A/N – Welcome to my new story – Expose! I thought I would start this story even though I haven't yet finished Slytherin Princess, as I didn't want my readers who don't read Dark Hermione to be forgotten about, plus it's a bit of light relief for those who are reading Slytherin Princess.

As for this story, it's one of my favourite types of story – a reunion. This story also features Ron as a git, so if you don't like Ron that way then this story isn't for you.

At this moment in time, I haven't yet finished the story, but it only has a couple of chapters to go. As such I will be publishing once a week, on a Wednesday. I hope you all enjoy this story, and thanks for reading.

Ron Weasley let out an exasperated sigh as he gathered together the address of a warehouse that had been broken into overnight. As an M.L.E. officer, investigating thefts was part of his job, but usually he had a partner to work with. However, the Ministry of Magic was in the middle of a flu epidemic and almost a third of the staff were off ill. Every department was stretched to the limit, and the price to pay in the Law Department was that all non-violent crimes, where the chance of danger was minimal, were to be dealt with by one officer.

To be fair, given how many of his colleagues were off sick, or were in the process of coming down with the flu, Ron could see the logic behind the decision, but he just happened not to like working alone. And he especially didn't like it when he checked the details of the robbery and found it had been reported by Lucius Malfoy.

"Just what my day needs, a dose of Malfoy," he grumbled to himself as he got ready to head off to investigate.

Ten minutes later, Ron arrived outside of a large warehouse. From his initial inspection he figured the place looked pretty secure, and with the right wards and protection spells it could be a fairly well secured property. Therefore he was rather puzzled as to how a businessman of Lucius's reputation had failed to secure his property. Especially as Lucius wasn't just a businessman, he was also a former Death Eater and Ron wouldn't have put it past him to set a few nasty booby-traps for would-be thieves.

Knowing he couldn't linger outside any longer, Ron made his way to the entrance and pushed open the door. Inside the warehouse was packed with boxes and furniture, and given how full the place looked, Ron had to wonder if anything had been taken.

"Hello?" he called, eager to get on with things and return to the Ministry. "It's Officer Weasley. I'm here about the break-in."

"Weasley, I did not expect to see you," Lucius remarked, emerging from behind a stack of boxes. "I thought you were an Auror."

"I'm not," Ron replied bluntly.

It was true that after the war he'd began Auror training, but his practical experience fighting Death Eaters first hand hadn't compensated for his lack of theoretical knowledge, not to mention his complete lack of skill in Potions. So in the end he'd backed out of Auror training, and went through M.L.E training instead. And while being an M.L.E officer wasn't as prestigious as being an Auror, it suited Ron. He was good at his job, had earned several promotions placing him as one of the most senior investigators in the office, and he was well liked and respected among his colleagues.

"What seems to be the problem?" he asked Lucius.

"A break-in," Lucius replied. "The back door was forced sometime last night."

"Didn't it trigger some sort of alarm?" Ron questioned. "This place looks pretty full. I would have thought you would have wanted to protect it."

"The wards around the back of the property had been disabled," Lucius answered with a frown. "And before you ask, they were standard security wards. Draco hasn't gotten round to adding his own wards to the property."

"So it was your son's job to protect the property?" Ron asked with a snort, not at all surprised that a spoiled brat like Draco Malfoy had failed to pull his weight and do his job.

"My son and his partner only rented the warehouse last week," Lucius informed Ron. "They were assured that the current security was adequate. However, I am sure that they intended to add their own wards as soon as possible."

"Is this your property, or your sons?" Ron questioned, feeling as though he wasn't getting the full story.

"My sons and his partner," Lucius replied. "It's supplies for their hotel chain."

"So why isn't your son or his partner here to deal with this?" Ron asked. "What does it have to do with you?"

"Draco asked me to deal with it," Lucius replied with a shrug. "His partner is in France dealing with a few issues at their Parisian hotel, and Draco himself had a business meeting he couldn't rearrange. He asked me to liaise with the Ministry, but he did tell me to inform you that you could speak to him at his home later this afternoon. He should be home by four."

"Good of him to spare the time," Ron sneered. "So is there anything missing?"

"I've got a couple of Draco's employees trying to run a stock check, but it could take some time," Lucius replied. "However, there is an area towards the back of the warehouse where boxes have clearly been disturbed and it looks as though some furniture has been dragged across the floor."

"Show me," Ron ordered.

Leading Ron further into the warehouse, Lucius directed him to the affected area, and Ron began to poke around in the boxes. It was clear that several of the boxes had been opened and pawed through, but it was impossible to tell if anything was missing. In fact he was guessing that their only hope of finding out if anything was missing was if Draco and his partner kept perfectly meticulous records and could account for every single thing in every single box. Ron also found the scuff marks to indicate that furniture had been dragged about, but again unless they knew exactly what the warehouse contained it would be impossible to tell if things had been stolen, or just moved around.

"We really do need to know if anything is missing," he said to Lucius, who had been watching him closely.

"Draco is a perfectionist, so his inventory will be precise," Lucius said. "But as you can see, there is a lot of stock to check. It could take time before we know what, if anything, is missing."

"Is any of this stuff valuable?" Ron checked, wondering why Draco and his partner had chosen to store their supplies in a warehouse rather than somewhere safer like Gringotts.

"I'm sure quite a bit of it is valuable," Lucius replied with a nod of his head. "However, all the antiques and priceless pieces of furniture are stored in a secure vault in France."

"They equip hotels with antiques and priceless pieces of furniture?" Ron snorted, thinking how typical it was of the Malfoys to show off their vast wealth.

"My sons hotels are very high end," Lucius said, pride evident in his voice. "Antiques and the like are expected at such establishments. As is high end furniture and fittings. So I would say there is a small fortune in this warehouse."

"A small fortune your son and his partner failed to secure properly," Ron sneered. "Good luck claiming on the insurance when it wasn't properly secured."

"It was secured," Lucius argued. "The warehouse had the standard security wards, which are recommended by the Ministry itself. But they were disabled."

"By whom?" Ron mused.

"Someone who knew what they were doing," Lucius guessed.

"Someone who worked for your son," Ron proposed.

"More like someone who knows the security the warehouses use," Lucius countered. "Until this morning, my son and his partner were the only people to visit this warehouse. None of their staff had access until I let them inside. If I were you, Officer Weasley, I would be investigating the people who own the warehouses, and maybe even the people who've rented this place before my son."

"I will investigate every possibility," Ron said sharply, not at all impressed at being told how to do his job. "Now if there is nothing else, Mr Malfoy, I think I should get on with my investigations."

"Don't you want my son's address so you can call on him this afternoon?" Lucius questioned with a half-smirk.

"Yes," Ron bit out, reluctantly taking Draco's address. He also got the address of Lucius's office, so he could contact the older Malfoy if he needed to.

"I'll make sure Draco knows you're coming," Lucius said as he prepared to leave. "And we'll try and get the list of stolen items to you by the end of the day."

"Thank you," Ron muttered reluctantly.

If he'd been dealing with anyone else, he would have been grateful for the co-operation they were giving him, but he was finding Lucius annoying and he couldn't shake the feeling that the older wizard was secretly laughing at him for some reason. Luckily, Lucius accepted his gratitude and headed off to his own place to work, leaving Ron to carry on looking around the warehouse as he got to work trying to find out who had broken into the warehouse and had stolen from Draco Malfoy and his business partner, whose name Ron was only just realising he'd forgotten to ask about.

000

While Ron was starting his investigation into the break-in at the warehouse, Hermione Malfoy was enjoying spending the day with her five year old son, Scorpius. Of course Hermione knew about the break-in at the warehouse, and she knew Draco had asked his father to pass on his address so he could talk to the investigating officer once he was free, but she had no idea that person was her ex-boyfriend. Or at least she didn't until Lucius sent her a message to warn her of Ron's part in proceedings, and then she found herself wondering what would happen when she came face to face with him.

Truth be told, Hermione knew nothing about her ex's life, and quite frankly she didn't want to know anything about it. Any feelings she'd had for Ron had died when he'd shown his true colours and had shown her what he really thought of her. Despite their arguments and their differences, Hermione had always thought that Ron had respected her and knew what sort of person she was. However, when the chips were down he'd not only insulted almost everything about her, but he'd accused her of cheating with their best friend, Harry Potter.

What had actually happened was that Harry had been comforting her when she'd learnt that while her parents had been located in Australia and that they were safe, their memories were irretrievable. Hermione had cried for hours over the fact her parents would never know who she was, and all the time Harry had held her and comforted her. When he'd convinced her to take a nap, she'd asked him to stay with her and he had. He'd held her until she'd fallen asleep, but then he'd also drifted off. And that was how Ron and Ginny had found them a short time later.

Accusations had flown straight away, and even the fact they were fully clothed and on top of the bed-covers didn't alleviate the anger of the two redheads. More insults than Hermione cared to remember were thrown around, and the end result was two broken relationships. Not only had she split from Ron, but Harry had also separated from Ginny. For both her and Harry, the accusations had proved too much and it had been so painful to discover the people they'd loved held such low opinions of them.

Even now, nearly a decade later, Hermione was still hurt whenever she thought about the end of her relationship with Ron. The only good thing was that she didn't lose Harry's friendship, and even now they were as close as ever. In fact they'd gone travelling together after the falling out with Ron and Ginny, and it was Harry who had encouraged her to give Draco a chance when they'd ran into him in France. As it turned out, it had been the perfect thing for both her and Harry. She'd found love with Draco, and he and Harry struck up such a solid friendship that they'd gone into business together.

A business that had now suffered a setback, but one that Hermione was sure they'd bounce back from. Harry and Draco had worked hard to achieve what they had, and Hermione knew that a small thing like a theft wasn't going to stop them in their dreams of building the best hotel Wizarding Britain had ever known.

"Mummy, look," Scorpius suddenly called, distracting Hermione from her thoughts.

When she turned to her son, she found him holding up a paint splattered piece of paper. Scorpius had wanted to spend the day painting, but so far he'd ended up with more paint on himself than he had on the paper. Not that Hermione herself was faring much better and she knew she had two blue handprints on her cheeks from earlier when Scorpius had painted his hands when she wasn't looking and had then patted her face.

"Very good," Hermione said with a chuckle. "Very abstract."

"What's abstract?" Scorpius asked, eager as always to learn the meaning of a new word.

"It means your painting is very unique," Hermione replied, not sure how she could explain the concept of abstract art to a five year old, even a smart one like her son. "What is it?"

"It's Daddy," Scorpius replied with a shake of his head that implied that Hermione should know what he'd painted.

"Of course, it looks just like Draco," Hermione muttered, taking a second look at her son's blobby painting. She supposed if she squinted the circle could look like a head, although what would have been Draco's hair was green squiggles.

"Now I'll paint you," Scorpius announced, putting his finished picture to one side and dipping his paintbrush in the tub of purple paint.

As Hermione wondered just what part of her warranted the use of purple paint, there was a knock on the door. Since they were only just in the process of moving, the floo wasn't yet active so any visitors had to arrive via the front door. Her first thought was that it was Ron at the door, but if it was he was early as Draco wasn't yet home from his meeting.

Bracing herself to face her ex, Hermione tore Scorpius away from his painting and took him with her as she went to answer the door. However, it wasn't Ron at the door. It was her good friend, and Harry's wife, Daphne Greengrass.

"Whoa there, little paint monster," Daphne muttered, skirting around Scorpius so that he didn't touch her with his paint covered hands. If she'd been dressed for it, she would have happily hugged her godson, but she was wearing a nice dress and didn't want to get messy.

"Go back to your painting, Scorp," Hermione said, turning her son back towards the dining room and letting him run ahead of them.

"You're not much better," Daphne remarked with a chuckle. Hermione was wearing a pair of jeans and a top, and as well as the handprints on her face, her top had splashes of paint on it.

"The joys of five year olds," Hermione laughed. "You and Harry will have that soon enough."

"We will," Daphne agreed with a smile, her hand automatically falling to the small, but very visible, baby bump she was sporting.

"So what can I do for you, Daph?" Hermione asked as they hovered in the doorway of the dining room, where she could keep an eye on Scorpius but Daphne didn't have to worry about being covered in paint.

"Harry's just confirmed that he's going to be home tomorrow," Daphne replied. "We thought that you and Draco might want to come for dinner. I'm sure Lucius and Narcissa would be happy to baby-sit."

"I'm sure they would," Hermione agreed with a chuckle. Draco's parents were doting grandparents, and they loved nothing better than looking after their grandson. "Thanks Daphne, it sounds great. Do you have time to stay for a drink?"

"I think I can stop for a cup of tea," Daphne answered. "And hopefully not get covered in paint."

Hermione made Scorpius promise to keep to his end of the table while she and Daphne settled down at the other end to have a cuppa and a chat. And that was exactly where they still were an hour later when Draco arrived home from his meeting, ready to deal with the theft at the warehouse.