CHAPTER 14

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A/N: I hit 50 reviews the other day! Totally crazy! Thanks to each of you - I love getting feedback and hearing that people are genuinely interested in my story. The next chapter will be a little delayed because I'm still figuring out the details for the next few chapters - I have the arc, but need to fill in some holes and reconsider a few things. I'll post it as soon as I can! Thanks for reading!

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As soon as Ernesto identified Matt as the culprit, everyone sprang into action – everyone, that is, except Hermione, who continued to stand in the hallway, her eyes filled with rage and pain as she stared at the photograph in her hand.

Kingsley immediately sent patronuses to guards to ensure that all exit points remained blocked and monitored. Neville, Harry, and Dean ran to start searching for Matt and to round up other aurors to join them. Draco hesitated. He wanted to join in the search effort, but as he noticed that Hermione remained frozen in front of Ernesto's portrait, he started to get worried about her.

"Hermione?" He called, but got no response.

He moved to comfort her, stretching out an arm, but as the motion caught her eye, her head snapped up. Instantly, he saw the emotion disappear from her face. He saw before him not the woman who had just learned that the man she had been falling in love with had used and betrayed her, but instead the woman who had stared down the worst evil the wizarding world had ever known, the woman who had risked her life to aid her friend, and the woman who had withstood his own teasing and tormenting for seven years. The warrior was back.

She stuffed the photograph back into her purse, clenched her fists, and marched down the hallway, barking orders as she went. Draco trailed after her, trying to keep up and help as best he could.

"Block off all entrances and exits to the Department of Mysteries!" Hermione shouted. "If he gets in there, we'll be searching for him for days. If he's already in there, well we might as well keep him there for a while. Collect all polyjuice potion and invisibility cloaks – make sure all are accounted for! Gather all of the portrait subjects and question them about a single man sneaking away – we've all been traveling primarily in groups today so a single man might stick out! And," here she reached into her bag and handed the photograph to a frazzled Ministry aid, "Make as many copies of this photograph as you can and distribute them to everyone here, asking if they have seen this man!"

Draco stared, impressed. When Hermione wheeled around and shot him a look that clearly said why are you standing there doing nothing?!, he headed down to the Potions Department to assist with collecting and taking inventory of all of the polyjuice potion.

What greeted him was a total and complete mess. Clearly someone had been here recently – he had only left the lab about twenty minutes ago. He grabbed a mop, but his stomach lurched as he realized the cause of the mess – hundreds of smashed bottles of veritaserum. Scanning the room, he realized that everything else remained untouched. Draco quickly put the pieces together and realized what had happened. He went to send a patronus, but remembered he didn't have a wand. He raced out of the lab and down the hallway. He found Harry after a few moments and breathlessly explained everything.

"All of the veritaserum is smashed! Destroyed!"

"We'll deal with it later Draco. Right now we have to-" Suddenly Harry's eyes widened as he realized what Draco was telling him.

Harry sent quick patronuses to Kingsley, Hermione, Dean, and Neville and they all raced to Kingsley's office, Harry's chosen meeting place.

"Are all of the exits sealed?!" Harry shouted as soon as he saw Kingsley.

"Yes – all. What is going on? We've begun sending messages to other wizarding institutions telling them to keep an eye out for Matt and we have aurors combing the streets."

"No need, he's here," Draco asserted.

"What? How do you know?" asked Dean.

"I went to the Potions lab to gather all of the polyjuice potion, but when I got there, I found a total mess – all of the veritaserum has been destroyed!"

It took a few seconds for everyone to understand what he was saying, but they quickly realized what had happened.

"Matt must not have gotten out before we sealed the exits! He knew he would be caught and interrogated, so he destroyed the veritaserum!" Dean shouted.

"He probably couldn't take the floo network with all of us in the atrium and he wouldn't be able to use Draco's floo without Hermione," Harry added.

"But why didn't he just steal some polyjuice potion and sneak out while we were distracted?" Hermione asked.

"We were all in the lab brewing the antidote – he couldn't get in unseen. We didn't leave the lab until our meeting twenty minutes ago. Also, I didn't see any polyjuice potion in there." Draco explained.

Suddenly Neville perked up. "I just moved the entire supply to Dean's office yesterday – he asked me to bring him all that we had! I was going to replenish our stock this afternoon! I only got to make one vial before the chaos started."

All were silent for a moment, realizing what had happened.

"Where did you set it, Neville?" Draco asked quietly.

"Right on my table," Neville responded.

Draco remembered the empty surface and quickly confirmed their worst fears. Matt had that vial of polyjuice potion. He had used their meeting and their absence from the lab to steal the polyjuice potion and destroy the veritaserum, providing himself with a way out and protection even if he was caught. The group headed out to the atrium, where aurors had assembled everyone in the Ministry, using human-detecting charms to leave no corner unsearched.

They scanned the crowd for Matt, but did not see him.

"He must have already taken the polyjuice potion," groaned Neville.

Normally they would have had to pass out antidotes to counteract the polyjuice potion, but because this was Neville's batch, they only had to wait for ten minutes or so.

It was an awkward ten minutes. There were hundreds of people still at the Ministry, including those who had been sick earlier and the team from St. Mungos. They all stood huddled, staring shiftily at the people around them. Several nervously eyed copies of the photograph of Matt that had been distributed, sizing up those around them and comparing them to the image in their hands. Everyone was suddenly suspicious of friends, neighbors, and co-workers. A few tried to make small talk, but most stood silently, peering around for any sign of shifting appearances.

Suddenly, a woman screamed and pointed to an old, whiskered man standing near the elevators. Hermione and the men instantly moved toward the sound of the scream and all watched as the shrunken man suddenly grew a foot in height and seemed to go back in time sixty years.

Matt bolted for the elevator, but Kinglsey had stationed guards at each exit point and they quickly caught him, removed his wand, and magically bound him. The innocent bystanders were allowed to return home and Kingsley, Hermione, Draco, Harry, Dean, and Neville moved back to the conference room next to Kingsley's office, deciding it would be less crowded, especially with the addition of their prisoner and his two guards.

"Draco, did you say every bottle of veritaserum was smashed?" Harry asked.

"To be honest, I didn't inspect the scene too carefully. That's what it looked like, but he could have missed one or two," Draco responded.

Harry sent Neville down to check to see if any bottles were still usable.

After a few moments, however, he wasn't even sure if they would need it – Matt seemed to have no problem talking without it. Indeed, he sat confidently in his seat, boasting about his accomplishments. Gone was the polite, friendly façade he had maintained for months. Now all they saw was an arrogant, sinister, selfish man.

"I just can't believe you fell for all of it! You're supposed to be the 'smartest witch of your age,'" he bragged, chuckling at Hermione's naivety.

Draco turned to Hermione, expecting to find tears welling in her eyes. Instead, he found her sitting confidently, her eyes narrowed at the suspect in front of her. She showed no weakness.

"What was in it for you?" Harry asked. "What did you get out of this?"

"Let's just say that my services were greatly appreciated by some very wealthy, influential individuals. In other words, mo-ney," he said, dragging out the last two syllables.

"Who were you working for?" Dean asked.

Matt laughed. "Like I'm going to tell you that! Come on, let's not continue our stupidity here."

"We saw you meeting with Gideon Lockhart and Michael Corner. Are they involved in this?" Harry asked.

"Do you have any evidence that that meeting took place?" Matt fired back. "You have nothing but the report of your own eyes. And even a report from the eyes of 'the chosen one' won't count as anything but circumstantial evidence."

Harry narrowed his eyes at Matt, but knew that he was right. He only hoped that there was veritaserum left and that they could get a true confession out of him.

When no more questions were forthcoming, Matt used the opportunity to continue to berate Hermione.

"To be honest, though, there were times where I wondered if it was even worth the money. I mean, the hours I spent listening to this broad? At least I got some good naps out of it."

Now he looked at Draco.

"And thank Merlin for this little twerp over here – if not for him I might have even had to sleep with this cow."

Draco rose to his feet, barely able to restrain himself. He immediately realized that he was not alone – Harry had also risen next to him. A look passed between them as they recognized that finally, for perhaps the first time, they were on the same side of a fight. Kingsley sent Harry, Draco, and Hermione from the room, realizing that if he let them all stay, Matt would most likely end up beat to a pulp within ten minutes – or maybe ten seconds.

The three stood leaning against the wall of the conference room, the boys unsure of what to say to Hermione. Both started to say something, stuttered out a few words, and gave up.

They didn't have much time to brave a second attempt, however, because Neville quickly came running up the stairs, waving a tiny bottle.

A few feet away from them, he tripped over the hem of his robe and went sliding to the floor. The bottle came loose from his hand and soared through the air.

Hermione watched in slow motion, but breathed a sigh of relief when she watched Harry's hand close around it. Draco realized he was experiencing another first – the first time he was happy Harry Potter had caught a flying object.

The foursome quickly returned to the conference room and Harry handed the bottle to Kingsley.

Draco hesitated in the doorway. Something didn't seem quite right. That little bottle of veritaserum, which had seemed so miraculous moments ago, now triggered suspicion in Draco's slytherin mind. Everything Matt had done so far had been so calculated, so perfect. He would have had twenty minutes or so in the Potions Lab while they met with Kingsley to discuss what had happened, before they put the pieces together and came after him. Surely that was enough time to be thorough – to make sure that every bottle of veritaserum was destroyed. He never would have expected him to be so negligent, unless...

He eyed the small bottle of potion as Kingsley tipped it into Matt's mouth and noticed with horror that rather than being perfectly clear, the potion was a very pale blue – almost unnoticeable to the untrained eye.

But Draco had a very trained eye when it came to potions.

Unfortunately, his realization came too late. As he screamed for Kingsley to stop, Matt swallowed the potion, leaning his head back and laughing maniacally.

"It's not veritaserum! It's the obliviation potion!" Draco shouted, running to the table.

As Matt's face went pale, Draco realized he was correct. They had moments – seconds even, before Matt forgot not only the events of today, but of his entire life. They had no hope now of discovering his co-conspirators, nor of exacting a confession that would clear Draco's name.

Just before his eyes went blank and his memory disappeared completely, he turned to Hermione and Draco and spoke his final terrifying words.

"You have made some powerful enemies, Miss Granger. And Draco? You really don't stand a chance."

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Draco lay in his bed, his eyes wide open and staring at the ceiling. He had experienced one of the most exhausting days of his life, but he knew he had no chance of falling asleep anytime soon. Scenes replayed in his head – meeting the false Dean in the hallway on the way to lunch, the pandemonium in the Atrium, the moment of realization that Matt was behind everything, and the absolutely devastating moment when Matt's mind was erased.

They had all just stared at him after it happened, dumbfounded and defeated. After a moment or two, the new Matt looked up, completely confused.

"Where am I? Who are you? Who am I?"

The shock of the sudden obliviation was enough to send him immediately to St. Mungo's, and Draco didn't think he would be leaving there anytime soon.

They still weren't sure why he chose to obliviate himself, especially when money was his principal objective and this would essentially erase all he had worked for. They knew he was trying to protect his co-conspirators, however, and Kingsley suggested that since he did not appear to be motivated by any sort of passion or devotion to a cause, he had most likely made some sort of pact or unbreakable vow to protect his allies if anything went wrong.

At this point, Draco didn't really care why he did it – all he cared about was clearing his own name. No one knew what would happen the next day when the press launched their version of what had happened. Kingsley had vowed to defend him, but Draco knew that would only do so much. He would just have to wait and see – hence, his sleeplessness.

After another few minutes of counting sheep, he decided that his efforts were futile and headed to the kitchen to get a drink.

He noticed Hermione's bedroom door was open and knew that she was still awake; she always slept with her door closed. He found her on the terrace, staring into a mug of something that he assumed had originally been hot, but had grown cold long ago. She had forgone the chairs and instead sat on the cold cement floor, with her back against the brick wall of the flat.

He considered the juice in the fridge, the soda Hermione had finally broken down and purchased for him, and the tea that he knew would be the most appropriate choice for the situation.

But he passed it all up and grabbed the firewhiskey.

Hermione looked up as he joined her on the terrace, her eyes faintly bloodshot.

Wordlessly, he asked if she wanted a glass, holding one up and raising his eyebrows.

She hesitated for a moment, then gave a small nod. Still, neither said a word.

Draco poured them both a small amount of the amber liquid – he knew that neither wanted to get drunk, but both just needed something to hold and occasionally sip. Something strong.

They sat next to each other on the terrace for a few moments, neither of them saying anything.

Finally, Hermione took a sip of her firewhiskey, set down her glass, and looked Draco in the eye.

"So let's have it then," she said.

Draco looked up confused. "What?"

"Let's hear it. I know you've just been dying to say 'I told you so.'"

In spite of how terrible the day had been, Draco felt a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"You really think I came out here just to say 'I told you so?'"

"Well you're going to say it sooner or later. Might as well get it out of the way now."

He could tell that she was sort of joking around, but still actually afraid that he was about to brag about being right.

He was silent for a minute.

"Well now you've just taken all of the fun out of it," he finally responded. "Not even worth saying now, I guess. Though I think we both know that I'll bring it up the next time you brag about being right about something," he told her with a chuckle.

She gave him a small smile, but Draco could tell that the day had worn on her. The brave, confident face she had worn all day was slowly slipping away.

"How could I have been so stupid, Draco? How could I have let him into my life? Told him so much about the trial? Ignored all of the red flags?"

"You weren't stupid," he told her, and couldn't believe he was saying it. "You just didn't see the side of him that I saw."

"But all I ever hear is how I'm the 'brightest witch of my age,' the 'cleverest witch Hogwarts has seen in a century'-"

"Oh poooor baby," Draco interrupted.

Hermione narrowed his eyes at him and continued. "But I couldn't even see through a creep like him? I just can't believe it."

"We all make mistakes," he told her – and again he couldn't believe that he was comforting her. For weeks he had wanted to shout at her for believing Matt – had wanted to call her stupid and naïve. And here he was contradicting those very terms when she tried to apply them herself.

"That doesn't make them any easier to swallow."

"Well you do the only thing you can – you learn from it and you move on. Matt was a con artist – but a very good one. He was very persuasive. Don't beat yourself up – he had almost everyone convinced that he was a great guy. Potter even set you up with him, for Merlin's sake."

"Everyone but you," she responded.

Draco shrugged his shoulders. "There's a reason you're a Gryffindor and I'm a Slytherin."

They were quiet again for a few minutes before Hermione spoke up, issuing another confession.

"You know what I regret the most though? What I'm the most sorry and the most ashamed about?"

Draco shook his head.

"I regret not trusting you," she told him honestly. "I feel like we've come so far in the past few months and I really do consider you a friend-" she paused, considering the word. It tasted foreign in her mouth when spoken to the young man she had sworn to hate for most of her life.

"A friend," she stated again, more confidently this time. "And I'm sorry that I didn't believe you."

Draco took in her words. He hated the thought that she hadn't trusted him.

"Although," she began again, and his interest peaked. "If I'm being completely honest here, and why not at this point, considering all we've been through today, I did start to believe you toward the end. I even asked Neville about the intercontinental portkeys and I was being more careful about what I talked about around him."

Draco gave her a small smile. "Look at that! Who would have thought we'd see a day where Hermione Granger would start to trust Draco Malfoy?"

She nudged his shoulder with hers. "Who would have thought we'd see a day where I would call you a friend?"

Now they shared a genuine smile. It seemed weeks, months, maybe even years since that morning when they weren't speaking to each other.

Draco stared out at the city, most of the buildings dark, although a few lights lingered on. He thought about the muggle world – how nothing that had happened today would reach them. He wondered how he would be received in the muggle world. No one there knew his past, his heritage. The name "Draco Malfoy" meant nothing to them. And for the first time in his life, he wanted to live among the muggles.

As his thoughts wandered, he noticed a pressure on his shoulder and turned to find Hermione's head settled there. Carefully he examined her – she was clearly completely asleep. He thought about moving her head, but decided to keep it there.

He thought back on the words they had shared tonight – words of trust and of friendship. He was happy to have reached this point with Hermione where they truly trusted each other and considered themselves friends. A new thought entered his mind though – a dangerous one.

What if friendship wasn't enough?

He glanced at the head on his shoulder and realized he already knew the answer. He had known it for a long time, if he was being completely honest – and as Hermione had said, this was a night for honesty.

With Hermione Granger, friendship would never be enough.

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A/N: I'm SUCH A TEASE, I know. But more romance is coming! What's a good love story without a little build-up? Think When Harry Met Sally (although, when I watch that movie, I always insist that it would be a lot better if they just got together at the very beginning. I'm very impatient.). Next chapter will be up as soon as I can post it!