"Are you serious?"

"Of course I am" I say, gesturing behind us toward the reporters that have thankfully disappeared as our cabbie drives us through London. "You got me out of that mess and even held the file in front of my face so they wouldn't get a picture. I'd be an idiot not to take you up on your offer."

He smirks. "Well I could have told you that three days ago."

"Oi!" I say, smacking his arm. "Don't make me retract my acceptance!"

"Nope, too late. You're stuck with me, Granger."

I roll my eyes as the cabbie comes to a stop at a red light and opens the glass window separating us.

"Where should I drop you at?"

"Just up ahead on the right, please," Malfoy says.

The cabbie nods and pulls up to the curb just a little beyond the light. Before I so much as open my purse, Malfoy slides some bills through the glass and is out his door. I glance up in surprise when he comes to my side of the cab and opens my door for me.

"I thought you didn't carry Muggle money," I say as I shut the door.

"I figured it was pretty stupid of me not to carry something." He shrugs. "I mean, I am in London daily; not carrying cash could come back to bite me in the arse. Besides, I don't make a habit of carrying a lot of it."

"That is probably for the best; knowing you, you'd probably blow it on some silly Muggle device you think is cool."

"Please, Granger. I'm a wizard, not a dumbass. I can totally tell what Muggle inventions are worth buying. Besides, you can't even say that you know me; you haven't got first name privileges."

"Well neither do you!"

He pauses and smiles. "Point taken."

We exit Muggle London and head into the Ministry, nodding at a few people from our respective departments. I reach the lifts first and press the call bottom, gesturing for Malfoy to step on before me.

"I'm going to your office," he declares after the lift has taken off.

"What for?"

"Two reasons. One: I want to know if I was right with the fading/disappearing ink on the report and two: we should discuss the terms of our agreement."

"I wasn't aware terms were needed."

Malfoy puts his hand over his heart in false surprise. "Granger, you work for the Chief Warlock! How could you of all people not think terms of a contract to be important?"

My hand itches to smack him again, but I restrain myself. "I know terms of a contract are important, Malfoy; don't underestimate me. I just didn't realize that you wanted to actually construct a literal contract. I figured this would be a verbal thing."

He arches a blonde eyebrow as the doors to the lifts open and we step out into my department. "Granger, please. If there is one thing I have learned after working in the Investigation Department for three years, it's no one finds a verbal contract binding. The shit I have had to deal with that could have been avoided with a written contract is honestly astounding."

I roll my eyes, but allow him to follow me into my office nonetheless. He sits down in one of the chairs across from my desk as I grab a piece of parchment and hastily write a letter to George, asking him about fading ink and the best way to reverse its affects. I tap the parchment with my wand and it folds into a paper airplane, flying off to the owlery where it will continue on its path to George's shop.

"All right," I say, glancing up at Malfoy who is looking at me expectedly. "What did you have in mind?"

"Actually, it's probably best if you tell me exactly what you want me to do. Do you want me to keep Weasel away from you, start an investigation into your and his ability to give the child a stable and happy life, etc.?"

"Obviously, I'd love if you could start an investigation. If we start now we might be able to catch Ron off guard. He won't be ready for someone to start examining his ability to be a parent and it could scare him into not even filing for full custody."

"Well write it down then." Malfoy taps some parchment to make his point. "I told you, written contracts are the best way to go."

"Okay, fine, fine," I say, scribbling down the first expectation I have for him. "I'm not really sure you keeping Ron away from me will be necessary. I mean, I've already invoked his clearance for this level of the Ministry, and I can handle myself."

"Believe me, I know; you nearly broke my nose in third year when you 'handled yourself'. Think of me as just some extra backup in case you need it. Your pregnancy hormones might cause you to freeze up again like when he first showed up. Once you have the kid, you'll be fine to hex and curse him all you want."

"I'll allow your help, but only if you are in the general area. I am not some damsel in distress who needs you ride in on a white horse and save the day. If Ron says anything vaguely reminiscent of what he said to me a few days ago, I'll kill him myself."

Malfoy's face breaks out into a grin. "You would have done well in Slytherin, you know."

I laugh. "Please, Slytherin would have rolled around in his grave if he knew I was in his House." I pause and then smirk. "Although I certainly would have loved to see the look on his face if I were sorted into his House." I glance down at the parchment in front of me. "What do you want out of this arrangement?"

"I want to babysit your kid."

"You're joking."

"Oh, not at all. I told you that if I was seen with a baby it would mostly likely result in me losing my 'Most Eligible Bachelor' title. I would very much like to pass that along to another unfortunate bloke; the fan mail is positively horrifying. And I could do with some positive publicity for once. It'd be nice to no longer be considered evil in the eyes of the general public."

"Anything else?"

"There's really not a lot you need to do personally for me. As long as you keep your job and let me babysit once in a while, that's really all I want. I don't want to deal with someone else coming in and ruining the flow we've got going between our departments. Oh, and just having the satisfaction that Weasel won't, in his own words, 'fuck up your kid' is really all I need." He pauses and seems to consider something. "Actually, there is one more thing I want."

"Name it. This deal seems pretty one side for me right now."

"Apparition can be bad for the baby and I don't think you own a car. I want to drive you to your doctor appointments."

I blink in surprise. "You… you can drive?"

He scoffs and folds his arms. "Of course I can bloody drive. I told you I wasn't a dumbass."

"Well my opinion of you being a dumbass aside," I smirk at the look on his face, "I didn't think you would want to know how to drive, let alone actually live in an area of England and would require to you have a car. Where do you live?"

"I live in London, same as you. I haven't lived with my parents in years, Granger, since the look on your face tells me that's where you think I've been living. And I'm right, aren't I? You don't have a car and you've been walking to your appointments."

"Half right; I took a cab to my latest one."

He gives me a half smirk after I've proven his point. "So, do we have a deal?"

"Do you even know how often I have my appointments?"

"Nope."

I shake my head and laugh softly to myself. "For the time being, I only go once a month. Then I'll move up to once every two weeks and then once a week, but I'll let you know when that happens. And yes, we have a deal."

"Perfect. Now, finish writing up that contract so I can sign it."

"Since when do you become so professional and by the book?" I ask, returning my attention to the parchment to do as he says.

"When I was hired here. I told you weeks ago Granger; I can't afford to lose this job, and there are plenty of people who want to see my arse kicked to the curb. I have no room to mess up."

I glance up at him, my quill posed over the paper. "You know, I might be able to do something about that."

"About what?"

"People's opinion of you."

Malfoy leans back in the chair and crosses his arms. "All right. I'm listening."

"You probably won't like it."

"Just tell me."

"Hang out with me and Harry."

Silence hangs around us and Malfoy stares at me. He blinks a few times, but does not speak. Then, slowly, his lips begin to curve upward. "You can't be serious."

"No, I totally am. You're right; you have no positive publicity. Harry and I really only have it. And after Ron and my break up and my pregnancy leak, I've been receiving pity publicity because no one has seen me with Ron. I bet a lot of people thought we'd get back to together once the news broke. If you were since hanging out with Harry and me, you would not only get some positive limelight, but also be since as kind and caring for being there for me in my time of need."

"And Potter would go along with this? Granger, I'm not sure if you noticed, but the two of us aren't exactly friends. We're polite when we are forced to see each other, but I don't think either one of us is necessarily interested in seeing the other outside of work."

"Do you have any idea how strange it's going to look to the public when you just randomly start babysitting my child? They are going to assume that you are the father, not Ron. If you were since with my friends, you would start being considered our friend. That protects both of us against rumors of you fathering my baby."

"I will be honest; I had not thought of that."

"I am right, you know."

"Yes, yes." He pauses and looks away from me, rubbing his jaw. Finally, he sighs and meets my eyes. "If you can get Potter and Weaselette to agree to this, then… I will gladly take you up on the offer. I am assuming you told them about your arrangement?"

I nod. "I told Harry and I believe he told Ginny. But, if they do agree to this, you are going to have to stop calling her Weaselette. She'll hex you into oblivion."

Malfoy laughs. "I do not doubt it."

"So, what do you think?"

Ginny and Harry sit across from me, their food untouched in front of them. They glance at each other in shock before Ginny turns to meet my eyes.

"You… you want Malfoy to start hanging out with us? So he can get some positive publicity for once?"

"And so reporters won't immediately claim that he is the father of my child when he starts babysitting for me, yeah."

She shakes her head, a smile of surprise and amusement on her lips. "I can't even imagine Malfoy babysitting, let alone willingly spending time with us… Harry, what do you think?"

"I… I don't know. I mean, Hermione is right. Malfoy isn't nearly as bad as he was at school. And if this could help him gain some career stability with less people trying to get him fired... I'm sure he'd be on his best behavior. But, is this what you want, Hermione?"

"What do you mean?"

"I understand you going to him for help with the custody battle and as some extra muscle to keep Ron away from you. I just want to know that one hundred percent, you are fully okay with him babysitting your child and well, becoming more than just a work colleague. You understand that he will be in your baby's life for a while, yeah? I don't seem him as the kind of bloke to necessarily stop doing something that will help him in some way. Do you want him to be around your child?"

I take a bite of my food to stall for time while I consider Harry's question. I certainly trusted Malfoy to do a good job with the custody battle, and he had already proved that he could be very helpful in keeping Ron away from me if need be. But Harry did bring up an important question. Did I want him near my baby? Did I trust him to look after my baby?

"I can't answer that," I finally say, looking up to meet his green eyes. "I am not opposed to Malfoy being in my child's life. He has proven to me that he has mature since Hogwarts and has the potential to continue that growth. He also hasn't given me any reason that he would be a danger to my baby. But, I want to get to know him better if he is going to be a part of my child's life. And if everything works out for the best, I want him to not have to worry about articles about him corrupting the baby or you guys disliking our potential friendship. I don't want my child to grow up with that. I want to give him the chance that I know he deserves. Can you give him the opportunity to see if he is worthy of you giving him the same chance?"

Harry looks at Ginny who is smirking.

"You are such a lawyer, sometimes," she says. "You know that, right?"

I laugh. "Well I certainly hope so! But honestly. Will you guys at least give him a fighting chance? He already knows that one slip up with me will terminate our deal."

I watch them with wary eyes as the couple seems to communicate mentally. After a moment, Harry looks back at me and gives me the tiniest hint of a smile.

"All right, Hermione. We'll give him a chance. We can all get dinner this week, sound good?"