A/N: Hi. This was my submission for the DFW Trope fest. My randomly selected prompt was Meet-Cute. I had alot of fun writing this and it was the first piece of writing i did all year after a severe bout of writers block. I hope you all enjoy.

Hermione wasn't sure whose idea it had been, but when Daphne had dragged her and Ginny, who had been visiting, into the eighth year girls dormitory, shoved a glass of witches brew - read elf wine and firewhiskey - into her hand and told her to stay put whilst they each cast the one true love spell, she guessed it couldn't be as bad as some of her other halloween's at Hogwarts - read almost getting smashed to pieces by a mountain troll at the bright and early age of eleven.

And to be fair to whom ever's bright idea it had been, (a discussion four years later at Theo's wedding revealed that it had been none other than the bride herself) Hermione did have a tremendous amount of fun as they all went round and found out that the spell did nothing other than provide them with a possible scenario for said meeting.

The copious amount of alcohol they were consuming only added to the hilariousness of the whole thing as a whole host of meet cute scenarios were described and acted out by each witch under the spell at the time.

Of course, three days later when the first predictions started coming true, almost all of them had forgotten about it.

When Hemione had read in the prophet that each and every student who should have graduated from Hogwarts that year were required to go back and "redo" the year, regardless of whether or not they had received any job offers from the ministry, she was ecstatic.

Harry and Ron were less so (and they certainly expressed their displeasure about it to Hermione repeatedly) and when McGonagall informed them that as eighth years they would be honorary members of their houses only and so ineligible for quidditch, there was uproar.

Still they didn't have a curfew and instead of living in their own houses they were all corralled into a newly refurbished tower, which on the first of September, saw more than one exchange of apologies before almost everyone of them decided that they'd seen enough death and destruction to last a lifetime.

They all agreed that they'd rather just put their heads down, get on with it and try to enjoy their last year of school.

Especially since a good few of them weren't able to at all.

Hermione didn't think anything of it when Draco Malfoy - the same Malfoy that had called her a mudblood on her 13th birthday, whom had been one of the principal Slytherins to bully her throughout her school years and who had stood frozen in horror as his aunt had carved that slur (that she'd first heard from him) into her arm in the middle of his drawing room - of course he was also the same Malfoy that she'd stood up for at the beginning of the summer and helped convince the jury attempting to condemn him to death, that he'd simply been a child in an impossible position and that it would be beyond reprehensible if they found him guilty - caught her by the wrist when she slipped on some mashed potato that had been flung onto the ground by someone during dinner in the middle of the great hall, three days later.

She didn't think anything of it when he pulled her to his chest and smoothed his hands down her arms whilst his eyes flicked down and over her person, searching for an injury she didn't have.

Thanks to him.

It was only when he realised she'd been staring agape at him that he released his hands from her shoulders, cleared his throat, nodded tersely at her and strode off in the direction of the dungeons all without giving Hermione a backwards glance or a chance to thank him.

It was the first actual interaction she'd had with him since they'd come back to school, infact both Ron and Harry had spent more time with him than she had since most of their house had decided to play pick up quidditch together if they couldn't play for their houses and she'd heard both of them reluctantly agree with some of their fellow housemates that he wasn't so bad, but she'd had no reason to interact with him and so she simply hadn't.

She stared after him for a few seconds more, until his blond head disappeared from her view, wondering what on earth that had been about when Ginny appeared beside her.

"What are we staring at?" The redhead asked, startling Hermione into action but she only shook her head and frowned.

"Nothing."

There was something odd about the entire encounter, aside from the fact it had been their first all year but she simply looped her arm through Ginnys as they turned and began the long trek up to Gryffindor tower.

"Oh!" Hermione was shocked to see one of the only first editions of Hogwarts, A History ironically that Hogwarts owned simply lying about the eighth year common room. She stopped, dropped the stack of books she'd retrieved from the library for her own homework onto the desk and carefully lifted the tome. She glanced between Theo Nott and Anthony Goldstein, impressed that either one of them were reading her favourite book when so many of her own friends ridiculed her for it.

"Who's reading this then?" She asked, glancing between the two boys, men now she supposed, and carefully flicking through the book, grinned as she came across some of her favourite passages.

"Can I help you Granger?"

Theo actually snorted and Hermione was sure it was because her face fell when she heard Malfoy's voice and then when he slipped into the seat she was standing at and casually lifted the book from her hands.

Of course it was Malfoy and now that she thought about it she was sure she'd seen him reading it at least once a year since they were eleven, in fact she vaguely remembered that one of their earliest conversations had been on the very first train to Hogwarts before they'd been sorted and ultimately only ever taunted one another since, had been about the ghosts that inhabited the castle.

"This is yours?" She asked, lifting her chin and her books so that she had something to grip tightly.

He lifted one eyebrow at her and nodded. "It is. It's my favourite book."

She nodded slowly at him and sat down in the empty seat opposite him. "Mine too."

She thinks she imagined him saying "I know."

Hermione groaned when Flitwick announced they would be working on their mementos charms. She understood that the charm was incredibly important to the Ministry and was how they corresponded within the large building that housed their government but it was hardly going to be on their NEWT exam in a few weeks.

She couldn't help but glare at their tiny professor when he confirmed just that and told them he simply wanted them to relax a little before the examinations began on Monday morning.

Hermione resolved to revise throughout the lesson regardless, ignoring Harry's gentle attempts to get her to join in the fun until a piece of paper fluttered down beside her and rearranged itself into an origami swan that then began to peck at her knuckles.

She glared at the bird and it glared right back at her until she tore open the note and had to bite her lip in an attempt not to grin at who it was from.

They graduated Hogwarts and went their separate ways. She moved into her parents empty house and was glad of the quiet. She could do what she wanted when she wanted and didn't have to listen to anyone moan and groan about how boring she was for wanting to curl up in front of the fire with a good book in the evening instead of making her way down to Hogsmeade and getting sloshed.

Of course she still saw both Harry and Ron on the regular and to a lesser extent Daphne and Hannah too. She didn't make a concerted attempt to see anyone else though she did think about it.

She was thinking about making an effort to see one other person in particular on her first day of her internship in the DMLE, when half a dozen other employees entered the lift with her

and she noticed an errant thread hanging from the shirt collar in front of her and without a moment's hesitation, she leaned forward and snapped it off.

"Hey!" The man whose personal space she'd just invaded without a second thought, protested. When Hermione realised who it was she blushed so deeply she could feel the warmth of it in her toes.

"Malfoy. Gosh I'm so sorry. You had a thread…." She trailed off and held the tiny strand of cotton up as evidence, smiling sheepishly up at him.

He smirked down at her and she wished everyone would disappear so she could melt into a puddle in privacy, when he said, "If you wanted a piece of me Granger you only had to ask."

Daphne, Ginny, Pansy and Hannah stared at her like she'd lost her mind when she finally admitted to them that she might have a bit of a crush on Malfoy the following Friday night. They were all sat at the dining table of Grimmauld place filling out Harry and Daphne's save the date wedding cards, three bottles of wine between the five of them already gone.

"Well at least you're finally admitting it," Pansy snickered. Hermione glanced sharply at her.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh come on," Ginny smirked, "he's always been attractive and now that the war's over and all sticks from all arses have been removed we've seen how you two have been looking at each other."

"Excuse me!"

"You're excused." Daphne replied, summoning another bottle of wine and refilling all their glasses, "but really you should have seen this coming. From what I've heard at least three of your true love spell meet cutes have been with him."

"That wasn't a real spell!" She exclaimed standing suddenly from the table and glaring at her so called friends. "Draco Malfoy is not my one true love."

"Well ." She was going to die. "Thats nice to know Granger."

She turned slowly to face the kitchen doorway and saw both Harry and Malfoy standing there laden down with chinese takeaway. Harry smiled sheepishly at her and she realised she'd been set up by all of them.

Ambushed into having dinner with the one person she'd wanted to share a meal with for almost a year now.

She wordlessly summoned her bag and tossed a handful of floo powder into the kitchen fireplace ignoring her friends as she disappeared into green flame, the only comfort being that Malfoy looked sorry to see her go.

When someone snatched the last chocolate chip muffin from out under her hand a few days later in line at the ministry canteen she wasn't surprised.

She'd ignored all owls, presumably filled with apologies, shut down her floo and changed her wards to exclude all of her so called friends from apparating onto the property.

She was surprised though when she turned around, fully intending to tell her muffin usurper to fuck off, when she came face to face with Draco instead.

He smirked at her then proceeded to pay for her coffee, all without saying a word to her before he settled his hand on the small of her back and proceeded to guide her through the canteen, into an elevator and back to his office where he gently pushed her to sit on the plush sofa he'd somehow smuggled into the tiny space.

"We really have to stop meeting like this." He said, flashing her a small grin as he cut the muffin in half and offered one of them to her.

She dropped her head into her hands and groaned. "They told you."

"Oh yes."

"Fuckers."

He laughed before he wrapped one arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his embrace.

"If it makes you feel better Potter's been trying to set me up with you since we graduated."

"Trying?"

He shrugged and avoided her eye, instead choosing to eat his half of the muffin. Hermione watched him in silence, her fingers fidgeting in her lap as she waited for him to speak. "I don't exactly dese-"

"Please stop. I already accepted your apology two years ago."

He smirked at her again and she suddenly became very aware that she was alone in Draco Malfoy's office with a locked door and he was looking at her like she was a piece of meat.

"Well then." He stood from the couch and removed his jacket. Hermione swallowed as she watched him remove his cufflinks before he rolled his sleeves up and came back to sit beside her.

She shuddered when she felt him lean over and brush his lips against her bare shoulder and then she gave in with a groan as she turned and climbed into his lap, wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips against his.

"Who are you supposed to be?"

"Black Widow."

"Black who?"

"She's a superhero."
"A super what?"

"It's a muggle thing mate, you wouldn't get it."

Hermione grinned at Dean as he rejoined the table and nodded her head in thanks for the Corona and lime he pressed into her hand.

"Oh ok," Theo sighed. "Where's Draco anyway?"

"He said he's running late," she replied, taking a swig of her beer and peering around a very pregnant Daphne who had leaned into her size and dressed up as a bowling ball. Hermione had been reliably informed Harry was coming as a pin.

"They're not here yet. I'm watching for them don't worry. Harry promised me they would be on time."

Hermione only hummed and took another drink. She didn't even know who Draco was dressing up as. Anytime she'd brought it up he'd simply scowled and reminded her that patience was a virtue.

She liked to remind him that he had long rid her of any remaining virtue.

Eventually she gave up watching the door for them and settled Daphne into her chair as she went to the bar for the next round.

She was waiting patiently for the bartender to get to her when a very attractive Captain America walked into the bar. She watched him, well his bum, make its way around the patrons laughing and joking, before she realised she recognised it and grinned up at her boyfriend when he arrived behind her.

"Hi."

He was glowering down at her and she bit her lip in anticipation.

She knew exactly how worked up he'd be when he seen her in the black leather jumpsuit that barely zipped up over her chest and felt just how worked up he was when he pressed his erection into her leather clad arse.

"Let's go," he muttered. She laughed.

"You just got here."

"Bathroom then." He sounded desperate. She was giddy with it.

"Draco."

"Please babe," he pleaded, dancing kisses up and down her neck, intermittently sucking at it. "I'll never last till we get home if i have to deal with you sat on my lap dressed like sex on a stick all night."

"Think how much bet-"

His hands tightened on her hips and she bit her lip. "Think how good you'll feel after I fuck this tight little arse." He gripped it for emphasis before slipping one hand up and over her waist till he was palming one breast. She felt her nipples tighten and whimpered. "Think how good you'll feel after I make you come on my cock princess."

She sighed dramatically, "Maybe." She carried the tray of drinks over to their table before she turned back to look at him smirking. "I mean I am supposed to have sex with my one true love in matching costumes."