AN- here it is, the next chapter! sorry for the delay, i wont keep you waiting longer by reading a huge authors note.

"Why?" Draco asked. He wanted to eat his breakfast, thank you very much.

"Because I need to talk to Hermione alone." Lucius said evasively. He was sitting at his usual space, looking at his son, who was standing beside HIS usual space at the other end of the table.

It was the morning after the dance. Ministry workers who had been invited to the dance were permitted to come in late for a half day, for time to recuperate from the activities of the previous evening.

"What do you need to talk to her about?"

"We're planning the color scheme for your wedding." Lucius said, slightly irritated that his son refused to leave.

Draco's eyes widened. "No!" he moaned, shuffling out of the room. Lucius smiled slightly to himself.

Minutes later, Hermione came downstairs. She stopped briefly in the doorway. Oh no.

She had thought she could survive breakfast if Draco was there. Where was he? This was not good. This was bad. This was…awkward.

Slowly, she moved forward in a calm manner. She sat and began her ritual of decorating her toast with any spread she favored. If he wanted to talk about this, then he would have to start. Frankly she had no idea how to precipitate a conversation based on what happened last night.

After a few seconds of silence, Lucius began. "Well…I think you know, and I know, that the topic of what passed between us last night is a bit difficult."

Hermione swallowed a small sip of orange juice. "A bit."

"And we both know it must be talked about."

"Correct."

"The best thing to do, I think, is to be blunt."

"Sounds like the beginnings of a plan."

"Last night…we…"

"Shared a kiss." Hermione filled in, cheeks edged with pink. She had wasted so many hours she could have spent sleeping mentally reliving and pondering that kiss.

"Yes, and,"

"And it has been established that the feeling is mutual."

"The feeling neither of us can label just yet."

"Right." Hermione said. After a pause of silence, she haltingly said "Last night…" she swallowed.

"We don't…"

"No, well…"

"It's perfectly alright…"

"I just wanted to say…" silence resumed. "Last night…" she tried again.

"Yes?" Lucius said, almost testily.

"You…you were a very good kisser." She finished quietly, looking down at her plate, blushing.

Lucius' nervousness evaporated. He smirked slightly at her head. "Very good?" he asked incredulously. "I daresay it was a sight better than that."

Hermione's head whipped up, smiling wryly at him. Lucius looked at her, satisfied.

Hermione narrowed her eyes. "I refuse to feed your insane need for being over praised."

"Excuse me! Over praised? That is NOT the reaction I was receiving last night. And my needs must be met." He said.

"Oh, I am SO sorry. Please excuse me."

"Or, I could just change my tone..." Lucius said, looking at her deviously.

"I beg your pardon?" Hermione said, guessing at his game.

"And my needs-" he began, in a very dark voice.

"Okay! I get it!" Hermione said, looking down at her plate and holding her hands up in the air, blushing heavily.

Lucius chuckled in his highly amused fashion. Hermione glared at him good naturedly. "I have to go to work."

"Must you?"

"Yes, must I." she said, wagging her head sarcastically.

"Fine."

"And don't come barging into my office again!" Hermione scolded, standing.

"I don't barge."

"Whatever, then." Hermione turned to go back upstairs to finish readying for work. Upon her return, she jauntily ran down the steps and towards the door, only to be held back by a hand on her wrist.

Gasping slightly, there had been no one there before, she was spun back into the arms of none other than the last remaining (human) occupant of the house.

"Just before you leave..." Lucius murmured, before leaning in slightly. Hermione caught her breath, expecting another mind blowing kiss. However, he paused a mere inch from her lips, the sides of their noses touching, and raised an eyebrow. "I believe...it is your turn."

Hermione smiled with a sigh. "You are SO ridiculous." nonetheless, she leaned forward and softly kissed him. "There, now. Fair is fair."

"Is fair. I will see you later."

"Bye, Lucius."

PAGE BREAK

Hermione walked through her office with a secret smile stuck to her face. She swirled into her private office and behind her desk. It had hardly been one second before Sandy was leaning on the doorframe with a huge grin on his face.

"Happy this morning, boss?" Hermione's lips merely twitched, so he sauntered into the room, continuing his cross examination. "Get up to anything after the dance? I think so...the question is with which lucky bastard?"

"Excuse me? Flattery will get you nowhere." Hermione said. There was NO WAY Sandy would pry the information from her.

"Hm. I should have known...thought I might try..."

"Nothing escapes my lips!"

"I beg to differ." Sandy said, smirking.

"I will ignore that, because nothing happened last night!"

"There is no other reason for you to be so jubilant."

"Huh. And how were your excursions?"

"They went alright. Nothing spectacular, just the usual."

"Still waiting for the perfect girl?"

"Yes, thanks!"

"No need to take offense!" Hermione said, grinning.

"Fine, fine." Sandy said. "You're sure?"

"Couldn't I be happy that I had a wonderful time last night, or that I get to come into work late?"

"True, true…oh well. I saw you dancing with our friend Lucius Malfoy."

Hermione did a very good job of concealing her blush. "Did you? Was I very bad?"

"No, no. You were fantastic, actually, I didn't know you could dance that well. It was a bit shocking-"

"Would you say no to Lucius Malfoy?"

"…No."

Hermione nodded firmly. "Exactly."

"Fine." Sandy admitted. "In any case, you looked like you were having fun."

It was said harmlessly enough. Hermione studied his face without his realizing. She had gotten to be good at this over the years, and yes, it seemed to be a harmless comment. "I did have fun."

"Good, good."

"Well, I can't chat all day, I have the Passport and Visa Office to sort out." Hermione said, rising.

"Oh, I am so sorry!" Sandy said sympathetically. "Do you need my assistance?"

"Not for now, but consider yourself on call."

"Alright."

PAGE BREAK

The Passport and Visa Office was a mess. No one could figure out what happened, whether it was the production process, filing, or application rate. Something somewhere had backfired, and now the entire place was in disarray.

And it wasn't as if you could just say "This file to this folder" and send the correct papers to their folder. These were legal documents. And they were spread all over the office.

Hermione surveyed the damage, grimacing. Thoughtfully, she raised her wand and experimentally picked up a folder. "Pamela Whittenstone, Birth Record."

Slowly, a very dim, trailing gold spark made its way to a pile. Spreading lecherously over a parchment, it carefully extracted it from the documentation rubble. Almost lazily, it drifted back to her. Hermione shook her head and put it into the folder.

Turning to a member of the Passport team, hovering next to her, she said "It's going to be a long few weeks. Try using that method; I'll see if I can come up with anything better. Come to me with any other issues or problems, I have to notify the minister and the press."

The man she was addressing nodded and turned to the mountains of parchment. Sighing, Hermione hastened to her office. Passing Sandy, she said "Get me the Daily Prophet, the Minister, a few stacks of memo parchment and…any other press affiliate you can think of."

Sandy nodded and went to do his task. Hermione wearily turned into her office. After squeezing her eyes shut, she walked to a filing cabinet in the corner. Rummaging for awhile, not exactly sure what she was looking for, she was terribly surprised to hear a soft "I told you I don't barge," from behind her.

Gasping, she turned to see Lucius staring at her, one eyebrow classically quirked. "What- Lucius! Don't do that!"

"I am so sorry. I could not resist."

"I'll bet you couldn't." Hermione said, grinning wryly and shutting the door with her wand.

"Well this is rather forward."

"You wish it was forward. I will remind you that we are in my office, with people likely to barge in at any second."

"Yes of course." Lucius looked at Hermione thoughtfully. "Do you want this…thing, whatever it is, to be public?"

Hermione blinked. "I didn't think you would. You are a very private person, and I must say I don't mind it myself."

"Good. Very good. I think it wise that, until we can somehow label this…"

"Mutual affection."

"Yes, thank you, mutual affection, as something other than…"

"Mutual affection." Hermione said, laughing a little.

"Yes." Lucius said with a proud glint in his eye. "Now, what is happening in the department today?"

"Ugh! It's the worst day ever." Hermione put her head in her hands.

"I am sure it cannot be that bad."

"Hah! Huge malfunction in the Passport and Visa office. We really must do copies."

"Oh, dear. And have you discussed a method of solving it?"

"At the moment we have to go paper by paper. We don't want anything being obliviated or lost so it's an incredibly slow process."

"I see. You should devise a new system while they clean up this mess."

"I will…Sandy should be here soon with memo parchments, I need to contact so many people…"

"I should probably leave you to your task." Lucius said.

Hermione flicked her wand at the door, opening it. "Oh, no, please, you can wait at least until Sandy comes."

"Anxious for me to stay?" he said, arching one eyebrow in an amused fashion.

"Shush! I just opened the door!" Hermione said, grinning and blushing slightly.

"Alright."

At that moment, Sandy came into the office, arms full. "Hello, Mr. Malfoy. Here boss, I have the memos and the Minister's secretary said he can see you in half an hour and the press is always at the ready, a rep from the Prophet will be up shortly and I'm waiting for responses from the other productions."

"Thanks, Sandy." Hermione said smiling wearily at him.

"No problem." Sandy made his exit.

"And now I take my leave." Lucius rose, Hermione with him.

"I'll see you later, Lucius." Steeling herself, she quickly kissed him.

Lucius looked down at her. "Don't stay too late."

Before she could respond, Anna Rupert for Passports and Visas slid into the room, hair falling out of the bun at the nape of her neck.

"What's wrong, Anna?" Hermione asked.

"We've lost Mickey Flynn!" the distraught girl cried.

"What?"

"He's disappeared into the paper!"

"Oh for-" Hermione grabbed her wand and ran out the door behind Anna, calling a quick apology behind her.

PAGE BREAK

Hermione walked into the manor thoroughly exhausted. It had taken fifteen minutes to dig out Mickey, and she spent most of her day writing memos or talking to Press Representatives.

She did, however, get to briefly chat to Kingsley, which was nice.

Staggering up the stairs to her room, she tried to think of what had to be done for tomorrow. It was too painful.

Throwing her bag into a chair, she glanced at the mantle clock. All she wanted was a hot shower before dinner. No such luck. Sighing, she turned and ambled to the dining room.

PAGE BREAK

After dinner, Hermione trailed along to the library, thinking wistfully of her shower, when someone grabbed her arm out of nowhere. She yelped, turned, and saw Draco, grinning.

"Don't DO that!"

"Sorry, couldn't resist." Draco said, releasing her. "I did have a question, though."

"What's up?"

"Well, the Passport and Visa office…" Hermione moaned. "That bad?"

"You have NO IDEA."

"Damn. I wanted to ask how soon you think you could get a Visa."

"I don't know, why? Are you running away?"

"Ha-ha, very funny. Actually…remember when I told you that Gabrielle wanted a change?"

"Yes…"

"Well…we were thinking that maybe she could come and live here…in England. Maybe at the Manor, maybe at her own place."

"Draco that's fantastic!" Hermione squealed, hugging him.

"Okay, okay! Back up!" He disentangled himself. "We're still unsure and not a word to father, please!"

"Of course!"

"So…I suppose if you could do anything to help…"

"I'll try, Draco, but a stack of paper nearly ate one of my people alive today."

"Well, don't endanger anybody, just…try, I suppose." Draco said, grinning.

"That's all I CAN do. Poor Mickey was covered in paper cuts."

AN- yay! okay, bear with me as i try and get back to regulated updating, and thanks for your patience.