Hermione found it was harder to get to know Draco than she thought. Because of their hostility to each other years prior, it was hard to start conversations without drifting into dangerous territory.
One day she had been joking around with him, and had called him a "twitchy little ferret", thinking he'd find it funny in hindsight. He looked away and didn't meet her eyes the rest of the day.
Another time Hermione found out that someone in their department had broken their wand and misfired a spell at themselves. She shared with this Draco, talking about when Ron did that, and then she remembered that was the first time he had ever called her mudblood. He seemed to have remembered it too, because they avoided each other for hours.
Finally, Hermione had enough. The awkward tension that constantly drifted over them was getting ridiculous, and she knew that it wouldn't stop unless they were up front with each other. So finally, in the middle of working through the last phase of legislation for their bill, she spoke up.
"Draco?"
He looked up from his paperwork, calming setting his quill down and looking at her. "Hermione?"
Chewing her lip, she spoke. "I was thinking, about us and our working situation. I know that in the past, things have been… tense. And we weren't exactly on the best terms. But I would really like to put that all behind us and start new. Become friends, maybe."
Draco was silent for a minute before he carefully spoke. "I know exactly what you mean Hermione. I was thinking the exact same thing. And I like the idea of friends. That sounds good," he said, smiling at the end. It was a genuine smile, and Hermione couldn't help but smile back at him.
Weeks had passed, and Draco and Hermione's friendship was going good. They found out that they had a lot more in common than they thought they did, like the fact that they both loved classic English literature. Draco admitted that after the war he was bored with his reading selection, and had wandered into a muggle library. Upon discovering the classic literature, he fell in love. He then purchased many volumes, which he read numerous times in his downtown London flat.
They also were very determined and intelligent, which made them a very good team. Within two months of working together, Hermione's bill for elf rights was passed. The law required all elf owners to offer clothing to their elf, and allow them to choose freedom or not (Draco had shown to Hermione that not all elves wanted to be free, and amended that part of the law). If freed, elves were to get a minimum of a Galleon a month and a day off a month. Hermione had wanted more, but Draco had once again pointed out that elves saw that as generous, and if people were forced to pay more, the elves might not want that.
As soon as he heard the news of their bill being passed, Draco immediately rushed down to Hermione's office to congratulate her. Not bothering to knock, he busted in the door. Hermione looked up from her work, looking surprised and flustered.
"D-Draco, what are you doing here? Why didn't you knock?"
"Hermione, our bill passed! You did it!" He was so excited that it all came out very loud and fast.
She looked shocked for a moment, and then joyful. She rushed over to Draco and engulfed him in a big hug. "Oh my goodness, that is so exciting! Wait until everyone finds out!"
Draco, in his excitement, responded with picking Hermione up and twirling her around her office. He put her down on her feet, but her arms remained wrapped around his neck, and they looked into each other's eyes for a few moments before Hermione broke the eye contact. She looked down and blushed and mumbled something about it really being exciting.
Draco summoned up all his courage and said, "Hermione, would you like to go out for celebratory drinks?"
She looked at him in the eye for a moment, and answered with a mischievous smirk, "Sure."