Chapter 2

Hermione's hands balled into fists, and her fingernails dug into her palm. Please don't be with Malfoy, Please don't be with Malfoy… she prayed feverishly. It would be just her luck, she thought, if she was put with Malfoy. They began to call the partnerships out.

"Albierch and Cleeman"Hermione's friend Kelly smiled at a young buck-toothed applicant.

"Demanth and Robertson" Another partnership stood up. This continued until 6 people were left in the room. Hermione and Draco were two of them.

"Malfoy and—Granger" Hermione wanted to scream as her boss sentenced her to a year in the company of her least favorite person on earth.. Draco Malfoy.

Malfoy looked at Granger out of the corner of his eye. He saw her face scrunched up in pent up anger and almost laughed. He remembered seeing that look on her face right before she slugged him in the face. The thought sobered him up. As soon as they were out of earshot. Hermione slumped and looked devastated. They stepped into an elevator and Granger immediately shoved Draco up against the wall.

"You better not screw this up for me" she growled menacingly, and Draco gulped. Granger twitched, and spun around as the woman named Ashley stepped into the elevator.

"Good, you two already know each other!" She said cheerfully.

"Uh huh." Draco nodded.

"It was kind of surprising how perfectly matched the test said you two were! I've never seen any match rating like yours!"

Hermione smiled tightly, "Maybe you should get the testing globes checked out because I think we need a new match"

Ashley's face slumped. Suddenly, Draco wanted to defend her, and he boldly said, "It's ok Ashley. Granger and I can work out our differences. There is no problem!"

Ashley grinned, "Well then! I have to go. By Hermione!"

"What was that?" Hermione queried.

"What?"

Granger tilted her head quizzically. "Nothing. Never mind."

Draco shrugged and fell silent. For the rest of the day, Granger spoke only to answer a question and point out important things in the building. By the end of the day, her shoulders had finally relaxed, and she smiled in a purely businesslike manner as she said goodbye to Draco. Draco trudged out of her office and reported to the conference room for the end of the day orientation. The leader babbled on about something, and Draco was too preoccupied to pay attention to what he was saying. Draco was picturing Granger with her hair down, with light makeup, and started to smile dreamily.

"Draco." He heard a sharp voice in his ear.

"Huh?" his eyes focused on Davy, another applicant that was sitting next to him.

"The orientation is over. Here is our work for this evening." Davy handed him a packet of parchment covered in questions. Draco scanned the work and nodded.

"Ok. See you tomorrow." Draco stood up and twisted, apparating into his family mansion's living room. Stupid Granger. She always did stick around in his head. With a sigh, he snapped his fingers. Kinky, his house elf stepped out into the living room with a bow.

"Yes master?"

"Will you run a bath? I need to relax."

"Yes master"

Draco sank into the soapy water, watching yellow soap bubbles float into the air, bursting into glowing golden stars.

Hermione was mad at Ron. He wasn't home yet, and practice was long since over. Their anniversary party was two days away, and they had go and get a suitable ensemble to wear, but Ron was nowhere to be seen!

With a sigh, Hermione sank down onto her couch and waved her wand. A tub of ice cream whizzed out of the kitchen with a spoon. Hermione flicked her wand at the telly, and sank even deeper into the couch, ice cream on her lap. Absently, she chipped away at the ice cream, trying to forget the day, forget work, and forget Malfoy.

Despite her efforts, however, Hermione couldn't help but dissect Malfoy's actions in the hospital. The Malfoy she knew would never defend anyone, or even try to make someone feel better. Why would he do that? Was he trying to impress her? No, that was self-centered of her. Could it be that he had changed? Really changed? It couldn't be.

Hermione gave her head a vigorous shake, and her eyes glazed over as she mindlessly tuned out the world. The door slammed, jolting her out of her reverie. She heard a familiar snort, and leaned over on the couch. Ron stumbled through the doorway, and Hermione knew at once that something was wrong.

"Ron?" She asked

"Sup. I'm going to bed. Night." He said quickly.

"No, wait Ron… explain yourself! You are hours late, and acting strange!"

"Nothing wrong here! Night!" He darted out of the room.

Hermione sighed, but she was too tired to worry too much about Ron. Something probably went wrong at practice. She sank back into her seat and her thoughts again drifted to Malfoy. Stupid death eater, she thought venomously.

As soon as Draco met Granger in the dressing rooms where they both apparated, he noticed something was different. Granger's clothes were even uglier than usual, and her usually crisp bun had a halo of loose hairs. Draco raised his eyebrows, thinking of how many ways she could improve her appearance. He started speculating about the hair products his mother kept in her bathroom before Granger poked him and told him to get moving. Stupid know-it-all. She thinks she is better than everyone doesn't she! Draco sighed and followed her to her office, braced for the strained day to come.

When Hermione got home, Ron was gone again, and Hermione sighed. Stupid husband. She returned to her spot on the couch, thinking humorously of the day when Malfoy would come home to see her work away from the office. Ha! He will think it's the norm to spend your off hours pigging out on ice cream. Hermione stood up, suddenly ashamed and bolted to her desk. She rifled through her paperwork, and sank into her old routine of reading and writing. She was so into her work that she barely noticed the slight click of the door closing. She heard a small scuffle of shoes getting removed, and heard a girly giggle.

"Ron! Shh!" She heard the girl's voice agai n.

"Ah don't worry! Hermione is probably passed out on the couch with ice cream again." Ron grumbled.

"Ronald! Be nice!" The girl again.

Hermione stood quietly and crept to the doorway of her office. She could barely see the outline of two people in the dim lighting, and they were holding hands! Hermione's hands clenched, fingernails carving small crescents into the palms of her hands. It was all she could do to not gasp in outrage. Then, the shorter, blond-haired figure leaned in and kissed Ron. She kissed him, and he kissed back! Hermione couldn't hold in her gasp this time. My husband is kissing someone, someone who ISN'T me!

Hermione let out a choked sob and Ron spun around. Hermione could see the kitchen lights reflecting off of his horrified eyes.

With another sob, Hermione ran back into her office and waved her wand. All of her materials, even her desk shrunk to the size of marbles, and flew towards her. Then she ran through the kitchen, repeating the motion, then through her room. Their room. Tears were now streaming down her face, and with a snarl, she jerked her wand at the pictures of Ron and her on the walls. The glass on the frames shattered, leaving a deadly field of glass strewn across the floor. Then she ran out of the room, all of her belongings in her arms, and pushed past her shell-shocked husband and his girlfriend.

"Mione! You don't understand! This isn't what it looks like… This is my—"

"Your girlfriend, I know. I guess that means you can say goodbye to your w-wife." Her voice broke on the last word.

"Mione! You're overreacting!" He put his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't touch me." Hermione's voice became dangerously low, "And NEVER call me Mione again." She shoved him aside and flew out onto the road, thrusting her wand arm out for the Knight Bus.

Ron watched wordlessly as Hermione stepped onto the shocking purple bus, and drove away.