Genie In a Bottle

Chapter 1 (part 2)

One year later...

Draco hurried through the grand foyer of Malfoy Inc. he was late for yet another meeting with Mr. Connors, the head of his legal department, who wanted him to sign a few contracts, or some other such rubbish, which Draco would rather not be doing at such an early hour of the day.

It was only 3’o’clock in the afternoon for Merlin’s sake, Draco would rather have stayed at home, wrapped up in his nice, warm bed, with Candy and Sparkle, the two muggle strippers he had picked up the night before when he had went out, for one or twenty drinks, for his twenty sixth birthday, with his old school mates, Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini.

But no, he just had to come into work and go over a few more things with one of his lawyers; Draco wondered what the hell he paid them for if he had to do all of the work for them himself as he fiddled with his tie and ran up the final few steps, which lead to his own office, and that of his executive managers, Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini.

"Your coffee Mr. Malfoy."

"Thanks Angelina," he replied, grabbing his coffee as he dashed past his secretary's desk and into his office.

"Its Jane," the secretary called to her boss's back, as he closed the door and entered his office.

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It was about five'o'clock in the afternoon by the time that Draco had wrapped up his meeting with Mr. Connors. Draco had then decided to finish up some paperwork, before heading off home for the night. ‘Hopefully to my nice, warm bed, and to the warm welcome arms, and other stuff...,’ thought Draco with a grin, ‘of Candy and Sparkle. That’s if mother hasn’t found them first,’ he sighed at that thought.

Ever since Draco had turned twenty three, his mother had decided that it was high time that Draco settled down and had a family of his own, much to his own chagrin of course, the last thing Draco had wanted to do was to have a family of his own to deal with, after all, he was having way too much fun being the Wizarding world's most notorious bachelor, to trade his status for a nagging wife and nappies was not on Draco’s to-do list at that point in time.

But his mother had thought differently, and along with having to deal with his mother's poor matchmaking skills, he also had to deal with the consequences of her finding his...companions...on odd occasions.

To say that his mother was annoyed, whenever she discovered his...companions...at Malfoy Manor, would be an understatement!

There were always three steps Narcissa Malfoy would go through to show her displeasure at her sons indiscretions, first, she would give him ‘the look’, the one which would make him cringe at the thought of steps number two and three.

Draco would always show his mother a face of disinterest, whenever she had sent that look his way, but he had always known that playtime would be over at the first opportunity which presented itself to his mother, which was step number two.

As soon as step number two was in progress, which included non-permanent transfiguration and ‘accidental’ portkeying of his companions, to various locations, far, far away, then step number three would come into effect, which was for Narcissa to point blank ignore her son for as long as it took for him to apologize for his behavior, and to court, and to take home a respectable Witch to meet her.

Which he did of course, then he would have his fun with said Witch for a few weeks and dump her at the first opportunity which presented itself.

Which Narcissa Malfoy knew of course, but it was always good to keep her son on his toes, and one day, maybe he would keep one of the respectable Witches for good. Then she would finally have her grandchildren she had been waiting so patiently for.

Draco was feeling particularly jubilant, he had just become the proud new owner of a top of the league Quidditch team, Puddlemere United, so as a result, he did not mind the delay in returning to his companions when Blaise had showed up at his office that evening, for a late night drink and a round of repartee.

"So how did it go with the two muggle strippers last night?" inquired Blaise, as he opened a bottle of Fire Whiskey and poured a healthy glass for each of them.

"Well Candy tastes sweet, and Sparkle glistens in all of the right places," Draco replied with a grin. "I might just keep them around for a few days."

Blaise wrinkled his nose up in distaste at the choice of Draco’s words.

"They are paid for after all. That is, if mother doesn’t find them first."

"You’re such a Mummy's boy Malfoy," Blaise spoke in a teasing manner.

"Please...if you had Narcissa Malfoy for a mother then you would keep her happy too. That woman could convince the Wizarding world that Bobtuber pus is a good antidote for old age, if she wanted to," Draco said proudly.

"Besides, my father underestimated her, and I don’t intend to do the same thing," Draco and Blaise both shared a meaningful look at Draco’s words.

"She is a very resourceful woman my mother, but that is what she is...my mother, she is only doing what any mother would do and looking out for her son, and I am not about to deprive her of that. So if that means that I have to heavily ward the guest chambers to prevent her from accidentally transfiguring my women into hideous creatures for a few days, to put me off sleeping with them, or if I have to put up with her accidentally losing them, then so be it!" Draco declared with a grin.

"Sometimes...," laughed Blaise, "I wonder if you and your mother are in competition? Trying to outsmart each other?"

"Maybe," Draco explained, "It’s good to keep her on her busy once in a while, and it’s always good to accidentally leave the wards down if a woman is getting particularly ‘clingy’, she has definitely saved me the hassle of a messy break-up on one or two occasions," chuckled Draco as he nursed his drink.

"Remember last year when she accidentally portkeyed that French woman to the Himalayas," laughed Blaise as Draco scowled.

"Her name was Sophia, and yes I remember, she used to do this particularly cute little trick with a peach," said Draco with a far off look on his face, "I liked her. It took me three days to find her. Three whole days of trekking through bad terrains and dealing with peasants who were no help at all, I even cursed a whole village with the babbling curse at one point because they annoyed me that much. I mean really, I thought that all muggles were supposed to be civilized creatures, those people did not even have hot running water, from a tap!" Draco declared.

"You never?" Blaise questioned with a raised eyebrow, honestly, his friend was like a petulant child at times.

"Yes, yes I did," Draco smiled fondly at the memory.

"But it was all for nothing, when I finally found Sophia she said that it just wasn’t going to work out between us." Draco sighed, "I’ll tell you something Blaise, I will never let a woman into my heart again as I did Sophia. Mother done me a favour with that one," Draco explained as he took another drink.

"So will you ever make your mother happy by finding a nice, respectable Witch, fall in love, get married, and have lots and lots of children?" Blaise jokingly inquired.

"Will you?"

"Touché," Blaise replied with a grin as he settled more comfortably into his chair, nursing his third glass of Fire whiskey.

"Where’s Pans?" inquired Draco, leaning back in his own chair, raising his legs to lay his feet, heel down, on the top of his work desk as he did so.

"She has a meeting first thing in the morning in Paris, so she went home early to catch up on some sleep before she goes."

Draco looked surprised. "It must be an important meeting if Pansy is actually having an early night."

"Do you not know anything that goes on in your own company Malfoy?" Blaise asked, laughing at his friends scowl.

"I know what needs to be known, and as long as the incomings are a hell of a lot higher than the outgoings, then I’m happy," Draco replied. "Besides, you’re lucky that you are both you," Draco answered, his voice sounding slightly slurred by the amount of alcohol he had consumed. "Because I have teams of people watching the rest of my employees to make sure that their work stays up to scratch, it’s only you and Pans that I leave up to their own devices." Draco smiled at Blaise.

"So be grateful," Draco demanded with a smirk, "and tell me what Pansy is going to be doing in Paris."

Blaise chuckled at Draco’s words; of course he would have teams of people watching his employees. This was Draco-I- have-to-be-in-control-of-everything-Malfoy they were talking about.

"She is going to meet with the Chief Executive Officer of The Hole, the Wizarding world’s most leading robe retailer. She is trying to wrangle a deal to acquire the clothing empire for Malfoy Inc. and with it, to hopefully monopolize the clothing industry in the Wizarding world, thus increasing next year’s income by about 200 percent."

Draco whistled in appreciation, "I’m going to have to give her a raise."

"Nah don’t bother, she gave herself one last week," Blaise grinned.

"She what?" Draco sat upright.

"Yeah, she had a word with that bloke from finance, and he gave her it."

"Without asking me?"

"Yeah, well apparently she went through your legal office, who agreed that she had made more than enough money for the company in the past year alone to be entitled to it."

"I suppose she is worth it," agreed Draco settling back down a bit, "I might even give you a raise too if you play your cards right."

Blaise choose to not make a comment to Draco’s offer, simply because he had tagged along with Pansy and had gotten a raise too. Well Draco did say that they could have carte blanche if they worked for him and help him rebuild the company, after Draco’s father had left it in ruins, during the Dark Lord’s fight for power.

Blaise thought a change of topic was in order after Draco gave him a speculative look.

"I nearly forgot, I’ve got you a birthday present."

"You got me one yesterday, two to be exact," grinned Draco.

"Yeah well, human trafficking is not my thing, so you cannot keep Candy and Sparkle," he warned, "but you can keep this," he compromised as he handed Draco a bottle.

Draco reached over and took the bottle from Blaise, but not before a look of surprise washed over his face at the amount of jewels which covered the outside of the glass.

"What is it?" queried Draco.

"It’s a genie," laughed Blaise.

At Draco’s questioning look, he continued, "I thought you could use it to sort your life out," mimicked Blaise as he impersonated Draco’s mother.

"Funny," replied Draco clearly not amused. "It is a lovely work of art though," he spoke as he examined the bottle. "Thank you."

"No problem, and yeah they are, I picked them up by accident outside of Tibet last month, when I was overseeing the collection of ingredients, for our potions lab," Blaise explained.

"They?"

"Yeah, I gave Pansy one too; you know how she loves her trinkets," Blaise laughed fondly. "I bought off a strange old man; he said that they were Genies...like I would believe that," they both laughed, "but I thought that they both looked nice, and one would go well with your collection of artifacts that you like to keep on display and show off at the manor, so there you go...enjoy."

"Thank you again," said Draco, clearly enthralled by his new toy.

"Imagine if it was a Genie," said Draco wistfully. "The things that I could get with one of those...if they existed of course."

"What on Earth would you want to wish for!" exclaimed Blaise. "You have everything that you could possibly ever want."

"Not everything," replied Draco wistfully.

Blaise raised an eyebrow at Draco’s sudden change in attitude. "So what would the great and powerful Draco Malfoy, businessman extraordinaire, wish for?" asked Blaise.

Draco hesitated for a moment before replying "Nothing, nothing really...like you said, I’ve got everything that I could possibly ever want. I would wish for something to wish for," laughed Draco, "It would give me a challenge."

"Well you know what to do, don’t you?" asked Blaise.

"What?"

"Rub the bottle three times," Blaise replied as he rose from his chair and prepared himself to depart, "It’s the only way to know for certain whether it is a genie, or not," he laughed.

"After all, people thought that it wasn’t possible to cure Vampirism until the wonderful scientists at Malfoy Inc. proved them wrong."

"Yeah, because Genies exist?" laughed Draco sarcastically. "I’ll see you tomorrow Blaise...and thanks," he spoke as he indicated to the bottle.

"No problem...and like I said...enjoy," said Blaise as he exited Draco’s office.

Draco poured himself another drink as he thought about what Blaise had said ‘rub the bottle, yeah right,’ he thought to himself as he looked his gift over, once again.

He contemplated the bottle for a moment before rubbing the palm of his hand up and down the side of the bottle, across the jewels which were layered there.

‘What if it is true?’ thought Draco as he stared at the object. ‘What would I wish for?’

Of all the things that he could ever wish for, in his heart of hearts he would wish for exactly what his mother had always wanted, a loving wife and a family for himself.

But, Draco had been stung in the heart too many times to count, by people that had wanted to take advantage of him and his position of power within the Wizarding world, not to mention his money, so over time, he had convinced himself that he did not seek the comfort of a warm and happy family, he was happy as he was, but Draco had suspected on many occasions that if he looked deep inside of himself, he would find that he was wrong, but he tried not to think of that possibility too much, because it would always result in a feeling of discomfort he could quite gladly live without.

‘But if Genie’s are real?’ Thought Draco as he rubbed the palm of his hand across the exact same surface he had previously touched.

As a child, Draco had missed out on so much growing up. His father had always been preoccupied carrying out insane errands for that half breed Voldemort, and his mother had always been preoccupied trying to protect his father from that half breed Voldemort.

Draco had always known that his parents had loved him, but they had just not had the time to give him the happy, safe, and normal childhood he had always craved. ‘What with all the near death experiences and the presence of a half, if not totally deranged Dark Lord,’ thought Draco bitterly; it hadn’t really left enough room for the good stuff.

It was the stuff that made you feel homesick which Draco had always craved, or the stuff that made you excited that a happy event such as Christmas was just around the corner. Or most importantly, the stuff which made you happy, safe, and secure just by knowing that you have a family around that loves you whole heartedly, and asked for nothing in return.

Draco had always thought that when he had a family of his own, he would make sure he would succeed where his parents had failed. He would have a daughter that he would treat like a princess and a son that he would treasure and teach him things that his own father had failed to teach himself. He would also have a wife, a wife which loved him unconditionally, not for his money or his status, a wife to whom he would love, worship, and protect, just as it should be.

But, that had been the problem, Draco had yet to find a woman worthy of becoming his bride, and the more that he had searched then the more that he had been let down by opportunistic, money grabbing bitches.

So as a consequence, over time he had closed his heart off to such ideals and convinced himself that what he had always wanted what was in fact a pipe dream, which could never ever happen, so he had rebuilt his image to be the generous, suave, cold hearted lover that he was now.

‘But what if?’ thought Draco as he contemplated rubbing the palm of his hand over the bottle a third time.

He stared at the bottle for a few more minutes before declaring to no one in particular

"Screw it! What have I got to lose?"

Draco held his breath, in hope, as he rubbed the bottle one final time.

Draco waited but nothing happened, not even a slight movement to indicate that he had came close.

Draco sighed in expected disappointment, even though he had known that Genies were just a myth, he had still had a small spark of hope that that could have been wrong.

Draco stared at the bottle in contemplation for a few more moments, but was quickly brought out of his musings by the sound of his door being opened.

"I nearly forgot my case," Blaise hurried into Draco’s office to retrieve his belongings but stopped in his tracks as he noticed the expression on Draco’s face.

"What’s up?" he asked.

"Nothing," replied Draco, "Why do you ask?"

"You look a little disappointed about something."

"What is there to be disappointed with?" laughed Draco, "I have everything that I could ever want, remember?" said Draco bitterly.

Blaise knew that something was wrong, but he decided to let the subject drop for now. If Draco wanted to talk he always knew where he could find him.

"So what was in it?" asked Blaise with curiosity, as he noticed the bottle in Draco’s hand.

"What?" Said Draco perplexed.

"The bottle," Blaise answered as he cocked his head in the direction of the bottle, which was currently being held between the palms of Draco’s hands.

Draco had momentarily forgotten that he had been holding the bottle, "Oh this," he turned the bottle around in his hands, "I don’t know, I haven’t checked. Probably nothing," he answered.

"Well open it then," said Blaise as he picked up his bag, curious as to what could be in the bottle, if anything. He was also kicking himself for not checking first, before he gave it to Draco.

"There will be nothing in it," dismissed Draco. "There’s no point me wasting my energy when I could be at home wasting it on other useful things," said Draco as he brightened up a bit, thinking of Candy and Sparkle waiting for him to return home.

"Yes, well I’m curious now, so open it."

"You open it if you’re that interested in it," said Draco as he handed the bottle to Blaise.

"It would be bad manners of me to open a present that was not meant for me."

"I give you permission to open it," said Draco, although, he was starting to feel a little bit curious himself, as to what might be in it.

"And, it is also bad manners to offer a gift which has been given to you, with the best of intent by the way, from a really handsome and generous friend, to another person to open," Blaise goaded, "So open it!"

"Fine," said Draco as he stood up and snatched the bottle back from Blaise, "I wouldn’t want to seem rude now, would I?" he admonished as he pulled the cork from the bottle with an audible ‘pop’.

Draco looked inside of the bottle and shook it from side to side. "It’s empty!" he exclaimed as he tipped the bottle upside down, over his desk, to show Blaise that the bottle was in fact empty of anything but air, but what happened next left them both more shocked than the time that they discovered their friend, Theodore Nott’s, penchant for witch's robes.

Both Draco and Blaise stared dumbfounded as a wisp of pure white smoke began to escape the neck of the upside-down bottle.

It was Blaise that recovered himself first as the smoke that escaped from the bottle started to become more concentrated. "What is that?" he asked.

"I don’t know," answered a horrified Draco, who quickly laid the bottle on the table top and scurried backwards a few feet, to escape from the now swirling mist.

"What’s it doing?" questioned Blaise as he searched around for the easiest way of escaping the mist that had begun to circle the whole room.

"I don’t know," demanded Draco irately, his gaze following the path of the mist as he stood behind his chair, gripping the back of it tightly as if he was going to pick it up and use it as a means of defense, if it was needed.

"What do we do?" queried Blaise as he started to feel a slight bit of panic at the whole situation.

It felt like they were in the middle of a strong gust of wind as the mist flew violently around the room.

"How the hell would I bloody know?" shouted Draco over the noise of paper being violently upturned from his desk, his grip tightened on the back of the chair. "You’re the one who bought the bloody thing, you tell me!"

"Well, how...," Blaise stopped mid-speech at the look that Draco had thrown his way, when he had tried to ask yet another question. Blaise even had enough grace to look mildly guilty, as he watched the mist start to lose speed, and hover over Draco’s desktop.

Draco’s facial expression turned from one of shock to one of curiosity, as a human form began to take shape from within the mist.

Both men stared transfixed as they looked up, completely speechless, at the shape of a woman, and a voluptuous woman at that, which was beginning to become more defined within the swirling white gas.

"What did you buy me?" asked Draco wide eyed, not taking his eyes off of the woman’s curves.

"I don’t know," answered Blaise, as he too, could not take his gaze away from the sight before him, "but I wish that I had one too," he spoke, kicking himself yet again for not opening the bottle first.

If it was even possible, Draco’s eyes widened further, as the face of the woman began to become clearer, he knew that face, his jaw dropped open, stupefied, as he realized who the face could belong to, "Granger," he whispered.

"OOFF!" exclaimed Hermione as she fell and landed on a hard wooden desk, arse first.

Draco gaped at the sight before him, there, sat sprawled on his work desk was Hermione Granger, his school nemesis, one of the three banes of his entire existence at Hogwarts.

If that wasn’t an absurdity in itself, then what she was wearing was even more so, from what Draco could tell, it looked like she was wearing irridescent, baggy trousers with a very, very small set of sleeveless wizarding robes to match, which covered something that looked precariously like a silver bra covered entirely with a mass of jewels, ‘Diamonds,’ thought Draco, confused as to how Granger could come across such expensive clothing.

To top the weird costume off, Draco noted what looked like several pieces of sheer silver material protruding from various sources of the material of her clothing, noticeably her shoulders and her hips, and one sole piece of material that covered the back of her bushy hair, which looked like it had extended from underneath a small jeweled crown which laid at the very centre at the top of her head.

‘A crown?’ Thought Draco, scrunching his face up in confusion.

"What the fuck is going on?" Draco shouted to Blaise.

Blaise completely ignored Draco’s outburst as he gaped at Hermione, speechless, tilting his head to the side so that he could look at her from a whole new angle.

Draco’s gaze returned to Hermione when he had noticed Blaise tilt his head looking at something, he followed the path of the veil of material from her shoulders, down her bare arms and found it to end at the index fingers on both hands, kept in place by what looked like rings set with small rubies encrusted with diamonds, but what made Draco’s eyes widen in surprise, was when he looked at her very exposed midriff.

There, dangling in her bellybutton held in place by a small diamond was a stunning red ruby, which appeared to be connected to a string of smaller diamonds which seemed to go around her stomach and her back, like a small thin belt. It was extraordinary; he had never seen anything like it.

Draco continued his perusal of Hermione for a while longer, but in reality it had lasted just a few seconds, before he noticed Blaise begin to move in his line of sight behind Hermione.

Blaise chuckled to himself as he picked up his bag and headed for the door.

"What’s so funny?" Draco asked, clearly perplexed at the whole situation. "And where do you think you are going?" he shouted frantically as he watched Blaise head for the door, leaving him alone to deal with Granger...on his own!

"Hey! Get back here," he shouted, "This is your mess Zabini, you can clean it up," he panicked. "Where are you going?"

"I’m going to see who Pansy got," was all that Draco heard in as an answer as he watched his laughing friend exit the room and leave him all alone with Granger.

That thought brought him out of his stupor and he raised his gaze to meet that of Hermione’s, which was focused directly on his own, with her mouth formed into a small gasp of ‘Oohh’.

"Malfoy?" he heard her whisper in question, from what he could tell she seemed to be just as shocked as he.

"Granger," He greeted with a questioning eyebrow raise, a tilt of his head, and a smile on his face.

"NOOOOOOOO," shouted Hermione as she jumped up and grabbed the bottle in what looked like a pathetic attempt to jump back into it.

Draco jumped, startled at her outburst but he quickly composed himself when he realized what was going on.

She was a Genie...HIS Genie.

The infamous Malfoy smirk began to appear on his face as he thought about what he was going to do with her.

TBC.....