It had been a hectic day at the ministry. So busy indeed that Hermione Granger found herself having to skip lunch. Again. It had become a normal occurrence as of late. Normally, she would join Harry for lunch, somewhere private, like in his office, or a nearby muggle café. Or she would bugger Blaise into taking a stroll with her in a nearby park while they ate homemade sandwiches he used to bring with him.

Bustling past her secretary and into her office, she was more than surprised to see someone there. More so, she had never in a million years expected to come face to face with Draco Sodding Malfoy. Well, at least not within the boundaries of her own office. She found herself starring at him. It had been years since they had stood so close to each other as they did now. In fact, Hermione didn`t think they had been this close since she testified at his behalf during his trial five years priory. She blinked rapidly a couple of times, finding it hard to focus. A small child, around two years of age was popped up onto his shoulders, dangling with his velvet clad legs against Malfoys chest. The toddler smiled at her, his toothily smile as white as the hair topping his head.

"I`m so so sorry Mrs Granger! I told him he had to make an appointment, but he refused to leave," Her secretary was almost in tears. Hermione turned towards the doorway where her secretary stood. She found that the girl had dressed more casually than normal. Hermione wrinkled her nose at the outfit. The girl was almost sobbing, but as Hermione looked into her face, she could clearly see the distaste for the man standing in front of them both. As her secretary regained her breathe, having obviously tried to warn her before she had entered her office, she handed over a big stack of envelopes, that had obviously arrived for her while she had been in court.

"It`s all right, Mindy, I have…" she looked down at her watch, "four minutes until I have to be in the minister's office." Mindy nodded, but stayed in the room, unsure if she was willing to let her boss be alone in the clutches of the enemy. Her teeth sank into her bright bubble-gum pink lips, as she eyed the situation in front of her carefully. Hermione let out a sight in frustration. She could handle herself perfectly well on her own. With a wave of her hand, her secretary found herself having to leave the room, closing the door behind her. Hermione turned towards Malfoy. Amazed that he had been quiet the entire confrontation. Normally she would have expected some kind of verbal bite from him. It hadn`t come yet. Perhaps Harry was right, she thought. Perhaps the Malfoy patriarch had changed.

"What, may I ask, are you doing in my office, Malfoy?" She questioned, while sorting through her mail. She threw a couple of unopened envelopes in her trach bin, before leaving the rest of them to be opened on her office desk. The child squirmed on his father's shoulders. Malfoy hoisted him down, before giving him a small green plush dragon toy. The small child looked up at his father in extreme joy as he made himself busy with the magic toy. Malfoy watched his son carefully, making sure that he was indeed occupied before he turned towards Hermione again.

"What do you think I`m doing in your office, Weasley?" His words were cold as ice, or, at least that`s how she perceived them. She pulled on the sleeve of her woollen sweater, making sure that her ugly scar was hidden from his view. She looked down at her watch. Two minutes. She just resigned herself to the fact that she was going to be late. There was no way she was going to be there in time now. Malfoy eyes her, observing her newly trimmed hair, and how she seemed to wear make-up. It was a new development, indeed, out of all the photos he had seen of her in the paper the last couple of years, she never seemed to wear a single ounce of make-up, yet, she stood before him wearing both a red lip, and mascara on her eyelashes. He didn`t understand. Somehow, she had changed. It wasn`t just the make-up, it was the way she held herself, and the way light had returned to her eyes. She seemed to be a completely now woman, and he had to admit it was attractive as hell. He stopped himself right there. Granger attractive? Never.

"Granger. Its Granger now, and honestly, I have no idea as to why you`re here," She shot back, before sitting down behind her desk. She sorted through her letters once again. A few of them were dumped into her upper office drawers. A couple was left on the desktop, to be tackled later. That is, if her unwelcome guest would see it fit to leave.

"You`re a lawyer, yes? I need a lawyer. I have to get a divorce," Her eyes shot up at that. The Slytherin prince wanted a divorce? From one of the purest of the pure-blooded witches in Britain. And he wanted her to make it happen? No way. He had to be kidding with her. There was obviously love there, she thought, looking down at the toddler. He smiled up at her as he did. His dragon flying in the air above him. There was no way Draco Malfoy, head of the Malfoy family, wanted a divorce. And even if he did, there was no way he would come to her of all people. Anyway, Malfoys just didn`t get a divorce. She should know. She had spent months researching his family tapestry.

"Malfoy, I`m not a divorce lawyer, and even so, your best friend is, so why are you here? I`m sure that Blaise would be more than okay to help you," Malfoy shock his head. She didn`t understand. Why was he here, in the tiny room that the ministry dared call an office? They didn`t like each other. They never had. Why was he here, of all places? Malfoy grabbed his coat. She hadn`t noticed it lying the, folded neatly over the back of one of the chairs that stood on the other side of her desk.

"You`re the best, or so I have heard. I want the best," She looked up at him, studied him, quite in shock. Did Draco Lucius Malfoy, just call her the best? Draco Malfoy? Hermione found herself resigning to the fact that she would have to take his case. It was just too, interesting, to let go off. If he refused to go to Blaise, she really was the only option. Not many people would agree to take on the case of an ex-death eater. The younger Malfoy wobbled on unsteady legs over to her, showing off his dragon toy.

"Grawwwr", he said with glee, pushing the toy against her tight. Hermione smiled at the toddler. Now she really had no choice. He was simply adorable. How could someone like Malfoy have a child as sweet as this, she wondered.

"Fine," she replied, "but you have to come back here this afternoon, because I have a meeting I have to be in right about now." She informed him as she stood up, ready to leave. Malfoy nodded, before picking up his son and exciting her office. He halted in the doorway, and turned around, facing her once again.

"Thank you," Hermione could hardly believe her own ears. Did Draco Malfoy just thank her? She couldn`t believe it. Then he left, and she stood there, not sure what to do next.

Upon entering the first level of the ministry Hermione Granger spotted the minister running for the elevator. He was rushing, his scarf dangling in the air behind him.

"Oh, there you are Mrs Weasley. Emergency must head down to the Department of Mysteries. Join me in the elevator?" The minister, Kingsley Shacklebolt, requested. Hermione did as asked, however, mildly annoyed that yet a person had failed to use her correct name. They stepped into the elevator she had just stepped out of. The chatty elevator voice announced that they were leaving level 1.

"We will have to postpone our meeting to next week. I fear I will have quite a lot on my plate come morning," Shacklebolt informed her. She nodded. She would have asked him why, had she not been so sure that he would not respond truthfully. All the ministry had been secretive for months, making her crazy. Even her boss refused to inform her why everybody was so on edge. The elevator stopped at Level 2, which housed her own office, but the minister looked sternly at the wizard attempting to get on, and the door closed again leaving Hermione alone with the minister yet again

She looked at her watch. Blaise would soon be out of court, so she figured she might as well ask him to lunch as she was on her way down anyway. Upon leaving the elevator, the minister left her standing outside court 3, while he himself left for the most secretive departments of them all. She watched his back becoming smaller and smaller and then gone as the door closed between them.

"There you are, Zabini, I thought you would never finish" Hermione muttered, as he entered the hall, dropping his cape over his arm. He ran a hand through his hair, as he walked towards her. Not noticing the looks other witches were throwing their way.

"Ain t my fault that opposing counsel seemed to have skipped all his classes in law school. I cannot believe how he could pass," Blaise complained, shaking his head in annoyance. Hermione smiled. The friendship between her and Blaise was easy. They just clicked. It was nothing like the friendship she had with Harry of course, nor like the relationship she had had with Ron. But he was easy going and fun, and Hermione needed easy-going and fun. They had much more in common than she had with her other friends as well. They were both smart and studious, eager, ambitious. Hermione figured that had things been different, had they perhaps been in the same house at Hogwarts, then she probably would have looked upon Blaise as more a brother than a best friend.

"Guess who was in my office today" She looked at him, a twinkle in her eyes. There was no way he was going to guess correctly.

"Ronald?" Hermione shuddered, ice filling her veins as she thought about the ginger haired bastard. No. She was glad she did not have to see him on a daily basis anymore. Ronald had resented her friendship with Blaise. Once, he had even claimed that the two of them were having an affair behind his back. Hermione almost laughed at the irony of it all. Blaise looked at her, his hand rested against his face in a thinking manner.

"Malfoy," She chimed in, breaking his train of thoughts. Blaise gaped in shook, not quite believing her. Blaise could not even remember them say hello to each other since she spoke up for him under his trail.

"Draco Lucius Malfoy, head of Malfoy family, was in your office? Why?" The look they shared told him just as much as the words passing through her lips. Blaise could not fathom why Draco would go to her and not him. Unless he had transformed into a magical creature, there was no way he could not have asked him instead. So why did not his best male friend trust him, Blaise wondered.

"You know I cannot tell you that, Blaise" She still wondered why the pale skinned man had not went in search for his best friend instead of her of all people. Draco Malfoy was a mystery to her.

"You know, Malfoy, even if you and Astoria come to an agreement when it comes to child custody, the ministry might interfere. It is highly unlikely that they won't, in fact." Hermione said, seated behind her desk, in her malicious tidy office. He sat in a chair opposing her. His child was not with him this time. He was staring out her fake window, onto the Australian sunset.

"Why would they do that?" His foot twitched, drumming against the floorboards of her office flor. She bit her lip. The floorboard creaked. She had never understood the ministry's reasoning. After all, the muggle government were not as involved in their inhabitants' lives. Her pen stopped working, all of a sudden. Damn, she thought, throwing it in the waste bucket under her desk before summoning a new one from her purse.

"The ministry has to make sure that the arrangement is beneficial to your son, more than you and Astoria," Hermione spoke quietly, but confidently. He looked over at her. An annoyed look was plastered on his face. He studied her pen. Hermione found herself wondering once again why he had come to her. She was an animal rights lawyer, for god's sake. His best friend was a divorce lawyer, and a damn good one at that. Hermione looked over at him. He seemed troubled. More so than she had ever seen him before. But, she acknowledged, she guessed that was the way she looked too, after her divorce.

"But we are his parents, we should get to decide what`s best for our son." The pen was really fascinating him. How come she did not have to use ink? He looked up at her, anticipating her answer. Their eyes met for a quick second. looked down, blushing. Malfoy continued watching her curly mane.

"Perhaps you should, but that is not the case. " She watched him fickle with his wedding band. Moving the ring from one finger to the other, watching as it magically adapted to fit each and every one of his fingers. Big, bigger, biggest, smaller, smaller, and so it continued.

"How long will it take. To get divorced I mean." He looked up at her, knowing that she herself just had been through a divorce.

"If both parties agree, like in your case, it shouldn`t be no more than a day." Hermione explained, thinking back on how easy divorce had been with Ronald. He might have tried to argue, but he was no lawyer, and she had the best sort of proof. Her own eyes. Hermione looked up at him.

"Do you still wish to go along with the divorce?" She watched him stretch his hands in front of him, studying his fingernails. They were long, pale. Like him.

"Yes."

Wizarding world struck by marriage law

By Reeta Skeeter

This afternoon, law § 40981 was passed by the wizengamont, under minister Kingsley Shacklebolt. The law, more commonly known as the wizarding marriage and procreation act, has not been in place since 1765.

Minister Shacklebolt stood in front of the full press corps of the ministry to announce the law requesting all wizards and witches between the ages of 17 and 35 to marry. The specifics of said marriage law remains unknown, however, it is assuming that the law will request the public to bear children.

Minister Shacklebolt announced the rapidly inclining population of the wizarding world, as well as the high miscarriage rate, and number of squib births as some of the reason the new law was set in place.

"I am profoundly sorry that the world has come to this, but I and the rest of the government see no other choice if we wish to continue having a British magical kind."

Ministry employee, Order of Merlin first class recipient, 1/3rd of the golden trio, and newly divorcee Ronald Weasley, had this to say about the new law:

"This law is the best thing that has happened since the defeat of Voldemort. My wife, Hermione Weasley will finally have to realise that I am the best she will ever get. This October we will remarry to show the world how great this law is."

How Mrs Granger will respond to said law is currently unknown, however, long-time friend of the couple Lavender Brown, commented that this was just the thing that would get the now Mrs Granger that she really should never have left her ex-husband.

Further intel of the law will be sent by owl to all members eligible for the law by the end of the week, stated the newly appointed head of Marriage law offices, Colette Flint.