Working for the Dragon
Chapter 23. Prologue to Drama
I hadn't done this in a while, I realised as I stared at the dark alley awaiting me ahead. I was standing at the grungy, grimy and dark entrance of Knockturn Alley, the very route that I used to take when I just started working for Draco.
Once again, the floogate was under maintenance and my busy boyfriend who was also my boss needed me to report to work early. We were back to the being present at the office at the crack of dawn period. Apparently he didn't believe in giving his girl friend who was also his personal secretary the special treatment.
To give my boyfriend some credit, he did allow me to sleep in when we first got together a couple of weeks back. Say a month or two? Recently though, things have changed. I worry about him, his health. Judging by the amount of workload I have, I'd say he had a mountainous pile of work to handle.
One of the advantages of dating your boss was the fact that you spent time together while at work. At the same time, that was a disadvantage because he didn't feel the need to bring you out on a date. After our first date with little Teddy, I can count the number of times we spent together outside the office on one hand. Not that I was complaining –
Oh hell, who I was kidding, I was complaining alright. He was stressed, I knew. I had to reason it out with myself. At least I had the ability to keep tabs on him. At least he was immersed in work and was not sleeping around. Not that he got much sleep anyway.
Stop pondering Gin! You've walked through this alley for Merlin's sake. You're a witch not a defenceless damsel. Don't forget the power of your Bat Bogey Hex. My mind lectured me as I bit my lip uncertain as to whether I should walk through Knockturn Alley or not. The last time I had, Blaise saved me.
It was too late to take a detour to The Leaky Cauldron and walk all the way down to Corporate Alley. Draco would have my head if I was a minute late, girlfriend or not girlfriend. Sometimes I thought that he would fire me in a heartbeat if I made a terrible mistake. I love my job; it was my favourite part of my life right now.
Taking a deep breath, I tightened my grip around my wand and walked through the most notorious street in the whole of wizarding London. My heart practically leapt out of my chest as I caught sight of a suspiciously familiar burly figure clad in black.
Goyle? I narrowed my eyes under the dim light as I confirmed that he was indeed Gregory Goyle, the boyfriend of my arch-nemesis, Audrina. Something didn't seem right judging by the way that he was creeping around.
Nothing right ever happened in Knockturn Alley – Goyle was headed in the direction of Corporate Alley anyway. I continued to remain in the shadows. In my haste, I nearly gave my cover away when I stumbled over a drunkard. Thankfully, Goyle was as oblivious as day.
Along the way, he was joined by none other than that snake, Audrina. They were not subtle about anything apparently. She practically shoved her tongue down his throat, I winced from the back.
They weren't very silent with their conversation either. Merely glancing around once, Audrina turned to Goyle. I had to applaud her for her stupidity and thank Merlin for that.
"They are going to continue with the investigations, babe. Your contacts were only good to hush the hype for only so long." She threw him a pointed glare.
He visibly blanched before composing himself, "All evidence point to Draco, darling. The plan is working."
My eyes widened as I heard my boyfriend's name being mentioned in the conversation.
Evidence? What evidence? Ginny! You've got to dig deeper.
I tried to pry further but we had already reached the marble building of Malfoy Empire. Draco stood at the receptionist counter looking through a file as he spoke to a receptionist – one of the nicer ones, I didn't know her name.
He looked up as Goyle, Audrina and I entered. He greeted his friend – if only he knew- briefly before nodding at Audrina as though acknowledging her existence. I wouldn't have been too thrilled if I were her. I knew that Draco was either unaware of her existence or he wasn't particularly thrilled with her employment.
Malfoy Empire was partially owned by Narcissa Malfoy as well, Draco did not have a hundred percent say in recruitment, I would know. He looked past the couple, his gaze colliding with mine.
My heart skipped a beat. He looked tired but nevertheless handsome. His platinum blonde hair was mussed up as though he forgot to run a comb through, his collar askew although it looked more like a fashion statement than anything else.
My fingers ached longingly; I wanted to run my hands through the platinum mass while pulling his lips down to meet mine.
Was it too early in the morning for such feelings of lust?
"About time-"He was tired yet he put on a superior smirk just for me.
Oh Merlin, I sound just about hopelessly in love with him right? He could pull up his sleeve and show me the Dark Mark and I would still think that he was the most perfect man on the planet.
His greeting had Goyle and Audrina looking back at me, startled. I threw them one of my best contemptuous look as I always did whenever we made eye contact. Especially since Audrina had laid a finger on little Teddy.
I wonder if they knew that I had overheard their conversation. It wouldn't be the first time, I thought snarkily as I recalled the time when they were going at it like bunnies in the file room.
I wanted to hold Draco's hand as we made our way to his cabin. I wanted to throw my arms around him in the elevator and inhale his manly scent. I wanted to bury my head in his arms, my head enjoying the softness and expensive material of his designer clothing. I wanted to assault his lips – In short, I wanted a lot of things that I couldn't have.
In the cabin, Draco pulled me into his arms. He kissed my forehead sweetly before complimenting me.
"You look beautiful." He said as he tucked away loose strands of my hair that had fallen out of my chignon.
I looked down at my attire and raised a questioning eyebrow as if to say 'This old thing? You see me in it every other day!'
He shook his head, amused and I fought this urge to punch my fist in the air. I had made him laugh at this ungodly hour. Then things got serious, work started. I drafted more minutes of meetings, spell-checked all presentations.
After making sure that Draco had his lunch, I had some free time on my hands. I sucked on a Sugar Quill as I doodled on a spare piece of parchment. Draco was free too – he hadn't any appointments at this hour. I pondered on heading over to his office to hopefully convince him to dine with me at the new sushi place in town.
Making my decision, I walked out from my own cabin and into the corridor that led to his. Oddly enough, his door was open. Draco never liked it open. My curiosity got the better of me as I heard voices.
I squeezed myself into a corner and spied on them shamelessly. I wished I had brought Extendable Ears with me. Life would be so much more convenient.
"I trust you, Draco and I know that you had nothing to do with Gerald McDomer's murder but the recent evidences are pointing to you." I heard a familiar voice say seriously.
Tonks? What was she doing here? That too, without meeting me – something was definitely wrong.
I strained to overhear the conversation.
"I am being blackmailed for Merlin's sake. This is ridiculous!" Draco said tensed. He ran his fingers through his hair.
"Blackmailed?" Tonks gaped at him in shock echoing my sentiments.
Blackmailed? Why?
-"Who is blackmailing you?" I heard Tonks saying to him as my own thoughts screamed the answers at me.
Audrina and Goyle! The villainous and vile duo – was it by chance that I had only overheard their conversation this morning?
Thank goodness that I did. Everything was starting to fall into place now. I didn't know who was Gerald McDomer and what he had to do with Malfoy Empire but I was intending on finding out.
Deciding that I had overheard enough, I walked towards the room that I hadn't visited in a while. It was the very room where I had caught Audrina and Goyle in their moment of passion all while searching for the Marmadas file.
It had apparently been the human resource room where files for previous and current staff were stored. As I grew aware with the work ethics in the empire, I had learned that only authorized personnel was granted access to this room and there were very few people who had been granted that access.
As head of security, Gregory Goyle had been granted that access and that bitch had obviously taken advantage of that fact. Thinking about them disheartened me. Draco worked so hard to maintain the empire, to establish it as one of the leading companies in the wizarding world. And then there were such disgusting people who were trying to ruin him while under his nose.
It pained me to know that he wasn't aware of all of this and I couldn't just march up to him. Not without solid evidence at least. Perhaps my trip to the resource room would get me a lead somewhere if not information on Gerald McDomer.
The room though properly organized was musty and badly in need of a couple of Cleaning Spells. Mentally, I couldn't help but feel disgusted that Audrina and Goyle chose this room for their mating sessions. Honestly, I would have rather used the Malfoy Empire's toilet, it was definitely more sanitary.
The layer of dust was so thick; I could literally draw my name on it. I walked around the various sections starting by the bookshelves with the last couple of alphabets. There was a file in my name, I noticed as I walked by the 'W' section. I wasn't bothered nor was I curious to open it.
Briefly I wondered about Audrina's surname. As I explored, I realised that it hadn't occurred to me to find out about her life. Even though she was British, she hadn't been at Hogwarts. I would have recognized her considering the fact that I was rather aware of my schoolmates, seniors and juniors alike.
I was a woman on a mission; I could do a research on Audrina later. I definitely had access. I whipped out my wand and muttered the retrieving spell.
"Accio McDomer file" I caught the dark green file that had shot out in my direction.
The file was like any other belonging to Malfoy Empire. Dark green with the Malfoy Empire crest on it – I was about to open it when I heard someone enter.
I dumped the file in the nearest shelf I saw pretending to be looking for the first name that appeared in my head.
"Giovanni, Giovanni, Giovanni-" I murmured to myself before improvising by lighting my wand. See, if I gave my cover away, I couldn't possibly be up to no good right?
Pretending, I called out –"Channy is that you?" I was fully aware of the fact that my best friend and Narcissa's personal secretary was not in the office today.
I walked towards the door. My eyes widened as I caught sight of the person standing there.
"What are you doing here?" We asked each other at the same time.
This was definitely the prologue to drama.
Guess who? The reviewer with the right guess gets a chapter dedication. Thank you for the reviews for the previous chapter – and I hope you liked the update even though it was short. Reviews please – I plan on finishing this story by the end of this year. xoxo