Draluna - Draco's Assistant

Chapter 3

The next day Luna woke with much exuberance. It was her first official day working for the Malfoys, or really for Draco.

Of course at first she'd been tentative about being placed in such a position, but it was for a good reason. She had been working on her writings for quite a while now. She'd always had a flare for creativity, and since school she'd actually done quite well publishing under a pseudonym L.U. Merrywell.
She'd never been one for the spotlight. She'd hardly told many of her friends, but took even more delight this way when one of her books would come up in conversation and she'd share a cheeky smile with herself as it was her own little secret.

This year however the well had seemingly run dry. She wasn't sure what it was, she'd been waking later, not rising with the sun and birds like usual; her choice of table clothes had been less colourful; her communication with the trees in the forest just outside her home had been rather boring; and even her chamomile plant seemed to be having trouble blooming in her backyard. She couldn't write. She felt stagnant. She needed to get out there in the world and have some new experiences.

It so happened that the character she was currently trying to write about was a male young adult around his early 20's, tied down by familial responsibilities and totally unsure of himself while trying to keep everything together... so she'd thought of nothing better when she was looking through her paper and spotted a young Master Malfoy dressed all in black in an interview with one of the biased writers of the wizarding gazette.

She was bawled over by the coincidence, it all made so much sense, she hadn't thought of him for years. As she read through his words it only made it clearer and clearer that he'd be a great muse for Odus, her main character. Ideas came even just from the small interview, but it wasn't enough.  After she'd read the interview she did some thinking on her past classmate... or really upper classman. He was handsome, well groomed, and totally lost. Or at least it seemed that way in her opinion.

She then did some pre-liminary research on the Malfoys company, and on Draco himself, and what he'd been up to after Hogwarts. There wasn't much in the newspapers but she'd done some digging and found they had some connections. After some serious searching she'd found that Draco Malfoy had gone through a bit of a party boy phase before coming to work at his fathers company. He was bright. She'd remembered that from school. He'd always done well in classes and he had some frightfully mean and cutting remarks that could only come from a bright brain, a mean one, but bright nonetheless. He'd done well in this final exams and Lucius's company had benefited from Draco's joining the team noticeably from what she could tell. However, she also found some hidden grievances. It seemed Draco Malfoy had a tendency to lose a lot of receptionists. Draco Malfoy was the perfect muse for her story, and it was this revelation that had urged Luna after a day of thought to try and apply to work for him. Sure it was a bit uncouth but the curiosity bug had bitten her. Metaphorically of course, she had lost some of the beliefs that her father had held as she'd grown from a child to a woman about certain unacknowledged creatures. Although she was still quite certain mistletoe did attract nargles.

Anyway Luna had contacted Lucius directly. She hadn't seen any advertisement for positions but she thought she would just put her name out there, as if it was by Draco's past history of employees needing to be hired surely a position would become available soon. He probably wouldn't call her but it was the only thing she could think of right now, and foresight wasn't necessarily one of Luna's strong points.

However, of course to Luna's surprise she was in fact called upon by Lucius rather quickly after letting him know she was interested. She was to take on the role as Draco's assistant and was rather overjoyed at seeing her plan enacted so successfully. Her standing as a 'war hero' as the prophet had called her, really just for being friends with potter and having gone through torture at the hands of death eaters, even though many had, she didn't feel she had contributed anything special, although she had fought for what she believed in from the start as was her way, anyway her public status had probably helped her get this job. The Malfoy's were hardly a clean name post-war after all.

She'd been surprised to see Draco looking the way he did when meeting him in person after all these years, even though she'd seen his picture in doing her research. He was actually rather attractive somehow in person, not her type at all, she much preferred a nerdy and adventurous type with clumsy fashion and unruly hair, but he was attractive nonetheless, even if it was in a very slick, charming, upper-class posh boy looking way. And so soon after their re-introduction it was her first day.

Luna wore a lovey white lace like dress she owned with bell sleeves and a ruffly bottom. Being a writer and not really having had a 'proper' job her whole life had meant little in the wardrobe compartment for formal work wear. However, this dress was floaty and nice to look at so she threw it over her head and accompanied it with some sensible brown leather lace up boots and colourful socks with mismatched patterns on each. She wore her gloriously long blonde hair out but thought to tie a little plait in her side fringe so it wouldn't get in her face too much while she was trying to work. She also adorned some cute little beaded earrings and even thought to add a small amount of blush to her cheeks and rouge to her lips so as to look more presentable for her first real day in a real job. Before leaving out her front door she put on her red jacket as it was a bit cold out, which rather made the outfit a lot more colourful. She checked her appearance in the mirror in her hall just before leaving and wasn't too disappointed with herself. She flattened out a few stray hairs and off she went.

Draco was more disapproving of the outfit. She entered the office space with Draco's coffee in hand and her tea in the other, both in keep cups she'd painted, one with sunflowers and the other clouds. She was cheery and excited about her first day but as soon as she'd turned from closing the door behind her she was relived of her giddiness by the gruff expression from Draco Malfoy, her new boss. She halted at the look but didn't retreat, instead offering him a warm greeting.

"Hello Draco" she said almost trying to wave before remembering her hands were taken up by her holding the hot beverages. "What in heavens name are you wearing?" Draco asked looking her up and down astonished that this was to be his fate, to have such a silly colourfully dressed girl for his assistant, he'd never get any work done with such a distraction. "This is so not appropriate work wear" he said with a scowl. Luna smiled at him. "Well you didn't tell me there was a uniform" she said explaining herself albeit with a slight cheekiness. Draco raised an eyebrow at this. "What is that in your hands?" Draco said changing tack, too much to say and not enough time, distracted by the bright cups. "Oh well it's your coffee, I thought you said you came in at 8 Draco" Luna said holding up the cups they were talking about and easily and quickly distracting the conversation to her tune. "I said to call me sir" Draco said gruffly annoyed at her already forgetting his instruction, Luna nodded at him not wanting to stir the pot too much on her first day. "And that is not my coffee, I wanted you to get me one from a cafe, you will not see me drinking out of that monstrosity" he said pointing towards the brightly patterned cup in her hand. "It is from a cafe Draco, I just brought the keep cup, it's important not to create too much waste, the environment really needs prote-" Luna tried to answer before being interrupted. "I said call me sir" Draco said annoyed, was she unteachable? "Sorry sir" Luna corrected herself, but her tone might have shown a lack of concern over the word, after all it did seem a silly notion to her.

Draco scowled at her but made no mention of her tone. "Here Dra-Sir, just take it, I think you'll like it, these guys make the best coffee in Hogsmeade" Luna said walking over to him and putting the cloud cup in his hand like you might give a child a bottle. Draco looked at her incredulously. He should have scolded her for being so forthright with him, but once again for some reason her being so close was scrambling his head. Her rosy cheeks and red coat gave her a youthful glow he found so beautiful in a woman. He couldn't help it, it was only biology. He looked down at the strange mug suspiciously and took a sip to right his thoughts, he could never think before having his morning coffee. He was frustrated to realise she was right, the coffee was delicious.