It had been a long day. A very very long day. Hermione Granger was completely exhausted after her first full day at the Ministry. In spite of everything she'd done, fighting in a war, saving the world from Lord Voldemort, keeping Harry Potter alive for 6 years of peril at Hogwarts as well as making sure he'd passed his exams, the world saw her as nothing more than a muggle-born. She was no more than a curiosity for most people. "Brightest witch of her age" was what they called her. Indeed, she was bright, she was the top student for all her years at school. She'd been bestowed with an Order of Merlin First Class for the love of Godric. Still, no award or praise or OWL or NEWT scores could help her get anywhere in the ministry other than through the door. She'd spent the day filing papers and fetching coffee, COFFEE, for people who should be indebted to her for saving their sorry arses from one of the darkest wizards in history!

Hermione angrily flopped down on her bed in her flat and picked up the muggle novel she'd begun reading the previous night. She was sure Ron and Harry's first day at the ministry had been rather different. They'd both been put on the fast track in the Auror training program. Neither had NEWTS but that was no matter for the Saviour of the wizarding world and his Pureblood best friend. Hermione hadn't been offered the same opportunity. She knew it had nothing to do with her gender and everything to do with her blood status. Everyone talked about how Voldemort had been insane, how his and his followers hatred of mudbloods had be awful and inhumane. Clearly that wasn't the case considering after the awards had been handed out and she'd be paraded around she'd promptly been ignored and told to be grateful for her job offer as a file girl in the ministry.

She shut her book with quite a bit more force than she'd intended and practically threw it down on her bed at the sound of a knock on the door. Who in the bloody hell would bother her this late in the evening, Ron and Harry were probably out having a celebratory drink after their first day of training, she hadn't heard from them much in the past few weeks, Harry she knew had been dragged even further into the spotlight he loathed so very much and hardly had time to sleep without being harassed. She'd recieved an owl or two from him, nothing more than a "I miss you" and "we should catch up as soon". She'd heard nothing from Ron. Their kiss during the final battle had been nothing more than recklessness when faced with impending death and she found in the days following Voldemort's demise that Ron had grown awkward and uncomfortable around her until she'd cornered him after one too many firewhiskys and asked him why. It turned out he'd been avoiding her because he had no interest in her romantically, once she'd told him she also felt nothing romantic toward him he'd relaxed. Since then however, the Daily Prophet had run photo after photo of the war hero turned auror trainee taking out girl after girl with his fancy new galleons to match his fancy new career.

Hermione snapped out of her rather bitter reverie and, wand in hand, yanked open the door of her flat. She stepped back in shock and raised her wand up to the throat of one very nervous Draco Malfoy.