The Time-Turner Division

Chapter 1

Hermione was known as a Consultant. She had expert knowledge in all areas of magic: Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, Herbology, Astronomy, Defence Against the Dark Arts, History, Magical Creatures, Study of Ancient Runes, Alchemy, Arithmancy, Muggle Studies, Divination, Earth Magic, Study of Time-Alteration, Magic Theory, Metaphysics, Healing, and more. This knowledge made her abundantly useful to the division in almost every scenario.

"Ah," Draco murmured, smirking as he sat down at his own desk, which directly faced hers.

"What?" Hermione demanded, looking up at him in annoyance.

"I see you've been practising Occlumency. Very cute," he said with a chuckle.

"I'm telling you now Malfoy if you keep trying to get into my head, I'm going straight to the Minister and I'll have you removed from this division within a matter of days, your usefulness be damned!" Hermione said, struggling to control the anger in her voice. Ever since they had begun working together months ago, Draco had derived great pleasure from pestering her with his mind-reading skills.

"A matter of days? I would expect the prestigiously intellectual Hermione Granger to know of a faster way of having me removed," Draco mocked, knowing how easily he could get under her skin even after all the years since Hogwarts.

"You're very childish, you know that? I don't know how you've managed to become an Auror and be just as immature as you were at Hogwarts. You're only authorised to use Legilimency when it's required, and you're not required to be reading my mind outside of a mission. You're wasting your energy and breaking the law. This isn't funny, it's unprofessional!" Hermione realised that she'd raised her voice, and her cheeks were going red with anger. Draco chuckled in amusement as he leaned back in his chair, his cold grey eyes boring into her own.

"Ah, Granger. They'll never fire me because I'm too good at what I do. I just read your mind for fun, it's a form of mild entertainment, nothing more. It's not like there's much interesting going on up there anyway," said Draco with a casual shrug as he let his chair drop to the ground, and began to sort through his paperwork. He could practically hear her brain ticking away, her emotions a spiral of anger and confusion. Why does he still hate me so much?

"I don't, I just said it's for fun," Draco responded, but he paused when he saw her hurt expression. "What? You didn't just say that?"

"I thought it, you asshole! This is what I mean, you have no right to pry inside my mind!" Hermione said angrily.

"Alright, alright Granger, Merlin, I thought you said it aloud," Draco defended himself.

"That's stupid, that's not how Legilimency works."

"Not for an amateur, perhaps. For me, that is how it sometimes works," Draco snapped in annoyance. Hermione glared at him in disbelief.

"You would've had to actually focus on reading my mind, Malfoy. Otherwise you wouldn't know my thoughts word for word, I'm not an idiot," Hermione said. She'd read all about Legilimency, and she'd learned enough about it from Harry's experience with Voldemort during the war.

"Granger, sometimes I hear thoughts without trying to hear them, that's how advanced Legilimency works," Draco explained. He'd learned from Snape and Voldemort, and what he said was half true. Advanced Legilimency could enable one to hear thoughts without trying to listen in, however only if the thinker is a poor Occlumens. Draco didn't want to deal with the backlash of telling Hermione Granger that she wasn't good at Occlumency, however.

"No, that means you're hearing voices, perhaps you should stop by St. Mungo's," Hermione snarled.

"I heard, 'Why does he still hate me so much?' was that a fake voice or yours?" Draco asked her, his eyes glinting in challenge. Hermione felt her cheeks go red as she shook her head and ignored him, returning to her work. "For the record, I don't hate you."