When my eyes fluttered open it took me a moment to regain my bearings. Once I did, I cast a quick wand less and wordless breath freshening charm before rolling over to a smiling Draco. This smile was very different than the arrogant smirk he showed in his school days, though that one still made occasional appearances at work. No, this smile was filled with adoration and it was reserved for me.

"Good morning, lovely. Sleep alright?"

I nodded. "What time is it?"

"About seven."

"Have you been up long?"

"About an hour." His hand came to rest on my cheek as his thumb drew gentle circles.

"Are you nervous about today?"

We had plans to go to the French ministry at nine. I didn't know many details of his previous job, but I got the idea that he was thankful to leave.

"I'm not exactly sure I would call it nervous. I'm very thankful for the time I had at the French ministry, but the French have very different personalities than we do and they aren't particularly fond of Brits. Their sense of humor is pretty nonexistent as well."

"So, what you're saying is, I shouldn't expect anyone to embrace you with open arms when we walk in?"

He laughed at that. "Definitely not! I did like my partner, but he's retired now."

"Good to know. I suppose we should get up and go over our briefing for them before we go."

We were considered guests in France so it was required we brief the Auror team and get approval for jurisdiction regarding this case. We weren't planning on making any arrests, but we needed to be prepared if the opportunity presented itself.

"Yes, we should. But before you switch to work mode, I need a few minutes of girlfriend mode."

He threaded his hand into my hair and pulled me closer. The kiss was soft and tender. Nothing of the need from last night, but lovely none the less.

"There, that should get me through the day. Mostly at least."

There was that smile again. I couldn't resist smiling back.

From there, we dressed for the day. Anytime we come in contact with others, we need to be undercover so we dressed the part of wealthy purebloods on vacation.

About an hour before we were due to leave, Draco ordered room service which appeared with a pop ten minutes later. We had both been in work mode, as Draco called it, and continued in a professional matter to discuss the case while we ate.

Draco was buttering a piece of toast while looking over a piece of parchment when he suddenly said, "I love you, you know." as if it was the most trivial piece of information there was.

He looked at me, wide eyed as if he couldn't believe he had just said that out loud. Despite our confessions yesterday, this was the first time he really said it.

My fork stopped halfway to my mouth, the piece of hashbrown slipping off of it. It only took a second before I recovered. "I know. I love you too, Draco."

He nodded and went back to his toast as if it had been the most natural thing in the world. I bit my lip in silent glee as my heart fluttered in my chest and I attempted to go back to my work.

Some woman expected a grand gesture when declaring love, but I think our exchange was perfect. Later, I would have time to think about how in the world it was possible that I had fallen in love with Draco Malfoy, but for now, there was a case to solve.

Finally, Draco put down his quill. "Shall we?"

I looked at my watch and saw it was ten minutes to nine. "We'd better."

Together, we clinked our vials of polyjuice and knocked them back. The change was quick and I wasted no time in gathering our papers and placing them in my beaded bag which I had transfigured into a classy clutch.

Draco took my arm. "Alright. Let's head down to the lobby and to the apparition point."

I followed his lead as he locked up our room and we made our way down to the first floor laughing and giggling. As we reached our destination, he placed a kiss on my temple and I responded by looking up at him and capturing his lips.

"Save that for tonight, cara. We're going to miss our tour."

Draco winked at the wizard stationed at the front desk and I tried to look embarrassed. We entered the apparition point and he took me in his arms and leaned down to whisper, "I'll lead." before the familiar pinching and squeezing of apparition took hold.

Before I could think much of it, we were landing smoothly inside the French Aurors office.

I looked around the bleak room a bit confused.

"It's an unused conference room that we use for apparating into the secure part of the Auror department. This way we can do the polyjuice reversal without a chance of someone outside the department seeing us. I can get us to the Head's office without seeing too many others."

Draco grabbed my hand and led me through the complicated office before arriving at our destination. A well-aged, burly man in a well-kept suit was waiting for us.

"Ah, Auror Malfoy. Nice to see you again." The man spoke English for my benefit.

"Hello again sir. Allow me to introduce you to my partner, Hermione Granger. Granger, this is Ray Roux. He is the Head of the French Auror department."

I stuck out my hand and we shook.

"Auror Granger, how nice to meet you. Your reputation is well known and it's an honor to have you here. Please, come into my office and we will get right down to business."

His office was fairly standard and Draco and I took the two seats on the opposite side of his desk. I pulled out the file of notes we were willing to share from my bag and pushed them across the table.

"I believe Mr. Potter has given you some idea of what we are dealing with, but here are the notes we have."

Ray looked over the documents quickly. "So, you have reason to believe Lestrange is here recruiting for another pureblood scheme."

I saw Draco tense, but he otherwise kept his cool demeanor as he responded. "It's a bit more complicated than that. The Lestranges were part of Voldemort's inner circle and there is no telling what artifacts and information Rodolphos has from his reign. He is not a man of great intelligence, but he is one that is capable of rallying others to do things for him. He is not to be taken lightly and we want to take him down fast. Our research indicates he will be attending the Annual Girard Gala under a disguise to try and recruit others. We need your permission to be temporarily activated for French duty to allow us to carry on with our surveillance, and ultimately the arrest of Roldolphos Lestrange if the opportunity is available, in accordanace with the International Auror Cooperation Law."

Ray waved a hand. "Yes, yes. Whatever I need to do to get this scum out of my country. Just do it. You have given me more than enough here to justify your cause." He took a piece of parchment from his top drawer and signed it. "I will send the authorization through as soon as we are finished."

There wasn't much else to work out for details and I was surprised at how easy it was to get approval. Just an hour after our arrival, we turned to head back to the conference room to transform once again into Giovanni and Bianca.

Before we reached it, we were stopped by a slimy looking string bean. I had to keep from turning my nose up. His hair was worse than Snape's and it left me wondering the last time the young man had showered.

"Malfoy! What a pleasant surprise! I didn't know you were here for a visit."

Draco's jaw clenched a bit before he responded. "Just for the day. Had to tie up something and I thought Granger here would enjoy a tour of my former work place." He sighed, his engrained manner training taking over. "Hermione, this is my former coworker, Maurice Moreau. Moreau, this is Hermione Granger. My new partner."

He had mentioned the name in passing. Draco was passed his days of endlessly teasing people and hadn't outright said anything negative about Maurice, but I had always got the impression he wasn't his favorite person.

"Ah, yes. Word travels. I did hear you were partnered up with Ms. Granger here." He grabbed my hand and kissed the back. "If you like, I'm available to take you for a tour." He had been speaking in English, but he turned to Draco and said, "Et après une visite de ma chambre." (and after, a tour of my bedroom).

The click of Draco's teeth snapping together was audible. I had no idea what Maurice had said, but from Draco's stiff posture, I could only imagine.

"C'est de ma copine dont tu parles. Reculez." (That's my girlfriend you're talking about. Back off.)

Maurice's eyes darted between us, trying to decide if what Draco had said was true.

Finally, Maurice's eyes settled on me. "He can't be serious. Why would you date him when you could have me?"

I didn't like this man at all. He smelled of moldy cheese and treated Draco like he was garbage.

"That doesn't even deserve a response. I'm more than happy with my love life thank you very much. And you have no business sticking your grimy nose in it." I threaded my fingers through Draco's. "Come on, love. We have places to be."

We left a stunned Maurice in our wake as we returned to the conference room to once again take a vial of polyjuice potion.

"You didn't have to do that you know." Draco looked a little bashful.

"I know, but I could tell he had said something vile and people like that just drive me crazy. Plus, he gave me the creeps." Our transformation was complete. "Come on now, we have the rest of the day to be off spotted out and about as tourists and I want to take advantage of that."