The second the last class was done for the day, Hermione threw her parchment and quill into her bag, made a beeline for the floo points, and floo-ed to WiNY. She had already looked up Jaheet and Samir's restaurant and it was a scant few blocks from WiNY and the church they held the AA meetings in. However, even that short walk had nearly frozen her by the time she had found the restaurant and hurried inside.

She was immediately greeted with warm air that wafted the spicy and also sweet pastry scents of the kitchen out towards her. It seemed small, but that may have been because the front entrance crowded with statues and plants and large paintings. The wallpaper was a busy dark red pattern and the walls were covered in rugs and heavy fabric curtains. The physical warmth combined with the warm tones of the room was enough to make Hermione want to curl up in one of the booths and just doze off for awhile. Last night's sleep hadn't been the greatest she had ever gotten, with all her worries about Draco circling around and then diving off into memories like the media debacles surrounding the Triwizard Tournament during fourth year. Even when she had finally fallen asleep, she had had nightmares about Draco and what might happen to him now that his past had caught up to him.

Jaheet was dressed in a sky blue tunic and loose pants that were both embroidered with bright magenta flowers. She greeted Hermione with a smile and welcomed her inside. "Ah, you have come earlier than we planned as well."

Hermione hesitated as she pulled off her coat. "Sorry, is this an inconvenience?"

Jaheet shook her head. "No, I've just been having Draco help with food prep so that when I come back Samir will be able to act as host without Amar being overwhelmed in the back.

The thought of Draco chopping vegetables made Hermione smirk.

They both wound through the low lit tables until they came to the kitchen and its glaring florescent lighting against the bright metal counters.

"I'll join you both once the lunch rush is finished," Jaheet said, patting Hermione's back. "Maybe you two will have a chance to talk about why Draco is so gloomy."

Samir, who was working over a large skillet and several pots, smiled at Jaheet over his shoulder.

Draco looked up from his cutting board and glared Jaheet's way. "Maybe I just wanted to cut class," he groused.

Jaheet shrugged. "I'll see you two in an hour or so."

Draco rolled his eyes and nodded before turning to look at Hermione. He gave her a playful smirk. "Want to see my cooking skills?" He twirled the knife in his hand and Hermione couldn't help wondering how many cuts he had gotten before he had perfected that. Then the annoyance of him standing nonchalantly in the kitchen while he cowardly ditched his future overshadowed anything else.

She curled her hands into fists and breathed in carefully, trying not to throw the words at him that were crashing around her head. Hadn't she just finished saying that he didn't run away from things or something like that when she was defending him? Yet, the second he encountered some trouble at school, he turned tail and ran.

The smirk on Draco's face slid off and he stared back solemnly, his jaw twitching a little.

At the silence, Samir turned from his stovetop and gave them both a quick glance over before turning back to his pots. "So, it is a lover's tiff that has got you moping all over my kitchen. Take out the trash and sort out whatever this is in the back alleyway."

"The trash is barely half-full," Draco stated, not taking his solemn eyes off of Hermione.

"And I want your useless ass out of my kitchen so you'll stop crying over my vegetables."

Hermione's eyes widened and Draco scowled, glaring daggers at Samir's back.

"It was those bloody onions and you know it!"

Hermione couldn't help a faint giggle and Draco glared at her too before spinning sharply and hefting a black bag out of the industrial sized rubbish bin. He stalked off towards the hallway located just behind Amar doing the dishes in a huge sink. "Our onions never make me cry," Amar said and Draco flipped him a two-fingered salute.

"Yeah, yeah, your posh British insults don't do nothing to me."

Posh they were not, but Hermione held her tongue as Draco pushed a door and let in a gust of freezing wind. She hurried out to follow him.

The few rays of sun from the high noon sun that actually reached all the way into the narrow alleyway in the back of the restaurant did nothing to warm it, and the chill immediately seeped into Hermione.

Face mostly in shadows, Draco set down the rubbish bag and pulled on the strings to tie off the top. Shivering, Hermione subtly cast a warming spell around the two of them.

He glanced up at her before tugging at the knot he had just made. "Thanks."

The silence grew between them and Hermione couldn't help the feeling of betrayal that still burned in her. Where was the person that she thought she had seen Draco change into? Was he just going to start running again? Where was the proud man that had cajoled her into trying to take control of her life? Why wasn't he taking control of his?

"Why," she finally asked. "didn't you go to school?"

He kicked the bag and sighed, folding his arms before he looked up at her with a blank face. "Because I can't be a Healer anymore."

She walked up to him and shoved a finger into his chest. "Why? Because some prejudiced girl decided to taunt you in school?"

Draco met her gaze as he reached up and held her hand gingerly. She couldn't help the warmness that rushed over her at his gentle touch. "No, Hermione. Professor Spinder told me I can't treat patients because of what I've done."

"They are kicking you out because of the healing spell?" Hermione asked angrily but then saw Draco's small shake of his head. "No, because of what you've done." Done during the war was unsaid but hanging between them. She squeezed his hand. "You were not convicted of anything in court and you were coerced into it. You should still be able to legally practice. We'll find a way."

He dropped her hand and gave a small shake of his head. "I'm not going to run away or blame anyone anymore. I'll take the consequences for my actions." He turned from her and picked up the rubbish bag, half-dragging it towards the dumpster against the wall.

"But you don't have to be a martyr."

He paused at the dumpster, hand on the lid, his head slanted towards her, but not all the way.

"Sometimes courage is to keep going even though there doesn't seem to be much hope for it to work out."

He didn't say anything but he didn't turn away either.

"Let me keep looking just for a little bit."

He lifted the lid and swung the rubbish bin into it then shifted so he was looking at her again. His arms were folded and his lips were draw out into a thin line of reluctance.

"Please," Hermione asked, and then realized how much it was for her as it was for him. "Please don't leave me yet." She ducked her head. She hadn't realized how much she had been counting on him being there as her strength until it threatened to leave her. She was selfish.

Head still down, she heard Draco's steps draw closer and then felt his arms wrap around her back and pull her head down onto his shoulder. "I'll stay until the end of the term," he told her. "If nothing has changed I will move on. Samir could always use the help."

Hermione made a small noise of protest but didn't try to break out of his arms. She leaned her head into the crook of his neck and closed her eyes, savoring his warmth and the smell of his skin, before she let out a breath. Draco wouldn't be happy to be part of the kitchen staff for long. She had seen his passion when he was working with potions. To be taken from that would break something in him. She wasn't sure if there were enough unbroken parts of him to be able to survive it again.

Or, at least, his new self wouldn't survive. He would probably fall into old habits and his old self. Her hands tightened around his waist as resolve crept into her. She would try to save Draco from this and save him from his destruction just as he had tried to do for her. She just prayed he would let her and that he wanted to be that person she thought she saw in him.

"Come on," Draco said gently into her hair. "We should go back before they start making up wild stories about what we are doing."

Hermione chuckled and it was part weariness but also part true amusement. Despite her worries, she still couldn't help be affected by him. Shyly, she took his hand and he lead her back into the restaurant.

They entered and took turns washing their hands at a small sink next to Amar's. He ran an eye over both of them and then said, "Your hair is not nearly wild enough for you two to have made-up properly."

Hermione froze in wiping her hands on a paper towel and curled it up to throw at Amar's face.

Draco beat her to it by leaning in very close to Amar and whispering, "You shove it about Hermione or I will tell Samir exactly what you and Chelsea from the coffee shop are doing on your breaks."

Amar jerked back. "It's my breaks. I can do whatever I want!"

Draco raised an eyebrow. "In your Uncle's restaurant?"

Amar glared and Hermione grabbed Draco by the elbow and steered him past Amar before anything happened.

It turned out that there were more vegetables that needed to be chopped. Amar gave her the box of carrots and then rather maliciously banged the box of onions next to Draco.

Draco glanced down. "You've got to be kidding me."

Amar's grin was sly. "You did such a good job last time, even with all the tears in your eyes."

Draco moved to flip him off when Samir barked, "Both of you, back to work. I don't pay you to horse around."

"You're not paying me at all," Draco quipped.

Samir turned and pointed his spatula at Draco. "If you are in my kitchen you work. If you don't then-" he motioned with the spatula across his neck.

Draco waved a hand in acknowledgement before grabbing his knife. "Yeah, yeah. Right away, Boss chef."

"Head-chef, idiot," Amar chuckled. Samir's spatula turned on Amar, who immediately turned around, muttering, "Yes, Head-chef."

Later, when Hermione had gotten through at least a pound or so of carrots, Samir leaned over her shoulder.

"You've got it too," he said. "Sharp knife strokes, no wasted movement. When I saw Draco's chopping I thought he might be a chef but then I tasted his cooking."

"Hey!" Draco said indignantly, wiping his eyes on his sleeve. "My khichdi tasted fine!"

Samir chuckled. "It was passable but not enough to let you man my stove."

Draco turned back to his onions, muttering about stuck up sou-chefs and their bloody stove-complexes.

Samir turned back to Hermione and retrieved one of her bowls of carrots. "So, how do you both have this affinity to chopping vegetables?"

"Oh, we both had to do it a lot at the boarding school we grew up in."

"They forced you to help cook?" Amar guessed as Samir returned to the stove-top with her carrots.

Hermione smiled and shrugged, unfortunately, lying with the truth had become second nature to her as she had re-immersed herself into the Muggle world. "How about you? Where did you learn to cook?"

Amar shrugged back. "I helped my mata back home. Samir taught me the rest when I came to America. I'll help until I get a job with computers. I'm studying hardware at night."

"Hardware?"

"Amar has this notion that computers are going to take over the world," Samir said gruffly.

"I've already built my own computer though getting the motherboard to match up with the right sockets was a bit stupid. Should have gone the other way around," Amar said eagerly.

"I'll admit I'm rather in the dark about all of that," Hermione said.

Amar nodded sagely. "Draco is completely old school too. When I showed him my computer, you'd think he had never seen one before!"

"I still don't see the point of the bloody things," Draco mumbled, savagely chopping onions.

"Okay, chatterboxes," Samir interupted. "Amar you are on the stove and Draco on dish-duty."

"Finally!" Draco grumbled pulling up his shirt to once again rub at his eyes. When moving away from the onions, he had turned towards her, and so she finally saw the full affect of him in an apron when she wasn't distracted. She had been right, even if it wasn't a waiter's apron, he looked good in it. Especially when he tugged his shirt down and looked at her.

She took a deep breath in and bit her lip. This attraction was completely irrational! It was just an apron.

Meeting her eyes, he raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Should she tell him? Wasn't that the sort of thing that people did in a relationship, compliment each other and such? However, this was Draco Malfoy. Didn't he already have too big of an ego? She didn't exactly want to inflate it. She sighed.

"Okay, you are scaring me now."

Amar had been drying his hands as he watched the exchange. "Draco, you idiot, she is checking you out."

Draco's eyes jerked from Amar back to Hermione and he smirked before stalking towards her.

Her heart rate jumped and she spun around to face her cutting board as she tried to calm her heart. Now she definitely couldn't tell him. It would feel like some sort of defeat.

He stood behind her and tucked her hair over her opposite shoulder so her neck was exposed. He leaned in so his breath ghosted over her skin. "That true?" he asked. "Does the Hermione Granger think Draco Malfoy is fit?"

She couldn't help rolling her eyes. "Really, Draco?"

He chuckled and his warm breath sent goose pimples down her neck. He traced his fingers along her skin as he returned her hair back to its usual spot and that was too much. As he turned away, Hermione turned and grabbed him by the front of his apron. "You tease!" she hissed up at him, her nose nearly jamming into his chin.

"As Samir says, if you can't stand the heat then stay out of the kitchen," Draco said softly but with a smirk starting on his face.

"Well, if you can't stand the heat, don't start the fire," she whispered back as her grip tightened on the apron. She barely kept her voice even as the closeness of Draco sent her heart into overdrive. When things like this happened between them it was hard to remember she was worried about him. To even have something like this between them testified to how much he had changed and made her doubts seem small even if she couldn't shake them. Especially when he stared at her so intently.

Draco tilted his head to the side. "What sort of fire am I supposed to have started?"

Slightly mesmerized, Hermione tilted her head as well so that his breath ghosted on her nose. It felt like her chest was being squeezed tighter and tighter. Why was a little meaningless flirting nearly driving her out of her mind? She skimmed her fingers along his chin, his five o'clock shadow scratching her until she found a good grip and tilted his face down so that they were a little more on eye level. Something she hadn't thought about was it also brought their lips to nearly the same level too. She sucked her breath in. "Wh-what fire haven't you started?"

She saw his eyes crinkle but they were too close for her to see if his mouth was smiling although she was hyper-aware of each breath he took as it brushed her skin. "Should I take that as a dare?" he asked, eyes slipping down and fingers catching her hand still on his chin. Then he jerked as something flew towards them and caught it with his other hand.

Caught up in the flirting, Hermione took several seconds before she realized Draco was holding a spice container that Samir had apparently thrown at them.

"I've got enough heat in this kitchen without you two making eyes at each other," Samir said and gestured at them with the spatula.

They stepped apart and Hermione said, "Sorry, Samir."

He nodded and turned away again.

Draco threw the tumeric container into the air and deftly caught it again. "So, turned on by me using my 'seeker-thing' again?" he asked quietly behind Samir's back.

She rolled her eyes and grabbed the tumeric from him. "Are you ever going to let me live that down?"

He smirked. "Not likely. It is a rare thing to catch the Hermione Granger so in-eloquent."

She sighed in exasperation but couldn't help returning a small smirk of her own. She really really hoped she was right about him.

A/N: So... I know I'm probably going to be m.i.a for the rest of the week cause... life (new city and new adventures!), but I wanted to get out another chapter before all that in celebration of my birthday! So thank you to my lovely beta, Fleurdelys21, for helping me finish the chapter in time. :)

If you like my stuff check hers out! She has some HP fics and is also on wattpad where she has an amazing (finished!) novel involving suffragettes and is working on another one involving a spy school. ;)

So... happy birthday to me ;) ;) and also thank you guys so much for all of your lovely comments and involvement in this story! xxx Sam

Replies:

ChenangoJones: Thank you for sharing that! That was beautifully written and I love the image too :)