The Big Day
The sun rises in a pool of crimson and gold, spilling light all over the land and the white clouds. Sunlight passes through the curtains in every house and apartment in London. A new day starts. It is 1st June, the day Hermione Granger has looked forward to since her graduation from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She jumps out of her bed as her Muggle alarm clock rings. In fact, she does not need it to wake her up since she has been too jumpy and excited to be asleep. Excitement has made her stay up all night.
After finishing her daily morning routines, Hermione begins to search for something suitable to wear on her big day. Although the wardrobe looks small, it is enormous interiorly due to the very useful Undetectable Extension Charm. Hermione steps into her wardrobe where her every piece of clothing is placed in and starts her searching. It is like a clothing store more than a wardrobe. There is over a thousand piece of clothing nicely hung on the clothes stands by seasons and functions. Hermione heads to the summer section of the closet and starts looking through the formal clothing stand.
It does not take so long for Hermione to find her favourite piece as it is the most eye-catching one. It is an ankle length, V-neck scarlet dress. She removes it from the hanger and decides to wear this very Gryffindor item.
She puts the dress on before heading to the handbag shelf and matching it with a black leather Coach clutch. Then she steps out of the wardrobe and begins her work on her bushy brown hair. After spending extra time on fixing her hair and paying more attention to her appearance than usual, it is about time to leave home. She checks her whole outfit one last time to make sure that there are no imperfections. She will never let her annoying, stubborn hair ruin her most important day in her entire life.
"Perfect. I bet today will be a lovely day," She smiles at her image approvingly.
Then Hermione leaves her room to the parlor. She grabs a handful of Floo Powder before stepping into the fireplace.
"Headquarter of S.P.E.W.,"
After the spinning sensation stops, she takes a deep breath and steps out of the fireplace. Hermione is going to work for an organization called the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, also known as S.P.E.W., which is founded by herself at Hogwarts and is now officially approbated by the Ministry of Magic – it is a legal organization from now on. Today, she is going to let the whole wizarding world know about S.P.E.W., to raise the awareness of all the wizards and witches on elfish welfare. There will be many great wizards and journalists going to attend the promotion of S.P.E.W. due to the influence of Hermione to the society and the curiosity of most people.
S.P.E.W. is the first organization which aims at gaining rights for the house-elves, that is why it causes the eyes of the society. However, most witches and wizards are not supportive of the organization, especially the wealthy wizarding families as they don't want to lose their obedient servants. In spite of lacking support from the society, Hermione still adheres to found a group to help the elves. What people think can never affect Hermione Granger as she never cares how people think of her. She just does what she thinks is right.
She strides along the aisle to her new office and takes out her notes in the meanwhile, practising her speech for the hundredth time. She wants all the things to be done perfectly so the ceremony will go ideally.
After the two-hundredth practice, she shoots a glance at her watch – it is 11:30 am. The ceremony is going to begin within 30 minutes. She must go to the lecture hall now. She picks up her clutch and leaves the office.
"I better greets the attendants before the ceremony," she thinks. It is important to give a good impression to the guests, especially the officers from the Ministry and those influential and famous witches and wizards.
Walking downstairs, she practises her speech in her brain one last time.
"S.P.E.W. stands for…"
"We want to champion the rights of house-elves…"
At this moment, she is nervous but excited. She can feel her adrenaline running high, and her whole body is full of energy. The issues of the treatment of house-elves are going to become a popular topic. People are going to face the problems squarely. She has waited for this day to come for almost seven years. Today, she is going to succeed and can offer actual help to those magical creatures.
When she arrives the hall, there are about thirty to forty people, including journalists, officers, businessmen, and high-status witches and wizards. She strides to the crowd and begins to greet and thanks the guests.
"Thank you for managing to find your treasure time to come, Mr. Parkinson,"
"Mr. Bones, it's my pleasure to meet you here,"
"Mrs. Longbottom, nice to see you here. How's Neville?"
After the greetings, all the comers have found themselves a seat. Hermione is ready to be on the stage anytime. The ceremony is going to start within 5 minutes. Witches and wizards are immersing in their own conversations before the last comer opens the door and steps in.
The latecomer stops in front of the reception. He remains his left hand in his pocket and signs his name on the attendant parchment with the other hand -
Draco Malfoy.
All the guests fall silent, watching the latecomer walking into the hall. Hermione keeps staring at the Malfoy heir heading to her straightly, and the surroundings have become out of focus. She cannot help but keep her eyes on him in astonishment as she has never expected him to come to this kind of "time-wasting" event.
He is in his black tailor-made suit, something he likes to wear most of the time, with the first two buttons of the black shirt opened. There is a big contrast between his conspicuous white-blond hair and his black suit. The light rays are reflected by the very smooth blond hair of his which is glimmering under the lights. The identity of the comer becomes a temporary secret as his face is too bright to be seen. When he steps closer to where Hermione is standing with her chestnut eyes widened, everyone starts talking again.
"It's Draco Malfoy,"
"Never expect to see him in this kind of event,"
"I don't think the Malfoys will support the organization,"
There is no need for the others to tell who the man is. She has known him for more than a decade, and she knows him far too well. It is quite impossible for her to be not familiar with her ex-boyfriend, right? The reason she is shocked is she has never thought that he would come. She has never expected that this man is shameless enough to come to stand in front of her again after all the events. What does he want from her?
"Wow, what an unexpected guest," She says with a fake smile. Hermione squares her shoulders, trying not to seem too small against Malfoy's tall frame. "And Mr. Malfoy, I highly recommend you to buy yourself a watch,"
"As if I care to come to this kind of event on time! My time is precious. I come just because Father's asked me to come. Don't you think an influential wizarding family like Malfoys should, at least, designate one person to attend this kind of event, to show our concern for the social issues?" drawls Malfoy with his usual condescending attitude.
"Still being a daddy boy. I see," taunts Hermione.
"Ha, you think I'd listen to your nonsense willingly? Funny enough, Granger, or you think I come here because…" he smirks before leaning in and whisper into her ear. She can feel his breath sending her shivers. "I miss you?"
"Piss off, Malfoy," she grits.
"Sure. Good luck, Granger, hope I'll not fall asleep because of the boringness," Malfoy steps away from her, still smirking.
"Thank you," Hermione thanks him insouciantly, trying to maintain her good manners, but she does not bother to spare him a glance.
Right after Malfoy taking his seat, the ceremony starts. Hermione walks on the stage and beams at the attendants. Then, she begins giving out her speech.
"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Do you know how many times a house-elf self-harms itself in average per day? Once? Twice? No. A house-elf self-harms itself three times a day averagely. We can never imagine the pain of harming our own selves by ironing our hands, hitting our heads in the wall or in more painful ways. The house-elves are obedient servants, and they never say no to their masters although they have the magical power to fight back and disobey their masters. S.P.E.W. stands for…"
"We are going to start the Elves-free Sunday campaign. Elves need to have time to take rest and every Sunday, and we hope the masters can let the elves go to enjoy themselves and do what they want as a reward for working so hard. Elves are free on Sunday and can come to S.P.E.W. to enjoy their day. We are going to provide food, clothes and treatments for the elves so that they can be full of energy again and can work more efficiently on weekdays. We need your support, action and donation. We need capital to run the organization and the campaign. If you agree with our aims and want to do something for the elves, we hope you can take part into the campaign and become a Spewer. Let's take action to improve the treatment of house-elves. Thank you. Here comes the Q&A session. You can ask whatever you are confused about S.P.E.W. and our Elves-free Sunday campaign."
A hand is slowly raised into the air. Hermione freezes as she finds the owner of the hand.
"Yes, Mr. Malfoy?" she smiles stiffly.
"Malfoy Holdings will offer as much help as possible," Malfoy leans forward and says solemnly. "I'd like to donate,"
What Malfoy has just said arouses commotion. People start to whisper to each other in disbelief and journalist starts scribbling and taking pictures of Malfoy.
What the hell. Hermione has not prepared for this. Instead, she has expected him to say something to challenge her. What is the ferret planning to do? What is he up to? Is he just going to use Galleons to buy his family and company prestige? It is impossible for a Malfoy to be supportive of the organization.
"Thank you so much for supporting us, Mr. Malfoy. We're delighted to be supported by your company. We can talk about the details after the ceremony," she replies politely.
After a few questions asked by the journalists, the ceremony finally comes to the end. The guests leave their seats, and some are going. Hermione walks off the stage while Malfoy strides to her with his hands in the pockets.
"Touching, right?" Malfoy smirks. "I, of all people, am the first person who supports your bloody spew. Where are your Pothead and Weasel? Spewing at home?"
"Thank you very much, Malfoy, for being such a supportive ex," Hermione says sarcastically. "And for your information, Harry and Ron are on Auror missions, so they don't have time to come. If they came, they'd be the first to support me instead of you,"
"As if I'm interested in their whereabouts," he sneers. "By the way, I'm going to contact you about the donation later. See you soon, Granger,"
"Hope we don't see each other very soon," mutters Hermione, watching him leaving.
On that night, Hermione cannot help thinking about the confrontation between Malfoy and her. She keeps thinking about the moment when Malfoy whispers "I miss you" in her ear. She still remembers how his hot breath has been sending her shivers and she hates the fact that she cannot stop thinking about him.
"Bastard," curses Hermione in her bed before she falls asleep.
A/N: I'm sorry if there is any grammatical mistake because I'm not a native English speaker. This is the first ever fanfiction I have ever written. I ship Dramione so hard and it's my OTP. I really hope you like it and can leave a comment to tell me what you think about my work as I've put so much effort into it :)