Deal With The Devil (Dramione)

Chapter Three: Background

            Draco stared after the Golden Trio as they exited, whispering among themselves. As soon as the door closed, he turned and kicked the solid wood desk. "Fuck," he hissed as he hopped on one foot, holding his now damaged appendage. Of course, Potter and the Weasel had to arrive when he was finally alone with Hermione.

Once the throbbing in his foot went down, Draco exited the office with a slight limp, giving Veronica a curt nod before heading straight to his office three doors down. He stopped in the doorway when he saw Blaise sitting in his chair, spinning it around. Blaise looked up at the sound of the door opening, took one look at Draco's agitated state, and whistled. "Granger already got you tied up in knots?"

"Not her, Potter and the Weasel," Draco growled.

Blaise raised an eyebrow. "Already?"

Draco stalked into the room and motioned for Blaise to get out of his chair, which the Italian thankfully did. He plopped down into it and put his head in his hands. "We were having a nice little chat, and then those two just had to show up and ruin everything."

"You had to have known that wherever Hermione goes, so do the other two," Blaise said. "I'm surprised they haven't asked for jobs here yet, to be honest."

Draco shuddered at the idea. "Dear God, I pray that day will never come."

"It just might. So, how much flirting did you get in before the rest of the trio arrived?"
"We weren't flirting," Draco hissed, "She really can't stand me."

"Love and hate are two sides of the same coin," Blaise said wisely.

Draco arched an eyebrow. "I don't love her."

"You've been pining after her since we were all in school!"

"I'm a Malfoy; we don't pine."

"Mate, I remember how you complained about her every single day. it was all Granger this, Granger that."

"I might have had a small crush, but that's all."

Blaise snorted. "Well, can we discuss the fact that you created a position specifically for her as soon as you found it she hated her job?"

Draco felt himself color. "The position needed to be created. It just so happened that Hermione is the best suited."

"Is that why you worked so hard to convince the Board to approve someone so young?"

Draco cleared his throat but didn't answer, instead inspecting his fingernails. They were perfectly manicured.

"That's what I thought." Draco could hear the smirk in Blaise's voice. "You've got it bad. You always have, even when you were too dumb to realize it."

Draco stiffened. "I can't help that in the past, I believed what my parents told me. I've grown up."

Blaise's features softened. "I know, Draco, I know. We were both in that boat. I wasn't implying anything."

Sniffing, Draco lowered his gaze from his friend's face abashed. He hadn't meant to jump down Blaise's throat.

"Back to the topic at hand, what do you expect to happen anyways, Draco? You're her boss now, for crying out loud."

Draco looked around his office for inspiration. "I don't know. I just wanted to get her out of that place and someplace better since no matter what I did at the Ministry, her job wasn't improving."

Blaise's eyebrows rose so high they almost disappeared in his hair. "You were doing what, exactly, at the Ministry? Were the Malfoy's sticking their nose in where it didn't belong?"

Draco felt himself blush. "I was donating money with stipulations it be applied to her department and her projects, not that it seemed to have been working."

Blaise just stared at him.

"What?"

"Hermione Granger is already the best thing to have ever happened to you, and she has absolutely no idea."

Draco rolled his eyes.

"I mean it. I cant wait to see what kind of trouble you're going to get yourself into while she works here."

"I'm going to try my best to stay out of her way, that's what."

"Like when you were staying away from her by being in her office?" Blaise grinned wide at Draco's lack of a response. Draco didn't know how to explain that he'd felt compelled to check in on her and make sure things were already going better than they were at her old job.

Blaise whistled playfully. "Just be careful, Draco."

"There's nothing to be careful about. She'll never look at me, no after all the shit I put them through." Draco sighed and rested his head in his hands. He knew she was way out of his league and always had been.

"Don't count yourself out already," Blaise said. "You never know what will happen."

Draco rolled his eyes but didn't bother with a response. "Want to go get lunch?"

Blaise lit up. "Sure! Let's go!"