Word count:266
Preparing Herself
Fortunately, she had received the assignment on a Friday, which means she had the whole week-end to hide in your flat and try to deny the truth.
Unfortunately, the week-end came to an end too quickly to her tastes and she has to go back to her work and face the music.
She had tried to rationalize this decision for two whole days, but all she had come up with was how unfair this whole situation was, and half an hour of yelling at Ginny about how she wanted the job but didn't want the partner, even if she no longer hated Malfoy and felt rather indifferent to his person.
(At the end of the war, his family had been held on trial for their crimes, and his father had gone back to a Dementors-less Azkaban, while his mother had been fined heavily, but more-or-less left alone. Draco himself had had to make a public excuse for his acts, and he had been sent to St Mungo's to talk to a therapist about his supremacist beliefs.
But he hadn't really done anything truly bad himself, and a few months later he had personally apologized to her, Harry and strangely more reluctantly Ron about his previous behavior.
She hadn't seen much of him since, except a hint of blond hair here and there in the Ministry.)
It's lucky she's always been able to separate feelings and work, because otherwise she would have hit him as she found herself staring at his typical 'I'm-better-than-you' smirk on Monday morning.
It was going to be a long year.