Refashioning Affection

Chapter Two: A Secret Admirer


Hermione was wandering around her new office attempting to make it feel less like a tomb. She was placing photos on her mantelpiece while trying to figure out what had happened about a half an hour ago in the corridor. She had been stunned to see Mr. Malfoy. She knew that he worked on the board of Governors, but she had never expected that he would be the first one she would meet. He had been very courteous after assisting her in gathering her fallen belongings and insisted on helping her bring them to her office. She was not very surprised however, when he used his wand as opposed to his perfectly fine arms.

Fine as in functioning, she reminded herself, though they had felt nice while she held them as he helped her up. He had left her after a bow, a congratulations and a promise to see her again soon. The whole incident had left her off kilter, and she had no idea why.

Hermione had been too busy musing over the morning’s events to notice the tall, black-haired wizard leaning against the doorframe, watching her with a smile on his face. She turned to place a small vase she had gotten on a visit to Greece and squealed in a very un-Hermione like manner when she noticed her life long friend.

Harry opened his arms as Hermione launched herself at the Auror. She was so happy to see her brother-in-every-way-but-blood after nearly seven months. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck as he lifted and spun her around, his laughter deep and his glasses falling down his nose.

“It’s so good to finally see you again, ‘Mione.” He kissed her cheek and pulled her into one of his famous bear hugs. In Hermione’s opinion, there were few people able to give a hug like Harry Potter. She had christened him the Boy-Who-Gave-Great-Hugs. He joked that at least he was still useful after all these years of relative peace.

“I have missed you so much, Harry, but I won’t lie to you; I still don’t like London.” She grimaced slightly looking out the window charmed to look out onto the Thames. “I am going to have to change that if I am going to get any work done.”

“You have turned into quite the little hermit, Hermione.”

“I just don’t like when it is unnessarily loud or crowded.”

A young man dressed in robes from the Archive Department then interrupted the two. “I’m sorry to disrupt you,” he rushed out, a little flustered at being in a room with two of the most well known war heroes in the entire Wizarding world.

“Not at all.” Hermione smiled at him. He looked fresh out of Hogwarts, not completely grown into his face yet.
“I have a delivery requested by the Minister himself. Here are copies of all your reports and commissions that you wrote while you worked as a field researcher, Ms. Granger.”

“Very well,” she sighed. With that, he removed a shrunken package from his box and enlarged it. It was about the size of her coffee table, two rows of five, and piled high in the deep box laid all her work for the past five years.

“Merlin, Hermione! You wrote all of those reports?”

“I have been doing this job for half a decade, Harry.”

“Would you like me to put them anywhere in particular for you, Ms. Granger?”

“No, thank you…?”

“Simon, Simon Carpenter.”

“No, thank you, Simon; I can handle this mess,” she replied, gesturing to the box taking up most of the carpet she had bought while in Turkey.

“Alright, I’ll be off then.” With a nod to each he was gone.

“They will all eventually get over the whole hero thing, right?” Harry asked.
Hermione just rolled her eyes and gave him one of her warm smiles causing Harry to laugh. He leaned over to peer into the box of bound reports.

“I am glad you’re working in the same building now. There’s only one other person who knows as much as you do about any of the artifacts we get in downstairs, and he can be a right pain in the arse.” He had started to thumb through a report she had done while working in Greece.

“And who might that be?” she asked as she lugged a pile over to her bookshelf.

“Lucius Malfoy, the great ferret father himself.”

Harry looked up when he heard the dull thud of paper hitting the floor.

“Malfoy?” Hermione asked as she bent down to retrieve the abused works.

“He has the most…practical experience when it comes to dark artifacts and if he doesn’t know, he can find someone who does. Anyway, Molly sent an owl earlier demanding your attendance at dinner tonight, 5:30 at the Burrow.”

Hermione grinned, “Of course I’ll be there! She would have sent the twins to get me if I didn’t, anyway.” Harry walked over and gave her another hug and a kiss on the forehead.

“I best be getting back to work. I’ll see you tonight. I think Molly is making pot roast.”

“Bye, Harry.” Hermione waved to him as he left her office to return to the labyrinth that was the Auror division.

Hermione returned to decorating her office; there were some perks to being back in London.

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At 5pm, Lucius Malfoy was sitting in his study, brandy in one hand and toying with the edge of a page of the RDD report he was staring at with the other.

There was Ms. Granger, smiling as she gently held the remains to what she had guessed was a wand from the ancient wizards that had once lived in the Incan mountain colony of Machu Picchu. The Peruvian winds were whipping her hair this way and that. Her face and clothes where smudged with dirt from the excavation and the climb up to the peak. To him, she was absolutely stunning.

The words that flowed around the photo stood as a testament to her brilliance. Now this young woman, whose career he had followed since he had read her first article describing the cursed weapons used by the Pict warriors, was working down the corridor from him.

Whenever Draco caught him reading her latest piece, he would joke that he needed to start getting out more and maybe find himself a...girlfriend. It had been four years since his separation with Narcissa, and Merlin knew she had already remarried.

Lucius was craving more than just the one-night flings he indulged in once in a while. He looked back down at the photo; Hermione was smirking at him, as if she knew how much she affected him.

Her scent that morning had overwhelmed him. That light, citrus smell combined with something overtly warm and feminine had sent a shiver through him. Her warm breath on his neck as she stuttered a thank you when he helped her right herself was nearly his undoing.

He tapped his long fingers on the edge of his desk. Perhaps he could pursue the young woman. He had not heard of her having any romantic ties, but he would have to look into that. No need to find himself in a wizards duel.

Yes, that is what he would do. He settled back into his large leather chair and tried to think of people who would have the details he needed to lay his plan into action.


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A/N: So here is the next chapter.

I will try to download Fire Fox that sounds like it could work
LaBib, all corrections are welcome, proof reading my own work never goes that well.

~any suggestions are welcome. Hope you enjoyed it :)