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

Chapter 3

Markus sauntered into the office and headed straight for Granger's desk without so much as a glance in Draco's direction.

"Hermione, my darling! I've missed you!"

Markus appeared to be in his early thirties and was very well groomed - Draco supposed many women would consider him handsome. He wore a three-piece suit in charcoal grey and shiny black dress shoes. His dark brown hair was cut and styled with enough product in it to rival Draco's days at Hogwarts.

Instead of sitting in a chair across the desk from Granger, Markus sat on her desk, close enough that she had tilted her chair away to look up at him. Draco noticed her cheeks turned pink. Markus didn't notice.

Before she could greet him, Markus rushed into telling her stories of his recent trip to Paris. He bragged about the connections he made, the places he went, and told her about several women who'd fawned over him. Draco doubted any of what he said actually happened. A particularly funny story about him denying a woman's invitation to dinner three times made Draco snort, which he instantly regretted.

Granger shot him a glare, one that would have rivaled any from their days in school, and pursed her lips. But, before he could glare back, Markus had turned his attention to Draco and was looking extremely displeased to find him there. Markus sized him up with a narrowed gaze while Granger introduced them.

"Markus, this is David. He's my temporary body guard. Someone sent a threatening letter to me yesterday and, while they are looking for the culprit, the Auror office has assigned him to me – as a precaution." She sighed.

Markus' eyebrows rose as he gasped, a hand placed over his heart.

"A threatening letter? Sent to you? Oh, my! How awful!"

Draco rolled his eyes at his melodrama.

"Yes, quite," she said. "Hopefully, this will be resolved quickly and I can have my privacy back very soon," she said as she shot Draco another glare.

"Well you know I'm here if you need me," he said as he placed his hand on hers.

"I'll be fine." She quickly withdrew her hand from under his. "Besides, that's what David's for."

Markus looked at Draco and assessed him once more. Seemingly satisfied that he didn't need to be threatened by Draco's presence, Markus shrugged and turned his attention back to Granger.

Draco stared out the window for several minutes, tuning out what the other man in the room was saying until he heard Granger's slightly raised voice.

"Lunch?" she asked, hesitating.

Draco wondered if she would join him. She looked tired and slightly annoyed with Markus, but after a quick glance at Draco, she accepted his invitation.

She didn't want to go to lunch with Markus. He was very touchy and always got in her personal space. He had asked her out to dinner several times in the past and Hermione had repeatedly but politely refused - but lunch was harder to turn down since it was inevitable she would take one at some point during the day.

Markus was good at his job, which is why she put up with him, but after declining his invitation several times, she thought he would have taken the hint that she wasn't interested in a relationship outside of work. Nonetheless, since she wanted to keep a good working relationship, she agreed to go.

As she stood up she realized this would be a good opportunity to see how Malfoy would interact and work in a public setting. If he wasn't up to it, it would be good to know now, so that they could find a replacement.

Markus followed her to the door and helped her into her coat. When Malfoy stood to follow them, Markus stopped and turned to Hermione.

"Does he have to come with us?"

"Yes, of course. He wouldn't be much of a bodyguard if he wasn't with me all the time."

"What about when you're home?" he asked looking alarmed at the sudden realization.

"'All the time' includes when I'm at home."

Markus looked troubled, maybe even jealous, but she chose to ignore it and headed out the door.

The three of them left the building and headed towards Diagon Alley, Hermione and Markus a few feet ahead of Malfoy, who never let anyone step between her and himself. She hated to admit it, but so far, Malfoy seemed like he knew what he was doing.

Markus chose a French restaurant, claiming he missed the food from Paris already. The hostess sat them at a small table in the back. Malfoy stood by the wall near the table a few feet away. She wondered why he chose to stand instead of sitting in one of the seats.

When the waiter came over to take their order, he threw a sideways look at Malfoy standing against the wall. No one explained, so he took their order and ignored Malfoy. That was odd, but Hermione brushed it off and proceeded to listen to Markus' non-stop prattle.

Hermione was happy when the food arrived; she was hungry and thought it would cut down on the amount of talking Markus could do. He still managed to speak between each bite, which dragged their lunch out longer than she wanted. She was amazed by his ability to keep up the conversation without her participating at all.

Hermione had finished eating and noticed that Markus had only eaten about half of his meal. She spent several minutes silently wishing that there was a way to hurry him up so they could leave. She tried to take over the conversation, but after he interrupted her for the third time so that he could talk about himself some more, she gave up.

She decided instead to look around the restaurant. She watched the staff work and watched the other patrons, and tried hard not to watch Malfoy. But as hard as she tried, she found she couldn't stop glancing at him. He was still standing in the exact position. His legs stood hip-width apart and he had his hand clasped behind his back. He made only the slightest movement when his eyes shifted constantly around the restaurant.

Her attention was brought back to Markus when he mentioned her upcoming trip to Spain and she was grateful for the change in subject. She honestly couldn't recall what he had been talking about previously. Hermione loved that she got to travel for work. Traveling the world was always something she wanted to do, and this job helped accomplish that.

"Will you still be going, given your current situation?" Markus asked.

"I don't think it will be a problem. This account is very important for us. I know the company will be in good hands while I'm gone," she said giving him a weak smile.

After Markus was finally done, he insisted on paying, and they all headed back to the office. Hermione feared Markus would come back to her office, but he admitted he needed to get some work done and Hermione was grateful. Once safely inside her office, she let out a huge sigh as she sat back down at her desk. She was about to pick up the file she was looking at before lunch, when the object of her distraction earlier, once again, caught her attention.

Malfoy was seated again on the couch. He hadn't spoken a word since Markus appeared and she found that strange. Surely he had something to say about the outing they just had, or the very least about Markus. She was expecting judgments and ridicule and found this silent, observing Malfoy to be quite unnerving. She watched as he once again picked up her copy of, Hogwarts, A History, and proceeded to read as if the last hour hadn't happened.

She silently watched him read until, with his eyes still on the page he was on, he said. "I don't know how you plan on getting any work done if you're just going to stare at me."

Her body stiffened like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar, but her shock quickly wore off.

"I'm not used to having someone in my office with me. I'm used to peace and quiet while I work."

"Is my page turning too loud for you? I would've thought you'd find that soothing." Malfoy looked up from the book with his signature smirk in place.

Not wanting to give him the satisfaction of catching her ruffled, she quickly responded, "It's not the quiet that's being disturbed, it's the peace."

"So the only peace you get is when you're alone? I'm sorry to break it to you Granger, but you're in for a really lonely life, then."

"Being alone and being lonely are not the same thing, I like to work alone. There's nothing wrong with that," she huffed.

"If you say so," he replied, as he went back to reading.

It had been a long day assigning tasks and going over the finer details of the case. Harry was keeping his confidence as best he could as he and the others set off in their own directions for the remainder of the day. He sent an owl to Ginny explaining that he would be home late and to not wait up for him.

Justin and Paul had just left to settle into temporary lodgings set up by Sandra. Stanley was somewhere in the Ministry - Harry suspected the café - and Sandra was dutifully still at her desk. Harry often felt badly over the amount of work Sandra had to do as his assistant. Ginny was constantly reminding Harry that not everyone took their work home with them, and that some people had lives outside of the Ministry, but Sandra was always there with a good attitude, and was always very helpful.

Harry knew that he was in for a long night of settling into the case, as he was every time he started a new one. This was his ritual. He would arrange the case information board that would include what they knew so far, and what he wanted to find out. He would pin up a map of important places involved with the case, along with a suspect list, and any other evidence collected. He would then stare at it until he felt he was fully submersed and focused on the case.

Before he got started, he told Sandra that she could head home and he would see her in the morning. She sighed a thank you, knowing very well what Harry was about to do. Not only did she not want to sit around for it, she looked like she wanted to tell him to go home too. She would often chastise him for not returning home at a decent hour to Ginny. Between those two and Hermione, Harry was nagged about putting too much into his job on a regular basis.

As soon as she left Harry grabbed a fresh cup of coffee - courtesy of Sandra - and got to it.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the long delay! I'm really, really, REALLY trying to get these chapters out faster. I hope you are still enjoying it and will stick with me!

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As always, thank you Moot!