A/N – Welcome to my new story – Precious Diamonds. The story has 27 chapters plus an epilogue.

This is another one of my stories which is split into two parts, with part one making up the first half of the story, and part two moving the story on several years. Just a warning, this story – and especially part one – is very dominated by Draco and events in his life. In fact, Hermione doesn't make her first appearance for a few chapters.

Updates will be on Mondays and Thursdays.

Part One.

Black Diamond was the hottest club in Wizarding Britain. Situated in the heart of Wizarding London, it oozed class and elegance and always attracted a good crowd. Even during the week the club was packed, leading to a great atmosphere whenever you ventured into the place. The club was spread out over four separate floors, with each floor offering something different. The club also had several V.I.P areas, and areas that a group could hire for a special occasion.

After two and a half years of planning, the club had now been open for over two years. Already the club was a success and a goldmine, so the two wizards behind the club, Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini, had plans to extend their empire. In fact the entire thing had been Blaise's brainchild, and he'd convinced his best friend to join him in the venture the second they left school. While Blaise was the face of the business, and he had all the creative ideas, Draco was the solid businessman behind the scenes who ensured that they were making a profit. Draco also kept Blaise under control as his plans to extend were often the main topic of conversation. If Blaise had gotten his own way he would have had a second club before the first one even took off, however Draco was more pragmatic and he convinced his friend that before they expanded they needed to be a hundred percent sure they weren't going to fail and end up in all sorts of trouble.

Two years later, Draco was ready to admit their club was a success and they could start looking at expansion. Although in the two years they'd been running the club, Blaise had decided that they shouldn't just stick to nightclubs. He had plans to open bars, casinos, restaurants and possibly even a hotel. Basically Blaise figured they could take the hospitality industry in the wizarding world by storm and become an international brand. Even though Draco agreed with his friend that they were onto a good thing, he was still more cautious than Blaise and he was waiting for the perfect opportunity to expand.

One rainy Wednesday afternoon, Blaise presented him with the perfect opportunity when he took Draco to view an old shop up for rent in Diagon Alley. As Blaise walked Draco through the site, he spelled out his ideas to turn the place into a chic wine bar.

"I was thinking we could keep with the diamond theme," Blaise said. "That way there's a connection with all out businesses."

"Sounds good," Draco replied with a nod. "We could keep the colour theme going as well."

"Yeah, we can have a red diamond, green diamond, blue diamond," Blaise enthused.

"I get the point Blaise," Draco chuckled, stopping his friend before he listed every colour under the sun.

"So what do you say?" Blaise asked. "Is this what you've been waiting for?"

"It is," Draco confirmed with a nod. "I'll get the ball rolling and we can buy the place."

"Excellent," Blaise said with a grin. "I've got such plans for this place."

"I'd love to stay and hear more, but I'm due at the manor for dinner this evening. It's Mother's birthday and I still have to get her present," Draco replied.

"I can start making some plans," Blaise suggested.

"Sounds good," Draco said. "If it's not too late after dinner, I'll pop by the club."

"I'll be there," Blaise replied. "Speaking of which, I better get back there. Catch you later, Draco."

Saying goodbye to his friend, Draco spent the rest of the afternoon putting an offer in on the building they wanted. With plans for the business expansion underway, Draco headed off to buy a present for his mother, before he went home to his penthouse to get ready for dinner with his parents.

Dinner wasn't something Draco was particularly looking forward to as things were a bit tense between himself and his father these days. Lucius had expected Draco to join the family business when he'd left Hogwarts, so he'd been less than impressed when Draco went into business with Blaise. Ever since there had been a fair bit of tension between father and son, but Draco could put up with his father's snide remarks in order to celebrate his mother's birthday. He could always hope that one day Lucius might actually admit he was wrong and that Draco had made a success on his life.

When Draco arrived at the manor he gave his mother her birthday gift, a diamond necklace, and the family settled down for a nice family meal. Thankfully, there were no snide remarks from Lucius as the three Malfoys enjoyed a delicious meal in peace. Draco's business did come up in conversation, but Lucius kept his opinions to himself as Draco informed his parents about the planned expansion of their business.

Unfortunately the peace didn't last as no sooner had dinner finished than Lucius asked his son to step into his study so they could talk. Hoping that his father wasn't going to start on his business again, Draco followed Lucius into his luxurious study.

"Fire-whisky?" Lucius asked, heading straight over the side table where he kept his liquor.

"No thank you," Draco replied. "I'd rather just get on with this."

"Get on with what?" Lucius asked as he poured himself a large glass of his favourite fire-whisky.

"Whatever lecture you're about to give me now," Draco replied as he slumped down in one of the seats in front of his father's desk. "I assume this is another dig at my business."

"Owning a seedy club is not a business," Lucius snorted as he sat down in his chair and faced his son. "It's a whim, Draco, and quite frankly it's time you grew up and stopped playing with Blaise. You left school five years ago, and you're still acting like the eighteen year old you were back then. It's time you grew up and took your rightful place in the family business."

"I don't want to take over the family business," Draco protested. "I want to make my own way in the world, and I am. Our club is not seedy, and it's just the start of our empire. I've just told you that we've started making moves to acquire a new property."

"To turn into a bar," Lucius sneered, clearly unimpressed with what his son was planning.

"Yes, our second business will be a bar," Draco replied.

"You're better than this, Draco," Lucius hissed. "Blaise may be content to run bars and clubs, but you're destined for greater things."

"Why, because I'm a Malfoy?" Draco snorted.

He'd long since gotten over his ideas that he his family were better than others because of their name, fortune and blood status. In fact it had been Blaise who had helped Draco see the error of his ways back in school, and he would forever be grateful to his friend for helping him get over his snobbery. Unfortunately, Lucius still held the beliefs he'd had his entire life and he considered their family special and above almost every other wizarding family in the country.

"Yes, because you're a Malfoy and Malfoys don't own businesses like bars and clubs," Lucius retorted. "Businesses like those are destined to fail, and Malfoys don't fail. If you don't get out now, you'll end up in trouble. When the business fails, it'll be your reputation on the line. Our family's reputation on the line."

"You mean your reputation," Draco spat. "And thanks for the vote of confidence. My business will not fail."

"You don't know that, Draco," Lucius shot back.

"No, I don't," Draco conceded. Even though he had faith in the business, he wasn't foolish enough to think there wasn't a small chance of failure. "But I have faith things will carry on the way they have been. We've got good ideas, and a solid base to expand our business from."

"It'll all go wrong, Draco, mark my words," Lucius cautioned.

"Thanks for your support," Draco snapped as he got to his feet. "But I'm going before I say something I'll regret."

"Don't," Lucius called as his son turned towards the door. "We haven't discussed what I wanted to talk to you about."

"What? You've got more to say about my business?" Draco asked as he whirled back around to face his father.

"I never intended to discuss your business," Lucius said. "You brought that topic up. I wish to discuss the rest of your life."

"The rest of my life?" Draco frowned. "Are you now going to criticise the fact I've moved out?"

The fact Draco no longer resided at the manor was yet another bone of contention between Lucius and Draco. Lucius had been against the move, and he'd made it clear that in his opinion Draco should remain in the family home. However, Draco had been adamant that he wanted his freedom and using some of the inheritance that he'd come into on his seventeenth birthday he'd bought himself a luxury penthouse in the same building as Blaise.

"You know my feelings on that," Lucius muttered. "I wish to discuss your personal life. You're not getting any younger Draco. It's time you were settling down and starting a family. You need to provide the family with an heir."

"I'm twenty three, I'm hardly over the hill," Draco retorted.

"Maybe not, but you're not exactly ready to settle down either," Lucius shot back. "Have you even had a serious girlfriend since school? No, you're content to follow Blaise and sleep around."

"I'll settle down when I'm ready," Draco replied. "When I meet the right witch."

"You sound like a girl, Draco," Lucius snorted. "There is no right witch, just a suitable witch. Look at Theodore. He's your age, he's married with a son and he has a second child on the way. He's a credit to his family."

Draco snorted at his father using Theo Nott as an example of the perfect son. Theo was actually a good friend of Draco's, and he'd married Pansy Parkinson a few months after they left Hogwarts. The marriage was an arranged one, and while Draco knew Theo and Pansy were actually now quite happy together, it hadn't always been that way. Theo hadn't wanted to marry Pansy, he just didn't have the balls to stand up to his father. So he'd done as his father had wanted, married Pansy and now eventually had accepted it was his fate in life to be a perfect husband and father.

"You want me to be like Theo?" Draco asked. "Married to a witch he couldn't stand at first?"

"Not everything in life is hearts and flowers, Draco," Lucius said. "As you said, it was only at first. They seem perfectly content now. But the truth of it is as a pure-blood, you have a duty to carry on the family line. I've let you sow your oats while you're young, but it's now time to stop. It's time you settled down with a nice pure-blood girl and had a son. The family name needs to continue."

"And it will, when I meet and fall in love with the right witch," Draco said firmly. "I will not marry some witch just because she's a pure-blood and you think it's time I settled down and gave you a grandson. You need to learn that you can't control my life, not any more. I'm an adult, and I can do what the hell I like. I can run whatever business I like, and I can settle down and get married in my own time, to a witch of my own choosing."

Knowing Lucius would just continue trying to lay the law down, and get him to bend to his will, Draco quickly exited his father's study before things got out of hand and things were said that couldn't be taken back. Finding his mother in the front room, Draco said goodbye and wished her a 'happy birthday', before leaving the manor and heading to the club.

"How was it?" Blaise asked when Draco entered the office.

"Just great," Draco muttered, collapsing into the chair behind his desk. "Father thinks we're wasting our time and we'll go under. He also thinks it's time I settled down with a nice pure-blood witch and had kids."

"Let's guess, he held Theo up as the perfect example," Blaise chuckled.

He'd long since known that Draco's father preferred Theo over him. While Theo was the perfect little pure-blood, Blaise was a rebel and in Lucius's eyes he'd led his son astray. Blaise had never adhered to the pure-blood ideals Draco and Theo had been brought up with, and while he'd helped Draco think for himself, he hadn't been able to do the same for Theo. Even though Theo was still a good friend, he was very much under his father's thumb and now Pansy's as she very much ruled the roost in their marriage. Draco on the other hand lived his own life and even though Blaise knew he respected Lucius, he didn't allow his father to dictate how he was going to live his life.

"Of course he did," Draco replied with a chuckle of his own. "Anyway I told him he's not getting his way on this and that's the end of it."

"You hope," Blaise warned ominously. He wanted to believe that Lucius would drop the subject, but something told Blaise this was only the beginning for Draco as his father tried to marry him off to a nice pure-blood girl.