"Am I too early?" Draco Malfoy leaned against the door jamb with a casual elegance only he could pull off. He glanced at the shiny gold watch on his wrist and tossed his satchel onto the conference table before sitting down in front of it. "Oh well, it couldn't be helped. My meeting got out early just one floor above so I came straight over. Hope it's no problem."
Hermione couldn't quite muster up annoyance. "You're only 15 minutes early. It's no problem." Not a problem indeed. With no witnesses she didn't quite have to hide her frequent glances at her colleague. There was something about that forest green MLE-issued sweater that did things to her. Made her sick probably. The fluttering in her belly couldn't be anything more than a prequel to the stomach flu. She turned back to the napkins if only to give herself something to do.
"This looks great. Did you go to Callie's on 5th?" His voice came from directly behind her and the closeness caused Hermione to startle and drop the napkins she'd been fidgeting with.
"Here. I've got that." Draco bent down and snagged the cloth off the ground and reached around her to place them neatly next to the silverware.
"Thanks. Help yourself. Callie gave me extra cucumber sandwiches. They're my favorite." She had no clue why she shared the tidbit of information, but it gave her an excuse to grab a sandwich and stuff it in her mouth before sitting at the head of the table. Anything to get away from his delicious spicy scent. Unless that was the sandwiches.
The blond had filled a plate and settled back at the table. "So, I know I'm a brilliant Potions Master, but you didn't have to agree to let me help you. What convinced you?"
Draco tried to act nonchalant as he asked the question, but it was a hard sell.
Hermione took a bite of her sandwich rather than answer right away. She chewed slowly and ran through all the various answers she could give him, but settled on the truth. "I reckon it's because you're different from how you were in school. We studied together a bit for the Potions exam and I enjoyed your company and saw the mastery in how you brewed. You'd be helpful in this situation and to be honest, I'd say your a good man now, and I like to surround myself with good people to encourage myself to make good choices. Have I said 'good' enough times yet?" Hermione stopped her babbling and blushed, stuffing another bite into her mouth as a distraction.
A good man? Draco could never recall being labeled that before. More like 'evil' or 'cunning' but not good.
He wasn't sure he liked that label. He had to break her of that belief immediately. "I'm hardly a good man, Ms. Granger. Here's an easy way to tell between your kind and mine - " Draco could practically see the steam out of her ears and winced at his poor choice of words.
"Excuse me. My kind? What do you mean by that?"
"You interrupted before I could explain. I meant, your kind - the good guys - and my kind - the evil bastards." Draco leaned back in his chair and continued, "anyway. What extreme would you go to for your friends?"
"I'd die for them." Hermione answered before she could even think about it. It was a complete no-brainer. She'd been prepared to die for her friends and her beliefs during the entirety of the war.
Draco chuckled at her predictability. "That response is exactly what makes you good. You'd die, but I would kill for those I love. You see the difference?"
"That doesn't necessarily make you a baddie." Hermione scoffed at his insinuation. She could probably kill someone to save a friend's life. But that'd be something she'd have to live with forever. It'd be much better for her psyche if she could die for a friend. Then she wouldn't have to live with any guilt because she'd be... you know... dead.
Draco laughed suddenly and almost choked on the baby carrot he'd just popped into his mouth. "What'd you call me? A baddie? I love that. That's what I want to be called from this point forward." The blond shoved his sleeves up a few inches and leaned back.
Hermione blushed again. And not because forearms were her weakness. It was just hot in that small conference room.
Draco took pity on the curly-haired woman and changed the subject. "Who else is joining us? I haven't spoken to my mother since before she received your owl, but if I were to hazard a guess, I'd say she might have something to do with this."
Hermione smiled at his deduction and his grace at changing the topic. He really was intelligent. She was looking forward to working with him again. "Yes. Your mother agreed to participate after I explained the situation at our brunch. It was quite lovely and I'm looking forward to collaborating with her. Harry will be here, too. I'm hoping he'll agree to be head of the publicity for this thing. It might take some convincing from all of us."
"Contrary to what I thought at school, Potter isn't a fan of being in the spotlight." Draco raised a skeptical eyebrow as he wiped the corners of his mouth with the napkin. "I've worked with him for a few years now in the MLE office. He never takes interviews and makes his partner answer reporters' questions. Are you sure he's on board with this?"
Hermione felt a twinge of respect for Draco. He knew Harry and knew that this wouldn't be what he wanted. But as much as she knew that as well, she also knew that she absolutely had to have his public support or this whole things wouldn't work. Her head and heart were torn, but as it frequently went, her head was winning the tug-of-war.
"I know. But his help is crucial to this being a success. I'm hoping he'll understand that and put aside his concerns of publicity for a short period of time."
Draco shrugged and continued to work through the mini sandwiches he'd stacked on his plate. "If you say so, Boss."
Hermione didn't appreciate his doubt, but only because she had enough of her own to deal with. Just as she was about to give what was sure to be a witty retort, there was a quick tap on the open door.
"Happy National Friendship Day, team of secretive council members!" Luna Lovegood stood in the doorway carrying a tray of cupcakes with glowing frosting.
"Happy Friendship Day, Luna. What do you have there?" Hermione smiled at her eccentric friend and gestured at the cupcakes. She's been so healthy with her lunch choices, but Luna's homemade frosting was always impossible for her to turn down.
Draco gave a nod to the newcomer. Hermione noticed him eye the cupcakes with interest, but continue to eat what food was left on his plate. She hid a smirk, he was almost as bad as Ron when it came to interest in food, but his table manners were far and above the redhead's.
Luna set the tray next to the sandwiches with a flourish. "I know how much you love my cupcakes, Hermione, so I brought you a dozen to share in honor of the special day and your special meeting."
"You're so thoughtful, Luna!" Hermione counted to ten in her head so as not to seem to eager before getting up to snag a blue frosted one that looked like it might be red velvet. Luna smiled serenely and sat down across from Draco.
"I'm very excited to be a part of this. Spell experimentation is such a thrilling career, but it's mostly a solo adventure. Don't want to endanger anyone, you know. It'll be great to work with a partner. Speaking of, will I be working with you, Draco?"
Draco tossed his last bite of peach slice wrapped in prosciutto into his mouth and looked at Hermione. He didn't know the answer. Luna was sitting in the rolling chair with her knees pulled up and crossed like a kindy-kid. She certainly didn't look serious enough to be a spell-creator. Merlin he hoped he wasn't working with the blonde girl. She looked like she was a hazard waiting to happen.
"Actually -" Hermione's answer was cut short due to the arrival of the last three members of her council: Mrs. Malfoy, Harry Potter, and Padma Patil. "Perfect timing! Come in, grab a plate, and we'll get started."
"This spread looks delicious, Ms. Granger. I think you could have done just fine without me. Though I must admit how excited I am to start planning. I've already been tossing around some themes." Mrs. Malfoy leaned down and gave Hermione an air kiss on each cheek before tousling Draco's hair, much to his dismay.
"Hullo to you, too, Mum. I'm doing well, thanks. How are you?"
"Darling, don't interrupt. It's rude." Draco rolled his eyes dramatically but his mother didn't seem to notice as she made her way over to the food.
"Hermione. Thanks for getting us lunch. I only have an hour before I have to get to a briefing. Oh! Are those mini grilled cheeses? Excellent." Harry tossed a folder next to Draco to claim his seat, and hurried over to claim his favorite lunch item.
"I'll make the meeting as quick as possible, Harry. I don't want to take up everyone's entire lunch break with work." Hermione had made sure to get the grilled cheese sandwiches just for her best friend. Because he liked them. Not as a subconscious bribe. Obviously.
The muggleborn turned towards the woman lingering in the doorway. "Padma, please come in! Get some food and make yourself comfortable."
When everyone was seated and happily snacking away, Hermione began to succinctly explain the marriage law, the purpose behind it, and her role in its execution. 10 minutes later she clasped her hands on the tabletop and looked around. "Any questions so far?"
Hermione let the question float in the air for a moment to give everyone a chance to digest the information.
"This purpose of the law is horrible. But the way you might have saved us all from doom could work if we manage to get this right." Padma tucked a strand of her long black hair behind an ear. "You sort of explained what my role would be when you recruited me. But could you explain what our duties would be so I can get the whole picture of the purpose of this council?"
Four other heads nodded in agreement and turned to Hermione in expectation.
"Excellent question, Padma." Hermione took a quick breath and launched into another explanation.
When she paused to take a breath, Harry jumped in. "Sorry. This might be a stupid question, and no offense is intended, but Padma is a historian. Why is she working on the spell with Luna? Wouldn't you want an accomplished caster?" Harry swiped a hand through his perpetually messy hair as he finished his question.
"It's interesting you should mention that. Harry, Luna, Mr. Malfoy," she nodded at each as she spoke their names, "you might remember Padma from school as a particularly bright Ravenclaw, but you might not know much of what she does these days. Padma has a special proclivity for languages. She can speak, read, and write 32 languages fluently. I've worked with her a few times to translate various texts crucial to my own writing. As this spell was written in Middle English, rather than Latin, I can't imagine a better translator to make sure we get this right."
Padma ducked her head a bit at the compliment. "You're being too humble, Hermione. Your translation skills are far from subpar."
"Perhaps in Latin. But certainly not in Middle English! You're help will be crucial!"
"But - and again, no offense intended- couldn't you just use a translation charm? That's what I do for my special reports after a mission on the continent." Harry didn't know why he was questioning Hermione's council picks, maybe because - despite the delicious grilled cheese sandwiches- he was still annoyed at his friend for asking him to be involved.
"Translation charms are fantastic for simple things, but they translate literally. You miss the meaning behind the words and the figurative language. Those things can completely change the meaning of a sentence. And a long spell like this one needs to be as accurate as possible - not just the words, but their original intent as well. We'll be saying the spell in the original language, as we would with any other simple one, but if we don't understand the meaning and the stress of the words, we could mess up the whole thing. Isn't that right, Padma?" Everyone stared at Luna as she finished her explanation. Of course, Hermione knew Luna was brilliant, but it came as a shock to everyone else around the table if the dropped jaws and raised eyebrows were any indication.
Padma smiled at her fellow Ravenclaw. "That's exactly right, Luna. I work with all kinds of different professions to make sure their work is as accurate as possible, from authors - like Hermione - to Unspeakables."
Mrs. Malfoy finally inserted herself into the meeting. "I'm disappointed in this administration for even considering this law, but now that it's in effect, we must do our best with it. I'm very much looking forward to both planning the gala for which the law will be debuted, and for rallying those in the upper echelons of society to your side, Ms. Granger."
Hermione smiled at the older lady and turned towards Harry. "You'll be working to curb public resentment and to encourage support of the law. It might help to work with Mrs. Malfoy to accomplish that."
Harry gave a slight smile to the Malfoy matriarch, "perhaps she could give me some pointers on interacting with the press. I'm not a huge fan of speaking with reporters."
"Certainly, Mr. Potter. But also consider that a lot can be done by word-of-mouth. Simply holding a few conversations with people who could be called... " here Mrs. Malfoy paused in search of a kind label, "busy bodies... can go a long way to further your cause."
The table went quiet for a moment as the idea of Mrs. Malfoy working with Harry Potter was quite hard to picture.
Except for the Harry's few unnecessary questions, Hermione was pleased with how well the meeting was running. She was surprised at how quickly the time had flown. With only 15 minutes left, she still had to explain what Draco and Luna would be doing and discuss the next steps.
Hermione turned towards Luna with a smile, "your expertise in spell experimentation and the mastery in which you cast will come in handy both in making sure the spell is correct and when it comes time to cast it at the gala."
"Thank you, Hermione. Experimentation runs in the family, you know. My mother was quite talented before one of her experiments backfired and killed her." Luna spoke so matter of factly that the rest of the table was shocked into silence.
The conversation had to continue, despite that shocking explanation. "Right. And Mr. Malfoy and I will be working on getting the potion brewed perfectly and in large quantity in time for the gala. Now that we know each others' job descriptions, are there any questions? I know we only have a few minutes left, and I'd like to just set up the next meeting or give you all a few minutes to talk with each other before we are through."
Draco decided it was time to speak up, "did you mention when the deadline given by the Wizengamot would be? I might have missed that."
"Right! Right, so we have six months from last Tuesday to have everyone paired and married. I thought the sooner we could hold the gala and cast the spell the longer everyone would have to come to terms with the idea. It would also give everyone the chance to get to know the person they would be marrying. So, I guess we only need to work together until then. Mrs. Malfoy, how soon do you think you could pull off a function this big?"
"If you want quality, I'll need a little time. But because I'm old hat at this, I'd say with a little help, I could have the gala planned to perfection in just six weeks." Mrs. Malfoy stood up and went back over to the food. "These cupcakes look delightful. I'll just take one for the road, if I may?" She didn't wait for approval but conjured a small box to keep one of the cupcakes in for travel.
"Excellent. Well, let's shoot for six weeks from today then, so end of May." Hermione stood up as well to dismiss the meeting. "Thank you again for meeting during the lunch hour. I'm looking forward to working with all of you and greatly appreciate your help to make this successful."
The group stood up and filtered out of the room quickly, leaving Hermione alone to her thoughts. This was an interesting group, to be sure. But she hadn't been exaggerating when she said she was greatly looking forward to working with them. It would be an exciting next several weeks to be sure. Especially if Malfoy insisted on wearing that green sweater again.
A/N: So I hope that the meeting didn't bore you to tears. I mostly needed to have the characters explain their purpose. There was a little Draco/Hermione action, but not much. Like I said at the beginning- slooow burn!
I thought about including the brunch with Mrs. Malfoy and Hermione, but ultimately decided it was t crucial to the plot. I'm interested in writing t though, so I may post it as a one-shot/outtake type thing. Let me know if you'd be interested in that!
Review please!
Xoxo Court