Love Bites (Harry Potter: Official Dragon Tamer, Part One)

Obsession

Wednesday Morning
02 September 2009
Hermione's POV

It was only Wednesday, and it'd already been a hell of a week.

I sat at my desk, shrugging off my coat as I did so, and noticed that Draco's desk was, as yet, still empty, and couldn't help but smirk at myself.

He'd come scampering in right at 8:59 on Monday, his suit and hair adorably mussed, practically stammering an apology about "running late again" before launching straight into a discussion of his thoughts over our meeting with Davies and Williams, our Senior Research partners in the Love Chamber.

"What did you think of the meeting Friday?" he'd asked, unpacking his briefcase.

"I thought it went well," I'd replied almost immediately. "They gave us a lot of information to go over."

"Did they, though?" he'd asked, eyes narrowing slightly. "I mean, do you think any of it particularly useful for the Erised case? It was all fascinating, but I don't see how it's going to help us any."

My musings were interrupted by Draco bursting through our office door at 8:56, once again taking his seat across from me, unpacking his briefcase, eyes glancing up to mine momentarily.

"Erm..."

"Running late again?" I guessed, making sure to take my time going over his charmingly rumpled hair and suit, once again, clearly just thrown on before arriving at the Ministry.

"Erm... yeah," he affirmed, giving me a tiny smile.

"Thinking I should probably figure out a new signature look. One that doesn't take up so much time," he quipped, running a hand through his tousled hair.

"Absolutely," I replied, nodding with mock seriousness. "Certainly not just getting out of bed earlier."

"Granger-Weasley," Draco smirked, taking out a sheaf of parchment and flipping through it. "Honestly, what would be the fun in that?"

I rolled my eyes and threw a wadded-up piece of parchment at him.

"Anyway," I said pointedly, looking through my own notes. "We've another meeting with Davies and Williams this morning. Since you're of the opinion that the information they provided last time wasn't all that helpful, is there anything, in particular, you'd like for us to discuss today?"

Draco sighed.

"Yes, and no," he said, frowning, and I couldn't help rolling my eyes again. "I mean, I think there's definitely information they can provide, but I don't think we understand enough about how the app functions to ask the correct questions."

I nodded.

"Ok, so... let's just meet with them and see where it goes?"

Draco nodded and yawned, stretching his arms above his head.

"Do you need coffee?" I asked, grinning.

"No," he sighed, grinning at me ruefully.

"I need to stop letting this bloke distract me when I'm trying to research," he admitted, and I jerked my head back up to look at him in surprise.

"You let him distract you from your research?" I echoed doubtfully.

Draco Malfoy was, perhaps, almost as fastidious and driven as I was when it came to his work.

Honestly, we argued, often and heatedly, about who was the more finicky of the two of us when it came to researching, note-taking, and the like.

Ron and Blaise insisted that the fact we would even argue something like that, as though it were something worth bragging about, was reason enough for us both to share the "most boring person in the world" prize, as my dear husband so lovingly put it.