Chapter 16
In which Daphne wondered if it was wise to put Draco in a room with a Dragon Handler.
Voldemort, or Thomas to Harriet, stared down to the two sad eyes looking at him from a pitifully wrinkled face. He frowned as he reread the Yule-slash-birthday card attached to the poor thing's basket. How in the Merlin's triple damned beard this puny, tiny, sad little thing could bring him happiness, he'd never know. Then the thing whimpered, and he panicked.
"Lucius! Severus! The Thing is crying! Where is that puppy kibble you said you're getting?!" he bellowed, reaching for the puppy and trying to calm it down as if it was a baby.
Why in the seven blazes of hell did his Lady get him a muggle puppy to begin with? What's wrong with the old-fashioned snakes in the back of Eeylops Emporium? They're great conversationalists, if a bit gossipy and like to threaten to eat just about anything in sight including their partner in conversation. They're usually fine with Speakers too, except for a small Ashwinder back then that reminded him of Severus as he kept hissing about dunderheads that kept him away from the fire.
He wouldn't even mind a Crup, if his Lady is fixed on the canines type. Maybe felines too, a Nundu would be fun to play with, or even a Kneazle. Kneazles are good. Didn't they say that every Dark Lord and Lady needed a Kneazle to help enhance their image as an evil witch or wizard? The blacker the fur the better, according to an advertisement he'd read in Knockturn Alley in his youth.
He sneezed at the thought, surprising the puppy to another round of pitiful whimpers. Then he stared in horror as the thing showered his lap in a putrid golden puddle.
"Right. You wait here for Severus and Lucius to feed you while I…hmm…composed myself."
Lucius and Severus returned from where they had set up a room for Quasimodo's (or The Thing, as Voldemort chose to call him) use. They were rather exhausted as Voldemort had ordered them to decorate the room to the puppy's preference, which earned him a blank look. Fortunately, Narcissa took pity on them and helped them to decorate the room just as the little space Harriet created for her puppy down to the color scheme of their Lady's preference.
They set the bowls of food and water in the corner, along with the pad that Narcissa said was for toilet training, whatever that meant, and sat with a sigh on the sofa, summoning glasses of firewhiskey to fortify them to the Dark Lord's next shenanigans.
"So, today is The Interview." Severus drawled morosely.
The singular interview that had gained its capital reputation was the source of many bated breaths while ignoring that the other interviewees of the day were also male and one in particular was the older brother of the interviewee in question.
Lucius sighed in resignation. "Yes, Draco and young Ms. Greengrass is performing their duty to our Lady, so we will hear from him soon, I expect."
Severus winced in sympathy. Rather than their Lady, who was completely professional as ever, Draco had spent the two days leading to The Interview preparing himself by reading anything dragon related and had badgered them nonstop about the little trivias of all kinds of dragons, almost driving them crazy. He behaved as if he was the one being interviewed instead of their Lord's bitterest rival.
"If anything, Draco would distract Charlie Weasley from paying too much attention to our Lady. Dumbledore may have a point that she's too young to be attracted to him, but she won't be too young for so long. I dreaded when she started puberty and noticed the boys." Severus commented.
Lucius nodded solemnly. "That is true. Draco and his friends have their work cut out for them. How long until that Diggory boy graduates? I'd like to avoid heart attacks and blood baths for as long as possible. If he's that bothered about Charlie Weasley, I don't want to think of his reaction to the Hogwarts' male population."
While the Dark Lord was preoccupied with his antagonistic feelings about Charlie Weasley, his Death Eaters were more concerned to the Hogwarts' Male Populations, who were much closer in age and were rather attractive in their youths that those with daughters started to groom them to do whatever it takes to redirect the attention.
At Gringotts,
Daphne and Harriet looked at each other in exasperation as Draco conducted the interview all by himself (with questions unrelated to managing a Dragon Reserve Departments whatsoever). The famous Charlie Weasley amusedly indulges the young pureblood's questions up until he almost interviews the young man to be his assistant instead.
Harriet finally decided to take control of the situation before she had to explain to Lucius Malfoy that his son had decided to drop out of Hogwarts in favor of apprenticing with Charlie Weasley. Based on the climates of reaction to the name Charlie Weasley, she could just imagine how it would go, and her cousin was a little too immature to be let into a dragon's den.
"So, mr. Weasley, you come highly recommended by the Dragon Reserves in Romania. They were reluctant to release you, though the programme that we wanted implemented in our Conservatory weighed far more in benefit for the Reserves' Directors. I've read your CV, so don't waste our time further by rehashing it, tell me of your plans instead, if you were hired as the Head of the Dragon Department of our Conservatory." she said, cutting Draco's rant of the wingspan difference of Hungarian Horntail compared to the Peruvian Vipertooth and how their venom sacks can be used in twelve different ways in potions.
Daphne's glazed eyes snapped back to clarity. She had deemed Draco's interview not important enough to be put on her Minute of Meeting. For the next half hour, Charlie presented his proposal and discussed the logistics they would need while Daphne scrawled papers after papers with the relevant points. At the end of the meeting, Harriet told Charlie that they will be contacting him with their decision. He raised an eyebrow as Draco intercepted the handshake and steered him discreetly to the door with more talks about dragons, but humored the boy and followed him anyways.
The interview with Bill Weasley went much better, in Daphne's opinion, as they reached a conclusion rather quickly, and the newly minted Head of Warder Department for the Conservatory went to start building his own team. The next one was even better, since it only took five minutes for Harriet to decide not to hire the highly condescending wizard, who loolked down on the fact that the interviewers were first year Hogwarts Students.
"My Lady," Daphne said as they packed up their things. "May I ask you a question?"
Harriet tilted her head, sparing an eye to a thoroughly exhausted looking Draco on her other side. "Sure, go ahead."
"Why are you interviewing these people by yourself? You can ask my Father, for example, or Draco's Father to do it for you. They won't look down on our Fathers, and you won't miss out on a good Department Head because of our age." she said curiously.
"Hmm…I suppose that I just want to be upfront on who they were working with. I'm not a fan of deception, for one, and even less of people who would talk nice in front of me only to trash talk behind my back. If they can't deal with their eleven years old boss in the interview, it's better to direct their ambition somewhere else. They'd work more effectively and efficiently that way. Besides, one of the main purposes of the Conservatory is education, so our main target market is children. Those kinds of people wouldn't be a good representative of our Conservatory to our visitors. For example, Charlie's patience in handling Draco meant that he has the right temperament to answer questions from any other children. Draco, as you know, was rather too much." Harriet explained.
"Anyways, I'd like for my people to adapt my policy on work ethic. Children could work as well as adults if given the chance and supported by adults. Just like my Uncle Vernon gave me a chance to do accounting for him. I think it's good for them to explore their skills early and groom them to be productive instead of being wasted on drugs and the like. Don't you agree?"
Daphne had no words to counter that. While she couldn't see Harriet's need to work since young, she could agree that Charlie and Bill Weasley made her feel important and eager to do work, rather than that last Provstony guy.
"Come on, we'll have lunch, and then you guys can go home for today. I have some family business to do here, and my Aunt and Uncle will be picking me up later." she waved them.
The holiday ended sooner than they all had liked, and soon they were back aboard the Hogwarts Express, heading back to the school.
Daphne ended up liking her work for Harriet and continued on as her secretary while Draco played the role of assistant for the rest of his Hogwarts career courtesy of his Father's worry that someone would eventually come up and usurp the Dark Lord's position as their Lady's husband.
Oblivious to all of this, Harriet continued to her own schedule, trailed by her cousin and secretary, balancing her schoolworks and projects for the later half of their first years.
On the other hand, Voldemort, Quirinus and Quasimodo are getting used to each other in Quirinus' rather cramped quarter. Quasimodo had unexpectedly claimed a part of Voldemort's previously believed to be stone heart (Granted that that was because Quasimodo was Harriet's first gift for him, and his face was the kind that was really hard to ignore). Lucius had loaned them a nanny elf for Quasimodo's care, afraid that Quirinus and the Dark Lord would eventually forget about him, but judging by how Voldemort treated the puppy as if it was his firstborn son, it was pretty unlikely that that would happen.
Soon, February came, and with Valentine's Day around the corner (and Charlie Weasley out of his mind), Voldemort started to prepare for a more romantic date than the disastrous first date. This time, he didn't disguise it as a detention since Harriet and him hadn't talked in a while. Instead, he cornered her after the last class of the day, in the corner near Severus' office.
"My Lady, it would please me and The Thing very much if you'd accompany me for a candlelight dinner on Valentine's Day." He said.
"The Thing?" Harriet asked in confusion.
"It's that puppy that you've bestowed me for Yule and Birthday Present." he drawled, petting The Thing's head fondly, earning him a lick and wildly swinging tail.
"Oh, Thomas, I didn't know that you'd get the reference!" His Lady beamed.
Well, he didn't, but that didn't prevent him from puffing his chest (back?) and taking credit while reminding himself mentally to ask Severus to research for the reference.
"So, would you?" he asked with a gentle smile.
"Sure, what time and where do you want to meet?" she answered with a brilliant smile.
"5.00 pm? We can play with The Thing and his friends before dinner. Meet me on the third-floor corridor. I will wait for you on the staircase."