Hermione felt excited and a little nervous as she walked down to the lake to meet Neville. What was she doing? Neville hadn't actually said this was a date but it felt like one. Hermione didn't know if she was attracted to Neville or not because she couldn't quite get over the friend thing but she knew she wanted to find out.

Ginny had left half an hour earlier to meet Blaise so Hermione had promised to make sure that she and Neville stayed the other side of the lake. She caught sight of Neville who was leaning against a tree, staring out across the lake. She stopped walking and bit her lip. He was dressed in his normal clothes and without his robe he looked even taller. His hair was just a bit too long, scraping his collar but Hermione couldn't get over how her former school friend looked just standing casually by the lake. What had she just said about not being attracted to him? He turned and caught her staring at him so she walked over quickly.

"Hey Hermione."

"Hey Neville."

Neville's eyes did a quick assessment of her expression and then he put his head to one side. "This isn't going to be awkward is it?"

Hermione blinked rapidly. "No, of course not." She stepped forward and gathered him into a hug which he returned. It felt comforting and warm just like a hug from a friend should. It also felt a little bit wonderful in a strictly non-friendly way. They stayed like this for a few minutes before moving apart again.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

"Why on earth are you apologising?" Neville asked.

Hermione shuffled on the spot. "I didn't mean to do that." She noticed that Neville was grinning at her.

"Anytime you want to do that is fine by me, Hermione," he said and grinned. Hermione felt her embarrassment disappear and she grinned back at him.

"It wouldn't do for a student to see their professor embracing one of the visitors!" Hermione said. "Can you imagine the scandal in that?"

"We'd be the talk of all the common rooms!"

They both chuckled and Neville nodded towards the far side of the lake. "Come on - let's have a walk."

They walked in silence for a few minutes but it didn't feel awkward and Hermione began to relax.

"Does it feel strange to be back?" Neville broke the silence and as they sat on a bench.

"No - not really. The day I got here I was just so pleased to see it again," Hermione answered. "Does it feel strange to have us all back here with you?"

"Weird as anything!" Neville said with a smile. "But good too! Having Harry, Ron, Ginny and you back is great." He turned to look at her. "What's it like being Harry's business partner?"

"It's interesting!"

"And you're a partner in a broomstick company because?" Neville's question sounded as unbelieving as most others peoples when they questioned what Hermione did for a living.

"It's a long story."

"I can imagine!" Neville grinned. "If I'd told you what you'd be doing for a living when we were at school you would have hexed me!"

"If I'd told you what you would be doing, you'd have hexed me!"

They laughed and then Neville spoke again. "And what about Malfoy?"

"Malfoy? What do you mean?" Hermione frowned, quite bewildered by Neville's question.

"What's going on with him?"

Hermione shook her head. "I still don't know what you mean."

"I just saw him earlier, talking to you..." Neville looked down at his fingers.

"Annoying me, you mean?" Hermione said with a grin. "He did something surprising to help Ginny - that's all."

Neville nodded but didn't comment any further. "So, can you manage an hour with me tomorrow lunch time to run through our afternoon lecture? We should probably have something prepared."

Hermione sat forward, her hand across her mouth, her eyes wide. "Oh god!"

"What's the matter?"

"I haven't prepared anything for my lecture in the morning!" she said, sounding horrified.

"That's not like you," Neville said, looking slightly amused at her expression. "Who's it with?"

Hermione frowned. "Malfoy."

"Oops!" Neville actually chuckled now. "In that case you should definitely have something prepared."

Hermione stood up. "I'm so sorry, Neville but do you mind if I cut this short? I can't go to a lecture with him and not have something planned."

"Of course - that's fine."

"I really am sorry. I feel awful having to leave you now!" Hermione bent down and gave Neville a little kiss on the cheek and he smiled up at her.

"I told you - it's no problem. Go and sort yourself out."

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Hermione surveyed the communal room for a blonde head but he wasn't there. She sighed because this would mean her having to go to his room to look for him. Reluctantly, she went down the corridor and knocked on his door. It seemed a long while so she was about to knock again when he opened it. He looked her up and down distastefully.

"It's late, Granger. What do you want?"

Hermione tried to ignore his tone. "We haven't prepared anything for our lecture tomorrow."

"And?"

"We need something! We can't go in without some sort of structure prepared!"

"Why not?"

Hermione felt her anger rising at his attitude. "Because we'll look like idiots!"

Draco frowned. "What's to prepare for? We tell them what we do and how brilliant we are at it, they ask us a few questions and we're done!"

"We need to know a bit about each other's day to day routine and what each of us wants to say and when," Hermione insisted. She sighed and glared at him. "I give up! I'll just prepare on my own and hope for the best!" She turned away but then she felt him grab her arm and the next minute she was standing in his room.

"Keep your knickers on, Granger," he said, shutting the door behind her. "If you think it's so important then I'll do it."

Hermione felt slightly stunned at being dragged into his room and also by his sudden willingness to keep her happy. She looked around the room curiously. It was almost identical to her own except it had his personal items lying around and it was surprisingly tidy. She took a breath. "We don't have to work in here - the communal room is quite empty."

"Relax, Granger. Your honour is perfectly safe," Draco held up his hand's defensively.

"That isn't what I meant!" Hermione snapped.

Draco walked away from her towards a table in the corner of the room. "So, what have you got with you? Do we need parchment and quills?"

Hermione felt a little awkward because she'd just stormed straight here. "Oh. I don't have anything - I came straight from by the lake."

"By the lake? I never saw you as a voyeur." Draco smirked.

"What?"

"Spying on Weaslette and Zabini?"

Hermione huffed. "Of course I wasn't doing that! I was with Neville."

"Longbottom? By the lake? Really?" Draco asked. He was already sitting at the table and he reached behind him to a drawer and pulled out some stationery. "I would have credited you with more taste than that."

Hermione bit her retort back. "Let's just get this over with." She took a seat opposite him. "We should start with a summary of what we do and then how we chose our career."

"Yeh - how did you end up making sticks?" Draco asked and Hermione sighed at his terminology.

"Will you stop saying it like that!"

"Like what? It's what you do, isn't it?"

"It would be like me saying that all you do is boss around a few bad guys," Hermione pointed out.

"That is what I do," Draco said, Hermione's insult was like water of a ducks back.

"Forget it." Hermione was getting frustrated. "Do you want to speak first tomorrow?"

Draco leant a bit closer. "So was it Potter who persuaded you?"

"Persuaded me?"

"Into Broomsticks?"

"No - it's a long story," Hermione gave the same answer as she had to Neville earlier.

"I'm not in any hurry," Draco persisted and Hermione sighed.

"You're not really that interested."

"I need to be prepared for tomorrow - so I need your back story," Draco pointed out. Hermione bit her lip, knowing he was partly right but really not feeling like divulging anything.

"No you don't," she said.

"I thought the reason you insisted on disturbing me was because we had to do this properly?" Draco said. "Or we'll look like idiots." He quoted her own words back at her and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Okay, okay! I was studying to be a lawyer - Magical Law Enforcement. I thought I'd like it and I did at first - lot's of huge, leather bound books..." Hermione said with a little ironic smile. She then remembered who it was she was telling this tale to and wiped the smile from her face.

"Granger heaven!" Draco said, his voice conveying his distaste at her pleasure in reading so Hermione shrugged.

"Anyway - Harry was working on his ideas for brooms and he was struggling with employing anyone competent enough to get the brooms working properly. I mean, anyone can make a broom fly but it's how it flies. Harry wanted his brooms to be special, so that the rider could feel in tune with it..." she stopped speaking because Draco's expression had changed. "What?" Hermione demanded.

Draco pointed at himself. "Skilled Quidditch player, or had you forgotten?"

"So what if you are?"

"I get it! Brooms - they don't just have to fly and it isn't all about the wood or the brush. It is the magic that really makes a broom special. Quidditch players need them to respond in a special way and even then it's not generic. One player might like his broom to respond differently to another." Draco stopped speaking and even he looked slightly surprised at his sudden show of words. Hermione was staring at him amazed. That just might have been the longest sentence she'd ever heard him say that didn't contain any insulting remarks.

"Exactly," she said. "So - I don't know anything about flying but I do know a lot about charms and spells so I said I'd give Harry a hand until he can find someone else. People liked my charms on the brooms and everything went crazy. We were having trouble keeping up with demand..."

Draco had narrowed his eyes so Hermione stopped. "Okay but I still don't get it."

"What don't you get? I can make brooms fly really well so my career as a lawyer was on hold indefinitely."

Draco leant forward, their supposed planning of tomorrows lecture forgotten. "Two things." He held up his fingers to demonstrate. "Firstly - how can you do something every day that you don't like?"

"Who says I don't like it?"

"You hate flying and brooms and Quidditch."

"I love creating new spells and trying to meet customers specific requirements for their brooms. I love what I do, actually." Hermione looked at him challenging him to argue but he didn't.

"Okay - secondly, how can a non-flyer really understand brooms? How can someone who hasn't experienced flying, someone who doesn't enjoy it, really create a spell that makes a great broom. You might be great at the technical stuff but what about the way a broom feels when you fly on it?"

"You're presuming an awful lot about me," Hermione pointed out to him. "And I must be doing something right - our customers keep coming back for more."

Draco leant back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. "Annoyingly you're right."

Hermione's eyes widened. "Did you just tell me I'm right?"

"Your brooms are fantastic."

Hermione was glad she was sitting down because she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "What? I must be hearing things!"

Draco shrugged. "They're great brooms - they do what you say; they work with the rider." He leant forward again. "It's killing me to tell you this, I hope you know."

"Thanks." Hermione looked down at the papers. "We should be getting on with this." She picked up a quill and then stopped. "Wait a minute...how do you know Lightning Brooms are so good?"

Draco's eyes lifted to meet hers again. "Because I own one."

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