Chapter Two:
The next morning Hermione pulled herself out of bed, went through her mundane routine of stretching, showering, chores, eating then flooing swiftly to the Leaky Cauldron to walk the rest of the way to work.
As Tom had relinquished the bar for a more sunny location, the new owner/barkeep Hannah Abbott waved in sync before turning back to rearranging her pint glasses.
Hermione brushed off invisible soot off her gray pantsuit before the clicks of her heels led her onto the cobble footpaths of Diagon Alley. It was a standard morning for the businesswoman as she collected of coffee and read the Daily Prophet en-route to her destination: the Ministry.
Today's schedule was far from routine.
"Miss Granger, Ma'am, there is someone waiting for you on the floor." Her assistance, the unfortunately named Ursula, met her in the Atrium. Hermione quickly amended her surprised expression; this was not to plan, Ursula never met her in the Atrium in greeting. Her assistant would await for her on floor forty-seven's entranceway, handing over the daily schedule alongside meeting agenda's, quick notes and taking her jacket.
"Ursula, please refrain from mentioning anything else until we are at our floor. Remember our positions here in the Ministry is often targeted so if someone were to hear something unfortunately and it gets slandered in the media, our business cases would be thrown out under scrutiny."
"That's the thing Ma'am, the visitor was in before I was, and in the midst of them attempting to enter your office has set off your charmed alarms."
Hermione blanched at the thought. It was a gift from George Weasley the alarms that she had set for her office privacy.
Both females hurried to the floor with their paperwork and Hermione's briefcase floating behind them. Ursula still grabbed Hermione's jacket to allow her employer to move freely to address their office space.
One should know never to trust a Weasley.
Narcissa Malfoy was considered polite and well-liked by the community after her husband died an arduous death in Azkaban. Her greying-blonde hair was always polished and well maintained which often matched her fashionable make-up and attire.
In Hermione's multiple encounters across the years, particularly for the duration of replacing the Board of Education members, Hermione found that the Malfoy matriarch was invaluable within the ever-changing political environment.
Today however, was the first day she had seen Narcissa looking slightly out of place.
Hermione took pride in her office location, she had carefully saved and spent her money and rented a whole floor of real estate within the Ministry of Magic so that she could have things done her way.
No one had ever questioned her issues with control.
The office, that was normally smooth dark tiles with pristine white walls, currently had several blemishes resulting directly from someone triggering the alarms.
A swamp, similar to her fifth year Hogwart's swamp bubbled and enveloped her senses, making the coffee in her stomach turn. As the swamp bubbled, with each pop it released conjured dragonflys that were currently hovering around her private office doors. Frogs had now appeared and they were surrounding the Malfoy into a corner.
"Miss Granger, is this your idea of a joke?"
"Mrs. Malfoy, please be advised that I seek creative ways to protect my office from people who attempt to break in."
Narcissa scrunched her nose and zapped one of the frogs with her wand. Hermione's eyebrows rose when she saw the zapped frog just explode into two new frogs.
"Make them stop Miss Granger! I have only come here to discuss business!"
"Ursula, did Mrs. Malfoy have an appointment here today?"
"No Ma'am."
"Thank you, and did Mrs. Malfoy ever attempt to make an appointment with myself for any time today?"
Ursula grinned quickly at the game Hermione was playing.
"No Ma'am, I have never received a memo or owl of any such request."
Hermione nodded, and opened her diary "So on the basis, are you under the assumption that Mrs. Malfoy has attempted to take over my morning meetings that you had already booked me in for?"
"Yes Ma'am, it appears that she feels she may not need to make an appointment to see you."
"Is that so?" this final question was directly at the woman who was now almost drowned out by the frogs that were jumping on her pristine dress.
"Miss Granger, it was only met as a casual meeting, as past friends."
Hermione didn't think her eyebrows could go any higher with astonishment.
"Friends? I have a social calendar for such things Mrs. Malfoy, which Ursula also runs."
Narcissa was a proud woman, often stuck in her old ways similar to her late husband, however at that point she knew she wasn't getting her way. "Fine, all it was, was an employment offer, a contract offer if you will from this current position."
Hermione waived her wand to identify herself to her alarms, sending the swamp and its inhabitants back into non-existence. "Narcissa, that doesn't explain why you're in outside of business hours, attempting to break into my office."
Mrs. Malfoy drew her shoulders back and waived her wand to clean her floor length dress. "I wanted to find something that you enjoy within your office, so I could make the offer more appealing."
At this point Ursula snorted unceremoniously, whilst walking to her own desk outside of the private office. Hermione's assistant unlocked her drawers and desk items were put neatly on the table, aligned perfectly to her standards.
Hermione permitted herself a small chuckle. Both reactions looked to have confused the Malfoy matriarch.
"Narcissa, please step into my office and do tell me where you would find such ideas to sweeten job offers with." Hermione gestured for the visitor to step inside.
Hermione relished in Narcissa's reaction.
"It's empy!"
"Quite observant Narcissa, please, have a seat."
Mrs. Malfoy was correct, Hermione's office theme was similar to the exterior office. Dark tiled floor with pristine white walls, between two seats there was a simple wooden desk with no draws, in-tray or papers to be seen. No personal items littered the walls or furniture and to an outsider it was vast and impersonal.
Just the way Hermione liked it.
"I will have Ursula reschedule my 9am appointment only because it is merely a courtesy to a colleague and she will just send the termination papers to that employees desk. Now, if you please, if this is a friendly, job offer visit that you have imposed yourself on me for, present, then leave."
It was fortunate that Narcissa was used to Hermione's manner, otherwise Hermione was sure that Narcissa would have cursed her then and there. Mrs. Malfoy pulled out her wand and a small envelope and with a small flick, the envelope doubled in size and thickness.
"This," she began proudly, a well rehearsed voice, "is in relation to your unique skills and business mindset. The Malfoy Group as you know, is run by Draco and I, in the last seven years we have increased our profits by 4.5% each fiscal year. We have stepped from just potions, to beauty, publishing, event management and sports equipment. The Malfoy group are slowly branching out to fashion and functional attire and are set to release our first line of commercial wares in the next six months."
"This is all well and good but if this is an investment opportunity, I respectfully decline." Hermione sighed, she often had people requesting her money for investment opportunities which she often saw as tedious and frustrating. Why trust someone else to make you money?
"Miss Granger, respectively, I almost laughed at your ridiculous conclusion. The Malfoy wealth, aside from its business ventures is more than what the muggle Queen of England is worth. We are looking to maximize our profits before we take our biggest breakthrough since the creation of the Lumos spell. The Malfoy Group want you to make our business incredibly self-sufficient so that Draco can work with our secretive technology research and development division to make wands obsolete."
Hermione felt her coffee turn again in her stomach.
"What?"
"Imagine Miss Granger, not all witches and wizards are as powerful as yourself and the late Dumbledore. I have noted throughout the years, although not commonly known, that you have on more than one occasion defended yourself or taken action using wandless magic. Could you imagine your standard witch out late at night and something happens to her and her wand is stripped? It's quite a strange thought having to rely on a piece of wood to ensure your safety."
Narcissa sat back in her chair, her body language was relaxed but Hermione could see in her eyes, there was fire.
Hermione's thoughts ran through all of the possibilities, all of the times wands were taken off someone, or that her wand wasn't close by during the war. How helpful wandless magic was even when she showering, smelt her cooking from burning at home and had to magically pull the roast out of the oven as she was clambering to get out of the bathroom.
The idea excited her.
"The envelope includes the contract, detailing that you would get paid 100,000 galleons per fiscal year based on profit margins and performance. Contract is up for renewal every two years, this also contains your health cover and one small, unchangeable condition."
Hermione looked up from the papers that were being slide across the desk towards her. "Which is?"
Hermione had always thought that Narcissa was a bit like the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland when she smiled. When Narcissa was younger, Hermione was sure that smile haunted men and made enemies shiver. She knew that the elder Malfoy was formidable, the countless occasions they sparred over the selection of board members, or on political matters had shown her that fact. However Hermione was not prepared for this condition.
"Oh don't look nervous Miss Granger, all that I ask is that while you're going through our internal business, fixing and removing personnel that are no longer needed, is that you also work thirty percent of your hours in the research and development division."
"I see."
Which means, working with Draco Malfoy.
Hermione scrawled a memo to Ursula to cancel the rest of the weeks' meetings and sent it out under the door to her assistant's desk.
"No, thank you."
"Pardon Miss Granger?"
"I said no, thank you."
"This is a supreme opportunity. I looked at your current wages, my company is offering you double what you are on now and you would be heading our internal review department. You have all of the perks that you could ever want."
"Thirty percent is a large portion of time to spend with an arrogant bully who graces magazine covers when he gets bored with his current groupies."
Narcissa chuckled softly, "Draco is a bit vain isn't he? I think he does it because he doesn't want to appear so serious all of the time."
It was Hermione's time to chuckle, "A twenty-nine year old man posing with kids pretending to like him at charity events is ridiculous, political stunt which increases your stock value. You don't need to spit in a cup and tell me it's tea."
Mrs. Malfoy eyed Hermione carefully and positioned herself gracefully shifting her dress and crossing her ankles. "Miss Granger, Hermione, if I may; my condition is small and most of the time he is in his private office locked away running through theories. You would have your own floor and barely see him. Whilst I won't beg, I will insist you take this offer. I can see that your mind is already thinking about how our proposal is even possible."
At that point in time, Hermione knew that Narcissa was right.
"Ursula is coming."
"Of course."