Hermione entered the cosy library on the ground floor and smiled in appreciation.
It was small and compact, bookshelves packed close together, interspersed with couches and deep armchairs. There was a single fireplace at one end of the room and a large writing desk on the other, giving whomever was seated at the desk, a clear view of the floo.
Hermione wandered over to the desk and set her file down on it, turning slowly to take in the surroundings. She had barely glimpsed at the information inside her brief, rushing instead through a quick bath, and hurried dinner before coming downstairs to begin her work.
She eyed one of the plush couches critically before falling onto it and pulling the file onto her lap. A few seconds into her reading however, her concentration was stolen by the bookshelf directly beside her.
Drawing her wand, she pointed it idly towards the bookshelf. Knowing full well that she should be resting and not straining herself performing magic, Hermione was nevertheless itching to test her abilities.
She flicked her wand.
Nothing.
Hermione took a deep calming breath and closed her eyes. Reaching deep into herself, summoning her strength, she flicked her wand again.
This time, the books on the shelf slowly began to move. As she poured more of her energy into the spell, they began to move faster, positioning themselves alphabetically along the shelves.
Beads of sweat appeared on her forehead and Hermione felt a wave of fatigue hit her with a force.
"Impressive"
The voice cut through Hermione's vice-like concentration and the books immediately stopped moving.
She turned towards the voice, passing the heel of her palm across her forehead.
"Malfoy" she greeted, her voice a little out of breath.
Malfoy narrowed his eyes at her before flicking his wand. Within seconds, a glass of water had made its way over to her. She thanked him with a nod before drinking it all down in a single gulp.
"Should you be doing that?" he drawled.
Hermione didn't answer for a minute as she considered the tall blond in front of her.
For the first time since they had begun working on the case, Hermione was seeing Malfoy out of his formal black robes. At the moment, he was wearing navy slacks and a white button-down shirt with the sleeves firmly cuffed at his wrists. He was by no means as casualy garbed as she was; in sweatpants and an old baggy sweater, but it was interesting to see him out of wizarding robes.
With a start though, she realised that they were both forced to wear long sleeves, despite the humidity, due to what was hidden beneath, on both their forearms.
"Granger?" Malfoy cocked his head at her, causing a lock of hair to flop to the side of his head.
"Yes, sorry. Um… what?" she stammered.
"Should you be doing magic in your condition?" he asked, moving slowly to an armchair on her right.
Hermione noticed the simple cane he was leaning on but said nothing.
"My condition? Oh… That magic was nothing. I was just… checking" she finished quietly.
"The amulet was used on you for approximately ten to fifteen seconds Granger. I doubt it had enough time to do lasting damage. You'll get your magic back" Malfoy said, leaning back in his chair.
"And your leg?" she asked.
Malfoy shrugged, his eyes dimming slightly "It'll be fine too".
They sat for some time in silence, Hermione idly flipping through Harry's account of the raid and Malfoy perusing the file in his hand.
"How did you know there was a blood ward on the room I was in?" Hermione asked when she got to that particular part of Harry's report.
Malfoy looked up.
"A lot of old wizards used blood wards. A lot of dark wizards use them too because they're strong and cannot be breached easily. Plus, you had already mentioned that Pandora was proficient in blood wards. It was an easy assumption" he replied.
"Thank you" Hermione said quietly, looking down at her file.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Malfoy shift in his chair. A few minutes later, he sighed.
"Potter said you had some questions" he spoke with an air of determination.
Hermione deliberated for a fraction of a second whether she should just let this go but knew just as easily that her curiosity would not be sated unless she knew what was going on. Especially since everyone else seemed to know.
She closed her file and fixed Malfoy with a look.
"Why did we leave Cassandra house?" she asked.
Malfoy shifted again, eyes locked on the fireplace in front of him.
"Cassandra house belongs to Fredrick Greengrass. I… I broke my engagement to Astoria so, I suppose it's safe to say that I'm not high in his favour at the moment. He asked us to leave" he said tightly.
Hermione noted that Malfoy's hands gripped the arm rests as he spoke, signalling his tension.
"But why would you do that?" she asked mildly.
"Break off my engagement?" he asked glancing over at her.
Hermione nodded and propped her face on her palm.
Malfoy was silent for a minute as if weighing his words carefully before he said them.
"The proposal from the Greengrasses was brought to my mother about a year ago. My mother and I worked hard to regain and maintain what little reputation we had after the war and I think that it still pained my mother that we didn't have the same social standing we used to. Most of the Dark Lord's followers did not come out in open support of him like my father did and so they mostly avoided the censure that we had to undergo after the war. People like the Greengrasses were relatively unscathed although they were just as guilty as we were"
Malfoy sighed and pushed his hair out of his face before continuing. Hermione was rapt.
"So, either way, my mother was extremely happy when the Greengrasses proposed. She convinced me that marriage to Astoria would be good for me and for the family. As I said, me and Astoria didn't really need to associate much so I just went along with it" he finished in a huff.
"So, what changed?" Hermione asked.
"I couldn't go through with it. You were right in a way, it was a lonely existence. I didn't know or particularly like Astoria, it was little more than a business arrangement. Mother was upset when I wanted to break it off, but she stood by me eventually" he dropped his head back onto the chair as he spoke.
"So, it's over now?" Hermione absently played with a stray curl that had escaped the messy bun on top of her head.
Malfoy watched her distractedly for a minute before replying.
"Yes… and no".
Hermione's eyes narrowed.
"When I got engaged, we signed a betrothal contract and performed a magical binding. It's not something that many wizards do nowadays, it's an extremely antiquated tradition. There's not even any real power behind the binding. I tried to undo everything with floo calls but the Greengrasses were not having it. So, I had to go home to sort it all out"
"As of now, the betrothal contract has been dissolved, although I still have to recompense the Greengrass family but unfortunately the magical binding has not been undone" Malfoy kept his eyes trained on a point on the wall as he spoke, bitterness seeping through his tone.
"Wait" Hermione shook her head as if to shake some understanding into it "what recompense and why can't you undo the magical binding?" she asked.
Malfoy finally broke his gaze from the wall and turned to face her.
"Monetary recompense. I have to pay a significant amount of money as compensation for the broken engagement".
"But that's ridiculous" Hermione said, a look of utter disbelief crossing her features.
"Not in pureblood wizarding society. It's not so much about the money as it is about wounded pride. I am yet to hear just how much of Fredrick Greengrasses pride I am to pay for" Malfoy said, blatantly bitter this time.
"And the magical binding?" Hermione asked.
"A magical engagement binding can only be dissolved with full and willing consent of both parties. As of yet, Astoria is not willing to grant me a dissolution" he said with a full-on smirk that harkened back to his Hogwarts days, cynical and full of malice.
"Oh Malfoy" Hermione said with undisguised commiseration in her voice "she still loves you?"
Malfoy barked out a laugh at her question.
"She most certainly does not love me, she never did. I am to pay money for Fredrick's pride you see and to pay with my time for Astoria's" he said, grey eyes stormier than ever.
"So, technically you're still engaged to her? And you will be until she willingly allows you to dissolve it?" Hermione asked.
"I am not engaged to her. That silly piece of magic means nothing to me" Malfoy said with barely suppressed anger.
"What does a magical engagement binding do exactly?" Hermione propped her face on her palm again.
"Nothing much. It just prevents me from participating in another magically binding engagement, which again really means nothing since most wizards don't even perform those anymore" he replied with a huff.
"So, no infidelity curses or anything?" Hermione asked mockingly
"Merlin no! Those are only cast during a marriage bonding ceremony and that too not anymore. Or if it is cast, it's very rare I suppose" he muttered.
Hermione shook her head again at the incredulity of it all and thanked the Gods that she was muggle-born and would never, in her right mind, consent to all this nonsense when she finally decided to get married.
"How did you find this house?" she asked after a while.
"I didn't. Nott did. Apparently, it belongs to a distant relative" Malfoy replied dismissively.
"Wow. You pure-blood wizards really love your large sprawling holiday homes" she said with a smirk.
Malfoy grimaced "Again, it's a traditional thing. We try to outdo one another with the amount of property we own" he said with a shrug.
"So where do the Malfoy's stand in terms of sprawling property?" she asked with a smile.
Again, Malfoy's eyes dimmed slightly.
"Since the war, very low" he shrugged "We have the manor, a cottage in Ireland, and one in France. Almost all our other properties were sold, and the money given to the ministry as war reparations" he said keeping his tone forcefully light.
"Oh" Hermione said, mentally kicking herself. She didn't know why she had even asked that when she knew very well that the Malfoy's had had to pay massive fines.
"Is that all you wanted to ask?" he asked quietly.
Hermione stared ahead.
"Can I ask you about the war?" she asked tentatively.
Malfoy stared at her, grey eyes searing into hers. His look was so intense that she had to look away first.
"What do you want to know?" he asked finally.
Hermione took a deep breath.
"Have you ever killed anyone?" she asked, the question coming out in a rush.
"No" Malfoys fingers were now gipping the armrests of his chair.
"Have you tortured anyone?" she asked, although she felt she knew the answer to that.
"Yes"
"Did you want to do it?" she asked, meeting his eyes.
He never broke his stare.
"There is no yes or no answer to that. At the time I believed in what I was doing. Later on, I was forced" he said through gritted teeth.
"Why did you take the mark?" she asked, almost in a whisper.
Malfoy right hand went almost instinctively towards his left forearm as if it hurt him.
"Same answer. Ultimately I did it for my family"
Hermione was silent.
Malfoy stood up.
"Are you quite done?" he asked.
"I'm sorry Malfoy" Hermione said quietly "I had to know. I've always needed to know. I want… I need to be able to trust you".
Malfoy looked straight ahead.
"We all have the same nightmares Granger, it doesn't matter which side of the war you were on"