Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Harry Potter or J.K. Rowling's work, just the plot to this story.

Chapter 2

An awkward silence descended as soon as the office door shut behind Harry. Draco looked sidelong at Granger who looked just as uncomfortable as he felt. His knee-jerk reaction was to walk out of there, but he consciously stopped himself, determined to prove them wrong. He was going to see this through.

Draco indicated the couch. "May I?" he asked.

He decided the best way to stay on her good side was to stay professional and courteous at all times. This strategy contradicted how he actually felt, but he didn't want to blow it on the first day with her. Hell, he didn't want to blow it in the first hour.

"Yes, that's fine," she said, sitting down at her desk.

He sat on the couch and examined her office again. When he'd first walked in, he thought her office looked like a small library. It was cozy, with a large fireplace and book shelves on every wall. Draco remembered Granger in school, seemingly always in the library or her face in a book. He wasn't surprised that she surrounded herself with them now.

As he continued surveying the room, he heard her clear her throat. He turned and found her staring at him. He'd expected to see her glaring, but she wasn't. Instead, she gazed at him, head tilted, for the briefest moment. She quickly looked back down at her desk and shuffled and reshuffled some papers with no apparent purpose.

"Er, you're welcome to read anything you find interesting. Or you can bring your own entertainment while I'm working. I spend a lot of time in here, so you'll probably need something else to do," she said.

He nodded, then stood. Looking up at one of the bookshelves, he went and picked out a book he hadn't read in a long time: Hogwarts, A History. He smiled to himself as he returned to the couch.

About to open to the first page, Draco heard a small gasp. His eyes flew up to find Granger staring at him again, but this time her eyebrows were raised and her mouth quirked open. She glanced down at the book in his hands.

He held it up and asked, "Is this okay for me to read?"

She shook her head as though she were saying no, then took a deep breath before saying, "Yes, you may read it, but that's my copy from school and there are a lot of notes written on the pages and in the margins."

Not caring if she wrote in the book or not, but more than a little curious to see what she wrote, Draco shrugged and opened the book.

Hermione couldn't believe it. She had hundreds of books in her office, many of them on very exciting subjects. But, out of all of them, he'd picked her favorite and most read book. She wasn't sure why that seemed to mean something to her, but it did, and that took her by surprise.

An hour later, after looking at the same document over and over again, she gave up trying to focus and decided she would finish up after lunch. She was having a hard time concentrating with him sitting there anyways.

Still pretending to work, she now snuck glances at Malfoy. She took in his appearance again, finally noticing what he was wearing: black pants, black dress shoes, a dark green sweater that was now pushed back to his elbows, and the collar of a white dress shirt under the sweater. She could tell they were all designer. He certainly didn't look like the stuck-up snob he used to be, but he still looked put together and professional. In fact, he looked exactly as she would want her temporary body guard to look: professional, because she was always in her office, but not too flashy as to draw attention to himself. He could blend in anywhere she went, in the office or out.

There was a knock on the door.

Hermione glanced at the door then back at Malfoy, who put the book down abruptly and met her gaze. She flushed at the thought that he might have caught her staring at him.

Draco sat very still, his right hand moved to his side, but Hermione knew it was only her assistant, Mary, at the door. Mary had already seen Malfoy come in but not leave, so there was no need to glamour him yet.

"Come in," Hermione called out.

Mary entered, shut the door behind her, and shot Malfoy a nervous glance as she approached Hermione's desk.

"Mary, this is Draco Malfoy. Malfoy, this is my assistant, Mary Thomas," she said gesturing between the two. She explained to Mary, "Malfoy will be here with me every day for… an undetermined amount of time. That is to say, until the person that sent that note we discovered yesterday is caught. You are not to tell anyone who he is, however, because that could compromise this situation. Amongst other people, he'll be disguised, wearing the same glamour every day. Please call him David if you need to address him while he's here. Do you have any questions?"

Mary's eyebrows shot upward. She looked at Malfoy who winked at her. Mary turned back to Hermione and shook her head. "No, I understand."

"Did you need something from me?"

"Oh right," Mary said, having forgotten the reason she came in. "Markus wants to meet with you right now. He's waiting outside."

Hermione exchanged a quick look with Malfoy and then said, "Give us five minutes, Mary, and then you can let him in."

As Mary left, Hermione quickly got up from her desk and moved towards Malfoy.

"We need to figure out how we'll glamour you," she said as she approached him. "I can change your hair color and style, as well as eye color - hopefully that'll be enough." She was about to point her wand at his hair, but his hand shot out and stopped her.

Malfoy promptly stood and unholstered his wand. "Granger, I am perfectly capable of putting the glamours on myself."

Hermione huffed, then crossed her arms and looked up at him. "Fine."

Draco pointed his wand at himself and Hermione watched as his appearance gradually changed. His hair darkened to a chestnut brown and grew out so that it was now layered and artfully styled. He turned his eyes brown as well, and to her surprise, darkened his skin to a bronzy tan. For only changing a few features, she had to admit, she could hardly recognize him. If she didn't already know that it was Draco Malfoy standing in her office, she would think he was a complete stranger.

Once done, he turned his head side to side and waited for her approval. She gave a small nod, cleared her throat and turned back to her desk.

Just then, the door opened and Markus strolled in.

Harry shoved his notes into a folder and sprinted from his office to make his meeting on time. His hand-picked special task force was waiting for him to brief them on their assignment to find whoever was threatening Hermione.

After speaking to Hermione and some of the other people in her company, he still had no idea what might've caused someone to make such a threat. He needed help and he needed Aurors he could trust in the field.

As he hurried down the hall, his thoughts darted back to Hermione and he wondered how she and Malfoy were getting along. Hopefully the tension he'd felt in the room when he left had eased, but he knew that was wishful thinking. Those two would tear each other apart. He was sure of it. That was one more reason to find this person as quickly as possible.

Bounding into the boardroom, he took the only empty seat left and looked over the assembled group. Normally, there wouldn't be such a large team assigned to one task. But, Harry's new position and the fact that Hermione was who she was, allowed him a couple of extra hands.

To his right sat his assistant, Sandra, who was dutifully there to take notes and make any arrangements needed for the group. Sitting on her right was Stanley, a veteran of the Auror office. Stanley was a fearless Auror whom Harry had studied under for some of his training. On the other side of the table to Harry's left were two of the best Aurors Harry knew, Aurors who usually worked on an entirely different continent.

Paul and Justin were Aurors from the Australia Auror office who'd been sent to retrieve and restore the memories of Hermione's parents after the Battle of Hogwarts. When Harry and Hermione travelled to Australia to see her parents, they had been met by Paul and Justin when they arrived. Hermione and Justin hit it off immediately. The two were almost inseparable during the trip, and later kept in regular contact after she left. When Justin visited England, he and Hermione always made plans to see each other. Harry often thought there was more going on between them, but both denied this and always insisted they were just friends. After Hermione and Ron broke up, Hermione rarely dated and Harry wondered what was holding her back.

Nevertheless, when Justin heard about the threats to Hermione, he had insisted on portkeying immediately to England with Paul to help Harry solve the case and make sure Hermione stayed safe. Justin was everyone's first choice to be Hermione's body guard, but he and Harry both agreed he was better off doing what he did best, and that was catching bad guys.

Even now, Justin was leaning forward, both fists pressing on the table, his gaze steady on Harry. Whatever he felt, Harry was sure no one wanted to catch the unsub as much as Harry did. He cleared his throat.

"Right. Let's get started."

Thanks again to Moot, for helping out with this chapter! It wouldn't be nearly as great without you.

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