Author's Note: I know what you're thinking. "She's starting a NEW fic even though she has yet to update Stung by a Billywig, Oliver Wood: More Than Just Looks, Obsessions, and, most importantly, The 7th Year in Hogwarts: Oliver and Hermione?! What is she, CRAZY?!" Well, you're just about correct. But I had a sudden inspiration of a fic, that I could not just put it off for long. This does not mean I won't be working on the other fics. On the contrary, it means I'll be working on all the fics twice as hard. I hope to update each fic at least once a week, if not, then once every two weeks. If not that, then at least once a year (I'm just kidding). But, enjoy this new fic, a love triangle between Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, and Oliver Wood (*drools*)!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or the settings. This magical world is property of J.K. Rowling, with her incredible mind. I just own the plot!

Chapter One - A New Life

"There must be another way, 'cause I believe in taking chances.
But who am I to say, what a girl is to do, God I need some answers.
What am I to do with my life? You will find out, don't worry.
How am I supposed to know what's right? You just gotta do it your way.
I can't help the way I feel, but my life has been so overprotected."
- "Overprotected" by Britney Spears


The clanking of a small bell alerted the many witches' and wizards' of The Leaky Cauldron that yet another person who was able to do the magical arts was entering the small but thoroughly enjoyable pub. A fairly tall witch, with slightly bushy brown hair that fell down to her shoulders and almond-shaped brown eyes had stepped into the pub, but judging by the quick ruffling and shuffling of her robes, it appeared as though she was in a hurry. A stack of quills, parchment, and portfolios were stacked in her hands, but she managed to be able to look and walk around with ease despite the heavy load.

Her name was Hermione Granger, which was perfectly noticeable by the nametag attached to her robes. She looked fairly important, and she glanced at her watch before she bit on her bottom lip nervously. Approaching the barman, she put her large stack of necessities on the counter, smiling quickly before saying, "Just a jug of Butterbeer, please, Tom; I'm sort of in a hurry, and I really don't want Shirley to be angry."

"Perfectly understandable, Miss Granger," the barman, Tom, replied; he reached underneath the bar and pulled out a fairly large jug, the next second, Butterbeer appeared, fill to the brim. "You've always been addicted to Butterbeer, haven't you?" he asked her, a small smile on his face.

"It's a little hard not to!" Hermione exclaimed, putting down two sickles to pay. Raising the glass, she said a small, "Cheers", before she swallowed it all in two gulps. Setting the jug back down, she smiled yet again, and gathered the stack in her arms once more. "Delicious ... this will definitely keep me energized for the day ahead. See you later, Tom!"

Without waiting for a reply, Hermione headed out of the exit into the oh-so-familiar small, walled courtyard, with the familiar weeds that continued to grow, and the same dustbin propped up against the wall. Absentmindedly, Hermione took out her wand, dragging it up three bricks, and two bricks across above the dustbin. She tapped the wall three times with the point of her wand, and immediately the wall wriggled in the middle, making a small hole appear that grew wider and wider until she was in Diagon Alley, which she considered her second home.

As soon as she stepped through the arch, seeing the familiar shops that she passed by every day (except for the weekend, which she had off), the brick wall had returned to its original state, and Hermione bustled through the crowd of witches and wizards that had already assembled throughout the cobbled streets. She passed by the cauldron shop, an apothecary shop, the owl emporium, as well as a broomstick shop, shops selling robes, telescopes, and intriguing silver instruments. Eventually, she reached a rather tall building, about four or five stories high. More down the street were several more shops, as well as the Gringotts bank in the distance.

Stepping up towards the main entrance of the building, she smiled when she saw the sign perched above the doorway - a globe, where it was written Daily Prophet on the upper arch, and below the globe, was written Future Fates Foretold. A small brown owl was sitting on the sign. As she did almost every single day for the past four months, she placed her right hand (her wand hand) on one of the two glass doors which were the main entrance. There was a small humming noise, as though the doors were detecting her fingerprints, and ultimately, her identity, and with a small click of the doors and a tiny hoot from the owl, Hermione entered the building.

Although it was no Ministry of Magic, just the main floor was completely stunning. Pictures were lined along the hallway walls, full of different witches and wizards who had been previous editors of the Daily Prophet. To the right of the main entrance was a desk, where a small plump witch with graying hair sat, scribbling something away on a piece of parchment. Walking up to her, Hermione tapped gently on the parchment the women was writing on to alert her attention, then said, "Hermione Granger, journalist, third floor, specializing in affairs of the Ministry of Magic."

The small plump witch took a stamp, then rustled through several papers on her desk until she reached a very long piece of parchment containing the list of all the employees of the Daily Prophet. Reaching the G's, the old woman stamped down hard on 'Monday, June 15th', right beside, 'Granger, Hermione'. Looking up, the witch complimented with, "Perfect attendance for the past four months, Miss Granger. Quite an accomplishment for a new journalist. Have a nice day!"

Hermione grinned back in response. It wasn't that hard to have a perfect attendance, Hermione had realized, as she approached what seemed to be a hovering elevator. She was so passionate about writing, that it was hard to have an actual life outside of it. Walking inside of the hovering elevator, she quickly pressed a button labeled with '3', but not until several other reporters and journalists walked in as well. Hermione greeted some of them, although some of them had obviously not taken the time to recognize her face; instead, they chose to glance as the elevator began to hover upwards.

Reaching the first floor above the main floor, a cool female voice, much like the one inside the Ministry of Magic (which Hermione visited at least once a week) called out, "The floor for entertainment, specializing in social events between witches and wizards, including music, fashion, and the entire Quidditch department." At this, three-quarters of the people in the elevator had gone. Hermione sighed. It was the most popular department, and Hermione could easily see why, seeing as though wizards and witches were now completely fascinated in entertainment now that Voldemort had officially vanished; however, she was more interested in politics, and seeing what the Ministry of Magic was up to nowadays.

When it had reached the second floor, the same cool female voice rung out, "The floor specializing in store advertisements, classifieds, personal advertisements, and other main events needed for advertisement." At this, three more witches and wizards left, leaving Hermione alone with seven other employees. She smiled nervously at five of them; they worked on the fourth floor, which belonged to the editor and all of the other special employees associated with the newspaper. She smiled quite warmly at two other witches, who returned the smile.

The elevator had now reached the third floor, and once it had stopped hovering Hermione exited with the two other witches she had smiled at, hearing the cool female's voice say, "The floor regarding in the Ministry of Magic, its employees, the events going on, and the politics surrounding it." Once Hermione was sure that they were far out of earshot from the wizards and witches inside the hovering elevator, she turned towards the two witches and smiled excitedly. "Agnes! Clara!" Hermione greeted, smiling.

"Ah, Hermione," Agnes replied. She had long, flowing blonde hair, and wise green eyes that stood out against her pale face. She, too, had a stack of parchment, quills, and portfolios in her arms. "Good thinking about not saying thing in the elevator. We have to be professionals while in the presence of them."

Hermione felt like chuckling, but looking around at their surroundings, she felt it was better not to. All around them were hundreds of cubicles. In the very center of the large room was a large, circular desk with several important witches and wizards sending off memos. Towards the right of the room were the bathrooms and other refreshments, and along the left wall were several issues of the Daily Prophet. Hermione could make out the issue where Cornelius Fudge had admitted that Voldemort was actually at large, which was four years ago. Hermione couldn't believe so much time had passed.

"Anyways, I say we have a cup of some of energizing Butterbeer before we crack down to it," Clara said with a smile. She was always the humorous one, and Hermione sometimes wondered why she wasn't down at the floor with entertainment. She had curly red hair and bright blue eyes, and was quite short for her age. Hermione nodded in agreement, and they headed towards the right section of the floor, pouring themselves a mug of Butterbeer. It wasn't as good as the ones that Tom provided at The Leaky Cauldron, but Hermione figured it was because of the potion contained inside, which guaranteed that you would have energy for at least the next five hours.

Once they had polished off their mugs of Butterbeer, they all headed in separate directions towards their cubicles, promising each other to send memos at least once an hour to make sure how they were all holding up. Hermione smiled with happiness; most of the time when she had entered new situations (such as her first year of Hogwarts), she would always be shy and it would take her some time to make some friends. But with Clara and Agnes, she clicked instantly and although they had only known each other for four months, they seemed to connect and respect each others' ideas.

Setting off towards the left side of the room, Hermione settled down at a cubicle which had a wonderful view - unlike most of the cubicles, hers had a window where the sunlight was shining through. Sitting down in a wooden chair that didn't creak when she sat down in it, she set down her quills, parchment, and portfolios on a desk and looked around at the walls surrounding her. Posted all over the walls were letters, photographs, and newspaper articles. The most noticeable object was a photograph hanging directly above her desk. In this picture were eight grinning people - Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Mr and Mrs Weasley, Fred and George, Ginny, and herself standing in front of the Burrow. It was taken during Hermione's sixth year of Hogwarts, and although Hermione had far more recent pictures of all her friends, this one seemed to be memorable.

Along the walls of her cubicle were other traces of her friends; one Daily Prophet article depicted the success of Fred and George's joke shop; another congratulated the success of Harry and Ron, both becoming Aurors; yet another article showed an interview with Ron, with him displaying his love for Wizards' Chess. These reminders helped Hermione get through the day, and remember all about her past; ever since she graduated from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, everything seemed to breeze by. While Harry and Ron went off to an official school for Auror training when summer was over after their graduation from Hogwarts, Hermione went off to the Official Journalism Academy for Witchcraft and Wizardry, and after reaching the top of the class within two years, she had finally managed to become a journalist for the Daily Prophet.

For her, it was quite an accomplishment, and even her Muggle parents were quite proud; Harry and Ron showed their support as well whenever they managed to see her in the Ministry of Magic building, even though they secretly wished she would write about Quidditch. Although she was quite confused about her future career after Hogwarts when she was still attending it, she was now certain that she was doing something she loved most ... her second pick would either not be working at all and just being with her beloved friends, or being a professor at Hogwarts (although that meant seeing Snape's face for the long years that she worked there).

After looking around the walls for a few minutes, she turned her attention to the portfolios on her desk - in them contained biographies on almost every single employee at the Ministry of Magic, as well as the latest councils held in the Ministry of Magic. It was Hermione's job to figure out all the secrets inside the Ministry, and write articles about what had happened lately.

Once she had flipped through some of the portfolios, a memo in the shape of a flying airplane (again, much like the ones inside the Ministry of Magic), flew down beside here. Reaching for it, she saw it was a memo from Shirley, the one who ran all that happened on the third floor. "Hermione," (it read), "make sure that you write an article about the latest council that took place about the newest precautions to make sure Muggles do not find out about wizards. Due at the end of today, four o' clock. Keep up the fantastic work!" Smiling softly at Shirley's words of encouragement, she swiftly pulled out a piece of parchment and glanced at her portfolio quickly before she picked up a quill and began to scribble down words that fit in with the topic assigned.

Over an hour later, and with several pieces of scrunched-up parchment on the floor, Hermione was left with two satisfying paragraphs, although she knew she had to add much more in order to satisfy both Shirley and the readers of the Daily Prophet. No sooner than she had thought up another paragraph, a second memo came flying down.

"Hey girl, how you holding up?" Immediately, Hermione could tell it was Clara. She continued to read the note with ease. "Some of the 'top executives' are chatting about some of the workers on the third floor working on something new! Almost like a promotion or something! I don't know about you, but I'm getting excited just at the thought of it. What do you think it's about?"

Hermione was just as puzzled as she was, and also a little jealous. Clara's cubicle was right next to the center desk, where most of the 'top executives' discussed what was going on. Hermione was just glad she had someone to feed it all to her. A third memo flew down on her desk, just barely five minutes later, although this time it was from Agnes.

"I got the note from Clara," it read. "According to her, they're starting to call people down to discuss their little promotions! Good luck to you, 'Mione!"

At this note, Hermione set down her quill. She was too excited to even write. Hermione wasn't exactly sure what these top executives were planning, but if it was indeed a promotion, or at least a shot at something new, Hermione was sure ready to go for it. Several more memos arrived within the next five minutes, usually little updates on what was going on from Clara. From the fifth one was quite a surprise. It read, "Hermione Granger, please report to Shirley Jones' office for an important meeting."

She struggled to get up, but her legs seem to grow very heavy, and it took her a great deal of strength. She made sure everything was in order on her desk, then rose from her cubicle. Peering around, she noticed that she never really got a look around. Several cubicles were empty, but she could see Clara and Agnes sitting at their desks, looking around in excitement. Spotting her standing up, they gave her the thumb's up, and she smiled back in return, beginning to walk through the different rows towards the very front of the room, where Shirley's office was. With a twist of a knob, Hermione entered the room, seeing seven others that also worked on her floor assembled around a large table, with Shirley at the front. I wonder what all this is about.

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Author's Note: Yes, I know, CLIFFHANGER! Please don't kill me! I promise to you I'll have the second chapter up by around Wednesday or so, 'cause I've actually got a pretty basic idea of where the first four chapters are going. After that, well ... we'll see. I'd really appreciate ANY comments/compliments/suggestions, and err ... constructive criticism, if you have any. *shudders* Please no major complaints, burns, or flames ... all of those will be used so I can have some crispy toast, although I will also be quite depressed.

Stay tuned for chapter two, and PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!