As You Wish - Chapter 19
"Excuse me, ma'am; I'm here to meet with Draco Malfoy. I should be part of his 10 a.m. appointment."
Margaret looked up from her boss's calendar to see Harry Potter standing in front of her. "Oh," she let out with a gasp. "Mr. Malfoy wasn't expecting you."
Harry ran a hand through his hair, smiling sheepishly at the secretary. "I apologize for the last minute notice. The couple he's meeting with asked me to join them."
"I see," Margaret replied, pursing her lips together. Mr. Malfoy didn't like this kind of unexpected guest, but she also wasn't surprised by his presence. She motioned to the chairs behind Harry. "We're waiting for your friends to arrive, so please take a seat."
The bespectacled wizard nodded in understanding and sat down as instructed. As soon as he sat down, he began shaking his left leg. He didn't know why he was so nervous. Draco Malfoy never made him nervous. But he couldn't help replaying his conversation with Crystal in his head as he sat there. The mysterious witch seemed to know Malfoy better than he did, so maybe he really should heed her advice, and the advice he then gave to his friends, and go into this meeting with an open mind.
Before he could replay Crystal's words for a fifth time, Ron and Hermione showed up.
"Harry!" Hermione called out, rushing over to give him a hug. "I had a feeling you were going to join us after Ron told you about today's meeting." She gave him another squeeze before letting go. She could see his brows had furrowed. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. I just feel weird being here is all."
Ron walked over, placed arm arm across the back of Harry's shoulders and gave him a squeeze. "You deserve to hear what that bloody prat has to say just as much as we do." He moved to stand next to his fiancé. "Don't forget; you're an investor in Luna and Neville's work, too. Think of this as checking in on your investment."
Harry could feel his shoulders relax at Ron's last statement. He was an investor in the research team and he did deserve to know what the other investor was like. He shouldn't bother himself with the words of a near stranger.
Margaret cleared her throat. "My apologies for interrupting, but Mr. Malfoy is ready to see you."
Draco had been pacing in front of his desk for the last five minutes. Running a multinational business seemed like child's play in comparison to his upcoming meeting, but he needed to be on his best behavior.
He looked down at his desk and smiled. After the events of last night, he felt another shift occur in his relationship with Ginny. He felt even more at ease being around her and he hoped it was clear to the both of them that they had a mutual fondness for one another. It was still hard for him to tell if she felt the same way that he did, but he hoped it was a step in the right direction.
When he had stopped by his kitchen before leaving for the day, he noticed she had set out breakfast for him and had left a note next to his place setting.
Good luck this morning! I know you'll do great!
Draco had picked up the small piece of parchment and tucked it in an interior pocket of his suit jacket. The note's placement made him feel like he was carrying a small piece of Ginny with him. Yes, he was doing this to help the research team, but he could only think about how much this would help his relationship with Ginny in the long run. He thought again about being on his best behavior. If he could end this meeting amicably or, even better, have Hermione and Ron actually like him by the end of it, then it could soften the landing should he end up dating Ginny.
Dating Ginny.
He allowed himself a chuckle at the thought. Ever since last night, Draco began counting down the days until Daphne's New Year's gala. He had it all planned out. Right after midnight, he would take Ginny to some far corner in the atrium and wish for her freedom. Ideally, he would be kissing his former genie at midnight, but logic told him Daphne wouldn't let that happen. The whole idea felt a little foolish, and he blushed whenever he thought of it, but it had been a long time since he'd been excited by a relationship. Or, at least, the possibility of one.
When Margaret knocked on his office door, Draco noticed that he had stopped pacing. When did that happen? All his thoughts of Ginny seemed to have served as a point of focus. If he could think of her every time a possible verbal jab was directed his way, then he could be fine.
His secretary stuck her head in. "Mr. Malfoy, are you ready for your meeting?"
Draco leaned against his desk, hoping he looked somewhat casual. "Yes, you can send them in."
After a moment, Margaret opened his office door, allowing for Ron and Hermione and bleeding hell. What was he doing here?
He forced himself to smile, chanting the last line of Ginny's note internally. Once all three were inside his office, he walked over, offering up a hand to shake. "Thank you for meeting with me on such short notice. I'm sure all three of you are very busy." Draco paused after shaking their hands. He motioned to his sleeper sofa and the surrounding chairs. "Please, take a seat."
Ron was the first to sit down, flopping down onto the sofa, with Hermione joining shortly after. The redhead grabbed one of her hands, laced her fingers with his, and placed it on his thigh. He couldn't tell if Hermione was nervous or not. He knew his fiancé had been pretty good at handling Draco Malfoy, but he also knew that she hadn't interacted with him much after the war. He wasn't sure if she was going to spend an entire meeting being insulted.
Harry sat in a chair next to Draco, figuring that it would prevent the former Slytherin from thinking he was in an us versus them situation.
"So," Draco began, looking around to the trio. "I know why Ron and Hermione are here." He paused again, amused at how wide the couple's eyes got at hearing their given names coming out of his mouth. Ginny would be so proud of him. "But I am rather curious as to why you're here." His last statement was directed at Harry.
Harry opened his mouth to reply before being cut off by Ron.
"Well, as I'm sure you know, Harry is the other investor for the research team."
The blond man raised an eyebrow. "Ohh…so that's why they always referred to you as an anonymous investor."
"Did they really?" Harry asked with a laugh. "Did they think you would force your mum to withdraw funding if you found out?"
Draco shrugged in response. "Maybe? The charity is all Mother's own creation. I only help out as needed. She knows more about what she's donated to than I do."
Hermione hadn't said anything yet, but Harry could tell she was observing everything. He didn't know what she, or any of them really, were expecting out of this meeting. Was it an apology? Or were they going to be satisfied with acknowledgement?
The witch took the lull in conversation as an opportunity. "I don't mean to be blunt, Draco, but the whole reason why we're all here is to, unfortunately, rehash some of our childhood."
"Right," he replied, sighing. This conversation didn't flow as naturally as it had with Ginny. He leaned forward in his seat, resting his elbows on his knees, looking down. He took a deep breath. Ginny was at home cheering him on. He could do this. He leaned back in his seat again. "I'm sorry that it's taken us so long to get here, but I am sorry. For everything. For every negative comment I ever made about the Weasleys, for every time I called Hermione a Mudblood, for every stupid prank I pulled on Harry. All of it."
Ron looked at Hermione at the mention of her name. He knew about the Malfoys growing up and he knew that anything Harry got hurled at him was because he was the Harry Potter, but things were different for his fiancé. She wasn't anticipating that a world full of literal magic had the ability to display prejudice. He could see her brows crinkle together as she thought about Draco's words. Ron placed his left arm behind her and leaned in.
"How're you holding up, love?" he whispered.
In response, Hermione started laughing. "I'm fine, Ronald." She looked at the three men in front of her and laughed again at the sight of their perplexed faces.
"I don't think laughing is a normal reaction to this, 'Mione," Ron stated, pulling away from her.
"I told you; I'm fine. If anything, I think I'm surprised by my reaction." A pause as she sighed. "For some reason, I couldn't think of how I felt when I first heard the term 'Mudblood'. All I kept thinking about was how satisfying it felt to punch Draco during our third year."
Harry and Ron started laughing at Hermione's statement, while the aforementioned victim groaned as he remembered the moment.
"Of all the people who I could have guessed would have done bodily harm to me, you weren't very high up on my list," Draco replied. "I thought for sure Harry was going to beat you to it."
The brunette witch shrugged. "He probably would've, but I remembered realizing during my third year that I had more important things to worry about than a spoiled brat who could only resort to calling me names. Punching you really might've helped with that." Another pause as she scrunched her brows in thought again, oblivious to the continued laughter around her. "I think having a Time-Turner that year brought a lot of things into perspective, too."
Hermione looked at the blond man in front of her. It was weird laughing and joking around with Draco Malfoy. He looked composed, but he was more animated than the last few times she had seen him after the war. For the first year or so after Voldemort's death, he looked solemn and miserable whenever he had his picture taken for the papers. She knew from that alone that he was ready to move on from the person he was.
If she thought about it more, she realized that this apology was more for Ron and Harry's benefit, than it was for hers. Hermione wasn't lying when she said that everything kind of clicked for her during her third year, but Ron and Harry were always harder to convince. Plus, she had already decided to assist her friends the moment she got their request. From what Neville and Luna told her in their letter asking her to join their team, they said he was easy to work with. He never stirred up trouble for them and only had positive things to say about their work.
She knew that he had begun dating Daphne Greengrass again, so maybe having someone who cared for him was a positive influence.
The brunette witch looked over at her fiancé. She could tell that he was just as surprised by Draco's invite, but she was happy he decided to listen to Harry's suggestion of coming to the meeting with an open mind. That suggestion also surprised her coming from Harry. He was still finding himself a bit hesitant to fully believe that anyone with the name Malfoy could change; even after what Draco did for him during their capture at Malfoy Manor. But more than a decade had passed since the end of their school days. She knew she had evolved as a person. She knew her fiancé did too. And Harry was slowly getting there, but Hermione knew that Harry's evolution would always take the longest. It would only make sense that the former Slytherin would evolve as well.
It was in moments like these when she could feel Ginny's influence on Harry the most. She would've been the one who told him to keep an open mind. She always had a way of keeping him grounded; making him feel like he wasn't some grand savior, but just another love-struck teenager. Hermione wished Ginny was in the room with them, hearing the same apology she had heard.
"I wish Gin was here for this." Ron's words roused her from her thoughts. Ever since they began living together, there were more and more moments where it felt like her fiancé could read her mind. Which was a very complex mind to begin with, but it still tickled her all the same.
Draco gulped at the ginger-haired man's words. Little did he know that the person who helped Draco prepare for this conversation was his sister. "I'm sorry to hear about the situation with Ginny. I know it must've been tough for all three of you," the blond man stated. He needed to be very careful with his words now.
"We still have hope," Ron replied. "If she was dead, we think we would've heard something by now."
"I know Ginny. I know she'll come back." Harry was resolute as he spoke. His Ginny was always stronger than she gave herself credit for. She was always the one to dive head first into things alongside him. She was powerful even as a teenager. He knew it would take a lot for something to kill her.
The more the trio in front of him spoke about Ginny, the more Draco could feel a cold sweat forming on the back of his neck. He felt a weird need to assuage their fears about their loved one. Maybe it was because he knew she was sitting at his home, in her stupid fucking Snuggie, watching a movie without him. Or she was in her tub, listening to music, softly humming along. Or she was at the kitchen table, thinking about what to make them for dinner; where he would sit down next to her, just close enough for him to, maybe one day, reach out and hold her hand.
Maybe he wanted to let them know about her because it would help his guilt. Mixed in with all of his thoughts about Ginny was a dash of guilt at fulfilling her request to not let her family know. That guilt was nagging him now, telling him to be careful if he didn't want Daphne's master plan go up in smoke. Things had been going a little too well for him and he was letting his fantasies construct a possible reality for him that may not even happen. He couldn't simply wish for Ginny's freedom and have her pop back up out of nowhere, madly in love with him (he could still dream!), and expect everyone to be okay with it.
He looked up when he heard the trio get up from their seats.
Hermione stuck out a hand for him to shake. "I appreciate you allowing us to have this conversation. I'll get in contact with the research team to get everything sorted. I look forward to seeing what this partnership can produce."
Draco inhaled sharply before standing up, grabbing the witch's hand as he spoke. "Yes, my mother and I look forward to seeing the fruits of your labor." He let go, motioning them to the front door.
As soon as they were out of his office, he collapsed back down into his chair. Merlin, what he wouldn't give for a repeat of last night. He wanted to be on his bed again, shoulder to shoulder with Ginny, talking with her about anything and everything.
He looked over at the reports on his desk and pursed his lips together. There wasn't as large of a pile as he was used to. Maybe Blaise would be amenable to looking through some of these on his behalf. After all, he just finished one of the most laborious conversations of his life and the best relief for something like this was watching TV with Ginny.
A/N - Whew! This chapter was probably the hardest for me to write, but if I kept agonizing over it, then it'd never get posted lol. Thanks, as always, for y'all's continued support! I appreciate every bit of feedback.