A/N Hey everyone, just a couple of notes! It's my first fanfic yaay! Please forgive me for my foibles along the way, but constructive criticism is absolutely encouraged! Also please review and favorite so I know if this fic is worth pursuing. I won't be updating very quickly seeing as I'm still in school and that comes first, many apologies. Rated M for language and possible future smut ;)

In-story note: Fic starts a year after the battle, nothing has changed from the end of DH

Please enjoy ;)

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and/or characters belong to the fabulous J.K. Rowling, all I own is the plot.

1: A New Beginning?

It was small. Very small. For awhile she just looked at it, drinking the sight in; she'd seen pictures of course, but it was the first that she'd actually seen it in person. She was a bit disappointed, but it was like every other, she supposed. Hermione walked through the doorway of her new flat at 297 Welsh St. in London, the first place she'd live other than her parents home and Hogwarts of course.

It had only been a year since the battle, and although she was the CEO of the Promotion of Elvish Wellfare at the the Ministry and it was quite a good paying job, she should've known not to expect something lavish. It was acceptable though, and good for a single person living situation. That reminded her. Smiling bitterly, she recalled the recent breakup of her and Ron. Shaking her head, she tried to forget how much of a total arse he was; their whole relationship had been far from pleasant and not even close to respectful. Loads of hexes, lots of cursing, and the occasional slap. Again, she shook her head and lightly pinched herself. If she was going to get over him, it would be easier to do it sooner rather than later. She'd already spent too many nights missing his comforting arm around her at night. Ok there Hermione, back to business. Letting out a deep sigh, she refocused and looked around again. She'd been so excited, that she didn't even think of visiting the place before she took out a loan and bought it. Shaking her head and muttering sarcastically under her breath, "Well, congrats Hermione, this is a momentous moment. The first time you didn't think something entirely through."

Giving a big sigh and heading in with her bags floating behind her, she looked around some more and gave it some more thought. It wasn't half-bad; it wasn't like it was missing any rooms or anything. Yes, it would suffice.

After she'd sorted everything in their right places as best she could, and even though her and Harry were having lunch at the local coffeehouse in an hour, she flopped down on the couch that had been magicked into the room 5 minutes earlier to settle down and read for awhile. But suddenly there was a great commotion outside, sounding like someone had been stepped on by a hippogriff. But the shout that had echoed through her walls had sounded strangely familiar.

"Merlin….no good elf….damn woman didn't give me the number….how insolent…."

It sounded like an extremely distressed or at least very angry man. Ugh really?

She groaned internally. She'd just sat down; now of all times did she have to deal with someone that obviously had no respect for their neighbors or apparently elves. It was just a snippet, but from the tone of voice, she could safely assume that he wasn't too happy with the creature. But who's voice was that? Getting up from her warm and comfy seat, she stalked over to the door, feeling her wand in her pocket just in case, and peered through the eye-hole but as soon as she put her face to it, all she saw was black for a moment.

"What the—" she wasn't expecting to see that as the black faded away, there was a pair of unusually large green eyes peering at her. She backed away from the door and tilted her head, thoroughly confused.

"Is persons in there or is there not?" A squeaky voice came from outside. Ohhhhh. She had enough experience with elves at the ministry to recognize the terrible grammar and tiny voice. It was the elf mentioned by the man before, but why exactly was it wanting to know if someone was there?

But before she could think more about it, there was a click—and the door swung open, revealing the aforementioned elf. Hermione looked down in surprise at the tiny little creature with those big green eyes, but right behind it were shoes. Nice ones at that.

Ah yes, the man who was so inconsiderate earlier. She'd almost forgotten about him. Almost. Her gaze travelled from the suede shoes, up to a black robe and dress pants, all the way up to a walking can the man was holding—with a sliver snake head, fangs and all, on it. There was only one man she had unfortunately crossed paths with in the past that owned that. Good Merlin's underpants, why in Godric's name is he here?

Hermione almost choked on her own spit when she looked up at his face, with that iconic long blonde hair framing it. Standing before her was someone who she thought she'd never have to encounter again. Lucius Malfoy. Hermione simply stared for a long moment at the features on the man's face. And although they were contorted into a look that just screamed 'please let this just be a nightmare' mixed with strong distaste, she couldn't help admiring what she saw. Like marble, his entire face was carved into the perfect specimen of the type of people that would give looks of distaste to anyone wearing less than the best, but Merlin it was beautiful. As close to a Greek god as one could come, in her opinion. Of course this wasn't the first time that she'd noticed how handsome this stupidly evil and former Deatheater was—hold up a quick second….snap out of it Hermione! What in Merlin's beard are you thinking? She kicked herself for being distracted. It was quite ridiculous that she should be thinking of his face in this situation. The important thing was that Malfoy was standing outside of her flat. Her first reaction was to pull out her wand and begin to hex the absolute shit out of him, but on a more rational second thought, that would be positively stupid of her. Maybe he was just here to talk. She almost laughed out loud. Lucius Malfoy. Here to talk to her. This was a complete and utter joke.

But Malfoy looked as though he'd swallowed slugs accidentally, and looked as surprised to see her here as she was to see him.

After a minute, Hermione cleared her throat and tried to say in her most un-bothered voice, "Hello Mr. M-malfoy. What business do you have here, if I may ask?

Her voice stuttered on his name and she cursed inwardly. He can probably smell fear.

Even though he was no longer a Deatheater, and no longer in Azkaban (he'd gotten out on 'good behavior' which was absolutely ludicrous), he was still a man who wouldn't think twice about hexing you if you looked looked at him the wrong way, and although it had been a year since the battle, her scars had definitely not disappeared. They were still clearly there.

Meanwhile, the look of confusion had disappeared and was replaced with one of slight…was it embarrassment? She couldn't tell, but whatever it was, it didn't last long, and he regained his haughty composure and said, "What a pleasure, Miss….what was it? Oh yes….Granger. That was quite a rude greeting you gave, wasn't it?"

He sneered, and then turned to the elf, his sneer turning into more of a deep frown. The house-elf was still looking up at Hermione with little more than a look that plainly said, 'do something like Potter and make him give me a sock'.

"Well, it's the wrong door obviously, so stop staring and get on to the next one," Lucius continued on through bared teeth and a grimace; he gave the elf a hard nudge with his foot.

What in the actual hell is going on here? Wrong door? Apparently he wasn't going to address what was going on because he turned to walk away. And what's with the no mention of the usual remark about her 'dirty blood'? If it was possible, the only sign of the man's hatred for her was the looks on his face. Hmm, well he's still the dirtbag he was a year ago, but maybe Azkaban did him some good after all, even if his treatment of elves hadn't gotten an inkling better.

Curiosity got the better of her and she took a step outside into the hallway. "What exactly are you doing Mr. Malfoy?"

It came out much more accusingly than she expected, and as she expected Malfoy turned and gave her a sneer, but his expression was again mixed with that look of embarrassment.

"I had thought by now that you'd of all people have learned not to meddle in other peoples business, that does obviously not concern you," he said through curtly through lips that barely moved. "Do not test me witch. I have other more important matters to contend with."

His insults, once long ago had an impact on her, but now it was just plain rude and annoying to no end. Slight rage bubbled to the surface of her head, and wasn't thinking straight when she said to him, dripping with sarcasm, "Wow, you know you're right Mr. Malfoy, this obviously doesn't concern me, especially since you showed up at my door with a damn house elf to boot, and then proceed to go snoop around in other people's rooms in the place that I'm living. Absolutely. It doesn't concern me at all," the snide witch replied, full of mocking.

Lucius tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. Taken aback, but quickly insulted at the sudden sarcasm that emanated from this frazzled looking girl, he slowly took a step closer to her and raised his staff almost as to strike her, but simply leaned close and got right in her face whispering, "It doesn't bother you that I'm here does it, girl?"

He reached out and put a single finger under her chin, lifting it up for her face to meet his.

"Hm? Is that why you're so curious?"

His tone and words were meant to obviously intimidate, but the look on his face said so much more. It wasn't a look of hate…no, it was something else entirely, and she wasn't sure she liked it.

From her point of view, Hermione could see every dark eyelash on his face, and his piercing slate grey eyes had specks of electric blue in them. Stopping momentarily to just think about what it would feel like to run her fingers through that godly hair of his, she subconsciously bit her lip. Malfoy, who (lucky for her) wasn't a legilimens, clearly mistook this action for fear, and took his hand away, a small smug look tugging at his lips. Apparently satisfied that he still got a reaction out of her (well, misinterpreted reaction), he turned and grabbed the house-elf with a gloved hand.

"Keep knocking, you insolent creature," and the elf squeaked and hurriedly obeyed, running from door to door, checking if anyone was in them. Who or what in the good wizarding world is he looking for, Hermione thought frantically. Looking at the tiny elf, still scurrying around, almost at the last door of the hallway, she noticed that the man was right in what he had been shouting earlier; none of the doors had numbers on them. Wait how the bloody hell had she even found her room if there were no numbers? Ah yes the lady at the front desk had told her that it was just the first door on the right on the second floor. Well, he's definitely looking for someone, she concluded.

But at that very moment the poor house-elf said, "Sir, 'tis here lord! Your room issis here!"

Lucius' face immediately turned to stone as he slowly turned in horror at what his elf had just said. His head cocked to one side and he slowly stalked towards the elf who had clearly noticed his fumble. The elf's face blanched and he took a step backwards.

"Sir, Mr. Malfoy sir I hasn't mean to said that—I-I-I isn't good I is going to go now and clean the house and punish, oh no please no Mr. Malfoy sirs," the elf babbled clearly on the brink of tears, his big green eyes turning into saucers the size of dinner plates, but the man just continued, his face contorting into a look of even more hatred if that was possible. He pulled his wand from the head of the snake on his cane and as quick as lightning pointed it at the hopeless elf, but with a crack and a squeak the elf dissaparated to Merlin knows where. Lucius slowly lowered his wand and muttered something unheard, while Hermione, with the emotional range of actually more than a teaspoon, could almost feel the many waves of horror and embarrassment flowing off of the man. She only had a second for her brain to process this through, because her mouth opened and soon she was uttering the words, inlaid with a held-back giggle barely disguised as a cough, "Mr. Malfoy….you live here? I'm sorry but I just simply can't see that," and her face morphed into a grin like Crookshanks'. This man, who wouldn't touch anything less than what cost 200 galleons, was living here? And how long had he been here? Not long for sure; surely someone would've noticed and word would be going around. And the more pressing question that was filling her head was why?

He turned and looked as though he were ready to kill, and it took him a few seconds, but eventually composed himself as he formed the words.

"Although it is none of your business, yes, I am taking up residence in this…" at this he waved his hand at the surroundings, "flat, I suppose it would be called. You will speak of this to not single soul," he said with daggers in his piercing grey eyes. "Do I make myself clear?"

Now for anyone else, this declaration of her obedience would make them at least cringe up with fear, but of course Hermione Granger, war hero extravaganza, was definitely not just anyone. She had seen Lucius do much more terrible things then just be an arrogant prick (like he was at the moment) so, calmly, she drew herself up to her full height which still didn't even reach the man's chin, and said in a clear voice, "I wouldn't think to do otherwise. And the reason that you're staying in this flat—"

"Is business that you're not so privileged to hear," cutting her off with his haughty reply.

"—no, actually if you'd listened I would've said that the papers will find out soon enough anyway, so it doesn't matter whether or not you fill me in on your current-situation," she continued to say, with a smirk on her face.

He looked surprised that she would actually dare to speak to him so but he seemed to accept it as her word not to tell anyone about this, as he turned on his heel, saying as he walked towards his room, "Do not misinterpret my lack of argument as pleasure in this situation, Miss Granger. If I had an option, I would certainly not be here right now." He disappeared into his room and the door closed behind him, but Hermione simply shook her head and headed back inside, wondering how long "temporary" meant to him, hoping in vain that it meant only a few weeks, but something told her that this would not be the case.

BEEP BEEP BEEP. Her watch's alarm went off.

Bloody hell. She was late for her lunch with Harry.

She quickly magicked herself into a nice powder blue pencil skirt and a white blouse. Nice and simple, just as she liked it. She had to take a few minutes to freshen up and tame her unruly hair, but just as she opened the door to apparate to Madam CC's (their usual spot for tea), she was bombarded by a load of floating furniture and other miscellaneous items zooming down the hallway to none other than her new neighbor's room. Patience is a virtue, Hermione. Calm down woman, she told herself as more and more items came from up the staircase.

Just after a minute of this and she was about to shout down the hallway to make it stop, it did. She had noticed however, that not all of it was furniture, and a few things looked as though they should've been taken away by the ministry. Namely dark items, probably from Knockturn Alley. Oh well. Not everyone can change immediately, she reasoned, and she stepped out, looking to see if there were any straggling lamps behind the others that might suddenly knock her from her feet, but none came.

She headed down the stairs but just as she got to the bottom step, she remembered. She left her purse in her room. Sweet Merlin what was happening to her? This was too unlike her to forget her purse—well, actually to forget anything at all.

Lost in her thoughts, she turned around and trudged all the way back up the stairs, looking down. She almost made it to the top—until she felt her forehead hit a wall—well, one made of silk and cloth. And muscle. Actually, a lot of muscle, but she didn't have time to think about that because the next second she felt herself lose her balance and fall backwards, but a strong arm grabbed her waist and she was brought back up to the stair. Her hands automatically reached for the cloth in front of her, which happened to be Lucius' suit. Her body was pressed against his and through his shirt and jacket she could clearly feel that he was tensed up.

Partly because of adrenaline and partly because of the situation, she took a deep breath and tried to calm herself, but he smelled of peppermint and chamomile, and she inhaled deeply. His arm around her was still clenched tightly to her waist, although it was no longer necessary, but she strangely didn't mind it. Her skirt was in his fingers and just thinking about the few inches that separated his hand and a place that would be very improper for him to touch made a shiver run down her spine. It was so wrong that she was thinking about all the things that he could do in that moment, but she couldn't help it. Every sense was aroused, but she drew herself back to reality and looked up at his face, still impassive as always. Actually, a look of passion, equal to that of a lover, passed over it, but it was gone just as soon as it came, and she doubted if it had actually happened.

"Umm….thanks," she said awkwardly. This was by far the strangest situation she'd ever been in, and she'd been in a lot of them.

"Yes, well," Malfoy smirked and removed his arm from her waist, "I didn't want to have to clean up the mess if you'd fallen," he drawled, back to his usual self, and he straightened out the front of his suit. He raised an eyebrow, at her.

"Miss Granger, I do believe that you're enjoying yourself a little too much in this situation here," he said, the side of his mouth twitching ever so slightly.

Hermione suddenly realized that she was still clutching his shirt.

"Oh Merlin, yes, sorry for that—I mean I'm not sorry for enjoying myself—wait, no I mean I wasn't enjoying anything—I'm just….oh, never mind," she said, removing her hands and giving up trying to explain herself in vain. He simply shrugged.

"I mean I don't blame you…" And this time he didn't even try to hide his smug smirk.

"Oh do stop would you?" she said rolling her eyes. He sounded exactly like Draco did when they went to school together. I suppose a stupid amount of vanity just runs in the family, she thought to herself. She moved past him and walked, with her face burning red, to her room, but she heard him call after her.

"You clean up well, Miss Granger, even as clumsy as you are. Just try to watch where you're walking, will you?"

Was that his twisted way of complimenting her? Well even if it was, she didn't care. Did she?

She felt a blush rising to her cheeks. No, oh please no. She certainly couldn't handle the smirk she would get from him if he noticed that his stupid words had actually affected her.

"Well, thank you and I will," she said skeptically, narrowing her eyes but said it politely all the same.

Accioing her purse to her, and turned towards the stairs again, moving quickly past him and brushing his side. But she turned when he said her name.

"Oh and Miss Granger….see you soon. Not that I particularly want to," he snidely remarked, his arms crossed across his trim torso. She simply shooed him away with her hand, turned, and smiled to herself, making sure that he couldn't see her face. It wouldn't do well if his ego was any bigger than it already was. Maybe this living situation wouldn't be as terrible as she first thought it would. Goodness, this is ridiculous. She gave a quiet laugh to herself, and headed down to apparate to lunch, but not before feeling eyes trace down the length of her body and back up again.

She turned ready to reprimand the man's staring, but before she could, her eyes found nothing at the top of the stares but empty space. Damnable wizard.