It was now ten years after the war.

The war had changed the wizarding world; it had changed all of them. The superiority of blood was no longer a discriminating factor; just look at the three heroes who had saved them all. A half blood brought up by muggles, a pureblood deemed by other purebloods as a blood traitor, and a muggleborn. Wizards no longer cared about maintaining the purity of their bloodline, especially since most of the Death Eaters had been purebloods themselves. For some of the Hogwarts students, their lives had continued the path they always knew it would take since their naïve school years, but for others, it was completely different.

Hermione had always thought that she would work in the Ministry Of Magic, or perhaps run an organization in support of S.P.E.W. Never in her entire life had she imagined that she would be doing this.

"Get down!" Somebody beside her shouted.

Wincing, Hermione hurriedly ducked to avoid getting her head burned off by the furious Hungarian Horntail. Yes, here she was running around trying to capture a rogue dragon, something she would have scoffed at if someone told her ten years ago that that would be her career.

Somehow life had taken an unusual twist and Hermione found herself working with Magical Creatures, in an independent organization that did everything related to Magical Creatures, from capturing to breeding them and having an attraction which muggles called the Zoo.

"Alright, got her! Everyone get ready to head out!" Her boss shouted in the far distance.

Letting out a huge sigh of relief, Hermione finally let her guard down. While normally she loved working with dragons, this one had a terrible habit of spewing fire at anything it laid its sights on.

Hermione had chosen this path of interacting with Magical Creatures because she developed a love for them after the war. While she had always found them interesting, as she did with every subject, she never thought that her future would have anything to do with them and hence never tried very hard in her Care of Magical Creatures class. However, the turning point came after Harry had defeated Lord Voldermort, when everyone was rejoicing or mourning their loved ones, when the Hogwarts grounds had been ablaze and scarred with hexes, she noticed a few animals tentatively coming out of the Forbidden Forest. They were small and looked like rabbits, and for once in her life, Hermione did not know what she was looking at. The few rabbit-like creatures hopped out slowly towards the injured and pointed their ears towards the wounds, shocking Hermione when she saw the wounds starting to heal. From then on, she had fallen in love with Magical Creatures and realized that there was so much more to them than met the eye.

Naturally, since her job was such a rough one, she was the only female in her team. Including her boss, there were about ten of them who were qualified to be on site and actually working with the creatures. The rest were either rookie recruits or did boring paperwork. It had not been easy for her to make it into the team; she had to train so hard that she thought she might finally understand how her schoolmates felt when they complained about studying for examinations. However, due to her training, her body had become lean and tan, with more strength in her than met the eye. She had also cut her famous bushy hair because it had gotten way too unmanageable.

Her teammates were all older than her and none of them came from Hogwarts, which may have been partly due to the fear that Hagrid's teaching of Care of Magical Creatures had ingrained in them. She loved her job, she really did. The only downside was that the pay was… Meager. In fact, she was probably surviving based on passion of her job. She barely made do, and had hardly any excess to save. Still, she never thought about changing jobs because nothing else would ever feel as right as what she was doing now.

"Hermione! What are you doing! Come down here now, the portkey's about to leave any moment!" Her boss, George, shouted.

Blushing, Hermione realized that she had been staring at the dragon absentmindedly and ran over to where her colleagues were standing. Her team was like family to her since she spent so much time with them and away from her parents. Harry and Ron were extremely busy Auror Partners, always rushing to get something done. Everyone wanted to hire them. It wasn't that they chose to neglect her, it was just that time had forced them to do so. Luckily, she still had Ginny. Ginny was her last connection to Hogwarts, something she was afraid of losing now that Harry and Ron were hardly there.

Back at their headquarters, everyone worked to put the Hungarian Horntail into the dragon house with the rest of the dragons. Even sedated, this Hungarian Horntail could put up a good fight.

"Alright everyone! Gather round! Good work today, have a good night's rest because tomorrow we're going to be starting on a new project, one that will bring in more revenue," George announced.

At the word 'revenue', everyone's ears picked up as they listened more attentively to their new project. Too much money never hurt anyone, after all.

George continued, "There's this big shot company, Malfoy Enterprises, which wants to collect Yeti fur, I have no idea why. Anyway, we need to prepare for this trip because Yetis are in mountains and physical fitness has to be top notch if you don't want to die. We'll be heading to the mountains in a month's time, so in between now and then, physical training will be our top priority, while we take on other smaller jobs that do not require much manpower. This yeti one will bring in a lot more money for us, so everyone must ensure that it is a success!"

Hermione's heart sank. Malfoy Enterprises as in the one that belonged to Draco Malfoy? That exact same one? She felt a sense of dread as she realized what she must look like to him now. The way he had taunted her about being a Mudblood and having two oversized front teeth would transform into taunts about what she had become in her life. He would never understand the joy she felt when she worked; all he would see is dirt, sweat, grime, and poverty. She was certain he would make jabs about her fincancial position, the main sore point in her life. There was no way she would be happy working with him and she briefly contemplated pulling out of this job. But the words "bring in more revenue" rang in her head again and she sighed. There was no way out of this one.

Draco walked moodily to his office as he threw his file down. The meeting had not gone the way he wanted. They were supposed to agree to an 80-20 profit split, not argue and whine for a 70-30 split until he relented because of the pounding headache they had given him.

He collapsed onto his plush couch and took out his cell phone. The wizarding world had realized how much more efficient it was to use phones instead of owls just to communicate. Owls were now used for packages or important documents which could not be sent using the cell phone. This was the only point that Draco would concede that muggles had done better than wizards. Although discrimination based on blood was now frowned upon, that didn't stop Draco from having blood purist views. He kept them to himself of course, but he still looked down on Muggleborns. They were an abomination and should not be allowed to mix with true wizards.

The office phone on his desk started to ring and he frowned as he shouted to his secretary, "I'm not in the mood to talk to anyone right now. Tell them to call another day. Say I'm at my grandmother's funeral or something."

"But sir, this is from The Magical Creatures company and you said to always forward their calls to you," his secretary replied timidly.

He had forgotten about that. He needed them for his next big project and had yet to finalize all the details. For a moment he was tempted to yell at his secretary and ask whether she was deaf when he said he didn't want to talk to anyone but instead sighed as he picked up the call, "Hello? This is Draco Malfoy."

"Ah yes, Mr Malfoy, I'm George from The Magical Creatures company. I'm just calling to confirm the details of our trip to the Switzerland Matterhorn in a month for the yeti fur, the expenses will be paid by your company, correct?"

"Yes."

"Do you want to come along? We are currently doing our muggle hotel bookings and we need to tell them how many people are coming. You can just stay in the hotel while we are at the mountains, of course."

Draco fought to keep his temper in check as he said through gritted teeth, "I am the CEO of this company, and you are asking me whether I want to go to some mountain with you while you catch yetis? Does that even make sense? If I were to go there myself why would I even need to pay you to do it? I assure you I am sufficiently busy with my work and am not interested at all in coming with all of you manual laborers to stay at a muggle hotel."

There was a stunned silence at the other end, followed by a cool response, "I see. Well for your information, some of our employers happen to like coming along either to see what we do or just for some respite from work. We will contact you once we have completed the job. Have a good day." George hung up.

Draco was shocked. Nobody talked to him like that. Well except maybe his mother. But no one else had the nerve. He was THE Draco Malfoy for goodness sake. That man should be bowing down in gratitude. Perhaps it was time for him to make a trip down to that company to put that man in his place, and then pull his project out and hire another company that dealt with magical creatures.

Fuming, he stomped out of his extravagant office and almost walked into his vice CEO, Blaise Zabini. Blaise had changed drastically after the war. Where he was once cold and indifferent to most around him, he had now become somewhat of a playboy, with cockiness that had once been stuck up arrogance. He had a way with women, perhaps having learnt that charm from his mother as she was a famously beautiful witch who had been widowed seventimes over and each husband's death had occurred under suspicious circumstances, leaving the already wealthy Ms. Zabini and her son richer.

"Woah, what's wrong with your face? It doesn't look as happy as the CEO of one of the biggest companies should be," Blaise teased.

"Out of my way Blaise, I'm not in the mood to put up with you now," Draco scowled.

Blaise put his hands up and winked, "Alright don't do anything to me that you might regret. I am the vice CEO after all, anything that happens to me will affect your company's stocks, you know?"

Draco growled as he pushed his friend aside. He and Blaise had started this company together but Malfoy had funded it initially with his family's money and hence Blaise insisted that he take the position of vice CEO instead of co-CEO. Sometimes Draco preferred it when Blaise was his old self in school, all moody and distant. At least he wasn't as annoying as he could be now.

The next day when Draco woke he felt like he had forgotten something. There was a nagging feeling. He thought for a moment, today was Tuesday, which meant that it was his off day. Draco only went to work twice a week, as he did not see the need to go as many days as his employees. He was more capable than all of them put together and the brains of the company did not need to go to an office just to think. Besides, he hired so many other people to run the company just so that he need not go in everyday.

And then it hit him. He was supposed to go down to that company and meet that impertinent George. Just thinking about the conversation made him angry all over again. After getting over his initial shock, that phone call had ruined any chance of him being reasonably happy for the rest of the day. Yes, he definitely had to use his Malfoy power to intimidate that man. It made him feel good thinking about how that George would beg for forgiveness once Draco was done with him.

Draco frowned as he looked at the building before him. He was sure that he had apparated to the right place, but he was had expected… More. The Magical Creatures was supposed to be one of the better magical creatures companies there were, but all that stood before him was just a dilapidated looking building. He had heard they had a dragon house and a viewing gallery for magical creatures but he didn't see anything.

Slightly perplexed, he walked into the building and saw a balding, boring looking man at the reception. This did not look like any outdoors sporting company, much less one that dealt with magical creatures.

Draco cleared his throat and looked down at the man as he sniffed in disdain, "Is this The Magical Creatures?"

The man didn't look up from his paperwork as he mumbled, "Yes, how can I help you?"

Draco stared at the man as he said sarcastically, "The service here is wonderful. I wonder what I'm paying for. Where is George?"

At that, the man looked up with an annoyed expression, before his eyes widened in recognition and jumped to his feet. "I'm so sorry Mr Malfoy, the paperwork volume now is increasing exponentially and I didn't mean to be rude at all! George is outside working with the creatures; please wait for a moment while I get him."

Draco looked at his surroundings and saw a dingy looking couch which would probably lower the value of his pants should he sit there. The walls were grey and the paint was chipped. So far nothing he had seen was remotely acceptable, and he couldn't wait to get out of here.

"No, I want to go outside and see what else this place has to offer that can possibly redeem this disgusting building," Draco said.

The man stammered, "That's not advisable Mr Malfoy, the creatures outside might attack you and you do not know how to deal with them. Some are quite vicious."

Draco threw him a scathing look and replied, "Are you telling me what to do? No? Fantastic, at least you know what's good for you."

And without a second glance at the man, Draco walked out of the only door he saw, presuming that led to where the magical creatures were. He was right, and the sight that greeted him blew him away.

It was land that seemed to stretch on endlessly, and Magical Creatures were roaming around freely, nibbling on grass patches or grazing by the lake. There were certain creatures battling with one another, while others were taking care of their young. It was a mess of creatures, yet there was an unspoken order to it, in the way the animals moved and where they resided.

Draco walked along the pathway, looking at the creatures around him. Some stared at him while there were others who completely ignored him. Draco felt his heart pound, whether from fear of adrenaline he wasn't sure, but he knew that this was one of the most remarkable sights he had ever seen. All thoughts of finding George had disappeared from his mind.

As he turned a corner he saw a humongous structure, it towered over everything and it was massive. Suddenly, a jet of fire shot out and Draco nearly jumped out of his skin.

"This must be the dragon house!" he thought. Feeling excitement bubbling up within him, he hurried towards the structure. Draco Malfoy never ran; he felt it was undignified for him to have to run towards anything, everything waited for him and nothing was worth him having to run to it.

Nearing the dragon house, he caught sight of someone inside the enclosure. She sported a pixie cut, and had nice long tan legs. This woman was laughing as she played with a dragon and slowly climbed on to its back, starting from its feet. She moved with the agility of an athlete and grace of a dancer, looking as though it was the most natural thing in the world to swing on to a dragon's back. Draco continued watching her, enthralled. She just sat on the dragon's back, talking to the dragon. The dragon looked tired as it put its head down and seemed content just listening to her. Draco was too far away to see her face but he bet she was beautiful.

When she had had enough fun, she climbed down and patted the dragon before exiting and enclosure and walking in Draco's direction. Picking up a few pails, she looked at the ground and smiled to herself. Draco's heart started to beat faster, his legs unable to move as she walked towards him.

She looked up and their eyes met.

Draco's heart stopped beating for a moment, with only one thought running through his brilliant mind:

It can't be.

Hi everyone! This is the first story I've ever written, so please give me feedback as to how I can improve! Don't be nice, say whatever you want. But please don't tell me how you want the story to go, where's the fun in that if you know story already? :p Haha and as every author asks, please review! ^^