Disclaimer: You know the deal. Not mine. All Jo's.

Protection

Chapter 1

Hermione woke up to her alarm clock at 6:00 sharp. It was particularly hard because she hadn't gotten off guard duty until midnight. In the six years after graduating from Hogwarts Ron, Harry, and her had all become aurors to help combat Lord Voldemort. Harry was undercover as a pro-Quidditch player, and Ron was the liaison for the French aurors, he loved all the French girls. She, however, was stuck in London. Mainly she patrolled the ministry and was on call for Death Eater attacks. Just the regular stuff, but she was really hoping to get a promotion: protecting high security individuals such as ministry workers. She thought that her chances for getting the promotion were quite good considering the fact that she had a perfect record in recovery and protection, she spent a good deal of her free time studying new curses to use, she was familiar with muggle culture and could move among them with ease, oh and the little fact that she was dating her supervisor. He was only a few years older than her, though they never spent much time together when at Hogwarts, but when the bright and spunky graduate walked in on the first day he was completely taken with her and her with him. At the time they were both beginning aurors, but recently he had received the promotion to coordinate a group of the aurors, Hermione included. They had been dating for a little less than a year but had already started talking about marriage. In dangerous times like these life is too short to waste. However, the war was coming to an end as they continued to catch more and more Death Eaters everyday. Soon there would be no one to fight against. To further the delight of the wizarding world, as more pressure was being put on Lord Voldemort, many of his followers were jumping ship. Yes, with a little luck, the war would be over in no time.

With these thoughts in mind, Hermione got ready and packed a few things, she would be going under cover for a few weeks to protect some double agent who got ratted out. She planned on bringing some of her muggle items, because they'd be posing as muggles, her laptop and ipod as well as a few books to keep her busy, and then be back to her normal life, if you can call it that, in a blink of an eye. She was particularly excited about the fact that they were going to America. She had only been there once on a family vacation and it was very interesting. She loved their accents; it was as if they were all talking through their noses. She was quite looking forward to an easy assignment in a place she was sure to find very interesting.

As she drove up to the disguised auror offices, a run down mystical herbs book shop, in her little VW Bug she was in high spirits and ready for a new challenge. This attitude did not falter as she greeted her friends on her way to Simon, her supervisor's, office. She walked right in and being possessed by this amazing attitude gave him a kiss good morning. Although everyone knew that they were together they decided to keep it professional in the office. But this morning she was unstoppable and didn't care. After a few moments of reacquaintance with Simon, he pulled away, remembering they had business to attend to. Clearing his throat he said, "you know what you're assignment will be, here are your details,' handing her a folder. "Both of you," he said looking behind her, "will go from here to the airport and then on to America, our agents there will find you when you arrive." "Both of us?" she asked stupidly. "Yes your protectee is seated behind you." As she turned she saw the one person who could ruin her perfect mood, and that was Draco Malfoy. He sat there as if he owned the place smirking at her in a way that made her want to rearrange his face.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

Not answering the question he said, "So that's how you got top marks when we were at school. That explains a lot."

In one bound she was to him with her wand at his throat. He was just as fast with his wand aimed at her heart. They continued to glare at each other as if daring the other to make a move. Because they were both so focused on the other they didn't notice Simon draw his wand and disarm them until their wands were flying into his hands.

"Together not two minuets and you're already fighting. Are you sure you can handle this Hermione?" He said.

She gave him a betrayed look and replied, "Oh I'll be able to handle him just fine. I doubt he'll last one week as a muggle."

Draco gave a startled look and then quickly set his face to impassive. "As a muggle?" he said so smoothly that you wouldn't know how nervous he was if you hadn't seen the previous face.

"Yes," replied Simon, "you two will be posing as muggles. Newlyweds who just moved to America from London for work purposes. As soon as this war is over with, hopefully only a few weeks, you'll say that you want to move back for family reasons or something and everything's back to normal."

Dropping his blank face, Draco stared at him incredulously. "NO! Absolutely not!"

"I'm sorry. I know you two aren't on the friendliest terms, but it's for your protection and it's her job. Surely you two can deal with it for a few short weeks," Simon said briskly as he went back to his desk and started to pull out various papers and identification that they would need.

"There is no way I'm going to pretend to be a muggle, that's like an oxymoron, and no way am I going to pretend to be married to her, I may be fighting for your side, but I still don't associate with the likes of mudbloods," Draco continued. Hermione eyes sparked dangerously at the use of that word, but she tried not to let herself descend to his level.

"Is there nothing else that we might be able to arrange for his protection? A cell maybe?" said Hermione a little desperately but couldn't help the last jibe. Draco snorted.

"Look you two. We have already arranged for your plane tickets, apartment, passports, drivers licenses, and birth and marriage certificates. They are all made out to Draco and Hermione Malfoy and I'm not redoing them so you'll just have to live with this for a while," said Simon losing his patience. He had better things to do than worry about a double agent that wouldn't be any use to them anymore. In all honesty, the only reason he put Hermione in for the job was that it would keep her away from the fighting and ensure her safety until the end of the war, there had been too many close calls already and he didn't want to lose her

Hermione, knowing how stubborn he was, decided to finally relent. She was not going to get her way on this. Arg, that was one thing that frustrated her about him. They were both headstrong and neither of them could get their way all the time so they had to fight it out. But she decided to look on the bright side: it was only a few weeks after all. Yes it would be a living nightmare but it's not like she had to talk to Malfoy much, just pretend when they were in public. Who was she kidding? Oh Well. "When do we leave?" she said with an exasperated sigh.

"You can take your car to the airport. Here are your tickets," he said with a smile on his face, handing her the tickets. She scowled back at him and snatched them from his hands. She might be giving in, but she wasn't going to be nice about it. He just sentenced her to a few weeks with and insufferable jerk and she wasn't going to forgive him so soon.

Simon continued as if nothing had happened, "The American division of aurors will pick you up at the airport and make sure you're situated. Any other questions before you leave?"

"Ya," replied Draco, "why can't we just apparate? " Although he was doing a good job hiding how upset he was about the situation, the impatience and anger toward this man he had only know from a few hours shown through.

"Apparation is rather dangerous nowadays, especially long distances because there is more time for people to interfere," said Simon.

"Whatever," Draco rolled his eyes, "I better get some fresh clothes, I had to leave it all behind to avoid getting caught, but I'm not going around in the same stuff for a month"

Simon replied, "Yes, we are aware of that, the aurors in America will make sure your closets are full, also they will give you a small amount of spending money for food and other necessities

Nodding as if this was acceptable Draco continued, "Although we are muggles," he cringed, "I'm guessing you don't want us walking around unarmed. We better be able to carry our wands."

"Yes, we don't want you to be sitting ducks; however, any use of magic for anything other than an emergency is prohibited. Understood?"

"Unfortunately. Okay, let's get this over with," he glared at Hermione and then stalked out of the room.

Grudgingly Hermione followed with equal anger in her stride. Suddenly she turned around grabbed their wands back and stomped out again without as much as a goodbye.

A/N: Okay so I came up for the idea to this fic like last week when I was trying to get to sleep and I really liked it so I started typing and I'm totally enjoying it. It's sooo much fun to write. Thanks so much to my beta readers Chey'Anne and Kieran. Anyway, hope you like it. Please R/R.

One White Tulip