Yay! I'm back! Thank you guys sooooooo much! I'm glad you all like it! -passes out yummy candies to the nice reviewers-

Delayed Action Ninja: blushes I'm glad you enjoyed it all I hope to keep you reading!

Avocado75: heh, I was quite the thesaurus happy kid in the last chapter wasn't I? 3 thank you for the constructive criticism, it really helps me!

Ottis Wheely: Here's the next chapter!!!

witchchild280: I'm glad that I was successfully able to built tension with the attack! I really worried it would be too rushed, and you can't help but love Draco's egotistical self! 3 It's so fun writing his character.

Babygoogoo2: All will be revealed quite soon…3 but I'm glad you asked, because it does seem a bit out of character for her to be working under him. I'm very glad someone spotted that and asked!

Foxer: I noticed that after I posted heh but I'm too lazy to fix it, I'm always messing up with "here" and "hear" I need to work on that

Lucifer's Garden: I loved your comment Prodding is fun, so now I can prod you back to tell you to review! PROD review! Heh

Slyswn28: I'm glad you liked the plotline!

LillaBella: Thank you for reading my story! Once again, Draco is quite silly when drunk heh that really amused me when I read that bit.

Disclaimer: I realized I didn't have a disclaimer in the last chapter, but since I don't want some idiot canning me for it, I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER! Maybe there will be a few added characters for some flavor, but I really don't think I'll add any major oc's (I don't really like them much) but anyone you do recognize from the HP books, you KNOW they aren't mine. You aren't STUPID, I know you arent because if I was the owner of Harry Potter and all the characters, Hermione/Draco would happen and well…yeah. It would happen lol. I don't do disclaimers on every chapter, I just forget a lot, so HERE! You now have proof that I'm not claiming these wonderful characters as my own! But I can say the plot is mine I haven't seen one like it yet!

Onto what you care about. Chapter two!!!


The One Who Hates You Most

"You think he died?"

"Well, it wouldn't really be a bad thing if he did…"

"Well Hermione, I agree completely. But I didn't really think you'd be really…I don't know…ecstatic about him turning up daisies. Well, to the public anyway."

Hermione rolled her eyes as she took a sip of her tea. "Ginny, I'm not rejoicing of his death to the public; you aren't the public. And plus, we don't even know if he's dead! Besides, he's Malfoy; him dying isn't going to really make me burst into tears or anything…well scratch that. I feel an overwhelming desire to burst into tears of joy."

Ginny snorted. "I suppose you're right, this calls for a party, don't you think?"

She grinned. "Any excuse to get drunk, right?"

The redhead's expression was that of complete mock surprise, as if it was entirely absurd for her to take any excuse to get drunk. Then she grinned and shrugged. "Nah, it's just real fun to see Harry table dance."

They both burst into a fit of hysteria reminiscing on the past New Year's Eve party where the Boy Who Lived got a little too buzzed.

"But seriously Hermione, if Malfoy was killed, that means Lucius is out on the lose still, and it also means that you have to find a new job."

Hermione sipped the last of her tea before answering. "Well, I suppose it's worse if Malfoy senior is on the lose, seeing his is a homicidal maniac and all…but losing my job isn't something I'm quite worried about." She grinned.

Ginny tapped her nails on the empty porcelain teacup before Hermione waved her wand to clean the dishes away. "Thank you," she said politely, then continued on with the conversation. "I still don't see why you took up that job in the first place. You always complain about how terrible it is."

"Well it isn't like I had any choice in that matter! That prat had every employer with an opening scared out of their wits if they even thought about accepting me as an employee. They couldn't accept me with out getting themselves fired, since he basically owns the whole wizarding job industry." She added, rolling her eyes. "I should have gone to Hogwarts to teach, but there wasn't a job opening, and I really needed a way of income. If Malfoy's out of the way, then I should be able to find a very well paying job in no time."

Which was true, she was a very proficient worker and everyone knew that. She could make a very big name of herself, not that she already had when she assisted Harry in the defeat of Voldemort. But doing that wasn't going to get her enough money to support herself comfortably, and even if she did she wouldn't take it. She had worked at the Ministry as a secretary in the Auror department after Hogwarts. That hadn't required her to go through the Auror Academy, however, all it pertained to was a lot of busy work. She filed papers on the different leads of who and where Death Eaters were, but she didn't really help solve many of the mysteries that those files contained. That was an Auror's job, not hers. But after the war was over, and nearly all Death Eaters captured, there wasn't a need for her, so she was let go of…which was a nice way to say she was fired on the spot.

It didn't take long before a flood of job offers had come her way, a lot of nice ones too, but one she received was from Draco Malfoy about her being his personal assistant, which she refused immediately. He of course, being himself, made it so she couldn't get a job other than the one he offered her…so to support herself she had to take it. There were benefits to it, yes, she had a very healthy salary that made her life quite luxurious, but she was the assistant to DRACO MALFOY git of the century.

Ginny nodded. "That's true…but you have quite the Gringotts account!" she added grinning.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah. I guess there is some good to it all. And I haven't lost my job, the company will be under the control of the "second in command", Blaise Zabini if he did die. Zabini…is interesting."

"Interestingly cute. In a dark, mysterious, Slytherin sort of way."

Hermione snorted. "If that's what you like in a guy."

There was a silence, but only for a bit when Ginny asked, "do you hope Draco's dead?"

Hermione's chocolate brown eyes widened in a bit of shock. "Me? Well, no, I would never hope he'd be dead…erm…perhaps I'd wish he'd be transfigured into a ferret for the rest of his life…but dead? No. Of course not." She meant it, she really did. "Do you?"

Ginny laughed. "Maybe…" she smirked a smirk that was quite like Fred and George's. "Oh come off it Hermione! He's a git!" She said to her friends surprised expression.

"Yes, yes you are absolutely right."

"I'm dead...I'm dead, I died, I'm dead..." Draco muttered as he slowly opened his eyes. He expected to see himself in hell, and was extremely relieved to find he was still on the fourth floor of his company. He was completely bewildered at this, but extremely happy to find he hadn't died...but he had to have died! Lucius never missed an opponent when dueling, but perhaps he had meant to only scare his son out of his wits to teach him a lesson. Not likely. That wasn't his style no matter how much Draco would like it to be. He knew his father wanted him dead, so he was probably dead.

But he didn't feel dead. Whatever that meant. He didn't know how it felt to be dead! He imagined it would be quite dreadful, more so on the world's part… what a sad thought! A Draco-less world...however would they survive?

But was he really dead? He had seen that horrible green light, and for that fleeting moment he was sure he would die. That had been terrible. The spell had enveloped him and he heard screaming, he wasn't sure if it had been him or not, but there was definitely screaming. He had to have been dead...no one but Potter had survived that curse. Ha, wouldn't it be a lovely sight if he survived it too? It would wipe that smirk off of Potter's ugly face for sure!

So if he had survived (of course he did, he was Draco for Merlin's sake!) the curse probably was deflected off of him and struck his father. He looked around to try to identify where Lucius's body was, and when he turned around he was nearly wet himself when he was but two inches from his father's lunatic face. Draco's first instinct was to push his father down, which he tried, but he just passed through Lucius's body and fell to the floor. What was happening? His father hadn't budged a bit, it was like time had frozen...and he had become a ghost.

"No. You're not a ghost, and yes, you are dead." A silky feminine voice came from behind, from what he could tell she was slightly amused at his bewilderment, and he did NOT like that one bit.

He quickly got up off of the floor and jerked his body to face who had mocked him. He found himself facing a very tall, slender woman whose age he couldn't really place. Her eyes were a shade of gray much like his own, a very silvery gray that penetrated into his eyes, as if she were reading his thoughts. Her hair was like the cloak of darkness that hid the night sky, and her skin was very pale and translucent, it rivaled the Malfoy's pale countenance by far. She wore long black robes that were quite elegant, there were soft embroideries intertwined in subtle designs, and it was trimmed with black lace. There was a gem in the shape of a diamond that glittered upon her brow, and clutched in her hands was what appeared to be a rather large brass hourglass.

"W-what?" he stupidly asked, still quite stunned at the woman's sudden appearance.

"You are dead." She uttered once more, the words fell from her lips in a rather blunt and icy tone, which made him shiver a bit. Before Draco could ask questions she continued. "Time is still, but only for as long as I allow it," she motioned to her large hour glass, then continued once more "we must leave."

"Leave? Where?" He spluttered, losing his Malfoy cool, but only for a moment. "I can't leave!" He spat rather firmly.

The woman rose an eyebrow, she reminded him of Narcissa with that look on her face, and he knew when a woman gave that look, she was not to be trifled with. "And why is it that we cannot leave, Mister Malfoy?" He felt like he had just plummeted into extremely icy water when she had said that, her voice was so cold. But of course he didn't let that effect his external appearance.

"Because," he sneered, "I'm Draco Malfoy! I cannot die!" Death was something he surely couldn't taste of, not now, anyway.

"Oh, but you did die," A small smile was pressed upon her lips.

Draco clenched his jaw at this statement. "I can't die now..."He murmured.

"Why is that? Would the world end if you died?" If she was being sarcastic, he couldn't tell. Her face was as solemn as it had been the whole time.

His first instinct was to agree that the world would indeed end if he was not alive, but he figured that she wouldn't have a liking to that retort. Instead he said, "well...sort of."

Her eyebrows rose again when she heard him say that. "Really. Elaborate."

"I'm sure you are aware that I run the largest company in the wizarding world, and soon the muggle" said Draco proudly, "it would put a lot of people out of jobs if I died, and that would be devastating!"

She didn't look swayed one bit. No change had passed through her features; she just stared at him.

"Please!" he called out quite desperately. "I'll do anything! I'll...give up my evil ways! Give money to charity, go devote my time to...Merlin forbid, to SERVICE!" he was not at all pleased when she began to chuckle slightly.

"I'm begging you, and Malfoy's don't beg!"

"Very well, mister Malfoy. You have caught me in a good mood (he wanted to snort at this statement, but refrained) and I'll give you a task that you must complete to be given life again."

Draco gave a relieved sigh, "thank you."

"No, thank you, this should prove to be a very amusing spectacle, my task."

'Oh great...what is it that she could possibly want that could be "very amusing"? Some sort of sick entertainment...' he thought. "Anything, I'll do anything." For the sake of his company and fame, he'd do anything...maybe.

"You must make someone miss you-"

"That's it?" he suddenly asked, baffled, he had it in the bag! Surely there were thousands of his fan club that'd mourn for his absence.

She looked very cross when he had interrupted her. "Do not interrupt me, Draco." she snarled, then smiled, and continued. "You must make the someone who hates you the most miss you."

Oh Merlin, it would be Potter or Weasley for sure. How would he manage to make them of all people miss him? WHY would he want to? Oh yeah…he was dead.
"She is the only one who you can appear to as a normal person, everyone else on the contrary, cannot see you, or anything that you do."

She? Unless Potter or Weasley had a sex change, it wasn't one of them...Oh Merlin… he thought, Potter and Weasley as women… that was not a happy thought.

"You must make Hermione Granger miss your absence. You have until December 25th to complete this task, otherwise, you will remain dead." With out giving him time to protest or say anything for that matter, she snapped her fingers and disappeared.


I hope you all like this okay

Next chapter we have some Draco/Hermione interaction, I promise. I hope this chapter didn't disappoint you, not much really happened I guess, just some groundwork. I have chapter three laid out in my head, and I hope to type it out by Friday! On Saturday I'm going to California for a week, and it'll be a loooong car ride so I'll be sure to write a lot in my note book, I'll hopefully be able to transfer it to my computer by my thanksgiving holiday (Nov. 25th through the 29th). Thank you for all your support and kind words! Please drop a nice review it's a good motivator!