Flirtations.
While Harry had taken a hands on approach to the first week of The Cannons training camp, understandably Hermione hadn't followed her partners lead. She had been around the hotel, and she'd dealt with a few minor incidents with the squad, but on a whole she'd been busy with other things. The majority of Hermione's time had been finalising the details of the magazine that The Daily Prophet had agreed to print. She'd also made sure that the uniforms had arrived before the interviews and photos with the magazine, as she wanted them in the pictures.
Then she'd sat down with Harry and sorted the timetable for the second week of the training camp. The reporter from The Daily Prophet and their photographer would be around for two days, and in those two days they had to make sure everyone had their interview and pictures taken, as well as Harry and Hermione finding time to talk to the press. While on the training side, Harry wanted the second week to be group training with everyone working together as he started to sort who his best team would be for the start of the season.
However, even though Hermione's attention had been elsewhere, it didn't mean she was oblivious to what was going on with the squad. She had dinner with the group every evening, and she even spent time with a few of the players after dinner. She also spoke to Harry every day, so she knew every single thing that was going on with the team. She knew about the problems Ginny was causing, and how Harry was trying to deal with them.
Harry had confided in Hermione that he'd tried to speak to Ginny about seeing if she would be any good at playing seeker, but his girlfriend had point blank refused to even consider the switch. Hermione knew the result had been that Harry and Ginny had ended up having a massive argument, and that she'd even accused Draco of being the one with the problem. In the end Harry had warned Ginny that she needed to improve her attitude or there would be problems. Since then, Ginny had been keeping a low profile, but Hermione suspected they hadn't heard the last of Ginny's troublesome behaviour.
Even so, the first week had passed fairly smoothly, and after ending training early on the Saturday, Harry had given the squad the entire Sunday off. Hermione knew that Harry had taken Ginny out of the hotel for the day, while she knew a few of the others had opted to explore the surrounding area. And for those who'd stayed at the hotel, there was plenty for them to do as the hotel had top class facilities.
Hermione had hoped to find Ron and try to sort the tension that was still present between them, but after a morning scouring the hotel with no joy she gave up. In the end, she'd had a light lunch in her room, sitting out on the balcony which offered stunning views of the Scottish countryside. After lunch, Hermione headed down to one of the bars with her book, with the intention of sitting out in the sun and reading.
After ordering herself a large glass of rose wine, Hermione headed out onto the veranda attached to the bar, only to find she wasn't alone. Sitting at one of the tables, a glass of clear liquid on the table in front of him, was Draco. Since alcohol was banned for the duration of the trip, Hermione hadn't seen many of the players in the bars, so the last things she'd been expecting was to find one of them.
"Hey," Draco greeted as Hermione exited the hotel. "Do you want to join me?"
"Sure," Hermione replied as she placed her wine and book on the table and settled down in the comfortable chair next to Draco. Suddenly, talking to Draco and getting to know the handsome blond a bit better seemed far more appealing than reading her new book. "Are you all alone?"
"I am," Draco replied. "I'm relishing the peace."
"I hope I'm not intruding," Hermione said.
"Definitely not," Draco answered with a smile.
"So why are you sitting out here alone?" Hermione asked. "I thought you would be with Blaise and Theo."
"They went exploring," Draco replied.
"And you're not the exploring type?" Hermione questioned.
"Not today," Draco answered with a shrug. "I thought I'd enjoy a drink in the sun while the place was relatively quiet."
"A non-alcoholic drink, I hope," Hermione teased.
"It's mineral water," Draco replied with a laugh. "Do you want to check?" he offered, holding his glass out for Hermione.
"I trust you," Hermione said as she shook her head.
"You shouldn't. Has no-one ever told you that us Slytherins are trouble," Draco said, shooting Hermione a sinful smirk.
"I had heard," Hermione murmured, taken aback by the wave of desire that had washed through her when Draco had smiled at her.
Even though he'd been subtly flirting with her since the very first dinner when he'd agreed to sign for the Cannons, Hermione had never really given it much thought. However, now she was very aware of their flirting, and she found herself wondering where it would lead. Or should it even lead anywhere? Wasn't it a bad idea to be flirting with someone who was basically her employee?
"What are you doing out here on your own?" Draco asked, bringing Hermione out of her thoughts. "I thought you would have had plenty of people to spend the day with."
"I had offers," Hermione replied with a shrug. Alicia and Angelina had invited her to join them and a few of the other girls on the squad as they were going for a picnic in the nearby countryside. "But I prefer my own company. Give me a good book and I'm happy."
"Some things never change," Draco chuckled. "You're still a bookworm."
"I'm not sure you've got room to call me a bookworm. In school, you were in the library almost as much as me. And you can't say it was all homework, as you were often in the fiction section," Hermione said with a teasing smile.
"Interesting," Draco grinned. "Just how much attention were you paying to me in school, Hermione?"
"Don't flatter yourself Draco, I only noticed you because the library wasn't the place many students hung out," Hermione replied.
"Whatever you say," Draco said, grinning at Hermione.
Hermione shook her head at the teasing blond as she picked up her glass and had a small drink of her refreshing wine. "So how are you enjoying training camp? Harry says you've been working really hard."
"It is a lot of work training for two positions," Draco admitted. "But I'm loving it."
"Can I ask why you never switched positions before?"
"At The Tornadoes, I asked but I was told that they didn't need another chaser. I either played seeker, or played for someone else."
"And you never considered switching clubs earlier?"
"I did, but without ever having played chaser before, no-one was interested in taking a chance on me. They either wanted me as seeker, or not at all."
"What about in school?" Hermione asked, genuinely interested in why Draco hadn't pursued the opportunity to change position. "You were Slytherin captain for the last few years. You could have switched yourself."
"I could have," Draco agreed with a nod. "But I could never find another seeker that I had confidence in. I could have easily made the switch, and let someone else play seeker, but I knew if I'd done that then we never would have been in the running for the quidditch cup. I stayed on as seeker to give us our best chance."
"And it worked, you won the cup in seventh year," Hermione said.
"Now that was one of my proudest moments," Draco said with a grin as he fondly remembered the day he'd beaten Harry to the snitch and won the quidditch cup for his team in his very last match in Slytherin colours.
"Even better than winning the league with The Tornadoes?" Hermione questioned.
"Yeah," Draco answered with a nod of his head. "As Harry pointed out, the Tornadoes would have won the league with or without me, whereas Slytherin wouldn't have won the house cup in my final year without me. To be honest, the chance to recreate that feeling here with the Cannons helped me take the plunge and move."
"And you're not regretting it?" Hermione checked.
"Not today," Draco replied as he took a swig of his water.
"Not today," Hermione repeated with a frown. "But there's been other days you've regretted the move?"
"Not days, just moments," Draco answered. "Mainly moments this past week."
"Ginny," Hermione declared, understanding dawning on her.
"Let's just say she hasn't made my switch to chaser very easy," Draco said diplomatically. Truth be told, he could say a lot worse about the scheming little bitch, but he was aware that not only was Hermione his boss, but she was also Ginny's friend.
"From what I hear, she's being a right nasty little cow," Hermione said, causing Draco to raise an eyebrow at her in surprise. "There's no need to hold back on my account," she told the blond. "You can say whatever you want about her."
"I don't think that's wise," Draco demurred. "She is your friend, and the girlfriend of your partner."
"I wouldn't really call her a friend, at least not a close one," Hermione admitted. "We're friendly because of Harry and Ron, without that connection we would never be friends. In fact, I don't even think she likes me."
"She doesn't like you? Why?" Draco asked.
"Jealously," Hermione answered with a shrug. "She's worried I'm going to steal Harry from her."
"Are you?" Draco questioned, unsettled by how annoyed the thought of Hermione getting together with Harry made him.
"No. Harry's like a brother to me," Hermione answered with a laugh. "Ginny's always been jealous. I think it stems from when she was younger and Harry never noticed her. Now she's got him, she's terrified of losing him."
"She sounds a bit obsessive to me," Draco remarked.
"She was in the early years, but these days I do think she genuinely loves Harry," Hermione said. "She just needs to be careful, or she'll lose him because of her own actions, not because someone steals him away from her. Harry's pretty disgusted with her after the way she's been treating you these last few days."
"I can't say I'm too impressed myself," Draco grumbled. "I've never wanted to hex anyone as much as I've wanted to hex her these last few days."
"She's good at eliciting that sort of reaction from people. When she's playing up it's a real struggle not to hex her into next week."
"How have you managed to avoid doing just that?" Draco asked with a teasing grin.
"I've got a lot of self-control," Hermione replied.
"And just what does it take to break your self-control?" Draco asked flirtatiously.
"It depends what I'm controlling myself from," Hermione answered, shuffling slightly in her seat at the intensity which Draco was looking at her. She knew the conversation had well and truly turned away from Ginny and was potentially heading into a dangerous area.
"How about a very sexy wizard flirting with you?" Draco asked teasingly.
"Hmm, I can't say I've had any recent experience with that," Hermione returned, equally as teasingly. "I'll let you know how I handle the temptation if it ever happens."
"If you want my advice, don't handle the temptation, give in to it," Draco offered.
"Even if it's very wrong?" Hermione asked, subconsciously leaning closer to Draco.
"Especially if it's very wrong," Draco replied in a low voice.
The temperature at the table suddenly seemed to skyrocket, and Hermione became aware that she was sitting so close to Draco that she could smell his musky aftershave and feel his warm breath on her cheek. She was also sitting so close that she realised for the first time, that Draco's eyes weren't pure grey, they had specks of bright blue and dazzling silver in them. They really were stunning eyes, and she could feel them sweeping over her body, which was dressed in a short, white and lilac sundress.
"This is wrong," Hermione whispered.
"Very," Draco agreed, his tongue darting out of his mouth and licking his pale pink lips. "But sometimes wrong, is so very right."
Hermione nodded her head ever so briefly, before she found her lips pressed against Draco's. As they kissed, tender and a bit timid, she had no idea which one of them had made the move to join their lips, but she was pleased that they had. Slowly the hesitation faded from the kiss, and once they both seemed sure the other one wasn't going to pull away, the intenseness crept higher. When Draco's tongue ran along Hermione's lip, she was more than happy to open her mouth and take the kiss further. As Draco's tongue darted into Hermione's mouth, his hand found its way into her hair and he gently stroked her curls as they shared a passionate and breath-taking kiss.
"Wow," Hermione breathed as the pair finally parted. Although, while their lips had parted, they remained with their foreheads almost touching and Draco still had his hand around the back of Hermione's head.
"I think that's an understatement," Draco replied with a small grin.
"What happens now?" Hermione asked warily.
"Whatever you want," Draco answered.
"This is complicated, Draco," Hermione whispered. "I'm the co-owner of the quidditch team you play for."
"I'm well aware of that Hermione, and I don't want any special treatment," Draco insisted. "I'm not interested in you because of The Cannons, I'm interested in you because you're beautiful and smart, and I want to get to know you better."
"I'd like to get to know you better as well," Hermione admitted. "So how about we take things slowly and just see where we end up."
"Fine by me," Draco replied. "But before we go down the slow route, you can at least give me another kiss."
Chuckling lightly, Hermione re-connected her lips with Draco's. This time there was no hesitation in the kiss, instead it was fuelled by their desire for one another and yet again it left them breathless when they parted.
"How about a walk?" Hermione suggested, knowing that if they stayed where they were she would be tempted to do something rash, like invite Draco back to her room.
"A walk sounds good," Draco agreed. "And you can tell me just how you came to own half a quidditch team. I have to admit, it's not something I ever would have pictured you doing with your life."
"Join the club," Hermione laughed as she got to her feet and picked up her book.
Sliding her book into her bag, she followed Draco down the stone stairs and into the hotel gardens. Heading for the nearby trail, which circled the entire hotel grounds, the pair began their walk and as they walked, Hermione told Draco all about her partnership with Harry and how it came about. They also spoke about their lives in general, and how different their lives had been, both before, during and after Hogwarts. Although even with the differences, they found they had a lot in common and they actually wanted the same things out of life. Basically they each wanted a job they loved, something they now both had, and someone to share their life with, something they were both still looking for. Although, how much longer they would be looking for someone to share their life with was another matter, as they very well could have found each other.