The best word Hermione could use to describe her next few weeks was weird. She had gotten her wish - Ben had kept his distance and had been acting as nothing but a professional. And much to her irritation, she didn't like it.
It wasn't what she had grown used to. There were no more jokes as she arrived at work each day. No longer was she referred to as 'Granger', or 'love'. Each day he greeted her with a polite 'good morning' and spoke to her about nothing but work-related topics.
At first, she hadn't thought too much of it. Surely this was his way of ensuring that she was the one who would attempt to rekindle their 'friendship', and she would certainly not be falling for it. However, two weeks in, and she had begun to doubt her theory. Perhaps she had really offended him? Or maybe his pride had been wounded by rejection? Merlin, perhaps he had genuine feelings for her?
And then Tuesday came. If she had been even slightly intelligent, she would have realised that it wasn't going to be a good day as soon as she spilled her morning coffee on her jacket. But, alas, Hermione was never one for Divination and didn't read into it, simply opting for a quick cleaning charm before heading to the Ministry. She had then been even more foolish to not pay any mind to the memo that collided with the side of her head in the elevator that morning, intending to reach the man behind her.
The next sign that it was going to be a bad day was the squawking she heard from down the hall as she approached her office. Again, thinking nothing of it, she continued on track and entered, as if it were any other day.
It took close to all of her self-restraint to not roll her eyes as she took in the scene of Ben at his usual position behind his desk, with none other than Iris sitting on the desk beside him, with her hand resting flirtatiously on his forearm. Whatever he had said before she entered the office much have been hilarious as the woman was cackling away as Hermione stomped in.
"Ah - good morning," Ben greeted in his usual manner, glancing over at Hermione briefly. Iris gave her a small wave before turning her full attention back to him.
"Morning," Hermione grumbled in response, hoping that Iris and her oversized mouth wouldn't be staying long. She hurried through to her desk, thankful that she didn't get caught up in their conversation on her way and opened her diary to the days' date.
The day didn't look too bad. She had a few reports to polish off, a meeting with Penrose at 3.30, and-
"- planning a trip to Flourish and Blotts later today, it would be wonderful if you would join me," Hermione couldn't help but be distracted by Iris' disgustingly sweet tone.
"One can never have too many books," Ben's baritone voice responded smoothly. "Maybe this afternoon, love?"
Love. Hermione scowled hearing the pet name.
"Perfect!" Iris' voice echoed. "I'll swing by later, once I'm ready. By the way, that coffee shop you recommended, next door to Gladrags? Fantastic, just as you said."
"Did you try the frozen butterbeer?"
"I did! I can't believe I hadn't been there before. Even better than Madam Puddifoots-"
Hermione massaged her temples as she tried to drown out their overly loud conversation. She felt irrationally angry, knowing that she had absolutely no right to be jealous. But he had been all but ignoring her and she couldn't help but wonder, had he kissed her, too? Who else in the department was he wooing?
She angrily took hold of her muggle pen and started adding to her list of things to be done that day, knowing that this Tuesday was going to be awful.
About half an hour later, Hermione's patience had all but burned up, leaving her close to pulling her hair out. Didn't she have her own work to do? Didn't he have things to do?! They were Department Heads for Merlins sake!
Slamming her pen angrily down on her desk, Hermione got up and stormed out of the office, not allowing herself a glance at the two buffoons. She beelined for the lunch room and got herself her second coffee for the day as she mulled over what she was going to do about her predicament.
There was no way she could get a single thing done if they were going to loiter in her office all day. She figured that she could always go and see Harry - before remembering that he was still a bit put out with her at the moment.
Maybe this would be a good opportunity to smooth things over? But it was he who had the problem, not her!
Why was it always her who had to apologise to these men?
She huffed into her coffee and racked her brain for somewhere else she could go. Perhaps she could head back down to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures for the day, and catch up with all of her old workmates? Better yet, maybe she could have a day in the library?
Books. Peace. Quiet.
Hermione smiled contentedly just thinking about it.
With a decision made, she quickly finished her coffee, and headed back to the office to grab her things. She was almost disappointed to see that Iris was no longer there when she returned. Almost.
She still collected her things, figuring that she'd still have a library day anyway – it was still better than being ignored all day. She flung her bag over her shoulder and went to head back out.
"Off to the library," she said as she passed Ben. He didn't respond, simply nodded slightly whilst not shifting his gaze from his paperwork.
Hermione closed the door behind her with a bit more force than was required, and headed for the elevator, happy to find that the one that opened for her was empty. However, her pleasure of having the elevator all to herself was rudely interrupted as it chimed on level 5, and Iris, the one she had hoped to avoid, hopped in.
Hermione silently cursed her luck and smiled forcefully at the other woman in greeting.
"Twice in one day, look at that!" Iris said in a shrill tone.
"Yeah, how about that?" Her jaw was close to aching from her clenched teeth.
"I don't know if I've told you before, but you are so lucky to be sharing an office with Mr. Jenkins," she said, looking off blankly into the distance. "He's just dreamy, no?"
"Lucky is one word for it," Hermione laughed nervously, choosing to ignore her second comment. "Say, the two of you seem to be getting along well."
"Oh yes!" She agreed excitedly. "I'm hoping he'll ask me to the end of year function coming up. Imagine that! Two Department heads, together," she sighed dreamily.
Hermione cleared her throat and almost ran out of the elevator as it chimed for level 8. "Well, I'll see you around!" She called, glad to get away.
Hopefully never, she added to herself bitterly.
As soon as she made it through the Atrium into the large doors of the library, the smell of the books immediately comforted her. With a happy sigh, she located a quiet corner with a particularly soft-looking armchair to hide herself away in. Once she had sat down and brought her reports out of her bag, she couldn't help but wonder if they could wait, and she could spend a while reading instead.
They weren't exactly urgent.
Feeling rebellious, she happily picked out a few books and sighed in content.
Hermione found herself losing track of everything around her as she made her way through her books – something which shouldn't have been surprising. She'd quickly become so engrossed in the pages detailing the cursing styles of the Ancient Egyptians, that she didn't realise it had reached midday, and that she'd spent her whole morning reading.
"-mione?"
Hermione's head shot up from her book upon hearing what sounded like her name called in the distance. She looked around for a moment, eyes squinting, but found no one else in sight. Just as she was about to shrug it off as her imagination and return to her reading, a figure rushed into view.
"Thank Merlin, here you are," Ben said, taking in a breath as if he had been running. "I've been looking everywhere for you."
"You could have just sent me a memo, saved yourself the trouble," Hermione said bitterly.
"No time for that, quick, put this away and come with me," he instructed quickly, gesturing to her clutter on the table.
"Why?" She asked suspiciously, closing her books.
"We need to head down to interrogations. There's a witness."
Hermione sped up as she packed her bags. "What's so special about this one?"
"Another 'sighting' of Florian Evrard. This one seems legit."
Hermione stood in a hurry with a small gasp, her interest piqued. Ben lead the way out of the library, Hermione almost jogging to keep up. They didn't speak as they weaved through the Atrium to the elevators.
As they hopped in and the door closed, Hermione couldn't help but feel the tension of being alone with him in such an enclosed space for the first time since he had kissed her. She risked a glance up at him from the corner of her eye, seeing him stare straight ahead at the door as the elevator slowly moved downward. She didn't look away until the elevator chimed for the ninth floor, seeing a small smirk form in the corner of Ben's mouth.
He exited first, leading her down the corridor to interrogations and pulling into room 6. As she entered, her interest was immediately drawn to the wall which was charmed such that it resembled a muggle one-way mirror. In the interrogation room sat a petite blonde woman who appeared to be speaking adamantly with Ashburn, the interrogating Auror.
"Helen Belby," Ben stated, seeing Hermione watching the woman. "Squib. Claims to have spotted Mr. Evrard at a coffee shop west of her home in Slough."
"At a coffee shop? A muggle coffee shop?" Hermione asked incredulously. "I thought you said that this witness sounded legit."
Ben grabbed a stack of papers from a desk to his right and flicked through them, before handing them to Hermione.
"Read lines nine and ten," he instructed.
Hermione sighed as her eyes quickly scanned the parchment.
'He sat across from a man, that's how I spotted him. My brother went to school with the man he was meeting. What was his name? Um, Fawley... Sullivan Fawley, that's right."
Hermione gasped and looked back up at Ben, wide eyed.
"Yeah," he said excitedly, thinking along the same lines as her.
"So... so..." Hermione began, her mind running wild. "Assuming this is the same 'Fawley' as Carrigan's men were talking about, then... they were either talking about You-Know-Who the whole time... or - or -"
"- he's working for both Carrigan and You-Know-Who," Ben finished for her.
Hermione gasped again.
"If we move fast, we can have a warrant for his arrest by tonight," he said excitedly.
"Yeah!" Hermione agreed, spirits lifted. "What a terrible position to be in, stuck between two dark wizards. And the Fawley's, they've kept themselves out of the last two wars, haven't they?"
"Sure have. Well it's not like it hasn't happened before, right? There was the professor of yours? Wasn't he on both sides?"
"Snape?" Hermione suggested. "That was a bit different though. He was a double agent of sorts for both the light and dark, not two dark sides."
Ben hummed thoughtfully. "Can you get the paperwork together then? The sooner it's done, the sooner I can sign off on it."
"Yeah, I'll get to it straight away."
"And you'll be able to focus better at your desk, don't you think?" Ben asked with a hint of amusement.
"Why, have you missed me?"
"Perhaps," he said unexpectedly.
"Hm," Hermione began nonchalantly, feeling a blush coming along. "Won't you be out with Iris this afternoon?"
Ben scoffed. "I certainly hope not."
"But you told her you would go!"
"That doesn't mean that I actually will," he countered. "Why, is someone jealous?" He added with a quirked eyebrow.
"What? Don't be absurd,"she retorted a little too quickly.
"All you have to do is say so, you know," he continued, his raised eyebrow staying put. "And I'll send her away."
"Why would I admit to something that I'm not? It is possible to dislike someone without being jealous," she pointed out.
"Hm, suit yourself," he said, returning his focus to the view of Helen waving her arms around as she spoke to Ashburn. "Ashburn and I will finish off the reports for Ms. Belby's statements. That should make it a bit easier for you to get the warrant together."
"Thanks," she said coldly and took that as her cue to leave. Although irritated, Hermione did return to the office, happy that he seemed to finally be coming around.
But what did it mean? 'All you have to do is say so, and I'll send her away'. Had he brought Iris in, to try and make her jealous? The more Hermione pondered it, the more she believed it. Perhaps this was his was of testing the waters, of finding out how she felt about him. Either that, or it was his way to drive her mad.
Well, it wasn't going to work. Or, at the very least, she wasn't going to let him know that it was working.
Hermione shot up later that night as a sudden, loud tapping from her bedroom window interrupted her sleep. A groan from beside her told her that Ron had also been woken up. Looking over and stumbling out of bed, she made out a large dark owl frantically pecking at the window. Hermione rubbed her eyes with one hand and pulled the window open with the other, allowing the bird to enter. It hopped onto her dresser and stuck its leg out, which had a small note attached to it. Hermione removed the roll of parchment, and the large owl hopped back out of the window.
"Wha' is it?" Ron mumbled from the bed, half asleep.
Hermione didn't answer as she unrolled the parchment, frowning as she tried to read it in the dim light.
Granger -
Hermione cracked a small smile seeing him refer to her in his usual manner again.
- we have Fawley in interrogation room 10. Come in as soon as you can. Sorry to interrupt your sleep. - Ben
Hermione felt a sudden rush of adrenaline and hurried to her closet to find something to wear.
"What are you doing?" Ron asked, as he sat up and switched on his bedside light.
"It was a letter from the Ministry," Hermione stated as she pulled a shirt over her head. "They have a suspect in custody, ready for questioning."
"What, and they can't wait until morning?"
"This is a very important suspect," Hermione explained, jumping a little as she pulled up her pants.
"B-but it's not even three a.m.! Surely you can sleep a little more? Can't they do it without you?"
Hermione rolled her eyes and slipped on her shoes. "No, Ron."
Ron also rolled his eyes and huffed at her, before switching off the light and rolling over in the bed.
Hermione left the dark room in a hurry, slightly irritated. How did he not understand that this was the Voldemort case? This was most important case in the country! Of course it couldn't wait!
She rushed to the fireplace, quickly charming her hair on the way down and immediately Floo-ed to the Ministry, not bothering to check on her reflection in the mirror.
Hermione was panting by the time she made it through the doorway to interrogation room 10, slightly surprised to see Ben sitting with Harry, sipping their coffees in silence and not yelling at each other.
"Oh good, you're here!" Ben said immediately as he sat up, sounding surprisingly chipper for three o'clock in the morning.
"We decided to wait until you got here to start," Harry said with a yawn, gesturing to the wall to his left.
Through the wall, Hermione saw a light-haired man who looked about her age sitting in the interrogation room alone. He was fidgeting nervously, scratching at his own hands.
"The two of us will be heading in," Harry continued. "Here, a list of the questions," he handed her a long sheet of parchment.
"You won't be joining us?" Hermione asked her boss.
"No, I'll be recording from out here. The two of you are technically in charge of both of the cases, it's only fair that you do the questioning."
Hermione nodded, quickly scanning over their list of questions. After a moment, she nodded again.
"Alright, shall we?" She asked.
Harry rose to his feet and led the way into the interrogation room. They took their seats across the table from Fawley.
"Mr. Fawley," Harry began. "I'm Head Auror, Harry P-"
"I know you," he cut off. His eyes darted toward Hermione. "I know you both."
"Well that saves that," Harry cleared his throws and rearranged his papers. "Mr. Fawley. You've been brought in today for questioning regarding an investigation involving a Mr. Florian Evrard?"
"Look," he started nervously, his hands slightly shaking. "I'll tell you what I know. J-just promise me - don't let me go."
"Excuse me?" Hermione asked, raising her eyebrows in concern.
"I can't -" he started. "You can't let me go. They'll know. They always know."
"Mr. Fawley -"
"Please. You - you have to understand. They'll kill me. Even if I don't talk, they will. Please."
"We have thorough witness protection programs in place, Mr. Fawley. They're very thorough, you won't have anything to fear," Hermione explained gently.
Fawley nodded, though it was clear that he didn't quite believe her.
"Due to the severity of this case, Mr. Fawley, we'd like for you to drink this before we begin," Harry brought out the familiar vial of Veritaserum and placed it in front of Fawley.
He looked at it for a moment, seeming to ponder whether he should drink it or not. After a tense minute, he reached out and uncorked the vial, swallowing its contents with a cough.
Harry and Hermione glanced at each other, silently deciding who would begin the questioning.
"Alright," Harry started. "I'd like to begin by asking you whether you know of a Mr. Elliot Selwyn?"
"Yes, I knew Elliot."
"Do you have any knowledge about his death?"
"Killed in that alley, across from the Royal Oak, right?"
"Indeed."
"Look - it wasn't me, alright?" He gushed earnestly. "I don't - I don't know who did it."
After his last statement, Fawley began to twitch more vigorously. He softly groaned, seeming to try to fight the effects of the Veritaserum.
"It's true, I don't!" He insisted. "Look, you have to understand. Those of us who have followed Carrigan, most are, or were, followers of the Dark Lord. Many claim to be in still be in contact with him, but of course, most of them are full of shit. It's hard to say who went after Selwyn. There were about ten of us there that night. It could have been any one of them."
His twitching calmed down and he sighed after his spill.
Harry glanced at Hermione before looking back at his parchment.
"When you said 'there were about ten of us', where were you referring to?"
"Winfield's place. It's off of that alleyway Selwyn was found in. It's where we meet."
"Winfield?"
"Lucas Winfield. Thug. Close 'friend', I suppose you could say, of Carrigan's."
Hermione sat up a little bit straighter upon recognising the name.
"We were all there that night, the night Selwyn was offed," Fawley continued. "Any one of the others could have snuck out and done it."
"Was Mr. Selwyn another follower of Carrigan's? Is that why he was there that night?"
"I - no," Fawley paused in an attempt to stop himself talking. He twitched again for a moment before sighing. "He came around a few times, claiming to have messages from the Dark Lord. Warnings, more like. Needless to say, he didn't have any friends among us. Looked down on us, he did. But that night, he was panicked, came asking for our help, our protection. As you can imagine, we said no."
"'Warnings'?" Hermione queried.
"Yeah. Messages to back off and such."
"So..." Hermione began, trying to piece it all together. "You - Carrigan's followers, that is - you're not working with You-Know-Who?"
Fawley shook his head.
"Not exactly. The first few times we heard Selwyn's 'messages', we thought them lies," Fawley explained. "But then... They kept coming. And not just from Selwyn. Abbott, Hopkins, Burke, they all started coming forward with messages of their own. Carrigan started taking them seriously, doing as they said. And then Florian reached out to me, too. That's when I realised, they must have been legit. Why else would he be one of the most wanted men in Britain?"
"So, when you were seen with Mr. Evrard, at that muggle cafe... what were you discussing?" Hermione continued.
"Another message to pass onto Carrigan."
"Which was?"
Fawley cleared his throat.
"An instruction," he stated, avoiding answering the question.
"For what?"
Fawley glanced up, meeting Harry's eyes.
"To kill Harry Potter."
