It was the day of Draco's dinner party and supposedly, Hermione's day off. As was quite frequently the case, she had ended up coming in because yesterday had been a crazy day and she hadn't signed off the accounts for the month yet. It hadn't bothered her - Jack was away for a week, their weekend away cancelled - so she hadn't got anything else planned.

A thought struck her and she looked up from the paperwork. Why then, did she not feel sad? Surely she should miss her boyfriend when he was away for a week? She supposed being so busy helped take her mind of it...

The door was flung open, interrupting her thoughts. Draco stepped into the office, carrying some parchment. He looked surprised to see her and stopped in his tracks.

"I thought it was your day off?" he asked.

"It is - I haven't signed off any accounts for the month yet and..." Hermione stopped speaking as she noticed the parchment he was carrying. She eyed it suspiciously and he grinned. So far, he had stuck to his promise and only used her office when she wasn't in it. Also, he'd left it meticulously tidy, so she'd had no cause for complaint.

"I was going to do some work in here," Draco said.

"Well, these will take me a few hours - how long will you be?"

"A couple of hours, I suppose."

"Sorry - I really can't leave these any longer." Hermione looked over at him and knew he wasn't going to give in. He raised an eyebrow at her and then glanced over at the other small desk in the corner. She sighed. "You're not going to take no for an answer, are you?"

Draco grinned. "No - I promise to be quiet and not interrupt you."

"Okay!" Hermione agreed.

Draco walked over and after a little bit of shuffling and paper moving he settled down and, as promised, worked in silence for a while. Hermione was conscious of him sitting there, it felt weird having someone else in her office but she tried to concentrate on her work.

After a while, her head began to ache and she looked up, stretching her arms and leaning back. She hated the monthly accounts, they always made her head spin. She glanced over at Draco who had his head down, bent over some parchment. He hadn't interrupted her once which was extremely surprising.

"You're not thinking of disturbing me, are you?" he said, suddenly. He didn't stop working or lift his eyes from his work. She found herself smiling at his gentle teasing. It was quite funny that after her severe warning for him not to bother her - she had stopped working first.

"I need a break - would you like a cup of tea?" she asked.

"Yes please." Draco now looked up. "Are you going to summon one of your minions to fetch one for you?"

"No - I can fetch one myself," Hermione said. She gave a little chuckle. "Plus most of my 'minions' are busy today!"

Draco gave a small laugh at her humour. She walked around her desk but tripped on a roll of parchment that had fallen onto the floor from Draco's desk. She picked it up and put it back on his desk but he grabbed it from her and began unrolling it.

"These are the plans for my house," he said. "Would you like to see them?"

"Oh, yes - I would," Hermione nodded. "Lily said you were having your house re-furbished? It's not a build from scratch then?"

Draco had stood up and moved over to Hermione's desk, spreading the roll of parchment and securing it with a heavy object at either end. He looked over at her. "No, it's not new. It's Malfoy Manor."

Hermione nodded. Of course it was Malfoy Manor - she should have realised. "I suppose I should have worked that out," she said.

"As you know, it's an old monstrosity of a place. Drafty and badly designed so I thought it was time to do something about it."

"It'll be modernized then?" Hermione agreed wholeheartedly with his description of Malfoy Manor - she hated it.

"More than that. They're pulling it down to the ground floor level and even that will be stripped back and re-done." He waved her over. "Come and look." He sat down in Hermione's seat and she went to stand behind him, looking over his shoulder. "This is ground floor level, these rooms will all face off to the garden and the kitchen is going to be in this annex."

"What's that room going to be?" Hermione bent forward to point at a long, narrow shaped room.

"The gym."

"Wow! A gym?" She pointed again, this time to a large, square room that looked out onto the side of the house.

"That's going to be a meeting room for when I do business from home and the smaller room off it will be my office."

Hermione straightened up. "How nice to have an office of your own that you won't have to share with anyone," she said and Draco turned to her, pulling a face.

"Have I or have I not been an excellent house guest?"

Hermione nodded. "You've been surprisingly well behaved."

"What do you mean, surprisingly?"

Hermione ignored him and leant forward again. "What about that room?" The room on the plan was L shaped and to one side of the house.

"Errm...that's going to be the music room."

Hermione looked down at Draco. "Music room? You mean musical instruments?"

"What else would I mean?"

"I didn't know you liked music."

"There's lots you don't know about me," Draco answered her. He pulled another roll of parchment out and unrolled it. "This is the first floor - all these bedrooms at the back will have a balcony overlooking the garden." He turned round to face her. "I'd really like a full length balcony, across the entire back of the house, but then I wondered if anyone staying in those bedrooms would be happier with their own private balcony?" He gave a little shrug.

"Will you be living there alone?" Hermione asked. Draco gave a little cough.

"Yes."

"How often do you have guests staying over?"

"Quite often."

"Well - I think it's your house and you should have the balcony you want. I'd love a balcony like that." Draco looked back at his plans and then back to Hermione, who was leaning over his shoulder again. "Is that going to be a spiral staircase?" she asked, her eyes scanning the parchment. When, after a moment, Draco hadn't responded, she turned her eyes to look at him and found him staring at her, his eyes on her face. His gaze was intense, his face serious and Hermione found herself unable to look away. Draco leant just a little closer and Hermione felt her heart rate increase. His skin was perfect, pale and smooth, his eyes deep. She gave a little cough and stepped backwards.

"I'll go and fetch the tea," she said. "Thank you for showing me the plans."

"You'll have to come and see the real thing," Draco said. He was still staring at her. Hermione smiled at him but didn't respond.

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

She managed to get away late afternoon. As she walked through the foyer she saw Ginny coming towards her.

"Hi - what are you doing here?" Ginny asked. "I finish in an hour, I was going to call round on my way home."

"Oh, I had to come in."

"Had to or wanted to?"

"Both."

Ginny shook her head. "What are you like?" She pointed to some chairs in the foyer. "Have you got two minutes before you go?"

"Of course."

They took the seats and Ginny shuffled forward in hers. "I've been wanting to tell you this all week but with one thing and another we haven't had a minute to catch up."

"What's the matter?" Hermione asked.

"No - nothing really," Ginny said. "It's just something I wanted to tell you - not that I need to but I thought I should..."

"You're waffling, Ginny."

Ginny nodded. "Yes, I know I am. Tonight, I'm going to Draco's dinner party - as Blaise's...well, I suppose as his date. Not that we're going out or anything. It's just so these guests of Draco think that all his staff are in nice stable relationships with nice girls," she pointed at herself and gave a chuckle. "I hope you don't mind...I mean it is well and truly fraternizing with guests but I'm doing him a favour because otherwise he'd have to ask someone from work and then that looks a bit suspect." Ginny paused. "Is it okay?"

Hermione sat back in her seat and shook her head. "Those men are sneaky, conniving and manipulative. We'd do well to stay well away from them."

"I know what you mean but I think they don't mean any harm. I intend to keep it strictly business anyway- for now. I mean, Blaise is...well he's great, but I do think they're used to getting what they want and..."

"I'm going to the dinner party too," Hermione interrupted her and then watched for her friends reaction.

"What?" Ginny asked, not sure she'd heard properly.

"I'm going too."

Ginny's eyes widened and she stared at Hermione across the low coffee table. "You're going too?"

"Yes - and I was told the same reason for my invitation as you were."

"To be Blaise's partner?" Ginny frowned.

"No! Of course not! To be Draco's partner - so he looks professional with a steady relationship. He also used the - I need someone with intelligence as well as looks - phrase," Hermione shook her head. "Now do you see what I mean about them being sneaky?"

Ginny's face had slowly stretched into a smile. "Sneaky?! Bloody cheeky if you ask me! Why didn't they tell us we were both going?"

"I suppose they didn't want us to make a joint decision."

Ginny now gave a little chuckle. "You have to admire their cheek!"

Hermione nodded. She gazed over at her friend and bit her bottom lip. "The question is - now we've found out - are we still going?"

Ginny's eyes met hers and she grinned. "Of course we bloody well are! A lovely meal, a bit of pampering, a chance to dress up and the opportunity to pretend snog too gorgeous, handsome men!"

Hermione laughed. "I don't think I'll be doing any snogging."

"But you're still going?"

"Yes," Hermione said, shaking her head at disbelief in herself. "I am."

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

The girls decided to get ready together at Hermione's house. It was fun and Hermione really enjoyed getting dressed up for a change. Ginny was wearing a dark green dress with a low cut top and a small throw to keep it decent and tasteful. Hermione had chosen black - she supposed it was playing it a bit safe but the style of the dress was stylish with a short front, just above her knee and a lower back to the skirt.

"So, how has the Lord of the Manor been then? Not too demanding I hope? How did he end up asking you?" Ginny fired questions at Hermione.

"He's been okay - not too bad at all, actually. Although I did get a note rudely demanding my presence the other day."

"I never thought I'd hear myself say this - and I'm sure he can still be a right jerk if he feels like it - but I like him," Ginny confessed. "He's witty and amusing and surprisingly charming."

"He showed me the plans to his house - it looks amazing," Hermione said.

"Really?" Ginny gave Hermione a knowing look. "I think he likes you."

"Oh please! Let's not even go there!" Hermione said. "Don't mistake his teasing for anything else."

Ginny shrugged. "He agreed to your lunch date easily enough, didn't he?"

"It wasn't a lunch date."

"Don't be picky -you know what I mean."

"Look , I'm pleasantly surprised that we're managing to get along and that he's not being half as annoying as I know he could be but that doesn't mean I'm not waiting for it to all change at a moment's notice." She glanced at the clock. "We had better go if we want to get there before the other guests."

"How are your acting skills then?" Ginny asked. "Let's put a smile on, remember to behave like ladies and gaze lovingly at our pretend dates."

Dinner party next chapter...