Signum Vitalis (a dramione story)

In which there are long awaited results

The next afternoon, Harry and Ron had gone with Tina to communicate with the local magical authorities about their chase of the Snakeheads. Luna and Rolf had gone back to work and Newt always seemed to disappear somewhere to care for his orphaned or disabled creatures.

Draco and Hermione were stationed at the kitchen table next to each other, their respective work scattered across the table. Hermione was doing homework which unsurprisingly involved fixing the group's potion project. Draco was almost primarily doing the arthrimancy work for the tracker replication, seeing as he had a better grasp on the potions aspect. He did however lean over occasionally to ask Hermione about the finer details regarding the charm used for Harry's tracker.

Left with little else to do, Ginny had taken to doing push-ups in an empty corner of the kitchen.

Hermione was having trouble concentrating. There had been a muggle death that none of them believed was caused by rabid otter like the newspaper said. The survivor described the attacker as a baby with wings that grew claws and attacked them after they followed its cries. Several other Muggles had come forward, claiming that the island where the attack happened was haunted, reporting haunting baby cries, unusual cold spots, and a feeling of dread and depression. It wasn't a huge leap to assume that was where the dementors and possibly the Snakeheads had spent a majority of their time. So far the Snakeheads' motivation for having dementors was not clear and she again returned to puzzling out the reasons, not really realizing that she was biting her quill until she tasted the weird varnish that covered the feather. She rubbed her tongue against her teeth to try to rid it of the taste. When that didn't help, Hermione reached over and downed Draco's cooling tea.

He had been bent over his arthrimancy grid but when Hermione set the tea cup down, he picked it up. He tilted it so that the last drops slid down onto his lips and then licked them, his tongue sliding slowly along the bottom one first and then the top. "I had planned on finishing that, you know," he said dryly.

She let out a slow breath, pulling her gaze from his glistening lips up to his eyes, which were squinting in amusement. "It was almost ice. You only wanted it once I had it."

He smirked. "Exactly."

Rolling her eyes, Hermione picked up the tea cup again. "Fine. Does that mean if I want to make more for myself that it should be two cups?"

"You actually liked it?" he asked, his lips twitching up into a half smile.

"Well, other than it being cold. So what?"

He chuckled and leaned closer, sliding his hand along her shoulder. Then he whispered, "It's a special pureblood blend."

"What?" Hermione whispered and then leaned back to look into his eyes. In a normal voice, she said, "You've got to be joking."

He slowly shook his head, the smile still pulling at his mouth. "You still think you like it?"

She bit her lip. "Oh, I think it's the sort of thing that grows on you."

Draco hummed in response and tangled one of his fingers in her hair. "Its real magic is it can mix with others and always tastes amazing."

"Mix with others?" Hermione asked with a snort. He was knotting her hair and she stilled his fingers with her hand. He watched as she pulled strands of hair from his fingers until the knot was gone.

"Harry is his own special brand," Draco replied. "I meant, this is one brew that is quite happy to have a Muggleborn all over it."

She pulled his hand from her hair and pulled it down to her lap where she wrapped both of her hands around it. She patted it and laughed. "That's your pickup line? You're just lucky I've already fallen for you."