The day was cold and blustery as Hermione Granger navigated the busy London streets. Her shoes were soaked through, her toes becoming numb from the cold rain. Thick, wet curls clung to her cheeks. It would do no good to move them now. The bank clock told her that she was already five minutes late to work, and there was still another then minutes to her walk. She cursed to herself and quickened her pace, feeling more rainwater flood her less than weather appropriate shoes.
"Granger, you're late!" her boss called out as she entered the Ministry offices sopping wet. Hermione groaned as she set her belongs down and peeled off her coat. "And you missed the departmental meeting. Remember the memo that went out yesterday asking that you all come in earlier for it?"
Again Hermione groaned, apologizing profusely as she tried to wrangle her hair into a semi-decent ponytail. "Sorry, won't happen again," she promised.
"See that it doesn't," Mr. Prichert said in a tone that Hermione classified as ominous.
The brunette witch, just years out Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and now an underling in the Department for the Regulation of Magical Creatures, sighed and pulled out her desk chair, plopping gracelessly into it. "This is going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day," she muttered to herself before getting to work.
It was hours before her clothes dried out; too busy to cast a spell to do the work for her. The desk before her was littered with papers, quills, empty ink pots, folders stacked upon folders. The mess was beginning to overwhelm her. With a quick flick of her wand, the papers straightened themselves, the ink pots hopped into the waste bin, and the folders were filed away. For the first time that day, Hermione Granger breathed a sigh of relief. With a smile on her face, she rose from her desk and walked into the break room.
Draco Malfoy poured through the cupboards for any snack his coworkers happened to bring that day. Finding nothing of interest, he moved to the icebox and removed a small salad marked H.G. He smirked as he pulled off the lid and dug in. At least once a week he stole her lunch. Riling up Hermione Granger was one of Draco's favorite pastimes.
The break room door opened and there stood a still wet-haired Hermione balking at the smirking blonde. "Again? You stole my lunch again?" she yelled. "Haven't you got enough money to buy your own food instead of taking mine? For heaven's sakes, Malfoy, think about someone other than yourself for once in your life."
Tirade finished, she turned on her heel and stalked back to her desk. Her stomach grumbled angrily, as she had skipped breakfast that morning. "Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day," she mumbled, crossing her arms on her desk before resting her head against them.
After grabbing a quick lunch, which she hurriedly ate at her desk, another meeting had been called to discuss the latest goings on of the case she was currently assisting on to aid the plight of the werewolves. What had been lauded as a quick, half hour check-in turned into three hours of droning and tangents. Five o'clock was fast approaching when Hermione returned to her desk to a new stack of work. With a sigh, she sat down and began to whittle down the pile.
"Terrible," she muttered, opening the first file.
"Horrible," she muttered again, opening another.
"No good." Onto the next.
"Very bad day," she finished saying by the fifth file.
That was when she found a scrap of parchment stuck in the middle. Meet me at the Leaky Cauldron. You'll know me by the rose on my table was scrawled neatly. She had no idea who had left it or what time she was supposed to meet her mystery date, but she groaned anyway when she realized just how late it was getting. She wondered if the person who had left the note would still be there.
The sun had set, but the rain still came down in droves when Hermione finally left the Ministry. It wasn't until she stepped outside that she realized her umbrella was still under her desk. She had left it there the night before, and was regretting not having it now more than she had that morning. Perhaps it was all a sign that she shouldn't meet whoever had left her the note. But then, if the person was still waiting, she would feel bad about standing him up. With her decision made, she tented her coat over her head to keep as much of her hair dry as possible. Reaching the alley near the Ministry, she quickly Apparated to Diagon Alley's Leaky Cauldron.
The rain hadn't yet reached the small Wizarding district, and for that Hermione was grateful. She cast a drying charm to her clothes and straightened herself out before entering the musty pub. Few tables were occupied, but the ones that were didn't bear a rose. She began to wonder if this was some elaborate prank. It would be best to just turn around and go home, pretending none of this had happened. She was hungry, though; her growling stomach evidence of that fact.
Hermione slid into the first empty booth she could find and ordered dinner, praying it would come quickly so she could eat and go home. Tom, the barkeep, magicked the plate to her table. The dish was hot and she instantly burned the tips of her fingers. Swearing, she stuck them in her mouth to relieve the sting. Shaking off the pain, she moved to grab her fork and knocked the plate into her lap. Tears sprang into her eyes, both from the embarrassment and the pain. She quickly stood and exited the pub, glad to be in the rain for once.
"Terrible, horrible, no good," she cried, but was interrupted.
"Very bad day?" Then, a red rose was presented to her. Hermione looked up through bleary eyes, using the back of her hand to dry her tears. Before her stood Draco Malfoy with a sincere and concerned look on his face. "You've been saying that all day. Has it really been that bad?"
She wanted to glare at the git. She wanted to tell him to go away and never bother her again. She wanted to ask why he was torturing her. Instead, she said, "This was probably the worst part of it."
Draco nodded. "I'm sure you're wondering why I left you that note," he started.
"Because you thought it was someone else's desk?" Hermione guessed.
"It's too clean to be anyone else's desk," he quipped, letting a small smile pass over his lips before setting them back in a straight line. "Honestly, though, you looked like you were having a hard day and my stealing your lunch repeatedly can't help."
Hermione scoffed as he spoke. "So, you, Draco Malfoy, wanted to do something nice for me?" she asked incredulously, producing a small chortle. "Thanks for the laugh, Malfoy, I needed that."
A scowl turned down the corners of Draco's mouth. "I wasn't trying to be funny, Granger," he replied, trying to rein in his temper. "Ya know what, just forget it. I know we never got on well, and you'd probably like to keep it that way. I just thought I'd try to cheer you up. It couldn't get much worse than being with me."
"Thank you, Malfoy," she murmured sincerely as he began to walk away. "It's just...it's just been a hard day. And yes, you steal my food, but then you try to do something nice for me and I just royally muck it all up. I'm sorry for that."
Draco turned back to her and nodded his acceptance of her apology. "It's fine," he replied gruffly. They stood in an awkward silence, both moving under the awning to avoid the rain that had just begun. It was a quick storm, one that seemed to match their moods as they avoided eye contact as much as possible. When the rain let up, he turned to her, his eyes roaming her food stained form. "So, would you let me buy you a meal? Or are you happier wearing it?"
Hermione frowned. "You were so close to getting me to say yes, and then you say that," she teased.
Draco pulled open the door. "Well, if that's the way you feel," he murmured, shrugging his shoulders, "I guess I could just eat alone." He stepped inside, ready to close the door behind him.
"Wait," she conceded, following him inside. "I am sort of hungry."
A smile touched his lips. "Good, it's a date then."
"No, it's not," she stated, shaking her head. "I'm sure it'll be a cold day in Hades before you date me."
They found an empty table; the pub had filled up since Hermione walked out earlier. After placing their orders and Hermione cast a quick scourgify to her clothes, they settled into a polite conversation with discussions of work and life after Hogwarts becoming main topics. They ate quietly, neither willing to talk with full mouths. Draco paid the bill when they were satisfactorily full.
"You know, if you stopped stealing my lunch, you wouldn't have had to buy me dinner," she chided as they stepped into the night air.
There was a mischievous glimmer in his eyes as Draco posed the question, "Did you ever think that maybe I stole your food in hopes that you would agree to let me buy you dinner?"
"No," she replied honestly. "I thought you were just being a git."
A blush colored his cheeks at her answer. "Well, maybe part of me was," Draco said sheepishly. "I don't have a lot of friends these days, though. And I never see you palling around with anyone from work. I know you've probably still got Potter and Weasley, but we spend so much time in the office that I thought if we could be friends the time would pass a lot smoother."
"Will you stop stealing from me?" she asked, raising her eyebrows hopefully.
"Probably not," he answered.
But she still smiled at him. "I think we could be friends, Draco."
He returned her smile gratefully before leaning down to kiss her cheek. "Still having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day?" he asked as they walked away from the Leaky Cauldron.
"It got much better towards the end," she replied.
The End.