Title: Things Are Always Changing

Summary: Hermione's life as a witch is over, thanks to her parents. Years later, will someone she once knew change her outlook on her own life? An unusual Draco/Hermione romance.

Chapter One: I Think I'm Happy

IMPORTANT: THIS STORY DOES NOT WORK WITH HARRY POTTER BOOK SIX, SO I AM PRETENDING LIKE IT WAS NEVER WRITTEN.

"No," Hermione said, backing up to the wall for support, her eyes as wide as galleons. "You can't."

"We're your parents," Mrs. Granger said firmly. "Yes, we can. Right, honey?" She added, elbowing her husband in the ribs.

"Yes, exactly," he said, a little flustered. To be honest, he wasn't sure if his wife was making the right decision. But he wanted to protect his little girl, and he wasn't sure if he trusted that tall, lanky, redheaded boy to do it.

"But they need me! Don't you understand? This is not just what I want! The whole bloody world depends on me! Harry and Ron really, really need me! The Dark Lord is hunting down Harry, my best friend who I help on a regular basis. You know, the Dark Lord, the madman who is destroying the entirety of Europe right now?" Hermione was practically reduced to tears now; the shock was slowly starting to wear off.

"Don't you think you're being a bit overdramatic?" Hermione's mother asked. "We just want to keep you safe. This amount of stress really isn't good for a girl your age. And you're just putting this stress on yourself. Harry and Ron, whoever they are, can do just fine without you."

Hermione just slid down the wall in disbelief, burrowing her face into the palms of her hands. Her parents were literally forcing her to leave the wizarding world. For Good. They were making her snap her wand and live among the muggles. She had to sever all contact with any magical people and just pretend like the whole world of magic never existed. She guessed her parents would never speak about magic again, hoping that Hermione would just think that all of it was a dream from a storybook. They wanted her to just wipe away five years of her life. Hermione wanted to laugh and cry at the same time at how miserable and laughably impossible the idea was.

Right now what she really wanted to do was to burn the entire Daily Prophet building to the ground. Her parents had taken out a subscription to that newspaper, and that pretty much marked the end of her life as a witch. They read the article that "You-Know-Who" was back, and mentioned all of the horrible deaths and the destruction that marked his first rise to power. Of course, they were just obligated to mention that Harry Potter was responsible for the downfall of You-Know-Who almost sixteen years ago, and that the Dark Lord was probably still after Harry's blood. Well, Hermione's parents had met Harry and knew that Harry was one of Hermione's best friends. Mrs. Granger wanted to know if Hermione was in any trouble by association with Mr. Boy-Who-Lived, so she sent a concerned letter to Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster.

That was second atop Hermione Granger's wish list. She wanted to kill Professor Dumbledore. Okay, Hermione knew she should have told her parents about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and her adventures at Hogwarts, but she was afraid of their reaction. She had no idea, however, that it would be this bad.

Well, Dumbledore wrote her a letter that chronicled everything Hermione hadn't told her parents over the past five years, apologizing profusely and saying that he was so sure that Hermione was possessed with such honesty and integrity that she would of course tell her own parents what she had gotten herself onto the most evil and powerful wizard in the world's "Top Ten People to Murder First" list. Needless to say, after that letter, the gig was up for Hermione. The whole story came tumbling out and this was her parents' reaction.

Hermione sobbed as she imagined Harry and Ron: September first on the Hogwarts Express, checking all the compartments down the train for a bushy-haired girl that they loved like a sister.

Now, it was the day after she had come home from her fifth year at Hogwarts, the day Hermione remembered as her last day as a witch. Hermione realized tears were streaming down her face, and her parents were still standing in front of her.

"Get out," she said firmly. When her parents just stood there and looked sadly down at her, she lost her temper and decided to continue. "Didn't you hear me! GET OUT OF MY ROOM!" Mr. and Mrs. Granger left fairly quickly, leaving her to herself.

I'll hex them good, Hermione suddenly thought. Then I'll go take the Knight Bus to the Burrow in Ottery St. Catchpole. Oh, I wish I could apparate. She fished in her pocket for her wand, and her mouth fell open when she couldn't find it. Mum and Dad, they took it from me when they hugged me at King's Cross. Stupid, stupid, stupid Hermione...

Hermione swore to herself that once she was eighteen and her parents did not have any legal hold on her, she would return to the wizarding world. This was her only comfort as she settled back into her life as a muggle.

But Hermione did not. In the two years from when she was sixteen to when she was eighteen, she realized that she was happy. She had created a life as a muggle, and didn't really want to go back. She went to culinary school and became an amazing chef, and then started her own little restaurant where the food was the best quality bought and prepared. The restaurant was also very pricey. You needed to call a month ahead and reserve tables, and Hermione was the only chef, and she had her own gigantic kitchen.

She decided she was perfectly content, and she didn't want to return to the world where her life was constantly on the line.

(A/N: This story just popped into my head and wouldn't leave me alone. It's the strangest thing, I just couldn't stop thinking about it until I got it out. All the other stories I've tried to write were calculated and planned, but this one just hit me like a freight train. Has that ever happened to any of you?

Rating is T for now, but might go up to M later, I don't know.)