English Muffin

His highness chuckled softly. "I'm afraid we don't have much to offer at this time. Our next auction is not scheduled for another six weeks. But I understand you were quite interested to return, so I will see what I can do for you."

If the man didn't remember the pale stranger from his looks alone, then the exorbitant sum that Draco had paid for Hermione must have stirred his memory. His highness spread his hands and asked, "So what can I offer you?"

"The same as usual," Draco said. "Girls. Pretty ones. I prefer English, or French. You don't stock muggles here, do you?"

Perhaps he was pressing his luck, but his highness only laughed. "We rarely get muggles through here."

He led Draco across the hall and offered the charm that they used to verify funds. Draco was the first to touch it, but he was beginning to get rather nervous about this plan after all. He was approved and stepped aside so that the next person could come up. There was going to be trouble momentarily if the funds verifications didn't go through for the aurors he was standing with. Draco considered causing a distraction, but couldn't come up with anything. Fortunately, he didn't have to.

"Accio pendant!" Harry's disembodied voice called out, summoning the charm before the next man could touch it. Everyone was surprised to see the charm fly into the middle of the room and disappear.

"Guards!" his majesty snarled. "Find him!"

Two men opened fire on the spot where the charm had disappeared. Draco held his breath. When the noise from the firing stopped, the two guards walked around in the circle they'd created, poking about, but finding nothing. Draco exhaled a sigh of relief.

"It seems we have an intruder," his highness proclaimed nastily. "I trust you gentlemen won't mind waiting in the conference room until this matter is sorted."

Draco tipped his head deferentially and turned with the others to follow the guards to the aforementioned conference room. Once they'd gotten into the hall, Lupin landed a solid punch to the rear guard's face. The first sentinel turned in surprise, and Draco clocked him, sending him sprawling. He was pleased, though his knuckles smarted briefly. Hermione's voice cast silencing charms on the guards before they could make too much noise. She and Harry appeared, shrugging off the cloak slightly and holding out everyone's wands. Draco grasped his own, feeling the familiar wood in his fingers with relief. He felt less naked now. Hermione smiled at him. He was surprised that his brain wondered why she wasn't in her harem costume. He shook his head against the memories straining to break free.

He watched as Harry and the others dragged the guards into the conference room and cast sleeping charms on them. Draco's lips tugged into a smile. This did seem like a fun job after all.

"All right," said natural born leader Harry. "Hermione, which way to the cells?"

Hermione pointed. "Down that corridor and a flight of stairs. We'll have to go back past the main room, though."

"We'll split up then," Harry decided. "Four under the cloaks and down to the cells. Draco, Hermione, you look around and see if you can find the guys who kidnapped you. Take Tonks with you."

"No!" Hermione said, thinking too quickly of Tonks's propensity for clumsiness. "We'll manage just fine, and you don't know how many girls may be down there. You need all the help you can get."

"All right," Harry agreed reluctantly, knowing full well that Hermione could take care of herself. "But no heroics. If you find them, silencing charms covered with sleeping charms."

"Right," Hermione agreed. She threaded her fingers through Draco's giving him a heady little rush, and pulled him down the corridor in the opposite direction from the cells.

"So...any idea where you're going?" Draco asked as she tugged him along petulantly.

"Not really," she confessed. "I'm just looking around for anything suspicious. Plus I just can't believe this is happening."

He agreed silently. They continued walking until the hallway ended in a stairwell. Draco looked at her. "Up or down?"

"Well, up is guest rooms, isn't it?" she said, using her practical sense. "I've never seen what's downstairs this direction. Care for a little explore?"

They tripped lightly down the stone staircase leading to a dark, dank series of catacombs. Judging by the number of steps they'd gone down, Draco thought they must be several stories underground. It was considerably cooler down here and Hermione shivered through her goose bumps.

Draco wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her flesh vigorously to warm her up. She smiled her thanks and they kept walking down the long, long hallway.

"Lumos," they both whispered when the path had gotten too dark to see well. An endless series of rooms stretched out before them, no doors on any of them, and all stocked to capacity with barrels.

Draco stopped to read one of the labels. He cast a translation spell so he could understand it.

"Bugger," Draco said. "We better get out of here."

"Why?" Hermione bent down and peered at the label. "Well, he's got his fingers in everything, hasn't he? I wonder if anyone knows he's hoarding volatile explosives down here."

"Doubtful, but I'm sure the ministry would be interested. He's got enough stuff down here to blow up a small country," Draco said. "Come on, let's go find the others. This is a violation of the peace directives the wizarding world agreed on-"

"-In 1979 after the Siege on Kalabar by the Second Faction of the Goblin Rebellion," Hermione cut in smugly.

Draco slipped his arm around her, consciously aware of how right they were for each other, and said, "Didn't think anyone but me ever read Hogwarts: A History."

She would've laughed, but the guard blocking their path sucked the happiness right out of her. He was shouting in his native tongue.

"Translation: we're boned," Draco said.

He and Hermione turned and fled back the way they'd come, their footsteps echoing loudly down the empty hallway. The guards opened fire and Draco just managed to press Hermione into a barrel-filled room.

"Nox," Draco murmured, extinguishing their wands. There was more shouting now, evidently a new man had entered the conversation and was chastising the other man for something.

"The bullets," Hermione said as though she could read minds.

"What?" Draco whispered, his body pressed up against hers, covering her and holding her to the filthy wall.

"If he catches one of these barrels, it's all over for us," she said.

"Right," he said, remembering the explosives all around them. He wished her breasts weren't pressing into his chest just so; it was driving him mad and he really needed to concentrate.

"We've got to get out of here," she whispered urgently, her breath warming his neck. Draco silently cursed himself for responding to that, but he still bent his head and kissed her passionately. If they were gonna get blown to kingdom come, he might as well get a kiss goodbye.

"Hear that?" Hermione asked a moment later.

"Hm," Draco said noncommittally.

"It's Ron!"

She pushed past him and out into the corridor.

"Hermione!"

"Ron!"

Draco stepped around the corner just in time to see Hermione launch herself into Ron's arms. His jealous pang was only fueled by the smug look on Ron's face. The redhead said to Hermione, "Come on, we've got to get out of here. They've sprung all the girls. There weren't that many. Tonks and Fred and George have gone to take them to the Ministry to give statements. Harry reckons they've enough evidence to at least drain the bank accounts floating this place."

"Great," she skipped off happily with him, leaving Draco staring after her. He had to hurry to keep up. They met up with Harry at the top of the staircase.

"I've got his highness in custody," Harry informed them. "Lupin's escorting him to the Ministry at this moment. Any luck with your guys?"

Hermione shook her head. Harry patted her arm sympathetically. "Well, listen, don't worry. He'll probably cut a deal and give them up to us anyway."

She nodded and smiled her gratitude. Harry looked at her for a long, agonizing moment. "You know what? I still wish we could put this place out of business for good. And Ministry laws be damned."

"Well," Hermione said mischievously, "we could always blow this place sky high."

"What is it with you Gryffindors and arson?" Draco drawled boredly. His voice drew the trio's attention and they stared at him blankly. "Must be all that red in your house colors; incites pyromania."

Ron opened his mouth to say something, but Harry laid a restraining arm on him. Harry said, "Well, look, I'm not going to give over to petty crimes now anyway. Come on, let's go."

"So, Potter," Draco asked casually, "is everyone innocent out of the palace?"

"Yeah," Harry replied. "We made quite a few arrests, so all in all, it went pretty well. There weren't nearly as many people here as I expected, but that's all right. We'll get their names when the others make deals."

He twirled his wand deftly through his fingers and Draco was struck once again by how satisfied Harry seemed with his current line of work. Heroics came naturally to him. Draco hung back a moment, letting the three of them talk together as they headed for the exit. Then he slipped back down to the long, barrel-laden catacombs. Slowly he created three magical fires in the hallway, binding them with timing charms. Once the flames had burned through the time-fuse-charms, the fire would spread, burn into the rooms, igniting the barrels. Yes, it was criminal, but so was the business conducted above. And as long as he lived, Draco vowed no one would ever harm Hermione again.

He hurried up the staircase and collided with Hermione. She had come back for him and said, "Harry and Ron have gone back to the ministry."

Draco grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the exit.

"What did you do?" she said accusingly, knowing instinctively that he had a plot.

His eyes glinted with a hint of the old cruelty, but all he said was, "Run."

She ran after him; they ran through the building, out the golden doors, and into the scorching desert. The moment the barrels ignited, the entire palace quaked with the explosion. Flames leapt up through the rubble, the force of the blast knocking Draco and Hermione to the hot sand.

"What did you do?" Hermione screamed through a haze of fire and shrapnel.

"Apparate!" he shouted back. They popped out together, reappearing slightly singed on the front stoop of Draco's apartment building. He was grinning wildly, covered with soot and dirtier than Hermione had ever seen him.

Worry filled her eyes when she looked at him. Something in her was pleading with him not to be the criminal she now thought he was.

Draco leaned forward and kissed her softly on the lips. "I promise it'll never happen again."

He folded her into his arms and brought her into his flat. He stripped her out of her blackened clothes amid a stream of light kisses. Their long, hot shower peeled away the layers of soot and dirt. His kiss was hungry as he devoured every bit of his little English muffin.

"Draco?" she said, when his lips left hers.

"Mm?" he responded, burying his face in her neck.

"Why did you let me go?" She leaned back so she could look at him, see his face. "After you bought me, you could have kept me here. It's obvious that you like me."

"Oh, it's obvious, is it?" he said wickedly, pressing his erection against her. She smiled.

"Why did you let me leave?"

"Why would I want to keep you here?" he returned, ducking his head down to kiss her neck. She shivered in his arms, trying desperately to hang on to the thread of their conversation.

"Well..." she said, trying to collect her thought again, "I just thought..."

Understanding the effect he was having on her, Draco took pity on her and said patiently, "I love you, Hermione. I didn't want you here as a slave. I only wanted you, of your own free will. If I let you go, and you came back to me, I'd know you love me. Really love me. And if you didn't...the memory of having you was better than having an illusion."

She smiled at him then and pulled him close. "I love you, Draco."

"That's all I wanted to hear," he said, slipping into her with a sigh. Hermione felt herself being lifted in his strong embrace and realized her fantasy and reality were merging. She loved him, she loved him, and she would never love anyone else.