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Okay, I'm not sure if I'm going to continue with this idea, so leave me reviews and tell me if you'd like to see where I could take this story, if not I'm always open to suggestions about a story I should write, whether it be chapter or otherwise.

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HPOV

I had my life all planned out from the moment I left Hogwarts.

I would marry Ron, work at the Ministry of Magic in the Magical Creatures Department, live in a nice house, and have great friends.

Everything had been going just as I'd planned.

Ron and I got married right after we graduated, and things were amazing.

At first.

After a year things got...worse. He had a short temper, which I'd always known, but it seemed to get considerably worse. He'd say horrible things to me and - well he just wasn't a pleasant man to be around.

I tried to make it work though. I tried to be a good wife and fix it - but it was far too broken.

A year and a half into the marriage he started cheating on me - well he could have been cheating on me before then, but he didn't make it known.

But I knew then, and it broke my heart a little more each time I saw a lacy pair of panties that weren't mine, a lipstick stain on the collar of his shirt - all these little things, things he did just to spite me - they all broke my heart.

I filed for a divorce after one year and ten months of marriage.

Merlin, I would never forget his face when I handed him the papers. He looked about ready to murder me - and I'm sure he would have had I not had the common sense to have my lawyer there with me.

Ginny and Harry had been shocked when I told them.

Not that I was surprised, we seemed like the perfect couple, because that's how he wanted it. So perfect that not even his sister knew how messed up everything was.

And Merlin, the press had a field day once they heard about it. Rumors were flying left and right, some of them believable - most of them not.

There had been some reports that said I had been having an affair with a man from Paris, and was leaving to be with him. Of course when I didn't magically disappear to Paris that story faded away.

Then there was the one about Ron cheating on me. They said he'd been sleeping with Hannah Lincoln - which was ridiculous. He'd been sleeping with Lavender Brown -

Anyway, the reports said that they'd been seeing each other since before we left Hogwarts - which wasn't true either - in regards to Hannah or Lavender.

Those too had died away when Ron's lawyers had threatened to sue.

Now everyone pretty much accepted it and found other things to report on - it had been six months already.

After the divorce Ron kept the house and most of what was in it - not that I cared. I wanted him to have it. That house was full of bad memories that I'd rather forget.

Instead I'd moved in to a flat in Muggle London in an attempt to distance myself from the Wizarding World.

Of course I still worked at the Ministry and I still visited often enough, but when I came home I was glad that it was to a normal place where magic didn't touch and nobody had read about my failed marriage.

Living alone after almost two years of living with someone - and roughly eight of living with other girls at Hogwarts - made it really strange to live in my own place.

I hated it at first. It was empty and quiet and I absolutely hated it.

I hated that I missed him, even when he treated me as horribly as he did. I hated that he turned me into someone that I didn't even recognize.

That had to have been the part I hated the most. The fact that I didn't know who I was or what I wanted or anything. I had immersed myself in being a wife, in being Mrs. Weasley, that I forgot to worry about who I was, me. Hermione Jean Granger.

It was as if I was a stranger to myself, and I didn't know how to go about trying to figure out who I was.

Ginny and Harry said that I just needed time, but it felt like more than that. I didn't know what I needed, but I knew time wasn't going to fix this - at least not just time.

I needed something, some change that would help me figure myself out, and until I found it I was going to have to deal with this feeling.

But one person who seemed to know exactly who he was and exactly what he wanted was Malfoy. He was in the paper regularly for shagging this girl or that girl. He was known as London's Playboy, and the name definitely fit.

Regardless of whether I agreed with his incessant habit of having to bed a different girl every night, I respected the fact that even though the papers sometimes made him out to be a complete cad - which I have no doubt that he is - he still didn't change how he acted.

He did whatever the bloody hell he pleased.

DPOV

London's Playboy indeed.

I'd shagged my fair share of bints, but the paper really did over exaggerate my finesse - which I wasn't complaining about.

On the contrary, it was quite helpful in getting other bints.

My mother, of course, couldn't stand my habits, and made a point to bring it up every time I visited her at Malfoy Manor.

She was always talking about how I needed to grow up and take over the fucking business.

I didn't want to. I was twenty one and attractive - why the hell would I want to run the business? My mother seemed to be doing a good job of it all by herself, and I doubted she needed my help.

Ever since my father got locked away in Azkaban she'd been...different. More take charge, less...mousy.

Which I suppose was a good thing, but it also meant she had no shame about sticking her nose into my personal life.

She kept pestering me about getting a job, paying attention to what was going on in the business - something - but I had literally no interest in doing any of that just yet.

I was young and wanted to have fun, and I didn't think there was anything wrong with that.

I knew plenty of people who could stand to be a little more relaxed - my mother included.

Of course if I told her this she'd probably hex me, so I kept that to myself.

Pansy was almost as annoying as my mother when it came to my work ethic - or lack thereof really. She worked as a Healer at St. Mungos and was dating some bloke named Conner.

And every minute she wasn't saving lives or shagging Conner she was bugging me about 'growing up' or 'doing something with my life'.

Well I was quite content with what I was doing with my life, and the papers made that quite clear. They always showed pictures of me and some lucky bint of the night disappearing into my flat.

Blaise was an Auror, and as far as I knew he was still dating Lovegood - a rather unlikely pair in my opinion. The bint was loonier than anyone I'd ever met. The fact that he worked as an Auror, though, afforded me many great stories about the stupidity of one red-headed Weasel.

Though he'd been in the paper quite a bit a few months ago. Something about how he and Granger had divorced.

The paper spewed up a whole bunch of shit that seemed, even to me, implausible. Like foreign lovers and torrid affairs - it was all a little too...exciting for the likes of those two.

Not that I had a particular problem with Granger, but her ex husband continued to rub me the wrong way.

I hadn't actually seen Granger in at least a year. I mean sure she was in the paper - on rare occasion - but I'd never actually seen her. I knew she worked at the Ministry of Magic - because that was literally the only reason she was ever in the bloody paper - and I knew that she didn't live in the Wizarding World.

I didn't exactly make it a point to know anything about her, though, so that could be why.

Blaise told me that Potter worked there too, and though he was definitely less of an idiot when it came to work, he still hung out with Weasley all the time - which led to him being roped into some pretty interesting situations.

Which Blaise, being the good friend that he was, told me about in great detail.

I didn't particularly care about the Golden Trio - sufficiently less 'trio' now that two of the three had a significant - ahem - issue with the other - but even I knew that Granger could do better.

Regardless, I made it a point not to associate with most people, only because they tended to want one of two things - my money, or the attention they'd get from the paper - neither of which I had much patience for.

I kept to myself - with my personal affairs anyway - the bints that traipsed in and out of my flat didn't count as personal...more like...pleasure.

And that was all I was concerned with, pleasure and fun.

HPOV

"Why don't you just consider it?"

I couldn't even believe I was having this conversation, let alone in the middle of the day when I had five thousand other things to do.

"Mrs. Malfoy, I appreciate the thought, but I don't think that'd be a good idea." I hedged, trying to be polite about the situation.

"Oh it's a fabulous idea! He needs to learn responsibility, and who better than you to teach him?"

"Um...anybody?"

"Nonsense," she said, pushing her white-blonde hair behind her ears, "You're the perfect person. Dedicated, focused, organized - you're the perfect worker, Kingsley said so himself. Please, Ms. Granger."

I sighed, running a hand through my hair, "What does Malfoy think about this?"

"You just leave that to me, Ms. Granger. He'll show up tomorrow, bright and early." she said, her light blue eyes watching me carefully.

"But what could I possibly teach him? I work in the Magical Creatures Department. That has next to nothing to do with business or with him learning how to run one."

She shook her head, "It's not about him learning to run the business, I'm sure he can figure that out with a little help from me. It's about him learning a good job ethic, learning responsibility, learning how to handle himself in a professional environment. That's what you can teach him, Ms. Granger. I'm sure of it."

I didn't particularly want to do this, because I saw a million and one ways that this could end absolutely terribly, but Narcissa Malfoy was quite the intimidating woman, and I knew Kingsley would have my arse if I didn't do this.

I took a deep breath and said, "Okay, but only if he's really okay with it. I don't want him to be mad -"

"Nonsense. Leave that to me. He'll be the perfect gentleman...well...as perfect as he can ever be." she said with a small smile.

"Okay...well I guess I'll see him tomorrow then."

She smiled, "Thank you Ms. Granger. This will be an amazing experience for him."

She stood up and I followed her to the door. I needed to go and get paperwork from Justin and I was already ten minutes late.

"No problem Mrs. Malfoy. If anything changes just owl me."

She nodded and disappeared down the long hallway, while I made a run for Justin's office four doors down.

"Merlin, Hermione, what took you so long?" asked Justin, looking up from whatever it was he was reading.

I walked in and closed the door, leaning my head against it and closing my eyes, trying to take a few deep breaths before I answered him.

"Narcissa Malfoy was just in my office."

His eyes widened and he motioned for me to take a seat, which I did, rather ungracefully.

"What did she say? What did she want?"

I groaned, dropping my head onto his desk, "She wants Malfoy to come and be my assistant."

"What?" yelled Justin.

My head shot up and I glared at him, "Will you keep your voice down? I'm still banking on the fact that Narcissa can't convince him to come in."

Justin snorted and said, "Yeah right. What Narcissa Malfoy wants, Narcissa Malfoy gets. Besides I think she's right. He needs to do something. All I ever see him in the paper for is -"

"Yeah, yeah I know. Everyone knows. But why did I have to be the one to help him? Why not you?" I complained, dropping my head back onto the desk.

"Because you're the best worker here, and she probably wanted him to get a good kick in the arse." he said with a smile.

A smile that did absolutely nothing for me.

I mean why in the world had I agreed to this? I was completely insane.

I took a deep breath and decided to get to work. I was majorly behind.

"Do you have those papers I asked for?"

He nodded, spinning around in his chair to face his file cabinet.

While he looked for the papers I tried to focus on anything but how awkward tomorrow would be.

And it was only Tuesday.

Oh Merlin.

"Here you go."

I took the papers from him and said, "Thanks Justin."

He nodded and right before I left his office he said, "Be sure to keep me informed on how this Malfoy thing goes."

I glared at his smirking face and went back to my office, hopeful that Malfoy was too stubborn to let his mother talk him into this.

DPOV

"You did what?"

My mother had definitely lost her mind if she thought I was going to agree to this.

"I went down to the Ministry and spoke to Ms. Granger, who said she would be happy to have you as an assistant." she said, her voice as calm as ever.

I couldn't believe she had the nerve to go and get me a job, and working for Granger no less.

"Are you insane? There's no bloody way I'm doing that."

She smirked, and it was times like these where I thought that I might have gotten that little signature from her, because she did it extremely well.

"I think you'll find it quite beneficial for you to take this job."

"Why?" I snapped, glaring at her across the table.

She really knew how to ruin a nice dinner.

"Because you'll learn a lot. You'll be ready to take over the business in a few years."

I snorted, "Nice try, but no."

She sighed, "Well that's a shame. I was kind of hoping you'd go along with it so I didn't have to resort to this."

"Resort to what?"

"If you don't do this, I'm cutting you off."

"What?" I asked, eyes wide.

She couldn't be serious.

"You heard me, dear. I love you, but you need to get your priorities straight. What kind of mother would I be if I didn't keep your best interests at heart?"

I didn't even have words. I was beyond pissed at her, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it.

If she cut me off I'd be screwed.

I mean really, how bad could it be to work with...for, Granger?

"When did you tell her I would start?"

"Tomorrow." she said, her smile almost splitting her face.

"Are you kidding me? That gives me no time to mentally prepare myself for the verbal beating she's bound to give me."

If it was one thing I remembered about Granger, it was her witty comebacks and sarcastic remarks.

I'd heard plenty of them during our Hogwarts days.

My mother simply shook her head and said, "She's quite different from how I remember her, though I didn't know her well to begin with."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean she's quieter now. Not the type of person you'd assume to 'verbally beat' anybody, let alone you." she said, getting up from the table.

"When you're ready to leave, do make sure my wards are set up correctly - and I expect to hear good things from Ms. Granger after tomorrow." she said, standing up and leaving the dining room.

I groaned and ran a hand through my hair. It was possible that Granger was just quiet around my mother, because I found it incredibly hard to believe that the feisty Gryffindor Princess wouldn't have something to say about me working for her - assisting her.

I shoved the thoughts away and stood up, heading for the floo.

Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

Alright, let me know what you think, if I should continue, or even if you have any suggestions or requests for a story or one-shot you'd like to read.

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