Out Of Sorts

Mia had been living in America for the past three years. Slowly has been progressing in journalism, she has a steady job, but has decided to go to a job interview to be editor for a well known magazine called Scientific American. She thought that it sounded perfect, she was always interested in Science.

She entered the office building feeling nervous, she hadn't had a proper interview before and she wasn't sure what to expect.

Mia walked over to the reception desk, who were very helpful and directed her to the third floor where a secretary greeted her, asked her to take a seat and wait to be called through.

In her head Mia was remembering details about which magazine she had worked at, her ambitions, what she is going to bring to the office. She felt very nervous, time was not on her side, everything seemed to be in fast forward and in no she was called through.

A well manicured male finger pressed the button allowing himself to talk to his secretary,

"Send her in,"

At the moment he was interviewing possible employees for his magazine. He had started at the bottom of the business and had taken roughly three and a half years to get to the top. He was the boss, and most people where scared of him.

Unfortunately for him he didn't have the most organised secretary, she lost nearly everything, but he kept her on anyway because he made her laugh and she had this look, so every time he was just about to fire her, she did this look which softened him. Well, she had mislaid this applicant's file so he was completely unprepared, he didn't even know her name.

At that moment the door opened and a woman roughly his age walked in,

"Hi, its nice to meet you,"

She extended her arm to shake his,

"Granger! What on earth are you doing here?"

She withdrew her hand and looked blankly at the blonde,

"I'm here for the job interview, and I would prefer if you call me Miss Granger, please."

He looked at her, furrowing his brow,

"Granger, wha...how...me...you..."

Hermione cut off his stuttering speech; she was starting to get a rather violent headache,

"Can you get on with the interview please? I've started to get a rather painful headache. Anyway what is your name?"

Draco just stared at her completely blank,

"Urrr, my name is," he cleared his throat, uncomfortable, he shuffled some of his papers.

"Draco Malfoy. So are you here for the editor's job?"

He was speaking slowly as if he didn't quite understand himself.

Hermione nodded, 'This man is VERY strange. I sort of know him from somewhere though?'

"Would you like to see my résumé?"

"Yes, I think that would be a good place to start,"

Hermione handed it over, he glanced at it, but kept on staring at Hermione, she shifted in her seat uncomfortably.

"What do you think you could bring to the job, then?" He asked, trying to get into the interview mood.

"Well, I think that I would be able to bring enthusiasm, and a lot of colour into science, helping others to become interested. I've found that not many of the public think that, well, your magazine isn't very interesting, to put it mildly."

She wondered if she had offended him, but he kept nodding just looking at her with a strange expression on her face,

"How can you not remember me Granger!"

His sudden outburst startled Hermione,

"Excuse me?"

"We used to go to Hogwarts! Remember? Gryffindor, Slytherin? Quidditch!"

Hermione frowned; her headache was getting worse,

"What? I don't understand, what's 'Hogwarts'? What is 'Gryffindor'? 'Slytherin'? And what on earth is 'Quittid'!"

"For gods sake! Its Quidditch you idiot! I thought you were supposed to be smart!"

Hermione was taken aback.

"Umm, I came here for a job interview, why are you yelling strange words at me?"

His voice softened,

"You really don't remember, do you?"

"Remember what!"

Hermione was growing frustrated,

"Never mind,"

They carried on with the interview, in Hermione's opinion it went well, she was pretty sure that she had got the job. She still felt odd; he had continued to give her strange looks thro-out the interview.

On her way home she kept on getting sharp headaches and every now and then she would feel as though she was gonna faint.

She was glad as she walked in the front door of her medium sized apartment. In short, it was beautiful, her kitchen and lounge were joint with lots of space, the walls where light blue and yellow. The furniture was big and comfy, (the kind that you can really sink into), the carpet was soft and squidgy. Her bedroom was lovely too, she had a king-sized bed with a rug next to it, everything in her bedroom was light wood and Hermione loved it. She had decorated it herself.

She walked into her bedroom and laid down on her bed fully dressed and fell into a peaceful slumber.

Hermione awoke to the sound of her telephone going off.

"Urr, who's phoning at this hour?" She said groggily to herself.

She looked over at her alarm clock, and she widened her eyes, she had overslept; it was 10 o'clock!

"Woah! That woke me up!" She jumped out of bed and ran to the phone,

"Hello?" Hermione said,

"Hi, this is Susan, from Scientific American,"

"Oh, hi, I didn't think that you would get back this soon,"

Hermione smiled to herself sardonically, knowing that she hadn't got the job. They wouldn't have got back this quickly.

"Yes, we are pretty prompt. I'm sure you know why I'm calling?"

"Yeah, thanks anyway,"

She was about to hang up when Susan yelled,

"Wait!"

"What?"

"I didn't call to say you didn't get it, I called to congratulate you,"

"You, what! I got the job!"

"You got the job!"

Hermione smile widened, thrilled,

"When do I start?"

"As soon as possible, tomorrow maybe? Eight-thirty? Is that alright with you?"

Hermione nodded, amazed, and then remembering that she was on the phone and Susan couldn't see her,

"Yes, that's fine. Is there a dress code or anything?"

"No, but we are a bit iffy about see-through tops, and really short skirts if you get my drift,"

"Yeah, that's fine. Can I wear my jeans?"

"Yup, I was wearing my favourite pair a couple of days ago."

"Good, I'll see you tomorrow then!"

"Yes,"

"Oh, hang on a minute, I wanted to ask, where do I go when I arrive?"

"Come straight to me, and I'll probably be able to tell you where your supposed to go."

"Okay, thank you, bye!"

"Bye,"

She hung up, and slid down the wall that she was leaning on.

Then she stood up and started to dance around her apartment singing,

"I got the job! I got the job! I got the job!"

At eight o'clock sharp Hermione Granger turned up at the offices for Scientific American. She knew she was early, but she didn't want to make a bad first impression.

She entered the office building and got in the lift, travelled to the third floor and walked over to Susan.

"Hi, Susan,"

"Hi, Hermione? Is it?" Susan squinted through her glasses, at the woman walking towards her. Hermione nodded, and smiled,

"So, where do I go for my first day?" Hermione asked, Susan nodded to Draco Malfoys office.

"What? I'm working in Mr Malfoys office?" She asked worriedly,

Susan smiled and shook her head,

"No, he's going to take you to your new office, its adjacent to his."

"Oh, For a moment there I thought I was gonna work with him," she grimaced,

Susan frowned,

"Whatcha mean? He aint that bad, he's the only boss I've had that didn't fire me after two days, I'm so badly disorganised!"

Hermione laughed,

"Its not that he's mean, its just he makes me feel uncomfortable, he seems to know me from somewhere, but I don't recognise him. And I also have a feeling that he doesn't like me."

Susan smiled,

"He has that effect on everybody! Well, not the knowing you and you not knowing him bit, but he doesn't like people he's just met. He likes to get to know them, he'll get better, believe you me."

Hermione nodded gratefully, and walked towards the door to Draco Malfoys office.

She entered the big room, and saw Mr Malfoy sitted at his desk frowning at something, he didn't even look up,

"Hi, Granger,"

She grimaced,

"Cant you call me 'Miss Granger'? I don't like being called 'Granger', it makes me feel like this small," She held up her fingers, with a tiny gap inbetween.

At this Draco looked up, and raised a delicate eyebrow,

"I thought that was the point!"

"Whats that supposed to mean?"

Draco stood up,

"Never mind. So 'Miss Granger', don't you remember me?"

She rolled her eyes,

"Why do you keep focusing on that? Look I don't have a clue who you are, and I don't like your tone. I thought you were supposed to be showing me to my new office?"

He smirked,

'Why does that smirk seem so familiar?' She thought,

"What if I don't what to show you your new office?"

Hermione let out an aggravated sigh,

"Mr Malfoy, you are extremely annoying-"

He cut her off,

"Yes, I know, just shows that I'm doing my job,"

He pinned her against the wall,

"I would hardly call this professional," Hermione said, slightly breathless with the force of being pinned down,

He laughed, that's what did it for Hermione, and she was incredibly angered, she punched him, he fell backwards and landed with a thump on the floor.

Somehow that felt familiar for Hermione, as though she's done that before, that's when she started to get another one of those blinding headaches, she started to get images popping up in her head,

Flashback

Hermione saw herself, much younger, she must have been around thirteen or fourteen. She was standing in the grounds of a beautiful castle, two boys were standing beside her, also there was a very big man, he must have been double, maybe triple the size of Hermione. They all looked pretty upset, or angry.

"S all my fault. Got all tongue-tied. They were all sittin' there in black robes an' I kep' droppin' me notes and forgettin' all them date yeh looked up fer me Hermone. An' then Lucius Malfoy stood up an' said his bit, and the Committee jus' did exac'ly what he told 'em..."

He had an accent, quite a strong one, and he obviously hadn't had any elocution lessons. The red haired boy beside the younger Hermione replied angrily,

"There's still the appeal! Don't give up yet, we're working on it!"

Then they all started to walk back up to the castle,

"'S no good, Ron, That committee's in Lucius Malfoy's pocket. I'm jus' gonna make sure the rest o' Beakys time is the happiest he's ever had. I owe him that..."

The large man turned away and headed in the direction of a small wooden cabin.

The children came across three boys, one was small and slimy, and the other two were big and ugly.

The small boy resembled Draco Malfoy a lot, thought Hermione.

"Look at him blubber!" The Draco Malfoy look-alike sneered,

"Have you ever seen something so pathetic? And he's supposed to be our teacher!"

The two boys, with red hair, and black hair, walked briskly towards the three boys,

But the young Hermione got there first, and with a SMACK punched the small slimy boy across the face.

"Don't you dare call Hagrid pathetic, you foul – you evil - "

The red haired boy weakly tried to grab her arm,

"Hermione!"

"Get off, Ron!"

The girl pulled out a wooden stick and pointed it at the small blonde, he muttered something to the large boys and they ran off towards the castle.

EndOfFlashback

"Woah," Hermione said weakly, she suddenly realised she was on the floor with Draco leaning over her looking worried,

"Hermione are you okay?" His voice was full of caring,

"What do you want Malfoy? I know you don't like me, so don't even pretend. And by the way, did you used to have really slimy, greasy platinum blonde hair? Did I punch you when you and I was like thirteen? Don't lie to me, because I really am not in the mood,"

He stared at her, then answered her question...

a/n: how do ya like it! X I haven't had any reviews 4 ma first chappi x so that's reassuring... x lol x pls review! X soz dat dese tak ages 2 update x bt I hav anotha story 2 nd I am updating dem both at the sme time x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

jolielf x x x