Chapter 37

Shortly before nine o'clock, Draco called the applicants back inside and finally announced the results.

"First, the bookkeepers; we want to hire two for the beginning. The two with the best test results are Steve and Bonecarver. Do you accept these job offers?"

The vampire and one of the goblins came up to the interviewer's table and acknowledged their appointment.

Steve smiled happily, and Bonecarver smiled smugly.

"Good. Take these two magical mirrors, they are for you. We will contact you concerning the signing of the employment contract and your first day of work. Please remember to register with the Magic Mirror Network so that we can contact you directly. Now that you have your appointments, you can go home if you want. We will see you soon."

Draco planned to let Andromeda and Ted formulate the employment contract in the next few days, since they already had some experience with such things from their consulting business, and Draco didn't think it was such a good idea to always rely on Gringotts for everything like that, like most wizards do.

Not only were Gringotts' services overpriced, they also had no problem selling out your information to other wizards if the money was right.

Steve wrapped himself up tightly again to protect himself from the rays of the setting sun before he left the tower with a spring in his step.

Bonecarver stayed to wait for his fellow goblin.

"Next up are the positions in the enchanting team..."

Draco would have liked to hire an even ten enchanters straight away because their workload would only become more and more in the future, but sadly there weren't enough qualified applicants, so he could only hire the four that met his requirements for now.

Unsurprisingly, the second goblin, Goldhoarder, was one of them.

Additionally, there was the portly middle-aged wizard who could do both wand enchanting and rune enchanting.

One of the last two was another wizard who had done best with only wand enchanting.

And the fourth one was the young werewolf, who, even though he didn't know any runic language, could copy rune carvings excellently.

Those who weren't chosen were understandably disappointed.

Penelope lowered her head in frustration, but she comforted herself with the assumption that they would at least offer her one of the other positions.

Petia was very surprised, too.

Not getting whatever she wanted had happened only very rarely in her long life, almost never.

The enchanting skills of these two were only middling, just like Lupin's.

Regretfully, it wasn't enough to meet Draco's requirements for the enchanting positions.

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"The offer for the sales clerk positions goes to Masha Bell, Rodrick Stone, ..., ..."

Next to the bubbly werewolf girl, Draco hired two wizards and two witches as sales clerks.

Penelope was shocked, she thought she had done pretty well in the sales test, at least better than half of those that had been hired.

Either she would get the manager's assistant position or they were deliberately excluding her and didn't want to give her a job at all.

"For the manager's assistant, we decided on Julia Figg."

When Draco announced her name, Julia rejoiced loudly.

Then she noticed everyone staring at her.

She lowered her head in embarrassment and shuffled to the front to receive her magic mirror, still smiling happily all the way.

Penelope was devastated that she hadn't been chosen.

She already wanted to cry 'blood discrimination' but then she looked at the other applicants, especially Julia, and knew she was being completely absurd out of disappointment.

Petia couldn't believe that she didn't get hired either.

Was she losing her charm, or did those two witches behind the interviewer's table veto her appointment?

Petia went up to find out.

Maybe she could even turn up her charm for one last time and still convince one of the two male interviewers to get her in.

The pretty boy in the center position, Draco Malfoy, was definitely not averse to her.

She had noticed him appreciating her figure multiple times during the day.

Even if single men, especially teenage boys, were usually much more enchanted by her, his appreciation should be enough to make him think about it again.

Maybe...

Hopefully...

Normally, she was thrilled when men were immune to her veela allure and didn't immediately fall into a stupor when they saw her, it made everything more exciting if she knew the men were strong enough to resist her, but in this situation, she wouldn't have minded the glazed eyes and a little drooling if that meant she would get the job.

And having influence over the boss was never a bad thing.

As she neared the interviewer's table, Petia met Draco's eyes.

He gave her a teasing grin that made her stop in her tracks.

"There are still two positions I have to offer. According to your skill set, I decided to create two new positions, namely the special assistants. These special assistants aren't a permanent part of any department or team, they will help out wherever they are needed. Penelope Clearwater, Petia Monova, your tests have shown that you have talent in sales and management, and your enchanting skills aren't too bad either. That's why I want to hire you as special assistants. Do you accept?" Draco's teasing grin turned into a genuine smile when he saw how happy Penelope was, excitedly running up to him to collect her magic mirror.

Petia didn't forget her poise and just smiled in satisfaction.

But she was really happy, too.

"Now that this is sorted out, I want to thank you again for your interest and participation. Please don't lose hope if you didn't get hired today. This business will only grow bigger, and I also plan to expand into other fields at some point. That means I will recruit personnel again in the not-too-distant future. I would like to warmly invite you all to apply again at that time. Those of you who still want to try out for the security personnel positions, please remain behind. I wish everyone else a pleasant evening and all the best. Get home safe."

Draco turned to his co-interviewers and lowered his voice to a normal conversational tone. "You can also go home now. Thank you very much for your help today."

Narcissa let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. I'm actually quite exhausted by now."

"See, I told you, you can't handle an entire work day." Andromeda couldn't help but mock her little sister again.

"Didn't I just prove that I can?" Narcissa asked back, irritated.

"Unlike you, I'm not so exhausted that I can't stay any longer. I'm not as feeble as you, little princess. That's what you get for never working a day in your spoiled life." Andromeda teased.

"Stop boasting of your poverty, you working mule." Narcissa countered tiredly.

Before their sister quarrel could go any further, Ted spoke up. "We can really still stay and help you, Draco. Then you don't have to do the rest alone."

"Thanks, Uncle Ted, but it's no problem. I can handle it. And Kreacher is still here as well."

Listening to Draco's words, Kreacher puffed out his chest: "Don't worry, Mudblood Master, Kreacher will take good care of the great Master Lord Black."

"Kreacher!" Andromeda admonished sharply.

Ted just chuckled. "It's an improvement, honey. Instead of calling me your 'pet mudblood', now I have already risen to the title of 'Master Mudblood'."