Disclaimer: I only own the plot, but man is that something worth owning! This is D/H, one of my favorite pairings, and it's post-Hogwarts, post-Voldemort, so all the big bad evilness is gone, and Hermione doesn't even need to worry about exams! Yay! Comment, please, and let me know what you think. If you have any ideas as to where I should take this story, by all means let me know, I'm open to suggestions. Feedback of all sorts is welcome! And just as a general warning, if you don't like it, don't read it! Enjoy!
Hermione strolled through Diagon Alley at a leisurely pace, her robes swirling around her from the breeze created by other shoppers. She was supposed to meet Harry and Ron in an hour at Florean Fortescue's for some ice cream and a bit of catch up. Ever since the end of their seventh year at Hogwarts, which, coincidentally was when Voldemort was defeated, they'd all been very busy with their own lives. Ron had been scouted out by both Puddlemere United and the Wimbourne Wasps, but had chosen the Wasps because he didn't even want to think about being on the same team as Oliver Wood again. Harry had, as many had expected, become an Auror, after three long years of additional training. He had worked harder at his training than anything he had ever done before, and had been top of his class. Hermione, too, worked for the Ministry. Her official title was Ministry Researcher, but her duties entailed much more than the name would suggest. She did research, yes. She researched ancient magic, she researched Dark Magic, she researched innovative medical magic. Dark Magic was still used very widely throughout the Wizarding world, and by studying it, and ancient magic, she was able to come up with faster, more effective cures for the unfortunate victim of a Dark wizard. Not many people knew that Hermione was one of the people behind the new cures in the last few years, but she didn't need or want that recognition. She was happy enough when she visited St. Mungo's every now and again, and saw each trip that fewer people were suffering ill effects of Dark Magic. The Minister was extremely excited about Hermione's work, and said something very nice about her progress every time he saw her. Of course, Fudge was long out of office. In the summer after their sixth year, the foolhardy Minister still denied the return of Voldemort, and this had caused some uproar from the Wizarding community. Much to everyone's delight, and some people's surprise, Arthur Weasley became the new Minister of Magic. He'd been in office for just about five years now, and things couldn't have been better.
Life was good, and the slow stroll she was taking only added to her pleasure. Because she still had a while before she was to meet her best friends, she decided to stop in a small shop to look at some new quills. As she looked over a set of gold quills with purple tips she heard the door open and looked up. Draco Malfoy walked into the store, but seemed intent on other things and did not notice her. Malfoy… Hermione didn't know what to make of him. His father had been killed by Voldemort shortly before his own demise, and this had sobered Draco greatly. He had never shown outright signs of being a Death Eater himself, but after his father's death even his smart comments had stopped. Once all the cruel words stopped, Draco Malfoy didn't seem to be such a bad person.
Hermione decided that she wanted these intriguing quills (they were similar to Quick-Quotes Quills, and wrote what you dictated, only with no embellishment), and brought them to the front counter. Malfoy leaned there, waiting for the clerk who was in the back. She felt mildly nervous about being alone here with him, but pushed those thoughts away, knowing that she was a fully trained witch now, and could very well defend herself. She set the quills down in front of her, and the small noise caused Malfoy to look up from the spot on the floor which had been intriguing him seconds earlier. His face contorted, as if he wanted to say something very much, but what he ended up saying was a very strangled "…Granger?"
She gave him a small smile, and stated "Malfoy." She looked away from him then, and saw the clerk coming back. He handed a small box to Malfoy who opened it immediately, and shook his head in a positive gesture. "It'll do," he said quietly to the clerk.
"I'll just put it on your account then, sir?" The clerk looked at him fearfully, as if expecting Malfoy to snap at him. However, he simply nodded once more. He closed the box, and turned to leave, stopping briefly to look at Hermione. Again he looked as if he wanted to say something, but this time he did not. He left quickly, and Hermione turned back to the clerk. She paid him and left, walking out into the open air again. She looked around, but didn't see Malfoy anywhere. He must have Disapparated already she thought. She gave a small shrug and walked off to meet Harry and Ron.
The next day at work, Thursday, Hermione was working primarily on ancient material. This was a long-term project, in addition to which she had many smaller, less time-consuming assignments. Right now she was searching for any information these ancient texts might give her, in hopes of finding a cure for the long-term effects of the Cruciatus Curse. Although she got so tired of finding nothing useful time after time, the thought of Neville's parents, still untreated, kept her going. Today was just one of those days. Everything seemed so futile; these ancient texts gave way to no secret information, nothing that could help the Longbottoms.
With a sigh she heaved herself from her table, covered in books, and left her office to go and have a bite to eat. There was a lounge, on the same floor as the main lobby, where you could go and sit down, and a menu would appear before you. The menu that presented itself to Hermione seemed to have nothing appetizing. This seemed ridiculous because she knew that house-elves were doing the cooking, and they always seemed to have the food that tempted your palate most. Hermione had given up her struggle to free all the elves, but did not give up on treating them decently. She sighed as she looked over the pitiful menu again.
"Maybe you'd find something more palatable on my menu," came a voice from somewhere to her left. She knew that voice. She knew it well. But she had never heard that voice sound so civil. She turned.
"Malfoy?" He was sitting further down the bench that she was currently on the end of, but not too close to make her feel uncomfortable.
"What?" he asked. "I do work for the Ministry, you know. It's not as if you didn't know that already, what are you so surprised about?"
"I…I didn't know you worked for the Ministry. I've never seen you around."
"Come on," he laughed. "Surely your best buddy told you that we work together." Malfoy looked at Hermione's shocked face. "Well, isn't that interesting. I'll have to fill you in I suppose."
"Please do," she said very quietly.
"Well," he started. "After my father died, everything changed. I mean, that evil git you knew in school, that wasn't me. I'm not like that, not really. My father had a lot of pressure on me to perform as he expected, to live up to the Dark Lord's expectations. All the things I said and did were closely monitored. All that muggle-born bullshit… that's not who I am, just so you know. Anyway, after he was gone, it looked like I was in even deeper than ever, because Voldemort needed support more than ever before. Then, ironic though it may be, Potter saved the day. What a surprise. Harry Potter saves Draco Malfoy from untimely death due to extensive use of the Cruciatus Curse. If he hadn't killed the Dark Lord, I'd probably be dead now anyway. Constant torturing doesn't do much for one's health you know. And that's the only time you'll hear this because I'm not about to go and start spouting off about how great Harry Bloody Potter is to the whole world. That's the last thing I need, to ruin my reputation with praise for the Boy Who Wouldn't Die."
Hermione interrupted him with a very quiet comment. "As far as I can tell, it couldn't hurt for you to change your reputation from what it once was…"
"Hey, I wasn't finished. And besides, anyone who actually knows me now, knows that I am a very respectable young man, who is very good at what he does. Which I was just getting to… As I was saying, with the Dark Lord gone, my life was looking up for the first time. I was to have the freedom I'd never had, and you can't imagine how exciting that prospect was. So, I did the only thing I thought was reasonable. I became an Auror."
Hermione gasped at this, but Malfoy kept going. "I was in Potter's class, but I was only second or third ranked. It's not that I'm not good, but I don't have the same pressure on me here as I did at school. I figured this is the only career for me; with the Ministry on my side, I can track down all the old crowd from my father's days and make them pay for what I had to live through. Don't get me wrong, I don't try to hurt them. Just knowing they'll be in Azkaban is enough for me. So that's my story, and I'm sticking to it." He finished with a small bow to her, which was difficult considering he was sitting next to her now.
Hermione didn't know what to say just yet, so she said the only thing that she could think of. "I think I'll have the sea bass with roasted vegetables, and a glass of water." The food immediately appeared in front of her, and her menu disappeared without a sound. Malfoy grinned at her. "I thought the ever-intelligent Ms. Granger never ran out of things to say. And here you are, seemingly devoid of intelligent conversation. Who would have thought that all it would take was me telling a little bit of truth."
She looked at the sea bass in front of her, and then back at Malfoy. Her words started slowly, but then began coming out very easily. "So… you've been on the side of good this whole time, but never mentioned it to anyone? Well, I guess the Ministry know, and that's enough. But if this is how you feel, why didn't you say anything after Voldemort was defeated? Why wait four years to say something?"
She would've kept going, but Malfoy interrupted her. "I didn't say anything after the Dark Lord's fall because who would've believed me? Everyone thought the whole time that I was sure to join the Death Eaters the first chance I got. And why then, wait a whole four years? Because now I've been through training, and the Ministry has seen fit for me to be an Auror. I've been fully trained for a year now, and I needed that credibility if anyone was to believe me. Surely you of all people can see the logic behind that."
She nodded. "I guess I can. I just… never expected it of you Malfoy. Don't look at me like that! No one expected anything good to come from you, but here you are, helping the Ministry every day. And I had no idea. I wonder why Harry didn't say anything…"
Malfoy was smiling a bit at her words of semi-praise. "Who knows what goes through Potter's head. All that matters now is that we're both out there tracking down the Dark wizards, wouldn't you say?"
She nodded again. "Are you going to order something? I'm presuming that you actually came down here to eat."
He smiled at her again. "No, actually I cam down just hoping that you would be here…. Of course I'm here to eat. Think, Granger, you're the brilliant one, remember? Just because I told you my life story doesn't make us bosom buddies. I just want you to know how it really is. That doesn't mean that conversation like this will happen all the time, got that straight?"
She looked at him oddly. "That's fine, Malfoy. But as long as we're clearing things up, let me tell you something. My name is Hermione. Pleas don't call me Granger any more, it's rude. And as you are a new and improved Draco Malfoy, you can call me that whether or not we're having conversations, and whether or not we're friends, though I'd hardly refer to anyone as my bosom buddy."
Malfoy stared at her. "Alright. Let's eat." He ordered grilled chicken, also with vegetables and a glass of water. They ate in silence until their meals were finished, neither of them ordering dessert. "Well, Hermione, why aren't you ordering dessert? Surely you indulge your sweet tooth a little."
She gave him a small smile. "For your information, I watch what I eat because I'm not particular fond of over-indulging and then paying the price by gaining five pounds. Surely that's not your reasoning, so why aren't you eating any dessert?"
He laughed haughtily. "Well, for some of us it takes diet and exercise to maintain a healthy body. I'm not particularly fond of taking potions to make myself fit for living, if you know what I mean."
She nodded at him, and took a sip of her half-full glass of water. "I have to get going. I'm in the middle of a never-ending project, and I may as well start going nowhere as soon as possible. Hopefully I'll start making some headway one of these days."
"Ah yes, Hermione the great Researcher. I've heard about your work. Making medical advancements practically every day aren't you? That's good work you're doing. And if for no other reason, you'll make progress soon enough simply because you're Hermione Granger." He smiled at her, and she smiled back. They headed out of the lounge and toward the elevator. "What stop are you?" Malfoy looked at her while they were in the lift. "Oh, I'm level eight, in the, er, research department, ironically." She grinned at him. "Odd place for a Researcher," said Malfoy with a smirk. "I'm on level two obviously."
"I know," she said simply. The lift reached her level first, and she stepped out into a quiet corridor. "Perhaps I'll see you around Malfoy. Good to know you're on our side."
"Yes," he said. "You'll see me around. And by the way," just as the doors were closing. "My name is Draco." The doors clicked shut and the lift was gone before Hermione even knew how to react. She thought it only right that he would have her call him Draco when she had told him to call her Hermione. But something inside of her was feeling very pleased as she went back to her cluttered table. Somehow the reading didn't seem as tedious as before.
Hermione had worked for a few more hours before calling it quits, and locking up her office for the night. She had left all her books open to where she was reading, so that the next day she could just start right up again. She pulled on her coat and left the Ministry through a small lift in the Atrium that brought her out to Muggle London in an old telephone booth. Hermione had decided that even though she was working for the Ministry now, Muggle life really wasn't so bad in comparison. Of course she used magic in her home, and had many wards protecting her apartment, but there was something appealing about living away from all the rest of the magical community. It just seemed more peaceful to her, knowing that if her neighbor came to visit, they could have a quiet cup of tea, and talk about the weather, and it wouldn't have anything to do with what Hermione dealt with every day.
She walked to her apartment, which was only a few blocks from the Ministry. Her coat went in the front closet, and her purse sat on a little table just next to the front door. Her door opened right into the living room, so she walked a few feet and sank into her comfortable white couch. She stretched one hand out and picked up a remote off of the glass coffee table in front of her. The glass had designs etched into the edges, and sat on gold-plated legs, matching Hermione's décor of white and gold. It had been a gift from her parents upon graduation, as had her magical stereo, which they has somehow managed to find. She turned on the stereo and in seconds the soothing melodies of Vivaldi filled her ears. She relaxed and sank even farther into the couch, losing herself in the beautiful sounds dancing through the apartment. This was how she relaxed every day. It took away the stress from being hunched over books all day, and the aggravation of making no progress on her long-term assignment.
A little voice in the back of her head scolded her for lying down for so long, as Hermione came into consciousness again. She had fallen asleep listening to the music, but a quick glance at the clock on the wall told her it had only been about a half an hour. She sat up and stretched, yawning widely, before slowly making her way to her room. She languidly stripped away her Ministry robes, and the slacks and blouse she wore underneath. Changing into a pair of comfortable jeans, a fitted t-shirt, and sandals, she ran a brush through her hair. Since her early years in Hogwarts, Hermione had been searching for a way to tame her hair, and by graduation she had found a cleansing potion that somehow managed to let her keep her volume, but without the frizz. She looked herself over in the mirror and smiled at her reflection. She pulled out her coat from the front closet and slipped it on, then went back into her bedroom where there was a fireplace. Although she lived in Muggle London, she had had her fireplace connected to the Floo network for convenience. She pulled a pinch of Floo powder from a small bowl on the mantle. She pulled out her wand and quickly lit a small fire, before throwing the powder in and stating, very clearly, "Grimmauld Place!"
Yay! First chapter up! Read and review, and like I said, let me know what you think! Next chapter coming soon!