The next morning when Draco arrived at work he had an itch about there still being something off about Hermione's file, but he still couldn't figure out what it could be. It was easier finding mistakes when there were actually any to be found, and there were no visible mistakes in the file. Maybe something was missing, he considered. He examined the documents for a while, making sure that he would find any faults that had been made by himself or the incompetent nurses who worked at the department, or rather he searched for what wasn't being said. After a while he got frustrated with himself and stopped abruptly by throwing the folder angrily on the desk, which it hit with a hard thud.
Draco left his office in a bad mood and went to get his morning tea with a lot of cream only to notice that the cafeteria was out of cream. He almost slapped someone but decided to drink two cups of tea without anything in it instead.
"Everything okay?" Nurse Smith asked him as the dark-skinned girl sat down across from him with a very small cup of coffee which also looked very hot.
"We're just out of cream again," he complained.
She nodded and took a sip of her beverage. "Yeah I noticed. I just meant that you seem a bit out of sorts," she tried again, her tone questioning.
"Well I got this patient's file and something seems out of place. Wouldn't think you'd notice what's missing though, I mean if I'm not seeing it then why would you?" he snorted and got up from the cafeteria table. He dragged his hand through his newly-cut short blond hair and put the cup of tea into the sink before heading out into the corridor. He didn't like the nurses, they were annoying and flirted with him, and it was annoying.
"He's so arrogant," he could hear Nurse Smith saying and he wanted to go inside and tell her that he actually was better than her, but he managed to stay professional. He blamed his rudeness towards the nurse on being angry because of the file but soon forgot about the whole incident as he went into an old hag's residential room.
The hag in question had made a cauldron explode in her hut in the seventies and now had no idea of whom or what she was, or anything for that matter. She was completely clueless. The cauldron that had exploded though, contained a beautification potion that had transformed her into something not unlike a Veela but without the drooling effect it had on men. Mostly because she usually hung from the lamp in the ceiling and drooled. She made monkeys look intelligent, but Draco liked her, she didn't know who he was either so she didn't hold any prejudices towards him nor did she give him nasty looks.
"Lake!" she exclaimed as he closed and locked the door after him. Draco nodded at her and handed her a bottle, which she threw, and as she threw it the bottle vanished. Draco offered her a second bottle, this one she opened and drank. The same procedure happened again, he handed her a bottle which she threw and then another which she happily emptied. Every third month she changed her routine and started throwing the second bottle instead. Draco measured different features that needed tending to. Some things were harder, like measuring the nose, which, thanks to the beatification explosion, was no longer, crooked and full of warts, instead it was slender and petite. He noticed that the calming draught she had received was starting to take effect and by those means he began looking for anymore symptoms the woman might have started exhibiting. She had shown no new symptoms at all over the last thirty years. She should consider herself lucky. After the second wizarding war hags and other beasts like werewolves were considered beings rather than creatures and thus she had been moved to St Mungo's from an asylum where she had been kept hostage since the explosion had first occurred.
"Lake," she repeated and Draco nodded. He, nor anyone else had understood why that was the only word she cared to use whenever someone was close, and all the other times she stared out the window at London with a blank expression.
When lunch arrived Draco had an "Aha!" moment and suddenly knew what it was that was missing from Hermione's medical file. The incompetent intern nurse had forgotten to give her the potion she had to take before undergoing surgery. It had to be administered at least twenty-four hours before it actually were to take place.
"Oh for Merlin's sake!" he exclaimed at his desk and closed the folder after writing that she would have taken the potion. He went to the potions room, acquired the potion that Miss Granger would need to take and walked back to his office to shed the lime green robe. Then, he quickly threw his trench coat on and headed for the elevators without returning any greetings or gestures anyone gave him. Definitely not the department nurses.
It didn't take him long to reach ground level and floo to the ministry. Once there, some people politely greeted him since they knew who he was and some just gave him dirty looks. He didn't care about either as he hurried his steps, he hoped Hermione would be at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and had not yet left for lunch. As he walked into the department he saw it was nearly empty, except for the receptionist, a boy who looked like he was about to graduate from Hogwarts.
"Excuse me?" Draco tried, aiming to catch the boy's attention. He looked up at Draco with a crease between his eyebrows.
"Yes?" he sighed.
"Is Miss Hermione Granger in?" Draco asked.
"No she left for lunch a couple of minutes ago, can I leave a note?" Draco considered just leaving a note and the potion but he didn't like office people, they were often sloppy, as his nurses had been. No, he wanted to deliver the potion to Hermione himself, and maybe for more reasons than wanting it to truly get through to her.
"Do you know where she's having her lunch?"
"That newly opened place in the alley, I can't remember the name but that's my guess," the boy answered.
"Thank you," Draco said and turned to leave. He walked the same corridors back to the main hall of the ministry and without so much as a gaze at anyone he stepped into a fireplace and floo'd away to Diagon Alley.
As he walked into the restaurant he was surprised at the amount of witches and wizards occupying the tables. He had seen it advertised and hadn't thought it would be as succesful as it seemed to be. His mother also hadn't liked the idea of this restaurant. It wasn't as classy as she wanted restaurants to be, he figured that she would probably be changing her opinion soon.
Draco gazed over the people who were enjoying their lunches and soon spotted a façade of brown in a corner, across her was none other than Ginny Weasley. Well wouldn't this be fun, Draco thought as he started making his way over to the women, peacefully enjoying their lunch without any thought of old foes disturbing them. Ginny was the first one to notice him as he approached, Hermione, surely noticing her friend glaring at something, turned around on the chair and shot him an angry look.
"Malfoy, what are you doing here?" she asked and continued to glare at him. Ginny had politely started looking at her plate.
"I won't disturb you for long, I'm just going to correct a mistake that my nurse made," he promised her and dug the potion out of his pocket.
"Oh so that's…" Ginny started saying but stopped when Hermione started glaring at her just as venomously as she had done at Draco. He offered her the potion and she took it carefully.
"I thought you were an approved healer?" Hermione said.
"Like I said, my nurse made this mistake, not I. If you would please drink it now as well, the sooner the better," he explained.
"Seriously, you are the hot healer she talked about?" Ginny suddenly let out. Draco arched an eyebrow questioningly at the statement. Hermione gasped at her friend before quickly unscrewing the cork of the potion and drinking it just as fast. Embarrassed, Hermione stared down at her lunch without so much as a look in Draco's direction.
"I assume I am, if she hasn't changed to any of the older healers," Draco assured the red head, though he was very much amused that Hermione had told her friend that.
"I haven't," Hermione whispered, just loud enough for it to be audible.
"Well, like I promised, I won't be staying," Draco told the pair of friends and was just about to leave when Ginny stopped him.
"Why don't you have lunch with us? I think Hermione would appreciate that a lot," Ginny said and threw him a wide smile.
"I'm not so sure about that Miss Weasley," he snickered.
"Actually, it's Mrs Potter now, but please do sit. I insist," Ginny told him with an even wider smile, and so he did. Draco was very sure that he had never heard Hermione talk as little as she did that lunch. Or rather not heard. She had always had a witty comeback but not this time around and it sure did amuse Draco.
A/N I'd like to thank for the review, it does mean a lot. As always I owe my soul or something to TheresMusicInMyEars because they're a gift from above regarding this story. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and please, do leave a review if anything concerns you or if you simply like the story. :)
