"Can we break down the next curse component now?" Travers whined.

Draco was so close to shoving his wand down the man's throat, but he refrained. Instead he kept up his concentration as a tea kettle hovered in the air. He and Travers had been working together for the past two weeks, going on three. Like Auror Juno said, they had been down in the Auror Department's Containment Center for the first week getting accustomed to the rules and regulations with how they handled dangerous items. The start of this week had been exciting, considering that someone had bought and used the charming little tea kettle that was currently being examined. The person in question was now in a coma which meant that she couldn't be asked all the pertinent questions like, for starters, where she'd gotten it from.

Containment Center procedures were simple: First, and probably the most obvious, was to contain the object. That had required both Draco and Travers to head out with members of the Auror Department's Magical Protection (MP) Division and the Department's Investigative Division. Draco had been happy to see Uriel there and, regrettably, Potter too. Nothing could really be done with the kettle until Draco and Travers had assessed the danger level. Since someone had been put in a coma because of it danger levels were clearly in the red.

Uriel had done his part in containing it and he, along with his mentor, went back with Draco and Travers to the Containment Center. The second step of containment procedures had started that night and was still going on: break down the object's curse components. This part could be long, hard, easy, short, anything depending on what they were working with. Since nearly a full week had gone by and they were still on the second procedure the kettle was obviously a hideous pain in the neck.

"Travers, steady a light here for me."

"Oh sure," Travers mocked as he brandished his wand. "I wait around for a day and a half for you to finish your tinkering and I get to be your flashlight."

"Just give me a damn light." Draco cursed. Was it too much to ask for a little cooperation?

They were each taking turns in breaking down what made the kettle so dangerous. Well, that was an understatement. Unfortunately, curse breaking took painstaking work and it was not Travers' strong suit. The last component, a rather complex Intravenous Curse meant to make whatever harm inside travel through the body more easily, Travers had fiddled around with for approximately three hours while dictating (which Draco wrote down) his findings. It took Draco another six hours to determine what kind of Intravenous Curse it was and another ten to finally break it. It had been determined since then that it would be Draco to do the curse breaking while Travers' opinion was gathered only when necessary. Although, he had been exaggerating when complaining about being a light holder. His time was much more valuable than that. Travers also took notes.

"What is that?" Travers asked once he had given Draco the light he'd asked for. Draco was wondering the same thing. The kettle was your standard cursed object. They almost always had some type of Intravenous Curse because whatever was inside had to pass through the host somehow. There was always some sort of Anchoring Charm to keep the danger in place and sometimes a time component involved like that of a ticking bomb. But what Draco was looking at now –tiny engravings etched on the inside of the kettle that he couldn't make heads or tails of –was new.

"It looks like...Ancient Runes."

"Great," Travers scoffed. "A subject that no one in their right mind paid attention in at Hogwarts."

Draco smirked. "Oh no, there's one witch who did. And yes, she was absolutely daft for loving it." He lowered his wand and let the kettle settle on its table top. "I'll go get Hermione. She'll crack whatever this is within minutes."

Travers nodded as a response and let his eyes linger on the kettle as Draco headed towards the door. The blond paused before actually leaving and added, "Oh, and as much as it would mean the world to me for it to happen, try not to kill yourself, yeah?"

Two seconds longer in the room and Draco would've witnessed the rude hand gesture his Auror partner had given him. Not that he cared. He was on his way to enjoy the main perk of his new job and it thrilled him.

Draco gave a rhythmic knock on Hermione's door when he finally reached it, stuffed his hands into his pockets, and rocked gently on his heels until he heard the happy-to-be-at-work voice of his girlfriend telling her visitor to enter.

"What book have you stuffed your face into that's got you into such a chipper mood?"

Hermione did, in fact, just put back a book she had been reading onto her personal bookshelf before heading over to her parchment-covered desk. Draco knew her all too well.

"I was helping out with information on a flesh-eating curse. Nasty thing, really –in theory and in person. Now," she said happily as stood by her desk. "What has my boyfriend come to see me about?

"Auror business, of course." Draco said with a smile as he closed (and locked and silenced) the door.

Hermione had missed the latter two actions because she was too enamored with the way that he had said "Auror business." It was just…so official, and she couldn't have been prouder.

"What do you need help with?" Hermione asked eagerly. Draco was in love with just how excited she was to help.

"If you're not too busy," he began as he drew closer. "Come down to the Containment Center? Travers and I are working on the latest cursed object that was found. There's an anomaly that we can't account for and we figured that you could help."

Hermione smiled. "You mean you figured that I could help."

"Naturally,"

She laughed to herself and then nodded as she began to organize the pieces of parchment on her desk. "Sure, I can come down. Did Auror Juno give you copies of the other cursed object files? They all had at least one thing off about them. This can't be very different, so it just must be a matter of deciphering –Draco! What are you…?" Hermione closed her eyes and planted the palms of her hands on her desk as a subtle moan escaped her lips. "What… What are you…? This isn't 'Auror business.'"

Draco smirked. Hermione's ability to get lost within her own little world whenever a particular knowledge base was needed was always a lovely distraction. She had been blissfully unaware of his purposeful steps around her desk so that he could stand behind her. She'd only noticed something was amiss when the zipper of her pencil skirt had slid down and the garment itself fell onto the floor. By then, of course, it had been too late. In a swift motion one arm was around her waist, holding her in place and pressed against his front, while his free hand had pushed her underwear down and in between her thighs his busy hand went.

He chuckled at how prim and proper she could still be at a time like this.

"I'm sorry," he said quite un-apologetically. "You know what they say. There's a fine line between business and pleasure."

Hermione was barely registering anything that he was saying. It was a muffled sound in comparison to every gasp, pant, or groan she gave with every thrust of his fingers.

"That's not…" she bit her lips, "…how it goes. It's a fine line between –bleeding hell…"

Draco laughed as the hand around her waist made its way up to her breast. "I beg your pardon? A fine line between 'bleeding hell?' I don't think I know that one."

"Pleasure and pain!" Hermione choked out. "A fine line between pleasure and pain."

She was leaning even further over her desk now and she felt Draco's face nuzzling her neck –even a touch of his tongue alongside it as he whispered, "Oh yes. My mistake…"

All of a sudden both of his hands were gone. Hermione had been surprised at the sudden loss of stimulation and turned around, her eyes wide when she realized that Draco was undoing his own pants. Now that she had a clear head, she had better ask what the professional side of her wondering.

"Is Travers waiting?"

"Yes."

Hermione bit the inside of her jaw as she stared at her half-naked boyfriend. Her advancing half-naked boyfriend who had managed to back her onto the edge of her desk, place his hands on her thighs, and nestle himself between her ready to go.

She swallowed. "Five minutes,"

"Fifteen,"

"Seven,"

"Ten,"

Hermione paused. And then without warning she pulled him by the collar of his shirt and kissed him.

Ten minutes it was.

Ten minutes turned out to be twelve. By the time Hermione and Draco made it down to the Containment Center it had been a full fifteen. The look on Travers' face when they had entered was not a friendly one. Although, considering how awful he'd been to Draco, Hermione didn't feel too bad about it. At least not on a personal level. On a professional level, however, her guilt had manifested ten-fold.

Travers took one look at Hermione's blushing face, Draco's smug one, and then huffed. "Took you long enough there, Malfoy."

"Ease yourself, Travers." Draco said gently. Then he smiled as he closed the door behind him. "We were coming."

Hermione had to refrain from whipping herself around quickly and shooting accusing eyes at him. Did he mean for what he said to sound like that? Judging by his facial expression, the answer was yes. The brunette rolled her eyes and let it slip before taking out her wand.

"What was it that you found?"

With his wand in hand, Travers levitated the kettle. Draco shined a light on the inside of it and Hermione drew closer. Neither men in the room had to explain what she'd find.

"Can you decipher it?" Travers asked. Draco almost slapped him silly for such a stupid question.

"It'll take me a bit –perhaps an hour or so, but yes. Although," Hermione frowned. "I can already give you an idea of what it is."

"That's my girl." Draco grinned. "How bad is it?"

"Pretty bad." She said as she reached forward to touch the kettle. Both Draco and Travers shouted at her to stop, but she continued anyway. "Relax. It won't do anything to me."

Draco's heart was in his hand as he watched his girlfriend handle the kettle as though it hadn't put someone in a coma earlier in the week. Then his brow furrowed when she was, in fact, fine.

"The Ancient Runes engravings have elements of a Targeting Spell." Hermione explained. "Whoever's behind this was after one particular person. It's ingenious, really. No one would suspect it at all of being dangerous because whoever manufactured it would've treated it like any ordinary kettle. It would only cause harm to the intended individual."

"If that's the case our jobs just got a whole lot easier." Travers said. "Targeted people means the victim, most likely, knows the culprit. I'll see you both in about two hours then."

"Where are you off to?" Draco questioned.

"Investigative team. I'll see if the victim's still out of it and find out if they've gotten any hits off of her close friends and acquaintances. I'm sure you wouldn't mind spending your time with the kettle and your girlfriend. Wait," Travers smiled a little. "Our work associate, I should say. Only one of us have to be here anyway –Containment Center regulations."

Travers left the room while whistling a tune. Once the door was closed Hermione sighed and set the kettle down.

"Arrogant, yes, but he is right about the regulations."

Draco made an exaggerated gagging noise and scrunched up his nose. "Don't ever say that he's right –even if he is."

Hermione shook her head at him and chuckled. "If you say so. Now come with me back to my office. I have to grab a couple of my books on Ancient Runes."

Author's note: There's definitely some good things in store when your significant other works in the same place as you lol. Travers still sucks, of course ;)

-WP

Guest: Thank you! I have this thing with making readers feel, or at least I try to lol. I'm really glad that you like it :)