The following day, Hermione stopped by Flourish and Blotts and picked up a couple of new books that she thought Malfoy would like. It wasn't exactly a romantic type of gift, but if he were to take them home, he could safely say that a colleague had gifted them to him.
She had them wrapped in brown paper with silver and green ribbons and made her way to work. The revelations from the night before had her smiling from ear to ear. After they stopped texting, she had laid in bed awake for hours going over in her head, how she felt about Malfoy. She couldn't confidently say it was love, but the more she got to know him, not just on a sexual level, but on a personal level, through texting every day, she had grown to actually care for him more than she thought she could. More than she ever imagined being able to care for Draco Malfoy.
After morning meetings and a couple of hours of dull work, she collected the package of books from her office and made her way down the lifts to the DCRMC. She stepped out of the lift and looked up and down the corridor at the familiar space. She was loving her new job, but she did miss certain aspects of this space.
Missy was no where to be seen, so Hermione knocked on his door. She entered when she heard his voice call to her and saw him sitting at his desk with his head in a pile of parchments. He looked stressed and anxious, but when he looked up at her, his face morphed into a bright smile.
'Yep, this man loves me' she thought to herself. It wasn't her being conceited at all, but simply knowing based on how he looked at her and how he liked to touch her all the time, that there was love there.
"Shall we go to lunch?" she asked.
"You brought me a gift?" he asked, looking at the parcel in her hands.
"It's nothing really, just something silly. You can even take it home if you like. Wife friendly" she babbled. She hated giving gifts, it always made her feel awkward.
She walked over to him and he rolled out his chair and pulled her into his lap.
"This is a little close" she said, eyeing the open door across from them.
He took his wand off the desk and waved it clumsily, closing it and locking it with a click.
Now that the conversation regarding feelings had been initiated, Hermione had no idea how to act around him. Normally, she'd be dying to get his trousers off, but now, she actually wanted nothing more than to just sit here and watch him open the present she got him for his birthday.
"Books?" he asked.
"Well, yes, I thought they were…" she began, drifting off at the end of her sentence as he had started kissing her neck.
"Wife friendly?" he said between kisses.
"Yes" she said, breathing heavily.
"Well I love them" he said.
"You haven't even looked at them" she said.
"I'd rather look at you" he said, slipping a finger into the top of her blouse and following with his lips.
"It's your birthday, I suppose you get to do as you please" she said.
He stopped kissing her and looked into her face. His eyes were burning with what she felt was lust.
"I… I want to go to lunch" he said.
She stood up from his lap and hid a smirk as he adjusted his arousal when he stood.
"As much as there are so many incorrigible things I'd like to do to you, what I really fucking want, is to just be a normal human being and take you to lunch on my birthday" he said.
"So, I'll meet you in the atrium then?" she asked, eyeing him carefully. She wasn't sure what had caused that outburst, but she was going to certain to tread carefully.
He kissed her once and smiled. She felt her stomach whirl, a feeling that had nothing to do with being hungry. She smiled to herself as she opened the door, thinking of all the ways she was about to convince herself that she wasn't head over heels in love with him, and made her way out into the hall.
"Astoria" Hermione said as she almost ran into Malfoy's wife.
"Oh, Hermione, its so good to see you again" she said, pulling Hermione into a hug. "Are you visiting Draco?" she asked.
"Oh, yes, we had a meeting" she said.
"Of course you did. Such busy little bee's aren't you?" she said with a fake sweet smile. Hermione smiled back, equally as sickly before declaring her haste and moving off towards the lifts.
Astoria entered Draco's office and Hermione pressed UP to go back to hers. She figured lunch would be cancelled, yet, she collected her purse and her coat and made her way to the atrium regardless. If he couldn't join her, she'd celebrate his birthday all on her own.
She felt like an idiot, sitting by the fountain for the better part of an hour. She had thought that she would at least give him that so he could get Astoria to leave. But part of her wondered for however brief a moment whether he was playing Hermione for a fool as much as they were both playing their spouses. For all she knew, he could be making up the whole thing about Astoria. She had only ever seen Astoria be kind and friendly. She had trouble picturing the small woman as anything other than lovely. There was of course, an underlying tone of savageness to her, but lovely, nonetheless.
She was about to get up and return to her office for a sandwich when she saw Astoria exit the lifts and head to the floo. Her face was red, and she was storming through the atrium like a woman on a mission.
"Move!" Hermione heard her shout to someone who had entered the floo in front of her. She reached to grab them, but they hurried out of her way before she stepped into the space and called "Zabini house" before disappearing in a flurry of green flames.
"I wonder what's gotten her knickers in a twist" came the voice of Theo from behind her.
"I just saw her at Malfoy's office" Hermione said with a shrug, as though it was an off the cuff comment.
"So you still banging each other in your offices?" he asked with an excited grin.
She rolled her eyes, remembering he was the only one who know about their affair.
"You probably already know the answer to that, Theo" she said.
"I do, I just wanted to see your reaction. It was every bit as perfect as I had hoped" he said.
"Great" she said.
"Who are you waiting for?" he asked.
"None of your business" she said.
"Well you sure as hell aren't leaving with Draco in a side-along. Not after the stunt his wife just pulled" Theo said.
It made sense to Hermione. She couldn't imagine what people would think if they saw her leaving here with Malfoy merely minutes after his wife stormed out, screaming at anyone in her way. She had almost made Bellatrix look weak. Almost.
"Just as I thought. Come with me my dear, we'll go together" he said.
"You don't even know where we're going" she said.
"I know exactly where we're going" he said, pulling her towards the disapparation point.
He held her hand and she clung to his surprisingly muscular arm as he twisted them through the air and landed them comfortably in a familiar bus shelter.
"The only place he can take you, publicly, without being public" Theo said, taking her by the hand and leading her down the road the short distance to the pub.
"Has he spoken to you about that? I mean, about wanting to go somewhere?" she asked.
"Only every sodding day. He is a traditionalist, Granger, he wants to take you on a date, not shag you in dark corners of your office" Theo said. "Not that he doesn't want the shagging… Fuck, just don't listen to me. Keep shagging. Forget I said anything" he said, having probably noticed Hermione's frown.
It felt like it had been forever since she was last there. At least, for her, so much had changed. For the bar, it was still the same.
Hermione looked for a private booth while Theo made his way to the bar. She wasn't sure if it would be just the two of them, of if Malfoy would be joining soon, so she just stood there, waiting for him.
"Two…" Theo began, talking to the bartender. He stopped when a flustered looking Malfoy walked through the door… "make that three… firewhiskys please and a bottle of mead for after" he finished, handing the bartender more money than the request would have called for.
Hermione felt very awkward, standing around waiting for someone else to decide where they'd sit. Theo gathered up the drinks and Malfoy eyed him in confusion as he strode over to the other man. She suddenly felt like no years had passed since they were at Hogwarts and she felt very out of place with these two Slytherins. She shook that feeling off when Malfoy smiled at her.
"What are you doing here Theo?" Malfoy asked.
"It's your birthday, can't we share a drink?" he responded.
"I was going to be sharing a drink, with Granger" he said.
"Come off it, Drake, you've got plenty of time for that later in your office, now let's raise our glasses" Theo said.
Hermione took a seat around the back of the larger booth, while Theo and Malfoy sat on either side, effectively blocking her in.
"Happy Birthday" she said, raising her glass to Malfoy.
"So what was all the drama about with little Mrs Malfoy?" Theo asked.
"I told her I didn't want to have lunch with her" he said, shrugging.
"Its your birthday, no wonder she was angry" Hermione said.
"She wasn't angry, she was pissed" Theo corrected.
"Well, either way, she was probably right to be pissed" Hermione said, shocking even herself at how she was sticking up for Astoria.
"If she had made plans to have lunch and not bombarded me with the idea of going to her favourite place, which she knows I can't stand, then meeting her friends afterwards and going on a shopping spree in her favourite city, then fine. But I'm not having an Astoria day on my birthday. Especially not when I already had plans" Malfoy said.
"I see… What an absolutely trollop" she said, regretting the words from just a moment ago.
"Cheers to trollops" Theo said.
Hermione raised her glass with a smile. Theo was growing on her, but she would still rather have been sitting in a dark corner somewhere with Malfoy all to herself. She was losing it.
The three of them ordered meals and chatted while they ate, talking about everything except the elephant in the room. That is, until Theo decided that the elephant must be noticed.
"So the two of you, when are you going to stop this torturous game, leave your shit lives and be together?" Theo asked.
"Theo, its not like that with Granger and I. We're friends" Malfoy said, making Hermione internally shrink into her seat. Of course they were friends. They had agreed to it in the very beginning. In fact, they hadn't even agreed to be friends, they had agreed to have sex. Friends was just a bonus it seemed.
"That's right…" she began, taking a sip of her drink. "Malfoy and I are purely friends… with benefits" she said.
"Well, I know this one…" Theo said, thumbing towards Malfoy, "…and I've never seen him happier. Ever. So whatever you two are or think you are, or are not, or are pretending to be… just move it along" Theo said.
Hermione just stared down at her plate and stabbed at her chicken with her fork.
Malfoy didn't speak either just went along the same lines as Hermione, impaling his potato with his fork and stuffing it into his mouth.
"I think you're in denial. Both of you. The sooner you admit whatever's going on here, the better it will be for both of you" Theo continued.
"Ok Theo, I get it" Malfoy said.
"No, I don't think you do…" he began, pushing his finished plate away from him and crossing his cutlery on top of it. "You two are shagging like maniacs, in the office, at the cottage, probably under this table before you both leave, and from what I've been told…" he pointedly stared at Malfoy, "…It's the bet sex either of you have ever had. Now, you've been texting every bleeding day, especially when he…" he indicated towards Malfoy, "…is supposed to be hanging out with me. You are more than bloody friends. Admit it" Theo finished, standing, wiping his mouth with his napkin and leaving.
Hermione just stared at Theo with her mouth wide open, watching him leave the pub in a tizz.
"Merlin, what's his problem?" she asked him.
"He gets sick of me talking about you" he said, in a very offhand manner.
"You talk about me to him a lot?" she asked.
He shrugged.
"Who am I supposed to talk to about you then?" she asked.
"A friend?" he asked.
"Yeah right, my closest friend is the sister of my fiancé. And everyone else would die to share a piece of gossip like this" she said, gesturing between them.
He simply sighed and moved closer to her, putting his arm around her and taking his drink in his hand.
"So, about what Theo said" Hermione said after a moments silence.
"Don't pay him any attention" he said, turning to her and nuzzling her cheek with his nose.
"Eventually it will be the elephant in the room" she said, turning her head so she could kiss him.
"And eventually, we'll figure out what it is we need to figure out" he said.
"Till then?" she asked.
"This feels pretty right" he said, pulling her closer to him so he could kiss her some more.
It was the first time she had been anywhere so public and kissed him, or even showed the slightest bit of anything less than feigned indifference towards him. It felt good to sit in their little booth, wrapped in each other's arms, celebrating his birthday.
She could almost see them doing this somewhere more public, like Diagon Ally or something like that. It made her insides flutter at the thought of being free to kiss him, to touch him, to put her arms around him like this, whenever she wanted.
But after a while, she started to realise that it would never be. She had Rose to think about. She was engaged to Ron. They had plans to make plans to get married. Malfoy was actually married to Astoria. It was all too much, but the part of her brain that was currently in control of her actions, was the part that was thoroughly enjoying being snogged by Malfoy in this moment.