A/N: Hey everyone here is the chapter as promised. I'm not sure when the next chapter will be ready but I'm hoping sometime this weekend. I wasn't entirely pleased with this chapter. It feels a bit choppy to me, but there was some background info I really wanted to lay out in this chapter so forgive me for that. Alright well I hope you like it and please leave a review! They are very appreciated! Also if there are any grammar or spelling mistakes feel free to point them out, as said previously English is not my strongest subject!
Six Months Later…
Draco is sitting at his desk waiting for his new secretary to bring him his morning coffee. He is beyond irritated. He asked her for it 30 minutes ago, 'how long does it bloody take to make a cup of coffee!' he thinks. Finally, she enters with it. She shuffles over to his desk, which annoys him, and sets it down splashing some out onto the desk. He sneers at her and dismisses her with a wave of his hand. After she leaves he looks at his morning schedule. He has another long day of boring meetings; he is going to need some energy for this. He stands and walks to the door, pokes his head out to talk to his secretary. 'Shit, I don't remember her name' he thinks to himself. "Katie" he says and waits, she doesn't respond. A bit louder this time he tries, "Sandra" she turns and looks at him with a quizzical expression. "Mr. Malfoy, are you talking to me?" she asks. "Of course, who else would I be talking to?" He asks snottily. "Oh, ok I wasn't sure since my name is Susan." She says quietly. 'Damn it' He thinks. "Anyway Susan I want you to run down to the coffee shop next door and pick me up a pastry and make sure there are no nuts and I need you to be back in 10 minutes." He says calmly. Susan startled and surprised jumps up quickly and takes off.
Draco saunters back into his office and kicks his feet up. 'Maybe I can catch a 10-minute power nap while she is fetching my breakfast.' he thinks. Just as he gets comfortable someone barges through his door. "Malfoy I didn't know you got paid to sleep!" a man exclaims. Draco opens his eyes to see his VP, Marcus Flint, coming into his office. "Well Flint when you own the company you basically get paid to do whatever the fuck you want to." Draco says rudely.
"Damn man someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed…. or couch." Marcus says eyeing the leather couch on the side of the room that has a blanket, pillow and a well-used look about it. "I was here working late last night and didn't want to bother going home." Draco says. "You didn't want to walk all the 50 feet from your desk to your fire place to floo to your flat? Wow I knew money could make a bloke lazy but damn Malfoy I think you're taking it to the extreme. Next, thing I know you will be paying for someone to feed you and wipe your arse as well!" Marcus teases. Draco glares at him and asks, "Is there a reason you barged in here or did you come by just to be show off your skills at being a wanker?" "No, I had a reason but annoying you is just a bonus." Flint says. Draco says nothing just glares at him waiting for him to get on with whatever it is he came for. Flint exhales realizing trying to joke isn't helping Draco's foul mood and hands him a few papers. "On top is the agreement with the apothecary that we closed last week, and underneath it is a draft of the proposal for St. Mungos. I need you to sign them both." Flint says. Draco briefly scanned the documents before signing them and hands them back to Flint. "Meet you in the conference room in 5?" Draco asks. "Yeah, let's close this thing today." Flint says as he walks towards the door and exits.
Draco looks at his watch and sees it has been 17 minutes since his secretary left to get his breakfast. 'Looks like another one bites the dust', he thinks sullenly. Why is it so hard to find a decent secretary these days? He has gone through 3 in the past 8 months. He might be a tough man to work for but everything the need to be successful at the job is clearly defined in their employment contract and job description. Just as he is about to leave for the meeting without his breakfast, Sandra…or Susan whoever she is comes bursting through his door. "I'm so sorry Mr. Malfoy! There was a long line and when I got up to the counter finally I realized I didn't have any money and started panicking before the cashier finally told me that we have a charge account here, but I didn't know if it was ok to charge but I did anyway so I hope that's ok…" Draco cuts her off with a curt, "That will be all Samantha." She huffs and turns on her heel and walks out of his office. As she leaves he hears her mutter, "My name is Susan!" He thinks about saying something but decides to leave it alone.
He turns and sets the pastry bag on his desk, walks over to his couch and throws himself down on it. He sighs and thinks about all the late nights he has spent on this couch in the past six months. Ever since he ended his engagement to Astoria all he has focused on is his work. He hasn't gone out with his friends, he hasn't gone to a quidditch match, he hasn't been to the Manor to see his parents, he hasn't even found a good one-night stand! All he has done is work, eat, exercise, and sleep the past six months. He sits up and tries to roll his shoulders to release some of the tension and stress in his body.
Since he stayed up until the wee hours of the morning perfecting the proposal and presentation for his meeting with St. Mungo's today he skipped his workout and now he feels tense and on edge. Draco Malfoy has found there are three things to ease the stress in his life flying, exercising, and shagging.
The first he discovered when he was a boy and was his go to method for many years. When he turned 14 he discovered how a good wank could help him release pent up tension, and later when he was a bit older he learned that a quick shag was even better. Exercising he discovered in his year of house arrest at Malfoy Manor.
Following the final battle of Hogwarts many of the Death Eaters were captured and brought before the Wizengamot for sentencing. Thanks to his family giving up any and all information they had on possible hide outs of the death eaters that weren't captured and in part to testimonies by Potter and an anonymous source defending himself and explaining the lie his mother told to save Potter, which saved his life, he and his family had gotten off easy. Draco himself and his mother were sentenced to 1 year of house arrest and had had their wands altered so that they could only cast a limited number of spells. His father had gotten 3 years of house arrest, had been wandless for 1 year and restricted magic 2 years, and had gotten fined a measly amount of 100,000 galleons.
During his year of exile Draco was not allowed visitors and wasn't allowed to go wander far into the expansive grounds to where he could fly easily. That was when he discovered the stress relieving benefits of exercise. It was 3 weeks into his house arrest and he thought he was going to snap so he ran out the front door of the Manor and as far as the boundary would permit and then kept going along the perimeter of the boundary until he had gone around the entire perimeter 3 times. He finally stopped, winded, to catch his breath and realized how much better he felt. After that Draco got a catalog from a wizarding sporting goods store, and with permission from the ministry had equipment delivered to the Manor. He had exercised every day after that, that he was on house arrest and by then it had become a habit. Not to mention the benefit it had in attracting witches.
Draco had always known he was a good-looking bloke standing at 6'2 with good lines, but after a year of exercise he believed he was a god like. His habit had helped him fill out his tall, lean frame and grow into his sharp features by adding 30 pounds of muscle to his body.
Draco checked his watch and groaned he was supposed to meet Flint 15 minutes ago. Now he only had 15 minutes before the people from St. Mungos were set to arrive, which gave him basically no time to prepare with Flint. He stood and walked over to his desk picked up the bag with his pastry and liked his lips, at least he had time to enjoy his breakfast. He took it out of the bag and brought it to his mouth just as he was about to take a bite he stopped. He pulled it back and took a closer look at it and ground his teeth together.
He stormed out of his office and over to his secretary's desk. He threw the pastry down in front of her and shouted, "Sally what kind of pastry did you bring me!" She jumped looked down examined it and said, "I believe is it apple walnut sir." He glared at her and waited to realize her error. It took her about a minute and a half, then her eyes went wide. "Oh! It has nuts!" she stammered. "What were you trying to do kill me? I'm allergic!" Draco spat. "Of course not!" She cried. "It was a mistake! I was in a hurry and flustered and just pointed to one!" By now she was crying but Draco didn't care. In a low, menacing tone Draco said "You're fired. You have by the time I get out of my meeting to get your things together, this desk cleaned up, and be gone. Go to the legal department and see Zabini when you're done to discuss the terms of being fired. Bye Sarah." With those final words, he turned on his heel and began walking towards the conference room, but as he was walking away he heard her shout, "My name is Susan!" 'I should probably feel bad for never even learning her name.' he thought. Draco didn't though. She had only been there for 6 weeks and was probably the worst one yet.
When he reached the conference room Flint was pacing back and forth and looked furious. "Where the hell have you been! The group from St. Mungos is checking in downstairs with security right now! They just sent up a memo!" Marcus shouted. Draco glared at him and said, "I have been trying to avoid being nearly poisoned by my secretary and then firing her. Also, do remember that I am CEO/owner of this company and your boss so it would be wise for you to watch how you talk to me." They glared at each other a bit before Draco decided to break the tension a bit by stating, "Besides I am prepared for this meeting and no one can resist the Malfoy charm." He said with a smirk. Marcus chuckled and said, "Except Astoria apparently." Draco shot him a nasty look before softening a bit a giving in with slight smile. Just then the door opened and the group from St. Mungos filed in and began taking their seats. "Show time." Draco said with a wink.
3 hours later Draco was shocked. The meeting had not gone as he had planned at all. He and Flint had delivered their proposal answered the questions waited outside while the group deliberated just to be told that they weren't sure this was the best option for them! "We just need to see more research and data proving to us that using your company as out primary potions supplier will be the best route for us." Said a balding, fat, old wizard. It took everything ounce of Malfoy self-control to not hex this man into an oblivion. He had spent months collecting multiple bits of research and numbers to put into this proposal to show them that they were indeed the best choice! Draco simply nodded and said, "Alright we will meet again in a month and I will have those figures ready for you." The man annoying, fat man huffed and said fine we will meet again in one month. Goodbye gentlemen." With that he got up and waddled from the room followed by the rest of his associates.
"What do you think that was all about?" Asked Flint. "I know exactly what it is about. It's got to do with the fact that I own this company and I'm a Death Eater." Draco responded. "What! Can they do that just because you're an ex-Death Eater?" exclaimed Marcus. "Of course because they can. They won't ever tell us that is the reason. No, they will say they got a better offer, or they just want to stick with what they know. They will never actually tell us that it is because of me." Draco said acidly. "I'm sorry mate, but maybe in a month you will give them an offer they just can't refuse." Marcus said encouragingly. "Maybe." Draco muttered.
With that they both left the conference room and walked back to their respective offices. Draco called down to the building secretary and told her to cancel the rest of his meetings for the day. Then we again walked over and laid down on his sofa. 'This day just couldn't get any worse.' He thought. Just as he was drifting off there was a knock at his door. 'Maybe if I ignore them they will just go away.' He thought. A minute later and he had still heard nothing. It looked as if they had left. Just as he had convinced himself of that fact, he heard someone say. "Wish I was the boss so I could just sleep all day and still make the big bucks!" Draco opened his eyes but he already knew the owner of that voice.
"Zabini, what the hell do you want? I have already had a rather trying day and don't feel up to dealing with your shit at the moment" Draco said exasperated. "Oh come on now mate. You know I was just joking. I sleep all the time at work and you still pay me big bucks!" Zabini said. At this statement Draco sat up and smirked at his friend. "You know I'm still you're boss Zabini. Not very smart to tell me you're slacking off at work. I might just fire you." Draco said while maintaining his signature Malfoy smirk. Blaise looked at him with shock for a moment before replacing it with a smile and said "Nah, we both know you won't do that mate because you couldn't get anyone else who would put up with your pompous ass and all the demands you make!"
Then Blaise's smile faltered. He became serious and said "Malfoy speaking of firing people we need to talk." At his friend's expression Draco became a little worried. "Ok, what is it?" He asked. "Did you fire Susan Bones this morning?" Zabini asked. "Yeah I did. So what?" Draco asked. Then Blaise asked, "What were your reasons for firing her?" "Well it took her 3 weeks to learn that I want her to bring me a cup of coffee when I get in every morning and another 2 to learn how I take it. Then this morning it took her 30 minutes to make said cup of coffee, and then when I asked her to get me a pastry without nuts she disregarded that and damn near killed me!" Draco said. Blaise sighed and said, "Look mate, I don't know how to say this so I'm just going to get it out there. Susan and 2 of your other former secretaries are suing you for wrongful termination and discrimination based on blood status."
Draco looked at his friend with his jaw dropped. "What! That's preposterous!" He exclaimed. "Look mate I know that isn't the real reason, but I'm not really sure how to get you out of this one." Blaise said solemnly. "This is outside my area of expertise and I think you are really going to want the best for this one." Blaise said seriously. Draco scoffed and said, "Of course I want the best." Blaise smirked and said, "Good, because I happen to know who the best is, but you are going to have to do some work to convince her to take you on as a client." Draco's ears perked up at the mention that this lawyer was a woman. "Well if she is a femail I don't think it will take me long to convince her, if you know what a mean." Draco said as he raised an eyebrow. "Who is it?" He asked. Blaise's smirk turned evil as he said, "Hermione Granger." Draco sat in stunned silence before quietly saying, "Granger?! I'm doomed.
