Bit of a filler little bit of action - got some exciting stuff planned for the near future so wanted to space it out a bit hehe. Anyway hope you enjoy!
Daphne Greengrass glanced to her left as the group of them made their way towards the sushi place Pansy had chosen for lunch. She was trying her best to keep an eye on Theo without him noticing, but as expected very little got past the stony-faced wizard beside her.
"I am not going to pull anything. You needn't worry." He growled without even turning to face her, causing his brunette companion to sigh exhaustedly.
"Theo you should know me better than that by now." She muttered, "I couldn't care less if you ruin this farce of a lunch, I want to know if you're ok. You seemed… down after work yesterday."
He flinched slightly as he thought about the outburst she was referring to. After that strange display Malfoy had put on in the library, touching Hermione's lips in a way that was almost… gentle, romantic, he had lost his cool.
He had stood up, knocked Draco Malfoy's papers and quills to the floor which caused the blonde wizard to complain lazily, barely removing the smirk from his satisfied face, and then stormed out of the room.
Daphne had been the only one to follow him – he supposed that either Blaise was getting tired of their childish antics or it had been decided that a woman's touch was needed – and she had stood and watched calmly as he freaked out.
"It doesn't make any sense, I just don't see how one person can be so cruel, so careless." He had shouted, running his hands through his soft brown curls, causing them to virtually stand on end.
Daphne had just stood opposite him, arms folded, silencing charm already placed around the empty office they were occupying.
"He doesn't even like her, I mean all he's doing is trying to mess with her head. It's, it's disgusting. As if it's not enough that he took her from me now he has to continue to play around with her right in front of me."
Daphne nodded slowly. She had been listening to the same rant for the past fifteen minutes and was starting to wonder when he would run out of steam. Who knew so much trauma could arise from a thumb being brushed against a lip?
He had stood still for a moment, his hands tangled in his hair as he stared furiously into her soft green eyes.
"I suppose this must be dull for you Daphne, you already know what it's like to be toyed with by Malfoy. Tell me - did he touch you in that way as well? As though you might break? Or was it just animalistic rutting for the both of you?"
She had flushed slightly at the memory of her and Draco's awkward roll in the hay almost five years before and the cruel way Theo had decided to bring it up, but she was not one to rise to an argument.
"No Theo, I never had any interest in Draco. I told you at the time it was a foolish mistake and it also wasn't what led me astray from you."
What had put her off Theo Nott back in 2000 was something Daphne would probably never tell him, she was a very private person and liked to keep herself to herself for the most part – but that aside, it certainly hadn't been Draco Malfoy.
"Is that what this is about? Do you think he is trying to ruin your romantic endeavours?" She probed, gesturing for him to sit down beside her on top of one of the office desks.
Theo had not sat beside her. In fact he had simply turned around and left, walking out of the ministry and not returning until the following morning when he had seemed to be acting as though nothing had happened.
Daphne watched his passive expression as they led the way towards their target restaurant, Pansy and Hermione laughing about something or other just behind them and the boys bringing up the rear.
Padma had elected not to go with them, she had developed a new routine of taking her lunch to the cafeteria and sitting awkwardly on the same table as her defence partner and some other Wizengamot employees.
When Padma had told her this Daphne had almost rolled her eyes – the girl was clearly delusional and thought that if she pestered the older man enough eventually, he would pay her some attention. It was getting to be painful to watch.
"What was it that pushed you away from me then, if not Malfoy?" Theo asked suddenly, interrupting Daphne's wandering thoughts and causing her to prickle a little.
Of course, Theo would have picked up on that (not to mention completely avoiding the question she had left him with yesterday). He had a strange way of worming himself into your psyche, uncovering things that normally people would not notice were even hidden.
"I see your question and I raise you my own," She replied coolly, not wanting to give away that he had touched a nerve. "Do you think Draco is out to ruin your relationships, yes or no?"
Theo smirked and held the door to the Japanese restaurant open for her and the others.
"It's not about thinking, this is something I know to be true Daphne." He said cryptically. "If you weren't so trusting perhaps you would see it for yourself."
The six of them took their seats in the tastefully decorated restaurant, Hermione choosing to sit in between Pansy and Daphne so as to cause as little drama as possible.
Of course, their blonde companion managed to slip into the seat directly opposite her before anyone else could, leaving Theo and Blaise at his sides.
Despite this hitch in her plan to have a civilised and pleasant lunch hour, the drinks orders and general chit chat went by without any issues.
Theo even politely complimented her on her hair, which she had straightened that morning as her nerves about the lunch had woken her up two hours early.
Pansy, of course, was keeping things afloat with her endless sources of conversation topics. From plans for their holiday destination that summer ("Hermione I really think you would love the Amalfi coast, Blaise and Astoria's summer home could easily accommodate our usual group plus a few more") to Ginny's deliberation on whether or not to find out the sex of her second child ("I think one has to be prepared, I don't understand this whole 'wanting a surprise' idea").
Things remained quite pleasant until the starters arrived and she had to pause in between seemingly endless sentences on the state of the stock market to take a sip from her sparkling water.
Draco Malfoy saw his chance and he took it.
"Well Pansy, while I'm sure everyone here is as titillated by your choice of conversation as I am, don't you think it's time we stopped avoiding certain subjects?" He asked, with an air of innocence marred only by the twinkle in his eye.
Theo's fork screeched on china as he speared a piece of squid with particular zeal, and Blaise was glaring anxiously at Daphne who seemed to be at a complete loss. He was like an unruly child neither 'parent' could quite predict or control.
"Tell us what's happening with you and Weasley. I am sure we are all dying to hear." Draco finished with a satisfied smirk, causing Hermione's jaw to drop open.
She had been prepared for some headbutting between Draco and Theo - it was only to be expected considering Theo's leaving work the day before and Malfoy's tendency to cause and enjoy drama, but this she had not anticipated.
She looked nervously around the table, trying to gauge everyone's reaction.
Blaise looked as though he had been slapped in the face with a wet sardine, Daphne had literally frozen with her glass halfway to her mouth and even Theo had gone slack in the jaw. It was abundantly clear that Pansy had not so much as hinted about the subject to any of her other friends just yet.
"Pansy," Blaise was the first to break the uncomfortable silence, speaking slowly and deliberately. "Which Weasley is he talking about? Because I was always pretty sure you and Ginny were just friends,"
Pansy seemed to switch back into action. She too had been stunned by the bomb Draco had just dropped and so had (for once) been speechless. This shock did not last long however.
"Alright fine, fucking hell." She spat, leaning back in her chair and waving their waiter over so she could order something a little stronger to drink. "This isn't exactly how I was planning on telling any of you but I suppose there's no point in lying."
Theo spluttered out a laugh of pure incredulity.
"What so it's true?! Draco's not bullshitting?"
The raven haired witch sighed and pretended to be totally engrossed in her manicure so she didn't have to look up and meet the probing gazes of her oldest friends.
"No he's not lying. Ron and I have had something of an… entanglement for about two months now." Here she held up a hand to stop the exclamations of half their dinner party, glaring a warning look at the three Slytherins while Hermione and Draco just sat in awkward silence.
"I didn't tell anyone because I was embarrassed, obviously. But he's surprisingly good in bed and we're going on a date this week. Any questions?"
Hermione threw her head back and laughed at the blunt way Pansy described her relationship with Ron, but her mirth was drowned out by the sea of queries being launched across her by Blaise and Daphne.
"Two months?! How did none of us know about this? Weasley can't keep a secret for shit and I play Quidditch with him every other weekend." Blaise exclaimed, while Daphne pestered her friend about the finer details of her so-called entanglement.
Draco picked up his water and sipped it, smirk in place as he watched the show. He jumped a little as someone kicked him rather hard under the table and looked up to meet Hermione's scolding gaze.
He knew she was annoyed with him for spilling Pansy's secret to the group, so he rolled his eyes at her and nudged her back in return, dislodging one of her sensible heels.
Theo Nott sat back in his chair in silence, watching the strange scene before him and trying to make sense of it all.
"Why did you decide to keep it from us?" Blaise was asking a rather flustered Pansy, the hurt in his voice unmistakable.
"Sometimes there are things we feel we cannot reveal to even our nearest and dearest, that isn't a crime." Daphne interjected softly, causing both the other girls to shoot her a questioning look.
It wasn't until their mains had arrived and things had settled down once again that Theo spoke for the first time in a while.
"Why did the two of them know about this and not any of us?" He asked tonelessly, gesturing to the man sat beside him and the women sat opposite him.
Hermione flushed at the question even though it was not directed at her. She had hoped to avoid the spotlight that afternoon, but it seemed Nott was unsatisfied with Pansy's choice of confidantes.
"Well Hermione's my flatmate and she knew something was wrong, so after all attempts to get it out of me failed she brought Draco in. Even went to the Manor to find him can you believe it." Pansy replied, so engrossed in her sushi platter that she had not picked up on the tense atmosphere at the table.
Hermione wasn't sure where to look. Theo was staring in that strange, blank way he did when he was thinking incredibly hard about something, and she could tell without even looking that both Blaise and Daphne were staring at her too.
"Why wouldn't you have called me or Daphne or her sister?" Theo said eventually, breaking the tension with his painfully monotonous voice. "You know, Pansy's actual closest friends."
Hermione stuttered as she searched for an answer, looking first to Pansy and then to Draco for assistance, but they looked about as perplexed as she felt.
Truth be told, she had no idea why that had never crossed her mind. Of course at that point she would not have tried to speak to Theo, but she was quite good friends with Daphne and knew Astoria well enough to have contacted either one of them and bring them to Pansy's aid.
For some reason the only thing that had occurred to her that Sunday afternoon was to throw herself back into emotional trauma by visiting the Manor just to locate Draco Malfoy – a man notorious for not being much help in those sorts of situations.
"Yes Hermione you could have called me, what made you go to the Manor of all places? Surely that can't have been pleasant?" Daphne asked gently, her brow furrowed in confusion.
"I, I don't know." Hermione stuttered, flushing under the gaze of everyone at their table. She had suddenly lost her appetite. Yes it was true that her actions, now they were being put under a microscope, didn't make much sense. But at the time she had just wanted so badly to help Pansy and he happened to come to mind as someone who could assist.
"I suppose you were just thinking of Pansy in that moment, and you and Draco had that work dinner, so you had seen him the most recently." Pansy suggested, clearly trying to alleviate the tension although Hermione could read the flecks of doubt in her blue irises.
"Work dinner, so I suppose that's what we're calling it now?" Theo snorted, avoiding Hermione's reproachful gaze after he made the barbed comment.
"Now Theo," Draco interjected, and Hermione already knew that whatever he was going to say would definitely make the situation worse. "Let's not get jealous, just because she prefers me."
Hermione shot him a scathing look as Daphne luckily came to the rescue, interrupting the tense conversation and bringing them back to their original topic.
"So, what are you and Weasley like, together now? Not that there's anything wrong with that." She asked Pansy, hurriedly adding the last sentence.
Hermione gave her a thankful smile, and then looked to Pansy with encouragement, hoping that this unexpected ousting of her personal life wasn't proving to be too much.
"I don't know, I mean it's not like I date very seriously, you all know that. I suppose we will just have to wait and see." Pansy replied, shrugging and taking a long drink of the cocktail that had just been placed in front of her. For once, Hermione couldn't blame her friend for ordering a drink at half past midday – she was close to ordering one herself to deal with Theo's interrogations and Malfoy's jibes.
"Does this mean he's coming with us to Italy in the summer? Because I'm not sure I'm on board with that." Blaise said, lightening the tense atmosphere as he winked at Pansy across the table.
After that the rest of their meal passed by without too much incident, and so Hermione was surprised and nervous when Theo asked her to walk by his side as they made their way back to the ministry.
Draco was watching them suspiciously from up ahead while Pansy talked his ear off about something or another, clearly trying to keep him from interrupting.
"I wanted to apologise for my behaviour towards you recently," Theo began, offering Hermione his arm in that strangely formal way he always seemed to behave. She decided to humour him and take it, not wanting to cause anymore animosity between them.
"I was very childish after you elected to end our relationship, and I shouldn't have been so rude to you. I am incredibly sorry and I do hope that you are still extending your offer of friendship."
Hermione beamed up at him, relieved at the unexpectedly gentle tone in his voice.
"I would like that very much Theo, and it's all water under the bridge now really, I was pretty awful to you too. I never wanted to hurt your feelings, and you have to know that there is nothing between Draco and I."
He flinched slightly, at her honest and open words, pausing before he responded as though he were choosing his words very carefully.
"Yes. Well, as I'm sure you have heard, this isn't the first time Malfoy decided to intervene in my love life, so please forgive me for reacting so… touchily."
Hermione nodded slowly, she had heard rumours about Daphne and Draco sleeping together, and also heard that it had been at a time when Theo had been trying to court the other witch. She supposed she could understand why her and Draco kissing would have upset him so much.
She felt an anxious pit open in her stomach as she wondered dangerously if it was mere coincidence that Draco Malfoy – a man renown for his pettiness, childishness and competitivity – had just so happened to fall into bed with Daphne Greengrass and now her.
While it wasn't as though she had any feelings for him (she didn't), Hermione didn't much like the idea of being used as a pawn in his immature games with Theo. Perhaps she needed to be more careful about their… arrangement.
"Well I can assure you the same won't happen again." She said, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. There was truthfully no way of knowing whether or not Draco had only slept with her to aggravate Theo, she supposed she just needed to remain guarded and hope he continued to keep things secret.
She was sure there was another side to him, one so many people (even it seemed, his friends) overlooked – but she had seen it. The way he had spoken to her so candidly about his own crimes and doubts about himself, the way he had helped her when dealing with Pansy and her own worries over their case.
That had to be the real him, she wanted to believe that, but she still just wasn't sure.
Ron Weasley gulped nervously and straightened his tie before he raised his hand to knock on the door to Hermione and Pansy's flat.
Harry had advised against the neck adornment, stating that it was too formal for a few drinks in the city and also that maroon didn't go with his hair or his brown cords, but Ron had decided to dress himself for the occasion.
He wondered anxiously if this had been the correct decision as he rapped smartly against the hard wood but figured that he couldn't take the blasted thing off and leave it on the pavement – it was too late now.
He heard scrambling behind the door and ran a final hand through his hair, which was already ruffled and scruffy.
Hermione opened the door with a beaming smile which faltered once she had looked him up and down.
"Hello Ronald, looking quite dapper this evening, but lose that terrible tie." She said smoothly, moving aside so that he could step into the apartment. "Pansy is just finishing getting ready, she'll be out in a few minutes."
He nodded, taking a seat awkwardly on the arm of one sofa as he fiddled at the knot around his neck and passed the offending item of clothing over to Hermione.
"How was your lunch then? Pansy said the two of you had been wanting to make things a bit less awkward at work." He asked, trying to make conversation to avoid the fact that he was currently sat in his ex-girlfriend's living room waiting to take her flatmate and his former enemy out on a date. It was a very strange situation.
"Not too bad, seemed to be able to smooth things over with Theo which was good. Although I doubt all six of us will be making it a regular thing any time soon."
The edge of Ron's mouth quirked, and he raised an eyebrow.
"Malfoy still causing trouble then? I thought he'd be the problem, he's not giving you a hard time about all that shit in the press is he Hermione?"
To his surprise, the brunette witch flushed deeply and looked down at her fingernails, nibbling the edge of her pinkie as she always did whenever she felt nervous. Ron was about to ask her what had happened – if Malfoy actually had been causing problems, but before he could the door to Pansy's bedroom swung open.
All the worry and concern that had been roiling around his head for the past few hours simply melted away, and he couldn't hold back a grin as she walked over to him a little tentatively. Pansy was wearing a warm yellow slip dress with matching slingback heels. Her inky black hair was in a loose braid that wove down past her shoulder, and her cheeks were flushed delicately pink as she looked up at him.
"You look beautiful Pansy." He said, instinctively reaching out a hand and brushing back a loose lock of hair from her forehead.
She blushed even more in response, incredibly unusual for Pansy Parkinson, and slung her faux-fur jacket over her shoulders.
"Thank you Ron, I assume Hermione had you take that disgusting tie off?" She replied coolly, nodding to the discarded garment that was now laid across the arm of the sofa.
Hermione chuckled and grabbed her mug of tea, moving towards her bedroom.
"Of course I did, he might be more hopeless in the fashion department than I am." She leant on the handle to her room and gave them both a wave, still smirking slightly at the strange sight of the pair. "Have a good time, don't make any noise if you come back here."
Draco Malfoy was frustrated. He had been planning on surprising Hermione at her flat after wheedling from Daphne the evening that Pansy would be out on her date, but it seemed that whoever had taken to pestering him and his family had other ideas.
He had been relaxing in his study, going over some papers for the week with a strong mug of coffee when his family owl had appeared at the window, tapping fervently on the glass.
This was never a good sign – Narcissa tended not to bother him too much outside of their usual dinner arrangements (and even then she was used to him forgetting their plans or missing the odd weekly visit), she so rarely sent for him and usually when she did it was by using the elf.
He jumped up from his seat and unlatched the window, shivering slightly as the bracing late autumn air flooded into the room.
The owl was more flustered than usual, something else that did not sit right with Draco, and he quickly untied the small scroll from its ankle and read it. The writing was so shaky that he couldn't even tell if it was his mother's, and only five words had been penned on the rumpled piece of parchment.
'Come quickly, tell no one.'
He swore viciously and grabbed his cloak from the back of his chair, heading immediately for the front room and his fireplace.
He practically entered the manor running, barely noticing as he trod ash into the carpet as he moved swiftly across the drawing room. Ordinarily his mother would have scolded him heavily for such behaviour, but he feared that she had other things to worry about that were more important than stained carpet.
Draco paused in the archway of the grand room, wand drawn, listening out carefully for any signs of danger. His ears pricked as he twigged a noise from deeper inside the manor – possibly the sitting room on the first floor. His breath caught in his throat as he recognised a feminine whimper, and he fought back the dark memories clamouring at the corners of his mind, images of the countless people he had seen crying out in pain inside these very walls.
He took a deep breath and began running as quietly as he could up the grand staircase, his heart thumping in his chest as the sound of crying got steadily louder.
He burst into the upstairs sitting room, unable to keep up the element of surprise any longer. His eyes readjusted to the dim light and he wondered absently when his mother had drawn the curtains. She couldn't stand the place dingy and dark.
He moved quickly to the centre of the room, and felt as through his heart had stopped when his foot squelched in something warm and wet that had soaked into the carpet.
She was lying there, her full bottom lip trembling and her eyes rolling back into her head as her back spasmed as though she were in extreme pain. Draco felt himself fall to his knees and crawl towards her, not caring as the blood that seemed to be spreading from a wound in her abdomen coated his arms and trousers.
"Hermione." He whispered, trying desperately to catch her amber eyes with his own but she barely seemed to be aware of the fact that he was there.
He reached for her, slowly, unable to force himself to do any of the thousands of logical things he could in that moment. His wand was somewhere behind him, he had felt it drop to the ground and absently thought that he would need it if he was going to help her. If he was going to even start trying to repair the damage that had been done. She had closed her eyes and her brow was furrowed as though she were focusing on something, a small whine emitted from her lips.
Suddenly as though electrified, Hermione's back arched dramatically and her eyes sprang open wide. She met his gaze and let out a terrible scream, a bubble of black-red blood splattering at the corner of her mouth. Her lips were turning slightly blue.
"Hermione, Hermione it's me." He panicked, frantically grasping for his wand as he reached towards her face, trying to calm her, to bring her back to him.
He suddenly realised that someone else must have been there – someone else must have hurt her, possibly even brought her to the manor in the first place for him to find. He positioned himself by her side and anxiously glanced around the dark room, seeking out any signs of movement.
"Who did this to you?" He hissed desperately, wincing as she cried out once more, though much weaker this time. "Hermione please if they're still in here,"
"You." She gasped, and he realised what the blinding, panicked emotion that filled her amber eyes was. It was fear.
"You did this to me." She moaned, closing her eyes in pain as one of her hands grasped desperately at the blood-soaked side of her shirt. "They hurt me because of you. You have killed me."
Draco could hear his blood rushing in his ears as he stared down at her white face, unable to move as he took in her terrible words.
He dropped his wand once again and grabbed her small, cold face in his hands. He could hear someone sobbing and he wasn't entirely sure at that moment if the raw, broken sounds were coming from his own mouth or somewhere else.
He desperately felt her neck for a pulse, his hands trembling as he realised there was none. He was too late.
It was all his fault. Whoever had been threatening him had come after her. She had become collateral because he wasn't able to stay away from her, wasn't able to give her up to protect her from his own evils – the things inextricably linked to being Draco Malfoy that prevented anyone from being loved by him.
He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to hers, willing some of the warmth in his own body to pass through to hers, to breath some life back into her small, fragile frame.
He wasn't sure how long he sat there, rocking slowly back and forth with her head cradled in his arms, his hands shaking as body wracked with sobs.
He was so caught up in this pure, aching misery that he didn't notice the concerned voice behind him, the murmured spell as the room was lit up followed by a concerned gasp.
"Draco, Draco please you need to let her go." His mother was urging him, one of her firm hands pressing into his shoulder blade and trying to tug him away. "Please stop with that caterwauling and pick up your wand."
He couldn't fathom why she was being so cruel until he heard her utter a spell calmly and confidently, and suddenly his hollow sadness was replaced by burning shame.
"Riddikulus."
Half an hour later, Draco was seated in a different room with a mug of chamomile tea in his hands and a sour expression on his face.
After dispelling the boggart back into the small chest that had once housed it, Narcissa had not said a word. She had helped her son to his feet and gestured for him to follow her downstairs and into the other sitting room. Mopsy had arrived shortly afterwards with the hot drink, and he had been left alone to digest his thoughts for a few minutes.
"Do you want to explain to me what was going on upstairs?"
But it seemed that that peace was short lived.
Draco took an angry swig of his tea and held back a sniff. He was not really the crying type, a fact his mother certainly knew as well, and so was more than slightly embarrassed at the state she had found him in upon returning home.
"I was going to ask you the same question." He spat, shooting her a dark look. She did not react – well used to her son's temper, and merely sat down in an armchair opposite him. "What the fuck are you doing with a boggart in the upstairs sitting room?"
Narcissa rolled her eyes and lifted a delicate teacup from the tray she had had her elf leave for them, taking a long sip before responding.
"Watch your language Draco, and that boggart was an artefact of your fathers. You know he was a collector of such nasty items, though I have to admit I have no idea how it found its way into the living room or how it was free from its bindings." She shot him a curious glance, "I suppose I can assume you were not opening boxes and chests up there before I returned home?"
He snorted and shot her a dark look in return.
"No, I wasn't. Gideon arrived at my home with a note that suggested you were in danger. I came to the house as quickly as I could, and I thought I heard something upstairs."
Here he stopped and broke eye contact, not wanting to discuss with his mother what form the boggart had taken – though of course she already knew.
"Who do you think sent the note?" She asked carefully, clearly trying to avoid the matter.
"I assume the same person who released the damned thing and who broke into my house last week." He muttered, several of his most recent enemies flitting through his mind as he considered the most viable candidates.
"But why lure you here only to have you deal with a boggart?" Narcissa mused, her pinkie finger extended as she held her cup aloft. "To torture you?"
The image of Hermione, bloodied and terrified on the ground, whispering that he had killed her flashed before Draco's eyes and he shuddered.
"There are better ways of torturing a person." He muttered, still not meeting his mother's eyes.
"I'm not sure about that Draco," She said quietly, "The way you were screaming… I have not heard pain like that in years."
He leapt up from his seat, knocking his mug to the ground and barely noticing as the hot liquid seeped into the cream rug.
He was about to storm out but his mother had lost her patience it seemed.
"That's quite enough of that Draco I am not trying to critique you." She snapped, her angered gaze stopping him in his tracks. Narcissa Malfoy so rarely lost her temper.
"If you fear losing that girl more than anything else in the world, I certainly hope you have told her that fact." She said, glaring at him as he reached for his cloak and made for the floo powder.
"I don't have time for this mother, I need to find out who has been invading our fucking homes and threatening us." He replied through gritted teeth.
He paused a moment, waiting for her reply, and when none came he lifted the box of powder and prepared to throw a handful into the fireplace.
"You need to realise that living only to survive is not living at all." His mother said coldly from her chair as he threw the green powder and headed back to his cottage.
Still more trouble from the mysterious villain! Who do we think it is? Several options have been laid out for you nicely but of course it could be a surprise entrance ;)
Hope you are all quarantining and staying safe! Until next time :)