I'll Always Be There for You...

I'll always be there for you...

Chapter 10

The next few days passed by very quickly because I was so busy. Usually I didn't even have time to eat or get a proper night's rest because I was on the run from six o'clock in the morning to nine at night.

From each of my shoots, I got beautiful souvenirs from the designers themselves like dresses, bags, shoes, sunglasses, and watches. Also, whenever I sat down to eat my lunch or dinner, Malfoy had planned a reporter to meet us there and to ask me questions and publish it in many famous magazines.

On my last day in Paris, I decided to give Gabrielle a call.

"Bonjour?" she answered.

"Bonjour," I said. "Gabrielle, this is Hermione."

"'ermione !" she said. "I was just thinking about you."

"Really? Well I was wondering if we could have a chat? I just want to catch up with you, because I'm leaving today."

"Sure," she said. "Sounds great. But zhere ees a problem. My friend who's fazzer owns a section of ze Daily Prophet would like to interview you. She says she 'as heard a lot about you and would like to get a first hand interview of you to send into the wizarding world."

I repeated the problem to Malfoy as I covered up the mouthpiece.

He was looking at some papers and he nodded without even looking up.

"Sounds great, Gabrielle," I said. "I'll meet you at le Palais d'Amour, ok?"

"Oui, oui. At twelve, all right?"

"That's fine," I said, hanging up.

I told Malfoy about going at twelve but he didn't say anything.

At eleven fifteen, I made my way to the restaurant after getting out of the cab. Today, my black hair was tied with a small clip and fell down my back and I was wearing a pale pink floral dress. Pink really wasn't my favourite colour, but I had received so many pink outfits from my shoots and today was such a beautiful summer day that I couldn't help wanting to wear it.

Palais d'Amour was an indoor restaurant with an outdoor café. As I made my way inside, I heard someone call my name from the tables outside.

"'ermione!"

I turned and saw Gabrielle sitting at a table with a man beside her.

As I made my way to the table, I saw several people staring at me and talk about me as I walked by.

"Bonjour," I said as I took a seat.

"Bonjour," said the man, immediately taking my hand and kissing it. "Elle est très belle, non?"

Gabrielle nodded and smiled. "Indeed."

Over the next hour an a half, I talked with Gabrielle as the reporter, whose name was Victor, took notes and asked me questions as well.

Victor also took several pictures of Gabrielle and me.

When we were done, Gabrielle said, "I will have zee copy sent to you immediately once eet es published, all right?"

I nodded. "Sounds great."

I said goodbye to the pair of them and then walked back to our hotel room.

"Well, now that I'm done, I'm going to sleep," I told Malfoy as I returned to the room.

Our flight wasn't for another few hours and would be a short one, so I wouldn't get to rest on the plane. I curled up on the bed and was asleep in a few minutes.

Two hours later, Malfoy awoke me and I sat up, yawning and stretching on the bed. A thought had occurred to me when I was packing my clothes.

"Hey, Malfoy, my two weeks are almost over. That was our contract," I reminded him.

He looked up from the files he was putting in his briefcase. "I'll tell you once we're back at the office."

I was wondering what would happen to me now and whether I passed my test or not, but I knew it was best just to nod and smile.

After I packed my things I changed into some clothes that were better suited for an hour and a half flight. I wore a pair of white denim Capris and a light green tank top with lace lining it.

We made it to the airport on time and got on board our plane. Several people on the plane during the flight stared at me and several people whispered when I went to the loo.

When I came back, I took my seat and said to Malfoy, "People keep staring at me. Have I got something in my teeth?" I flashed him my pearly whites.

He shook his head, as if he didn't believe what I was asking. "No, Granger. People are staring at you because you're famous."

"Famous? Me?" I laughed. "Why would I be famous? I didn't get famous by being the best Auror in the office and catching half the Death Eaters, so why would I get famous by smiling and posing?"

"For someone who made Head Girl, you're pretty dumb," he said, looking out the window.

I chose to ignore him, as I had no idea what he was talking about. Why would people be staring at me? I mean I knew I looked nice and stuff, but is that why people were looking at me as if I was a Goddess? It's not like I had found a cure to cancer. All I had done was wear a couple of dresses and put on makeup and walk down a runway.

Malfoy turned and settled into his seat. After looking at my confused face, he said, "You still don't get it do you?"

I gave him a look that said get to the point.

He opened his briefcase and handed me a few glossy covered magazines. There were seven in total. I was on the cover of five of them and two that I wasn't had nice articles and several pages of pictures of me.

I stared them, almost aghast. I mean I knew I was in Vogue, but where did all these other magazines come from? Oh yes, I had done interviews with several other people from various magazines.

All the magazines described me as a 'budding new star, waiting for everyone to notice me' or something like that.

Since I knew what the interviews said, I took a look at some of the pictures. I had to admit that I looked pretty nice. And this was I, queen of low self-image.

I looked at the magazines at the other featured models while we flew to London.

When we landed, I handed Malfoy the magazines and grabbed my purse. I waited for Malfoy at the beginning of the ramp and then we went down.

When we descended down the ramp, there was a horde of photographers with their cameras flashing off.

I blinked and suddenly there was white circles circling me. I turned to look behind me to see if there was some star behind us, but I couldn't see anything.

"Who are they here for?" I screamed at Malfoy as we got closer to them and could hear them saying a jumble of things.

"You, apparently," he said, looking a little confused as well. I guess even he didn't know I had such a big name already.

I stood rooted to the spot. "What?! Malfoy, you said I didn't have to face the press yet. You said!"

"I didn't invite them," he said with clenched teeth.

"Yeah right," I muttered. "What now?"

"Act natural," he said, over the screaming photographers who were all saying my name, 'Mione'.

Act natural? Act natural! What kind of help was that! Actually it was really easy, considering there can't be anything more natural then me standing there with my mouth open, looking stunned.

Suddenly, because I wanted to impress all these people who thought I was a star, I plastered a fake smile on my face that I had seen so many stars have when cornered in situations like these and waved.

They actually bought it! They all started snapping photos of me pushing a strand of hair behind my ear, waving, blowing kisses, standing with Malfoy.

Finally though we edged our way around them. Malfoy called a porter to get our luggage and he led me to a limo waiting outside.

"That was crazy," I said, settling in the limo. "And very unexpected."

"I didn't plan it, if that's what you're implying," he said.

I tossed my black hair over my shoulder. "Well I wouldn't be so sure, Mr. Malfoy."

He rolled his eyes at me and soon the limo was started up and drove through the busy streets of London, which I had very much missed.

We finally got to the office, but Malfoy didn't get out. I stood at the limo door and poked my head in.

"Aren't you coming?" I asked.

He shook his head. "You can rest for the evening."

"But I thought you had to tell me about my contract and about what's next," I pointed out.

"I will, tomorrow. You've had a busy week so I'll let you rest," he said, sounding not like himself.

Drawing my eyebrows close I said, "Is this a trick?"

He smirked. "No."

I frowned at him. "All right then. See you tomorrow."

I closed the door behind me and walked up to the office and opened the door. It was dark inside so I turned on some lights.

It was good to be back home. Well not exactly home, since this wasn't really my home, but still. It was great to be back to the old.

I went up to my room and dumped my things there. I then opened my things and started putting away all my neat souvenirs I had acquired from my trip.

Soon though, my eyes could barely stay open and I fell asleep after changing into my favourite duck pyjamas. Famous model or no famous model, I still had to have my ducks.

*****************

The next morning, Hermione woke up to as usual London day. It was drizzling and cloudy.

She got dressed casually today. She was kind of tired of dressing so fancy, so she got dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a white t-shirt.

She glanced at the clock as she sat down on her bed. It was eleven. Wow, she had slept in today. It was probably because she was so tired from the past few days.

As Hermione settled down on her bed and looked outside the window, there was a man sitting in an office writing something.

Ronald Weasley looked up when there was a knock on his door.

"Come in," he said.

His good friend Dean came in. "Did you see this?" he said, waving around a copy of the Prophet.

"No. What's it say, mate? Don't tell me Colin tried to invent another flying toilet?" said Ron, chuckling.

Dean shook his head seriously. "Even worse, mate. I got this from Lavender, who got it from Ginny, who got it from Fleur this morning." He brandished it and Ron took a look at it. It couldn't be worse than flying toilets could it?

But obviously it could.

Staring at him on the front page of the paper was his ex girlfriend Hermione Granger, sitting with her new black hair falling from the side and her head resting on her chin. Since it was a moving picture, the Hermione in the Prophet flipped back her hair and winked out to the viewer. She also looked off into the distance and smiled, as if seeing something amazing that was going to happen.

Ron gaped at it and then looked at it again to check the name. Maybe it wasn't Hermione. Maybe it was Hermione Garnger. There were plenty of people out there that had that name. Wasn't there?

But no, the name clearly said 'Mione Granger, ex Auror at the Ministry.

The name was a bit different so Ron wasn't positively convinced, even though it said 'ex Auror' because that girl in the photo couldn't possibly be Hermione.

This girl looked perfect down to the last eyelash. And she was so well put together. Plus her hair was black.

Ron was about the throw it in the rubbish bin, because he didn't believe it was her when he looked closer at the picture. Even though the picture was moving, Ron could tell that those were Hermione's eyes: the eyes that he had been mesmerized by and had gazed deeply into several times.

And now everyone would see those eyes fluttering their lashes, when a few weeks ago Ron thought those eyes were made just for him to gaze into.

Underneath the photo was a short blurb about her.

New model and ex-auror 'Mione Granger is on the cover of several Muggle magazines and even a shoot with Witch Weekly soon. She is said to be a true Londoner that loves to model and go shopping with her friends. Said to be stunning in person and not even at her peak yet, Miss. Granger plans on continuing to model because it's an adventure to her. More on page 6.

Ron stared at the blurb. Loves to model and go shopping? Hermione hated shopping! Not unless it was for books and school supplies. And modeling? Hermione couldn't even walk straight in a pair of heels, never mind model them. She always said that she hated all those models and actresses who thought the world was at their feet and felt them to be superficial and fake.

And this was what she had become?

Ron looked up at Dean to see him frowning. "Tough break mate."

"You said you got this from Fleur?" he asked.

Dean nodded. "I think Gabrielle sent it to her from France. I think she conducted the interview."

Ron nodded and then said, "Dean, cover for me. I'm going to Floo home. I'll be back in a half hour."

After Dean nodded his assent, Ron grabbed some Floo powder from over his fireplace and shouted "The Burrow!"

Within seconds, he was thrust into the den of his home.

"Mum?" he called throughout the house. "Mum!"

His mother came down the stairs with Fleur in tow.

"Have you seen this?" he said, showing it to her.

Mrs. Weasley nodded. "Yes, dear. Fleur showed me."

"But...but..." he stammered.

"I know. She ees such a tramp," said Fleur, shaking her head, her silvery hair fluid in movement.

"Now Fleur, I was just discussing this with you. I think we were too hard on her," said Mrs. Weasley, looking genuinely upset. "We yelled at her and she left the Wizarding World so suddenly. And she really was such a good girl..."

"Mum!" said Ron. "Read this! This is what it says..." And he went on to read the entire article to them.

"'Mione Granger, the head of the Aurors, is now on the cover of every magazine in the country. I, Gabrielle Delacour, got a chance to sit down with this big star to talk with her about her new career.

"'Mione Granger started off as a normal book warmish girl at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, someone who her peers never thought would become a model. 'Mione, why did you become a model? Well I guess because I was tired of this certain image everyone had of me, as a book worm and as someone who always had her nose in books. And I wanted to break free of that image and show them that I'm beautiful. Well you've had quite a beginning, haven't you? You're already on the cover of Vogue and so many other top magazines. Yes, well that was actually an accident that just happened. I wasn't even ready to do it and it just came up. But it really gave me more confidence as a model as well as a person.

"It seems to me as if you're trying to run away from a past of yours? Well I can't deny that. Something did happen in my past that I just want to get away from... and it's part of being this person everyone wants me to be and thinks I am. So what made you quit being an Auror and modeling? Um...I'm not too sure, actually. I was just fed up with people taking advantage of me where I worked, and I wanted a change in scene so I decided to try modeling. What of your love life? *giggles* I don't have one. I've given up on love. Oh come now, don't say that. How come? Well I suppose there was a time I believed in love and happy endings but life got to me and I realised that it isn't true. There's no such thing as true love, at least not in my destiny. Did something happen that caused you to say this? Yes, something did happen that changed my perspective on life forever. A man? Yes a man, I suppose. But he acted more like a little boy most of the time. But that's of no importance to me now. My work is foremost to me. When is your next shoot? On the 15^th for Witch Weekly for the cover. Well thank you Miss. Granger, for that exclusive interview. I am sure we will be seeing more of her as the months go on."

"Wow," said Fleur, after Ron finished. "Zat is amazing. Gabrielle was telling me a lot about her and how she ees changed and more confidante."

"I think you should apologise to her," said Mrs. Weasley. "She sounds really hurt in the article."

Ron nodded. He had to admit, she did. "All right Mum. Today's the fifteenth. I know where the Witch Weekly office is and I'll go there while she's shooting today."

"Good," she said and then went off with Fleur to make sure the bread hadn't burned and Ron went back to his office.

At that time, Hermione was getting ready for her shoot by picking out what to wear.

Draco had just come in to tell her to get ready for her shoot, because she would need to be there at least two hours prior the shoot. When he came in, Hermione saw that his hair was back to blonde. It actually looked much better and she liked it better too.

At four that afternoon, Ron made his way to the Witch Weekly office with a bunch of roses in his arms. He had dressed up a bit for her, hoping to make it up to her.

When he entered the main studio, he could see that the shoot was already in progress. In front of him was a small crowd of people watching.

Sitting on a park bench with a screen background behind her, with an umbrella in one hand, sat a beautiful girl with pitch-black hair that hung straight and shiny down her back. She wore a pretty white lace tank top with a lace black skirt that went past her knees. Hermione Granger sat posing and smiling.

Ron couldn't believe his eyes. He didn't believe it for one second that this was his book loving, simple and casual Hermione. This girl was so beautiful and confident that she could never be Hermione.

"Move to the left, 'Mione," spoke up someone from the crew.

Hermione moved to the desired spot and continued posing.

Ron moved forward, as if in a trance, towards her.

"Hey!" shouted someone from behind. "Stop!"

But Ron didn't stop until he was in the front of the crowd. Hermione had stopped shooting and stood rooted to the spot, as if she was scary of him coming any closer.

She looked so pretty and feminine, with her eyes widened. She tucked a piece of hair behind her hair.

"Hey, stop it!" said a man. "Can't you see we're shooting here?"

Ron shrugged. "Sorry, but I need to speak to her."

"Not now you don't," said the guy. "Now get back."

"Please," begged Ron, coming closer to Hermione. "I need to talk to you."

Hermione got up, looking frightened. A man came up to stand beside Hermione, Draco Malfoy.

"What's going on here?" he demanded.

"Nothing, Draco," said Hermione, her eyes shifting frantically from Ron to Draco.

"We're shooting," said Draco gruffly, showing no sign of recognition to Ron. "Talk to her after."

A couple of beefy looking guys came up to Ron, but Ron said, "Fine, fine." And he backed away, to stand at the back of the crowd.

"What's he doing here?" Draco asked.

Hermione shrugged, as several makeup people surrounded her touching up her lips and hair. "I don't know."

Draco stood there for another second, making sure that he really had disappeared, before he nodded at her and then sat down at the side while Hermione continued her shoot.

But her concentration was gone now. All she could think about was Ron standing in the back, watching her.

She knew he would eventually see her pictures and stuff, but that it had happened so quickly, she hadn't imagined.

But then again the interview had been with Gabrielle, Ron's sister in law's sister.

She knew Fleur was bound to open her big mouth soon.

When she finished her shoot, she stepped into her dressing room and sat down in her special chair in front of her mirror.

Hermione started to brush her hair. Because it was so long, it was hard to take care of when there were a million fans around her blowing it for effect. It often became tangled.

As she slowly brushed her black hair, she heard a knock on the door. Thinking it was Malfoy, she said, "Enter," while continuing to brush her hair.

Ron entered, wearing a white dress shirt with thin black stripes going vertically and a bunch of roses in his hand.

"Hermione?" came his voice. He stood right behind her, so that Hermione could just look at the mirror and really be looking at him.

She didn't say anything, except stared back at him.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"What does it look like I'm doing, Ronald?" said Hermione, who was brushing her hair. "Go away."

"Why?" he said.

Hermione actually had to turn around to look at him. "Why? You're asking me why? You don't know why?"

He shrugged. "I know you're angry, but I still..."

"Angry?" she laughed. "Ron, I was angry when you skived off your lessons in Potions. I was angry when you took my Arithmancy homework for fun. I was mad when you tried to rape me. But now, I never want to see your face again." There was such anger coursing inside of her now that she could hardly control it.

"Look, Hermione. I'm sorry. Maybe I was drunk then, I don't remember. But let me make it up to you. Please," he said.

"Leave me alone!" she said. "Get out, before I have you thrown out."

"Before you have me thrown out?" he said. "Look what you've become. You used to say sorry and please, but now you're going to use your status against me? Look at you! You've changed."

"Get out!" screamed Hermione. "Leave me alone."

Malfoy entered then. "What's going on?"

"Tell him to leave before I kill him," said Hermione.

"Weasley, out now," said Malfoy.

Ron took one look at Malfoy and Hermione and nodded his head. "That's what you've become now, Hermione. But wait..."

"Go away!" she screamed. "Leave me be!"

Malfoy grabbed Ron's arm and pushed him out, but not before Ron screamed, "I'll be back, Hermione! You don't know what you've become!"

Then the door slammed shut, as two beefy looking guys took hold of Ron and Malfoy slammed the door shut.

Hermione was sitting on the chair, with her beautiful hair spread around her, as she shook from crying, her face engulfed in her arms.

Draco muttered a few swear words at Ron as the door closed, but when he turned around to see Granger he saw that she was crying.

"What's wrong?" he asked her.

She wiped her tears and Draco could see in the mirror that her eyes were bloodshot. "Nothing."

"I'll make sure he never comes again," said Draco. "Interference. What was he saying?"

Hermione stood up and fixed herself up. "Nothing."

Draco took a good look at her and knew he must have shaken up some big things inside of her, because she was still crying a bit and refused to meet his eyes. She was staring at the floor.

He decided not to press the issue.

"Well, I guess it's time that I told you about the real reason I employed you. But first, here's your cheque," he said, handing it over to her. "You passed your test."

Hermione wiped her eyes and took the cheque from him so that their fingers touched. Her eyes widened when she saw the figure. It was so large that she could buy herself a nice flat with it, along with furniture and appliances.

"But I've only worked for two weeks?" she said. "Is this a bonus?"

He shook his head. "No. Some of the companies you worked for though had nice pay rates. So the longer you stayed there, you more you got aid. The Vogue especially helped."

"Oh." She put the cheque in her pocket. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me. You deserve it."

She nodded, waiting for him to go on.

He led her to the couch and coffee table off to the side. 'Sit down," Draco said.

She sat down at the edge of the sofa. "Go on."

"I hired you because I'm an undercover Auror working with the Ministry," he said, looking at his hands. "And there are still some very powerful Death Eaters out there that it is my responsibility to catch. But like all other criminals, they seem to live off wealth and glamour. So many of them hide behind the shadows of the movie stars and models. So I received this assignment to find the last of them.

"But I had to have a key model that I could launch into the glamorous world so that I could hover behind her to watch. But I wanted someone different and new, so when I saw you that one day in the bar, I thought you'd be perfect. Because the model had to play a key part in the assignment and know magic. But they had to be efficient and have a secure place in the media. So I gave you a two week trial period to see how you fared and you did good."

"So you were just using me for those two weeks?" she asked, her eyebrows up.

"No," he said. "I was testing you. If my superiors thought you could handle the job then you were hired."

"So I guess you were lucky that my life had just ended so that you could use me in whatever way you needed," she stated, not really asking.

Draco didn't say anything; he just looked at her.

"What now?" she asked.

He took out a thick wad of paper. "This is a sixth month contract. Read it carefully, there are a lot of conditions that you must comply with it."

Hermione took the contract from him. "So do I help you with your assignments?"

He shook his head. "No. Your task will only be to get me to the party's and such, and when you're such a big model it won't be a big deal. But it actually might help you being an ex-Auror.

"This is a lot of reading," she commented, flipping through the various pages.

"That never stopped you before," he said, smirking.

Hermione looked up and half smiled.

"Let me know by the weekend, all right?" he said, standing up.

She nodded, also standing up.

"Well I have some things to do with the Ministry this weekend, so take your time reading it over. I haven't scheduled any shoots for you, so you can just stay at the office. I'll see you on Monday," he said in a business like manner, and then stepped out.

Hermione sighed and got up. She slipped the contract into her purse and then walked out the front door and began her long walk home.