Agent Granger, CIA

Yours truly, Draco.

She couldn't help grinning at his final words, they seemed to make his absence lighter. Folding the letter back, she tucked it neatly inside her drawer and slid off the bed. Taking a long stretch, she yawned and shook off her drowsiness, ready for another day of work.

**

Draco was disgusted at the sight of Ron's bloodied face. The tall redhead was sprawled on the floor, dead asleep, where he had been left the night before. Draco conjured a bowl of warm water and a clean cotton cloth as he kneeled down to begin the cleanup.

"I thought you weren't coming back," Ron said detachedly, his eyes remained shut.

"I wasn't going to," Draco replied sneeringly. He gently wiped the blood off from under his nose and sighed loudly. "There's a full moon tonight. I said I would be there to test Hermione's potion, and that would be the last one; so I'm here to keep my word."

"I never keep mine," the other man snorted. "Why do you bother? I did after all say that I was going to stop the potions this month."

"I think we both know the problem isn't within taking the potions anymore."

Ron opened his eyes to that. "You look different," he announced at once.

Draco's ears burned red, but his face traced no hint of understanding Ron's comment. He moved down and began scrubbing off dried blood from his chin. Ron eventually figured out what was illuminating Draco's features, but chose not to erupt a fight again; he had lost Hermione forever anyway. But he was still determined to find a cure so that he could at least return to his family and be of help there.

Draco stood and wrenched out the pink water in the towel. "Go take a shower and wash up," he demanded. "You'll want to appear impressive tonight."

Ron raised an eyebrow, but didn't ask any questions. He slouched off to his room and then hit the showers.

**

Hermione was a bit confused when she arrived at work today. Everyone noticed her entrance and smiled as she passed. She returned their kind salutations with puzzled glares. But Jordan, thankfully, hadn't been affected by their disease. He was sitting in her chair once again, with his feet up on her desk.

"You are glowing this morning!" he grinned as she entered the office. Hermione stared at him and shut the door.

"What is up with everyone out there?!" she asked.

Jordan shrugged. "But we'll find out tonight, won't we? Or correction, you and I will find out tonight."

"Find out what? Is this work related?"

Her partner smiled and swung his feet off of the desk, carrying a couple loose sheets of paper with them. "Why, I can't tell you that! That would ruin half the surprise!"

Hermione frowned. Maybe she was going to get promoted? It would be about time...

Mr. Harrison then came barging through the door with a royal blue folder in hand. "Agent Granger, you look absolutely stunning today!"

Hermione blushed, but seriously started to suspect that Malfoy had drawn something on her forehead. "Thank you," she replied.

Harrison smiled and tapped the folder in his hand.

"Is that our new case?" Jordan asked, taking the folder from him. Harrison nodded, and Hermione could have sworn that he had winked at Jordan, but it seemed like Jordan hadn't noticed it. Their boss then left the two of them to their work.

Hermione watched as Jordan read through the case, as usual. He frowned and took a seat on the desk. It was a couple minutes before he said anything, Hermione watched him read it over three times before he shut it with a thoughtful sigh.

Then, he commenced to staring at her. She felt herself turn red in the cheeks; Jordan suppressed a smile.

"Why are you staring at me?" she asked, now positively sure her face was an apple. His smile faded and he sighed again.

"Remember Nathaniel Tonks? AKA Drake Cardon?" he began. "It turns out he wasn't a great guy to begin with, despite what we thought. I guess he got the snobby Slytherin genes of the family. It turns out that he was a supporter of Voldemort, and had killed many people during his Death Eater days, under another identity that the Dark Lord gave him, of course. And now, he's continuing that tradition...and being a werewolf is not his excuse. He just likes to kill, what can I say?"

"Why don't they take this case to the FBI? He's just another serial killer. We deal with inside stuff, things that actually have complexity to them."

Jordan looked down at his feet. "They assigned this specifically to us. To you. Because we acquired a hit list..."

"Who's on it?"

"Devlin Whitehorn. Ronald Weasley. Draco Malfoy. Hermione Granger, in order."

"That's everyone on the Cardon case..." said Hermione. Draco was on the list...and so was she. No. Things were just starting to work out right, she wasn't going to let some lunatic destroy it.

Jordan nodded. "The only reason I'm not on there is because I wasn't there."

"Well, what are we doing here? If he's going to go kill everyone on that list, we gotta move!"

**

Whitehorn was sitting in his office. He raised his coffee mug to his lips, but Tonks apparated into his office before he took a sip. The two men stared at each other, one with shock, the other with murderous intents.

"Tonks," Whitehorn stuttered. "What are you doing here?"

"Taking you out," the other man smirked as he whipped out his wand. "Avada Kedavra!"

A blinding green light illuminated the room, and then there was a thump on the ground.

Tonks disapparated. A few seconds later, Hermione and Jordan appeared in Whitehorn's office.

"Where is he?" Jordan asked, observing the empty chair behind the desk. Hermione gasped when she saw a limp hand jutting out from behind the desk. She slowly walked over and closed her eyes as her fear was confirmed. Jordan followed her and immediately bent down to check his pulse.

"He's dead, but hasn't been for long. His arm's still warm."

Hermione grabbed his shirt sleeve and pulled him up. "He's moving fast, we have to go warn Draco!"

**

Draco was in the kitchen, trying to decipher "Cartha Hewart's 1001 Magical Cooking Recipes".

"Easy to do my butt," he muttered as he wadded up the dough he was working with.

Hermione and Jordan apparated in.

Draco didn't notice them, and kept cussing out his cookbook. Hermione laughed, and scared the bejesus out of him.

His ball of dough flew into the air and landed back on his head with a loud SPLAT. He frowned as his audience howled with glee.

"Is this what you're working on, Draco?" Hermione grinned. Jordan tried to stop his shoulders from shaking and ran off into another room as he felt another wave of laughter come out. Draco pulled the gooey dough out of his hair.

"Blegh. I'm never going to try to cook again."

Hermione smiled and walked up to him, giving him a long kiss. "You left without telling me this morning!" she scolded once she pulled away.

"You looked so peaceful, I didn't want to wake you." Draco cupped her cheek in his hand and smiled as he looked in her eyes.

"Umm...hello there," Jordan said as he entered the room again. The two of them disregarded his presence. He rolled his eyes. "Okay, you two. Break it up! There's a killer after you for heaven's sake!"

Draco blinked and looked away. "What?"

Jordan smirked. "Oh, now you'll listen to me?"

"Who's after us?"

"Tonks."

Draco grabbed Jordan by the arm and dragged him out of the room. Hermione couldn't hear what they were saying, but it definitely sounded urgent. She heard Jordan scream "I KNOW!", but then they resumed their hushed tones again.

Ron walked into the room, with nothing but a towel on. He was drying his hair with another towel in his hand, but froze when he saw Hermione. They stared at each other, both embarrassed.

"Hey..." he said, stepping behind something, in case if his towel fell. Hermione gave him a small smile and waved, looking away. Draco came back into the room and glared at Ron.

"Go put some clothes on. Unless if you want to die like Elvis, butt naked." The redhead was now as red as his hair. He sulked off muttering something.

"Where's Jordan?" Hermione asked, noting her partner's absence.

"Oh, he had to go do something. Don't worry, we'll see him later."

She nodded. "Ron's a target too. When do you think he'll attack?"

"How about now?" came a voice behind them.

**

Ron hastily pulled on a shirt while he tried to buckle his belt with one hand. Then there was a loud scream downstairs. "Hermione!"

He jumped off the stairs and ran to the kitchen. Draco was on the floor, and didn't look like he'd be getting up anytime soon. Hermione was nowhere to be seen. He bent down to check Draco's pulse, then everything went black.

**

"Welcome! Welcome to my humble abode."

Draco groaned. He opened his eyes with much pain. His arms were tied up, and his legs were tied down. Hermione was bound to a chair next to where Tonks was standing. Ron was tied up next to him.

"You might be wondering why you're still alive..." Tonks laughed. "You're all going to die anyway, so don't get your hopes up about me turning good and letting you go. But I can make your death as painless as Whitehorn's or I can make it so that you'll beg me for it."

He pulled out a knife and ran his finger across the back of the blade. "There's a full moon tonight, Ron. I just thought I'd take you out before you inject your potions in me again."

"I have a cure," Ron wheezed. "If you let her go, I'll give you the cure."

Tonks laughed coldly. "If you had the cure Ron, you wouldn't need me anymore. And you wouldn't be a werewolf, and I know for a fact that you still are," he growled.

"I haven't tried it yet...but I guarantee that it will work," Ron replied. Hermione bit her lip, were they talking about the potion she gave Ron?

"Alright then. How about this for a deal. You give me the potion, and if it works...I won't eat you for dinner. And if it doesn't work...well...we'll see what happens then, won't we?" He turned his head and grinned at Hermione. "Starting out with you, sweetie pie."

Hermione glared at him.

Draco gave his chain a hard tug, only to further the pain in his wrist. Tonks laughed. "Look at the great big and bad Malfoy now. How does it feel? When you can't buy your way out of the mess you made?"

Draco snarled and yanked his other arm. "Let us go, Tonks. I'm asking you."

He scoffed in return. "You're asking me? Asking? Even if you begged me on your two knees...Malfoy...even if you begged me...I'd still kill you."

"What did I ever do to you?"

"It's not what you did, Draco. It's what you didn't do. You never looked out for me...NEVER! I'm your blood relative and instead of helping me, you help that git of a friend you have over there to torture me. And for that, I'm going to kill you...slowly. But first, I want you to watch her die."

Draco scowled. "You'd never kill your own family, Tonks!"

Tonks let out a shrieking laugh. "Oh really? Who do you think killed my sister, Malfoy? Who was ever close enough to lay a finger on one of the Order members? I was the one who killed half of them. I was the one who the Dark Lord trusted most."

"So it was all an act," Draco scoffed. "Do you enjoy having people pity you, Tonks? I'd have thought you'd be proud of what you did. Why would you pretend to be innocent after the battle?"

"And fear every second of the rest of my life that someone might want to seek revenge?" He shook his head. "I'm not ashamed of what I did, but I'm also not stupid enough to go around flaunting it."

Draco tugged again with all his might on the chain. Then he grinned. "Tonks, Tonks, Tonks," he tsked. "If you're going to take prisoners, you should probably check them for weapons first..."

Draco pulled his arm back slightly then punched it diagonally into the air, sending his wand out of his sleeve. He caught it with his hand and immediately broke the chains binding him. Tonks was caught off guard, and was too late to realize that his wand was on the table beside Hermione. Draco target him with a victorious grin.

"I wouldn't cast any spells if I were you, Malfoy," Tonks spat, grabbing Hermione's hair and pressing the knife against her neck. "If you kill me, she dies too."

Draco stopped in his step. He checked his watch. "Shouldn't you be getting ready for your transformation, Tonks?"

"Put your wand down."

"Put your knife down first."

"I call the rules here, Malfoy! Put the wand down!"

Draco tilted it to the floor. Tonks removed his weapon from Hermione's throat. "Get him to give you the potion," he demanded.

Ron looked at him. "It's in my pocket."

Draco walked over and pulled a glass vial out of his pants. "Here."

Tonks took it and examined it suspiciously. "Moonrise is at 6:00 today, when do I take it?"

"What time is it?" Hermione asked.

"5:30," Draco replied immediately.

"If you want the potion to work, you should take it right now."

"How would you know?" Tonks glared.

"I made it."

That seemed to put much more confidence into the potion. Tonks popped the top and downed the whole glass in one.

As he swayed from side to side, Draco swiftly cracked him on the head and knocked him out.

**

"YOU WERE GOING TO GIVE THAT TO ME?!" Ron hollered once Draco undid his chains.

"It works! I swear, it's just really strong at first," Hermione protested. Draco single handedly dragged Tonks across the room as they argued.

"Are you sure he's not dead, Draco?"

Draco laughed softly to himself. "He might be!" he replied, grinning when they couldn't see him. Ron paled. Hermione scowled at Draco.

"Ron, we need to get you somewhere...you're going to transform in 20 minutes!"

"Don't worry, I made a copy of the potion. But it's at home."

"What are we going to do with Tonks?" Hermione asked, looking at the shady corner where his unconscious body was laying.

"Arrest him and lock him up for good. He's not as innocent as we all thought him to be..."

Hermione nodded. "I'll take care of him while you guys go fetch the potion. Meet back here, alright?"

They all disapparated.

**

Hermione filled out all the paper work and locked Tonks in one of the heavily guarded cells. She checked her watch. It was 6:05. No transformation yet. It looked like her potion was a success. This would definitely be a major breakthrough in magical cures. She grinned happily and returned to Tonk's garage.

**

"Geroff of me, Ron!!" Draco cried. Ron was crouched over him, sniffing him, and licking him! He didn't transform either, but some symptoms were still obvious. He had taken the potion too late. Hermione stunned him and pushed him off of Draco, who's hair looked like a balloon was hovering over it.

"Did you get scratched?" she asked, turning his face in every direction.

"No..."

"Then what are all these cuts?"

"Ron was very aggressive at first, then he sorta became a puppy dog."

Hermione couldn't help grinning.

"It's not funny, Hermione!"

She began laughing and stood up. "Common, get up."

"Wait!" Draco whispered loudly. He seemed to have remembered something important. He rose, but only to his knees and began searching his pockets. "What time is it?"

"6:25...why?"

"Damn it! Where is it?" Draco cried, frustrated, now scrubbing his whole body in search of something. He scanned his eyes around the garage, then scurried over to Ron's body. "Oh Ron! That is nasty!"

"What?" Hermione asked, still clueless.

"Wait over there!" Draco ordered. He pulled something out of Ron's mouth and scrubbed it with his shirt. Then he walked back over to Hermione on his knees, dragging Ron with him. A little out of breath, he took her left hand.

"This isn't exactly how I planned it," he laughed, patting his hair down. "First of all, I wouldn't look like I just rolled in a pit of mud. Second, we wouldn't be here. And Ron isn't supposed to be knocked out. But it'll do." He took in a deep breath and squeezed her hand. "Hermione Granger, I love you. You are the only thing I want. From this day forth, everything I do, I want it to be for you. Will you marry me?"

He opened his palm and revealed a beautiful (and considerably large) pink diamond, cut in a shape that looked oddly like an otter! She gasped and started laughing happily.

"YES! Yes, I'll marry you, Draco!" she squealed, before jumping on him. Draco grinned and embraced her.

"Okay, I need to put the ring on your finger, like now."

Hermione didn't know why he was so hurried, but she gave him her hand and he slipped the ring onto her third finger, never taking his eyes off her. He held her with one hand, and Ron with the other, and suddenly it felt like they were spinning and falling into the ground.

Ten seconds later, they reappeared in a very bright and beautifully decorated room. The ring must have been a Portkey to wherever they were right now!

"SURPRISE!!!" a crowd of awaiting people hollered. Hermione squealed again with joy as Ginny ran up to give her a hug. Someone else approached the stage to drag Ron away. Her parents were there! So was the whole Weasley family, and of course, Jordan (who was still instructing the servants what they were supposed to do). She grinned. This was definitely the best day of her life.

**

Draco was introduced to her parents, who seemed to love him immediately. They showered him with hugs and kisses and even more after they saw the ring.

Everyone sat down for the dinner, which had just about everything, including dessert. The ordering operated much like the Yule Ball feast, but in respect to the house elves, paid Wizards were the ones slaving in the kitchen.

Everyone engaged in their own separate conversations, but occasionally joined the one next to them if they had something to say. When the meal was about to wrap up, Jordan stood in his chair and lightly tapped his champagne glass with a knife.

All attention was given to him, and he cleared his throat. He raised his glass high in the air. "A toast!" he announced. Everyone else raised their glasses. "A toast to the most perfect couple on this earth. I've known them since we were ten, but they didn't know me until well, twenty-five!"

Everyone laughed. "But that's okay. And remembering back to our old Hogwarts days, I must say, I never expected this day to happen. I would have laughed if someone had told me that Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger were going to get married." He paused with a smile. "But they are, and it's the best thing, I believe, that will happen to them both. For they are truly in love, and truly perfect for each other. I know you'll have a life of bliss together. Congratulations!"

"Hear, hear!" everyone shouted before they sipped their champagne. Jordan took his seat again as the dance music began.

Draco and Hermione ruled the floor for the first dance, then everyone else joined in. Denis Creevey was busy taking pictures of every moment (literally) of the engagement ceremony. If there wasn't a constant flash or a constant clicking sound, people looked around to see where he had gone.

**

Jordan looked around the room, proud of his work. He had never planned anything like this before, and he hoped this wouldn't be his last time. He sighed. Someone came bouncing his way. For some reason, he couldn't take his eyes off of her. Her red hair was a dead giveaway that she was a Weasley. Could it have been Ginny? She wasn't as famous as the trio or the twins or as infamous as Malfoy, but he still knew of her.

He didn't know that she had good looks though. He'd always guessed that since she was surrounded by brothers she'd looked like a man with a chest, but boy was he wrong. He took a gulp of his Sprite and stood up, walking towards her.

"Hi..." Jordan began nervously, stopping next to her at the drinks table. "I'm uh...Jordan. I mean Alex."

Ginny giggled. "One too many drinks tonight?"

Jordan laughed embarrassedly and rubbed his sweaty neck. "No, actually. I didn't drink...well, I had that sip of champagne for the toast, but that was it. I was just nervous."

"About what?" Ginny asked him, utterly confused.

"Approaching you," he admitted, feeling himself radiate heat. The little redhead grinned and offered him her hand.

"I'm Ginny Weasley," she introduced. "And you are...Jordan or Alex?"

"Alex Jordan," he laughed. "My name is Alex Jordan, but everyone calls me by the latter."

"Are you a secret agent or something?" Ginny inquired as a joke. Jordan simply laughed and took a sip of his Sprite, rolling his eyes across the room. It seemed like Draco and Hermione were trying to escape the crowd and run off to get a room; both of them were giggling and kissing every second that they were together. He grinned and looked back at Ginny.

"Ginny, would you like to dance?"

She nodded and took his hand, and they swept into the dance floor.

**

"Shhh! If Creevey hears us, he might get a picture of us here!" Hermione giggled as she and Draco stumbled into the kitchen.

"Ahhh, don't worry so much Granger. I'll protect you!" Draco laughed. They both had had a bit too much bubbly.

The crowd upstairs was puzzled when they heard loud pots and pans clank together. Some went to investigate, the twins being the first to dash off. A couple seconds later, they dashed back into the room to report their findings.

"Hoy! There's some serious action going on down there!" they laughed. Grabbing Creevey's collar, they yanked him into the kitchens and then Flash!

Their first picture together...Hermione had a pot on her head and was banging Draco gleefully with a pan.