A/N
I'm back.
I am very sorry for the lack of updates last week. I had volunteer work during the weekend, and university work the rest of the week. I was so tired and had no time to edit. But rest assured, I'll be back with my scheduled posts every week.
I've added date tags on certain parts. This means that the scene happening in that part takes place either a few days or a few weeks from the last part.
October 2001
They immediately got to work the next morning only because Theo was excited to start even though he was adamant about joining just the day before. When Blaise arrived following after Theo he immediately dragged Hermione and Draco to the side.
"I think we missed an important detail," Blaise said, sounding very worried. Draco raised a brow and Hermione pressed him on to continue, "Who do we test the antidote to?" Blaise asked.
"Won't Theo be a perfect choice?" Draco remarked. Hermione shook her head, "The contract specially mentioned we don't use the potion on him." Hermione stated.
"I can't believe you agreed to that," Draco growled.
Hermione huffed and crossed her arms in front of her, "I thought he'd suggest we use one of the Greengrass girls. I mean I know Astoria would love to remember you." Hermione answered. Draco glared at her but Blaise just laughed.
"Oh, won't you love that too, Draco?" Blaise teased. Draco rolled his eyes, turning back to Hermione.
"Did you put any spells on the contract, that if we break anything on the contract, we'll face unpleasant circumstances?" Draco asked
Hermione smiled guiltily, "Yes," she started. "But it'll only work if Theo specifically finds out about it, and if he decides to push through the punishment. He might think that it was a necessity that we used him." Hermione answered. Draco smirked. He turned to Hermione staring at her in a way of a challenge as if he thought of something and he was asking her to guess what it was. Hermione was confused at first and then she grimaced. "What he doesn't know won't kill him," Hermione muttered causing Draco to smile.
Blaise looked like she was about to stop her from going ahead with it but Hermione waved him off, turned around and went to Theo to start helping him. She wasn't worried. During her time in Hogwarts, she had done so many things that required her to bend the rules (despite not wanting to at first) behind much more powerful people than Theodore Nott.
"Are you sure she's a Gryffindor?" Blaise asked watching Hermione from where he stood. Draco just laughed and proceeded to do his work ignoring Blaise altogether.
Once they started working together, Hermione realized that she really didn't get along with Theodore Nott. The wizard had started talking about possible potions they could take inspiration from which completely disagreed with everything Hermione read about brewing an antidote. Because of this, they started arguing — Hermione didn't like working away from the instructions in the books and Theo wanted to follow his own instructions. .
In the middle of their argument, she plopped down on an empty chair in the living room. She rested her head on the backseat, looking at the ceiling, a book dangling on her left hand. Theo still chattered in the background about how his theories would absolutely work.
"Are we even sure this can be solved?" Hermione asked, interrupting whatever Theo was saying. She wasn't a pessimistic person. Hermione prided herself for persevering only good things even when nothing seems to be going their way.
Blaise strode back into the living room hearing neither Hermione or Theo shouting at each other. Draco also walked out of his study then, finishing a floo call with Dominic about their recent job request at a pureblood house in Berlin. He eyed Hermione, then turned to look at Blaise to ask what was going on. Blaise just shrugged, sitting down on one side of the sofa.
Hermione didn't seem to notice Draco had come back to the room.
"I mean, what if the memories aren't there anymore? What if there's nothing to return?" Hermione added sitting properly on the chair. She stiffened when she saw Draco. Seeing him, Hermione was reminded of why they were doing this in the first place - why it was important for all of them to give back the people's memories of Draco. But Hermione wanted to make sure they weren't fighting an already lost battle.
"We can go inside Theo's mind," Blaise suggested.
"No one is going inside my head." Theo declined.
"Come on, Theo. We just need to see if there are still memories to return," Blaise said.
Theo continued shaking his head no but Blaise kept insisting. The former sighed, and then nodded. "Fine," he said, "I agree to it only if Granger would be the one to perform legilimency," Theo said. Everyone looked at Hermione.
"I'm not an expert," she admitted. "I only learned in order to help Harry on his occlumency," Hermione said. She actually didn't want to be the one to go through Theo's head. Who knows what's inside his head in the first place? Hermione didn't want to think ill of him but it was hard not to assume when you didn't know the person in the first place.
Hermione walked forward slowly, somewhat nervous.
"You can say no, Granger." Draco drawled.
"We need to know," Hermione said, calming herself. Before Hermione could come forward, Draco placed one hand on the arm of the chair Theo was sitting on. "If it proves to be too difficult for Hermione, I would do it, okay?" he told Theo. Theo shivered, feeling as if he was threatened.
He nodded as if he had no choice.
Draco summoned a stool from the kitchen and placed it in front of Theo for Hermione to sit on.
Hermione removed her wand from her pocket, pointed at Theo, and muttered, "Legilimens."
Theo's mind was a clutter. Everything seemed to be floating into space and if you didn't know what you were looking for or where to find it you'll likely be trapped in his mind forever. Being inside Theo's head sent a shiver through Hermione. She had heard of occlumens separating their thoughts into compartments. Their minds would look like a room where everything is archived, arranged in a way only the occlumens know. With Theo's mind, there were no compartments. Every memory came at you when you looked at it. Was this how he protected his thoughts? By throwing too many at a person at once making them forget what they were really looking for.
There was a memory in Hogwarts, during their fourth year, with Theo and Blaise taunting Harry. With Draco out of the way, it felt like Theo was the leader of their little group. Hermione didn't like the way Theo sneered at Harry. Another memory came at her, a memory of him and Daphne, at a broom closet. Hermione looked away, not wanting to see whatever was happening. Another was during a Quidditch match. Hermione remembered this match. It was Slytherin vs Gryffindor — Gryffindor lost when Draco caught the snitch, but what Hermione was seeing was not Draco catching the snitch but someone else. Is that Montague?
Montague wasn't a seeker but in Theo's memory, he was. With Montague as the seeker, there were only two chasers, well at least that's what Hermione observed.
Hermione deduced that the potion probably took another person from Theo's memory to replace Draco but it didn't bother putting anyone in the last position the person was in. What Hermione found impressive was that if the memory wasn't altered and Draco was still there, Theo would probably not even remember Montague being there.
The potion wasn't faulty at all. It was smart.
By placing someone who would barely be recognized or remembered in memory as the front line and the center of the memory you completely push someone out, not even realizing that something was wrong in your memory in the first place.
How strong is this potion? Hermione thought.
Before she can even watch the memory further, another memory forced itself towards her, then another, and another. She tried to push through but the more she seemed to get interested in one memory the more all the other memories were trying to catch her attention.
What was she looking for again?
"Theo, stop!" she heard distantly.
Who did that voice belong to? Hermione felt dizzy. She reached out for another memory but when she was going to touch it, something floated in her head.
"Get out of there, Granger!" What?
"Hermione! Get out!" she felt herself being pulled then pushed out of Theo's head.
When she opened her eyes she found herself lying down on the sofa looking at a concerned Draco looking down at her.
"What happened?" Hermione asked.
"You fell off the chair," Theo said. Draco glared at him but he didn't correct him either.
"Your mind is a mess, Theodore," Hermione said, massaging her head. She never wanted to try that again.
"It's a safety precaution. Only skilled Legilimens can navigate my mind." Theo explained. "I'm sorry," Theo said, looking down at his hands.
"It's fine," she said, sitting up. "I didn't find anything though." She remarked. Hermione did talk about the memory with Graham Montague being a seeker. It felt like she needed to say it.
Blaise and Draco snickered though as if the thought of Graham Montague being a seeker was something they would never have imagined.
"What? He's a great seeker." Theo defended. No one entertained him.
"Should Draco try now?" Blaise asked instead.
"Fine." Theo agreed through gritted teeth.
Draco didn't sit in front of Theo. Instead, he stayed where he sat beside Hermione, looking at Theo. Hermione couldn't even tell if he was inside Theo's head already.
She was only able to tell when Theo's face contorted, and he started to groan, closing his eyes and clutching his head. Draco didn't let go of his hold on Theo though. He continued searching through Theo's mind despite the latter already shouting in pain. Hermione tried to cover her ears to mute the noise but to no avail. Finally, she interfered when blood started dripping from Theo's nose.
"Draco, you're hurting him!" Draco didn't listen. Hermione sighed and clutched Draco's face in both her hands, causing him to look at her.
The shouting stopped. Hermione saw Draco's eyes soften as he looked at hers.
"Bloody hell." Theo groaned. Draco stared at his friend, his eyes widening as he saw the state Theo was in.
"Merlin, I didn't realize…" Draco started explaining but Theo stopped him, waving him away. "That is a strong Legilimency," Theo said.
"What did you find?" Hermione asked, abruptly removing her hands from Draco's neck realizing she hadn't moved her hand away. Draco didn't even notice. She wrapped her cardigan tighter around her and placed her sleeves on her cheeks to hide the blush creeping up from her neck to her cheeks.
"There's a wall. I tried to get through it. When I do, conversations we had, my voice would somehow peek out, but then get sucked back behind the wall. I thought if I push through enough…." he didn't finish because they all knew how that ended.
"Well, at least we know that the memories are there," Hermione said.
"Anyone want tea?" Blaise asked, trying to break the tension that clouded the room.
Theo decided to leave for the night to go back to the Greengrass siblings who were probably waiting for him at his Parisian home. Blaise left too to check his finances after he promised Draco he'd be the one paying for everything until Draco can pay him back. That left Draco with Hermione.
Hermione was outside, sitting at the lone table in the backyard. Draco joined her, setting a cup of tea in front of her. Hermione smiled at him. Draco noted that her smile somehow looked sad.
"Are you alright?" Draco asked, worried. Hermione nodded slowly as if unsure. "Did you see something in Theo's head?" Draco added.
"No." She answered silently. "It just felt…. really cold and dark," Hermione expounded. "It was that if I get lost in his head I'll just be enveloped by darkness," Hermione explained. When she finished explaining, she looked away, embarrassed to say it out loud. Draco continued looking at her, waiting for something. When Hermione didn't say anything else, he nodded his head in understanding and took a sip of his own tea.
"That's probably how all our minds would feel," Hermione looked at Draco who stared back at her intently. At first, she thought he was trying to get into her head, but she didn't feel anyone intruding. Then, she realized, he looked like he was waiting for something — waiting for her to do something. She looked away.
"You weren't actually allowing me to look through your mind were you?" Hermione asked, "You'd probably kick me out before I even see something." she added.
He sighed, "I was putting down my walls for you." Draco admitted. Hermione was surprised. Why would Draco want her in his mind? As if reading her thoughts (maybe he was), Draco answered, "Maybe I just wanted to share the memories I remember with someone. I want to be able to talk about those memories with someone and have them feel reminiscent, and not be confused that I shared a memory with them." Draco admitted.
Hermione gulped down, almost reaching out to pat the back of his hand for comfort. Draco interrupted her thought process by saying, "I'd relive our memories but none of those are particularly pleasant," Draco mentioned.
"We'll find a cure, Draco. Trust Theo and Blaise," She said, finally. She leaned closer to him and placed a reassuring hand on his forearm. "And me, even if that isn't conventional," Hermione uttered.
"I trust you, Granger," Draco told her, looking at her again. They looked at each other with only silence between them. The sun was setting behind them and it placed a nice glow around Draco, coloring the grey of his eyes with a tint of gold. It was beautiful. Hermione thought. Draco was beautiful. She cleared her throat and looked away somehow wishing Draco wasn't reading her head.
"Do you want me to teach you legilimency?" Draco offered, still looking at her despite her looking away. "No offense, Malfoy," Hermione started. Draco felt annoyed that she started calling him by his last name again when the whole afternoon she had called him Draco. He wondered if Hermione actually realized that she did.
"There are more important things we need to focus on," she continued, stealing a glance at him only to see him still staring at her. She felt her cheeks heat up. "I don't think I'll ever use it anyway." She clarified. Draco nodded, "Well, the offer is there if you want it."
Hermione muttered a small thank you. They sat a few more minutes outside waiting for the sun to finally descend the horizon. Draco was the first one to leave, taking both their empty cups back to the kitchen. He didn't join her again, but Hermione did hear him saying to come in quickly because it was going to get cold.
October 2001
Contrary to what Blaise believed, especially with someone like Hermione, Draco, Theo, and himself, brewing an antidote proved to be difficult. This thought was aided by Hermione and Theo arguing every second over possible potion ingredients to be used.
Theo, being the professional potioneer that he was, had listed a list of ingredients he wants the four of them to procure. Once Hermione saw the list though, they started exchanging words. A few items on the list were deemed unnecessary, and, in Hermione's words, "….too dangerous. You could kill, Draco."
"I don't have plans to kill your friend. If the potion is brewed correctly there won't be anyone dying," Theo answered.
"If! How many tries can we have before he dies?" Hermione growled.
"We're not even going to use it on him!" Theo argued.
No! Blaise thought. We'll use it on you.
"Can't we just use bezoar?" Blaise asked, wanting to stop the arguing. His head was hurting and he wasn't particularly patient with people shouting at each other just a few feet away.
"Bezoar is for poisons," Hermione said matter-of-factly.
"Panacea then?" Blaise suggested.
"Panacea is for curing illnesses and besides, you're not allowed to brew panacea anymore, more so let a whole population take it," Theo answered. Blaise sighed. Hermione was tired.
Blaise looked at Draco seeing the latter seemingly uninterested by the fighting going on in front of him. Draco was rereading the Daily Prophet, probably the first thing he saw to read when the arguing started. He was listening though, intently. Blaise noted how Draco had been reading the same page for the past 20 minutes.
Draco looked up to see Blaise staring. He cocked a brow making Blaise shrug. Blaise then motioned to the kitchen wondering if there was a chance they could retreat to the kitchen before the other two realized they'd left. Draco showed his right hand with all his fingers raised. Five seconds? Five minutes?
Blaise didn't understand but he was just determined to follow Draco's lead. The latter stood up from his chair silently, then retreating to the kitchen. Blaise followed suit, seeing as they apparently didn't need a plan because Theo and Hermione were too busy arguing to even notice them at all.
"When do you think they'll stop?" Blaise said entering the kitchen.
"Theo's proud of his potion business and wouldn't let anyone stomp around him," Draco mused. Blaise snickered, "And Granger is just too smart for anyone." Draco added.
Blaise plopped down the chair already assuming that the arguing would probably continue whether or not Draco and he were there.
"Do you want a sandwich?" Draco asked, already knowing that they'll be in the kitchen for a while.
The fighting did continue, only because neither Theo nor Hermione wanted to back down in their arguments.
"You asked for my help, so here I am giving it," Theo started, wanting to already finish the arguing and get on with the potion-making. "I want you to trust me because I trust that you would set all of us straight and won't kill anybody," He continued.
Hermione sighed. If you put it that way, she really had nothing else to argue with. "Fine but I have to be there when you make the potion," she said.
"I wouldn't have it any other way," Theo concluded.
Though they had an agreement, the fighting didn't stop. Now, they were fighting about where and how to get the potion ingredients they were going to use, especially the ones from magical creatures.
"You have a magizoologist friend. We literally could get all the ingredients without even trying," Theo explained.
"But you're the one with a potions business. Shouldn't procuring ingredients be easy for you?" Hermione asked.
Theo shook his head vigorously as if pointing out to Hermione that she didn't know what she was talking about. "Procuring takes time, papers, and the ministry's approval. Which would take months or even years especially if you're working on an antidote of a potion that everybody thinks hasn't been brewed in decades," He rounded the desk he was using for his work then stopped in front of Hermione.
"There are instances where we ask for private help, people who don't work for the Ministry, to secure these ingredients for us, so that the Ministry wouldn't ask too many questions, and we can make an antidote faster."
"You're not roping me into these illegal transactions of yours," Hermione insisted.
Theo sighed, placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder to placate her. "Once we brew a successful antidote, then we'll get the ministry's help," Theo said to assure her.
Through gritted teeth, Hermione agreed.
"Okay! I'll need Ashwinder eggs and Jobberknoll feathers."
October 2001
"Hermione," Sue started, carefully picking her words, "how many jobs do you have exactly?"
"This is in-line with the job I have in France," Hermione clarified.
Sue nodded, seemingly still confused, "With Mr. Draco Malfoy?"
"Yes,"
"But now, also with Theodore Nott?" Sue asked, confused.
"Yes,"
Sue was quiet for a while. "I don't really trust this but make them sign an agreement with you that you will not be harmed in any of this," Sue said after a while, placing herself firmly in front of Hermione making the latter see that she was serious.
"Already done, Sue," Hermione lied. It was better to appease her friend now than argue about it the whole day.
Despite her reluctance, Sue still agreed to give her the potion ingredients she needed. She removed keys from her pocket and started trying each one.
"I'm sorry about this. I always tell myself to label them but once I label them I forget which key it is for," Sue said, trying out another key. Hermione just leaned on the wall, patiently waiting.
"Is the Daily Prophet not working out? I would like to think they're still paying you even without you working on something," Sue tried another key again.
"I finished writing with the notes you gave me. I'm waiting for whatever they have to let me work on next," Hermione clarified.
Sue just nodded, only half-listening as she tried in another key. She released a squeal when the lock opened and then pocketed the keys. Hermione was supposed to mention that Sue should've taken note of what key she used to open the door but Sue was already passing her gloves, a mask, and a coat before Hermione could even say a word out.
"It smells," Sue explained as she buttoned up her coat. Hermione nodded in understanding and proceeded to dress.
Hermione felt wary of walking around the storehouse. There were millions of things that could go wrong when you place all possible potion ingredients from magical creatures in one place. All those million reasons were running around in Hermione's head as she followed Sue carefully around the storehouse. Hermione was going to mention something to Sue when they passed the Erumpent horns but decided against it. Besides, the sanctuary had been intact for years. The fact that there weren't any accidents that had occurred in the past years, Hermione assumed that maybe they had put wards around each potion to prevent it from blowing up.
Hermione couldn't continue listing dangerous reasons in her head when they finally stopped in front of what looked like a big cooler.
"Hold this," Sue said, passing Hermione a rather small basket. Sue had brought the basket inside when they entered the sanctuary. It made Hermione wonder if that was where they'd be putting all of her orders in. She looked around the sanctuary trying to look for carts to carry all these ingredients but found nothing.
"The tip to handling Ashwinder eggs is to never hold them," Sue started. Hermione raised a brow as she watched Sue take out big tongs from behind the cooler and started fishing out the Ashwinder eggs. "Do you know how many people have lost their fingers and dropped eggs just because they thought they could handle holding Ashwinder eggs?" Hermione didn't answer. She thought that Sue probably didn't want an answer anyways.
"How many did you need again?" Sue asked, having already grabbed two eggs and placed in a cylindrical case, stacked on top of each other like tennis balls. "Five of each," Hermione muttered. Sue nodded then continued placing three more on top of the other two. Once Sue closed the cylindrical case, she tapped the top of it making it shrink. "I'll show you how to resize it later. It's just easier to carry like this."
They proceeded to locate the Jobberknoll feathers with Sue reminding Hermione of the dangers of potion ingredients, only making Hermione bite her lip in order not to question the safety hazard that the storehouse presented. Hermione started thinking if she should write a letter to the Ministry or at least to Ron to look into this.
Sue didn't talk much as she plucked the Jobberknoll feathers from their vase, carefully counting if there were five. ("They tend to stick to one another you see. I don't want to accidentally give you six and make you pay for just five.")
Once Sue was finished counting for the fifth time, she tied the feathers together and placed them on the basket. She put her hands on her hips, looking at Hermione expectantly, "Anything else."
Just then an owl passed by dropping a note at Hermione's feet. Sue took the basket from Hermione telling her that it wasn't wise to place it on the floor when ingredients were already inside. Hermione picked up the note and scowled once she recognized Theo's familiar handwriting. Written in the note were more ingredients.
Hermione looked at Sue and tried to hide her annoyance at Theo through a smile, "Do you happen to have Griffin claws, Dragon claws, Billywig sting slime, and Armadillo bile?"
Sue massaged the back of her neck, "We're going to need a bigger basket."
When Hermione apparated back to Draco's house in France she wanted to drop the basket of ingredients on top of Theo's desk but Sue's warnings of proper handling of ingredients (which she had to listen to four more times with the addition of four more ingredients) echoed in her head.
"I'm glad you're back, Granger. Did you receive my note?" Theo asked looking admiringly up at Hermione from where he was sitting behind his desk. Hermione carefully slid the basket on the table and glared at Theo before walking towards her room, muttering about how she needed her rest.
"I think she likes me," Theo mentioned. "In what universe?" Blaise asked laughing at their interaction.
November 2001
"Are you sure you're allowing Theo to set up a lab in your spare room?" Hermione sounded as worried as she felt. Draco, meanwhile, shrugged as he read through the Daily Prophet.
"Blaise and I are going to set upwards anyway." He answered which didn't appease Hermione one bit. She wondered what would happen if the door was open. Would the wards work then? Draco walked away from her as if not wanting to be close to her constant worrying. She heard a crash in the spare room as she watched Draco walk away.
She peeked into the room, saying "Are you okay in there?" She saw Theo on the floor, his foot wearing a cauldron. Potion flasks were littered around him — nothing broken, Hermione noted. Thank Merlin .
"I slipped," Theo said, smiling at Hermione sheepishly. "I'll be alright here," Theo answered. Hermione stayed for a few more minutes before finally walking away. Maybe if she didn't see what was happening, she wouldn't be worried.
"Do you know how to garden, Granger?" Theo asked while they were eating lunch around the dining table. Both Blaise and Draco looked at Theo wondering where he was going with this. They had been working on the procuring ingredients for about a month now and Hermione had learned not to entertain Theo when he asked these kinds of things.
"I particularly think planting baneberries and dittany feels very rewarding." Theo added, "I let Astoria do it one time for a potion I was brewing and she left me alone for a whole two weeks." The smile Theo Nott sent her way was unnerving.
After realizing what Theo wanted from her, she snickered. "You're not actually telling me to plant baneberry and dittany are you?" Hermione asked, noting that those two were in Theo's list of possible ingredients. As in on cue, Theo dug inside his book bag removing a gardening book, two medium-sized pots, and baneberry, and dittany seeds.
Hermione scoffed as Theo passed her the objects. She didn't accept it, instead she shoved Draco between her and Theo causing Draco to receive all Theo was giving.
"I don't think she liked that, mate." Blaise said to Theo.
Theo smiled at Draco. "You do it then," he said despite the shaking of Draco's head. Theo walked towards his potion room after handing off the things to Draco as if his work in the kitchen was done. He didn't even touch his sandwich. Draco helplessly looked at Blaise.
"I can't plant anything," Blaise said, raising his arms in surrender and proceeding to go to the living room complete with his plate of food before Draco decides to give all the work to him.
Sighing at his friends' abrupt exit, Draco hesitantly proceeded towards the back garden.
Draco changed into work clothes he thought would be appropriate for gardening before he speed-read through the book that Theo gave him. There really wasn't much he didn't know already from watching his mother plant in their garden. The only difference from regular flowers, which Draco noted, was these potion ingredients needed a very strict growing environment. He found himself sighing in frustration, cursing himself for not taking Herbology seriously.
He was digging rows into the soil and planting the seeds half a feet between each other. On the last row, he felt something tickling the back of his neck. Draco turned to see one of the Jobberknoll feathers floating behind him.
"You're actually gardening?" Hermione teased. "Won't you help me, Granger?" Draco asked, squinting to see her. She had her arms crossed in front of her, looking at him amusedly. She shook her head and sat at one of the chairs beside the table in the garden. The same chair she sat on that night when they talked about legilimency. "I'd rather watch, thank you," she answered.
Draco scoffed, going back to digging some seeds and manually planting the baneberry seeds on the ground.
"You're not going to use any magic at all, Malfoy?" Hermione asked a few minutes later as she watched Draco dig a patch of dirt with an actual spade.
"If I used magic, I'll be finished with this already and you won't have anything to watch," Draco teased. Hermione rolled her eyes, standing up to leave. Draco didn't want her to leave so he quickly said, "The instruction says magic can affect the growth of the plant so it's better to plant it manually." Hermione eyed him curiously before sitting back down.
"Did you know that baneberries make pretty decent tea?" Draco said. Hermione cocked an eyebrow, "Aren't they poisonous?" Hermione asked. Draco smiled sneakily but didn't answer her. Hermione found herself rolling her eyes again.
"If you wanted to kill me, Malfoy, you should've gone with something else other than baneberry makes for a decent tea flavor." Hermione snapped at him.
"Maybe I just wanted to hear you arguing with me," Draco teased.
"You have serious problems if you think that's attractive," Hermione said, crossing her arms in front of her. Before Draco could say anything, he felt droplets of water on his arms. He looked up to see the clouds turning gray and it was starting to rain.
"Maybe you should continue that tomorrow?" Hermione answered, already inching towards the open doorway not wanting to get wet.
"But the instructions said I have to plant it once the seal is open," Draco answered trying to cover himself from the rain. He looked around for his wand before realizing that he left it in the kitchen. Hermione still stood by the doorway looking like she was calculating something. A few minutes later, she sighed and then walked towards Draco. She held her wand above her head, casting an "umbrella" enchantment to protect her from the rain, and making it bigger once she was with Draco so it can protect him from the rain too.
He looked at her when she sat beside him, smiling teasingly. "Just finish that fast so we can go inside already," Hermione commanded. Draco, a smile still on his face, shook his head and continued planting the seeds even slower than before which just annoyed Hermione more.
"They look good together, don't you think?" Theo asked, walking towards Blaise who was watching Draco and Hermione from the kitchen.
"You'd laugh at that statement if you know exactly how Draco sees Granger," Blaise stated. Theo raised a brow. "And that is?"
"Well he's a Malfoy, and Granger is a muggle-born." Blaise clarified.
"With everything going on with him do you think that that even matters to him?" Theo asked. Blaise didn't answer because he actually didn't know what to answer. He had hoped though that this whole thing might make Draco realize there were more important things to worry about than him possibly creating a relationship with a muggle-born — whatever that relationship entailed.
"They do look good together though," Blaise whispered seeing Hermione pushed Draco because of something he probably said, causing the latter to fall, dirtying his clothes. Draco retaliated.
Blaise didn't watch anymore, feeling like he was intruding on something and instead followed Theo to the living room where the latter was instructing him to carry the Ashwinder eggs to the potions room.
"Damn you, Granger. These are my favorite pair of trousers." Draco said looking down at his mud-stained trousers. "Oh please, Draco. You can cast a spell to make that clean." Hermione said already casting a spell on his trousers but leaving a few smudges for him to clean up later. "Besides, you deserve it for calling Sue strange," Hermione said, glaring at him.
Draco shrugged, and said, "Well she is a little bit. You can at least attest to that." He rounded the kitchen island and took two towels from one of the drawers and passed her one.
"I'm not going to confirm or deny anything." She said, wiping her face and her hair dry.
Draco cast a drying spell on him and surprised Hermione by casting one on her as well as she was tying her hair up.
She shuddered, "A little warning next time?" She finished tying her hair, huffing at him.
"You missed a strand," Draco said, grabbing a stray strand of hair and hooking it behind her ears. His hand stayed there for a while just looking at Hermione. He stared at her eyes. Draco realized how beautiful her brown eyes were.
They heard someone cough behind them.
Hermione jumped away from Draco, cupping her face in her arms.
The person who caught their attention was no other than Astoria Greengrass. She didn't look at Hermione but all her attention was on Draco, as if he was a magnet and she was metal — completely attracted to him.
"I floo-ed here from Theo's flat." Astoria said, still only looking at Draco, "Daphne wanted me to give you guys this in case Theo forgets to eat again." Astoria passed Draco two paper bags. Inside was food that Daphne probably asked one of her elves to cook for them.
"I'll…." Draco started not knowing what to do with the food. He looked around to see where Blaise and Theo were but they weren't in the living room. "Keep this," he added. Astoria nodded. "The buttered chicken needs specific instructions for heating so the heat soaks through the inside. Do you want me to teach you?" Astoria asked. Draco looked at Hermione trying to ask for help to get away from this but she wasn't looking at him.
"I'll leave you both to it," Hermione said. Astoria beamed and made sure Hermione had gone to her room before coming closer to Draco to teach him how to heat the chicken.
Damn it, Astoria . Draco thought as the younger witch started going through his kitchen.
November 2001
"Theo, your instructions specifically say to stir twice and then leave for an hour," Hermione read out, seeing Theo not doing exactly what he had written.
"It's experimental, Granger. Instructions change every time." Theo said adding a bit of Fwooper feather Hermione didn't even know Theo had.
"Theodore!" She growled. Theo dropped the feather beside the cauldron, stirred the potion twice then set his hourglass for an hour. He smiled bitterly at Hermione, "Happy?" he asked.
Draco, who was watching all this, smiled. He never thought someone could rile up Hermione more than he would.
Blaise walked in on them a few minutes later holding a big package and some letters. He shoved everything towards Theo. "Are you all just delivering your packages and mails at my place?" Draco complained seeing Theo open his package which has nothing to do with the antidote making at all. Then he opened the letters, proceeding to give one after the other to Blaise, then to Hermione and then to Draco.
Draco looked down at the letter in his hand to see that it was an invitation for the Greengrass annual Christmas party.
"I never thought I'd be invited to a Greengrass event," Hermione uttered reading through the invitation again. "Daphne secretly adores you, you know," Theo said.
Hermione wondered if it was just because Daphne barely had any recollection of her or she really did admire Hermione. She started imagining how it would be like if she was actually friends with the Greengrass girl.
"We should go," Blaise said. Hermione nodded saying it was a nice break from all these. Draco was silent. Except for the last year, he had always been in the Greengrass Christmas Parties, and now he finds himself being invited again despite not being known. "How about you, Draco?" Draco looked up and put down the invitation, letting it fall on top of the stack of papers he was studying.
"I'll think about it," was all he said before retreating towards the kitchen.
December 2001
Only Hermione and Draco were at his house that day. Draco was sorting out the mail that had arrived in his office which he hadn't opened in a while to the annoyance of Dominic. Hermione was reading up on the Ministry's plans of building a school for wizards and muggle-born children to control their magic even before they go to Hogwarts. It was her new project with the Daily Prophet and she'd just received all necessary papers about it the day before. As she was moving on to a new page, Hedwig II was tapping on the window beside the seat she was sitting in.
It dropped a parcel with a note filled with Ginny's handwriting saying, "My gift for Christmas to you is this dress Fleur and I saw the other day. You might be able to use it at the Greengrass party."
Hermione took the dress out of the parcel and held it high to see. It was a gold mermaid silhouette dress with a tube top that would accentuate her shoulders. Smiling at it, she tucked it under her arm and brought it to her room for safekeeping.
Hermione didn't notice Draco watching her. He looked up once he heard the owl pecking on his window and he kept watching Hermione until she retreated to her room. He didn't know if it was because Hermione looked excited to see the dress, or that Draco wanted to see her in it, but he immediately decided that maybe the Greengrass party wasn't so bad to go to.
Well, just as long as Hermione was there.
"I thought you weren't coming," Blaise asked when he saw Draco fixing his cufflinks in front of the mirror in the living room.
"I said I'll think about it," Draco answered. "Besides, I'd rather not stay alone in this house with Theo's potion just brewing in another room." Blaise raised a brow at Draco, in disbelief. Deciding not to say anything, he accio-ed a wine bottle and three glasses from Draco's kitchen, sitting himself down at the wingback and pouring his and Draco's glass with wine.
"Isn't it too early to start drinking?" Draco asked looking at the clock that showed that it was barely 5 pm.
Blaise shrugged, "Pre-party," he said chugging down his glass and then pouring himself another. Theo showed up a few minutes later saying that he was tasked to bring all of them to the party by Daphne. "She was afraid you'd all bail," Theo explained.
"And miss the free food, Theodore?" Blaise teased. Theo glared at him, shuddering at being called 'Theodore'. Theo took the glass that was supposed to be Hermione's and poured himself wine. Blaise snickered at the action, but Draco just rolled his eyes leaning on the fireplace.
"Why do you look as nervous as you were waiting for your date to the Yule Ball?" Blaise asked, staring at Draco. Theo looked between Blaise and Draco, confused. "Are you taking Pansy with you?" He asked. The sneer of the two men didn't escape Theo's notice.
"Oh, you meant Granger?" Theo amended. "I'm with both Blaise and Hermione." Draco clarified.
"We all know Blaise can handle himself alone," Theo remarked. Blaise just lounged at the chair, emptying the wine bottle not bothering to defend himself. Draco just continued to ignore them for a few more minutes before asking, "Is Pansy coming?"
Theo stayed silent, drinking the glass he had in front of him, pretending he didn't hear. Both Blaise and Draco knew he heard anyway so they waited for him to speak. Theo hated awkward silences and both Draco and Blaise knew he'd crack under the tension soon.
Theo sighed, "Daphne didn't want to invite her but her parents insisted." Theo answered. "But I don't know if she's going. Neither invitation came back so we're assuming they're probably thinking about it."
"Neither invitation? How many invitations did you have to send her?" Blaise asked. Theo looked at him exasperatedly before explaining,
"e sent one to her and her husband."Blaise stared at Theo wide-eyed, and Draco was just… shocked.
Blaise scooted farther away from Theo, then shouted, "Pansy is married?" Theo rolled his eyes at Blaise's childishness but nodded. "You never knew. She married Justin Finch-Fletchley?"
"A muggle-born?" Blaise asked at the same time Draco said, "A Hufflepuff?"
"Yes! They married last December. Well, of course, no one was invited, with what happened between all of us of course." Theo uttered.
"But she doesn't use his last name?" Blaise asked. Theo shrugged, "It's probably because she didn't want anyone to judge her like we're doing now,"
Before any of them can say anything about it or ask more about Pansy's sudden news, someone cleared their throat behind them.
"Am I interrupting something?" Hermione asked, walking out of her room. She walked towards them, feeling shy. Harry and Ron had seen her dress up but with the company of other men, she felt a little prideful, like she wanted to look good.
"We were just waiting for you," Theo said standing up from the chair and walking towards the fireplace. "Now that you're here, I have something to tell you."
Everyone else stood up and waited for Theo to continue. "I decided that my Christmas gift for you would be for me to test out the antidote myself," Blaise, Hermione and Draco eyed each other knowingly.
"No cheers? No "that's great of you Theodore"? No?" Theo sighed and then took a handful of floo powder shouting The Greengrass address, "Shall we go then?" He didn't wait for an answer instead he stepped onto the flames and left. "That settles it," Hermione said watching the flames die down.
Blaise eyed Hermione all over, grinning. "Well, will you look at yourself? Looking very beautiful indeed." Blaise complimented. Hermione blushed but gave a quiet thank you anyways.
Draco, though, stayed quiet. The last time he remembered Hermione looking like this (even before her birthday,) was during the Yule Ball. He might not have admitted it to anyone then, but Hermione indeed looked beautiful that night. As the years passed by, and her age filled in the appropriate places, she looked even more wonderful.
Dear Salazar, she was beautiful.
He heard someone cough beside him. Draco looked to see Blaise grinning up at him, and noticed that Hermione was already walking towards the fireplace.
"I'll let you ogle Granger as much as you'd like but we do need to go." Blaise teased. Draco loosened his tie a bit not saying anything. He couldn't really deny that he was checking Hermione out because it would've been obvious. He wasn't really trying to be subtle about it.
Blaise just laughed at him before getting powder from Hermione and making sure to leave a few seconds for Hermione and Draco alone to spend alone.
"You look great, Granger," Draco said. He had wanted to say more but that was the only thing he thought to say without causing discomfort to Hermione.
"You don't look too bad yourself," Hermione said. "But it should be expected of you, of course, you always look great," she added before dropping the floo powder in the fireplace, stepping into it. Draco stood there watching her disappear processing the fact that he heard Hermione admit to him that she thought he looked attractive and had always thought so.
A/N
Thank you for everyone still keeping up with this story. I'm by far not the best writer and have so much to learn and every one of you has been a big help. I appreciate constructive criticism and other types of comments.