Authors Note:
I know that I have turned this into more manageable chunks for me and that they have been fluffed out rather drastically. I do apologize that it took me so long to get back to my stories but I am back and I am making progress... Not as much on Lost Princess, but my muse is escaping me there, I will get there.
As always, I own nothing in the HP universe.
Hermione had no knowledge that she was the center of Draco Malfoy's thoughts. Flourish and Blotts was such a vast place and she was not sure exactly what she was looking for, so she had purchased some second hand preliminary tomes to go through. There was a lot more information about the time period than she had originally planned on reading, but it was so fascinating. With each page that she turned she fell back in time and learned more and more about the world she called home. Each time she thought she was getting closer to an answer, fifteen more questions seemed to crop up. The stack of parchment that she had grabbed seemed to be shrinking as she wrote down her questions and the answers as she went. She was blowing hair out of her eyes for the umpteenth time when she heard Harry's voice from outside her door, "Hermione?"
"Harry? Come in!" She closed the book she was reading after placing in a scrap of parchment as a placeholder. "You are back early, " she said as she smiled up at him and he walked into the room and noticed her stack of parchment.
"Yeah, I had that thing at the Ministry this morning?" He looked sheepish as he spoke and she raised her eyebrow at him. "I agreed to testify at Lucius Malfoy's trial." Hermione's mouth opened and then closed, but Harry continued speaking, "I spoke to Kingsley and asked him to consider a little leniency on behalf of the Malfoys. If it wasn't for Narcissa and Draco I might not be here. He agreed to take that into consideration as long as I testified to what I knew, and if I brought some of Snape's memories with me to prove my point." He took a tentative seat on the edge of her bed, where there wasn't any papers, and looked over at her. "I heard that you spoke to Malfoy today."
"I…" Hermione bit her lip and took a breath before answering, "I saw him there yes. I ran into him actually, trying to find my way through the maze that is the Department of Mysteries." Both she and Harry chuckled at this, thinking back to the year they ran through the same maze of hallways. "He seemed very different from what I remember." She frowned thinking back to the moment she knew that was him, "what happened at the trial?"
"Lucius got time, of course," Hermione nodded knowing that was an inevitable outcome, "but I urged Kingsley to look at something Muggles do sometimes." Her eyebrow went up at this. She always seemed to forget that Harry was raised with Muggles. "They told him he has to serve at least five years before his case was looked at again and that he needs to prove himself. Kingsley is going to continue to work with him in regards to information on the inner workings of Riddle's circle, and then the Malfoy name needs to garner some good publicity."Shock was surely written on her face as Harry picked up one of the books and thumbed through a few pages. "Kingsley wants Draco and you to work closely together on a project, me too at some point." Something crossed his face, but she wasn't sure exactly what it was, "I think it will go a long way. The ministry is not going to press charges against Draco and Narcissa."
"You asked the Ministry to adopt a probation law?" Harry had said so much in just a few sentences, however she was still stuck on what he had done. "That's brilliant Harry. We need more muggle inclusion if we want to pass as muggles." Hermione watched as Harry nodded his head, and then stood to pace the length of the room. "I spoke with Kingsley for my interview, we discussed a few potential projects. I can see why he would want Malfoy to work with me, and to be quite honest it's probably one of the better projects he could be put on to up his name in the public eye. That is if it gets off the ground, but to be honest it is a great program." Her back was to him, but she could feel his eyes on her all the same.
"Mione I'm sure it's going to be great, and if and when you need me for it you will let me know right?" She nodded her head before turning around and seeing Harry rifling through her papers. "What is all this? Is this some kind of research for your project? Witches in the 17th century? Bit old for something that would be implemented now."
"Sort of, I saw Percy there at the ministry and he was speaking in a rather cryptic manner. I'm just trying to decode something. He said to send a letter to McGonagall asking permission to use the library at Hogwarts." Hermione shrugged and picked up one of the large tomes, "Percy seems to think something big is going to happen. Apparently I can find the clues to this big mystery some time within that of the Great Witch Hunts."
"Hermione, it's Percy. He can't really do secrecy."Harry looked over the top of his spectacles, "I mean do you remember the whole thing with Fudge?"
"Don't look at me like that Harry!" She laughed and sat down in her favorite chair, "he seemed rather worried about something. It was almost like he couldn't say too much." Her lip was feeling a bit bruised when she chomped down on it again in thought. "What department is he with again?"
"Magical Law Enforcement I think. Or a division of it." Harry seemed to ponder that question, "he never really said what his focus was, but yeah I am almost certain that it was Law Enforcement, or writing the laws." His eyebrows scrunched up. "Maybe it has something to do with a law. What did he tell you?"
"He said that I needed to look into the Great Witch Hunts and the direct aftermath. So perhaps laws that came directly as a result of that time period…"One of the books on the bottom of the yet unread pile caught her attention. "I picked up a few things from Flourish and Blotts, but I am not sure if they hold the answers I seek. I am going to have to write that letter and see if I can get access to Hogwarts. That is only if, of course, I cannot find what I am looking for here..." Her words trailed off as she got lost in thought, though Harry was still sitting there watching her. "Are you headed to the Weasley's then?" The words were out of her mouth when she finally came out of her daze and remembered her best friend was sitting there on her bed.
"Yeah, I…. I need to talk to Gin." A blush worked its way up Harry's features and Hermione hid a smile. "Did you want to come?" The look of utter sheepishness was the only thing stopping her from laughing and smacking him with something.
"No. You know why I can't." At this she sighed and rubbed her arms, "Not just yet." The words were soft, but she knew Harry could hear them. They had this conversation a time or two now, and they would again. "I did owl Mrs Weasley earlier, I'm sure she understands." She flashed Harry a shy smile, "send them my love would you?" Harry nodded as she got up from the chair and reached for her cloak. "I have a few things that I want to go pick up from Diagon Alley, and there was a shop in muggle London I wanted to pop in."The question in his eyes was answered and he nodded, then stepped out of the room and down the stairs. As she came down, she wrapped her arms around his middle and gave him a hug, "wish me luck!" Her smile was bright as she grabbed at the floo powder and called "Diagon Alley." Harry watched her drop the powder and disappear into the green flames.
"Always Hermione, you know that." Harry whispered into the empty living room and slumped down on the couch.
Hermione loved Diagon Alley, she always had. War was hard on the alley, as with everything else; buildings had been burned and broken, businesses closed, and very few people shopped, for fear of their life. Now that the war was over a year gone, things were slowly turning back to normal, and the alley was returning to its former glory. Her first stop was Gringotts, when she had come to Flourish and Blotts earlier she hadn't needed the stop, however her first jaunt into her favorite store had impacted her purse and she was in need of funds from her vault. The goblins were still quite leery of her, of course no one could blame them. She and her friends did break in, steal something from a vault that was not theirs, get a goblin killed, steal a dragon, and break back out again. Somethings were just harder to get over than others. Instead of taking the journey down, which the goblins did not like to do, she wasn't allowed anymore, she handed over her key and filled out a withdrawal slip. It was only a few moments before the requested coins were placed into a purse for her and she slipped them into her beloved beaded bag.
Thought it was May, the air held a coldness to it, a sense of foreboding perhaps that Hermione couldn't quite place. Thankful for her cloak, she headed down the alley and into her favorite shop: Flourish and Blotts. "Back again are we?" The innkeeper called with a smile once she was inside. Hermione couldn't help but return the gesture with a flush and went directly back to the history section with a wave. Having already been there looking, she knew that the materials she was there for this time were not going to be in the same place. With all the reading earlier, and with Harry's help, she believed that she was looking for a law book. Even having been coming into this shop since she was eleven, it was hard for her to navigate the store with the intention of finding books on law.
It hadn't been long before Hermione bumped into her second person that day. "Oh! Hermione! I didn't see you there. So sorry!" A quiet voice sounded under a precarious looking stack of books.
Hermione came around the side of the stack to see someone she recognized trying desperately to right the stack, "Susan? Susan Bones, my goodness it's good to see you." Helping the poor girl right the stack, she offered Susan a hand off of the floor.
"Agreed, it has been a while there hasn't it Hermione?" Susan's smile was infections as always, the Huufflepuff had always seemed to be in a great mood. Looking at her now, Hermione could clearly see that the girl had grown into herself. No longer the shy slip of a thing that she was in Hogwarts, but a beautiful woman with long brown tresses hanging well past her shoulders. "Doing some more research?" The question threw Hermione out of her musings and she flushed looking at the collection of books she seemed to amass in her arms.
"Ah,... a little" The possibility of her face getting any warmer was slim to none, unless of course a particular blond showed up and began walking around topless. Where, in the name of Merlin, did that come from?
" Anything I can help you find perchance?" The woman before her was looking over the titles in her hand, and gestured to the shop, "I do work here."
"Oh, brilliant." Hermione replied, "would you happen to have any 18 century law books?" She thought after a moment taking the chance that Susan would know better than she, "I'm looking for some specifics but to be fair, I don't know what specifically if you know what I mean." The brunette in front of her laughed and then Hermione thought about the project that she and Kingsley were speaking about. "Oh, and I will need to get together some books on what children need to know, or should know before they go to Hogwarts. Perhaps parenting books?"
"That's... peculiar, but yes, I believe we do carry those kinds of things." Susan paused to think, "now the parenting books are over there in the front corner by the window… until the new school books arrive of course, and then law…" The brunette turned and looked about the first floor quickly before her head turned up to the top of the shop, "yes...law books would be up here." Guiding Hermione around the stacks, Susan motioned her up the stairs. They weaved their way into the stacks and between book cases until they came to a section Hermione had yet to visit. "This would be law, they go in chronological order. Most of these texts are expensive, though perhaps if you found which one you are looking for you could go to a solicitor or a library to see if you could borrow it." Hermione's eyes looked over the books as Susan thought, "This is a rarely used section of the store and I know that no one would disturb you if you wanted to read a few to see if they were what you needed."
"Brilliant Susan!"Hermione glanced over the large books and worried her bruised bottom lip, "but the only library I know of would be the one in Hogwarts….."
"Oh!" The outburst of sound from the other woman made Hermione jump, "There are a few, I am rather surprised that you didn't know. They are notoriously hard to get into, you have to know the right people of course The Ministry has one," Susan said with a smile as she located the shelf Hermione was looking for. "The Unspeakables do plenty of research out of it. However, I think that your best bet would be to talk to a solicitor that has tomes from around that time."
"That is an amazing idea Susan!" She said as she ran her fingers over the spines of the tomes infront of her, "I never would have thought to go directly to a solicitor. I was worried about getting permission to use the Hogwarts library. Thank you," Susan smiled and went to turn around, "oh, Susan I try to get together with a group of people for tea or lunch once a week, I would love to have you yeah?" Susan nodded with a smile, "look for my owl then, and thanks for this!" Hermione watched the woman retreat down the stairs before she pulled one of the heavy books from the shelf and opened to the table of contents, searching for the particular years she needed. It took almost an hour and countless books before she came across a few that she could potentially use. There was not much, and she feared that she would most likely be better off going to see a solicitor for that particular problem.
Hermione stood and stretched her back to work out the kinks of sitting too long, and then began to right the mess that she had created. Once she was happy with the area she wandered back down the stairs to look into the section with the parenting books. The vast array of them was quite shocking, she knew that muggles had a large variety, but she was sure that with so much tradition in the wizarding world that there wouldn't be that many to choose from. Opting to only take a few of them she grabbed ones that seemed to encompass more of a general aspect of parenting a magical child and headed over to the desk to pay.
"We meet again Miss Granger," the cool feminine tones sounded behind her. Turning, she saw the petite form of one Narcissa Malfoy. "Finding you here is of no shock however, Draco has always mentioned that you are quite the clever witch." A smile graced her features lightly, but her eyes seemed to scan the shop continuously.
"He did?" There was no stopping the question and yet Hermione hated that she sounded so surprised. It was hard to believe that Malfoy would have spoken about any of her qualities, especially to his mother.
"Quite often I'm afraid." This time there seemed to be genuine affection, "he said he saw you often in the Library, or even just around the school grounds with a book." The matriarch's gaze seemed far away, but then seemed to come back to the present quite quickly after a hard thud was heard from somewhere in the shop. "You did beat him in scores, which is rather hard to do Miss Granger." The woman took a step closer as someone passed behind her and she looked down at the books in Hermione's hand. "Parenting books?"
"Oh!" Hermione blushed, "its for a project I am working on, trying to distinguish the basics that young wizards should know by certain ages. Its.. not for… er personal use." She hated being flustered, but this wasn't a conversation she thought she was going to have… especially not with Narcissa Malfoy.
Something sparkled in the older woman's eyes as she listened to Hermione. "What are you looking to know?" Narcissa gently guided Hermione over to a corner where no one could run into them, "I know that I may be the last mother on the planet that you would think of when it came to the welfare of children, but I have raised one. I am sure that you will find that each person has a different view on how to raise a child, but many of us have the same view on what to teach." There was a flush on her features as she spoke, realizing perhaps who she was speaking to, "I realize that my husband taught our son many things about hate and what he and his family perceived as right and wrong. My own family tried to instill the same hate in me." The smile she gave was strained, "but my father always said that females have a softer heart and that I was unteachable when it came to the less desirable parts of our world." Hermione could see Narcissa's knuckles turn white with strain as she clutched the book in her hands, "even if I could be of little assistance to you, I do know a governess or two that I am sure would love to help you in your endeavors."
"That… That would be most helpful." Curiously Hermione looked at the books in her hand and then back to Lady Malfoy. "Let me read through these, and then compile a list of questions? I can owl you and set up a meeting? Would that be fair?"
"Absolutely." Narcissa breathed the word. She seemed to shake her head, "send an owl at your convenience." As the woman began to turn from her, she reached out and took one of Hermione's hands, "I look forward to hearing from you." With a final nod she stepped past Hermione and into the thick of the bookstore.
Hermione walked away quite flustered, but turned back to the counter none the less to purchase the few books she had chosen. Her next stop was the Apothecary; there were quite a few items missing from her potions cupboard. The final stop in Diagon Alley was Madame Malkin's. Though she had plenty of robes, she wanted one or two robes appropriate for her upcoming training within the Ministry. Madame Malkin was able to steer her away from the dowdy robes she normally gravitated to and over to the slightly more adult section. With three new sets of work robes purchased, she bid adieu to the alley and apparated with a crack into a secluded spot in muggle London. Every once in a while it was nice to treat yourself, and it had been ages since Hermione had gone shopping for normal clothes.
Her eyes raked over the displays and mannequins in the windows, until she found a shop that seemed to call to her. Not one to normally choose a store that was so flirty she opened the door and began to browse. Many things caught her eye, and with the help of a rather friendly clerk, she was able to get a slightly more adult wardrobe without making her wallet scream. Although she was sure that it cried when her fingers brushed those beautiful black boots, that she did not buy because she would never have an occasion to wear them. It was the first time in a long time that she was having fun while shopping. Waiting until she got to the apparition point to shrink her bags was a bit hard, but so worth it. Smiling, Hermione thought of Grimmauld place, and her nice warm room, before the sensation of apparition took her.