Disclaimer: I am not and therefore never will be J.K. Rowling; and as such the story I shall post consists of my own plot, and borrowed Characters from J.K.
Chapter 20: Secrets
Previously: Just as she was about to leave, Draco finally spoke up, "What if the reason I wasn't interested in Katie's advances was because I had my eyes set on someone else?"
"Draco please." She turned so her back was to him.
"Have dinner with me."
"Draco-"
"Please."
-HGDM-
Draco waited patiently for her response, and when he finally heard her take a deep breath, he knew she was ready, but whether she'd take his offer or refuse remained to be seen.
"I really need to do this work" she stated, looking over her shoulder at the blond.
He nodded his head, "How about a compromise?" he suggested as his final resort. She nodded for him to continue, intrigued as to what he was going to say. "You bring your work here, use my desk for all intents and purposes to do whatever you need to do, Rose has company with Scorpius and Amando, and you get dinner cooked for you?"
"And the catch is..." she trailed as she eyed the Slytherin dubiously.
He shuck his head, a few more of the water droplets leaving his flaxen hair, "No catch, however, I insist you wear that black dress"
Hermione closed her eyes partially contemplating his request, "I agree, but that's all this is, dinner between two acquaintances, no ulterior motive, and I will only eat once I have finished the work."
Draco simply nodded his head "Of course Ma Chérie"
-DM-
Draco was beyond ecstatic that she had consented to spending another evening in his company. He'd decided that he was no longer going to take the careful route to get this particular Witch as his- he was going to be straight to the point, forthcoming on his desires. However for the moment being he was going to allow her to call the shots.
He watched with contemplating eyes as Hermione floo'd away to her home, in order to collect her daughter before returning to the Manor. Before he himself continued his earlier work, after writing a rather heated letter to Katie's boss.
Tonight was the start of many similar nights to come Draco could feel it.
-HG-
Once Hermione had reached the sanctity of her own abode she leant heavily on the fireplace surrounding the hearth. Deep breathing and with a hand over her heart she tried to calm her emotions- as well as quelling the tightening that had taken up residence somewhere in her lower abdomen.
She was aware her feelings for the Slytherin were evolving thick and fast as the days progressed- however she just couldn't fathom why. Yes he was caring, loyal, protective, he was intelligent, and cunning. But she was anything but attracted to him...
'Yeah right.' A cynical voice in her head announced.
Okay, so there was some physical attraction to the blond, but that was it, simply her body's reaction to the words he said, the way he acted towards her, around her. There were no emotional attachments whatsoever- the tightening of her chest was yet another way of her body disagreeing with her.
Was she truly just on the rebound looking for a companion for a time that could show her she was desirable, and wanted? As she herself assumed. Or was there more to the story than her current vision could see?
Not wanting to dwell on her current predicament she collected her work from her make shift office also known as her bedroom, before apparating to pick up her daughter from her grandparents home, before apparating once again back to the place she seemed to have spent a lot of time in the past week: Malfoy Manor.
-HG-
-3 Hour later-
True to his word Draco had left Hermione to do her work in his office, only once having spoken to her to confirm that both her and Rose both enjoyed Spaghetti Bolognaise- before he had retired back downstairs.
After flicking through her third case file of the hour, Hermione needed another ink pot for her quill, and began rummaging around Draco's desk, in search of one. Opening the first draw on the right hand side she saw no ink pot, however on beginning to close it she noticed a piece of parchment with her name on sticking out of the second folder down in the draw.
Intrigued she lifted the pile of five folders onto the desk- and immediately opened the second one with the piece of parchment sticking out. She was even more surprised to find her whole history inside- from her childhood to news articles she had been in before, during and after the war.
Furrowing her eyes brows she flicked open the third file to find it full of information relating to her ex-husband, as well as information similar to that found in her file his contained, financial details, businesses he had links to, meetings he had seemingly been to that even Hermione knew nothing about. Looking further through the file it seemed as if at one point or another someone had documented every little step her ex had taken, a diary of sorts. The next two folders were pertaining to Harry Ginny, George, and Mr and Mrs Weasley. But the one that was of major interest was the top file, written in Draco's script were ideas, all pertaining to a plan, a step-by-step instructions. That if you were to first just look at it you had no idea what the word meant. But Hermione was able to pull out some important words and phrases.
'Stake', 'downfall', 'profit', 'transaction' and finally 'revenge'
Just as she got onto the second piece of parchment the office door opened and Draco walked in- freezing Hermione at his desk.
"Hermione, dinner will be served in twenty minutes just waiting for the pasta to be ready. How-" He cut off as he recognised the file she held in her hand. Making sure it was indeed the file he walked closer to the desk peering over the top, and sighing when it was confirmed.
Berating himself for being as stupid enough to just leave the files around he didn't bother to wait for the brunette to speak before words came tumbling out of his mouth.
"Look it's not what it looks like..."
"Oh, I'm pretty sure it is- you're trying to get revenge for old school grudges." She shook her head as she started to pack away her folders, "And here I was thinking that somewhere in that fickle head of yours you may have cared..." She continued shaking her head as she spoke, "Was it extremely convenient that you found me in the cemetery that day, hmmm? Did it just work out in your little grand scheme of things?"
"Yes... I mean no. This is for you, all of it, is for you, you and Rose"
"Spare me the ear ache of you telling me lies Malfoy" with that for what seemed like the hundredth time in his lifetime Hermione Granger walked away leaving a disgruntled, Draco Malfoy in her wake.
However one thing she never factored in was her daughter Rose's wants, the young girl insisted on staying for their meal at the manor, and Hermione begrudgingly respected her wishes like she had done many times before. Even if it meant spending time in the company of the foul git and ferret- Draco Malfoy.
After the meal, that Hermione had ignored Draco throughout- even as he watched and failed to engage her throughout. Hermione and Draco were left alone, as the children ran off to play, once Draco had dismissed them. She tried to occupy herself by taking her own and Rose's plates into the kitchen and began washing them the old fashioned Muggle way, when she felt him graciously walk into the room behind her, and place the other plates on a bench located somewhere in the room.
She could feel him watching her, and as the seconds ticked by waited for him to say something, anything, to break the awkward tense silence that had enveloped them. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him down a glass of wine before replenishing the glass as well as another before sliding one along the worktop, stopping right next to her.
Looking out of the corner of her eye she tilted her head to the side in order to see the once head-boy, before her fingers wrapped around the wine glass bringing it up to her lips a second later, whilst Draco watched the Rose coloured liquid slide between her lips.
He downed another glass before he finally spoke; "That revenge wasn't for me, it was on behalf of you, and your honour" letting the sentence hang in the air he poured himself a further glass.
Turning to face him she crossed her arms over her chest, her right hand still grasping the glass which she brought to her mouth as she nodded for him to continue.
He haphazardly pulled a hand through his locks, rubbing the back of his neck in the process, he nervous tick. "What he did was low, very low, he took the one thing you valued above all else and crushed it- your family. So I plan to give him a taste of his own medicine, I plan to take everything he thinks is important- money, stature, Quidditch and rip it from underneath him. Those files are from Pansy, I asked for them, to help me work out what makes him tick!"
Hermione nodded taking all of the information in, before replying; "Did you ever think about what impact this would have on me?"
Furrowing his eyebrows Draco took a step towards Hermione who had turned away to look out of the kitchen window of the manor. "I did... I thought about everything." He paused as he got closer to her, "I have a feeling I didn't though, did I?"
The brunette shook her head, "Secrets Draco, secrets. Not everyone knows everything about my life, our life" she rubbed over her face with her hands. "The same as that file showed me things about my ex-husband that even I didn't know, there are things in my life that not many other people know, even Harry or Ginny."
Draco finally situated himself behind her, rubbing calming circles with the pad of his thumbs around her shoulders, leaning in to whisper in her ear; "What impact does this have on my plan?" he asked carefully.
She leant her head back against his chest tilting her head ever so slightly to look him in the eye, "That depends on exactly what you plan to do. I want no detail spared."
Draco simply nodded his assent, and just as he was about to wrap his arms around her torso, and pull her closer to his frame, a voice sounded from the doorway. "Mum, are we staying for the night?" Looking from her daughter to Draco, Hermione sought confirmation of them being able to stay the night and when he nodded his head she turned back to her daughter, relaying the message with a simple nod of the head. Young Rose's face lit up; "Were going to have a sleep over in Scorpius' tree house" and with that declaration she sprinted off again.
Leaving Hermione to look dubiously up at the blond wizard still stood flush behind her. "Its fine" he finally admitted, immediately for some reason putting Hermione's fears at bay.
-HGDM-
-Later that night-
With the kids safely tucked up in the tree house Hermione and Draco were once again in his office ready to talk about Draco's plans. Draco stood behind his desk, whilst Hermione sat herself down on the leather couch.
"I'm not quite sure where to begin..." he trailed slightly, rubbing the back of his neck before coming to sit next to her on the couch. "I guess I should start with what I'm going to do," only when she nodded did he continue, "I'm gathering a consortium interested in purchasing a stake in Weasley Wizard Wheezes, I looked into purchasing a majority stake of Puddlemere and Chudley Cannons-as I remember the latter were your husband's favourite Quidditch team. I used those files to see where I could hurt him the most, and it seems he has his own cafe and sweet shop in Hogsmeade- I want to look at acquiring a majority stake in that as well- thus taking away his control of the company." He paused turning towards Hermione, "Does any of that affect you?"
Giving the blond a kind of sad smile she nodded her head; "A few years ago, Ronald was going to leave me- and at the time I was pregnant- and he knew it. He was willing to leave me pregnant, with no family apart from his own, but said he'd stay under the condition that I gave him money. Six-hundred and fifty thousand pounds to be exact- which is equivalent to about-"
"One hundred and thirty thousand galleons" Draco replied.
"Yes, and pretty much my whole savings, and what I inherited from my parents, everything they worked hard for, I gave away in the blink of an eye to keep a hold of the one thing I thought I needed more than anything. From those files he I learnt chances are he gambled it away, having opened his business in Hogsmeade."
When she was no longer forth coming with her story, Draco gently enquired "You said you were pregnant, what happened?"
He could see the small tears in her eyes, "I lost my baby"
-HGDM-
A/N: Hello guys, right there you have it chapter 20! Woo, who was expecting that little twist aye? I hope you all enjoy it- and I'm sorry for not being around for a while, University life is taking up a lot of my general life as well.
Please if you read my story, review it to, it helps me improve and shows me what you like/ dislike. I'd say they help me write faster- and to be honest every time I get a review I look over the story and write that little bit extra. So what Tesco's say is true; 'Every little helps'.
For those previous reviewers- thank you it is greatly appreciated.
Scorpio219