I can't hold back. I wanted to give you guys another chapter. It's time that we build a bit more on both Draco and Hermione. One point of warning, the flashbacks jump around so don't assume they're a continuation of each other. Merely memories. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the next chapter. I think it builds nicely on the last two. Thanks for reading and reviewing!
The Monster He Made
He stood painstakingly still in front of his father's desk, waiting for the old man to speak. A chill ran the length of his spine at the way his thumb stroked the snakehead at the end of his cane.
"She bested you again, did she not?"
Draco swallowed but kept his hands loose at his sides. "She's not easy to overcome. What with her natural ability and the way she practically lives in the library. It's unnatural."
"Natural ability," his father drawled.
It was then he knew he'd made a mistake.
"She's a mudblood, Draco. What natural ability could the girl possibly possess?" He tsked lightly under his breath and removed his wand from the cane's sheath with a hissing slice. "No, son, it's you who's failed. Failed again."
Draco drew a harsh breath through his nose and braced himself for what he knew would be next.
"Perhaps if you spent less time acting out for your friends and more time upholding the Malfoy name."
"Father…"
His pale, cold eyes slid over to his son finally and a slim smile graced the hard cut of his mouth. "I don't like it any more than you do, Draco." With a swift flick of his wrist, "Crucio!"
Draco doubled over on himself but knew better than to fall completely to the floor. His bit his tongue against the pain, mild as it may be from a full cruciatus but horrible nonetheless. Tears gathered in the corner of his eyes as he glared at his father's pristine boots.
One…two…three…four…
After a count of ten, his father lifted the curse and watched as his son slowly righted himself. A dark expression had clouded his features now and he waved a dismissive hand.
"Go on with you then. Remember this for next term. I'm getting tired of punishing you every year, son."
~o~O~o~
"Draco," Astoria called out when she saw him.
Draco nodded in acknowledgment and made his way over to her table, plopping down with his lunch in the seat across from her.
"Halfway through your first full day on the case then. Not so bad?"
"Besides suffering the frigid atmosphere, not too terrible," he quipped.
She shrugged and sipped her water. "They're not a bad sort—the aurors. They'll get used to you being here in time."
"Likely by the time I'm done but I was more referring to Granger." Draco poked at his food with his fork. Perhaps next time he'd have to suggest they get lunch somewhere besides the Ministry cafeteria. "She's still an odd sort, isn't she? Hardly socializes with her co-workers from what I can tell and minus Potter and Weasley, she's cold as ice to everyone. Even her secretary seems wary of bothering her."
Astoria shifted in her seat awkwardly as she eyed her old friend, debating on what to divulge to him. She couldn't exactly call herself Hermione Granger's best friend but they'd become friendly enough over the years working in the same office. She had developed an odd understanding of sorts with Harry when it came to protecting the witch.
It wasn't exactly that Hermione couldn't take care of herself. On the contrary, she intimidated most people she encountered. It was that brilliant mind of hers and her unapologetic expectation that her high standards for work performance be met that made many at work nervous. However, it was the few men who'd decided it was a good idea to make a move on her when she'd made it perfectly clear that she wasn't interested that had earned her reputation.
"Well, she doesn't much care to socialize with men really."
Draco lifted a curious brow and smirked, a ready quip on the tip of his tongue. Old habit.
"I didn't realize she swung that way."
The witch rolled her eyes at his obvious jest and shook her head. "That's not what I meant. She's a bit ill at ease around them."
He shrugged and took up a bite of food from his fork as a distraction. Hearing that she was that insecure didn't sit well with him really, feeling he knew why.
"Why though? I mean, I get why she doesn't like me but…"
She never understood his motives for bullying certain students in school yet she had always been a bit more than suspicious about his particular fascination with Hermione Granger, no matter how negative that fascination had seemed.
Negative or positive, Draco Malfoy had been quite preoccupied with the muggle-born witch, more so than any other. It had always been odd to Astoria yet she'd never spoken up in case he turned that animosity towards her the way she'd seen him do to Pansy once or twice.
Astoria took a moment to observe the man seated across from her. Handsome and well put together, there was something in his presence which disconnected from the boy he'd once been. He lacked the sneering expression constantly twisting his face or the dark look in his grey eyes.
It was like there had been a collapse in time where one Draco Malfoy existed and the other couldn't cross through.
"You clearly have no idea the effect you lot had on her in school," she sighed exasperatedly after a moment. "You and your cronies really did a number on her. Have you considered that the way you bullied her affected her into adulthood, Draco?" She shook her head and picked up her fork again. "And no one besides her close circle of friends had the courage to stand up for her. I really never understood why you were so mean to her though. Outside of the blood status thing which was obviously your family and our pureblood society's doing, she wasn't as unattractive as you made her believe she was. There was hardly a day that went by when you didn't compare her to a troll."
Draco ran his tongue across his bottom lip and paused in thought. He'd not truly considered that his teasing—bullying—had really rattled a witch like her. Not with any long-term effects anyway. Sure, he'd made her cry a few times but she'd put up quite the strong fight. He knew he'd made her nervous but she'd never seemed afraid to call him on his shit.
But what did he really know about the witch today? They'd never been friends. They had at one time stood distinctly on different sides of the same line. He knew her study habits, her anger which he incited often, and her frustration. What did he know of her other more sensitive emotions?
"Are you friends with her or something?"
"Or something," Astoria smiled at him again. "She's not so bad really. She was quite helpful after I first started here. You know my family wasn't involved with either side in the war but many thought that was just as bad. She stood up for me and made it perfectly clear that no prejudice of any sort would be tolerated." She shrugged then and eyed her food. "I just get a bit tired of people giving her a hard time."
Draco snorted and set his fork down finally. "Who could possibly still be giving that witch a hard time? She's a bloody war hero and the prize of the Ministry judging by all the articles in the Prophet lauding her work."
Astoria eyed him pointedly. "Men. To bring the conversation full circle, they call her names behind her back. Ice queen, frigid old maid, dragon lady…just to name a few. There was a lot of attention on her post-war and after starting work here. Apparently a lot of men tried to chat her up but she didn't seem to notice and kept to herself. I might be assuming too much but I think her self-esteem is a bit wrecked."
Wrecked her self-esteem? Had he truly?
"I didn't realize it was that bad really," he admitted softly.
The lock he had on his guilt was starting to rattle. From everything Astoria had told him, he'd tear himself apart were he on the other side of things.
Astoria's expression turned sympathetic and she reached out to pat his hand resting on the table. "Draco, I've known you most of our lives. I'm not asking now, but I always questioned why you singled her out when she by far wasn't the only muggle-born our year. Seems to me there's more to the story." She smiled at him then and pulled her hand back to finally cut into her food. "But it's all in the past and that was years ago. Might be a good idea to try and make peace with her. Certainly would make your job easier."
Draco nodded as she popped a bite of food in her mouth and chewed, an encouraging smile still intact.
"Maybe you're right. Won't be easy though."
"Nothing worth having is ever easy. But I can assure you being able to call Hermione a friend is certainly worth it."
Draco stared at her for a moment before a smirk lit his features. "You sound like a bloody Hufflepuff, you know that?"
Astoria huffed at him but smiled as she tossed her napkin at his head. "Oh hush!"
~o~O~o~
On the arm of Viktor Krum! How shocked the school all was when the curly-haired witch walked into the ball on the Bulgarian seeker's arm. She'd been there under their noses all along and few could quite believe their eyes. Hermione Granger had cleaned up quite nicely and heads were surely turning as the Durmstrang student twirled her about the dancefloor.
Even Draco noticed, a bit bitterly, as he stood in the corner avoiding his date. He'd vowed to leave her alone tonight before she'd entered on the arm of that giant dolt. Then he'd caught sight of her and couldn't quite contain his reaction. Instead of being seen gawking at her, fearing someone would report such a reaction back to his father, he hid in the corner and watched.
She looked lovely in blue. Likely would have been excellent in Ravenclaw with those colors.
But she wouldn't have suited Ravenclaw, despite those brains. Too fiery and passionate like a Gryffindor which made her perfect to be his enemy.
Draco groaned when Blaise sidled up next to him and passed him a glass of butterbeer.
"Can you believe Granger? I mean, I don't think she's as unattractive as you do but, bloody hell, even you have to admit she looks good tonight."
He fought the urge to glare at his friend and shrugged. "She's alright."
Blaise gawked at him as he pushed away from the wall and attempted to lose himself amongst the crowd.
Rage boiled inside him. The lie he lived, constricted by ideology he didn't even truly believe in. He glared at her across the ballroom but refused to give in to the usual taunts.
It rankled his nerves to know that he'd have to get up in the morning and hurl vile insults like some bleeding monster. It was exhausting when all he wished to do was study and play a bit of quidditch to get through the school year.
"Fucking Granger," he grumbled to himself as he fled the ballroom.
~o~O~o~
Draco returned from lunch and found Hermione finishing the remains of her sandwich, a book held in one hand as she read.
"Good to know some things never change," he smirked as he draped his jacket over the back of his chair again.
Hermione glanced up at him and sighed as she marked her spot with her bookmark. "Back to annoy me already, are we," she asked.
He watched as she disposed of the trash from her lunch with a wave of her wand and reached for the work she'd pushed aside.
"I'd work elsewhere if I could, Granger but I actually need your help. I've scoured that file you gave me and it makes mentions of testimonies from co-workers to his character but those aren't included. Where do I find them?"
She sighed and stood from her desk. "They're in the evidence room and knowing my secretary's skill with adequate filing, they're likely going to be difficult to find."
Draco followed her from her office as they traveled down the opposite hall. He tipped his head curiously as he got the opportunity to eye her for the first time up close. He didn't remember her having that nice of a rear but then again it was likely not easy to tell under those Hogwarts robes they were all required to wear. He'd always avoided her on the weekends when she was likely to be out of uniform and the last time he'd been this close to her was during the war. She'd been thinner than usual then, just the memory making his skin crawl.
However, now her figure was as he remembered it, if not a bit more mature. He just didn't know how he'd missed the shape of her bum before now.
He almost laughed out loud at himself. If his father were alive and knew of his thoughts, he'd have himself a proper fit.
Fuck him, he thought to himself.
Hermione flicked her wand and lit the evidence room as she led him into it. She approached the filing cabinets to the left and pointed him to the ones to the right.
"I've been harping at them for ages to get this damned room in shape and organized. You can imagine how well that's gone over."
Draco snorted and nodded, "Your friends were never exactly known for their attention to academic detail, Granger."
"I won't argue that," she retorted drily. "You check under testimonies from this year and I'll have a look under character witnesses."
"Seems sound enough."
They were quiet for a few moments, nothing but the sounds of rustling papers filling the room. Draco couldn't stop replaying his conversation with Astoria over and over in his mind. His years at Hogwarts were a continued black spot on his soul. There was no taking back his actions but he could set a new tone.
"So what were you reading," he asked suddenly, eyes trained on the file he was reading.
"As if you'd be interested," she scoffed, her back still to him.
He glanced over his shoulder at the witch. She was standing on her toes, even in her sensible heels, in order to see the files inside the cabinet. For some unknown reason the image made one corner of his mouth inch up slightly.
He turned back to the file in his hands and put it back in its place, not finding the information he needed. "Try me, Granger. You might be surprised."
Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes to herself. Why he was attempting conversation when she was certain he didn't care, she didn't know.
"Something by Nicholas Sparks—he's a muggle author. It's a bit of a guilty pleasure really."
"Isn't he the one that wrote that…whazzit called…Notebook something or another?"
Stunned, she glanced over her shoulder, a wide-eyed expression unshielded on her face. "How in the world do you know that?"
Draco glanced back and shrugged, turning back to the filing cabinet he was searching through. "Pansy made me watch the film. Strange thing muggle films. Anyway, she married a muggle-born wizard, you know."
She was still staring in mild shock at his back. "You're joking."
He chuckled at her shocked tone and smiled to himself. He could just imagine the expression on her face. Wide eyes and mouth hanging open slightly, but no one had been more shocked than him when his former housemate announced her relationship with the muggle-born man.
"Not in the least. I've been tormented with more than a few non-wizarding items over the last few years as a result. They two of them find it hilarious. I suppose it's karma."
Hermione snapped her mouth shut and turned back to the filing cabinet. "I seriously can't believe it."
"Better believe it. He's not so bad…except he's a bit dull. Doesn't read much from my understanding. Lacks conversation. But then Pansy was never much more than her looks."
She snorted inelegantly, "If you say so."
"Okay, so she's no great beauty but she's not so bad."
She shook her head to herself. This conversation had taken quite the unexpected turn but she wasn't about to complain. He was being rather civil after all.
"Whatever you say, Malfoy."
"So why do you read that romance rubbish anyway? Doesn't seem much suited to you."
She paused as she considered his words and replaced the file she was searching. After a beat, she finally answered, "It's not like you'd truly know. Sometimes it's a nice escape to believe such a life can be possible."
"Why can't it be? I hear you have quite the male following in the Ministry."
Hermione whipped around so fast that she almost swore she gave herself whiplash. "From who?!"
Draco met her wide-eyed stare with a confused expression of his own. "Astoria. We had lunch today. She said you'd become friends." He didn't dare divulge the rest of the conversation they'd had.
Hermione blinked owlishly and finally nodded. "Oh, well, yes. She's always been fairly nice to me. It felt wrong not to help her when she needed it after she was hired on here."
Draco shrugged and turned back to the cabinet. "But even still, you're not a troll, Granger. Why live in books?"
Hermione nearly choked on her own saliva at that comment. "That's not what you told me on a weekly basis in school."
Draco sighed to himself and screwed his eyes shut for a moment. Astoria's words were coming back loud and clear now. "I was young and stupid. You shouldn't have listened to me."
Unnerved by the decent conversation and his maybe-sort-of apology, she whipped around with a file in hand, glad to have a reason to change the subject.
"I believe this is what you need."
Hermione handed the documents over quickly and snapped the filing cabinet drawer shut. Draco watched as she turned and marched off for her office again without another word.
Perhaps they'd never be friends but maybe he could at least get the witch to stop being so uncomfortable around him. Especially after his conversation with Astoria, he felt he owed her that much.
In Hermione Granger's eyes, he'd been a monster.
With his freedom from his father's influence and their reintroduction to each other, he intended to at least change that image.
~o~O~o~
By the end of his first week, Draco had finally settled into working in her office. To build his case for the Ministry against Tilshire, he needed ready access to all their reports and evidence. Without Hermione there to immediately sign off on his requests, he'd have ended up in metaphorical magical tape for weeks.
She still wasn't overly friendly to him—or most who dared to stop by her office. The redheaded menace and Potter stopped by regularly to check on her…and keep an eye on him, he was certain. He'd witnessed an especially frosty interaction between her and Cormac McLaggen from the Experimental Charms Department when he came to request her to review whether a spell they wanted to try would even be legal.
Granted, in Draco's opinion, the git deserved what he got from her. He still seemed to be a lecherous sort so when Hermione caught the idiot staring down her blouse, he couldn't stop himself from snickering when she gave him a good dressing down.
Taking his lunch on Friday, he found her already seated in the Ministry's cafeteria at a corner table with a book in one hand and a fork slowly shoveling food into her mouth with the other. With the Weasel and Potter out on a case, they'd left her to her own devices apparently which explained her mumbling about forgetting her lunch that morning.
He grabbed a sandwich and approached her slowly, careful not to startle the witch like he'd done the day before when he returned from lunch.
"Are you ever not in the company of a book," he questioned with what he hoped looked like a teasing smile playing on his lips.
Hermione lifted her gaze from her book and sighed. "Have you ever not been a prat?"
Draco tilted his head side to side in thought and then shook it, a full smirk now on his lips. "Likely not. Mind if I join you?" He didn't wait for her rejection and slid himself into the chair opposite her, fighting back laughter at her surprised look.
She snapped her mouth shut though and merely sighed as she returned her attention to her book.
He watched for a moment as her eyes scanned across the words on the pages, wondering briefly just how many words she could read per minute. One thing he'd never questioned was how ridiculously brilliant the witch was.
"Forgot to give you this earlier. You might give that a read when you finish what you're on," he added casually, pushing a small book towards her as he bit into his sandwich.
Hermione looked up to see and bit her lip as she read the cover of the book.
"You've not read it, have you?"
"What is this," she asked, ignoring his question and eyes still trained on the book like it was a snake ready to strike.
Draco snorted, "It's a book, Granger."
Her eyes snapped up to him, her brown irises darkening in irritation. "I'm aware of that, you dolt. I mean, why are you giving me a book?"
He shrugged and chewed another bite of his sandwich. "Peace offering?"
He really hadn't been certain how to get on her good side and get her to relax around him. His attempts at casual conversation hadn't helped melt the ice. Astoria had recommended the book idea and he couldn't see any reason not to try it. Anything to soften the woman up a bit.
Draco noted the color in her eyes softening slightly before she glanced back at the book. He'd scoured the shelves of Flourish and Blott's the evening before until he came across the one he'd chosen. He'd found it in the mystery section but it was apparently also a romance. A new release that he thought she might not have picked up for herself yet, if she were even interested in it.
Hermione finally marked the page in her current book and carefully picked up the one he'd slid in front of her, turning it over to scan the back cover.
"It's not exactly in your nature to offer to make peace with me. Why?"
He chewed the corner of his lip for a moment, thankful her intense eyes were still trained on the book and not him. "We're adults now and this is only week one, Granger. I'm going to have to work with you for a few months still while I prepare this case. I know I was a right little monster to you growing up," he smirked when she snorted but kept her eyes on the book in her hands, "and I guess I just felt it might all go easier if we can at least be civil."
Hermione chewed her lip for a moment, her mind more on him than the book in her hands. Considering their past, he'd been rather courteous really in the past week. Sarcastic and smirking as always but lacking his old venom. This…apology…was really the first acknowledgment from the blonde of their heated past.
She chose to be a Gryffindor to the core against her better judgement. "Fine, but I won't hesitate to hex you the moment I feel you've gotten out of line."
Draco eyed the slender hand she was holding out to him and slowly clasped it with his own, ignoring the burning sensation and the jolt in his chest at the contact.
"Fair enough."
