Disclaimer: JK Rowling, Warner Brothers and many other people own the rights and everything else affiliated with Harry Potter, I've only just borrowed the characters and a few places ;) I promise to return them when I'm done. There will be spoilers from all the books but it is AU, and I've taken what I want and disregarded things that didn't fit in, though it is as compliant with the Deathly Hallows as possible. So please enjoy! Also this hasn't been beta'ed so any mistakes are my own.
Summary: Hermione working for a new branch of the Ministry helps Draco uncover the mystery of his family, come to terms with the past and find a future.
Finding Home
Chapter One
Hermione sat at her desk, diligently sorting through the piles of parchment that had managed to land on her desk while she had been at a very brief lunch. Hermione worked at the Ministry for Magic in the Department of Welfare for Non-Magical and Newly Magical People, a new and revolutionary Department that had been established to help make the transition easier for those who had thought that they were ordinary humans to becoming a Witch or Wizard. There were also new support programs that enabled squibs born to Magical families get the support that they did not always receive from their families. Hermione headed the Department that consisted of 10 members, and each day the amount of cases that were brought to their attention was increasing. Looking at her desk Hermione decided that it would be wise to get a cup of coffee because it was going to be a long afternoon... and night.
On the floor that housed Hermione's Department also housed the Auror's and the Potions Departments as well as Magical Catastrophes and other Dilemmas Department. With the broadening outlook of the new Ministry, many unrelated departments were forced to share office space. Located in the centre was a kitchenette and it proved to be a great meeting place between the Departments. It was also the centre for work place gossip and often enough a great way to broaden you outlook in your own work.
"Hello Hermione," Draco said over his shoulder, when he noticed that she had walked in behind him.
"Hello Draco, how is the new potion coming along?" Hermione asked politely, she and Draco had become almost friends, after working in the same section of the Ministry for five years and an uncanny need for coffee at the same time. The beginning had been quite difficult but over the years they had grown accustomed to seeing each other every day and the animosity over time had disappeared. Though their growing friendship at first had been the centre of speculation, it was not welcomed by all, particularly by Ron was not happy that his girlfriend was not only talking to a Malfoy. Not that Hermione had to worry about what Ron thought anymore.
"It's not going the way I'd have hoped but that's just the way it is with Potions, it never works out the way that you think." Draco's brow furrowed as he thought about his potion and what he could do to improve it while he reached into the fridge to get some milk for his coffee. "One ingredient and you can completely change the effect of a potion, and the wrong ingredient can ruin months of work and research." Draco seemed a little frustrated; he had obviously hit a road block with his work.
"I know what you mean, it isn't any easier dealing with such complex family dynamics and every time I get surprised with the attitudes of some people, and not just the muggle families. I am so thankful that my parents were so fantastic about everything." Hermione stood with her back to the counter holding her mug in both hands.
"I can imagine. There are so many pure blooded families that would have hidden their squib offspring rather than suffer their perceived embarrassment at having a squib in the family. I can't imagine that it would be any easier for muggle families to comprehend that there is another world that co-exists with theirs." Draco looked slightly bemused at the words that were coming out of his mouth but that didn't mean that he wanted to take them back.
"You know, there would have been a time where you wouldn't have even been able to acknowledge that to yourself, let alone to another person, especially if that person was me." Hermione said, not with animosity but with genuine wonder at a change that most would have never seen coming.
"Before, those kinds of thoughts would never have crossed my mind except of course for agreeing to shun squibs," Draco agreed.
"People change," Hermione said simply walking towards the door and Draco nodded thoughtfully.
"Before you go I was wondering if you have some spare time after work. There is something that I would like to discuss with you but it's personal and I'd rather not talk about it here." Draco looked uncomfortable about asking and that alone piqued Hermione interest.
"Of course, I'll probably be working late so why don't you come past my office when you've finished up for the day." Hermione never could resist someone asking for help, and she was even more curious being that the person that needed help was Draco.
"Alright, I'll come to your office and then we can go and get something to eat?"
"Sounds like a plan," Hermione said with a smile, and in all honesty a bit of surprise. While they chatted to each other at work they had never socialised outside of work. It had to be something very important if he wanted to take her away from work to discuss it with her.
As Hermione walked out she almost bumped into Ron who was standing next to the doorway talking with their old school friends Seamus and Dean, who were now Auror's, she cringed but before she could turn around and go back into the kitchen Ron saw her and it was obvious for the expression on his face that he had heard Hermione and Draco make plans to meet after work.
"Hello Ron," Hermione said politely, though a little curt as she made to walk past him and back to her office.
"Hermione," Ron said, his lip curled as he saw Draco come out of the kitchenette behind her and confirmed that it was Draco that she had made a date with.
Things had been volatile between Hermione and Ron since they had broken up a month before. While they had been together for almost 5 years, their breakup had not been pretty. Hermione's dedication to her job and Ron's dedication to living a life of luxury had not been easy on their relationship as well as the fact that Ron had no desire to get married and have a family even in the distant future. Hermione had been thinking of ending their relationship when Ron had beaten her to it. Only he had done it a little more publicly than she would have liked. They had been at their weekly lunch at Ron's parent's house when Ron had declared that their relationship was over, in front of all of his family.
"What? You're too good to stop and talk to me now?" Ron asked scornfully, both Dean and Seamus took a step back, looked at him and frowned, "or are you just too busy with other people?" Ron directed an evil look at Draco.
"Of course not Ron, but I'm at work and I am busy working. I'll see you on Sunday at your mothers." Hermione kept her head down and walked quickly past.
"Yeah, that's about right. You walk away; everyone here knows that your work is more important than actually having a life." Ron looked pleased with himself as Hermione went bright red with mortification. At that Hermione stoped and turned to look at him, she could feel her blood pressure rising and even though she knew she was most likely going to regret the words that were going to come out of her mouth she couldn't help herself.
"Really Ron? I can understand how you can't grasp the idea of someone having a job that is rewarding and fulfilling and important, or even the concept of someone having a job at all. A job is something that people generally get when they grow up. But you wouldn't know about that would you? You, content to live off past glories," Hermione said with as much scorn as Ron had uttered. "And honestly Ron, you broke up with me, so now I don't have to make time to talk to you because you are no longer a priority in my life, just like I'm not in yours. So why don't you run along and give another interview or watch another stupid Quidditch game because I don't have time to stand here and listen while you struggle to find ways so that you can feel better about yourself!"
"Just because I dumped you don't mean that you have to throw yourself at someone like him," Ron pointed at Draco and Hermione saw red. Draco stood back and watched the exchange through narrowed eyes, not saying a word.
"What Ron, you can't handle the idea of me with someone else? What did you expect? Did you think that I would sit at home and pine for you? Get over yourself, you've made it abundantly clear that you have no interest in me anymore and I have accepted that. You have no say in what happens in my life Ronald Weasley; you don't get the luxury of an opinion as far as my life is concerned. You and I both know that we're going to run into each other and I'll be polite when I see you, because my mother raised me with manners. But that is where it ends Ronald, have a nice life," Hermione turned around and stormed off into her office. Ron called after her but Hermione ignored him, she was not going to give him further satisfaction by continuing their argument, and this way she got in the last word.
Ron and Hermione had always had spectacular fights, but Hermione thought that they had passed that, that she was past that. But obviously there was something about Ron that could still inspire her to lose control and not in the good way of their youth.
As her voice had risen people had come out of their cubicles to see what was going on. Hermione couldn't believe that she had lost her cool with Ron especially at work in front of her colleagues. Hermione knew that she would be the brunt of the office gossip for the next few weeks, especially since word would now be out that she and Ron had broken up, something that Hermione had not advertised. She didn't have many close friends at work, Jane who worked within her team was her closest friend and only she knew about the breakup.
After taking a few minuted to compose herself, Hermione worked solidly for the rest of the afternoon ignoring the rest of the office, which wasn't an easy thing to do when people kept making excuses to walk past her office and look at her. Though in traditional Hermione fashion, she managed to block out the world around her and make headway in a lot of cases that had been troubling her. Part of her role was to investigate the disappearance of squibs and first generation witches and wizards, and even with the changing of perceptions in the Wizarding World there was still a lot of work to be done especially with Pure Blood families and ignorant muggle families.
Hermione was surprised when Draco knocked on her door, signalling the end of the work day, she was even more surprised when she saw that it was after 7 pm. There was nothing like burying yourself in work to help forget the embarrassing moments in your life.
"Are you ready to go, or do you need some more time?" Draco asked politely, even though he was frowning.
"Hello Draco. No, I'm done for the day," Hermione stood up and with a wave of her wand sent her parchment into various files that neatly put themselves where they belonged. "First off I'm so sorry about before. It isn't often that I lose my cool but that is no excuse for me dragging you into the middle of my fight with Ron. I understand if you want to do this another time, or not at all," Hermione said, hoping that he wouldn't change his mind not that she would blame him if he did. But her curiosity had been sparked and she wanted to know what Draco had to ask of her.
"Of course not, I still need your help and I don't mind getting involved in arguments that make Weasley look like the fool that he is," Draco smirked and Hermione saw the Draco that she went to school with and she couldn't help the smile that followed the thought.
"Right, so where would you like to eat?" Hermione decided to let the comment slide; she wasn't feeling too generous where Ron was concerned. She grabbed her coat and bag ready to go. It was then she noticed the look on his face. "Are you alright? We can meet up another night if you prefer?" Even though his appearance at her door had reawakened her curiosity, she was willing to wait because there was something about Draco that wasn't right. Maybe he really was upset that Ron had jumped to the wrong conclusions about them, not that Draco spoke up about it when Ron was here.
"No, I'm ready to go," Draco said as his face smoothed out into that blank mask that he used to wear as a teenager, and that bothered Hermione a little. "How about the Leakey Cauldron?" Draco asked as if nothing had been said or changed.
"Sounds good," Hermione said with a slight frown.
They flooed away from the main Ministry network and straight into the Leaky Cauldron which was thrumming with the usual after work hustle and bustle of the diners.
"I think that I see a spare booth just over there," Draco motioned to the other side of the room and took Hermione's arm as he led her to the booth.
They settled themselves in and without talking consulted their menu's and when their waitress came over they ordered their meals. Hermione looked around the room and noticed that Lavender Brown was looking in their direction with great interest.
"Fantastic, after today and Ron announcing that he thinks the two of us are seeing each other having her spot us out at dinner isn't going to slow down the rumour mill," Hermione motioned over to where Lavender was sitting.
"People are going to make assumptions all of the time, I've picked up the Daily Prophet more than once to read stories about myself that were pure fabrication. I'm sure that you've had the same happen."
"Of course, I've long since made the decision that if I want to read something that at least has some basis in truth I read the Quibbler," Draco gave a soft laugh and shook his head.
"If you would like we could go somewhere else?" Draco offered.
"Not at all, besides people would only talk more if we left. Who wants to give people that kind of satisfaction?" Hermione smiled at Draco and made a conscience effort not to look over at where Lavender was sitting.
"So, how is work really going?" Draco asked as he took a sip of his drink.
Hermione was a little surprised that Draco was going for small talk, but she didn't to push him with what he wanted to actually ask her, if being friends with Harry and Ron had taught her anything, it was with the males of the species you had to be patient and let them get to things in their own time. Merlin knew that every time she had tried to get Ron or Harry to admit to or open up about something it had been far more painful that actually waiting for them to get to it in their own time.
"The work itself is fantastic and rewarding but I can't believe how hard it can be sometimes. I've had so many muggle families in absolute denial about magic, which I can understand. It isn't easy for any parent to accept that there is something different about their child. My parents, well it did take them a little while to come around but when they did they embraced everything new that came with me and for that I will be forever grateful. I knew that Pure Blood families often saw squibs as an embarrassment but I've seen families in complete denial and that makes it so much harder for the poor children. I'm working hard to get a program established where squib children can learn how to be a part of the muggle world but it isn't something that is going to happen any time soon unfortunately."
Hermione took a sip of her drink and quickly studied Draco. He was genuinely interested in what she had to say and she guessed that whatever it was that he wanted to discuss had something to do with her work. Though he obviously wasn't ready to talk about that yet and she was willing to wait it out and see where the conversation took them.
"You also do some investigation work as well, don't you?" Draco asked then pulled back as their meals were brought to the table.
When the waitress had gone again Hermione answered him.
"I do a lot of the background work; the actual investigation is handled by the Auror department. I'm the one that sorts through the records and finds the missing people on paper, the Auror's then do the physical finding. It isn't always easy and I worry about all the people that I've missed. But I have been trying to develop a new spell that will make the work easier and far more thorough so we won't miss people, muggle or squib."
Draco listened intently to everything that Hermione had to say about her work and made comments and suggestions about her work and things that would help to make things easier for her. On the whole their meal went smoothly, with the only real pauses in their conversation coming when they took a bite to eat. Hermione was surprised when she noticed that it was getting close to 10 pm and the evening had gone so smoothly and that there had been no awkward pauses, neither could remember having spent a more pleasurable evening in recent times.
"I know that you are curious as to why I asked to meet with you this evening," Draco said as he settled the bill and made their way to the door. Hermione lived quite close to the Leaky Cauldron and Draco was going to walk her home before apparating back to his own home. Hermione had enjoyed the evening much more than she had thought she would and had almost forgotten their real reason for the two of them getting together.
"Why did you want to meet me, you said it was private," Hermione said with her curiosity renewed.
"I need help," Draco paused, he wasn't used to asking anything of anyone and while he and Hermione now got along, that had not always been the case and it was hard to ask for her help. He took a deep breath before he continued, "I need your help locating my sister."
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So there you have it, the first chapter. I hope that you all enjoy. Feed back is always welcomed :)