Keeping with the Company

Keeping With the Company

by coven

Rated PG-13

Hermione offers her best friend Harry a place to stay after a girl discards him. Harry accepts, knowing that the arrangement is indefinite until he finds a suitable place for himself, but things take a strange turn when they both find out that keeping each other company is turning out to be a permanent thing after all.

Disclaimer: This is a Harry Potter fan fiction. Standard disclaimers apply.

A/N: Apologies for the delay and the short chapter (hey, I always post short chapters!). I had a report and a paper to finish for my graduate class. I am also supervising my students' play. Plus, I got ill… actually, I'm still ill. So I'm really sorry, but there are some things that I cannot control… like time :) Thanks so much for waiting patiently, and for reading and reviewing. Blessed be!

Chapter 10: Cornflake Girl

Draco paced the lobby as he used his magic-generated cellular phone.

“I know it has been all day!” he hissed. “No, you'd better tell Romeo not to go here. She's… yes, blistering… exactly! That's the word. Weasely? Hello? Potter… calm down! No, I wouldn't advise that… I don't care if you damn faced Valdemort all by your friggin' lonesome. I myself would rather go against his incarnate than Hermione at this moment… Look, listen to Weasely. Go home, try to find a way to atone yourself… Now give it back to Weasely… Weasely? Thank Merlin! Okay, I'll try my best to talk to her. You do your part. KEEP POTTER AT BAY! Yes…yes… I'll keep you posted. Okay, I hope this works.”

“Well,” Draco exhaled, putting his phone inside his shirt pocket. “Here goes nothing!”

XXX

“Get out Malfoy,” Hermione ordered in a frighteningly calm voice.

Draco suppressed the urge to shiver as he stepped inside the office.

“Okay,” he persisted, taking in the piles of paper on Hermione's `out' tray, and dozens more on the `in' tray. “I know you're upset, but isn't this a tad too much?”

“I am not upset,” Hermione answered, tightlipped without looking up from her work.

“Oh really,” Draco sniggered, deciding to be very brave. “Then how do you explain this?”

“What?” Hermione said defensively, her magic pen writing on a scroll as she filed in reports. “As you can see I'm busy working.”

“At a very rapid pace,” Draco retorted as he cleared a tiny space on Hermione's table, and with disregard to his partner's finer feelings, he settled his bum on it. “Which you usually do when you're in a mood.”

Hermione looked up this time, and with a glare said, “Malfoy, if you're not going to help me with paperwork then might as well get out of here.”

Draco put a hand on his chest.

“Come on Hermione this is my office too.”

“Then act as if it is,” Hermione muttered, resuming her work.

“Hey,” Draco took hold of her pen and commanded it to stop. “You do know that you're overreacting.”

She stopped working altogether and pushed her swivel chair away, tiredly.

“I am not overreacting.”

“All right… jumping into conclusions then,” Draco offered. “What was the first rule Moody drilled in our heads? NEVER ASSUME.”

Hermione snorted. Her eyes were closed as she rubbed at her aching forehead.

“I did not assume,” she said, opening one eye. “Second rule - the evidence tells the truth.”

“What evidence are you talking about?” Draco asked.

“Oh,” Hermione exclaimed, suddenly standing up evading the question. “This conversation is not going anywhere.”

“But are you sure that's what you really saw?” Draco persisted.

“Leave it, Draco.”

“I mean,” he went on. “You should consider all the angles.”

“I said leave it.”

“Fine,” Draco mock-sighed, getting off the table and proceeded to walk towards his table but stopped and turned around. “Can I ask you one other thing though?”

Hermione counted one to ten. She just wanted to shut Draco up, but she needed the distraction. She was hurting, and she was overworking.

“I'm warning you,” she said. “If this is…”

“No,” Draco interrupted. “This is a harmless, honest-to-goodness safe question.”

And to prove it, he crossed his fingers over his heart.

“Alright,” Hermione gave in. “What is it?”

“Do you think I look like Eminem?”

Hermione looked at him incredulously.

“What?” she blurted out, coming out of her initial shock.

“You know,” Draco said matter-of-factly. “Eminem… Marhsall Mathers… Slim Shady… Eminem? Artie said I look like him.”

Hermione stared at him and saw that he was serious.

“Who's Eminem?”

“Wait,” Draco gasped. “You don't know Eminem?”

“Should I know him?”

“I don't believe this!” Draco exclaimed and walked over to where Hermione was. He placed his hands on her arms. “You're a muggle and you don't know him?”

Hermione didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She decided to step back and get behind her desk once again.

“Your knowledge of muggles has become pretty impressive Draco,” she said. “But seriously, I'm tired of this conversation.”

“Okay,” Draco said a little too happily, which was a dead-give-away to what he was getting at. “This obviously isn't working. You know what, you should talk to HIM.”

“Will you just get out Draco!” Hermione shouted.

Draco was about to say something when a hesitant knock at the door interrupted him.

“Excuse me,”Sara, one of the junior Aurors poked her head in.“ I'm sorry, but there's a Bianca Thompson to see you Miss Granger.”

“Well,” Draco said stubbornly. “I'm not leaving now.”

Hermione rolled her eyes at him and to the girl said, “Thanks Sara, send her in.”

“I hope you know what you're doing,” Draco cautioned.

“Just shut it Draco, for once!” she barked.

“Well,” Draco started. “I won't be offended by that one. Okay, okay… I'm sorry. I'll just sit here and…”

“No,” Hermione said firmly. “You're not staying.”

“What do you mean?” Draco asked skeptically. “What if…”

For the first time since that morning, Hermione smiled.

“Oh no,” she said. “Nothing's going to happen to me.”

“It's not you I'm worried about,” Draco grumbled. “It's her!”

“Well,” Hermione shrugged, and walked towards the door. She opened it wide, and showed Draco his way out. “Thank you for your concern then.”

“But…”

“And Draco, I haven't forgotten the fact that you weren't going to tell me about Harry and Bianca,” she said. “We'll talk about that some other time.”

Draco hesitantly walked out, knowing he had lost to Hermione.

“I'm being dismissed by my own partner… in our own office,” he mumbled. “I can't believe she doesn't know Eminem!”

XXX

But the truth was Hermione was nervous. In just a couple of minutes, she was able to fix her desk, rearrange her robes, and smoothed her hair.

“It's only the witch,” she said to compose herself, but found the statement to be on the ridiculous side, so she chuckled. And that was how Bianca found her.

“Hello Hermione,” the tall, voluptuous woman drawled.

Hermione was vexed at the malicious glint in the other woman's eyes as she was caught in another stupid moment. All the psyching up she did went down the drain as she suddenly felt ugly and inept.

“Hello Bianca,” she said, standing up. She may be not as beautiful as Bianca, but she had manners.

“I'm sorry if I interrupted you,” she said with a false sweetness in her voice, raising her brow over the pile of papers on Hermione's desk.

“Not at all,” Hermione said just as sweetly, lying through her teeth. “It's alright. Would you care to sit down?”

“Why thank you,” Bianca laughed her perfect laugh. She sat down, crossing her perfect legs. “But I'm not staying long.”

“Honestly,” Hermione said frankly. “I don't know why you're here. Shouldn't it be Harry you should be seeing?”

Oh yes, she could be bitchy too.

“We already saw each other earlier,” she said leaning back, her designer blouse stretching over perfect breasts.

Hermione shifted in her seat, chin pointing haughtily upwards.

“Really?”

“We had to meet with the solicitors tonight,” Bianca answered. “We bought some property together, which by the way is the reason why I'm here. Could you tell Harry darling that the solicitors couldn't come, so I'm postponing the meeting for Wednesday instead?

“What?”

Bianca sighed.

“My new boyfriend works here,” she explained patiently, as if she was talking to a small child. “And since I went to visit him, I thought I'd just drop by. I'm allergic to owls you see, and since Harry's staying at your place, I thought you could just tell him.”

“You're asking me to become messenger?”

“Why not?”

“Wait,” Hermione shook her head and looked at Bianca askance. “So you're not back together?”

Bianca laughed once more, but this time there was true humor in it.

“Harry and I?” she retorted, as if the idea was entirely stupid even to think of. “Of course not! Oh you foolish girl. Why would I want him back? I've never even had him!”

“What do you mean?” Hermione was at a complete loss.

“You honestly do not know?” the other woman inquired.

“Why would I ask?” Hermione volleyed back.

Bianca looked at her oddly.

“Fair enough,” she said with a shrug then added straightforwardly, “I've never had him because he had you all the while.”

“This is a joke right?”

“Darling,” Bianca said huskily. “Do you honestly think I'm the type of woman who jokes around?”

Hermione merely shook her head.

“The reason why I broke things off with Harry was the fact that the engagement was a farce,” Bianca said, looking at her pointedly. “I was the fiancé and to whom does he go to first if he needed anything besides sex? His best friend.”

“But surely…”

“Oh, I do admit I never loved him,” Bianca interrupted. “But it didn't mean I couldn't get jealous.”

Hermione found all of it hard to believe.

“You were jealous of me?”

A corner of Bianca's lip tilted.

“I do not mean to offend you,” she said in a bored manner. “I know that you're the smartest witch of this age. But I find it amusing how you cannot pick up on this.”

Hermione merely stared at her.

“Unless… are you in love with Harry?”

Hermione laughed this time, then stopped midway- lest Bianca would think she was really a nut ball.

“You know what,” she said calmly. “Why don't we discuss this over dinner?”

Bianca smiled knowingly.

“I take that as a yes,” Harry Potter's ex-fiancé said. “And sure, I would love too.”

XXX

“What?” Ron shouted through the speaker, as how he would usually use the phone. “Why did you leave her?”

“I had to,” came Draco Malfoy's voice. “She locked me out of the office and Moody had also sent for me.”

“So where is she?” he asked, closing the door so that Harry couldn't hear him. Judging by the events that had just happened, one-sided phone conversations, and Harry Potter do not gel well together.

“Don't worry I had her tracked down,” Draco replied tiredly. “She is having dinner with Bianca.”

“She is what?”

“I know… Look, I'm on my way to get her. You just keep to your role.”

Ron rolled her eyes.

“Yeah right,” he said. “As Harry's nanny.” He could hear the smirk from the other end of the line.

“So how is he doing?”

Ron smiled.

“Artie is keeping him preoccupied.”

“I wonder how. You got one very smart kid there, by the way.”

“Of course,” the proud Dad smiled. “By the way, Ginny is here, said she's willing to lend a hand.”

“Well,” Draco replied. “Better if Red is willing to lend both.”

“I know,” Ron agreed.

“You sure pick your friends well, Weasely.”

Ron laughed at that.

“Go on Malfoy, see to Hermione,” he said. “Otherwise, this will go on and on and we'll never have peace again in our small part of the universe.”

“No offense,” Draco said. “But haven't you noticed that your wife is rubbing off on you.”

“You're just jealous Malfoy.”

“Yeah, yeah… see you at the Potter-Granger residence in an hour then.”

“Go, Agent Malfoy.”

“Shut it, Weasely.”

“Shut it, Malfoy.”

And the two anxious men went and proceeded to do their part of their plan.

XXX

Meanwhile…

“Another round here pleesh!” Hermione bellowed to the bartender.

Men glanced appreciatively at the two women at the bar- both attractive in her own right. One was a blond bombshell who looked as if she knew about her own allure, while the other was a brunette with fire in her eyes, and was so unaware of her own beauty.

“Yes,” Bianca, who by experience, knew how not to get drunk, coherently said. “And he has this really annoying habit of furrowing his forehead when he finds something displeasing.”

“Really?” Hermione asked as she gulped her drink. “I find it endearing.”

“Well, you're the one who's in love with him. I guess you would,” Bianca pointed out.

“Says the girl who couldn't take his claws off Harry Potter's arm,” Hermione tried to snort but ended with a hiccup.

“It's all in the past my dear,” Bianca replied with a toss of her beautiful head. “Besides, who was the one making cow eyes over her best friend when he's not looking?”

“I be-eg your pardon!” Hermione cried, sitting fully on her seat. “I do not resemble a cow in whatever way. And what you say that I was `doing cow eyes' is what I prefer calling an appraisal.”

“Semantically the same darling,” Bianca said.

“Are we drunk?” Hermione asked.

The other woman laughed.

“You are.”

“I think it's your ploy,” Hermione accused. “I can't believe this… I would never have dreamed that I would be drinking with you or of even talking with you in an amicable social manner.”

“I know,” Bianca agreed. “We aren't each other's cup of tea, aren't we?”

“That's one way of putting it,” Hermione nodded then added, “Anyway Bianca, I'd like to apologize for imagining your death in a thousand ways.”

“Just a thousand?” Bianca rejoined. “Oh, don't worry it was mutual. By the way, you should know that I purposely made excuses so Harry couldn't see you.”

“I knew it was the case,” Hermione shrugged.

“But I'm not sorry,” Bianca said. “Our relationship was brief, but the sex was amazing.”

Hermione laughed.

“You're just saying that!”

“Actually you should know that Harry…” Bianca leaned in and whispered something to Hermione's ear.

“So…” Hermione said, almost choking on her drink and getting very red all of a sudden. “Well… uhm… I… I don't know what to say anymore.”

“How about thanks for the tip?” Bianca said as she slid off the barstool.

“Yes,” Hermione drunk and dazed said. “That would be okay. Good luck, and thanks so much for the honesty…and the tip.”

“No problem,” Bianca smiled. “Thanks for dinner.”

Hermione watched as Bianca walked away. What now? She motioned to the bartender.

“Can I have another martini please?”

A/N:

Eminem and Draco? What do you think. Some of you may disagree (violently even), but this has been a long running joke among us friends.