Chapter One : A Difficult Case

The crisp October air wisped across her face, the chill of autumn settled itself deep within her as the sun began to set. Hermione closed the book she had been reading on her back deck. She collected her research, as well as her empty mug before retiring to the warmth of her cottage. Her home was not large by any means, however, it suited her just fine. It was a modest stone dwelling, there were three bedrooms, the master being the largest. The other was a guest room, and she had converted the last into a simple library. There weren't many updates done since it was built in the early 1900's, it's old charm was what drew her to it in the first place. The property sat on four acres of land. It was enough to allow her the privacy she wanted, yet not too much where she would feel isolated.

After fixing herself a fresh cup of coffee, she leaned against the wooden countertop and transfixed her gaze outside of the window, watching as the last remnants of the day fled to the horizon before disappearing out of sight. The first spec of stars taking their place upon the evening sky. Averting her gaze to the stacks of parchment she had brought in, she released as soft sigh. She didn't normally bring her work home, but this perticular case had her feeling rather perplexed.

Hermione Granger was the Head of Research and Investigation. After the final battle, so many death eaters had fled going into hiding, nauseating amounts of corruption within the ministry was unearthed, multiple new laws were being created and put into place, amongst a plethora of other things. With the growing demand for researchers needed, an entire department had been created. Her staff would assist nearly every facet of the ministry. Hermione herself on the other hand, specifically worked with the Aurors and Magical Law Enforcement. This current case had her feeling frustrated. She knew there had to be a pattern, something connecting it all together, but she couldn't quite determine exactly what that connection was.

The case had been handed over to her once the Head of MLE realized that a sequence of smaller events could be linked. It started off as a series of break in's, some homes, some businesses. They were rather peculiar, as nothing of great value had been taken. Small trinkets, clothing, a book here and there, a few seemingly insignificant magical plants. The MLE initially thought it was teenagers just causing some trouble. The crimes all happened when either no one was home, or a store was closed up for the evening. It wasn't until roughly a month ago that it had become more serious.

Hannah Longbottom (nee Abbott) was the current owner of The Leaky Cauldron. After closing up the bar, and retreating to her room for the evening, she realized she had left her wand in her office. When she made it downstairs she noticed the door she was approaching was slightly ajar. A dim light, undoubtedly the result of a lumos charm moved about the room. When she inched closer she saw who the intruder was. The culprit wore a long black robe, judging by the height and build, it appeared to be a man, although that was the only thing she could ascertain as the most disturbing and ominous feature he possessed being the silver skull styled mask, covering any trace of identity. She covered her mouth to silence the gasp she released. Quickly, she ducked under a table in the corner near the fireplace, cursing herself for being so careless by leaving her wand behind. The sounds of drawers opening and parchment russelling only lasted maybe five minutes, but to her, it seemed like hours. The masked intruder muttered a hasty 'nox' before making his way out of the office and out of the bar. Hannah wasted no time, swiftly she entered her office, grabbing her wand and turning on her heel, she bounded back up the stairs, her heart pounding in her chest, terrified the intruder could return at any moment. She immediately owled her friend Katie Bell who was an officer for the MLE.

Kaitie came at once, but was accompanied by Harry Potter, Head of the Auror department. After Hannah accounted in detail what she had witnessed, Harry investigated the office with her at his side. After careful examination, it appeared nothing was out of place, nor anything missing. They surmised that whatever the man had been looking for was not there. Harry took down a few notes before placing a tracking ward over the establishment. This was to monitor the comings and goings of the area so that if the man returned they could identify him.

The one detail that seemed to have Harry most confused was the description Hannah gave of the mask. Death eater masks, at least those that belonged to Voldemorts inner circle and most loyal followers, were very intricate with no two being the same. If her recollection was correct, the mask she had described belonged to Fenrir Greyback. However, he had been killed during the final battle. All of the masks belonging to perished or captured Death Eaters were in a secure room located next to his office. When he had returned to work the following morning, the mask was still in its place, the room not tampered with. After some investigation, he didn't believe that this case was the result of any Death Eater, probably just someone starting a bit of trouble figuring they could throw the MLE off using a replica mask, so he passed it back over to the Head of the MLE. After reviewing the information and wondering if the other break in's had been connected, he asked for Hermione to research the matter.

Five weeks later, and Hermione felt like she has barely gotten anywhere. She too felt the incidents were connected, she couldn't determine what it was all equaling out to be. After The Leaky Cauldron incident, no other break in's had been reported. The only tip they had received was this woman, Agatha Jeffries, had a rumored love affair with Amycus Carrow. She looked into her, but there wasn't much there. She was a half-blood for one, the Carrow twins had not been known to see half-bloods as any different than muggle borns. This alone made the claim seem to be nothing more than speculation. Couple that with the fact that the Jeffries woman did not bare the mark, nor have any factual ties to any death eaters, she didn't appear to be of interest.

Hermione piled the parchment in her arms and decided to give them another lookover in the living room. She set them all down on the coffee table before settling herself onto the sofa. About half an hour into her research, a soft tapping noise emitted from her kitchen. When she reached the window, she saw the regal looking black owl that had been the cause of her disruption. She sighed as she new all too well what this was about.

She opened the latch to let the bird in, giving him a few treats before removing the the small parchment from him, he tapped her finger letting her know he would be waiting for a reply. Hermione rolled her eyes before unrolling the small scroll.

Granger,

I trust that you have not forgotten our meeting tomorrow? I would prefer to know what the status is before Monday if you would.

Malfoy

Draco Malfoy. The thought of him infuriated her. He was the Head of Magical Law Enforcement so she had to work with him on a regular basis. He wasn't the same insufferable prat she had to deal with in school, at least not the same kind of insufferable prat. After the war he dropped all prejudices, he didn't believe any of the pureblood nonsense his father had filled his head with for so many years. No, he didn't degrade her blood status or her muggle upbringing, but they didn't see eye to eye on a multitude of things. Both of them being ridiculously hard headed and massively intelligent caused for some rather colorful arguments.

Hermione motioned for the drawer, retrieving a small parchment and quill to reply on. She scribbled out a quick reply and rolled the parchment before handing it to the owl, he gave her a finger a peck than flew off into the nights sky. Hermione pinched the bridge of her nose. She knew Draco wouldn't be thrilled with the lack of progress she had made. Not that she really cared what his opinion was, he merely knew how to get under her skin. Not wanting to pay too much mind to the events the following day would bring, Hermione concluded a warm bath and bed would help calm her.

Draco was standing over the counter in his kitchen. His one hand flipping through that days copy of the Daily Prophet, the other hands fingers were curled around the glass that held his firewhiskey. He was reading some article going on about the economy and how the new laws were effecting it. As he flipped to the next page, he could see out the corner of his eye that his owl was descending over the tree line on the outskirts of his property.

He no longer lived at the manor. After his father had been sent to Azkaban, Draco became the head of the household, and inherited everything. While his mother wanted to stay in the family home, Draco couldn't stomach it after everything he had been forced to witness there. He purchased his own home, a decent sized house with an abundance of land right on the outskirts of busy muggle London. Here he received the privacy he wanted, here he could walk out the door without the masses of wizard reporters snapping photo's of the reformed death eater. With Harry and Hermiones testimony, he and his mothers chargers had all been cleared. Five years later, and he had restored the Malfoy name to something that at least resembled respectable. Not that it had been an easy feet, at first, the smear his father had spread across their families named seemed to be placed upon them permanently. Slowly though, Draco managed to prove he was not Lucius, that he could be trusted, that he was a decent man, even if he would live the rest of his life branded with the scar left by something that stood for pure hatred and evil.

He opened the window so that the owl could glide in. He removed the scroll while giving the owl a nod of approval. He unraveled it and took a moment to go over her response.

Malfoy,

No, I have not forgotten. I brought home most of the files, so I would ask that you floo to my house rather than meet in public. Be here at ten, you will have access.

Granger

He knew that she would not be looking forward to the upcoming encounter. Over the course of working together they had managed to hold some sense of civility, although the verbal sparring matches were somewhat inevitable. He would never admit it to anyone, but he did think she was brilliant. She had definitely earned the title 'Brightest Witch of Our Age' for a reason. It was the entirety of this fact that he passed this case over to her. However, at this point, he knew precisely where she was at on it.

He knew how long she had been working on this, if anything came from her research she would have come barreling into his office to boast about her findings. If Hermione couldn't find anything, no one in her department could. He knew they would be joining forces on this, which would entail the inevitable butting of heads between them. He was going to have to insist they make this a joint effort, and to say she wouldn't be thrilled would be an understatement. It wasn't necessarily all because of him, she possessed a certain need for control that drove him to the brink of insanity. He would have to bite his tounge. This was more important than his pride.

Unlike Harry, he didn't see this case as nothing of importance. No one would be daft enough to impersonate a wildly known death eater, albeit a dead one, just to commit petty theft. That would be more dangerous if anything. He honestly had no clue who it could be. There were hundreds if not thousands of Voldemort sympathizers. He had already given Harry a list of everyone he knew of, but there was no way he could identify them all. He was concerned on what was going on, and wouldn't believe it was truly nothing until they captured the perpetrator of the thefts.

He stared down into the amber liquid that filled his glass as he slowly rolled it around. With an exaggerated sigh, he knocked back the drink before heading off to the shower. Tomorrow would most likely turn into a lengthier discussion than he would care to have, but there were some things he didn't bother wasting his breath over with his former classmate.

-x-

This chapter is fairly short, my main goal was just to set up the story here. It will get better though. At least more interesting anyway. I am already about half way through the second chapter and am excited about it. My plan is to update this every week, but if I can do more I will.

Please feel free to review, I appreciate any feedback. This is my first attempt at a fanfiction so I only ask that the reviews are kept respectful. I love constructive critism, as long as it is not rude.

Just in case, I do not own any rights to the Harry Potter universe, and characters in this story are not mine.

Hope you enjoy!

Update: Some of this chapter (the description of The Leaky Cauldron, and the letters) were supposed to be in a different format given their context, but the DOC editor is giving me a hard time. I will try to have this repaired by the next chapter.