Chapter Twenty One

The notebook remained empty and the next several days passed uneventfully, which was a very good thing since her office was dealing with several large cases which demanded much of her time.

That was, until a knock came from her office door and she looked up to find June with Theodore Nott behind her looking apologetic.

"Let me guess" she sighed, sitting back in her seat once she had sent June away and they were alone "You're leaving?"

He closed the door behind him and slid into the chair across from her desk. "Apparently there's a tomb in Paraguay the Curse Breakers are working on and they've stumbled upon some rather interesting coins."

"How long will you be away?" Hermione asked rubbing the bridge of her nose,

"Are you going to miss me? Don't worry darling I won't be gone for long" he teased.

She shot him a look and he grinned "I'll only be gone for a week, Hermione."

Apparently her and Theodore were now using first names as well.

"Fine." she grumbled. "When is Blaise coming back?" She asked. Theo shrugged.

"Mum's doing alright in France right now, I don't think Blaise is in any rush to bring her back here. Though I know Draco would prefer it." he added taking out a large silver coin to roll across his knuckles.

"How is he? Malfoy I mean" Hermione asked. She hadn't heard from any of them since she had given Malfoy the notebook.

"He's alright, he'd never admit it but he's not sleeping well. He misses Mum and Blaise."

"He bought some calming draughts for when I'm gone" He saw the look on Hermione's face. "He'll need them." He told her seriously. "We used a new supplier for this batch and we're fairly confident that they are safe."

Hermione was not reassured, "Didn't the potion that nearly killed him also seem safe to you three?"

Theo pretended not to hear her. "I leave today, I just wanted to let you know so you can check on Draco. I'll send you an owl if I can leave the site early but otherwise it should be just a week. I'll let you know once I'm back and can relieve you of Draco Duty."

He flipped the coin back into his pocket and hopped to his feet. "Right, I'm off, I need to go to my office to grab my gear. Oh! I almost forgot, this is Draco's address in case you need to get there, the wards will let you through when I'm not there." He scrawled an address on the back on one of the pieces of parchment that littered her desk. "Catch you later Hermione" He sent her a mock salute.

"Safe travels Theo." she told him.

"Blaise was right. It is much nicer when you use our proper names." He grinned at her from the door and disappeared.

Foreboding hung over Hermione for the rest of the day. Once home from work she flipped the notebook open and stared at it for a bit, willing Malfoy to write something so she knew he was fine and could get on with her evening.

She was so distracted, checking the notebook every few minutes, that she burned her supper and had to order take away.

Finally sick of waiting, Hermione picked up her pen and wrote first.

Malfoy. Just making sure you are alive and didn't take one of those stupid potions Theo told me you bought. If you give me a couple days I can make a few calming draughts and send them to you so you know they are safe. H.G.

Malfoy wrote back nearly as soon as the ink had disappeared from her side.

Granger. You are essentially legal counsel at this point, I am not paying you to make me potions, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. D.M.

Hermione bit back a frustrated sigh.

Malfoy. The fact that Blaise and Theo needed to call me last time you decided to "capably take care of yourself" would beg to differ with your previous statement. H.G.

She got up from the table and poured herself a cup of tea, clearly Malfoy was going to be pig-headed about this whole situation.

Blaise and Theo? Getting a little too comfortable with Death Eaters aren't you? Is Stockholm Syndrome kicking in that quickly? D.M

Malfoy. Kindly fu-

She stopped herself, took a breath and started again. She could practically see Malfoy's smirk at getting a rise out of her.

Don't be jealous just because they are polite and get first name privileges. If you don't want my assistance with the potions, please let me know if you're planning on taking anything so I can make sure you don't die. It would be rather unfortunate after I went through so much trouble to keep you breathing and it would make Blasie and Theo sad. H.G

Several minutes ticked by with no response and Hermione wondered if maybe she had gone too far bringing up his near death experience.

Granger. Fine. I promise to tell you if I take anything. Happy? D.M

Malfoy. I'm serious. If you need to take them please let me test them properly at least. H.G

Are you that anxious to get back into my house and see me? Really Granger, people will start to think you're obsessed with me. D.M

Hermione could feel her teeth grinding in frustration and tried to loosen her jaw. Maybe the real magic of the Malfoy bloodline was their ability to annoy you.

Malfoy. If I hadn't promised Theo to check in on you I wouldn't be writing to you. For his sake can we please Try to be civil this week? I will check my notebook at noon and at eight in the evening. Don't try to ignore my messages, the notebooks are charmed to alert you to a new message so I will know you know I wrote. H.G

Granger. Well that's just charming. Only you could invent something as annoying as you are. I'm going to bed, stop bloody writing at me. D.M

Hermione had to force herself not to throw the book at the wall. It was only for the week.

The next day at noon Hermione opened the book and took a deep breath.

Malfoy. Still alive? H.G.

Minutes ticked by and she began to frown. He hadn't been stupid enough to take something last night had he? When Ginny and her wrote to one another the notebook would make a small chirping noise and then fall silent. However, as she had been less confident that Malfoy would respond she had made his notifications somewhat more… noticeable.

These notebooks were a clever bit of magic if she did say so herself. A mix of Tom Riddle's Diary and a muggle cell phone. She had to employ more fail safes for Malfoy's version than the one she used with Ginny. If he read the message but didn't respond the little snake she had drawn on his pages would turn green to let her know he at least read the message but if he didn't read the message-

FOR FUCKS SAKE GRANGER! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!

Ah. Apparently he had ignored the book's more gentle reminders he had an unread note.

I'll take that as a yes. H.G.

I HAVE LISTENED TO BANSHEE'S SCREAM QUIETER THAN THIS DAMN BOOK! HOW- WHY THE HELL DID YOU MAKE IT DO THAT?!

Hermione couldn't help but grin.

If you didn't ignore my message it wouldn't have gone off. I take it you're alive and well then? H.G

Granger, I was sleeping!

Malfoy. Get up at a reasonable time like the rest of us peasants. I told you I would be checking in with you at noon and at 8pm. Now that I know you're alive feel free to go get your beauty sleep, you certainly need it. I'll message you at eight. H.G.

There was no response but the pictoraph snake was green. She went through the rest of the day with an extra spring in her step.

Hermione was making dinner, singing along to her radio and dancing with a tolerant Crookshanks around her kitchen when her notebook chimed. She checked the clock frowning, it was only six thirty five. Why was he messaging her? She rummaged through her bag and opened the notebook

Granger. I'm bored. D.

This time Hermione did throw the notebook, it bounced off the wall and flopped onto the couch. She left it there to go check on her salmon. The notebook continued to chime as she finished preparing her dinner and sat down to eat. It chimed as she cleaned the dishes and poured herself a slightly larger glass of wine than she usually would. It chimed as she fed Crookshanks. Finally she marched over and scooped up the notebook and took it to the table.

Malfoy. These are for me to check that you are alive and for emergencies. NOT so you can bother me when you're bored. H.G

Granger. I don't know what you consider an emergency but my boredom should qualify. D.M

Before Hermione could think of a scathing reply Malfoy wrote back.

I was going to see if you had any ideas about how to alter Dreamless Sleep. D.M

Hermione nibbled on her pen, she had done quite a bit of work on the preliminary theories behind a few changes to the potion which she had been meaning to go over with him eventually, it couldn't hurt to tell him the main points of her research.

What was supposed to be a quick rundown of what she was thinking turned into a two hour long discussion.

Hermione was surprised that when Malfoy wasn't insulting her or being rude, at least as far as theoretical potion making was concerned, he was fairly decent to talk to.

Over the next several days her and Malfoy fell into an tentative routine. She made sure he was alive on her lunch breaks and then they would write for an hour or so in the evenings after dinner before Hermione would turn in.

Apparently Theo had basically put him under house arrest since no one knew he was in England at the moment and that meant he had a lot of time on his hands and no one to talk to. They talked mainly about potions which seemed to be a neutral zone where they could argue and discuss without it being weird.

Hermione noticed that Draco really didn't sleep much, she was alwaysthe firat one to call it a night during their talks. But when she asked him about it she got a snarky reply about how it wasn't her job to monitor his sleeping habits and he didn't need her worrying about him so she let it be.