Author's note: So I'm off on vacation tomorrow so I figured I should write and post the next chapter for you all. Thank you for those who reviewed it was much appreciated. I also like seeing that people favorite the story and put it on alert so that they can continue reading it. Anywho, please enjoy this chapter; it was really fun to write!
I sit in my office and glare at the offensive thing in front of me, it is a mug, and inside the mug is coffee. I always start off my day at work with a cup of whatever tea catches me fancy, usually Earl Grey, but not today because today Milo is sick, sick on a very important day, the day that Potter comes to seal the deal on our transaction, and since my precious Milo is sick that manager, the American one, is replacing him. Exactly how it happened I forget, but I believe it had something to do with every other manager and employee being terribly busy except for him. I sneer at the coffee mug that the annoying Mr. Meyers has just placed on my desk and then up at him. He stands in front of my desk, a most superfluous smirk on his pinched face.
"Is there anything else that you will need, Mr. Malfoy?"
"Yes," I say slowly and sit back in my chair, my hands folded on my lap. "A replacement for you."
Mr. Meyer's smirk fails him, and he begins to look a little uncomfortable, good. "Excuse me, sir?"
"Mr. Meyers, I do not like coffee, I do not like it one bit. I like tea, for me, tea, is the nectar of life. What have you placed in front of me?"
"Sir," Meyers begins, I can tell that he finds my behavior a little ridiculous, but I do not care. I ask for little of my employees, only that they work hard, do my business justice, and that they always keep my stash of tea in good stock for when I grace them with my presence. "We ran out of tea."
I frown. "I have never run out of tea, Mr. Meyers, until you arrived with your bizarre notion of coffee." From the amusing look on the man's face, I can tell that he would just love to glare at me, but he cannot if he would like to keep his nice job that i sometimes forget why he has. "But since my tea has run out, you can go and buy me some more and then make me a cuppa." He opens his mouth, but I do not allow him to speak. "You have twenty minutes, now go," I say, and with such firmness. Meyers pales, nods, and then leaves my office.
Once the bothersome man has left my office I take out my wand and transfigure the mug of coffee into a vase of flowers. The result pleases me and I smile faintly. Today has the promise of being a good one, and I will not let that manager ruin my day for me. I had woken up feeling elated, a feeling I had required since Thursday when I read the Evening Prophet, and whilst taking joy in another's misery is not very nice this misery was my joy. I had spent most of Friday in bed, indulging in ridiculous and far-fetched scenarios of how today's meeting with Potter would go until Scorpius came to drag me out of bed so that we could play chess. This morning I had dressed my best, but not ostentatiously because even though potter could be thick, he was not an idiot, usually.
A knock issued and I sat up straighter. "Yes?"
The door opened and in walked Julius Nettles, who was in charge of a minor business deal that my company had entered in on with a small Swedish business, a joke shop actually, who needed some minor love potions.
"Hello Mr. Nettles," I say, and repress the disappointment in my voice. There is no need for me to have gotten so excited anyways, Potter comes at three, and it is currently only ten.
"Good morning Mr. Malfoy," he says. "May i come in?"
"Of course, please, sit down." He does so and gives the flowers an amused look.
"From a well-wisher?" he inquires politely.
"No, Mr. Meyers has once again disposed of my tea and brought me coffee, so I transfigured it into that."
Nettles chuckles lightly. "That man must want to be fired."
I laugh softly. "Maybe, so, what is it that you need?"
"Well we have finished the love potions, but now the Swedes do not want to pay the given amount, they claim that we're trying to swindle them."
"They can moan all they like, they signed the contract and if they do not pay the proper amount they will find themselves with a nasty case of boils and the flu until they do pay." The spells I place on my contracts keep those I am working for fair and honest, and if not they pay with they're health until they pay me, it's is both fair and legal.
Nettles cracks a smile. "I shall be sure to remind them of that."
"Very good. Is that all?"
"It is."
"Well then, have a nice day Mr., Nettles."
"You too, Mr. Malfoy."
Nettles gets up and then leaves.
Twenty minutes later I still sit at my desk, but now I have a hot cup of tea in front of me, and I am happy. Meyers looks like having to go out and buy and make tea for me killed him a little inside, but that just adds to my glee.
"You may go now," I dismiss.
He opens his mouth and then shuts it, he no doubt wants a thank you for his trouble, but he does not deserve it.
The rest of the morning passes with people coming to me for help and advice and me singing far too many papers than I care to admit. I really do hate coming to my office, but I was so excited about seeing Potter that I came in early, stupid decision. I could have spent my morning with my son and eating a nice big breakfast and-oh who am I kidding I would have been much to antsy if I had stayed at home, and if Potter had come earlier, which he didn't, I do not trust Meyers to tell him to wait or even owl me to come in.
Now it is two sixteen and Potter is due in forty-four minuets. I look around my office, a tab bit nervous I must admit, and decide to get rid of the vase and flowers, so i take out my wand, again, and transfigure it into a biscuit tin and am satisfied and then the thought hits me, if I have a biscuit tin then I should have biscuits, Potter might want one. I place my wand to my throat and muttered, "Sonorus."
"Mr. Meyers," my amplified voice called out. "Come to my office, immediately." My message given, I take the sonorus charm off of my voice and wait.
Thankfully, Meyers has realized that I am not to be kept waiting and arrives in two minutes.
"You called," he says a little stiffly. I wondered if I interrupted him in something important, good.
"I did," I say. "I need you to go buy me some biscuits."
He gapes at me but closes his mouth after i give him a stern stare that shows that him I am not joking. "But, sit, I am in the middle of a firecall with Hogwart's Potion's Master. She is in need of some more bezoars and I-"
"I will have the call transferred to me, I will deal with Professor Brocklehurst, in the meantime I need you to go out and buy me some biscuits, and hurry. You must be back here before three, now go."
The man gives me a rather sullen look, and I revel in it. Once he is gone I have Professor Brocklehurst's firecall transferred to me and we spend the next half-hour speaking about potions stuff.
After I finish speaking with her, with the promise that I shall send her two boxes of bezoars to Hogwarts by tomorrow, I go back to my chair and wait for Meyers, who has a little more than ten minutes left to get back here with my biscuits.
Fives minuets pass and then my office door opens and in walks Meyers with my biscuits. "Here," he says. He looks hassled and I vaguely wonder what happened to him, but I do not care enough to ask.
"Set them on my desk and then leave."
He does as he is told and once he is gone I take the biscuits from the bag they come in, put them neatly into the tin, and then throw away the bag. There, perfect.
Half an hour passes, and Potter is late. I frown at my clock and wonder what is taking him so long. Maybe he has so much to deal with because of the divorce that he forgot. I glare at the notion, he better not have forgotten because if he did well then I will...honestly I do not know what I would do if he has forgotten, but it will be bad.
Another twenty minutes go by before my door opens again, and this time it is Potter. I have the urge to stand up, but I resist and stay seated. He walks in and looks like the world is resting upon his shoulders, which once upon a time it did, but now his world is problem crashing down.
"You're late," I say curtly.
Potter does not sit and stays close to the door, but the weary look upon his face breaks a little with a smile. "I should have known that you wouldn't be one to excuse me for lateness. I have a good excuse though."
I raise an eyebrow. "Oh, and what is it?"
"My children." I frown at him but he doesn't give me any further explanation, and i do not push for any more.
"Sit down Potter, you look like you are about to collapse at any moment."
Potter laughed a little, the sound of it very off, but came and sat down nevertheless. "I imagine that I do. So, Draco, the papers are all ready for me to sign?"
"Yes," I say. I pick up the stack of papers on my desk and languidly thumb threw them to find his papers, even though I know exactly where they are. I had put them towards the end because I thought that if I put them on top would make me look to eager. "I trust that what you need has not changed."
He looks at me very confused, "What do you mean?"
I sigh; I don't think that his mind is on potions. I pull out the contract and pretend to read from it. "Eighteen cauldrons of Polyjuice Potion, each cup full strong enough for two days," I peer at him from over the papers, "correct?"
"Oh," he blushes faintly and it makes me want to know what he had been thinking. "Yeah, that sounds right."
"I would hope so," I say coolly and set the papers down. Potter yawns and then pulls one hand through that unruly black hair of his. "You also agree to it being eight thousand Galleons and four hundred and eight sickles?"
"Yeah, yeah." The way he says it makes me feel like I am being dismissed, and it is annoying.
"Listen, Potter, I know that you are probably having a really rough time right now, but focus on this transaction, OK."
Potter hand been yawning again, but stopped in mid yawn to stare at me surprised. "So you know what is going on."
"Maybe," I say, annoyed. "Please, just sign the papers."
Former Golden Boy sighs and picks up one of the quills from my desk. "Alright then Draco, I'll sign them. Honestly you're almost as bad as," but he trails off and his face crumples. I figure that he was about to compare me to that woman, and I find it very offensive. I would never cheat on him. Potter regains his composure and signs the contract. "There, happy?"
"Immensely," I say a bit sarcastically. I take the papers back and place them a top the pile on my desk.
We sit there in silence for a bit, staring at each other, expecting the other one to speak. Potter does first.
"Well?"
I blink. "Well what?"
"In your letter, you said that you wanted to discuss something I mentioned during our last meeting. What do you want to talk about?"
"Oh," I feel a bit color rising into my cheeks in slight embarrassment. I had completely forgotten about wanting to speak to Potter about arranging a play date for our sons. "Well, you said that maybe our sons could play together," I say a bit tentatively. When I had written the letter I hadn't known about his divorce, and so I am not very sure that he or his son will be up for a play date. "I know that I wasn't very partial to the idea before, but earlier this week my son mentioned wanting a friend, and I decided that it would be a very good idea for him to have you."
"You decided," Potter says, his voice implies that I am overbearing.
"Yes," I say, maintaining my dignity. "I went through the list of probable candidates-"
"You have a list, of probable candidates?"
"Oh for Merlin's sake, be quiet Potter," I snap. Merlin did he make me feel like I was fourteen again, challenging everything that I say. "It is a mental list, anyways, none of my friends have any children I would allow my son to socialize with, or they don't have children."
"You mean you would rather your son play with mine than with your Slytherin friend off-spring?" His tone is very pleased, and it bothers me.
"Yes," I admit through my teeth. A genuine smile then appears on his face and I can no longer be annoyed, he is just so handsome.
"I am honored," but his voice is mocking and it bothers me. "But, Draco, what if i don't want my son to, as you said, socialize with yours?"
I stare at him coldly. "There is nothing wrong with Scorpius and besides it was your idea." I know that I sound like a teenager, blaming him, but I can't help it.
"True." Potter then stands up, and so do I. "Alright then, Draco, when do you want our sons to play, and where?"
"Tuesday works for me," I say. "You can come over to the manor."
Potter nods, his smile still exists, though faintly. "OK. Molly will agree to watch James and Lily for me, and I'll bring Albus to you."
Excellent, I think to myself, I do not want the other two children over, especially not the girl, not yet; one day I'll get over her looks but- wait why should I. I am thinking like I am dating Potter. I shake my head to rid myself of weird thoughts.
"Something in your hair?" Potter asks.
"What?" What a weird question. Potter doesn't say anything though, but he bites his bottom lip, and then he reaches up and puts his hand through my silky hair. My eyes widen what if he doing? My breath comes out short as Potter's fingers touch my scalp, but then the takes his hand back and looks down at the floor.
"Sorry," he mutters. I don't say anything because if I do it might ruin this nice moment, though I don't want him to be sorry. "Well then, I'll see you Tuesday, then."
"OK."
"Bye, Draco."
"Goodbye." He gives me a small smile and then walks out of my office. "Harry."
End note: sorry for any mistakes, but I am in a rush and really wanted to posted this chapter before leaving for vacation. Review and you may have a cookie of your choosing. Please review.