It had been over two months now since Draco had let her start working at Desiderium, and she knew that she was still at work probably more than she should be. There were more than a few occasions when she had considered copying Draco’s idea and getting a cot for her office too, so that she’d have somewhere to sleep if it got too late into the night. But she couldn’t warrant the purchase, so she’d decided against it. If she really needed to sleep, she could just steal Draco’s cot after he left for the night. That, in her mind, was the ideal solution to the problem.

She knew that she would be in for an earful if he ever realized that she did that, because self-care and all that, but she felt far better here working than she did at home dreading the next morning. Even though having a real job to seek refuge at every night helped, it didn’t change what her main occupation was. It didn’t change the fact that she was still a Muggleborn in a world where the registration was very much in affect. She might be lucky enough to have a home to go back to, to have a wand that was hers, to have work that was hers and to not have been impacted by the epidemic—and she knew that, but she was still a servant. She still spent her days cleaning up after purebloods and dodging purists when she was out in public. Nora knew very well what could happen if she went out without minding her surroundings.

But tonight, she didn’t have to worry about that. Being out and about was not her primary concern. It was Draco’s birthday the next day and she knew that he likely had plans with either his family or his girlfriend, so she had decided to give him his present tonight instead. It was just a gift basket of bits and bobs that she’d put together, of things that she’d thought he would like. She had known that she could get too excessive or he’d nag her about spending too much money—but really, it was only the scotch and the first edition that put her out any significant amount of money. But The Count of Monte Cristo was one of her favorite books, so that had not been up for debate. It had to go in there.

She had figured he had plans tonight too, but they had ended up opening the scotch and pouring them into the mugs that she had bought. Nora had snagged the funnier one for herself, and they had migrated down to the pool table. “Are we placing bets on this game, birthday boy?” She asked, raising her eyebrows at him as she took a sip from his her new mug.

outfit | Draco Malfoy | 474

It was getting close to his birthday. The clock would chime over to midnight in a few hours. But celebrations had already started for him. Draco had been given a plethora of gifts by Honora. She had done far too much. Even just the scotch by itself would have been too much, but she did so much more than that. He was going to treasure the first edition for his library--a novel he knew to be one of her favorites. He liked that he would have it in his collection now. It was truly a beautiful piece of literature.

So much of what she had given him was really thoughtful. The kit to build the amati golden yacht in a bottle was just the right touch of sentimental. As were the the Imperial Stout. There was so much that she had given them that made him think of their past, especially the cork map and the India Travel guide. India was supposed to be their honeymoon. Neither of them had ever been. He still hadn't gone. He wondered if she did...if she had gone on their honeymoon while he was essentially imprisoned in Durant's work camp. She probably thought he deserved that. 

She probably still thought he did... for what she believed that he had done to her. Really it was amazing that she would talk to him at all anymore thinking what she had to think about him. Every time he thought about that--about her thinking that he had cheated on her with Astoria, he got the worst feeling in his gut. He really needed to tell her the truth. But what good would that do now? She would probably get mad at him all over again--since he pretty much forced her hand back in the day. She would call him a hypocrite for risking his safety and business for her now, when he would not even entertain the possibility of her doing the same for him back then. 

He didn't want to think about that anymore. He focused on his birthday--and on the silly gifts Nora had given him. The joke book was super corny, but he'd have fun dropping them into conversation with her...and the mugs were awesome. They were gifts that he was really happy for. The one he was drinking out of was the best. Nora's had a long quote on it about how engineers liked to argue, but his was even better. 

Plus, it worked out perfectly for them to use the mugs for the twenty five year Glenlivet Single Malt she had bought. He intended for the two of them to put a decent dent into the bottle tonight. It made him feel less bad for her to have spent so much on him to share the liquor with her. They had left most of the gifts up in his office when they migrated down to the pool table, everything save the Glenlivet and mugs was on his desk.

Honora decided she was going to challenge him as he was racking the balls. Her question was met with the trademark Malfoy arrogant smirk. An expressive eyebrow arched as he countered with a question of his own: "Do you have something that you are trying to lose?" A chuckle rumbled up from his chest as the question hung in the air. He was really good a billiards. He knew Nora was no joke herself, but surely she was a little bit out of practice. He totally had this game. And the next. And the next.

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She’d had to do something for Draco’s birthday. There was just no way for her to let the day go by without getting him something. It was never something that she had thought that she would need to do again, but she’d had a good time picking out the presents. There had been a time in her life when she considered herself pretty much an expert at buying presents that he would like—or coming up with presents that he’d enjoy in case they were not actually material presents. Those types of presents were obviously off the table this year, but that was fine. She’d had just as much fun coming up with real presents to buy him.

Nora thought that she was going to have a harder time getting him to actually accept the presents. It wasn’t as if she had gone too overboard. Most of the items in the little gift basket that she’d put together had not put her out at all. A joke book, coffee mugs, a travel guide for India. There had really only been two big ticket items, and she didn’t think that was too much at all. She had plenty of money squirreled away in banks, and more still since Draco insisted on paying her for the work she was doing at Lucent. She didn’t really think that she needed the money. He was giving her real work to do. Honestly, she should be paying him for that.

But that was not an argument for tonight. She had just figured that she would give him the present and go home for the night. Nora had also known there was a chance that she’d miss him entirely and he’d have gone home early for pre-birthday festivities. In that case, she just would have left the gift in his office—and probably hide some more money in his drawers to continue to help pay for her wand.

He had been here, though, and they had decided to open the bottle of scotch and go down to the lounge. If there were other people in the building, they were in their respective offices and labs, so the room was thankfully unoccupied. All the better for Draco, that he didn’t have an audience when she bested him in pool over and over again.

In all actuality, despite her bravado, she hadn’t played a game of pool since well before the registration had put her on the run. She was definitely rusty. Really, she was just going to rely on the fact that she had been good once, and that it would be just like riding a bicycle. It wasn’t as if she was going to be bad all of a sudden. It just might take some warming up first. Was that going to stop her from places little bets on the games? Of course not. It was all in good fun. Adding some stakes to it would just make it more fun. And there was still a chance that he was rusty too. Or that she could come up with some ways to throw him off his game.

“Only my dignity, as always,” she teased, before pursing her lips as she tried to come up with something sufficiently embarrassing. “The loser has to…” A couple of half-decent options came to mind, but suddenly she was not as sure where the line should be drawn.

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Draco liked having Honora around Desiderium. It sucked that it was only part time, but even with her spending her days at the Parkinson Manor, they were making great progress on getting the Engineering Division established. This very evening, in fact, the offer for employment had been accepted by a talented young electrical engineer. Loads of equipment had already been ordered and the staffing was coming along nicely. Nora was doing her own work, too, of course, there. It was great to see her with a soldering iron in hand. That was such a natural state for her. It felt good being part of getting her back to that. Even it was just some of the time.

A plan had hatched in his mind a few days ago. He wasn't sure if he could make it happen. He wasn't even sure if the Ministry was doing reassignments anymore, but if he could get her reassigned as his maid, then Honora could just work here all day, every day. But maybe that was too risky. He just hated the way things were for her now. It might draw the wrong kind of attention on them both, though, if he went and made that request. Especially with their history. The whole world knew they had been engaged. It had been a very public thing, with a big formal announcement in the papers.

Maybe the ICW would just come through. They had to be here for more than just the Epidemic. They had brought a full team. Politicians and researchers alike--he wanted to offer up Desiderium facilities to the latter, but did not know exactly how to go about that. They were not exactly a medical facility. Sure, there was pharmaceutical work here, but that wasn't exactly the same. Maybe when a cure was found, he could offer to facilitate the mass production. It was an idea.

He wondered if it was selfishly motivated... If they were brewing the cure here, they could have access to it themselves. Then again, maybe it would not even be potion based. Maybe it would be rooted in muggle medicine. It was pointless to worry or think on it now. It was his birthday. Or nearly so. It would be his birthday when midnight rolled around.

Draco sipped his scotch and watched as Honora racked the billiard balls. He wondered how long it had been since she had played a game. They used to play a lot-- and he still did. That was why this pool table was here. If a problem stumped him, or he was mulling things over, he would come down here and run the table alone. Even though he was considering the maths of the pool shots, his brain would still be turning over whatever complex problem he had been working on and he'd usually work through it.

He had to laugh when she made mention of her dignity. "Good that you still remember that I am better at this than you," he teased--or maybe flirted. It was hard to really tell honestly. Draco liked to think he was better at billiards, but really back in their day they had both been equally likely to lose or win. It had been split about fifty-fifty. His ego made his memory of it a bit more lopsided in his favor. 

In a very Black-esque manner, the wizard's brow quirked up expressively as the woman started to make a suggestion for the wager. Draco was not sure what to bet. Honestly anytime he had played pool with a woman in the past, he was making wagers like every shot was an article of clothing... or loser was going down on the other one. He intentionally lost a few of those games. It still felt like winning. 

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Even though a part of her had known that there was risk involved in doing something for Draco’s birthday, she hadn’t been able to imagine doing nothing. It was just not an option in her book. She hadn’t necessarily planned on doing a whole gift basket. In fact, she had figured that she would just get him one thing. Something small. And then the entire thing had just sort of escalated. She had kept finding things that she wanted to get him and, all of a sudden, it became a basket of goods. There were the gag gifts that were completely innocent—like the joke book and the coffee mugs, and then there were the gifts that were definitely not entirely innocent—a first edition of one of her favorite books, the ship-in-a-bottle, the travel guide for India. Those were definitely not completely innocent gifts.

She rationalized the first edition by telling herself there was at least a chance that he didn’t remember the books was one of her favorites. Sure, a first edition in and of itself was a bit extravagant of a present for an ex, but it could be passed off as a gift to someone who liked reading, assuming that he didn’t remember how much she loved the book. Which he hopefully wouldn’t. The ship-in-a-bottle too, could be written off as innocent if she really wanted it to be. A joke that he needed to stop working for a little bit and do something to get his mind off of all of that work. But deep down, she still knew they weren’t exactly innocent presents.

There were gifts that she had left out too. Gifts that she had gotten and, in the end, had decided to take out in order to make the gift basket a little less… well, a little less. The I Dream of Jeannie DVDs were still on her kitchen counter, as were the baked goods that her mum had made to give to him. Telling her that she was working for him had not been the best idea. Her mum had a gift for birthdays, so it was of little surprise that she’d remembered that his was coming up and had promptly sent over dozens of Draco’s favorites for her to give to him. Honestly, she was lucky that her mum hadn’t sent them to him herself. If she didn’t receive a thank you note, there was a good chance that she’d get suspicious and do just that. Nora thought it might be worth forging one to just to alleviate that risk.

But that was a problem for another time. Her current predicament was on pool, and the fact that it had been way too long since she had last played a game. She did not like to lose—but she was decently rusty. She had seen the pool tables down here but she had not taken a break from working while here since she had started, so she hadn’t had a chance to play. “The ego on you, I swear,” she retorted, shaking her head. In all actuality, she thought that he was better at pool than her. She had always just been better at using her wiles to her advantage. She was by no means bad—definitely good. But when she had beaten him in the past, there had been certain distraction techniques that had been used.

Another problem was figuring out a mildly appropriate bet. She thought that body shots weren’t completely inappropriate—she had taken nonsexual body shots, definitely. But it was still probably frowned upon. After a few moments of contemplation, a completely innocent bet came to mind. “No, even better. Winner has the power to tell the loser that they have to take a day off of work. A complete day. No warning.” He was as much of a workaholic as she was, so she thought it was a great bet. “Within reason,” she added. He had a lot of jobs—she couldn’t pick a day when he had specific obligations. That seemed fair. And she would likely still have to work at the Parkinsons whatever day he picked, unless he planned on writing to Lord Parkinson to make it a complete day off—but that wasn’t much of a punishment.

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