Chapter 12 – So Beautiful
5 April 2010
French Ministry of Magic
Paris, France
Hermione Granger
I've been in Paris all day trying to figure out why two of our portkey points aren't working correctly. It's off by 3 feet and though it's still well hidden, it's not accurate.
My three best friends and I met our first week of Harvard Magical University I never had true best friends until I met them. Harry was more like a brother, and Ron was always Harry's friend more than mine. I was such an awkward kid. Even at the age of six I knew more than most adults. I just remembered everything I read. I didn't know why. I had one friend before Hogwarts. Her name was Valerie Johnson, and she was nine days older than me. She had a bad stutter, red hair, freckles, and was quite obese. All the kids at school made fun of her for her looks and me for my know-it-all personality. Valerie and I bonded together in primary school. Misfits united! There wasn't one of us without the other. When we were nine, a rather large boy was bullying Valerie after school. I yelled at him to leave her alone and somehow I threw him across the playground with my mind. Only Valerie witnessed it, and she never said anything.
I knew I could do things other people couldn't. I could float books from the top shelf. I once made a second helping of dessert appear on my plate after my mum told me no. I always felt I could control my tricks, it never happened in front of Valerie until that day. She never mentioned it, but I knew she knew I was different. When I went to Hogwarts the letters became sparse between us. I very well could not tell her I went to a magical school. Valerie fell into the wrong crowd and died of an accidental overdose at the age of 14 two weeks before the end of my Third Year.
I didn't find out until I arrived home. My parents sat me down and told me about Valerie. I felt so guilty when she died. When the Weasleys invited me to visit for the summer, I begged to go. I just couldn't bear the thought of staying home and feeling all that guilt for Valerie.
Then I was offered this incredible opportunity to get extra tutoring outside of school. I was so excited! The first day of my lessons Sirius and I were working on a spell to transfigure a piece of paper into a flower, an easy spell but he was just testing my knowledge. The flower was a daisy, and I burst into tears and told Sirius all about Valerie. Daisies were her favorite flower. Sirius hugged me and then we apparated to Muggle London and he bought me a hot fudge sundae with extra hot fudge and sprinkles. I talked about Valerie and he talked about James and Lily. For the first time in my life it felt I had a friend. He wasn't my friend out of necessity like I felt sometimes Harry was. He didn't insult me at every turn like Ron did. He didn't hang around me to find out everything about Harry, like Ginny did. Yes he was my tutor and there was a huge age gap. His time in prison somewhat stumped his maturity, or maybe he was just immature. He related to me more than my other tutors. He didn't judge me, he encouraged me. He made me feel I was normal for the first time in my life. I learned so much because for the first time I was encouraged to unleash my intelligence. This was also encouraged by my other tutors as well. Viola, Andi, and Remus all showed me encouragement, but there was just something special about Sirius. When he died, it was so unbelievably hard to hide how much I was hurting. We had almost two years of daily lessons. We were in the middle of my animangus training. What made it worse when he died, I had to pretend to be only hurting because Harry lost his godfather. I couldn't tell anyone I lost someone that was important to me, because no one knew my secret use of the time-turner.
In Sixth Year, I would study all night after dinner in the library with Hannah Abbott, Padma Patil, and Theo Nott. Some times Susan Bones would join us, and Luna Lovegood would always check on me. I knew about Spiritual Magic by that time, and I knew Luna was the only person who knew how much I was hurting. She never gave it away, but she'd bring me sugar quills when I was have a particularly bad day. Once curfew hit I would use the time-turner to return to the common room to spend a couple hours with Harry and Ron usually to help them with homework, or watch Harry obsess over what Malfoy was doing using the Marauders Map. I had charmed the map to hide my location a nice trick Remus taught me.
I loved Harry. He was the closest thing I ever had to a brother. I did start to feel a little resentful of him in Sixth Year because I realized I was being trained as a weapon by the Order. I was only given the opportunity I was because I had befriended Harry. I knew it was wrong to resent him. He didn't even know how I was learning so much. He would question me, but always told him I read it in a book, which technically wasn't a lie. Eventually I learned to lay the blame toward the real problem, Albus Dumbledore.
I was inducted into The Order of the Phoenix in Sixth Year, just after my Seventeenth birthday. I was hopeful that we would be able to stop Voldemort, but the more meetings I attended, the more I saw his inability to answer direct questions. He deflected every question asked. No real actions were taken to actually stop Voldemort. So many muggle and muggle-borns were killed for no reason. Why didn't The Order protect them? When I brought this up one time at a meeting I was given a condescending answer because of my age and the fact I was a female. When Dumbledore was preparing Harry to going on the run, I asked Dumbledore if The Order could hide my parents so I could help Harry. Dumbledore said my muggle parents weren't a priority. At this point I had been training 16 hours a day. Using the time-turner to attend Hogwarts and then drugging myself at night so I could spend all night studying. I did this for almost three years at this point and The Order couldn't make sure my parents were safe? When Dumbledore was killed, I can't say I had much of a reaction at all.
Once Dumbledore died, it took too long to establish leadership. Remus Lupin became the leader of The Order, and I asked him about my parents as well, but it was too late. We already had a plan to go on the run. So I decided to obliviate my parents and send them to Australia.
I was so angry when the war was over. I swore I would never touch foot on British soil again. Just being in the same time zone puts me on edge. Obviously because I have been ranting about it in my head, for how long?
I decide to take a break from the portkey issue to get some lunch. It's 9am in New York. As I'm sitting in the café, I received a text from Lyssa our receptionist:
Lyssa: There is some British guy here asking to see you.
Me: What does he look like?
Lyssa: Blond, handsome, well dressed.
No, no, no, no, no….
Me: What's his name?
Lyssa: Draco Malfoy
I can do this!
Me: Set him up in the Ponzi office at 2.
Lyssa: Will do! Have a good day!
The Ponzi office is the generic office we use to meet potential clients and have interviews in. Kelly dubbed it the Ponzi office after the Ponzi scheme. She said, "Since it's an office, but not really anyone's office, but we make people think it's a real office."
I don't understand why Malfoy would come to see me. How did he even find me?
Harry!!!
Send…
Harry: Hello.
Mia: Did you give Draco Malfoy my fucking location HARRY JAMES POTTER?!
Harry: Uhhh…no, but it's…uhhh possible Madame Dagworth-Granger had kept tabs on you. Uhhhhh….He could have found it in her office at work or something.
Mia: What aren't you telling me, Harry?
Harry: I rang you about this. He came to my office after opening his mother's vault.
Mia: Banned topic. Got it. Ok I'll handle it. Do you think I should unleash Sasha on him instead?
Harry: That's cruel and unusual punishment!
Sasha is great but is very shy and gets nervous when she meets new people. Instead of not talking like most shy people she just word vomits everything she knows. I love her!
Mia: Gotta go. I'm in Paris today fixing the map points for the portkey issue. I fixed one, but the other is going to take a few more hours. I'm not mad, I can handle Malfoy. Talk soon! Love you!
Harry: Love you, too! Be careful in Paris. Call me later and let me know what happens with Malfoy. Bye!
End.
I am a strong, confident, independent woman that can handle Draco Malfoy.
I am a strong, confident, independent woman that can handle Draco Malfoy.
I can repeat that forever, but the truth is; I never could handle Draco Malfoy.
26 December 1998
Abbott Manor
Abbott Library
Oxfordshire, England
Hermione Granger
It's about 2 am and I'm sitting in Hannah Abbott's library. When discussions about Yule break began, so many of us were orphans or didn't want to go home. So Hannah invited everyone to her ancestral home. She has never really lived here, but opened the home when she came of age. Her parents died the night Susan Bones family was attacked. Amelia Bones had the night off and was babysitting both Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott when the Bones family along with the Abbotts were killed by Death Eaters. Tom Abbott and Amelia Bones raised the two girls like sisters. Both Hannah and Susan went to Hogwarts in my year, and were sorted into Hufflepuff together. Hannah wanted a Christmas here just once, so we all came together.
The group included Hannah, Susan, Neville, Theo, Blaise (who isn't orphaned, but doesn't like what he calls Daddy Part 8), Pansy (who said she would rather stay with us than see her wretched mother), and Draco Malfoy (who didn't wish to see his mother either), and me. The eight of us arrived here last Friday. Theo has been trying to get a game of spin the bottle going, thankfully most have declined. He tried truth or dare, but I opted out. They don't need to know my secrets. I couldn't tell them anyway. It's not like I can tell anyone that I spent all my teen years training to be a killer. I can't tell them I literally had no time for boys. It's not like I can tell them only one boy ever called me beautiful and it was only because I spent 7 hours getting ready for the Yule Ball. It wasn't like he could pronounce my name or he kept in touch. He only kissed my hand and said I was beautiful. That is the extent of my time with Viktor Krum. He was very respectful. Before Sixth Year, over the summer Ron tried to ask me out and I told him it was bad timing with the war escalating. He then proceeded to snog Lavender Brown that whole year in front of me trying to make me feel jealous. I wasn't jealous. I was angry he said he liked me, then hooked up with a slag like Lavender. Cormac McLaggen tried to kiss me at Professor Slughorn's Christmas Party, but he was too lascivious. I found him disgusting. Ron and I shared one kiss at the final battle and only because we thought we were going to die that day. It was sloppy and kind of gross. I never want to experience something like that again.
That is the extent of my experience with boys. They just don't look at me that way. I'm the girl they tease. I'm the girl they ask for help with their homework. I'm the one they talk to about other girls. I'm only ever a friend. Their libidos are completely immune to me.
Theo calls me 'kid' because I'm petite. He started it in Sixth Year trying to be funny. Theo is the most non-Slytherin Slytherin one could ever meet. He's sensitive, funny, kind, and smart. When he calls me kid, it reminds me no one really is attracted to me. I've never been the girl blokes bother with a second look. My mum would have said, I'm just a late bloomer.
Then there is Draco Malfoy. I don't even know how to categorize him. He has a reputation of shagging girls and then ignoring them. I usually don't have much confidence in rumors. After all, I'm currently hiding Harry Potter's love child according to Rita Skeeter. It's more than the rumors, it's our past. For years, he terrorized me about my hair, my teeth, my hideous face, my blood status. He was relentless. If I tried to do something to be noticed in a positive light, I was an insufferable know-it-all. He made me feel like nothing for so long. Now we are sort of friends, and he's been nice. I can't hold his past actions against him, but it's hard to reconcile the bully with the new Malfoy.
The problem with Draco is he's just so beautiful. It's probably not how one should describe a man, but it's the only way to describe Malfoy. He's over six feet tall, he's fit. He's confident, sarcastic, and witty. When he walked in the Common Room, the first night at Hogwarts with that Metallica tee-shirt and short trousers, I wasn't just shocked, I was turned on. I fumbled through talking to him because he was so beautiful. His hair was bit too long, and he had a slight tan. How is a girl expected to hold a conversation when looking at him? It's almost impossible. He's always so confident. The way he moves, ugh, the man glides when he walks, like his body is a well oiled machine. The smooth way he speaks with his voice, ugh, I'm so pathetic. It's highly unfair to the rest of the population to be as attractive as Draco Malfoy. I feel like a fumbling child in comparison to his physical perfection.
He did apologize to me and we have had so many conversations since then. I feel he's a friend, but lately he has been driving me to insanity. At first I thought he was just beautiful. I never had a crush before, but this, THIS is unrequited love. I fell asleep in History of Magic just before break, and it was well, as close to a sex dream as a person can have with no experience with sex.
He's not seeing anyone as far as I can tell. He'll bum around with me every night and we take the replenishing sleep potion to get through the day. In October, there was this moment in the library, I wanted to get this book I used to read all the time, but couldn't reach it. God, he pressed his whole body against mine and I made a mistake turning around. Oh my God, his whole body was pressed against mine. He was so close. His gorgeous silver eyes looking into mine with eyelashes that should be illegal on a man. I just wanted to kiss him, but then he just handed me my book. I felt so stupid. Of course, he doesn't want to kiss me. I've seen the girls he has hooked up with. I don't compare at all to them. We're just friends after all. He would never want to kiss me. I thought I'd die of mortification.
There's been a bunch of other things since then. I don't understand it. Could he be like that with all his friends? Pansy hugs him quite a bit. Daphne puts her arm around him sometimes in the Great Hall. Maybe he's just affectionate to all girls and doesn't realize the effect he has on me. He makes me think of things I never thought about before. It's a little disconcerting. One day in Potions he was trying to correct my cutting technique. He stood behind me and was pressed against me with his arms around me showing me the correct cutting techniques. I could hardly concentrate because I just wanted to rub myself against him. He was only being nice and my delinquent mind wanted him to do…well I just don't have the experience to know what I wanted, but damn I wanted it! So like an idiot I stood completely still because he doesn't want me like that, not even a little. One day in the library he was sitting by me and we were both reading and he leaned back and put his arm around my chair. Not a big deal at all, but then he started rubbing small circles on my arm unconsciously. I wanted his hands everywhere. I had to excuse myself with a headache so he wouldn't know he was driving me mad.
It's more than that though, he's so intelligent. We literally talk about everything and he doesn't tune me out like Harry does. He seems to listen to me and offers his opinions on the subject. I guess I should just be thankful he is my friend. It's much better than us being mean to each other.
I'm interrupted by my thoughts when Draco enters the library. He saunters over to the sofa, takes a seat next to me, and puts his head on my shoulder. We all imbibed a bit too much wine this evening. "Have I ever mentioned how exhausting Theo can be when he's been drinking?"
I laugh, "Copious amounts of times. What was it tonight?"
He sits up and pulls me into him and wraps me up in his arms. I swear he's trying to kill me! Is he so clueless? "Tonight it was about how this was the best Christmas he's ever had, and how did we go 18 years of our lives without such amazing friends."
I spring up because I remember his gift I still owe him, but also to keep myself from jumping on top of him, and showing him how pathetic I am. I grab my beaded bag and dig for his gift. I finally find the box, set it on the coffee table, and enlarge it. "This is your real gift. I didn't want you to have to explain anything to anyone, so I saved it for tonight."
He smiles the most gorgeous smile yet. He's so beautiful! "Thank you. I have something for you too." He pulls a small rectangle box from his robes. "I hope you like it."
I smile and say, "You first." It's a huge box that carries all his gifts.
He unwraps it. Then opens the box and looks in. I purchased him his very own portable CD player because it can run on batteries, about 100 extra batteries, and 50 essential CDs. He looks at it all and grabs me into a huge hug and kisses me on the cheek. I'm never washing that cheek! "Thank you, my Mia!"
"You're welcome! My turn." I open the box and it's a charm bracelet with a Hermione Rose, a dragon, an electric guitar, a cauldron, a book, and a mini CD, and a tiny bottle shaped like the stash of vodka I have hidden in the secret compartment of my trunk. It's beautiful! "Oh, Draco it's perfect! Thank you! Wait, but you're a pureblood, you can't gift jewelry to a girl. Sir…my tutor told me it means…I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression of our friendship."
He huffs. "Are you ever going to tell me who this tutor of yours was? You mention him quite a lot."
I owe him that at least, "Yes, but you can't mention to anyone else, especially Harry. This is important it will lead to questions I am unable to answer. Do you promise not to tell anyone?"
He looks me in the eyes and says, "I promise, Mia"
How can something like eyeballs be so beautiful? Focus, I can do this. "It was Sirius Black."
He looks shocked, "How?"
I frown, "I can't tell you, not because I don't want to, but because I can't. He was my tutor for almost two years in Transfiguration and a couple other subjects. He was my friend, and when he died I couldn't tell anyone."
He nodded his head, "A secrecy oath?"
I nod. He kisses my forehead. That is two in one night! I can never wash my face again. He says, "Your secret is safe with me, love. I can give anyone jewelry as long as it's not a family heirloom. I wrote my godmother and asked her to find everything I needed. She's really comfortable in the muggle world." Did he just call me love? OH MY GOD!!!!
I smile, "Draco Malfoy has a Fairy Godmother." I giggle, I'm just ridiculous! "Will you tell me about her?"
He smiles, "Of course. While I talk do you mind setting this up so we can listen to music?"
I smile and started getting the CD player out of the box to put in the batteries, "Of course I will."
He smiles, "Thank you. My godmother Ophelia, I've always called her Auntie Phea because when I was little I couldn't pronounce her name. She is whom I went to see today for a few hours. She turned 119 this past November. When I was a child, I was convinced she was this strict and rigid old lady. She always harped on me about my posture and manners. She lectured me on my studies and always gave me books she thought I needed to read. Then this past summer, after my trial, I refused to go back to the manor, and I stayed with her. She constantly harped on me and I was, well I was quite rude to her. She woke me up one day and laid out muggle clothes for me to wear. I was appalled! I get dressed and met her for breakfast, and she had taken an archaic banned potion and looks my age. She makes me go to an amusement park. She is suddenly transformed into this young girl who was comfortable with muggles. She was telling jokes and sharing stories she completely fabricated. She took me on a rollercoaster and I'll admit, I was terrified, but it was an incredible day. We spent the summer touring all of England and went to every amusement park in the country. She's smart, absolutely brilliant. She knows so much about every subject especially history. She has a way of telling stories that make me question all my beliefs. I really owe her so much. If it wasn't for her, I probably would have never had the courage to apologize to you."
I smile, "She sounds amazing. I'm glad you have someone like her."
Malfoy digs through the box looking for a CD and finds Metallica's Black Album and puts it in and presses play. Then he grabs me and lays on the couch and positions me so my body is tucked next to him and I have my head on his chest. Why does he insist on torturing me? Doesn't know how hard this is for me? It was incredible. I have no idea what he's doing, but I decide to just relax into him.
He kisses my forehead again and whispers, "I'm glad I have someone like you."
We fell asleep on the couch together. It was the first time I had a dreamless peaceful sleep in a couple of years.
5 April 2010
French Ministry of Magic
Paris, France
Also
Enchantex Headquarters
New York City, New York
Hermione
Thoughts of him are dangerous. It doesn't matter what kind of school girl crush I had on him, he broke my heart in the end. He's married now anyway, he would never go against his parent's wishes/demands.
Once I moved to America and met Sasha, Kelly, and Mychaelia I was able to be myself and all of them offer something amazing in my life. Sasha is brilliant and is amazing with spiritual magic and transfiguration. She can replicate just about anything and she is able to replicate a perfect copy. It's not like a copy machine where you can tell it is a copy or lacks the quality of the original. It's a pure copy of the original. Mychaelia is a no nonsense bookworm like me. She's amazing with arithmancy. But she's a genius with Magical Theory. She's the C.F.O. for the Enchantex. Kelly is amazing with charms and ancient runes. She is the one that found the rune to stop our products from working in Great Britain. I didn't want anyone there to find me, and their backward society wouldn't have embraced our products anyway.
When I came to America, I couldn't believe the contrast in the society. Magic is hidden in America like England, but magical people don't completely reject all things muggle like they did in England. They use electricity and use muggle technology. They embrace muggle history and culture. The biggest difference is how they viewed muggle-borns. Americans and most of the world for that matter view muggle-borns as a natural process of evolution. It's said only muggle-borns are born from two people who truly love each other. Their love which is the strongest form of magic creates a magical being. There are studies that have proven this theory. When I learned this I was amazed at the contrast from Great Britain. It made me really resent everything I had to go through back home. In the 1950s when these tests were being conducted, Great Britain was passing law after law to repress muggle-borns. The I.C.W. fined Great Britian for continuing their high prejudices toward muggles and muggle-borns. They fined them for their lacking educational system. So when Great Britain had two wizarding wars over their continued prejudices, the I.C.W. refused to help and fined Great Britain more for causing the wars to begin with.
My anger reached new heights when I discovered this information. Sasha, Kel, and Mac embraced me in friendship. They helped me work through some of my anger. They helped me find myself and become confident in who I am. They did it all just by being my friends and loving me for me. During school breaks we traveled all over the country. They taught me to have fun.
There was still a gap though between muggle technology and magic. So I started at M.I.T. to bridge the gap between muggle technology and magic. I really just wanted a search engine to be able to find a spell easier than looking through thousands of books. Then the iPhone came out and the digital age really began and my ideas grew exponentially. Sasha's father is a farmer and she had the idea to create a singular greenhouse to plant any plant and program the device to set the perfect conditions to grow the plant in half the time. So we did it. We set up an entire magical internet interface to have a separate magical internet access for the wizen population. We created products to help with law enforcement. We created a machine to scan your wand and list the last 100 spells that were cast. We created a tablet that magically controls the environment in your home. We created smartphones that can use both muggle and wizen internet. We control our own towers and satellites. With the new technology of GPS, we created the ability for phones to be used as portkeys with a combination of apparation magic so with a touch of a finger you can go to any map point in the world. Every portkey costs one galleon per mile. We have databases to keep track of all this information. Our system is global and can be used anywhere in the world except Great Britain. Our demand is high and ever changing, but we ran a monopoly on the technology until this year. Japan started a new company to compete with us.
I finally finish in France at 6:30 and portkey back to New York. I have a meeting in 30 minutes with Malfoy. I can do this. I sit in my office for a few minutes trying to clear my head. I grab a pepper-up and down it.
I use the prototype teleporter to appear in the office. God, after all this time he is still the most beautiful man in existence, so beautiful! He's filled out and his shoulders are broader. He's wearing a three piece black suit with a silver tie. How can one man be this perfect? He's married, it doesn't matter. It still hurts to see him after all these years.
I smirk, "When my receptionist texted me about someone requesting a meeting earlier today, I never would have expected you, Mr. Malfoy. I have a meeting in a few minutes. How may I be of assistance to you?"
I take a seat at the desk. All those feelings of insecurity hit me like a ton of bricks. This man in front of me, who destroyed my heart is breathtaking. I've dated quite a bit over the years, but this man in front of me is the only one to shake me to my core. "It's lovely to see you as well Miss Granger. I was hoping I could take some of your time and meet with you about Ophelia Dagworth-Granger. There are some things we should discuss in reference to the portion of the business she left you."
Of course this is about the business. She left me 51% of her company, the company that Malfoy, for what ever reason, is the current C.E.O. of.
Aloof is the proper way to handle this, "I assumed I might hear from you eventually about this issue. What are these stipulations before I sell my portion of the business? I clearly have no desire to run two businesses at this time. The location is quite inconvenient for me as well." Since I will never go back to Great Britain!
He smirks, "Yes, the stipulations must be met. You must come to DG Potions and Holdings. She instructed you to go through the file cabinets in her office yourself before you decide to sell your portion of the company. Of course if you decide to sell, I would be interested in purchasing the properties from you." Confident jackass. I'll sell everything to Luna Lovegood for ten galleons!
I harness Pansy as my spirit animal and check my nails. I can do this. I say, "This is highly inconvenient. How many file cabinets are in her office? Surely they could be shipped here."
He smirks again. Pompous fuckwad! "Miss Granger, Ophelia Dagworth-Granger would never simply allow them to be shipped. They seem to be blood warded and have a permanent sticking charm on them. There are nothing but dates noted on the front of the cabinets. She left you journals in one of her vaults. My knowledge of her suggests she has left you no choice but to go to England to sort them out in person." She had 30 years to contact me and waits until she dies. I don't care about her reasons.
I smirk, "Very Slytherin of her, however, I have no use for it. In 14 years when James Potter becomes of age he can have it all."
There's that Malfoy temper. "Mia, she sent me here with at least 30 vials of memories she wanted you to see. She asked me to show them to you and I think you should really see them. Please."
She left me her memories when she wouldn't allow me to know her in life. Dagworth Castle belonged to her! She was a part of the whole thing, but refused to tell me the truth. She allowed the order to turn me into a weapon! I wonder if she was Viola Davies? It doesn't matter, I have no interest in what she has to say. "I apologize, Mr. Malfoy I do believe our time is up. Thank you for meeting with me today. I have a staff meeting I must attend. Good day."
I get up to leave and gesture for him to leave as well. He grabs my wrist and I feel it everywhere. How dare he touch me! "Mia please. Allow me an hour to speak to you."
I take a deep breath and allow myself one last chance to look at him. He's so fucking beautiful, but will never be mine. I take a deep breath and say, "Mr. Malfoy there is nothing else for you and I to discuss. I appreciate you taking the time away from your busy schedule to come all the way here to speak with me, but I'm afraid there is simply nothing to discuss. Good-bye." I start to leave, but there's a pleading in his voice.
"Mia, please. I'll be at The Plaza the rest of the week. Please, consider talking to me, it's important." How dare he call me Mia like that!
I look into his eyes again because it's killing me to see him, this has to be the last time. "Goodbye, Mr. Malfoy." I disapparate to my office and fall to the floor and cry for him one last time. For the first time since I left Great Britain over ten years ago, the pain in my heart was gone for a few minutes, and now hurts more than it ever did.