A/N: Huge thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited and followed after last chapter! Alright, so I was doing a bit of re-org for this story's plot flow, and just note that this chapter is way longer than the others will (usually) be...so don't get used to it, haha! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I sometimes post updates and sneak peaks!
Please let me know what you thought of chapter three, and be on the lookout for chapter four soon!
The following Monday came very quickly to Hermione's joy. She'd been doing a lot of research on the department of the MInistry of Magic she would be joining and avoiding owls from Harry who was trying to convince her to move back into Grimmauld Place. Even if she hadn't already purchased a flat, she still wouldn't entertain the idea, especially not so soon.
She didn't think she could handle seeing Romilda about all the time.
She remembered how even Harry had called her Ro...how was it even possible that the pair of them knew each other well enough to go by nicknames? Romilda had been at Hogwarts same as Hermione and she barely saw her two best friends as it was. Just when had Ron found the time to date her?
Although she was excited for her job to start, she was intensely curious and a little bit suspicious about what she would be doing there. It was just...who offered someone a job without evening meeting them, without interviewing them? Sure, she had some celebrity, but it was still highly unusual.
A part of her worried that she might be pulled into something illegal or otherwise horrible. She knew that they were probably just understaffed...and well, her NEWTs were highly impressive.
That's what she told herself while she got dressed in a set of raspberry colored robes. She sighed, looking at herself in the mirror. Her hair looked professional, pulled back in a French twist, but she probably should have gotten her robes tailored, but she'd been in such a rush, and she only just bought them that weekend. She wished that she'd bothered to learn some of the tailoring charms that Lavender knew while she was in Hogwarts.
Deciding that she looked as good as she was going to get, she settled into a sensible pair of black heels (no more than two inches high), and stared at her in the mirror. "This is going to be a good day, Hermione. This is a good thing." She gave herself a little pep talk, wanting to keep an open mind and get off on the right foot with her new coworkers.
Her flat was in Diagon Alley, so it was only a short walk to the Ministry, and she didn't have to bother with the London entrances. She couldn't imagine how awful it would be to have to flush herself in every day. She made a mental note to see about hooking her fireplace up to the floo network, so that she could maybe start flooing into her office.
Plus, when she inevitably forgave Harry, Ron and Ginny, it would be nice to be able to firecall them every now and again.
Before she knew it, Hermione was waiting in a little vestibule where the secretary's desk was. Hermione had been expecting someone a bit younger, but the old woman was kind and welcoming, and it calmed some of Hermione's nerves. Surely this woman wouldn't be working for a shady business, would she.
Finally, the secretary, a Mrs. Higgs, was given leave to take her back. "This is where the analysts sit." She said, showing a cluster of desks near a beautiful window. Hermione knew that they were deep underground, so the spectacular view had to be enchanted, but it was still a lovely touch.
"And over here is where the lawyer is. He reviews all contracts, but is out of the office for the moment." Hermione saw his desk was absolutely covered with papers, and was surrounded by several filing cabinets, making Hermione think it looked quite a little fort. She was excited to meet the lawyer, because she was fascinated by the art of contract negotiation.
Hermione wasn't very good at negotiation. She tended to take too firm a stance when she should be more willing to compromise, but she couldn't help wanting to do what was right. She was as unyielding as her wand.
"You will be working closely with the department head, so your desk will be right outside of his office." Mrs. Higgs said, showing Hermione to a beautiful dark wood desk. It suited her immensely and she couldn't wait to set it up.
She was intensely curious about who the department head was, so she left her purse on the desk, and followed Mrs. Higgs to the only closed office in their department. The woman knocked confidently on the door, before turning the knob and entering, allowing Hermione to follow after her.
"Good morning, Mr. Malfoy. Miss Granger is here for her first day." Mrs. Higgs said with a bright smile on her face.
As soon as Hermione had locked eyes with Lucius Malfoy, she felt her heart sink. So much for a great job, she thought darkly, knowing that this must be some kind of trick. "Good morning, Mr. Malfoy." She said, no hint of a smile on her face, but wanting to be polite.
"Ah, yes, Miss Granger. We are so excited to have you on as a cultural liaison and economic analyst." He said, in that cool impolite way of his. "Now, I am sure you have all sorts of things yet to do this morning, forms to fill out and the like, so I won't take up any more of your time." His voice was stilted, perhaps expecting rejection. "I hope that you will feel quite at home here."
Hermione gave him a stiff nod of her head, before turning from the room and following Mrs. Higgins back to her desk. The older woman did leave her with quite the stack of papers to fill out for human resources and an employee manual to read through.
Try as she might, Hermione couldn't focus on the words she was meant to be writing, and cursed when a drip of ink from her poised quill bled into the white parchment. How was she meant to fill out this banal paperwork when she just found out that Lucius bleeding Malfoy was to be her boss?
Just thinking of the man made her very mad. After the Battle of Hogwarts, Hermione had fully expected the man to spend the rest of his days rotting away in Azkaban prison where he belonged. He couldn't claim the imperious curse this time around, as the Death Eaters hadn't been exactly subtle during the second wizarding war.
Hermione had attended all of the Death Eater trails, wanting to make sure that everyone got their just rewards, and she'd spoken at a fair few as well. For instance, she'd given Draco Malfoy quite the character reference, knowing that he was nothing more than a scared boy.
She'd given no such favors to Lucius Malfoy. He'd been sentenced to ten years in the rock island prison, but with the possibility of parole. It turned out that Lucius Malfoy still had friends in the Ministry, and he'd come out, not even six months later.
The pictures of him being released had been awful. He looked completely disheveled, with ratty hair and even a beard. His eyes were a bit wild, and honestly, it made Hermione feel back for him, seeing the normally put together wizard so out of his element, in a dire moment. It wasn't right for the paper to publish the picture.
But then, she saw him today, looking every bit as suave and put together as he usually was, it really got under her skin. His straight, white blond hair was pulled back at the nape of his neck, and he didn't have a hint of facial hair on his smooth jawline. He looked every bit as handsome as he always had.
And that rankled Hermione more than she ever thought it was. Shaking her head, Hermione looked back down to her papers, knowing that she will need to complete these no matter what. Throwing herself into the mountains of paperwork (really, on her first day?), letting it pull her mind from thoughts of her new boss and how handsome he was.
Smiling, Hermione realized that she hadn't even thought of Ronald once that day. At least that was a plus.
Hermione spent the rest of her day reading her employee and conduct manuals. She'd met some of her other coworkers earlier that day, but they hadn't stuck around to talk to her for too long. She'd had a very lonely lunch in the lunchroom, sitting by herself at one of the big long tables, and she was briefly reminded of her first days at Hogwarts, before she'd befriended Harry and Ron.
She felt a lump settle in her throat, once again thinking about the pain those two boys put her through. She'd made a terrible mistake, taking this job, just to have something to focus on besides her hurt feelings. It was so un-Hermione-ish she almost couldn't believe that she'd been so impulsive.
Still, now, here she was, waiting for Lucius Malfoy to dismiss her, so that she could go home to her lonely little flat. Maybe she should get another familiar, she thought briefly. Crookshanks hadn't been found after the war, and Hermione liked to think that he'd gone peacefully. He was a rather old cat, even being half-Kneazle.
A clearing throat broke her from her melancholy, and Hermione looked up to see Lucius Malfoy at the door to his office. "Did you have an enjoyable first day with us, Miss Granger?" He asked, taking note that they were the only two people left in the office.
Hermione wheeled around, all of her annoyance that had been building over the day coming to the forefront of her mind. Just what was he thinking, acting like it was completely normal for them to be in this working relationship? She just knew that he had some kind of nefarious purpose, asking her to work here. "Is this some kind of joke?" She asked, surprised by the tone of her voice. She sounded much more angry than she thought she would.
Malfoy looked at her in surprise, his eyes widening, obviously not expecting to spar verbally with her, after she'd been so polite in the morning. "I am afraid I don't understand what you mean." He said, silver eyebrows knitted together in confusion.
"Giving me this job?" Hermione said, needing to get to the bottom of it. "I'll bet you just couldn't stand one last jibe when my cover letter came across your desk, could you? You just had to put me in my place one last time." Hermione stood up. "You knew I would never have accepted if I knew you were the department head, and that's why you didn't interview me."
"It wasn't a joke." Lucius said, calmly, his face once again an impassive mask, not revealing to Hermione what he was thinking. It made her sick. Everything he did was so fake, that she wasn't sure even Lucius Malfoy knew what his true personality was like.
"Oh really?" She countered, hands on her hips and her voice shrill. "This has nothing to do with you rubbing my nose in the fact that I am nothing more than a mudblood? That my only place could be as little more than a glorified secretary for you? That my place will be forever beneath you?"
Hermione blushed, at the unintended innuendo in her words, and from the amused look on Lucius's face, he noticed it as well. Unbidden, an image of Lucius Malfoy naked and above her popped into her brain.
"I assure you that was not my intent, Miss Granger." Lucius told her, a frown on his face. "You were simply above and beyond the most qualified candidate to come across my desk the past three months that the position has been open."
Hermione stood there, mouth agape, unable to believe that Lucius Malfoy had compliment her.
He continued. "I didn't feel the need to interview, having first hand knowledge of your work ethic and general temperament. I won't accept anything less than the best, Miss Granger, and you simply were it." She still couldn't respond to him. Of all the things she expected Malfoy to do, speak highly of her was not it. "Now, I think you are done for the day. Please arrive tomorrow morning at 8 AM sharp."
Then, the blond man turned on his heel and retreated back into his office. Hermione stood for a moment, dumbfounded, before gathering her purse and deciding to take his advice. She left her little office, slipping into Muggle London deciding to get a some take away from a Thai place she knew.
Once she'd secured her dinner, and a bottle of red wine from the off-license, she returned to her empty flat. Hermione didn't even have time to contemplate the crushing loneliness that she felt, her thoughts consumed instead with Lucius Malfoy's words.
Even though he said it wasn't a trick, Hermione couldn't shake the feeling that he was up to something. And just how did he get the job as department head anyway? She was certain it must be some kind of cronyism. He had enough money not to work ever, so what did he get out of it? She was sure that she would have to do all of the work, and he would just swoop in and take her credit!
Annoyed, and slightly buzzing from the half bottle of red wine that she drank, Hermione was certain of one thing. She couldn't stay at that job, working for that spoiled, lazy prick! It was foolish for her to accept the job without interviewing, and she should have waited to see what other offers she received before making a decision. Hermione Granger normally made all sorts of pros and cons lists about this, but instead, she'd jumped in face first.
Her mind made up, Hermione felt a little better about the situation. She would just have to continue to look for another job. Her time with the Trading Board would certainly pass the time, but it couldn't be permanent. Not if it meant working with Lucius Malfoy.
No matter how much she wrote to other departments in within the Ministry, everyone had already heard that she was working with the International Magical Trading Standards Board and couldn't imagine why she would want to leave such a cutting edge and desireable Department, so they wouldn't even give her the time of day.
She was sure that they just thought she was shopping around for a better salary. She couldn't just come out and say that she couldn't stand working with Lucius Malfoy.
It would make her look like she couldn't put history in the past, where the rest of the wizarding world wanted the war to stay.
And really, Hermione did find it a little bit ridiculous that she couldn't just put it behind her and get on with her life. It was just that she was so positive that he was doing this on purpose to put her in her rightful place.
Hermione knew it was only a matter of time before Malfoy would start asking her to do secretarial duties for him...copy papers, get him coffee, pick up his immaculately dry-cleaned clothes. She knew that he knew that she was on to him, to his plan, so he couldn't do it now, but she knew it was only a matter of time.
Being constantly on guard was causing a heaviness to settle in her stomach, and she was afraid she might be getting an ulcer.
To try to keep her mind off of what was surely soon to happen, Hermione completely threw herself into her work. She always arrived on time, and stayed late to finish things up, but she didn't make a point of staying behind. She didn't want to spend any more time with Lucius than was necessary.
If she had her head down in a book reviewing current trade agreements, she didn't notice Malfoy coming into the office in the morning, or his small murmur of good morning every day. If her desk was covered the tomes pulled from the Ministry archives, she didn't have to respond to Malfoy's offer of a tea service.
It did help that Hermione's work was actually quite interesting. Of course, she did take the job because she thought it would be lively work, and work that could bring a lot of good to the people of Wizarding Britain, if she could help negotiate fair trade deals with other countries. While most of their agreements were with France, they had recently began making more deals with Germany, other Eastern European countries, and even the far East.
Currently, she was working on a trade agreement with Bulgaria of all countries. It seemed that they had some kind of wood that was especially good for making wands and they wanted to import some British unicorn hairs for wand making. It was a fairly standard deal, but Hermione was excited because of the connection to Viktor.
Although the two were no longer romantically involved, Hermione and Viktor remained fast friends and frequently wrote to each other. She wondered if she might be selected to go on the trade mission to Bulgaria. If she was lucky, she might even be able to take a few extra days to go and visit her old friend.
Still, even if a trade deal was standard, it was never simple. There were numerous permits that would need to be secured by both the British and Bulgarian Ministries for transporting material from such a rare and endangered animal, to ensure that everything was responsibly sourced. Hermione was wading through the complex legal needs to push the deal through, and she wondered if the Wizarding World would ever consider a Union, kind of like the European Union that the muggles had.
She doubted that anything like that could be passed by the current Wizengamot, who seemed to move at a glacial pace, and be desperately opposed to change.
Hermione was pleasantly surprised to learn one thing about Malfoy though. It seemed that he was working as hard as she was. Honestly, she expected him to just have this job as some kind of cushy automatic paycheck, and for him to delegate all of his real work to his underlings, only to soak up all the praise and accolades.
He always arrived on time, and he usually worked through his lunches. Hermione often found his light still on in his office as well when she left for the evening. With her desk so close to his office, she could often hear his voice making fire calls to various important people, and he was quite good at what he did, knowing exactly which buttons to push to get a deal to do through.
Hermione frowned. It just proved what she already knew about Lucius Malfoy. He was a master manipulator and willing to do whatever he needed to to get what he wanted.
Hermione had been sitting at her desk, quill in her mouth, trying to pen the perfect response to Harry, who wanted to meet her for lunch. He figured that as they both worked in the Ministry, they should have no trouble getting together every now and again.
And it was rather convenient, it was just that Hermione still wasn't ready to see any of her friends yet. She was still so upset over what had happened with Ronald. She couldn't believe that Harry believed the tripe that Ron must have told them about how he and Hermione were just casual. Harry knew her better than that, didn't he?
Still, she just couldn't face him today and pretend that things were fine and ask nice questions about how his relationship with Ginny was going, when her own relationship was so violently ripped apart. She didn't want to hear him casually mention Ron in conversation, pointedly ignoring the fact that the redhead had cheated on her, with a girl who'd tried to slip Harry himself a love potion once before!
While she was working on a polite answer to Harry, she was saved by an inter-departmental memo, inviting her to a meeting. Hermione smiled and sent Harry her regrets, telling him she had a work meeting, before hastily adding a note that they would get together soon. She would consider how to keep that promise later.
Walking into the meeting, Malfoy was seated at the head of the table, with a space at his right left open for her. Hermione schooled her feature into polite grace, not wanting to have a temper tantrum in front of the rest of the very important wizards around the table.
"Gentlemen, this is Miss Granger." Malfoy said, with a polite nod to Hermione. "I am sure that you will be seeing her much more frequently. She's been working diligently on the Bulgarian trade deal."
That caught Hermione off guard. Why was he making such a grandiose introduction to a woman that was likely just invited here to take minutes? She knew that her reputation for being a fastidious note taker - whether deserved or not - was well known, so she took out a quill, dating the top of the page, ready to write down whatever was discussed.
She could play along this time for Malfoy, but she'd draw the line at fetching him tea or biscuits.
The meeting was surprisingly interesting to Hermione. Apparently they were trying to work out a scheme to repatriate some old wizarding artifacts which had been plundered by Romans long before the time of Hogwarts. It was part of a greater trade deal with Italy that would see them trading tomatoes and rubies.
Hermione chewed the feathered end of her quill absent mindedly and wondered if all trade agreements were going to be so odd. Did they select those two items just on the basis that both items were red, she wondered. Not to mention all of the issues that would come up with the goblins.
"I see one major flaw with this, Trade Minister, and that is the goblins." Malfoy said in his slightly haughty tone. Hermione was sure that was a reflex now. Still, it was impressive that he'd even considered them. "Miss Granger, I understand that you have quite a complex understanding of goblin culture. Do you have anything to add?"
Hermione felt her cheeks heat up, and she hoped that he wasn't insinuating about her time breaking into Gringotts. There was no laughter at the table, though, so Hermione proceeded with caution. "The goblins will never agree to let such large quantities of rubies leave the country. We get payment in the form of tomatoes, but the goblins have no such use for tomatoes, and they see a large amount of capital leave their bank."
The Italian Trade Minister looked a bit annoyed with her, but Malfoy just gave her an encouraging nod. "So what do you suggest then?" The grouchy Italian demanded of her, not wanting a huge trade to fall through just because of this chit.
"You will need to make separate payment to the goblins. We do not think of iron ore as being terribly precious when compared to rubies, but the goblins will go for it." Hermione said, feeling confident in herself for a momentary change. He may not like it, but she was certain she helped save this trade deal.
The Trade Minister looked to Malfoy, before jerking his head up and down. Malfoy gave the room a bright smile, so clearly put upon, and pressed his hands together. "Excellent. We can set up a meeting to liaise with the goblins later this week then." Sticking out his hand, Malfoy and the Minister shook, promising to stick together.
Hermione tried to hustle out of the meeting room afterwards, unwilling to spend much time in Malfoy's presence. It had been interesting to watch him work. He was quite knowledgeable, but still, there was something oily about him that Hermione desperately wanted to wash off.
Still, she heard his steps catching up to hers, long legs quickly overtaking her shorter strides. By the time that they reached her desk, Hermione could avoid him no longer. "You did quite well today, Miss Granger." He said, searching her face. "I was impressed with you."
Then, he turned on his heel and returned to his own office, leaving Hermione standing there speechless. She'd expected him to treat her like little more than dirt, but he had listened to her thoughts, and respected and valued her opinion, in front of a room of such powerful men.
The blond man confused her, and she didn't like it. She didn't like it one bit.