After she settled her possessions in Draco's guest room, still trying to figure out when she had acceded to his offer of refuge, Hermione made her way to the kitchen and groaned at the wizarding newspapers on the table. The headlines of all of them featured either 'Gryffindor Princess' or 'Slytherin Death-Eater'. And as for the photos…!

"Admiring your handiwork, Granger?" Draco set a cup of muggle tea in front of her.

"I don't really recall all of last evening, but I didn't think it was that bad." She shuddered.

"Nonsense. A little dirty dancing never hurt anybody."

She covered her face. "I was supposed to walk around and try to loosen some pockets that evening. I dread returning to work. Aargh!" she clutched at her hair, already wild, "I'm probably going to be fired over this."

"If you believe that, then you didn't make your way past the first page." Draco opened the Daily Prophet to the Financial section and tapped an article.

"What?" She snatched it and snapped her fingers for reading glasses to scan the tiny print. "The contributions totalled 2,700 galleons over last year?"

"'The party's coordinator provided an excellent example of wizardly cooperation now needed in our current times,'" he read over her shoulder.

"'Inter-house and intra-school rivalries need to be put aside as we move towards the challenges of the future.'"

"All that from a few dances with your former enemy." Draco's eyebrow quirked as he patted fluffy curls.

"We were never enemies," she corrected, waving away his hand.

He took the seat opposite, retorting, "Tell that to Potter and the Weasel."

"You saved our lives during the War. Plus your mother saved Harry a second time."

"Just so she could find out if I was still alive." Draco shrugged away the inference of heroism.

"She could have told Voldemort later," she commented.

"Mum has her own set of morals." He sighed, "She was way too good for my cowardly sire."

Hermione reached over to place a hand on his arm. "You're a lot like her."

"Thanks," his mouth twisted, "I've been trying, but it's difficult. All anyone sees is a younger version of my father."

"I can understand." She turned back to the cover of the newspaper and indicated a small inset photo of her and Harry and Ron, dirty and blood-stained after the battle of Hogwarts. "This is all anyone who meets me thinks of. I'll always be part of a trio."

"Well, you certainly showed them something different last night," he reminded her. "I'm lucky Potter didn't hex me to Europe, minus my balls."

"He was probably trying to notify Ron." She giggled, "Of course, he wouldn't have been able to show up without asbestos clothing."

"What's asbestos?" he asked.

"Muggle fireproofing material," Hermione answered as she swallowed the last of her tea.

Draco closed one eye in thought. "Like holocaust robes?"

"Yep. Of course, he was probably too busy trying to cover himself to think straight."

"Really, Granger, has he ever thought straight? Pardon me," he raised a finger, "has he ever thought?"

She tipped her head. "You have a point."

"Everyone is staring at me," she hissed across the table of a casual café less than a block off Diagon Alley. "I can't believe I let you convince me to show my face in public with you so soon after the party."

"Conceited much?" Draco grinned at her and bit down on a chip. "They're looking at us and wondering if what happened the other night was real or fake. So, lighten up; you can only hide so long. Besides, your books and paperwork now cover half the dining table, and it was beginning to wear on Trix's nerves."

"Okay, okay." Hermione lifted a hearty sandwich and took a large bite. After swallowing, she pointed her bottle of gillywater at him. "That reminds me, what is with your house-elf?"

"She's free," he quickly assured her.

"I could tell, despite the clothes, but—her name?"

"Ah," he chuckled, "she followed me from Malfoy Manor and joined my research on Muggles."

"Muggle research?" She gawked. "An unlikely occupation for a pureblood."

"I once would have thought the same. But times change."

"How? Why?"

"Well, after Mum and I were cleared of charges—no thanks to Father's bunk—I had to take control of what was left of Malfoy Enterprises."

"You didn't retake the final year at Hogwarts!" she exclaimed. "I had wondered...so that's what you were doing."

He shrugged. "I was there for the final year, mostly. The ministry and board of governors allowed me to graduate provisionally; the provision being that I kept my nose clean for the next year."

"So you're a businessman." Hermione frowned. "I don't read about you in the Prophet; business-wise, that is."

"Not too many people were interested in investing with a dishonoured family," he said. "So, besides dealing with a few magicals who are on the fringes of society–mostly vampires–I invest in the muggle world. Even my flat is not in a wizarding area."

Hermione stared at him in disbelief for at least fifteen seconds. "A Malfoy. Living in the muggle world." She nibbled on a carrot stick.

"Fucking unbelievable, isn't it?" he laughed. "Of course, I had to take a cram course in muggle history and economics. Trix joined me, although she preferred literature and the arts."

"Literature? Scarlett O'Hara?"

"I believe so. Something about a breeze, I think she said."

"Wind. Gone With the Wind. An American classic novel and film. She pretends to be characters, then? And you aren't bothered?"

"Except for the time she was Daisy Something-or-Other and wore a long pearl necklace that jangled on the floor. It almost drove me crazy until she found someone else to be."

"Your life is way more interesting than mine," she laughed. "I mostly deal with paperwork and censuses."

"But you love it."

"Yes, I do," she admitted. "You remember how I was back in school. Once I'm interested in something, I get so involved with it that time gets away from me."

"Was that Weasley's problem? Your job?"

Her face fell. "He thought I should spend all my time cheering for him in the stands. I mean, travel is easy for wizards, but I can't be flooing or portkeying around the world and still succeed at the Ministry. Plus, Quidditch was never one of my priorities."

He chuckled. "Except when Slytherin and Gryffindor were playing."

"Well, yes." She grinned. "Those matches were quite intense. Did you ever hear about how I set Professor Snape's robes on fire during first year?"

"Oh, do tell."

Draco was in the middle of explaining how he had accidentally hexed Crabbe and Goyle to speak backwards when a loud crack of apparation sounded in the street and the front door of the café burst open.

"There you are, you damned mudblood bitch!"

"Ron!" Hermione gasped at the word emerging from his mouth, considering how offended he had been at Hogwarts when it had been aimed at her.

"Weasel," Draco snarled, "even I don't use that word any more." He had half-risen at the other's entrance. "It's not the kind of speech used in polite company."

"Polite company!" Ron laughed harshly. "Is that what you call that cheating whore? How many others besides Krum and Malfoy?"

"I'm not the one who was unfaithful in our relationship," Hermione burst out in a flash of temper. "Stop projecting your own faults onto others."

"You just couldn't stand me being the one in the spotlight and leaving you behind, could you? If you couldn't be there for me, how can you blame me for getting a bit on the side? All the guys on the team do it."

"I doubt that," she bit out tightly. "Even so, how foolish of me for thinking we had a solid relationship and could trust each other."

"Well, one thing that you can trust is that you're going to pay for what you did to me." He drew out his wand. "Let's see how you like a little fire, bitch!"

Draco did not even let him finish the hex before he pointed his wand and shouted, "Expecto patronum!" A white dragon flew from the tip and swallowed the spell before belching flames back towards Ron.

Hermione gasped as her former friend burst into flames of actual fire. "Circundo aloeverum!" She rounded on Draco. "How could you do that?"

"That was the spell he aimed at you going back on him."

"What? He was going to burn me?" She turned at the angry man struggling against the clear goo that enveloped him, the fire now extinguished but with angry pink burns visible wherever skin showed.

"I wasn't sure, but I didn't want to take the chance that he had the finesse you had earlier."

"Ron, you idiot!" she yelled. "You could have injured other customers in the café. Don't you ever think?" she echoed Draco's question from earlier.

It was fortunate that the healing gel was soundproof, for it seemed that his temper raged even higher now.

Matters didn't improve when Harry suddenly appeared in the shop. "Someone notified the Aurors that injurious magic had been performed." He focused on Malfoy. "I might have known that you would be involved." He grinned. "At least now the holiday pay will be worth it."

"I didn't start it, Potter," he responded. "You can examine my wand." He handed it over.

"To be thorough, you need to check all of ours," Hermione spoke up. "Accio Ron's wand!" The slender wood emerged with a loud 'plop' from the ooze, which was being splattered around from Ron's thrashing.

Harry waved his wand over them and then shook his head. "I didn't know you could cast a patronus, Malfoy."

"Despite what you think, Potter, I do have some happy memories. Granted, they predate our meeting."

The auror grunted then turned to his friend. "Ron, I can't believe that you would throw a curse at Hermione, no matter what the provocation."

"There was no provocation!" Hermione protested. "We were just sitting here having a meal together."

"The provocation could be who you were with, Mione." He tilted his head towards Draco. "No man likes to see his fiancée with another."

"We're no longer engaged, you idiot! Not after I found him with a lapful of skanks when he was supposed to be at the party two nights ago!"

"Again, Ron?" Harry turned a disappointed expression towards his friend. "I thought Ginny and I had sorted you out after the last time."

"The last time?" Draco was extremely happy that the molar-grinding question was not aimed at him. He took a step away, just to be out of the line of fire.

"Well, I…" Harry stuttered.

"Harry James Potter, are you saying that you knew Ron had cheated before and didn't tell me? How many times?"

"Uh, I'm not sure. Ginny would let me know whenever she heard something through the Quidditch grapevine."

Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Am I to assume that Malfoy and I are cleared of any wrong-doing?" When Harry nodded, she snatched their wands from him. "Then that ginger bastard is now your responsibility. Contact me if you need a statement."

Draco followed her to the door, pausing to murmur to the server, "Add the usual tip, plus 10% for the disturbance." He turned in the doorway and indicated Ron. "Potter, you might want to stop by St. Mungo's to have them check out the Human Torch. Hermione was quick to react, but he still might have some painful burns."

"Thanks, Malfoy," Harry bit out with no gratitude in his tone. "Come on, Ron."