"Miss Granger? Mr. Malfoy is here to see you. Again."

Ah, damn it.

"I'm really quite busy-"

"Stop with the excuses, Granger!" Malfoy yells into the intercom. "You're just upset that you haven't found anything in the files you got from Wilson. Now stop hogging them and let me see if I can get anything for God's sake!"

"Okay, fine, come in then! April, I am getting you an earpiece for Christmas."

"Very good, miss," she laughs to herself before clicking off the intercom.

I narrow my eyes at Malfoy when he strolls into my office.

"Hey, don't give me that look! You've had those files for a solid three days now. And I didn't even know you had them until yesterday. I let you have your fun with them, now it's my turn. Honestly, didn't your parents ever teach you to share?"

"Oh sod off," I growl, thrusting the files at him. "I'm not in the mood."

Malfoy arches an eyebrow at my tone and crosses his arms. "When was the last time you ate?"

"I'm not hungry."

"And I'm the Queen of England. Get your coat, we're going to lunch."

"Malfoy, I really am not hungry," I protest as he summons his jacket. "Besides, I have a few snack foods in my desk-"

"Granger. You need food; real people food. Common on, we can look over the file together and figure out what you missed. Besides, I'm going to need you to tell me what you already thought of and tried so I don't spend all my time just repeating you."

When I don't stand, he begins tapping his foot impatiently.

"The faster you just agree to come the sooner you can escape from me."

"Well, when you put it that way…" I say with smirk, resigning myself to just get lunch with him.

"Ouch, you wound me, Granger."

"You make it too easy," I say with a shrug as I grab my coat and pull it on. "So, where to then?"

"We'll find something; London is full of great cafés."

I wave to April on our way out, tucking the file under my arm. Malfoy calls the lift and gestures for me to go on before him. I notice his eyes on the file and smirk before handing it to him.

"You know, curiosity killed the cat," I say smugly as the doors close.

"What?" Malfoy's face transforms into shock. "What cat?"

I laugh quietly to myself. "Muggle expression, Malfoy. It just means that being curious can backfire sometimes."

He snorts. "Yeah right, give me an example."

I fold my arms against my chest. "Second year. I made Polyjuice potion and accidently plucked cat hair from a girl's robes instead of her actual hair. I coughed up fur balls for two days!"

"I already knew that, Granger; the whole school knew," he says with an eye roll as we step out into the main foyer of the Ministry. "Exactly how does that pertain to curiosity killing a cat?"

"Well my reason behind why I brewed that potion was curiosity. Curiosity of a potentially dangerous and illegal variety."

"Illegal? Now I'm intrigued."

I shake my head and weave through the crowd of witches and wizards. The exit appears before us and I sigh gratefully. Emerging into London, I glance up at the blonde. He isn't looking at me, rather at a group of people across the street from us.

"This way," he says, his hand finding my arm and tugging me in the opposite direction of what I wanted.

"What? Why?"

"Reporters, Granger. I haven't seen any articles about you since the initial one and any one of those bloodsuckers would love to hound you about your pregnancy."

"Hey, I never accepted your help you know."

He scoffs. "I am aware. Think of this as your free trail."

I chuckle, but am internally thankful that he noticed the reporters. I really don't have the time or patience to deal with anything but our current case at the moment and the very idea of having my picture taken makes me want to implode. Or cause someone else to explode.

"So," Malfoy says cheerfully after we have put a few blocks in between us and the Ministry, "what illegal things were you up to at twelve years old?"

"Oh, sorry; that information is classified."

"Bullshit! You cannot tell me that you were illegally brewing Polyjuice potion and then not tell me the reason behind it! I demand an answer."

I smile. "You can't know all my secrets, Malfoy."

He arches an eyebrow when he glances at me. "I'll find out sooner or later; investigating is my job, you know."

My smile widens. "Good luck with that."

We turn down a street and quickly agree to eat at the first café we find. Malfoy even holds the door for me; what a gentleman. A tall brunette leads us to a booth on the far side of the restaurant and assures us our waitress will be with us shortly as we shrug out of our jackets. I slide into my side of the booth and adjust my skirt as Malfoy skims through the file.

"All right, fess up. What methods have you already used?"

"Not many actually. I've tried a few basics, but mostly I've been trying to track down the original filer of the report. No such luck on that end, though. I've tried Repairo and that lot, but as you can obviously gather, nothing's worked."

Malfoy hums to himself as he folds his hands together, his silver eyes jumping from page to page in front of him.

"What about-"

"Hi! My name is Jill and I'll be your waitress today! Can I get you something to drink?"

I notice a small jump from Malfoy at our waitress's sudden appearance and bite the inside of my cheek to stop from smirking.

"Just water for me, thanks," I say with a grin.

"Sure thing! How about for you?"

The corner of Malfoy's mouth twitches at her high-pitched and bubbly voice.

"Black tea, please. Thank you."

She gives him a large smile, her eyes glancing at the files in front of us for a brief moment before assuring the both of us that she'd be back momentarily.

"Expect a phone number from her before we leave."

"I'm sorry?"

I can't help but laugh at his expression. "Please, Malfoy. No need to be coy with me. Clearly she is delusional and finds you attractive. She glanced at our paperwork and, correctly, assumed that this is a business lunch, not a date."

"Oi! I am very attractive, Granger. Do not sell me short here. And there is no possible way she can be sure this is just a business lunch."

I arch an eyebrow. "Malfoy. Look at how we are dressed and what we have on the table."

"Bet you five galleons I can get her to change her mind."

"About what?"

"About slipping me her number."

"Why on earth would I agree to that?"

"Because it makes things interesting. We're going to drive ourselves mad with this case anyway, might as well have some fun with it."

"Fine, fine, whatever you want."

Malfoy smirks and glances at the menu. "Now that we've got that settled; have you been here before?"

I nod. "Ginny and I have come here a few times when we want to change up our semi-weekly lunch date. I like it."

He opens his mouth to reply, but closes it abruptly when Jill all but materializes next to us with our drinks.

"Can I take your order now, or would you like some more time?"

I glance to Malfoy. "I'm ready if you are."

"After you," he says, his eyes still on the menu.

I turn to Jill. "I'll have the cheeseburger and chips with extra onions, please."

Malfoy looks up at me. Before I can second guess him, he leans forward, his fingers grazing my cheek as he tucks a stray curl behind my ear. "Sorry, that was bothering me," he says with a cocky grin. "And if you are getting onions, I suppose I should too." Another cocky grin. "I'll have the same as her."

I don't look at Jill because I know I'm blushing like mad and because I want to see if I can actually watch the sanity leaving his brain.

"What was that?" I ask when she disappears.

"I believe that was point one for me. But, back to business. Have you tried ways to read invisible ink? Or even fading ink. I know that joke shop Weasel's brother owns sells the stuff. Whoever wrote up the report must have filled everything in when it was logged, because you noticed something was wrong. If they had used fading ink, the report would have appeared fine at first, but then changed to what it is now."

I tap my chin thoughtfully. "That's not a bad idea. I can contact George and see if there's a way to reverse the effects of fading ink so we can test it out. Even if that's not the answer, we should look into protecting the parchment we use at the Ministry to make sure no one does that in the future."

"Not a bad idea? I'm hurt; you really should put more faith in me," Malfoy says with a large smile. He pauses and I hear Jill's high voice behind me as she talks to another table. "Although, I certainly will never be a clever as you, dear."

My lips curve into a small smile. Two can play his game. "Flattery will get you nowhere, Mr. Malfoy. Honestly, I'm surprised it took me this long to figure out why no one else in the department wanted to work with you; the unwanted attention is really quite distracting."

I notice how he bites his lower lip to keep from smiling, his silver eyes both playful and determined.

"Point for you, Granger," he says after Jill has passed. "I was hoping you would join in at some point; the bet would be no fun if you didn't attempt to make it a challenge."

I roll my eyes, but my smile stays on my face. I sometimes forget that Malfoy can be good company when he wants to be. "Well I'm certainly not going to pass up the chance to win five galleons. Besides, I love watching you lose to a Gryffindor; it's really quite satisfying."

"Like last night?"

I have to focus to not spit out my water. Jill must be behind me again.

"Oh, yes. I've been waiting for that report for ages now; thank you for turning it in. Honestly, it was about time too. You know, you can be a really lazy worker."

Malfoy clicks his tongue against his teeth in an effort to disguise his smile, but I can still see it. "Nicely played; the kid gloves are off now."

I smile sweetly. "Do your worst."

"I intend to."

I look away from his eyes to snatch the file from his side of the table. "What would be your second guess for this, then? In case your first idea turns out to be a bust."

"I'm not sure… Have you tried holding a magnifying glass to it?"

I hesitate. "No."

"You liar!"

"I was running out of ideas!" I say defensively.

"Why didn't you just come to me sooner?"

"I wanted to figure it out myself."

Malfoy's hand moves across the table again, this time finding mine instead of brushing away my hair. His fingers give mine a gentle squeeze and I give him a very confused look, before Jill appears holding a tray of our food. He retracts his hand and gathers the papers as she puts our plates in front of us.

"Can I get you anything else?"

"I'm all right. How about you, love?"

He says it so casually that I don't even notice the term of endearment until I've already replied no and Jill has vanished once more.

"That is so not fair."

Malfoy gives me an innocent look. "Are you accusing me of cheating?"

"You have a better view; you know when she's going to show up!"

He shrugs as he adds some ketchup to his burger. "The seating arrangement is not my fault; you sat down first. Besides, you could have just slapped my hand away- I gave you plenty of time. But, it's too late now; I'm pretty sure I've got this in the bag."

"Oh just shut up and eat your lunch."

"Ha! Told you I won!" Malfoy says triumphantly when Jill gives us our check, her number nowhere in sight. "You made it way too easy."

"You had the better seat and the easier end of the bet!"

"Wow, Granger, never took you to be a sore loser," he teases. "Come on, cough up the galleons."

"You're impossible."

"Why thank-"

I glance up from my purse when he stops midsentence. His eyes have narrowed, his mouth a firm line.

"Do not turn around."

"You say that, but now I want to."

His silver eyes snap back to mine. "Two Prophet reporters just walked in."

Damn it. "Merlin, I wish it was legal to hex reporters in public."

Malfoy doesn't even crack a smile at my joke as he stands and grabs his coat, motioning for me to do the same. I pull my arms through the sleeves of my jacket, eyeing him strangely. He is still glaring at the reporters.

"You know, they are probably going to notice you glaring daggers at them in a minute. I was under the impression that you didn't want them to notice us."

He shakes his head. "I don't care if they notice me; I don't want them to notice you."

"Malfoy?"

"What?"

"If you get me out of here without the Prophet writing an article about it, consider your offer officially taken."

That gets a smile from him. "Deal," he says offering his arm. When I don't take it, he rolls his eyes. "A little trust, please."

I sigh dramatically and slip my arm through his. With his free hand, Malfoy drapes his coat over my shoulders, tucking my curls beneath the collar to give the illusion that my hair is shorter than it really is. As we walk toward the exit, Malfoy turns us slightly, so I am hidden from the reporters by his profile.

"Mr. Malfoy!" One of them calls as we pass.

I feel Malfoy's arm tighten around mine, but there is no hesitation in his stride as he continues out the door. Suddenly the file we were pouring over comes up to block my face, just before a camera flash goes off. More reporters are outside. Fuck.

"Miss Granger! How far long are you?"

"Who's the father?"

"How has Ron Weasley taken the news?"

Malfoy's arm moves to wrap more securely around my waist as he pulls me along, the file still hiding my face from the view of the cameras.

"Taxi!" he calls out, stopping suddenly.

We pause momentarily as more reporters swoop in on us like vultures; each question more personal and depraved than the last. I see the car door as the taxi stops in front of us and quickly open it, pulling myself away from the safety of Malfoy's arm and jacket. Malfoy ushers me into the car before climbing in behind me and slamming the door.

"Get us out of here!" he tells the cabbie, holding the file up to the window in case it isn't tinted enough and the cameras can still get a shot of us.

I watch as the reporters disappear as the cabbie hits the gas and let out a sigh of relief.

"Malfoy?"

"Yes, Granger?"

"You're hired."

AN: Sorry for the delay in update! I was wrapped up in semester finals and the holidays, but hopefully now I can return to my fast pace, or at least something more regular. Happy holidays!