The meeting continued for quite some time, it was almost six by the time they were done, but for Hermione, time had flown.
Instead of listening like she knew she should be, she couldn't seem to stop her mind from wandering to the intriguing man she would be working with.
Ezra, she recognised the name, had seen it in a few case files she'd had to take a look at. As far as she knew, he was a private investigator the Minister had hired to help to collect evidence for many of the death eater trials. No one Hermione knew had ever met him as far as she knew, it seemed that he was a man who kept to the shadows, probably important in his line of work, so she thought it strange that he should be participating in what would no doubt be a high profile event. Then again, all the war trials had just been completed after five long years, so she supposed it wasn't so important that he hide away anymore. In fact, she was surprised he wasn't on holiday considering all the work she suspected he'd been doing since the war, but perhaps he was one of those people who couldn't stop, just like her.
She understood why Ezra would be working with her considering his previous line of work, he must know an awful lot about the war from the dark side's perspective, something which she was sure it would be important that they document too in order to portray as complete a record as possible.
Something, however, was bothering Hermione about him, and she couldn't quite work out what it was. All the facts about him did not appear to match the man she saw in front of her.
This man was bold, tenacious, had an aristocratic air about him that was hard to fake, a confidence which came from years of leading, and it wasn't what she expected him to be at all. A man with that job, one who must be as good at it as he was, was supposed to be quiet, most likely a little cold, perhaps unintentionally so, and unlikely to attract much attention to himself.
Now that she looked at him closely, as subtly as she could of course, she did see that his face in itself was very, to put it flatly, plain, unmemorable, the perfect face for if you didn't want to be noticed or remembered. Well, it would be, if it weren't for those incredible eyes, and the way he dressed, and his impressive height…in fact, he seemed to be rebelling against the form he had been given.
Sighing, Hermione tried to stop thinking about him, nothing seemed to quite add up but she supposed that perhaps she just couldn't accept that Ezra wasn't what she expected, and despite being all grown up now, she still didn't like to be wrong.
At last the meeting came to an end and everyone stood to leave. Ezra pushed his chair back and made to stand, his hand seeming to reach for something that wasn't there, and he clenched his fist around thin air, his brow creasing in irritation. He glanced up and caught Hermione watching him, and his features quickly returned to normal, any signs of his frustration gone.
Hermione could feel her cheeks reddening at being caught looking at him and decided to make it seem like she had been intending to catch his attention.
"Mr Godtro." She called as she made her way around the table to talk to him, realising just how tall he was when she was stood next to him.
"Please, Miss Granger, call me Ezra." He replied smoothly with a friendly smile as the Minister walked past, one which, although appearing genuine, didn't quite seem to be.
"Alright, Ezra." Hermione continued unperturbed. "When would be convenient for you to meet in order for us to start planning what we need to do?"
"Well, if you don't have any plans this evening, we could always discuss it over dinner?" He suggested. "I would prefer to get started as soon as possible."
Normally, Hermione would have declined. It had been a long day and she had a strong urge to go home and read a book, but she was curious about him and couldn't help but want to find out more.
"Sure." She agreed. "Shall we meet in the atrium in, say, twenty minutes, while I go and close up my office and change?"
"That sounds perfect." He agreed as he turned to leave, his long coat elegantly flowing behind him. "See you then."
Hermione was glad she'd asked for twenty minutes as picking what to wear had proven to be a more complicated task than usual. She kept quite a few clothes in her office for situations such as this but for some reason, tonight, she wanted to impress.
Eventually, she found a dress she was sure she hadn't worn in quite some time and decided that it was perfect. It was simple yet formal and would look appropriate no matter where they went, although, she had a hunch that they might be going somewhere high class on account of her partners apparent very good taste.
She kept telling herself that she definitely hadn't chosen it because it hugged her in all the right places whilst not giving everything away, why on earth would she have even thought about that…
They arrived in the now empty atrium at the same time as each other, exactly on time.
"You look, lovely." Said Ezra as he saw her, his eyes quickly sweeping over her seemingly of their own accord, and it almost seemed as though the words had escaped his lips without his permission.
"Thank you." Hermione replied with a smile, happier than she normally would be to hear someone compliment her.
"Shall we?" He asked, offering her his arm after swiftly composing himself.
"Where are we going?" She enquired as she took it.
Ezra simply smiled the smile which had caught her attention in the first place, the one which made him look ever so sinful and enticing at the same time, as if to say that she would find out when they got there.
Hermione had been right, they were going somewhere expensive, and she was glad she had chosen to wear what she had.
It was a wizarding restaurant in London called The Ironbelly and, despite being named after a species of dragon, was a pretty exclusive establishment, Hermione having only been there a few times herself. Ezra removed his arm from her own when they arrived and lead the way inside. It seemed as though he had been here many times although the staff didn't appear to recognise him, and they were led to a reserved table on the first floor which overlooked the city.
"How did you manage to reserve a table at such short notice?" Hermione asked, impressed, as they sat down. It seemed as though this man would never stop surprising her.
"I've had it for quite some time and it was simply a stroke of luck that our meeting was scheduled for the same day, otherwise I would have been without your delightful company." Ezra explained causing a smile to come unbidden to Hermione's lips.
He ordered a bottle of wine which wasn't on the wine list, one which the waiter said that they actually had since an old client of theirs used to have it brought in by request. It was a rare bottle if Hermione recalled correctly, and she realised that Ezra must have very good taste if that's what he wanted.
"Have you had it before?" He enquired as the bottle arrived, ever so slightly dusty.
"Yes actually." Hermione replied. "A friend and I went to dinner here once and he ordered the same thing."
"Oh really?" He said, one of his eyebrows raised in mild surprise. "And who is this, friend, of yours?" Ezra asked with a glint of intrigue in his eyes.
"Draco Malfoy."
The man before her who always seemed in near perfect control if his expressions seemed to lose his composure at her words, his eyes widening in shock as he almost choked on his wine.
"Are you alright Ezra?" Hermione asked as he coughed, strangely enough feeling genuinely concerned for his wellbeing.
"Yes." He answered distractedly. "Thank you."
"I didn't know you and Draco were close." He added, and it struck Hermione as odd. Sure, a lot of people assumed that she and her childhood nemesis didn't get along, but Ezra seemed so sure of his words, as if he knew the two well.
"I suppose it isn't exactly common knowledge, we do try to keep it discreet."
"Why discreet?" Ezra questioned, sounding far more interested than she would have expected, a look on his face she couldn't quite place. It seemed like he was confused, but about what, Hermione couldn't be sure.
"Well, with both of us still in the public eye I'm sure Rita Skeeter would have a field day if she saw us going out together." Hermione explained. "You know how she is, making stories out of nothing, and neither Draco nor I want false rumours about us all over the Daily Prophet."
"I see." Said Ezra with a sigh of what Hermione could only call relief. "She really is awful isn't she?" He added, a true venom in his voice.
"I think awful is an understatement." She agreed with a laugh.
As the evening went on it became apparent that Ezra and she shared similar views on many more matters than just how annoying Rita Skeeter was, and Hermione enjoyed his company greatly. It had been quite some time since she'd had such stimulating and intellectual conversation, the only others who came close were Draco and Severus.
They talked about politics, the recovery of the wizarding world, recent magical advances and everything in between. Ezra seemed not to want to talk about his personal life so Hermione didn't press him about it, she knew that for some people it was difficult to share their pasts, and he didn't try to ask her about hers either. She hoped that, perhaps, they would find out more about each other in the future.
Strange, why did she want that?
Eventually, as the waiter came with the bill, they decided they needed to talk about their job, it was why they had come here after all.
"I suggest that we take the week to document everything each of us already knows and then meet next Monday to combine our knowledge and go from there." Hermione proposed.
"That seems like a good idea." Ezra agreed as he signed the cheque. "A week should be enough to get everything sorted."
With that, they bid their farewells and went their separate ways. It was not until Hermione was getting into bed, definitely not thinking about her new, rather magnetic acquaintance, that she realised that she had no way of contacting Ezra to organise their next meeting.
He could always contact her at the Ministry but suppose she needed to talk to him about something urgent for whatever reason, how would she do it? She had absolutely no idea where he lived or worked.
At that very moment, she was startled by a pecking sound on her window, so cautiously made her way over to her curtains and peered through them.
She let out a sigh of relief when she saw it was simply an owl, so opened the latch to let the bird inside. It was a striking creature, large, its feathers pitch black and its eyes a familiar shade of grey, almost looking like shining silver in the darkness.
There was only one person she could imagine possessing such a beautiful bird and her thoughts were confirmed when she read the small letter clasped in its beak, sealed with dot of crestless dark green wax. This was Ezra's owl, and he apologised for not thinking of it earlier, but should she need to talk to him then she should send the owl, whose name was apparently Leku, as it was the only one who knew where he lived.
When Hermione finished reading the note she realised that she was smiling, simply reading his words and knowing that he thought of her made her inexplicably happy, and she chose to ignore the fact that her heart was beating a little bit faster.
Hermione sighed, not wanting to think about exactly why she was feeling this way, and welcomed the owl into her home. Transfiguring a coat rack into a large perch which she placed in her room, she provided Leku with some food and water and climbed back into bed.
She felt strangely safe and comforted having the owl watch over her, although she hoped Crookshanks wouldn't bother him too much, suspecting that her cat would probably come off worse anyway if the two didn't get along.
Hermione was excited about this job, it would be interesting and the results most likely very satisfying, but she told herself that her excitement most definitely had nothing at all to do with the man who would be helping her with it.
The mysterious Ezra Godtro.
He sat by the fire, whiskey in hand, as he stared at the book he was reading, none of its words sinking in.
His mind was elsewhere and he felt inexplicably and uncharacteristically confused.
He knew he had to be nice to her, he had to prove that he could, to gain her trust, but he didn't have to actually enjoy doing so.
So why was it that he couldn't get Hermione Granger out of his head?
Well there it is, chapter 2. I expect, at least to start with, they might be short but relatively frequent.
Apologies for not all that much happening so far, I'm still not 100% on top of the plot yet, but I'm hoping the specifics will sort themselves out as I go along.
Note: Leku is pronounced Leck-oo, if anyone was wondering. Those of you familiar with the game Okami might get the tenuous reference there.
Also, has anyone found Ezra's second name interesting at all…hint hint.