A 41-year-old Draco Malfoy barged into the Minister of Magic's office angrily screaming. "Hermione how could you not tell me?! Do you know how detrimental this is for our campaign?!" He stood fuming in the doorway clad in his impeccably tailored oxford grey robes. He had finally cut off his long hair giving him a more youthful look, but his bangs were now in disarray as if he had just pulled at his hair before storming in the door.
Hermione Granger, 42, the first femaleMuggleborn Minister of Magic, was currently signing one of hundreds of documents stacked on her desk, not even bothering looking up at his tantrum, wearing a royal purple boat neck long sleeved frock.
She flicked her left hand nonchalantly making the door close behind Draco pushing him undignifiedly inside the office before she finally looked up, her fiery brown eyes making him freeze in place. "First of all, Draco this is my campaign not ours. I'm the one running for bloody re-election not you." Her crown of curls seemed to puff up slightly from the magic she exuded after that little display of wandless magic.
Draco didn't even straighten up after that unwelcomed shove and walked right up to her desk. "I'm your bloody campaign manager! We already had to deal with the whole time-turner debacle and now a divorce!? Are you trying to further antagonize the Purebloods? Draco said slightly hysterical.
Hermione looked at him as if he was a child. "Oh, grow up Draco! People get divorced all the time!"
"Not Purebloods!" He sighed dramatically and walked over to the chair sitting down like if the past seconds had drained him of life, he covered his eyes with his hand feeling a migraine coming imminently. "They just stop shagging and grow old and bitter in separate wings of their manors." He said listlessly gesticulating with his left hand.
Hermione looked at him with sympathy and took another document to sign. "Well, I'll just have to be the first femaledivorcedMuggleborn Minister." She said casually.
He looked back at her annoyed. "I can't spin this in your favour!"
She wasn't grasping the seriousness of the situation.
He started rubbing his temple. "Maybe if the weasel had an affair…?" he said strongly suggesting they made up one.
"He didn't." Hermione said emphatically putting an end to that suggestion still signing more documents.
"HE'S A BLOODY WAR HERO WOMAN!" Draco yelled frustrated.
"SO AM I!" Hermione stood up slamming her hands on the desk. Her curls puffing up slightly again making Draco gulp audibly.
Merlin, she was terrifying.
"You have to give me something to work with here." Draco said pleadingly.
"We are friends!" Hermione sighed impatiently. "This is an amicable divorce; we just fell out of love."
"Love has nothing to do with marriage!" Draco scoffed.
"Well, it bloody well should!" Hermione said slightly outraged. "And you can't lie to me Draco, you loved Astoria!" She blurted out without thinking.
"Hermione!" Draco glared at her angrily. They had agreed not to broach that subject.
For the first time since he stepped in the room, he saw Hermione genuinely mortified.
"I'm sorry..." She said in a small voice averting her gaze.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. He couldn't stay mad at her.
"I did... But I learned to love her, I didn't in the beginning... You know that full well..."
The silence hung between them for a beat.
Draco remembered something he deemed brilliant. "Doesn't your muggle therapy work for that!?" Draco asked hopeful.
Hermione was genuinely surprised he recalled that knowledge. "We tried...for years... It's called marriage counselling; we just…want very different things out of life."
Draco's face fell, he covered his eyes again. "This is a nightmare."
"Draco, you're not the one getting the divorce." Hermione said exasperated with his drama.
"No…but I'm the one who must bloody well suffer for it!" He said standing up angrily ready to storm out and research how to spin this.
"How did you find out about it anyway?" Hermione asked honestly puzzled.
"Rose told Scorpious and he had the good sense to warn me." Draco said straightening out his robes readying himself to depart.
Hermione sighed. "You're right...Ishould have told you." She said sincerely.
"Merlin, if I wasn't so stressed right now, I would pick those 2 words out of my memory and replay them on loop in my pensive forever. Can you say them again a little louder please?" He said back to his usually obnoxious demeanour.
"Get out Malfoy! I have a lot of work to do." Hermione said bitingly.
"I'm Malfoy again...Well on the bright side, we won't have to change the stationary, given you never took his name." He said leisurely taking his time to leave.
"...He should have taken mine..." Hermione grumbled under her breath.
Draco closed the door behind him when he said in a sigh for no one to hear: "…I, would've gladly..."