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Denying the Obvious


Chapter 1: Surprise

Draco Malfoy couldn't help it.

He knew she was a filthy mudblood, but that did not seem to matter to him anymore. She was smart and she was loyal. Moreover, she was much more interesting and challenging than Pansy Parkinson ever was. For years, Pansy had been ready to come to him whenever he showed a single sign of interest; frankly, that had long since become tiresome. Pansy sent him an owl or two every day even though he had tried to make it clear to the bint that he had lost interest. But the mudblood...Granger... she was radiant! Why had he never noticed that before it was too late, before he had screwed up whatever miniscule chance he might have had to have a go at her?

He had started to figure out something was wrong during their fourth year at Hogwarts. At the Yule Ball, he saw her dancing with the famous Victor Krum, whom his father had told him to befriend. He had tried, but Krum had preferred the library to the company of any of the Slytherins all year. Because of Granger. Draco had felt anger, annoyance, and something else he had not been able to define. He had decided it was about Krum refusing his offer of friendship and befriending the unworthy mudblood instead (just like bloody Harry Potter at the beginning of their first year) but now-years later-he realized that he had been wishing that he was the one dancing with Granger. That it was he who escorted her back to the Gryffindor tower, stealing a kiss...and maybe something more.

Draco shook his head. He had to forget her. He had to forget his want for her. He knew she was going out with Weasley now. What on earth could she see in him?! Weasel had no prospects for future-he had just been killing time since the deaths of Lord Voldemort and his own best friend, Saint Potter. Weasley would probably never recover from all that. He did not even have a job! Even dirty blooded Granger deserved someone better.

Draco sighed. He could not help but be happy that his father was not here anymore. He was not here to make things complicated for his son and he was not here to see his son besotted with a mudblood. Harry Potter's old concubine, no less.

She lived at the Burrow now, or so he had heard. Draco assumed it was due to her parents being muggles. She could not keep on living with them now that she was of legal age and able to use magic when ever she wanted. She was talented...she was going to go far. Maybe she would end up in the ministry of magic, maybe she would like to return Hogwarts as a teacher; she had always enjoyed her life there. Hogwarts did not pay much, but the odd girl was not interested in money. He was sure that with a sharp mind like hers, she could become very rich in time if she wanted to. Draco had enjoyed his Hogwarts years, too. He would never have admitted it, but the reason he liked Hogwarts was that he was able to breathe and be left alone by his controlling parents. Granger tainted his fond memories somewhat. Maybe someday he could show her that it was not the real him back then, but just an extension of supposedly great Lucius Malfoy.

Draco got mad at himself. What was he doing, thinking all these sappy thoughts about a mudblood! She was Weasley's now, and he could keep her!

On an angry whim he stormed off Diagon Alley and ended up in a little bar at Knocktur's that he'd never visited before. He rushed inside like a storm cloud and ordered himself a shot of firewhiskey before seating himself near the backdoor. He turned to look at the girl bringing him his drink, and he felt his eyes grow wider and his chin drop. What was she doing here?

"Granger?"

Hermione was wearing a waitress outfit made of a black tight skirt that ended well before her knees, a red blouse revealing a considerable amount of cleavage, and to top it all, a small burgundy apron. She was obviously taken aback by seeing him there. She glared at him for a few seconds before breaking their eye contact and tossing the drink in front of him without spilling a drop.

"Enjoy your drink," she huffed and began to stride away.

"Hey, wait! Granger!"

It seemed that Hermione turned back to face him against her better judgement, and looked at him warily.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" she asked suspiciously.

"Don't flatter yourself, Granger! Who says I want anything? This just isn't exactly a place I thought I'd ever see you in- -"

"If you just wanted to have a laugh at me, then feel free, but I'm not going to stay and listen to it, you arrogant bastard!!"

Draco wasn't overly happy about the way that the conversation was going.

"Calm down. And I wouldn't be calling paying customers anything. What are you doing here?"

"Working. What does it look like? As a matter of fact, I must go back and do some more of it." she snapped back and before Draco had a chance to say anything else, she was on her way.

Deep in thought, Draco started to drink his firewhiskey. His eyes followed her whenever she was visible. Right now she was bringing drinks to a small group of wizards who carefully eyed her from head to toe and all the places in between. Draco felt his free hand curling into a fist when one of the wizards (he had already had a few) placed his hand on her ass. Granger pushed the hand away and continued serving the drinks to the other wizards round the table. As soon as she had finished doing this, the same hand was again placed on her ass, and this time, the man squeezed it hard. Draco saw her glare at the man and say something he couldn't make out but that nevertheless made the man change his mind.

Draco gestured to the bulky wizard behind the bar for another whiskey. Maybe he could pry more out of Granger. However, to his disappointment, it was not Granger bringing him his new drink, but a different woman entirely. Auburn hair, clad in the same kind of clothes as Hermione and filling them out rather nicely, she eyed him intensely with approving green eyes. Draco was not surprised-women usually approved of him. The woman did not try to hide that fact. Her eyes seemed to lap him up. 'Okay...' Draco thought. 'I'll bite.'

"There you go." she said with a voice like smoky honey.

"Thank you." Draco replied, and after a tasteful pause, he added, "Want to join me, or is it not allowed?"

The woman glanced at the bulky wizard at the counter, but he seemed to think it was all right. She slowly sat opposite Draco.

"Mind if I share yours?"

'Share what?' he wanted to ask, but instead he said, "Go ahead."

"My name is Anne".

Having said that, Anne took hold of his glass and drank half of the whiskey without even wincing and swallowed it slowly, never taking her eyes off Draco. She sure could handle her liquor. Well, his liquor.

Draco drank rest of the fluid and let her take the lead.

"Would you like to come up to my room?" she asked.

'Why not', Draco thought. He wanted to get Granger out of his head, and maybe this knockout was a way to accomplish just that. He got some strange satisfaction thinking she was someone Granger knew and had to work with. 'If she's stupid enough to miss out on me, that's her tough luck', he thought. To the woman named Anne he simply said,

"Lead the way".

The waitresses lived on the second and third floors. There were many doors, even more doors than there were waitresses, but Draco assumed they had wizards and witches boarding as well like in the Leaky Cauldron. As they wandered through the corridors, he wondered which one of these rooms belonged to Hermione.

Anne led him to the third floor. He could hear a faint moaning coming through one door and a grunt through another. Her room was the last one on the right. She turned to look at him with her sparkling emerald eyes.

"Are you ready for an adventure, Goldilocks?"

Draco had no idea who or what was a goldilocks, but he assumed that it had something to do with his hair. He felt a bit uneasy for a second, not knowing what to expect. He tried to shake the feeling off, as he knew he was no beginner in the games of lust. Women could not get enough of him. That was the Malfoy charm, the one good thing his father ever gave him.

The room was dark, lit by a few magical candles, and the only colours to be seen were red and black. There was a bed covered with pillows that looked very inviting. Actually, it all looked a bit too inviting. What the hell was this place??

Draco had a sneaking suspicion that was very fast becoming a fatal certainty that he had just stepped into a room of a woman who was to be bought, a woman who already thought he had bought her for some amount of time, maybe an hour. And this operation was going on upstairs of the bar Hermione was working at.

'Oh fuck', he though to himself. He didn't have much choice, so he had to take a chance.

"Anne. I'm not interesting in paying to sleep with you."

Anne looked absolutely appalled, but Draco continued, "...but there is something I'm willing to pay quite a lot for, even extra that your boss needn't find out about. I could get you a nameless account at Gringott's, if you don't trust him."

Anne looked a bit disappointed, a bit confused, and a bit like she thought she'd been had.

"What are you willing to pay me for then? I do not do any weird stuff, there is a girl for that, well two actually but the other-"

Draco hurriedly shook his head.

"No no no. All I want is information, and maybe some friendly cooperation. "

"Okay. Tell me what you want to know." Anne sighed, unable to resist the offer, although she had genuinely been attracted to the handsome man with a beautiful body, just her type, and cool grey eyes that seemed to see everything. It was rare to get to mix business with pleasure.

"That girl, the one who brought me my first drink. What is she doing here??"

"You mean Hermione? Do you want to know if she's turning tricks? Is that who you're interested in buying?" Anne scoffed, probably insulted at her own assumption.

"No, I don't want to buy her. I just want to know what she is doing here, and if she knows what is going on in these rooms. And if you can find out how she got here, from what I've heard she was supposed to be somewhere else."

With someone else.

By this statement Anne's eyes lit up, and Draco thought he had perhaps made a mistake by telling her he knew Granger from somewhere else.

"Wellll," Anne drawled, "if that information is very dear to you, I can give it but it won't be cheap."

To his own surprise, Draco mentioned a sum of galleons that would make Anne if not rich, surely able to leave her line of work. If she had the sense to spend it wisely, which he doubted she had.

"Come back tomorrow with the money, and we'll talk."

= = =

Draco was now obsessed with finding out what had to have happened to Hermione for her to begin working in Knockturn Alley to serve drinks in a bar that sold sex!! Perhaps doing so herself. The mere thought made Draco bite his lip so hard that it bled.

Draco had a sudden brainstorm and walked boldly to the wizard behind the bar counter.

"Good evening. Things were left a bit unfinished between Miss Anne and I, so I want to continue with her tomorrow. However, there was someone else here that caught my eye, the young woman who brought me my first drink. Is it possible to see her as well tomorrow?"

The wizard seemed hesitant, so Draco added that he would be willing to spend top galleon on that one.

"I might have her available for you in a few days, but she's very popular and her next days are all full. She's so young, supple, fresh, and spirited that men can't get enough of her charms and-"

"Fine." Draco cut him off with a cold voice that left no room for arguments. "Reserve me the next free opening."

Without saying another word, Draco walked off, leaving the wizard a bit dumbfounded, and with a certain problem. But he had a few days to solve it, and he was confident that solve it, he would.

= = =

Granger might be selling herself. Even the mere idea and possibility shocked Draco to his core. What had happened? Had that damn excuse of a wizard Weasley hurt her? Hurt her so that she had to escape where he would never look and where she would never go if given a proper choice?

Draco saw himself reaching...but something about this did not make sense. Maybe Anne would shed some light on it tomorrow evening. For one single moment, Draco was completely able to forget that she was a mudblood, or rather, that he had been taught that she was. For this moment, she was a woman in trouble, someone he even cared for.

= = =

Hermione was not stupid. Naïve maybe, but certainly not stupid. She knew there was some voluntary shagging going on in the upper stairs of the bar where money changed hands, but she was working as a waitress. Augusto -that was her boss' name- had never wanted anything more out of her than she was willing to give, and she was glad that she had this job. Gone were the days she would have spat at the simple mention of Knockturn Alley. Here were the days when Augusto and the girls had saved her from a jam and helped her keep her independence.

Hermione was so sorry for and most of all angry at Ron! Day in and day out, first reminiscing about Harry and talking about him as if he weren't gone, then blaming his death on himself and Hermione and everyone else close enough, the endless cycle over and over again. Hermione had lost Harry too, but Ron never realized that along with Harry, she had lost Ron as well. He was only a husk of the boy he had been and mockery of the man he could have become.

She had to get out, and leave him to himself. Leave him to either rot or finally turn to look up and see that it was a beautiful day in a beautiful world without Voldemort. And maybe-if it didn't take him too long-maybe she would still be there.

These were the thoughts Hermione was having when she brought the man his whiskey, the man who turned out to be none other than Draco Malfoy, her old arch nemesis. He sure must be happy for Harry's death and even happier to see me in a place like this, Hermione thought.