Older And Non-The Wiser
By ILUVRONWEASLEY

A/N: Sorry, again, for such a late update (I know, this time is even worse than the last)! The editing takes me absolutely forever to even start, which is why the chapters take so much time, so once again, sincerely sorry. Thank you for all the reviews so far!

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Chapter Five.

"What happens to bring you, all alone, to this here ice cream parlour then, Malfoy?" asked Harry spitefully, seating himself opposite Draco. The cup of ice cream that he had been eating while Draco spied on them was still in his hand.

"Oh, you know, Potter, it's a sunny day so I thought I'd just cool myself down," said Draco, returning the bitter smile, "oh and I need to talk to my new employee of course. Business talk; you know the like."

"When did you take control of your empire again, eh, Malfoy?" said Ron, raising an eyebrow, "I heard that you hired someone to do it for you, seeing as you couldn't be bothered to work and take control of what your dear old daddy left you. I would have thought you'd have got someone to send a message to Hermione, instead of actually doing something yourself."

"Well," Draco began, "her job is classified. Very classified. So of course I would deliver my message personally."

Ron seated himself beside Harry, never taking his eyes off Draco. Hermione did the same. She eyed him cautiously, as if to warn him not to say anything too apparent about her new 'job position'.

"What is it?" She asked warily.

Draco smirked and easily replied, "Do you honestly expect me to reveal classified information to your dear old friends?"

Oh yes, he certainly knew how to pull those strings. Hermione sighed and stood. Quickly leading him away from the ice cream parlour, she went straight towards a bench, not far from the one that he had come from.

"If I were you, I'd say what you have to say quickly, Malfoy," Hermione hissed, her arms folded across her chest indignantly. He smirked. She was obviously afraid of what this might do to her image, especially in front of her little friends.

"My dear stepson has ordered me – actually, let me rephrase that. My dear stepson has blackmailed me into asking you for a date on behalf of him, Granger, preferably soon and most importantly alone. Yes, that sounds about right," he said, "so how about tomorrow -say -eight o'clock?"

"No." She replied immediately. "No, I'm not going on another date with him. It's too soon -just, too soon. I still remember what he was like. I can't - I just can't - not now. What am I going to say? What am I supposed to act like? What if I say something stupid and just plain wrong?"

She flung her arms in the air wildly as she finished her little rant. Draco laughed, in spite of himself.

"First thing to do, Granger, is to remain calm. You can't expect to think with that wondrous brain of yours when you're tossing your limbs in the air like a mad woman. Just remember, you are a Slytherin. You are a pure-blood. Hugh is a pure-blood, after all, so he won't know the names of any silly muggle contraptions so be sure not to mention them. Those are the basics; you'll learn more as you go along, I'm sure."

"Learn more as I go along?" Hermione laughed sarcastically. "You must be kidding me, Malfoy. I have to know more now. In case you haven't noticed, I've never actually been Slytherin, or a pure-blood before, so how am I meant to know how to act?"

"Well, if you're implying that I should help you, then perhaps I'll consider it," said Draco, "seeing as how you are putting up with my perverted stepson."

He knew, almost straight away, that she had some sort of brilliant scheme. The fire in her eyes said it all. She smiled (it was almost scary, Draco thought). "Right, meet me tomorrow at the Hog's Head, at about midday. That should be the time when it's the busiest, or at least, busy enough. This way we won't be overheard."

"Why are you so scared that someone will hear?" Draco asked, frowning curiously. It wasn't as if his behaviour was that embarrassing, but then again, after his father had been taken away to Azkaban, people had begun to give him weird looks and not only that; they had even begun to disrespect him (the cheeky buggers).

After doing his best to get the Malfoy Empire back into shape, Draco had gradually gained a sufficient amount of power: enough to thrive on. It was not a secret that at that particular moment in time, he had adored his work and his life, but that was all destroyed when Lucius died in Azkaban and his will came to light.

The will meant that Draco was to marry the woman that had once been his father's babysitter. His dear old wife had then insisted that he stay at home, instead of going to work and escaping her grasp. Therefore, he had had to hire someone to be in charge of the entire empire while he remained with his wife, killing his time by lounging around and taking walks (which he detested).

"I don't want the entire world knowing that I'm working for you, Malfoy," Hermione said, looking disgusted with herself, "I mean, it's been well publicised that you hired someone to do your work for you. Wouldn't it be odd if people were to see you talking to me, an employee, so personally? If anyone were to find out what I was actually doing for you, they just might think I'm some sort of…hooker."

She shuddered as Draco openly laughed. "I guess if someone was to think that about you, your whole world would fall to pieces, wouldn't it?"

"Of course it would!" she snapped, "to have people that I don't even know give me dirty looks as I pass them on the streets…why, that would be too much! I wouldn't be able to stand it."

"Oh, but Granger, darling, you are acting just like one of those women, so you needn't be ashamed of your occupation."

The look on her face was priceless.

"Those women? THOSE WOMEN?" she shrieked in Draco's ear, "indeed not! I am in no way, even considering, sleeping with that imbecile you call a stepson! This agreement is simply something that will cure many of my family's financial problems."

"Well if those are your only thoughts on the matter then I must say you are horribly mistaken," he said, "surely you know that when I asked you to be my stepson's wife, I meant for as long as humanly possible? Of course you're not going to be in any financial difficulties! Once you move in and marry the boy, you'll be living in luxury. You won't have to lift a finger!"

"Don't be an idiot," she mumbled, "of course I know that. I'm not stupid. All I'm saying is that even though, technically, I'll be married to the guy, it doesn't necessarily mean that I have to give myself to him completely. I bet he'll divorce me soon after we marry anyway. I mean, he isn't dense, he must suspect that I'm not who I pretend to be."

"He won't," assured Draco. "Not if he has no reason to – which, might I add, he doesn't. You could even sneak out to meet up with your friends and he wouldn't notice. You're too trustworthy, you see. He won't divorce you either. Oh, of course, he might cheat on you and still live with an innocent conscience, but he wouldn't divorce you. It would put his mother in too much stress and without Eudora, Hugh would simply be a pathetic, spoilt brat."

"So, what you're saying is that I'm stuck, pretending to be somebody that I'm not, for the rest of my life?"

He appeared in thought for a second. "Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying. Out of curiosity, Granger, why did you agree to this if you thought you were going to regret it?"

Hermione looked at him suspiciously as he hastily added. "It's not like I care or anything, but it just doesn't seem as though Hermione Granger would ever make the wrong choice, that's all."

"To be perfectly honest with you, Malfoy, I thought that if I agreed to stay with your stepson for a day or so, I would get the money and then it would be enough to give my parents a better life. I didn't realise that you would make me marry him almost straight away." She paused. "Or that you wouldn't pay me until I moved in with you, at least. I thought that maybe after the first date or something, I could take the money and run for the hills. I guess I was very much misguided. Tell me, is it too late to back out now?"

He nodded with a smirk. "You know, for a second there I thought that you agreed purely because you thought you were never going to find any other willing man to marry you."

With a glare that could send shivers up any man's spine (had Draco been paying attention), she replied, "look, you might as well save the insults for later and spend the moment gloating at the fact that I've admitted I've done something wrong."

Draco laughed and, upon finally noticing the glare Hermione happened to be sending in his direction, felt a strange shiver up his spine.

-

Disgusting, was the only word that Draco thought could describe it.

Yes, the Hog's Head was truly disgusting. A strange woman (that looked suspiciously like a man) sat in the corner, picking her teeth with a used toothpick, as another woman sat close by, reading an edition of the Daily Prophet of 1910. Two men sat laughing at one another's walking sticks, while an old man walked from one end of the bar to the other and then slowly back again. Amongst all these people, sat Draco, feeling far more superior to all of them put together. For heaven's sake, this sorry excuse for a pub couldn't even provide him with a clean cup! It was a disgrace to the picturesque village of Hogsmeade.

He shuddered as yet another queer looking person entered. He gagged at the foul smell that came with the pub's latest customer. The pub door swung open once again as he was mid-gag.

"Pulling a face like that will only give you more wrinkles, Malfoy, dear." Hermione said, smiling as she took a seat beside him. With her was a plastic carrier bag – it appeared heavy, making a loud clatter as she set it on the table.

"What's that?" He asked, prodding at the bag in a childish manner.

Hermione slapped Draco's hand away. "No touching." She said. "At least, not yet. In this bag contains Fred and George Weasley's newest invention. Part of their 'spying is good' campaign, I think, and I volunteered to test these out for them."

"I thought you were against testing things?" he asked, frowning, "if you're against house-elves doing what they enjoy the most, then you must think this is violating some kind of law, right?"

"Yes, well, I am against human testing! It's just that we may need these new invention of theirs, so I thought I might as well volunteer to test them out instead of wasting my money." She took out of the bag a pair of earrings and then a watch. "After all, I'm probably going to use these once anyway, so there's no point in paying for them."

"What are they?" Draco asked, not daring to touch. Knowing the Weasleys and their insanely creative minds, it could explode any minute. Obviously, Hermione thought otherwise as she began to fiddle with the seemingly harmless jewellery.

"Malfoy, dear, do you never listen? I told you, they're Fred and George's latest invention. I wouldn't have had to borrow them if it wasn't for that date you set me up on tonight. I do say, this has to be one of Fred and George's more sophisticated gadgets. You know, normally it's pranks and the sort, but this is definitely more… 'Secret Agent'."

"Sophisticated? I think not," he said, "the Malfoy Empire contains a string of expensive jewellery stores. I know what real silver looks like, Granger, and believe me, the quality of those earrings and that watch can hardly compare to fake silver, let alone the real deal."

Wisely, Hermione chose to ignore this. "From what Fred and George say, one person is supposed to wear these earrings here, while the other wears the watch. The person that's wearing the watch can now hear everything that the person with the earrings can hear – that is, if he puts the watch to his ear, I'm presuming. Oh and if you speak into the watch, then, supposedly, the person with the earrings can hear what you're saying to them."

"Judging by your hazy explanation, I don't think these…inventions, as you call them - although I would have thought junk would be a more appropriate word - are going to work," he stated as he snatched the jewellery from Hermione's hands and threw them back into the carrier bag, "furthermore, do you really think that I would happily sit at a nearby table, with a watch to my ear, while you and Hugh drink refillable glasses of champagne?"

She pursed her lips together and sighed angrily. "Well if you're so clever then what else can we do? I doubt that you're even going to consider using a muggle method."

Draco didn't reply. Hermione smirked. "Are you, by any chance, Malfoy, considering a muggle method?"

He returned the smirk – and added a hint of malice. "It depends. I'd rather use a muggle method than that of a Weasley. What are you thinking of?"

"I was thinking something along the lines of muggle spy technology," she began, "a microphone, which you speak into, and a hearing set, so that you can hear what Hugh says, and I can hear what you say. Of course, muggle equipment doesn't work in magical areas, but I'm sure a quick complex charm would do the trick. After all, when have restaurants ever been heavily guarded? Oh, and of course we'd need an invisibility charm, so that Hugh doesn't notice all the complicated wires that come with everything."

Slowly, Draco nodded. Hermione smiled. "Good, then let it be settled. I'll have to order everything from the Magic Muggle Collections catalogue. I seem to remember that they had a 'Spying' section the last time I was flicking through it. I hear it's the latest craze for young mischievous witches and wizards and the catalogue delivers in only a few minutes time." She stood, taking the carrier bag with her. "Well, I'm going back to Fred and George's to return these goods. I'll see you tonight then, Malfoy."

Draco waved her away with an indifferent expression. He fixed his eyes onto the dirty cup in front of him and wrinkled his nose at the filthiness. Yes, it was still disgusting.

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed that! Review, please?