AN: This is definitely an AU fic. There will be no foolish Ron/Hermione shipping in this. Betaing done by the lovely bookworm4life0812!
Hermione stared balefully at the dying embers of the fire in her flat. It was December 24th, and all of the Ministry workers had three days off for the Christmas holiday. It had been five years since the fall of Voldemort, yet the people of Wizarding Britain still treated every holiday as a grand celebration. In not doing so, she was an anomaly.
While Hermione herself had come out of the war relatively unscathed aside from a few scars and some bad memories, her parents had not been so lucky. They were killed in a freak boating accident while hiding under their new identities in Australia. Since both of her parents were only children, and her grandparents had long since passed, Hermione had no family to speak of to celebrate with during this festive time.
Her one relationship post-Hogwarts had only served to sever her relationship with the Weasley family, and by consequence, Harry, who had recently married Ginny. Hermione had caught Ron in the act of shagging another woman in their bed and Molly had the audacity to tell her that she must be mistaken. In a series of arguments, words were said, opinions voiced and there was no going back to the state of how things were before.
And so, Hermione was once again looking towards a Christmas holiday alone, curled up with a classy bottle of wine, a new book on Advanced Arithmancy and her cat, Crookshanks, who was getting on in years but somehow still held on.
Instead of feeling overly melancholic and dwelling on what was wrong with her life, Hermione's train of thought drifted towards the past few months of her life. It had been rather quiet until a few short months ago when her department decided that it needed to hire another Arithmancer who held an advanced degree. That should have been a great thing, as it allowed them to explore and expand their projects further, but it only served to throw her off-balance.
Her new co-worker was a wizard who she had never really noticed before. He had been the year above her at Hogwarts, in a separate house and their paths had never really crossed. Adrian Pucey was a brilliant arithmancer, but in Hermione's opinion, he was also a colossal pain in the arse.
***FLASHBACK****
"Hermione Granger, is that you?" asked a dark -haired man who was standing in the doorway of Hermione's office. The man was wearing dark blue robes and looked to be reading her name off of a slip of parchment.
"Yes. That's me. How can I help you, Mr...?"
"Pucey. Adrian Pucey. "
"How can I help you, Mr. Pucey?" Hermione asked as she set her quill down to give the man her full attention.
"You're the other arithmancer with the advanced degree, right?"
"What do you mean by 'other?' I'm the only one in the department." Hermione bristled. She didn't like what he seemed to be implying.
"Au contraire, Granger. I just got out of a meeting with Hines, and you're looking at your new co-worker. I start Monday."
"You start Monday?"
"Yup. Just wanted to come by and introduce myself since we'll be seeing a lot of each other," Adrian grinned cheekily before turning and sauntering off, leaving a perplexed Hermione in his wake.
***END FLASHBACK***
It had all begun rather innocuously. But soon, their working relationship devolved to something that would have been more at home in a classroom full of young teenagers than a workplace full of adults.
AN: I have no idea where this came from, but I needed to write it. There will be a couple more parts. I know where it'll end up, but if you have any suggestions, feel free to leave a review and share.