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Chapter 4: Day Four Monday

Day Four

Early Monday Morning:

Monday morning came early for Hermione. The truth was she really could not sleep well the night before. She showered, ate breakfast, fed her cat, and then stared at her closet for close to 15 minutes. Why hadn't she bought something new to wear? She finally decided on a dark brown skirt and a white button up fitted blouse. She put on sensible shoes, and pulled her hair back in a big clip. She knew it was only 7:15 am, and still too early to really go to work, but she didn't want to just sit in her empty little apartment for 45 minutes, so she decided to go on to the Ministry.

She went to her fireplace and flooed to the atrium of the Ministry. It was still quite early, and not very many people were there yet. Usually when she arrived to work, the atrium was full of wizards and witches. She dusted her self off and started toward one of the lifts. She pushed the button and she saw a hand of a wizard standing behind her push the same button she had just pushed. She turned around to see who the fool was and to her surprise, Draco was standing directly behind her.

He had his hands behind his back, and was looking up at the numbers going by at the top of the lift. He was acting as if he was completely unaware of her presence. He pushed the button again, and then said, "Damn lift is always so slow, I think I will take the stairs." With that, he started toward the stairs. She looked at him as if he had two heads or something, with an 'is he crazy' stare, when he looked at her and said, "Well, are you going to stand there all day and wait on the lift, or are you going to join me on the stairs?" He walked over to the stairwell, and opened the door and motioned for her to join him.

Hermione walked over to the stairs, and once inside the stairwell, turned to ask him if he was crazy, when all of the sudden he pushed her against the wall, and gave her a very 'good morning' kiss. She finally pushed him away and said, "You know, I think now that you're my boss this could be construed as sexual harassment."

"Tell you what, Granger, you refrain from calling me prat, git, twit, idiot, wanker, stupid arsehole, etc, etc, while we're in front of coworkers, and I'll promise to only sexually harass you in private, deal?" he asked as he was kissing her up and down her neck. He then took his tongue and licked her from her earlobe to her collarbone, and took a little nip.

He was driving her wild. She pushed him off her, and she said, "Deal!", and started to straighten her skirt and hair.

"You still look lovely, Granger. Very professional," he told her as he grabbed her hand and started to pull her down the stairs.

"What are you doing here so early?" she asked as she lagged a few steps behind him.

"Oh, I know you, Granger. Boy do I know you. I knew you would be here early. I thought I would meet you, and also, I have a 'first day' present to give you." He stopped between floors, in the middle of the stairs, and pulled a package from his jacket pocket. It was long and thin, and wrapped in gold paper with a green ribbon.
She reached for it, but he said, "Nope, wait until we're at your office."

They walked down a few more stairs, and she waited until she was on a higher step then him, and now at his eye level, and she told him plainly, "Fine, make me wait. I don't care, but then you'll have to wait for your present was well."

"You're bluffing!" he barked, "You don't have a present for me."

"Are you calling me a liar, Malfoy?" she asked indifferently.

"Yes, you're a liar, Granger," he told her flatly.

"Fine, see if I care. Now you won't get your present at all." She continued down the stairs.

When they were on the last flight of stairs before their floor, he pulled on her arm and said, "Give me my present now, and I'll give you yours."

"You're such a big baby," she said, as she hit his arm lightly.

"I just still doubt the existence of my so called present, golden girl," he told her sweetly.

Hermione acted very offended, and said, "Close your eyes, Malfoy."

"Why, are you going to hex me, or maybe you're going to kiss me? While the first one would not be pleasant, the second one would be mildly amusing. However, neither of them is a present, Granger." He nonetheless closed his eyes.

Hermione reached into her bag and pulled out a small box, wrapped in silver paper, with a dark blue ribbon. She reached for his hand, and placed the box therein. He opened his eyes in surprise, and said, "I really didn't think you had anything for me."

"I know that, but I really did. Now, can I have mine?" she asked plaintively.

"No, you must still wait until we get to your office. However, I am going to go ahead and open mine," he responded, as he started to open the gift.

"You are poop-head," she laughed.

"A poop-head?" he asked her quizzically. "Are we five years old now, Hermione?"
He went back to opening his gift from her and was shocked to see what was inside. It was a gold pocket watch, a Muggle watch, by the look of it, and very old and probably worth quite a bit of money. He turned it over and saw there was an inscription. It said "To Henry on our wedding day. I'll love you until the end of all time. Your loving wife, Jane". He looked back at Hermione and said, "What is this?"

"I thought it was obvious that it was a watch, Malfoy," she stated. "It belonged to my father. My mother gave it to him on their wedding day. It is not a magical watch or anything, but it does still give accurate time, and well, I just really wanted you to have it. It's my way of saying 'thank-you' for all you've done for me."

"Well, way to go, Granger," he said flatly.

She didn't understand what he meant, but she assumed he meant that he didn't like the present. She became very flustered, and took the watch from his hands and said, "I am sorry, really, I am. I shouldn't have, I mean, I know it's not much, and I shouldn't assume you would want something that was my father's. I don't know what came over me." She started to run through the stairwell door, and straight to the double doors that led to the Potion's Department.

Draco caught up to her before she could go through the doors and said, "Give me back my watch, Granger. You cannot just give someone something and then just take it back. How rude. Weren't you ever taught manners?" He reached out and took the watch back from her.

"But I thought you didn't want it," she stated.

"Why did you think that? This is probably the most thoughtful present anyone has ever given me. It means more than I could tell you." He kissed her gently on the cheek.

"But why did you say 'way to go Granger'?" she asked.

"Well, I just meant that you showed me up in the 'present department' that's all. Here, you might as well go ahead and open it, although after your great present to me, it seems pretty lame now."

She took the present from him and opened it slowly. It was a black nameplate, and etched in gold was 'Hermione J. Granger, Director of Research and Development'. "Oh Draco, I think this is one of the nicest presents I've ever been given," she told him as she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek.

"You must have been given some incredibly lousy presents in your day, Hermione. I must rectify that someday. Let's go put this name plate on your office door, shall we?" They walked through the doors and went down the hallway to her office.

Draco let her walk in her office by herself, and said, "Settle in for a moment, Granger, and then get your bum in the conference room by 8:30 for the Monday morning staff meeting." He winked at her and shut the door on his way out.

She fiddled around her desk for a moment, than decided she would go on to the conference room, even though it was only 8 am. As she was walking toward the conference room, witches and wizards started to arrive at their desks, many of them introduced themselves to Hermione, and others just waved hello. She went into the conference room and looked around. She wasn't the only early bird. There was an attractive dark hair wizard already sitting at the right hand side of the head of the table, looking over some files. As she walked in, he stood up and offered her his hand. "Hello, Hermione Granger, correct?" She nodded. "I'm Scott Cohn. I am the head Potion Master here."

"It's great to meet you, Scott," she said as she started to sit.

"You can't sit there," he told her as she pulled out a seat in the center of the table.

"Oh, do we have assigned seats?" she asked with a slight laugh so that he would know she was joking.

"I know you're joking, but yes, we actually do. It was Malfoy's idea. He doesn't want to have to memorize anyone's names or anything, so we all sit according to our jobs. You will be sitting on the other side of Malfoy, across from me," Scott explained.

"That sounds like Malfoy," she responded.

"Yes, I understand you went to school together?" he inquired.

"We did, but we weren't exactly friends with each other back then," she told him.

"Why is that?" he asked. "Because you're a Muggle-born?"

"How did you know?" she started.

"His reputation as a pureblooded bigot precedes him," Scott laughed.

"Well, he's not that bad anymore," she tried to explain, "Although, he did seem to think you and I would have a lot in common because we were both Muggle-borns."

He laughed again. She sat down and smiled at him. Soon, other people started entering the room. Most of them who had not already introduced themselves to Hermione before did so as they came in the room. Everyone was talking enthusiastically amongst himself or herself, until Draco came in. As soon as he entered, a hush filled the room. He sat down at the end of the long table and just said, "Let's begin."

Soon the person sitting on Hermione's left starting to give Draco a report on their recent findings of a new potion that could do, oh, something or other. Frankly, Hermione could not concentrate on what the wizard to her left said for the life of her, because Draco had his hand under the table, and had started squeezing her knee. She reached under the table as well, hoping no one could see, and she tried to remove his hand. It was of no avail, because all this did was make him squeeze harder, and Hermione let out a little squeal. "Yes, Miss Granger, do you have something to add?" Draco asked. She shook her head no.

When the next witch started talking, Draco put his hand back on her leg, but instead of squeezing her knee, this time he took his index finger and started drawing little circles on her outer thigh. This was too much for Hermione. She was so distracted that she didn't even notice when this witch asked her a question. She said, "Excuse me?"

Draco laughed and said, "It appears Miss Granger isn't paying attention on her first day of work. Well, Cohn, how is the new Veritaserum potion coming along?"

Scott started talking about how they were still having problems finding just the right ingredient to make the new Veritaserum potion impervious to all forms of antidotes , and certain ingredients didn't seem to work as they had hoped, and blah…blah...blah. That was all Hermione heard. Draco now had Hermione's calf in his lap and was stroking it up and down. She felt flushed and prayed no one would look under the table and see what was happening. Draco turned to Hermione and said, "You'll be working with Cohn on this, Granger. Do the research on the ingredients he's working with, alright?" She nodded, and then Draco added, "She is usually more talkative than this folks. In fact, in school she was rumored to be the smartest witch of our time, so just believe me when I tell you she actually can talk." Everyone laughed at this and he said, "Get to work everyone."

People started leaving, but seeing how he still had her leg, she was forced to stay. Scott looked at her funny, then looked at Malfoy, and then back to Hermione and he said, "After he lets go of your leg, Hermione, I'll meet you in your office to discuss our potion." He smiled at her, gave Draco a slap on the shoulder, and left.

As soon as everyone left, and the door was closed, Hermione kicked her leg out of his grasp, and she also made sure she kicked him soundly in the groin. He winced in pain and said, "Hell, woman, I think you might have just killed 'little Draco'."

"What in the world did you think you were doing, Malfoy!" she yelled. "What if someone had seen? Hell, Cohn did see! This job is important to me! Besides, I thought we agreed to no more sexual harassment, you arse!"

"Actually, what we agreed to was that you would no longer call me names, which, I must say, 'arse' is a name, and that if I must sexually harass you, then I would do it in private, which I thought under the table was very private." He stood up from his chair, and trapped her beside the door.

"I think all sexual harassment is in private, Malfoy, but if I must clarify, then let me tell you the new rules. No sexual harassment while another person is in the room with us, and that goes for the name calling as well, agreed?" she hissed.

He looked to his left, then to his right, and then leaned his whole body into hers. He said, "No one else is in the room, may I sexually harass you now, Hermione?" He put his cheek next to hers and practically whispered in her ear. He then nibbled on her earlobe, and then licked the side of her neck, before biting her softly on her collarbone. The scent of his aftershave was hypnotic. He continued to nibble his way to her jaw, and the feeling of his mouth on her neck made her feel as if she was jolted by thousands of watts of electricity, repeatedly.

Hermione pushed away from him with her hands, but then leaned into his ear, and said, "You are a prat." He brought his head up, smiled at her, and kissed her quickly on her mouth.

"I love all your witty comebacks, Granger. Prat, prat, prat." He laughed at her, opened the door, turned to look at her and said, "Get to work, Granger; I'm not paying you to stand around and look pretty."

The rest of the morning went very smoothly. She met with Scott, and they came up with many ideas on which ingredients might be missing from the potion he was working on. They went to the lab, and started testing various ingredients in the potion. Before she knew it, it was lunchtime. Harry came to the lab door, knocked, and said, "I was told you were in here. Up for lunch today?" Hermione smiled at Harry and introduced him to Scott. Of course, no one really needed an introduction to Harry, but she introduced him anyway. She went to lunch with Harry, and after lunch spent the rest of the day in the lab.

By quitting time, Draco ducked his head in the lab and said, "Hey, Cohn. Not working her too hard are you?"

Scott looked at the clock and said, "I better get home myself; my wife will kill me if I am late. See you tomorrow, Hermione. I am really interested in testing those ingredients you suggested." Hermione bid him good-bye and went to her office to gather her belonging.

As she started walking to the lifts, Malfoy ran up behind her and asked, "Good first day?"

She smiled broadly at him, and answered with only one word, "Excellent".

"Let's celebrate. How about I take you to dinner?" he asked as they entered the lift.

"Why don't we come to my flat, and I will make us something," she suggested.

"Can you even cook, Granger?" he asked doubtfully.

"Can you, Malfoy?" she batted back.

"I have house elves for that. I don't have to cook. If you really want to eat at your place, the house elves can come there and cook," he leveled.

"Are you afraid of my cooking, Draco?" she asked sweetly, and he nodded yes, to which she lifted her hand and slapped his arm. "You are an arsehole, Malfoy. I can cook. I will prove it to you." With that, she left the lifts and headed to the fireplaces to floo home. Either he would follow her or not, she thought, it was his decision.

They both arrived at her apartment, and she told him to make himself comfortable in her living room, while she went to the kitchen. She walked into the kitchen and started looking around in her cupboards, and her icebox, trying to figure out what she could cook for them. The problem was, all Hermione could find was some tea, bread, cheese, a single apple, two tins of cat food, and a lemon. She also found some stale crackers. Well, wasn't that grand. What in the world was she going to fix? She didn't have any food. He would never let her live this down.

Monday evening:

"Oi, Malfoy?" she yelled from the hall, "I'm just going to dash to the market for a moment, and pick up a few things. I'll be back shortly." She started to open her front door when he came up behind her and slammed it shut.

"Are you seriously telling me that you invited me for dinner, and you have no food?" he asked, almost sternly.

"I have food. I just need a few things," she began.

Before she could say anything else, he said, "I'm coming with you."

"No, you don't have to. Anyway, I plan on going to a Muggle market, and I don't think you'll want to go there. Just stay here. I'll be right back." She opened the door again and started out it.

He grabbed her wrist, and then slid the same hand into her hand and said, "Granger, Granger, Granger, when will you ever learn that I only do what I want to do, not what people tell me to do. Now, I'm going to this so called Muggle market with you; after all, I'm not afraid of Muggles; so just point the way." With that, he started walking down the steps to the alley and she had no option but to follow.

When they arrived at the market, Hermione picked up a basket and headed toward the produce. Draco picked up a basket and headed the other direction. 'What in the world does he think he is doing?' Hermione thought. She started putting various vegetables and greens in her basket, along with some bread, and a bottle of wine. She thought she would make them both a big salad. She even got something sweet for pudding. She started toward the cashier, when she saw that Malfoy was directly in front of her, already in line. She tried to look in his basket to see what he had picked out, but he moved his shoulder, so she couldn't see.

"You know, I got us food for tonight. You didn't have to get anything," she plaintively told him.

"Yes, I can see you're planning on poisoning me with healthy food tonight," was his smug response.

"What do you have in your basket?" she asked curiously.

"None of your business," he said back. He looked up at the cashier when it was his turn and smiled sweetly at her and said, "This woman behind me is accosting me, could you possibly call the manager?" The girl, who blushed because she thought that Malfoy was flirting with her, just giggled.

Hermione leaned in toward Malfoy's back, and whispered, "You do know they only take Muggle money here, right?"

"Now she's saying obscene things in my ear," he told the cashier.

He paid for his purchases (with Muggle money) and then left the store, leaving Hermione by herself. As the cashier was checking out Hermione's purchases; with a frown on her face, by the way; Hermione said, "You know we really were together. He was joking about me accosting him." The cashier just rolled her eyes at Hermione and told her the total. Hermione paid and left the store. Draco was standing outside, waiting for her, and he tried to take her bags from her, but she would not let him and walked on by.

"What's wrong?" he asked with a smile.

"Must you embarrass me in a market that I go to all the time?" she turned to him and yelled.

"At least I didn't embarrass you about sex this time, like I did at the bookstore and the coffee shop," he responded back. She continued to walk two steps in front of Malfoy, and when she got to her apartment, she hurried up the stairs and slammed her front door. Malfoy reached the door handle and found that Hermione had locked him out. He knocked on the door and she answered immediately. He figured that she must not be too angry since she let him right in.

They both walked in the kitchen and Hermione started to wash and prepare the vegetables. Draco started putting all the food he bought away. Hermione turned to him and said, "What in the blazes are you doing?"

"I'm putting my food away," he answered, almost in a condescending manner.

"Why are you putting your food away at my house?" she wondered.

"Well, I thought since I plan on spending so much time here, I might like to eat once in a while, and since you don't seem to have any food, I really rather not starve," he said as he continued to put all the junk food he bought away.

"You bought a bunch of rubbish!" she almost yelled.

"And you bought a bunch of rabbit food," he plainly answered back. "Oh, and if you think that I'm such a cheap date that a salad will appease me, well then think again, Miss Granger. Also, I don't know why you bought that wine, unless you plan on getting me drunk and having your way with me, but I must tell you it takes more than dinner and wine to have your way with me." He finished putting his food away, sat on the table, and grinned at her.

"What will it take?" she asked daringly, as she turned to face him.

He got off the table and leaned into her. He put both his arms around her waist and whispered into her ear, "Wouldn't you like to know?" and then he bit her earlobe and kissed her neck.

He leaned back to smirk at her, and she put both her hands against his chest and said, "I think I already know." She turned back around to chop her vegetables with a knife.

He was still standing directly behind her, his arms still around her waist. She could feel his hot breath on her neck. He put his hands on her hips and said, "I bet you do know," and he started to kiss her neck. He continued to kiss her neck, and he reached in front of her and put one hand under her chin, to lean her neck back further, to grant him more access. She was now leaning with her back completely pressed to his chest. He was still kissing her neck, and one of his arms was still around her waist, while the other went up, and quickly brushed her breast on its way up to her face. He leaned her head back more and kissed her lips. This time the kiss held passion and promise.

She finally turned around in his arms, and was facing her prey. Maybe she was the prey. She didn't know. She just knew that she didn't want him to stop. He reached his arms under her bum and lifted her up on her sink. He wanted to get as close to her as he could. He stood between her legs, and with her up on the sink, she was as tall as he was. He started kissing down her collarbone, and started to unbutton her blouse. He was kissing the valley between her breasts. She let out a little moan, and he said, "You're driving me mad," and took her mouth to his once more. The kiss this time was deep and glorious. He again started kissing her chest, while completely unbuttoning her blouse. He cupped one hand under her breast, and reached the other hand behind her to unclasp her bra. She leaned back with both arms behind her, to steady herself, when all of the sudden….PAIN!

Hermione let out a scream and pulled her left hand up to her chest. Draco, who was still half-drunk on his own lust, took a moment even to comprehend what she had done. "What?'" he said in a haze.

"My hand!" she cried.

Coming to his senses, he grabbed her left hand from her right one, and looked. She had a nasty cut on her palm, which was quite deep and long and was bleeding freely. "What did you do?" he asked with concern as he lifted her off the sink to stand her on the floor again.

"I leaned back, and must have cut my hand on the knife," she whimpered. He turned her back around to face the sink and turned on the water. He put her hand under the water and rinsed it off. Then he took a cloth and wrapped her hand. He held it for a moment, and then removed the cloth. It continued to bleed profusely. He wrapped it again, and led her to a chair. He told her to keep pressure on it and he left the room momentarily.

He came back and said, "Don't you have any kind of bandages or ointments in your medicine cabinet?"

"No, I guess not," she said through the pain.

"First no food, then no first aid supplies, I really do wonder how you function by yourself, Granger." He took the cloth from her hand again, and saw that it was still bleeding. "Do you think you could heal this yourself?" he asked her.

"It's not easy to do a healing spell on yourself, Malfoy," she answered. "Do you think you could heal me?"

"I'm not that great at healing cuts, Hermione," he answered in all truthfulness. "I probably have some potion at home that might heal this, or we could always go to St. Mungos?"

"No, I don't like hospitals. Please, just try to heal me, Draco. Just get it over with," she pleaded.

He took his wand and tried a couple of incantations, and finally he got the bleeding to stop. It was still an open wound though, painful and throbbing. He tried to do a spell for the pain, but it didn't really help. He transfigured her dishcloth into some bandages, and dressed the wound the best he could. He then told her to go sit on her couch, and he would finish the salads. She obeyed him and went to her living room. After a few moments, he brought in a tray with their salads and the wine and bread. As he entered the living room with their food, he said, "You know, none of this would have happened if you hadn't insisted on fixing me dinner."

"No, Malfoy," she countered, "none of this would have happened if you hadn't tried to molest me in my kitchen."

After they ate, mostly in silence, he asked, "How's the hand?"

"Still hurts, but fine really, I suppose," she quietly answered. She took another drink of her wine and sighed.

"What's wrong, Hermione?" he turned to her and asked.

"Nothing, I'm just thinking too much," she said with a laugh.

"Yes, you tend to do that." He laughed back.

"It just, well, things were getting kind of intense in the kitchen, don't you think?" she mustered up the courage to ask.

"Yes, I suppose if that damn knife hadn't decided to 'cut' into our fun, we might not even have gotten to dinner…is that what's got you 'thinking', Hermione?" he said evenly.

"Yes," she admitted.

"Well, once again I am going to give you a suggestion. Don't think about things too much. Don't analysis this. Just act. Don't think. I think you will find life more enjoyable that way, Granger," he said as he took a big swig of his wine. He stood up and took her glass from her hand, put both their glasses on the tray, and took the tray into the kitchen. She continued to sit on the couch for a moment, but then decided to follow him. He was using magic to clean up, what a surprise, and he wasn't aware that she had entered the kitchen. She came up behind him and leaned into his back, with her arms around his waist, much like he held her earlier. He looked down at her small hands around his middle, one of them bandaged, and he turned around. If he didn't leave immediately, he knew that things might get 'intense' again, so he told her, "I better go. We both have to work tomorrow." He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. He walked out of the kitchen and started toward her front door. She remained in the kitchen feeling quite alone and sad all of the sudden.

He looked at her and said, "You know, Granger; if you were a decent date you would walk me to the door," and smile at her. She didn't move. He walked back into the kitchen and asked, "What's wrong now?"

She looked up at him and said, "You're not angry with me, are you?"

"Why would I be angry?"

"Well, I mean, even if I hadn't cut my hand, I still don't think I would have been ready to sleep with you. What do you think about that?" she asked timidly.

She was looking at the floor, not at him. He walked up to her, and raised her chin.
"Gee, Granger, I told you it would take more than dinner and wine to get me in the sack anyways, so don't worry about it. In addition, I told you Saturday that I would never make you do anything you didn't want to do, and I meant it. If you're not ready to sleep with me, although I still think you're being presumptuous to assume I was going to even think about that, then I respect that you're not ready. That's fine with me. It doesn't change a thing my little lion." He bent down and kissed her gently on the lips. He then smiled down at her and added, "Now be a decent date and walk me to the door woman."

They walked to Hermione's front door and he kissed her on the cheek once again and said, "I will see you tomorrow, love," and with that, he apparated away.

End of Day Four