Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, places, etc. (unless otherwise unfamiliar). They are all owned by J.K. Rowling.

A/N: This idea just came to me out of the blue! Tell me what you think :)

The Countdown

What if you only had a hundred days left?

And just when you've already accepted it…

He came.

PROLOGUE

Hermione Granger shut the lid of her bag and sighed. It had been a long and busy day at work, and she still was not able to finish the bulk of her reports. Rubbing her eyes, she glanced at her watch and it read 11:50pm. Just ten minutes to go before it would officially be March 17, her birthday. The day she would turn 20.

And the day when everything would start changing for her.

How do I even begin to explain to Harry and Ron… She thought as she fumbled with her quill. They would think I'm bluffing, for sure. They'd laugh and tell me to cut it out or something. I'd repeat it again and this time, they'd think twice. Harry would be quite but Ron would take longer to even consider the possibility of this being real.

Sighing one more time, she started to pack up her papers and quills. She would occasionally glance at her watch, watching her last minutes of being 19 go by. Flashbacks kept replaying, entering her first muggle classroom and accidentally making a book float in front of her, surprising her parents by unexpectedly producing fire during one family barbecue, getting her Hogwarts letter, her first trip to Diagon Alley…all the way up to the Second Wizarding War.

It almost makes her sick to think that just when things were starting to get better, this-

"Granger."

Hermione gasped as she turned around, wand ready, only to come face to face with possibly the last person that she wanted to be with right now. Dressed in his usual black suit and his blonde hair slicked back as it always had been during their Hogwarts days, Draco Malfoy stood there with a raised eyebrow.

Quickly, Hermione wiped the tears that were forming in her eyes and cleared her throat. "What do you want, Malfoy?" she muttered in what she hoped to sound as dismissive but not snobbish. Whenever it came to work, she tried to be professional.

She felt his eyes on her, scrutinizing her. Resisting the urge to lash at him, she turned away and resumed packing up. She heard his footsteps come closer to her and with a swish hand movement; he placed a stack of papers on her desk.

Taken aback, she turned her head and realized that it was her first draft proposal for the elves and their new constitution she had been trying to pass through the Ministry.

"How did you-

"Under my department, Granger. Someone just asked for a favor to give it to you, and I'm clearly in no position to refuse." He said coldly. Hermione bit back a remark that would have mentioned how he deserved it after the way he had fought for the other side during the war.

You should be thankful you're not in Azkaban.

"Thanks." She said, giving him a slight nod. He was about to turn and leave without another word, when the sound of the grand clock striking twelve both reached their ears. Hermione's head shot up instantly.

This is it. A hundred days.

And she turned her head to look at the only other person in the room, marking him as the first person she saw the moment her clock began ticking.

Without planning it, she gave him a smile.

He lingered for a few seconds, at most five, before he turned and left. Unknown to her, he was telling himself that it had been a sad smile.