Author's Note: Enjoy!

Chapter 1

When Hermione reached her flat, she was in a semi-catatonic state. The past few hours seemed to be a complete dream to her. She couldn't believe what just happened. She was threatened. By her boss! HER! Hermione! Brightest witch and hardest working woman at the ministry. Apparently, an ambitious work ethic wasn't appreciated by the minister. With tears rolling down her cheeks out of anger and humiliation, she sat down on her couch and threw her feet up on the coffee table. How was she going to get through this with both her sanity and her job intact? Impossible. She was going to have to sacrifice one.

Pulling herself together, she threw her robe on the table, grabbed a bottle of wine, and poured herself one hearty glass. This would do, she thought. With enough alcohol in her system to feel light and happy, she penned a note to Malfoy, hoping to open up the dialogue after the disastrous encounter with the minister. Following the approval by both of them, the wizard stormed out of the minister's office, not before sneering at Hermione in a way that made her feel like a 15 year old at Hogwarts again. All her confidence that was thrown out the window came back with a vengeance after her lovely glass of red.

Malfoy,

I know we do not want to work together, but I will not lose my job over this. It is all I have. So please, let's just meet tomorrow at 1 in the lounge on the 3rd floor, and hash out a plan and get this over with as quickly as possible.

Granger

She didn't have an owl, feeling bad for the poor creatures who had to fly all over the country at the whims of witches and wizards. She charmed the piece of parchment so it would disappear from her desk and appear at Draco's. Despite being a bureaucrat now, she still held onto her activist soul, and tried to treat her magical creature counterparts as well as she could despite the circumstances.

Hermione finished her glass of wine, put some food out for the cat, washed her face, brushed her teeth, flossed, rinsed with some mouth wash, and got into bed with a book. Using her wand to light up the pages, Hermione tried to read, but just couldn't. This was how her life had been for the past year. Coming home to her cat and some wine. She was always so busy with work that her social life was currently non-existent, especially her love life.

The curly haired witch hadn't gone on a date in eight months. Eight long months of loneliness. The loneliness was the price to pay though, thought the witch. She would have plenty of time to find love and romance once she secured herself a permanent upper level position at the ministry. She was so close, yet this was going to be a hard obstacle to go over. She would succeed though. Hermione always succeeded. It was her life purpose. To succeed.

Despite all the success, she still felt the pang of loneliness. As much as she could rationalize it, tell herself it was worth it, she still felt the sting of emptiness. All her friends were married. Harry and Ginny even had a baby on the way! Ron was with Lavender, whom she finally began to get along with. Neville was with Luna. And Hermione had her work.

After trying to read the same page five times, Hermione realized that it was pointless. Her mind was elsewhere. She kept on drifting to thoughts of the blonde haired wizard who hated her. Sure, they put their differences aside after the war. Malfoy became an upstanding member of society despite the hideous Dark Mark branded on his arm. He did so much good to society that no one ever brought up his dark past. And neither did Hermione. She knew he wasn't evil. But that didn't change the fact that he hated the witch. So much. She couldn't understand why he hated her so much. With a deep sigh, Hermione grabbed onto Mister Purrkins, her one year old cat, and said aloud "I guess he'll just have to get used to me!"