A/N: Okay folks. Three things for non-SOTD readers.
1. Last summer Rita Skeeter caught wind of Hermione's and Draco's relationship and exploited them, as to be expected. Draco eventually blackmailed her into leaving them alone and she claimed she was going to. But one day at Malfoy Manor, after Lucius attacked Hermione, Astoria (who was her Healer) sees a beetle in the hallway and zaps it. Rita has not been seen since.
2. Phillip was married once before to a witch named Chastity, but she left him for his boss (who is a racist and destroyed Thinx). She eventually saw the error in her ways and asked for him back but he was already in love with Sophie. At their wedding she gave them the document signing over Thinx to them from her ex-fiancé's grandmother as a wedding gift, along with her engagement ring for startup cash.
3. In an article written by Skeeter she mistakenly called Sophie a Muggle-born, even though her parents are a witch and a wizard. She did have a Muggle grandmother though. Anyhow, the title kind off stuck and this is why people sometimes call her Muggle-born or Mudblood.
That is all …
Several weeks later, Draco sat in his office, staring vacantly out the window. He'd been doing that a lot lately and Phillip had more than once expressed his desire to take the window away from him. Luckily, Sophie fought him on it.
It had been several weeks since the Annual Ministry Ball but Draco could not get that damn prophecy out of his mind. He had done some research on those orbs, wondering if maybe Potter had tricked him somehow and the only reason he was able to hold it was because his name was on it. He hadn't. His lack of instant madness was a legit sign that the prophecy was, indeed, about him.
And there was something else that was bothering him. Two things, actually. The first was Blaise. At the ball he had mentioned something about Draco pissing a lot of people off and how they would not 'cease'. Was it just a coincidence that this was the same wording used in the prophecy, or had he heard something? And then there was Mr. Greengrass, who just happened to mention the possibility of a war ensuing. Possibly also a coincidence, or perhaps the professors had not been as careful as they thought. If the other side had heard the prophecy, there was no doubt in Draco's mind that he was, in fact, screwed.
Pop!
"EET EES 'ERE!"
Draco looked up to see Sophie dancing around his office with a copy of Witch Weekly in her hands, his face smiling ostentatiously on the cover. At least, that was how he viewed it. Hopefully others didn't agree.
Pop!
Caroline tore the magazine out of Sophie's hands. "Oooh, Draco, you look so handsome!"
Pop!
"Yes, yes, but how is the article?" asked Phillip, grabbing it from Caroline and flipping through the pages until he found the piece on Draco and his ever-so charming smile. He read silently, with Caroline and Sophie both looking over his shoulder.
Seth walked into the office at a leisurely pace, obviously far less interested in the article than the other three. Draco hadn't even moved from his chair yet. It was true, he had been excited about the article when it had first been suggested to him, but when that Inga Utkin got him alone in her office and started feeling her hand up his knee … well, that crossed the line. He would have left right then if her editor hadn't come in and put Inga in her place. Apparently, he was not the first Most Charming Smile award winner she had made a move on.
"Wow. That Inga Utkin is a pretty good writer for a whore," Caroline said bluntly.
Draco's jaw dropped as he looked accusingly at Sophie, whose head was slowly sinking into her shoulders. "You told her?"
"Well, I am sorry! I 'ad to tell someone since you 'ave forbidden me from telling 'Ermione!"
"That was why I told you and Phil. So if you wanted to blabber about it you could do it with him."
"Draco, zat ees silly. Why would I tell Phillipe about eet when 'e already knew?"
Draco threw his hands up in defeat. Clearly, nothing was private around here.
"You know, they say this Inga woman is the next Rita Skeeter," said Caroline. "I guess the wizarding world needs a nasty gossiping replacement since she went missing and all. Someone has to feed us the garbage."
"Are you calling my article garbage?" said Draco, finally getting out of his chair and walking over to where Phillip was reading through it for the second time.
"No, it's not garbage," she said, taking a seat on the edge of his desk, "but it is a bit fluffy. Lots of lovey-dovey stuff."
Phillip handed him the Witch Weekly. "It's not bad. Thinx is mentioned a great deal in it," he said proudly, "but it makes it seem like the only reason you changed was because you fell in love with a Muggle-born. There's no mention of all of the good things you did before last summer."
"Zat ees because zey were 'anonymous'," winked Sophie.
It was true, Draco had done a lot of work to improve the Malfoy name long before Hermione came back into his life, but to keep people from finding out about his father - who was ill to the point of insanity at the time - he had decided to keep his name out of most of it. Of course, the important people knew about everything he had done, like Kingsley Shacklebolt, but that didn't help him much now.
"It's a good article, nonetheless," said Phillip, trying to sound positive. "Hopefully it will put you in a bright enough light that people will stop judging you by the Malfoy name."
"Have you ever considered taking Hermione's name?" asked Caroline with a wide grin. "Mr. Hermione Granger."
Sophie guffawed but Draco rolled his eyes. "Now you just sound like my former housemates."
A knock came at the door. They all turned to see a pretty dark-haired witch with freckles standing in the doorway. "Hope I'm not interrupting."
"Chastity," said Phillip with his jaw to the floor. "W-w-what are -"
"What are you doing 'ere?" Sophie asked for him while eyeing the other witch with disdain.
Chastity was Phillip's first wife who had left him for none other than Zandicus Thinx, the tyrant son of the late Zanzar Thinx, who ran his father's business and legacy into the ground. The two had gotten engaged but she eventually broke it off and got his grandmother to sign over the Thinx name to Phillip and Sophie as a wedding present, but that hardly made up for all she had done.
"I'm sorry, I know I should have owled first, but something really terrible has happened."
"More terrible than leaving your loving husband for a tyrant prick?" asked Caroline. She and Seth exchanged a smirk.
Chastity ignored her and stepped farther into the office. "I'm afraid Zara Thinx passed away last night."
The room went silent. They all knew and were fond of Zara. She was the only reason this company was around today and came by frequently to see how it was going. She may have been well into her hundreds, but she had always seemed healthy.
"How?" Phillip asked after a long moment.
"I'm not sure of the details," said Chastity. "Zara still had me listed as her emergency contact. I got a call saying she had taken a terrible fall and was in critical condition. By the time I got to St. Mungo's she was gone and they wouldn't tell me anything since I'm not family."
"A fall brought down Zara Thinx?" asked Seth. Chastity nodded. "Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I call bullshit."
"E-excuse me?" Chastity stared at him unsurely.
"You heard me. There's no way Zara went down like that. Why don't you ask your precious Zandicus what happened to her? I wouldn't put it past the bloody prick to do something like this."
"Zandicus and I have been over for a long time. You know that."
"Whatever. We all know you're going to go back to him eventually. Once you realize no one else wants you."
"Seth! Zis is 'ardly ze time!" snapped Sophie.
Seth looked at her apologetically. "Sorry, Sophie. If you'll excuse me." He walked out of the room, making sure to bump into Chastity on his way out.
"Sorry about that," said Caroline, climbing off of the desk. "He always acts a bit funny when it comes to death. I'll go see if he's all right." She followed after him and bumped into Chastity twice as hard.
"It's nice to see they're finally warming up to me again," said Chastity, rubbing at her shoulder. She looked at Phillip very seriously and sighed. "There is something else I need to mention."
Phillip, Sophie and Draco all waited expectantly.
"On my way out of St. Mungo's I ran into Zandicus. He made it very clear that with his grandmother out of the way he was going to use whatever means necessary to get the Thinx name back under his control. He's going to argue that Zara was …" she gulped and squinted her eyes shut … "mentally unstable during her last months of life. He plans on saying I took advantage of her after he broke off our engagement and tricked her into signing over the company and name to you."
"But you are ze one who broke off ze engagement!" shouted Sophie, clearly appalled.
"I know but I just came from my father's office. He's a lawyer and he told me it's a common case of 'he said, she said'. There's no proof it was me."
"But anyone who knew Zara can vouch that she was completely stable until the end."
"Unfortunately, Zara didn't get out much recently. The only people she ever really saw are currently standing in this room." Everyone glanced around at each other. "You can see the problem."
"Well … crap!" Phillip went over to the window, leaned his arm against it and stared outside, clearly deep in thought.
Draco went over and whispered, "Bet you're glad you didn't take it away from me -"
"NOT NOW, DRACO!"
"Just trying to lighten the mood, mate," said Draco, holding his hands up in surrender.
Some very shrill yelling resonated from the hallway. They all turned to look. Chastity had just moved to take a peek outside the door when someone walked in, nearly toppling her over.
A hand steadied her. "So, sorry, dearest."
She looked up and met the cold eyes of none other than Zandicus Thinx.
"What are you doing here, Zandicus?" she asked, moving out of his grasp.
"I could ask you the same question, but we both already know the answer."
"HEY! Tell your goon to lay off of him!" A wand-less Caroline marched into the room and got in Zandicus's face.
"He is not my 'goon', he is my lawyer. And Mr. Littleton attacked first."
"Only because you're a despicable disgrace of a human being who has no right or reason to be here!"
"I see you're as charming as ever," Zandicus sneered.
"You brought a lawyer? What for?" asked Phillip, moving away from the window and towards the other wizard.
"I was hoping we could have a private conversation, Mr. Prior. Just me and you."
"And your lawyer?"
Zandicus smiled. "Naturally."
"Don't say anything to him yet, Phillip," said Chastity, putting her hand out to brace him. Sophie stared daggers at it as it slightly grazed his chest. "Give me ten minutes to get my father here."
Zandicus rolled his eyes at her. "Well then, hurry up, dearest. We don't have all day."
Chastity looked at Phillip and the two exchanged a nod before she disapparated.
As soon as she was gone, Draco went into the hallway and shot a freezing charm at a very large wizard who was restraining a struggling Seth. Caroline followed him out and kissed him on the cheek before running over and taking her wand out of the man's pocket.
With a satisfied grin, Draco turned back to Zandicus and said, "We'll move your 'lawyer' into the conference room.
"While you wait, Zandeecus, perhaps you would like to read zis article on Draco een Weetch Weekly," said Sophie, holding out the magazine to him.
Zandicus scowled at her. "I don't want anything you touched, Mudblood.
Within half a second, Draco, Phillip, Caroline and Seth had all hit Zandicus with various hexes that left him more or less immobile. They all laughed before moving both him and his unconscious lawyer into the conference room.
XXX
Hermione sat in her new office, working on wedding stuff on her lunch break. Her copy of Witch Weekly with her handsome future husband's face on it was perched on her desk next to her wedding album, while Ginny and Kreacher, Harry's house-elf, sat across from her. Kreacher had been Ginny's wedding coordinator and did such an excellent job that Hermione had hired him as her own. Due to the new laws he was forced to take money for his services, but Kreacher, being an old fashioned house-elf, always found ways to sneak the money to his masters. This was an ongoing problem Hermione was still working on correcting, even though she was no longer in that department.
"We really need to pick a color scheme immediately or all of these decisions will be impossible," said Hermione as Kreacher handed her several photos of flower arrangements.
"You said the library was gold and teal, right? So why not just do that."
"You don't think it will be too much?" asked Hermione. "There's so much gold already. I don't want to overdo it."
"How about this burnt orange ribbon with the white and blue flowers?" asked Kreacher, handing her some samples. He was more than prepared. "It would be a good contrast."
"Oh! I love that," said Hermione brightly. "Kreacher, you truly are amazing. If you would just accept clothes I would gladly help you startup your own wedding planning busi -"
"NOOOOO!" Kreacher screamed before running out of the room.
"Hermione, you really need to stop doing that," laughed Ginny.
A knock sounded. They both looked up to see Lucius Malfoy standing in the doorway. "Hello. Hope I'm not interrupting," he said, glancing over at the redhead, "but I wanted to speak with you privately, if I may."
Hermione went white. She was just about to say no when Ginny stood up and said, "That's fine. I should probably go find Kreacher, anyway. Ten galleons says he's crying on Harry's lap."
"I'd be a fool to take that bet, Ginny. We both know that's exactly where he is."
Ginny laughed. "Send me an interdepartmental memo when you're done." She made sure to glance coldly at Lucius on her way out. She was the only one Hermione had told about what had happened at the ball, and she didn't like it, or him, in the least.
Once she was gone Lucius shut the door and stepped further into the office. Hermione fidgeted in her seat uncomfortably. "Not a bad office," he said, looking around. "You certainly have moved up quickly."
"Yes, well, I've worked hard for it."
"I'm sure you have," he said, taking the seat Ginny had just vacated. He stared at her for a long moment, making Hermione fidget even more.
"Not to be rude, but what exactly are you doing here?" she asked.
Lucius glanced at his cuticles in an almost bored manner. "My wife is in great distress. It seems our son has decided to cut us off."
"Oh," said Hermione, who was truly surprised. "I didn't know."
"You didn't?" Lucius asked, raising an eyebrow.
"That's what I said, isn't it? I mean, he did cross both of your names off our invitations list with red ink, but I just figured it was in a moment of passion and removed it."
She flipped through the pages of her wedding album until she found the parchment with the list of names on it. Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy were, once again, crossed off with bright red ink, and a small side note saying, "Stop removing this." She lifted her wand and tried again, but it seemed he had used permanent ink this time. She wrote their names freshly at the bottom.
"All fixed."
"Writing down a couple of names isn't going to fix this, Ms. Granger."
"I told you to call me Hermione."
Lucius smiled. "I wasn't sure that offer was still valid."
"Of course it is," she snapped. "I'm not sure why you're here Lucius, but I didn't tell Draco anything about what happened. Whatever is going on between him and you has nothing to do with -"
"My son is not an idiot, Her-mi-o-ne. And you," he pointed, "are horrible at masking your emotions."
Hermione looked down at her desk and sighed. Unfortunately, he was right. This probably did have to do with her. There was no other reason why Draco would cut them off so suddenly.
"For what it's worth, I truly am sorry for what happened."
Hermione raised her eyes.
"I don't dislike you. Neither does my wife. But certain things are expected of us, especially when around our old friends. You understand."
"Yes, I do. And I'm fine with that, but you don't have to accept some dare to dance with me either. You could have just said no."
Lucius stared at her curiously. He obviously didn't realize she knew this, but he shouldn't have been surprised. Hermione was no fool. "I wouldn't have asked if I didn't actually want to dance with you, Hermione. What they saw as a cruel jest, I saw as an opportunity to get to know my son's fiancée better. We haven't really been given much of an opportunity to do so yet."
"So why are you here?" she asked again, determined to get to the end of this awkward conversation.
Lucius smirked. "I spoke with my wife, and she and I both agree that we should take you up on your offer to meet your parents."
"I really don't think -"
"I already sent my house-elf with a letter and they have accepted."
Hermione gasped. "But… how did you know their addr -"
"I know everything," he winked. "We're having lunch this Sunday at eleven. Your mother is making a traditional Sunday Roast, whatever that means."
"Uhh …" She was at a loss for words.
"Let my son know, will you? And tell him it was your idea so he will feel inclined to go."
"I -"
"I really appreciate your cooperation with this, Hermione. As does Narcissa." He looked at the silent clock on Hermione's desk. "Well, I better be off. I have a meeting with an old colleague in a few minutes. See you Sunday then?"
Hermione gaped at him for a moment before nodding. He reached over the desk and nudged her chin to close her dropped jaw.
"Much better," he said. "Never play wizard poker."
He disapparated then, leaving Hermione with a million questions and a gut feeling that Sunday was going to be a horrible day.
XXX
When Draco got home he was in a foul mood. Phillip had spent several hours in the conference room with Zandicus, only to come out in the exact same position they had gone in with. All Zandicus wanted was the name. He didn't care about the company or anything that came with it, but he felt the Thinx name belonged to him and wanted to start his own company with it. Phillip refused. He felt indebted to Zanzar and refused to let his name get tarnished by whatever business endeavor Zandicus hoped to create.
This meant that things were going to get ugly. They spent the better part of the afternoon putting all of their future investor meetings on hold until further notice, which was a shame since Phillip and Sophie had made a lot of great contacts at the ball, and every single one of them had seemed excited about the prospect of investing with them, even with Draco Malfoy as an employee.
Draco apparated straight into his and Hermione's bedroom and let Polly out before collapsing face down on their bed.
"Bad day?" he heard a voice ask behind him.
"You have no idea," he mumbled into the comforter.
A few seconds later he felt the weight of a warm body climb on top of him and put their head on his back. "Poor baby. Shall I kiss it and make it better?"
"Yes please." Draco turned so she fell flat on the bed and pounced on top of her. "You look very pretty," he said, noticing the nice dress she was wearing.
"Yes, well, I thought we could go out and celebrate the wizard with the Most Charming Smile," she winked and gave him a small kiss.
"I'd rather just stay in." Draco began kissing her neck, making sure to pay extra attention to that spot just above the collarbone that she loved so much.
Hermione pushed him off of her. "I really think we should go out. We can always celebrate that way later."
Draco froze. He stared at her curiously for a moment, thoroughly studying her face before asking, "What did you do?"
Hermione's cheeks flushed. "I - what do you mean?"
"You only ever insist we go out when you've done something wrong, because, for some reason, you think I won't yell at you with other people around. But you've met my mother. Believe me when I say I don't care how many people are there. Best tell me now so we don't end up making a scene."
Hermione frowned. "Well, I didn't do anything. Not anything you shouldn't have expected, anyway."
"What does that mean?"
"It means, dearest," she said, cupping his chin and holding his face steady, "that we are invited to lunch at my parents on Sunday."
"Oh," said Draco, thinking that wasn't so bad.
"And your parents are invited too."
His eyes widened as his nostrils immediately began to flare. "WHAT? You can't be serious, Mione!"
"Actually I am," she said, letting his chin go and moving out from under him. "Your father came to me and expressed his desire to make an effort, so I extended an invite."
"You extended, or he demanded?"
Hermione blinked. "I extended."
"I don't believe you."
"Well, I did," she said, almost convincingly. She climbed off of the bed and went over to the dresser, where her wedding album was sitting. After flipping through the pages, she pulled one out and held it in front of his face. "How could I not ask them over after seeing this?"
Draco sat up so he could get a good look at what she was holding. It was their wedding guest list with his parents' names crossed off in bright-red ink, along with his little side note. "Yes, I did that," he said nonchalantly.
"And why did you do it?"
"Because I don't want them there."
Hermione frowned. "Why not?"
"Do I really need a reason?"
"Yes, you do," she said, putting the parchment back in her album. "They're your parents, Draco. You can't cut them out of your life without good reason."
"Sure I can. I already have."
"Could you please just be honest with me?" Hermione pleaded. "You and I are going to be husband and wife in just over three months. We can't start lying to each other now."
Draco raised his eyebrows at her. "You're actually preaching honesty to me?"
Hermione nodded.
"Fine. I'll be honest. As soon as you are." Draco scooted towards the edge of the bed. He pulled Hermione between his legs and wrapped his arms around her waist. Looking up into her amber eyes, he asked, "What did my father say to you at the Ministry Ball?"
"He didn't say anything to me."
"Hermione, you and I are going to be husband and wife in just over three months. We can't start lying to each other now." Draco winked.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Believe it or not, I'm not lying. Your father said nothing to me."
"All right then. Let me rephrase. What cruel and tactless activity was my father involved in that made you, my lovely fiancée, so upset?"
Hermione sighed. "Draco, please don't make me say it."
"I don't understand why you don't want to tell me."
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and sunk onto his knee. Then she whispered into his ear, "Because I don't want you to hate them because of me. I could never forgive myself if I'm the reason they're not in your life."
"Hermione … you're not -"
"Before I was in your life you had a great relationship with your parents. Even when your father was ill all you ever thought about was improving your families standing so that he might come out of it and be himself again. Everything you did for three years was for them. And then, BAM," she smacked her hands together for dramatic effect, "here comes Hermione Granger and all of a sudden you don't give a rats arse about them."
"To be fair, my father did try to kill you, and my mother, who should have been throwing apology after apology at you after what her sister did during the war has been nothing but cruel to you."
"But those are my demons to deal with, Draco. Not yours."
Draco sighed. "Look, I'm not going to lie to you, Mione. I love my parents. Despite everything." He paused, stared her straight in the eye and said, "But I love you more. And the way they've been treating you … it's not right." Draco clonked his forehead against hers. "I know you try to put on a brave face, but you can't be expected to forgive a man who tried to kill you, no matter how much of his sanity he has gotten back."
"I have forgiven him, Draco. He was driven mad by dementors feeding off of his life, I understand that …" Hermione paused … "but that doesn't stop me from seeing him shooting a killing curse at me every time I close my eyes."
Draco lifted his hand and ran it through her hair. "No one expects you to forget."
"But I want to. I want to for you. That's why I'm trying. That's why we have to go to this lunch on Sunday. If you keep him away from me I'm never going to be able to move on for you."
Draco removed his forehead from hers and nodded before kissing her softly. "All right. I'll go. But I still want honesty. Tell me what happened at the ball."
Hermione turned away from him for a moment. When she looked back she said, "Promise me you won't treat your father any differently after I tell you."
Draco scrunched his face in disdain, but eventually agreed.
Hermione clung tighter to his neck. "At the ball I overheard your father telling his old chums that the only reason you were marrying me was for social status." She watched as Draco's eyes began to bulge, making sure to keep a firm grip on him so he couldn't go ballistic.
"I'll kill him."
"Draco. You promised," she said, wagging her finger at him.
"That was before I knew! There's no way I can let him get away with this! Playing it off like he was the supportive one. At least my mother isn't deceitful. Even a lie like that is a disgrace in her eyes."
"Thanks," Hermione smirked.
Draco half-smiled at her. "You know what I mean."
She leaned in and kissed him. "I do," she said. "But this changes nothing. Your parents are not cut out of your life, no matter how vindictive they are."
"Honestly, they don't know how lucky they are I'm marrying you. Any other girl would tell me to cut them loose!"
"Well, I'm not any other girl."
Hermione winked before pushing him back on the bed and positioning herself on top of him. She began to kiss him and ran her hands up his perfect porcelain abs while he threaded his through her hair. She tore off his shirt and trailed kisses down his chest while he moaned heavily.
Draco grabbed her chin and pulled her back up to meet his lips. He unzipped her dress and pulled it over her shoulders before flipping so he was on top of her. She fumbled with the button on his trousers while he unhooked her bra and let her perfect breasts loose. After giving them a decent amount of attention he kicked off his undone pants while she removed her panties.
Draco lifted one of her legs over his shoulder and had just begun to move inside of her, the gentle vibrations of her moans pressing against his lips, when there was a double 'Pop!'
"Hey, Hermione, we - HOLY CRAP!"
"AHHH!" Hermione screamed in horror as she stared at the bug-eyed faces of Harry and Ginny.
Draco pulled the comforter over them and yelled, "GET-THE-FUCK-OUT!"
Harry turned away so fast, but ended up running right into the wall. "My glasses! I think I broke my glasses!"
Ginny turned twenty shades of red before guiding her blind husband towards the door. "I'm sooo sorry, Hermione! Draco's never home this early so I thought -"
"What are you, taking notes, Potters?" spat Draco. "GET OUT!" he and Hermione shouted in unison. They couldn't emphasize this point enough.
"My Merlin! I can't see!"
"All for the better, my dear," said Ginny, practically pushing him out the door. "All for the better." She slammed it shut behind her.
As soon as they were gone, Draco looked back at Hermione, who was hiding her flushed face under the comforter. "I have never been more mortified in all my life," she said in a muffled voice.
"I don't suppose you want to keep going?" he asked, pulling the comforter down so he could see her eyes.
Without waiting for her answer, he began to move again. She shifted her mouth like she was going to say no, but as soon as she realized the sound coming out of it was moans she flayed her hands around until she found her wand and cast a variety of silencing charms on the room.
They made it quick since, for some reason, Harry and Ginny were still waiting in the other room. When they finished they threw their clothes back on and Hermione took several deep breaths before heading into the front room. Ginny and Harry were sitting on the sofa. No one looked each other in the eye.
"Were you able to fix your glasses, Harry?" Hermione asked before taking a seat on the armchair across from them.
"Uhh … yeah," he said, his cheeks flushing as he readjusted them on his face.
Draco went over and stood next to Hermione's chair. He was the only one not blushing. "As much as I love these surprise visits from you Potters, would you mind telling us what you're doing here? And apparating into our bedroom at that."
"That was my fault," said Ginny, raising her hand while keeping her eyes focused on the floor. "I never thought you'd be home this early and Hermione's routine is pretty standard. Normally by now she is sitting on your bed in her pajamas with her wedding album."
"Well, please, let me apologize for being home at a decent enough hour to make love with my fiancée on our bed, in our room. How inconsiderate of me."
"Oh Merlin, please don't call it that," said Harry, looking like he was about to vomit.
"What would you rather I called it, Potter? Shagging, screwing, banging, fu -"
"Did you really have to open this door, Harry?" asked Hermione, rising to her feet and throwing her hand over Draco's mouth. "Why are you here, now?"
Ginny and Harry exchanged a look, as if they too were unsure of their presence. Eventually a light triggered and Ginny said, "We wanted to take you two out for dinner and a Muggle movie. To celebrate Draco's Most Charming Smile. Among other smiling things …"
Draco chuckled. "Hermione makes me smile all over."
"Please, just make it stop, make it stop," Harry mumbled to himself while rocking his head back and forth.
Ginny cleared her throat and successfully looked Draco in the eye. "Hermione mentioned you've never been to a Muggle movie before, and we thought it would be a fun experience for you." He winked. She turned away in an even brighter blush than before.
"We accept," he said, enjoying this torture everyone else was enduring. He could care less. It was about time Potter got a good glimpse of how a real man treats his lady.
"Really, we can reschedule," Ginny said.
Draco smirked. "Now is fine. Come on, Mione. Let's go put on our Muggle gear."
He grabbed her hand and pulled her back into their room. They each put on casual Muggle clothes, but before they headed back into the front room Hermione pulled him back.
"I've been meaning to ask you something."
Draco stopped and waited.
"At the ball you were gone for a really long time. And when you came back you were with Harry and Professor McGonagall. Where had the three of you been together?"
Draco's stomach twisted in knots. He put on his best poker face and kissed her forehead. "I know our group was a bit unconventional. Don't judge us, but we all went outside for a smoke."
"A smoke?" she questioned.
Draco nodded. "McGonagall had her pipe and asked us both out with her. Really, I think she just wanted to question me on the engagement with Potter there, to make sure it was legit."
"Oh," said Hermione, seeing no reason not to believe him. After all, they had just had that whole 'honesty' talk.
Draco pulled her in and kissed her sweetly. Before they headed out he hugged her close, his heart immediately sinking as he realized what he had just done. He had lied to her, after promising he never would. But he couldn't tell her the truth about the prophecy. What if it made her not want to be with him? He could never take that risk. He loved her too much to lose her. Hopefully, one day, she would understand why he kept this from her and, hopefully, she would forgive him.