Malfoy, the Weather Reporter

Chapter 3

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Hermione and Draco soon arrived back at the studio, to find Mr. Oxford and Mr. Matre still sitting at the Control Panel, discussing who knows what. Hermione cleared her throat and caught the two man's attention.

"Hello, Gentlemen," Hermione greeted them. "I've got Mr. Malfoy all 'dressed up' for you. Do you two have the script?"

"Wee, Miss Granger," Mr. Matre said in his French accent. He reached into a manila folder and pulled out 2 sheets of paper stapled together, handing them to Hermione.

"This," Hermione said, turning to Draco, "Is what you will be reading. I want you take a quick look over it, for, say, about...10 minutes. Memorize it."

"10 MINUTES?!"

"Yes, 10 minutes, are you deaf?"

"I can't memorize all of this in 10 minutes?!"

"5?" Hermione question, cocking her head to the side and placing her hands on her hips.

"NO! Try more like, a whole day?!"

"Wow! You're slow! I didn't know it would take you a whole day to memorize it?! Well, guess you'd better get started!"

Hermione turned to leave, when Draco called her back.

"Granger, you 'cannot' leave me here!"

"What? Scared to be in the same room with two strange men? I didn't know wittle Dwaco was ascared?"

"Granger..."

"Malfoy, I'm a women of business, and I 'do' have other things to do than help and entertain you."

"Help and entertain?! You haven't done 'any' of that since I've walked through the doors to this building!"

"Malfoy, your 'knew' your father wasn't always going to be there to back you up and help you out with every problem you had. And now, when your father isn't here anymore, you don't know how to fend for yourself in the real world."

"Please, Granger...just help me?"

Hermione thought for a moment, then sighed. "Fine," she gave in. "You have," she looked at her watch, "16 minutes before you go on the air. Take the first 12 of those minutes, and try to memorize what's on your script."

Draco nodded.

"I'll be back in, count them, 12 minutes, and I'll help you go through the rest until you've finished with your report. Then I'll give you your homework."

"Homework?!"

"Tick tock. You now have," she looked down at her watch, "15 minutes and 15 seconds left." Hermione smiled, and then turned and left the room, leaving Draco to memorize his report.

Exactly twelve minutes later, Hermione returned to the room.

"So, Draco, how are we doing?" she asked, walking towards him.

"You 'must' be just 'delightful', but 'me', on the other hand, am a mess."

"I see that!" Hermione said, smiling, but trying not to laugh. "So, got your lines down?"

"'Course not!" Draco said, glaring at her. "I've only had 12 minutes here!"

"So, how far did you get?"

"Most of it, I guess."

"Good," Hermione replied. "Follow me," and she led him to the room with chair in it that could be seen through the glass wall of the room with the Control Panel.

"Sit here," Hermione said, motioning towards the chair.

Draco, unwillingly, sat down.

"Now," Hermione continued. "See that camera floating around over there?" Hermione asked, pointing to a small floating camera by the wall closest to his left. "When you're being recorded, a little will come on. 'That's' when you start to say your report. The camera will slowly move around the room. You need to follow it, by moving around in this swivel chair," she said, indicating towards the chair. "But, by following, you are NOT to leave this spot on the carpet. Just turn side to side."

"I got it," Draco said, nodding nervously.

"Remember," Hermione finished. "Don't falter with your lines, and smile!" she said, smiling.

"How's this Granger?!" Draco replied sarcastically, giving a big grin.

"Perfect!" Hermione said, sarcastically as well. "You have," she looked down at her watch again, "1 minute and 2 seconds. Get ready."

"Granger, I don't even know all of my lines!"

"Here," Hermione said, handing him the script. "Keep them on the floor so the camera can't seem them. Only look down at them when you 'need to'. Okay?"

Draco nodded.

"Good. You have 45 seconds. Have fun!" Hermione turned around and headed out of the room, then went to stand behind Mr. Matre and Mr. Oxford, watching him from behind the glass wall.

Draco span around in the chair a few times, trying to pass the time.

"10 seconds Draco!" Hermione said, he voice coming from a speaker in the corner. "Look at the camera! Remember, they aren't going to get this room or anything else in the picture; only you! Smile! 5," she started counting down," 4...3...2...1...go!"

"G-Good aftern-noon, everybody, and t-thanks, I mean, thank you, for tuning into...um," his smile faltered as he looked down at the script. "Damn, I can't see, the words are too small," he mumbled.

"Uhhhgggg!" Hermione sighed in frustration and motioned for Mr. Oxford to go into the room.

"Out, boy!" Mr. Oxford bellowed as he stepped through the doorway and into the room.

Draco eagerly jumped out of the chair and raced through the doorway into the other room.

"You prat, Malfoy! You just ruined yourself, not to mention the Daily Prophet! Now, watch Mr. Oxford! And take notes!"

Draco glared at her before watching Mr. Oxford give the weather for the day.

"Sorry about Mr. Malfoy, everybody!" Mr. Oxford apologized to the camera, smiling gleefully. "He's new!" and then he winked. "Anyway, thanks for tuning into channel 872.3 DPN, the only place where you can get the Weather for the day as often as you can get your Daily Prophet!"

He eagerly continued giving the weather as Draco watched coldly, embarrassment seeping from his every pore. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore.

"I can't take this anymore!" he shouted angrily and stormed out of the room, Hermione following behind him.

"Where are you going?" Hermione called after him.

"Away from you and the Daily Prophet and all this shit!"

"Draco?"

Draco stopped and turned around, looking Hermione in the eye. "Leave me alone, you mudblood! I don't need you and I don't need this Community Service crap! I would rather suffer in Azkaban that have to be here for another minute!"

Hermione shook her head. "Malfoy, I can't believe you!" she said, her voice cracking.

"You can't believe 'me'? What about you?! Making fun of me and playing me for a bloody fool! Dressing my up in this ridiculous getup and purposely giving me only 12 minutes to memorize a script!"

"It was only two pages!" Hermione said, tears streaming down her cheeks. Passer-biers stopped and stood by watching.

Draco shook his head. "You tortured me, Granger. You embarrassed me in front of a good percent of the Wizarding Nation!"

"So what are you going to do?!" Hermione asked angrily, forcing herself to stop crying.

"First," Draco said, walking toward her so that their faces were barely inches away from each other, "I'm going to change. I'm not going to stand around and look like a clown any longer than I'm working here."

"After you 'change', what are you going to do?"

"Quit. I guess I'll go to Azkaban without this job, but as long as it get's me away from you and this stupid building, I'm happy."

Another tear cascaded down Hermione's cheek as Draco turned around and stormed toward the changing room to find his clothes and leave.

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A/N: Soooo, how was it?! Sorry it took me a long time to get this out. I had really bad writers block for this fic. I only got it finished because I was sick and wasn't doing anything, you know, staying home and not going anywhere, nothing on TV. 'cuz it was a weekday, pretty bored, computer sitting in front of me, I thought "You know, why not?" and I sat there for an hour trying to do this for y'all. Hope you all liked it. Again, sorry for not getting it out soon enough. Please review and thanx for reading! LondonsLegend