as a raging feminist, i am in love with tiana. i believe that young girls everywhere need to take after her, as she is a huge inspiration to work hard for what you want. despite being a woman and a person of color, she worked her living butt off to get that restaurant, and i learned to do the same thanks to this cartoon. with working hard, i hope i can live up to what she did. to any young girls reading this: do NOT give up. i believe and you. you are strong and beautiful and smart and capable. don't let anybody tell you otherwise, because they are wrong. i believe in you. please enjoy the oneshot. and trust me in my words.
AU: hermione and draco are both muggles, but he is still rich while hermione is a working class citizen who hardly sleeps between shifts.
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Hermione let out a cry of frustration, laying her head down on her arm. Her work attire was stained with food she had worked to get here and prepare only for some jerk to spill it on her to make themselves feel better. Sitting in her rich friend's decorated dressing room felt like a slap in the face.
Her friend had not worked a day in her life, yet somehow was twenty times wealthier thanks to her parents? While Hermione worked three jobs, hardly slept two hours a night, and could hardly pay the rent. Let alone pay off her hospital bills. All she wanted to do was live out her dreams, but she was stuck here instead.
"It's not fair," she sobbed, looking up into the mirror. "I was so so close."
Suddenly, the door creaked open, and a mop of blond hair peeked through.
"Oh!" mumbled the surprised boy. "I'm so sorry, I just had to use the bathroom."
Hermione looked over at him, mascara running down her face. "Two doors down on the left."
"Are you okay?" he asked, his grey eyes meeting hers. He pushed the door the rest of the way open, revealing his perfect suit and tie and his tall stature. "You look a bit upset."
"No, really?" the brunette sarcastically asked.
The man laughed awkwardly, walking by her chair to sit on the purple bench behind her. The girl turned around wiping her face and tightening her ponytail.
"So..."
"I'm sorry, I just am frustrated." Hermione looked up at him with bloodshot eyes.
"Sorry to hear about that, Miss Granger," the man seated before her consoled.
"How do you know my name?"
"Oh, your friend Parvati introduced us one time. We danced for a bit but you said you had to go to work, so I never got to see you again."
"Wow," Hermione laughed. "That's crazy. I'm Hermione, as you probably know. You are?"
"Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius Malfoy."
"Nice family, huh?"
"They're alright," Draco laughed. "How about yours?"
"Mine? Oh, they died. Yeah, my dad when I was about seven and my mom died recently from cancer. It's just me."
Draco inaudibly gasped. "I'm so sorry. May I ask what you were upset over?"
"Just not feeling good. Long story."
"I'm happy to listen, if you would like." Draco smiled at the girl in front of him, feeling sorry for her.
So, Hermione told him every detail. From growing up to her losses. How she worked three minimum wage jobs, hardly getting more than a few hours of sleep in between. How she could barely get by most times. How she had dreams to travel around the world but she couldn't even pay off her mother's hospital bills.
"I was so close," she sniffed. "I was almost there, Draco. I was so so close. But that's what happens to people like me. We work and we work for nothing, while others are born rich and never have to bat an eye when they need money."
Draco looked down at his feet, thinking of the millions in his bank account that he had just for being alive. While Hermione slaved away for a rent payment on a studio the size of his bedroom.
While he traveled anywhere and everywhere, she looked at maps and albums of Paris and Positano in stores during her breaks.
"Plus, it's hard since I'm a woman, you know?" Hermione sighed. "They pay my coworker three bucks more just because the boss likes the guys over the gals."
Draco snapped back into attention, glancing over at her.
"So, you said you wanted to go to Paris after your hospital bills were paid?" he asked, a small smirk on his face.
"Don't get any ideas, Malfoy." Hermione gave him a wry smile. "I work for myself so I can pay for myself. You can buy me dinner. That's all."
"Deal. I know a great pizza place!"
"Where?"
"Rome."
