Head over heels

Two chapters in one day! Woo!

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Again he was woken by an awful noise. It was his cell phone. It was ringing like a madman. Draco cursed, plucked the phone from his pants and answered.

“Yeah?” he slurred a bit while rubbing the sleep from his eyes. What time was it anyway?

“Malfoy, need you in Diagon Alley right now,” his boss said.

“Whut? What happened?” Draco asked while sitting up.

“Seems like an attack. You’ve heard of the new bookstore? Books&Cleverness?” Draco groaned inwardly. Nooo, please, no. “The store has been demolished. I’m putting you in charge of the investigation. Get your ass over here.”

Then he hung up. Draco frowned. He quickly put his auror robes over his rumpled clothing and disappeared to Diagon Alley.

Books&Cleverness had a good position for business. It was placed opposite of Gringots and just around the corner to Knockturn Alley. When he arrived, the place was in shambles. Aurors were all over the place and the store looked like it had been hit by a tornado. The windows were broken and an overwhelming smell of smoke emerged them. Draco looked around, trying to find his boss.

“Ah Draco man, glad you could make it here so fast!” Keith Hammond was an impressive guy, he was bulky, short brown curls, a moustache and a beer belly. He was in charge of the auror department. He had been a great auror once but his days of field work were over.

“What the hell happened?” Draco asked, “This shit looks like it’s been bombed!”

Keith stared at Draco for a moment. Bombed was a Muggle word obviously. He watched too much television.

“Never mind, what happened?”

Keith slung his arm around Draco’s shoulder and led him away from the madness. Suddenly a junior auror came to them.

“Sir, the owner says she woke up by the noise and when she came down it already happened! She saw no one!”

“Thank you Thompson, go and retrieve her will ya?”

“Yes sir,” the boy scout said and hurried away. Draco disliked the juniors, they always pretended to be to important, while all the really did was get coffee for the aurors. Never mind that he was once a junior himself.

“We suspect it was a targeted attack. The investigation team found shards of glass in the back of the store and an odd liquid, which we presume to be some sort of alcohol. Molotov cocktails I believe the Muggles call it.”

Draco frowned. He tended to do this a lot lately, he must be more careful, otherwise he’ll develop wrinkles.

“A muggle attack?” he asked.

Keith looked at him blankly.

“Muggle attack in Diagon Alley? Use your brains boy. No magic was used, now we can’t trace the magic back to the owner. By the way, you look like crap.”

“Oh. Yeah I know, you woke me up,” Draco grumbled. “What time is it anyway?”

“Three in the morning,” Keith grinned, “You were sleeping? Don’t you have a bird to keep your bed warm? No wonder you’re so cranky.”

Draco coughed.

“Right, so muggle means, but what if-,” Draco was rudely interrupted by junior Thompson.

“Here she is, sir!” he saluted. Keith sighed, even he found juniors tiring. Draco rubbed his eyes and yawned.

“Thank you sonny. Hello miss...?” he asked, offering her his hand. Granger looked like shit. The trails of her tears were visible on her cheeks, her hair looked like a Jarvey used it for living space and she wore a lilac bathing robe. She probably threw it on very quickly: she didn’t even tie it right. Draco’s mind wandered to what she wore underneath. There were no traces of pants visible and no straps on her shoulder. Draco was shaken out of his appraisal of Grangers underthings by her speaking.

“Granger sir,” she said as she meekly shook his hand.

“Ah Miss Granger. I should have known, famous for-,” Keith didn’t get far because Granger interrupted him.

“Yeah, yeah I know. Being Harry Potter best friend and all, Gryffindors golden girl, whatever. Hey Malfoy.” She turned to Draco for a moment, then turned back to Keith. “Do you know who did this?” She asked with a broken and tired voice as she gestured towards her store. Draco felt a gentle tug in his chest. Poor Granger.

Keith sadly shook his head.

“No miss, unfortunately we don’t yet.”

“Damnit, damnit all to hell and back!” she cursed as she fisted her hands in her hair. The bathing robe hiked up a little. “Damnit...,” she finished lamely.

“Don’t you worry miss. I have put my best aurors on your case. We hope to solve this as soon as possible.”

“I will worry whenever I want to! Damnit, this is my life which was just blown apart! And you better hurry up with catching whoever did this or I will personally make sure that person will rue the day he was born,” she snarled. ”Now, if you will excuse me, I’m going to clean up the mess so I can open in the morning!” Draco stared after her.

“Draco, I’m putting you in charge of this investigation. Your first task is stopping that little spitfire from ruining the crime scene,” Keith said as he clapped Draco on the back. Draco had never led a mission before. He felt elated.

Wait, stopping Granger. When he looked around, he found Granger already entering the shop. A brief surge of panic swept through him as he ran towards the store. Even Grangers notice board was destroyed, the little sign which used to Books&Cleverness now said Boo- and the rest was blown away. He entered the shop, careful not to touch anything. The shop looked awful, the bookcases had all fallen to the side, the books had tumbled out of them and fell on the floor. There were books scattered everywhere. There were no lights on, just one meagre candle in Grangers hand.

He spotted Granger in the middle of the shop with her back to him. She looked around, examining the damage. She took a deep breath.

“Granger,” Draco started. He really didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry about your shop.” Lame, Draco, very lame.

Suddenly a sob wracked her body.

“Oh Merlin, who would want to do this Malfoy?” she turned to him. Her eyes were red and her cheeks blotchy. Suddenly her stare hardened. “I’m going to clean up the mess so I can open again in the morning. Your help might be appreciated,” she said as she put the candle upon a little table.

Draco walked towards her, just as she bend over to grab a book. Draco halted, his mouth suddenly felt dry. Merlin, still no trace of pants. He shook himself out of his reverie and grabbed her wrist. She turned to glare at him.

“Don’t touch anything Granger. If you do, the evidence will be destroyed and rejected. Then we can’t do anything for you,” he said with a even voice. Damn.

“I need to open in the morning Malfoy. I can’t just close for a couple of days! I need to eat and pay rent you know. Some people aren’t born rich,” she said, “Come to think of it, why do you work?”

The glance on her face was one of genuine curiosity. Draco sighed and let her wrist go.
“What else would you have me do? Sit on my ass every day? No thank you. I want to be, well, at least feel productive.”

Granger moved her head to the side.

“Well, I can’t deny that I thought that might suit you. After all, you were never the type to work or earn your keep,” she said sheepishly.

“There’s a difference between what you see and what I know Granger,” Draco answered tiredly. He just wanted to go to bed. Arguing with Granger in the middle of the night didn’t seem like a good option. Doing something else to Granger was a better idea though...

“Do you think there’s an insurance company who would help me?” she asked softly. Insurance was still a fairly new concept to the Wizarding World. Only large companies had insurances, like Hogwarts. Draco saw the chance of an insurance company helping Granger as pretty slim. Even though helping a war hero would be good promotion, restoring a store like this would cost them much more than it would produce. After all, there weren’t many companies who could afford an insurance. But he wasn’t about to tell her that.

“We can figure it out in the morning. Go back to bed and let us take care of this.”
Granger looked at him with her big, brown eyes. Draco felt a fluttering in his stomach. Damn her.

“Okay,” she said reluctantly, admitting defeat.

“You’ll have to drop by my office in the morning though. I need all the information you can get me. Say about twelve?” he offered. He hoped she took his offer. Any earlier and Draco would go mad with a lack of sleep, the alcohol in his system and he still had to prepare for her arrival.

“Sure,” she sighed dejectedly. “Are you in charge?”

“Yes,” he answered, “Does that bother you?” He raised an eyebrow.

She let out a small laugh.

“Not at all, see you in the morning.” And she left the store.

*****

The Gods enjoyed playing with him. After the war, after Weasley’s traumatising orders, now this. The bloody bet. How was he going to behave himself when he had an appointment with Granger in less than an hour. Draco fidgeted with the collar of his shirt.
This wasn’t what Sundays were for. Draco grumbled and walked back into the living room.

“Out of bed this early?”

Draco jumped. His dad was standing in the middle of the room in all his imposing glory. Long cape, snake cane and expensive robes to boot.

“Merlin, you nearly gave me a seizure. What are you doing here?” Draco asked as he ruffled his hair. Lucius smirked.

“Just checking if you were still alive. I see you are, though barely. You look like hell.”

That was his father alright, still as honest as ever.

“Oh right, the lunch, something came up. I can’t come over.” Draco knew his parents were going to hate him for this one.

Lucius sighed and sat down in an armchair.

“What is it this time?”

“A bookstore was destroyed last night, in Diagon Alley. I have an appointment with the owner in-,” he checked the clock, “less than 50 minutes. I’m sorry dad, it can’t wait.”
“Always aiming to please,” Lucius said, “Can’t you tell your boss to stuff it? It’s Sunday for Merlin’s sake!”

Draco sighed.

“I would give a leg if that would mean I do not have the meeting today, but unfortunately, I can’t,” he said as he checked himself out in the mirror.

“That sounds pretty desperate. Who is it you have to meet that is so terrible you’d have your leg amputated?” Lucius said.

Draco hesitated. He did not want to have this conversation with his father. If he knew who, that would lead to the why.

“Well...?” Lucius implored impatiently.

“Granger, Hermione Granger.”

His dad actually had the nerve to laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, just that a certain someone came over to our house last night to inform us of a few certain matters, involving you and a certain redhead.”

Draco groaned and turned to his father. He was surprised that his father seemed to light hearted about this entire matter. Falling head over heels with a mudblood wasn’t the smartest thing to do for the son of a former pure-blood supremacist.

“Nothing is sacred, is there? What did Blaise say?” he mumbled.

“About the bet with Weasley.”

Thank Merlin, Draco thought, he didn’t know about Granger.

“I would advise you to keep your pants on because I will not have you losing this to that tosser,” Lucius said with a smirk.

“Yeah dad I know. I’m not the one with a girlfriend here. Give mum a kiss on my behalf would you? I need to leave,” Draco said as he walked towards the fireplace.

“Not a girlfriend no, but apparently an important meeting with an important someone. Keep your pants on son,” Lucius smirked and apparated away.

Draco cursed. He stood in front of the fireplace, as stiff as a board. You can do this, he told himself. As long as Granger would wear a burka then it will be fine.

******