Author's Note: So here is the long-awaited sequel. I am so sorry it took me so long. I was debating with myself for a while about whether or not to actually go through with it but here I am with the first chapter. All first chapters are a little bizarre, I suppose. Anyway, many many many thanks to all those who supported me through this and above all, enjoy.

Mr. Wonderful

Chapter 1: Dragon Chaps Aren't Armani Trousers

"Are you absolutely certain you can't make lunch?" Charlie called from his sleepy nest in the bedsheets. He had insisted on taking a room at the Leaky Cauldron even though I was more inclined to not come at all.

"I am came here on business, Charlie, not pleasure," I splashed water from the bathroom sink onto my face.

"But my mother is dying to meet you."

"Why on earth you even mentioned my name to her in the first place is beyond me. But oh well, your problem not mine."

"You're evil, Alex."

"If you say so," I was preoccupied with the frustrating button on my blouse. Mirrors never helped things. They only made such a simple action, like buttoning a piece of plastic, extremely complicated.

I closed the bathroom door. Buttoning buttons wasn't the only thing the mirror tampered with. The second time in a good eight bloody years that I've been to old London town. Not for lack of avoiding the place. The grey skies were so foreign to me now. They made me look a great deal tanner than mirrors in Romania.When I had first walked into the bathroom my hair looked like a flowing rat's nest and after an hour of charms it finally looked decent; long straight and unnatural. I looked like Mortisha Adams. Note to self; get a sodding haircut.

"What exactly does the big boss have you doing?" Charlie's voice was muffled by the door. "You don't like deskwork."

I smirked at myself in the mirror. "Stuff."

"When will you get back?"

"I don't know."

"Will we be able to get some time together?"

"No idea."

Now the only obsticle in between the outside world and I was my suit jacket and briefcase. You wouldn't know it, seeing how Anglo-Saxon I appear now, but I haven't touched a leather briefcase, much less a well tailored pair of pants in ages. My hand was quivering above the doorknob and I mentally kicked myself. Get yourself together, Marlow. Merlin.

Charlie whistled and made an anticipated comment about how different I looked. He looked the same however, shirtless and tangled in bedsheets. I didn't want to go outside. I wanted to curl up with him and forget all about England, just whisper meaningless nonesense in Romanian. ButHe has more priority over me than Charlie and all too soon was I walking down the gray street.

I had no clue anymore where the WMS (Wizarding Market Street) was anymore. I felt handicaped as I stared up at the street signs searchingfor the correct route. My mental conversations were caught in between wanting to rip off these foreign garments then running back to Charlie and trying to remember what I knew each familiar sight from. Just had to remember my mantra: I am in the dragon business, commodities not stocks, I live in Romania and am not staying long.

I must have repeated that phrase a hundred times by the time I reached the WMS and to my horror, I discovered all the markets were in the same building. "Fuck," I cursed. Then I bit my lip and walked in.

I felt like a small child in the middle of a bustling train station. I was standing amongst thousands of other wizards in suits and I had no idea where to go. I had no broker, not even a lawyer; I was the best our measley little enterprise had. I wasn't about to make a fool of myself, so accepting that I would be there a while, I decided to walk the floors and try to figure out how the place worked.

Oh who was I kidding? I was nearly born in this place. Which made me want to curl up and die. "I am in the dragon business and I live in Romania . . ." I said to myself. I was nobody here, just another suit. My mind starting to drift to the days when I was a somebody.

No, no, NO! I walked right out of the WMS before I allowed myself to remember exactly how old I was when I was in the business of business. My breathing hitched as I walked swiftly down the street. I didn't care, I couldn't stay there. I was going to send him anowl and tell him that I couldn't do it. The boss had to send somebody else. I was going to curl up with Charlie and floo back to Romania tonight before I--

WHAM!

I crashed then fellonto the concrete. "Bloody hell!" the other half of the accident shouted. I myself must have said something in Romanian because he muttered something about foreigners. I don't do deskwork at my little enterprise but fieldwork and proper english is about as common as spanish in Sweden.

Perhaps I have been living out in the middle of nowhere for too long but I seriously expected someone to help me up. Instead I opened my eyes to find some git brushing himself off without so much glancing down at me.

Oh no--that is some very blond hair--that is a very expensive looking suit and that is . . . a very forgotten business card. It was as though time stopped and the world fell awayas I focused upon the letters. "Draco Malfoy, Lawyer for the Rich and Intelligent. Dear god, when did he get through law school?" Upon realizing what I had just said and who I had just crashed into, I ran back to the Leaky Cauldron.

But I didn't end up at the Leaky Cauldron. I jumped into a corner store picked up some cigarettes and then I got turned around. So thinking I was on my way back to my redhaired beau, I in fact, ended up in the middle of a bustling plaza. I sat down on a bench a lit up a cigarette wonderingwhere all my nerve had gone.

It was a simple task. All I was required to do was open our name on the commodities market. This was rediculous behavior. I wasn't seventeen anymore. I wasn't in any danger of losing Charlie or my new life that I had worked so hard to attain. But oh, how wrong I was.

"May I have a cigarette, Miss?" I turned around to the voice. A middle-aged man sitting on the bench behind me had turned to make the request. I nodded and gave him one. He thanked me and turned back around, continuing his conversation with the man next to him. Being who I am, I couldn't help but overhear.

"Shame what has happened over at ME. What a good company for a while."

"Glad I quit when I did though. Investment's low and benefits are being revoked one by one. I don't expect it to survive next quarter."

"Pity," the man I gave the cigarette to said.

Now call me crazy, but have you ever been seized by something you can't control? You hear someone you love is in trouble and you run to them without even thinking? This was sort of like that, minus the circumstances of love. I didn't care what He said. I was going back to Romania and I was going back now. Before it was too late and someone recognized me. I didn't care. I didn't care about Marlow Enterprises.

Then why was I standing outside the headquarters like an idiot?

Now if I knew what would have happened to my life if I went in, my friends I would have apparated back to Romania right there. But unfortunately, like many addicts and abusers, I told myself, just this one time.

"Marlow Enterprises," I whispered to myself. I should leave. But just this once. Just to see what happened to it. Just to satisfy my curiosity would I push through those glass doors.

"Can I help you, Miss?" a secretary asked without even looking at me.

"Yes, I am from the offshore workers union and would like to see printouts of the last five financial years." Lying had never been easier. Pleasure shot through my veins and felt new again.

She looked at me with wide eyes and whispered, "Are you going to file a complaint?"

"Do you have something to contribute to the dossier?"

She glanced from side to side, "Our health coverage was recently revoked."

"To what level?"

"All levels."

"I see. Pray tell can you get me those papers or am I going to have to give the bosses a head's up that someone's investigating their human rights abuses?"

I had my papers in a matter of minutes. Got to love weak-willed secretaries. I found myself a seat outside the building and lit up a cigarette. I skimmed returns for the last five years and there was only a slight decrease over time. Investment was scary. Five shareholders took up the majority of the company: Zabini, Malfoy, Nott, Avery and Tarquin. Now where do I recognize those names from?

I began to read through the years of the company with more attention to detail. Something was off. Every year entire wings of the company were fired then rehired and all foreign investment had gone down the tubes. Everything was domestic. There hadn't been any new goods in circulation and three proposals to merge with other companies had been rejected.

The cigarette feel from my hand and I apparated to the Leaky Cauldron.

No one was there, thank Merlin. I practically ripped off my jacket and ran to write a letter. It seemed to consume my whole world right then. I was thinking yet there was no thought. I smudged the ink and wrote broken sentences but finished in minutes. I grabbed my owl and tied the letter to its leg. I practically chucked the bird out the window before collapsing onto the bed.

My sound of my breathing filled my ears and closed my eyes.

The summer heat was oppressive near the Romanian coast. I hated dragons. I hated the labor. Most of all, I hated the blokes. They weren't like sailors. Men on boats didn't see women for years at a time and showed me more respect than these slavic brutes. I was pouring over Bulgarian and Romanian books at night trying to figure out how to get my instructions undestood.

One morning, I was finishing up some shipment paperwork when there was a knock on my door. The only english speaking bloke on the entire plantation stalked into my office and tossed some trousers onto my desk.

"Yes?" my displeasure was certainly visible.

"You might need these when you help load up the dragons this afternoon."

"I believe that is your job Mr. . . ."

"Weasley," he said.

"Mr. Weasley," I said trying to hold in my surprise. They bred like rabbits! "But I pay you for the manual labor."

"You do know that your job does entail helping out 'on deck'."

"Since when do you get the right to talk to your boss with that tone?"

"Since you haven't been doing your job, sweetie. But try not to burn you pretty behind."

That was years ago. I had been burned many a time by dragons. Bones had been broken and it had indeed been ugly. But now I felt like I was really being scorched, as though I was burning up and nothing could stop it.

Which was why I was so happy to go out to a bar with Charlie. I downed two glasses of firewhiskey before Charlie even got his drink. "So how was work?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at my sudden consumption.

"Dandy," I replied. I had begun to feel light and fluffy. Thank Merlin.

Two more shots and I knew England must have been getting to me because I saw another Charlie pass through the door. No . . . wait. "Alex," Charlie began uneasily. "I want you to introduce you to my sister, Ginny."

She was had become even prettier than I remembered all the blokes mentioning. As to be expected. She was what, sixteen when I last got jealous of her. Did I say jealous? Forgive me please, it is the alcohol. What a sorry state indeed. Four drinks and I am already losing my head. Is it the stress? Never.

Then someone please tell my why I was hiding in the ladies loo.

You can't apparate out of restaurants nowadays. Can't be having dine-n-dash's left and right, now can we? So that left me trying to scramble out the window. Everything seemed to make sense at the time. Climb out the window, down the alley, disapparate and boom--problem solved. No more Weasleys!

However, the only boom I heard was my fall out the window. "Are you alright, Miss?"

"What?" I wobbled up to my feet, the world still spinning from my fall. I was staring up at two big green eyes. "Whoa!" I tried to move away but found my back pressed up against the brick.

"Are you alright? What's your name?"

I opened my mouth to say my name but someone beat me to it. "Alex! Are you alright?" So maybe it wasn't what I would have said. Charlie had his head out the window of the ladies loo. "Oh Harry! Good thing you took the back way. Alex did you fall out this window?"

"Um, uh . . . " no, no, no! "Yes," I squeaked. I straightened up slowly as the green eyed man took a few steps back.

"Well um, let me introduce you. Alex, this is Harry Potter, Ginny's beau. Yes, I've finally accepted that my little sister has grown up. Harry, this is Alex, we--"

"Work together," I finished. I forced a smile and held out my hand. I am such a hypocrite. I impress myself.

He tentatively took it and instead of shaking it, kissed it. "Pleasure."

I watched the smoke climb into the air. I had conveniently fainted in the alley and Charlie, being the kind bloke he is, took me back. I 'woke up' and urged him to go back and have fun with his sister whom he rarely saw. That of course, implied Harry Potter. Fate has a way of coming full circle doesn't it? I looked at the ring on my left hand briefly before taking a drag.

"You certainly impressed those blokes back there," Charlie said as we walked together across the fields.

"I am your boss for a reason," I too was pleased with the wayI had caged up that hornback.

"That too, but actually I was referring to the way you told off Coslov. He looked like he'd been hit by Imperius! Not even two months and you speak Romanian with the best of 'em."

"Thank you," I replied simply. I shrieked as I suddenly tripped. I was facing down at a breeding pit as deep as the Black Sea itself.

But I didn't fall for two strong arms held me fast. "Come on, it's alright, I've got you."

Next thing I knew I was against his chest, staring at his weathered but handsome face. "Thank you. Let's just keep this our little, um, secret, shall we? Don't want to be losing face with the blokes."

He grinned, "If you let me take you out to the village, my lips are sealed."

"My, aren't we taking liberties?"

"Give me the word and I'll stop."

"Stop Charlie," I whispered. Hello,my name isAlexandra Marlow and I am in trouble.The smoke left my lips and floated out into the night.