Chapter Seven: Broken Rules

The next morning, Hermione headed straight for Harry's office. She needed answers, which meant it was time to bring him into the loop. She and Draco had struggled to get out of bed that morning, both because they were naked and would have rather liked to stay that way and neither of them had gotten much sleep at all. She knew she needed to get to her office. She had to start working on her new case, but she wouldn't be able to focus if she didn't talk to Harry first. He was the only one who knew Draco better than her.

"Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger to see you," his assistant said as she blocked Harry from view as if he had ever turned her down when she had shown up outside of his office.

"Send her in," Harry called. The other woman opened the door wide, and Hermione nodded to her as she moved into Harry's office. The door shut behind her, and she took a seat in one of the two chairs across from his desk.

"What's going on?" Harry's desk was buried under parchment, ink bottles, and quills. There were at least three half empty cups of coffee lingering as well as spare bits of pastries. Somehow this system of chaos worked for him.

Hermione rubbed her hands together nervously, her stomach flipping. "I need you to let me speak and not judge me."

"What?" Harry frowned at her.

"Just let me say what I need to say and remember that I'm a grown woman and I make my own decisions."

"Okay," he said uneasily.

"Draco and I have been sleeping together for two years. I thought it was just sex to him, but last night … well it isn't. The first time, I told him … well, I said that I want to be Minister one day, and he thinks I can't do that if I'm with him." She was rambling, her voice growing higher and quicker as she threw words at him. "He apparently took it upon himself to pick my career for me and not give me the opportunity to make my own choices. But, it doesn't make any sense, Harry. He's an Auror. He's Deputy Head of the department. Nobody cares that he was a Death Eater. It's been so long. Right? Nobody cares?"

Harry sighed loudly and put down the parchment he had been holding. "Hermione, I would have been really happy to go on pretending that I had no idea what the hell you and Draco have been up to."

"You knew?" she asked. "You never said anything!"

Harry laughed and rubbed at his face, clearly feeling as embarrassed and awkward as she was. "Do you have any idea how many times I've come over to your flat, and he's been there?" Harry shook his head. "It's why I told Ginny we only sleep at my place now."

Hermione felt her cheeks heat as a flush spread across her face. "I had no idea."

"I know," Harry told her.

"Well, I'm sorry," she laughed nervously, "but this isn't really about … that."

Harry held his hands up. "If it isn't about it, then you would have left it out of it."

"Believe me, I wouldn't be here talking to you about all of this if I could avoid it," she insisted.

"I love you, you know I do, I just think it's great that you have Ginny to talk about this stuff."

"Ginny doesn't know anything about Draco's crazy thought processes. You know him better than anyone. You're his best friend, Harry."

"Yes, I am. And, you know he'll kill me if he finds out I've talked to you about all this."

"Please," Hermione begged, needing someone to help her understand Draco's actions, which seemed ludicrous to her. She knew that he thought he was doing the right thing, but it didn't make any sense to her looking in on it. She wasn't a child. She didn't need anyone to protect her from having to make hard choices.

"Fine." He sighed deeply, rubbing at his face before replacing his glasses. "This is between you and me."

"Yes," she agreed quickly.

Harry leaned forward. "The DMLE Deputy Head still reviews all of our cases."

"What?" Hermione snapped. This was absolutely unheard of. Harry and Draco were the two highest members of the Auror Department. There was no reason for all of their cases to be under review like a couple of trainees who needed to be watched at every moment.

"Every single one," Harry reiterated, his voice bitter. "We do everything exactly by the book every single time because if we slip up, if we make one mistake, well … Draco has a lot more to lose than his job."

"What?" Hermione asked again. "This doesn't make any sense. Who is behind this?"

"Department Head orders. 'We just want to keep a close eye on him. Make sure he's not slipping back into bad habits.' Fucking assholes." Harry shook his head, glaring at someone she couldn't see.

"Why haven't you done anything?" she demanded. This was such hippogriff shit.

"Seriously, Hermione?"

"It's outrageous!" she yelled. "You're the head of the department!"

"I know it's outrageous, but what do you want me to do? He doesn't want to fight it, and right now, no one knows it's happening. If I start trying to throw my weight around, who knows what happens, and he knows that."

"This is …" Hermione sputtered, struggling to come up with a way to describe her emotions.

"They tried to convince me to switch partners when I was appointed Head Auror. I had to tell them I would resign from the department to get them to lay off and let me appoint Draco Deputy."

Hermione's mouth fell open. They sat there, staring at each other. "Why haven't you ever said?" she asked when she summoned up the ability to speak once again.

"He's my friend. If you or Ron asked me not to, I wouldn't."

"Oh, Harry."

"Nobody really knows what he deals with. I don't think he even tells me all of it." Harry sighed, a long, painful release of breath. "If it was me, the mail alone would have driven me away years ago."

"The mail?" Hermione asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer. All of this was more than she could have ever thought was behind Draco's decision to keep their relationship secret, occasional sex.

"You had to realize. Those people out there, the rest of the Wizarding World, they don't know him, Hermione. They just think they do. They have no interest in trusting him." Harry sighed. "If I hadn't been pushed into getting to know him better, I wouldn't have known that he was trustworthy. I would have spent the rest of my life thinking the same things."

"And, this is why he doesn't want to be with anyone?" Hermione asked.

"This is why he doesn't want to be with you," Harry replied.

"Then … why didn't he just end it?" She didn't really expect him to have an answer, but her heart was aching, and she still felt like she had wasted the last two years of her lives.

"Why didn't you?" he asked softly.

"I love him. I wouldn't have … if I knew, Harry, I would have chosen him. You know that, right?" Hermione asked.

"He didn't want you to." Harry shrugged. "He doesn't think he's worth that."

"He is," she insisted.

"You don't have to convince me. I made up my mind a long time ago."

"I can't … all this time. I just feel like I've wasted two years of my life." Hermione wiped at her eyes, trying to keep the tears forming there from starting to fall down her face.

"Then tell him that and stop letting him play the sacrificial victim." Harry glanced towards the door. "I don't want to shove you out, but he's going to be here any moment."

"Yeah, okay." Hermione pushed herself up from the chair, and Harry moved around to hug her. He pulled her in, hugging her tightly.

"He's a good man, Hermione. You could do much, much worse."

Hermione laughed against his chest. "I know."

XXX

Hermione's day was spent in meetings with St. Mungo's staff hearing about the status of the Alby's. Their story wasn't any less heartbreaking in the light of the morning. It was a very long, hard day, and by the end of it, she was exhausted and emotionally drained. In the back of her mind as she worked, she couldn't stop thinking about Draco and her conversation with Harry that morning.

Her blood was boiling by the end of the day, a combination of her anger at what Mrs. Alby had face and what Draco was put through each and every day at his job. It was so hard for her to even wrap her head around what Harry was saying to her. Why had they even given Harry the position if they didn't trust him to know his partner? Why continue to review their cases after all these years? Was Draco going to lose his mind all of the sudden and start sabotaging the Ministry? It didn't make any sense. It took every bit of sense she had left in her head to keep her from walking down to the DMLE Department Head's office and telling him exactly how she felt about his error in judgement. Despite her desire to be with Draco and figure out their lives, she worked late, pushing herself to get as much done as she could.

By the time she walked into her flat that night, Draco was sitting at the table with Ginny, both of them nursing a drink. "Hey," she said to them both, butterflies fluttering in her stomach at the sight of him again. It just felt right to have him home.

"How was it?" Ginny asked. She knew that Hermione had been facing a long day dealing with the repercussions of the night before.

"Long. Bad," Hermione told her, shaking her head at the memory of the long meetings she had been in that day with the healers from St. Mungo's.

"Do you want to reschedule?" Draco asked.

"No," she told him, hoping that she hadn't sounded as desperate as she felt. She couldn't handle more time to think. She needed answers and decisions and resolution.

Ginny stood, patting Hermione's arm as she passed her. "I'm heading to Harry's."

"You don't have to," Hermione told her, but she was grateful. Having the flat to themselves would make this easier.

"I'd be going anyway." Ginny lifted her purse and waved them both. "Have a good night."

"Bye, Ginny. Thanks for the drink," Draco told her, lifting his glass towards her.

"No problem. See you later." She left the flat through the front door, leaving Hermione standing at the table beside Draco.

"How was your day?" she asked him, suddenly feeling incapable of having an appropriate conversation with another adult.

"Long." He pushed back from the table and moved slowly towards her, taking deliberate, calculated steps. She stood her ground, biting in her bottom lip as he approached her. "I couldn't stop thinking about you." His voice was low and husky, the way it got when he was buried inside of her, whispering in her ear.

Hermione closed her eyes, trying to gather her senses, but a rush of need flooded her anyway, not helped by the sensation of his fingers on her hand. As she opened her eyes again, she took in the sight of him in front of her, staring back into her eyes, his gaze intense and full of desire.

"We're supposed to be talking," she told him.

"I know." He locked his fingers with hers.

"We really need to talk."

Draco leaned in and her head tilted, allowing him to kiss the base of her neck softly. "I really just want to taste you first."

"Draco." Her body refused to listen to sense, wanting to be as close to him as possible.

"Hermione, I want you," he said.

"I want you, too," she admitted.

"And, you need to relax before we have any serious conversations about our future." Draco's tongue did a very good job of helping him make his argument.

"But, we will have our serious conversation. Tonight. After," she said, but her hands were pulling his shirt out of his jeans, making her insistence a little less forceful.

"Yes, he agreed. After." Draco kissed her then, sucking softly at her lips, tasting her as they parted.