That thing I do: so I don't get sued. Anything that looks familiar ain't mine. Anything that doesn't ain't theirs. (Okay I just really like to use ain't… sue me... wait no. please don't! I was kidding!!!)
Chapter 2 – In Which A Hag is Mentioned
'Merlin maybe you don't hate me after all'. Hermione continued to observe Draco as she quickly paid for her drink and gathered her things together. As she stood just in front of the café, surreptitiously examining him under the secrecy of her sunglasses she pondered her next move.
'That is him all right. Who could forget the face of a handsome devil like Malfoy? If only he wasn't such an loathsome prat.'
Draco seemed to be approaching his destination, and Hermione had to make a decision as to what her next move would be. Draco had somehow managed to escape the war unscathed; no one knew if he had actually participated, so he was allowed to go, much to the anger of several members of the Order of the Phoenix. His father was safely locked away in Azkaban and everyone agreed if they were only going to get one Malfoy, Lucius was the one they wanted.
There was a chance that Draco was the crucial link to this current death spree. There was also a chance that he didn't know anything about the new Death Eater activity.
'There is also a chance that he is a tutu-wearing ferret drag queen in his free time, but I think I should follow him anyway.' All Hermione needed now was a chance to observe him on a more frequent basis. Maybe if she could find out where he worked, or—'ooo! Merlin I owe you a new pair of bowling shoes mate.'
Hermione nonchalantly followed Draco into the realtors he had just walked into: it was The Gilded Compass, which had apparently been 'Pointing Witches and Wizards to Homes and Hovels Since 1653.' This was going to be tricky. Malfoy could be doing a whole host of different things in the realtor office.
'I'll just have to keep on my toes. If all else fails, I'll just pull an Uric the Oddball. Spoonful of crazy makes the medicine go down, and allows the witch in a sticky situation to get away.' With a calm expression, Hermione followed Draco in to the office.
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Draco opened the door and strolled into the Compass office with all the intensity and finesse of a panther stalking prey. The loud "Mr. Malfoy!" which greeted him and rendered him temporarily deaf, distracted him from noticing the door had opened again shortly after he entered the room. Once his eyes had acclimated to the dark interior of the room, his gaze was forced upon a sight that left him momentarily dumb and praying for blindness to save him from having to look at the foul creature before him.
The hag that had addressed him from behind the desk was Madam TwoWarts, but Draco reasoned she had miscounted by at least half a dozen. With an inner groan, Draco prepared to get this done and over with before her habitual flirting with him made him lose his will to live. While the hag was ugly as the bad end of a Blast-Ended Skrewt and as annoying as prissy Potter, she was a shrewd businesswoman and knew how to turn a profit for both herself and the landlords she dealt with.
"What can I do for you today Mr. Malfoy?" simpered TwoWarts, which only succeeded in making her look worse and Draco turn green around the edges.
"I have had an apartment open up in my building." Pansy had finally figured out that Draco had absolutely no intentions of marrying her or even sleeping with her, and in a huff, had moved back to London. She had been gone all of ten minutes before Draco left to alert Madam TwoWarts of the available rooms.
"Well do give me the information, I can't sell it simply based on that."
"Yes, yes," he drawled with barely contained annoyance, 'I'd turn her into a bat except I think it would actually improve her appearance. Of course, I could always turn her into Pansy.' He sighed, 'Even I am not that cruel.'
"It has one bedroom and one bath, a sitting room, however the kitchen is---"
"Excuse me?" said a voice behind him.
Draco turned and glared at the young woman that stood about three feet behind him.
"I couldn't help but hear that you have an apartment to let, and well it sounds like what I need."
Draco simply continued to appraise the woman without responding to her. She was a nice looking girl of about 5'5" with short black hair and ivory skin. She was dressed casually (Draco couldn't understand why the American magical culture preferred muggle clothing to robes but c'est la vie) in jeans and a t-shirt with blue Chucks, her sunglasses pushed up in her short pixie hair cut. If it hadn't been obvious to him that her clothes were of expensive quality, he would have simply ignored her. As it were, she did seem to have the kind of money that one needed to live in one of Draco's buildings, so he took a step closer to her, forcing her to look up to him.
From this distance he could see that she had eyes the most peculiar shade of indigo. Draco continued to stare down at the girl imperiously, and she simply gazed back with a small smile on her face, unperturbed by the daggers coming from the gray eyes almost six inches above her own.
"I suppose you would like to see it," he sneered.
"Ooo, that would be lovely!" She replied, pointedly ignoring his rudeness.
'She's either very brave or very dumb. Hmph, six of one, half a dozen of the other, really. Well business is business, and the sooner I have someone paying rent the sooner I'm making more money.'
"Well TwoWarts it seems I don't have business with you today," and with that strolled impatiently from the building before the hag could open her mouth.
Once outside Draco turned to the woman beside him, who was now smiling from behind a pair of fashionable sunglasses, and extended a hand to her.
"We will be traveling by Portkey, if that is agreeable to you Miss…" The slight upward journey of one perfectly arched blond eyebrow was the only hint that this is where Hermione was supposed to provide her name.
"Please," she responded, "call me Herms."
Upon answering, she placed her hand in his, and they vanished in the blink of an eye.
AN: Weeeee! Chapter two is done!! Though to be honest I don't particularly care for it so it may be gutted, let me know what you like so I can keep it in if I do. I currently don't have a beta so if you notice any mistakes please let me know and I'll fix them, and also if you want to beta (please!) leave a review with your email or aim screenname and we'll chat. I know the story is really slow right now but hopefully it will start picking up, just bare with me as I get the hang of this storytelling gig. Or tell me how to improve!
I also seem to have a problem getting my html to stick. Any advice? I may just stop using it all together. :::shrug:::
