A/N – Welcome to my new story. Femme Fatale has 25 chapters plus an epilogue. Updates will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Harry and Ron are main characters in this story alongside Hermione and Draco. The main plot of the story is the investigation into the murders, the romance between Hermione and Draco is a sub plot. I hope people enjoy the mystery.

As the moonlight flooded into the hotel room via the large window, the naked couple on the large king sized bed were totally oblivious to the stunning city views as they were lost in each other. As her orgasm began to build, the witch dug her long red nails into her lover's back. Raking her nails down the wizard's back, the witch began to climax as she felt how deep her nails were penetrating. The wizard let out a moan that was part pain and part pleasure as he also began to climax.

As the two lover's climaxes began to fade, the wizard suddenly let out a strangled cry as he began to gasp for air. Moving quickly so she wouldn't end up trapped, the witch pushed her lover off her and sat up. Beside her, the wizard continued to struggle for breath. With one shuddering final breath, the wizard breathed his last, causing the witch to break out into a small smile.

Hopping off the bed, the witch slowly began to get dressed. Once she was fully dressed she turned and took one final look at her deceased lover. Smirking at the sight of the wizard, lying naked on the bed, she double checked she hadn't left any evidence of her presence, before she used magic to wipe her prints off anything she might have touched. Using magic, she opened the hotel room door and slipped outside. Heading down the back stairs, she then slipped out into the night unnoticed and walked a few streets before she apparated home.

Once at home, the witch carefully sat down at her dressing table and removed her false nails. Throwing all evidence of what she'd just removed from her hands down the toilet, the witch flushed it before heading back to her dressing table. Picking a quill up, she scanned through one of the two lists she had pinned to her mirror. Finding the name of the wizard she'd seen die, she scratched a line through his name.

"One down," The witch muttered to herself as she let out an evil cackle.

Hermione Granger let out a groan as her alarm clock rang to let her know it was time to get up and go to work. Hermione worked as a forensic pathologist at the Ministry of Magic. These days the Ministry's law department was much improved, and it blended magic with muggle technology and techniques. Hermione worked in the forensic lab attached to the law department, and as well as being the Ministry's pathologist she was the lead of the forensic team. Hermione and her team worked closely with the Aurors and the rest of the Law Department.

Rolling out of bed, Hermione headed to the bathroom to begin getting ready for another week at work. As she brushed her hair back out of her face, Hermione suddenly spotted a dark bruise on her collar bone. Leaning closer to the mirror, Hermione cursed quietly as she recognised the mark as a love bite. Despite the fact she would have to take the time to hide the mark before she left her flat, Hermione couldn't help but smile as she remembered how she'd gotten the mark.

Hermione had spent her Saturday evening and most of Sunday in bed with Draco Malfoy. The pair had been out with their respective friends over the weekend and they'd ran into each other in a bar. The pair had shared a few drinks and they were enjoying each other's company so much neither of them noticed when their friends left without them. When they did realise they'd been left alone, the pair continued to share a few drinks and they'd ended up back at Hermione's flat.

The sex had been the best of Hermione's life, and she'd enjoyed every second of being with the gorgeous blond wizard. In fact the sex had been so good, that they'd also spent most of Sunday morning in bed. The only reason they hadn't spent the entire day together was because they'd both had plans for later in the day. Hermione had been due at The Burrow for afternoon tea, while Draco was heading to the manor to have dinner with his parents before he returned home.

As much as Hermione had enjoyed the weekend, she knew it was a one off. Draco lived in France, where he worked as an Auror and Hermione had no intention of leaving her life behind and moving countries. Not that Hermione would move countries based on one weekend together. She also doubted Draco would give up his life in France because of one weekend of mind-blowing sex.

Brushing thoughts of her weekend out of her head, Hermione continued to get ready for work. When she was showered and dressed, Hermione neatly tied her curls up, before she set about doing her make-up. Hermione never wore much make-up, but she made a lot more of an effort with her appearance than what she'd done when she was a teenager. These days her clothes fitted her perfectly and highlighted her good figure, her hair was always much more manageable and she usually wore a light dusting of make-up. As well as her normal make-up, Hermione hid the love bite on her collarbone. To make sure the mark then wouldn't be seen, she cast a glamour charm over it. Now no-one would know she was walking around with a love bite like a teenager.

Leaving her bedroom, Hermione gathered everything she would need for the day before she grabbed her breakfast. As she ate, Hermione read the morning's paper that had been delivered earlier that morning. Hermione was halfway through her breakfast when her pager beeped from inside her bag. The pager was a muggle device modified with magic, and everyone in the law department was equipped with one. Communication between various members of the law department was much easier with a pager rather than the old fashioned owl method.

Digging the pager from her bag, Hermione found the name of a hotel in wizarding London. A quick look at the Auror identification number showed the message had come from her best friend, Harry Potter. Harry was an Auror alongside their other best friend, Ron Weasley, although the two men had taken differing routes in their career. Harry was a field Auror, meaning he spent his time investigating crimes. Ron meanwhile was an analyst, and he spent his time in the office supporting the field Aurors. Both men were considered to be the best at what they did, and Hermione was proud of both her friends.

Since Harry's message hadn't said exactly what they were dealing with, Hermione made sure she had everything she would need before she grabbed her jacket and slipped her shoes on. Hermione was guessing they were dealing with a dead body as she wasn't always the one to go to other crime scenes to gather forensics, however she was the only pathologist the Ministry had so she always attended the scenes where a body had been found. Leaving the flat, Hermione erected her security wards before double checking the name of the hotel she was needed at. Satisfied she knew where she was going, Hermione apparated to the crime scene.

When Hermione entered the hotel she found a couple of M.L.E officers in the reception area, keeping things under control. Flashing her identity badge, Hermione was directed to the fifth floor. When Hermione stepped out of the lift on the fifth floor she found Harry standing outside one of the hotel rooms.

"Hey." Harry smiled grimly at Hermione as his friend approached him.

"What do we have?" Hermione asked.

"One dead male," Harry answered. "There's no obvious sign of what happened, and the preliminary checks show no indication of the killing curse."

"I'm assuming you haven't moved the body," Hermione said.

"Of course we haven't," Harry replied, rolling his eyes at his best friend. Even though they'd been working together for so many years, Hermione always checked the crime scene hadn't been disturbed.

Turning around, Harry led the way into the room. Hermione followed Harry and her eyes widened when she saw the wizard on the bed. The wizard was lying on his back completely naked, and was still sporting a semi-erection. The bed sheets were messed up as though a couple had been using the bed for a bit of fun. Placing her bag down on the bedside table, Hermione pulled out a pair of medical gloves and put them on as she continued to look over the body.

"Why does he look familiar?" Hermione muttered. She couldn't place the dead wizard on the bed, but there was definitely something about him that struck her as familiar.

"It's Ernie Macmillan," Harry answered.

With Harry's identification, Hermione looked closer at the man on the bed and she could see it was indeed their former classmate. Hermione hadn't seen Ernie since the end of the war ten years ago, but now she knew who he was she could see the similarities to the teenager she'd known. She suspected that when he was alive, Ernie would have been a fairly attractive man, which may have explained why he was discovered in a hotel room.

"Did your new partner not start today?" Hermione asked Harry, as she leant over Ernie's body and began to check him over for obvious signs of trauma. Harry's former partner had just retired, and his replacement was due to be starting that morning.

"He's in the bathroom checking it over," Harry replied. "So what do you think?" He asked, gesturing to Ernie.

"There's no sign of anything untoward on his front," Hermione replied. "Help me turn him over so I can check his back."

Harry moved to the other side of Ernie and together the pair gently rolled the dead wizard onto his front. Harry let out a sharp gasp as deep scratch marks were revealed on the victim's back. Blood was dried around some of the scratch marks, and there was also dried blood on the sheets where he'd been lying.

"What the hell happened here?" Harry asked.

"It looks like someone had some good sex last night," A voice from the bathroom door answered.

Hermione froze at the sound of the voice and when she turned round she found a smirking Draco Malfoy leaning against the door leading to the bathroom. Hermione couldn't help but think how gorgeous Draco was with his tousled platinum blond hair, and his suit that fitted him perfectly and did nothing to hide the killer body that lay underneath. Draco's smirk grew wider when he spotted Hermione looking him over, and pushing himself away from the doorframe he wandered over to join the pair beside the bed.

"Bathroom's clear," He said to Harry. "There's no prints at all, and no indication of who Macmillan was with."

Before Harry had a chance to respond, a M.L.E officer poked his head round the door and asked if Harry could come and speak to the manager of the hotel who was getting rather antsy at the wait for an explanation. As soon as Harry had exited the room, Hermione whirled on Draco.

"What are you doing here?" She hissed.

"I'm Potter's new partner," Draco answered. "Today's my first day on the job."

"Why didn't you say anything over the weekend?" Hermione demanded.

"I thought you knew," Draco replied with a shrug.

"I didn't, otherwise it wouldn't have happened," Hermione shot back. "I don't sleep with people I work with. It's a rule I have."

"Luckily I have no such rule," Draco said with a wicked smirk. "I don't care whether we work together or not, our weekend was hot and I intend to have a repeat performance."

"Not a chance." Hermione stubbornly shook her head as she turned her attention back to Ernie. "Now you're working at the British Ministry, there won't be a repeat of the weekend."

"We'll see," Draco responded, just as Harry re-entered the room and stopped their conversation.

"Have you found anything?" Harry asked Hermione.

"Nothing to indicate what caused his death," Hermione answered.

"What about the scratches?" Harry questioned. "They look pretty deep."

"Some witches can really dig their nails in," Draco said with a chuckle. "I should know, I've got scratch marks like that on my back from over the weekend. The witch I was with was wild, she left all sorts of marks on my body."

Harry chuckled at Draco, while Hermione tried to ignore him as she concentrated on Ernie's body. However, ignoring Draco wasn't easy when he kept making comments to Harry about the wild weekend of sex he'd just experienced. Trying her best to shut out the two Aurors in the room, Hermione completed her initial examination of the body before taking out her wand and casting a few magical tests.

"You're right, he didn't die from the killing curse," Hermione said as she put her wand away. "I'll have to do a full autopsy when I get him back to the Ministry."

"What else can you tell us?" Harry asked. He knew Hermione would be able to tell them something, even before she could give them a cause of death.

"He died within five minutes of having sex," Hermione said. "Or at least, he died within five minutes of ejaculating. Hence, his semi-erection."

"You mean the poor bloke hadn't even recovered from his orgasm before he croaked?" Draco remarked.

"Could the sex itself have killed him?" Harry asked. "Could he have over exerted himself?"

"I'll have to check his medical history, but unless he had an underlying condition, I wouldn't have thought so," Hermione answered. "He's not even thirty, and he looks pretty fit. Even the most vigorous sex shouldn't have killed him. But I'm not going to know anything until I get him back to the Ministry."

Pulling her pager from her bag, Hermione paged a few members of her forensic team. A couple of the team would transport Ernie back to the Ministry, while a couple more would collect all the relevant samples from the hotel room.

"How soon will you be finished the autopsy?" Harry asked his friend.

"I should have some answers by this afternoon," Hermione said.

"How about we have a meeting at three," Harry suggested. "By then Draco and I will have started our investigation, and I've already paged Ron and informed him of what's going on. By the time we get back to the Ministry he'll have something for us."

"See you at three," Hermione said, pulling off her gloves and throwing them into her bag.

Leaving the hotel room, she waited outside until a couple of her team had arrived. Issuing instructions she then left the hotel and headed to the Ministry, all the time trying not to think about the fact Draco was now going to be working alongside her at the Ministry. Hermione didn't sleep with colleagues as she didn't want things to get messy at work, but something told her that resisting Draco was going to be something she found hard to do.