Hey Guys,
This is my first HP fanfic, I hope you like it! Leave me a review if you like the story, I appreciate any comments and suggestions you have :)
Enjoy the story!
She had always known that change was inevitable. The late hours of Saturday night became early Sunday morning; dull, freezing winter turned into beautiful, blossoming spring and 1999 ticked over to 2000. In her life, she'd left Hogwarts, moved house and formed new friendships. She had accepted that change would always be a constant in her life and that she would be open to it, in whichever form life presented it to her.
However this time, she just wasn't so sure.
It had been an exhausting few weeks at the office. Hermione Granger reclined back in her squashy, comfortable black desk chair and allowed her mind to wander to something that did not involve law, Aurors or paperwork. She stared absently at the array of personal objects littering the surface of her desk, pleased that she was able to enjoy a few moments of peace after the hectic case she had just closed.
For the past month, she had been in charge of the trial of a convicted Auror, Henry Amarato, who had been charged for the murder of a wizarding family. Investigation into the case had found that Amarato had entered into a wizarding dwelling in London and murdered the four inhabitants whilst under the influence of the Imperius curse. They had later found that he was being controlled by an old follower of Voldemort, and this had led to a fiery court trial. Hermione had been appointed to represent Amarato and she'd been working almost non-stop over the past weeks to ensure her colleague was not carted off to Azkaban.
She was absolutely astounded that events such as these would still occur, even though the war had been over for the better part of eight years. She was disgusted that those who had claimed that Voldemort was behind them and had returned to their normal lives could still inflict such pain into the wizarding world. She had been working at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement as the head of the Auror office for the past year after the previous head retired; deeming her to be the most suitable candidate to take his place. She had been given control over the Amarato case and she had a team working for her to help solve it. This particular case had taken its toll; she was tired, irritable and overworked and to top it all off, had just received an owl informing her that a new employee was to begin work first thing tomorrow morning. It was, to say the least, inconvenient. The last thing she felt like doing was breaking in a new person to the office when things were perfect as they were. There was a great dynamic in the office which allowed her to enjoy coming to work every day, and to, for the most part, love her job.
She sighed, it was getting late and she realised that she should be out celebrating the end of the case rather than sitting here drowning in her exhaustion. She gathered up her purse which contained all the essentials, and tossed a stack of papers that she had sorted into the rubbish. Leaving her desk in the impeccably neat state that it was always in, she exited her office and apparated to her favourite bar, The Golden Quaffle, where she and her colleagues were regulars.
She appeared in the deserted street outside the bar with a pop, and shivered in the unusually cool night air, even though it was nearing the end of summer. She found the entrance to the bar, hidden amongst the other various wizarding shops and opened the door, letting herself in. She found herself surrounded by the familiar alcohol vapours and the dim setting of the bar and allowed herself to finally relax for the first time in Merlin knows how long. She scanned the room, searching for the familiar faces that she knew would be waiting for her.
"Hermione!"
A loud shout came from the lightly illuminated corner of the bar, and her eyes came to rest on a group of people, all huddled around a few table tops which were magically hovering in the air, adorned with various drinks. She walked over and found a warm smile spreading across her face; she was incredibly ready to let her hair down and have a good time with her friends. She made it to the table and found the eyes of Dean Thomas and Michael Corner, who were her work colleagues, as well as Harry and Ron who had decided to join her to help celebrate the end of the rough weeks. She greeted them all warmly and then ordered her favourite drink, firewhisky with a hint of malt.
The bartender kept the drinks coming and the party of six became increasingly drunk and the volume of their speech gradually increased. Soon, talk of the case had been forgotten and they were happily discussing other matters such as partners and social functions. Relationships were a topic that Hermione preferred to avoid whilst in the company of Ron, as they had split a little over two years ago, but had still remained good friends. However, the topic made her a little uncomfortable and so she changed to another subject.
"What do you think the new person starting tomorrow will be like?" she mused to the group after a sip of her drink. "I hope they don't intefere with things, I do love the atmosphere of the office as it is."
"I don't fancy someone who's going to walk in acting as if they own the place," Dean said, with a look of disapproval on his face.
"We'll show them who really runs the place," Michael said with a wink. "I've had enough crap to deal with in the past few weeks so to hell with them if they try to tell me what to do."
Hermione thought that perhaps Michael was being a bit harsh and that it was not him, but his drink talking, but still, the man had a point. She had been worked into the ground for the past month and was really in the mood for someone who wasn't going to cause trouble.
The night continued on into the early hours of the morning and by one o'clock, the party decided that, after numerous empty drink glasses sitting on their table, they should probably go home in order to be able to function properly the next morning. Hermione farewelled her friends and apparated back to her tenth floor apartment, right in the heart of London. She landed in her tidy living room and instantly walked into the shiny, clean kitchen for a glass of water to clear the effects of the alcohol, which were beginning to show. She grabbed a glass from the cupboard and pointed her wand at it:
"Aguamenti!" she said, and the glass filled with clear liquid. She drowned the glass and refilled the cup, taking it with her into her bedroom. She placed it on the bedside table next to her huge, comfortable bed, which was covered by rich cotton sheets of a light gold colour.
She walked into her bathroom and removed the traces of makeup that still remained on her face after the long day, and splashed cold water over her visage, feeling instantly refreshed. She then stripped out of her work clothes and into a dainty, light blue silk nightgown. She made her way back to her bed, anxiously awaiting the warm depths of her sheets.
She whispered "Knox" and slowly sank into a deep slumber, for the first time, blissfully sleeping the whole night through without anything on her mind to interrupt her sleep.
The sound of her alarm blared into her ears at 7am and she rolled over, shutting the unbearable racket off with a flick of her wand. Just that simple movement caused a spasm of pain to flick across her head and she groaned, feeling the effects of the night before. She rolled out of bed and into the shower, letting the torrents of hot water flush over her body, relieving a little of the tension she felt throbbing in her head.
With a towel wrapped around her body, she ventured into her closet to find something to wear. She settled on a sleeveless white top with frills around the gaping, rounded neckline and just covering her shoulders, and a well-fitted black pencil skirt. She found a simple pair of patent black heels and covered her ensemble with a light silver trench coat.
Her head still spinning, she walked into her kitchen and grabbed the bottle of Merlin's tonic, which had helped her out of all her previous hangovers. She took a swig of the potion and then made herself some breakfast, which she quickly ate before she gathered her things in preperation for her day.
Once she was organised, she apparated to the ministry and arrived smartly in her office at 8am. She saw a note left on her desk informing her that the new employee would be arriving in approximately 30 minutes time, so she conjured herself a mug for a cup of coffee and walked the short distance to the communal area, greeting her co-workers as they prepared for the day ahead. She filled her mug with rich, black liquid and sat at a polished table, scanning over the latest edition of the Daily Prophet whilst sipping her hot coffee. She found a large article covering what had happened at the trial and a fairly awful picture of Dean and herself, much to her annoyance.
When her coffee cup was bordering on empty and the last dregs had turned cold, she disposed of the cup and made her way back to her office, preparing for the employee's arrival. She shuffled through a pile of documents on her desk when she realised she had failed to be informed of the name of the new worker. Frustrated, her search picked up pace when she realised how awkward it would be when she greeted the poor gent and didn't know his name.
"Why so tense, Granger?"
A lazy drawl came from her open office door and Hermione's search came to an abrupt stop as she froze instantly. She knew that voice and had gladly avoided it for the last eight years.
Oh please, not him. Anybody but him. She closed her eyes and thought that if she willed it enough, he would disappear. Her eyes snapped open, glancing up hopefully at the office door, however much to her dismay, none other than Draco Malfoy was leaning casually against her doorframe. Great, here he was again, back to terrorise her life. She eyed him up and down quickly, raising an eyebrow. She hated herself for thinking it, but Merlin, he looked good.
He was wearing a crisp, white shirt that was tucked loosely into a pair of well-groomed black slacks with a perfect crease ironed down the front. Just looking at him, she could tell he took extremely good care of himself. Thrown over his shoulder was a smooth black blazer that he had evidently just removed, and binding the top of his shirt together was a deep emerald tie. But most of all, she noticed his eyes; the deep silvery depths were intoxicating and drawing her in deeper and deeper...
She snapped herself out of her trance and her eyes came to rest on the smirk playing across his lips, tugging up one corner of his mouth. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and released it, slowly opening her eyes once again and bringing her chocolate gaze up to meet his silver.
"Malfoy," she said curtly. She nodded her head, instructing him to enter her office, and gestured to the dark brown leather chair placed in front of her desk.
He strode over to her desk and neatly placed himself in the armchair. Hermione still refused to believe it and sank dejectedly into her own seat.
"Really? You're the new employee? Or am I just having a bad dream," she questioned hopefully, offering up the last bit of hope she had.
"Sorry to disappoint, Granger," Malfoy said, smirk still in place. "I didn't realise my presence was still greatly disturbing to you. I was rather hoping to turn over a new leaf, so to speak."
Seriously? Turn over a new leaf? The last time she had seen him, he was throwing insults and hurtful comments at her each chance he got. And he wanted a fresh start? She supposed a lot could change in eight years.
"Well, I guess I won't have much of a choice if we are to be working together," Hermione said in defeat. Her eyes travelled back to his shirt-covered chest and she noticed the faint outline of obvious muscles. She was lost for a second, forgetting what she was going to say, when his voice brought her back to the present.
"Like what you see?" he questioned arrogantly, with an eyebrow raised. "I must say, you're not looking bad yourself, Granger."
He eyed her up and down and she could tell he was practically undressing her with his eyes. She looked away, embarrassed, and was furious with herself for letting him have this effect on her.
So much for changing, she thought. He was still the same, sleazy Slytherin he was back in school.
"Umm, ok, well as you know, you'll be working in this head office with me, and basically you'll help to solve cases and monitor dark activity," she began, still a little thrown by his comment.
After the war had ended, the Malfoy family had been placed through a series of trials. After Narcissa had saved Harry's life, he was extremely grateful and had acted as witness for a number of the charges. Scores of Voldemort's remaining Death Eaters had been imprisoned in Azkaban, however the Malfoys had managed to avoid sentencing and after that, Lucius Malfoy and his family had kept to themselves for the best part since the end of the war. Hermione scoffed at the idea of Draco working in the Auror office, it was probably the ironic thing in the history of magic, however she accepted that the Malfoys had changed and was willing to give Draco a second chance, however insufferable he may be.
To her surprise, while she was giving him the information, Malfoy sat there looking unusually interested, nodding at her instructions and genuinely looking as though this job meant a lot to him.
She gave him a curious look, wondering how he had come to change ever so slightly from the annoying, arrogant teenager she knew and remembered so well, into a mature adult who was actually taking on board what she said. She continued, eyeing him carefully:
"We work together in a team to eradicate any dark wizards or activity that may arise and sometimes going out into the field is necessary," she said, and rose out of her chair.
"I'll show you your desk and then one of the others will run you through everything else you need to know," she said, somewhat awkwardly, avoiding his gaze as she still didn't know what to think of this new, apparently changed man who was sitting in front of her.
He got up, and reached her office door first. He motioned for her to go ahead of him, so she tried to squeeze past him in the minimal amount of room he had allowed for her to pass. She stopped, and found herself pressed up against his toned body. Her breath caught in her throat and she looked up at him for a second, trapped in the silvery depths of his eyes. She broke the trance, exhaling through her teeth, and led the way over to a room which was a few doors down from her office and opened the door for him.
"Make yourself comfortable and Michael will be here in a minute," she said, looking anywhere but at him. "If there's anything you need then ask."
She exited the room quickly before he had the chance to say anything, shutting the door behind her. She walked the few steps back to her office and quickly slid in, giving herself some privacy. She leant up against the back of her door and let out a long sigh, sinking along the door to the carpeted floor as she did so.
Well that had gone well. So Draco Malfoy was back, unusually charming and somewhat polite? She thought she had finally been rid of him once she'd left school and back he was, no doubt with some ulterior motive, probably trying to ruin her life once again. Honestly, she wouldn't be surprised if the whole 'nice guy' thing was an act, she had seen worse things from the Slytherin prince.
She rested her head in one hand and shook her head, trying to rid herself of reality. Just as the last major case had finished, she had a whole new something to lose sleep over at night.
It was going to be an interesting few weeks to come.