"HOW DARE YOU ASPIRE TO BECOME LADY MALFOY!"

This was not how Hermione had imagined spending her Sunday morning.

"THE GENERAL POPULOUS MAY WORSHIP THE GROUND YOU WALK ON MISS GRANGER, BUT THOSE OF US WHO KNOW THE TRUE VALUE OF BLOOD ARE HORRIFIED AT YOUR DISRESPECT FOR THE HONOUR OF TRADITION!"

She sighed loudly as she surveyed the morning's post. There was a lot of red. She hadn't even made breakfast yet.

"THE MERE NOTION THAT A MALFOY WOULD EVER STOOP SO LOW, IS AS APPALLING AS IT IS PREPOSTEROUS!"

She cast a few precautionary protective spells then took out her own hearing. Once the silence hit her ears she trained her wand on the remaining howlers which were currently under a status charm. They all opened at once.

She managed to catch a couple of lines from a few of the angrier ones shaking themselves in her face, but it was all the same. She huffed a laugh. All this over a photo.

They disintegrated one by one and she watched all the little pieces flutter to the table. It was quite pretty. Like red confetti. She was going to have a hell of a time cleaning it up, though. She sighed again as she turned on her heel to head to the kitchen, regrettably, not to eat.

"Fuck!" She had a heart attack. "Harry!" Her best friend was standing directly behind her. Hair sticking out in every direction with half a shirt collar poking out from under his jumper and earnest concern all over his face.

She watched his mouth move but nothing reached her ears.

"Wait." She motioned with her hands in indication then drew her wand over herself releasing the spell. She shook her head lightly as the sounds of her environment suddenly returned.

"Shit, Hermione. You deafened yourself?" His face broke into a small smile. "Good. You don't want to hear what they were saying." He put his hands on her shoulders, pulling her in for a hug. "Are you alright?"

"I know what they were saying, Harry." She pulled away and picked up the paper to read the article. "I'm 'ending the Malfoy line.' as Rita eloquently puts it." She intoned in mock seriousness. "How could you not get angry about that?" She added sarcastically, hiding a smile. Harry, however, looked harassed.

"He doesn't think like that. Hell, he would even be happy to end it. Not that he'd think that you'd be… It's more that… He doesn't even want his line to continue anyway so- Not that if he did-" He stumbled over all the different sentiments he felt necessary to express while she cleared away the remains of the howlers with her wand, having given up on getting the dustpan.

"Harry." She held up a hand to stop his rambling. "That's great." She got it. She knew Malfoy didn't want kids, Harry had already told her this. She was also well aware of Malfoy's current political leanings and blood-purity views. "I'm not sure what it's got to do with me."

Harry didn't respond. He seemed to be struggling with his words. She let him, unable to help.

A mixture of surprise, confusion and a trace of humour spread slowly across Hermione's face. "Don't tell me Rita convinced you we actually were on a date?" She was fully smiling now. How ridiculous! "Harry. We were working!"

"On a Saturday?"

"This was the Northern sanctuary meeting I told you about."

"Really? The one with that Lord in the Midlands."

"Yes. The guy with land in Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire. He's an eccentric. He cancelled last minute and moved it to Saturday at Le Petit Bleu of all places! That's why I didn't come for dinner Friday. I told you this."

"You said you had a meeting so you couldn't make it. I assumed you meant it was on Friday. That maybe you expected it to turn into a business dinner, or run late, or you'd be too exhausted to come by after."

"Well that's... all very reasonable to assume. But no, sorry, I thought I'd been clear. The bastard moved it to Saturday so I wanted to get an early night. We already knew he would be dramatic about it and try to move the meeting." She rolled her eyes. "At the very last minute as well. We'd already agreed that this meeting was too important to piss about with and we were both free so there was no reason to object, really. The location was… well, it didn't occur to us to even consider saying anything about it. It was obvious that it all needed to happen on his terms."

"So... you went to this romantic restaurant together to have a meeting and…"

"And then we walked to the apparition point and went home. Separately." She concluded, crossing her arms, making the finality of the situation clear.

"Right." Harry stood there with a tense look on his face.

Hermione broke into a grin as she observed him.

"Wow." She laughed. "Did you really think it was real? You thought I was dating Malfoy?" He shifted uncomfortably and took off his glasses to fiddle with him. "Harry! When has anything Rita Skeeter printed about my love life been factual?" A laugh bubbled out of her and he couldn't help joining in.

"Sorry." He said, putting his glasses back on. "I just. I didn't think. Besides, it could have been." He shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets to keep from fidgeting.

"Could have been what. Real? Seriously? Pfft. Malfoy wouldn't date me."

"Why wouldn't he?"

"Why would he?"

"You're… attractive..." The way the man visibly struggled made his words less than convincing.

"Harry." She hissed at him, uncomfortable with the highly unnecessary turn in conversation.

"What! You'd... look good together. You do, in that photo." She stared incredulously at him.

"Harry, what has gotten into you?" He shook his head, about to reply when she cut him off. "How many subjects did I take in third year?" Hand moving to her wand as her eyes bored into the green ones in front of her, searching for deceit.

"12." He said rolling his eyes. "Because you're stupid." He added, unnecessarily. She graced him with a half hearted sneer.

"Did Ginny send you here?"

"Yes. She was worried."

"More like gossip starved." Harry held up his hands in surrender.

"She would have been here as soon as the Prophet hit your breakfast table if she wasn't heavily pregnant and unable to keep down solids."

"So she begged you to come here for her, to get the juicy details!"

"Ordered more like." He grumbled but at Hermione's answering expression he softened. "She knows purebloods, Hermione. She knew what kind of post you'd be opening today. We all remember 4th year." She looked down at her hands reflexively. "We wanted to make sure you were ok."

"Well. I'm fine. Poor Ginny. She'll be disappointed." She mocked. Harry rolled his eyes and followed Hermione who was on her way to the kitchen. This time for food.

"She'll be relieved, and only a little surprised to hear that you're single." Now it was Hermione's turn to roll her eyes as she flicked her wand at the kettle and summoned the milk from the fridge.

"Please, as if Malfoy and I would ever date. She's gone mad with pregnancy hormones."

"How feminist of you. Asserting hysteria with no capacity for reason in a woman of high emotional-"

"Alright! Shut up! You're right, she's always been mad." She cracked two eggs into a pan and wandlessly accio'd the bread. He stood awkwardly silent for a while just taking up space in her kitchen.

"You don't have to be mad to think there could be something between you two." He said slowly, as though she were likely to turn around at any moment and knock some sense into him with her spatula. He did have a very violent wife.

He seemed to be waiting for her answer so she decided not to give him one.

"Even Ron asked me if there was something going on with you two when we were at Luna's wedding." He continued in much the same tone.

It had only been a couple of months ago. The seating arrangements had been as odd as the rest of the wedding. Malfoy was seated at their table. Ie. with herself, Ron, Harry, Ginny, Neville, Padma and Hannah. It had made sense, of course. They were Luna's school friends. Malfoy included. The fact that none of them got along in school was irrelevant for someone with a mind like Luna's. And since Malfoy and Hermione regularly worked together at the Magical Beings department, which Luna had also spent some time in, his inclusion in Luna's wedding and at Hermione's table had really been a natural one. Where else would he have sat? It had been… awkward, of course. Undeniably so. Tense, was perhaps a better word. They were all very aware of everything that had happened while at Hogwarts together. They'd survived on Harry's guilty politeness and Hermione's dry humour. Malfoy had been gracious and surprisingly calm. Ron had been self-occupied. As always.

"Oh and Ron's assessments of my behaviour have always been so accurate." She huffed, turning the heat off, intent on cooking as quickly as possible. When he didn't answer she turned to see him frowning at her. She frowned back.

Where was he getting this from?

"We don't even flirt with each other." His eyebrows shot up.

"Riiight." He sang as he rolled himself back on his heels. She didn't bother to hide her shock.

"Harry. We don't." She held her ground, staring at him. His face morphed into something resembling resignation.

"Fine. You don't. I'll tell them all they're mad. Certified insane by Dr. Granger." He teased. She slapped him and pushed a plate of eggs and toast into his chest.

They sat down to eat and Hermione pushed for a change in topic. Harry took the hint and they had a lovely breakfast catching up on their lives, friends and families.

It was turning into a much better Sunday than Hermione had expected. She had been quite upset about having to cancel her dinner with the Potters for work. She was almost glad Rita wrote a ridiculous article professing her undying love for Draco Malfoy. At least it meant she got to see Harry.

Harry flooed back to Grimmauld Place with a full stomach, landing directly in front of his very large and very tired wife.

"Well?" She demanded with her hands on her hips. Harry grimaced.

"They're not dating, and.. she doesn't even think there's anything going on between them." He braced for impact, watching her through squinted eyes as she started to boil. Great, now his lovely wife was also furious.

Ginny huffed loudly, throwing her arms in the air, and waddled away from her cowering husband. "She's so stupid!"

/