This fic is for Round 3 of The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition.
Promts for Round 3:
1. OTP having a work problem
2. St. Mungos (setting)
3. Flashback
Hope you enjoy :)
It was a pretty normal day at St. Mungo's Hospital. Hermione was doing her usual rounds when she heard her name being called.
"Hermione! Hermione, wait up!" yelled a fellow Healer as she ran after Hermione.
"Oh hi Jenny. What's going on?" she asked when she saw the distraught look on Jenny's face.
"It's Draco."
Hermione knitted her eyebrows and frowned, "Did it happen again?"
Jenny just nodded, "Where is he this time?"
"Last time I saw him, he was storming out the lobby doors. I tried to stop him, but he wouldn't stop. I'm sorry." Jenny looked down towards the floor.
"Jenny, it is not your fault that this happened. Can you go check on Mr. Miller in room 3051 for me?"
"Of course, Hermione." Jenny said as she scurried off to check up on Mr. Miller.
Hermione went to her office and set her things down. She approached the front desk, told them she was taking an early lunch and asked them if they had seen which way Draco ran. She walked out the front doors and turned left towards the townhouse she shared with Draco.
As she arrived, she was greeted with a loud crash. Heart racing, she bounded up the front stairs and yanked the front door open. What she saw didn't surprise her but she wasn't prepared for the extent of it. There we plates, bowls, and glasses smashed all over the floor. She walked into the kitchen and saw Draco opening cabinets looking for anything else to throw against the wall and floor.
"I think you have broken everything this time, Draco. I believe, well would you look at that, it is a new record time." Hermione said as she leaned on the kitchen island.
Draco turned at looked at her. "Ha ha, very funny, Granger." He said as he stomped past her toward the living room.
Hermione rolled her eyes and followed him, "Seriously, Draco, we've been married for the last six months. I'm no longer a Granger and you know it."
"You know that you will always be Granger to me whether your last name is Malfoy or not." He slumped down on their couch and slung his arm over his face.
Hermione glanced at her husband. He looked so defeated, more so than all of the other times that this has happened. She walked over and sat on the couch next to him, resting her hand on his leg. "Tell me what happened, Draco?"
He let out a huge sigh.
"It's the same thing every time Hermione. It's five years since the war. Why can't people just let it go?"
"I don't know, Draco. It blows my mind that even five years later, people are still treating you the way they are. You were found not guilty. But I guess some people don't change their frame of mind at easily as others."
"You did. You changed, Hermione. I thought you would never forgive me for what I did to you all through school. I was horrible to you and I'm still shocked that you changed your mind about me. If you can, why can't others"
He looked like he was about to burst and scream.
Hermione held Draco in her arms as he started to shake angrily. Hermione's mind then thought back o the first time this happened.
"So first I want to thank all of you for choosing to make a difference in people's lives and save some lives. St. Mungo's is always looking for smart and willing individuals who are ready to help the ones who are in dire need of that help. So thank you all…" Healer Jones was cut off by the door in the back of the room opening, "Ah, Mr. Malfoy, thank you for finally gracing us with your presence. It would be great if you could be on time from now on."
"Yes sir. I apologize for my lateness. It won't happen again, you have my word." He then took a seat at the back of the classroom.
Hermione Granger, who was sitting in the front of the classroom, noticed Draco when he came in. The expression on is face when the Doctor called him out had actually looked like he was being sincere. She turned back to the front of the room when Draco had sat down. She then did something she never did when in a classroom, she let her mind wander. The last time she had seen Draco was at his trial. He had been on trial for the events that had happened during the war. He was proven not guilty and he, along with his mother, was set free. Ever since then the mother and son duo had been ridiculed and shamed by the entire Wizarding World. So much that Narcissa had taken her son and moved to the Malfoy's private island off the coast of Spain. To say Hermione was surprised to see Draco Malfoy back in Britain was an understatement.
She then let herself focus back on Healer Jones. "You will now be able to choose your partners. These partners will be with you till you pass the exam after the two years of training you will be participating in so you all can finally become nurses or doctors or surgeons; whatever you decided to peruse. So go on now, choose your partners."
Hermione looked around the room and her eyes drifted to the back of the room, to Draco Malfoy. He was looking around at the other classmates and trying to find someone who would want to be his partner. He got up and walked over a young female and asked if she would want to be his partner. Her response was downright cruel, "Why would I want to be paired with a Death Eater? You really think anyone here is going to want to be partners with you. You put over half of the people in the hospital in here. You are responsible for all of the people that are lying in beds dying. I don't even know why you showed your face here. You should have stayed with your Death Eater mother, far away from here." with that, she walked off.
The look on Draco's face was one that Hermione had never seen before. He looked so beaten down and if anyone else came at him like the other girl did, he would lose it. Hermione made her decision then. She got up and walked toward the blond boy. Ignoring all the people asking if she would be their partner, she walked up to Draco and tapped him on the shoulder.
He turned around, "What do you want, Granger?"
"I was just wondering if you had a partner yet. I don't and I think we would make great partners. I mean we were the top two students at Hogwarts."
He looked astounded, "Excuse me? Why would you ever want to be partners with me? For one, I made your whole school life horrible and two, I was on the opposing side on the war. I fought on the same side as Voldemort! Why would you even consider being partners with me, Granger?"
Hermione looked at him and sincerely said, "I live by the philosophy that you should forgive and forget. I forgave you a long time ago for how you treated me at Hogwarts. As for the war, you were proved not guilty. I am also a person who believes in giving people second chances, and I believe that you have proven that you deserve one. Although, if you do prove me wrong, I will hex you. So what do you say, Malfoy, partners?"
Draco stared at her like she grew three heads, "Are you serious?" Hermione just nodded and held out her hand for him to shake. He looked from her eyes to her hand and back up to her eyes. He slowly raised his hand and took hers to shake.
From then on they grew to be great friends. And that friendship eventually grew into a relationship. They moved in together after he proposed and well, then they got married.
This event happened more often than Hermione or Draco wanted. Draco had worked extremely hard and in just five years had become a Healer in the children's ward at St. Mungos. Hermione was also working in the children's ward as the Head Mediwitch.
Every so often a family would come in with a child that needed treatment and once then found out that Draco was going to be performing the surgery, they said they didn't want a Death Eater tending to their child. They didn't want him to perform any dark spells or harm their child in any way. In the years since Draco and Hermione became partners, Draco still couldn't just shake the words these people said and move past it.
"Hey, Draco, look at me." Hermione said, "I know this is hard, but these people are stuck in the past and can't get out. They don't know the great man you have become. I am so happy to be married to such a great man; a man who has righted all his wrongs. You are not that person anymore, Draco. You can't keep letting what these people say hurt you so much. You are an amazing man, and I hate seeing you like this. Draco you have to promise me that you won't let what these people say get to you anymore. You can't keep throwing these adult tantrums. You're a good, strong man, I know that. You, on the other hand, have to know it and believe in yourself. Can you do that for me Draco?"
Draco took her face in his hands looked her in the eyes, "I make a promise to your right now, Hermione Malfoy. I will believe in myself and not let others make me feel this way again. I love you so much."
"I love you too, Draco."