Disclaimer: Anything you recognize I do not own.

I honestly do not remember what day I posted last, so I figured it was probably about time to post another chapter while I have time. Yet again a special thank you to those reviews I didn't get a chance to reply to.

Tuesday January 2, 2007

The day before Hermione and Draco had arrived at their hotel in France separately late in the afternoon. Their work didn't start until today and therefore they hadn't seen each other as of yet. So, Draco walked down the hall to her room and hesitantly knocked on the door to her hotel room.

A minute later the door swung open and Hermione stood there dressed just as he was, professionally, as they did for work, with her bag in hand ready to go.

"Let's go, shall we?" Draco asked.

Draco led Hermione down to one of the large fireplaces in the hotel lobby, grabbed a handful of floo powder, and waited for Hermione to get in and stand next to him. Then he tossed down the powder and yelled out their destination: Hartley Manor.

When the two of them stepped out of the white marble fireplace in Hartley Manor they were greeted by the visage of an elderly woman perched in an arm chair with a fluffy and scowling white cat in her lap. The lady stared at the pair of them obviously sizing them up as her cat continued to glare at them as they smoothed down their clothes from the floo travel.

"I hate lawyers." The lady grumbled, breaking the silence in the large, ornate, sitting room. "And men, and most of all: Malfoys."

Draco resisted his temptation to roll his eyes. Thank Merlin he had brought Hermione along because she did not fall under any of the categories this crazy old bat had just listed.

"A pleasure to meet you Lady Hartley." Draco said as politely as he could considering he was aching to hex this lady.

"Who is she?" Lady Hartley asked, staring at Hermione.

"I'm Hermione Granger," Hermione began, "I am not a lawyer, a man, or a Malfoy."

"Excellent." Lady Hartley replied. "I suppose the two of you are here to get information out of me and my extensive library for this case of yours."

"Yes, we are. But we won't be of much bother at all, Lady Hartley." Hermione rushed to assure her, with a pleasant smile on her face. "If you could just tell me where the library is located I can get started so we can be out of your hair."

"It's the fifth door on the right. And take him with you; his hair is blinding me."

This time Draco rolled his eyes and happily followed behind Granger out of the sitting room and into the dark hallway. The two of them were quiet as they marched down the hall, ignoring the questions coming from the numerous portraits that lined the walls. Once they had entered the fifth door, Draco shut the door behind them and turned to face the library.

It was enormous! He had always been proud of the size of Malfoy Manor's library, but this one put it to shame easily. Of course, the library at Malfoy Manor was also organized much better than this library. Books seemed to be stuffed into shelves haphazardly, with no real organizational system at all.

"This is going to take forever." Draco sighed.

Hermione nodded her head in agreement, "What information is supposed to be in here?"

"An extensive Hartley family tree. It'll probably be in a very old leather bound book and will probably have some sort of protective charm around it. Be careful, Granger. You're a muggleborn, and some of these books could potential hurt you with just one touch."

"Well, I'll leave touching those books to you then."

"Smart idea."

Xxx

Friday January 5, 2007

It had taken days of digging through the library to finally locate the book they needed, and when they did Hermione was thankful Draco was there to do the handling because the book was warded heavily. After they had taken the information they had needed, they were eager to leave that library behind them—as well as the manor. But then both of them seemed to remember that they still had information they needed to get out of Lady Hartley herself.

Neither of them had seen her since that first day, but they had seen the fluffy white cat watching them as they came and went. So, as the two of them left the library and spotted the cat near the stairs, they decided to follow him to his master.

Sure enough the cat led them right to Lady Hartley's private parlor where she almost seemed to be waiting for them, perched in a paisley armchair.

"I know what you want me to tell you." She stated. "You've probably discovered the missing page in the book—well I have it."

"So, you know the genetic line of the missing brother?" Hermione asked eagerly, ready to put this entire case behind her at this point.

"Yes," Lady Hartley answered, "you'll find the page in the top drawer of that table over there. Take it and leave."

"Thank you Lady Hartley." Hermione said earnestly as Draco found the missing piece of information that was going to win this case for him.

Lady Hartley waved a dismissive hand and without wasting another moment, the two of them hurried out of the room and back to the fireplace in the sitting room. Once they were back in the comfort of the hotel lobby, Draco and Hermione turned to each other with wide smiles.

"What a week huh?" Draco chuckled. "That lady is crazy."

"I'm so glad I never have to step foot in that library again—I was so close to organizing the entire place."

"That does not surprise me. Let's get a drink, we deserve it."

Hermione nodded her agreement and the two of them walked down the hall and into the hotel bar where Draco opened a tab for the two of them and ordered them a bottle of his favorite red wine. It started out innocently enough with each of them slowly sipping on their wine and enjoying the flavor. But then Hermione was reminded of Ginny's words and she finished the first glass quickly and poured another glass for herself. Draco followed her example, and though they could both tell they were on their way to becoming drunk, they both continued to consume the wine carelessly.

"More wine, sir." Hermione giggled after finishing her fourth glass. "Ginny would kill me if I didn't have my share of French wine."

"Certainly, my lady." Draco slurred as he sloppily poured more wine into both Hermione's glass and his own.

"You know, I thought that I would have been able to go out about the town at some point on this trip, but that library was a bloody mess!" Hermione exclaimed.

Draco gasped dramatically, "Did Hermione Granger just curse?"

"Why yes! I did!" Hermione laughed before taking another huge swallow of her wine. "Well at least I've had wine and lots of it!"

"That's the most important thing, Granger. You know… this wine is obscenely expensive and we're on the third bottle!"

"Good thing you're obscenely rich, Malfoy!" Hermione laughed as she grabbed the bottle from his hand and poured more wine in her glass.

Draco laughed in return before snatching the bottle out of her hand and pouring more into his own glass.

"Cheers to us for getting the information to win this case!"

"Cheers!"

A glass each later the hilarity of earlier had disappeared to be replaced with a quieter more contemplative state of mind for each of them. Draco couldn't seem to quit staring at Hermione's legs in her tight pencil skirt, her feet once again wearing those peep toed heels that screamed 'shag me'. And Merlin, did he want to shag her at the moment. All week he had been teased by those heels of hers and the wine only seemed to heighten his sense of them.

As for Hermione, she couldn't seem to look away from the expanse of skin that was visible from Draco untying his tie and unbuttoning the first few buttons of his white oxford shirt. The wine only seemed to increase her awareness of it and she longed to reach out and touch the almost translucent hair that dusted skin that was bared to her eyes.

After taking another swallow of her wine, Hermione reached out with two fingers and brushed them against the bare skin revealed by his unbuttoned shirt. Draco's eyes shot down to her fingers then to the witch's brown eyes. She stared up into his grey eyes boldy and slipped her hand up his neck and to the back of his neck. Even though she pulled his head down to hers it wasn't really necessary, he had already been moving to do so.

When their lips met, the spark that had been within the both of them ignited, causing the two of them to make quite the scene in the middle of the hotel's bar. There they were, Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy, clinging to each other and devouring each other's mouths for everyone within the bar to see.

They vaguely heard the bar tender say 'get a room' as they pulled away and looked into each other's eyes once again. No words were needed. Draco grabbed her hand within his as Hermione finished off the last of her wine and then he was leading them out of the bar and towards the lift.

Once the doors of the lift shut behind them Draco pushed Hermione up against the wall, his hands on her waist, and captured her lips with his once again. Hermione moaned as his gently bit her lip, granting him the access he had been seeking into her mouth. Her moans increased as his tongue met hers and she slid one hand up into his hair and the other to his back, pulling his body closer to hers.

Draco grunted and moved one hand to lift Hermione's left leg up and over his hip so he could grind against her. Their lips broke away as they both moaned wantonly as Draco continued to grind his hips into hers.

They were interrupted by the lift as the doors opened onto their floor. Grabbing her hand once again, Draco led her down the hall and to his room, which happened to be much closer to the lift than hers. After opening the door, the two hustled inside, Hermione heading for the bed as Draco shut and locked the door behind them.

Xxx

Saturday January 6, 2007

Hermione's eyes snapped open as a ray of light filtered in through the blinds and landed on her face. She then became aware of a few things in that moment. Her mouth tasted horrible, her head was pounding, and she was snuggled up to something warm and strangely male like. Impossible, she'd been sleeping alone for two years now. At this realization, flashes of memories from the night before ran through her head.

Her and Malfoy leaving Hartley Manor triumphant. Her and Malfoy going to the hotel bar. Her and Malfoy drinking their first glass of wine. Her and Malfoy steadily getting drunk after numerous glasses of wine. Her and Malfoy kissing in the bar for all to see. Her and Malfoy dry humping in the lift. And finally her and Malfoy having sex in his hotel room!

What the bloody hell had she allowed to happen! She never got drunk! So why had she allowed herself to last night? It was all Ginny's fault. She had wanted Hermione to enjoy her time in France, and last night drinking that delicious wine had seemed to be her best option given she had been holed up in that bloody library all week. But that was the least of her worries at the moment; so she had a hangover, big deal. The more important problem here was the fact that she had had sex with Draco Malfoy!

She had never had sex with anyone other than Ron, and that had even been after her marriage! Yes, she had contemplated having sex with Oliver Wood, but she couldn't in good conscious have sex with someone she didn't have an emotional connection to. But apparently, those rules did not apply to drunk Hermione.

She had to get out of here before he woke up; there was no way she could face him in the light of morning. It was going to be bad enough when she had to see him at work. The only thing she could do was hope that he had been drunk enough not to remember what they had done. After all, he had been drunk enough to have sex with her, so that gave her hope he wouldn't remember at all.

Hermione quietly slipped from the bed and searched around the room for her scattered clothes. She dressed hurriedly and slipped from the room with a sigh of relief. Once she cleaned herself up, she packed her things, grabbed her portkey and decided to do a little bit of shopping before it was due to activate in a few hours. She had to buy cheese and wine for Ginny so she wouldn't ask too many questions about what happened, because Hermione wasn't sure if she could lie to her convincingly.

Xxx

Draco woke to a pounding head and a foul mouth. What the bloody hell had happened last night? He sat up in bed slowly and realized that he was naked. His clothes were strewn around the room in a fashion that clued him to what exactly had happened the night before. He'd shagged someone, but who? And where were they now?

Then he suddenly started to remember bits and pieces of the night before. He'd been drinking with Granger in the hotel bar, but surely it was not she who he had shagged? But then as he glanced down at his dress shirt at the side of the bed he noticed a lipstick stain on the collar. He would know that color anywhere; Hermione had worn it all week.

Bloody hell, he had shagged Hermione Granger and he didn't even remember it!