Disclaimer: I own Steven Morris, Ms. Mueller, Andrew and Ellen Baldric, everything and everyone else you recognize belongs to J. K. Rowling.
Summary: Hermione now has to face the world ahead. To do so, she has to live a whole new life, which means she has to leave the memories that she cherished dearly, behind, along with the love of her life. But secretly, fate is revealing the hidden past, which ties the two unexpected people together…will she be able to accept the truth and confront her destiny?
Author's Note: Sorry that it took so long to update, but it's almost May! After May, I shall be free! Not really, but yeah. Thank you Jayne! You are the best beta! And Aranel, the "Brit-picker" + beta, who's just equally wonderful. :)
Chapter 3 – Surprise!
Never fear shadows…that always mean there is a light shining somewhere…-- Jonathan Santos
"Morris! You wouldn't happen to have any idea about the flowers and coffee in my office, would you?!" The words were barely forced out between Malfoy's tightly clenched teeth. It was obvious that he was trying very hard to keep himself from biting the red head in front of him off its body.
"Well…um…" For the first time, Steven Morris seemed to be having trouble finding the right words. Morris was not dense, no, he was far from it. But this was his first time seeing the blond lose his temper. Draco Malfoy had always been able to keep his emotions in control for the five years they had known each other; but now, his face, if possible, seemed even paler than usual. What's going on? Did I miss something? I thought I told her nothing weird is allowed -- but what does he have against flowers and coffee? This certainly is bizarre, and I'd better be careful.
"Well? So tell me, what's going on here." The color in his face was slowly returning.
"Actually, I was going to tell you anyway, but too bad you had to be late again." Seeing no difference on Malfoy's face, Morris continued nervously. "To cut a long story short, a young lady came for an interview a couple of weeks ago, and apparently, she has an MBA, and is perfect for the position as a secretary. So, now she is yours!" he finished with a small smile.
"What do you mean she's mine?"
"What I mean is that she is now your secretary."
"Without my knowledge?"
"You know now."
"How come I heard nothing of the interview? And when have I ever told you that I needed a secretary? Are you suggesting that I am not doing well enough?" his words shot out like bullets, aimed at Morris.
"No, all I'm saying is, you seemed like you could use a little help, an—"
"What do you mean I could 'use a little help'? Do you want me to remind you of why you had to fire all the single women and homosexual young men in this company? Why, when you had to choose between ridding one fourth of the company or me, you kept me? And mind you, someone with an MBA should be my boss, not my secretary!" Draco's face was now turning slightly pink.
"It's not my fault that you're so goddamn attractive that everyone was distracted from their work! And, damn it, you know very well I could not afford firing you! By the way, the Miss is willing to work for you."
"Oh, so you are indicating that it's all my bloody fault that I'm so appealing to them! How abou--"
"STOP!" someone yelled at top of her lungs.
Both men turned, and found themselves facing a young lady.
"Um, Miss Baldric," Morris started, obviously embarrassed. "Let me introduce you to…"
"Ellen? What are you doing here?!" Draco's eyes widened, anger disappeared from his face, and was instantly replaced by surprise and confusion.
"Ah! So you already know each other!" Steven called out in relief.
"Hullo Draco!" Ellen walked over to Draco with a cheerful smile, while giving an assuring nod in the direction where Steven stood.
Putting his arms around her small frame lightly as Ellen reached up to hug him, Draco whispered into her ear, "Care to explain?"
Seeing this opportunity, Steven quietly left the scene.
Ellen took Draco's arm, and walked him to his office. "Well, you know that my brother and I are orphans, I just finished school, and he was fired just a couple of days ago," her voice was low and touching, her eyes sparkling with tears. "Now we can't even support ourselves, so I came for the interview, hoping it would change our situation."
"I'm not buying it." Draco's face showed no emotion change.
"I gave it a shot." Ellen threw it at him casually, her facial expression turned back to usual.
"So how come you never told me about the interview? And Andrew never said a word about it either."
"Oh, I told him not to. I mean, if I got in, I wanted to give you a surprise; if I didn't, I wouldn't want you to hear a word, because it would've been embarrassing." Ellen explained with a grin on her face.
"So, um, you put the flowers and coffee here?"
"Why yes. Do you not like them?" The smile on her face grew wider. But Draco seemed to be lost in his own little world.
"Draco?" she waved a hand in front of his eyes.
"Huh? Oh! Um, no, of course I do." He smiled lightly. "The flowers are beautiful, and I am in need of some coffee."
"Thought so, and narcissuses are my favorite flower!"
There was no reply.
"Actually," Ellen checked her watch, "it's lunch time already. So you wanna go and grab something?"
"No, no, you go ahead," Draco replied, something else was clearly on his mind, "I'm not hungry. I'll just stay here and try to catch up with some work."
"All right then. You sure you don't want anything?" her eyebrows lifted questioningly.
"Yes, I'm sure." Beaming at her, he added, "Enjoy!"
Leaving a smile behind, she didn't forget to thank him.
Finally, he was alone in his office. Sitting in the chair beside the huge window, he stared at the narcissuses Ellen had put on his desk. Slowly, his mind drifted away…
"Mother!"
"I understand, son…" her voice trailing off, "I don't even want to imagine how disappointed your father would be when he finds out about this."
"I am sorry, Mother, and please tell Father that." His words were sincere. "I am not worthy of being your son."
"Don't," she choked, "don't say that. Your father and I have been very proud of you. You did the Malfoy name proud." She swallowed the tears, and kept her head high as she forced a smile on her face.
"Mother…I…"
She turned her back to him, "Leave, now! Before it's too late!"
"Yes…" He turned his heels. Softly, he thought he heard her saying, "…and don't forget…"
"I won't, Mother," he said to himself. Without looking back one last time, he left the world, where he used to belong, completely behind.
"And I didn't forget, Mother." Draco said gently to the flowers. They nodded slightly, as if they understood him. He reached to his neck, and pulled out a locket hiding behind the sweater. Letting it rest in his palm, he used his finger tip to trace the outline. A drop of blood dribbled onto the silver heart when his finger met a sharp thorn on the bottle-green vine that enwound the locket. The thorn stayed still, as if laughing at him. It hurts, doesn't it? Yes, his heart was aching from the touch of the old wound. He watched, as more blood dripped from his finger, and he knew his heart was also bleeding.
"Why him?"
"Don't you think he is special, in many ways? He is definitely not a simple character."
"But he's not the only one, is he?"
"There is a special aura about him that the other suspects don't have. I've known him for almost five years now, but surprisingly, I know for a fact that there's more to him than what he's allowing us to see."
"So you think he might be 'The One'?"
"Possibly."
"OK, I'll do it."
"You have your own reasons too, don't you?"
"What?"
"We both know what I'm talking about."
Pause.
"There's always the Love Potion, you know."
"Brother! You know I don't want it to be forced…"
"Yeah, it's your call." Another pause. "But you understand that we cannot allow a muggle…"
"Yes…but--"
"I've tried for four years to force some magic out of him. And trust me, I have enough evidences to prove that he's not."
"Oh…"
"So you understand that I have to do this either way."
"Yes."
"No regret?"
Silence.
"No regret."
Knock knock.
His head jerked up.
"Come in."
A red head peeked in from the small gap the door made with long strands of dark red hair falling into a young girl's face. A wide grin on her face, she walked in with her hands behind her back.
"I see you are done eating," Draco said, his face responding to her grin with a smile.
"Mm hmm, I had Italian with Andy."
"Oh. Haven't seen him for a while, how is he?"
"Pretty good. He says hi, and wanted me to give you this—" She took her hands from behind, and set a brown pint on the desk.
His eyes brightened up a little, "Haagen-Dazs. He knows me the best."
"Yep. And he said coffee's your favorite flavor."
"Right he is." He said cheerfully, not breaking eye contact with the cup containing his favorite ice cream.
"Oh, and he said he'd call sometime today."
"It's about time he should call me," he finally lifted his eyes to meet Ellen's, "or I would've thought he threw me out of his head along with the Beetles."
"He never liked them."
"Mm hmm." His face said 'whatever'.
"Ugh."
"Time to work, my lady."
She blushed a little, unnoticed by Draco.
"Hmm…uh, what exactly do you do, Ellen?"
"Let's see." She picked up a piece of paper, and started reading off the list. "Answering phone calls, making photocopies, delivering messages and mail, organizing the agenda, keeping necessary supplies coming, maintaining contact between you and Steve, kicking admirers out…"
"Ok, um, great," he cut in. "Does the last one mean you need to keep yourself out too?"
Blushing furiously, she protested, "That. Was. Not. Funny."
He only smirked. "So, you have my schedule?"
"Today's? Tomorrow's?"
"Both."
"Basically, you are preparing for the meeting tomorrow morning with the Nike representatives, and you should have your new design ready for it." She said, her eyes not leaving the agenda.
"That's it?"
"Yup."
"So I'd be free for the rest of tomorrow?"
"If you get the conference down, which means you have to make sure that they agree to adopt your design." She added.
"What time does it start?"
Ellen read off the paper, "Ten thirty."
"In the morning?"
"They certainly don't work at night."
His face stated that he was not pleased with the news. "Great…" he groaned.
"Yeah, well, think of how, um, free you'll be once you are done." She added, hoping it would light him up a bit.
It didn't seem to help, "Sure."
"Well, get to work, prince. You have a boss, you know." Changing the topic might help, she thought.
"I don't have anything to work on."
"The design for tomorrow?"
"Done." He seemed very confident.
"Oh…"
"Maybe I should go bother Morris." His face showed the boredom that he was feeling as he crossed his arms.
"Mm hmm." She didn't mind particularly.
"Can I go home?"
"I won't tell." She said casually without lifting her eyes from the paper on her desk.
"Thank you! You are the best."
"Yeah…" a shade of pink was slowly crawling up Ellen's cheeks.
"See you tomorrow!" With that, Draco walked out with the ice cream in hand.
"Come on, Malfoy, pick up the phone."
"Hello Baldric."
"What took you so long? I just called Ellen, she said you headed home an hour ago, and you just got home?"
"I walked."
"What do you mean?"
"What I mean is, I came home on my own feet."
"Wha-why?"
"One needs some exercise everyday."
"Six miles…okay, so how've you been?" His voice suddenly sounded cheerful.
"Funny you should ask, I am doing just fine, even without you asking."
"Sorry, been busy." The other side stated apologetically.
"Oh yeah? And too busy to mention a word about Ellen's job?"
"She told me not to tell."
"Would you kindly explain it now?"
"Well, OK, so she's on a mission…"
"Oh come on, you'll need to come up with something better to pass me."
"I tried."
"By the way, thanks for the ice cream."
"Actually, it's from Ellen."
"Seems like she's more of my sister than she is yours." A grin was forming on Draco's face.
"You have no idea."
A/N: Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed! Konstantine: Thanks! Dreaming One: Thank you so much for another wonderful review :). Dierdre Puney: Thank you. firefly: Thank you for all your help, never got to say that before. One of Grace: Glad you liked it, especially the descriptions – I like them too. Leika Senara: yeah…it's pretty confusing now, but things will clear up gradually. And surely I will write more, hehe.
Baldric, derived from the Germanic elements bald "bold, brave" and ric "power, rule". The Normans introduced this name to Britain.
Sorry that this chapter's boring and confusing, but I promise everything in this chapter, well mostly everything, will be explained in chapter 7. I have most of my chapters planned out, just need time to write them out. Have I mentioned that I love reviews? Hehehe, now please reviews :).