Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

A Match Made In Convenience	By : ErisNight Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 47190 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 9
Disclaimer: The entire universe of Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. I make no profit from writing these stories. I am only borrowing her inventions for my fiction.

Chapter List
- 12
- 13
- 14
A/N:

So it's midnight where I am and do you know what that means to me?? It's officially Wednesday and time for an update! If you can't tell, I cannot wait to share the later chapters with you! Granted I still have to write most of them, but I'm ahead of the game and can't wait because the best is soon to come!!

Review Replies, Discussion as well as a CHAPTER 14 SPOILER are posted at :http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php/topic/49940-a-match-made-in-convenience-review-replies-and-discussion/

Here is Chapter 13: Clandestine Realizations

Ginny came into the room and narrowed her eyes at the sight of Luna’s hand on top of Harry’s. She crossed her arms and frowned at Malfoy who had been placing dishes into the sink. The blonde wizard only sighed and turned his back on her. Harry felt his erection wane immediately at the arrival of his girlfriend and he quickly slipped his hand out from under Luna’s. Ginny turned her attention to him and took a step further into the room. “Harry you should have invited me to dinner, I could have had mum bake something wonderful.”

It was like a blow to the gut to suddenly see Ginny when all Harry had been able to focus on was Luna. Guilt made him feel more nervous than he could ever possibly remember and to make matters worse he felt as though he had been caught committing the worst of crimes. The dark haired wizard took in the fixed smile on his girlfriend’s face and knew that she was not happy.

“Oh yes, invite you to a dinner where we thank Luna and Malfoy for stopping the spread of the nasty rumors you created.” Hermione said dryly before taking a drink from her glass and fixing the redhead with a glare. “Speaking of which, how did you even find out about tonight” Malfoy added. Ginny waved a dismissing hand in his direction “Ron informed me and I figured it would be a perfect time to drop in as I’ve come to apologize. I’ll admit the article was a bit rash of me. But what’s a girl to think when her boyfriend allows another woman to move in with him and not her.” Hermione opened her mouth to reply but Harry stood and went to Ginny taking her hand in the process. “Come on let’s talk about this elsewhere Gin, we’ve got a guest.” Ginny nodded and threw a smirk over her should before following the tall wizard out of the room.

Hermione looked to Malfoy and shook her head, knowing that they were both thinking similar thoughts. Malfoy set the dish with the desert on table and handed out small porcelain bowls. “Ooh pudding!” Luna exclaimed suddenly, she reached for the spoon in the center of the table and began to help herself. Her exuberance made Hermione laugh and Malfoy quickly followed suit. “Close but no cigar Luna, I think you’ll still enjoy it though” he commented as he served Hermione first and then himself.

As Hermione ate her caramel encrusted desert, she couldn’t help but feel bad for Harry, she had noticed he seemed rather taken with Luna; but was too much of a gentleman to give up on Ginny. Hermione hadn’t expected that she wouldn’t approve of his relationship with the youngest Weasley. But Ginny had changed, much like Ron had and they both weren’t the same people she and Harry had fallen in love with.

Hermione gave a sly glance to her roommate and wanted to sigh. She really should have found her own place to live. If she had never moved in Grimmauld she wouldn’t have found out all the wonderful things she had about him and probably would have still thought Ronald was the most beautiful man she had ever met.

Once safely out of view, Harry turned to Ginny and crossed his arms. “I’m glad you’ve come to apologize Ginny, but you can’t just fly off the handle because you’re upset that you haven’t gotten your way. It’s not fair to any of us.” Harry looked down into his girlfriend’s eyes and prayed that she understood what he was saying. Her behavior had been less than rational lately and he didn’t know how much more he could take. Suddenly there was the sound of Luna exclaiming how delicious the desert was and Harry found himself wishing he could see her expression. She probably had the childlike look of adoration on her face that he had seen many times that night alone.

“I’ll make it up to you dear. Let me take you out to dinner on your birthday, it will be just the two of us, a nice quiet affair.”

“Sure sounds good” he answered absentmindedly. Harry heard Luna’s bubble of laughter in the kitchen and felt himself smiling in response. “What’s so funny? Here I am trying to apologize to you and you’re laughing at me!” Ginny snapped suddenly. Harry jumped to attention, completely unaware that he had managed to tune his girlfriend out. What the hell is going on Potter? You’re an Auror for crying out loud. Get a hold of yourself! He met her gaze and flashed a quick smile, “I’m just happy that you’ve come tonight.”

Ginny’s eyes narrowed for a moment but she shook her head as if dispelling whatever thought she had and smiled. “Well I’m glad I have too, let’s go to your room and make up.” She leaned close and wrapped her arms around his neck but before she could kiss him, Harry held her back. “I can’t Gin, we have a guest and it would be rude not to at least finish dinner. But you’re more than welcome to join us.” Ginny gave him an odd look but apparently decided not to push the issue. “Sharing a meal with Hermione, your Death Eater roommate and Loony Lovegood? No thank you. But I will see you tomorrow night and tell you more about the awesome birthday dinner I’ve got planned.”

Harry ignored her rude comment and thought about how he didn’t really care to go out on his birthday. The entire wizarding community would be looking to celebrate their “hero’s” birthday together. It was truly something he wished to avoid; but ultimately Harry didn’t want to get into a new argument with Ginny over it. He sighed “as long as it’s somewhere low key Gin, preferably muggle with no press.”

Ginny stepped into his embrace and looked up to him with one of her most gorgeous smiles “absolutely Harry, it will be perfect!” He couldn’t help but smile at her when she was being so accommodating and gave her a sound kiss. “Well I can’t wait then; I’ll see you tomorrow night.” Ginny returned his kiss with one of her own and waved as she made her way toward the living room and was gone a moment later.

Harry leaned against the wall for a moment and tried his best to figure out what had been going on with him that evening. He had a perfectly loving girlfriend that he was lucky to have considering all he had put her through during the war. Ginny had turned into an incredibly sexy woman and had never left him unsatisfied. Sure she was a bit high strung and preoccupied with her own personal success, but she had loved him for as long as he could remember.

Seeing Luna that night must’ve just been a shock to his system. He hadn’t expected her to grow into such an interesting and beautiful woman. But he wasn’t necessarily a bad guy for fantasizing. It had been a while since he and Ginny had sex, and that clearly was messing with him. All he had to do was go back into the kitchen, ignore whatever the hell it was that was attracting him to the blonde and look forward to his night with Ginny tomorrow. Nodding his head in affirmation of this plan, Harry returned to the kitchen and took his seat.

Overall the night turned out a complete success; Harry said his farewells to Luna and thanked her for coming before wishing his roommates goodnight and escaping. The hour following Ginny’s departure hadn’t been much better and Harry needed to take a cold shower and quickly.

Draco grinned as Potter fled the room, his reaction to Luna had been surprising and yet genuine. To be fair Luna had turned into a particularly unique kind of gorgeous witch and even Draco had to admit that he had been taken with her when they had first re-met. He had debated trying to win her over until he started developing borderline brotherly feelings for her. Luna was small and incredibly adorable and the kind of woman that any man would want to take care of.

She would have been perfectly acceptable for Draco to marry as she was an intelligent pureblood. But ultimately she wasn’t his type and he hadn’t had the genuine drive to pursue her for anything more than friendship. Draco was glad that he had refrained though; Luna had turned out to be one of his most unusually refreshing friends and she was rather insightful about things most people tended to miss.

Granger hugged her as they stopped in front of the living room fireplace and Draco watched as the jeans she wore hugged her backside. Granger however was the kind of woman that I could pursue.

He had no feelings stronger for her than a burning lust and even that was followed closely by the desire to keep her by his side forever. Draco still refused to delude himself into thinking that he had fallen in love with the witch, but the strong feelings he had for her were born from the fact that Granger had transformed into the ideal woman. Who wouldn’t want her? She is bloody perfect.

Luna turned to say goodbye to him and Draco pulled her into a quick hug. “Will I be seeing you more often then Draco?” He shrugged “It seems as though Granger and Potter both approve, so why don’t you come over and have dinner with us more often. I’m sure mother worries about you as much as she does me, so you could always come to dinner at the manor with me as well.”

Luna nodded “those are kind ideas, I’ll be sure to try and do both. It would be lovely to discuss things with friends.” Draco brushed a stray hair behind her ear “stay well Luna, visit me whenever you’d like.” The little blonde witch smiled up to him and then at Granger before taking the floo powder and calling out the ministry before disappearing.

Granger turned toward him and smiled “I would have never pegged you for a friend of Luna Lovegood. It’s rather nice to see how gently you treat her.” Draco frowned at her observation. Did she still think that he would terrorize and mock Luna for her beliefs? He had done a lot of maturing since his school days. “There are a lot of things you don’t know about me Granger.” She nodded thoughtfully for a moment at this and placed her fingers in the top of her pockets.

Draco turned to leave the room and had just made it to the door when her she called out “will I get to learn about those things Malfoy?” The question caught him by surprise, he stopped mid-step and looked over his shoulder at her. She was looking to the ground and she had a pretty blush staining her cheeks. He loved it when she was embarrassed and turned to her fully.

Granger peaked up at him tentatively when she didn’t get a reply and was clearly shocked to see him still there. It was Draco's turn to smile “you can know anything you’d like about me Granger.” Then he left the room and retreated to his wing of the house, happier than he could ever remember being.

The next morning Draco felt as though he was walking on cloud nine. He had made a significant amount of progress with Granger the previous night and she had been the one to initiate the majority of it. The dinner had been a success and they hadn’t really argued once. At this rate he was confident she would grow to like the man he had become. Draco closed the green door behind himself and made his way down the stairs. He was going to prepare them all a nice weekend breakfast, granted it was noon already but Potter always slept in every Saturday if he could help it and he couldn’t imagine Granger was up yet.

He had just landed on the first floor when he heard a creaking from the couch in the living room. Draco looked around the hall to see if he was walking into a trap and drew his wand. He took slow quiet steps toward the living room and made sure to cancel the floorboard spell as approached the door.

The sight that came to his eyes as he entered the room made his jaw clench. On the couch cuddled together were Granger and her red headed buffoon of a boyfriend. She giggled as he tickled her stomach and leaned back until she fell flat on her back on the couch. They noticed him a moment later and Draco lowered his wand. “Good morning Malfoy, I didn’t hear the floorboards, is the spell still in effect?”

“I heard an unfamiliar noise in the living room and thought there might be an intruder so I temporarily canceled it, no worries Granger.” He turned on his heel without a word and quickly recast the spell on the floor. Draco bit his tongue when he heard Weasley call out “git” behind him and quickly made his way to the kitchen. He ignored the urge to throw things and opted to count to ten as many times as it took for him to stop being angry about what he had seen.

How could he have been so stupid? He had forgotten that Granger would actually spend time with Weaslebee. He hadn’t really thought that she would want to, but of course she would. He was still her bloody boyfriend! Draco felt like a fool, there he was practically always tongue tied trying to figure out how to speak to her and all she was concerned about was cuddling on the couch with Weasley.

Draco had been feeling confident about his new found truce with Granger and had decided to ask her out for lunch, dinner or anything really. But clearly that plan wasn’t going to cut it anymore. Draco eyed a ceramic mug that was in front of him and counted to ten instead of throwing it.

What was this intense feeling? Why was he even upset? He knew that she was still seeing Weasley. The entire plan had been based on waiting for the louse to fuck it all up. He couldn’t possibly be jealous of the red headed arsehole. No, there was no way he could have been.

Could he?

Draco rested his head in his hands and groaned.

He was fucking jealous.

How was that even possible? Draco had never been jealous of another man before and certainly never saw red when another man was with a woman he had wanted. It all used to be so fun to work and steal the woman away. The taken ones were the best because it had only proved his superiority when they preferred to be with him ultimately. So why not this time? Why hadn’t he been his usual charming self and teased Granger until she was so obviously aroused even Weasley wouldn’t have been able to deny it. Why hadn’t he said something, or done anything to prove that he was the better man of the two?

Draco had hated the sight of Weasley’s hands on her. He had wanted to rip them away and hit the ridiculous wizard. More importantly he wanted to claim Granger. Mark her any way that he could so that every and any man that came near her knew to whom she belonged.

Draco clenched his hands into fists and tried his best not to take it further. He could not let his anger overwhelm him, he had come a long way from the reckless youth he had once been and would not ruin his new life by resorting to old bad habits. “Hey are you ok?” Potter’s voice cut through his thoughts. Draco shot up from his seat and went past the wizard to the refrigerator. “I’m perfectly fine Potter, fun time at dinner yesterday, eh?”

The dark haired wizard didn’t answer him though and when Draco turned around he noticed that Potter was leaning his head out into the hall listening. “Sounds like Ron is over then?” he asked slowly before turning and looking Draco in the eyes. Draco just sighed and counted to ten when he felt the anger swelling once more. He really wasn’t cut out for pursuing girls that didn’t already want him. He suddenly felt incredibly discouraged and tried to push the feeling away. “I’ll guess I’ll just make breakfast for four then.”

The rest of the morning was a blur for Draco. As soon as he could leave without raising suspicion, he was out of the kitchen and in his room. It had been nearly insufferable to be forced to listen to Weasley talk during breakfast while he refused to eat because the “Death Eater” had been the one to prepare it.

Draco didn’t understand what the possible attraction could be for Granger. It was increasingly apparent that she deserved better than the irascible Ronald Weasley. Why she would settle was beyond him. Granger could have had anyone she wanted if she tried. Surely she could see that.

Without a doubt in his mind he knew Weasley didn’t deserve her. The thing was though; Draco couldn’t really convince himself that she deserved to be settled with someone like him either.

He opened the green door from within his wing and sat down behind the large desk in his study. More than anything Draco wanted to be someone worthy of her and the entire time he spent not knowing if he would ever be that man, tore him apart.

The days until his birthday slipped by quicker than Harry had anticipated. He had busy work days and pleasant evenings at home with Hermione and Malfoy’s new found truce. It was nice to have conversations with them and have absolutely no animosity in the house.

But Harry could feel that things were a bit off. Malfoy was clearly being distant and neither Hermione nor Harry could figure out why. Harry had his suspicions of course, but didn’t want to add fuel to the clearly raging fire if he somehow was wrong.

Hermione had been rather put out by Malfoy's extremely polite behavior. It wasn't as if she wanted him to be anything but polite, it was just that the night of the dinner he had been so incredibly warm and engaging.

Whenever she spoke to him as of late he would just politely answer her questions and leave it at that. It was infuriating and incredibly discouraging. Hermione couldn’t explain why it upset her. But it did, greatly. She wanted nothing more than to get to know the wizard who had made her laugh more times than she could count that night. She wanted to get to know the dashing man that could reduce her brain to mush with just a look.

Then as if to make matters worse she was constantly privy to the women he brought home with him night after night seeing as she was usually the first one to return from work. It never really happened she tried to remind herself whenever she thought of their kiss in relation to all the beautiful women he brought home. She couldn’t blame him for not being interested in her though; he was taking out models and the like.

You shouldn’t even care Hermione, you have Ronald! She scolded herself, but couldn’t really agree. Sure she had Ronald but she was growing less and less interested in their relationship. He had turned into the model boyfriend and had stopped badgering her for sex. It should have been everything she ever wanted from him but just felt as though he was falling short of whatever standard she couldn’t remember setting.

On the evening before Harry’s birthday, Hermione had been reading on the living room couch when Blaise suddenly arrived in the floo carrying a drunken Malfoy. She rose to her feet and offered to help but the Italian politely declined and took the blonde up to his room. Hermione tried not to feel left out and returned to her book. She decided that she would ask the Italian if there was anything wrong with Malfoy when he returned to leave. Maybe he would know something that she didn’t about how Malfoy really felt about the truce. But when Blaise never returned, she realized that he had probably left from Malfoy’s wing and went to bed disheartened.

The next morning Hermione awoke to the smell of breakfast. Malfoy must be cooking. She pulled a loose tank top on and shorts before brushing her teeth and heading downstairs. She tried to walk at her usual pace but gave up and was forced to admit to herself that she really wanted to see the blonde.

Hermione wasn’t prepared to walk into three shirtless men when she entered the kitchen. Blaise was standing by the stove cooking. Harry was in his usual seat reading the prophet and Malfoy was sitting diagonally across from Harry with his head between his hands. She stood in the doorway for a moment before taking a step into the room.

Blaise noticed her first and a grin lit up his face “oi, do you always look this good in the morning Granger? Maybe I should have you come live with me.” She just smiled at him and shook her head, she was used to and immune to his flirting by now. Hermione turned to the quiet wizard reading the paper “Happy Birthday Harry!” She wrapped her best friend in a hug from behind and sang the birthday song for him. He thanked her and returned her embrace before turning back to the paper.

Hermione eyed the two seats carefully and debated on where to sit for a moment. She could sit next to Harry, which would put her across from Malfoy. Or she could sit next to the overly large half naked Slytherin. She knew where she wanted to sit but ultimately chickened out and moved to sit next to Harry. Fortunately the decision was taken from her hands and she was rerouted when Blaise set down a plate for her next to Malfoy. She thanked the dark skinned wizard but didn’t really pay him much attention when he looked her over suggestively. Sure he was attractive, and had his shirt off but the effect was a kin to that of how she was reacting to the equally half naked Harry.

She felt nothing.

Malfoy on the other hand was driving her insane. It was hard not to notice how his arms and biceps were lightly sprinkled with blond hair. And how even his dark mark made his bulky frame seem all the more attractive. She felt quite small sitting next to him and loved the thought of their differences. He reminded her of a Highland warrior from all her romance novels. Blaise came around the table to her and added toast to her plate. “If I say it’s my birthday, will I get a hug too Granger?” He grinned at her and looked her in the eye but she just shook her head with a small smile.

“Enough Blaise.” Malfoy suddenly growled with his eyes closed. His voice sent shivers down her spine and she found herself unconsciously leaning much closer to him than she should have. She straightened in her seat and forced herself to think of anything other than how good he smelled.

Hermione poured herself a glass of juice and noted that it was odd to see Malfoy undressed this late on a Wednesday morning. Usually he was almost ready to go to work by now. Blaise must’ve seen her look because as he added scrambled eggs to her plate he filled her in “Drake had quite the night last night and forgot to brew any hangover potions, so I’m forcing him to take a day off with me.” He added the last of the breakfast to her plate and took his seat. “Merlin forbid he goes into work today and bites everyone’s head off. He’s a little touchy feely this morning.” Blaise took a sip of his juice and looked directly at his best friend. “But apparently not touchy feely enough considering you’ve walked in here looking like that and still have clothes on.”

Harry laughed out loud at this and Hermione felt herself blush. Her clothes weren’t that bad were they? Her shirt practically covered everything. Draco pounded his fist on the table “I said enough Blaise!” The Italian held up his hands in mock surrender before eating his breakfast.

Hermione spared a glance at the blonde wizard beside her and noticed that he didn’t look too good. He had his eyes shut tight and his jaw clenched as he rubbed small circles on his forehead. She suddenly had an idea. “Here let me help, I know a good muggle massage technique that can help with a hangover. My mum used to do it for my dad whenever he had too much to drink.” She stood from her seat and went to stand behind him.

Positioning herself, Hermione slowly brought his hands away from his head and replaced them with her own. He held his own hands close by almost cautiously. But Hermione ignored this. Starting at his temples, she began to rub his skin in small precise circles, applying just the right amount of pressure. When the blonde didn’t protest after a minute of her ministrations, she began massaging her way from his forehead to his head and the top of his neck. Blaise and Harry stared at her oddly for a moment but she ignored them and continued with what she was doing. Soon Malfoy rested his arms on the table and she took that as a good sign.

“So what have you got planned today Harry” she asked to take the attention off what she was doing. She really just wanted to help Malfoy and couldn’t allow herself to think about all the warmth radiating off of his body. The close proximity was doing dangerous between her legs and she had the urge to push her chest against the wide expanse of his back. Harry looked up to her face and met her determined stare “well Ginny is taking me out to dinner later. I’m also staying home from work because today is a nightmare waiting to happen. I’ll get as much done from home as I can.” She nodded in acceptance of this and turned her attention on Blaise “And you?”

Hermione figured that Malfoy must’ve opened his eyes because Blaise was staring directly at the man with a wide grin plastered to his face. “Whatever or whomever Draco wants to do today.” Harry snorted into his juice and Malfoy’s hand came up to stop her from massaging further.

But Hermione didn’t think the idea of Malfoy going out and sleeping with more random women was so funny. She pulled her hands away from him hastily and sat back down in her seat. “Thank you” he said as he turned in her direction. His eyes broke away from hers and dipped to her mouth and then chest and she suddenly felt herself flush under his perusal.

Hermione cursed herself for thinking too far into any attention he paid her; he was clearly not interested considering he was going out having sex with random women every night.

Malfoy stood suddenly and left the room. “It was nice seeing you again Granger, Potter it’s always a pleasure. Make sure you have fun tonight.” Blaise told them as he left the room after his friend. Hermione just sighed and began eating her meal. “He’d be such a better guy if he wasn’t a man whore” she said more to herself. Harry finished his juice and set down his cup “Blaise or Malfoy?”

“Malfoy” she answered quickly, avoiding looking Harry directly in the eye. “Sounds like you’re jealous to me Hermione.” Sounds just about right she thought somberly, but laughed it off anyway “of course not Harry, don’t be silly. It’s just a shame that Astoria doesn’t know.” Harry frowned “Astoria Greengrass? What’s she got to do with anything?”

Hermione explained how the Slytherin woman had joined her for lunch and inquired about the means in which she was paying rent. Harry shook his head incredulously “I feel bad for Malfoy, she sounds mental.”

“Bad for Malfoy? He’s been cheating on her almost daily, I think its Astoria we should feel sorry for.” Harry leaned back in his chair and set down the newspaper. “Some women are complete head cases these days. Malfoy isn’t engaged to Astoria, it’s more like wishful thinking on her part.” Hermione felt her eyes widen but Harry only nodded in confirmation. “Yea, I bet she just told you that to curb the competition in case you were sleeping with him for rent.”

“Well you can’t be too sure about that, I mean why would she lie? Surely she must’ve known that it would come out in the open later.” Harry shrugged “maybe she thought she would have roped him into a marriage agreement by now. The Greengrass family has been trying to marry into the Malfoy’s for little over a year now.”

“Malfoy could really be engaged to her and we’d never know. Since he lives here and is usually out of the public eye, I doubt Astoria would ever find out and he could have just neglected to mention it you.”

Harry suddenly looked rather sheepish “that’s unlikely, Malfoy couldn’t keep something of that magnitude from me.” Hermione didn’t understand “well of course he could Harry, he’s Malfoy. I know you guys are good friends and all but…”

“Let me rephrase that, it’s sort of impossible for Malfoy to keep things like that from me.” The pieces clicked in place and suddenly Hermione was on her feet leaning over the table and glaring at the guilty looking dark haired wizard. “What do you mean impossible Harry James Potter!” Harry scratched his head “Hermione, remember it’s my birthday. You can’t possibly be angry at the birthday boy.”

“Harry. What. Did. You. Mean.” Harry looked to the exit as if wondering if he would be able to escape but Hermione gave him a withering look daring him to even try. He held up his hands in surrender “alright, alright don’t be too cross, neither one of us bothered to research wizard’s oaths and we botched ours a bit.”

“A bit Harry? Being unable to keep something from another human being doesn’t sound like a bit.” Harry shrank away from the anger in her voice.

"Alright, completely. We messed it up completely!” Hermione looked absolutely livid for a moment but refrained from saying anything other than “explain.” Harry wished Malfoy had been there to back him up. There was no way he was going to hear the end of it once she fully understood the depth of the spell that he and Malfoy had cast together. “Well we pledged complete loyalty to each other, fealty really. But we didn’t specify the terms even though we meant in friendship and so the oath kinda took control and applies to all aspects of our life…” he trailed off at the end hoping she wouldn’t catch that last bit but from the look in her eye and the set of her shoulder, he knew she had heard him completely.

Hermione wanted to wring his neck, she hadn’t asked too many questions when he had first told her because of all of the other important things he had confessed to in that conversation but she had never imagined this. She had been being sarcastic when she said that they probably hadn’t looked the rules of Wizard's Oaths up. She never expected that jest to be reality!

Hermione sat back down in her chair calmly and took a moment to compose herself before speaking. “What’s done is done Harry, and seeing as it is your birthday my gift to you will be a pass. I will not lecture you on how incredibly dim you are sometimes and I will not lay out the long list of repercussions that your actions will lead to. You and Malfoy have survived this long together, I’m sure you’re already prepared to spend the rest of your lives that way.”

Harry just grinned in response “it’s not all bad Mione, some weird compulsions here and there but we’ve got that pretty much controlled at this point and thankfully we are completely able to refrain from discussing our personal lives and feelings. It’s not as bad as you think.”

Hermione took that last comment as a challenge and prepared to tell him about just how wrong he was but Harry stopped her. “But I will tell you how incredibly grateful I am for the lovely birthday gift of not receiving one of your amazing lectures and be on my way.” She could only roll her eyes at his antics and tried her best to look stern.

“Well I have a second present for you Harry, I know you don’t like making a big deal of you birthday, so I’ll give it to you later. But if you would like we could plan something considering I work today and by the time I get home Ginny will be taking you to dinner.” Harry smiled at her and stood “sounds good to me, and thank you for the gift, I’m sure whatever it is, will be perfect, but I’ve got to go before you change your mind about gift number one.” She couldn’t help but laugh at this. Harry leaned down and patted her on the top of her shoulder, “have a good day at work”, before cleaning up the mess and leaving the kitchen.

Long after he left, Hermione reflected on the information she had learned. Botched wizards oath aside, the most important thing she had found out was that Malfoy wasn’t in fact engaged to be married. She didn’t know why that tidbit of information made her feel pleased, especially considering Malfoy’s philandering. But it did immensely and by the time she cleaned up her own mess and was on her way to get to work; Hermione was forced to admit to herself that she really might’ve been a bit more than just attracted to Draco Malfoy.

It had been late in the evening when there was the sudden sound of yelling coming from the sitting room. Hermione bolted up from her seat rushed out the living room with Malfoy right behind her as he came down the stairs. Both drew their wands and rushed into the room to find a very irate Harry and a bawling Ginny.

Hermione stopped in her tracks and Malfoy held out his hand to steady her. Hermione hadn’t expected to walk into what was clearly an argument. “I’m sorry Harry, we just heard yelling.” She turned to leave the room but suddenly Harry called out to them. “No you two can stay; I need a second fucking opinion on tonight. Clearly, I’m being unreasonable.”

“Harry it wasn’t supposed to be that many! I only invited one!”

“SILENCE” he roared to the red haired witch, chucking his wand across the room. Hermione hadn’t seen Harry this angry for a long time and the fact that he had just thrown away his wand meant he was just angry enough to use it but didn’t want to. Malfoy suddenly stepped in front of her, all but blocking her view when Harry did this and she couldn’t figure out why but was content to let him handle her best friend. “Potter calm down, whatever it was I’m sure you’ll agree there is no need for anything rash.”

“Stay out of this Malfoy! This isn’t any of your business!” Ginny snapped going to Harry and trying to take his face in her hands. He stepped away from her “don’t touch me Ginerva, what you pulled tonight was the last straw. I refuse to be the main attraction in your media circus. I explicitly explained that I wanted to spend a nice quiet evening with you and what do you do? Invite every reporter in London to catch us at dinner!”

Hermione couldn’t believe her ears, surely Ginny hadn’t done that. But then she noticed Harry’s casual jeans and a tee-shirt compared to Ginny’s red ankle length ball gown, hair and makeup. She had clearly dressed to impress, the sad thing was that she had clearly wanted to impress all of wizarding London rather than Harry.

Ginny took the steps closer “I’m sorry Harry! It wasn’t supposed to be that bad, I promise! I just wanted to help you with your career! Everyone has been saying bad things about how reclusive you’ve been and I wanted to dispel those nasty rumors.” Harry shook his head “No you wanted to use my fame to catapult yourself up the social ladder. I’ve don’t give a bleeding fuck about my reputation. I don’t care what they think of me anymore and you out of everyone should know that! This is the most selfish thing you’ve ever done to me. I should have fucking realized it was a trap when you came here dressed as though you were going to meet Merlin himself!”

Ginny had nothing to say to this and she only began to cry again. Harry suddenly sighed “I’ve never been more disappointed in your intentions.” He cut himself off and Hermione could tell that he was debating on whether to break things off with her now. After a few moments of silence except the sound of Ginny’s loud sobbing, Harry turned his back on her “go home Ginny.” The girl must’ve recognized a miracle when she saw one because she turned to leave the room immediately and was gone seconds later.

As soon as Hermione was sure Ginny had left she moved around Malfoy to make her way to her best friend. But was pleasantly surprised when Malfoy didn’t hang back and went with her toward Harry. Wasting no time, Malfoy threw an arm around Harry’s shoulder and turned him toward the door. “Come on Potter, let’s get you a drink and then you can tell Granger and I the entire story about the birthday from hell.”

Hermione stood watching after them as they made their way out to the hall in awe. Malfoy truly HAD been the one taking care of Harry; it had almost seemed unbelievable. But the proof was right before her eyes. Going across the room and picking up Harry’s wand Hermione quickly closed the door behind herself on the way out and joined her roommates in the kitchen.

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A Match Made In Convenience