Hermione smiled to herself the closer it got to nine that morning and Draco still hadn't shown up. Of course, once he walked through the door at exactly nine her smile turned into a scowl and her morning tea looked positively dreadful now.

Everyone was typically on time for these meetings because of the strict atmosphere and the pressure to always have a good idea. The Daily Prophet was considered of importance now that everyone who wrote for them was of class and superiority.

Mr. Cuffe walked into the room and all of the abstract talking ceased. He took a long sip of his tea and sorted through papers.

"So, I did a bit of brainstorming myself last night but I would like to hear what everyone has on their mind for this week. Of course, Rita you have any news that manages to come up unexpectedly for your section. Leigh, what do you have?" Cuffe started.

He liked to get down to business. He didn't like to stay overtime on brainstorm day. As Cuffe went around the oval table to different writers, he eventually fell on Hermione who was laced with tons of ideas.

"I've been working on this idea for about a month now but I figured that, instead of picking out couples, why not go over proper dating etiquette? You know, what should actually happen on a first date? What's a good idea for a second date? How do you break up efficiently? It's kind of like the rules of romance," Hermione explained.

A lot of nods and astonished smiles shown around the table but a heavy sigh came from Draco Malfoy who was sitting next to her. Hermione rolled her eyes because she knew he was going to protest. He always managed to tear down her good ideas.

"Mr. Malfoy, is there something you would like to share?" Hermione asked quite snippily.

"I'm so glad you asked, Granger. Rules of romance? Please! What a ploy to get what you want in a date. The rules never stand when it comes to actual relationships," he argued.

"Oh no? Where's your proof?" Hermione had given him what he wanted, her full attention.

"And I suppose you have more experience than I do?" He snipped back.

"This is a perfect idea, Miss Granger," Mr. Cuffe remarked, interrupting the witty banter between the two.

"Thank you, sir," Hermione said, nodding in his direction but still fuming over the blonde ferret sitting next to her.

"Yes, this will be a wonderful piece for the both of you," Cuffe remarked.

Hermione and Draco both stared at the man in shock. That wasn't anything that Hermione had in mind. She had intended to do the entire piece alone.

"W-What?" Hermione stuttered.

"Well, this is why I suggested you have a counterpart in your writing. You both see it in such different lights and so do the readers," he answered.

"What do you propose we do, sir?" Draco questioned.

"Like Miss Granger said, the rules of romance. Perform them! Test out your theories. Try to prove the other one completely wrong," He suggested.

"So, you're saying we need to test them out…on each other?" Hermione questioned, panic starting to settle in her stomach.

"Precisely! Oh, the prophet is going to get so many more readers this year!" He said, overly excited.

Before anymore protests could be made from either of them, the meeting was called to an end and they walked quietly back to their office. Hermione was fuming but she wasn't angry at Draco, she was angry at her boss. That wasn't anything like what she had suggested! She wanted to be the one to write the piece and she wanted to do it alone.

A piece of paper was hanging off of their door and what they read just irritated them more.

Miss Granger and Mr. Malfoy,

Your first assignment is due by this Friday on the first rule of romance. After reading Hermione's notes, it seems you have several that you could cover. I suggest the first one be about a first date. Good luck you two!

Mr. Cuffe

"Seems we've gotten ourselves in a fine mess," Hermione said, ripping the paper off the door.

When she pushed the door open she ran right into Draco's desk which just irritated her more. She kicked the desk and let out growl.

"Why don't we just use an enlargement spell on the office?" Draco asked curiously.

"I tried that the moment I moved into this office but it just wouldn't do it. I'm not sure if there's a spell keeping it from happening or something else," Hermione informed, looking around the room for something to break.

She took a deep breath and reminded herself that she wasn't alone in the office. She couldn't just break things and put it back together again like she usually did when she got angry. In fact, Hermione had no idea why she felt like she had to break things in order to keep her calm nowadays. She used to not be like that but the painful mark on her arm that she tried diligently to hide all the time reminded her why she was angry. No spell could remove it, she had tried, but there were spells to mask it. Now she had to write her ideas with the idiot of the family who caused it and she didn't know how she was going to do it.

She might kill him.

"Look, I'm not any more excited than you are about the situation but he's right about one thing. I was brought in to oppose your ideas and I do oppose them. I oppose the fact that there are even rules to romance but here we are…in a mess that we can't get out of," He said, closing the door behind him.

Hermione sighed heavily and turned to face him. His blue eyes weren't as critical as she was used to seeing them but they still bothered her. She couldn't understand why.

"I have every reason to quit my job right now," She said, looking over at the vase of flowers for a moment to soothe her thoughts.

"But do you really want to? This is a job you wanted and it's not one that was expected of you. You can't tell me that all those moments you spent with your head in a book that you weren't wishing you had been the one to write it," Draco said, surprising Hermione.

"That's beside the point," She argued.

"Look, it's just a collection of pieces for four months. No one says that we have to stop detesting each other but they are asking that we put our differences aside for the paper. I can put them aside, can you?" He asked.

"That's really funny coming from you," Hermione smirked.

"Let's just say that I've grown a lot in the past few years,"

"Well, the first piece is supposed to be on first date etiquette," Hermione started.

"Interesting," Draco commented, sitting down at his desk.

"I'm going first," Hermione claimed.

"Bring it on," He countered.

This should be interesting.