A/N: any Italian translations will be found at the bottom of this chapter.

Chapter Five

London

"Well. You two have certainly done it now. You attacked Granger." Draco groaned as he sat sprawled in one of Theo's plush leather chairs, the heels of his hands pressed against his eyes.

"In our defence she was eavesdropping. I must not have closed the door all the way when I came in or she wouldn't have been able to get around the wards…" Theo was pacing nervously. "Sidebar, Draco. Your reflexes are shit. No wonder they've got the jump on you before."

"If you recall, the last time I got attacked I was at the opera with my mother. I couldn't exactly start a brawl in the middle of Les Troyens." Draco snapped.

"Accidenti! Can't you two be quiet? She will be up any moment and we have to choose how to handle this mess before she wakes up." Blaise was crouched by the settee where Hermione now lay unconscious checking her pulse against Theo's antique pocket watch.

Moments before they had been discussing going for a drink and then Draco had opened the door and someone had fallen into Draco's arms.

Reflexively Theo and Blaise had sent stunners at the person,turning them into dead weight. which then threw Draco off balance and sent them sprawling in a tangle to the floor.

Blaise had thrown himself into the frey, dragged Draco from under the limp form of his attacker and frantically checking him for injury as Draco attempted to fend him off.

Nott, his wand still trained on the figure, had flipped them over with his foot. The blood had drained from his face and he had nudged Blaise's shoulder. "Blaise. We've got trouble."

"Sei un rompicoglioni! You think I don't see that?! Basta!" Only somewhat convinced Draco was not in mortal peril Blaise had sent a quick angry glare at the crumpled form and then did a double take.

Draco pushed Blaise's hands away and scrambled off the floor. They stood in a semi circle looking down at probably the last person they expected or wanted to see unconscious on the green turkish rug of Theo's office.

After the initial shock had worn off Blaise had scooped her up and deposited her on the settee while Theo and Draco began arguing.

"We need a plan." Blaise said firmly. "We need to agree on how to manage this rather unfortunate encounter. Cosa ne pensa?"

"Apologise profusely and try to explain this was an accident? " Offered Theo.

"Surrender ourselves to Azkaban to save Granger time and the paperwork?" Sighed Draco.

"Convince her that this was all a figment of her imagination and she's crazy?" Theo said hopefully.

"Chuck ourselves out the window?" Draco suggested.

"Draco. Vecchio mio. You are not helping." Blaise said exasperated.

Hermione stirred on the couch ever so slightly and the three immediately fell silent. When she didn't move again Blaise ushered the other two to the far corner.

"Granger works in the customs offices at the ministry. Draco, don't look so surprised, some of us keep up with where the important players are and what they are doing. If she's here, on the weekend then she was following Theo specifically since I highly doubt she's interested in his coin collections. No offence. She must have found something in the paperwork. Figlio di puttana." Blaise ran a hand through his hair, nervously glancing at the woman on the couch.

"It's Granger. I can't bribe her. She's got all those morals and rules. So my usual fix for the situation won't work. " Draco shrugged.

"I don't suppose she'd believe us if we told her the truth?" Theo suggested. Draco shot him a withering glare.

"Patatino mio. Granger isn't going to help us." Blaise snorted.

"We don't have to tell her the whole truth. Just that we're the ones behind the shop, we knew people wouldn't support it if they knew three death eaters were behind it. From a business point of view it would make sense to her." Theo argued. "And the best lies are lies of omission."

Blaise glanced at Draco "you know how much it pains me to agree with him but Theo's got a point.."

"No. He doesn't." Snapped Draco. "This is Granger, not just any nitwit from the ministry. She's going to have more questions. Like why do we need a new potions shop? Why does it take all three of us to back something if it's innocent and why are we obviously trying to hide our involvement? What's our end goal? All of us are rich enough without doing this for money or pride. Do you two geniuses have any answers ready for her?"

Blaise and Theo looked at him in silence, clearly thinking. Then Theo snapped his fingers and turned to Blaise. "We'll tell her that Draco is looking to open his own potions business and needs to have an established supply chain. Since he's a former death eater the odds of having untampered supplies for his venture is pretty minimal"

"Eccolo! As his best friends we're supporting his venture. We're setting up the store so it doesn't have a direct connection to him so it doesn't look suspicious, which explains why we're all involved and why we're trying to keep it quiet." Blaise said excitedly.

"You bested her at potions every single year at Hogwarts Draco, she will be inclined to believe you want to work in potions. As a bonus it's not like that's an actual lie. We Are doing this to make potions." Theo offered as Draco looked unconvinced.

"It also keeps madre out of it." Blaise pushed quietly and Draco's shoulders slumped.

"It's not like I have a better idea, she'll be awake any moment as it is." Draco sighed. "Let's hope your little plan works, I'd hate to obliviate the brightest witch in a century."

A/N: I'm still trying to decide between putting the translations in parenthesis or just at the bottom/top of the chapters. If you have opinions for ease of reading please let me know!

Accidenti- Damn it.
Sei un rompicoglioni! - A pain in the ass
Basta- Enough
Cosa ne pensa?- What do you think?
Vecchio mio- old friend
Figlio di puttana- son of a bitch
Patatino mio- my pumpkin/my potato (an Italian term of endearment usually for a child)
Eccolo- That's it! Or Here it is!