Fred and George Weasley burst in Harry's living room with Astoria in tow, two crates of firewhiskey levitating behind them. Meanwhile Pansy was tapping her foot irritably against the soft carpeted floor.
"A bit early, aren't you Pansy?" Astoria said good-naturedly.
"Harry told me the meeting was at six." Pansy scowled. "Should have known it was a ploy to make me arrive early."
"But didn't you like getting here early, love?" Harry whispered at her ear suggestively to which Pansy reddened and Astoria rolled her eyes.
"What's with the firewhiskey, anyway?" Lavender pouted as she pat her swollen belly, obviously put off that everyone except her would be drinking that night.
"Why, tonight calls for a celebration of sorts, Lav-Lav!" George exclaimed merrily. "As Fred and I were saying earlier, Luna is definitely a Ravenclaw."
"I'm assuming her plan worked then?" Daphne asked.
"I wasn't aware there was even a plan." Goyle replied.
"It was more like putting the pieces in their places and letting them move on their own." Luna told them with a smile.
"I don't get it." Ron said. "Malfoy and Hermione are still fighting."
"But the thing is, Ronnie, this time they're fighting because Malfoy's jealous." Fred said patronizingly.
Harry chuckled. "I could almost see the smoke churning out of Malfoy's ears when I told him Nott was paired with Hermione for last Friday's assignment."
"Don't forget the way he looked when he found out what exactly Hermione would be doing at the Poisoned Apple." Blaise smirked. He was also an Auror working under Harry and stuck around the Head Auror's office that day when he found out that Hermione and Nott were to be briefed later.
"Why?" Crabbe asked curiously, "what was it that Granger was supposed to do?"
Harry gave another chuckle, "Hermione went undercover as a stripper."
It was then that the rest understood Harry's words last week that Hermione was 'the best Auror' for the job. Being the youngest and most brilliant female Auror at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Hermione was more than equipped for the job.
"You see, the club's owner himself had a deal with this guy from Bulgaria. An exchange of Dark items with other Dark items. The only problem is the item is so small it could be hidden in the seams of the cloak." Harry explained. "To cut the long story short, Hermione went to the suites with the man at the pretense of going to bed with him and retrieved the item giving us enough evidence to apprehend those involved."
"Hermione as a stripper." Lavender muttered. "No wonder Draco got so bothered."
"I think what bothered him the most is that it was Nott who would be there with Hermione in her skimpy clothes and not him." Ron said amused.
"Oh, Draco was bothered alright." Blaise declared with a smirk. "By nine in the evening last Friday, he was wearing a hole on our manor's floor with his incessant pacing. Had to placate mother that her favorite friend of mine wasn't about to collapse with stress. The boy was paler than he used to and that is saying something."
"Did you ask him why, Blaise?" Astoria asked with a lopsided grin, unable to contain her mirth at Draco's obvious display of jealousy and worry.
"He snapped out some remark about Nott being an incompetent arse and his partner wouldn't be safe with him. Cursed Potter a few times for what he said was a severe lapse of judgment and then dragged me off to Knockturn Alley."
"Knockturn Alley?" Harry said with a frown. "You didn't go inside the Poisoned Apple did you, Zabini? That would be compromising the mission and I could seriously get you in trouble for that."
Blaise waved him off dismissively. "Stop the lecture, Potter. We settled in the pub next door." The Slytherin made a face. "The ale they have is not something I would recommend, though." Then he smirked. "Draco didn't seem to mind. He downed a whole bottle by himself trying to calm his nerves about what was happening next door. I swear, if he didn't know how important this mission was, he would have barged in."
"Well, he didn't have to wait long." Harry replied. "The mission was under the wraps by eleven."
"Oh, but we're not yet at the best part, Potter!" Blaise exclaimed. "As soon as Draco saw Theo and Granger emerge from the club followed by the gang of ruffians they just caught, he made to go to them immediately."
Blaise remembered the way his friend was downing his glass of ale tensely as he watched the window. Though this was the intended reaction of the whole thing, he couldn't help but worry at the unhealthy pallor Draco's skin has taken or the way his fingers gripped the glass tightly signaling his discomfort at the entire situation. Blaise was saved from having to do anything when Draco suddenly stood up and dropped a couple of galleons at the counter as he dragged Blaise to the door.
Theodore Nott was holding the door open for a scantily-clad Hermione Granger when Blaise and Draco managed to get out to the streets. Behind them were the apprehended criminals in their magical shackles and was being herded by magic to the closest Apparition point. The boys saw Hermione shiver at the frigid night air and as Draco was about to approach them, the two males saw Nott remove his cloak and drape it to her shoulders tenderly, eliciting a warm smile from the curly-haired witch.
Draco stopped in his tracks as his partner and former Slytherin dorm-mate reached the Apparition point and vanished into the night. If Blaise hadn't been watching closely, he would have entirely missed the livid expression on Draco's face before it was once again schooled into an emotionless mask.
"So you see now why this could be considered our little victory?" George grinned as he passed around the liquor-filled glasses to everyone. "Malfoy has, at long last, can no longer deny his feelings for Hermione."
"But you do realize that getting Draco to admit to himself what he feels is not enough to put them together?" Pansy said pensively, "stubborn as a mule, that one."
"And so is Hermione." Ginny replied.
"Is it even possible to just force him to ask Hermione out nicely?" Ron said hopefully.
Astoria scoffed. "In your dreams, Weasley. I thought we have just established that the people we are setting up are annoyingly hard-headed ones that refuse the very thing that's best for them? The only scenario where I see your suggestion happening is one where they're both royally smashed."
And then all of a sudden, Ginny was looking at Astoria like she was some sort of genius.