"I would like you as my head researcher."
There was a hint of a smile playing at her lips. "Well, now I'm at least curious."
Yes! He didn't let his victory show in his features as he nodded solemnly. She was such a sensitive case.
But she was fooling herself, she'd been curious from the beginning. She'd just lost interest for a moment there, when he was trying out her boundaries. That was a dangerously fine line to walk, between trying her patience and not making her suspicious.
"The facilities are good and the funds are exceptional. The personnel are..."
"I wouldn't get to chose who I work with, then?" She sounded sceptical.
Ouch. He hadn't considered that a hurdle to overcome and frowned.
"I neither can nor will fire my employees, but I imagine quite a few will move on soon, which is why I needed you. You can be allowed to replace them as you please, but it's something we'll need to discuss."
Taken aback by his unyielding attitude, at first, but a part of her liked the loyalty he was implying.
The stray thought that he might have anything, anything at all, in common with a Hufflepuff distracted her for a moment. It was hard not to let that amusement show on her face.
"I could probably live with that, but the offer is by no means impossible to refuse."
He smirked and rose. "Oh, that's just because you don't know what you'd be refusing. May I invite you to Carreg Manor?"
He held out an arm to her. Wavered for a moment under the incredulous look she sent it. Malfoy playing the gentleman? Who'd have thought.
Oh well, if he would have it that way, she'd not give him the gratification of seeing her refuse his token of … whatever it was.
A white flag of sorts.
She slipped her hand under his arm and took hold.
"I'm ready." And dying to see what would come next.
He'd said the point lay in the premises. That was a lot to boast. Then again, it was a manor. She didn't know anyone else who'd spend enough money on arcane research to house it in a bloody manor!
Sideways-Apparating was never comfortable. His firm hold on her arm was a relief when she stumbled at the end.
Falling in dirt would have been a good way for him to get a laugh out of her, but something was different about this man, compared to the Malfoy she'd known.
And then her mind went blank.
All the colours of autumn flanked her. Bushes and trees hedged a grand and well-kept garden. Flowers of all sorts – she immediately recognised some rare wizarding varieties – Neville would die from awe when he heard that she...
There it stopped again. She wasn't going to accept this job.
The bookshop. Her apartment. Her customers. She wouldn't abandon them to come back to the Wizarding World. Not when it had proven that it was no better, nay, even worse and more dangerous than the Muggle one.
She was merely looking at things she could never have. She should've been honest about that from the start.
"I... I'm sorry, Malfoy. I can't do this."
The face that had been plastered with a content smirk for most of the evening dropped all pretense in pure shock.
"Why ever not?"
"Because I'd really love to work here, but... I just can't. I'm sorry. Thanks for letting me take up your time, though."
She snaked her arm away from his and was just about to Apparate away when he grabbed hold of it.
Grey eyes were fixed on her face.
"You're planning on running off with no more excuse than that? At least tell me why."
Breath hitched, heart beat and throat dried up. She couldn't tell him the truth. She couldn't tell him anything that made sense.
Seconds of paralyzed silence went by, a deer-in-headlights moment if she'd ever had one.
In the end he let go.
"Whatever."
Frightened, as much by herself as by this place of too many delights, she pushed back the tears that wanted to overwhelm her and hung her head.
"I'm really sorry."
Then she was gone.