The Snake and The Lion
Prologue
The war had been over for 3 years and Hermione was bored to death. Nothing interesting had happened after the final battle, not that peace and prosperity among wizards alike was bad or anything.
Life for Hermione in the past three years had gone no direction but up, everything was great and very seldom did something break her good mood. She lived in a flat in a muggle neighbourhood with Ron, a new cat (Crooks had passed the year before this), and owned a small- but busy, bookstore.
The golden trio and friends had somewhat grown apart, aside from Hermione and Ron. Harry and Ginny moved to the countryside, where they were now raising their first child, James Sirius, whom Hermione was the godmother to (Ron was given the title of godfather). Harry and Ron barely spoke anymore, and the occasional owl was sent between Ginny and Hermione, but that was only when one of them had a bad day.
The rest of the final battle hero and heroines had also moved on. Neville and Luna moved to Canada, most of the Weasley family had scattered themselves across the globe in various, random places, and several others became teachers at Hogwarts or another school devoted to magic.
In other words, life for the average wizard was beginning to become dull. Although, several of the kids who had participated in the war at Hogwarts had suffered physical and mental wounds that seemed to keep their lives a bit busy (in a bad way) with media attention. Gossip fluttered like little birds, whispering harsh rumors into Hermione's ear every so often. Word was passed that Harry had night terrors and nothing could stop them, people chattered on about how Luna was barely grasping onto her sanity, and older women giggled about the word of Angelina having issues with George talking to himself in the mirror, as if he was speaking to Fred.
Life for Hermione was starting to get dull, until she found that her long enemy, Draco Malfoy, had suddenly started appearing in public. She started to regularly read the Daily Prophet's gossip section, which was where he frequently appeared. It was always normal things that he did, though. Occasional walks, a stop into a café, and even a visit or two to the newly rebuilt ministry.
Hermione pretended not to notice the sightings at first, but she couldn't keep herself away from the stories. There were always bad photos of him walking out of shops or giving nods to people. This was not interesting, but what was interesting was Draco himself. Hermione had stared at the pictures for long amounts of time, although she knew she shouldn't, with Ron being around and such.
Draco had grown. Hermione could see the impact the war had left on him. His jaw was always set, his eyebrows creased together, his forehead lined with the permanent marks left from him constantly raising and lowering his eyebrows in thought.
She also noticed the more physical side of him had changed, his posture was almost perfect, but was flawed by the slightest slump in his shoulders. He walked with his hands in his coats' pocket, wearing one whether it be warm or cold out. He started to care more about his appearance, (or at least Hermione assumed so) for he had started wearing a bit more… casual clothing. He had always overdressed all the time in the past, now he had reduced himself to a pair of trousers, a shirt and a coat; which fit him nicely.
Not that Hermione cared about any of this at all. This was all but another book on a shelf, and it didn't affect her in any way.
Little did Hermione know, this book would drop from the shelf, hit her on the head, and open her life to a new chapter.