Author's Note: Thanks so much for the response to the first chapter! It feels good to be posting new content again, as it has been many years since I've last launched a new story :) I hope you all keep enjoying and reviewing! I'm still working on this one and another new story.

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Harry Potter franchise.

When Draco stumbled into work Tuesday morning, heavy bags beneath his eyes, he already had a bad feeling about the day. The feeling was instantly confirmed when he ran into Granger on the ground floor, waiting for a lift. He stood a good distance away, not looking directly at her, for he knew she was glaring. Finally, she sighed, a haughty, disgruntled expression.

"You won't be able to ignore me forever," she scoffed, and Draco looked up. Were he a lesser man, he may have cowered under the look she was giving him. "Did my visit yesterday mean nothing to you? Or do you genuinely like to torture me?"

Draco was slightly stung. "I wouldn't call it torture. Granger, I have proven to you time and again that I am no longer an ignorant tosser. I am making an effort to get to know you, and to work with you. You are the one making assumptions about me."

"I do not want to get to know you," she hissed, eyes narrowed. "And this is no assumption: you deliberately selected me for your team because you knew how badly I did not want to be on it."

"I would call that a horrendously wrong assumption," Draco replied calmly. "Did you consider the fact that I legitimately want you on my team?"

The lift arrived then, and Draco leisurely walked in. He held the door for her. She stared, suspiciously, then huffed with contempt.

"I will take the stairs, thank you," she muttered, turning away.

"Suit yourself," Draco replied, more to himself, as she was already gone. Once more he felt any enthusiasm he had been harbouring toward meeting with the rest of his team seep away, as if through his skin. She really needed to quit doing that to him.

Draco went to his office, gathered his paperwork and delivered it to Hambone. The man looked slightly impressed that it was complete, then took in Draco's less than immaculate appearance.

"You have the board room to discuss with your team this proposal," he handed Draco a folder. "I trust the Gladrags account has been sewn up?"

"All but a few details," Draco replied. He had spent most of the weekend finishing up that job.

"Good," Hambone continued. "Then you will have no problem getting straight on this."

Draco opened the folder, shocked to see the preliminary information for the Diagon Alley re-branding account they were working towards.

"Sir, you want my team to do this?" He was slightly shocked, as Bullham had been talking about how important this job was for months. Draco had always expected he would take it on himself.

"Yes, I have decided it will be a good test of your leadership." Hambone eyed him warily. "I hope you won't let the company down, Malfoy."

"Of course not," he replied, suddenly feeling as if a large weight was crushing his chest. Bernard Bullham would do something like this to him on his second day as a Senior Executive. The Diagon Alley case would be insanely competitive, as every major marketing firm in the wizarding world would be dying to win it. Bullham and Miner had a reputation to uphold.

And it would be Draco's job on the line if this went poorly.

Holding the folder out as if it would bite him, Draco hurried back to his office, prepared himself for the meeting, sent memos out to his new team and went across the floor to the board room.

Keats and Pucey strolled in making casual conversation, followed closely by Granger, looking less than thrilled to be there. But he knew her well enough to know that she wouldn't dream of being late or absent.

Lila walked in, giving Draco a short wave. He saw Granger roll her eyes. Finally Thomas Baxter, shirt partially untucked and hair ruffled, walked in, grinning. He eyed Draco's tired expression speculatively.

"Late night, boss?" he asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. Despite himself and the sudden urgency that had taken over him at Bullham's news, he smirked.

"You could say that," he murmured, ignoring Granger's snort of disgust.

It was clear by the atmosphere that most of his team were pleased to be there. Or else, they were just pleased not to be under the harsh scrutiny of the company founders. Sol and Adrian continued on with their conversation about, from what Draco could surmise, the genetics of facial hair. Granger was tidily writing the date at the top of a sheet of parchment, her quill pressing into the sheet perhaps harder than it ordinarily would have. Thomas was sneaking a look into Lila's purse, much to the chagrin of the girl who could not seem to get it back from him.

"Can we do this, please?" Draco asked, sighing. He knew there was an edge to his tone, as suddenly everyone stopped and looked up at him.

"Thank you," he murmured. "Now, you were all selected for this team for a variety of reasons. I have certain expectations. You will all get along, with one another and with me. If by some chance this is not possible, speak to me and I will see what can be done about it. We will work together, and we will work damn hard."

He looked around the circle, staring each of them down. When he reached Granger, he paused, meeting her disgruntled eyes. They narrowed but she did not look away.

"Does everyone understand that?" he asked quietly, still not looking away from her eyes. There was a mumble of agreement around the table, and Granger gave a sort of jerky nod, a faint blush creeping into her cheeks as she finally looked away.

"Good. Now, here is our job." He distributed copies of Hambone's folder on Diagon Alley. "I hope no one is hung up on old work, because from this point forward, this is our focus." He grimaced as they all started asking questions at once, confused as to why their team was taking this job.

"If you would all shut up for a moment," he breathed, and they did as he asked. "Yes, this is the Diagon Alley advertising case we have all been hearing about for ages. This is an all-encompassing report on the entire central wizarding street. The union has decided to move toward a new marketing angle for the whole street, and we must present them with that angle. This is why this team will work as a team at all times."

"This has got to be one of the most competitive jobs I've ever heard," Adrian suddenly stated. "No one wants to deal with Hambone if this one is lost."

"Least of all me," Draco replied, a cold smile on his features. "I'm sure you can understand how I want this to go smoothly. But no complaints, we will get to work right away. Our first task: reconnaissance. We will need to know virtually everything about this job. History and context, who is in charge of selecting the proposal, any minute detail which may give us an edge."

This was easier, now that they were all listening intently. Draco's brain was running into overdrive trying to determine the best way to put his team to work. His Slytherin side knew that he would very likely stop at nothing to win this.

"Keats, Pucey, this is on you. I want a progress report back by the start of next week." His team were all scribbling furiously, trying to take notes on everything he said. "Secondly: we need a concept. Design, image, promotion, theme. Granger, Baxter, you two had better run with this. Co-ordinate with recon to make sure everything fits. Lastly, implementation, finances, logistics. That's you and me, Campbell." Lila looked up, giving him a small smile.

"We've got just under a month to blow them out of the water with this. I will be keeping an eye on all of you, and any issues must be reported to me before they get out of hand. Questions?"

No one spoke, as they were all suddenly flipping through their folders, searching out the best way to begin their work.

"Good, now pair up and let's get to work." Baxter shifted over to sit with Granger, and Draco took his seat next to Lila, exhaling heavily. She looked over, smiling wryly at him.

"Good work," she murmured. "Getting them all in line like that. I know you'll be great."

"Thanks," he bit out. "Wish I knew that same thing. There's a sheet on proposed budget in the folder."

Lila drew out the sheet, scanning it quickly. She made a few notes on it before turning to him again.

"I don't know about anyone else, but I am still in the middle of a job with a few others," she bit her lip, worried. "I don't want to put it on someone else, but I don't want to neglect this until it's done."

"Maybe you should've spent the weekend in the office with me," Draco teased. "In reality, Lila, you won't have as much to do in the immediate future until a lot of the other details have been assembled. You've got time."

She relaxed a little, looked over the sheet again, and then frowned.

"I'm not so great with budgets yet," she admitted.

"It comes with time," Draco informed her, taking her quill. He pointed out a few lines, writing up a quick formula to measure monetary distribution. "The price they are willing to pay, it's a variable. Especially in huge jobs like this. If your proposal is the best, money will be flexible. It's all in supply and demand; an inverse relationship. The higher the demand, or the more they want your job, the higher the price they will accept. The more they will pay."

Lila was staring at him as if he were speaking Greek.

"It's basic economics," he smiled. "Of course, you never want to assume your proposition will push the envelope like that. We can bend a little, but never force the price too far beyond what seems reasonable. No one wants to admit their budget is greater than what they tell you."

He looked up to see Granger eyeing him curiously.

"I never knew you had a knowledge of economics," she murmured.

"I took an interest after Hogwarts," Draco replied, shrugging. "It's come in helpful in this job."

"Have you read the classics? Keynes, Smith?" She was clearly evaluating him right now. Draco saw right through her.

"I'll be entirely honest with you, Granger. Classical economic theorists have always sort of rubbed me the wrong way." He paused, meeting her brown eyes. "I mean, don't get me wrong, but for all their wisdom in ideology and conceptual framework, they were always making such wild assumptions on human rationality. I tend to believe that irrationality is a very prevalent thing."

Granger smiled faintly. "Is that not unavoidable in economics? Human rationality has always been a basis."

"It has," he agreed. "That doesn't make it a necessary truth."

She fell silent, deep in thought. Suddenly Draco remembered they were in a meeting and the entire team was now staring at him oddly. Of course he had gone and spouted his opinion of Muggle economics. Lila was looking slightly awed.

"Back to work," he grumbled. Leaving Lila with the budget sheet, he walked over to inspect the progress of Sol and Adrian in their research.

"How's it going here?" he asked, pulling up a chair.

"Good," Sol nodded. He handed Draco a list of research topics and where each could be located. "We figure maybe we will head over after lunch and begin."

"Sounds great," Draco agreed, nodding. "Let me know how it goes tomorrow morning."

He continued his rotation, taking a seat next to Thomas Baxter. He and Granger had very little written down.

"What's the trouble?" he asked, glancing over their few ideas. Nothing was jumping out at him.

"Baxter can't focus," Hermione suggested, lips curved into a small smile.

"Lies," Thomas contradicted, sighing. "I am gathering my creative juices." Draco would have laughed, were Baxter still his amusing desk partner. But now he had a lot more at stake.

"I chose you two for design since you are the most experienced, and I have seen what you both can do with an idea." He looked to them both individually. "Granger, you market brilliance. And Bax, you're probably the most creative son-of-a-bitch I've ever met. This is big. Bigger than anything any of us have worked on before. I'm counting on you two to pull together. Anything you need, let me know, and I'll get it taken care of. Alright?"

Granger nodded, looking slightly reluctant. Perhaps it was her unwillingness to work for him warring with her desire to be a part of this job. Baxter just winked, scrawling some new ideas on the parchment. Draco grinned, walking back to Lila, who was preparing a rough estimate of funds.

"You are so easy to work with," he informed her. "I'm already starting to wonder if this promotion wasn't a mistake."

"Quit being so down on yourself," Lila said absently, still working on her report. "You put together a competent team. And Hambone wouldn't have chosen you if he didn't think you could manage."

"Thanks, Lil." He fell into silence, taking notes from the whole package on Diagon Alley. He would never quite forgive himself if he blew this. A while later he looked up and Lila had finished the rest of her outline. The other two teams were still working hard, Granger and Baxter talking animatedly now.

"You know you can take lunch if you want," Draco said softly. "It isn't my intention to keep you all trapped in here until this is finished."

"I know that," she grinned. "It's just that after lunch I've got a meeting with my group for that other job I was working on, and I want to make sure this is done by then. Aren't you going to eat lunch?"

"I'm not feeling much like food just now," he said, grimacing.

"You shouldn't be so worried about this," she scolded, idly sketching on the back of her parchment.

"It's not that," Draco began, hesitating. "I had a bit of a lie-in and didn't have time to prepare a hangover draught this morning." Lila stared at him for a moment then laughed; the rest of the team glanced over.

"I'm sorry, Draco, it wasn't funny," she murmured when she settled down. "Anyway, I think I will take lunch now. I'll catch up this afternoon."

When she left the rest of the room seemed to notice that it was lunchtime as well and they slowly dispersed. Draco gathered his information back into its folder and stood to leave the room when he noticed Granger hadn't left after all, and was lingering by the door.

"Why did you put me on design?" she blurted as he walked toward her. Draco blinked, shocked.

"I told you, Bax and yourself are the best I've got. I assumed you would want to work on the concept... was I wrong?"

"Well, no," she replied, "but I thought you would have wanted to work on design."

"To be honest, I'll probably be working with everyone. I just put myself on logistics to keep an eye on Lila, she's still relatively new to a lot of this." Draco ran a hand through his hair. "I know design is your strong suit, anyway."

"You don't need to do that," she said, suddenly hostile. "I've been awful about this, and then you give me my favourite position."

"Did I not make myself clear speaking to the team?" Draco asked, taking a step toward her, his eyes flashing. "This is not about any individuals. This is about creating the best possible proposal and winning the damn job. And if that means having you put together the concept, that is what I am going to do, Granger. I really do not understand the issues you are having with this, so either tell me what is actually bothering you or fuck off and get some lunch, yeah?"

She flinched at his harsh language but didn't say anything else about it. He sighed again. This day was wearing on his patience. He brushed past her in the doorway and made a beeline straight for his office, where he slammed the door, turned off the lights and had a nap.

That afternoon Draco decided to iron out the details on his Gladrags job. By the time he finished the report and flooed it over to Hogsmeade it was nearly the end of the day.

As he arrived back in his office, he realized he wasn't sure what to do next. He knew four members of his team were working away and Lila was working on an old job. He hoped that wouldn't distract her for too long.

Drawing a blank sheet of parchment and a quill toward him, he worked out a rough schedule and outline for the job. He made several copies of it and stacked them to deliver to his team.

As Draco left his office he realized he was one of the last people there for the day, and upon checking his watch, noticed he had worked through dinner. He distributed the schedules, reserved the board room for Friday morning, and flooed himself home, quite exhausted.

Wednesday morning brought a bustle of activity that Draco did not feel in sync with. He had slept poorly, and was forced to purchase a coffee on his way to the office, a habit he rarely felt the need for. Fleetingly, he wondered if this constant fatigue was a part of his new job description.

After settling himself in for the day, Draco made his way over to see Adrian and Sol, who conveniently shared neighbouring desks. It was stated clearly in his schedule: Wednesday morning, Draco visits recon.

"How did it go yesterday afternoon?" he asked the two who were looking at one another nervously.

"Not so well," Adrian finally said, breaking the silence. "It was dead end after dead end."

"Exactly," Sol nodded, "everywhere we looked, especially where we were trying to find information about Diagon Alley itself, there was virtually nothing."

Draco frowned, pensive.

"Surely there wasn't nothing," he murmured. "Where were you looking?"

The two eyed one another again.

"That was the thing," Sol paused. "We didn't know where to look. It isn't as if Diagon Alley has a library. We looked in the bookstore and a few other local shops, but there really wasn't much."

"We did find this," Adrian broke in, handing Draco a folder, "these are the Diagon committee members who will be evaluating the proposal."

Draco quickly scanned the folder, recognizing only two of the names, and there was no one he knew well.

"We'll need details on these men and women," he pondered, "but that will be difficult to find unless we were to break into the Ministry."

Sol and Adrian were both giving him a similar look: hopeful but apprehensive.

"Which we aren't going to do," Draco quickly added. "I'll talk to Hambone about that. Maybe he's got some obscure connection, he seems to have a lot of those."

"We were going to go back to Diagon Alley this morning to continue the search," Adrian informed Draco, frowning. "Maybe we will hit on something today."

"I'll come," Draco said immediately. "Fresh eyes can't hurt."

"Great," Sol replied, absently making notes on his folder. "We were thinking another trip to Flourish and Blotts; we didn't get through everything yesterday. But the shopkeepers get irritated if you spend too long in there without purchasing." Draco snorted. Then he froze.

"You just made me think of something. Get ready to go, I'll be back in a few minutes," he muttered, heading back to his office. He wrote a quick letter, gave it to one of the office owls and met his team back at their desks.

"What was that all about?" Adrian asked, puzzled.

"I'll tell you later if that owl brings back good news," Draco grinned. "Wouldn't want to get your hopes up."

With that the three apparated to the Leaky Cauldron and entered the wizarding street. Draco turned to Sol and Adrian, frowning as they walked toward the bookstore.

"We will give this a chance, but we aren't going to be obnoxious about it. The last thing we need is to be kicked out of Diagon Alley; that certainly won't buy us any favour. Maybe we can try the Ministry archives if this fails."

The bookstore owner frowned at the three as they entered, obviously recognizing Sol and Adrian from their extended stay the day before. Draco grimaced, following them toward the section on Diagon Alley. They were right; there wasn't a lot to go off of, and they made it through all the information of any merit before the owner had a chance to notice they were lingering.

"You would think that for a bookstore in Diagon, they should have some decent books on Diagon," Adrian scoffed as they left the small shop.

"Most of their business is school books," Draco replied, shrugging. "No class requires books on Diagon Alley."

"Too bad we can't invade Hogwarts' library," Sol joked as they continued walking. Draco raised his eyebrows, smirking.

"Too bad," he murmured in acquiescence. "Let's try to get into the Ministry before lunch. After lunch, we'll have to head back to the office."

The Ministry archives proved more helpful than the bookstore, but only slightly. Most of the mentions of Diagon Alley related to Wizengamot cases or other specific details, but there was limited information on history and legislation. They made copies of the important documents and apparated back to the office.

"Too bad none of this really jumps as an angle to base the proposal on," Adrian was saying absently to Sol as Draco began toward his office.

"You had an owl, Draco," Lila informed him as he walked past her.

"Thanks Campbell," he replied as he continued walking. Unfolding the parchment on his desk, he quickly scanned it.

Mr. Malfoy

While this is unorthodox, I will allow you to use the library, but only for the afternoon. It is always nice to see former students. You may floo in after one o'clock.

Minerva McGonagall

"Oy, Sol!" Draco called as he walked back out of his office toward his team. Most of the room looked up at him. "You got your wish." He handed him the letter.

"You bugger," Sol commented, laughing. "This is real good."

"Eat fast, both of you," Draco said to Sol and Adrian, before walking over to where Granger and Baxter were working.

"Granger, my office," he said, leaning in. She turned red but he was already gone, so she begrudgingly followed. Draco closed the door as she entered.

"How are things going with Baxter?" he asked, sitting down.

"Alright," she replied slowly. "Why was I summoned here?"

"I wanted to ask your permission to steal you away for the afternoon," he informed her. "I didn't feel that my telling you would do much to earn your favour."

"What for? Thomas and I were going to draw up a rough outline this afternoon." Her eyes narrowed as she took in his sparkling gaze.

"We could use an extra hand in research," Draco said, casually organizing his desk.

"Can't you do it with Sol and Adrian?" she asked, rapidly losing interest in the conversation.

"I can, yes. That's why I am merely inviting you. I was always under the impression you liked spending time in Hogwarts' library." He paused, eyeing her expression. Her jaw had dropped. "But if that was incorrect, we'll just go on our own. Have a good afternoon, then."

He walked to the door and held it open for her, and she recognized the dismissal. Hermione stood, glaring at him.

"Aren't you clever," she hissed, and then smiled faintly, walking toward the door. "I'll be there. You couldn't handle that library in only one afternoon without me anyway."

"I didn't want to admit that," he grinned lazily, meeting her eyes. "You make me tell you this repeatedly, Granger; you're the best."

She swallowed heavily, not looking away from his eyes. It wasn't until she finally tore her gaze from his that Draco noticed their close proximity. She took a step out of the office, as if she too had noticed how close they were, and Draco noticed her complexion was flushed.

"Anyway," she said lightly. "If I were the best I would have that window you love so much. I'll see you after lunch."

And she was gone. Draco exhaled heavily, running a hand through his hair. That was weird. He was fairly certain he hadn't let on how much he liked having a window.

She had been right, much as Draco had suspected – the recon team and himself would not have been able to find all that they did without Granger's help. Even after years out of school, she knew the Hogwarts library inside out.

The afternoon raced by, and Draco found he was grateful for her being there. Keats and Pucey had plenty of information now to sort through over the next couple days. The key would be in getting them to coordinate with Granger and Baxter on the concept to create something above and beyond.

At the end of the day, Draco flooed home and poured himself a glass of whisky, thinking about the rest of his first week as Senior Executive.

Thursday in Draco's drafted schedule was relatively open, for which he was thankful. He would spend some time with Baxter and Granger, and he needed to have a discussion with Lila about the status of her present work.

Friday morning the team would re-convene to update him and themselves on the status of each pair. He wasn't sure if it would be wishful thinking to see a preliminary concept drawn up by the end of the week, but figured things wouldn't work out quite that smoothly.

An owl tapped on the window, jolting him from his thoughts. It was Astoria's owl, bearing a short letter.

Draco,

Drinks tomorrow night, you and me? You must need to unwind by now!

Astoria

Odd, Draco thought. Astoria rarely contacted him, and he ordinarily saw her only when the whole group was together. Though it had been a stressful week so far, and there were still two days remaining. Perhaps a Thursday night distraction wouldn't be all that unwelcome. He scribbled a response.

Drinks sound great. How about you come over around nine?

Draco

He sent the owl back off. Thinking about seeing Astoria, he was glad for the offer. She was clearly looking out for him.

Why Draco had never considered the pursuit of a relationship with Astoria, he wasn't sure. She was very similar to him; she was beautiful, smart, and definitely no slouch in bed. Perhaps she was too much like him. Though, she had never expressed interest in a relationship either, so maybe that was why he had never given it much thought.

Either way, she was nice to have around.

After another glass of whisky, Draco decided to go to bed. It would be another long day tomorrow, he was sure.