Disclaimer: I still do not own HP.

A/N: Here's the next chapter! Hope you all like it! - Casper

About a month later Kat was walking to the offices with Draco. After their meeting in Diagon Alley, they both made an effort to call each other by their first names (it didn't always happen but they were trying). When she walked in to the office she was surprised to see Ernie and Padma already there. She glanced at Draco to see if he knew why. Judging by the look on his face, Kat guessed not. Turning back to the room she addressed Padma.

"Padma, what are you guys doing here so early? You were here when we left last night and you beat us here. Is something the matter?"

At Kat's voice, Padma jumped.

"Oh I didn't hear you come in! But yes! For the last week or so we've been tracking rumors of a bracelet that can poison people. From what we can gather from our research, it would seem that it can place poison on the skin just from a brief touch. From there it seeps into the skin and then into the blood. Usually the person doesn't end up living for more than 5 minutes. What makes this exceptionally dangerous is that because the bracelet doesn't need much contact, a handshake could cause someone's death.."

Padma trailed off after that and Kat had to prompt her to finish her story

"And…"

"Oh right, well yesterday it showed up at an auction. It was labeled by something else but by checking a few facts and doing a little digging, we're positive that the bracelet sold was actually this artifact. It's affectionately known as the Black Widow."

Draco interjected at this point "Do we know who bought it?"

Ernie responded to that question "We only know the name of the family that bought it, not the specific person. We were actually hoping that you could help us with that. The money the vault came from was Zabini."

Everyone turned to look at Draco, unsure of what his reaction would be. They were surprised however when Draco just rubbed his hand through his hair before muttering "Well shit."

Seeing that no one else in the room was going to ask him anything, Kat stepped up.

"What?"

"The person we're after is Mrs. Zabini, Blaise's mum. She has a history of acquiring new rich husbands and then they die from weird circumstances soon after. They've never been able to prove anything, that's why she's not in Azkaban. She also just got married three months ago and she's hosting a party next weekend. I would bet that she's going to use the bracelet at the party. If she's there the entire time, no one could ever pin the murder on her. And before you say anything I'm okay. Blaise's mum has always made me nervous. Let's just get this done."

They all nodded in response and sat down to create a plan to steal the Black Widow.

Draco ended up with an invite to the party and they considered using that as their in; however, it was decided that Mrs. Zabini would likely have the bracelet on at that point and stealing it from her person would be excessively difficult. So, in an attempt to save the new Mr. Zabini, they decided to go in the day before.

The day before the party Kat was at the office early trying to decide what to bring. They had decided on polyjuicing themselves as staff helping set up for the party to get into the house. Once in, they would sneak off and find a place to hide out until nightfall. The plan was sound, yet Kat still felt apprehensive. Thus, with still over 2 hours until they needed to leave, she barricaded herself in a pile of books and tried to calm herself with one of the only ways she knew how. Books.

That was how Draco found her half an hour later, reading feverishly and muttering to herself. She was so absorbed into her book, that she didn't notice him until it was too late. He walked up behind her and pulled the book she was reading right out of her hands.

"Malfoy. Give that back."

"No, you need to calm down. You know everything in this book already."

"Maybe I missed something!" Kat said as she frantically tried to get the book from Malfoy "There isn't such a thing as being over prepared."

"No." Draco conceded "But there is such a thing as trying to prepare so much you forget things."

Kat looked affronted at the suggestion that she could've forgotten something. "Like what?!"

"Like the fact that in trying to get this book back from me, you never once tried to do magic. You need to calm down. You're brilliant and you are ready. Stop worrying."

Why is he being so nice to me? He's right. I know this. I'm ready. But still, why is he calming me down. Shouldn't he be happy to just watch me panic? I don't understand him. Also if he could stop looking so bloody fit that'd be great.

Obviously seeing the, at least initial, chain of thought that Kat was having, Draco intervened before she could speak.

"Besides, I can't have you panicking when we get there. I'm already going to have to do most of the work, I would prefer not to get fired because I left you there because you were useless."

Upon seeing the amused glint in Draco's eyes she smiled as she realized that he was trying to make things normal again.

"Please Malfoy. If anyone's going to have to carry the team. It'll be me."

Two hours later, they found themselves hiding in the tree line just outside where the apparation point was. The hired staff would be arriving any moment so they took some polyjuice and changed into the uniforms of the staff. As soon as they began to arrive, Draco and Kat apparated to that point and blended in with the crowd. When they walked through the main doors, they walked purposefully down a side hall until they found an empty room which they quickly ducked into.

There they waited a few hours until nightfall and all the staff had left. Kat woke Draco and together they moved towards the entrance hall.

"So where do we think she'll keep it?" Kat asked Draco hoping that he would have an insight due to his pureblood background.

"Why are you asking me?"
"Pureblood."

"You're a pureblood too."

Kat just rolled her eyes at Draco's statement "Yes, but if you think that we have a mansion this size you are seriously misinformed. I figured, since Malfoy Manor is enormous, that you would have an idea."

"Well, normally I'd say it would be in the vaults down in the dungeon; however, the party is tomorrow and I think she'll keep it somewhere close. Just in case."

"Okay. To the residential wing it is."

They spent the next three hours searching all the rooms in that wing. They only had a few more rooms left to search and Kat was beginning to think that they'd have to break into the vault when Draco popped his head out of the next room.

"I found it."

Kat entered the room and was faced with a beautiful bracelet. It was a silver bangle with emeralds and diamonds sitting in a diamond pattern all the way around the bracelet. Kat moved around the bracelet, analyzing every part of it.

"Here." She said pointing to the underside of the bracelet where an onyx sat in the middle of one of the diamonds. "It looks like a statement part of the necklace; however, it's sitting on the back. I can also sense the dark magic coming from it. I would bet that one of these gems acts as a switch, effectively allow the poison to seep from the bracelet. Touch the gem again and the bracelet becomes 'harmless.' "

Draco nodded and took Kat's word, she had focused on curse breaking and was much more advanced in the area than he was. He sat down with a plain silver bracelet and began multiple advanced transfiguration spells to make it look like the bracelet they were trying to steal. While he did that, Kat began taking off the protection spells around the bracelet. She was slightly disappointed when the spells were simple and fairly easy to take down. She then pulled out a magic dampening box and levitated the bracelet into it. Draco then set the fake bracelet on the stand and Kat put up the same spells from before. They were about to leave when they heard the door begin to open. Kat began to look around for a place to hide but was quickly pulled into a small cupboard in the room by Draco.

They both peaked through the crack and watch as Mrs. Zabini walked over to her bracelet. After a quick inspection, she must've assumed everything was fine because she turned around and left the room. They both breathed a quick sigh of relief before turning to look at each other. As soon as they did so, Kat wished that she hadn't. The cupboard was exceptionally small and they were standing face to face, with most of their bodies touching. Against her better judgement she looked up at Draco and saw him look at her, his eyes the same stormy grey that she had seen numerous times since they started working together. With shock it finally hit her that the stormy grey represented desire. He glanced down at her lips and then up again and she knew he saw the same desire reflected in her eyes. He brought one hand up to the back of her neck and the other hooked around her waist. She only had time to think that they fit together perfectly before his lips touched down to hers. He kissed her for a few moments before slightly pulling back. Then before Kat knew what she was doing, she snaked her arms around his neck and pulled his lips back to hers. While that first kiss had been gentle, the next one was anything but. He pulled her even closer to her body as he ravaged her mouth. He apparently wasn't happy with how they were situated because he lifted her body up and pushed her back against the side of the cupboard. Kat instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist and continued to kiss him back. At this point his foot hit a bucket and it fell over creating a large 'clank' sound as it did. The noise shocked Kat out of the situation and she quickly pulled back and jumped out of the cupboard.

Shit. Shit. Shit. What the bloody hell was I thinking?! If that noise hadn't occurred who knows what would've happened. Ha. Don't lie to yourself Kat, you would've shagged him in the broom closet.

Kat was unwilling to look at Malfoy, but if she had she would've noticed the same confusion all over his face.

What was that?! That's Herondale? I can't stand her. Not that I can remember what I can't stand about her. But even so, a broom closet? For Merlin's sake. I've never been so into a snog that I wouldn't have waited until we got somewhere more decent.

Somehow the two of them got out of the house and apparated back to the Ministry. They walked to the Department of Mysteries and gave the unspeakable on duty the bracelet. They made a quick stop at their office to place all of their supplies back.

While Malfoy was busy putting away the potions that they had brought, Kat quickly placed everything on her desk and slipped out before he could notice.