Blaise wrote on the parchment.

"Draco - are you there and are you on your own?"

They all waited but there was no immediate reply. They were in the hotel bar so Blaise ordered them all a drink.

"He must be busy - for real!" Blaise said.

"Do you think Ginny's right?" Hermione asked.

Blaise grinned. "Yeah, of course she is." He smirked over at Ginny who smiled back at him. "Draco's an arse sometimes, but this isn't right. It just seems wrong." Blaise nudged Hermione's shoulder. "He definitely likes you."

Hermione waved him away. "I don't care about that! I just want him to be okay and to not be ending everything like this."

They had three drinks and still no answer.

Hermione sighed loudly. "He's obviously not there."

"I'll have to go into work and contact him from there," Blaise said. "Or we could use..."

"Woah!" Ginny interrupted, grabbing at the parchment that now had words on it. She held it up.

"Hi Blaise - what's with the cryptic message?"

Hermione felt her heart rate quicken, thinking this might really be Draco this time.

"Are you alone?"

"No - I'm at the office. Why?"

"No-one else should see this - can you go somewhere?"

"Why? What's going on?"

Blaise sighed and looked up at the girls, who were watching him eagerly. "I should have known he wouldn't just do as I ask!" he said. He bent over the parchment again.

"Could you just do this without the questions?" Blaise wrote.

"Yes - I'm going to the conference room now but silly me thinking I was your boss!"

Ginny and Hermione both giggled and Blaise rolled his eyes. "I was going to ask him a question - to make sure it's really him but I'm beginning to think that's unnecessary!"

There was a few minutes pause and then another message appeared.

"Okay - I'm alone, the door is locked. What's with all the secrecy? Is this to do with Hermione?"

"Stop asking me questions. I need to ask you one instead." Blaise grinned and shook his head.

"Go on."

"What was the thing we did at school, practically every night through third and fourth year?"

"What? Why are you asking me things about school? You need to explain."

Hermione could hear Draco saying this, impatiently. He'd be so aggravated by this conversation.

"I'll explain everything but you need to answer this first."

"Merlin! I don't know."

Hermione looked at Blaise who twisted his lips. Another word appeared on the parchment.

"Sleep?"

They all burst out laughing.

"Well, he's not wrong!" Ginny chuckled.

"Apart from sleep! Something we could have got into real trouble about but something we were never caught doing. It was hilarious and worth missing sleep for."

"What was it?" Ginny asked but Blaise shook his head at her.

"You'll see," he answered.

Another pause, before the reply appeared.

"You mean the owl post?"

"Yes."

"We used to send false messages from the owner of the owl to random people. Do you remember when we actually transfigured the owls to look like each other?"

Hermione raised her eyebrows at Blaise. "That was you and Draco? When all those messages got mixed up? Hedwig delivered someone else's post to Harry one morning!"

Blaise grinned. "I'm the proud owner of all that confusion!"

Ginny pointed at the parchment. "Stop showing off and answer Draco."

Blaise wrote again. "Okay - now I know it's you. No-one else would know we did that."

"Glad you're happy! I'm frustrated and bloody annoyed, so do you mind explaining what's going on?!"

"We have message problems again but this time it's not funny. Not funny at all."

"Message problems?"

Blaise grabbed the quill and wrote again.

"Well, you're going to think this is a bit weird so can you please be patient?"

" Is Hermione okay? Have you spoken to her?"

Hermione blushed, unable to stop herself. This was so obviously Draco - at least it sounded like the latest version of him. She felt a rush of emotion that he was so keen to ask about her. Ginny was grinning across the table at her.

Blaise wrote again.

"Yes - she told Ginny that you had asked to leave."

"Why? That doesn't make sense."

"That's why I'm messaging you - she said that you'd asked her to stop messaging."

"Are you joking? Why would I ask her to stop messaging me?"

"So, you don't want to leave the penthouse and you haven't told Hermione to stop messaging you?" Blaise wrote.

"No and no! Why is she lying?"

Blaise looked over at Hermione who looked worried and a little pale. "She's not lying - she's here with me now. I'll let her explain."

"What do you mean, she's here with you now? What's going on?"

Blaise handed Hermione the quill. "Put him out of his misery, won't you?" he said.

Hermione took the quill and with a deep breath she wrote a line.

"Hi Draco - sorry about all this. I think our messages are being intercepted and changed."

"Hermione?"

"Yes - I can't use my parchment. I'm using Blaises."

"Are you okay?"

Hermione bit her lip - this was Draco's repeating question. He'd asked it over and over again.

"I am now I know this is really you." She wrote the message, not caring what either Draco, Ginny or Blaise thought. It was the truth and she wanted him to know. "I had a message from you - it said that you wanted to leave the Penthouse. When I asked why, you said it was time to move on and that it had only ever been a temporary arrangement. It said you wanted to come back from New York and get on with your life."

"Hermione, that wasn't me."

"It said you were busy and I shouldn't try to contact you again."

"I have not and would not send a message like that."

"I know that now. I haven't sent one that asked you to leave."

"But I got a cancellation notice as well."

"Because my message - that I thought was from you - asked me to send one."

"Abigail."

Hermione looked up at Blaise and Ginny who were both smiling. She hesitated before replying, choosing her words carefully. "We think so."

There was a gap before Draco's reply appeared. "I'm going to kill her!"

"I believed they were from you but the tone wasn't right - and you'd changed your mind so quickly from the previous message."

"So, somehow she's changed your messages to me to say I have to leave the penthouse and she's changed my messages to you saying I want to give my notice, without an explanation?"

"Either changed messages or just created ones of her own. I was told in no uncertain terms to not use my parchment to message any longer. In fact, the message told me to destroy it."

"Did you really think I would ever tell you to do that?"

"I thought you were so upset about your friend that it was the only way you could cope."

"The only way I can cope is with your support."

Hermione, instantly and suddenly, found herself crying; the tears falling silently down her face. She had no idea if it was fury, relief or surprise at Draco's willingness to be so open and honest with her. Whatever it was, her emotions were overflowing. Draco wrote again.

"Seriously - I'm going to kill her."

"Ginny worked out what might be happening - she said that you wouldn't be leaving like this." Hermione wrote quickly, wanting to explain everything.

"I should have listened to you - about Abigail."

"We have no proof it's her but it has to be..."

"Of course it's her! The bloody bitch! She could have completely ruined everything!" Draco used the phrase again about everything being ruined. Hermione wanted to ask him to explain but now wasn't the time. She stared at the parchment, wanting to say so much but not sure how to say it. Her emotions had been on a rollercoaster ride and she didn't realise she was still crying until Blaise reached over and handed her a tissue. He then took the quill from Hermione and wrote on the parchment.

"Hi, it's Blaise. Hermione's a bit upset - go and kick the bitch out and enjoy doing it!"

"Look after Hermione and say thank you to Ginny for me - I'm going right now to confront her now."

"Don't lose your temper and do something you'll regret!"

"Oh, don't worry. It's going to be very short conversation that will end with the words - you're fired. Tell Hermione to not use the other parchment . We don't want any more misunderstandings. Make sure she stays with you Blaise and I'll message you back as soon as I've dealt with Abigail."

Hermione looked up at Ginny and Blaise. "I hope he doesn't actually kill her," she mumbled, wiping her eyes.

Blaise laughed. "Don't worry about Draco. He can easily handle someone like her."

"I can't believe what she was doing!" Ginny said, shaking her head. "What a bloody cheek!"

Blaise touched Hermione's hand gently. "Let's go up to the Penthouse - I think you need to sit down somewhere properly. You're as white as a sheet."

Hermione nodded, not bothering to argue. She did feel shocked. It was making her feel lightheaded. Blaise was the ultimate gentleman and he sat Hermione down on Draco's sofas before making her a hot drink. Ginny fetched some snacks and then sat next to her friend, linking her arm through Hermione's.

"It's all okay now," she said, reassuringly.

"Yeah." Hermione nodded.

"You could look happy about it."

"I feel weird...all sort of mixed up. Happy and upset at the same time..."

Ginny squeezed Hermione's arm. "Of course you do. I feel upset! I could happily kill her myself!"

Blaise came back in, waving the parchment. He put it next to Hermione who read it quickly.

"She's gone - I managed not to hex her."

Blaise went to hand Hermione the quill but she shook her head so he wrote himself instead.

"It's Blaise, so don't start chatting me up. Did she admit to it?"

"No, but I could tell. What an evil, conniving little bitch. If she'd ruined things I would have ended up in Azkaban."

Hermione heard the phrase again about things being ruined. She gave a sigh as the fact that everything was really going to be okay, hit her.

"Hermione's here." Blaise wrote.

"Is she feeling better now?"

Hermione heard Ginny giggle beside her. Blaise scribbled some more words.

"Ask her yourself - Ginny and I are going to make use of your kitchen to cook her something. She's as white as a sheet at the moment."

Hermione glared at Blaise. "What did you say that for?" she demanded.

"Because after all this, you two need to be honest with each other!" He handed her the quill. "Now tell him how you feel or I will!"

Hermione sighed as they walked off. She looked down at the parchment.

"Hermione?"

She wrote back quickly.

"Yes - it's me now. They've gone off to cook me something."

"It's over - she's gone. Blaise seems worried about you."

"I'm okay. I feel helpless being here."

"I'm so sorry I didn't listen to you."

"You never listen to me!" She managed a joke.

"It's not like me to be fooled so easily. I'm annoyed at myself. Did you really believe it was me, asking to leave like that? Telling you I wanted to get on with my life?"

"Well, now I feel stupid, but it just didn't even cross my mind that it could be anyone else. I should have noticed straight away that the messages didn't sound like you." Hermione paused and then she added a few more words. "There was no sarcasm or self praise - should have been obvious really." She watched the words fade, feeling better and glad to joke with him again.

"How dare you!"

"You believed I'd tell you to leave?"

"Not at first - I thought you were joking but when I got the cancellation notice - that was when it hit me that you meant it."

"How did she manage to fool us both? We've been idiots."

"Speak for yourself, Granger."

"I felt that you were being cold and distant with me. It was awful, Draco. Really terrible. If ever you are going to fall out with me, could you tell me to my face? At least I would have the opportunity to yell at you that way."

"I won't be falling out with you."

Draco's little, simple but bluntly honest sentences were shocking. This time, Hermione felt her stomach turn a somersault. She wanted to write something clever back - simple, straightforward and candid. She wrote quickly, before she changed her mind.

"You know you hate Muggle sayings?"

"You're going to quote one at me, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"It'd better be good then. Nothing about grandmothers or eggs or swinging cats!"

Hermione smiled. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." She wrote the words slowly and then waited. There was a delay before Draco answered.

"Finally a Muggle saying that I like."

Okay - If I'm honest I don't think this is the best chapter I've ever written. Somehow I couldn't get it to run how I wanted. Having changed it a zillion times I decided to just go with it. Hope you enjoyed it anyway. x