Chapter 9 – The Proposition
May 2005
That note was the last Draco heard of Hermione. February turned to March where Draco and Tom managed to clear up all the logs, sticks and branches from the trees they'd cut down several months earlier.
March turned to April when Draco started planting his new odd specimens of plants. He also decided to set up wires around his vegetable patch to stop deer from eating the plants this year. This turned out to be semi-successful as Draco found the deer to have been munching of the plants from time to time.
April turned to May and one morning Draco was walking through his sitting room with his morning coffee in one hand when he suddenly stopped dead in his track, staring at something outside his window. Immediately he reached for the phone in his pocket and dialled one of the two numbers he knew by heart.
"Hello?" answered a female at the other end.
"Granger, it's me. You've got to come here. Right now." Draco said in a low voice.
"Malfoy? Where are you?" Hermione asked.
"In my sitting room. You've got to apparate here, into my sitting room, right now. And you've got to come alone." Draco urged.
"Is this a joke?" she sighed.
"Am I fucking laughing, Granger? Trust me on this. You want to come here. And hurry the fuck up." he said and hung up.
Slowly he made his way to the window where he watched and waited. With a loud pop Hermione appeared behind him three minutes later.
"Alright, Malfoy. What do you want?" she huffed.
"Be quiet and come over here." Draco hissed without looking at her.
Hermione, still annoyed at this unexplained strange situation, walked up next to Draco by the window. When she looked out her eyes landed on his vegetable patch, and to her surprise, a unicorn tangled in some wire.
"What in Merlin's name is it doing here?" she whispered.
"Well, by the looks of it it was feasting on my Chinese Chomping Cabbage before it got tangled in the wire I set up. I didn't realise it was unicorns eating my plats, I though deer were." Draco muttered.
"Malfoy, you twat! It's your entire fault there's been unicorns around here! They're drawn to your bloody magic plants!" Hermione said and punched Draco hard on the shoulder.
"Ouch! Don't hit me Granger. Be thankful I chose to show you!" Draco snapped. "Now help me let it loose."
"What do you want me to do?" Hermione asked.
"I don't know? You're the one working with regulation and control of magical creatures. How about stunning it so I can cut the wires? Will that work?" Draco suggested.
"I've never stunned something that big before alone. There should be at least another wand here assuming the stunning spell even works on unicorns." Hermione said a little uncertain.
"Well, we haven't got another wand and I'm not walking up to it in this state. It'll tear me to pieces." Draco said.
The unicorn outside the window let out a distressed sound as it tried to tear away from the wire around its hooves.
"Alright, I'll give it a go. It's going to attract attention if we don't get it out soon." Hermione said and drew her wand. "Got the cutters ready?"
Draco nodded and together they walked to the back door leading out to veranda and vegetable patch. Draco quietly opened the door and they both tiptoed onto the veranda. The unicorn caught their whiff and gave off another distressed sound as it once more tried to break free. Draco grabbed the cutters and Hermione gave him a nod.
"Stupefy!" Hermione shouted and a jet of light streamed from her wand and hit the unicorn in the chest.
The unicorn froze and fell down in on Draco's Chinese Chomping Cabbage with a loud thud.
"Good aim, Granger." Draco said and hurried over to the unicorn and started cutting the wires around its hooves.
When he'd freed the unicorn Draco saw some of the wire had cut into the ankle and thick, silvery blood now streamed slowly from the unicorn's ankle.
"Granger, it's hurt. The wires cut into it. Keep it stunned while I go and get some Plantago major."
"Plantago major? But that's a muggle plant." Hermione said but she kept her wand steadily pointed at the unicorn as Draco darted into the house.
He reappeared a minute later with the Plantago major.
"Yes, it's a bloody muggle plant, Granger. And even the muggles knows it can be used for bandage, soothing pain and for its antiseptic properties. What they don't know is that the harvest and storage makes all the difference in potencies." Draco said and put the plants on the wound.
The stunning spell wore off and the unicorn kicked with its hooves, hitting Draco across the eyebrow. Draco let out a long chant of foul words and pressed his hand against his busted eyebrow and the throbbing pain.
"Sorry! You alright, Malfoy?" Hermione winched and stunned the unicorn once more.
"Fuck me, that hurt!" he grunted.
A little disoriented from the blow to his head he gathered the Plantago major and placed it on the unicorn again. He found some strands of hair from the unicorn's tail, which had got stuck in the wire and used it to secure the bandage. When he was done he slowly backed away to the safe distance beside Hermione who released the unicorn from the stunning spell.
They both stood quiet on the veranda and watched the unicorn stumble to its feet and trotted away back into the forest. As the last of its silvery tail disappeared Hermione let out a deep sigh. After that they stood there in complete silence.
"So, there it goes." Draco said quietly.
"There it goes." Hermione agreed.
"The answer to your case." he said.
Hermione turned to Draco.
"We've got to do something about your eyebrow." she gave him a half smile.
"Right." he said as he absentmindedly put his fingers on the busted eyebrow.
He hadn't noticed until just then how much he was bleeding. They walked back into the house where Hermione fetched some ice and some more Plantago major for Draco put on his eyebrow.
"Let me ask you something, Malfoy." Hermione said as they sat down at his kitchen table.
Draco gave her a curious look.
"In about a month your sentence has been served and you'll get your wand back. What happens then?" she asked.
"Um, I dunno." Draco shrugged. "Haven't really thought about it."
"Oh spare me the crap, please. I'm not here to play games." she frowned.
"Why should I tell you?" he asked.
"Because your answer to my question will decide what I do next." she told him frankly.
Draco drew a deep breath and watched Hermione carefully trying to anticipate her intentions, something that proved impossible. When Draco didn't answer Hermione spoke again;
"Let me put it this way. If you were to do the sensible thing and close down this business, move back to the Wizarding world and partake in what's commonly defined as a prosocial business activity, then I'd forget I ever saw a unicorn here and why they were here."
"You're giving me an ultimatum." Draco said and lowered the Plantago major-ice-pack from his eyebrow.
"I wasn't finished." Hermione said, a sharpness to her words.
Draco sighed and nodded for her to continue.
"However, if you were to collect your wand, comes June 22nd, return here and carry on with this business you've built then I have a proposition. A business proposition, to be exact." Hermione continued.
"Well, Granger. You've got my curiosity. What is this proposition?" Draco asked and eyed Hermione suspiciously.
"Well, I guess you could call it a sort of business expansion; broadening the supply as it were. And it includes making me a partner. You, me and Tom, we split it equally three ways." Hermione said and Draco could swear he saw a mischievous smile forming in the corner of her mouth.
"Now you've got my attention as well, Granger." he smirked. "I'm going to accept this proposition, because it's a brilliant one. But before I officially do so I want you know there's another reason why I want to you to be a part in this."
He rose from his chair and walked around the table. When he got up beside her he bent down, cupped her face and planted a kiss on her lips. When he was about to pull away he felt Hermione grab a hold of his neck and pull him back into another kiss.
"I take it you don't object to my ulterior motives?" Draco asked as he started trailing kisses down Hermione's neck.
"If anything, this makes me even more sure I made the right choice." she breathed as she ran her fingernails down his back.
"That's my girl." Draco growled as he pulled her up from her chair and into his arms.
He picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist and he carried her off to his bedroom.