Chapter 05
They spent the rest of their train ride in comfortable silence after talking a little more about this and that. Harry found that Draco was, in fact, working for a big finance company, even if he hadn’t fully understood what exactly the blond was doing; just that it was his father’s company. Harry told the other about his actual job, which Draco seemed to find impressive and Harry smiled at the compliment, because he really didn’t think that it was that much of an impressive job after all.
Harry arrived at his office in a good mood, smiling and humming to himself. Luna was already there, raising her eyebrow as he entered.
“What happened? You don’t get to come in here, smiling and looking all giddy without telling me, so don’t even try. I know something is up, you’re not a morning person. You sometimes don’t even talk to me and Nev before lunch,” she demanded, walking over to their little counter where they had a kettle and a coffee machine. She grabbed a mug for Harry and made him tea while he got settled at his desk, laughing at her.
“I may or may not have talked to the blond man on the train this morning,” he replied, accepting the mug with a soft smile as she handed it to him. Harry was glad to have reached for it already, because Luna looked at him in shook as he told her and Harry had been slightly afraid that she might drop the mug on his desk.
“You didn’t!” Luna exclaimed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and moving to half sit and half lean against his desk.
“Tell more,” she added then and Harry chuckled before he went on to tell her about his conversation with Draco. She kept asking questions to dig deeper and eventually Harry shooed her off his desk.
“Enough, enough. We have work to get done,” Harry laughed, because he really had given her all the details and yet Luna kept asking questions.
“You didn’t get his phone number,” she stated, giving him a judgemental look and Harry shook his head. No, he hadn’t been smart, or brave, enough to ask for that, because he wasn’t sure if it was appropriate. After all they just had a friendly conversation. Just because Harry had been having a crush for a while now didn’t mean that the other man had a crush on him as well.
“I’ll ask him if I ever talk to him again,” he promised Luna and she muttered something under her breath that sounded a lot like ‘coward’, before moving away to her own work space.
Harry was truly worried as he entered the train the next day. He looked around for Draco, but he couldn’t see him anymore, not in his usual spot and not on any other spot around. He frowned and sat down. He really wasn’t in a place to be worried, but he still couldn’t help but wonder why the blond wasn’t on the train. Harry was aware that there were about a million reasons to why he wasn’t on the train and he really shouldn’t be thinking too much about it and yet Harry caught himself being upset about not seeing him. It was a part of his morning routine and it felt like there was missing something on this morning.
During his lunch break, Harry went to visit one of his coworkers. He had meet Dean in his final year at college through a mutual friend and they had just recently figured out that they were now working for the same newspaper, with Dean writing for the financial part of it that was published mostly online. It was odd, how big London was and yet Harry seemed to stumble over the same people over and over again.
“Hey, Drean! Care to get out of here for lunch?” Harry asked, knowing on the door frame of the open office door. It was single working space and while it looked a lot nicer than Harry’s office that he shared with the other two, he was glad to have his cozy space that he could share with someone, instead of the clean look that this office had.
“Harry! Haven’t seen you in a while. Lunch sounds amazing but I’m afraid I have to get this done before the markets are closing and I’m on a bit of a time crunch. I think my lunch is going to be a cup of coffee today. You’re welcome to join for a couple of minutes though,” Dean pointed at the chair across from his desk and Harry happily took a seat while Dean went to make them coffee.
“What brings you here?” Dean asked, because even though he and Harry were on a friendly term, he could tell that Harry didn’t show up just to say hello and Harry was aware that Dean knew, so he grinned sheepishly.
“I have a question,” Harry started, fidgeting with the hem of the jumper he was wearing and Dean chuckled.
“What question could you possibly have that it brings you to me?” He joked and set down a mug in front of Harry before taking his seat again. Harry looked around, admiring the view on the London skyline that Dean had from here, would he bother to turn around and not sit with his back to the window.
“You did your major in finances, right? I know that you are well educated about the London finance and law and real estate businesses so I was wondering if you could tell me more about one in particular,” Harry continued and Dean nodded slowly as if to say ‘go on’.
“I recently came in contact with someone called Draco Malfoy and I know that I have heard of the name before but I cant quite place my finger on it but I know they are involved in this kind of business so I thought you might be able to tell me more about them?” It truly was a ridiculous question but after Draco not showing up that morning on the train, Harry couldn’t stop thinking about him. The thoughts had haunted him all day and he was hoping that if he would gather a bit more information, he might be able to put the thoughts to rest for at least until the end of his work day.
“Malfoy? I wonder where you met Draco Malfoy to be honest. Not that it is my business,” Dean said and wrapped his fingers around the warm mug.
“You can see their office building from here, actually,” he turned around in his chair and pointed over to one of the taller buildings close by and Harry nodded.
“It’s a family with a lot of tradition. Deeply rooted in the London society, have been doing what they are doing since forever. Its wealth that is passed down from generation to generation, they own quite a bit of property all across England. I’m not too educated what else they make their money with but they also have ties into politics,” Dean paused for a moment and blew on his coffee, “I do know that they have made investments into all kind of different directions though.” Harry nodded once Dean was finished and looked at his mug for a moment. He had been sure that Draco was from a wealthy background with how he spoke and dressed and carried himself, effortlessly elegant, something he hadn’t learnt but something he had been growing up with, born with. It felt funny to know that someone like him would take an ordinary train to work and that he wouldn’t live in the city. Harry always had imagined people like this to live in the city, somewhere in a penthouse, with huge windows and empty rooms because they were too spacious to be actually filled. Clearly he was wrong this time.
“Well, thank you,” Harry smiled at Dean and the other man nodded, chuckling.
“Are you going to tell me where you happen to stumble across Draco Malfoy or do I have to wait for a later point in life to find that out?” He asked and Harry rubbed his neck with a shy grin. There was no harm in telling Dean, he knew that, but he felt silly.
“We share the same train every morning and recently we started to talk and I was just curious about him. It felt like quite an invading question to ask him that so I thought I come and visit you to see what you know about him and his family,” explained and it had Dean laughing.
“The only thing I know about him is that he finished college early, with a very good degree and he is going to be the new face of the Malfoy company within the next years. He has a brilliant understanding of the market, of trends and what is worth investing in. Sure, he is the son of a successful businessman but he is very smart himself and he will bring the business to a whole new level, if you’d ask me,” Dean sounded like he was almost admiring Draco and Harry felt like that said a lot, because usually Dean’s opinion about people like Draco were not that high. He liked to complain about those tossing around money that they hadn’t earnt themselves, toying around with companies and risking jobs and billions of pounds in the process. Clearly Draco knew that he was doing.
They kept taking for a while about their privates lives and what they had been up to until Dean had to go back to what he was working on and Harry once again was glad that his own schedule was strict but not near as tight as Dean’s. He left and went back to his own office, wondering if Draco would be on the train the next morning. Now that he knew even more about him, it was harder to stop thinking about him and Harry mentally cursed himself that he had truly thought finding out more would help to push Draco out of his thoughts.