Disclaimer: All the characters you recognize belong solemnly to JK Rowling. But we all wish we could own Draco Malfoy… =D
Chapter One
War ended six years ago but the Wizarding World is still coming together.
Hope does not run low in wizards and witches' hearts, it never did. They kept fighting even though some older and wiser citizens thought it'd be a waste of time. True, to many wizards and witches it was a waste, they lost their lifetime earnings attempting to build companies. But some, few, but still, some survived.
The oldest companies, mainly Malfoy's Company or Zabini's Brooms Enterprise, did survive and even started to expand their interests. Little companies and home business were stolen the opportunity of survival, most of them eaten by the big companies.
Those two companies above controlled basically the entire market. No one entered the economical world without their approval. That is…until Mystic came along.
Mystic was born in the Muggle world first, six years ago, not much latter that the demise of Voldemort. It was a small company; the employees were not superior to a number of ten or fifteen people maximum.
Its major business being music, they still hold a little publisher on the side for fiction books. But the company's interests expanded with time and nowadays it works as a writer, model and singer' agency and record company.
How they did it, you ask. Well, Mystic owns it mostly to one of its first talented client. One of its protégées was its ticket to fame and wealth. No one really knows who she really is. Her face is always covered with a mask and she never did live shows or concerts. Not even her name was known to the public or even the employees.
Her first single was a hit and she became one of the most sought out singers of Muggle Britain, and later of Wizarding Britain. Common employees swear they never saw her or worked with her music. It was all done by the Heads of the company. The truth was that when a new album was released, sells went high and crazy. But after three years releasing new and improved music every few months, it stopped. Her albums and singles still sold like candy every month but people wanted new stuff.
After its initial hit, Mystic was swamped with new singers who turned to this company in hopes of recording their songs and to be represented by them. Muggles of course.
Mystic's owner knew it was still early to represent wizards.
It was after becoming one of the most prestigious companies in Muggle Britain that Mystic returned home: Diagon Alley.
So, three years after being born, Mystic appeared in the wizarding world in the figure of the owner's personal assistants and Heads of Departments, Ginevra Weasley (music), Hermione Granger (books) and Pansy Parkinson (modelling), a blondish beauty. Three beautiful women, each with a different approach on life and business but nonetheless powerful and effective approaches, took the Wizarding World off its feet with a blooming empire of dreams and hopes.
No one knew who the owner was but as soon as Mystic started launching their clients into the wizarding market, the subject was dropped.
At first everyone thought it was another small company soon to be eaten by one of the big companies but this company was not a little fish but a Shark that entered the sea to win or at least struggle before giving in…
But it seemed as both Malfoy and Zabini companies, were not interested in this company that dealt with only books, music and other petty subjects.
Mystic bought Books and Beauty, from Lavender Brown, in which they sell most of their products and have one of the most prestigious beauty salons in Diagon Alley (ran by Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil), and La La La Records, from Lee Jordan. Surprisingly Mystic kept every employee from the companies it bought. Growing in number as well as prestige. It now employs more or less thirty people by department, around seventy or eighty people only in its Wizarding office.
Its headquarters was placed in a very quiet street of Diagon Alley. It was just down Gringotts' left street. You would pass several apartments and turn again at the end of the street and there you were. An eight-floor, white and green building with Mystic written on the front glass door in fashionable emerald letters.
Our story begins in the company's sixth year. More exactly when Malfoy and Zabini's companies can no longer ignore the power of the mysterious owner of Mystic.
It begins when Ginevra Weasley is twenty two years old and a stunning business woman, Hermione Granger is twenty three and practically living together with Ginny's brother, Ronald, and Pansy is twenty three and having an on-off relationship with the famous saviour of the world, Harry Potter.
I have told you the basic. I shall tell you now a story of love, hate, war, dreams and hopes. Of how the Wizarding World survived the wrath of two former enemies.
---
24th September
Heads of Company' office
"Ginevra Weasley, please, pleeeeasse sit down! You're making me nauseous!" whined Pansy rubbing her eyes.
It had been six months since any of them had a day without worry. Malfoy was buying music companies and decided that he wanted to have a music department in his empire. So, Mystic was struggling.
They had been expecting this but still… As the heads of Mystic they had to work extra hard. Malfoy was now competing openly for one of their biggest clients, The Weird Sisters.
Now Ginny was freaking out. The Weird Sisters were one of their biggest clients.
"Oh, God!" she moaned "Mum's gonna kill me if we lose Celestina too!"
Hermione sighed and rose from her chair.
"Ginny, STOP!" she commanded. Ginny obeyed and stood quiet.
Hermione looked at her apprehensible.
"You look drained, Gin. You must calm down. We have been doing this for six years-"
"And Malfoy has been doing the same since he was born!" Ginny shrieked "That's why he is crushing my negotiations with The Weird Sisters and Celestina!! I'm losing our biggest clients to that rat!"
"We knew he would not lay cool while we rocked the business. We are prepared for this." She paused and sighed again looking at their monthly charts "And if this continues, we still have Mystique"
Both Ginny and Pansy looked at Hermione in awe.
Pansy was the first to break the silence.
"Herms, Mystique is retired" Ginny said darkly.
Hermione stared at Ginny and then at Pansy. Crestfallen Hermione pointed at last month's sells chart.
"If Malfoy keeps stealing our sells, then she is our only choice. Ginny will have to talk to the Boss and that's it" she said dropping herself in her chair again.
Ginny did the same.
They sat in silence and wondered how from one moment to the other the company started to fall. Ginny looked up from her papers at her two partners. They were the image of two tired women. No one would say so if not for the bags under their eyes because both women dressed nicely and proudly, a professional air around them.
Ginny sighed and dreaded what was to come. No one wanted to do business with them anymore. Malfoy was bad-mouthing all over the market… 'Why?' Ginny wondered submissively. He had been quiet for three years, why now?
If he started expanding further then Mystic would not have any other alternative than to bet the wild card…
Mystique …
'The singer that made the company grew from a tiny little thing to the force that it is – was' Ginny thought jadedly.
She sighed again… no, The Boss was not going to be happy…
--
25th September
Ginny woke up with a start and rubbed her eyes. As she looked around her she saw both Pansy and Hermione sleeping profoundly at their desks.
She stood up and looked at her watch. Four a.m. Great!, she thought with sarcasm.
She walked to Hermione's desk and gently tried to wake her up.
"Herms, Herms…" she called twice.
Hermione opened one eye, looked up at Ginny and smiled.
"Looks like we fell asleep in the office again…we should really think about buying some beds." She said jokingly and she stood up and arranged her clothes.
Ginny nodded and walked up to Pansy. She called her twice as well and as usual…
"I'm UP! I'm Up!" Pansy woke with a start.
"Yes, Pansy, we know you never fall asleep as we do" Hermione said rolling her eyes at Ginny who giggled.
Pansy laughed sarcastically as she looked for her shoes under her desk.
It was the nth time the three of them had fallen asleep while trying to find a way to keep their accounts straight.
Ginny grabbed her purse and straighten her skirt. As she turned around something fell from her purse. A small silver mobile phone. Ginny grabbed it and noticed it was glowing.
"Oh, great!" she said out loud "My mother phoned me fifty times since seven p.m."
Pansy laughed.
Even after knowing Ginny's family for six years she still could be bewildered by Molly's desperate attempts to contact her daughter even now when their relationship was so cold and unnaturally civil.
"Molly is always calling you, Ginny. Maybe you should go visit her tomorrow or at least phone her back at least once in a while…" Hermione said as they walked out of the office to the elevator "You never visit nowadays and they miss you."
"I visit them!" Ginny replied indignantly.
"Yeah, right, once a month maybe." Pansy snorted. Ginny glared at her.
"Besides, every time I go there she start ranting about my choice of career."
"I'm only saying that you should go more often. I go there every week and I'm not family" Hermione continued "…at least not yet"
Ginny and Pansy laughed. Ron promised Ginny he would propose to Hermione soon but he had been making that promise for two years now…
"He will propose!" Hermione yelped "He just needs time!"
Pansy rolled her eyes at Ginny at this. It was well know to both the women that Hermione would wait forever for Ronald Weasley.
"Oh, I would not roll my eyes if I were you, Pansy darling." Hermione replied "At least I know that Ron will propose someday but Harry is not even thinking about it"
Pansy glared at Hermione. Harry and Pansy were an on-off couple. Pansy was too volatile and Harry was too hard-headed sometimes. But they loved each other too much to stay away for too long.
Ginny smiled sleepy at the other two antics.
Ginny sighed and waited for the enchanted elevator to stop. Life was good…stressful, but good.
Finally it stopped.
They passed by the night guard, John, and bid him goodbye with a smile as he waved at them.
Ginny kissed her friends and co-workers goodnight and walked home. Her old sweet home. The home she bought four years ago when she had decided to start living in her world again. She left the Muggle World and came home again after fighting for what she believed was her future.
She gazed one last time at the fashionable Mystic building and sighed. She walked down the street and turned a corner to her house. She smiled as she closed the door of her apartment. She could still hear Pansy's voice when she bought the house telling that maybe it was easier to live in Mystic. Yes, she knew it was really close to her working place and that was, for her, a bonus. It was a small apartment. It had a bedroom, a guest room, a kitchen, a bathroom and a living room. It was a small apartment for someone of her wealth but she felt home there. Six years working in Mystic had given her more than she ever thought she could earn in a lifetime. But she did. She was not one to live in big houses.
She dropped her coat on the sofa and walked straight to her bedroom. Once inside she fell into her bed and sighed jadedly. She regarded her bedroom thinking.
Her eyes gave a quick look in the direction of the hidden room behind her closet.
Her secret room of dreams and inspiration. Only Harry had ever entered that room besides Ginny and no one else knew of its existence.
No longer feeling sleepy, Ginny stood up and walked to her wardrobe. It was very antique yet simple, just like the rest of her home.
She withdrew her wand hesitating only a second. She tapped the right corner and then the left corner. Leaning into the back of the wardrobe she whispered her password.
She stood back as a door appeared in the back of her wardrobe.
Ginny hold her breath as she opened the door of her music room.
She stepped in taken by the memories that room kept intact. One wall full of every CD Mystic had ever sold since it was born. In the other wall a collection of guitars placed neatly in it. Seven, one for each day of the week or seven mortal sins… seven, for the day and month she was born and nearly died… Seven guitars, propriety of the seventh born child. One baby blue, one baby pink, one purple, two black and white, one blood red and an emerald green one. Collecting dust they were. Displayed there to tell her what she lived for, what she had to fight for… She would never forget it, not when her dreams made her fight so much already. Her fight would not be in vain.
Her work…her life. This room was what she was, what she had dreamt to become.
Finally she turned her gaze to her front. Her most prized possession, her mixing table with a computer and micro on the side.
It had been almost three years since she had used it but still it stood there looking as good as when she first bought it.
She looked around at her room and smirked.
If Malfoy wanted war, War it was.
--
30th September
"Miss Weasley, here's the Daily Prophet, the Velvet and the Quibbler" her assistant said dropping the daily newspapers on her desk.
Ginny looked up to thank him but Julliard was no where to be seen. Ginny shook it off as nothing.
She continued to read through her papers and forgot about Julliard and his weird behaviour. That was, until Pansy walked in the room arguing with Hermione in hushed tones.
Ginny looked up from her papers and looked at her watch. Twelve p.m.
"Is this time for the Heads of the Company to arrive at work?" she snapped "I've been here since 9 a.m.! I need your opinion in some of the ideas I had overnight!"
Hermione glanced at Pansy and Pansy nodded encouragingly.
"Ginny dear, have you…uh…seem by any chance the Daily Prophet?" she asked backing outwardly nonchalantly to her desk in the other side of the room.
Ginny frowned and reached for it.
Her jaw dropped as she read the front page of the daily newspaper.
A/N- So, this is my first fanfiction, I hope you like it. I'll try to upload a new chapter soon. Please tell me what you thought of this first chapter, key? =P