Hermione Granger. Hermione fucking Granger. What the hell was she doing here? She was standing, frozen, in the doorway, one hand still loosely on the handle and her mouth slightly agape. She looks like a fish, Draco thought. A stupid dumb fish.
Draco raised his eyebrows and smirked at the witch in front of him as she regained her composure and stood aside to let him into the office.
"Can I… help you?" she asked tentatively.
"I was expecting Roger Warwick," Draco replied monotonously, walking in and glancing around the room.
"He left three months ago. I replaced him," Hermione informed the still-smirking Malfoy.
"Oh," Draco said, not sure what to expect next. "Well, I suppose I'm your eleven o'clock, then."
Hermione looked surprised but gestured back out the office. "Follow me to the next room. We can conduct a meeting in there." She edged past him and led the way towards the meeting room. Draco had had a few awkward encounters in the room before, but he didn't think he'd be able to survive even just a few minutes with Gryffindor's Golden Girl. He cast his mind back to their time at Hogwarts and wondered if Granger could remember his taunts of Mudblood as clearly as he did. Judging by her clenched jaw and stony expression, she could.
Without making eye contact, Hermione opened the door and allowed Draco to enter first. He hesitated for a moment but strode into the dark room and waited courteously for her to offer him a seat. Hermione followed him in, and Draco winced slightly as the door slammed behind her.
"Well, sit down then," Hermione ordered, whilst lowering herself into the chair opposite Draco. A large oak desk separated them, meaning the cramped room was even more claustrophobic.
"It's a little dark in here, isn't it?" Hermione said in false confidence, flicking her wand at the lamp above Draco's head. It glowed instantly. Draco was suddenly very aware at the wand in the witch's hand. She had been there at his trial after the war, when he was cleared of all charges. She knew he was a changed man, yet she obviously still detested him and Draco knew how good she was at jinxes.
"What is it that you wanted to discuss?" Hermione asked, forehead creasing just above her nose. "I have to say, you're the last person I expected to come here. I mean, well…" She gestured at Draco.
"I've been coming here for meetings every few months for four years, Granger, it's not my fault you didn't check the records," Draco sneered, enjoying seeing Hermione blush.
"Well, in my defence, they didn't seem to be of any importance," Hermione replied, her eyes looking anywhere but at the man opposite her.
"This isn't of any relevance Granger. I'd rather this meeting be over with so I don't have to sit in a confined space with you for any length of time," Draco said, enjoying watching Hermione squirm when he said her surname. "I have come here for your – your office's…" He trailed off.
"My what?" Hermione asked impatiently, the crease on her forehead deepening.
"Your help, Granger," Draco finished reluctantly, fixing Hermione with a gaze that he could tell made her feel uneasy.
"My help?" Hermione spluttered incredulously, her eyes finally finding his.
"That's what I just said, isn't it?"
"What for?" she asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"Five years ago, my father put me in charge of a company called Muggle to Magic."
"Muggle to…?" Hermione's eyebrows shot up under her fringe.
"To Magic, Granger, keep up. Anyway, I have been running it ever since. I take Muggle objects, convert them to magical items and sell them to shops and market stalls that wish to stock and sell them on." Draco sat forward, clasping his hands together on the desk.
"You? Dealing with Muggles? After calling me a Mudblood for seven years?" Hermione asked bitterly, disbelieving at what Draco had just told her.
"Let go of the past, Granger. I don't have a problem with Muggles, or Muggle-borns come to that," he added, still smirking.
"Anymore," Hermione said quietly.
Draco shifted in his seat. "What?"
"You don't have a problem with Muggleborns anymore," she corrected, just as quietly.
Draco lost his smirk, but his eyes stayed the same. "I see you haven't changed, Granger, still the insufferable know-it-all that you were at Hogwarts." He could see that he had hit a nerve.
"And I see that you are the same pompous brat that you were at Hogwarts," Hermione replied coolly. "I've never even heard of – of… Muggle to Magic. Your father couldn't have trusted his son with anything too important, could he, if he put you on top of such a tiny company."
Draco clenched his fists and bit his cheeks to stop himself from retaliating.
"I would have thought you would be somewhere more… elite, using your Galleons to get into high places like you usually do. Perhaps that's all that an ex-Death Eater can amount to, the head of such an unknown company," Hermione finished, flustered.
"And I would have thought that the famous Hermione Granger would be somewhere more important than the smallest office in the entire Ministry," Draco replied, his grey eyes becoming more stony and cold as he spoke.
A stunned Hermione glared at Draco for a moment before sighing agitatedly. "What do you want, Malfoy?"
"I told you, Granger, I need your office's help," Draco replied, boredom obvious in his drawl.
"Yes, I know," Hermione said exasperatedly. "But what exactly…?"
"I have recently acquired a new Muggle gadget, called a telephone. I need help designing the new wizarding take on it to, uh, suit the modern day wizard," Draco informed the shocked witch. "I think it could be something huge."
"A telephone? But… they require electricity, and they're very… well, Muggle," Hermione said, her frown returning.
"That's what I need assistance with, Granger. I thought you were meant to be intelligent?" Draco smirked. "What better place is there to look into Muggle gadgetry than the office that deals with them on a daily basis?"
Draco's eyes searched Hermione as if looking for an answer.
"I don't see how I'll be of any help," she gulped. "It's my job to tell Justin and Hannah how to reverse any hexes, jinxes or charms on the object and contact law enforcement or obliviators if necessary. I don't actually have any ideas of my own,"
Draco sneered again. "Don't pride yourself on this, Granger, I didn't deliberately seek out your help. As I said, I was expecting Roger."
"Yes, of course you were," Hermione replied bitterly, staring at her knees.
"You never were any good at creativity, you always had to follow instructions word for word, I remember. You used to memorise textbook passages before lessons in order to be the best in everything you did," Draco scoffed.
"That isn't true. Harry was always better than me at Defence against the Dark Arts!" Hermione argued.
"Oh yes, Potter would be, wouldn't he. Well, at least you beat Weasel, that ginger haired idiot."
"Don't insult Ron, he's ten times the man you are!"
"I forgot that you two are together now. What better couple, two thirds of the Golden Trio. To be honest, I didn't expect it to last. Weasley didn't really have his way with women." Draco laughed.
"Shut up, Malfoy."
"Can't say I'm really surprised, however, that you're stuck in a dead-end job at the Ministry. After all that hard work at school, it gives you a chance to put your feet up and relax, doesn't it?"
Hermione stood up and pointed her wand at Draco's head. "You haven't changed, Malfoy, but I have. It was my hard work that created house-elf rights and –"
"You created rights for house-elves?" Draco interrupted. "For fuck's sake, they like working as servants!"
"More like slaves," Hermione said coldly. "I haven't finished. It was also my hard work that organised the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and increased productivity by forty percent."
She lowered her wand and stormed out of the office. Before the door slammed shut, she stepped back inside and turned to Draco.
"It's you who need to let go of the past, Malfoy. You may not hold the same Death Eater values anymore, but you're still the same foul, loathsome, evil, little cockroach you were twelve years ago." She carried on with her dramatic exit, making sure to slam the door as loudly as she could manage.
Draco sat in seething silence for a few moments, going over what had just happened in his mind, before standing up and immediately Apparating back to his office.
"What a bloody waste of time that turned out to be," he muttered angrily. How dare she tell him he hadn't changed! He had. Or had he? Draco shook his head. He wasn't going to allow Hermione Granger into his brain.
Hermione was furious. Her optimistic mood had been blasted after her encounter with Draco Malfoy. He'd questioned her work, her ability and even her relationship with Ron. Well, she'd soon show him. Violently, and ignoring Justin's raised eyebrows, she reached into her desk drawer and pulled out parchment, ink and a quill and began to write.
Ron,
I've changed my mind. Come over later. Seven o'clock, my place.
Hermione
Folding the letter into an envelope, Hermione strode back out of her office and stepped into the corridor, glancing up and down for a spare owl. Soon enough, a tiny brown owl that reminded Hermione of Pigwidgeon landed on the shelf opposite her. "Hi, um, could you take this to Ron Weasley? He should be at the Burrow, it's his day off today."
Hermione took the envelope and attached it to the owl's miniscule foot. As she watched the bird fly down through the tunnel of offices and through an open door, she cast her mind back to Saturday night, when an understanding Ron had told her he'd loved her and he was sorry a million times, and Hermione had repeated it's not your fault and I know you do profusely. They had both agreed to discuss everything with each other from then on. However, they had decided to keep the house, for the future.
Hermione sighed and smiled. She hoped she was doing the right thing. An image of Draco Malfoy popped into her head and she gritted her teeth, the fury returning.
Yes, she had definitely done the right thing.