Enjoy the next chapter! Thank you to everyone who put this story on story alert.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
Hermione found herself lying in bed and wide awake at 5am the next morning. After responding to Rose's letter the night before she found her mind constantly thinking about the mission with Malfoy. While she did trust Harry it was still hard to see that Malfoy had changed, not that she had spoken to him that much since school. She was curious about his ex-wife though, she didn't remember ever hearing about a wedding. Glancing at the clock the neon letters glowed back at her showing that she had been laying there for an hour. Sighing loudly, she climbed out of bed to face the day.
Arriving in the kitchen, Hermione was surprised to find Hugo already dressed and eating cereal.
"Mom, can you be a chaperone for a school trip we're going on next week?" asked Hugo while his mother went about getting her own breakfast
"Where's the trip to?"
"The Magical Zoo, we still need two more parents to come with us."
"I'll have to see how much I'll be working on this mission I was just assigned to first."
"You have a new mission?"
"Yes, I'm working with Draco Malfoy for Harry and Kingsley."
"So he's an auror?"
"Yes, why Hugo is something wrong?" Hermione had noticed a change in her son's voice; he seemed upset.
"So you'll have to do field work then." Hugo had stopped eating and was just staring at his bowl, avoiding looking at his mother
It dawned on Hermione why Hugo was sad; the though of possibly losing his mother a second time must be terrifying him. "No sweetie, Uncle Harry made sure that I won't be in the field, that is why I'm partnered with Draco, he will be the one going out into the field, not me."
"Okay." Hugo got up sulkily to put his bowl away
"Hugo I'm serious, I won't go into the field unless I'm the last person at the Ministry when they need people, got it?"
Hugo laughed at the idea of his mom being the only person at the Ministry "Got it."
Arriving at her office Hermione was surprised to find Draco already there and unlike last time he was sitting in a chair in front of her desk.
"You're here early."
"What's with the tone of surprise Granger, can't believe I actually want to do work."
"No its not…it's just…well I thought you'd be having issues with this whole partnership thing."
"And you thought that I would voice them to you."
"The Malfoy I know would."
Draco studied Hermione from his position in front of her desk, she appeared sure of herself as if she was fully expecting him to call her a mudblood. "Well Granger having a son resulted in my attempt to turn over a new leaf."
"Your son has changed you?" Hermione really couldn't believe this now
"Slowly, I'm not saying I'm a reformed person why don't you just ask your daughter, it sounds like she's getting to know Scorpius."
"Or I could ask Albus."
"Right, I'm still in shock that Potter's kid is in Slytherin."
"And you're not wondering how my daughter got in?"
"Oh I'm wondering that too, but I guess if Saint Potter's kid can get in then anything can happen."
"Right then." Hermione was slightly unnerved by this new Malfoy, he had yet to insult her and while he was still annoying to a point; it definitely wasn't the same Malfoy she knew in school, "Have you found anything in those reports?"
" No there isn't anything useful in these reports, I believe the one with the locations of the dark magic activity is on your desk somewhere."
The pair spent the morning looking through reports upon reports. Hermione set up a map of the country on the wall and they placed dots where dark activities had been happening with some hopes that it would lead them somewhere. Glancing up at the clock Hermione was surprised to see that it was twelve thirty in the afternoon.
"I think its time for lunch." said Hermione as she tossed yet another report onto the growing pile on the floor with a sigh
"What, oh lunch, sounds good." Draco stood up and stretched, he had been so engrossed in a file that he hadn't even noticed the time.
"Do you just want to eat here at the ministry?" Hermione asked
"Sounds fine with me, we can go somewhere else another time."
They arrived in the cafeteria and split up to get food before sitting down at a table. As they ate Hermione began to get curious about this "new" Malfoy.
"So Malfoy, who exactly is this ex-wife of yours?"
Draco lifted an eyebrow as he looked at Hermione, "Astoria Greengrass, she was two years below us at school."
"And it didn't work out?"
"Well let's just say that when you come home from work and find your four year old son playing unsupervised in the family and then go looking for your wife who you find in your bed with some man things don't tend to work out."
"She was cheating on you with Scorpius in the house!"
"Yes and when I told him that mommy wouldn't be around much anymore, he asked if she was going to live with the man who stops by a lot."
"Oh my goodness that's horrible."
"It didn't take to long to get the divorce finalized but she has been haggling me ever since for more money and for the parental rights to Scorpius."
"Doesn't she come from a wealthy pureblood family? Why would she need more money?"
"Her father wasn't to pleased that she wasted her arranged marriage by cheating on me and cut her off, and it turns out that man she was with left her once she ran out of money so now she's bothering me for more."
"So she's just living on the streets then."
"Oh no, last I heard Pansy Parkinson is letting her live at her house probably so the two can gripe and complain about me."
"Wow Malfoy now you have two women who hate your guts."
"It's just this charm I have, Merlin forbid I might actually want to be happy with someone."
Hermione had opened her mouth to make a comment just to shut it, Malfoy wasn't happy, "What about Scorpius? I'm sure he makes you happy."
"He does don't get me wrong, but it would be nice to have a woman that I could also be happy with."
"Happy or in love?" As soon as the words left her mouth she regretted them, Hermione wasn't even sure where the question came from
Draco was slightly taken a back by the question but was thankfully saved by Harry, who picked that moment to sit down at the table with his lunch.
"The two of you are eating a late lunch" said Harry before noticing the strange looks that Draco and Hermione were giving each other, "Did I interrupt something?"
"No!" both Hermione and Draco said rather quickly, "We were actually just leaving Harry." Said Hermione, "Yeah Potter, we still have a lot of work to get done." Draco added as they stood up from the table and left, leaving behind a very confused Harry
Later that night, Hermione arrived at the Potter's house to pick up Hugo. Walking inside she was greeted by the smell of Ginny's cooking.
"Hi mom!" said Hugo as he rushed to hug his mother who was barley through the door, "Aunt Ginny is making us some food to take home."
"That's very nice of her, go get your school stuff together." Hermione watched as Hugo rushed upstairs in search of his school back before walking into the kitchen, "Thanks for watching Hugo, Ginny."
"It wasn't a problem Hermione, Lily likes having him here to play with her; so does it look like this is going to be a long mission?"
"Oh yes, we spent all day working and didn't make any progress."
"Then I'll just bring Hugo over here when I pick them up from school."
"That would be great Ginny and thanks for making us dinner."
"Well I couldn't let the two of you starve; you needed reminding in school to eat when you got into an assignment, so I figured this would be a good way for you to have food."
"I wasn't that bad in school."
"Whatever you say Hermione, do you think that you'll be able to chaperone the trip to the zoo next week?"
"I don't think so, unless we make a lot of headway within the next five days."
"Darn it, I was hoping you'd be there."
"Don't want to socialize with the other parents, huh."
"Not really."
The two women laughed as Lily and Hugo walked into the kitchen with Harry behind them. "What are you laughing at?" asked Harry
"Oh, just your wife's attempt to avoid talking to other parents."
"What?"
"She'd upset that I won't be there to talk with her at the zoo next week."
"You can't come with us mom?" asked Hugo
"It doesn't look like it right now, if something changes then I will be there but for now you're going to go home with Aunt Ginny after school, okay?"
"Okay, I'm already to go!"
Ginny handed Hermione the basket with the food before hugging her and Hugo goodbye. After saying goodbye to Harry and Lily; Hermione and Hugo flooed home.
Over the next few days Hermione and Draco made almost no progress. They map was full of dots and Draco had gone out to multiple locations looking for any sign that the group had been at a locations. When he would come back empty handed they placed an x over the dot. So far a lot of the dots had been crossed out and there were still more dots to go. That Tuesday afternoon Hermione found herself eating lunch alone in her office as Draco was out in the field. While looking over the reports of the wizards that were believed to be in the neo-Death Eater group, Hermione's office door was thrown open and bounced of the wall with a bang. Glancing up from her desk Hermione looked at the brown haired women now standing in the doorway.
"Can I help you Ms?" asked Hermione trying to figure out who this women was
"Where is he!" the women shouted advancing into the office
"Where's who?" asked Hermione confused as to what this women was talking about
"Draco! He keeps saying that he's working but I know better, he's probably busy sleeping with you, you little slut." She yelled
Hermione stood up from her desk, slamming her hands on it causing things to fall over, "I am not a slut, you insolent women, Draco and I are partnered on an assignment."
"Well then where is he!"
"Out in the field, I have no idea when he'll get back."
"Oh that's bloody convenient, you tell him that I want the money he owes me or else I'm taking Scorpius, got it."
Before Hermione could respond a demanding voice came from the doorway, "Astoria what the hell are you doing here." Hermione looked past Astoria to see Draco standing in the doorway looking pissed. Astoria spun around to face her ex-husband before advancing on him.
"You still owe me 300,000 galleons, where is it?"
"I owe you no such amount, you got the last of your money five months ago it's not my fault if you've spent it all."
"You're supposed to send me that amount every four months and you know it and now you're a month late."
"Our lawyers changed the requirements of our divorce six months ago and I was only required to give you that last payment; it's not my fault that you agreed to it maybe if you didn't want to lose my money you shouldn't have cheated on me."
"Well maybe you should have been around more often, all you did was work and take care of Scorpius you hardly had any time for me."
"That's what a parent does! They work and take care of their kid and you did none of that."
"That's what house elves are for its how you and I were raised!"
"I won't have Scorpius end up like I was in school and that's that, you are not changing the terms we've set up for our divorce, go get a job or something and leave us alone! Draco literally grabbed Astoria and pushed her out of Hermione's office before slamming the door shut in her face and locking it.
"Was it necessary to lock the door?" Hermione asked from behind her desk where she was still standing
"I don't want her back in here, I'm sorry she even came here in the first place, hopefully she wasn't to mean to you."
"Oh you know, she just called me a slut and said that we were sleeping together."
Draco looked up at Hermione confused, she didn't look mad but the venom in her voice told a different story, "I'm surprised that Astoria was alive when I got here."
"She has no idea how lucky she is."
"Well hopefully she never comes back; we need to add another x to the map."
"Again? This mission is getting no where." Hermione fell back into her seat annoyed while Draco added the x to the map
"I did over hear some men talking in the bar about a guy, Tristan; they were talking about something he did a few days ago in New Castle."
Hermione started to flip through the files on her desk, "I don't think we have any reports from New Castle."
"What about this guy Tristan?"
"I haven't come across that name yet but I haven't finished going through those files."
"Hopefully his name is in there, otherwise our one break in this case many be hopeless."
Hours went by as they searched through more and more files for one name. They didn't realize the time until the lock clicked in the door and it flew open once again but this time is was Hugo who ran through with Harry behind him, "See Uncle Harry I told you they were still working." said Hugo as he sat down in between Draco and Hermione on the couch.
"Yeah well it was your Aunt who said otherwise not me." said Harry looking at Draco and Hermione who were both sitting on the couch with papers all around them
"And what else did Ginny think we were doing?" asked Hermione noticing how uncomfortable Harry got with the question
"Well you know the kinds of activities that require you to lock your office door for example." said Harry as his ears got a little red
"For your information Potter I locked the door to keep Astoria from barging in here again." said Malfoy
"And why would your ex-wife barge in here?"
"Because she wants more money and I locked it to keep her from coming back as she said some rather nasty things to Hermione."
"What kinds of things?" demanded Harry who was upset that someone would bad mouth his best friend
"The kinds of things that you do not repeat in front of kids." said Malfoy looking down at Hugo who still sat between him and Hermione
"I'm not a kid! Proclaimed Hugo who realized he was being talked about
"Oh really?" said Draco
"Yeah, I'm nine." Hugo said proudly
"Well my apologizes then I didn't realize that you were such a big boy." said Draco who found himself starting to simile at the young boy
"Mom I like him, who is he?" Hugo asked Hermione as he looked up at his mother, Draco and Harry both laughed a bit at Hugo's antics
"This is my partner Draco Malfoy." said Hermione smiling at her son
Hugo turned back to Draco and stuck out his hand, "I'm Hugo Weasley, are you going to date my mom?"
Hermione was mortified at what Hugo had just said while Harry was trying his hardest not to burst out laughing; before Hermione could say anything Draco had taken Hugo's hand and shook it, "Nice to meet you Hugo, I'm Draco and right now I'm pretty sure that your mom and I will just stick to being work partners that okay?"
Hugo considered this response, "I guess so, but Aunt Ginny won't like that answer."
"She won't?" said Draco
"Nope, Aunt Ginny and Rose are trying to get mom to go on more dates so she'll probably try to get you to ask mom out." With this response from Hugo, Harry was close to tears from trying not to laugh while Hermione's face had turned such a bright red that it competed with Hugo's Weasley red hair
"Well then how about I'll deal with your Aunt when that happens."
"I guess that'll be fine, good luck though she's very good with jinxes and hexes."
"Trust me Hugo I think he knows that." said Harry as he grinned
"Yes I do." said Draco
"Mom are you ready to go home?" Hugo asked Hermione
"Yes, let's go, I'll see you in the morning Draco." Hermione said as she got up from the couch and gathered her things to go home, "Oh I may be running a little late, Hugo's field trip to the zoo is tomorrow and I want to make sure they get there okay."
"That's fine there isn't too much to do besides reading through files." said Draco as he stood from the couch, "What do you want to see at the zoo?" Draco asked Hugo
"I really want to see the Griffins! They're my second favorite magical animal, my first is dragons but the zoo doesn't have any so I see the ones that Uncle Charlie has when we visit." Hugo said excitingly
"Griffins are pretty cool but I am partial to dragons myself." said Draco as the small group walked out of Hermione's office
"Of course you are." said Hermione "Say good bye to Draco, Hugo maybe you'll see him again."
"Bye Draco keep an eye on my mom for me." said Hugo as he gave Draco a quick hug, the adults all stared at the young boy in shock and Hermione's eyes watered a bit. Once Hugo let go, Draco headed back to his own office while Harry, Hermione and Hugo left the ministry to go home.
Hermione was surprised to find Hugo sitting at the kitchen table with his school bag all packed the next morning. "All ready to go?" she asked as she looked through the bag to make sure he had everything
"Yup! I have everything, can we go now?" Hugo asked in a hurry
"Where is your emergency coin?" Hermione asked, she had made Rose and Hugo emergency coins that worked the same way as the galleons she made for the DA
"Right here in my pocket." said Hugo pulling the coin out to show his mother before putting it back
"Good, now Aunt Ginny will be there so…"
"Stay near her, I got it mom I'm not a little boy."
"How could I forget you're nine."
"Exactly, now can we go?"
"I guess so."
Hermione dropped Hugo off at school and once she made sure that he was with Ginny and saw that they left with no problems she headed to work
By mid-morning all Draco and Hermione had found was that Tristan had grown up in an orphanage in England and while he had been offered a place at Hogwarts he turned it down and went to a smaller local wizard school.
"Why is there hardly anything on this guy! Shouldn't there be OWL and NEWT results for him and where he works or lives." Draco said in frustration
"There should be, maybe we should go and check out the orphanage he grew up in maybe they'll be able to help us." said Hermione standing up from the couch
"Wait a second, we? You're supposed to stay here." Draco stated as he stood up as well
"We're just going to an orphanage Malfoy and what if you forget to ask a certain question, I'm going with you."
"No you're not, Potter will murder me if he finds out I've let you go with me."
"I'll deal with Harry if we finds out, now let's go." Hermione strolled out of the office before Draco could stop her, resulting in Draco running after her
"Well that was a waste of time." said Draco as they walked out of the orphanage, the women running the orphanage wasn't the same women who ran it when Tristan was there so she was of no help
"At least we tried." said Hermione distracted as she dug through her purse looking for something
"Want to get lunch since we're out? Granger, Granger, Hermione what's wrong? Draco had turned to face Hermione and found her staring at something in her hand, her face pale
She shakily looked up a Draco, fear in her eyes, "Something's wrong with Hugo." she whispered
"What! What do you mean something's wrong?"
"He sent me a message with his emergency coin, it…it says…it says there's an attack."
"At the zoo?" Hermione could only nod in response, "Hermione, I'll go there, you go back to the ministry and get Harry, I'll get Hugo, okay."
"No, No I'm going with you Draco."
"Hermione it's too dangerous, Harry would want you to go back to the ministry."
"I don't care it's my son and I'm going."
Draco could see how determined she was and decided against forcing her to stay behind, "Alright but I'll apparate us though as I'd rather not end up being splinched." Draco grabbed Hermione's hand and apparated them to the magical zoo.
Arriving at the zoo Draco and Hermione were greeted to the sight of wizards running all over the place and a few burning buildings. Rather quickly Hermione spotted a flash of red hair, "Ginny!" she called
Spinning around Ginny spotted them and ran in their direction, "What are you doing here?"
"Hugo sent me a message with his coin, where is he?"
"Hermione I honestly haven't seen him since this all happened, I've spent the last few minutes trying to find him."
Draco watched as Hermione's face fell and her eyes watered, "What is going on?" he asked Ginny
"All of a sudden these wizards apparated all around us and started shooting spells, I sent Harry a patronus and there are aurors here now but they're still dueling the other wizards in the building." Just as she finished saying this a series of spells flew through an opening in the building and Draco pulled the two women out of the way
"Hermione I'll go into the building and find Hugo, you stay here with Ginny."
"Draco I am going to find my son, I'll be fine I am one of the top duelers in the ministry."
Draco knew that she was right and it would be foolish of him to run in the building without any backup, "Fine but stay close."
The pair ran into the building and past the mainly empty paddocks of animals. "Where would he be?" asked Draco as they went past another deserted hallway
"I have no idea, he was probably looking at some animals when it happened but that doesn't really help us." said Hermione as she frantically looked around for any trace of red hair
"Actually it does, we need to go this way." Draco said suddenly sounding very sure of himself as he took off down a hall, Hermione right behind him, "Where are going?" she asked, "The Griffin Arena." said Draco
They reached the arena and Draco slowly pushed open the door to look inside, seeing nothing he gestured for Hermione to go in before he entered. Hermione walked along the one wall, keeping an eye on the griffins that were still in the arena, "Are the griffins acting strange?" she asked Draco having noticed that the two griffins were standing in front of a circle of rocks not moving towards them
"May be, I don't know much about griffins." said Draco keeping an eye out for anything
"Oh my goodness, Draco Hugo is on the other side of the griffins!
"What!" Draco snapped his head around and stared at the area behind the griffins, sure enough there was Hugo sitting on the ground with his legs pulled up scared
Hermione advanced on the griffins that moved to the side allowing her to move towards Hugo. She was half way towards him when Draco shouted, "Hermione look out!" she raised a shield just in time as a stunning spell zoomed towards her. Running the rest of the distance to Hugo, Draco started sending spells at the black robed wizards that had just entered. Harry and three aurors entered the arena behind Draco and they assisted him in the duel. "Hermione run back over here with Hugo!" Draco shouted over the spells. Grabbing Hugo Hermione made a mad dash with Hugo running slightly in front of her. The griffins had taken to the air and were circling over head. Just as Hugo reached his uncle he turned around to look for his mother, "Mom!" he shouted as he watched a streak of blue light hit his mother, Hermione screamed as she saw the terrified look on Hugo's face before falling into unconsciousness.
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