Chapter 1
'For heaven's sake, Hermione! Stop being an old stick in the mud!' Lavender sighed impatiently. 'Name me one thing you have planned to do tonight that can't be put off tomorrow.'
Hermione Granger refused to meet her room-mate's accusing gaze as she gathered the wrappings from her sandwich and the empty milk carton on to the canteen tray.
'That isn't the point. You know how I feel about blind dates,' Hermione stated.
"Percy can hardly be classified as a blind date. He's Ron's brother,' Lavender argued.
Ronald Weasley was Lavender's fiancé, a likeable man, nut in Hermione's opinion, dull and unexciting. His one endearing quality was his devotion to Lavender, a love that he managed to show in a hundred different ways. Still, it was unlikely that Hermione would find his brothers company anymore stimulating that she found Ron's. He simply wasn't her type, although at twenty-three she was beginning to wonder if she had a type.
'Why don't you ask Parvati instead?' Hermione suggested, referring to the girl that operated the switchboard.
There was a derisive roundness to Lavender's sparkling brown eyes. 'Have you ever known Parvati to have a free hour on weekends? That girl has more men around her than a bunch of nude-bathing beauties,' her room- mate replied scornfully. 'She'd never have a Friday night open.'
'You simply have to go tonight,' Lavender pleaded. "Ron only found out this morning that Percy was flying in to meet me. There isn't anyone else I can get on such short notice.'
'He's coming in to meet you,' Hermione emphasized. 'Why don't the three of you just go somewhere for dinner?'
'Percy is Ron's brother, not his uncle!' Lavender declared, rising to her feet and following Hermione as she left her table.
Hermione glanced at her watch, 'Let's discuss it after work tonight,' she stalled. 'I have to get back to the office.'
'I can't wait until five o'clock,' her room-mate ignored the hallway that branched to their right, the hallway that led to the computer department where Lavender worked, and followed Hermione into the sector of the private offices of Malfoy Construction. 'Ron is picking me up after work and we're going straight to O'Hare Field to meet Percy when he gets off his plane. I have to know now.'
Hermione was backed into a corner and she knew it. Even as she held back her agreement, she knew she was going to give in to her friend's persuasions. She had no valid reason not to agree. Hermione prided herself on being practical and logical, which made her superstitious avoidance of blind dates seem childishly silly.
Simply because she had met Harry Potter on a blind date four years ago and had fallen victim to his charm only to discover there were many other victims to keep her company, there was not any reason to think she would make a fool of herself again. There had been more humiliation than hurt when she had realized she was just another girl to him. Looking back she could see how very callow he had been, but at the same time, Harry had seemed manly and strong. It had taken a truly strong and self-assured man to make her see that, though.
'Hermione, you simply have to come tonight,' Lavender insisted again in a pleading tone. 'Ron and I are counting on you.'
Her gaze studied the cocker spaniel look of the pert brunette beside her as Hermione paused at the outer office door. In so many ways, she and Lavender were such opposites. Lavender, with her dark pixie curls, was slight, petitely built, bubbling with an outgoing personality while Hermione was statuesque and full-figured, her long amber hair coiled in a practical bun on the back of her neck. Her eyes were a warm brown but without that special sparkle of Lavender's. Her attitude was as friendly as her room-mate's, but quieter and less obtrusive. It was difficult for Hermione to meet strangers on a social basis, especially men. Lavender would enter into a project with madcap abandon while Hermione would efficiently organize each step.
Instead of trying to find a way out of the blind date, Hermione knew she should be leaping at the opportunity to have a night out. Too many weekends she had spent alone lately. Still, it was difficult to force the words of agreement through her lips . She pushed open the door to her office and walked in, with Lavender on her heels.
'You can't let us down,' Lavender repeated. 'We want to----'
The rest of her sentence was lost as she caught sight of the man standing beside the open drawer of the filing cabinet. Lavender's face was immediately wreathed with a bright smile.
'Good afternoon, Mr Malfoy.'
But her cheery greeting didn't alter the rugged planes of his as he nodded curtly in Lavender's direction before his sharp blue gaze swung to Hermione. There was an aura of boundless energy and an unshakeable stamp unnerving and reassuring.
'Miss Granger, will you please tell me where in this mess I might find the Statler file?' His fingers rake the silvery blonde mane of his hair before his hand returned to his hip in a challenging position.
The criticism, completely unwarranted, raised Hermione's chin a fraction of an inch in defiance. She walked crisply to the metal cabinet where he was standing.
'Perhaps, Mr Malfoy, if you would stay out of the files, they wouldn't be in such a mess.' She replied, and began reinserting the partially removed folders. 'In the first place, the Statler file wouldn't be in this drawer since this is strictly material suppliers.'
With the drawer in reasonable order again, she closed it and pulled open the one beneath it, aware of the tall, broad-shouldered figure towering at her side. At the rear of the alphabetical index under 'S', her fingers fumbled through the folders, the smaller letters of the name tabs blurring before her eyes.
'What's the matter, Miss Granger?' Her employer's wry voice sounded above her head. 'Can't you find it either?'
'Yes, I can find it.' Hermione stiffly straightened and walked to her desk.
Her tortoiseshell glasses of amber and brown were lying beside the telephone. She had often laughed that she could see a country mile, but not an inch in front of her nose. At this moment, she didn't find her dependence on glasses for reading at all humorous.
'But I, unfortunately, can't read the name tabs without my glasses,' she stated as she slipped on the glasses and walked back to the cabinet.
In the span of a few seconds, she was handing him the folders he had requested. The aquiline features were turned towards the folder so Draco Malfoy missed her prim smile of victory.
'Some day, Miss Granger,' her employer spoke absently as he started towards his private office, 'you are going to have to draw me a set blue- print so I can find things in that metal monster of yours.'
Her lips were pressed tightly together as the door to his connecting office closed behind him. His criticism had been uttered in a moment of exasperation and had not been meant as a slight to her ability. Still, the barbs did prick.
'You amaze me sometimes, Hermione.' Lavender shook her head wryly.
'Why?' Hermione walked around the desk to her chair and slipped her bag into the bottom of her desk.
'Talking back to Mr Malfoy the way you just did. Imagine telling the boss to stay out of his own files!' she laughed. 'No wonder you two don't get along.'
'Mr Malfoy and I get along very well,' Hermione said stiffly.
'What I mean is you're hardly friendly. Everything is strictly business. For all the notice he pays you, you could be a fifty-year old grandmother. And you're just as bad. You act as if he's fifty instead of a very eligible bachelor.'
'I'm his secretary, not his mistress.'
'Well,' Lavender sighed, 'you'll never be his mistress if you keep calling him Mr Malfoy all the time.'
'That's what you called him,' Hermione pointed out.
'Yes, but look how seldom I see him. If I were his secretary, I sure would be making a play for him.'
'And probably end up losing a well-paying job. Besides,' Hermione teased, slipping her glasses off, 'what would Ron think if he knew you had eyes for the president of the company?'
'He would be jealous, wouldn't he?' Lavender giggled. 'But he knows I'm a big flirt.'
'I sometimes think that's an understatement,' Hermione smiled ruefully.
'Speaking of Ron, what about tonight?'
The corners of her mouth turned abruptly down. 'I'll go,' she agreed with a resigned nod. 'But I won't entertain Ron's brother the entire weekend. It will only be for tonight.'
'Thanks loads!' Lavender breathed. 'We're coming straight to the apartment from the airport. We ought to be there around seven-thirty, so be ready when we get there.'
'I will.'
The intercom buzzer sounded. 'Yes?' Hermione answered.
'Will you come into my office, Miss Granger?' Draco Malfoy's voice responded.
Lavender was halfway to the door to leave when she turned around to add a parting remark. 'And wear something sexy, too!'
For a split second, Hermione could only stare at the button she had pushed, holding her breath in hopes that her room-mate's words had not been picked up by the intercom speaker.
'I'll be right there, Mr Malfoy,' she murmured.
Breaking off the connection, she slipped her glasses back on and gathered her pencil and paper. At the door to his office, she paused to straighten the tweed skirt of her tailored suit, and then walked in.
The big leather chair swung around as she entered. The perusal of his gaze was very thorough as it swept over her. Hermione guessed what he was thinking, knowing how deceptive the severe hair-style and tortoiseshell glasses were. Draco Malfoy was undoubtly questioning her ability to appear sexy.
Then a shutter closed, blanking out the gleam of speculation, and his look was no longer personal but strictly business, employer to employee. With an efficiency that matched Hermione's, he went through his schedule for the afternoon, handed her the cartridges from his Dictaphone containing the morning's dictation, and added a list of telephone calls he wanted her to make.
The impersonal business level had been re-established. No reference was made to confirm or deny that he had overheard Lavender's comment. That swift appraisal of her when she had walked in the door might never have occurred.
Yet at five o'clock, Hermione stepped into the doorway of his office to make certain there was nothing else he required her before she left for the weekend. His casual remark stripped the doubt that remained.
'Are you going out this evening, Miss Granger?' Draco Malfoy inquired after assuring her there was nothing else he needed.
'It's Friday,' she replied, trying to make it sound as if it was customary for her to have a date instead of a rarity.
'Enjoy yourself.'
There was no mockery in his statement, nor any teasing barb, but she took exception to his indifferent wish. 'I generally do, Mr Malfoy. Goodnight.'
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Dinner with Percy*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Hermione readily admitted that she had had developed a crush on her boss. Draco Malfoy was a dynamic individual. Rarely had Hermione ever seen him ruffled by anything. Whatever obstacle or crisis that occurred was met calmly and solved, or removed from his path. His strength and power were only hinted at, roused only when there was a need and not in anger. Secretly, Hermione had nourished some hopes that he might look at her as a woman, but it has always been business.
After the dinner with Percy, Ron and Lavender, they decided to head for home. Only when they had risen from the table did Hermione notice the couple on the dance floor. The fragile blonde in a cloud of pink caught her eye first, being the epitome of everything dainty and feminine that Hermione had wanted to be. Then she notices the man holding her in his arms. It was Draco Malfoy, the masculine line of his mouth curved into a smile.
Her stomach turned over with a sickening suddenness.
At that moment the woman snuggled her head against his chest. Hermione watched his gaze sweep the room while he made some whispered comment to his partner. For a fraction of a second, his gaze lingered on her. She waited in breathless anticipation for his nod of recognition before his attention reverted to his partner.
Her teeth bit into her lip as she realized that he hadn't recognize her!
'For heaven's sake, Hermione! Stop being an old stick in the mud!' Lavender sighed impatiently. 'Name me one thing you have planned to do tonight that can't be put off tomorrow.'
Hermione Granger refused to meet her room-mate's accusing gaze as she gathered the wrappings from her sandwich and the empty milk carton on to the canteen tray.
'That isn't the point. You know how I feel about blind dates,' Hermione stated.
"Percy can hardly be classified as a blind date. He's Ron's brother,' Lavender argued.
Ronald Weasley was Lavender's fiancé, a likeable man, nut in Hermione's opinion, dull and unexciting. His one endearing quality was his devotion to Lavender, a love that he managed to show in a hundred different ways. Still, it was unlikely that Hermione would find his brothers company anymore stimulating that she found Ron's. He simply wasn't her type, although at twenty-three she was beginning to wonder if she had a type.
'Why don't you ask Parvati instead?' Hermione suggested, referring to the girl that operated the switchboard.
There was a derisive roundness to Lavender's sparkling brown eyes. 'Have you ever known Parvati to have a free hour on weekends? That girl has more men around her than a bunch of nude-bathing beauties,' her room- mate replied scornfully. 'She'd never have a Friday night open.'
'You simply have to go tonight,' Lavender pleaded. "Ron only found out this morning that Percy was flying in to meet me. There isn't anyone else I can get on such short notice.'
'He's coming in to meet you,' Hermione emphasized. 'Why don't the three of you just go somewhere for dinner?'
'Percy is Ron's brother, not his uncle!' Lavender declared, rising to her feet and following Hermione as she left her table.
Hermione glanced at her watch, 'Let's discuss it after work tonight,' she stalled. 'I have to get back to the office.'
'I can't wait until five o'clock,' her room-mate ignored the hallway that branched to their right, the hallway that led to the computer department where Lavender worked, and followed Hermione into the sector of the private offices of Malfoy Construction. 'Ron is picking me up after work and we're going straight to O'Hare Field to meet Percy when he gets off his plane. I have to know now.'
Hermione was backed into a corner and she knew it. Even as she held back her agreement, she knew she was going to give in to her friend's persuasions. She had no valid reason not to agree. Hermione prided herself on being practical and logical, which made her superstitious avoidance of blind dates seem childishly silly.
Simply because she had met Harry Potter on a blind date four years ago and had fallen victim to his charm only to discover there were many other victims to keep her company, there was not any reason to think she would make a fool of herself again. There had been more humiliation than hurt when she had realized she was just another girl to him. Looking back she could see how very callow he had been, but at the same time, Harry had seemed manly and strong. It had taken a truly strong and self-assured man to make her see that, though.
'Hermione, you simply have to come tonight,' Lavender insisted again in a pleading tone. 'Ron and I are counting on you.'
Her gaze studied the cocker spaniel look of the pert brunette beside her as Hermione paused at the outer office door. In so many ways, she and Lavender were such opposites. Lavender, with her dark pixie curls, was slight, petitely built, bubbling with an outgoing personality while Hermione was statuesque and full-figured, her long amber hair coiled in a practical bun on the back of her neck. Her eyes were a warm brown but without that special sparkle of Lavender's. Her attitude was as friendly as her room-mate's, but quieter and less obtrusive. It was difficult for Hermione to meet strangers on a social basis, especially men. Lavender would enter into a project with madcap abandon while Hermione would efficiently organize each step.
Instead of trying to find a way out of the blind date, Hermione knew she should be leaping at the opportunity to have a night out. Too many weekends she had spent alone lately. Still, it was difficult to force the words of agreement through her lips . She pushed open the door to her office and walked in, with Lavender on her heels.
'You can't let us down,' Lavender repeated. 'We want to----'
The rest of her sentence was lost as she caught sight of the man standing beside the open drawer of the filing cabinet. Lavender's face was immediately wreathed with a bright smile.
'Good afternoon, Mr Malfoy.'
But her cheery greeting didn't alter the rugged planes of his as he nodded curtly in Lavender's direction before his sharp blue gaze swung to Hermione. There was an aura of boundless energy and an unshakeable stamp unnerving and reassuring.
'Miss Granger, will you please tell me where in this mess I might find the Statler file?' His fingers rake the silvery blonde mane of his hair before his hand returned to his hip in a challenging position.
The criticism, completely unwarranted, raised Hermione's chin a fraction of an inch in defiance. She walked crisply to the metal cabinet where he was standing.
'Perhaps, Mr Malfoy, if you would stay out of the files, they wouldn't be in such a mess.' She replied, and began reinserting the partially removed folders. 'In the first place, the Statler file wouldn't be in this drawer since this is strictly material suppliers.'
With the drawer in reasonable order again, she closed it and pulled open the one beneath it, aware of the tall, broad-shouldered figure towering at her side. At the rear of the alphabetical index under 'S', her fingers fumbled through the folders, the smaller letters of the name tabs blurring before her eyes.
'What's the matter, Miss Granger?' Her employer's wry voice sounded above her head. 'Can't you find it either?'
'Yes, I can find it.' Hermione stiffly straightened and walked to her desk.
Her tortoiseshell glasses of amber and brown were lying beside the telephone. She had often laughed that she could see a country mile, but not an inch in front of her nose. At this moment, she didn't find her dependence on glasses for reading at all humorous.
'But I, unfortunately, can't read the name tabs without my glasses,' she stated as she slipped on the glasses and walked back to the cabinet.
In the span of a few seconds, she was handing him the folders he had requested. The aquiline features were turned towards the folder so Draco Malfoy missed her prim smile of victory.
'Some day, Miss Granger,' her employer spoke absently as he started towards his private office, 'you are going to have to draw me a set blue- print so I can find things in that metal monster of yours.'
Her lips were pressed tightly together as the door to his connecting office closed behind him. His criticism had been uttered in a moment of exasperation and had not been meant as a slight to her ability. Still, the barbs did prick.
'You amaze me sometimes, Hermione.' Lavender shook her head wryly.
'Why?' Hermione walked around the desk to her chair and slipped her bag into the bottom of her desk.
'Talking back to Mr Malfoy the way you just did. Imagine telling the boss to stay out of his own files!' she laughed. 'No wonder you two don't get along.'
'Mr Malfoy and I get along very well,' Hermione said stiffly.
'What I mean is you're hardly friendly. Everything is strictly business. For all the notice he pays you, you could be a fifty-year old grandmother. And you're just as bad. You act as if he's fifty instead of a very eligible bachelor.'
'I'm his secretary, not his mistress.'
'Well,' Lavender sighed, 'you'll never be his mistress if you keep calling him Mr Malfoy all the time.'
'That's what you called him,' Hermione pointed out.
'Yes, but look how seldom I see him. If I were his secretary, I sure would be making a play for him.'
'And probably end up losing a well-paying job. Besides,' Hermione teased, slipping her glasses off, 'what would Ron think if he knew you had eyes for the president of the company?'
'He would be jealous, wouldn't he?' Lavender giggled. 'But he knows I'm a big flirt.'
'I sometimes think that's an understatement,' Hermione smiled ruefully.
'Speaking of Ron, what about tonight?'
The corners of her mouth turned abruptly down. 'I'll go,' she agreed with a resigned nod. 'But I won't entertain Ron's brother the entire weekend. It will only be for tonight.'
'Thanks loads!' Lavender breathed. 'We're coming straight to the apartment from the airport. We ought to be there around seven-thirty, so be ready when we get there.'
'I will.'
The intercom buzzer sounded. 'Yes?' Hermione answered.
'Will you come into my office, Miss Granger?' Draco Malfoy's voice responded.
Lavender was halfway to the door to leave when she turned around to add a parting remark. 'And wear something sexy, too!'
For a split second, Hermione could only stare at the button she had pushed, holding her breath in hopes that her room-mate's words had not been picked up by the intercom speaker.
'I'll be right there, Mr Malfoy,' she murmured.
Breaking off the connection, she slipped her glasses back on and gathered her pencil and paper. At the door to his office, she paused to straighten the tweed skirt of her tailored suit, and then walked in.
The big leather chair swung around as she entered. The perusal of his gaze was very thorough as it swept over her. Hermione guessed what he was thinking, knowing how deceptive the severe hair-style and tortoiseshell glasses were. Draco Malfoy was undoubtly questioning her ability to appear sexy.
Then a shutter closed, blanking out the gleam of speculation, and his look was no longer personal but strictly business, employer to employee. With an efficiency that matched Hermione's, he went through his schedule for the afternoon, handed her the cartridges from his Dictaphone containing the morning's dictation, and added a list of telephone calls he wanted her to make.
The impersonal business level had been re-established. No reference was made to confirm or deny that he had overheard Lavender's comment. That swift appraisal of her when she had walked in the door might never have occurred.
Yet at five o'clock, Hermione stepped into the doorway of his office to make certain there was nothing else he required her before she left for the weekend. His casual remark stripped the doubt that remained.
'Are you going out this evening, Miss Granger?' Draco Malfoy inquired after assuring her there was nothing else he needed.
'It's Friday,' she replied, trying to make it sound as if it was customary for her to have a date instead of a rarity.
'Enjoy yourself.'
There was no mockery in his statement, nor any teasing barb, but she took exception to his indifferent wish. 'I generally do, Mr Malfoy. Goodnight.'
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Dinner with Percy*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Hermione readily admitted that she had had developed a crush on her boss. Draco Malfoy was a dynamic individual. Rarely had Hermione ever seen him ruffled by anything. Whatever obstacle or crisis that occurred was met calmly and solved, or removed from his path. His strength and power were only hinted at, roused only when there was a need and not in anger. Secretly, Hermione had nourished some hopes that he might look at her as a woman, but it has always been business.
After the dinner with Percy, Ron and Lavender, they decided to head for home. Only when they had risen from the table did Hermione notice the couple on the dance floor. The fragile blonde in a cloud of pink caught her eye first, being the epitome of everything dainty and feminine that Hermione had wanted to be. Then she notices the man holding her in his arms. It was Draco Malfoy, the masculine line of his mouth curved into a smile.
Her stomach turned over with a sickening suddenness.
At that moment the woman snuggled her head against his chest. Hermione watched his gaze sweep the room while he made some whispered comment to his partner. For a fraction of a second, his gaze lingered on her. She waited in breathless anticipation for his nod of recognition before his attention reverted to his partner.
Her teeth bit into her lip as she realized that he hadn't recognize her!
