Title: Out of Nowhere
Summary: Post Hogwarts. Draco Malfoy was a womanizer and businessman who found no reason for love. Until he found it through the uncanny friendship of a career oriented Hermione Granger. And from there on the wizarding world is about to be surprised…
Chapter One
Enemies
"Don't give me that bleeding nonsense." Draco spat and hit the table with his hand.
The occupants in the room paused in terror, mouths instantly closed and pens clattered to the floor not to be retrieved until the air was clear once again. It was a known fact that Draco Malfoy was an arsehole, in business and pleasure. His anger could be overwhelming and it was yet to be conquered or deterred. On average three employees a week cried, fourteen persons were fired or threatened to be fired on a monthly basis and he had been receiving at least three lawsuits a week for improper, aggressive behavior that could be construed as "life threatening" (a term used on several occasions in writing, to which he enjoyed quoting). Two of these customary lawsuits were from the work place and sometimes one would be from a woman whom could not fathom why he had so easily disposed of her.
Of this he did not understand. It was always made blatantly clear that he only wished for an escort or someone to relieve certain carnal urges. Why they insisted on hoping for a chance to become something more was infuriating and sometimes did cause him to be unnecessarily cruel.
Such cruelty had helped him build his own business, Dragon Enterprise, to be the greatest wizarding company, second only to his father's, Malfoy Enterprise. It also made his employees extremely tense and worried.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Malfoy, but he refuses to succeed any more stock in his company. We've offered him various amounts of money and-"I don't bloody give a flying fuck what you've offered him if it hasn't worked. I want results and either you make that happen or you will suffer the consequences. This meeting is over! Get out." He snarled.
They all flung up and ran out of the room, almost pushing each other to get through the door. He sighed and pushed his fingers against his temples. He wasn't a patient man and he didn't take failure lightly. If he wanted something he got it. He would call up Mr. Deseon himself and get what he wanted through pleasant or unpleasant means-
"Please-you can't-don't-!" A voice, which sounded like his new secretary, screamed and suddenly the door was flung open.
The sight which greeted him was almost as horrifying as it was intriguing.
The girl-woman-was small, petite, with a slim body round in all the right places ending in revealed, slender legs with the smallest ankles he had ever seen. Long waist length hair of wild honey and caramel curls fell around tiny shoulders in almost comical disarray. She was not overtly magnificent or plain, but instead she looked like an old painting of a paradigm woman of royalty-pink lips, small nose and gorgeous eyes, round and filled with emotion.
Even standing there with her hair practically bursting like a volcano and her cheeks flushed she looked magnificent. She was wearing an old fashioned, gray skirt that fell down to just above her knees and looked a size too small, and a white collar shirt. Clutched in one hand was a long white doctor's coat and in the other was a small black purse.
Malfoy himself was a creature of poise and aesthetics, he enjoyed polished tastes and suits and polished women, but despite this woman's misgivings something about her untidiness was endearing.
"I need to talk to you immediately," She spat and stepped forward with both hands on her hips as if she owned the place.
That stance reminded him of someone but he shook the thought away, taking pleasure in the sober persona she was trying to enforce. She looked too motherly to be a hard ass, even though those pretty eyes were staring at him with enough fury to rip him apart like a wild cat.
Behind her his secretary stared with large blue eyes, her mouth a tight line and her lips quivering. He was sure she was about to cry.
"Oh Gods, sir! I didn't let her in! She just barged in past security somehow and I-I couldn't stop her sir, I'm so sorry!" She did cry.
"Ms. Vienna, enough! Who is this?" He barked at her not perturbed by tears. He had seen tears on many occasions and they were not of any consequence.
Ms. Vienna stumbled over her words as she cried.
"I-I didn't mean to sir, she-"
"I didn't ask you that! I asked you who this is? Can't you answer a basic question? And stop blubbering like a fool." He barked.
If anything she began to cry harder.
The woman in the doorway turned to his secretary and her eyes instantly softened to sympathy. She cooed over the crying woman and protectively put her in a motherly embrace scowling while she petted his secretary's shoulder.
"Stop yelling at her you prick. Obviously she's upset. I'm really sorry…Ms. Vienna right? I'm really sorry about barging past you like that, don't cry okay?"
Malfoy blinked at the woman in surprise and confusion. Did she just call him a prick?
"Stop…stop hugging her. Ms. Vienna…you're excused, leave us." Malfoy said roughly and instantly his secretary murmured something to the woman almost thankfully and left the room.
Once again that fierce look entered her large brown eyes and Malfoy was sure he had seen that look before. But shouldn't he remember a woman this gorgeous?
"Exactly who are you and what do you want?" Malfoy said and cursed himself. His voice was too damn soft and not as harsh as he intended.
"You really don't know who I am? We went to school together at Hogwarts, Malfoy." She said and the way she said it almost like a joke, that angry fire in her eyes, that infuriating cock of her head to the side as if she was daring him to do anything but make a fool of himself. It all reminded him of a small girl who had the audacity to punch him outside Hogwarts years ago…
"H-Hermione Gr-Granger? Granger?" He almost screeched at her in an uncomely manner.
And she just smirked, the fire in her eyes still paramount while her condescending smile pulled her lips up.
Bloody hell that was hot. She was belittling him and it was hot. Gods-that's bloody Hermione Granger, the Gryffindor Princess and mudblood. Bloody hell.
"Yes, Malfoy, Granger. And I'm not here to have you gawk or listen to you horribly verbally abuse your secretary whose fault this isn't by the way! I cast a slight glamour so no one would see me and she did try to stop me when one of your wards detected the spell so give her some slack you prick." She demanded pouting.
That's the second time she called me prick and I'm somehow turned on by it. Bloody hell she's still a mudblood. Please pick up your mouth, pick up your mouth from the floor and stop stuttering! Act like a Malfoy goddamn! He cursed inwardly.
His eyes traveled to her mouth and then back to her face. He meant the action to be a sly act of flirtation but it was more desperate, as if he were searching to find some sort of unraveling clue of her deception. He blinked several times as he stared at her in disbelief and she cleared her throat with obvious annoyance. He shook his head lightly, cursing himself for acting like a prepubescent boy and cursing mudblood Granger for inciting such a reaction.
I'm not a boy anymore. I'm not weak, I'm a man now, a Malfoy…
"I'll decide what to do with my employees, Granger. Exactly why are you here? Avoiding my guards and wards?" He asked with newfound composure, pretending to flick dust casually off of his sleeves.
She paused and then pursed her lips, drawing herself ramrod straight.
"No. I'm here to discuss business. Particularly about your pharmaceutical company New Dawn and its current exorbitant prices! It is one of your companies isn't it?" She spat.
Business, something I can deal with.
"Yes, and a very profitable company, so why should I care, Granger, about its prices to its consumers if it brings in considerable profit?" He said deliberately and with a cocked eyebrow.
Her face became redder and he relished that she was becoming flustered. Served her right for coming in here unannounced and making him feel like a blundering fool for the first time in six years.
"Because-because it's wrong!" She finally blurted and then stomped her foot and clenched her hands into fists.
Malfoy laughed, openly and with true sincerity. He had never seen a woman due that before who was over the age of five, especially not wearing a rumpled suit and holding a doctor's coat. He wanted to take a picture of that little stomp and hang it on his wall.
"Is that your best argument? "It's wrong" and a cute little foot stomp?" He asked genuinely amused with her.
"I-that's not what I was going to say at first. I'm not usually so-well-shut up!" She spat.
He laughed even louder, putting both hands on the table to stabilize him, forgetting his ire entirely.
"I mean it! Shut up! St. Mungo's has a free clinic for orphans and victims of the war and many of them suffer from very old and powerful curses. New Dawn is the only pharmaceutical wizarding company with redroot potions, which constitute a lot of our ingredients to cure dark curses. It's a free clinic as I said so we don't have much money and we can't go anywhere else since no one else has the root and stop laughing! This isn't funny, Malfoy!" She growled and stomped her heeled foot again to her own horror.
Malfoy laughed and clutched his stomach.
"Malfoy!"
"Alright, bloody hell, Granger." He said with a small smile.
He walked to his chair and sat down, trying to erase his mirth and giddiness from her previous display but failing. He grinned at her, his eyes traveling to that infamous right foot before coming back to her blushing face.
"Look, Malfoy, it's for a good cause. A very good cause. I'm sure there's a profitable arrangement that could be made to persuade you-"
"Dinner." He said abruptly, and then frowned at the words that slipped without warning from his mouth.
She stopped and blinked and looked at him guffawed.
"Dinner?"
"Go to dinner with me tonight to discuss it and I will consider whatever offer you propose." He said sincerely but absentmindedly, he was absorbed in enjoying the little creases beginning to gather around her mouth. She had one dimple, one pretty little dimple underneath the corner of her mouth and he wanted to kiss it.
What the hell, Malfoy? She's a mudblood, she's bloody Granger!
"I-I don't think we should. You have a…certain reputation and you know how horrible the press has been after the war around me and I'm sure they're probably the same around you and I don't feel like being in that sort of-"
"We'll go to a Muggle restaurant. You pick, no one will see us there, Granger." He said and grinned like a shark smelling blood.
She stopped speaking and then opened and closed her mouth in surprise.
"But-but I-"Then it's done. Pick you up at seven, then? Your place?" He asked charmingly and stood up to escort her to the door by her elbow.
She kept stuttering in confusion and he smiled at her with amusement. There was that dimple again, he wondered if she would let him kiss it, just lightly…
"Good day, Granger. Ms. Vienna, please escort Miss Granger to the door." He said politely and then closed the door softly after her.
Vienna looked at Hermione with large, luminous eyes.
"What?" Hermione asked.
"I've never seen him so polite to anyone before. Not his employees, not his friends, not his girlfriends even-what did you do to him?"
Draco Malfoy was pressed against the other side of the door, the same question in his head.
"Did I just invite a muggleborn to dinner? Granger to dinner? If the press sees this-bloody hell I'm ruined. Oh hell! Muggle restaurant! I just agreed to go to a Muggle restaurant bloody fuck, fuck, fuck-what the hell just happened?" He hissed out loud.
O o O o O o O o O
Oh bloody hell. Bloody hell, bloody hell.
Draco Malfoy was a dashing man. He knew this because the instance he walked into a room feminine eyes turned towards him and blushes crept up their cheeks. He was tall, towering since he left Hogwarts, with a strong jaw and aquiline features one would find on carved statues. Gray eyes peered from beneath tumbling white-blond hair, slightly darker than the white of his father but just as straight and perfect, like silk.
He had a muscular, but thin frame and wide shoulders, a shape he had procured from a strict schedule of daily exercise and Muggle boxing lessons, which he received surreptitiously every day. Since Bellatrix terrorized his family during the war Malfoy had found that he would not always be able to rely on his wand and he felt comfortable knowing that he would be able to protect himself from now on even without it. It also gave him an envious physique that Witch Weekly would spend considerable pages on in several editions of their "Wizarding World's Sexiest Man" issues. Of which he had graced the covers of for four years in the six years since the end of the war and Hogwarts.
He also knew he was a dashing man, because he had dated gorgeous women, purebloods and royalty and models. He had never had to try to gain the attention of any woman before, and for several months now he had been bored. Restless, searching for a challenge that he had not yet overcome and didn't know where to find. Zaibini had smirked and made some inane comment about "settling down" to which Malfoy shook his head. No, that wasn't what he wanted. He didn't even want a relationship with a woman, what he wanted was-
Her.
She was wearing a white gown that flowed around her ankles and similar white shoes. Her hair was tamed and pulled back into a bun and his eyes trailed inevitably over the long neck and the swell of her breasts softly revealed in the round neckline. It was not extravagant, fairly casual in fact but she was still beautiful, moving with more grace then any pureblood woman he had ever seen. He wondered what she would look like in an evening gown and pearls. He wanted to buy some for her, string them along her neck and know that they were his and she was his.
For the first time since he could remember he felt self conscious. He had always known he was attractive and he was smug, never worrying too much about what those around him would think of his clothes and appearance, because he knew he was physically attractive. But now he wondered. His hands brushed his gray slacks and crisp white oxford. He stood straighter in his seat, took small breaths and wondered if she liked the war he combed his hair today.
Oh hell, she's turned me into a woman. I wonder if she worries about her appearance for me. Oh fuck. Oh hell what's going on?
His bloody hands were perspiring! How disgusting. And his heart rate had elevated to a strange degree, every time he turned to look at Granger his stomach felt like it was being tickled. He wanted to leave or push her away from the table, but he didn't want to hurt her. He wanted to keep her.
What the hell did that even mean-to keep her? Would she even let him?
"It's called a tax break. It's a Muggle concept the Wizengamot has assured me they will consider it during their next congregation." She said and pushed a stray strand of hair away from her face.
"It's a brilliant idea. If this is indeed passed I would consider donating the redroot, if that is what you want." Draco said watching her eat her salad.
She paused and looked at him hopefully with the first smile he had ever seen upon her face.
"I hope you do, I was hoping many other companies would consider donating as well! It would be very helpful. Kingsley-I mean, Minister Shacklebolt-has been helping us to find more funds within the Ministry itself to help repair the damage done after the war, but there's still a lot needed to be done." She said enthusiastically.
He nodded smiling softly and bent down to pretend to eat his soup but watched her eat instead.
She ate horribly. Her fingers were so elegant and delicate but she had no table etiquette. She hunched over her food, at least one elbow on the table, pushing the salad into her mouth like a shovel and then clapping her lips down like a steel trap. But instead of repulsion, which was his customary emotion among the uncultured, he found it once again endearing, prettily amusing.
And there was that dimple, winking in and out of existence as she chewed like a boy.
"Your table manners are horrible, Granger." He said suddenly and she looked up In surprise to see him watching her with a smirk.
She swallowed and frowned.
"I didn't ask your opinion!" She spat.
"You didn't marry him."
"What? Who?"
"The Weasel. I don't see any wedding ring-"Ah, well, we're just friends now." She said quickly and began piling food into her mouth again.
He moved forward intrigued.
"Why's that? I thought you two were born from one star or all that rot." He said waving his right hand flippantly.
"It didn't work out."
"Why? Wasn't good in bed?" He whispered.
Her eyes widened and her cheeks reddened.
"That is none of your business! Why would you ask me such a low qu-"
"I'm just trying to understand how to stay in your good graces, Granger." He said without thinking.
She stopped eating finally and looked across the table at him, not saying a word. Her scrutiny made him feel…insecure once again and he smoothed out his oxford even though it was spelled not to wrinkle or be soiled. Her fork tapped lightly against her glass, small quick bursts of hummingbird energy that was beginning to bore into his brain.
"Can you stop that? I've tolerated you eating like a boar, but I cannot tolerate you tapping your glass like a child. And will you stop staring?" He barked.
Several Muggles turned to look at him and someone shushed him angrily.
"Shush me again and I'll have your hide, Muggle!" Draco spat out to them and his hand drifted to his wand.
Hermione grabbed his hand before it could continue and frowned at him with that blasted pensive look. He hated it at Hogwarts and he still hated it now. He wanted to throttle her and then have his way with her on the table.
"You have a quick temper, Mr. Malfoy." She said slowly and then her fingers slowly slid from his.
Before she could leave entirely he grasped onto the end of her fingers and she looked at him in surprise.
"And you seem to be able to quell it easily," He said with some wonder in his voice.
"Malfoy…"
"Call me, Draco."
She paused and then sighed.
"Draco…I think I should be getting back. I don't…entirely think this was about business." She said nervously.
He snickered.
"You seriously just figured that out, Granger? With that cursed intelligence and head of hair to hide all of it? Ah, well, I suppose you can't help it if you're a tad slower than the rest of us."
"Malfoy-"Draco."
"If I call you, Draco, you'd have to call me, Hermione and-"Yes Hermione?"
"You're really irritating. Let go of my hand and let's go."
"Why so soon?" He asked and stroked his thumb across her knuckles.
"You know why. Let's just keep this about business, okay? I-I don't understand why you're acting like this anyway."
"It's called flirting, Granger."
"I know what it's called! Now stop being irritatingly glib and let's go!"
"Now who has a quick temper? Going to stomp that right foot too?"
She stood up with his hand still in hers and he was sure he saw her right foot twitch. He chuckled.
"So-did you finally realize how horrible it would be to have freckled red headed children who eat like Weasels?" He asked and she did stomp her foot this time.
"Draco, let's go now."
"Ah," He said slowly standing up and raising his voice considerably, "So you want sex right now? Well whatever you want dear!" He said happily and she walked angrily forward, having to hold his hand since he refused to let it go.
And despite the strangeness of the situation that was the beginning of a clandestine friendship. A friendship not vocally acknowledged by either. For Hermione still did not realize what they had become and Malfoy was wishing for something more than what they were.
If the press had heard of this they would have been greatly interested and bombarded the career driven couple with questions and inquiries. Their respective friends and (on Draco's part) family would have been furious and suspicious and the wizarding community would watch in fascination as Death Eater and the Princess of the Golden Trio reconciled.
Fortunately for them both no one was aware or suspected them of such a relationship. Yet.