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It was barely 8:00, but Draco Malfoy had already been at work for over an hour when he heard a chair moving outside his office. He shuffled the papers he’d been reading back into a neat pile and pulled forward the one that had immediately caught his attention this morning.
“Phillip?” Draco called through his open door.
His assistant quickly appeared in the doorway, holding a notebook and quill, eyes attentively trained on his boss. “Yes, Mr Malfoy?”
“Send an owl to the Bulstrodes apologizing that I need to move them to Friday, preferably for my open slot at 10:00. Send another owl canceling my lunch with Blaise today, tell him I’ll see him at the club this weekend. Tell Theo to cancel whatever lunch plans he had and that we need to meet instead. Oh, and I see on the new client docket there’s to be a consultation tomorrow with Hermione Granger-Weasley.” Draco ignored the way the young man’s eyes widened and his note taking faltered. “Check yesterday’s intake sheet and see what she indicated as the possible retention reason for our services. I need that information before the 9:00 staff meeting.”
Phillip stood poised, waiting to see if there would be more, then gave a single nod and turned on his heel when Draco returned his attention to the papers on his desk.
It wasn’t but 30 minutes later he was knocking on the frame of the still open door. “Mr Malfoy?”
“Come in.”
“Owl has been sent to the Bulstrodes and I am waiting for a reply. Same with Mr Zabini. Mr Nott said that he’d already canceled his lunch with the expectation you’d want to meet.” Phillip nudged his glasses up his nose as he glanced down at his notes. “The intake sheet from Mrs Granger-Weasley was logged as arrival by owl yesterday afternoon at 3:57. She indicated representation would be solely for her and the matter is just marked ‘personal’. She left more blank than we usually allow our clients—”
“Thank you, Phillip.” His assistant smartly clamped his mouth shut when Draco cut him off. “That will be all for now.”
When Phillip left, Draco allowed himself to lean back in his chair while he stared off into space, once again contemplating why Granger (there was no way he was calling her anything besides Granger in his mind) would seek out his firm’s services. He ran through the same ones he'd been contemplating for nearly two hours now, before he was due in their main conference room.
The first that came to mind was Ministry trouble. But surely she could use one of the legal experts they kept on staff for when issues arose. Admittedly, the government tended to employ hacks compared to the quality of attorneys in his firm. That didn’t negate that his firm’s services would cost her dearly compared to the government funded services she already had access to.
Secondly, Draco wondered if she’d found herself in some sort of legal trouble outside of work. Merlin knows that famous people often found themselves the focus of people looking for their own moment of fame, money, or both. It wouldn’t be the first time or the last that his team had helped a frivolous lawsuit disappear.
The final feasible reason he'd come up with was something Draco entertained, even if the idea of it left him conflicted. He could admit that it intrigued him. And if it were the case, it opened up possibilities he had forced himself to quash for years. On the other hand, it would take a delicate hand. A very delicate hand to get it to turn out correctly.
What if Granger wanted her last name to truly be just ‘Granger’ again?
The meeting had begun with the disarray Draco had expected. Everyone in this room made it a habit to check the new client list before coming in. Quickly shutting everyone’s assumptions and gossip down, he’d begun the meeting with the agenda as written, leaving new client discussions for last.
“As I said at the beginning, we treat every client we take on with the utmost discretion and care. I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but it appears this situation begs a reminder based upon the particular person on today’s intake list. What we talk about inside these walls stays inside these walls, or you will find yourself employed outside of these walls.”
Turning to his partner, Draco waited to see if Theo had anything to add before he continued. Theo took the time to look each of the other six junior members of their firm directly in the eye before he spoke. “The final decision on who takes this case will rest solely with myself and Draco. But before we make any decisions, does anyone have reasons why they feel they may or may not be best suited to taking on whatever we discover tomorrow?”
Alex Fawley quickly raised his hand and spoke up. “I don’t feel I would have the time to devote to another possible sprawling case while working on my libel case.”
Theo nodded in agreement.
The next person to speak up was exactly whom Draco suspected would, and with the answer he’d expected as well. Cormac McLaggen sprawled arrogantly in his chair, giving Theo what he thought was a charming smile. More like smarmy, Draco thought.
“I would be the perfect person to take this on. Hermione Granger and I—”
“Granger-Weasley,” Draco corrected him.
Cormac’s smile slipped for a moment as his eyes shifted to Draco. A flash of doubt, and then the same self-assured look returned to his face. “Thank you, yes. Hermione Granger-Weasley and I go back to our time at Hogwarts when…”
Cormac droned on for another couple of minutes about the supposed trust they’d built while both being in Gryffindor, their amicable split after briefly dating, and bonding again over the common cause of politics immediately following the war. He’d even managed to tell a tale of fighting during the Battle of Hogwarts that made it seem he’d been instrumental in some part of taking down Voldemort. When he finally trailed off in his bid to take on the case, Draco found himself thankful for his Occlumency skills in keeping a straight face.
“Right,” Theo said crisply, “anyone else?”
Hesitantly, Justin Finch-Fletchley raised his hand. “I may not have the same ties as Cormac does to Hermione, but we also have been friends since our time together at Hogwarts. And as a fellow Muggleborn, I may have better perspectives into her needs.”
Draco wondered if Cormac caught the lack of a correction when Justin didn’t use her full name. Based on the grimace on his face, even though he was looking down at his notes and not at Draco or Theo, Draco suspected he’d caught the slight.
It wasn’t that Cormac was a poor lawyer. On the contrary, his win record was admirable. It was the reason he worked here, no matter Draco’s personal feelings on him. Good business was just that - good business. And Theo was in agreement.
After a beat when the other three people didn’t speak up, Draco pushed back his chair and stood. “That’s all for now then. Theo and I will let you know our decision shortly.”
Theo remained seated until the room emptied, while Draco stood with his hands in his pockets watching everyone leave. Once alone, Theo lifted his wand from where it sat next to his water and used it to shut the door and place privacy spells on the room. “Do you really want to wait until lunch to talk about this?”
Draco paced towards the windows that looked out over Diagon Alley, not really taking in the view. He sighed. “I don’t. But I wasn’t sure this morning if I’d need the extra time to think after this meeting. Is now good for you?” He looked back over his shoulder at his oldest friend and confidant.
“I cleared my schedule the moment I saw her name on our intake list.”
“Me too,” Draco admitted, returning to the table.
“So you want to take this case yourself? Whatever it is?” Theo picked up his water and took a sip.
“No, I plan to give it to Cormac.”
Theo spit his water right back into the glass and coughed out, “What?!”
“I said I want to give this to that twat Cormac.”
Theo cocked his head and gave Draco a look of frank surprise. “Why in the world would you do that? This is your chance to—”
“Upset Granger immediately and ruin any chance I have of building trust with her? No. The case is going to Cormac. And when she comes in to complain about him—and I guarantee that she will—then, and only then, will I take over the case. I’m not sure which person on our team she was actually hoping for. But I know that currently she’s certainly hoping against me.”
A slow smirk formed on Theo's face. “But by the time this case concludes, you plan on her being happy it ended up being you?”
“Exactly.”