Again, song lyrics from "Don't You Want Me" by The Human League

.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.

.~*~.~*~It's much to late to find you think you've changed your mind. Well you better change it back, or we will both be sorry.~*~.~*~.

The reportedly amiable resignation of Draco Malfoy as Chief Financial Adviser to the Minster for Magic sent the media into a frenzy. He was credited with single-handedly resolving the Ministry's financial problems and increasing the efficacy of the economy steadily over the past two years; the public was understandably concerned by the sudden change.

Hermione was determined to maintain the current trajectory of economic success. The Board of Advisers immediately hired a replacement. He did a fine job, but was not as aggressive in his policies as Malfoy had been. And certainly not as seductive in his rejections.

A few months later, Hermione and Percy discovered that they had managed to continue on in Malfoy's absence without slipping back to their previous state of economic distress. It was certainly a relief, but it secretly left Hermione feeling bitter. They didn't need him after all, at least not anymore. They joked about channeling their "inner-Malfoy" when handling particularly difficult meetings, but every time, Hermione left feeling cold and lonely.

.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.

Every four years, the International Association of Witch and Wizard Relations hosted a summer ball to maintain contact between magical governments. Hermione had attended the last one a little over a year before she became Minister as a special invitee for her heroic wartime actions. It had been the last function she and Ron had attended as a couple before their final amicable split at the start of her campaign. As Minister, it was prudent (according to Percy and the board) that she invite a date for appearances, and as an easy escape from any unwanted conversations with foreign diplomats. She had convinced Ron to accompany her again, to the great disappointment of Lavender Brown who had been expecting to attend as his "plus one." The arrangement turned out fairly well, with Harry and Ginny, Percy and Penelope, and Arthur and Molly rounding out their assigned table. This year, the ball was hosted at Beauxbatons.

Hermione was obligated (again, according to Percy and the board) to dance with the other government heads that attended. For the most part they were polite, but she indeed used Ron as an excuse when a few requested a second dance. Ron, however, was perfectly pleased that his date was required to spend most of her time schmoozing with others. He was able to make frequent visits to the bar and buffet table.

It was during one of the few dances that she and Ron shared that Hermione spotted the fashionably late entrance of Draco Malfoy and she felt her palms immediately begin to sweat. It had been about ten months since she had last seen him in person, the day he had left the Ministry for good. On his arm was a petite brunette with heavily made-up eyes and large, sparkling jewels adorning her ears, neck, and wrists.

"What's Malfoy doing here?" Ron asked in annoyance. Though the boys did not know the true nature of her relationship with Malfoy, they had grudgingly grown to accept their friendship. She had played along with the "amiable" resignation depicted by the media, and no one ever discovered the truth. Percy was aware that Malfoy's departure had been a sudden and dramatic event, and he had his suspicions, but Hermione had never confirmed them. "He doesn't work for the Ministry anymore," Ron continued. "Why was he invited?"

"I suppose because it's only been a few months since he left," she said shakily. "They may have already finalized the guest list. And since he hadn't been fired, they didn't revoke the invitation."

Ron grunted in aggravation. They continued to dance for another minute before Hermione couldn't take it anymore. "I've just remembered something urgent I need to discuss with Percy," she said, breaking away abruptly.

Hermione made a beeline for Percy who was eating and laughing at their table with Penelope and his parents. "Can I steal him away for a moment?" Hermione asked politely, yanking him up by the wrist before anyone had time to answer. She steered him to a quiet, secluded corner of the room, partially concealed by a decorative display of tall, colorful plants.

"Malfoy's here," she whispered in a panic, peering through the leaves that shielded them, keeping an eye on the white-blonde head across the room.

"So?" Percy asked, folding his arms across his chest. "It's been months, Hermione. Are you still holding a grudge just because he resigned? It's Draco Malfoy. I'm surprised he stuck around as long as he did."

"Oh, Percy! Don't say that! I know you liked working with him!" Hermione accused.

"Fine, but either way, I don't know why you're upset. Just greet him politely so the press can get a photo showing that you're on good terms, and then you can ignore him the rest of the night." He said it as if it were the easiest, simplest thing in the world. And it would be if that were all there was to it. But Hermione could tell by the way he was scrutinizing her face that he knew better.

"Please don't make me say it, Perce..." she groaned, bowing her head, no longer able to maintain eye contact.

"I knew it! You were sleeping with him! That's why he resigned!"

"It's hardly something to celebrate," she said through a clenched jaw. "This is humiliating..."

Percy regarded her for a moment. "Did he leave because you were planning on continuing your... tryst?"

"No, well... Ugh! I don't know!" She leaned back against the wall and stared up just above his head. "I think that was what he originally wanted, because I told him that I couldn't continue to engage in such inappropriate behavior with a colleague. His solution to that was to quit, but I told him that we needed him! He got angry and quit anyway."

Percy gathered her up in a hug and she leaned her head against his chest, arms limp at her sides. She felt like all the energy had been sucked out of her. Percy wasn't normally an affectionate friend, so it meant an awful lot when he made the effort. "So he left because you wouldn't put out? I guess he was always foul. Maybe we were blinded by his usefulness."

"That's why I do not want to have to speak to him. Even aside from the sex, I thought we had become friends. He really had me fooled."

"Me too."

They stayed like that for a minute or so longer before sneaking back out into the open from behind the plants. In order to keep herself occupied, Hermione dragged Ron back out onto the floor for a dance. Unfortunately, her plan to avoid contact with Malfoy was sabotaged when the man himself appeared beside them.

"May I cut in?"

Not knowing any of the details, Ron silently stepped aside, though not without a pointed glare. Hermione was rooted to the spot, attempting to telepathically communicate to Ron not to give her up, but he was already several steps away, so she had no choice but to stiffly accept Malfoy's hand in her own and place the other as lightly as possible on his shoulder. For the remainder of the song, they swayed awkwardly in silence. Hermione determinedly avoided his eyes, staring hard at his shoulder and maintaining a safe distance of several inches.

"You and the Weasel back together, then?" he drawled. It was a voice she remembered from their school days. He had never spoken like that when they had worked together. It sounded rather juvenile.

"N-no," she said, cursing her voice for shaking so pathetically. "We're just friends… I needed a date."

He scoffed and they fell back into uncomfortable silence. Hermione could not recall ever feeling so out of sorts. She wondered if the dancing couples around them could sense the tension, but she did not dare to look and find out.

"Is there anywhere we could go to talk in private? You must know your way around this place," he eventually requested.

"Wouldn't your date wonder where you've gone?" she asked spitefully. She knew she was letting her jealousy show, but she couldn't keep it out of her voice.

"You mean Astoria?" he smirked at that, looking over at the brunette who was chatting with a couple of other women by the bar. "My mother set us up. Respectable bloodline, no familial Death Eater connections. Perfect for a Ministry function like this. But she's about as interested in me as I am in her."

"You seemed pretty interested in one another when she came in clinging to your arm," she said, working up the courage to look at his face, and was startled by the genuine smile on his lips.

"Let's just say that she was looking forward to mingling with other single women," he said vaguely, the smile growing wider when Hermione did not indicate that she understood his meaning. "I don't have the… equipment that she is interested in."

"Oh!" Hermione said in surprise.

"No more excuses, Granger," he said, getting back to business. "We need to talk. I don't like how things ended and I'd like to clear the air."

She sighed in defeat. "Very well, they've set me up in a private suite. It's not far from here."

She led him discreetly from the ballroom and through the halls of Beauxbatons to the quarters they had reserved for her.

The main sitting room was a nice size, with a loveseat and an armchair before a luxurious fireplace, a bookshelf of self-translating books, and a kitchenette that would magically summon whatever she requested (within reason). The bedroom contained a sizeable bed and an armoire, with a bathroom leading off it that had a bathtub with magical taps that reminded her of the Prefects' bathroom at Hogwarts.

Hermione motioned for Malfoy to have a seat and went to the kitchenette to pour herself a glass of water. Her mouth was suddenly as dry as old parchment. Malfoy declined her offer, instead removing a flask from inside his jacket and taking a long swig of liquid courage.

"What is it you wanted to discuss, Malfoy?" she asked as she sat down on the other side of the loveseat, demurely crossing her ankles.

He brought his flask up to his lips and drank again before answering. "Explain to me why," he began slowly, refusing to meet her eyes, "after I quit, meaning we no longer worked together, and therefore avoiding a big scandal… why you stopped returning my messages. Why things just ended like they did. I thought there was a chance we'd be able to continue our… relationship, but… it seems like you never even considered it. Why?"

He finally looked up at her and the lifeless, hopeless look in their stormy grey depths took her breath away. She could feel a lump gathering in her throat and it took a moment before she regained the ability to speak. "I felt betrayed, Malfoy!" she admitted, louder than she had meant to, and the volume of her voice continued to rise. "You abandoned me when I needed you most! Our sexual arrangement was evidently more important to you than our friendship, the trust I had placed in you, our careers, the economy, and the government. You risked all of that just so that you could keep fucking me. How could you expect me to want to continue to see you after you had shown so little regard for me and my feelings? Why would I continue to see someone who only saw me as a piece of meat?"

Her rant was met with silence. She had gotten up and marched to the other side of the room while she yelled, and she could feel the tear tracks making their way down her cheeks. Malfoy was looking at the floor with his brow furrowed and began shaking his head side to side.

"You don't understand..."

"Don't tell me what I do or do not understand!" she shot back.

"I WILL tell you what you don't understand if you don't understand it!" he roared. "Obviously, you wouldn't know if you understood or not, and I'm telling you, because we are discussing my actions, that you DO NOT UNDERSTAND."

"Then make me understand! Tell me what it is that I'm not understanding!"

Malfoy rose from his seat and approached her slowly. She stumbled back a small step as her knees began to shake slightly.

"Granger," he paused. His hands were shoved in his pockets. He seemed nervous. She just watched him warily. "I wanted to be with you. I did what I thought I had to do to make that happen."

"Okay, fine! And what part of that are you claiming I didn't understand?" she was yelling again, completely exasperated. "You wanted to keep screwing me, so you betrayed my trust and completely screwed me over so you could get what you wanted! You're so selfish, Malfoy! I can't believe you thought that after that I would still want to have anything to do with you."

She was crying again, but that didn't deter him from snarling in her face, "I didn't screw you over at all! I've been following everything closely – you and Percy and this new guy have been handling everything just fine! So don't try to blame me for some catastrophic fuck up that never even happened!"

Hermione had nothing to say to that, so she just stood there helplessly while tears continued to make their way down her face.

"And do you really think it's selfish, to willingly leave the Ministry, knowing full well that there was a chance you'd ignore me afterwards, which is exactly what you did, by the way, and I'd never see you again?"

"Don't you think you're being a tad overdramatic, Draco?"

He went still, his rant finished, and she met his eyes. They suddenly seemed clear, like the storm that had been brewing in them had finally passed. He took a step closer to her, pulling out a handkerchief and wiping her cheeks. She just stood there with her arms at her sides, letting him clean her face. Then he gently grasped her shoulders, looking down at her, all anger seeming to have dissipated.

"You still don't get it," he said in wonder. She didn't argue this time. She felt frozen in place and in time while the moment seemed to stretch on for eternity. She was even holding her breath. "I can't believe I'm going to have to spell this out. I didn't quit because I wanted to keep having sex with you. I quit because I wanted to be with you."

She couldn't register his words. Part of her wanted to believe what he was saying, because she knew what he meant, but another part of her refused to accept his admission because… she wasn't sure why. Maybe she was scared.

"The day you left my flat," he was speaking to her so softly that she had to tilt her head up towards him to catch every word. "I was so confused because… you'd been in the kitchen making breakfast. You were wearing my clothes. You'd spent the night. I thought we were both happy like that… I was hoping that that was how things could be between us. Not just some casual fling."

She remembered the morning he was describing like it was yesterday, and she recalled the moment when she, too, had discovered that they were no longer involved in just some casual fling. She just hadn't known he'd noticed it, too. And she certainly hadn't realized that that's what he wanted from her after he quit. Was she really so blind?

"Hermione, I want to be with you," he repeated. His hands were still on her shoulders.

She felt out of breath, like she had just run a marathon. "I-I need to… think about this," she whispered.

He considered her, tilting his head to the side. A wicked grin slowly spread across his face.

"No."

And then he was kissing her, and it felt like their first – hungry and needy, with an added element of desperation. Hermione was rooted to the spot for a moment, but she quickly melted into him. His hands slid from her shoulders to her waist, caressing her curves as they went. They stumbled together to the couch, and he cushioned their fall as he pulled her down on top of him.

They froze when they heard a knock on the door.

"Hermione, are you in there?"

Percy.

She looked over at the door in panic. She felt Draco shaking under her, stifling laughter, no doubt. She looked down at him and he was indeed pressing his lips together, merriment dancing in his usually stormy eyes. She pressed one finger to her lips.

"She's been gone a long time. It's not like her to duck out of an event like this unannounced," she heard Ron's voice say, thick with concern.

Now Draco stopped laughing.

"Hermione, if you don't answer the door in ten seconds, we're forcing our way in."

She scrambled off Malfoy and motioned for him to hide in the bedroom. He complied and she moved over to the door, straightening her clothing and running her fingers through her hair in an attempt to comb it back. She opened the door just enough to poke her head through.

"I'm fine! Just needed a break from all of the formalities and conversation," she explained quickly, hoping they'd leave her to return on her own.

"You'd better come back with us now, Hermione," said Harry, who moved into her line of vision from behind Ron's tall form. "People have started to note your absence."

"I'll just be another minute," she assured them. She smiled at them each in turn in an attempt to reassure them. Percy was frowning but she chose to ignore it.

"You look… disheveled," Ron observed. She hoped her nerves didn't visibly show as they resurfaced. "It almost look's like you've been-"

Percy's groan cut Ron off. He put his hand on the door, and pushed it open wider, stepping into the room.

"Where is he, Hermione?"

"Where's who?" asked Harry, as the other two followed Percy into her quarters.

"No one!" she answered a bit too quickly. "There's no one here!"

Percy gave her an impatient look and walked over to the bedroom, throwing the door open and revealing Draco Malfoy to the three newcomers. If Hermione looked disheveled, Draco looked like a complete mess given his usually impeccable appearance. She had mussed his hair when she had run her fingers through it and there was lipstick smeared on his collar. She almost giggled… he was the very picture of a man caught conducting an affair.

Ron's jaw dropped open and Harry's fists clenched at his side. Percy groaned again and rounded on Hermione. He began lecturing her.

"You should know better, Hermione! This is totally unprofessional! Don't you know what people would say if they knew about this? They'd come up with all sorts of rumors – it's a conflict of interest! And they'd certainly guess that this had been going on before, and it wouldn't be long until the truth inevitably came out!"

"How long has this been going on?" Ron asked, his ears turning red.

"This is none of your business!" Hermione shouted to the room at large, collapsing onto the loveseat and dropping her face into her hands.

"You're sleeping with Malfoy?!" Harry was yelling now, too. "What could possibly possess you to – I can't believe – this is… ugh!" He gave up.

"Listen, you two," Percy was now addressing Hermione and Draco together, "this cannot happen. Without a doubt, the public will react the same way that these two are. Plus accusations that the Ministry cannot afford to worry about. We cannot risk an investigation."

"But they wouldn't find anything!" Hermione argued. "I know it was unprofessional, but it never affected our work! We still handled everything the exact way we should have. I know people will disapprove, but they wouldn't be able to find anything to actually condemn us for!"

"It doesn't matter," Percy said firmly. "This can't happen. It needs to stop. You have four years left in your term. Now is not the time to be dealing with a sex scandal."

"It's not a sex scandal!"

Ron and Harry both groaned, looking sick.

"Whatever it is, it's finished. You agreed to this job and all of the public scrutiny that comes with it, Hermione. This is one of the sacrifices you have to make."

She stayed silent for a moment, feeling torn but knowing that ultimately Percy was right as usual. She sighed and nodded her head reluctantly.

"Bloody brilliant," Malfoy interrupted the silence, stalking to the door and slamming it behind him.

.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.

Nearly a year had passed since the ball and Hermione was withering away. Any enthusiasm, motivation, or sense of obligation had disappeared. She was going through the motions and while no one said anything about it, she knew they were all worried. Percy was a true asset, picking up the inevitable slack. They were essentially co-Ministers by this time, and while she felt some semblance of guilt that she generally got all the credit, she could not bring herself to fix it.

It was at the peak of this depression that a sign appeared in the form of an advertisement in the Daily Prophet. It was a sign she didn't even know she had been looking for but suddenly she knew she'd been waiting for it for years. Not even bothering to tell her secretary, she floo'd to Hogwarts. Professor McGonagall would know what she should do.

.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.

A few days later, with all of the arrangements made, she stood before the fireplace in her office, passing the floo powder back and forth between her hands. This was it. Regardless of what happened next, she knew that her decision was the right one for her even if this final piece didn't fall into place.

Taking a deep breath, she tossed in the powder, stepped through the floo, and next thing she knew, she was sprawled on the floor of Malfoy's flat.

He must have heard the whoosh of the fire, because he barged in from the other room with his wand raised defensively. When he saw who it was, he lowered his wand but did not relinquish his aggressive stance.

"Bloody hell, Granger, you can't just show up unannounced in people's homes! What in Merlin's name are you doing here?"

She stood and brushed herself off, feeling butterflies dancing in her stomach. Malfoy was frowning at her, clearly upset by her presence. She shuffled her feet and muttered a self-conscious apology. He did not acknowledge it, instead tapping his foot while he waited for her to explain.

"I'm – I'm here to offer you your old j-job back," she stammered anxiously. But even her copious nerves did not prepare her for the level of vitriol he fired back.

"You have GOT to be fucking kidding me, Granger!" he shouted, taking a few steps toward her. "After all of the rubbish you put me through about working together and then just cutting me out of your life. You must be fucking insane."

"I did not cut you out!" She countered, heat rising on her face as anger overwhelmed her at his accusations. "We cut each other out! It was what needed to happen. We talked about all of this at the ball last year!"

"We did not talk about it," he growled menacingly. "I was not consulted when that decision was made. Besides, however you want to explain it, Granger, it doesn't bloody well matter. You must be really out of your head if you think I'd go back to the Ministry to work for you again!"

"I'm not asking you to work for me," she said quietly.

"What are you on about?" Malfoy laughed but it was a mean laugh, a mocking laugh. "You've completely lost it."

"No! I have not lost it!" she fired back, closing the gap between them and poking him in the chest with her index finger. "How dare you! Maybe you don't approve of the decisions I've made over the years, but they have always been based in logic. So don't you tell me that I've gone crazy!"

"Then what the hell do you mean by 'I'm offering you a job but not for me?' You are making no sense!"

"Exactly what I said! I'm not asking you to work for me, I'm asking you to work for Percy!" She took a deep breath before finishing. "I'm stepping down. Percy is finishing the last three years of my term for me. He wants you to resume as Chief Financial Adviser."

Malfoy's mouth had fallen open and he stared at her, stunned. She took a step back, widening the gap between them while he recovered. A few seconds later, however, he crossed the space and pulled his face up to hers, his eyes flitting around her face in wonder for a few seconds before kissing her with more passion than she'd ever experienced before. She had never felt more free than when she realized that she could kiss him back without worry or fear. She tangled her fingers in his hair and he wrapped his arms around her, picking her up and walking them over to the couch. He sat down with her on his lap and without ever breaking contact, she shifted so that she was straddling him and their faces were level. For the first time, however, their kisses lacked sexual charge. It was just relief and affection and passion.

This went on for a few more minutes before he finally pulled away, again examining her face, this time smiling at her like a loon. "But what will you do?" he finally asked. "I have to assume you didn't step down as the bloody Minister for Magic just to be with some wizard. That's not you, Hermione."

"I'm going to be teaching Transfiguration at Hogwarts," she revealed, returning his smile.

"That's – that's incredible!" he said. She felt like she was going to cry.

"I never really liked being Minister," she admitted quietly.

"I know."

"So… will you take the job?" she hesitantly asked.

"Under one condition." He smiled mischievously. "That I get regular office visits from the ex-Minister," he said as he slowly pushed her down onto the couch and covered her with his body, beginning to unbutton her blouse. "So that I can rip all of her school teacher clothes off one by one on my desk. You know, for old time's sake."

She reached her head up and bit his bottom lip, tugging on it roughly before pulling back to say with a wicked gleam in her eye:

"No."

FIN.

.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.

Thank you so much for reading! I would really appreciate any feedback you might have, praise and criticism both :)

I hope you enjoyed the ending. I considered that the Transfiguration reveal was a bit too sudden, but after rereading, I feel confident that I made it clear that Hermione was unhappy, dissatisfied, and overall not very stimulated by her job as Minister, while Percy is very content in cleaning up all of her messes (not to mention is dedication to the Ministry in the books). I knew I wanted Hermione to leave her job for Draco while also doing something quite nice for her friend Percy. I relied on our knowledge of Hermione's character both in canon and within this fic to pull it off. What do you think? Did I succeed?

I am a busy grad student and don't have a ton of time to write, but I have a couple of chapters of a longer fanfiction written that I'm super excited about. It's unlike anything I've written before... So keep an eye out for that if you're interested! Thanks again to all readers, and especially reviewers and followers!