Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Lucius returned to England feeling much more relaxed than he had before leaving. Granted he had not indulged in the fling Connor had suggested, but he had found his encounter with Hermione quite invigorating despite the lack of physical intimacy.

They had flirted with each other all week, and he could tell from her responses that he still had it. She had smiled and blushed at his attention, and he had enjoyed watching her thrive. That morning she had looked far more relaxed and healthier than she had upon her arrival on the island. He had to believe that he had at least played a small role in that. And he knew that he most definitely felt happier than he had when he had left England.

Aside from a few tense moments, they had thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. And now that she was going to work for him, he could find ways to run into her more often. He smiled deviously at this thought.

A part of him wanted to feel guilty about his feelings towards her, but she had clearly shown that she was unhappy with her marriage. He would not do anything to actively drive her away from Weasley, but he would show her how much better it could be with someone else, preferably him.

He still wasn't sure when during the last week his feelings for her had changed. He had not lied when he had told her that spending time with her had made him feel years younger. After their first day together, he had made sure to 'casually' run into her so that they could spend more time together. As the week had progressed, he had found it more and more difficult to maintain their platonic relationship. That final night when he had escorted her back to her bungalow, he had wanted nothing more than to give her a deep passionate kiss and take her to her bedroom. Amazingly he had resisted and returned to his bungalow.

He briefly considered taking a short trip over the weekend to indulge in the fling Connor had suggested, but now that he had decided Hermione was to be the witch for him, he felt that would be indecent. No, he had waited three years, he could wait a little while longer.

Deciding he should stop by the office to see what was waiting on his desk and if anything was urgent, he changed into his usual robes. After all, the light linen he had worn on the island would not be appropriate here.

His secretary had prioritized the correspondence so that it only took him three hours to give everything a first pass. He looked at the stack of paperwork that required more attention. He knew that if he started working on it now, he would be working late into the night. Since there was nothing waiting for him at his manor and he was still on Bahamian time, he elected to do something productive.

The letter on the top of the stack was from Elsa Schwarz of Schwarz Kesselwerks, a German cauldron company he was looking to acquire to diversify his business interests. He knew her company was having some cash flow problems, and he could not only solve that problem, but by merging with Malfoy Industries, Schwarz would more easily be able to sell cauldrons in Britain. She was open to a meeting, but requested it be at her headquarters near Frankfurt. Normally he would have preferred doing business in London, but this would give him a chance to look over their operations to make sure it was a sound investment.

He penned a brief reply agreeing to the meeting and suggested Tuesday. He then consulted his notes about the company, the Schwarz family and German wizarding customs. One of the lessons from his father had been that you could never have too much information.

The company had been in business for over three hundred years, but over the last five years there had been some questionable business decisions which had left it in a precarious position. Glancing back at the biography he had on Elsa, he saw that she had been president of the company for about the same amount of time. She was well educated, had spent some time in America working for an uncle after school, but seemingly lacked business sense, which struck him as odd given her history of working for the family business for almost fifteen years. Her age caught his eye – she was 38 and apparently unmarried. But since his research department had neglected to include a photograph, he would have to double check that information.

He leaned back in his chair as he pondered this bit of information. This could definitely work to his advantage. He could use his charms to perhaps ensure a more favorable merger.

After spending a few hours going over all the information he had on the Schwarz Kesselwerks, he decided to retire for the night since it was nearly midnight.

Lucius returned home to his empty manor. If Weasley had not been coming to meet Hermione, he would have stayed the weekend at the resort. Of course, it was probably for the best that he was not there. She was permeating his thoughts, his dreams, and he knew that spending too much time around her could be dangerous. After all, he was a man and men had certain urges. It felt good to have those urges again, but the timing was not the best.

As he walked through the empty hallways, he contemplated the future. As long as she was with Weasley, there was no future.

He had no doubt that he could have initiated an affair with her, but what then? Would she have been able to keep her infidelity from Weasley? And even if she did, that was no future. She would still be Weasley's in part. No, he wanted something emotionally and physically satisfying. He wanted her to be his wife, his partner. He wanted to sit by the fire in the evening and have a lively debate with her.

He had shown her how he would treat her, what she was apparently missing in her marriage, but would it be enough?

Her reluctance to discuss Weasley or their relationship made it difficult for him to judge how tenuous it was. If only he knew the source of their tension, he might be able to find a way to exploit it, to drive her to the logical conclusion that she was better off without Weasley.

Of course, she would also have to convince Weasley he was better off without her, which could be more difficult. While he did not necessarily hold the Weasleys in the highest regard, they were still an old wizarding family and would surely feel the stigma of divorce. This would not be nearly as contentious an issue if she had instead married someone with Muggle ties.

He tried not to think about what she was doing now. Weasley would be there, and she would be sharing the secrets of the resort with him, the same secrets he had imparted to her. And no doubt they would dine at one of the restaurants he had recommended. He might have unwittingly given her the information that she needed to preserve her marriage.

That thought made him shudder. But there had been no choice. He wanted her to enjoy their time together, and that had involved making her stay as pleasant as possible.

But even if Weasley was reaping the benefits of Lucius' knowledge of the resort, he had a hard time believing the young man was treating Hermione with the level of attention he had shown her. Her reaction to his praise and attentiveness had shown him that it was not something she normally received. That was what would work in his favor.

In fact, it was entirely possible that Weasley was being his boorish self and only reinforcing to Hermione that she could do so much better.

He chose to believe that latter.

Lucius cracked his eyes and tried to determine what time it was. The light peering through the crack in the drapes seemed stronger than it should have been, but he had been up late last night and was still operating on an internal clock that was set to five time zones away. While he would have liked to have drifted back to sleep, he knew that it was best to just get up and work through straight through. Checking the clock, he saw that it was nearly nine in the morning. He forced himself to get up and prepare for the day, though he had no idea what he would be doing.

He presumed there would be some personal correspondence, but that was unlikely to take more than an hour. He did want to go to the library and see if there was any information there about Elsa Schwarz – especially a photograph. After that... He was forced into the realization that his life had become incredibly dull. He sighed and decided to just get on with his day. Soon enough the merger would consume much of his time.

It was nearly ten o'clock before he finished dressing, consumed a light breakfast and retired to his office. As he had expected, the personal correspondence only took about an hour. He then returned his attention to the information he had on the Schwarz Kesselwerks. He was adding to his notes when one of the house-elves popped into the office.

"Excuse me, Master. Mr. Connor is here to see you, sir," the elf said apologetically.

"Send him in," Lucius replied as he glanced at the clock and saw that it was shortly after noon. He was looking forward to Connor's visit, though he knew that there were things he could not tell his friend, it would be good to have someone to converse with.

Connor had a huge grin on his face. "You look good. How was the Bahamas?" he asked as he strode over to the bar.

Lucius set down his quill. "It was precisely what I needed."

"Oh?" Connor asked inquisitively. "Would you like something?" he asked as he helped himself.

Lucius had to laugh at the fact their friendship had progressed to the point where Connor felt nothing amiss about helping himself to his liquor. "Scotch, neat, but I think you knew that."

"I was just being polite," Connor quipped as he poured the drinks. He turned around and handed the glass to Lucius who had come around from behind the desk. They sat on either end of the sofa. "So, a vacation was precisely what you needed?" Connor asked with a sly grin on his face.

"It was quite relaxing. And before you ask, I did not have a fling," Lucius pre-empted.

"Ah, Lucius, you missed a golden opportunity. Unless...?," Connor examined his friend's expression trying to read it, "you found someone while you were there."

Lucius tried to keep a passive expression, but he was sure that he was failing. Connor simply knew him too well.

"So, who is she?" Conner prodded.

Lucius sipped his drink before replying. "I'd rather not say right now. I think it best for both of us if I keep that to myself for the time being. After all, we have not formally started dating, and I'd rather not let the harpies know that I'm playing the field, so to speak."

"Well, I can understand that, but I don't know how well you'll be able to keep that secret. Your entire demeanor has changed," Connor observed.

Lucius was not surprised to hear this since he felt different. "Well, we'll just have to see. We hope to do this on our terms rather than someone else's." He was surprised by his use of the plural since Hermione did not know she was being courted. His gaze took on a faraway look as he imagined a future where he and Hermione were together.

Connor leaned forward in anticipation. "So is there anything you can tell me about her?"

After a few seconds of consideration where Lucius tried to determine what he could tell his friend, he said, "She's bright, ambitious and a joy to be around. I can tell that we can have many wonderful years of stimulating conversation." He took another sip of his drink and contemplated whether he should mention her age and decided that would be too specific.

"That's it?" Connor asked, disappointed that he wasn't getting more details.

"That's it. Anymore and I would be compromising her identity. I'm sure you understand," he replied obliquely. He knew that Hermione was well known enough that it would be possible for Connor to at least suspect her.

"Well then, here's to your blossoming relationship," Connor said and raised his glass.

Lucius did the same. He hoped it would blossom, but there were no guarantees. Everything depended on her. "Did you want to stay for lunch?"

"That would be marvelous. It's cleaning day, and I had to find some peace. Rather than pop in on Astoria, I thought I'd see how your vacation went. Perhaps you can share some more details over lunch?"

Lucius pondered this for a moment. He could see no harm in letting Connor know how he spent his time at the resort. He would just have to be careful not to use Hermione's name and accidentally give away her identity.

They spent the next hour over a light lunch talking about the resort. Connor kept pressing for details and was genuinely disappointed that Lucius had been so tight lipped on the matter of her identity, even any vague word that could allow him to suss it out. "Let me get this straight, as smitten as you are with this witch, you had not even given her so much as a goodnight kiss?" Connor asked incredulously.

"I want to take this slow, make sure she knows how special she is. I guess I'm just a bit old fashioned," Lucius replied. He wasn't really old fashioned, but it sounded good and would deflect attention from the fact that he had done nothing because he wasn't technically courting her since she was most decidedly unavailable. He knew that there was nothing he could say that would cause Connor to approve of him chasing after a married witch.

"Well, I should get home and leave you to go write a letter to your lady love. Glad to hear that you are finally courting someone, even if you won't tell me who it is... yet." Connor gave him a sly wink before departing.

Lucius grinned. He would like nothing more than to write Hermione a letter, but that just was not possible. He had no guarantees that something like that would not fall into the wrong hands.

After surviving a dull weekend alone, he decided to see his hiring manager first thing Monday to present him information about Hermione. Of course Hiram Grey would realize that the interview was a mere formality for someone recommended by Lucius. Over the course of their time together in the Bahamas, Lucius had used the time to determine where Hermione's interests and passions had laid, and determined she had a fondness for potions and kept up on the latest developments in various periodicals. He mentioned to Hiram that she might be well suited to the Potions Research division.

After that, it was back to the paperwork waiting for his perusal. The mundane paperwork was the worst part. He liked having input into new product development, arranging business deals, but the paperwork had never interested him. Unfortunately it was a necessary fact of life, and he always devoted the necessary time to taking care of administrative manners. He thought that was part of why his business was so successful. He knew that he could have easily delegated a lot of the work to others, but then he would not be as aware of the state of his holdings. He had seen companies fail for that reason – which of course had been to his financial advantage when he could swoop in and turn the company around in short order. While his father had not been the most loving or supportive father, Abraxas had been an amazing businessman, and Lucius had been an excellent student.

He made the final preparations for his meeting in Frankfurt tomorrow. He was vexed that there had been no pictures and no personal information to be found on Elsa. Clearly she was a very private person. He had hoped to learn something, some small tidbit that he could use to charm her. While he did not need this information to succeed, it would have made it easier and helped ensure that he did nothing to unwittingly embarrass himself. He would just need to proceed cautiously.

After a long workday, Lucius arrived at the manor and wondered how much longer he would be the only one living there. It had been far too long since he had shared his home with anyone. He vowed that he would not wallow in pity any longer, but instead decided to plan how best to proceed with regards to Hermione. At this point he was not even willing to admit it to her. He knew that her relationship was in flux, and he was unsure what his declaration of affection would do. Most likely it would drive her away.

Lucius knew that over the next few weeks, he was likely to have little opportunity to see Hermione. There would be new employee orientation, but at most that would only be a few minutes. Of course it was probably best that he avoid her for a while. The temptation to woo her away from Weasley was too great. He knew that he could not interfere lest he invite scandal. Her decision to leave Weasley would have to appear to be devoid of outside influence. He had shown her what life with him would be like. Hopefully, after a few weeks of her living the status quo with Weasley, she would come to the realization that she could do better.

It would also allow him time to concentrate on the acquisition of the Schwartz Kesselwerks. He knew that he was likely to be spending the next few days in Frankfurt and that would divert his attention from Hermione for the time being.

After she had had time to settle in to her new job and with her coworkers, he would seek her out. But he wanted her to feel comfortable in her surroundings since he had no doubt that she would feel uncomfortable about their friendship. That was the one disadvantage of her working for him. He would do everything he could to put her at ease so that no one would care about their friendship.

He would take his cues from her about how often he should 'run in' to her. It would be easy to run into her after work, but he also knew how suspicious it would look if that happened too often. If he had been married, there might not have been much question about the two of them spending time together. But he was not married, and for him to be seen with a married witch in the evening social period would surely lead to gossip of the unwelcome variety.

Lucius arrived in Frankfurt as prepared as he could be. He wished he had been able to divine more personal information about the Schwarz family than he had, but he felt that he had enough to understand that Elsa had been taking quite a few risks since taking over the company, trying to improve their profit margin, but most of her gambles had not been very lucrative. Depending what he saw during the plant tour, he felt this could be an excellent acquisition.

He was met at the Apparition point, though not by Elsa.

"Guten Morgen, Herr Malfoy. I am Max Weiss and I will by your escort."

Lucius inclined his head. "A pleasure to meet you, Herr Weiss," he said somewhat formally, but with a warm smile. For now it was best to be polite, especially when titles were not used. He did not recall Weiss being mentioned in the dossier, something he would have to bring up with his research staff.

There was no conversation as he was led into the building. This suited Lucius as he was free to observe his surroundings. Everything appeared neat and well cared for – good signs that the business had not been completely run into the ground. He was escorted to a conference room and offered refreshments. He took some tea and sat at the table to wait. He was not finding this a favorable first impression.

After about five minutes, Elsa and a small entourage arrived. "Mr. Malfoy, my apologies for keeping you waiting," Elsa said in English that held only the slightest hint of a German accent as she reached to shake his hand. "Something requiring my urgent attention occurred shortly before your arrival." She noticed that he was alone. "You do not have an assistant?" she asked curiously.

He had risen to his feet upon her arrival and returned her handshake. "It's good to meet you, Frau Schwartz. I always prefer to meet potential new business partners on a more personal level before getting down to business. I find it a much more relaxed environment." He gave her his best smile. While she was not one of the most beautiful women he had ever met, she was rather attractive. She was slightly shorter than him with shoulder length brown hair. He did not notice a wedding band, but he knew that it was not custom in Germany to wear one, though some did.

She took a seat and asked cautiously. "Is that so?"

Sitting across from her, he replied charmingly, "Indeed. I was hoping we could tour the facilities together, and then we could meet to discuss any questions I might have." He gave her a telling grin. "Perhaps over dinner?" he hinted. He had always found that people were much more forthcoming in an unthreatening atmosphere.

She considered his offer. "If the tour goes longer than expected or if you have more questions than can be answered before then, perhaps."

He took it as a good sign that he had not been completely rebuffed. "I'm sure that you will find that I am likely to have a great many questions. I take mergers of this nature quite seriously, so naturally I want to ensure that this merger is mutually beneficial." He rose to his feet and gestured towards the door. "If you would lead the way."

During the rather extensive tour, he tried not to let his mind wander too much. He knew that he had to focus on the tour since he was the one who had decided to do this alone. Thoughts of Hermione could wait until he was back at the hotel.

The general state of the factory was satisfactory. In one of the main smelteries he observed the workers, who poured the pewter into iron molds in one room, then passed them to those who then rolled and cut more pewter into shapes, which were later molded into objects by magical artisans for attaching to the cauldron. Lucius admired the well-honed skill of the artisans who took the sheets of pewter and molded then into shapes by using a mallet made of leather as well as wood or metal tools. In another area, Elsa explained how the workers were magically spinning the flat discs of pewter to create the desired objects. The discs of hot pewter were secured onto a lathe and then by magically spinning the disc over a metal or wooden mold to give it its shape while they bent the pewter to their will. In another section, workers were soldering various pieces of pewter together, such as affixing a handle to the pot, spouts or feet.

When the pewter objects were finished they were taken to an another location to be polished and buffed to given the cauldron the desired finish, then it was finally sent to the packing and shipping house.*

He could see a few minor inefficiencies in the manufacturing process, but nothing that should have caused the level of difficulty it appeared Elsa was having with the running of her company. He presumed that would come to light when they began reviewing the books. The formal review of the books would wait until tomorrow, but he would try to glean some information from her over dinner. He would keep the conversation before dinner to safe and boring topics concerning the business of cauldron making. He wanted her relaxed so that she would agree to share dinner with him, and he did not want her on guard.

They lunched in the cafeteria with the workers, something that caught him slightly off balance, but that also proved to be quite enlightening. He found himself wishing he had brushed up on his German, but he caught several snippets of conversation here and there while they ate. Overall, it appeared that the workers seemed content, though he did pick up some underlying fear about the future of the company.

Late afternoon, they finished their tour. "I hope you found the tour enlightening, Mr. Malfoy," Elsa said cordially as they entered her office, her shadow Weiss following them.

"Quite so," Lucius replied. He had hoped that they could speak alone. "I saw a few things worthy of further discussion. Of course some of that discussion will only occur if the merger is finalized," he said with a slight tilt of his head and a warm, yet knowing smile.

Elsa took a seat in a chair in the lounge area of her office and indicated that Lucius should take the opposite chair. "And did you see anything that would put that merger in jeopardy?"

He found himself thinking that it would be decent to offer him some sort of beverage, and he was still a bit disconcerted by Weiss standing near the door. "Not as of yet," he replied honestly. He had known that any such indications would be most likely to happen while reviewing the assets and the financial history of the company as well as determining if there were any foreseeable liabilities he'd have to face and whether it would be prudent to have the company remain a separately run and operated subsidiary. "Of course I think we both know that my preliminary inspection is a bit of a formality. If I did not think that our companies had complementary interests, I would not be pursuing this merger." It was technically an acquisition, but he knew that she would feel more at ease if she was treated more as an equal.

When he saw her relax, he started asking her questions about the manufacturing process that had been raised during the tour, but had been impractical to ask at the time due to the ambient noise level. He found himself impressed by her level of knowledge. She clearly knew quite a bit about the process of making cauldrons, which was a good sign for the leadership of the company. It became apparent to him that her difficulties could lie in the marketing and financial side of the business.

He would have to charm her over to dinner. "Forgive me, Frau Schwartz, but it is getting late, and as I am unfamiliar with the local dining establishments, perhaps we could continue this discussion over dinner."

She gave the barest glance to Weiss before replying, "Of course, Mr. Malfoy, though I think that perhaps we should be less formal."

"Of course, Elsa and I would be delighted if you called me Lucius," he said, smiling warmly at her. "I will naturally defer to your judgment on where we should dine this evening. As I've said, I am not familiar with Frankfurt."

Returning his smile, she replied, "I know just the place."

"Excellent." Lucius rose and offered her his arm, looking forward to an evening of flirting, flattery and learning the truth about Schwarz Kesselwerks.

Note: Information on how pewter items are made came from http: //www.ehow.com/how-does_4709595_pewter-get-made.html (remove the space). Many thanks again to my wonderful beta beaweasley2 for providing this information and so much more.

Also, it's one of those strange coincidences that I chose Elsa for Ms. Schwartz's first name as this was written about 6 months before Frozen came out. Just one of those good Nordic/Germanic names. :)