Author's Note: So, they have the file! I wonder what will happen next... :-) Read, review, and enjoy!!
The Morning After
'Where is that stupid girl?' thought Draco. 'She's been in there for over an hour; that's more than enough time to grab a file and go!' He ran a hand through his hair and looked up impatiently at the black night sky. 'That's enough, I'm going in.' He walked determinately towards the phone booth but stopped with one foot in the door.
'No, wait. What if I go in and she has encountered someone? I could endanger the whole operation. It's better for me to wait out here.' He walked back over to his place in the shadows, unconsciously chewing on his thumb.
'What if she's in trouble, though? I need that file!' Halfway to the booth, he stopped and turned around again. He probably looked crazy, constantly stepping towards and away from the booth, as if he was a dog on a leash. His usually decisive behavior was on the fritz, and it was distracting and frustrating to him. He ran his fingers through his hair once more and sighed.
'If she's in trouble, she'll send her Patronus,' he reasoned, moving back towards the shadows.
At that exact moment, he saw a pearly white otter charge through the wall of the Ministry. It wafted around his head for a moment and evaporated with a nearly-silent poof. Draco needed no more prodding. He launched himself into the phone booth and swiftly punched in the numbers, swearing as his clumsy fingers missed the numbers. Once the elevator was at the Atrium, Draco took off at a sprint towards the fireplaces. A handful of Floo Powder and a couple grates later, Draco launched out of the chimney.
What he saw almost made him sick. Hermione was pinned on the floor by a heavy-looking man who was violating her body, or at least, trying to. Hermione was putting up quite a fight, screaming and kicking and writhing underneath him, desperately attempting to escape. A hard feeling gripped Draco's heart. Rage exploded from within as he aimed his wand.
"STUPEFY!" His aim was true as a shaft of red light exploded from his wand tip. The man flew backwards from the force of Draco's spell. He heard a sick crunch as the man smacked against the wall and thought he felt the floor shake from the impact.
For a moment, Hermione was silent from the shock. Traumatized, she pulled down her shirt and sat up. She looked at Edgar and back at Draco, who was standing like a god with his wand at the ready and a fierce expression upon his face. She burst into tears of relief and hot embarrassment. She sobbed into her arm on the floor.
Draco walked up to her and knelt down beside Hermione's crying form. He put one arm around her body and lifted her to her feet, for she seemed quite unable to stand on her own. She leaned onto his chest and continued crying, her tears wetting Draco's shirt. Her entire body was violently shaking, her teeth chattering despite the warmth of his body against hers. He kept his arm around her, as much to keep her up as to comfort her.
As Draco held her, he noticed something that he hadn't before: Hermione seemed to fit into his arms, like they were matching pieces to a puzzle. Draco felt comfortable holding her, like his arms were at last where they should be. He had been with other women of course, but none ever gave him that particular feeling of completeness. He frowned at the thought, guessing at what it meant and not knowing if he liked the answer.
It seemed like he held her for hours, but he knew it was probably only mere minutes. Precious minutes they needed for escape. Draco knew that Hermione was in a fragile state, but their window of escape grew smaller with each passing moment.
"Hermione, we have to go. It's all over now," he said absently stroking her hair. "Shh, it's alright. I'm here, Hermione. I'm here," he comforted her. Miraculously, she stopped crying. She looked up at him with red eyes and tear-stained cheeks.
She gave him a watery smile and said quietly, "Thank you."
He said nothing, just softly smiled in return. He reached down, breaking eye contact with Hermione. He picked up the folder on the floor.
"Let's go," he said. She Flooed out of her office first, happy to be leaving and no doubt considering a break from her job for a while.
Before he followed, Draco walked over to a now rousing Edgar. The stupefied man blearily looked up and gave him a disgusting, lecherous smile.
"Have fun getting a poke out of that tart, mate," he said, as if Draco was somehow in on Edgar's sick idea of a good time.
Draco furiously kicked him in the stomach, causing the man to double up in pain and groan. An evil smirk crossed his face as he pointed his wand at Edgar's head.
"Oblivio," he hissed. A vacant look crossed Edgar's face and he remembered no more.
Draco gave the expressionless man on the floor a smug smile and kicked him once more. Satisfied now, he walked into the fireplace and out of the Ministry.
XOX
Hermione Apparated home. Draco appeared soon after her. He placed the file on her kitchen table and looked at her. She was staring intently at the file, but had a far-off look in her eyes. She was still shaking.
"We'll open it tomorrow, Granger." She started at the cold sound of her last name. "You need to sleep now. Come on."
Draco walked to Hermione's room before her, hoping she was following him. He opened the door for her and watched her walk zombie-like into the room. She crossed the threshold of the door and turned around. Her eyes met Draco's. She opened her mouth to say something, not sure about what was going to pass by her lips, when Draco cut her off.
"Go to sleep."
She looked down at the floor and back up at him, tears once more threatening to spill over, and shut the door.
Of all the feelings that had coursed through Hermione's body that night, apprehension, fear, shock, rage, sadness, and hopelessness, none was so strong as her feeling of confusion. After Draco's cold response at her door, silent tears trickled down her cheeks, soaking into the cloth of her pillowcase.
'He used my first name. Did he mean to?' she wiped a tear from her chin. 'Probably not, but he still used it. What does that mean? Never once has he used my name. Tonight, he used it twice. That has got to mean something. Maybe he has changed?' She gave a soft chuckle through her tears. 'Ha, Malfoy change. That's funny.'
But as she thought about it, the more the idea appealed to her. Tonight, he had saved her life. Before, he may not have given her a second glance, or perhaps even killed her himself. He comforted her instead of hurrying her out of the Ministry. And Hermione was not so traumatized that she failed to notice the weird feeling she got when she was in Draco's arms. It was the strangest feeling of completeness, a feeling that she had not experienced since The War.
Reluctantly, Hermione shoved Draco from her mind and concentrated on what happened at the Ministry. She shuddered at the thought of Edgar and now understood why he was sent to her department to work with books instead of people. She curled up into a ball and was more than ready to spend the entire night sleepless and sobbing. But ever the researcher, Hermione stopped her tears and pushed her emotions away. She struggled to remain objective. What Hermione wanted to understand was his behavior with the file. Edgar knew something about Entropy.
'But what?' Hermione thought.
This question echoed through her mind as she drifted to a turbulent sleep. She often woke up sweating or crying, reliving the previous night in the dark recesses of her mind, but never forgetting the one who saved her in the end.
XOX
Draco woke up for the fifth time that night, shaking. He kept having the same dream.
'Or actually,' he corrected himself while staring up at the ceiling, 'the same memory.'
What happened at the Ministry was fresh in his mind and Draco doubted it would ever truly leave him. He would never forget the sound of Hermione's thrashing against the beast of a man atop her. He would never forget the way she sat up and curled into herself, sobbing into her arms on the floor, once Draco had blasted the man off her. He would never forget the look in her eyes, one of infinite happiness and gratitude and some other emotion that was not quite recognizable, when Draco held her.
'I said her name tonight,' he thought. 'For the first time in my life, I said her name. Twice. I wonder if she caught that. Probably not. It was just a slip anyways. I didn't mean to say it, it just sort of happened.'
"Hermione," he whispered into the air.
'See, I did it again. No big deal,' he rationalized.
But deep in his being, Draco knew it was a big deal. He liked the sound of her name when it rolled off his tongue. It was interesting and new, with each letter getting its turn in the limelight.
He said her name again and, feeling strangely content, fell into the world of sleep and did not wake until the morning.
XOX
Hermione went through her usual morning routine and was not surprised to see Draco already standing in her kitchen, tea in hand. She looked at him, feeling a bit awkward.
'No, this will only be awkward if I make it that way,' she thought. She resolved to act normally, as if nothing out of the ordinary had passed. 'That's how everyone best deals with the past, right? They forget. Or, at least, act like they do.'
And with that bit of melancholy and a new streak of determination for the day, she started to talk to Draco.
"Did you sleep well?"
"No," he said, fully concentrating on stirring his tea. Hermione raised her eyebrows at his honesty and reached for a teacup. Pouring herself some of the steaming brew, she went to the table and took a seat across from him. Her glance fell to the table, or more accurately, the thin file on top of the table. She felt his eyes upon her as she stretched her arm out to grab the file. She stopped mid-grab and met his stare.
'Fine,' she thought. 'If he's still going to act weird, then I'll just have to confront the subject.'
"What?" she questioned Draco. "Certainly you didn't think that I wouldn't want to help you anymore. That would be ridiculous," she said sarcastically. "Now get yourself back together; we have some reading to do." She said this in a stronger tone than she meant, but let it hang in the air anyways. She snatched the file towards her, not regretting her words, but instead her inability to see the look on Draco's face.
XOX
Draco was gaping at what Hermione had just said. He was not sure what to expect this morning and indeed, spent his entire shower playing several scenarios out in his head. Of all the possibilities, the one just acted was the one he was least expecting. He marveled at her ability to bounce back and concentrate on what was important. 'She is a Gryffindor,' he thought to himself with a smirk.
"How about we go to the living room to look at this?" Draco offered. She looked up at him. "We'll have more room to work there," he explained. "And it's more comfortable."
She shrugged her consent. Hermione walked into the living room and Draco followed her. She took a seat on the couch across from the table.
XOX
She smiled as she felt Draco lower himself into the seat next to her. Hermione turned her head to his, finding his eyes already at her own. Their steely color, swirling like molten metal with different emotions, only strengthened Hermione's resolve to help Draco out of whatever trouble had befallen him.
XOX
'Damn, her eyes are beautiful,' Draco thought as he gazed into her chocolate depths.
"You ready?" she asked him. He could feel the strength behind her words.
"Yes," he answered steadily.
Draco heard Hermione take a deep breath and watched as her fingers lifted the edges of the file. Its secrets would finally be revealed to them both.