CHAPTER 1: Scandal

Hermione threw the paper down in disgust. "This is absolutely unbelievable!" she said, crossing her arms across her chest with a huff. She paced around the large room, seething with anger.

Never before had Hermione found herself in the office of Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister of Magic, for a bad reason. She would usually be called in to accept praises and accolades for her renowned public works. On more than one occasion, she'd been presented with magical fruit baskets from anonymous fans, enchanted with pleasant charms that made your teeth whiter or your hair shinier.

But this - this was a very bad reason. She looked again at the newspaper on his desk, a tiny bit of her hoping that the headline might magically rearrange or disappear:

The Ministry's Golden Granger seduced by Famous Bad Boy Draco Malfoy?

Below, there was a picture of two people kissing on a park bench. It was indisputably Hermione, no question, and though she hadn't seen Malfoy in over a year, it looked identical to what she assumed he currently looked like. And yet, it was not them. She would never have done that and neither would he - their mutual former hatred and lingering dislike was widely known.

"Polyjuice," she said, staring at her twin in the photo. "Some conniving gossips at the Daily Prophet must have gotten our hairs and forged our look alikes. They should be shut down, the bloody disgrace for a journalistic organization."

Kingsley nodded. "I hoped you would say that," he said. "I must say, it did catch me off guard but I came to a similar conclusion. Please, know that I intend to investigate this matter fully and prosecute those responsible for impersonating a Ministry official."

"Thank you," Hermione said, though she thought she might like to go rip the heads off those twats herself. The picture was bad, but as she read further, somehow the article only got worse:

The Department of Mysteries's own smarty-pants, the boringly perfect Hermione Granger was just spotted getting touchy-feely with notorious bad boy Draco Malfoy. And don't they look dreamy together? Despite his former ties to an group that attempted to murder her several times, Granger must have been seduced by handsome Malfoy's devil-may-care charisma.

"God, this drivel constitutes front page news now, does it?" She shook her head and scanned to the end of the trashy story.

One again, Granger's riveting love life captivates the Wizarding World. Looks like this Unspeakable has been spending too much time in the Love Chamber!

She rolled her eyes at the final lines. It made her blood boil, knowing that they were talking about the well-known love triangle between her and her formal friends, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. She dated Ron for a mere two months after the war but his attitude grew incredibly pompous and egotistical with his newfound fame. Hermione could only take so much of his shameless flirting with every starry-eyed witch who looked his way before she ended things, causing him to explode more furiously than she could possibly have expected.

He spread horrible rumors about her, most of which were too ridiculous to be believed by anyone. When she foolishly gave in to Harry's persistent advances and slept with him after a drunken night of partying, however, Ron outed them to the Daily Prophet. She had been in interviews for her Ministry position at the time and the publicity almost ruined her chances. Unspeakables were intended to be covert, under-the-radar and she couldn't maintain that. Luckily, Kingsley made a rare exception. She insisted that she wanted nothing more but to live a quiet, peaceful life out of the public eye and he believed her.

Hermione remembered something and brought her focus back to the Minister. "Do you think that -"

"Un-fucking-believable," shouted Draco Malfoy, bursting through the office door. He marched up to Kingsley's desk, paper in hand. "I hope you know I had absolutely nothing to do with this," he said, as Kingsley gestured vaguely to alert him of Hermione's presence.

"Oh. Hello, Ms. Granger," he said dismissively, glancing quickly before turning his attention back, "I would never want something like this out there, Minister."

Kingsley raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you more offended by the counterfeit photograph or the theoretical implications?"

Malfoy swallowed and steadied himself while Hermione watched curiously, steeled herself for the inevitable insult headed in her direction.

"Obviously, the impersonation is criminally reprehensible," said Draco, "but these attempts to attack the dignity and character of myself and, and Ms. Granger are morally despicable."

A well-measured statement, Hermione thought. He seemed more calculated at this age, despite the turbulent emotions clearly welling at the surface. And he called her Ms. Granger - he'd certainly never said that before. Even when she'd briefly run into him at the previous year's Ministry Christmas party, he'd avoided calling her by any name at all. Only three years had passed since the war, yet Hermione had experienced lifetimes of growth within herself and thought that perhaps Malfoy had experienced at least an inch of that.

He continued, "If this had happened five years ago, my father would've -" And there vanished Hermione's hope. He was still clinging to his family's former social positioning. While they hadn't fallen entirely, especially due to his wealth, the family's cowardly defection during the Battle of Hogwarts had severely wounded their reputation.

"And yet, it is not five years ago, Mr. Malfoy, so we'll have to deal with this situation in a different manner," Kingsley said. "But rest assured, I will do everything in my power to -"

"Oh, I'm sure you will, Minister," Draco said, with a dry laugh, "And I'm also sure that we're going to have a lovely discussion with one Rita Skeeter." Draco turned on his heel and headed for the door. Hermione had a serious urge to go with him and watch him deservedly berate him. Maybe she could give her a good smack on the head of her own.

Malfoy turned back and looked at her. "Coming?"

— — —

They journeyed through the labyrinthine halls of the Ministry in silence, aside from their footfalls echoed off marble. Hermione half-walked, half-ran behind Draco to keep up with his brisk, long-legged pace until they reached the Atrium's fireplace exits and emerged in the public restroom. They apparated separately but simultaneously to Diagon Alley, where the Prophet was headquartered. Neither had visited the newsroom before so they'd chosen to teleport to slightly different points near the busy shopping street's entrance. Hermione scanned the area for Draco, spotting his white blonde hair just ahead of her amongst the shifting crowd.

"Malfoy!" she called out, trying to push around someone as an older man ran into her from the side nearly knocked her off her feet. She stumbled forward, bracing her arms for a fall but Malfoy grabbed her by the sleeves of her wool coat and righted her.

"Thank you," she said, before seeing the bright flash of a camera to her left. "Hey!" she yelled as Malfoy let go of her. She saw the photographer stand up from behind a bush and start running.

"Stupefy!" she shouted, pointing her wand in his direction, but he was already gone. He had apparated. "Fucking prat," she mumbled under her breath, her heart beating quickly with adrenaline.

Malfoy looked around at the rest of the rapidly moving crowd. "Anyone of them could be spying for the Prophet," he said in a low voice, "We need a better plan. Follow me, a bit behind." He took off, his tall frame steering him much more easily through the crowd than Hermione's. He waited for her once he had reached a hidden alcove in the street.

"We'll apparate to my flat and formulate a plan. It's close by," he said. He reached out his hand. Hermione couldn't help but think that this was the most exciting thing that she had done in a long time. Even if it was with someone she detested. She took his hand and they disappeared.

(Thanks for reading! This should be a relative short and tidy story - I'd love to hear your reviews! Take a peek at my longer in progress story as well, for something a bit heavier?)