A/N: Hey everyone! Hope you guys like the last chapter. So it did end with a cliffhanger, and I think you guys want to know whether or not Draco will tell her. Though I am sure you know why Draco was avoiding her in the first place. Read the A/N at the end to find out when the next chapter will be out. On with the chapter! 

"I am sure you want to know why I have been avoiding you." Draco said. 

Hermione crossed her arms in front of her. "Oh you have been avoiding me? I didn't even know that. I have been so busy lately." 

"Granger..." He sighed. "Look, I am sorry for avoiding you. But you can't really just stand there and mock me when you were the one who avoided me first." 

"Well, that is the truth." She said sheepishly. 

"And did I mock you? No, I was the sweetest best friend, and accepted your apology immediately. Though it wasn't really an apology. You just came and said that you were sorry for avoiding me and that could we go back to the way were before." 

"I know that but-" 

He cut her off. "Oh and one more thing, you didn't even tell me why you were really avoiding me. At least I am being honest and telling you, not that I really have to tell you, of course. Considering you didn't, so if I just apologise, it will be okay, right? And you are seriously the worst best friend ever." 

"Draco." Hermione glared at him, but then looked away a moment later. "I know I didn't apologise nicely, and that I never told you why I was avoiding you. It's just that... I mean, I was busy, of course, but other than that... There is something, but I can't tell you yet. I am afraid it will make things worse." Maybe it's better if I never tell you that I had a crush on you, she thought. 

Funny, because that was the exact same thing he was thinking. He couldn't tell her the real reason, because it would definitely make things awkward. 

 "I am sorry." He told her, making her look at him. "I am sorry for making you feel bad. I am sorry for pressurizing you to tell me about the reason, and well I am sorry for avoiding you as well. You know I can be a prat at times." 

She chuckled. "I know. I know perfectly well. I did tolerate you for seven years, didn't I? And then not to mention, there was our eighth year. We lived in the Heads' Dormitory, remember?" 

Oh how could he forget the eighth year? 

The year he was the happiest he had ever been in his life, and also did the thing he regretted the most at that time. 

That wasn't to say he was unhappy now. Of course he wasn't. He was happy, really happy with Astoria. 

But he couldn't help but think about that time again and again. 

"Earth to Draco!" Hermione said, waving her hand in front of him. 

"Wha-oh, yeah, I do. I remember that perfectly." He said. "You used to shout at me all the time for leaving my belongings here and there. But you used to leave your books lying on the sofa, and you know I hated that." 

"I did no such thing, Draco Malfoy." 

"You did. I even have proof. You can ask Blaise and Theo, they saw your books lying on the sofa when they came in our common room." Draco told her. 

"Uh yeah so I must have been reorganizing my book shelves." She said sheepishly. 

"And you used to reorganize mine as well, even when I told you so many times not to. I don't like it when anybody touches my stuff, specially the books." 

"I was just helping you!" She exclaimed.

"No, you weren't. You were getting bored out of your bloody mind, and a few days back I had used a spell to change your hair colour to pink, and you were annoyed at me. And since I wasn't there in the common room at that time, you decided to reorganize my books because you knew I hated that." Draco told her. "It was revenge, not help." 

"Revenge indeed." She smirked at him. Before he could say something, she added, "Yeah so back to the topic of you avoiding me." 

Damn. Even though he was the one to bring up that topic, he had hoped she would have forgotten about it. 

But of course, telling the Brightest Witch of Her Age to forget about something affecting her, was like telling Draco to stop eating apples. 

Both of which weren't going to happen. Ever. 

"So... I have been avoiding you." He said slowly.

"Thanks for stating the obvious." 

"If you want to know the reason, you will not interrupt me." He glared at her. "As I was saying before you so rudely interrupted me, I have, oh well I guess I had been avoiding you since I am not doing that right now. Anyways, the reason is a bit... Complicated." 

He waited for her to speak something, but when she didn't, he said, "Aren't you going to say something?" 

"I thought you were the one who told me not to interrupt you." She said. 

"Right, yeah." Salazar, Draco, you are acting like you are on your first date with her, he thought. Stop embarassing yourself. 

But before that, he had to stop thinking about that. If he did that, then he might as well tell her what he did a few years ago. 

Oh, right, he had to focus on the present. But it seemed like his mind wasn't listening to him. Just like everybody else did. 

"There have been a lot of things on my mind lately, and it has been difficult to focus on work because of those things as well. And on top of that, I have been assigned three more cases, so I have been really busy this week." He said. 

Hermione knew the last part was true. Harry had asked Robards and he had told him that Draco had indeed been given a few more cases. 

"And it's not just you. I have been avoiding pretty much everyone at the Ministry this week, to avoid snapping at anyone.  Just last week, I snapped at Oscar because he was a second late to the meeting. And well... You know I am not good at apologies, so I didn't..." He faltered. 

"That was the reason you were avoiding me?"

Well it was the best he could come up with at that moment, he thought. 

Draco nodded. "I just wanted to take my mind off things before I could talk to anyone. And I know you would say that I should have come and talked to you, but believe me, it would have just made it worse. So, I just decided to completely ignore those things."

"And it took you a few days to do that?" She raised her eyebrows at him.

"Well yeah..." He scratched the back of his neck. "So, what do you think? Will you accept my apology?"

"I think you are required to say the words, 'I am sorry,' in order to apologise to anyone." She smirked at him.

"Oh come on." He groaned. "I have said those three words four times already. You cannot expect me to say them again."

"You cannot expect me to accept your apology when you haven't given any." She said. "If you are not going to do that, then I am going."

Just as she turned around, he grabbed her wrist, turning her back towards him. "Okay, fine. I am sorry. There you go. Now do you accept it?"

"Apology accepted, Drakey." Hermione grinned at him, knowing how much he hated that name. 

He shook his head. "The things I do for my best friend."

As they were walking through the aisles, Hermione couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief, mentally of course.

She was glad that he wasn't avoiding because he had heard her talking with Harry about that. It must have been any other Auror, who heard our talk, she thought. 

So as long as that Auror hadn't thought much of that, and was not into gossip, nobody would get to know what they talked about. 

Well now only she and Harry knew that she used to have a crush on Draco. Oh and one more person as well, but Hermione thought that the person must have forgotten about that. 

So nobody else knew about that, and her secret was safe. 

Too bad Hermione wasn't right that time. 

But of course, it's not like she knew, did she? 

Draco looked at Hermione, who was choosing which book she wanted to borrow, and sighed inwardly. 

A few minutes before she had come to his house, he had made the decision to stop avoiding her. Despite being busy, Draco knew he couldn't use that excuse for a long time, or at least until he forgot about what he had heard. 

He feared that if he avoided her for long, she might think that he was the one who heard her talk with Harry. And that may lead her to figure out a few more things, which Draco didn't want her to do. 

"What do you think Astoria and Narcissa are doing right now?" Hermione asked, breaking his chain of thoughts. 

He shrugged. "They might be talking about me. I think I have become their favourite topic of discussion lately. Draco was like this, Draco was like that. He can be a sap, and he can be a prat." 

She chuckled. "That rhymes. But it is the truth, you know. You are a prat, and a sap as well. Astoria told me you didn't come out of your room for days after I...after I left." 

He looked away from her. "Can we not talk about that? Please?" 

"Of course." Hermione nodded. She wasn't ready to tell him why she left five years ago, or even discuss about that. 

"I think we should go back down. Wouldn't want one of them to come and listen to our talk now, would we?" He said and led her towards the door. 

Unbeknownst to them, someone had already heard their talk. 

---------

One hour later found Hermione standing near the door of the Malfoys' house. "I should go now." She said, checking her watch. "I need to buy some groceries, and then I have to get ready for tonight as well." 

"Tonight? What is tonight?" Draco asked her. 

"My date." 

His eyes widened. She was going on a date? Why didn't he know about that? 

"Why didn't you tell me about that?" He asked her. 

"Excuse me? You were avoiding me until an hour and a half ago. Every time I would try to talk you before today, you would come up with an excuse, usually about you being extremely busy, and would tell me to talk later. But as soon as the work hours would end, you will dissapparate from the Ministry." She crossed her arms in front of her. 

"He was avoiding you?" Astoria asked. "But just yesterday Draco told me that you were busy when I asked him to invite you to dinner." 

"Draco." The three woman turned towards him. 

He looked sheepishly at them. "I mean, she was busy, okay? Well at least in the Ministry, she was. And well I had been avoiding her for a few days. Long story short, I told her the reason today, and apologised as well."

"And why were you avoiding her?" His wife asked him. 

"I am definitely not interested to repeat what I said. You three can talk later about why I avoided her, and I think you will even discuss how foolish I was being. So I am not really interested in having a girl talk." He told her. 

"As you wish, Princess." Astoria smiled at him as he glared at her. 

"Anyways, I better go now. Astoria, you will be coming later to help me get ready, right?" Hermione asked. 

She nodded, as Narcissa said, "I am sorry, Hermione. I would have come as well, but I promised I would go to the Diagon Alley with Andromeda. It's been ages since I last saw Teddy." 

"You don't have to apologise, Narcissa." She smiled and after saying goodbye to the three of them, she dissapparated. 

Draco couldn't help but smile as he thought about her date. She was finally moving on, and he was happy for her. 

Maybe he had heard wrong. They were probably joking about that, and he had taken it seriously. 

She definitely didn't like him in that way. Because if she did, then she wouldn't go on a date with someone else? 

Oh that reminded him that he hadn't asked her who her date was. 

Don't take him wrong, he wasn't interested in gossip at all. But he wanted to know to get a background check on that person, to confirm that he wasn't a bad guy. And also because if he dared to hurt her, Draco wanted to be the first person to have his wand pointed at that guy's neck. 

As he was thinking about that, he saw an owl tapping at the window. He opened it, and allowed the owl to enter. 

After he gave him a few treats, the owl flew away. Draco opened the letter and his eyes widened as he saw who had sent it. 

It was from Unspeakable Adam.

-----------

Three days later...

Hermione sighed as she entered the joint office that day. 

She was not looking forward to being interrogated about the date. 

If it were up to Ginny, she would have asked her about the date as soon as Hermione had come home that day. But since she knew that would happen, Hermione went to Australia to visit her parents, and came back a few hours before. 

But Hermione knew she couldn't stop Ginny from asking about that. She had already received an owl from the red head, inviting her to the Potters' house after the work finished. Oh and she received an owl from Astoria and Narcissa as well. 

At least she didn't have to deal with it until after work. Oh how wrong she was. 

As soon as Draco saw her entering the office, he asked her, "How was your date?" 

"Not this right now." She groaned and sat down in her chair. "I am going to be interrogated about that by Ginny, your wife and mother as well. Anyways, I thought you didn't like to discuss this stuff."

"I don't." He said, turning his chair towards her. "But you are my best friend, and I would like to know which bloke you were on a date with, and how it went so I don't have to hurt him for making you sad." 

"Care about me that much, do you?" 

"Always." He grinned at her. 

She smiled and shook her head. "So the guy's name is Daniel Jones. And no, please don't ask me how I met him or why he asked me. That's a story for another time. As for how the date went, I think it was good. But nothing can beat our accidental date, of course." 

Draco smirked as he remembered their 'date'. 

Flashback

"What are you doing here?" 

Hermione turned around as she heard his voice. "Oh, I was here with my friends. And they actually went to another shop a few minutes ago. And now I can't find them, so I thought of just standing here in case they come to find me. What about you?" 

"Same." Draco said. "I was here with Blaise, Theo and Pansy and they went to some other shop for buying a few things, leaving me here alone. I figured they would be angry at me if they were searching the whole Hogsmeade for me while I was back in the castle, so I thought I would wait here for them." 

"When did they leave you here?" 

"I think around," He checked his watch, "Twenty eight minutes ago. Why?" 

"Well Ginny, Harry and Ron left me here around that time as well. You don't think they have gone to the same shop, and purposefully left us here, do you?" 

"I think so." He shrugged. "You know how crazy they are. I wouldn't be surprised if they were laughing at us right now." 

"What should we do now?" She asked him as she walked through the aisles with him. 

"I think you should send them a patronus, telling them to stop their act or you would tell McGonagall about that." He suggested. 

"That's the thing, I cannot send my patronus to them. I actually kept my wand in Ginny's bag when we were trying on a few dresses, and I forgot to take it from her. Can you send them a patronus?" She said, but realised her mistake a little too late.

Draco's jaw clenched when she said that, and he looked away from her. 

"Oh Draco, I am so sorry." She immediately said. "I forgot that..." 

"You forgot that I am not able to produce a patronus despite practising a few times because every time I try to do that, I end up having a panic attack." He said. 

"Draco..." She was about to say something further, when he shook his head, telling her he no longer wanted to discuss about that. 

"Should we go back to the castle now?" She asked him. 

"I think I want to roam around here a few more minutes." Draco said. "Anyways, did you check out the new cafe? I heard it's amazing." 

She shook her head. "I haven't. I think we should go and check it out. It will be lunch time soon anyway." 

By the time they exited the cafe and checked out the new bookshop and Quidditch shop as well, Hermione had started shivering due to the cold. She hadn't brought a jacket, thinking she would go back to the castle before lunch. 

Draco removed his jacket, and draped it across her shoulders. She thanked him and he grabbed her hand, and pulled her closer to him. 

When she raised her eyebrows at him, he pointed towards some men, who were whistling at her. His jaw clenched and he was about to yell at them, when she squeezed his hand and shook her head. 

The people who passed them, thought they were a couple and smiled at them. 

They were near the Three Broomsticks when Hermione stopped walking, making Draco look at her in confusion. 

"Mistletoe." She whispered, looking up. 

Draco followed her gaze and his eyes widened when he looked at it. Thankfully, no one was around to see them under a mistletoe. 

"Well..." He said. "What should we do?" 

"Is there a spell to remove the Mistletoe?" She asked him. 

He shook his head. "If there is, I cannot remember it right now." He looked at her, only to see her cheeks turn bright red. 

"Should we?" Hermione asked. 

"I don't think we have any other choice." Draco whispered and leaned down, as she leaned up. 

He cupped her cheek and pressed his lips to her. After a moment, he felt her kissing him back. Their lips moved in sync while he slowly stroked her cheek with his thumb. Her hands were around his neck, playing with his hair. 

A few moments later, he pulled away from her. Despite it being dark, Hermione could see his cheeks turn pink. 

When neither said anything for a few minutes, Draco grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "Should we go to the Three Broomsticks, now?" 

Hermione could only nod, her mind still on their kiss, as he led them towards the pub. 

One hour later, they exited the pub. Hermione, being drunk, was leaning on Draco, while he wrapped his arm around her waist and tried his hardest to make her stop pointing at people and giggling at them. 

"It was a nice date, wasn't it? You are sooo cute, Dray." Hermione giggled at him. Draco just shook his head at her.

"You can thank our friends for setting us up on this date." He said after a few moments.

When he felt her rest her head on his shoulder, her eyes closed as she fell asleep, he placed his other arm under the back of her knees, and picked her up, carrying her all the way towards the castle. 

Draco didn't know how wrong he was about nobody noticing them. 

Sure enough, a few people were smiling at them, while others clicked a few pictures. 

Flashback over

"I definitely enjoyed it a lot, even if I got drunk in the end because of you." Hermione said. 

"Because of me?" He gasped. "It's not my fault you are a light weight. Besides, I think I told you to stop drinking, but you didn't listen to me. You should be thankful that I carried you back to Hogwarts." 

"What a gentleman you were." She grinned at him. "So now that you have asked me about the date, can we please work on the case now?" 

He nodded. "Fine by me. But you will tell me about that Jones guy soon." 

Both of them were thankful to each other, for not mentioning the kiss they had under the mistletoe. 

It would have only made the matter more awkward.

--------- 

Few hours later...

Draco looked at the letter he had received while waiting for the person, who had requested to meet him, to arrive at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. 

Malfoy

You must be surprised to see this letter. I would be too if I were in your place. I will be coming to England in three days. There is something I want to talk with you about, and I think you can guess what it is. 

If you want, we can meet somewhere. Just don't tell anyone about this, specially Hermione.

Owl me back soon. 

Unspeakable Adam 

Australian Ministry of Magic

 They had planned to meet at the Leaky Cauldron, but since it was a pretty famous pub, Draco had suggested to meet somewhere else. 

And also because he hadn't eaten his favourite ice cream in a few days, they decided to meet at Florean's, and then as soon as Adam would come, he would apparate them to his place to avoid being seen by anyone. 

He had quickly left the Ministry, before Hermione could stop him. Though as he had reached the apparation point, Harry had spotted him. After making up an excuse to pick up something from a shop, Draco had dissapparated. 

After a few minutes, just as Draco started to eat his ice cream, he saw someone coming towards him. 

"Malfoy." Adam said. 

"Unspeakable Adam." Draco stood up. "Do you want to order something?" 

He shook his head. "I think we should go to my place now." 

"Alright. I will take eat my ice cream there. Don't want to waste it now, do we?" He picked up the cup and walked towards him. 

"What flavor is it?" 

"Green Apple. And it is seriously amazing." Draco said, taking a bite of his ice cream. 

"Apple?" Adam asked him. "Is it like your favorite fruit or something? Hermione told me that you always eat apples." 

Draco nodded. "You don't know how amazing apples are. I can literally eat them all day, but unfortunately my mother likes stealing them and baking apples pies for everyone except me." 

"Perhaps you should try eating other fruits as well." 

"Nope." He shook his head. "Apples are my favourites." 

"You and your apples." Adam rolled his eyes. "It is a different love story."

Before Draco could retort, the Unspeakable grabbed his arm and dissapparated them. "A little warning would be nice, you know?" Draco said. "Anyways, why are you acting like we are friends or something? I think you hated me when I came to Australia." 

"It is just for Hermione. I love her, and would do anything for her. And so, I decided to be nice to you for her sake." 

"Love her? Well then you will not like to know that she is dating someone else now. Well I think she is, because she just went on one date with a James guy. I think that was what Granger said." 

"Oh no, you misunderstood me." Adam quickly said. "I love her like a sister. And I already love someone else, so you don't have to do the overprotective best friend role to me." 

"Whatever." Draco said. They went to the living room, and Draco sat down on the couch, while Adam went to one of the rooms. 

When he finished eating his ice cream, Adam returned and sat down next to him. "So... Is this your place? I thought you lived in Australia." 

"I do." He nodded. "This is actually my old place. I used to live here a few years ago, but then shifted to Australia." 

"Okay. So what did you want to talk with me about?" 

"I think you know that." Adam said. 

Draco nodded. "I guess I have an idea. So can we please talk about now?" 

"So has Hermione told you about the file yet?" When he shook his head, Adam continued, "Fine. Give her time. I am sure she will tell you soon. In the meantime, I want you to have this." 

He handed him a file, and Draco's jaw dropped. "Is it what I think it is?" 

Adam nodded. "Don't tell Hermione yet that I have given you this. When she will tell you what is in the file, you can tell her." 

Draco just nodded in reply, still focused on the object in his hands. 

It was Hermione Jean Granger's Criminal Record file. 

A/N: That's it for this chapter. It was 4200+ words. Hope you guys liked it. I think it was a bit weird, but that's because I had wanted to include a few more scenes, but since it would have been too long, I decided to include them in the next chapter. But I liked their date scene a bit. Random question: Do you think Draco deserved redemption? Answer in the comments below. Vote, comment and please share my story. Reviews are always appreciated. Thank you! 

Next chapter on 20/9/20(Sunday). 

Until next time.