Chapter Nine.
After Draco and Hermione were reunited, it was decided a meeting with Harry and Ron would wait until the following weekend. Not only did all four of them have to work, but it gave them all time to adjust to all the recent revelations. Hermione especially needed time, as not only was she dealing with her former boyfriend coming back from the dead, but there was her current relationship to think about.
Hermione had lunch with Ginny on the Monday, and of course the redhead noticed her lack of engagement ring. Hermione could clearly see Ginny was saddened by what was happening, but at least she understood why Hermione and Ron couldn't just carry on as though nothing had happened. However, Hermione wasn't convinced all of the Weasleys would feel the same, so she'd spent the week avoiding Molly. As for the girls she employed at the shop, she told them one of the stones was loose and it was being fixed, rather than tell them anything that might lead to gossip which would undoubtedly get back to Molly.
All week, Hermione thought about her future. She could just consider dealing with the past, saying goodbye to Draco and carrying on with Ron as though nothing had happened, but she knew that wasn't possible. Now she'd witnessed how the imposter had broken Draco's heart, she really couldn't imagine walking out on him. Even without that heart-breaking image, Hermione still didn't think she had it in her to walk away from Draco. At the end of the day, she was very aware of the fact that no matter what she felt for Ron, it was a mere shadow of the feelings she had for Draco. There was no denying she loved Ron, but she wasn't madly in love with him like she was with Draco.
By the time Hermione met up with Harry and Ron on Saturday afternoon to head back to Draco's, her head was still in a complete mess. She was aware that however she proceeded, someone was going to get hurt. She knew both Draco and Ron would accept whatever she decided, but she still knew that eventually she was going to end up breaking one of their hearts. Most likely Ron's as deep down she already knew she wasn't losing Draco for a second time.
Ginny had wanted to join them in France, but she had quidditch training, so it was just the three of them. Although, she had made Harry promise to tell her everything when he got back from France. Hermione didn't mind that Ginny knew everything as she trusted the redhead to keep quiet. In fact, she half wished her female friend was at her side as she prepared to head back to France and try to get to the bottom of things along with Harry, Ron and Draco.
"Are you okay?" Ron asked, noticing how nervous Hermione appeared to be as Harry set up the international floo connection on his fire.
"I'm fine," Hermione replied with a weak smile. "I'm just eager for answers."
"Aren't we all," Ron muttered.
Once Harry had the connection set up, they double checked the address of Draco's house before heading to France one at a time. Ron went first, followed by Hermione, and Harry brought up the rear. The trio arrived in the room of the house dedicated to floo travel, and they were greeted by the same, smiling house elf.
"Hello," Pixie greeted. "Master Draco is in the living room."
"Thank you, Pixie," Hermione said, giving the elf a smile. She was pleased to see Draco's elf was free and worked for a small wage, rather than being enslaved to him. Obviously some of her lectures in school had paid off and he's listened to her, despite the fact he always argued that house elves didn't want to be free.
While the elf popped off to do whatever else she did, the trio made their way to the living room. Because Ron, and then Hermione, had made the trip last time, they had no problem locating the living room. When they entered the room, they found tea and snacks on the coffee table, while Draco was sitting on the sofa, frowning at some papers he had in his hand.
"We're not interrupting, are we?" Hermione asked, feeling a little guilty when Draco jumped slightly at the sound of her voice.
"Sorry, I just got lost in some work stuff," Draco replied, flicking his wand and sending the papers flying off into a nearby drawer. "Please, sit down."
"How are you doing?" Hermione asked, joining Draco on his sofa while Harry and Ron took seats opposite them.
"I'm okay," Draco answered. "How are you?"
"Coping," Hermione replied with a rueful smile. "What else can I do?"
Watching Hermione and Draco exchange greetings, Harry and Ron could both see the concern and love between them. Even though they acted as though they were nothing but friends, they could both see otherwise. Harry couldn't help but feel sorry for Ron, but at the same time it was nice to see Hermione not looking as haunted. He just hoped that when the dust settled on everything that both his best friends got the happy ending they deserved, even though it was looking increasingly unlikely that it would be together.
"Help yourselves to tea and food," Draco said, making sure to include Harry and Ron. Even though he wanted nothing more than to focus all his attention on Hermione, he knew it would be inappropriate. Things were still incredibly complicated, and he didn't want to do anything to hurt Ron, not after he'd played such a big part in reuniting him with Hermione. "I think Pixie got a bit carried away when I told her I was expecting guests."
"Is that because you don't have many?" Ron asked unthinkingly, before wincing as he realised how rude he sounded. "I didn't mean that to sound so rude," He told Draco with an apologetic grimace. "It was just when we were first investigating what had happened, we couldn't find a lot of details about your life now. It seems as though you live very much in private."
"I do," Draco confirmed. "And don't worry about being rude, I'm sure I've said worse in the past. Besides, you're right, I don't get a lot of visitors. Apart from my parents and friends, I don't see many other people, unless its work related."
"You work from home, don't you?" Harry asked, hoping he wasn't overstepping the mark, but he was curious why Draco ran a successful business from home.
"Most of the time," Draco answered with a nod. "I do have an office in the main office in Paris, but I don't use it that often. Father installed the office here before I could walk again. He thought getting involved with the family business would help give my life purpose."
"Did it?" Hermione asked, her heart aching at the thought that Draco had thought his life had no purpose.
"It did actually," Draco said with a small smile. "After getting out of the hospital, I bought this place and moved in mainly so I could be on my own, well apart from the medi-witch the clinic assigned to me. I was more than happy to mope around here, and I rarely did the physical therapy I was supposed to be doing. But getting working gave me a fresh outlook, and I became determined to walk again. I think without it, I would still be stuck in a wheelchair."
"I'm sure you would have found the motivation somewhere," Hermione said, taking Draco's hand in hers. "You're far too stubborn to have remained stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of your life."
"Luckily that wasn't an issue," Harry said. He hated to break up the moment between the pair, but they had things to discuss. "Sorry to be so abrupt, but we really should press on with why we're here."
"Of course." Draco nodded as Hermione removed her hand from his and picked up her cup of tea. "I think we can all agree that someone was posing as Hermione in France. It was an imposter who kept visiting me, and then later ended things."
"Since it wasn't the real Hermione, that's the only solution," Ron said. Picking up a sandwich, he munched down on it as he tried to ignore the fact they were discussing something so close to them and treat it like any other investigation he and Harry were running.
"As much as I hate to admit it, it means it was someone I trust," Draco said with a sigh.
"Not necessarily," Harry argued. "Anyone could have swiped some hairs from Hermione one time and used polyjuice potion to pose as her. Let's be honest, it's not hard to even bump into someone in the street and pluck a few hairs from their clothes, or even from their head itself."
"I agree it's easy for anyone to get hold of the vital ingredient for polyjuice potion," Draco replied. "But that's not the issue. The problem is, only my parents and closest friends knew exactly where I'd been moved to."
"It was in your medical records," Harry pointed out. "Granted, it's a long shot someone from the hospital was involved, but we can't rule it out. Even someone from the Ministry, could have access to the records considering your father had to get permission to leave the country."
Draco shook his head, not buying Harry's arguments even though there was a semblance of possibility in them. "We all know this is personal. This wasn't something someone did for a laugh, they had a purpose, and that purpose was to end my relationship with Hermione. Like it or not, we're looking for someone who didn't like the fact we were together."
"And considering we didn't share the news with anyone, we have no idea who was opposed to our relationship," Hermione mused.
"What about when you woke up?" Ron asked Draco. "Didn't you get an impression of what your friends and family thought then?"
"Not really," Draco admitted. "The only people I saw before the imposter were Mother and Father. Neither of them mentioned Hermione, and afterwards no-one had anything nice to say about her."
"I'm not surprised," Hermione snarled. "She was a bitch. I don't blame your friends and family for hating me, after they thought I left you so cruelly."
"See, I never got their thoughts on our relationship," Draco concluded. "There were all too busy hating Hermione for breaking my heart."
"Was there anyone that seemed glad about what had happened?" Harry probed. "Or unsurprised?"
"To be honest, I have no idea," Draco admitted. "I wasn't in the best state of mind. I was struggling with my injuries, and I thought Hermione had just walked out on me. I know no-one was impressed by what had happened, but I don't remember anything off about any of them."
"Maybe we need to have a talk with them," Harry mused. "See how they fare against professional Aurors."
"You want to ambush them?" Hermione checked, knowing where Harry was going with his plan.
"Why not?" Harry replied with a smirk. "Malfoy gathers his friends and family, and then we walk in. Someone will react, you can bet on it."
"Yeah, they'll lynch me," Hermione grumbled. "You haven't seen what happened Harry. The imposter was a selfish cow. No wonder anyone who cares about Draco hates me. All you're going to get is hatred."
"Maybe initially," Draco agreed. "But what about once everything calms down and we explain everything. That's when someone is going to get worried."
"Especially if you bring veritiserum into play," Ron added. "If they've got nothing to hide, they won't object to taking some."
"This sounds like a good plan, but I don't want them to think I'm victimising them," Draco said. "I want the truth, but I don't want to alienate the people who've done nothing."
"You won't alienate them if they truly care," Hermione said, once again taking hold of Draco's hand. "Anyone who really loves you, will just want the truth."
"Plus, we can tell them we're planning to do the same with the people close to Hermione," Harry said. "Because let's face it, whoever did this is close to one of you. The way they've done it, it leans more towards them being connected to Malfoy, but we can say we're investigating all possibilities."
"Which we will," Ron added. "If everyone passes the veritiserum test we then look at other options."
"Let's deal with that if the need arises," Draco said. "For now, let's organise how we're going to surprise my friends and family. I would say we could do it tomorrow, but it's too short notice. I know for a fact a few of them are busy."
"Yeah, we can't really do tomorrow either," Ron said. "Mum's expecting us all for lunch. Apparently George has a big announcement."
"All of us?" Hermione questioned, looking apprehensive about facing Molly.
"I can try and make an excuse, but you know what Mum's like," Ron said, giving Hermione a sympathetic smile. "We don't need to tell her anything."
"No, I'll go and we'll tell her the truth," Hermione said, looking less than thrilled at the prospect. "They're going to find out sooner or later, so we might as well get it over with."
Deciding on the following weekend as the time to put their plan into action, the foursome spent a while formalising a plan of attack. An hour later, they had everything sorted. Draco would invite his friends and family over for Sunday lunch, and after lunch the truth would be revealed. One way or another, they were determined to finally know what had happened seven years ago.