Chapter 17 of I Work for You:
Disclaimer: I do not own anything regarding Harry Potter.
Summary: Draco hires Hermione to be his 'wife' so his boss will approve of their deal. Only, Draco didn't expect to fall in love with Hermione. DM/HG.
Recap from Chapter 16:
All of a sudden, there was a stirring behind some bushes, and out stepped a gorgeous Hermione.
"…Wow! Hermione, you look … absolutely…"
Draco was cut off by Hermione's scream.
His head started to pound and to his amazement, Hermione seemed to faze. She began to grow dimmer, until he could see nothing at all.
All he could see was darkness.
"Hermione!" he whispered, before he passed out.
Chapter 17:
"You are a sick man, Chris," said Hermione, her eyes flashing at him. She tried to apparate again, but it did not work.
"Hey, what can I say? I know you love me," he said.
"I do not love you. I don't know what I saw in you when I was younger," growled Hermione.
All Hermione had known was that she was going to meet Draco for a lovely dinner. Just as she was about to reply to Draco's statement, Chris had come from behind Hermione, leapt at Draco, and smashed a pot on his head. Draco had fallen to the floor and Hermione was led away by a grinning Chris.
Now she was at his house, sitting in his garage. Hermione was tied to a chair, and she could not move. The only thing she could move was her head.
"Please Hermione, don't make this any harder than it already is," said Chris, looking sad. "You know I love you…"
Hermione closed her eyes and said, "You changed!"
Chris shrugged, "So what? So did you. You changed into a sexy woman whom men love."
Hermione shuddered in disgust, "Do you know that after I started to date you, you grew possessive? You treated me as if I was your dog or something you owned. I am a human Chris, not some prized possession."
Chris sighed, "You can stop talking. You do know that you're wasting your breath right? Your 'husband' will not save you."
"How do you know?"
"I know everything Hermione…"
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Let me tell you the story…"
"I loved you since I first met you. You were my neighbor, and you were the prettiest girl I'd ever met. I thought I was lucky to date you. I knew that others would take you away from me, so I did whatever I could to keep you to myself. Yes, I know that's selfish, but when I'm dating somebody so beautiful, who cares?"
Hermione snorted.
"You thought I was a Muggle didn't you?" asked Chris, smirking.
"What?" asked Hermione; confused that Chris knew that word.
"Oh, you're wrong." He reached inside of his robes and pulled out a wand.
"I'm a wizard just like you are. I may not be as powerful as you, but I am a wizard. No, I did not attend a wizarding school like Hogwarts. Instead, my mum who was a witch, taught me magic."
"I knew every move you made since you left me … and I can kill you just like this," he said, snapping his fingers.
"And it's no use trying to apparate. You don't have your wand, and I put a spell that makes it impossible for you to apparate away."
Hermione laughed, "You wouldn't dare kill me."
"How do you know?" asked Chris.
"Because, like you said, you love me too much."
Chris frowned, "Yes, that might be true, but I can kill you if you try to escape."
"What exactly are you going to do anyway?"
"I'm going to kill Malfoy."
Hermione's face grew pale.
Draco groaned softly as he opened his eyes.
His head hurt, and he couldn't see clearly.
He blinked a couple of times, and the image of his garden appeared at his eyes.
What had happened?
It suddenly came back to him.
Hermione.
The rustling of the bushes.
Being hit on the head.
Seeing Hermione disappear.
His heart hurt, but Draco could not figure out why. As he stood, he swayed a little.
He patted his head, and to his horror, his platinum blond hair was not smooth and falling into his eyes the way it was supposed to.
It was matted with blood.
He grimaced and hurried into his house to take a shower and figure out where Hermione was.
"Draco!" said a voice.
Draco looked up wearily and saw a flash of bright red.
"What do you want Percy?" he asked.
Percy, who was on Midnight PowerSweep23, slowed down the broom and hopped off.
"My goodness! What happened to you?" he asked in a concerned voice.
"That stupid Chris!" yelled Draco.
"What?"
"I was about to go to dinner with Hermione a couple of hours ago, but then he came and hit me on the head with some pot or something and apparated away with Hermione."
"You mean Hermione isn't here?" shouted Percy.
"No she isn't. Stop shouting, my head hurts."
Percy paid no attention, "Draco! You know that the bet thing will last only until the day after tomorrow. Fudge will make the decision then. You have got to go find her!"
Draco let out an exasperated sigh, "I know! Now let me go take a shower, and figure out where Chris lives."
"How do you know that she's in Chris's house?" he asked with a worried frown.
"I don't. That's just where I think she'll be."
All of a sudden, some footsteps interrupted their conversation.
"Good evening gentlemen," said Fudge.
"Draco! What happened to you?" asked Fudge in a concerned tone of voice, not unlike Percy's.
"Nothing … had an accident. I'll be fine Minister."
Fudge nodded, "Well, you better get cleaned up."
Draco nodded.
"Where is Hermione, by the way?"
Draco gulped.
"Um, she's … she's in … ah … she's visiting Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley."
"Yes, that's right!" chimed in Percy. "She told me today that she didn't spend enough time with my sister, so she wanted to spend the night with them."
Fudge nodded, a twinkle in his eye.
"In that case, I bid you a good night."
"Good night," sang out the two men.
After Fudge disappeared from sight, Percy started to yell at Draco once again.
"We only have one night to find her!"
"I know!" said Draco.
"But my story did save your life … I wonder, should I be a professional story-teller."
"Shut up Percy. I'm going to take a shower."
"No, you should find Hermione first."
Draco shook his head; "I need to get some thinking into where Chris might be."
"Fine."
"Why don't you let me go?" protested Hermione.
"Why would I do that?" asked Chris.
"I don't know. Maybe because you don't want to see the woman you love die before your eyes, knowing you killed her."
"Hey, as long as Draco doesn't have you."
"You won't … really kill him will you?" she asked.
"Of course I will."
Hermione sighed.
"Do you want to see him?" he asked.
Hermione frowned, "You know where he is?"
Chris nodded.
He said some words under his breath and from his wand, an image of Draco appeared.
Draco was looking wonderfully handsome, and it showed him relaxing and eating dinner.
The image moved, and it showed a beautiful attractive woman sitting across from him.
Draco stood up, and walked over to the lady, kissing her on the mouth.
Hermione watched, soundlessly, as her true love kissed another woman.
"No…" she said weakly.
"This isn't true. You're … you're just showing me this so I can lose all my hope. You're good, but you're not good enough."
Chris shook his head, "Fine, don't believe me. Draco actually made a deal with me and told me to take you away so he could have dinner with his actual wife."
"Draco is not married."
"Oh, he is now."
"Shut up Chris, your pathetic lies are annoying me."
Chris shook his head again but said, "Face it, he's not coming to get you."
Hermione looked out the window from the garage and whispered, "Draco, I know you can come take me away. Please hurry. I'm waiting for you."
After a calm shower, Draco sat down at his desk, and looked for where Chris lived.
Hermione had given him a telephone book thing and said it was very useful.
He scanned the pages until he found what he was looking for.
He nodded and apparated away.
"You know … it's been four hours and,"
A Draco Malfoy had suddenly appeared in front of his eyes, with his wand pointed at Chris's forehead.
"Uh, hello Malfoy."
"Draco!" exclaimed a relieved Hermione.
Draco turned towards Hermione and smiled to see that she was safe, when she screamed, "Watch out Draco!"
Author's Note: Read and review! You know the drill. (: