Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Empire	By : waymay & Alcoholic_Rootbeer Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 12290 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or the characters written in this story; everything belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling. I don't make any profit from these stories!

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
A/N: Hi everyone. Long time no see and talk! I've had a bit of a rough patch with my life, which kind of had everything turned upside down. I needed the time to readjust to my new-old life.
I'm not entirely back 100%, but I will try my best to update every so often with Empire and my other stories. I have so many ideas I'd love to see come to life, so rest assured I haven't given up on my project.
Thanks for being patient with me, and I hope you continue to enjoy this story. :)
Also, a shout out to Mr. Benzedrine for proofing this. Be sure to check her out, she's got plenty of awesome fics up!
On a more exciting note: Mr. Benzedrine and I will be going to Harry Potter World in about a week! Eeeee~ I'm super excited. :D
Snow poured from the heavens, covering the sidewalk like frosting to a cake. The white slush sparkled under the gentle yellow glow of a lively corner store as it illuminated the, otherwise, dark and silent night.
Above the store was a giant mannequin head who lifted his top hat from his head, revealing an inanimate bunny. Just below, engraved in the window frame, were the words 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.' Inside the store were many patrons laughing away the night.
Hermione, Ron, George, and the rest of the gang were all present. Everyone holding at least one glass in their hand, merrily drinking and chatting.
While they were, indeed, inside the joke store, they were far, far away from Diagon Alley. In fact, they were in Dublin, Ireland, celebrating, yet another, opening of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. This store would mark their eighth opening in just two years.
It was made known, during the Weasley brothers' speeches that it couldn't have happened without Hermione being in the picture. She was, as always, the brains behind the operation.
The bushy-haired witch merely smiled at the toast but kindly declined a speech. She was never great at talking in front of a group of strangers. Hermione held a record of rambling on and on whenever she felt nervous -the third opening of the joke store was proof enough to the gang. What should have been a two to three minute speech turned into a ten minute yawnfest.
Save from their usual group of friends and family, others who attended the celebration were store employees, friends of friends, journalists, and even Ireland's National Parliament officials. The event was invitation only, as they wanted to avoid a horde of enthusiastic customers bombarding on their special time. That was learned during their second grand opening in Birmingham. Regardless of the fact it was a private event, fans still peered through the window panes, watching the festivities go on.
Alongside their celebration, Ron revealed a new item (patented and manufactured in time, thanks for Hermione, again) sold exclusively, for a limited time, in Dublin. To demonstrate the product, Ron popped a red pill-like candy into his mouth and puffed his cheeks. Everyone immediately silenced as they noticed his reddening face, taking a few step back as smoke began to seep out of his flared nostrils.
To show off their new toy, he knelt onto one knee, arching his back and turning his head towards the ceiling, opening his puckered lips, producing a stream of fire so powerful it licked the ceiling..
The crowd stared in awe.
It looked so much like real flame, but the inferno was solely for show. It didn't produce any heat, incapable of causing harm to the fire breather, civilians, and buildings. To prove its harmlessness, Ron exhaled onto George, who bathed in the fake fire. It didn't stop Molly Weasley from gasping 'Ronald!' as it happened; her hands flying over her 'o' shaped mouth.
A round of applause sounded as the fire died out, and George was safe. Molly, the protective mother she was, hugged her older son despite his protest. "You two couldn't think of other ways to show off your new toy? Why do you insist on scaring me to death every single time?" She pestered the two, continuing to hug George while scolding Ron. It didn't matter to Molly how old they were and where they were, but if a lecture was necessary, it was going to be heard.
Hermione giggled behind her champagne glass as she watched the two Weasley brothers whine at their mother. "Mum! You're embarrassing us in front of Ireland's President!" Ron hissed while keeping his best face on in case the Parliament officials were to look over. Luckily, after his stint, the journalists decided to interview them, allowing the two redheads a chance to save face.
"Setting your brother on fire isn't proper!"
"Yeah!" George decided to chime in as Molly turned her attention onto the younger one. "Is this how you say I love you? It's no wonder you're still single!"
"Oh, sod off it!" Ron gaped, his face growing as red as his hair. "I'm single because the store takes up so much of my time! Plus, 'Mione and I were together until recently, isn't that right?" His baby blue eyes danced over towards the brunette, who happened to be looking down at her wristwatch, not having heard a single thing. "'Mione!"
She glanced up. "Hmm?"
Like clockwork, Ron went off on a whole different tangent on always being ignored -to which Hermione purposely drowned out. If the redhead excelled at anything, it was definitely complaining.
Hermione looked at her watch once more, then towards the door as it jingled open and shut. Her heart skipped a beat for a moment, hoping to see a particular blonde, but it was only George and Angelina stepping outside for an uninterrupted kiss.
Of course, she'd invited Malfoy to the event. She looked down yet again, but it hadn't even been an entire minute since she last checked the time. A frustrated huff escaped her lips as she emptied her glass of bubbles. The flute refilled itself magically just before she took another sip, not even noticing once her drink was empty.
Since the incident in New York, Malfoy had gone MIA. In fact, it'd been two weeks since she last heard from him. Hermione tried to contact him via owl post several times, but all of her letters, save for the invitation to Dublin's grand opening, were always returned unopened.
Funny how just a few weeks prior, it was Hermione who didn't want to see the blonde. Now, everything was flip flopped. For a moment, she wondered if he worried about her the way she was worrying about him.
Hermione chewed on her lower lip, clicking her nail quietly against the glass. She stared off at the ceiling, watching a charmed paper hippogriff fly around in circles.
It wasn't her fault. The idea of catching the thief with just a mere tracking device was much too easy. The wizard -or witch- was smart enough to get away with stealing money right under Malfoy's nose for so long. The culprit was definitely smarter than they gave him culprit for. But then again, she did play it up a bit. As much as Hermione hated to admit it, she was awfully optimistic about the whole thing. Maybe Malfoy was the same way.
Seeing the disappointed look on his face that night nearly broke her heart.
She got his hopes up for nothing.
Hermione checked her watch for the nth time. It'd been almost two hours since the celebration started. She sighed. He wasn't going to show up. She should just cut her losses and enjoy what was left of the party.
Not a second later, she lifted her wrist and checked the time.
"Hermione." A too familiar voice sounded behind her just as she mentally made a note that only three minutes passed since her last check.
She dropped her arm and turned towards her friend. "Harry."
"Are you alright?"
"What makes you think otherwise?"
His green orbs flittered downward towards her free hand, raising an eyebrow in the process. "I've only seen you check your watch six times in the last five minutes. What's going on?"
Her cheeks flushed as he pointed out her not so subtle action.
"Um," she started, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. "I was expecting someone, but I guess he isn't showing up." Hermione quickly took a sip of her drink as she hid her disappointment behind the glass.
A faint nod came her way as he kept quiet, watching her, observing his friend's micro expressions. Harry rarely missed a thing, especially when it came to his best friend. "Well," he started, noting her hesitancy to mention more. "Why not join the group and enjoy the rest of the night, then?"
Harry held his arm out towards Hermione, sending her a crooked smile.
"That sounds lovely."
Draco sat in his living room, sunken into the couch with his legs propped up onto the coffee table. In one hand, he nursed a glass of scotch, while the other held an invitation which invited him to a private party held in Dublin, Ireland in celebration of yet another joke shoppe opening.
He considered going, but why would he want to torture himself by being surrounded by a bunch of prideful Gryffindors and their weird friends? Then again, he had been considering on actually attending for the past several hours, (Malfoys loved to show up fashionably late. Something about all the attention on them,) he just really didn't feel like going.
Okay, so maybe there was some benefits to attending, like... networking, for one. Since he and Granger were pretty much starting a business together, meeting others in the same industry and getting insights was a rather important ordeal. Ugh, but he really didn't want to do it. He didn't want to talk and make nice with strangers. He didn't feel like plastering his face with a feigned smile, and he really didn't want to be around the Golden Boy.
Hello? It's been nearly five years since the war ended. People who knew of his name were still going ooh and aah every time they saw him.
Get over it.
A pang of jealousy pinched at his chest, but he quickly drowned it away by emptying out his drink. Draco scrunched his face a little as the bitter taste lingered longer than usual.
He stared at the card, sneering at it before crumbling the cardstock into a ball and tossing it into the fireplace. The hearth crackled as it consumed the paper.
So much for moving forward past his pity party. One fucking screw up with the stupid tracking gadget thing and he was back to square one. Draco should have known better than to put all of his eggs in one basket. Now, their lead was back to zero. Zilch. Nada. Nothing. Even Madoff was completely useless now. Gone from his company. The fatass even packed up his family and belongings and left the country. Though, if he really wanted, Draco probably could have just tracked him down. It wasn't like the man was difficult to find. But, ugh, he was already so tired of everything.
He just wanted to give up.
Draco conjured another helping of scotch, topping it all the way to the brim. It wasn't like he was sharing the drink with anyone else. He took a large swig of the alcohol.
How many days passed since he left the apartment?
He glanced around, noticing the unkempt mess around his loft: papers, clothes, and furniture pieces thrown all over the place from his frustration after the muck up.
With a frustrated sigh, he muttered to his drink, "Just you and me tonight."
Hermione sat in front of a familiar looking man. Cattermole. He'd sent an owl to both her and Malfoy several days back, requesting a meeting about finalizing everything for the company.
As soon as she received the letter, she sent a correspondence to her partner, making sure he was aware of the meeting's importance. And of course, her owl returned rather miffed, holding out the same letter she with sent him, unopened.
Regardless, she hoped Malfoy would show up.
But her fears were confirmed when it was fifteen past their scheduled appointment. The older man started to rap his fingers against the table, checking the clock every few seconds. Occasionally, Cattermole would flip through the thick folder of paperwork as if he needed to make sure there were no missing documents.
The witch muttered an apology to him after another five minutes passed. "Something must have happened for him to miss this." Hermione tried to run a finger through her bushy hair, only to get it tangled in the mess. "He knows how important this meeting is."
Cattermole cleared his throat, twisting his wedding ring around his finger. "Of course," he nodded. The man worked with Hermione plenty of times, knowing she was a hard and dedicated worker. The apology didn't go unnoticed. "I do have another meeting in ten minutes. How about you just send me an owl whenever you two are ready to sign the papers?"
Hermione nodded, her cheeks reddening from embarrassment. "Again, I'm sorry."
"Miss Granger," the man gave her a sympathetic smile. "These things happen. Just make sure you get these signed by the end of the week?" He tapped at the folder. "The offer won't stay open forever."
"Thank you," she muttered, standing from her seat. "I will owl you soon." She gave Cattermole a quick handshake before scurrying out of the office with her head ducked low. Hermione clicked the door shut behind her. "Malfoy!" she hissed between gritted teeth and bee lined towards the Atrium before Apparating out.
xxx
She appeared outside of the Leaky Cauldron and entered, stomping towards the stairs without even a hello to Tom, who was sweeping the ground floor. Hermione stalked upstairs, turning the corner, and banged against the door of the absent blonde's apartment.
Hermione would have simply Floo'd into his loft, had things been easy, but since being acquainted with Malfoy, nothing came easy. The damned blonde ferret shut her out, pissed their plans didn't work out.
When she was greeted with silence, Hermione banged furiously on the wooden frame with both fists in succession. To add to the symphony, she added in an annoyed scowl, "Draco Lucius Malfoy!" There was a certain hitch in her voice as she announced his full name, hopefully, telling him she wasn't in the mood to be trifled with.
Silence, again.
"I know you're in there -open the door. Right now."
"Unless you are my mother, I highly recommend you bugger off."
Hermione could literally hear the Malfoy scowl on the other side of the door. "You missed the meeting, today." Her voice calmed just a smidge -though, not by much.
"What of it?"
"Cattermole was going to have us sign the rest of the paperwork." She folded her arms across her chest as she leaned against the wooden door with a slight thud. "This would have finalized everything we worked so hard for." Hermione secretly hoped her comment would cheer him up just a tad, if anything.
"Are you sure it's not just another ploy to bring up my hopes and have it get all trampled over with?"
"What?" She gasped, her brows furrowing. "That's not fair, Malfoy! You knew my idea wasn't entirely fool proof."
"You can rest assure that you've definitely made a fool of me." There was a pause as she heard a shuffle from the other side of the door, and, for a moment, she thought the wizard was going to open the door for her. Then, she felt a quick zap as a charm vibrated from the other side. Hermione shoved herself off the door with a yip, rubbing her shoulder in an attempt to get rid of the uncomfortable tingly sensation.
Granger left shortly after Draco decided the best way to get rid of her incessant nagging was to merely inflict physical shocks. After that, the day continued to pass by slowly as he continued to nurse his glass tumbler. This time, it was filled with bourbon.
Draco simply wasted away his day, much like all the other days before this one...and before he and Granger got together to work on that silly plan of hers. He made himself comfortable on the couch with his head sunken in between the cushions and his legs propped up just like before the damned witch decided it was her job to bother him.
His inspiration was drained.
What was the point of all this if he was just going to lose everything?
The damned mudblood fed him false hope, making him think things could change. But in reality, Draco was doomed to fail, just like his father failed during the War. Perhaps, it was just a Malfoy curse, now -to be losers for the rest of their sorry arse lives.
He rolled his eyes at his own thoughts, for a moment, realizing just how melodramatic he was being. But his mind continued to feed him poison, just like how he continued to feed himself alcohol -to numb the pain and forget everything else.
Suddenly, Draco woke to, yet another, knock on the door.
The blonde sat up straight; the glass, once filled with expensive bourbon, had spilled onto his chest at some point during his passout. The dried liquid stained his white satin shirt.
When did he fall asleep?
He batted his eyes a few times, trying to blink away the sleepiness. The knock echoed through the silent room once more, reverberating loudly in his head as he felt a hangover creep over him.
"I swear to Merlin's fucking ballsack, Granger, did you not get that I don't want you around?" Draco shouted at the door, pinching the bridge of his nose as he sat up, setting his feet down onto the floor.
"Is that how you talk to your best mate?" a familiar voice muffled back. It was definitely not Granger.
With a groan and a quick spell, Draco rid the alcohol stain from his still not-so-clean attire and trudged his way towards the door. Quite honestly, he didn't care of Blaise saw him in this state -disheveled hair, stubbles, and dark rings around his eyes. The Italian had seen him in less respectable ways than this.
Draco swung the door open, a scowl etched into his thin, cracked lips. His friend stood before him, hands in pocket with an arched brow as he stared at the blonde. The corner of Blaise's lips twitched ever so slightly. "You smell ripe, mate."
"No one asked for your sodding opinion."
"Perhaps you need another's opinion if you're going to want company around."
"Who ever said anything about want-" Draco's question was cut short as Blaise stepped to the side while giving his friend an apologetic shrug. Behind the tall Italian was an annoyed bushy-haired witch.
He glanced over at Granger then towards Blaise, his eyes widening in surprise as his jaw unhinged. "Since when did you start cohorting with the enemy?" He pointed rudely at the witch, who quickly smacked away his hand.
"Oh -I see. It must be so easy to just...switch sides when it's convenient for you, huh?" Draco sneered at the comment, but the woman continued. "Just when things don't go the way you want it to, suddenly I'm the bad guy?" Granger glanced over towards Blaise, giving him a quick 'thank you' before turning her attention back towards Draco. "Would you like a reminder of all the things I've done for you so far?"
Draco snapped his jaw shut, sending a glare towards Blaise as Granger went on some sort of spiel, listing off every single little thing she'd done thus far. The Italian shrugged once more before he turned away and skipped down towards the bar.
Without skipping a beat, the witch invited herself into the apartment. She shook her head, placing her hands on her hips, glancing over towards the exhausted blonde with a look of disapproval over his living conditions.
"This won't do. We're going to need a change of scenery if we're going to get anything done today." She grabbed his arm and without giving him the opportunity to reject her idea, Granger Side-Along Apparated the two of them elsewhere.
- 10
- 11
- 12
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