Chapter two – the new boss

Hermione arrived to her job at the Daily Prophet just in time for the staff meeting where they, for the first time, would meet their new boss, the new owner of the Prophet. She sat down beside Colin Creevey who was recently hired as a photographer.

"Good morning Hermione", Colin said and smiled at her. "You arrived just in the nick of time, they say he's coming any minute now"

"Any idea who it is?" She asked, but Colin never had the time to answer because just in that very moment a blond man in Hermiones age stepped into the room. She recognized him immediately, this could not be true!

"Hi", the man said and smirked at the staff. Oh, that smirk, Hermione could just kill him for that smirk. "I'm Draco Malfoy, and I'm the new owner of the Prophet, your new boss"

Hermiones yaw dropped to the floor, of all the people on earth, why him?

"I recognize some of your faces", he said and looked at the crowd of people staring at him. His eyes stuck on Hermione, he raised an eyebrow and gave her a wink. "We're using the same old rules, and the rumours floating around about changing the name of the paper is not true"

How dare he? Giving me winks like that, in front of the entire staff, Hermione thought.

"Any questions?" Draco asked, once again with his famous smirk. Colin raised his hand.

"Yes", said Draco and looked in Colins direction.

"Rumours also said that you're going to fire people and hire new", Colin begun, but was soon interrupted by Draco.

"That might happen", Draco replied.

"So, you're going to fire people? People that you don't like perhaps?" Hermione snapped, he'd only been in the same room as her for five minutes and he already annoyed her more then he'd ever done before.

"Maybe, that depends on who the person is", he replied and smirked at her. "Any other rumours you've heard?" He asked and looked around in the room.

"I heard that you want to move the company to another town!" A witch named Brenda Miller, who was working at the sports section, said.

"Partly true", Draco said. "I wanna move the company, but not to another town", he continued.

"Why? This place has been the Daily Prophets since the very beginning", Hermione exclaimed. What was he thinking! Coming here and change everything on his first day, she thought and felt like she was going to explode out of anger.

"That's exactly why I wanna move the company, we could all use a new and fresh place to work at, instead of this 200 year-old house", he replied and once again, smirked at Hermione. She felt like ripping his head off!

"I really think you all should get back to work now, we have a paper to run, I will walk around a little today checking that everything ok… If there are anymore questions we can take them later"

Hermione hurried out from the conference room as soon as he called the meeting off. She rushed through the corridors to her office. She was so glad to have her own office! She locked the door so that he wouldn't get in, then she sat down behind her desk and just glared at the papers in front of her. She turned my chair around to look out of the windows. Sure this house was very old, but it was beautiful and it had the most beautiful view over Diagon Alley.

"Knock, knock", a voice behind her said. Hermione slowly turned the chair around again, she had my feeling of who it was, and she was absolutely right. "I didn't get a chance to talk to you after the meeting", Draco said.

"You said it yourself, we have a paper to run, I didn't have any time for you", Hermione snapped. "I think I know why you're here, to fire me! I'll pack my stuff"

"Why do you think I'll fire you?" Asked Draco and looked rather satisfied about Hermione being really annoyed of him.

"Because you said you were going to fire people you didn't like"

"Granger, believe me if I really were going to fire people I don't like you would be the first one I'd say good bye to", he replied and Hermione rolled her eyes at him. "But you are indeed one of the best journalists at this paper so firing you isn't an option"

"How do you know that I'm 'one of the best', you've only been here for 30 minutes?"

"I read the paper you know", he said and smirked at her. Once again she felt like ripping him in small, small pieces. "You and I need some sort of plan of how we can work together", he continued and dragged of his hands through his blond hair.

"At first you can learn how to knock, how did you get in by the way? I locked the door"

"That's a secret of mine", he replied. "Let's just say that I can step by when you least expect it, so you better do what you're supposed to do"

"Who do you think you are Malfoy? Coming here thinking that you can change everything that is already so perfect", she exclaimed and felt that her cheeks were getting warmer. And not only warm, they got pretty red too, they usually became red when she was really angry.

"I'm your boss Granger, whether you like it or not", he sneered. "I'm not saying that you have to become my best friend in the whole wide world, but I would appreciate if you at least could try to collaborate"

"I can always try", she replied and once again rolled her eyes at him. He responded with his oh so annoying smirk, and then with a snap of his fingers he was gone.

A day at work had never felt so long before, Hermione couldn't at all concentrate on her article about two boys who had broken into Zonkos in Hogsmeade. All she thought about was how annoying Draco and his stupid smirk were. Finally the clock turned 4 and she left the Daily Prophet to pick up her daughter at day-care. On the way out she bumped straight into a woman with long dark brown hair. She was dressed in a short jeans skirt, a red cardigan (that looked awfully expensive) and high heeled shoes.

"I'm so sorry", Hermione said and looked up at the woman.

"Oh, it's ok", she said and Hermione recognized her voice. "Do you work here?" The woman asked.

"Yes", Hermione replied.

"Awesome, I'm here to see my fiancé, do you know where I can find him?" She asked and smiled brightly at Hermione. She looked really beautiful, like a model, everything about her was just stunning.

"Who's your fiancé?" Hermione asked and smiled back at her.

"Oh stupid me, we've never met before, it's Draco", she replied. "Draco Malfoy"

It was the way the woman said 'Malfoy' that made Hermione understand who she was talking to, it was Pansy Parkinson. Dracos girlfriend since forever. Hermione had not seen her since they both graduated from Hogwarts, and that was almost six years ago, no wonder that they did not recognize each other at first. They had both changed a lot.

"Er… It's down the hall and to the left", Hermione begun but stopped explaining when she saw that Draco walked up behind Pansy.

"Hey baby", Draco whispered and hugged her from behind.

"Oh, there you are, am I too early?"

"No", he replied and turned her around and kissed her passionately. Hermione sighed, she knew he was doing that just to annoy her. She turned around and was just about to walk out of the door when Draco called her name:

"Granger!"

Slowly Hermione turned around again and faced him, she tried hard not to look too furious.

"Can you step by my office the first thing in the morning tomorrow, there's something we need to talk about", he said.

"What?"

"Just do as I say", he replied and smirked at Hermione. She turned and walked towards the door, hearing Pansy whispering about her.

"Granger? As in Hermione Granger? Mudblood Granger?"

"Yeah, that's her", Draco replied.

"And I was actually nice to her", exclaimed Pansy and sounded rather disgusted.

Hermione slammed the door behind her and started walking towards Diagon Alley where she was going to pick up Becky.