The Wedding Rings

Chapter 7: The Beginning

"This is so you, Malfoy, I feel like you've come to work here only to make my life a living hell—"

"Despite what you think, Granger, my life doesn't revolve around you and—"

"–is the reason for your constant nagging, it's like you feel this compulsive need to be an arsehole all the time—"

"—and I am deeply offended, I really am—"

"Oh, piss off!"

"Stop screaming like a bloody banshee then!"

"Make me!"

A growl that rumbled in Draco's chest made Hermione take a cautious step back, her shoulders tense and eyes glaring daggers at him. She was itching to wrap her hand around her wand and hex him to bits and pieces but she knew she wouldn't have a good enough explanation for his disappearance.

In all honesty, working with him was horrible. After she had been promoted, Hermione had no other choice but to cooperate with him and his staff, his obnoxious wealth and connections desperately needed for her next project. She tried to get out of it, she really did. She tried to raise money on her own, called every single Ministry official she could in order to get some help, but they all basically slammed the door right in her face and offered an apologetic smile with it. She was stuck with him, and it was a nightmare.

Instead of spending nights working on her S.P.E.W. ideas and developing them with a preferably not narcissistic arse, she was stuck with the Spawn of Satan himself and he made sure to give her hell every single day. It probably made him feel right at home.

They started communicating slowly, literally saying just a word or two to each other in the beginning, obviously both displeased for having to work with one another. But once they started commenting on the other's work, the fights began and it seemed as if they'd never end. He would nag about every single thing she did and complain how she was incapable of handling business as a mature person. It started off with him insulting her ideas and snorting at her suggestions, continued with him actually ignoring her whenever she would ask a question and even read his own ideas out loud to somehow prove they were better and more sufficient than hers and ended with him giving out comments on the annoying and obnoxious way she typed, stacked her papers as if she was suffering from OCD, and putting his life in danger for carrying around a dead rotting animal on her head.

"You are the most annoying witch I've had the misfortune to work with; I don't even understand how Weasley puts up with you."

"Do not get Ron into this! It's none of your business! And I could say the same thing about your wife–she must have some serious patience to deal with your childish behavior all the time."

"She deals with it because she loves my cock, Granger."

And then there was that. After one particularly long night of working, Draco made sure to give out a quite inappropriate comment about her sex life with Ron which made her stutter and blush like never before. Him, being the prowling arse that he was, sensed that she was uncomfortable with talking about it, so he'd drop in suggestive things from time to time and relish in her embarrassed reactions, that evil smirk only further proving her theory that he came from Lucifer himself.

This time was no exception and Hermione cleared her throat and shifted on the couch of her office, uncrossing and crossing her legs again as faint blush covered her cheeks. She felt awkward about him being so blunt and sexual with her – it felt unnatural, and most of all, sometimes made her interested in how it'd be if Ron talked like that to her – and the last thing she wanted was to compare Malfoy to her husband.

"Shut up," Hermione muttered and her eyes slid from his piercing grey to the paper in front of her, her hands shaking slightly. She hated when he threw her off like that.