Death Do Us Part

Prolouge

Disclaimer: I do not own HP. It's too bad. If I did, then the world would end.

Hermione's eyes opened, slowly blinking. It was another day. Another day of waitressing at a middle-class restaurant to maintain a middle class life.

She closed her eyes and rolled onto her side, sighing. She just had the best dream, though her dreams were usually about the same thing. She was back at Hogwarts with Harry and Ron. Everything was wonderful. But now she was awake, and that means reality. And reality meant that those perfect times were long gone.

Hermione glanced at the clock and sighed again. 7:24. Time to wake up. She needed to be at the Shrieking Shack by 8:15. It had been transformed into a restaurant during her last school year at Hogwarts.

She stood and picked up her wand from the nightstand beside her bed. With a flick of the wand, the mahogany-colored wardrobe across the room swished open. Black pants and a black shirt flew out, accompanied by a white apron. The clothes slowly floated onto her bed while Hermione went over to her bathroom to take a shower and brush her teeth. When she was finished with her morning routine, she headed to the kitchen part of her bland little apartment.

Looking around, Hermione didn't find very many breakfast choices. She had forgotten to go out and get the groceries. Hermione settled for a green apple, grabbing a coat and stuffing the apple into one of the pockets. Then she took a small handful of floo powder and got into the fireplace. Floo powder was getting expensive these days.

Then she was at the Shrieking Shack.

Looking at the clock, Hermione realized that she was 15 minutes early, so she settled down into one of the chairs and started eating her apple, not noticing the silent creeping shadow looming behind her.

"Boo!"

Hermione instantly swirled around with her wand in her hand, after dropping her apple. Then she relaxed. "Hey Mandy."

The dirty blond girl Hermione had been addressing was clutching her stomach and laughing her head off. "Ha! You should have seen your face! Brilliant!"

Hermione grinned, then put on a fake pout. "You made me lose a perfectly good apple, too!"

Mandy Selwig was one of Hermione's old friends and fellow waitress. She was Muggle-born as well, though she preferred to play pranks instead of reading books.

"It's 8:13." Hermione said when the girl in front of her finally calmed down. "We should start taking down the chairs."

Mandy nodded, still grinning madly. They both swished their wand simultaneously and all the chairs floated to the ground.

Hermione went over to the windows and pulled open the drapes, letting sunlight fill the little hut, while Mandy went over to the kitchens and got her and Hermione's writing pads and two black quills.

Then the first customer came in, and Mandy and Hermione exchanged one last smile and a wink before setting off to work.

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Hermione looked at the clock on the wall again. It said 7:57. She wasn't allowed off until 10:00.

It had been a boring day. The most exciting thing that happened was when and old wizard's dentures had fallen into his mug of butterbeer.

"Oh…my…god…" Hermione heard Mandy gasp. "That guy looks amazing."

Glancing up from the table she was cleaning, Hermione narrowed her eyes.

"Well, well." Drawled an annoyingly familiar voice. "Look who's here."

One word was buzzing through Hermione's head. Malfoy.

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Author's Comments: Well, that's the Prologue chapter of Death Do Us Part, otherwise known as DDUP. R&R!