A/N Hello all. Well, I was just informed by a very smart reader that Draco's wifes name is Astoria. Crap...I'm not rewriting this so I hope no one minds. I copied her name from JK's handwritten family tree. I mistook the o for an e, oh well. I hope you enjoy this next chapter. Happy reading and don't forget to review!

Bad day

Three days passed before Hermione received a short note from Draco.

Hermione,

Just wanted to check the status of our project. Can we meet up today? Five o'clock at my store in Diagon Alley?

DM

Hermione sent the note back with a quick yes and went on with the rest of her monotonous work. Every half hour or so she would scan through 'A cauldron for all occasions' searching for the answer to her problem. So far she had found very little of any use in this book. By lunch time she was very tired. She hadn't slept well since her dinner meeting with Draco the other night. She kept thinking of that kiss. The fire inside of her stomach churned every time she thought about it. But not in an unpleasant way. The more she thought of it the less and less work she got done. A knock at her office door brought her back around to reality. It was Ron.

"Ready for lunch?" he asked sitting on the corner of her desk.

"I'm not all that hungry." she said looking down at her desk and not at the sofa since Ron was in the room.

"Don't you feel well?" he asked her.

"Just tired. I'm going to lie down on the sofa for my lunch. I have a five o'clock meeting with Mr. Malfoy at his shop, so I don't know what time I'll be home."

"Again?" he groaned.

"I'm trying to get this done as fast as I can Ronald. It's not an easy project."

"What is it? Maybe I can help you with it."

"I can't talk about it. Top secret."

"Come on. I'm your husband." he grinned. "Who am I going to tell?"

"Really Ronald. I can't." she said rubbing her temples.

"What's this?" Ron asked grabbing the book from her desk.

"It's nothing. Just give it back."

"'A cauldron for all occasions.'" he read aloud. "Is Malfoy trying to invent a new cauldron or something?"

"No."

"Then what is it?"

"I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because it's my job not to. Besides it's nothing terribly interesting." she lied.

"Then what's with the book?"

"Don't worry about it."

"You're working late, not spending time with our son and not sleeping, how am I supposed to not worry about it? How am I supposed to not worry about you?"

"Because I am a grown woman and I can take care of myself."

"So I'm just supposed to let you go off with a former Death Eater, work until all hours of the night and just say 'Oh Hermione's a big girl now?'"

"Yes."

"You are barking mad Hermione." he said slamming the book to the floor.

"Hey that's a library book." she said scolding him like a school boy.

Ron didn't look back as he slammed the door behind him.

Several things fell off of her shelves and shattered on the floor.

"Prat." she muttered as she waved her wand and used the Reparo spell on her broken things.

She sat on the sofa and tried to take a short nap, but a faint smell kept her from falling asleep. It was his smell and it was driving her crazy. And try as she might she couldn't relax. Finally she stood up and headed towards the ministry healer. Maybe she could give her a potion to help her sleep. The tall, thin witch was just returning to her office from lunch when Hermione approached her.

"Hello Helen." she said politely. "I was wondering if you could help me. Ordinarily I would make it myself but I haven't been sleeping well. I just need some dreamless sleep potion."

"Well of course Mrs. Weasley. How much do you need?"

"Oh just enough for a couple of nights. I'm working on a new project and the stress is starting to get to me."

"I understand." Helen said ladling the soothing blue potion into a medium sized bottle. "Put four drops into a beverage ten minutes before you want to go to sleep."

"What if I just need a quick nap…" she said whispering.

"One drop should suffice. But if you are already tired the effects may last longer."

"Thank you. Have a nice day Helen."

"You too Mrs. Weasley. I hope it helps."

Hermione nodded and headed for the cafeteria. She peeked inside first and didn't see Ron or Harry anywhere. She exhaled in relief and purchased a large cup of earl grey tea before heading back to her office. When she got there though she was not alone. Harry was sitting across from her desk waiting for her.

"Harry!" she exclaimed nearly spilling her tea. "What are you doing here?"

"I ran into Ron. He's quite upset."

"Yeah, I know. We had a little tiff. It'll pass. He's so stubborn."

"What's the problem Hermione? This isn't like you."

"He's just so irritating." Hermione said setting her tea cup on the desk and palming the blue potion bottle so that Harry wouldn't see it.

"He's just worried about you." Harry reasoned. "He doesn't trust Malfoy and with good reason I might add."

"He treats me like we are 11 all over again sometimes Harry." she huffed.

"Just what are you working on?" Harry pressed.

"You know I can't tell you. It's nothing illegal, it's quite brilliant actually. I mean I'm not into Quidditch or anything but…"

Hermione covered her mouth with her hands.

"Oh." Harry smiled. "It's something to do with Quidditch."

"Forget I said that."

"You know I can't."

"You mustn't breathe a word of it to anyone. I could lose my job." Hermione said panicking.

"I highly doubt Kingsley would fire you for telling me what the project was."

"Either way I promised Draco…" she stopped seeing Harry's reaction.

"Draco?" Harry asked one of his eyebrows rose in query.

"Look…" she started. "We are keeping this project simple and informal. Saying Mister Malfoy makes me think of his father…he's really not that bad."

"I'm not sure what the Malfoy's did to get out of spending time in Azkaban, but I still don't trust any of them. Especially Draco." he sneered.

"He's not like that. I'm not sure he ever was really."

"Now I'm thinking you have gone mental. Don't you remember our stay at the manor? Or have you forgotten what we went through to get out of there? What we lost?"

Hermione flashed to the manor again, and Dobby's lifeless body lying on the cool green grass. She shook her head to clear her mind.

"I have not forgotten. You should know that I of all people would never forget that night as long as I live."

"Then why are you taking Malfoy's side over your husbands?" Harry asked. His emerald eyes pleading with her.

"I'm not. Look I just want to get this project over so I can get on with my life okay? And if that means working harder to make sure it's done by the deadline than I will do what is necessary. Now I have some work to finish up so if you will excuse me Harry."

Harry nodded. He knew when to let Hermione be.

"Talk to you later Hermione. You know Ron loves you, and so do Ginny and me. Just think about it."

Hermione smiled and motioned for Harry to close the door behind him. She plopped back down in her chair and added one drop of the potion to her tea. She drank the hot liquid as quickly as she could and headed for the sofa. The afghan left on the end was the one she had taken out of the cupboard the other night. She put it to her nose and inhaled the faint scent, before lying down on the couch and covering herself up to her neck. Within moments she was fast asleep.

Hours later she sat straight up on the sofa and look around for a clock. It was four-thirty and she had a meeting at five with Draco.

"Crap." she said smoothing out her blue silk blouse and navy pencil skirt. She undid her ponytail and fluffed her hair before finding her purse and spraying her favorite perfume on. She grabbed her book and headed out the door towards the floo network. She would floo to the Leaky Cauldron and walk the three blocks to Malfoy's shop. When she arrived at the pub it was crowded for dinner time. She slipped unnoticed out the back to the brick wall where she used her wand to gain entrance to Diagon Alley. Witches and wizards were scurrying about to get where they needed to go. Most stores closed at 5 to allow employees to go home for dinner. She finally saw the neat gold and black sign for Malfoy's shop on the left hand side of the street and made a beeline for the door. A few employees were closing up for the night.

"I'm sorry Miss, we're just closing up." a young man stocking practice snitches said.

"Oh, I'm not here to shop. I'm here for a business meeting with Mister Malfoy." she said nervously.

"I'll let him know you are here Miss…"

"Hermione." she said.

"I'll be right back."

Hermione stood in the entry way and looked around at the store. It was neat and well stocked with expensive Quidditch supplies, none of which Hermione knew too much about.

"He'll be out in a moment." the young man told Hermione as he returned to stocking snitches. A few seconds later Draco appeared in the doorway leading to the back of the store.

"Back here." he motioned for her. She walked slowly towards the doorway and he allowed her to enter ahead of him.

"I'm glad you could make it." he said.

"I wish I had better news for you." she sighed. "I've been read every pages of this…" she said before tossing the book onto the table. "Nothing I can think of will help your gloves."

She sat down in one of the armchairs and huffed.

"I'm sorry to hear that." he replied sitting in the chair next to her.

"Yeah, well my day is going into the loo quickly so what can you do?" she said.

"You too? Must be a bad day all around." he laughed.

"Yeah," she said quietly. Her heart was pumping loudly and she was sure that he could hear it. She was so nervous about being there alone with him again. She thought of the need and longing in his kiss from the other night before blushing and looking away.

"So what happened to put you in a mood like this?" he asked.

"It's a long story." she sighed.

"I've got time."

"I shouldn't." she said biting her lower lip. "I thought we were keeping this strictly business."

"We are." he agreed. "But I'll tell you why my day is, as you said, in the loo."

"Why?" she asked, leaning in to listen.

"Asteria is leaving me."