Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Hermione spent the next couple of months trying to readjust to life in Britain. She was spending a fair amount of time with Harry and Ginny, but she was beginning to feel like she was intruding on them, taking away from their time with each other. There was also the fact that they had finally set a wedding date now that she was back. Not wanting to upstage Ron's wedding, but not wanting to wait until the following summer, they had opted to have it over the Christmas holidays. Ginny had asked Hermione to be Maid of Honor. Whenever Hermione visited they spent a lot of time on wedding plans, which once again served to remind Hermione how much her life was standing still.

Everywhere she looked her friends were creating lives for themselves. Ron had Lavender. Neville had Luna. Dean, Seamus, Padma... They all seemed to have someone and she was all alone.

Not only that, but she still had no idea what it was she wanted to do. Since her return she had received offers from the Ministry to work in the department of her choice, St. Mungo's and several other businesses – which she assumed wanted her because she was famous. Her parents, who were still adjusting and restarting their practice, had little time to question her about her future – especially since they knew very little about the wizarding world.

Checking her watch, she saw that it was time to meet Ginny. They would be Flooing to Paris for Ginny to select her wedding dress.

As usual, Lucius answered the door. "Miss Weasley has been delayed. Would you care for some tea while you wait?" he asked politely.

Since she had heard his side of events, she had been more cordial to him, finally understanding why Harry and Ginny had defended him, but this was the first time she had been alone with him since that day. "Yes, please." She followed him down to the kitchen.

"I'll bring it up to the sitting room," he offered.

"I'd prefer to wait in the kitchen," she replied. Over the years, she had grown the most comfortable with that room. Of course, it was the one room that really did not reflect the Black family. And she still didn't like being in the sitting room alone.

"As you wish," he said simply.

Once in the kitchen, he poured tea from a pot and Hermione noticed that he had a cup already. They sat in silence at opposite corners of the table. She started at her cup while he read the Daily Prophet. Obviously she was the only one who found the silence uncomfortable. "What do you plan to do when your time of service is up?" This was something she had been thinking about lately now that he was only obligated to serve Harry for another two weeks.

He was taken aback by her question and set the newspaper aside. "Are you that concerned about me, Miss Granger?"

"Well... Yes. I mean..." She had no idea how to continue because she knew that Malfoy would be not welcome her pity. "It's just that I know what happened after the sentencing." She stared into her cup, not wanting to meet his gaze.

"There are always ways to earn money for someone with the skill and desire," he replied simply.

While she had known the Ministry had taken away most of his fortune and that he had been removed from the board of directors for most of his businesses, that was not what she had been referring to. "I meant Narcissa," she said softly, only peeking up briefly with her eyes to judge his reaction.

He looked away from her. "Ah. Yes, well... That was for the best. Narcissa and I had grown apart over the years. Since divorce still carries a heavy stigma, we made do. With events of the war and the ensuing stress, the stigma in our case was removed, freeing her to move on with her life. She is much happier in France."

"And you?"

He smiled weakly. "I am a survivor. Now you on the other hand have been wandering aimlessly since your return. Surely you have at least been offered a job at the Ministry."

"That's none of your business," she replied gruffly, not wanting to discuss her life.

He ignored her and continued. "Your problem is that you have very little knowledge of the wizarding world and what careers are available. Since you missed your final year at Hogwarts, you did not have the benefit of career counseling. I assume that because of your strained relationship with Ronald Weasley that you do not communicate with his family, so you have no mentor to direct you towards a career path."

She wanted to argue with him, but she knew that he was right. Harry had been pushing her to just take a Ministry job until she could decide what it was she wanted to do. It was something she was on the verge of doing, feeling guilty about living off her parents. "I'll figure something out."

"I could offer you advice, help you make an informed decision."

She froze with the teacup nearly to her lips. "Why would you want to help me?" she asked suspiciously.

"Because you are a highly intelligent witch who deserves something more than being stuck in a boring Ministry job. Jobs like that are fine for people like Arthur Weasley and Harry Potter, but not you."

She looked into his eyes and could tell that he was being sincere. "And how would you know that?"

"When I was on the Board of Governors I was privy to student grades. Not to mention that Draco would complain about the number of times that you did better than he did."

She almost thought there was something more he wanted to say. Even though he had changed, it still didn't seem like him to just offer his assistance. "What's in it for you?"

"Always suspicious," he said with an amused chuckle before taking a sip of his tea.

"Where you are concerned, yes. I just have a hard time believing you would do this out of the goodness of your heart," she replied honestly.

"While it may not be entirely altruistic, I have no desire to see your intellect wasted as a junior paper pusher at the Ministry. You have the capability to be truly great in the wizarding world. What you need is a partner to help you reach your full potential, someone to help you navigate the laws and regulations of the wizarding world, someone with business savvy." He was so excited that he was sitting on the edge of his seat, leaning on the table, a gleam in his eyes.

"In other words, someone like you."

"Quite right." He raised his teacup in salute. "We could form a business partnership that would be advantageous to us both."

"You would really work with a Mudblood?" This all seemed too good to be true, like he was setting her up for something.

He set his cup down and looked at her sternly. "My dear, I have already told you that my opinions of those who are not pureblood has changed. It is not blood that matters, but ability. If you do not wish to join in a partnership with me, that is your choice. I was merely seeking a way to assist you and show my appreciation of what Harry Potter has done for me. Helping you is one way I can repay him – he has been quite concerned about your future and lack of direction."

She considered his offer for a few moments. Upstairs she could hear the door open. "Let me think about it."

"Don't take too long. I intend to begin rebuilding as soon as my wand is returned."

*****************

Normally Hermione would have relished a trip to Paris and taken in the sights, but she was distracted by thoughts of Lucius's offer. If she accepted she still wasn't sure what she would be doing, but the mystery of accepting his offer appealed to her. He was correct that she would not be happy pushing paper at the Ministry, and her personality was such that she didn't think she would make a good Healer – she preferred dealing with facts to dealing with people. Which made a partnership with Lucius appealing – he had excellent people skills. But then he was still Lucius Malfoy. Yes, his reputation had taken a hit, but he was a Malfoy and that name still retained some power. From what she had seen in the Daily Prophet articles following his trial, many people had some sympathy for him. And if he was still reviled, sure the Prophet would have made an issue about his impending release from servitude.

"Hermione? Are you alright?" Ginny asked.

"What? Oh, yes... I'm fine," she replied as she returned her attention to Ginny and the latest dress she was trying on.

Ginny looked at her doubtfully. "Are you sure? Your mind hasn't been completely here."

Hermione sighed. "I'm sorry, Ginny. I'm just thinking about the future." She looked at Ginny's dress. "It's not bad, but I liked the second one better." Forcing herself to concentrate on now and enjoy this outing with Ginny, she started looking at some of the dresses the seamstress had brought out more closely. "Try this one next," she offered handing the dress to Ginny.

For the rest of the afternoon and into the evening, she was able to push Lucius from her mind and help Ginny select a dress. While watching Ginny try on dress after dress, Hermione found herself thinking of the day in the future when she would be shopping for a dress of her own, whenever that might be.

They took dinner at a small sidewalk café in wizarding Paris. "So, what were you thinking about the future that was taking your mind off dress shopping?" Ginny asked inquisitively.

Since they were nearly to the bottom of the bottle of wine, Hermione didn't even stop to think before answering, "Lucius has offered a business partnership."

"What sort of partnership?"

"I have no idea. We didn't get a chance to discuss it. But whatever it is, it will have to be more interesting that dealing with paperwork at the Ministry." After her brain reminded her that Ginny's father, brother and fiancé worked for the Ministry, she added, "No offense."

"None taken. That's why I joined the Harpies. I just couldn't see myself working in an office day in and day out." She took a sip of her wine. "So, you gonna take it?"

Hermione swirled her wine as she considered her reply. "Do you think I should?" A small voice in her brain tried to tell her that making decisions for ones future while drunk was a bad idea, but she ignored it.

Ginny shrugged. "What have you got to lose?"

That was exactly what Hermione had thought. Lucius seemed sincere, and she couldn't imagine he would ever do anything to harm her. Right now she had nothing to lose. "Nothing, I guess."

"Then go for it," Ginny urged.

Hermione's alcohol laden mind thought this was a fantastic idea. "I will. First thing tomorrow morning, I'll let him know that I'm in."

Ginny leaned over and gave Hermione a hug. "That's great. I'm sure that you'll be wonderful no matter what you end up doing with Lucius." Ginny pulled back, blushed and giggled, covering her mouth. "Not that I meant that."

Hermione giggled as well. "Though it's not like he's bad looking or anything. He's actually quite handsome isn't he?"

Ginny's expression took on a dreamy look. "He is, but you really aren't thinking of him that way, are you?"

"Not until you mentioned it." They both fell into a fit of giggles. "I can't believe we're talking about Lucius Malfoy this way."

Ginny flashed a mischievous grin. "You haven't seen him without his shirt on."

"Ginny!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Well, I was up early one morning and decided to make tea and he was leaving the loo with only his trousers on." She shrugged. "What can I say, I stared. I am a woman after all." She took another sip of her wine. "And I have to say that he didn't seem to mind."

"Ginny, you're horrible." She tried to sound aghast, but now she was curious about what Ginny had seen. "I think we should get going. It's very late."

***************

As Hermione lay in bed that night, wanting to go to sleep, her mind instead was thinking of Lucius Malfoy. She tried to push him from her mind. After all, he was a man that she had despised until only a few weeks ago. Now she was not only thinking about forming a business partnership with him, but she also could not stop thinking of him shirtless. She knew that it was the wine and that it would pass. At least she hoped it would. After all, he was old enough to be her father. With that thought she started imagining Lucius's head on her father's body and found herself able to forget him so that she could go to sleep.

When she woke up the next morning, she had a headache from her over-indulgence and dug through her potions for an anti-headache potion. By the time she had showered and dressed, she felt almost normal, aside from the butterflies in her stomach. She was nervous not only about making a decision for her future, but also about tying her future to Lucius Malfoy.

Walking from the Apparition point to Grimmauld Place, she started giggling again as thoughts of shirtless Lucius drifted back into her mind. "Quit it," she chided quietly. This was a very serious situation and the last thing she needed to think about was Lucius as anything other than a business partner.

Knocking on the door, she was shocked to see Harry answer it. "Er, Harry, hi!" she managed to say brightly.

"I'm surprised to see you here this early. Ginny's left for practice already."

"I'm, er, not here to see Ginny," she said as she shifted nervously.

"What can I do for you? Though I do have to leave soon for work."

"Actually, I'm here to see Lucius."

Harry sighed. "I thought you had put all that nonsense behind you and accepted that he's changed."

"Oh, I have." She thought quickly, trying to determine how she wanted to phrase her reasoning for being there. She wasn't sure that Harry would be as accepting of her business partnership as Ginny had and getting into an argument with him first thing this morning was not on her list of things to do. "We were having a rather interesting debate when Ginny came home and I wanted to hear the rest of his points." She hoped that excuse would be good enough to not raise any suspicion and to be uninteresting enough that Harry wouldn't want to stay.

Harry seemed thoroughly uninterested. "Only you can make a mountain out of a molehill. He's down in the kitchen. Oh, I was going to send you an owl, but since you're here, I ran into Marcus Belby yesterday and I thought maybe you'd like to double date on Friday."

Hermione knew she had to get out in the wizarding world more than she had and she thought Marcus was a nice young man. "Sure. Sounds like a good idea." It was much better than being set up on a blind date. At least if he turned out to be a boring date, she would have Harry and Ginny for company.

When she entered the kitchen, she saw Lucius scrubbing pans with his sleeves rolled up. Out of curiosity she checked his forearm for the Dark Mark, but his skin was blank.

He looked up and flashed her a smile. "It's completely gone now; it vanished after his death."

"Oh, I'm sorry," she replied, embarrassed at having been caught.

"Quite alright. I assume that you are here to see me." He dried his hands. "There is still some bacon and coffee, but I'm afraid the eggs are gone. I can make more if you would like."

The thought of Lucius cooking still didn't sit right with her. "No, thank you. I'll just have some bacon and some toast." She went to the pantry to get the bread herself, not liking to be waited on outside of a restaurant. When she returned to the table, a plate was waiting for her, as was a cup of coffee. Lucius was seated across from her chair. Ignoring the fact that he was sitting with his fingers laced on the table and not joining her for breakfast, she said, "I've been thinking about your offer and wondering if you had any business ideas before I make my decision."

"The ideas are actually quite limitless. I thought we could spend the next couple of weeks brainstorming ideas to see where your interests lay and go from there."

"Are you going to contribute anything other than your business savvy?" While she didn't mind working, she didn't want to do all the work if this was going to be a partnership.

"Part of it will depend on what business endeavor we choose. I have decent but not extraordinary Potions skills. Believe or not, Severus spoke quite highly of your skills, though he did mention your unwillingness to think outside the instructions. I am quite good at both Transfiguration and Charms. But whatever our business endeavor, it will require a good deal of marketing and investment work early on so that initial development will fall largely to you."

She had a few bites of her breakfast while she considered his offer. It was very tempting and sounded much more interesting than a traditional job. And he was probably right about his marketing skills. She was reasonably sure that he could sell water to the merpeople. "I'm in," she finally said.

He grinned broadly. "Excellent. I do have a small amount of capital and if necessary can mortgage the estate. I presume that you have little capital to invest."

"No. I don't have anything to add," she replied quietly.

"Pity. You would have thought they would have rewarded you for your efforts to destroy Voldemort."

Hermione didn't want to tell him that the Ministry had, but she had declined payment wanting the money to go to the victims since she knew she could easily get a job and support herself. "Well then, I guess I'd better finish breakfast and we can start making plans." Hermione could scarcely believe she had just agreed to be a business partner with Lucius Malfoy.

*************

Over the next two weeks, they floated dozens of ideas, each feasible, but each with some serious drawbacks. She was starting to feel a little frustrated.

"Hermione, a business does not blossom overnight. It takes work. And this is nothing compared to the work we will have once we decide what our product will be," Lucius reassured her.

She tried to run her fingers through the tangled mess of her hair. "I know that. It's just that it should be easy to figure out what we want to sell. Tomorrow you are officially a free man and we still have nothing." She shoved the various scraps of parchment with ideas away from her in frustration, a few fluttering to the floor.

Lucius moved behind her and massaged her shoulders. "You need to relax. Stress does not lead to clear thinking. And just because I'm going to get my wand back tomorrow does not mean that we have to open our business tomorrow. I am not entirely broke."

His touch was firm, yet tender and she found herself relaxing. "I know that. I just feel like all my friends are accomplishing things in life and I'm standing still. I was the best in my class. I'm supposed to be the one having success."

"You will," he whispered into her ear.

She looked over her shoulder at him, thinking how kissable his lips were. He pulled back a little a put his finger under her chin, tilting it up slightly.

"Now, my dear, we will have to continue this tomorrow. There is work to be done around the house before Mr. Potter returns. I'll owl when I return home and we can resume our work."

She swallowed nervously. "Your house?" Until now she had not thought that she would have to go to Malfoy manor. She had been tortured and nearly killed when she had last been there.

He sat beside her and took her hands in his. "Hermione, it is not the same house. There will be no one there but the two of us. All traces of his occupation of the house have been removed. I assure you that you are perfectly safe there."

She drew strength from his words and confidence. "Okay. Tomorrow."

***************

A/N: Once again, many thanks to my lovely beta. It has been wonderful having someone to brainstorm with. :D