Hermione Granger isn't an awkward bushy-haired teenager. Nope, not anymore. Now, Hermione Granger is a brilliant responsible worker, a woman admired for her skills and the ah... terrific part she played during the last Great War, as Ron sometimes says.

Of course, she isn't perfect - nobody is, really. But it's all fine and she really doesn't mind that she doesn't have a husband. Nor a boyfriend.

When all of her school friends are married. And pregnant.

Well not Harry or Ron, but Ginny and Rose-Hannah certainly are.

Or that she heard the children from that awful little flat on the third floor calling her a spinster. Twice.

Noticing that she's gritting her teeth, she immediatly slacken her jaws : she's gotten into the nasty habit during long lonely nights at work, when all the other ministry's workers go back home because they have a family to take care of. And she stays, because, well, she doesn't.

And she grits her teeth. She sadly shakes her head : if her parents knew, she would never hear the end of it. After all, they are dentists, and they love... teeth. Very much.

Much more than they love her, she sometimes thinks.

She sighs : it's not true, a lot of people love her. She knows that, but there are days when it's hard to remember it. Especially when your old slightly smelly cat left you to wander Merlin knows where for Merlin knows how long and that you spent so much time looking for it everywhere that you didn't have the time to make coffee. Actually, you tried, but then you were late and the coffee was so hot that you burnt your tongue with the first sip so you had to empty your cup in the sink - then you were feeling even worse because your tongue was hurting (still is, actually) and it was so sad to see such a good coffee (an expensive good coffee) go to waste.

After all that, in an admittedly rotten mood, she went to work the muggle way, thinking that it would relax her.

And these rude little buggers had the nerve to call her a... a spinster. She is only twenty-three, for Merlin's sake ! It is not old !

Is it ?

But she decided to act like the sensible adult she is and not to say anything. She just walked faster and consoled herself thinking: 'Well, it can't go much worse, now'.

Guess what : it did.

She went in the elevator, like every other day, sure that the worst was behind her and just when the doors were closing, he had to come in.

Draco Malfoy.

Of course : you can't have a real nightmare without him in it.

So she keeps her eyes on the little numbers on the side of the doors and pretends that she doesn't notice he's here. That she isn't awfully embarrassed to be trapped alone in an elevator with her childhood nemesis.

The fifth number lights on. She works on the thirty-sixth floor and he knows it. Because he does too.

Merlin, can't this blasted elevator go any slower?

"Granger", he says, suddenly.

But maybe it's not sudden, because she can't remember for how long they have been into the too small moving box. She jumps all the same and even if she can't see him, she knows he's smirking.

She really wants to knock all of his teeth out of his mouth. What her parents don't know can't hurt them and it's a special case because Malfoy is a git and doesn't deserve to be so good-looking (he is, she gives him that, but it doesn't change anything).

"Malfoy", she says (or hisses, really).

Darn, she's gritting her teeth. Again. And it's all his fault. But she doesn't say anything. Of course, now the war is over : they don't hate each other anymore.

Ah ! As if !

That insufferable little sneak is exactly the same he had been all those years ago, when he was parading with his new shiny expensive toys and green tie. Except now he is strutting around with his leather briefcase, black suit and sleek hair.

And well, now they aren't children. He made it really clear when he began to date all these women - the stupid geese never shut up about how great and sexy he is. He hasn't got a wife, nor a girlfriend, but he isn't a spinster, of course not : he is a bachelor.

Somehow, that sounds a hell lot better.

He is exactly the same, she thinks quite viciously. The annoying whiny Malfoy brat ! But nobody seems to care anymore, not even Harry.

But she does, and Merlin, every time she sees those grey eyes, all she wants to do is put her hands around the neck of their owner and...

"Looking good today, Granger."

And squeez...

Wait, what ?

The elevator stops and there is a clean-sounding tinkling. Malfoy gives her a cheerful wave before stepping out, leaving her gaping after him.

"See you later, Granger", he purrs before disappearing behind the closing doors.

She blinks.

'Well, maybe not exactly the same', she thinks.

The doors are closed again: she missed her stop. And she doesn't care.

Ah ! Take that, spinster !

A/N : well, I am not english, that much is obvious, I think. And this is the first time I write something in english, ever. But I did my best anyway so thank you for reading and sorry for my probably atrocious grammar...