Hermione's desk was littered with letters the next morning and she groaned as soon as she got into her office. "Claire, I'm probably going to be extremely busy again today; please make sure no one bothers me!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
After shutting the door behind her and setting her bag down on the couch in her office, she paced back and forth for a few minutes before sighing. "Alright. Let's just get this over with."
The next hour was spent going through all of the worried letters she had received and organizing them, before staring down at the last letter that was on her desk. It was in a black envelope closed with a silver wax seal, and she grimaced as soon as she saw the crest on the seal.
"If this is a bloody list..." She muttered as she ripped open the envelope, quickly skimming the words that were written in beautiful black scrollwork.
Dearest Granger,
You will find my list of recommended potion brewers in this envelope. I hope you make a decision quickly, since you and I both know the potion takes a few days to brew and I'm sure your other clients are wanting an update as well.
Best wishes,
Draco Malfoy
She glared down at the letter before tossing it off to the side, pulling the other papers out of the envelope and unfolding them. She recognized quite a few different names on his list from her own, but there were some that were new. After looking over the list for a few moments, she carefully set it aside and decided to spend the rest of the day researching the brewers on Draco's list.
Of course, that would have to wait until she finished responding to all of her clients' letters.
A knock around lunchtime brought her out of her headspace and she looked up to see Ron standing in the doorway. "I was wondering if you wanted to go get lunch?"
Her stomach growled as she remembered that she hadn't eaten breakfast. "Yeah! Just give me a moment to clean up here and we can go."
He nodded and slowly walked in, watching her as she put all of her papers together. His eyes wandered all over her desk even though he knew he wasn't allowed to know who her clients were, and he stopped when he saw the black envelope on the floor.
"What's this?" He asked, kneeling down to pick it up and inspect it.
She froze when she saw what he was holding and she quickly said, "Oh, that's just an envelope from someone I am working with right now. Here."
He turned it over to see the wax seal when there was no return address, and ignored Hermione's extended hand. "Wait, I've seen this from somewhere..."
Hermione quickly grabbed the envelope from him and glared. "Ron, you know you're not supposed to look into who my clients are."
He raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything as she shoved the envelope with the rest of her papers into her drawers and locked the desk. She made sure to silently add a few more charms onto the desk just in case and grabbed her bag.
"Where were you thinking of for lunch?" She asked then, moving out from behind her desk.
Ron shrugged as his hands went into his pockets and his mouth formed a thin line. "I was just thinking of taking you somewhere nice, honestly. Kind of an apology for yesterday's behavior."
"That sounds good," She said with a smile.
He smiled in return and kissed her cheek before leading her out of the office and waiting for her to lock the door.
"Claire, you can go to lunch if you'd like," She said as she passed her assistant's desk. "I'll be out for about an hour, hour and a half."
Claire nodded and not too long after, Hermione and Ron were walking slowly down the sidewalk together. Ron was talking to her about a new case that he had been assigned to, since he wasn't on the team that was investigating her potion brewer's murder.
"Something about conflict of interests," He sighed as he explained. "Harry tried to convince the Head Auror, Daniels, but the guy was not budging. Oh well; I'm excited about this mission too."
"That's good!" Hermione said, looking up at him. "Do you have to do any sort of travelling for this one?"
"Most likely," He nodded. "Not sure exactly when yet, but hopefully I'll find out soon."
"Yes, considering our anniversary is coming up soon," She said, nudging him playfully.
"Has it been a year already?" He asked in shock as he led her into the restaurant. "Merlin, that flew by!"
Her shoulders dropped slightly when that was all he said, but she became distracted by the fact that standing in the lobby of the restaurant was none other than Draco Malfoy. He was accompanied by a very beautiful woman who was hanging off his arm and also hanging onto nearly every word that Draco was saying.
Ron paused when he saw the blond head, who had looked up at the two of them. His mouth drew up into a smirk when he saw Hermione and Ron together, and he said, "Well, well! I certainly wasn't expecting to see the two of you here!"
"What's that supposed to mean, Malfoy?" Ron growled.
Draco simply shrugged. "Just that I figured that between her getting a massive workload with the recent news and you being an Auror, you two don't have much time to spend together."
Ron then looked over at Hermione with a questioning look that was borderline suspicious. "How does he know about your work?"
Hermione opened and closed her mouth, unsure of how to answer. But then Ron looked between the two of them before turning back to Hermione and saying, "I knew I recognized that envelope's seal from somewhere; that was the Malfoy crest! What's he doing writing to you?!"
"Oh don't be thick, Weaselbee," Draco growled suddenly.
She looked over at him and was caught off guard by the sudden rage in Draco's eyes, but Draco hid it well as he shifted his weight and nodded towards the woman on his arm. "Hermione is simply helping me with an employee issue."
Ron glared over at him. "I don't see why you need to send her letters then."
"It was one letter with information I had that she needed," Draco said simply. "And in case you haven't noticed, I have someone of my own so I have no need to go after your wife."
The woman gave them a nervous look and looked down at the ground, visibly uncomfortable with the exchange they were all having. Hermione shifted as well and looked away from everyone, feeling her cheeks burn from embarrassment. They had gained quite a few looks from the people in the restaurant who were very interested in the raised voices in the lobby.
"Ron, let's just go, please," Hermione said quietly, looking away.
Draco watched as she turned away and Ron followed, wrapping an arm around his wife as he shot one last glare at Draco. The blond sneered at Ron after Hermione had turned away, and he wasn't quite sure why he didn't want Hermione to see it but he would figure that out later.
"I'm sorry about that," He said then to his current girlfriend, Simone.
"That was rather awkward," Simone said in a clear voice, looking up at him with a raised eyebrow. "Care to explain what that was about?"
He shrugged as they were led away towards their table. "They are old acquaintances of mine from Hogwarts."
"Acquaintances generally don't speak to each other like that," She said observantly. "You all knew each other, didn't you?"
He flashed her a brief smile as he looked her over. She had the lucky fortune of coming over from America and not having to deal with the horrors that had occurred nearly five years earlier. She was gorgeous, of course. All of his girlfriends were. He was going to be sad to let this one go once the full moon came around again; he never liked having a girlfriend around that time.
"Yes, we knew each other," He said quietly. Then he straightened up in the chair and said, "No more of that for right now; I'd rather not talk about them."
She smiled, flashing her brilliantly white teeth as she opened her mouth to say something. The server suddenly appeared though, interrupting her.
"What can I get for the two of you?"
"Steak," Draco answered immediately. "Rare, please."
Simone raised a perfectly arched eyebrow up at him but said, "I'll have the chicken breast with a side salad, please."
The server nodded and disappeared again and she looked back over to Draco, noticing that he was lost in thought about something and staring off behind her.
"Is everything alright?" She asked, reaching over to take his hand.
"Hm?" He looked back up and smiled at her. "Oh, yes. Sorry, was just thinking about something."
"Must've been something important," She laughed.
Draco shrugged and said, "Not really."
In truth, he was actually thinking about what had happened earlier between the other two. He did not like the fact that Weasley practically jumped down her throat about the letter that he had sent, or how he seemed to instantly blame Granger for it. And the look in her eyes...it wasn't one he expected her to have. Regardless of how he thought of her, he knew she was a strong witch. But that look made it seem like she had given up.
"...maybe take a trip this weekend?"
He was brought out of his thoughts and looked back over to his girlfriend, who was watching him intently with another eyebrow raised. That seemed to be her favorite look recently, and it annoyed the hell out of him. Maybe it wouldn't be so hard breaking it off with her.
"Sorry dear, I was thinking about a business meeting I'm having later this afternoon," He said quickly. "Can you repeat that?"
She scoffed and rolled her eyes slightly. "I knew you weren't listening. You were still thinking about those two earlier, weren't you?"
"And what reason would I have to think of them?" He asked in a calm voice.
"Well, I have to admit, the woman was very pretty..."
Draco let out a bark of laughter that caught the attention of a few people around them. "Granger is not pretty. She's average at best. Her intelligence makes up for it though."
Why did he just say that? It wasn't necessarily a lie, since he had always respected her intelligence. And while he couldn't deny that she had definitely grown into herself and was no longer the buck-toothed girl with the crazy mess of hair, she was still an averagely beautiful woman.
He shook that thought away immediately and looked back over at Simone, who was now looking off past him at something. "You know what?"
She looked back over at him curiously. "What?"
"Why don't we take a trip this weekend?" He said, reaching for his glass. "Where would you like to go?"