reason wizards don't go back in time and meddle. This is exactly the kind of thing that happens. These bloody Muggles. What are they doing, thinking they can mess with time like this?"

"I bet he's going to fix the time machine in just the nick of time. Won't he? Won't he, Granger? Merlin's beard, you are being so hard to read right now."

"What the hell? That bastard was from the future the entire time? Damn, Granger."

"Holy shit, he just killed his own coworker. Wow. You know, I always hated him. I hated him from the very beginning. He's been an arse from the very start."

"What? They're going to go back to the future and leave him there? They're just going to leave him? Are they crazy?"

"Wow, he ended up being king. That's…I didn't see that coming. You could've given me a hint, Granger."

His commentary had Hermione laughing almost the entire time. As the movie ended and the credits rolled, she sighed. "We really need to work on your film-watching manners. I imagine if I were to take you to a movie theater, we would get kicked out."

Draco wrinkled his nose. "Manners? I have excellent manners. I'm a Malfoy. I was raised with impeccable manners."

Hermione gave him a dubious look.

His confidence seemed to waned a bit. "Well…mostly."

She laughed at that.

He sat up straight, scooting over to look at her square in the eye. "So you haven't said anything about Potter," he said, raising one eyebrow.

Hermione immediately tensed. "What… What am I supposed to say?"

"Well I'm surprised he isn't here right now. I figured he'd show up as soon as he got your letter."

She instantly assumed a very guilty expression, looking away from him and fiddling with the throw pillow beside her.

Draco leaned forward. "You haven't written him yet?" he asked in disbelief. "Granger, you had four entire days!"

"I know!" she said defensively. Her chin jutted out in that stubborn way she had. "I… I will, I just…"

"When? How long exactly are you planning on waiting?"

"I tried to write a letter, alright! I just…couldn't find the words. The right words, I mean. I wrote at least four or five drafts, I just…" She shook her head and her shoulders sagged in a defeated manner.

"I'm confused," he began. "What is it that's keeping you from just sending him a letter? All it has to say is hello Harry, it's me—Hermione Granger. I'm not actually dead. Love, your best friend of over a decade."

"It's not that simple, and you know it!"

"Maybe not, but I certainly don't think it's as complicated as you're making it out to be."

"Can we please not talk about this?"

"Sure. If you finish this one last conversation with me, I promise I won't bring it up again. I'll stop hounding you—if you can give me one good reason why you're procrastinating. You don't procrastinate, you're Hermione bloody Granger!"

"I know who I am, thank you very much!" she all but shouted, her tone shrill with an angry frustration.

"Then start acting like it!" His tone escaladed in response to hers.

"Don't tell me what to do!"

"Why are you yelling?"

"You're yelling at me!"

They were full on shouting now.

"Just…" Draco sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. "I'm sorry," he said, his voice level and calm. "I'm not telling you what to do, okay? I'm just trying to help you. What… Why are you struggling with this?"

Hermione swallowed thickly. "I've never been all that good with maintaining friendships, okay? Books and academics are my specialty. Sometimes the complexities of human interaction escape me."

Draco's eyebrows furrowed and he frowned. "Are you trying to tell me you're socially awkward or something? Because I disagree."

"No, I mean…" she made a frustrated sound. "What I'm trying to say is that there's no manual for this, okay? I don't know exactly how to go about it. I am completely overwhelmed by the fact that I don't know how to proceed. Any time I need to accomplish something, I can turn to a book, or a set of instructions—something, anything. There is no easy solution for this problem. I did this. I made a mistake. I dropped out of contact with my friends, and it was selfish. This mistake is on me. I'm not used to making mistakes, I'm not used to screwing up! But I did screw up, and there is no basic or easy solution. Any time I try to sit down and write Harry a letter, all I can think about is how angry they're all going to be at me. What if they don't want anything to do with me after this? What if they can't forgive me? What if I ruined everything?"

Her breathing was rapid and her eyes were starting to burn with salty tears. Her fidgeting had become more frantic as her explanation continued, and Draco was now watching her with an expression of extreme concern.

"Hey, hey… come on, calm down. I get it, I do," he said as he pulled her in close. "But the fact remains that they do love you, Granger. I can't imagine Potter or the Weasleys being too terribly upset with you, and if they are, it won't be for very long."

She nodded, taking a handful of his shirt in her grip and she rested her head on his chest. "Can we just…can we not talk about this anymore, please? I'll… This is my problem, and I'm the one who needs to fix it. I will, I just… I will, okay?"

He brushed a lock of hair out of her face and behind her ear. "Yeah. Yeah, alright. Sorry, I'll stay out of it."

"Thank you."

"I just want to help."

"I know," she told him softly. "I know you mean well. Just…"

"I get it. Enough, huh?" He laughed. "I'll drop it."

She nodded, and they sat there in silence for a few long moments.

"Hey," Draco began, "I've been meaning to ask you about this coming weekend."

She looked up at him, her head still resting on his chest. "What about it?"

"I have to go to Paris on Saturday for a dinner with a client and his wife. I wanted to see if maybe you could get the day off and come with me."

Hermione paused for a moment, thinking about it. "I might be able to get the weekend off. I'll ask Marion tomorrow."

He sat up quite suddenly. "Really?"

She laughed to herself. "I would like to go to Paris with you, I just need a few days' notice to request it off."

He grinned, a big dopey smile. "Well let me know. I would love to take you to a few places in Paris. We can spend all weekend there if you can get it off."

"I'll ask Marion and see what she says," Hermione promised.

Malfoy leaned forward and kissed her deeply. "I'm already looking forward to it."

Worry not. Harry will come along soon!