Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters and I am not making any money off of this fan fiction. This is the only time I will be writing this disclaimer. I also do not own the song "One in a Million".
A/N: I had previously written this story on another account but I decided to take it off the site to kind of rework it to add more details and make it a little longer. So I hope you enjoy my revised edition. I chose the song "One in a Million" for the title and the story will feature some of the lyrics from the song. Now I know that the song is from Hannah Montana and that is a little bit—well lets just say LAME but hey it's one of those guilty pleasure shows. Haha. I think the song is cute and fits in with the story. So enough about that. Please don't be too cruel if you review because this is my first real fan fiction. I am totally new at this. Happy reading!!
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How did I get here
I turned around
And there you were
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Harry Potter woke with a startle when he heard the phone next to him ring early Monday morning. He glimpsed over at the clock. 6:38. Harry was still a lazy bum who considered any time before 11:00 in the morning to be early. He groaned but picked up the phone anyway. Cho Chang, his wife, was such a sound sleeper she didn't even hear the phone ring.
"Hello?!" he answered groggily.
"Hey mate, it's Ron," said Ron Weasley sounding less cheerful than usual this particular morning.
"What's up?" asked Harry as he looked for his glasses.
"It's Hermione…again. What a shock," he said.
"What now?"
"Oh the usual. I had to stay at her house again because she was out getting plastered again last night. So I am helping her out and I will get her to work. Do you think you could escort her home after work and then try to talk some sense in to her? I keep trying but nothing gets through that thick head of hers," he laughed softly.
"Yeah, sure I'll take her home. As for talking sense into her…well I try every time I'm over there," he sighed.
"Me too. Well I better go wake her up for work. I'll talk to you later, Harry," said Ron hanging up.
Harry put down the phone and sighed. He, quite frankly, was getting a little tired of practically babysitting for Hermione and he could tell Ron was sick of it too. What happened to Hermione Granger, the sensible and responsible one out of the trio? To Ron and Harry she was pretty much gone. Harry put his glasses back on his bedside table and pulled the covers back over his head to try to catch a few more winks of sleep.
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Draco Malfoy looked up from his work as Hermione Granger came through the fireplace of their office. Ronald Weasley was with her. Draco and Hermione both had the same job at the Ministry of Magic, so they shared an office. Draco, being as rich as he is, paid a lot to make the office to be up to his standards and he got a fireplace so he could use floo powder to get to his office. Draco and Hermione worked on the sixth level, which was Magical Transportation. They dealt with Floo Network Authority, Broom Regulatory Control, Portkey Office and Apparation Test Center.
Draco and Hermione weren't exactly friends now, but they weren't enemies either. They just sort of tolerated each other by ignoring each other on things other than business. Draco had changed after the war, and lost his childish ways and let go of his father's opinion—who was now dead.
For about the past three months, Draco had noticed Hermione stumbling in with either Harry or Ron because she was almost to hung over to stand up. This habit had been happening frequently—way more than it used to. It had been happening at least three or more times a week. All he knew about it—through water cooler gossip—was that three months ago Roger Davies had broken his engagement with Hermione for reasons Draco didn't know and frankly didn't care about. But a small part of him felt a little sorry to see her like this, despite their history.
"Hermione…I really think you should just stay home today…" said Ron, trying to convince her. She only half paid attention. Draco could see the stress written all over Ron's face and felt sorry for the guy. Draco would hate to have to do that kind of thing for one of his friends.
"N-Nonsense…Ron. I-I'm fine. I've got to stay h-here for work," she said, stumbling as Ron moved to catch her.
"Ok…if you really think so," he said sarcastically. "Harry will pick you up from work if you need it. Which you probably will," he muttered. "I'll see you later, 'Mione," he said giving her a hug. "If you need anything…just owl me, okay? Don't hesitate to ask anything."
"T-Thanks, Ron. I really appreciate it. By the way, I'm totally f-fine," she said, taking the seat at her desk knocking over her pencil cup and some documents as she did so.
"Tough night, Granger?" asked Draco smirking. One thing hadn't changed since school—he still called her 'Granger'.
"Shut up, M-Malfoy. I just want to d-do my work," she hadn't changed either—she still called him 'Malfoy'. She bent down to the ground to pick up all the things she had dropped in her clumsiness.
"Fine, I'm just trying to make you feel better," he said with an heir of mystery. He really didn't have deep feelings for Hermione, but he hated to see her hurt like this. He didn't really know why. He just assumed it was a guy thing—not liking to see women hurt like that.
"What could you possibly do to make me feel better?" she asked angrily.
"No idea," he chuckled.
"Let's just get our work d-done," she said starting to pull some documents out of a file cabinet.
"Uh…Granger…" he started.
"What?!" she snapped through clenched teeth.
"Those papers you are getting out…you filled those yesterday. They are simply there for inventory purposes," he said trying not to smirk. She was absolutely hilarious to him when she was hung over and not thinking straight.
She cursed silently under her breath while she put the papers back. Then Seamus Finnigan, who also worked on that floor, came into the shared office.
"Hermione?" he asked.
"Yeah?" she said turning around from the file cabinet.
"Padma and I were wondering if you wanted to join us for lunch today. I guess you can come too," said Seamus motioning to Draco. After the war things had become slightly better between Gryffindors and Slytherins.
"Sure," they both replied in unison.
"Great," he said walking out.
Hermione sat down at her desk to start filing through papers—papers that she hadn't done that day before, that is. She smiled as she saw that in about a few months she would have to go back to Hogwarts to help sixth years learn how to apparate. That was her favorite part of her job—going back to Hogwarts. It had only been six years since she graduated and she already missed the place to death. Her head started pounding and groaned but continued to work. It took her a few seconds to see Draco standing by her desk. It startled her.
"Merlin, you're like a pop-up book from hell," she said angrily.
"Fine, if you're going to talk to me like that I won't give you what I came over here to give you," he said slyly.
"Alright. I'll be nice. What is it?" she asked sheepishly.
He handed over a little potion bottle filled with a mysterious glowing liquid in a lavender shade.
"What is it?" she asked bluntly.
"Well, my father had plenty of his shares of a hung over morning, so he made this potion which takes away the hangover in a matter of seconds. If you don't believe me just try it," he said pushing it towards her. "You know you want too."
"Does it really work?" she asked popping the cork off. "Not just one of your stupid practical Slytheriney jokes?" He shook his head no. She downed the bottle in seconds and smiled. "Sweet Merlin…it really works!!" she said getting up to hug him.
"Granger get your hands off me," he laughed.
"Sorry," she laughed shyly. "Do you think you could get me more of that stuff?" she asked with a puppy dog face.
"We'll see. Now get back to work, young lady!" he scolded her. He almost scolded himself for being so nice to her. On most days they didn't speak to each other at all. She smiled and sat down. They worked for a few hours until Seamus came in to tell them he and Padma were ready to leave for lunch.
"Okay, Seamus. I'll just get my coat and I will be ready," she said. Draco got up and put his coat on as well.
"Where are we going to eat?" Draco asked Seamus.
"That little café a few blocks down. Padma and I go there at least twice a week. It was wear we had our first date," he said reminiscing. Padma came out of her office and the foursome apparated out of the building and decided to walk to rest of the way. It was a beautiful crisp fall day with a light breeze. Hermione adored fall above all of the other seasons.
The café was small and quaint but very cozy and comfortable. Hermione and Draco felt awkward as they ordered their food. Being in a foursome where two of the four were madly in love usually made the other two uncomfortable.
"So Hermione, how are Harry and Ron these days? I haven't seen them in awhile," said Padma sweetly.
"Wonderful as usual. Ron and Lavender are now living together and Harry and Cho are married as you know," said Hermione trying not to sound jealous.
"That's great. Send them my best," she said.
"Oh yes, send them my best too!" said Draco sarcastically. All three of them scowled at him. "Okay now I can see that this lunch was a pity invite for me," he chuckled.
"No, no, no…" said Seamus trying to sound convincing.
Padma interrupted by her cell phone buzzing. "Hello? Oh yes, certainly I will be there right away," she said hanging up.
"What's up, baby?" asked Seamus.
"Parvarti needs me. She is going into labor…I've got to go meet mum at the hospital. I need you to come with me, hunny," she said sounding panicked.
"Let's go, then! Sorry you two…I guess we'll catch up at work later," said Seamus getting up.
"Alright. Let me know how everything goes, Padma," said Hermione standing up to give her a hug.
"Thanks, Hermione. I'm really sorry," she replied.
"Don't be! I hope everything goes well," Draco shook hands with Seamus and the couple left. "So…what? Do we stay here?" asked Hermione.
"Of course we stay here. I'm starving," he whined.
"Fine," she laughed. The food came in a matter of minutes, and they were silent for at least five minutes.
Hermione felt exceedingly more awkward as Draco started to play with the salt and peppershakers when they finished eating. "So…" he said.
"So what?" she asked.
"How have you been?" he asked at poor attempts to make the moment less awkward.
"Spectacular," she said sarcastically as she took a sip of her coffee.
"Can I ask you something personal?" he asked.
"You can ask. Doesn't mean I'll answer," she said folding her arms.
"What's with you lately?" he asked nonchalantly.
"Wh…what do you mean?" she asked.
"You just haven't seemed like yourself lately," he said calmly while stirring his coffee.
"How would you know? You don't know how I am usually. Last time I checked you and I weren't friends," she snapped back at him.
"Well I may not know you personally, but I do know a few facts about you."
"Oh really? Try me."
"First of all, back at Hogwarts you were very conservative and now you come in to work almost every other day with a hangover. Second you always had a very independent personality. Now you depend on your friends about 24/7. They are here practically every day to check on you. You are a bookworm. You haven't brought a book into work for break in about two months. Another thing is that you used to always be so emotionally strong and you stood up for yourself. Now you always seem to be an emotional wreck. And I've got to tell you, I hate to see women hurt. Despite my history with them. I didn't feel that way when I was younger but I do now. The last thing is…at Hogwarts you always had a smile on your face whenever I saw you. I could always verbally attack you and you would not even seem to let it bother you. Recently I've haven't seen you smile at all," he finished.
Hermione had absolutely nothing to say to this at the moment. She just stared into his beautiful, unblinking, gray eyes. He could tell that she was surprised about how observant he was. "So are you going to tell me what's been up with you?"
"I…we aren't friends…" she said lamely.
"So?" he said shrugging.
"So I don't feel like divulging my personal life to a former enemy!"
"You can trust me. There is no hidden agenda. I am just trying to better understand my co-worker," he said convincingly.
"Fine. But I'll give you the Reader's Digest version of it," she said.
"Reader's Digest?"
"It's a muggle thing. Never mind. So what is it that you want to know?"
"Well I heard you broke up with Roger Davies three months ago. And around that time was when I started noticing a change in you. So what happened? What changed?" he inquired.
"He dumped me and that's pretty much it. The wedding is off," she sighed.
"But why?"
"I don't know, okay! He didn't even tell me face to face. He left a note saying he just couldn't marry me! I don't know what the bloody hell I did wrong! Merlin, I HATE that bastard!" she said starting to cry.
"Granger…sorry…please stop crying," he said. He felt awful as people from other tables starting staring at him giving an accusatory 'what-did-you-do?!' kind of look.
"So yes, you are right. I go get drunk every other night and then I depend on my friends to get me out of it. They have lives and partners and I am some burden that they always have to think about. I am some reckless child who needs to be looked after all the time!" she vented.
"They are your friends. That's what friends are for. Trust me, if they hated it that much they would have already stopped helping you out," he tried to explain but she wouldn't stop talking.
"And now I live at home all alone with that stupid cat of mine. I am going to be a crazy and lonely cat lady who never finds a man and just stays in the living room watching TV and ordering take out," she said, her tears starting to subside.
"You'll find a man…"
"No, I won't. That bastard Roger Davies has ruined my chances FOREVER!!"
"You are 23! You have plenty of time to find a man…" he tried to reason with her.
"I guess you might be right. But who would want me? Roger didn't want me," she rubbed her eyes and no more tears were streaming down her face to Draco's relief. All Draco could think about was getting out of that café and right now. He hated to see women cry like that. He had watched his mother do it all his life.
"Well then…maybe we should get out of here…" he said leaving money on the table for the check. They apparated back to the office where both of them were very quiet for the rest of the day. Hermione felt so embarrassed that she had blown up like that. Draco on the other hand felt sorry for her, but at the same time he didn't really care. He just wanted to know what was wrong with her because it had bugged him lately. He had used the good old Slytherin way of getting information—be calm, cool, unsuspecting, and sneaky. He wasn't going to use the information against her of course. He just wanted to know.
It wasn't long till it was five and Harry came through the fireplace. Harry was currently the substitute Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts along with being an Auror. Along with that, he was married to Cho Chang. Hermione wondered how he ever had so much time to attend to her…
"Harry! I'm so happy to see you!" she said happily.
"How have you been feeling today?" he asked, looking worried.
"Oh, I felt absolutely horrid this morning but I'm feeling quite well now. Well, lets go," she said, not even putting a glance toward Draco. Harry and Ron still loathed Draco and she didn't want them to think that she ever had any contact with him.
They went through the fire to Hermione's house. Her black cat, Snuffley, was eagerly awaiting her when she returned with Harry.
"You should really get another cat to be with Snuffley," said Harry as he stroked Snuffleys' long black fur.
"Harry, I don't want to become a crazy lonely cat lady," she responded, which made Harry laugh.
"Are you really that lonely?" he asked as he stared into her eyes as if trying to read her.
"Yes…I mean…it was only three months ago. He didn't even tell me why he left. I'll don't even know what I did wrong…" she trailed off. She didn't cry. She was sick of crying.
"Oh, Hermione…I'm sure you didn't do anything wrong," said Harry as he gave her a hug.
"Harry, you should really be getting back to Cho," said Hermione. "I am a big girl. I will be able to survive a break-up. I just need a little time. Roger Davies is totally replaceable," she smiled.
"No, it's fine. If you need me here I'll stay."
"Harry, that's very sweet but I don't want to keep you here. Go home. To your wife. Remember her?" she joked.
"Alright, but if you need me or Ron send an owl."
"Thanks, Harry," she said as she gave him a hug goodbye.
She watched him apparate away and she went into the kitchen to make herself some dinner. All she found was an old TV dinner. 'Oh bugger…guess this will have to do…'she thought as she stuck it in the microwave. When it came out she sat on the couch and turned on the TV. Snuffley jumped up and snuggled against her.
She couldn't remember the last time she felt this pitiful. The only person's love she had now was a cat! Her mind flashed back to when Roger Davies had first asked her out when she was eighteen. She remembered it like it was yesterday.
Hermione was sitting at a small coffee shop in a town not far away from Hogsmeade. She was, of course, engrossed in a book that she found fascinating. She loved the state of mind she had when she was reading. Reading transported her to other worlds. When she was caught up in a good book she was practically oblivious to the entire world around her. Even when she was in the worst moods she could read a book and forget about her troubles even if it was for a little while.
She turned the page of the book and heard someone cough above her. Thinking nothing of it she kept reading. Then she heard it again. And then again. She still ignored it as she stayed in her own little world. All of the sudden someone grabbed the book out of her hand.
"Aha. You are Hermione Granger, aren't you? I thought you looked familiar," said a tall and gorgeous man she recognized to be Roger Davies. "Pride and Prejudice? I have never heard of this book before," he said sitting down at her table.
"Oh, it's just wonderful! I've read it at least six times. I can loan you that if you want," she offered.
"That's alright. So tell me. What is a beautiful girl like you doing here in this adorable little coffee shop all by yourself?" he said grinning.
"Oh…I'm just…reading," she laughed.
"Yes, I saw that. You know, you are even prettier then I remembered. There is no way that you are single right now, is there?" he asked slyly. "I always thought that kid Weasley had a thing for you. How is Ron?"
"He's fine. He's dating Lavender Brown, actually. I am single."
"Who would have thought? Well I can change that. Want to go to dinner with me on Friday night?"
"I…what?" she asked feeling very shy.
"Come on, Hermione. Please?" he asked with an adorable puppy dog face. "If I am an awful date I promise I won't force you to go on another date with me ever again!"
"Well I don't…sure!" she heard herself say. She mentally slapped herself for sounding so eager.
"Great. I will pick you up at 8:00. And yes, I would like to borrow the book actually," he smiled.
"It's all yours," she smiled and he walked out of the shop.
After that first date she spent practically all her time with him. Although it sounded like a weird pairing to some people, to Hermione it was just perfect. They dated for three years and got engaged when she was twenty-one. Then as of three months ago he had ended it.
'Well at least Roger is my guy in my memories…' she thought sadly as she walked to her bedroom. The second her head hit the pillow she drifted off into a dreamless sleep. But her last thought was 'Roger Davies is irreplaceable…'
A/N: So that was the first chapter! I am sorry if you find it a little unrealistic or that if you think Draco is being a little out of character. But do remember that this is a few years after the war. They are 23 now so school was six years ago. Draco and Hermione have grown up a little bit and his father is dead and isn't hanging over his head anymore. So that's just a small thing to keep in mind. Thank you for reading and feedback of any kind would be really nice! I have no idea if this story is good at all…but don't give up on me yet! Keep reading. Please?!