Hermione Granger hurried through the Ministry of Magic, annoyed that she was now running late for her lunch date. Hermione was a lawyer at the Ministry and had spent the morning in a meeting with several representatives from various departments. The meeting should have been quick and easy but the Head of International Cooperation had failed to attend the meeting, instead he had sent his Deputy Head, Percy Weasley. Percy was well known throughout the Ministry for his long winded arguments and speeches and because of his ramblings the meeting had gone on far longer than it should have.

Finally reaching the atrium, Hermione joined the shortest queue for the fires. After a brief wait she grabbed some floo powder and stepped into the emerald green flames, shouting the name of her destination. Hermione was heading to The Silver Serpent Hotel, the five star establishment located in the remote countryside of the Lake District.

The Silver Serpent was owned and ran by Hermione's boyfriend, Draco Malfoy, and it was him she was meeting for lunch. Hermione and Draco had been together for nearly four years, after they had re-met at a fundraiser for children orphaned by the war. A year ago Hermione had moved in with Draco and several times lately the couple had spoken about marriage.

By the time Hermione emerged in the front lobby of the hotel, she was running almost fifteen minutes late. Hoping Draco wouldn't be too mad at her tardiness, Hermione began hurrying across the marble floor of the lobby. She was in such a hurry and not really paying attention that Hermione failed to notice a little boy playing with some marbles nearby. She also failed to notice when a couple of marbles rolled into her path. It wasn't until she stepped on the little glass ball with her heel that Hermione started paying attention. By then, however, she was too far off balance to save herself and she went crashing down onto the floor in an untidy heap.

Hermione swore softly to herself as her heel snapped and her right knee jarred painfully on the hard, marble floor. Feeling totally and utterly embarrassed, Hermione kept her head down and she tried to compose herself and stand up. Before she had a chance to get up, two pairs of male hands appeared and she found herself being helped onto her feet.

"Are you all right, Hermione?"

Hermione looked up at the question to find Draco's best friends, Blaise Zabini and Theo Nott, holding onto her at either side. Hermione was momentarily confused by their presence, until she remembered that Draco had told her that Theo's Quidditch team were having a pre-season bonding weekend at the hotel. Theo was a chaser on The Falmouth Falcons team and Blaise was the team's resident healer.

"I think I'm just a bit shaken." Hermione replied. As she spoke she stepped forward to pick up her bag, and yelped in agony when she put weight onto her right leg.

"Let's get you over to those seats." Blaise said, grabbing hold of Hermione and helping her walk over to some of the comfortable chairs and sofas that were dotted around the lobby.

While Blaise settled Hermione on a sofa, Theo gathered her bag and picked up the few belongings that had fallen out of it. He then joined Hermione on the sofa, just as Blaise was asking her where it hurt.

"I hit my knee off the floor." Hermione explained. "That was where the pain was."

"Okay." Blaise said, carefully running his hands over Hermione's knee. "Let me know if anything I do hurts you."

Blaise began prodding and poking at Hermione's knee as she directed him to where it hurt more and answered the few questions he asked her. A few minutes into the examination, Hermione felt like she was being watched so she lifted her head and scanned the lobby. Almost immediately her eyes fell on the tall, blond figure of her boyfriend, watching from across the lobby. Hermione barely had a chance to register Draco was there before he turned and stormed out of the nearby front doors.

"I'll go after him." Theo said, getting up and hurrying after Draco.

He had spotted Draco at the exact same time as Hermione and had known immediately that his friend was going to explode. Everyone close to Draco knew that the blond had jealously issues and Theo had known instantly that he was going to react to witnessing Blaise feeling up Hermione's leg. Theo was just hoping that even Draco would have the sense to realise nothing untoward was happening.

Unfortunately by the time Theo got outside there was no sign of Draco, so he had to return to Hermione empty handed. "Sorry, he's already gone." He said, sitting back down next to the brunette witch.

"He'll come back when he's ready." Hermione sighed. Unfortunately she was used to Draco's jealousy and she knew the best thing to do was just to wait until he calmed down and came home.

"I don't think you have any serious damage." Blaise announced, bringing people's attention back to Hermione's knee. "But we're going to take you home and I'm going to wrap it up."

"You really don't have to." Hermione protested. "I can manage on my own."

"I insist." Blaise said. "Theo, help me get Hermione up, will you."

Theo did as Blaise asked and together the two Slytherins helped Hermione to her feet. They then helped her to the floo network and took her back to the penthouse she shared with Draco. When they arrived, Blaise settled Hermione on the sofa while he went to see if she had the medical supplies he needed in the bathroom. Theo meanwhile, checked around the penthouse, obviously hoping Draco would be around.

"He's not here." Hermione told Theo, not even bothering to check the place herself. "I'm guessing he'll not be back for a while."

"Doesn't it bother you, the way he overreacts to the simplest things?" Theo asked, perching on a nearby seat. "I mean take today for example, what on earth did he think Blaise was doing to you. We were in the middle of the lobby, for crying out loud."

"Yes, it bothers me." Hermione admitted. "But I try to take into account what happened with Astoria."

"That bitch, sure screwed him up." Theo muttered.

"Yes, she did." Hermione said quietly. "I just hope she didn't do such a good job that's he's unfixable."

"If anyone can fix him, you can." Theo smiled reassuringly at Hermione. "He's so much better off with you."

Hermione smiled back at Theo but their conversation was brought to a halt by Blaise re-entering the room with a bandage. Blaise then strapped up Hermione's knee and ordered her to keep her weight off her leg.

"I'll be back to check on you tomorrow afternoon." Blaise said. "Until then, is there anything we can get for you? Do you want us to call someone to come and stay with you until Draco returns?"

"Or we could stay." Theo suggested. "Technically our team weekend doesn't start until tonight, Blaise and I were just settling in early and grabbing some lunch."

"I'm fine. But I will need someone to get in touch with work and tell them I'll not be back in today." Hermione said.

"We'll pop into the Ministry on the way back to the hotel." Blaise replied. "Are you sure you don't want us to call anyone?"

"No, I'd rather be alone." Hermione said.

Sensing Hermione wanted some space sooner rather than later, Theo and Blaise said their goodbyes and left her alone. Once she was alone, Hermione settled more comfortably on the sofa as she let her thoughts drift to Draco and his reaction earlier. She gave her boyfriend a fair bit of slack when it came to his jealousy issues, but she was beginning to suspect that the time had come to call him out on his behaviour. Hermione didn't want to lose Draco, but he just couldn't carry on behaving the way he had done earlier.

Draco's jealousy had reared its head early on in their relationship and at the time Hermione had laughed it off as it was aimed towards her two best friends, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. Hermione saw no reason for Draco to be jealous of her friends and she told him in no uncertain terms that both men were like brothers to her and that was all they would ever be. For a while Hermione didn't spot the jealousy, but it soon became apparent that Draco didn't like any man paying attention to her.

After an incident at Ginny Weasley's birthday party where Draco had almost got into a fight with Charlie Weasley, Hermione finally confronted her boyfriend about his jealously. Draco had then admitted to Hermione that the reason he had called of his engagement to Astoria Greengrass was because she had repeatedly cheated on him. While Draco refused to go into too many details, Hermione got the impression the cheating had been going on almost as long as their relationship and that Draco had known about it almost from the beginning.

When Hermione had asked Draco about what had finally prompted him to end the engagement, he said he didn't want to spend his married life with an unfaithful wife. Considering Astoria was being unfaithful for long before they got engaged, Hermione suspected that there was something else that proved to be the final straw for Draco. As odd as it seemed, Hermione often thought the reason he called off the engagement had something to do with Lucius.

While Draco didn't like Hermione spending time alone with any man that wasn't him, he was especially keen to keep her away from his father. Whenever they visited the Manor, or Draco's parents visited the penthouse, Draco went out of his way to ensure that Hermione and Lucius were never left alone. Hermione had briefly wondered if Astoria had bedded Lucius, but then she figured if that was the case then Draco wouldn't have as much to do with his father and their relationship would be a complete mess.

Hermione was drawn out of her thoughts by the sound of the front door opening. Looking at the clock she realised it was nearly six o'clock, she had been sitting thinking since early afternoon and she hadn't noticed the time passing. As she heard Draco's footsteps in the hallway, Hermione prepared to face her boyfriend, hoping they would finally be able to discuss his issues properly.

...

The second Draco walked into the lobby of the hotel, he felt his jealousy rising at the scene before him. Draco had left the on-site restaurant and headed into the lobby in search of Hermione because she was late, something she rarely was, and he was worried something might have happened to her. Almost immediately his eyes had fallen on Blaise kneeling in front of Hermione with his hands all over her and he couldn't control his reaction. Draco's logical side was telling him that nothing untoward was happening, first of all neither Hermione or Blaise would betray him and secondly they were in a public place.

Despite knowing there had to be a reasonable explanation for what he was seeing, Draco turned and bolted from the hotel. The jealousy he felt at seeing Hermione and Blaise together was too strong and he was worried that if he approached them he would say something he would regret. The last thing Draco wanted to do was ruin his relationship with Hermione or his friendship with Blaise, so he figured the further away from the pair of them he was the better.

After leaving the hotel Draco apparated to his old childhood hiding place in the woods behind Malfoy Manor. Settling down on a fallen tree trunk that was almost like a seat, Draco immediately felt the pangs of guilt eating at him. He felt awful for running away from Hermione but he knew he would have felt ten times worse if he had approached her and said something to her that he couldn't take back. Draco sat for a while, cursing his past relationship with Astoria Greengrass that had left him unnecessarily jealous when it came to Hermione.

Initially Draco's relationship with Astoria had seemed quite successful, they got on pretty well and Draco's parents approved of her. Draco had been under the impression their relationship was solid, until he accidentally discovered that Astoria had been sleeping with a bloke she had gone to Hogwarts with. Instead of confronting her, like he knew he should, Draco had buried his head in the sand and ignored her infidelity. Despite ignoring her infidelity Draco kept a close eye on Astoria and soon realised that her fling hadn't been a one off, in fact more often than not she had another man on the go.

Draco seriously considered ending their relationship, but by the time he discovered Astoria was repeatedly cheating on him he was in love with her and didn't want to lose her. Draco never thought he would be the type of person to let his girlfriend repeatedly cheat on him, but he figured he was more like his mother than he realised. All their married life Lucius had been cheating on Narcissa and she had turned a blind eye, something Draco had always failed to understand how she could do it, until he had found himself in the same position with Astoria.

Draco had been so in love with Astoria that he had even proposed to her. Draco had been hoping that getting engaged would bring an end to Astoria's affairs, which it did for a while. However three months before they were due to be married, Draco witnessed something that finally prompted him to end their engagement. Draco had been at the Manor when he had overheard his fiancée talking to his father, being quite a nosey person he had listened in on the conversation and heard Astoria propositioning Lucius. Lucius had steadfastly refused her come-ons, but when Astoria stripped off for his father, Draco lost it and stormed into the room and ended their relationship.

The entire relationship had been three years of torture, and Draco was aware that a good bit of it was self-inflicted by himself. As a result of the relationship, Draco found himself easily getting jealous in his relationship with Hermione. He knew Hermione was nothing like Astoria and wouldn't dream of cheating on him, but it didn't stop the jealousy from rearing its ugly head quite often.

By the time Draco dragged himself out of his thoughts, he realised it was getting late. Feeling even worse than he had been before, Draco stood up and apparated home. It was time to face Hermione, he was just hoping he hadn't totally blown the best thing that had ever happened to him.

...

Draco stood in the doorway of the front room, totally unsure of what to say. Hermione was sitting on the sofa looking back at him and Draco instantly felt bad when he spotted her bandaged knee. Now he knew what Blaise had been doing and he felt even worse that he had left Hermione while she was hurt.

"You have to stop doing this, Draco." Hermione said, breaking the silence. "It's about time you accepted that I'm not Astoria."

"I know." Draco sighed, cautiously entering the front room. "You're so much better than her and I don't deserve you."

"You do, you just need to learn and control your jealousy." Hermione smiled at Draco and gestured for him to join her on the sofa.

"I'm trying." Draco said, sitting down beside Hermione.

"Really?" Hermione raised a disbelieving eyebrow at her boyfriend. "Storming off the way you did, didn't look to be trying."

"I didn't storm off because I thought something was happening with you and Blaise. I knew there would be a reasonable explanation." Draco said. "Talking of which, how's your knee? What happened?"

"I fell over and my knee's a bit sore but its fine." Hermione replied. "But we can discuss that later, for now I want you to tell me why you stormed off. If it wasn't because you though we were up to something, why did you leave like that?"

"I didn't want to say something I would regret. I knew nothing was going on, I trust both you and Blaise and know you wouldn't do that to me. But despite knowing that, I still got jealous and I just couldn't trust myself not to be a complete idiot and blurt out something I would regret." Draco admitted. Saying it out loud made him realise how ridiculous his behaviour was and he vowed to do something about it.

"I appreciate that, really I do. But you're still going to have to try and deal with things better." Hermione said. "I don't want to lose you, but we can't go on like this. If we don't fix this, then eventually it'll destroy us."

"I'm not going to let that happen." Draco vowed. "I love you and I'll do whatever it takes to hold onto you."

"I love you, too." Hermione responded with a smile. "And all you have to do is try and not to overreact. Instead of running off, you need to come and speak to me. We can handle everything together."

"Do you promise?" Draco asked, hating how needy he sounded.

Hermione leant closer to Draco and pressed her lips against his before she answered. "I promise."

"I'm sorry for this afternoon." Draco said, cupping Hermione's cheek in his hand and running his thumb across her smooth skin.

"I forgive you, but tomorrow I want you to apologise to Blaise and Theo." Hermione told her boyfriend. "It wasn't just me you ran off from."

"Don't worry, I'll apologise to them. Why will it be tomorrow, though? I thought they were spending the weekend at the hotel."

"Blaise is coming round to check on my knee, so I'm just guessing Theo will be with him."

"Okay." Draco replied. "Do you want something to eat? I can go and make some dinner."

"I'd like that." Hermione smiled, already mentally drooling at the thought of Draco's cooking. Draco was an excellent cook and Hermione loved it when he made her a meal.

"You stay here, I'll not be long." Draco pecked Hermione on the lips before standing up. "Thank you for being so understanding." He added, pausing in the doorway and looking back at Hermione.

"As long as you're going to try and change, I can be understanding." Hermione replied.

Draco nodded and smiled before turning and heading into the kitchen, leaving Hermione alone with her thoughts. She knew Draco wouldn't be able to change his ways overnight but she was hoping that he would at least try. While they had talked about his jealousy before, it was the first time Draco had admitted he had a problem and needed to address it. Before Draco had just claimed the jealousy was a part of his nature and he couldn't do anything about it, now however Hermione was hopeful that he could change and things would be better between them.

...

As Blaise thoroughly examined Hermione's knee and re-wrapped it in a fresh bandage, Draco sat beside his girlfriend, holding her hand. Throughout the whole thing Draco had to work hard not to reach over and remove Blaise's hands from Hermione, but he managed to remain calm and didn't snap at his friend.

"You really need to keep resting the knee." Blaise said once he had finished. "I suggest you take a few days off work."

"Is that really necessary?" Hermione groaned at the thought of being away from her office. Just the idea of the amount of paperwork that would accumulate in her absence was enough to make sure she never took time off unless she was really bad.

"Yes." Blaise nodded. "If you put too much pressure on the knee, you could turn it into a serious injury and you could be laid up for weeks."

"I can always pop into your office and bring you some work home." Draco suggested. "That way, you can at least keep up to date."

"Thanks." Hermione smiled at Draco. "I think I can live with that."

"Good, because I'm going to make sure you rest whether you like it or not." Draco told his girlfriend.

"I'm sure you will." Hermione smiled, knowing how overprotective Draco could get.

Blaise chuckled at the couple as he packed up the few medical supplies he had brought with him. "Well, I'll be off now. Just call if your knee continues to hurt or if you need anything." He said, as he made his way towards the fireplace.

"Blaise, wait." Draco called, getting up and following his friend to the other side of the room. "I want to apologise for yesterday."

"There's no need." Blaise shrugged his friend off.

"Yes, there is." Draco insisted. "It was rude of me to run off like that and I'm sorry. I also want you to know I never suspected you were doing anything wrong with Hermione. I trust you and know you would never do that to me."

"That's good to know." Blaise said. "And I trust you know Hermione wouldn't do anything like that either."

"I do."

"Good. Don't lose her, Draco. Don't let what Astoria did ruin your relationship with Hermione. Astoria was a selfish cow who never really loved you, Hermione is crazy about you and I would hate to see you ruin things because of what happened with Astoria."

"That's not going to happen." Draco said determinedly. "I know I've been an idiot, but I'm going to change. Hermione is the best thing to ever happen to me, and I'm not going to lose her."

"Make sure you don't." Blaise smiled and clapped Draco on the arm. "Anyway, I should be off. I'll call round next week to check on Hermione's knee."

"Thanks, Blaise." Draco smiled at his friend. "And will you apologise to Theo for me."

"Of course, maybe we can meet up next weekend and have a drink." Blaise suggested.

"Yeah, let's do that."

After saying their final goodbye's Blaise flooed away, leaving Draco to return to Hermione. Draco headed back over to Hermione and settled down on the sofa beside her.

"I'm really proud of you." Hermione said, giving Draco a gentle kiss.

"Why? I didn't do anything."

"Exactly." Hermione smiled. "The whole time Blaise was touching me you just sat there, granted you nearly broke my hand you held it so tight, but you didn't react. I know how much you wanted to pull him off me and I really appreciate that you stopped yourself."

"It wasn't easy, but it also wasn't as bad as I thought." Draco admitted. "I hated the idea of him touching you, but I knew he was just doing his job and helping you."

"I suppose the big test will come when it's someone other than your best friend you have to control yourself around." Hermione said.

"I'll cope." Draco promised. "I've already promised you I'm going to change and I will. I promise that one day, you'll not have to deal with a jealous idiot as a boyfriend."

"I don't mind you being a tiny bit jealous." Hermione said. "Just, no more scenes, fights or storming out."

"No more, they're gone." Draco replied.

"I don't expect immediate results, you know." Hermione told Draco. "I know this is going to be hard for you, I just need to know that you're working on your issues."

"Believe me I will be." Draco replied.

Draco had a solid plan for what was going to happen once he had learnt to control his jealousy, he was going to propose to Hermione. Over the last few months the couple had been discussing getting married but Hermione had made it clear that if she ever agreed to marry him that he would have to learn to control his jealousy. When they had discussed his behaviour before, Draco had refused to acknowledge he had a problem, but now he had admitted it and planned on fixing it. Draco knew it wouldn't be easy for him to change and that he was likely to occasionally slip up and be unable to control his jealousy, but he knew if he did manage it, he would end up married to Hermione and that would make everything worth it.

...

Five Months Later.

Hermione smiled politely as she stepped back slightly, out of the reach of the over friendly German Minister of Magic. Hermione and Draco were currently in Berlin, where Hermione was part of a team negotiating a large contract with the German Ministry of Magic to ensure increased co-operation between the two wizarding communities. The couple had been obliged to attend a ball at the German Ministry and almost immediately Hermione had been cornered by the German Minister.

As the German Minister continued to talk to her, and slowly creep forward so he could place his hand on her bare arm, Hermione searched for Draco. In the past a situation like this had often resulted in either a confrontation, with Draco storming over and staking his claim on Hermione, or Draco would stalk out and Hermione would go after him, usually resulting in a fight between the pair of them. Luckily in the last five months Draco had made dramatic progress and hadn't once let his jealousy control him and cloud his judgement.

When Hermione finally spotted her boyfriend, over the other side of the room, she was relieved to see he was making no effort to either approach her or leave. Draco was watching her and the German Minister closely and Hermione could see the jealous air about him, but he remained where he was and carried on talking to the man he had been discussing potions with most of the night. When he spotted Hermione watching him, Draco gave her a reassuring smile before turning all his attention to the man he was standing beside. Hermione smiled at her boyfriend's actions and turned her attention back to the Minister.

Half an hour later, Hermione managed to break away from the German Minister. Searching the room for Draco, she found him by the bar and the pair headed out into the gardens for a bit of fresh air. Walking hand in hand through the elaborately designed garden, they came to a stop on a small bridge over a stream.

"Thank you for tonight." Hermione said to her boyfriend. "I know how hard it must have been to watch the Minister flirt with me."

"It was." Draco nodded. "But I calmed myself down by figuring he wasn't much of a threat. What woman in their right mind, would want a rotund, balding lump like him, when they have a hot stud like me?"

Hermione laughed at Draco's novel way of banishing his jealousy. It was a weird way to deal with things, especially since Astoria had cheated on him, but if it worked who was Hermione to argue.

"Maybe rotund, balding men do it for me." Hermione cheekily suggested. "Maybe I'm not interested in gorgeous blond men, whose kisses are breath-taking."

"That's a shame." Draco pouted at Hermione, faking hurt. "Because this gorgeous blond man was just about to give you something."

"What?" Hermione asked.

Instead of answering, Draco smirked at Hermione as he removed a small box from his trouser pocket. Hermione clasped her hands over her mouth when Draco then sunk down on one knee and flipped open the box, revealing a beautiful diamond engagement ring.

"Hermione Granger, will you marry me?" Draco asked, looking up at Hermione hopefully.

"Yes!" Hermione squealed, bending down and throwing her arms around Draco's neck.

Somehow Draco managed to get to his feet with Hermione still clinging onto him. He then slipped the ring onto her finger before swooping in and connecting their lips. Hermione wrapped her arms tighter around Draco, as he kissed her long and hard.

"Should we go back inside?" Draco asked.

"No, I want to celebrate." Hermione smiled, examining the ring now it was on her finger.

"Where do you want to go?"

"Bed." Hermione smirked.

Draco smirked back at Hermione, before grabbing his fiancée and apparating them back to their hotel suite. The couple celebrated all night and Draco knew that he really didn't have to be jealous any more. Hermione loved him and would never hurt him in the way Astoria had, in fact without her Draco suspected he would never have been able to trust again. But luckily for him fate had given him Hermione and he wasn't going to do anything to screw it up.

The End.