…5 years later…

Hermione Granger was late. Though Hermione Granger was never late. You could ask anyone at the Ministry. Really, ask anyone. They would tell you that the intelligent witch was always up early, one of the first to enter the Ministry during the morning. That she was also usually one of the last to leave at night. Hermione Granger always had ideas to run by others, papers to fill out, people to fill in about the newest developments and, well, magical creatures to save. She was a busy witch, and the day just never seemed to have enough hours in it for her to finish everything she needed to. So she cheated a bit, and just came in early.

And why not? She had no other commitments that were as demanding as her work. She was single-yes, yes. She'd been with that Weasley boy for a bit. No. Was it Potter? No, no, I'm pretty sure she had been with the Weasley lad. But that obviously hadn't worked out-and lived by herself. Ms. Granger still had dinner with her parents at least once a month, breakfast at the Burrow every couple of weeks, and had lunch with her best friends usually once a week. She also was an avid activist outside of work, and was working on her own book on the history of muggle borns-change was occurring, and she hoped to spur it on. So as you can probably tell, the witch was a busy one. So she was always moving and above all, on time.

Just not…today.

The nightmares had come back. It had been a good couple weeks since they started up again. The war. Sometimes she dreamt they had never won, that she'd been forced to watch as her best friend was killed in his battle with Lord Voldemort, that Ron had never found his way back to them when they were hunting horcruxes, and had instead been captured. Sometimes she dreamt that she was killed in battle, or watched helplessly as one of her friends was killed. Sometimes she was still lying underneath Bellatrix LeStrange, screaming out in pain as her skin was carved mercilessly into. Even when she awoke-lurching up in cold sweats in the middle of the night-she could still smell the scent of her own blood.

And sometimes this all happened repeatedly. She would calm herself down and tell her pounding heart that she was safe, only to fall into another fit of sleep. Last night had been one of those nights. She'd set her alarm for 5:45 am. But had finally settled into dreamless sleep around 4 am, and hadn't been able to roll out of bed till 8 am. To say the small brunette was flustered, was a bit of an understatement.

Hermione ran toward her department on the 5th floor of the Ministry of Magic, hair flying wildly around her, hand clutching to her satchel full of paperwork, and arms full of loads of other paperwork. There seemed to be quite a buzz in the Ministry today, as people walked a bit slower and talked a bit more excitedly. Hermione caught a bit of conversation here and there as she politely tried to shove passed those in her way.

"Now who in the name of Merlin approved of this?!-"

"I wonder if they'll even let him in."

"Oh yes, I heard he's already been pre-approved. Smart lad and all."

"-don't think he has any right being within a block of this-"

"What a disgrace!"

"Well, he is kind of…handsome, don't ya think?"

"Former death-"

"This oughtta be good…"

Hermione hadn't even noticed two people standing outside of her office as she plowed passed them, threw her door open and dumped her arms' contents onto her desk. The brunette leaned a hip on her desk, back turned to her door as she caught her breath. There was a knock.

"Miss Granger? I'm sorry to interrupt you. It's just that I really need a favour." Hermione turned to see a meek looking Pavolti Kerthob standing at her door. A new intern in her department.

"Pavolti! Morning! And how many times have I asked you to call me Hermione?" she smiled.

"So sorry Miss Granger. Will do! But I have a quick favor to ask of you. You see, I was already late to a meeting when the Minister of Magic himself handed over this gentleman to me-seems he too was late for something- asking me to escort him to Mr. Potter's office. I'm terribly late now, and the minister asked that this gentleman be escorted there. And I was going to ask Mr. McKay, but now you're here and I was wonder-"

"No worries, Pavolti! Go ahead to your meeting. I'll escort him." Hermione cut him off.

With a thankful nod at her, the young redheaded intern straightened his tie, turned to nod at the 'gentleman' that needed escorting –and was standing next to the doorway, blocking Hermione's view of him-and sped off to the meeting he was already late to.

"Give me one second, and then we'll go!" Hermione shouted out to the guest that needed to be escorted to her best friend's office. She quickly grabbed her wand out of her satchel, amusedly surmising on the fact that everyone seemed to be running late to something today, and walked out of her office, closing the door behind her.

Hermione Granger looked up to see someone she hadn't seen in almost 5 years. Tall, pale hair, and unreadable eyes with his trademark smirk. In front of her stood Draco Malfoy.

"Miss Granger, " he greeted, echoing Pavolti's earlier greeting.

To say that Hermione Granger was speechless, was a bit of an understatement.