Chapter 2

"Hello?" she practically screeched.

"Good evening," a confident male voice said. "Is this the author of the new Hogwarts a History book?"

The New Hogwarts a History. That wasn't a bad title, Hermione thought, wondering if she would be able to use that since, clearly, her original title wasn't working for her.

"This is she, who is calling?" Hermione was confused, she called the editors and bugged them, they didn't call and bug her.

"I'm calling from the publishing branch of Malfoy Enterprises. I am very interested in your book and would like to edit and publish it myself."

"You would?" Wait…did he say Malfoy Enterprises?

"Yes, someone in the editing department mentioned your book to me a few weeks ago and it peaked my interest. I loved the original Hogwarts a History and was excited to read a new version. Even if you already have a publisher I would still love to meet with you to discuss some of the new information that you have added to the original. I found it a fascinating read. I loved your take on the original Founders' story and would love to read any books that you could recommend as to where you got the information from."

A fascinating read? That was not even close to what she had heard from every other publishing company that she had contacted. But Malfoy Enterprises?

"I'm sorry, did you say you were calling from Malfoy Enterprises?" Hermione finally found her voice.

"Yes, my name is Draco Malfoy and I'd like to publish your book," he said.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Hermione said before slamming her phone into the receiver.

It was official, this had been the craziest day of her life. It seemed as if Merlin and the Fates were working together, plotting against her. Clearly something was trying to stop her from reading Professor Snape's notes. Well, she wasn't going to be delayed any longer. She reached behind the counter and pulled the phone cord out of the jack. It was late but she was not going to be distracted anymore. And did Draco Malfoy really just say that he loved Hogwarts a History?

When Hermione finally did dig into the late professor's notes, she was not disappointed. The man had been working on many important things and she knew that she was very privileged to be the first and currently only one to be reading them. She knew that Snape had invented many spells and potions even in his Hogwarts days from reading the notes in Harry's old potions textbook.

His notes were organized and complex. The processes described were detailed and obviously very precise. Hermione looked forward to getting to the lab first thing the next morning to try some of them out. She looked at the clock and knew that she would have to go to bed soon if she planned on being on time for work in the morning. She hurriedly looked down at the first sheet of parchment.

Potion of Invisibility

Status: completed

Description: a potion that renders the drinker complete invisible until the counter potion is consumed

Side Notes/Complications: while the drinker is invisible, they are still able to be hit with spells. Maybe a shield potion can be incorporated later to stop or hinder spells?

Ingredients:

4 Demiguise Hairs

9 Crushed Black Beetle Eyes

3 tsp powdered Romanian Longhorned Dragon Horn

1 ½ Hellebore Leaves

½ Rat Spleen

5 Aged Valerian Roots

1tsp Wartcap Powder

3mL Salamander Blood

5mL Flobberworm Mucus

Notes on Ingredients:

Demiguise Hairs and Hellebore Leaves create invisibility – Hellebore is poisonous, Salamander Blood counteracts the poisonous effects

Flobberworm Mucus has no magical property, is only used to thicken the potion

Process:

Fill one standard sized cauldron with distilled water

Add Demiguise Hairs one at a time at ten second intervals

Add crushed Beetle Eyes and stir three times clockwise

Add Rom. Drgn horn and stir twice counterclockwise

Crumble Hell. Leaves between thumb and index finger and sprinkle into potion – do not stir

Add in rat spleen and stir clockwise ten times vigorously

Add Val. Roots at two minute intervals – stir once clockwise after each added root

Add Wartcap Powder into centre of cauldron, stir counterclockwise five times quickly

Cover and let stand for two days

Add Sal. Blood – do not stir!

Add Flwrm. Mucus – stir clockwise 16 times slowly

Store potion at exactly six degrees Celsius until use

Counter Potion:

Complete steps 1 through 11 in reverse (order and stirring direction)

Hermione had never even considered an invisibility potion before, she had just assumed it was impossible. A potion like this would be very sought after and would cause a lot of public interest. She read the instructions again and shuddered at the complexity. It was hard to master all of the different ways of stirring, not to mention that some of the ingredients were quite obscure and therefore expensive. If she wanted to try and make this potion, she would have to have some of them specially ordered to the lab.

Hermione marveled at the thought process that it must have taken to invent this potion. It was a very hard thing to figure out the way certain ingredients would react together and to actually get them all to work together the way you wanted. That was what all of the different stirring was for. The chemicals in each ingredient mixed together differently depending on how they were stirred.

If an invisibility potion was the first one on the stack, Hermione wondered what else she would come across while reading through these notes. She wanted to read more, but she checked the clock and was surprised again at how late it was. It was almost three in the morning, she had to be up in four hours to get ready for work. She looked sadly at the thick stack of parchment before putting them onto the coffee table and heading into her room for bed.

The next day passed very quickly for Hermione, before she knew it she was on her way home. She had not gotten much work done herself after realizing that her lab had less than half of the needed ingredients in stock. After placing orders for all of the other ingredients, she found that she didn't have much else to do.

She was about to read through some more of Snape's notes were she heard Hilarie exclaim from across the room. She was up from her desk in seconds and rushing over to where the small woman stood behind her work table. Hermione would not allow two accidents in as many days to happen in her lab. She had to stop whatever Hilarie was doing before something exploded.

"Hilarie?" she called out. "What is it? What's wrong?"

But nothing was wrong. As it turned out, Hilarie had finally made a breakthrough in her research. Hermione watched as the little mice walked around on the desk. The mice were specially trained to know how to do certain things, such as walk in a small circle and stand up on their back paws, on command. Either the mice had suddenly forgotten how to do their tricks, or Hilarie had finally gotten the potion to work properly.

"All I did was add Ashwinder Eggs!" she exclaimed. "All this time and that's all it was!"

Hermione had actually suspected for a while that this was all that the potion had needed but she was glad that Hilarie had figured it out on her own. Hilarie had worked in the lab for a full three months now and had not, up until this point, successfully reworked any of the potions.

"That's great Hilarie. Make up another batch of the potion so that I can check it. I have a feeling we'll be able to send this potion back to head office before we leave here tonight," Hermione said to her with a smile.

Hermione spent the next hour checking the potion and was pleased to discover that Hilarie (and herself) had gotten it right. The only missing ingredient was Ashwinder Eggs. She packaged up a vial of the potion and the paperwork and had it sent by owl post back to the head office. It had been almost a month, Hermione was sure that they would be glad to have the potion back and ready for use.

As Hermione walked into her kitchen she remembered that her phone was still unplugged from the night before. She reached down the back of the counter to plug it back in. Standing back up, she noticed the blinking light on the side of the phone. She had twelve new voicemails. She was about to pick up the receiver to listen to them when the phone started ringing. Startled, Hermione jerked her hand back away from the phone. Thinking that she really needed to get caller ID so that she could screen her calls she reached for the phone.

"Hello?" she said tentatively.

"Hello? Oh thank Merlin, I've been trying to call you all day!"

"Malfoy?"

"Yes, this is Draco Malfoy calling, we spoke last night before you so kindly hung up on me."

"You've been trying to call me all day?"

"Yes, I told you, I want to publish your book. Are you sure you are the woman that wrote the book? I was under the impression that she was intelligent," Draco said.

"Oh! You vile, arrogant man! Do you have any idea who you are talking to?" Hermione asked him.

"Well, since I've been calling all day I would hope that I am speaking to the author of Hogwarts a History – Abridged."

"It's Hermione Granger."

"Oh…I had no idea," Draco said finally.

"Clearly. I thought you were joking when you called last night and said that you wanted to publish my book. Then I thought maybe your friend just hadn't told you my name. Anyway Malfoy, as much as I truly enjoy talking to you, I'm going to go now, I have more important things to do. Such as watering my plants and cleaning my ears," Hermione went to hang up the phone.

"Granger wait!" she heard when the phone was halfway down.

"What Malfoy? You can't let me have the last word? You just need to insult me once for good measure?"

"No, I have grown up in the last year you know. I really did enjoy your book. As much as I loathe you I would still like to publish it. Malfoy Enterprises is a well known company, we would be good for a breakout author like yourself, unlike all of the other many offers I'm sure you've gotten."

"Many offers…right Malfoy, are you serious? How do I know you aren't trying to fool me to get something out of this?"

"Why would I do that? We aren't had Hogwarts anymore, there is no using you to get to Potter anymore. You're the one who would be gaining from this deal."

"Why would you want to do that then? The last I checked, you were only out to gain for yourself." Hermione said.

"Like I said, I really enjoyed the book. I found the original fascinating and I really would like to speak with you about your Founders theories."

"Well, alright," Hermione said finally. "I'm not saying that I want you to edit the book indefinitely, but I suppose we could meet to discuss it and see how it goes from there."

"Sounds great, how about tomorrow at my place?"

"At your house?" Hermione asked, surprised.

"Ok, how about my office then?"

Hermione woke up on Saturday morning from a strange dream. Before she even had time to rest on the details, she had forgotten them. As much as she tried, she could not remember the dream. She shook it off and remembered that she had to get ready to go to Malfoy Enterprises to meet Malfoy.

She climbed out of bed, not feeling rested at all. She glanced at the clock, it was almost ten. She had a little more than an hour before she had to be there. She turned to her closet. What did someone wear when they were going to a business meeting with their previously sworn enemy?

After a half an hour of putting on and discarding different outfits she finally settled on a fitted black pencil skirt and a flowing purple blouse. As she finished putting on her lipstick and brushing her long, thick hair she began contemplating her decision. She couldn't believe that she was even considering working with Malfoy. Maybe she was just desperate to get her book published, he was the only one that had shown any interest in it.

Finally it was time to go. She stepped out of her flat (which was a no apparition zone) and apparated to the location that Malfoy had described to her the day before. She suddenly found herself standing in front of a massive office building. She had never been to Malfoy Enterprises before but she had heard about it. It was a multimillion galleon business that had been open years before Draco was born. Hermione had had no idea that they even had a publishing branch.

She walked in the large, glass front doors and was immediately greeted by a guard. She suddenly felt underdressed, even the guard was wearing a suit. He was a large man who appeared to have been hired more for his size that his brains. Hermione was suddenly reminded of poor Biff and had to fight down a smile as the man spoke to her.

"What is your business at Malfoy Enterprises today Miss?" he asked her.

"My name is Hermione Granger, I have a meeting with Draco Malfoy today about my book."

"Of course Miss," the guard said, looking surprised. "Mr. Malfoy is expecting you. Jean will take you up there now," he said gesturing to a blond woman sitting behind the front desk.

"Right this way Miss Granger," the woman said, plastering a smile on her face.

Hermione looked from one to the other, hardly believing that she was actually doing this. Looking at Jean's smile she suddenly felt an urge to run out the door and back to her flat and her quiet life in the Potions Department of the Ministry. Why did she want to be an author anyway?

Shaking her head, she finally walked over to where Jean was waiting. She followed the lean woman over to a clear glass elevator. Jean pushed the green button on the wall and with a ding the elevator door opened. Hermione followed her inside and was immediately surprised by the size of the elevator. Apparently it used the same kind of magic that the tents they had slept in during the Quidditch Cup did because it was much larger inside than it appeared from the outside.

"It has an Enlargement Charm on it," Jean explained, seeing Hermione's surprised look. "It can hold seventy-five people pretty comfortably."

"That's…impressive," Hermione said, unsure of what to say to that.

The elevator stopped and the two women stepped out. "There are a lot of impressive things around here," Jean said looking up.

Hermione followed her gaze to the plaque of the door in front of them. It read Draco Malfoy – Owner and President of Malfoy Enterprises. Hermione turned to find Jean gone, apparently she wasn't going to see Hermione into the office. Hermione straightened her back preparing for the worst as she raised a hand to knock softly on the wooden door.

So there's chapter 2. I hope you guys liked it. I only got two reviews for chapter 1 but I already have three chapters of this story written so I figured I might as well post this anyway.

Thanks to the two of you who did review, please let me know what you thought of this one. :)