Snakepit

Chapter 4

Hermione's bag dropped with a thud onto the hardwood floors as she shut the door to her apartment behind her. Usually, she put her bag and shoes away in their proper place–the little storage closet to the right of her door–but today they stayed sitting in a heaping pile on the ground. She was too tired to deal with them. Plus, her heels had caused her feet to ache and she was honestly a bit mad at them. She could not seem to break that pair in no matter how many times she wore them.

Hermione's stomach grumbled as she stalked to her bedroom, a little pissed off at everything. She didn't bother shutting the door as she pulled off her blazer and unbuttoned her white shirt. Next she slid off her skirt, the soft fabric slithering down her legs and into a heap on the ground. She debated staying in her bra and underwear, but the underwire was digging in a little too much, so instead she tore it off and threw on a big, worn out t-shirt she bought at some thrift store she couldn't recall.

Dinner was the next thing on her agenda and her stomach sunk with dread as she opened her fridge. That's right...she was supposed to go to the store today.

"Damnit," she groaned as she surveyed the week-old white rice she got from a takeout place, the green pepper that had a spot of something that looked a lot like mold, the random array of sauces, and the loaf of smashed wheat bread.

It was going to have to be...takeout again.

After collapsing on her couch with a glass of red wine, Hermione dialed the number to her favorite Thai restaurant and ordered her usuals. She turned on her guilty pleasure reality TV show as she waited for her food, sipping her wine.

By the time Hermione's food arrived and she'd eaten a generous helping, she had also had much more wine than she anticipated. Her head felt heavy, but she also felt warm and unbothered. It was a gloriously freeing feeling, and if Hermione had less self-control, she probably would drink like this more often.

Another episode of her show went by before she became bored and decided to search for another form of entertainment. Hermione opened her computer, jumping a little when a large picture of Peter Goodwin popped up. Yikes. She forgot she'd been researching him at work on her laptop. The picture was so enlarged that it was jarring, and Hermione laughed a little at it in her tipsy state. Upon further reflection, it was completely inappropriate, but she found it hard to take anything too seriously. Maybe her job had desensitized her, maybe it was the wine.

She scrolled a little through Goodwin's website, but her brain wasn't in work-mode. It wanted quality entertainment, not this. She was just about to close out of the website when an article title caught her eye.

The Malfoys: Ravaina's Celebrity Investors have a Dark Secret

Hermione couldn't help but snort at the title. Goodwin clearly had a thing for theatrics. Still though, she clicked the link to the article. It was dated back to a few years ago, when Draco and Hermione had been studying at Hawthorn. Maybe Draco had been slacking at studying up on his enemies because he'd been too busy fucking their professors...Still, Hermione wasn't sure how he hadn't recognized Goodwin's name when Draco's last name was right there in the name of the article. Perhaps Draco hadn't been serious when he'd said that today. The throat slitting comment had been pretty comical and Hermione snorted again when she recalled how serious he'd been when he said it.

"Rich people...So out-of-touch," She muttered to herself as she skimmed the article. She didn't particularly care for the conspiracy theories that the Malfoy's were laundering money or making corrupt deals right now; she figured that it could very well be true. She figured that everyone with that level of wealth was at least a little corrupt. What she was looking for was more information on Draco. Anything, really. She wanted to read about him doing scandalous things and getting caught and she wanted to see bad paparazzi pictures of him.