Hello darlings! I hope you enjoy this little chapter. A day with Draco… and a conversation with Lucius…

Hermione used to pride herself as a girl who always had a plan. Not an ideal plan, of course, but still something that had a rather distinct semblance of one. It had been so clear just a few weeks ago. Simple enough : return to her homeland from her prolonged research and lounging trip, find a job, preferable a stable, long term one, then get a place of her own to live in and then, only when the first three steps of the plan were completed, she would look at possible men to date. But now everything was messed up. Big time.

Perhaps she would've been happy working in a tiny cramped office at the Ministry, registering pet kneazles and sending out someone to clear garden gnomes. It would've been mind numbingly boring and not well paid and she wouldn't have had an army of eager to please elves who did all they could to please her and left luxurious items in her rooms claiming to be a necessity. The luxury life did have appeal. The spacious homes, finest foods… she had gotten too used to that, so she wanted to pull off the band aid before it got stuck too much.

Never in a million years she wouldn't have thought that she would be lounging in bed with Draco Malfoy. The annoying, handsome, irritating and sexy Slytherin who was quite a catch. Many liked his big vault of course, but there was that redeemable bad boy angle that fascinated her.

And she rather liked the feel of his skin. She had looked and just feasted her eyes without doing anything but now she could.

He gently moved her wandering hand away from his waistband.

''Were you even listening to me, darling?'' he said with a smile.

Hermione had to admit that in any other moment she would have enjoyed hearing his experience as he had to sit in for the first time in an investor's pitch meeting. How nervous he had been, but how surprisingly enough, other investors had been rather friendly to him as they immediately recognised him as Lucius' son and how Draco should come along with his father to play golf with them.

''Do you want to know a secret?'' she asked, unable to stop her mind from wandering towards Draco with nothing on his lithe, fit body and not a fashionable well fitted suit.

''Do tell.''

''When I was travelling for my research, I loved reading the British wizarding tabloids. It was just… so relaxing, to leaf through the pages and read the outrageous stories. Don't look at me like that, of course I knew that only some stories were true, but it was kind of appealing to lounge in my bed, with a view of the pool with the ornate M for Malfoy tiling and reading a story about your lady killer ways.''

''You know that even though I might have been photographed somewhere with a lady it didn't always end up with me being involved with her. I didn't go after the papers for every false interpretation as it was better for my reputation to be in circulation as a rogue bad boy heart breaker than a dark wizard. And quite a few of the ladies needed the publicity for starting their modelling or singing career. So, I went to quite a few staged dates to get the girls the pictures they wanted.''

''I remember reading story where a model witch had claimed that she'd spent a romantic week with you on Bora Bora, with lots of landscape pictures and her portraits, but no shot of you. She claimed that you took all the pictures, but then I remembered that during that week you were in Italy, endlessly lounging by the pool and swimming laps. Even with a portkey I don't think it would've been possible to do that.''

''That was a bit of a bolder move from her, but it didn't hurt me, so I let it slide. I was always honest with the ladies, I never promised anything serious or marriage. Though I must say that I am by now disgusted by the flavour of love, lust, and fertility potions as these were more or less stealthily slipped into my drinks. What they didn't know I had taken an antidote for that.''

''I need to ask you about the baby allegations though. So many women claimed to have your child and… I want to know how true these were… I wouldn't want you to ignore a child you fathered, even if it was a short relationship.''

It had always seemed a little fishy for Hermione that while nearly a dozen witches claimed to be pregnant with Draco's baby, the matter was always swept under the rug somehow, as she faintly remembered only about two breaking stories when it turned out that the baby was definitely the child of someone else, and not a Malfoy. Of course, this same question was something that she would need to ask Harry as well, as he had the same heart breaker lifestyle as Draco did.

''I have a secret. Something that ensures that there is no way to be the father of these babies. You see, as my family is quite old and there have been more or less true rumours that Malfoy men loved the ladies, an ancestor of mine got quite mad at her husband, about two hundred fifty years ago. She didn't mind his cavorting, but what she was scared for was the inheritance of her own three children. If her wayward husband were to father another child, the share would be diminished. So she created a rather complex, and these days many would say, dark familial curse that ensured that a Malfoy male can only father a child with his wife and none other. I think that she was a Perewell, or a close relation to them, you can ask the library elf to access her diaries and other family documents to see proof of that.''

''And nobody knew this? Wouldn't this be a hushed-up secret in the upper-class circles?''

''It was advantageous not to say a word about it. I always thought that becoming a father is a serious step and I wouldn't have wanted any little Malfoys running around without me being there for them. After all, no matter all the mistakes, my father tried his best to look after me.''

Hermione didn't know what to say. It sounded plausible, as so many old pureblood families had some curses and other things still following them for generations, but if it were true... then it would mean that she would be the only chance for Draco to have a child, an heir. It was overwhelming. It was one thing to read some salacious stories about him and stealthily ogle him in his skimpy swimwear, but marriage was a whole other story.

Draco saw her face change from thoughtful to worried. It was the last thing that he wanted, her doubting his word.

''My lawyers have all the paperwork to ensure that the ladies did not have a recourse. They couldn't go to the papers as they had to take a non-disclosure vow after finding out the truth, they were also paid a reasonable compensation for their trouble and a paternity test was done to solidify the child's father's identity. We can go look at the paperwork today, if you want to,'' he said and started to get up.

''No, I don't want to spend a whole day sifting through paperwork. Promise me that what you said is true. I wouldn't want to take away a child's father.''

''Hermione, I swear that I said the truth. If you want to, we can even do an unbreakable vow when we're back at the Manor, I try not to do magic at this house.''

''I don't know whether we need to do something so extreme but if you are willing to go so far…''

Draco was still worried. The worry in her face was not lessening. ''Is there anything else I can make right?''

''I wonder why you never asked me out when I was living at your homes?'' she blurted out.

Draco hadn't expected that question. He had been prepared to answer all and any questions about his possible children, get her to his lawyer the same day to show her the evidence that he had not just bought his way out of a scandal.

''I didn't try anything to make sure that you felt safe and comfortable. I didn't want you to feel like I was trying to take advantage of you or make you feel like you owed me anything for having you at our homes. I didn't want to appear like a salacious creep. You might be surprised, but most women approached me. I guess they were captivated by my mysterious bad boy aura.''

''So you were expecting me to come to your room and push you against a wall and ask you out?''

Draco flushed. If she had done that, he might have fainted then right on the spot. He rather liked her bossy attitude in school so it wouldn't have been too amiss.

''Draco, I would never…'' she blustered but he noticed the intense blushing of her cheeks.

''Or you could have asked me to help with some of your research and then we might have gotten to know each other.''

Of course, he couldn't let a peep slip that Potter prevented him from doing anything forward. That would be in bad taste as making another of her many fiancés look bad would make Draco look petty at best.

He had tried subtle hints, but it seemed like none of them seemed to be noticed by her. Draco had offered to assist in any of her research needs but she had just brushed him off saying that he'd surely had a lot of work at his family business to be trawling thru the Alps in search of some type of trolls and giants. He had plenty of time as there were many employees who could replace him but it was not safe to turn up and tell her that he was ready to go with her and back her in a corner and make her take him along. It would've been too risky as Potter was a jealous bastard.

''I thought when you said you wanted to come along you were just being polite, so I didn't want to bother you. Though with the Crystal Slime toad in Tuscany it would've been helpful to have a hand.''

Oh, the toad. That was one thing that Draco would never ever forget. Not because of the creature being anything special in itself. It was a rather boring and mundane magical creature that looked like a normal toad but as soon as it got scared, it would cover itself in a gelatine like goo so that no other creatures could get thru and eat the toad. For humans, the goo could be used to seal salves into wounds that were not healing well, like potion burns. It was not revolutionary, many knew of the toad's abilities before, but most people did not want to spend hours scraping a toad with a rose quartz scraper while the amphibian filled the air with the vile but harmless stench of pond toad farts.

Hermione would often take the chance to share her research findings with a lengthy presentation for the Malfoys. Draco typically enjoyed finding out more information about a rather harmless creature that he had suggested to his elves so that they could steer her away from the fatal dangers. But the night she excitedly raved on about the blob of a toad he just couldn't stay.

The reason was simple. She had presented her notes and photos of her expedition, even brought out a few of the toads in a basket. That was all nice and sweet, until she said that she wanted to demonstrate the usefulness of that slime by cutting herself a little. Lucius had immediately volunteered himself to be the test victim, but Draco had suddenly felt faint. The thought of someone being cut, just even a harmless nick to show how the toad gel worked was too much for him. The memories of the cursed knife cutting into him welled up and he excused himself because of urgent letters that he had forgotten to write.

He had written the letters, which were in fact not urgent at all, and dawdled around his room for a while, wondering how long her demonstration would take. It had taken him a good while to come to his senses and walk back down to the library and pretend that all was fine. By the time he got there, he realised that he had way overestimated the time she would take describing the harmless toad and found her snoozing. With her head resting in his father's lap.

He had tried his hardest not to have a loud outburst of anger right then and there, but they had silently managed to bring her to her room. And then he had his outburst about why his father shouldn't be trying to get his witch. At that time, Hermione was not his, not Potter's. But he still had felt so attacked. It was not rational but sometimes feelings were far from rational. His father had promised to not upset him anymore.

And now it seemed that the Ministry had just magically solved all his problems of how to woo Hermione. Now he only had the monumental task to make sure that she saw what the magical match was trying to tell them – that he was someone she needed.

Moving slowly, he rolled over to hover above her. He let his body relax and smiled at her as once again she had gotten surprisingly grabby.

''Anything else that has tickled your fancy about my infamous tabloid life?'' he asked.

''There were quite a few women who claimed that you have mere raisins and shrivelled sausages. Maybe you stuffed potatoes into your swimwear at the pool.''

Potatoes in swimwear! What an atrocity. Draco would never have risked such embarrassment. There was not too much one could do to improve the bulge for pool posing, but the parts were too sensitive for magic, stuffing a sock in the tiny muggle Speedos would have been just a little less embarrassing than the potato that could slip and make it look like her had a turd in the back.

''Before you can try, you will have to marry me,'' he said as he once again took her wandering hands away from his rather eager parts. He didn't want two furious Gryffindorks bursting into his safe space. Gentlewizards' agreements were a literal pain.

Harry Potter was unsettled once again. And this time it had nothing to do with the witch that had always been on his mind. No, this time he felt confused.

He sank back into the plush leather wingback chair in Lucius' study and observed the older man calmly give instructions to an elf. Years ago, Harry would have never thought about a chance that Lucius Malfoy could be a changed man. But now the only visible sign of the dark past was the rather faded Dark Mark that looked like a washed-out tattoo from youth mistakes that could be seen above the platinum band of his Rolex.

After the elf popped out of view, Lucius stepped over to his desk, signed a few sheets of paper with a gold encrusted pen and stuffed them into a manila envelope. It was rather unusual and new for Harry to see the pureblood wizard perform such mundane, muggle tasks.

''Now, tell me what's on your mind,'' Lucius said as he wheeled out a small bar. It had crystal tumblers and bottles of spirits that were usually locked up in glass cabinets even in the posher stores.

''It's hard to explain,'' Harry said and took the offered tumbler.

''I am all ears; I am used to tough situations.''

''How can it be that even though Hermione is set to marry three guys, there are only two fully functioning relatives in all that lot? How messed up is the British wizarding world?''

It was a horrifying thought to ponder. In a normal world, most people would have at least one parent remaining. But now the situation was way worse. Harry often felt mad at the failure of his own father to protect his family. He had also visited Neville's parent's in the hospital because his friend had asked. They seemed to be like shells of people, happy in their safe bubble. If there had been no nonsensical wars, Harry and Neville would've had parents.

There was one instance when Harry had started to believe that Lucius Malfoy actually had feelings. It was not thru all the trials where had gained insight into the Malfoys' real situation during the war. It was something far more mundane.

One day a distraught Patronus arrived, asking for immediate assistance. Harry had been rather curious as to why Lucius Malfoy would need exactly his help, as the man had a vast network of people, but apparently none of these connections could help him locate Draco. It had been three days, with no word or sighting of Draco. The family tapestry showed that he was still alive, but Lucius fretted a potential ransom plot.

Harry searched the manor, tried a plethora of suspect locating spells, alas nothing. The last location he had the idea to search was the Muggle mansion in London, it was a silly shot in the dark, but it was a place that no elf was present. And there was no way to reach it besides Muggle transport as it was a no-Apparate zone. Lucius had barely kept his composure in the Tube on the way to Bishop's avenue, the nervousness was palpable.

But as soon as they unlocked the door to the ''small house'' as Lucius liked to call it, Harry slipped into the shadows of the grand entryway. There was a mess of pizza boxes and empty beer cans on the living room floor… and a snoozing Draco in front of the blaring TV.

It was that moment when Harry felt truly lonely. He had never had a father to care about him. Of course, some would say that Arthur was something of a father figure, but not to the extent to worry too much about Harry, especially in the recent years.

The whole search saga was caused by Draco wanting to be alone for a few days and not realising that his father would be worried and ready to march to the ministry to have a search party ready. Harry was not told more details, he felt like it would be rude to ask. A day later a tidy sum arrived in his account and the matter was not spoken of again.

Careful observation.

That was one thing Lucius prided himself in. He could see the emotions changing in the young man's face as more and more fine scotch was downed. It was advantageous that Harry was not really a connoisseur of fine spirits and could not immediately tell that the intricate bottle help a significantly watered down version of the original. Lucius kept it for getting Draco to talk, but it was useful for his future son in law as well. The last thing needed was a burst out of drunk magic from a powerful wizard.

''The current situation is tricky, but that is clear to everyone. I can offer to assist with any question you might have. I have navigated the magical society for a long time, and I know a lot of… interesting… information on many families, if any of them ever cause us trouble.''

''You mean you have dirt on people?'' Harry asked, taking another large gulp.

''Call it what you will, but I might take a guess that I know more than Augusta does.''

''Augusta is a little bit weird. She seems very strict towards Nev.''

Lucius knew that Augusta had spent a fortune on treatments from various healers and quacks to try and heal her son and daughter in law. Sadly, nothing ever worked and the woman descended deeper into weirdness. It was no wonder that she had held her grandson on a tight leash, hoping that he wouldn't get himself into trouble.

''Neville still grew up to be a good wizard. He has a good head on his shoulders. In fact, we all should be sensible in this situation….''

Harry huffed and tipped back the whisky in one go.

''I can see why you're upset. You wanted to have her all for yourself. You, unlike my son and Neville actually had the best chance to woo her. But you didn't.''

It was dangerous trying to anger such an immensely powerful wizard, but boundaries needed to be tested so that it was clear where to thread.

''I couldn't risk it. What if she had said that she seems me like a brother of sorts? Then I would have been crushed and she might have seen me as some weird creep. Maybe it is for the best that it was not up to me, but the law to decide who she marries. After all, the ministry is now working for the people, not against us.''

''Indeed, Harry, it seems like this time the ministry knows what they're doing. They are just trying their best.''

Hermione felt frustrated after the day out with Draco. It was not his fault, he had behaved like a true gentleman. Years ago she would have laughed so hard if someone had told her that Draco Malfoy would be capable of perfectly preparing a filet mignon, medium rare, dress a salad and sprinkle powdered sugar over a cake and twist a piece of edible gold leaf into a flower of sorts. All without the help of an elf. The cake was good, albeit a ready made one from the posh supermarket's bakery.

But it was not cake that she had an issue with. It was Draco. How could he be so desirable and yet not give in to her groping demands? No matter how many times she tried, her hands were always gently moved by him towards above his waistline. He did kiss her, and even though he kissed slowly, almost chastely she burned for more and he just kept on telling her, his pale eyes sparkling with mischief, that she would have to wait to get married to him to peel off all the layers. Such an incredible tease. It was clear why witches were all breathless about him…

They had managed to travel back to the manor just a little before dinner, despite her pouty protest that they could just stay in London. Maybe if they had stayed, she would've worn down his prim resolve.

But alas, she had to concede that he was only acting like the others had, ensuring that all could have her company for dinner at least. Upon arrival at the manor, a distressed elf dragged Draco away, wailing about how the kitchen was failing to make the perfect dinner. Hermione took the chance to go search for Neville. From what she could ascertain, he was nowhere to be seen in the garden, so she decided to look for him in his room, which was the more obvious place to find him as it was just a little under an hour before dinner.

Another elf that was barely visible behind a large flower arrangement told her the way to Neville's room. She was nearly there, his should be the last door to the left of the hallway but suddenly she felt like she was grabbed by an invisible force. Was it an ancient Malfoy family trap for muggleborns?

Hermione gasped as it lifted her feet above the ground, and she was flying towards the second to last door in the hallway. The speed was so breakneck that she feared to be slammed into the massive oak door, face first. But that did not happen. The door opened and she was swooped into someone's arms. Before she could ask what was going on, hot lips crashed on hers.

Thank you for reading! Who do you think is the overager kisser? 😊 Poor Hermione, so many handsome fiancés. Up next, the first night with Draco. Will he give in and be less proper? Reviews appreciated as always!