Draco heard the front door open, and low voices head up the stairs. He ran to the door and threw it open, startling the couple in the hall.
"Your parlor is haunted."
"Um, No, it's not."
"There was giggling."
"Are you sure it wasn't the wireless?"
"I had a see dee in, so, yes."
"Well, I don't know what to tell you Malfoy, but I am sure that there are no ghosts in my house." Harry shrugged and grinned. "Now, if you excuse me, we are off to bed."
"Well, I heard something. And cast a silencing charm!" Draco shouted at their retreating backs. He shut his door with a sigh. He slid out of the pants he was still in, and went to crawl into bed. He paused, and picked up the letter he had just finished.
"Kreacher!" the elf appeared with a 'pop'.
"Master Draco."
"Take this to Hermione." he handed the letter to the elf.
"Yes Sir." With a 'pop' Draco was alone. He ran a hand over his face, and crawled under the blankets and let sleep overtake him.
Hermione got to her home and deposited the cloak in her closet before sprawling face down on her book, thinking once more about how she could possibly help Draco any more without him realizing it. She looked up at the sound of a pop coming from somewhere in the house. She stood with her wand ready and went to investigate, sighing in relief to see that it was only Kreacher holding another letter for her.
"Master Draco ask Kreacher give this to you," He said, following her as she walked past him and over to her desk where she sat down and opened a drawer. She pulled a picture out and handed it to Kreacher; he smiled at her in appreciation.
"It goes in your locket. If I may?"
He pulled his locket out from under his altered pillowcase, and she carefully opened it, without taking it from around the elf's neck. She then placed the picture she'd acquired of copy of from the tapestry in Draco's room inside of Kreacher's prized possession.
"There," She said with a smile, "Now you shall always have a picture of Regulus with you."
He nodded happily, unable to give her any words, handed her the letter and gave her a respectful salute before returning to his home. Hermione continued to smile to herself as she read the letter then began formulating a reply.
Draco,
You do not have to do it Friday. I will not question your prior commitment as I know you would not lie to get out of your conditions. So for condition number two, you may fulfill that part on Saturday. Only for one Saturday, so you will really only lose one day off for your job. After that condition has been met, I shall let you know if there are any others that you need meet. So you are listening to cd's now? Have you listened to anything off of the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack? There is a waltz on there a few songs in that I rather enjoy. I shall look through mine and if I have any that I believe you might like I'll send them your way.
Best of luck,
Hermione
Looking at the letter, she decided to send it by owl, then went back to her bed, picked up her book, and proceeded to fall asleep while reading, still wearing her clothes from earlier.
Wednesday and Thursday went by fast. Draco hadn't embarrassed himself anymore that week, after Tuesday's graceless fall. He woke up early on Friday, to Harry's frantic pounding on his door. He drug himself up out of bed and opened the door.
"What?"
"Malfoy, it's bad. You need to get to the ministry now. I'll talk to your parole officer for you; you need to go to the law offices."
"Wha-, why?"
"Just get dressed and go!" Harry shouted over his shoulder as he rushed down the stairs. Draco opened his mouth to shout again, but gave up when he heard the 'pop' of Harry apparating away. He shook his head and wandered back into his room. He skipped over his now customary jeans and grabbed the one pair of slacks he owned. He slid the black fabric on and quickly found an emerald green button down. He glanced in his wardrobe, hoping to find some dress shoes. He sighed when he realized he had nothing but the muggle trainers Harry had given him. At least they were black, and the pants would cover up the star on the side of the high-tops. He checked his hair in the mirror, and ran a hand over his slightly stubble covered jaw. He rolled his eyes and decided not to waste the time to shave. If they needed him at the ministry, they could deal with him being unshaven. He plodded down the stairs, and took the floo to the ministry.
The halls were a mess when he got there. Witches and wizards were running every which way, nearly tripping over one another in their haste. Draco sneered, and began muscling his way through the crowd. He finally reached the elevators, and took one down to the law offices. He stepped out of the elevator, and walked towards a desk at which a tiny little witch was ensconced. He had to clear his throat twice to get her attention.
"How can I help you?" the witch barely glanced up from her magazine.
"My name is Draco Malfoy. I was summoned." She looked up sharply, and her eyes were suddenly full of sympathy. She gestured at the door to her left.
"You'll be needing Sir KarcharÃas" Draco nodded at her, and went to the door. He raised his eyebrows at the plaque on the door. It read 'Damon Karcharias Attorney at Law can handle all your muggle or wizarding law needs'. Draco smirked at the man's name. 'demon shark, huh? Great name for a lawyer.' The thought made him grin a little. He raised his hand to knock. Before his knuckles landed on the wood, the door swept open and he was pulled inside of a sumptuous office. The man led him to a chair than sat down behind the desk.
"Mr. Malfoy, I assume you know why your here." The man opened a folder on his desk.
"Um, no, actually."
"They didn't notify you?" The man sounded mildly horrified. Draco shook his head and stared at the man. The man closed the folder and set it down. He leaned forwards, resting his forearms on the desk, and he folded his hands together.
"Mr. Malfoy, I regret to inform you that your mother has passed." Draco stared for a moment before finding his voice.
"How, why... when?" his voice was thick with emotion.
"She, well, she, um... she cursed herself. The aurors found a note addressed to you with her body. They were summoned by one of your house-elves around three a.m. Also, when they removed your mother's body, well son, Malfoy Manor is no longer standing."He paused and looked Draco in the eye. "Now, the reason you were summoned here. With the passing of your father, his estate was put into holding for you, to be controlled by your mother until your twentieth birthday. With her untimely passing, the estate has been passed to you, effective immediately. Unfortunately, I do have to inform you that the ministry has put a hold on all accounts not tied into Malfoy Holdings Inc. I need you to sign some paperwork. Also, we need you to sign some things as to who you would like to run the company until your sentence is finished."
Draco spent the rest of the morning, and a large portion of the afternoon going over, and signing paperwork. He made a quick stop on his way back to Grimmauld Place. Once back in the house, he went into his room and closed the door.
Harry found him the next evening. He had opened the door after twenty-four hours of non-responsiveness before deciding to make sure he was still alive. He found the young man still in the clothes he had worn to the ministry, lying on the floor at the foot of his bed staring at the ceiling. He was surrounded by crumpled paper and empty fire-whiskey bottles.
"You okay Malfoy?" The blondes eyes flicked towards the couple standing in the doorway.
"She's gone." he muttered.
"Who is?" Ginny spoke softly, kind of afraid of the answer.
"Mum. She only had to wait a week. My birthday. I was gonna turn twenty. She didn't have to run the company anymore. She could have taken time. Grieved in peace." He had tears running down his face as he spoke. "Mia's gonna be mad at me. I was s'possed to go to work today. I promised her." his speech was starting to slur. "She's gonna do something awful to me. I miss my mum." His voice trailed off as he lost consciousness. Harry waved his wand and levitated the man off the floor. He settled him in the bed, rolling him to make sure he wouldn't die if he got sick in his blacked out state. He shook his head as he closed the door.
"I'm going to go talk to Kingsley, and get him a few days off. Why don't you go call Hermione?" He dropped a kiss on his fiancee's head, and went down stairs to floo to the ministry. Ginny laid a hand on Draco's bedroom door and smiled sadly.
"He's lost a lot lately. Poor thing."
Hermione silently hung up the phone after getting the call from her friend. Poor Draco, she thought as she put her phone into the front, right, pocket of her jeans, grabbed her wand from her bookshelf, and quickly apparated to Grimmauld Place. She spoke to her friends for a few minutes, and then proceeded to Draco's room. She knocked and waited for a few seconds, when she was greeted by silence she went in and walked over to him. Sighing, the young witch sat on the bed beside his passed out form and softly talked to him. So what if he couldn't hear her, she thought as she told him of the things she'd love to do with him once his sentence was through. If he would be able to handle her company by then. Talk of quidditch games, balls, charities both muggle and wizarding alike fell from her mouth, all the while she gently rand a hand through his hair. Hermione passed a good hour and a half like that before she looked from his sleeping form to the family tapestry. A smile fell upon her lips as an idea formed in her head. She gently got off the bed, grabbed one of his own spearmint scented papers, and wrote him a quick note.
Draco,
I am so very sorry about your mother. Please take all the time you need to get things worked out. You can resume the conditions when you are ready. I would never expect you to do anything like that under these conditions. If you should ever need anything, please do not hesitate to ask. I am here for you, even if you are a real bloody git. Please do not lock this up inside or push us away. We only want to help you. Fire-whiskey is not the answer. You will only feel worse later. Talk to us. In the mean time, keep your eyes open. I shall have something for you soon, but it will take a little time to acquire it.
My condolences,
Your friend,
Hermione
Hermione carefully stuck the note into his left hand, so that he'd have it when he awoke. She just hoped that he would be alright. Once that was done, she went over to the tapestry, muttered a quick spell and flicked her wand. She then turned and left the room, talking to her friends once more before apparating back to her flat, and getting to work on her latest present for Draco.
