Wake Me When December Ends.
Hermione was happy with Draco, they were friends, very close friends. He was in all her classes, and Hermione saw non of Ron and Harry at all. They were dating the Patil twins, and were always together. It was like they were wiped from her life. Not that it bothered her any. October shot past them, so that on the thirteenth of November the grounds were coated in a thick blanket of snow.
Hermione and Draco both had appointments in London on the 25th, only one was in the morning, one was in the afternoon. So they had both been given permission to leave school on that weekend to spend it in London sorting out their affairs. So when the 24th crawled up on them, they had to decide where they were going to stay. They packed their stuff, and decided on one house a day. They told Dumbledore that they would be gone for the remainder of the month and the latter of the next, and he smiled to them sorrowfully.
"I am truly sorry to hear about both of your circumstances, so I have informed your teachers that you would be doing a 'real life' course during the time you are away. See me the moment you return. I hope all goes well for both of you." he said, his eyes twinkling with his mysterious air of secrecy. They took a carriage down to Hogsmede, and apperated to the London apparition center. They went to Draco's grandmothers house first, and he gave her the tour of the twelve bedroom house.
"My grandmother had a lot of children, all who died in the war against Voldemort. So my dad was the only one left, till now that is. So this is all mine, along with her vacation spots. I did love Italy. We can stay here tonight, and I will have this place cleaned up tomorrow while we are away. Im sure I could find you a comfortable place to sleep." he explained. Hermione sat down on the fat comfy couch in the living room, and was surprised to see a lot of Muggle objects. There was a tv, a stereo, a VCR, and a DVD player. He put on his favorite cd, and took her hand. Chris Cagle's voice rang through the room.
Miss me baby
When you hear our favorite song,
Miss me baby
And when you start to sing along
Think about all the times that we danced
In light to it all night long, oh
Then miss me baby.
You want me honey,
Like you did the night you told me that you loved me
We couldn't wait anymore.
Left the keys in the door, took my hand
Pulled me down on the kitchen floor.
We were that crazy
Miss me baby.
'Cause when he's holding you,
Know that it's killing me,
Let my memory be the reason girl
That you can't sleep
And everytime you feel his touch,
I pray to God it's not enough
That I touched your heart so deep
Girl, you can't shake me
'Cause I love you,
Yes, I need you,
Miss me baby.
Miss me baby,
Until you can't take it no more
Miss me baby
Pack your bags and hit the door
I'm a man, I was wrong, forgive me
Come back home
I'll be waiting
Right here waiting
Miss me baby.
'Cause when he's holding you,
Know that it's killing me,
Let my memory be the reason girl
That you can't sleep
And everytime you feel his touch,
I pray to God it's not enough
And that I touched your heart so deep
Girl, you can't shake me
'Cause I love you,
Yes, I love you, oh
Miss me baby.
And everytime you feel his touch,
I pray to God it's not enough
And that I touched your heart so deep
Girl, you can't shake me
'Cause I love you,
Yes, I need you, oh
Miss me baby.
She clung to him a bit closer. She felt the warmth of his arms on hers, and his hands on her back. Her head was on his shoulder by the end of the song. She was so in love with him, but she could not let him know that. Not yet. They ate dinner, took a walk around the garden, watched the sun go down, and sat up till 2:30 in the morning talking, both sitting in Draco's king sized bed, talking about her life and getting to know each other again.
They finally fell asleep in their places, and woke up at 9:00 that morning. Draco made her breakfast in bed before jumping in the shower. She woke to see breakfast beside her. He had made her french toast, heart shaped, with bacon and eggs and cubes of cantaloupe. Her favorite breakfast foods. She drank her banana smoothie to wash down her food, and got up. She was in the kitchen cooking, wearing his t-shirt, and was making him breakfast. He walked in to see her standing in the suns morning glow, looking like the most beautiful woman alive.
His breakfast was sitting on the table. Bacon, eggs, sausages, chocolate-chip pancakes and a tall glass of milk. He was surprised, and ate it all, while she ran to take her shower. He had is appointment in an hour and fifteen minutes. He was not fazed, but she was very punctual. She was dressed in a black suit jacket, with a black mid-thigh skirt, with a dusty rose shirt under it. She had a black purse, and looked like a goddess.
Her hair was a deep brown colour, and her lips were soft pink. She looked angelic. He was dressed in a black Armani suit, with black Italian leather shoes, and his hair hung neatly around his face. He grabbed his briefcase off the table, and his keys off the hook. Hermione noticed their were a rather large amount of car keys, and she soon noticed why. She knew his parents would not have used a car, but his Gran sure did. She had Mercedes, BMW's, she had a Lexus, a few modern looking SUV's and some plain little town cars.
They got into the Lexus, after she made a decision between the Corvette or the Mercedes. They drove to London, and parked in the bank park lot. They both walked in, and the bankers secretary ushered them both in.
"Mr and Mrs Malfoy are here, Mr Potafor." she said in a high, perky voice.
"Actually, this is Mrs Granger, she has a meeting with you after lunch." said Draco professionally.
"Oh, yes, Mrs Granger, so sorry to hear about your parents. We could squeeze you in after Mr Malfoy if you would like?" he said, stretching his hand out to shake hers. Hermione nodded, and took a seat. Draco sat beside her, and said in a business like voice: "Shall we get down to business then?"
Mr Potafor excused his secretary, and shuffled his papers. He opened up a very fat file folder, and searched through it. "Now, Mr Malfoy. Your Grandmother was a very rich person, after the death of your biological parents, she received a sum of four houses, and three accounts. That is approximately 3.9 million dollars.
She put them into a trust for you where they were held for you, so if she were to die, before her time, you had something. But she knew, she came in a week before her death and gave me the will where she named you as the only owner for her eleven houses and all of their belongings. you have added a substantial amount of money to your account, a sum of 35 billion dollars has been added, giving you a total now of eleven houses, thirty two cars, and 38.9 billion dollars. So if you will just sign here, they will be all yours."
He said, handing Draco a property contract. Draco read it over twice, then signed the bottom of the page. Then Mr Potafor brought out another file folder. This one was fatter then the last, which had been rather large. He rummaged through the papers. He pulled one to the top and cleared his throat. "Now, Mrs Granger. This is rather extensive. It seems your parents were rather wealthy indeed. In the letter I sent you I mention the first thirteen houses.
They had many more establishments, which were all left to you. They had a cottage in Australia, a mansion in southern France, a villa in Spain, a bungalow in Holland, a ranch in Texas, a hut in Hawaii, a house in the Alps, a mansion in Italy, a apartment in Tokyo, a villa in Greece, a mansion in southern Britain, a castle in New Zealand, a farm in Canada,
but they also had eleven other houses. They had a house in Germany, a ranch in Mexico, a house in Peru, a villa in Cancun, mansion in Rome, castle in Sweden, a house in Philippines, a mansion in the Caribbean, a villa in Sicily, a bungalow in Brazil, and a castle in Ireland. Plus twenty cars kept in storage in the Philippines.
They have had 20 different accounts where their fortune was divided between. So when we contacted them, and added the figures together..." he said grabbing a second sheet of paper, "you have a total of 83.9 billion dollars, in the foreign accounts.
You now have 263.8 billion dollars in your total account. We have also got the figures from the chain of dentists offices they had,-" Hermione cut him off.
"What do you mean chain? They only had the one. I worked there during the summer." she said.
"No, I'm sorry, but they had offices all over Britain. A total of 24 offices to be exact. The business has a bank account also. They had 8.5 million dollars in the business account, plus their overseas clinic, which had 4.7 million. Making it a total of 277.8 million dollars in your personal account.
You can sell the company, if you would like, its net worth is 8.2 billion dollars, so you could make that much if you sold it to the bank, or you could sell each for a total of 1 billion each and keep some. I'll give you a minute to think it over." he said as he got up and left the room.
She was in serious shock, and was highly confused. How could her parents lie to her about such a thing? She did not know what she was going to do. So she asked Draco.
"What do I do? Do I sell them all? Do I keep one? Do I keep them all?" she said beginning to sob.
"Well what do you want to do?" he asked her, pulling her closer to him. "What do you want to do with the rest of your life?"
"I wanna own a restaurant." she said, then it clicked into her head. "I want to keep 4 of them." she said to Mr Potafor when he came back into the room. "I am going to convert them into restaurants. But I will sell the rest of them to the bank. So how much will you buy for?" she asked him.
"We will buy the twenty for 8 billion dollars." he said, handing her two separate contracts. She read them both through twice, then signed both, and shook his hand. He handed her a parchment envelope, that was very heavy. "The keys to your residences and your cars, Sir and Madam." he said, handing another to Draco, and bowing them out of his office.
When they left the bank, they got back into his car, and drove off towards Greenville. That was Hermione's home. From there they would be going to Bluecrest where her parents had their southern Britain home.
They were going to stay the night there, and visit Draco's parents home the next morning. They lived in Orchard Springs, about an hour outside Bluecrest. When they arrived there, the house was very large, with a crescent shaped drive, and a water fountain in the shape of an angel in the front lawn. The house was a soft yellow with cranberry shutters.
It was the most beautiful house she had ever seen. They walked around the house, and noticed that there was not one picture or her, or any children, as if they ran away here every time they got to stressed out. There were six bedrooms, the largest being their room. Hermione cried when she saw the pictures of her parents. This must have been where they were staying when she was away, because the powder pouf still had powder on it.
And the flowers sitting on the dresser were still slightly fresh. Meaning the maid was still coming here. Hermione tossed herself on the bed, and sobbed into the blankets. Draco wrapped his arms around her and lay beside her. After a long exhausting day, he could use a nap, but she needed him so he stayed awake until her tears died away, and her soft breathing could be heard.
Then he laid his tired eyes to rest. He woke up and heard water running in the bathroom. Steam flowed from the room when he opened the door. She must have been taking a shower, he thought as he shut the door behind himself. He opened the closet. He put his clothes into the empty section, and changed out of his suit into a pair of dark washed blue jeans and a tight white t-shirt.
He put a blue button up shirt overtop, and combed his hair so it hung loose once again around his face. He walked downstairs and went to the kitchen. It was just after six o'clock, so he started on making dinner. The fridge was full of food, and he grabbed lettuce, dressing, a uncooked chicken, some carrots, broccoli, mushrooms and spuds.
When he heard the water shut off, he washed the vegetables and the chicken, and put some water in the pots. He set them on the stove, and turned to cut the vegetables and peeled the potatoes. He put them in their pots, and put the chicken in the pot to boil. When he heard her moving around upstairs, he smiled to himself. This must be what her father felt like.
Wondering just what his wife was doing. Was she dressing herself? Was she putting her hair up? Was she putting makeup on? He searched through the spice rack, and pulled out a few good seasonings. He added them to the pot with the chicken, and let the smells mingle together. He heard music playing upstairs.
Daytime I'm fine
Everything is back normal
Last night I thought that I would die
I had nightmares, I was so scared
Thank God that you were by my side
To hold me when I cried
I wanna be strong
But I dont' wanna be alone tonight
I wanna believe that I can save the world
And make it right
But I believe that you've got a hero's face
Right here in your arms is the safest place
The safest place
It feels so real
You showed I could trust you
With emotions I had locked away
It was your touch, your words
They hear the deepest part of me
That only you can see
I wanna be strong
But I don't wanna be alone tonight
I wanna believe that I can save the world
And make it right
But I believe that you've got a hero's face
Right here in your arms is the safest place
As long as I'm with you
As long as I can feel you
That's all I need to keep me going
On and on and on and on...
I wanna believe that I can save the world
And make it right
But I believe that you've got a hero's face
Right here in your arms is the safest place
He smiled to himself as he heard her singing. Was it about him? She was a very good singer, he thought to himself. He finished his cooking, after putting the chicken in the oven, and finding the dishes and sliver wear, he set the table, found some candles and a holder and two wine glasses.
He could still hear her moving around upstairs, as he turned off the food, and served them both up. He looked in the fridge and found all the things needed to make creme-brulee. He made it up as he heard her coming down the steps. He set them in their dishes, and set them on the table as he uncorked the champagne. She walked into the dining room with a gasp.
Draco had set up a candle lit dinner for just the two of them. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, and she turned in his arms to face him. "Thank you" she said placing a kiss on his cheek. They ate dinner, and looked through some of the rooms, some of the drawers, some of the trunks. They sat in the living room, the fire roaring, both sitting on the couch with a glass of wine in their hands.
Hermione reached behind them and grabbed a blanket, and covered them with it. A storm rolled in outside, as they went up to bed. They had decided on sleeping in the same bed while they were away since it would be easier, having someone to talk to at night.
The next morning they got up and showered, and they dressed. Hermione had decided on wearing one of her mothers outfits, a short yellow sun dress, with tiny straps, and little golden buttons all the way up. She found a yellow hat in a box in the closet, after looking through dozens of hats she chose the yellow straw sunhat.
Draco had looked through the closet that had once belonged to her father, and she chose him out an outfit. A pair of beige semi-dressy pants, and a white shirt with a beige button up shirt, hanging loosely. He wore his hair combed back, but loose in his face. She wore a pair of high heeled yellow sandals, and he comfortable beige dress shoes.
She wore her hair in a golden clip, with a touch of curl, and she wore pale pink gloss on her lips. They packed a picnic in the car, as they locked up the house and made their way to Orchard Springs.