A/N: I promised you guys a longer and quicker update so here I am :) Enjoy!
For all that Draco enjoyed spending time with Hermione and had the added benefit of being able to kiss her in private, it did not improve any desire he had to sit in meetings. Even though it was about her project that he'd come to care more about over the past few weeks, it was still a meeting to him, and by twenty minutes in, he was quickly losing interest in doing anything productive. They were in Hermione's office for a change and it had been almost a week from their first 'date'. Her office was a lot more personable than his and much larger due to the position she held in her department. Four photo frames were on her large desk — two on either corner, facing towards her — and there were other photos dotting around the place; mostly on the limited free space on the many bookshelves that lined the office's right wall. A nice rug was spread across the ground in front of her desk and as Draco reclined back in the chair he was sitting in, he wanted nothing more than to take his feet out of his shoes, take his socks off, and squish the carpet between his toes. His attention in the current moment, was on the large window behind Hermione, replicating the weather outside that was typical of early January; dark, gloomy and wet.
The both of them had been spending the past hour writing up notes, although the first five minutes was spent having a 'hello-we-haven't-seen-each-other-in-two-days' kiss followed by fifteen minutes of talking about nothing related to work before diving into the project. Although Hermione had been working tirelessly as her job of Head of her department, she was still making time for herself to think of more ideas and work on existing ideas to improve her proposal of exchange students and Draco had gotten an owl at nine o'clock the previous night asking if they could have a meeting. He didn't have any reason to say no as he too had been thinking about the project and had done the odd thing or two to further his ideas. That and of course, he wanted to spend some more time with Hermione. In the four days since their 'date' (Draco still didn't think it should have been classified as a proper first date), they had met up consistently every day, more than once. Their morning coffee breaks were spent at the coffee cart in the atrium where he still grimaced at her need for three sugars, and she still rolled her eyes and laughed at his expression. Hermione had decided that it was more believable if she came to his office instead of vice-versa, once or twice a day, as her position of Head of her department meant she may have more need to contact him and his services rather than him leave his office to seek her out. The time they spent in his office was merely for chatting. About everything and nothing in particular but Draco found that it was better that way. They never got into very serious topics and when they did, his discomfort was shown and he was grateful Hermione knew how to pick up on it and would change the subject.
"I forgot to ask you…" Hermione started. She sat on the chair in front of his desk while he sat behind it, twirling his quill between his fingers. "Has your mother been okay throughout New Years? I remember when we bumped into Parkinson and Zabini that you said she had trouble with this time of year."
Draco stiffened when Hermione said that. While his mother had insisted to him that she was fine, he wasn't oblivious to the lifeless look in her eyes as she looked at the Christmas tree, or spoke about the New Year's Eve party she attended with her other friends and their husbands. Draco knew that his mother only wanted Lucius to be home at this time of year so she could spend time with him, give him the Christmas presents she always bought and wrapped for him but could never give, show him the Christmas tree she decorated, and attend the parties with her arm linked with his. He knew that Hermione had meant nothing malicious from her question as he had never spoken about his parents collectively to her, so how would she know of the true difficulty the Christmas and New Years' season brought to him and his mother. He didn't miss Lucius in the slightest, but it was difficult for Draco to watch his mother in such emotional pain from her missing husband.
"We don't need to talk about it," Hermione said to him and broke Draco from his thoughts. He hadn't known that he'd been silent for a considerable amount of time and didn't even realise he'd been looking completely away from Hermione as he did so. "Let me tell you what I saw on the way to work this morning, you'll never believe it…" She grinned and he felt himself warm inside at the initiative she took to take his mind off things he didn't want it to be on. He realised that he shouldn't take her actions for granted at all and also understood that she knew more about him than, most likely, either of them had realised.
Draco's gaze turned to Hermione and he watched her read over what she had just spent the last fifteen minutes writing. He saw her brows slightly furrowed and he could see the tip of her tongue caught between her teeth as she concentrated on the words on the paper in front of her. He thought about his desire to kiss her then. In the past few days, they had shared more kisses than he anticipated they would. Nothing went further than that, and he was surprised at himself with how okay he was at that and how okay he felt about not progressing their physical relationship quickly. Many times, after several minutes of kissing Hermione deeply, she pulled back with a blush on her cheeks and would start to ramble on about something unrelated, pat him on the chest, then get back to work. He really did enjoy kissing her and, as Hermione Granger was good at everything she put her mind to, she was very good at kissing. So good in fact, he felt quite weak in the knees afterwards — not something he'd readily admit to anyone living or dead. As he watched her read her document, his eyes went to her hands and saw her holding her quill elegantly between her fingers. It was only after a few seconds that he truly realised the slight jump in her hand — the tremors. He kept watching for a few minutes to see if it was only spur of the moment, but her hand continued to tremble gently. It was nothing too noticeable, but it made him furrow his brows. His curiosity, and some part concern, rose when she put down her quill and stretched her fingers out as far as she could, then curled them into a fist, repeating the action several times over. When she ceased her hand's movements, he looked up at her face and saw her staring at him. He opened his mouth to ask a question but she interrupted him. "It's my nerves," she answered and her cheeks reddened slightly and she turned back to her page and picked up her quill and started to jot down notes at the bottom. Nosily, he wanted to know more, but from the tone of her voice and her immediate silence after her answer to his unspoken question, he figured that she didn't want to talk. He could respect that because she respected his wishes to not talk when he was uncomfortable with a subject, so all he did was pick up his own quill and started to force himself to write more notes to improve his arguments for the project in rebuttal of anyone who may disagree.
After another half an hour of quiet work between the two of them, Hermione looked up. "I'm going to try and arrange a meeting with the French Minister of Education and Headmistress Lefèvre from Beauxbatons. I'd really like it if you came along too," she added with a small smile. "It would make things a lot easier with the both of us there as we're both knowledgable on what we're proposing and you'll have answers to many of their questions too."
Draco nodded and sat up properly in the chair instead of slouched down. "I think that would be a good idea," he said. "When are you going to arrange it for?"
"I'm not sure," she answered and opened a drawer in her desk and withdrew a thick diary and flipped through it until she reached the current date. "My schedule's quite full for the next month or so, but there are a couple of days that I could arrange to have my work halted here so we can spend a day or two in France."
"I'll need to check my appointments," Draco said since because of his demand as a solicitor, many of his clients booked months in advance to arrange consistent meetings. "When I go back to my office I'll check the dates that I'm free for February and March and we can compare."
"Great," she smiled and then put down her quill. "I don't know about you but I could really do with something to eat and drink."
He hummed in agreement, stood up from the chair and rolled his shoulders back, hearing a satisfying crack. "You've never said anything better," he joked with a chuckle. "Come on, I'm sure we can sneak off for an early morning tea."
She agreed and stood up from her chair too and joined him on the other side of the desk. "I'll get us something and don't argue," she said when he opened his mouth to protest. Knowing just what Hermione did whenever he insisted on paying for her things, he knew he'd have to devise a sneaky way to pay her back, possibly by leaving some galleons on her coffee table the next time he visited her house. Speaking of…
"Is my invitation still applicable for tonight?" He asked her since she'd included in one of the letters she'd sent to him the night previous that due to it being a Friday the next day, he should come to her house some time after work.
"Of course," she nodded and looked up at him as they walked to the door of her office and he opened it up and allowed her to walk out first. "Unless you have other plans?"
Draco snorted as they walked down through the department to the lifts. "Granger, I didn't ever have plans until you became consistent in my life."
—
"Well, well, well, look at this fancy set up," Draco drawled as he came from the fireplace after flooding to Hermione's house. On the coffee table, a red cloth had been draped over it and atop it sat two full red wine glasses, the bottle of said wine sitting next to it, and a platter of different cheeses and crackers.
He'd noticed that Hermione wasn't in the room when he came in and he heard from down the hall, calling out, "I'll just be a minute, I'm getting changed!" He didn't think that was silly, as when he had gone home, he'd changed into a smarter looking shirt, tie and pants, even though he knew they'd only be in her home. From his previous altercation of accidentally seeing her through her open bedroom door, he decided to stay clear of the living room archway to give her the privacy she needed and instead he walked to the sofa and sat down and loosened up his tie just a little bit. When Hermione came into the room, he was reading the label on the wine bottle, and once he looked up, his lips parted slowly. She wore a fitted, v-neck blouse and jeans that unavoidably hugged the curves of her legs and to Draco, she looked incredible. He stood up from the couch and smiled when he saw her blush under his gaze.
"What's the fancy occasion?" He asked to lighten the situation and not let her feel as embarrassed.
Hermione laughed and started to feel more comfortable. "Oh, I'm just waiting for this prat to come visit me. Seen him anywhere?" She joked.
"Funny," Draco rolled his eyes. He watched her step forward and take the bottom of his tie between her fingers and look up at him. "Don't look at me like that unless you want to be kissed," he warned her.
The corner of her lips turned into a smirk. "Maybe I did want a kiss?" She asked. "Just a little one though…" He chuckled and dipped his head to press his lips to her and give her a soft kiss. He didn't think he would be able to fully comprehend what was happening — kissing Hermione in her living room; but it was becoming more normal than he thought it would be. After all, in the last month they'd spent a considerable amount of time together and for around half of that time they'd been involved in acts that people in a relationship would be involved in too. Neither of them had officially referred to the other as a 'boyfriend' or 'girlfriend', but in Draco's mind, he knew that they were in a relationship. They may not touch and play as most couples would, but they still spent a lot of time together, time that Draco cherished very dearly which had also changed for him from when they'd first worked together on her project. If Hermione had only been a friend to him, he would have made an excuse not to come to her house that evening, but he found himself counting down the time at the end of his work shift, ready to go home and change to meet her at her house. Because he genuinely enjoyed her company and enjoyed her as a person more and more with every passing minute they spent in each other's presence. Even when they weren't physically together, they sent short letters between them via owl, and although eighty per cent of those letters contained talk about work, the other twenty per cent was normal conversation and conversation that if someone else were to look at, would see them as flirtatious conversations between partners. Ever since the very first note she had sent to him, he had kept all of her memos and letters addressed to him, safely in the drawer of his desk in his study.
Draco's hands cupped Hermione's cheeks and by the time they pulled apart, the both of them were breathless and her cheeks had reddened. He smiled at that and brushed his thumbs across the colour on her cheeks, just under her cheek bones, and she dipped her head in embarrassment until he made her look at him. All he gave her was a look, and then dropped his hands and sat on the sofa and she joined him, sitting close, and she picked up the both of their wine glasses and handed him his. "A toast…" He said and raised his glass slightly. "To…"
"Us," Hermione finished off and tipped her glass to touch his gently and they both took a sip of the wine. He found that he liked the taste even though he was rather impartial to red wine, and the two of them sipped in silence for a few minutes.
"Don't take offence to this," he said after a while but avoided her eyes. "What do you see us as?" He asked and waited to gauge her reaction.
She stopped in thought for a few seconds and took a small drink of her wine before answering. "A work in progress," she said. "Even though, I hope, that we're maybe closer to complete than anything else," she admitted. "I haven't had a relationship in a while, Draco, and my 'courtship', I guess you could call it, was never like this with my previous partners." He furrowed his brows at that and she noticed. "I'm not saying it in a bad way," she assured him. "Merlin, I wish everyone would try and start a relationship the way you do," she smiled and the corner of his lips twitched up and he made eye contact with her. "I just want to be careful between us," she explained. "And that's why we're a work in progress, because I believe that you feel the same way."
He nodded at her statement and couldn't believe how much her reasoning matched his own. He took a drink of his wine and then looked over at her. "So if someone were to ask what we were to each other, what would you say?" He asked.
"Do you mean what I would call you?" Hermione asked and he nodded. "What would you want me to call you?" She asked.
Normally, he hated being put on the spot with questions and this one was a rather tough one to answer. When he had gone out with Astoria, they had more or less been pushed together by friends and family and automatically become a couple and referred to each other as such. Other than that, Draco hadn't ever been in a proper relationship again and now with Hermione, things were turning out to be more complicated than he thought they would be. "Well…" He started and shifted his eyes. "We treat each other like a couple."
"We do go out a lot," she agreed.
He nodded. "We kiss too," he added and looked at her. "I don't think it's common between friends to kiss as much as we do," he chuckled.
"That's a good point," she laughed and tucked her hair behind her ear. "So that means…"
"I guess it means you've got yourself a boyfriend, Granger."
"I guess it does."
A/N: Hope you enjoyed! Reviews are always welcome :)