Draco Malfoy had arrived early at work - five in the morning, to be precise. So, it was with some suprrise that he noted Hermione Granger already in her office, spinning around in her chair. She tilted her head up at him and said coldly, "I hope you enjoyed the weekend's social gatherings. I'm afraid you won't have much time for them this week."
"Cancel all dates - work coming through like a freight train?" Draco Malfoy ventured cautiously.
"You catch my meaning precisely. Thank you Mikey." Hermione Granger smiled, and laid a rather heavy stack of paper on the desk in front of him. "These need to be sorted by priority. Have them done by lunchtime, Mikey."
Draco Malfoy fought down the natural urge to bristle, and the equally natural urge to shout "who the fuck is Mikey?" - Draco hated to be left out of things, and to be left out of a joke was especially pathetic. Slowly, he suppressed a smirk, and said, "Yes, your majesty." As he turned away,his back was rewarded with a fiery glare (and a huff which he heard).
He set the papers gently on his table, and headed towards the balcony. As expected, there were quite a few owls waiting. Fishing out a neat packet of owl treats, he set to gathering letters, and swiftly stuck them under the pile of "assignments" that Granger had given him.
Ha! He'd show her.
Lunchtime saw a deliverygirl show up with takeaway, as Draco Malfoy kindly (if coldly) thanked her for her time - his slate-grey eyes never rising from the work he was doing. The runes were a complex craft, and he wasn't about to divide his attention.
The scent of cumin brought Hermione Granger out of her office. Sniffing, she asked, "What's on the menu?"
"I honestly have no idea. I just ordered the Mexican Special. Tasty though." Draco said, looking up with a half-moustache of tomato sauce on his face from the enchilada he was eating.
Hermione came over and said with a smile, "Why, that looks like enchiladas..."
"Surely it's not vermin!" Draco said, paling slightly and inspecting the food with a far more skeptical eye.
"No, not chinchillas, enchiladas" Hermione said, her slow enunciation of the last word very reminiscent of her eleven year old self.
"Arrogant lass," Draco Malfoy spat, as he took another bite, looking less upset.
Hermione, in the meantime, had come to stand at his shoulder, looking over the pile of work that she had given to him - and noticing two things. First, that the pile of work had dwindled by a third (he was supposed to be completing the paperwork, not destroying it!). Second, that he was certainly not working on paperwork now. Were those - runes? With a puzzled look on her face, Hermione Granger asked, "Draco Malfoy, what are you working on?"
Draco Malfoy looked up at her with a frown, before hastily covering the page. Luckily, there was no fresh ink on there, so it wouldn't smear. "I can't tell you that. Nondisclosure Agreement."
Hermione Granger's eyes turned into a glare, and she demanded, "Why has a full third of your paperwork disappeared?"
"Clear your schedule for tommorrow, Granger. I've got you listed for fifteen appointments." Malfoy passed her a neatly scrawled page, before tapping his quill against his mouth in thought. On the fresh page that he had used to cover the other page, he began drawing runes in a weird sort of pattern.
Hermione Granger nearly had to bite her lip in frustration. She wanted to know about what he was working on, blast his bloody hide! Yet, he clearly wasn't going to tell her - not that she believed in the slightest that he wasn't allowed to. Slytherins were always breaking rules, weren't they just?
Grumpily, she glanced down at the paper, and froze. These were... fifteen... parents of werechildren. Hermione Granger had spent months trying to get them to even so much as talk to her. Somehow, in the past week, Malfoy had managed to get them to agree. Hermione had been hoping for eight, maybe ten! Fifteen! Hermione's eyes had gone wide at the sight. "What, exactly, did you have to do to get these, Malfoy?" Her voice was excited, quiet, and demanding all at once.
"Used your name." Draco Malfoy said, looking up (now with some of that enchilada sauce dripping down his cheek). "Did you really think any of them would open a letter from the Assistant Undersecretary for the Ministry's Department of Control of Magical Creatures?" Draco shook his head wryly.
"That was all?" Hermione Granger said, stunned.
Draco looked up, and with one tomato spattered hand, pointed to several names on the list. "These are the ones that I need to show up with you. Apparently some of them recognized my hand." Finally grabbing a napkin from the takeaway bag, Draco cleaned his face and hands, before looking at Hermione, "Other than those, I can cover for you at whatever meetings you absolutely can't miss."
Hermione opened her mouth, undoubtedly to insist that all her meetings were essential, when Draco waved his finger in front of her nose. "Uh-uh. You go to five times the number of meetings that most people do, and Frankie attends every meeting imaginable (of course, he's doing a third of your workload)." Draco paused for a moment, lacing his hands together and leaning back in his chair. Tilting his head up to look at Hermione (who was still standing behind him), "Do you want my notes, or Frankie's?"
"Frankie's. He knows more about the history of most of the projects." Hermione Granger said, the last part tumbling out of her mouth - and she found herself strangely relieved that Draco hadn't taken offense.
"I'll schedule a meeting to corner Frankie on Wednesday, then." Draco Malfoy said, "Now if you'll excuse me, I still have fifteen minutes on my break."
Hermione Granger stalked off, her mouth thinned to a line, promising herself that she would figure out what Draco Malfoy was up to.
[a/n: These two drive each other up the wall. Isn't terribly intentional, either.
Leave me a review, if you please.]