"Ah, well if it isn't Rowan MacDermott." The low, drawling voice sent a shiver down her spine, drudging up memories that should have remained where they were hidden, forever, if they only knew what was best for them.

"Draco Malfoy, I should have known."

"You've changed," Malfoy smirked, a smile curling his lips. His calculating glance took in every inch of Rowan's appearance.

"I see you haven't. How typical." Rowan sighed heavily. If he's here, who's running hell? How was she supposed to get anything done with this huge hindrance sitting right on her desk.

Ha, ha, very funny. The Devil's running hell, I only work part time. I'm not sitting on your desk, and if we get this done quickly enough I promise you'll never see me again.

"Don't do that." Rowan growled fiercely, "stay out of my head."

"Ah, still sore about that." Draco grinned. "Sorry."

"That's a first...can you stay it again so I can tape record it? I'm sure that's the only time I'll ever hear that. Now if you can excuse me, I have a call to make." Rowan picked up her phone and dialed out to her secretary. "Ashley, send up Zale please."

"Of course...and who's the stud."

"Don't get me started."

"Rowan..." the secretary whined.

"Later....get me Zale." She put the phone down quickly and looked up.

Draco had taken a seat, and while he busied himself with a magazine, Rowan took the opportunity to look him over. He really had changed, she admitted to herself, and while his attitude still needed refining, he was one of the most sophisticated and attractive men she'd ever seen. His hair was still bright blond, his grey eyes still stormy, his clothing chosen well...his whole appearance just exuded an aura of sexuality.

There was a sudden poof and obscuring her view of Draco, was Zale Fabiola, her best friend and lieutenant.

"Hey Rowan." Zale smiled. "What's up?" But catching her friend's pointed glance, she turned ever so slightly to find a fiercely attractive man sitting on the sofa behind her.

"Malfoy, out. Now."

"Yes, Colonel..." He replied, his sentence smothered in fake humility.

"Now, if only you could throw fireballs with your eyes, it would have made that moment absolutely perfect." Zale stood up to close the door, noting that the blond haired man had taken a seat against the opposite wall and still watched the two women.

"You have no idea how much I hate that man...and I am sure that I can throw fireballs of some sort just not from my eyes...ooh, I should work on that...Malfoy on fire....that is a good idea for some mid-afternoon entertainment."

"I'd say Rowan, you've got quite a bit of explaining to do."

"I do, don't I?"

"Yes. I'll just take a seat..." Zale rounded the desk and sat squarely on the corner, on top of the file that had become the kindling of this incident.

"Alright, working backward I'll try and explain. Just a few minutes ago, I received a phone call from a fellow operative. A major general from London, and a friend from school, Harry Potter..."

"Harry Potter....the Harry Potter?"

"Yes, and to continue," she smiled sarcastically at her friend, "it turns out that we've been working on the same case, that stupid stolen artifacts one that's gotten us absolutely no where... He wants to team up, so I am sending him my top agent and he's sending me one of his."

"Well, that's not so bad...a trip to England and Harry Potter, who's supposed to be a pretty sexy guy. But, you've got it in for that guy in the hall...so continue with that."

"The guy in the hallway is Draco Malfoy. My arch-enemy.

"See, I was in my first year of high school and having a brilliant time, I was dating the captain of the rugby team and things were going fine. One afternoon, as I was waiting for football practice to begin, Dylan, walks up to me and tells me that things are over...and as he walks away...another girl from the football team, runs up to him and they start snogging right in front of me. He'd been cheating on me. I was so angry. I never really noticed it, but everyone tells me that right after I saw them walking away a storm appeared...and it wasn't just any storm...it was horrible...the sky got dark, the wind began to whip around us, stirring up everything that lay around...and with a loud crack, a burst of lightening came down from the sky and struck a tree...the very tree that Dylan and the girl had been standing under....it burst into flames. They ended up being fine...but of course I wasn't. It was really unbelievable that the storm had not been a normal occurence. I ran the entire way home from school and that's when I got it...

"There was a letter waiting for me from Hogwarts...there was a sincere apology from the headmaster for not seeing my powers earlier...I was 14...most students start learning magic at age 11. I got to school and was placed into Gryffindor, conveniently with my cousin, Hermione, who was friends with Harry and this other boy, Ron Weasley, the messes we all got into in those days.

"Anyway, it was up to me to catch up on what I'd missed. I taught myself at all hours of the day and began to catch up. Dumbledore, the headmaster decided that to test my abilities I would have to travel through a maze. It was a crazy journey and I'd used everything I'd learned and succeeded...It was basically like establishing my GPA...

"It was the very next day when even more unexpected news was brought to my attention. Dumbledore gathered together Harry Potter, myself and another boy named Draco Malfoy. I could tell from the beginning that Harry hated Malfoy, and I instantly took a dislike to the boy. When Dumbledore arrived, he told us that he had an important announcement and just blatantly exclaimed that all three of us were mages, you know, wizards with abnormal amounts of power. I figured, and I'm sure that Draco figured that Harry was a ferociously strong mage and maybe if we were lucky, we'd been gifted with a tidbit. But it turned out to be quite the opposite. That's when things went wrong...I'd never met Draco, but I swear, he hated me from that minute...he tormented me every hour of every day...and because we needed special training as mages, we were together more often than normal. I didn't know why he hated me. Hermione suspected it was because I was a muggleborn, Harry thought it was because I was a muggleborn and had power equal to his...Ron claimed that he hated everyone and it was only because he was an obnoxious prat.

"Within the next two years, Harry had defeated Voldemort and with that...Draco's father had disappeared...some chaos occurred for the two years as Harry's godfather and Draco's mother, who'd known each other for a long time began to date and finally married, making Harry and Draco almost like brothers...as Sirius, Harry's godfather was basically like his father. They grew closer and Harry eventually stopped hating Draco and vise versa... but I still hated him...

"And then one day...I fell asleep, dreaming about Harry and had this god-awful, embarrassing dream...it involved some crazy romance....and some sketchy stuff I don't want to bring up....(Rowan blushed) and when I woke up, Draco was sitting right next to me...he'd gotten into my mind and basically experienced my whole dream as if it were a movie...and if that was the worst of it...he told Harry who'd been kind of dating Hermione...and I was so embarrassed... of course, you know I was a teenager....Harry didn't really care...he'd always liked me...I just hadn't noticed, you know..? That just made me hate Draco even more...so the fighting between us continued...there were constant wizard duels....as beater on the Gryffindor team I tried my best to injure him and he always had his beaters after me....off the Quidditch field, we competed in the class room, Hermione was first in everything but we were always vying for second. We finally graduated...I could have had any job, I chose this one...a change of scenery, no chance of seeing Draco....I've been here ever since and only think about him every once in a while...you know, when you think about what hell is like." Rowan came to an abrupt end and by the look on Zale's face, she could tell her friend was completely amazed and shocked.

"You've had a crazy life," Zale smiled warmly and got up to give her friend a tight hug. "I am going to go to London tonight....I will solve this case with this sexy man Harry Potter, even before you can say 'Hogwarts.' I just want to say one thing, so listen carefully, relationships that start with hate...end either two ways....more hate....or love...I mean, not to be too silly, but look at Pride and Prejudice...Jane Austen was a smart woman." Zale laughed. "Best of luck."

"Owl me when you get in...I want to make sure you're okay."

"And I'll want to make sure that you and blondie haven't killed each other yet."

"Haha....get outta here." Rowan laughed.

Zale opened the door, paused to wave and Apparated to her office. Draco, seeing that there was yet another opportunity to talk to Rowan, stood up, straightened his expensive looking suit and entered her office.

"So, are you finally done bitching about me?" Draco asked.

"For now. What do you want?" Rowan countered.

"A couple of things, first, could I look at the case file?"

"Sure." Rowan grabbed the file and handed it to Draco, who retreated to Rowan's leather sofa and sat down to read. She found herself drawn to watching him...although she looked away, she kept wanting to look back.... What had Zale just said? Relationships that start with hate end either two ways, more hate or love. Like she'd ever love Draco....and she certainly hated him enough...there was no way she could hate him any more than she did right now... She supposed, going against a voice in the back of her mind that kept trying to remind her of all the things he'd done, that maybe, she could be a little nicer.

Draco was reading the file, but he could feel Rowan's eyes on him. He couldn't believe that she still hated him so much...of course, he still hated her. How could a muggle have as much power as he, a full blooded wizard? And the number of times she'd embarrassed him... countless.... and the number of times she'd injured him in a Quidditch match...numerous... He supposed it was just one of those things that people never got over...but he did figure that since they were going to be working together that maybe he could lighten up, ever so slightly, because than maybe she would. Even if she still hated him, it wasn't like she wasn't beautiful to look at....her blond hair, blue eyes, slender figure, grace, and her quick wit had always kept him on his toes.

"Finished." He exclaimed. "The second order of business is that, as of now, I have no place to stay."