Spy

Hermione had fallen asleep at work again. A fact she realized upon waking with a crick in her neck and runes blurred before her awakening eyes. She sighed and sat up rubbing her neck. Her workload had been massive over the past week, and she had only made it home once. But her work week was almost over, and she could practically taste freedom. She felt vaguely guilty at the back of her mind, knowing that she had flaked out on Draco again, but he assured her he understood that her work was important. She decided that she would owl him today, and suggest something to make up for her absence during the week. Just as she was about to pen a note to Draco, Ron walked into her office, a guilty look on his face.

"Well stranger, long time no see." Hermione grinned and sat back in her chair, indicating that Ron should take a seat opposite her. He sat and scratched at the back of his head, his eyes not meeting hers. "What did you do Ron?" Hermione asked. His eyes snapped to hers and he sighed.

"Nothing, and that's the problem. I hear that Ginny and Harry have been giving you a bit of a hard time. I heard about that a while ago, and just let them. I'm sorry Hermione. I mean I'm not super happy that you are dating Malfoy, but from what I hear, he's a changed man, and he makes you happy. That's all I want for you, happiness." He shrugged and looked away again. "I've asked both Ginny and Harry to apologize and get past this…but you know Ginny. She's absolutely bull headed."

"Wow Ron." Hermione breathed. She hadn't been expecting such words. "That is really great of you. I of course want you to be happy too. Have you been seeing anyone?" She inquired. Ron grinned, and his cheeks pinked up a bit.

"As a matter of fact, I am seeing someone." He laughed a bit, but looked back at Hermione. "Do you remember Romilda Vane?" He asked. Hermione grinned and held back a laugh.

"Is that the girl who was obsessed with Harry, and tried to make him fall in love with her?" She asked.

"The very same." Ron laughed. "She's not obsessed with Harry anymore, she was working up at the dragon sanctuary in Romania, and we hit it off when I was there visiting Charlie. He's surrounded by fit, dragon wrestling women, and he hardly notices." Ron shook his head. Hermione smiled, Ron was an unexpected surprise, but she was glad he had come.

"I've missed you Ron." She smiled; he gave her a kind of sad look and nodded.

"I've missed you too Mione. I'm sorry that we let our relationship get the better of our friendship."

"Me too." Hermione whispered. "Listen I have so much work to do today and a probably disgruntled boyfriend to contend with when I get home, I'll owl you though, yeah?" Hermione stood from her desk, and approached Ron who stood up as well. She saw him to the door and gave him a brief hug. "I'm so glad you came to visit me. I promise I'll see you soon!" She whispered fiercely. She gave Ron a quick peck on the cheek and the retreated back into her office with a wave.

Once settled behind her desk she grabbed up a sheaf of parchment and penned a note to Draco.

Dear Draco, I am so, so sorry for my absence this week, I know I promised I would be home last night. I don't know what to say… I'll make it up to you. Please tell me you aren't mad at me!

She scribbled a signature at the bottom of the note, and sent to note off with a wave of her wand. She rubbed at her eyes and promised herself a cup of coffee if she could get through one page of runes. She set her mind to the task and got through the page before getting up. She went to the washroom first, and smoothed out her appearance before heading to the lobby to get a coffee. When she returned to her office there was note waiting for her on her desk.

Hermione, don't worry; I know how busy you've been this week. No need to make anything up to me. I'll be waiting for you at your place tonight, if that's alright. Maybe this weekend we can take a trip somewhere. Anyway I'll see you later.

Hermione grinned and pushed the note aside, focusing on her runes intently until it was time to go home. She sighed and pushed back from her desk, and slowly walked towards the lobby of the ministry to the apparition points. She was looking forward to a shower.

When she got into her flat she saw Draco sitting on the couch, he didn't look happy, there was something clutched in his hand that Hermione couldn't make out. "Draco?" She asked. His eyes snapped to hers and he held out what was in his hand. Hermione tentatively stepped forward and took the paper that was in his hand. It was a couple of photos. The first was Ron entering Hermione's office, and the second one was Ron leaving her office and Hermione hugging him, and then kissing his cheek. The photos were magical, so it was like watching a clip, over and over. Hermione looked at Draco and frowned. "What's this then?" She asked.

"I was going to ask you the same thing." He answered, standing. "I don't know where they came from, but right after I got your letter, I got these." Hermione scoffed.

"So what, you think I'm cheating on you with Ron?" She asked. "This is the first time I've seen him in ages. We just talked in my office." Draco appraised her.

"I don't know Hermione. The first thing you jump to is me thinking that you are cheating. That seems pretty guilty to me." He shrugged a look of disdain on his face.

"This is ridiculous. Don't tell me you weren't thinking it, I can tell from your face. Don't you trust me at all?"

"Well think about it from my point of view Hermione. I haven't seen you all week; you've been pulling all-nighters at work, which doesn't even make sense. The runes will still be there in the morning. And then I get these pictures. Ron just strolling into your office, without even knocking, what am I supposed to think?" Draco was pacing, and obviously angry.

"Draco, you know why I work like that. When I get on a roll with the runes I don't want stop, and sometimes I just fall asleep. You know my work is important to me. Merlin! What do you think of me?" Hurt flooded Hermione's eyes and she glared at Draco. "If you think I would do something like this…" Draco sighed and walked towards Hermione.

"Are you saying that you blame me for reacting this way? As I said earlier I haven't seen you this week, and this just so happens to be the week that Ron comes to visit you. And someone captures that moment. I'm just supposed to be absolutely fine with this? I could have just stayed away tonight, but I came here to see what you had to say. So don't just get angry at me, talk to me." Hermione backed further away from Draco.

"Well unfortunately I am angry with you now. And I have had a long week, with little sleep. I come home to find you angry at me over nothing. I haven't done anything wrong, and if you can't see that I suggest you leave now. I don't have the patience to fight with you right now. Go on, leave." Draco looked hurt, but nodded his head and backed away.

"If you don't want me here, then fine, I'll leave." Draco turned to leave. Hermione threw the pictures at his back and stomped off to her bathroom. She angrily tore off her clothes and got into the shower, which was what she had wanted to do when she got home. She viciously scrubbed the work week off of her body. The hot water relaxed her muscles and she stepped out of the shower feeling marginally better. She tossed on a pair of pajamas and headed to the kitchen. She was not really hungry, but had hardly eaten over the past couple of days. She unhappily ate a tasteless meal and then headed to her room for some much needed sleep. She could only hope that things would be better in the morning.

When Hermione awoke in the morning, it was to the strange sensation of an empty bed. She groaned and ran a hand over her face. She thought for a couple of minutes, and she concluded that Draco had really not acted that badly the night before. It hurt that he would think that of her, but she had been absent that week, and those pictures did look bad. She turned her head and grabbed up the notebook that she kept on her night table. She was about to put pen to paper when she realized she didn't know what she wanted to say. She sighed and rolled out of bed, she immediately went to the kitchen and fixed herself some coffee, all the while wondering what to do about Draco.

A knock at her door pulled her out of her thoughts; she walked to the door and opened it. Eliza was on the other side with a box in her hand. "Hope you're up for some company. I was in the area, getting some croissants, thought you might like to share them with me?" She smiled and Hermione nodded.

"Come on in Eliza, this is actually perfect timing." She led Eliza into the kitchen and poured her a coffee, they set into the croissants and Eliza leveled a stare at her.

"I notice we are one blonde short around here. Where's Draco?" She asked. Hermione sighed and made a face.

"We had a fight last night. I'm not sure what to do." She confessed. Eliza frowned, but didn't pry. "This week I was really busy at work. I was given an extraordinarily hard set of runes, and I was working on the translation, probably too hard. So I flaked out on Draco all week. And then yesterday Ron came to visit me. We just had a chat, and I told him I would owl him, and we could do something later, he was leaving and I gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Someone must've been lurking, because they took pictures of that and sent them to Draco. It didn't mean anything; Ron and I are just friends. Draco was waiting for me when I got home with those pictures." Hermione sighed.

"He actually accused you of cheating on him?" Eliza asked.

"Yes." Eliza looked angry.

"Git." She muttered. Hermione nodded.

"I mean neither of us really did anything wrong, we just need to talk it out. I just don't know what to say." Hermione sighed again and buried her face in her hands.

"If you want my advice, I would just give it some time. A little bit of time for you to both cool off. There is a dinner at the burrow tonight, and I was actually dropping by to invite you. So just hang out with me today, and come to dinner, and just take some time to think." Eliza reached out and tilted Hermione's head up and smiled at her. "Come on now Hermione." Hermione gave a small smile and nodded.

"Okay Eliza, that actually sounds great. Just let me get ready." With that Hermione got ready for what she was sure was going to be the longest days of her life.

AN: It's been quite a wait on this chapter! I apologize. Writers block had me unable to think where this story was going. I also got no feedback on the last chapter. :( So please, please leave me a review and let me know what you think! Sorry again for the wait! Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter! :)