"Now, isn't this better than sitting in that office all by yourself, like you do every night?" Lucius asked. The colour was raised in Hermione's cheeks as they sat in the Leaky Cauldron, busy with workers celebrating the end of the working week. She really did look quite delicious, he decided, as he sipped on his firewhiskey. He didn't foresee his plan taking too long to work.

"Well yes, I suppose," she answered, sipping on her own drink. Firewhiskey had never really agreed with her, and she had only accepted it so Lucius would not look down his nose at her usual drink of choice – a Butterbeer. It was making her cheeks flush, she knew, along with the fact that she was sitting opposite the man (literally) of her dreams. She had no illusions that he was interested in her, but she knew that her dreams would be coming back again tonight, only this time they would start off in this pub before he kissed her, and then touched her, and then…

"Granger? You look far away? Thinking about anything interesting?" Lucius asked, though he suspected he knew the answer. She was biting on her lower lip again.

Hermione felt herself blush, and then decided that he probably couldn't tell anyway. She felt as though she was permanently red—cheeked around him these days. She looked at him, and decided to bite the bullet. She knew that there was little chance of anything happening (and she wasn't entirely sure that she wanted anything to anyway). But that didn't mean that she couldn't take the opportunity to get in a bit of practice at flirting.

She looked at him in what she hoped was a coy, flirtatious way. "Actually, I just remembered that you were in my dream last night. The details are a little fuzzy, but it was definitely you," she said, instantly regretting it. Had she already said too much?

Lucius raised an eyebrow. He was genuinely surprised; not by the fact that she had been dreaming of him, if he was sure of nothing else it was that she was harbouring a crush on him, at the very least. It was the fact that she had decided to come out and tell him about it. She was flirting with him, the little minx! Lucius didn't believe for one minute that she didn't remember the details; if her body language around him all day was anything to go by, she remembered all too well.

"Well I hope it wasn't a nightmare? "

"Not as far as I can remember, no. I certainly didn't wake up screaming."

Lucius had to bite his tongue to stop himself from telling her that he had plans to make her scream, though not while she was asleep. He was enjoying this new Hermione; she seemed to have relaxed and was trying to flirt, even if she obviously fairly new to it. They carried on like this for sometime, the conversation flowing easily, with a flirtatious undertone to it.

After their second drink, Lucius looked at his watch. "Well Granger, I'm afraid I am going to have to make a move. I have arrangements to meet Draco for dinner. He has a new girlfriend; evidently they are serious enough for him to want to introduce her to me."

Hermione felt a small pang of disappointment. Whilst she knew that the likelihood of Lucius being interested in her was minute, she had been enjoying the evening, and felt that he had been flirting with her as much as she had been with him. Now he was rushing off, and she had to go home alone, as usual.

"OK, well thank you very much for the drinks; it was certainly preferable to sitting in the office and getting that work done!" Hermione said, with a false smile plastered on her face. The truth of the matter was that she was actually going to go back to the office now and continue with that work. She knew that it made her a sad case, working so late on a Friday, and normally she would not have any qualms about spending the night in her little flat by herself. But she couldn't face it tonight, not now. "Bye Lucius, see you on Monday."

Lucius, for his part, wanted nothing more than to take her back to the Manor and begin her education. She was disappointed, he could see that, but it was all part of his plan. He knew that it would be easy to get her into bed; she wore practically every emotion and thought inside her head upon her face. But that wasn't the way that he wanted to go about it. He wanted her to want him, even more than she did now. If everything went to plan, Hermione Granger would be screaming Lucius Malfoy's name within a month.