Disclaimer: I own nothing!

A/N: I felt like another short, fluffy bit of fanfiction. It's Draco/Hermione; I've never done this pairing before, so tell me how it ends up. It's another songfic, based on Crossfade's "Invincible." I can't actually write out the lyrics (I don't own the rights), but look it up. It's a good one. (BTW, "The Potter Experiment" will have another chapter up soon. I just needed a break.)

Draco Malfoy threw down the book of poetry, disgusted by the sappy words staring back at him. He hated poetry, and he hated the fact that she, the girl he had developed an infatuation with, loved it and thought it romantic.

He growled, drawing the attention of one of his co-workers; actually, it brought over one of the three co-workers whom he didn't want to see.

"So, Draco, who's pissed you off?" Harry Potter grinned from in front of Draco's desk, looking at his partner, amused.

Draco scowled. "What's it to you, Potter?"

"Well, I'm concerned. I thought you'd grown out of the growling a long time ago." Harry looked at Draco closely. "It's a woman, isn't it?"

"What are you babbling on about, Potter?"

Harry smirked. "I've noticed that you've been distracted lately. That can't be because of your partners. I know Ron and I are damn sexy, but I don't think you swing that way, mate."

Draco growled again, trying to discreetly hide the book of poetry under a stack of files, but Harry caught him.

"What's this, Draco?" Before the blonde auror could catch him, Harry jerked the book off of his desk, reading the title. "Poetry, mate?" The raven-haired wizard laughed. "Since when…?" He noticed Draco moving his mouth wordlessly, and he turned to see what, or whom, had the ferret so speechless. Harry's eyes widened.

"Harry! I thought you, Draco, and Ron had a huge case to be working on." Hermione Granger smiled at Draco before turning back to her best friend. "You don't look like…" She noticed the book in his hands. "Since when do you read poetry, Harry?"

The slightly taller wizard fumbled with the book. "Oh, it's…" he stopped when he saw Draco's panicked expression, and his gaze softened. "It's just something I picked up to impress Elizabeth. She loves Whitman, you know?" Harry bit his lip, hoping Hermione would buy his lie.

"Oh?" Hermione looked through the book. "Funny, there's absolutely no Whitman in here." She smirked at Harry. "Come by my flat tonight, and I'll get you the right book. Here, Draco, I think this is yours. Good taste, by the way." Hermione sent Draco a warm smile as she walked back to her office, right beside the head of the DMLE's own space.

Harry turned to Draco. "Hermione?" he asked in a strained voice.

Draco only nodded. Harry took a deep breath and smiled a bit. "A couple of years ago, I'd have probably knocked you for one if you'd even attempted to look Hermione's way; however," Draco's eyebrows rose, "now, I can honestly attest to your character. You're a changed man, and while I think no one is right for her, Hermione can't do any worse than you."

The blonde wizard sat back heavily. Harry had…given his blessing for him to pursue Hermione? "Harry…"

"No, don't. I have to find a way to break this to Ron, though. You know him…" Harry drifted off.

"Thanks, mate. I probably would have gone after her anyway, hence the book of poetry, but it means a lot to have your blessing."

Harry nodded. "But Draco, hurt her…" he smirked, "...I'll just say that I know a lot of places to hide a body."

Draco smirked. "Thanks for the warning." He waved back towards Harry's office. "We have work to do." As Harry turned to go, Draco pulled his book back to him and read e.e. cummings's words to himself softly,

"i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)…"

-e.e. cummings

The blonde never noticed the brunette smile as she closed her door.

Hermione sat back with her glass of wine, blowing a bit of stray hair out of her face. When is he going to call?

The solicitor for the DMLE looked to her phone. She had convinced "her boys" to break down and get their own phone. Harry was the easiest; he was tired of depending on fireplaces and owls to get his messages to people. Ron and Draco were harder to break. She smiled as she thought of Draco's response.

"But Granger, why do I need a phone? There is absolutely no reason for me to have one!"

Hermione had huffed, annoyed by her blonde co-worker. "Draco, you don't know just how much faster phones are! You don't have to hunt up an owl, and you don't even have to worry about Floo powder! Just pick up the phone…"

Draco had scowled. "And call whom, may I ask? Who in the hell will call on this new telephone of mine?"

"Me." Hermione herself had widened her eyes at her own forward response, but Draco's reaction was priceless.

"Well then, where would I get one of these phones?"

Draco had been the one to convince Ron about the benefits of the phone. The phone had been installed in Draco's new flat just today, and he had promised to call her as soon as he had it figured out. However, Hermione decided, it must have slipped his mind. It was already after ten o'clock at night.

But still she waited. Finally, at five past eleven, her phone rang. She jumped up to get it, dropping the book she had been pretending to read for the last two hours.

"Hello? Hermione speaking."

"So formal, Granger. Ease up, or you'll scare all callers away." Hermione smiled as she heard the teasing in his voice.

"Hi, Draco. Glad you decided to call."

"I…uh…I lostyournumber."

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows. "You what?"

Draco huffed. "I lost your bloody number, okay? I had to go around the world just to get Harry to give it to me."

"You lost my number, and you went to Harry's to get it?"

"Didn't I say that already?"

Hermione laughed. "You did, but I wanted to get my facts straight. Why didn't you just come ask me?"

Silence. Then, "Well, where would the fun in that be? I was supposed to be calling you, and popping up at your flat would have defeated the purpose, right?"

"Draco Malfoy thinking outside the box. Who would have thought?" Hermione smiled into the phone.

"Yeah, well don't get used to it."

The two talked for another hour, in the name of researching how "this blasted device" functioned. However, not another word was said about the telephone for the rest of their conversation.

Tomorrow, Hermione would kick herself for acting like a giggling schoolgirl waiting on her crush to call, but tonight? Tonight, she was a giggling schoolgirl, and her crush had just called her. What was she supposed to do?

"She knows. She has to." Draco ran a hand through his usually immaculate blonde hair.

Harry took a bite of his sandwich and looked at his partner confusedly. "Who knows what?"

"Hermione!" He looked over to where she was paying for her meal with Ron. "She's just being nice about it all."

"Draco," Harry wiped his mouth and crossed his arms, "if Hermione Granger didn't like you, she wouldn't bullshit and act like she did. If you think she likes you, she does. Now, quit acting like a sissy and ask her out."

However, Draco's mouth went dry as the brunette and Weasley sat down at the table with them, Hermione on his right and Ron across from her.

"Hi, Draco, Harry. How's it going today?" Hermione took a bite of her tuna and looked at the two men.

Noticing Draco's distress, Harry rolled his eyes a bit. "It's going well. This case should be wrapped up next week."

Hermione turned to Draco. "Draco, you look pale. Are you okay?"

Draco nodded. "I'm…fine. Just a little warm."

"You sure?" Ron smirked a bit. "Hermione could you walk him outside a bit. He looks a bit peaked." Hermione nodded and grabbed Draco's hand, pulling him out to the courtyard just outside the cafeteria.

Hermione and Draco walked around a bit, taking in the fresh air and looking at the fall colors. Suddenly she stopped, and Draco realized that she was still holding his hand.

"Draco, I just wanted to let you know that I'm really glad we're friends now. I've seen how much you've changed, and I know how hard you're working to be a better man." Draco hung his head as she talked, but she took a moment and pushed his chin up, looking into his grey eyes. He swallowed hard.

Clearing his throat, he smiled. "Thank you, Hermione. From you, that means a lot. I hurt you unnecessarily throughout the years, and you should hate me for it. Because you don't, I know there's hope for me in the future. The rest of the world can't possibly hate me as much as you should."

Suddenly hugging him tightly, Hermione choked out, "I could never hate you, Draco." Pulling back, she smirked a bit. "Now, severely disliking the little annoying ferret you were…?" Steering him back towards the doors, she added before heading back to their food, "E.e. cummings is a nice choice. However, to impress me, quote some Shakespeare. I love the classics." Kissing his cheek, she made her way back the other two men.

Draco could only stand dumbfounded in the middle of the cafeteria before hurrying back to his office.

Hermione was on Cloud Nine. She had just come from a meeting with her boss, and Amelia Bones was consistent in her praise of the youngest lawyer on staff. After receiving her NEWTS, Hermione had immediately stepped in as Amelia's protégé, learning at the feet of she who knew the law better than anyone. Her O's on her exams told the head of the DMLE that she would be crazy should she place Hermione at the bottom of the ranks. This girl was going places, even to minister, if Amelia had anything to do about it.

The brunette practically skipped to her office, basking in the praises of her boss, feeling ready to take on the world, when she ran into him.

Picking themselves off of the floor, Draco and Hermione looked nervously at each other. While it was true they spoke on the phone most nights, work was becoming more and more awkward. Draco, usually suave and snarky, suddenly became nervous around Hermione, and Hermione was no better.

Just a minute ago, she had been ready to take on the world. However, in Draco's presence, she was once again that giggling girl with a crush, and she had no idea how to go about getting over this.

Suddenly, after about three minutes of silence, Draco blurted out, "Would you like to come to my place for dinner tonight? I'm tired of cooking for myself, and…"

"I'd love to." Where did that come from? Of course, Hermione knew exactly where it had come from. "What time, and should I bring anything?"

Draco smiled brightly. "Seven, and if you'd like, a bottle of wine."

"See you at seven, then."

Draco was panicking. Why the hell had he signed on for this?

Nothing was going smoothly. The tablecloth was the wrong color, the sauce tasted funny, and his hair would not stay down for the first time in his life. He had lost track of time when he heard his doorbell.

"Shite!" Draco exploded, then clamped his mouth shut. He stopped, stood proudly as all Malfoys had been trained to do, and attempted to smooth his hair down once again. Finally, it decided to oblige him, and he looked every bit of the Malfoy heir he was.

Opening the door, he smiled at the angel on the other side. "Hermione, glad you could make it." He stood back and let the smiling brunette in.

"Oh, Draco. This flat is amazing!" Hermione looked around, her eyes immediately finding his full bookshelves. "All of those yours?"

Draco shrugged and helped his date with her coat. "They're from the Malfoy family library, and Harry's actually given me some from the Black family library. He said some of them would mean more to me than they ever would to him."

Hermione nodded. "Sounds like Harry."

Taking a deep breath, Draco held his arm out. "Anyway, I promised you food. Come with me?"

This was the moment of truth. Draco had hurried home after work, barely even speaking to any of his co-workers, including Hermione, as he jumped in the Floo to get home. He had showered, dressed, and began dinner all within thirty minutes of arriving.

While his pasta had cooked on the stove, Draco had run around, cleaning his flat and setting the table. He had thrown together his mum's favorite sauce, but he could never get it to turn out as he'd remembered. He hoped Hermione appreciated the effort, anyway.

The two entered the dining room, and Hermione turned and smiled brightly at Draco. "This is very lovely. Who knew you could get all of this done in a couple of hours?"

Draco puffed his chest out. "I am Draco Malfoy, after all."

Relaxing, the two laughed and talked over dinner, the tension from the last couple of weeks disappearing as they found that they were similar in many ways.

"You know, I never would have picked up a book of poetry had it not been for you, Hermione." Draco looked up shyly over their glasses of wine while sitting next to the brunette on the couch. His admission had colored her cheeks.

"Me?"

Draco nodded. "It's no secret that you love to read, but I overheard Harry and Ron talking about what to get you for your birthday, and Harry mentioned that you loved poetry…sappy poetry, to be exact."

Hermione shrugged. "While that is true, I still don't understand what you reading it has to do with me."

"Granger, you are thick sometimes!" Draco drained the rest of his wine and sat his glass on the coffee table in front of them. "I was reading it to impress you!"

"But…" Hermione looked confused. "You didn't claim the book when I took it from Harry!"

Draco shook his head. "I couldn't speak, and Harry was trying to cover for me!" Everything Draco had been hiding recently came to the front of his mind, and it spilled out of his mouth. "Hermione, for the last few weeks, you're all I think about. You're the reason I got this blasted telephone; I got it to talk to you. I don't even have anyone else's number!"

Shaking his head, he continued, "All my life, I've had a semblance of control. I've never had to bow to anyone, try to please anyone, but my father. But now, with you, I can't control anything. Hermione, I memorized poetry for you! I bought this telephone…for you! And if the department has something against me being with you, hell, they can have the bloody job! I've realized that my feelings are just that strong for you, Granger. They can fire me, but I can't lose you."

Throughout his speech, Hermione's hand had risen to her mouth. "You really mean that, Draco?"

Draco laughed disbelievingly. "Merlin, Hermione…" He quickly pulled her close, forcing her hands down to her sides, and brought his lips down on hers. While she tensed up at first, she quickly relaxed and gave into the kiss, even deepening it herself. Draco moaned when he felt her tongue against his lips.

An hour later, after much snogging and touching, Hermione was pulled back against Draco, smiling contentedly.

"Draco?"

"Hmm?"

"What poem did you memorize?"

Draco sat up slightly and bent down to her ear, enunciating clearly,

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

-William Shakespeare