Hi everyone! Very very new at all of this. I hope this will be okay, I know it won't be the best thing you've ever read but I am really excited about this and I just need to get it started and moving, if you could all be patient with me. More to come as soon as i possibly can! All reviews and ideas are welcome and very much appreciated 3

Hermione sighed as she walked into the ministry, cup of tea in her hand, hair pinned back in her usual messy bun, taking a sip of her tea as she pressed the button to go up in the lift. She had been working in the Ministry of Magic pretty much since she finished Hogwarts. It wasn't as easy as that though. At first, she had struggled to fit in here. She still had the reputation of being the 'brightest witch of her age' and the whole 'Golden Trio' thing hanging over her head, thus making expectations high from her superiors, which was already a lot of pressure.

First of all, she had started out in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, during which she created her S.P.E.W programme to help House Elves find freedom. Hermione enjoyed working there but it never really clicked with her - she needed something more. After that she had also dabbled in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes- mainly for selfish reasons, though. She wanted to try and find out more information about the obliviate spell and if there was a way for her to help her parents get their memories back but the little positive information she found resulted in a lack of motivation and interest in her job. More recently, however, a couple of months ago, she had been moved to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, having been specifically requested by Robards himself, claiming some of his Aurors needed help from her brains when it came to unpicking and solving cases.

This was her favourite job so far. She had the chance at helping people first hand and putting her busy mind and the skills she had picked up in her teenage years to good use. The other reason this was her favourite job yet was because she got to see Harry everyday. Seeing him everyday helped ease her mind when she started thinking about how so much had changed in the five years since the war. She rarely seen Ronald these days - other than family dinners at the Burrow and Christmas.

Her and Ron had gotten together after the war had ended and things seemed good for a while. It was everything she had wanted since she was fourteen but to her greatest disappointment, it never lived up to their expectations. After the war everyone and everything was damaged. They'd all lost so many people and experienced such a large amount of pain - physical and mentally- in such a short space of time. Her and Ron both took comfort in each other on those cold nights when the nightmares would hit but after a while it all got too much. He had started to lean on her more and Hermione couldn't handle her own heartbreak, let alone his as well. She had no more room in her heart for anymore pain and being with Ronald was just too much. So she forced herself to let him go, so that she could try and heal as much as possible.

Even now, around four years later, Ronald had never really forgiven her for their break up, and Hermione could understand that. He'd supposed they would eventually get married, have a few red headed, know-it-all, little ones and grow old together, because that's how everyone told them it would be. Merlin, even Hermione always thought that's how it would turn out. But here she was, five years later, still feeling as lost and alone as she did, however, she was just a lot better at hiding it than before.

Hermione stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for level 2. She cringed as she caught her reflection in the mirror. She had slept in this morning and had to get ready in a rush resulting in barely any makeup, puffy eyes and slightly messy updo.

As the doors were closing, a shirt clad arm quickly stopped them from closing and as they slid back open, in stepped Draco Malfoy. He looked as unhappy to see her as she was sure she looked to see him.

"Granger." He mumbled as he fixed his satchel on his shoulder and pulled it tighter to his side, attempting to avoid even looking at her.

"Malfoy." She replied, pressing her lips into a thin line as she stared down at the floor in order to stop herself glaring at the git.

Even now, they were still fighting to be the best at what they were doing. Their spats and quarrels from their teenage years over who was the smartest and who got the best grades had continued into their adult life were they both tried ever so hard to be better than the other at their job. He had started working here a couple of years after the war had ended. She didn't understand how he managed to get a job here, saying he was Voldemorts bloody flatmate at one point- the thought sending shivers down her spine as she remembered the events that happened at Malfoy Manor. Although, she thought, things had gone quiet for him. It seemed he had distanced himself from the Pureblood society and his family. Maybe he had finally grown out of his stupid, digusting and incorrigable beliefs that sparked him making her life a misery for the enterity of her time at Hogwarts. However, deep down she couldn't help but know that she had to consider the thought that those views were not his to begin with- they were forced upon him.

Hermione looked over at him. He had stopped over styling his hair with way too much gel products and started wearing his hair more fluffy and more delicately styled - at least there was one thing to praise him for. He looked tired, she thought. The darkness under his eyes contrasted against his pale skin in the dull elevator lighting.

He stared hard at the doors "Stop bloody staring at me, Granger." He said. "Its fucking creepy." He sneered at her and as soon as the doors opened and he was out, before she could bite back with an equally rude response.

She huffed "I was not staring." She mumbled to herself and made her way towards her desk and popped her bag down and plopped down on her seat, taking a long sip of her tea, letting the hot liquid burn down her throat. She had a lovely pile of paperwork staring at her, with a note from Robards:

"Miss Granger,

Some case reports i need you to look over- just the usual. Also - meeting in my office at 2. - R"

Robards entrusted her with a lot of the important paperwork, claiming she was the best in the department for this sort of stuff. She glanced up and caught Harry's eye as he walked to his desk and gave him a small wave and mouthed a 'good morning' to him, taking another quick sip of tea before getting started on all her work.

Draco huffed as he sat down at his desk. If he was being honest, he really could not be arsed with all of this anymore. This would just be another day of having a boring case report about a stolen broomstick or lost wand. He glared over at Granger. She had been there two and a half bloody months and Robards treated her like she was some kind of bloody brainiac goddess. Draco knew he deserved better, knew he was more intelligent than half of the other Aurors. What even was Granger here to do, she was 'working with the aurors' but not an Auror. Draco scoffed: Robards little kiss arse secretary pet.

After two years of hiding away in his flat, being scared of being seen by anyone, Draco decided to make a change in his life and feel like maybe for once he was doing the right thing. The aftermath of the war was tough and his father was too much of a coward to handle it. After his passing, Draco and his mother moved out of the manor, him into his London flat and his mother into her country cottage out of the way from everyone. He barely kept in touch with any of his old school friends- except Blaise-, most of whom were married to other purebloods in order to 'keep the tradition alive'. Draco found it all to be nonsense now. What was the point. Blood purity was no longer a factor in any normal wizards mind anymore- and to be honest wasn't a factor in his head anymore either. Perhaps he had just grown out of the nonsense that was pureblood society. Asa result he completely distanced himself from the society and his family, hoping perhaps to make a better name for himself, even if no one could take him seriously anymore. He managed to get himself this job and he had been here ever since. The only thing was he was bored. He knew he was more than paperwork and filing case reports. He begged Robards everyday for something more interesting but he was always hit with a 'maybe' or a 'patience is a virtue, Mr Malfoy."

Draco started on a report and noticed a note on his desk.

"meeting at 2 - R"

He raised a brow. Maybe today would finally be his lucky day.

Two eventually came and Hermione made her way to Robards office for their meeting. She knocked on his door gently and walked inside. Inside she seen Robards sitting at his desk - and Malfoy?

"Ah Miss Granger, have a seat." Robards said and Hermione slowly sat down and glanced at Malfoy who did not look impressed at her presence. "Now, both of you have shown you are both very intelligent people and after some consideration I have decided to make you both partners for this case." He said holding up a file. "I understand that neither of you have worked on an important case like this yet, but I feel as though by putting your two brains together we might have something rather effective here."

Hermione's eyes shot open and she sat up straighter. She had been partnered with Malfoy. Wonderful. Just what she needed. She tried to hide her annoyance from Robards as best she could but it was difficult. She glanced to her left to look at Malfoy and he had his typical sneer on his face, and robards seemed to notice his distaste too.

"Now Mr Malfoy I thought you'd be happy about this? You have been asking me to trust you with your own case for months." Robards chuckled as he handed them both a file each.

Malfoy opened the file "Well yes, I thought maybe I'd get to lead this on my own. That's all" he mumbled "Thank you for the opportunity, Sir" Draco said and tried to keep his cool as much as possible.

"Now, like I said, this is an important case." Robards started. "There is a wizard named William Bennett. He's been on a dark wizard watchlist of ours for a while. We believe he is a danger to our society. Now it appears recently he has went off the grid and we've noticed a list of murders across England that all fit in with his disappearance- and we believe these murders may be down to him." Robards took a sip from his coffee mug. "I'll need you guys working on this every day until we find some answers. Everything you need to know is in the files." he said and looked between them. "I do hope you both will cooperate as well as possible with each other, I am trusting you both here." He said as he stood up and both Draco and Hermione nodded in agreement.

"I have another meeting to go to. Read through the files and if you have any questions please feel free to owl me." He said as he left them alone in his office.

Draco huffed and stuffed his file into his bag. This was bloody ridiculous. He had been here nearly three fucking years and Granger had barely been here five minutes. He deserved this way more than her and when he figured it out he definitely did not need the bloody Gryffindor golden girl stealing his thunder.

Hermione glared at Draco as she stood up. "You know what? I'm not too happy about this either Malfoy. There's no point throwing a huff over it" She said as she picked up her bag "But understand this now, I'm not going to let you ruin my reputation here." She said and pulled on her blazer and smoothed her skirt out.

Draco laughed at her words and her equally stupid tone "What reputation? The one of you being a kiss arse and Robards little pet? Believe me, I'll try my best not to take that title from you" he rolled his eyes and headed out of the office and back to his desk to try and get a head start on the case.

Draco groaned and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. "Merlin give me strength." He mumbled to himself. He was going to need all the help he could get if he was going to have to keep his temper at bay with Granger.

That night Hermione brewed herself a steaming cup of hot chocolate and got herself all comfy on her couch so she could start reading the file Robards had given her that day. She looked around at her cosy little apartment. She supposed she was lucky. She was safe with a roof over her head and friends who were like family. Still, she couldn't help but feel like something was missing. She assumed the emptiness in her heart came from missing her parents but she still tried to remain hopeful that one day she would be able to return their memories to them.

Crookshanks jumped up beside her, purring for attention, pulling her out of her thoughts and she smiled and gave her a quick scratch on the head.

She stayed there curled on the couch for the rest of the night, reading over every single bit of the information in the file again and again to make sure she had everything straight in her mind. There had been three deaths over the past few months and they all linked to this Bennet man. Surely this would be straightforward- find Bennet; find the answers.

Hermione made notes and started her research, making sure everything was clear and organised. She was going to kick arse at this case because she wanted to prove that not even Malfoy could stop her from being good at this job. She needed a win. She hadn't had one in a while.

Draco threw himself on the couch as soon as he got home. He was already drained and he hasn't even started working with Granger yet. He wanted to do well so bloody badly so that people in the ministry would finally look past the burden that was his name, and realise he could actually be really good at this job. Merlin, he just didn't need Granger ruining this chance for him.

Anyone else. He could have worked decently well with anyone else but he just didn't have the patience for her and her know-it-all, better-than-everyone-else attitude that he had loathed since first year. He needed this case. This case could get him somewhere. He needed a win. He'd never won anything before.