Author's Note: As promised, here's the Friday update. Hope you like the chapter. BTW, don't forget to vote on the poll on my profile!
Disclaimer: Anything you recognize doesn't belong to me.
Chapter 2: The truce
Mr John sat pensively in his seat as he watched the brunette before him look at her watch for the twentieth time in a span of two minutes, before giving him an apologetic smile and resuming her assessment of his office. Not that he was counting, mind you, but just that he happened to notice. Suddenly the door opened with a report and Draco Malfoy sauntered in, throwing him a most unapologetic smile, before taking a seat.
"Fashionably late again, Malfoy?", Hermione asked acidly, "In case you didn't notice some of us have jobs to return to instead of sitting here and waiting on you."
"Missed me so much, did you? We'll you'll be happy to know that you'll get to see much more of me over the next nine months", he gave her a wink before turning to face Mr John once again.
Hermione inwardly cringed. Malfoy in a happy mood was so much worse than when he was behaving all snarky.
Much to her surprise, the meeting progressed quite smoothly. Malfoy, she observed, knew when to behave professionally and though she was reluctant to admit it, she did appreciate this gesture. Not one joke or untoward comment came her way throughout the whole meeting, and by the time it was over, she feeling a bit guilty for having judged Malfoy on his expertise even before having met him. But now that she felt that Malfoy was ready to exchange the olive branch, she decided that she would do the same.
She was wondering why his was in such a good mood, as they left Mr John's office. She didn't have to wait too long for the answer. As soon as they had entered the reception area, her auditory nerves were attacked by a most inhuman squeal.
"Drakie ! What took you so long?", a leggy blonde squealed as she walked up to Draco, who pretended like she didn't exist and nonchalantly walked past her towards the row of elevators. As the three of them entered an empty elevator and Hermione made sure to stand as far away from the 'supposed' couple as was possible.
To her horror, the blonde leaned into Draco, and Hermione had the sudden urge to gouge out her own eyes, but she contented herself with merely looking away and praying to Merlin that they didn't start snogging in front of her.
" For once I thought that you were up to something with that other girl in the office, but then I remembered that there was that guy with you as well. But after what we just did in the bathroom, I knew that you wouldn't have the energy to give it another go", she whispered into his ear, pressing herself into him. Malfoy let out a snort of laughter at the mere prospect.
If you could throw up inside your mouth and shove it back down again, that's pretty close to what Hermione was experiencing. When she had finally overcome the gag reflex, she suddenly realised something.
"Were you fifteen minutes late because you were too busy shagging her into the wall?", she asked disbelievingly.
Malfoy shrugged nonchalantly.
When she remembered the smug smile on his face when he had entered, she had to fight the urge to repeatedly knock his head again the elevators doors till it made a dent in them.
"Really Malfoy, I at least expected a bit more of standards from you", remarked irritated.
"At least women find me attractive, Granger. But with you, I swear, no man would want to shag you even if paid to", he retorted coolly.
"Forgive me for not sleeping with every slag I come across", she said, looking straight at the blonde who was obliviously playing with his tie.
"What a prude! Well news flash grandma, this is the twenty first century."
"And here I was thinking that you were professional in your approach", she muttered under her breath as they elevator doors finally opened to let them out. As literally ran to the apparition point, or walked very fast as she liked to put it, she realized that by signing up for nine months with Malfoy, she might have lunged into a suicide mission.
Granger,
We need to call a truce, or else either one of us may end up dead within a fortnight. Meet me at The Grand tonight at 6. Be sharp.
D M.
This, including a rather bothersome owl which also scratched her, was what greeted her at her breakfast table the next day. The tone of the letter was in itself very imperious and Hermione was a tad annoyed at his superiority complex, but a smile made its way onto her face when she pictured the displeasure in his scrunched up face as he had written it. The letter itself spoke volumes about its writer. The quill had been pressed so hard into the parchment that it left an impression on the other side. Instead of signing it with a flourish, Malfoy had driven the pen so hard into it that she could almost see a hole through the splatter of ink. And to top it all off, he had not even bothered to chuck it and write a fresh letter that didn't include ink stains and torn parchment.
But it would be difficult to survive without a truce, so she quickly wrote down an agreement and sent off the owl.
Now for the evening, what the hell was she going to wear!
I guess a little explanation is due. Almost immediately after the war she and Ron had broken up after realizing that they were simply too good as friends to risk a relationship. Since then, she had gone out on a moderate number of dates, but the pressure of her job coupled with her ambition to rise to the top had somewhat overshadowed her ambition to get a steady boyfriend. Hence, she was in a dilemma. Not that this qualified as a date or anything but she did have to look good. She would not let Malfoy be the center of all attention. Tonight, if the people everywhere would be staring at their table, it would be because of her and not the ferret-face sitting in front. With that resolve firmly in mind she set off to search for her lifeline, Ginny.
Hermione Granger was known to be a level headed person who made prudent and sensible decisions. After three hours, when she gazed upon her empty closet and her bed overwrought with clothes, she seriously doubted if asking Ginny for help had been a wise choice.
"Mione, you can't wear anything from her, we need to go shopping", she declared as she inspected the last of her dresses.
Yup, definitely a bad decision.
"We should probably also get you some new clothes for your tour!", she squealed as the idea dawned upon her.
Maybe it was one of the worst decisions of her life.
And that is how the afternoon found the both of them in Diagon Alley with an ecstatic Ginny barely able to contain her excitement at the prospect of having rescued her fashion-challenged best friend, and an not so ecstatic Hermione who looked ready to maul the first person that came her way. After they had finally unloaded their purchases, Ginny decided that it was finally time to get to the real action.
"Mione, you're my best friend, so I'll be blunt with you", she promptly declared as she plopped down into the sofa.
"Please go ahead, don't spare me", Hermione joked.
"Okay, first up, here's the brutal truth. You haven't dated anyone ever since you broke up with Ron."
Okay, maybe Ginny didn't get the 'joke' part.
"Well, there was that guy from office…" Hermione began but was cut short.
"Relationships less than a month don't qualify. What I mean to say is that now that Malfoy has finally asked you out you shouldn't let this opportunity go to waste."
"Which part of a TRUCE don't you understand?" Hermione huffed, irritated. "Besides, I'll let you know that he was late to our meeting because he was busy another slag of his. Please, I have way better standards than Malfoy!"
"Do you know that at the moment he is the most eligible bachelor in the whole of Britain?" Ginny smirked at her annoyance.
"Says who?", Hermione said childishly. If Malfoy was the most eligible bachelor, who would be the female version, Mc Gongall?
"You know, something tells me that you'll find out the reason soon enough", Ginny replied knowingly as she pulled out the dress for the evening.
"And if you play your cards right, he might just be extra quick about telling you why", she said as she gave an exaggerated wink towards Hermione who looked ready to vomit.
"For some reason I want to hold onto that lunch I had earlier, so spare me the horror Ginny!", Hermione replied, weakly.
It wasn't fair, Ginny was enjoying this way too much!
End Note: Another chapter done! Tell what you liked/hated. Any criticism is more than welcome.
Don't forget to vote! And remember to PM any creature you would like to see.