All characters belong to JKR

Chapter 31: Facts:

Hermione was in the middle of remembering her first day at work, when she heard a familiar voice behind her.

It was Mrs. Johnson. She was about to remove her hat to say hello, when she heard the woman say, "It must not have worked, if you say that he left this morning without her."

Hermione almost stopped breathing. She wondered if the woman was talking about her and Draco. She sat upright in the chair, and pulled the hat down lower, so not to be discovered.

Mrs. Johnson sat in a chair close to her, and her husband sat by his wife's side. He said, "I think he has a contingency plan for Miss Granger, and after all, we were late with our little story. Draco asked us to tell her the fable of how we met yesterday at breakfast, when they were pretending to be newlyweds, because he thought that would get her thinking about marriage, but we forgot. We might have been the ones that ruined it for him, because he had planned the whole surprise wedding for right after."

"Oh dear," his wife said. "Do you think it's our fault that she didn't marry him yesterday?"

"Maybe, but I think she'll still marry him. I saw him before he left this morning, when he signed the papers to buy the resort from us, and he told me that he had given her a note offering her the hotel, as a back up plan in case they didn't wed, but that he was going to change it to a marriage proposal,. Although he's convinced that she's already read it, he still thinks that she'll think, and these are his words not mine, but he thinks she'll think it's endearing to change it at the last moment. They'll still marry. Mark my words. It's a fact. I even have money ridding on it."

"With whom did you bet?" she asked with a smile.

"Malfoy. He bet that she'll marry him before the month's up, and I bet that she'll marry him before the week's over." He laughed.

"You bet on everything," she said back, also with a laugh. "You both bet on the same thing! They are so sweet together. However, if she's already read the note, and she told him she hasn't, that might cause a bit a trouble. She shouldn't have lied like that, but seriously, he lies so often, does it matter?"

"Probably not," Mr. Johnson declared.

Mrs. Johnson continued. "I have to admit, when he first told us this silly plan of his the other night, that they were going to pretend to us that they were newlyweds, and for us to tell him that our relationship started with a lie that we didn't know each other before marriage, I thought he was mad. I mean, think about it, Louis, we've known him since he was a lad, and he always gets his way, so I shouldn't have doubted him. Still, I don't approve of the way he's gone about it. Lies get you nowhere."

"His heart's in the right place," her husband rebuked. "He loves her, I'm sure. It all started with a lie, when he stood in for her blind date. I think he called it a date by proxy. Yes, he probably could have won her over without the lies, but who knows how long that might have taken. She might have picked her job over him, being a modern woman and all, besides, she'll never be the wiser, and the end result is all that matters."

"But I regret that we lied along with him, dear," she said.

"It was one little lie. So what if we knew they weren't really married when they pretended to be the other morning? So what if we told her a little tale, skewing the facts a bit? So what if we knew each other for five years before we married? We really did meet here at the resort, when I was working here for my father, and you were on holiday. We really did get married at the cathedral in the village, notwithstanding that it was five years later. We really do come here every year. The rest might have been fabrications, but the most important things were truths," Louis remarked.

Hermione didn't know what to think or feel. She wanted to run away, but she didn't want to be discovered, and also, she wanted to continue to listen.

"Did he offer you the price we wanted for the place?" she asked.

"And more," he said with a laugh. "And get this; he put the entire thing in her name, even though I told him that might be a mistake. What if she finds out his little deception involving us? She might take the resort and run, and he'll have no marriage, no Miss Granger, and he'll be out a lot of money."

"Oh dear," Mrs. Johnson repeated. "We'll just have to hope that doesn't happen."

Hermione had heard enough. She threw her legs over the side of her chair, picked up her things, and with her hat still covering most of her face she walked briskly into the resort.

She was so confused. She couldn't make heads or tails of what she had just heard. Apparently, the Johnsons owned the resort. That much was clear and was certainly a fact. In addition, they sold it to Draco, and he gave it to her, which she already knew from the last note. Oh no, the last note! He apparently knew all along that she had already read it!

Why would he ask the Johnsons to lie to her about how they met? Was it to make it seem plausible that two people could meet and marry quickly? She was so deep in thought that she didn't notice when she ran right into someone. She looked up as the man put his arms on her shoulders.

"Miss Granger?" Adrian said. "Are you alright?"

To the surprise of them both, she threw her things on the floor of the wrap-around porch, and then flung her arms around his neck. Then, horror of horrors, she started to cry. "Oh, Adrian, I don't know what to do!"

"Hermione, what's wrong?"

"Draco's lied!" she cried.

"Yes, I know. I know all about it. I know about the lies he had the owners of the resort tell you, I know how he offered you the whole place, and I even know a few other facts. Come inside, we have to talk." He bent down to pick up her things, and then he ushered her into the resort.

Second day of Work:

"Settling in, Granger?"

Hermione looked up from the papers on her desk, into the smiling face of Draco Malfoy. "Yes, thank you," she said back.

"Have you met your staff?" He wandered into the office, and looked around.

"Mostly," she answered pithily.

"Good. Good." He walked over to her desk. He held up a picture she had just placed there moments before. It was one of her and Harry and Ron. He looked at it, grimaced a bit, (which made her smile) and then placed it back on the desk. He picked up a beautiful, glass paperweight and he tossed it up in the air.

She gasped a bit, leaned back in her chair, and started to put her hand out for the paperweight, when he placed it back on the desk. He looked at her, curiously. He seemed to be stalling or perhaps he was trying to find the right words to say to her.

Finally, he picked the paperweight back up and threw it back in the air, high, and he caught it, quite precariously. She asked, "Draco, be careful with that, and was there something else you needed?"

His back was to her, as he continued to walk around her office, still tossing the paperweight in the air. He turned back toward her and said, "In the office you should probably call me Mr. Malfoy, you know." He was joking with her. He actually liked it that she had called him Draco. His name sounded nice coming from her mouth.

She watched his expression closely, to ascertain if he was teasing. She decided he wasn't. She asked, "Fine, but if we're alone, like now, what shall I call you?" She wondered if she would call him Draco or Malfoy.

He had a witty response, something close to crude, on the tip of his tongue, but instead he said, "I'm lying to you, you know. You're quite gullible aren't you? Although, I like how that sounds."

"What?" She didn't know what she had said that he liked. She knew that she didn't like that she believed his lie so easily, but that was her problem, not his.

He walked closer to her desk, and she pushed her chair out slightly to look up at him. "I like how it sounds…us being alone," he said softly. Yes, she and he alone…on the beach, in a king size bed, or on the conference room table. He stopped his roving mind and said, "When, not if, but when we're alone, you may call me lover and I'll call you precious love." He wiggled his eyebrows and with a smirk plastered on his face, he leaned against the wall. He kept the paperweight in one hand, and ran the other hand through his hair. All of those simple things combined were incredibly sexy, in her opinion. In fact, she was so taken aback, that she had nothing to say in response to his open flirting.

Why was he flirting with her? He was her boss now. This was just her second day at work, and he was flirting with her!

The paperweight flew in the air again as he said, "I'm joking again, Granger, or shall I say," he threw the paperweight again, "Precious love?"

She held out her hand, for the paperweight and said, "And I'll call you lover but only in your dreams."

"Pinch me," he said. He walked over to her outstretched hand. "See if I'm dreaming now."

She wiggled her fingers. She wanted her paperweight back.

"Do you want this?" he asked, innocuously enough. "Your employment contract states that I can play with anything that belongs to you. Won't that be a treat?"

"If I did sign a stupid employment contract," she started, "I'm sure it would say something about sexual harassment."

"Yes, it clearly states that you can sexually harass me all day and night." He wiggled his eyebrows again.

"Do you have something in your eye?" she asked. She rolled her eyes and demanded, "The paperweight."

"Catch," he said, holding it up in the air.

She cowered a bit in her chair and said, "Don't throw it!"

"Why? Won't you catch it?"

She shrieked as he pretended that he was going to throw it again. "I have terrible eye-hand coordination," she proclaimed.

"Then I feel really bad for boyfriend, Precious love."

"Didn't we discuss in the lifts the other day that I didn't have a boyfriend?" she asked. She had been without a boyfriend for two years. It was something she hoped to change along with her job and clothing. She even had a blind date coming up soon. She stood from her chair and walked right up to him, so close that he could smell her perfume. So close he could reach out and touch her if he so desired, which he did.

She held out her hand again.

"Meet me halfway," he said.

"I'm in front of you. How closer do you want me?" she asked, innocently.

That was a loaded question. He pushed away from the wall and stood upright, so that they were actually a smidge closer. Instead of dropping it in her hand, as she was suggesting, he placed it on her palm gently, placing his free hand under her hand, which now held the round sphere. He closed her fingers around the glass bulb with his other hand. His touch was warm and promising, and it made her heart flutter, her mouth dry, and her eyes blink.

They merely stood there, her hand grasping the paperweight, and his hands grasping hers, and she didn't know how to proceed.

He didn't know how to proceed, either, though he finally let her go, even if that was the last thing he wanted to do. Hermione started to put the paperweight back on the desk, when he sprang forward and snatched it from her again, quickly. She eyed him suspiciously, and then once more placed her open hand in front of his face.

He started to drop it in her hand, but then he asked, "Did you read the fine print of the contract? It says that you have to say please and thank you to me." He leaned back against the wall again.

She took one-step forward, to where he was still leaning against the wall. She held out her hand and said, "Thank you for giving me my paperweight back earlier, and will you please hand me the paperweight again. I'm sorry to act so protective of it, but my grandfather gave that to me, and he just died last week, so it's sentimental to me."

"Well, hell, Granger," he said, dropping it in her hand. "I apologize."

She cracked a smile and said, "I'm lying. It came with this office. See, you aren't the only one that can make a joke."

He gave her a small chuckle as she crossed back over to her desk, and after she placed the paperweight on top he said, "You're going to be a bright addition to our team, Granger." In his head he thought, 'and quite a challenge.'

"Get to work, you lazybones," he snickered as he left her office. "I'll see you later." He turned in her doorway and said, "Seriously, did you read the fine print of the contract?"

"Seriously, what contract?" she asked a bit perturbed.

Wasn't that interesting? She must not have read the contract at all. "Never mind, precious love. Never mind. Don't think on it. Well, finish settling in and I'll see you tomorrow."

He started out of the office aware of a few interesting facts about one Hermione Granger. Fact 1, she was a pistol. That one he thought off the top of his head. Fact 2, she wasn't tied up with a husband or a boyfriend, which meant she was free game. Fact 3, she was interesting, charming, enlightening, and beautiful. Fact 4, she didn't used to be any of those things…except perhaps beautiful. Fact 5, she was a challenge, and he loved challenges. Fact 6, she lied to him, and though it was a little lie, about a stupid paperweight, he actually believed her, and anyone who could lie and have him believe it was worth the pursuit.

And the final and most important fact was that she hadn't read the employment contract. She didn't know about the whole 'don't date the boss' thing that Adrian made all new hires sign.

He just thought of one more fact about Hermione J. Granger. He might just want to keep her, and if that were the case, he would have to do something about that contract, and fast.

He walked toward Pucey's office. He walked right by Adrian's secretary, stormed into the man's office, and said, "Do you have a minute, Pucey?"

"Draco, can't you see that I'm in the middle of an interview?" Adrian asked. "I thought I told my secretary to call me whenever you approached."

"She wasn't out there," Draco lied. She was, but he flitted past her quickly. He looked at the man Adrian was interviewing and said, "What job are you interviewing for, chap?"

"Hmm," the man started, looking toward Adrian before he continued, "just an entry level position with your design team."

"Congratulations, you got the job," Draco said, "Now get the hell out of here, so I can speak with Pucey."

Adrian threw his quill on the desk, looked at the man and said, "Fine, start tomorrow. Meet me here at 8:00 in the morning." The young man left and Adrian stood up and said, "You have to stop hiring everyone like that! First Granger, now this kid, who by the way, isn't even that talented, and I wasn't going to hire!"

"Then fire him tomorrow," Draco said with a shrug, "and about Granger, did she sign all her papers yesterday?"

Adrian sat back down and said, "Of course."

"Even that nasty employment contract?" Draco asked.

"Malfoy," Adrian warned. "Leave her alone, you hear? I might not have been thrilled that you hired her on impulse last Friday, but now that she's here, I think she'll work out great, so leave her alone."

Draco sighed and said, "Did she even sign the employment contract?"

"Especially the employment contract!" Adrian barked. "Although to be truthful, she went through all the paperwork so fast, probably because you suggested to her that she not read them, so she didn't read a single thing, which I thought was odd, but still, she signed it, and I'm glad she did, for protection."

"What?" Draco said with a snort as he sat down in front of Adrian's desk. "Do you think she'll be after me or something?"

"No," he answered. "It's to protect her from you, you git."

"But you said yourself that she didn't read it. I'm sure it wouldn't hold up in court. She didn't even know what she was signing," Draco reasoned.

"Once more, leave her be, and may I remind you that ignorance of something isn't a defense. She had the opportunity to read it; we didn't coerce her, or trick her into signing it. She did it of her own freewill," Adrian pointed out.

"Semantics," Draco reasoned. He stood up and said, "Listen, case in point, it's a fact that if she didn't read it, therefore, it can't be valid, so she's fair game."

"She's an employee!" Adrian huffed.

Draco got a dreamy look about him and said, "No, she's a challenge, and I love challenges." He looked pleased, stood up and said, "Nice talking with you Pucey." He jaunted down the hall.

Adrian said an expletive and shouted, "NO!" though Draco was long out of sight.