She Apparated to her neighborhood and walked angrily home, slamming the door when she walked in. "Why do I even care? It's Moody, Mad Eye Moody for Merlins sake!" She huffed and strode to her small bathroom to look in the mirror.
She looked at herself closely. Good skin, she thought; lightly freckled…considered cute; button nose proportionate to her heart shaped face; full pink lips – she puckered and then smiled; straight white teeth.
She turned sideways and looked at her hair. It fell down her back in chocolate waves no longer frizzy; it was thick and shiny.
She closed the door and viewed herself in the full length mirror, which was attached to the back of the door. She took off her shirt and pants and examined her thin muscular body. She had curves, but they were sculpted and her body fit. She wasn't masculine at all; toned arms and legs, flat stomach, full breasts and a feminine slope to her hips.
All in all, she was pretty happy with it, her knees were a little knobby and her toes a little long, but she was satisfied. Staring off into space for a moment, she sighed.
She waved her wand and removed the Glamour. No longer smiling, she traced the scars marking her skin.
She stiffened and turned quickly, brandishing her wand – not that she could do much with it, she was still on probation – but she thought she heard something… an intake of breath… a heartbeat…something.
She lowered the 'weapon' and turned on the shower. She would get cleaned up and take a nap before work.
"Marcus." He looked at his watch. "Back so soon?" Blaise asked not looking up from his paperwork.
"Mr. Zabini. She went to the Ministry, straight into Chief Auror Moody's office, sir."
Zabini looked up at this news and scowled, waiting for the rest of the information.
"She walked in with a… smile on her face, stayed for about an hour and left. She looked upset when she left. She slammed the doors rather hard and paraded out of there like she was being chased," he reported.
Zabini's scowl let up at this news. "Who was in the office?"
"Moody for certain, but other than that, I don't know. She went home afterwards and I was barely able to keep up. Luckily, I took a chance and Apparated to her flat, arriving before she did.
I slid inside before she slammed her door, too." Marcus was hesitant to share the rest of the information. Mr. Zabini would not take kindly to this, he knew.
"Spit it out, Marcus," Blaise snapped.
"She was mumbling something about her …attractiveness. I'm guessing Moody made some kind of negative remark about her appearance. She was looking at herself in the mirror, just her face at first… and then…" the man shifted his weight from one foot to the other nervously.
"And then?" Zabini's tense posture did not bode well.
"She took off her clothes." He paused, avoiding eye contact then hurried on, "She removed her Glamour charm, sir."
Blaise's anger at his employee seeing Hermione nude was momentarily overcome by curiosity. "Yes?"
"She has scars on her lower back – they look like claw marks, they dipped under her …umm knickers so I didn't see how extensive they were; a set of claw marks across her shoulder blade; a particular nasty looking scar, running along the side of her rib cage curved to end at her belly button; various smaller scars that look like knife wounds and a thin white scar, running down the left side of her face. It starts near her ear and runs diagonal through the hollow of her cheek, ending at her chin. She also has a thin scar on her neck, though her hair was covering, so…" He finished.
"Thank you, Marcus. You may leave and finish your patrol. She will leave for work at 5:30; I want you to be there at 4:45."
"Yes, sir," he said relieved.
Hermione made her way into the bar and smiled at her co-workers; she was still thinking about Blaise, but she hadn't seen him since he put her in the car yesterday. He did send her a note reminding her that she was in his thoughts.
She liked it, but he was now a task, not a love interest. She sighed, disappointed. Now she had to get him to trust her enough to gather evidence against him and all the while, attempting to place walls around her heart so that she didn't start to have feelings for him.
Blaise was charismatic, smart, powerful, good looking and sexy as hell – this would not be easy.
She loved Ron, no doubt about that, but she was now recognizing the fact that not only did he not feel the same and even if he did hold some element of romantic feeling for her he would never act upon them; and that they may not be suited.
She had clung to him for support for so long that she was beginning to doubt herself.
She shook her head to mentally clear it; she needed to focus. Tonight was 'their' night, the coming out. With her meetings with Severus and Lucius, they all decided that every Friday night they would advertise some kind of show and send flyers out with tickets available for purchase to said show.
Tonight was 'Lady Marmalade' – the four of them: Hermione, Jenna, Mary Ann and Justina. She was nervous, but not nearly as nervous as she was for her debut.
"Ready, Hermione?" Jenna asked. "We're on after Courtney's dance."
"Yes. You look good Jenna," Hermione said, smiling at her friend.
Justina entered the conversation, "We all do. We're going to knock their socks off."
"Just their socks?" Mary Ann asked with an evil glint in her eyes, making the other girls giggle.
DJ: Let's hear it for Candy Cane Courtney! Sweet girl, that Candy Cane. Okay, Gentlemen, our premier tonight. Please welcome Lady Danger and her game with Lady Marmalade!
They all looked incredibly sexy. Hermione was wearing a Crimson corset that came to a V over her hips and ended in a point on her lower belly; it had black fringe along the bottom. Her satin knickers were bikini cut and black. She had on black thigh high stockings with garters running down the front and back, connecting to the tops of the stockings. Her hair had been curled into ringlets and she was wearing a top hat, elbow gloves, and black knee high boots.
Jenna was wearing gold boy shorts with white trim, cream stockings, and knee high boots. She had a white bra top with gold sparkles. Her hair had been teased and she had a white feather in her hair.
Mary Ann had Glamoured her hair purple to match the deep purple corset she was wearing. Black satin boy shorts. Black thigh high stockings with a satin trim bow at the top and black knee high boots with purple satin laces.
Justina was pink, pink pink. Her clothes matched Mary Anns, but everything was pink, including her hair. She had a black feather in her hair and black satin elbow length gloves.
Where's all mah soul sistas
Lemme hear ya'll flow sistas
They walked down the stage together slowly, snapping their fingers.
He met Marmalade down IN old Moulin Rouge
Struttin her stuff on the street
She said, Hello, hey Jo, you wanna give it a go? Oh! uh huh
When the last sentence was sung, they all stopped at different points on the stage and bent over, looking behind them, shaking their arse's a bit.
More of the song went by with the girls twirling on the poles and giving the patrons one hell of a show.
yea yea uh
He come through with the money and the garter bags
I let him know we bout that cake straight up the gate uh
We independent women, some mistake us for whores
I'm sayin, why spend mine when I can spend yours
They all stopped and looked at the audience mouthing 'why spend mine when I can spend yours' and stuck their bums out to the side and slapped it.
Disagree? Well that's you and I'm sorry
Imma keep playing these cats out like Atari
Wear ideal shoes get love from the dudes
4 bad ass chicks from the Moulin Rouge
hey sistas, soul sistas, betta get that dough sistas
We drink wine with diamonds in the glass
bottle case the meaning of expensive taste
if you wanna Giuchie, Giuchie, ya ya
Mocha Chocalate-a what?
Real Lady Marmalade
One more time Cmon now
They walked off the stage and moved into the audience of slack-jawed wizards. Each found a wizard and straddled him, moving up and down seductively while the song played. At a certain point, they lifted their legs over the wizards head and turned away from him, sitting on his lap with their legs spread, straddling him the other way.
Christina...(oh Leaeaa Oh)
Pink... (Lady Marmalade)
Lil Kim...(hey Hey! uh uh uh uh...)
Mya...(Oh Oh oooo)
Rot wailer baby...(baby)
Moulin Rouge... (0h)
Misdemeanor here...
Creole Lady Marmalade
They made their way back on stage to end with one hand up and the other placed sexily on their hips; their eyes scanning the crowd. Yes- ah!
Severus and Lucius were speechless. Severus needed a drink and signaled the bartender for two fingers; Lucius downed the remainder of his.
"Best decision you've ever made, Severus," Lucius said quietly, referring to his 'hiring' her.
"Indeed," the dark man replied not forgetting why she was there in the first place.
Sitting in a dark corner of the room was a Glamoured redhead in a state shock. Hermione - his Hermione was on stage, wearing next to nothing and in the middle of dancing.
He had moment of clarity; this wasn't her. He knew her and he didn't like that she had to do this. She didn't like the spotlight. She didn't like being …ogled like this. He didn't like it either. …but she looked like she was enjoying herself. Smiling, her eyes were shimmering with excitement.
Draco and Harry were Glamoured also, but they couldn't form any coherent thoughts at the moment.
In another corner of the room, sat a dark haired Italian, watching the performance with a small amount of anxiety and a ton of pride. These men were watching and cheering on his Hermione. The other girls were nice to look at as well, but Hermione shined.
Even when the girls came down from the stage to give a mini-lap dance to some blokes, Hermione didn't let the wizard she chose touch her. He tried, but she gave him a seductive look and wagged her finger at him.
Blaise loved that she was sexy, smart, classy... He knew he could take her anywhere and she would act appropriately – he'd have to watch her temper, though; it was infamous.
She could carry on a conversation with anyone, unlike those brainless twits he dated before, and now he didn't have to worry about her pesky sense of right and wrong.
Here she was, dancing at a topless bar, after being fired and her name dragged through the mud. He thought, in yet another moment of clarity, coinciding with a certain redheads, that he could trust her, in fact, she could help him.
His thoughts were interrupted when Marcus quietly tapped him on the shoulder. "Yes?"
"She's being followed."
Marcus nodded discretely, to the other side of the room, to three wizards, staring open-mouthed at the show, wearing glamour. "Do you know who they are?" Blaise asked already having an idea of their identities.
"If I had to hazard a guess, I would say Weasley, Potter and Malfoy." Blaise nodded in agreement.
"Tell Talbot to keep an eye on them," He told the man and then waved him away.
Marcus nodded and walked away.
At the end of her shift, Hermione was still smiling; she was happy the performance went well and she felt good doing it. It wasn't normally her style – being the center of attention, but tonight wasn't too bad. The other girls were great and got as much attention as she did, they loved it, and she was happy they were happy. Truth be told, she'd loved it, too.
Severus and Lucius both left and she was the last one out. They had given her the key to the wards when she and girls stayed late to practice routines, so she 'locked up'.
She had just turned around to leave. "I saw you tonight," he said.
She recognized the voice. Expecting him to gush over her sexy performance like every other male she saw tonight, she turned and was surprised to see pain etched onto his normally jovial face.
She frowned. "What's wrong?" she reached out to touch his arm, but he pulled away.
"You aren't the same Hermione I knew… the one I …." He didn't finish the sentence.
She pulled her hand back slowly, hurt that he didn't want her to touch him. "What are you on about, Ron?"
"You! This …this… tart! The one that shakes her arse in strange men's faces, the one who wears under things in front of Merlin and everyone! You used to hate attention, now you relish it? I…. just… I don't know if…. I just don't know," he said his head bowed and his voice a sad whisper in the end.
She knew what he was saying. She understood. They'd known each other for fourteen years, had been through war together, she knew exactly what he was getting at.
She stifled a sob. "Ron, please don't do this," she whispered desperately and reached out for him again.
He saw her movement and his head shot up and his eyes locked on hers with anger. "NO!" he cried and Disapparated.
She dropped her head back to prevent the tears from falling and before she could think straight she found herself walking to Eddie's. "Hi, Eddie," she said as she down on her stool.
Eddie looked at her and sighed. He had hoped he wouldn't see her again. "Hi, Hermione," he greeted as he prepared her drink and slid it her way along with the bottle.
POP!
"Hey, where'd you go?" Draco asked when Ron Apparated in and then frowned.
Harry noticed, too, "Mate, you look like shite!"
"I had to tell her," he said.
Harry and Draco tensed. "You had to tell her what?"
Ron threw a glass into the fireplace and kicked the sofa. "I had to tell her that I couldn't if she continued."
Of course they knew what he was talking about, anyone who knew Ron for any length of time knew how to speak Ron-eeez.
Draco was first to respond. "You are such a fuckin' idiot. What do you think you're little speech did to her? IT'S A JOB, IDIOT! WE ASKED HER TO DO THIS!" he yelled.
Harry didn't trust himself to speak at the moment so he listened.
"I KNOW, BUT SHE DOESN'T HAVE TO LIKE IT!" Ron yelled back frustrated at how he was feeling. He knew it was a job, but his heart was jealous, he didn't like all those men seeing what only he should see.
Harry couldn't stop himself. "So let me get this straight; you realize you love her in fourth year, but you don't do anything about it… ever. You partner with her, but again… you do nothing about this devotion you feel for her, because of whatever nebulous reasons you can come up with in your head. You torture yourself every time she calls you, but still even after she asks you to stay for breakfast, you refuse. You agree with Moody and Kings that she would be perfect for this job, in fact, argue against Malfoy and me about it, saying she should do this and now you have the audacity to … to…. " He didn't get to finish.
Draco had regained some self control. "You do realize she's been in love with you for almost three years?"
Rons head jerked up. "What?"
Harry rolled his eyes. "Wow, Malfoy's right you ARE a fucking moron," he said.
"...idiot." Draco said correcting Harry. "He's a fucking idiot."
Harry threw the apple he was eating at Draco and laughed. Ron looked at the two happy faces and thought, I'm missing something here.
"Bye, Eddie," she said a little drunk.
"Bye, Hermione." He shook his head and wiped down the counter, she was the last customer… again.
She walked out, putting her jacket back on and stopped short. Waiting for her, leaning against his car, was Blaise Zabini. He was wearing stylish jeans and a white sweater that stretched across a muscled chest and brown shoes. He was leaning against the door with his legs crossed at the ankles and his hands clasped in front of him; he looked like the angel of death, swooping down to get her. "Blaise?"
She was still holding her tears back and hiccupped a little, it sounded like her breath hitching.
"Cara…." He opened his arms to her.
Her brain went into overdrive. She knew he was a criminal. She knew he was her job. She knew that she should beg him off until she was more under control. She knew she should be wary of the fact that he knew she was here.
She knew all of this, but found her heart bursting with appreciation at his gesture and her body acting on its own accord.
She walked into his strong, warm arms and let him pull her into the car with him.