Chapter 10
Hermione took a deep breath as she stood outside the Arithmacy classroom, unsure of what she was about to do.
She wasn't all that sure she was doing the right thing, and maybe it would only make things worse.
But she would never actually know unless she tried, right?
So she took another deep breath, as she channeled her Gryffindor bravery, and set foot inside the classroom.
Despite there being multiple free seats, she walked past all of them, and walked to where Draco Malfoy was sitting by himself. And before he or anyone else could say anything, she sat down in the empty seat.
The action itself was enough for most of the class to look up at her in confusion. Despite not being the gossiping sort, her willingly sitting beside the boy who had made her life miserable for the last five years was enough to stir their attention. Especially given their very different stances in the upcoming war, her by Harry's side, and the expectation that he would stand by his family.
He looked up at her, a confused look on his face, before he quickly masked it with a scowl upon recognizing who it was. But if he was going to protest the action, he never got the chance as Professor Vector began to lecture them.
Despite Malfoy wiping off the scowl, and placing a cold, blank expression on his face, it didn't stop him from sneaking glances at her every few moments, as if he were trying to figure out just what she was doing and why she had seated herself willingly next to him, especially as Professor Vector hadn't assigned them time to work on their project during class.
It certainly didn't help that she could feel her heart racing, wondering just what had possessed her to choose to sit beside Draco Malfoy, even if she knew very well why she had. She had done it because she needed to earn his trust. Because Draco Malfoy was not inherently evil. He was prejudiced and a bully, but he wasn't Voldemort, nor did she believe he could kill anyone. And if she could earn his trust, she could convince him and potentially other students who Voldemort would turn to recruit into siding against Voldemort when the time came. Because their numbers really did matter. If the majority of the population did not side with Voldemort, it would be harder for him to take over, gain government support, and in turn, rule the wizarding world. But she just needed him to believe he was capable of more than following a mad man. She needed him to see that he could be good.
So when they were given time to discuss their project, she turned to him, swallowing her anxiousness, and said, "So have you started looking into your sections? I had a few books that I found particularly helpful to begin my research, but I wanted to see if you had found anything you thought could be beneficial. Between the two of us, we could cover a decent range of sources, and potentially create a paper of extraordinary material, don't you think?"
"I haven't started," he said, without looking up at her. "I told you we would combine it at the end, so why on earth are you bothering me, Granger."
"You…haven't started?" she asked, confused.
"No, I haven't," he said, looking up at her pointedly. "Is that a problem?"
"Well if you need any books that could make for a good starting place, I can give you some references," she said after a moment.
"I don't need them," he said looking down, "I'll hand you my parts when I'm done, Granger. Now if you wouldn't mind leaving me alone for the remainder of class-"
"Then what have you been working on?" she asked, "I know for a fact that we don't have any assignments that have been assigned recently, as we just handed in a bunch of essays, and we haven't gotten more yet. Unless you're getting ahead in class, there's not all that much else for you to be doing."
"I've been busy," he said curtly, "Not that I owe you any explanations."
"I suppose not," she said, looking down for a moment, "Look, Malfoy. I get that this paper is hardly the most important thing in your life right now, given everything that's happened. But that doesn't mean you need to write off your priorities and your studies. Just, let me know if you need anything, okay?"
He looked up with her, giving her a look she couldn't recognize, but when Professor Vector dismissed the class, he swiftly stood up, collected his books, and bolted from the classroom.
When Ron burst into her office that day, she wished she could have said she was surprised. In all honesty, Hermione was impressed that she had managed to avoid him for as long as she had, even if it had only been a few days.
And while she wanted anything other than to be in the same room as her husband, as he stood in front of her, she realized that she couldn't avoid him for much longer; not without being clear about where the two of them stood.
"Hermione," he said after a moment, as if he were unsure of how she would react to his presence.
"Ronald," she said, without standing up from her chair. "I see you're doing well."
"I'm not," he responded quickly, "I've been doing horrible without you Mione. It's been absolutely dreadful knowing you and Rose weren't at home. I haven't been eating, drinking, or even sleeping. All I've been thinking of is how to get you back."
"Ron-" she said softly, not wanting him to get his hopes up.
"I messed up," he said, cutting her off. "You're right. I messed up. I've been drinking too much, and indulging in extramarital affairs. I haven't been a good husband to you, and you deserve so much better than what I gave you. Please come home, Hermione. I'll give up drinking, and you can finally be a proper wife as you were meant to be. I'll forgive you for everything if you do."
"What do you need to forgive me for?" she asked in a calm voice, despite wanting nothing more than to hex him.
He snorted at that, as he shook his head, "Please, Hermione. I'm not the only one who screwed up in our marriage. You were hardly perfect yourself, what with your inattention and lack of dedication. I've accepted my faults, why can't you accept yours?"
"Because my faults all involve me not being the woman you want me to be," she said in a soft voice. "Ron, you'll never be able to accept me as who I really am. You don't love the person I am. You love who you want me to be. You claim to love parts of me, but you can't love the person I am and the person I want to be. You can't love the fact that I want a career and to be successful, but I also want to be a mother. You can't love that I won't always be home on time because others need me too. Or that my style of parenthood is different than your mothers. You can't love that I am not at home constantly with Rose, cooking and cleaning. Nor can you love the fact that working makes me happy."
"Because it shouldn't need to," he said stubbornly, "I should be able to provide for us, Hermione. We shouldn't need to rely on your salary."
"It's not about the money for me, Ron. It helps, but it's not about the money," she said softly, "It's about making something with my life. I could never be happy as a housewife. I'm not the same as your mother. I need to work and to have something for myself. I cannot just stay at home all day."
"We could be happy together," he whispered, "We were once! We love each other, and we can go back to that!"
"We can't, Ron, because it never was real. Neither of us have been happy in a long time, and I think you know that too. Why else would you have been sleeping with other woman? Do you honestly think I could be happy if we returned back to the way we were, with you unhappy with my choices, and me unhappy with yours?" she asked him, carefully.
"I don't see why not," he said stubbornly, "You're giving up on us! You're not even willing to fight for us or for our family! Rosie is going to grow up in a broken family, wondering why all her cousin's parents are together and happy, and she is split in between us."
"Rose is going to stay with me," she said firmly, "Until you get a better control of your drinking and prove you will not put her in harm's way. And either way, Rose will know her parent's don't love each other. I would rather her see us be civil than resent each other stuck in a marriage neither of us want. Now, I have some work to attend to, so please see yourself out. We can talk more about this later."
He looked like he wanted to argue, but she had already buried herself back in her work, and he knew he had no chance of being heard now.
"Can we talk?" Hermione felt herself asking, as she stood outside Draco and Harry's shared office, while her friend was out to lunch, leaving Draco alone in the room.
She hadn't known what she wanted to say to him after nearly kissing him the night before, but she knew she couldn't avoid him forever; not without making their relationship strained. And the last thing she wanted to do was isolate him after everything they had been through together.
"Of course," he said quickly, gesturing at one of the chairs in front of his desk.
She moved toward it, and sat down in silence.
"I'm sorry if I led you-" she started.
"I don't expect anything-" Draco said at the same time as her.
"Sorry," she said softly, when both of them cut off their sentences midway. "Do you want me to go first?"
"I'm sorry," she whispered, "That I can only offer you friendship right now. I can't offer you anything else, not with the divorce, and Rose. I just need some time to figure out what I'm going to do now with my life. I'm sorry."
He nodded, smiling softly at her, "Hermione, I'm sorry if you felt uncomfortable after last night. It was never my intention to do anything to hurt you. You're an important part of my life, you always will be, and if you simply want to be friends, then I do not blame you for that. You're going through a difficult time, and I would rather be in your life as a friend than not at all."
"Thank you," she said, letting out a sigh of relief. She still cared for the man, despite their history and past relationship, and she was more than grateful that he seemed to understand just where she was coming from, and didn't expect anything more from her.
"Of course," he smiled at her again, "Now tell me how the case is going. Last I checked, you were looking into proving the Imperius curse defense was false. How is that coming along? Do you need any help?"
She smiled as she began to discuss her defense with him, and he made a couple of fair points on how they could gather the necessary articles of evidence needed to prove that there was no presence of the Imperius curse on the man.
Maybe one day they would be able to move on and be something more as they once were, but for now, she was happy having him in her life as a friend.
Harry stood in the dark lit corner of Knockturn Alley where the body lay in front of him a few metres ahead.
In his career as an Auror he could count the number of times he had been in the darkly known location. And it was not due to the fact that crimes did not occur in the obscure location, but because the number of times they got reported were minimal. Usually, people tended to keep their heads down and avoid any thing that could endanger themselves if they could not benefit from the situation.
It was only because an Auror in the department had been following a lead on a house elf smuggling ring that she had stumbled upon the body, and immediately informed the department of so.
The man in question was an Unspeakable at the Ministry of Magic, meaning that it would be quite difficult for them to find out just what he was working on without the proper paperwork and going through several chains of people. But something, either in his work life, or personal life had gotten him killed.
Looking over the body, it appeared as if the man had been grievously tortured, attempting to pry out information, before he had been killed and dumped in the alley. The lack of blood on the scene implied that he was not killed in the location where he was found, and he highly doubted the killer cleaned up the blood spill with a charm before leaving.
He looked around the scene and saw Ron attempting to take statements, but there were few witnesses, and even less who were willing to come forward and be seen talking to law enforcement.
"He was tortured with dark magic," Draco said to him grimly as he came over to where Harry was standing. "I can practically feel the residual magic radiating off the man. Whatever was done to him, it seemed as if he held out for a while and he was tortured quite a bit for it."
"But what was it that they wanted to get out of him?" Harry mused, "Why was he tortured so much. What was so important they punished him as such before killing him?"
"At this point your guess is as good as mine," Draco said softly, "Whatever it was, was worth killing the man and dumping his body in a place where he wouldn't have been discovered if it weren't for Auror Danvers. They didn't want us to find this person. And there's hardly any other evidence lying around, except for the body. We can perform a magical autopsy and see if we can figure out exactly what spells were cast on the man, as it could give us a good indication of who we should be looking at for suspects, but it's a longshot."
Harry sighed, as he ran his fingers through his hair tiredly. It was going to be another long day at the office, that much was for sure. He would have to send Ginny a patronus stating that he would be unable to make dinner tonight, and hopefully the hormones of her pregnancy wouldn't make her too angry with him.
Astoria sat in the back corner of the Leaky Cauldron with a notice me not charm up so that the occupants did not see her sitting there with the older blonde man that night. The last thing she needed was for someone to see them, and spread rumours of colluding, or even worse, of an affair.
"You promised me, Lucius," she said in a low voice. "You promised me that you would have a betrothal agreement drawn up and sent to my parents shortly after the war ended. But all we have is refusal from your son, who seems to have it in his mind that he can make his own choices in the matter. Does he not care of what it would mean for a union between the Ancient houses of Malfoy and Greengrass? That it would strengthen both of our old noble houses and bring together a new dawn of power? Yet your son seems to think it's fitting of his name to gallivant around the country, waving his wand and play Auror. Have you not taught him what was proper for someone of his station? Because quite frankly, it is an embarrassment to us all."
"Do not speak to me that way, child," Lucius said giving the girl a look of contempt. "His days as an Auror are numbered. Right now, I am pouring over ancient laws which decree the Head of the House powerful enough to sign a union on behalf of his offspring. Once I find the proper law, I will have the papers drawn up and sent to your father. Do not worry, the Houses Malfoy and Greengrass will be unified soon enough. And with a few more alliances, we will be able to begin swaying the political powers in our favour once more."
"Then you best take care of Granger while you're at it," Astoria said, appearing as if a foul stench was present as she uttered the mudblood's name. "She will try and steal your son and taint the Malfoy line. And the last thing you need to be the ancient house who turned into a family of blood traitors. Years of Malfoy ancestor tainted, because your soft son couldn't resist the Golden Girl."
"Granger will not be a problem for much longer," Lucius raised a brow at her, "I assure you, I have my house in order. My son will not be sullying himself with that girl. Not after what she did during the war. But do not worry your pretty little head, Greengrass, I will have her out of the picture without anyone even realizing she was in danger. All I need to do is persuade her that after her failure of a marriage that perhaps she would be happier in the muggle world with her parents. And once she publicly announces that, no one will even question when they are unable to find her after that."
"Good," Astoria stood, "Because I refuse to let your son embarrass me for much longer. Let father know when you have the papers drawn up."
And with that she stood, throwing her hair over her shoulder, and left the filthy establishment behind.