Author Note: I really appreciate everyone that is taking the time to read this. I'm also going to take the time to encourage you read these two stories if you aren't already. They are absolutely phenomenal. The first is 'Reformed' by goldensnitch18 and 'Tickling the Dragon' by LightofEvolution.

A special thanks goes to: LighofEvolution, xKimPossiblex, Cotton-headed Ninnymoggins, Legolas' Girl 31 and Dramoine shipper17 for the wonderful reviews.

Another special thanks goes to: punklena, xKimPossiblex, NazChick, christinachatterton, Nerakk, avt1988, KrispiKreme, Legolas' Girl 31, ItzelNox, Itsk-drizzle, SerpentofDarkness, Dayannight, Agent Gibbs, Nala Moon, Ll1234 and hanaah70 for becoming followers to this story.

Chapter 3:

November 30th

Hermione Granger's Office, Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures

Hermione filtered through some of the leftover paper work from the day before and tucked them neatly into their proper folders. Shifting on her feet, she moved over to the corner bookshelf to grab on the large encyclopedias. She couldn't quite remember the answer to a question one of her staff asked earlier on in the day. Scanning the words to find what she was looking for, a sudden knock on the door startled her.

"Come in!" She shouted, not moving her eyes from the material.

"Nose in a book as always, Granger..."

His voice sent a shiver up her spine, causing her to freeze instantly. She remember their close proximity the night before in front of her apartment complex. Her mind went to a million different scenarios in that moment. Swallowing the large lump in her throat, Hermione lifted her head up from the book she had been invested in.

Draco's blue-gray eyes were lit with a little humor behind them as well as the slight smirk on his lips. A hand was hung loosely at his side while the other was inside the pocket of his black pants. She couldn't help but notice a difference in his behavior. In all the time they spend in Hogwarts, he maybe spoke to her twice and both times it wasn't very good things coming out of his mouth. When she started at the Ministry, they maybe exchanged words a few times and they were always business related. In the last three days they've spoken more than all of those events combined. She wondered what had changed.

"What can I do for you, Malfoy?" She asked tucking a curl behind her ear, trying not to act nervous in his presence.

"Potter sent me to pick up a file he asked you for this morning." Draco asked leaning against the open doorway.

"Oh...right...it's here somewhere. Give me a minute..."

She had completely forgotten about Harry asking her to dig out an old case file from five years prior. It dealt with a wizard who had smuggled a large number of Demiguises from their native grounds for unknown purposes. The wizard had been caught but spoke nothing as to why he brought the creatures with him or what he was going to use them for.

Draco tapped his fingers against the wood of the door frame, obviously annoyed by her careless unorganized manor. Hermione tried to ignore his piercing stare; but the shiver ran right back up her spine. Moving a stack of papers aside, she finally located the file. "Here it is..." She stated walking back around the desk to close some of the distance between them.

"Finally..." He said in a low whisper.

"I'm sorry oh mighty prince that it wasn't just waiting for you with a bow."

He raised a brow at her sudden outburst but took the file from her nonetheless. Draco knew that he upset her with his comment, also knowing that it might have been better if he had just kept his mouth shut while she looked for the file. Pushing away from the wooden frame, he let out a sigh. "You really should get a little more organized. How is anyone going to ask for something timely from you when you have no clue where anything is?"

"What do you suggest then?"

"I help organize this office...say six tonight?"

"Why?"

"Why not? It's helping you or I spend the first night of the weekend drinking far too much to be considered healthy."

Hermione considered what he was telling her. She supposed it wasn't a complete bad idea to have some help in fixing the chaos that was her office; but the help was in the form of Draco Malfoy. The sheer notion of being alone with him in her office after work hours sent electrical currents throughout her entire body. There were so many things that could go wrong with the event. "Okay...six is fine by me." She reluctantly agreed.

He gave a short nod of his head and then left the room without another word spoken. Hermione stood frozen in her spot on the floor. Leaning forward, she closed the door to give herself more privacy. "Get a grip, he's Draco freaking Malfoy...the biggest spoiled..." She began to rant before stopping herself mid-sentence.

Turning away from the door, she returned to her desk to remove some of the clutter to continue working on the earlier project prior to the interruption from Draco. Letting out a long heavy sigh, she ran a hand through her hair and returned to the encyclopedia.

XX—XX—XX—XX

Draco passed Harry's office only because his mind was not focusing on the task at hand. He was thinking about the spontaneous offer he had made to Hermione. Backtracking towards his boss' office, he knocked on the door. Within seconds, Harry stood before him with his glasses almost down to the bridge of his nose. "The file you asked me to get." He stated holding the folder up slightly.

"Great, thank you Draco for getting this for me."

"Is there a reason I haven't been assigned to anything that deals with my job?" Draco asked outright, forgetting whom he was speaking to for that brief moment.

Harry turned away slightly to look back down at his desk and the paper that was tucked neatly underneath a large stack of unfinished work. He understood where the frustration was coming from. Pulling the paper free, he handed it to Draco. Hesitantly, he took the parchment and scanned the contents before widening his eyes almost immediately. The words shouldn't have come as too much of a surprise; but they did, especially when it concerned her.

"This...this is death threat..." Draco stated the obvious before being interrupted.

"Yes it is and this is why I haven't assigned you to anything. I need my best here. I apologize for asking all these meaningless tasks of you; but Hermione needs to be kept in the dark about all of this. If she knew that her life was being threatened in anyway, she's drown herself in research to find an answer that just may not be there."

"What is it you want me to do?"

"I want you to protect her. Find out what that report I gave you means, I think it has something to do with this threat. They came in right around the same time."

Draco was completely stunned by what just transpired. Never in a million years did he think Harry Potter would trust him enough to keep his best friend safe from an unknown threat, nor did he think that he would ever be worthy enough of that considering all that happened in the past. Silently agreeing to Harry's request, he retreated back to his own private office to gather his thoughts.

Collapsing in his chair, he leaned back to stare at the ceiling. The death threat to Hermione came as a surprise to him, though in the wizard world there were those who couldn't stand the golden trio. Most of those words seemed harmless enough; however, now things were very different. Thinking on the report that was in his bag, he wondered what connection there could be to a sighting of a Chimaera far from their native lands in Greece. Could this person be using the deadly Chimaera as a way to kill her? It seemed impossible to him; but he knew that he needed to find out for himself before it was too late.

Finishing up the last bit of work he needed to complete, he looked over at the clock and saw that it read that it was nearing six. Remembering that he offered to help Hermione to organize her office better, he started to put his things into his bag. Looking up from the floor, he saw several people walking amongst themselves on their way out for the day. They spoke of how their day went. Burying the slight envious notion that he didn't have a single person to talk to about his day, he gathered his things and stepped out of the small office.

Going in the opposite direction of everyone else, he followed the elevator to the fourth level of the Ministry. There were people that shared the space with him that he didn't even recognize and the ones he did, he couldn't remember their names. They never looked in his direction or made a single noise the entire ride to the fourth floor. Once the elevator stopped, Draco stepped out while everyone else stayed inside.

Paying no attention to the odd looks he was getting, he continued on towards her office at the end of the hall. Her door was wide open as he got closer to view it properly. She was standing with her back to him reaching for a book on the top shelf. She was no longer wearing her uniform and dressed in muggle clothing. Jeans that hugged all her curves and a long sleeved sweater of a dark green color. He found himself staring at her backside without meaning to.

Clearing his throat, Hermione swiftly turned around to see him standing there waiting for her permission for entry. She waved him inside and instantly felt a little awkward being alone with him. "Where do you want to start?" She asked looking from one side to the room to the other.

"Lets start with the desk and get all the papers in proper folders and then we will go from there." He suggested.

That's what they did. She started using more folders and putting all the like elements together. He turned to the bookshelves behind the desk, noticing that there were a lot about magical creatures. His interest took over as he scanned the binding looking at the titles, in search of something specific. Hermione turned her head and saw him shrug out of his uniform coat, leaving him in just a white button up shirt that hugged his skin perfectly.

Her cheeks burned with heat with a mental image of what he would look like without the shirt. She cursed her awful hormones for making her think such things about a man who had taken great pleasure in making fun of her blood status in school.

Draco caught her looking at him out of the corner of his eye and instantly chuckled softly to himself. "Finding something you like, Granger?" He asked turning his eyes to look directly at her to see the flush all over her face.

"No...of course not..." She stumbled over her words before turning her attention back to the finishing her task.

He chuckled again, ignoring the urge to corner her and give her something to flush about. The books were surprisingly in alphabetical order, which made what he was looking for easier to find. Chimaera, the hybrid creature. Draco turned to see if she was still watching him before he took the book from the shelf and tucked into the side pocket of his bag discreetly.

Hermione finished organizing the folders in the bottom desk drawer before sliding it back in. Looking over at the clock, she was surprised that two hours had already passed them by. A small yawn escaped her mouth before returning to clear out some of the clutter on top of her desk. "Looks a lot better." Draco commented.

"Yes it does..."

"It's getting late, we should probably call it a night. We could finish another night, as long as you keep what is already done the same."

"I plan on it. Thank you...for the help I mean."

Blinking a couple times to digest the 'thank you', he took several steps in her direction. The pink flush returned to her cheek almost immediately. He was curious as to why she reacted that way when he got somewhat closer to her. He couldn't imagine her being entirely that innocent, considering the Weasley boy from school showered her with attention from day one. "Do I make you nervous, Granger? You flush the closer I get to you." He asked, not bothering to beat around the bush.

"No and it's called personal space."

"I could really enter your personal space if you'd like."

His words left her even more heated than before, pooling at the center of her being and making her tremble in places that haven't stirred in a long time. She never imagined him saying such things to her. Whether he meant them or not was another question entirely. "Have a good night, Granger..." He stated stepping passed her to leave the room with his jacket and bag in hand.

"Draco!"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"You can thank me when it's finished."

He continued on mentally arguing with himself for not taking what his body wanted. She had been so open to take a simple taste of her lips. Fighting the urges, he made himself think about the death threat and the Chimaera sighting to get his mind off of ravishing Hermione Granger. He hoped the book he had taken from her office would give him some insight as to what the connection would be to the anonymous letter sent into the Ministry.