"I can't believe the two greatest minds of our year just got stuck in an elevator in the Ministry of Magic," Draco said sliding down the wall. His left leg stuck out in front him, his right bent with his arm resting on his knee. He looked up at the woman he was stuck with. Her brown hair in wild ringlets all around her face, her brown eyes piercing into his cold grey ones. She crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"Of all the people to get stuck with, you would be pretty far down on my list Malfoy," she said refusing to to be baited. She always had, he knew. He had always wondered if things had turned out differently would they have been Head Boy and Head Girl their last year at Hogwarts. But neither one of them had returned that year.
"I heard you went back to get your NEWTs after... after...," he hung his head. He still had nightmares of that long and horrible year.
He heard her sigh followed by a thump. He looked up to see her on the floor, her knees pulled up tightly to her chest.
"Did you really expect any less of me, Malfoy?" She said, her laughter filling the small space.
A sad smile parted his lips. "Not really Granger." Hermione Weasley nee Granger looked up at ceiling and shook her head.
"I never thought these things happened in the wizarding world, I know they happen all the time in the muggle world but this is ridiculous."
The silence stretched on. He pulled his leg up and coughed discretely to get her attention.
"I feel that I have to apologize..." he started.
Her laugh was cold and heartless, "For what? The bullying, the name calling, the being a total ass?"
"I guess could start with that but that isn't what wakes me at night screaming." She raised her eyebrows in skepticism.
"There's something that you did to me that wakes you screaming?" Her voice was filled with doubt.
"No." she snorted her derision. "It's something that I should have done but didn't have the courage to."
This time her look was that of confusion and mistrust.
"I should have stopped my aunt that night at Malfoy Manor," he hung his head again. He could hear her gasp and some shuffling and when she spoke he could almost feel her breath she was that close. He looked up to see that she was sitting next to him.
"You feel guilty about not stopping Bellatrix torturing me that night? I never would have thought that it would have crossed your mind." And instantly she regretted it. The look on his face was pure torment.
"You must really think me heartless," but before she could answer he stopped her. He didn't want to hear her say those words. "I did what I could, refusing to identify you and Potter but in my heart I knew it wasn't enough. I cowered in the corner crying hoping that stupid Potter would do what he always does and come to the rescue," it was his turn to laugh derisively.
"I bet you were surprised to see your old house elf turn up," Hermione said her voice had gone hoarse.
"I felt surprise and sense of relief. I hear the knife Aunt Bella threw killed him..."
"It did."
"I'm sorry for that too."
"But he suffered abuse at your hands how can you say that?!" Her anger rose and in one swift moment she was towering over him.
"It never entered my head that they might feel but that night Kreature showed up at our house, I realized that here was someone who had been bullied and stepped on all his life and still he showed devotion the Black House and how much he needed us as much he need us. And started thinking that maybe all that SPEW stuff might have some merit," he smiled up at her. "Though I would have killed myself before telling you that and yet here I am spilling my guts to you."
She turned her back on him and he sighed.
"Another thing I never meant for you to hear but in the interest of full disclosure, I'm telling you anyway. I had the biggest crush on you at Hogwarts." He laughed when she whirled around to face him.
"I don't believe you. You were horrid to me." Her fist were clenched in rage.
"Really? Let's think about this for a second, make Ron a Slytherin and not your friend and tell me his actions were any better than mine." She opened her mouth to protest and then sputtered at his smirk.
"That's different!" Hermione shrieked. Draco's smirk widened into a full smile.
"Is it?" He asked as he stood up. He towered over her height wise and folded his armed in front of him daring her to slap him again like she had those many years before.
She knew he was right of course so the slap never came. But she could protest.
"Ooh... why are you always such an ass?" She wanted to storm off but within the small confines of the elevator she had no place to storm off to, so the best she could do was turn her back on him again.
Draco shrugged his shoulders, his arms still crossed.
"Well I'm married now," she said defiantly turning around to face him.
He held up his left hand so she could clearly see the ring on his third finger.
"After the war I changed. I had to become the man of the house, my father the shell... no not shell. A shell is still hard. The husk of the man he once was. He had been shattered by the events leading up to and during the Battle of Hogwarts. He told me he had even tried to convince Voldemort to leave the school alone. How he survived that comment I'll never know. But despite the feelings I held for you, they were that of a school boy and I knew that if I didn't marry a pure-blood I would literally be putting my father into the grave. Of course the only reason I'm standing here at all, the only reason the three of us aren't in Azkaban this very minute is my mother."
"I know, Harry told me. How she lied to the dark lord to find you, how she convinced your father to leave as soon as her lie was revealed." She saw him wince.
"Did Potter tell you that he spoke at our trial?" he said moving his hands to his pockets.
She shook her head. "I knew he spoke at a lot of the hearings but I didn't know he spoke at yours."
"He was fair. He made sure they knew about all three of my incidents that I refused to do what was required of me by the Death Eaters or the Dark Lord. But I never did find out how he knew about the first one."
"The first one?" He anger was slowly draining out of her.
"That night at the Astronomy Tower... when I couldn't kill Dumbledore..." he lowered his head to hide the shame. Though he was sure what the shame was for. After all these years he still didn't know.
"Oh! He was there that night! Didn't anyone tell you?!" How could someone not have mentioned it? Surely someone should have told him.
"Then why didn't he stop me or Snape for that matter? Why didn't I see him?" his brows were furrowed in uncertainty.
"Because Dumbledore did well what I think is the stupidest thing of stupefying him and tossing his invisibility cloak over him so he couldn't move, all he could was watch. He basically insured that Harry would never trust Prof. Snape ever."
He walked over to the far wall and leaned against it.
"That must have been horrible for him. I can't even imagine what that would have been like."
"What were the other two, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Huh?" He had been lost in thought.
"Other two incidents that Harry spoke of at your trial?" she asked.
He snorted and tossed his head, "Right. That night at Malfoy Manor when I refused to identify him and the other was in the Room of Requirement."
She nodded, she had showed up just before Goyle had attacked Harry and seen the exchange.
"So those plus what your mother did save you from prison?"
"Yep. I believe me when I say that I never would have believed it before the trial that Potter would save my a third time."
"That's Harry for you. Even I was surprised when he wanted to risk his life to save you and Crabbe in the Room of Requirements. I thought he would liked to be rid of you."
"Ouch. But no, he's a good man." He cocked his head to the side, "So why did you marry Weaslebee instead?" he asked pulling out Ron's old nickname but with a smile to ease the sting.
He laughed with her and was glad that she took it as the joke it was meant to be.
"I've had that question asked of me a lot so I guess I can't say I'm surprised that you that you would be one of them even though Ron is a pure-blood..."
He held up a finger to stop her. "Ah but you see he's a pure-blood traitor..." and she swatted him playfully. "Hey!" He protested throwing his arms up to protect him and ducked.
"And Harry is a half-blood," she continued as though he hadn't interrupted her. "The truth is, is that Harry and I grew up an only child," Draco nodded he knew what it was like. "And Ron had this huge family-"
Draco threw his arms wide "HUGE!" And she swatted him again.
"So Harry and I were more like siblings and Ron and Ginny were more what we were looking for in a spouse."
"Ah." Even his wife had a bigger family then he did so he could understand the appeal.
"Who did you end up marrying? Not Pansy I hope," Hermione said her desire not to offend him on her face in comical way.
"No," he said laughing at her discomfort. "I wouldn't have married the girl that would have turned in the very person that saved my life twice. After hearing that she was all for chucking Potter to wolves, I couldn't in good conscious stay with her. You remember Daphne Greenwall?"
"Her?" That wasn't much better in her eyes he could tell.
"No, her younger sister Astoria. She was two years behind us."
"I vaguely remember her," she said. "I hope you're happy."
"Oh yes," he said straightening up pushing himself off the wall. "We found out recently that I'll be father soon."
"Congrats! That must be so exciting. Ron wants kids especially since Ginny and Harry already have a son."
Draco's eyebrows shot up. "Really? Wow. Who would have thought?"
"Yeah I know... they named him James Sirius."
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" his second cousin he found out later was Potter's godfather.
The moment stretched on and they looked everywhere but at each other. Draco was about to say something when they heard a call shouting to them.
"Hello? Is there is someone in this elevator?" An older male voice inquired. Hermione rushed to where the voice seemed to be coming from.
"Yes there are two of us. Hermione Weasley, Department of Magical Law and Draco Malfoy..." she turned to him.
"Guest. I'm here to see the Minister of Magic."
"That's where you ran off to. The Minister was starting to think you'd cancelled last minute and didn't notify him."
"Great. My name must really be mud if that what he thought of me." Draco said, the bitterness creeping in his voice.
The other wizard seemed to fluster and huff realizing that he had offended him.
"We are working to get it moving again. Someone seems to have misplaced the paperwork on the spells used on this thing but we're working as hard as we can."
There was some hissing and the wizard seemed to be in an argument with someone with him when he heard a witch screech. "You can't leave them alone together, they'd kill each other! Don't you know who they are! They fought on different sides of the war and they were enemies at school!"
"Oh god! That Hermione Weasley? Oh dear." There was some shuffling and then the witch came on.
"We are doing everything in our power to get it working but um... would you please hand over your wands?"
Draco and Hermione looked at each other with resigned disbelief on their faces. He shook his head and said "we better do as they ask." Hermione rolled her eyes and reached into her purse to pull out her wand as he pulled out his from his belt.
"Accio wands!" the witch called out and their wands went whizzing to the far side and then vanished.
After a few moments when nothing else was said, they looked at each other and busted up laughing.
"Apparently, they don't know that I'm more likely to slap you then to curse you," she said in between giggles.
"I was taught to not physically hurt girls." He winked at her.
"Well, I wish they had told us how much long they thought it'd be. I hope it's not too much longer, I have lunch date with Ginny a couple hours. She's bringing my godson along."
"Ah. Didn't I hear somewhere that she was a Chaser for the Holyhead Harpies, I think it was."
"Yes. They were so mad when she quit to start a family with Harry."
"I can imagine, even I have to admit how good she was. Potter too."
"Well, despite my words our second year, you weren't to bad yourself." She crossed her arms and started to pace.
"You were right however. My dad did buy my way on the team but they were more than pleased to learn how good I actually was." He watched her as she moved up and down their home for the next while.
"Could you stop doing that please?" he asked her. "It's starting to make me dizzy."
She stopped and shot him a look.
"This whole mess just has me on edge," she said as she went over to the wall and kicked it in frustration.
"Is the situation or is just me?" He asked as she rubbed her toe. She looked up briefly. She leaned her back against the wall and thumped her head looking up.
"I don't know. I'd like to think that I'm a good enough person to forgive you. But I'm not like Harry. He even tried to save Prof. Snape even after all they had been through, their strong feelings of dislike that I think even bordered on hate. And yet when Voldemort killed him, he ran up and tried to stop the bleeding."
"Another thing that's my fault." His tone biting.
"Why would you think that?" And then she thought about it. "Oh! That's right you were there when Harry explained to everyone that it was you that over powered the wand that night in the Astronomy Tower."
"It was the last thing we heard. My mother didn't want me anywhere near the battle after that."
"Oh, so you don't know.?" He shook his head. She walked over and lifted his chin. "That night at Malfoy Manor when Harry stole your wand the Elder Wand changed it's allegiance to him. The only person who's fault it is, is Voldemort himself. You have to believe that. At least deep down or why would you feel guilt?"
He looked into her eyes and saw not pity but concern and he almost leaned forward to kiss her. But the iron will that had served him all those years at Hogwarts reasserted itself and he held back.
"I try but the nightmares and terrors never leave."
"And that's what makes you better than Voldemort. You still feel."
Suddenly she moved away.
"Sorry. I keep thinking you Harry or something." She shook her head. "If I do something that makes uncomfortable let me know, I'll back off. Ron keeps saying I'm a mother hen."
"You're fine." The air was thick with raw emotion so he changed the subject. "So I've heard rumors and outlandish tales about what you three were doing that last year. But they couldn't possibly be true. Like taming a dragon to take you wherever you wanted. So spill I want to hear the truth."
"Well that bit with the dragon is only a little bit true. But that's near the end of the story, let me start at the beginning with Rufus Scrimdor," she told him trying to stifle her laughter.
She told him the story. And then he swapped tales about their sixth year and what he had done. She told him about Snape and Lily. And he told her stories about Perfect Lucius befriending the awkward Severus.
"So that's why he favored you at school!" She never could understand why he was so partial to Malfoy even over some of his other students.
"Yeah, he was trying to pay back my dad for taking him under his wing and helping him out. Never would have guessed about Prof. Snape loving Potter's mum though. Although I guess it means that my one sided crush on you was following a pattern laid down years before by those two."
"At least they were friends," Hermione warned him. He laughed at the stern expression of her face.
"Well for most of it anyway from what you said."
"Hello?" The witch was back.
"Yes?" Draco called back.
"Mrs. Weasley are you still there?" the witch asked worry cracked her voice.
"Hermione, please Mrs. Weasley is my mother-in-law."
"Oh, good. I here to give you an update. We have found the paperwork and now they know where to look for the spells so it should be any time now." And with that the voice was gone.
"Well. At least that's something."
"Speaking of Prof. Snape, I read in the Daily Prophet that Potter is trying to his portrait put up in the Headmaster's office, how's that going? Didn't he desert his post before the Dark Lord killed him?"
Hermione smiled at the fact he didn't use Voldemort.
"Old habits die hard," he said guessing correctly the reason behind her smirk, "now you're avoiding the question." He stretched, his knuckles brushing the ceiling as he did so. If they didn't get out soon he was going to go stir crazy.
"Yes well, he did everything he did under the orders of Dumbledore and Harry's trying to prove that. He can't use the memories to prove his loyalty but he can use the memories to find the evidence he needs. But with all the hatred and distrust against our Professor, it's made it really hard."
"Yes but I thought the weight of the 'Chosen One' carried more than that. Sure they would have just taken his word and done it immediately. Especially since he made the turn around from bad mouthing him at every turn and hating him after the death of Dumbledore."
"He got told that while they would like to believe him they need tangle proof. He's been searching. He thinks that somewhere in the Headmaster's office is the evidence he needs."
"I guess that would make sense."
"Prof. McGonagall is letting him search."
"That's awfully decent of her but then you three were always her favorites." He winked.
"Mrs Weas-" there was a whispering hiss and then he came back. "Hermione? Mr. Malfoy? We are ready to get you out now." It was the old wizard.
They sighed in relief and within minutes they were standing on solid ground.
"Well, does this make us friends?" Draco asked extending his hand. She looked at it and then hugged him. The looks on the crowd that had gathered were filled with surprise.
"No," she said pulling away. "But it does mean we have an understanding. I think it may take the next generation to truly heal what happened between us."
"I'd like that," and he walked away. As he strolled off a smile cracked his face. He felt as though a weight had been taken off his shoulders. Astoria even noticed when he got home. But the only thing he would say was that he got stuck in an elevator and that it got him thinking about how the future was more important than the past. He still had nightmares.
Shortly after this she found that she was pregnant with her first child. She wouldn't see Draco for twelve years, until that day on Platform 9 and 3/4, when she admonished Ron for trying to force the wedge between Rose and Scorpius. She had hopes for those two. For Albus and Scorpius as well. That this would finally put to rest the rivalry between them all.