Summary: Hermione moves to London and buys herself a little loft. While out to buy decorations, she comes across none other than Draco Malfoy. Seemingly, he has changed for the better and befriends her. Eventual Dramione.
Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing that correlates to the world of Harry Potter.
Author's Note: This story is solely event-based. There is no real major plot, just a lot of little plot points. Also, this is set a little bit after Hermione graduates from Hogwarts, but its modern-era.
Chapter One
Hermione quickly grabbed her papers from her desk, trying to stuff them nicely into her brown messenger bag hanging on her right shoulder. She made sure she locked her office door and made her way back to London to board a train to her parent's house. She retrieved her ticket so she remembered, walking down to flush herself into Muggle London.
She walked down the busy streets as taxi cabs and double Decker buses rolled by. Muggles talked on cell phones and gave Hermione no attention. She looked at houses for sale as she walked by, knowing she couldn't live with her parents forever. She had saved and converted enough wizard money to buy a house in Muggle London, she just had to find a good home she could easily move into.
She went to central London to a little real estate kiosk that would help her find a house. She skimmed over the prices, not worried about location as much.
"Nothing new from yesterday…" she mumbled to herself. She sighed and continued on to the train station.
Same routine, different day.
"Honey, I think it's because you are setting yourself too high," her mother said when she got home.
"What do you mean mum?" Hermione asked, hanging her bag up on the coat rack inside of the door.
"You are looking to buy," her mom replied. "You need to rent a space to give yourself a little place for your own until you start a family."
Hermione rolled her eyes when her mother turned around. She knew that buying a house was her only option; she had the money for it, so why not?
"There's a loft space in London for rent, ₤350 a month for everything," her mother continued talking. "It needs work, but it sounds perfect for a first place."
"First of all mom, I'm not setting my standards high," Hermione started. "Buying rather than renting shows more responsibility, and this way, I won't have to move if I want a family."
Her mother gave her a stern look, but said nothing more about the subject. Hermione grabbed a plate of dinner quick and walked upstairs to her bedroom. She placed the food on her desk, getting her wand out and putting it beside the plate. She turned her little TV on, turning it to the movie channels, finding "Pride and Prejudice" most appealing.
She changed into a pair of pajama pants, littered with little orange cats, and a black cami. She got her plate and the remote and climbed into her bed. Crookshanks jumped up and laid against Hermione's leg, purring and falling asleep.
Hermione ate her meal in silence; she thought about work and finding a place. She still was sticking by her 'buy-only' policy, but her mother's suggestion was starting to make more and more sense to her.
She put her plate on her nightstand and turned her lamp on as the sun began to set.
It had been three months since she had heard from Ron or Harry. They had gone to be Auror's and their current mission kept them from writing. Hermione had stayed behind to work as a potions maker at St. Mungo's. She may have been on the bottom of the pedestal at the moment, but she knew if she worked hard she would soon be head potion's maker.
She didn't hear from anyone else from school either, except for the occasional letter from Headmistress McGonnagel. They mostly talked about Hogwarts reconstruction and the Ministry's plans from here on out. Voldemort was gone, but his followers were still out there and he wasn't the only dark wizard.
Hermione finished the movie, barely falling asleep, turning her TV off and getting up, causing Crookshanks to jump up. She got a towel out from the hallway closet and headed towards the bathroom. She ran the hot water and undressed.
She adjusted the water when she stepped into the shower and washed up fast. She wrapped her towel around herself and blow-dried her hair, making it more frizzy than normal. She brushed it out and dried off completely, redressing in her pajamas. She walked her empty plate downstairs and put it in the sink.
Crookshanks snuck in the kitchen to eat his dinner as Hermione walked to her bag and got out the Daily Prophet and her paperwork. She walked in the living room and gave her father a kiss on the cheek, where he sat, reading the local newspaper.
"Honey, I think you should consider on doing what your mother said earlier," he said, not looking up from his paper. Hermione said nothing; she placed the Daily Prophet next to her father. He always enjoyed the wizarding newspaper, even if he didn't understand what was going on.
"Dad, I know I am perfectly capable of buying a house and keeping up the responsibility of owning it," Hermione said from the doorway.
"I know pumpkin," he said, looking up at his daughter. "But owning a house is sometimes too much work for a younger person. Renting is a great way to start out."
Hermione smiled and told him good night, walking back up to her room. She sat at her desk and stared at her paperwork. She had to update the elixir to heal simple compound fractures, but her mind halted her. She pondered for a while as she heard her parents make their way to bed. She got up and opened her little window, letting a nice breeze run into her room. She leaned on the sill and thought about her housing situation. Should she stick with her original plan? The market for real estate wasn't booming like she had hoped in the Muggle world, and she didn't want to live in the world she had grown to love. Renting would be faster, easier, and cheaper.
She pushed her paperwork aside and retrieved her laptop her parents bought for her a couple months before. While she had no use of it in the wizard world, it was perfect for her in the Muggle world. She didn't have a cell phone, so a laptop was her only real way of staying in tune with world news.
Besides, she didn't have any Muggle friends to talk on the phone with anyways.
She brought up her Internet browser and searched the real estate tab. The same houses were up for sale, but she clicked the check box on the 'sale' button. A whole new list of apartments and houses came up that she could rent. She scrolled down the pages, making excuses for not looking into all the places.
She had reached the last page and sighed, closing out of the browser and shutting the laptop.
She crawled back up into bed, shutting the lamp off as she lay down. She waited for a couple minutes, hoping an owl would perch at her window, bearing letters from her two best friends, but nothing but the wind intruded her room.
She rolled over onto her side and fell asleep.
When Hermione woke up the next morning, it was like any other day: get up, get dressed, brush hair, brush teeth, put her shoes on, grab her bag, and grab breakfast and the Daily Prophet on the way to work.
She got to her office thirty minutes before schedule so she could enjoy the paper and her breakfast.
She mulled over paperwork for hours afterwards, still trying to update elixirs for the hospital. Lunchtime gave her a small break for relaxation, but she had a headache before the clock struck one.
"Why am I getting all these headaches?" Hermione asked herself, rubbing her eyes and then holding her head. She stood up and locked her office up, and went down to her boss's office. She knocked four times fast and waited for the door to open.
When the door did open, she walked into the rather large office. Her boss, Mr. Eros McMillin, sat behind his desk, fiddling with Muggle contraptions with his wand.
"Hello Ms. Granger!" he said, looking up with a gigantic smile across his face. She smiled back through her headache.
"Good afternoon sir," she said, sitting down at one of the two chairs in front of his desk.
"What may I do today for you Ms. Granger?" he went back to his work, adding a charm of flying to a child's airplane toy.
"Sir, I haven't been feeling the greatest today," Hermione honestly said. "I was wondering if I could have the clearance to go back home for the day."
Mr. McMillin looked back up at her with a concerned look.
"Ms. Granger, you have never once asked for a day off, nor to leave early," he said, his cheery tone never leaving his voice. "I fully entrust your own judgment. Of course you may leave early, and I applaud you for asking permission first. Go ahead and go get some rest." He smiled again at her.
"Thank you sir," Hermione said, smiling back and standing up. She went back to her office and gathered her stuff up. She locked everything up and left back into Muggle London.
She got home about forty-five minutes later, head still hurting. Her parents were still at work, so she decided to just take some medicine for her head and lay down on the couch.
She turned the TV on to the movie channels again, this time picking a romantic comedy she had never heard of. She lost track of the time, and was almost asleep when her dad walked into the living room.
"Pumpkin, what's wrong?" he asked. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Dad, I'm not a child," she said groggily. "And I have a headache."
"Did you take anything for it?" her father asked, grabbing the remote and sitting in his chair. Hermione nodded from the couch and sat up.
"What were you doing when it happened?" her father continued to ask questions.
"I was reading my paperwork," she responded.
"May need glasses," her father almost mumbled, fixing his glasses himself. "Unless there's a spell to fix your eyes."
Hermione thought in her mind that there wasn't a spell for it, so she knew that going to see a Muggle eye doctor would have to do.
"Do you have Dr. Hassen's phone number?" she asked. Her dad got his wallet out and handed her a business card. Hermione walked into the kitchen, where her mother was putting a few bags of groceries away, and picked up the phone. She dialed the number and made an appointment with the secretary for the next day. She hung the phone back up.
"Eye appointment?" her mother asked before she could get through the doorway.
"Yes, my eyes were hurting today," Hermione replied.
"Your father was your age when he had to get glasses," her mother kept talking, stalling Hermione out even more.
"Mom, can you tell that guy I want to rent that loft?" she changed the subject, silencing her mom.
"Of course I can sweetie," she responded, putting the last of the groceries away. "What changed your mind?"
"I don't know," Hermione lied; she would never admit that her original plans weren't as great as she thought.
"Call me down when dinner's ready," Hermione said, leaving the kitchen and going upstairs to her room. She gave Crookshanks a quick couple pets on the head and then grabbed a towel. She cleaned out the litter box in her bathroom and started up a shower. She got in and got clean, her headache slowly subsiding. She changed into a pair of sweatpants and a cami, pulling her hair back into a messy bun. She wasn't looking forward to having to go to an eye appointment, but if it turned out it wasn't her eyes, that was one less thing to worry about.
What else could possibly go wrong?