Hermione held a piece of her hair in front of her and eyed the ends. It was beginning to form split ends and it was due time that she had another haircut. A sigh escaped her lips as she let go of her hair. She eyed her office for anything to work on. She had already finished today's pile and reorganized her office. Not like she needed it anyways, the place was already spotless.

Her eyes went to her bottom desk drawer as the taste for alcohol returned. What a pity. She already drank all she held there and there wouldn't be anymore until she restocked.

Maybe she could leave early to drink the ones she had at home?

A knock made her look towards her door and she scowled at the sight of the person.

"What do you want?" She grumbled. "You didn't have your fill yesterday?"

"I wanted…" he paused. Hermione watched him hesitate and shift from one foot to another. She lifted her eyebrow at the scene. It was almost as if he was nervous. She almost snorted at the thought. Yeah, that would be the day; and then pigs would fly. No, she shouldn't say that since she recalled there were magical creatures out there in a shape of a pig with wings.

"I don't have all day you know?" She waved her hand to signal for him to hurry up.

"Um…right." He coughed into his hand. He ran a hand through his hair and then let out a deep sigh. "Look, Granger, I just wanted to apologize for what I said yesterday. I had no right to behave the way I did."

Hermione took in a sharp breath in surprise. Well…she clearly wasn't expecting that. What happened? Did he fall down or something between yesterday and today?

He clearly saw her disbelief because then he added. "I know it may be hard to believe, but I do feel bad. And for that I wanted to make it up to you."

"And by that, what exactly do you mean?" She said warily. This had to be a trap. Right?

He let out a small smirk. Now there was the Malfoy she knew and hated. "By taking you out, of course."

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows in anger. "I don't need your pity party, so you can tell whoever set you up for this to shove it."

"First of all, no one can tell me what to do, alright? And second, I'm doing this because I want to," Malfoy said, leaning against the doorframe. He shoved his hands in his pockets and stared hard at her. "So what time do I pick you up?"

"Who said I was accepting your invitation?" She turned her head away from him.

"Says that paycheck of yours with my signature on it."

Hermione pressed her lips into a tight line. There was no getting out of it, was there? She stared at him for a second before losing her composure and letting out another sigh.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because I can…and because I want to." He then turned around and left, but not before saying over his shoulder, "I'll pick you up at your place tonight at 7 then."

Hermione looked at the clock behind her and quickly stood up, sending papers to fall towards the ground. "Crap, that's in three hours."

She paused as she thought it over. This was perfect. Now, she could definitely go home early. The only problem was: what was she going to wear? Damn.


"This isn't going to do."

Hermione looked down at the dress she was currently wearing. It wasn't classy, but it was nice enough to wear to a restaurant.

"What's wrong with it?" She frowned. Malfoy ignored her question and walked straight in her bedroom and into her closet. It was lucky she was finished dressing because he just apparated into her apartment as if he owned the place.

"Here, put this on." He pulled out a pair of jeans and yellow blouse. Hermione raised her eyebrow at the choice of clothing. It wasn't like they didn't go together. The type of jeans and blouse were nice, but she expected him to pick a high string dress for her to wear, not everyday clothes.

Hermione shrugged, grabbed the clothing, and headed straight to the bathroom. When she came out, Malfoy nodded in approval and lifted his hand towards her. She stared at it in suspicion.

"I'm not going to bite, Granger," Malfoy sighed. "How else are you going to know where I'm taking you?"

"Can't you just tell me and I'll meet you there?" She asked.

"Ah, but that would ruin the surprise." He smirked. Hermione let out a sigh of her own and put her hand in his and he gripped it tight. She noticed that his hand were soft and cool. It felt almost…nice. She shook her head at her thoughts. Let's not go there. Going down that road will do nothing for you.

They both apparated and she felt the sensation of being suspended in air for a second before her feet touched the hard ground. She looked around and her eyes widened in surprise.

"This is a…You took me to a…" She couldn't get the words out. It was such a surprise.

"A carnival?" He smirked at her being speechless. Her eyes sparkled with happiness and he felt that bubble of satisfaction in knowing that he was the cause of that.

"I'd never expected of you to know what that word was," she said, looking at Malfoy then at all the rides and the smiling faces of those around her.

"There are some muggle things I do like." He shrugged. He was watching her looking all over the place.

"I wouldn't have pegged you as someone who would like any muggle things. If I remember correctly you used to despise anything muggle related."

"Like I said, there are some things I can't complain about." Hermione turned her head and saw him looking at her. She gave a small shy smile before turning back to the scene in around her.

"You hungry? I've been craving some cotton candy for a while now." She couldn't stop the bubble of laughter as she was dragged towards a stand. Draco let out a smile of his own when he heard her laugh. It was nice. Seeing her smile instead of her tears.


"And then what?" Hermione said as she sat on a swing. They left the carnival a while ago and were now hanging around the park. She was hugging a stuffed bear that he won for her.

"And nothing. I just left him there groaning on the ground. He was in pain from jumping on my bed for a week." Draco said, smiling as he heard another laugh coming from those lips. He had been making her laugh all night and he couldn't quite complain that it wasn't fun.

"When was this?"

"A month ago." He stated.

"That must be why Blaise was limping around the office. He told me it was because he got into a fight."

Draco let out snort. "Yeah, okay, whatever helps him sleep at night."

Hermione let out a contended sigh as she tilted her head towards the sky. The stars were shining brightly this night, almost as if they shared her joy at this moment. Who would have guessed that she would have such a good time with Draco Malfoy?

She felt a pair of hands on her back and looked behind her to find Draco. He gave a smile before pushing her slightly. She gave a smile of her own before turning around and hugging the bear tightly. She felt air rush between her hair and she closed her eyes in bliss.


Hermione sat at her desk with a glazed look. She let out a smile as the thoughts from last night went through her head. Her head was so wrapped up in her thoughts; she failed to realize that Blaise was trying to catch her attention. She blushed a little as she apologized.

"Well, well, well. Seems like someone had fun last night." Another blush formed on her cheeks. "I must be right if you're blushing like that."

"Sorry, Blaise. I just had uh…a lot on my mind." She shuffled through her papers.

"Don't give me that. So, what happened last night? Where did Boss Man take you?" Blaise grabbed a chair and sat in front of her.

She looked at him in surprise. "How do you know me and Draco went out last night?"

"Look at you, first with the blushing and now you're on first name basis with the man."

Hermione flushed at his words. "Just answer the question."

"Well if you must know, it's because I was the one who suggested it, of course. Now, don't give me that frown. I clearly didn't tell him where to take you or even if he was going to listen to me. You know how he doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do."

"I guess you're right." Hermione pondered before shrugging. "Well, he took me to a carnival and then we just talked all night."

Blaise whistled. "Seems like you guys had fun."

"Yeah, it was nice," she whispered.

"So what? No action?" Blaise questioned.

"Blaise!" She felt her cheeks flame up.

He shrugged. "Come on, there had to be something?"

"Well, he did give me a kiss good night when he dropped me off," she said shyly. Her eyes avoided looking at him. It was strange how silly she was being. She was a grown woman, not some silly fifth year.

"That's it?"

"Blaise!"

"What? I'm just saying."


For the next few months, Hermione and Draco went out on various dates. Some were places as fun as the carnival and others were just simple picnics at the park. Hermione felt like she was floating on cloud nine.

For a long time she had been living in despair and now thanks to Draco she felt like she couldn't have been happier. He has truly changed since Hogwarts and she could honestly say he treated her unlike Ron ever did.

She even gained a new friend: Blaise. He had become her new go to gossip friend and every date, every blissful thought, and every dream has been shared with him and vice versa. He had become an important aspect in her life and she couldn't have wished anything better.

Hermione stared down at the bracelet on her wrist that was given to her on their fourth date. That was the day he asked her to be his girlfriend and bought her a little gift to smooth the transition. She let out a small laugh at how he tried to bribe her in case she had second thoughts.

His sheepish look mixed with a smirk always got to her and she knew she would cherish that moment forever.

A frown formed onto her small lips at the pile of paperwork she had to finish today. She felt anxious as her mind turned to the date Draco had planned for her tonight. He mentioned about taking her to a muggle movie and she couldn't wait to see his reaction when he finally sees it. Muggle movies were definitely different than wizardry photography.

She looked to the clock and noticed that he was late. Every time he would set up a date with her, he would pick her up from her office, they would apparate together to her apartment, and from there he would pick what was appropriate to wear, just like on their first date. And it wasn't because he was controlling, far from it actually, he just would never tell where they were headed since he liked his surprises so much. Sometimes it would be at a high class restaurant and the next time it would be just a walk down the beach.

The sound of her clock chiming startled her out of her thoughts and Hermione let out a sigh in relief that the day was over. She waited for him to come strutting through the door, lean against her doorframe, and let out that infuriating smirk of his that she's come to both love and hate, but nothing happened. Her floor was quiet except for the occasional sound of the elevator bell dinging and sounds of footsteps and chattering heading out the front door.

She let out a sigh and realized that she was the one who was going to have to go all the way up to the top floor to get him. He must have lost track of time and had a lot of work. It's happened to her a few times.

Running a hand through her hair, Hermione packed up her things and headed towards the top floor. Heading out of the elevator, she ran her hands through her hair and checked herself in the reflection of one the windows from the offices she was passing.

A smile broke out when she saw she looked presentable and headed up towards Draco's office. As she got closer, she began to slow down. Shouting could be heard through the closed door.

"How could you do that? Were you thinking at all?!" Hermione frowned as she recognized Blaise's voice.

Blaise was always a go happy kind of guy. For something to set him off it had to be big. The door swiftly opened and she rushed to hide in a corner where the shadows could cover over her form.

A flash of red passed by and her heart sank then begin to beat frantically. With her breath caught in her throat, her eyes followed the form.

Draco's secretary was buttoning up her blouse and Hermione couldn't help, but notice the smear of lipstick on her lips as well as the tousled hair. She could have sworn she saw it perfectly straightened at lunch.

She felt her ears ring at the next form of words that sprouted from Blaise's lips.

"How could you fuck her when you're dating Hermione?!"

So that was it. Blaise must have walked in on them fooling (fucking) around in Draco's office.

She knew it was too good to be true, but part of her hoped that maybe this time she was going to get her happily ever after.

"How long have you and Sharon been doing this?"

So her name was Sharon, huh? There was more talking, but Hermione tuned them out. The sound of a zipper instead caught her attention. Sharon was grabbing her purse to head home and Hermione's eyes strayed to the front of her blouse. The first two was still unbuttoned.

Hermione was always a rational kind of person. She was known through school of how logical she was and someone who would always think things through, but tonight that was not her. She was not the smartest witch in the wizardry world, but a woman who got her heart broken and when a woman gets her heartbroken she doesn't think things through. Or that's what she tried to tell herself as she found herself taking a step forward and standing in front of Sharon.

She didn't know what she was going to do. Part of her wanted to jump the woman and scratch her eyes out and another part just wanted to sit in a corner and cry.

The redhead looked up and Hermione expected for the woman's eyes to grow wide, but of course that didn't happen. Instead she gave her a calculating stare and then slowly let out a smirk.

It was worse than she thought; Draco and Sharon were a match made in heaven. They had to be if they both could smirk like that, like an I-won-you-lost-now-what type of smirk.

Sharon looked through her purse like she was before she was interrupted and pulled out her keys. She gave another triumphant look at Hermione before turning around and walking down to the elevator.

She said over her shoulder just before heading through the elevator doors, "That was a nice trick you played a couple of months ago. I believed it for a while until I learned the truth. Tell me, does he make the same noises with you as he does with me?"

Hermione didn't know how long she stood there. She was analyzing every date she had with Draco. Was she boring, did she do something wrong? Was it because she didn't have sex with him yet? That had to be it if she couldn't keep first Ron and now Draco. That had to be if she was so easy to be cheated on.

"Hermione?" She turned and saw Blaise looking at her with concern. He worried that she may have heard and his fear was confirmed when he took a step towards her and she took one back. He saw her eyes stray to the side of him and knew why when he turned and saw Draco staring at her with a hand on his head and widened eyes.

Blaise took in a sharp breath when he noticed the stain of lipstick on Draco's shirt and when he turned back and saw Hermione's pale face; he knew she did as well. He felt his heart clench when he saw her begin to blink rapidly.

Hermione shook her head. Her vision was getting blurry and she knew any minute now she wouldn't be able to hold the tears any longer. "It's not supposed to happen this way. It's supposed to be my turn. My turn. It's not fair, I'm supposed to be happy damn it!"

Blaise flinched as he heard her voice crack at the end. He took a step towards her again, but stopped when she shook her head forcibly before apparating.

"You better fix this," he said turning to Draco. He was looking down and clenching his fist.

"What if I lost her for good?" He says. He frowned and rubbed his eyes. Blaise knew it wasn't because he was tired. "You saw how she was when Weasley broke her."

"Then you better pray that Fate is with you tonight," Blaise spat out and walked down the hall.

"Where are you going?"

Blaise paused, one hand raising on the doorknob. He said with his back facing to Draco, "To get Sharon. She's not getting away with this so easily. I'll make sure to teach her what happens when you play with potions against two of Snape's top students."