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There's no song in this chapter. So no list.

Onwards!

Chapter 2

The Daily Prophet

A Storm by the name of Granger

-Miranda Herondale

Wizarding Britain has been hit by a storm, my readers. And it is a storm that goes by the name of Hermione Granger. The recent self-made business woman has changed the way of our world with her introduction of muggle equipment which I am surprised to say has made life easier for us. Gone are the days of Floo call and owls. Now it is the age of real-time communication (more details on page 4). All made possible by the diligent Miss Granger. And she hasn't stopped with just that. With the collaboration of another set of self-made businessmen who started early, yes, I am talking about the Weasley twins of Weasley Wizard Wheezes, Miss Granger created the first ever amusement house of the Wizarding world(more details on page 4). Though there are many more things to Ms Granger's name, unfortunately, the woman of the hour was unavailable to give an interview but we managed to bag an interview with the Twins instead. (Turn to page 3 for the interview of The Weasley twins).

Now, coming back on the—

"Are you done reading the newspaper out loud, Blaise?" Draco asked irritated as he ate his breakfast at Blaise's penthouse.

"My house, my rules." Blaise teased.

"I should have known you had an ulterior motive for inviting me to breakfast today," Draco replied tartly.

"My friend from the age of five, you had a sleepover at my house without telling me. I was surprised to see your pale arse amble out of the guest room. You should be thankful you are getting a breakfast." Blaise shot back.

"Hah. My presence keeps your elves happy," Draco replied back, taking a bite of his meal, chewing it slowly.

"So, when are you going to pop the question?" Blaise asked pretending to read the newspaper but actually keeping an eye on Draco from the corner of his eyes.

"What question?" Draco asked, despite knowing what was asked of him.

"The 'will you be my girlfriend?' question," Blaise asked tired of beating about the bush. Ginny's Gryffindorness must be converting him. He'll have to keep an eye on it for now.

Draco snorted. "Easy for you to say. Your girl sang her claim on you to the world."

"You do realise that's not going to happen with you?" Blaise asked.

"Why can it not happen with me?"

"Because that happens every time with you," Blaise answered and then started counting off, "Pansy, Astoria, that French heiress, that Witch Weekly model, and again Astoria, then—"

"I get it! No need to count off." Draco fumed.

Blaise looked at his friend who was looking a little too morose for his liking and said, "It doesn't mean you can't do anything about it. You declare your love for her instead."

"So that she can laugh at me and walk all over my heart?"

"Then ask permission to court her from her father. That will make this thing sound more serious. While you are at it, ask the bride price too. That'll fix this would-be relationship in stone."

Draco thought about it a little. "You are right."

"Of course I am right. Now as much as fun this morning has been, my girlfriend is due any moment now and it would do you good if you popped away from here. I'll like to shag her at every surface available in my house."

"Not that it wouldn't be fun but I'm more concerned about your friend trying to date my best friend." said Ginny from the doorway of the kitchen.

"Ginny! When did you come?" Blaise asked, getting up from his seat to greet his girl with a kiss.

Draco merely rolled his eye and took a drink of the freshly squeezed orange juice.

"Good morning, Malfoy." Ginny greeted cheerfully, taking a seat across him.

"Good morning," Draco replied, not ruining the moment with any well-deserved nicknames for the redhead sitting before him.

"I heard about what you were talking about," Ginny said expecting Draco to explain.

"You eavesdropped. That's different," Draco replied instead of explaining it.

"Semantics. Now spill." Ginny demanded, but Draco remained tight-lipped about it.

"He won't say anything, love. Let me explain," Blaise then proceeded to tell all about Draco's about a decade old crush on the brain of the Golden Trio and how he was pouting over the fact that Hermione didn't do anything like her friends to propose to Draco.

"I don't pout," Draco said firmly.

"You are pouting right now," Blaise replied.

"I am no.," Draco shot back.

"This can go on for the whole day. And we don't have a whole day. It's less than a month to Valentine's Day. Surprise her in a heartfelt manner and she'll certainly be yours," Ginny assured.

"But what should I do? She keeps making her friends proposal so grand that the thing I have in my mind is becoming very plain," Draco asked earnestly, not thinking about his pride for once.

"Well… this is insider news, okay? No spilling about it to anyone else. Because if it spills, I would know who to hex. And that includes you too, Blaise." Ginny warned.

"My lips are locked. But if you want to lock it tight, they would need a kiss," Blaise winked cheekily at Ginny.

Ginny gave a flying kiss and winked back mouthing 'later'. Draco again rolled his eye at his friend and his girlfriend's antics.

Draco motioned his hands to urge her to continue on with her 'top secret' secret.

"The things that Hermione does? Those are muggle clichés. The flash dance, the singing under the window of the girl you love, karaoke night- it's all very common in muggle culture." Ginny said and beamed at them.

Blaise and Draco merely blinked at her.

"So?" Draco asked finally.

"What so? That's the biggest clue I could give you." Ginny exclaimed

"That wasn't a clue. A business secret, yes but not a wooing tactics." Draco complained.

"Woo her using muggle clichés, you ferret!" Ginny said exasperatedly.

"Hey hey! No name-calling. I didn't call you she-weasel, did I? You can't call me that vile name." Draco protested loudly.

"You just said that," Ginny remarked.

"So it's fair now," Draco commented.

"No, it's not," Ginny replied back.

"I just explained it. I didn't say it—"

"Love, what possible clichés can we work with?" Blaise asked trying to break up the childish squabbling between the two.

"Hmm? Oh, yes. I'm going to check some on the internet." Ginny said distractedly as she pulled out a flat thing with a slightly glowing surface.

"What is that thing?" Draco asked surprised, even more so when Ginny started tapping rather rapidly on the glowing surface.

"This is a tablet," Ginny explained, taking a seat on the sofa followed by Blaise and Draco who took a seat beside her. "This thing helps you make a phone call, video call, text messaging or net searching. But Hermione used some other word that distinctly had something to do with the beach."

"What net?" Draco asked, shoving aside his grudge for the sake of sating his curiosity.

"Internet. Hermione can explain you better about it. But it's basically a thing that can give you answers about anything and everything. You have to search things on the Google and it gives you an answer," Ginny explained as much as she could. "Oh! And you didn't see this thing," Ginny began waving the tablet in front of her, "you don't know what it can do. This is a prototype. They gave me to use it in case I can find any flaws with it."

"Another of Hermione's inventions?" Draco asked, his voice hinting a bit of pride at Hermione's achievement.

"Hermione says these things are already there in the Muggle world. She's only bringing the best of the muggle to the Wizarding world," Ginny said, equally proud of Hermione.

"How can we be sure that it's correct?" Blaise asked as he read the content of the glowing screen.

"Ask Hermione. She said it's correct for things up to a certain limit. And I believe it. The tricks I read about the hairstyles were really amazing," Ginny gushed as she furiously moved her hand on the screen.

"So it'll tell us about Valentine's Day clichés and then we are going to use it, right, Draco?" Blaise confirmed.

"As long as it seems ok," Draco answered.

After a while, both the men sat back, their eyes widen, with Ginny looking proud as punch.

"I didn't know muggles did all this without magic," Draco said with awe in his tone. He was utterly fascinated by what he saw and read.

"I know, right?" Ginny sassed.

"Muggles do that, right?" Draco asked a little unsure now.

"You saw it, mate," Blaise answered.

Draco huffed loudly, "Let's do it then."

"That's the spirit," Ginny said cheerfully and got up from the sofa. But to Draco, it seemed more like he sold his soul to the she-devil.

"You really didn't need to do this," Hermione told Ginny who was styling Hermione's hair.

"Nonsense! He's a great guy, you are a great girl. You deserve each other." Ginny encouraged, working on knotted and tangled strands.

"You are saying this now." Hermione snorted.

"And like a good friend you are supposed to trust my words," Ginny replied, her cheer not diminishing by any means.

"Last Valentine's day, you tried to set me up with Dave from the Harpies technical group," Hermione replied as she enjoyed her friend's ministration.

"I knew him to be a good guy. I didn't know he would turn out to be such a—"

"Stalker." Hermione supplied.

"Yeah, a stalker."

Both the girl gave a shudder at that.

"But this guy, you know him. I know him too. Nuh uh uh! I am not telling you the name. This is a blind date."

"But Ginny…" Hermione whined.

"But Hermione…" Ginny 'whined back'.

"Just one time." threatened Hermione without any heat.

"Just this one time," Ginny assured her.

Hermione wasn't so fond of dating given her bad experiences in the past. But she was getting good vibes for this one. Maybe she can give this ridiculous thing a chance. She fidgeted in her specified seat in the newest Quidditch stadium re-launched by The Malfoy Inc. She was told that Malfoy personally contacted the Weasley twins to install some muggle features to the stadium that was previously just a training stadium. Hermione was nervous, to be honest. Nobody she had ever dated had taken her to a Quidditch stadium for a date. And to make the matters worse, she hadn't even seen the guy. Ginny had, literally, delivered her to the VIP box at the stadium and now she was sitting there in the love seat nervously as she waited for her date to appear.

Hermione took a sip of the complimentary champagne that was served as soon as she reached there to calm her nerves. It was five minutes to five now. Her date was due in five minutes. She took deep breaths and tried to distract herself by thinking about her next items that were ready for launch. She had been working night and day to launch mobile phones and tablets in the Wizarding world. God knew the time and effort the Twins and she gave to this project with generous help from everybody else.

She had first been interested in changing the archaic laws of the Wizengamot but now after she had gotten the taste of research and re-invention she just wasn't able to let it go. It was like finding her true purpose while on a journey to achieve her supposed goals. She was changing the world, not by changing laws. But by changing lives. She was indirectly influencing so many lives. She blushed at her own appraisal of herself. Self-motivation is the best motivation. She was just about to take another sip when—

"You are looking lovely, Miss Granger." a drawling voice said from the entrance of the VIP box.

Hermione froze in her place and barely turned her head to see one smiling- yes, smiling- Draco Malfoy complimenting her. She stared at him for a moment more and replied, "If you hadn't said my surname along with that compliment, I would have assumed you were telling that to this box."

"Now you are being deliberately harsh," Draco said and sauntered in.

"I am not. Our past interactions have taught me that much." Hermione replied without any heat.

Malfoy flinched slightly and to Hermione's great surprise looked slightly sheepish.

"Well, about that. Forgive me?" Draco asked her bluntly.

"Since you are asking so nicely, I do. For today. Depends on how well you behave to me."

"Trust me, I plan to blow you away with my charm and handsomeness today," Draco proclaimed proudly. "Let me get your first surprise ready. I'll be back real quick." And he winked at her. He actually winked at her.

Hermione couldn't restrain the blush that bloomed across her face and gave him a shy smile in return. Sure, they didn't share an amicable history, but she couldn't deny the fact that she was fascinated by the boy, who had been her competitor all her school life. Yes, he was a git, but then again he was brought up that way. Her friends were dating Slytherins as well. If they could look beyond their school days rivalry, then so could she. After all, how could he hurt her here?

Draco quickly brought a glass of champagne for her and sat beside her. Soon after the match commentator welcomed the audience and began commentating on the game that was about to begin. Hermione got up and walked towards the railings of the box accompanied by Draco. He proudly looked as she took in the changes he made to the arena. She exclaimed in surprise as she saw the newest improvement in the stadium- a large display screen like ones in Muggle sports arena. Hermione laughed at that and her nervousness was all lost. Someone was trying his best to woo her it seemed.

She wasn't oblivious to the plotting of her friends' one true loves. She knew the Slytherin trio plus Pansy 'Icy Queen' Parkinson were trying to pair her off with Draco. And now her friends were teaming up with them to make the plotting happen. She was impressed that Draco, who came from such an orthodox family, was ready to incorporate changes in his business ventures to impress her. And she was. Impressed that is. Adoration was going right next to impressed. Lost in her musings, she didn't notice when someone entered the box and sat in the seat behind her.

"I didn't know you enjoyed watching Quidditch," a shrill feminine voice stated.

Hermione turned around to see Astoria sitting there in her seat with her hands clasped together on her lap and legs crossed showing off her leg from the slit in her dress. Astoria's smirk made Hermione lose her cool but she didn't show it. She was a businesswoman. Businesswomen don't lose their cool in the face of stress. "My date brought me here. Besides, I appreciate the changes he made to this stadium. Moving forward with time, you see."

Astoria merely shrugged at that and rudely called a house elf to serve her a glass of chilled champagne. The house elf was trying to tell Astoria something but she glared so badly at the poor creature that he scurried away, the empty tray tucked by his side.

Draco was looking decisively paler now since he could anticipate that Astoria's presence meant that she was ready to create a scene. He tried to diffuse the situation but before he even opened his mouth, Hermione began telling Astoria about how very rudely she was behaving with an upstanding member, so what if he's a creature, of the Wizarding society when a screech of 'Dracoooo' stunned her for a moment.

Hermione watched as Astoria, seemly defying gravity, jumped into Draco's arms and began to suck his face off. Draco was standing there shell-shocked, but when he realised he was in the danger of losing his face he quickly shoved Astoria away as politely as possible.

"Astoria! What the bloody hell is this!" Draco seethed; his temper now reaching a peak given how defeated Hermione looked at Astoria's actions.

"Why Draco? Is that the way to behave with your fiancée?" Astoria asked batting her eyelids like she was trying to seduce Draco with blinking.

"What?!" shouted Draco as Hermione simultaneously said, "Fiancée?"

"Why, yes! I heard your father discuss the bride price with my father today. And now, you sent that elf to me when I was sitting in the other box with this engagement ring in it," Astoria squealed as she shoved her fingers in Draco's face. A shiny gold ring with an equally shiny diamond on it was settled on Astoria's ring finger.

Meanwhile. . .

"Hey mate? You saw any elf here?" Blaise asked Theo as he searched for an elf in the rows of the stadium that was now filled by the audiences who were there to watch the match between Holyhead Harpies and Puddlemere United.

"Why don't you call out that elf's name? He'll pop in here," Theo suggested as he rolled his eyes at friend's antics.

"Problem is I forgot the name," Blaise replied hurriedly craning his head to look for any elf now.

"You forgot the name of the elf whom you had given your engagement ring to?" Theo whisper shouted at Blaise.

"I was instructing that elf when Ginny surprised me. So I shooed him away and…and managed to distract Ginny from questioning me further about the elf and the blue velvet box."

"Distracted her, huh? Then lost your memory for the moment?"

"They all have such ridiculous names! Tizzy, Izzy, Pizzy! Stupid names!"

"Don't let Hermione hear you!"

"Hey, what's Astoria doing there?" Theo asked as he looked at the VIP box through his Omnioculars.

Blaise snatched Theo's Omnioculars

"Is that my ring on Astoria's ring finger?"

"Merlin's hairy balls!"

"That bitch stole Ginny's ring!" Pansy gasped.

"Pansy! What are you doing here?"

"My husband came here with me to watch the match." Pansy sniped.

"What is that little brat prattling about? Hermione looks really upset!"

"Somebody should do something. Hermione looks like she's going to cry," Pansy whispered as she watched the tragedy in motion.

"It's too late. She disapparated away!"

"How the heck did you get here?" Theo exclaimed

"I came here with my wife. But she left me at our seat only to come here," Harry replied.

"What do we do now?"

"Visit Draco. He's bound to hit his bar,"

"He owns a bar?"

"He owns a drowning thy sorrow bar. It's well equipped. Comes with a bartender elf too,"

"Don't let Hermione hear that either."

"He gets paid,"

"In?"

"In drunken confessions. He's a bartender slash drinker's listener buddy."

It was definitely not a good day for Draco. He had lost his only chance at dating Hermione, thanks to Astoria. So here he was, at his favourite bar- no, he didn't visit filthy bars to drown in his sorrow. He had a well-equipped bar right at his house in his office along with a great bartender, Berry Pops who could make the best drinks on this side of the Atlantic. He loosened his tie roughly and sat heavily on the mahogany bar stool that lined the bar. He placed his elbows on the shiny black marble with red veins countertop and laid down his head. A loud pop announced his bartender house elf's arrival.

"Master needy drink?" the apron wearing house elf asked.

"The oldest Firewhiskey, Berry. The vintage '50s firewhiskey. I have a lot to drown in the fire of alcohol," Draco ordered gravely.

"Sad is master today," Berry wisely commented and went to the family wine cabinet to bring out the special sorrow drowner.

Draco was nursing his drink when the Floo flashed to allow Blaise and Nott in. Draco was quite drunk by the time his friends had found him.

"Oh look 'hat the cat dragged in? My devil advisers!" Draco shouted from his seat.

"Mate, what happened today?" Theo asked as he took the seat opposite to Draco.

"Ashhhtoria came. Shouted that I proposed to her witttth a ring. A fucking gold ring. In her champagne glassss. How uncreative." Blaise opened his mouth to protest but Theo glared him to silence. "And then she said- said that my father asked her father for briiiiiiiide priiiiiiiiice. My bird heard it and thought I was trying to cheat on Ash with her. She went awaaaaaaay!" Draco whined.

"She'll be here. You can owl her, clear the misunderstandings—" Theo tried to reason with him but Draco cut in.

"Noooooo. She's gone!"

"Gone where?" Blaise asked uttering for the first time he came to visit Draco.

"On a tour. To America. And To Scotland and to freaking Ireland!" Draco answered, taking a dramatic swing on his drink finishing it, only to get it refilled by Berry who empathetically nodded at Draco.

"That sounds bad," Theo commented.

"It is baaaaaad," Draco said, dragging the word.

"I did like to propose a toast," Blaise said raising his drink, which was provided to him by Berry as soon as he came sat down.

Theo rolled his eyes at Blaise's antics while Draco merely stared at Blaise blearily.

"To mistaken engagement!" Blaise tipped his head towards his friends.

"Tho lost lobe," Draco said, complete smashed now.

"To getting them back again!" Theo added cheerfully.

"To service to more masters!" Berry shouted his toast.

"Aye to that!" Draco roared.

"I mean, it's like a tragedy in motion. The man keeps tries to do things for the woman he has feelings for and the woman just keeps doing things that makes her way out of his league. It's like she's making herself more untouchable as days pass," Theo said with awe in his voice, clearly tipsy by now. He was probably on his fifth refill. But who cares?

"È vero, è proprio verissimo!" Blaise said as he gave a loud laugh, lapsing into his mother tongue as he got more inebriated.

"Blaise!" Pansy said his name menacingly as she entered the bar at Malfoy's chateau. Pansy took in the completely drunk Draco who was accompanied by Theo and Blaise to drown his sorrow in a stupor. Pansy thanked high heavens that she wasn't the one who was going to have to handle this grown up child.

"I donh care if it's thrue o' no, Blaaace. If yo' can'h tell meh 'ow to woo mah witch then tellh ma o' shush your passssta mouth!" Draco sneered. Well…with his present control over his facial muscle, it looked more like a goblin trying to smile. A handsome, platinum blonde fit to be on a magazine cover.

"Let's list what we know about Ms Hermione Granger," Theo suggested.

"Witch with a knack for incorporating muggle culture with Wizarding culture," Blaise listed.

"Bold and beautiful. Not afraid to sing tunelessly to help her best friend woo the love of his life," Pansy added smugly, a sipping her cosmos courtesy of Berry Pops.

"You remember that poem, Pans?" Theo asked.

"Yesss!" Pansy said as her eyes widened comically.

"She is beauty!" Theo began.

"She is grace!" Pansy added.

"She punched Malfoy in the face!" Blaise finished.

"Yo' kno' wha'? Get out!" Draco said as he sipped on his fire whiskey, "I di' 'ike to sulk on me own."

"Draco, stop being such a wet blanket," Theo admonished.

"No seriously, did you really think you could propose to her Valentine's Day? It's the most clichéd of all clichéd things ever!" Pansy commented.

"And what she's doing isn't clichéd?" Draco snapped, speaking coherently suddenly sober, "She's using all the clichéd things of muggle culture and since it's new in here, people are gobbling it up." Draco calmed himself a little. "I just…I just wanted to surprise her with muggle culture. They propose on Valentine's Day you know. It is considered lucky."

"You know what's lucky? St Patrick's Day!" Blaise suggested.

"Yeah. It's the superest lucky day. Plus you get to be green. Bonus as a Slytherin, you know," Theo added tipsily.

"You are right!" Pansy told Theo. Pansy turned towards Draco, "So surprise her. Propose on the greenest day. I bet she'll like the un-clichedness that you were so concerned about."

"This shit is strong!" Blaise commented as he took a shot of tequila this time.

"Where you get that?" Theo asked as he reached for an empty shot glass at the bar.

" 'uggle London. The bars 'ere 'ad really good variye-ty o' 'inks and 'ocktai. 'eally liked dome of 'em," Draco replied, slurring a bit more now that the anger was drained away as he still nursed his nearly empty firewhiskey glass.

"This drink's getting in my head. I'm gonna go home before I get nasty with anyone of you," Pansy said as she got up to Floo home.

"Ewww," the guys said in union.

"Yeah, right ewww. I would rather be nasty with the boy who gives intense bliss," Pansy sniped.

"More ewww," Blaise said.

"Didn't need to hear that," Theo grumbled into his drink.

"Tot…ally didn't," Draco added. "Save thaz fo' the girlz talk,"

"It's old news, boys. Don't forget to give me heads up on Draco. I would hate to miss that," Pansy sauntered out.

"I will," Theo called out.

"You know 'hat she said?" Draco slurred. "Thank you for this wonderful Valentine's Day date. She said thank you. Fucking thank you. Said she'll 'ever forget thees."

"That gold digging Niffler from hell stole my Ginny's ring," Blaise complained.

"For today, only today, we mourn. Tomorrow, we regroup and take what is rightfully ours," Theo proposed.

"Tooo late. Hermione's off to America for launching those thingies she makes," Draco said again.

"When she'll be back?" Blaise asked.

"Late, late, late. Mid- march late," Draco replied.

"Maybe it's time we prayed to St Patrick for some luck in our life." Theo suggested.

"May that harpy return my ring!" Blaise mumbled.

"May I bag a hotshot guy!" Theo exclaimed.

" 'ay Hermy be MINE" Draco shouted.

"Amen!" Berry Pop exclaimed from behind the bar.

T.B.C. . .

Review please! I would love to hear from you!

In case you get bored during the wait, I have two more Dramiones in my list.
The Christmas Change- gender bender story thanks to the Twin's prank the night before Christmas. It was fun writing gender bender Dramione. I shall continue doing that. Look out for a year 1 to year 7 and some more gender bender Dramione where our hero Hermes is the Boy Who Lived.
The Cherubby Mistake- Valentine's Day special Dramione with a side of Ransy. A lil crack but fluffy.