Draco has barely spoken to Hermione, short of their last fight that had him running from her flat to escape the feeling of frustration and self-doubt, in two weeks.

He had made a decision when he ran from her home last week and the results of that are sitting before him.

Draco looks across the café table at Astoria and regards her with what he assumes would appear as a cold indifference. "So how does this work?" He gestures between them. "What are my obligations?"

It's a sunny Saturday afternoon and he asked Miss Greengrass to meet with him to discuss his potential living arrangements. On the telephone she had seemed surprised the petition was going forward and agreed to this tete a tete to discuss. She had seemed oddly unsure as to why he would want a private meeting. He has no doubt her sense of self-worth is so irritatingly high that she would wonder why anyone would hesitate to snag her as a wife.

Securing her number had been the first challenge. He had stormed from Hermione's flat and simply walked briskly down the street for some time before calming his heart rate and his mind and slipping into a muggle café. Over a cup of terribly weak coffee he had rung Blaise on the number his old friend had provided and asked for his assistance.

"Apparently the Greengrass estate has put forth a request to move me to their sponsorship."

"What… why?"

Draco shrugs though of course Blaise doesn't see. "Granger says for a marriage contract."

There is a silence on the other end before Blaise agrees, "Well that would make sense I suppose. Do you know Astoria?"

"Not at all. Met her I guess, at Hogwarts. Must have." He notices a muggle nearby perk up at the mention of his old school and turns his body away for some semblance of privacy. "Younger than Daphne I know."

"Quite a dab hand at charms. She's a prominent witch now, in social circles. Not my social circles of course," he laughs. Blaise has made it clear he has no interest in social climbing Wizarding Britain (or muggle Britain for that matter).

Draco sighs. "I was hoping you might be able to get in touch with her for me. If I'm going to entertain this ridiculous notion I should probably at least meet her."

"Wait… you're considering it?" He can nearly taste the frown Blaise must wear.

"I'm not going to take a diamond ring to the meeting if that's what you're asking. I just wanted to introduce myself properly. See where her head is in this. What do I have to lose?"

"Granger."

Draco pauses before he says, "What exactly do you suppose I'm losing? Did I give you any indication I had a personal interest in her?"

"I… nothing. Not a thing, Mate. Let me get you her number then."

The most obnoxious moment had occurred after the phone call ended and the nosy muggle man had asked if he could see Draco's wand. There was almost a significance that made Draco question if he was being asked in innocent curiosity or chatted up with a cheap double entendre. Annoyance quickly became embarrassment as he realized his wand wasn't even on his person. No reason to carry the worthless thing if he wasn't allowed to use it. He had gruffly but very clearly told the man to "get bent" and stalked back to Hermione's home.

Astoria quirks her eyebrow, looking over the rim of her mug, before putting it down and resting her hands in her lap primly. "Obligations? You mean… room and board? You're a man of means, Draco. I would think you would have enough pride to realize my family is not treating you as a charity case. You are a guest, yes, but you will pay for your lifestyle outside of the basics of living in their household."

He shifts and clears his throat, not looking forward to bringing up the hippogriff in the room. She has certainly not made this easy for him so far. And most definitely had not made him feel any affection toward her that would lead to courtship.

"No I mean, where you and I are concerned? Am I obligated to you in exchange for their assistance? Will a contract be negotiated?"

"What in Merlin's Beard are you talking about, Draco? Contract for what?" She sighs and pinches the bridge of nose. "Is this my Father's doing?"

"I- I mean I assumed it was shared family knowledge."

She picks up her mug angrily and chugs a drink only to gasp a little at the heat of the liquid. "That conniving… I'll kill him. This is not the Dark Ages nor the backwards Wizarding world. I do not need-"

"Astoria, please, you're making a scene." Draco looks around uncomfortably at the muggles that are staring that direction.

"Let them stare. You know what, never mind that. I'm leaving. And next time you see my father you can tell him I said he can stuff his contracts. I don't need a bloody investor!" She has stood up and slams her hands on the table.

"I've not even spoken to him directly- wait. Investor? What do you mean 'investor'?"

"Wha…what do you mean, what do I mean? Isn't that what you meant? A contract to invest in my salon?"

"What the fuck… what salon?!" Now Draco is appropriately confused and a beat passes as they stare at each other. It occurs to Draco he's missing something very important about their exchange. His companion is retaking her seat and studying his face.

"So, my Father didn't ask you to invest funds in my glamour salon expansion?"

"No….." he drags out carefully. "You're not petitioning to move me to secure a marriage contract?"

She barks a rather unladylike laugh. Had she still been sipping from her coffee, he would most likely be wearing it now. "Marriage?! Oh Merlin, why would you ever think that? I've a string of men lined up just to take me to dinner. Why in the world would I tie myself to a marriage contract? You think I want to marry you?"

He starts to interject but it seems she isn't finished rejecting him so spectacularly quite yet.

"I mean you're wealthy. And handsome of course. But, Draco, I have reputation to maintain. You were a Death Eater. You've been to muggle prison-"

"Fuck, Astoria, that's enough alright? I get it. No marriage. It's not as if I was clamoring to get in your prissy knickers," he grumbles back.

"Why would you even think that? Did my Father say something?"

"No. Like I said I haven't even spoken to him. It was just what Granger assumed."

"Well that figures doesn't it?" She snorts and rolls her eyes. "Prejudiced little bitch."

"Prejudiced?"

"Sure. I mean I can understand it I guess. After the way she was treated before the war. But it's not fair, the way she thinks of purebloods. Do you know that department of hers only allocates ten percent of its resources to pureblood families? I mean strictly financially speaking that was alright for us, but we struggled to integrate socially just as much as any other magical family. Surprised she even agreed to take you in."

"Right, she mentioned she's never done this before."

"What taken in someone from our world? Then she lied."

Draco's breathing stops a moment. Of all the things he expects from Hermione Granger, he would never expect her to outright lie. His faith in her shatters even a little more.

Astoria goes on. "There was that house elf first. Made quite the stir helping to secure his freedom. It was top rate gossip for weeks. And between you and me, for all their talk of how medieval our world was muggles don't seem to mind letting house elves work for the government. Then that Brown bint… You know she's a werewolf now. That's a whole other challenge, what to do with those beasts." She wrinkles her nose in distaste. "Then there was that orphan boy who came into his magic a bit late. Thirteen years old but with all the changes after The Fall somehow the Hogwarts records missed him. First bout of accidental magic and he flipped a bed over on some boy that was terrorizing him in their foster home."

Draco is trying to recall the conversation in question. He's sure he remembers she said he was her first. Made an obvious virginity joke about it… What possible reason could she have to lie?

Back to the situation at hand, he cocks his head and asked, "So if you've no ulterior motive, why petition to move me?"

"Oh, I'm sure that was Mother's idea," she responds with a wave of her hand at the insignificance. "She has a very soft heart and she was always quite fond of you, out of all Daphne's acquaintances. I mean unless my father is going to hit you up for investment but he had stopped mentioning it for weeks. I had assumed he'd finally gave up on that…"

"So you mentioned. Do you need money, Astoria?" Draco hasn't forgotten what Granger said early on about many families struggling.

"Oh Merlin no! I really don't understand it. He's positive I can't function without a backer but my glamour salon is one of the most successful in Britain. You didn't know me well Before, but I was a natural at charms. I've even had muggle celebrities in my shop. But my father… well he's from the old world. His vision of my future was a pureblood match and one or two well-behaved boring children and my husband would be the entrepreneur while I played the silent and elegant wife. Father has struggled a bit, with me going my own way. I thought maybe he was trying to secure you to invest, thinking I'd allow it from an old school mate."

She considers him for a moment and then asks, "Would you rather they dropped the request? I mean, you asked me here for a reason. You didn't come across as thrilled at the marriage notion. Would you rather stay with Granger?"

"No. I mean it doesn't matter." He's stumbling a bit unsure how to answer. At one point he would have begged her to drop the petition, thinking there was something with Hermione worth holding onto. Now he just feels foolish and like it would be best for everyone he moved on. But does he really want to rip up his life to move to the Greengrass estate? There doesn't seem to be much of an advantage there. Aside from not having to torture himself with Granger's indifference of course.

"I'm settled I suppose but I don't really have a particular reason to stay. If the department thinks I'd do better moved, then I'll move. If they disagree, I'll stay."

"You're awfully flippant considering it's your life for months to come."

Draco shrugs and offers a self-deprecating grin. "Beats a prison cell."

Astoria laughs and then takes a long pull from her mug, finishing it off. "Well then, I guess that's settled. I'll either see you around our estate or not." She rises and offers her hand. He takes it as if to kiss it, as he was brought up to do, but she turns it and offers a firm shake. The muggle world seems to agree with her. "It was nice to see you, Draco. If you need anything, even if you don't end up moved to my family, I hope you know you can contact me. Witches and wizards, we need to stick together."

He nods and thanks her then falls back into the chair. Rubbing his face with his hand he ponders the question he didn't know how to answer when she asked. Does he want to stay with Hermione? Not the way they've been of course but, what if they could at least go back to how they were. He may only be a job to her but he still enjoyed her while it lasted. Maybe it's time to have a chat.

XXXXXXX

If you ask Hermione the atmosphere in her apartment has been frosty. Since their heated conversation about the Greengrass petition, any semblance of what she thought was a blossoming friendship has completely disappeared. Draco still cooks meals and Hermione still thanks him and cleans up after. He thanks her for her obligatory compliments and is polite to a fault.

But it's still frosty.

Saturday night, a week after the last Astoria tiff, Draco walks in the door after a lunch date with the younger Greengrass to find Hermione sliding her arms into a jacket while simultaneously slipping her shoes onto her feet.

"Going out?"

"Yes. Ron's in town. He's been in the States helping the new Weasley shop get ready to open." Draco just nods at her in response. She has long accepted he's just counting down the days to get back to a proper pureblood lifestyle but he doesn't have to be so cold. She could almost tell him so but decides against it. Or maybe doesn't get the chance when the knock sounds on the door. She'll never really know.

"Oi, 'Mione, you ready?" Ron cautiously opens the door and pokes his head in. He grins his usual boyish grin when he sees her but then his eyes flash to Draco and he straightens up, opening the door in a more formal way. "Malfoy."

"Weasley." He gives a brusque nod then stalks out of the room, his bedroom door slamming behind him.

"Delightful as ever I see."

"Honestly, Ron, he's usually not like this. Or he wasn't. I don't know, he's been off. I think he's just… tired of being stuck here…" With me, she finishes in her head.

"Well you know a ferret can't change its spots or whatever. Shall we?"

Hermione smiles at one of her oldest friends and takes his mock-gallantly offered arm.

A/N

A little earlier than usual today. Which means I've only run through this once to edit so apologies for errors. But I kind of thought if I waited too late to get this moving a couple of you might hunt me down and kill me with sticks :)

Thanks and love and happy dances to all of you for the new followers, faves, and of course for reviews!

Opinion question: Do you care about her evening with Ron? I've thrown down a little text on it and could expand but I know when I'm reading a fic I get annoyed when my characters are off shopping with girlfriends and hanging out with their buddies when there's serious romance to go down! Opinions? Desires? Let me know how you feel about that in a review!

See what I did there? Shameless trickery for reviews :)