Sorry this has taken so long and isn't very long. But I have not abandoned you \o/ Thank you for not giving up hope, and here's the next chapter.
Hermione did not fold as easily as Narcissa assumed.
Narcissa leaned her elbow on her desk, stroking her lip with her thumb thoughtfully. She watched Hermione in the outer office hastily gathering parchments and fabric samples. Over the last four weeks since Draco's birthday fiasco, her assistant had been executing her duties flawlessly in almost every regard. At first it seemed like obedience, but every time their eyes met, Narcissa caught the anger in them.
Yes, Hermione was becoming very, very good at her job―not out of pride, but out of spite.
Naturally, Narcissa returned this spite in full. Hermione's perfectionism could only do so much when limited by a lack of fashion knowledge.
A cold war began.
"First you need to attend the meeting with Vivienne at noon," Hermione informed her. "I've already drafted a plan for her team based on what you needed last time."
Narcissa took the plan and glanced over it. An accurate estimate. It crumpled slightly in her hand as her fingers clenched. She smoothed the paper before handing it back. "Tolerable," she allowed.
She listened to the rest of her daily schedule, then sent Hermione with deliberately vague instructions to procure resources for their design team. When Hermione returned later with the materials, Narcissa picked through them, relishing in her assistant's mistakes and tossing each offending item to the floor just to make her pick them up. Rather than bowing down, Hermione summoned them all with her wand, never even breaking eye contact.
Disappointing. Narcissa supposed next time she could always try dropping some expensive haute couture next time, which was always enchanted with anti-summoning charms for theft protection. No, no, too petty. She had limits.
Another day, Hermione dared to interfere in the scolding of an incompetent delivery man.
"I'm sorry," the wizard apologized, quaking in his shoes. "You said you wanted the muslin here 'yesterday.' I didn't think there was a reason everyone avoids the forest shortcut."
"And because you weren't thinking, the pixie swarm unraveled everything. Do you realize what a catastrophic loss this is?" Narcissa said, voice cutting without any need to raise it.
The delivery man looked ready to cry.
Hermione stepped into the office to hand over some samples and said comfortingly, "I'm sure you were doing your best and can learn―"
Narcissa silenced her with a death glare and plucked a quill pen from its holder. She wrote Demoted to seam-ripping duty, due to utter stupidity on a slip of parchment and charmed it to stick to the delivery man's shirt. "Leave my sight."
As he ran out, Hermione said, "That seemed a little extra."
"At least I didn't use a pushpin this time," Narcissa replied.
"This time," Hermione echoed in disbelief.
"Ermióni, fetch the perfume that smelled nice from that shop we passed yesterday."
Her assistant rolled her eyes. "Give me more to go on than that. There are hundreds of perfumes in there; you can't possibly expect me to―"
"Hasn't that irritating habit of asking questions been ironed out of you yet?"
"I didn't ask a question," Hermione retorted.
Narcissa was speechless for a full three seconds, taken aback by Hermione's sheer gall. Nobody spoke to her like this.
"Then why do you let her speak to you that way?" Andromeda drawled during dinner. As usual, both sisters did their best to sign while speaking, for Teddy's sake. "To be perfectly honest, I'm shocked you haven't fired her in a fit of pettiness yet."
Narcissa ignored her own inner voice wondering the same thing. "I am not petty," she objected.
"Mhm. Never in your life."
"I will continue to be patient and unflappable; she'll fall in line eventually."
Cloven hooves tapped quietly across the wooden floor behind them. The two witches turned around, and Teddy followed their eyes to see the goat enter the dining room. Teddy screeched and babbled excitedly.
"Why is that beast in here!" Narcissa tossed her napkin on the table and stood up.
The goat darted closer to Teddy and received enthusiastic though rather ineffective scratches behind its ears. It ducked its head under Teddy's arm to reach Narcissa's plate, testing the food with its lips before stealing a whole chunk of butternut squash.
"Shoo! Get out!" Narcissa exclaimed, waving it away while Andromeda and Teddy laughed. The goat simply scooted around to the other side of the chair. Narcissa sighed and wrapped her hand around the hideous beige collar her sister had purchased for it. "Come on, goat."
"She needs a name," Andromeda said.
"I suppose," Narcissa agreed, looking down her nose at it.
"Dragon," Teddy declared.
"You want to name the goat 'Dragon'?" Narcissa covered her eyes. "You have no idea that one nearly ate you."
Andromeda was grinning. "You must admit it's a cute name."
Narcissa turned to her. "And you seem far too unconcerned about that entire incident. Do you even care?"
"Of course I care!" Andromeda replied. "Not all of us have the energy to get worked up over something that didn't come to pass."
"If you had seen it, you would feel the same panic I do at the mere thought of that dragon. But you weren't there. The first opportunity you've ever had to attend your nephew's birthday, and you left early. How do you think Draco felt?"
"I'm sorry." Her sister shook her head. "Here, sit back down and finish your dinner. Let me take Dragon back outside." Andromeda took hold of the collar and rested an affectionate hand on the goat's back, fingers buried in the black and tan fur or hair or whatever in Salazar's name that irritating creature was covered in.
A week later, Hermione stormed in, her expression a mixture of anger and exasperation. "You are such―" She waved a list in the air. "I finished my task list last night. After 'Deliver Scroll' it said to 'Feed Dragon'!"
"Well, did you feed her?" Narcissa asked, steepling her fingers on the desk.
"Yes, no thanks to you! You should have―I don't know―specified that it's referring to a goat! I was wandering around in the yard looking for a literal dragon until Andromeda saw me out the window and took pity on me."
Narcissa covered her mouth and tried to feign a thoughtful expression. It took great strength of will to stop herself from laughing. She so enjoyed having a little fun at Hermione's expense. Just a little, because Narcissa was not petty.
A loud sneeze disturbed the peace of the office. Narcissa glared in its general direction. "Dobby?"
Pansy came into the office with slow, sheepish steps. Green smoke rose from her ears.
"No," Narcissa said. "What is this? No. Get out of here before you spread any of those Sneezing Smog-ear germs."
"Yes, Narcissa," Pansy said obediently, shuffling out of the room.
"Why people even bother coming into work when they could get me sick, I'll never know," Narcissa muttered.
Hermione replied, "It could be because they get penalized for taking sick days―"
"I don't require smart-mouthed replies to my rhetorical statements, Érmioni. In any case, since Pansy had the audacity to get sick on such an important night, you will be accompanying me to tonight's benefit to inform me of everyone's names."
Hermione's face turned a strange color. "Oh, no. But I already... I thought you weren't going."
"I changed my mind."
"Oh, no," her assistant groaned again. "When you change your mind on a whim, it makes it very hard for me to plan for you―"
"A 'whim' implies there wasn't a specific reason, which there was. Now, somewhere on Pansy's desk there should be the scroll of names and faces of everyone whom I should be able to recognize there."
Hermione found the scroll and started unrolling it as she returned to Narcissa's desk. "Merlin's beard... I have to learn all of this―by tonight?"
"This is the sort of thing at which you excel, isn't it? Memorization?" Narcissa asked, tired of all the protesting.
"Memorizing facts, not faces!" Hermione complained, shaking the heavy scroll. "And I need to tell you―"
"Tell Suitor #15 to pick me up at 7 p.m. tonight for the charity show."
Hermione cringed. "I'm sorry, Narcissa! I already rejected him."
Narcissa frowned. "Why would you do that?"
"I'm sorry! It's just, from his letter I could tell the date didn't go well, and he's obviously not right for you, and you already had me reject the last three, and as your assistant I'm supposed to anticipate your needs..."
"Not right for me?" Narcissa asked incredulously. "What kind of arrogant, presumptuous girl thinks she can make decisions about her boss's love life?" She possessed those qualities herself and admired them, really, but this particular occasion was highly inconvenient. "Am I supposed to show up single to this event? I can see the news articles already: Divorced and difficult-to-love editor-in-chief drives away yet another suitor. Will wizards give up on wooing this cold, snooty witch? Stay tuned."
"I can fix this!" Hermione said frantically. "I'll tell him it was my fault, just a misunderstanding, and you really do want to date him―"
"And make him mad when he gets rejected after all? I only need him for tonight." She wanted to rest her head in her hands, but that would show weakness. Instead, she glared. "I don't have time to acquire another suitable bachelor. If you're such an expert on my romantic interests, go select someone I can take with me tonight."
The dismissal should've been clear, but Hermione remained standing there for several more seconds. So much for anticipating needs. If Narcissa had to explicitly tell employees when she was done giving orders, it meant they weren't paying enough attention.
She sighed. "That's a―"
"I could be your date," Hermione blurted out.
Narcissa stared in shock for a full five seconds this time. She knew Hermione was audacious, but this really took the cake. A fashion icon couldn't be seen bringing a personal assistant as her date to a public event. "Have you lost your mind?" she snapped. "Select someone suitable."
Head bowed, Hermione scurried out of the office.
Narcissa rested her elbows on the desk and massaged her temples. What a ridiculous idea. The things people would say! They'd assume it was involuntary, which wouldn't reflect well on her desirability. She could even get charged with sexual harassment. If it weren't so serious, that would be laughable. She wasn't even remotely interested in the young witch. At all.
At the end of the day, Narcissa cleared her desk and headed out of the office, pausing to loom over her second assistant's desk. "Well?" she asked. "Whom have you selected?"
Hermione looked up in panic. "No one is available tonight. I'm still waiting on a few owls, long shots, but there's a chance. Or I could go around knocking on―"
Narcissa cut her off with a wave of her hand. Looking desperate was worse than any alternative. "Go downstairs and let Draco dress you. I hope you're better at memorizing names than you are at making judgment calls."