For my amazing Keeper, Hannah (hannahsoapy)! I'm so glad to have you on my team this year. I hope you like this fic, because you probably know how much it hurt me!

Reserve League - S4, Finals R2, Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes - Seeker (Canary Creams)

Quidditch Supplies - (quote) "You talk a lot." / "I lie a lot, too. Fair warning." — Marie Rutoski

WC. 1807

Of Canary Creams and Office Kisses

Work was tough, but she liked it. There was always something exciting happening to gather her attention or gain her interest. The Auror Department from upstairs would send its reports down to her and she'd read over them, make a case, and then decide if she wanted to take it on. Most of the time, they were basic cases. Petty arrests for someone breaching the Statute of Secrecy in Muggle London or sending a reprimand to a parent whose child had used accidental magic in front of some Muggles.

On the odd occasion, though, an interesting case would come in. A witch or wizard arrested for using Dark magic. A murder. Something that would take more than a few hours to work through.

Those were her favourite kind of cases.

However, the one that had landed on her desk that morning had completely stumped her. She recognised Harry's lazy scrawl, which sometimes made it difficult to decipher. But that wasn't the reason this time. It was the nature of the case.

"Morning."

"Morning." Hermione barely glanced up as Draco Malfoy stumbled into the office. If she had, she might have seen his usual pristine work robes wrinkled, his hair a mess and his face unshaven. "Hey." She got up and headed over to where he was unloading his lunch, as well as a white cake box and some quills. "Hey, have you heard of this?"

"Heard of what?" Draco grumbled, flopping into his chair and rubbing his hands over his face.

"Harry, Ron, and Dean made a big arrest late yesterday evening." She placed the report in front of him.

Yawning, Draco picked up the bound report and scanned bleary eyes over it. After a moment, he set it back down. "Hm. Nope. Interesting. Seems right up your alley."

It was then that Hermione realised something wasn't right. She frowned. Working with Draco Malfoy had become more tolerable over the years to the point that they could have a professional conversation about a case without getting snipey with one another. Even more recently, they'd engaged in some friendly discussions while finishing up for the day.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Hm."

Hermione took the report from his desk, frowning again. "You look… unwell. Are you sure you should be here today?" She looked around the office, noting the lack of reports on the junior lawyers' desks. It was only her and Draco's that needed to be addressed. "Listen, it's pretty quiet. I can give some of your cases to the others. I'm sure we'll manage."

"No, I'm fine," Draco said, picking up his own pile of reports. "Just… a long night, is all."

Hermione never thought she'd say it, but in that moment, she pitied him. He looked a wreck. "It's your mother, isn't it?"

He nodded.

"Is she not doing okay?"

He shook his head.

Since the war and Lucius Malfoy's arrest and life sentence to Azkaban, Narcissa Malfoy's health had deteriorated significantly. Her mind was slowly going, and Draco was her sole caretaker. Along with a full-time job as a senior magical lawyer. He usually kept it together, but obviously something had happened.

Hermione wasn't privy to such intimate details about his life, so she didn't ask. She wanted to, of course, but this was Draco Malfoy. He wouldn't tell her anyway.

She picked up her report and returned to her desk, reading it over once more. But now it wasn't her sole focus. Every so often, as she scratched notes onto her parchment, she heard a rustle, or a groan, or a sigh from Malfoy's desk. He hadn't touched his work.

"Alright," she said after half an hour. "You are going home. You're distracting me, and I have a lot of things to get through today."

"I'm fine," Draco replied. "Look. I have my quill. Parchment. Report. Ready to go." He opened the cake box sitting on the edge of his desk. "Canary Cream?"

Hermione stared at the box for a few moments, before looking back up at Draco. "You… bought something from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes?"

Draco shrugged. "I was hungry, they were open. I thought… why not?" He held it up to her. "Want one?"

"It's nine o'clock. No thank you." She eyed him suspiciously. First he'd been shopping at the Weasleys' joke shop - a place he'd been adamant in expressing his distaste for whenever he got the chance - and then he was offering to share food with her.

He shrugged again. "Suit yourself." He picked one of the cakes up and took a large bite. Then he started scribbling on his own parchment.

Hermione shook her head, once again returning to her desk. He must have been sick, because he was being unusually nice.

…

"How is it possible that someone could keep so many illegal magical creatures hidden from us for so long?" Hermione asked later that morning.

"I dunno. Magic, I guess."

"You're a great help, you know," Hermione huffed. "This is a big case. Your help would be greatly appreciated." She turned around to face him, pausing when she saw his red and swollen eyes. Was Malfoy crying?

She had no idea what to say, no idea how to approach the matter. She'd never seen him cry before. She didn't even think it was possible of him.

"Would you like to take your break?" was all she could think of.

He stood, nodding, and grabbed his box of Canary Creams. He left the office without saying another word.

Hermione watched him for a moment before making the decision to follow. This wasn't personal, this was about work. Technically, she was his boss. Technically, she had the right to send him home if she deemed him unfit for work.

"Then you can go home," she said to his retreating back down the corridor.

He paused, spun, and looked at her with his tear-streaked face. He looked so… sad.

"Going home is worse than being stuck in an office with you all day, Granger," he snapped. "If you don't want me in the office, that's fine. I'll go and find something else to do."

Hermione stared at him, speechless. She then nodded. "You know, it might help to talk about -"

"Not to you. Not your business. Never will be."

She nodded at the box of Canary Creams under his arm and said, "I'll just get my stuff and we can take lunch… together." She tried not to cringe at the suggestion. In all of the five years of working in the same department, they'd never eaten a single meal together, and they'd both been happy with such an arrangement.

Perhaps it was what he'd really wanted, or more likely, he was too stunned by the offer that he said nothing while she went to get her things together. When she returned, he was standing exactly where she'd left him. "I know somewhere a little more quiet than the cafeteria."

He followed in silence while she took him up the elevator, past the floor with the cafeteria, and onto one that was more quiet. Not many people were about.

"So, this is where you disappear to," Draco mused, irritating Hermione with a smirk. "I always wondered…."

"Don't you go making it a habit of coming here," Hermione said. "I like my solitude."

"No kidding."

She pushed open a simple door that contained a desk, a lamp, and a plant.

Draco looked around with an amused expression. "So, you escape the office to go to another office?"

She ignored him, vanishing the desk and chair and summoning a two seater armchair. "Sit."

"I feel like this is therapy," Draco replied, but obliged to her request. He sat the box of Canary Creams on his lap.

"You really come up here?" he asked. "On your own?"

Hermione shrugged. "I change its appearance to suit my mood. Think of it as a Room of Requirement of sorts - except I design it myself. And, not, not always on my own. Harry and Ron sometimes join me."

"Ah."

"You seem to have cheered up a little," Hermione observed, taking a seat beside him on the couch.

"Well, believe it or not, Granger, you amuse me at times. You and your… ways. Canary Cream?"

"No."

"They're really quite good."

"I've had them before."

"Right. Of course you have."

"You talk a lot, you know?"

"I lie a lot, too. Fair warning."

"About?"

"Everything."

Hermione looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Draco averted his gaze while he nibbled on another Weasley treat. He sighed.

"The truth is, I wasn't really ready to work today. I just needed to escape… her. She has moments where it feels like everything is as it used to be, but then something happens. Last night it was a photo. Just a photo of my father, and it was like her mind went foggy the moment she saw it." He looked up and shook his head. "I know what you're thinking. I thought it, too. The truth is, I don't know. Maybe he did put some kind of spell on her to mess with her mind. He won't tell me."

There was silence. Then Hermione said, "I'm sorry." And she meant it. She knew all too well what it was like to have parents whose minds weren't all there. She'd been fortunate enough to restore her parents' memories, but the process in finding them as two different people and convincing them to trust her had been challenging and heartbreaking at the same time.

Draco shrugged. "Yeah, well, at least she's there most of the time. Though, she's miserable. She's never been quite the same since… the war."

Hermione wasn't sure what prompted her to cover his hand with hers, but he was just so sad. He wasn't even putting it on. He had been struggling all this time, and she'd never known.

The gesture caused him to flinch, but he didn't move his hand away. Instead, he looked up into her eyes and he was… smiling.

She smiled back, patting his hand. She was about to pull away, but to her bewilderment, he moved closer. It happened so suddenly, all she could do was sit there for the few seconds that Draco Malfoy kissed her.

Her brain had barely registered what had happened before he had pulled away, jumped to his feet and began spluttering something unintelligible. His face was red.

Then he was gone, and Hermione was alone once more, staring at the door he had just gone through.

What a day it had been and it was only lunch time.

First Draco Malfoy had cried in front of her. Then he talked to her. And then he kissed her.

But that wasn't even the weirdest part of it all. The weirdest part was that she had enjoyed it. Especially the last part.

This was... hard. To anyone wondering, my Romione heart is still 100% strong and I have written this as a giftfic for the amazing Hannah, who is the Keeper in my Quidditch team! I want to say a huge thank you to another fellow teammate, Autumn (and also a fellow Romione shipper) for helping me and beta-ing this. We were two lost souls trying to work out how to Dramione haha.

For the record, I used a lot of my head canon in this... except for the romance aspect.

Hannah, I hope you enjoyed this!