Chapter Seven: The Decision

Hermione was in shock the rest of the day. She did her job, and did it well, but everyone could tell something was off. She wasn't happy, smiling and joking, or even cramming everyone's heads with random bits of information. The only ones that seemed to cheer her up a bit were the patients in the children's ward. No one, however, questioned Healer Granger as to the change in attitude; no one except Anthony.

Anthony saw her as she was leaving the hospital that evening, and walked briskly across the entryway to catch up with her. Stubbornly cheerful, he walked in front of her and turned around to face her, halting her in her tracks.

"What's this all about?"

She diverted her eyes, "It's nothing."

" 'Nothing' has got you in a knot all day. I may not know you as well as your famous friends, but I know you weren't yourself after you returned to the children's ward about halfway through the day. You were moping instead of getting work done. That's not you. What did Aaderon have to say?"

Hermione's eyes came up to look at his face. There was legitimate worry there. It surprised her, sometimes, that the two of them had gotten close during healer's training and after in the residency, but there it was. It wasn't as if she had anything against Anthony, he would just never be Harry, or Ron; nor even Ginny, Neville or Luna. Yet, he was the one standing in front of her after a bad day, asking her what went wrong. An old saying came to mind and she almost grinned wolfishly at the idea: Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother far away. It seemed the saying was proven true this evening.

Hermione sighed and finally answered, "We have a new Healer-In-Charge coming on the first of the month. And he's not me."

Anthony's eyes portrayed a plethora of thoughts in the space of a second: surprise, concern and confusion among them. It took him less than the space of a minute to say, "In that case, let's go get dinner. And a drink."

Licorpãnte Street was busy at six at night, no matter what night of the year. Shops and restaurants were buzzing, and it took Anthony and Hermione more than a minute to find a place that wasn't over-crowded. Finally they settled on a pub that was busy, but not filled to capacity. It was smaller, with a homey air, and the people in it were full of life. Hermione and Anthony settled on a table in the corner, promptly ordered fish and chips from the waitress, and then began to chat.

Not long into their discussion, the door of the pub swung open and a surplus of sound entered with a larger group of people – all of which Hermione recognized. Though she had never been close to them, her school mates had not aged so much that they were unrecognizable. Gregory Goyle was as large as ever, flexing his muscles as he talked to the tall, dark and collected Blaise Zabini, cooler than anyone in the room. Daphne Greengrass, just behind them, was a tiny woman, chatting at a brisk pace with a shrieking Pansy Parkinson, whose nose still resembled that of a pug's. Theodore Nott, as weedy-looking as he was in their school days, alternated between sulking and listening to the ladies chatter. At the end of the party was a demure Asteria Greengrass, hanging off the arm of Draco Malfoy.

Hermione wasn't the only one who noticed their old classmates. Anthony grinned, ready to laugh at the situation, "Guess this is the Slytherin hangout, huh? I think you and I may be in the wrong place." Hermione forced a smile and turned back to her drink.

Draco has seen Hermione as soon as he'd entered the pub, but it seemed tactless to interrupt her and call attention in that direction when his group of friends was having such an entertaining time. Besides that, Asteria had a vice-like grip on his arm, and he wasn't sure he could move if he wanted to. Instead, he allowed himself to be steered to a large table just down the wall from Hermione's. It was only after the group sat down that Draco could properly see who Hermione was with: it was Anthony Goldstein, the healer from Mungo's who had pulled him aside at Potter's party.

It seemed the teddy bear had more game than he thought. Hermione seemed to be acting as if it was just two friends out for a drink, but Anthony appeared to think it was something more. He was just analyzing body language when he felt the vice-grip tighten on his arm.

"Darling, what did you want to drink?" Asteria's voice was sweet, and appeared unassuming.

Draco turned to look at the waiter, and said, without thinking, in a bit of a hoarse voice, "Firewhiskey, please." Asteria gave him a quizzical look; he only drank firewhiskey when he was particularly stressed about something. Normally, he stuck to wine or even butterbeer, because the firewhiskey hit him harder. Draco may not have seen it, but there was concern in her green eyes, and his ignorance of it just made her concern grow.

"Is that Anthony Goldstein?" Daphne's voice rose above the rest of the group, silencing them. Anthony, across the room, saw Daphne get up from the table and walk determinedly to them.

"Guess we can't escape the acquaintance now," Anthony whispered to Hermione right before Daphne reached them. Hermione smiled, and turned just as Daphne arrived.

"Anthony! I don't think I've seen you since our last year at Hogwarts!"

Anthony smiled, "Probably not, Daphne. You look well."

"As do you. Who is your charming friend?"

"Daphne, I'm sure you've met Healer Hermione Granger before now, though it may be even further back than when I last saw you."

"Miss Granger! I did not even recognize you," unlike with Anthony, Daphne's tone was now guarded, and a polite mask was covering her face. It was a very good mask – almost life-life, but a mask nonetheless, "you two must come join our table for the evening. We were just discussing next season's quidditch in light of the Canadian team winning this year's world cup against Uganda. It seems Europe must have a comeback."

"As fascinating as that is, Daphne, I'm afraid we must pass. We're awaiting our food, you see, and I'm sure it would be a bit crowded around your table," Anthony smiled apologetically.

Hermione shot him a grateful look, but also noticed the hurt expression on Miss Greengrass' face. Hermione inwardly sighed, and added, "However, Miss Greengrass, if you would allow us to finish our dinner, perhaps we will all chat afterwards?"

Daphne's face lit up again, "Wonderful. I shall let the table know." With that, she hopped back to her friends and left Hermione and Anthony to receive their fish and chips.

By the time Hermione and Anthony came to visit the other group, the hour was late. Everyone at the table was either sleepy or happy, depending. Daphne chattered away at a mile a minute, and forced Anthony to sit down right next to her and listen to all she might say. This left Hermione awkwardly at the end near Asteria, Draco and Pansy. Pansy simply sneered at Hermione, and Draco was very quiet. It was Asteria who talked to Hermione.

"I know that we've met before, but it's been so long I feel like I may as well re-introduce myself. I'm Asteria Greengrass, I was a few years behind you at Hogwarts, Healer Granger," Asteria extended a hand and Hermione shook it, feeling that this girl was genuine.

"It's nice to re-meet you, Asteria. Where have you been working to since school concluded for you?"

Asteria smiled, but before she could answer, Pansy jutted in with a sneering, "She's a gentlewoman, Healer Granger. Asteria doesn't have to work for a living unlike some people."

Asteria blushed at her friend's brashness and explained, "I was travelling for two years after graduation, you see, and since our family is fortunate, I haven't been working yet. I am interviewing at several places right now for a journalism job, though."

"That's phenomenal," Hermione replied, "it takes guts to do that kind of work, to dig up the information and then report it truthfully. I wish you all the best."

"Thank you, Healer Granger," Asteria nodded her head, "I am waiting to hear from the Daily Prophet right now about a job, actually."

Hermione couldn't help herself, at the mention of job offers, her eyes slid over to Draco, who was in the process of downing more firewhiskey and looking determinedly across the table, away from Hermione. She turned back to Asteria and said, "I look forward to reading your articles there, Miss Greengrass." The evening proceeded as such for not more than half an hour more, for afterwards, almost all in the group were too tired to stay out much longer.

Hermione got back to her house after Anna had called it a night. Assuming she would hear about her sister's first day of classes tomorrow morning, Hermione curled up in her bed with a book. Unfortunately, her head was too full of thoughts on every subject imaginable to actually read. She finally gave up and closed her book, and thought through Radford's statement this morning. Most of it had been technical jargon used to cover the hospital's ass in case of legal issues.

Aaderon had said the board was responsible for her not getting the positions. That meant that at least three of the five board members had decided she was not the best candidate for the job. Well, she had always been on wonderful terms with Mrs. Kinanne, who was a loveable if scatterbrained woman. Hermione had no doubt in her mind that Mrs. Kinanne had supported her; for goodness' sake, the woman had told her before the meeting that she would like to take Hermione out to celebrate once all the formalities were completed. Guess that wouldn't be happening now.

This left Sir Radford, Mr. Parrol, Mr. Wimple and Draco Malfoy. With Mr. Parrol and Mr. Wimple, she had no particular connections, good or bad. She certainly respected them, and they had no ire against her, but they did not know her and her work well, either. They could have voted either way.

Sir Radford, though, he had been intimately involved in all of Hermione's work from her first training as a healer. He was close to the healer who had trained her; they were long time family friends, and had been incredibly excited to meet Hermione after 'hearing her praise.' Through her years as a full-fledged healer, he had visited the hospital proper often, and commended her work in the spell damage division, and her handling of the trainees. Further, he had personally funded a project researching a new technique to restore permanently lost memories which Hermione was crucially invested in. It seemed unlikely, then, that Sir Radford had voted against her.

Hermione puzzled for a minute. If she had gotten the support of a majority of the board, she would have gotten the position. She hadn't gotten the position, so she hadn't gotten the support of a majority of the board. It was clear that Radford and Kinanne had voted for her. Which means that, in order for a majority to vote against her, all of the other three – Parrol, Wimple and Malfoy – had voted against her. In other words, Malfoy had been the deciding vote that had cost her the promotion.

She thought back to this evening and realized that Malfoy had been uncharacteristically quiet, and skittish. Usually he was flirty and proud, but tonight he hadn't been himself. Had it been because she was in the room, and he knew he had denied her the job she had worked so hard for? Was he ashamed of what he had done? The more Hermione thought on the subject, the angrier she became, until she concluded that Draco Malfoy was an arrogant prick who thought he knew everything and how everyone's lives around him should play out. Thus, he determinedly changed or manipulated everything to his favor.

She knew, at the conclusion of those thoughts, that she must prove him wrong. She didn't know why, but proving Draco Malfoy wrong was an incredible driving force. It was then that she decided she was going to apply for Healer-In-Charge positions elsewhere; not just at St. Mungo's. She had a bright future ahead of her, even if it meant moving out of Britain. She would go to Healer Aaderon and ask for references tomorrow and begin the job hunt throughout Europe. She had to advance her career, because she had worked for it. Or because she had to prove Draco Malfoy wrong. Or both.