A/N: Huge thank you to everyone who favorited/followed and reviewed after last chapter! FFNet is doing that thing where it doesn't let me respond to reviews, so if I didn't get to you, I apologize! I was able to read them all, so thank you so much for the support. This chapter includes your favorite blonde...Daphne! Haha, I know your favorite is really Lucius :)
Please let me know what you thought of chapter seven and be on the lookout for chapter eight soon!
August, 1999
The morning after Harry's birthday party at the Ministry, Hermione woke up in her own bed, her head pounding and her mouth fuzzy. She always wondered why champagne hangovers seemed the worst, as she pulled herself up from bed to head to the bathroom. Once she'd grabbed herself a rarely need hangover potion, she returned to her bed, waiting for the headache to recede.
The only problem was that the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach wouldn't leave her, and she knew it was it wasn't caused by her over drinking the night before. No, this issue had a completely different name: Lucius.
Putting her face in her hands, Hermione let herself feel completely overwhelmed by the situation. She can't believe that she'd kissed Lucius Malfoy, and that she'd liked it so much. She'd been so upset by her friends and then Lucius had swept in like some kind of Prince Charming. He'd made her feel so much better about herself, about what had happened with Ron.
She'd been so impressed by his dancing, and he'd been completely polite about it, twirling her around the empty balcony, making her feel like a princess, making her life, keeping her mind completely off her friends.
Then, he'd kissed her. And it had been perfect.
Until she remembered just who it was out on the balcony. It was Lucius Malfoy, a man who wanted to eradicate her kind for many years, who was a former Death Eater, who should be in Azkaban currently. He wasn't a nice man, and he'd shown her once before that he was willing to manipulate her to get what he wanted. And just what did he want, kissing her like that?
And, a better question, why the fuck would she kiss him back. She remembered how she'd melted into his body, wanting to feel him pressed firmly against her. Why would she kiss Lucius Malfoy of all people? And why would she like it so much? Even now, the memory
Biting her lower lip, she wondered if it was just because she was trying to get over Ron. Surely, the first man that she kissed after the break up with Ronald would seem special to her, wouldn't they? And that wasn't a very good reason to kiss someone...just because she'd been upset over another boy, and some man gave her a little bit of attention.
Groaning, Hermione realized that it didn't even begin to cover the ethical component. Lucius was her boss, she couldn't be in a sexual relationship with him...no matter how kissable his lips were. She remembered when Pansy Parkinson had started a rumor that she'd only managed her Charms OWL because she'd given Professor Flitwick a little "extra credit." She'd never been so mortified in her life, but was mostly outraged because she worked hard to get where she was, and she didn't want her accomplishments tainted by rumors of sexual favors.
And that didn't even cover the fact that he was married. Well, separated, yes, but married.
She could admit to herself, that while she was much more attracted to Lucius than she ever would have imagined, she couldn't allow herself to be pulled into some kind of relationship with him. It wasn't right, and it couldn't happen again.
Feeling a little bit better with herself, she decided to try out the new patisserie down the street from her flat.
Avoiding Lucius was much more difficult than Hermione had anticipated, the week after the kiss, especially after they'd developed a better working relationship. Every time Hermione caught a glimpse of that pale hair, her mind was swept back into the night on the balcony.
She couldn't avoid him in the morning, but she always made sure she was having a long chat with Lucian Bole, the lawyer, or Mrs. Higgs, whenever Malfoy showed up at the office, so he couldn't talk to her alone. Because he clearly wanted to talk to her alone. She always left the office before he could leave for the day, so that they didn't have to walk alone to the lifts together.
In fact, she'd taken to running off towards the lavatories whenever he walked about in his office, just in case he would walk by his desk. She'd forced all of their correspondence into writing, and she'd nearly broken down one day and joined Harry and Ron for lunch.
It was exhausting.
Today, however, a loud commotion from Daphne caught her attention around lunch time. "Oh piss off Bole! If you touch me one more time, I swear I will file a complaint." Daphne was clearly enraged.
"Nice try Greengrass. I'd quash your little complaint before it could go before the board. Don't threaten me with the law." Lucian Bole, former Slytherin Beater shouted back with just as much vehemence.
"Just leave me alone." Daphne said firmly, before walking to Hermione's desk, just as she was sending an interdepartmental memo to Malfoy.
"Is everything alright, Daphne?" Hermione asked, a bit concerned for her new friend. She knew that the blonde, as were quite a few women in the Ministry actually, dealt with sexual harassment. It infuriated Hermione that her friend would be subjected to such a thing.
"Yes, I can handle Bole." She said, loud enough for the lawyer to hear, if his annoyed huff was any indication. "Did you just send Mr. Malfoy an interdepartmental memo?" She asked, clearly confused.
"Um, yes." Hermione responded, a blush staining her cheeks.
"Why?" Daphne countered. "You sit like thirty feet from one another."
"No reason." Hermione said, trying to sound as off handed as possible. "So, are we going to lunch or what?" She asked, quickly gathering her purse, before leading the way out of the department, to the little sushi shop that they had decided on.
Hoping to deflect the conversation from herself, Hermione asked Daphne a question first. "So, is everything okay with you and Bole?"
Daphne rolled her eyes. "Yes, it's nothing I can't handle...just the same old bullshit as always." She frowned, shaking her head before looking over the menu. "But don't try to change the subject, I am much more Slytherin than you. You have been acting oddly all week."
Hermione blushed, annoyed that her behavior had been so noticeable. She briefly thought about opening up to Daphne, to let her know about what had happened with Lucius, but she changed her mind. They'd barely been friends over a month, and she didn't want to give the girl anything to hold over her, in case the friendship was just one of convenience. "I just...well, I went to the party on Saturday, and it was the first time I've seen all of my friends together since my graduation party."
The blonde could barely contain her glare at Hermione. "I really wish you'd stop calling them your friends. Let me guess, it went worse than expected." She wrote down her order on the menu and the waitress came by to take their selections.
"Right in one guess." Hermione said darkly, remembering how terrible it had been. "They just expect me to drop everything that I'm doing and move back in with them. The worst of it is that it's not even for my companionship, it's just so I can do little household tasks for them. Like brew potions."
"I thought Potter was decent at potions. He sure impressed Slughorn." Daphne put some wasabi in her soy sauce, mixing it around until it became a thin paste.
Hermione made a negative noise. "No, he got a book from the storage room. Turned out it belonged to Professor Snape, and had all of his notes in it. He's a decent brewer if he sets his mind to it."
"I knew that he couldn't be that good." Daphne said with a smirk, smiling when their food arrived.
"I don't know..." Hermione said, picking up her chopsticks. "I don't want to get back together with Ronald, but seeing the four of them together, just kind of showed me how easily I don't fit into their lives. And how much I wouldn't hate to have a boyfriend of my own." Hermione wanted to be romanced in the way that Ron had never even tried to. Flowers, chocolates, jewelry, expensive dinners out. She knew it was a little bit shallow, but she deserved romance at least once in her life, didn't she?
"He brought Vane?" Daphne asked, incredulously. "And expected you to just act like nothing was wrong?"
"Yeah. They all told me I was overreacting and couldn't let things go." Hermione said, before her own smirk grew over her face. "Though I did get in one really good jibe about when Romilda almost killed Ron with some amortentia she'd brewed for Harry."
Daphne laughed out loud at that. "Priceless. I would have loved to see her face." She said a bit maliciously, but it felt good to indulge in a little spite with Daphne. "Well, to me it seems pretty clear what you need to do."
"Oh yeah? What's that?" Hermione asked between bites.
"Get revenge. Show them how much you don't need them back." Daphne said with a grin. "And I know just the way. You should date a totally hot guy who they wouldn't approve of at all."
Hermione flushed, her mind automatically thinking about Lucius. He was...extremely attractive, with his strong jaw and stormy eyes. And, she knew that her friends would never approve of her dating him. Shaking her head, she remembered that she was not meant to be thinking about Lucius in any sexual capacity. He was her boss. He was married. He was off limits. "I don't know, Daphne. That doesn't really sound like something that I could do. It's not like I have totally hot guys lining up at my door."
"Well, that's because you're intimidating." Daphne said, noticing Hermione's surprised face. "What? You are! It's not like it's a bad thing. I have an idea...one of Theo's friends recently moved back to London. We should go on a double date!"
The former Gryffindor thought that her lunch mate seemed entirely too excited about the prospect. "I don't know Daphne. I've only ever dated two guys." She said with a blush. It was hard to tell the beautiful girl about the abysmal state of her love life.
"So? It will be so much fun! Come on, I insist!" Daphne said with a smile that showed she knew that she was winning.
Hermione scowled. "Are you just going to bully me until I give into what you want?" Seeing Daphne's shark like grin, she knew it was true. "And people think that I am bossy. Fine, I will agree to one double date."
"Excellent! This means that I can finally take you shopping." Daphne said with a grin. "If you wear that raspberry atrocity to work one more time before getting it tailored, I am going to burn it."
"Well, I have been meaning to expand my wardrobe." Hermione said, flushed. She knew that she wasn't the most fashionable witch, but she hoped with a little guidance she could look more polished and less frumpy. "And I kind of want really high heels." She admitted, knowing that it was probably a bit more girly of a statement than you'd expect of Hermione Granger.
"Now you are speaking my language!" Daphne said, rubbing her hands together.
"You have to tell me about the guy though." Hermione added, suddenly nervous about who Daphne was trying to set her up with. She knew that he wouldn't be completely horrible, but she didn't want someone who would be rude to her, or was prejudiced about muggleborns.
"Nope, it's going to be a blind date." Daphne said wrinkling her nose. "I've already told you too much." She said, pulling out some sickles to settle her bill, while Hermione did the same.
"Do I at least know him?" She asked, biting her lower lip.
"Well...you don't know him, but you definitely know of him." Daphne said, standing from the table. Hermione could sense she wasn't going to get any more details about the date at that point. They began walking back to the Ministry. "Hey, you never told me why you were sending a memo to Mr. Malfoy." Daphne suddenly remembered what they were doing before Hermione distracted her with lunch.
"Oh, he was just in a meeting, so I didn't want to disturb him." Hermione said, trying not to seem nervous. If Daphne knew that she was avoiding her boss, the blonde didn't make it known.