Hermione sighed as she dropped her face onto her hands on her immaculate desk in her cubicle of Auror Headquarters. It had not been her day, and it wasn't even lunchtime yet.
The day had not gone well. She hadn't been sleeping well recently, and today was definitely a bad hair day. None of her clothes matched and she had neglected to apply any makeup. Absolutely nothing had gone right for her and she loathed days like this. She'd had to come to work without breakfast and when she arrived at the ministry she had found her face plastered over the front page of the Daily Prophet and herself ambushed by a mob of journalists and photographers all of whom wanted a word with the lost heir.
Incidentally she gave them that one word; Goodbye.
She couldn't believe the secret she had been sitting on since first year had leaked out and made the Daily Prophet, especially not the front page. It wasn't a bad secret; just that she was the last descendant of a very ancient wizarding family, Merlin's family, which made her as good as wizarding royalty. She'd known she was an Ambrosias, if very distantly; her great-great-grandmother had been one and ran away and denied magic, and the gene had been suppressed until Hermione came along. Now she was more famous than Harry.
Harry. Oh dear.
When she'd got to her cubicle she found a small forest with memos on it, telling her to report to Kingsly Shaklebolt, Minister of Magic, when she had a moment to spare and also to see her head of department; invitations to benefits and galas; requests for interviews from almost every magazine and newspaper imaginable; polite requests for publicity or advertising from people like Madam Malkin's Robes and Flourish and Blotts; several authors begging for her story so they could write books about her; and, to top it all, shocked and angry letters from a lot of her closest friends who were angry that she'd concealed it for so long, Harry Ron and Ginny at the forefront of these.
"Bad day, Brains?" a sympathetic but slightly smug voice said from overhead.
"Go away Flower-girl." Hermione snapped not looking up, knowing full well that her friend Pansy Parkinson was on the other end of that voice.
"Gonna change your name Brains? Hermione Ambrosias has a nice ring to it." a cocky voice said.
"Flower-girl please give sodding Birdy a good sodding slap for me." Hermione growled. She was in no mood to humour William 'Birdy' Latten, an annoying git who loved to passively aggressively torture his fellow Aurors and generally revelling in being a smug arrogant git. In many ways he was like Draco Malfoy had been before the truth about him had come to light.
"Alright already! I'm going!" Birdy protested after a moment or two wherein Hermione perceived some ringing slaps which generally told her that Pansy was doing more than the one slap requested.
Despite her bad mood, Hermione sniggered. "You always take me at my word don't you, Pansy?"
"Come on, any even minute excuse to hurt him in some way is good enough for me."
Hermione sat up. "It's a fair point. Even Malfoy never annoyed me as much as he does."
"And why was that again?" Pansy's tone told Hermione plainly that she already knew.
"Because even though he hated almost everything about my best friends, for five years he was my boyfriend in secret and the whole mudblood thing was just a diversion. Happy now, you sodding cow?"
"Language, miss."
"I keep forgetting you knew about that."
"Draco's my best friend. We keep no secrets from each other. And you both needed my help, someone to keep lookout and help you out of tight spots. You did make a good couple though." Pansy's eyes drifted over to the inner walls of Hermione's cubicle where an array of photographs decorated the dark blue walls. Her eyes focussed on one of Draco and Hermione looking loved up and gazing at each other lovingly.
Hermione looked too and felt a twinge of regret. She missed Draco and wondered if he missed her too. She looked up at Pansy as her friend looked over the other photos; a nice one of the Golden Trio together, the whole of the DA, the Fellowship of Light (the link of friends who, during the war, worked the hardest to bring Voldemort down- the trio, Ginny, Neville, Luna, Draco and Pansy), Harry and Ron messing around and Hermione rolling her eyes, Hermione Ginny Pansy and Luna walking down a street arm in arm laughing and happy, Hermione's entrance at the Yule ball in seventh year and Harry Ron Neville and Draco drooling over her while Ginny Pansy and Luna cheer catcall and whoop in the background,
Hermione would very much like to ask Pansy about Draco but every time she was about to she checked herself and told herself that she didn't want to know.
"You can ask, you know?" Pansy said picking up Hermione's copy of that day's Daily Prophet and rereading the story about Hermione.
"About what?"
"About Draco. How he is, what he's doing, if he still thinks about you."
Hermione sighed. "Well?"
Pansy grinned and put the paper down. "Knew you'd cave to your curiosity. He's doing well. Member of the Wizengamot. Has fun arguing with people all day. You should see him now. Gorgeous doesn't even cover it. If only he had eyes for me." Pansy sighed in a feigned fangirl act.
Hermione snorted. "What do you mean?"
Pansy dropped the act. "You're the only one he sees. A lovesick Neville would be less pathetic. He's always pestering me for updates on how you're doing. Please, for my sake, just start dating him again. He hasn't been this emotionally pathetic since second year."
Hermione paused, not knowing how to answer. She knew how she'd like to answer, but she knew what Pansy was like and if she said what she was thinking Pansy would run away with it and probably make things worse, though having the best intentions of course. What else are girlfriends for?
"Someday, maybe." Hermione said reluctantly.
Pansy looked put out. But Hermione recognised the look she wore a moment later, as the 'alright, let's go to plan B' look. "Let's go for lunch."
Hermione sniggered humourlessly and got up. They made their way to the elevator and up to the cavernous dining hall. Not a word was spoken between them but Hermione noticed that Pansy kept checking her watch and glancing around as though looking for someone.
The dining hall was huge and thriving with life. What always seemed like hundreds of tables of various sizes stood around the room with places laid on them. It was already full and Hermione looked around for an empty pair of seats. There was no one waiting for a table except them. She spotted two empty seats at a little round table for three but there was someone already sitting there. This man had white blond hair and his smug relaxed posture as he sat was shockingly familiar; it was Draco.
Pansy hadn't noticed and was still searching. Then she saw the empty seats and pulled Hermione to them quickly. There was something a little off in her surprise at seeing the two places and her pace was a little too decided, in Hermione's opinion.
When they got to the table Hermione hung back behind Draco while Pansy hurried round and Draco rose from his seat and hugged her warmly. He seemed to notice Pansy glancing back to Hermione and looked over his shoulder and saw her.
All at once, and for the first time in a while, Hermione began to care very much what she looked like and too late remembered what a state she was today. One of her hands wandered up to her hair and she bit her lip to hide the grimace at the horrendous condition she felt it was in.
He didn't seem to care. He suppressed a chuckle and just stared at her. She stared back and felt her knees grow a little weak as he quirked that cheeky charming smile that she remembered so well and that very few people got to see. Fortunately her pride kicked in and gave her a good metaphorical slap.
She smirked the famous Malfoy smirk and at this he laughed outright.
"You know, My, I really missed you smirking at me like that," he said still smiling. "And is the famous Hermione Ambrosias going to grace us for lunch?"
"Oh please, I've been famous a morning and I do not need comments from you," she snapped. His face fell and she looked at him sternly.
They held the moment for a little while and then both released a little laugh at the same time. Still chuckling she stepped forwards and hugged him tightly.
"I miss this." She said in the hug.
"And I miss you." he whispered.
"Are we going to eat or what?" Pansy said quite rudely making them break apart and join her at the table.