"Draco, please, let me go home. The flat is safe, you put the wards up on it yourself!" Narcissa Malfoy pleaded with her son.

"Yes, and then you told Markus Parkinson how to get past them."

"Then change them so we can go home! I have a headache and all I want is to lie down, is that so much to ask?"

The argument had been going on since Harry and Ron had left and Hermione was starting to get a headache, too. She was feeling anxious and impatient at having to wait for news from her best friends and to have them back with her safely.

"Draco, maybe your mum has a point," she finally conceded. "Surely you can go and change the wards so that she can go home? You can wait there with her and I'll come and get you as soon as the boys are back."

Draco rubbed his temples as he thought about Hermione's suggestion. "Fine. But you're coming with us. I want to know what's going on as soon as they're back. Leave them a note and tell them we'll be at the flat."

Hermione opened her mouth to argue but realised his idea was a far better alternative to sitting in the office waiting for Merlin knows how long listening to Narcissa complain. She nodded and Draco left to go and alter the wards, promising he would be back as soon as possible. As soon as he was gone, Narcissa spoke to Hermione.

"My son seems to be developing feelings for you."

"I'm sorry?"

"You heard me perfectly well. He might not realise it yet, but I have. I know Draco better than anyone. I see the way he looks at you, he never looked at Astoria that way. And the way he listens to you, trusts you…it's unsettling. Not to mention his flirting with you before, don't think I missed that. I was embarrassed for him." She was eying Hermione as though trying to understand the attraction.

"Well you can't know him that well," Hermione replied shifting uncomfortably in her chair under Narcissa's stern glare. "Draco and I are…friends. That's all." Even though what she said was true, saying it out loud seemed strange. The phrase seemed foreign and that was evident to Narcissa.

"It doesn't sound right, does it?" she asked. "You and him being friends? You know, all of the times he complained to me about 'Mudblood Granger' when he was home for the holidays, or wrote to me. If someone had told me then that he would end up having feelings for you-well, it's laughable isn't it?" There was no trace of humour in her voice, or expression. She sat straight-backed and still in her seat, her rigid form reflecting her attitude.

Hermione flinched internally at the use of the word but did not acknowledge it in her response to the woman. "The idea of Draco having feelings for me is preposterous, Narcissa. You have nothing to worry about. Now, if you'll excuse me for a second, I need to speak with Gawain about something." This was a lie but Hermione needed to put some distance between herself and Draco's mother. The longer she spent with her, the more insufferable Narcissa became.

She stepped out of the room, gently clicked the door closed behind her, and leant against the wall next to it. Her mind was plagued with a multitude of thoughts and she hoped that the silence in the hallway would help her to organise them. A glance at her watch told her that Ron and Harry had been gone less than an hour. There was no telling how long it would take for them to search the whole house and then return. She tried to ignore the nagging voice that was reminding her it wouldn't be that simple; Astoria would not be there unattended, and whoever was keeping her would be unlikely to give her up without a fight.

She knew that she would have to return to the office and Narcissa before long; if Draco returned and saw she had left his mother unattended he would be furious with her-not that Narcissa could have gone anywhere without passing Hermione. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to move: going back into the room would mean Narcissa possibly resuming the conversation Hermione had walked out on. She was still in disbelief at even the suggestion that Draco had romantic feelings for her; just a few weeks ago they weren't even on speaking terms. It was true that they had been through a lot recently, and had spent almost every day together, and that they had become close friends, but that was the extent of it. That is, if she didn't count the hand holding, the hugging and-had he been flirting with her after he'd overheard her conversation with Ron? He had been awfully playful and lighthearted which wasn't a side she had seen of him before, especially not since he was possibly about to be reunited with his fiancée.

Hermione pushed herself off the wall she had been leaning on. "Of course he wasn't flirting," she mumbled to herself and turned to go back into the office, shaking her head at the annoying voice in the back of her mind.

"Who wasn't flirting?" a voice from behind said.

Hermione jumped and turned her head to see who had spoken, her hand still on the door handle. "Draco"!" she gasped.

"What are you doing out here? And who wasn't flirting with whom?"

"I just…stepped out for some air. Your mother can be a little over-bearing. I know I shouldn't have left her but I was only here and-"

"Hermione, relax," Draco said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I didn't ask you to babysit her, she wasn't going to go anywhere now that she knows she can go back home. Now, the flirting?"

"Oh," Hermione felt her cheeks burning, "nothing. Just your mother getting in my head." She shrugged his hand from her shoulder, but immediately regretted it when hurt briefly flashed across Draco's face.

"My mother was talking to you about flirting?" he asked. "I wasn't aware it was in her vocabulary. Care to explain?"

"I really don't, especially not to you," Hermione said quickly. "Come on, before she comes looking for me." She pushed the door open and stepped into the office, leaving Draco standing slightly open-mouthed for a moment in the corridor.

"Okay," Draco said as he entered the room seconds later, "the wards are all changed, I've been to the Floo Regulation Department and have them keeping an eye on our fireplace for the next few hours so we can get there from the fireplaces downstairs rather than apparating, and Potter and Weasley can when they get back. Let's go."

"Draco, are you sure-" Hermione began.

"Yes," he interrupted, "I'm sure you're coming with us. I want you with me. Leave a note telling the others where we are so they can come and find us as soon as they're back."

His serious expression told Hermione that it would be best if she didn't try and argue further, but she gave him a glare that told her she wasn't happy about his plan as she grabbed a self-inking quill and some parchment.

When they arrived at the flat shortly after, Draco insisted that he go first to check the place over one final time. When Hermione got there, he was coming out of one of the bedrooms, his wand firmly in his hand and stretched out in front of him.

"You were supposed to wait until I came back to tell you if it was safe or not!" he scolded when he saw Hermione.

"You're over-reacting, Draco," Hermione told him. She walked over to him and pushed his arm dwon forcing him to lower his wand. "Markus isn't stupid, he wouldn't come here if he didn't have plans with your mother and she already told you they weren't supposed to be meeting until next week."

"I hate to say it, but Miss Granger is right," Narcissa's voice came from in front of the fireplace, making Hermione and Draco jump. Hermione realised she was still holding his arm, and was very aware that Narcissa was looking at it with narrowed eyes. She dropped her hand limply by her side and watched Narcissa clear the soot from the bottom of her robes with a wave of her wand. She then walked straight past the pair. "I'm going for a lie down, wake me when you have news please, Draco," she said over her shoulder.

Draco nodded at his mother and watched as she entered her bedroom and closed the door behind her. He gestured to the sofas indicating that Hermione should sit down, and then left to make them each a cup of tea. Hermione heard the whistling of the kettle just as Draco stuck his head around the kitchen door.

"It wasn't Weasley was it?" he asked.

"What wasn't?" Hermione replied, confused.

"The person who wasn't flirting."

"What? No, of course not. Ron and I are barely friends again, I'm not even sure we are friends again actually. We're…speaking, definitely not flirting."

"Good," he said, and disappeared back into the kitchen leaving Hermione perplexed.

He returned moments later with two steaming mugs in his hands. He set them down on the coffee table, and sat down next to Hermione. They drank their tea in silence until Hermione finally spoke after Draco checked his watch for the third time.

"They'll be back soon, stop tormenting yourself."

"They should be back by now."

"Not necessarily, we don't know how big the house is, or who is there. I'm worried too, but watching the clock won't make it move quicker." She hesitated. "Can I ask you something?"

Draco nodded for her to continue. Hermione paused, wondering if she should ask the question that had been plaguing her recently, and increasingly so since they became so much closer to possibly finding her. "What will you do when you see Astoria again?" she finally asked.

"What do you mean?" he asked with a puzzled expression.

"Well, after all you've told me about her…and you. Are you just going to pick up where you left off? Carry on with the engagement and marry a woman you don't love?"

Draco didn't respond straight away. He looked down into the bottom of the empty mug he was still holding with both hands as though expecting to find an answer at the bottom of it. "I really don't know," he said eventually. "Honestly, the longer she was missing the more I didn't expect we would ever find her. Now there's a good chance that we might and I don't know how to feel. Of course, I'll be pleased if she's safe, but beyond that…"

"Beyond that?" Hermione prompted when he didn't continue.

"I can't marry her. I shouldn't marry her. But how will that look? All of those interviews I did, then she's found and I dump her?"

"So you're going to marry her then?"

"No. I know it's going to make me look bad, and Mother has tried so hard to build up the Malfoy reputation again after last time, but I don't want Astoria, I never did. And there are more important things in life than status, if this whole ordeal has taught me anything it's that. If I'm going to spend the rest of my life with someone, shouldn't it be someone I at least like, someone I connect with? It was never exciting with Astoria, you know? She was so unambitious, all she ever wanted was to be a pureblood high society wife, nothing more. She was shallow, and just…not what I want."

"What do you want, Draco?" The words were out of Hermione's mouth before she knew why she had thought to ask him.

"I want excitement." His eyes were locked on Hermione's now. "I want someone who has ambition, who wants more in her life than status and blood purity…" He shifted in his seat so that he was closer to Hermione, his knees turned towards hers so that they were touching.

"You never know, Astoria might not want to marry you after all of this," Hermione joked trying to diffuse the tension that seemed to be filling the room as Draco moved ever closer to her.

He didn't laugh, he didn't even smile. His face inched closer to hers and she did nothing to stop it, she couldn't have even if she had wanted to. A million thoughts rushed through her head in what felt like the hours it took for Draco to close the gap between them and press his mouth to hers gently.

"Draco, I-" she mumbled against his lips.

"What?" he breathed back. When Hermione couldn't think of how she had intended to end her sentence, Draco took her silence as a desire for him to continue, and so he kissed her again, a little firmer this time. One of his hands rested on her thigh and the other he brought up to face to brush her hair from it and then place it on her neck to pull her closer to him. Against every thought in her head that was urging her to stop, Hermione's lips began to move with Draco's. It was only when he pulled away from her for a second to catch his breath that Hermione came back to earth with a bump and remembered where she was and who was kissing her. When he leaned back into her, she quickly stood up out of her seat.

"Hermione? What's wrong?"

"We shouldn't be doing this. We can't be doing this. I'm sorry, Draco, this was a mistake," Hermione stuttered.

"It certainly didn't feel like a mistake." He too stood up and stepped towards Hermione, placing a hand on his waist which she quickly batted away.

"You're engaged, Draco. And I'm…well Ron and I have only just separated. Neither of us have a clear head for romance at the moment. We've obviously sought comfort and company in one another and confused our friendship for something more."

"That's not what this is and you know it. You're lying to yourself as well as me. You're single, and I will be too, very soon. Not that Astoria and I ever had a real relationship." He made another move to pull her closer and Hermione took another step back, bumping the back of her legs on the coffee table.

"No, Draco. Just stop, please. This isn't appropriate. Let's just forget about it." Her tone was firm.

Draco opened his mouth to respond but a burst of green flames from the fireplace made him stop. Harry stepped out wearing a somber expression, his face covered in tiny beads of sweat and his robes hanging loosely from his shoulder. "Back to my office, now."