Knock. Knock. Knock.

Hermione glanced up from her pile of parchment on her desk and cast a quick charm to display the time. The ghostly image of a miniature grandfather clock floating in front of her face showed that it was twenty minutes after five. Or, as her brain helpfully reminded her, twenty minutes after I was to meet Harry and Ron in the Auror's office.

Two more raps sounded on the door before Hermione released the advanced locking charm on her door. Two men, one black haired and the other red, both with smiles, entered the room.

"I told you we'd have to come fetch her," Ron stated, turning to Harry with a gloating look on his face.

"I never disagreed with you, mate. I realize I'm not the best gambler out there but even I know not to take that bet."

"Yes, please continue talking about me as if I'm not here," Hermione huffed, rearranging her assorted parchments to organise herself for the following Monday.

Ron nudged her shoulder with his own. "Aw, come on, Hermione. Don't tell me you're in a foul mood already. I haven't even beaten you yet!"

By that, Ron of course meant that she hadn't bested him at a board game yet. It was the last Friday of the month, after all, which meant she, Ron, Harry and Ginny would be participating in their recurring board game night. They played a mix of magical and muggle board and card games, taking turns making recommendations for each month.

This was all done non-competitively and in good fun, so naturally Hermione was keeping a detailed score in her head, and Ron was winning. He seemed to have unnaturally good luck at both magical and muggle games alike.

Thankfully it was Harry's turn to select a game this month, so she didn't need to worry about Ron choosing something he was even more lucky at than usual.

"I am not in a foul mood," she clarified tersely. She saw both Harry and Ron share a look that said they didn't quite believe her, but she ignored it in favour of finishing tidying her desk. A few moments later, just as she was placing the last piece of parchment on a precariously balanced pile at the corner of her desk, Ron groaned "Finally" before leaving Hermione's office and starting down the hallway. Hermione rushed to follow, her much shorter legs moving briskly to try to keep up with the boys.

They took the lift down to the atrium and made their way towards the Floo. Hermione was balancing walking with shuffling and rearranging items in her bag trying to locate the bottle of wine and box of chocolate truffles that she'd bought to supplement Ginny's sure-to-be-delicious snack plate. She was startled when a new voice sounded over her.

"Potter. Weasley. Granger." Did she imagine the inflection on her name? "It's nearly half past. I was wondering if your invitation to 'game night' was just an excuse to make me stand in front of the floo for twenty minutes like an idiot."

Hermione peered up through her eyelashes and took in the sight of Draco Malfoy. His blond hair was brushed back and fell to the top of his neck. His broad shoulders were holding up a delicate black set of robes which covered a pressed fitted white shirt and black trousers.

Her cheeks burned with the knowledge that she had examined Malfoy's appearance in far greater detail than she had anyone else that day, and that she had been doing so regularly for the past several months.

"I wish we had planned it," Ron said. "But you can blame Hermione here for being late."

"It may surprise you to hear that she tends to have trouble leaving her desk on time, even on Friday evenings," Harry added, playfully jabbing her in her side. She was so distracted by her visual appraisal of Malfoy's physical appearance that she became unbalanced and nearly fell over.

"Of the many things that might surprise me about Granger, being tied to her desk is not one of them," Malfoy drawled, one eyebrow raised and directed at Hermione.

She didn't think it was possible for her cheeks to burn even more brightly than they already were, but the visual image her brain floated before her at his particular choice of words proved her wrong.

"Let's go," she squeaked as she passed by all three men and grabbed a handful of Floo powder from the wall. She eked out a quick "12 Grimmauld Place" before jumping into the flames and leaving the Ministry (and the conversation) behind.

She spotted Ginny as soon as she stepped through, and the redhead greeted her warmly.

"Hermione! I was wondering when you were going to show up. I assumed it was probably you holding everyone up."

Hermione left the fireplace to allow space for the others to come through. She awkwardly and socially ineptly grabbed the wine and chocolates that were now neatly at the top of her bag and pressed them into Ginny's hands just as the young woman asked "Are the boys coming?"

Hermione nearly dropped the bottle and package onto the floor. 'Am I absolutely depraved, or is everyone choosing their words on purpose tonight?'

Ginny's strange look and careful backing away let Hermione know it was probably all her.

"Erm, yes, they're just behind me."

Seriously, Hermione.

As soon as she finished speaking, the fireplace roared behind her letting Ron, Harry, and Malfoy all in one after the other.

Although this wasn't the first time Hermione had seen Malfoy inside the Potter residence since they all started working for the Ministry, it still felt jarring to see his pale blond features contrasting against the warmth and comfort of the fully renovated 12 Grimmauld Place.

After cloaks were removed and greetings shared, the group eventually settled down on the sofas surrounding the central wooden table in the living room. Hermione's bottle of wine joined at least two others waiting on standby, while plates of meats, cheeses, fruits, and crackers surrounded the table within easy reach of all participants.

Hermione was sat beside Ron, and Ginny and Harry were also seated together. Malfoy sat alone in the single armchair pulled up beside Hermione's end of the sofa.

"So Harry, what'll it be tonight?" Ron's words were barely discernible around the assortment of food morsels stuffed in his mouth. Hermione scrunched her face, not noticing the mirrored look on Malfoy's face as well.

Harry leaned back into the sofa and wrapped an arm around his wife, completely oblivious to Ron's lack of manners. "Honestly I haven't even given it any thought. The idea of Molly watching the kids tonight was exciting enough for me, I barely even care what we pick."

Ron, always opportunistic when it came to winning their completely non competitive board game tradition, cleverly suggested (this time clear of chewing) "How about we start things off with a little Exploding Snap?"

An hour (and several singed fingertips) later, the excitement over Exploding Snap died down and they lapsed into the familiar casual conversation that always grew in between game sessions.

"So tell me Hermione, how have things been at the Ministry lately?" Ginny's questioning eyes peered up over the rim of her wine glass, darting between Hermione and Malfoy far too obviously for Hermione's liking.

"Fine," Hermione replied tersely, taking a rather large swallow from her own glass.

"Been better than fine, haven't they? Aren't you always coming around and going on about this case and that case and how you're solving problems that've been shelved for years?" Ron gave her a questioning look - apparently giving odd looks was a Weaskley trait.

Hermione was impressed with Ron for recalling her tales of solved problems and how it was progressing her eventual goal of working in the Department of Mysteries, however she was also mortified recalling the true incentive for sharing those stories in the Auror department within earshot of certain blond man with a somehow endearing penchant for snark.

"Erm, yes. Better than fine. Things are… going really well, actually."

"Well that's great," Harry chimed, suspiciously jovial with a glint in his eye. "I'm really glad things are going so well for you at work, because I'm guessing things are about to be going a little less well for you here in a few minutes."

Hermione groaned. Ron beamed.

"Oh no, Harry, tell me you didn't-"

"Oh I did."

"Good on ya, mate. Serves her for holding us up earlier, yeah?" Ron's grin, normally contagious, made Hermione want to hit him.

Ginny joined the volley with "But I thought you said you hadn't chosen anything?"

Harry grinned to match Ron. "Oh, I hadn't until I had to march down the hallway at twenty after five to pull a certain someone away from their desk for about the twelfth time this week."

Hermione couldn't help it. "You couldn't have been in the hallway at twenty after five twelve time in a single work week-"

Harry interrupted her interjection with an "Accio Monopoly."

The board game box floated deceptively gently down the stairs and settled itself pleasantly onto the table. Milburn Pennybags' smile and rounded features attempted to lull Hermione into a false sense of security, as if this game wouldn't be the same old friendship testing monstrosity it always was.

Draco's voice sounded for the first time since they stopped playing Exploding Snap. "I take it this is one of your muggle games?" With an all-knowing and completely appraising look at Hermione, he continued "One that Weasley seems to be good at and, therefore, Granger hates?"

"You got it!" Harry announced cheerfully, waving his wand to open the board and settle all the pieces down onto it.

Since Harry was the one who picked the game, that meant it was also his job to explain the rules to anyone who might not have played before. He went through the basic rules of the game, talked about a couple of house rules such as taxes and fines going to the Free Parking Space ("Hermione, I don't care that it just makes the game drag on longer, it's fun to land on it and get rich."), discussed the role of the banker and how they'd developed a charm to replace that function ("No Ginny, you're the whole reason we made the charm in the first place to keep you from cheating, you're not allowed to be banker."), and finally shared that you were the winner if you were able to bankrupt all of the other players on the board.

"So you got all that?" Harry checked with Malfoy as he handed out the pieces to the players. Hermione got the thimble, which she promptly transfigured into her normal token representation of her otter patronus.

Malfoy smirked. "Potter, I've essentially been playing by these rules in my real life since I was born. I'm pretty sure I can manage to bankrupt you lot in my sleep." He paused for a moment after seeing not only Hermione but also everyone else transfiguring their tokens into animals. "Something wrong with the pieces that came with the game?" he asked.

"Nothing's wrong with them," Harry answered. "We just got into the habit of changing them into our Patronuses. Helps us remember who's who when we can be the same piece across multiple games. And adds a bit of fun to the board," he finished, making his pewter stag do a little hop and dance when he placed it on the GO space.

Malfoy picked up the small token of a bag of money and smirked. "Suppose I can follow along in the tradition." He transfigured it into a curled up dragon, and when he placed it on the board it puffed out a ball of smoke and shifted in its spot, settling back around the bag of money it was protecting in its hoard.

"Your patronus is not a dragon," Ron stated matter of factly.

"Have you seen it?" Draco asked, eyebrow raised.

"No, but it's not a dragon."

"Okay. Sure."

Hermione stayed silent, watching the dragon continue to curl around its precious treasure and playfully puff smoke towards her otter.

"Well everyone," Harry announced, clutching the dice in his hands and shaking them. "Ready to play Monopoly?"

Two hours into the game and Hermione was just as frustrated as she knew she would be. She had a total of four properties, none of them a complete set, and was currently sitting in jail.

Predictably Ron was doing fairly well. He'd managed to collect the set of green properties and had a couple of houses on them. Harry and Ginny were somewhere in the middle; less than Ron but better than Hermione.

Malfoy, however, had just landed on the coveted Mayfair spot and had completed his set, promptly building three houses on each.

"Oi, how do you have enough money to build all that?" Ron asked, starting to realize his time in the game may be shorter than normal.

"By spending it smartly and investing the rest into high-return options," Malfoy answered succinctly. "Or, because both of the Potters were ever so gracious as to land on my Fleet Street and Trafalgar Square spots, one with three houses and one with four."

Hermione looked at her hand with sparse bills and even sparser properties and thought perhaps she was glad to be in jail. At least that way she didn't have to pay any rent.

True to form, not long after getting out of jail and adding a £50 note to the Free Parking spot as a result of a chance card, she managed to land on Trafalgar Square, which was one of Malfoy's owned properties.

"I'm done," she announced, showing her sparse hand of assorted mostly low bills and not coveted properties.

"Oh come on now, see if you can strike up a deal with Malfoy to stay in the game!" Harry encouraged with a smirk. He knew she hated all of the game tweaks that made the game last longer and prolong the long, torturous loss she always experienced.

"The rules say if I can't pay it then I'm out," she protested, looking forward to being done with the game and going back to giving her glass of wine her full attention.

"Oh come on, Granger," Malfoy coaxed. "In real life there is always room for negotiation in situations like 're not out until both parties have explored what you have to offer."

Calm down, brain, he didn't mean it like that.

"Fine," she huffed. "To pay your - what was it? - oh yes, your £925 rent, I offer you one mortgaged Old Kent Road, Kings Cross Station, and a whopping additional £120. Sound like a fair trade?"

"Done," he said immediately, reaching over the arm of his chair to collect her properties and money. "Pleasure doing business with you, Granger."

She looked at him flabbergasted for several seconds, not sure why he took her paltry deal or why her brain insisted on warping everything that came out of that man's mouth into some sort of suggestive innuendo.

"That's not even fair," whined Ron.

Hermione agreed.

Another hour had passed. Harry and Ginny were long since out of the game, having accidentally landed on Ron's newly built hotel one after the other. They hung around for a while before deciding that it was getting late and perhaps they had better head to bed, they were used to going to sleep early with the children and all, etc., etc. Hermione hadn't heard anything since they'd left, but she supposed that was more likely due to the strength of their silencing charms than it was any discretion on their part.

Ron spent several rounds gloating until he landed on Malfoy's Park Lane with hotel and quietly passed over the £1500 rent.

Hermione, in a strange stroke of luck she was certain to never see again, happened to land on Go and Free Parking in her last trip around, recouping some of the cash she had lost in her desperate transaction with Malfoy earlier.

Malfoy was sitting on a pile of cash, he wasn't even organising it anymore. It just sat in one chaotic pile in front of him, nearly toppling over onto his equally impressive mound of properties. Hermione was certain the bag of money his dragon token was protecting had gotten bigger; it now looked like the dragon's coiled body could barely manage to wrap around it, needing its wings for extra support.

It was Ron's turn again, and before Hermione could even see the number that showed on the pips she heard him bellow "Fuck."

She watched him wave his wand and his little terrier trotted over to Mayfair, sat down, looked at the hotel, and promptly started running in panicked circles on the square.

"£2000, please," Malfoy said transactionally.

Ron counted his money futilely. Hermione saw one £100 note and not much else. He looked through his properties, all of which had no houses and some of which were already mortgaged. After some back and forth where Ron offered various blends of cash and properties and Malfoy consistently denied the deal, Ron eventually admitted defeat.

"Fine. I'll take the loss this time. I suppose my winning streak had to end eventually."

Hermione learned not only was she irritated when Ron won, apparently she was also irritated that he was such a good sport when he lost.

Ron handed over all of his properties to Malfoy and finite-d the spell on his terrier, watching as it turned back into the shoe he'd started with. He took a look at his watch and gave a low whistle. "It's late. I didn't realise we were at that game for so long!"

He turned to Hermione and gave her a quick and brief hug around her shoulders. "As much fun as it would be to stay a bit longer to watch Malfoy take you for everything you've got" - Hermione choked - "I've seen you get beaten at this game many times before and I've got Quidditch practice in the morning, so I'd best be off."

And with that, the fireplace blazed again and it was just Hermione and Malfoy left in the living room.

Hermione gulped.

"Well, shall we?" she asked dumbly, vaguely waving her hands towards the board where her little otter was hugging itself and shaking looking at the towering houses and hotels around it.

"After you."

They rolled a couple of more turns where nothing of interest happened other than paying a little tax and receiving some dividends.

Then Hermione rolled the roll. The one that was going to doom her to being the near winner but ultimately the loser of the game. She saw her otter bravely approach the towering hotel on Piccadilly, and then promptly cover its head and cower when it stopped. Draco's dragon flicked its tail patiently as it eyed the tiny otter from its regal place among the posh hotels of Park Lane.

She looked at her hand. She had no properties left, two £1 notes and a single £20 note, and one 'Get Out of Jail Free' card. She looked up at Draco and, in a distinctly different approach than Ron, complained "But I was so close to winning! I never get this far!"

One might suggest that the reason she hated Ron's gracious losing so much was because she, in fact, was a distinctly sore loser herself.

"You haven't lost yet," Malfoy noted.

"It's £1200! I don't have anywhere near that with everything I own combined!"

"Come now, Granger. I know the Ministry pays poorly, but surely you have more than £1200 stowed somewhere."

Hermione scoffed. "Are you suggesting I pay you with real money to win the game?"

Malfoy chuckled. "No, I'm not suggesting that. I am, however, suggesting that perhaps you have other things to offer outside of the regular game mechanics to help you secure the victory you so desperately desire."

It really wasn't just her, was it? It wasn't possible to misconstrue so many innuendos in one night, right? Desperately desire, really?

"Like what?" she asked. She was sure the look on her face was similar to the panicked expression she saw on her otter just seconds before.

"There's always room for negotiation. Why don't you propose something?"

Hermione felt the panic rise in her chest. Suggest something outside of the game? To help secure what I desperately desire? She thought over the events of the night. The looks she thought she spotted from Malfoy, the countless innuendo, allowing her to escape defeat so early in the game by taking an awfully unfair trade. Was it really possible that she was reading into so many things? She liked to think of herself as a clever witch; a progressive witch, who wasn't afraid to go after what she wanted. Who was she to stop that now?

"A kiss," she suggested, squaring her shoulders and meeting his gaze. If she was going to proposition him so boldly, she sure as hell was going to do it proudly and to his face. "I'll trade you half of my money, one Get Out of Jail Free card, and one kiss for your £1200 rent."

She swore she saw something change in his eyes when he gave his reply.

"No deal."

She deflated. So she was wrong. She must have imagined everything over the course of the night, that's not what he was after at all. Now she'd gone and mucked things up, surely making every meeting at the Ministry from here on out terribly awkward and-

"Three kisses."

What?

"Three kisses and your Get Out of Jail Free Card, and I will forfeit the game and declare you the undisputed winner."

Her cheeks bloomed, both with the idea of kissing Malfoy but also, admittedly, in excitement at the idea of winning the game even though it would be by less than rule based means.

She sealed her fate with a single word.

"Deal."