Chapter One

Seclusion

This is the first fanfiction I have written in a long time. Not to mention this first Draco/Hermione fic I've ever written. I hope you all enjoy it and i'll try to update as much as I possibly can.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.


Draco stood in the center of a dark, damp room. He tried to move, but his feet remained rooted to the cold stone floor. He watched as two men entered the room, a body slung between them. Draco strained his eyes to see, as he was still unable to move. The men dropped the seemingly lifeless body on to the floor and Draco found himself staring into his own cold grey eyes.

Draco woke with a start, sweat pouring down his face. He sat up quickly, letting his surroundings register. He sighed and wiped the sweat off his forehead as his eyes scanned the small bedroom in his London flat. It had been almost five years since the downfall of the Dark Lord and his own so called betrayal, yet he still feared punishment. The same dream had haunted his sleep night after night for years. Even though the wizarding world was a peace he was not.

He was completely distracted from his thoughts as his feet hit the cold hard wood floor and he glanced at the clock. 8:30. "Damn." He muttered as he slowly rose out of bed. Resigned to the fact that he was going to be late to work he slowly stumbled into the bathroom and ran his fingers through his messy blonde hair. He then reached instinctively for his wand and with a simple flick of his wrist every hair fell into place. With another flick of his wand Draco's pyjama pants where replaced by a pair of nice black slacks and a white button up shirt. He glanced into the mirror and nodded one last time before he pocketed his wand and headed off to work. His nightmare now long forgotten.


Hermione Granger hadn't slept much the night before. In fact, she hadn't slept much this entire week. She had finally returned to the wizarding world after four years of seclusion and it wasn't setting well with her. She had a job interview in an hour and she could bring herself to get ready. She paced back in forth in front of her bed starring intently at the floor, as if it was the answer to all of her questions.

"You are a war hero" she muttered to herself. "You where the brightest witch of your age," she added with a sigh. "Yet you can't manage to pull yourself together for a simple job interview." She added, demeaning herself. She looked down at the wand she held in her hand and dropped it on the floor as if it were poison. "I can't do this!" She screamed as she fell to the floor, tears streaming down her face.

Every time she held her wand memories came flooding back to her. Her body began to ache from the torture she had received during those long months. She saw her friends suffer, even die. She had let these memories haunt her. She had lost control and they had taken over.

"Hermione, maybe you should take a break. Go home to your parents, stay for a while." Harry had said with a concerned smile on his face.

She had taken his advice and returned to the muggle world to try and live without the memories that terrified her so. But, Harry had not meant for her to spend the rest of her life that way. He had not meant for her to pack up her wand and completely forget about her amazing talents as a witch.

"Hermione... maybe it's time for you to face your fears. You've hidden from them long enough. It's time for you to go back."

Hermione had tried to argue with her mother's comment but she knew the older woman right. She had hidden long enough.

For a moment it seemed the old Hermione had returned. The words of her mother rang through her head and she pulled herself up off the floor and reached for her wand. She quickly tamed her hair and threw on her robe. She stood in front of the mirror and inspected the reflection that stared back at her. With a simple nod she pocketed her wand and moved toward the door.

"You can do this," She said as she grasped the handle and swung the door open. Hermione had taken the first step back into the wizarding world.


"Morning Mr. Malfoy," said the small white haired witch seated at the desk in front of him.

"Good morning, Sara," Draco muttered and he walked past her desk and into his office. Working for the ministry had been a relatively easy job over the past few years, but replacing Ludo Bagman as the head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports had proven to be an arduous task. Due to bagman's incessant gambling he had neglected to do any of his paperwork for what seemed to be several years. Draco had found everything from requests to form new quidditch teams to a proposal for a worldwide exploding snap tournament.

"Exploding snap? Really?" He asked himself aloud.

Having only been promoted to head of the department two weeks before Draco had made a rather large dent in the paperwork that had been left for him, but he was still no where near done.

With a sigh Draco quickly began sifting through the mountains of paperwork that had been left on his desk. He skimmed over each file he came across and only dealt with it if it seemed pressing. Soon Draco had gone through one entire pile only to make another one. This one was clearly labeled "Bizarre". He would deal with those later when he wanted to have a good laugh.

Now Draco surveyed his desk. "That's all I got done in three hours?" He groaned rather loudly. He had in fact made a decent sized dent in his work, but by the look of his desk, no one would have been able to tell.

With a sigh Draco stood and made his way into the adjoining office. "Well, Sara I'm going to be buried alive under all of that paper work." He said and rubbed his temples. "You wouldn't believe the things people want to do. Hold full-fledged quidditch tournaments in their backyards?" He shook his head. "I'm going to lunch." He muttered, "And I'm even taking my work with me.." He complained as he walked out of the office with several files in his hands.

The older woman simply rolled her eyes and chuckled slightly as she continued on with what she had been doing.


"Welcome to the Department of International Magical Cooperation, Miss Granger." Said the rather plump witch who sat at the desk across from Hermione who managed nothing more than a nervous smile and a hesitant nod as the witch looked over her resume.

"You were quite the student back at Hogwarts." She muttered with a smile, "Highest marks the school has ever seen." She added, seemingly pleased. "Well Miss Granger, your resume is remarkable and you are more than qualified for the job, but can I ask why apply to be a secretary? With your marks you could easily be an auror."

Hermione's eyes fell to the ground at the mention of her former dream.

"Pardon me if it was out of my place to ask it just seems to me that a war veteran would not want to be sitting behind a desk shuffling papers all day."

Hermione had fought all morning to keep herself calm. In the waiting room she had actually read a copy of the quibbler to distract her, but now there seemed to be no way out.

'I can't do this.' Hermione thought as she abruptly stood. "Thank you for your time Ma'am." She managed to say as she fled quickly from the office.

'The horrors from that war follow me everywhere. I shouldn't have come back here..." She muttered as she rushed out of the building.

"Miss Granger!" The plump witch called after her.

Hermione ignored her. She kept her eye on the elevator door, not paying attention to anything around her.

"Excuse me!" Came a familiar voice, but it was too late. Hermione ran right into the man. His paperwork went flying as he caught Hermione before she hit the ground.

Hermione didn't even look up at who had caught her. "I'm so sorry I wasn't paying attention it's all my fault. Let me get this." she said as she got on her hands and knees and began to pick up The scattered papers.

"Why the rush, Granger?"

Hermione looked up at the mention of her name. "Malfoy." she said as if it were an unforgivable curse she had uttered.

"Nice to see you too Granger." He said as he gathered up the rest of his papers and shoved the back in the folder.

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" Hermione asked as she stood and looked around to see if the older witch had followed her..

"I work here." He said simply as he looked her over. She had changed. She seemed less confident, almost weak. This was not the Hermione Granger from school. "And what about you?" He asked. "You look like you've been chased by a dragon."

"Nothing." she said and crossed her arms across her chest.

"Well that's obviously a lie." He muttered.

" Why is it any of your business anyway?" She asked with a smirk.

There was the Hermione he had known in school. "Well seeing as I'm the one you trampled I figured I had the right to ask."

"Well you thought wrong." She said, her eyes narrowing.

Seeing that she had no intention of telling him Draco climbed in to the now open elevator. "See ya 'round," he muttered as the doors closed and Hermione was left standing alone in the corridor.


So, Did you all like it? The beginning of this chapter doesn't seem right to me. It seems off or maybe the whole chapter is just off.

Let me know!

Read and review!

-Elle