Dramione

"Hermione," his voice was husky with emotion as he said my name.
"Yes?" I whispered, hope alighting on me like a feather.

"Will you... Will you marry me Hermione?" he said, raising his perfect green eyes to look at me.

"Of course! Of course I'll marry you Draco!" I sad, hugging him joyfully, as all around me, smiles and cheers went around. Fred and Georges clapped Draco's back and took him off to prepare the Stag din. But wait. Draco hated me. And Fred was... dead.

I woke up in my small flat, cursing internally for having dreamt about Draco once more. 'Just because he works in the same Auror office as me – the same Auror office as me, doesn't mean that he could even like me,' I thought, twisting my bushy hair into a bun. It was only six in the morning, but I felt a burning need to get back to the office, back to the place where I had trailed so many rogue Death-Eaters from my chair and then later picked them up, sometimes with Draco, other times without. 'Stop thinking about Draco!' I reprimanded myself angrily. I picked out my Auror robes (deep midnight blue today, like my feelings,) and got waited in the wet streets for a bus that would take me to the Ministry of Magic. When it finally arrived, I thought about my children, now staying for the Holidays with their Dad, all the way over in Bristol. Ron and I had gotten a divorce just a few years ago, because things were just not working. I was the main breadwinner in the family, and Ron was the "Child-minder", but I didn't earn very much as a minor Auror, and Ron wasn't used to staying at home. In the end, he moved in with Cho Chang, who had apparently asked him out several times, although he was too committed to me to say yes. But now, however, he could frolic with whoever and it wasn't. My. Problem. We stayed firm friends though, and the "Golden Trio" as we used to call ourselves often met up in Diagon alley for a few Butterbeers when buying supplies for our kids. Harry and Ginny were still happily married, and Ginny had recently had a new little boy, Lupin. He was, so far as we could tell, non-magical, although, as Harry, Ron, Ginny and I joked, they tried to beat some magic into him. The bus screeched to a halt, jolting me brusquely out of my reverie of happy days – happier than now, that is. I stepped of the warm bus into the chilly street, only to bump into... Draco! My heart leapt, although he sneered and barely said hello, because we were going to walk to the office together! A ten miles and we were going to walk it! Remembering his manners as a Malfoy, he casually, almost disdainfully offered me his arm. I took it and felt thrills of pleasure leap through me: I was touching Draco Malfoy, the reputed Spinster, the most handsome man on earth! He smiled as if he could hear my thoughts, and I blushed, although it was so cold I hoped it might look like the cold was stinging my cheeks.

"So..." Draco drawled, managing to convey both nonchalance and interest at the same time. "You're out early, aren't you Granger... Why is that?" I blushed again.

"We-ell... I couldn't sleep... and I wanted one of the horrendously expensive and yucky coffees from the cafeteria... What about you?"

He laughed, and I felt ready to leap on him and rape him... No, not quite, but almost.

"About the same. Except it was really my girlfriend," and both he I winced, I because he had a girlfriend, him probably remembering some painful incident. "Ex-girlfriend," he corrected himself and I quietly sighed with hope. "kicked me out of her flat wearing nothing but underpants and a shirt. I had left my key on her table, but she wouldn't talk to me, so I got dressed and went for the office. And then I bumped into you." the sneering tone was back in his voice now, and I felt despair eat at my heart.

"Draco... Why do you hate me so?" I blurted out, immediately blushing like I leaning into Mount Kilimanjaro.

He smiled bitterly and didn't answer. I hoped he hadn't heard. But unfortunately, he had.