A Wonderful Fortuitous Love

47. Not Alone

“Friends are helpful not only because they will listen to us, but because they will laugh at us; Through them we learn a little objectivity, a little modesty, a little courtesy; we learn the rules of life and become better players of the game.”

- Will Durant

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So Bun Woman had a family. It probably shouldn’t have been, but to Draco this was kind of surprising. He had never really thought about her life after ascending from the fiery crusts of hell, but it made sense, he supposed.

Over the next few weeks Granger began the hunt for her new assistant. He would enter her office and there would be a new person there each time. She made an effort to introduce him to these people when she could, asking for his opinion when she was unsure, and Draco would always find something wrong with them; whether he thought they would not be up to the challenge of making her tea right to whether or not they’d treat the elves properly. He was most likely too harsh and picky, but Draco figured that if someone had to replace him, it had to be someone great. Someone who could do the job better than he ever could, and by the end of the first few weeks he decided that there was no better person other than Alexis. He barely knew her, but something in him was certain she was the best choice, and he made sure to tell Granger exactly that, who also admitted she’d been thinking along the same lines.

And hence Alexis Moore was hired to be Draco’s replacement when the time came. Until then, her and Granger decided she should come around the office when she could to get a better sense of the place. Only Granger was too busy to help Alexis out all the time, and so by some decision made on Granger’s part alone she passed the responsibility over to Draco.

The first couple of days consisted of showing her around the building, giving her as much of a thorough tour as he could, pointing out the best shortcuts for when Granger sent her somewhere to showing her the kind of people who she should and should not avoid. He even told her how to make her coffee and tea (despite that Draco had recently started making Granger get her own when she was not busy).

What he really liked about Alexis was that she seemed to actually listen to him. She was not just nodding along because she was supposed to. And as he continued to teach her how to become the best assistant she could, he started to notice how extortionary alike she was to Granger. In fact, the similarity between them might have been disconcerting if it weren’t for the Slytherin qualities Alexis had. She had a knack for sarcastic remarks and sweet-talking the right people. So really, she was a Slytherin version of Hermione Granger, which in it’s own way was worrying, but he found he liked it all the same.

But still. Even if he was happy with his replacement, that did not mean he was happy about leaving at all. It was not that he had suddenly grown this loving relationship for house elves – though he would keep in mind to treat them better – and it was not even the people he had met and thought to be decent. No, it was that this was the first job he had ever had to work for without his father pulling strings and his mother buttering up the owners. He was treated just as everybody else was. If he arrived late he was in trouble and had to work longer to make up for it. If he did something right he got a raise because he earned it. And he had never thought, but earning things felt a lot better than simply buying them, and he found that for this reason alone he would always have an attachment for this job. Not what he’d anticipated but he thought, as he watched Granger’s eyes light up after helping yet another elf, nothing ever did work out the way you expect them to.

***

“Do you miss it?”

“What?”

“Hogwarts.”