A/N: WOW it feels like it's been years since I've been on here, probably because it has, but NOT the point! Anyway, here's a new story for you all. I'm at break right now so I thought, why not get the pen to paper, or more realistically, get my hands typing. Here it is, and I hope you guys enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. End of story.
Summary: Hermione Granger is in a tight spot. She's just graduated uni after studying Journalism (whatever possessed her to do that!) She needs a job, and most importantly these jeggings that were once to die for will probably squeeze the life out of her if she doesn't remove them soon! Enter Draco Malfoy. Yes THE Draco Malfoy (As if there were any others?) The brilliant architect of Malfoy Industries. But wait, what do they have to do with each other? "And anyway, why would you stuff your flesh in clothing that looks like it's about to eat your ass Granger?" Hilariousness ensues.
Chapter 1: The Beginning of the Quest
"And so begins the quest for a more fulfilling life. When I look at my peers who seem to have their lives figured out, I start to pani-"
UGHHHH. No wait that's not right at all.
Hermione deleted words off her computer screen for the millionth time that day. Whoever said writing a book was easy was obviously very stupid. Wait, did anyone ever really say that though? Maybe I should look that up, she wondered, but then decided against it.
If she had to be really honest with herself, she was just stalling. With good reason though! She was trying to write a book and Merlin knows it's been a bitch since she sat down to start typing at 10 a.m. this morning with a fresh cup of brewed coffee in her favorite Santa mug. Now it's 5 p.m. and she barely even had an introduction. Ha! She barely even had two sentences!
In all fairness, she did write a paragraph of her acknowledgements, in which she thanked her parents and friends of course, but even that left a sour taste in her mouth when she realized she was having such a hard time because of those friends.
The very friends she'd gone to school with, fought Death Eaters and Voldemort and laughed with were stressing her out. They were indirectly forcing her to review her life and her life choices.
They had their lives figured out and were moving on to bigger and better things and she seemed to be stuck in reverse.
First there was Harry and Ginny. After the war, Harry took a year off to relax and enjoy life but of course he's Harry Potter. He couldn't even last a year without adventure, so less than a year after defeating Voldemort, he found himself training to be a full-fledged Auror. At age 18 no less! Now he works at the Ministry, and is not just any Auror, but the head of the Department—and he's only 24.
Ginny on the other hand went on to play Quidditch for the Holyhead Harpies after Hogwarts and has since become an international sensation. However, just last week during the Weasley's Sunday brunch, she announced even more stellar news that Harry had proposed, and they would be getting married next June.
Not that the news was a shock for Hermione or anyone for that matter. The entire world knew Harry and Ginny were head over heels with each other and Hermione was just surprised it took this long for them to get married. Even more surprising was that Ginny was not yet pregnant but Hermione had a feeling that would be changing soon.
She sighed. Even Ron had his life figured out.
Yes Ronald Bilius Weasley seems to have his life on track as well. He like Harry became an Auror, and now works in Harry's department. After the war and the brief kiss they shared, they decided to date for a bit.
The relationship fell apart faster than Ron could eat an entire pumpkin pie. They both wanted different things. Hermione wanted to travel for sometime and go to university, leaving the wizarding world for awhile. Ron wanted to be an Auror. They split amicably and not long after, Ron started dating Luna Lovegood. The two make a surprisingly good couple and Hermione expected she would be hearing wedding bells for them soon too.
That left her.
Unlike the rest of her friends, she only had the briefest idea where she wanted to go with her life. One of the lessons she learned from the war was that life was too short. It was definitely too short to immerse herself in books and have her nose sniffing for information all the time. She realized there was so much more about the world that she didn't know. Since age 11, her knowledge of the world had been viewed through the lens of the wizarding world, but not much else. That was why she decided to travel. Of course her parents and friends gave her flack for it, but she was Hermione Granger and once her heart was set on something, there was no stopping her.
She went and came back from her endeavors more in tune with the world but she still wanted more. So she enrolled in University in England and saw less of the wizarding world.
University was amazing though. There were so many things! So many things to do and study and people to meet! People who had no idea she was Hermione Granger. Well, they knew she was Hermione Granger but not that Hermione Granger. They treated her normally. The only problem though was that university had so many things. So many things to do and study!
Hermione was never one to be indecisive but after experiencing all the world had to offer, it was hard to just choose one field for the rest of her life. So she took the Hermione Granger route and studied three. She studied biology, because being a healer had been one of the things she thought she could do once she got back to the wizarding world. She was also hoping she could use her knowledge of the human body to find cures for some dangerous spells. The Cruciatus cusrse needed to be eradicated from existence, need she say more?
She also did criminal justice because she never forgot her roots. The house elves would always be near and dear to her heart. Although S.P.E.W. didn't last long, she would never stand the unfair treatment of those elves or any other magical creatures for that matter.
Her favorite course though was journalism. Not Rita Skeeter's or the Daily Prophet's skewed and misinformed form of journalism, but true journalism. She loved everything about it, from the investigative work, to the interviews, to digging out the truth and bringing it to light for readers to read and absorb. She loved it.
Realistically though, the business was dying. True investigative pieces were hard to find these days and papers were constantly closing in the muggle world. The wizarding papers on the other hand were just a joke, and not just because they hired less than stellar reporters with quick notes or quick quills or whatever to do their writing.
Now what was she left to do? She very well couldn't work for the wizarding papers. Even though working on behalf of magical creatures seemed fulfilling, she also couldn't envision being stuck in those stuffy ministry offices with people who could care less about the state of house elves rights. Being a healer was also her last resort because she wanted to do something she truly loved. While she would enjoy curing people's illnesses, she wasn't sure she loved it enough to devote the rest of her life to it. She also wasn't sure she could handle staring at a patient fresh from the effects of the Cruciatus curse.
So she decided she could do the next best thing to journalism and maybe write a book or something, you know, get some creative juices flowing. Surely many people out there wanted to read about her, so rather than letting them hear it from a second source like a Rita Skeeter wannabe, she decided she would write it herself. Who knew, maybe while digging through her mind for ideas, she could even figure out what else she may want to do…like owning a wine vineyard and making her own cheese…or something. She did love grapes…and the occasional cheese.
Pffftt. Even the book idea was falling apart if the last seven hours of frustration, writing, deleting and scarfing down chocolates to quell the frustration was any indication.
That left her back to square one. No job, no future aspects, but with amazing friends whose lives were clearly on track. So on track, it couldn't be derailed by the fastest bullet train from Japan.
UGHHHHH.
She was Hermione Granger. Hermione bloody Granger! Her life should be the one that was mapped out, plotted, enveloped and starred! That should be her!
UGHHHHH! Screw it, she needed to get some fresh air. Get a couple of groceries. Maybe even a new pair of pants.
Yes pants! She'll do that. There was a 75% off sale on those cool jeggings that's been all the rave this year so maybe she should treat herself.
Maybe I'll even have a better direction for my story or book thing, she thought.
Why didn't I think of this sooner? Other than those delicious chocolates, this was the best idea I've had all day.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?" Draco barked at— wait what was this guy's name again? Jack…something or another? But what did it matter anyway, the guy was mostly likely getting fired in two point five seconds.
"What kind of a bullshit third quarter report is this? Even my dead gran can see this was half-assed. Is this what I pay you for?"
"S-s-sir I didn't write that report," Jack barely whispered, "Mr. Davies in the finance department did. I-I-I was just dropping it off for him sir."
Leaning back in his chair, Draco picked up the offending folder and threw it back. "Well give it back to Davies and tell him I better see a revision on my desk tomorrow morning, personally delivered, or he can get his ass out of my company."
"Y-y-yes sir," Jack mumbled and all but ran out of the office.
As the door closed, Draco slumped in his chair before running his hands through his immaculate hair. Davies was a dumbass sometimes but even his crappy earnings report couldn't hide the numbers, and right now the numbers were definitely not good.
In the past month, Malfoy Industries had been losing revenue and sales had been down. He'd done his best to suppress the rumors from getting out but he was going to have to come up with a better solution soon lest the company go under and tank. He really couldn't let that happen.
Malfoy Industries was his pride and the only thing he could show to distinguish himself from his tarnished family name. After the war, the Malfoy name was stained and his father's brief stint in Azkaban didn't help matters. He and his mother had barely escaped the prison themselves and as a result, they had to stay low-key for about a year before they could re-emerge in the wizarding world.
Of course that hadn't been a walk in the park either. He had to fight tooth and nail to set up the company, under watchful eye of the Ministry of course. Apparently, being the son of a Death Eater, housing a deranged psychopath with a penchant for killing muggleborns, and almost killing your headmaster didn't mix well for a case on why the ministry should leave you alone.
No matter though, because Draco got the company running in the long run. At the tender age of 20, he started Malfoy Industries, which aimed to provide services of all kind. Their current services though were mostly ripped off the very people he spent almost his entire life despising. It seems muggles did create some clever things.
Now their television was in almost every wizarding household, obviously slightly modified for wizards and witches. And by slightly modified, he meant, changing their names. Those TVs were now known as "Viewers". He didn't want to admit it but their 3D- LCDs were a big hit in the wizarding world. Something about things coming out of people's TVs seemed to utterly captivate people.
Along with that, Draco had acquired companies of all sorts. He had small but significant shares of the Daily Prophet and even Flourish and Blotts. That reminds him, he needed to speak with his biographer soon.
The whole idea of owning a business started with him wanting to change the Malfoy name. There was nothing like having people worship the ground you walked on to becoming a social outcast to wake a young man up. He came from a long line of proud Malfoys and he wouldn't let his father's terrible decision making skills change that. He supposed he was also at fault for believing his father and going along with Voldemort's terrible plans, but he didn't like admitting that very often. Anyway, the times have changed, and Draco was somewhat changed too. After all, he did get his money making product from the muggles. He supposed he could you know…tolerate them.
Their TV contraption idea found him one day during his year as an outcast. He stumbled on a muggle pub while trying to get to the Leaky Cauldron. Mistaking the pub for the Cauldron in his drunken state, he walked in and soon saw the strange contraption the barmen seemed so enraptured with. They were screaming and yelling at the bloody thing and also watching something called "Football".
As the bar girl walked over to him to take his order, he asked her what it was. First, she looked at him funny but then laughed seeing he was drunk. That was the night he discovered television—and incidentally first slept with a muggle girl—and he's never looked back since.
Now though, the glorious company he built seemed to be taking a big hit and he needed to remedy the situation before it all came crumbling down around him.
He was just cementing his name in the history books and it needed to stay that way. He couldn't be the laughing stock of the wizarding world once again. He had to find a way out of this mess before the public found out and the investors started backing out.
Truth be told, even though he could afford to fund the company, having investors helped alleviate the snooping Ministry and made the very people he aimed to serve less skeptical. Evidently having sane people who were willing to risk their money in his business suppressed the fact that he was a former death eater and all that. Naturally, he couldn't lose them and certainly couldn't risk them finding out.
Owning a portion of the Daily Prophet and several publishing companies also had its perks. It meant no snooping journalist to come around and find out their earnings were dipping. It also reduced the risk of having someone from the company sending anonymous tips to people at the paper. It would just get back to him anyway and the person would be terminated. Bloody hell the Daily Prophet was such a joke.
But still, that was the quick fix to his problem. He needed a long term resolution. A new product of some kind. Maybe even a new industry to delve in and sink his teeth into. Maybe the "Viewer" was wearing out its usefulness and it was time to stumble on another muggle contraption.
Draco ran his hands through his head once more as he strode across the room to get his coat. Perhaps it was time to do some snooping on muggle territory again.
But first he needed a drink.
And something with legs that he could bang. Preferably a girl.
A/N: Well that ends the first chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I challenge you all to try and figure out how our two characters will be interacting in the story, and I'll see if any of your guesses are right. The next update should be coming in the next week so you won't have to wait long! Reviews are always welcome!
