"Granger went crazy for good."

Draco slammed the door behind him, sat on the couch that existed in the living room. Blaise recovered from the fright he had with his friend's unexpected entrance and re-examined the document in his hands, paying half attention to what the other said.

"Hmm, what was it this time?"

"She's quitting! Resignation! Can you believe it?"

"It wouldn't be the first time. What was the new fight?"

Draco had a dry laugh.

"That's why I said she went crazy: there was no fight." He took a big sip of his drink, laughed a little more and thought it was strange that Blaise didn't say anything. When he lifted his eyes, he saw that his friend was a mix between amazed and astonished.

"What have you done?"

"What do you mean? I didn't do anything! She just quit."

"No, that can't be right. You always do something stupid when she loses her mind." Blaise lowered the papers in his hands, crossed them on the table and looked at his friend, now giving full attention to the unusual situation.

"Calm down. Go back and tell the whole story from the beginning."

Draco then recounted the events that began the day before. He went back to the parts where Blaise asked for more details, even remembering the phrases she said. In the end, he was already finishing his second glass of firewhisky and Blaise was sitting in front of him on the couch.

"Was that it?"

"Yes... as I said it doesn't make sense..."

Blaise then began to laugh, filled the glass of Draco once more and served a small dose to himself.

"I'm extremely glad to know that you laugh at this situation. But that doesn't help me at all. We can't lose Granger like this." This made Blaise laugh even more at the story told.

"My dear friend, you are the one who cannot lose Hermione."

"What do you mean: I can't lose Granger? The company that can't lose her! Do you have any idea how important she has been these past few years?!"

"I know she is very competent in what she does. Very much so. I can't complain about her work the few times we've worked together. But she's not irreplaceable. You're the one who is settled in with her doing a lot more work than secretaries usually do. She closes more contracts than many directors, organizes many events and does countless things that are far away from her duty. So much so that you have a second secretary to do the job Granger should do."

Draco made a grimace, took a big sip of the drink, but was silent for a while. He was already finishing his third - generous - dose of firewhisky, his thought was starting to get a little fuzzy.

"Okay, I don't want to discuss Granger's duties right now. But can you give me an idea of how to get her to stay in the company?"

Blaise stared at Draco for a while, thinking about the possibilities. He smirked, put the glass on the coffee table next to the couch and crossed his legs.

"What are you willing to do to ensure that Hermione remains by your side?"

"You know I'd do anything... well, almost anything. Let's draw the line in unforgivable curses and perpetual vows."

Blaise served another dose of firewhisky and made his friend sit at his table and gave him quill and paper.

"I think it's important for you to take note, because this plan may be more elaborate than you expected. And, because you've had enough already-"

"I'm not drunk."

"Of course. Well, the first thing she needs is more days off. So, you're going to leave her alone on weekends and nights. Even if an emergency meeting shows up, you'll do ANYTHING to not to call her."

"That doesn't make sense. She receives a generous salary in compensation for all those hours she works."

"And that's why she wants to leave. Because you have no limits."

"It's absurd! Of course, I have limits. You are the one who is mixing business with friendships, you keep saying Hermione this or Hermione that. Since when you two are so close to being treated by first names?"

Blaise smiled as if he were an angelical being. Draco drunk was somewhat jealous and territorialist...

"That's not the kind of limit I'm talking about. But since you brought it up, maybe if you were friendlier towards Hermione, she would feel better with working all these late hours."

Draco's response was a somewhat childish eye-rolling. Habit that, surely, he had caught the queen of rolling eyes: Hermione Granger.

"Draco, there's no point in acting like this. She'll leave if you keep doing the same things because it's not money that she needs."

"That I know. Anda I also offered her the chance to work on projects alone and she didn't accept it."

"Because she doesn't want something work-related. You're smarter than that, Draco, there's no way you haven't understood yet."

Draco chugged the rest of the drink out of the glass. "I understand that she wants a family and everything... It just doesn't make sense why she wants to get out of here."

"Because she doesn't have time to find someone if she's here all the time. Then you need to put a clear limit about the time spent at the offices, or meetings, or whatever you both do. So, she will be able to go out on dates, see her family, her friends."

Draco leaned against the chair, stared at the ceiling for a while. Blaise knew how to be patient with his friend, which is why they got along so well. He needed to make Draco understand that he needed Hermione more than his secretary, but for that, Malfoy would have to make the mental leap himself. He used the drink and tried lightly to poke his jealousy, but now they had to slow down. If all worked out in the next few months, he would make them a couple.

"I already know! I know what I'm going to do! I'm going to marry Granger, so she'll have all these things and still be inside the company!"

Draco had his eyes shining, with a huge, blushing drunk smile.

"No, no, no, no, no, It's not that-"

"Of course, it is! So, she wouldn't have a problem because I'd understand why she was always working, it will bring together everything she wants. Not to mention that the company would automatically be hers, too. How come I didn't think of that before?"

Blaise facepalmed himself. He tried to talk sense to his friend, but by that time the firewhisky had already gone up his head. He let his friend go out and make an idiocy of himself. At least that would be fun to see and finally Draco would do something about the sexual tension that existed between the two.

Draco left the company determined to look for Hermione. Perhaps he spent his rest of common sense asking a driver to take him to her apartment, thought he'd had too much to drink to try to get there by himself, but not enough to get in the way of his judgment about the brilliant idea he had. He was furiously thinking about how to present that new business proposal - no, life proposal! - to Granger.

It was with great optimism, and perhaps somewhat staggering, that Draco arrived at Hermione's building late at night and insisted on the bell until Hermione opened the door in her pajamas and grumpy. She didn't invite him in, and he was waiting with his arms what he had to say was so important as to go to her apartment.

"Granger, I've arranged a solution to your problem of wanting to leave the company! We get married and everything will be settled!"

Hermione couldn't believe what she was hearing. It wasn't so long ago that she'd calmed down, and now her boss would come up with this preposterous idea at her door. It could only be a joke all of that. She never imagined it would be this hard to quit.

"You've got to be kidding me!"

"I'm serious! It's the perfect solution! We get married and everything is settled!" He crossed his arms imitating her and leaned close when he spoke.

"You..." Hermione sniffed a little, came close and smelled Draco's clothes and held his face. "You're drunk!"

"I'm not, I just drank a little, no big deal!" He didn't even try to get off her fingers on his chin, he wasn't even surprised when the worried side - soon the side that gave tight hugs and felt if he had a fever on his forehead - showed up.

"How come is no big deal! Of course, you are drunk, and this brilliant idea of yours just proves this! And you still came to torment me at home!"

"No, Granger, I just came to tell you that getting married is a-"

"No! Go away now!" She grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him until he got in the elevator. He didn't offer much resistance and tried to repeat once again how good his idea was. Hermione couldn´t t hear above her anger, she wasn't screaming because she liked her neighbors too much. This wasn't the time to make a scene.

She managed to return to the apartment perplexed by his attitude. She was brewing the anger inside her chest, started thinking about everything she would say to him when they met again. Oh, but let Monday come, he would pay her…

A.N: Thanks for the feedback! Please, help me to be a better writer, tell me what you think and how you think I coulda get better. :)