The following morning, I was still walking on clouds from the wonderful night before. I was in the kitchen making breakfast when an owl taped at the window.

The large bird stood as tall as I removed the scroll from his foot. Draco's delicate scrawl never failed to amaze me.

"Hermione,

I had a wonderful evening last night. Can't wait to see you tomorrow.

Thinking of you,

Draco X"

The note left a smile on my face that was there when the floo activated and Ginny stepped through.

"Just in time, I'm making breakfast. Want some?"

"Breakfast made by someone else? Sure!"

I scooped another bowl of my famous porridge topped with various fruits and my secret weapon: Peanut butter.

We settled in at my breakfast bar.

"What has you so smiley?"

"What?" I hadn't realized I was still smiling, but now that she mentioned it, my cheeks were a bit sore. "Never mind that. What brings you here this morning?"

It was Sunday and I hadn't been expecting her arrival.

"Oh, that. Sorry. You know how I get around food." She wasn't as bad as Ron, but girl could definitely eat and it was a sure distraction. "Harry and I want to invite you and Draco to dinner on Thursday."

While her tone was nonchalant, I could certainly tell that Ginny was looking for my reaction to the question. I simply raised my eyebrow at her.

"Now that's just creepy! You've been spending way too much time with Malfoy."

I laughed, unaware that I had picked up that habit of his. "What prompted this? Harry tolerates Draco, but I know he's still not his favorite person."

Ginny shrugged. "Maybe not, but he loves you and wants to make an effort."

"Is this some kind of big brother thing where he's going to give a big speech about hexing his bollocks if he hurts me?"

"No." She smiled devilishly. "That's my job."

I threw my napkin at her.

"Ok! I surrender. We really just want to get to know him better. Think of it as our way of showing him we accept your relationship."

That was actually quite touching. I didn't have any blood related family left and when Ron and I split I could have easily lost those that had claimed me as their own. To know Harry and Ginny were so accepting of a former rival because he made me happy and caused my heart to swell.

"Thank you, Ginny."

"Don't thank me yet, he still has to get through dinner with us." She winked. "I can see the changes in you these last few weeks. There is a light coming from you that I thought had been extinguished. If Malfoy is the reason behind it, then I have no choice but to accept him."

I came around to hug her.

"Anyways, I should get going. Harry was making James breakfast and you know how that goes." Her eyes rolled as she made her way to the floo. "Six on Thursday! Don't be late!" She called over her shoulder before she disappeared.

Hopefully Draco would be available.

After a relaxing Sunday, I awoke ready to tackle the week Monday morning. It was a general rule that Draco and I didn't run on Monday mornings, they were hard enough as it was, and I was actually running a few minutes late. I had been hoping to stop for a coffee, but I would have to settle for the office variety today.

Or so I thought. I stepped into our office to find Draco already at work. There was a gorgeous bouquet of fuchsia, light pink and white ranunculus flowers sitting on my desk next to a tall cup of coffee. My mood brightened instantly. I was top of the class in herbology and knew the flowers meant charm and beauty. A compliment I took to heart.

"Good morning, darling." Draco said from his side of the office.

"Good morning to you, too. These are stunning. What's the occasion?"

He smiled widely. "There never needs to be a reason to give beautiful flowers to a beautiful woman."

Clearly, he knew the meaning as well. I set my things down and came over to give him a brief kiss. No one in the office knew of our romance yet besides Harry and I wanted to keep it that way. "Thank you. They are lovely. How was the rest of your weekend?"

"Not nearly as wonderful as our evening together, but I managed." Could he be any sweeter? "How about you?"

"Nothing exciting. Ginny paid me a visit yesterday. She's invited us to dinner at hers on Thursday."

He raised a brow and my mouth twitched. Yeah, I definitely got that from Draco. "Is this a test of some kind?"

"No, they just want to get to know you better. Harry obviously has seen you here, but people are always different off the clock and Ginny doesn't know you well at all."

He considered that. "I suppose I owe it to her after her pep talk to you."

"Come on. It won't be that bad. They really are lovely."

"It's just something that will take a little getting used to. That's all."

I nodded. This wasn't a situation I could have predicted either. It will take us all some getting used to. "So, what's on our schedule for today?"

"Potter came through just before you arrived and gave me these. He's temporarily pulling us from the Burke case."

Burke had been sentenced to a life in Azkaban, but we were still working on the murder evidence, which was turning out more complicated that we had anticipated. Harry had told us when we started digging into it that it was possible we would have to pause our investigation if something more important came up. Mr. Burke was already a prisoner in Azkaban so it was deemed a low priority for additional charges.

Draco handed me a stack of parchment and I began to read through it. "There's been an increase in dark activity lately. Potter has been following it and suspects that Rodolphos Lestrange is behind it." Despite our best efforts, Lestrange remained elusive after the war. "He would like us to track the activity we have so far and see if can trace it back to him and perhaps pinpoint a location."

I continued to read through the documents. "This is a lot of information. It will likely take us most of the week just to catalog and map out it all."

"I told Potter that as well. Ready to get to it?" He asked.

"Ready."

We spent all week taking the information we had and making charts and lists to try and find the commonalities to lead us to a pattern or location. By the time Thursday rolled around, the only progress we had really made was to rule out a large number of areas we didn't think he was likely to be staying.

Since we were having dinner at Harry's, we made sure to pack up on time. It was hard not to work late, as we had done every other day this week, when there was more to do. Regardless, we forced ourselves to leave the work for tomorrow.

Draco headed for the door as I was grabbing my bag, but instead of going through it, he closed it. I looked up in confusion to find him striding towards me.

"Sorry love, not sure I'll have another chance tonight and it's been too long." Placing his hands on either side of my face, he leaned in and kissed me softly.

Greedily, I accepted his mouth on mine. He was right. We hadn't had a chance to be this close since our evening together Saturday.

Suddenly, the door opened. "Oi, I don't need to see this!"

Draco and I hastily separated and saw Harry standing in the doorway with his hand over his eyes.

"A closed door generally means you knock, Potter." Draco said casually as he straightened his tie.

"I'll keep that in mind for future occasions. I just wanted to make sure you guys were ready to go. Ginny will have my head if I don't make sure you are there on time."

"Harry, when have you ever known me to be late?" I chastised.

"Right. I'll just, um, let you finish up then. See you in a few." He retreated hastily and I turned to Draco.

"We really need to figure out a way to not let that happen at work."

Draco nodded. "Perhaps I could come over after we are done with dinner for some tea?"

This was dangerous territory to allow Draco in my home so late, but it was a discussion that really needed to be had. I wasn't about to put my career in jeopardy for a relationship. "Fair enough. Now let's get going. You don't want to see Ginny mad."

He motioned towards the door and I followed.