A/N: No amount of constructive criticism will ever be enough, I swear.
Dove x

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"You're always going to be the designer of your own catastrophy. Whether you make it terrible, magical, or beautiful in either way, is entirely up to you."

Granger's office was a disgusting sight. There were files stacked on every corner. Draco, used to places being impeccably clean, felt instantly repulsed by it. The walls were a bright turquoise with small, inexperienced white designs here and there. Granger liked pastel colours? How... out of character. But who was he to judge, what with it being his charity organization that she was going to help out with in the first place?

There was a huge wooden cabinet on one side with different section for files of different status. The desk in the middle was practically non-existent, the files spread all over it like water that had been spilled carelessly on a table. How could anybody work in that office? The very air of it gave the feeling of instant claustrophobia, and he couldn't stand being in there for any longer. It shocked him to notice, painfully so, how someone who was as obsessed with organised everything as Hermione Goody-Good Granger could have had a working space as far from it as possible.

He searched for the source of the female voice he'd heard before. There was no one in there. 'Must have set a Charm for those unfortunate enough to have to step in here,' thought Draco, cringing at the state of it yet again. He turned towards the door just in time to see someone push the door open. Granger stood in the doorway, glaring at Draco as if he was a criminal she had caught, on his way to commit a heinous crime.

"What in the world are you doing here, Malfoy?" she asked harshly.

"No need to get all worked up, Granger. Do you often treat your clients like that?" he said, just as coldly, his clear distaste for both the girl and the place she worked in shining through his words like a Lumos Solem.

"Not really. It's just you who gets on my nerves like that. Besides, seeing how you tried to evade my question, I doubt you weren't trying to steal anything," she said as she squinted her eyes at him in suspicion, and mild- no, intense dislike.

"So, finally, after all those years of constant prayers, the greatest know-it-all of then all has lost the one thing that she admired about herself! Ah, how the mighty have fallen Granger, judging by the fact that you're talking along the lines of someone completely mental? Have you lost all your so-called intelligence? You're starting to sound like Goyle. I just said that I'm your client; I still very much dislike the idea, for your information. And I'm here to discuss my Organisation's newest dealings, which that stupid man just handed over to you shamelessly. Moreover, your office is just too lowly for my taste," he sneered, thinking about how oddly nostalgic it was to argue like this with her again. The only thing that had changed was everything, but everything was still the same.

Hearing the mention of her boss, who had newly dumped another load of work on her already immersed head, Hermione bit back a retort and entered her office. She cleared her chair with her wand and sat down. Draco did just the same to another one and sat down, uninvited. But there was nothing she could do, he was her client after all. Well, there was something, but murder was illegal and the Cruciatus Curse was too vile to be used on even your best friend's arch-nemesis. She had known the feeling. Unconsciously, the hair on the back of her neck stood as she failed to suppress an involuntary shudder. That day at the Malfoy Manor sent shivers to to her perfectly warm body, filling her mind with the darkness that consumed it all...

"Shivering on seeing me, are you? Well, I must say, my devilish good looks can make anyone feel weak in the knees. But I honestly didn't think you were that type Granger. Oh, poor you. My mere presence is making you feel jittery right now, isn't it? But don't worry in the slightest about impressions Granger, there is nothing you can do to make me... Oh, Merlin forbid, even like you" he said, smirking widely, adding a very visible and very obnoxious cringe at the end.

Hermione gritted her teeth, her mind searching for things she could do to him in those dark corners she had recently ventured into. "You bloody tosser! Oh how you wish, Malfoy. I'd rather fling myself in front of an angry hippogriff than want to ever experience that day," she too, added a dramatic shudder to the end. Likewise, Malfoy.

Somehow, she continued, "Although honestly, sparing the next round of your dramatics, I was thinking about the day that I... that you...never mind." She swiftly closed her mouth, appalled with herself about almost letting the truth slip out in front of none other than the Malfoy prat. She couldn't trust him around her files, let alone her emotions and her feelings. Godric, what was she doing?

"That you what? You can't start speaking and just stop. Didn't someone tell you it's rude?"

"Fine," she snapped. "I was thinking about the day at the Malfoy Manor; the day we were almost caught and I ended up getting tortured by your aunt." She said the name like it was a bitter taste in her mouth. Draco could practically see the pain she felt when the memory made its way through all the fresh heaps of work in front of her. And he recognised the way she said 'your aunt'. It hit him in places it shouldn't have, probably because he had never wanted to be associated to the psychopath that was Bellatrix Lestrange . She was the darkest of the dark, the insane of the craziest. Allowing people like her to exist on this planet was nothing short of an Unforgivable toward the entirety of humanity.

And then, along with new realizations everyday, this hit too. The real reason why, even after everything that had happened, Granger still clung to her work and her files and her office like she was holding on for dear life. And maybe she really was. She, not quite unlike him, searched restlessly for familiarity to hold on too, some remnant if the past she'd had, even if it came in the form of a reminder that she could never have the teenage life with books and ambitions and school that she should have had in the first place. They all did.

She continued after suppressing another shiver, "That day was, honestly quite scarring, and painful, literally too," she said with a low humorless chuckle, her face turning dark. "Didn't think we'd come out alive." She then paused, not knowing what to say further. She had already made the atmosphere thick with tension, bringing up the past that was best buried for the both of them, but seeing him after so long had just revived those memories. No one said either of them had to like it.

Saying so, she collapsed in her chair, looking like she hadn't had rest for days. The memory always brought up the exhaustion she never knew she felt.

After a while, she opened her eyes to find Malfoy staring at her from the opposite end of the file-covered desk. His eyes bore into hers. She spotted something she'd never seen there before too- guilt. A small flicker of it, like the rest of his bloody emotions (sometimes she wondered if he even had them). It was shocking, to say the least. Draco Malfoy, the stoic king, had let something slip. And it wasn't anger or a sneer or even a smirk. It was something unnerving on a completely different level. He sat there unmoving, staring at her as though he didn't know what to do anymore. And in all honesty, she had rendered him speechless once again.

"Look, Granger..." he started slowly, his voice strong, but still bordering on hesitant. "What happened that day, wasn't uncalled for or anything, I'm just saying that... I think, if we're really going to do this, we should try to put it behind us."

Seeing her shocked expression, he quickly tried to mend his words the right way, the way they should have come out in the first place. "I'm NOT saying that we should put our petty insults for each other behind us, because you'll always be the bookworm I indisputably despise, or, for the love of Salazar's baggiest trousers start spewing out apologies, because Malfoys simply don't. I'm just asking to try and be a bit civil about it, see where that goes. Though, it must be difficult for you, seeing how you're so insufferable." His expressions ranged from serious, uncomfortable, slightly arrogant, prideful, a bit serious again, and then smirk-worthy again.

Hermione stared at him with hooded eyes and mild interest.

"Is that your version of an apology I hear? My, my, didn't think I'd live to see the day. It was okay, could've been better though." She said as she smirked too, knowing that her comment was bound to get him angry.

As expected, he let out an irritated growl. "Must you be so insensitive, Granger? What happened to that goody two shoes nature of yours? Gave it up for Weasley?"

"I'd suggest taking that incompetent, ignorant, ferret-y arse of yours back to the hole you crawled up from right about now. I don't want to be held responsible for the inability of my client, as you nicely put it, to sit properly all week, and blow up any and all chances of my promotion to a better post, all because he was being his usual pratty self," she said, frowning at him, her frustration building up to a breaking point already.

"Someone is in a cheery mood, I see."

The next moment, her wand was out from under her desk and pointed at him, its tip glowing and fizzing with the magic at her finger tips, ready to pour down on him and burn him to hell if they had to.

Draco's wand was out too, and his posture in a ready-to-duel stance. Yet, as their eyes met, hers holding a warning and his having their own hint of not surrendering to the likes of her, they both lowered their wands as Hermione's energy to deal with enough crap for a day ran out. She sighed and put her wand back in its place, but her habd was still on it, in case he decided to try something. For the time being though, she believed she was fine.

Malfoy lowered his wand as she did, probably getting the way her shoulders sagged and she sighed, closing her eyes. He watched her massage her forehead with two fingers, and silently gave her a look that meant 'crazy witch'.

Hermione was done dealing with his exasperating ways, as she had realised that he wouldn't do anything if he wasn't provoked. Quite like the German Shepherd she had once encountered when she was younger. It was a pup around that time too, but if provoked, he could be really terrifying. She laughed inwardly at the comparison.

"Fine. Fine, Malfoy. We can try to be civil. But I'll only try to make this work if you agree not to be a prick all times of the day, agreed?"

Draco opened his mouth for a retort, but he really was running out of time to waste with the witch and if he didn't get this over with as less communication as possible, he knew it would end badly for the both of them. So he said, "Right. But first you have to accept that I, at no instant during our argument, even hinted at apologies, alright?'

"Merlin, no. I wouldn't want to delude myself like that. Some things just don't change, and we'll have to deal with that."

"For the first time ever, you're talking in an earthly language, and it is mildly acceptable. We'll have to deal with that," he said, repeating her words.

"And don't worry about me rubbing this suggestion of yours in your face every bloody time I see you. I'm not you," she said bluntly.

"Thank Salazar for that. So much for being civil," he said, sighing and smirking at the same time.

Hermione rolled her eyes at him. They both sat in a not-so-awkward silence for a few minutes, probably contemplating what the truce they had just called meant.

Finally, Hermione spoke. "So, now that that is out of the way, would you like to grace us with that idea about 'expanding territories' you were going on about to Mr Wilson?"

"Oh, that," Malfoy cringed. Wasn't he cringing an abnormal lot today? Huh. Must be the arrogance he accompanied everywhere. "That was just an excuse to get out of that stupid transfer thing, with that idiotic boss of yours. Can't really say it worked, as you can see. But tell me, Granger, is he really that cynically oblivious at all times of the day or was it just your perfume that made him want to vomit and not focus on anything else?"

Hermione rolled her eyes at his comment, again. "Amazing. You know what Malfoy, I was expecting that. You're really just here most of the time to waste other people's precious time. All else said and done, do we have any business to tend to right now? If not, please leave so I can complete my work. As you can see, it's out of control. And your presence just makes it seem all the more unattractive, what with your overly priced hair gel holding in so much of your hair all at once. Just looking at it makes me feel tired," it was now her turn to smirk.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Granger. Oh, and while you're at it, try some of that reputed magic of yours and make this office presentable at the very least. It looks nothing less than ghastly. If you insist on keeping it this way, I'd suggest the following meetings to occur in my office," he said nonchalantly as he got up, as if talking to one of his servants.

This angered Hermione to no end, and as he pulled the door open to step out, she yelled behind him, "Shut that trap, Malfoy. I'm not your bloody servant!"

He turned around, winked at her, and said, "Goodbye Granger. Oh, and try not to miss me too much."

"You, you absolute piece of-" she began, but in one swift movement, he had already left the office and closed the door behind him.

Malfoy - 1, Hermione - 0. But she'd surely win next time. And then it'll be fair.

She sighed and put her head in her hands. She absolutely hated Divination, but she was sure that there were difficult times in the near future for her. Even if that fraud Trelawney were to predict it now, she would believe it without hesitation. Fate just couldn't let her be, could it?

Ha, of course not.

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Was this short? I don't think it was short? What do you think?

Drop in any and every comment you might have, please! I love reading them! As I've said countless times before, they make my day. I seriously love them more than my quest for the now extinct Crumple Horned Snorkacks.

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DoveMalfoy19

Dramione! Dramione!